It is estimated that 85 percent of students in school are natural kinaesthetic learners. It has been suggested that these particular learners are not being catered to through traditional teaching practices. There is a growing body of evidence to support the connection between physical movement and increased student academic achievement. This research differs from existing literature as it focuses on teachers’ inclusion of physical movement in everyday classroom learning. The aim of this research was to investigate how and why elementary school teachers incorporate movement into everyday classroom learning. Qualitatively, significant differences were found between how teachers believed they integrated movement into their everyday classroom learning, and how movement can be integrated to benefit student’s engagement and academic achievement. These findings suggest that the integration of movement into everyday classroom learning significantly increases student engagement. Professional development for teachers as well as communities of practice, need to be accessible by teachers in order for them to learn how to integrate movement into their everyday classroom learning and therefore increase their students’ academic achievement as well as engagement in learning.
There is a clear and fundamental gap in the current literature between how teachers should incorporate movement in everyday activity for their students, and how it is incorporated at the classroom level. In recent years, Australian classrooms have made the transition from chalk and talk or teacher-led classrooms, to a constructivist approach where students are encouraged to collaborate and discuss their learning with each other [
Recent research also suggests that learning is enhanced when movement is used as a strategy in the teaching process [
The aim of this research was to investigate the reasons why teachers either incorporate or do not incorporate physical movement into their everyday classroom learning activities, and to look at the strategies they might use if they do incorporate physical movement into their teaching practices. The findings of this investigation will provide future elementary teachers with first hand, authentic insights into the specific reasons and strategies for the incorporation of physical movement in the elementary classroom; assisting elementary school teachers to feel more confident and comfortable integrating these strategies into their classroom in a range of curriculum areas to improve their students’ learning. Teachers do however, need to ensure the strategies they use to incorporate physical movement into the classroom are culturally appropriate to the situation and needs of their students [
A purposeful sampling style was used in this research. A school was purposefully chosen for this research due to ease of access and the location being convenient to the researchers. The school had 10 elementary school teachers; therefore all teachers from this school were invited to participate in an interview. Standard University of Tasmania ethics procedures to conduct research was obtained. Permission was sought by email from the Principal of the school to conduct the research at their school. At a nominated staff meeting the researcher informed teachers of the research and invited them to participate. Those who chose to participate were provided with an information sheet and consent form. The researcher responded to any questions the participants had at the end of the meeting. Participants were then offered a one-on-one interview appointment to discuss the research and to provide their responses to semi-structured interview questions. Participants were informed that they were free to withdraw at any time from the study without providing an explanation and that any data that could be attributed to them would be removed.
Data Collection and AnalysisThe teachers were interviewed and the reasons for including or not including physical movement into their everyday classroom practice recorded; their strategies for doing this were also noted [
Through the use of a semi-structured interview schedule, all questions were given to the participants prior to the interview taking place [
The interviews were recorded using a sound recorder. This was played back afterwards to organise the raw data and a transcript of the interview recording was made. The data was then coded into categories and themes according to the different topics. A thematic analysis was used to investigate the participants’ intrinsic beliefs and to identify and analyse the data. This was then interpreted with conclusions and meanings being drawn from the transcripts. The implications for theory and practice were also selected and analysed [
The results and discussion are presented together. These have been amalgamated to ensure clarity of the findings and to prevent duplication of information. To comply with the ethical guidelines for this research the participant’s names have been omitted and interviewees are referred to as Participant followed by the number, representing the order in which they were interviewed. Six core themes were developed from the responses participants provided to the interview questions. The themes were: use of movement, curriculum, influence of gender, integration, behaviour management and engagement.
A key finding of the research was uncovered in this theme area. This study found that 80 percent of participants believed that they were integrating movement into everyday classroom activities, however, when they described an example of this to the researcher, they described movement being used to give students a break from learning when it is ideally used to engage students in learning. Therefore, movement was being used as a break from learning rather than as a purposeful tool to enhance learning. Eighty percent of participants used movement as a way to manage negative behaviour in their classroom or as a transition between learning activities. Participant 3 is one of these participants and added to this discussion by stating that “we tend to alternate the different activities and have a lot of transition time. So they’re short and sharp, for those reasons”. These teachers are neglecting to involve their students in valuable learning opportunities and in turn, preventing them from achieving the increased academic performance that the students who were actually using movement in their everyday classroom learning were reported to achieve. The two teachers who did accurately integrate purposeful movement into their everyday classroom learning reported increased student engagement as a result of this. From the participants’ responses, it is clear that the majority of teachers are not using purposeful movement for the benefit of their students or their learning. It is the students who are suffering due to teachers the lack of knowledge about the benefits of purposeful movement on student engagement and academic achievement.
The theme of Curriculum determined that English was the curriculum area that was reported as having the highest frequency of integration of movement by participants. Many participants found the use of role play and other drama activities to be effective in communicating different literary texts the students were studying in class. The data from this research demonstrated the attention these primary school teachers are giving to literacy and the use of movement to engage both genders in learning to produce greater academic achievements. This data challenges findings by [
The Influence of gender theme confirmed a general consensus amongst interviewees, which was based on their practical experience, that boys in particular need a lot more physical body movement than girls within the classroom. There was also a belief that the inclusion of physical movement in classrooms does have a positive effect on the engagement as well as the academic performance of boys; and, pedagogies that engage boys will equally engage girls. While some participants believed that boys have a shorter attention span than girls, this was challenged by [
The theme, Integration discussed younger students enjoying the incorporation of movement because of the element of play that it can involve; whereas the upper elementary students did not want to be judged by their peers for actively involving themselves in the movement. It was found that if teachers embed movement into their everyday classroom learning, then students are less likely to recognise this, which was found to be neither a negative or positive aspect.
Behaviour management was seen by participants as a motive for the inclusion of movement into everyday classroom learning. The use of manipulatives was discussed as an effective behaviour management tool for classrooms of a particular context. Reference [
Engagement was the reason most interviewees gave for their use of movement in the classroom. Participants who incorporated movement into their everyday classroom learning reported significant retention of information by their students as well as increased academic performance, which was consistent with the research findings of [
It was concluded that teachers often use movement in their classrooms as a tool for behaviour management or to engage students in learning activities. From the data collected, analysed and discussed, it was clear that elementary school teachers, at least in this specific Independent school, need professional development to understand the opportunities that the inclusion of movement can make in their everyday classroom in terms of students learning and behaviour management strategies. Teachers also need to be given strategies on how to successfully implement movement into varying areas of the curriculum. Kinaesthetic learners need to become a focus for teachers in the 21st century. Deeper research in this area would assist these learners to achieve to the best of their abilities.
Changes need to be made to the educative process of teachers. Teachers need to be given the opportunity to attend professional development conferences such as Rich Allen’s who Participant 2 stated they had attended, to learn strategies for how to incorporate movement into their everyday classroom learning. A community of practice model may be one way that teachers are able to support each other through this process [
A larger study needs to be undertaken with a larger sample size and a broader range of participants from both Independent and Government schools. Although for the purposes of this research, 10 participants was an adequate number to gather valuable insights into the research area, for a definitive study more participants need to be interviewed. The interview questions used in this research should be reflected upon further by the researcher as well as adapted and refined to ask participants more specific as well as broader questions when necessary. By broadening the investigation, other strategies teachers use to incorporate movement may be uncovered.
Emily McGregor,Karen Swabey,Darren Pullen, (2015) How Often Do You Move? Improving Student Learning in the Elementary Classroom through Purposeful Movement. Open Journal of Social Sciences,03,6-10. doi: 10.4236/jss.2015.36002