RUNNING HEAD: Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom:

Examining the effects on focus and disruptive behaviours

Jesse Costello
ETEC 500

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

Table of Contents
Introduction .. 3
Research Problem . 3
Rationale for the Study . 3
Research Questions .. 4
Review of Literature ..

Benefits of Exercise . 5
Benefits of Relaxation .. 6
Methodology .... 7
Limitations of the Study ... 9
References ... 10

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

3
Introduction

Research Problem
Classrooms are complex environments with many variables affecting how smoothly the
group will work together. As a classroom teacher I have found that a lot of my energy is focused
upon how I can best improve the classroom environment in order to achieve my goals of
increased student engagement and decreased disruptions. Changing the classroom environment
can have a positive impact on student learning (Ratcliff, Jones, Costner, Savage-Davis, & Hunt,
2010; Guardino & Fullerton, 2010). I have found that for my teaching style, two techniques have
had the greatest positive impact on my classroom environment. Frequent physical exercise and
relaxation techniques both play an important role in keeping my students in the learning zone. By
this I mean that the students minds are focused on the task at hand and they are not too tired and
not too mentally active. When the majority of the class is in this mental state I have found the
classroom environment is focused, quiet, and distraction free. The problem that I find is that for a
variety of reasons many students struggle to get themselves into this optimal mental state. Many
students come to school too tired to focus, while others lack self-control and are often disruptive
and off task. My research problem is to find out how effective exercise and relaxation are at
keeping my students in an optimal mental and physical state for learning, thus creating a positive
and therefore more effective classroom environment.
Rationale for the Study
In my personal teaching experience it appears that an increasing number of students are
entering schools not ready to learn. Gilliam (2005) found that due to increasing life stresses
many students are unprepared to learn or behave properly. Students are frequently facing a wide
range of social, learning, behavioral, and physical barriers that interfere with their ability to fully
participate and benefit from instruction (Adelman & Taylor, 2006). I have found that not ready to
learn students are a common concern in the staff room at many schools that I have taught at.
There are many programs and strategies being promoted, including but not limited to: MindUp,
Zones of Regulation, Daily Physical Activity, and Second Step. Each teacher will need to find
out what program or strategy suits then best. I have decided that it is not good enough to simply
follow my hunches, instead I want to empirically examine the advantages of the different
techniques I use with my class.
My first interest is the implementation of relaxation techniques. There is the potential
through relaxation, to positively change the classroom environment, while also increasing the
time that students can focus on their studies (Norlander, Moas, & Archer, 2005). Relaxation can
also lead to increased executive functioning which correlates to heightened self-regulation
abilities (Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010). The school that I presently teach at is located right
downtown, in a very population dense area, with virtually all of the students living in apartment
buildings surrounded by people, bright lights, sirens, and other distractions found in cities. This
leads me to believe that many students dont have the opportunity for quiet that students in more

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

rural environments may have, and therefore implementing relaxation techniques can help to calm
highly stimulated minds. I base my relaxation techniques loosely on the MindUP program of
which I have some experience with.
The second method that I am interested in studying is regular short and vigorous exercise.
Mulrine, Prater, & Jenkins (2008) found that regular exercise can help students focus longer,
especially those with attention disorders. Again due to the location of my school, I have found
that most students dont have the opportunity to independently roam neighborhoods to play,
explore, and get the daily exercise necessary for healthy development. I believe that including
some daily physical activity during school hours can help play a small role in filling in this
missing piece of students lives. I realize that my structured activities wont be able to replace
unstructured free play, but I hope it can be beneficial for my students. It is my personal belief
that it is the lack of free play, largely replaced by a variety of screen time, which is leading to
many students struggling to focus during class time.
This leads me to an interesting problem, exercise and relaxation are essentially opposite
activities. How does an educator choose between them? Which is more effective given the
desired purpose of increasing focus, decreasing negative behaviours, and ultimately improving
the classroom environment. Furthermore, is there a time during the day that one method would
be preferable to the other? I have found that there is comprehensive research that applies to
exercise and limited research regarding relaxation, but not any studies that directly compare the
two different methods, each purported to help students focus and learn more effectively.
Research Questions
This qualitative research study will explore a small facet of how to effectively increase
student engagement and reduce distractive behaviours. Specifically, how does daily physical
exercise compare to daily relaxation time for intermediate elementary students? The research
conducted will attempt to answer the following questions.
1. To what extent does daily exercise help students to maintain their focus for a longer
period time?
2. To what extent does daily relaxation help students to maintain their focus for a longer
period time?
3. Which practice has a greater impact on distractive student behaviours?
4. What will be the impact of either practice on the overall classroom environment?
The main purpose of this study is to help me and hopefully other educators decide when
to choose exercise versus choosing relaxation time in order to improve the classroom learning
environment.

