Effects of environmental intervention on sedentary time,musculoskeletal comfort and work ability in office workers

Sit–stand workstations offer a potential strategy to reduce prolonged occupational sitting. This controlled intervention study examined the effects of an environmental intervention on occupational sedentary time, musculoskeletal comfort and work ability, and the usability of sit–stand workstations in office work via a self-reported questionnaire. The intervention group (n?=?24) used sit–stand workstations during the 6-month intervention period, and the control group (n?=?21) used traditional sitting workstations. The results showed that working at sit–stand workstations can reduce sitting time significantly compared to control workstations (?6.7% vs. 5.0%, p?=?.019), which is reallocated mostly to standing (r?=??0.719, p?p?=?.028), as well as work ability (p?=?.022). The majority of intervention subjects rated sit–stand workstation adjustability as good (83.3%), and 75.0% were satisfied with the workstation. About 41.7% of the intervention participants, who were exclusively female, used the sit–stand function on a daily basis. While the environmental change alone was effective, it is likely that promoting the daily use of sit–stand workstations with counselling would lead to even more substantial positive effects.     

Teaching effectiveness: Comparisons between traditional and nontraditional college students

This article compares traditional college students' perceptions of effective teaching behaviors with nontraditional students' perceptions. A 15-item questionnaire was completed by undergraduates at a small Southeastern university. Nontraditional students viewed personality and interaction behaviors as more indicative of effective teaching, whereas traditional students focused on behaviors that potentially would enhance grades. The implications of the findings are discussed in light of techniques and approaches that facilitate the needs of both types of students.His major areas of interest include testing and counseling. Nina Mattie, M.A. is a recent graduate of the University of West Florida in the area of school psychology. Stephen J. Vodanovich, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the psychology department at the University of West Florida. His major areas of interest are social psychology and industrial/organizational psychology. Chris Piotrowski, M.A. is a consultant in forensic psychology. His major areas of interest are personality assessment and online database searching.     

Correlation between academic and skills-based tests in computer networks

Computing‐related programmes and modules have many problems, especially related to large class sizes, large‐scale plagiarism, module franchising, and an increased requirement from students for increased amounts of hands‐on, practical work. This paper presents a practical computer networks module which uses a mixture of online examinations and a practical skills‐based test to assess student performance. For widespread adoption of practical assessments, there must be a level of checking that the practical assessments are set at a level that examinations are set at. This paper shows that it is possible to set practical tests so that there can be a strong correlation between practical skills‐based tests and examination‐type assessments, but only if the practical assessment are set at a challenging level. This tends to go against the proposition that students who are good academically are not so good in a practice test, and vice versa. The paper shows results which bands students in A, B, C, and FAIL groups based on two online, multiple‐choice tests, and then analyses the average time these students took to complete a practical online test. It shows that there is an increasing average time to complete the test for weaker students. Along with this, the paper shows that female students in the practical test outperform male students by a factor of 25%.     

Bureaucracies in Schools—Approaches to Support Measures in Swedish Schools Seen in the Light of Skrtic’s Theories

In Sweden, policy changes for provision of special support have been introduced, implying that teachers are obliged to provide and evaluate extra adaptations in regular classrooms prior to referring pupils to special support. The policy changes raise questions about school staffs’ views of support measures and of necessary professional competence for provision of the support measures. We conducted focus group interviews with 60 school staff representatives—headmasters, general education teachers, and special educators/school welfare teams—about their understandings of the new policy. The data were analyzed qualitatively, with the objective to explore school staffs’ approaches to the policy changes. Two main “ideal type approaches” were discerned, using Skrtic’s theories, viz. the bureaucracy approach and adhocracy approach. In the light of Skrtic’s theory, professionals’ reasoning about the new policy may reflect difficulties that are encountered in the process of implementing the policy in bureaucracy-steered schools.     

The exclusive language of science? Comparing knowledge gains and motivation in English-bilingual biology lessons between non-selected and preselected classes

The dominant role of English as the global language of science entails a requirement for science teachers to equip their non-native English-speaking students with receptive and productive language skills for communication in scientific contexts. Although science courses with English elements are part of some schools’ bilingual programmes, they are usually not available to a wider student audience, but are restricted to high achieving or highly motivated students. The present study was to test whether a newly developed biology content and language integrated learning (CLIL) unit could also benefit standard ninth grade classes. The learning gains and motivation of bilingually inexperienced students were compared to those of a preselected group and a comparison group that had been taught solely in their native language. All participating classes achieved similar gains in content knowledge, and the standard students rated their motivation for bilingual science lessons as positive, albeit not as high as the preselected group. We thus provide evidence against concerns that teaching non-selected students bilingually might lead to deficits in content knowledge acquisition. Following this, we conclude that scientific English should be a part of standard science lessons regardless of specific school programmes.