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Answer Sheet: Can Charter Schools Be Reformed? Should They Be?

In 2013, I published a post with this headline: “Why charter schools need better oversight.”The author of the piece, Jeff Bryant, wrote:

There are undoubtedly wonderful charter schools in existence, and Americans generally have a favorable opinion of charters, but hardly a week goes by without news of a scandal or a study tarnishing their image. ...

Leading off the charter scandal parade was Pennsylvania where an auditor general found that the state’s largest charter school pocketed $1.2 million “in improper lease-reimbursement payments.” The scheme the school was running has become all too familiar to anyone following the nefariousness of some charter school operators. ...

In Texas, a charter school located in Houston was recently accused of funneling $5.3 million in federal funds to questionable destinations, including ”hotels, cruises and travel packages,” six-figure salaries, and, again, a real estate scheme involving a management company and the charter school.

Five years later, the same remains true: There are some wonderful charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, but the sector is rife with scandal, and critics charge that they are harming traditional public schools, which enroll most of America’s children.

What was once billed as a model for the improvement of traditionally governed public schools has become a troubled parallel system of privately managed schools with, in many places, patterns of waste, fraud and segregation.

In this post, veteran educator and public education advocate Carol Burris looks at the charter sector and asks and answers these questions: Can charter schools be reformed? Should they be?

Burris is a former New York high school principal who now serves as executive director of the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit advocacy group. She was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the National Association of Secondary School Principals named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year. Burris has been chronicling problems with modern school restructuring and school choice for years on this blog. She has previously written about problems with charter schools in California and other states.

[Why it matters who governs America’s public schools]

By Carol Burris

Last month, The Answer Sheet published a piece I co-wrote with education historian Diane Ravitch about school governance, which gave rise to a lively debate in the education community and additional commentary. Much of that conversation centered on the recent report issued by the California-based Learning Policy Institute, which framed public school choice as a rich tapestry of options that include charter schools.

Ravitch and I objected. The inclusion of charter schools — which are publicly funded but privately operated — as though they were the neighborhood school down the block, expands the definition of what it means to be a public school. It blurs the line between public and private governance, making it easier for public schools to be flipped into charter schools.

This “portfolio” model approach, popular with billionaires who advocate the privatization of public schools, views the governance of schools like the management of a stock portfolio — keep those that “profit” (meaning those that produce high test scores), and get rid of “the losers.”

Entrepreneurial governance, freed from most of the regulations and oversight mandated for true public schools, was at the heart of the “charter school experiment.” Thirty years later, we have the results. Charter school students generally do about the same academically as their public school counterparts; in some places, they do better, and in others, they do worse. There is no evidence that charters are more innovative than public schools, with many relying on “no excuses” discipline reminiscent of a late 19th-century school. The original charter idea of a teacher-led school designed to create replicable innovative practices has been lost.

We are therefore left with two very important questions. Can charter schools be seamlessly folded into the public school system while remaining privately governed? Should the charter sector continue to grow through government subsidies, even as demand for new charters has waned? The answer is a resounding “no.” Here are five reasons.

1. Freedom from regulations and oversight through public governance has resulted in persistent and undeniable patterns of waste and fraud.

For the past year, the Network for Public Education, the nonprofit advocacy group of which I am executive director, has been tracking charter school scandals, posting news accounts here. Frankly, we have been shocked by the frequency and seriousness of scandals that are the result of greed, lack of oversight or incompetence. The independent California-based watchdog group, In the Public Interest, estimated alleged and confirmed fraud in California’s charter sector has topped $149 million, a figure it describes as “only the tip of the iceberg.”

Not even Massachusetts, which allegedly has the toughest supervision of the sector in the nation, is free of scandals. When public dollars freely flow without independent oversight, it is all too easy for dollars to find their way into employee pockets and bank accounts, for friends and relatives to get “sweetheart deals” and for school leaders to receive astronomical salaries that would be unheard of in public schools.

Although new regulations may decrease some abuse, private boards are insufficient to provide governance of the billions of taxpayer dollars that flow through the charter sector. Every serious legislative attempt to rein in abuse meets opposition from the charter lobby, which makes strategic donations to legislators to avoid accountability.

2. De facto discrimination is baked into the charter school model.

Nearly every charter school admission begins with an application that sometimes serves as a screen. In its 2016 report on discrimination in admissions by California charter schools, the ACLU of Southern California found 92 schools whose admissions requirements had a discriminatory effect.

Even more insidious are the programmatic features of charter schools that result in de facto discrimination. A recent report by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder connects the dots between privatization and discriminatory programmatic practices. The BASIS charter chain, for example, demands that students take six Advanced Placement exams and pass at least one with a score of 3 or above, to graduate. Students must pass comprehensive tests at every grade level or be left back. When combined with no free or reduced-priced lunch offerings, no free transportation and an expectation that parents will donate $1,500 a year, the population that applies to and is ultimately retained by BASIS is culled. These policies produce high attrition rates and a student body that does not reflect the demographics of the state. In Arizona, nearly half of all students are Latino. At BASIS, that number is about 1 in 10. Asian students represent 3 percent of all Arizona students but make up nearly one-third of the student population of BASIS.

The “no excuses” philosophy and discipline of Success Academy Charters result in extraordinary attrition rates, “got to go” lists and a lawsuit alleging discrimination against students with disabilities. A first-grade class of 72 became a graduating class of only 16 years later.

Finally, while the extreme racial isolation of minority students in urban charters is well documented, new studies show that charter schools are being used to create racially isolated enclaves for white students to avoid the integrated setting of the local public school system. Notably, North Carolina recently passed a charter school law that would accelerate such segregation.

3. Charter schools bleed money from the public school system, which results in either a lesser education for public school students or an extra burden on the taxpayers.

Charters are predominantly funded in one of two ways — by “backpack” funding in which state dollars go with the child when he leaves the public school for a charter school, or district “tuition” funding, which requires the district to pay tuition to the charter based on district per-pupil spending.

Either way, the children in the public school get less. That is because stranded costs remain when the student leaves, and those costs are high. A study by the Pennsylvania nonprofit Research for Action found stranded costs ranged from about $8,000 to $17,000 per pupilduring the first year a student enrolled in a charter school. Five years later, those costs still lingered.

The same drain on public schools exists in states where charter school funding comes primarily from the state. In the Public Interest found that in one year alone, charter schools left $142.5 million in stranded costs in Oakland, San Diego and Santa Clara.

Only one state, Massachusetts, makes a serious effort to cushion the blow of stranded costs. For six years following a student’s enrollment in a charter school, the district still receives some funding for that student. As commendable as that may be, the increase eventually disappears, and the impact on the public school is felt. It also results in a substantial extra burden on the taxpayers of the commonwealth — they are paying more per pupil for the student than they would have had the student remained in the district public school.

4. Charter schools eliminate democracy from school governance, and this lack of voice is most acutely felt by parents in disadvantaged communities.

