Physical activity levels, lesson context and teacher interaction

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Pleasecitethisarticleinpressas:SutherlandR,etal.Physicaleducationinsecondaryschoolslocatedinlow-incomecommunities:

Physicalactivitylevels,lessoncontextandteacherinteraction.JSciMedSport(2015),http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2014.12.003

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ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

j o u r n a l ho me p a g e :w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / j s a m s

Original research

Physical education in secondary schools located in low-income communities: Physical activity levels, lesson context and teacher interaction

Rachel Sutherland

^a^,^b^,^c^,∗

, Elizabeth Campbell

^a^,^b^,^c

, David R. Lubans

^d

, Philip J. Morgan

^d

, Anthony D. Okely

^e

, Nicole Nathan

^a,b,c

, Karen Gillham

^a,c

, Christophe Lecathelinais

^a,c

, John Wiggers

^a,b,c

aHunterNewEnglandPopulationHealth,Wallsend,Australia

bSchoolofMedicineandPublicHealth,UniversityofNewcastle,Newcastle,Australia

cHunterMedicalResearchInstitute,Newcastle,Australia

dPriorityResearchCentreinPhysicalActivityandNutrition,SchoolofEducation,UniversityofNewcastle,Newcastle,Australia

eEarlyStartResearchInstituteandSchoolofEducation,UniversityofWollongong,Wollongong,Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o

Articlehistory:

Received23July2014

Receivedinrevisedform3November2014 Accepted6December2014

Availableonlinexxx

Keywords:

Physicalactivity Physicaleducation School

Moderate-vigorousphysicalactivity (MVPA)

Lessoncontext

a b s t r a c t

Objectives:Physicaleducation(PE)playsanimportantroleincontributingtostudents’physicalactivity (PA);however,moderate-to-vigorousPA(MVPA)withinPEislowerthanrecommended.Littleisknown aboutthePAlevelsofstudentsfromdisadvantagedschoolswithinPE.Thisstudyaimedtodescribe:(i) thePAlevelsofstudentsfromdisadvantagedsecondaryschoolsduringPElessons,(ii)thelessoncontext andteacherinteractionsoccurringduringPE,and(iii)theassociationsbetweenteacher,schoolorPE lessoncharacteristicswithstudentphysicalactivitylevelsinPE.

Design:Cross-sectionalstudyof100Grade7PElessonsacross10secondaryschools.

Methods:Systemforobservingﬁtnessinstructiontime(SOFIT)wasusedtoassessstudentPA,lesson context,andteacherinteraction.Teacherandschoolcharacteristicswerecollectedviasurvey.Mean proportionoflessontimewasusedtodescribePA,lessoncontextandteacherinteraction.Associations betweeneachoutcomevariableandeachcharacteristicwereexaminedusing2-samplet-tests,ANOVAs andlinearregression.

Results:Thirty-ninepercentofPElessonwasspentinMVPA,andlessthan10%spentinVA.Lessonsin schoolsinurbanareasincludedsigniﬁcantlymoreMVPAthanruralareas(P=0.04).Maleteachersand moreexperiencedteachersconductedlessonswithsigniﬁcantlymoreVAthanfemaleandlessexpe- riencedteachers(P=0.04and0.02).MVPAwasalsohigherinlessonsconductedbymoreexperienced teachers.

Conclusions:PAduringPElessonswithindisadvantagedsecondaryschoolsisbelowinternationalrecom- mendations.Maleteachers,moreexperiencedteachersandschoolsinurbanregionsteachmoreactive lessons.

1. Introduction

Anhour ofmoderate- tovigorous-intensity physicalactivity (MVPA)perdayisimportantfor preventingnon communicable diseases,improvingstrengthandenduranceaswellasimproving

∗Correspondingauthorsat:HunterNewEnglandPopulationHealth,LockedBag 10,LongworthAvenue,Wallsend2287,NSW,Australia.

