The purpose of the study was to examine a particular division-level implementation of the Health-Promoting Schools (HPS) Approach, the Battle River Project (BRP). Schools have become an important setting to positively affect health behaviors of children and youth. Although evidence exists for the efficacy of the HPS approach, there are recognized gaps in the areas of implementation and policy development. The BRP was initiated by Ever Active Schools (Alberta) and focused on social and organizational levels, with the end goal of positively affecting student health outcomes and policy. The participating schools and the division were supported by all partners involved in the research and worked to facilitate the development of healthy, active school communities. The study is presented as a series of four papers bracketed by introduction and conclusion chapters. The introduction chapter details the theoretical framework, literature review, context, and methodology of the study. The first paper introduces the BRP, provides provincial background, and details the structure and framework of the project. The second paper examines the use of evidence to effect change in schools and the division. The takeaway points from the project included the value of stakeholder involvement throughout the process, the need to share gathered evidence with those in a position to implement effective practice and capable of effecting change, and the importance of encouraging an embedding of health in school and division culture. The third paper shares the findings from the case study of the BRP under three dominant themes: participation, coordination, and integration. Evidence gathered in the study strongly support the efficacy of school divisionbased HPS implementation. The fourth paper examines the development and early implementation of healthy school policy in the Battle River School Division. Several themes were gleaned from the case study data, including perceptions and misconceptions, the importance of a bottom-up/top-down process, flexible rigidity with regard to implementation, and the need to make healthy schools the way we do business. The concluding chapter provides a summary of the work, highlights results, provides recommendations, and next steps.

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ motivational beliefs for involvement in a Comprehensive School Health approach (locally called Healthy Active Schools, or HAS) at their child’s school. Literature suggests that parents’ role construction and parents’ self-efficacy are the most salient influences on parents’ decision to become involved at their child’s school. Twelve parents involved at two urban public elementary schools were interviewed. Questions were based on Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement (1995, 1997, 2005c). Qualitative multiple case study analysis additionally utilized Penner’s (2002) model of sustained volunteerism and Bandura’s collective efficacy theory (1997, 2000; Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2004) to clarify findings. Results suggest most parents’ strong active role construction and negative valence grounded their parent-focused role orientation. School case study analysis revealed that the principal’s leadership, the structure of the HAS committee and the school’s climate uniquely influenced parents’ beliefs. Individual parent case analysis revealed four distinct patterns of parents’ motivational beliefs for HAS involvement. Future research is warranted to further examine the decisive impact of parents’ health and prosocial values on their decision to become involved specific to a CSH approach type of involvement. Additional case studies in local schools, school districts and provinces are recommended to illuminate unique contextual influences and the potential for the emergence of collective efficacy; including consideration for parents’ belief construct general invitations from the school would contribute to gaining a deeper understanding within this domain. Finally, the link between parents’ motivational beliefs of empowerment and their sustained motivation for involvement needs to be explored further.

Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (CSCP) are data driven programs utilized by school counselors to ensure the students they serve receive measurable benefits in academic, career, and personal/social development. The purpose of this study was to better understand if differences existed in the perceptions of graduates from school counseling programs accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) and non-accredited programs regarding effective implementation of CSCP. This study is relevant to counselor educators, university administrators, and aspiring school counselors who are stakeholders in the decision to pursue CACREP accreditation or attend a CACREP accredited school counseling program. The theoretical foundation used to guide the study was competency based education (CBE), which emphasizes student competencies. Using a quantitative, contrasted groups design, the answers to 4 research questions were answered utilizing 132 school counselors who completed the School Counseling Program Implementation Survey (SCPIS). The participants' scores on the SCPIS were analyzed using a t test to compare the means of the 2 groups. The results indicated no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups regarding their perception of effectively implementing CSCP (RQ1),being professionally oriented to CSCP (RQ2), providing school counseling services (RQ3), or using computerized data to accentuate their CSCP (RQ4). The social change implications for this study include imparting the importance of school counseling masters' level students receiving the knowledge and training to effectively implement a CSCP, regardless of the program's CACREP status.