Charter schools are run by private boards that choose their members. Unlike public school boards, charter school boards are not elected by the public, nor do members need to live in the community or even the state in which the school is located. This results in board members that do not represent the community but rather represent interconnected financial interests.

To take a look at who actually governs charter schools, the Network for Public Education’s Darcie Cimarusti took a look at the members of the board of 14 of the largest charter chains. You can review what she found here.

The most frequently encountered career of the board members of the 14 chains was finance — hedge fund managers and directors of investment capital dominated several of the chains’ boards. KIPP has seven billionaires (or heirs to billions) on its board, either active or emeritus.

The overwhelming majority of charter school board members on the 14 chains are white and very wealthy. Other frequently encountered professions of board members are in real estate, insurance, the energy industry and law. The controversial Rocketship chain (which you can read about here) has two employees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on its board. The Gates Foundation has generously provided funding to technology-based Rocketship ($1,176,000 from 2011-2013).

On the governing board of the charters in the Harmony Public Schools chain in Texas, half of all members are Turkish men. Harmony is part of a group of charters in different states — unofficially known as the Gulen network — that have been under repeated investigation for hiring practices that favor Turkish nationals, abuse of the H-1B visa process, preferences in the award of contracts to related Turkish businesses and kickbacks to the Gulen political movement. Gulen refers to Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania whose followers have opened many charter schools in this country and private schools around the world.

What is crystal clear when you examine the boards of charter chains is that members do not represent the families that their schools serve in lifestyle, wealth and demographics. In a recent article, journalist Jeff Bryant explains how the expansion of charter schools has disenfranchised communities of color, particularly in large cities, and how parent activists are now fighting back. In 2016, the national NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in this country, passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on new charter schools in part after listening to the voices of parents who were unhappy with the treatment of their children in charter schools, yet had no real recourse for complaint within the system.

[NAACP sticks by its call for charter school moratorium, says they are ‘not a substitute’ for traditional public schools]

5. Loose laws around conflict of interest combined with a lack of transparency regarding spending have provided fertile ground for profiteers and grifters.

Imagine starting a business for which you assume no personal financial risk and you receive taxpayer income from every customer who comes through the door. That is a charter school. Not only is there little or no risk, there are ample opportunities to realize profit. In many states, charters are exempt from laws prohibiting conflict of interest and nepotism.

Consequently, charter schools regularly hire relatives as consultants, teachers, contractors and executives. For example, officers of Learn for Life, a California storefront charter school chain, play musical chairs with titles, often receiving compensation from several corporations.

Real estate deals are one of the primary ways that charter operators “cash in.” Take the recent case of Eddie Farnsworth, a member of the state legislature of Arizona.

Farnsworth is the sole owner of a for-profit charter chain, Benjamin Franklin Charter School. Even though the taxpayers paid for the physical campuses, the owner of the property is Farnsworth, who is the sole proprietor of LBE Investments. It owns the chain’s four campuses and leases them to the school. Taxpayers have already paid for the schools twice — once for their construction and then again in lease payments to LBE. Now, Farnsworth is selling the for-profit charter school chain to a nonprofit chain that bears the same name. He will net an estimated $30 million from the sale and probably still run the schools.

According to the Arizona Republic, Farnsworth is not the first to become a multimillionaire from Arizona charter schools. It said:

“A yearlong investigation by The Republic found Primavera online charter school’s CEO paid himself $8.8 million, while producing a 49 percent dropout rate. Basis Charter Schools Inc. has directed $10 million in management fees to a company owned by its founders. American Leadership Academy founder Glenn Way made at least an $18.4 million profit building schools under no-bid contracts with that charter chain.”

In Pennsylvania, one real estate developer used his properties to create a revolving door of failing charter schools to bring in a steady stream of income. In North Carolina, another charter owner, businessman Baker Mitchell, had his school buy nearly all of its supplies from his for-profit company. Even when states make such conflict-of-interest deals illegal, they still occur.

Even though few states allow for-profit charter schools, nearly all others (34) allow the charter management company to operate for profit. Charter management organizations (CMOs) and education management organizations (EMOs) are where much of the profiteering occurs — hidden behind a veil of secrecy. Thirty-eight states have no required transparency provisions regulating the spending and funding by charter schools' educational service providers or charter management organizations, be they for-profit or nonprofit.

The relationship between Imagine Schools, a CMO with 55 schools in eight states and School House Finance, a for-profit LLC, provides an illustrative example. School House Finance, owned by the charter schools’ founder, bought the buildings that housed the charter schools. It then sold them to Entertainment Properties, a real estate investment trust that would lease it back to School House Finance. School House Finance then rented the buildings to Imagine Charter schools, with schools paying up to 40 percent of their income toward the lease.

It is time to acknowledge that what may have begun as a sincere attempt to promote innovation has given rise to fraud, discrimination and the depletion of public school funding. Thirty years of charters have resulted in an increase in profiteering far more than it has resulted in innovation. Democratic governance is disappearing.

The bottom line is this. It is foolish to fund a parallel system of privately managed schools at the expense of the nation’s public schools. By integrating charter schools into district “portfolios,” we will embed all of the problems outlined above into our wider systems of real public schools that remain.

elaine December 19, 2018

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PSY172 Introduction to Psychological Health and Wellbeing

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PSY172 Introduction to Psychological Health and Wellbeing

