Five-minute exercise sessions during lectures: positive impacts

 

In a new study, a professor at The Ohio State University showed that five-minute exercise sessions during lectures were feasible and that students reported positive impacts on their attention and motivation, engagement with their peers and course enjoyment.

 

The results may not be particularly surprising, but they do suggest a solution for a long-standing issue in college classrooms, said Scott Hayes, author of the study and associate professor of psychology at Ohio State.

 

“Nobody can stay on task for 80 minutes straight without their mind wandering and their attention waxing and waning,” Hayes said.

 

“If you give students a break and get their bodies moving for just a few minutes, it can help them get their minds back to the lecture and probably be more productive. I know it helps me, as well.”

 

The study was published recently in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.

 

Hayes said he was inspired to do this research by a similar laboratory-based study of how students responded to exercise breaks during a single video lecture.

 

That study found positive results, but Hayes wondered if it could work in the real world of in-person university lectures, over the course of a full semester.

 

He tested it in four of his own classes. One to two student-led exercise sessions (five minutes each) were implemented in each lecture during upper-level psychology courses with 20 to 93 students. The classes were 80 minutes long.

 

At the beginning of the course, Hayes broke the class into small groups, and each group was responsible for developing a five-minute exercise session. Hayes reviewed the exercise sessions beforehand to make sure they were workable and safe.

 

“I wanted the students to design and lead the sessions because I thought it would help them buy into the idea, and help with their engagement and investment,” he said.

 

Hayes admitted that the sessions were sometimes a bit awkward at the beginning of the semester.  The students didn’t know exactly how to act, and they weren’t used to doing something like this during a class.

 

But students soon got into the flow and had fun with the sessions. Some of the exercises students included were jumping jacks, lunges, overhead press (with a backpack) and hamstring stretches.

 

Hayes said a few student groups got creative in designing their sessions.

 

“One of the groups designed a theme of going to an orchard and picking apples. So they had their fellow students reaching up as if they were picking apples from a tree and reaching down to put them in a basket,” Hayes said.

 

Hayes said he knew the program was a success when students spontaneously provided anonymous comments with their end-of-semester students evaluations. One student’s comment reflected a common response: “I enjoyed the exercise breaks in class and really felt like they motivated me to focus more.”

 

In one of the classes studied, Hayes gave the students a survey at the end of the course about the exercise sessions.  All the students reported that they had never taken a class that had an exercise break during the lecture.

 

Students rated the exercise breaks as improving attention, enjoyable, and improving peer engagement.  They reported that, compared to other classes, they preferred the class with an exercise break and they would like more classes to offer such sessions.

 

One open question could be whether these exercise sessions improved student learning and grades.  Hayes said that is beyond the scope of this study, and it would be difficult to do that kind of research.  Comparisons of different classes, at different times of day, and with a variety of teachers, would make comparisons challenging to make.

 

But this study found that exercise breaks were feasible to do and that students enjoyed them and found them useful – which he said may make it worthwhile for other faculty to try.

 

Some already have.

 

“Two colleagues in the psychology department here at Ohio State have told me they have started exercise breaks in their courses,” Hayes said. “It may be catching on.”

 

Updated school nutrition standards

 Setting kids up for success. It’s what every parent, guardian, and educator wants for our nation’s schoolchildren. They understand the power that small changes have to make a big difference in the learning environment. That’s why the USDArecently announced updated school nutrition standards.

Right now, schools across our country are serving breakfasts and lunches to nearly 30 million children every day. Healthy school meals that represent the main source of nutrition for more than half of these students and are an essential part of the educational landscape — like teachers, books, or computers – helping to unlock kids’ full potential in and out of the classroom.

It is no surprise that poor nutrition and diet-related diseases are correlated with lower academic achievement, worse health outcomes, and more behavioral problems for kids. We recognize the tremendous work that educators and school nutrition professionals do every day to ensure our children are fueled to thrive. Healthy school meals are an essential element of a quality education and are a part of the solution to promote children’s health. 

