Education Commons^™

Relationships Between Personal Biography And Changes In Preservice Classroom Teachers' Physical Activity Promotion Competence And Attitude, Collin A. Webster

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Personal biography influences preservice classroom teachers’ (PCT) perceptions and attitudes related to school-based physical activity promotion (SPAP). Using an uncontrolled prepost design, this study investigated associations between biographical variables and changes in PCTs’ SPAP attitudes and perceived competence while enrolled in a 16-week SPAP course. PCTs (N = 201) completed baseline measures assessing biographical variables of year in school, sports participation, coaching/teaching experience, BMI, satisfaction with K-12 physical education (PE) and perceived physical activity (PA) competence, and prepost measures assessing SPAP attitudes and perceived competence. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance procedures showed statistically significant, positive changes in PCTs’ scores …

Mentoring Across The Professions: Some Issues And Challenges, Lisa Ehrich, Brian Hansford, John F. Ehrich

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Mentoring has been identified as a valuable learning activity for beginners and more experienced personnel across a range of professions. For example, education, nursing, medicine, law, accounting , and public administration are among those professions that have utilised mentoring programs as a way of socialising and developing the skills and competencies of new professionals. The definition of mentoring used in this paper comes from Hansford, Tennent, and Ehrich (2002, 2003) that describes mentoring as a process whereby a more experienced practitioner works with, supports, guides and provides professional development to a less experienced practitioner. Mentoring, then, is often used to …

Conducting Ethical Research, Jan Wright, Gabrielle O’Flynn

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The year 5 children erupted into the room with its strange machines and people. Fitness testing! Eyes alighted on scales, lung capacity tester .., exercise bikes, benches, and before teachers organized queues, the boys were blowing, poking, questioning, pushing. The girls tended to huddle apprehensive, eyeing each other … Perhaps one was viewing them through pre-programmed eyes but most of the boys seemed boisterously competitive , while the girls were more hesitant, even anxious, with some reluctance to try hard … In no other test were the differences more noticeable that in the simple weighing of the children. The boys …

The Interactive Whiteboard: Tool And/Or Agent Of Semiotic Mediation, Pauline T. Jones, Lisa Kervin, Sophie Mcintosh

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Technologies such as interactive whiteboards, laptops, wireless connectivity and personal communications devices mark the educational zeitgeist. Their proliferation in schools is an emergent theme in educational research, yet, the impact on pedagogic discourse is less understood. This paper reports on a case study of one teacher’s work to integrate an interactive whiteboard (IWB) into a new purposebuilt teaching space. The case study is part of a larger project-in-progress which seeks to record and understand how primary school teachers use new technologies in their daily literacy sessions. Treating the literacy session as an instance of a curriculum genre (Christie, 2002), the …

Investigating Young People's Engagement With Music Through Technology In Formal And Informal Settings, Steven J. Capaldo, S. Bennett

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper describes a new study investigating young people’s attitudes to and engagement with music to explore how these relate to choices about studying music. The research takes an innovative approach to developing an understanding of a young person’s musical world that is holistic, by encompassing engagement with music through technology across everyday and academic settings. In so doing the research addresses gaps in current understanding about young people’s engagement with music by including the full range of consumption, sharing and creation practices inside and outside of school. It also extends research into digital media creation that to date has …

The Influence Of An Autonomy-Supportive Intervention On Preservice Teacher Instruction: A Self-Determined Perspective, Dana Perlman

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of an autonomy-oriented intervention on preservice teacher’s instructional behaviors and perceptions. A total of 28 preservice physical education teachers enrolled in a secondary physical education methods course were randomly assigned to either the treatment (N=14) or control group (N=14). Data were collected using a pretest/posttest design measuring perceptions and observation of autonomy-support, as well as student motivation. Data analysis utilized repeated measures ANOVAs to examine differences. Results indicated significant changes in autonomy-support for both teachers and students exposed to the intervention.

