Report given to Elisa Martins
Journalist, special for Yvirá
Report given to Elisa Martins
Journalist, special for Yvirá
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025 | n°.3 |Initiative stems from research into the benefits of integrating movement, cognition, and learning
FOTO: ADOBE STOCK
In the Portuguese dictionary, “erguer” means “to raise,” “to stand,” or “to stand up.” In the case of the project that bears this name, “erguer” is also synonymous with high morale and less sedentary lifestyles in schools. The initiative is implemented in the municipal education system of Aracaju and is expanding to Alagoas and Bahia. The Erguer project began in 2014 in Londrina, Paraná, supported by research into the benefits of integrating movement, cognition, and learning. Teachers were concerned that students spent a lot of time sitting during educational activities.
The situation piqued the interest of Advanusia Oliveira, an elementary school teacher and one of those responsible for implementing Erguer in Aracaju. In a report to Yvirá, she explained how the more active school routine led to changes, including strengthening learning through active academic activities, alternating between academic and physical activity activities.
Advanusia Oliveira
Elementary School Teacher
Graduate Program in Education
Federal University of Sergipe (UFS)
As a second-grade elementary school teacher, I was struck by the fact that students spend a lot of time sitting, carrying out educational activities, with only a short break during recess. This routine leads to a sedentary lifestyle. That’s how the Erguer proposal piqued my interest. The project stemmed from research on the benefits of integrating movement, cognition, and learning.
Research and intervention with physically active lessons began in 2014 in Londrina with teachers Edilson Cyrino and Luis Sardinha. They took the activities to Lisbon in 2016 and then, in 2018, transferred them to Aracaju, Sergipe, where the project was fully established. That’s when I agreed to participate in the initiative. With this, Erguer allowed me to provide new ways to organize the teaching and learning process and reduce students’ sedentary time.
Every day, within a curricular component, the students and I developed theoretical activities and then applied them in practice to the subject matter. The activities were taken from the repertoire provided by the Erguer group, which includes over 200 Portuguese and math tasks, as well as suggestions for the teaching and learning process in combination with physical activities.
They provided moments of movement connected to the school content. Examples include acting out a story or drawing numbers in the air with raised arms or legs. In connecting mathematical domains, as in the lesson on operations, we used the calculation triangle. On the board or on measuring paper, we placed several triangles containing addition operations to be completed. Students had to stand and examine all the triangles to find the empty space that would fit their card number.
Psychomotor, socio-emotional, and cognitive improvement
After each application, the relevance of movement in the classroom routine was evident. It allows for greater student engagement and encourages children to be physically active, motivating them to participate in solving classroom activities within a highly diverse group. This is motivating because students support each other, expanding the limits of each individual. Furthermore, the special needs of some were minimized by the opportunity for their active participation in the project.
Today, the Erguer project is implemented in several schools in the Aracaju municipal school system and has expanded to Alagoas and Bahia. It is a multi-center initiative that has achieved important results by ensuring increased movement time. It offers opportunities for learning enhanced by active academic activities, alternating academic practices with physical activity (in the classroom or on the playground). It improves cognitive development and academic performance and promotes a more active school lifestyle, in which students are protagonists in the pursuit of new knowledge and skills.
The movement students execute while performing tasks fosters an association between the presented knowledge and body movements that reinforce and associate the object with the action. This strengthens commitment to the rules of the activities, improves psychomotor, socio-emotional, and cognitive aspects, enhances peer interactions, and consolidates meaningful learning by enabling greater assimilation and adaptation of curricular content.
Erguer also impacts teaching dynamics. The expansion of the project and its methodology to more schools legitimizes and motivates teachers to take steps toward adapting their school plans to combine theory with movement and improve teaching and learning, eliminating sedentary lifestyles and streamlining the school environment. I even started to incorporate more dynamism and life into my teaching history and practice.
