The association between physical activity and depressive symptoms in young women : a review

Objective : This review synthesises results of studies examining the association between physical activity (PA) and depressive symptoms and the effects of PA intervention studies on depression among young women.
Methods : A search of electronic databases and bibliographic searches of observational and intervention studies was conducted that included women between the ages of 18 and 35.
Results : A total of eight observational and five intervention studies were identified. Evidence from observational studies indicated that physical activity was inversely associated with depressive symptoms in young women. Even a small amount of physical activity was found to be associated with reduced depressive symptoms. No clear dose–response relationship was shown. Evidence from intervention studies indicated that physical activity reduced depressive symptoms. Direct study comparisons were difficult due to variations in study methods and measures. The studies provided little or no information on understanding dose–response effects or on the mechanisms involved.
Conclusion : The limited number of studies examining physical activity and depressive symptoms in young women and the methodological problems identified in a number of these studies, make it difficult to draw firm conclusions. However, this review suggests that engaging in even low levels of physical activity may be protective against depressive symptoms in young women. There is a need for objective measures of physical activity in future studies, particularly with a focus on those with clinical depression in non-student populations.

Predictors of timely doctoral student completions by type of attendance: the utility of a pragmatic approach

Federal government changes to the funding of doctoral students have focused the attention of university management on their completion rates. The aims of this paper are to inform the allocation of institutional resources in a manner that improves the likelihood of timely doctoral completions and to highlight a process that can also be used for analyses of other key indicators of progression and attrition. The analyses and model development used national data readily available to all universities, which are collected in a standard approach through the Graduate Destinations Survey (GDS). The findings show that the most important variable for timely completion was attendance (full-time compared with part-time), whereby in terms of full-time equivalent (FTE) years of study, part-time students were far more likely to complete quickly than full-time students. For the full-time students, the key predictors of timely completion were residency, field of study and English-speaking background (ESB). The timeliness of part-time students was predicted by field of study and ESB. This study confirms that there is considerable variation by discipline for timely doctoral completions. The pragmatic application and prospective test of the derived models present a variety of opportunities for research student administrators. For example, those full-time students scoring highly represented a concentration of timely graduates more than 7.5 times higher than the lowest-scoring group - almost an order of magnitude of difference. In short, university management could gain tremendous value from more widely using the data available.

A model of student satisfaction : international postgraduate students from Asia

The internationalisation of higher education remains one of the major challenges faced by universities with the increasing mobility and rising expectations of a highly diversified student community worldwide. With the competitiveness of the industry, universities will need to focus on factors influencing student satisfaction to improve service quality where required. This paper draws on the theory of cognitive dissonance dealining with disconformation of expectations that results in customer satisfaction and using structural equation modelling, investigates factors that influence satisfaction of international postgraduate students from Asian countries studying in Australia and concludes with strategic implications for universities.

Investigating sample bias in student evaluations of teaching

Student evaluations of teaching have increased in importance to universities in Australia over recent years due to changes in government policy. There has been significant debate in the literature as to the validity and usefulness of such evaluations and as to whether students who respond to the evaluations are indeed representative of the student population. A potential invalidating issue is self selection in the evaluation process. In this paper, we consider student evaluations of a large first year business statistics subject that had 1073 eligible students enrolled across four campuses at the time of the evaluation. The study is based on the 373 students (34.8%) who responded to the survey, and their final results. The evaluations were open for a period of six weeks leading up to and just after the final exam. The study looks in detail at the student population identifying such attributes as gender; home campus; course of study; domestic/international; Commonwealth Supported Place/full fee paying, etc. and then mapping these results to those of the students who responded to the survey.

