The research pathway to developing a health promotion intervention for the high school curriculum

Introduction: Schools provide the opportunity to reach a large number of adolescents in a systematic way however there are increasing demands on curriculum providing challenges for health promotion activities. This paper will describe the research processes and strategies used to design an injury prevention program.----- Methods: A multi-stage process of data collection included: (1) Surveys on injury-risk behaviours to identify targets of change (examining behaviour and risk/ protective factors among more than 4000 adolescents); (2) Focus groups (n= 30 high-risk adolescents) to understand and determine risk situations; (3) Hospital emergency outpatients survey to understand injury types/ situations; (4) Workshop (n= 50 teachers/ administrators) to understand the target curriculum and experiences with injury-risk behaviours; (5) Additional focus groups (students and teachers) regarding draft material and processes.----- Results: Summaries of findings from each stage are presented particularly demonstrating the design process. The baseline data identified target risk and protective factors. The following qualitative study provided detail about content and context and with the hospital findings assisted in developing ways to ensure relevance and meaning (e.g. identifying high risk situations and providing insights into language, culture and development). School staff identified links to school processes with final data providing feedback on curriculum fit, feasibility and appropriateness of resources. The data were integrated into a program which demonstrated reduced injury.----- Conclusions: A comprehensive research process is required to develop an informed and effective intervention. The next stage of a cluster randomised control trial is a major task and justifies the intensive and comprehensive development.

The passionate critic

It's hard to be dispassionate about Reyner Banham. For me, and for the plethora of other people with strong opinions about Banham, his writing is compelling, and one’s connection to him as a figure quite personal. For me, frankly, he rocks. As a landscape architect, I gleaned most of my knowledge about Modern architecture from Banham. His Theory and Design in the First Machine Age, along with Rowe and Koetter’s Collage City and Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture were the most influential books in my library, by far. Later, as a budding “real scholar”, I was disappointed to find that, while these authors had serious credibility, the writings themselves were regarded as “polemical” – when in fact what I admired about them most was their ability and willingness to make rough groupings and gross generalizations, and to offer fickle opinions. It spoke to me of a real personal engagement and an active, participatory reading of the architectural culture they discussed. They were at their best in their witty, cutting, but generally pithy, creative prose, such as in Rowe’s extrapolation of the modern citizen as the latest “noble savage”, or Banham railing against conservative social advocates and their response to high density housing: “those who had just re-discovered ‘community’ in the slums would fear megastructure as much as any other kind of large-scale renewal program, and would see to it that the people were never ready.” Any reader of Banham will be able to find a gem that will relate, somehow, personally, to what they are doing right now. For Banham, it was all personal, and the gaps in his scholarship, rather, were the dispassionate places: “Such bias is essential – an unbiased historian is a pointless historian – because history is an essentially critical activity, a constant re-scrutiny and rearrangement of the profession.” Reyner Banham: Historian of the Immediate Future, Nigel Whiteley’s recent “intellectual biography” (the MIT Press, 2002), allowed me to revisit Banham’s passionate mode of criticism and to consider what his legacy might be. The book examines Banham’s body of work, grouped according to his various primary fascinations, as well as his relationship to contemporaneous theoretical movements, such as postmodernism. His mode of practice, as a kind of creative critic, is also considered in some depth. While there are points where the book delves into Banham’s personal life, on the whole Whiteley is very rigorous in considering and theorizing the work itself: more than 750 articles and twelve books. In academic terms, this is good practice. However, considering the entirely personal nature of Banham’s writing itself, this separation seems artificial. Banham, as he himself noted, “didn’t mind a gossip”, and often when reading the book I was curious about what was happening to him at the time. Banham’s was an amazing type of intellectual practice, and one that academics (a term he hated) could do well to learn from. While Whiteley spends a lot of time arguing for his practice to be regarded as such, and makes strong points about both the role of the critic, and the importance of journalism, rather than scholarly publishing, I found myself wondering what his study looked like. What books he had in his library. Did he smoke when he wrote? What sort of teaching load did he have? He is an inspiration to design writers and thinkers, and I, personally, wanted to know how he did it.

Creativity, design and entrepreneurship : management education and development for innovation

Creativity, design and entrepreneurship, have been recognized as important contributors to a firm’s innovation and to the nation’s economic growth. Creativity and design play important roles in the fuzzy front end of a firm’s innovation process and also in corporate venturing processes, but the relationship between creativity, design and entrepreneurship to a large extent has not explicitly been examined. This exploratory conceptual paper briefly reviews the separate bodies of research on creativity, design and entrepreneurship, identifying similarities and differences in constructs and applications and identifying implications for business and for management education.