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

For the purpose of this study, daily exercise will refer to a variety to quick intense
activities, such as running for two laps of the field, dancing for 5-10 minutes, or participating in a
tag game. The aim of all the activities to increase the heart rate and thus blood flow in order to
increase the alertness of the students. The exercise can also be used as a break between lessons
that involve a lot of sitting and/or listening and are pushing the attention limits of the class.
Daily relaxation refers to a focused listening activity loosely based on the MindUP
curriculum. This teacher led activity requires the whole to remain quiet and keep their eyes
closed or covered, the teacher will then ring a chime while softly reminding the class to focus on
the chime and their breathing. Once the ringing has ceased the students slowly open their eyes
and remain quiet as the whole class moves into the next activity. The whole process takes
roughly five minutes. This would be done 2-3 times throughout an average day.
Distractive student behaviours refers specifically to off-task behaviour that appears to be
designed to gain attention from peers. Examples would include interrupting lessons, off-task
conversations, call-outs, needlessly leaving desks, among other behaviours. Basically, any
unexpected behaviours that causes peers to lose focus will be counted as distractive behaviours.
Review of Literature
This literature reviews aim is to support the use of both exercise and relaxation in order
to help to improve the overall classroom environment while also helping to improve students
ability to focus for greater periods of time. There are numerous studies demonstrating the many
benefits of exercise and limited studies on the use of relaxation methods in the classroom.
Benefits of Exercise
Increasing the amount of exercise a person does has been shown to have numerous
benefits beyond those found in the classroom. Overall, participants who participate in frequent
physical activity have more favorable health, no matter their prior physical conditions.
Furthermore, beyond greater health, those who regularly exercise also have a better general
quality of life, better mood states, and better mental functional capacity (Penedo & Dahn, 2005).
Therefore, increasing exercise generally creates an overall better life for participants, especially
those who had limited amounts of prior exercise. There is a growing consensus in the literature
that supports the improvements in the quality of life and improved health of people who
participate in regular physical exercise.
Along with the health improvements that result from regular exercise, regular exercise
can also help to positively modify the classroom environment by decreasing negative behaviours
(Bass, 1985; Allen 1980). Regular running or jogging was able to help all students, especially for
those with ADHD, have greater muscle control while also increasing their attention span, thus
allowing them to participate more effectively in class. Running can be an effective treatment for
childrens behaviour difficulties. While these studies are dated, they were selected because they

