Journal of Advances in Education Research

10

Authors: Evangelia Krevetzakis

The aim of this paper is to reclaim the value of movement/physical activity, and hence the value of physical education in the school curriculum. The paper discusses, on the one hand, the role of movement/physical activity in the context of learning, by citing the relevant research literature, and more specifically the benefits of including movement/physical activity in the school curriculum (e.g., improvement of students’ short-term and long-term memory, stress reduction, invigoration of existing brain cells, growth of new neural connections, increase in focus and retention, regulation of students’ energy), and, on the other hand, the role of the human body in the process of concept development and meaning making. The implications of this discussion for an integrated approach to the teaching and learning of physical education is also discussed, something that can be used as a justification of physical education as a school subject which can contribute to students’ general education.

12

Authors: Michele Tine

It is essential to understand the strengths and weaknesses of students from distinct contexts so efficacious support can be designed. But, thus far research samples have been drawn almost exclusively from urban areas. Inadvertently, urban findings have been generalized to rural populations. This study addresses this issue by (a) comparing the unique cognitive processing abilities of students who grew up in low-income rural, low-income urban, high-income rural, and high-income urban contexts and (b) determining the relationship between their cognitive processing and academic achievement. Participants completed cognitive processing tasks measuring incidental memory, language, and inhibition as well as an academic achievement task. Low-income rural students exhibited distinct patterns from low-income urban students. The low-income rural students had lower inhibition scores and, unlike the other three groups, inhibition did not account for a signification portion of variance in their academic achievement scores. Potential explanations and implications of these rural-urban differences are discussed.