Which drop jump technique is most effective at enhancing countermovement jump ability, “countermovement” drop jump or “bounce” drop jump?

Abstract

The drop jump is a popular form of plyometric exercise often undertaken to enhance countermovement jump ability (jump height). Despite its popularity the effects of drop jump training on countermovement jump height are often inconsistent. Such inconsistencies may be as a result of differences in the drop jump technique being employed. Two recognised forms of drop jump are the “countermovement” drop jump and the “bounce” drop jump and the current study examined the effects of eight weeks of training with these drop jump techniques on countermovement jump height. Methods: A kinetic and kinematic analysis of each participant's countermovement jump, bounce- and countermovement drop jumps was undertaken prior to training. Participants were then randomly assigned to a bounce drop jump training group (n = 34), a countermovement drop jump training group (n = 35) or a control group (n = 34). Changes in jump height were examined following training. Results: The countermovement drop jump training group increased their countermovement jump height by 2.9 cm (6%), which was a significant change (P < 0.05) in comparison to that experienced by the bounce drop jump (-0.2 cm, -0.4%) and the control group (-0.1 cm, 0.2%). Conclusion: The countermovement drop jump may be more effective than the bounce drop jump at enhancing countermovement jump height.     

Bridge21: teamwork,technology and learning. A pragmatic model for effective twenty-first-century team-based learning

There have been calls for decades by many educational writers and commentators for a new model of learning to facilitate what is generally described as twenty-first-century learning. Central to this challenge is the required shift in responsibility for who leads and owns the learning – from teacher to student. Such a shift requires a pragmatic pedagogical model to facilitate the transfer of control and ownership of learning. Vygotsky’s ‘more able other’ identified the peer as a key figure in learning. Teamwork facilitates project-based learning and, when mediated with technology, proves an effective partner in creating an engaging and autonomous learning experience. This paper describes the rationale for the design of a team-based model of twenty-first-century learning, particularly drawing upon the team-based learning model of the World Scout Movement. Results from a year-long study of the implementation of the model in an out-of-school context with 288 second-level students are presented. The authors argue that Bridge21 is a candidate learning model for effective, implementable, twenty-first-century, team-based learning.     

Making the invisible visible: disciplinary literacy in secondary school classrooms

In Ireland, policy on literacy now aims to expand the role that post-primary teachers of all subjects have in developing students' literacy skills. This paper draws on data from a wider research study carried out in secondary schools in 2010 and focuses on the classroom support with disciplinary literacy provided by subject teachers for students who have literacy difficulties. A brief outline is provided of the context and perspectives informing the study as well as the research methods used. Findings are examined against the backdrop of policy developments for literacy at second level and within the context of wider policy change. Teachers' lack of professional knowledge, combined with barriers at wider system level, is identified as a significant challenge to pedagogical change at classroom level. Implications for policy implementation, for initial teacher education and for cultural change at school level are discussed. It is argued that literacy must be repositioned as a central aspect of subject pedagogy and teachers, as subject experts, supported in unpacking and sharing with students, the discourse practices and ways of viewing and communicating about the world that are characteristic of their academic disciplines.     

Social moderation,assessment and assuring standards for accounting graduates

Evidencing student achievement of standards is a growing imperative worldwide. Key stakeholders (including current and prospective students, government, regulators and employers) want confidence that threshold learning standards in an accounting degree have been assured. Australia’s new higher education regulatory environment requires that student achievements are benchmarked against intended programme learning outcomes, guided by published disciplinary standards and a national qualifications framework, and against other higher education providers. Here, we report on a process involving academics from 10 universities, aided by professional practitioners, to establish and equip assessors to reliably assure threshold learning standards in accounting that are nationally comparable. Importantly, we are learning more about how standards are interpreted. Based on the premise that meaning is constructed from tacit experiences, social interactions and intentional reflection on explicit information, we report outcomes of three multi-part calibration interventions, situated around judgements of the quality of the written communication skills exhibited in student work and their related assessment tasks. Qualitative data from 30 participants in the calibration process suggest that they perceive that the process both assists them both in developing a shared understanding of the accounting threshold learning standards and in the redesign of assessment tasks to more validly assess the threshold learning standards.     

