re feasible and that students reported positive impacts on their attention and motivation, engagement with their peers and course enjoyment.
According to the study, it is possible for students to have positive impacts on their attention, motivation, engagement with peers, and course enjoyment.
Scott Hayes, the author of the study and associate professor of psychology at Ohio State, suggests that this solution could address a long-standing issue in college classrooms.
Hayes stated that it is unrealistic to expect students to stay focused for 80 minutes without their attention fluctuating. He believes that taking a short break and engaging in physical activity can help students refocus on the lecture.The study has been recently published in the journal “Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.” Hayes was inspired to conduct this research after a laboratory-based study on how students responded to exercise breaks during a single video lecture. He wondered if this could work in the real world of in-person university lectures over the course of a full semester. He tested it in four of his own classes, implementing one to two student-led exercise sessions lasting five minutes each. It helped him and he believes it can make people more productive.The upper-level psychology courses had 20 to 93 students in each lecture, which lasted 80 minutes. Professor Hayes divided the class into small groups at the beginning of the course. Each group was tasked with creating a five-minute exercise session, which was reviewed by Hayes to ensure safety and feasibility. Hayes explained, “I wanted the students to design and lead the sessions because I thought it would help them buy into the idea, and help with their engagement and investment.” Although he admitted that the sessions were a bit awkward at the beginning of the semester.Students were initially unsure about how to behave, as they were not used to participating in this type of activity during a class. However, they quickly adapted and enjoyed the sessions. Some of the exercises they did included jumping jacks, lunges, overhead press using a backpack, and hamstring stretches. Hayes mentioned that a few groups of students came up with creative themes for their sessions. For example, one group designed a session around the idea of going to an orchard and picking apples. They had their classmates pretend to reach up as if picking apples from a tree and then reach down to put them in a basket.
According to Hayes, he realized the success of the program when students began providing anonymous comments with their end-of-semester evaluations. One student’s comment expressed a common sentiment: “I appreciated the exercise breaks in class and felt that they really helped me to focus more.”
In one of the classes that was part of the study, Hayes administered a survey to the students at the end of the course regarding the exercise sessions. All of the students stated that they had never experienced a class that incorporated exercise breaks during the lecture.
The students rated the exercise breaks as beneficial for improving focus, enjoyable, and enhancing peer interaction.The study found that students preferred classes that included exercise breaks and expressed a desire for more classes to offer these sessions. It remains unclear if these exercise sessions actually enhanced student learning and academic performance. Hayes stated that this was not within the study’s scope and would be challenging to research, given the need for comparisons across different classes, times of day, and teachers. Nonetheless, the study concluded that exercise breaks were manageable and well-received by students, suggesting that they may have value.
Some faculty members at Ohio State University’s psychology department have already begun implementing exercise breaks in their courses, according to Scott Hayes, a researcher at the university.
Hayes stated, “Two colleagues in the psychology department here at Ohio State have told me they have started exercise breaks in their courses. It may be catching on.”
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging.
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