Using iPad tablets for self‐modeling with preschoolers: Videos versus photos

As technology becomes more accessible and acceptable in the preschool setting, teachers need effective strategies of incorporating it to address challenging behaviors. A nonconcurrent delayed multiple baseline design in combination with an alternating treatment design was utilized to investigate the effects of using iPad tablets to display video self‐modeling and activity photos for three preschoolers during circle time. During baseline, all three children demonstrated low levels of engagement and high levels of off‐task behavior compared to peers. The intervention phase consisted of alternating between showing the child the self‐video and photos prior to circle time. A child preference phase was conducted whereby each child self‐selected the video or photo prior to circle time. For all three children both videos and photos led to increased engagement and decreased off‐task behaviors. During the child preference phase, all three children selected the video most frequently. Social validity data demonstrated teacher and child preference for the video self‐modeling condition.     

Three-dimensional kinematic analysis of the golf swing using instantaneous screw axis theory,Part 2: golf swing kinematic sequence

A number of recent studies have measured the extent and timing of segment rotation during the golf swing. A promising technique, instantaneous screw axis (ISA) theory, could provide a better expression of segment rotation. In Part 1 of this two-part study, the objectives are to identify the ISA of the pelvis, shoulders and left arm during the downswing, compute segment angular velocity relative to that segment’s ISA and verify that ISA theory is a valid tool to analyse segment rotation during the golf swing. Results indicate that for all subjects, at least 71% of marker velocity is a result of rotation about their respective ISA, when averaging results over the duration of the downswing, confirming that motion is primarily rotational. Furthermore, ISA position and orientation of each segment approaches, on average, the expected gross axis of rotation, confirming that motion about the ISA is representative of joint motion.     

Development and initial validation of the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire

The development of talent is a complex process mediated by a host of psychological, social, physical, and environmental variables. Unfortunately, the multiple processes involved in talent development are frequently ignored by the systems and protocols employed in sport. Modern approaches to talent development are beginning to stress the initial possession, then subsequent development, of generic psychological characteristics (e.g. psychological characteristics of developing excellence; MacNamara, Button, & Collins, 2010a , 2010b ) as the best way to realize latent potential. Accordingly, this paper describes the development and initial validation of the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire (PCDEQ). In the first phase, an initial list of 160 items was developed. A combination of expert panel reviews, cognitive interviews, and a pilot test was used to assess the relevance, representativeness, and validity of each item. Ninety-six items were retained following these steps. Exploratory factor analysis, with a sample of 363 athletes, revealed an interpretable 59-item, 6-factor solution with good internal consistency (0.870, 0.866, 0.847, 0.741, 0.749, and 0.701 respectively). The Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire would appear to hold promise as a useful tool to provide coaches and athletes with information about the psychological characteristics of developing excellence that are being properly addressed or neglected during different stages of development or in different contexts.     

The future of digital working: knowledge migration and learning

Against the backdrop of intensified migration linked to globalisation, this article considers the implications of knowledge migration for future digital workers. It draws empirically on a socio-material analysis of the international software localisation industry. Localisers' work requires linguistic, cultural and software engineering skills to adapt digital products to be marketed worldwide. The article addresses the problem of the need for better understanding of knowledge practices in digital working and offers new insights by examining work and learning against the theoretical question of how knowledge migrates. Drawing on the writing of sociologist Karin Knorr Cetina, it illustrates how workers reformulate knowledge and practise visibility through object relations that support learning. The article concludes with five recommendations for incorporating insights gained through this analysis in education.     

Changing Understandings of 'Public' and 'Private' in Higher Education: the United Kingdom Case

Where does higher education in the United Kingdom sit today in terms of the public–private distinction, and what does that distinction mean in the higher education context? This article considers these questions and related issues, noting how the particular example of the United Kingdom compares with other systems internationally. Following a historical exploration of the meaning of ‘public’, ‘private’ and other related terms, an examination is undertaken of their currency during the post‐war period in the UK higher education system. This is exemplified through an analysis of the two major British higher education reports of the last 50 years – the Robbins Report of 1963 and the Dearing Report of 1997. It is argued that the contemporary UK higher education system could be seen as suffering from the worst of both worlds, trapped between and suffering from the seemingly contrary pressures of privatisation and nationalisation.     

A Two-Year Program of Counselor Education

If school counseling is to be a career commitment, not a temporary or occasional assignment, the school counselor must possess some special expertise that enables him to make a unique contribution to the school. It follows that counselor educators should identify this special expertise as precisely as possible and then offer an instructional program designed to develop it. Since such special expertise is not likely to be acquired without extensive and intensive training, the instructional program will ordinarily require a minimum of two years of full-time study. This position paper elaborates the rationale for the above beliefs and attempts to suggest directions in which they may lead.