Fruit quality, anthocyanin and total phenolic contents, and antioxidant activities of 45 blueberry cultivars grown in Suwon, Korea

Blueberry fruits from 45 commercial cultivars (39 northern highbush and 6 half highbush blueberry) grown in Suwon, Korea were analyzed for fruit size, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, total anthocyanin content, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity. Fruit characteristics varied widely among the 45 blueberry cultivars. Fruit weight ranged from 0.9 to 3.6 g, soluble solids content from 8.3 to 14.3 °Brix, and titratable acidity from 0.8% to 3.6%. Antioxidant activity ranged from 0.7 to 2.1 mg of quercetin equivalents per gram of fresh berries in different blueberry cultivars. Among the 45 blueberry cultivars, high amounts of anthocyanins and polyphenols, and high antioxidant activity were observed in ‘Elliott’, ‘Rubel’, ‘Rancocas’, and ‘Friendship’.     

National construction of global education: a critical review of the national curriculum standards for South Korean global high schools

In this paper, the authors investigate what global visions of education are reflected in the selected national curriculum standards, with special reference to two seemingly contradictory forces: globalization and nationalism. This paper examines the socio-economic and cultural foundations of the curriculum and explains how the national curriculum for South Korean global high schools symbolically appropriates global education for the purpose of national competitiveness. Our findings show that, although the selected curriculum document alludes to the importance of international understanding and of global citizenship education, its primary objective is to provide students with knowledge and skills for national competitiveness and to uphold, rather than weaken, national identity in reaction to global pressures. This phenomenon is closely linked to the historical background of Koreanized globalization, in which the concept of segyehwa has been used as a catalyst for undertaking global education for the ends of global competiveness and national pride.     

‘Soldiers may Fall but Athletes Never!’: Sport as an Antidote to Nervous Diseases and National Decline in America, 1865–1905

During the second half of the nineteenth century concerns about hysteria and other nervous diseases in males became extensive in some countries. One presumed cause of such afflictions were military conflicts such as the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. The Anglo-Saxon, at least according to many British and American commentators, had more sand, pluck, and courage than did men of other nations. In the United States, concerns about ‘Soldier's Heart’, a condition brought forth by the Civil War (1861–1865), were soon replaced by ‘neurasthenia’, a term used by American physician George Miller Beard in 1869. In an 1872 article entitled ‘Are Americans Less Healthy Than Europeans’, author C. S. Young hoped that the types of ‘games of competition’ that were infused with the values of Muscular Christianity’ would become part of ‘every educational establishment in the land’ so that the youth of America would acquire not only muscular vigor but ‘the manly virtues of truth, honor, and fair play’. Some attention would be given to such values; however, attention turned increasingly to ‘gridiron football’, a game likely to be infused with rampant commercialism that rapidly became the predominating sport in American institutions of higher learning. In 1898, American physician Morton H. Prince asked whether football might cause ‘traumatic neurasthenia and hysteria’ in males in the way that these conditions sometimes occurred among men engaged in a battle, and answered his own question by replying ‘no’! Football players were so well-prepared physically and mentally that there would be ‘no shock or terror’ attendant upon their injuries as might occur in a military conflict. By the time the 1903 edition of Roosevelt’s The Rough Riders: A History of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry was published debates about intercollegiate athletics that continue today were reaching a fever pitch.     

Dissertations on the history of sport

Among the Greeks of antiquity, the mesomorphic male form had been accorded high status. Two approaches inform the modern world's thinking about ‘the body’ – that which predominates in the biological sciences (the body is a ‘machine’ that is governed by the laws of physics and chemistry) and that which has been receiving intense attention from scholars in the social sciences and humanities (the body is substantially a neutral surface upon which social and cultural values are imprinted). What occurs deep within the body's structures is immensely important but it is anatomical form that commands our attention. The mesomorphic forms that presently pervade the media insistently proclaim that muscularity defines what it is ‘to be a man’. This is by no means the first time that such a message has been heard in the modern world. Among the better educated, by the 1860s the icon of the well-muscled male – and all that this implied – was rapidly replacing the eighteenth-century ideal of manliness as one of proper stances, gestures and countenance. This found particularly powerful expression in new forms of athletics and the concept of ‘athleticism’ that emerged first in England and quickly made its way across the Atlantic, where it became linked to the rising interest in anthropometry and a host of contemporary values. Not everyone agreed, however, that athletics were beneficial; or that the tape measure and dynamometer alone could ‘take a man's measure’. This paper examines the complex matter of the reassertion of the mesomorphic male body in Britain and America from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s – about not only its physical configuration but what was inferred from and about gross anatomical form.     

