Utilizing Physical Activity in the Classroom

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Supporting Health and Wellness in
High Schools
Margaret Stetsko
Master of Science in Education Program
Northwestern University
August 2006
Table of Contents
Rationale……………………………………………………………….……...3
Research Project Question Development………………….…..…..…….…3
Literature Review…………………………………………………..….…..…5
Data Collection………………………………………………………..…….27
Ethics Statement……………………………………………………..….…..29
Data Analysis and Interpretation…………………………….…..…….....30
Figure 1.1 – Q-Sort Prompt Ranking……………………..…...……31
Figure 1.2 – I get bored or tired during class……………......….…41
Figure 1.3 – I like to sit in class and listen………………......…..…41
Figure 2.1 – I feel stupid when I am playing sports….………..…49
Figure 2.2 – I use Math everyday……………………......................50
Figure 2.3 – I like the way I feel when I am active…….….….…..50
Conclusion…………….…………………………………………....….…...56
References……….……………………………………….….……….…..…63
Appendix A……………………………………..………….……………....67
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Appendix B………………………………………………………………....69
.
Appendix C………………………………………………………………....84
Appendix D…………………………………………………….…………..86
Appendix E…………………………………………………….…………...88
Rationale
I first began to think about researching school involvement in student health
while watching a national news report on the obesity epidemic in America. The
reporter outlined several of the problems that excess weight and inactivity can have
on a person’s health. The program also outlined some ways that people can make
positive changes to their lives. I immediately began to think about how to best
educate Americans on making positive health decisions. I believe that educating
youth is the best place to start for encouraging healthy habits, and I believe that
schools are one of the best places for that education. I believe that the health issues
in America that are related to diet and exercise are partially a cultural issue.
People’s habits in this culture are not likely to change without sufficient education
and motivation.
Research Project Question Development
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My project did not begin with the topic of promoting student health.
Initially, I was interested in researching the International Baccalaureate (IB)
program and the IB degree. I have always been passionate about teaching a worldwide perspective to students, and I thought that researching the IB program was
ideal for determining how to encourage students to take an international
perspective towards their education. While I am still very interested in this topic,
the research began to become difficult in determining exactly what my question
was.
I knew that I was interested in international education, but I could not
determine exactly what I wanted to find out, or how the IB programs in the United
States had implications regarding the IB programs overseas.
I probably would have stuck with my original topic if I had not been
inspired by the news program I saw on the obesity epidemic. Health and physical
fitness has played an important role in my life, and it has taken me a long time to
get to the point where I feel as though I have adequate knowledge and motivation
for being the healthiest that I can be. I also worry about the health of those around
me, and struggle with the best way to encourage positive changes in my loved
ones’ lives without being hurtful. That is part of the reason I think healthy habits
are best if learned at a young age – unhealthy habits are hard to break.
One of the most difficult issues with choosing this topic was that I had to
determine a researchable question. I knew that I wanted to look at how schools can
help encourage good habits, but I also knew that it would be hard to determine
what constitutes a habit. There is no way to know whether a person will continue
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to act the way they do in their youth. Furthermore, there are difficulties in defining
health, as there are many components tied to health. Physical fitness and nutrition
were the two areas that were most important to me, but these two areas are still
very broad when looking at a variety of issues in schools that could affect student
behavior. I knew from the start that I did not want to limit my study to physical
education and health classes alone, as I see those as places that provide
information, but do not necessarily provide an environment for forming habits
outside the classroom. That is how I got the idea to look at health and physical
education in classrooms outside of health and physical education.
Moving the focus of my question to places outside of physical education and
health classes widened my project, but I believe that is an important component. In
fact, I wanted my project to look at places in the school outside of all classrooms.
While this provided potential problems in having too wide of a topic, I thought that
it was extremely important. As I stated in my Rationale section of this project, I
believe that the health problems in America are partially cultural. I also believe
that schools are a sub-culture in America. Students are profoundly affected by the
entire environment in which they learn, not just by the classroom. I wanted to
consider the entire school environment in my research.
For a while, my project question focused on just lessons in the classroom,
and I wanted to look specifically at Math. However, as I actually began to collect
data, I never stopped looking at the school-wide environment. I realized as I
collected data that the larger environment had never left my point of interest.
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Therefore, I settled on the following question for my research project:
“What
changes can be made in high school classrooms and the high school environment in
order to promote student health?”
Literature Review
Introduction
Students learn far more than math, science, reading, literature and language
in schools. Students learn how to take care of themselves. Schools provide an
education on life, not just academic subjects. One example of this extension of
education is health and general well being.
Schools provide not only the
curriculum for health and physical education, but also an environment in which
students can make decisions based on what they learn in those subjects. Given the
amount of time that children and adolescents spend at school, it is possible that
they are learning more of their health habits in school than they learn at home.
America is facing a health crisis. The evidence that our country is in need of
change is abundant. Medical costs are increasing rapidly as more people with
diseases stemming from obesity are in need of treatment. More specifically, the
health problems related to obesity are beginning at younger ages.
In a
Congressional Subcommittee on Education Reform, U.S. House Representative
Michael N. Castle cited a report by the National Institute for Health Care
Management stating that the number of overweight and obese young Americans
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doubled between 1990 and 2000 (2004). Researchers are pessimistic. Given the
current trends, the outlook does not look good for the future of America’s health.
Through the domain of the American health crisis, this project aims to look at how
current health trends in America directly impact children and adolescents.
In analyzing the effect that our culture has on children and adolescent
health, the school environment plays a key role in determining the future of these
issues and the degree to which health trends will impact today’s youth. A school
with soda machines, candy machines, french fries and nachos for lunch might
dissuade students from making health choices.
If teachers and administrators
emphasize the importance of math tests or AP credits over the importance of daily
physical activity, students are less likely to make health their priority. While health
is ultimately up to the individual, a school environment might influence students to
make positive choices based on the opportunities surrounding them. The second
domain of this project is school environment. This project will look at examples of
existing school health programs, and will consider the role that educators and the
school environment might play in addressing national health issues.
Currently, many schools across the nation are restructuring their Physical
Education courses. These positive changes in physical education curriculum are
gaining a lot of media attention, especially in light of this American health crisis.
Still, the burden of teaching a healthy life is typically left in the hands of the health
educators and the physical educators. By doing this, educators are suggesting that
the disciplines of health are only meant for health subject courses.
Education
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researchers have explored the effects of combining curriculum in other academic
areas. For example, students study Economics in History, Calculus in Physics, and
Literature in Foreign Language.
Therefore, the final domain of this project is
integrated curriculum, as the goals for physical health could be a priority for all
educators.
It should be noted that the contents of health and physical education are
broad.
Therefore, this project will focus primarily on nutrition and physical
activity. There are many additional topics for adolescent health, such as alcohol
and drug use, sexual health, social and emotional health, and so on. This project
will also limit the discussion of nutrition education in terms of making healthy food
choices, but will not address the complexities of issues such as anorexia and
bulimia in teenagers. Furthermore, a great deal of the research on these topics does
not differentiate between primary and secondary education, and often generalizes
findings to both populations. While the main concern of this project is education in
a secondary setting, research on programs in primary education is included. The
primary education programs may serve as guidelines and a frame of reference for
what may or may not work for adolescent programs.
The American health crisis
Health statistics regarding Americans and recent trends in obesity are
startling. For the first time in our Nation’s history, some states are reporting over
20% of the adult population as obese. The medical definition of obese is based on a
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person’s Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a number determined by calculating
weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. A BMI of 18.5 up to
25 commonly refers to a healthy weight, a BMI between 25 and 30 refers to
overweight and a BMI of 30 or higher refers to obese (The Endocrine Society, 2006,
Obesity Basics section, chart).
For most people, being 30 pounds over the
recommended weight range for your height constitutes obesity. A limitation in
using the BMI as an indicator of health is that is does not account for increased
muscle mass (Taras and Potts-Datema, 2005). In addition, some researchers use a
more limited weight range when discussing children’s health issues because
children’s weight ranges are actually smaller than adult weight ranges. The BMI
does not reflect this smaller overall weight range. Despite a few inconsistencies of
this measurement, the BMI is a relatively reliable indicator of a person’s health in
relation to their weight.
The effects of excess weight reach far. People who are overweight or obese
often suffer a number of related health problems.
According to the Surgeon
General, one out of every eight deaths in America is caused by an illness directly
related to overweight and obesity (Surgeon General, 2003, paragraph 5). In fact,
obesity contributes to the number-one cause of death in our nation: heart disease.
Excess weight is also linked to diabetes, some cancers, sexual health problems,
sleep apnea, asthma, depression and a variety of social issues. (Taras and PottsDatema, 2005).
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Our nation’s weight problems are also taking a major toll on our economy.
According to a study sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), obesity-related medical expenditures in the United States reached $75
billion in 2003 (U.S Congress, 2004). One example of a costly weight-related disease
is diabetes. In a recent report, the surgeon general suggests that excess weight has
led to an increased number of people living with Type II diabetes, since this disease
is often caused by excess weight.
People with Type II diabetes also suffer
additional health problems, such as eye diseases, cardiovascular problems, kidney
failure, and early death. Given the number of people living with diabetes and its
associated medical problems, each year, this condition costs America an estimated
$132 billion (U.S. Congress, 2004).
There are trends in childhood and adolescent health that suggest that the
situation may become even worse.
According to the CDC, childhood and
adolescent obesity rates (ages 6-19) have increased 4-fold in the past two decades
(Taras & Potts-Datema, 2005). For the first time ever noted, people are developing
Type II diabetes in their youth. According to Dr. Kenneth Cooper, an expert in
health and physical fitness, “The Baylor College of Medicine has even reported that
children who develop Type II diabetes before 14 years of age may be shortening
their life span by 17 to 27 years” (U.S. Congress, 2004). Given the current costs of
treating adults with obesity-related illnesses, our country can expect those costs to
increase as this generation of youth reaches adulthood.
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Despite the negative impact of overweight lifestyles, the damage is not
always permanent.
According to the American Obesity Association (AOA),
“Weight loss of about 10% of body weight, for persons with overweight or obesity,
can improve some obesity-related medical conditions including diabetes and
hypertension.” (AOA, 2006, paragraph 1). While the current trends are pessimistic,
change is still possible. This health crisis is capturing the attention of the media and
therefore becoming perceptible to Americans. In addition, the federal government
is on board and is working to make changes for the benefit of the American health
and economy. Between the Childhood Obesity Prevention Act, the Child Nutrition
bill, the School Nutrition Association, Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization
Act of 2004, the involvement of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National
Alliance for Nutrition and Activity, the U.S. Department of Health & Human
Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and any of the hundreds
more organizations dedicated to this cause, the government is actively searching for
solutions to cure the American obesity epidemic.
Part of the problem of addressing this issue is pinpointing what exactly
needs to change. Experts debate whether the biggest problem in our culture is poor
diet, or whether the biggest problem is a lack of physical activity. Medical experts
now know more than ever about the combination of genetic, social, metabolic,
and environmental factors that play a role in a person’s weight. Still, the issue
frequently returns to the fact that many people are eating too much and moving
too little.
An article by the Associated Press (2006) recently stated that some
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experts are blaming soda and sugar-sweetened beverages for weight gain, as a
study found that one of every five calories in the average American diet is liquid.
“The nation’s single biggest ‘food’ is soda, and nutrition experts have long
demonized it” (Associated Press, 2006).
The soda blame is only one theory,
however, and many schools have recently begun to ban the soda machines all
together. Other theories include an increased consumption of fast food, larger
portion sizes and families who fail to make time to sit down and eat meals at home.
There are some areas in which our nation has had success in terms of
nutrition health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently mandated
that all nutrition information includes a breakdown of fats, including how much
trans fat is in the food. Trans fat is often included in packaged foods in order to
increase their shelf life. Trans fat, along with saturated fat, is known to raise lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, which contributes to health problems
such as cardiovascular disease. The government is making an effort to get more
information out to people regarding the food they are consuming. However, these
efforts will have little effect if people are not also learning the importance of
nutrition labels and also learning how to read those labels. Part of the reason that
current health trends are continuing to decline is that the major information
providers of our country, particularly schools and the media, may not be providing
adequate information or positive influence.
Lack of physical activity could be an equal or greater contributor to
America’s health problems. This generation appears to be more sedentary than
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ever.
According to the CDC, two out of three Americans are not active at
recommended levels (CDC, 2006, paragraph 1).
Furthermore, a study by the
University of Hong Kong and the Department of Health found that being inactive
could be more hazardous for a person’s health than smoking (News Target, 2006,
paragraph 1). According to this study, 20% of all deaths of people older than 35
were a result of a lack of physical activity. Some research is also suggesting that
physical activity might be more significant than weight in terms of a person’s
health. In a study published by the Annals of Epidemiology, Carlos J. Crespo,
Dr.P.H., associate professor of social and preventive medicine in the University at
Buffalo's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, states,
Our findings confirm that, independent of other known risk factors, such as
hypertension, high cholesterol and smoking, physical activity exerts positive
health benefits independent of body weight. The benefit may derive from
the fact that regular moderate physical activity, no matter how much you
weigh, appears to stimulate the immune system, improve insulin sensitivity
and increase bone density, among other positive effects. These findings send
a strong message that everyone should strive to be active in some way
(Senior Journal, 2006, paragraph 5).
Even though the health benefits of physical activity are clear, many adults still
choose not to exercise.
The number of sedentary adults is likely to increase as children and
adolescents are failing to develop active life habits. According to Casazza and
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Ciccazzo (2006), the CDC has reported that less than 50% of adolescents are
physically active on a regular basis. The benefits that children and adolescents
could receive from an active lifestyle are not only long-term, but could also affect
their immediate lives. Dr. Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Institute conducted a
study of 953,000 children aged fifth grade through ninth grade for the National
Association for Sports and Physical Education and found that, “physically active
children had improved self-esteem, were better able to handle adversity, and had
better problem-solving skills” (U.S Senate, 2005). According to a literature review
conducted by Taras and Potts-Datema (2005), “overweight and obese children are
more likely to have low self-esteem and [have] higher rates of anxiety disorders,
depression and other psychopathology” (p. 292). Many children and adolescents
are failing to learn behaviors and practices that are paramount to their adult lives.
What is unclear is where the breakdown of information dissemination is occurring.
Healthy School Environments
One way to combat obesity in America is to create healthier living
environments. As schools are a direct extension of children and adolescents’ living
environments, educators might address health issues with their students not only
through curriculum, but also through the school campus as a whole. Some ideas of
what constitutes a healthy school environment is an environment in which lessons
address topics of nutrition and physical fitness, where a variety of quality lunch
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items are offered which meet students’ dietary needs and where teachers and
administrators go out of their way to emphasize student wellness as a priority.
