Sedentarity is a big problem of current society. People are moving less and less, and they are spending more and more time in a sitting position because the nature of work is changing. Due to more and more work with technology, people have to spend more time sitting. This is why it is important to get children used to the importance of movement from an early age. Because children spend much of their time in school, it is important that the school also promotes an active lifestyle. Teachers should try to make the lessons as varied as possible so that students spend as little time as possible in a sitting position, they are active builders of their knowledge, and activities should be as varied as possible. Classes should include minutes for health, and students should also have active breaks. Despite the encouragement of such a way of teaching, it is clear that students still need to spend some time at the table in a sitting position. This is a problem for many students, as they need constant physical activity, which passive sitting does not allow. Therefore, teachers can achieve in various ways that students are physically active even while sitting and it is easier to follow the lessons, while not disturbing them. Namely, they can offer students various aids, such as a tennis ball, with which students can play quietly, passing it from hand to hand; an elastic that is taut between the legs of the chair and on which, as a result, students can place their legs and tense and relax them; a seat pad that ensures that students do not have a completely stable sitting position and must therefore be active; a gymnastic ball, which also does not in itself offer stable sitting and students must therefore be active. We also know the ergonomic table, which is adjustable in height and thus allows the student to do the work in a sitting, semi-sitting or standing position. With quantitative research, we therefore tried to determine how widespread the use of various devices for active sitting is.
The sample included 71 primary school teachers from Slovenian primary schools. Data were obtained through a questionnaire. For data processing we used the methods of basic statistics (calculation of frequencies, percentages) ANOVA, Brown-Forsythe test and Games-Howell test. I used the ANOVA, Brown-Forsythe test, and the Games-Howell test to identify differences in the ability to use active sitting aids among teachers at different periods of their working lives.
The results show that the share of teachers who offer the possibility of using active sitting aids is quite low (42%). These teachers most often offer their students a sitting cushion, a gymnastic ball, and an elastic band that is taut on the legs of the chair. However, these teachers are also aware of how important it is to offer this opportunity to students often. As many as 70% of them offer their students the opportunity to use aids every lesson or up to three times a week, and all of these teachers also offer the opportunity to use aids for active sitting to all students.
Research has shown that it is important to make classroom teachers aware of the importance of students' physical activity even while sitting. However, many teachers (54%) stated that they do not offer this option because such aids are more difficult to afford. From this we can conclude that it is important that schools and the state also approach the needs of students.
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