Differences between urban and rural school psychology: Training implications

Urban and rural school psychologists in Virginia were surveyed on role diversity, role emphasis, continuing education, and job satisfaction. As predicted, rural school psychologists have a more diverse role, spend less time in traditional assessment activities, and are more likely to engage in activities involving them at the systems and community levels. School psychologists indicated their perceptions of differences in rural and urban school psychology. Implications of urban vs. rural practice for school psychology training programs are discussed.     

Beyond the Poststructuralist-Modern Impasse: The woman returner as 'exile' and 'nomad'

This paper speaks to two articles that have been published in Gender and Education . The first, and most obvious, is that of Tett (2000). Lynn Tett's paper is concerned with an analysis of community activists 'returning' to education. I offer a complementary reading of Tett (2000) in the hope of illustrating the saliency of postcolonial perspectives for developing theorisation in the field of 'women returners'. I do this by drawing on the metaphors of 'exile' (Benhabib, 1992) and 'nomad' (Braidotti, 1994) in order to explore the issues of location and transition that form part of the material and subjective experiences of the returning woman. More immanent, however, is a conversation with Francis (1999). Becky Francis explores the relations between poststructuralism and the modernist emancipatory project of feminism. She illustrates the tensions in the binary of poststructural/modern and makes an appeal that we need to continue to worry away at the 'theoretical brick wall' (p 391) of this binary. My purpose is to contribute to Francis' appeal through the analysis that I present of the multiply located subject-in-process that is the woman returner. Specifically I argue that if we seriously wish to worry away at the binaries in academic debate we need to develop practices of critical literacy that recognise the reader as similarly multiply located and subjectively-in-process. As it is much of the contemporary literature continues to set up the reader as the humanist subject who can rationally choose, and is willing to be fixed by, some form of 'correct' intellectual position.     

Analysis of passing sequences, shots and goals in soccer

Early research into how goals were scored in association football (Reep and Benjamin, 1968) may have shaped the tactics of British football. Most coaches have been affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the tactics referred to as the "long-ball game" or "direct play", which was a tactic employed as a consequence of this research. Data from these studies, published in the late 1960s, have been reconfirmed by analyses of different FIFA World Cup tournaments by several different research groups. In the present study, the number of passes that led to goals scored in two FIFA World Cup finals were analysed. The results conform to that of previous research, but when these data were normalized with respect to the frequency of the respective lengths of passing sequences, there were more goals scored from longer passing sequences than from shorter passing sequences. Teams produced significantly more shots per possession for these longer passing sequences, but the strike ratio of goals from shots is better for "direct play" than for "possession play". Finally, an analysis of the shooting data for successful and unsuccessful teams for different lengths of passing sequences in the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals indicated that, for successful teams, longer passing sequences produced more goals per possession than shorter passing sequences. For unsuccessful teams, neither tactic had a clear advantage. It was further concluded that the original work of Reep and Benjamin (1968), although a key landmark in football analysis, led only to a partial understanding of the phenomenon that was investigated.     

A systems intervention procedure for the management of aggressive behaviour

A significant reduction (p < .05) in the frequency of aggressive behaviour below baseline was found with eight institutionalized mentally retarded adult males using a systems intervention procedure. Self‐charting, a token system, differential reinforcement of other behaviour, verbal and physical prompts, restraint, time out from reinforcement, seclusion, and teaching alternatives were systematically applied with staff response options being contingent on the degree of control exhibited by the subject. Although it was concluded that this is an effective treatment model, further research was suggested.     

Advances in the application of information technology to sport performance

This paper overviews the diverse information technologies that are used to provide athletes with relevant feedback. Examples taken from various sports are used to illustrate selected applications of technology-based feedback. Several feedback systems are discussed, including vision, audition and proprioception. Each technology described here is based on the assumption that feedback would eventually enhance skill acquisition and sport performance and, as such, its usefulness to athletes and coaches in training is critically evaluated.     

Teaching handwriting skills to children with intellectual disabilities using an adapted handwriting programme

Children with intellectual disabilities often struggle with handwriting, but there is very little research to inform intervention approaches. In this study, we developed a teaching manual based on Handwriting Without Tears®, a comprehensive handwriting programme designed for typically developing children. Three children with intellectual disabilities participated in the study and received handwriting instruction based on the manual three times a week over a 32‐week period. Our aims were to explore whether Handwriting Without Tears® can be used as a comprehensive handwriting curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities and to evaluate improvement in handwriting skills. We found that the intervention was successfully incorporated into small group teaching sessions within the child's regular classroom, and that all three children made improvements. Our data show promising results and support the need for larger evaluation studies.     

Researchers Apply Lesson Study: A Cycle of Lesson Planning,Implementation, and Revision

Scripted lesson plans and/or professional development alone may not be sufficient to encourage teachers to reflect on the quality of their teaching and improve their teaching. One learning tool that teachers may use to improve their teaching is Lesson Study (LS). LS is a collaborative process involving educators, based on concepts of iteration and revision, to improve instruction. The initial use of an adapted version of LS referred to as a microteaching lesson study (MLS) is described in this article. Our purpose is to illustrate the process of MLS used by a group of researchers when developing lesson plans for teaching students with learning disabilities. We describe MLS, and then (1) share an application of MLS used by a research team in developing a writing intervention, and (2) discuss how the MLS format was mirrored with K‐12 teachers during professional development training.