Critical reflections on professional education for the environment

Evidence exists to suggest that in Australia many environmental issues remain unresolved even though the community has apparently become more environmentally aware. Although universities have undertaken responsibility to educate future environmental professionals to address this concern, there are numerous tensions underpinning professional environmental education. This folio explores my perceptions of these tensions and their effect on my professional practice as an academic. I refer to this as the relationships among theories and practices experienced in my work. Four perspectives are taken in this research as I appraise professional environmental education. This Dissertation (Vol. 1) focuses on views informing my professional environmental education, inclusive of my own reflexivity. From interviews with students, academics, professionals and environmentalists, and other sources of information, I consider various tensions arising from what I regard as dehumanising social and political forces. The conventional elite and authoritative roles for universities and professionals dominate most participants' understanding of professional activities. Professional practices often endorse these conventions. Juxtaposed to this authoritative view of professional education, and prescribing a different interpretation for professional practice, is my theoretical position informed by criticality and a need to challenge the status quo. I suggest that Leopold's The Land Ethic is an exemplar of criticality and a suitable basis for examining professional environmental education. The Land Ethic is used as a foundation to my thesis because it encapsulates suitable arguments to examine ideologies supportive of my understanding of professional environmental education. My thesis investigates the nature of participants' (including my own) understanding of their land ethic or land ethics suggesting that interpretations of 'place' provide an emotional and ethical appreciation of the land. I suggest that 'place', as a culturally derived construct, is central to the concept of a land ethic or land ethics, and a characteristic of an environmental ethic or ethics. To incorporate these different perspectives into professional environmental education perhaps land could be viewed, not just as a 'client' as in Schön's (1983) reflective contract, but expanded so that professionals form ethical partnerships with the land, which implies a greater equity between roles and responsibilities. This perspective challenges elite interpretations of the roles for environmental professionals by asking them to be advocates for their land, and to work with the land. Searching for my own land ethic or land ethics has promoted a discourse that encompasses a language of possibility and opportunity. This language of possibility and opportunity stands in contrast to the constraining language of reproduction that has promoted stasis. My reflexivity, a holistic and ecological view that in this thesis is an expression of my searching for a land ethic or land ethics, has encouraged me to develop critical and ethical questions to challenge my professional environmental education practice. As such the process of theorising about my theory and practice has been personally transformative as it encourages my development as a 'critical person'. Elective 1 (Vol. 2 ) reviews public information promoting a selected range of Australian environmental courses. Analysis demonstrates environmental courses are mainly technocratic, promoting technical-scientific and vocational perspectives. This orientation, I consider, is aligned to an emerging corporate agenda as universities attempt to be more accountable to the government within a competitive market dominated by economic interests. Elective 2 (Vol. 2 ) considers the providers of professional environmental education where I explore a diversity of tensions undermining current academic life found in many Australian universities. I suggest that corporatisation and vocationalisation dominate university culture to such an extent that any examination of professional environmental education is prejudiced. Professional environmental education appears to be biased toward maintaining the status quo. My conclusion is that professional environmental education does not promote graduates as 'critical persons' (Barnett 1997), and this may affect graduates' understandings of the purpose and aspirations of environmental professionalism. I suggest that elite and technical understandings of professionalism may affect the professionals' ability to implement environmental policy. Australia has an admirable record of developing environmental policy. However, public concern about a lack of resolution for many environmental issues suggests that professionals may be struggling to successfully implement policy in any meaningful way. Such challenges for environmental professionals may be a result of a professional environmental education that does not engage graduates within ideas that professional practice may require community participation and collaboration as key themes. Elective 3 (Vol. 2) is a case study investigating the development of conservation policies by the Ballarat community. The case demonstrates how the dominant social paradigm informs community views about environmental issues emphasising a technical emphasis and hierarchical arrangements of power and authority between local government and the community. The community view appears to be that environmental action should be mainly individualistic and behaviourist, which I suggest may have resulted from a technical framework for environmental knowledge. The community view of environmental issues resonates with the dominant view promoted by professional environmental education in most universities. In conclusion, my thesis is a representation of my challenges to critically engage in possible relationships among theories, practices and circumstances in my workplace, with a view to addressing what I perceive as a 'gap' between my own theory and practice. The motivation for this critical examination is to question the purpose of my professional environmental education practice in relation to the challenges of my emergent environmental ideology. The difficulty of promoting my critical theorising in a traditional small science faculty, within a corporate university, with my scientific background, is acknowledged. Nevertheless, based on my own experiences, I recommend that academics involved in professional environmental education should be encouraged to explore relationships between their own theories and practices in their own professional settings. I suggest that the search for a land ethic or land ethics, and one's 'place' in the 'land', can be an effective platform for this process.

