title: Appreciating Learning: Children using Appreciative Inquiry as an approach to helping them to understand their learning

authors: Davies, Angelena

subjects: Appreciative Inquiry

abstract: Understanding one’s own learning (or meta-learning) is a topic of increasing interest in education in the 21st century. Children, who know how they learn, know themselves as learners. This is an important part of becoming a life-long learner in a world where the fast-pace of change creates the illusion that the future is one of greater unknown. Initiatives to help children to ‘learn how they learn’ often teach meta-cognition skills is isolation from the learning process; a strategy for learning that has been found to be ineffective. For children to come to see their role in their own learning, they need to learn about themselves and the unique strengths that they bring to their learning experiences. This is particularly so for children who struggle at school or those who do not believe they have the potential to learn.

This qualitative research examines Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a strengths-based approach to helping children understand their learning. Four 10-year-old children (in year 6) and I engaged together in action research to design and implement an AI intervention, and then evaluate its effectiveness as an approach to learn about their learning. Social constructivist theory is used to understand the children’s shifts in understandings and perceptions, prior to and following the AI intervention. Three key areas provided the conceptual framework for the thesis: social constructivist learning, meta-learning and AI.

The research project delivered new findings in several areas. The first main area of findings show that the children experienced significant shifts in their understandings of learning and perceptions of themselves as learners. The formal school context had a powerful influence on their understandings of learning and through the AI they came to view learning as taking place in a much wider context. The formal school context also influenced how they saw themselves as learners and some children believed they that, due to their low grades, they were ‘no good’ at learning. Participation in the AI process helped them to identify their strengths as learners and appreciate how their uniqueness actually benefits their learning. 

The second main area of findings identified four key factors that are pertinent to the children’s participation in AI: collaborative dialogue, agency in learning, experiential learning and children focus on their strengths as learners. Using AI with children is not as straightforward as using this with adults and, as such, requires that changes be made to the model, the aim being to shift its orientation from being one of a progressive approach to an experiential approach.

A key objective of this research was not to impose a learning theory on the children’s experience of learning, instead, through AI theory, the process allowed the children to discover their own learning theories for how they might use their strengths in their future learning. In this way, AI as an approach to meta-learning, was empowering because it worked from the ground up and from the inside out. Additionally, the ‘action’ aspect of the research provided a space for the children to actively make changes in their learning.

Children’s perspectives were sought in order that the children themselves could inform the formulation of my research questions. This approach not only respects the children’s capacity to contribute to research, but it provides authentic insights into the experiences of those who are directly influenced by the AI intervention; the children themselves. The children’s perspectives warrant special attention with respect to how they might best condition the design of the methodological approach used in this research to help them come to know their learning and themselves as learners.

text: Appreciating Learning: Children using Appreciative Inquiry as an approach to helping them to understand their learning Understanding one’s own learning (or meta-learning) is a topic of increasing interest in education in the 21st century. Children, who know how they learn, know themselves as learners. This is an important part of becoming a life-long learner in a world where the fast-pace of change creates the illusion that the future is one of greater unknown. Initiatives to help children to ‘learn how they learn’ often teach meta-cognition skills is isolation from the learning process; a strategy for learning that has been found to be ineffective. For children to come to see their role in their own learning, they need to learn about themselves and the unique strengths that they bring to their learning experiences. This is particularly so for children who struggle at school or those who do not believe they have the potential to learn.

This qualitative research examines Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a strengths-based approach to helping children understand their learning. Four 10-year-old children (in year 6) and I engaged together in action research to design and implement an AI intervention, and then evaluate its effectiveness as an approach to learn about their learning. Social constructivist theory is used to understand the children’s shifts in understandings and perceptions, prior to and following the AI intervention. Three key areas provided the conceptual framework for the thesis: social constructivist learning, meta-learning and AI.

