Children improve their fraction skills by playing basketball in class

 

Combining fractions with a basketball improves pupils’ mathematical skills in primary school, a new study from the University of Copenhagen shows. The researchers call for the approach to be integrated into primary and lower secondary education.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Copenhagen

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There was no blackboard or sedentary math tasks when the students had fractions incorporated into their physical education classes. The students not only found it more fun – they also became better at math.

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Credit: Anders Rostgaard Bystrup

A dribble and a jump shot – followed by a fractions task. That is what physical education classes looked like for a group of pupils and the pupils not only found the lessons more engaging than usual; they also became better at mathematics with a basketball in their hands. That is the conclusion in a new study from the University of Copenhagen.

The study involved more than 300 pupils aged 11 to 13 who took part in an eight-week teaching programme called BasketballMathematics. Here, fractions were directly linked to basketball activities during physical education classes. For example, pupils would take ten shots at the basket and then calculate what fraction of the shots were successful and convert the result into percentages.

Afterwards, pupils who participated in BasketballMathematics performed 15 per cent better in a fractions test compared with a control group that received standard physical education. The results please Jacob Wienecke, Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen and lead researcher on the study.

"I am convinced that sport and physical activity can open up mathematics for pupils who are not otherwise engaged by the subject," he says.

Basketball Mathematics consisted of one weekly lesson over eight weeks, during which mathematics was integrated into basketball drills. According to the researchers, the results show that even relatively small changes to teaching can make a difference.

"These are quite substantial improvements over a short period of time. This suggests that it is possible to strengthen pupils’ mathematical skills without having to find additional teaching time," says Jacob Wienecke.

More effort in the classroom

Fractions are an area that many pupils struggle with. But how well they understand fractions appears to matter. Several studies have shown that pupils’ fractions skills are a strong indicator of how they will perform in other areas of mathematics later in life.

In the study, pupils experienced the teaching as more engaging than traditional classroom instruction. To a greater extent than usual, they felt they mastered the tasks and took a more active part in the lessons.

This was also reflected in their results. In addition to improvements in fractions, pupils performed around five per cent better in other mathematical tasks.

"Our hypothesis is that the children get positive experiences with mathematics, and that this may encourage them to put more effort into math in the classroom as well," says Jacob Wienecke.

At the same time, the pupils also improved their basketball skills which shows that integrating academic content into physical education does not come at the expense of learning a new sport.

Small changes with a big impact

The researchers stress that the results should be interpreted with caution. This is partly because the pupils received slightly more mathematics teaching than the control group, and partly because the study was relatively short. Thus, it is unclear whether the effect will last in the longer term.

"But we know from other studies that pupils’ level of math at this stage is often linked to their later performance. So, if you can raise their level here, it may potentially influence their educational trajectory long term," says Jacob Wienecke.

More ball games in teaching

So, should schools start integrating more ball-playing activities into other subjects? Yes, says Jacob Wienecke, who is an advocate of this approach.

"Our research shows that you can easily invite other subjects into physical education and make it work. And it can actually make children experience that subject in a completely different way, while still preserving their motivation and enjoyment of learning," he says.

The researchers hope that more schools will work to integrate physical activity into teaching. They have developed a teaching compendium that teachers can use freely if they want to try the method in practice. Although the study is based on basketball, the principles can be transferred to other activities, such as volleyball.

"If it were up to me, one out of five math lessons each week would be active math. The most important thing is that the movement makes sense in relation to what the pupils are meant to learn, so that they are not just solving a task and then running a lap around the school," says Jacob Wienecke.

 

About BasketballMathematics

• The study involved 309 pupils in Years 5 and 6 (aged 11 to 13)
• An eight-week programme with one lesson per week (60 minutes)
• Mathematics was directly linked to basketball teaching, with pupils using their performance (for example shots or dribbling) to work with fractions and percentages
• There were two control groups: one received standard physical education, and the other only had basketball in physical education
• The result was a 15 per cent improvement in fractions and a 5 per cent improvement in other mathematical tasks
• Both pupils in BasketballMathematics and in the basketball control group improved their basketball skills
• Pupils also reported higher motivation, engagement and a sense of mastery during the lessons
• Participants in Basketball Mathematics received slightly more mathematics teaching than the control groups
• BasketballMathematics has also been tested with 756 pupils in Years 1 to 5, although the focus there was not on academic improvement
• Videos and descriptions of the method can be found on the BasketballMathematics site.

