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Journal Article 1: Penhollow, T. M., & Rhoads, K. E. (2013). Preventing obesity and promoting fitness: An ecological perspective. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 8, 21–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827613507413

Abstract: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among youth has increased markedly in the past two decades in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2010, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. A number of obesity prevention and intervention programs focus on the individual by utilizing intrapersonal theories to encourage the individual to eat healthy and participate in physical activity. The purpose of the current article is to go beyond the individual level and approach obesity with an ecological perspective because it may prove to have a larger influence. The ecological systems theory (EST) by Bronfenbrenner postulated that human development is influenced by a reciprocal relationship between the individual and their social system. In the context of physical activity, health behaviors occur within and are influenced by the multiple systems within which youth reside. This manuscript explores Bronfenbrenner’s EST framework comprising four systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. Each level of the system is explored and applied to the obesity epidemic among youth.

Journal Article 2: Scott, C. (2009). How the ghosts of the nineteenth century still haunt education. Policy Futures in Education, 62, 48–61. https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2009.7.1.75

Abstract: Research evidence has demonstrated that pedagogical techniques variously known as discovery learning, problem-based learning and constructivism are less effective than explicit instruction, especially when applied to the teaching of novice learners. Nonetheless these ineffective techniques have many devotees and re-enter the educational arena “re-badged” after each empirical revelation of their deficiencies. This article argues that constructivism and its pedagogical relatives are continually “rediscovered” because they accord with deeply held beliefs about the nature of human beings. The origins of these ideas are traced to the writings of Rousseau and the Progressivist thinkers of the nineteenth century and the ways in which the misreading of theorists, such as Piaget, provide “scientific support” for these is explored.