Let's Talk About Maths: The Role of Observed “Maths‐Talk” and Maths Provisions in Preschoolers' Numeracy

Developmental cognitive neuroscience highlights the importance of interactions between children and their environment. As young children spend increasing time in childcare, it is key to investigate the impact of “maths‐talk” and maths provisions in preschools. Qualitative insights from early educators indicate a greater bias toward counting activities than would be expected given the Early Years curriculum. In addition, we quantified the observed breadth of preschool practitioners' maths language (e.g., place‐value language), setting‐based maths provisions (e.g., quality of maths‐related activities), and their relation with children's early numeracy skills. In settings with greater practitioners' breadth of maths language, children display greater cardinality skills although our data call for the further investigation of parental socioeconomic status and education. We conclude with a discussion on the need to operationalize children's maths learning environments as diversely as possible. Enriching practitioners' skill sets may be an effective and needed way of improving early maths outcomes.     

An Early Endeavor to Apply Quality Concepts to the Systematic Design of Instruction: Successes and Lessons Learned

In 1988, two staff members in the design department at Motorola Training and Education Center (MTEC) began a self-initiated project to develop and implement a system to improve the quality of courses being developed for their customers. This article describes how they applied Motorola's six steps to Six Sigma quality to their instructional design activities. While their quality system was not institutionalized throughout the instructional design department, several valuable lessons were learned that might benefit others embarking on a similar endeavor. Lessons learned dealt with: the sample of customers used to determine customer requirements, product-specific customer requirements, a continuous improvement system within the context of an instructional systems design model, the level of organizational readiness, involvement of stakeholders, the role of rewards and recognition, and appropriate metrics.     

Can sit-to-stand muscle power explain the ability to perform functional tasks in adults with severe obesity?

This study examined the relationship between sit-to-stand (STS) power and physical function in adults with severe obesity. Thirty-eight adults (age: 44 ± 12 years; body mass index [BMI]: 45.2 ± 7.8 kg/m²) completed evaluations of STS power, strength and functional performance. STS power was measured with a wearable inertial sensor, strength was assessed with the isometric mid-thigh pull, and function was measured with the timed up-and-go (TUG), six-minute walk test (6MWT) and 30-s chair STS. Power and strength (normalised to body mass) entered regression models in addition to age, gender, BMI and physical activity (daily step count). Power displayed large univariate associations with TUG (r = 0.50) and 30-s chair STS (r = 0.67), and a moderate association with 6MWT (r = 0.49). Forward stepwise regression revealed that power independently contributed to TUG (β = ?0.40, p = 0.010), 30-s chair STS (β = 0.67, p < 0.001) and 6MWT performance (β = 0.27, p = 0.007). Power also appeared to be a superior determinant of function compared with strength. Power generated via the STS transfer largely underpins the ability to perform functional tasks in adults with severe obesity, although intervention studies are required to investigate a potentially causal relationship.     

Network ethnography applied: understanding the evolving health and physical education knowledge landscape

The progressively global, neoliberal, privatised, and digital education environment poses new methodological challenges for educational researchers, prompting a need to innovate. It has been suggested, however, that better commentary and reflection on methodological innovation in education is required. This paper considers the benefits and challenges associated with the use of network ethnography, one methodological approach that has emerged to address new social complexities. We explain the rationale for, and process of, this methodology through reference to an illustrative case: a network ethnography of the outsourcing of Health and Physical Education (HPE) curricular work to external providers. In doing this we map and critique three interrelated activities (i.e. Internet searches, interviews, and network diagram construction) that constituted our network ethnography. The discussion turns to how network ethnography allowed us to access new knowledge about the outsourcing of HPE curricular work to external providers by, for example, facilitating us in asking different questions, and foregrounding various stakeholders, networks and relationships that we may not have discovered had we relied on other approaches. This illustrative case demonstrates the capacity of network ethnography to generate rich data and offers a provocation for educational researchers to consider expanding their methodological repertoire.     

Useful terms in psychoeducational reports: A survey of students,teachers, and psychologists

The usefulness of terminology in psychoeducational reports is examined. Students, teachers, and psychology interns rated the usefulness of 25 terms frequently found in reports. Psychology interns also rated each term on the frequency with which they used it in their own reports. Significant differences were found in the usefulness ratings of the terms, depending on major, category, and whether or not the rater had taken a special education course. Special education majors were found to be more comfortable with technical terms than were students who had prepared to be regular classroom teachers or students in other majors. Findings suggest that it is necessary to use clear, unambiguous terms in reports, and to explain more technical terms in context.     

A comparison of regular program and vocational program junior high school students on affective dimensions

The hypothesis that young adolescents in vocational education programs would differ from young adolescents in a regular program along several affective dimensions was examined. The Today Form of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) was administered twice during the school year to 111 students in a vocational program and to 50 students in regular classrooms. Dimensions of Anxiety, Depression, and Hostility were examined. Significant main effects for all three dimensions were noted for school program (regular vs. CVAE) and for grade (seventh vs. eighth). Students in the vocational program and those in seventh grade scored higher on Anxiety, Depression, and Hostility. These differences persisted across time, with the exception of Depression, for which there was a significant interaction between time (pretest vs. posttest) and school program (regular vs. CVAE), with regular students reporting increased depression at the second testing.     

Locus of control and reading attitude

The relationships between three measures of locus of control and eight dimensions of reading attitude were investigated for a sample of 431 inner-city children. The sample included the intermediate grade children enrolled in the 20 regular classrooms of the three elementary schools from the Columbus, Ohio, Public Schools. Correlation coefficients were computed between locus of control scores and the eight dimensions of reading attitude. Reading Anxiety showed a significant relationship with the I- score. This finding suggests that inner-city children who are willing to accept personal responsibility for negative events in their lives also tend to experience more anxiety about their reading. The other seven dimensions of reading attitude were not significantly related to internality scores.