Correlates of Physical Activity Behavior in Rural Youth

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify correlates of physical activity behavior in a sample of rural, predominantly African American youth. Three hundred sixty-one fifth-grade students from two rural counties in South Carolina (69% African American, median age = 11 years) completed a questionnaire designed to measure beliefs and social influences regarding physical activity, physical activity self-efficacy, perceived physical activity habits of family members and friends, and access to exercise and fitness equipment at home. After school physical activity and television watching were assessed using the Previous Day Physical Activity Recall (PDPAR). Students were classified as physically active according to a moderate physical activity standard: two or more 30-min blocks at an intensity of 3 METs (metabolic equivalents) or greater, and a vigorous physical activity standard: one or more 30-min blocks at an intensity of 6 METs or greater. According to the moderate physical activity standard, 34.9% of students were classified as low-active. Multivariate analysis revealed age, gender, television watching, and exercise equipment at home to be significant correlates of low activity status. According to the vigorous physical activity standard, 32.1% of the students were classified as low-active. Multivariate analysis revealed age, gender, television watching, and self-efficacy with respect to seeking support for physical activity to be significant correlates of low activity status. In summary, gender and the amount of television watching were found to be the most important correlates of physical activity in rural, predominantly African American youth.     

Issues of access and usability in designing digital resources for children

The way children's cognitive states affect how they function in digital interfaces is examined through articles published between 1989 and 2010. Children have developmental limitations, such as underdeveloped motor skills, difficulties with spelling, and trouble understanding hierarchies, classification schemes, and metadata, that make it difficult for them to find information, and challenging for adult designers to accommodate their needs. From icons to metadata to hierarchies, the best research in designing digital resources for children, (OPACs such as Pejtersen's Book House, online public libraries such as the Internet Public Library, and online collections of books such as the International Children's Digital Library), places the child user at the center, and takes an interdisciplinary and intergenerational approach. The literature indicates that research in designing for children is valuable, not only because it seeks to improve children's experience with digital resources, but also because such research translates to other marginalized users and special needs populations.     

Executive functioning, metacognition, and self-perceived competence in elementary school children: an explorative study on their interrelations and their role for school achievement

In the present study, associations between executive functioning, metacognition, and self-perceived competence in the context of early academic outcomes were examined. A total of 209 children attending first grade were initially assessed in terms of their executive functioning and academic self-concept. One year later, children??s executive functioning, academic self-concept, metacognitive monitoring and control, as well as their achievement in mathematics and literacy were evaluated. Structural equation modeling revealed that executive functioning was significantly related to metacognitive control, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and that self-concept was substantially associated with metacognitive monitoring, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Individual differences in executive functioning and metacognitive control were significantly related to academic outcomes, with metacognitive control appearing to yield a more circumscribed influence on academic outcomes (only literacy) compared to executive functioning (literacy and mathematics).     

Professional role and identity of Icelandic preschool teachers: effects of stakeholders’ views

In this article, we explore the reality of Icelandic preschool teachers who are, as in most other countries, predominantly female. The gendered nature of the role and the current identity adopted by preschool teachers appear to impact on their perceived status and professionalism. In this process, stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE), as well as the preschool teachers themselves, play important parts. The question that underlies the paper is: ‘How do the views of preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE affect the preschool teachers’ professional identity?’ The data used to answer the question are from focus group research carried out with preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE in one community in Iceland. These stakeholders, besides preschool teachers and staff within the preschools, were parents, professionals at the municipal preschool office and politicians. The theoretical perspective informing the methodology of the research was ‘symbolic interactionism’ and the concept of ‘democratic professionalism’ was used as an aspirational framework to analyse the data. The findings reveal connections between the ideology relating to the preschool teachers’ educational role, their limited leadership and the gendered views of stakeholders. At the end of the paper, implications and recommendations for preschool teachers are suggested.     

Student planners in school and out of school: who is managing whom?

This paper examines the use of student planners (agendas) with elementary school students. It asks how teachers, students and parents in two classrooms engage in the literacy practice of using student planners. A literacy object originally introduced to manage schoolwork in and out of school for students with learning difficulties, planners are now used widely in school districts across North America. In this cross‐case analysis, planners are shown to be used for a number of functions beyond organising students’ schoolwork. The student planners were tools through which teachers, parents and publishers extended their spheres of influence – objects used to manage others when an individual was not physically present to do so and objects used to gain entry to the classrooms and homes for particular purposes.     

A typology of approaches to science teaching in schools

Bentley and Watts (1986) have recently argued that fundamental changes in science are necessary if girls’ needs and expectations in school science are to be met. They explore the implications of a radical shift, from a masculine to a feminist view of science, in terms of the context and conduct of school science, and warrant their attempt to reconstruct a feminist science largely by reference to ‘new paradigm’ research in the social sciences. By exploring the reasons underlying the adoption of ‘new paradigm’ methods in the social sciences, I argue that their explication of a feminist science lacks an important feature that would hinder its consideration as an alternative vision of scientific inquiry and as a basis for changing the content of science curriculum in schools. I further question their need to look to the social sciences as a model, when many social scientists have turned to the physical sciences for inspiration in attempting to reconstruct their own disciplines. By exploring the tenets most commonly held in present‐day science and examining the nature of scientific understanding, I argue that their view of ‘normal’ science is a highly simplified and incomplete stereotype of scientific inquiry. It is suggested that the nature of science is not the root problem, as Bentley and Watts would have us believe.     

Challenges and Support When Teaching Science Through an Integrated Inquiry and Literacy Approach

In the Budding Science and Literacy project, we explored how working with an integrated inquiry-based science and literacy approach may challenge and support the teaching and learning of science at the classroom level. By studying the inter-relationship between multiple learning modalities and phases of inquiry, we wished to illuminate possible dynamics between science inquiry and literacy in an integrated science approach. Six teachers and their students were recruited from a professional development course for the current classroom study. The teachers were to try out the Budding Science teaching model. This paper presents an overall video analysis of our material demonstrating variations and patterns of inquiry-based science and literacy activities. Our analysis revealed that multiple learning modalities (read it, write it, do it, and talk it) are used in the integrated approach; oral activities dominate. The inquiry phases shifted throughout the students' investigations, but the consolidating phases of discussion and communication were given less space. The data phase of inquiry seems essential as a driving force for engaging in science learning in consolidating situations. The multiple learning modalities were integrated in all inquiry phases, but to a greater extent in preparation and data. Our results indicate that literacy activities embedded in science inquiry provide support for teaching and learning science; however, the greatest challenge for teachers is to find the time and courage to exploit the discussion and communication phases to consolidate the students' conceptual learning.