Xu Shan

Abstract：The research that was conducted contained 40 participants to determine whether or not physical activity has an effect on students academic achievement， especially towards reading comprehension. Our participants were from three different second grade classes， totaling 85 students. We randomized the participants and picked 20 for the dependent group and 20 for the independent group. The remaining 45 students were used so that those who were actively participating， were not singled out and had a constant atmosphere. Twenty students were given exercises that stimulate their physical activity， while the other twenty were being tested inside with their peers. Every student had a short story read to them and then had to answer nine questions. Our results concluded that physical activity did not make much of a difference in childrens reading comprehension. We analyzed the data by calculating the mean， median， mode， standard deviation and the t-test from the 40 students we received data from. In conclusion， the physical activity that students participated in did not have much of a significant difference in the childrens reading comprehension.

Key words： physical activity， non-physical activity， reading comprehension， recess

Introduction

The immediate effects of moderate to vigorous physical activity have been well documented through many previous studies. The effect of exercise that is most prominent and has been validated through personal experience of many people is the regulation of mood that occurs moments after physical activity is over. Scientific research has proved neurotransmitters such as serotonin， dopamine and endorphins are released when physical exertion takes place in the body. Other operations that are affected by physical activity is the development of new blood vessels， growth of nervous tissue and improved connectivity in the brain （Thomas， Dennis， Bandettini， & Johansen-Berg， 2012）. The goal of our research team is to have a better understanding， if there are any， of the immediate recall and comprehension of young students.

Our team had analyzed studies from previous researchers who were interested in similar topic areas. The research we examined studied students at a different various grade levels. The youngest students were aged 9-11 from an Australian study. Another study was done with fifth grade students from Norway. And a study done of Dutch adolescents consisted students of the grade level 7-9. The different ages of the participants with in the groups produced various results in the studies and therefore suggests that physical activity may only be beneficial to students of a certain age.

From the Netherlands study， in grade 9 students both physical activity and moderate-vigorous physical activity was positively associated with mathematics performance. Whereas physical activity in grade 7 students was negatively associated with academic achievement； from just one study the results are already contrastive. The fifth grade students study from Norway found no effect from the intervention on academic performance their analyses. However an analyses of a sub group revealed a positive intervention effect for those students who performed the poorest at the baseline. The results of the study from Australia produced higher academic performance related to higher MVPA in two of the five academic domains that were tested， writing and numeracy. Another important finding from Australia study is that higher academic performance was more consistently strong related to a higher sedentary time. This discovery is important because it has produced the researchers with information that may be more beneficial to students academic performance than physical activity.

We researched whether or not physical activity had any benefits for students reading comprehension. We gave our participants a short story and 9 questions to test their cognitive skills and comprehension and to see if physical activity helps students focus more in class and whether or not their memories improved. We were interested in the stimulation of the childs brain by physical activity and the effects it has in academia. We believe that physical activity can help children focus in class and have a positive effect on reading comprehension. Children will be able to process and recall text and understand what they are reading at an increased level after participating in physical activity.

Methods

Participants

Participants for this study were recruited from a local public elementary school in Sacramento and 85 students took part in this research study， 29 students from class A， 29 students from class B and 27 students from class C. All of the 85 students were divided into two groups. One group was the test subjects； in this group， students were required to take part in the physical activity after their recess time， and then they took a reading comprehension test after their physical activity. Another group was the control group， in this group， students had their reading comprehension test after their recess time without physical activity.

Participants include in this analysis were 40 randomly-selected students in the 2nd grade （aged from 7 to 8） from classes A， B and C from Olive Grove Elementary School. In addition， 20 students from the test group， which included physical activity. 20 students from the control group， which included non physical activity. In this study， researchers did randomly selected 20 students scores from non - physical activity group to match the number of students in physical activity group.

Materials

Physical activity was measured by a running games in basketball playground and a cooling - down exercise in classroom. Reading comprehension test including a 200 words reading named A Play – “The Chief and the Thief” and 8 questions in it. There are different points in eight different comprehension questions， 20 points in total. In the melta- analysis part， this study analyzed the statistic by using mean， median， mode， standard deviation and T-test scores.

Procedures

Each participant was assigned a unique number to be randomly selected. In physical activity group， 20 randomly selected students from class A， B， C participated in the physical activity. Two researchers guide them to the basketball playground to take a running group games， which spent on 10 minutes. Then， they walk back to the classroom to get the cooling down relaxation. The whole process of physical activity and cooling down relaxation took 15 minutes. Lastly， the physical activity group continue their reading comprehension test after their physical activity. Meanwhile， there are 29 students in class A and other 36 students in class B did their reading comprehension test after recess time without any physical activity. After reading comprehension test， the researcher did randomly selected 20 of scores from non - physical activity group and graded these 20 students test scores and other 20 students from physical activity group.

Results

Participants scores of reading comprehension in the activity group and the non-activity group are shown on Table 1. According to this study， the results shown from analysis of statistics are different from our hypothesis which researchers supported at the beginning of this study. In the beginning， researchers stressed that doing physical activity is beneficial for elementary school students to enhance their reading comprehension ability after their recess time. During this research， 85 （N=85）second graders participated in the reading comprehension test， 20 of them had physical activities before taking reading comprehension test， but 65 students did not take any physical activity， these student took their reading comprehension test directly after their recess time. In this study， researchers randomly selected 20 students scores from the non-physical activity group to match the number of students in the physical activity group. Table 1 provides the reading comprehension test scores that students got from two groups.

