The effects of caffeine ingestion on performance time, speed and power during a laboratory-based 1 km cycling time-trial

There is little published data in relation to the effects of caffeine upon cycling performance, speed and power in trained cyclists, especially during cycling of approximately 60 s duration. To address this, eight trained cyclists performed a 1 km time-trial on an electronically braked cycle ergometer under three conditions: after ingestion of 5 mg x kg-1 caffeine, after ingestion of a placebo, or a control condition. The three time-trials were performed in a randomized order and performance time, mean speed, mean power and peak power were determined. Caffeine ingestion resulted in improved performance time (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 71.1 +/- 2.0 vs. 73.4 +/- 2.3 vs. 73.3 +/- 2.7 s; P = 0.02; mean +/- s). This change represented a 3.1% (95% confidence interval: 0.7-5.6) improvement compared with the placebo condition. Mean speed was also higher in the caffeine than placebo and control conditions (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 50.7 +/- 1.4 vs. 49.1 +/- 1.5 vs. 49.2 +/- 1.7 km x h-1; P = 0.0005). Mean power increased after caffeine ingestion (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 523 +/- 43 vs. 505 +/- 46 vs. 504 +/- 38 W; P = 0.007). Peak power also increased from 864 +/- 107 W (placebo) and 830 +/- 87 W (control) to 940 +/- 83 W after caffeine ingestion (P = 0.027). These results provide support for previous research that found improved performance after caffeine ingestion during short-duration high-intensity exercise. The magnitude of the improvements observed in our study could be due to our use of sport-specific ergometry, a tablet form and trained participants.     

Teachers’ perceptions of school connectedness and risk-taking in adolescence

School connectedness has been shown to be an important protective factor in adolescent development, which is associated with reduced risk-taking behavior. Interventions to increase students’ connectedness to school commonly incorporate aspects of teacher training. To date, however, research on connectedness has largely been based on student survey data, with no reported research addressing teachers’ perceptions of students’ connectedness and its association with student behavior. This research attempted to address this gap in the literature through in-depth interviews with 14 school teachers and staff from two Australian high schools. Findings showed that teachers perceived students’ connectedness to be important in regard to reducing problem behavior, and discussed aspects of connectedness, including fairness and discipline, feeling valued, belonging and having teacher support, and being successfully engaged in school, as being particularly important. This research enables the development of school-based intervention programs that are based on both student- and teacher-focused research.     

Illusions of consensus: New South Wales stakeholders' constructions of the identity of history

This article analyses the relationships between the perspectives of stakeholders involved in the development of the 1998 New South Wales Stages 4–5 history syllabus. It examined four key issues that emerged in the debates about history education during the review and found that stakeholders' views diverged significantly on three of these issues. While loose coalitions formed around particular issues, stakeholders provided different rationales for their positions, and coalitions re-formed on other debates. The analysis highlights the divergence between stakeholders and between the Commonwealth and state governments and stakeholders on the desirable content and goals of history education. The findings indicate that consultation might not produce consensus, and that even the appearance of consensus can be grounded in substantively and philosophically different premises. In practical terms, the findings suggest that if the purpose of consultation as a method of curriculum development is to produce a syllabus that reflects the diverse perspectives held by stakeholders, then the syllabus structure needs to make provision for content options as well as common core areas of study.     

Curriculum coherence and teachers’ decision-making in Scottish high school history syllabi

Abstract

Debates over which historical content should be compulsory for study in the school curriculum are a common feature of education systems across the globe. These debates invariably weigh the perceived benefits to social cohesion of a ‘common core’ of knowledge against the perceived risks to democracy of government-sanctioned ‘official knowledge’. Scotland has, perhaps, taken an extreme position on this debate by specifying no mandatory historical content in its social studies curriculum. This paper uses 21 interviews with Scottish history teachers to explore how schools use this curricular autonomy: which historical periods they choose to teach and why.

?The paper suggests that, without access to theoretical debates about the nature of historical knowledge, schools fall back on instrumental justifications for content selection within the curriculum. The result in many cases is an extremely narrow and fragmented syllabus in which pupil preference, teacher interests and the logistics of timetabling guide content selection.

?The paper concludes that the formulation of coherent school-level history curricula is dependent on the fostering agency among a theoretically-informed teaching profession.     

Continuity and discontinuity in competing models of criminal justice education: Evidence from illinois

Competing models of criminal justice education have been conceptualized to exist for many years. Relevant empirical data to support this notion can be identified in the literature, especially data derived from early surveys of criminal justice educators and content analyses of criminal justice curricula as found across institutions of higher education. Using contemporary survey data from criminal justice faculty members in the state of Illinois, the authors attempt to assess whether the evolution of criminal justice education has resulted in contemporary demarcations and models of criminal justice education that differ from those identified in the earlier literature. The survey data suggest strong patterns, some of which differ from those identified previously. Four models of criminal justice education emerging from the data are discussed, and their implications for criminal justice education are highlighted.     

The influence of techno-capital and techno-disposition on the college-going processes of Latina/o college students in Central Texas

Latina/o students are one of the least likely populations to access technology and possess the techno-capital necessary to succeed in postsecondary education. This phenomenological qualitative research study used interviews with 20 Latina/o college students in Central Texas to examine how techno-capital and techno-disposition interact in complex ways to influence their college-going processes. Preliminary findings suggest that Latina/o students held varying levels of cognizance about the digital gap that were heavily dependent upon their socioeconomic backgrounds, that techno-disposition could be leveraged to access and attain more techno-capital, and that gender differences exist between how Latina/o students think about, approach, and utilize technology in their college experiences.     

Is Self‐Esteem a Cause or Consequence of Social Support? A 4‐Year Longitudinal Study

Considerable research has been devoted to examining the relations between self‐esteem and social support. However, the exact nature and direction of these relations are not well understood. Measures of self‐esteem, and social support quantity and quality were administered to 961 adolescents across five yearly time points (M_age = 13.41 years). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test between a self‐esteem antecedent model (self‐esteem precedes changes in social support), self‐esteem consequence model (social support precedes change in self‐esteem), and a reciprocal influence model. Self‐esteem reliably predicted increasing levels of social support quality and network size across time. In contrast, the consequence model was not supported. The implications of this for helping adolescents to develop higher quality social support structures are discussed.     

Ethnic Identity and Acculturative Stress as Mediators of Depression in Students of Asian Descent

This study underscored the importance of addressing the well‐being of college students of Asian descent, because these students had higher rates of depression and lower positive feelings about their ethnic group compared with students of European descent, as measured by the Affirmation subscale of the Ethnic Identity Scale. Affirmation mediated the depression difference between these groups. Within the Asian group, affirmation and depression were inversely correlated, and this relationship was mediated by acculturative stress.