E-mailaddresses:[email protected], [email protected](R.Sutherland).

self-esteem.¹Yetonly20%ofadolescentsfromacross105countries meettherecommendedonehourofMVPAeachday.¹Studieshave foundadolescentsfromdisadvantagedbackgroundsarelesslikely tomeetphysicalactivityrecommendationsthanthosefromhigher socio-economicbackgrounds.²

Schoolsrepresentkeysettingsforpromotingphysicalactivity in adolescents.³ Withinschools, quality physicaleducation(PE) programsareconsideredanimportantmediumtoprovideoppor- tunitiesforphysicalactivityandarekeytosuccessfulschool-based physicalactivityinterventions.³IntheUnitedStates’(US),50%of http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2014.12.003

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PElessontimespentinMVPAhasbeenrecommended.⁴Asystem- aticreviewofphysicalactivitylevelsinmiddleandhighschools reviewed40studiesandconcludedthatstudentstypicallyengage inMVPAforonly27–47%oflessontime.ThemeanMVPAacross the10observationalstudieswas27%oflessontime.⁵

ThemajorityofstudiesexaminingstudentactivitylevelsinPE havebeenconductedintheUS^6–9withfewstudiesconductedin Australia.^10–12IntheAustralianstudies,MVPAinsecondaryschool PEhasbeeninconsistent.Inasmallstudyof19secondaryschool PElessonsobservingGrade10students,34.8%ofthelessonwas spentinMVPA.¹²Dudleyandcolleagues,¹⁰observed81,Grade7PE lessonswithineightculturallyandlinguisticallydiversesecondary schoolscateringtoalargeproportionofdisadvantagedstudents.

Thestudyconcludedthat56.9%oflessontimewasspentinMVPA.¹⁰ Ina12monthfollow-up,nosigniﬁcantdeclineinMVPAwithinPE wasobserved,howeverVAhadsigniﬁcantlydeclined.¹¹Otherthan thesestudies,thereisascarcityofliteraturefocusingonactivity levelsduringPEindisadvantagedcommunities.Giventheevidence gaps,thisstudyaimedtodescribe:(i)thephysicalactivitylevelsof secondaryschoolstudentsinPEclasses,(ii)thelessoncontextand teacherinteractionsoccurringduringschoolPElessons,and(iii)the associationsbetweenteacher,schoolorPElessoncharacteristics withstudentphysicalactivitylevelsinPE.

2. Methods

A cross-sectional study involving observation of PE lessons within10secondaryschoolsindisadvantagedareasinthestate ofNewSouthWales(NSW),AustraliawasundertakenfromMarch toJuly2012.Thestudyareaencompassedurbanandruralareas,¹³ hadlowerindicesofsocio-economicstatusthanthestate¹⁴ and hadapopulationofapproximately65,000childrenagedbetween 12and15years(17.6%oftheNSWpopulation).¹⁵WithinNSW, PEinsecondaryschoolsistaughtbyqualiﬁedPEteachersandis compulsoryfromGrade7toGrade10.

Datacollectedforthisstudyformedpartofthebaselinemea- surementsofaninterventiontrial(PhysicalActivity4Every1).¹⁶The studywasapprovedbytheHunterNewEnglandHumanResearch EthicsCommittee(RefNo.11/03/16/4.05),UniversityofNewcastle (RefNo.H-2011-0210),NSWDepartmentofEducationandCom- munities(SERAP2011111), MaitlandNewcastle CatholicSchool DioceseandBrokenBayCatholicSchoolDiocese.

AllGovernmentandCatholicsecondaryschoolscateringtostu- dentsagedbetween12(Grade7)and18(Grade12)yearswithin thestudyregion,wereeligibleif;schoolpostcoderankedinthebot- tom50%ofNSWpostcodesbasedontheSocio-EconomicIndexes ForAustralia(SEIFA),asaproxyforsocioeconomicstatus^2,14they hadbetween120and200Grade7students;werenotparticipating inotherphysicalactivitystudies.

Recruitmentofschoolshasbeenoutlinedelsewhere.¹⁶Brieﬂy, Principals were sent a letter inviting participation. Two weeks afterreceiptoftheletter,atrainedresearchassistantcontactedthe Principaltoscheduleatimeforaninterviewwhereconsentwas obtained.Tenschoolswererecruited.Atwo-weekdatacollection periodwasassignedtoeachschool,occurringfromMarchtoJune 2012.

