Posture analysis of teachers in a classroom situation: is there a difference between the use of chalkboards and smartboards?

Abstract

Objective: The main objective of this study was to make a posture analysis of teachers using blackboards and smartboards and to measure their energy expenditure.
Methods: 35 secondary school teachers were randomly chosen. The teachers were filmed during 30 minutes of teaching and the video was analysed with the OWAS. 16 teachers wore a Sensewear to measure their energy expenditure. Results: The inter and intra reliability for the OWAS was 0,995 and 0,999 respectively. Most of the movements were situated in category 1 (89,5%), a few in category 2 (10,5%) and none in category 3 or 4. During the 30 minutes teaching course teachers stood for most of the time with their back straight (89,3% ± 7,98). For 65,3% (± 17,53) they stood on both legs, for 11,75% (± 22,54) they sat and for 19,25% (± 9,49) they walked. The teachers stood with both arms below their shoulders for 90,85% (± 5,48) of the time and for 8,7% (± 5,39) with one arm above their shoulder. The weight the teachers carried was always below 10 kg. The teachers burned 62,19 (± 15,9) kilocalories and took 254,81(± 211,41) steps. The average amount of energy expenditure was 1,93 (± 0,52) MET's. Teachers using chalkboards stand more often with both arms below their shoulders (p = 0,012) and teachers using smartboards stand more often with one arm above their shoulder (p = 0,009). Conclusion: Teachers have an overall good posture during their teaching job and there is no immediate need for an ergonomic intervention. Teaching is a job with a rather low energy expenditure. The differences in postures between chalkboards and smartboards are in general negligible. Teachers using smartboards need to be educated and stimulated to use a smartboard in a correct way.

Date of Award	1 Jul 2012
Original language	English
Supervisor	Evert Zinzen (Promotor), Kristine De Martelaer (Promotor) & Inge Bogaert (Advisor)