Relationship of Physique and Developmental Level to Physical Performance

Abstract

A study was made of the relationship of physique and developmental level, determined by use of the Wetzel Grid, to performance of junior high boys on four fitness tests: pull-ups, 50-yd. dash, standing broad jump, and softball throw. Subjects of different physique groups (heavy, medium, and thin) who were alike developmentally (accelerated, normal, and retarded) differed more markedly in performance than did subjects of different developmental levels who were alike with regard to physique. Subjects who were medium in physique and normal in development were the best performers. Subjects of heavy physique (many overweight) were the poorest performers. This would seem to indicate the need for a restudy of classification methods, particularly when norms are to be used for evaluating performance.     

Review and criticism

An earlier version of this paper was presented to the AEJ convention at Boulder, Colorado in 1973 by Dr. Milan Meeske for the authors. Dr. O'Keefe is an associate professor of communication at Florida Technological University where Mr. Sheinkopf is a student.     

Participatory Action Research: issues in theory and practice

Action research is now common in educational and social practices of various kinds. The renaissance of this valuable approach to social enquiry has many virtues, but success is somewhat soured by cooption of some of the techniques occasionally used by action researchers for the technical improvement of practices, the Implicit values of which are poorly understood and timidly questioned. Naive cooption is accompanied by both traditional and new critique. Like most approaches to educational and social research, action research (or some people's impressions of it) has been subjected to critique by theorists of the so‐called post‐modern turn. These critiques have become prematurely Judgemental, and though drawing on what some see as powerful theoretical resources, are somewhat oblivious to the breadth and dynamism of action research theory and practice and dismissive of the achievements of action researchers who often work in contexts decidedly more risky than the academies which nurture and reward critique. Action research remains a diverse and thoroughly Justified and preferred mode of educational and social enquiry, continuing to address the concerns of both its practitioners and its critics.

     

Public understanding of science: from contents to processes

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