Bridging the divide: a survey of nurses' opinions regarding barriers to, and facilitators of, research utilization in the practice setting

Background. Many researchers have explored the barriers to research uptake in order to overcome them and identify strategies to facilitate research utilization. However, the research–practice gap remains a persistent issue for the nursing profession.

Aims and objectives. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of perceived influences on nurses' utilization of research, and explore what differences or commonalities exist between the findings of this research and those of studies that have been conducted in various countries during the past 10 years.

Design. Nurses were surveyed to elicit their opinions regarding barriers to, and facilitators of, research utilization. The instrument comprised a 29-item validated questionnaire, titled Barriers to Research Utilisation Scale (BARRIERS Scale), an eight-item scale of facilitators, provision for respondents to record additional barriers and/or facilitators and a series of demographic questions.

Method. The questionnaire was administered in 2001 to all nurses (n = 761) working at a major teaching hospital in Melbourne, Australia. A 45% response rate was achieved.

Results. Greatest barriers to research utilization reported included time constraints, lack of awareness of available research literature, insufficient authority to change practice, inadequate skills in critical appraisal and lack of support for implementation of research findings. Greatest facilitators to research utilization reported included availability of more time to review and implement research findings, availability of more relevant research and colleague support.

Conclusion. One of the most striking features of the findings of the present study is that perceptions of Australian nurses are remarkably consistent with reported perceptions of nurses in the US, UK and Northern Ireland during the past decade.

Relevance to clinical practice. If the use of research evidence in practice results in better outcomes for our patients, this behoves us, as a profession, to address issues surrounding support for implementation of research findings, authority to change practice, time constraints and ability to critically appraise research with conviction and a sense of urgency.

Critical appraisal of health literacy indices revealed variable underlying constructs, narrow content and psychometric weaknesses

Objective
Health literacy refers to an individual's ability to seek, understand, and use health information. A range of indices exist that purport to measure health literacy across individuals and populations. This study aimed to review the development and content of existing indices and to critically appraise their properties.

Study Design and Setting
Using standardized search terms, published generic health literacy indices (1990–2008) were identified. Using a methodological framework, each was evaluated for purpose, validity (face, content, construct), reliability, responsiveness, feasibility, and generalizability.

Results
Nineteen instruments were evaluated. Three measurement approaches were identified: direct testing of individual abilities, self-report of abilities, and population-based proxy measures. Composition of underlying constructs and content varied widely across instruments, and none appeared to fully measure a person's ability to seek, understand, and use health information. The content was focused primarily on reading comprehension and numeracy; scoring categories were poorly defined and may not be mutually exclusive, and few indices had been assessed for reliability.

Conclusion
Health literacy is not consistently measured, making it difficult to interpret and compare health literacy at individual and population levels. Empirical evidence demonstrating validity and reliability of existing indices is required, and more comprehensive health literacy instruments need to be developed.

Enhancing creativity through design technology : opportunities for developing children's creative thinking

Creative problem solving is essential to technology education. In our research project we explored the suggestion that creativity may need to include a time of ‘non-thinking’ during which innovative responses to problem tasks are generated. The period of non-conscious cognitive process (NCCP) time is considered to be when the brain makes connections between independent ideas and when inappropriate responses can be forgotten, allowing more relevant responses to be made available for problem solving. Our research provided an opportunity for several primary school teachers to focus on enhancing creativity in technology education and to explore the notion of the NCCP time for creative problem solving. In this chapter we review the current literature on enhancing creativity and comment on how the teachers fostered creativity as they implemented a design, make and appraise technological task to produce recycling devices in their classrooms. Classes and children were observed and teachers interviewed about their perception of children’s creativity and the NCCP time. In this study, a time frame of only several days appears to be ideal for non-conscious cognitive processing to occur and more time may hinder creativity. These findings have implications for teachers of technology who assign the same day and time each week for technology learning.
During the non-task time, which included the NCCP time, children were able to discuss their ideas with family members. As children learn in social and cultural contexts, these discussions can be fruitful. The teachers indicated that peer discussions also played an important role after the generation of designs.

