Fredonia designs socioethical assessment measures

Since the Slate University of New York (SUNY) College at Fredonia revised its general education program seven years ago, all students have been required to take courses in international or cross-cultural subjects. Under the same program, faculty now connect introductory courses with other disciplines, teach the history of subjects, and discuss biases, values, and contradictory views. Minda Rae Amiran, dean for liberal and continuing education, describes the program designed at her institution.     

Correlation between maximum in-shoe plantar pressures and clubhead speed in amateur golfers

Disagreements exist in the literature regarding the manner in which weight should be dynamically shared during the golf swing, both within-feet and between the back- and target-foot, to generate maximal clubhead speed. The purpose of this study was to determine whether preferential foot-loading locations underlie weight sharing by examining the correlation between clubhead speed and maximum plantar pressure (PP) distributions. Thirty-two amateur golfers with handicap indexes ranging from 2.7 to 25 performed 10 driver swings on artificial turf following a warm-up. PP distributions were recorded at 100 Hz, and clubhead speed was recorded using a ball-tracking Doppler radar system. Maximum PPs were extracted from a 2-s window approximately centred on ball contact and were regressed against clubhead speed. Significance was assessed over the entire foot surface using statistical parametric mapping (SPM), a spatially continuous technique. SPM revealed, at relatively high anatomical resolution, significant positive correlations between clubhead speed and PPs in the lateral target-foot (P < 0.05). This suggests that not only weight transfer but also weight-transfer location may be an important determinant of clubhead speed in amateur golfers.     

The impact of students’ prior attitude on the processing of conflicting videos: a comparison between middle-school and undergraduate students

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of students’ prior attitude on the processing of conflicting information regarding a...     

Beyond Useful Knowledge: Developing the Subjective Self

While not underestimating the value of useful knowledge and skills, it is suggested that education should also develop the subjective self of the learner. A distinction is drawn between an ‘additive’ view of education which simply furnishes the individual with knowledge and skills and a ‘transformative’ concept which concerns itself with changes to more central parts of the learner's self. In developing a concept of the subjective self, reference is made to the Enlightenment notion of the autonomous rational self and the interpersonal or cultural self of the Symbolic Interactionists and Communitarians. Particular attention, however, is given to Heidegger's three categories of entities experienced by the phenomenological self: the ‘present at hand’, the ‘ready to hand’ and those entities with whom we share the experience of ‘being with’. An attempt is made to interpret important aspects of education in terms of the development of learners' growing knowledge and deepening understanding of these three kinds of entity and the relation in which they stand to them.     

Effects of active, passive or no warm-up on metabolism and performance during high-intensity exercise

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of type of warm-up on metabolism and performance during high-intensity exercise. Eight males performed 30 s of intense exercise at 120% of their maximal power output followed, 1 min later, by a performance cycle to exhaustion, again at 120% of maximal power output. Exercise was preceded by active, passive or no warm-up (control). Muscle temperature, immediately before exercise, was significantly elevated after active and passive warm-ups compared to the control condition (36.9 +/- 0.18 degrees C, 36.8 +/- 0.18 degrees C and 33.6 +/- 0.25 degrees C respectively; mean +/- sx) (P< 0.05). Total oxygen consumption during the 30 s exercise bout was significantly greater in the active and passive warm-up trials than in the control trial (1017 +/- 22, 943 +/- 53 and 838 +/- 45 ml O2 respectively). Active warm-up resulted in a blunted blood lactate response during high-intensity exercise compared to the passive and control trials (change = 5.53 +/- 0.52, 8.09 +/- 0.57 and 7.90 +/- 0.38 mmol x l(-1) respectively) (P < 0.05). There was no difference in exercise time to exhaustion between the active, passive and control trials (43.9 +/- 4.1, 48.3 +/- 2.7 and 46.9 +/- 6.2 s respectively) (P= 0.69). These results indicate that, although the mechanism by which muscle temperature is elevated influences certain metabolic responses during subsequent high-intensity exercise, cycling performance is not significantly affected.     

'She just got me’: supporting care experienced young people negotiating relationships and identities at school

In this article we examine the complex relationship between care experience, mental health and exclusion from school and how young people (YP) negotiate these different experiences and identities. The study is a secondary analysis, informed by symbolic interactionist theory, of interviews conducted with 19 care experienced YP in Scotland. Not all of the YP were excluded and not all had a formal mental health diagnosis, as such our study design allows interrogation of the contexts and relationships which not only facilitate but also disrupt pathways to exclusion. It also allows reconsideration of assumptions of vulnerability which are often applied to care experienced YP. Our findings suggest that these YP are moving beyond ‘role playing’ the identities ascribed to them and actively seek out relationships which enable them to construct alternative identities.