One Teacher Trainer's Perspective on a Sample of Academic Educational Research Papers

In this study a teacher trainer analyses 56 papers from the journal Educational Studies and, applying specific criteria, determines the extent to which their content can be said to have applications to and implications for educational practice. Section 1 of the study explores the general context of the sample papers. Findings here show that in this set of papers the academic research is conducted and written almost exclusively by staff within Schools of Education in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs); that the authorship includes a higher proportion of males than females; that research style is mainly empirical and that gender may play a role in the research style itself; and, significantly for this study, that the titles of these papers, when considered exclusively, imply a close association with the classroom context. In Section 2, a systematic scrutiny of the content of a sub-sample of the papers reveals a significant trend of potential, as opposed to actual relevance to educational policy and practice—at variance with the findings for the study of their titles alone in Section 1. Additional findings are that there is little evidence in the papers of direct collaboration between HEIs and schools. Finally, Section 3 contains the author's personal reflections on communication of the research message within the sample and ways are suggested in which the writing in academic journals generally might be made 'barrier-free' to the wider educational community. Concluding comments tend to be made as appropriate within the body of the paper at the point of discussion. The main conclusion briefly considers the role of Initial Teacher Training tutors in Higher Education, and the issue of monitoring language and communication style in academic research.     

Young Children's Spatial Representations Developed through Exploration of a Desktop Virtual Reality Scene

Virtual Reality (VR) technology seems to offer the opportunity of designing 3D worlds and navigation activities which provide settings that are close to children's everyday experiences, capitalising on their enthusiasm for videogame-like technologies.This paper describes how different types of exploration of a VR scene by 6[emsp4 ]y-old children affected their performance in a series of spatial tasks. Individual children explored a desktop virtual world where we varied both the visual perspective on the VR scene (route vs. survey view) and the level of exploration control (active vs. passive movement). We measured children's knowledge of the spatial layout of the environment through their memory of objects' location in the virtual scene and through the analysis of their wayfinding abilities within the scene.The results indicate that children were able to develop and display different levels of allocentric knowledge about the virtual world depending on the way they had familiarized with it and on the characteristics of the task demands. This finding contributes to inform the design of VR technologies aimed at supporting or evaluating spatial abilities in children of this age.     

Psychometric properties of child- and teacher-reported curl-up scores in children ages 10-12 years

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of child- and teacher-reported curl-up (CU) scores in children ages 10-12 years in both a norm-referenced (NR) and criterion-referenced (CR) framework. Eighty-four children, 36 boys and 48 girls, performed the FITNESSGRAM (Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, 1992) CU test on 2 days separated by 48-72 hr. Two video cameras were used to record students' CU performances. Two students performed the CU at the same time, with each child's performance recorded by one camera. The test was terminated when the child stopped due to fatigue or after two form errors occurred. Teacher-reported scores were the average of two independent ratings of each video performance, while child-reported scores came from data collected and recorded by the children. Single trial norm-referenced reliability was R = .75 for girls and R = .80 for boys for teacher-reported CU and R = .69 and R = .70 for child-reported CU for girls and boys, respectively. CR reliability was examined using P, proportion of students who consistently passed or failed the test across 2 days, and km, defined as reliability with chance removed. For teacher-reported scores, P = .89 and km = .78 for boys and P = .81 and km = .62 for girls. For child-reported scores, P = .86 and km = .72 for boys, while P = .79 and km = .58 for girls. For teacher-reported data, 39% of boys passed and 50% failed the test on both days, while for girls the percentages were 27% pass and 54% fail. For child-reported data, 64% of boys passed and 22% failed on both days, while 54% of girls passed and 25% failed. NR validity was examined by correlating teacher and child-reported scores. The resultant coefficient was r = .42 (95% CI = .11-.66) for boys and r = .67 (95% CI = .58-.74) for girls. Additionally, child-reported scores were significantly higher than teacher-reported scores. CR validity was examined with a contingency coefficient, and results indicated C = .55 with 44% false master errors for boys and C = .65 with 29% false master errors for girls. The findings of this study suggest that while NR reliability estimates were moderate for teacher-reported scores, single trial estimates suggest that child-reported CU should be viewed with caution. In regard to CR reliability, both teacher-reported and child-reported reliability were moderate. However, there were marked differences between teacher- and child-reported scores, with children reporting higher percentages of students passing and lower percentage of student failing the test when compared with scores reported by teachers. Validity was rather moderate when viewed in either a NR and CR framework. It is suggested that problems with child-reported scores may be due to the need for additional practice or simplification of the testing protocol.     

Familial aggregation of aerobic power: the influence of age, physical activity, and body mass index

Whereas modest familial aggregation of VO2max has been documented after controlling for variables such as physical activity habits, the effect of adjustment for moderating variables has not been directly tested. This issue was addressed in 95 Anglo and 111 Mexican-American families who underwent submaximal cycle ergometer testing. Zero-order correlations of predicted VO2max between pairs of family members were generally weak for both Anglo families (r = 0.04 to 0.35) and Mexican-American families (r = 0.03 to 0.50). Five of 12 correlations were significant. Similar results were found for combined ethnic groups. Adjustment for age, physical activity, and body mass index by partial correlation had few significant effects on aggregation of predicted VO2max. Adjustment for body mass index produced significant decreases in the correlation for Anglo spouses and mother-older child and sibling pairs in the combined group. Although influential moderating variables were not identified, body mass index was found to be a significant, though inconsistent, mediator of aggregation of VO2max. Genetic factors were not strongly supported because of generally weak aggregation in the two ethnic groups.