A Study on an Educational Tool for the Development of a Tailored Dynamic School Day in Dutch Primary Schools.

Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Physical Activity; Children, Only

Treatments: Other: expert schools; Other: e-learning on a dynamic school day; Other: educational innovation dynamic school day

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06592391

HVA-271

Details and patient eligibility

About

A dynamic school day is a school day that involves regular interruptions of sedentary learning with moments of physical activity. Many Dutch primary schools have thus far not succeeded in making their school day more 'dynamic' .

In this project, the researchers will develop an educational innovation to support schools in the development of a dynamic school day that is tailored to their local context. To determine the effectiveness of the educational innovation, the researchers will study the implementation process and assess the effectiveness.

The research questions for the researcher project are:

1. To what extend are school teams successful in the development and implementation of a tailored dynamic school day, and what are facilitating and hindering factors during implementation?
2. What is the effect of the tailored dynamic school day on 8 - 12 year old pupils? Sedentary time and physical activity behavior, wellbeing and in class behavior will be assessed.

Full description

Within this project, the researchers will develop an educational innovation to support Dutch primary schools in the development of a tailored dynamic school day. To asses the effectiveness we will conduct a hybrid effect- implementation trial. The researchers will therefore conduct a process evaluation and an effectiveness trial.

The research questions for the researcher project are:

1. To what extend are school teams successful in the development and implementation of a tailored dynamic school day, and what are facilitating and hindering factors during implementation?
2. What is the effect of the tailored dynamic school day on 8 - 12 year old pupils? Sedentary time and physical activity behavior, wellbeing and in class behavior will be assessed.

Study sample:

A total of 21 schools will be invited to participate in this study. Three schools have already successfully implemented a dynamic school day in their local context on their own initiative. Those schools are called 'expert schools'. The other 18 schools (6 located in Amsterdam, 6 located in Eindhoven, 6 located in Groningen) have not structurally implemented a dynamic school day. These 18 schools will be divided over 2 cohorts that will start developing their tailored dynamic school day over the course of the project.

Cohort 1 (12 schools, evenly divided over the 3 regions) will start in September 2024 with an educational program that will support them during the development of a tailored dynamic school day. They will use a full school year to develop an implementation plan, and will start the implementation of their tailored dynamic school day from September 2025 onwards. The results of the process evaluation and effectiveness trial will be used to improve the educational innovation and develop an e-learning module.

Cohort 2 (6 schools, evenly divided over the 3 regions) will start in September 2025 with the development of their tailored dynamic school day using the e-learning module. They will also use a full school year to develop an implementation plan and start implementing from September 2026 onwards.

The process evaluation and effect assessment will be conducted in all participating schools. In the development year, a baseline measurement will be conducted in autumn. All other measurements, including the baseline measurement for the expert schools, will be conducted in the spring of each year.

Enrollment: 980 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 8 to 99 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

From participating 21 schools:

• all teachers
• a board member
• all pupils from grade 4 - 8 (Dutch system, age 8 - 12)

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

980 participants in 3 patient groups

expert schools

Other group

Description:

These schools developed their own dynamic school day over the past 5 - 10 years without using the educational innovation.

Treatment:

Other: expert schools

Cohort 1

Experimental group

Description:

These schools will start the development of a tailored dynamic school day using the educational innovation in September 2024. The educational component consists of a number of face-to-face meetings. The implementation of the local plans will start September 2025.

Treatment:

Other: educational innovation dynamic school day

Cohort 2

Experimental group

Description:

these schools will start the development of a tailored dynamic school day using the e-learning version of the educational innovation in September 2025. The implementation of the local plans will start September 2026.

Treatment:

Other: e-learning on a dynamic school day