The research project delivered new findings in several areas. The first main area of findings show that the children experienced significant shifts in their understandings of learning and perceptions of themselves as learners. The formal school context had a powerful influence on their understandings of learning and through the AI they came to view learning as taking place in a much wider context. The formal school context also influenced how they saw themselves as learners and some children believed they that, due to their low grades, they were ‘no good’ at learning. Participation in the AI process helped them to identify their strengths as learners and appreciate how their uniqueness actually benefits their learning. 

The second main area of findings identified four key factors that are pertinent to the children’s participation in AI: collaborative dialogue, agency in learning, experiential learning and children focus on their strengths as learners. Using AI with children is not as straightforward as using this with adults and, as such, requires that changes be made to the model, the aim being to shift its orientation from being one of a progressive approach to an experiential approach.

A key objective of this research was not to impose a learning theory on the children’s experience of learning, instead, through AI theory, the process allowed the children to discover their own learning theories for how they might use their strengths in their future learning. In this way, AI as an approach to meta-learning, was empowering because it worked from the ground up and from the inside out. Additionally, the ‘action’ aspect of the research provided a space for the children to actively make changes in their learning.

Children’s perspectives were sought in order that the children themselves could inform the formulation of my research questions. This approach not only respects the children’s capacity to contribute to research, but it provides authentic insights into the experiences of those who are directly influenced by the AI intervention; the children themselves. The children’s perspectives warrant special attention with respect to how they might best condition the design of the methodological approach used in this research to help them come to know their learning and themselves as learners.

year: 2013

title: Barriers, Attitudes, and Influences Towards Dietary Intake Amongst Elite Rugby Union Players

authors: Sharples, A. M.

abstract: Background:
Dietary intakes can impact an athletes health and performance. Although evidence exists about what an athlete should eat, an athlete's nutritional intake is influenced by many factors. The limited research available suggests the main barriers preventing optimal nutritional intakes reported by athletes are lack of time, food accessibility, poor cooking skills, costs, taste, and time spent in “off-season.” Although these factors have been shown to influence dietary intake they remain relatively unexplored in Rugby Union. This study aimed to describe the nutritional influences on dietary intake amongst Rugby Union player's.
Methods:
This was a qualitative study utilising in person individual interviews with all participants. Participants were Rugby Union players (n = 30) for either a Super Rugby franchise or one of their development squads in New Zealand. Participant's undertook recorded face to face interviews, which were later transcribed. A thematic approach was used to code the transcripts by the primary coder and the themes were subsequently evaluated by the research team. 
Results: 
Childhood upbringing, organisational skills, time and food security also emerged as barriers. Body composition and sport nutrition knowledge emerged as both barriers and enablers to nutritional intake. Influence on performance was an enabler to optimal dietary intake. Fully professional rugby players have access to dietitians, whereas development and semi-professional rugby players only have limited if any access, and they were more likely to seek nutritional information via social media.
Conclusion:
This study suggests a need for greater nutrition education at developmental levels with an emphasis on affordable food choices, meal planning and skills for interpreting online nutrition information.

text: Barriers, Attitudes, and Influences Towards Dietary Intake Amongst Elite Rugby Union Players Background:
Dietary intakes can impact an athletes health and performance. Although evidence exists about what an athlete should eat, an athlete's nutritional intake is influenced by many factors. The limited research available suggests the main barriers preventing optimal nutritional intakes reported by athletes are lack of time, food accessibility, poor cooking skills, costs, taste, and time spent in “off-season.” Although these factors have been shown to influence dietary intake they remain relatively unexplored in Rugby Union. This study aimed to describe the nutritional influences on dietary intake amongst Rugby Union player's.
Methods:
This was a qualitative study utilising in person individual interviews with all participants. Participants were Rugby Union players (n = 30) for either a Super Rugby franchise or one of their development squads in New Zealand. Participant's undertook recorded face to face interviews, which were later transcribed. A thematic approach was used to code the transcripts by the primary coder and the themes were subsequently evaluated by the research team. 
Results: 
Childhood upbringing, organisational skills, time and food security also emerged as barriers. Body composition and sport nutrition knowledge emerged as both barriers and enablers to nutritional intake. Influence on performance was an enabler to optimal dietary intake. Fully professional rugby players have access to dietitians, whereas development and semi-professional rugby players only have limited if any access, and they were more likely to seek nutritional information via social media.
Conclusion:
This study suggests a need for greater nutrition education at developmental levels with an emphasis on affordable food choices, meal planning and skills for interpreting online nutrition information.