What are the lessons for entrepreneurship from creativity and design?

Entrepreneurship and innovation make significant contributions to the success of firms and both notions are often linked directly or indirectly to notions of creativity and more recently design (Drucker, 1985; Kelley, 2001; Nystrom, 1993). This theoretical paper investigates the processes involved in entrepreneurship, creativity and design and identifies key processes relevant to entrepreneurial practice.

Taranaki wharf in Wellington

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, located on the southern tip of the North Island, and is a windy city, the southern-most capital city in the world and the only in the Roaring Forties. In climate it is closer to its neighbour, the South Island than to the mild major city of the north, Auckland. Yet despite, or perhaps because of this, Wellington is the undisputed cultural capital of New Zealand, with much contem porary art, design music and media coming from this town that has an absurd amount of hip bars and cafes for a population this size: 164,000 approximately. The conjunction in Lord of the Rings of incredible nature and amazing production seems to characterise the rich culture/nature hybrid that Wellington distils, the microcosm of the things that make New Zealand such an incredible place.

Transformational learning in the workplace

Although transformative learning theory remains one of the most influential theories in the field of adult education, studies on fostering transformative learning, particularly in groups and in the workplace, remain sparse. This article summarises some evidence of transformational learning that influenced changes to practice, processes, and the organisational culture in a case study. It is based on a cohort of 12 worker-learners enrolled in a Graduate Certificate in Education (Executive Leadership) course offered by an Australian university (Queensland University of Technology). Data for this article were drawn from interviews with 10 participants, a focus group with 6 of them, their assessment presentations, and reflective notes of the course facilitators. Also included here are the effects on transformational learning of Taylor’s five elements of work-based learning design, Fuller and Unwins’ features of expansive learning, and Billett’s workplace pedagogies.

What is that place? Observations of the impact of environment colour through photographic analysis

Isolating the impact of a colour, or a combination of colours, is extremely difficult to achieve because it is difficult to remove other environmental elements such as sound, odours, light, and occasion from the experience of being in a place. In order to ascertain the impact of colour on how we interpret the world in day to day situations, the current study records participant responses to achromatic scenes of the built environment prior to viewing the same scene in colour. A number of environments were photographed in colour or copied from design books; and copies of the images saved as both colour and black/grey/white. An overview of the study will be introduced by firstly providing examples of studies which have linked colour to meaning and emotions. For example, yellow is said to be connected to happiness1 ; or red evokes feelings of anger2 or passion. A link between colour and the way we understand and/or feel is established however, there is a further need for knowledge of colour in context. In response to this need, the current achromatic/chromatic environmental study will be described and discussed in light of the findings. Finally, suggestions for future research are posed. Based on previous research the authors hypothesised that a shift in environmental perception by participants would occur. It was found that the impact of colour includes a shift in perception of aspects such as its atmosphere and youthfulness. Through studio-class discussions it was also noted that the predicted age of the place, the function, and in association, the potential users when colour was added (or deleted) were often challenged. It is posited that the ability of a designer (for example, interior designer, architect, or landscape architect) to design for a particular target group—user and/or clients will be enhanced through more targeted studies relating colour in situ. The importance of noting the perceptual shift for the participants in our study, who were young designers, is the realisation that colour potentially holds the power to impact on the identity of an architectural form, an interior space, and/or particular elements such as doorways, furniture settings, and the like.

Multilineage differentiation potential of bone and cartilage cells derived from explant culture

To date, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from various tissues have been reported, but the yield and differentiation potential of different tissue-derived MSCs is still not clear. This study was undertaken in an attempt to investigate the multilineage stem cell potential of bone and cartilage explant cultures in comparison with bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). The results showed that the surface antigen expression of tissue-derived cells was consistent with that of mesenchymal stem cells, such as lacking the haematopoietic and common leukocyte markers (CD34, CD45) while expressing markers related to adhesion (CD29, CD166) and stem cells (CD90, CD105). The tissue-derived cells were able to differentiate into osteoblast, chondrocyte and adipocyte lineage pathways when stimulated in the appropriate differentiating conditions. However, compared with BMSCs, tissue-derived cells showed less capacity for multilineage differentiation when the level of differentiation was assessed in monolayer culture by analysing the expression of tissue-specific genes by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and histology. In high density pellet cultures, tissue-derived cells were able to differentiate into chondrocytes, expressing chondrocyte markers such as proteoglycans, type II collagen and aggrecan. Taken together, these results indicate that cells derived from tissue explant cultures reserved certain degree of differentiation properties of MSCs in vitro.

