Contemporary Approaches to Student Wellbeing in Danish and Australian Schools: physical activity and social skilling approaches to promoting student wellbeing.

Author(s):

Sue Whatman(presenting / submitting)Søren Smedegaard(presenting)Katherine Main Wayne Usher

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

08 SES 03 A, School Reforms, Curriculum and Wellbeing

Paper session

Time:

2017-08-22

17:15-18:45

Room:

K3.24

Chair:

Didier Jourdan

Contribution

This paper addresses two specific foci of the Special Call for Network 08: Research on Health Education, including the role that school reform has played in limiting the health and wellbeing education agenda in schools in Denmark and Australia and consequently how health and wellbeing education research has engaged with such reforms in Denmark and Australia. Recently in Denmark, the government initiated the biggest reshaping of primary and lower secondary schools in forty years emphasizing that 45 minutes of exercise and physical activity must be part of the integrated school day at all year levels in order to further the children’s and young persons’ state of health and to support their motivation and learning in all subjects. In the light of the focus on physical activity in schools, not only for health and learning but also for well-being, we launched a comprehensive research project focusing on the benefit of a multi-component physical activity intervention on well-being. This first part of this paper outlines the context, intervention and initial results of the project with a specific focus on the educator's experiences of the implementation of the intervention.

Public schools in Queensland, Australia also implemented a similar initiative in 2008 called “Smart Moves”, whereby students would participate in 30 minutes per day of physical activity during curriculum time. The second part of this paper argues that school reform, specifically the introduction of national testing regimes and State curriculum time mandates, limited school capacity to honour the requirement of daily physical activity and, as a consequence, most schools have backed away from such commitment. With the emphasis on national testing taking its toll on wellbeing and, ironically, increasing student disengagement from learning, the second part of this paper also examines the effectiveness of a recent social skilling intervention in Queensland public schools, in partnership with a local sporting club.

In interpreting students’ perspectives of the impact of the physical activity and wellbeing approaches in public schools, the Danish study draws upon theories of self-efficacy proposed by Ryan and Deci (2000), incorporating the basic needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness into the activity approaches. The analyses of Smart Moves daily physical activity and the Titans Learning Centre social skilling program drew upon Bernstein’s (1990; 1996) theory of pedagogic discourse, specifically the influences upon decision-making in state and pedagogic recontextualisating fields and instructional and regulative discourses in schooling – the pedagogic relay.

Method

For the Move For Well-being in School project, a four-phased intervention – design, pilot, RCT, evaluation - was carried out for the development, implementation and evaluation of the intervention guided by The Medical Research Council [3]framework for the development of complex interventions. 24 schools were randomized and 3124 children enrolled and followed over a period of 9 months targeting 1) physical education lessons, 2) in-class activity, and 3) physical activity in recess for children in 4th to 6th grade (10-13 years). The RE-AIM framework[4] was used for the process evaluation and included assessments at three levels. The main objective of the process evaluation at the beneficiary level is to assess pupils´ experiences with the intervention components. This was assessed through observation, interviews, surveys and class evaluations. At the operational level, fidelity and feasibility of the intervention were assessed via online questionnaires in the beginning, during and after the intervention. This was supplemented with interviews, observations and supervision of educators. At the strategic level, the school managers were interviewed on their role in both leading and managing the intervention. In the Queensland Smart Moves study, the target participant group included six generalist primary classroom teachers from a number of State Schools. Of the six teachers, three were from the lower primary school (Prep–Year 3) and three were from the upper primary school (Year 4–Year 7). The principal method of enquiry involved the collection of qualitative data from all participants via the administration of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Interviews (n=6) were tape recorded and later transcribed for further thematic categorising. In the social and emotional wellbeing study, classroom observations, student work, performance data, student and parent surveys and interviews were employed. Using case study methodology, Productive Pedagogies classroom audits (n = 26) were adapted for classroom observation. Interviews were conducted with stakeholders including players (n = 12), NRL game development staff (n = 1) and teachers and teacher aides (n = 4).

