title: Sleep-hygiene education improves sleep indices in elite female athletes.

authors: O'Donnell, Shannon Lea

abstract: The importance of sleep in providing psychophysiological recovery in elite athletes is often overlooked. In other populations (eg shift workers and adolescent students), sleep hygiene education may serve to acutely improve sleep indices. However, this is yet to be examined in an elite athlete setting. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of a sleep hygiene education session on sleep indices in elite athletes. The study involved 26 elite female netball athletes performing one week of baseline sleep monitoring (PRE), followed by a sleep hygiene education session and a further week of sleep monitoring (POST) in a single group, pre- post design. The sleep hygiene education session focused on providing information on the importance of sleep for athletes and practical tips to improve sleep quality and quantity. Sleep monitoring was performed using wrist actigraphy to assess total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE%), total time in bed (TTB), sleep latency (SL), wake episodes per night (WE), sleep onset variance (SOV), wake variance (WV) wake episode duration (WED), sleep onset time (SOT), and wake time (WT). There was a significant improvement in TST (mean ± SD; 22.3 ± 39.9 minutes, p=0.01) PRE to POST sleep hygiene education session, the difference associated with a small effect (ES: 0.39). A significant improvement PRE to POST was found for WV (p=0.03), and for WED (p=0.03). There were no significant differences for SE%, SL, TTB, WE, SOV, SOT, WT. The current study reports that a sleep hygiene education session is effective in improving sleep quantity in elite female athletes in an acute setting.

text: Sleep-hygiene education improves sleep indices in elite female athletes. The importance of sleep in providing psychophysiological recovery in elite athletes is often overlooked. In other populations (eg shift workers and adolescent students), sleep hygiene education may serve to acutely improve sleep indices. However, this is yet to be examined in an elite athlete setting. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of a sleep hygiene education session on sleep indices in elite athletes. The study involved 26 elite female netball athletes performing one week of baseline sleep monitoring (PRE), followed by a sleep hygiene education session and a further week of sleep monitoring (POST) in a single group, pre- post design. The sleep hygiene education session focused on providing information on the importance of sleep for athletes and practical tips to improve sleep quality and quantity. Sleep monitoring was performed using wrist actigraphy to assess total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE%), total time in bed (TTB), sleep latency (SL), wake episodes per night (WE), sleep onset variance (SOV), wake variance (WV) wake episode duration (WED), sleep onset time (SOT), and wake time (WT). There was a significant improvement in TST (mean ± SD; 22.3 ± 39.9 minutes, p=0.01) PRE to POST sleep hygiene education session, the difference associated with a small effect (ES: 0.39). A significant improvement PRE to POST was found for WV (p=0.03), and for WED (p=0.03). There were no significant differences for SE%, SL, TTB, WE, SOV, SOT, WT. The current study reports that a sleep hygiene education session is effective in improving sleep quantity in elite female athletes in an acute setting.

year: 2017

title: Engaging environmental education through PISA: leveraging curriculum as a political process

authors: Eames, Chris W.

abstract: The Organisation for Economic and Cultural Development (OECD) works with countries worldwide to implement testing in the areas of science, mathematics and reading through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) every three years, and this process is recognised to influence education systems through areas such as curriculum. Over the past decade, the OECD increasingly has acknowledged the need to include a greater emphasis on environmental issues, including developing student competencies specifically in this area. For the 2025 PISA round, we were invited as environmental science education experts to contribute to the Science Framework, which underpins the science assessment. This paper explains how we responded to that invitation, including foregrounding the urgent need to understand the competencies of 15 year-olds to address critical socio-ecological challenges such as climate change. We argue that this provides environmental education practitioners and scholars with a powerful opportunity to gain world-scale data for research and advocacy, which could enhance the visibility and leverage for our field in curriculum, whilst also recognising the political process within which we were engaged.

text: Engaging environmental education through PISA: leveraging curriculum as a political process The Organisation for Economic and Cultural Development (OECD) works with countries worldwide to implement testing in the areas of science, mathematics and reading through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) every three years, and this process is recognised to influence education systems through areas such as curriculum. Over the past decade, the OECD increasingly has acknowledged the need to include a greater emphasis on environmental issues, including developing student competencies specifically in this area. For the 2025 PISA round, we were invited as environmental science education experts to contribute to the Science Framework, which underpins the science assessment. This paper explains how we responded to that invitation, including foregrounding the urgent need to understand the competencies of 15 year-olds to address critical socio-ecological challenges such as climate change. We argue that this provides environmental education practitioners and scholars with a powerful opportunity to gain world-scale data for research and advocacy, which could enhance the visibility and leverage for our field in curriculum, whilst also recognising the political process within which we were engaged.

year: 2024

title: A critical analysis of the place of culture in evaluation

authors: Masters-Awatere, Bridgette

abstract: For the past 100 or so years formal evaluation has taken its lead from frameworks that originate from a culturally blind standpoint. Worldwide the major influence on evaluation practice comes from the United States of America. The absence of non-dominant (or indigenous) culturally constructed frameworks has been replicated around the world. Before the formation of the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA), as a New Zealand specific evaluation group, practitioners generally belonged to the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) and joined in the sharing, adoption and adaptation of USAs Program Evaluation Standards. However, the context of evaluation in New Zealand has been somewhat different from the rest of the world, becoming more culturally centered than other countries. The role and place of the Treaty of Waitangi has been acknowledged as an attributing factor (ANZEA, 2011). Four indigenous “By Maori for Maori” health & wellbeing programmes externally evaluated were case studies within my research. I draw upon examples from the cases studies to highlight the vulnerable and contentious position indigenous service providers and indigenous evaluators were in. Adapting Sandra Grande’s (2004) analysis, I critiqued the context of the case study evaluations that commissioners considered as Kaupapa Maori. In this presentation I argue that while stakeholders perceived the work to be an indigenous evaluation, the case studies demonstrate that whitestream evaluation was prevalent.

text: A critical analysis of the place of culture in evaluation For the past 100 or so years formal evaluation has taken its lead from frameworks that originate from a culturally blind standpoint. Worldwide the major influence on evaluation practice comes from the United States of America. The absence of non-dominant (or indigenous) culturally constructed frameworks has been replicated around the world. Before the formation of the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA), as a New Zealand specific evaluation group, practitioners generally belonged to the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) and joined in the sharing, adoption and adaptation of USAs Program Evaluation Standards. However, the context of evaluation in New Zealand has been somewhat different from the rest of the world, becoming more culturally centered than other countries. The role and place of the Treaty of Waitangi has been acknowledged as an attributing factor (ANZEA, 2011). Four indigenous “By Maori for Maori” health & wellbeing programmes externally evaluated were case studies within my research. I draw upon examples from the cases studies to highlight the vulnerable and contentious position indigenous service providers and indigenous evaluators were in. Adapting Sandra Grande’s (2004) analysis, I critiqued the context of the case study evaluations that commissioners considered as Kaupapa Maori. In this presentation I argue that while stakeholders perceived the work to be an indigenous evaluation, the case studies demonstrate that whitestream evaluation was prevalent.

year: 2015