Over twenty years ago, the World Health Organization launched a health promoting school movement as part of its settings approach to creating healthy environments. Partnerships across the public health and education sectors are vitally important in efforts to improve the health of children and youth in a school setting. In support of this principle, major advancements have been made within Ontario’s education sector, such as mandating local school systems to incorporate the goal of student well-being into their improvement plans and promoting the use of their Foundations for a Healthy School framework. Furthermore, the provincial ministries of education and health are actively encouraging the strengthening of local school health partnerships. However, there is a lack of knowledge within the health promoting school literature as to how to go about establishing well-functioning partnerships within local school systems. To address this problem, the thesis project aimed to generate knowledge about partnerships between public health professionals and local school system actors, and to shed light on the potential for collaboration toward the creation of healthy schools. Before embarking on this thesis project, however, a conceptual framework was developed to gain a firm understanding of cross-sector collaboration for social change, since collaboration represents a partnership at the highest level of engagement. Two other literature reviews were carried out to understand further the partnership component of health promoting school models, and to show the extent of the knowledge gap existing in this area. The literature review on health promoting schools identifies, to a limited extent, the fundamental elements that specifically constitute school health partnerships at both the school and school board levels. Likewise, the scoping review that examines the knowledge-base on the different types of partnership for health promotion within school systems revealed an absence of in-depth knowledge on this topic. When setting out to fill this knowledge gap, an exploratory research methodology that was primarily qualitative in design was chosen. It included a participatory orientation, whereby a research steering committee of 10 public health managers provided guidance with the formulation of the research question, and with the data collection and interpretation stages of the research project’s public health sector phase. An online survey of school health partnership actors from all 36 Ontario public health units was carried out, along with semi-structured interviews with key school health informants from 32 of these public health units and from six school boards in the province. Although the contribution from the education sector was not as pronounced, school board participants corroborated the findings from participating public health professionals and provided additional insights to gain a clearer understanding of partnership challenges and how to strengthen school health partnerships. Thematic analysis of the collected data was performed based on both deductive and inductive reasoning. From the public health perspective, a school health partnership model for student well-being was constructed. This model was enhanced to some extent by the views of school board representatives. It is composed of two dimensions: the Partnership Generator, and the Collaboration Continuum. The Partnership Generator comprises four inter-related components, namely cross-sector engagement, connection, capacity, and continuity, with relationship building at its core. The cross-sector engagement component encompasses various elements that enrich engagement across the public health and education sectors, while the other three components consist of those elements that enable this engagement. The connection elements motivate school health partners to engage, whereas the capacity elements determine the extent to which engagement can take place. Finally, the elements that make up the continuity component maintain the momentum that motivated cross-sector engagement created based on the capacity that was made available through this engagement. Each of these elements contribute to a school health partnership’s strength. The Collaboration Continuum dimension refers to school health partners’ movement from one partnership arrangement to the next, with increasingly more extensive levels of cross-sector engagement. It includes three sets of supporting conditions to promote movement along the continuum, going from networking to cooperation and then to collaboration. The resulting model provides the knowledge base for assessing the strengths of a given school health partnership and for shedding light on which partnership areas would need to be further developed. Overall, this model offers any professional, from the field of public health, education, or mental health, a closer look at what would be required for a school health partnership to become truly collaborative and reach its maximum potential. It promises to inspire and guide school health partners in their pursuit of more meaningful engagement with one another toward greater improvements in the well-being of school-age children, in recognition of their shared responsibility.

After the restoration of Lithuanian independence, it has become a necessity to learn the Lithuanian language for many citizens of Lithuania, whose native language is not Lithuanian. In the schools of national minority children with special needs also have to learn the state language. As it is observed in practice, not all children with special needs come to school with perfect knowledge of their native language, so we can presume that these children encounter with a lot of difficulties, arising from their surrounding factors, while learning the state language. This work is performed to reveal the peculiarities of teaching and learning the state language to schoolchildren, having special needs, at national minority school. Two groups of respondents took part in this research: Lithuanian language teachers of national minority schools and children with special needs. Analysis of the research has shown that the number of schoolchildren with special needs integrated into national minority schools is increasing. The Lithuanian language teachers of national minority schools do not have enough knowledge about teaching non-native language to schoolchildren with special needs. However, the educators’ attitude towards these schoolchildren is positive. A lack of special language teaching devices, textbooks is felt while educating children with special needs, so the teachers differentiate and constantly prepare individual tasks for these schoolchildren. The state language learning... [to full text]

