Teaching Statistics to Physiotherapy Students

Shortage of teaching time for the statistics element of the BSc Physiotherapy course at the Queen's College, Glasgow, and its unfavourable reception by students, led to the development of a newly-structured course based on the students' use of a self-study workbook and a test to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach for the teaching of correlation and regression.     

School and community relations in North America: Creative tensions

School and community relations in North America reflect creative tensions between the conserving forces of schooling and the changing forces of community. During crisis periods community development needs may modify the school's focus on individual learner growth, but generally schools use the community to extend and enrich the traditional modes. School and community interactions are chiefly characterized by such settings as community schools, community education, adult education, home and school (PTA) associations, work-study programs, curriculum-community resource programs.Recent social forces are creating heightened tensions: cultural pluralism, reduced resources, Third World influences, international conflicts, personal alienation, population concerns, energy problems, community power issues. These forces are gradually shifting school and community concepts towards ones of education and community. Education goes well beyond schooling, including all agencies having an organized influence on community development: libraries, voluntary groups, unions, business, human service agencies, government units, as well as schools. This shift requires research to develop nonformal concepts and practices, along with formal pedagogy, to increase the positive impacts of educational networks on community, as well as individual, development. These new directions have not yet significantly modified the traditional meaning of school and community relations.

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Zusammenfassung In Nordamerika reflektieren die Beziehungen zwischen Schule und Gemeinschaft die kreativen Spannungen zwischen den konservativen Kräften der Schule und den sich wandelnden Kräften der Gemeinschaft. In Krisenzeiten können zwar die Bedürfnisse der Gemeinschaftsentwicklung die Konzentration der Schule auf individuelles Wachstum modifizieren, im allgemeinen benutzen jedoch die Schulen die Gemeinschaft dazu, ihre traditionellen Bildungsmethoden auszuweiten und zu bereichern. Hauptmerkmale der Interaktionen von Schule und Gemeinschaft sind Gemeinschaftsschulen, Gemeinschaftsbildung, Erwachsenenbildung, Eltern-Lehrervereinigungen, Arbeitslehre-Programme und solche, die die Gemeinschaftsressourcen in den Lehrplan einbeziehen.Neue soziale Kräfte intensivieren die Spannungen: Kultureller Pluralismus, verringerte Mittel, Einflüsse aus der Dritten Welt, internationale Konflikte, persönliche Entfremdung, Bevölkerungsfragen, Energieprobleme, Machtfragen in der Gemeinschaft. Diese Kräfte verschieben die alten Begriffe von Schule und Gemeinschaft in Richtung auf Bildung und Gemeinschaft. Bildung geht weit über die Schule hinaus und umfaßt alle Einrichtungen, die einen organisierten Einfluß auf die Entwicklung der Gemeinschaft ausüben: Bibliotheken, Initiativgruppen, Gewerkschaften, Wirtschaft, Dienstleistungsbetriebe Regierungsstellen zusätzlich zur Schule. Diese Verschiebung muß erforscht werden, um neben der formalen Bildung auch nicht-formale Konzepte und Praktiken zu entwickeln und den positiven Einfluß von Bildungsnetzen auf die Gemeinschaft sowie auf die Entwicklung des Individuums zu verstärken. Bisher haben sich diese neuen Richtungen noch nicht wesentlich auf das traditionelle Verständnis der Beziehungen zwischen Schule und Gemeinschaft ausgewirkt.

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Résumé Les relations entre l'école et la collectivité en Amérique du Nord reflètent les tensions créatrices entre les forces conservatrices du système scolaire et les forces évolutives de la collectivité. Pendant les périodes de crise, il arrive que les besoins de développement de la collectivité modifient la perspective de l'école qui est centreé sur l'évolution individuelle de l'apprenant, mais généralement les écoles utilisent la collectivité pour élargir et enrichir les méthodes traditionnelles. Les interactions de l'école et de la collectivité sont principalement caractérisées par des moyens tels que les écoles communautaires, l'éducation communautaire, l'éducation des adultes, les associations de parents et d'enseignants (PTA/APE), les programmes travail-étude et ceux qui utilisent les ressources de la collectivité dans le curriculum.Certaines forces sociales d'origine récente accroissent les tensions: pluralisme culturel, ressources réduites, influences du Tiers-Monde, conflits internationaux, aliénation personnelle, problèmes de population, d'énergie, questions relatives au pouvoir de la collectivité. Ces forces modifient peu à peu les concepts d'écoles et de collectivité qui se transforment en concepts d'éducation et de collectivité. L'éducation va bien au-delà de la scolarité et englobe tout ce qui exerce une influence organisée sur le développement communautaire: bibliothèques, groupes de volontaires, associations, services d'aide sociale, organismes publics, etc., tout autant que les écoles. La recherche est indispensable au développement des concepts et des applications de l'éducation non formelle, tout comme l'est la didactique formelle, pour intensifier les impacts positifs des réseaux éducatifs sur le développement communautaire et sur celui de l'individu. Ces nouvelles directions n'ont pas encore modifié de façon appréciable le sens traditionnel des relations école-collectivité.

     

Finding (More) Fruit on the Vines: Using Higher Education Research and Institutional Research to Guide Institutional Policies and Strategies (Part II)

This article is the second of a two-part series that examines the utility of higher education research to help guide campus-based interventions to enhance institutional effectiveness. This second article outlines programmatic efforts undertaken to enhance the quality of the first-year experience for new students. It also describes the impact of these interventions on the first-year student experience. The article closes with a summary of the lessons learned from these efforts and delineates a series of recommendations for higher education administrators interested in using the research literature to enhance institutional effectiveness.     

