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This study implemented a fitness program for children and evaluated the benefits of a ten-week musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory program. Participants in the study were selected from an after-school program entitled "All for Fun and Fun for All." Participants in the study included three boys who were pre and post-tested in each of the following areas of fitness: cardiorespiratory fitness (assessed with a treadmill protocol), muscular strength (assessed using the Physical Best chin-up protocol), muscular endurance (assessed using the Physical Best sit-ups protocol), body composition (assessed using a two-site caliper measurement), and a flexibility test (using the Physical Best sit-and-reach protocol). A psychological component was also analyzed using the Student Self Concept Scale (SSCS) for the pre and posttest measurement of self-esteem.Participants of the study attended the after-school training program three days each week for ten weeks. A control group was used in the study. Due to the low participation of the experimental and control group participants (n=2), the data collected was analyzed qualitatively for both groups.Changes were seen in posttesting in both groups. The SSCS composite scores for both control group and the experimental group showed positive changes. The experimental group composite score for self-esteem demonstrated a 5% increase and 30% increase for the control group. The composite score for outcome confidence demonstrated a 25% increase for the experimental participants and a 7% increase in the control group.Two of the three experimental group participants demonstrated improvements in muscular endurance, flexibility, muscular strength, while all three had lower resting heart rates recorded in posttests as compared to pretests. Both of the control group participants had slightly higher resting heart rates in posttesting. Both control group participants demonstrated no change in muscular strength, slight reductions in flexibility, and variable changes in muscular endurance.Due to the fact that all of the children in the training program wanted to continue being involved in the after-school program after the study was completed, and the benefits seen through the testing data, this type of program may be a positive intervention to reverse the trend of declining levels of children's physical fitness. The potential psychological benefits may also be a reason for offering a program of this type to children. More studies should be performed on larger sample groups to support this research. / School of Physical Education

Early adolescent students from Australian Catholic schools demonstrate a variety of implicit understandings and make meaning in a range of ways when asked to engage a biblical text involving Jesus and His interaction with a man possessed by an unclean spirit (Mark 1:21-28). Students in twenty first century Western culture make meaning from ancient texts in ways that reflect the characteristics of their specific age group, their participation in Catholic schools activities and their immersion in the wider popular culture. / Approximately 460 students from fifteen Adelaide schools participated in this study. Research methodologies of conversation analysis and focus discussion groups encouraged students, as constructors of their own frameworks of knowledge, to supply rich and insightful responses to Mark's text. They also supplied illustrations relating to their understandings of the text. A reader response approach, as a critical biblical method of responding to the text itself, allowed students' meanings to be discerned as functions of their prior experiences. Use of these qualitative methods allowed access to students' multiple and socially constructed realities as they provided several varied perspectives about the same text. / Responses reflected the variable rate of maturation amongst early adolescents as well as characteristics common to this age group. Increases in intellectual development, language capabilities and ways of expressing themselves encourage and enhance abstract thought processes and multi-dimensional thinking. The quality of their religious meaning making skills is enhanced by increases in their religious awareness and ways of thinking religiously. / These developmental changes are occurring in an era of social flux where ways of knowing are changing and the nature of truth is ambiguous. Early adolescents live in a culture where many of the traditional ways of making meaning have been replaced with personal realities. Simultaneously, Catholic schools present an important context in the lives of students who receive experiences of religious education congruent with principles of the Catholic tradition. Some forms of knowledge that they construct today are contextually legitimate while others reflect universal ideas. / Students' responses included in-depth constructions of two central figures in the text, Jesus and the unclean spirit. Their responses demonstrated a consistent depiction of the person Jesus while responses concerning the unclean spirit were quite varied. It is suggested that Catholic school culture accounted for students' ideas about Jesus while many ideas about unclean spirits came from popular culture. Some students saw the story as narrative genre although there were a number of responses that saw the story as a recount, either factual or imaginative. Mark's reasons for writing the story also fostered varied and diverse responses. Responses concerning any meaning of the story for students today were also varied and diverse. Students believed that Jesus exists today in spirit but were divided upon today's existence of, and if so the form of, unclean spirits. Students also supplied a variety of interpretations of the term 'miracle.' A small number of students understood Mark's text as contemporary biblical scholars would wish it understood. / The findings are discussed in terms of implications for religious education curriculum developers and teachers involved in religious education programs for this age group of students. It is suggested that educators and teachers honour the nature of early adolescent students' psycho-spiritual development when dealing with gospel text. / Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (MEd)--University of South Australia, 1996

Thesis (MEd Religion Studies) -- University of South Australia, 1992

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [101]-103).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 28, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (PhD) -- Australian Catholic University, 2006. / Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Bibliography: p. 256-265. Also available in an electronic version via the internet.

Thesis (M.Ed) -- Australian Catholic University, 2006. / Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education. Bibliography: p. 176-184. Also available in an electronic version via the internet.

Research paper (M.A.) -- Cardinal Stritch College -- Milwaukee, 1971. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Reading Specialist). Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-51).