The link between enhanced cognitive performance and physical activity is thoroughly studied by scholars. While Blakemore (2003) examines this issue mainly from the perspective of neurological mechanisms and the formation of brain cells, other authors contribute to the matter by investigating the practical implementation of the above phenomena. For example, Singh et al. (2019) writes about various aspects of correlation between movement and academic results of children and adolescents by reflecting on a greater number of conditions. In this article, the researchers state that numerous studies on the problem prove the feasibility of combining the mentioned areas for better outcomes.
In this piece, the main focus was on analyzing the data received in previous studies on the topic to make recommendations for educators. For doing so, Singh et al. (2019) selected assessments from credible sources, which included physical interventions for improving cognition. These sources allowed them to analyze the main characteristics of findings and, more specifically, the affected school subjects, grades, test results, and participants’ personal data (Singh et al., 2019). By conducting this review, the scholars confirmed that physical activity is beneficial for children academically because math performance was especially improved by adopting this method (Singh et al., 2019). Even though different types of physical activity were suggested, the findings were uniform in this respect.
The mentioned benefits were complemented by the role of movement in affective domains of learning due to its influence on other areas. Thus, for example, the perceptions of social belonging and support of teachers were significantly stronger once the interventions were introduced to the students (Singh et al., 2019). This fact allowed the authors to conclude on the importance of physical activity on both cognitive and emotional aspects of the matter.
References
Blakemore, C. L. (2003). Movement is essential to learning. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 74(9), 22-25.
Singh, A. S., Saliasi, E., Van Den Berg, V., Uijtdewilligen, L., De Groot, R. H., Jolles, J., Andersen, L. B., Bailey, R., Chang, Y., Diamond, A., Ericsson, I., Etnier, J. L., Fedewa, A. L., Hillman, C. H., McMorris, T., Pesce, C., Pühse, U.,Tomporowski, P. D., & Chinapaw, M. J. (2019). Effects of physical activity interventions on cognitive and academic performance in children and adolescents: A novel combination of a systematic review and recommendations from an expert panel. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(10), 640-647. Web.