Fomento de hábitos saludables de actividad física mediante una gamificación en escolares desde la Educación FísicaLa aventura de Andaluzo

Abstract

Worldwide more than 80% of schoolchildren do not meet the daily physical activity recommendations. The Physical Education subject is a key context for the promotion of health-enhancing physical activitylevels among schoolchildren. Nevertheless, Physical Education teachers must face numerous limitations whendeveloping a program to promote the regular practice of physical activity in schoolchildren. For instance,the high volume of educational objectives and contents that has to be developed in a fairly limited time, thereduced schoolchildren’s motivation, and the impossibility of controlling the amount of physical activity thatthey perform outside the Physical Education class. A possible solution could be the application of the intermittent teaching units. This innovative model consists of using a slot of a few minutes of each class during severalclasses, dedicating the remaining time of the class to other curricular objectives, which may be interconnected.Additionally, another effective strategy could be the use of wrist-worn physical activity trackers. This workpresents a proposal of a Physical Education intermittent teaching unit based on the use of wrist-worn physicalactivity trackers to promote daily physical activity habits in schoolchildren. The application of intermittentteaching units combined with other behavior modification strategies could be a useful resource for designingeffective and feasible programs in order to increase the habitual levels of physical activity in schoolchildren.