Healthy nature healthy people: 'contact with nature' as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations

Whilst urban-dwelling individuals who seek out parks and gardens appear to intuitively understand the personal health and well-being benefits arising from `contact with nature', public health strategies are yet to maximize the untapped resource nature provides, including the benefits of nature contact as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations. This paper presents a summary of empirical, theoretical and anecdotal evidence drawn from a literature review of the human health benefits of contact with nature. Initial findings indicate that nature plays a vital role in human health and well-being, and that parks and nature reserves play a significant role by providing access to nature for individuals. Implications suggest contact with nature may provide an effective population-wide strategy in prevention of mental ill health, with potential application for sub-populations, communities and individuals at higher risk of ill health. Recommendations include further investigation of `contact with nature' in population health, and examination of the benefits of nature-based interventions. To maximize use of `contact with nature' in the health promotion of populations, collaborative strategies between researchers and primary health, social services, urban planning and environmental management sectors are required. This approach offers not only an augmentation of existing health promotion and prevention activities, but provides the basis for a socio-ecological approach to public health that incorporates environmental sustainability.

Assessment of online reflections : engaging English second language (ESL) students

Online discussion boards are being used increasingly by tertiary educators as a tool for encouraging greater student interaction and developing learning communities. In particular, educators who have adopted a learner centered, socio-constructivist approach to teaching have sought to facilitate collaborative learning in which students reflect upon and share their experiences and perspectives, and construct knowledge together through developing shared meanings. This paper presents the findings of an electronic survey of the perceptions of 70 distance education EFL and ESL students concerning a compulsory assessment item involving contribution to an online course discussion board. The study revealed that the majority of the students enjoyed the assessment item and agreed that posting to the online course discussion board had allowed them to achieve a range of cognitive and social learning outcomes, as well as to develop some important graduate skills. In particular, ESL students reported the benefits of posting to the discussion board in terms of sharing their experiences with others and reducing the feeling of isolation. Further, when considering social outcomes, ESL students perceive the discussion board provided them with an opportunity to meet and develop a closer relationship with other students in the course and encouraged them to keep up with their studies.

Local health policy development processes in the Netherlands: an expanded toolbox for health promotion

Although much research has been done on the existence and formation of risk and issue based health policies, there is only little insight in health policy development processes in a broader context. This hampers intervention in these policy processes to adequately develop integrated and effective health policies.

Legislation in the Netherlands requires municipalities to develop and implement local health policies. These policies are supposed to aim at the promotion of health across sectors and with a strong community involvement. Health policy development processes have been studied in four Dutch municipalities. For each case, we identified a range of stakeholders and monitored the change or stability of their characteristics over 3 years. In addition, for each case, three overlaying maps of networks were made addressing communication and collaboration actions within the defined set of stakeholders. We point out a number of barriers which impede integrated policy development at the local level: the importance given to local health policy, the medical approach to health development, the organizational self-interest rather than public health concern, the absence of policy entrepreneurial activity.

Furthermore, this article advocates the use of complementary theoretical frameworks and the expansion of the methodological toolbox for health promotion. The value of stakeholder and network analysis in the health promotion domain, at this stage, is two-fold. First, mapping relevant actors, their positions and connections in networks provides us with insight into their capacity to participate and contribute to health policy development. Second, these new tools contribute to a further understanding of policy entrepreneurial roles to be taken up by health promotion professionals and health authorities in favour of the socio-environmental approach to health.

Notwithstanding the value of this first step, more research is required into both the practical application as well as in the theoretical connections with, for example, Multiple Streams theory.

A proposed smart-card solution for Australian health services : the problems encountered

This case study describes the experience of a state government health department in evaluating the use of smart card technology to redesign health benefits programs for the disabled in Australia. The social and political context of the system is explained in detail, and the potential benefits and risks accruing to the government, health care intermediaries and the community are examined.

Student's perceptions of compulsory asynchronous online discussion

Online discussion boards are increasingly being used by tertiary educators as tools for encouraging student interaction and for developing learning networks. In particular, educators who have adopted a socio-constructivist approach to teaching are keen to facilitate collaborative learning in which students share their experiences and perspectives, and construct knowledge together through shared meanings. In this paper, the findings from an electronic survey of 72 distance education students’ perceptions of an online discussion assessment item (ODAI) are presented. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents enjoyed the ODAI, and agreed that the online discussions had allowed them to achieve a range of cognitive and social learning outcomes, and to develop some important graduate skills.

