Physical activity and learning

The promotion of regular physical activity within society has become a major public health objective, in an effort to improve health internationally and to prevent the development of obesity and chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Childhood is a crucial period to develop healthy behaviours, such as physical activity, that can track into adolescence and to a lesser extent into adulthood. Establishing physical activity habits in children is vital, with recent International trends revealing that many children prefer sedentary activities despite physical activity opportunities being readily available. In Australia, most children are failing to meet the recommended national physical activity guidelines and exceeding the recommended guidelines for screen time. Education is crucial to developing children’s physical activity participation. Primary school children spend the majority of their weekdays at school (above 30 hours per week) and can learn physical activity skills via curricular (e.g. Physical Education and Sport Education programs), co-curricular (e.g. school recess periods) and non-curricular initiatives (e.g. after- school activity programmes and active transport programmes). In addition to health, the development of children’s physical activity participation has been linked to a range of cognitive, academic and educational outcomes. This chapter will explore the “interdependence” between both (1) learning to participate in physical activities and (2) the impact of participating in physical activities on learning processes by articulating the:
 The importance of developing primary school children’s physical activity habits for improved health outcomes;
 A diverse range of educational strategies for developing primary school children’s learning of physical activity skills and habits across contexts; and
 An emerging body of evidence that links children’s physical activity participation with the development of cognitive, academic and educational outcomes in school children.