Grant‐maintained Heads’ Reflections on Opting Out

This article summarises the views of 222 grant‐maintained (GM) school's head teachers’ experience of, and reasons for, their schools opting out of local authority control. The survey was conducted on the first 499 secondary schools to go GM. The article investigates issues such as admissions, finances and also the effects of GM status (GMS) on the relationships with, and roles of, local education authorities, the Department for Education, parents and governors. The article provides an overview of moves to GMS and highlights prior aims and reflections.     

Impact of Anatomy Boot Camp on Students in a Medical Gross Anatomy Course

Lincoln Memorial University‐DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU‐DCOM) offers an optional three‐week summer Anatomy Boot Camp course (ABC) to facilitate students' transition into medical school and promote retention of anatomy subject matter. The pre‐matriculation program is a supplemental instruction course that utilizes a small group learning format. Boot camp instruction is led by teaching assistants and two anatomy professors. Enrollees gain early exposure to Medical Gross Anatomy (MGA) course subject matter, which is taught in the fall semester, and learn study skills necessary to excel in medical school. No grade is assigned for the course, therefore participants can study without the fear of potentially affecting grades. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the LMU‐DCOM ABC course using data from four consecutive summers. Independent two‐sample t‐tests were used to compare ABC to non‐ABC students for the following variables: incoming grade point average (GPA) and Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) scores, MGA written and laboratory practical examination grades, and final MGA course grade. Additionally, a 26‐question survey was administered to 2012–2014 boot camp participants. There were no significant differences in incoming GPA and MCAT scores. However, boot campers scored significantly higher on the first two lecture and laboratory examinations (P < 0.05) for each year of the study. Thereafter scores varied less, suggesting a faster head start for boot camp participants. Mean MGA final grade was on average 3% higher for the boot camp cohort. The survey feedback supports that the ABC course assists with the academic and social transition into medical school. Anat Sci Educ 10: 215–223. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Correspondence Training as a Means of Improving Study Skills

This study was an attempt to encourage middle school pupils to use time spent on topic (project) work to better effect. They were taught some elements of correspondence training which required them to think ahead, to plan carefully what they were going to do in a certain time period and to make a forecast. At the end of each working session, they were required to look back at what they had achieved and to discuss the outcomes with a partner in terms of their success at forecasting and in achievement. Especially among the more able pupils, there were marked improvements in both quantity and quality of work produced     

Phil Dowe And Paul Noordhof * Cause and Chance: Causation in an Indeterministic World

1 Summaries

2 Reflections

     

“Forget birth pains,we haven't got past the conception stage yet”. A reply to Frank Coffield's ‘Britain's continuing failure to train: the birth pangs of a new policy’

This article is a response to Frank Coffield's recent reflections in this journal on the Performance and Innovation Unit's project on workforce development in Britain. It questions the extent to which the PIU's findings represent a ‘new understanding’ of the UK's skills problem and asks why academics have been so reluctant to spell out what a demand‐side strategy for tackling the problem would involve.     

Chronic flexibility gains: effect of isometric contraction duration during proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching techniques

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of to isometic contraction durations during propiceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching on gains inflexion at the hip. Forty-three women (M age = 20.0 years, SD = 1.3) were assigned to one of three groups: 5-s isometric contraction (5-IC), 10-IC, and control. Flexibility was assessed at baseline and Weeks 3 and 6. Analysis of covariance, controlling for pretest differences, showed a significant interaction, F(2, 33) = 44.1, p < .001. Flexibility was significant lower in the control group relative to the 5-IC and 10-IC groups and in the 5-IC group relative to the 10-IC group at 3 and 6 weeks (3 weeks = 101.2 +/- 1.4 degrees, 114.3 +/- 1.5 degrees, 120.5 +/- 1.3 degrees; 6 weeks = 103.0 +/- 1.4 degrees, 126.1 +/- 1.6 degrees, 133.3 +/- 1.4 degrees for control, 5-IC and 10-IC groups, respectively). A longer contraction time led to greater increases in flexibility.