Science as Social Knowledge. Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry

In recent decades, the prevalence of obesity in children has increased dramatically. This worldwide epidemic has important consequences, including psychiatric, psychological and psychosocial disorders in childhood and increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) later in life. Treatment of obesity is difficult and children with excess weight are likely to become adults with obesity. These trends have led member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) to endorse a target of no increase in obesity in childhood by 2025. Estimates of overweight in children aged under 5 years are available jointly from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), WHO and the World Bank. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) has published country-level estimates of obesity in children aged 2–4 years. For children aged 5–19 years, obesity estimates are available from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. The global prevalence of overweight in children aged 5 years or under has increased modestly, but with heterogeneous trends in low and middle-income regions, while the prevalence of obesity in children aged 2–4 years has increased moderately. In 1975, obesity in children aged 5–19 years was relatively rare, but was much more common in 2016. It is recognised that the key drivers of this epidemic form an obesogenic environment, which includes changing food systems and reduced physical activity. Although cost-effective interventions such as WHO ‘best buys’ have been identified, political will and implementation have so far been limited. There is therefore a need to implement effective programmes and policies in multiple sectors to address overnutrition, undernutrition, mobility and physical activity. To be successful, the obesity epidemic must be a political priority, with these issues addressed both locally and globally. Work by governments, civil society, private corporations and other key stakeholders must be coordinated.

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The epidemiological burden of obesity in childhood: a worldwide epidemic requiring urgent action

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Act 2008

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Data Resource Profile: The New Zealand Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI).

Book review of Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind, Gerald Graff, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2003

http://jpaap.napier.ac.uk/index.php/JPAAP/article/download/58/pdf

Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind

Relationships between self-regulation, social skills and writing achievement in digital schools

Abstract Digital reading facilitates L2 development by allowing anytime-anywhere learning with various digital resources. Although there has been increasing research exploring the role of digital reading on L2 vocabulary learning, synthesized evidence regarding the overall facilitating power of digital reading is still lacking. This meta-analysis aggregates 21 important empirical studies published within the last 20 years and indexed in scholarly recognized databases, so as to provide a comprehensive panoramic assessment of how effectively digital reading has enhanced second and foreign language vocabulary acquisition with diversified learner backgrounds and learning environments. A total of 77 effect sizes were yielded across different studies, and random-effect modeling was employed for analyzing the study-level heterogeneity and sub-group variability. Results demonstrate that digital reading had an overall significant effect ( d immediate = 1.45, p &lt; .01; d deleayed = 2.98, p &lt; .01) on L2 vocabulary learning of between-subject studies. For within-subject studies, digital reading was found to have an upper-medium ( d = 1.39, p &lt; .01) and medium ( d = .86, p &lt; .01) effect on immediate and delayed L2 vocabulary post-tests. Moderating factor analysis results show that L2 proficiency, vocabulary test formats, and digital resources could robustly explain the variance of effect sizes. The findings have strong pedagogical implications on the effective design for digital reading tasks, including the development of adaptive learning algorithms and personalized lexical glosses. Recommendations for future research in the field are provided by pinpointing where to improve in terms of experimental design and the focus of the learner group. 

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Second and Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning through Digital Reading: A Meta-Analysis

It is assumed that digital tools with ubiquitous classroom use have affordances for student agency and a range of social skills. However, few studies have explored the generalised impact of everyday digital classrooms on self-regulation and empathy, perspective taking and prosocial skills. Ten and 11 year old students’ ( n = 115) ratings of self-regulation, social skills and personality were examined in relationship to school-wide practices and instructional foci in two groups of schools ( n = 9) involved in a digital innovation serving low-SES culturally diverse communities. In an early adopting group, students had received a high dosage of three or 4 years of 1:1 digital pedagogy, and in a later adopting group of schools, students had received a low dosage of only 6 months . This natural experiment revealed a context specific effect where high dosage students rated their regulation in digital contexts higher, but not in more general non-digital contexts. However, personality scores particularly those related to self-regulation, were higher for the high dosage students. There were no differences in social skills. The differences were related to the strong focus in the digital innovation on aspects of self-regulation. There was less focus on social skills in the digital innovation. More deliberate teacher augmentation and instructional designs for social skills may be required to capitalise on the affordances of digital tools. School-wide practices, while necessary may not be sufficient to enable the generalisation of skills without this deliberate teacher focus.

Tong Zhu

Papers

Relationships between self-regulation, social skills and writing achievement in digital schools

Second and Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning through Digital Reading: A Meta-Analysis

A school-wide digital programme has context specific impacts on self-regulation but not social skills