Children shouldn’t sit still in class — and neither should adults

Children and adults shouldn’t sit still in class. It’s amazing that we ignore established research on ways to improve children’s learning when designing adult learning environments.

Some research:

• Why kids shouldn’t sit still in class.
• Short bursts in physical activity are positively linked to increased levels of attention and performance.
• Mike Kuczala’s TEDx talk “The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement.”
• Michelle Obama’s 2010 “Let’s Move” initiative works to increase movement and healthy eating in schools.
• Classroom movement programs like GoNoodle are now used in more than 60,000 elementary schools in the United States.

Dr. Ash Routen’s and Dr. Lauren Sherar’s article “Active lessons can boost children’s learning and health” contains additional links.

Yet meeting programs are full of sessions where attendees sit and listen for an hour or more. Attendees learn less, and long-term learning accuracy and retention deteriorate.

“Kids aren’t meant to sit still all day and take in information. Adults aren’t wired that way either.”
—Steve Boyle, one of the co-founders of the National Association of Physical Literacy

For decades, I’ve seen how as little as a minute of movement added into a conference session revitalizes participants.

Children and adults shouldn’t sit still in class. It’s not hard to incorporate movement into meeting sessions. Here are four easy ways with substantial benefits.

Why aren’t you doing it?

…Or are you? Share how you incorporate movement into your meetings in the comments!

Image attribution: Screen capture from X bytes video.