All caught up in the kayfabe: understanding and appreciating pro-wrestling

ABSTRACT

Professional wrestling is a popular, global, performance phenomenon that is in many respects sport-like, but tends to be shunned by serious sports fans for its alleged ‘fakeness’. Yet its own fans often behave exactly like regular sports fans: getting caught up in the action, responding emotionally to the performances, and engaging in critical analysis of the competitive strategies and the turns of events. How does this alleged ‘fake sport’ engender such complex and deeply emotional appreciation? Here I provide an analysis of pro-wrestling that explains and emphasises its narrative, dramatic and fictional aspects, showing it to be a complex representational work that can be appreciated aesthetically and emotionally on a number of levels.     

Data in Motion: Sports as a site for expansive learning

ABSTRACT

Background and Context

Sports and technology are often pitted as being at odds with one another. While there are several educational activities that make reference to sports we seldom see sports used as an authentic context for learning computing.     

A professional development model to facilitate teacher adoption of interactive,immersive digital games for classroom learning

The benefits of using digital games in the curriculum are well documented in literature. Most teachers who use digital games use short-form drill-and-practice learning games rather than the kinds of games most students would choose to play in their free time. The use of more interactive, immersive digital games (IDGs) in classrooms tends to be sporadic, dependent upon the enthusiasm and ingenuity of individual teachers. Previous studies have indicated that many teachers have concerns about using digital games in classrooms and have difficulties knowing how to best use digital games. This qualitative study presents a professional development model for teachers that was inductively derived through analysing in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 13 educators who have used digital games in the classroom. Implementing this model can help teachers develop attitudes and skills necessary to meaningfully use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. Evidence suggests that a mentor should have a strong understanding of how to use digital games effectively in classrooms, work with small cohorts of teachers to collegially plan the use of digital games within a unit of class work, trial the unit of work with a small number of enthusiastic teachers, and then implement it with the remaining teachers. This approach is based on interviews with educators who have successfully mentored teachers in their schools to use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. These educators encountered little resistance from their teaching colleagues. Their approach further supported teachers who were open to the possibilities of using digital games in their classrooms.     

Supervisor Cultural Humility Predicts Intentional Nondisclosure by Post-Master's Counselors

The authors examined supervisor cultural humility as a predictor of supervisee intentional nondisclosure. Using multiple regression in a sample of 101 post-master's counselors, the authors found that 20% of supervisees' intentional nondisclosure was explained by their perceptions of their supervisors' level of cultural humility.     

准备好应用网络教育的明日教师（上）

全球网（www.World Wide Wde)对教育系统的潜在冲击几乎是无限的。然而，如果我们的教师不具备适当的应用网络的知识和技能，实现的冲击会比可能的要小。证据表明，我们的教师需要培训，以便能够有效利用强大的在线资源，培养我们的孩子在数字社会中自我发展的能力。本文的目的在于探讨基于网络的教学对教师教育计划的冲击。     

Elusive mandate: UNICEF and educational development

The United Nations Children's Fund has rapidly gained prominence as a UN agency promoting educational development. Detailed analysis is presented of UNICEF's transition from being a supplier of emergency goods and services, to a humanitarian role that has diversified to embrace development assistance and promoting the rights of children and women. How these have impacted on the development of UNICEF education is examined. Despite many institutional strengths, it is argued that the need for increased policy clarity in UNICEF education and for greater operational effectiveness remain central to any contemporary understanding of UNICEF's contribution to educational development.     

Use of Decontextualized Talk Across Story Contexts: How Oral Storytelling and Emergent Reading Can Scaffold Children's Development

This study examined 33 mothers' and preschoolers' oral language skills (decontextualized discourse) across an emergent reading, shared reading, and oral storytelling interaction. The sample comprised primarily African American families from various socioeconomic backgrounds, ranging from Head Start families to middle-income families. Two measures of decontextualized language were assessed—literate language features and type of talk (i.e., a coding scheme categorizing comments/questions on a continuum from contextualized to decontextualized talk). Mothers used more decontextualized language during the oral storytelling interaction versus the other interactions, but children used more during the emergent reading interaction. Mothers with advanced literacy skills were more likely to make decontextualized comments/questions and use mental/linguistic verbs during the interactions. Results are discussed in terms of implications for parent-child home literacy interventions.     

Linking Life and Literature in Early Childhood Settings

Using an example of a toddler’s developing understanding of an apple, this article illustrates how children integrate all elements in their interpersonal and built environments to support their emerging literacy skills. Otto (2007) and others provide evidence from emergent literacy research that documents observations and exploration by infants, toddlers, and young children and suggest that the ways in which children participate in early literature-related activities influence the knowledge they construct. Twenty-two children’s books—including five for apple discoverers—are recommended and reviewed.     

When is a Frog a Book or a Book a Frog?

During early childhood, children adopt a design-based conception of books with increasing consistency. It is not clear if or how young children spontaneously indentify the myriad of commercially produced, book-related props, toys, and other materials as support for their early literacy activities. Guidelines for evaluating these supplementary materials are presented and thirteen books are reviewed and recommended.