File
Øien A.M.1, Solheim I.J.1
1Sogn og Fjordane University College, Faculty of Social Sciences, Sogndal, Norway
Background: The relationship between physical activity and school performance has received widespread attention owing to the inescapable pressure on schools to graduate pupils who meet accepted academic standards. The ASK, active smarter kids, study at Sogn og Fjordane University College, Norway, aimed to investigate effects on school performance of 60 minutes of daily physical activity during one school year. Fifth-grade schoolchildren, approximately 700 out of 1400 from 13 out of 26 schools followed the intervention, consisting of five elements, that is, physical education lessons, physical activity lessons, incorporated physical activity educational lessons of active learning, including academic lessons in Norwegian, English and mathematic, physical activity break during mathematic lessons, physical activity homework.
Purpose: The purpose of the present study, a qualitative sub study of the main project was to investigate teachers' and parents' challenging experiences of interaction during the ASK approach of active learning, that is, incorporated physical and academic lessons of fifth grade school children in complex educational settings.
Methods: Recruiting participating teachers and parents for focus groups interviews, we selected two intervention schools, one small village school with one fifth-grade class of schoolchildren, and one larger city school with three classes. Informing headmasters orally and by letter, about the purpose of the study, they recruited teachers responsible for the intervention program, and parents of children with variations of skills regarding physical activities. At each school, we carried out one focus group interview of six teachers, and one of four and six parents respectively. Additionally, we interviewed individually a fifth parent. We analyzed data within and across groups of participants to compare variations of experiences and meanings.
Results: From the perspective of teachers, goal directed co-operative interaction between teachers and schoolchildren, and between schoolchildren, appeared embedded in active learning of incorporated physical and academic skills. Learning to co-operate depended on co-operating over time, a critical prerequisite for learning. Planning and composing functional groups was time consuming and demanded knowledge of interaction patterns of each schoolchild. However, it might contribute to shared interactive meaningful experiences in contrast to experiences of withdrawing or competing. During lessons, teachers by being attentively present dealt with challenging interactions by intervening ahead of interactive breakdowns, or by negotiating with the schoolchildren after repeated challenging situations. Parents highly appreciated efforts to reach and integrate the individual schoolchild in the groups. Doing homework, parents supported heavily their child acting sedentary or struggling to fulfill dual tasks. Parents negotiated with the schoolchild in order to facilitate development of the schoolchilds self-agency.
Conclusion(s): By detailed planning, and attention on interactions of conflicts, competition and withdrawal, teachers negotiated and extended co-operating ways of interaction. Shared interaction appeared critical with regard to learning.
Implications: In practice, active learning depends on teachers and parents ability to deal with challenges that prevent ways of interactive co-operation.
Funding acknowledgements: Funding acknowledgements: Faculty of social sciences, Sogn and Fjordane University College.
Topic: Professional issues
Ethics approval: Approval of the ASK study by Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics, and registered at Norwegian Social Science Data Services.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
