Virginia AHPERD_SpringSummer2026

or workday, to what degree should it be prioritized?” The average response was 9.06/10, with 29 respondents (58%) valuing it at 10/10. This is good news for physical educa tors. The second takeaway was that three subcategories of affect, “mood”, “focus”, and “wakefulness”, were all rated extremely high: mood (9.12), focus (9.14), and wakefulness (9.22). It should be noted that “mood” can refer to a com plex state of mindset and emotions; in this case, it refers to the state or general disposition of the learner. These cat egories continue to appear at the forefront of educators’ concerns. In many of our follow-up conversations, the term “mental health” appeared in the general discussion of mood. It might be obvious that educators prioritize these ideas, as it does not take much to imagine how challeng ing it would be to engage with a student who is in a defiant mood, cannot focus, or appears to be dozing off at their desk. The third intriguing takeaway was the responses aligned with how respondents rated the three primary domains of focus (Academic, Neurological, Affect). Affect was rated as the most important of the three categories (8.58). Neu rological benefit came in second (7.96), and Academic came in third (7.68). This group believed affect has the big gest impact on the student experience. While academics ranked third in the group, a rating of 7.68 acknowledges it is certainly important, just not as important to the student experience as other categories. Follow-up conversations lead the authors to believe the interest in neurological enhancement is likely due to wide spread publication of popular literature like John Ratey’s SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Ratey, 2008) and Dr. Wendy Suzuki’s Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Make you Fitter, Smarter, and Happier (Susuki & Fitzpatrick, 2016). Those popular texts (and associated Ted Talks) along with many others have pushed the exercise-brain relationship into public consciousness. Despite increased awareness, there were notable gaps in understanding regarding the mechanisms behind these science-heavy ideas. Educators were aware that exercise improved certain functions of the brain, but did not have great familiarity with neurochemicals, neuro trophins, or the role of those modulators in overall neuro

logical function. Affect was ranked highest, as educators continually identified that student mood, ability to focus, and degree of wakefulness were more important to the student experi ence than the others. It seems while academic outcomes are important, they are limited, and might not be the most important measure of the student experience. Additional ly, many studies which attempt to identify the relationship between exercise and academic performance are, while promising, encouraging, not as convincing as an educa tor might hope (Castelli et al., 2007; Chomitz et al., 2008). While neurological outcomes might positively impact the learner in a more wholistic way, they might be too com plicated to understand and difficult to measure. Educators seem to believe that affect impacts all areas of the student experience, and it is an essential component of the learn ing environment. The fourth takeaway addresses the divide between what educators felt was important, and their degree of under standing in those categories, as noted in the “Difference” column of Table 1. The difference score represents the dis tance between how important a category is, and to what degree they understand the impact of exercise on improv ing outcomes in that category. The difference in academic importance and understand ing (almost none, 0.32 on a 10-point scale) was bolstered by casual in-person follow-up conversations which sug gested educators feel fully prepared on the academic side of things. Many educators indicated they were sufficiently prepared or over-prepared regarding the relationship of exercise to improved academic outcomes. One participant noted they “have more understanding on academics and how exercise can help that than [they] need.” Further con versation suggested that, not only is there little to no pro fessional development gap in academic approaches, but there is also a growing frustration regarding over-prepara tion. Technology-focused approaches found their way into these follow-up conversations, without prompting, with one participant noting “another smart screen is not what’s standing in the way of my kids’ experience”. Affect had the largest gap (2.26) from degree of impor tance to level of understanding. Follow-up conversations indicated that there is a desire for professional develop

Table 1. Importance, Understanding, and Difference in the ability of exercise to enhance Academic, Neurological, and Affect outcomes Importance, Understanding, and Difference in the ability of exercise to enhance Academic, Neurological, and Affect outcomes

The difference in academic importance and understanding (almost none, 0.32 on a 10-point scale) was bolstered by casual in-person follow-up conversations which suggested educators feel fully prepared on the academic side of things. Many educators indicated they were sufficiently

14 • Virginia AHPERD • SPRING/SUMMER 2026