Ict Literacy And The Second Digital Divide: Understanding Students' Experiences With Technology, Tiffani Cameron, Sue Bennett, Shirley Agostinho

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This work in progress paper reports on a doctoral research study investigating the ICT literacy skills of contemporary learners across primary and high school settings, in order to understand the influence of their economic, social and cultural capital to explain their relationship with and use of ICTs. Data collection will comprise a background questionnaire, an ICT proficiency test followed by semi structured interviews and series of in-class activities that will focus on exploring students’ technology use and background. This paper is structured as follows: firstly a review of the related research is presented to describe the context for the study; …

Applying A Learning Design To The Design Of A University Unit: A Single Case Study, Jennifer Jones, S. Bennett, Lori Lockyer

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Learning designs have been proposed as a possible support to lecturers’ unit design processes. The collection of exemplary learning designs, development of tools and design languages have been the focus of the majority of activity to date. Research has only begun to explore how documented learning designs can be reused to support lecturers’ design thinking and processes. Using a case study approach to gain understandings of these processes, the study reported in this paper followed the design, implementation and reflection phases of a unit designed with the support of a learning design. Findings indicate that the process of applying a …

The ‘Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids’ Community Effectiveness Trial: Study Protocol Of A Community-Based Healthy Lifestyle Program For Fathers And Their Children, Philip J. Morgan, David R. Lubans, Ronald C. Plotnikoff, Robin Callister, Tracy Burrows, Richard Fletcher, Anthony D. Okely, Myles D. Young, Andrew Miller, Victoria Clay, Adam Lloyd, Clare E. Collins

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Background: The 'Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids' program was designed to help overweight fathers lose weight and positively influence the health behaviors of their children. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the previously established program in a community setting, in a large effectiveness trial. Methods/Design: The Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids community trial consists of three stages: (i) Stage 1 - program refinement and resource development (ii) Stage 2 - community randomized controlled trial (iii) Stage 3 - community effectiveness trial. The program will be evaluated in five Local Government Areas in the Hunter Valley Region of NSW, …

Problem-Based Learning, Sofie M. M. Loyens, P. Kirschner, Fred Paas

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Problem-based learning (PBL) represents a major development in educational practice that continues to impact both courses and disciplines worldwide (Schmidt, van der Molen, te Winkel, & Wijnen, 2009a). The chapter first outlines what PBL is and when, why, and how it developed. Next, it discusses what PBL aims to establish. The key elements of PBL are reviewed, followed by empirical research on the effects of PBL. Finally, it concludes the chapter with critical remarks and final notes.

What Knowledge Exists In Nsw Schools Of Students With Learning Difficulties Who Are Also Academically Gifted?, Catherine Wormald

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Little or no empirical research on students who are gifted with learning difficulties has been conducted in Australia. This research investigated the knowledge teachers in New South Wales, Australia had of these students. A mixed methods approach was adopted involving surveys and interviews of teachers from primary and secondary schools across all education sectors. The study focussed on two issues: the teachers' knowledge of, and attitudes towards these students; and, the educational programs they implemented for these students. Demographics from the survey highlighted the lack of post-graduate training by teachers in both gifted education and learning difficulties. The findings showed …

Different Methods For Ethical Analysis In Health Technology Assessment: An Empirical Study, Samuli Saarni, Annette J. Braunack-Mayer, Bjorn Hofmann, Gert-Jan Van Der Wilt

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objectives: Ethical analysis can highlight important ethical issues related to implementing a technology, values inherent in the technology itself, and value-decisions underlying the health technology assessment (HTA) process. Ethical analysis is a well-acknowledged part of HTA, yet seldom included in practice. One reason for this is lack of knowledge about the properties and differences between the methods available. This study compares different methods for ethical analysis within HTA.

Methods: Ethical issues related to bariatric (obesity) surgery were independently evaluated using axiological, casuist, principlist, and EUnetHTA models for ethical analysis within HTA. The methods and results are presented and compared.

