Apr 26, 2015 03:18 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

People are more attentive when they are standing up, according to a recent study.

Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health found that students with students with standing desks had 12 percent greater on-task engagement than their seated counterparts. This equates to an extra seven minutes per hour of engaged instruction time.

Standing desks -- also known as stand-biased desks -- are raised desks that have stools nearby, enabling students to sit or stand during class at their discretion.

"Standing workstations reduce disruptive behavior problems and increase students' attention or academic behavioral engagement by providing students with a different method for completing academic tasks (like standing) that breaks up the monotony of seated work," researcher Mark Benden said in a statement.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from nearly 300 children in second through fourth grade who were observed over the course of a school year. Engagement was measured by on-task behaviors such as answering a question, raising a hand or participating in active discussion and off-task behaviors like talking out of turn.

Benden's previous studies have shown the desks can help reduce obesity -- with students at standing desks burning 15 percent more calories than students at traditional desks (25 percent for obese children) -- and there was anecdotal evidence that the desks also increased engagement. The latest study was the first designed specifically to look at the impact of classroom engagement.

Benden said he was not surprised at the results of the study, given that previous research has shown that physical activity, even at low levels, may have beneficial effects on cognitive ability.

"Considerable research indicates that academic behavioral engagement is the most important contributor to student achievement. Simply put, we think better on our feet than in our seat," Benden said.

The key takeaway from this research is that school districts that put standing desks in classrooms may be able to address two problems at the same time: academic performance and childhood obesity, Benden said.

The findings are detailed in the International Journal of Health Promotion and Education.

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