One barrier against creating healthy school environments could be the
failure to communicate to teachers and administrators the relevant findings in
health-related topics and the failure to emphasize teachers’ roles in environmental
programs. In addition, while there has been a great deal of research conducted in
relation to the adolescent health crisis, little research has evaluated programs
beyond health courses and physical education. Teachers could use their position as
leaders to promote a higher awareness of health issues to all students in all class
environments.
Clark and McCormack (2006) of the American School Health
Association claim, “There is considerable need to build the base of evidence-based
knowledge regarding school health programs and to provide an environment in
which school health research is of high quality, yet meaningful and useful” (p. 38).
A lot of the research about school health programs is inconclusive, or fails to
provide sound evidence of the program’s success or failure.
Most programs
implemented today are still in an experimental stage, and there is little organization
to coordinate research in regards to the effectiveness of these programs. Still, the
direction of the research on these issues is changing. Taras and Potts-Datema (2005)
recently reviewed a small sample of the existing literature on how obesity affects
student performance at school. Their general conclusion was that, “despite the
current lack of understanding about the directionality of the association between
obesity and poor school performance, the fact that there is an association may be
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adequate to influence change in school policies and practices” (p. 292).
The
research is clear that the environments need to change, but little research shows
what changes could be most effective.
There are many challenges that a school faces in trying to create or maintain
a healthy learning and living environment. Despite efforts, the Department of
Agriculture has found that scarcely any school-age children and adolescents meet
all scientific recommendations for a sound diet (U.S. Senate, 2004). Healthy diets
include foods that are high in nutrients, low in saturated and trans fats, and that
provide a good source of energy. While the failure to choose healthy foods may be
a result of availability and personal preference, it is also likely that many Americans
lack the general knowledge of how their food choices affect their health. Schools, in
particular, are paramount to addressing this problem, as many sources have
indicated that the food provided at schools is sometimes the best a child has all day
(U.S Senate, 2004; NANA, 2006; NASBE, 2006). According to Karen Johnson, the
former School Nutrition Association President and Director of Child Nutrition
Programs in Yuma, Arizona, “The current Federal reimbursement rate for a free
lunch is $2.24 per meal with an additional 17 cents in USDA commodities.
It is
very challenging and often impossible to produce a nutritious meal for that amount
of money” (U.S Senate, 2005, p. 6). As a result, a lot of the nutritional value is
compromised in government programs. These school lunch programs are under a
lot of scrutiny, and these programs continue to face the challenges of limited
funding.
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Lunch is not the only nutrition issue in schools. The option of vending
machines and a la carte options affects students’ diets. According to Johnson, “It is
the shortfall in the Federal reimbursement rate that has in great part led to the
introduction and expansion of other food items through a la carte lines and vending
operations.” (U.S Senate, 2005, p. 6). In fact, schools are hesitant to eliminate soda
machines when these companies are providing such a large source of revenue for
the schools. The question remains, however, that even if the school is able to offer
nutritious options, will these be the options that students choose? Dr. Kenneth
Cooper, who is best known as the father of aerobics, has mused “You could put all
the vending machines at the bottom of the ocean. It will have no effect on the
obesity problem” (U.S. Congress, 2004, p. 47). Cooper believes that the issue has
more to do with changing children’s habits by educating them on the right choices.
The key issue with students’ health and the school environment is that
students spend the majority of their waking time at school. According to research
collected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services entitled Healthy
People 2010, “Research suggests that parents who understand proper nutrition can
help children in preschool choose healthful foods, but they have less influence on
the choices of school-aged children” (Healthy People 2010, Focus Area 19). In other
words, schools might be the number one place for children and adolescents to learn
healthy habits. According to a survey by the Healthy People 2010 report, in 1994,
only 69 percent of States and 80 percent of school districts required nutrition
education for students in at least some grades from kindergarten through 12th grade
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(Healthy People 2010, Focus Area 19). Given that Illinois is the only State that
mandates four years of physical education in high school, little has changed since
then.
School is the environment where students could have a great deal of
opportunity to explore a variety of health-related issues, and some schools are
failing to provide this opportunity.
Physical Education is one arena in which some schools have been having a
great deal of success. Illinois is not only a model for physical education because of
mandatory PE, but also because it is the home state of Phil Lawler and the PE4Life
program that was piloted in his school district. Lawler’s ideas, and his school
program, emphasize fitness over raw athletic ability.
His program uses new
technology to help students monitor their personal fitness levels and every student
keeps their own fitness portfolio beginning in Junior High.
To date, Lawler’s
School District has spent $450,000 on high-tech P.E. tools for junior and senior high
school students. What is unique about Lawler’s program in terms of the school
environment as a whole is that students create health portfolios that ascend with
them from year to year. Therefore, their success in any given year of physical
education does not end with the conclusion of that course.
Lawler’s program has been mimicked at schools all over the nation, many of
which are bragging about their success. One prime example is Tim McCord’s
school district in Pennsylvania. His school implemented the PE4Life program in a
small blue-collar town of 6,000, where funding is often an issue. His program has
utilized creative outreach strategies such as receiving a $12,000 donation from a
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local health insurance provider to upgrade the technology offered in their school’s
physical education classes. Some of these technologies include heart rate monitors,
body fat calculators and arcade dance machines. McCord personally believes that
there is a connection between the PE4Life program and a perceived reduction of
bullying and fighting in their schools (U.S. Congress, 2004, p. 46). This is a prime
example of how changes in a school could potentially affect the health of the entire
school environment, as well as the outlying community.
PE4Life means working together with the whole community. In Titusville,
the local hospital conducts an annual health fair at our middle school. Senior
citizens exercise in our high school fitness center during the day. The PE
department and the central blood bank conduct blood drives to support our
hospital three times a year (U.S Congress, 2004, p. 19).
School environments extend to students’ home environments and, therefore, a
mindful school incorporates the rest of the community in the educational process.
The dedication of families and the community helps to reinforce the health lessons
that students are learning while at school.
Positive programs outside academic curriculum have been implemented in
schools as well.
Natural Ovens Bakery, an organic baking company, has
implemented a lunch program in schools all over Wisconsin. Natural Ovens hires
and trains the cooks for a school, and then provides the menus and prepares the
lunches. Menus include natural, organic foods that are low in sugar, low in fat, and
have a balanced amount of carbohydrates and protein. Unbalanced meals that are
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too high in carbohydrates and other sugars often cause people to have short spurts
of energy immediately followed by extreme tiredness. One aim of the Natural
Ovens menus is to provide healthy foods in order to positively affect learning
behaviors. The pilot school has reported many positive effects of this program,
especially as it is a school specifically designed for students with behavioral
disorders. Says principal LuAnn Coenen, "I can't buy the argument that it's too
costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I found that one cost
will reduce another. I don't have the vandalism. I don't have the litter. I don't have
the need for high security” (Natural Ovens, 2006, Section 3). According to Natural
Ovens President, Dr. Barbara Reed Stitt, the cost for turning around a school lunch
program is an additional $20,000 per year for five years.
Another similar and very famous example of nutrition in schools is the work
of Jamie Oliver in England, who is popularly known as the Naked Chef. Oliver has
started programs all across England that offer affordable, natural and organic foods
for schools. With a recent study finding one in four English children to be obese, it
is clear that they are suffering from similar problems as the United States (Feed Me
Better, 2006, “Why FMB”). Oliver’s manifesto, which he calls “Feed Me Better”
(2005), includes making the profession of cooking at schools a more respectable and
well-trained position.
Oliver has claimed, “training will keep [the cooks]
motivated, in touch with each other, and up-to-date with new nutritional advice,
healthy menus and kitchen management skills, (Feed Me Better, 2006, “Manifesto
for Change”). Oliver also advocates for a school-wide approach to food education
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he advocates for teaching kids how food is grown, where it comes from, how it
varies throughout different cultures, how foods affect people, and he believes that
classroom curriculum could be used to do this.
Another example of how lunch programs are moving toward a healthy
school environment is a program implemented by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and Forestry called the Fruits and Vegetables Program. The program
was initiated as part of the 2002 Farm Bill and the idea was to provide free fruits
and vegetables that are available all day, anywhere in the building. The purpose
was to provide students with an alternative to vending machines, and to make
these alternatives appealing by eliminating the cost. In a 2005 Senate hearing on
school nutrition programs, Senator Tom Harkin reported that at the schools he
visited in Iowa –- one of the eight States to provide this program – students were
eating a variety of the fruits and vegetables provided, and the teachers claimed
students were calmer and better behaved (U.S Senate, 2005). Keeping students
satiated, and using foods that are low in refined sugars could be contributing to
students’ attentiveness.
There was no research conducted as to the exact
effectiveness of this program, but a similar program, the Michigan Farm-to-School
Program, has made additional claims as to the importance of fruits and vegetables
in schools. The purpose of Farm-to-School is to connect schools with local farms, in
order to simultaneously support local economies as well as provide nutrition to
schools. In a 2004 survey evaluating the potential effectiveness and limitations of
this program, the research team suggests that nutrition education can be
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supplemented by providing an environment where students can apply classroomtaught skills (Izumi, Ostant, Moss and Hamm, 2004). Students not only learn about
healthy foods, but they are provided a lunch environment where they can choose
those foods.
In addition, the schools provide a viable way to address local
economic issues.
Any of these programs outside of health and physical education curriculum
are examples of school and community wide efforts to address health problems of
children and adolescents. The federal government has recognized the importance
of having comprehensive programs in schools that move outside the boundaries of
the content of subject-specific lessons.
In the Child Nutrition and WIC
Reauthorization Act of 2004, the U.S. Congress established a requirement that all
schools with a federally-funded meal program must develop and implement
wellness policies that address nutrition and physical activity by the start of the
2006-2007 school year (NANA, 2006). The government has defined a wellness
policy as a policy that includes goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and
nutrition guidelines for foods available on the school campus (U.S Senate, 2005).
The exact contents of the policy are left up to school administrators, teachers and
members of the local school community.
The government purposefully left the guidelines for developing these
policies lenient, so that local communities could address local needs through these
policies. Therefore, these policies may be lacking in tried practices, prioritization of
issues, rubrics for assessment and implementation plans.
Still, the National
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Alliance for Nutrition and Activity has developed a model school wellness policy
that schools can use as a resource for developing their own policies that provide
guidance toward addressing these issues (2006).
Additionally, the National
Association of State Boards of Education has made a policy guide for healthy
schools as well. NASBE claims that their policy guide complements the Center for
Disease Control’s school health guidelines and provides scientifically reliable
information on what constitutes an effective health program (2006). As with any
research in education, the determination that a program is effective is dependent
upon many factors that may not necessarily apply to all schools.
Still, it is
encouraging that the policy-makers who are involved with wellness policies are
relying on research to guide the direction of schools’ health policies. Another
encouraging fact, as emphasized by NANA, is that in order to develop these
policies, schools are needing to conduct baseline assessments of their existing
environments.
These assessments may provide additional research for future
studies on the effectiveness of these policies and a measurable way to track the
overall progress of American schools utilizing these policies.
Interdisciplinary Studies and Integrated Curriculum
Most of the programs outlined above highlight educational reform either
within health curriculum itself or within programs in the schools independent of
classes. However, there are examples of curriculum that have been implemented in
schools that aims to bring health concepts into courses outside of the domain of
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health education. While most of this curriculum has been designed for elementary
or middle school children, there may be potential to develop more ideas that could
apply to high schools as well.
One example of a curriculum is Eat Well & Keep Moving (1999), which was
designed as a nutrition and physical activity curriculum aimed at building lifelong
healthy habits in upper elementary school students. The book focuses on classroom
lessons, but lessons can also reinforce healthy practices in the cafeteria, gymnasium,
home, and community (Cheung, Gortmaker and Dart, 2001). According to a 1999
study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the Eat Well & Keep
Moving curriculum was founded in social cognitive theory, (Gortmaker et al, 1999).
The purpose of the curriculum is to provide students with the knowledge and the
skills to change their behaviors outside of the classroom. In the findings of this
particular study, the researchers found a marginal decrease of television watching
and an improved dietary intake for students that included less fat, more fruits and
vegetables, increased vitamin C and increased dietary fiber.
The researchers
attribute a lot of these changes to the interdisciplinary approach of the curriculum
(1999).
There is not complete agreement on how to define interdisciplinary studies
or what they should entail. The approach in Eat Well & Keep Moving was to,
integrate the intervention into existing school structures and curricula via an
interdisciplinary approach using classroom teachers.
Materials were
developed that fit into math, science, language arts, and social studies classes
24
and provided links to the school food service and physical education
activities (Gortmaker et al, 1999, p. 4).
The point is to extend ideas across subject lines so that students are not learning
topics independent of each other. Research has shown that there are positive effects
to learning across disciplines. Oliver and Schofield (2006) claim, “[making] the
concept of improved health through an active lifestyle relevant to all disciplines…
is not a new concept in education. Evidence exists to support the academic and
social benefits of integrating general disciplines” (p. 74). To this end, the Healthy
People 2010 initiative suggests,
Nutrition should be taught as part of a comprehensive school health
education program, and essential nutrition education topics should be
integrated into science and other curricula to reinforce principles and
messages learned in the health units (Focus Area 19).
There are educators, however, who warn against modifying the existing
curriculum to try and weave two disciplines together.
Learning may be
compromised in either subject if contents of a particular lesson are lost or confused
in the integration. In addition, teachers and curriculum designers in secondary
education rely a great deal on the division of academic subjects. Drake (2004)
evaluates the possibility of meeting standards through these kinds of curriculum.
“For secondary teachers, the organizational structure of the department is a large
obstacle to collaborating with others” (p. 18). Oliver and Schofield (2006) speak
more specifically on this issue, noting, “these limitations are especially applicable to
25
physical education lessons, as content knowledge in this area is often weaker than
traditional disciplines of mathematics and English,” (p. 75). A Math, for example,
could teach the equation used to calculate a person’s optimal heart-rate range for
exercise, but that teacher may not be completely knowledgeable on the benefits of
exercising in that heart-rate zone.
In the Healthy People 2010 initiative, these interdisciplinary limitations are
expressed more as an objective, stating, “Nutrition course work should be part of
the core curriculum for the professional preparation of teachers of all grades and
should be emphasized in continuing education activities for teachers” (Focus Area
19). Rewriting or restructuring any curriculum is a lengthy process that involves
many trials. The potential for Math, History or Language teachers to adapt their
curriculum to include motivation and information on the importance of nutrition
and physical activity is completely dependent upon that teacher’s own content
knowledge on health education as well as his or her ability to collaborate with the
health and physical education instructors.