Investigating directionality for a media consumption construct : establishing the utility of confirmatory vanishing tetrad analysis

Purpose – When assessing the psychometric properties of measures and estimate relations among latent variables, many studies in the social sciences (including management and marketing) often fail to comprehensively appraise the directionality of indicants. Such failures can lead to model misspecification and inaccurate parameter estimates. The purpose of this paper is to apply a post hoc test called confirmatory vanishing tetrad analysis (CTA hereafter) to a single construct called mass media consumption information exposure, which antecedent studies conceptually posited to be a formative (causative) representation.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyses a consumer sample of 585 US respondents and applies the CTA test to a single construct by its inclusion in various matrices within a statistical analysis system-macro that takes into account nonnormal data characteristics. The matrices are derived from Mplus 5 through the estimation of a single-factor congeneric model. The CTA test calculates a test statistic similar to an asymptotic x2 distribution with degrees of freedom equal to the number of nonredundant tetrads tested.
Findings – The preliminary data analyses reveal that the data characteristics are nonnormal which is not uncommon in social research. The CTA results reveal that the reflective (emergent) item orientation cannot be fully ruled out as being the correct model representation. This is in contrast to prior theoretical conceptual work which would strongly support this construct being a formative representation.
Originality/value – Insofar as the authors are aware, there is no paper with a particular focus on how the CTA might not provide sound results with a demonstrated example. The paper makes a valuable contribution by discussing modelling philosophy and a procedure for directionality testing. The authors advocate the implementation of pre and post hoc tests as a key component of standard research practice.

Missing Data - implications for outcomes research and strategies to maximise data integrity

he workshop will firstly provide an overview of the problems associated with missing data within the context of clinical trials and how to minimise these. Missing data will be explored by modeling the impact on a number of datasets. This approach will be invaluable in highlighting how alternative methods for controlling for missing data impact differentially on the interpretation of study findings. Popular strategies involve options based on an assessment of the percentage of missing data. More innovative approaches to the management of missing data (e.g. based upon reliability analyses) will be explored and evaluated and the role of the most popular methods of data management explored in several study designs beyond those of the classic randomised controlled trial. Participants will have the opportunity to appraise and debate existing methods of missing data handling.

The role of health literacy and social networks in arthritis patients' health information-seeking behavior : a qualitative study

Background. Patients engage in health information-seeking behaviour to maintain their wellbeing and to manage chronic diseases such as arthritis. Health literacy allows patients to understand available treatments and to critically appraise information they obtain from a wide range of sources.

Aims. To explore how arthritis patients' health literacy affects engagement in arthritis-focused health information-seeking behaviour and the selection of sources of health information available through their informal social network.

Methods. An exploratory, qualitative study consisting of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Twenty participants with arthritis were recruited from community organizations. The interviews were designed to elicit participants' understanding about their arthritis and arthritis medication and to determine how the participants' health literacy informed selection of where they found information about their arthritis and pain medication.

Results. Participants with low health literacy were less likely to be engaged with health information-seeking behaviour. Participants with intermediate health literacy were more likely to source arthritis-focused health information from newspapers, television, and within their informal social network. Those with high health literacy sourced information from the internet and specialist health sources and were providers of information within their informal social network.

Conclusion. Health professionals need to be aware that levels of engagement in health information-seeking behaviour and sources of arthritis-focused health information may be related to their patients' health literacy.