E-Simulations for educating the professions in blended learning environments

This chapter introduces digital, role-based simulations as an emerging and powerful educational approach for the professions and for broader workforce development purposes. It is acknowledged that simulations used for education, professional development, and training, have a long history of development and use. The focus is on digital simulations (e-simulations) situated in blended learning environments and the improved affordances of the newer digital media used via the web to enhance the value of their contribution to learning and teaching in professional and vocationally-oriented fields. This is an area which has received less attention in the whole “e-learning” literature compared with the voluminous body of knowledge and practice on computer-mediated communication, online community building, social networking, and various forms of online (usually automated) assessment. A framework of blended e-simulation design is outlined. The chapter concludes by examining what the future might hold for simulations in further and higher education, and ongoing work-based learning.

Classroom teacher effectiveness research and inquiry, and its relevance to the development of public education policy: an Australian context

This paper has as its focus an analysis of the question and problem of classroom teacher effectiveness research and inquiry. It presents an examination of what counts as valid and worthwhile research in classroom teacher effectiveness studies for the development of education policy within an Australian context, the State of Victoria. The Government’s Blueprint, the major education policy document of the Victorian State Labour Government, outlines its educational approach. Important and core features of government direction for education policy include a focus on social and economic disadvantage. A priority for the Victorian State Labour Government is tangible and measurable improvement in the performance of the public education system. A particular concern is the problem of academic underperformance within public schools, particularly those designated as low-performing and situated in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Building the capacity of the State’s teacher workforce forms a key component of the Blueprint, and State Government direction in public education. The paper utilises a qualitative theoretical framework. Eight education policy actor/participants were interviewed and their responses analysed using a critical discourse approach. The main findings indicate that education policy actors advocate a strong belief in particular forms of evidence-based research for the development of education policy in the area of classroom teacher effectiveness.

As if the future matters : teaching design for sustainable communities

Between 2007 and 2010 a series of intensive annual field trips took around 100 predominantly city-based Australian and international students from The University of Adelaide into rural communities (numbers ranged from 82 in 2007 to 105 in 2009). Country areas/towns (rather than the city) were chosen because in them issues of sustainability are ‘in your face’ and much clearer for students to comprehend than in the city. The trips required co-operation between the respective communities, the School and the students. The organization required for this number of students was time-consuming and prone to disruption, and the series ended when the principal organisers moved on to new positions and the School reverted to less time-costly modes of teaching. This paper provides a retrospective insight into the series of field trips and examines their educational and professional value for the participants – students, staff and communities. We begin by describing the aims of the course and argument for an immersive educational approach, then present the logistics and process for the field trips, discuss the outcomes for the stakeholders, and finally present some conclusions.

Urbanisation, climate change and health equity: how can health promotion contribute?

We live in a world that is constantly changing and is challenging established approaches to managing human and ecological health. Two key drivers of change are urbanisation and global climate change. This commentary is concerned with the interrelationship of these drivers with human and ecological health, proposing that health promotion practitioners need to actively seek a new role in the process of creating urban environments that support social and ecological well-being. It provides practitioners with an up-to-date synthesis of climate change science and future projections, the literature around the health impacts of climate change and potential health challenges to urban communities. We argue that health promotion cannot respond to the challenges created by climate change and urbanisation, nor can it meet its own mandate without shifting from an anthropogenic-focussed approach toward embracing a multi-scale, collaborative approach outside the health sector. We suggest that the underlying principles of health promotion, which include equity and community engagement at all scales, are critical to the evolution of thriving urban environments. Food security is given as an example to demonstrate the proposed shift away from an anthropogenic and urban focus toward a socio-ecological approach (i.e. resilience thinking) that provides a framework for collaboration between sectors working with unpredictable global systems. In so doing, the commentary provides practitioners with guidance on the complex science of climate change and its impact on health in urban settings, as well as highlighting the skills that they can bring to creating resilient urban settlements in these times of change.

