Getting students to indulge in at least two hours of physical activity a week can help improve their academic performance at school dramatically, a new study finds.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Gothenburg. For the study, researchers examined 408 twelve-year-olds in the Gothenburg region. All of them were given two hours of extra play and motion activities per week in collaboration with a local sports club. This was approximately twice the normal amount of curricular physical activity. Researchers then compared the achievement of national learning goals by the children four years before and five years after its implementation. They found that more students in the intervention school achieve the national learning goals in all subjects examined - Swedish, English and mathematics compared to the control groups.
"You can express it that two hours of extra physical education each week doubled the odds that a pupil achieves the national learning goals. We did not see a corresponding improvement in the control schools, where the pupils did not receive extra physical activity - rather the contrary, deterioration," said scientist and neurologist Thomas Linden at the Sahlgrenska Academy, in a press statement.
The schools that were chosen to take part in the study were carefully selected by the researchers because they wanted to make certain that all influencing factors were accounted for. These included number of boys and girls, the fraction of pupils with foreign backgrounds, and the average level of income, unemployment and education of the parents.
"It's difficult in a study like this to have control of all factors that can influence school performance. But the results are so consistent and point clearly in one direction that we believe that we have a scientific base for our conclusion: extra physical activity seems to help children succeed in school."
The results from the current study are in line with other studies in both animals and humans demonstrating links between physical activity and cognition. We have previously found a strong correlation between cardiovascular fitness, IQ and brain resilience in young adults. Interestingly, we now demonstrate a link between physical activity and school performance in young children adding to this exciting line of research," Professor Michael Nilsson , a co-researcher of the study,said.
Findings of the study were published online in the Journal of School Health. The study was funded by Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture, the Swedish Brain Foundation, the Swedish National Centre for Research in Sports, and the Kempe-Carlgrenska Foundation.
