BACKGROUND: Health literacy impacts children's health and educational attainment. Therefore, determining the most appropriate pedagogical design is critical. The long-term health benefits of health literacy for each child's life course further justify this imperative. School-based health literacy programs are of interest internationally.
METHODS:We brainstormed the search terms and established inclusion/exclusion criteria for this systematic review. We searched 2 databases (CINAHL, ERIC) following PRISMA guidelines. Three authors screened and sorted the findings.
RESULTS:We identified 21 relevant studies from 629 retrieved. Few (6/21) studies were situated in the primary school setting.
CONCLUSIONS:This review found a variety of project designs, evaluation methods, and conceptual models. Descriptive analysis of the final 21 papers highlighted the importance of multicomponent design (whole-of-school and curriculum), cross-curricula integration, professional development for teachers, age of children, role of parents, and role of community. The results of this analysis may inform primary school program design in the future. Schools provide a logical setting for health literacy development. Despite the evidence that adolescence is too late, few studies have been situated in primary schools. Teachers lack confidence to teach health and need ongoing professional development. Parent, child, and community voices are essential for sustained engagement and program success.
The HealthLit4Kids program aims to build health literacy in a participatory and contextually relevant way. Whole-of-school and curriculum strategies aim to empower and build capacity to make informed health choices amongst students, teachers, parents, and their local community. The aim of this study was to evaluate the HealthLit4Kids program from the perspective of parents, using a Self-Determination Theory framework. This is one component within a larger evaluation of the program. Parents at four Australian primary schools were interviewed post-program. Qualitative data collected through parent interviews were analyzed thematically to identify themes, and coding checks were completed by experienced qualitative researchers. The three key themes identified were student engagement, behaviour change, and parent engagement. Findings also indicated that parents placed a high value on effective communication from schools and raised a range of health areas such as food and nutrition, physical activity, and mental health with the interviewer. Parent opinions of the HealthLit4Kids program were positive, with many reporting a perceived increase in their children’s ability to understand, communicate and act on health-related knowledge at home. The HealthLit4Kids program requires further research to determine its viability as an optimal pedagogical strategy for the health literacy development of primary school-aged children.
Background and aims Decomposition of organic matter varies depending upon interactions between the composition of the organic matter and the source of the microbial community, with differences in these interactions among vegetation types leading to the Home Field Advantage (HFA) hypothesis whereby decomposition of litters is faster in soils previously conditioned by them. It is possible that HFA operates on smaller scales within plant communities with ecosystem processes responding to subtle changes of plant community dominance. Methods and results Using field measurements and laboratory incubations, we found a strong plant species effect on nitrogen availability and transformations and the relative importance of autotrophic and heterotrophic processes to nitrification. We found that the origin of the soil microbial community had little influence on litter decomposition when litter quality was high but was important with low-quality litter, most of which was root material. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that plant species identity has a substantial impact on both litter decomposition and N cycling even within a single vegetation type and on an extremely local scale via both litter chemistry and specificity of the associated soil microbial community. Therefore, changes in botanical composition could alter decomposition and nutrient release altering ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration potential.
Aims: Climate change will impact plant communities and populations but also individual plant performance. Most predictive models of community responses to climate change ignore individual-level biotic interactions despite their known importance for community diversity and functioning. Here, we consider plant fitness and diversity responses to climate change associated factors at three organisational levels: communities, populations and individual plants, to increase our understanding of how plant communities respond to climate change.
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