Motivation in the Junior Years: International perspectives on children's attitudes,expectations and behaviour and their relationship to educational achievement

This paper reports findings from a large-scale international investigation of a number of factors that are considered to impact upon educational motivation and achievement. Following on from an earlier investigation of adolescent attitudes, the present study involved a detailed survey of nearly 3,000 children, aged 9-10 from districts in England, Russia and the USA, together with teacher reports and the employment of a test of basic mathematical computation. The Russian sample scored significantly more highly on the computation test and showed no large tail of underachievers, as was the case with the other groups. Findings from the survey indicate that many of the differences found in the earlier adolescent study are equally true for younger children. The Russian children were less likely to express satisfaction with their abilities or workrates, were more positive towards school, more likely to see education as intrinsically valuable and tended to spend significantly more time on homework tasks. Data obtained also suggest that the Russian sample experienced classrooms with far less disruption and stronger prosocial peer influences than did the English and American children. Teacher understandings of what is considered to be acceptable behaviour appeared to differ, however. The paper notes that the Western samples overestimated their teachers' views of their ability while the Russian children provided underestimates. Possible reasons for, and implications of, these differential teacher messages are discussed. The paper concludes by examining the implications of the findings from the study for increasing motivation and achievement in countries with very different sociocultural contexts.     

Ethical dilemmas and practical problems for the practitioner researcher

This paper explores the ethical dilemmas and problems encountered when undertaking an action research study in my own school. The study was designed to evaluate a contentious part of a new midwifery programme as it was being implemented. A range of potentially problematic issues are discussed from the practitioner researcher perspective. Some of these problems were anticipated but others had not been addressed and had to be responded to as they arose, More careful thought at the planning stage about the potential effects on others, as well as action-in-reflection are presented as important considerations for other practitioners contemplating action research in their own place of work.     

American Association for Health,Physical Education,and Recreation

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify whether post-resistance exercise (REx) blood flow restriction (BFR) can elicit a similar acute training stimulus to that offered by either heavy REx or traditional low-load BFR REx. Method: Ten men completed trials with 30% one-repetition maximum (1RM) for 5 sets of 15 repetitions without BFR (30%), with BFR during exercise (30% RD), and with postexercise BFR (30% RP) and at 75% 1RM for 3 sets of 10 repetitions. Lactate and cortisol were measured before and up to 60 min after exercise. Thigh circumference, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and pain were measured before and after exercise. Surface electromyography was measured during exercise. Results: All conditions had a large effect (effect size [ES] > 0.8) on lactate, with the largest effects observed with the 75% condition; no differences were observed between the 30% conditions. All conditions had a moderate effect (ES > 0.25 ≤ 0.4) on increasing thigh circumference. This effect was maintained (ES = 0.35) with the application of BFR after REx (30% RP). Change in RPE, from the first to last set, was significantly greater with 30% RD compared with other conditions (all p < .05). Electromyography amplitude was higher and percentage change was greater for the 75% condition compared with the other conditions (both p < .05). Conclusions: The application of BFR immediately post-REx altered several of the responses associated with REx that is aimed at inducing muscular hypertrophy. Additionally, these changes occurred with less pain and perceived exertion suggesting that this form of REx may offer an alternative, tolerable method of REx.     

Food Safety Education Using Music Parodies

ABSTRACT:  Musical parodies of contemporary songs with their lyrics altered to address current food safety issues were incorporated into a variety of food safety educational programs and the effectiveness of the music was evaluated by semiquantitative and qualitative measures. Audiences receiving the music-enriched curricula included school foodservice supervisors, school foodservice managers, culinary arts instructors, culinary arts students, Family and Consumer Sciences teachers, and youth aged 8 to 12 y and studies were conducted in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Delaware. Among school foodservice supervisors, school foodservice managers, and culinary arts students, most participants were able to recall the main points of each song that was introduced in the curriculum. The culinary arts students were less likely to recall the main points of each song than were the other 2 groups, possibly because of the lack of prior knowledge of food safety practices as well as a lack of preference for the style of songs used. Family and Consumer Sciences teachers were enthusiastic about the use of the music but also identified potential barriers to the successful use of the music, due to the potential lack of appropriate audiovisual equipment, a lack of skills in using such equipment, and time constraints for the use of music in curricula due to the strong emphasis on end of year testing. Participants in the summer youth groups demonstrated significant increases between pre- and posttest examinations of safe food handling behaviors and most were able to quote lines or phrases from the songs.     

