The appropriateness of training exposures for match-play preparation in adolescent schoolboy and academy rugby union players

The aim of this study was to compare the physical and movement demands between training and match-play in schoolboy and academy adolescent rugby union (RU) players. Sixty-one adolescent male RU players (mean ± SD; age 17.0 ± 0.7 years) were recruited from four teams representing school and regional academy standards. Players were categorised into four groups based on playing standard and position: schoolboy forwards (n = 15), schoolboy backs (n = 15), academy forwards (n = 16) and academy backs (n = 15). Global positioning system and accelerometry measures were obtained from training and match-play to assess within-group differences between conditions. Maximum data were analysed from 79 match files across 8 matches (1.3 ± 0.5 matches per participant) and 152 training files across 15 training sessions (2.5 ± 0.5 training sessions per participant). Schoolboy forwards were underprepared for low-intensity activities experienced during match-play, with schoolboy backs underprepared for all movement demands. Academy forwards were exposed to similar physical demands in training to matches, with academy backs similar to or exceeding values for all measured variables. Schoolboy players were underprepared for many key, position-specific aspects of match-play, which could place them at greater risk of injury and hinder performance, unlike academy players who were better prepared.     

Bigger,stronger, faster,fitter: the differences in physical qualities of school and academy rugby union players

Limited research has compared the physical qualities of adolescent rugby union (RU) players across differing playing standards. This study therefore compared the physical qualities of academy and school Under-18 RU players. One-hundred and eighty-four (professional regional academy, n = 55 school, n = 129) male RU players underwent a physical testing battery to quantify height, body mass, strength (bench press and pull-up), speed (10, 20 and 40 m), 10 m momentum (calculated; 10 m velocity * body mass) and a proxy measure of aerobic fitness (Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1; IRTL1). The practical significance of differences between playing levels were assessed using magnitude-based inferences. Academy players were taller (very likely small), heavier (likely moderate) and stronger (bench press possibly large; pull-up plus body mass likely small) than school players. Academy players were faster than school players over 20 and 40 m (possibly and likely small), although differences in 10 m speed were not apparent (possibly trivial). Academy players displayed greater 10 m momentum (likely moderate) and greater IRTL1 performance (likely small) than school players. These findings suggest that body size, strength, running momentum, 40 m speed and aerobic fitness contribute to a higher playing standard in adolescent rugby union.     

The Importance of Community Knowledge in Learning to Teach: Foregrounding Māori Cultural Knowledge to Support Preservice Teachers' Development of Culturally Responsive Practice

Culturally responsive teaching is an essential component of reframing educator preparation for equity and has particular resonance when working in partnership with indigenous communities. As teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand, we continually seek to enhance our practices to ensure that Māori cultural values, pedagogies, and epistemologies inform all aspects of our teacher education curricula and support Māori educational aspirations. In this article we describe a preservice teacher education program co-constructed with our local Māori community that foregrounds Māori cultural knowledge. We focus particularly on two signature features of the program, a co-constructed framework for teacher growth and development and community-based learning experiences, highlighting the ways that these features engage preservice teachers in learning through Māori epistemological perspectives and pedagogies. We conclude by reflecting on the generative nature of engaging community expertise and knowledge to create contextually meaningful learning experiences for preservice teachers that support their development as culturally responsive teachers.     

Developing the next generation of engaged youth: Inspire Aspire – Global Citizens in the Making

School-based character education (CE) programs provide an opportunity to increase the moral fortitude of adolescents. This study is a preliminary evaluation of Inspire Aspire, a CE program that was implemented with 13- to 14-year-olds in Scotland. A relational developmental systems meta-theoretical approach and person-centered analyses were employed to understand whether teacher implementation variability is associated with student outcomes. The study aimed to: assess variation in program implementation across teachers; assess student poster quality, which served as a youth outcome measure; and, assess the relationship between variations in program implementation and poster quality. Teachers who fully integrated Inspire Aspire with the broader curriculum (as opposed to using it as a standalone program) as well as teachers who made more modifications to Inspire Aspire tended to have students with higher quality posters. This finding stands in contrast to the common narrative regarding evidence-based programs that requires teachers to strictly adhere to program guidelines in order to maintain implementation fidelity.     

Assessing ozone damage to cutleaf coneflower in an ozone bioindicator garden

To collect data on ozone pollution and foliar damage, we established the first Philadelphia Ozone Bioindicator Garden at The Franklin Institute Science Museum. In this paper, we examine the relationship between ozone concentrations in an urban environment and changes in foliar damage in cutleaf coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) plants. Higher ozone concentrations were observed during Summer 2015 than during Summer 2014 at our site. Diurnal analysis reveals a nightly diminishment of ozone's rate of dissipation around 4am, which we attributed to intrusions of air from the residual layer (the layer of air above the boundary layer). We saw that visible foliar injury starts relatively slowly and accelerates beginning in late July for stippling and early August for chlorosis and necrosis. We found that injury ratings on ozone-damaged leaves progress faster later in the season despite lower ambient ozone concentrations; we hypothesized that this is evidence of a “latency period” in the cutleaf coneflower's foliar injury response to ozone. Cutleaf coneflowers may serve as engaging tools to alert and inform Philadelphians about air quality issues. Our results suggest that these plants are good candidates for future work in developing bioindicators of ozone where direct monitoring is not feasible.     

Post-acquisition integrative versus independent innovation: A story of dueling success factors

Technological acquisitions have become a popular complement to internal innovation in order to overcome the time-compression diseconomies of internal innovation. As such, acquisition success greatly depends on the expeditious leveraging of target knowledge. Confounding our understanding of leveraging target knowledge is that targets play two distinct innovative roles post-acquisition: conduct innovative activities in conjunction with acquirers (integrative innovation) and continue innovative activities independent of acquirers (independent innovation). To understand how factors differentially affect these two types of innovation, I connect two disparate concepts: relative absorptive capacity and selective intervention. I develop theory and find evidence that while relative absorptive capacity creates the communication capabilities that accelerate integrative innovation, it simultaneously deteriorates the information asymmetries between targets and acquirers leading to greater opportunities for acquirer intervention into target innovative activities that delay independent innovation.     

Assessment Measures: management's yardstick

Nonprofit organizations' constituents, trustees and donors find financial reports confusing and too detailed. Advocates of Service Efforts and Accomplishments and assessment measures suggest that disclosing both financial and nonfinancial indicators will make the reports more useful. With hundreds of possible measures, ratios and data available, the nonprofit manager must select measures that portray the institution's condition and performance. This article presents a process and rationale for determining the measures. Also presented is a set of measures developed from interviews with presidents and administrators which were selected by a quantitative process that models complex decisions. The information selected for display both describes and measures the organization's condition and performance.     

Baselines and Basics: some issues in the assessment of behavioural interventions in education

Abstract Teachers are increasingly making use of behavioural techniques in their everyday classroom practice. The need for empirical demonstration of effectiveness is integral to the behavioural approach and calls for the use of some sort of experimental design, both to show a relationship between the teacher's actions and change in the child's behaviour, and to discount alternative explanations of such change. The baseline, a measure of the behaviour to be changed, is seen as performing a key function in any such design. The advantages and disadvantages for applied research of group and single case experimental designs are examined. It is argued that the latter provide a particularly appropriate means for practising teachers to evaluate their own work. Five well‐established forms of single case design are discussed in detail and an actual example of each in use is given.