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The aim of this study was to compare bibliometric indicators of scientific productivity in physical activity (PA) in children and adolescents with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome (DS) in the PubMed database. A bibliometric study was conducted for the last 5 years (2017 to 2021). The data collected for each article were: year of publication, language of publication, country, journal name, and type of paper. The results showed that there was higher scientific productivity in the population with DS (20 studies) relative to their counterparts with ASD (31 studies). The language of publication in both cases was English. There were 10 countries that published on PA in ASD and 14 countries that published on DS. Overall, the greatest interest in publishing on PA in children and adolescents with ASD was in North America (6 studies), followed by Asia (5 studies) and Europe (4 studies). In the DS population it was in Europe (13 studies), North America (9 studies) and South America (4 studies). Nineteen journals were identified that published in the ASD population and 29 journals in DS. Six experimental studies were identified in ASD and 7 in DS. There was a higher scientific productivity with original studies. There was a positive trend of increasing scientific productivity over the years in both populations. We suggest the need to promote research on PA in both populations, regardless of the type of study, as it is an indicator of overall health status.

Research involving children and young people has a particular challenge in comparison to research involving adults. Of this particular challenge is related to the issues of ethical considerations and research methods that the researchers have to commit when conducting research. These are two essential research components and integrally linked to one another because they determine the quality and integrity of the research being conducted. These issues require thorough consideration and implemented differently from the research involving adults. Therefore, this paper aimed to discuss the ethical issues and research methods in researching children and critically evaluate these issues from the research practices by taking the cases of the articles in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Three articles were selected for further analysis to identify the ways the authors address these issues in their articles. The findings indicated that the authors mainly reported common ethical principles, such as voluntary participation and anonymity, but did not explicitly outline the ethical procedures specific for their children participation in their papers. There was also no indication that they employed appropriate methods to work with children such as using child-friendly methods encouraging children's participations and giving them space to express opinions and thoughts.

Objective: To assess differences between traditional paper bag ordering and online ordering from primary school canteens in terms of menu, usage and lunch order characteristics.Design: A cross-sectional study.Setting: New South Wales (NSW) primary schools that offered both paper bag and online canteen ordering.Participants: Students (aged 5-12 years) with a lunch order on the day of the observation.Results: Across the six school canteens, 59-90 % of all available items were listed on both the online and paper menus, with no significant differences in the nutritional quality ('Everyday'/'Occasional') or nutritional content (kJ/saturated fat/sugar/sodium) of menu items. In total, 387 student lunch orders were placed, containing 776 menu items. Most orders (68 %) were placed online. There were no significant differences between order modality in the quantity of items ordered or the cost of orders, or the nutritional quality of orders based on the classification system of the NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy ('Everyday'/'Occasional'). However, nutritional analysis revealed that paper bag orders contained 222 fewer kJ than online orders (P = 0·001), 0·65 g less saturated fat (P = 0·04) and 4·7 g less sugar (P < 0·001).Conclusions: Online canteens are commonly used to order canteen lunches for primary school children. This is the first study to investigate differences between traditional paper bag ordering and online ordering in this setting. Given the rapid increase in the use of online ordering systems in schools and other food settings and their potential to deliver public health nutrition interventions, additional research is warranted to further investigate differences in ordering modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the innovative use of the potluck, or "pa'ina," as a metaphor to reimagine a research approach aimed at fostering collective understanding between non-Indigenous knowledge seekers and Indigenous knowledge guardians in Indigenous contexts. By embracing the broader context of research, this metaphor strives to create a dialogical, relational, and ethical space for knowledge seekers to engage with knowledge guardians, promoting a reciprocal and respectful relationship. Central to this metaphor is the recognition of the insider/outsider binary and the need to transcend it. Indigenous knowledge is often guarded and restricted, granted access based on relationships and shared experiences. Understanding the complexity of these socio-spatial relationships is crucial for researchers to navigate respectfully. The metaphor also draws from the Oceanic concept of "va/va/wa," signifying the space between entities and the importance of maintaining harmony and balance within relationships. This relational space between the self and the other allows for transformative encounters and meaningful connections. To navigate this third space, researchers must undergo introspective reflexive exercises to understand their situationality and how it influences their research. Knowledge seekers must unsettle their histories, understand context, listen to the stories of others, create shared understanding, and launch new relationships that are centered on respect and reciprocity. Throughout the research process, the metaphor of "pa'ina" encourages researchers to be active participants, nurturing relationships with communities they seek knowledge from and reflecting upon their role within it. The "pa'ina" metaphor offers a transformative approach for Western academia to critically examine its historical impact on Indigenous communities and embrace a more respectful and inclusive research paradigm. By centering Indigenous voices and building meaningful relationships, this third space provides an opportunity for collaborative and sustainable research for the benefit of all stakeholders involved.