What's the difference and where is the evidence? Investigating student teachers learning about literacy in a school based vs university based experience

This paper is in response to increasing national and international interest in the role of university teacher education programs in preparing pre-service  teachers in the area of early years literacy. The most effective manner to  facilitate this learning in teacher education is however not known and much debate exists about the merits of university-based versus school-based  approaches. It is within this context that the authors of this paper conducted a study that investigated student teachers learning about literacy through two different approaches both with distinctive design features. The first approach offered student teachers a school based experience, adopting a two hour micro-teaching model in a preparatory classroom; the other, a mainstream university based approach where students attended a tutorial for two hours. These two approaches were then compared for factors that student teachers articulated through a written survey. In analysing the data, two main findings emerged; firstly from the student teachers’ perspective, choice of approach resulted in improved learning and secondly, from the researchers’ perspective that student teachers placed in the school based approach emerged with a deeper understanding of the complexity of literacy teaching in general.

From student to therapist : follow up of a first cohort of Bachelor of occupational therapy students

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the perception of graduate students on their preparation for practice, at 7 months post graduation.
Method: Using an anonymous postal questionnaire, 18 respondents (58% response rate) provided data on the nature of current employment, the experience as a graduate therapist, and perceptions of their undergraduate experience in preparing them for practice.
Results: Fifty percent of the respondents were practising in a rural environment. There was a significant positive relationship between respondents perception of their curriculum and fieldwork experiences and their preparation for practice (rho = 0.52, p < 0.05, and rho = 0.55, p < 0.05, respectively). Of the fieldwork experiences, respondents rated block placements as more beneficial to practice than non-traditional placements. However, a correlational analysis showed the non-traditional placement was significantly related to preparation for practice (rho = 0.54, p < 0.05). On a sevenpoint Likert scale, respondents rated themselves from 5.2 to 5.7 for perceived self-competence as a newly graduated practitioner with community-based graduates having the higher rating. Confidence in clinical decision-making was rated 5.0 to 5.6 with community-based graduates having higher rating. Respondents reported a positive perception that the undergraduate program prepared them to enter the workforce and practise as an occupational therapist (mean ratings 5.5 to 6.2).
Conclusion: Respondents felt adequately prepared to enter the occupational therapy profession and workforce. Strengths and weaknesses in their preparation are discussed as well as the need for further research.

The influence of Sport Education on student motivation in physical education

Background: Physical educators are faced with trying to provide motivating and enjoyable experiences in physical education. Sport Education is an instructional model that aims to provide positive motivational sport experiences by simulating the features of authentic sport. Research support for Sport Education is positive, however, the effects on student motivation and the motivational climate are not well understood.

Purpose: To investigate the influence of the Sport Education model on student motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, goal orientations, and perceived motivational climate) in secondary physical education.

Setting: Six classes were selected according to teacher and class availability in the sports of soccer, hockey, and football codes in a co-educational government school.

Participants: Participants were 115 (male = 97, female = 18) Year-8 students (aged 13-14 years), in a Sport Education condition (n = 41) and a Traditional condition (n = 74).

Measures: At pre- and post-test, all participants completed three questionnaires: the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, and the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire.

Intervention: Participants completed either a Sport Education condition or a Traditional condition for one double period (100 minutes) one day per week for 10 weeks (Sport Education condition) or for five weeks (Traditional condition). The Sport Education condition incorporated six distinctive features: seasons, affiliation, formal competition, record keeping, festivity, and a culminating event. The Traditional condition used whole-group instruction led by the teacher.

Research design: The study used a non-equivalent control group design with pre- and post-test procedures. The independent variable was teaching condition and the dependent variable was student motivation (assessed by intrinsic motivation, goal orientations, and motivational climate). The groups were already established and selected for convenience purposes.

Data collection and analysis: Participants completed pre-test measures and then participated in their pre-established classes. Post-test measures were completed in the last class in each condition. A reliability analysis on measures was conducted using Cronach's alphas. A pre-test manipulation check was performed to check for any initial differences in motivation. To compare the difference in changes between conditions on motivation, a series of 2 times 2 repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted. A comparison of the relationship between motivation measures was conducted using Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients.