Lack of consistent individual differences in rats on tasks that require response inhibition

Hungry rats performed four different tasks which all required responding to be withheld for food reinforcement to be obtained. The tasks were the following: an omission schedule, a go/no-go procedure, a differential reinforcement of low rate schedule, and a choice task in which the subject could respond for a small immediate reward or a large delayed reward. Each rat experienced each task twice. For each task, the rank ordering of the subjects’ performance on the test and retest was highly consistent, indicating the reliability of the task for measuring a particular “ability.” However, there were no consistencies in the performance of individual rats between tasks. This suggests that claims regarding consistent individual differences in brain-lesioned nonhumans across a range of such tasks are not supported in intact subjects.     

Notions of Cause: Russell's thesis revisited

We discuss Russell's 1913 essay arguing for the irrelevanceof the idea of causation to science and its elimination frommetaphysics as a precursor to contemporary philosophical naturalism.We show how Russell's application raises issues now receivingmuch attention in debates about the adequacy of such naturalism,in particular, problems related to the relationship betweenfolk and scientific conceptual influences on metaphysics, andto the unification of a scientifically inspired worldview. Inshowing how to recover an approximation to Russell's conclusionwhile explaining scientists' continuing appeal to causal ideas(without violating naturalism by philosophically correctingscientists) we illustrate a general naturalist strategy forhandling problems around the unification of sciences that assumedifferent levels of naïveté with respect to folkconceptual frameworks. We do this despite rejecting one of thepremises of Russell's argument, a version of reductionism thatwas scientifically plausible in 1913 but is not so now.

1 Russell'sNaturalistic Rejection of Causation

2 Psychology, Folk Notionsand Intuitions

3 Causes in Science

4 Letting Science HoldTrumps

     

An adaptive filtering algorithm to estimate sprint velocity using a single inertial sensor

The assessment of sprint velocity is useful for evaluating performance and guiding training interventions. In this paper, we describe an adaptive filtering algorithm to estimate sprint velocity using a single, sacrum-worn magneto-inertial measurement unit. Estimated instantaneous velocity, average 10 m interval velocity, and peak velocity during 40 m sprints from the proposed method were compared to a reference method using photocell position-time data. Concurrent validity of the proposed method was assessed using mean absolute error and mean absolute percent error for all velocity estimates. The significance of the mean error was assessed using a factorial ANOVA for average interval velocity and a paired-samples t test for peak velocity. Reliability was assessed using Bland–Altman 95% limits of agreement for repeated measures. Average interval velocity was underestimated early in the sprint (??0.25 to ??0.05 m/s) and overestimated later (0.13 m/s) with mean absolute error between 0.20 m/s (3.95%) and 0.62 m/s (7.78%). The average mean absolute error was 0.45 m/s (7.02%) for instantaneous velocity and 0.63 m/s (7.84%) for peak velocity. The limits of agreement grew progressively wider at greater distances (??0.59 to 0.34 m/s for 0–10 m and ??1.32 to 1.59 m/s for 30–40 m). The estimation error from the proposed method is comparable to other wearable sensor-based methods and suggests its potential use to assess sprint performance.     

First- and second-generation design and engineering students: experience,attainment and factors influencing them to attend university

Challenges for students who are ‘first-in-family’ to attend university have been discussed within widening participation discourse. However, in the UK, ‘first-in-family’ or first-generation students have frequently been conflated with those experiencing poverty or from lower socio-economic groups. This research integrated survey data with assessment data from final-year design and engineering students in a UK university to examine students’ attainment, the influences on why students decide to attend university and students’ experiences during their degree programmes. Analysis of the data showed variations in the reasons for first- and second-generation students wanting to go to university, particularly a significant difference in the influence of parents. First-generation students described significantly less parental influence on the decision to attend university than second- or subsequent-generation students. Smaller differences in students’ experiences and attainment in university were also noted. Whilst first-generation students reported differences in study habits, their attainment was, on average, marginally higher than that of their peers. Building on others’ theoretical work, which suggests the importance of social capital within higher education (HE), this research highlights the difference in social influences on both university application and expectations of university for those with and without a family history of tertiary education. Further research is needed to explore, in larger samples, whether the social influences on individuals’ perception of HE are in turn shaped by whether or not their parents attended university, and further, what impact this may have, not only on degree outcomes but also on the broader benefits typically associated with graduate experience.     

Effect on students from attending a university degree programme run in partnership with further and higher education institutions

This paper considers the effect on students from attending a university foundation degree programme delivered in partnership with six further education teaching institutions in England. The programme is situated within the early childhood education sector using an instructional design which promotes higher-level learning within the teaching institution and the workplace. Learning in one environment is aligned to the other. The research process actively involved students and was conducted within ethical parameters approved by a university ethics committee. A qualitative methodology examined data drawn from focus groups, an online survey and content analysis. Programme effect was seen as enhancing personal and professional capability and promoting higher-order learning. The findings go some way towards theorisation and documentation of programme effect by identifying the influence of instructional design and extend knowledge about aligning the pace of teaching and learning with professional practice.     

Effects of running experience on coordination and its variability in runners

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in coordination variability in running gait between trained runners and non-runners using continuous relative phase (CRP) analysis. Lower extremity kinematic data were collected for 22 participants during the stance phase. The participants were assigned to either a runner or non-runner group based on running volume training. Segment coordination and coordination variability were calculated for selected hip–knee and knee–ankle couplings. Independent t-tests and magnitude-based inferences were used to compare the 2 groups. There were limited differences in the CRP and its variability among runners and non-runner groups. The runners group achieved moderately lower coordination compared with non-runners group in the phase angle for hip abduction/adduction and knee flexion/extension. The runners tended to show moderately lower coordination variability in the phase angle for knee flexion/extension and subtalar inversion/eversion in comparison to non-runners group. These results suggested that levels of experience as estimated from weekly training volume had little influence on coordination and its variability.