Class context, teacher behavior, and physical activity levels during physical education classes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test the association between classroom context, teacher’s behavior and the physical activity (PA) level of elementary school students during physical education (PE) classes. Eighteen PE classes from six schools were evaluated. Classrrom context and teacher’s behavior were assessed by systematic observation (SOFIT) while students' PA level was measured by accelerometry. Data were treated by descriptive statistics and presented as a proportion of class time in sedentary behavior and at different PA levels. Association between classroom context and teacher behavior with different PA levels was tested by binary logistic regression. The student spent more time during PE class in light (40.8%) and vigorous (40.9%) PAs. The largest proportion of class time was allocated to the context of: structured games (35.8%), skill practice (23.2%) and management (21.7%) context represented 80.7% total time of PE class. The most frequent behavior of the teacher were: general instruction (45.5%), management (28.7%) and observing (18.3%). It was found that the proportion of student’s time in sedentary behavior and at different levels of PA during the PE class varied according to the context of the class and the  teachers' behavior.