Bakgrund: Fysisk aktivitet har ett flertal goda hälsoeffekter samt positiv inverkan på, kognition, prestation i skolan och motorisk utveckling. I dagens Sverige rör sig barn och ungdomar allt mindre och få uppnår rekommendationerna för fysisk aktivitetsnivå. Fysioterapeuter har god kunskap om fysisk aktivitet och rörelse och nyttjas i andra länder inom skolans värld, i dagsläget är detta dock mycket ovanligt i Sverige. Syfte: Utforska hur fysioterapeuter verksamma inom skolans värld i Sverige upplever sin möjlighet och handlingsutrymme att påverka barns rörelsebeteende. Metod: Studien bygger på kvalitativ metod och tre semikonstruerade intervjuer genomfördes med fysioterapeuter verksamma inom elevhälsan. Intervjuerna spelades in och transkriberades. Materialet analyserades sedan enligt Graneheim och Lundmans kvalitativa innehållsanalys. Resultat: Fem huvudkategorier framkom: Vårdnadshavarnas avgörande roll för beteendeförändring, Att använda ett systematisk men samtidigt individanpassat arbetssätt, Elevernas medverkan och möjligheten att få lyckas: nyckel till framgång, Socialt stöd och gruppens betydelse för både elev och fysioterapeut, Fysioterapeuten är beroende av och utgår ifrån skolans egna resurser i sitt arbete. Dessa kategorier delades därefter in i 16 underkategorier. Slutats: Skolfysioterapeuterna i Sverige arbetar huvudsakligen för att aktivera och identifiera elever med motorisk svårighet som skolan själva inte når. I arbetet med dessa elever identifieras skolmiljön och dess resurser som viktiga för skolfysioterapeutens förmåga och handlingsutrymme att arbeta med elevers rörelsebeteende. / Introduction: Physical activity has been proven to be beneficial for cognition, academic results, overall health, and motor development. Physiotherapists have a profound knowledge in how to promote physical activity and movement. This knowledge is made use of in other countries, where school-based physiotherapists are common. In Sweden, on the other hand, school-based physiotherapists are scarce.  Purpose: To explore how school-based physiotherapists in Sweden experience their ability and room for manoeuvre when it comes to affecting children's movement behaviours.  Method: A qualitative study based on three semi-structured interviews with school-based physiotherapists in Sweden. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and later analysed according to Graneheim and Lundman’s qualitative content analysis. Result: The results revealed five main categories and 16 subcategories. The main categories that were identified were: Guardians crucial role for behaviour change, Using a systematic but at the same time individualised approach, Students participation and the opportunity to succeed: the key to success, Social support and the group's importance for both student and physiotherapist and Physical therapists are dependent on the school's own resources.  Conclusion: The school-based physiotherapists in Sweden mainly work to activate and identify students with motor difficulties that the school itself does not have the ability to help. School-based physiotherapists identified the school environment and its resources as important for their ability and room for manoeuvre to work with students' movement behaviours.

Whereas traditional models of psychological assessment have emphasized the use of standardized data to inform treatment or communicate about a client, collaborative/therapeutic approaches have focused on engaging clients in a relationship based on mutuality and alliance, wherein the assessment process is experienced as accessible and beneficial – potentially acting as a therapeutic intervention in and of itself (Finn, 2007; Finn & Tonsager, 1997). Although various forms of collaborative assessment have been practiced with adults, adolescents, and children, and have shown promise clinically, research is scant regarding the efficacy of this approach in the school context. The dearth of research evaluating the use of collaborative/therapeutic assessment models in schools is a valuable area of inquiry, both because psychological assessment is practiced frequently in schools, and because, beginning in 1997, amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) called for increased student involvement in special education processes (Texas Education Agency, Office of Special Education, 2004). Such increased student involvement could be facilitated through the use of collaborative/therapeutic assessment methods in schools. The present study used a multiple baseline, single-case design to explore how participation in a school-based psychological assessment utilizing elements of collaborative/therapeutic assessment would affect six Central Texas high school students. The assessment was hypothesized to be an intervention that would positively affect the youths’ perceptions of their self-determination, self-efficacy, and internal locus of control. The study also explored how the intervention affected students’ self knowledge, and feelings of therapeutic alliance with the assessor, as well as their satisfaction with the assessment. Results indicated that, following their participation in the assessment intervention, students evidenced: (1) shifts towards a more internal locus of control, (2) increased ratings of therapeutic alliance, (3) increased ratings of self knowledge, and (4) satisfaction with the assessment intervention. This study offers a promising framework for the use of collaborative/therapeutic assessment methods within the school context as a means through which to empower students receiving special education services. / text

