The Teacher And Classroom-related Factors And Student Physical Activity Levels During Elementary School In Shanghai And Intervention Study

Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity(MVPA)brings many health benefits and improving mental wellbeing.World Health Organization recommended that children and adolescents should accumulate at least 60 minutes of MVPA daily.However,a large number of studies showed that Chinese children and adolescent failed to meet this recommendation.Physical education(PE)in schools plays a central role in promoting PA in children.The United States Department of Health and Human Services and the United Kingdom Association for PE suggested that elementary and secondary schools should provide at least 50% of PE lesson time for MVPA.In China,most studies use heart rate to measure students' PA levels.However,student hear rate is easily affect by many factors,including mental state,mood,temperature,and activities types.There is need to use more accurate instruments,such as accelerometers,to measure students' MVPA during PE lessons.However,only a few researches used accelerometer to measure MVPA during PE lessons at present,and no study focus on the influences of teacher-related and classroom-related factors on students' MVPA during PE classes.Therefore,the present study focuses on students' MVPA during PE classes in elementary schools in China and aims to(1)investigate students' MVPA in PE classes and explore the differences of students' MVPA by grade and gender;(2)determine the impact of the teacher-related factors(teacher gender,teaching experience,and teaching behavior)on students' MVPA in PE;(3)identify the influence of classroom-related factors(lesson start time,class size,and lesson context)on students' MVPA in PE classes;(4)According to the results of aforementioned studies,strategies was used to intervene students' MVPA level in PE lessons.Study one(Chapter three): Accelerometers were used to measure the MVPA levels of 210 PE lessons from 10 elementary schools in Grade 1 to 5 in Shanghai,China.The results show that students spent a mean of 40.93% of class time in MVPA during elementary PE classes,fail to meet the 50% recommendation.Students' MVPA% increased with the grade.With the exception of grade 1 and grade 2,boys' MVPA% were higher than girls.Study two(Chapter four): Data on teaching behaviors were collected from 210 lessons using the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time(SOFIT),and teachers provided personal data on teacher characteristic via questionnaire.The results showed that teachers spent the higher proportion of lesson time in instructing and managing.PE teachers with 10-20 years of teaching experience spent significantly more time observing than teachers with less than 10 years and with more than 20 years of teaching experience.Teacher gender was negatively related to students' MVPA,that is,students spent significantly more MVPA time in male-led than female-led lessons(B=-2.582,P=0.007).More years of teaching experience were found to be associated with lower students' MVPA(B=-0.163,P=0.003).With regard to teacher behavior,promoting(B=1.268,P=0.019)and observing(B=1.390,P=0.032)were positively correlated with students' MVPA during PE classes in elementary schools.Study three(Chapter five): Data on lesson context were collected from 210 lessons using the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time(SOFIT),and teachers provided classroom characteristic(lesson start time and class size)via questionnaire.The results showed that most of the lesson time was devoted to management,fitness,and skill practice.Lesson start at a.m.spent a higher proportion of lesson time in fitness compared with lesson start at p.m.while lesson start at p.m.spend a higher proportion of lesson time in game play compared with lesson start at a.m.Moreover,classes with smaller numbers of students spent more time in fitness than those with larger numbers.Larger classes spent more time in skill practice compared with smaller classes.Lesson start time(B=1.265,P=0.332)and class size(B=-0.172,P=0.278)were not significantly associated with students' MVPA%.Skill practice(B=2.008,P=0.000)and game play context(B=1.361,P=0.014)were positively correlated with students' MVPA,and management(B=-2.577,P=0.026)and knowledge context(B=-1.948,P=0.002)were negatively related to students' MVPA during PE classes in elementary schools.Study four(Chapter six): The aim of the study is to determine the effects of teachers' positive feedback on students' MVPA% during PE classes.Meanwhile,we measure students' enjoyment in PE and fundamental movement skill to understand the influence of teachers' positive feedback on them.The results indicated that teachers' positive feedback could significantly increase students' MVPA in experimental classes,which confirm that the positive influence of teachers' positive feedback on students' MVPA.Furthermore,students perceive competent and enjoyment of PA during experimental classes significantly increase after the eight weeks intervention,while the fundamental movement skill showed no significant difference.The results indicated that teachers' positive feedback can increase students' MVPA% and enjoyment in PE classes,and not affect the development of students' fundamental movement skill simultaneously.In conclusion,the PE lessons in elementary schools in Shanghai fail to reach the recommended 50% MVPA time in PE.Thus,use effective interventions to improve students' PA,especially girls' PA levels in PE,and improve the role of PE in promoting students' PA is the focus of future research.Positive association were found between teachers' time allocation for promoting fitness and observing and students' MVPA.Teachers should regularly use promoting as an instructional strategy in PE classes.Lesson time devoted to skill practice and game play can improve students' MVPA%.Balance should be maintain among various types of lesson context to promote students' MVPA and achieve the other educational goals of PE classes.Teachers should strengthen the use of positive feedback,and there is a need of more intervention studies to promote the PA engagement of students during PE and further enhance their daily PA levels.