Ecological perspectives and wellness

Since the industrial revolution, the development of a lifestyle lived predominantly indoors has resulted in less contact with nature. Research over the last twenty years has gradually been identifying the human health benefits attributed to re-connecting with the natural environment. The significance of feeling connected to natural environments, families and friends are described as a foundational requirement for human health and wellbeing (Maller et al., 2008). Also, the early findings of Schultz‟s (2002) work indicated that by feeling connected to the natural world a person is more likely to be committed to positively interact with and protect the natural world. Research on young people has indicated that young people are even more disconnected from the natural world. Leading some writers to call this disconnection a crisis termed “Nature Deficit Disorder.” Participants (n = 131) from 1st year university Physical Education and Human Movement Studies were asked to complete two questionnaires the Connectedness to Nature scale (CNS) (Mayer & Frantz, 2004) and the New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) (Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig, & Jones, 2000). The NEP and CNS are two scales most commonly used to explore beliefs and feelings of connectedness to the natural world (Schultz, 2002). The NEP was developed over thirty years ago by Dunlap and Van Liere (1978) and originally termed the New Environmental Paradigm. The NEP is now the foremost International tool for measuring beliefs about the natural world (Dunlap, 2008). The CNS measures an individual‟s trait levels of emotional connection to the natural world. It is a relatively new tool for understanding ecological behaviour based on ecopsychology theory and employed to predict behaviour (Mayer and Frantz, 2004). Both questionnaires are based on a 1-5 scale (Strongly disagree to Strongly agree). By combing both scales the researchers aim to develop a snap shot of beliefs and emotional feelings towards the natural world and therefore an idea of intended behaviour. The two questionnaires were combined as one online survey with additional material asking for demographics and self assessments of type of leader included before the surveys. An email inviting outdoor leaders to participate was sent out to networks and interest groups. A basic descriptive statistical analysis was used to interpret data.

The X-Factor and its relationship to golfing performance

It is often postulated that an increased hip to shoulder differential angle (`X-Factor') during the early downswing better utilises the stretch-shorten cycle and improves golf performance. The current study aims to examine the potential relationship between the X-Factor and performance during the tee-shot. Seven golfers with handicaps between 0 and 10 strokes comprised the low-handicap group, whilst the high-handicap group consisted of eight golfers with handicaps between 11 and 20 strokes. The golfers performed 20 drives and three-dimensional kinematic data were used to quantify hip and shoulder rotation and the subsequent X-Factor. Compared with the low-handicap group, the high-handicap golfers tended to demonstrate greater hip rotation at the top of the backswing and recorded reduced maximum X-Factor values. The inconsistencies evident in the literature may suggest that a universal method of measuring rotational angles during the golf swing would be beneficial for future studies, particularly when considering potential injury.

Social inequalities and parent involvement in children’s education in the early years of school

Strengthening cooperation between schools and parents is critical to improving learning outcomes for children. The chapter focuses on parental engagement in their children’s education in the early years of school. It considers issues of social and cultural capital as important to whether, or not, parents are involved in their children’s schooling. Analyses of data from a national representative sample of children and their families who participate in Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children are presented. Results indicated that higher family socio-economic position was associated with higher levels of parental involvement and higher expectations about children’s future level of education.

Nature's experiment? Handedness and early childhood development

In recent years a large body of research has investigated the various factors affecting child development and the consequent impact of child development on future educational and labour market outcomes. In this article we contribute to this literature by investigating the effect of handedness on a child and given recent research demonstrating that child development strongly affects adult outcomes. Using a large nationally representative sample of young children we find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not significantly related to child health at birth, family composition, parental employment or household income. We also find robust evidence that left-handed (and mixed handed) children perform significantly worse in nearly all measures of development than right-handed children with the relative disadvantage being larger for boys than girls. Importantly these differentials cannot be explained by different socioeconomic characteristics of the household, parental attitudes or investments in learning resources.

User-designer collaboration during the early stage of the design process

As user involvement becomes a necessary part of the product development process, various ways of accessing users' latent needs have been developed and studied. Reviews of literatures in user involvement and product development have revealed that accessing users' latent needs and transferring them into design process could be facilitated by effectively implementing user-designer collaboration during the early stage of the design process. In this paper, various types of user-designer collaboration were observed and then distinct characteristics of user-designer collaboration were classified into three categories. 1) Passive objectivity, 2) workplace democratisation, and 3) shared contexts were observed as strategies for better user-designer collaboration, which have been employed in the area of user-centred design, user participatory design and design for experiencing. Based on the literature review, this paper proposed a basic collaboration mechanism between the users and the designers during the early stage of the design process and then discussed how its mechanism will help to describe the interactions between the users and the designers during the user involvement sessions.

Participatory Learning in the Early Years : Research and Pedagogy

The early years are an important period for learning, but the questions surrounding participatory learning amongst toddlers remain under-examined. This book presents the latest theoretical and research perspectives about how ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) contexts promote democracy and citizenship through participatory learning approaches. The contributors provide insight into national policies, provisions, and practices and advance our understandings of theory and research on toddlers’ experiences for democratic participation across a number of countries, including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Norway.

Maternal reminiscing style during early childhood predicts the age of adolescents' earliest memories

Individual differences in parental reminiscing style are hypothesized to have long-lasting effects on children’s autobiographical memory development, including the age of their earliest memories. This study represents the first prospective test of this hypothesis. Conversations about past events between 17 mother–child dyads were recorded on multiple occasions between the children’s 2nd and 4th birthdays. When these children were aged 12–13 years, they were interviewed about their early memories. Adolescents whose mothers used a greater ratio of elaborations to repetitions during the early childhood conversations had earlier memories than adolescents whose mothers used a smaller ratio of elaborations to repetitions. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that past-event conversations during early childhood have long-lasting effects on autobiographical memory.

