Narrative-Based Learning Activities for Science Ethics Education: an Affordance Perspective

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Boasting a wide range of interactive and engaging features, narrative-based learning has become increasingly popular in educational settings....     

Reappraising Athleticism?

Hickey has presented a powerful rebuttal of Kerrigan's refusal to accept a role for athleticism in the development of English elementary school sport, and has identified further self-contradictions and inconsistencies in this refusal. Much more importantly, however, he has presented compelling evidence of the influence of athleticism on educational thinking and policy-making in relation to this sector of schooling. In doing so, he indirectly points to the need to reappraise the impact of the ideology of athleticism on schooling and society in general. A case can be made that it was even more powerful and pervasive than has been previously argued.     

Anatomy of a Dead Heat: Visual Evidence at the 2012 US Olympic Trials

The adoption and use of visual technologies as decision aids in professional sport is increasing at a rapid rate, yet the study of such practice is virtually non-existent. Beyond the specific play or call in question, images used as decision aids in sport have immediate and far-reaching material and cultural impacts including athlete sponsorship packages, the professional reputation and expertise of athletes and officials, and lucrative contracts for imaging and technology companies. This paper borrows Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison's work on objectivity to examine one such case: the dead heat between Jeneba Tarmoh and Allyson Felix at the 2012 US Olympic Trials. The Tarmoh/Felix dead heat involved a complex assemblage of human and machine vision, and contains within it many of the issues involved in the use of sports decision aids. The paper argues that analyses of images used as decision aids in sport have much to offer academic and non-academic audiences interested in sport and visual culture.     

Economic independence for adolescents with special educational needs

Do young men and women diagnosed with special educational needs succeed in finding full‐time employment that provides sufficient income to live on? The analyses presented in this paper are based on interviews conducted between October 2001 and April 2002 of nearly 500 young people with various types of disabilities. The young people who were interviewed have been studied prospectively since they entered upper secondary school as special needs students six or seven years earlier. These adolescents are followed through a critical phase of life when they are trying to find their way in society as adult individuals. This process is gradual and involves making tentative steps in various arenas. A crucial topic is how these young men and women, between 23 and 25 years of age, succeed in gaining employment that allows them to become economically independent. This is a vulnerable process for most youth, but it is especially challenging for young people with functional difficulties who have experienced protracted and disjointed transitions throughout their educational trajectories.     

Explaining School Performance in Literature: some Strategies of Causal Analysis

Bulcock, J. W. & Finn, J. D., 1975. Explaining School Performance in Literature: Some Strategies of Causal Analyses. Scand. J. educ. Res. 19, 75‐110. This paper focuses on the cultural and personality resources of individuals and their school related skills as determinants of achievement in mother tongue literature. A path analytic approach is used to test a popular model of literature achievement which is applied to a subsample of Swedish 14‐year‐olds selected from the data bank archive of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, University of Stockholm. Because the sex of the student and the amount of effort expended on school work account for variance in levels of performance over‐and‐above the causally interrelated system factors, it is necessary to control for the possibility of their confounding influence. Accordingly, a ‘pooling’ procedure is used for adjusting the correlation matrix in order to account for the bias in the regression model which is attributable to these factors. The logic of this procedure is developed in the appendix.

     

Don't just look,listen: uncovering children's cognitive strategies during spelling-related activities

This paper reports on a study that used verbal protocols to uncover the cognitive strategies of children from Sydney, Australia, aged 8- to 9-years-old, when they were engaged in a range of word sorting and editing activities. The children's cognitive strategies have been analysed in terms of a developmental stage theory of spelling. The findings are contrasted with the skills and characteristics of competent spellers at each recognised stage of spelling development. The paper considers the orthographic knowledge and spelling strategies of children that are evident when they are asked to ‘think aloud’ about English words and contrasts this with what is (or is not) captured through the developmental stage theory of spelling. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for the findings on classroom practice.     

Body mass changes during training in elite rugby union: Is a single test of hydration indices reliable?

There is limited research studying fluid and electrolyte balance in rugby union players, and a paucity of information regarding the test–retest reliability. This study describes the fluid balance of elite rugby union players across multiple squads and the reliability of fluid balance measures between two equivalent training sessions. Sixty-one elite rugby players completed a single fluid balance testing session during a game simulation training session. A subsample of 21 players completed a second fluid balance testing session during an equivalent training session. Players were weighed in minimal clothing before and after each training session. Each player was provided with their own drinks which were weighed before and after each training session. More players gained body weight (9 (14.8%)) during training than lost greater than 2% of their initial body mass (1 (1.6%)). Pre-training body mass and rate of fluid loss were significantly associated (r?=?0.318, p?=?.013). There was a significant correlation between rate of fluid loss in sessions 1 (1.74?±?0.32?L?h^?1) and 2 (1.10?±?0.31?L.?h^?1), (r?=?0.470, p?=?.032). This could be useful for nutritionists working with rugby squads to identify players with high sweat losses.