The CASE Programme Implemented Across the Primary and Secondary School Transition in Ireland

In the Irish education system, there is little continuity between the primary and secondary education systems. The transfer between these systems is particularly problematic in the area of science. In order to alleviate some of these problems, as well as to enhance the cognitive development of students, the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education programme was adapted for use and implemented across the primary–secondary school transition in Ireland. The programme was delivered in a variety of ways across the two levels, including the teacher and researcher teaching the programmes individually and team-teaching arrangements. The results on cognitive development measures showed that the students who were taught the programme in primary and secondary school made significant gains, when compared to the non-intervention group. There were also gains evident for students who only received one part of the programme (i.e. in either primary or secondary school). The greater gains, in terms of effect size, were evident at secondary school. The rationale, methodology and results are detailed in this paper.     

Do Children Who Experience Regret Make Better Decisions? A Developmental Study of the Behavioral Consequences of Regret

Although regret is assumed to facilitate good decision making, there is little research directly addressing this assumption. Four experiments (N = 326) examined the relation between children's ability to experience regret and the quality of their subsequent decision making. In Experiment 1 regret and adaptive decision making showed the same developmental profile, with both first appearing at about 7 years. In Experiments 2a and 2b, children aged 6–7 who experienced regret decided adaptively more often than children who did not experience regret, and this held even when controlling for age and verbal ability. Experiment 3 ruled out a memory‐based interpretation of these findings. These findings suggest that the experience of regret facilitates children's ability to learn rapidly from bad outcomes.     

Using mobile peer mentors for student engagement: Student Rovers in the Learning Commons

This paper presents findings from a 2010 evaluation of Victoria University's Student Rover program, an on-campus work-based learning program in which mobile student mentors are employed and deployed within the university's Learning Commons to provide ‘just-in-time’ and ‘just-in-place’ learning support to other students. Student Rovers are paid not to perform a quasi-staff role, but to be students who help other students learn and, in this process, to model both learning to learn and collaborative learning behaviours. Drawing on specific findings from a large-scale student survey, a small-scale staff survey and focus groups conducted with Student Rovers themselves relating to perceptions of the socio-institutional status of Student Rovers, the paper is concerned with exploring the anomalous nature of the Student Rover role and speculating as to the potential for change inherent within this situation. Reworking Billett's conceptualisation of co-participatory workplace practices, we propose that by framing the work of Student Rovers as ‘learningful’ workers operating within the liminal institutional contact zone between staff and students, the program may prove to be not simply a successful strategy for helping new students engage in campus life – while simultaneously preparing Student Rovers themselves for negotiating contemporary organisational circumstances of change, complexity and contingency – but also a precursor to an emergent, institutionally recognised, educational role of students paid to support the learning of other students.     

Curriculum,culture, ideology and ownership: the case of the Exploring Masculinities programme

This article considers curriculum ownership, contestation and the relationship between curriculum and culture through the lens of the Exploring Masculinities (EM) programme. The programme was developed in the late 1990s to meet the social and personal needs of young men. As its dissemination was being planned, it became the subject of critical attention from some high-profile journalists and certain parent bodies. This article reports on a follow-up study of a national sample of parents regarding the inclusion of EM issues on the school curriculum. It also draws on interviews with journalists who were at the centre of the related media debate. The macro curriculum issues are discussed in light of this data along with one key issue identified by parents, namely the professional competence of teachers around social and personal issues.     

Developing research potential through a structured mentoring program: issues arising

Changes in higher education have meant that academics originally in institutions without a strong research culture are now being called upon to raise their level of research activity. These institutions have implemented a range of strategies to support their academic staff making this transition. One program to develop research potential of staff is reported in this paper. It involved matching inexperienced researchers with experienced researchers who acted in a mentoring role. The individual mentoring was supplemented with a two day workshop covering research skills and also providing an opportunity to focus on the issues, questions and projects of the participants. An evaluation of the program revealed that participants benefited from the support provided by their peers in the program as well as from the support provided by the mentors. The mentors assisted the participants with specific aspects of their research and also with the social and political aspects of research involvement. The program legitimated the helping relationship established between participants and mentors.     

