Children 's Physical Activity Levels During Primary School

Exercise is physical activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness, but it is not limited to simply physical maintenance it can help in mental elasticity. As a small child is developing the brain is still in midst development. You can almost think of the brain as a muscle, but it is not directly exercised. Yet, in the process of playing games or simple activity can sharpen puzzle solving skill and elasticity for children. It still works for older people, but in age the brain becomes less elastic making the best time to give puzzle skills and general increased connectivity is while still a child. Then again one needs not forget the physical fitness aspect of exercises in increasing the longevity and quality of life. Then again it is no better time to form good habits then as a young child, it always seems to stick in long-term memory easier and longer when trained into it. Exercise also benefits cardiovascular fitness leading to less heart disease in old age. I always see one of the most annoying things in my mind “ I’ll exercise tomorrow” that there in essence why many people this day and age have a increase chance of heart disease and obesity. One does not need to set time aside to exercise. Exercise can be and can take place any place any were just be active. Like waiting in line in the store just standing there, why not do calf raises not as if anyone really cares I have done it countless times. This was the basic aspect I tried to convey to the kids and it is

Power point slide Qualitative research is a difficult term to define…. Nevertheless, it is important to be familiar with some definitions in the field. The definition provided by Creswell 2009 is enlightening because it incorporates ……….. most important part of definition for me were reports detailed views of informants and natural setting.

Before the 21st century the most common phrase when children got home from school was, “Can I go outside and play?” When homework was finished children made a bee-line out of the screen door and played until the street lights turned on. Children were very active and at healthier weights because they rode their bicycles and played sports such as basketball, football and tag. In present day, Smartphone’s, tablets, video games and other technology gadgets have replaced the outside childhood memories which mean children spend more time indoors. Recess in public schools have become a thing of the past and have been replaced with more academic activities that require children to be inside. Pediatricians Robert Murray and Catherine Ramstetter stated in their article that recess serves as a necessary break from the rigors of concentrated, academic challenges in the classroom (2013). Pediatricians believe that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development and, as such, it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons (Murray and Ramstetter, 2013).

Qualitative research reflects different ways that researcher’s collect data and explore all of the information through literature review. Participant’s that are reviewing is often observed for analysis while “the role of the researcher focuses as the primary data collection instrument necessitates the identification of personal values, assumptions and biases at the outset of the study; Qualitative researchers ask at least one central question” (Creswell, 2014, which can be explored in several contexts with further questions. According to the text Research Design (2014) “the researcher’s role is typically involved in a

The purpose of the study in the article Recess Physical Activity Packs in Elementary Schools is to see how incorporating fitness equipment impacts student activity during the 150-minute recess time. The researchers also wanted to determine the perception of teachers and principals. From a total of 4 elementary schools, 12 participants were selected. Of these 12 participants, there was one male teacher and three female teachers. From the students, there were two female students and two male students. Four principals were the last selected, they were all female. Purposeful sampling was the technique used to select all of the participants.

Qualitative research is concerned with meanings of experiences and interactions. Qualitative research is very common in the social sciences, although it is often used in market research as well (Alasuutari, 2010; Nieswiadomy, 2011). There has been quite a rise in qualitative research in the last 30 years. It first started to emerge in journals in the 1960’s, and an increase in the number of qualitative research can be seen in research journals in the 1980’s (Alasuutari, 2010). Instead of looking at the statistical numbers within research, the researcher in interested in getting within the research, and understanding the phenomenon (Leedy, 2011; LoBionod-Wood & Haber, 2013).

