MOVEOUT: A Cluster RCT Investigating Education Outside the Classroom

NCT ID: NCT05237674

Last Updated: 2024-05-16

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 730 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-02-23
• Study Completion Date: 2023-06-27

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.

Conditions

Physical Inactivity; Psychological; Motivation; School Burnout

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Intervention schools

School children exposed to 1-2 weekly sessions, a total of at least five hours pr week, of education outside the classroom.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

The TEACHOUT intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The core component of the Intervention is a two-day training course on EOtC given to elementary school teachers followed by the teachers committing to apply EOtC for at least five hours a week, delivered in 1-2 weekly sessions for one school year (in this study, August 2022 to June 2023).

In the training course knowledge and understanding of the practice and theory of EOtC is facilitated in presentations and talks supplemented by illustrative examples in workshops and plenum discussions on local implementation. The 1-2 weekly EOtC sessions during the school year 2022-2023 may be delivered by one or more teachers simultaneously in various school subjects, at various places outside the school buildings.

Waiting control schools

The waiting control schools will receive the two-day training course on EOtC one year later immediately after post measurements are conducted.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

The TEACHOUT intervention

The core component of the Intervention is a two-day training course on EOtC given to elementary school teachers followed by the teachers committing to apply EOtC for at least five hours a week, delivered in 1-2 weekly sessions for one school year (in this study, August 2022 to June 2023).

In the training course knowledge and understanding of the practice and theory of EOtC is facilitated in presentations and talks supplemented by illustrative examples in workshops and plenum discussions on local implementation. The 1-2 weekly EOtC sessions during the school year 2022-2023 may be delivered by one or more teachers simultaneously in various school subjects, at various places outside the school buildings.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Non-special need municipal primary and lower secondary school classes grade 4-10.
• Classes not involved in other school development or research projects.
• Participants for whom parents or legal guardians have provided written informed consent.
• Outcome data at baseline (for PA at least one time point; either winter or spring)

Exclusion Criteria

• Classes not able to comply with the following will be excluded from per-protocol analysis, but will be included in the intention-to-treat analysis: intervention group classes should have a school-year average of >150 min of weekly EOtC and the control group classes should have a school-year average of <=150 min of weekly EOtC.
• Pupils with significant health problems as judged by the investigators based on parents or legal guardians report of child health status will be excluded from the analysis.

• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Center for Clinical Research and Prevention

NETWORK

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Copenhagen

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Glen Nielsen, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Copenhagen

Mads Bølling, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen

Peter Elsborg, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Center for Clinical Research and Prevention

Charlotte D Klinker, PhD

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen

Peter Bentsen, PhD

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Center for Clinical Research and Prevention

Lærke M Grønfeldt, Msc

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Center for Clinical Research and Prevention

Locations

Center for Clinical Research and Prevention

Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark

University of Copenhagen

Copenhagen, , Denmark

Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen

Copenhagen, , Denmark

Countries

Denmark

References

Bolling M, Mygind L, Elsborg P, Melby PS, Barfod KS, Brond JC, Klinker CD, Nielsen G, Bentsen P. Efficacy and mechanisms of an education outside the classroom intervention on pupils' health and education: the MOVEOUT study protocol. BMC Public Health. 2023 Sep 19;23(1):1825. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16618-3.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37726771 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

2124712

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id