School breakfast offers the jump start to a great day. It sets the tone for the rest of the day, especially for children. It’s why kids who eat breakfast have increased alertness and improved moods throughout the morning, fostering a better learning experience. What’s more, studies find that students who participate in school meal programs consume more whole grains, milk, fruits, and vegetables during mealtimes and enjoy better overall diet quality.

These pivotal updates  to school nutrition standards have been shaped by a host of stakeholders, including parents, devoted teachers, school administrators, school nutrition directors, and industry leaders, and are informed by the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

These new standards put kids’ health at the forefront by:

• Reducing the amounts of added sugars in school meals, especially at breakfast.
• Making it easier to offer healthy proteins at breakfast.
• Scaling back sodium levels over time.
• Continuing to emphasize fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains, to give kids the right balance of nutrients for healthy, tasty meals.
• That’s not all. We are also providing flexibilities to make it easier for schools to accommodate vegetarian diets and the cultural and religious food preferences of students. This way, every child has access to the nutritious foods they desire and deserve to nourish their bodies and minds.

We encourage educators to uplift these school meal enhancements as an opportunity to maximize the impact of what they do best – educate. Because it’s that commitment to inspire that enables all students to thrive.

For that important gift, our nation couldn’t be more grateful.

To learn more about the updated school nutrition standards, please visit the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website.

Largest Year-to-Year Increase in Over 20 Years for Public School Spending Per Pupil

 Nationally, public school spending per student rose 8.9% from $14,358 in FY 2021 to $15,633 in FY 2022, according to new data from the 2022 Annual Survey of School System Finances released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This represents the largest percentage increase in public school spending per pupil in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in over 20 years. Statistics are not adjusted for inflation or cost-of-living differences between geographic areas.

The states spending the most per pupil were New York ($29,873), the District of Columbia ($27,425), New Jersey ($25,099), Vermont ($24,608), and Connecticut ($24,453). The states spending the least per pupil were Utah ($9,552), Idaho ($9,670), Arizona ($10,315), Oklahoma ($10,890), and Mississippi ($10,984).

Other highlights:

• Seven out of nine states in the Northeast region ranked among the top 10 in current spending per pupil in FY 2022; the remaining two states in the region, Pennsylvania and Maine, ranked 11th and 14th, respectively. Sixteen out of the 20 states with the lowest per pupil spending were in the South or West regions. The remaining four were Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and South Dakota.
• Among  the 100 largest school systems (by enrollment), New York City School District in New York ($35,914) spent the most per pupil in FY 2022, followed by Washington Schools in the District of Columbia ($27,425), San Francisco Unified in California ($23,654), Atlanta School District in Georgia ($22,882), Los Angeles Unified in California ($21,940), and Detroit School District in Michigan ($21,771).
• Public school systems in Mississippi (23.3%), South Dakota (21.7%), Montana (20.9%), Alaska (20.6%), and Arkansas (20.4%) had the highest percentage of revenue from federal sources compared to their total revenue in FY 2022, while those in New York (7.2%), New Jersey (7.4%), Connecticut (8.0%), New Hampshire (8.8%),  and Massachusetts (9.4%) had the lowest.
• Total school district debt increased by 2.1% from $532.5 billion in FY 2021 to $543.9 billion in FY 2022.

Revenue

Elementary and secondary education revenue from all sources in FY 2022 amounted to $878.2 billion, up 8.4% from the prior year.

• Revenue raised from local sources amounted to $375.2 billion (42.7%) of elementary-secondary funding, while the federal government contributed $119.1 billion (13.6%).
  • Of the $375.2 billion schools received from local sources, $326.2 billion was from taxes and parent government contributions while property taxes accounted for 65.4% of revenue from local sources.
    
• State governments contributed the greatest share (43.7% or $383.9 billion) of all public school system funding.

Expenditures

Total expenditure by public elementary-secondary school systems totaled $857.3 billion in FY 2022, up 7.8% from the prior year.

