Fostering changes in attitude,knowledge and behavior: demographic variation in environmental education effects

This study employs a uniquely multi-factorial, large-scale design to investigate baseline differences and the effects of a singular outdoor educational program on environmental attitudes, knowledge and behavior among primary and secondary school students educated in four different countries. Statistical modelling approaches employed country of residence, age, nationality, sampling year, gender and urban/ rural habitation as predictor variables. Baseline scores were explained by a number of predictors but country of residence and rural-urban differences appeared as the most consistent explanatory variable for positive changes in attitude, knowledge and behavior. Given the nexus of political, social, natural and cultural data contained within the residence variable, we discuss the complex web of drivers that may influence environmental literacy and environmentally responsible behavior. Spatial variation in the value of outdoor education programs is also discussed.     

A new jump-landing protocol identifies differences in healthy,coper, and unstable ankles in collegiate athletes

Ankle sprains are the most common injury in sport. With stability being an important risk factor for ankle sprains, a jump-landing protocol that can elicit differences in time-to-stabilisation (TTS) is necessary. The objective of this study was to develop a jump-landing protocol that could identify differences in TTS among healthy, ‘coper’, and unstable ankles of high-level athletes. 61 Division I collegiate athletes (32 females, 29 males; age: 19.9 ± 1.2 years; height: 176.6 ± 9.5 cm; mass: 74.3 ± 10.8 kg) participated in a jump-landing protocol that utilised sporting movements with preparatory steps and a vertical propulsion of the body in two multi-directional jumps. Utilising the landing on a force plate, ground reaction forces were used to quantify TTS. TTS of the unstable group (1.58 ± 0.62s) was significantly longer than the healthy (1.19 ± 0.37s; p = 0.050) and ‘coper’ (1.13 ± 0.49s; p = 0.019) groups in the forward hops. In addition, TTS of the lateral hops in the unstable group (1.55 ± 0.63s) was also significantly longer than the healthy (1.14 ± 0.37s; p = 0.026) and ‘coper’ (1.15 ± 0.39s; p = 0.028) groups. This new jump-landing protocol was able to elicit differences in TTS in high-level athletes that were not found using previous protocols. This new jump-landing protocol could be an effective tool to identify injury risk for high-level athletes.     

Connecting students to nature – how intensity of nature experience and student age influence the success of outdoor education programs

Nature connectedness counts as a crucial predictor of pro-environmental behavior. For counteracting today’s environmental issues a successful re-connection of individuals to nature is necessary. Besides the promotion of knowledge transfer the aim of the educational program presented in this study is to connect students to their environment. This research explores the impact of an outdoor environmental education program on primary and secondary school students’ nature connectedness with regard to the extent of their nature experience and participant age. The intervention was implemented in two durations: one-day and five-days. Participants were divided into four subsamples from seven up to 18 years of age. Findings suggest that both intervention types evoke immediate shifts towards a stronger nature connectedness among students (p < .001). Notably, the five-day outdoor education interventions were significantly more effective in sustainably promoting nature connectedness compared to one-day field trips (p < .001). Seven to nine year old students performed the strongest shifts towards nature. The value of short-term and residential outdoor environmental education interventions is discussed.     

Evaluating Three Dimensions of Environmental Knowledge and Their Impact on Behaviour

Research in Science Education - This research evaluates the development of three environmental knowledge dimensions of secondary school students after participation in a singular 1-day outdoor...     

Performance technology—not a one‐size‐fits‐all profession

Note: This commentary is part of an ongoing dialogue that began in the October 2011 Performance Improvement special issue entitled Exploring a Universal Performance Model for HPT: Notes From the Field.     

Teaching in the shadow: operators of small shadow education institutions in Japan

The shadow education sector plays a centrally important role in the Japanese education system. Advocates of Japanese shadow education institutions, or juku, claim that the pedagogy employed in these schools leads to superior results compared to teaching methods used in conventional schools. The lack of value-added testing of juku results suggests that these claims have not been tested. In this article, I examine the background of the owner– operators of small juku and the challenges they face in hiring teaching staff. The small juku examined were mostly founded during the juku-boom of the early 1970s and continue to teach 100–200 students with a staff usually numbering more than 10 part-time or full-time teachers. I find that almost no operators or employees come to the shadow education business by design. Instead, owner–operators “slide into” their role for lack of alternative options, or through early success, or through frustration with previous careers. Subsequently, many of the owner–operators embrace their work as a pedagogical calling. In hiring teaching staff, owner–operators circumvent the larger employment market by hiring their own “graduates”.