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Journal

Educational Psychology Review

DOI

10.1007/s10648-026-10175-y 

Coaching parents of preschool children improved child skills through grade seven

 

Children whose parents received play-based instructional aids displayed fewer conduct problems and higher cognitive skills in middle school

The children of parents who received coaching and support materials in preschool had fewer conduct problems in middle school and higher levels of academic skills more than seven years later, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers.

In a recent study published in Development and Psychopathology, the research team examined seventh grade data from children who participated during preschool in the Research Based, Developmentally Informed (REDI) program, a supplemental educational program. Results demonstrated that the subset of REDI students whose parents received coaching and support materials had fewer conduct problems in middle school and higher levels of working memory — the ability to hold and manipulate information in the brain.

“This study shows how important it is to involve parents in the development of key educational skills,” said Karen Bierman, Evan Pugh University Professor of Psychology and lead author of the study.

Children who are ready for school when they enter kindergarten — those who have skills such as following classroom rules, sitting still and listening to directions — are much more likely to succeed throughout their education, Bierman said. However, children from environments that lack educational and financial resources are less likely to have these skills when they start school.

“Head Start, a federally funded preschool program for children from low-income families, gives children with fewer resources a better chance of success in school and later life,” Bierman said. “But the program was not fully bridging the achievement gap between children from lower and higher income households, so we developed REDI to promote the development of school readiness skills. Now, we are seeing those skill improvements pay off over the long term.”

Around 20 years ago, Bierman and her collaborators created and tested REDI, which targeted social-emotional learning and literacy development in Head Start classrooms. Even though the program improved student performance both in emotional and academic skills, some benefits faded by the end of first grade. Later in elementary school, REDI students were performing academically like their peers who had not participated in REDI.

To see if the duration of more benefits could be extended, the researchers developed another program for REDI children’s parents. Parents received coaching on how to build their children’s skills and play-based instructional materials and activities to help connect the home environment with the preschool environment. For example, parents received grocery store props for pretend play, along with coaching on how to support their child’s language and emerging literacy skills using these props.

In this study, the researchers compared 105 Head Start participants who received REDI at school to 95 Head Start participants who received REDI at school and whose parents also received the coaching and materials.

When former REDI participants were in seventh grade, a research assistant from Penn State visited their homes. Students were assessed on their reading achievement and memory skills. They also answered questions about how competent they felt in social situations and how often they associate with children who misbehave or engage in antisocial behavior. Additionally, the students’ language arts teachers completed surveys that ranked students’ social aggression and other antisocial behaviors.

The results demonstrated that the parent program improved children’s abilities in multiple dimensions. Children whose parents had received the coaching scored higher on working memory tasks, and — though it was not statistically significant — they also trended toward better performance in reading. These students were more likely to report feeling socially confident and reported fewer associations with children who misbehave or engage in antisocial behavior. Additionally, their teachers reported that these children displayed lower levels of conduct problems.

The researchers also studied the mechanisms through which the REDI program worked. They found that immediately after the parent program, students displayed improvements in learning behaviors and social competence. Over time, these improvements indirectly led to the outcomes of this study.

“Notably, this is not a comparison between children who received REDI and those who did not,” said Damon Jones, research professor of health and human development and co-author of the study. “This is a comparison between children who received REDI enrichments at school whose parents did or did not receive the REDI coaching and materials at home. All the children in the program experienced long-term social and behavioral improvements that were reported in other studies. The improvements reflected in this study are specifically related to the parent-focused program.”

The researchers said this research demonstrates the potential to improve people’s lives by involving parents in early childhood education.

“I’m very excited to see that supporting parent engagement when a child is in preschool can have this kind of positive influence over time,” Bierman said. “One third of the participating parents had not finished high school and only 4% had a college degree. Families had few financial resources but were invested in supporting their children’s school success. Providing them with some play-based materials and coaching enabled them to build skills in their children that lasted many years into their educations.”

