Associations between creative physical activity, self-regulation and educational outcomes in childhood

Vasilopoulos, Fotini (2024) Associations between creative physical activity, self-regulation and educational outcomes in childhood. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) allows children to build skills in thinking and moving; it is therefore seen as a promising way to foster positive outcomes during development. An emerging field of research is focusing on how creative dance may influence cognition and psychosocial outcomes. A better understanding of these topics may lead to improvements in physical education (P.E.) curriculum and teaching strategies. This PhD project aimed to understand the influence of creative dance as part of the P.E. curriculum on cognitive and educational outcomes in primary school aged children. As a first step, two meta-analyses of PA intervention studies in primary school-aged children were conducted to understand what cognitive and academic outcomes can be influenced by PA and whether interventions that foster creativity also influence these outcomes. These meta-analyses helped with the selection of outcomes and instruments to be used in the experimental work of this PhD project. A creative dance training intervention was designed and evaluated, using a yoga active control training condition and P.E. Teaching as Usual (TAU) passive control training condition for comparisons. Analyses of cross-sectional data before the intervention showed that higher cognitive and motor creativity were associated with fewer emotional problems, higher fluid intelligence and individual differences in strengths for creativity. Cognitive and affective self-regulation mediated the relationship between strengths for creativity and motor creativity. Analysis of pre/post-intervention results showed that creative dance can influence creativity in P.E, and in the classroom. In addition, specific self-regulatory processes related to creativity improved in the intervention group. Overall, the results of the thesis show that physical activity interventions vary considerably and have specific influences on cognition and academic achievement, and that creative dance can help with creativity performance and some aspect of self-regulation. This research invites the development and implementation of embodied approach to creativity through improved P.E. pedagogical frameworks.

Metadata

Statistics

DownloadsShow export options

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Activity Overview

6 month trend

0Downloads

6 month trend

49Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

Archive Staff Only (login required)

Edit/View Item