AscheduleofallGrade7PElessonswasobtained.Theﬁrst10PE lessonsscheduledforYear7withintheschools’allocateddatacol- lectionperiodwereselected.Alllessonswereeligibleforinclusion andavarietyoflessonswereobservedincludingdance,basketball, athletics,gymnasticsandsoccer.Wherecancellationsoccurreddue toinclementweatherandotherschoolactivities(suchasexcur- sionsorsportingcarnivals)thenextscheduledlessonwasselected.

If10lessonscouldnotbeobservedwithinthetwo-weekdatacol- lectionperiod,thenextavailablelessonscheduledonthetimetable wasobserved.PEclasseswereco-educational.

Data were collectedusing the Systemfor Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT).¹⁷ SOFITis an observational tool that hasbeencalibratedusingheartratemonitorsandvalidatedusing accelerometers.¹⁸SOFITprovidessimultaneousrecordingsofstu- dentactivitylevels,thelessoncontextinwhich theyoccurand teacherinteractionsregardingthepromotionofphysicalactivity.

ThreeobserversundertookSOFITtraininginvolvinglecturestyle andpractical componentsandﬁeld practicewithina secondary school.Aftertheinitialtraining,observersundertookcertiﬁcation involvingthecompletionofatest,requiringatleast85%inter-rater reliabilityonallvariablesonthreeprecoded‘gold-standard’video- taped lessons. Inter-raterreliability checks wereundertaken at eachschool(onelessonperschooln=10%),wherebytwoobservers independently coded the same students simultaneously using synchronisedaudiorecordings.Thelevelofinter-raterreliability agreementswas96%forstudentactivitylevels,87%forlessoncon- textand87%forteacherinteraction.

Todeterminethephysicalactivitylevelofa lesson,ﬁvestu- dentswere selected based on theorder in which theyarrived at class, using procedures outlined in the SOFIT manual. Stu- dents were observed for four consecutive minutes, before the focus moved to the next student.¹⁷ The ﬁfth selected student wasselectedasabackupincaseonestudentcouldnolongerbe observed.¹⁷Useablelessonlengthwascalculatedfromthetime 51%ofstudentswerereadytocommencethelessonandthesame proportionhadcompletedthelesson.Attheendofeachlesson, asummaryoflessonactivitylevelswerecalculatedusingmeth- odsdescribedintheSOFITmanual.¹⁷Todeterminelessoncontext, the observerdetermined how lessontime was beingallocated tothemajorityoftheclass(51%ormore)ateach10-sinterval.

Teacherinteraction wascoded by theobserverbased onifthe teacherpromotedphysicalactivity,ﬁtnessormotorskillsduring theinterval.¹⁷

TheSOFITobservationaltoolwasusedtocategorisethephysical activity intensityof a PE lesson as; lying down,sitting, standing,walkingorveryactive(VA).TheSOFITobservationaltoolwas alsousedtomeasurethelessoncontext(management,knowledge, ﬁtness,skillpractice,gameplay,other(freeplay),andteacherinter- actionswithinPElessons(inclassphysicalactivitypromotion,out ofclassphysicalactivitypromotionornophysicalactivitypromo- tion).

At the completion of the SOFIT observation, teacher char- acteristicswererecorded.Teachersreportedtheirqualiﬁcations (permanentPEspecialist teacher,casualPEspecialistteacheror non-specialistPEteacherfromanothersubjectarea)andyearsofPE teachingexperience.Teachergenderwasrecordedbytheobserver.

To obtain the school characteristics, school postcode was acquiredfromtheschoolwebsite.Classrollsobtainedfromthe Head PE teacher were used to determine class characteristics includingclasssizeandthenumberofmaleandfemalestudents perclass.

AllanalyseswereundertakeninSAS(version9.3)statisticalsoft- ware(SASInstituteInc.,Cary,NC,USA).Schoolpostcodecategorised theschool’slocalityaseither‘rural’(thoseschoolsinouterregional, remoteandveryremoteareas),or‘urban’(thoseinregionalcities andinnerregionalareas).¹³ThephysicalactivitylevelsofPElessons wascalculatedasthemeanproportionoflessontimespent:lying, sitting,standing,walking,veryactive(VA)orMVPA(walkingand veryactivecombined).

