How much of a difference do principals make? An analysis of between-schools variation in academic achievement in Hong Kong public secondary schools

This article aims to explain the role principals play in the variation in academic achievement between secondary schools in Hong Kong. The article draws on survey data from 179 key staff and 2,037 students from 42 schools. The study uses 2 analytical approaches. First, it employs classification and regression tree analysis (CART). This was used to sort out the most significant leadership practices associated with student achievement. Second, based on first-stage analysis, the study further explores the effects of leadership practices on academic achievement using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM). Results indicate that transparent and efficient communication structures as managed by principals explained approximately 12% of between-schools variation in academic achievement. Leadership practices related to quality assurance and accountability and resource management also contributed to explaining between-schools variation in academic achievement, yet they had negative effects on student achievement. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Exploring features of highly productive research contexts in Asia: a comparison of knowledge production in educational leadership in Israel and Hong Kong

A recent review of research identified two Asian societies that represented “positive outliers” in the production of published knowledge on educational leadership and management: Hong Kong and Israel. These were the only Asian societies that had produced a critical mass of publications in this field in international journals over the past two decades. The current study examined the nature of the publication corpus from Hong Kong and Israel in an effort to understand factors that may have contributed to this capacity for high research productivity. The results suggested that different strategies may have accounted for research capacity development in these two societies. Directions are identified for future research.     

Identification-Based Multiple-Choice Assessments in Anatomy can be as Reliable and Challenging as Their Free-Response Equivalents

Multiple-choice (MC) anatomy “spot-tests” (identification-based assessments on tagged cadaveric specimens) offer a practical alternative to traditional free-response (FR) spot-tests. Conversion of the two spot-tests in an upper limb musculoskeletal anatomy unit of study from FR to a novel MC format, where one of five tagged structures on a specimen was the answer to each question, provided a unique opportunity to assess the comparative validity and reliability of FR- and MC-formatted spot-tests and the impact on student performance following the change of test format to MC. Three successive year cohorts of health science students (n = 1,442) were each assessed by spot-tests formatted as FR (first cohort) or MC (following two cohorts). Comparative question difficulty was assessed independently by three examiners. There were more higher-order cognitive skill questions and more of the course objectives tested in the MC-formatted tests. Spot-test reliability was maintained with Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients ≥ 0.80 and 80% of the MC items of high quality (having point-biserial correlation coefficients > 0.25). These results also demonstrated guessing was not an issue. The mean final score for the MC-formatted cohorts increased by 4.9%, but did not change for the final theory examination that was common to all three cohorts. Subgroup analysis revealed that the greatest change in spot-test marks was for the lower-performing students. In conclusion, our results indicate spot-tests formatted as MC are suitable alternatives to FR tests. The increase in mean scores for the MC-formatted spot-tests was attributed to the lower demand of the MC format.     

Effect of body mass and midsole hardness on kinetic and perceptual variables during basketball landing manoeuvres

This study investigated the effects of body mass and shoe midsole hardness on kinetic and perceptual variables during the performance of three basketball movements: (1) the first and landing steps of layup, (2) shot-blocking landing and (3) drop landing. Thirty male basketball players, assigned into “heavy” (n = 15, mass 82.7 ± 4.3 kg) or “light” (n = 15, mass 63.1 ± 2.8 kg) groups, performed five trials of each movement in three identical shoes of varying midsole hardness (soft, medium, hard). Vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) during landing was sampled using multiple wooden-top force plates. Perceptual responses on five variables (forefoot cushioning, rearfoot cushioning, forefoot stability, rearfoot stability and overall comfort) were rated after each movement condition using a 150-mm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). A mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) (Body Mass × Shoe) was applied to all kinetic and perceptual variables. During the first step of the layup, the loading rate associated with rearfoot contact was 40.7% higher in the “heavy” than “light” groups (P = .014) and 12.4% higher in hard compared with soft shoes (P = .011). Forefoot peak VGRF in a soft shoe was higher (P = .011) than in a hard shoe during shot-block landing. Both “heavy” and “light” groups preferred softer to harder shoes. Overall, body mass had little effect on kinetic or perceptual variables.     

