Self-efficacy and the stages of exercise behavior change.

This study examined the application of constructs concerning stage of readiness to change and self-efficacy to exercise. We developed two scales to measure stages of change for exercise behavior. Prevalence information on a sample of 1,063 government employees and 429 hospital employees was then obtained. Next, the ability of a questionnaire measuring exercise self-efficacy to differentiate employees according to stage of readiness to change was tested. Results from both stages-of-change scales revealed that 34-39% of employees were regularly participating in physical activity. Scores on efficacy items significantly differentiated employees at most stages. Results indicated employees who had not yet begun to exercise, in contrast with those who exercised regularly, had little confidence in their ability to exercise. Continued work at understanding the stages of exercise behavior and exercise self-efficacy could yield important information for enhancing exercise adoption and adherence.     

Session search modeling by partially observable Markov decision process

Session search, the task of document retrieval for a series of queries in a session, has been receiving increasing attention from the information retrieval research community. Session search exhibits the properties of rich user-system interactions and temporal dependency. These properties lead to our proposal of using partially observable Markov decision process to model session search. On the basis of a design choice schema for states, actions and rewards, we evaluate different combinations of these choices over the TREC 2012 and 2013 session track datasets. According to the experimental results, practical design recommendations for using PODMP in session search are discussed.     

Judging Teachers: the social and political contexts of teacher evaluation

This paper argues that the assessment and evaluation of teachers in slate provided schooling in Britain has never been simply a matter of technical competence. Judging teachers has always involved social, ideological and political considerations which have varied in different historical periods.

An analysis is made of attempts to apply principles and procedures of assessment especially to teachers in urban working class schools. It is shown that these attempts have historically moved from a ‘visible’ strategy of direct imposition and surveillance to an ‘invisible’ strategy through the ethic of legitimated professionalism. Current developments in British schooling suggest, however, a possible return to more direct and visible procedures as ‘teacher incompetence’ is placed at the centre of the education problem.     

Making Connections for Future Directions: Taking religion seriously in the sociology of education

This article argues that a problem for the contemporary sociology of education is that it has operated within a 'secularisation of consciousness paradigm'. This has limited both the depth and the scope of its intellectual enquiries. Sociological analysis which elides a religious dimension not only presents an over-simplified view of social relations in 'the Modern West', but it also fails to make an authentic engagement with many socio-cultural and educational situations internationally, where God is far from dead. The article suggests various ways forward for a reorientation of sociological writing and research.     

Science for All: Engaging Students with Special Needs in and About Science

The notion of “science for all” suggests that all students—irrespective of achievement and ability—should engage in opportunities to understand the practice and discourse of science. Improving scientific literacy is an intrinsic goal of science education, yet current instructional practices may not effectively support all students, in particular, students with special needs. Argument‐based inquiry approaches, such as the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH), require all students to construct their scientific understandings by engaging in investigations and negotiating their ideas in multiple contexts, such as discussions and writing. Various SWH studies demonstrated that students engaged in appropriating the language, culture, practice, and dispositions of science generally improved their critical thinking and standardized test scores. The implementation of such an approach has several implications for science and special education research and practice, including how learning environments should be established to encourage the inclusion of all students’ ideas, as well as how scaffolded supports can and should be used to support science learning.