Effects of consecutive days of match play on technical performance in tennis

Elite tennis is characterised by repeated bouts of up to 5-set match play, yet little is known about the technical requirements of shots played. This study therefore investigated technical performance changes over consecutive days of prolonged, simulated tennis match play. A total of 7 well-trained men tennis players performed 4 consecutive days of competitive 4-h match play. Matches were notated to determine between-day changes in groundstroke and serve performance, as well as point and match durations. Changes ≥75% likely to exceed the smallest important effect size (0.2) were considered meaningful and represented as effect size ± 90% confidence interval. Effective playing time reduced on days 3 and 4, alongside likely increases in “stretch” groundstrokes over the 4 days (mean effect size ± 90% confidence interval; 0.57 ± 0.38) and “stretch” backhand returns on days 2 and 3 (0.39 ± 0.54 and 0.67 ± 0.55). Relative unforced errors increased on day 4 (vs. day 2; 0.36 ± 0.22) and second-serve winning percentage reduced after day 1 (?0.47 ± 0.50). Further, a likely increase in emotional outbursts characterised day 3 (vs. day 2; 0.73 ± 0.57). Consecutive-day match play impairs hitting accuracy, stroke positioning and emotional responses; an understanding of which prepares players for elite-standard tennis tournament play.     

The Gender Mix Among Staff in Schools for Pupils with Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties and its Impact

Phil Goss has extensive experience as a practitioner and manager in schools for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties. In this article, he reports on his enquiries into the gender mix among staff in these schools. He finds that there are significantly more women than men working as teachers and in support roles in these specialist contexts. Phil Goss goes on to discuss the outcomes of his research into headteachers' perceptions of the impact of this gender imbalance. In concluding, he makes a series of proposals for future policy on recruitment and staff development, for teachers and teaching assistants. Phil Goss argues that we need to find ways to bring more men into this work.     

Student Loans: a Northern Ireland Perspective

The government's proposals for a student loans scheme has been inadequately thought-out and researched. Mr Baker's commitment to increase participation in higher education, and hence to increase the 'outflow' of much-needed graduates, may well be undermined by the proposed scheme. In particular, what has been missing in the debate on loans has been a regional perspective. Northern Ireland offers a useful example in that, despite being the most economically depressed region in the United Kingdom, recent participation rates have already come close to the rate Mr Baker is aiming for in other parts of the country.
We cannot predict the effect of the loans scheme on participation rates. However, in present circumstances and under present policies, our guess, based on extensive survey research, is that the proposed loans scheme will diminish participation rates, particularly among those Mr Baker has targeted for special attention. Secondly, the cost of the proposed scheme to the government will be much higher than envisaged. Regional evidence from Northern Ireland suggests that large numbers of graduates will take a long time to earn sufficient salaries to rise above the 85 per cent threshold, if, in fact, they ever do.     

Rats’ memory for serially presented flavors: Effects of interstimulus interval and generalization decrement

In four experiments, the effect of sequential exposure to a series of five novel flavors on the subsequent neophobic response of water-deprived rats to those flavors when they were presented simultaneously was examined. After a list-test interval of 30 min and a list-interstimulus interval of 10 sec, the rats generally consumed more of the first and last flavors presented in the initial sequence. This finding was taken to reflect the existence of primacy and recency effects. Experiment 1 provided evidence that successive contamination can occur between flavors in the initial list, making subsequent recognition of later flavors in the list more difficult. However, this effect was overcome by presentation of water between each flavor during the list exposure. Experiments 2 and 4 showed that primacy was not a necessary result of successive contamination in this procedure, by demonstrating that increasing the interstimulus interval between list items decreased the size of the primacy effect. This result suggests that rats’ memory for serially presented items may be controlled by mechanisms different from those typically implicated in the human verbal memory literature. In Experiment 3, the question of whether the testing procedure adopted here could have introduced sources of artifactually produced serialposition effects was explored, but no such influence was found.     

Stokingham Sixth Form College: Institutional culture and dispositions to learning

Learning is high on the political agenda for post-compulsory education and training in England. Official discourses about learning assume a predominantly individualist stance, despite the development of theoretical models that stress the contextual and situated nature of learning. In a study following 50 young people through further education over 4 years, it became apparent that the institutional culture of the colleges had a significant impact upon students' dispositions towards their learning. In this paper, we explore the nature and significance of this impact in a case-study sixth form college: an under-researched sector of educational provision. This is followed by a brief discussion of the implications of our analysis for issues of access, widening participation and inequality in relation to current proposals to reform age 16-19 educational provision in England. We conclude by identifying some of the questions about the fine-grained nature of that college culture that our data does not permit us to address directly.     

A Survey into Mainstream Teachers' Attitudes Towards the Inclusion of Children with Special Educational Needs in the Ordinary School in one Local Education Authority

Attitudes of mainstream teachers towards the inclusion of children with special needs in the ordinary school were surveyed soon after the release of the Green Paper. The survey was carried out in one Local Education Authority in the south-west of England and the sample comprised of 81 primary and secondary teachers. The analysis revealed that teachers who have been implementing inclusive programmes, and therefore have active experience of inclusion, possess more positive attitudes. Moreover, the data showed the importance of professional development in the formation of positive attitudes towards inclusion. In particular, teachers with university-based professional development appeared both to hold more positive attitudes and to be more confident in meeting the IEP requirements of students with SEN. The role that training at both pre-service and post-service levels has in the development of teachers' support for inclusion is discussed.     

Online peer review: perceptions in the biological sciences

An experiment in online peer review was carried out by the Royal Society, on the journal Proceedings: Biological Sciences. Authors were asked to provide Acrobat PDF files and uploaded them using a web interface. Referees were provided with a URL that gave access to the paper and entered their report into an online form. Almost 50% of the authors contacted used the online method and referees greeted the method with enthusiasm. Editorial staff found the online system easier than expected and were keen to continue its use.