Todetermineifphysicalactivitylevels,lessoncontextorteacher interactionoutcomeswereassociatedwithteacher,schoolorles- soncharacteristics,themeanvalueforeachoutcomevariablewas calculatedforeachofthefollowingsubgroups:teacherqualiﬁca- tion(permanentPEspecialistteacher,casualPEspecialistteacher, non-specialistPEteacherfromothersubjectarea),teachergender, schoollocation(urban,rural),lessonsize(small<35students,large

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Table1

Meanandrangeofproportionoflessontimespentindifferentstudentactivitylevels, lessoncontextsandteacherinteraction.

Category Lessoncontext

Mean% (SD) Range

Studentactivity

MVPA 39.3 14.6 6.25–75.7

Lyingdown 0.5 1.35 0.0–7.46

Sitting 27.8 16.1 0.0–83.0

Standing 32.2 14.8 0.9–68.7

Walking 30.4 11.7 6.3–63.0

Veryactive(VA) 9.0 6.2 0.0–30.0

Lessoncontext

Management 27.6 11.9 0.0–62.7

Knowledge 12.8 10.2 0.0–43.0

Fitness 12.0 18.4 0.0–72.0

Skillpractice 13.1 18.6 0.0–89.6

Gameplay 31.2 26.9 0.0–100.0

Other(freePlay) 3.3 9.4 0.0–80.4

Teacherinteraction

InclasspromotionofPA 28.6 13.3 5.2–64.3

OutofclasspromotionofPA 0.3 0.8 0.0–6.4

NopromotionofPA 71.2 13.5 34.8–94.9

AverageuseablePElessontimeinmin 50min Numberoflessonswith^* %(n)

>50%MVPA 23%(23)

>25%Skillspractice 24%(24)

>35%PromotionofPA 33%(33)

*CDCrecommendationforactivitylevelsinPE.

35ormorestudents)andlessoncomposition(mostlygirls60%+

girls,equalspread,mostlyboys60%+boys).Associationsbetween eachoutcomevariableandeachteacher,schoolandlessoncharac- teristicwereexaminedusing2-samplet-testsorANOVA.Teacher experiencewastreatedasacontinuousvariableandtheassocia- tionbetweeneachoutcomeandyearsofexperienceanalyzedusing linearregression.StatisticalsigniﬁcancewasatP≤0.05.

3. Results

Allschoolsandteachersagreedtobeobservedresultingin100 practicalPElessons(10perschool)beingincludedinthestudy.

Themeanobservedlessonlengthwas50min(SD=13.9).Ofthe observedPElessons,52%weretaughtbymaleteachers,72%were taughtbypermanentspecialistPEteachersandthemeanteaching experiencewas11.2years.

Table1showsthemeanproportionoflessontimeforeachphys- icalactivitycategory.Overall,39.3%ofaPElessonwasspentin MVPA,and9.0%wasspentinVA.Ofthe100observedlessons,23%

spentatleasthalfofthelessontimeinMVPA.Almostaquarterof thelessonsspentatleast25%inskillpracticeand33%spentmore than35%ofthelessontimepromotingphysicalactivity.

Table 2 outlines the teacher characteristics associated with activitylevels,lessoncontextandteacherinteractions.Maletea- chers conducted lessons with a higher proportion of VA than females(10.2%vs7.6%P=0.04).Lessonsconductedbymaletea- cherscomparedwithfemaleteachershadalowerproportionof thelessonspentstanding(29.3%,vs35.3%P=0.04).Moreexperi- encedteachersconductedlessonswithsigniﬁcantlymoreMVPA (P=0.01)andVA(P=0.01)comparedtolessexperiencedteachers.

Foreachtenyearincreaseinteachingexperience,lessonshad3.5%

moreMVPAand1.5%moreVA. Moreexperiencedteachersalso spentlesslessontimeinmanagement(−0.4,P=<0.01),moretime inﬁtness(0.54,P=<0.01)andmoretimepromotingactivitytothe class(0.31,P=0.02).

Teachertypewassigniﬁcantlyassociatedwithlessoncontext.

