Graduate Business Students Performance with Synchronous and Asynchronous Interaction e-Learning Methods

The effects of synchronous and asynchronous lectures and interaction formats were examined with graduate business students in on‐campus and off‐campus MBA programs. The dependent variables were scores on exams questions and learning styles and cognitive styles were used as covariates. The results indicated significant differences for discussion and lecture format and for on‐campus and off‐campus students. The results were discussed relative to learning in electronic environments.     

An in-depth appraisal of career termination experiences in professional cricket

This qualitative study explored the career termination experiences of 9 male, retired professional cricketers between the ages of 28 and 40 (mean value 34, s = 4.65 m). The participants took part in retrospective, semi-structured interviews. Data from the interviews were inductively content analysed within three transition phases of the retirement process: reasons for retirement, factors affecting adaptation and reactions to retirement. The reasons for retirement were multicausal with the majority of the participants highlighting contractual pressures and a lack of communication as important precursors to retirement. Three main themes accounted for the factors affecting adaptation: a limited pursuit of other interests, developmental experiences and coping strategies. In terms of reactions to retirement, all of the participants reflected negatively on the termination of their career, with a sense of loss and resentment characterising the post-retirement period. The findings illustrated the sport-specific nature of career termination in professional cricket and added further support to the emerging consensus that the distinction between voluntary and involuntary retirement is, at best, unclear.     

Computer support for the development of writing abilities

This paper discusses children's development of writing abilities and suggests ways in which children can be helped to develop their writing abilities by exploring the patterns, constraints and possibilities of language and by developing an awareness of the processes of written composition. The paper describes Boxes, a program to explore patterns in language and reports a small study of the program in use with children aged 9 to 10.     

Effect of acute ingestion of β-hydroxybutyrate salts on the response to graded exercise in trained cyclists

Acute ingestion of ketone salts induces nutritional ketosis by elevating β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB), but few studies have examined the metabolic effects of ingestion prior to exercise. Nineteen trained cyclists (12 male, 7 female) undertook graded exercise (8 min each at ～30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, and 80% VO_2peak) on a cycle ergometer on two occasions separated by either 7 or 14 days. Trials included ingestion of boluses of either (i) plain water (3.8?mL?kg?body mass^?1) (CON) or (ii) βHB salts (0.38?g?kg?body mass^?1) in plain water (3.8?mL?kg body mass^?1) (KET), at both 60 min and 15 min prior to exercise. During KET, plasma [βHB] increased to 0.33?±?0.16?mM prior to exercise and 0.44?±?0.15?mM at the end of exercise (both p?.05). Plasma glucose was 0.44?±?0.27?mM lower (p?.01) 30?min after ingestion of KET and remained ～0.2?mM lower throughout exercise compared to CON (p?.001). Respiratory exchange ratio (RER) was higher during KET compared to CON (p?.001) and 0.03–0.04 higher from 30%VO_2peak to 60%VO_2peak (all p?.05). No differences in plasma lactate, rate of perceived exertion, or gross or delta efficiency were observed between trials. Gastrointestinal symptoms were reported in 13 out of 19 participants during KET. Acute ingestion of βHB salts induces nutritional ketosis and alters the metabolic response to exercise in trained cyclists. Elevated RER during KET may be indicative of increased ketone body oxidation during exercise, but at the plasma βHB concentrations achieved, ingestion of βHB salts does not affect lactate appearance, perceived exertion, or muscular efficiency.     

Meaningful Mathematics: A Social-Justice-Themed-Introductory Statistics Course

Abstract

As an interdisciplinary team, we set out to create an applied statistics course that would cover the traditional introductory statistics topics in a consistent framework of social justice. The goal was to motivate students to understand and learn math while deepening their understanding of the interplay, at local and global levels, between social and economic issues: for example, crime, victimization, political access, wealth, education, health, gender, and race. This paper describes the process of creating the course, the pedagogical decisions, the intentionality in topic presentation, samples of classwork, and student impressions of the semester-long course.     

‘You don’t want to stand out as the bigger one’: exploring how PE and school sport participation is influenced by pupils and their peers

Background: Population health concerns related to physical inactivity and obesity appear in policy documents, government campaigns and popular media across western societies. Children and young people have been targeted for physical activity promotion and schools have been positioned as sites for intervention. In particular, Physical Education and school sport (PESS) has been framed as a key part of the solution. While some interventionist programmes in schools have reported positive outcomes, they have also been criticised for stigmatising fatness, contributing to a culture of surveillance and fuelling body image anxieties. Despite ongoing work to ameliorate these critical issues by addressing physical activity promotion discourses, curricula and teaching practices many of the same challenges persist. In seeking alternative explanations (and solutions) this paper shifts attention to exploring the role of pupils and their peers.

