Mystery to mastery: Shifting paradigms in gifted education

We provide here a brief historical analysis of a movement in progress from a belief‐based “mystery” model to an evidence‐based “mastery” model of giftedness and talent development. We have observed that educators concerned about exceptionally capable learners are moving from a categorical notion of “the typical gifted child” with somewhat mysteriously defined attributes and learning needs, toward the perspective that some children have exceptionally advanced learning needs that require more flexibly responsive educational attention. We discuss factors that differentiate the two models, and observe some benefits of the shifting paradigm, arguing that by conceptualizing gifted education as providing a dynamically responsive educational match for students who otherwise experience a mismatch with the curriculum normally provided, the mastery model is socially, educationally, and politically more defensible. We discuss some practical implications of this shift in perspective.     

Letting Go of Perfect: Overcoming Perfectionism in Kids. Adelson,J. L., & Wilson,H. E. (2009)

Given the severe paucity of gifted programs in this nation, the educational and legal rights of gifted students are not being adequately served. This article briefly examines developments at the federal level that impact upon both the legal and educational rights of gifted students. It also reviews educational data supporting the need to establish special programs, and concludes by suggesting implications and recommendations for informed practice.     

The marketing audit: a new perspective on library services and products

A marketing audit enables a library to look at audiences, services, and products with a structured approach. The audit can be used to assess operations and to provide a framework for ongoing decision making, evaluation, and long-range planning. An approach to the audit process is presented and its application is demonstrated in a case study featuring the American Hospital Association Resource Center.     

Changing the environment to promote health-enhancing physical activity

Supportive environments have been used to change and influence health behaviours like smoking. While psychological and ecological theories and models demonstrate the possible influences of the environment on health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA), little is known about the effectiveness of the environmental interventions. This paper presents the results of a systematic review of studies that used environmental interventions to increase health-enhancing physical activity. Two groups of studies were found, studies that changed the physical environment by creating new HEPA facilities, policies and supporting mechanisms, and studies that used the elements of the environment as an active or sedentary 'point of choice', via educational materials to promote stair use. Environmental change studies showed a small increase on HEPA behaviour, but the relative impact of environment changes was not evaluated. A number of before and after studies have observed a weak effect of a simple environmental change to stimulate stair climbing while travelling or shopping. Current national policy has embraced the environment as an option for promoting health-enhancing physical activity, especially active travel, in spite of the lack of effectiveness data. It is recommended that existing or planned public health environment and HEPA initiatives should use appropriate evaluation methods to assess their efficacy and effectiveness. Further developmental research into the nature of the relationship of the environment to particular HEPA behaviours is strongly recommended before developing new environmental interventions.     

Teaching general science through film production

Conclusion Differences in achievement under the two methods in the acquisition of information and in the ability to apply information to novel situations were in favor of the film-presentation method, and were large enough to be significant at the 2 and 5 percent levels of confidence respectively. Therefore, under the conditions of this experiment, joint pupil-teacher film production was not as effective in producing achievement in the learning outcomes measured as the film-presentation method. As regards retention of learning, the experimenter concluded that neither method was superior. It was also found that the film-production method was more costly, and that most pupils preferred it even though they did not always feel that they learned the most science by that method. How effective is the use of student film production for the teaching of content in a subject matter area? This study shows the superiority of conventional film presentation techniques over such joint pupil-teacher film production. Carlton W. H. Erickson is director of the audio-visual center and associate professor of education at the University of Connecticut. The article is based on a doctoral dissertation at the Boston University School of Education, entitled, “The Effectiveness of Joint Pupil-Teacher Motion Picture Production as a Method of Teaching General Science.”     

Comparing the pre- and post-impact ball and racquet kinematics of elite tennis players' first and second serves: a preliminary study

The aim of this study was to compare the pre- and post-impact three-dimensional kinematics of the ball and racquet during first and second serves performed by elite tennis players. Data were collected from four male and four female right-handed professional players during competition using two high-speed cameras (200 Hz). For each player, one first serve and one second serve from the 'deuce' or right service court that landed within the specified target area were analysed. To test for significant differences between the first and second serves, Wilcoxon tests (P < or = 0.05) were performed on selected parameters. The results indicate that the ball travelled forward and to the left during the flight phase of the toss in all but one trial. The average pre-impact ball forward location for the first serve was significantly more in front and had a higher associated forward ball velocity than the corresponding values for the second serve. On average, the decrease in post-impact ball speed from the first to the second serve was 24.1%. No significant differences between the first and second serves were found in the pre-impact racquet head speed and orientation, which was represented as a unit vector perpendicular to the racquet face. The major adjustments made by the players when going from the first to second serve were a decrease in pre-impact ball forward location (P < or = 0.01) and an increase in the pre-impact racquet vertical and lateral velocities (both P < or = 0.05). This implies that the players tossed the ball closer to the body and imparted topspin and sidespin on the ball by changing the racquet vertical and lateral velocities when going from the first to the second serve.