We can Achieve if We Receive: Examining the Effects of Out-of-School Time Activities on Black Student Achievement in Mathematics

Using policy discourse analysis, the author analyzed 21 diversity action plans issued at 20 U.S. land-grant universities over a five-year period to identify images of diversity and the problems and solutions represented in diversity action plans. Discourses of marketplace, excellence, managerialism, and democracy emerged and served to construct images of the diverse individual as a commodity, entrepreneur, and change agent. These findings suggest that the dominance of the marketplace discourse may situate the diverse individual as a resource to be exploited and inspire entrepreneurial endeavors rather than change-making activism. Diversity action plans in their current form may unintentionally undermine the achievement of their equity goals.     

Primary school children and self harm: the emotional impact upon education professionals,and their understandings of why children self harm and how this is managed

There is evidence suggesting that self harm among young people is beginning earlier, in childhood and adolescent years. This paper reports on a qualitative study of primary school staff responses to self harm among children. Some studies with adolescents show self harm presents challenges to education professionals who may lack training or resources to address this issue, yet research concerning self harm among primary school children is limited. The present study provides an analysis of education professionals’ experiences and understandings of self harm in primary school children. Interviews with 15 staff members from six schools in the North of England were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Key themes discussed concern: how self harm affects staff emotionally; reasons staff ascribe to children’s self harming; how self harm is managed. The present study indicates problems associated with a ‘fire‐fighting’ approach where self harm is only dealt with as it becomes visible. Instead, the authors advocate policy‐level initiatives proactively addressing self harm, as has happened in sex and drug education. Intervention around self harm in schools could usefully broaden staff members’ understandings of self harm, allow opportunity for reflection and discussion, and make resources available to staff working with children who self harm.     

Correlates of Geriatric Loneliness in Philippine Nursing Homes: A Multiple Regression Model

Numerous studies have been conducted worldwide about loneliness in older adults living in nursing homes and the factors associated with it. However, only a few studies have focused on social factors that may predispose these older adults to experience loneliness. The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay between and among loneliness, social isolation, social engagement, and life satisfaction among Filipino elderly (n = 180) recruited from government and nongovernment nursing homes in the Philippines. A multiaspect questionnaire, which included the UCLA Loneliness Scale, Revised Index for Social Engagement, Friendship Scale, and Life Satisfaction for the Third Age-Short Form was used to gather the needed data and information. Results of single and multiple regression analyses indicate an effect of the three factors (social isolation, social engagement, and life satisfaction) on loneliness with social isolation having the greatest impact on loneliness. Notably, increased social isolation, inadequate social engagement and decreased life satisfaction consequently aggravate loneliness. Social engagement produced a positive effect to both social isolation and life satisfaction in a way that a decrease in social engagement will decrease life satisfaction and increase social isolation. On the whole, loneliness in geriatric nursing homes is evident, and it is shaped by social isolation, social engagement and life satisfaction. Impliedly, interventions and measures to minimize loneliness are necessary, and further research is needed to explore other variables contributing to loneliness in geriatric nursing homes.     

Children's Ideas about Aging before and after an Intergenerational Read-aloud

This study describes a pilot project that included senior volunteer readers reading aloud to third graders in diverse schools across a district in northeast Florida. The researchers interviewed students about their perceptions of the aging process before and after the read aloud as well as their view of the read aloud events. The children enjoyed being read to by the senior volunteers, who were able to support the children's understanding of a fairly complex book. Further, the senior volunteers, who had expressed some hesitancy about reading to older children, greatly enjoyed the interaction. The study supports the idea that children's ideas about aging may be impacted both by book selection and the reader, and it posits that reading aloud to older children by senior volunteers may be beneficial to all parties involved.     

