The Effects of Training and Position on Judges' Ratings of a Gymnastic Event

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of training and position on judges' ratings of a gymnastic event. Twenty-four women judged the performance of the squat vault by 40 college women. The judges were divided into four groups. Two groups received written training, and two groups, extensive training. After completing their training, one written group and one extensive group viewed the performances from the side of the vaulting box; the other two groups viewed from the front of the vaulting box. Judge position and judge training were found to have significant effects upon judges' ratings. Significantly lower ratings were given by the judges who viewed the vault from the front and had received extensive training.     

Performance tolerance and boat set‐up in elite sprint Kayaking

The aim of this study was to examine the inter‐relationship between athlete morphology, equipment set‐up and performance in elite sprint kayaking. Correlations applied to data from the 2000 Olympics were used to select the most important links between morphology and boat set‐up — paddle grip width and foot‐bar distance. Associations between body size and the above selected equipment set‐ups were calculated using a Pearson correlation matrix, to facilitate the logical selection of independent variables as input for regression analyses. Significant (p < 0.01) regression equations were developed for the prediction of foot‐bar distance (r² = 0.589: standard error of estimate (SEE) = 4.48) and paddle grip width (r² = 0.541: SEE = 3.08). Three national‐standard sprint kayakers used their preferred set‐up together with modifications of their predicted set‐up, derived from Olympic data, to test performance tolerance in sprint kayaking. Mean coefficients of multiple determination over three trials for the three paddlers of 0.91, 0.91 and 0.92 for left paddle force, right paddle force, and paddle angle at water entry, respectively, were recorded when using their preferred set‐up. These data showed that the paddlers produce consistent patterns of motion. The intervention of altering the boat set‐up resulted in varying changes to boat speed. The mean preferred speed for the three paddlers of 4.47 m/s was reduced by 0.07 and 0.10 m/s when the above boat set‐up was modified to a predicted and ‘predicted plus one standard deviation’ respectively. These changes in boat speed were the result of alterations in the mechanics of paddling technique.     

Forthcoming events

Quantitative analysis of sports performance has been shown to produce information that coaches can use within the coaching process to enhance performance. Traditional methods for quantifying sport performances are limited in their capacity to describe the complex interactions of events that occur within a performance over time. In this paper, we outline a new approach to the analysis of time-based event records and real-time behaviour records on sport performance known as T-pattern detection. The relevant elements of the T-pattern detection process are explained and exemplar data from the analysis of 13 soccer matches are presented to highlight the potential of this form of analysis. The results from soccer suggest that it is possible to identify new profiles for both individuals and teams based on the analysis of temporal behavioural patterns detected within the performances.     

Language in Art and Art in Language

The National Curriculum is bringing a systematic attention to the place of language in the teaching and learning of Art, but may be suppressing some of the liveliness of language in art. Art teaches a specialist vocabulary with benefits beyond the art lesson, but there are dangers (and opportunities) in the use of words in art which have different meanings elsewhere. Art rooms have traditionally promoted a rich variety of language uses, but new pressures could lead to formulaic didactic lessons with too little pupil discussion. One language use in art, from which English teachers could learn, is discussion about the aesthetic qualities of artefacts which pupils make or are shown. English teaching too often treats poems as documentaries, but art can teach pupils to use words for looking and thinking about artefacts in their own terms. A danger here, in art as in English, is that introducing a canon can encourage talking about art in second-hand language which does not connect with pupils’ experiences. Language would drive a model of pedagogy in which experience and perception inform the formation of new concepts, then new concepts inform the search for new experience and perception, in an ascending spiral of aesthetic understanding which could also be both a pleasure and an education of the feelings.     

Consequences of "minimal" group affiliations in children

Three experiments (total N=140) tested the hypothesis that 5-year-old children's membership in randomly assigned "minimal" groups would be sufficient to induce intergroup bias. Children were randomly assigned to groups and engaged in tasks involving judgments of unfamiliar in-group or out-group children. Despite an absence of information regarding the relative status of groups or any competitive context, in-group preferences were observed on explicit and implicit measures of attitude and resource allocation (Experiment 1), behavioral attribution, and expectations of reciprocity, with preferences persisting when groups were not described via a noun label (Experiment 2). In addition, children systematically distorted incoming information by preferentially encoding positive information about in-group members (Experiment 3). Implications for the developmental origins of intergroup bias are discussed.     

Proximity and Distance: Moral Education and Mass Communication

The renewed interest in moral education in Britain has taken only limited cognisance of contemporary social conditions, particularly regarding mass communications and the revolution in information technology. These have had the effect of reducing distance to proximity and have left individuals with choices in areas where no choice formerly existed. It can, however, be argued that moral issues have always been concerned with choices concerning proximity and distance. Thus the proximity/distance polarity serves as a useful conceptual framework for many aspects of moral education in schools, though one which is problematised by both poststructuralist thinking and developments in mass communication.     

Real-time simulation in computer-assisted instruction

Large scale computer-assisted instruction systems generally impose severe constraints upon the demands that individual users may make. Nevertheless, it is possible to overcome these problems and a program is described which teaches students how to fly a specific maneuver through real-time simulation of the flight of a student-controlled airplane. This is achieved in spite of the fact that the student is flying his plane through the use of a manually controlled analog input device. Both computational and educational implications are discussed.Contractual support for this work was provided in part by the Life Sciences Program Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Contract number F44620-70-C-0105. Dr. Charles Hutchinson was the scientific monitor of the contract.     

Textbook treatments and students' understanding of acceleration

This paper has been accepted for publication in theJournal of Research in Science Teaching. Copies are available from Gloria Dall'Alba, ERADU, RMIT, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne. Vic. 3001.     

Toward a Multidimensional Perspective on Teacher-Coach Role Conflict

Research grounded in role theory and occupational socialization theory point to the potential consequences of occupying the roles of physical education teacher and athletic coach concurrently. Specifically, time constraints and inconsistencies in role requirements, organization, rewards, and modes of accountability in teaching and coaching create challenges and may force some teacher/coaches to choose one role as primary to the detriment of the other role. However, most of this research has diminished or altogether neglected the impact of individual identity and social context on the experience of role conflict. The purpose of this paper is to review research related to role conflict in the dual role of teacher/coaches and to propose a conceptual model for viewing teacher/coaches role conflict from a multidimensional perspective. Finally, a case is made for a revitalization of teacher/coaches role conflict research in physical education.     

DEVELOPMENTAL MATHEMATICS: AN EX POST FACTO STUDY

Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) conducted a two‐year follow‐up of its developmental mathematics students. The students left a statistical path that led to some important implications about the efficiency of VWCC's program and that identified some variables and relationships that other developmental educators may want to investigate. Some major findings were: (1) Blacks and males enrolled in and failed developmental mathematics at significantly higher rates than whites and females. (2) Female instructors exhibited significantly higher pass rates than male instructors, and there appeared to be an interaction between the sex of the instructors and the sex of the students. (3) The developmental program effectively prepared its graduates for all of the college level mathematics courses except business mathematics. (4) The pass rates of the developmental teachers varied significantly, but there was no correlation between their pass rates and the college level success rates of their graduates.