Associations between trait personality,anxiety, self-efficacy and intentions to exercise by gender in high school physical education

Trait personality has been associated with achievement and many of its related outcomes in settings such as education, health, physical activity and sport. Scant trait personality research has been performed among school-age students in physical education, so this study investigates relations between the six-dimension (HEXACO) model of trait personality and anxiety, self-efficacy and intentions to exercise as a function of gender in 316 high school physical education students. Students completed validated measures of these constructs. Results revealed that trait personality (particularly the social self-esteem aspect of extraversion) predicted lower anxiety and higher self-efficacy and intentions to exercise in both females and males. Openness to experience was predictive of both anxiety and lowered self-efficacy in females. It appears that physical educators should consider the role of the HEXACO personality traits and sub-traits in their students and potentially differentiate instruction to better accommodate students who are more vulnerable. From this study, it appears that students who are less extraverted and females who are more open to experience may be at be more at risk for anxiety and lower self-efficacy in physical education which may compromise their intentions to exercise.     

Tracking club sport participation from childhood to early adulthood

This study examined the strength of tracking sport participation from childhood to early adulthood among the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study cohort. Participation in sport, dance, or gymnastics as part of a club or group (outside of school) was assessed at ages 7, 9, 15, 18, and 21 years. In addition to the traditionally used correlation coefficients, summary statistics (intraclass correlations; ICC) from random effect models and stability coefficients from generalized estimating equations (GEE) were calculated using all the longitudinal data and controlling for the influence of covariates on tracking strength. Correlation coefficients revealed statistically significant tracking of club sport participation (7-21 years) at low levels (r = .07-0.28). The ICC summary statistic (0.23) was consistent with this, while the GEE suggested moderate tracking (0.59). The results of this study suggest that encouraging sport participation during childhood and adolescence may result in a modest increase in the likelihood of participation later in life. However, the substantial movement into and out of sport participation observed here and in other studies cautions against relying solely on sport promotion among youth as a strategy to promote lifelong participation.     

Dangerous learning in edgy contexts: creativity and innovation in the South African arts domain

In this paper, we outline a pilot project aimed at exploring the role of contextual factors in the facilitation of creativity and innovation within a range of South African art forms. Interviews with 11 people who have rich experience of the South African art domain delivered an insightful perspective on the contextual factors driving lifelong creativity and its continuous realization in innovative outcomes within these art forms.     

The education welfare service: the case for a review in England

The only major review of the education welfare service (EWS) took place in 1973 when the role and responsibilities of the service were very different from those of today. Recent legislative changes, the influence of the Children Act 2004 and revised public needs of the service, including new multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary frameworks, suggest that an up‐to‐date review would be timely. It may also help to professionalise the service in a number of different ways, something which is long overdue. This paper provides both the rationale and evidence for making the case for a major review of the EWS based on a reading of all key relevant documents and participation in a range of local and national evaluations on the role of the EWS in England and Wales. The major issues which need to be reviewed are identified and a way forward is suggested.     

Intentional Communication and Graphic Symbol Use by Students with Severe Intellectual Disability

Communicative intent is an important construct in pragmatic theory that is based, in part, on the study of language acquisition among normally developing children. This article discusses communicative intent in persons with severe intellectual disability in the context of intervention studies reporting the acquisition of graphic symbol use.     

Educational quality in economic development: Ten propositions and an application to the South Pacific

Over the last two decades, research into the role of education in economic development has begun to pay attention to educational quality and its effect on learning outcomes. In this paper recent research on educational quality is reviewed and its application to the island economies of the South Pacific is assessed. While there is considerable variation among the countries, the paper demonstrates the pervasive nature of school quality problems in the region. Those factors which have the greatest bearing on school quality in the region are isolated. These factors are: the quality of teachers; the availability of learning materials; initial instruction in the mother tongue; the quality of educational management; and curriculum reform. The paper concludes by arguing that strategies to improve quality will fail unless they recognise important complementarities between the factors determining quality.

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Zusammenfassung In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten hat man begonnen, die Forschung über die Rolle des Bildungswesens in der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung eines Landes auf Bildungsqualität und ihren Einfluß auf die Lernergebnisse auszudehnen. In diesem Artikel werden die neuesten Forschungen über die Qualität der Bildung aufgegriffen und eine mögliche Anwendung für die Inselwirtschaften im Südpazifik diskutiert. Dieser Artikel weist auf die überall gegenwärtige Problematik der Schulqualität in dieser Region trotz erheblicher Unterschiede zwischen den Ländern hin. Man fand folgende dafür verantwortliche Gründe heraus: Lehrerqualität, Erhältlichkeit von Lernmaterialien, Erziehung in der Muttersprache, Qualität der Schulleitung und Reform der Curricula. Der Artikel schließt mit dem Argument, daß Strategien zur Verbesserung der Qualität keinen Erfolg haben werden, solange wesentliche Zusammenhänge zwischen den qualitätsbestimmenden Faktoren nicht erkannt werden.

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Résumé Au cours des vingt dernières années, la recherche sur le rôle de l'éducation dans le développement économique a commencé à prêter attention à la qualité de l'éducation et à ses effets sur les rendements de l'apprentissage. Dans le présent article, on procède à l'examen de la recherche entreprise récemment dans ce domaine et à l'évaluation de son application aux économies des îles du Pacifique sud. Tandis qu'on note une variation considérable entre les pays, on démontre la nature diffuse des problèmes relatifs à la qualité des écoles dans cette région. Les facteurs qui ont la plus grande influence sur la qualité de l'école dans la région sont isolés: qualité des enseignants, existence de matériels d'apprentissage, enseignement initial dans la langue maternelle, qualité de la gestion de l'éducation, réforme du curriculum. Cet article conclut en arguant que les stratégies devant améliorer la qualité dans ce domaine échoueront à moins qu'elles reconnaissent les complémentarités importantes entre les facteurs qui déterminent la qualité.

     

School Organization and Persistent School Absenteeism: An Introduction to a Complex Problem

This article is concerned with the development of provision for pupils in a comprehensive school with special educational needs. Its main focus is on the organization and administration changes which were undertaken in connection with the recommendations of the Warnock Report, the 1981 Education Act and the development of knowledge and expertise within the school in helping such pupils.

It concentrates on five aspects: the communication of information about those pupils within the school, the curriculum available to them in the upper school, the deployment of staff, the name of the department to best fit its changing role in the school and the issues which need to be taken into account in monitoring those developments.     

终身体育视域下高校课余体育竞赛的改革与发展

对终身体育视域下我国高校课余体育竞赛进行分析,认为通过对我国高校课余体育竞赛的组织手段、内容设置、竞赛形式等进行改革,可有效培养大学生终身体育意识,激发大学生参与体育锻炼的兴趣.