Teachers’ experiences with co-teaching as a model for inclusive education

Co-teaching is an instructional strategy that can be implemented by educators in several different ways. This paper considers how frequently co-teachers implement different approaches to co-teaching and what factors are associated with the implementation of these approaches. This study found that teachers most frequently reported implementing an approach to co-teaching in which one teacher designs and delivers a lesson and the other teacher provides individualised support to specific students with disabilities. The approach to co-teaching in which educators co-plan and co-instruct different components of the curricular content occurred the least frequently. The results of logistic regression analyses indicated that structural aspects of co-teaching (multiple years with co-teacher, time spent daily with co-teacher, number of current co-teachers), teacher attitudes, and professional development opportunities (pre-service and in-service) were associated with the use of different approaches to co-teaching.     

Constitutional demands for different playing positions in female team handball

Constitutional factors are relevant for outstanding performance in team handball. Only a few studies focus on female players, and positional specialization is likely to be necessary regarding constitutional demands. Therefore, the current study will research constitutional aspects concerning the different playing positions in female team handball with respect to the association between specialization and success. For this purpose, 654 female players from German clubs at all performance levels were tested regarding age, body height, body weight and body fat percentage in addition biographical data with respect to their handball career. These findings make it possible to calculate an expertise index stating the success of every player. Specialization can be quantified by applying a suitable formula to the data. After statistical analysis it is evident that there are significant differences between the positions regarding constitutional factors (e.?g., body height with p < 0.001, wing players being the smallest players). Expertise correlates with different constitutional performance factors for each position, e.?g. body height in goalkeepers (correlation coefficient 0.301). While specialization correlates positively with expertise regarding particular constitutional performance factors on some positions, e.?g. body height for half backs and goalkeepers (0.392; 0.306), it correlates negatively regarding the percentage of body fat for half backs (?0.267) and body weight for centre backs (?0.389). Consequently, position specialization is most probably contributing to success in female team handball.     

The student advisory committee: Program evaluation that develops students

A student advisory committee was formed to complement program evaluation for an open learning center. The center's staff found that the student committee members not only gave valuable feedback about instruction and services but also served as excellent problem-solvers. As a result of this committee, the center improved its evaluation process, the staff gained insight into problems from the student's perspective, and, most important, the students were given an opportunity to develop themselves.Girard Weber holds an MA degree in Educational Measurement and Statistics from the University of Iowa and MA in Linguistics and English Literature from Northern Illinois University. His chief research interests are in assessment, and retention, especially of nontraditional students.Steven Prater holds a Masters of Education in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He is currently Counselor for the Open Learning Center of John Wood Community College. He has worked as a counselor for nine years and has been a staff sponsor and mentor for nontraditional students and student groups.     

Projekt Chablis – Abrechnungs- und Zahlungskonzepte für Dienstleistungen digitaler Bibliotheken

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Views from the blackboard: neoliberal education reforms and the practice of teaching in Ontario,Canada

This article discusses findings from two case studies examining the impact of neoliberal education reform on the classroom practice of teachers and adult educators in Ontario, Canada. We asked educators to comment on the impacts of 20 years of policy shifts in their classrooms. Teachers in public schools and adult literacy programmes echoed each other on issues of managerialism, privatisation and punitive accountability mechanisms. Both schoolteachers and adult educators made references to a reduction in autonomy and to an emerging ‘culture of fear’ in educational institutions and programmes. The experience of teachers highlights contradictions between the promises of neoliberalism and the ground-level impact of policy.     

Physical Education Teacher Role Identification Instrument

Abstract

A teacher competency questionnaire consisting of 89 statements was designed to elicit responses on the degree of importance assigned to various professional competencies that a female teacher of high school physical education might be expected to possess. The questionnaire's content validity was established by a detailed review of the appropriateness and inclusiveness of the statements in light of related literature and by an examination of the instrument by a panel of competent judges. Test-retest reliability was determined by field-testing the instrument on a group of subjects that included both undergraduate physical education major students and their faculty. Pearson product moment correlations of test-retest scores for each subject yielded a reliability coefficient of .99. The questionnaire may prove useful in identifying the role of the female high school physical education teacher and in determining the role expectations held for her by various groups of university and public school personnel involved in the teacher education process.     

Personality Traits of Women in Team Sports vs. Women in Individual Sports

Abstract

The problem under investigation was to determine if were distinguishing personality traits when women who compete in team sports were compared to women who compete in individual sports. The subjects were chosen from a selected group of 156 women AAU athletes and the 1964 United States Olympic team. Those women who agreed to take part in the study were sent a copy of Form A of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, which was the instrument used to measure selected personality factors. Differences between groups were analyzed by means of the t test.

The results indicated that women athletes who compete in individual sports rated higher on the personality factors of dominance, adventurousness, sensitivity, introversion, radicalism, and self-sufficiency and lower on the factor of sophistication when compared to women athletes who compete in team sports. No differences were found in the factors of sociability, intelligence, stability, surgency, conscientiousness, suspecting, guilt-proneness, high self-sentiment, or high ergic tension.