What are secondary students’ expectations for teachers in virtual school environments?

A recent evaluation of the new North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) in the USA revealed numerous expectations for virtual school teachers from secondary students. Specifically, students expected their teachers to actually teach rather than moderate a course shell, supplement course shells with content and projects that illustrate relevance, provide for both content and peer interaction, and respond to questions and provide feedback quickly. The data suggest a possible content‐related interaction where a limited course shell can be bolstered by a proactive teacher, but potentially flounder among teachers who do not expect or know how to supplement an online course. Data further suggest a potential communication‐related interaction where increased opportunities for student–student and student–teacher interaction could potentially decrease the actual or perceived need for individualized attention that is particularly challenging for virtual teachers to provide. These results can be used to establish teacher expectations and design professional development experiences that prepare teachers to undertake divergent roles unique to online instruction.     

Responding to the Voices of Homeless Preschool Children and Their Families

By utilizing all of the voices of homeless children and families we can gain a better understanding of their needs and thus be more effective in designing programs that can support them in becoming more independent. This article reviews the importance of the voices of homeless preschool children and their parents as well that of the professionals who work with them in developing responses to this problem. Strategies that empower homeless preschool children and their families are noted. These strategies include: quality preschool care, therapeutic practices that empower the entire family, case management schemes that provide support to homeless children and families, and societal changes that empower the family. Critical roles that early childhood education professionals can carry out in this empowerment process are delineated and discussed.     

Tin Oxide Chemistry from the Last Decade of the Nineteenth Century to the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century: Towards the Development of a Big-Picture Approach to the Teaching and Learning of Chemistry While Focussing on a Specific Compound or Class of Compounds

The discovery of the electron in 1897 deeply impacted the nature of chemistry in the twentieth century. A revolution in the theoretical structure of chemistry as well as in the instrumental tools used in chemical analysis occurred as a result of this discovery. The impact of this revolution on tin oxide chemistry over approximately a 100 year period is the focus of this paper. Important questions addressed include the following: Are tin oxides of importance in our current society or are they only of quaint academic interest? In what way has chemistry as a discipline added to our understanding of the tin oxides and has this added any technological value to these compounds? Does the historical approach followed in this paper offer chemistry educators the opportunity to place current chemical knowledge in a broader epistemological framework? The impact of the answers to these questions on chemistry education is discussed.     

What I Do: Notes from the Frontiers of Academic Curating in Biology

Abstract In an era in which genomes are being sequenced and support for traditional biological collections is diminishing, it's a dynamic time to be an academic curator in biology. Pressures arise from factors such as bureaucracy, from the need to document productivity in terms that largely neglect collections, from the seeming discord between taxonomic orientation and hypothesis testing, reliance on soft money, teaching and research, and the need to build collections. Some of us prefer to continue building collections nonetheless. These factors combine to produce unprecedented levels of stress on academic curators. However, these seas can be navigated, and doing so brings both traditional and nontraditional rewards. This article presents a personal working study in navigating this increasingly complex career choice.     

A mechanism of mutually beneficial relationships between employees and consumers: A dyadic analysis of employee–consumer interaction

Although sport management researchers concur with one another regarding the significance of interaction between employees and consumers in shaping the consumers’ attitudes and behaviors, the vast majority of previous studies are largely isolated such that they take assessment exclusively from one side of the dyad—either employees or consumers. The authors seek to advance the current body of knowledge by utilizing a dyadic method that includes judgments provided by employees as well as one of each employee’s consumers in a high-contact sport service context (i.e., multi-purpose fitness centers). As such, the authors investigate how employee citizenship behavior and deviance behavior influence consumer citizenship behavior and participative behavior through consumers’ perceived service quality and satisfaction with employees. The results indicated that employee citizenship behavior positively and deviance behavior negatively shaped consumers’ perceptions of service quality, whereas the negative moderating effect of employee deviance behavior between employee citizenship behavior and service quality was not supported. Satisfaction with employees significantly mediated the relationship between service quality and consumer citizenship behavior but not between service quality and consumer participative behavior. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications derived from this study are discussed.     

