New methods for an old debate: Utilizing reader response to investigate the relationship between collaboration and quality in academic journal articles

There has been a longstanding debate about the merits of collaborative research, with most studies focusing on the citation advantage of such research. However, citation studies provide only one lens on the issues. New methods of inquiry are necessary to incorporate other audiences of scholarly literature. Reader response surveys were used to evaluate the quality of collaborative versus single-authored research. Graduate students in three sections of the same library and information science course during the 2010 academic year used surveys to rate each week's assigned readings according to overall quality, usefulness for class discussion, and enjoyability. Students voted whether to keep each article in the reading list for the following semester. Data were analyzed to compare results for single-author versus multi-author works. Multi-author works were favored over single-author. These findings provide another layer of empirical support for the benefits of collaborative research and inform both scientometricians and educators.     

Changes in Friendship Commitment: Comparing Geographically Close and Long-Distance Young-Adult Friendships

The existence of long-distance (LD) friendships throws into question assumptions that scholars of interpersonal communication often make about commitment to relationships, the development of relationships, and friendships. An analysis of turning points comparing commitment changes in young-adult geographically close and LD same-sex friendships revealed high and fluctuating levels of commitment over the history of the friendships for both types. Over 80% of those having LD friends reported their levels of commitment were currently increasing, rather than decreasing. Women were more likely than men to report nonlinear trajectories for their friendships, more downturns in commitment to their friendships, and more turning points related to changes in commitment to their friendships.     

Faculty Members' Perceptions of Teacher Preparation Programs

This research study examined faculty members' reaction to criticisms about the quality and design of teacher preparation programs at schools and colleges of education. The researchers found that there is confusion among teacher preparation professionals about their programs and research. The study also showed that, in general, teacher educators are resistant to change.     

Are Multiple-choice Items Too Fat?

ABSTRACT

The evidence is mounting regarding the guidance to employ more three-option multiple-choice items. From theoretical analyses, empirical results, and practical considerations, such items are of equal or higher quality than four- or five-option items, and more items can be administered to improve content coverage. This study looks at 58 tests, including state achievement, college readiness, and credentialing tests. The evidence here supports previous assertions. The article also clarifies distractor functioning criteria and offers a typology of items via distractor functioning.     

Becoming connected,being caring

This paper highlights perspectives on action research in education, health and social care and was originally presented as a keynote at the International Practitioner Research Conference and Collaborative Action Research Conference in 2005. The paper links with the other conference keynote given by Stephen Kemmis, co‐author of Becoming Critical. It reflects on the importance of Being Caring in action research in the context of health and social care; particularly in relation to emotionally supporting practitioners to improve their practice in settings which do not always welcome more emancipatory or critical approaches often used in education. The paper begins by exploring the nature of practitioner research and action research in health and social care and its links with quality. It argues that health and social care professionals have often drawn their methodological understanding from the literature written by colleagues in education. This literature tends to support critical and emancipatory forms of action research, which health and social care professionals have tended to adopt in an uncritical manner. Reflecting on some of the contextual constraints in health and social care, it argues that many of these factors are beyond the control of individual practitioners and suggests a need to focus on the neglected area of emotions, in addition to, contextual issues. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach an example of psychodynamically informed action research is given. The paper concludes that in the quest to be critical, practitioner researchers/action researchers in education, health and social care may be ignoring the emotional contexts in which they work. It suggests that being caring may be the key to being critical.     

Characterizing the human experience of reform in an urban middle-school context

This narrative inquiry portrays the human experience of change by way of a situated account of a reform event. Three conceptualizations ground storied the analysis: the metaphor of the 'professional knowledge landscape' of schools; the 'narrative authority' of teacher knowledge; and the notion that teachers have knowledge communities with whom they make sense of their teaching experiences. The paper shows how past and present forces conspired together in perplexing ways to shape the contours of what the teachers--and the researcher--came to know of the reform event.     

Forthcoming events

The aim of this study was to examine mental imagery within the context of the deliberate practice framework. Altogether, 159 athletes from one of three different competitive standards (recreational, provincial and national) completed the Deliberate Imagery Practice Questionnaire, which was designed for the present study to assess the athletes' perceptions of the importance of imagery along the three deliberate practice dimensions of relevancy, concentration and enjoyment. The results indicated that national athletes perceived imagery to be more relevant to performing than recreational athletes. In addition, athletes of a higher standard (i.e. provincial and national) reported using more imagery in a recent typical week and they had accumulated significantly more hours of imagery practice across their athletic career than recreational athletes. Finally, the relationships among the dimensions of deliberate practice did not lend conclusive support to either the original conception of deliberate practice or a sports-specific framework of deliberate practice.     

Fatigue Effects on the Timing Performance of Well-Practiced Subjects

Abstract

In an attempt to extend the laws of fatigue to the performance of highly practiced subjects, 24 college males were trained for four days (50 trials/day) on a coincident timing task prior to manipulation of the fatigue variable. On day 5, motor performance was immediately preceded by either local fatigue (static exercise), general fatigue (treadmill running), or no fatigue. Increased variable error was found for both local and general fatigue subjects as compared with controls on the first block of five trials following fatigue. However, by block 2 this difference had diminished. A constant error analysis on the first and second postfatigue trials revealed transitory overshooting of the criterion timing response for local fatigue subjects and undershooting for general fatigue subjects. The results suggested that local and general fatigue may alter the timing mechanism in different ways and that both are sources of at least transient decrements in the performance of well-practiced subjects.     

Urinary creatine and methylamine excretion following 4 × 5 g · day−1 or 20 × 1 g · day−1 of creatine monohydrate for 5 days

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effect of two creatine monohydrate supplementation regimes on 24-h urinary creatine and methylamine excretion. Nine male participants completed two trials, separated by 6 weeks. Participants ingested 4 × 5 g · day^?1 creatine monohydrate for 5 days in one trial and 20 × 1 g · day^?1 for 5 days in the other. We collected 24-h urine samples on 2 baseline days (days 1–2), during 5 days of supplementation (days 3–7), and for 2 days post-supplementation (days 8–9). Urine was assayed for creatine using high-performance liquid chromatography and methylamine using gas chromatography. Less creatine was excreted following the 20 × 1 g · day^?1 regime (49.25 ± 10.53 g) than the 4 × 5 g · day^?1 regime (62.32 ± 9.36 g) (mean ± s; P < 0.05). Mean total excretion of methylamine (n = 6) over days 3–7 was 8.61 ± 7.58 mg and 24.81 ± 25.76 mg on the 20 × 1 g · day^?1 and 4 × 5 g · day^?1 regimes, respectively (P < 0.05). The lower excretion of creatine using 20 × 1 g · day^?1 doses suggests a greater retention in the body and most probably in the muscle. Lower and more frequent doses of creatine monohydrate appear to further attenuate formation of methylamine.     

The relationship between bowling action classification and three-dimensional lower trunk motion in fast bowlers in cricket

Abstract

Lower back injuries, specifically lumbar stress fractures, account for the most lost playing time in professional cricket. The aims of this study were to quantify the proportion of lower trunk motion used during the delivery stride of fast bowling and to examine the relationship between the current fast bowling action classification system and potentially injurious kinematics of the lower trunk. Three-dimensional kinematic data were collected from 50 male professional fast bowlers during a standing active range of motion trial and three fast bowling trials. A high percentage of the fast bowlers used a mixed bowling action attributable to having shoulder counter-rotation greater than 30°. The greatest proportion of lower trunk extension (26%), contralateral side-flexion (129%), and ipsilateral rotation (79%) was used during the front foot contact phase of the fast bowling delivery stride. There was no significant difference in the proportions of available lower trunk extension, contralateral side-flexion, and ipsilateral rotation range of motion used during fast bowling by mixed and non-mixed action bowlers. Motion of the lower trunk, particularly side-flexion, during front foot contact, in addition to variables previously known to be related to back injury (e.g. shoulder counter-rotation), should be examined in future cross-sectional and prospective studies examining the fast bowling action and low back injury.