Physical literacy: Answering the call for quality education and sustainable development

PROSPECTS - This introductory article explores the concept of physical literacy. It begins by discussing the current defining aspects of physical literacy and provides a pragmatic solution for...     

Distance education via the Internet: the student experience

This is the second in a series of papers that describes the use of the Internet on a distance-taught undergraduate Computer Science course (Thomas et al ., 1998). This paper examines students' experience of a large-scale trial in which students were taught using electronic communication exclusively. The paper compares the constitution and experiences of a group of Internet students to those of conventional distance learning students on the same course. Learning styles, background questionnaires, and learning outcomes were used in the comparison of the two groups. The study reveals comparable learning outcomes with no discrimination in grade as the result of using different communication media. The student experience is reported, highlighting the main gains and issues of using the Internet as a communication medium in distance education. This paper also shows that using the Internet in this context can provide students with a worthwhile experience.     

The ‘Isle of Vice’? Youth,class and the post-war holiday on the Isle of Man

This article broadens our knowledge of post-war holidaymaking (c. 1950–80) by adopting the Isle of Man as a case study. A popular holiday resort from the late nineteenth century, the Isle of Man experienced considerable political turbulence during the 1950s and 1960s about how best to stay competitive as a seaside resort, where authorities employed uniquely stringent methods to contain rowdiness and protect the island’s ‘respectable’ atmosphere. The first two sections examine the leisure habits of the young and working class in a holiday context, integrating this analysis with perceptions of their behaviour gleaned from oral interviews with local residents. The concluding section explores how the presence of holidaymakers on the Isle of Man – uniquely among seaside resorts in the British Isles – informed (and in some cases emboldened) a sense of national identity. Oral history, complemented by the Hansard reports of the Isle of Man parliament and local press coverage, sheds light on the activities of the post-war working class at play, and how the presence of holidaymakers fortified Manx national consciousness.     

When it comes round to marking assignments: how to impress and how to ‘distress’ lecturers …

What do lecturers look for when marking essays? What impresses them and what frustrates them? In this paper, we present the results of a survey which asked lecturers to address these questions. Thirty‐two lecturers responded to an email survey in which they listed the problems they found most frustrating when marking essays and the factors which most impressed them. This resulted in 206 comments related to sources of frustration and 139 comments listing factors which impress them. The comments were then coded into themes and ranked in order of importance by 16 lecturers from the original sample. The results highlight a range of issues that may be useful for lecturers when discussing assignments, and instructive for students when writing their assignments.     

THE RELATIONSHIP OF PARENTING STYLES TO COMMITMENT TO THE CHURCH AMONG YOUNG ADULTS

A survey of 653 Seventh‐day Adventist young adults, randomly distributed throughout the United States and Canada, compared their perceptions of the way their parents treated them as children with their present commitment to the church. Warm, caring behaviors from parents predicted strong religious commitment when the children entered adulthood. In the case of the mother it also predicted regularity in worship attendance. Of the four styles of parenting, “affectionate constraint,” a mixture of care and control, produced the largest percentage of enthusiastic members and the fewest drop‐outs.     

Gathering and Preparing Wild Foods

Abstract

Tina's Journal . The Video Project, 5332 College Avenue, Suite 101, Oakland, CA 94618; tel. 800–475–2638; fax: 510–655–9115; E-mail: videoproject@videoproject.org; Internet: http://www.videoproject.prg/videoproject/. 1995. Color; 17 min. $65.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling.

Come Walk With Me . The Video Project, 5332 College Avenue, Suite 101, Oakland, CA 94618; tel. 800–475–2638; fax: 510–655–9115; E-mail: videoproject@videoproject.org; Internet: http://www.videoproject.prg/videoproject/. 1995. Color; 30 min. $59.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling.     

No Easy Answers: the dilemmas and challenges of teacher research

ABSTRACT

Our aim in this article is to analyse the research process developed in the ANTEC project (The Application of New Technology in Science Teaching) both by the university research team that promoted the project and the groups of teachers that participated in it. We attempt to provide answers to the following questions. Can we characterise the research carried out as being action research? Or should the process rather be considered as being ‘classroom case‐studies'? And lastly, supposing that teachers really did manage to write something resembling classroom case‐studies, what relation was observed between the action research process and the process in which the classroom case‐studies were produced? In order to answer these and other questions we delve into the history of the events that probably occurred during the 3 years that the project lasted – at least, that is, from our own point of view (the authors were themselves involved in the research team in their respective capacities of project director and research collaborator).     

Metacognitive analysis of pre-service teacher conception of Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) using blogs

Previous studies have sought to ascertain Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) conception in pre-service teachers. This exploratory study investigated the problems outlined in the literature surrounding the development of TGfU understanding among pre-service teachers (n = 44) of the curriculum instruction model. Blog postings were analysed over an eight-week period to identify the varying levels of student conception of TGfU using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy in order to ascertain whether there are specific aspects of TGfU conception that prevent learning of deeper concepts. The study found that students move through at least two SOLO levels of metacognitive development. For pre-service teachers, TGfU represents a challenge to their pedagogical paradigm. This may limit their understanding of TGfU when they perceive that it is not antithetical to their existing paradigm but rather it represents a balanced approach to achieving the goals of skill-based instruction.     

The Impact of Grey Literature in Advancing Global Karst Research: An Information Needs Assessment for a Globally Distributed Interdisciplinary Community

A survey of the global karst community was conducted in 2006. The survey was distributed via the World Wide Web to known karst researchers. The instrument was designed to generate an initial inventory of core grey information types, to assess levels of usage of grey information by the respondents, and to gauge the karst community’s willingness to participate in building and expanding both this collection and the associated controlled vocabularies.