Seasonal changes in body composition of inter-county Gaelic Athletic Association hurlers

Longitudinal change in body composition for elite-level inter-county hurlers was reported over a single season and four consecutive seasons. Body composition measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of 66 senior, male, outfield players was obtained. Four successive measurements were taken: off-season (OFF₁), pre-season (PRE), mid-season (MID) and the off-season of the following season (OFF₂). A subsample of 11 hurlers were measured at all time points over 4 consecutive seasons. DXA-derived estimates of fat and lean mass were normalised to stature for analysis (kg?m^?2); data are (mean [lower: upper, 95% confidence interval]). A concurrent increase of lean mass (0.31 [0.19: 0.43] kg?m^?2) and loss of fat mass occurred (?0.38 [?0.50: ?0.26] kg?m^?2) OFF₁ to PRE. Lean mass accrual was maintained PRE to OFF₂ while the initial loss of fat mass was restored MID to OFF₂ (0.52 [0.40: 0.64] kg ? m^?2), with the trunk acting as the primary region of change. Over the four seasons, a net increase of lean mass was observed (~ 0.9 [0.4: 1.4] kg per annum) with a negligible overall change for fat mass over time. However, the cycling of fat mass (OFF to PRE and MID to OFF) within each season was recurrent season-to-season.     

Test–retest Reliability and Construct Validity of an Online and Paper Administered Physical Activity Neighborhood Environment Scale (PANES)

ABSTRACT

The Physical Activity Neighborhood Environment Scale (PANES) has been used internationally; however, PANES properties have not been assessed in all geographical contexts. Our objectives were to assess the reliability and validity of an online and paper version of the PANES in Canadian adults. Reliability was estimated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), percent of overall agreement (p₀) and Cohen’s Kappa coefficient (κ). Lower 95% confidence interval (CI) ICC ranged from 0.10 to 0.70. Lower 95%CI for κ statistics ranged from ?0.20 to 0.64 and p₀ ranged from 80.1% to 95.7%. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients (α) estimated internal consistency of the PANES (α = 0.58 for the paper version and α = 0.55 for the online version). Mean scores for the PANES Built Environment Index (BEI) significantly differed by neighborhood street pattern (p < .05). The PANES administrated via paper or online provides reliable overall agreement and valid estimates of the self-reported neighborhood built environment supportiveness of physical activity.     

Stories return personal narrative ways of knowing to the professional development of doctoral supervisors

Storytellers have always known that there is more to a story than ‘just a good yarn’. It is through stories that individuals construct and reconstruct their sense of self as they learn ‘to be’ in the world. Learning through stories is common across a number of professional contexts. However, storied approaches are under-utilised in supervisor professional development programs. This paper argues that telling, receiving, reading, writing and re-writing stories can open to doctoral supervisors a way to negotiate the chaotic pedagogy of becoming and being a doctoral supervisor. Two examples of storytelling – interactive telling and reading of stories of research student experience and supervisor autobiographical writing – illustrate how the art of storytelling can return personal narrative ways of knowing to professional development in today's performance-driven higher degree by research context.     

‘Things fall apart so they can fall together’: uncovering the hidden side of writing a teaching award application

Teaching awards are now common practice in higher education. However, few award applicants and their writing guides have investigated their experience of writing a teaching award application, a writing process recognised as different from that required in research publication. To systematically research and analyse their personal experiences two successful Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation applicants (Robyn and Thea) and their guide (Coralie) undertook a process of self-inquiry from an autoethnographic perspective. This paper presents a narrative constructed by Coralie, Robyn and Thea to bring into one story their individual autoethnographies. This collective narrative takes the reader beyond the scholarly discussions of benefits and concerns about teaching award schemes prominent in the literature to date, to uncover a previously hidden view of award application writing. From this new viewpoint writing a teaching award application is seen as a process which moves the applicant from a position of certainty and comfort (‘homeliness’), through a period where ‘things fall apart’ as the applicant's sense of ‘unhomeliness’ (disorientation and confusion) increases, to a time where ‘things fall together’ as a newfound sense of ‘homeliness’ that represents growth in the individual as a teacher and a writer. Applicants develop a clearer understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as educators and the confidence to challenge their previous pedagogical practices. As writers they develop attitudes and skills to recognise and to set aside familiar, but limiting, writing strategies.