The Future of Education

Regular physical activity provides physical, social and psychological benefits for children. Physical activity also plays an important role in children’s learning, being positively associated with cognitive skills (e.g., executive functioning, attention, memory, comprehension), attitude (e.g., motivation, self-concept, satisfaction and enjoyment), academic behaviour (e.g., organisation), engagement in learning (e.g., on-task time), and academic achievement [1]. However, globally, only 20% of children meet the recommended levels of 60 minutes of physical activity per day and, on average, school students sit for three-quarters of the school day [2]. TransformUs is a whole-of-school education and health programme with 15 years of research evidence. The program provides schools with evidence-based resources to support all students to be more active, more engaged in their learning, and improve their educational outcomes [1]. The TransformUs initiative includes ‘Active Classrooms’, ‘Active Environments’ and ‘Active Homes’ components. ‘Active Classrooms’ involves Active Academic lessons and Active Breaks. Active Breaks have consistently been shown to have positive and significant effects on students’ health, wellbeing, and academic outcomes. Although effective in the short term, there are a multitude of barriers to the sustained implementation of Active Breaks by teachers. When active breaks are seen as being separate from learning and teaching, when they interrupt the learning, and where students stand to be active and sit to learn, these barriers hold true. To address this, TransformUs has reconceptualized the purpose and use of Active Breaks to create sustainable change in teaching practices. This paper presents the TransformUs Active Break (TAB) model, which positions active breaks in an integrated approach to effective teaching that also aligns with a proactive classroom management approach. The TAB model comprises five types of active breaks – structure, transition, manage, energise, and learn – and demonstrates how each can be integrated meaningfully into lessons to enhance teaching and learning. Here, we describe how the TAB model may increase engaged learning behaviours and reduce disengaged and disruptive behaviours and facilitate effective classroom management [3].