Physical Activity Practices in Elementary Schools and Associations With Physical Education Staffing and Training

Purpose: Authorities recommend that schools provide a variety of opportunities for students to obtain physical activity (PA) before, during, and after school. This study assessed the prevalence of several school PA practices—including measures of quantity and quality of physical education (PE)—in elementary schools and examined the associations of PA practices with school resources (PE staffing, training, and facilities). Method: Surveys were obtained from respondents in nationally representative samples of elementary schools from 2009–2010 to 2011–2012 (1,831 schools). Results: Few schools (20.8%) provided students with PE class every day, but most (76.3%) had an appropriate PE student-to-teacher ratio ( ≤ 25:1). Many schools (74.0%) offered 20 min of recess daily, but fewer than half offered organized opportunities for PA before or after school (e.g., sports). After controlling for demographics and school size, having a full-time PE teacher and requiring PE teachers to obtain PE-related continuing education (CE) were associated with PE practices such as offering ≥ 150 min of PE per week (for 3rd-grade students) and testing PE knowledge, skills, and fitness. Required CE was also associated with a higher likelihood of offering PA during the school day (i.e., activity breaks and PA outside of PE class) and before or after the school day (i.e., afterschool PA programs). Conclusion: Few schools offer a broad array of PA programming. However, PE staffing and CE are positively associated with many PA practices including those outside of PE, possibly indicating that PE staff serve a crucial role in promoting a whole-school PA-supportive environment.     

Effect of Practice on True Score and Intra-Individual Variability for Reaction and Movement Times for Simple and Complex Movements

Abstract

The effect of practice on individual differences and intra-individual variability in reaction and movement times were studied for simple and complex, discrete, motor tasks. Changes with practice for intertrial correlations of adjacent trials and the effects of an increasing number of interpolated trials on intertrial correlations were also observed. For both tasks and for both reaction and movement times, the intra-individual variability decreased with practice. The true score variability for reaction time on both tasks and for movement time on the simple task shows little change with practice. On the complex task, true score variability for movement time decreases with practice. For movement time, adjacent trial correlations increase during the early practice trials then remain stable. For reaction time adjacent trial correlations increase throughout practice. Remoteness effects on intertrial correlations were found for both movement and reaction times for both tasks.     

Lifestyles and gendered patterns of leisure and sporting interests among Irish adolescents

This paper strives to provide an insight into the multifaceted relationships that young people have, examining the social, cultural and institutional discourses, which shape their lives. We set out to discuss, from an empirical poststructuralist perspective, the way in which Irish adolescents write about the reality of their lives and privilege certain practices and forms of subjectivity. We are particularly interested in the role and significance of physical activity in the lives of young people, asking what institutional and cultural discourses are brought into play to construct particular identities and social practices associated with leisure and sporting interests. This paper focuses on a purposeful sample of 168 written narratives of Irish post-primary students (14–17 years of age), chosen to represent the gender of students, a range of rural and urban school locales from different geographic locations and single sex and co-educational schools. We focus on the inter-relationships between (1) family and friends; (2) community-localism and tradition; (3) commodification and globalisation; (4) popular culture; and (5) gendered patterns of leisure and sporting interests. The family is a strong focal point for these young people as are their friends and being part of a community. The young people (boys in particular) are significant consumers of ‘media sport’ and both girls and boys were knowledgeable of national and international politics. We also comment on the extent to which female and male adolescents negotiate, similarly or differently, culturally dominant discourses within physical activity and sport, with significantly more boys choosing to write about physical activity and sport in their narratives.     

Vital pathways for hospital librarians: present and future roles

Objectives:

The research objectives were to (1) describe the current and future roles of hospital librarians and the challenges they face and (2) find evidence supporting the hypothesis that librarians are essential to hospitals in achieving the organizations'' mission-critical goals.

Method:

The authors used results from a previous research study that identified the five organizational mission-critical goals important to hospital administrators and then searched the literature and solicited examples from hospital librarians to describe the librarian''s role in helping hospitals achieve these goals.

Results:

The literature supports the hypothesis that hospital librarians play important roles in the success of the hospital. Librarians support quality clinical care, efficient and effective hospital operations, continuing education for staff, research and innovation, and patient, family, and community health information needs.

Conclusion:

Hospital librarians fulfill many mission-critical roles in today''s hospital, providing the right information at the right time in a variety of ways to enhance hospital and medical staff effectiveness, optimize patient care, improve patient outcomes, and increase patient and family satisfaction with the hospital and its services. Because hospital librarians and their services provide an excellent return on investment for the hospital and help the hospital keep its competitive edge, hospital staff should have access to the services of a professional librarian.

Highlights

• A review of the literature supports the hypothesis that services of the professional librarian result in:
  • enhanced staff effectiveness,
  • optimized patient care,
  • improved patient outcomes, and
  • increased patient and family satisfaction with the hospital and its services.

Implications

• Because hospital librarians and their services provide an excellent return on investment for the hospital and help the hospital keep its competitive edge, hospital staff should have access to the services of a professional librarian.

     

Employee mistreatment and muted voices in the culturally diverse workplace

This study examines mistreatment through the perspectives of employees with different cultural backgrounds and positions in order to understand the ways in which some voices are muted and others are privileged. Mistreatment is interactional, distributive, procedural, or systemic abuse of employees taking place at both interpersonal and institutional levels on the basis of cultural diversity. Narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with employees of a large research and development organization revealed three types of muted narratives used to respond to mistreatment (muted-but-engaged, angrily disengaged, and resigned) as well as one type of privileged response. The narratives provided evidence of two processes by which voices became muted: repeated silencing over time and silencing through ambiguity of policies.     

Application of systems analysis to depository library decision making regarding the use of new technology

This article, the first in a series of four, views the application of systems anal ysis and design as a method of problem solving for documents librarians. Par ticular emphasis is placed on the use of systems analysis as a major, first step in applying computer based technology to problem areas common to U.S. government publication collections. The specific problem areas amenable to the application of this methodology include (1) bibliographic control, (2) col lection development, (3) collection integration, and (4) improved documents reference service. The steps required for its application to these problem areas are described in sequential fashion, and are augumented by actual examples. Several sources of supplementary information are noted for further references.     

Effects of knowledge and display design on comprehension of complex graphics

In two experiments, participants made inferences from weather maps, before and after they received instruction about relevant meteorological principles. Different versions of the maps showed either task-relevant information alone, or both task-relevant and task-irrelevant information. Participants improved on the inference task after instruction, indicating that they could apply newly acquired declarative knowledge to make inferences from graphics. In Experiment 1, participants spent more time viewing task-relevant information and less time viewing task-irrelevant information after instruction, and in Experiment 2, the presence of task-irrelevant information impaired performance. These results show that domain knowledge can affect information selection and encoding from complex graphics as well as processes of interpreting and making inferences from the encoded information. They also provide validation of one principle for the design of effective graphical displays, namely that graphics should not display more information than is required for the task at hand.     

The textbook problem: Investigating one possible solution

This article explores the inherent problems for academic libraries in providing access to textbooks to students, the growing demand for such access by students, and presents the findings of a reserve pilot project conducted at a major Midwest university. Findings indicate the pros and cons of the pilot attempted as well as demonstrating the need for continued research and collaborative work with appropriate organizations on the campus and beyond.