Physical literacy is developing as a contested concept with definitional blurring across international contexts, confusing both practitioners and researchers. This paper serves the dual purpose of reporting on an interrogation of concepts associated with physical literacy in academic writing and exploring the use of a text mining data analysis tool. The Leximancer text mining software was applied to 49 research papers relating to physical literacy from 2001–2016, sourced from academic repositories and scholarly search engines. The findings from the text mining analysis revealed that the concept of physical literacy is used in a variety of contexts, specifically in connection with ‘education’, ‘activity’, ‘fitness’, ‘health’, ‘concept’, ‘competence’, ‘understanding’, ‘roles’, ‘curriculum’ and ‘assessment’. The concept with the most relevance connected to physical literacy is ‘education’, the very term that is commonly being replaced by ‘literacy’. A number of concepts were identified from the text mining analysis that were not explicitly mentioned within the definitions of physical literacy, including educational components such as ‘curriculum’, ‘teaching’ and ‘assessment’. It was also revealed that many of the strongest relational concepts from the text mining of the physical literacy literature were of a physical domain, with less relevance and connection to concepts of cognitive, social and emotional domains. The study fills an important gap in the literature by showing that while a multiplicity of conceptions of physical literacy exists, the concept gives dominance to the physical domain and the marginalisation of cognitive and affective domains in various constructions of physical literacy.

An emerging public health strategy is to enhance children’s opportunities to be physically active during school break periods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the Lunchtime Enjoyment Activity and Play (LEAP) school playground intervention on primary school children’s quality of life (QOL), enjoyment and participation in physical activity (PA).

Purpose: To date, there have been limited investigations relating to physical education (PE) professionals’ engagement in the use of Twitter. Consequently, the aim of the study was to investigate the reasons PE professionals use Twitter, with questions underpinned by Casey, Goodyear, and Armour’s three-level conceptual classification framework of Pedagogies of Technology. Method: The application of Leximancer text mining software was uniquely employed to text mine the survey data to determine the key themes and concepts. Results: It was discovered that PE professionals perceived the Twitter platform to be highly valuable to connect with others in the profession, learn from others, and share ideas (both within schools and more broadly) via a convenient, usable form of technology. Discussion/Conclusions: Understanding the reasons PE professionals use Twitter can provide a broader understanding for those contemplating the utilization of this platform and inform future Twitter/social media research directions for the field of PE.

Non-curricular avenues such as active play during school breaks have been established as a major source for children’s physical and cognitive development, yet there is little information for teachers on the influences affecting primary and secondary school students’ non-curricular physical activity. During this study focus groups and drawing were used to explore the broader influences on primary (n=47) and secondary (n=29) school students’ physical activity behaviour beyond the classroom. Barriers and facilitators to children’s physical activity were categorised using a multi-level social-ecological framework incorporating intrapersonal, interpersonal, physical environment and policy factors. Based on the drawings, comparisons between students’ existing play spaces and their perception of their ideal play space were made. Additionally, students depicted what features within a play space would encourage them to be active. The findings of the study indicate secondary school play spaces may need to incorporate more features to facilitate physical activity. The barriers and facilitators identified in this study provide information for teachers and school decision makers to consider when targeting children’s physical activity beyond school classrooms.

As children spend a significant amount of time in schools, it is vital that playwork practitioners develop an improved awareness relating to the influences on children's enjoyment of school play activities. The purpose of the present study was to assess children's enjoyment of school play activities beyond the classroom walls, including the type of play activities children enjoy and age- and gender-specific enjoyment levels. Within the study, the Lunchtime Enjoyment of Activity and Play (LEAP) questionnaire was administered to 281 children aged 8–12-years-old attending three primary schools in regional Victoria, Australia. The LEAP questionnaire was used to measure Australian primary school children's enjoyment of school play activities. In order for age- and gender-specific comparisons to be made for the LEAP questionnaire items, a chi-square statistical test was conducted. The findings revealed that females had a significantly higher enjoyment compared to males for a range of school play activities including walking, using imagination, creating and making things, climbing, hiding, sliding, sitting, resting/relaxing, being active, tag games, changing play activity and playing with more natural features. Males had a significantly higher enjoyment compared to females for playing when it's hot and using sports equipment. Younger children had significantly higher enjoyment for using imagination, creating and making things, hiding, playing inside and changing play location. With understandings of the types of school play activities that are most enjoyable to children during school play, educators, playwork practitioners and school decision makers can employ the social–ecological model insight gained within the current study to guide future school-based planning and design.

An emerging public health priority is to enhance children’s opportunities for active play. Children spend a large proportion of weekdays in schools, making schools an influential and suitable setting to promote children’s active play. Rather than continually increasing the burdens placed upon busy teaching staff, the use of school playground interventions have emerged as a critical strategy within schools to facilitate and develop children’s active play via an informal curriculum. This scholarly article provides a research-based commentary on a range of school playground interventions to encourage both structured and unstructured active play opportunities. Additionally, future research directions for school playground research to encourage children’s active play will be discussed. Teachers, educational leaders, designers, researchers and play professionals can consider the findings from this article for future school playground intervention and planning to facilitate children’s active play within school playgrounds.