Multiple components of fitness improved among overweight and obese adolescents following a community-based lifestyle intervention

Fitness is an important component of health, and obese adolescents regularly have poor fitness. Unfortunately, few have assessed the impact of community-based lifestyle interventions on multiple components of fitness. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of participation in a community-based intervention involving adolescents and parents on multiple components of fitness of obese adolescents. In a within-subject, waitlist controlled clinical trial with 12 months follow-up in Western Australia, participants (n = 56) completed multiple fitness measures at baseline, immediately prior to beginning an 8-week intervention and at 3, 6 and 12 months during a maintenance period. Performance on the shuttle walk was improved immediately post-intervention (increase of 42.8 m, 95% CI: 7.5, 78.2) and at 12 months post-intervention (increase of 44.6 m, 95% CI: 1.3, 87.8) compared with pre-intervention. Muscle performance of quadriceps and deltoids were improved post-intervention (increase of 1.1 (95% CI: 0.1, 2.1) kg · F and 1.0 (0.02, 2.1) kg · F, respectively) and all muscle performance measures were improved at 12 months following the intervention. There were no changes in waist circumference. A community-based lifestyle programme such as Curtin University’s Activity, Food and Attitudes Program (CAFAP) may be a viable strategy for improving fitness in overweight adolescents.     

Perceptual-cognitive expertise of handball coaches in their young and middle adult years

There is little research investigating the maintenance of perceptual-cognitive expertise in general and even less comparing coaches of different ages. The aim of this study was to test for perceptual-cognitive differences between age groups, licence levels, and their interaction. This study investigated differences in skilled performance between young and middle-aged coaches of three different skill levels. Participants performed an accuracy-oriented pattern recall (mean distance in pixel) and a time-oriented flicker test (mean detection time in ms). There were some significant differences between age groups and between skill groups for both tests, but no interactions. For the pattern recall test, the effect sizes were larger for skill level differences, while for the flicker test effects were larger for ageing. These results suggest coaches are able to maintain accuracy skills better than reaction timed tasks. This is in line with findings on speeded performance in general populations, which show declines with age. Moreover, results also support findings on perceptual expertise in skills where accuracy was important.     

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Celebrity Media Diet and the Cultivation of Emerging Adults’ Materialism

The present study used cultivation theory to explore the relationships between celebrity media diet and materialism for a sample of 224 emerging adults. Results indicated main effects between both celebrity magazine consumption and celebrity TV news consumption on materialism. Total celebrity media diet was also significantly related to materialism. Findings suggest that a media diet high in celebrity culture and lifestyle has significant impact on emerging adults’ preoccupation with consumerism, particularly for women. This research contributes to a growing body of literature on the effects of a celebrity-saturated media environment and the cultivation of materialistic attitudes.     

Adjustment scales for preschool intervention: Extending validity and relevance across multiple perspectives

A series of studies extended psychometric research on the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention (ASPI). The ASPI is a multidimensional measure of preschool emotional and behavioral adjustment for use within formal early childhood educational programs. These studies used a multiple method, multisource approach to provide additional evidence for the reliability and validity of the ASPI. Findings documented inter‐rater reliability of the ASPI across key informants within early childhood educational programs—teachers and teacher assistants. Findings supported concurrent validity of the ASPI with direct observations of preschool classroom adjustment problems and the developmentally salient constructs of temperament and emotion regulation. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 725–736, 2004.     

CD-ROM talking books: what do they promise?

This study describes one teacher's use of multimedia, specifically CD-ROM talking books, in the classroom. The goal of the investigation was to reveal and analyse how a primary (Grade 3) teacher integrated CD-ROM books into her curriculum. Issues emerging from the study included how features of the software interact with features of classrooms, how patterns of instruction are affected by the infusion of technology, and how students interact with the software, and each other, while reading the CD- ROM books     

Successive reversals of a discriminated preference for signaled tailshock

Three rats received unmodifiable tailshock at random intervals in a shuttlebox. In a continuous-choice situation, Ss could choose between an auditory signal immediately preceding or immediately following the tailshock. Over repeated daily 3-h sessions, each S acquired a spatial discrimination indicating a strong preference for the signal preceding tailshock. This preference continued undiminished through two successive reversals of the position associated with signaled shock. This demonstration precludes explanations of the preference-for-signaled-shock phenomenon based upon primary reinforcement value or acquired value of the signal, position preferences, and overt modification of the aversiveness of the reinforcer through such means as postural adjustments. An explanation of recent failures to obtain the preference-for-signaled-shock effect is offered.     

Journalism training in Sri Lanka: meeting the needs of working journalists

The ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka since the 1980s has been deeply damaging to Sri Lankan journalism, whose traditions of impartiality and professionalism have been seriously undermined. The BBC World Service Trust has attempted to address these issues through a European‐funded training programme aimed at a broad range of media practitioners in Sri Lanka. This article seeks to assess how successful this programme has been and what lessons can be drawn by training organisations elsewhere who are seeking to implement similar projects.     

Designing informal learning experiences for early career academics using a knowledge ecosystem model

This article presents a ‘knowledge ecosystem’ model of how early career academics experience using information to learn while building their social networks for developmental purposes. Developed using grounded theory methodology, the model offers a way of conceptualising how to empower early career academics through (1) agency (individual and relational) and (2) facilitation of personalised informal learning (design of physical and virtual systems and environments) in spaces where developmental relationships are formed, including programmes, courses, events, community, home and social media. It is suggested that the knowledge ecosystem model is suitable for use in designing informal learning experiences for early career academics.     

Cheating or cheated? Surviving secondary exit exams in a neoliberal era

Cheating on exams is a rampant and highly developed practice among youth in the Arab world, often involving elaborate networks, advanced technology and adult authorities. Rather than viewing cheating as mere laziness or immorality, this article interrogates the social meanings of cheating by comparing the practices and discourses of cheating on high-stakes high school exit exams – the tawjihi in Jordan and the Baccalauréat in Morocco. Using informal networks to obtain higher grades, and thereby better futures, cheating is one way youth contest the putative meritocracy of the state to reclaim a sense of control over their lives. Ironically, cheaters develop twenty-first century skills of collaboration, networking and creativity outside the school in order to evade the nation’s formal system of educational sorting. We argue that cheating illuminates the declining effectiveness of the public school in the nation-building project and the simultaneous emergence of the outcomes-oriented ‘neoliberal student’.