茄子视频

by Katherine Lewis

Improving Physical Education for Overweight Children

It鈥檚 not a war zone, but middle school can leave its own traumas. Some overweight children teased in gym class were affected emotionally, while others weren鈥檛, according to research by a team including Paul Rukavina, Ph.D., an assistant professor of health studies, physical education and human performance science.

The teacher鈥檚 awareness and strategies for including overweight children seemed to be a key factor, and affected their ability to participate and become more physically fit. 鈥淭hat logically led to this project where we asked, 鈥楬ow do really good teachers create physical education programs where overweight students feel included physically, socially and motivation wise?鈥欌�� Dr. Rukavina explains.

The study found that effective teachers kept all听students busy at the same time, so they wouldn鈥檛 be watching each other perform. They also had appropriately sized equipment and activity choices for different levels of skill and fitness.

鈥淲e call it differential instruction that the teacher听can do to get that overweight student to be involved,鈥� he says. 鈥淭eachers have all these individual strategies where they work one-on-one with the听students.鈥�

Along with colleagues Sarah Doolittle, Ed.D.,听补苍诲 Angela Beale, Ph.D., Dr. Rukavina went on听a cultural exchange to China last year, sharing听physical education methodologies and research.听He presented research on how teachers鈥� beliefs听and goals about overweight students affected their听choice of inclusion strategies and how they nudged听overweight students toward program goals.听

The next step in the research is to investigate听teachers鈥� beliefs and attitudes about overweight听students on a deeper level, in a multi-university听study of 300 teachers-in-training and 300 physical education teachers in service. 鈥淲hat we want听to see is the correlation among anti-fat attitudes听toward overweight people, body image, cultural听diversity and motivational disposition,鈥� he says.

Ultimately the goal is to improve training for听physical education teachers, many of whom don鈥檛听intuitively understand the perspective of an overweight child who may hate sports.听

鈥淲e want to do interventions for teachers so听they know how to set up environments to teach听people how to live healthy, active lifestyles,鈥� Dr.听Rukavina says. 鈥淎 lot of people come from high听athletic backgrounds so they don鈥檛 really understand diversity. They鈥檙e not conscious that not everybody likes basketball.鈥�

Hearing Loss in Adolescents

One growing health concernis the increasing evidence of hearing loss, largely linked to our obsession with iPods, portable video games and ear buds. Professor Yula Serpanos, Ph.D., found that high-frequency hearing loss doubled between 1995 and 2008 in a population of adolescent girls who are being screened when entering a foster care facility, which she detailed in a paper published by the Journal of Adolescent Health last year. Four times as many girls in 2008 listened to personal listening devices on a regular basis, compared with just seven years earlier.

鈥淗earing loss is increasing in general in pediatric and adolescent populations,鈥� Dr. Serpanos says. 鈥淗earing loss as a result of excessive noise is one of the most preventable health issues.鈥漈he study found hearing loss in both ears, rather than just one. Moreover, there was a greater extent of hearing loss than in the general adolescent population. 鈥淭his is a vulnerable population in that they were [of ] primarily low socioeconomic status,鈥� she notes.

People don鈥檛 realize the danger of hearing loss from personal listening devices, which is permanent and irreversible. 鈥淒on鈥檛 stop using the devices, but use the devices with caution and in very careful dosages,鈥� Dr. Serpanos recommends. 鈥淭he general thought is for no longer than about an hour a day, and no greater than half volume on the device.鈥�

In another study, she鈥檚 comparing the reaction time of individuals wearing single and double cochlear implants, which are surgically implanted devices that allow hearing-impaired individuals to hear and understand speech. They鈥檒l be testing reaction time in research subjects by asking them to react to a panel of lights turning on and off, at the same time they must respond to speech. They鈥檒l test reaction time first when the subjects have two implants turned on and then with just one active.

