MOVEOUT: A Cluster RCT Investigating Education Outside the Classroom

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Psychological; Motivation; School Burnout; Physical Inactivity
• Interventions: Behavioral: The TEACHOUT intervention

• Registration Number: NCT05237674
• Lead Sponsor: University of Copenhagen

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of an education outside the classroom (EOtC) intervention on adolescents' physical activity, school motivation, academic achievement, and wellbeing. The study will also investigate which pedagogical and didactical elements of EOtC are important to achieve more physical activity, school motivation, and wellbeing.

Detailed Description

Globally, many children and adolescents are insufficiently physically active which increases the prevalence of non-communicable diseases and poor mental health over the lifecourse. Schools are an important setting to promote physical activity (PA) as children and adolescents spend a large proportion of their waking hours in this setting. The MOVEOUT study aims to increase school-based PA and wellbeing trough implementing regular practice of education outside the classroom (EOtC) during school hours. In EOtC, teachers relocate teaching and learning activities to places and settings outside the school building, e.g., urban and green space, societal institutions, and private companies, in agreement with curricular aims, content and obligations. The aim of EOtC is to promote pupils' learning and wellbeing through practical activities and the use of body and senses in authentic situations. Cross-sectional studies suggest that practice of EOtC is positively associated with more moderate-to-vigorous PA for boys, and more and light-intensity PA for girls. Quasi-experimental studies further demonstrate a positive effect of regular practice of EOtC on school motivation and wellbeing, without compromising academic performance. However, no studies have investigated the effect of EOtC on PA, school motivation, or wellbeing in a randomised controlled design. Furthermore, the specific pedagogical and didactical elements in EOtC sessions that promote PA, school motivation, and wellbeing have not been researched. Therefore, the aim of MOVEOUT is to study the effect on adolescents' PA, school motivation, and wellbeing and the mechanisms of EOtC that might promote PA, school motivation, and wellbeing in a randomised controlled design.

Compared to previous studies, the MOVEOUT study provides a methodologically improved and more robust evaluation. This study investigates the efficacy, mechanisms, and mediating effects of an EOtC intervention, The TEACHOUT Intervention\[1\], in a cluster randomised waitlist controlled trial with 15 intervention schools and 15 control schools. Schools will be required to have one or more classes grade 4-10 (pupils aged 10-16). The study will investigate which pedagogical and didactical elements of EOtC that are important to achieve more PA, school motivation, and wellbeing for 1) all adolescents, 2) adolescents at risk of becoming overweight, and 3) boys and girls separately. MOVEOUT will provide solid evidence of the effect of EOtC and supplement theory on EOtC pedagogy and didactics, which is needed in practice and policy to inform the already ongoing scale-up of EOtC, for instance in Northern European countries. The study is conducted in partnership between the applying institutions and the participating schools through all phases.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2022-01-19
• Study First Submitted QC: 2022-02-02
• Study First Posted: 2022-02-14
• Study Start: 2022-02-23
• Primary Completion: 2023-06-21
• Study Completion: 2023-06-27
• Status Verified: 2024-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-05-14
• Last Update Posted: 2024-05-16

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 730

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Intervention schools	The TEACHOUT intervention	School children exposed to 1-2 weekly sessions, a total of at least five hours pr week, of education outside the classroom.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Wellbeing	1 school year	Wellbeing will be measured using two different scales: KIDSCREEN-27 and the pro-social behaviour scales of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). KIDSCREEN-27 measures the subjective health and wellbeing or health-related quality of life of children and adolescents aged 8-18. The pro-social behaviour scale of the SDQ measures social skills and competences of adolescents. Data on school absence will be collected as an objective indicator of wellbeing.
Reading competence	1 school year	Reading competence will be measured with the validated age-adapted sentence reading test (Danish 'Sætningslæseprøve') by Hogrefe.
Physical Activity	1 school year	Pupils' total daily time spent being sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous physically active and their daily time involved in running, walking, standing, sitting and lying will be measured with Axivity® AX3 accelerometers.; All acceleration data will be processed in Matlab (Version 9.9.0 R2020b, Mathworks Inc., Natick, Massachusetts, US) which includes resampling, generating ActiGraph counts2, identification of non-wear, and summarising the subjects' time spent in different intensity domains. Non-wear periods will be identified from both acceleration and temperature data. PA will be measured two times (winter and spring) before the intervention (baseline) and the same time two times towards the end of the intervention (endline) to account for the context dependency of PA to seasonal conditions. The effect of the TEACHOUT intervention on PA intensities and behaviours will be investigated across two timeframes, i.e., during school hours and full days.
School motivation	1 school year	School motivation will be measured using the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (called SRQ-A). The SRQ-A is a domain-specific self-report questionnaire developed for measuring the level of autonomy relative to doing different types of schoolwork among pupils in late primary and lower-secondary school.
Mathematics skills	1 school year	Math skills will be measured with the validated age-adapted mathematical basic test (MG test in Danish) by Hogrefe.

Trial Locations

Locations (3)

Center for Clinical Research and Prevention; 🇩🇰 Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark

Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen; 🇩🇰 Copenhagen, Denmark

University of Copenhagen; 🇩🇰 Copenhagen, Denmark