Development of Preservice Teachers’ Ability to Critique and Adapt Inquiry-based Instructional Materials

Current standards emphasize student engagement with inquiry practices. However, implementing inquiry instruction is a formidable challenge for teachers as they often lack models for using and adapting inquiry-based instructional materials. Teacher education programs can provide scaffolded contexts for developing teachers’ ability to critique, adapt, and design inquiry-based materials. We describe a qualitative study of 17 preservice teachers enrolled in two consecutive science methods courses. The study characterizes the development of preservice teachers’ ability to critique and revise instructional materials. Our findings suggest that teachers improved in their ability to critique lesson plans and to suggest revisions that would make them more inquiry oriented. In particular, the teachers’ critiques and revisions increased in sophistication after engaging in instructional design activities during the second methods course.     

Sexual Bullying in Secondary Schools

Neil Duncan suggests that because of the theoretical perspectives of many of the main researchers involved in investigating bullying, important aspects of this phenomenon have been neglected. Based on findings from research into sexual bullying, it is suggested that the sexual identities formed during adolescence play an important part in producing the kinds of behaviour which are involved in bullying in general. The research findings reported here were the result of structured interviews (themselves developed from earlier work) undertaken with single‐sex groups of boys and girls. The data that these interviews generated have important implications for both researchers and those working with young people in secondary schools.     

Women and Leisure in Feminist Fiction

Leisure–defined as a state of mind characterized by feelings of freedom, pleasure, and growth–is employed as a vehicle for examining changing women's roles in feminist fiction. Such fiction suggests that many women experience a dearth of leisure in the traditional roles of wife, homemaker, and mother. Women who assume these roles more often view their lives as dominated by antileisure, that is, by activity undertaken compulsively, as a means to an end, and from a perception of necessity. In the novels chosen for consideration, a pattern emerges. The sequence of getting married, making a home, and having children means an increasing abridgement of leisure for women, while this same sequence results in an increasing realization of leisure for men. The recurring theme in this literature is that women, like men, have compelling leisure needs which may take them beyond the bounds of homemaking and child-rearing.     

Associations of object control motor skill proficiency,game play competence,physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness among primary school children

This study investigated if object control relates to children’s game play competence, and examined these competencies as correlates of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness. Game play (Game Performance Assessment Instrument), object control (The Test Gross Motor Development-3), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (Accelerometry), and cardiorespiratory fitness (20-metre shuttle) assessments were completed for 107 children (57% Female, 43% Male) aged 9–12 years (M 10.53, SD 0.65). Two-level regression of object control on game play competence, and object control and game play competence on physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness assessed associations. Object control competence was positively associated with game play competence (Std. B = 0.25, t (104.77) = 2.38, p = 0.001). Game play competence (Std. B = 0.33, t (99.81) = 5.21, p < 0.000) was more strongly associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than object control competence (Std. B = 0.20, t (106.93) = 2.96, p = 0.003). Likewise, game competence (Std. B = 0.39, t (104.41) = 4.36, p < 0.000) was more strongly associated with cardiorespiratory fitness than object control competence (Std. B = 0.22, t (106.69) = 2.63, p = 0.002). Object control and game competence are both important as correlates of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in children.     

The Firstborn is Dead: Infanticide in the Academy

Abstract

Why is sport history, despite the central position it plays in the examination of core issues such as gender, race, nationalism and other identities, still marginalized within the historical discipline? This brief reflection on the subject suggests – in broad terms – that this remains the case because many practitioners lack the ambition, or the imagination, to break free from well-worn areas of research and publication outlets. If sports historians consistently fail to recognize opportunities to examine new topics and publish in high-ranking non-sport journals, the historical ‘mainstream’ will continue to refer to ‘classic’, yet outdated, texts that ultimately demean both parties. As shown in the article, this blinkered approach is exacerbated by current trends in higher education funding and recruitment.