Ultrastructure and phylogeny of Ustilago coicis

Ustilago coicis causes serious smut on Coix lacryma-jobi in Dayang Town, Jinyun County, Zhejiang Province of China. In this paper, ultrastructural assessments on fungus-host interactions and teliospore development are presented, and molecular phylogenetic analyses have been done to elucidate the phylogenetic placement of the taxon. Hyphal growth within infected tissues was both intracellular and intercellular and on the surface of fungus-host interaction, and the fungal cell wall and the invaginated host plasma membrane were separated by a sheath comprising two distinct layers between the fungal cell wall and the invaginated host plasma membrane. Ornamentation development of teliospore walls was unique as they appeared to be originated from the exosporium. In addition, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit (LSU) sequence data showed that U. coicis is closely related to Ustilago trichophora which infects grass species of the genus Echinochloa (Poaceae).     

Books on Broadcasting

Albert C. Book and Norman D. Cary's The Television Comercial: Creativity and Craftsmanship (Decker, $6.95 paperback)

Stuart N. Hyde's Television and Radio Announcing (Houghton-Hifflin, $9.95)

William O. Johnson Jr.'s Super Spectator and Electronic Lilliputian (Little-Brown, $6.95)     

EDITORS' NOTE

This study examines certain changes made within the Russian newspaper industry both before and after the political transformations occurring in the former Soviet Union. Although these changes began after Gorbachev came to power, the most dramatic changes took place after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The political economy perspective provides a useful means to explain the relation between these socioeconomic transitions and the newspaper industry. Since the failed coup of August 1991, the Russian media have attempted to adapt to conditions persistent with the free market economy. As a result of the free market economy, the Russian newspaper industry currently tends to depend on advertising revenue for survival.     

The call of conscience,rhetorical interruptions,and the euthanasia controversy

Emmanuel Levinas writes of how the “call of conscience”; is a “primordial discourse”; that “interrupts”; the routines and language‐games that help organize and give meaning to a person's everyday existence. Levinas thus provides a way of thinking about the relationship between the call of conscience and rhetoric that advances what rhetorical theorists have so far claimed about this relationship. This essay develops the position that the call of conscience is a rhetorical interruption in its purest form. A case study is offered to illustrate how such an interruption manifests itself in the debate over the justifiability and social acceptability of physician‐assisted suicide. The specific rhetorical transaction in question occurred in cyberspace and lasted five months; it began when members of a disability civil rights group known as “Not Dead Yet!”; conducted what their opponents described as an “invasion”; of an electronic mailing list operated by the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization.     

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND PLURALISM IN ZAMBIA

Today, Zambia has a comparatively unified, somewhat exceptional, approach to religious education despite a wide variety of predominantly Christian denominations. This article retraces the history of the development of religious education from when it was entirely confessional to the present time when it has become largely educational. In so doing it identifies some of the difficulties encountered and some of the problems that lie ahead in promoting an even more religiously pluralistic and educational approach to religious education in a country that has been declared a Christian nation.     

CHILDREN'S SPIRITUALITY AND “THE GOOD SHEPHERD EXPERIENCE”

This article aims to explore the connections between a religious education curriculum's methodology in the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia and some contemporary theories about children's spirituality. “The Good Shepherd Experience” curriculum is intended for use with 5- and 6-year-old children in the first years of formal schooling. It forms a part of the To Know, Worship and Love religious education text based curriculum, directed for use by schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne as a key text in the religious education curricula. In exploring connections with children's spirituality, this article analyzes “The Good Shepherd Experience” in terms of wonder (mystery-sensing, contingency, and dependability), play and imagination, and the ability to use religious language and concepts.