A história da gestão de produção e operações

Conhecer o passado ajuda a entender o presente e a preparar-se para o futuro. Atribui-se ao início do Século XIX a origem da área do conhecimento que mais tarde passou a ser conhecida como a gestão de produção e operações. Ao longo dos séculos XIX e XX, esta área evoluiu e mudou. Nasceu predominantemente industrial, passou a incorporar também a gestão de operações mais ligadas ao setor terciário da economia (os serviços), passou a contemplar também as redes de empresas que interagem (as redes de suprimentos). Passou por períodos de evolução acelerada (como durante a Segunda Grande Guerra Mundial) e passou por períodos de quase estagnação (como no período pós Guerra). Técnicas e conceitos surgiram, foram aperfeiçoadas, beberam da fonte de outras áreas do conhecimento (como as abordagens sócio-técnicas aproveitando-se de conceitos da psicologia e o controle de qualidade utilizando a estatística), vertentes surgiram, uniram-se, separaram-se numa fascinante dinâmica que até hoje não foi explicitada na forma de um texto que ajude os acadêmicos e profissionais práticos a entenderem melhor sua área. Este projeto pretende preencher esta lacuna: sistematizar um texto que descreve comentadamente a evolução da área de produção e operações. Além disso comenta sobre os impactos que a nova economia está trazendo para a área e especula sobre quais são as questões que deverão merecer desenvolvimento adicional de pesquisa e de práticas no futuro.

Comunidades tradicionais em áreas protegidas: convergências e lacunas da Política Urbana e Ambiental na Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Estadual Ponta do Tubarão/RN

This work presents a reflection on possibilities and boundaries of consolidation and expansion of human settlements characterized as traditional communities that are located within protected areas, using as study reference the State Sustainable Development Reserve Ponta do Tubarão, at Rio Grande do Norte state. The main topics highlight the conflict between the right to housing and the prevalence of fundamental rights of traditional populations, opposed to the diffuse right to environment, according to the regulatory framework of the Brazilian Urban and Environmental Policies. At the same time that these settlements, historically built, are substantiated by the principles of recognition of rights to traditional populations, they are in a condition of complexity to the resolution of conflicts in its urban dimension and lead to an impairment of natural sites. This work questions how the instruments of land use and occupation are defined and relate to environmental planning, especially considering that the settlements are located in Permanent Preservation Areas (APP). It aims to further the discussion of the urban dimension in settlements, characterizing its formation and growth process, to identify the gaps and convergences between the Urban and Environmental Policy, under the foundations of a socio-environmental approach. The results spotlights the conflicts between occupation and natural areas, inferring that the definition of Urban Policies instruments and its integration with Environmental Policies instruments account for essential and priority actions to the achievement to the rights to a sustainable city, as determined in the Cities Statute and environmental protection goals, defined for the Conservation Units

Implementação da política de assistência social em Mossoró/RN : uma avaliação a partir dos centros de referência da assistência social

The current National Policy for Social Assistance (PNAS) is the instrument that regulates the organization and procedures of social-welfare actions. Developed and approved in 2004 since the Unified Social Assistance System (ITS) was crated in 2003, it reaffirms the democratic principles of the Social Assistance Organic Law (LOAS) focusing on the universalization of social rights and equality of rights when accessing the social-welfare system. In the SUAS point of view, the PNAS highlights the information, monitoring and evaluation fields for being the best way to assure the regulation, organization and control by the Federal Government paying attention to the principles of decentralization and participation. This political-institutional rearrangement occurs through the pact among all the three federal entities. The pact deals with the implementation of the task. It says that it has to be shared between the federal autonomous entities, established by dividing responsibilities. To the cities, considered as the smallest territorial unit of the federation and closer to the population, was given the primary responsibility, which is to feed and maintain the database of SUAS NETWORK and identify families living in situations of social vulnerability. In addition to these responsibilities, the cities that have full autonomy in the management of their actions, have the responsibility to organize the basic social protection and the special social protection, that using the Center of Social Assistance Reference (CRAS) and the Center of Specialized Social Assistance Reference (CREAS), are responsible for the provision of programs, projects and services that strengthen the family and community; that promote people who are able to enjoy the benefits of the Continuing benefit of Provisions (BPC) and transfer of incomes; that hold the infringed rights on its territory; that maximize the protective role of families and strengthen its users organization. In Mossoró/RN, city classified as autonomous in the social assistance management, has five units of CRAS that, for being public utilities, are considered the main units of basic social protection, since they are responsible for the connection between the other institutions that compose the network of local social protection. Also known as Family House, the CRAS, among other programs and services, offers the Integral Attention to Families Program (PAIF), Juvenile ProJovem Program, socio-educational coexistence services programs, as well as sending people to other public policies and social-welfare services network, provides information, among others. In this large field, social workers are highlighted as keys to implement the policy of social assistance within the city, followed by psychologists and educators. They should be effective public employees, as a solution to ensure that the provision of the services are to be continued, provided to the population living around the units. However, what we can find here is inattention to the standard rules of social assistance, which not only undermines the quality of programs and services, but also the consolidation of policy on welfare as public policy of social rights