Results: …

Promoting Health And Nutrition Through Sport: Attitudes Of The Junior Sporting Community, Bridget Kelly, Louise A. Baur, Adrian E. Bauman, Lesley King, Kathy Chapman, Ben J. Smith

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This study aimed to provide information on parents', children's and sporting officials' attitudes to sponsorship arrangements, and their support of potential policy interventions to reorient sponsorship to be more health promoting. Methods: Sports clubs (n=20) known to have food and beverage sponsors in Sydney, Illawarra and Canberra/Queanbeyan were selected. Parents and children at sports clubs were recruited through convenience sampling by approaching those attending the sports club at the time of the survey and those children who had a signed consent form. Sports clubs were visited between May and November 2010. At each club, one sports club official, ten parents …

Balance, Balancing And Health, Wendy Lipworth, Claire Hooker, Stacy M. Carter

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this article we explore the concept of balance in the context of health. We became interested in balance during a grounded theory study of lay conceptualizations of cancer risk in which participants were concerned with having a good life, which relied heavily on balancing processes. This led us to the qualitative literature about balance in the context of health, which was large and in need of synthesis. We identified 170 relevant studies and used Thomas and Harden's technique of thematic synthesis to identify key balance-related themes and develop these into more abstract analytic categories. We found that balance and …

Journal Peer Review In Context: A Qualitative Study Of The Social And Subjective Dimensions Of Manuscript Review In Biomedical Publishing, Wendy Lipworth, Ian Kerridge, Stacy M. Carter, Miles Little

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Peer- and editorial review of research submitted to biomedical journals ('manuscript review') is frequently argued to be essential for ensuring scientific quality and the dissemination of important ideas, but there is also broad agreement that manuscript review is often unsuccessful in achieving its goals. Problems with manuscript review are frequently attributed to the social and subjective dimensions of the process (e.g. bias and conflict of interest). While there have been numerous efforts to improve the process, these have had limited success. This may be because these efforts do not account sufficiently for all of the social and subjective dimensions of …

Decision Making In A Crowded Room: The Relational Significance Of Social Roles In Decisions To Proceed With Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, Rowena Forsyth, Camilla Scanlan, Stacy M. Carter, Christopher F. Jordens, Ian Kerridge

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Researchers studying health care decision making generally focus on the interaction that unfolds between patients and health professionals. Using the example of allogeneic bone marrow transplant, in this article we identify decision making to be a relational process concurrently underpinned by patients' engagement with health professionals, their families, and broader social networks. We argue that the person undergoing a transplant simultaneously reconciles numerous social roles throughout treatment decision making, each of which encompasses a system of mutuality, reciprocity, and obligation. As individuals enter through the doorway of the consultation room and become "patients," they do not leave their roles as …

Should Biomedical Publishing Be 'Opened-Up'? Towards A Values-Based Peer-Review Process, Wendy Lipworth, Ian Kerridge, Stacy M. Carter, Miles Little

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Peer review of manuscripts for biomedical journals has become a subject of intense ethical debate. One of the most contentious issues is whether or not peer review should be anonymous. This study aimed to generate a rich, empirically-grounded understanding of the values held by journal editors and peer reviewers with a view to informing journal policy. Qualitative methods were used to carry out an inductive analysis of biomedical reviewers' and editors' values. Data was derived from in-depth, open-ended interviews with journal editors and peer reviewers. Data was "read for" themes relevant to reviewer anonymisation and interactions among editors, reviewers, and …

How To Do A Grounded Theory Study: A Worked Example Of A Study Of Dental Practices, Alexandra Sbaraini, Stacy M. Carter, R Wendell Evans, Anthony Blinkhorn

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Qualitative methodologies are increasingly popular in medical research. Grounded theory is the methodology most-often cited by authors of qualitative studies in medicine, but it has been suggested that many 'grounded theory' studies are not concordant with the methodology. In this paper we provide a worked example of a grounded theory project. Our aim is to provide a model for practice, to connect medical researchers with a useful methodology, and to increase the quality of 'grounded theory' research published in the medical literature.

A Randomised Controlled Trial To Compare Opt-In And Opt-Out Parental Consent For Childhood Vaccine Safety Surveillance Using Data Linkage: Study Protocol, Jesia G. Berry, Philip Ryan, Annette J. Braunack-Mayer, Katherine M. Duszynski, V Xafis, M S. Gold

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background

The Vaccine Assessment using Linked Data (VALiD) trial compared opt-in and opt-out parental consent for a population-based childhood vaccine safety surveillance program using data linkage. A subsequent telephone interview of all households enrolled in the trial elicited parental intent regarding the return or non-return of reply forms for opt-in and opt-out consent. This paper describes the rationale for the trial and provides an overview of the design and methods.

