The Association between Education Outside the Classroom and Physical Activity: Differences Attributable to the Type of Space?

Education outside the classroom (EOtC) has become an attractive approach, not only for learning but also for health. This explorative, cross-sectional study investigated children’s sedentary behaviours (SED), light physical activity (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) on school days with an EOtC session in green space compared to school days with EOtC in other environments and without EOtC. Teachers from 17 Danish school classes practised EOtC for one school year on a weekly basis and self-reported the characteristics of the EOtC environment. The pupils’ PA was device-measured for seven consecutive days in a random period during the school year with AX3 accelerometers. Across 617 pupils (age 9–13 years), PA intensity cases (N = 2264) on school days (8:10–14:00 h) with (n = 317) or without (n = 1947) EOtC were included in a mixed-effects regression analysis. Mean exposure to EOtC was 262 min per session. School days with green EOtC (e.g., parks, forests and nature schools) were associated with (mean, [95% CI]) −24.3 [−41.8, −7.7] min SED and +21.3 [7.7, 36.4] min LPA compared to school days with non-green EOtC (e.g., cultural and societal institutions or companies) and with +6.2 [−0.11, 11.48] min MVPA compared to school days with a school-ground EOtC. No sex differences were found. In conclusion, school days with green EOtC must be considered promising to counteract children’s sedentary behaviours during school hours.

Evaluation of the Implementation of a 25-Year Outdoor School Ground Smoking Ban: A Qualitative Interview Study With Implications for Prevention Practise

Introduction: Tobacco use, often initiated in younger ages, is a serious health challenge worldwide. In Sweden, smoking has been prohibited on school grounds since 1994. Municipal environmental and health inspectors control the compliance of the ban. Nevertheless, the enforcement and maintenance of the ban are inadequate. The aim of the current study was to identify facilitators, barriers, and the potential for improved implementation of a 25-year outdoor school ground smoking ban in upper secondary schools.Materials and Methods: A process evaluation was conducted using semi-structured interviews with principals in upper secondary schools, local environmental and health inspectors, and local politicians (n = 30) in Stockholm County, with purposive sampling for informant recruitment. A qualitative content analysis of the transcribed interviews was performed.Results: Three main categories and 10 subcategories were generated from the interviews, revealing facilitators, barriers, and the potential for improvement of the implementation of the ban. A prominent facilitator of the ban was informed and engaged principals and inspectors. Prominent barriers were conflicting goals governing the schools, which reduce staffs' motivation to maintain the ban, unclear school ground boundaries, and lack of resources. Potential for improvement was found in a new tobacco act with an extended ban on smoking at school entrances, extended support for schools and staff to strictly enforce the ban, and a continued denormalisation of smoking in society.Conclusion: To achieve effective implementation of outdoor school ground smoking bans in upper secondary schools, authorities need to address conflicts between different goals governing the schools and give necessary support to the staff to strictly enforce the ban. Policies on smoke-free working hours in the municipalities along with tobacco restrictive policies in the surrounding society may increase the possibility to maintain the smoking ban in upper secondary school grounds.

Experiências Narradas: Relatos e Vivências no espaço escolar

The book “Experiências Narradas: Relatos e vivências no espaço escolar” is the result of a collective formation process in the perspective of the Narrative Documentation of Pedagogical Experiences with a group of 16 Basic Education teachers, developed by the Research Group in Education, Narratives, and Teaching Experience in Secondary Education – Narratividades, of the Federal University of Vale do São Francisco – Univasf. With the narratives presented, it institutes teaching authorship and the dissemination of the experiential knowledge constituted in the daily life of urban and rural classrooms, of difference, and diversity. Each chapter is motivated by the following key question: How did I get here? Such a provocation seeks to interweave the several journeys made by each of these teachers, their challenges, victories, learnings, and inspirations. Bringing these teachers together in this publication aims to inspire many other professionals through important elements, actions, and life experiences as a permanent challenge in the professional field. Retrieving such elements, which result in several learnings within the formative process proposed, represents resistance and persistence in this union of pedagogical knowledge and teaching practices. The narratives recorded in this book invite and inspire through inexperienced experiences that give birth to the teacher-educator, the passion for teaching, the discovery of the new based on the already lived, but not perceived, the hopes implicit in life and in the classroom, the universe already discovered and yet to discover, the come into being in teaching; the presence of the school ground materialized in words that come together to speak about the knowledge constituted by the pedagogical experience in Basic Education.

Can an Outdoor Learning Environment Improve Children’s Academic Attainment? A Quasi-Experimental Mixed Methods Study in Bangladesh

The present study adopted a quasi-experimental mixed method approach to investigate the influence of an improved school ground on children’s academic performance. In total, 123 children from two (intervention and control) primary schools in Bangladesh participated. In the intervention school, a barren school ground was redesigned with several behavior settings (e.g., gardens and amphitheater) for teaching and learning. Treatment group children ( n = 29) received math and science classes outdoors, while a comparison group ( n = 32) received usual indoor classes. A control school with no changes to the outdoor environment was included ( n = 62). The redesigned school ground was associated with higher levels of academic attainment. Furthermore, all intervention schoolchildren perceived more opportunities to explore in the redesigned school ground. Qualitative insights suggest the diverse settings provided more opportunities to explore, experiment, and work collaboratively. These results highlight the potential for school ground design to contribute to improvement of children’s academic attainment in developing countries.