Permanentspecialistteachersspentahigherproportionoflesson

time(15.4%)inﬁtnessactivitiescomparedwithcasualspecialist teachers(4.3%)andnon-specialistPEteachers(3.3%)(p0.02).The reversewasnotedforthegameplay,withnon-specialistPEtea- chersspendingahigherproportionoflessontimeinthiscontext comparedwithcasualandpermanentspecialistteachers (45.4%

vs32.1% vs27.3%,respectively, P=0.04).Moreexperienced tea- chersspentahigherproportionoflessontimeinﬁtnessactivities (P=<0.01)andlesstimeinmanagement(P=<0.01).

Table3shows schoolandlesson levelcharacteristicsassoci- atedwithactivitylevels,lessoncontextandteacherinteractions.PE lessonsinschoolslocatedinurbanregionswerecharacterisedby moretimeinMVPA(42.9%vs37.0%,P=0.04)andVA(10.7%vs7.8%, P=0.02)comparedwithruralareas.Lessonsinurbanschoolsalso spentmoretimeinﬁtnessactivitiescomparedwithruralschools (17.0%vs8.6%,P=0.03).Classeswithlargernumbersofstudents weremoresedentarythanthosewithsmallernumbers(34.4%vs 25.7%,P=0.02).Smallerclasseswereassociatedwithahigherpro- portionoflessontimeinknowledge(P=0.02)andskillpractice (P=0.003).Lessongendercompositionwasnotsigniﬁcantlyassoci- atedwithstudentphysicalactivitylevels,lessoncontextorteacher interaction(P>0.05).

4. Discussion

Thisisoneofthefirststudiestodescribethephysicalactivity levels,lessoncontextandteacherinteractionsoccurringduringPE lessonswithindisadvantagedsecondaryschools. Studentsspent onaverage39%ofPElessontimeinMVPAandlessthan10%of lessontimeinVA.Approximately30%oflessontimewasspentin managementandvirtuallynotimespentpromotingoutofclass physical activity.Thestudyalsoaimedto determineif teacher, schoolandlessonlevelcharacteristicswereassociatedwithphys- icalactivitylevels,lessoncontextorteacherpromotionofphysical activityinPE.Maleteachersandmoreexperiencedteacherscon- ducted lessonswithsignificantlymoreVA thanfemaleandless experiencedteachers.Schoolslocatedinurbanareasalsohadsig- nificantlymorephysicallyactivePElessonsthanschoolslocatedin ruralareas.

Theresultsofourstudywereconsistentwithdatafromasys- tematicreviewofmiddleandhighschoolsinternationallywhich showedwhenmethodsofassessingMVPAwerecombined,40%of PElessontimewasspentinMVPA.⁵TheMVPAlevelsobservedin ourstudywerelessthantherecommended50%oflessontimein MVPA,⁴with39%ofaPElessonbeingspentinMVPA.Thecurrent studyfoundstudentsspentmoretimesittingandstandingandless timeinMVPAthanotherAustralianstudieslookingatactivitylevels inPE.^10,12Theinclusionofsomeall-boyslessonswithinthesample mayhaveincreasedtheaverageMVPAforthepreviousstudy,as Dudley¹⁰found70.2%oftheselessonswerespentinMVPA.

The MVPAlevels observed in ourstudymay over-represent physicalactivitylevelsinPE,asMVPAvariesdependingonassess- ment method.Studiesdirectlycomparingmethods haveshown observationaltechniquestendtoshowMVPAasconsistentlyhigher thanaccelerometer-assessedMVPA.¹⁹Thisoccursasobservational techniquessuchas SOFITincludingwalkingas MVPA,which is consideredlowintensityactivitywhenassessedviaaccelerome- ter.GivenPElessonsmaybeoneofthefewopportunitiesstudents fromdisadvantagedareashavetoengageinphysicalactivity,low levelsofMVPAinPElessonsareconcerning.

