Contemporary School Playground Strategies for Healthy Students

This book is a research guide for implementing contemporary playground strategies to promote active, healthy students. A number of school playground strategies have succeeded in reducing the decline in students’ activity levels by introducing equipment and policies that encourage further engagement. The book outlines these strategies and ideas and offers insights into their multiple levels of influence on engaging students in school playground activities that can promote student health.

It also discusses previous investigations into the effect of playground strategies on students’ activities and the differences between structured and unstructured playground activities; investigations that have explored the translatability and feasibility of specific school playground strategies and potential recommendations for future school playground research. It also provides observations on the features students desire in their playgrounds and what features are important in terms of safe activities, enjoyment levels, which in turn offers suggestions for future research directions.

• School playground
• physical activity in education
• student health
• primary school
• elementary school
• secondary school
• school environments
• enjoyment of school
• hidden curriculum
• informal curriculum
• school safety
• playground research
• learning and instruction

• School of Education, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Australia

  Brendon Hyndman

Dr. Brendon Hyndman is an academic in Personal Development, Health & Physical Education at the School of Education at Southern Cross University (SCU). Prior to this he was the manager of the Bachelor of Teaching & Learning (Pre-service) and a lecturer in Education (Health & Physical Education/Teaching & Learning) at the School of Education at Charles Darwin University (CDU), Australia. He has undertaken lecturing stints at the School of Education at RMIT University and the University of Western Sydney. Dr Hyndman has extensive school-based teaching/research experience within a diverse range of primary, secondary and tertiary settings and has been involved in teacher education since 2009. Since 2012, he has established himself as an international leader in school physical activity research and has published extensively on the influences on students’ school playground physical activities. 

Dr Hyndman’s research has focused on schools as a crucial setting to develop students’ physical activity participation, health and overall wellbeing. As childhood is a time for students to understand the world through a variety of activities and play, his research has guided teacher awareness of the range of influences and strategies to develop students’ engagement in physical activities via both informal, pedagogical and curricular approaches. The originality, innovation and impact of Dr Brendon Hyndman’s research is showcased by the interest studies both nationally and internationally.

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