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

specifically address how exercise can positively affect the classroom environment by reducing
unwanted behaviours. Mulrine, et al. (2008) found that increasing activity helped students focus
their attention on instruction more effectively. This leads to greater understanding of lessons
while also reducing undesired behaviours. They found that the results were significant for all
students, although the results are even more effective for students with ADHD. This is especially
important because students with ADHD face greater challenges in the classroom and may
sometimes engage in distractive behaviours once their focus is lost. So any improvements for
these students will not only help them academically, but may also lead to an improvement in the
overall classroom environment, which will help everyone in the class. There is a growing body
of evidence that exercise will help those with ADHD focus longer, help their executive
functioning, while also providing general overall health benefits.
Tomporowski, Davis, Miller, & Naglieri, (2008) found that exercise can play a role in
improving students intelligence, cognition, and overall academic outcomes. They suggest that
exercise will play a role in facilitating childrens executive functioning. Meaning that students
will see improvements in their ability to follow multi-step directions or other tasks that require
them to hold ideas in their short term memory in order to complete a task. In a classroom this
could be seen when the class transitions from a lesson in one part of the class, moving to another
to work, and then beginning to work on an assignment that involves material from the lesson just
taught. Tomporowski et al. (2008) suggest that exercise is a simple, yet important, way to help
students enhance one aspect of students mental functioning which is important to their overall
cognitive development.
Overall, it appears that aside from the time it takes to complete daily physical activity,
which will reduce the time available for other academic goals, there are many physical,
emotional, and mental benefits to incorporating frequent exercise in your daily plan. It appears
that frequent exercise will lead to a healthy and happy class that is ready and able to learn.
Benefits of Relaxation
Compared to the available literature on the benefits of exercise, there is much less
research regarding the effects of using relaxation techniques in the classroom. From my own
personal experience, I have found that relaxation time is very effective in quickly moving an
overexcited room into one that is calm, focused, and ready to learn. In my experience, relaxation
can help to foster a positive classroom environment. As the relaxation techniques I will be
studying are generally based on the MindUP program, I have narrowed my search to studies that
specifically look at MindUP or its core tenant Mindfulness. Overall, it seems that the enthusiasm
for MindUP and other types of Mindfulness currently exceeds the evidence for it. More quality
studies are needed to support the bold claims made by backers of the MindUP program.
However, current findings are positive and certainly warrant further study.
Studies on Mindfulness the core aspect of the MindUP program demonstrate that there
is wide range of cognitive, social, and psychological benefits to students of all ages (Meiklejohn

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

et al., 2012). Specifically, they have found that students demonstrated improvements in working
memory, attention, academic skills, social skills, emotional regulation, and self-esteem.
Furthermore, students self-reported improvements in mood, decreases in anxiety, decrease in
stress, and feeling less fatigued. A critique of these findings is that they are gathered from a
variety of studies and the authors dont provide the data or the methodologies that supports the
results that they claim. Furthermore, as this source is a book that encourages using MindUP, it is
therefore not peer reviewed and may be less reliable than an academic journal. However, if even
some of what they claim is true, there may be a lot of benefits to practicing relaxation in the
classroom. I personally think that using relaxation may be extra important for students in urban
settings, as well as for students who have challenging home lives, and therefore dont have the
opportunity to truly relax at home.
Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor (2010) examined the effects of Mindfulness on students
social and emotional competence. They found that students who participated in the program had
higher self-concepts, improved teacher rated social competent behaviours, and greater levels of
optimism. The authors relied on self-reporting and teacher reports for their data so the results
may be less reliable as participants may have answered inaccurately.
Flook et al. (2010) found that practicing Mindfulness helped to increase executive
functioning in students. Furthermore, those who started out with poor executive functioning
showed the most gains, improving behavioural regulation, metacognition, and overall global
executive control. Both teachers and parents reported seeing improvements in the childrens
behavioural regulation. This supports my goal of decreasing disruptive behaviour through the use
of relaxation techniques in the classroom.
Overall there is significant support for the many benefits of regular physical exercise.
While there currently is less evidence about the benefits of MindUP, further research is needed to
confirm the early positive findings. Both practices appear to help increase student focus, improve
executive functioning, while also decreasing unwanted behaviours. After looking at the literature,
comparing the effectiveness of exercise to relaxation techniques is warranted.
Methodology
As the goal of my study is to examine what techniques work best for me and my class, I
am planning a qualitative study that includes some statistical analysis of my data in order to find
out if relaxation methods or exercise have a greater effect on my students ability to stay focused
on their work and also to avoid disruptive behaviours.
My study will begin in October once my class has had some time to gel together. This
will allow me to begin my study with observations for the first two weeks in order to create
baseline data to compare to. Next, I will then practice relaxation daily for one month, with
relaxation practices following recess and again following the lunch break. I will also use
relaxation to calm the class if it feels to me like they are too off-task or energetic to focus.
Finally, I will begin regular exercise, at least once a day, for the following month. Observations

