Action Research Experiences for Scholarly Practitioners in an Online Education Doctorate Program: Design,Reality, and Lessons Learned

The purpose of this paper is to present the design and techniques used by the Educational Technology program at the University of South Carolina to prepare scholarly practitioners with action research methods in an online doctoral program. With an emphasis on students’ local contexts, we will describe the design of experiences and our lessons learned. This paper could aid higher education faculty, administrators, and educators that train scholarly practitioners who engage in scholarship to improve practice.     

Sexual abuse among female high school students in Istanbul, Turkey

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of sexual abuse in female adolescents in Istanbul, Turkey from data collected as part of a school-based population study on health and health behaviors. METHOD: A stratified cluster sampling procedure was used for this cross-sectional study. The study sample included 1,955 randomly selected 9th through 11th grade female students attending 26 randomly-selected high schools in Istanbul. A self-report questionnaire was administered anonymously in the classroom. Information on sexual abuse history was collected through the questions investigating "touching" and "intercourse." RESULTS: Of 1,955 female students, 1,871 (95.7%) provided answers to the questions addressing unwanted sexual experience. Of these, 250 (13.4%) reported sexually abusive experiences. Two hundred and thirteen (11.3%) students reported that someone touched their private parts in a way they did not like; 91 (4.9%) reported they were forced to have sexual intercourse; 54 (3.0%) reported both types of sexual abuse. Incest was reported by 1.8% of the subjects. Ninety-three percent of the perpetrators were reported to be male. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first reported school-based study to determine the prevalence of sexual abuse in Turkey. The results show that at least 13.4% of female high school students disclosed having experienced sexual abuse during childhood.     

苏丹中部北杰济拉省含水层的水化学特征

对苏丹中部的北杰济拉(Gezira)省地下水的水化学特征进行了评价，评价方法包括地下水主要离子浓度的监测分析及矿化度、钠离子、重碳酸根离子和氯离子浓度等值线图的绘制．对每个含水层的的水化学特征及其地下水的管理问题进行了深入讨论，并对地下水的适用性进行了详细分析．在含水层上部存在的化学成分含量较高及碳酸钙的存在，是蒸发作用和渗入量增加的结果．     

Encountering the past in the present: An exploratory study of educational heritage tourism

This article presents an educational programme designed to explore the multicultural history of Poland. Targeting Jewish and non-Jewish students of Polish heritage, the Polonia Programme (PP) was conceptualised with the aim of applying the tools of experiential education to initiate a new approach to examining one of the world’s most challenging and fraught historical narratives. The programme, piloted in the summer of 2014, takes two groups of young people from the United States to Poland each year. It features a combination of formal lectures and interactive tours, complemented by structured and semi-structured discussions. The destination of this particular tour, with these particular participants, both challenges and reinforces accepted notions of “heritage tourism” within an experiential educational framework. This framework enables a sense of group connectivity which allows students to be, perhaps, more open to alternative narratives about the past. The authors of this article, who were involved in evaluating the pilot launch of the Polonia Programme, found that the programme’s experiential approach succeeded in encouraging participants in the pilot cohort to challenge ideas about their definitions of and preconceptions about “who and what counts as Polish”. For many, the experience shifted their understanding of Poland towards one which took its multi-ethnic and multicultural history into account. Several discovered new perspectives on their own identity and heritage, while others reached a new understanding of the shared histories of Poles and Jews. The experiential nature of this programme also allowed students to encounter difficult histories: experience, then, became a vehicle for more challenging conversations and deeper learning.     

Acclimatization to altitude and normoxic training improve 400-m running performance at sea level

To investigate the benefits of ‘living high and training low' on anaerobic performance at sea level, eight 400-m runners lived for 10 days in normobaric hypoxia in an altitude house (oxygen content = 15.8%) and trained outdoors in ambient normoxia at sea level. A maximal anaerobic running test and 400-m race were performed before and within 1 week of living in the altitude house to determine the maximum speed and the speeds at different submaximal blood lactate concentrations (3, 5, 7, 10 and 13 mmol· l-1) and 400-m race time. At the same time, ten 400-m runners lived and trained at sea level and were subjected to identical test procedures. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the altitude house group but not the sea-level group improved their 400-m race time during the experimental period (P ? 0.05). The speeds at blood lactate concentrations of 5–13 mmol· l-1 tended to increase in the altitude house group but the response was significant only at 5 and 7 mmol·l-1 (P ? 0.05). Furthermore, resting blood pH was increased in six of the eight altitude house athletes from 0.003 to 0.067 pH unit (P ? 0.05). The results of this study demonstrate improved 400-m performance after 10 days of living in normobaric hypoxia and training at sea level. Furthermore, the present study provides evidence that changes in the acid–base balance and lactate metabolism might be responsible for the improvement in sprint performance.     

