Expounding on physics: a phenomenographic study of physicists talking of their physics

Physicists and physics students have been studied with respect to the variation in the ways they expound on their topic of research and a physics problem, respectively. A phenomenographic approach has been employed; six fourth‐year physics students and 10 teacher‐researcher physicists at various stages of their careers have been interviewed. Four qualitatively distinct ways of expounding on physics have been identified, constituting an outcome space where there is a successive shift towards coherent structure and multiple referent domains. The interviewed person is characterized as expressing an ‘object of knowledge’, and the interviewer is characterized as a willing and active listener who is trying to make sense of it, constituting a ‘knowledge object’ out of the ideas expressed and personal experience. Pedagogical situations of analogous character to the interviewer–interviewee discussions are considered in the light of the analysis, focusing on the affordances for learning offered by the different forms of exposition.     

Relationship between a 14-Day Recall Measure of Leisure-Time Physical Activity and a Submaximal Test of Physical Work Capacity in a Population Sample of Australian Adults

Abstract

This paper reports on the validity of a 14-day recall measure of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in a sample of Australian adults (N = 986). Submaximal cycle ergometry was used to assess physical work capacity per kilogram of body mass (pwc75/kg). The self-report energy expenditure estimates were used to categorize respondents as vigorously active, moderately active, and low active/sedentary. Multiple regression analyses showed that pwc75/kg increased significantly across energy expenditure categories for adults aged less than 40 years; that the vigorous and moderate activity categories had greater mean pwc75/kg values than the low/sedentary category for 40 to 59-year-olds; and, that there were no differences in pwc75/kg between activity categories for those aged 60 years or older.     

REALISE‐ing their potential?: implementing local library projects to support evidence‐based health care

Librarian involvement in Evidence‐based Health Care provides many opportunities at a local level. Unfortunately, the potential for innovative projects to inform future developments is generally lost by a failure to ‘pass the baton’—to identify lessons learnt and transferable principles. The ‘Library Support for Evidence‐based Health Care’ Project, funded by the NHS Executive Northern and Yorkshire, resulted in the implementation of locally responsive packages of hardware and software in six of the Region’s libraries. The opportunity to evaluate the collective experience of these sites, and to synthesize principles of good practice, was provided by a separately funded post‐hoc evaluation, the Research Evaluation to Audit Library and Information Support for EBHC (REALISE). This paper reports on how this evaluation was conducted, documents the strengths and weaknesses of the Project itself, and attempts to provide a checklist for use in similar projects. The paper concludes by outlining the relevance of the findings to the introduction of planned organizational approaches to quality (clinical governance) and the development of local implementation strategies across the UK, required by the NHS Information Strategy, Information for Health.