A comparison of methods to determine bilateral asymmetries in vertical leg stiffness

Whilst the measurement and quantification of vertical leg stiffness (K_vert) asymmetry is of important practical relevance to athletic performance, literature investigating bilateral asymmetry in K_vert is limited. Moreover, how the type of task used to assess K_vert may affect the expression of asymmetry has not been properly determined. Twelve healthy males performed three types of performance tasks on a dual force plate system to determine K_vert asymmetries; the tasks were (a) bilateral hopping, (b) bilateral drop jumping and (c) unilateral drop jumping. Across all the three methods, K_vert was significantly different between compliant and stiff limbs (P < 0.001) with a significant interaction effect between limb and method (P = 0.005). Differences in K_vert between compliant and stiff limbs were ?5.3% (P < 0.001), ?21.8% (P = 0.007) and ?15.1% (P < 0.001) for the bilateral hopping, bilateral drop jumping and unilateral drop jumping methods, respectively. All the three methods were able to detect significant differences between compliant and stiff limbs, and could be used as a diagnostic tool to assess K_vert asymmetry. Drop jumping tasks detected larger K_vert asymmetries than hopping, suggesting that asymmetries may be expressed to a greater extent in acyclic, maximal performance tasks.     

Use and evaluation of information from social media: A longitudinal cohort study

This cohort study examined longitudinal changes in undergraduates' use of social media as information sources in academic and everyday-life contexts, covering types of social media used, purposes of use, and evaluation strategies. Web surveys were used, collecting data from 1,355 and 928 undergraduates in 2013 and 2019. The study found that students used most types of social media less in 2019 than 2013 in both contexts. Only media-sharing services bucked this downward pattern. Overall, a majority of social media types underwent changes in the top three purposes of use. The 2019 cohort used most evaluation strategies more frequently in both contexts. However, they favored simplistic strategies relying on superficial physical cues when evaluating information. Based on the findings, this study provided recommendations for information literacy education and interface design, such as covering multimedia information evaluation, leveraging various heuristics to prime careful use of social media and analytical evaluation of information.     

Static to Dynamic: Professional Identity as Inventory,Invention, and Performance in Classrooms and Workplaces

Although self-assessment is an important genre in both the academy and the workplace, it is often static. The resulting fixed identities are problematic in a creative economy that requires fluidity. Drawing on the work of Carruthers and Goffman, among others, we argue that memory and meditation, encompassing inventory and invention and coupled with rhetorical performance, constitute dynamic self-assessment.     

How do people read the passages during a reading comprehension test? The effect of reading purpose on text processing behavior

In this study, we investigate the effect of reading purpose on students’ processing behavior during a reading comprehension test. In a repeated measures design, sixty undergraduates answered multiple-choice (MC) reading comprehension questions in a condition with no overarching goal for reading and in an alternate condition where the same students were first provided with the goal of summarizing the text before answering MC questions. Results from eye tracking analysis showed that when students read and answered questions without an overarching goal, they spent much less time reading the passages before answering the questions, more time re-reading the texts while answering the questions, and more time on parts of the text that were not necessary to answer the questions. We conclude that providing examinees without an explicit goal for reading may inadvertently encourage a “search for the answer” reading process, rather than on building a coherent mental model of text content.     

Education and poverty in Western Europe

Conclusions Educationists in Europe have an established tradition of exploring educational disadvantage from a socio-cultural perspective, as indicated by the focus on social justice in education. Their concerns have been with relatively small-scale phenomena: the context in which particular disadvantaged groups are educated, leading to specific recommendations for local areas. Policy-makers, in contrast, are concerned with combating social exclusion at the national or Europe-wide level, primarily as a means of reducing unemployment and social unrest. The initiatives they set in motion necessarily take a wider perspective and pay little heed to diverse needs, aspirations and goals among the socially excluded. There is a need for European educationalists to increase their own awareness of the European context—not simply the national context—in which they work. They need also to develop perspectives on major European initiatives to combat social exclusion, the effects of which will remain otherwise unexplored by a community of educationalists with a history of interest in and commitment to challenging educational disadvantage. Original language: English Joanna McPake (United Kingdom) At present, Deputy Director of the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, University of Stirling. Formerly, Senior Researcher and Programme Manager, Scottish Council for Research in Education. Her principal research focus is on aspects of teaching and learning in school. Since 1996 she has been (with Ghazala Bhatti) co-ordinator of the Social Justice and Intercultural Education Network of the European Educational Research Association. Recent publications include: ‘A mirror to ourselves? The educational experiences of Japanese children at school in the UK’ (with J. Powney, 1998); andEducation of minority ethnic groups in Scotland (with J. Powney, S. Hall and L. Lyall, 1998). Ghazala Bhatti (United Kingdom) Ph.D. Director, Modular Master's Degree on ‘Equity and change in the public services’, University of Reading. Formerly, a primary and secondary school teacher. Her current professional interests in the field of education concern ethnicity, gender and social justice. She is the joint convenor (with Joanna McPake) of the Social Justice and Intercultural Education Network of EERA. Recent publications include:Asian children at home and at school: an ethnographic study (1999) andA journey into the unknown: an ethnographic study of Asian children (1995). This article consists of reflections on recent research presented at the European Conference on Educational Research by the joint co-ordinators of the Social Justice and Intercultural Education network of the European Educational Research Association.     

Social justice and school linkages in teacher education programmes

This paper investigates current research into the role of education in combating social injustice, assembles this research to indicate key features of a teacher education programme that would assist education for social justice, and links these features to one innovative university teacher education programme to ascertain some of the practical difficulties in establishing such a programme. The research indicated key approaches that would enhance the probability that graduates from teacher education programmes will be able to pursue social justice initiatives.     

‘If there is a job description I don’t think I’ve read one’: a case study of programme leadership in a UK pre-1992 university

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the role of programme leaders (PLs) in a pre-1992 university, based on interviews with PLs (7) and a survey of taught Masters students (54) in a single school. The study elicits PLs’ activities, most of which might be categorised as managerial and administrative, with leadership required intermittently; the preeminent role involves managing programme quality. The study finds that institutional guidelines overlook important aspects of PLs’ work (such as organising enrichment activities and student advocacy) which affect the quality of provision, and the findings challenge the notion that PLs are engaged in a ‘disesteemed’ service.     

Brain Engagement During a Cognitive Flexibility Task Relates to Academic Performance in English Learners

English Learners (ELs), students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, are a fast-growing, understudied, group of students in the U.S. with unique learning challenges. Cognitive flexibility—the ability to switch between task demands with ease—may be an important factor in learning for ELs as they have to manage learning in their non-dominant language and access knowledge in multiple languages. We used functional MRI to measure cognitive flexibility brain activity in a group of Hispanic middle school ELs (N = 63) and related it to their academic skills. We found that brain engagement during the cognitive flexibility task was related to both out-of-scanner reading and math measures. These relationships were observed across the brain, including in cognitive control, attention, and default mode networks. This work suggests the real-world importance of cognitive flexibility for adolescent ELs, where individual differences in brain engagement were associated with educational outcomes.