Spatial Ability Mediates the Gender Difference in Middle School Students' Science Performance

Prior research has demonstrated a male advantage in spatial skills and science achievement. The present research integrated these findings by testing the potential role of spatial skills in gender differences in the science performance of eighth‐grade students (13–15 years old). In 2 (N = 113), the findings showed that mental rotation ability mediated gender differences in physical science and technology/engineering test scores. In 3 (N = 73,245), science performance was examined in a state population of eighth‐grade students. As in 2 , the results revealed larger gender differences on items that showed higher correlations with mental rotation. These findings underscore the importance of considering spatial training interventions aimed at reducing gender differences in the science performance of school‐aged children.     

‘I’m coming back again!’ The resilience process of early career teachers

Early career teachers face a range of challenges in their first years of teaching and how these challenges are managed as career implications. Based on current literature, this paper presents a model of early career teacher resilience where resilience is seen as a process located at the interface of personal and contextual challenges and resources. Through a semi-structured interview the challenges faced by 13 Australian early career teachers and the resources available to manage these challenges are examined. Findings show that beginning teachers experience multiple, varied and ongoing challenges and that personal and contextual resources are both important in sustaining them through the beginning year(s) of their teaching careers. The study emphasises the critical roles played by family and friends and the importance of relationships in the resilience process. Implications for future research and teacher education are discussed.     

Threat appeals and persuasion: Seeking and finding the elusive curvilinear effect

One of the earliest theories of threat appeals, the drive model, predicts that the fear–persuasion relationship is characterized by an inverted U-curve. Evidence of such a curve has proven elusive, probably because, in reality, there are two curvilinear hypotheses, not one. Existing primary studies and meta-analyses have tested the between-persons version of the inverted U-curve and found it wanting. In contrast, this study reports on a within-persons version and finds clear support for it. A peaked curve predicted change in intention to use dental floss, whereas a flatter curve did not. Partitioning the sample on individual differences in the behavioral inhibition system produced curves that did not differ in their ability to predict persuasion. Because no contemporary theory of threat appeals can predict these curvilinear findings, researchers should reconsider the utility of drive theory.     

Neuromuscular,biochemical and perceptual post-match fatigue in professional rugby league forwards and backs

Abstract

In this study, we investigated changes in creatine kinase, perceptual and neuromuscular fatigue of professional rugby league players after match-play. Twenty-three male rugby league players (10 backs, 13 forwards) had their creatine kinase, perceptual ratings of fatigue, attitude to training, muscle soreness, and flight time in a countermovement jump measured before and 1 and 2 days after (day 1 and day 2 respectively) league matches. Total playing time, offensive and defensive contacts were also recorded for each player. Creatine kinase was higher both 1 and 2 days after than before matches (P < 0.05) in forwards and backs. Similarly, perceived fatigue and muscle soreness were higher than pre-match on both days 1 and 2 (P < 0.05), but did not differ between groups (P > 0.05). Jump performance was lower on day 1 but not day 2 for both groups (P < 0.05). While total playing time was longer in backs (P < 0.05), relative frequencies for all contacts were greater in forwards (P < 0.05). Contacts for forwards were correlated with all markers of fatigue (P < 0.05), but only flight time was correlated with offensive contacts in backs (P < 0.05). Despite the mechanisms of fatigue being different between forwards and backs, our results highlight the multidimensional nature of fatigue after a rugby league match and that these markers do not differ between positions.     

Child abuse,child protection,and defensive ‘touch’ in PE teaching and sports coaching

This text introduces recently completed research on ‘no touch’ sports coaching, by placing it in a broader social context which problematises the way child abuse and child protection (or safeguarding) are conceived and discussed in terms of policy and practice. It also provides a brief indicative summary of the research findings and offers a discussion of moral panic, risk society and worst case thinking, before drawing on Foucault's work on governmentality to offer an explanation of how the current situation arose. The authors suggest that the approach to discussing child abuse, and the guidelines and training stemming from the dominant discourse, for the most part initiated by the NSPCC's Child Protection in Sport Unit, together create an environment in which many coaches and PE teachers are confused and fearful, and consequently unsure of how to be around the children and young people they teach and coach.     

