Coaching athletes with disability: preconceptions and reality

It is now widely recognized that athletes with disability compete at an elite level which parallels that experienced by non-disabled athletes. The importance of quality coaching to develop an athlete’s full potential is similarly recognized. However, research in the area of coaching athletes with disability is still lacking compared to its counterpart in non-disabled sport. This research explored the holistic experience of coaching elite athletes with disability, and therefore encompassed not only the coaches’ preconceptions, but the rewards and challenges of their coaching experience. Semi-structured interviews were held with 12 coaches of elite athletes from sports including swimming, athletics, cycling, canoeing, triathlon, equestrian sport and wheelchair basketball. The results of the study identified that, although the coaches reported their experience as being overwhelmingly positive, they were also regularly confronted with difficulties not generally faced by coaches of non-disabled athletes.     

Analogy motor learning by young children: a study of rope skipping

Research in psychology suggests that provision of an instruction by analogy can enhance acquisition and understanding of knowledge. Limited research has been conducted to test this proposition in motor learning by children. The purpose of the present study was to examine the feasibility of analogy instructions in motor skill acquisition by children. Thirty-two children were randomly assigned to one of the two instruction protocols: analogy and explicit instruction protocols for a two-week rope skipping training. Each participant completed a pretest (Lesson 1), three practice sessions (Lesson 2–4), a posttest and a secondary task test (Lesson 5). Children in the analogy protocol displayed better rope skip performance than those in the explicit instruction protocol (p?<?.001). Moreover, a cognitive secondary task test indicated that children in the analogy protocol performed more effectively, whereas children in the explicit protocol displayed decrements in performance. Analogy learning may aid children to acquire complex motor skills, and have potential benefits related to reduced cognitive processing requirements.     

Another May Fourth

The May Fourth Movement is most often understood as a precursor to the China that emerged under the rule of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party. In this essay, Mizoguchi presents an alternative reading of May Fourth, one envisioned by Liang Shuming as more deeply rooted in Chinese tradition than the heavily Marxian, class-based May Fourth later positioned as the forebear of the Cultural Revolution.     

When a social worker encounters cultural studies

Abstract

This is a personal narrative, which reflects upon my experiences of encountering cultural studies after attending the Teaching Cultural Studies Workshop. For me, the term ‘cultural studies’ represents something abstract, fancy, and thus difficult to understand, and which intimidates disciplines that emphasize application over theorization, such as social work. However, my fear of cultural studies was overcome in this workshop through the lived experiences of being respected for differences. This personal experience reflects the historical construction of social work within scientific hierarchy, so that the relevance of cultural studies and social work is not recognized by social workers. Despite the often difficult‐to‐understand style, cultural studies does provide important venues for social workers to obtain qualitative understanding of an individual's problems and crises within a social context, which is crucial to effect strategies of resistance among vulnerable populations.     

Influence of the perception of biological or non-biological motion on movement execution

The perception of a human actor performing movements may involve processes related to action execution. This resonance of the motor system may support observational learning and imitation, and could also explain the fact that observers'/actors' movements are disturbed by the observation of a human model making different movements (Kilner et al., 2003). In this study, we tried to specify what information available in the model's behaviour triggers this influence on an observer's behaviour. In two experiments, we had participants make horizontal or vertical arm movements while observing similar movements. In the first experiment, the observers' pattern of behaviour was affected by the observation of a human model making incongruent movements. In the second experiment, similar results were obtained with participants observing a moving dot depicting either biological or non-biological motion. Movement execution was affected differentially by biological and non-biological motion observation. These results show that an observer's behaviour is sensitive to information available in biological motion.     

Reduction of Transfer Functions by the Stability-Equation Method

A method of model reduction for reducing a high-order transfer function to its low-order models is introduced based upon the stability-equation method. The transfer functions of reduced orders are obtained directly from the pole-zero patterns of the stability-equations of the original transfer function. Comparisons with methods in the current literature are made. Extension of the proposed method to discrete systems is given.     

A class of generalized decision- feedback equalizers

An upper bound and a lower bound to the probability of error for data transmission systems using a decision-feedback equalizer, with error propagation effects taken into account, are presented. Numerical examples show that they are tight bounds.We introduce the concept of a generalized decision-feedback equalizer suggested by the form of the derived bounds. A subclass is studied and optimized numerically with the aid of the derived error probability bounds. The solution represents the best compromise achievable by that class between the output noise power and the output intersymbol interference due to error propagation. A numerical example is carried out in detail to illustrate the concept.     

A stabilization policy for an economy with some unknown characteristics

A stabilization policy is developed for an economy with unknown and possibly unknowable characteristics. Uniform asymptotic stability is guaranteed for all initial states and for all admissible uncertainties. Welfare loss over the infinite horizon is bounded by a level dependent on the initial state. The policy is robust, with a simple structure. A simple example sheds some light on the fiscalist-monetarist debate.     

Toward an Ethnic Studies Critique for Teacher Education

In an effort to humanize students of color in teacher education research, this study shifts away from the question, “How can we add students of color?” and instead asks, “How might teacher education programs be transformed to make space for students of color?” To begin, we articulate an ethnic studies critique for teacher education based on the demands for ethnic studies in the late 1960s. We then apply this critique in an analysis of the experiences of twelve preservice teachers of color. We argue that teacher education may be structured—institutionally and ideologically—to hinder the success of preservice teachers of color. We conclude with three suggestions for teacher education grounded in the ethnic studies critique, which offers an alternative paradigm for thinking of students of color beyond numbers and statistics.