Vaikų ir jaunimo kultūrinio ugdymo koncepcijoje teigiama (2008), kad mokyklose, kurios skiria daugiau dėmesio kultūriniam ir meniniam ugdymui, aktyviai kūrybinei ir praktinei mokinių veiklai, išauga mokymosi motyvacija, pagerėja psichologinė mokymosi aplinka, sustiprėja bendruomeniniai ryšiai. Mokiniai kur kas geriau įsisavina įvairių dalykų mokomąją medžiagą, tampa patrauklesnis pats mokymosi procesas, atsiranda papildomų sąlyčio taškų su realiu gyvenimu ir kultūrine aplinka (2008). Akivaizdu, kad meninis ugdymas mokykloje yra svarbus ne tik ugdant mokinių meninius gebėjimus, bet ir kuriant mokyklos kultūrą, o šokio pamokose sukurtos sąlygos, gali suteikti mokiniams galimybę patirti džiaugsmą, susijusį su kūrybinės iniciatyvos, saviraiškos atskleidimu. Pagrindinio ugdymo šokio bendrosiose programose (2008) akcentuojami įvairių žanrų (liaudies, pramoginio, klasikinio, šiuolaikinio, breiko ir kt.) šokio žingsniai, jų deriniai, šokiai ar jų fragmentai. Nors klasikinis šokis ir yra paminėtas šokio ugdymo programose, tačiau nėra aišku, ar jis yra mokomas bendrojo lavinimo mokyklose. Daugiausia šokio ugdymo srityje yra akcentuojamas lietuvių liaudies sceninis šokis ir tik kartais užsimenama apie klasikinį (baletą). Taigi, kodėl klasikinio šokio mokymo galimybė bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje yra labai maža, nors šio žanro mokymas yra naudingas mokinio asmenybės tobulėjimui, lavina kūno laikyseną, ugdo kantrybę ir ištvermę, todėl klasikinio šokio mokymas bendrojo lavinimo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Children and youth cultural education concept states (2008), that schools which focus more on cultural and artistic education, active students' creative and practical activities, increase their learning motivation, improve the psychological learning environment, as well as make community relations stronger. Students master educational materials for various subjects, much better the learning process becomes more attractive, that results in additional points of contact with real life and cultural environment (2008). It is clear that arts education in school is important, not only in developing students' artistic skills, but also in creating school culture, and conditions created in dance lessons may give students the opportunity to experience the joy associated with the creative initiative of detection of self expression. Basic dance education programs in general (2008) highlights dance steps of various genres (folk, ballroom, classical, contemporary, break, etc.), their combinations, dances or their fragments. Although classical dance is mentioned in education programs, but it is not clear whether it is taught in comprehensive schools. Lithuanian folk stage dance is mainly highlighted in teaching dancing and only occasionally it is hinted at the classical one (ballet). So why the possibility of teaching classical dance in comprehensive schools is very low, although teaching this genre is useful for students personal development, developing the body posture... [to full text]

This paper describes the process of planning change in a London comprehensive school in order to raise the level of achievement of a group of African-Caribbean boys in February 1997. It looks at the level of awareness of staff and management of the need for change and their attitudes to the introduction of a mentoring program for Black boys. Firstly, I looked at how schools implement change with regards to matters not considered central to the curriculum. Secondly, I looked specifically at my current school and the priority it had given to the fact of Black boys underachievement and the changes that have evolved from this. This involved a review of literature relating to the role of the school, teachers, parents, Black boys and the teacher as researcher.

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abstract: Since the field of Physical Education carries a broader role of physical activity promotion, it is important for Physical Educators to take leadership roles in Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP) in schools. Hence, it has been emphasized that Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs may need to prepare PETE majors adequately to promote physical activity beyond quality Physical Education programs in schools. The purpose of this study was to explore the current extent of CSPAP preparation in PETE programs (e.g., curricula and practices). The first phase of this study comprised a nationwide survey study on PETE programs’ curriculum and experiences for CSPAP implementation. A total of 144 programs completed the online survey about curriculum and learning experiences for the CSPAP components. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, chi-square statistics, and analysis of variance were used to analyze data. Findings indicated that 107 of 144 PETE programs (74.3%) had no learning experiences for CSPAP. The prevalent type of learning experiences was incorporating CSPAP components in the existing courses. Field experiences were not frequently used for CSPAP preparation. PETE personnel expressed the utility of field experiences as an ideal CSPAP learning experience. The second phase of this study addressed PETE majors’ perceptions and learning experiences related to CSPAP in PETE programs. Fourteen PETE students from six programs participated in this study and shared their experiences in PETE programs. Data were collected through a short survey, one formal interview, field images, document gathering, and a follow-up survey. Descriptive statistics, constant comparison, and analytic induction techniques were used to analyze the data. Evidence from interviews, photos, and documents revealed three common themes: a) introducing CSPAP through courses, (b) lacking programmatic experiences in CSPAP implementation (i.e., practice doing it), and (c) interpersonal skills (e.g., communication or cooperation) as a key for CSPAP but limited preparation. Participants’ perception of the role of Physical Educators as physical activity directors evolved during their training. Expanding existing courses for CSPAP preparation would be a feasible way to introduce CSPAP framework. Additional efforts to include hands-on learning experiences for all CSPAP components in PETE programs should be made. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2016

Support and Resistance discusses the interaction between pupils of different abilities and the school organisation. The dissertation has its point of departure in the views of pupils, both those with special support and their classmates. It outlines how school is – and how it should be – in the views of schoolchildren. The results show that the presence in a class of a child with disability correlates with better class climate. Contradictions between goals and values in the educational system are supposedly solved with a compartmentalisation of goals and values, in which the differentiated settings take more responsibility for the goals of socialisation and democratic participation, while the regular settings concentrate on the goals of selection and achievement. This tends to be unsatisfactory, however. The theoretical framework of the dissertation relates to concepts from the fields of sociology, group psychology, psychoanalysis, the history of ideas and the history of education. The empirical studies concern pupils’ self-concept, their perceptions of class climate and school in relation to organisational aspects of learning settings such as homogeneity/heterogeneity, the special support offered at school, the presence of differentiated settings and the opportunity of participation. These studies are based upon questionnaires and texts written by children in comprehensive schools, and on interviews and observations of educational settings. The results and their implications are related to the goals of socialisation, democratic education and social participation. This work is of interest to educators, school administrators, policy-makers and scholars in the fields of education, special education and disability research.