Children need movement for a healthy and quality development. They need to engage in 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day for better psychological well-being, self-esteem, physical health, lower body fat percentage, improved cognitive skills, higher academic achievements, better social skills etc. Most schools encourage sedentary lifestyles, leading to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, high blood pressure and the development of mental disorders. Given that pupils spend a third or even half of their waking hours at school and on their way to/from school, it makes sense to introduce more physical activity into the school system. This can be done by including active transport, active breaks, health minutes, relaxation phases, active homework, active dynamic sitting, etc. There are already active schools around the world whose aim is to integrate physical activity into the classroom and other extra-curricular activities and to produce positive, healthy lifestyle habits. The successful implementation of movement-oriented education requires collaboration between school staff, head teachers, the Ministry of Education, municipalities, and parents/guardians. We were interested in Slovenian teachers' use of active or movement-oriented teaching, so the empirical work focused on investigating differences between schools, that don’t encourage physical activity and those that encourage physical activity. We focused on the differences in the amount and intensity of physical (in)activity during class and recess, the number of steps taken, differences in physical activity during recess and lessons, differences in teachers' physical activity, differences in pupils' attention and well-being. We used a combination of qualitative methods (observation) and quantitative methods (survey and accelerometers). 180 pupils attending grades 3, 4 and 5 and 9 of their teachers participated in the study. The results showed that students in the experimental group were active 10.8% of the time and sedentary 89.2% of the time, while students in the control group were active 1.3% of the time and sedentary 98.7% of the time, that the experimental group took 2494 steps and the control group 251.7 steps, that the students in both groups were more active during recess but that the control group students were moderately active for a longer period of time during recess, that the experimental group students were attentive for longer periods of time and in a better mood, and that there were no statistically significant differences between the physical activity of teachers in the two groups.
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