Results of use of Machines for Testing and for Drill,upon Learning in Educational Psychology

The Work Components Study (WCS) questionnaire is a measure of work motivation with predictive powers as a selection device on a probabilistic basis for industrial managers. This study established the factorial validity and reliability of a modified WCS-the Educational Work Components Study (EWCS) questionnaire. The sample of 745 included 153 senior and forty-two graduate students and 118 administrators and 432 teachers randomly selected from three school districts. The data analyses consisted of varimax orthogonal and maxplane oblique R-factor analysis procedures and Cronbach’s estimate of internal consistency. Instead of sixty-six items and seven prevalent factors in the WCS, fifty-six items and six unidimensional factors paralleling the original instrument were found in the EWCS. The reliabilities of the six factors ranged from .73 to .83. These findings coupled with the strong theoretical foundation of the EWCS indicate a high potential for probing many provocative relationships based on work motivation.     

The road to self‐efficacy: a discussion of generic training in mental health competencies for educational professionals

This discussion aims to consider the value of training educational professionals in mental health competencies. Primary Mental Health Workers working in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service have traditionally used a consultation model when working with schools. In this article I consider moving the emphasis away from consultancy work, instead putting training at the cornerstone of improving mental health in schools. I believe that local practices using consultation can create a ‘dependency’ culture, inhibiting the development of self‐efficacy in those involved in pastoral care in educational settings. Instead, an alternative method of improving confidence and self‐efficacy amongst educational practitioners is by delivering a comprehensive training course, which aims to provide a range of competencies in mental health. Training, which provides skills in low‐level therapeutic approaches for pupils and students, in conjunction with a broad understanding of mental illness and mental health issues, could be a highly effective method of responding to the maxim ‘mental health is everyone’s business’.     

‘Nice to think I'm not on my own’: lessons from an arts-based workshop in an urban Children's Centre

This paper reports the evaluation of an arts-based programme designed to encourage parental participation in an urban Children's Centre. The programme was aimed to explore the possible beneficial effects of arts-based activity as a means of engaging ‘hard to reach' parents more fully in the services of the centre. Practical workshops were designed for parents and their children and delivered over a 10-week period. From the evidence garnered in the evaluation, the potential of arts activities as a means to improve parental participation remains uncertain. Of greater significance, however, observations by parents and facilitators revealed that arts-based activities were a powerful dialogic tool for mediating interactions between parent and child. In particular, dance, drama and music emerged as powerful conduits for dialogic encounters with media-based activities offering previously unforeseen opportunities for the sharing of family lifeworlds.     

Tony Blair’s big prize? A reply to Furlong

In the December 2008 special issue of the Oxford Review of Education John Furlong focused upon Tony Blair’s modernisation of the teaching profession and associated attempts to harness teacher professionalism to a broader reform agenda. This article responds to Furlong’s contribution through an examination of the evidence base used to support his conclusions, the way in which different types of evidence are used in this process and the criteria used to judge Blair’s success in this venture. It is suggested that Blair’s reforms of the teaching profession might be better viewed as a mere technicality within a wider scheme rather than the ‘big prize’ claimed by Furlong. It concludes by suggesting an alternative approach to writing the history of Blair and New Labour in this context which foregrounds the relationship between teachers and the state.     

Taking the Next Step: Ways Forward for Coaching Science

Coaching is no longer a subset of physical education or sport psychology but is rather an established vocation for research. In reaching such a position, we argue that a broad range of epistemologies have been used to investigate coaching such as sociology and cognitive psychology. However there is danger that, in the search for new ground, research becomes increasingly esoteric, having less and less impact on the domain that it is researching—namely coaching. As a step against this trend, we argue for and attempt to establish the commonalities across these research approaches suggesting that coaching is social, political, and pedagogical in nature. We accept that coaching is inherently complex but argue that coaches can be educated to cope with complexity through a professional judgment and nested decision making process. To facilitate this process, we offer a model for coaching that is inclusive of the commonalities across coaching research, summarizes our major theoretical points yet practical enough for application by coach educators and coaches.     