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

and data collection will continue daily for the entire duration of the study. For the months studied
I will exclusively be either using relaxation or exercise, aside from regularly scheduled physical
education blocks.
The participants for this study will be my entire grade 4-5 classroom. I have chosen to
examine my own class because my goal is to improve my teaching practice, as opposed to
creating findings that are generalizable to the greater student population. I also believe that my
students are a good group to study because my school is located right in a major urban city. This
leads me to believe that many of my students will have less opportunity for both relaxation and
exercise than some other cohorts of students. This is my personal hypothesis and is supported by
informal discussions with parents and students. There will be a very little risk for the participants
in the study and I dont foresee any ethical concerns. I will be examining overall classroom
changes, as opposed to recording changes in individual students. I may record thoughts of how
the changes have affected individual students in my daily reflections, however the students will
not be identified in any reporting of findings.
The setting for the study will be in my classroom during normal school hours. During
some of the exercise periods, we will be heading out of the classroom to the local field or
sometimes running along the Seawall. Relaxation will happen either at students desks or at the
carpet area, determined by where the following lesson will occur.
There are very limited materials needed as I will be simply tallying disruptions in my day
planner. I will be tallying my findings into three sections, morning-recess, recess-lunch, and
lunch-end of the day. This will allow me to compare the focus/disruption levels at different times
of the day, along with blocks of time that directly follow relaxation/exercise with those that
didnt. I will also complete a journal where I will record my field notes. I will also record how
long the class remains focused until the first disruption, along with the total number of
disruptions.
My role will be to facilitate the relaxation or exercise daily, regularly teach my class, keep a
tally of undesired behaviours, length of uninterrupted focused work, and record my daily
reflections in my journal.
I will have two main sources of data, a record of the daily disruptions, and my daily
reflections. I will be able to statistically analyze the quantitative data to determine if changes
were statistically significant or else within the expectations of random sampling. Specifically, I
will perform t-tests to determine if there was a statistically significant effect for the treatments I
will have given my students. I will be able to compare both exercise and relaxation to my
baseline and to each other to see which method was the most effective. I will also be able to
analyze different times of the day. Perhaps what works best in the afternoon will be different
from what works best in the morning. I predict that keeping this data will be very illuminating
regarding what really occurs in the class with my internal beliefs about how my class behaves. If
possible, it might be helpful to record the class, and compare the video data with my tally and
field notes in order to check the reliability of my data.
Table 1

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

Study Design
Research Question

Data Source

Analysis

To what extent does daily

exercise help students to
maintain their focus for a
longer period time?
To what extent does daily
relaxation help students to
maintain their focus for a
longer period time?

Teacher tally of
disruptions / Field
Notes

T-Test / Content
Analysis

Teacher tally of
disruptions / Field
Notes

T-Test / Content
Analysis

Which practice has a greater

impact on distractive student
behaviours?

Teacher tally of
disruptions / Field
Notes

T-Test / Content
Analysis

What will be the impact of

either practice on the overall
classroom environment?

Field Notes

Content Analysis

The major significance of this study is that I will have a much greater understanding of
my class and works best for them. I will be able to plan my days in a way that is conducive to an
effective and calm classroom environment. If I find that neither treatment has a significant effect,
than I will be able to explore new methods that can help my students improve their focus and
help them move into a ready to learn state of mind.
I predict that regular exercise will slightly reduce the overall number of disruptions, while
also improving the overall classroom environment. I think that the effects will last longer than
the effects of relaxation. I think that relaxation practice will improve the length of time that
students will be able to focus and will greatly affect the classroom environment, however, I
expect the results to be shorter lived than exercise. I think that both treatments will be
statistically significant, however, I expect that changes will be small to moderate.
Limitations of the Study
The first problem that I see is that I will be studying my own students in my own
classroom. Therefore, it is likely that I will have developed biases about my overall class and my
students. Also, I am looking to find ways to effectively improve my classroom environment, so I
may unconsciously record results that support my prediction. I will also likely have biases about
certain students and their behaviours. Also, as this study will take months to complete, other
changes could skew the results, such as students being added or removed from the class, or other
external factors, such as changes to support workers, or potentially adding a student teacher.