Expected Outcomes

At baseline, 2916 children completed the survey while 2604 children completed at follow-up (response rate 89%). Out of 137 educators, 93 completed the end-survey (response rate 67,9%). About 28% of educators thought that the recess initiatives promoted students school well-being to a high degree and another 50% to some degree. As for the PE teachers, about 12% believed that the project PE lessons to a high degree promoted well-being, but an impressive 78% thought this was the case to some degree. Among the PE teachers, 91% had the experience that PE in either some or to a high degree had strengthened the subject knowledge in PE classes. Finally, 3% answered that these interventions to a high degree have promoted well-being and 72% believed this was true to some extent. Analysis of in-class-activities, recess activities and physical education suggest that educators' self-efficacy is highest on in-class activities, that relevance for well-being is highest for recess and in-class activities. In contrast, institutional support for PA has reversed in Australia – where once State support for daily physical activity has all but disappeared and social and emotional programs are exceptional and novel curiosities rather than institutionally embedded and resourced. The position on physical activity in principle supports that engaging in regular physical activity is part of a healthy and active lifestyle. The Queensland Education department endorses national policies that suggest children should have at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day but ironically implicates HPE curriculum provision as the answer to promoting physical activity guidelines by assisting “students to develop a physical skill base that supports active participation in a range of physical activities” and provide access to equipment and facilities presumably in school hours (DET, 2014). despite HPE curriculum time being insufficient to meet daily physical activity recommendations (Whatman, 2016).

References

Bernstein, B. (1990) The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse, Volume, IV: class, codes and control London: Routledge. Bernstein, B. (1996) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Theory, research, critique. London: Taylor and Francis. Glasgow RE, Vogt TM, Boles SM (1999). Evaluating the public health impact of health promotion interventions: the RE-AIM framework. Am J Public Health, 89(9), 1322-1327. Jørgensen, H. T. (2014). ”Ny viden giver svar, men også anledning til at stille nye spørgsmål”, In: Liv i skolen, nr. 1, 16. Årgang, pp. 29-35. Leow, A., Macdonald, D., Hay, P., & McCuaig, L. (2014). Health-education policy interface: the implementation of the Eat Well Be Active policies in schools. Sport, Education and Society, 19(8), 991-1013. Main, K. & Whatman, S. (2016). Building social and emotional efficacy to (re)engage young adolescents: capitalising on the ‘window of opportunity’. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20:10, 1054-1069. DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2016.1145265 Naylor, P., Nettlefold, L., Race, D., Hoy, C., Ashe, M., Wharf, H. et al. (2015). Implementation of school based physical activity: a systematic review. Preventative Medicine, 72, 95-115. Quennerstedt, M. (2008) Exploring the relation between physical activity and health – a salutogenic approach to physical education. Sport, Education and Society,13(3), 267-283. Ryan R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. Skovgaard T. (2015). Physically active school 2020: New pathways and possibilities. Idrottsforum.org, 2015-03-18. Smedegaard S, Christiansen LB, Lund-Cramer P, Bredahl T, Skovgaard T (2016). Improving the well-being of children and youths: a randomized multicomponent, school-based, physical activity intervention. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1127. Smedegaard, S. (2016). Move for Well-being in Schools: Implementing physical activity in Danish Public Schools. Active & Healthy Magazine, 23:4, 30-35. http://www.achper.org.au/associationnews/volume-23-issue-4-2016-active-healthy-magazine Usher, W., & Anderton, A. (2014). Giving the teacher a voice: perceptions regarding the barriers and enablers associated with the implementation of Smart Moves (compulsory physical activity) within primary state schools. Cogent Education, 1(1), Whatman, S. (2016). A commentary on physical activity in Australian schools. MOV:E Børn og unge I bevaelgelse og leaering, Nr 4, 26-33. http://www.epaper.dk/jtoas/syddansk/4/ Whatman, S. & Main, K. (2016). Re-engaging ‘youth at risk’ of disengaging from schooling through rugby league club partnership: unpacking the pedagogic practices of the Titans Learning Centre. Sport, Education and Society, 1-15 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2016.1184135

Author Information

Sue Whatman (presenting / submitting)

Griffith University

Søren Smedegaard (presenting)

SDU/FIIBL

Odense NV

Katherine Main

Griffith University

Wayne Usher

Griffith University

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