Physical activity as educational strategy to improve school performance

Abstract

Currently, there is a great social concern for the low levels of school performance among the Spanish young people compared to other European countries. The practice of physical activity (PA) has recently been used as a stimulant to improve the cognitive performance in young people and to have positive repercussions on the academic performance (Ruiz-Ariza et al., 2017). The present research aims to conceptualize the relationship between PA and cognition, as well as to associate different physical qualities with better or worse school performance, and thus to be able to make decisions about the kind of PA more adequate to foment from the educative and familiar areas. We used multiple linear regressions adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and educational level of mothers, to observe the relationship between each fitness component, and school performance. Our findings are in line with previous literature, and show that a higher physical fitness is associated with better school performance (Santana et al., 2016). The PA practice increases the production of irisine in muscle, a protein that is key to the brain and learning. In addition, improvements in fitness improves brain-derived neurotrophic factor, cerebral blood flow, neuron production and the connection between them (Adkins et al., 2006), improving executive functions and stimulating learning. In conclusion, our study suggests that it is necessary to strengthen the daily PA practice from educational centers, as well as to raise awareness among families and society about its promotion. Besides, novel active teaching methodologies are presented as an opportunity to include the movement in any subject and increase class motivation, emotions, and release stress or anxiety, making a greater performance to each subject, and obtaining a higer overall cognitive performance.