Findings: There was a significant difference between the conditions on changes in perceived competence, task orientation, and mastery climate, with the Traditional condition decreasing significantly from pre- to post-test compared with the Sport Education condition. There were no significant differences on interest/enjoyment, effort/importance, pressure/tension, ego orientation, or performance climate. A mastery climate was positively related to task orientation and intrinsic motivation and a performance climate was related to ego orientation.

Conclusions: The Sport Education condition was more successful in maintaining high levels of intrinsic motivation, task orientation, and mastery climate than the Traditional condition. That is, the Traditional condition was associated with a decrease in adaptive aspects of motivation for students, whereas the Sport Education condition maintained existing levels of motivation.

Implementation of student active learning in primary mathematics in Indonesia

Twenty years after the first pilot projects began to develop Student Active Learning (SAL) in Indonesia, and four years since it was adopted for use in the last provinces, this research investigates the implementation of Student Active Learning in Indonesian primary mathematics classrooms. A study of the relevant literature indicates that teaching based on constructivist principles is unlikely to be implemented well in mathematics classrooms unless there are high quality teachers, readily available manipulative materials, and a supportive learning environment. As Indonesian schools often lack one or more of these aspects, it seemed likely that Student Active Learning principles might not be ‘fully’ implemented in Indonesian primary mathematics classrooms. Thus a smaller scale, parallel study was carried out in Australian schools where there is no policy of Student Active Learning, but where its underlying principles are compatible with the stated views about learning and teaching mathematics. The study employed a qualitative interpretive methodology. Sixteen primary teachers from four urban and four rural Indonesian schools and four teachers from two Victorian schools were observed for four mathematics lessons each. The twenty teachers, as well as fourteen Indonesian headteachers and other education professionals, were interviewed in order to establish links between the background and beliefs of participants, and their implementation of Student Active Learning. Information on perceived constraints on the implementation of SAL was also sought. The results of this study suggest that Student Active learning has been implemented at four levels in Indonesian primary mathematics classrooms, ranging from essentially no implementation to a relatively high level of implementation, with an even higher level of implementation in three of the four Australian classrooms observed. Indonesian teachers, headteachers and supervisors hold a range of views of SAL and also of mathematics learning and teaching. These views largely depended on their in-service training in SAL and, more particularly, on their participation in the PEQIP project Typically, participants’ expressed views of SAL were at the same or higher level as their views of mathematics learning and teaching, with a similar pattern being observed in the relationship between these latter views and their implementation of SAL principles. Three factors were identified as influencing teacher change in terms of implementation of SAL: policy, curricular and organisational, and attitudes. Recommendations arising from this study include the adoption of reflection as an underlying principle in the theory of SAL, the continuation and extension of PEQIP type projects, changes in government policy on curriculum coverage and pre-service teacher training, and more support for teachers at the school and local authority levels.

Mercantilist Cinderella : Deakin University and the distance education student in the postmodern world