While the educational benefits of
interdisciplinary curriculum exist, the limitations of structure, planning, and
teacher knowledge are hard to overcome.
Another example of the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary approach to
health education in an elementary school was a study in which students tracked
their daily steps using pedometers. In this study by Oliver and Schofield (2006),
New Zealand primary school children wore pedometers for a six-week intervention
period. First, the school provided pedometers to track student steps. Then, the
26
researchers initiated an intervention during which the school offered a variety of
activities aimed at increasing the number of student steps as well as limiting
activities such as television watching. Their findings were that throughout the
intervention period of this project, students significantly increased their daily step
number. The study also questioned whether students reduced their daily caloric
intake. One advantage of this particular study was that the use of pedometers
made the findings measurable.
Despite limitations such as the lack of a
longitudinal study, this research demonstrates that integrating physical and health
education into students’ lives is a valid and researchable topic. These studies could
broaden to include more secondary level studies, as well as long-term studies.
The major difference between the Oliver and Schofield study and the
practice of linking subject-specific curriculum is that this study measured the effects
on activities and disciplines beyond the classroom content areas.
One goal of
interdisciplinary studies is to help students find connections between subjects and
beyond classrooms, and it is just one component of what some researchers have
defined more broadly as integrated curriculum.
The concept of integrated
curriculum in education has been around for over a century. Beane (1997) defines
integrated curriculum as,
a design theory that is concerned with enhancing the possibilities for
personal and social integration through the organization of curriculum
around significant problems and issues, collaboratively identified by
educators and young people, without regard for subject-area lines (p. 19).
27
Some researchers define this as teaching around themes, or as teaching toward the
demands for society. For example, the face of education changed dramatically
throughout the Industrial Revolution, as people realized that there were new
demands to be met by workers versus intellectuals.
That notion of integrated
curriculum has broadened significantly over the past century, but the term is still
used to demonstrate the need to teach topics that are applicable to problems,
irrelevant of any predefined school subject.
Bonds (1993) even goes as far as to define this kind of curriculum as
“synergistic pedagogy,” that is, “a process of teaching whereby all the school
subjects are related and taught in such a manner that they are almost inseparable”
(p. 3). Another way of describing this approach toward curriculum is to call the
learning holistic. Holistic means emphasizing the importance of the whole and the
interdependence of its parts. In the case of education, the parts are the subjects or
the disciplines, and the whole is the interconnectedness of these topics. In the case
of teaching students to have healthy lives, a holistic approach would be to
deemphasize the health class itself, and them permeate other courses with its
subject matter. For example, cover all the topics of health education by teaching
how to use physical technology in technology classes, teaching the affects of
nutrition in anatomy classes, teach the history of American health in social studies
courses, teach the effects of health insurance and health prevention in economics
classes and so on.
28
While some of these ideas are overwhelming in terms of evaluating existing
secondary curriculum, some concepts may still be useful in small steps.
For
example, addressing real-world problems in courses is a way of integrating the
curriculum, yet it does not require completely eliminating the existing design. The
surgeon general has advocated for teaching students and adults better “health
literacy,” which has been described as “the ability of an individual to access,
understand, and use health-related information and services to make appropriate
health decisions” (Surgeon General, 2006, paragraph 44). While this seems like an
obvious goal of health education, it includes the important implication that health
is the ends and education is the means. The health of our country is a social
problem, and education using integrated curriculum can address that problem
through health education and interdisciplinary studies.
Conclusion
The literature existing on the topics of the American health crisis, healthy
school environments and the role of integrated curriculum continues to grow. As
the public becomes more involved with these issues, there is a greater need for
educational research on these topics. This project will look at how the American
health crisis pertains to schools and to adolescents. In the domain of healthy school
environments, this project will look at an example of a school where the physical
education program has earned national acclaim for its success. Finally, this project
will explore the possibilities and limitations of integrating physical education with
29
one to two other high school subjects. The question of focus for this project will be:
“What changes can be made in high school classrooms and the high school
environment in order to promote student health?”
Data Collection
I thought that the most obvious place to start with my data collection was at
a school that I had found through my Literature Review. I found a school in the
Chicago suburbs that I will refer to as “Townsville High School”. Their physical
education department has earned a national reputation. In addition, this school has
a unique program that is called “Zero Hour PE” in which freshmen at the school
who have scored poorly on Literacy tests may elect to take a 7:00 am Physical
Education class that incorporates vocabulary drills into their physical activities. I
wanted to see this class first-hand, as it speaks to curriculum integration, and I
wanted to see what this school’s reputable physical education department looked
like. Therefore, my first method of data collection was observations. I received
signed consent from the assistant principal at the school to do research there.
While at Townsville, I planned initially to interview the Physical Education
Department Chair, Dave S., who helped get the Zero Hour program off the ground.
I prepared several questions (See Appendix A) and the interview lasted
30
approximately forty minutes. I received signed consent from him to tape -record
and transcribe his interview. In my preliminary research on the high school, I also
found contact information for Michael Davis, math teacher, freshman boys’ soccer
coach, director of the intramural program, and faculty leader for the Fellowship of
Christian Athletes (FCA) at their school.
I thought that Michael might be an
insightful person to talk to as he has experiences both with Math and with students
who volunteer to be active outside of school. I developed an interview protocol for
Michael as well (See Appendix C) and we spoke for approximately thirty minutes.
I also received signed consent from him to tape-record and transcribe the interview.
What I did not realize prior to visiting Townsville was that the Physical
Education Department and the Math Department were in discussions to have a prealgebra class that would incorporate movement and activity into the curriculum
next year. Michael is the teacher they have asked to teach that course. Without
even meaning to, I found myself interviewing a teacher who would be teaching a
class next year that could answer so much of my Master’s Project Question. After
finding this out, I met Jim Richards, the Math Department Chair, to do a quick
interview with him. He happily agreed. I hoped to find out more about how the
PE Department and Math Department came to work together. In addition, I was
given two articles regarding using movement I the classroom. I also looked over a
lesson that one of the department’s teachers had developed for integrating math
and physical education based on a lesson in Prentice Hall Algebra (See Appendix
E).
I did not have much time to prepare interview questions for Jim, so our
31
interview was a brief ten minutes. Once again, consent was provided to taperecord and transcribe the interview.
After doing observations and speaking to teachers, I felt that my project
could benefit from having student input. That is how I decided to conduct a focus
group at a local high school, “Whitfield High School”.
I conducted a Q-Sort in
order to initiate discussion in the focus group. I had enough tools for a ten-person
Q-Sort and prepared cards that had thirty prompts, one prompt per card (see
Appendix D). The prompts were statements which included topics on student
interest in physical activity, student interest in Mathematics, and student
knowledge of nutrition. For example, one prompt said, “I like the way that I feel
when I am active,” and another said “I use Math every day”. I asked the students
to sort the cards into 3 piles based on the statements that were never true for them,
the statements that were sometimes true for them and the statements that were
always true for them. If they had any statement remaining at that point, I applied
them to the “sometimes” pile.
After collecting all the Q-Sort cards, I opened the students up to a discussion
that I tape-recorded. I had hoped that the students would take more initiative in
the discussion, but instead the discussion required a great deal of prompting. The
Q-Sort lasted approximately five minutes and the discussion lasted approximately
ten minutes.
Ethics Statement
32
While I believe that this topic is important and valid for research, I went into
this data collection of this project with the understanding that particular aspects of
this research could be difficult. First and foremost, researching students’ health and
fitness is a very personal issue and I realized that not all students would be
comfortable with questions regarding their personal choices. Therefore, I chose to
limit my interaction with students in this study.
Furthermore, while making observations at schools is not a confrontational
action, I was concerned that asking too many questions to the teachers at the
schools could seem presumptuous or critical. I wanted to be sure that the teachers
knew that my questions and curiosities were not meant as a criticism for the way in
which their schools or departments were being run. I wanted to be sure that
teachers and administrators understood that I was simply looking for a better
understanding of how their classes have been run and that any comparisons made
between schools and classes would simply be observations and not judgments.
My final ethical concern in this project was to be careful in making
generalizations or predictions for the future. Since the program I was observing
was in its first year, and since the program in Math that I discussed with Michael
had not even begun, I was afraid that making too many assumptions about how the
new curriculum and new scheduling ideas will affect student learning could be flatout wrong. I also did not want to make statements about how the Pre-Algebra
teacher will run his class next year, because he has not yet determined all of his
lessons and I did not want to influence his choices for his classroom.
33
Analysis and Interpretation
For each of the three interviews, I coded the data, looking at several themes
and breaking down each theme into sub-themes. For the Zero Hour PE class
observations as well as the Townsville facility tour observations, I coded my notes
using the same themes as in the interviews. Other, smaller themes emerged from
the observations, but these were not as prevalent in the interviews. Finally, for the
Q-sort conducted with the student focus group, ten students were able to
participate. I took their responses to the thirty prompts and gave a value of zero for
any time a student answered “Never” to the prompt. The response “Sometimes”
scored one point, and the response “Always” scored two points. I then totaled
these number for each of the thirty prompts based on how the students answered
(See Figure 1.0 below). I then ranked these prompts from lowest to highest in order
to analyze the responses.
I also transcribed our discussion and coded the
transcription using the same themes as in the previous two data sets.
The three themes that emerged more than any others were 1) Physical
Education as a tool for academic success, 2) School-wide dedication to health and
wellness and 3) Resources available at schools.
34
Prompt # (see Appensix D)
Figure 1.1 - Q-Sort Prompt Ranking
28
25
22
19
16
13
10
7
4
1
0
5
10
15
20
Q-Sort Score
1) THEME: Physical activity as a tool for academic achievement
Interviews
Analysis:
Each of the three interviewees mentioned the potential correlation between
physical education, or just physical activity, and academic performance.
My first
interview was with Dave Sanders, who is the Physical Education Department Chair
who initiated the Zero Hour PE Program.
Dave frequently mentioned brain
research and the emerging claims that physical activity affects learning. “One of
the things we learned from [a Harvard brain researcher] is that anytime you do an
aerobic workout you manufacture new brain cells. We didn’t know that five years
ago.” The Mathematics Department chair, Jim Richards, discussed this as well.
35
“More than a wellness awareness, it’s taking it even a step further and seeing how
can we increase academic performance for these students who struggle…what
we’re looking at in the math class is more ways we can get students out of their
seats…create more blood flow to the brain.” Both Dave and Jim talk about physical
activity in terms of academic performance.
Dave talked about how physical education may relate to other academic
disciplines.
He first stated that class scheduling matters.
Dave talked about
changes being made to next year’s Townsville schedule that will allow for students
to take early hour PE classes, and then follow those PE classes with subjects they
are struggling in, specifically Literacy this year and additionally Math beginning
next year.
The school is targeting student who are performing poorly on
standardized Reading and/or Mathematics tests. The scheduling concept is to
provide at least an hour of very intensive cardiovascular exercise throughout the
week. Since the school provides heart-rate monitors, the teachers can gauge the
physical effort of the students. Dave’s theory is that cardiovascular activity helps
get students’ brains working by providing additional blood-flow to their brain and
throughout their bodies, and helps them feel more alert and ready-to-learn in class.
Jim Richards also spoke about scheduling goals and referred to next year’s
Pre-Algebra class as a case study. “We’re looking at the time of day they have
physical activity and how it can affect their performance in their academic class.”
The Pre-Algebra teacher I interviewed, Michael Davis, who also oversees the
intramural program, also suggested looking at the time of day students exercise in
36
relation to their learning. “Is there any way you can look at a student, or study a
student who does an intramural before school?
To me, that’d be interesting,
because they have days that they’re doing intramurals and they’re up in the
morning and they’re active. So what happens the rest of the day?” Dave reiterated
these points, “Let’s not miss the component of getting kids ready to learn. And that
readiness is, again, activity. Blood flowing to the brain. The more you sit on your
butt, the less there is.” All three teachers mentioned physical activity in relation to
learning in other subjects.
The second idea is that moving and learning can take place simultaneously.
Dave suggested that for math lessons, students could do activities such as
balancing on ladders, or playing activities that require cross-lateral movements in
order to stimulate the brain. According to Dave, “Anytime you cross the mid-line
of your body, and do things opposite, then that makes synapses of the brain make
those connections across the lobes of the brain.” Michael also hypothesized on a
connection between movement and learning. “I think I’ve become more and more
aware of movement because my daughter is kinesthetic. She has to be. For her to
learn better, she really has to get up, she has to be physical.” Michael talked about
how he believes it is worthwhile to try new teaching methods even if those
methods only reach a few students who were never engaged by other methods. Jim
suggested another idea that is still in its infancy. “We’ve talked about ways of
having some content video for Mathematics that students are watching while
they’re cycling.”
37
In all three discussions involving how physical activity could have an effect
on other content areas, all three teachers spoke mostly of students who have been
performing below average in the content area. For Zero Hour PE, the school used
the same test that they use to identify students reading below average in order to
test whether the Zero Hour PE class was succeeding.
Dave said the Literacy
teachers found “the Zero Hour kids improved half a year more than the grade
equivalent Literacy kids.”
Jim said that standardized tests would be used as
assessment for the pre-algebra course next year as well. “Those who are involved
in the physical education class earlier in the morning will be compared to the ones
who are not.”
Interpretation:
These three teachers are suggesting that physical education be used as a
means to education, not necessarily an end. In other words, physical education can
be used to improve other subject performance. It is not just about learning the
subject of physical education itself. The programs at Townsville High School were
developed to not only teach students about physical education, but to utilize
physical fitness in order to improve student performance.
Dave continually
mentioned brain research, which leads me to believe that these programs are
founded in more than just what they observe in schools, but also in broader
research that may not have been previously applied to academic settings. A lot of
38
what they anticipate about the Zero Hour PE program is not founded in
educational research, but founded in brain research that has not necessarily been
tested in educational settings. This point was also emphasized in my review of the
literature on this subject. As cited previously from Clark and McCormack (2006),
“There is considerable need to build the base of evidence-based knowledge
regarding school health programs and to provide an environment in which school
health research is of high quality, yet meaningful and useful” (p. 38). It seems that
Townsville High School and Dave Sanders are in the beginning stages of this
process, as they are trying to use scientific research to alter an academic setting.
