(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the March 2013 issue of the Journal of Physical education, Recreation & Dance notes that negative early student experiences with PE and sports can last a lifetime and affect their levels of physical activity. The researchers report on "a survey that asked 293 students about recollections from their childhood or youth physical education and sport experiences revealed that participants who had been picked or chosen last for a team had a significant reduction in physical activity later in life. Long recognized as an "inappropriate" instructional practice by NASPE, "captains picking teams" still occurs in some physical education and sport settings." Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) In the same month as another journal published a special describing the key role of school psychologists in school mental health promotion, issue #1, 2013 of the Canadian Journal of School Psychology, publishes a special issue on the key tole of schools in Canadian mental health promotion. The issue includes several articles, including a foreword by the former Chair of the Canadian Mental Health Commission, articles on self-stigma and exclusion, challenges in implementation, school-linked services, a report on a school survey and more. Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) A theory about teacher behaviours in implementing programs, the Planning Realistic Intervention Implementation and Maintenance by Educators, is used to explain a teacher's use of a behaviour support program for students. The case study is reported in an article in Issue #1, 2013 of School Psychology Quarterly. The authors report that "We propose that to transform student outcomes through evidence-based practice, conceptualization of mediators' intervention implementation must move beyond quantification of discrete intervention steps implemented. Intervention implementation requires behavior change and thus can be conceptualized as an adult behavior change process. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how adult behavior change theory may inform how intervention implementation is conceptualized, facilitated, and supported. An empirically supported theory of adult behavior change from health psychology, the Health Action Process Approach, and how it has informed development of PRIME (Planning Realistic Intervention Implementation and Maintenance by Educators), a system of supports to facilitate mediators' implementation of school-based interventions, are introduced". Read More>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) A national survey of school psychologists in the USA reported on their current practices and preferences regarding continuing professional devlopment in an article in Issue #4, 2013 of Psychology in the Schools. The researchers report that: "Respondents expressed opinions about CPD that were positive, optimistic, and consistent with their high levels of engagement and investments of both time and financial resources. Most respondents reported engaging in 25 or more hours of CPD during the previous year. CPD topics in which they engaged most frequently were response to intervention and academic, behavioral, and social–emotional interventions, and academic screening and progress monitoring. Respondents reported a high level of need for more CPD in those same topic areas, but a low level of need for offerings in standardized assessment. Older school psychologists were less likely to have engaged in CPD relating to contemporary assessment practices and interventions and more likely to have engaged in activities related to standardized assessment. Almost half of the respondents had engaged in CPD through an online activity and reported a desire for more online opportunities. No relationship was found between age and usage of, or positive opinions about, online CPD."  Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #1, 2013 of the International Journal of Education Development uses the \\'Capability Approach\', developed by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, as well as a realist review to assess and explain the quality of teacher practices in Tanzania. The authors suggest that the apparent gap between perceptions (teachers are nor performing well enough vs the teachers don't have enough resources) The authors conclude that " By unpacking these components of teachers’ behaviours, and understanding the underlying structures, mechanisms, tendencies and counter-tendencies that produce certain empirically apprehended actions, we can start to see entry points in which measures to improve teachers’ professional performance could be seeded. First, interventions should acknowledge teachers’ causal mechanisms because these are the valued beings and doings that are central to the lives that teachers want to lead; if interventions could aid in the achievement of these functionings, they would also aid in the reduction of some ‘deficient’ behaviours that are associated with their constraint. Secondly, interventions need to account for and address dominant counter-tendencies (or constraining conversion factors) that teachers face, as this will ground strategies in context, provide pragmatic solutions, and convince teachers that these measures are worth trying. Without acknowledgement of causal mechanisms or counter-tendencies, it is highly likely that technocratic fixes that attempt to alter certain criticised practices will not be sustained, as teachers will revert to old ways. The reason being, these criticised ‘old ways’ are grounded in the valued functionings and conversion factors that consistently generate much of teachers’ behaviour."  