Classes based on physical activity: a systematic review of teachers’ and students’ beliefs

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: the classes based on physical activity (PA) emerged as a strategy to increase PA levels and students’ learning and development in the schools. Researching the effectiveness of these programs keeps certain unknowns, so this paper seeks to know in depth the beliefs of those involved as a factor that can influence the results of these interventions. METHOD: a systematic review was developed on twelve studies with a qualitative methodology. These were selected after searching in Web of Science and PubMed using inclusion criteria. Content analysis was applied with inductive procedures, supported by the “Grounded Theory” model using Atlas.ti. This was complemented with an analysis of the main characteristics of the research using Excel. RESULTS: the beliefs mostly manifested in the research works were related to the acceptance and rejection of classes based on PA or the benefits and damages perceived by teachers and students. The results reported a positive view of teachers and students, who expressed satisfaction and interest in classes based in PA as well as various perceived benefits arising from the implementation of these classes. However, some controversy and difficulties were collected, such as training and resource organization for the inclusion of these classes are listed. DISCUSSION: the differences in beliefs, mostly negative, expressed in other studies on the promotion of PA at school, and the effectiveness of the interventions of selected studies are discussed. These differences may be due to the fact that the studies of this review, the participating teachers were previously trained or the classes were the responsibility of the research team. Future researching projects should deepen the beliefs of teachers and students. Furthermore, how they relate to the effectiveness of classes based on PA.