Accuracy of qualitative analysis for assessment of skilled baseball pitching technique

Baseball pitching must be performed with correct technique if injuries are to be avoided and performance maximized. High-speed video analysis is accepted as the most accurate and objective method for evaluation of baseball pitching mechanics. The aim of this research was to develop an equivalent qualitative analysis method for use with standard video equipment. A qualitative analysis protocol (QAP) was developed for 24 kinematic variables identified as important to pitching performance. Twenty male baseball pitchers were videotaped using 60 Hz camcorders, and their technique evaluated using the QAP, by two independent raters. Each pitcher was also assessed using a 6-camera 200 Hz Motion Analysis system (MAS). Four QAP variables (22%) showed significant similarity with MAS results. Inter-rater reliability showed agreement on 33% of QAP variables. It was concluded that a complete and accurate profile of an athlete's pitching mechanics cannot be made using the QAP in its current form, but it is possible such simple forms of biomechanical analysis could yield accurate results before 3-D methods become obligatory.     

Does Interpretive Test Score Information Help Teachers?

To what extent do teachers possess the competence to interpret state testing program results properly?     

Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?

This article looks at the work of Elizabeth Blackwell (1707–1758), by all accounts the first British female herbalist. To raise funds to free her husband from debtors prison, she produced her hand drawn, engraved and coloured ‘Curious Herbal’ in 1735. Using the copies of the herbal in the British Library, the article will look at the circumstances surrounding production of the herbal, her influences and sources used, including the people who recommended production of the book to the Society of Apothecaries and some of the current projects to put her name back on the map.     

Fault Tree Analysis: An emerging methodology for instructional science

Fault Tree Analysis is a systematic approach to improving the probability of succes in any system. FTA was first developed as part of the U.S. Space Industry and was applied to such programs as the Minute Man Missile evaluations. Kent G. Stephens has successfully applied the technique to instructional and administrative programs, the latest program being the development of an FTA Institute for the Training Command of the United States Navy. More than a million dollars are being allocated to that program. R. Kent Wood has used the FTA methodology as a tool for a national needs assessment of teacher use of library media centers in the United States (NATUL Project). Bruce Barker has used the FTA methodology in religious education curriculum development. Because of the newness of the Fault Tree Analysis, coupled with its rapid acceptance as a tool for systems analysis and its very different approach of analyzing possible modes of failure in systems to increase the probability of success, this article is timely as the most complete coverage of FTA to date.