Changing the way people think about health-enhancing physical activity: do mass media campaigns have a role?

Mass media campaigns are conducted to influence community norms around health behaviours, including physical activity. Campaigns can reach large populations at relatively low cost, to influence awareness, knowledge and beliefs through to intention and behaviour change. We reviewed 15 campaigns with an explicit focus on physical activity, and explored impacts upon a range of proximal and distal variables. Campaigns achieved high recall, with a median of 70% of the target group aware of the campaign. Increases in knowledge or attitudes to physical activity were found among half the campaigns that reported this measure. Few campaigns reported other proximal variables, such as saliency, beliefs, self-efficacy or behavioural intention. Increases in physical activity were reported among motivated sub-groups of volunteers, but few campaigns reported population increases in activity. Campaigns increase awareness of the issue of physical activity but may not have a population-level effect on behaviour. Campaigns should focus more on influencing proximal variables, such as social norms, to bring about long-term behaviour change. This should be seen as part of a broader strategy, including policy and environmental change. Evaluation designs that measure the full range of variables are preferred to an over-concentration on behaviour alone.     

Self-reported ability assessment in rock climbing

Level of ability within rock climbing is generally expressed in terms of a "best ascent", rated using various grading systems within the sport. The most common method of obtaining this information is via self-report. The aim of this study was to examine the validity of self-reported climbing grades. Twenty-nine competitive rock climbers (17 males, 12 females) were first asked to report their current (defined as within the last 12 months) best on-sight lead ascent grade (Aus/NZ). The participants then climbed a specifically designed indoor route, under on-sight conditions (one attempt, no route practice or preview), to obtain an assessed grade. The route increased in difficulty, and was such that the distance achieved by the climber corresponded to a particular grade. The mean (±standard deviation) self-reported and assessed grade was 22.6?±?3.4 and 22.0?±?3.0 (Aus/NZ) respectively. Despite slight over- and underestimations in males and females respectively, there was no statistically significant difference between self-reported and assessed on-sight climbing grades. The results of this study suggest that self-reported climbing grades provide a valid and accurate reflection of climbing ability.     

The superstar phenomenon in the knowledge management and intellectual capital academic discipline

This paper reports on the first documented attempt to investigate the presence of the superstar (or Matthew) effect in the knowledge management and intellectual capital (KM/IC) scholarly discipline. The Yule–Simon model and Lotka's square law were applied to the publication data obtained from 2175 articles from 11 KM/IC journals. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the KM/IC discipline represents a very young, attractive academic field that welcomes contributions from a variety of academics and practitioners. In their paper acceptance decisions, KM/IC journal editors are not biased towards a small group of highly productive researchers, which is a positive sign that the field has been progressing in the right direction. The discipline is driven more by academics than by practitioners, and the distribution of articles is more concentrated among a few academic but not practitioner institutions. It was also observed that the Yule–Simon model and Lotka's square law may produce different distributions with respect to institutions.     

What hampers innovation? Revealed barriers versus deterring barriers

Innovating firms are likely to face several challenges and experience different types of barriers. In this paper we argue that it is necessary to distinguish between two kinds of barriers to innovation. The first corresponds to what we describe as revealed barriers and reflects the degree of difficulty of the innovation process and the learning experience consequent on the firm engaging in innovation activity. The second type of impediment, which we label deterring barriers, encompasses the obstacles that prevent firms from committing to innovation. We use data from the 4th UK Community Innovation Survey (CIS4) to investigate the relationship between firms’ engagement in innovation and their assessment of the barriers to innovation. We show that the relationship is curvilinear in the case of costs and market barriers. These results have important implications for innovation policy and innovation management.     

Crossing the communication divide: Intergroup contact and the desire to learn the outgroup’s language

This paper explores the role of ethnolinguistic vitality and intergroup contact in changing attitudes and the interest to learn Hungarian among Slovak-speaking secondary school students in Southern Slovakia (N?=?225). Several indirect paths linking the all these variables were found. In general, lower local ethnolinguistic vitality of Hungarian decreased intergroup anxiety and increased the quality of contact with members of the Hungarian minority, which led to a more positive attitude toward the Hungarian minority, and enhanced the interest to learn Hungarian.     

Stopping to thinks school‐based and higher education‐based primary student teachers' reflections on their learning

This paper examines trainees' perceptions of the impact, on secondary mathematics trainees, of collaborative school‐based work involving small groups of trainees, a university tutor and a class teacher. The findings suggest that trainees' become better able to plan and deliver a coherent yet diverse sequence of lessons, that their awareness of children's learning styles and misconceptions was raised and that preconceived notions about teaching and learning were challenged and mediated. A few trainees found the experience unhelpful and threatening. The role of the tutor was found to influence trainees' responses to the program and, to an extent, moderate the effects of variations in teacher involvement. Some implications are discussed.     

Introducing Forum Theatre to elicit and advocate children’s views

Eliciting and advocating the voice of the child remains at the heart of international political agenda and also remains a central role for educational psychologists (EPs). Previous research indicates that EPs tend to use language-based methods for eliciting and advocating views of children. However, these approaches are often limited. Taking a case study approach this paper aims to explain how the use of Forum Theatre offers EPs a legitimate way of eliciting and advocating the views of children. The study worked with seven Year Six children to create a Forum Theatre Performance which was performed in front of the whole school (spect-actors). Focus groups were held with teachers (n = 3) and children (n = 6) from within the school. This study uses a semantic deductive thematic analysis to explain underlying emancipatory processes within the context of a small rural primary school. The results of this study support previous literature demonstrating that Forum Theatre has a wealth of emancipatory processes which might optimise the approach being used to elicit and advocate for the voice of the child. Practical applications and limitations are discussed with some suggestions for further research.