In addition, the Zero Hour PE program is expanding for next year, and it is
reaching out to the Math Department. This is not necessarily a signal that the
program was completely and absolutely successful for the Literacy students. After
all, the data set for the Zero Hour PE students is only fifteen students from the fall,
and seven students from the spring semester.
The fact that the concepts are
expanding to math classes simply shows that there are at least two additional
teachers at Townsville (the Math department chair, Jim Richards and the PreAlgebra teacher, Michael Davis) who are willing to try something new and who
believe that the ideas could be successful.
The improvements of students in Zero Hour literacy classes may be actual
evidence that students who exercise while learning vocabulary can learn the
vocabulary better.
This may be evidence for how doing physical activities in
conjunction with other subjects may contribute to increased retention. If this is the
39
case, it could be due to Dave’s theory in how physical activity “gets kids ready to
learn”, or it could be a result of what Oliver and Schofield (2006) referred to as a
more general academic benefit of integrating disciplines. In other words, simply by
introducing Literacy topics in a non-Literacy class, students might retain more
knowledge because they are learning the subject in a new and innovative
environment.
However, it is also possible that the success of the Zero Hour
students in the Zero Hour PE class is a result of those students’ intrinsic dedication.
The fact that the students arrive early for this class is evidence that they might be
willing to put more effort into their Literacy class than the students who do not
arrive early. This could account for some of their success.
I noticed that all three teachers were talking about getting kids up and
moving early in the day in order to enhance learning. Michael had ideas about
intramurals. Jim had ideas about getting students up out of their seats. Dave was
the one who labeled the concept by calling it “learning readiness”. In analyzing
these discussions, I’ve noticed that none of these teachers were focused on teaching
students the specifics about exercise. When talking about “learning readiness”, the
main goal was how can exercise affect academic achievement. The goal was not
how exercise can affect students’ health. This is not to say that educators are not
concerned with students’ health, but it is simply to say that in these programs and
these ideas, the idea is that healthy students perform well. The idea is not to simply
encourage students to be healthy. In the Eat Well & Keep Moving study that I read
for my research, the authors were emphasizing how integrating health and physical
40
activity into other curricula could reinforce healthy practices. My perception at
Townsville is that the teachers and administrators are more concerned with
improving academic performance outside of physical education.
No one ever
implied that using physical education in Literacy or Math would improve students’
attitudes towards health and fitness.
Jim stated that they’ve talked about having Math content videos to watch
while cycling. I interpret this to mean that understanding the Math content is the
goal with that type of activity. The goal is not to improve cycling skills. Dave
mentioned working with ladders or balancing while trying to learn Math concepts.
Again, I interpret that to mean that learning balancing skills is not the goal. The
goal is to learn complex Math concepts. Michael mentioned his daughter who has
to move to learn. Again, in that situation, she would need to get up and move to
improve learning, not to improve physical fitness.
What also sticks out to me in my interpretation of this interview is that the
students who are being addressed are typically below-average performers in
Literacy or Math classes. I wonder if the effect of physical activity on learning is
limited to only certain kinds of reasoning. It is hard to interpret whether the Zero
Hour program is addressed at students who are performing below average in
Literacy because those are the students who need enhanced curriculum, or if it is
because the same effects might not occur with students who are doing higher
reasoning. I cannot tell from the Townsville program alone whether students who
exercise in the morning could then do higher-level math, or use logic better. These
41
are things that would be beneficial for students who are performing at an average
or above average level.
Observations
Analysis:
While at Townsville high school, I saw several things that related to the
theme of physical activity and physical education and its effect on other academic
disciplines. The first thing I saw was the Zero Hour PE class itself. During that
particular Monday morning, the students did an eleven-minute scooter activity
where they rolled around the gymnasium and tried to match laminated vocabulary
words with the word roots and their definitions. The exact rules of the game were
not clear to me, as some students would occasionally stop to do either push-ups or
sit-ups.
The students did not complain.
I saw the words “pacify”, “satiate”,
“industrious”, and “acclaim” as examples. There were also sheets with smaller
words such as “peace”, “sate”, and “claim.” There was both a physical education
teacher and a Literacy teacher present in the gymnasium. There were 5 students in
the class that day. On this particular day, the students did not match all the words
with their roots and their definitions. Bob Davies, the PE teacher, said that on their
best day, they can match them all in eleven minutes.
According to Bob, the students would ideally not have had their test-day on
those particular words yet, but one girl in the class had already been tested. Bob
said “not all the Literacy teachers are on the same page.” Bob also mentioned that
42
the most frustrating aspect of this class this past year was that he did not have
enough time with them (30 minutes).
He said students were frequently late
because of transportation. Next academic year, Bob is supposed to instruct the
same class, but it will be for the entire first-hour and there will be 30 students.
During my day at Townsville, I had the opportunity to see some of the
equipment that Dave had mentioned in his interview. This included a wall-tapping
game where lights blink and the students run from a line in order to tap the lights
with their opposite hand (light on left, tap with right). He said the speed of the
game is the challenge. It is both aerobic, and requires hand-mind coordination.
Dave also showed me the chairs that their school recently purchased for the reading
lab. They have 15 ball-chairs, which are stability exercise balls that are somewhat
flat on the bottom, but still require sitting with a straight spine in order to avoid
rolling off of them. Dave stated that student posture is supposed to improve from
these chairs and that some researchers claim that posture directly affects the spine
which in turn affects learning. Dave said that some administrators initially thought
students would just bounce on the chairs all day. Dave’s response, “Good. Then
they’re at least being active.”
Interpretation:
The frustration that the Zero Hour PE teacher had with the time restraint
tells me that this was not the only day when time mattered. In my interpretation, I
would pinpoint the time factor as the biggest drawback of the Zero Hour PE class.
43
Quite interestingly, Bob also mentioned that not all the Literacy teachers are on the
same page. This corroborates the limitation of curriculum integration outlined by
Drake (2004), “For secondary teachers, the organizational structure of the
department is a large obstacle to collaborating with others” (p. 18). The time of day
seemed to be another drawback, but also a benefit at the same time. Bob said
students often missed or were late because of transportation issues. This gave them
even less time some days. The benefit of that time period is that it means that the
only students who were signed up were the students who were actually dedicated
to being there that early (or at least their parents were dedicated to them being
there early). The other benefit was that on the days of the week that they did
cardiovascular exercise for Zero Hour (at least two days a week) their subsequent
classes may have been affected by their heightened energy.
What seemed to be the biggest advantage was the class size.
On this
particular day, there were only five students. Ordinarily, for 2 nd semester, there
were seven students. Each student had to participate fully, and got individual
attention during the vocabulary matching game. Next year he said they would
have thirty kids in the first hour of the day. I wonder whether each student will be
given as much individualized attention, and therefore, if they will see the same
level of improvement in the students Literacy scores. The major advantage of
having additional students is that they will have a larger sample to study in order
to gauge the success of the program.
44
Seeing some of the equipment that the PE department and the reading lab
had that was supposed to physically enhance academic performance, I interpret
that to mean that a lot of integration between physical education and other
academic areas will always depend on the availability of resources. “Resources” is
one of my later themes, but it is worth mentioning here as well. In terms of using
scheduling as a way to increase academic performance by putting physical activity
prior to subjects where students struggle, that concept requires no additional
resources. However, a lot of the ideas mentioned for integrating physical education
during other academic subject, or vice versa, would require games or equipment
such as heart-rate monitors. In the very least, this kind of integration would require
additions, if not major changes, to curriculum.
Teachers would need to be
knowledgeable of the equipment being utilized and also the topics, both in physical
education and the other subject areas.
Focus Group - QSort
Analysis:
In relation to the theme of physical activity and academic performance, I
think that at least one Q-Sort prompt is relevant. The prompt “I get bored or tired
during school” elicited a score of 13, which was higher than 17 other prompts. One
student answered “Never” to this prompt.
5 answered “Sometimes” and 4
answered “Always” (Figure 1.1). Similarly, but worded differently, the prompt “I
like to sit in class and listen” (Figure 1.2) scored relatively low (sixth). 5 students
45
answered they never liked to sit in class and listen. 4 answered Sometimes, and one
student answered Always.
Figure 1.2 - I get bored or tired
during class
10%
40%
Never
Sometimes
Always
50%
Figure 1.3 - I like to sit in class
and listen
10%
50%
Never
Sometimes
Always
40%
46
When I asked students in the focus group who agreed that they get tired
during the school day, one student immediately shouted “ALWAYS”, and other
students laughed. But my analysis is that most students could tie their tiredness
directly to a particular situation at school. For example, one student said he always
got tired in a particular teacher’s class.
“ALWAYS.
His classmate laughed and added
Like, half the period [the other student] is sleeping, then out of
nowhere he wakes up and is like ‘what does this mean?’” She then added that the
class she gets most tired in is Biology. When I asked whether the focus group
thought they got tired based on the class or based on the time of day, some said the
class, some said the time and one student said “it could be both.” At least 4 of the
students mentioned morning class periods as times they were falling asleep or
tired. I then asked whether any students felt tired after lunch, and they said “no.”
I also asked the students more specific questions about how they would feel
about incorporating more physical activity into their days.
Most students
responded that they prefer to be active instead of sitting and listening. One student
answered that he thinks he is running around too much already during the day,
since he has to run up and down stairs between classes. I also asked students what
they would think about incorporating Math into PE class. They responded “we did
that already,” and immediately started spouting off an inequality (which they
incorrectly called an equation) for determining your maximum heart-rate zone.
The inequality is 0.6(220 – a) </= R </= 0.85(220 – a) which provides a target heart
47
rate (‘R) based on age (a). No single student could give the exact statement, but I
heard bits and pieces of it coming from several of them.
Interpretation:
Getting bored or tired during school could be a result of many conditions.
Students may not be getting enough sleep. Students may not be interested in the
topics being discussed. The tiredness may also be a physical condition. Students
may have low blood sugar from whatever they did or did not eat. Students may be
athletes and may be overworked. Students may not be getting enough exercise.
Despite the reasons for students being bored or tired during class, it happens to a
wide-range of students. The biggest culprit for their tiredness may be too much
sitting.
If students were up out of their seats during learning, they may
automatically be more engaged. Or course, students may also be less controlled
and more rowdy if they are up out of their seats. Regardless, I interpret studenttiredness as a need to find more engaging lessons for students to participate in.
When the one student went against the majority and stated that he felt like
he was running around too much at school, I think that an important point came
forth. There are some students who might actually be turned off or less responsive
to lessons that involve physical activity. It is important to remember that not all
students are the same, and that it is easy to get caught up in the theoretical benefits
48
of a particular teaching style and not notice that there are students who do not fit
the theories at all.
The fact that the students had already done an activity in gym class that
involved Math told me that there are probably other examples of integration out
there. The equation that the students referred to was also used in the sample
curriculum that Jim Richards provided me at Townsville (see Appendix D). This
tells me that more of these kinds of lessons may already exist, but that it is possible
that these lessons are not widely known. Research in the classroom could provide
teachers an outlet for presenting some of these types physical education lessons or
integrated curriculum lessons, and for replicating these lessons in other classrooms
and schools.
2) THEME: School-Wide Commitment and Student Interest
Interviews
Analysis:
Initially, the need for improved or additional Literacy curriculum at
Townsville came from the administration. However, the new Literacy class took
the place of students’ electives, so the administration approached Dave about doing
PE before school, so that these Literacy students had more room in their schedule to
still take an elective. The idea to incorporate the Literacy directly into the PE
curriculum was Dave’s idea. The administration supported him. According to
49
Dave, “I’ve been a department chair out here for 20 years, so they know I have a
track record that says prove it. Let’s see what he’s got. If it’s a mistake, we’ll learn
from it and we’ll move on from there.” Dave says he’s seeing more instances of PE
acting as the “tail wagging the dog” at their school and that things are beginning to
be structured around the PE schedule instead of the other way around. Dave
believes that he has had luck with his administration because of his reputation, but
also pointed out that he is “not sure all of what we’re doing here we can accomplish
in some of the inner-city schools.”
In terms of departments collaborating on curriculum such as the Zero Hour
PE and the Learning-Ready Pre-Algebra, Jim suggested that they were just going to
start small. “Start small, see what positive gains you can make and then work out a
way of implementing that system-wide.” He continued, “it’s really about finding
ways we can help students instead of it being about trying to work with integrating
teacher personalities.”
There is evidence that physical activity is a priority for students both inside
and outside of PE itself, and for the faculty and staff as well. According to Dave
“our kids, for the most part, are very active to begin with.” Townsville leaves their
weight room open from 3-5pm every day for non-athlete students who wish to use
the facility. My interview with Michael also highlighted some ways in which
students are active outside of PE class. Townsville has high student-participation
in AM intramurals. According to Michael, a wide variety of students participate in
intramurals, ranging from kids who got cut from basketball or soccer, to students
50
who are just interested in competing in non-varsity sports such as whiffleball.
Michael stated, “Dodgeball is huge. There are 120 kids involved. And the faculty
have a team.” The starting time for these sports is anywhere from 6:30am – 6:45am
and there is high attendance. “These are kids who just love to play. They come in
and they take it very seriously. Which is good. I mean it’s fun for them to be able
to do it. They come faithfully. I think if we had gym space in the after-school time,
I could fill it everyday until 5:00 pm. I know I could.”
Teachers can also utilize the facilities, and they do. According to Dave,
“we’ll get staff members who will go down and use our aerobic room or our weight
room.”
Dave stated that sometimes students and staff battle each other for
equipment. “It’s my job, I guess, to figure out how to get more treadmills.” Dave
says they want the students to see adults working out. They want good role
models. Their school librarian lost “2 or 3 dress sizes in the past 3 years because
she started working out.” Another hall monitor has lost over 100 pounds in the
past 2 years.
Interpretation:
I think that it is not surprising that the administration acted as the catalyst
for developing additional Literacy curriculum to aid low-performing students.
What I think is surprising is that the principal and vice principals were so open to
trying Dave’s ideas in integrating Physical Education with Literacy. It seems that
this school has faith in this particular Department Chair and, because of his
51
experience, he is able to try new things that other schools may not be able to. I
think the fact that this class was offered before first-hour, at 7:00 am, is significant.
This left the administration with the flexibility to try out the new curriculum
integration, without sacrificing these students’ regular Literacy classes. It is a way
that the administration was able to support the idea and the research without
sacrificing too much. In addition, this trial step in integrating Literacy and Physical
Education avoided some of limitations of integration highlighted by Oliver and
Schofield (2006) such as a lack of subject area content knowledge by the instructors.
Both the Physical Education teacher and the Literacy teacher were present in the
classroom, therefore, they did not need to teach a subject which they were not
familiar with.