Inthecurrentstudy,a largeproportionofeachlesson(close to30%),wasspentinlessonmanagement.Studieshavereported lesson management to typically range from 15 to 26% of lesson time.²⁰ The highpercentage of time spentin management maybecommonwithinPElessonsinAustralia ormayindicate that teachers in schools fromdisadvantaged areasmay require

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Pleasecitethisarticleinpressas:SutherlandR,etal.Physicaleducationinsecondaryschoolslocatedinlow-incomecommunities:Physicalactivitylevels,lessoncontextandteacherinteraction.JSciMedSport(2015),http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2014.12.003

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Table2

Teacherlevelcharacteristicsassociatedwithstudentactivitylevels,lessoncontextandteacherinteractions.

Category Teachergender Teachertype Yearsofexperience

Male(N=52) Female(N=48) Pˆ PermanentPE

Specialist(N=71)

CasualPEspecialist (N=11)

Non-specialistPE teacher(N=17)

P^# Experience(N=99)

Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD Estimate P⁺

Studentactivity

Lyingdown 0.8 1.8 0.1 0.4 0.01* 0.6 1.6 0.3 0.7 0.1 0.2 0.37 0.02 0.21

Sitting 28.1 15.0 27.5 17.3 0.86 26.9 13.6 27.3 24.9 30.7 19.1 0.69 −0,22 0.17

Standing 29.3 14.2 35.3 15.0 0.04* 32.2 15.0 32.5 17.2 32.5 17.1 0.99 −0.18 0.24

Walking 31.3 11.6 29.4 11.9 0.44 30.5 11.1 30.8 13.7 30.4 13.5 0.99 0.21 0.08

Veryactive 10.2 6.9 7.6 5.3 0.04* 9.5 6.5 9.1 7.2 6.3 3.9 0.16 0.16 0.01*

MVPA 41.4 15.1 37.1 14.0 0.14 40.0 14.2 39.9 20.1 36.7 13.6 0.71 0.36 0.01*

LessonContext

Management 25.8 11.7 29.6 11.8 0.11 26.2 12.0 31.3 10.7 31.2 12.0 0.16 −0.40 <0.01*

Knowledge 11.5 10.1 14.2 10.3 0.19 13.5 10.3 12.4 10. 10.5 10.7 0.55 0.10 0.34

Fitness 13.3 20.2 10.3 17.0 0.44 15.4 20.5 4.3 10.8 3.3 4.8 0.02* 0.54 <0.01*

Skillpractice 11.0 19.7 15.4 17.3 0.24 14.9 20.0 12.7 19.1 6.5 10.1 0.25 0.23 0.21

Gameplay 35.3 29.2 26.8 23.6 0.11 27.3 26.7 32.1 26.8 45.4 23.6 0.04* −0.45 0.09

Other(freePlay) 3.0 5.9 3.6 12.1 0.74 2.8 5.6 7.3 24.2 3.1 5.2 0.33 −0.02 0.81

TeacherInteraction

InclasspromotionofPA 30.3 14.2 26.8 12.2 0.19 30.6 13.6 27.3 9.0 19.9 11.1 0.01* 0.31 0.02*

OutofclasspromotionofPA 0.3 0.6 0.3 1.0 0.97 0.3 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.29 0.02 0.03*

NopromotionofPA 69.5 14.3 73.0 12.4 0.19 69.0 13.7 72.7 9.0 80.0 11.1 0.01* −0.33 0.01*

UseablePElessontimeinmin 49.1 9.7 50.5 17.5 0.63 49.5 12.7 44.2 9.0 54.4 19.9 0.16 −0.04 0.73

ˆPvaluescalculatedviat-test.

#PvaluescalculatedviaANOVA.

+Pvaluecalculatedvialinearregression.

*Signiﬁcantatthep<0.05.

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Table3

Schoolandlessonlevelcharacteristicsassociatedwithstudentactivitylevels,lessoncontextandteacherinteractions.

