ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE DIMINISHED SUBJECT

ABSTRACT:  Discussions about freedom of speech and academic freedom today are about the limits to those freedoms. However, these discussions take place mostly in the higher education trade press and do not receive any serious attention from academics and educationalists. In this paper several key arguments for limiting academic freedom are identified, examined and placed in an historical context. That contextualisation shows that with the disappearance of social and political struggles to extend freedom in society there has come a narrowing of academic life and a new and impoverished concept of 'academic freedom' for a diminished idea of the human subject, of humanity and of human potential .     

Test–retest reliability of physiological parameters in elite junior distance runners following allometric scaling

This study aimed to quantify the intra-individual reliability of a number of physiological variables in a group of national and international young distance runners. Sixteen (8 male, 8 female) participants (16.7?±?1.4 years) performed a submaximal incremental running assessment followed by a maximal running test, on two occasions separated by no more than seven days. Maximal oxygen uptake (V?O_2max), speed at V?O_2max (km?h^?1), running economy and speed and heart rate (HR) at fixed blood lactate concentrations were determined. V?O_2max and running economy were scaled for differences in body mass using a power exponent derived from a larger cohort of young runners (n?=?42). Running economy was expressed as oxygen cost and energy cost at the speed associated with lactate turnpoint (LTP) and the two speeds prior to LTP. Results of analysis of variance revealed an absence of systematic bias between trials. Reliability indices showed a high level of reproducibility across all parameters (typical error [TE] ≤2%; intra-class correlation coefficient >0.8; effect size <0.6). Expressing running economy as energy cost appears to provide superior reliability than using oxygen cost (TE ～1.5% vs. ～2%). Blood lactate and HR were liable to daily fluctuations of 0.14–0.22?mmol?L^?1 and 4–5?beats?min^?1 respectively. The minimum detectable change values (95% confidence) for each parameter are also reported. Exercise physiologists can be confident that measurement of important physiological determinants of distance running performance are highly reproducible in elite junior runners.     

School psychology—why is the profession dying?

The state of the profession is addressed as it relates to training, practice, certification, and its professional identity. It is suggested that death of the profession is imminent unless the profession is upgraded and a new image and role are surfaced. One of the problems is that since the passing of current judicial and legislative acts PL 93-380 and 94-142, the traditional role of psychologists is no longer tenable, and new ways of behaving are required which have implications for training and practice. Survival through rebirth can occur, and new directions are suggested for the profession to consider in reassessing its new and changing role.     

Category-use effects in children

Three experiments examined the changes in category representation that take place when children use exemplars for tasks other than classification. In Experiments 1 and 2, 6- and 10-year-old children learned to classify exemplars of a novel category and then used the same exemplars in an inferential prediction task. In a subsequent classification task, features that were predictive for both classification and inference were classified more accurately than features that were predictive only of category membership. Experiment 3 showed that features with multiple uses were also more likely to be retrieved in feature listing. The findings show that children's category representations are affected by the way exemplars are used after they have been categorized.     

Attitudes of Parents and Teachers toward Mainstreaming

A questionnaire measuring attitudes toward mainstreaming was completed by teachers and parents at two primary schools, one of which had initiated a mainstreaming program in Year 1 classes. Results indicated that attitudes of parents and teachers at this school were more negative than those of their counterparts at the school with no mainstreaming program. Despite this apparent relationship between contact with disabled children and a negative attitude towards mainstreaming, a significant association was found between amount of experience with disabled children and a positive attitude towards mainstreaming. Among explanations proposed for these discrepant findings is the suggestion that attitudes expressed prior to experience with mainstreaming may not be an accurate guide to views held after its implementation.     

Factors that Affect Student Motivation in a Dairy Products Elective Course

ABSTRACT: Student motivation is influenced by instructional approach. Motivation is a function of initiating and sustaining goal-directed behavior. The objective of this study was to identify factors (positive and negative) that affect motivation in a junior-level dairy products elective course. Student attitudes were surveyed each year half-way through the semester over the past 4 y using an open-ended instrument. Data obtained showed that environmental factors such as instructor enthusiasm, use of humor, and positive attitude all significantly ( P = 0.068) and positively influenced goal-directed behavior. Significant negative influential factors mainly included course topic choices. Overall, these findings were consistent with motivational theory and highlighted the significance of environmental influences in the classroom and potential connection to self-efficacy and ultimately motivation.     

Cracking with affect: relationality in young people’s movements in and out of mainstream schooling

This paper focusses on the schooling stories of two young women who moved from mainstream schooling into alternative learning program set up for Indigenous students and back into mainstream schooling to complete their Year 12 education. The manner in which these young women narrated their stories is understood through the prism of Indigenous notions of relatedness and affect theory and is as revealing as the actual reporting of the events and rationales in these young women’s schooling trajectories. Young people’s insights into the challenges of mainstream pedagogies and promises of relational pedagogies invite us to consider what could be different in structures and processes which aim to deliver educational equity. We argue there is a need for more research which offers rich accounts of the emotional and relational fields which underpin student subjectivities and engagement.