Assessing Impact of Active Learning on Student Outcomes: Texas Initiatives for Children's Activity and Nutrition (ICAN)

Physical Activity Clinical Trial

— ICAN  

Official title:

A Cluster Randomized Control Trial to Assess the Impact of Active Learning on Child Activity, Attention Control, and Academic Outcomes: The Texas I-CAN Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03087279
• Other study ID #: 1R01HD070741
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: March 9, 2017
• Last updated: June 22, 2017
• Start date: August 15, 2012
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2015

Study information

• Verified date: June 2017
• Source: University of Texas at Austin
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Background: Active learning is designed to pair physical activity with the teaching of academic content. This has been shown to be a successful strategy to increase physical activity and improve academic performance. The existing designs have confounded academic lessons with physical activity. As a result, it is impossible to determine if the subsequent improvement in academic performance is due to: (1) physical activity, (2) the academic content of the active learning, or (3) the combination of academic material taught through physical activity.

Methods / Design: The Texas I-CAN project is a 3-arm, cluster randomized control trial in which 28 elementary schools were assigned to either control, math intervention, or spelling intervention. As a result, each intervention condition serves as an unrelated content control for the other arm of the trial, allowing the impact of physical activity to be separated from the content. That is, schools that perform only active math lessons provide a content control for the spelling schools on spelling outcomes. This also calculated direct observations of attention and behavior control following periods of active learning.

Discussion: This design is unique in its ability to separate the impact of physical activity, in general, from the combination of physical activity and specific academic content. This, in combination with the ability to examine both proximal and distal outcomes along with measures of time on task will do much to guide the design of future, school-based interventions.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 2716
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2015
• Est. primary completion date: May 31, 2015
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• students in 4th grade in a participating elementary school and their 4th grade teachers

Exclusion Criteria:

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Physical Activity

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Texas I-CAN!
physically active, academic lessons in the elementary school classroom

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Texas at Austin

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Physical activity level	time in moderate to vigorous physical activity	one school week
Primary	Time on task	student attentional focus in the classroom 15 minutes prior to and 15 minutes post active lesson implemented in the classroom on one school day	change in time on task from baseline to 15 minutes post academic lesson
Primary	Acute academic achievement	acute academic scores on math and language arts test developed by fourth grade teacher	change in math and language arts scores from Baseline to 2 weeks
Primary	Long-term math achievement	Academic scores on math sub tests (Calculation, Fluency) of the Woodcock Johnson III	Change in math achievement scores from Baseline to 7 months
Primary	Long-term language arts achievement	Academic scores on spelling sub test of the Woodcock Johnson III and comprehension section of Gates MacGinitie test	Change in language arts achievement from Baseline to 7 months