Age and gender differences in kinematics of powerful instep kicks in soccer

Soccer kicking training should be adjusted to the characteristics of the athletes. Therefore, examination of differences in kicking kinematics of females and pubertal players relative to males is worthwhile. The purpose of the study was to compare kicking kinematics and segmental sequence parameters between male, female, and pubertal players. Ten adult male, ten adult female, and ten male pubertal players participated in the study. Participants performed five consecutive kicking trials of a stationary ball, as powerful as they could. Analysis of variance showed significantly higher ball velocity, higher joint linear velocities for the knee and the hip, and higher angular velocities of the knee and the ankle for males compared to female and pubertal players (p < 0.05). Similarly, the peak joint velocity was achieved significantly closer to ball impact in males compared to other groups (p < 0.05). Males also showed a more plantarflexed ankle immediately before ball impact (p < 0.05). Females and pubertal players may benefit from skill training aiming to increase ankle plantarflexion and hip flexion prior to ball impact, and to adjust thigh and shank motion, such that the shank–foot segment travels through a higher range of motion and with a greater velocity.     

The Emergence of Football in Nineteenth-Century England: The Historiographic Debate

The work details the history of football that became established in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the view that social and economic changes resulted in football disappearing from the general community, only surviving in the various public schools, who played a codified game. It was these games that were transplanted to the general population, becoming the sports of rugby and soccer. This remained the established history of football until almost the twenty-first century, whence it was replaced by an increased acknowledgement that during the nineteenth century football did not die out. In fact, popularly played football during this period was conducted under strict rules. It is maintained that rugby and soccer were produced in the nineteenth century by a fusion of influences from both the public schools and wider communities.     

E‐learning: you don't always get what you hope for

Despite substantial growth in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) throughout western societies, there is much evidence of technology‐led innovations within Higher Education (HE) failing to achieve the anticipated transformations in learning and teaching. This paper reviews evidence from research and evaluation studies relating not only to e‐learning, but also to wider HE practices. It argues that the use of ICT does not, in itself, result in improved educational outcomes and ways of working. It considers contextual factors that are of greater significance in determining how and why e‐learning is used in HE. Students' engagement with e‐learning relates to their expectations and conceptions of learning and to assessment demands. Academics need to re‐assess their own beliefs and practices concerning teaching and assessment and their impact on the experience of learners. Both teachers and learners need to understand why e‐learning activities are to be undertaken and the rewards expected to be derived.     

Protestant ethic endorsement,personality, and general intelligence

To learn if Protestant ethic endorsement predicted intelligence controlling for the big five personality factors, 364 college students from England and the United States completed a 65-item multifaceted work ethic endorsement measure, the 50-item Wonderlic Personnel Test, and a 60-item measure of the big five personality factors. A hierarchical multiple regression revealed that, after controlling for respondent's sex and the big five, work ethic facets accounted for 5.6% of the variability in Wonderlic scores. However, the direction of the relationship between PWE facets and Wonderlic scores depended on the PWE facet in question. Furthermore, the facets accounted for more variability than did a composite work ethic score. The discussion focuses on the multidimensional nature of PWE endorsement and future research with this construct.     

Towards a sociolinguistics of superdiversity

The notion of ‘superdiversity’ has engaged scholars beyond the field of sociolinguistics. In this paper we propose to shift the gaze to the linguistic, focusing on the ways in which the new diversity becomes the site of negotiations over linguistic resources, and to widen the scope of debate. The ways in which people negotiate access to resources in increasingly diverse societies are changing. Looking at these phenomena through a sociolinguistic lens is key to a developed understanding of superdiverse societies. García proposes the term ‘translanguaging’ to refer to the multiple discursive practices in which multilingual speakers engage in order to make sense of their worlds. Translanguaging goes beyond code-switching, but incorporates it. García points out that multilinguals translanguage to include and facilitate communication with others, but also to construct deeper understandings. Translanguaging includes but extends what others have called language use and language contact among multilinguals. Rather than focusing on the language itself, translanguaging makes it apparent that there are no clear-cut boundaries between the languages of bilinguals. This paper draws on sociolinguistic ethnographic research projects which investigate the linguistic practices of children and young people in and around complementary (community-language) schools, to argue that multilingual young people in English cities access a wide range of semiotic resources in ways which are not bounded as ‘languages’. In developing a sociolinguistics of superdiversity we should look closely at practices of translanguaging, and consider the histories, geographies, and discourses which shape them.     

The correspondence of public perceptions of graduates’ life chances and university departmental funding

Very little prior research has examined public perceptions of research funding and the life chances associated with various fields of study. In the present task, 315 members of the Austrian general public rated 34 higher-education courses in terms of funding cuts or increases, and the perceived life chances of graduates, respectively. The results showed a high degree of correspondence in the ratings of both questionnaires. Overall, professional and biological stream courses were rated the most favourably, whereas arts and humanities courses were rated the least favourably. Participants’ demographic variables had little influence on their decisions. The implications of these findings for the way higher education is managed and organised are discussed.     

Kellogg Faculty Seminar: Enriching academic leadership in Adult/Continuing Education

The Kellogg funded Faculty Seminar on Future Directions in Continuing Education was a continuing professional development project for young assistant and associate professors of adult continuing education. The Faculty Seminar was developed and conducted by Jerold Apps, Alan Knox, and Jack Ferver, professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from January, 1987, through March, 1989. Thirty-three early career faculty members focused on enriching their leadership roles within their academic departments and across the field of adult/continuing education, as well as on personal career development. Within each of these areas, participants normatively considered future directions for the field.Judith G. Adrian is completing her dissertation in Adult/Continuing Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also served as Project Assistant for the two year duration of the Kellogg Faculty Seminar on Future Directions in Adult/Continuing Education.Jerold W. Apps of a Professor of Adult/Continuing Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author ofHigher Education in a Learning Society (Jossey-Bass, 1988) and several other books.