Category Schoolcharacteristiclocation Lessoncharacteristiclessonsize Lessoncharacteristiclessoncomposition Urban(N=40) Rural(N=60) Pvalue Small(35students

orless)(N=72)

Large(>35 students)(N=25)

Pvalue Mostlygirls (60%+girls) (N=22)

Equalspread (N=63)

Mostlyboys (60%+boys) (N=12)

Pvalue

Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD Mean% SD

Studentactivity

Lyingdown 0.6 1.4 0.4 1.3 0.53 0.6 1.5 0.2 0.5 0.25 0.3 0.9 0.5 1.3 0.9 2.1 0.42

Sitting 25.9 17.5 29.1 15.0 0.34 25.7 15.6 34.4 16.6 0.02* 28.4 13.4 28.8 17.2 22.5 16.4 0.44

Standing 30.1 16.0 33.5 16.9 0.26 33.6 13.4 28.0 18.4 0.12 33.9 14.0 31.1 15.2 34.5 15.6 0.64

Walking 32.2 11.1 29.2 12.1 0.21 31.0 10.9 28.2 14.0 0.30 29.1 11.5 30.6 12.3 30.9 10.3 0.87

Veryactive 10.7 6.7 7.8 5.6 0.02* 9.1 5.4 8.6 8.5 0.71 8.2 6.5 8.8 6.2 11.3 6.2 0.34

MVPA 42.9 14.0 37.0 14.7 0.04* 40.1 13.4 36.7 18.0 0.33 37.3 14.1 39.3 15.2 42.1 14.0 0.64

LessonContext

Management 25.7 9.4 28.9 13.2 0.19 27.1 10.8 29.9 14.0 0.20 28.4 14.8 27.6 10.5 27.8 12.1 0.96

Knowledge 14.3 11.1 11.9 9.6 0.25 14.4 10.4 9.0 8.9 0.02* 13.2 8.8 12.8 10.5 13.5 12.1 0.97

Fitness 17.0 20.1 8.6 16.6 0.03* 11.7 17.3 15.6 21.8 0.29 9.5 14.2 13.1 19.7 12.0 20.3 0.74

Skillpractice 12.6 16.2 13.4 20. 0.81 16.6 19.8 3.8 10.5 0.003* 18.9 24.0 11.6 16.3 12.6 19.3 0.29

Gameplay 26.7 24.3 34.2 28.3 0.18 28.8 25.8 34.7 27.3 0.33 27.9 26.6 30.5 25.6 33.3 29.8 0.84

Other(freePlay) 3.7 6.9 3.0 10.7 0.69 2.1 4.9 7.0 16.4 0.02* 2.0 4.4 4.4 11.4 0.8 1.8 0.35

TeacherInteraction

InclasspromotionofPA 31.5 12.6 26.7 13.5 0.08 28.9 13.6 29.2 12.2 0.92 27.5 12.4 28.6 13.1 33.4 14.8 0.41

OutofclasspromotionofPA 0.5 1.2 0.1 0.3 0.03* 0.3 0.9 0.1 0.3 0.24 0.1 0.3 0.4 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.18

NopromotionofPA 68.1 12.9 73.2 13.6 0.06 70.8 13.8 70.7 12.2 0.97 72.4 12.5 71.1 13.4 66.6 14.8 0.45

RangeofuseablePElesson timeinminutes

49.5 11.1 50.0 15.6 0.86 48.9 11.6 52.8 19.3 0.24 54.5 21.8 48.5 11.5 49.2 4.2 0.22

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more management time due to poorer classroom behaviour.²¹ Furtherdataisneededtodeterminethis.Physicalactivityislow- estduringadministrativeandmanagementactivities,andshould thereforebeminimised.²²Throughstrategiessuchasteacherpro- fessionallearningthatfocusesonclassorganisation,management andinstruction,andsupplementingusualPElessonswithhigh- intensityactivity,MVPAcanincreasebyasmuchas24%.²³

Skillinstruction,at13%oflessontime,washigherthanobserved inthepreviousstudiesinAustraliansecondaryschools.¹⁰Asdevel- opingmovementskillcompetencehasbeenassociatedwithgreater physicalactivity²⁴itappearsparticularlyimportantfromapeda- gogicalandpublichealthperspectivetoensurethisaspectoflesson contextisgivenagreaterfocus.²⁵

OneoftheaimsofPEistoinstilknowledge,skillsandattitudes toenablelifelongphysical activity.^5,23 Consistentwithresearch conductedin middle⁶ and secondary schools,¹⁰ less than1% of timewasspentpromotingoutofclassphysicalactivity.In-service, pre-servicetrainingandinterventionsaimingtoincreaseactivity shouldfocusonimprovingthis.Includingcommunitybasedstrate- gies, suchaslinking withsportingorganisations, withinschool physicalactivityinterventionscouldcomplementandreinforcethe broaderremitofPEtoinstillifelongactivity.