This is a thesis presented on the position of the distance education student at a distance education university in the present era. Traditionally, the distance education student has been a sort of Cinderella: marginalised, being constructed as some form of lesser version of the on campus one. A largely invisible part of the higher education system in Australia since 1911, the distance education student has really only come to be foregrounded in university education discourses from 1983 onwards. It was not until then that the distance education student emerged from ‘hidden pools’ identified by Karmel (1975), and since then the construction of this student has undergone a number of modifications, mapped in this thesis. At the same time university education itself has undergone a series of modifications, not least of which has been its taking on mercantilist overtones as investments made by students in their own careers and professional development. The modifications, also mapped in this thesis, have progressed to the stage where the construction of the old distance education student is now one of a flexible learner in a mercantilist system of university education. The notion of distance education and the distance education student has undergone significant shifts, redefinitions and constructions, which are tracked in this thesis. My research has focussed on a number of pertinent questions, based on a study of Deakin University and its practice since its establishment. The thesis draws on a number of works which have been informed by those of Foucault, and I have framed my research questions accordingly. I have asked why and how Deakin University came into being as a distance education provider at tertiary level. What were the conditions of its establishment and progression in relation to the political events, economic practices and communication technology in use over time? To consider such questions, I needed to analyse the changes that I had seen occurring in the context of wider restructurings in university education. These had occurred in the context of government forging a closer interconnectedness between education and national economic aims and objectives at the same time as it demanded greater productivity in the face of commercial and industrial sector pushes for applied knowledge. Poststructuralist philosophical developments offer tools to explore not only questions of power, but the practical outcomes of questions of power, and how the complicity of individuals is established. This thesis explores ways in which such considerations helped to shape the changing constructions of the distance education student from a marginalised, disadvantaged and under-represented participant in higher education to a privileged, well catered for and advantaged learner. These same considerations are used to explore ways in which they have helped to shape university distance education courses from a perceived second-rate form of higher education to a prototype that better captures the essential elements of learning for what has been styled in a postmodern world as the Information Age. Overlaid on these considerations is a changing view of the economics of such provision of higher education. It is anticipated that this thesis will contribute to developing new understandings of the construction of subjectivities in relation to the distance education university student specifically, and to the university student generally, in the postmodern world. The implications of this examination are not inconsiderable for students and academics in a self-styled Information Society.

Pocket books of engagement : a 'just-in- time' framework for a high quality first year student experience

This paper describes a 'just-in-time' engagement framework for a high quality first year experience ('FYE'). The concept 'just-in-time' refers to a student-centered timeline for a managed learning environment based on the week-to-week experiences faced by a first year student in an Australian University semester. The engagement framework detailed in this paper consists of a series of teaching strategies embedded as part of a designed, integrated and co-ordinated first year program, expanding on the transition blueprint of Nelson, Kift, Humphreys & Harper (2006), working within a transition pedagogy (Kift, 2008) and implementing an institutional-wide program of collaborative engagement. This paper discusses the application of this framework to a first year foundational unit in the Bachelor of Laws degree at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, implemented as part of an embedded institutional-wide transition program.

Heteroglossia : a space for developing critical language awareness?

This paper reports on research into the challenges of implementing a critical writing pedagogy within a teacher education program in Australia. Participants in this study are student teachers enrolled in a compulsory subject, ‘Language and Literacy in Secondary School’, a subject requiring them to develop a knowledge of the role of language and literacy across the secondary school curriculum and to show personal proficiency in literacy (this is dictated by state government specifications of graduate outcomes for teacher education programs). To develop an understanding of the way that language has shaped their lives, students write a narrative about their early literacy experiences – a task which they all find very challenging, especially in comparison with the formal writing of other university subjects. Rather than simply reminiscing about their early childhood, they are encouraged to juxtapose voices from the past and the present, and to combine a range of texts within their writing. They thereby create a heteroglossic text (Bakhtin, 1981) that stretches their repertoires as language users and enables them to develop a socially critical awareness of language and literacy, including the literacy practices in which they engage as university students. Later in the semester they revisit these accounts of their early literacy experiences, and (in a separate piece of writing) endeavour to place these accounts within the contexts of theories and debates they have encountered in the course of completing this unit.

The students’ writing provides a small window on how they are experiencing their tertiary education, including the managerial controls that are currently shaping university curriculum and pedagogy. Their writing also raises questions as to extent to which tertiary students are actually able to formulate a critical language awareness that will subsequently inform their professional practice as secondary teachers.

Pulling schools up by their bootstraps : the case of a government intervention to raise standards in five 'under-performing' schools

This paper canvasses a school improvement intervention instigated by a government education department to raise the student achievement results of five schools in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The paper discusses the theory base of the intervention and the outcomes of its first stage which involved a preliminary survey of all students, teachers, assistant principals and principals from the schools involved. The survey results reveal discrepancies of opinions, perceptions, interests and ideas within these key groups. Future plans are discussed in light of both the findings from the first round of theory-building and other pertinent research concerning improving student learning outcomes.