Administration Et Controle De L'Education En Chine

Résumé Avec plus de deux cents millions d'inscrits dans le primaire, le secondaire et le supérieur, la Chine peut se vanter de posséder la population scolaire la plus importante du monde. Celui-ci requiert la participation de quelque huit millions d'enseignants desservant plusieurs milliers d'établissements. Une personne sur quatre au moins étudie à temps plein dans ce pays où la moyenne d'âge de la population est légèrement inférieure à 25 ans. Le Ministère de l'Education à Pékin n'emploie guère plus de deux cents cadres administratifs et pédagogues. Ce modeste groupe constitue le coeur du système. Toutefois, il y a en outre de par la Chine environ un million de travailleurs qui, d'une manière ou d'une autre, desservent et entretiennent le système à l'échelon provincial, communal et cantonal, ainsi qu'à celui du quartier ou de chaque école. Peu d'autres organes étatiques chinois utilisent un corps aussi diversifié de travailleurs spécialisés engagés dans une entreprise de si grande envergure. Dans ce système, les unités scolaires sont censées être leur propre moteur et tirer leur orientation de leur propre sein. Les deux millions d'écoles primaires et secondaires du premier cycle, ainsi que les quatre cents universités et collèges universitaires qui forment l'ensemble du système sont dirigés par des Comités Révolutionnaires représentant l'éventail complet des principales composantes de la société chinoise d'aujourd'hui: ouvriers, paysans et soldats, enseignants, étudiants et parents d'élèves. Cette mesure de décentralisation des pouvoirs administratifs se révèle comme l'un des majeurs bénéfices apportés par la Révolution Culturelle dans le domaine de l'éducation. Présence universelle, le Parti communiste chinois donne les directives politiques et les orientations idéologiques pour l'administration de ce système.

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China, with over two hundred million students enrolled in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, boasts the world's largest educational system. It involves some eight million teachers, who serve a myriad of schools and colleges. At least one person in every four is a full-time student in a country which has a median population of just under 25 years of age. The Ministry of Education in Peking is modestly staffed by some two hundred administrative cadres and educational workers, who form the heart of the system. However, throughout China there are approximately a further million workers who, in a variety of ways, service and maintain the system at the province, commune, district, county and individual school level. Few other governmental services in China include such a diverse corps of professional workers involved in such a widespread enterprise. Individual school units in the system are expected to generate much of their imputs and direction from within. The two million primary and middle schools and the four hundred universities and colleges which make up the system are run by Revolutionary Committees representing all the principal elements involved in Chinese society today, namely workers, peasants and soldiers, as well as teachers, students and parents. The measure of decentralization of policy making and administrative responsibility has turned out to be one of the main educational benefits of the Cultural Revolution. Ubiquitously, the Chinese Communist Party provides the ideological underpinning and political direction for the administration of the system.

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Zusammenfassung China, mit über zweihundert Millionen Studenten in den Primar-, Sekundar- und Tertiärinstitutionen, kann sich des grössten Bildungssystems der Welt rühmen. Etwa elf Millionen Lehrer sind daran beteiligt, die in einer Myriade von Schulen und Colleges unterrichten. Mindestens jeder vierte ist in Ausbildung in einem Lande, wo der mittlere Alterdurchschnitt gerade unter 25 Jahren liegt. Das Erziehungsministerium in Peking ist personell bescheiden ausgerüstet mit etwa zweihundert Verwaltungskadern und pädagogischen Arbeitern, die das Herz des Systems bilden. Doch in ganz China selbst gibt es noch einmal etwa eine Million weiterer Arbeiter, die, in verschiedener Art und Weise, das System auf dem Provinz-, Kommunen-, Distrikt-, Bezirks- und Schulniveau bedienen und aufrechterhalten. Nur einige wenige Regierungsdienste in China beinhalten solch ein verschiedenartiges Korps an professionellen Arbeitern, die in einem so weitverbreiteten Unternehmen tätig sind. Von individuellen Schuleinheiten im System wird erwartet, dass sie viel von ihrem Einfluss und ihrer Richtung aus sich selbst erzeugen. Die zwei Millionen Primar- und Mittelschulen und die vierhundert Universitäten und Colleges, aus denen das System besteht, werden von Revolutionskommittees geleitet, die die Hauptgruppen der heutigen chinesischen Gesellschaft widerspiegeln, nämlich Arbeiter, Bauern und Soldaten, sowie Lehrer, Studenten, Schüler und Eltern. Dezentralisierung der politischen Entscheidung und der Verwaltungsverantwortung stellt sich als einer der Hauptvorteile der Kulturrevolution heraus. Überall stellt die chinesische kommunistische Partei die ideologische Basis und die politischen Direktiven zur Verwaltung des Systems auf.