The Effects of Physical Activity on Cognitive and Learning Abilities in Childhood

: Physical activity breaks in the classroom are an efficient way of promoting healthy behaviors in students, enhancing the development of their cognitive and academic abilities. The effects of active breaks, which are exclusive to the academic environment, are almost entirely positive, only a few papers did not show significant improvements, but they did not show any negative impact on academic performance either. This research was carried out to identify the properties and consequences of active breaks and physical activity during classes in school age. We have examined multiple databases, and we have selected 41 papers accounting for a time span of 15 years. Psychology, medicine, and education databases were the most browsed Most papers revealed positive outcomes for improving skills related to mathematics, language, reading, comprehension, as well as cognitive and executive functions. Overall, the results of this review corroborate the theory that physical education in schools is positively associated with academic performance in children. Education researchers keep investigating in order to fully assess the positive impact on academic performance, behavior during classes, and cognitive functions.


Introduction
Multiple papers prove that academic performance in the first years of primary school is closely associated to healthy behaviors achieved through physical activity (Donnelly et al., 2016), and that its integration in school curricula reduces sedentary behavior.Studies emphasize that children's cognitive function is associated with physical activity, suggesting that physical activity in the classroom could be beneficial (De Bruijn et al., 2019).Exercising leads to the enhancement of memory-related cognitive functions, problem-solving skills, and executive functions (Myer, Faigenbaum, Edwards & Clark, 2015), which help improve academic results in subjects such as mathematics and language (Garcia Hermoso et al, 2020).It's clear that the activities currently offered during physical education classes cannot supply an adequate opportunity to reach the recommended physical activity levels and, in turn, the related benefits (WHO, 2010).activity presented to an experimental group comprising individuals enrolled in kindergarten, primary school and beyond, in the age group of 1-13 (participants criterion), there were no restrictions regarding gender or timespan of intervention; the studies were carried out between 2007 and 2021 (temporal criterion).The selection of studies aimed to establish a link between physical education or physical activity and academic performance (relationship criteria).
Physical activity disrupts the tasks carried out in the classroom.In respect to the exclusion criteria, we discarded the following: studies written in other languages; studies that were incomplete or that lacked data regarding the main results; studies carried out before 2007; active break strategies without physical activity; studies that included disabled children, subjects with special educational needs, and obese children or children with other handicaps; studies carried out on subjects over 13 years old.

Research Strategies
The bibliographic research includes studies published until June 29, 2023, and it was carried out utilizing the following databases: ERIC, PubMed, Google, Google Scholar, PsycLine, EBSCO, SportDISCUS.The keywords were established based on the already existing papers and on the scope of this research.The keywords were utilized in conjunction with the logical operators "and", "or", and "not" as part of the research strategy.Keywords: "physical activity", "physical education", "learning", "academic skills", "cognitive skills", "child*", "effect".In addition, we examined the reference lists of the relevant articles in order to find other potentially eligible studies.We filtered the results based on the type of document: it is for this reason that the selection mainly includes academic research from industry-specific scientific journals.In addition, we set up a chronological filter for the last papers in order to find more recent articles.The systematic research returned a number of potentially relevant papers (827).After excluding the duplicates (174), we turned our focus to the title and the abstract.We discarded an additional 315 articles, as their title did not focus on the research.We subsequently examined the abstract of the remaining 338 papers, 187 of which were discarded because the abstract did not focus on the main topic of our research.Later, we examined the remaining 151 papers in their entirety: only 41 of them were eligible and, therefore, included in the systematic review.
Furthermore, no theories were formulated if a study did not include relevant data or results.As a consequence, each study that failed to provide relevant data or results that could be compatible with our study, was discarded.
The European Educational Researcher | 7 The Results of Each Study  The European Educational Researcher | 19

