The benefits of physical activities (PA) for children are well
documented, however, studies have shown that children are
not physically active. Health-related governmental organizations
have emphasized the importance of promoting PA
in young populations, and the World Health Organization has
highlighted that the school is an ideal place to promote
health among children and adolescents. Physical education
classes (PE) are one of the most important opportunities
for children to engage in physical activities in schools. In
addition to facilitating different and important bodily experiences
as part of child education, PE helps them to achieve the
daily recommended goals: at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA).
Having a range of different contexts in PE classes gives children
opportunities to learn through movements and helps
them to develop better physical competences, which are crucial
for motor development and contribute to children’s selfefficacy
and confidence to engage in physical activities.
The Brazilian guidelines for physical education propose that
children should engage in dance, sports, gymnastics, games,
and martial arts and experiment with a diversity of movements
in different environments in PE classes.
Elementary school is mandatory in Brazil and children usually
stay for a four-hour duration comprising five 45-minutes classes
and a 15-minutes recess five days a week. Other countries
have different school schedules where children may spend
most of their waking hours in schools. According to
specific recommendations, children should be engaged in
MVPA for more than half of the learning time of PE classes.
Even though PE classes are the most active period in school,
research has shown that children accumulate less than the
recommended time spent doing MVPA in PE classes and in
school-time as a whole. Although many reports
have highlighted small proportions of MVPA in PE classes, it
would also be informative to detail the specific context of the
PE classes that might affect this lack of intense PA. Analyzing
the contexts of PE classes might give an insight into the PA
levels observed, as studies report that a great proportion of
PE classes are spent in sedentary or light intensity activities,
such as class management or knowledge. Despite the
importance of these contexts, they should not be the main
focus of PE classes.
The present study addresses two important issues: first, the
description of the contexts that prevail in the PE classes; second,
the intensity pattern of the classes in the presence of
these contexts. Information regarding these topics might be
important to develop novel intervention strategies to increase
PE classes’ intensity and benefit children’s motor development.
Thus, the objective of this study was to describe the PE
classes’ context and intensity in 7 to 11-year-old schoolchildren
in a city in southern Brazil.
We used data from the CAAFE project (www.caafe.ufsc.br)
entitled “Development and evaluation of a system for monitoring
food intake and physical activity of schoolchildren aged
7 to 10 years - CAAFE”. The study was conducted in the
city of Florianopolis, from March to May 2013. Florianopolisis the capital of the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil.
Participants gave oral consent and their parents signed a
written consent form. No financial reward was offered. The
project was approved by the Ethics Committee on Human Research
at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) under
protocol 2250/11. Intentional sampling included five public
schools selected by the Municipal Education Department in
different regions of the city (Central, North, South, and East)
in order to represent students from different socio-economic
backgrounds. Six classes from 2nd to 5th grades were selected
by the principal of each school, making a total of 30 classes.
Children in Brazil who attend 2nd to 5th grade are expected to
be 7-8 years old in the 2nd grade, 8-9 years old in the 3rd grade,
9-10 years old in the 4th grade and, 10-11 years old in the 5th
grade.
For the present study, data of twelve PE classes was retrieved,
including time (in minutes) children spent on MVPA in these
classes and the context they were inserted when being physically
active. To measure MVPA, children wore accelerometers
(Actigraph Gt3x+) for two days, but only data from the second
day was used to prevent reactivity. The accelerometers
measure acceleration during sampling periods named epochs
which vary in length (usually between 1 and 60s). The intensity
of the acceleration on each epoch is then classified by validated
cut-off-points in activity intensity categories (e.g. 15s in
moderate intensity, and 15s in light intensity). Children wore
the accelerometers on the right hip, secured by an elastic band
during school-time. Data was analyzed in 15 seconds epochs
using cut-off points (2296 counts per minute for MVPA) validated
for children and recommended to classify the intensity
of activities equivalent to four Metabolic Equivalents (MET) or
above in children.
The PE class’ contexts were observed by trained researchers
and captured by an audio recording, adapted from the System
for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT). The contexts
were classified in the categories of the original instrument,
based on the activities performed by children during
class time, as can be seen in Table 1. Researchers were
instructed to avoid interference in the running of the class and
to be positioned in strategic places.
Observation time (minutes), the class size (number of students),
and the setting where the PE classes took place (indoor
or outdoor) were also retrieved. Each observation (PE
class) was plotted on a graph to estimate the proportion of
time spent on each context. For each observation we also
added information regarding the proportion of learning time
in MVPA on the same graphic.
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