Table 2 represents the analysis of statistics of reading comprehension test for 20 participants in the physical activity group and 20 participants in the non - physical activity group. The mean of scores in the physical activity group was 17.1 （n=20）， 1.25 less than the control group without physical activity. In addition， the median of physical activity was 18 and group without physical activity got 19.5 points. Then， there are 19 points and 20 points of the mode part in the physical activity and the non - physical activity. It can be seen that all of mean， median and mode in the physical activity group are lower than non- physical activity group. It can be seen from table.1，the data ordered from the low to high， it is clear to see the variance in two group. The test score in physical activity group vary from 5 to 20， and test score in group without activity are range from 10 to 20. The physical activity group has a high variability than non - physical activity group. There is no doubt that the lowest score influenced the results of the physical activity group from meta - analysis. Standard Deviation scores shows that the non-physical activity group has a low standard deviation indicates that the scores tend to be close to the mean of the set， while a high standard deviation in the physical activity group indicates that the scores are spread out over a wider range of values. T-test score shows on Table 2， the result would likely be statistically significant even if the difference between two group was only 0.14701329. Overall， the statistics shows that doing physical activity before class did not make a contribution for students to enhance their reading comprehension ability after their recess time.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to show the effects of what exercise has on children. Our research has found that there may be positive effects associated with physical activity， however our findings did not find much evidence to distinguish a difference. We chose our participants from a local elementary school and administered the test to all of the students from the 2nd grade so that we did not show special treatment to our control group. By administering the comprehension test to each individual， we are able to maintain the environment they are already familiar with. Separating who we administer the test to would disrupt the nature of the atmosphere and may even alter the way the way students react and answer the questions on the test. There were three subgroups three groups； Group A， Group B， and Group C. Group As comprehension test was administered after a physical activity by one of the researchers. Group Bs comprehension test was administered without a physical activity by their researcher. Group Cs comprehension test was administered without any physical activity by their researcher. Both Group A and Group Bs researchers read aloud the story to their participants before conducting the test while Group Cs participants allowed the teacher to read aloud the story and conduct the test.

A limitation in our study is that by having our participants engage in vigorous exercise before the cool down activity. This limitation is noted due to the context of disruption the nature of a typical school day for the student. Not all children may engage in such rigorous exercise before classroom activity and this may have skewed our findings. Future research may address this limitation and just engage a cool-down activity after recess and prior to reading aloud the story and administering the test.

Some of the classrooms were mixed together from other students who had a different teacher. This resulted to some classrooms finishing before others because the teachers werent used to having certain students in their regular class. This also caused some participants that were mixed in other classrooms to be confused as to what was happening because they werent going back to their regular classroom after recess. In Group C there was a participant that needed help with translating the story and the test in their language. Another classmate was able to help with the process without trying to give away answers.

The finding of this study showed that students who participate in a physical activity do not affect their test scores on a comprehension test. The students that didnt participate in a physical activity scored a bit higher if not about the same. The results of this study showed that the hypothesis from the researchers were similar to the results. The amount of physical activity Group A participated in didnt affect their scores from those who didnt have extra time outside the classroom. Researchers made sure each sample size of participants were divided out equally so that they would be interacting with the same amount of participants. The results helped researchers determine whether extra physical activities in a 2nd grade class would increase or decrease test scores on a comprehension test. Researchers believe that doing this activity in different schools would have different results， if not the about the same results.

Evaluation

As mentioned in the discussion， one of our limitations in this study was the fact that we disturb the students regular routine. Which may have weighted heavily on the results. Many of these children may have not been used to doing the exercise activity after recess and may have ended up being even more energetic than before. Or the fact that they were not given prior information or told ahead of time that there would be a change in their routine may have also affected the response of the students. Another limitation that could have also been a factor is that the activities were directed by the researchers and not the students teachers. The researchers were completely strangers to the students and it could have influenced way they responded to the study. Lastly the last limitation in our study is that each test was conducted by different researchers in different classrooms. Each researcher had a unique and different way in how they read and answered students questions. The way the passage was read can influence how much information a student can retrain. The way the researcher answered students questions when stuck in a question about the passage can also influence the results. Such as if a student does not understand a word in the question the researcher could have either try and explain the meaning of told them to try their best or go back in the story o find a clue.

Our strengths in our study included reading the passage out loud to the students before having the students move on to answer the questions. This strategy helped the study avoid the variable of having english language learners not understand the story or take too long to complete reading the story. Another strength in our study was having each child follow along while the researcher read the story out loud. Another factor that way really important was that the students did not have a time restrictment to finish the assessment test and they were able to take their time a answer questions as best as the could and all three second grade classes took the test so there was no signalling out students.

Conclusion

In the beginning of our study we believed that by having students participate in an exercise activity and cooling down activity after recess would allow them to perform better in a comprehension test. The study was conducted as a random sample using second grade participants. We randomly selected two groups of 20 students among 85 second graders. The control group of 20 second graders were given the comprehension test right after recess. While the test group of 20 second graders were given exercise activities that included two rounds of a relay race in the basketball court and a cooling down activity before taking the comprehension test. Our results show that there was no significant difference between the two groups. As a matter of fact， the test group had some of the lowest scores compared to the control group. If this study where to be repeated one of the main things to keep in mind would be to have a larger test sample as well as implementing more of a relaxing activity to help students focus or a more structured physical activity.

References

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[2]Maher， C.， Lewis， L.， Katzmarzyk， P.， Dumuid， D.， Cassidy ， L.， & Olds， T. （2016）. The associations between physical activity， sedentary behaviour and academic performance. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport， ， 1004-1009 doi：http：//dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. jsams.2016.02.010

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作者簡介：徐杉，女，河南省开封市人，出生于1997年3月21日，2015年考入河南大学，于2017年赴美国深造交换学习，目前在美国加州州立大学攻读儿童发展专业学士学位。