Active relatives and health-related physical fitness in European adolescents: The HELENA Study

Abstract High physical fitness in childhood and adolescence is positively associated with favourable health-related outcomes. Our aim was to examine the relationship between relatives' (father, mother, brother, sister, and best friend) physical activity engagement and encouragement on adolescents' physical fitness. Adolescents were part of the HELENA study, a multi-centre study conducted in 10 cities from nine European countries in 2006-2008. Participants were 3288 adolescents (48% boys, 52% girls) aged 12.5-17.5 years with valid data on at least one of the three fitness variables studied: muscular strength (standing long jump), speed/agility (4×10 m shuttle run), and cardiorespiratory fitness (20 m shuttle run). The adolescents reported their relatives' physical activity engagement and encouragement. Analysis of covariance showed that relatives' physical activity engagement (father, mother, brother, and best friend) was positively related to cardiorespiratory fitness (P?相似文献   

An Air of Sharing. A Format of Open Interviewing in a Joint Nordic Project

The five Nordic countries and their respective quality assurance agencies ¹ 1. EVA, FINHEEC, NOKUT, HSV, and the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland. have convened annually for over a decade to exchange experiences and discuss issues concerning quality assurance in higher education. In recent years this has resulted in a regional network for the quality assurance agencies (NOQA). During this period, methodological issues have increasingly been emphasised within the network’s activities, and the current article presents and discusses a new format of open interviewing in a setting where the quality assurance work of four higher education institutions were analysed. The openness of the process was the key in providing an opportunity for the higher education institutions to learn from each other.     

Book reviews

H.R. Kells Self‐Study Processes: A Guide to Self‐Evaluation in Higher Education (4th Edition). Phoenix, AZ: The Oryx Press, 1995. Paperback. ISBN 0 89774 903 0 Price $34.95 (North America) 194pp

David Warner and David Palfreyman (eds) Higher Education Management, The Key Elements. Buckingham: The Society for Research on Higher Education and Open University Press, 1996. Paperback. ISBN 0 335 19569 5 Price £19.99. 239 pages.     

Mentoring in black and white: the intricacies of cross‐cultural mentoring

Cross‐cultural mentoring relationships can be sites of struggle around the issues of race, class and gender. In addition, the mentor/protégé relationship offers micro‐cosmic insight into power relations within western society. The authors of this paper, a black woman associate professor and a white male professor, use the example of their mentoring relationship to illustrate six common issues facing academicians involved in these relationships: (1) trust between mentor and protégé; (2) acknowledged and unacknowledged racism; (3) visibility and risks pertinent to minority faculty; (4) power and paternalism; (5) benefits to mentor and protégé; and (6) the double‐edged sword of ‘otherness’ in the academy. Literature is used for review and critique of mentoring in the academy while offering personal examples to illustrate the complexity and success of a 13‐year mentoring relationship between a duo who began their association as teacher/student.     

Was grenzt das Kompetenzkonzept von etablierten Kategorien wie Fähigkeit,Fertigkeit oder Intelligenz ab?

Following a specification of the concept “competence” as it is applied in the context of the priority program we place recent efforts on competence assessment within established distinctions. Besides Cronbach’s differentiation of typical behavior and maximal effort and Cattell’s demarcation of test and questionnaire data additional discriminations against broader terms such as “ability”, “skill”, “talent” but also “intelligence” are desirable and necessary. The utility of the concept of competence relative to established terms needs to be demonstrated unequivocally in the future.     

China's recruitment of African university students: policy efficacy and unintended outcomes

This article explores how Sino-African relations are affected by the growing number of Africans who pursue higher education in China. China actively recruits African university students in order to increase soft power and generate income from the export of education services. Semi-structured interviews with African university students suggest that China fails to reach these policy objectives because the students are disappointed with the quality of the education they receive. However, the students engage in trade and contribute to the fast-growing export of Chinese products to African markets, thereby reinforcing the ties between China and Africa in unintended ways.     

