Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day

Move-Into-Learning is at once a health and wellness program, a scholarly research project, and service-learning experience that grew out of a commitment from The Ohio State University working in tandem with community partners, looking for ways to not only serve disadvantaged communities, but to generate new knowledge and models about how to better serve those families and children. Move-Into-Learning is the product of the collaborative Health and Wellness Initiative, that began in 2006 when faculty from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Education began meeting with the Weinland Park Project coordinators and staff from Columbus Public Schools, members of the Weinland Park community, and other University and community Partners, to explore coordinated approaches to directly address the complex needs of young children and their families in a very economically distressed neighborhood of Columbus. Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day built upon the collaborative work of both university and community partners, receiving a 2007- 2009 Ohio State University Outreach and Engagement Grant, that enabled the development and implementation of this wellness program designed to facilitate students' readiness to learn.

Move-Into-Learning is based on the premise that children from low socioeconomic areas, exposed to heightened social and economic stresses, may benefit from a yoga-based program implemented during the academic day, encouraging a state of calm alertness, conducive to learning. The primary aim of the Move-Into-Learning project was to develop and implement a health and wellness program for elementary school children living in the disadvantaged neighborhood, Weinland Park, adjacent to the Ohio State University. Ohio State faculty and students from the Colleges of Medicine, Education and Human Ecology partnered with the Weinland Park Elementary administration and teachers to implement the program in three separate classrooms. Twenty five service learning graduate and undergraduate students assisted in the interdisciplinary program developed to help children integrate their sensory systems, improving attention and focus. The intent was to deliver Move-Into-Learning to the whole classroom, yet benefit those who are behaviorally at risk. The program used yoga movement, music, meditation, and was implemented in three classrooms (n=72) during the 2007-2009 academic years. Goals for the program were to help children feel focused for learning, give them strategies for calming and decreasing their stress, and help them feel empowered to use these tools.

The program was evaluated using measures of activity level (Connors' Teacher Rating Scale-Revised (S)), breath rate/30 seconds (pre/post weekly intervention), and on-task behavior in the classroom (video time-sampling). Qualitative interviews were conducted with the teachers, OSU service-learning students, and the Weinland Park 2nd graders to gather their perceptions of the program. The children expressed that the program helped them feel calm, gave them strategies for dealing with stress, made them feel special/good about themselves, and was something they would like to continue. Both the teachers and the 2nd grade students reported a more relaxed and calm classroom environment that incrementally increased during 8 weeks of the program. Both the classroom teachers and students emphasized the impact that diaphragmatic breathing and yoga movement had on improved focusing ability. One teacher detailed the contribution as, "It gave them a routine that helped. They became energized, then calm. After that they would come into my math class and I saw improvement."

The service-learning OSU students indicated high interest in both the addressing the needs of a racially diverse and socio-economically challenged environment, and furthering health and wellness programs that provide coping skills to schoolchildren. Each of the three 8-week sessions drew a greater number of service learning students. They were encouraged that Move-Into-Learning gave children a tool that could be utilized to manage their own behavior, and made the connection between emotional state and physiological measures explicit to the children themselves as they experienced the power and impact of the mind/body connection. The OSU service-learning students recognized the importance of being role models to the 2nd graders, and took this responsibility seriously. Almost every participant voiced a similar thought:

I think I gave my 2nd grader an older figure she could rely on. She was always excited to see me and come to yoga. She was also very responsive to my suggestions even when she began to 'check-out' mentally. I think that was because I treated her with respect.

Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day was a successful, interdisciplinary example of service learning, community-based participatory research, borne from a community academic partnership.