Deliberate imagery practice: the development of imagery skills in competitive athletes.

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.     

Developmental trajectories of bullying and associated factors

Trajectories in bullying through adolescence were studied along with individual, family, and peer relationship factors. At the outset, participants' ages ranged from 10 to 14; 74% identified as European Canadian with the remainder from diverse backgrounds. With 8 waves of data over 7 years, 871 students (466 girls and 405 boys) were studied to reveal 4 trajectories: 9.9% reported consistently high levels of bullying, 13.4% reported early moderate levels desisting to almost no bullying at the end of high school, 35.1% reported consistently moderate levels, and 41.6% almost never reported bullying. Students who bullied had elevated risks in individual, parent, and peer relationship domains. Risk profiles and trajectories provide direction for interventions to curtail the development of power and aggression in relationships.     

Authoring systems reassessed

A study of authoring system technology was done to update a previous study done in 1985. While the earlier study focused on software selection methods, the current one emphasizes trends in authoring tool characteristics, vendor approaches to the market-place, and evaluation methods. It also raises questions about some of the often tacit assumptions underlying the technology's development and use.     

Problematising the ‘Career Academic’ in UK construction and engineering education: does the system want what the system gets?

‘Career Academics’ are principally research-led, entering academia with limited or no industrial or practical experience. UK Higher Education Institutions welcome them for their potential to attain research grant funding and publish world-leading journal papers, ultimately enhancing institutional reputation. This polemical paper problematises the Career Academic around three areas: their institutional appeal; their impact on the student experience, team dynamics and broader academic functions; and current strategic policy to employ them. We also argue that recent UK Government teaching-focused initiatives will not address needs to employ practical academics, or ‘Pracademics’ in predominantly vocational Construction and Engineering Education. We generate questions for policy-makers, institutions and those implementing strategy. We argue that research is key, but partial rebalancing will achieve a diverse academic skill base to achieve contextualised construction and engineering education. In wider European contexts, the paper resonates with issues of academic ‘drift’ and provides reflection for others on the UK context.     

Privatization and ‘destatization’: school autonomy as the ‘Anglo neoliberalization’ of Irish education policy

Symbolic of the rise of neoliberal principles in Irish education policy, there is now a move towards advancing school autonomy and decentralizing decision-making to individual schools, possibly emulating the academy model that has become widespread in England. Increasing the freedom and independence of schools may involve using private actors to provide what has traditionally been the service of the state, but it will most definitely involve schools behaving more like private sector organizations. While some of the new powers that would be devolved to schools might seem attractive, especially in how they are presented at an official level, this paper highlights how features of autonomous schools that may initially seem appealing are, in practice, likely to be unsuited to the Irish context. In this regard, this paper advises that school autonomy should not be advanced in Ireland.     

Youth employment in the labor market of the 1980s

This article examines the nature of the changing labor market and how it has and will affect youth unemployment levels. During the decade of the 1970s, the entrance into the labor market of what has been labeled the “baby boom” generation, along with increased female participation, caused a rapid expansion of the labor force. Consequently, more workers were available than jobs for them to fill. In such a labor surplus economy, youth, particularly minority youth, were placed at the bottom of the hiring continuum by employers because of the lack of skills and experience they brought to the marketplace. The result was high levels of youth unemployment. During the 1980s, the number of youth in the population will diminish significantly. Competition for entry-level positions will drop, employers will find labor supplies tightening, and youth unemployment may decrease. The opportunity will exist for the public sector to exert a positive influence on youth employment levels. However, youth will have to come to the work force better prepared academically in order to take advantage of the generally more complex jobs available in an increasingly sophisticated workplace.     

Improving the quality of home visitation: an exploratory study of difficult situations

OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this study was to use an ecological assessment model to obtain a better understanding of difficult situations that home visitors confront when implementing home visitation services. METHOD: A mixed method study was used which included conducting focus groups to identify specific situations faced by home visitors who implement the Healthy Families America model of child abuse and neglect prevention. The results of the focus groups were used to design a survey. The survey had 91 Healthy Families home visitors rate situations according to frequency and difficulty. RESULTS: The results revealed that situations that were ranked most difficult included working with families where there are limited resources, where family mental illness is present (e.g., threatening suicide), where there is substance use in the home, and where families are unmotivated. A factor analysis of the situations produced five factors that reflect the difficulty of doing home visitation: having a lack of clinical skill, addressing family difficulties, addressing parenting difficulties, resolving personal difficulties, and having a lack of experience. CONCLUSION: The situations identified in this study can assist in developing the competencies needed by home visitors. The factor analysis results can be conceptualized into an inventory for staff supervision, with workers completing the inventory to identify individual areas of training needs.     

Maternal and Paternal Disciplinary Styles: Relations with Preschoolers'' Playground Behavioral Orientations and Peer Status

To explore relations among parents' self-reported disciplinary styles, preschoolers' playground behavioral orientations, and peer status, 106 mothers and fathers of preschool-age children (age range = 40-71 months) participated in home disciplinary style interviews. Observations of their children's playground behavior in preschool settings and measures of sociometric status were also obtained. Results indicated that children of more inductive mothers and fathers (i.e., less power assertive) exhibited fewer disruptive playground behaviors. In addition, daughters and older preschoolers of inductive mothers exhibited more prosocial behavior. Children of inductive mothers were also more preferred by peers. Few significant relations were found between paternal discipline and child behavior/peer status. Age-related patterns of behavior also indicated that older preschoolers who engaged in more prosocial and less antisocial and disruptive playground behavior were more preferred by peers. In addition, child behaviors were found to mediate maternal discipline and peer status.