Shame in sport

ABSTRACT

To date, there has been little philosophical consideration of the concept of shame in sport, yet sport seems to be an environment conducive to the experience of shame due to its public and unequivocal nature demonstrating failure and success. Whilst much of the philosophical commentary of shame in sport suggests it acts as a quasi-virtue that holds the spirit of sport together and prevents cheating and other bad behaviour, I will argue that the real experience of shame (in contrast to embarrassment or guilt) is an adverse emotion, that undermines athlete well being and a good sports experience. This paper will provide an analysis of the concept of shame and its relation to other similar emotions, consider its ethical function, and evaluate its effect upon elite athletes in sport. I will conclude by arguing that those involved in sport need to recognise the destructive effect that shame can have upon individuals, how it can manifest itself in other negative emotions such as anger and depression and how sports authorities need to work harder to counter the pervasive and negative effects of shame in sport.     

A Further Study of Personalized Instruction for Students in Large University Classes

The 161 students enrolling in a beginning psychology course were taught using a variant of Keller’s personalized instructional procedures. Course material was divided into twelve units and complete mastery of the material in each unit was demonstrated with a short written examination and a brief interview conducted by a more advanced student. Students could progress through the course material at their own rate. Data are reported on the number of students who withdrew from the course, when they withdrew, and characteristics of their performance prior to withdrawal. For students who completed the course, data on rate of completion of course requirements and level of mastery of course material are presented. Furthermore, student evaluation of various facets of the course are summarized. Of special interest is the finding that student test evaluators were rated as a very favorable feature of the course, and that there was no apparent distinction made between graduate-student and undergraduate evaluators. This suggests that the instructional manpower pool might be extended through the careful use of undergraduates in the college classroom.     

Does engagement in Forest School influence perceptions of risk,held by children,their parents,and their school staff?

In a climate where, it is claimed, children now spend very little time out of doors because adults fear for their safety and impose a ‘zero risk childhood’ on them, Forest School aims to offer learners the opportunity to take ‘supported risks’. This study investigated perceptions of risk associated with the outdoors, held by children, their parents and practitioners, and whether accessing Forest School impacts on these perceptions of risk. Practitioners were generally either strongly risk-averse or strongly permissive; Forest School influenced them to be less risk-averse in some respects. Parents held ambiguous perceptions, wanting to keep their children very safe but also to help them develop strong and confident attitudes to risk. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Mind what mother says: narrative input and theory of mind in typical children and those on the autism spectrum

In 2 studies mothers read wordless storybooks to their preschool-aged children; narratives were analyzed for mental state language. Children's theory-of-mind understanding (ToM) was concurrently assessed. In Study 1, children's (N=30; M age 3 years 9 months) ToM task performance was significantly correlated with mothers' explanatory, causal, and contrastive talk about cognition, but not with mothers' simple mentions of cognition. In Study 2, the same pattern was found in an older sample of typically developing children (N=24; M age 4 years 7 months), whereas for children on the autism spectrum (N=24; M age 6 years 7.5 months), ToM task performance was uniquely correlated with mothers' explanatory, causal, and contrastive talk about emotions.     

Empowering student learning through Tablet PCs: A case study

Empowering students to learn through ICT is seen as a way to address the growing awareness and demand for preparing students to effectively participate in the emerging global knowledge economy. It is believed that, in order to maintain competitiveness in a global economy, traditional classroom practices must be re-conceptualized in a way that enables students to engage themselves in knowledge building, to become more self-directed, and to assume greater autonomy and social responsibility over their own learning. In this article, we report a case study on the use of Tablet PCs to support teaching and learning in a primary school in Hong Kong, and provide insights into how schools can harness and capitalize on the opportunities offered by such emerging technologies.     

Repertoires of practice: Re-framing teaching portfolios

Teaching portfolios have been widely used in pre-service teacher education programs for approximately two decades and often constitute exit requirements and/or function as a requirement for entry to the teaching profession. Yet much has been written about teacher candidate confusion as to whether the portfolio's purpose is to document their learning and their identity formation as teachers or to serve as evidence of their teaching competence. This paper applies a sociocultural historical lens to this issue, exploring the possible role of teaching portfolios as an effective tool both for the negotiation of identity and for the demonstration of teaching competence. Through examining the perceptions of teachers who are in their first five years of teaching, we seek to re-frame the above issues in relation to repertoires of practice, a sociocultural historical phrase referring to shared competencies within a given community. We conclude that this re-framing enables novice teachers to understand competencies as the repertoires of the teaching profession and that they can enact these repertoires, or competencies, through a range of different practices. Through this re-framing, the purposes of the teaching portfolio may be more apparent and less contradictory.     

Toward a Kairos of Library Instruction

Information literacy instruction in libraries is organized by the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards. Currently under revision, these Standards define a set of external, abstract learning objectives that have been productive of a teaching role for librarians. Simultaneously, the Standards have generated a substantial critical literature that contests the objectives as a “Procrustean bed” that distracts from the particular teaching and learning contexts. This paper offers an alternative organizing heuristic for instruction in libraries. Kairos is an ancient Greek theory of time married to measure. Used by both Plato and the Sophists to understand the emergence of truth from context, kairos has been deployed by composition studies to gain a critical perspective on teaching student writing. Used to understand the context that generated both the first set of Standards and their revision, kairos can usefully direct the energy of teaching librarians toward their particular students and classrooms.     

Understanding arts audiences: existing data and what it tells us

Increasing public engagement with the arts is a core part of Arts Council England's mission. It is also a key objective of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The need for evidence based policy in this area has led to the production of a number of new data sources, including the commissioning of the Taking Part survey, an in-depth survey of how people in England attend and participate in the arts, and the “arts debate”, a wide-reaching programme of qualitative research and consultation into people's attitudes to the arts and their funding. This article examines the benefits and pitfalls of the different kinds of data available, and what these new sources of evidence add to policy makers' understanding of how people engage with the arts in England. In particular, it explores how findings from the arts debate complement and build on the quantitative findings from Taking Part, and what implications this has for future research priorities.