Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Oct 27, 2025
Date Accepted: Dec 19, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Enhancing upper secondary students’ situational engagement and cognitive prerequisites of learning through the Physically Active Academic Lessons (PAAL) intervention: Study protocol for a mixed-methods cluster-randomized individual crossover trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Internationally, physical activity is successfully integrated into academic lessons in primary schools, showing promising results on cognition and student engagement. However, there is a lack of knowledge about its effects and feasibility for individual situated learning processes in upper secondary school.
Objective:
This protocol describes the design and methods of the Physically Active Academic Lessons (PAAL) study – a mixed-methods, cluster-randomized, individual crossover trial. The PAAL study aims to examine the acute effects of physically active academic lessons on cognitive prerequisites of learning (alertness and executive functions) and situational engagement (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement, disaffection, and competence experiences), as well as factors modifying these effects (physical and mental load, perceived physical and academic competence). Further, subject teachers’ and students’ experiences and perceptions of physically active academic lessons in general upper secondary school are explored.
Methods:
In the first part of the PAAL study, the experiences of subject teachers regarding facilitators, barriers, usefulness, and the meaning of physically active academic lessons for the situational learning process were studied through semi-structured interviews with 14 teachers. In the second part of the PAAL study, 168 students participated in a cluster-randomized individual crossover trial in math and foreign language lessons, and 30 of them were interviewed afterwards.
Results:
The findings of the study provide essential evidence-based information on physically active classroom practices that support teachers and schools in implementing pedagogical methods that enhance student learning and wellbeing in upper secondary schools.
Conclusions:
The background, design, content of the intervention, and methods of the PAAL study are presented. This study aims to address a gap in the literature regarding the feasibility and effectiveness of physically active methods during academic lessons in upper secondary school. Clinical Trial: ISRCTN63809854, https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN63809854
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