Movement-based Mathematics: Enjoyment and Engagement without Compromising Learning through the EASY Minds Program
The EASY Minds program (Encouraging Activity to Stimulate Young Minds) addresses the global decline in mathematical achievement and low levels of physical activity among primary school children. This intervention integrates movement into mathematics lessons, utilizing movement-based learning to enhance student engagement. A six-week trial involving Grade 5/6 students found that this approach significantly increased enjoyment and engagement without compromising the quality of learning.
This study features activities that combine procedural fluency like practicing multiplication while skipping, with real-world applications, for example measuring shapes on a netball court. Results demonstrated significant positive effects on on-task behavior and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Students reported that "doing math with their bodies" made difficult concepts like averages (mean, median, mode) more accessible and helped them focus better. Teachers also expressed high satisfaction, noting that the program prompted pedagogical reflection, reduced discipline issues, and encouraged more innovative teaching styles. Overall, the sources suggest that embedding movement-based lessons is a feasible strategy to improve both student health and academic attitudes
STOP #1: Although this was not news to me, it is important to highlight, and thus takes the stage for stop #1 in this blog. The significant decrease in mathematics motivation with a parallel or increase in obesity and health issues in children is ALARMING! And this study makes it sound like there is an easy-enough fix to this problem. I know that here in Quebec, we often talk about how student don't get enough Physical Education periods in their schedules, often only getting 3 for every 9 school days. But if we start incorporating these types of learnings into other subject areas, we are working towards a unified and justified solution.
STOP #2: The prep work that comes with this. Teachers expressed concern for prepping, but found that the pros outweighed the con here. Students being WAY more engaged and involved meant that there was much less behavior issues and thus more learning and fun. I think that like any other, the initial year(s) will take a lot of work, but once a repertoire of movement lessons have been added to your bank, then this becomes actually easy and much more enjoyable for students and teachers.
STOP #2: The prep work that comes with this. Teachers expressed concern for prepping, but found that the pros outweighed the con here. Students being WAY more engaged and involved meant that there was much less behavior issues and thus more learning and fun. I think that like any other, the initial year(s) will take a lot of work, but once a repertoire of movement lessons have been added to your bank, then this becomes actually easy and much more enjoyable for students and teachers.
QUESTION: I plan on adding more movement into my teaching when we can be outside more. I hope to be able to bring nature and movement into lessons, together. How will you make your students move this year!?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI needed to find a little data on the childhood obesity of Canada.
ReplyDeleteAccording to OurWorldinData.org (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-who-are-overweight-sdgs?country=OWID_WRL~USA~GBR~IND) 11.4% of Canada’s children under 5 are considered overweight according to WHO growth standards. I didn’t realize that we were one of the top twenty countries with this issue.
I could see how getting some steps in while doing some mathematics would be very beneficial for kids. Especially if it’s a visceral action involving spinal movement like measuring netball court lines.
The collection/creation of movement lessons does seem like a big task. I wonder how we can authentically engage students in movement for learning for topics like polynomial operations, graphing relationships or percentages; I suppose these concepts shouldn’t be done in isolation but in tandem with other accessible topics like measurement, or surveying (tallying through observation). Now, I wonder which foundational skills are necessary to then unlock the many connections to higher level mathematical concepts?
In response to your direct wonder: I am hoping to utilize Kristie T and I’s Mathematical Swordplay lessons as a foundational activity from which to branch off to various mathematical concepts. Similarly to measuring, estimating and tallying, there are many more advanced concepts that can be taught just by having these basics. I wonder if geometry should be one of the first things I teach next year to allow the students to access more mathematical connections for higher level concepts too!
Thank you for the thoughts Taylor 😊
Taylor, I really gravitate to these ideas! Friday was a pro-d day in my district and I am always reminded on days like that, how hard it is to sit for the stretches of the sessions. Imagine how hard it is for students to sit in 4 sessions a day (high school blocks.) No wonder they are always trying to sneak in extra hallway walk breaks! I have also noticed, for myself, that sitting can sometimes perpetuate more sitting. For example, if I sit down at the end of the day before all the “jobs” are done, it can be really hard to get up and going on them again. Whereas if I had not stopped plugging away at them, I wouldn’t have noticed. Like a form of body movement inertia.
ReplyDeletePlanning more movement into my math class seems win-win. Students get more movement (and hopefully not sucked into states of lethargy) and get the benefits of more embodied learning. I noticed that my husband did some garage tidying this weekend and put our big box of sidewalk chalk on top of the garbage bin. Our kids never use this anymore, he said, and it’s taking up precious space out there ;) I promptly scooped it to go to work with me this week. I am thinking that it might be used for number line practice, games like a big version of snakes and ladders (I wonder if students could think of a way to incorporate negative numbers into that game?), drawing graphs where we could walk out coordinate points, or try spacefilling curves (like Amanda’s Bridges replication that she posited about in week 4) that might be able to be walked like a labyrinth. I’m not sure that the planning needs to be something new all the time, maybe with a tool like chalk we can use some of the things we are already doing just on a bigger scale? Layering in new activities with targeted outcomes over time would be fabulous, but I don’t think we need to have all the planning done before we can start. Co-planning with a PE teacher could be fun. Maybe they know some wide-games that could be adapted to be math-y, and a warm-up for the day could look like groups playing 500-up with integers, or multiplication and division involved?
Nichola, so many cool ideas, and I'm glad you rescued that sidewalk chalk!
Delete