Key determinants of time to 5 m in different ventral swimming start techniques

The aim of this study was to determine the biomechanical parameters that explain ventral start performance in swimming. For this purpose, 13 elite swimmers performed different variants of the ventral start technique. Two-dimensional video analyses of the aerial and underwater phases were used to assess 16 kinematic parameters from the starting signal to 5?m, and an instrumented starting block was used to assess kinetic data. A Lasso regression was used to reduce the number of parameters, providing the main determinants to starting performance, revealing different combinations of key determinants, depending on the variant (r²?≥?0.90), with flight distance being the most relevant to all variants (r?≤??0.80; p?r?=??0.79; p?r?≤?0.61; p?r²?=?0.66) or block time and flight distance (r²?=?0.83). These data provide relevant contributions to the further understanding of the biomechanics of swimming starts as well as insights for performance analysis and targeted interventions to improve athlete performance.     

Need for Cognition as a Mediating Variable Between Aggressive Communication Traits and Tolerance for Disagreement

This study examined the need for cognition as a mediator between aggressive communication traits and tolerance for disagreement. Previous research suggests that argumentativeness is a positive predictor of tolerance for disagreement, while verbal aggressiveness is a negative predictor of tolerance for disagreement. Our findings indicate that need for cognition positively mediates the relationship between argumentativeness and tolerance for disagreement, as well as verbal aggressiveness and tolerance for disagreement.     

Effects of strengthening and stretching exercise programmes on kinematics and kinetics of running in older adults: a randomised controlled trial

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of strengthening and stretching exercises on running kinematics and kinetics in older runners. One hundred and five runners (55–75 years) were randomly assigned to either a strengthening (n = 36), flexibility (n = 34) or control (n = 35) group. Running kinematics and kinetics were obtained using an eight-camera system and an instrumented treadmill before and after the eight-week exercise protocol. Measures of strength and flexibility were also obtained using a dynamometer and inclinometer/goniometer. A time effect was observed for the excursion angles of the ankle sagittal (P = 0.004, d = 0.17) and thorax/pelvis transverse (P < 0.001, d = 0.20) plane. Similarly, a time effect was observed for knee transverse plane impulse (P = 0.013, d = 0.26) and ground reaction force propulsion (P = 0.042, d = ?0.15). A time effect for hip adduction (P = 0.006, d = 0.69), ankle dorsiflexion (P = 0.002, d = 0.47) and hip internal rotation (P = 0.048, d = 0.30) flexibility, and hip extensor (P = 0.001, d = ?0.48) and ankle plantar flexor (P = 0.01, d = 0.39) strength were also observed. However, these changes were irrespective of exercise group. The results of the present study indicate that an eight-week stretching or strengthening protocol, compared to controls, was not effective in altering age-related running biomechanics despite changes in ankle and trunk kinematics, knee kinetics and ground reaction forces along with alterations in muscle strength and flexibility were observed over time.     

Issues in learning management systems implementation: A comparison of research perspectives between Australia and China

Education and Information Technologies - Australian post-secondary institutions have embraced the incorporation of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) into traditional classroom-based instruction...     

Paulo Freire and ‘the need for a kind of education in hope’

This paper explores Paulo Freire’s philosophy of hope. This is significant because, for Freire, it was human hope that rendered education possible, necessary and necessarily political. Like other areas of his thought, however, his reading of hope contained ambiguities and contradictions, and the paper explores these by locating Freire’s thought in the wider context of the philosophy of hope. It focuses in particular on the divergent interpretations Freire provides regarding the objective and the experience of hope. It argues that many of the conflicting demands placed on the radical educator stem from the tensions and vagaries one finds within his philosophy. The paper concludes by discussing the wider significance of Freire in light of the discourse of ‘complex hope’ that is developing within educational studies.     

Process,Orientation, and System: The Pedagogical Operation of Utopia in the Work of Paulo Freire

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in utopianism within educational theory. In this essay, Darren Webb explores the utopian pedagogy of Paulo Freire in the context of what one commentator has dubbed “the educational comeback of utopia.” Webb argues that Freire's significance lies in the way he embraced both “utopia as process” and “utopia as system.” This is significant because the contemporary rejuvenation of utopianism has extended only so far, embracing utopia conceived as an open‐ended process of becoming but shying away from utopia conceived as the delineation of a normative vision to be struggled for and won. Webb outlines the pedagogical operation of utopia as process, cognitive‐affective orientation, and system, and he argues that Freire was right in insisting that each is constitutive of effective educational practice.