Physical fitness percentiles for Portuguese children and adolescents aged 10–18 years

Abstract

This study aimed to produce age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference data for Portuguese youth; to report the prevalence of youth in the healthy zone of physical fitness according to the FITNESSGRAM^® criteria; to verify the agreement between the Portuguese physical fitness percentiles and the FITNESSGRAM^® healthy zones. In 2008, 22,048 Portuguese children and adolescents (10–18 years) were evaluated. Physical fitness (curl-ups, push-ups, 20-m shuttle run and modified-back-saver-sit-and-reach tests) was evaluated using the FITNESSGRAM^® Test Battery 8.0. Smoothed percentile curves were estimated using Cole’s LMS method. Boys consistently outperformed girls in every physical fitness test, except for the modified-back-saver-sit-and-reach tests. In both sexes and for all physical fitness tests, higher percentile values were observed at older ages. The 50th percentile of all physical fitness tests had the highest accuracy to discriminate between under healthy zone and healthy zone of the FITNESSGRAM^®. Portuguese schools and physical education teachers may considerer the 50th percentile for age and sex or the FITNESSGRAM^® criteria for classifying participants in the healthy zone as acceptable cut-offs, above which youth should be considered fit. These reference values can be used as normative data and for baseline values for subsequent surveillance of the physical fitness of Portuguese youth.     

Training Outcomes of Field Instructors in the Evidence-Based Practice Process Model

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated a continuing education training program designed to increase field educators’ capacities to support students in their application of the evidence-based practice (EBP) process. A cohort of social work field instructors and task supervisors from agency-based settings (N = 186) attended a 1-day interactive skill-based training. Pre- and postsurveys assessed learning outcomes. Findings reveal a significant improvement from pre- to posttraining in the social work educators’ familiarity, t(179) = 22.8; attitude, t(180) = 12.73; and intentions, t(178) = 11.89, regarding EBP. Results indicate that skill-based training in the EBP process model via continuing education is feasible and acceptable.     

Horizons,not Boundaries,are the Language of Retirement: Sense of Fulfillment,Fears, and Life Trajectories of Faculty Extendees in the Philippines

This qualitative study probed into (a) the sense of fulfillment, (b) fears and anxieties, and (c) life trajectories of aged working professors recruited from one comprehensive university in the Philippines. Interestingly, findings of the study reveal that respondents were fulfilled and felt successful through the life outputs of their students; their self-worth was witnessed through continued employment and communication to students of ideas, work ethic, and values. Fears and anxieties were rarely felt because of religious commitments and prayers to God. Sense of delight was manifested through the satisfactory academic environment; the possession of supportive systems, including family, friends and community, and their plans of spending their remaining years with the family in leisure activities; and in joining religious organizations.     

Cumulative trauma and symptom complexity in children: A path analysis

Multiple trauma exposures during childhood are associated with a range of psychological symptoms later in life. In this study, we examined whether the total number of different types of trauma experienced by children (cumulative trauma) is associated with the complexity of their subsequent symptomatology, where complexity is defined as the number of different symptom clusters simultaneously elevated into the clinical range. Children's symptoms in six different trauma-related areas (e.g., depression, anger, posttraumatic stress) were reported both by child clients and their caretakers in a clinical sample of 318 children. Path analysis revealed that accumulated exposure to multiple different trauma types predicts symptom complexity as reported by both children and their caretakers.     

Design and development research: a model validation case

This is a report of one case of a design and development research study that aimed to validate an overlay instructional design model incorporating the theory of multiple intelligences into instructional systems design. After design and expert review model validation, The Multiple Intelligence (MI) Design Model, used with an Instructional Systems Design (ISD) Model, was tested for use by four practicing instructional designers. Instruction developed for learners using this model was then evaluated measuring post-test and attitudinal scores with 102 participants. This report also provides a reflection on the lessons learned in conducting design and development research on model validation. The procedures and findings have implications for the processes involved in instructional design model validation through designer use and program implementation.

Pushing Past Clichés: Latina and Black Women’s Perceptions of the Dietetics Major and Profession during Career Exploration

Diversity in dietetics, like other health professions, has remained stagnant despite the increase of racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States. We examined how Latina and Black women, enrolled in a university outreach program, make sense of a critical media literacy program during career introduction to dietetics. Our findings revealed that the women did not identify with the dietetics major and profession due to stereotypical images. Cliché messages were used as a discourse method. The need to explore public discourse to understand identity formation and barriers to entry into health profession careers is discussed.     

Improving Physics Teaching through Collaborative Research

For one semester a team of researchers observed, recorded and discussed the manner in which physics knowledge was being transmitted by the teacher and acquired by a class of Year 11 students (aged 15‐16 years) and the role of the students' textbooks in this process. The collaboration provided an environment in which the teacher, as a member of the research team, could reflect on practice and initiate changes in his teaching. The results of the study are presented as two assertions. First, the collaborative approach enhanced the teacher's philosophical basis for his physics teaching and created an environment in which changes in teaching could occur. Secondly, deficiencies in students' use of the required textbooks were identified, and more effective means for student learning from text were adopted and evaluated.     

Exploring employee perceptions of Six Sigma as a change management program in higher education

Change initiatives in higher education are frequently guided by an institutional change management program which provides employees with a framework and set of skills to better understand problems and facilitate change at the organisational level. In this paper, we explore employee perceptions of Six Sigma as a tool for facilitating change at one public institution of higher education in the southeast United States. Unlike previous research studies that focused on specific results of change initiatives using Six Sigma, our research team considered how individuals, trained in the implementation of Six Sigma techniques and strategies, viewed the potential of the Six Sigma model to enact and sustain change initiatives in a higher education setting. In this case study, we describe Six Sigma as a change management program in higher education based on Lewin’s Three-Phase Model of Change.