Instrumental vision

This chapter interrogates stereo-immersive ‘virtual reality’ (VR), the technology that enables a perceiver to experience what it is like to be immersed in a simulated environment. While the simulation is powered by the “geometry engine” (Cutting, 1997: 31) associated with high-end computer imaging technology, the visual experience itself is powered by ordinary human vision: the vision system’s innate capacity to see “in 3D”. To understand and critically appraise stereo-immersive VR, we should study not its purported ‘virtuality’, but its specific visuality, because the ‘reality’ of a so-called ‘virtual environment’ is afforded by the stereoacuity of binocular vision itself. By way of such a critique of the visuality of stereo-immersive VR, this chapter suggests that we think about the ‘practice’ of vision, and consider on what basis vision can have its own ‘materiality’. Pictorial perception is proposed as an exemplary visual mode in which the possibilities of perception might emerge. Against the ‘possibilities’ of vision associated with pictures, the visuality of stereo-immersive VR emerges as a harnessing, or ‘instrumentalisation’ of vision’s innate capabilities. James J. Gibson’s ‘ecological’ approach to vision studies is referenced to show the degree to which developers of VR have sought — and succeeded — to mimic the ‘realness’ of ordinary perceptual reality. This raises a question concerning whether the success of stereo-immersive VR is simultaneously the source of its own perceptual redundancy: for to bring into being the perceptual basis of ordinary ‘real’ reality, is to return the perceiver to what is already familiar and known.

Role assessment of GIS analysis and its reliability while ranking urban sustainability using scenarios specific to regional climate, community and culture

Urban Sustainability expresses the level of conservation of a city while living a town or consuming its urban resources, but the measurement of urban sustainability depends on what are considered important indicators of conservation besides the permitted levels of consumption in accordance with adopted criteria. This criterion should have common factors that are shared for all the members tested or cities to be evaluated as in this particular case for Abu Dhabi, but also have specific factors that are related to the geographic place, community and culture, that is the measures of urban sustainability specific to a middle east climate, community and culture where GIS Vector and Raster analysis have a role or add a value in urban sustainability measurements or grading are considered herein. Scenarios were tested using various GIS data types to replicate urban history (ten years period), current status and expected future of Abu Dhabi City setting factors to climate, community needs and culture. The useful Vector or Raster GIS data sets that are related to every scenario where selected and analysed in the sense of how and how much it can benefit the urban sustainability ranking in quantity and quality tests, this besides assessing the suitable data nature, type and format, the important topology rules to be considered, the useful attributes to be added, the relationships which should be maintained between data types of a geo- database, and specify its usage in a specific scenario test, then setting weights to each and every data type representing some elements of a phenomenon related to urban suitability factor. The results of assessing the role of GIS analysis provided data collection specifications such as the measures of accuracy reliable to a certain type of GIS functional analysis used in an urban sustainability ranking scenario tests. This paper reflects the prior results of the research that is conducted to test the multidiscipline evaluation of urban sustainability using different indicator metrics, that implement vector GIS Analysis and Raster GIS analysis as basic tools to assist the evaluation and increase of its reliability besides assessing and decomposing it, after which a hypothetical implementation of the chosen evaluation model represented by various scenarios was implemented on the planned urban sustainability factors for a certain period of time to appraise the expected future grade of urban sustainability and come out with advises associated with scenarios for assuring gap filling and relative high urban future sustainability. The results this paper is reflecting are concentrating on the elements of vector and raster GIS analysis that assists the proper urban sustainability grading within the chosen model, the reliability of spatial data collected; analysis selected and resulted spatial information. Starting from selecting some important indicators to comprise the model which include regional culture, climate and community needs an example of what was used is Energy Demand & Consumption (Cooling systems). Thus, this factor is related to the climate and it‟s regional specific as the temperature varies around 30-45 degrees centigrade in city areas, GIS 3D Polygons of building data used to analyse the volume of buildings, attributes „building heights‟, estimate the number of floors from the equation, following energy demand was calculated and consumption for the unit volume, and compared it in scenario with possible sustainable energy supply or using different environmental friendly cooling systems this is followed by calculating the cooling system effects on an area unit selected to be 1 sq. km, combined with the level of greenery area, and open space, as represented by parks polygons, trees polygons, empty areas, pedestrian polygons and road surface area polygons. (initial measures showed that cooling system consumption can be reduced by around 15 -20 % with a well-planned building distributions, proper spaces and with using environmental friendly products and building material, temperature levels were also combined in the scenario extracted from satellite images as interpreted from thermal bands 3 times during the period of assessment. Other examples of the assessment of GIS analysis to urban sustainability took place included Waste Productivity, some effects of greenhouse gases measured by the intensity of road polygons and closeness to dwelling areas, industry areas as defined from land use land cover thematic maps produced from classified satellite images then vectors were created to take part in defining their role within the scenarios. City Noise and light intensity assessment was also investigated, as the region experiences rapid development and noise is magnified due to construction activities, closeness of the airports, and highways. The assessment investigated the measures taken by urban planners to reduce degradation or properly manage it. Finally as a conclusion tables were presented to reflect the scenario results in combination with GIS data types, analysis types, and the level of GIS data reliability to measure the sustainability level of a city related to cultural and regional demands.