Challenging the premises of international policy reviews: an introduction to the review symposium

In 2009, a think tank called the International Alliance of Leading Education Institutes (IALEI) announced the results of a study entitled Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from Education. Intended for a policy audience, the study offered a glimpse into the status of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and an early look at the emergence of Climate Change Education (CCE), in 10 different nations. As with most international reports, the IALEI report provoked many questions, some of which are more broadly relevant to scholarship and practice. This paper introduces a review symposium that addresses three such questions: (1) How coherent is the concept of ESD across national contexts and what conceptual tensions continue to surround ESD and CCE? (2) Can nation-level analyses tell us anything useful about countries where education is not centrally governed? and (3) In light of the evolving relationship between educational research and policy, how should researchers engage with ongoing policy debates?     

Hot and Cool Self-Regulation,Academic Competence,and Maladjustment: Mediating and Differential Relations

This study examined differential and mediating relations between hot and cool self-regulation (M_age = 48.2 months; N = 1,155, 48% girls), first-grade (M_age = 77.5 months) maladjustment (externalizing [EXT] and internalizing [INT] behavior), and first- and second-grade (M_age = 89.5 months) academic competence (AC). Using teacher reported EXT, INT, and AC, partial support for the differential perspective was found in that only hot self-regulation was significantly related to EXT, whereas both hot and cool self-regulation was significantly related to AC. Moreover, hot self-regulation indirectly predicted second-grade AC through first-grade EXT, lending some support for the mediating perspective also. The findings contribute to an understanding of how self-regulation is related to academic and behavioral school adjustment.     

Assessment of Middle Ear Anatomy Teaching Methodologies Using Microscopy versus Endoscopy: A Randomized Comparative Study

Teaching methodologies for the anatomy of the middle ear have not been investigated greatly due to the middle ear’s highly complex structure and hidden location inside of the temporal bone. The aim of this randomized study was to quantitatively compare the suitability of using microscope- and endoscope-based methods for teaching the anatomy of the middle ear. We hypothesize that the endoscopic approach will be more efficient compared to the microscopic approach. To answer the study questions, 33 sixth-year medical students, residents and otorhinolaryngology specialists were randomized either into the endoscopy or the microscopy group. Their anatomical knowledge was assessed using a structured anatomical knowledge test before and after each session. Each participant received tutoring on a human cadaveric specimen using one of the two methods. They then performed a hands-on dissection. After 2–4 weeks, the same educational curriculum was repeated using the other technique. The mean gains in anatomical knowledge for the specialists, residents, and medical students were +19.0%, +34.6%, and +23.4%, respectively. Multivariate analyses identified a statistically significant increase in performance for the endoscopic method compared to the microscopic technique (P < 0.001). For the recall of anatomical structures during dissection, the endoscopic method outperformed the microscopic technique independently of the randomization or the prior training level of the attendees (P < 0.001). In conclusion, the endoscopic approach to middle ear anatomy education is associated to an improved gain in knowledge as compared to the microscopic approach. The participants subjectively preferred the endoscope for educational purposes.     

Associations between individual and collective efficacy beliefs and students' bystander behavior

This study examined whether defending and passive bystanding during peer victimization episodes were associated with individual- and classroom-level efficacy to stop peer victimization. Self-report survey data were analyzed from 1,467 Swedish fourth-grade students (mean age = 10.55) from 100 classrooms in 63 schools. Multilevel analyses revealed that, when witnessing peer victimization, students more often defended victims if they were high in defender self-efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms high in collective efficacy. In contrast, students were more likely to remain passive if they were low in defender self-efficacy and if they belonged to classrooms low in collective efficacy. Taken together, our findings suggest that efficacy beliefs both at the individual and at the classroom level contribute to explaining variability in students' bystander behaviors, which has potential implications for prevention and intervention work.