Mentoring on a Programme for New University Teachers: A partnership in revitalizing and empowering collegiality

This paper evaluates the use of subject‐based collegial mentors in an initial teacher development programme for new lecturers in a research‐intensive UK university. The use of mentors is common in such programmes but their status tends to be that of critical friend and they have little formal influence in the programme. In the programme reported, departmental mentors were accorded a higher status as collegial partners and members of the programme team who also acted as formal assessors. The rationale for their enhanced involvement was to facilitate a genuine sense of ownership and responsibility by subject departments for the initial development of their new lecturers as university teachers. The evaluation study found that formalized mentoring engendered a strong sense of collegiality and ownership by disciplinary communities of practice in the process of initial teacher development. Some of the anticipated issues, such as the potential role conflict of mentor as guide and assessor, did not arise. The longer‐term development of the use of disciplinary mentoring in the programme is discussed.

Cet article évalue l’emploi de collègues‐mentors disciplinaires dans le cadre d’un programme de développement initial pour les enseignant‐es au sein d’une université de recherche située au Royaume‐Uni. L’emploi de mentors est chose commune dans le cadre de tels programmes; leur rôle tend cependant à être celui d’“ami critique”, ce qui leur accorde peu d’influence dans le cadre du programme. Dans ce cas‐ci, le mentors départementaux se sont vus accorder un statut supérieur, étant considérés comme partenaires‐collègues et membres de l’équipe du programme, devenant du coup des évaluateurs formels. Leur implication accrue visait à faciliter le développement d’un sentiment de propriété et de responsabilité par les départements disciplinaires relativement au développement initial en tant qu’enseignant‐e de leurs nouveaux membres. Cette recherche‐évaluation semble indiquer que le mentorat formalisé a engendré un fort sentiment de collégialité et de propriété par les communautés disciplinaires de pratique au sein du processus de développement initial des enseignants. Certains des problèmes anticipés, tels que le conflit potentiel causé par les rôles contradictoires de guide et d’évaluateur du mentor, ne se sont pas concrétisés. Le développement à long terme de l’emploi du mentorat disciplinaire au sein du programme est aussi abordé.     

The role of the entry-and-stretch phase at the different paces of race in front crawl swimming

The aim of this study was to determine the role played by the entry-and-stretch phase in the coordination of swimming, at the different paces of race. Three national level swimmers (two men and one woman) were recorded, in lateral and bottom views, in three swimming paces: sprint (50 m and 100 m), middle-distance (200 m and 400 m) and long-distance (800 m and 1500 m). Anatomical landmark positions were obtained by manual digitalisation of the videos. Computational fluid dynamics and experimental studies (with a strain gauge balance and particle image velocimetry method) were used to measure and to calculate the external forces applied to the hand and to the forearm and to visualise the flow around the profile. Entry-and-stretch is the phase which varies the most according to the swimming pace. This phase can be decomposed into two sub-phases: one, the extension forward coordinated with the insweep of the opposite arm, and another one, the rotation downward coordinated with the upsweep. Results show that, at the three paces, this phase is not propulsive and could contribute essentially to maintain the horizontal balance of the body.     

Scandinavian Approaches to Gender Equality in Academia: A Comparative Study

This study investigates how Denmark, Norway, and Sweden approach issues of gender equality in research differently. Based on a comparative document analysis of gender equality activities in six Scandinavian universities, together with an examination of the legislative and political frameworks surrounding these activities, the article provides new insights into the respective strategies for governing and promoting the advancement of women researchers. In doing so, it exposes some interesting disparities among the cases and shows how Norwegian and Swedish gender equality activities revolve around a broader span of different approaches than the Danish. The study draws upon existing knowledge on the efficacy and implementation success of diversity policy programmes to gain a more profound understanding of implications of these differences.     

Between-school variation in physical activity,aerobic fitness,and organized sports participation: A multi-level analysis

Abstract

A large proportion of a child's day is spent at school interacting with certain physical surroundings, teachers, and school friends. Thus, schools could have a marked impact on establishing physical activity habits. The aim of the present study was to assess between-school variation in physical activity, aerobic fitness, and organized sports participation. Altogether, we tested 1766 nine- and fifteen-year-old children attending 242 school classes at 35 different schools in Denmark in 1997–2003. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for objectively assessed physical activity ranged between 0.06 and 0.18 depending on the dimension of physical activity and the time considered (i.e. school time vs. leisure time). For aerobic fitness, an ICC of 0.10 was observed, whereas that for organized sports participation ranged between 0.01 and 0.10 depending on the age group. Studying between-school variation in physical activity provides information about the extent to which children adjust their physical activity habits according to the social and environmental circumstances that they share, and helps to plan future school-based physical activity studies, especially in terms of sample size and power calculation.     

Making learning effective – quantity and quality of pre-service teachers’ feedback

ABSTRACT

Feedback is an essential formative assessment practice that has the potential to influence student learning and achievement positively. Providing effective feedback, however, is a challenging task for teachers. Especially beginning teachers struggle with the provision of information that supports students in developing and improving their competences. Learning to provide feedback thus is an important aspect of teacher education. The present exploratory study investigates pre-service chemistry teachers’ practices regarding the judgement of students’ level of achievement and the provision of feedback in the context of the control-of-variables strategy. A sample of N?=?40 bachelor and master students at Kiel University judged students’ written artefacts and provided feedback with the aim to support students in their progression towards the learning goals. The quality of the feedback was coded with respect to its correct judgement of the students’ current levels of achievement and the support it provided regarding next steps in learning. The results show that only a few of the pre-service teachers could correctly judge students’ current levels of achievement and provide feedback that is expected to be effective. Overall, the findings indicate a need for more research in this field and a need for the implementation of formative assessment practices as a topic in pre-service teacher education.