Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the school principal's role in promoting physical activity for inactive children in school settings.Design: Exploratory qualitative interview study.Setting: The study was conducted in seven elementary schools in central Sweden.Method: Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with eight school principals. Theories of bioecology and teacher agency informed the study and shed light on the environmental factors and resources affecting school principals' efforts to promote physical activity for inactive children.Result: The most common strategy school principals described was to delegate responsibility for planning organised activities to dedicated school personnel working with the children. In their leadership role, principals described having the power and opportunity to recruit school personnel with positive attitudes towards promoting physical activity, which likely increases inactive children's opportunities to engage in PA.Conclusion: When provided the adequate resources, and by virtue of their management position within the school, principals have the opportunity to make a difference to promote PA for inactive children. Delegating responsibility to school personnel may however create unequal PA opportunities, and if there are no initiators dedicated to this work, inactive children may be left out of PA opportunities in school.

Background: The school and its teachers have a responsibility to meet all children's needs for physical activity, including the needs of gifted children. Some gifted children will find it easy to be physically active and participate in the subject of Physical Education at school, while there is research that indicates that gifted students may also encounter challenges in being physically active. As studies on gifted students and physical activity, especially in a school setting is scarce, it is therefor a need of synthesizing the current evidence base.

Objective: The aim of the study is to identify types of available evidence in the field of gifted students and physical activity, foremost in school settings, and thereby identify gaps in the research knowledge.

Method: Scoping literature review.

Result: The results of the literature review will aim to show gaps in knowledge where future research is needed, and also shed light on existing knowledge about gifted students and physical activity which will be useful especially for teachers in Physical Education who meet these students in the school setting.  

Bakgrund:  Elever som har en begåvning i akademiska områden kan möta utmaningar i utövandet av och deltagandet i fysiska aktiviteter. Detta kan bero på den ojämna sociala, kognitiva och motoriska utveckling som karaktäriserar särskild begåvning (Lutostanski, 2018). Skolan har en viktig roll i främjandet av alla elevers fysiska aktivitet (Andermo et al., 2020), och idag rekommenderas alla barn att vara fysiskt aktiva minst 60 minuter om dagen på en minst måttlig nivå (World Health Organization, 2022). Något som kan påverka akademiskt särskilt begåvade elevers utövande av fysiska aktivitet är även att eleverna kan ha en större tilltro till sina akademiska förmågor än atletiska förmågor (Infantes-Paniagua et al., 2021; Litser & Roberts, 2011). Att ägna sig åt idrott- och fysiska aktiviteter kan påverka dessa elevers tilltro till sina atletiska och fysiska förmågor positivt (Infantes-Paniagua et al., 2021; Rinn & Wininger, 2007). Forskning på akademiskt särskild begåvade elever i relation till fysisk aktivitet är idag gles och det finns en stor variation både vad gäller metodologiska tillvägagångssätt och definitionen av elevgruppen särskilt begåvade.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga hur fältet akademiskt särskilt begåvade elever i relation till fysisk aktivitet studerats tidigare.

Metod: En litteraturöversikt i form av en Scoping Review. Denna typ av litteraturöversikt kartlägger en kunskapsmassa, klargör nyckelbegrepp och lyfter fram hur forskning har bedrivits inom ett forskningsfält.

Implikationer: Resultaten av litteraturöversikten ämnar belysa kunskapsläget vad gäller akademiskt särskilt begåvade elever och fysisk aktivitet. Resultatet kommer också visa på vart ytterligare forskning behövs inom fältet. Vidare, kan studiens resultat även att vara användbart för pedagoger inom skolverksamheter som möter akademiskt särskilt begåvade elever i fysiska aktiviteter i skolmiljön.

Referenser

Andermo, S., Hallgren, M., Nguyen, T. T. D., Jonsson, S., Petersen, S., Friberg, M., ... & Elinder, L. S. (2020). School-related physical activity interventions and mental health among children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports medicine-open, 6(1), 1-27.

Infantes-Paniagua, Á., Palomares Ruiz, A., Fernández-Bustos, J. G., & Contreras Jordan, O. R. (2021). Physical activity and self-concept in gifted students: A comparison with non-gifted students. High Ability Studies, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2021.1978404

Lutostanski, S. (2018). Sports That Work for Gifted Children. Parenting for High Potential, 7(1), 9–11.

Rinn, A. N., & Wininger, S. R. (2007). Sports participation among academically gifted adolescents: Relationship to the multidimensional self-concept. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 31(1), 35-56.

World Health Organisation (WHO). (2022). Physical activity. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity