Effects of health-related physical education on academic achievement: project SPARK.

The effects of a 2-year health-related school physical education program on standardized academic achievement scores was assessed in 759 children who completed Metropolitan Achievement Tests before and after the program. Schools were randomly assigned to condition: (a) Specialists taught the Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids curriculum; (b) classroom teachers were trained to implement the curriculum; and (c) controls continued their usual programs. The Trained Teacher condition was superior to Control on Language, Reading, and Basic Battery. The Specialist condition was superior to Control on Reading, but inferior on Language. Despite devoting twice as many minutes per week to physical education as Controls, the health-related physical education program did not interfere with academic achievement. Health-related physical education may have favorable effects on students' academic achievement.     

Manager communication and workplace trust: Understanding manager and employee perceptions in the e-world

Today's business environment is populated with individuals who are digitally connected to clients, contractors, managers, and employees. Traditionally, the ways and behaviors of managers had developed and thrived within face-to-face work environments, but as computer-mediated technologies continue to change the boundaries of the business community, permit alternative worksites to increase, and the traditional workday to disappear, the role of the manager has changed. This article focuses on the communication behaviors between managers and their employees, and how these behaviors have changed as digital communication methods have become mainstream within organizations today. The variables of interest are manager communication and workplace trust. The intended outcome is to uncover the expectations that have yet to be agreed upon within the manager–employee e-relationship.     

Bringing Science to Life Through Community-Based Watershed Education

Four elements of successful student-scientist partnerships (SSPs) have been identified through experience in a wide variety of educational settings. SSPs should: use an inquiry-based approach to education; be built around authentic, community-based investigations; let students be scientists; and allow scientists to be educators. Each element is discussed and illuminated with examples from case studies of watershed education programs that are based on an interdisciplinary, action-oriented watershed education model developed by the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN).     

A Model for Thinking About the Evaluation of Training

A model for thinking about training evaluation is proposed. The model consists of context and process factors on the one hand, and outcome factors on the other. Among context and process factors are basis of training, purpose of training, unit of productivity, data sources, kind of training, who is trained, and costs of training. Outcome factors include employee, customer, and corporate aspects. Assumptions of the model include a) that both corporatist and humanistic conceptions of training are to be viewed as valid, and b) that the term training is constrictive and probably should be replaced by the term education, which is more elastic. An impetus for the model is that work and workplaces are changing. How knowledge, skills, and orientations toward evaluation are utilized must be viewed somewhat more expansively than might have been appropriate under work conditions in “Tayloristic” times.     

Student-Created Curricular and Co-Curricular Pathways Toward Participation in a Diverse Democracy

This study explored the ways in which undergraduate students intentionally navigate complex curricular and co-curricular choices in preparation for engaging in a diverse democracy. Our study examined these choices among students at a university that lacks formal structures to facilitate these choices. Four curricular and co-curricular pathways that exemplify particular forms of the student experience across disciplines emerged and are discussed.     

Effects of feedback timing and motivational content on teachers' delivery of contingent social praise

This study examined the relative effects of feedback timing (delayed or immediate) and motivational content (goal-setting) on teachers' delivery of contingent social praise for on-task behavior. Two teachers of behaviorally disordered children and two youngsters from each class served as subjects. The study employed an adaptation of a single subject replication design. Teachers were exposed to four experimental conditions: baseline (no feedback), immediate feedback, delayed feedback, and delayed feedback plus goal-setting. These conditions were replicated either within or across teacher subjects. The results showed that all feedback tactics produced an increase in contingent social praise and student on-task behavior over baseline levels. However, the only statistically significant increases occurred when teachers were exposed to the delayed feedback plus goal-setting procedure.