Behavioral Approaches to Obesity Treatment

Obesity is at the forefront of the public health agenda. Why, with all the emphasis on the health risks of obesity and the availability of multiple treatment options, is it so difficult for people to successfully lose and maintain weight? The answer is simple: Most obesity treatment plans tell people what to do but not how to change their behavior. Furthermore, many people attempting weight loss focus on narrow aspects of weight loss behaviors (e.g., specific eating or exercise plans, over-the-counter weight loss products, medication, and in growing numbers, gastric surgery). However, weight gain is ultimately a consequence of multiple environmental and biologic factors that encourage behaviors that result in positive energy balance. It is unlikely that most obesity treatments will be successful unless people learn to address the environmental, biologic, and behavioral barriers that influence their ability to make eating and physical activity choices that promote long-term weight management. Behavioral approaches to obesity treatment help people develop the skills they need to successfully manage their weight in a way that is consistent with their individual barriers, goals, and lifestyles.     

Who or What is School 'Self'-Evaluation for?

Schools' own capacity and responsibility for reflection and evaluation is now at the forefront of UK policy. This article posits an identifiable 'English model' of school self-evaluation, which can be contrasted with the model derived from a recent CIDREE project on school self-evaluation involving 7 other European countries. The 'English model' has various strengths, which can be characterised as instrumentalist, action-oriented, rationalistic and managerial; what seems to be missing from it are what the article calls 'the ethical, affective, non-rational and democratic modes of thinking'. The article argues that, since these are crucial dimensions in the process of education, they should also figure as key aspects or modes of evaluation. What might be the implications of this for current policy and practice?     

Modifying the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time to Measure Teacher Practices Related to Physical Activity Promotion: SOFIT+

The System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) is commonly used to measure variables related to physical activity during physical education (PE). However, SOFIT does not yield detailed information about teacher practices related to children’s moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). This study describes the modification of SOFIT (referred to as SOFIT+) to measure teacher practices related to students’ MVPA during PE lessons. Teacher practices that (a) promote and (b) limit children’s MVPA were identified and operationally defined via a literature review and Delphi Method. Reliability and validity data for SOFIT+ were obtained from 20 video recorded elementary PE lessons. Validity of teacher behaviors included in SOFIT+ was established using students’ accelerometer-derived MVPA. Twenty-seven teacher practices were identified. Inter-rater agreement ranged from 75.8% to 99.1% across 724 reliability scans. Six and seven practices were independently related to girls’ and boys’ MVPA, respectively. For example, during elimination activities, boys and girls were less likely to engage in MVPA. Boys were up to 1.51 times more likely to engage in MVPA while girls were up to 2.86 times more likely to engage in MVPA when a greater number of teacher practices were observed concurrently. Findings provide preliminary reliability and validity for SOFIT+, an instrument to comprehensively measure teacher practices related to children’s MVPA during PE.     

Ethnic identity over national identity: an alternative approach to measure the effect of the World Cup on social cohesion

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a mega sport event has the potential to bring the nation together by increasing the importance of national identity and decreasing the importance of ethnic identity on the outcome of social cohesion. Instead of replicating prior work that has performed mean score comparisons of national identity, ethnic identity, and social cohesion before and after a particular event, the authors compared the variance explained (pre vs. post event) to show the aggregate influence of the two identities on social cohesion. By focusing on this reporting method, the subsequent discussion rests entirely on the practical influence of the perceptual changes that resulted from event hosting. Data for this trend analysis were collected from South African residents, pre (N?=?1749), and post (N?=?2020) the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Results indicated that while the importance of national identity on social cohesion did not increase, the importance of ethnic identity did decrease strongly, indicating that these mega sports events might cause individuals to forget about their ethnic differences as a result of these events.     

Corruption in the 1960s?: Rethinking the Origins of Unethical Olympic Bidding Tactics

Most scholarship about improprieties surrounding Olympic host city selections starts with the Salt Lake City scandal, which television reporters broke in 1998, after which more details emerged revealing similar actions by previous Olympic hosts (as well as unsuccessful bid committees). Yet, the actions of these post-Los Angeles bid committees were not new, with local newspapers from the cities bidding for Games in the 1960s regularly reporting on significant amounts of money bid committees spent in the hope of winning the Games. The actions of the candidate cities for the 1968 Olympic Games went to great lengths to secure the Games. IOC efforts to impose regulations in response to these actions failed to yield significant changes on candidate cities. These examples from the 1960s demonstrate that the bribery of Nagano, Sydney, and Salt Lake City did not start from nowhere. Instead, the IOC long had a culture of improprieties when it came to selecting Olympic host cities – albeit on a smaller scale.     

Understanding Motivation and Schooling: Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We Need to Go

This paper presents an interpretive summary of the progress that has been made in the study of motivation, especially as this work relates to the area of education. Motivation research has come of age with theoretical frameworks rooted in an established body of findings, and with the development of core methodologies for pursuing further knowledge. It has begun to provide a firm base for guiding educational practice. Current work is clearly in accord with mainstream psychology in that cognitive models of motivation are the predominant guides for research. Future work is likely to focus increasingly on how the meaning construction process affects engagement in tasks. Researchers should consider a wider array of research procedures and give greater attention to understanding motivation as it occurs in natural settings, especially as educational interventions are attempted. A serious deficiency in the motivation literature is that relatively little attention has been given to differences related to sociocultural backgrounds.     

What you do is less important than how you do it: the effects of learning environment on student outcomes

Learning Environments Research - Higher education has seen a shift towards promoting student-centred learning. There has also been a push for identifying the ‘best’ teaching models and...     

Using Bourdieu in practice? Urban secondary teachers’ and students’ experiences of a Bourdieusian-inspired pedagogical approach

This article discusses an attempt at a Bourdieusian-inspired form of praxis, developed and implemented in collaboration with nine London teachers, aimed at developing a socially just approach to engaging students with science. Data are discussed from nine months of classroom observations of nine secondary science classes from six inner London schools (approximately 200 students, aged 11–15), interviews and workshop data from the nine teachers and 13 discussion groups conducted with 59 students. The approach resulted in noticeable changes in practice, which were perceived by teachers and students to improve student engagement, cultivate a range of science-related dispositions and promote wider student participation and ‘voice’ in classes. Issues, limitations and possibilities for sociology of education are discussed.     

Psychosocial factors impacting STEM career selection

Attention on P-20 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has increased tremendously in recent years. Many efforts are underway to promote STEM major and career selection across the nation; specifically, in engineering and computer science. The authors' purpose was to examine an underlying profile combinations of latent traits that influence student STEM career selection while designing serious educational games (SEGs). The authors combine a number of quantitative analysis methods in an effort to develop a rich understanding of how a profile combination of traits interact with one another to effect selection of STEM careers and majors. Study participants were 585 students enrolled in a full-time traditional high school. The addition of SEG design experiences into the student profile increases the probability of STEM career selection by 5.1 times.