1 PSY172 Introduction to Psychological Health and Wellbeing

Unit Information and Learning Guide Semester 2, 2018 This information should be read in conjunction with the online learning materials, which can be found on your MyUnits page. Unit coordinator Dr. Brianne Hastie School of Psychology and Exercise Science 440.1.009 (SS1.009) [email protected] This unit guide was originally written by John Gardiner, 2009; revised by Davina French, 2017; Brianne Hastie, 2018. © Published by Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, July 2018 This publication is copyright. Except as permitted by the Copyright Act no part of it may in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any other means be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or be broadcast or transmitted without the prior written permission of the publisher. 2 Contents Unit information Information about the unit 3 Contact details 5 How to study this unit 7 Resources for the unit 9 Study schedule 10 Assessment 12 Learning guide Tutorial 1 18 Tutorial 2 19 Tutorial 3 20 Tutorial 4 21 Tutorial 5 23 Tutorial 6 24 Tutorial 7 25 Tutorial 8 27 Tutorial 9 29 Tutorial 10 30 Self-Management Project 31 Guide to Project Outline 36 Guide to the Self-Management Project 37 3 Information about the unit Unit description Psychology has an important role in designing systems that make people happy, healthy and productive. This unit will critically examine the concepts of ‘health’, ‘wellbeing’ and ‘happiness’, and will demonstrate how to add quality to people’s lives, through researchguided practice and the application of behaviour change principles. Topic areas include: coping with and overcoming psychological pain and stress, addictions and disabilities; in addition to promoting healthier behaviour in the community. Prerequisites There are no set prerequisite units for this unit but you are expected to be familiar with the basic concepts of science, knowledge of the university library, and the APA style. Aims of the unit The broad aims for this unit are to: 1. Introduce students to traditional and contemporary conceptualisations of health and wellbeing from different psychological perspectives. 2. Introduce students to a research-guided natural science approach to facilitating happier, healthier and more productive lifestyles for individual, specific groups and populations. 3. Provide students with the opportunity to critically evaluate the evidence for the validity and utility of psychological interventions that are applied to a diverse range of socially valid behavioural problems. 4. Provide students with experience in designing, implementing and evaluating a selfmanaged behaviour change program. Learning outcomes for the unit On successful completion of the unit you should be able to: 1. List and describe the key differences between the cognitive /medical disease models and a natural science perspective in understanding and facilitating behaviour change. 2. List and define the principles of behaviour that account for why particular behaviours are maintained, increased or decreased in frequency. 3. Describe the application of the principles of behaviour used to facilitate personal, and community, health and wellbeing. 4. Apply understanding of the basic theoretical and practical behavioural principles for the design, implementation and evaluation of a personal behaviour change program. 5. Report the results of a psychological study using the conventional formats for the discipline. 4 Graduate Attributes of the Australian Undergraduate Psychology Program This unit aligns with the graduate attributes specific to our discipline in the following areas: Graduate Attribute Learning Outcomes 1: Knowledge and Understanding of Psychology  Knowledge and understanding of some core topics as they apply to health psychology, including o biological bases of behaviour o learning o lifespan developmental psychology o motivation o social psychology 2: Research Methods in Psychology  Demonstrate practical skills in laboratory-based and other psychological research.  Describe the key principles for designing, implementing and evaluating programs of behaviour change.  Locate, evaluate and use information appropriately in the research process.  Design and conduct basic studies to address psychological questions 3: Critical Thinking Skills in Psychology  Apply knowledge of the scientific method in thinking about problems related to behaviour and mental processes.  Question claims that arise from myth, stereotype, pseudo-science or untested assumptions.  Evaluate the quality of information, including differentiating empirical evidence from speculation.  Identify and evaluate the source and context of behaviour. 4. Values in psychology  Exhibit a scientific attitude in critically thinking about, and learning about, human behaviour.  Promote evidence-based approaches to understanding and changing human behaviour. 5: Communication Skills in Psychology  Write a standard research report using American Psychological Association (APA) structure and formatting conventions. 6: Learning and the Application of Psychology  Describe health psychology  Apply psychological concepts, theories, and research findings to solve problems in everyday life and in society.  Demonstrate insightful awareness of one’s feelings, motives, and attitudes based on psychological principles. 5 What you need to know Generic information that students need to know is available at the What you need to know web page, which is linked from the unit LMS page. The information includes:  links to the Assessment Policy  a description of Academic Integrity  Information about Examinations; Non-discriminatory language; Student appeals; Student complaints; Conscientious objection and assessment policy  Information on the determination of grades from components/marks  information for equity students Contact details Unit Coordinator’s contact details Dr. Brianne Hastie School of Psychology and Exercise Science 440.1.009 (SS1.009) [email protected] Phone: +61 8 9360 7206 Unit Coordinator’s consultation times The unit coordinator will be available without an appointment at the following times: Thursdays 11.00am – 12.00pm in teaching weeks, by appointment in study breaks. Contact via email, and by appointment at other times. Tutor contact details Wednesday 8.30am, 9.30am, 10.30am, & 1.30pm Trish Cain [email protected] Monday 3.30pm All Tuesday tutes Susana Hernández Díaz [email protected] Wednesday 12.30pm Thursday 1.30 & 2.30pm Mirella Wilson [email protected] 6 Administrative contact details The Psychology and Exercise Science administration team can be contacted on [email protected]. You can also email them regarding enrolment issues For technical difficulties with Moodle or Echo access contact the IT Service Desk: Email: [email protected] or Phone: 9360 2000 7 How to study this unit This unit requires a regular commitment of time each week to achieve a passing grade:  Read the relevant text book chapters before the weekly lecture (2 hours)  Attend or view the recorded lecture (2 hours)  Review the content by completing the additional readings and online tasks (1 hour)  Prepare and attend your tutorial group (2 hours)  Self-Management project requires weekly tasks (approximately 2 hours) Contact time Lectures – 11 lectures of 2 hours each (Mondays 1.30 – 3.30pm) Tutorials – 10 tutorials of 1 hour each (check your activities timetable) Time commitment As this is a 3 credit point unit, we expect you to spend on average 8-10 hours per week for the total weeks of this teaching period (or 150 hours overall) working on this unit. Attendance requirements Lectures The lectures are scheduled for 2 hours. There is a ten minute break in approximately the middle – between the two topics listed in the schedule below. The lectures will help you to better understand the readings and the unit material. They provide opportunities for added interpretation of the material and examples, as well as a more detailed explanation of the subject matter covered in PSY172. The lectures do not simply repeat the information found in the text book. Attendance is not compulsory and if you do not attend a lecture, Echo recordings will generally be available. However, due to copyright restrictions some video clips that are shown in the “live” lectures will not be made available online. Since this unit is not available for external enrolment, any failures in recording technology will result in the lecture being unavailable. Of the 11 lectures, 6 will be in ECL1, and 5 will be online only. Both in person lectures and online lectures will be available via Echo in LMS. Tutorials There are a total of 10 tutorials, one every week, at 1 hours each. The tutorials start in Week 2. Tutorial places are allocated on a first come first served basis. Placement numbers are administratively set in advance to ensure that the tutorials are well managed for both tutors and students. If you are having difficulties enrolling in a tutorial online, please contact the unit 8 coordinator. Please be aware that changes to class allocations may not be possible in all cases. The tutorials are structured in two parts. The first part is dedicated to a guided discussion of the readings and/or tasks for the specified topics (see study schedule). Your tutor will be asking you to comment on the selected study questions for the relevant topic readings and activities. This is to ensure an equitable process in allocating marks for tutorial participation. The second part of your tutorial is dedicated to your behaviour change self-management project. It is structured progressively so you will be provided with guidance on choosing a feasible project and the know-how to begin data collection for each component stage of your project. Your tutor will also provide you with information on the structure and format for each section of your written report. In essence, you will be working on your project as you go and the write-up is the final outcome. The benefit of doing the self-management project is that you will gain direct experience with applying the principles of behaviour to help a “typical” adult client (namely you) improve their health and well-being. Also your efforts to increase your own healthy behaviours may provide you with insights into the contextual variables that influence whatever it is that you do, and inform how to change whatever it is that you do. Small group and interactive teaching and learning activities Tutorial attendance is very important as more than half of your final grade for this unit is related to activities carried out and/or explained in tutorials. In the end of semester exam you will be assessed on your understanding of the unit material as a whole, so the remaining part of your final grade is directly related to your understanding of the lectures, essential readings and tutorial activities. If you are unable to attend your assigned tutorial group you will need to notify your tutor, who will nominate a time for you to make up your missed tutorial. Unit changes in response to student feedback The unit has developed in scope and student numbers since it commenced in 2009. The student feedback has consistently indicated that the unit is challenging but rewarding in that it deals with issues that will affect all of us at some stage. One of the issues identified early in the unit’s history was the need to get started on the self-management project as early as possible and thus we now have the project outline as a scheduled task. The size and scope of the textbook is often highlighted as a concern, so last year the assessment changed from an essay exam to multiple-choice only, to help you to manage the amount of information that you will need to know. This resulted in higher average final grades and a lower fail rate. 9 Resources for this unit To undertake study in this unit, you will need: Essential textbook Morrison, V., Bennett, P., Butow, P., Mullan, B., & White, K. (2012). Introduction to Health Psychology in Australia (2nd ed). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Publishing. Copies are available in the reserve collection, but note also that the online quiz is an open book test based on the textbook, so if you plan to purchase a copy, it is worth doing so early in the unit. The textbook is also available electronically: Vital Source E-text $60 http://www.pearson.com.au/9781488618192 180 Day Digital Rental $50 http://www.pearson.com.au/9781488659324 Online resources Readings for the tutorials and additional readings to support the text will be located on the LMS. As well as the textbook, there are required readings for some of the tutorials which are located on LMS in a section headed ‘Tutorial Readings’. For the final tutorial, ‘reading’ will be replaced by the requirement to view/listen to selected media broadcasts. For each teaching week there are also one or more resources, often videos, provided on LMS to support your learning. These are not compulsory; they are there to support some of the more difficult concepts, and to provide a break from reading. The following will be provided during the teaching period (technology permitting):  lecture slides on the LMS system  lecture recordings via Echo 360  links to relevant readings on the LMS 10 Study schedule Week (lecture date) Lecture content, linked to Textbook Chapters. Lecturer Tutorial activities Assessments Week 1. Monday 30/07/18 Introduction to the unit Ch 1: What is health? Brianne Hastie NO TUTORIALS Week 2. Monday 06/08/18 Ch 2: Health inequalities Advice on writing the Project Outline Brianne Hastie 1. Introduction & discussion of Chapter 1 2. Self-management project: Introduction to the project. Week 3. Monday 13/08/18 Ch 3: Health-risk behaviour Ch 4: Health-enhancing behaviour Fleur van Rens ONLINE 1. Discussion of Chapters 2 – 4 2. Self-management project: Choosing your interventions, measures and outcomes. Design issues. Week 4. Monday 20/08/18 Ch 5: Predicting health behaviour Ch 6: Reducing risk – individual approaches Fleur van Rens ONLINE 1. Discussion of Chapters 5-6. 2. Self-management project: Writing project outline. APA style. Project Outline Due 11.55pm Sunday August 26th 2018 Week 5. Non-teaching week Online Quiz, textbook chapters 1 – 6 opens 9.00am Monday August 27th 2018 Week 6. Monday 03/09/18 Ch 7: Population approaches to public health Ch 8: The body in health and illness Brianne Hastie 1. Discussion of Chapters 7 – 8. 2. Self-management project: Refining ideas about interventions. . Online Quiz, textbook chapters 1 – 6 Closes 11.59pm Sunday September 9th

