Development of Virtual Traveller: A behaviour change intervention to increase physical activity during primary school lessons

• Main Authors: Emma Norris, Sandra Dunsmuir, Oliver Duke-Williams, Emmanuel Stamatakis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-09-01
• Series: Frontiers in Public Health
• Subjects: physical activity; Intervention Studies; student engagement; primary school children; interactive whiteboard
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/conf.FPUBH.2016.01.00052/full

Background Children spend a large amount of their time in obligatory seated school lessons, with notable effects on health and cognitive outcomes. A common issue reported by teachers is a lack of time to incorporate physical activity into the school day alongside academic pressures. As such, emerging research is attempting to convert educational time from sedentary to active via physically active lessons. However this existing research does not utilise Behaviour Change concepts, making comparability and replicability difficult (Norris, Shelton, Dunsmuir, Duke-Williams, & Stamatakis, 2015a). The Virtual Traveller programme is the first to test Virtual Field Trips (VFTs) as physically active lessons. These utilise existing classroom interactive whiteboards to integrate globe-based educational content with related physical movements. Aim(s) This research aimed to develop a 6-week ‘Virtual Traveller’ intervention based around the Behaviour Change Wheel and Behaviour Change Techniques Method / Results Three sources of data were used to inform the intervention development process: the existing research literature on school-based physical activity interventions, teacher interviews (N=12) and pupil focus groups (N=18) and an experimental feasibility study (N=85; Norris, Shelton, Dunsmuir, Duke-Williams, & Stamatakis, 2015b). The Behaviour Change Wheel was used as a framework to guide synthesis of evidence into the resulting intervention. Potential appropriate Behaviour Change Techniques were reviewed and embedded within the intervention. Conclusions The resulting 6-week Virtual Traveller programme with a 3-month follow-up period is currently in its final stages of evaluation in ten Greater London primary schools. Using the Behaviour Change Wheel and Behaviour Change Techniques allows development of replicable health interventions in applied settings such as schools.