In A Comparison of Children’s Physical Activity Levels in Physical Education, Recess, and Exergaming, the authors compare activity levels of children while participating in physical education class, recess, and exergaming programs. One hundred forty, first and second graders activity levels were assessed using accelerometers. Each week the children participated in three, thirty-minute physical education classes and two exergaming sessions lasting thirty minutes. The children also participated in daily, twenty-minute recess sessions after lunch. Results indicate that children “had the highest sedentary time in PE, followed by recess, and then exergaming.” (Gao, 2015). The results of the study indicate, “PE was the least effective school-based

The interpretive paradigm has its theoretical roots in hermeneutics, phenomenology and symbolic interactionism. The qualitative research methodologies are based on interpretive research paradigm. This paradigm believes that we should conduct research to comprehend social life and describe how people construct social meaning. It seeks to understand the meaning human actions and experiences and generate accounts of those meanings from the perspective of the participants in the research. This approach to social science research rejects the positivist idea that the research methods of physical sciences can be used in the social sciences to understand the human behaviour. Interpretivists argue that the fundamental causes

When utilizing a qualitative approach, the task becomes one of determining the qualitative method to be used. Additionally, Stake (2010) used purpose, research design, and methodical data techniques as a way of classifying types of qualitative research. Similarly, Cresswell & Cresswell (2007) spoke of five practices of qualitative research. These five practices consist of biography, phenomenological study, grounded theory study, ethnography, and case study. This researcher chose a phenomenological study for this research project.

This study used qualitative research method – Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis followed by Semi structured Interview. IPA

Every day, most adults manage their work days, that include breaks. Adults get up, make photocopies, get coffee, but typically do not focus on one task for a three hour period. By not providing breaks or recess, children are asked to focus for a longer period of time than most adults do in a day. Everyone benefits from breaks in the day and these coffee or recess breaks allow people to return to a task more focused and with improved concentration. Removing recess and unstructured physical activity time from the school day can have a serious impact on children’s health and well-being. Recess and time for physical activity is not only important to the overall health of children, it also provides an outlet that helps with the social, emotional, and cognitive development of children. In addition, it is also common for recess to be taken away from students who misbehave. Unfortunately, it is these types of students who benefit most from recess and the physical activity and break that is provided away from classroom instruction (“Yay For Recess”). Physical activity and recess for elementary school children should remain a part of the school day to improve academic performance and decrease negative behavior.

Qualitative research is the technique that is used as a part of exploratory research and to derive the independent variables. There are different methods through which we can conduct the qualitative research. As a part of this study we have adopted the following methods:

Physical activity in school used to be a big part of school, but as time marched on physical activity became less and less important to school boards even some schools went as far as removing physical education completely. Today it is required that schools have physical education, but as childhood obesity rates have shown, that is not enough. Childhood obesity has skyrocketed lately and it has shown to have an effect on children academically as well as their health. With children spending a huge portion of their childhood in school, school has a great opportunity to help children stay healthy as well as get an education. “A research project called PAAC with 24 elementary schools showed that adding sessions of physical activity to a school curriculum could have long term benefits both academic and health.(Source 1)” “One school took a survey of children playing active video games and traditional recess, it showed that the children who played the active video games showed an improvement in math scores.(Source 1)” “Among 5,316 students in grades K through fifth grade, the frequency and duration of P.E. class were positively associated with standardized test performance among girls but not boys.(Source 1)” “When

According to the New York Times the United States is the 11th worst country for obesity rates out of 15 developed countries and the Program for International Student Assessment measurement found the U.S. ranked 31st in math literacy and 23rd in science (Klein). Since 1980, the obesity rate for children has been rising at a steady rate, while the education and cognitive ability of children has been falling at a steady rate. We can assume there is correlation between the physical fitness of children and their cognitive ability and come to the conclusion that exercise is crucial to the development and cognitive ability of children. It is estimated that almost 48 percent of schools in the U.S. do not have physical education class. In order to

This teaching session is conducted to educate both parents and children ages of 6 through 12 about the importance of physical activity in children with the goal of increasing physical activity levels. Cardiovascular and pulmonary problems are two growing issues in relation to an increase in the obesity rate of today’s society. An unhealthy lifestyle begins in the early stages of life in result of lack of education about the topic. Physical activity is becoming a concern for not only adults but also a concern for young children. Technology is evolving daily and children are taking full advantage of the new technology such as gaming consoles and flat screen televisions which leads to a decrease in the amount of physical exercise. Children