2018 Week 7. Monday 10/09/18 Ch 9: Symptom perception, interpretation & response Ch 10: The consultation and beyond Brianne Hastie 1. Self-management project: Undertaking your project. Baseline period. 11 Week 8. Monday 17/09/18 Ch 11: Stress, health and illness: theory Ch 12: Stress and illness moderators Fleur van Rens ONLINE 1. Discussion of Chapters 9 – 10 2. Self-management project: Intervention period. Week 9. Non-teaching week Week 10. Monday 01/10/18 Ch 13: Managing stress Fleur van Rens ONLINE 1. Discussion of Chapters 11-13 2. Self-management project: Analysing and presenting your data. Week 11. Monday 8/10/18 Ch 14: The impact of illness on quality of life Ch 15: The impact of illness on patients and their families Fleur van Rens ONLINE 1. Discussion of Chapters 14 – 15 2. Self-management project: Writing the report I Week 12. No lecture: use the extra time to work on your project report 1. Discussion of recent media broadcasts related to health 2. Self-management project: Writing the report II Final questions Selfmanagement

project Written report due 11.55pm Sunday October 21st 2018 Week 13. Monday 22/10/18 Ch 16: Pain Vance Locke 1. Discussion of Chapters 16 – 18 2. Exam preparation Week 14. Monday 29/10/18 Ch 17: Improving health and quality of life Ch 18: Futures Exam information Brianne Hastie NO TUTORIALS Study break 5 th – 9 th November 2018 Semester 2 exam period (begins 10th November 2018) Exam date/venue to be provided. Examination 12 Assessment Assessment for this unit is conducted in accordance with the Assessment Policy. There are no mandatory pass components. Schedule of assessment items You will be assessed on the basis of: Assignment Description Aligned Learning Outcomes (p. 4) Psychology Graduate Attributes (p. 5) Value Due Date Online Quiz One hour, openbook, multiple choice quiz on textbook chapters 1 to 6; two attempts will be permitted. 1, 2, 3 1, 3, 6 10% Opens 9.00am Monday August 27 th 2018 Closes 11.59pm Sunday September 9th

