The Development of Occupational Sex‐role Stereotypes,Occupational Preferences and Academic Subject Preferences in Children at Ages 8, 12 and 16

This paper reports data from a questionnaire‐based UK study aimed at examining occupational sex‐role stereotypes and occupational preferences of male and female pupils at three ages. Data were collected from 594 children in total (108 8‐year‐olds, 307 12‐year‐olds and 177 16‐year‐olds) who responded to questions that asked for their views on who (males, females or both) should perform certain occupations and how much they would like to have each of the occupations as their career. The children were also asked to indicate their favourite school subject. Analysis indicated that the youngest age group held significantly more stereotyped views regarding who should perform certain jobs than the older children and that, generally, boys sex‐typed appropriateness of occupations to a significantly greater degree than girls, although this difference was not significant in the youngest age group. Furthermore, analysis of the occupational preference ratings revealed significant differences between male and female subjects for many occupations, with higher ratings generally being awarded to stereo‐typically gender‐appropriate careers. Significant differences between the three age groups were also observed in the preference ratings for many occupations, with a tendency for the majority of occupations to be perceived less favourably with increasing age of respondent. Finally, school subject preferences were considered. No consistent or stable pattern of preference emerged for males and females across age‐groups, confirming recent suggestions that gender stereotyping of school subjects is weakening.     

The effect of altered pitch length on performance and technique in junior fast bowlers

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of pitch length (20.12 m [full length], 18 m and 16 m) on the fast bowling performance and technique of junior cricketers. Performance measures included ball release speed and accuracy, while technique variables evaluated were those shown to be related to the aetiology of lower back injury. Thirty-seven fast bowlers from the under-11 (n=14), under-13 (n=11) and under-15 (n=12) age groups were filmed bowling five deliveries at each of the above pitch lengths. Two synchronized NAC video cameras operating at 200 Hz permitted three-dimensional reconstruction of the hip and shoulder alignments, while a standard digital video camera operating at 50 Hz (positioned perpendicular to the bowling action) was used to measure front knee angle and ball release speed. Accuracy scores were taken from a zoned target at the batsman's stumps. A two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (with age and pitch length as the between- and within-participant variables, respectively) was used to compare each age group at the 0.05 significance level. Results showed that accuracy improved in all age groups at shorter pitch lengths, although ball velocity remained constant throughout all trials. Shoulder counter-rotation increased significantly for the under-13 bowlers when bowling on the full-length pitch in comparison with the two shorter lengths. Counter-rotation also increased on the full-length pitch in the under-11 age group, although this increase was not significant. The under-15 bowlers' techniques did not change as pitch length increased. As under-11 and under-13 bowlers adopted a "safer" bowling action with superior accuracy on the 18?m compared with the full length pitch, it was concluded that these age groups should bowl on an 18?m pitch to reduce the likelihood of lower back injuries and improve accuracy.     

Male vulnerability to reading disability is not likely to be a myth: a call for new data

Whether boys are more vulnerable than girls to reading disabilities (RD) is controversial. We review studies that were designed to minimize ascertainment bias in the selection of individuals with RD. These include population-based studies that identified children with RD by objective, unbiased methods and studies that examined the gender ratios among the affected relatives of those diagnosed with RD. We conclude that even when ascertainment biases are minimized, there is still a significant preponderance of boys with RD, although the gender ratio of the affected relatives of those with RD manifests the weakest male bias. Furthermore, we demonstrate that potentially confounding factors such as attentional or neurological problems, race, IQ, and severity of RD cannot account for the observed gender bias. We end with a clarion call to future researchers to (a) consider analyzing gender differences by means of more than one definition of RD, (b) compare gender ratios when boys and girls are ranked against the performance of their own gender as opposed to an average across genders, and (c) report group differences in variability and effect sizes of obtained gender ratios.     

A simplified approach to teaching medical students ocular movements and the rationale in testing the oculomotor,trochlear, and abducent nerves

The actions of the individual extraocular muscles are best explained to medical students in a lecture format by showing the relationship of each muscle to the axes of the globe and the walls of the bony orbit. The lateral and medial rectus muscles cross only the vertical axis, and consequently, cause only abduction and adduction, respectively. These muscles can be tested simply by asking the patient to abduct or adduct. Inability to do so indicates that the muscles and/or their innervation have been compromised. In contrast, the superior and inferior oblique and rectus muscles cross all three axes (vertical, horizontal, and anteroposterior) of the globe. Therefore, concentric contraction of each of these muscles results in three movements; abduction or adduction, elevation or depression, and intorsion or extorsion. These muscles must be tested with a sequence of two movements. Gaze can be either elevated or depressed by both an oblique and a rectus muscle. If abduction or adduction occurs first, one muscle of the pair becomes incapable of causing elevation or depression of the pupil. The rationale for abducting or adducting first is that either the oblique or rectus muscle of the pair will no longer cross the horizontal axis and will then be unable to effect the desired movement. Inability to elevate or depress gaze from the abducted or adducted position shows which muscle, the oblique or rectus, and/or its innervation has been compromised. Anat Sci Ed 1:126–129, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

Young people mobilizing the language of citizenship: struggles for classification and new meaning in an uncertain world

This paper presents research findings from an ethnographic study carried out with 24 low‐income youths (ages 14–16) living on the economic fringes of urban inner‐city Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Our primary aims are: to expose the stratified subcultural articulations of citizenship as they are expressed, through language and symbol, by the young people within our study; and to demonstrate how critiques of (neo‐)liberalism in political thought, when combined with a cultural sociology of youth, might alter our subcultural reading of young people's conceptions of citizenship under the dynamics of radical social change. Our ultimate goal is to develop a more nuanced sociological examination of the ways in which young people deploy and utilize the language of citizenship as part of their own cultural struggles, exacerbated in times of state retrenchment, to classify themselves and others as one method of achieving visibility and legitimacy in urban concentrations of poverty.     

Can children and young people learn from atheism for spiritual development? A response to the National Framework for Religious Education

The new National Framework for Religious Education (RE) suggests, for the first time in national advice on agreed syllabuses, that atheism can be included in the curriculum alongside world religions. This article counters objections to the inclusion of atheism in RE and argues that children and young people can learn from atheistic beliefs and values for their spiritual and moral development. It explores the idea of atheism as ‘faith’ and illustrates atheism’s spiritual and moral potential through examples of writing from Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre. The article concludes that RE (preferably under a new name) can continue to be a valuable curriculum subject, provided it responds to the non‐statutory guidance of the new framework by offering a broader, more inclusive spiritual education which includes positive accounts of atheistic beliefs. Indeed, it is contended that without this change schools can not fulfil their legal obligation to provide opportunities for spiritual and moral development to all pupils.