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"Look at what I wrote! (but not too carefully, please)"
-Confronting plagiarism when teaching health and physical
education.
You would think the least we as teachers could hope for from our
students is honesty. As noted in my previous editorial, disciplinary
knowledge and work ethic is already disappointingly low among many
undergraduates studying to be health and fitness professionals.
The absence of these qualities perhaps explains why another important
quality - honesty - is so easily sacrificed by students. No where
is this more evident than in the submission of assignments (papers,
reports, essays, laboratories) consisting of plagiarized work. A
student is plagiarizing when he or she presents as their own the
ideas, thoughts, or writings of another.
Plagiarism is not a new problem for universities and high schools.
In the last decade, however, the availability of the Internet has
undoubtedly coerced those students whom are ethically-challenged
to take the easier 'cut and paste' route in an effort to arrive
at a reasonable grade. What are the consequences? (1) Students remain
uneducated (2) Students thoughtlessly violate a basic principle
of trust (3) Dishonesty wins out in the cognitive dissonance war
("I am not really cheating...I entered the right key words...I
found stuff that will answer the question.. and that took a ton
of work!"). In short, students graduate still ignorant, content
in being dishonest, and comfortable to do the same again, should
the situation arise.
This is so unfortunate. Teachers must do all that they can to eliminate
opportunities for this kind of cheating. I hope teachers will
sacrifice some time to determine how to combat this problem. The
task is a difficult one, especially in the field of health and fitness,
where the amount of information available online is as enormous
as it is varied. For take-home research papers students will likely
have at their disposal an answer for everything. Creative assessment
ideas are needed.
Students will attempt to disguise the work they have stolen. They
will reorganize sections, use several different sites, and add red-herring
references (within the text and in the bibliography). Reformatting
via changing font type and size is modus operandi.
What can teachers do? Honesty must be emphasized in the classroom.
Plagiarism is dishonest - shades of gray do not apply. At the beginning
of each semester, we can stress how important this is to our classrooms.
We can stress our determination to be diligent in recognizing fraud.
Regrettably, some students will not heed our message. The urge
to complete an assignment by the simple act of entering a keyword,
reorganizing, reformatting, and pressing "Print" will
be too strong. Students must accept serious consequences for their
actions, not the least of which should be a failed grade for the
class. More serious consequences may follow should the matter fall
upon the desk of university or school administrators. In either
case, it is imperative the student learn an important lesson about
being honest..
Darren Dale
Health and Fitness Section Editor
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The definitive scientific study on the importance of physical
activity for children
How beneficial is physical activity for children and adolescents?
Researchers will never be able to state with certainty what they
strongly believe to be true: regular exercise in youth is of great
importance to physical and mental health. This circumstance arises
due to the inability of conducting what would be the definitive
study on the question "how beneficial is exercise for children?"
What would such a study look like? Many thousands of children in
the United States would be randomized (controlling for the the usual
variables) into one of two groups: (A) children 6 yrs of age
who exercised regularly for 60 minutes per day on as many days of
the year as possible, over a 12 yr period, and (B) children 6 yrs
of age who did no exercise on most days of the year over a
12 yr period. Children in the first group would be exposed to 60
minutes of daily quality physical education K-12 (including a supervised
equivalent program during summers). Children in the second group
would have no quality physical education in school. No outdoor
play opportunities would be allowed. However, all Group B
children would be provided with their choice of video game system
(e.g., Playstation) and the guarantee of continually updated hardware
and software throughout the 12 yr period. To summarize, Group A
would participate in daily exercise during their childhood and adolescence,
while Group B would play substitute playing video games in place
of exercise. Conditions over the entire12 yr period would be rigorously
controlled
What outcomes would experts observe following 12 years of compliance
to the respective programs? Physical health indices would be measured;
blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose tolerance, bone density, obesity,
and physical fitness (health-related and skill-related). Mental
health indicators such as academic learning, depression, anxiety,
learning disorders, aggression, self-confidence, sociability, optimism,
and self-esteem would also be observed.
What would the research team find? This is the key question of
course, and the answer comes in two parts. First, children in Group
A would exhibit better physical and mental health (Mechanisms
by which exercise promotes health have been proposed for each
of the outcome variables mentioned). Second, the degree of difference
between children in Group A and B would vary, depending on the variable
in question. It is safe to say that for most variables, large (meaningful,
important) differences would be observed in favor of group A children.
This definitive study will never be undertaken for obvious reasons.
The conditions necessary for Group A children are far from in place,
despite the obvious benefits such children would enjoy. Creating
the conditions for participants in Group B would be a much easier
task. Many children and teens currently play video games daily,
for hours at a time. The only problem here is that Group B
conditions would preclude children from doing any exercise
whatsoever - and some of these children probably engage in some
small amount of physical activity Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo
are working to correct this.
Children do not have the foresight to see what lies ahead. Nor
do many adults. Although physical education professionals may never
have the definitive study to support their cause, they already know
enough. They should be listened to. Physical activity is important
for children.
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Research confirming what experts believe to be true
Scientific studies are often undertaken in order to confirm what
seems to be true. Scientists like to attach numbers to things (e.g.,
exactly how many calories do children use per day in physical activity?)
in order to quantify the degree of a particular problem. Recent
research in leading nutritional journals are helping to confirm
the 'bad news' in regard to the public health impact of poor nutritional
choices.
In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists report
children
are not physically active enough to meet accepted recommendations
for total daily energy expenditure. The same study showed that the
lack of physical activity is related to body fatness in boys, but
not girls. Further evidence describing the extent of the increase
in childhood
obesity can be found in a recent issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association.
In the same journal, participants in a study involving abstinence
from drinking high amounts of filtered coffee
experienced improvements in important indices of heart disease risk
(e.g, total cholesterol)
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The weather outside is frightful... and the food inside is
not much better
Christmas is a wonderful time of year for many reasons. An enjoyable
part of the holiday season is visiting the shopping mall, where
long hours are sometimes spent buying gifts for loved ones. What
a pity that good healthy food is often hard to come by at shopping
mall food courts. When the shopping day begins to drag and quickly
become tiring, it would be nice to find something nutritious and
wonderful to eat. Not likely, however. Fast, fried food
is the order of the day, much to the appreciation of a general
public - many of whom seem uncritical or unaware of the impact
their food choices will have on their future health.
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Questions to Ask, or
Thoughts to Share?
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