Methods/Design

Single-centre, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (RCT) stratified by firstborn status. Mothers who gave birth at one tertiary South Australian hospital were randomised at six weeks post-partum to receive an …

Portrayals Of Canine Obesity In English-Language Newspapers And In Leading Veterinary Journals, 2000-2009: Implications For Animal Welfare Organizations And Veterinarians As Public Educators, Christopher J. Degeling, Melanie Rock, Lorraine Teows

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In industrialized societies, more than 1 in 3 dogs and people currently qualify as overweight or obese. Experts in public health expect both these figures to rise. Although clinical treatment remains important, so are public perceptions and social norms. This article presents a thematic analysis of English-language mass media coverage on canine obesity from 2000 through 2009 and compares these results with a thematic analysis of articles on canine obesity in leading veterinary journals during the same time period. Drawing on Giddens's theory of structuration, this study identified articles that emphasized individual agency, environmental structure, or both as contributors to …

The Sydney Playground Project: Popping The Bubblewrap - Unleashing The Power Of Play: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Primary School Playground-Based Intervention Aiming To Increase Children's Physical Activity And Social Skills, Anita C. Bundy, Geraldine A. Naughton, Paul Tranter, Shirley Wyver, Louise A. Baur, Wendy Schiller, Adrian E. Bauman, Lina Engelen, Jo Ragen, Tim Luckett, Anita Niehues, Gabrielle Stewart, Glenda Jessup, Jennie Brentnall

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background In the Westernised world, numerous children are overweight and have problems with bullying and mental health. One of the underlying causes for all three is postulated to be a decrease in outdoor free play. The aim of the Sydney Playground Project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of two simple interventions aimed to increase children's physical activity and social skills. Methods/Design This study protocol describes the design of a 3-year cluster randomised controlled trial (CRCT), in which schools are the clusters. The study consists of a 13-week intervention and 1 week each of pre-and post-testing. We are recruiting 12 schools …

Relevance Of The International Prognostic Index In The Rituximab Era, Kevin Tay, David Tai, Miriam Tao, Richard Quek, Tam C. Ha, Soon Thye Lim

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Letter to the editor

The Alpha Health-Related Physical Fitness Test Battery For Children And Adolescents, Rute Santos, Jorge Mota

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this issue of Nutricion Hospitalaria, Ruiz and colleagues present the new health-related fitness test battery for youth based upon the work developed by the ALPHA (Assessing Levels of Physical Activity) study. The ALPHA was a study funded by the European Union aimed "to provide a set of instruments for assessing levels of physical activity, its underlying factors (e.g. build environment, transport, and workplace), as well as, fitness in a comparable way within the European Union". The work presented in this issue by Ruiz and colleagues relates to the working package 6 of the ALPHA project -Assessing Healthrelated Physical Fitness- …

Association Between Physical Activity And Motor Skills And Coordination In Portuguese Children, Luis Lopes, Vitor Pires Lopes, Rute Santos, Beatriz Pereira

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Nowadays, there is growing evidence in literature that Health benefits from regular physical activity (PA). The variance in PA among children is caused by a number of factors including their motor abilities and coordination. The aim of the study was to analyse the relation between usual PA and gross motor abilities and motor coordination in children aged 6 to 7 years. The sample comprised 21 children, aged in average 6,38±0,50 years. Physical activity was accessed by accelerometry, gross motor abilities by using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2) and motor coordination by using the Körperkoordination Test für Kinder (KTK). …

Metabolic Risk Factors, Physical Activity And Physical Fitness In Azorean Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study, Carla Moreira, Rute Santos, Jose Cazuza De Farias Junior, Susana Vale, Paula Clara Santos, Luisa Soares-Miranda, Ana I. Marques, Jorge Mota

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome has increased over the last few decades in adolescents and has become an important health challenge worldwide. This study analyzed the relationships between metabolic risk factors (MRF) and physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) in a sample of Azorean adolescents.

