The Priorities, Objectives and Context of the Project The priorities of Active School Days -project are the following: to promote the children´s acquisition of skills and competences through effective and innovative teaching, and to strengthen the profile(s) of the teaching profession by supporting teachers in adopting innovative practices. Through teachers´new, innovative practices, it is possible to meet the main objective of the project, that is increasing children's physical activity during school day and to promote learning and healthy lifestyle by doing so. The connection between physical activity and learning has been shown by many studies. The results have indicated that physical activity produces positive effects on many cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, information processing, and problem solving. Increasing children's physical activity during school days is the main objective of a Finnish Schools on the Move -program. The program is national, and one of the Finnish government´s Priority Projects. According to the Account Manager of Finnish Schools on the Move -program, Kirsi Naukkarinen, from The Finnish National Board of Education, the program will be exported to all European schools, and Naukkarinen feels that our project could be of assistance in doing so. There have been a few Erasmus-projects earlier, that have focused on teaching physical education. However, the focal point of our project is not on physical education but in developing new practices that would increase children's activity within school days. The idea is to include physical activity in every subject, e.g. languages, music, mathematics etc. Furthermore, our idea is to create an Easy Tool Kit for Active School Days, i.e. a video, in which our ideas are shared internationally in easy and accessible form for teachers worldwide. The Easy Tool Kit for Active School Days -video will also be available in four languages (English, Italian, Spanish and Greek). Accordingly, the Finnish Schools on the Move -program has expressed a need and interest in such material, especially in English. The Partners of the Project Our project raised interest in various schools from several different countries. Among those we chose the ones who had included physical education in their curriculum, and who already had ongoing active practices in their schools. Most importantly, the chosen partners showed a genuine interest towards our project. We wished to form an active and well-motivated group that would consist of various kinds of teachers. The project involves teachers from Finland, Greece, Italy and Spain including teachers of physical education, specialists of first grades (children aged 6-8 years), English teachers, special education teachers, and music teachers, to mention a few. Accordingly, some of our teachers have good skills in ICT . The Methodology of the Project When thinking of creating new and innovative ways how to increase children´s physical activity during school days, we decided on three different tasks, that each country must perform on their behalf. The three tasks are to be carried out as videos, and the tasks are following: 1) how to make use of one's school building and school area in terms of increasing children's physical activity, 2)how to use movement and physical activity as a tool within lessons, 3) a task that comprises of children´s own ideas: a video challenge in which the children challenge the other children from other participating countries (for example to learn a dance, make a music video etc.) All of the tasks/videos together will form the core of the actual outcome of the project, that is the Easy Tool Kit for Active School Days -video. Desired Impacts of the Project The impact of this project will benefit not only the participants by increasing children´s physical activity and implementing innovative practices, but also the participating organizations and other relevant stakeholders, such as the Finnish Ministry of Education, through the outcome and other material stemming from the project. Teachers and pupils will also improve their data processing skills as well as skills in video editing, composing music and creating graphics. The desired international impact of the project is to increase the common awareness over the importance of children´s physical activity via online platforms (e.g. a project blog, school’s blog, eTwinning group, social media). However, the most important impact is on the target group, that is the children. When teachers have more information about the benefits of physical activity on learning, and an easy access to a variety of tools to increase it, they will most likely enable children to be more physically active during school days. Physical activity increases motivation and satisfaction in school days, which in turn promotes learning, and hopefully also produces healthier and more physically active young adults in the future.
Background and Context of the Project The connection between physical activity and learning has been shown in many studies. The results have indicated that physical activity produces positive effects on many cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, information processing, and problem-solving. There have been a few Erasmus-projects earlier, that have focused on teaching physical education. However, the focal point of our project was not on physical education but in developing new practices that would increase children's physical activity within school days. The priorities of Active School Days -project were the following: to promote children´s acquisition of skills and competences through effective and innovative teaching and to strengthen the profile(s) of the teaching profession by supporting teachers in adopting new, innovative practices. Objectives of the Project Through teachers´ new and innovative practices, it was possible to meet the main objective of the project, that was to increase children's physical activity during school days and to promote learning and healthy lifestyle by doing so. The idea was to include physical activity in every subject, e.g. languages, music, mathematics etc. Furthermore, our objective was to create an Easy Toolkit for Active School Days, i.e. a YouTube channel consisting of videos from each project task, in which our ideas would be shared internationally in an easy and accessible form for teachers worldwide. Profile of Participants At the application stage, the project raised interest in various schools from several different countries. Among those, we chose the ones who had physical education in their curriculum, ongoing active practices in their schools and genuine interest in the project. The project involved teachers from Finland, Greece, Italy and Spain including teachers of different subjects and grades. Description of Undertaken Activities When thinking of creating new and innovative ways how to increase children´s physical activity during school days, we decided on three different tasks, that each country was to carry out. The three tasks were to be carried out as videos, and the tasks were the following: 1) how to make use of one's school building and school area in terms of increasing children's physical activity, 2)how to use movement and physical activity as a tool within lessons, 3) a task that comprised of children´s own ideas. The third task was a video challenge in which the pupils of each participating school challenged one another, for example, to learn a dance, make a music video etc. All the videos of the tasks together formed the core of the actual outcome of the project, that is the Easy Toolkit for Active School Days -video material on the project’s YouTube channel. Each LTT event, in turn, was organised and needed to promote carrying out the tasks and the project outcome. During the LTT events, teachers were trained to shoot videos and to edit them. Each task was promoted and the proceeding and problems concerning the project were discussed. Results and Impact Attained To assess the impact of the project, we gathered data with three questionnaires that were targeted to the pupils and teachers of the participating organisations. According to the questionnaires, approximately 72% of the pupils were satisfied with the project’s impact. Approximately 67% of the pupils felt that they learned better when physical activity was added into lessons and school days in general. One of the priorities of the project was to promote the acquisition of skills and competences. Although learning outcomes were not measured, the pupils’ answers suggest that being part of the project facilitated learning. The ones to benefit the most were the youngest pupils. Up to 85 % of the first and the second graders felt they gained from increased physical activeness during school days. The pupils have also commented that teachers have increased the level of pupils’ physical activation during their lessons and the pupils feel they have been more physically active during lessons. This reflects that the project has had an impact on didactics as well as learning competences. According to the questionnaires, 68% of the teachers felt that children concentrate better when physical activity is increased during school days. Longer-term Benefits The project will have long-term impacts and benefits on both teachers and pupils through the project outcome, the Easy Toolkit for More Active School Days. It consists of online material for more active school days. It is available on the project’s YouTube channel in most languages for everyone to use. When teachers have more information about the benefits of physical activity on learning and easy access to a variety of tools to increase it, they will most likely enable children to be more physically active during school days.