Getting into teams in physical education and exclusion processes among students

Although splitting up a class into teams is a consistent didactical element in physical education (PE), it is under-investigated in terms of how students handle the social dynamics in these situations. Therefore, the present study examines the strategies of exclusion as markers for non-recognition when students are split up into teams/pairs. The data set includes video data from 6 different classes (a total of 59 video sequences) and 40 video-stimulated recall interviews with children who were excluded when the class was split up into teams/pairs or with children that excluded others. Sociograms as well as PE teacher ratings about their students’ sport competence were also analysed. Four different exclusion and inclusion strategies were identified: accepting or ignoring “assurance strategies” before the class is split up into teams/pairs, negotiating the affiliation of an individual when students get into pairs, publicly denying the affiliation to a team, and publicly negotiating the individual’s value for a team. The findings show that students use the team-selection proceedings and situations when the class was split up into teams as opportunities to transmit non-recognition. The social order was publicly demonstrated and legitimated.     

In search of an effective source use pattern for writing argumentative and informative synthesis texts

Reading and Writing - In order to design effective instruction and feedback for synthesis writing on both writing processes and products, a clear insight into synthesis writing processes underlying...     

ASSESSING STUDENTS’ EXPERIMENTATION PROCESSES IN <Emphasis Type="Italic">GUIDED INQUIRY</Emphasis>

In recent science education, experimentation features ever more strongly as a method of inquiry in science classes rather than as a means to illustrate phenomena. Ideas and materials to teach inquiry abound. Yet, tools for assessing students’ achievement in their processes of experimentation are lacking. The present study assumes a basal, non-exclusive process model of inquiry in experimentation that can be considered a consensus from multiple approaches: (1) finding an idea/hypothesis, (2) planning and conducting an experiment, and (3) drawing conclusions from evidence. The study confronted 339 secondary level students with three guided inquiry experimentation tasks on 3 days. Selected working groups were videotaped while experimenting. All the students reported their processes in a structured report form simultaneous to their progress. The generated videos and reports were analysed in a two-stepped way: (1) Experimentation was coded according to the process model into process plots; on basis of these, (2) process-focused performance scores were calculated considering logical coherence and immediacy of the inquiry processes. Correlative analyses show for two of the tasks that the report format yielded comparable performance scores to those generated from video data after students have had opportunity to learn the surveying formats (r _S?>?.80). A first suggestion of a process-oriented assessment tool for inquiry in experimentation can be drawn from this study. It might be used to inform and complement secondary science instruction.     

Regulatory autonomy and performance: the reform of higher education re-visited

The main aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of organizational autonomy and control in higher education reform and related expectations as regards the performance of universities. Our analyses draws on principal-agent models as a normative theory of policy reform, and institutionalist approaches in public policy and institutional design as an analytical theory of policy reform. We discuss how the dominant narrative of political reform moves away from traditional beliefs in university autonomy that are built on institutional trust and linked to professional autonomy. In the emerging narrative of political change, autonomy becomes re-defined as the ‘new organizational autonomy’ of universities as both strategic actors and as an addressee of governmental control. The concept of ‘regulatory autonomy’ captures the use of organizational autonomy of universities as a tool of a new regime of governmental control. Exemplified by the Dutch case, we analyze autonomy policies for strengthening managerial discretion and internal control of universities that are combined with regulatory policies for external control that steer organizational choices. Regulatory autonomy thus aims at aligning universities more closely with governmental goals and improve respective performance. Our literature review shows, however, that there is scarce, inconclusive and methodologically problematic evidence for a link between ‘organizational autonomy and performance’. We point at promising avenues for further research on autonomy and performance as two core concepts in the contemporary higher education debate.     

‘Nature’ in German colonial literature for children and young people

ABSTRACT

German colonialism has long been treated as a sort of footnote in the epoch of the Empire due to its relatively short time span. The focus was mostly on the reconstruction of a story of ‘white’ men – as the story of pioneers, ‘discoverers’, missionaries or traders. But how were children included in the colonial project? This article deals with this question with regard to the genre of colonial literature for children that emerged in the German Empire. Due to their pedagogic impetus these novels are of significance for historical educational research: they were explicitly put in the service of instruction to inspire children with the meaning of colonial issues. Within these novels ‘nature’ had high priority. On the basis of selected colonial novels for boys and girls, this article investigates the question of what was understood by ‘nature’ and of its importance for colonial education.     

