Effects of extracurricular activities on postsecondary completion for students with disabilities

The authors focused on participation in extracurricular activities as a way of improving the educational outcomes of children with disabilities. Regarding students in the general population, adolescent involvement in extracurricular activities has been shown to have a positive association with school involvement and adolescent self-esteem, academic achievement, and adolescent development. Using the Educational Longitudinal Study dataset, the authors conducted logistic regression analyses to examine the relationship between participation in high school–sponsored extracurricular activities and postsecondary degree completion for students with disabilities. Findings show a statistically significant association between postsecondary degree completion for students with disabilities and extracurricular activity participation, including extent and type of extracurricular activity. Students with disabilities who participate in high school extracurricular activities may have increased likelihood of completing a postsecondary degree. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.     

Rediscovering the political dimension of the personal life story: results from an intergenerational narrative learning project with older adults in South Westphalia

Using qualitative interviews, focus groups, storytelling and collective journaling, the life experiences of people in a local village community, in South Westphalia, Germany, born between 1930 and 1945, were analysed collaboratively. The research intention was to give the younger generations in that region access to these experiences and insights, within the context of democratic learning and civic education. The focus of this narrative learning project was on the politically relevant issues and themes they contained, above all: the significance of free information and thought, a free cultural life, access to education for all children and youth, a self-determined life for women and girls, as well as cohesion and self-help structures in the social community. Many tales were shared from the Third Reich, making references to Wilhelmine Germany and the Republic of Weimar, including how these times had been narrated to them through their forebearers and families’ archives.     

Associations of Home and Classroom Environments with Head Start Children's Code-Related and Oral Language Skills

This study used data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) 2009 4-year-old cohort to examine associations among family characteristics, home and classroom environments, and the emergent literacy skills of Head Start children. Results from hierarchical linear models suggest that both family and classroom contexts play a unique and interactive role in supporting Head Start children's development of different sets of emergent literacy skills. Parental warmth was positively related to children's oral language skills (i.e., receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge), and teachers' educational level and the quality of instructional support in the classroom were significantly associated with children's code-related skills (i.e., letter-name and letter-sound knowledge). Further, high-quality instructional support in the classroom buffered the negative influence of low maternal education on children's oral language skills. Interventions focusing on enhancing the quality of parent-child interactions, in addition to professional development for teachers designed to improve the quality of instructional support, may contribute to promoting the development of emergent literacy skills of young children from low-income families.     

Bourdieu’s habitus and field: implications on the practice and theory of critical action learning

This paper considers the logic of practice of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in relation to critical action learning: in particular habitus which is co-created with field and the interplay amongst the two in the form of misrecognition and risk. We draw on interviews with participants who have experienced action learning as part of an NHS leadership programme. We argue that Bourdieu provides helpful ways of understanding and explaining the complex processes of social interactions which are centre stage in action learning – especially the ‘social friction’ through which action learners gain new insights and new prompts to action in their workplace from learning set members. These insights can support action learning practitioners keen to explore their own practice.     

Patterns of participation in year 9 academic testing and factors predicting absence on the day of test

Policies aiming to improve educational outcomes are typically based on academic testing data. However, such data only reflect the performance of students who completed the tests. It is possible that students who were absent have shared characteristics. The proportion of students absent out of all eligible school students and whether they have shared characteristics has not been investigated, as this is only possible through the use of linked administrative data. Participants were born in Western Australia in 1994 and 1995, and their birth records were linked to participation status in the Year 9 academic tests to determine the proportion of students who were absent. Logistic regression was conducted to investigate characteristics which predicted absence on test day. A proportion of non-Aboriginal (3.2 %) and Aboriginal students (21.9 %) were absent on test day. Risk factors which predicted the absence included contact with Child Protection and Family Services, history of maternal mental health problems, and fathers aged below 20 years at the time of their child’s birth. A significant proportion of students was absent and therefore not represented in academic achievement information. These students were more likely to have experienced adverse events and therefore are not randomly absent. As these data are typically used to inform policies which aim to improve educational outcomes, they may lack the necessary information to adequately address the complex needs of students who are absent on test day. However, findings suggest that service providers, as well as schools may play an important role in encouraging participation in school.     

KANT'S CONCEPTION OF RESPECT AND AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION RIGHTS

Immanuel Kant envisioned a kind of respect in which one recognizes each human (1) as being not fully comprehensible by any human understanding, (2) as being an end in him‐ or herself, and (3) as being a potential source of moral law. In this essay, Gregory Lewis Bynum uses this conception of respect as a lens with which to examine African American education rights on three levels: the individual level (the level of individual persons' moral experience and moral significance), the community level (the level of the formation and sustaining of social groups that have value for humanity), and the global level (the level of a universal community of humanity). Bynum's goal in this examination is to strengthen our practical understanding of African Americans' right to education defined, in accordance with international human rights documents, as the right to an education that supports the full development of the human personality in a manner that respects students' “cultural identity, language, and values.”     

Muscle metabolism and performance improvement after two training programmes of sprint running differing in rest interval duration

Repeated-sprint training often involves short sprints separated by inadequate recovery intervals. The effects of interval duration on metabolic and performance parameters are unclear. We compared the effects of two training programmes, differing in rest interval duration, on muscle (vastus lateralis) metabolism and sprint performance. Sixteen men trained three times a week for 8 weeks, each training session comprising 2-3 sets of two 80-m sprints. Sprints were separated by 10 s (n = 8) or 1 min (n = 8). Both training programmes improved performance in the 100-, 200-, and 300-m sprints, but the improvement was greater in the 10-s group during the final 100 m of the 200- and 300-m runs. Independent of interval duration, training mitigated the drop of muscle ATP after two 80-m sprints. The drop in phosphocreatine and the increases in glucose-6-phosphate and fructose-6-phosphate after two 80-m sprints were greater in the 10-s group. In conclusion, training with a limited number of repeated short sprints (≤10 s) may be more effective in improving speed maintenance in 200- and 300-m runs when performed with a 1:1 rather than a 1:6 exercise-to-rest ratio. This may be due to a greater activation of glycolysis caused, in part, by the limited resynthesis of phosphocreatine during the very short rest interval.     

Validation of MET estimates and step measurement using the ActivPAL physical activity logger

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of the metabolic equivalent (MET) equation and step rate function of the ActivPAL? physical activity logger in a group of females. Using a standard treadmill protocol, 62 females aged 15-25 years walked on a treadmill at speeds between 3.2 and 7.0 km · h(-1) while wearing an ActivPAL. Oxygen consumption was measured using expired gas analysis at each speed and METs for each speed were estimated based on each participant's own resting metabolic rate. A sub-set of 18 participants also wore an Actigraph. Results showed that the in-built equation in the ActivPAL significantly underestimated (P < 0.001) METs under treadmill conditions at higher intensities. The ActivPAL equation is based on step rate yet the relationship between counts and measured METs (r = 0.76; P < 0.001) is stronger than that between steps and measured METs (r = 0.59; P < 0.001). Both the ActivPAL and Actigraph step functions showed no significant difference (P > 0.05) to video recorded step rate except at the slowest walking speed where the Actigraph significantly underestimated steps (P < 0.05). The development of a new equation based on the counts-METs relationship that includes a variety of speeds and activities would be useful. The ActivPAL step function performs better than the Actigraph at the slowest walking speed under treadmill conditions.