2018 SelfManagement

Project Project Outline Completed on the template provided (maximum 500 words excluding references and appendices). 2, 3, 4, 5 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 10% Electronic submission Due 11.55pm Sunday August 26th 2018 Written Report A written project report in APA format (maximum 2500 words excluding figures, references and appendices). 2, 3, 4, 5 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 30% Electronic submission Due 11.55pm Sunday 21 st October 2018 Tutorial Participation Demonstrate engagement with and contribution to tutorial activities. 1, 2, 3 1, 3, 4, 6 10% Refer to the study schedule for tutorial activities. End of Semester Exam Two hour closedbook multiple choice exam 1, 2, 3 1, 3, 6 40% Please check your exam timetable. 13 Assessment details 1. Tutorial Participation (10% of the total assessment) The purpose of the tutorials is to enable you to reach a deeper understanding of the material covered in the unit through a variety of activities in which all students participate. Demonstrate engagement with the essential readings by contributing to guided tutorial discussions based on the study questions, which are listed under the relevant sections of your learning guide. You will be expected to have prepared answers to the questions posed and be able to discuss your answers in a wellreasoned manner. An important part of participation in tutorials is the ability to listen actively to others so that you can respond and build upon their comments – rather than simply repeat them. By preparing for tutorials and doing the study questions, you will have an opportunity to receive feedback on your understanding of the unit materials throughout the semester. As a guide to the tutors’ expectations, the following marking rubric is provided. Your tutor will assess your performance in each tutorial using this rubric. You will receive a mark out of 4 after the first four tutorials, to enable you to adjust your performance if necessary. A total mark out of 10 will be posted to the LMS at the end of semester: Mark out of 1.0 Grade Broad description of required quality of participation 0 Fail Non-attendance, passive attendance, or contributions creating the impression that the student has not prepared adequately. or ‘Token’ participation at a level which suggests inattention, lack of thought and/or preparation. Attendance without participation is not sufficient to pass 0.5 P One or two worthwhile comments, answers or other contributions. 0.6 C Several worthwhile contributions. 0.8 D One or two contributions of a high order, for instance, showing careful preparation or developing or linking elements presented in the discussion so far. 1.0 HD Several such high order contributions demonstrating clear understanding of the readings As the tutors are graduate psychologists or educators, you will need to be sure not to dominate the group or engage in other inappropriate group dynamics as these will result in lower marks. The ability to listen and respond to others comments is valued highly! 14 2. Self-Management project outline and written report (40% of the total assessment) 40% of the total assessment is allocated to a behaviour change self-management project. The project will be fully explained in your tutorials and you will have feedback on your project outline to guide you. The project outline (worth 10%) is a short document describing what you plan to do. It is written on a template which is provided on the LMS. Please use the margins and spacing that are provided and submit it as a Word document. It should be no longer than 500 words excluding references and appendices. The final written report of the project should be a maximum of 2500 words in length, not including references, figures or appendices. Please use 12-point font and doublespacing, and submit your report as a Word document. Note: you do not need an abstract for this assignment. This report is worth 30% of your grade and requires a significant amount of time to prepare adequately (i.e., don’t leave it till the last week to start writing up your project!). As per university policy, extensions may only be granted with written documentation from a medical or allied health professional related to a personal illness, condition, or a medical problem that required the longer term care of a dependant family member. Notify the unit coordinator as soon as possible when you anticipate that you will require an extension – extensions must be sought before the due date for an assignment. Please ensure that your medical certificate specifies the number of days that your illness has prevented you from studying. 3. Online Quiz (10% of the total assessment) This is a multiple choice test. It will be open for two (2) weeks and will assess the material in the first 6 chapters of the text book. It is essentially an open book exam of the material covered to this point. You will receive your mark upon completion of the quiz and may take two (2) attempts, but you will not be able to access the second attempt until 24 hours after the first. Each attempt will be limited to one (1) hour. 4. End of semester exam (40% of the total assessment) You will be required to complete a two hour closed-book multiple choice exam. This exam will be assessing your understanding of the unit materials as a whole. Examination The end of semester exam is a two-hour closed book exam. While I have no more information about this year’s exam timetable than you do, you should be aware that last year the exam was timetabled for the very last day of the exam period. It would therefore be very unwise to book an early vacation or return overseas before the timetable becomes available. 15 If you have a disability or medical condition, you can apply for alternative exam arrangements to ensure that you are able to sit exams on an equitable basis. You should contact the Disability Support Office on 9360 6084, email: [email protected]. If you are unable to sit exams because of a serious illness or other exceptional personal circumstances, you can apply through the Exams Office to defer sitting an exam. For further information, please refer to http://our.murdoch.edu.au/Student-life/Getorganised/About-exams/Deferred-assessment/ Assignment submission Your proposal outline and final self-management project report should be submitted online through the LMS, as WORD documents (.doc or .docx). In order to submit you will be asked to confirm that you have complied with the University’s policies on academic integrity. LMS assignment submission now passes through software called Urkund. Urkund is pattern-matching software that enables you to check your work for inadvertent plagiarism. You can submit as many drafts as you wish in advance of the assignment due date to help find places where your referencing may be inadequate or incorrect. Urkund will provide you with reports for this purpose. You should then be sure to (re)submit your final assignment by the due date, keeping in mind that the final Urkund report will also be available to the marker. The assignment dropbox will only take one file at a time, so all elements of your submission must be contained within a single document, and you will need to delete any earlier submission before you can upload a new file. At busy times some Urkund reports can take a very long time to appear – several hours and in some cases more than a day. Your submission will be timed as the time that you upload your assignment and submit it – an Urkund report that is returned after the deadline does not make your submission late, but it does mean that you cannot amend your work without incurring a late penalty. To ensure fairness and equity across students, penalties will be applied to late submission of assignments. There will be a 10% deduction for each day the assignment is overdue for up to five working days, unless an extension has been granted. If your assignment is more than five days late it will receive no marks. Extensions will only be granted if written documentation can be provided. There are strict word limits for both of your written assignments. It is School policy that your assignments must not exceed the published word limit; markers will not read beyond the word limit, so you are likely to lose marks for incomplete work. These are limits though, not targets. Many of the project reports that received HDs last year were around 2000 to 2200 words. 16 Attendance/participation requirements It would be advantageous to attend ALL lectures and tutorials. Remember 50% of your final PSY172 grade is related to activities undertaken as part of the tutorials. If you are unable to attend a tutorial you must inform your tutor who will advise you on the possibility of making up the missed tutorial. Make-up tutorials will normally only be granted under the following conditions: (1) a medical excuse from a health professional related to an illness that caused you to be absent on the day of the tutorial, or that required the care of a dependent family member, or (2) a legal document attesting to your participation in a legal proceeding. Deferred assessments may be granted in cases of extenuating personal circumstances such as serious personal illness or bereavement. Any student who believes he/she has a disability for which accommodations within the education environment are needed should contact the Disability Support Office on 9360 6084, email: [email protected]. Accommodations will be made once written documentation from the Disability Support Officer has been received. Determination of the final grade Your final grade for PSY172 will be based on performance. The weighting for each component is provided in the assessment schedule and in most cases the total marks available for a piece of work are equal to that value, so that your mark for a piece of work represents exactly the number of marks that you have earned towards your total unit mark. The exam is an exception since it is marked out of 100 but weighted at 40%. See Section 11 of the Assessment Policy regarding grades http://www.murdoch.edu.au/admin/policies/assessment.html#11 for further information in regard to grade allocation procedures. Notation Grade Percentage Range HD High Distinction 80 – 100 D Distinction 70 – 79 C Credit 60 – 69 P Pass 50 – 59 N Fail Below 50 DNS Fail Below 50, did not submit any assignments after HECS census date. S Supplementary Assessment 40 – 49* *The award of the grade of S shall be at the discretion of the Unit Coordinator. The grade descriptors are provided in the Murdoch University Handbook and Calendar at http://www.murdoch.edu.au/admin/policies/assessment.html#11 17 Learning Guide: Tutorial activities Introduction The following guide first outlines the study questions that will be discussed in tutorials. You will be expected to demonstrate engagement with the essential readings by contributing to guided tutorial discussions based on these study questions. You will be expected to have prepared answers to the questions in advance and to be able to discuss your answers in a well-reasoned manner. Where a chapter number is given this is a chapter of the Course Textbook: Morrison, V., Bennett, P., Butow, P., Mullan, B., & White, K. (2012). Introduction to Health Psychology in Australia. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Publishing. 18 Tutorial One – Week 2 Chapters 1 Chapter 1: Think of someone you know that you would describe as being ‘very healthy’ and write down the reasons and a brief descriptor of the person (age, gender etc.). 19 Tutorial Two – Week 3 Chapters 2 – 4 Chapter 2: 1. Read the ‘The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey: findings to date on adolescents’ (available on LMS). What are the factors that the authors consider to be likely to influence health and wellbeing? 