Exercise and Relaxation in the Classroom

10

Secondly, I will be studying a relatively small group of roughly thirty students. This
particular cohort of students may not be representative of other classes I will teach in the future,
or other classes in the city, so my results may only apply to this particular group. While it is
possible that my findings could be helpful for other educators, it is unlikely that my small sample
will be generalizable to student populations as a whole. However, my findings may inspire future
research into this topic.
Finally, another problem I predict is that students and classrooms are not a constant
environment. Perhaps other changes in the way that I or my students interact with each other
will have caused changes in the number of disruptions or the ability to focus. Specifically, since I
will be applying the different treatments sequentially, perhaps the affects from the first treatment
will be carried over into the second, skewing the results. Also, I am planning to begin the study
early in the year, so it is possible that the students may improve their behaviours as we simply
learn how to effectively work together throughout the year, as opposed to changes resulting from
exercise or relaxation techniques.
References
Adelman, H. S., & Taylor, L. (Eds.). (2006). The school leader's guide to student learning
supports: New directions for addressing barriers to learning. Corwin Press.
Allen, J. I. (1980). Jogging Can Modify Disruptive Behaviors. Teaching Exceptional Children,
12(2), 66-70.
Bass, C. K. (1985). Running can modify classroom behavior. Journal of Learning Disabilities,
18(3), 160-161.
Flook, L., Smalley, S. L., Kitil, M. J., Galla, B. M., Kaiser-Greenland, S., Locke, J., ... & Kasari,
C. (2010). Effects of mindful awareness practices on executive functions in elementary
school children. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 26(1), 70-95.
Gilliam, W. S. (2005). Prekindergarteners left behind: Expulsion rates in state prekindergarten
systems. New York, NY: Foundation for Child Development.
Guardino, C. A., & Fullerton, E. (2010). Changing Behaviors by Changing the Classroom
Environment. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 42(6), 8-13.
Meiklejohn, J., Phillips, C., Freedman, M. L., Griffin, M. L., Biegel, G., Roach, A., ... &
Saltzman, A. (2012). Integrating mindfulness training into K-12 education: Fostering the
resilience of teachers and students. Mindfulness, 3(4), 291-307.
Mulrine, C. F., Prater, M., & Jenkins, A. (2008). The Active Classroom: Supporting Students
with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder through Exercise. TEACHING Exceptional
Children, 40(5), 16-22.

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Norlander, T., Moas, L., & Archer, T. (2005). Noise and Stress in Primary and Secondary School
Children: Noise Reduction and Increased Concentration Ability through a Short but
Regular Exercise and Relaxation Program. School Effectiveness and School Improvement,
16(1), 91-99.
Penedo, F. J., & Dahn, J. R. (2005). Exercise and well-being: a review of mental and physical
health benefits associated with physical activity. Current opinion in psychiatry, 18(2),
189-193.
Ratcliff, N. J., Jones, C. R., Costner, R. H., Savage-Davis, E., & Hunt, G. H. (2010). The
Elephant in the Classroom: The Impact of Misbehavior on Classroom Climate.
Education, 131(2), 306-314.
Schonert-Reichl, K. A., & Lawlor, M. S. (2010). The effects of a mindfulness-based education
program on pre-and early adolescents well-being and social and emotional competence.
Mindfulness, 1(3), 137-151.
Tomporowski, P. D., Davis, C. L., Miller, P. H., & Naglieri, J. A. (2008). Exercise and childrens
intelligence, cognition, and academic achievement. Educational Psychology Review,
20(2), 111-131.