Communities of practice,social learning and networks: exploiting the social side of coach development

Large-scale coach education programmes have been developed in many countries, and are presented as playing a key role in the development of coaches and the promotion of high standards. Unfortunately, however, coaches often perceive that the current system of formal coach education fails to meet their needs. Perhaps as a result, the majority of their development is personally perceived to take place via informal and non-formal means. Appropriately, therefore, there has been an increasing focus within the coaching literature on the social aspects of learning, with social constructivist perspectives receiving particular attention. Reflecting this appropriate focus, this article explores some of the potential opportunities and threats that social learning methods, such as Communities of Practice (CoP), present for coach developers. In tandem, we outline how all coaches are influenced by a set of pre-existing beliefs, attitudes and dispositions, which are largely tempered by their experiences and interactions both with and within their social ‘milieu’. We argue that, at the very least, we need to begin to understand these constructs and, if we do, the potential for coach developers to manipulate and exploit them is obvious. In conclusion, it is highlighted that whilst offering inherent challenges, CoPs and other social learning methods provide coach developers with a great opportunity and legitimate tool to change coach behaviour and raise coaching standards. Perhaps paradoxically, we also propose that formal coach education may still have a vital role to play in this process.     

Notes and News

This article explores mentoring within the context of post‐16 working class urban youth and their transition from compulsory education to the labour market. The difficulties inherent in such a transition in a post industrial context are highlighted utilising the concepts of risk, individualisation and liminality. The authors reflect upon their own experiences in initial teacher education and draw parallels between mentoring in this area and mentoring urban youth. They consider a model of cognitive mentoring for incorporation into vocational education and training programmes and develop a set of guiding principles for such programmes which are intended to empower young people in the process of navigating and negotiating their routes into flexible and fast changing labour markets.     

Winter Reference-Land (Blame It on the Lake-Effect)

[This column is a collection of stories of one reference librarian’s dialogues with a host of patrons, which occur over a variety of media, including Web chat, phone, face-to-face, and immersive environments. Some names, places, times, and events have been changed to preserve anonymity.]     

Stanton's “Solitude of Self” as Public Confession

Elizabeth Cady Stanton opened her now famous “Solitude of Self” by asserting her desire to make manifest the “individuality of each human soul.” Using Stanton's attempt to display the human soul as a case study, I consider in this essay the capacities of language to disclose the self. I argue that, for Stanton, self-disclosure is fundamentally performative: The “Solitude of Self” evokes the “inner-being we call ourself” through a reliance on, and a subsequent violation of, a distinctively narrative logic. As this violation takes from the audience the sense of order that the narrative had theretofore provided, it puts the audience in a position where they, now shorn of narrative and the order it provided, can experience firsthand the solitude of self.     

Job aids and performance support: Moving from knowledge in the classroom to knowledge everywhere by Allison Rossett,and Lisa Schafer

Allison Rossett, CPT, teaches at San Diego State University and is equally at home in the consulting world, where she has helped a global mix of companies and other organizations. Lisa Schafer is one of the principals in Collet and Schafer, which focuses on performance improvement in Fortune 100 companies. Job Aids and Performance Support: Moving from Knowledge in the Classroom to Knowledge Everywhere (ISBN 978‐0‐7879‐7621‐7) is published by Jossey‐Bass/Pfeiffer. This publisher may be reached at (800) 274‐4434 (phone) or (800) 569‐0443 (fax).     

The predictive power of intuitive rules: A critical analysis of the impact of `more A–more B' and `same A–same B'

In the international community of mathematics and science educators the intuitive rules theory developed by the Israeli researchers Tirosh and Stavy receives much attention. According to this theory, students' responses to a variety of mathematical and scientific tasks can be explained in terms of their application of some common intuitive rules. Two major intuitive rules are manifested in comparison tasks: ‘More A—more B’ and ‘Same A—same B’. In this paper, we address two important questions for which the existing literature on intuitive rules does not provide a convincing research-based answer: (1) are the reasoning processes of students who respond in line with a given intuitive rule actually affected by that rule or by essentially other misconceptions (leading to the same answer), and (2) are individual students consistent in their choice of one of the intuitive rules when confronted with different, conceptually unrelated tasks? A test consisting of five comparison problems from different mathematical subdomains was administered collectively to 172 Flemish students from Grades 10 to 12. An analysis of students' written calculations and justifications suggested that the students were considerably less affected by the intuitive rules than their multiple-choice answers actually suggested. Instead, essentially different misconceptions and errors were found. With respect to the issue of individual consistency, we found that students who made many errors did not answer systematically in line with one of the two intuitive rules.     

Ascending into order: A reflective analysis from a small open source development team

Open Source Software (OSS) has had a profound impact on the way in which software is developed and consequently on the perception of software development. This paper starts with a brief discussion of the eclectic techniques and processes, combinations of which may be used for OSS projects. A ‘real-world’ context will be examined using ‘Reflective Analysis’ focusing on the research and development team present within the Business, Logistics and Information Systems (BLIS) department at The University of Bolton. The reflective analysis explores some assumptions inherent in OSS development. Drawing on findings from experience, industry and background research, an attempt will be made to provide an insight into how in a small team, the use of OSS and associated techniques can lead to the successful development of software. Whilst early results show that smaller OSS projects may appear to have little or no formal structure with closer investigation it is clear this is not the case. Without at least some degree of management, the teams experience indicates that such projects may be prone to failure.     

The Place of Analogies in Science Education

The role of analogy in learning has been extensively researched in science education. The core purpose of the use of analogy as a strategy deployed in teaching is that of developing understanding of abstract phenomena from concrete reference. Whilst such an objective is desirable, it is predicated on the assumption that there is an agreed interpretation of the particular phenomena under scrutiny to which all subscribe. This paper argues that such a position is untenable and that the research enterprise should shift focus from determining the effectiveness of analogy in cognitive transfer from base to target domains towards the recognition of the role of analogy in generating engagement in the learning process. In such a paradigm, meaning in science for both learner and teacher is derived from discourse rather than being independent of it. The discussion draws on hermeneutic philosophy to provide a theoretical framework to illustrate the implications for teacher subject and pedagogical knowledge.     

Growth,functional capacities and motivation for achievement and competitiveness in youth basketball: an interdisciplinary approach

The interaction of multiple influences on the path to sport success is not yet fully understood by sport scientists. In this study, we examined variation in body size, functional capacities and motivation for achievement, competitiveness and deliberate practice of youth basketball players associated with differences in biological maturity status, chronological age and years of training experience. Reflecting the importance of interactive effects, we examined the relationships between the psychological variables and functional capacities. Fifty-eight male basketball players aged 9.5 to 15.5 years were considered. Variables included chronological age, estimated age at peak height velocity, stature, body mass and sitting height by anthropometry; the Work and Family Orientation and Deliberate Practice Motivation Questionnaires were also used. Finally, the Line Drill test and Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery level 1 (Yo-Yo IR1) tests were used as functional capacities indicators for basketball. Variance components models derived from series of multilevel linear regression models revealed a substantial variation by maturity status for body size, functional capacities indicators, mastery and will to excel. The influence of estimated maturity status on mastery and will to excel was independent of age and years of experience. In contrast, no relationships were observed between psychological variables and functional capacities indicators. We conclude that growth-related changes are relevant to understanding players´ motivations for achievement, competitiveness and deliberate practice. This should be of interest to those involved in the selection and development of youth basketball players.