In this paper, I discuss my engagement with a visual journal as a companion to creative research practice during my dissertation research. Grounded in arts based research methodologies; I explore visual journals in relationship to research, reflection and analytic processes. I begin with a discussion of the visual journal as an artifact of qualitative thought, including its epistemological, theoretical, and methodological undercurrents. Next, through a series of visual journal examples, I discuss how this methodological engagement influenced my research trajectory. I close the paper with a discussion of the implications for using a visual journal in research and offer suggestions for how to start your own creative research endeavors.

Research in extension education is a serious and challenging task facing Nigeria today because of new trends that keeps on emerging continuously. This paper seeks to examine some of the common research techniques used in extension education and describe their applicability and workability in helping people to help themselves. Most of the researches in this area are more theoretical than the practical nature of the actual extension practice. The general aim of the paper is to identify the emerging trends and how these trends pose additional challenges to extension research and practice. Two major research approaches, Participatory Action Research in Extension (PARE) and Community Based Research (CBR) were found to be encouraging community members to make good decisions on what they feel is better for their lives. This implies that the methods are very useful, relevant and can considerably increase the community effectiveness with enduring by the researchers' to employ them despite their long-time requirements.

This article provides analysis of research papers by different scholars, dedicated to topical issues of pedagogical creativity development in the educational process. The authors determined that pedagogical creativity could be considered at five levels: information-reproducing, adaptive-prognostic, innovative, research and creative-prognostic. In addition, this study highlights the main features of teachers' creativity and describes the psychological and pedagogical factors that negatively influence creativity development in students of professional-pedagogical specialties. Practical significance of this paper is determined by the fact that the authors offered a pedagogical model describing creative potential development of the personality in the course of research activities.

Achieving practice research competency is an essential pillar of social work practice. However, research material is often associated with dry lectures and incomprehensible statistical applications that may not reflect real life issues. Teaching research course is often antithetical to the pedagogical approach commonly used in social work education, which engages students in practical applications of real life situations with case examples. This paper described and evaluated six sets of experiential class and field activities designed to increase graduate level social work students' competencies of practice research. These activities included: (1) formulating a practice-based research topic; (2) using assessment templates for critical evaluation of published research; (3) learning single-system research design; (4) conducting agency research and evaluation field assessment; (5) designing and executing a practice-focused class study project; and (6) presentation and dissemination of research findings. An online course evaluation was administered with altogether 63 students in 2 Foundation Research and 2 Advanced Research classes to elicit both their qualitative feedback and quantitative ratings of their attainment of research competencies. The instructor's assessment of individual student performance using a grading rubric helped determine their level of attainment of course competences. Findings suggest several critical elements of this pedagogical approach. Students learn about real-world research issues through a case-based learning approach. Both students and the instructor involve in a collaborative learning process. Finally the instructor selects context-specific cases for class discussion and activities so that students see the connection of social work research to day-to-day practice contexts.

Background: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including South Africa, are currently experiencing multiple epidemics: HIV and the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), leading to different patterns of multimorbidity (the occurrence of two or more chronic conditions) than experienced in high income settings. These adversely affect health outcomes, increase patients' perceived burden of treatment, and impact the workload of self-management. This paper outlines the methods used in a qualitative study exploring burden of treatment among people living with HIV/NCD multimorbidity in South Africa. Methods: We undertook a comparative qualitative study to examine the interaction between individuals' treatment burden (self-management workload) and their capacity to take on this workload, using the dual lenses of Burden of Treatment Theory (BoTT) and Cumulative Complexity Model (CuCoM) to aid conceptualisation of the data. We interviewed 30 people with multimorbidity and 16 carers in rural Eastern Cape and urban Cape Town between February-April 2021. Data was analysed through framework analysis. Findings: This paper discusses the methodological procedures considered when conducting qualitative research among people with multimorbidity in low-income settings in South Africa. We highlight the decisions made when developing the research design, recruiting participants, and selecting field-sites. We also explore data analysis processes and reflect on the positionality of the research project and researchers. Conclusion: This paper illustrates the decision-making processes conducting this qualitative research and may be helpful in informing future research aiming to qualitatively investigate treatment burden among patients in LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Knowledge about the brain has been growing rapidly since the 1990s as a result of developments in neuroscientific research linked to improvements in functional neuroimaging and other brain imaging technologies. As the brain is the "principal organ involved in learning" (1), it would seem reasonable to assume that education should be one of the chief beneficiaries of this research, leading to advances in our understanding of how people learn, the development of new curricula and innovative teaching and learning approaches. However, the linkage between neuroscience and education has, historically, always been weak, and, we suggest, continues to be so, notwithstanding important research initiatives since the year 2000. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically explore current theoretical understanding of joint neuroscientific and educational research, herein referred to as "neuroeducational" research. There is a particular focus on a critique of the transdisciplinary model as applied in a study of imitation in learners with autism. Main argument and sources of evidence: The review of the literature in the first half of the paper identifies the key barriers to neuroeducational research, including neuromyths, lack of shared understanding, the problem of the translation of neuroscientific findings to schools and clashing research assumptions, methodologies and traditions. However, a model of transdisciplinarity is presented as a possible way forward. This model is tested in the second half of the paper against the experiences of the authors in conducting transdisciplinary research in autism and imitation in the secondary classroom. Here, we develop the concepts of "transfer affordances", "transfer challenges" and "transfer opportunities" to structure our analysis of the various dimensions of the transdisciplinary research process. These new concepts are defined, and their relevance and utility explained. Conclusions: The main conclusion of the paper is that the transdisciplinary research process within neuroeducation is complex, far from fully understood and requires further mapping. It is proposed that the concepts of "transfer affordances", "transfer challenges" and "transfer opportunities" are useful theoretical ideas in pursuit of this aim.