2. Which risk factors are significant to this population? Chapter 4: What is one “health enhancing behaviour” that you engage in? What maintains that behaviour? 20 Tutorial Three – Week 4 Chapters 5 – 6 Chapters 5 – 6: I’m thinking about joining an exercise class and have even gone as far as filling out the application form… What stage would I be in? (e.g. Pre-contemplation? Action?) What suggestions would you make to me that would help me move to the next stage? Read the paper by Leanne Hides et al. (2014) (available on LMS). This is a protocol paper, this is, it describes a study that has yet to take place. It is an Australian study comparing different interventions for alcohol use in young people. If you are short of time you only need to read through to the end of the section on ‘psychological interventions’ on page 6. 1. What is the setting for this study, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing this setting to try to change behaviour? 2. Which core components of motivational interviewing are described in the paper? 21 Tutorial Four – Week 6 Chapters 7 & 8 Chapter 7: Think of one public health campaign (e.g., related to smoking, alcohol usage, healthy eating, exercise) and describe any particular component of a sociocognitive model that has been addressed in the campaign. Chapter 8: Think about a specific illness and answer the following questions: a) What might be issues for people suffering from this illness? Are there differences between subgroups of individuals in these issues (e.g., gender or age differences)? 22 b) How could Health Psychologists (or Psychologists in general) assist people with this particular illness? c) What could be some of the challenges for Health Psychologists working with people suffering from this particular illness? 23 Tutorial Five – Week 7 Self-management project You should now be preparing to commence your self-management project: 1. How will you go about incorporating the feedback on your project outline into your project? 2. Do you have any questions about undertaking the project? 3. Do you have any questions about writing up the project? 24 Tutorial Six – Week 8 Chapters 9 & 10 Chapter 9: Read the article by Judith Finn et al (available on LMS) as well as the textbook chapter. List five reasons why some people delay in seeking help for their health conditions? Chapter 10: After reading the chapter and the recommended reading “An evidence-based perspective on greetings in medical encounters” (Makoul, Zick & Green, 2007 available on the LMS) how would you define what makes a good bedside manner? Think of your last encounter with a health professional, and evaluate the interaction based on the criteria from the article. 25 Tutorial Seven – Week 10 Chapters 11 – 13: The Student Stress Scale The scale below is an adaptation of Holmes and Rahe’s 1967 study (The Social Readjustment Rating Scale). Each event is given a score that represents the amount of readjustment a person has to make in life as a result of the change. People with scores of 300 and higher have a high health risk. People scoring between 150 and 300 points have about a 50-50 chance of serious health change within two years. People scoring below 150 have a 1 in 3 chance of serious health change. Event Life-Change Units Death of a close family member 100 Death of a close friend 73 Divorce between parents 65 Jail term 63 Major personal injury or illness 63 Marriage 58 Being fired from a job 50 Failing an important course 47 Change in health of family member 45 Pregnancy 45 Sex problems 44 Serious argument with close friend 40 Change in financial status 39 Change of major 39 Trouble with parents 39 New girl- or boyfriend 38 Increased workload at school 37 Outstanding personal achievement 36 First quarter/semester in college 35 Change in living conditions 31 Serious argument with instructor 30 Lower grades than expected 29 Change in sleeping habits 29 Change in social activities 29 Change in eating habits 28 Chronic car trouble 26 Change in number of family get-togethers 26 Too many missed classes 25 Change of college 24 Dropping of more than one class 23 Minor traffic violations 20 Add up your points to get your Total Life Change Score ___________ 26 Questions: 1. Which of these “stressors” do not apply in your current context? 2. What other “stressors” are not included but would be in the top 20? 3. What else would you need to know in order to predict who would develop a health condition in the next few months? (see chapter 12) 27 Tutorial Eight – Week 11 Chapters 14 & 15 Complete the General Health Questionnaire below Complete the General Health Questionnaire below Please consider the last four weeks and answer the following questions by selecting and circling one of the four answer options. Question 0 1 2 3 1. Been able to concentrate on what you’re doing More so than usual Same as usual Less so than usual Much less than usual 2. Lost much sleep over worry Not at all No more than usual Rather more than usual Much more than usual 3. Felt you were playing a useful part in things More so than usual Same as usual Less so than usual Much less than usual 4. Felt capable of making decisions about things More so than usual Same as usual Less so than usual Much less than usual 5. Felt constantly under strain Not at all No more than usual Rather more than usual Much more than usual 6. Felt you couldn’t overcome your difficulties Not at all No more than usual Rather more than usual Much more than usual 7. Been able to enjoy your normal day-today activities More so than usual Same as usual Less so than usual Much less than usual 8. Been able to face up to your problems More so than usual Same as usual Less so than usual Much less than usual 9. Been feeling unhappy and depressed Not at all No more than usual Rather more than usual Much more than usual 10. Been losing confidence in yourself Not at all No more than usual Rather more than usual Much more than usual 11. Been thinking of yourself as a worthless person. Not at all No more than usual Rather more than usual Much more than usual 12. Been feeling reasonably happy, all things considered More so than usual About the same as usual Less so than usual Much less than usual General Health Questionnaire Scoring Scoring – Likert Scale 0, 1, 2, 3 from left to right, then add them up. 12 items, 0 to 3 each item, Score range is therefore 0 to 36. Scores vary by study populations but scores about 11-12 are typical. 28 Questions: 1. Where would a screening instrument such as this be useful? 2. Would it be a useful indicator of a person’s overall “Quality of Life”? 3. What else would you want to include? 4. What sort of definition of “General Health” is being adopted here? 29 Tutorial Nine – Week 12 Health behaviour in the media A study was published recently on the value of fitness trackers in a weight loss program. The original article is posted on the LMS. Reading the article is optional – but if you do, don’t be put off by the document being 57 pages long – the article is only the first 10 pages. Your required preparation is to listen to one of two radio programs on which the study and its authors were featured: ABC Radio National’s Health Report on September 26th 2016, where a transcript is also available if you prefer to read the material http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/wearable-fitness-trackers-mayhinder-not-help-weight-loss/7877858 or ABC Radio National’s Life Matters on September 27th 2016 http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/activity-trackers-are-not-the-secretto-weight-loss/7878520 Be ready to discuss the following questions: 1) Was there anything you wanted to know about the study that wasn’t mentioned in the radio program? 2) What reasons did the study’s authors suggest for the main outcome – that the participants who were given a fitness tracker actually did worse? 3) Which of the reasons do you find most convincing, or do you have any other suggestions? 30 Tutorial Ten – Week 13 Chapters 16 – 18 1. Consider the statement: ”health psychology has provided many answers to the question of why people do or do not engage in healthy behaviour”. Is the predominantly individualistic focus of health psychology sufficient? 2. Consider the statement: ”health psychology has identified individual cognitions and coping behaviours that are amenable to interventions aimed at improving illness outcomes”. What ways could some of these interventions be introduced into the healthcare system? 3. Consider the statement: ”health policy has no relevance for health psychologists”. Does this hold in light of recent governmental campaigns or policy changes, in for example, smoking bans in public places, health screening, and immunisation policy? 31 Self-Management Project Guidelines All submitted assignments must be typed (with the exception of graphs). Please use 2.5cm margins; double-space your work and use size 12 fonts and APA 6th Edition style for citation (Murdoch site http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/find/citation/apa.html and the manual is in closed reserve). Step 1: Identify your health/wellbeing goal and target behaviour. Think about and try to identify these before your first tutorial Look at your lifestyle, and after reviewing the first chapter of the textbook, think about what aspects you could change to increase your level of health and wellbeing.  Identify one goal (for example, increasing physical fitness or improving your emotional wellbeing etc.).  Next, identify one or more specific target behaviours that relate to achieving your goal (for example, increasing exercise and eating more vegetables). Think about which of these is most achievable FOR YOU. Here we define health very broadly – your overall physical and mental health, productivity at work or university, your relationships, your financial security and so forth. Here are some potential health targets from which you can choose. You are welcome to choose some other behaviour not on the list, pending tutor’s approval. Physical health behaviours – often best tackled with a reward schedule Role functioning (being better at what you do) – may respond to rewards or to a time management/problem solving intervention Eating habits (e.g. junk food – fruit & veg – sugar) Reduce recreational screen time Reduce alcohol or tobacco consumption Decrease Phone calls/texts/twitter/facebook Drink more water or less coffee Increase productive work habits Improve sleeping habits Increase reading before class Exercise Mental health/ emotional wellbeing – often best tackled with a meditation or relaxation intervention Other individual goals – best intervention will vary Improve mood Increase frequency of a desired behaviour e.g. musical instrument practice Reduce stress Decrease swearing Reduce anger Decrease excessive shopping Decrease road rage/driving stress Paying down debt or Start saving 32 Step 2: Defining and Changing Behaviour  Define your dependent variable. This is the behaviour you identified above, it is the thing you hope to change. Consider the following when selecting your behaviour change target:  Can you improve it in 5-7 days? o This is a very short intervention so identify a variable that you can change immediately, not your long term goal. For example, you may wish to lose weight, but in one week you won’t see much change. Instead target a behaviour that you can observe immediately – eating less fat, sugar or calories. Your variable will then be what you eat, grams of fat or number of calories, not your weight.  Set one small target o Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time available – if you take no exercise now, then you may not be able to achieve a 5km run every day with a short self-administered intervention. Target only one thing: don’t try to change the world.  Make sure you can measure your target daily o This means that having regular dental check-ups (an important health behaviour) will not work for you, nor will going to the gym three times a week or aiming to drink less alcohol if you only drink at weekends anyway. It must be a daily behaviour.  