Injury rehabilitation: a goal-setting intervention study

The study examined the effects of a 5-week goal-setting intervention on athletes' rehabilitation adherence, self-efficacy, treatment efficacy, and the psychological response variables: dispirited and reorganization. Participants were matched across six variables and randomly assigned to one of three groups: goal-setting intervention, social support control, and control. The results confirmed some of the hypothesized effects of the goal-setting intervention: (a) athlete self-report of adherence showed the goal-setting group adhered significantly more to the rehabilitation program than the other two groups; (b) the goal-setting intervention resulted in significant group differences for self-efficacy (the goal-setting group having the highest level of self-efficacy); and (c) there was a significant increase across time for reorganization and decrease across time for dispirited (between specific time phases).     

Orthographic processing efficiency in developmental dyslexia: an investigation of age and treatment factors at the sublexical level

Reading fluency beyond decoding is a limitation to many children with developmental reading disorders. In the interest of remediating dysfluency, contributing factors need to be explored and understood in a developmental framework. The focus of this study is orthographic processing in developmental dyslexia, and how it may contribute to reading fluency. We investigated orthographic processing speed and accuracy by children identified with dyslexia that were enrolled in an intensive, fluency-based intervention using a timed visual search task as a tool to measure orthographic recognition. Results indicate both age and treatment effects, and delineate a link between rapid letter naming and efficient orthographic recognition. Orthographic efficiency was related to reading speed for passages, but not spelling performance. The role of orthographic learning in reading fluency and remediation is discussed.     

Analyzing the degree of technology use occurring in pre-service teacher education

Technology is not in the forefront of teacher education program thinking and planning. Yet, it is the tool dramatically changing education. Internationally, the role of technology has evolved from the role of assisting the teacher in personal management to using technology for instruction. To respond to this need, universities are altering courses to infuse the introduction and utilization of technological tools to enhance instruction. The end product is that pre-service teachers should graduate with the skills to seamlessly integrate technology to advance student learning. This study looks at a large comprehensive university’s available data on pre-service teachers regarding their utilization of technology. The focus of the study was to (a) document the technology skills within the university's capstone project, (b) examine the capstone project data to confirm or refute the premise that pre-service teachers integrate technology, and (c) review other internal data to assess pre-service teacher competencies on technology.     

Minerva unbound: Knowledge stocks, knowledge flows and new knowledge production

Regional growth of new knowledge in nanotechnology, as measured by counts of articles and patents in the open-access digital library NanoBank, is shown to be positively affected both by the size of existing regional stocks of recorded knowledge in all scientific fields, and the extent to which tacit knowledge in all fields flows between institutions of different organizational types. The level of federal funding has a large, robust impact on both publication and patenting. The data provide support for the cumulative advantage model of knowledge production, and for ongoing efforts to institutionalize channels through which cross-organizational collaboration may be achieved.     

Economists are Grading Students Away from the Subject

Using a unique data set, collected from over 1000 A-level students, we obtain evidence of student interest and achievement in their chosen A-level subjects. Ten major A-level subjects are considered with particular attention focused on economics, a subject that has experienced a marked decline in popularity (by over 50%) in the 1990s. A key finding is that students of economics under-perform in economics relative to both their other chosen A-levels and their GCSE performance. This finding is outstanding amongst the major A-levels. We conclude that students may be discouraged from the study of A-level economics by relatively severe grading at the mid-point of A-level study. Some positive action by the profession may be needed to stem fears of further decline in student take-up in the new AS-level environment where students may choose to discontinue some of their subjects at the end of one year of study.     

Constructing National Identity in a Changing World: Perspectives in Japanese education

This article explores some of the alternative perspectives on national identity which exist within the current Japanese education system. Analysis of official Japanese Ministry of Education policy is juxtaposed with presentation of the voices of junior high school students and pre-service student teachers to highlight the issue of the role of education in developing national identity in schools. It is argued that a wide discrepancy exists between Ministry of Education ideology, and the opinions of Japanese students and student teachers, and that these conflicting discourses raise questions about the definition, form, importance and even the very existence of education for national identity in the twenty-first century.