Improving homework accuracy: Interdependent group contingencies and randomized components

Homework is an often employed teaching strategy that has strong positive effects on academic achievement across grade levels, content areas, and student ability levels. To maximize academic learning, accuracy of homework should be addressed. The present investigation employed a multiple‐baseline design across academic behaviors to examine the efficacy of randomization of the interdependent group contingency on the homework accuracy of six fourth‐grade students enrolled in a general education class. Results demonstrated that the interdependent group contingency coupled with randomly selected components improved accuracy of homework performance. Specifically, participants demonstrated gains in all three subject areas. Limitations and future research are also addressed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Where Theories of Mind Meet Magic: The Development of Children's Beliefs about Wishing

In two studies, we probed children's beliefs about wishing. In Study 1, we gathered initial data on 50 3- to 6-year-old children's concepts of wishing and beliefs about its efficacy, with both a semistructured interview and a variety of tasks. Results revealed considerable knowledge about wishing in young children, along with an age-related decrease in beliefs about its efficacy. Parents were not found to encourage differently the beliefs of children at different ages, nor were they found to begin actively discouraging such beliefs at any particular age. A moderate relation was found between environmental supports for wishing and children's beliefs in its efficacy. In Study 2, we continued to probe these issues and also address the nature of the broader conceptual context in which children situate their beliefs about wishing. Participants were 92 3- to 6-year-old children. Results of this study suggest that children may reconcile beliefs in the efficacy of wishing with knowledge about everyday mental-physical relations by situating these beliefs more within their emerging beliefs about magic than within their theories of mind.     

Children's Museum Experiences: Identifying Powerful Mediators of Learning

This article reports on a study of young children and the nature of their learning through museum experiences. Environments such as museums are physical and social spaces where visitors encounter objects and ideas which they interpret through their own experiences, customs, beliefs, and values. The study was conducted in four different museum environments: a natural and social history museum, an art gallery, a science center, and a hybrid art/social history museum. The subjects were four‐ to seven‐year old children. At the conclusion of a ten‐week, multi‐visit museum program, interviews were conducted with children to probe the saliency of their experiences and the ways in which they came to understand the museums they visited. Emergent from this study, we address several findings that indicate that museum‐based exhibits and programmatic experiences embedded in the common and familiar socio‐cultural context of the child's world, such as play and story, provide greater impact and meaning than do museum exhibits and experiences that are decontexualized in nature.     

High-intensity interval and moderate-intensity continuous training elicit similar enjoyment and adherence levels in overweight and obese adults

Background: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been shown to improve cardiometabolic health during supervised lab-based studies but adherence, enjoyment, and health benefits of HIIT performed independently are yet to be understood. We compared adherence, enjoyment, and cardiometabolic outcomes after 8 weeks of HIIT or moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT), matched for energy expenditure, in overweight and obese young adults. Methods: 17 adults were randomized to HIIT or MICT. After completing 12 sessions of supervised training over 3 weeks, participants were asked to independently perform HIIT or MICT for 30 min, 4 times/week for 5 weeks. Cardiometabolic outcomes included cardiorespiratory fitness (VO₂ peak), lipids, and inflammatory markers. Exercise enjoyment was measured by the validated Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale. Results: Exercise adherence (93.4?±?3.1% vs. 93.1?±?3.7%, respectively) and mean enjoyment across the intervention (100.1?±?4.3 vs. 100.3?±?4.4, respectively) were high, with no differences between HIIT and MICT (p?>?.05). Similarly, enjoyment levels did not change over time in either group (p?>?.05). After training, HIIT exhibited a greater decrease in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol than MICT (?0.66?mmol?L^?1 vs. ?0.03?mmol?L^?1, respectively) and a greater increase in VO₂ peak than MICT (p?<?.05, +2.6?mL?kg?min^?1 vs. +0.4?mL?kg?min^?1, respectively). Interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein increased in HIIT (+0.5?pg?mL^?1 and +?31.4?nmol?L^?1, respectively) and decreased in MICT (?0.6?pg?mL^?1 and ?6.7?nmol?L^?1, respectively, p?<?.05). Conclusions: Our novel findings suggest that HIIT is enjoyable and has high unsupervised adherence rates in overweight and obese adults. However, HIIT may be associated with an increase in inflammation with short-term exercise in this population.