Choose a target without floor and ceiling effects o If you already take a lot of exercise, you may not be able to improve it very much – this is called a ceiling effect. If you already consume almost no fat, then you may not be able to show much reduction in your intervention phase – this is called a floor effect. Choose something with room to change.  Choose something that you can talk and write about in a public space o Keep it legal – for example illicit drug use is an important behaviour to try to change, but choose something else for class. o Keep it safe – do not try to tackle serious mental health problems without professional support. o Avoid embarrassment – condom use is a common behavioural target in the published literature, but you may not want to talk about it in class (and remember, your target behaviour must occur daily!)  Define your independent variable. This is what your research leads you to think will be effective for changing your health/wellbeing behaviour. This must be a psychological variable. Use techniques that have been shown by empirical research to be effective in meeting your goal, or have been used with similar goals. These behaviour change techniques (interventions) fall into three broad categories – again it is important that each of them can be executed every day of your intervention phase.  Reward/Punishment interventions: These work best for health behaviour change – e.g. eating and exercise. You might reward/punish yourself with money (e.g. $1 “fine” to savings for every 33 hour of television watching) or activities (e.g. for every hour of study you could reward yourself with a 5 minute facebook session). Research suggests that rewards are generally more effective than punishments, but there are individual differences – choose something that will be motivating for you.  Meditation or relaxation interventions: If you target stress or mood, then an intervention like this might be suitable, but also think about how you will complete it – for example set aside a time and place. Exercise (which for some people will be the thing they want to improve) can also be effective as an intervention for improving mood.  Scheduling/problem-solving interventions: Sometimes your suboptimal health behaviour can be the result of poor planning or time-management, and the best intervention can be one that provides you with the time or information to meet your goals. For example do you eat too much takeaway food? For some people the best intervention will be a reward for eating more healthily, but for others the best approach might be to make a shopping and cooking plan ahead of time with recipes easily to hand – this is a problem-solving approach and is based on identifying for yourself the main barriers to changing your behaviour. Such an approach can also be a stress-buster.  Keep your project simple – one target behaviour (DV) and one intervention strategy (IV). Step 3: Measuring Behaviour  Decide how you will measure your behaviour (diary sheets, rating forms, paper or electronic etc.). If you are targeting mood or stress then suitable published measures are readily available. Remember – your measurement must be taken daily. Some measures will be taken several times a day but reported as a daily average. Step 4: Outline Submission  Submit an outline of your project, using the template provided. In it you will define quite precisely what you are going to do.  While your outline is with your tutor for assessment, try out your observation recording process over a few days to see if it works, and whether the data is relatively “stable” over the period. A stable baseline may have some fluctuations (i.e. go up and down from day to day) but there should be no discernible trend – either going up (ascending) or going down (descending) as this will confound your results.  You may need to modify your dependent variable (e.g., you might want to change how many minutes walked to how far walked on a daily basis using a pedometer) or recording sheet as required. 34 Step 5: Completing Phase A  Once you are happy that you have a clear research plan and method, move on to this step, but think about how you will incorporate your tutor’s feedback on your outline into your study.  Continue with your measurements and decide when your baseline observations are stable: for example, the observation of 5-4-5-5-4-5 would be identified as a horizontally stable pattern; which simply means that there is no evident trend in the date and any differences in this series of numbers are likely to be only a result of random variation. Your goal is to have horizontal stability (only random variation) in the baseline data.  Once you have good observation methods and a stable baseline established, it is time to implement your behaviour change strategy (step 6 below). Do not move on to step 6 before you have received feedback from your tutor.  At the same time (or earlier) get on top of the literature research. You don’t need to wait for the results of your study to start writing the introduction. You will already have done some research to identify your intervention method – start collecting relevant references to support your introduction. You will need to describe your goals and targets, why they are important for health and wellbeing, and what past research has shown about the effectiveness of the intervention that you have chosen. Steps 6 – 8: Phase B and further  Implement the intervention (behaviour change) strategy and continue to collect data on the behaviour during the intervention. Continue for at least five days.  Reverse it according to your design.  Make sure that you consider intervention integrity (How will the reader of your report know that you rewarded or punished yourself as you said you would? How will you record this, and any lapses in behaviour or recording?)  Keep writing. Outline the procedures for the conduct of your project. Specify when data will be collected, and when consequences will be delivered. State the contingency as clearly as possible (and make sure you implement it). Describe the design of your study as clearly and succinctly as you can.  Create a graph of your baseline data and show it to your tutor. Step 9: Final analysis and write-up of your project It is now time to complete the assignment by writing up the project. Remember the written report should be a maximum of 2500 words in length (with text in 12-point font and doublespaced), not including references, figures or appendices. It is important to include the appropriate sections in your report (Introduction; Method; Results; and Discussion) and to properly cite your references. It is important that you include sufficient detail so that somebody could not only replicate your project but also improve upon it, for example state and clearly define the target behaviour. Be sure to report and discuss  Analysis of your data – 35  Visual analysis of trend lines for means  Descriptive statistics (e.g. mean of baseline period/s vs mean of intervention phase)  Any unexpected outcomes  Evaluate the effectiveness of your intervention in relation to improvement over baseline.  Evaluate the effectiveness of your intervention in relation to whether the objective was met within the time line you specified.  Evaluate the effectiveness of your intervention in relation to previous findings using similar methods.  Describe what you would do differently in implementing future self-management projects. Self-Management Project Related Readings A significant part of the project is to locate research literature related to your topic using your library skills and assistance from the librarians. There are a number of books and articles on EReserve and on LMS to help you with the design, implementation and reporting of your project but you will need additional references in the introduction section of your project report. Online resources are also useful, some examples are listed below. As a general rule, websites maintained by governments, universities, professional bodies and major not-forprofits such as Beyond Blue or the Heart Foundation offer reliable advice and information, but be selective about your sources of information online. Beyond Blue – (http://www.beyondblue.org.au) for examples of mood monitoring and self-management interventions for “reducing stress”, “reducing alcohol consumption..”, “sleeping well”, “keeping active” and other simple interventions. Centre for Clinical Interventions – (http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/doctors.cfm) for simple interventions covering Anger Coping Strategies, Assertive Communication, Problem Solving, etc. Australian Dietary Guidelines – https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/ As a concrete example of the need to be discerning when searching online, take the issue of safe alcohol consumption. Sites include: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-topics/alcohol-guidelines Guidelines from the Federal Government – a good source of information. http://alcoholthinkagain.com.au/ Health information from the WA State Government – has many links to the Federal site above and interesting examples of intervention strategies – a good source of information and examples. https://drinkwise.org.au/about-us/about/# The site for Drinkwise Australia; a not-forprofit run by the alcohol industry! Also has links to the Federal site above, but offers advice, for example, on ‘how to drink properly’! A trap for the unwary – not a reliable source of health information. 36 A Guide to the Self-Management Project Outline (worth 10% of your final grade): A template for this assignment will be available on the LMS, but the headings are provided below for your information; note that these are the headings for the outline only – the actual project report will require different headings, in line with APA format. The word limit is 500 words excluding references (section 5) and appendices. The guidelines below explain exactly what is required in each section. 1. Dependent variable (2 marks) In this section describe the emotional or behavioural outcome that you will be trying to change. If you have a broader goal (e.g. to get fit or improve grades) then mention this as well, but be clear about which specific behaviour is your target – the one you will be measuring. If there are health relevant guidelines, give this information as well, e.g. your health target will be 10,000 steps per day or 5 serves of vegetables. Citations may be used but are not expected. 2. Independent variable (2 marks) In this section describe your intervention. Describe what you will be doing e.g. introducing a reward or implementing a time management plan, and why you think it will work for you. Be clear about the timing of your intervention, e.g. the reward will be delivered at the end of each day, or the meditation will take place each morning upon rising. Again, citations may be used but are not expected. 3. Data collection method (2 marks) Describe how will you collect and record your daily data. If you are using a published scale, for example to measure stress, then you should provide a citation for it. If you have designed your own recording sheet or scale, attach a copy. 4. Design (2 marks) State what sort of research design you will use. For example ABAB or ABA. Show that you understand what this will require in practice and include the length of time you anticipate for each phase (this may change of course). 5. References (2 marks) Provide a list of at least three references relevant to your project, you may or may not have used them in the sections above. They must be in APA format (6th edition) and should demonstrate that you have searched an appropriate literature. There are several guides to APA style on the LMS.

