Contemporary School Playground Strategies for Healthy Students

Book excerpt: This book is a research guide for implementing contemporary playground strategies to promote active, healthy students. A number of school playground strategies have succeeded in reducing the decline in students’ activity levels by introducing equipment and policies that encourage further engagement. The book outlines these strategies and ideas and offers insights into their multiple levels of influence on engaging students in school playground activities that can promote student health. It also discusses previous investigations into the effect of playground strategies on students’ activities and the differences between structured and unstructured playground activities; investigations that have explored the translatability and feasibility of specific school playground strategies and potential recommendations for future school playground research. It also provides observations on the features students desire in their playgrounds and what features are important in terms of safe activities, enjoyment levels, which in turn offers suggestions for future research directions.