Cardiac Function Tests as Indexes of Fitness

Abstract

Ventricular function measurements such as the Tension Period (TP) and the Q to First Heart Sound Interval (Q-1HSI) have received increasing attention as possible simple indexes of a person's cardiovascular fitness. In order to evaluate the usefulness of these tests for measuring fitness, they were compared with fitness scores obtained using a standard fitness test. The fitness score (Physical Work Capacity-150) of 31 male subjects was determined and correlated with their TP and Q-1HSI measurements taken at rest. The results showed little correlation between the PWC-150 and the TP (r = .21) or between the PWC-150 and the Q-1HSI (R = .13). The resting heart rate actually showed a closer correlation with Physical Work Capacity (r = –.53) than did either of the ventricular function measurements. Thus, from the results obtained in this study, cardiac function tests do not appear to offer a good substitute for the more strenuous tests of cardiovascular fitness.     

The assessment of preservice teachers' dispositions

Abstract

Teacher dispositions are a central force in shaping the environment in which schooling takes place. State and national accrediting bodies have underscored this importance by including preservice teacher dispositions as an important component within the standards. Consequently, teacher certification programs must attend to this dimension; however, dispositions are neither easily identified nor easily assessed.

This study field tested an instrument used to identify and evaluate preservice teachers' dispositions. The implementation of the instrument was grounded in a commitment to have students reflect first on their own behavior, with faculty oversight in reviewing this self‐assessment. The instrument was evaluated in terms of its reliability using Cronbach's alpha. The process of using the instrument was analyzed through student and faculty feedback. The revised instrument is provided for use by other universities.     

Canadian and US adult learning (1945–1970) and the cultural politics and place of lifelong learning

This essay examines adult learning in Canada and the USA (1945–1970). It explores this emergence in relation to moves to establish academic adult education as a cultural force that could help citizen learners to negotiate a way forward amid the collision of instrumental, social, and cultural change forces altering life, learning, and work in the emerging postindustrial society. In this regard, it focuses centrally on lifelong learning as an idea designed to have broad appeal in rapid-change postindustrial culture. In particular, it attempts to explicate a cultural politics of lifelong learning, which academic adult educators hoped would give the field a higher profile within what they perceived to be an emerging change culture of crisis and challenge. Two key factors are considered in these deliberations. First, this essay explores the relationship between public education (understood as schooling for children) and adult education. It takes up how this problematic relationship interfered with a post-war turn to lifelong learning. Second, it examines the shift in the meaning of the social in understanding adult education as social education in postindustrial society. It argues that the post-war discourse of democracy delimited this meaning, locating the social predominantly within a concern with preserving the dominant culture and society.     

‘What you risk reveals what you value’: fostering creativity in primary physical education

Creativity has become a buzzword in UK culture in the twenty-first century and is in increasing demand across many spheres. In education, its usage is often generic and has become ever more widespread as it has found its way into a plethora of government documentation pertaining to primary schools over the last decade. However, with a continued focus upon a performativity discourse, creativity continues to be underdeveloped in primary schools, even in areas such as Physical Education (PE), which has great potential for fostering creativity due to an endless range of movement possibilities. Using Nicholson's model (Enhancing creativity, in R. J. Sternberg, Ed., Handbook of creativity; Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999 Nicholson, R. 1999. “Enhancing creativity”. In Handbook of creativity, Edited by: Sternberg, R. J. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  [Google Scholar]) for creative enhancement, this paper examines key issues that concern the development of creativity within primary PE and seeks to construct some ‘real’ recommendations for how this could manifest itself in practice.     

INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUES: A TESTED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN

Children's attitudes about growing old and about the elderly themselves are in large part influenced by negative images projected by the media and through lack of actual experience in interacting with older people. To counter this situation and to provide an opportunity for positive attitude shift, an educational program has been developed for 10‐ and 11‐year‐old students. Growing Up — Growing Older is a developed unit of instruction relying on a package of software including films and printed support materials. A strong experiential component is provided through structured intergenerational dialogues, facilitated by visiting older volunteers.

The program was field tested using both a treatment and control population. Survey methodology was used to determine pre‐ and post‐experience stages of attitude awareness and understanding of the elderly. Although the study population did not demonstrate the level of negative attitude we had anticipated from the literature, post‐experience testing indicated a positive shift. More significant is the demonstrated increase in level of awareness of aging issues and of older persons as a result of the educational experience. Finally, the treatment population increased significantly the percentage of old people they interacted with outside the classroom. This increased familiarity and awareness of the elderly can be expected to continue to produce attitudes based more on fact than on fancy.