Research has been valued and given priority over teaching for a long time in academia. In recent decades, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education has pursued objective and quantitative research criteria and has encouraged higher education institutions to ask teachers to publish papers in SSCI or SCI journals as part of the criteria for promotion and evaluation. This policy strengthens the concept that research has priority over teaching because teachers must devote more time to research than to teaching in order to be promoted and evaluated. The purpose of this study is to explore the influences that cause teachers to value research over teaching. To achieve this purpose, document analysis, the analysis of Taiwan Higher Education database and interviews were adapted as methods. First of all, our researchers collected and analyzed the documents for promotion and evaluation of twelve different universities whose areas of specialty included general studies, education, medicine, vocational studies, and the arts. Then, the study used and analyzed the empirical data of teachers' working hours every week for different tasks from the Taiwan Higher Education Database which investigated the working conditions of teachers in higher education in 2004. Additionally, twenty professors who have different areas of study and work in different types of universities were interviewed to collect teachers' opinions of the task priority of research, teaching, and service duties. The results showed that academia in Taiwan exhibits the phenomenon that research is valued over teaching. The reasons are due to the requirements of the reward system. The reward system emphasizes research over teaching and service. Teachers' research achievements are judged based on publishing articles in different types of journals and the amount of research funding they can obtain. The results also showed that every week teachers spend the most time on teaching, then on research, and finally on service. However, teachers emphasize research as the most important task, then teaching, and finally service. Although the majority of teachers think research is the most important duty, there is still twenty percent of teachers who think it is the least important. Although teaching has been thought of as the second most important duty after research, it is the task that the most teachers give as the first priority as far as time spent and none of the interviewees thought it is the least important. Universities and teachers all try to use their professionalism as capital to gain financial support from the government. This situation forces teachers to try to put more time and energy into research, but they still need to maintain teaching and service work quality. Some teachers focus more time and energy on research and ignore the needs of students. Working time endlessly increases even for teachers who out value on both teaching and research. Some suggestions based on the findings have been proposed for Taiwanese higher institutions.

In this article, author John Baldacchino presents twenty reflections on art, doubt, and error. In the first five reflections, he produces a discussion of a number of unmediated narratives that tend to aggregate and span across the plural horizon of arts practice. In terms of the arts "as well as" education, these questions are approached within several scenarios that are set against ever-changing backdrops and which occur within contexts that keep shifting and altering their boundaries. The flip side of this discussion reveals and belongs to the remits of education. This engages the reader with a discussion of education that would seek to distance itself from academia's established approach. And yet, this discussion also claims a rightful place in academia. It is within this apparent contradiction that this essay takes the opportunity to discuss arts research as a "practice-based" method. Herein, Baldacchino touches upon topics such as interstitial discourse in education, arts researchers who seek to legitimize the arts from a social scientific approach, the role of a/r/tography in arts education, the definition of arts research and the risks that it carries, practicism and practice-based research, how making a case for practice brings about persistent forms of "doubt" and incessant search for "error," how art and education relate to each other as antinomic practices, arts practice and "unlearning," "poetic scoping," and art's poetics of practice as an act of "unmaking."