By pointing out that the goals was to see positive student gains, and not to
successfully integrate teacher personalities, Jim Richards hit on two points. One is
that student success is the ultimate goal.
The other point, though he did not
actually say this, is that teacher personalities are a potential hindrance. The fact that
Jim even mentioned it tells me that he is aware of how it could become a potential
problem if these programs were to expand and were to involve more departments
and more teachers. But as he said, they are going to start small, and focus on the
program.
They will deal with potential problems in having teachers working
together if they see success in the program and ultimately decide to expand.
In my interpretation, the size and the strength of the intramural program at
Townsville is some of the biggest evidence that students at Townsville are
52
committed to being physically active.
However, I do not believe that their
involvement is evidence that students see their activities as directly relating to their
health. The students at Townsville who are relatively healthy have the opportunity
to be active and they have chosen to incorporate that activity into their daily lives.
Those students, however, are not forced by the school to take advantage of those
opportunities. Students participate in intramurals because it is fun, because they
are naturally competitive, and because they are outwardly social people. Some
students might also participate through the encouragement of their parents.
Students do not necessarily participate in intramurals because they have been told
that being active every day will improve their overall health. I do not think that
this contradicts the literature on youth health.
The report from Casazza and
Ciccazzo (2006) stated that less than 50% of adolescents are physically active on a
regular basis. Although I did not poll the Townsville student population, from the
surface, it appears that far more than 50% of their students are active on a regular
basis. Their physical education department alone could be responsible for student
activity, as, they are required to take PE for seven of their eight semesters at
Townsville. The intramural program is also a likely contributor to their students’
activity.
Getting adolescents up and active is the first step to changing adult
trends. These adolescents who are active are much more likely to be developing
healthy life habits than those who are not active in their youth.
The people at Townsville who provide a big message about exercising for
health purposes are the teachers and staff who utilize the weight room and cardio
53
equipment in thief free time. I would interpret this school-wide awareness of
physical education as part of the reason that Townsville’s physical education
department, along with the unique programs they develop, are able to thrive.
However, it is also possible that the dedication in the school comes from an already
strong program that inspires everyone else to act accordingly. It is hard to tell
whether the PE program is encouraging the school to value health, or if the school’s
value of health is what makes the PE program strong. It could be a combination of
both.
Focus Group/Q-Sort
Analysis:
Of the thirty prompts given to the students in the Q-Sort, the lowest scoring
(least agreement) prompt was “I feel stupid when I’m playing sports,” (see Figure
2.1). Eight students said this was never true. One student said it was sometimes
true and one student answered that it was always true.
Another of the four
prompts that had the least agreement was the prompt “I use Math every day,” (see
Figure 2.2). Six students said Never. Four students said Sometimes. Zero students
said Always. Another prompt with a low score was “I like to do school work.”
Seven students stated they never liked to do school work; two stated sometimes;
one student stated always. In my analysis, I think this prompt are relates to the
theme of student interest. The prompt that elicited the most positive feedback also
relates to student interest. “I like the way I feel when I’m active” (see Figure 2.3)
54
had zero students state Never, one student stated Sometimes, and nine of the ten
students stated Always. It is worth mentioning that after the Q-sort, one student
asked me what was meant by “active”. The other students decided that their
understanding of “active” was “not sitting around”. One last prompt with a very
high score was “I like to be active with friends,” resulting in Zero who stated
Never, three Sometimes and seven Always.
Other prompts relating to student interest included statements such as “I
watch a lot of TV”, “I like to play video games,” and “I like to play team sports”
and “I like gym class.” All of these prompts were ranked in the middle or higher of
the 30 prompts. “I like gym class” scored relatively high (24th out of 30), with zero
students saying Never, five students saying Sometimes and five students saying
Always.
Figure 2.1 - I feel stupid when I am
playing sports
10%
10%
Never
Sometimes
Always
80%
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Figure 2.2 - I use Math every day
0%
40%
60%
Never
Sometimes
Always
Figure 2.3 - I like the way I feel when
I am active
0%
10%
Never
Sometimes
Always
90%
56
Interpretation:
Overall, these students like to be active. I found out after the Q-sort that the
term “active” had not been clearly defined for the students. Therefore students
may have interpreted that to mean that they liked playing sports, or that they
simply did not like to be sitting around not doing anything. They also may have
interpreted the term “active” in a non-physical sense, meaning that they prefer to
be engaged in activities that do not require physical movement, such as playing
musical instruments or playing cards with their friends. Students may believe that
someone who is “active” is someone who is involved. Students who are in school
government, on the yearbook staff or do community service are likely to perceive
themselves as “active.” After analyzing the focus group transcription I finally
realized that the high number of students who like to be active does not necessarily
imply that these students like to do physical activities.
In interpreting the question “I like the way I feel when I am active,” I feel
that this questions implies more specifically physical activity. It is possible that
students interpreted the term “active” to mean any of the things above, but I
believe that these students were stating a preference for being physically active.
But again, the ambiguity of the term “active,” leaves a lot to interpret. When I look
at all the questions being analyzed, a general trend toward physical activity
appears, as is evidence in the fact that the students reported liking gym class. There
also was not much support for watching TV or playing video games. If all the
57
questions are taken together, I believe that most students perceived the term
“active” to mean physical activity.
What did correlate with my topic is the fact that eight out of the ten students
stated that they do not feel stupid playing sports. This does not mean that they like
playing sports. It simply means that these students might be more willing to try or
to participate in physical activity.
Finally, the fact that the students did not believe that they use Math every
day leads me to believe that the students consider Math to be a classroom-only
activity. It is possible that these students have only encountered a few methods for
learning Mathematics. Perhaps if they were to utilize physical activities in the
classroom that dealt with Math or if they were to take their Math lessons outside of
the classroom, this perception could change. Once again, this is a general reverse of
what I had found in literature such as the Healthy People 2010 initiative that suggests
that “essential nutrition education topics should be integrated into science and
other curricula to reinforce principles and messages learned in health units (Focus
Area 19). In my data collection and interpretation, I have found more instances in
which the desired outcome and primary concern is to achieve better learning in the
non physical education subjects, such as Math. Integrating Math and Physical
Education might help students see purposes for Math in places outside of school.
3) THEME: Resources
58
Interview and Observations
Analysis:
Townsville provides both physical resources, as well as informational
resources to its students. In terms of physical resources, the PE Department has 5
gymnasiums, a weight-training room, a pool, a rock-climbing wall, a high ropes
course, heart-rate monitors, VO2 max-testing equipment, and scales that measure
body-fat percentages and basal metabolic rates. Body-fat percentiles give a general
outline of how much of a person’s weight can be attributed to fat, while the rest is
mostly water and muscle. Basal metabolic rates tell people, based on their height
weight and body-fat percentage, how many calories they burn a day from just
resting. When I was at Townsville, Dave let me use the scale and gave me a
printout of my report. There were several things on the report that I did not
recognize or understand, but Dave said that each of his students are given that test
twice a year, and are provided with detailed information about what each reading
means.
Each student at Townsville starts a fitness portfolio in junior high, and they
take part in what is called the Freshman Fitness Project. According to Dave, the
project begins with a freshman fitness concepts class, where the students learn
about “heart-rate monitors, training heart-rate zones, different levels of burning fat
more effectively, where you’re burning carbohydrates etcetera. And so once we
give them all kinds of fitness information, we teach them how to set up a fitness
program for themselves. A weigh-training program, how to incorporate flexibility,
59
when to stretch, and we try to debunk the myths that they have in their brains.”
The PE department has an extensive website to accompany the freshman fitness
project, with information that can be utilized by anyone. I personally used some of
the information on the website to add new weight-training exercises to my own
workout.
In terms of resources, Dave compared Townsville to an inner-city school he
had heard stories about. He said he has a teacher who came from an inner-city
school and that the teacher would often go to use equipment such as footballs only
to find them all deflated and unable to hold air. Dave talked about how all that
school needed was enough basketballs or footballs to keep all the kids active. A lot
of schools face challenges with class size. With 60 students in a PE class, Dave
suggested with 60 kids, “play 5 on 5. That’s 12 teams. Instead of giving me 2
footballs, give me 6 that I can inflate, and I keep those 60 kids engaged and active
and there won’t be a problem.”
Michael mentioned a different situation that
reminds me of this scenario. He talked about how as the head of the Fellowship of
Christian Athletes at Townsville, they have a love of Ultimate Frisbee games. Once
they forgot their Frisbee on a bike trip. “So at lunch at our break, we stopped at a
park along the way and we had a water bottle, so we played ultimate with the
water bottle. They just love to play.”
Townsville is unlike the school Dave described. Townsville typically has a
maximum of 30 students in each PE class, and they divide the sports into 4 on 4.
Dave compared his school to some schools that have more financial resources but
60
that in his opinion, despite their resources, don’t have good PE programs. “I’ve
gone to those high-performing districts and I’ve seen their PE classes. Instead of 4on-4 softball, there were 36 kids in a softball class, 18 on one team, 18 on the other
team, and the pitcher is the gym teacher. So you’ve got all these kids standing
around and waiting and not being active.” Dave emphasized that Townsville PE
classes always have high levels of participation, and that they rotate through
activities every four weeks. Therefore, in the seven semesters of PE required for
each Townsville students, they take 28 activities.
20 of those activities are
requirements: 6 Fitness, 4 team-sports, 3 individual, 2 dance, 2 gymnastics, 2
aquatics and CPR certification.
Therefore, in my analysis, I am including the
number of activities and variety of PE classes at Townsville as a resource.
Interpretation:
Townsville has a unique wealth of resources in their physical education
department. I believe that these resources are paramount to their success. While
Dave told stories of inner-city teachers and how they could benefit from just a few
additional resources (such as footballs), I do not think it is realistic to believe that a
school that has not built up their PE facilities and faculty could have the success of
Townsville. For one thing, they would not be able to offer such a variety of classes
if they did not have so many gymnasiums and so much equipment. They would
61
not be able to offer all of those classes if they did not have such a large PE
department faculty.
The literature on improving PE programs in high school suggests that using
the PE4Life program might be a viable option for schools that do not already have
adequate resources, and that might be low on finances. Although Dave Sanders
did not provide me with specifics on where their finances came from, he did
mention that the PE4Life program played a role in enhancing their resources at
Townsville. This corresponds to the literature and the example of Tim McCord’s
Pennsylvania school district.
McCord’s school is in a blue-collar district and
utilized PE4Life to enhance their PE program (U.S Congress, 2004). In addition,
McCord’s school provided an example of a district that was not wealthy, yet
utilized the community in order to enhance their program. They received funding
from a local health insurance provider. Therefore, in my interpretation, I consider
Townsville to be a unique school district, but also think that school districts with
less financial resources could still utilize the resources that their communities could
potentially offer.
Conclusion
According to the research in my literature review, there is a problem. The
health of Americans is declining, and people who have bad health often begin to
develop poor habits in their youth. My data corresponds mostly to the issue of
62
physical activity. According to my observations and interviews, some schools are
trying to do something about it. In reference to my question, “How can teachers of
all subjects use lessons involving nutrition and physical activity to promote student
health,” Townsville High School provided insight by providing examples of
programs that have already been initiated, and the focus group at Whitfield High
School provided insight by getting student input.
There is no way to conclude that the students at Townsville will live long
lives of healthfulness. There is also no way to conclude that the students’ health
has been affected by the physical education program at their school. Furthermore,
there is no way to conclude what exactly has caused their high school students to
be active in intramurals and athletics, or what has caused some of the faculty and
staff to be physically active at the school as well. What I can conclude, however, is
that high schools can, in fact, play a role in providing opportunities for
healthfulness to its students
From my research, I have found three key factors that could help schools
develop programs to enhance students’ awareness and knowledge of health. First,
physical education and physical activity can be used in subjects other than health
and physical education themselves. Second, in order for a school to promote health
and physical activity, the school must provide opportunities for these things.
Finally, students must be interested in the opportunities that they have in order to
participate.
63
Even though the programs at Townsville have not been replicated or tested
enough to conclude that physical activity has caused the Zero Hour students to
perform better in Literacy, the school has shown that there are places where
curriculum integration can occur. Zero Hour PE appears to have affected these
students’ performance in Literacy, but even if the PE class was not what caused
their improvement, it at least demonstrates that there is room in students’
schedules to add more physical activity. I believe that taking physical activity
outside of just PE alone demonstrates to students that fitness is important and can
be utilized in various settings. Incorporating physical activity more into students’
school day provides a positive example. And since there is room in Townsville’s
schedule to incorporate more activity, then there is likely to be time in other
schools’ schedules as well. In reference to my question, I would conclude that the
first step to figuring out how teachers can promote student health in their lessons is
finding places where the curriculum integration can occur. When physical activity
is added in a students’ school day outside the standard PE requirement, students
can then see that physical activity is not for PE class alone, and that its benefits
could potentially reach farther into their lives.
The Zero Hour program has many implications for the field of Mathematics.
Adding physical activity to the Math classroom opens up possibilities for students
who may learn differently. The Pre-Algebra teacher, Michael, touched on this a bit
while talking his daughter as a kinesthetic learner. This could be true of other
students as well. In Math, as with other subjects, students might struggle with
64
traditional teaching methods, and they may assume that they are not good Math
learners. Math educators look for new ways to reach struggling learners. This
research project suggests that physical activity before Math class or incorporating
physical activity into Math learning, could reach some learners in a new way. This
research suggests a different approach, and although it is not tested, this approach
could be worth trying.
Part of the reason I chose to conduct research at Townsville was because of
the overwhelming number of opportunities that particular school provides. By
visiting their school, I discovered there were even more opportunities for practicing
healthy lifestyles there than I had originally known. There is physical education
itself, where students are given seven semesters worth of required physical activity,
where they are given the most information about their own health and where they
are required to create physical fitness portfolios. Next, the students, staff and
faculty have opportunities to use their vast amount of equipment and gymnasium
space outside of the regularly scheduled school day. The students in the Zero Hour
PE class were also given the opportunity to have additional physical education in
their day and to use it for the benefit of another subject. For students of all athletic
abilities the extensive intramural program provides an opportunity to play in
competitive sports.
Finally, organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes (FCA) provide an opportunity for students to combine physical activity
with something that is personally important to them. There are more opportunities
that I did not observe or talk to teachers about, but these opportunities provide
65
insight into the Townsville school community and how the people there are
working on a healthy school environment and quite possibly promoting student
health by doing so.
These opportunities would not mean anything if there was not an interest
amongst students to participate.