Childhood is a critical time point in determining adult health. Healthy habits that are formed during childhood can not only prevent medical conditions and illnesses in adulthood, but also allow a child to learn, grow, and become a healthy adult. The importance of healthy childhood habits has been discussed in U.S. Health Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy People 2020 initiative and numerous scientific studies regarding the importance of promoting child health and physical activity at an early age to ensure that these habits continue into adulthood. The purpose of this retrospective, qualitative study is to analyze the effectiveness of CYCLE Kids, a school-based bicycling and nutrition curriculum, in promoting physical activity and healthy behaviors in children. The CYCLE Kids program is implemented as eight physical education classes for students in the fourth and fifth grade. It was evaluated using self-reported pre- and post- curriculum assessments to determine if students showed measurable behavioral changes or knowledge gains. The assessments also contained open-ended questions to further understand the students' point of view on what they were learning and what they enjoyed most. For the evaluation, the assessment questions were divided into bicycle skills and safety, bicycling frequency and physical activity, and nutrition and physical fitness. The study sample included 1,575 children ages 8-12 years (mean 10.2 years) from public schools in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. The demographics of the students were 30% Caucasian, 16% Latino, 19% African American, 10% Asian, and 2% American Indian or Alaskan Native. Teachers and police officers involved in the implementation of the CYCLE Kids program were also surveyed to ascertain perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum, and to discern the perceived benefits of participating in the program. A total of 15 teachers responded to the survey (60%) from partner schools in eight states across the United States where the CYCLE Kids curriculum is being taught. Results from the student assessments indicate that students showed the most knowledge gain in bicycle and safety skills, with a 39% increase in the proportion of students who reported knowing how to use hand signals when riding a bicycle by program completion. This trend remained prominent in students' post-assessment open-ended responses where bicycle skills and safety made up more than three-quarters (78%) of the responses to the two most important things learned in the program. Bicycling frequency and physical activity showed moderate increases; an increase by 4% (from 76% at baseline to 80% after the unit) in the proportion of students who own a bicycle at home, an increase by 7% (from 39% to 46%) in the proportion of student who rode their bikes weekly, and an increase by 10% increase (from 68% to 78%) in the proportion of students who were exercising and playing sports more often. In the nutrition and physical fitness category, children showed only minor improvement with the greatest gains in this category for knowing how to take their heart rate and wanting to learn more about healthy eating. Teachers perceived that the CYCLE Kids program increased a student's self-confidence, helped students overcome fears, and got students excited about riding a bicycle. Additionally, all but one teacher who participated in the survey reported perceived behavioral changes in their students. Teachers also noted several implementation obstacles to the curriculum delivery including not having enough classroom time to fully teach the lessons, the difficulty of doing textbook lessons in the gymnasium, and the logistics of moving the bicycles from storage to riding areas. Overall, the student and teacher feedback indicated that the CYCLE Kids program increases bicycle knowledge and safety skills in addition to increasing self-confidence of participants. Teaching children to safely and properly ride a bike develops a life skill that they can carry far into the future. However, it is unclear if participation in the CYCLE Kids program prompts students to be more physically active. A long-term study analyzing students' behaviors and physical activity levels several years after program participating in the program is warranted. Ongoing work will revise several of the CYCLE Kids curriculum components and address implementation logistics uncovered by this evaluation.

