Wellness promotion in the schools: Enhancing students' mental and physical health

Wellness promotion addresses both the reduction of disorder and disease and the enhancement of mental and physical health. There is increasing evidence of a strong and reciprocal relationship between mental and physical health, and linking these two areas may be particularly useful for promoting positive youth development in school contexts. This article discusses the relationship between mental and physical health in children and adolescents, and how to promote both within schools. Topics discussed include the benefits of (a) hope and optimism, (b) structured extracurricular activities, and (c) sport and exercise psychology for school‐based health and wellness promotion. These topics are linked in that each has the potential to positively affect both mental and physical health in children and adolescents in schools. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How L.A.T.E. it was, how L.A.T.E.

The London Association for the Teaching of English is a subject group that was founded in 1947 to ‘provide a live forum for the exchange of ideas, and to undertake the practical study of problems connected with the teaching of English’. The early history of this Association, its influence on the development of English pedagogy and practice is the subject of my current PhD research. Within this work are key questions about the nature of subject English, the curriculum, and the ways in which members of a subject community work together to effect change. This article gives some background to the research project, and begins to point towards some potentially important questions about the subject and ways of working together. After two decades of top down, centralised government initiatives around English pedagogy, curriculum and assessment, and teachers’ professional development, these questions are worth addressing.     

Collaborative epistemic discourse in classroom information-seeking tasks

The authors discuss the relationship between information seeking and epistemic beliefs – beliefs about the source, structure, complexity and stability of knowledge – in the context of collaborative information-seeking discourses. They further suggest that both information seeking, and epistemic cognition research agendas, have suffered from a lack of attention to how information seeking as a collaborative activity is mediated by talk between partners – an area they seek to address in this article. A small-scale observational study using sociocultural discourse analysis was conducted with eight 11-year-old pupils who carried out search engine tasks in small groups. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were performed on their discussions using sociocultural discourse analytic techniques. Extracts of the dialogue are reported, informed by concordance analysis and quantitative coding of dialogue duration. The authors find that: (1) discourse which could be characterised as ‘epistemic’ is identifiable in student talk; (2) it is possible to identify talk which is more or less productive; and (3) epistemic talk is associated with positive learning outcomes.     

Effects of a Pre‐service Teacher Preparation Programme on Effective Instruction

A quasi‐experimental, treatment‐control group investigation was designed to test the effects of a pre‐service training course on effective instruction. Research findings from teacher effects research and cognitive strategy instruction were translated into two direct instructional models: one model for explicit or well‐structured skills and one model for implicit skills or higher‐level thinking strategies. Following a course on effective instruction from their teacher educators, student teachers implemented standardised lessons to apply selected research‐derived teaching behaviours and to increase pupil engagement rates. Based on trained observers’ pre‐and post‐training classroom observations, a significant treatment effect was found for student teachers’ teaching behaviours regarding effective instruction and for pupil engagement rates. Ratings from supervising teachers also showed that the student teachers who participated in the course on effective instruction used the recommended instructional skills after completion of the course significantly better than prior to the course.     

Collaboration between a child telephone helpline and sexual and reproductive health and rights organisations in Senegal: lessons learned

This study identifies lessons learned from a collaboration between a child telephone helpline and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) organisations in Senegal established in the context of an SRHR programme for young people. We assessed how helpline operators are equipped to address sexual health and rights issues with young people, what the relevant skills of operators are, and to what extent referral to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service providers took place. A documentary review, a vignette study and interviews with six key informants and all seven operators took place. The collaboration led to promising initiatives, such as the provision of SRH training, the exchange of staff, referral to SRH service providers. However, the counselling advice provided by operators was not always in line with the rights-based approach and responses were influenced by underlying norms concerning young people’s sexuality. Additionally, concerns about confidentiality were noted. The collaboration was an innovative attempt to respond to young people’s limited access to SRHR information and services but there is a need for more in-depth training of helpline operator’s skills and the development of a standardised rights-based counselling manual.     

Sustainability and distance learning: a diverse European experience?

Higher Education (HE) is experiencing disruption from technologies, demographics, the globalising world and longer life expectancy. Historically Higher Education has had a legacy of being seen as the requirement for an educated ‘elite’, there has been a policy ambition set in various countries (including the UK) for it to become the expectation for much wider segments of the population as a whole. As students become ‘everyone’ and learning becomes ‘all the time’ Distance Teaching and Research Institutions have a tremendous opportunity but there are also many disruptions and barriers to overcome. Higher Education institutions have an important role within Education for Sustainable Development and sustainable lifestyles; one of the important goals and targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals for 2030. Higher Education can contribute to sustainability in many ways – social, technical and environmental; globally and locally. In particular distance-learning universities due to the flexibility in the learning process, use of technologies, and inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning, constitute key factors in education for sustainable development. But what will this contribution look like? In this paper, the responses from senior leaders in four major European distance-learning universities are presented, compared and discussed. The tentative conclusions draw out some strategic imperatives for sustainable higher education in the twenty first century.     

Jingoism,Public Opinion,And The New Imperialism

This essay analyses late-Victorian understandings of the relationship between the press, imperial diplomacy, and popular enthusiasm for empire, and examines how newspapers explained their own role in the imperial rivalries of the 1890s. During imperial disputes between Britain and France (particularly the Fashoda crisis) and between Britain and the USA (the Venezuela boundary dispute) contemporaries claimed that self-interested ‘jingo’ elements of the political elite had sought to foment conflict by manipulating ‘public opinion’, but had been defeated by statesmen (who had used the press for legitimate diplomatic purposes) and by ‘the people’ (who were averse to war). This contrasted with contemporary comments about the role played by the press in provoking wars between the USA and Spain and between Britain and the Transvaal: both the press and the people seemed to succumb to an irrational popular ‘jingoism’, and to sweep statesmen along in their wake. However, this essay argues that these contemporary verdicts about the role of newspapers in focusing popular imperialism have been too easily accepted by historians. During the imperial rivalries of the 1890s the press played an important role as a medium of transnational communication, but did not push statesmen into expansionism.     

‘Cast your net widely’: three steps to expanding and refining your problem before action learning application

This paper reflects upon a three-step process to expand the problem definition in the early stages of an action learning project. The process created a community-powered problem-solving approach within the action learning context. The simple three steps expanded upon in the paper create independence, dependence, and inter-dependence to aid the interaction of an action learning team as they uncovered the problem. The author recounts how his action learning project created steps of independence that captured divergent thoughts from throughout the organization; dependence that merged thoughts across the diverse group; and inter-dependence that built system thinking focused on horizontal impact across the organization. Readers can replicate the steps in future action learning projects to define the root cause problems before chasing the symptoms toward solutions. Project leaders who do not caste their nets widely during the problem definition stage may find their team solving the easy-to-catch symptoms.