Investigating functional thinking in the elementary classroom : foundations of early algebraic reasoning

This paper examines the development of student functional thinking during a teaching experiment that was conducted in two classrooms with a total of 45 children whose average age was nine years and six months. The teaching comprised four lessons taught by a researcher, with a second researcher and classroom teacher acting as participant observers. These lessons were designed to enable students to build mental representations in order to explore the use of function tables by focusing on the relationship between input and output numbers with the intention of extracting the algebraic nature of the arithmetic involved. All lessons were videotaped. The results indicate that elementary students are not only capable of developing functional thinking but also of communicating their thinking both verbally and symbolically.

Young Children and the Environment : Early Learning for Sustainability

This world-first text book on early childhood edcuation for sustainabilty tackles one of the biggest contemporary issues of our times - the changing environmment - and demonstrates how early education can contribute to sustainable living. An essential text for students in early childhood teacher education and a practcial resource for child care practitioners and primary school teachers, it is designed to promote edcuation for sustainabilty from birth to eight years. the text refers to national and international initiatives such as 'sustainable Schools', 'Child Friendly Cities' and 'Health Promoting Schools' and explores their existing and potential links with early childhood education. Groundbreaking content draws on recent literature in the areas of organisational, educational and cultural chnage, and environmental sustainabilty. Specific chapters explore ethical challenges and the use of ICT to advance learning. Case studies and vignettes exemplify leadership in practice and 'provocations' are integrated throughout to inspire new ways of thinking about the environment, the wider world, young children and the transformative power of early edcuation.

A short-term evaluation of a school-based early adolescent injury prevention program

This paper reports on the development of a school-based intervention to reduce risk-taking and associated injuries. There is limited but important evidence that intervention design should ensure participation does not lead to an increase in target risk behaviors with some studies in alcohol and drug prevention finding unexpected negative effects. The short-term evaluation of Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY) examined change in interpersonal violence, alcohol and transport-related risks. Intervention (n = 360) and comparison (n = 180) students were surveyed pre/post-intervention. A qualitative analysis based on focus groups (70 students) explored experiences of change. Findings indicate significant positive changes reinforced by students’ reports. A decrease in reported risk-taking for the intervention group and an increase in the comparison group were observed. These findings endorse SPIY as a useful curriculum approach to reducing injuries and lend support to the future conduct of a long-term outcome evaluation.

Mathematical modelling in the early school years

In this article we explore young children's development of mathematical knowledge and reasoning processes as they worked two modelling problems (the Butter Beans Problem and the Airplane Problem). The problems involve authentic situations that need to be interpreted and described in mathematical ways. Both problems include tables of data, together with background information containing specific criteria to be considered in the solution process. Four classes of third-graders (8 years of age) and their teachers participated in the 6-month program, which included preparatory modelling activities along with professional development for the teachers. In discussing our findings we address: (a) Ways in which the children applied their informal, personal knowledge to the problems; (b) How the children interpreted the tables of data, including difficulties they experienced; (c) How the children operated on the data, including aggregating and comparing data, and looking for trends and patterns; (c) How the children developed important mathematical ideas; and (d) Ways in which the children represented their mathematical understandings.

Young children's early modelling with data

An educational priority of many nations is to enhance mathematical learning in early childhood. One area in need of special attention is that of statistics. This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the beginning school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modelling activities. Such modelling involves investigations of meaningful phenomena, deciding what is worthy of attention (i.e., identifying complex attributes), and then progressing to organising, structuring, visualising, and representing data. Results are reported from the first year of a three-year longitudinal study in which three classes of first-grade children and their teachers engaged in activities that required the creation of data models. The theme of “Looking after our Environment,” a component of the children’s science curriculum at the time, provided the context for the activities. Findings focus on how the children dealt with given complex attributes and how they generated their own attributes in classifying broad data sets, and the nature of the models the children created in organising, structuring, and representing their data.

Maintaining nutrition in aged care residents with a train-the-trainer intervention and nutrition coordinator

Objective: To investigate the impact of a train-the-trainer program on the nutritional status of older people in residential care. ----- Design: Prospective, randomized controlled study. Setting: Eight nursing homes in Southeast Queensland, Australia. ----- Participants: A total of 352 residents participated - 245 were female (69.6%). The mean age was 84.2 years and the majority (79.4%) were classified as high dependency. ----- Intervention: Residents from four nursing homes were randomly selected for a nutrition education program coordinated by Nutrition Coordinators. Residents from the other four nursing homes (control) received usual care. ----- Measurements: The Subjective Global Assessment was used to determine prevalence of malnutrition at baseline and six months post intervention. The Resident Classification Scale measured functional dependency. Prescribed diet, fluids, oral hygiene status and allied health referrals were obtained by chart audit. ----- Results: Approximately half the residents were well nourished with 49.4% moderately or severely malnourished. Residents in the intervention group were more likely to maintain or improve their nutritional status compared with the control group who were more likely to experience a deterioration (P=0.027). The odds of the control group being malnourished post test was 1.6 times more likely compared with the intervention group but this did not reach statistical significance (P=0.1). ----- Conclusion: The results of the study encourage the implementation of a Nutrition Coordinator program to maintain nutritional status of aged care residents. Nevertheless, malnutrition rates continue to be unacceptably high. In a rapidly aging society, the aged care sector needs to confront malnutrition and provide better resources for staff to take measures against this problem.