鈥淭he theory is that their reaction time is going to be longer when they鈥檙e listening with the single device versus listening with both devices,鈥� Dr. Serpanos says, noting that there is limited research to support the implantation of cochlear devices in both ears, versus a single ear. 鈥淭his will add to the research pool.鈥�

Decoding Trauma Recovery

Families of 9/11 victims. Rape survivors. Traumatized children. Israeli soldiers. All have been studied by Kate Szymanski, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology. The common thread is Dr. Szymanski鈥檚 quest to understand why some people grow in the aftermath of trauma, while others never recover.

鈥淚鈥檓 interested in understanding resilience and growth from trauma so we can really utilize what we鈥檝e found in our research to help people who are traumatized discover a more adaptive way of dealing with trauma,鈥� she says. 鈥淭rauma can either break a person and you are permanently broken, or you can try to regroup and integrate it鈥�It changes [you] forever, but it opens you up for other ways of thinking.鈥�

The first step is to diagnose trauma, which is trickier than it sounds, so that researchers can then characterize people who experience听post-traumatic听growth. Going beyond the听symptom-oriented听 medical approach to diagnosing trauma, Dr. Szymanski uses the narratives of trauma victims as a diagnostic tool, finding that they are disorganized, fragmented and lack detail.

Dr. Szymanski analyzed archival interviews with a population of adolescent psychiatric inpatients. She found from the stories they told that they experienced an average of 2.9 traumas, such as sexual abuse, violence, homelessness or loss of a caregiver. Their narratives should help researchers diagnose trauma.

鈥淭here is a qualitative difference in their narratives,鈥� Dr. Szymanski says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very promising finding in that maybe we can use [a narrative] with a detailed family history to assess whether children have experienced trauma.鈥�

Traumatized adolescents find it very helpful to connect with other children in similar circumstances. And Dr. Szymanski鈥檚 research suggests that trauma victims who learn to rely on others and trust again are more likely to experience post-traumatic growth.

Understanding the Causes of Terrorism

Shawn Kaplan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of philosophy, doesn鈥檛 need to travel to the Middle East or Southeast Asia to pursue his research on terrorism. He鈥檚 using philosophical tools and analysis to understand terrorism, in a multi-stage set of papers.

First, he鈥檚 seeking to move away from the purely accusatory language common in the media and legal worlds. While it鈥檚 impossible to come up with a completely neutral definition of terrorism, given the violence involved, Dr. Kaplan鈥檚 definition describes how terrorism functions: indirectly, with an attempt to elicit fear or anxiety regarding human life or security.

Next, he gives a typology of terrorism, breaking it down based on factors like the nature of the targets involved, whether state or non-state actors are engaged in the act and whether the violence is lethal or not.

鈥淭his paves the way for a more meaningful, normative evaluation of terrorism,鈥� he says. 鈥淏y parsing it out and bringing forth the various varieties, we can have a meaningful conversation about various terrorist acts.鈥�

The second stage of his research undertakes a critical outlook on some unwarranted assumptions that are generally held about terrorism. 鈥淚 try to address the common notion that it鈥檚 always indiscriminate, it always targets innocent individuals,鈥� Dr. Kaplan says.

He asks whether terrorism is ever effective for people being oppressed who want to change their situation, and whether terrorists are capable of engaging in meaningful negotiation. 鈥淲e paint with such broad strokes that we miss a lot of nuance,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e might end up prolonging the conflict or prolonging our troubles through that sort of outlook.鈥�

For instance, his case study of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka highlights the success the group has had in moving the government toward the negotiating table. Until recently, the Tamil Tigers carried out a higher rate of suicide bombings than in Palestine.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not easy to answer the question of a just war or whether terrorism is ever warranted,鈥� Dr. Kaplan notes. 鈥淵ou may begin by saying terrorism is moral to prevent genocide, but what about to ensure the political survival of a minority group? Or to protect voting rights?

鈥淎s you start playing out that logic more consistently, you start to see a broader range of justifications,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that philosophers can prevent terrorism. The philosophical approach I鈥檓 taking can help anyone, whether it鈥檚 my students or someone who鈥檚 in some position of making decisions or policy, to gain a critical perspective on how we use this language and what we might actually do to make this more clear and precise and less open to abuse.鈥