Knowing in primary physical education in the UK: negotiating movement culture

This paper aims to understand how pupils and teachers actions-in-context constitute being-a-pupil and being-a-teacher within a primary school physical education (PE) movement culture. Dewey and Bentley's theory of transaction, which views organism-in-environment-as-a-whole, enables the researcher to explore how actions-in-ongoing activities constitute and negotiate PE movement culture. Video footage from seven primary school PE lessons from a school in the West Midlands in the UK was analysed by focusing upon the ends-in-view of actions as they appeared through the educational content (what) and pedagogy (how) of the recorded PE experiences. Findings indicated that the movement culture within the school was a monoculture of looks-like-sport characterised by the privileging of the functional coordination of cooperative action. Three themes of pupils' and teachers' negotiation of the movement culture emerged U-turning, Knowing the game and Moving into and out of games. This movement culture required teachers to ensure pupils looked busy and reproduced cooperative looks-like-sport actions. In fulfilling this role, they struggled to negotiate between their knowledge of sport-for-real and directing pupils towards educational ends-in-view within games activities. Simply being good at sports was not a prerequisite for pupils' success in this movement culture. In order to re-actualise their knowledge of sport, pupils were required to negotiate the teacher's ‘how’ and ‘what’ by exploring what constituted cooperative actions within the spatial and social dimensions of the activities they were set. These findings suggest that if PE is to be more than just the reproduction of codified sport, careful adjustment and consideration of ends-in-view is of great importance. Without regard for the latter there is potential to create significant complexity for both teachers and pupils beyond that required by learning and performing sport.     

Using a collaborative working group model to develop an ADHD resource for school staff

Inclusive education for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) presents challenges for school staff and professional development is lacking. Training is not always available when needed, strategies suggested by external experts can be impractical and staff lack autonomy in choosing the best way of being resourced. Additionally, the experience and knowledge of the range of school staff is not utilised. A collaborative working group of school staff and a researcher explored an alternative method of ADHD resourcing. Co-construction of knowledge defines how the group discursively identified actionable knowledge from the different perspectives and knowledge brought by individual group members. A systemic framework was used to critically reflect on the collaboration. The framework enabled reflection on four areas to understand how and why the collaboration led to a published web-based school staff ADHD resource. Firstly, starting conditions and assumptions were considered to identify and articulate the rationale for the resource. Secondly, the context and system dynamics enabled consideration of the socio-cultural and political landscape of the project and the impact of COVID-19. Thirdly, the different voices of participants and power dynamics were reflected on. Finally, emergence was a frame in which to elucidate knowledge production and changes in practice. The collaborative working group addressed the research–practice gap and the need for diversity of voices to be heard across the school. Knowledge co-construction positions staff as knowledge bearers and, together with different forms of knowledge, they can be empowered to create new, contextualised evidence-based knowledge.     

Substitutability and complementarity of technological knowledge and the inventive performance of semiconductor companies

This paper analyses whether complementarity and substitutability of knowledge elements are key determinants of the firm's inventive performance, in addition to the more conventional measures of knowledge stock and diversity. Using patent data from 1968 to 2002 in the semiconductor industry, we find that the overall level of complementarity between knowledge components positively contributes to firms’ inventive capability, whereas the overall level of substitutability between knowledge components generally has the opposite effect. Yet a relatively high level of substitutability is found to be beneficial for explorative inventions. These results suggest that a firm's inventive capacity significantly depends on its ability to align its inventive strategies and knowledge base structure.     

Estimation of VO2max: a comparative analysis of five exercise tests

Thirty-eight female subjects (M +/ SD = 33 +/- 3.0 years) had VO2max measured on the cycle ergometer (M +/- SD = 37.3 +/- 6.4 ml.kg-1.min-1) and on the treadmill (M +/- SD = 41.3 +/- 6.6 ml.kg-1.min-1). VO2max was estimated for each subject from heart rate (HR) at submaximal workloads on the cycle ergometer using the Astrand-Rhyming nomogram (A/R) and the extrapolation method (XTP). VO2max was also estimated from three field tests: 1.5-mile run (RUN) (independent variable [IV] = time), mile walk (WALK) (IV = time, age, HR, gender, body weight), and the Queens College Step Test (ST) (IV = HR during 5-20 s recovery). Repeated measure ANOVA revealed significant mean differences between the criterion cycle ergometer VO2max versus A/R and XTP (20 and 12% overestimation). The WALK, RUN, and ST VO2max values were not significantly different from the criterion treadmill VO2max. The correlation between criterion VO2max estimated from the WALK and RUN were r = .73 (SEE = 4.57 ml,kg-1.min-1) and r = .79 (SEE = 4.13 ml.kg-1.min-1), respectively. The ST, A/R, and XTP had higher SEEs (13-13.5% of the mean) and lower r s (r = .55 to r = .66). These results suggest both the WALK and RUN tests are satisfactory predictors of VO2max in 30 to 39-year-old females.