How the concept of agency aids in teaching about sustainability

Sustainability education is becoming an integral part of education for all students.The paper revisits startling results from large scale international studies that show the dissonance between young people’s sustainability knowledge and the resistance of young people to put into practice. The reluctance to enact sustainability knowledge necessitates a review of current teaching practices as these raise important issues about current models of education and how sustainability is captured within education. Education about sustainability seeks to future proof our society through the teaching and learning of actions that ensure our collective long term future. For this reason teaching about sustainability incorporates a focus on social responsibility as well as individual responsibility. 

Examining adverse events after intensive care unit discharge : outcomes from a pilot questionnaire

Adverse events are common in acute clinical settings but little is known about these events occurring after Intensive Care discharge. This study aimed to develop a reliable and valid tool for exploring clinicians’ opinions of factors associated with post-Intensive Care adverse events. A convenience sample of Australian Intensive Care Liaison Nurses was invited to complete and appraise a questionnaire using structured guidelines. Content validity and internal consistency were assessed.

Twelve Intensive Care Liaison Nurses completed the questionnaire. Cronbach?s alpha coefficient showed high internal consistency for the questionnaire; all 24 items on the questionnaire had coefficients greater than 0.852. The content validity index of the questionnaire overall was 0.76.

The post-Intensive Care adverse events questionnaire demonstrated reliability and validity. It is a tool that can be used to explore clinicians? opinions of factors associated with these events. The tool is important as it facilitates further insight into the causes of post-Intensive Care adverse events.

Renal access coordinators' impact on hemodialysis patient outcomes and associated service delivery: a systematic review

Background
Renal access coordinators contribute specifically to dialysis access care for people with chronic and end stage renal disease. Since the introduction of renal access coordinators into Australia in the early 2000s, there have been anecdotal examples of associated improvements in patient outcomes and service delivery; however scant published quantitative evidence exists. Thus, the impact of the implementation of renal access coordinators has not undergone a rigorous review to date.

Objective
The objective of this systematic review was to critically appraise and synthesize the best available evidence related to the impact of renal access coordinators on dialysis patient outcomes and associated service delivery.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

Types of participants
This review considered studies that included renal access coordinators (noting variations of the titles) and adult hemodialysis patients (aged 18 years and over).

Types of intervention(s)
This review considered studies that evaluated the effectiveness of the renal access coordinator. This role typically consists of clinical and administration duties such as providing pre dialysis access coordination, access surveillance patient education and nurse education.

Types of studies
The types of studies considered within this review included experimental and epidemiological study designs. Thus randomized controlled trials (RCT), non-randomized controlled trials, and quasi-experimental, before and after studies, prospective and retrospective cohort studies were considered as were case control studies, analytical cross sectional studies and descriptive cross sectional studies.

Types of outcomes
Patient outcomes considered included: days to first vascular access complication (such as stenosis or thrombosis) and/or primary intervention (such as angioplasty or surgical intervention); percentage of central line insertions (negative); rate of arteriovenous fistula (AVF)/arteriovenous graft (AVG)/central venous catheter (CVC) at start of dialysis (incidence); prevalent rate of AVF/AVG/CVC; time to occlusion of AVF and time from referral to surgery. Service outcomes included: knowledge/up skilling of renal nurses; cannulation skills, ultrasound skills, knowledge of anatomy and physiology and other access related knowledge.