Dietary nitrate supplementation does not improve cycling time-trial performance in the heat

This investigation examined the effect of beetroot juice (BR) supplementation, a source of dietary nitrate (NO₃^?), on cycling time-trial (TT) performance and thermoregulation in the heat. In a double-blind, repeated-measures design, 12 male cyclists (age 26.6 ± 4.4 years, VO_2peak 65.8 ± 5.5 mL.kg^?1.min^?1) completed four cycling TTs (14 kJ.kg^?1) in hot (35°C, 48% relative humidity) and euthermic (21°C, 52%) conditions, following 3 days supplementation with BR (6.5 mmol NO₃^? for 2 days and 13 mmol NO₃^? on the final day), or NO₃^–depleted placebo (PLA). Salivary NO₃^? and nitrite, core (T_c) and mean skin temperature (T_sk) were measured. Salivary NO₃^? and nitrite increased significantly post-BR supplementation (p < 0.001). Average TT completion time (mm:ss) in hot conditions was 56:50 ± 05:08 with BR, compared with 58:30 ± 04:48 with PLA (p = 0.178). In euthermic conditions, average completion time was 53:09 ± 04:35 with BR, compared with 54:01 ± 04:05 with PLA (p = 0.380). The TT performance decreased (p < 0.001), and T_c (p < 0.001) and T_sk (p < 0.001) were higher in hot compared with euthermic conditions. In summary, BR supplementation has no significant effect on cycling TT performance in the heat.     

The influence of training load,exposure to match play and sleep duration on daily wellbeing measures in youth athletes

This study assessed the influence of training load, exposure to match play and sleep duration on two daily wellbeing measures in youth athletes. Forty-eight youth athletes (age 17.3 ± 0.5 years) completed a daily wellbeing questionnaire (DWB), the Perceived Recovery Status scale (PRS), and provided details on the previous day’s training loads (TL) and self-reported sleep duration (sleep) every day for 13 weeks (n = 2727). Linear mixed models assessed the effect of TL, exposure to match play and sleep on DWB and PRS. An increase in TL had a most likely small effect on muscle soreness (d = ?0.43;± 0.10) and PRS (d = ?0.37;± 0.09). Match play had a likely small additive effect on muscle soreness (d = ?0.26;± 0.09) and PRS (d = ?0.25;± 0.08). An increase in sleep had a most likely moderate effect on sleep quality (d = 0.80;± 0.14); a most likely small effect on DWB (d = 0.45;± 0.09) and fatigue (d = 0.42;± 0.11); and a likely small effect on PRS (d = 0.25;± 0.09). All other effects were trivial or did not reach the pre-determined threshold for practical significance. The influence of sleep on multiple DWB subscales and the PRS suggests that practitioners should consider the recovery of an athlete alongside the training stress imposed when considering deviations in wellbeing measures.     

Examining the capacity of a sport for development programme to create social capital

Robert Putnam’s conceptualization of social capital has been commonly associated with, and used to analyse, sport-for-development programmes. This paper bucks this trend and uses James Coleman’s rational strain of social capital to examine the use of sport as a component part of a programme to support male adults in addressing connected problems of substance misuse, homelessness and other forms of social exclusion. Using a qualitative research strategy, in-depth and longitudinal data were collected using individual interviews and focus groups with programme participants and key stakeholders over a three-year period. The results suggest the importance of unintentionality for the formation and use value of social capital; indicating that social capital created through this programme was individual, contingent on interactional context and benefited individuals in line with Coleman’s six aspects of social capital.     

Are athletes on the right track? The effect of availability of an all-weather athletics track on athletics performance

In February of 2011, an earthquake destroyed the only all-weather athletics facility in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The all-weather track has yet to be replaced, and so since the loss of the track, local Christchurch athletes have only had a grass track for training and preparation for championship events. The present study considers what effect the loss of the training facility has had on the performance of athletes from Christchurch at national championship events. Not surprisingly, the study finds that there has been a deterioration in the performance in events that are heavily dependent upon the all-weather surface. However, somewhat more surprisingly, the loss of the track appears to have caused a significant improvement in the performance of Christchurch athletes in events that, while on the standard athletics programme, are not heavily dependent on track surface.