Read more>>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Several articles in Issue #4 Supplement 2, 2012 of African Journal for Physical, Health Education, recreation & Dance describe the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of young people in different parts of Africa. One article notes the paucity of information about STD's among students in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Perceptions about condoms in Limpopo Province of SA was the fovus of the second article. A third article on students in that same province examined student awareness of the consequences of pregnancy. Read more>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the February 2013 Issue of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases reviews the impact of school-based deworming programs and found that they can be effective in reducing the infection rates among those children. However, the authors caution that the overall impact of such school programs on the community may be lessened if the proportion of people in the community who are infected are adults rather than children. Really? Who would have thought that school programs do not reach adults? Really  Read more> 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) A key part of the personal and social development of children and youth is the development of a sense of social justice. Several articles in Issue #1, 2013 of Education, Citizenship & Justice discuss different aspects of this concept and how it can be strengthened in students. One article describes how Principals in Catholic schools in Chile describe and perceive the development of "solidarite" or a commitment to charity among their students. The second article describes how a sense of justice can be developed through education about institutions in society. A third article describes how emotions play out in the development of SJ, even among young children. The fourth suggests that a knowledge of structural, systemic barriers to equity help to develop the behavioural intention to act on SJ issues. Read more>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Mark Dooris, a pioneer and leading expert in settings-based health promotion, reviews the potential and enduring challenges facing this strategy in an article in Volume 20 of Place and Health."This paper reports on a qualitative study undertaken through in-depth interviews with key individuals widely acknowledged to have been the architects and pilots of the settings movement. Exploring the development of the settings approach, policy and practice integration, and connectedness ‘outwards’, ‘upwards’ and ‘beyond health’, it concludes that the settings approach has much to offer—but will only realise its potential impact on the wellbeing of people, places and the planet if it builds bridges between silos and reconfigures itself for the globalised 21st century. Read more>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Working across multiple systems to prevent a problem or promote health is not easy, even with collaboration mandated from above. An article in Issue #1, 2013 of Critical Public Health describes some of those challenges in an analysis of alcohol abuse prevention partnerships in England. The authors report that: "Tackling alcohol-related harms crosses agency and professional boundaries, requiring collaboration between health, criminal justice, education and social welfare institutions. It is a key component of most multi-component programmes in the United States, Australia and Europe. The findings are based on a mix of open discussion interviews with key informants and on semi-structured telephone interviews with 90 professionals with roles in local alcohol partnerships. Interviewees reported the challenges of working within a complex network of interlinked partnerships, often within hierarchies under an umbrella partnership, some of them having a formal duty of partnership. The new alcohol strategy has emerged at a time of extensive reorganisation within health, social care and criminal justice structures. Further development of a partnership model for policy implementation would benefit from consideration of the incompatibility arising from required collaboration and from tensions between institutional and professional cultures. A clearer analysis of which aspects of partnership working provide ‘added value’ is needed. Read more>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Adequately preparing teachers to teach in urban schools is an ageless challenge for teacher education programs. An article in Issue #1, 2013 of Education & Urban Society offers some insights into the qualities that need to be promoted among teachers aspiring or assigned to work in those schools. The fact that a minority of these new teachers felt ready to "make it their own" practice is revealing. The authors note that "This replication study represents an analysis of 47 exit portfolios of students enrolled in an urban teacher education program. Portfolios were analyzed to determine the degree to which students integrated concepts related to teaching in urban schools: asset/deficit perspectives, connections with families, social justice, high expectations for student learning, and contextualized teaching and learning. The portfolios fall into three groups along a continuum from “awareness” to “trying things out” to “making it their own.” With 30%, 51%, and 19% falling into each group respectively, the data are interpreted in relationship to faculty development and the challenges of scaffolding preservice teachers" Read more>

(An item from ISHN Member information service) The use of ecological analysis and action as a concept is emerging in many school-based programs and approaches. It is more than fitting to see how it is in use in the flield of environmental education. An article in Issue #2, 2013 of the Journal of Environmental education suggests that an ecological framework be used to design instructional programs. Read More>

An update of a Cochrane Systematic Review of school-based physical activity programs expresses caution about the impact of such programs on the levels of activity during the school day as well as longer term effects on cholesterol and body mass. The review (at least its abstract), also illustrates the limited nature of systematic reviews that do not clearly differentiate between different types of interventions (multi-intervention approaches vs instructional programs) as well as those that do not clearly establish reasonable expectations for school programs. In this case, the review looks for increased PA during the school day (too little) or long term changes to blood pressure, body mass or cholesterol (too much), when a more realistic expectation might be that the children become more active after school. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) In this web site, we often refer to "non-rational decision-making" as a concept that helps to explain decision-making in large systems such as schools or health systems. The concepts helps to broaden our understanding of the processes that influence systems, organizations and individuals in maintaining or modifying theior practices. This week, we came across a similar concept being developed by the National collaborating Centre on Public Policy in health promotion in Canada. Their video presentation on "deliberative processes" is an excellent overview of this deeper understanding that goes beyond simplistic expectations that research evidence alone can persuade us to make changes. Read more.