The Effect of Physical Movement Prior to Testing on Division Fact Score Performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects that physical movement, prior to testing, had on student performance of division math facts. This study utilized a pre-experimental, onegroup pretest/posttest design with a convenience sample of a group of fourth-grade students who served as their own controls. The study included 17 students, ten boys and seven girls, ranging from nine to ten years of age. Of those students, 14 were Caucasian, two were African American, and one was Asian. The null hypothesis was that among fourth-grade students who struggle with division fact fluency, there will be no significant difference in mean division fluency scores when students participate in five minutes of physical movement prior to testing as compared to when they participate in five minutes of a non-physical brain break prior to testing. The null hypothesis was rejected. This study includes practical and theoretical implications, and ideas for future research are discussed.