ANNOUNCEMENTS

Social Services and HumanIm, prepare welfare applicants to find and retain employment to improve their lives. The intensive educational program utilizes the constructivism approach to learning, incorporating both developmental and social learning theories.     

Report on the CSEET '99 Workshop: “Establishing a Distance Education Program”

The objectives of the workshop were to examine five particular aspects relevant to software engineering distance education: how to turn existing courses into distance mode, the implications of cultural issues in establishing the program and in the delivery of material, how to ensure the quality of courses, how to ensure comparability of experience for students, and the range of delivery mechanisms which have been tried and assessed. The two-staged operation and results of the workshop are reported. Initial position statements are detailed and the analysis from five separate subgroups that addressed a case study as stage one of the process is presented. The second stage, of different subgroups addressing the four operational scenarios, is described and the feedback obtained from these groups is then presented. Finally a summary of the major work-shop findings is given, along with some overall conclusions.     

The role of a short post-lunch nap in improving cognitive, motor, and sprint performance in participants with partial sleep deprivation

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a post-lunch nap on subjective alertness and performance following partial sleep loss. Ten healthy males (mean age 23.3 years, s = 3.4) either napped or sat quietly from 13:00 to 13:30 h after a night of shortened sleep (sleep 23:00-03:00 h only). Thirty minutes after the afternoon nap or control (no-nap) condition, alertness, short-term memory, intra-aural temperature, heart rate, choice reaction time, grip strength, and times for 2-m and 20-m sprints were recorded. The afternoon nap lowered heart rate and intra-aural temperature. Alertness, sleepiness, short-term memory, and accuracy at the 8-choice reaction time test were improved by napping (P < 0.05), but mean reaction times and grip strength were not affected (P > 0.05). Sprint times were improved. Mean time for the 2-m sprints fell from 1.060 s (s(x) = 0.018) to 1.019 s (s(x) = 0.019) (P = 0.031 paired t-test); mean time for the 20-m sprints fell from 3.971 s (s(x) = 0.054) to 3.878 s (s(x) = 0.047) (P = 0.013). These results indicate that a post-lunch nap improves alertness and aspects of mental and physical performance following partial sleep loss, and have implications for athletes with restricted sleep during training or before competition.     

Characteristics and experiences of interns in strength and conditioning

Student coaches undertake internships to develop practical skills and gain experience to improve employability prospects. The characteristics of the coaches who undertake these internships, their experiences and the nature of the work being performed are currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to report the characteristics of strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches who have undertaken internships and their experiences during their respective placements. A total of 113 men and 6 women completed an online survey. Placements generally lasted 6–12 months (66%), were unpaid (93%) and took place at professional teams (63%). All respondents had a standard of experience prior to commencement (82%); a higher-education degree (bachelor’s degree 56%; master’s degree 18%) and others were qualified S&C coaches (16%). Activities consisted largely of coaching (47%), data collection (22%) and equipment set-up (25%) but lacked provision of appropriate training. Mentors were allocated to interns; however, often developmental objectives were not discussed, meetings were rarely documented, and in some cases, no meetings took place. This study suggests that internships offer worthwhile experiences and assistance in skill development to progress in S&C. However, clearer guidelines are required to define the responsibilities of employers and interns, to maximise these experiential learning opportunities and avoid the exploitation of willing students.     

Listening previewing in reading to read: Relative effects on oral reading fluency

An intervention designed to increase oral reading fluency (Reading to Read; RTR) as well as the additional component of listening previewing (PRV) was evaluated in an alternating treatments design with 3 African-American male elementary students (9, 10, and 12 years of age; 2 fourth grade and 1 third grade) who were reading 2 to 3 years below their current grade placement. Considering the relatively brief amount of time spent during intervention (4 to 9 weeks; 2 to 3 30-minute sessions per week), results evidenced substantial increases for all 3 students on correct words per minute and percent comprehension accuracy, and substantial decreases in mean number of errors. The PRV condition yielded higher correct words per minute rates and lower error rates for 2 of the students, whereas the third student's performance was superior with the regular RTR intervention without PRV. The efficacy of PRV within RTR is discussed with regard to factors related to students' attentional problems.     

Embodied cognition as grounding for situatedness and context in mathematics education

In this paper we analyze, from the perspective of 'Embodied Cognition', why learning and cognition are situated and context-dependent. We argue that the nature of situated learning and cognition cannot be fully understood by focusing only on social, cultural and contextual factors. These factors are themselves further situated and made comprehensible by the shared biology and fundamental bodily experiences of human beings. Thus cognition itself is embodied, and the bodily-grounded nature of cognition provides a foundation for social situatedness, entails a reconceptualization of cognition and mathematics itself, and has important consequences for mathematics education. After framing some theoretical notions of embodied cognition in the perspective of modern cognitive science, we analyze a case study – continuity of functions. We use conceptual metaphor theory to show how embodied cognition, while providing grounding for situatedness, also gives fruitful results in analyzing the cognitive difficulties underlying the understanding of continuity. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.