Development, validation, and feasibility of a school-based short duration integrated classroom yoga module: A pilot study design

BACKGROUND: The practice of yoga is proven to have physical, cognitive and emotional benefits for school children. Despite this many schools do not include yoga in their daily schedule. The reasons cited are lack of time and resources. To overcome these problems the present study aimed to develop and validate a short duration Integrated classroom yoga module. The design guidelines were that it should be possible to practice in the classroom environment and that it could be led by the class teacher. In this way the module would overcome the problem of both time and resource. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study had two main phases. In the first phase, selected ICYM practices based on the literature review were validated by 21 subject matter experts using Lawhse's content validity ratio (CVR) formula. In the second phase, a pilot study using a paired sample prepost measurement design was carried out on 49 high school children. The study was conducted in June 2019. The intervention period was 1 month, and the test variables were physical fitness, cognitive performance, self-esteem, emotional well-being, and personality characteristic. Paired sample t-test was the analysis tool and the software used was the Statistical Package for the Social Science version 26. RESULTS: In the Lawshe's CVR analysis, 17 out of the 24 practices tested were rated by experts as essential as was the overall module (CVR score ≥0.429). In the pilot study, there were significant differences in the postmean scores compared to premean scores, for all the 4 EUROFIT physical fitness testing battery tests (P < 0.02), all the three scores of the Stroop color-word naming task (P < 0.001) and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (P < 0.008). CONCLUSION: ICYM was validated and found feasible by the present study. It was found to have a statistically significant impact on physical fitness, cognitive performance, and self-esteem variables. However, a randomized control trial with a longer intervention period is needed to strengthen the present study.