37 A Guide to the Self-Management Project (worth 30% of your final grade): A template for this assignment will be available on the LMS, but the headings are provided below for your information; note that these are the headings for the project report (they differ from the project outline), in line with APA format. The word limit is 2500 words excluding references (section 5) and appendices. The guidelines below explain exactly what is required in each section. 1. Introduction (6 marks) A clear title should summarize the main topic of the report and identify the variables (e.g. the effect of X on Y). A good introduction should address the importance of the problem, e.g. cost to the community or the individual, and provide evidence that the chosen intervention strategy is appropriate and likely to be effective. Previous literature should be clearly described such that a person unfamiliar with the topic can understand it. Terms should be clearly defined and abbreviations spelled out at first use. The introduction is expected to refer to at least five peer-reviewed sources (journals/books other than text), and may additionally use appropriate web sites, e.g. government or university sources. It should conclude with a clear statement of the research question or hypothesis. 2. Method (6 marks) The method should be divided into subsections:  Design identified as single case/subject with reversal/other.  Participant demographic information (gender, age, fitness, etc.).  Measures described in enough detail that a researcher could obtain or reproduce the same items (e.g. copy of recording sheets in appendix).  Procedure described in sufficient detail that the study could be replicated. 3. Results (6 marks) One or more graphs (figures) should be the focus of this section. The figure(s) should include a concise caption, clear axis labels and appropriate scale, and an accurate representation of data. This should be accompanied by a description of major findings. Further means may be provided, as well as an explanation of missing data or unexpected events. 4. Discussion (6 marks) The first para. should give a clear statement of the outcome – was the hypothesis supported? The results should then be discussed in relation to previous research findings. 38 At least 2 limitations should be mentioned, for example reliability/ validity of the measures, sources of bias in self-report, ethical problems. Future research recommendations should be made. A concluding paragraph should summarise the outcome and consider its implications for the individual or the community. 5. Presentation/Style (6 marks) The paper should be logically organized and build a coherent argument, with transitions used to connect ideas and link paragraphs. The paper should be correctly formatted in APA style, employ correct spelling and grammar, and use a clear and scientific writing style, but it may be written in the first or third person.

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