year: 2021-12

title: Stop playing up! A critical ethnography of health, physical education and (sub)urban schooling

authors: Fitzpatrick, Katie

subjects: Health

abstract: This thesis explores the place of health and physical education in the lives of Otara youth in New Zealand. Situated in the southern suburbs of New Zealand’s largest city, Otara, South Auckland is known for its cultural diversity, as well as for poverty and crime. It is home to large numbers of indigenous Maori and migrant Pasifika (Pacific Island) youth. Based on a year-long critical ethnography of a multiethnic high school, this thesis explores how these young people engage with and respond to the school subjects of health and physical education. It also discusses broader issues in their lives, including the social geographies within which they reside, and how they understand their bodies, sexuality, health, gender and physicalities. The subjects of health and physical education are compulsory in most schools internationally – in New Zealand they are directly linked in curriculum policy documents and in school practice – but share a somewhat uneasy relationship and differing historical positions. Considered low status in schools, these subjects are also conflated with narrow body and health norms, possibly problematic for young women, and/or are wedded to the social and cultural world of sport. Curriculum policy documents established in the last ten years offer the possibility of critical and social approaches to these subjects, but examples of critical practice remain rare. Health and physical education are thus compulsory, contentious, contradictory and complex subjects within contemporary schooling. Critical ethnographies of schooling are relatively scarce compared with conventional ethnographic accounts, but critical ethnographies of health and physical education (PE) are almost unheard of. The use of such a methodology in this study enabled an indepth account of Otara youth in the subjects of health and PE at school. It also provided a platform for storied accounts of how one teacher, Dan, enacted a critical and culturally connected pedagogy of health and PE with the young people in his classes. This thesis explores the complex potential for health and PE as key sites of learning for Pasifika and Maori youth. It examines health and PE as subjects that are both politically fraught and spaces of hope.

text: Stop playing up! A critical ethnography of health, physical education and (sub)urban schooling This thesis explores the place of health and physical education in the lives of Otara youth in New Zealand. Situated in the southern suburbs of New Zealand’s largest city, Otara, South Auckland is known for its cultural diversity, as well as for poverty and crime. It is home to large numbers of indigenous Maori and migrant Pasifika (Pacific Island) youth. Based on a year-long critical ethnography of a multiethnic high school, this thesis explores how these young people engage with and respond to the school subjects of health and physical education. It also discusses broader issues in their lives, including the social geographies within which they reside, and how they understand their bodies, sexuality, health, gender and physicalities. The subjects of health and physical education are compulsory in most schools internationally – in New Zealand they are directly linked in curriculum policy documents and in school practice – but share a somewhat uneasy relationship and differing historical positions. Considered low status in schools, these subjects are also conflated with narrow body and health norms, possibly problematic for young women, and/or are wedded to the social and cultural world of sport. Curriculum policy documents established in the last ten years offer the possibility of critical and social approaches to these subjects, but examples of critical practice remain rare. Health and physical education are thus compulsory, contentious, contradictory and complex subjects within contemporary schooling. Critical ethnographies of schooling are relatively scarce compared with conventional ethnographic accounts, but critical ethnographies of health and physical education (PE) are almost unheard of. The use of such a methodology in this study enabled an indepth account of Otara youth in the subjects of health and PE at school. It also provided a platform for storied accounts of how one teacher, Dan, enacted a critical and culturally connected pedagogy of health and PE with the young people in his classes. This thesis explores the complex potential for health and PE as key sites of learning for Pasifika and Maori youth. It examines health and PE as subjects that are both politically fraught and spaces of hope.

year: 2010