The Research Quarterly and Its Antecedents

Abstract

In this introductory article to the 50th Anniversary Issue, Roberta J. Park traces the efforts of professional physical education organizations, especially at the national level, to accommodate scholarly/research interests. She describes the forerunner of the Research Quarterly and the way in which efforts led to establishment of a research journal. Park tells the history of the Quarterly since its inception in 1930 and notes a number of concerns related to its operations and policies that have been periodically expressed over the past 50 years. Several of these issues have assumed increasing importance as a result of the knowledge explosion in the various subdisciplines in physical education, along with the problems associated with expanding our national organization and its ability to serve all of its interest groups.     

Haptic perception accuracy depending on self-produced movement

Abstract

This study measured whether self-produced movement influences haptic perception ability (experiment 1) as well as the factors associated with levels of influence (experiment 2) in racket sports. For experiment 1, the haptic perception accuracy levels of five male table tennis experts and five male novices were examined under two different conditions (no movement vs. movement). For experiment 2, the haptic afferent subsystems of five male table tennis experts and five male novices were investigated in only the self-produced movement-coupled condition. Inferential statistics (ANOVA, t-test) and custom-made devices (shock & vibration sensor, Qualisys Track Manager) of the data were used to determine the haptic perception accuracy (experiment 1, experiment 2) and its association with expertise. The results of this research show that expert-level players acquire higher accuracy with less variability (racket vibration and angle) than novice-level players, especially in their self-produced movement coupled performances. The important finding from this result is that, in terms of accuracy, the skill-associated differences were enlarged during self-produced movement. To explain the origin of this difference between experts and novices, the functional variability of haptic afferent subsystems can serve as a reference. These two factors (self-produced accuracy and the variability of haptic features) as investigated in this study would be useful criteria for educators in racket sports and suggest a broader hypothesis for further research into the effects of the haptic accuracy related to variability.     

ICT in Science Education: A quasi‐experimental study of achievement,attitudes toward science,and career aspirations of Korean middle school students

The Seventh School Curriculum Reform in Korea was introduced in 2000 to prepare school‐aged Koreans for an information and knowledge‐based society. The reform effort emphasises information and communication technology (ICT) in the K–12 curriculum and a learner‐centred pedagogy. This study examines the contributions of ICT, specifically, computer‐assisted instruction (CAI), in Korean science classrooms. A sample of 234 Korean middle school students was categorised into five achievement groups. Data were collected from pre‐ and post‐achievement test scores and pre‐ and post‐questionnaires for attitudes toward science, future courses, and career aspirations in science. Findings include: (1) the lowest achievement group showed the most significant improvement after CAI (p=.000); (2) an improvement in student achievement in science significantly influenced students’ attitudes toward science (p=.019), future course selections, and career aspirations related to science (p=.000); and (3) boys tended to perform better with CAI than girls. This research provides evidence that CAI has the potential to help lower achieving students in Korean science classes and may encourage enrolment in science.     

From the Guest Editors

The last 25 years have witnessed significant changes in the field of physical education in higher education that include the “disciplinarization” of the field of study and the generation of a broader front of professional options for physical activity than the single focus of teacher training. The field of physical education in higher education has not displayed uniformity in reacting to these profession–discipline opportunities and problems, to the extent that chaos reigns throughout. Illustrations of this chaos are provided with respect to defining (a) the field of study, (b) the establishment of a balanced focus of professional and disciplinary training, (c) the activity focus, and (d) the issue of societal representation. It is argued that the field has emphasized the differences rather than the similarities of the potential knowledge subdomains that emerge from the central phenomenon for study: namely, that of physical activity.