It is important to understand the significant factors that predict parent satisfaction of school based mental health services. These factors are vital as they can decrease attrition rates regarding treatment and can improve the overall quality of services in school based settings. The purpose of this study is to examine the predictors of parent satisfaction by utilizing secondary data acquired from the Ontario-Montclair School District. The measurement instrument utilized was a 10 question survey that included 8 Likert-style questions and one free response question. This study utilized an independent samples t-test which found that school type and language had no significant impact on overall parent satisfaction. This study also utilized a Pearson r correlation coefficient and found that length of sessions, number of sessions, information given, contact with counselor, behavioral outcome and timeliness all have significant positive relationships with overall satisfaction. Lastly, a multiple linear regression was utilized and found that the three strongest predictors of overall satisfaction were behavioral outcome, timeliness of services and information given. Findings from the study can provide social work practitioners with information on how to improve their service delivery in a school setting. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.

The significance of this research study is to identify if an adolescences family structure impacts their developmental behaviors. The research design for this study was a quantitative design. The data analysis includes the independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV). For this study the IV was family structure and the DV in this study was delinquent behaviors. The findings suggest that during the pre-assessment tool researchers found there was no significance between family structure and delinquent behaviors. However, during the post assessment researchers found that there was significance between family structure and delinquent behavior. Although this study did not find significance during the pre-assessment, there were significant findings in the post-assessment that demonstrated that social workers should continue to consider family dynamics when assessing adolescents’ developmental behaviors.

Current data reports approximately 46% of children ages 13-18 are affected by a mental health issue. Of those, 21% will experience a serious mental health disorder throughout their life. Due to the high percentage of school aged children that are affected by mental health disorders, school based mental health services have grown in popularity. Despite the positive attributes associated with providing mental health treatment in a school setting, various factors including race and levels of parental engagement have been identified as barriers to successful implementation. This study sought to identify the effects of parental engagement on the treatment, academic, and behavioral outcomes of Latino students receiving school based mental health services. Furthermore, the study utilized a quantitative approach by reviewing available archival and survey data. Findings were analyzed and themes were drawn for the purpose of identifying additional areas of research and ultimately improving the delivery of services.

Adolescents with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience impairment in academic functioning in the school and home environment. Because of this, many school- and clinic-based interventions have been developed to target these problems. Initially, clinic-based interventions were mainly used; however, these interventions were associated with many barriers to care, such as lack of transportation, financial resources, and time. Therefore, school-based interventions were developed to address these barriers. However, there has been minimal research evaluating the role of social determinants of health on the efficacy of school-based interventions. In a sample of 222 adolescents with ADHD randomly assigned to receive either a skills-based treatment or contingency management-based treatment, the present study explored the overall and differential impact of social determinants of health, namely income, maternal education, single parent status, and race, on intervention efficacy. Findings revealed a main effect of single parent status, race, and income on school grades and parent and teacher ratings of academic functioning, but no differential effects of these social determinants of health. Further, this study found that social determinants of health matter for school-based interventions and should be acknowledged as integral parts of improving and maintaining the quality of treatment for adolescents with ADHD.

