Enhancing narrative and reading fluency while becoming storyers

Storytelling has many values in the classroom setting, even though it is often given a low priority. Here Catherine Wildish recounts her experience of trying to develop children’s abilities to story and suggests that this has a great deal of value in developing their reading and writing.     

Measurement Challenges in Evaluation and Performance Improvement

Measurement and evaluation are integral to performance improvement efforts. In this article, we examine key definitions. After defining the terms measurement and evaluation, we apply the definitions to the concepts of performance and performance improvement and discuss challenges in using measurement in evaluation and performance improvement. We conclude by proposing a research agenda for measuring performance and its improvement.     

Who's right, Marshall or Jacobs? The localization versus urbanization debate

A large amount of literature provides empirical evidence in support of Marshall or Jacobs theories regarding the specialization or diversity effects on the economic performance of regions. This paper surveys these scholarly contributions and summarizes their results according to their similarities and differences. The reviewed empirical work presents a diverse picture of possible conditions and circumstances under which each kind of externalities could be at work. The wide breadth of findings is generally not explained by differences in the strength of agglomeration forces across industries, countries or time periods, but by measurement and methodological issues. The levels of industrial and geographical aggregation together with the choice of performance measures, specialization and diversity indicators are the main causes for the lack of resolution in the debate. The 3-digit industrial classification seems to be the level at which MAR and Jacobs effects are undistinguishable from one another, and this is often exacerbated by a high level of geographical aggregation.     

“You're going to want to find out which and prove it”: collective argumentation in a mathematics classroom

One of the proposals of the North American educational reform movement is that teachers should stress scientific argumentation more than the manipulation of symbols and algorithms in their mathematics instruction. The aim of this article is to apply some theoretical concepts, drawn from the fields of sociolinguistics and rhetoric, to the analysis of argumentation in a lesson conducted in an urban middle school classroom. Our analysis focuses on the implementation of the classroom teacher's instructional goals during a lesson on area measurement. As a result of our analyses, we found that she achieved her instructional goals of being nondirective in her teaching and getting students actively involved in arguing about mathematical concepts. The teacher was able to orchestrate discussion by recruiting attention and participation from her class, aligning students with argumentative positions through reported speech, highlighting positions through repetition, and pointing out important aspects of their arguments through expansion. In addition, we also found that her students differed in the way they framed the mathematical content of the lesson in terms of the facts or grounds, algorithms or warrants, premises or backings, as well as solutions or claims. Their arguments also varied in terms of explicitness and ability to integrate their classmates' arguments. In conclusion, we feel that discourse analysis, based on sociolinguistic and rhetorical theoretical frameworks, can be a valuable tool for the evaluation of educational reform in mathematics.     

Social Media Guidelines for Anatomists

Social Media has changed the way that individuals interact with each other - it has brought considerable benefits, yet also some challenges. Social media in anatomy has enabled anatomists all over the world to engage, interact and form new collaborations that otherwise would not have been possible. In a relatively small discipline where individuals may be working as the only anatomist in an institution, having such a virtual community can be important. Social media is also being used as a means for anatomists to communicate with the current generation of students as well as members of the public. Posting appropriate content is one of the challenges raised by social media use in anatomy. Human cadaveric material is frequently shared on social media and there is divided opinion among anatomists on whether or not such content is appropriate. This article explores the uses and challenges of social media use in the field of anatomy and outlines guidelines on how social media can be used by anatomists globally, while maintaining professional and ethical standards. Creating global guidelines has shown to be difficult due to the differences in international law for the use of human tissue and also the irregularities in acquiring informed consent for capturing and sharing cadaveric images. These nuances may explain why cadaveric images are frequently shared on social media. This article proposes that as standard practice, anatomists obtain informed consent from donors before sharing images of cadaveric material on social media and ensure posts include a statement stating the same.     

