A novel method to grip a golf club for a quadruple amputee golfer

A device was created to enable a quadruple amputee golfer to securely hold a golf club and play the game. The device also offers a way to easily and independently switch one golf club for another during the round. It comprises a spring-loaded cylindrical fixture to hold the club to the prosthetic arm and a J-slot to twist and release the club to exchange it for a different club on the course. The device has been used to play golf for 5 years. The engineered solution attaches to the golfer’s right arm and he swings using a right-handed stance. It includes a bend in the prosthetic arm to enable a more functional golf swing. A series of club fittings were conducted over a number of years and experiments were conducted on both driving ranges and golf courses with the aim of optimizing performance. The complete set of club specifications is included along with typical shot results for selected clubs.     

The impact of organisational factors on career pathways for female coaches

Government and sport organisations have spent considerable resources on increasing the number of female coaches in sport, yet women are still significantly under-represented in this sector. Research directed towards understanding why females remain involved in coaching in the Australian sport system has tended to focus on individual barriers and motivations, with generally less attention given to the organisational setting in which coaches work. To examine why there continues to be low numbers of female coaches in elite sport, Kanter's (Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic) organisational theory of homologous reproduction was used to guide a case study of a state sport organisation (SSO). Results indicated that organisational strategies, prevailing hegemonic masculinity, and systemic barriers in the SSO were sustaining male coaching dominance in the organisation whilst marginalizing women.     

INSTITUTIONAL PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE PREPARATION OF COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS

This article looks at the relative usefulness of 12 selected factors in the preparation of college administrators as seen by practicing administrators and faculty in comprehensive community colleges, four‐year liberal arts colleges, and universities.

Three hundred randomly selected faculty and administrators in the state of Iowa were sent survey questionnaires. The returned surveys and research data were then analyzed in order to answer the research question.

The findings suggested that graduates from programs in higher education administration may be more accepted in community colleges than in liberal arts colleges or universities. The findings also showed that university personnel perceived the major research experience as being significantly more useful than the other personnel. Nonclassroom experiences were thought to be the most useful by all personnel, with faculty experience in higher education perceived to be the most useful. This study also showed that both administrators and faculty perceived majoring in higher education administration to be less useful than any of the other 11 preparation variables.

One of the recommendations of this study is that students, graduates, and professors in higher education administration programs attempt to educate the participants in higher education and the public on the strengths and uses of their programs. It was also recommended that further research is needed in the area of administrative task analysis at the different types of institutions.     

Moral Distress Within the Supervisory Relationship: Implications for Practice and Research

Moral distress is the experience that follows when one feels constrained from acting according to what one believes to be ethically correct. A body of literature from counseling and other health‐related professions indicating the significant impact of morally distressing dynamics on individual and relational well‐being is presented, followed by implications for practice and future research.     

An Empirical Examination of the Warfare Metaphor with Respect to Pre-Service Elementary Teachers

Since its origination in the late nineteenth century, the warfare metaphor has been used to characterize the relationship between science and religion, especially orthodox Christianity. Though thoroughly discredited by historians of science, the ideological descendants of Thomas Huxley, who spoke of science in quasi-religious terms, have kept the warfare metaphor alive. On the other hand, there are substantial numbers of Christians who at least appear to oppose science given their high-profile opposition to the general theory of evolution. The research reported in this paper asked, “Does anti-science sentiment increase with increasing orthodox Christian belief?” Two validated, published instruments were used: The Thinking about Science Survey Instrument and the Christian Fundamentalist Belief Scale. The subjects for the study were 545 preservice elementary teachers. The analysis did not show that anti-science sentiment increases with increasing Christian belief. Subjects with strong Christian beliefs were found to be just as supportive of science, if not more so, than subjects with no Christian beliefs. The study concludes with a caution against projecting attitudes toward science “on the whole” based on attitudes specifically toward evolution when working with preservice elementary teachers. Such a projection could well be counterproductive. The study has implications for other modern countries having highly religious populations such as Turkey.     

RESEARCH INTO THE CONCEPT OF RESILIENCE AS A BASIS FOR THE CURRICULUM FOR CHILDREN WITH EBD

This paper reviews a corpus of research on educational resilience as developed by researchers in the USA. It is noted that at the present time the longstanding debate as to the relative importance of therapeutic and curricular aims in the education of children with EBD has been thrown into sharp relief by the Ofsted inspection regime that concentrates on curricular imperatives. It is argued that the concept of educational resilience provides a basis for a pedagogy that will attend to thereapeutic needs within any given curricular framework.

Research which supports the proposed focus on aspects of the educational process known to promote resilience at the individual and at the school level is then reviewed to provide ample examples of interventions that could be adopted in a curriculum aimed at promoting resilience.     

Exposing the Challenges and Coping Strategies of Field-Ecology Graduate Students

In this paper, we expose the unique challenges confronting graduate field-ecology students and the coping strategies they adopt to overcome such challenges. To do so, we used a qualitative (in vivo) research method that combines interviews, observations and open questionnaires with a group of five Israeli graduate students. The two major challenges that the students faced were the uncontrolled nature of field research (or complexity), and the nature of field setting, which isolated the students from authoritative guidance. In response to these challenges, the students developed a set of research skills which were expressed in this study by a series of three (metacognitive) strategies which we designated as ‘protocol-dominated’, ‘intermediate’ or ‘field-dominated’. In order to develop such research skills, our subjects rely upon declarative and procedural knowledge. In contrast to declarative knowledge, learned in coursework, procedural knowledge is learned and activated via the situated experience of implementing research in authentic field environments. We also found that fieldwork complexity imposes itself the minute the students step into the field; potentially, this can negatively impact students' motivation. However, as the students accumulate field experience and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to overcome the field's complexity, their motivation improves. Recognizing the unique learning components connected to field research will help novice students better cope with fieldwork challenges, as well as help their advisers in guiding them. This work also has implications for designing inquiry curricula in field sciences for university and high-school students.