The environmental impact of nutrition transition in three case study countries

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An Evaluation of the Impact of Reading Adventure Packs on a Six, Seven and Eight Year Old Child\u27s Attitude Towards Literacy

This study examined a School-Home partnership literacy improvement program, the Reading Adventure Pack (RAP), that aims to support the child\u27s involvement in and attitude to reading, and involve the members of the family in the child\u27s reading by supplying literacy material. The RAP is based on a theme, containing about five books and a variety of related activities, which promote the skills of literacy, similar to the \u27Home Literacy Bags\u27 developed by Barbour (1999). In particular the study explored the effectiveness of the RAP with students from Years K/Prep to 3 in New South Wales and Victoria. The study involved a pre-RAP child and carer questionnaire followed by the child\u27s RAP experience and then a post-RAP child and carer questionnaire. The children borrowed the resource packs to take home on a weekly rotational basis. This continued until the children had experience with all of the sixteen different RAP packs. When RAP was returned the children shared their writing in the response journal with their peers. The child was asked the same fourteen questions on the pre-RAP and post-RAP questionnaire with an extra eight questions specific to the RAP experience included in the post-RAP questionnaire. The questionnaires revealed that the home environment, in the majority of oases, was extremely limited in terms of appropriate reading resources for children of this age, that the mother was the carer most involved in literacy development of the younger child in the home and the father was more likely to be somewhat involved with the older child in the home. The carers reported that they enjoyed working with RAP, and indicated that RAP, from their perspective, had a positive effect on their child\u27s attitude to reading. The children\u27s questionnaires revealed positive attitudes towards the RAP and that the RAP experience had increased the child\u27s willingness to explore different literacy genres and had increased their involvement in and attitude to reading. It was noticed, however, that the impact of the RAP experience was not consistent across the age groupings or between the male and female students. The RAP experience had the greatest impact on the seven and eight year old female and eight year old male children

Criminal justice responses to drug related crime in Scotland

This article examines contemporary developments in criminal justice responses to drug related crime. Drawing on evaluations of initiatives which have been introduced in Scotland along with published statistical data, it considers the expansion of drug treatment through the criminal justice system and the implications this has for increasing access to services. Importantly, it considers the potential consequences of implementing 'treatment' requirements, underpinned by potential sanctions for non-compliance, at different stages of the criminal justice process. It is argued that the introduction of interventions at different points in the criminal justice process may have increased access to treatment services, though the extent of engagement with services is called into question, especially where treatment is voluntary or less obviously 'coerced'. Moreover, there is evidence that extending treatment through the criminal justice system may have had the effect of drawing some individuals further into the criminal justice process than would previously have been the case, despite limited evidence of the effectiveness of many such interventions on drug use, associated offending and wider aspects of individuals’ lives

Making Space for Difference: The CARPP Approach to Action Research

"At the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice (CARPP), action research is embodied in a distinctive way that is eclectic and varied yet thematically coherent and values-based. This paper offers an articulation of this approach, using an experimental presentational form that combines descriptive storied form with analytical exploration. This exploration describes CARPP Action Research as the creation of ‘different spaces’ in which the action researcher/facilitator seeks to create qualities of boundedness, safety and validity, working with participants through cycles of action and reflection. Practices to engender such qualities are described and it is proposed that these offer an ‘emancipatory potential’ that, when realised, enables participants to take action outwards to the social and institutional settings of which they are a part. Two illustrative stories of practice are given, one describing how an MSc student in CARPP established an inquiry group, the other describing an action research programme with managers. The stories show how some of the qualities and values of the Centre are enacted through detailed practice that is sensitive to context. Links to critical theory are offered, and some questions as to the enduring consequences of such practice are considered." (author's abstract

Reading Adventure Packs: A Pilot Program Promoting Family Involvement in Children\u27s Literacy Attitudinal Development

This pilot study explored the effectiveness of the Reading Adventure Pack (RAP) with students from classes K to 3. The RAP contained books and a variety of activities that promote the skills of literacy. It involved a pre-RAP and post-RAP student and carer questionnaire. The children’s questionnaires revealed positive attitudes towards the RAP while the carer’s reports were ambivalent. The study found that the mother was the carer most involved in the literacy development of the children in the home