Beyond the academic precariat: a collective biography of poetic subjectivities in the neoliberal university

The ‘neoliberal turn’ in the higher education sector has received significant intellectual scrutiny in recent times. This scrutiny, led by many established academics working within the sector, has highlighted the negative repercussions for teaching and research staff, often referred to as the ‘academic precariat’ due to their tenuous employment prospects within an increasingly market-driven system. This critique of the modern university can also inadvertently position academics as either resisting or complying with neoliberal governance. This does not adequately account for the nuanced and poetic ways in which professional, personal and gendered subjectivities are formulated, intertwined and negotiated. In this paper we draw on the six overlapping yet distinct narratives of the six female authors, all early-career academics from Australia. We capture and analyse these narratives through collective biography, a qualitative methodology underpinned by the work of Davies and Gannon and others, that helps us to move beyond the ‘good vs. bad’, ‘resistance vs. compliance’ debates about academic life. We identify aspects of our lived subjectivities that offer rupture through poetic and hopeful ways of understanding how academics construct and negotiate their lives.     

Marking Physical Literacy or Missing the Mark on Physical Literacy? A Conceptual Critique of Canada’s Physical Literacy Assessment Instruments

Margaret Whitehead first introduced the concept of physical literacy over 20 years ago. Since that introduction, physical literacy has been gaining in popularity within many Western physical education and sport contexts. This is particularly true within Canada, where physical literacy has been embraced by two of the nation’s most notable national physical education and sport organizations (i.e., Physical and Health Education Canada, Canadian Sport for Life). As physical literacy has been generating interest and action by these organizations, they, and others, have been quick to also seek methods by which to measure it. However, it is our observation that despite the promises and possibilities of physical literacy resources, initiatives, and programs, Canada’s most accessible physical literacy assessment instruments are wanting for focused and direct contemplation. In this article, we offer a conceptual critique of the physical literacy assessment instruments being developed for and practices being encouraged within Canadian school communities. Our contemplations consider three physical literacy assessment instruments, and they are focused, principally, upon usability, trustworthiness, and fidelity to Whitehead’s conception of physical literacy. We conclude that the instruments differ in their ease of use and usefulness, some are lacking, markedly, with respect to trustworthiness, and some fail to capture physical literacy as Whitehead intended it. Finally, in light of these conclusions, we offer suggestions for future practice and inquiry.     

Cardiorespiratory fitness in urban adolescent girls: associations with race and pubertal status

Cardiorespiratory fitness affords health benefits to youth. Among females, weight-relative fitness declines during puberty and is lower among African American (AA) than Caucasian girls. Data indicate racial differences in pubertal timing and tempo, yet the interactive influence of puberty and race on fitness, and the role of physical activity (PA) in these associations have not been examined. Thus, independent and interactive associations of race and pubertal development with fitness in adolescent girls, controlling for PA were examined. Girls in grades 5–8 (n = 1011; Caucasian = 25.2%, AA = 52.3%, Other Race group = 22.5%) completed the Pubertal Development Scale (pubertal stage assessment) and Fitnessgram® Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test (cardiorespiratory fitness assessment). PA was assessed by accelerometry. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine associations among race, pubertal stage and fitness, controlling for vigorous PA, AA, and pubertally advanced girls demonstrated lower fitness than Caucasian and less mature counterparts. Puberty and race remained significantly associated with fitness after controlling for vigorous PA. The interaction effect of race and puberty on fitness was non-significant. The pubertal influence on fitness is observed among AA adolescents. Associations between fitness and race/puberty appear to be independent of each other and vigorous PA. Pubertally advanced AA girls represent a priority group for fitness interventions.     

Assessing practice-based influences on adolescent psychosocial development in sport: the activity context in youth sport questionnaire

The aim of this study was to provide initial evidence of validity and reliability of scores derived from the Activity Context in Youth Sport Questionnaire (ACYSQ), an instrument designed to offer a comprehensive assessment of the activities adolescents take part in during sport practices. Two studies were designed for the purposes of item development and selection, and to provide evidence of structural and criterion validity of ACYSQ scores, respectively (N = 334; M age = 14.93, SD = 1.76 years). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the adequacy of a 20-item ACYSQ measurement model, which was invariant across gender, and comprised the following dimensions: (1) stimulation; (2) usefulness-value; (3) authenticity; (4) repetition-boredom; and (5) ineffectiveness. Internal consistency reliability estimates and composite reliability estimates for ACYSQ subscale scores ranged from 0.72 to 0.91. In regression analyses, stimulation predicted enjoyment and perceived competence, ineffectiveness was significantly associated with perceived competence and authenticity emerged as a predictor of commitment in sport. These findings indicate that the ACYSQ displays adequate psychometric properties and the use of the instrument may be useful for studying selected activity-based features of the practice environment and their motivational consequences in youth sport.