The focus group at Whitfield High School
corroborated this point. Many of those students stated that they liked gym class.
They stated that they like being active with their friends and they liked the way that
they feel when they are active. Even if these students took the word active to mean
“involved” and not necessarily physically active, it shows that a lot of students will
participate in activities, no matter what they are, because they like to be active. This
relates to the Zero Hour Program at Townsville because it calls to attention to the
fact that the students had to be willing to take advantage of the class. Some of those
Zero Hour PE students may have registered for early morning course
at their parents’ command, but they still had to be active participators in order to
reap any benefits from the course. Those students had to come to school at 7:00 am
for a class that did not fulfill any of the core course requirements. Therefore, a
program like Zero Hour must be attractive to students in order for students to
participate and in order for them to receive the maximum benefit from the program
or course. In order for students to fully benefit both in health and in any other
academic subjects in this type of program, the program must keep students
interested.
66
While there is a wealth of opportunity for physical activity at Townsville,
and while it appears that the student population is highly involved in these
activities, my research does not necessarily suggest that students at Townsville are
physically fit.
Probably the biggest lesson I learned while doing this research is
that schools, teachers, even parents cannot make high school students become fit.
The physical education department provides students with a wealth of information
on how to become physically fit, and the school provides many opportunities for
practical application of that knowledge, but that does not imply that these students
are perfectly fit. My research question is about how schools can promote student
health, but that does not mean that the end result at a school such as Townsville is
100% physical fitness amongst students. It simply implies that there is a greater
possibility that students may be healthy or may become healthy from the lessons
they have learned and the school environment they have been in. Ultimately,
personal wellness is something that high school students will have to take upon
themselves for the rest of their lives.
A second major lesson I learned while conducing this research is that it is
heard to generalize any my findings. A lot of the literature that I initially reviewed
pointed me to Townsville to collect data. While that was ideal, it meant that my
question was developed with Townsville high school in mind, and it also means
that a lot of my data pertains only to Townsville. While it was interesting to
observe that high school and speak to some of the teachers, I feel like my question
almost became as if my question was a specific Townsville case study. It is hard to
67
generalize any of the results to other schools, when some of those schools have not
even begun to scratch the surface in terms of resources and opportunities.
Since my research was very school-specific, it is hard to suggest a model for
any school that is not Townsville. Still, I think that the first step is determining
what resources a school does have. Any school that is looking to improve overall
health of its students, or at least health knowledge, first needs to assess where it
stands in terms of physical education curriculum and equipment. Schools do not
necessarily have to have all of the equipment that Townsville has, but could benefit
from finding ways to enhance what they do have. A school also needs find places
in other curriculum or in student schedules where more physical activity could be
added. Before adding academic programs that include physical activity or adding
extracurricular activities to schools, there must also be an assessment of what
students enjoy. Surveys, focus groups, and trial activities could help gauge what
students will ultimately decide to participate in.
The difficulty in generalizing
to schools outside Townsville is one limitation of this study. A lot of what is done
at Townsville has been replicated at other schools, so it is hard to know whether it
could work in other environments and it is hard to know to what degree the
programs at the school are affecting student behavior. Another big limitation in
this study is that it is hard to measure success. There is no way to know whether
the students presently at Townsville will go on to lead healthier lives than those
who are not. It is also hard to measure the success of specific programs, such as the
Zero Hour program. While the students in the class were tested both before and
68
part way through the course in Literacy, there is no way to measure what was the
exact cause in any changes in their learning.
Probably the biggest limitation in my research is that it was mostly oriented
towards observations and teacher interviews. The focus group was insightful, but I
feel that I did not get enough information from students in this study. Since the
study is about how to influence students to be healthy, I would have liked to have
more information on students’ current thinking, on what appeals to them, and on
their reactions to programs they participate in.
Originally, I thought it would be
beneficial to have a focus group outside of Townsville, as I wanted information on
other schools. In hindsight, I think that this was not the best way to collect data
from another school. I think that I should have done a focus group at Townsville
specifically referencing the programs that are referenced in my data collection. Any
research done at another school would have been more helpful if it could be
directly compared to what I observed and talked about at Townsville.
Given these limitations, I would change any future research by conducting it
in a school that does not have a strong physical education program. Certainly,
Townsville was very insightful, but it is hard to draw conclusions based solely on
that school. It would help to compare Townsville to a school that does not have as
many resources, and does not offer as many opportunities for physical activity.
Therefore, the research could point toward suggestion as to where change can
begin.
69
My research ended up gearing toward the direction of physical activity in
reference to health, and I think that this was the best direction for this particular
research project. However, I am still very interested in the specifics of nutritional
awareness of students, as a great deal of my literature review focused on this
aspect. I think it would be interesting to do another study that focused more on
nutrition and diet, on health class instead of physical activity, and on school
lunches in terms of healthy school environments. Perhaps there is also a way to
integrate nutritional awareness into other subject areas. From my experience, I can
see that it is hard to isolate physical activity and nutrition, but I feel like the
nutrition aspect is where there was less information available, and therefore more
to search for!
Overall, this research was encouraging. Given the problem from the start that youth may be learning unhealthy habits at a young age - I found a positive
example of a school that is trying to teach healthy habits.
While the idea of
integrating physical activity into other classrooms is relatively unique, I find it
encouraging that there was so much information on the overall role that schools
might play in students’ health. To me, this means that school administrators are
beginning to think about the problem more. Some of these schools have already
begun to take action. Hopefully, with more research, there will be better evidence
as to what the best course of action is for promoting health and well being in high
school.
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American Obesity Association. (2006). AOA Fact Sheet, Health Effect of Obesity.
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http://www.obesity.org/subs/fastfacts/Health_Effects.shtml.
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Beane, J. A. (1997). Curriculum Integration: designing the core of democratic
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Bonds, C. W., Cox III, C. C., Gantt-Bonds, L. (1993). Curriculum wholeness
through synergistic teaching. The Clearing House, v66, No 4, 252.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Physical Activity for Everyone:
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Appendix A
Interview with Dave S., Physical Education Department Chair
May 22, 2006
Townsville High School
Interview Protocol:
1) In your experience, what are the major changes you’ve seen to Physical
Education over the years?
2) Can you describe the Zero Hour PE?
a) How would you describe the student’s attitudes?
b) What issues has this resolved?
c) What issues still remain?
d) Do you have any ideas for how to encourage more students to take
advantage of this program?
3) Based on what’s been happening in Zero Hour PE, where do you see
opportunities for advancement with other academic subjects?
a) Are the methods used in Zero Hour mostly drilling?
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b) Do you have any specific ideas for subject integration with Physical
Education, such as Math, Science or Social Studies?
c) If the PE can’t be integrated directly into the lessons, are there ways that
you think teachers might still have a positive influence on students’ attitudes
toward health?
4) In your research and your experience, what kinds of links have you found
between exercising and mental activity?
a) How long-term are the effects?
5) Can you tell me about the freshman fitness project?
a) What are the students’ attitudes?
6) Can you describe the kind of technology available to students in PE?
7) What evidence do you have that students in your PE Programs will take these
lessons with them after high school?
a) Do students seem to be engaging in after-school activities?
8) How important is the attitude of the Naperville community at large?
a) What roles are parents playing?
9) What’s next for your program? Any major ideas for the future? Any major
changes coming?
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Appendix B
Interview with Dave S., Physical Education Department Chair
May 22, 2006
Townsville High School
Interview Transcription:
MS:
So I was just wondering if you could talk a little about the zero hour PE?
DS:
Sure. 2 years ago we identified students who were reading below grade level
who were coming to our school from our junior highs. And at the time our
principal and our assistant principal met with the English department and
they created a literacy class. The literacy class is an additional class that kids
attend, spend time reading, spend time learning, not so much the value of
reading, I guess that would be, but some reading strategies; some
organizational strategies; some study strategies; those kinds of things that
would help those kids who were struggling. They had some good success
with it and so they were going to run it again. And talking to the parents of
those students those parents were glad that their kids had the opportunity to
improve their scores but were disappointed that their kids did not have the
opportunity to take an elective class. This took place of an elective class
because they still had to take an English class. So my principal then came to
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me and said how would you like to run a Zero Hour PE class, an hour before
school started? I said in a heart-beat. But you have to understand this: I
have a couple restrictions:
1) It won’t be a regular PE class.
2) I would like an English teacher to use that as their supervision.
Teachers in [Townsville] teach 5 classes and have a half hour supervision.
So he said fine. That’d be good. I said well good then I have another
restriction. I’d want those kids in the Zero Hour PE to follow it up with a
literacy class. He said ok. I said you know in close proximity. So thus came
to Zero Hour PE.
I’d been doing some research. And last spring we had a gentleman by the
name of [Dr. Raines]. He’s a Harvard researcher. Heard about our Phys Ed
program. Came to see what it was we were doing. Was amazed and
thought wow you’re on the right track. Then I explained to him about my
Zero hour PE said it was something we would be doing. I said do you think
it will work? I said I’m not a researcher. I don’t know, I said, I don’t know
how many kids will sign up for it. He said it won’t matter. Many studies are
done with few numbers of subjects and they do all kinds of great work with
that. I said ok. I said, there’s gonna be a lot of variables. He says not to
worry. That’s ok too. I said fine. So Thus came Zero Hour PE. Talked to
[Bob]. Talked to [Literacy teacher]. And I said, I gave them some
suggestions.
One of the things we learned from [Dr. Raines] is that anytime you do an
aerobic workout you manufacture new brain cells. We didn’t know that 5
years ago. We thought you were born with X number of brain cells. You
spend the rest of your life killing them off by doing bad things. Not true. So
he talked about a lab rat research project that took place. 2 identical sets of
lab rats. One set of lab rats they put in mazes and they had it solve complex
mazes to get to their food. The other set of lab rats they ran on treadmills.
At the end of the study, when they autopsied the rats, significantly more
brain cells in the exercise group than the problem solving group. Therefore
brain researchers came up with the idea, exercise to the brain is like miracle
grow to plants.
So Zero Hour PE then we were gonna make sure they get at least an hour of
very intensive cardiovascular exercise. And that happened. Now we have
heart rate monitors here. And So we can tell whether or not we’re getting a
good effort out of our students. Our normal students we ask them to
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exercise between 65 and 85% of their training heart rate zone. With our 0
hour kids, our expectation was 65 – 85%, now that is, so our heart rate
monitors are set from 145 to 185 bpm. The 0 hour kids are set from 165 – 185
beats per minutes.
And so, that took place.
Had ideas about, ok, while kids are on the treadmills we have an aerobic
room that has tv capabilities, monitor, you know, video capabilities, how
about if the kids were to look at videos of the novels that they were reading
while they were exercising? So for example, they were reading to kill a
mockingbird, they saw the video movie to kill a mockingbird. Well, initially
for English teachers that’s a tough stretch because that would be like
someone giving you the cliffs notes and say, ok here, read this novel, well,
like all of us, we’d all read the Cliffs notes, and not read the novel. Well the
kids came back and told those English teachers, well, I can follow the plot
line a lot better now, I can understand the characters and I can kinda see
them in my head, which makes sense. And, started to do a lot better in the
class and started doing a lot better on the tests as a result. So they took note
of this. I suggested that we do something with vocabulary words and they
came up with the game you saw and lots of other games. We have some
other technologies that include cross-lateral movements of the brain, we
have a technology that has lights on it and you strike the lights as they light
up. So if a light lights up on your left hand side you hit it with your right
hand and if a light lights up on the right hand side you hit it with your left
hand. When it lights up in the middle you either…
Well they started doing that and initially the Zero hour kids were scoring in
the 100’s of points. Now they’re into the 300’s points
MS:
Oh wow.
DS:
So that technology has come to play into the grand scheme of things. Cuz
again, so any time you cross the mid-line of your body, and do things
opposite, then that makes synapses of the brain make those connections
across the lobes of the brain. Again. Brain research. Anywhere we could
find brain research then we sought it out and we started to make use of it. I
think there’s still more out there and I continue to look and I think I just
found another site today.
So I said to the English teachers, we need to have some data. I mean we
can’t just have anecdotal information saying this has happened that has
happened. I said how about issuing them a test, they give a Nelson-Danning
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test before the kids come in that how we identify kids who are reading
below grade level. I said let’s give that test again at the semester time. But it
has to be given to all of the literacy kids. You know all 75 kids. They said
fine they would do that. Well when they did the test and they compiled the
data they found that the Zero hour kids improved half a year more than
grade equivalency than the literacy kids. It works. Which was no surprise to
the brain researchers and to anyone else. And I think it was the first quote
“study” done on secondary education. Most of this movement stuff has all
been done at the elementary grade school level.
MS:
Actually one of the people in my programs is doing a similar thing, for
primary education.
DS:
And again, if you talk to…believe it or not, there’s more to teaching phys ed
these days than playing dodgeball, which is not allowed at [Townsville]
High School.
[laugh]
MS:
But I saw that you had an intramural dodgeball team I think or something.
DS:
Intramural program, yeah…that’s the only way that…but I have nothing to
do with it.
Anyway. Because of that, now, we’re going to take this to an all-together
different level next year. We had a hard time getting kids to sign up for it
because it involved them getting here before school. So next year, we’re
going to have a first period PE class. I think we’re going to call it an LRPE,
and that’ll be learning-ready-PE-class. And besides just reading we’re now
going to bring in some math concepts as well. And in talking to the math
department chair, he has a teacher (the intramural director of all people)
who believes in movement when he’s teaching lower-level concepts to kids.
So, it’s a perfect move.
That particular low-level class that he’s teaching meets 3rd hour. So now we
can have kids in first hour PE, learning-ready PE class, some can go over into
a literacy class. Some may also be in this math class. We don’t know what
this schedule is going to look like until we start to sort out the schedule. Or
it may be an entirely different group of kids. But again I’ll have some
literacy kids who won’t be in Learning Ready PE, I’ll have some of those
lower-level math kids who won’t be in Learning Ready PE. They’ll just be in
a regular PE class. And again, the lower-level teacher is going to incorporate
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some more movements. And I need to give him some of the information
that we have. Use of ladders, for example, to walk down and you balance as
you try to understand concepts. Because it really engages the brain more.
As you’re concentrating walking in between the rungs or on the rungs of the
ladder, and you’re looking down and looking at a math concept. It sticks
into brain better. And again that research has been done at primary grades
or elementary grades. So we’re going to try and adapt it at our level as well.
