Changes in swimming technique during time to exhaustion at freely chosen and controlled stroke rates

The aim of this study was to assess technical changes during constrained swimming in time-to-exhaustion tests. Ten swimmers of national standard performed a maximal 400-m front crawl and two sets of exhaustion tests at 95%, 100%, and 110% of mean 400-m speed. In the first set (free), swimmers had to maintain their speeds until exhaustion and mean stroke rate was recorded for each test. In the second set (controlled), the same speed and individual corresponding stroke rate were imposed. The durations of the exhaustion tests, relative durations of the stroke phases, and arm coordination were analysed. For each speed in the "controlled" set, the exhaustion tests were shorter. Moreover, variables were consistent, suggesting a stabilization of stroke technique. Under the free condition, stroke rate increased to compensate for the decrease in stroke length. At the same time, swimmers reduced the relative duration of their non-propulsive phases in favour of the propulsive phases. Thus, swimmers changed their arm coordination, which came close to an opposition mode. These two constraints enable swimmers both to maintain their stroking characteristics and develop compensatory mechanisms to maintain speed. Moreover, stroke rate can be seen as a useful tool for controlling arm technique during paced exercise.     

Cognitive Style and Socialisation: An exploration of learned sources of style in Finland,Poland and the UK

Many educators are faced with the problem of how to handle the different ways in which students from different cultures approach learning content and processes. In management education, study has mostly considered the socio-economic, structural and organisational aspects of national differences and the external, explicit aspects of cultural differences such as managerial attitudes and values. There has, however, been less study of the differences between national groups in managerial cognition - the way managers think. If managers from one cultural group perceive, process, interpret and structure information differently from those from another, assumptions about the design and content of educational interventions based in one culture could be challenged in another. This paper reports on an exploratory study of 200 managers in Finland, Poland and the UK to investigate, firstly, whether there are national-cultural differences in cognitive style and, secondly, whether these differences are related to individual, occupational and cultural aspects of socialisation. In the latter case, the relationship between early schooling and the way people think is explored. Respondents' cognitive styles as measured by the Allinson and Hayes (1996) Cognitive Style Index (CSI) were compared with responses to two qualitative instruments assessing attitudes to early schooling and personal confidence and against predictions about national cultural differences derived from Hofstede (1984). The results, to be followed up by more extensive study, show significant differences between national groups in cognitive approaches and some aspects of socialisation. They also suggest that the constructs being measured by the CSI reveal individual characteristics that are not fixed and innate, but instead learned through processes of personal and cultural socialisation.     

Who Cares About Caring in Early Childhood Teacher Education Programs?

The ability to care for oneself, near and distant others, animals, plants, human-made objects, and even ideas is an antidote for violence in its many forms as experienced in childhood as well as adulthood. This article makes a case for facilitating the development of the ability to care as children develop. The authors emphasize the importance of teachers facilitating this development. However, early education teachers may not be able to nurture the ability to care in others without the ability to care being facilitated in their own development. This article emphasizes the importance of creating caring teacher education programs as a model to foster its development in preservice early education teachers.     

Critical Voyages: Postmodern feminist pedagogies as liberatory practice

Critical postmodern feminist theory as a pedagogical tool acknowledges differences and organizes people to create social change. Connections between feminism, critical theory, and postmodernism are discussed in relationship to possible pedagogical directions for schools and other community organizations. The authors outline six guiding principles of a critical postmodern feminist pedagogy including: students' experiences as central to teaching and learning; provisions for safe spaces in the development of students' voices; the revision of centers and margins to understand power and agency; the recognition of difference as central to the reconfiguration of existing social boundaries; the development of a language of critique and possibility; and the evolution of teachers as intellectuals. Finally, the authors highlight, in detail, two curriculum projects based in schools that exemplify these principles, a middle school forum for girls that addresses issues of sexual violence in rural Pennsylvania, USA and a high school class for pregnant and parenting teen mothers in Las Vegas, NV.     

Integrating theory and practice in the pre-service teacher education practicum

This article reports on a study into student teachers’ perceptions about their professional development during practicum. Framed within a symbolic interactionist perspective, the study examined to what extent, and how effectively, one group of student teachers was able to integrate theory and practice during a three-week practicum in the first year of their degree. The context for this mixed methods study was a Master of Teaching, graduate-level entry programme in the Faculty of Education at an urban Australian university. Although there is a strong field of literature around the practicum in pre-service teacher education, there has been a limited focus on how student teachers themselves perceive their development during this learning period. Further, despite widespread and longstanding acknowledgement of the ‘gap’ between theory and practice in teacher education, there is still more to learn about how well the practicum enables an integration of these two dimensions of teacher preparation. In presenting three major findings of the study, this paper goes some way in addressing these shortcomings in the literature. First, participants in this study largely valued both the theoretical and practical components of their programme, which stands in contrast to the commonly identified tendency of the student teacher to privilege practice over theory. Second, opportunities to integrate theory and practice were varied, with many participants reporting the detrimental impact of an apparent lack of clarity around stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities. Third, participants overwhelmingly supported the notion of linking university coursework assessment to the practicum as a means of bridging the gap between, on the one hand, the university and the school and, on the other hand, theory and practice.     

Child‐Care Subsidies: Do They Impact the Quality of Care Children Experience?

The federal child‐care subsidy program represents one of the government’s largest investments in early care and education, but little is known about whether it increases low‐income children’s access to higher quality child care. This study used newly available nationally representative data on 4‐year‐old children (N = 750) to investigate whether subsidy receipt elevates child‐care quality. Results indicate that subsidy recipients use higher quality care compared to nonrecipients who use no other publicly funded care, but lower quality care compared to nonrecipients who instead use Head Start or public pre‐k. Findings suggest that subsidies may have the potential to enhance care quality but that parents who use subsidies are not accessing the highest quality care available to low‐income families.     

The Effects of Modeling the Use of Technology with Pre-Service Teachers

Multiple case study was used to explore the impact of a modeling approach on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy and willingness to integrate technology into their elementary lessons. Three primary investigators infused educational technology with a range of objectives into teacher education courses. A survey measured student comfort with and understanding of technology. Student products (lesson plans, websites, reflections) and interview responses were analyzed. The analysis revealed that participants gained knowledge and confidence with technology from instructor modeling, but there was a disparity between what pre-service teachers learned in the college classroom and what they experienced in the elementary classrooms. The implications for teacher education programs are discussed.     

Longitudinal associations among interest,persistence, supportive parenting,and achievement in early childhood

This study investigates two facets of children's school readiness: interest in new cognitive tasks (interest) and persistence in task completion (persistence). Little attention has been paid to the early development of these learning behaviors, although they might prove susceptible to intervention even before school entry. Using data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a sample of low-income children (N = 1771) was followed to model bidirectional associations among interest and persistence and maternal supportive parenting between ages 1 and 3, and estimate associations between children's interest and persistence at age 3 and their academic skills at age 5. Results indicate that maternal supportive parenting influences children's interest and persistence more strongly and consistently than interest or persistence influences parenting, and that interest but not persistence transacts with parenting over time. Interest and persistence were equally predictive of children's early academic skills. Findings affirm that both interest and persistence during toddlerhood predict children's academic standing at school entry.