Unidades didácticas innovadoras y uso de monitores portátiles de fitness para la promoción de hábitos de actividad física saludables en educación física

Abstract

Abstract Currently, there is strong evidence that both physical activity and sedentary behavior are powerful indicators of health and quality of life among students. Unfortunately, worldwide, about 80% of students do not meet the daily physical activity recommendations, and they also spend more than two-thirds of their daily waking time engaged in sedentary behavior. Therefore, school, especially Physical Education subject, has been considered a key setting for promoting students’ healthy physical activity and sedentary behavior levels. However, to implement effective physical activity interventions for students in the school context, it is necessary to: (a) understand the determinants and factors influencing the acquisition of healthy physical activity habits; (b) consider what kind of teaching intervention is the most appropriate during Physical Education lessons; and (c) correctly distribute Physical Education lessons throughout the school year to achieve authentic outcomes. Nevertheless, Physical Education teachers have to face numerous limitations in the educational context, which make the design and development of adequate physical activity promotion programs for students a complex task. Consequently, it is necessary to seek feasible and effective strategies to overcome these constraints achieving significant results in the promotion of students’ healthy physical activity and sedentary behavior levels. The overall objective of the present Doctoral Thesis was to examine the effectiveness of innovative programs to increase students’ habitual physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior from the Physical Education setting. The main findings from the present Doctoral Thesis suggest that: (1) a short-term Sport Education-based program carried out during Physical Education lessons only improves students’ desire and willingness to participate in sports competitions, but it is not enough to improve students’ self-reported nor objective habitual physical activity and sedentary behavior levels; (2) the innovative teaching units (intermittent, alternated and irregular) could help Physical Education teachers to design effective and viable programs to increase habitual physical activity levels and decrease sedentary behavior among students, overcoming some limitations related to planning in Physical Education; (3) an irregular teaching unit based on the Sport Education Model during Physical Education lessons and using school recess for developing the formal competition phase is effective for increasing objectively measured high-school students’ physical activity levels and reduce sedentary behavior levels during this extracurricular period; (4) alternated inside-outside school teaching units are effective for improving high-school students’ knowledge about the environment for practicing physical activity, perceived autonomy, enjoyment in Physical Education, autonomous motivation towards physical activity, the intention to be physically active, and self-reported physical activity, although they did not improve objectively measured physical activity nor sedentary behavior levels; (5) consumer-wearable activity tracker-based programs seem to be effective in promoting students’ daily total steps and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels; (6) The designed CEPAF test is a valid and reliable measuring instrument to gather information about the knowledge of the immediate environment for the high-school students’ practice of physical activity; (7) the adapted versions of the Sport Satisfaction Instruments referred to both Physical Education subject and only one Physical Education class are valid and reliable scales to be applied among high-school students; (8) the mobile apps Pedometer, Pacer, Google Fit and Apple Health, and the wristbands Samsung Watch Active 2, Apple Watch Series 5, and Xiaomi Mi Band 2, 3, 4, and 5 seem valid activity trackers for monitoring high-school students’ steps under free-living conditions, although caution is warranted when using these wristbands for assessing students’ total and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels. Furthermore, wristbands allow obtaining accurate information about students’ compliance with the physical activity recommendations, offering a feasible alternative to the research-grade accelerometers, including for being used by teachers in the Physical Education setting during health promotion programs to provide accurate feedback to students. In conclusion, the innovative teaching units effectively improve some factors influencing the acquisition of students’ healthy physical activity and sedentary behavior habits, overcoming some limitations related to planning in Physical Education. However, other strategies such as proposed longer programs, complementing them with other extracurricular physical activity plans for leisure time, structured programs for recess, or including consumer-wearable activity trackers for providing students real-time feedback seem necessary to improve students’ objective habitual physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior levels. This knowledge could help Physical Education teachers to design effective and feasible intervention programs to increase students’ daily physical activity levels and reduce sedentary behavior from the Physical Education setting.