PIBID como uma epistemologia da formação de professores no cotidiano escolar

O artigo analisa como o Programa Institucional de Bolsas de Iniciação à Docência – PIBID se coloca como uma epistemologia de formação de professores que considera o cotidiano escolar como espaço de produção de experiências do ser professor. Tem como principal objetivo compreender como o PIBID possibilita a vivência do chão escolar e como esta constitui-se em experiências formativas do ser professor. A pesquisa desenvolveu-se a partir de abordagem (auto)biográfica, que é de natureza qualitativa e caracteriza-se por ser um método que possibilita ao sujeito que narra construir e revelar sentidos para o vivido, para suas experiências, logo para o seu processo de formação. Como dispositivos de pesquisa, foram utilizados memorial de formação e entrevistas narrativas de três licenciandos do curso de Letras de uma instituição pública de Ensino Superior do Estado da Bahia. O estudo revelou que no PIBID o conceito de formação é concebido epistemologicamente como um movimento reflexivo de compreensão da profissão docente, analisado a partir da inserção dos licenciandos no cotidiano da escola. Viver e conhecer o chão da escola significa poder produzir experiências da docência no contexto real do exercício profissional.Palavras-chave: PIBID. Formação de professores. Cotidiano EscolarPIBID as an epistemology of teacher training in the everyday schoolABSTRACT The article analyzes how the Institutional Program of Initiatives to Teaching - PIBID is an epistemology of teacher training that considers the daily school life as a space for the production of experiences of being a teacher. Its main objective is to understand how the PIBID makes possible the experience of the school ground and how it is constituted in formative experiences of being a teacher. The research developed from a (self) biographical approach, which is qualitative in nature and is characterized by being a method that allows the subject who narrates to construct and reveal meanings for the lived, for his experiences, soon for his process training. As research devices, training memo and narrative interviews were used of three graduates of the course of Literature of a public institution of Higher Education of the State of Bahia. The study revealed that in the PIBID the concept of formation is epistemologically conceived as a reflexive movement of understanding of the teaching profession, analyzed from the insertion of the licenciandos in the daily life of the school. Living and knowing the school floor means being able to produce experiences of teaching in the real context of professional practice.Keywords: PIBID Teacher training. Everyday SchoolPIBID como una epistemología de la formación de profesores en el cotidiano escolarRESUMENEl artículo analiza cómo el Programa Institucional de Becas de Iniciación a la Docencia - PIBID se plantea como una epistemología de formación de profesores que considera el cotidiano escolar como espacio de producción de experiencias del ser profesor. Tiene como principal objetivo comprender cómo el PIBID posibilita la vivencia del suelo escolar y cómo ésta se constituye en experiencias formativas del ser profesor. La investigación se desarrolló a partir de un enfoque (auto) biográfico, que es de naturaleza cualitativa y se caracteriza por ser un método que posibilita al sujeto que narra construir y revelar sentidos para lo vivido, para sus experiencias, luego para su proceso de formación. Como instrumentos de investigación, fueron utilizados memorial de formación y entrevistas narrativas de tres licenciandos del curso de Letras de una institución pública de Enseñanza Superior del Estado de Bahía. El estudio reveló que en el PIBID el concepto de formación es concebido epistemológicamente como un movimiento reflexivo de comprensión de la profesión docente, analizado a partir de la inserción de los licenciandos en el cotidiano de la escuela. Vivir y conocer el suelo de la escuela significa poder producir experiencias de la docencia en el contexto real del ejercicio profesional.Palavras clave: PIBID. Formación de profesores. Cotidiano Escolar.

Results of outdoor smoking bans at secondary schools on adolescents smoking behaviour: a quasi-experimental study

BackgroundResearch on the effectiveness of school smoking policies on adolescents’ smoking behaviour remain inconclusive. This study evaluates the results of an outdoor school ground smoking ban at secondary schools on adolescents smoking behaviour, taking individual characteristics into account.MethodsData on 2684 adolescents from 18 Dutch secondary schools (nine with and nine without an outdoor smoking ban) were obtained at two moments. Associations between outdoor school ground smoking bans, individual characteristics, and smoking prevalence and frequency were measured. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were used. At schools with a ban implementation fidelity was checked.ResultsAlthough smoking prevalence and frequency appeared to make a slower increase at schools with an outdoor smoking ban compared with schools without an outdoor smoking ban, the differences were not significant. Differences between schools in the prevalence of smoking behaviour of students could mainly be explained by individual characteristics. Smoking prevalence and frequency were higher among adolescents with a positive attitude towards smoking and when significant others were more positive about smoking. Smoking prevalence and frequency were significantly lower when adolescents perceived it as easy not to smoke. Implementation fidelity was good at schools with a ban.ConclusionsNo short-term effects were found of an outdoor smoking ban. A longer follow-up time than 6 months is needed. In addition, future research should investigate effectiveness in relation to the enforcement of the ban, comprehensiveness of the ban and when it is prohibited to leave school grounds, as smoking behavior might be transferred off school grounds.