Purpose: While the critical literature on health and physical education has been illuminating, few studies explore the role of pupils and their peers. Further research is necessary to understand how school peers contribute to pupils’ engagement with PESS. This paper, therefore, draws on Bourdieu’s notion of physical capital and seeks to understand how pupils’ physical activity is influenced by lived-body experiences in school spaces.

The study: Data were produced from a 6-month bricolage-based study with pupils (N?=?29, aged 13–14) across four diverse school settings in England. Multiple qualitative methods were deployed to enhance methodological rigour with what is often a challenging age group for research. Data were interpreted and theorised using the concept of physical capital.

Findings: Pupils themselves play a significant part in establishing the physical body as a symbol of power and status in school settings. Participants understood the health risks of being both underweight and obese, but they regarded obesity as being more problematic because of the immediate social risks of ‘standing out as the bigger one’. Following this rationale, participants sought to accumulate physical capital through engaging in exercise as a purposeful calorie-burning activity intended to avoid the pity, abnormality and derision which is expected to be directed towards overweight pupils. Furthermore, during PESS in clear view of peers, distinctions between pupils’ physical capital could be made by recognising differences in sporting skill. In this context, physical capital mediated engagement in PESS in various ways.

Conclusion: This study has revealed that peers play a significant part in constructing the lived-body experiences of young people. In order to address the criticisms raised about some school-based health promotion interventions, it is crucial to attend to pupils’ relationships with peers as well as addressing policies, curricula and teaching practices. Being sensitive to peer relationships and their understanding of health may help teachers and health promoters decide how to manage the spaces where PESS takes place.     

Socialisation,culture and the foundations of expertise in elite level Indigenous Australian sportsmen

This article reports on an ongoing study that investigates the development of expertise in rugby league and Australian football by Indigenous Australians as a socially and culturally situated process of learning. Focused on the sampling phase of the Development Model of Participation in Sport (6–12 years of age), it combines narrative inquiry and grounded theory methodologies to identify the important role that participation in a range of different sports and in informal games plays in the participants’ development of expertise, as a process of socialisation.     

Participation and provision in arts & culture – bridging the divide

ABSTRACT

Successive policies and efforts to increase participation in a range of arts and cultural activities have tended to focus on the profile and attitude of individuals and target groups in order justify public – and therefore achieve more equitable – funding. Rationales for such intervention generally reflect the policy and political regime operating in different eras, but widening participation, increasing access and making the subsidised arts more inclusive have been perennial concerns. On the other hand, culture has also been the subject of a supply-led approach to facility provision, whether local amenity-based (“Every Town Should Have One” – Lane, 1979. Arts centres – every town should have one. London: Paul Elek), civic centre or flagship, and this has also mirrored periodic growth in investment through various capital for the arts, municipal expansion, urban regeneration, European regional development and lottery programmes. Research into participation has consequently taken a macro, sociological, “class distinction” approach, including longitudinal national surveys such as Taking Part, Target Group Index, Active People and Time Use Surveys, whilst actual provision is dealt with at the micro, amenity level in terms of its impact and catchment. This article therefore considers how this situation has evolved and the implications for cultural policy, planning and research by critiquing successive surveys of arts attendance and participation and associated arts policy initiatives, including the importance of local facilities such as arts centres, cinemas and libraries. A focus on cultural mapping approaches to accessible cultural amenities reveals important evidence for bridging the divide between cultural participation and provision.     

From Dual-mode to Flexible Delivery; Paradoxical Transitions in Australian Open and Distance Education

Distance education has been a fundamental element of Australian education from early in the 20th century. The prevailing practice in higher education has been to have dual-mode organizations. This has led to some paradoxes unfolding in the recent history of Australian distance education that are grounded in the history and politics of the development of educational institutions and systems. Dual-mode institutions developed in Australia only partly because they suited the geographical and demographic circumstances of a new and developing nation. Rather, distance education often was added as a means of supporting the viability of small, on-campus institutions that had been established for party political expediency in favored rural towns. Attempts by governments in recent years to “rationalize” distance education provision have produced a paradoxical position where “distance education” and “dual-mode” are less frequently used terms, and yet the practices and systems embedded in both terms have flourished under the guise of “flexible delivery.” “Flexible delivery” brings with it some new connotations and practices that reflect the domination of economic rationalist ideologies.