A corretagem de imóveis no Rio Grande do Norte: das práticas históricas à emergência como segmento integrante da fração imobiliária do capital

This research proposed to question the development of what was defined as historical practices (commercial, social and political institutions), of the economic activity of the real estate brokerage in the Rio Grande do Norte from the progressive institutionalization of economic agents - individuals (realtors) and legal (real estate) - based on two main approaches: a) the development of economic activity as an integral segment of a fraction of capital (POULANTZAs, 1985; LESSA, 1981). This work set out from a socio-historical approach of the historical practices development the of real estate brokerage in Brazil started in the Southeast, especially in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo as a result of the "expansion of capitalist relations by the housing sector" (RIBEIRO , 1996). especially the real estate capital ; b) the historical development of relations between labor and capital within the activity, in other words, the development of the relationship between realtors and Real Estate in relation to "group of interests" and their "collective actions" (OFFE, 1984). These historical practices are defined in this research as: 1) mercantile practices, times when there was no distinction between the activity of real estate brokerage and other forms of mercantile capital; 2) social practices, which began in the 1930s, when agents of real estate are to be distinguished from each other within the activity through Taylorist division of labor between workers realtors and developers of real estate; 3) political and institutional practices, initiated in 1962, characterized by State action, in the individualization and distinction of the agents of real estate brokerage as socioprofessional category regulated throughout Brazil by Law 4.116/62 and 6.530/78. The results achieved by the present study showed that in Rio Grande do Norte, due to the specifics as to the peripheral processes of urbanization of the constitution of the land market, as well as the process of conservative modernization of the oligarchic State from the 1960s (CLEMENTINE, 1995; FERREIRA, 1996, 2010, TRINDADE, 2004), the State was led to the development of a late manifestation of the historical practices of real estate brokerage. In other words, it was a process in which historical practices, in particular social practices, not fully developed, mitigating, thus the perception of realtors from his position in the process of exploitation of labor by the Real Estate. And, as a result, of their collective interests front of them.

Reelaborando conceitos e ressignificando a prática na educação infantil

In this research we described the path of thirty one teachers involved with elementary school, amog which we included ourselves, looking for professional formation that allowed us to understand the function of educating childen. In this sense, this group of teachers begins a process of intentional, systematic and voluntary reflection, in an attempt to give new meanings to daily concepts of life and work, and linking them to their socialpractices. Having as reference the theoretical and methodological principles of socio-historical approach and collaborative research, the Group of Studies: The Dialogue Reflection as Re-meaning of Pedagogical Practice: a continuous education proposal, motivated by the willing and the necessity of re- elaborate knowledge about collaboration, reflection, infant education, playing and development which meets the new and goes the inverse way revisiting concepts and conception already consolidated, confronting and re-meaning them enlightened by one s own effort and the collaboration of pairs, mediated by Cycles of Reflexive Studies and Inter/intrapersonal Sessions. We can affirm that these tools helped the process of reflexivity put into practice by participants, which most important consequence was the theoretical re-meaning and practice in the ambit of infant education. During this investigation, we could see some theoretical and practice presuppositions which permitted to attribute to the exercise of reflexivity in collaboration the means into which the involved people could rescue the actions taken, justified their choices, confronted their theoretical options with their peers and with the systematized knowledge would question their certainties and rebuild in intra-psychological level, the knowledge elaborated socially. To this group which main activity is the docent profession, the personal and professional development constitutes the objective in which actions were articulated and operations which made learning possible as well as professional development