Analysis of the Studies in Table 3
By analyzing in detail, the studies included in the systematic review, we can compile a brief description of the experiments and their respective results.All the included studies are listed in Table 3.In the study carried out by Donnelly et al. (2017) [30] the focus of the experiment was to examine the effect active breaks in the classroom had on children by utilizing a set of measures such as (WIAT-III) tests.The experiment involved 10-minute active breaks executed twice a day: once in the morning and once in the afternoon, 5 days a week.The study did not find any relevant benefits regarding the improvement of learning abilities.Beck et al. (2016) (2016; 2019) neither of their studies [29,34] were able to attain a shift in executive functions during the implementation of short-term medium to high intensity physical activity programs.Similarly, Lisahunter et al. (2014) [12] did not observe differences in regard to cognitive functions, academic performance, and behavior in the classroom after 20 weeks of 30-minute active breaks.The study carried out by Garcia-Hermoso et al. (2020) [38] examined the effects of active breaks on mathematics and language grades and it highlights a significant tendency towards better grades; the study furthermore reported improvements in regard to cognitive abilities.One of the most recent studies was carried out by Layne et al. (2021) [40] and it resulted in an improvement of the executive functions and the ability to learn mathematics by stimulating children through active breaks of medium and high intensity for 10 minutes a day.Reed et al. (2010) [4] reported a significant improvement after 3 months of physically active classes.Similarly, Grieco et al. (2009;2016) [24] found a significant improvement regarding the time spent on tasks when comparing the levels before and after physical activity.The same researchers carried out another study [2] that highlighted a slight, negligeable, improvement after a medium to high intensity active break of 15 minutes once a day.Mullender et al. (2015a;2015b;2016) carried out three studies [18,19,25].With the first one, carried out in 2015 [18], they proved that, thanks to a combination of medium and high intensity 30-minute physical activity sessions, the behavior of the subjects improved.In the same year, they carried out another study [19] that highlighted, using the same process, an improvement in performance in regard to mathematics, but also a decrease in comprehension in 2-year-olds.This is the only study that found a decline in learning abilities tied to physical activity.One year later, in 2016 [25], another study highlighted major improvements in calculation speed and spelling thanks to the same process.The study conducted by Carlson et al. (2015) [14] revealed a better behavior in the classroom, as reported by the teachers, proving that medium and high intensity active breaks once a day can foster an inclination to coordination.Whitt-Glover et al.
(2011) conducted a study [6] the results of which reported an 11% increase of the time spent on tasks compared to the control group; furthermore, they observed a 16% increase in medium intensity physical activity and a 51% increase in low intensity physical activity.Mavilidi et al. (2020) [39] noticed that, by introducing 5-minute active breaks scheduled in two sessions, there is an improvement in the cognitive approach related to geometry learning.These results were obtained through a test approved by the Nation School Program.Mavilidi, together with Vazou (2021), carried out a study [41] with two groups of subjects: the first one was assigned physical activity during classes, while the second one was assigned active breaks.All subjects saw an improvement in mathematical skills.Vazou et al. (2012), carried out another study [7] on active breaks: 10 minutes of medium intensity physical activity, without a specific schedule.The result showed an improvement in academic performance compared to the control group.
Conversely, Berg et al. (2019) [31], came to the conclusion that 10-minute active breaks once a day do not make a difference when it comes to attention, inhibition, and memory.Likewise, Wilson et al. (2015) [20] did not detect any improvement in behavior and attention after their experiment, which consisted in medium to high intensity 10-minute active breaks The study carried out by Howie et al. (2014;2015) [10], which focused on medium to high intensity 5-, 10-, and 20-minute active breaks, highlighted a significant improvement in behavior during tasks after the 10-minute active break.The same researcher, a year later [16], carried out the same study, examining not only the behavior during tasks, but also mathematical abilities and executive functions.The results pertaining to executive functions did not show any improvement; mathematical skills, on the other hand, showed a significant improvement after the 10-minute active break.Hill et al. (2010;2011) conducted two studies [3,5] which consisted in medium intensity 10 to 15 minute active breaks once a day for a week and then no active breaks for the following week.The results confirmed an improvement in executive functions and attention only for those that were assigned active breaks during the second week as well.Ahamed et al. (2007) [1] assigned the subjects a medium and high intensity 15-minute active break once a day.The results of the experiment highlighted significant improvements in mathematics, reading, and language, while physical activity levels increased.Padial et al. (2019) [32], after integrating physical activity into language learning, reported significant improvements in the memorization of words.The studies carried out by Schmidt et al.
[28] and by Watson et al. (2019) [35] did not highlight any significant improvements in attention and reading after active breaks.Alesi et al. (2020) [36] reported, on the other hand, significant improvements in reading, comprehension, and verbal fluency.Consistent with Alesi, Szabo- Reed et al. (2019) [33] also experimented with active breaks that led to great improvements in grammar, but that had no effects on reading.Goh et al. (2016) [23] and De Greeff et al.
(2016) [22], did not report differences after active breaks.Barnard et al. (2014) [8] proposed a program that involved physical activity integrated into classes, reporting some negligeable improvements.Other researchers that studied the matter were Janssen et al. (2014) [11] and Ma et al. (2015) [17], who did not report any improvements associated with active breaks.Graham et al. (2014) [9] experimented with physical activity integrated into mathematics classes: there were no differences between the test subjects and the control group.Researchers Fakri and Hashim (2020) [37], obtained the same result by using the same method.Resaland et al. (2016) [26] carried out an experiment divided into The European Educational Researcher | 21 3 components, each of them regarding physical activity integrated into classes or active breaks.The results did not show significant effects on reading and English.However, the operation positively affected mathematical calculation.

