A Research-Based Case for Recess Olga S
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www.usplaycoalition.clemson.edu November 2 01 3 A Research-Based Case for Recess Olga S. Jarrett, Georgia State University The recess issue. Recess has traditionally been an im - dren get 10-20 minute breaks between 45-minute les - portant part of the day for school children, a time when sons or five-minute breaks and a long lunch. Finnish and they organize their own games, play on playground Turkish children have 15 minutes to play after each 45 equipment, run and chase each other, carry on cultural minutes of work. Ugandan students have an eight-hour traditions of clapping games or jump rope rhymes, dig school day, but they have a half hour of play in the in the dirt, investigate nature, or talk with their friends. morning, one hour for lunch and play, and 1.5 hours of Compared to the rest of the school day, recess is a time activity time (sports, music, art, free-choice playtime) in when children have more freedom to choose what they the afternoon. want to do and with whom. For many children, recess In the U.S., policy and practice vary considerably is their favorite time in the day. The speaker of my state’s from state to state and from school to school. The prob - General Assembly agreed to co-sponsor legislation man - ability of children having 150 minutes a week of PE and dating recess admitting: “I would not have survived el - at least 20 minutes a day of recess was more likely in ementary school if it hadn’t been for recess.” states with laws requiring PE and encouraging recess. 5 A But over the past 20-25 years, recess has been cut study conducted in 2006 indicated 57% of school sys - back in some schools and completely cut out in others. tems required regularly scheduled recess in elementary On a 1989 survey of state superintendents conducted by school. 6 However, according to a study published in the National Association of Elementary School Princi - 2011, only 40% of school systems had an explicit recess pals (NAESP), 96% of school districts reported they had policy. Figures may vary in these studies, depending recess. 1 However, in the next 10 years, the number of upon who is being surveyed and whether questions in - schools with recess had decreased. By the late 1990’s, volve recess policy or recess practice. the lack of recess in many schools received considerable School systems may claim on surveys they have re - notoriety. A front page article in The New York Times cess when they sometimes have it. But who actually gets pictured a school built without a playground and recess is another matter and appears to be a social justice quoted Atlanta Public School Superintendent Benjamin issue. With a randomly selected sample of children on a O. Canada as saying: “We are intent on improving academic performance. You don’t do that by having What do elementary school principals say? kids hanging on the monkey bars.” 2 No Child Left Behind’s (NCLB) focus on test scores has resulted in Principals overwhelmingly believe recess has cutbacks in both the arts and in physical activity. Ac - a positive impact not only on the develop - cording to official figures provided by school systems ment of students’ social skills, but also on since the enactment of NCLB, 20% of U.S. school sys - achievement and learning in the classroom .7 tems decreased recess time, averaging recess cuts of 50 minutes per week. 3 In National Center for Educational Statistics data from 173 randomly selected school dis - randomly selected school day in 2002, researchers found tricts, 5.3% reported increases in recess while 32.3% that 79% had recess. 8 But only 61% of the African reported decreases. 4 American students and 75% of other minority students had recess compared to 85% of white students. Also, Who gets recess? Article 31 of the UN Convention on only 56% of those living below the poverty line had re - Rights of the Child states children have the right to play. cess compared to 83% of those above the poverty line. Many other countries, some of them top-ranking in in - In a survey of 1,055 schools, the Robert Wood John - ternational tests, give their children more frequent or ex - son Foundation found similar disparities between the tensive play breaks than does the United States. English recess haves and have-nots. 9 Length of recess was af - primary children have breaks in the morning and in the fected by school size, location, region, minority enroll - afternoon as well as a long lunch break. Japanese chil - ment, and eligibility for free and reduced-price lunch. Large, urban, Southeastern schools with high poverty fidgety and more on-task when they had recess. 12 Also, and high minority populations had the least recess, children with hyperactivity were among those who ben - sometimes none at all. In the Atlanta area, school efited the most. These results are consistent with the systems with high percentages of white suburban chil - findings of a meta-analysis of nearly 200 studies on the dren had recess at much higher rates than school sys - effect of exercise on cognitive functioning that suggest tems with high percentages of African American urban physical activity supports learning. 13 Research indicates children. 10 children perform better on literacy tasks after they have On a positive note, some school systems have re - had recess 14 and that children raise their hands more cently reinstated recess. Chicago public schools length - often after recess breaks. 15 The Centers for Disease Con - ened the school day to allow for 20 minutes of trol and Prevention issued a report in 2010 that ex - mandated recess. Some Atlanta area school systems with plored the associations between school-based physical policies against recess in 2003 have since changed their activity and academic performance. Of the eight recess policies to allow recess. How this policy change has af - studies they reviewed, six tested the effect of interven - fected individual schools and individual classrooms is tions on various aspects of academic performance (at - not known since my recent informal surveys of teacher tention/concentration), and two explored relationships interns and new teachers in high poverty schools suggest between recess and on-task behavior. All eight studies recess deprivation is widely used for punishment. Ac - found at least one positive relationship between having cording to these surveys, in approximately half the recess and some aspect of classroom behavior. None schools with recess, individual children, primarily found negative effects of recess. 16 African American and Hispanic males, are regularly de - Improvements in on-task behavior and attention prived of recess as punishment for a range of misbehav - after breaks strongly suggest recess might improve iors, including noise in the hall, talking back, tantrums, achievement. At the very least, it suggests that abolishing not finishing homework, and not finishing class work. recess to include more instructional time in the school day might be counter-productive. A Canadian study Academic benefits of recess. Employees, from factory compared attitudes, achievement, and fitness before and workers to long distance truck drivers, have breaks built after the school system decided to devote a third of the into their schedules to promote men - tal alertness. Do students also require breaks to promote mental alertness? What do pediatricians say? Brain research on attention suggests Safe and properly supervised recess offers children cognitive, physi - why breaks are needed: (a) the brain cal, emotional and social benefits. It should be used as a complement cannot maintain attention for long to physical education classes, not a substitute, and whether it’s spent periods of time, requiring contrast indoors or outdoors, recess should provide free, unstructured play or (such as a new location or novel stim - activity. The AAP recommends that recess should never be withheld uli) to regain focus; (b) for informa - as a punishment, as it serves as a fundamental component of devel - tion to be processed, down time is opment and social interaction that students may not receive in a needed to recycle chemicals crucial more complex school environment. Study authors conclude that mini - for long-term memory formation; mizing or eliminating recess can negatively affect academic achieve - and (c) attention is cyclical, involving ment, as growing evidence links recess to improved physical health, 90-110 minute rhythmical patterns social skills and cognitive development. throughout the day. 11 Teachers, parents, and commu - — American Academy of Pediatric s 17 nity leaders often wonder whether re - cess has an effect on test scores. school day to physical activity, art, and music. 18 Though There is little research that compares the same children there was less time for academics, student test scores in - with and without recess, and there is no longitudinal re - creased slightly and attitudes and fitness increased sig - search that examines the long-term effects of recess dep - nificantly. rivation. It would be unethical to deprive children of A few recent studies have examined relationships be - recess over the years just to examine the long-term ef - tween recess and behavior or achievement, but their fects. Hopefully, children who are deprived of recess one conclusions are confounded by socio-economic status. year might have recess the next year. So, conclusions Researchers found teachers rate children’s behavior as about recess need to be pieced together from a variety of better when they have at least 15 minutes of recess per studies. day, 19 but the schools with less than 15 minutes of recess In research with fourth-graders, children were less 2 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS BY ORGANIZATIONS • Children should have 60 minutes of physical activity a day.