Teachers’ perceptions of their most significant change: source,impact, and process

The purpose of the study was to examine the differences among significant changes in the practice of individual teachers. Seventeen US teachers were interviewed about the most successful change in their teaching career. The differences in teacher change were based primarily on the source and impact of the change. The sources of change were divided into two categories: other-initiated or self-initiated. The level of impact was determined in three ways: by whether teachers described a new practice, a new direction, or a change in their beliefs. By organizing according to both the source and impact of the change, four types of change were identified: Response to School Initiatives, Professional Development Initiatives, Student-Centered Changes, and Self-Designed Changes. Self-Designed changes were further distinguished based on the time required for the change process. Implications for developing new strategies to foster teacher development are discussed.     

Effects of fatigue on golf performance

The purpose of this study was to determine if body position, weight transfer, and/or pelvis/trunk rotations changed as a result of a golf specific fatiguing protocol and whether these changes affected resultant club head velocity at impact and shot consistency. Six male golfers and one female golfer participated in the study, who had a mean age, height, and body mass of 23.9 +/- 3.9 years, 177.4 +/- 4.9 cm, and 75.3 +/- 9.9 kg, respectively. Path analysis was used to determine the relationships between fatigue, biomechanical variables, and resultant club head velocity at impact and shot consistency. In the statistical models representing the effects of biomechanical variables calculated at the top of the swing and ball contact, golf specific fatigue was associated with a 2.0% and 2.5% reduction in the club head velocity and a 7.1% and 9.4% improvement in the shot consistency, respectively. These data suggest that golf specific fatigue was not related to the initial lower body sagittal plane angles at address nor was simulated golf specific fatigue related to peak transverse plane pelvis and trunk rotational velocities (or their timings) in a manner that indicates a relationship to resultant club head velocity and shot consistency.     

TweetStorm in #ferguson: How News Organizations Framed Dominant Authority,Anti-Authority,and Political Figures in a Restive Community

After Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot African American teen Michael Brown in August 2014, rioters unleashed their anger on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. Using content analysis and framing theory, this study analyzed how news organizations covered events in Ferguson on Twitter over the course of a month immediately following the shooting. Protesters were framed as troublemakers; but community leaders were not framed as “rabble-rousers.” Journalists continued to rely on official sources more than alternate sources in spite of criticism of law enforcement and other political elites, but nearly 10% of the coded tweets that relied on official sources included some element of skepticism. Tweets from cable news outlets did not show partisan bias in any significant amount; and traditional legacy news media sources utilized the Twitter platform enhancements—such as article links, photos, links to other content, or hashtags—more than their new digital media counterparts. As Twitter launched #ferguson into the national consciousness, it is quite plausible that the framing of the tweets by news agencies may have molded perceptions of larger issues about the racial health of the nation, established policies of law enforcement, and the challenge of elected leaders to resolve explosive domestic problems.