Bednar, Rouse present research at Allied Social Science Associations annual meeting

Steven Bednar and Katy Rouse, both associate professors of economics in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, presented their research on how physical activity affects student productivity at the 2019 Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting held Jan. 4-6 in Atlanta. 

Bednar and Rouse discussed their paper, “The Effects of Breaks on Student Productivity: Evidence from Physical Education,” which explores how the timing of physical education classes during the school day may be used to boost student productivity when schools are faced with constraints which limit their ability to place all students in core academic subjects in the mornings.

During the annual meeting, Bednar was interviewed by the American Economic Association about the research and its broader implications. Highlights from the interview can be viewed here.

The paper’s abstract: Cognitive fatigue has been shown to cause academic performance to deteriorate throughout the school day for students of all ages. We rely on random placement of physical education classes to test the effect of a break from classroom learning on academic achievement for adolescent students. We find support for a simple model that suggests a break can help students rebound from cognitive fatigue later in the day, but removing students who are actively engaged from the classroom can disrupt the flow of learning earlier in the day and decrease achievement.