Environmental identity formation in nonformal environmental education programs

This paper explores experiences that remained salient in the memories of former participants in three nature-based programs in Colorado, five to forty years after childhood involvement. Interviews with program founders and staff, archival research, and observations of current activities provided an understanding of each program’s history, mission and educational approach. In this context, 18 former participants were interviewed about program experiences that they remembered and program impacts on their environmental identities and academic or career choices. Results were analyzed through the lens of social practice theory, which has significant implications for the design and evaluation of environmental education programs. Results showed that social practice theory is a useful framework for interpreting the development of a social environmental identity, but an ecological identity that forms through direct contact with the natural world is an important complementary concept.     

A single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia

This study investigated the effect of a single session of resistance exercise on postprandial lipaemia. Eleven healthy normolipidaemic men with a mean age of 23 (standard error = 1.4) years performed two trials at least 1 week apart in a counterbalanced randomized design. In each trial, participants consumed a test meal (1.2 g fat, 1.1 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g protein and 68 kJ x kg(-1) body mass) between 08.00 and 09.00 h following a 12 h fast. The afternoon before one trial, the participants performed an 88 min bout of resistance exercise. Before the other trial, the participants were inactive (control trial). Resistance exercise was performed using free weights and included four sets of 10 repetitions of each of 11 exercises. Sets were performed at 80% of 10-repetition maximum with a 2 min work and rest interval. Venous blood samples were obtained in the fasted state and at intervals for 6 h postprandially. Fasting plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) concentration did not differ significantly between control (1.03 +/- 0.13 mmol x l(-1)) and exercise (0.94 +/- 0.09 mmol x l(-1)) trials (mean +/- standard error). Similarly, the 6 h total area under the plasma TAG concentration versus time curve did not differ significantly between the control (9.84 +/- 1.40 mmol l(-1) x 6 h(-1)) and exercise (9.38 +/- 1.12 mmol x l(-1) x 6 h(-1)) trials. These findings suggest that a single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia.     

A single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia

This study investigated the effect of a single session of resistance exercise on postprandial lipaemia. Eleven healthy normolipidaemic men with a mean age of 23 (standard error = 1.4) years performed two trials at least 1 week apart in a counterbalanced randomized design. In each trial, participants consumed a test meal (1.2?g fat, 1.1?g carbohydrate, 0.2?g protein and 68 kJ?·?kg^?1 body mass) between 08.00 and 09.00?h following a 12?h fast. The afternoon before one trial, the participants performed an 88?min bout of resistance exercise. Before the other trial, the participants were inactive (control trial). Resistance exercise was performed using free weights and included four sets of 10 repetitions of each of 11 exercises. Sets were performed at 80% of 10-repetition maximum with a 2?min work and rest interval. Venous blood samples were obtained in the fasted state and at intervals for 6?h postprandially. Fasting plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) concentration did not differ significantly between control (1.03?±?0.13?mmol?·?l^?1) and exercise (0.94?±?0.09?mmol?·?l^?1) trials (mean?± standard error). Similarly, the 6?h total area under the plasma TAG concentration versus time curve did not differ significantly between the control (9.84?±?1.40?mmol?·?l^?1?·?6?h^?1) and exercise (9.38?±?1.12?mmol?·?l^?1?·?6?h^?1) trials. These findings suggest that a single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia.     

Conclusion

This special issue interrogates the contexts in which reforms are developed as well as the contexts to which they spread in order to understand the factors that influence the potential for reforms to be scaled up. Four articles from around the world address this understudied role of context. In our analysis of these articles, we take an ecological view, one that encompasses each of these challenges to explore the interplay between educators’ experiences, beliefs, and their contexts regarding reform. We begin to elaborate a theory of scale derived from medical research that develops a seed and soil application to educational research. In this theory, we describe how a discrete focus on the content of reform is no longer adequate; rather, an approach that also addresses the context and whether and to what extent it is supportive of change must also be considered. The features of supportive contexts are enumerated, including size, locus of control, norms, sociocultural context, and socioeconomic context. Three reforms are analyzed using these features as a framework. We conclude that the extent to which these conditions are prevalent may point to the capacity of a system to support a new reform.     

Web-based education: A reality check

Conclusion Developing an easy-to-use, complete, practical, reliable, and cost-effective solution for delivering training and education on the Internet has required considerable research and development. We have found that off-the-shelf technologies offer only partial solutions, at best. Even when the software problems were solved, however, we found that our work was just beginning. An effective solution requires software technology, but expertise in instructional design has been equally important. The learning environments our clients create on the Internet have the potential for both “high tech” and “high touch.” These clients are finding ways to reach beyond the physical limitations of the classroom, but—perhaps more significantly—they are using the system to reach beyond the limiting assumptions of the classroom as well. As they—and we—do so, we will begin to understand the ways in which the Net really is a new medium.     

The Interaction between Teachers’ Knowledge and Skills when Managing a Troublesome Classroom Behaviour

This paper reports the findings of a study that explored how teachers manage a pervasive and disruptive classroom behaviour known as talking out of turn. The study found that talking out of turn occurred at story time in the 26 primary classrooms investigated. Comparisons between teachers showed that they used different strategies to manage classroom talk and that these strategies correlate with the frequency of talking out of turn in their classrooms. However, this is not a matter merely of some teachers being more skillful than others. Detailed analysis of each teacher's knowledge of teaching and learning showed that the skills that they used are inseparable from the knowledge they hold. It is suggested that teachers may change the frequency of an unwanted classroom behaviour, if they are helped to reflect on their professional knowledge.     

Creating an Institutional Repository: Elements for Success!

ABSTRACT

The institutional repository (IR) can be a dynamic, online collection of research, writing, and projects conducted by a university’s faculty and students. IRs are also important tools that allow a library to create a connection with faculty and students. This report will identify the services and content essential to a successful institutional repository, discuss how to build a team of talented experts to build and market the repository, address the creation of a business plan and strategies for marketing and building social media presence, and conclude with thoughts on how to develop, process, and publish journals locally and sustainably.