论教师专业发展

教师专业发展有别于教师专业化,它强调的是教师个体内在专业特性的提升。教师本位的教师专业发展观是针对忽视教师自我的被动的教师专业发展提出的, 其突出的是教师自我在教师专业发展中的主体价值,认为教师专业发展既要实现教师的人生价值,又要实现其人格价值。     

Big brother or harbinger of best practice: Can lecture capture actually improve teaching?

Lecture capture is used increasingly in the UK, and has become a normal feature of higher education. Most studies on the impact of lecture capture have focused on benefits to student learning, the flipped classroom or student non‐attendance at lectures following its introduction. It is less clear how the use of lecture capture has impacted on lecturers’ own academic practice. In this study, we use a mixed‐methods approach to explore the impact of this intrusive yet invisible technology on the quality of teaching. We have mapped our findings to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF). In doing so, our data paints a mixed picture of lecture capture's Janus‐faced reality. On the one hand, it enhances lecturer self‐awareness, planning and conscious ‘performance’; on the other hand, it crushes spontaneity, impairs interaction and breeds wariness through constant surveillance. While the Teaching Excellence Framework rewards institutions for providing state‐of‐the‐art technology and lecture recording systems, our findings pose awkward questions as to whether lecture capture is making teaching more bland and instrumental, albeit neatly aligned to dimensions of the UKPSF. We provide contradictory evidence about lecture capture technology, embraced by students, yet tentatively adopted by most academics. The implications of our study are not straightforward, except to proceed with caution, valuing the benefits but ensuring that learning is not dehumanised through blind acceptance at the moment we press the record button.     

Application of demand-control theory to sign language interpreting: implications for stress and interpreter training

The translation work of sign language interpreters involves much more than language. The characteristics and goings-on in the physical environment, the dynamics and interactions between the people who are present, and even the "inner noise" of the interpreter contribute to the accuracy, or lack thereof, of the resulting translation. The competent interpreter must understand and respond appropriately to the language and nonlanguage aspects of each interpreting assignment. We use the framework of demand-control theory (Karasek, 1979) to examine the complex occupation of sign language interpreting. Demand-control theory is a job analysis method useful in studies of occupational stress and reduction of stress-related illness, injury, and burnout. We describe sources of demand in the interpreting profession, including demands that arise from factors other than those associated with languages (linguistic demands). These include environmental, interpersonal, and intrapersonal demands. Karasek's concept of control, or decision latitude, is also explored in relation to the interpreting profession. We discuss the prevalence of cumulative trauma disorders (CTD), turnover, and burnout in the interpreting profession in light of demand-control theory and data from interpreter surveys, including a new survey study described herein. We conclude that nonlinguistic demand factors in particular and perceived restrictions in decision latitude likely contribute to stress, CTD, burnout, and the resulting shortage of sign language interpreters. We make suggestions for improvements in interpreter education and professional development, including the institution of an advanced, supervised professional training period, modeled after internships common in other high demand professional occupations.     

Computer-assisted instruction for dispersed populations: System cost models

Provision of CAI of any sophistication requires-at least with present technology-the existence of a large central computing system. Thus, if rural regions or dispersed populations (e.g. deaf students) are to be able to share in the potential of CAI, an extensive communication system is required. This paper provides cost estimates for a CAI system capable of handling 1300 highly despersed student terminals; in order to do this it develops cost models for alternative te restrial and satellite communication systems. Perhaps the most interesting result to emerge from the analysis is the viability of a satellite based system; for average terminal to computer distances on the order of 500 miles there is a distinct advantage for satellite based systems. Assuming 2,000 hours per year usuage of the student erminals, the system cost for a satellite based system serving a highly dispersed population is $ 0.85 per student contact hour.This work was supported by Grant No. OEG-0-70-4797 from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, U.S. Office of Education, to the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences (IMSSS), Stanford University. Portions of the paper were previously presented at the XXII International Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, Brussels, September 1971, and at the International School on Computers in Education, Pugnochiuso, Italy, July 1972.John Ball is the manager of the Computer Based Laboratory of IMSSS; Dean Jamison is a staff member of IMSSS, Assistant Professor of Management Science, Graduate School of Business, and Assistant Professor (by courtesy), School of Education, Stanford University. The authors are indebted to J. E. G. Ferraz and Joanne Leslie Jamison for valuable assistance with this paper.