Search strategy
The search strategy aimed to locate published and unpublished studies, utilizing a three-step searching approach. Studies published in English from 1990 to October 2013 were considered for inclusion in this review.

Methodological quality
The studies were assessed by two independent reviewers using the appropriate standardized critical appraisal instruments from the Joanna Briggs Institute.

Data collection
Data were extracted from papers included in the review using the standardised data extraction tool from the Joanna Briggs Institute, namely JBI Meta-Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-MAStARI).

Data synthesis
This review aimed to conduct meta-analyses of the findings: however, because of the limitations of the data found, this was not possible and so the findings are presented in a narrative format.

Results
Five studies were identified for inclusion in the review. No RCTs were found, therefore four of the five studies were pre-post intervention cohort studies and one was a prospective quality assurance report. Data were heterogeneous and thus did not allow for meta-analysis. All studies included multidisciplinary teams with variable emphasis on the renal access coordinator role. The pre post intervention cohort studies measured incident and/or prevalent AVF, AVG and CVC rates in the hemodialysis population and the quality assurance report measured the difference in patency rates between AVF and AVG. All discussed the role of central coordination as a contributor to the success of vascular access care.

Conclusions
This review found insufficient data to make firm conclusions about the impact that renal access coordinators have on patient outcomes. The results of this review suggest an association between renal access coordinators and improved patient outcomes. These improved patient outcomes were apparent in an increase in incident and prevalent AVFs, and a decrease in the incidence and prevalence of CVCs. Both associations are correlated with a reduction in infection rates, length of hospital stay and healthcare costs.

Diabetes in people with an intellectual disability : a systematic review of prevalence, incidence and impact.

To establish the prevalence and incidence of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in people with an intellectual and developmental disability and determine their impact on health and well-being and to appraise the evidence available to inform good practice in diabetes management for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Consumer perceptions of bundles and time-limited promotion deals: Do contracts matter?

Marketers use various types of deals to positively influence consumers' product evaluations. Across two experiments, we manipulated print advertisements to examine whether the commonly used deal content of both bundling and time-limited promotions affect consumers' perceived confusion, risk and value. In study 1, the influence of this content was tested in the context of a 2-year telecommunications (telco) contract. Here, consumers associated a three-item bundle with greater perceived value than a single item, but perceived value was reduced and risk heightened when it was only available for a limited time. We speculate that this is because of the long-term nature of the contract. Study 2 removed the contract restriction, examining the bundling of a video game console and game(s), again with a time-limited promotion. However, in this context, we failed to locate any interaction effects. It appears that consumers further appraise the drawbacks of a long-term telco contract when accompanied by a time-limited promotion and may perceive the switching costs for study 1 three-item telco bundle to be particularly risky. Our studies represent the first empirical investigation of the effect on consumers' perceptions of offering a bundle in conjunction with a time-limited promotion. Testing these effects in contract and no contract conditions adds to the contribution of our studies by delineating a boundary condition. From a managerial perspective, our findings are thought-provoking in respect to information integration, or how consumers process different deal content together.

Mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder: effects of pharmacotherapy

Bipolar disorder is a common, chronic, and complex mental illness. Bipolar disorder is frequently comorbid with primary mitochondrial and metabolic disorders, and studies have implicated mitochondrial dysfunction in its pathophysiology. In the brains of people with bipolar disorder, high-energy phosphates are decreased, lactate is elevated and pH decreased, which together suggest a shift toward glycolysis for energy production. Furthermore, oxidative stress is increased, and calcium signalling dysregulated. Additionally there is downregulation of the expression of mitochondrial complexes, especially complex I. The therapeutic effects of some bipolar disorder drugs have recently been shown to be related to these mechanisms. In this review we will evaluate current research on the interactions between mitochondrial dysfunction and bipolar disorder pathology. We will then appraise the current literature describing the effects of bipolar disorder drugs on mitochondrial function, and discuss ramifications for future research.