Discussion
The systematic review aims to examine the effects of physical activity on academic performance in schoolchildren.
By calculating the aggregate value, and simultaneously taking into account the benefits, it is confirmed that physical activity is a useful resource that helps improve academic performance in children.The results may be contrasting among the various classes and learning capabilities: for example, the comparison between mathematical, languagerelated, and reading skills.It is sometimes difficult to interpret the results, and they can be influenced by multiple external factors, such as the type and method of the exercises, the duration and the frequency of the interventions.
Some experiments regarding physical activity during classes highlighted that high intensity physical activity programs produce negligeable improvements in learning abilities [20,22,34].Other experiments, on the other hand, by employing the same type of program, reported a significant increase in academic performance [1,2,10,11,13,14,16,17,18,19,24,25,34,40].One of the effects of physical activity was the development of cognitive functions as well [4,12,40].Given the results, when evaluated in a general context, it is possible to observe that mathematical skills were improved more frequently and by a higher margin than other skills, such as language-related or reading skills, after the integration of physical activity into classes.
The study conducted by Mullender-Wijnsma et al. (2016) [25] is of remarkable importance, as it confirms the general trend.This research examined the results of a 22 weeks long experiment, in which they assigned 30 minutes of medium to high intensity physical activity during mathematics and language classes.General skills saw a significant improvement, both in regards to mathematics, and language and grammar.These crucial results suggest that the improvements observed in the learning of mathematics, and obtained through physical education programs, could potentially be higher, if compared to subjects such as language and reading.A study conducted by Beck et al. (2016) [21] compared the effects of mathematics lessons combined with random physical activity (jumping, crawling, throwing, balancing on one foot), and it showed an improvement in the mathematic skills of children, when high intensity physical activity was introduced.
The study carried out by Carlson et al. (2015) [14] is of great interest, as their experiment was 8 months long, and the children were assigned a medium and high intensity 10-minute active break every day.The teachers studied the children's behavior, reporting a direct link between the increase in active breaks and the perseverance of the students when carrying out tasks, even cooperatively.Furthermore, they noticed increased attention and concentration in students after active breaks.Both the study conducted by Mavilidi et al. (2020) [39], and Mavilidi and Vazou (2021) [41] researched the learning of mathematics with an increase in active breaks and/or physical activity integrated into classes.Both studies reported significant improvements in the learning abilities linked to mathematics and geometry.
As proved by some studies, the experiments that involved active breaks during classes showed, in the majority of cases, an improvement in the linguistic competencies as well, including reading, comprehension, and vocabulary learning.This improvement is associated with the functional and structural cortical development of the brain.
Furthermore, most linguistic abilities developed in early childhood are positively associated with later linguistic abilities.
The results also confirm that physical activity sessions during classes can contribute to the improvement of cognitive functions.In order to obtain an improvement in academic learning, it is necessary to keep in mind that not all types of physical activity measures give the same results.A recent study suggests that language and action are linked together through the neuronal overlapping of the mirror neuron system for actions and Broca's area for speech articulation (Rizzolatti & Sinigaglia, 2006).In this regard, there is scientific proof supporting the hypothesis that language and cognition are rooted in the sensorimotor system (Rizzolatti & Sinigaglia, 2006).This approach confirmed that the sensorimotor system plays a vital role in language processing, and it is necessary for an adequate comprehension.It is important to note the positive correlation between the number of physical activity sessions and academic performance.Some researchers believe that the decrease of physical education and the increase of the time spent on other subjects will lead to an overall improvement in the academic performance of children (Van den Berg, Saliasi, De Groot, Jolles, Chinapaw, & Singh, 2016).
The studies examined in the review do not prove this connection to be significant, even though they reported that physical education in schools is not correlated in any significant way to academic performance [1,26] and that, by dedicating 10 extra minutes to daily physical activity at school, there is no shift in the academic performance of students.This proves that physical activity in schools can either have a positive effect or no effect whatsoever on academic performance.In view of the studies examined during the systematic review, the researchers recommend that children engage in at least 90 minutes of physical activity per week.This does not negatively affect academic performance and is associated with multiple health benefits.Future research should focus on establishing an optimal amount of physical activity in order to attain an improvement of the academic performance.The studies could also take into account different types of physical activity measures and assess the effect they could potentially have on the individualized academic needs of children.

