Pressures and influences on school leaders navigating policy development during the COVID-19 pandemic

The pressures and influences experienced by school leaders as school policymakers, during the first responses to COVID-19 pandemic, made their task of interpreting, translating and implementing school guidance both difficult and stressful. During COVID-19 pandemic, school leaders faced challenges to prioritise and balance ever-changing government policy advice with the limitations of school buildings, the welfare of students and staff, and the needs of communities, a task made complicated by the methods of communication used by government. By surveying and interviewing headteachers, senior leaders and governors, this article identifies the reactions and responses of school leaders who construct and enact policy in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The article addresses the nature of, and factors affecting, pressures school leaders feel in authoring and implementing policy. These pressures are non-trivial and increase tension in already highly stressful work. The report draws on data collected from a randomised, stratified sample of primary and secondary school leaders from across England in early June 2020, during the time of national lockdown and remote learning. Findings suggest quality, quantity and frequency of top-down communication contributed to school leader stress, while horizontal communication and collaboration between school leaders and across school communities supported leaders during rapid change. We recommend that government and the Department of Education strengthen and streamline stressful communication systems while building cooperative communities, mitigating against the challenges identified by school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Top contributors to the school psychology literature: 1996–2005

An erratum has been published for this article in Psychology in the Schools 43(7) 2006, iii‐vi. [ ]. S.G. Little (1997) reported the top contributors to the school psychology literature from 1987 to 1995. The present study represents a follow‐up by examining the top contributors from 1996 to 2005. Similar to Little, a list of the top 50 contributors was developed using a point system that assigned more credit based on fewer coauthors and higher authorship placement. Expanding upon the Little study, we also computed a list of the top 50 contributors in terms of number of articles authored, thus facilitating a comparison of the two methods. Melissa Bray ranked first on both lists. The top 10 authors in terms of articles also were ranked in the top 13 in terms of points. Thus, for the most productive authors, choice of criteria for ranking does not appear important; however, in terms of encouraging versus discouraging collaboration among researchers, criteria choice may be important. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 737–743, 2006.     

Conformity to masculinity ideology,a predictor of academic‐related attitudes and behaviors

Masculinity ideology is argued to be associated with academic outcomes. However, relatively few studies have examined these associations. This study examines the associations between masculinity ideology and academic skepticism, self‐presentation of low achievement, academic engagement, academic initiative, and self‐regulation, above and beyond academic self‐efficacy, among a diverse sample of urban youth. With a sample of 135 eighth‐grade students from a Northeastern middle school, 5 separate multiple hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine whether students’ endorsement of masculinity ideology predicted the criterion variables above and beyond academic self‐efficacy. The sample was comprised of 54 girls and 74 boys ages 12–14 years (M = 13.14; SD = .37). Results showed academic self‐efficacy significantly predicted academic engagement (B = 1.26; β = .53, p < .001; f² = .39), academic initiative (B = .98; β = .37; p < .001, f² = .16), and behavioral regulation (B = .61; β = .24; p < .05; f² = .09) and explained an additional 8 and 10% of the variance in self‐presentation of low achievement (B = .54; β = .33; p = .001; f² = .14) and academic skepticism (B = .56; β = .35; p < .001; f² = .15), respectively, over and above academic self‐efficacy. Gender, which was dummy coded and entered as a covariate, only predicted self‐presentation of low achievement. Findings from this study point to the need to foster positive academic outcomes through bolstering academic self‐efficacy and, perhaps more important, addressing masculinity ideology.     

教育学立场的美学审视

教育学与美学的关系演变经历了审美教育学、教育美学、教育审美学三个阶段。在这三个阶段中,教育美学出现了教育学与美学的交叉渗透,它表现为三种样态:一是在教育学中直接沿用美学概念;二是对美学概念予以教育学的移植;三是对美学概念进行教育学的改造。教育美学的建构必须坚持教育学的立场,从而使教育活动更好地实现立美育人的目的。     

Teaching Stress Management in Physical Education: A Quasi-Experimental Study with Vocational Students

The aim was to develop, implement, and evaluate a physical education-based coping training program for vocational students. Two vocational schools participated in the quasi-experimental pilot study (EPHECT I). One school received the intervention (intervention group: n?=?434), while the other school maintained regular physical education classes (control group: n?=?430). Repeated measures ANCOVAs were used to examine the effects on coping and perceived stress. Additionally, effects were compared among students who reported low versus elevated life satisfaction. Finally, the implementation rate was considered as a moderating factor. Overall, no significant time by group effects were found between the intervention group and the control group. However, a reduction in maladaptive coping occurred among students of the intervention group who reported low life satisfaction. The implementation rate did not moderate the findings. Despite a relatively low implementation rate, the intervention program reduced maladaptive coping strategies in adolescents with low life satisfaction. Program monitoring needs to be increased in future research.     

Providing Access to Engagement in Learning: The Potential of Universal Design for Learning in Museum Design

Following passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), many museums improved the accessibility of their facilities. Even so, individuals with disabilities still lag behind in participation and engagement in museum experiences. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides an alternate model for the design of museum programs and exhibit spaces, one that is more aligned to progressive concepts of disability, providing not only physical access but also access to engagement in learning. In this article we argue that UDL has the potential to substantially improve the design of informal learning environments. Through two illustrative examples, we describe how the UDL design guidelines can be used to improve the probability that engagement will occur as individuals interact with exhibits, programs, and people in museums.     

Differences in trunk and upper extremity kinematics and segmental velocities during the offside forehand polo swing between male and female athletes

ABSTRACT

Although polo is a well-known equestrian sport, it is fundamentally misunderstood. The purpose of this study was to examine trunk and upper extremity kinematics and segmental velocities during the offside forehand polo swing between male and female athletes. Ten female and 17 male professional polo athletes volunteered. An electromagnetic tracking system collected kinematic data at 100 Hz while participants performed three offside forehand polo swings from a stationary wooden horse. One-way ANOVAs revealed statistically significant differences (p<0.05) in all kinematic variables and segmental velocities. Specifically, males exhibited a greater mean difference (MD=23°) of trunk flexion at take away (TA) and top of backswing (TOB)(MD=29°) trunk lateral flexion at ball contact (BC)(MD=23°), trunk rotation at TA(MD=97°) and TOB(MD=118°), shoulder abduction at TOB(MD=64°), and shoulder elevation at TOB(MD=13°) and BC(MD=40°). Females displayed greater trunk rotation at BC(MD=91°), shoulder elevation at TA(MD=19°), and elbow flexion at TA(MD=90°). Additionally, females generated greater segmental velocities early in the swing, while the males generated velocity later. The movement patterns observed amongst the males suggest energy is being transferred more efficiently along the kinetic chain, thus more efficient swing mechanics, but further investigation into the role of the trunk and lumbopelvic-hip complex in reference to the polo swing is warranted.     

The body and pedagogy: beyond absent,moving bodies in pedagogic practice

Following the corporeal turn in social theory, this paper explores how the body is implicated in pedagogic practice and leaning. Focusing on the body has usually been recognised as part of the regulative rather than instructional discourse in schools. Work has begun to redress the mind–body imbalance through the ‘corporeal device’ developed from Bernstein’s ‘pedagogic device’, the fundamental relay through which social inequalities are reproduced in schools. To properly recognise the way bodies act as pedagogic relays requires a robust understanding of persons as multi-sensorial acting beings. Examples for choreographic pedagogy are used to illuminate the complex and multimodal features of instructional discourse and to suggest how the moving body could be enlisted to enhance students’ access to formal academic discourses and better understand why some young people fail to achieve in schools.