So, basically, that’s how it was evolved. It was kind of a brain child of mine,
but based on research. And [Literacy teacher] and [Bob] have done a great
job of taking the ball and running with it . I mean, I get credit for getting an
idea, but they get credit for doing the work. So…basically that’s 0-hour PE
or how it came to be.
MS:
Ok. Now have you noticed anything different with the students’ attitudes in
the class? I mean, is it different than some of your other PE classes?
DS: Well, not really. You have to understand that PE at [Townsville] is really
different than it is most other places in the United States. Different in most
cases than some of the schools even in Illinois. Our sophomore, juniors and
seniors get to pick their classes every 4 weeks. We restrict them to… we
want them to fulfill so many requirements. So, over the period of 7
semesters with us…the only time they’re out of PE is one semester in their
sophomore year when they’re in health. So, they’ll take 7 semesters of PE
from us and they’ll take 4 classes each semester, so they’ll take 28 activities
from us. And we have 20 requirements. 6 Fitness, 4 team-sports, 3
individual, 2 dance, 2 gymnastics, 2 aquatics, and CPR certification.
By the time a kid graduates from [Townsville], in most cases they’ll have a
better background in a wide-variety of activities than most PE majors in
college will have had.
We offer, you name it, we’ll offer it. Tap dance, social dance, swing dance.
We do a square dance class with our freshman. Which is unique in and of
itself if you talk to a [Dr. Raines]. The class, with the brain. We bring 3
sections of freshman. Most my period periods of the day have 3 sections. So
we’ll bring 108 plus freshman in the gym for a square dance class. The class
teaches elementary left and right, right and left. But that’s not the reason for
the class. The reason for the class is to teach kids how to socially interact
with each other and to learn social skills and respect that are an important
fact at this level. Coming to us from the junior high where flirting is seeing
how hard you can push the boy or the girl. In our freshman classes it’s
designed where you meet somebody, you introduce yourself to somebody.
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Initially in the first go-round, first couple of weeks, we give them a question
that they have to ask that person so that they are learning how to interact
and carry on a conversation. When the dance is done, they thank that
partner for dancing with them. We’ll rotate into the boys or the girls to
another set. They have to introduce themselves a new partner. We give
them a new question. The whole nine yards. We talk to them about treating
each other with respect, you know, and understand that you don’t wanna be
a boy, and you go to get a new partner and the girl gives you that oh, rolls
your eyes look. Nor do you want your boys to go “oh, look who I got stuck
with”. We need to treat each other with respect and we talk about those
things.
As the class progresses, then into the last weeks of it, they’re given a timelength that they have to interact with that peer, or with that partner, once
they meet them. So they introduce themselves now, interact with that
person for 30 seconds. And then for 45 seconds. Finally, their final is to sit
down on the floor and interact with that person for 5 minutes. Now for
some kids, that’s an eternity. But at the same time, with a 108 kids, the
chance that you’ll dance with you know, 30 or 40 different partners over the
course of a 4 week time period is a wonderful thing to happen. And again, it
kind of solidifies and brings that class together. Um and it’s a wonderful
thing. When we get classes that have an imbalance of boys and girls, the
upperclassemen flock, FLOCK, to get in there and balance off…because they
all enjoyed it.
Now if you ask all our freshmen before they go into square dance, you
know, “do you think you’re gonna like square dance,” and they “oh…no”.
But then ask them when it’s all over. And you see them and they’re dancing
and they’re smiling, and they’re having a good time. So that’s, we have that
class.
But I mean, we’ll do, we have kayaking, we have high ropes, we have
climbing walls, we do rollerblading. All of our team sports that we play, the
traditional stuff, we try to break into small teams. So like we’re playing
softball right now, it’s 4 against 4, rather than 11 on 11 where kids are just
standing and there’s no right fielder. You all have to all be engaged, you all
have to be moving.
And our kids, until they leave us, they don’t know what they have. Our kids
will come back after being in college for a semester or 2 and they’ll say, you
know, my college roommate is a couch potato, they won’t go to the rec
center, they’ll never work out. They’re intimidated by going there. They
says, I go, because we learned how to exercise, you know, we learned all the
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things we needed to know and understand. I just enjoyed myself. I kept
myself, fit. I understand the value of exercise. And um, thank you.
Right now, for them, they just think all PE classes are like this. They think
every school is just like this. And I want to laugh and tell them, you have no
idea. But, you know, that’s just the way it goes.
So, our kids, for the most part, are very active to begin with. There really
isn’t. I mean, twice a year we test our kids. We test them in the mile. And
we test them using a pacer. It’s a run across the gym for 20 meters, and after
every minute, the pace picks up, until you can’t go any longer and can no
longer meet it. It’s a test of aerobic capacity. And so, no one ever likes that
stuff. But nobody every likes taking a test in science is difficult either. We
have come to the conclusion that it is not our job to make kids fit. It is our
job to give them as much information about everything, and then turn it over
to them, but they have to keep themselves fit.
So in the spring of the year, we give them a printout that shows them every
test that they’ve taken while they were in school, and we even have this
software in our junior high. So we’re creating electronic portfolios on our
kids from grade six through grade 12. So now we’re saying at least watch
that you’re improving or at least maintaining, and that you’re not going
backwards. And now if you’re going backwards, then you need to know
why and what choices are being made or what have you not done to keep
improving or at least maintaining. So ultimately we turn that responsibility
over to them. So that’s a departure for a lot of us phys ed teachers. We’re all
coaches. So as coaches, like all coaches; we’re control freaks. And we think
the fountain of all information needs to come from us. And it’s not true. I
mean we just, here’s some information. Do with it as you choose. If you
choose not to do anything, oh well, but understand that this is the one and
only body you have, and if you don’t take care of it, you know bad luck bad
luck.
So, what we really don’t have, believe it or not, a lot of negative
connotations. What we have noticed, with the Zero hour kids. I haven’t
noticed it, but I English teacher have, is that these kids participate better in
the classes. In the classes, like the literacy class, they become like the leaders
of that class. Now the one young lady that’s in that 0 hour PE class. You
have to understand that when she came to us she was reading at a 4th grade
level. OK, Now, she’s improved since then. But when we had our breakfast,
to reward the success of the Zero hour kids, we invited parents. And her
parents came. And when the reporter said, you know, what do you notice
about your daughter? They said she’s more disciplined. She gets up. She’s
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not hard to get out of bed. She knows she has to be there and she does it on
her own. And the father said, last year as a junior high student, she was an
average student. First semester here, she made the honor role. So she made
the transition to junior high to high school, it’s a tough transition to begin
with. But going from an average student to the honor role because your
working, you feel good about yourself, you see the effect of exercise first
thing in the morning. It works. So you know, that’s what happens.
Now, it’s our belief. See, in [Townsville], our test scores are comparable to
any other district. The [suburban high school], the [suburban high school],
the [suburban high school], but our per pupil expenditure is right about the
state average. Whereas a [suburban high school] is almost twice sometimes
almost 3 times what we are per pupil expenditure.
We’re overcrowded in both of our high schools. So really, this school is
probably built for about 2500 students, we have 3200 students and growing.
We have science labs built for 24 stations, we have 28 kids in our science
classes. Our English classes are 27, 28, 29. A [suburban high school] and a
[suburban high school] would not think of having that number kids in their
school setting. They have the resources, they have the finances. They can
hire another teachers and they’ll have 20 kids in a class. We don’t have that
luxury. So the difference is, our kids are very very active throughout the
day. I mean, moreso, and I don’t wanna say bad about other people. But
I’ve gone to some of those other high-performing districts and I’ve seen their
PE classes. Well, instead of 4 on 4 softball, there were 36 kids in a softball
class, 18 on one team, 18 on the other team, and the pitcher is the gym
teacher. So you’ve got all these kids standing around and waiting and not
doing and not being active. Well, nobody likes to do that.
There’s a stigma, if you bat maybe once, twice if you’re lucky. Maybe if
you’re the first batter on your team maybe you’ll get to bat 3 times during
class. Well, if you’re successful 1 out of 3 times, you don’t feel good about
yourself. And yet we play professional baseball players who bat 300
millions of dollars. But for a kid in a PE class at [Townsville] will bat 14, 15,
16 times. Who remembers how many times you hit the ball out of that? It
was like the old days when we played as kids in the neighborhood. If we
batted 100 times, nobody never knew what their batting average was.
MS:
I think we were 2 on 2 or something in my back yard.
DS:
Exactly! I mean you just played all the time. We didn’t keep track. If you
struck out, you knew you were coming up again in another 3 minutes or
something like that.
84
Same thing here. So it’s not about creating athletic skills, even though, we’ll
be skilled because we participate more. There’s more chances to hit a
volleyball, there’s more chances to have to catch a baseball, there’s more
chances to bat. Um, 3 on 3 basketball, you’re gonna have to use everybody,
you can’t dominate. And everybody has to play defense, you can’t sit back
there an lolligag. So all that’s going on.
MS:
So basically our kids don’t mind coming to PE as opposed to some of those
other places. I mean, I saw their classes. Big time difference. bIg time
difference in philosophy.
So again, what people don’t understand, our phys ed programs lend
themselves to the quality of education we offer here in the [Townsville]
schools.
If you look at our country, a country like Finland. They have the highest
literacy rate of any country in the world. If you do a web search, they say
that nearly 100% of the people in Finland are literate. Ok. Their school
system is mandatory through grade 9. And that’s it. There in their school
system, every 45 minutes, they have to take an active break. Inside or
outside. Break can be active or musical. They have to take an active break.
Now we as Americans, we won’t study Finland because they’re not a world
power. No, We’ll study China and Japan. We say they’re ahead of us
educationally because they spend more time in the classroom. They go to
school, their days are longer, they go to school year-round, so obviously the
answer is more seat-time. No. In China and Japan, exercise is a big
important component of their culture. Their whole country or their whole
community will take time out in the middle of the day to do tai-chi. We
don’t look at that. We just say why is their education system? Well it must
be because there is more seat time. Not true. There’s a superintendent in
New York State his name is Wendt, Mike Wendt. He was a principal before
he was superintendent. In his school, kids who were identified with ADD
and ADHD spent 15 minutes on a bike before school, a stationary bike. In
one year, significantly reduced the amount of Ritalin that school had
significantly. The worse case scenario, a kid had to take half the dose that he
was on or she was on. In most cases kids got completely off of Ritalin.
Because exercise gives you all of the same effect, serotonin, ..., all for the
brain that Ritalin did. And they did it naturally through exercise.
So we learn from that. And I’m afraid No child left behind has forced
administrators to say ok you’re struggling in Math Peggy, I think you need 2
math classes. You’re struggling in Reading, at [Townsville] we’ll create
85
another class called Literacy class to help you with those skills. That’s fine,
but let’s not miss the component of getting kids ready to learn. And that
readiness is again, activity. Blood flowing to the brain. The more you sit on
your butt, the less there is.
So again, I as a phys ed teacher, look at brain research differently than let’s
say an administrator looks at it. Now I’m looking obviously from my point
of view how activity and what not affects the brain. Administrators look at
who’s the latest greatest wizard out there. You know, for years it was
[researcher], and now there’s [researcher] and I say Friggins. And you know
we’ll go through another. It’s amazing that people like Plato and Aristotle
could be great teachers in the old days without any of these experts being
around. Too many times administrators get…its’ the teachers, it’s the person
that’s delivers the message. Not this philosophy and that philosophy. It’s
the relationship between the teacher and the pupil. You also have to get
those pupils ready to learn. I mean, we’re in an ideal situation. You know,
we’re rich middle-class. Our parents are wonderful. They want all of their
kids to succeed, they want their kids to go to Harvard and Stanford and
Yale.
MS:
And Northwestern
DS:
And Northwestern. I mean, you know. I’m not sure all of what we’re doing
here we can acoomplish in some of the inner-city schools. They have more
problems than this. But at the same token, I know that at the inner-city
schools they’re just throwing out a basketball at just letting kids play
basketball at PE and as long as they’re not killing themselves, everything’s
fine. Now, if you wanna go sit in the bleachers instead of playing basketball
that’s fine too. Well, there’s gotta be a happy medium. Maybe you can’t
replicate the entire program here, but you can replicate the philosophy. So if
you’ve got…I’m gonna hire a new person this year, I’ve got one retiring.
And the district he’s coming from, without mentioning any name he’s got 60
kids in his PE class. That by itself is…
Me:
Huge
DS: It’s ridiculous. Then, the activity he has to teach is football. And he’s given 2
footballs. And he goes to inflate them and neither one of them will hold air.
Now, it doesn’t cost, the 60 kids if I play 5 on 5, that’s 12 teams. That’s, 6
different games going on all over. Instead of giving me 2 footballs, give me 6
that can inflate, and I can keep those 60 kids engaged and active and there
won’t be a problem. And then, I don’t need to stand there an officiate their
games. Because if I’m not around, and there’s a problem, all of a sudden,
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kids have to learn conflict resolution. Hello. Um, you know, like, I’ll be out
at a baseball, I got 6 or 7 games of baseball going on, and they get in an
argument, they say “Mr. Z was he safe or out?” I say, I dunno, I didn’t see
it.
MS:
Figure it out.
DS:
Yeah, well see again, too many times as adults we want to step in, we want
to solve the problem. No. I dunno. You know, and I think the more you
have a question, which is again, that’s how Aristole and Plato talked. They
didn’t give everybody answers. They posed questions and let them find and
resolve the answers themselves. And that’s how people learn. You know.
You would think we’d know from great minds in the past.
MS:
Yeah, they’ve been around for a while, you’d think somebody’d figure it out.
DS:
Yeah, but we don’t. I mean, sometimes I think, I hate to say it, when people
become administrators, they forget what education is about. Then it
becomes about them. They think I’m going to bring you, you know, they
become the…you know there are a lot of administrators who are former PE
teachers. I am the fountain of all wisdom, from me everything flows. Horse
feathers. I’ve talked too much already.
MS:
Well, I was just gonna ask, I mean, it’s pretty clear how committed this
department is and this school, um, in terms of the rest of the school, in terms
of the administration, other teachers, do you see much of an attitude of
health or people being really committed to well-being beyond this program?
DS:
Yeah. I mean we’ll get staff members who will go down and use our aerobic
room or our weight room
MS:
Oh! They can do that? That’s encouraging.
