A Duet in Body Movement and Research

*The lecture will be accompanied by demonstrations of body movements, at a high level of complexity, taken from the research studies.

This lecture focuses on two research studies which examine the effect of physical exercise and body movement activities on different populations.

The research conducted by Tali Ronen is a field study that examined an intervention program consisting of a combination of movements by means of EWMN and academic learning. The aim of the program was to improve the achievements and attitudes of 3^rd and 4^th grade pupils in learning an academic subject as they studied two topics in geometry: angles and symmetry. The study compared two experimental groups who learned the topics by means of a movement intervention program, with two control groups who learned the topics by conventional methods. This was an integrative study which made use of three research tools. The findings of the study clearly show that the achievements of the pupils who participated in the experimental groups were higher than those of the pupils who participated in the control groups.

The research study conducted by Lilach Shalit examined the effect of movement and coordination exercises, based on EWMN, on students who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The study examined a movement intervention program of a thirteen-week duration, in two different but related fields of knowledge: attention, a cognitive skill, and coordination, a physical skill. This population was chosen because earlier studies have shown that physical exercise is likely to have a positive effect on people with ADHD. The findings of the study show that the students improved their results according to the attention and coordination tests that were administered.