• Of the total expenditure for elementary and secondary education, current spending made up $746.9 billion (87.1%) and capital outlay made up $84.2 billion (9.8%).
• The largest expenditure category was instructional salaries with public elementary and secondary school systems spending $266.4 billion for salaries in FY 2022, which was 31.1% of total expenditures.
• Expenditure for instruction for all school systems amounted to $446.9 billion or 59.8% of total current spending, while expenditure for support services amounted to $264.6 billion (35.4%).

The Annual Survey of School System Finances provides data about public school spending – including per student (pre-K to grade 12) expenditures – debt and assets (cash and security holdings) for all states and the District of Columbia.

A new dashboard that centralizes state-level data from the Digest of Education Statistics.

 

The Digest State Dashboard provides users with a compilation of state-specific data, presented in an easy-to-use format. As the first-ever Digest data tool, the Dashboard was developed to visualize state-level Digest data on topics of interest in U.S. education. With individual pages for each of the 50 states, DC, the Bureau of Indian Education, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, users can explore state- and entity-specific data, all in one place. Selected state findings from the Digest State Dashboard include: Overall trends of public school enrollment In Puerto Rico , 434,609 students were enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in 2012 and 250,668 were enrolled in 2022. Characteristics of public school students In Arizona in 2022, some 48 percent of public school students were Hispanic, 35 percent were White, and 6 percent were Black. Also in 2022, some 13 percent of Arizona public school students had a disability. Private school education In the District of Columbia in 2021, there were 80 private elementary and secondary schools, which enrolled 20,620 students and employed 2,370 full-time-equivalent teachers. 4-year adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) In 2021–22 in Kentucky, the overall 4-year ACGR was 90 percent. For economically disadvantaged students the ACGR was 88 percent, and for students with disabilities it was 80 percent. Each figure in the Dashboard features the most recently published data from the Digest. The Dashboard will be continuously updated throughout the year, as data become available in the Digest, including two postsecondary figures on enrollment and institutions and student charges in May 2024. To learn more about the features of this new tool, read the blog post NCES Centralizes State-Level Data in New Digest State Dashboard.

Research reveals tools to make STEM degrees more affordable

 In a new study in Issues, Dominique J. Baker, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development and the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration at the University of Delaware, explored the role of student loans on hopeful students striving for college degrees, particularly in STEM. 

The cost of attending a public four-year college in the United States has more than doubled since the early 1990s, when inflation is factored in. 

Undergraduate student loan debt has become unmanageable for a wide swath of borrowers in the United States. Bachelor’s degree recipients borrow on average $41,300, with a median of $30,000. The median borrower still owes 92% of their loan four years after earning a bachelor’s degree, and nearly one-third of people who took out a student loan between 1998 and 2018 fell into default. As part of its emergency response to the pandemic, the US Department of Education suspended action on federal student loans that were in default as of March 13, 2020, until at least September 2024.

Student loan debt is uneven across racial groups.

Recent data has also shown variation in loan repayment patterns by major, challenging the popular assumption that all STEM graduates have similar prospects after college. Though the median amount owed on student loans for STEM majors four years after earning their degree is 80%, this varies—from 59% for engineering to 94% for biological and physical sciences and agricultural sciences. These figures do not include the amount of additional debt students may incur in pursuit of further graduate education. Due to interest accrual, delayed repayment of undergraduate student loans can also result in greater debt burdens.

The fact that differential tuition may make a STEM major more expensive than a non-STEM major at some universities deserves more attention when considering how to make STEM degrees more affordable. For example, advanced, in-state students at the University of Maryland pursuing engineering and computer science degrees pay $1,500 more per semester than their peers enrolled in other disciplines (nearly 27% higher).

The United States currently relies on a rough patchwork of policies and mechanisms to project the image of college affordability while actually depending on students to navigate huge variances in higher education costs. Inevitably, they’re often left to shoulder a debt burden that might follow them around for decades. Lessons from other countries on how to assemble the policy patchwork more deliberately—to actually lower student costs and subsidize tuition in targeted disciplines—may help.

