The Effects of Recess Timing on Children's Playground and Classroom Behaviors

Impact of short bouts of physical activity on attention-to-task in elementary school children

“…Listless behavior was recorded relatively rarely and was not affected by recess. Pellegrini et al (1995) conducted a series of experiments in which classroom behavior was directly observed. In Experiment 1, kindergarten students were observed while working at interest centers for 20 min before and 20 min after a 20-minute recess period.…”

“…Jarrett et al (1998) directly observed attention-to-task following recess and found meaningful improvements in classroom behavior. Pellegrini et al (1995) reported mixed results, but their measure of attention-to-task (i.e., if a student's gaze was not directed at the teacher who was reading a story, then the student was considered off-task) may have limited validity. Although improvements in time-on-task following a physically active academic lesson were not statistically significant (and effect sizes were small) in the study by Grieco et al (2009), they demonstrated significant declines in time-on-task following inactive lessons and suggested that the beneficial effect of physically active academic lessons might be more apparent for overweight than for normal weight children.…”

Surplus Energy Theory: an enduring but inadequate justification for school break‐time

“…There is evidence (Smith & Hagan, 1980;Pellegrini & Davis, 1993;Pellegrini et al, 1995) to show that children become restless and inattentive after prolonged sitting in class, and the longer the confinement the more restless they become. According to Pellegrini & Davis (1993), however, the explanation lies not in the Surplus Energy Theory but in Novelty Theory (see Ellis, 1984), which posits that children will become less attentive to seat work as a function of time because the seat work becomes less novel (interesting) and playtime offers the chance for novelty (doing something different).…”

Preschool children's outdoor play area preferences

“…Other works on the role of playgrounds in children's development include the role of recess in education (Pellegrini, 1995, in press), the relationship between outdoor recess behaviours and children's cognitive performance (e.g. Jarrett et al, 2001;Pellegrini, Huberty, & Jones, 1995) and children's outdoor play spaces in relation to their social development (Hart, 1993 …”