Methods

A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted on 417 adolescents (243 girls) aged 15-18 from the Azorean Islands, Portugal. Height, weight, waist circumference, fasting glucose, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure were measured. A sum of MRF was computed, and adolescents were classified into three groups: no MRF, one MRF and two or more …

Seasonal Differences In Physical Activity And Sedentary Patterns: The Relevance Of The Pa Context, Pedro Silva, Rute Santos, Gregory Welk, Jorge Mota

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The aim of this pilot study was to characterize seasonal variationin the moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentarybehavior of Portuguese school youth, and understand theinfluence of activity choices and settings. The participants inthis study were 24 students, aged 10-13 years. Accelerometersmeasured daily PA over 7 consecutive days, in different seasonsMay - June and January - February. In summer, boys accumulatedmore minutes in MVPA (928 minutes/week) than girls(793 minutes/week). In winter the pattern was reversed withgirls accumulating more activity than boys (736 minutes/weekvs. 598 minutes/week). The repeated measures ANOVA revealedsignificant effects for season (F = 5.98, p = 0.023) …

Evaluation Of Physical Activity Programmes For Elderly People - A Descriptive Study Using The Efqm' Criteria, Ana I. Marques, Maria J. Rosa, Pedro Soares, Rute Santos, Jorge Mota, Joana Carvalho

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background: In the past years, there has been a growing concern in designing physical activity (PA) programmes for elderly people, because evidence suggests that such health promotion interventions may reduce the deleterious effects of the ageing process. Quality is an important issue when designing a PA programme for older people. Some studies support the Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) as an operational framework for evaluating the quality of an organization. Within this context, the aim of this study was to characterize the quality management models of the PA programmes developed by Portuguese Local Administration to …

Ability Of Different Measures Of Adiposity To Identify High Metabolic Risk In Adolescents, Carla Moreira, Rute Santos, Susana Vale, Paula Clara Santos, Sandra Abreu, Ana I. Marques, Luisa Soares-Miranda, Jorge Mota

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Introduction. This study aimed to evaluate the screening performance of different measures of adiposity: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) for high metabolic risk in a sample of adolescents. Methods. A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted on 517 adolescents aged 15-18, from the Azorean Islands, Portugal. We measured fasting glucose, insulin, total cholesterol (TC), HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and systolic blood pressure. HOMA and TC/HDL-C ratio were calculated. For each of these variables, a Z-score was computed by age and sex. A metabolic risk score (MRS) was constructed by summing the Z-scores of all individual risk factors. …

Comparing Two Measures Of Mental Toughness, Lee Crust, Christian F. Swann

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper tested relations between two measures of mental toughness. A sample of 110 male athletes (M age = 20.81. years, SD = 2.76), derived from University sports teams and local sports clubs, gave informed consent before completing two questionnaires to assess mental toughness. It was hypothesized that scales and subscales from the two different instruments, which purported to measure the same or substantially overlapping scales, would be strongly correlated. Predictions concerning the expected relations were made a priori. Pearson correlations revealed a significant and positive relationship between higher order mental toughness scores (r= .75; p< .001). Correlations between similar mental toughness subscales were found to be positive and significant but somewhat lower than expected (r= .49-62). Results suggest instrument subscales with similar labels are not measuring the same components of mental toughness. 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Walking The Walk: A Phenomenological Study Of Long Distance Walking, Lee Crust, Richard J. Keegan, David Piggott, Christian F. Swann

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Evidence suggests that regular walking can elicit significant psychological benefits, although little evidence exists concerning long distance walking. The purpose of this study was to provide detailed accounts of the experiences of long distance walkers. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with six long distance walkers. Data were transcribed verbatim before researchers independently analyzed the transcripts. Participants reported a cumulative effect with positive feelings increasing throughout the duration of the walk. Long distance walking elicited positive emotions, reduced the effects of life-stress, and promoted an increased sense of well-being and personal growth. Results are aligned to theories and concepts from positive psychology. …