Developmental gender differences for overhand throwing in Aboriginal Australian children

In a review of 46 meta-analyses of gender differences, overhand throwing had the largest gender difference favoring boys (ES > 3.0). Expectations for gender-specific performances may be less pronounced in female Australian Aborigines, because historical accounts state they threw for defense and hunting. Overhand throwing velocities and kinematics were recorded in 30 female and male Aboriginal Australian children 6-10 years old. Results indicated the Aboriginal girls and boys were more similar in horizontal ball velocities than U.S. girls and boys. Throwing kinematics between girls and boys were also more similar in Australian Aborigines than U.S. children. Aboriginal girls threw with greater velocities than U.S., German, Japanese, and Thai girls, while the boys were similar across cultures.     

Online Teaching and Self-Efficacy to Work With Suicidal Clients

We used an experimental design to evaluate the impact of three online teaching strategies on students' self-efficacy to work with suicidal clients. Results showed that the three strategies, informed by adult learning and social learning theory, were equally effective. Implications for programs preparing students for suicide intervention roles are discussed.     

Enhancing Science Learning Through the Introduction of Effective Group Work in Hong Kong Secondary Classrooms

This study compares the learning results of three groups of secondary two (grade eight) students of a similar academic standard who participated in a teaching intervention involving different pedagogies. One hundred and forty-nine Hong Kong secondary students were chosen and divided into three groups, “whole-class teaching approach”, “group work with no specific strategies” and “group work with effective strategies”, to study the “space travel” unit in their science curriculum. The first group was exposed to traditional whole-class instruction, and the latter two practised collaborative group work, with the third adopting four effective strategies derived from a UK-based quasi-experimental project. Analyses of the pre- and post-diagnostic assessments and audiotaped discussions revealed that group work comprising effective strategies not only raised students’ test scores, but also enhanced their joint construction of conceptual knowledge in science. The findings suggest that the effective strategies adopted in this study are contributory factors to superior student accomplishments and a stronger desire to seek clarification accruing from shared cognitive activities.     

Academic boredom among students in higher education: A mixed-methods exploration of characteristics,contributors and consequences

Academic boredom usually contributes adversely towards student engagement and performance across a diverse range of settings including universities. The formal study of academic boredom in higher education remains, however, a relatively underdeveloped field and one surprisingly neglected in the UK. Rooted in Control-Value Theory, details of a mixed-methods exploration of academic boredom among 235 final year undergraduates attending a single university in England are presented. Quantitative data included measurement using the BPS-UKHE, a revised boredom proneness scale developed for use across the sector. Qualitative data arose primarily from 10 research interviews. Findings indicate that about half of all respondents experienced the most common precursors of academic boredom at least occasionally; traditional lectures with a perceived excess and inappropriate use of PowerPoint stimulating the actual onset of boredom more than other interactive forms of delivery. Coping strategies included daydreaming, texting and turning to social media. Academic boredom also occurred during the completion of assignments used to assess modules. Differences between those more prone to academic boredom than others extended to self-study (fewer hours), attendance (good rather than excellent) and degree outcome (lower marks). Findings are considered valuable empirically and theoretically, leading to recommendations surrounding boredom mitigation which challenge cultural traditions and pedagogical norms.     

Asia through time: Asian news in time magazine

Twenty years ago, the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems determined that 68 per cent of the world's population, comprising the developing world, accounted for only 10 to 30 per cent of reported world news. This imbalance in the flow of international news, combined with a Western news ethic that tends to emphasize the aberrational, has been blamed for presenting a skewed view of the developing world. This paper employs content analysis conducted at ten year intervals to determine how Time magazine has stood in the light of this argument over the years.     

Discriminating participants and non-participants in continuing professional education: the case of teachers

There are a number of theoretical perspectives established for studying adult participation in education, but they are seldom examined together in single studies; neither are participants and non-participants examined simultaneously. This study examines the relative power of the major perspectives in distinguishing between and predicting participants and non-participants. Secondary school teachers who were participating or not participating in continuing professional education programmes were taken as target respondents. Results show that the theoretical perspectives of situations, dispositions, attitudes and beliefs in continuing professional education, and social norms and pressure, do not discriminate teacher participants and non-participants and are therefore not good predictors of the participation status of teachers. Only a few factors in the perspectives of motivations and socio-economic background are significant and meaningful in distinguishing the two teacher groups and in predicting participation status.     

Self‐harm through cutting: evidence from a sample of schools in the north of England

This project explored the prevalence of self‐harm by cutting in a geographically circumscribed area of the North of England, using a school‐based survey. Twenty‐three per cent of the young people reported they had cut themselves at least once, with no major changes evident at different age groups or with gender. There were clear differences in rates between schools, and statistically significant differences when comparing the coping mechanisms used by young people who cut themselves with those of their peers.     

Perception of gated, highly familiar spoken monosyllabic nouns by children with and without learning disabilities

A forward-gating procedure employing highly familiar monosyllabic words was used in auditory testing of age- and gender-matched children with learning disabilities and normally achieving children aged 8 to 11 years. The portion of the word presented, or "gate," was longer on each successive trial. Nondisabled children identified an average of one more word than the children with learning disabilities, but the mean duration required for word identification did not differ between groups. Better receptive vocabulary scores were associated with identification of words at shorter durations only among the children with learning disabilities. The two groups of children had similar numbers of different meaningful-word and different non-word incorrect responses. The children with learning disabilities exhibited poorer fine-grained auditory discrimination than a control group of nondisabled children. The study concluded that auditory closure skills for the gating task were as good among children with learning disabilities as among nondisabled children, but that sensory discrimination problems may contribute significantly to the learning difficulties of the former group.     

Net forces during tethered simulation of underwater streamlined gliding and kicking techniques of the freestyle turn

Weassessed the net forces created when towing swimmers while gliding and kicking underwater to establish an appropriate speed for initiating underwater kicking, and the most effective gliding position and kicking technique to be applied after a turn. Sixteen experienced male swimmers of similar body shape were towed by a motorized winch and pulley system. A load cell measured net force (propulsive force - drag force) at speeds of 1.6, 1.9, 2.2, 2.5 and 3.1 m· s-1 . At each speed, the swimmers performed a prone streamline glide, a lateral streamline glide, a prone freestyle kick, a prone dolphin kick and a lateral dolphin kick. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the gliding and kicking conditions at different speeds. The results demonstrated an optimal range of speeds (1.9 to 2.2 m· s-1 ) at which to begin underwater kicking to prevent energy loss from excessive active drag. No significant differences were found between the prone and lateral streamline glide positions or between the three underwater kicking techniques. Therefore, there appears to be no significant advantage in using one streamlining technique over another or in using one kicking style over another.