Walking forum report shows need to expand physical activity in schools

With childhood obesity expanding to epidemic proportions in the United States, educators, researchers and health practitioners are actively seeking to identify effective means of addressing this public-health crisis.

Among the solutions proposed by teachers, researchers and others who met during a roundtable discussion of the issues at a major international conference at the University of Illinois, is the integration of physical activity programming throughout the curriculum in the nation’s schools. In other words, the group recommended that physical activity no longer be confined to the domain of the physical education classes.

“There are a number of steps that can be taken to accomplish this,” said U. of I. kinesiology and community health professor Weimo (pronounced WE-moh) Zhu, the lead organizer of the “Walking for Health” conference. For example, “science teachers can teach the science behind physical activity – theories about energy transfer. Or teachers can combine graphics and arts, going on a walk to look at different parts of the city.”

A summary of the group’s findings and recommendations was compiled in a recently published consensus report titled “We Move the Kids.” The report – along with 10 others by conference participants – was published this past summer in a supplemental volume of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (Vol. 40, No. 7), the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. The ACSM was a co-sponsor of the 2005 walking conference with the U. of I.

Zhu called the supplement “the most comprehensive collection of the current literature on walking.”

The “We Move the Kids” roundtable discussion and follow-up report focused on strategies for promoting physical activity, integrating physical activity with other health behaviors in school curricula, and potential barriers to accomplishing these goals.

“There was a general recommendation to go beyond what happens in the P.E. class, and to try to create a healthy environment for the children during school and after school across the curriculum,” said Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko (VOY-tek HODGE-koh-zye-koh), the head of the kinesiology and community health department and a co-author of the roundtable report.

Chodzko-Zajko said the concept of integrating topics across the curriculum is not necessarily a new pedagogical idea.

“It’s very common, especially at the elementary level. So, if there’s a major theme occurring – elections, or some big national event – it’s not unusual for elementary schools to integrate that across the curriculum, in math, geography, social sciences. The idea here is that concepts not only in physical activity, but concepts in wellness, need to be integrated.

“If you talk to the pedagogy people, they say two things: Kids need physical education, where they learn motor skills and activities that are going to set them up to develop the competencies they need to be physically active. But they also need to know how to be regularly physically active.