An Exploratory Investigation into Attitudes Towards Different Learning Vehicles

Abstract

Although the case study method of teaching has received a considerable level of support in the academic literature as an effective vehicle for educational development, this support has mainly come from the service providers, namely lecturers, rather than the ‘customers’, i.e. students. This paper reports on the findings from a small survey into the attitudes of both full‐ and part‐time marketing students looking at selected attitudes concerning case studies compared to other learning vehicles. The paper reports on students’ attitudes towards the interest, theoretical and practical use, and difficulty of each of the teaching methods, together with the level of preparation they were prepared to put into each learning vehicle. Statistical differences between the attitudes of full‐ and part‐time students are also reported. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications arising from the study for the purposes of generating further debate in relation to strategies and processes associated with particular approaches to teaching and learning.     

Electroencephalographic functional equivalence during observation of action

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the variability in cortical activation during physical air-rifle shooting and three different observation conditions. Elite air-rifle shooters performed a 40 shot individual match. Electroencephalograms were recorded from 11 active sites across the cortex during the final 6 s (3 × 2 s epochs) before shot release. Data collection was repeated while shooters watched a large-screen video of their worst shot performance from an internal-visual perspective when seated, standing and standing holding their rifle. The hypothesized differences between the three observation conditions and the physical shooting profile were not shown except at the left anterior temporal site, T5. This finding suggests that observation of performance cannot be differentiated clearly by posture or modified through kinetic and haptic afference, and that visual percepts predominate in observational functional equivalence. However, more functionally equivalent observation reduced the observation/execution variability over the temporal areas. Performer debriefs also identified different perceptions of physiological, psychological and behavioural functional equivalence associated with the different observation conditions. We conclude that elite performers' brains are accessed equally effectively during different observation conditions irrespective of some of the physical factors ascribed to the conditions. However, they may require more functionally matched conditions to attain greater equivalence in temporal areas.     

Do mental skills make champions? Examining the discriminant function of the psychological characteristics of developing excellence questionnaire

Abstract

The ability to successfully develop to the highest levels in sport is dependent on a range of variables, not least an individual's ability to cope with the various challenges of development. Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence (PCDEs) include both the trait characteristics and the state-deployed skills that have been shown to play a crucial role in the realisation of potential. Psychological characteristics of developing excellence equip aspiring elites with the mental skills, attitudes, and emotions to cope with the challenges of the development pathway, as well as underpinning their capacity to make the most of their innate abilities. The Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire (PCDEQ) was designed to assess the possession and deployment of these characteristics. The purpose of this paper was to examine the ability of the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire to effectively discriminate between good and poor developers based on their current possession and deployment of psychological characteristics of developing excellence. Two hundred and eighty-five athletes (n = 192 team athletes; n = 93 individual athletes) completed the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire. Results from the discriminant function analysis suggest that the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire correctly classifies between 67% and 75% of athletes based on their responses. The Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire can be used as a formative assessment tool to direct training programmes by identifying weaknesses in psychological characteristics of developing excellence and incorporating specific training to address these weaknesses in advance of developmental challenges.     

Change of plans: an evaluation of the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of successful talent transfer

Abstract

Talent transfer (TT) is a recently formalised process used to identify and develop talented athletes by selecting individuals who have already succeeded in one sport and transferring them to another. Despite the increasing popularity of TT amongst national organisations and sport governing body professionals, however, there is little empirical evidence as to its efficacy or how it may be most efficiently employed. Accordingly, this investigation was designed to gain a deeper understanding of the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of TT, achieved through a two-part study. Stage 1 provided a quantitative analysis of the incidence and distribution or, in this respect, epidemiology of TT, finding the most popular transfer to be sprinting to bobsleigh, with an average transfer age of 19 years. Stage 2 scrutinised the TT process and explored the specific cases revealed in stage 1 by examining the perceptions of four sport science support specialists who had worked in TT settings, finding several emergent themes which, they felt, could explain the TT processes. The most prominent theme was the psychosocial mechanism of TT, an aspect currently missing from TT initiatives, suggesting that current TT systems are poorly structured and should redress their approach to develop a more integrated scheme that encompasses all potential mechanisms of transfer.