Schadenersatzanspruch Studierender gegen die Universit?t wegen unzureichenden Lehrveranstaltungsangebots? Anmerkungen und überlegungen zu OGH 1 Ob 142/07z

Mit dem Urteil zu 1 Ob 142/07z best?tigte der OGH die Entscheidungen der Vorinstanzen, wonach die Klage eines Studierenden gegen eine Universit?t auf Feststellung, dass die beklagte Partei der klagenden Partei für s?mtliche aus der Unterlassung des Anbots von Parallellehrveranstaltungen zukünftig entstehenden Sch?den hafte, wegen fehlender Passivlegitimation abgewiesen wurde. Das H?chstgericht stellte eindeutig klar, dass "Universit?ten in Vollziehung der Studienvorschriften im Rahmen der Hoheitsverwaltung t?tig werden", weshalb ein zivilrechtlicher Anspruch gegen die Universit?t aufgrund eines zu geringen Angebots von Lehrveranstaltungen nicht in Betracht kommt und bekr?ftigte, dass die Haftung der Universit?t oder ihrer Organe für hoheitliches Handeln in Vollziehung der Studienvorschriften auch nach dem UG 2002 ausgeschlossen ist.     

Newspaper coverage of women's sports during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games: Belgium, Denmark, France, and Italy

In general, women are well represented among sport participants and sport audiences but not in the media. Data show that women's sport is greatly underreported and trivialized in newspapers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure press coverage during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in the largest circulating Belgian, Danish, French, and Italian daily newspapers by: (a) number of articles, (b) size, (c) page placement, (d) accompanyingphotographs, and (e) photograph size. For each sport covered, the athletes' nationality and the gender were recorded. Compared to the 1996 Atlanta Games, there was an increase of 326 female athletes (+4 %), and women competed in 25 sports and 132 events (44 %) of the total 300 events. Although only 29.3 % of the articles and 38 % of photos were on women 's sports, the newspaper coverage was similar to the distribution of participating athletes and events. No significant gender differences were found with respect to article size, page placement, accompanying photographs, or photograph size. The most covered sport was track and field, independent of national achievement. Other sports received different coverage in relation to national expectations, achievement, and participation. In conclusion, there was a trend to overcome gender inequities in media coverage during the Olympic Games, which may be due to the International Olympic Committee's actions to promote increased participation of women in sport activities and to publicize their achievements. Moreover, during the Olympic Games, a nationalistic fervor might affect the equality of gender coverage.     

Effect of walking speed on lower extremity joint loading in graded ramp walking

Lower extremity joint loading during walking is strongly affected by the steepness of the slope and might cause pain and injuries in lower extremity joint structures. One feasible measure to reduce joint loading is the reduction of walking speed. Positive effects have been shown for level walking, but not for graded walking or hiking conditions. The aim of the study was to quantify the effect of walking speed (separated into the two components, step length and cadence) on the joint power of the hip, knee and ankle and to determine the knee joint forces in uphill and downhill walking. Ten participants walked up and down a ramp with step lengths of 0.46, 0.575 and 0.69 m and cadences of 80, 100 and 120 steps per minute. The ramp was equipped with a force platform and the locomotion was filmed with a 60 Hz video camera. Loading of the lower extremity joints was determined using inverse dynamics. A two-dimensional knee model was used to calculate forces in the knee structures during the stance phase. Walking speed affected lower extremity joint loading substantially and significantly. Change of step length caused much greater loading changes for all joints compared with change of cadence; the effects were more distinct in downhill than in uphill walking. The results indicate that lower extremity joint loading can be effectively controlled by varying step length and cadence during graded uphill and downhill walking. Hikers can avoid or reduce pain and injuries by reducing walking speed, particularly in downhill walking.