Effect of classroom physical activity breaks on learning behaviors and academic achievements in university students: a systematic review

Description

Qianting Deng, Chongyun Wu, and Luodan Yang reviewed classroom physical activity breaks in 2026 for university students. Long sitting through lectures dulls thinking, and breaks are well studied in schoolchildren but barely in adults at university. The team searched major databases to May 2025, screened thousands of records, and kept twenty studies on engagement, academic emotions, attention, or grades.

Breaks were steadily tied to better sustained attention, stronger emotional engagement, and more upbeat academic emotions. Evidence for selective attention, social engagement, and relief of negative emotions was mixed, and grade effects stayed unsettled, with one study even finding a small negative effect on selective attention. Since breaks do not eat teaching time, the authors judge them a viable, low-cost tactic, while stressing that the university evidence base remains thin beside schools.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13543494