Conclusion
Physical activity during classes can provide a cost-effective and efficient practical strategy to improve academic performance, having positive effects also on behavior both during tasks and during breaks, and on selective attention.
The European Educational Researcher | 25 Physical activity interventions in schools seem an effective way of improving skills in all subjects, such as language, comprehension, reading, and mathematics, as well as executive functions and cognitive development.Generally speaking, the effects of scholastic physical activity programs on academic performance are not consistent and seem to be greater in the case of mathematical competencies.The effects can be optimized through the integration of physical activity plans into regular classes with different levels of education as an alternative and efficient learning strategy.Future studies could examine the effect of physical activity interventions during classes on specific cognitive aspects, as well as the effect of different types of physical activity (aerobic training, anaerobic training, endurance, with cognitive engagement) on academic results.Hopefully, more experiments will be conducted over longer periods of time, in order for us to work with always up-to-date results to create efficient and targeted procedures.Furthermore, we hope to see efforts being made to assess the optimal amount of physical activity for improving academic performance.Also, we hope for diversified physical activity procedures in order to examine their verified effects on the individual academic needs of the students.

Figure 2
Figure 2Impact of Studies in the Countries.Source: own elaboration activity during mathematics classes, with a duration of 60 minutes, 3 times a week; the children's behavior was examined, and the outcome was positive.In the 2016 study the researchers also examined the students' performance in mathematics classes via the Progressive Achievement test, which did not highlight any difference between the control group and the subjects of the experiment.The research carried out byFedewa et al. (2015) [15] did not highlight an improvement in fluid intelligence with 20 minutes of physical activity every day for a year, although in regards to mathematics and reading the results are quite different.The results were similar for Van den Berg et al.
Figure 4Selected Studies.Source: own elaboration

Table 3
Synthesis of Selected Studies.Source: own elaboration Riley et al. (2014;2016)on 165 children with an average age of 7.5 years.Their experiment involved physical activity during mathematics classes, during which children performed random exercises such as jumping, crawling, and balancing.The results were examined through tests developed by industry experts and have proven that learning abilities, especially the ones linked to mathematics, can be enhanced by physical activity.Riley et al. (2014;2016)carried out two studies, one in 2014[13]and the other in 2016[27].Both the first and the second study examined subjects of the same age, but the number of subjects changed (54 vs. 240).The experiment was the same for both studies and it involved physical . None of the 41 studies was published before 2007.The oldest study was published in 2007 [1]; other studies were published between 2009 and