Physical Activity and its Relation to Learning 

• The bottom line is that all things being equal, a healthy, active student learns better.
  (Dr. Germund Hesslow – Swedish neuroscientist)
   

• It should be just as natural for a math teacher to use movement in the classroom as for a physical educator to have students skip count.  (Eric Jensen – Jensen Learning)

Source - Action Based Learning - http://www.actionbasedlearning.com/article01.shtml 

• There is a perceived need to increase academic time in order to raise test scores.  Research does not support this approach
• Research shows the correlation between activity and benefits to increased learning capacity
• Neurokinesiologist Jean Blaydes Madigan who consults on how brain research links movement to learning states there is a "lot of emphasis today on students sitting in class loading up on academics," when they should do quite the opposite.  "Our kids need to be physically active to help their brains function better," Madigan said. "When we interact with information, we process more and better."  By allowing students to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, we give students an advantage to learn.
• Children do not possess the capacity to sit and truly concentrate for more than 19 minutes, adults no more than 30 minutes.  Classroom energizers break up long blocks of time.  (Debra Kibbe, ILSI Research Foundation)
• The opposite of exercise, sitting in a chair, inhibits learning.  When a human sits for longer than about 17 minutes, blood begins to pool in the hamstrings and calf muscles pulling needed oxygen and glucose from the brain. Melatonin kicks in because the brain thinks it’s at rest because no navigation has occurred lately. The learner gets lethargic and sleepy and struggles to focus. Learning declines.  Movement is the body’s way of balancing itself physically, chemically, electrically and emotionally. Exercise brings the brain and body into biobalance, creating a better learning state for the student.
• Exercise triggers the release of BDNF a brain-derived neurotropic factor that enables one neuron to communicate with another. (Kinoshita 1997) Students who sit for longer than twenty minutes experience a decrease in the flow of BDNF. Recess and physical education is one way students can trigger sharper learning skills.
• Adding to the growing body of research extolling the cognitive benefits of physical exercise, a recent study concludes that mental focus and concentration levels in young children improve significantly after engaging in structured physical activity (Caterino and Polak 1999).
• Dustmans research (Michund and Wild 1991) tested three groups of students. The group that engaged in vigorous aerobic exercise improved short-term memory, creativity, and reaction time.
• The Presidents Council on Fitness and Sports suggests 30 minutes of physical activity a day to stimulate the brain.
• In a Canadian study, academic scores went up when physical education time was increased to one-third of the school day. (Vanves and Blanchard).
• Movement prepares the brain for optimal learning. Blood traveling to the bodybrain at greater rates feeds the brain the needed nutrients of oxygen and gluclose. Gluclose is to the brain what gasoline is to a car, brain fuel. Each time you think, you use up a little gluclose. Brain activity is measured by gluclose utilization. A human exchanges about 10% of his oxygen with each normal breath, meaning that about 90% of the oxygen in our bodybrain is stale until we deep breathe or exercise. A lack of oxygen to the brain results in disorientation, confusion, fatigue, sluggishness, concentration, and memory problems.
• Movement, physical activity, and exercise change the learning state into one appropriate for retention and retrieval of memory, the effects lasting as much as 30-60 minutes.
• Aerobic activity not only increases blood flow to the brain, but also speeds recall and reasoning skills.
• Crossing the midline integrates brain hemispheres to enable the brain to organize itself. When students perform cross lateral activities, (i.e. touching elbow to raised opposite knee) blood flow is increased in all parts of the brain making it more alert and energized for stronger, more cohesive learning. Movements that cross the midline unify the cognitive and motor regions of the brain: the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and corpus callosum while stimulating the productions of neurotrophins that increase the number of synaptic connections. (Dennison, Hannaford)
• Exercise engages the emotions. Emotion drives attention which drives learning (Sylwester). Motion and emotion are connected physiologically. Movement can foster self-discipline, improve self-esteem, increase creativity, and enhance emotional expression through social games (Jensen, 2001).
• Students who exercise in active physical education classes can reduce stress and anxiety naturally.
• Physical Education curriculum games and activities that stimulate inner ear motion like rolling, jumping and spinning are necessary to lay the foundation for learning.
• Eighty five percent of school age children are natural kinesthetic learners (Hannaford). Sensory motor learning is innate in humans. Teachers who incorporate kinesthetic teaching strategies reach a greater percentage of the learners. Eric Jensen says that implicit learning (learning through your body) is more powerful than explicit learning (text, facts, and basic recall). If it is not in your body, you haven’t really learned it. He suggests movement, physical activity and rhythms as a way teachers can help students bind learning through perceptual motor skills, procedural encoding, and sensory integration.
• Recess is being sacrificed for more academic time in the classroom, limiting needed bright daylight exposure that effects the children’s optimum learning because of lack of rest.  Free play at recess augments social and cognitive development that ultimately translates into classroom performance. Children who learn to operate among their peers participate in such interactive games as tag and chase and function in their own mini-societies on the playground will do better academically. (Mike Daniel, Dallas Morning News, 11/24/2000)
• Many brain research experts are advocating for daily physical education in educational circles citing strong evidence that supports the link of movement to learning. Here is what some of the leading experts in brain compatible learning say:
  • Dr. Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind, declared one of his eight multiple intelligence as the bodily kinesthetic multiple intelligence. If physical education is cut from our schools, one eighth of human intelligence is eliminated. Physical education is one of the few disciplines that incorporate most of the eight identified intelligences simultaneously in our lessons.
  • Dr. Marion Diamond, author of Magic Trees of the Mind, whose research on enriched environments supports the importance of play in early brain development. This critical motor development sets the stage for brain processes used later for decoding and problem solving, a strong argument for daily elementary physical education starting in kindergarten.
  • Dr. Candance Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion, lauds the importance of proper diet and exercise to balance emotions naturally. Learning happens throughout the body not just in the synaptic connections of the brain. Healthy active students make better learners.
  • Dr. Robert Sylwester, author of A Celebration of Neurons and A Biological Brain in a Cultural Classroom, states that movement facilitates cognition. He says that the reason humans have the brain we do is to move. He also points out that a central mission of the brain to intelligently navigate its environment. Therefore, learning must include movement concepts and skills.
  • Susan Kovalik, leading authority on brain compatible learning whose ITI model serves 250,000 students, includes movement to enhance learning as one of the brain compatible components based on brain biology findings. She believes that students retain information better when movement with intention is used to teach academic concepts kinesthetically.
  • Eric Jensen at the Fragile Brain Conference outlined the causes and brain changes in several learning differences. He concludes that movement, rhythms, physical activity, and exercise help control many of the conditions such as ADD, Dyslexia, Learned Helplessness, Hyperactivity, Delayed Sleep Disorder, Oppositional Disorder, Learning Delays, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Brain Injury and Insults, and Conduct Disorder. Physical education curriculum provides not only activity and exercise, but also builds relationships, provides team membership and celebrations, promotes rhythm and cross lateral movement, and encourages manipulatives for control. Many students with learning disabilities find success in the gymnasium because our curriculum meets their needs in a way that the traditional classroom may not.