Other Penn State researchers who contributed to this research include Janet Welsh, research professor in the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, and Brenda Heinrichs, lead statistician on the REDI project.

The National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded this research.

At Penn State, researchers are solving real problems that impact the health, safety and quality of life of people across the commonwealth, the nation and around the world.

For decades, federal support for research has fueled innovation that makes our country safer, our industries more competitive and our economy stronger. Recent federal funding cuts threaten this progress.

Learn more about the implications of federal funding cuts to our future at Research or Regress.

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Journal

Development and Psychopathology

DOI

10.1017/S0954579426101497 

Children’s motivation and attitudes towards learning play a key role in academic success

 

A major new study led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London has revealed that non-cognitive skills — such as motivation, curiosity, academic interest, and self-belief — play a key role in translating children’s genetic dispositions into academic achievement. 

Published in Nature Communications, the research provides new insight into how genetics and environment interact during childhood and adolescence to shape learning outcomes. 

The study followed more than 5,000 children across England and Wales aged 7 to 16, combining genetic analyses with developmental and psychological data, to better understand why children differ in educational achievement. 

The findings suggest that education systems should place greater emphasis on fostering non-cognitive skills alongside traditional academic learning, as these characteristics may help children fulfil their educational potential. 

Researchers found that non-cognitive skills could explain a substantial proportion of the genetic prediction of academic achievement throughout compulsory education, with their influence increasing as children grew older. 

The strongest effects were linked to education-focused characteristics such as academic curiosity, motivation, self-concept, and attitudes towards learning. 

Dr Quan Zhou, postdoctoral researcher at Queen Mary University of London and lead author of the study, said: 

“Rather than assuming that genetic dispositions predict school achievement directly, we tested whether they operated indirectly through motivation, attitudes towards learning and emotional and behavioural regulation. We found that non-cognitive skills more closely linked to education, such as academic interest, curiosity and self-perceived ability, played a greater role than emotional and behavioural regulation.” 

The researchers used polygenic scoring — a method that aggregates thousands of DNA variants associated with education-related outcomes — to examine how genetic differences relate to academic achievement over development. 

The study found that non-cognitive skills mediated between less than 5% and up to 64% of the genetic prediction of academic achievement, depending on age and measure. The effects were strongest for student-centred characteristics such as academic interest, curiosity, and self-perceived ability. 

Importantly, the researchers also examined differences between siblings to better understand the role of environmental experiences within families. 

Even when comparing siblings raised in the same home environment, non-cognitive skills continued to explain part of the link between genetic dispositions and academic achievement. 

Professor Margherita Malanchini, Reader at Queen Mary University of London and senior author of the study, said: 

“Our findings are in line with transactional models of human development that proposes that, partly in line with their genetic dispositions, children actively seek out different environmental experiences on the basis of their non-cognitive characteristics and in turn, these will lead to different learning outcomes.”  

The findings add to growing evidence that non-cognitive skills may represent an important target for educational interventions. 

Researchers say the work highlights the importance of supporting children’s motivation, confidence, curiosity, and engagement with learning throughout their education. It suggests that there is a room for improving the education system, which is often heavily focused on cognitive performance, while the non-cognitive side of learning receives less attention.  

The findings suggest that fostering non-cognitive skills could help create more inclusive educational environments and improve learning outcomes for children with different backgrounds and abilities. 

The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from University College London, King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh, Royal Holloway University of London, and the Max Planck Institute. 

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-72838-2 

More steps linked to healthier rest for college students

 

 – University students who aren’t always enthused about walking across campus for class can take heart in new research that suggests lots of daily steps translates to improved mental health and better sleep.

The study by scientists in the Oregon State University College of Liberal Arts was published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine. Their ongoing research also led to findings, published in Chronobiology International, that show negative mental health outcomes are more likely among college students who stay up late and sleep in late.

Each study involved more than 200 students from two different universities.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sleep problems are a common and damaging presence in the college student population. More than one-quarter of students, for example, experience insomnia.

Quality restorative sleep helps underpin cognitive function, mood regulation, metabolism and many other aspects of well-being, said OSU’s Jessica Dietch, assistant professor of psychological science.