Comparison of maximal anaerobic running tests on a treadmill and track

To develop a track version of the maximal anaerobic running test, 10 sprint runners and 12 distance runners performed the test on a treadmill and on a track. The treadmill test consisted of incremental 20-s runs with a 100-s recovery between the runs. On the track, 20-s runs were replaced by 150-m runs. To determine the blood lactate versus running velocity curve, fingertip blood samples were taken for analysis of blood lactate concentration at rest and after each run. For both the treadmill and track protocols, maximal running velocity (v max), the velocities associated with blood lactate concentrations of 10 mmol x l-1 (v10 mM) and 5 mmol x l(-1) (v5 mM), and the peak blood lactate concentration were determined. The results of both protocols were compared with the seasonal best 400-m runs for the sprint runners and seasonal best 1000-m time-trials for the distance runners. Maximal running velocity was significantly higher on the track (7.57 +/- 0.79 m x s(-1)) than on the treadmill (7.13 +/- 0.75 m x s(-1)), and sprint runners had significantly higher vmax, v10 mM, and peak blood lactate concentration than distance runners (P < 0.05). The Pearson product--moment correlation coefficients between the variables for the track and treadmill protocols were 0.96 (v max), 0.82 (v10 mM), 0.70 (v5 mM), and 0.78 (peak blood lactate concentration) (P < 0.05). In sprint runners, the velocity of the seasonal best 400-m run correlated positively with vmax in the treadmill (r = 0.90, P < 0.001) and track protocols (r = 0.92, P < 0.001). In distance runners, a positive correlation was observed between the velocity of the 1000-m time-trial and vmax in the treadmill (r = 0.70, P < 0.01) and track protocols (r = 0.63, P < 0.05). It is apparent that the results from the track protocol are related to, and in agreement with, the results of the treadmill protocol. In conclusion, the track version of the maximal anaerobic running test is a valid means of measuring different determinants of sprint running performance.     

Four Decades of Finnish Educational Sociology

This section focuses on educational sociology and social pedagogy, two designations mirroring somewhat different perspectives on very much the same reality. The first article presents Finnish Educational sociology from the 1950s to the 1990s and is based on doctoral dissertations and other significant or typical studies in the field. The author argues that empirical research originated during the 1950s and the early 1960s. A typical theme of early research emphasized the school class as a miniature society. In initial studies on the activities and social participation of youth, society itself was already dealt with as a structural entity. In the 1970s, when the Finnish comprehensive‐education system was built, educational policy and the socialization process were the major themes. Then, in the 1980s, the march towards diversification and the development of a range of educational sociologies started. Finally, the expansion of evaluation research was realized in the context of the deep Finnish economic depression of the early 1990s. The lesson here is very sociological: the social context does matter. The second article focuses on development of theory and research related to social pedagogy in Norway, a ‘new’ Norwegian subfield within the discipline of education which was bom almost three decades ago. It is marked by some influential intellectual patterns 1970s from the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. In the discourse on social pedagogy in Norway the reception and utilization of inspirations from the Norwegian positivism debate, the new sociology of education and post‐positivist social theory were the main academic sources of development which motivated normative and empirical research on a number of new themes. The author argues that the subfield of social pedagogy has led to a renewed understanding of the role of normative theory within education as an academic field of knowledge, to a broad acceptance of the possibilities of qualitative research strategies, and a new emphasis on integrative research efforts; but at the same time this engagement has reduced the outcome of a unique contribution to a thorough reconstruction of educational research and scholarship.     

Applications,MATLAB and linear algebra as a unifying vehicle for the engineering-oriented syllabus

The paper considers the negative effects of the degeneration of the mathematics syllabus for engineering-oriented students into a collection of unconnected recipes, and presents a modernization of a linear algebra course to serve as a tool for the unification of the syllabus into a single transparent picture. The modernization is centred on the use of operator language as enabled by the incorporation of MATLAB-based applications into the theoretical part of the course.