Bitesize Research: Understanding The Impact Of Sport On Student Self-Control And Attainment

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone has had a great week so far! With the excitement of Sports Day coming up, I was interested in looking at a study from the University of Cambridge in PLOS One in May 2021 that looked at how sports and exercise impact young people’s self-control, and therefore their attainment too.This was a study that looked at the data of 4,000 students across the UK. Objectives: To understand the impact of sports and exercise on student self-control and attainment. Summary: The key findings were:

• Those students who do more physical activity are more likely to have stronger self-regulation and that this, in turn, has a positive impact on academic outcomes
• Physical activities found to have the strongest impact are ball sports and swimming. This positive impact on self-regulation and on academic attainment is even more pronounced in disadvantaged children
• One recommendation from the author was to ‘rethink’ COVID catch-up discussions in line with these findings - maximising classroom time needs balance, as play and sports need to also be prioritised.

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• How might I support students I work with to participate in more physical activities? What positive impact might this have on them?
• How might I draw on the experiences of sports or exercise in supporting students to self-regulate in other settings?

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.