Development of a Questionnaire to Measure the Level of Reflective Thinking

Many courses aim to promote reflective thinking or reflection upon practice, but there is a scarcity of readily usable instruments to determine whether students engage in reflective thinking and, if so, to what extent. This paper reports the development and testing of such an instrument. To ensure validity, the constructs measured were derived from the extensive literature on reflective thinking, particularly the writing of Mezirow. A combination of the literature review and initial testing led to the development of a four-scale instrument measuring four constructs; habitual action, understanding, reflection and critical reflection. The final version of the instrument was tested with a sample of 303 students from eight classes of a health science faculty. The reliability of the scales was established by acceptable Cronbach alpha values. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit to the proposed four-factor structure. Comparison of mean scores between the eight classes showed predicted significant differences on each of the four scales between undergraduate and postgraduate students.     

Coordination and variability in the elite female tennis serve

Enhancing the understanding of coordination and variability in the tennis serve may be of interest to coaches as they work with players to improve performance. The current study examined coordinated joint rotations and variability in the lower limbs, trunk, serving arm and ball location in the elite female tennis serve. Pre-pubescent, pubescent and adult players performed maximal effort flat serves while a 22-camera 500 Hz motion analysis system captured three-dimensional body kinematics. Coordinated joint rotations in the lower limbs and trunk appeared most consistent at the time players left the ground, suggesting that they coordinate the proximal elements of the kinematic chain to ensure that they leave the ground at a consistent time, in a consistent posture. Variability in the two degrees of freedom at the elbow became significantly greater closer to impact in adults, possibly illustrating the mechanical adjustments (compensation) these players employed to manage the changing impact location from serve to serve. Despite the variable ball toss, the temporal composition of the serve was highly consistent and supports previous assertions that players use the location of the ball to regulate their movement. Future work should consider these associations in other populations, while coaches may use the current findings to improve female serve performance.     

Serving to different locations: set-up, toss, and racket kinematics of the professional tennis serve

The serve, as the most important stroke in tennis, has attracted considerable biomechanical interest. Of its component parts, the swing has received disproportionate research attention and consequently, little is known regarding toss kinematics. Indeed, the age-old question of whether players serve to different parts of the court from the same toss remains unanswered. Six right-handed professionally ranked players hit first serves (FSs) and second serves (SSs) to three 2 x 1 m target areas reflecting the landing locations of T, body and wide serves, respectively, on the deuce court. A 22 camera, 250 Hz VICON MX motion analysis system captured racket, ball, foot, and h and kinematics. Repeated measures ANOVAs assessed within-player differences in foot, racket, and ball kinematics within the FS and SS as a function of landing location. The positions of the front foot, ball zenith, and ball impact were significantly different in the FS, while kinematics across all SS were consistent. Front foot position was closer to the centre mark in the T FS and players impacted the ball further left in the wide FS compared to the T FS. This study discusses the findings in the context of the development of the serve as well as potential implications for the return.     

Clarifying Values in Schools

This article defends an approach to the clarification of values by schools which involves ‘reflexive evaluative enquiry or action research’ rather than an abstract or ‘armchair’ approach. An analysis is offered of the implications for this activity of the context of ‘market choice’ in which it must now be undertaken.     

Fine body movements and the cardiac cycle in archery

This study examined the relationships between postural sway, aiming time, the cardiac cycle time and the placement of the first finger movement within the electrocardiac cycle, with the quality of the arrow shot. A small group of elite male and female archers who shot either the recurve or the compound bow, freestyle or bare bow was used in this study. A total of 240 arrows were shot, classified as being of good, average or bad quality and analysed in detail. The analyses were undertaken over two occasions up to 100 days apart. The area of postural sway, as measured by the movement of the centre of pressure coordinates, varied significantly (P less than 0.05-0.001) both within and between trials for all archers and for all quality of arrows shot. There was a tendency for the area of postural sway to increase as the quality of the arrow shot decreased. This increase in postural sway exceeded, for arrows of bad quality, that exhibited as normal postural sway when standing relaxed and addressing the target with the hands at the side. Aiming time was variable within the quality of arrow shot, although it was consistent for each archer. In some cases the aiming time increased as the quality of the arrow decreased, whereas in the case of bare bow archery the aiming time tended to decrease as the quality of the arrow deteriorated. The cardiac cycle time increased significantly (P less than 0.05-0.01) as the archers approached the loose of the good quality arrows but there was no significant increase in cardiac cycle time when arrows of average or bad quality were shot. The most consistent parameter related to the quality of the shot was the placement of the first finger movement within the ST phase or the mid-cycle phase of the electrocardiogram for arrows of good quality (P less than 0.0001).     

The role of ethnicity in choosing and leaving science in highly selective institutions

This study sought to assess the role of ethnicity in both initial choice of, and persistence in, science majors. Standardized test scores, high school records, initial concentration preference, college grades, and final majors of all the white, Asian, black, and Hispanic students who enrolled in 1988 at four highly selective institutions provided the database. Despite relative deficits in scores on measures of preparation and developed ability, blacks entered college with a strong interest in majoring in science. Black students interested in science also suffered the highest attrition from it; Asians were lowest, with whites and Hispanics near the average attrition of 40%. Ethnicity did not add significantly to ability and achievement variables in predicting attrition from science. The results are discussed in terms of two main issues: first, the effect of different standards of selection for the various groups on their success in science curricula; and second, the relevance of various well-known intervention strategies to the problems of minority attrition in science in highly selective institutions.     

Using action,reflection and modelling (ARM) in Malaysian primary schools: connecting ‘the ARM theory’ with student teachers’ reported practice

This article presents Malaysian student teachers’ reports of using an action, reflection and modelling (ARM) pedagogical approach during their placements in Malaysian primary schools. The ARM approach was designed to support the implementation of the Malaysian primary school mathematics curriculum, which involved changing classroom practice in learning and teaching. It was developed and used during a Malaysia–UK collaborative project to construct a Bachelor of Education (Honours) degree programme in Primary Mathematics for a cohort of 120 student teachers in Malaysia. The three principles integral to the ARM approach were repeatedly made explicit to the student practitioners who were engaged in learning and teaching on the new degree programme. Using findings from surveys carried out with the students at the end of their first and final placements, this article provides examples of the way some of them described ARM and recounted how they had used the approach in the classroom. Four of these narratives are used as ‘vignettes’ to illustrate the students’ perceptions of using new ways of learning and teaching in primary schools and to inform and enable a discussion of the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education.