Relationship between foot strike pattern,running speed,and footwear condition in recreational distance runners

Compared to competitive runners, recreational runners appear to be more prone to injuries, which have been associated with foot strike patterns. Surprisingly, only few studies had examined the foot strike patterns outside laboratories. Therefore, this study compared the foot strike patterns in recreational runners at outdoor tracks with previously reported data. We also investigated the relationship between foot strike pattern, speed, and footwear in this cohort. Among 434 recreational runners analysed, 89.6% of them landed with rearfoot strike (RFS). Only 6.9 and 3.5% landed with midfoot and forefoot, respectively. A significant shift towards non-RFS was observed in our cohort, when compared with previously reported data. When speed increased by 1 m/s, the odds of having forefoot strike and midfoot strike relative to RFS increased by 2.3 times and 2.6 times, respectively. Runners were 9.2 times more likely to run with a forefoot strike in minimalists compared to regular running shoes, although 70% of runners in minimalists continued to use a RFS. These findings suggest that foot strike pattern may differ across running conditions and runners should consider these factors in order to mitigate potential injury.     

Borders and Intersections of Possibility: Multilingual Repertoires of Refugee Families in the Southwest U.S.

This study examines the linguistic and cultural intersections of recently arrived Somali Bantu refugee students in South Texas through the lens of border theory. The use of Spanish in the homes of refugee families is explored in addition to ways in which an educator used testimonios to honor students’ migration experiences. Findings show how specific approaches used in schools that affirm both the receiving communities’ and the new arrivals' local knowledge can have a lasting impact on literacy acquisition and resettlement experiences. Findings from this study also illuminate the potential impact of educators who develop a critical, inquiry stance by embedding multiple entry points for students to cross social, cultural, linguistic, and curricular borders in school.     

Self-recording in kindergarten: A study in naturalistic evaluation

When kindergarten children began to self-record their own progress in skills targeted across the curriculum, there was a distinct increase in their rate of achieving these skills. It is argued that this has significant implications for a comprehensive, naturalistic evaluation in the classroom, with many benefits and few costs.     

Brain Health Knowledge in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Aging and its effects on a person's quality of life are a growing health concern and burden for many Americans. Recently, studies have shown that adopting certain healthy behaviors may help maintain and or prevent age-related health issues such as cognitive decline. However, many people are unaware of these newfound facts. Furthermore, there is insufficient research evidence to understand how older adults view brain health and the differences between diverse groups of older adults. This study examines brain health knowledge and behaviors among Caucasian and African-American community-dwelling older adults in North Carolina. Findings were significant for level of education and total brain health knowledge scores, though there were no significant differences between races. In addition, there was a significant association between total number of health conditions and total brain health knowledge scores that warrants further study.     

Supporting teachers in making innovative changes in the use of computer‐aided practical work to support concept development in physics education

There continues to be a gulf between what have been identified from the literature as the potential benefits of using computer‐aided practical work and the difficulties of realizing them as reported by practising teachers, even from those who are committed to the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This article reports on a pilot study that aimed to explore ways in which teachers could be supported as they explore the extent to which this approach could enhance the development of pupils’ understanding of physics concepts. The study was based on a collaborative partnership between a researcher and a classroom teacher. The indications are that there is the potential for considerable benefits from such an approach, with the need for further development of materials and teaching methods being identified.