Teaching responsibility through sport education: prospects of a coalition

The purpose of this study was to provide a database analysis of a combined sport model and from this to develop a theory from practice. In particular, the original concern was to examine the extent to which the teaching of personal and social responsibility (TPSR) could form a coalition with the Sport Education model. Forty-five 6th-grade boys, who had a previous history of struggling with the fair play requirements of Sport Education, participated in a 26-lesson season of Xball, an invasion game designed by those students. As a general summary, it was found that some of the features of TPSR strengthened the foundation of Sport Education, but due to the need to introduce new tasks and problems for students, a hybrid model (Empowering Sport) was developed. This hybrid, with a predominately ecological integration perspective, presents a curriculum model that allows for achievement within a powerful triangle of goals--sport skill competence, social responsibility, and personal empowerment.     

Adverse Consequences of School Mobility for Children in Foster Care: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Few prospective studies have examined school mobility in children in foster care. This study described the school moves of 86 such children and 55 community comparison children (primarily Caucasian), living in a medium‐sized metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest who were approximately 3 to 6 years old at the study start. Additionally, the effects of moves from kindergarten through Grade 2 on academic and socioemotional competence in Grades 3 through 5 were examined. A greater number of early school moves was associated with poorer later socoemotional competence and partially mediated the effects of maltreatment and out‐of‐home placement on socioemotional competence. This was the case only for children with poorer early learning skills in kindergarten. Implications for preventive intervention are discussed.     

The Impact of Gender,Accommodations, and Disability on the Academic Performance of Canadian University Students with LD and/or ADHD

Academic accommodations for students experiencing disabilities are increasingly available at postsecondary institutions. More studies of the efficacy of accommodations for student success are warranted, however. Given the increased gender gap in university participation, more focus on the unique impact of gender is also needed. Using a sample of students registered with Access and Inclusion Services with learning disabilities (LD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and combined LD/ADHD at a Canadian undergraduate university (N = 661), we explored the impact of gender on academic performance and accommodation usage. Next, we examined how gender intersected with the impact of academic accommodations on academic performance. Women, on average, demonstrated better academic performance. Academic strategies and assistive technologies were not associated with higher academic performance. However, testing accommodations (extended time and environmental accommodations) were positively associated with academic performance for men with LD or ADHD, but not for the combined group LD/ADHD. For the former two, the more tests accommodated, the higher the academic performance. Furthermore, this gender association was most prominent for students experiencing ADHD. Interpretations and policy recommendations related to these findings are presented.     

Learning science from children's radio: Summative evaluation ofKinetic City Super Crew

The impact of four half-hour science programs aired on commercial radio was assessed in a causal-comparative between-groups study with prebroadcast and postbroadcast questionnaires. Of 253 fourth graders, 34% listened to one or more shows of the Kinetic City Super Crew series. Significantly more girls listened than boys. Listeners and Non-listeners did not differ on background variables of ethnic status, science attitudes, science reading and television viewing, and participation in seven of eight common at-home science activities. After broadcast, significant group differences, all favoring Listeners over Non-Listeners were obtained on five of twelve true-false statements and two of four science phenomena questions. Significantly more Listeners than Non-listeners engaged in home science activities, which included projects directly related to the series's content. The programs were not successful in affecting science attitudes or countering stereotypes. Overall, results were interpreted as suggesting the positive potential for using radio to expose children to science at an early age.This research was supported by the American Association for the Advancement of Science through a National Science Foundation Grant (MDR-9253374). Opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the National Science Foundation. The author would like to thank the Howard County administrators and students for participating in the study. She also thanks Dr. Ilona Holland, Barbara Nord and Debbie Slechta for coding data and Dr. Marcus Lieberman for statistical analysis. For reprints, contact Dr. Barbara Flagg, Multimedia Research, 33 Browns Lane, Bellport, NY, 11713.     

The scholarship of teaching and learning: A Special Niche for Faculty at Comprehensive Universities?

We investigated the involvement of faculty members at comprehensive universities in scholarship of teaching and learning publishing activities in four disciplines. Compared to to their publishing rates in research-oriented journals, comprehensive university faculty members were more involved in publishing articles and serving on editorial boards for pedagogical journals. Over the past three decades, the relative involvement in the scholarship of teaching and learning journals by faculty members at comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges has increased whereas participation by faculty members at research universities has declined.     

Stable individual differences on developmental tasks in young yellow-crowned parakeets,<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cyanoramphus auriceps</Emphasis>

We report on stable individual differences in young yellow-crowned parakeets across 38 tasks of cognitive development on three scales involving object permanence, means-end relations, and spatial relations. Stable performance ranks on blocks of tasks emerged after 13 weeks in two groups of sibling parakeets, one hand-reared and the other parent-reared. Examination of subject characteristics, such as hatch order, sex, general activity level, avoidances, latencies, social status, and errors, showed no significant correlations with these performance ranks. Characteristic individual approaches to unstructured play activities (from a fourth scale) were consistent with individual behavioral differences seen on the structured cognitive tasks.