Waldorf education in an inner-city public school

In 1991, the first public Waldorf school was opened in the inner city of Milwaukee. Based on a week of observations by the authors, this article reports the significant achievements of the school. In classrooms, we observed mostly whole-class lessons well structured around the natural rhythms of body movement, language, and social interaction; most of the children were constantly engaged with the curriculum. Misbehavior was handled directly and lovingly. The children performed remarkably well on standardized tests. Faculty discussions on the nature of Waldorf education and its use in a racially charged and poor neighborhood were both heated and productive.     

Addressing the challenge of legitimate international comparisons of classroom practice

In this article, we address the choice of suitable instructional units that might serve as the basis for cross-cultural analyses of classroom practice. Our argument draws on analyses undertaken as part of the Learner's Perspective Study (LPS). The database comprised a three-camera video record of sequences of 10 consecutive lessons in each classroom, supplemented by post-lesson video-stimulated interviews with teachers and students: a total of over 180 videotaped lessons, over 50 teacher interviews and almost 400 student interviews. The results of these analyses challenge the suitability of the lesson as the unit of comparative analysis. In particular, the location of the lesson in the topic sequence is seen to be a key influence on the lesson's structure, critically affecting the teacher's deployment of the constituent activities that we have called ‘lesson events.’ The lesson event is proposed as an alternative unit of international comparative analysis of classroom practice.     

The components of the female athlete triad do not identify all physically active females at risk

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of the triad components (amenorrhoea, disordered eating, and osteoporosis) in identifying physically active women at risk of long-term health problems. Eighty-two females (mean age 31.1 years, s = 6.7; body mass 58.4 kg, s = 6.6; stature 1.65 m, s = 0.06) completed training, menstrual, and dietary questionnaires. Bone mineral density and size-adjusted bone mineral density were assessed at the femoral neck and lumbar spine using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Seventy-eight percent of participants were eumenorrhoeic, 20% were oligomenorrhoeic, and 2% were amenorrhoeic. Thirty-six percent and 55% reported disordered eating practices in the present and past respectively. Eighty-one percent, 17%, and 2% were classified as normal, osteopaenic, and osteoporotic at the femoral neck respectively; 92% were normal, 7% osteopaenic, and 1% osteoporotic at the lumbar spine. No significant differences in femoral neck size-adjusted bone mineral density were observed between eumenorrhoeic and oligo/amenorrhoeic participants (F _2,80 = 0.119, P = 0.73); eumenorrhoeic participants had significantly greater lumbar spine size-adjusted bone mineral density (F _2,80 = 9.79, P = 0.003). Disordered eating participants had significantly lower femoral neck size-adjusted bone mineral density than those reporting no disordered eating (F _2,80 = 13.816, P = 0.000). Twenty-two percent of participants fulfilled triad criteria, while 55% were “at risk” of long-term health problems. An accumulation of conditions resulted in lower lumbar spine size-adjusted bone mineral density (F _1,80 = 6.074, P = 0.004). The current triad components do not identify all women “at risk” and more appropriate criteria such as exercise-related menstrual alterations, disordered eating, and osteopaenia are suggested.     

Estimation of Maximum Oxygen Uptake in Adults from AAHPER Youth Fitness Test Items

Abstract

The validity of estimating maximum oxygen uptake from AAHPER Youth Fitness Test items was determined utilizing 87 adult subjects. Multiple correlations were obtained utilizing the motor fitness items as independent variables. Three dependent variables were investigated for relationship to the independent variables (gross O₂ uptake, O₂ uptake/kg body wt., O₂ uptake/kg lean body wt.). The multiple correlation of the AAHPER items with O₂ uptake/kg body wt. (0.760) was higher than with the other two variables. It was determined by multiple regression techniques that a subset of four of the independent variables could be used to get an estimate of O₂ uptake/kg body wt. with an associated standard error of ± 12 percent of the estimated values. This was compared with the standard errors of more complicated estimation methods.     

Conceptualizing effectiveness in disability research

Policies promoting evidence-based practice in education typically endorse evaluations of the effectiveness of teaching strategies through specific experimental research designs and methods. A number of researchers have critiqued this approach to evaluation as narrow and called for greater methodological sophistication. This paper discusses the value and complexity of working within and against the experimental research model in disability research by simultaneously engaging in inclusive research practices. A study is presented to support the discussion using case examples of researching on/for/with young people diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The study incorporated a single-case research design to investigate the impact of an educational practice. The investigation was co-constructed and co-evaluated by students, parents and teachers to consider multiple pathways and perspectives on the intervention's impact on students' progress towards their goals. Deleuzian thinking was employed as a framework for producing different forms of knowledge and to help negotiate the tension existing between the processes of experimental and inclusive research. The study is both complicit with and a critique of traditional research approaches, by working partially within the experimental and inclusive models and reflecting on the benefits and limitations of each.     

Teacher training and transitions in rural Indonesian schools: a case study of Bogor,West Java

As one of the world's largest and most diverse countries, Indonesia faces an enormous challenge as it seeks to upgrade the skills and knowledge of its widespread primary teacher workforce. This challenge is even more acute in remote rural areas, where practising teachers require specialized training to work in classrooms with children of different ages and grades. Yet, due to their remote locations, these teachers have little access to training opportunities, and teacher educators have few opportunities to assess their needs. To explore training needs and instructional strategies employed by rural teachers, we conducted a case study of nine rural schools in the district of Bogor, West Java. We interviewed headmasters and teachers in these schools, instructors at a major Indonesian university, and a district official. We found that while rural teachers generally consider their training to be helpful, they receive little guidance to help them manage and teach large multigrade classes. As a result, pedagogical practices and perspectives vary across nine schools in the same rural district. At the same time, a growing number of “contract teachers” in these schools has reduced the number of multigrade classrooms while increasing the need for training of novice teachers in rural schools.     

An Evaluation of a Children's Safety Training Programme

This paper reports an experimental evaluation of a children's safety training programme,Kidscape, which aims to increase primary school children's ability to deal with four types of potentially unsafe situation: being bullied, being approached by a stranger, being subject to inappropriate intimacy from a known adult and to pressure from such adults to keep such intimacy secret. Assessments of children's safety awareness were carried out in three schools which used the programme, and in three matched control schools which did not, with children at two age levels, 6 years and 10 years. These assessments of children's awareness were made on three occasions: before, immediately after and 2‐3 months after the training programme for the experimental sample (60 children) and on corresponding occasions for the control sample (60 children). The results revealed a significant improvement in the safety awareness of the experimental (trained) group after training and also a significant difference between the groups, in favour of the trained group. However, an improved performance of the control (untrained) group suggests that factors other than the Kidscape programme itself may influence these differences. Age differences in children's wariness of the four safety situations are also discussed.     

The ‘Naturals’ and Victorian Cambridge: reflections on the anatomy of an elite, 1851‐1914

Abstract

abstract There is plenty of evidence that Britain has underinvested in education and now has a smaller base of educated manpower than many industrial competitors. While much debate has centred on what the government can do about it, the government itself now places much hope on the private sector. Yet much government and business policy is at odds with this objective which seems to owe more to romanticism about capitalism than to hard‐headed appreciation of where the market really can deliver the educational goods by creating appropriate private incentives.