DS:
Oh yeah, because we want our kids to see adults working out. We want,
that’s a good role model. Whether it’s a phys ed teacher or whether it’s an
English teacher or it’s somebody from social studies or whether it’s our
librarian. We’ve got a librarian who’s lost 2 or 3 dress sizes in the past 3
years because she started working out. We have what you call a campus
supervisor, a hall monitor type thing , and she’s 60 plus years old and she’s
dropped, I dunno, 100 plus pounds in the past 2 years because she just got
on this exercise kick based on hearing everything we had to say, hearing the
message that I send. We struggle through the Atkins diet and all these other
stuff and I say, it’s a simple mathematical formula, it’s calories in, calories
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out. You wanna eat? Go expend them. You know it’s not carbohydrates,
proteins. Calories in, calories out. It’s simple. And so, you know, it’s
completely made some changes. So yeah, we have people that will work out
during the day and jump on the treadmill next to the kids while they’re
down in the aerobic room. Sometimes our teachers complain because they
take up a treadmill and one of their kids doesn’t get one, so it’s my job I
guess to figure out how to get more treadmills.
So yeah, attitude wise, the other thing is when we did this research in midyear and I presented it to the administrative team, that’s all our department
chairs and assistant principals and principal…people in the special ed
department started saying oh wow…cuz now they’re saying…see if you
know anything about special ed they normally put all their kids in the
academic classes in the morning, then everything in the afternoon is resource
and study hall. So now they’re saying we could schedule those kids in PE
classes and then still schedule them throughout the day in academic classes.
I say, yesss. So they’re looking at they’ll go around organizing their
schedules.
I have counselors who, you know, their kids struggle with math or science.
They will schedule the kids in PE a period or 2 before they have science or
math. So all of a sudden, we’re the tail wagging the dog. And then in most
schools, oh we can just always dump them into PE.
MS:
That is really, very very cool. What else do I have? You answered all of the
questions I already had. I had read a little bit about your interest in brain
research. Now did you talk at all about your freshman fitness project, or is
that something different?
DS:
That’s something different. Our freshmen take what we call our freshman
fitness concepts class. Our freshman fitness concepts class we spend time in
the class teaching them about heart-rate monitors and training heart rate
zones and the different levels of burning fats more effectively there’s from
60-70% from 75-85% you’re burning carbohydrates which are sugars that are
really carbohydrates that have been broken down. At 85% at above you’re
starting to use protein as your source of energy and that’s when you start to
break down your muscles and that’s ok for that kind of stuff. And we give
them all of those different levels so that they know and understand what it is
they’re trying to do and why marathon runners will carbohydrate load and
things like that. And so we’ll teach them then how to set up a fitness
program for themselves, a weight-training program, how to incorporate
flexibility, when to stretch, try and debunk some of these myths that they
have in their brains.
88
Me:
I had to learn all these things from Runners World. I mean, it’s just funny,
that’s the only place I’ve seen this stuff is in magazines and stuff, so it’s very
cool that you have that in your curriculum.
DS:
Yeah, and so once they’ve learned those concepts, and then we teach them
how to use our exercise equipment, we take them up to the weight room,
you know and show them how to do that. How to get their 1 rep max for
their weight training and stuff like that. On our site they have a calculator
they can go to and plug that information in.
Then we give them 2 fictitious characters. Johnny Jumper and Minnie
Minor. And so, Peggy, you would do Minnie Minor. And I would be Johnny
Jumper, and they need help in all fitness categories. And so they then have
to create a fitness plan for them. They have to become the personal trainer
for Minnie Minor or Johnny Jumper. And then we have a grading rubric to
make sure they have everything thing, if you’ve visited our website.
MS:
Yeah, I’ve seen it.
DS:
So, you see, we ‘ve even highlighted it in red. This is what we’re looking for.
We make no mistake about it. Because it’s not about “neener neener”, I got
you, bad [smacks hand] you didn’t study. We want to make sure you
understand the concepts. You know, if we give everybody an A, what
difference does it make? It’s important for you to learn the concepts. If you
don’t learn it from me, learn it from doing the project. Learn it from where
ever you learn it. One of our websites strikes you as being, ok, I’ve learned
something hear, you know if it’s learning about calories from going to
Cooper’s café. Did you go to Cooper’s café?
MS:
Uh, as in?
DS:
On our website.
MS:
Oh, no, I didn’t see that.
DS:
Oh, it’s down near the bottom. However, you learn the information, it’s, um,
it doesn’t matter, again, I’m not the fountain of all information, it doesn’t
have to flow from me.
MS:
I thought maybe you were talking about Kenneth Cooper because I’ve read
so much about…
89
DS:
Well it is. It’s from his…he created the website. All it is, down below, we
have additional research and links. And here…it’s Cooper’s Café.
MS:
HA! It’s him.
DS:
Ok. So if you want chocolate cake, it’s 250 calories. You put it here on your
tray. And this is pie and this is sweet-heart peach pie, and I put that and it’s
telling me I have 550 and how many grams of fat, and you know I wanna
come on over here and get a bunch of fish and …
MS:
This is really cool.
DS:
So, you know, my meal total is that much… I can’t get rid of it. There it is.
So then again, whether you get the information from us, over here, you can
click up here in the corner and get recipes from all kinds of stuff. This is
again Cooper. This is our 1-rep max place. You plug in your reps that you
did, you know, 15 at 75 lbs, and it calculates it thinks your 1-rep max is 108,
so based on that you put your percentages in. If you’re gonna do muscle
strength you do it by 85 to 95% of that, 3 sets of 5. If you wanna do muscle
endurance, you do about 65 of that, 3 sets of 10, 3 sets of 12. And that’s the
information that we give them. And again, they take that information, and
again, it’s here for them and they know where to get these resources.
MS:
I’m gonna start using it.
DS:
Please do. If you even wanna know like here, you say biceps, click on
biceps, it tells you all the different exercises you can do to exercise the biceps.
MS:
Well that’s really cool. I mean, I only got this kind of information from, like,
high school track because I had, I felt like the coach was kinda like a personal
trainer. But I felt like kids that didn’t do varsity sports never saw the weight
room, ever, at my school.
DS:
See, now that’s not the case here. As a matter of fact, our weight room is
open every day after school from 3:30 – 5:00 for the average kid.
MS:
Oh ok.
DS:
So with the athletes in season don’t get in until after that.
MS:
Oh ok.
90
DS:
And again, there’s another website where if I’m doing sit-ups, what’s it
worth, if I’m doing cruntches, I’m doing lunges, all the different muscles that
it works. So it’s all there. We just want our kids to have access to all the
information.
MS:
Alright. Very cool. I was just gonna ask one more thing about health
classes. How involved is the program here the department with the actual
health curriculum.
DS:
Again, PE, Health and Driver Ed are all under my auspices. We have our
software from our fitness testing in our computer lab. So kids will go in
there and do a meal-planner, and um, figure out how many calories they’ll
need to take in or order to burn. Obesity is not a problem at [Townsville]
High School. We tested our kids in the fall. 11% of our student population
didn’t meet the expectations set by Cooper and the American college of
sports medicine. We’re starting to find out that eating disorders are as big a
problem here for us. So we want to make our kids aware that if, oh, by the
way you’re an athlete, especially our runners, our girls, you need to take in
you know about 2200-2500 calories because your activity is high. We try to
show them that. We’ll use our same software with our health classes. They
preach the same kinds of things. The one nice thing health is one of those
what I call a graveyard subject. Anytime there’s a social problem in the
world, we solve that by putting that into the health curriculum. So we’re
gonna deal with drugs, we’re gonna deal with sex, we’re… it’s all in the
curriculum. Well it’s a graveyard. We keep putting more things in but we
never take anything out. Well for us, we took things out by taking CPR out
of the health curriculum and putting it into the PE curriculum. We do a lot
of physical fitness stuff in PE, then they can touch on it in health, but not
nearly as extensively as some other schools would have to. So they’re very
involved, I mean, and it’s a coordinated effort between what they’re doing
and what we’re doing, we’re all saying the same thing.
MS:
Cool. Just one more question. You said you’re a coach. Can you talk just a
little bit about yourself personally? Just how you got here?
DS:
Oh gosh. I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve moved around. I’m in my 37 th
year of teaching. I love what I do. I started out in a small private school in
[suburb]. Probably a great place for me to start because I was a terrible
teacher and back in those days you could get away with murder. Almost
literally. Started there, from there went to [suburban] High school, just
south of here. Taught there for 9 years. When I was at [previous high
school], and I got the job, the athletic director hired me, I was going to be the
freshman football coach, and 8th grade basketball coach and the an assistant
91
track coach. That athletic director left, went to York high school, new guy
comes in, calls me up over the summer, I want you to come visit. Happened
to be my high school line coach in football, he says, I want you to be my
varsity line coach, I want you not to have anything to do with the grade
school, so you’re going to be the freshman basketball coach. I want you to be
the head track coach, so you’ll have no assistants in this first year.
MS:
Oh my gosh.
DS:
Well, I mean you’re looking for your first job. You want me to clean toilets
too? No problem. You’d basically do that.
So, I did that. And I got outta basketball after one year, because you know, I
decided…well, when I had seen my 1st track meet as a head coach, I had no, I
mean I took a class in college, but other than that, so I’ve learned ever since.
I went to Bolingbrook high school, they brought me over as an assistant
track coach and a varsity line coach. After 5 years of football there, I got out
of football. I was at the time the head track coach, and the cross country job
opened up. I thought it was a very natural connection for me to be their
head cross country coach and head track coach. I had both boys and girls in
cross country and track, they were my 2 auspices.
MS:
Those were my 2 sports. If you don’t count marching band as a sport.
DS:
No. Don’t count marching band as a sport. So I did that. They brought me
over to [Townsville]. They brought me over to be a potential head track
coach, though I knew I’d have to be an assistant for a while. But then the
department chair’s job opened up, before that, the athletic director was
athletic director AND the department chair for PE health and driver ed. But
the job just got to be too enormous, so they created a department chair job. I
applied for it and got it. So I said, ok, you know, I can’t be a head coach. Sao
when I came here, I was supposed to be a football coach and a track coach.
They hired a math guy who could coach football. They said would you like
to be an assistant soccer coach. I said alright. So I was assistant soccer coach
for 9 years here. I’ve been coaching track every since. I’ve always coached
the sprinters as head coach. In my first 19 years here, 3 years ago, the new
head track coach came in, a hurdle coach came in, he wanted to coach the
hurdles and the sprinters, said, would you coach the pole vault? Call me a
coach, I don’t care. So I’ve been coaching the pole vault for the last 2 years.
MS:
Oh cool. My uncle was a pole vaulter. He almost qualified for the Olympics.
I think back in the 60’s. But yeah, very cool.
92
DS:
Oh wow.
MS:
Ok. Thanks for your time.
DS:
Ok
MS:
We talked a lot. Answers a lot of questions for me. I’m really excited about
your whole program, your whole school. It’s very…
DS:
It is. You know I’m very lucky to be here. [knocks table]. I couldn’t be at a
better place in a better time in my life than where I’m at. Lucky enough to be
able to do things like this. I mean it’s one thing to have the idea, it’s another
thing to be able to follow through on it, but I mean, I’ve been a department
chair out here for 20 years, so they know that I have a track record that says
prove it…let’s see what he’s got. You know, if it’s a mistake, fine, we’ll learn
from it and we’ll move on from there. It’s not like I haven’t made mistakes in
my life.
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Appendix C
Protocol for Interview with Michael D., Math Teacher
May 22, 2006
Townsville High School
Interview Protocol:
1) Can you talk a little about the students you coach?
a) What are some of the different motivations they have for playing soccer?
b) How do they differ from the non-athletic students you teach?
c) Do you have both academically motivated and unmotivated soccer
players?
d) From your experience, can you talk a little about the differences between
he motivation for learning you see from students in sports versus the motivation
for learning that you see from students in the classroom?
e) From what you see of your soccer players, would you describe your soccer
players as healthy students?
2) Can you describe the intramural atmosphere at Naperville Central?
94
a) Do these students differ significantly from your soccer players?
b) Is there a large amount of participation? Are there both varsity and nonvarsity students who participate in intramural sports?
c) How much energy and enthusiasm is there in these students toward
intramurals?
d) Which sports get the most participation?
3) Can you tell me a little about the FCA?
a) Are members only athletes, or are there members who don’t play sports?
b) Can you describe some of the ways that the FCA teaches young people to
value their health?
4) In what ways are student’s attitudes toward their health apparent in the
classroom?
a) Can you generally tell whether a student is active outside the classroom or
not?
b) Most research suggests that students who eat well and are physically
active are more attentive in class. Do you find this to be the case?
c) How do your classes vary throughout the day, in terms of attentiveness?
Are students more alert in the morning or afternoon? Is there not really a
difference?
5) In your math classes, have you ever covered subjects or topics outside of Math
that you have seen as being important?
a) Can you describe those lessons, whether they were planned or unplanned.
6) In what ways do you think healthy attitudes can be taught?
95
a) Do you see any ways in which healthy attitudes could be taught in
academic subjects such as Math?
b) Do you see ways in which health can be made a priority in the classroom?
c) Do you believe that there is room in the math curriculum to integrate
some interactive lessons?
d) I’ve sketched a few generic ideas for integrating health curriculum and
math curriculum based on your syllabi for Algebra and Precalculus? What is your
best guess as to how do you think the lessons in general would be affected by this
integration?
7) I read that you enjoy biking. Can you talk a little about your own personal
experiences and commitment to health?
8) I came across the district 203 Vision on the math department webpage. I really
liked the term “Self-directed learner”. How do you think that applies to students in
sports and how do you think that applies to students in Math classes?
Appendix D
Q-Sort and Discussion Prompts
June 7, 2006
Whitfield High School
I use Math every day
I use English and Reading every day
I use Science every day
I use Social Studies every day
I like to do school work
I play sports for school
96
I like to run or jog
I think about exercising for my health
There’s a difference between exercising for fun and exercising to be healthy
I like to play video games
I like to be active with my friends (for example: ride bikes, shoot hoops, run/jog,
play tennis, swim, rollerblade)
I like to be active on my own (for example: ride bikes, shoot hoops, run/jog, swim,
lift weights, rollerblade)
I watch a lot of TV
I like to play team sports
I like to be outside when it’s nice
I would rather stay inside
I like junk food and candy
I know how to tell the difference between junk food and healthy food
I like healthy food
Health class has taught me how to take care of myself
I like gym class
When I get older, I think I’ll need to exercise to take care of myself
I like the way I feel when I am active
I feel stupid when I am playing sports
I wish we didn’t have gym class during the day
Gym class has taught me how to exercise safely
97
I am an active person
I think being active is important
I like to sit in class and listen
I get bored or tired during class
I get hungry while at school
The best way to learn Math is to practice problems from the book
The best way to learn Math is to use it in real-life problems
Math is about numbers
Math is about word problems
Appendix E
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