Background: Previous research has found that a "web-push" approach to data collection, which involves contacting people by mail to request an Internet survey response while withholding a paper response option until later in the contact process, consistently achieves lower response rates than a "paper-only" approach, whereby all respondents are contacted and requested to respond by mail.Method: An experiment was designed, as part of the Millennium Cohort Family Study, to compare response rates, sample representativeness, and cost between a web-push and a paper-only approach; each approach comprised 3 stages of mail contacts. The invited sample (n = 4,935) consisted of spouses married to U.S. Service members, who had been serving in the military between 2 and 5 years as of October, 2011.Results: The web-push methodology produced a significantly higher response rate, 32.8% compared to 27.8%. Each of the 3 stages of postal contact significantly contributed to response for both treatments with 87.1% of the web-push responses received over the Internet. The per-respondent cost of the paper-only treatment was almost 40% higher than the web-push treatment group. Analyses revealed no meaningfully significant differences between treatment groups in representation.Conclusion: These results provide evidence that a web-push methodology is more effective and less expensive than a paper-only approach among young military spouses, perhaps due to their heavy reliance on the internet, and we suggest that this approach may be more effective with the general population as they become more uniformly internet savvy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definitions and practical interpretations of the research-teaching nexus are various, but almost invariably the link between teaching and research lies in the direction of transferring research into teaching rather than vice versa. This transfer is achieved by using research to inform teaching and, less frequently, by engaging students in research. Usually these students are final year undergraduates and the research project is purpose-built to develop in students the desired course learning outcomes. This paper reports an alternative realisation of the teaching-research nexus. It presents a case study of teaching that was informed by research and engaged both first year and final year undergraduate students in research, using problem-based learning. Subsequently, the research undertaken by the students as part of their learning process directly informed development of a large, government-funded research project, thus completing an unusual two-way relationship in which research underpinned teaching and learning activity, and teaching and learning activity underpinned research. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

The term "arts-based research" has been debated for some time now. In an article strongly in favor of this approach Bean (2007) identifies three species: "Research on the arts (italics in the original) (art history, visual and cultural studies, media studies etc.)...Research for the arts, refers to research into applied techniques, materials and tools used in the creation of art...Research in the arts, or practice-based research..." (p. 81). In this essay the author proposes to continue the debate on the third species of arts-based research by pointing out that there is a fundamental disjunction between the research that artists do and the research that social scientists do, and that to call both activities "research" does a disservice to both groups of practitioners. The ultimate irony is that although arts-based research is supposed to question the standard scholarly research practice of the academy, it originated in that very same academy. The author supports his claim with reference to the foundational work of Eisner. He suggests that Eisner envisioned and promoted the model of arts-based research not so much as a subversion of scholarly research practice, but as a way of helping fine arts practitioners and educators to achieve legitimacy in the academy.

This paper reviews methodological issues related to the use of P less than 0.05 in health behavior research and suggests how application and presentation of statistical significance may be improved. Assessment of sample size and P less than 0.05, the file drawer problem, the Law of Large Numbers and the statistical significance arguments in epidemiology, health behavior, and psychology were examined. The reporting of confidence intervals (CI), effect sizes (ES), and use of non-statistical graphics can improve portrayal and understanding of findings. Health behavior literature has had some scholarly examination of how to improve analysis of findings but has not had an in-depth dialog on other concepts related to P less than 0.05. Attention to these concepts could improve clarity in how research outcomes are presented and thereby increase credibility of health behavior research. (Contains 1 table.)

The No Child Left Behind Act is comprised of four pillars, one of which is "proven education methods." This paper attempts to provide a historical context for the development of evidence-based education by examining its foundation in medical practice. Next, the rationale for evidence of educational effectiveness based on a scientific "gold standard," the randomized controlled trial (RCT), is explored and the relative limitations of this approach are outlined. Finally, important distinctions between medicine and education are explained.

This essay focuses on a 4th year course, titled "Search/Research/Resolution," that the author has developed at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), Toronto. First taught in 2002, the course is held over a fourteen week semester each fall, with one three hour class per week. It is offered within the photography area at OCAD in recognition of photography's lengthy history as a form of "evidence." The course endeavours to contextualize this role of photography, which leads to a focus on interdisciplinary activity, particularly in relation to artists' utilization of installation formats that often have included photography. In this essay, the author aims to do the following: briefly examine what is meant conventionally by the term "research"; identify the influences that led to the development of the course; examine the relationship of the course to his own artistic practise; highlight aspects of the course content; and, finally, offer some examples of the work that has been produced by students in response to the final assignment of the course. (Contains 11 figures and 10 endnotes.)