Thesecondaryaimof thisstudywastoexploretheteacher, school and lesson level characteristics associated with student physical activity levels, lesson context and teacher interaction withinschoolPE lessons.Moreexperienced teachersconducted lessonswithsignificantly moreMVPAand VA thanless experiencedteachers.Inaddition,maleteachersconductedlessonswith significantlymoreVAthanfemaleteachers.Thisisincontrastto otherresearchstudiesexploringtheimpactofteachergenderon studentphysicalactivitylevels.EarlyresearchbyMcKenzieinele- mentaryschoolPE lessonsshowednodifferenceinintensityof activityinlessonsledbygender.²⁶Researchinmiddleschoolgirls alsofailedtoshowanassociationbetweenphysicalactivitylev- els,lessoncontext and teacher gender.⁶ In contrast,studies by Barnett²⁷andSkala²²concludedVAandMVPA,wassignificantly higherinfemale-ledlessons.

Researchexploringtheimpactofspecialistversusnon-specialist PEteachers onstudents MVPA, haveprimarily beenconducted withinelementaryschools.Morganetal.²⁸identiﬁednon-specialist teachers often lack conﬁdence to teach PE. As a result, non- specialistPEteachersspentahigherproportionofthelessonin gameplay.AlthoughgameplaycanleadtohighlyactivePElessons, gameplaywithoutafocus onskilldevelopment,tactics,spatial awarenessanddecisionmakinglacksthepedagogyaspectofPE.

Comparedwithruralareas,schoolsinurbanareasconducted lessonswithsigniﬁcantlymoreMVPAandVA.Schoolslocatedin metropolitan areas mayhave betteraccess toongoing training andprofessionaldevelopmentandmayattractmoreexperienced staff.²⁹

Thestudyhassomelimitations.First,datapresentedisfroma crosssectionalstudythereforenocausalrelationshipcanbeestab- lished.Second,abroaddeﬁnitionofdisadvantage,basedonschool locationwithinthebottomﬁftypercentofthestatehasbeenused.

Wearethereforeunsureiftheﬁndingsaregeneralisablebeyond theseschools. FurtherworkexaminingactivitylevelsPEindis- advantagedandnon-disadvantagedschoolsiswarranted.Finally alargenumberofassociationshavebeentested.Whilethismay haveresultedinsomesigniﬁcantresultsduetochance,theintent oftheanalysiswasexploratory.

5. Conclusions

AlthoughPElessons havethepotentialtocontributesigniﬁ- cantlytostudents’overallphysicalactivity,thisstudydemonstrates

thatPEisnotcurrentlyreachingitsfullpotentialinassistingstu- dentstomeettheirrecommendeddailyamountofphysicalactivity.

Thisisoneoftheﬁrststudiesinternationallytodescribethephys- icalactivitylevelsofsecondaryschoolstudentswithinPElessons indisadvantagedareas.Ofconcern,MVPAmakesupalittlemore thanathirdofaPElesson.Athird ofthelessonwasalsospent inlessonmanagement.AsschoolPEhasthepotentialtomakean importantcontributiontodisadvantagedstudents’dailyphysical activitylevel,improvingthequalityofPEshouldbeahighpriority.

6. Practicalimplications

•MVPAwithinPEindisadvantagedschoolsappearstobelow.

•GivenPEprovidesavaluableopportunityforstudentsattending disadvantagedschooltoacquireMVPA,improvingactivitylevels inPEisapriority.

•Reducingtheamountoflessontimespentinmanagementisa priority.

•Furtherresearchonincreasingactivelearningtimeinsecondary schoolslocatedindisadvantagedareasiswarranted.

Acknowledgements

ThefundsforthisprojectwereobtainedthroughaNSWMinistry ofHealth ‘HealthPromotionDemonstration’Grant. Theauthors aregratefulforthesupportofparticipatingschools,teachersand students.

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