This study focused on the relationship between school-based management, student outcomes and school performance. Its purpose was to identify the conditions that exist in self-managed schools which facilitate improved student outcomes and school performance. In particular, the study investigated three questions: 1. what are the enabling conditions in schools employing school-based management which school staff and parents consider influential in the achievement of improved student outcomes? 2. what explanations do these people give for how these conditions are applied within their schools to achieve success? 3. what judgents do school staff and parents make about the relationship between school-based management, student outcomes and overall school performance? The dissertation commences by describing major challenges and issues facing education over the next decade and by discussing how international and Australian systems of education are responding to these challenges through the implementation of various models of school-based management A review of international literature covering the last fifteen years is then presented to show that the promises and potentials of school-based management espoused by educational authorities have not necessarily led to an automatic improvement in student outcomes and school performance. Various conditions that may enable a school to implement school-based management effectively are suggested.. These conditions, derived from the literature review, are used as the initial prompts to undertake research in fOur Queensland primary schools Qualitative methodologies are used to gather data related to the three questions of the study in these four schools. The data obtained from the fouw case studies are then presented and discussed. The research findings suggest that the relationship between school-based management, student outcomes and school performance are dependent on the existence of severa1 conditions within school-based managed schools. These involve: 1. a comprehensive understanding of the powers available within a school-based management regime; 2. a school's organisational readiness to take on school-based management responsibilities and authonties; 3. the existence of six bases and their enabling conditions: i. an Ideology Base; ii a Relationship Base; iii. a Performance Base; iv. a Pedagogy Base; v. a Management Base; vi. a Governance Base. 4. the capacity of the school to implement school-based management in terms of contextual issues such as the size of the school, workfbrce experience and competency, geographical location and complexity of the campus; 5. the requirement of the controlling authority to delegate key powers and resources such as staffing, facilities management and total school budgeting; 6. a school-based process to manage change and school improvement. It is argued that these conditions maximise the ability of those involved in school-based management to influence improvements in student outcomes and school performance. The dissertation concludes by suggesting five major implications of the study and at least three areas of possible filture research The five major implications are: 1. the development of clear understandings of the scope of the authorities and responsibilities available to school-based managed schools in Queensland; 2. the need to develop methodology to evaluate and identify school organisational readiness to take on school-based management; 3. the development and implementation of a process that will enhance school effectiveness; 4. the development and implementation of a process that can enhance the quality of governance within Education Queensland schools; 5. the development of differentiated school-based management options that broaden the decentralised authorities to schools in consideration of their organisational readiness and capacity to implement school-based management. There are at least three areas of possible future research. The first of these areas involves research to investigate the conditions that exist within schools (to which Education Queensland has assigned the most advanced devolution of authority) that are not successful in improving student outcomes and school performance.. The second area of further research involves an evaluation of the effect that the current school council governance model has on the improvement of student outcomes and school performance.. The third area of future research involves the investigation of the possibilities of enhancing existing school-based management responsibilities and authorities in Education Queensland schools. In summary, this study suggests that school-based management has been used by educational authorities in Australia and overseas as a possible means to improve student outcomes and school performance. The fmdings suggest that for school-based management to achieve what it was set out to achieve, schools need to work an a number of enabling conditions. The most important of these include: an understanding of the school's core purpos~, a school-wide commitment to high teaching expectations, an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of staff, a principal who has a strong commitment to students, a principal who has high hopes, aspirations and expectations for the school, a strong fOcus on literacy, especially reading, effective behaviour management programmes, systems that identify and target student's needs, highly professional staff and school staffing that responds to the complexity of the school. These fmdings are consistent with the argument that there is no automatic causal link between the implementation of school-based management and improved student outcomes and school performance.. It is only when particular enabling conditions exist or are developing within a school, that effective school-based management can take root and support a range of school-based initiatives focused on the improvement of student and school performance When this is the case, school-based management may influence a school's ability to improve student outcomes and school performance.

The review of the literature, which constitutes the first two chapters of the study, traces the movement towards the development of an autonomous ACT education system and the development within that movement of a philosophy of devolution of decision-making to individual schools within the larger ACT system. In particular the Currie, Neal-Radford, Campbell and Hughes Reports have been drawn upon rather extensively to illustrate, not only the arguments being put forward for the adoption of a philosophy of school-based curriculum development, but also the rather strong proposals for extensive systemic support services for schools, especially in the early years of the new system. The second part of the literature survey discusses the possible problems associated with the implementation of school-based curriculum development. These problems are mostly associated with five interrelated elements within curriculum development; manpower, activity, materials, finance and time. Finally the literature review discusses feelings of discontent with school-based curriculum development that have surfaced at various parts of the system in recent times. Ensuing chapters of the study describe the survey and discuss the findings. The survey, which involved the completion of a questionnaire consisting of four parts, was designed to provide information regarding the extent to which the philosophies of school-based curriculum development have been adopted, the effectiveness of school and systemic support, the extent to which teachers have coped with associated problems and to identify areas of need within the ACT education system with regard to school-based curriculum development. The concluding section discusses the implications of these findings and suggests a number of areas of need within the primary sector of the ACT Educational System that will have to be satisfied if it is not to suffer by comparison with Australian state primary education systems in the future. Possible areas for future research were then suggested and the future of school-based curriculum development in ACT primary schools was discussed.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.