“Poor sleep is detrimental to the health of college students,” said Dietch, a licensed clinical psychologist who is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine. “It has been consistently associated with increased stress and anxiety, as well as decreased academic performance.”

In the step-count project, doctoral student John Richmond Sy sought to test whether the 10,000-steps recommendation had a connection with quality sleep.

“In essence, we found that more steps are associated with sleeping earlier and sleeping better,” said Sy, now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona. “More steps, on average, resulted in earlier sleep timing, enhanced sleep quality and better mental health.”

The study did not, however, reveal a minimum step-count threshold for improved sleep and mental health. The scientists also didn’t find any association between step count and other sleep parameters such as total sleep time and sleep efficiency.

“Also, in future research we’d like to account for sedentariness, walking location and walking intensity,” he said.

In the Chronobiology International paper, Sy, Dietch and collaborators at OSU and the University of Arizona looked at sleep midpoint – basically, halfway between the time you go to bed and the time you get up. If your average midpoint is 1 a.m., you’re likely a morning lark; if it’s 5 a.m., you’re probably a night owl.

“When we think about sleep, we often think about duration and quality and overlook other features of sleep like timing and regularity,” Sy said. “I was interested in whether sleep timing and variability were associated with mental health, which is particularly relevant for young adults who have the tendency to stay up late.”

On average, Sy said, a late sleep midpoint was shown to be associated with worse mental health outcomes in general, while irregularity of sleep was only associated with depression.\

In addition to trying for a consistent sleep and wake time (even on weekends), Sy offers the following tips for people of all ages:

• Get bright light exposure in the morning. “It helps align your circadian rhythm to the 24-hour day,” he said. “It helps wake you up in the morning and helps you fall asleep earlier in the evening and improve sleep quality.” 
• Be active, which can improve both your sleep and mental health. “You might even try being active while getting your bright light exposure in the morning,” Sy said.
• Avoid alcohol, cannabis, nicotine, caffeine and heavy meals close to bedtime; try to keep that time relaxing.
• Keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet.
• Avoid activities unrelated to sleep or sex in your bed. “When we repeat a behavior at a certain location, we start to associate that place with that behavior and how that behavior makes us think and feel,” he said. “If we do work or homework or use our phones to doomscroll while in bed, we start to associate the bed with alertness or anxiety instead of sleepiness.”
• Don't rely solely on your Fitbit or Apple watch’s evaluation of your sleep. “Wearables are useful to understand trends, but they are not infallible,” Sy said. “Remember, the wrist is not the brain.”

Moderate screen time may speed recovery in youth with concussion

 Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have found that moderate screen time might be better for concussion recovery than no screen time at all. In a study published today in British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that about 141 minutes of screen time each day for the first three days following concussion was associated with quicker recovery.

“These findings support that moderate screen time – not too little or too much – may support concussion recovery,” said lead author Jingzhen Ginger Yang, PhD, MPH, principal investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s. “A median of 141 minutes of screen time each day was associated with a 35% faster recovery, compared to 260 minutes of screen time each day. Youth who use screens for more than four hours per day or less than two hours per day may be at risk for slower concussion symptom resolution.”

This new study, conducted by experts in Nationwide Children’s Center for Injury Research and Policy and division of Sports Medicine evaluated screen time and type in the first week after a concussion and explored the associations between screen time (duration and type) and concussion recovery in youth.

While some research on pediatric concussion has relied on self-reported screen time, this study used a wearable device to objectively measure out-of-school screen time, measured in minutes per day. Screen time use was classified as smartphone, TV, computer/tablet, or gaming during the first week post-injury among youth aged 11-17 years with a physician-diagnosed concussion.

The type of screen time mattered, too. Around two hours per day of smartphone and TV use were associated with quicker recovery, while computer/tablet and gaming were not significantly related to faster symptom resolution. “This study showed that youth with concussion may benefit from some smartphone or TV use, rather than avoiding screen time completely or overusing screens in the days following a concussion,” said Thomas Pommering, DO, chief of sports medicine at Nationwide Children's and co-author of the study. “While clinical trials are needed to keep moving forward, this study shows a potential development in concussion treatment practices, contrary to previous guidance that recommended total avoidance of screens.”

