Physical Activity in High School Classrooms: A Promising Avenue for Future Research

Adolescence represents a sensitive period whereby lifestyle factors such as physical activity can have profound, long-lasting effects on development and later life habits. However, adolescence constitutes a period of frequent sedentary behaviour. Among children, integrating physical activity into elementary school classrooms has been shown to reduce sedentary behaviour and improve academic achievement and overall physical and mental health. However, this promising area of research has not extended to adolescents and high school classrooms. In this paper, we describe the benefits of conducting research on the impact of physically active high school classrooms, and highlight the challenges and potential misconceptions associated with research in this field. Specifically, we review research on the role of physical activity in adolescent development, the benefits of classroom-based physical activity for children, and discuss the factors that may have led researchers to focus on classroom-based physical activity primarily for children, despite the potentially similar benefits for adolescents.

Initial Study on the Reverberation Time Standard for the Korean Middle and High School Classrooms Using Speech Intelligibility Tests

The most important function of the classroom is to transmit educational information from teachers to students more accurately and clearly. The acoustical environment of the classroom thus has an important effect on the improvement of students’ learning ability. To provide an appropriate acoustical environment for learning to students, it is necessary to create an acoustical performance standard for classrooms and a guideline for designing classrooms. However, in Korea, there is not an acoustical standard for classrooms; thus, it is difficult to control and manage appropriate acoustical performance when designing and building classrooms. The present study aims to suggest acoustic performance standards for classrooms that are suitable for the Korean language. In order to perform this study, standard classrooms were created by standardizing architectural dimensions of 17 middle and high school classrooms in Cheong-ju. Speech intelligibility tests were conducted using three different languages including Korean, English, and Chinese. Twenty native speakers for each language were used as subjects for the speech intelligibility tests. Finally, auralized sound sources were created with five different conditions of reverberation time (0.47 s~1.22 s) by changing indoor sound absorption of a real classroom. Listening tests were undertaken by 52 Korean adults with normal hearing, using the auralized sound source. The results proved that the most appropriate reverberation time for learning was above 0.76 s. Based on the research findings, the ideal acoustical performance standard for classrooms in Korea is as follows: background noise is below 35 dBA, and reverberation time is below 0.80 s. It is also necessary that indoor sound absorption should be above 20% without sound absorption on side walls in order to satisfy with the acoustical performance standard.

Critical race theory will fuel US political divisions

Significance CRT has become a new line of division between Democrats and civil rights reformers, for whom it accurately describes embedded racism, and some Republicans who regard it as an outdated set of beliefs about race that violate a liberal tradition of colour blindness. Impacts Despite the current political salience of CRT, the term is rarely used in elementary and high school classrooms. Critics of CRT see its influence ranging from university tenure battles to professional athletes taking the knee before games. For many companies, a desire to increase diversity and affirm commitments to equality will outweigh calls to criticise CRT.

Content Subject Teachers’ Views of Implementing the English Across the Curriculum (EAC) Approach: A Study of Some South African High Schools

This article explores the views held by content subject teachers on the implementation of the English Across the Curriculum (EAC) approach in their high school classrooms. In South Africa, the EAC approach has been part of the school curriculum since 2014; however, to date, there is a paucity of studies that have focused on understanding how high school teachers implement this approach. In 2017, the South African Department of Basic Education reported that high school teachers were not using this approach without indicating why this was the case. To provide the views of the teachers, the present study drew theoretical insights from reflective teaching to explore the phenomenon. We conducted a qualitative intrinsic case study inquiry, during which we examined the views that 15 high school teachers held on implementing English language skills in content subjects. We collected data using a focus group interview form prepared based on Gibb's model. The findings indicate that content subject teachers have views on (i) the merits of EAC in general language development, (ii) EAC as a challenge to pedagogical-content knowledge, and (iii) strategies for improving the implementation of the EAC approach. This exploratory study has certain implications for the practice of implementing the EAC approach in content teaching, finding that there may be merit in the use of targeted continuing professional development for content teachers when implementing EAC. Secondly, there is a need for partnerships between teachers of English as a second language and content subject teachers, as this cross-curricular collaboration has the potential to enhance the implementation of the EAC approach in high school classrooms.