Peer review and the h-index: Two studies

Research was undertaken that examined what, if any, correlation there was between the h-index and rankings by peer assessment, and what correlation there was between the 2008 UK RAE rankings and the collective h-index of submitting departments. About 100 international scholars in Library and Information Science were ranked by their peers on the quality of their work. These rankings were correlated with the h and g scores the scholars had achieved. The results showed that there was a correlation between their median rankings and the indexes. The 2008 RAE grade point averages (GPA) achieved by departments from three UoAs – Anthropology, Library and Information Management and Pharmacy were compared with each of their collective h and g index scores. Results were mixed, with a strong correlation between pharmacy departments and index scores, followed by library and information management to anthropology where negative and non-significant results were found. Taken together, the findings from the research indicate that individual ranking by peer assessment and their h-index or variants was generally good. Results for the RAE 2008 gave correlations between GPA and successive versions of the h-index which varied in strength, except for anthropology where, it is suggested detailed cited reference searches must be undertaken to maximise citation counts.     

Adductor longus mechanics during the maximal effort soccer kick

Groin pain is a common cause of athletic disability and often involves the adductor longus. A common complaint of patients with groin problems is pain while preparing to kick the ball. The purpose of this study was to examine muscle length and activation of the adductor longus while kicking a soccer ball. Three-dimensional joint positions and muscle activation were obtained from 15 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 male soccer players during maximal effort kicks. Musculoskeletal modeling techniques incorporating joint position and muscle attachments were used to estimate adductor longus length from the beginning of the kicking leg's swing phase until ball strike. The maximum rate of stretch of the adductor longus (22.3 ± 5.3 cm/s) and maximum hip extension (23.3 ± 8.8°) occurred near 40% of swing phase. Activation of the adductor longus occurred between 10% and 50% of the swing phase. Adductor longus maximum length occurred at 65% of the swing phase. Maximum hip abduction (25.3 ± 5.4°) occurred at 80% of swing phase. The adductor longus appears to be at risk of strain injury during its transition from hip extension to hip flexion. This knowledge could be applied to muscle injury prevention and rehabilitation programs to aid with treatment of adductor longus related groin pain.     

Negotiating a critical agenda in middle years physical education

In this research a number of strategies including physical experiences, physical stories and lab school with guided reflection were used with pre-service physical education teachers in an attempt to foster more critical and inclusive approaches to teaching physical education in the middle years. The strategies were used to illustrate the complex processes that inhibit or enhance an individual’s relationship to physical activity. They served to identify discursive, social and institutional practices, which supported the development of a physical identity for some young people while powerfully denying it to others. Pre-service physical education teachers were asked to respond to these strategies in multiple ways as well as constructing their own knowledge around teaching and learning in physical education. It was concluded that a more complete understanding of young people’s physicality could develop from recognition of the complex interrelationships that occur between school, culture and physical experiences. The strategies used allowed insights into these complexities and worked to develop a deeper appreciation of ‘lived’ experiences, around physical education. Opportunities to explore and critically reflect on teaching and student learning were also found to be significant in considering broadened understandings of pedagogies of physical education.     

心灵深处的音乐

Life...What is it?See it in the colors of autumn,A gentle snowfall in winter,A sudden shower in spring,The radiance of a summer day.Behold it in the laughterOf the young and the old.Know of it in a surge of hope,The blessings that are bountiful.What is li…     

Assessing and changing career decision-making self-efficacy expectations

Conclusion Evidence that a significant percentage of career decision-makers may be helped only partially by traditional information-oriented approaches suggests that career counselors pay increased attention to the personal-emotional barriers which deter many individuals from making and enacting sound career plans. Self-efficacy theory seems to be especially promising as a guide for changing negative expectations, as it offers the counselor a set of specific strategies for assessing low expectations and for treating them. Social-cognitive theory provides a firm research-based framework from which the counselor can encourage clients to gather new efficacy information. Using the basic social-cognitive strategies, counseling can proceed to facilitate the changing of clients' cognitive schemata, by means of the counselor's encouraging clients to consider new evidence and to try further tests of old beliefs. Counselors are encouraged to continue to explore methods for assessing and treating low career decision-making self-efficacy expectations. A self-efficacy-based approach lends itself to the requirement for focused, short-term intervention which is typical of many settings in which career counseling is practiced, while it also ensures that important personal-emotional issues in career decision-making are addressed.     

Situations,interaction, process and affordances: An ecological psychology perspective

From an ecological psychology perspective, afull analysis of any learning context mustacknowledge the complex nonlinear dynamics thatunfold as an intentionally-driven learnerinteracts with a technology-based purposefullydesigned learning environment. Further, a fullanalysis must avoid focusing only on theindividual within the learning context and notaccounting for the intentionality andconstraining influence of the designer and thebroader community. Finally, such an analysismust either pin down how learning anddevelopment can be driven by perception of theenvironment alone (detection of affordances),or alternatively from an ecologicalperspective, by a cyclical interaction ofperception and action. This paperpresents these parameters for any model ofcontext or situation in relationship to theissues raised by Akhras and Self's (this issue)presentation on intelligent learningenvironments. We propose that a full situationmodel would need to incorporate constraints notonly from the environment, but also from theindividual and most precisely from the specificinteraction at the moment of an occasion.