Experts on college affordability, tuition setting, and other related topics in higher education should convene to examine the value of tuition caps as a policy, particularly within the context of bringing the missing millions into STEM disciplines. Since most public university subsidies come from state coffers, federal efforts alone are unlikely to solve college affordability. And yet there are no clear policy tools available to ensure that states contribute their due for higher education. The decentralized nature of US higher education conceals useful information from researchers, decisionmakers, and policymakers—like the national average tuition increase for STEM degrees under differential tuition. Higher education leaders, especially in STEM fields, should be invested in creating spaces for ongoing conversations about real changes in college affordability as another avenue for removing barriers to STEM education and careers.

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JOURNAL

Issues in Science and Technology

DOI

10.58875/RNDC4525

Adolescents: almost 17% experience weight-related bullying online, almost 70 percent of Twitter users reporting being bullied

 

The freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0299830

Each additional hour of social media use equaled a 13% increase in weight-related bullying

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From a survey of about 12,000 adolescents from Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the US, and the UK, about 17 percent of respondents reported experiencing weight-related bullying online, especially users of Twitter and Twitch, according to a study published April 17, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kyle Ganson from University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.

Screen time and social media use are common among adolescents—and people in general—for entertainment and social connection, though many cons exist, including cyberbullying. Here, Ganson and colleagues investigated weight-related bullying in adolescents across different types of recreational screen time and more specifically, across six different social media platforms.

The authors analyzed data from 12,031 adolescents (ages 10-17 years) from Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States originally surveyed in the 2020 International Food Policy Study Youth Survey. In addition to demographic data, adolescents provided the number of weekday hours they spent “watching YouTube,” “on social media (messaging, posting, or liking posts),” “watching TV shows, series, or movies,” “playing games on smartphones, computers, or game consoles,” and “browsing, reading websites, googling, etc,”, and noted whether or not they used any of six different social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, and Twitch. They also responded to the question “Do you get teased or made fun of because of your weight?”

The surveyed adolescents spent an average of 7.5 hours total on recreational screen time every weekday. Almost 17 percent of respondents also reported weight-related bullying sometimes, a lot, or all the time, with a 13 percent increase in bullying reported for every additional hour of screen time reported. Almost 70 percent of Twitter users reported being bullied, and Twitch was the second-highest social media platform linked to weight-related bullying. The associations between screen time, social media use, and weight-related bullying were strongest for adolescents in Canada, Australia, and the UK. Boys were less likely to experience weight-related bullying than girls when using Twitch or playing video games.

The authors note all the data was self-reported, which may have introduced recall bias, and note future research is needed to address this growing social issue.

The authors add: “Adolescents across 6 diverse countries who use social media are more likely to experience weight-related bullying victimization. This experience can have adverse effects, including poor body image, disordered eating behaviors, and anxiety and depression symptoms. There is a strong need to make social media and online spaces more accepting and safer for young people to engage in.”

The 2023 State of Preschool Yearbook

 

The 2023 State of Preschool Yearbook provides critical insights into the current landscape of preschool education in America. Amidst the challenges of the past few years, state pre-K programs have shown remarkable resilience, with enrollment, spending, and quality standards reaching new highs in 2022-2023. However, there is still much work to be done to ensure equitable access to quality preschool education for every child.

Here are some key highlights from the report:

• Enrollment Increase: Enrollment in preschool increased in 2022-2023, reaching all-time highs for the percentage of both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds enrolled. Despite this progress, the number of children enrolled in state-funded preschool remains lower than pre-pandemic levels.

• Increased Spending: State spending on preschool surpassed $11.73 billion, with per-child spending exceeding $7000. Spending increased more than $1 billion from the prior year but inadequate funding remains a nearly universal problem.

• Quality Progress: Progress was made in improving quality standards in four states but too many states still fall short of setting high standards for program quality. Quality matters, and continued efforts are needed to ensure that every child receives a high-quality preschool education.