This study has several important clinical implications:

• Moderate screen time, neither too much or too little, during the first week after concussion may help accelerate recovery.
• Pediatricians may consider recommending a balanced level of screen time among youth immediately after concussion.
• Different types of screen activity may also affect recovery differently. Youth with concussion may benefit from monitoring both quantity and type screen use after injury, potentially with support of wearable technology, to aid in recovery.
• Clinical trials are necessary to determine the optimal screen time and specific types of screen activities that may support concussion recovery among youth.

Families should collaborate with their child’s care team to develop an individualized care plan that is tailored to injury severity, symptom progressing and recovery milestones, with adjustments made throughout recovery.

More outdoor play during preschool years linked to better mental health later in childhood

 

Children who spend more time playing outdoors between the ages of two and four may be less likely to develop emotional and behavioural difficulties later in childhood.

That’s according to new research led by the University of Exeter, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Previous studies have shown a link between outdoor play and children’s mental health, but this is the first study to explore how outdoor play in the early years relates to children’s mental health over time.

Most children have low levels of mental health difficulties that stay low across childhood, but some increasingly experience difficulties with their mental health and others have difficulties from an early age. These new findings suggest the more often children play outdoors as preschoolers, the more likely it is that their mental health problems will be low through to middle childhood (aged eight).

Researchers analysed data from 4,151 children from the Growing Up in Scotland cohort dataset and looked at symptoms of mental health when children were aged four, five, six, and eight years old. This included externalising symptoms - which are problem behaviours such as aggression, impulsivity and hyperactivity - and internalising symptoms such as anxiety and depression. 

The research found those who played outdoors more frequently at ages two, three and four were more likely to remain in a low-symptom, good mental health group through to middle childhood. Specifically, the results showed that for each additional day that a child plays outdoors in a typical week during the preschool years, the odds of that child having a healthy profile of mental health symptoms through to age eight increases by between six and 14 per cent.

Professor Helen Dodd from the University of Exeter led the study and said: “Our findings suggest that providing young children with more opportunities to play outside could be a simple, low-cost way to support better mental health and should be considered within public health, education and planning policies. This includes providing adequate funding for the provision and maintenance of playgrounds and protection for the range of spaces that children and families use for play, which include informal spaces close to home, parks and other green spaces. These public spaces are especially important for people without access to a garden.”

To isolate the effect of outdoor play, the researchers controlled for a range of other related variables including child sex, ethnicity, highest education level within household, number of physical conditions that the child experiences, working status of parents, and whether the family had access to a park within ten minutes of home and/or access to a garden.

Marguerite Hunter Blair OBE, chair of the UK Children’s Play Policy Forum, welcomed the study and said: “These findings clearly demonstrate the importance of play-based early interventions that can have a long-lasting positive impact on preschool children’s mental health. This evidence shows that our young children will benefit significantly from more play opportunities and better spaces to play. To support this, governments and local authorities must build outdoor play into key policies and work with communities to create and improve these essential play spaces."

The paper titled ‘Early Outdoor Play Predicts Trajectories of Child Mental Health in a Population-Based Cohort’ is published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

The study, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, University College London, and Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, was supported by funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

ENDS

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Journal

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

DOI

10.1111/jcpp.70175 

The Effect of Height on Adolescents' Body Image Perceptions

 This paper estimates the causal effect of height on adolescents’ body image, encompassing self-perceptions of weight, the accuracy of those perceptions, and weight-management aspirations. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the authors isolate the effects of height on body image outcomes, finding that taller adolescents are more likely to perceive themselves as overweight, even holding BMI constant, and are less likely to underestimate their weight category. However, the direction of misclassification diverges by gender: taller boys are more likely to correctly assess their weight category, while taller girls are more likely to overestimate it. These perception shifts translate into behavioral responses for girls but not for boys. 

A one-inch increase in height raises the probability that a girl reports wanting to lose weight by 3.0 percentage points (6.2 percent), with effects concentrated among girls in the normal weight range. 

Taken together, these findings establish height as a salient determinant of body image in adolescence, operating independently of body mass.