The quality of interface design for educational courseware development in Malaysian educational context

Interactive educational courseware has been adopted in diverse education sectors such as primary, secondary, tertiary education, vocational and professional training. In Malaysian educational context, the ministry of education has implemented Smart School Project that aims to increase high level of academic achievement in primary and secondary schools by using interactive educational courseware. However, many researchers have reported that many coursewares fail to accommodate the learner and teacher needs. In particular, the interface design is not appropriately designed in terms of quality of learning. This paper reviews educational courseware development process in terms of defining quality of interface design and suggests a conceptual model of interface design through the integration of design components and interactive learning experience into the development process. As a result, it defines the concept of interactive learning experience in a more practical approach in order to implement each stage of the development process in a seamless and integrated way.

Identity and disciplinarity : Multi-disciplinary student cohorts in Higher Education [Abstract]

This paper will describe a research project that examines the implications of multidisciplinary student cohorts on teaching and learning within undergraduate and postgraduate units in higher education. Whist students generally specialise in one discipline, it is also common that, at some point during their degree, they will choose to undertake subjects that are outside their specialist area. Students may choose a multidisciplinary learning experience either out of interest or because the subject is seen as complementary to their core discipline. When the lens of identity is applied to the multi-disciplinary cohorts in undergraduate and postgraduate units, it assists in identifying learning needs. The nature of disciplinarity, and the impact it has on students’ academic identity, presents challenges to both students and teachers when they engage in teaching and learning, impacting on curriculum design, assessment practices and teaching delivery strategies (Winberg, 2008). This project aims to identify the barriers that exist to effective teaching and learning in units that have multidisciplinary student cohorts. It will identify the particular needs of students in multidisciplinary student cohorts and determine a teaching and learning model that meets the needs of such cohorts. References Becher, T. & Trowler, P.R. (2001). Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual enquiry and the culture of the discipline. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Light, G. & Cox, R. (2001). Learning and teaching in higher education: A reflective professional. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Neumann, R. (2001). Disciplinary differences and university teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 26 (2), 135-46. Neumann, R., Parry, S. & Becher, T. (2002). Teaching and Learning in their disciplinary contexts: A conceptual analysis. Studies in Higher Education, 27(4), 405-417. Taylor, P.G. (1999) Making Sense of Academic Life: Academics, Universities and Change. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Winberg, C. (2008). Teaching engineering/engineering teaching: interdisciplinary collaboration and the construction of academic identities. Teaching in Higher Education, 13(3), 353 - 367.

Adopting building information modeling (BIM) as collaboration platform in the design industry

This paper discusses the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project aimed at developing a technological, operational and strategic analysis of adopting BIM in AEC/FM (Architecture-Engineering-Construction/Facility Management) industry as a collaboration tool. Outcomes of the project will provide specifications and guidelines as well as establish industry standards for implementing BIM in practice. This research primarily focuses on BIM model servers as a collaboration platform, and hence the guidelines are aimed at enhancing collaboration capabilities. This paper reports on the findings from: (1) a critical review of latest BIM literature and commercial applications, and (2) workshops with focus groups on changing work-practice, role of technology, current perception and expectations of BIM. Layout for case studies being undertaken is presented. These findings provide a base to develop comprehensive software specifications and national guidelines for BIM with particular emphasis on BIM model servers as collaboration platforms.

The Queensland study of melanoma : Environmental and genetic associations (Q-MEGA); Study design, baseline characteristics, and repeatability of phenotype and sun exposure measures

Cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is a major health issue in Queensland, Australia, which has the world’s highest incidence. Recent molecular and epidemiologic studies suggest that CMM arises through multiple etiological pathways involving gene-environment interactions. Understanding the potential mechanisms leading to CMM requires larger studies than those previously conducted. This article describes the design and baseline characteristics of Q-MEGA, the Queensland Study of Melanoma: Environmental and Genetic Associations, which followed up 4 population-based samples of CMM patients in Queensland, including children, adolescents, men aged over 50, and a large sample of adult cases and their families, including twins. Q-MEGA aims to investigate the roles of genetic and environmental factors, and their interaction, in the etiology of melanoma. Three thousand, four hundred and seventy-one participants took part in the follow-up study and were administered a computer-assisted telephone interview in 2002-2005. Updated data on environmental and phenotypic risk factors, and 2777 blood samples were collected from interviewed participants as well as a subset of relatives. This study provides a large and well-described population-based sample of CMM cases with follow-up data. Characteristics of the cases and repeatability of sun exposure and phenotype measures between the baseline and the follow-up surveys, from 6 to 17 years later, are also described.