Building on similarity: a whole class use for simplified language materials

This article examines how the recommended pedagogy for people with Down syndrome may be of use to a wide range of other individuals within a mainstream school setting. Drawing on current practices within English education, it describes the evidence behind the current advice about the language to be used in materials for people with Down syndrome, and then examines why similar language forms have been devalued as teaching tools in relation to people who are learning English as an additional language. The article then describes the use of differentiated materials in a secondary school and the problems that this both highlights and generates. Drawing on these three strands, as well as current best practice and research into comprehension and simple English, this article then proposes a possible usage for simplified language materials (SLMs) at transition points of lessons. It suggests that if SLMs are used at these specific moments within lessons they could be of value to the whole class, and serve as a useful inclusive pedagogy. The article highlights the need for further research into the possible use of SLMs within mainstream schools.     

Publicizing Career Opportunities

Using small groups in student cooperative learning enterprises has become a major trend in American higher education (Cheng and Warren 2000). However, several practical issues involving the assessment of an individual's performance in groups have sometimes created resistance to the method from both students and parents (Kagan 1995). This article evaluates the case for using cooperative group assignments and the problems associated with evaluating the performances of individuals working in groups. Practical suggestions for minimizing some of the potential problems associated with group grading are offered and some philosophic perspectives on this form of grading are advanced.     

Implementation Fidelity of a Program Designed to Promote Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Education

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative comparative case study was to examine the implementation fidelity of a program designed to deliver the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model (Hellison, 2003) through physical education and its relationship with short-term outcomes for elementary school students. The research questions were: (a) was the program implemented with fidelity, and (b) did better fidelity yield better student outcomes. Thus, we conducted a study on the implementation process used by two teachers who delivered the same program in two physical education classes in two different elementary schools in Spain. Data sources included observations and interviews with teachers and nonparticipant observers. Findings indicated that fidelity of implementation in Case 1 was higher and most children in those classes acquired the first three of five TPSR responsibility levels. Implementation fidelity in Case 2 was weaker and achievement of responsibility goals was minimal (only the first of five levels) and less stable for those students. This study is the first to directly examine the connection between TPSR implementation fidelity and student outcomes.     

Subject Gender,Knowledge of Results,and Receptor Anticipation

The effect of subject gender and knowledge of results (KR) on receptor anticipation (Poulton, 1957) was investigated. Twenty trials were given in which subjects (N = 80) attempted to time a preferred-hand button press response coincident with the lighting of the last of a series of runway lights illuminating in a pattern of apparent motion of 9 mph. Half of the subjects received quantitative KR after each trial and half performed without KR. Each group contained 20 males and 20 females. Mean absolute error, mean algebraic error, and variable error were calculated for each subject on the block of trials 2 to 5 and on the three subsequent 5-trial blocks. The dependent measures were then analyzed by means of separate 2 × 2 × 4 (Gender × KR × Blocks) ANOVAs with repeated measures on the last factor. The results indicated that the receptor anticipation of males was more accurate and less variable than that of females, and KR did not influence the accuracy of anticipations but was associated with higher intravariability. Sociocultural and physiological explanations for sex differences in receptor anticipation are discussed.     

A Comparative Study of Physique and Performance Measures Resulting from a Short-Term Physical Fitness Course

Abstract

Cardiorespiratory and anthropometric assessments were made on 95 randomly selected young college males enrolled in three physical fitness sections and one tennis course, each lasting eight weeks. Laboratory and field measures were utilized to report and evaluate changes in functional fitness and physique variables, including nine selected fat and girth measurements, height and weight, timed vital capacity, Harvard Step Test, grip strength, mile run time, and vertical jump. Analysis of the data yielded the following conclusions: (a) Eight weeks of physical fitness training can produce significant improvements in physique and circulorespiratory characteristics; (b) A skill-oriented tennis class demonstrates no significant physical improvements; (c) Body weight can be increased while body fat is lost; (d) Vital capacity has little value in reflecting levels of physical performance; (e) Specificity of a physical fitness program will influence its outcome.     

Shepherds in the gym: employing a pastoral power analytic on caring teaching in HPE

Drawing on research conducted in Australian Health' and Physical Education (HPE) and Swedish Physical Education and Health (PEH), this paper demonstrates the analytic possibilities of Foucault's notion of pastoral power to reveal the moral and ethical work conducted by HPE/PEH teachers in producing healthy active citizens. We use the pastoral power analytic to make visible the consequences of caring HPE/PEH teaching practices which appear unassailable as producing a general ‘good’ for all students. In so doing we undertake the challenge posed by Nealon to be attuned to those social practices that appear beyond reproach as ‘power becomes more effective while offering less obvious potential for resistance’. From this Foucauldian perspective we argue that caring HPE/PEH teachers employ a wide range of normalization tools to interpellate young people into a specific model of ‘normal’ healthy living, simultaneously determining those who represent problematic deviations from the norm. We further argue that instead of discarding or ignoring these students, such deviations call upon the HPE/PEH teacher to care more fervently, to employ more intense strategies of individualization such as togetherness, encouragement and familiarity. In conclusion, we highlight the tensions and implications that may result for HPE/PEH teachers and their students.     

Developing Children in New Zealand School Physical Education

This paper critically examines the assumptions about 'childhood' and 'child development' that inform curriculum construction in school physical education. Drawing on insights from poststructuralist social theory and critical psychological perspectives, the paper argues that developmental discourses have a material life embodied in the institutional practices of school physical education. A New Zealand physical education syllabus is used as an illustrative exemplar of the ways in which developmental imperatives shape the construction of learning goals, design of curriculum experiences and teachers' observations of their students. It is argued that the construction of a normative, hierarchical trajectory for child development categorises, classifies and marginalises groups of children whose developmental patterns differ from those mapped out in the syllabus. The paper concludes by examining the conditions of possibility present in more contemporary physical education syllabi and theory that afford opportunities for thinking about physically educated children differently.     

If sport's the solution then what's the problem? The social significance of sport in the moral governing of ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ citizens in Sweden, 1922–1998

All over the westernised world, sport has been promoted as a ‘solution’ to many of the social ‘problems’ and challenges that face modern societies. This study draw on Foucault's concept of governmentality to examine the ways in which Swedish Government Official Reports on sport, from 1922 to 1998, define social problems and legitimate governing, and sport as a solution, in the name of benefiting Swedish society. The analysis shows that citizens' ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ behaviour and bodies are in focus of problematisation throughout the studied period. In relation to this, sport is seen as an important tool and solution. Parallel with increased critique of sport in contemporary times, a neo-liberal governmentality is embraced which in turn affect how ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ are thought of in individualistic and rational ways.