Extended metaphors for pedagogy: using sameness and difference

This article looks at the use of extended metaphor in teaching. Our case studies as two teachers using metaphor in different settings show how metaphor is experienced by learners to different pedagogical effect. The article demonstrates that metaphor can be used not only for the similarity between vehicle and target systems, but also for the difference. In the subject of electronics, extended metaphor (water, waves and webs) scaffolds learning by merit of the similarity of the vehicle system to the target. However, when teaching doctoral students to improve their writing skills, extended metaphor exploits the difference between vehicle and target. In this case the frustration of academic challenge is defused by using metaphors that are homely and ordinary in contrast to the formal academic genre of thesis writing. Our experience in using metaphors to teach provides support for the theory that they may be monistic (forgotten once they have fulfilled the pedagogical scaffolding task) or dualistic (remembered because both systems remain in play). The article prompts other higher education teachers to more consciously consider the potential of metaphor as a pedagogical aid.     

Fatigue decreases skilled tennis performance

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of fatigue from maximal tennis hitting on skilled tennis performance. Eighteen senior county tennis players (9 males, 9 females) volunteered to participate in the study. Their mean ( - s x -macron ) age and body mass were as follows: males 20.7 - 0.9 years and 60.6 - 2.7 kg respectively, females 21.7 - 0.6 years and 71.5 - 1.8 kg respectively. The players undertook two performance tests, both against a tennis ball serving machine, on an indoor tennis surface: (1) a pre- and post-skill test of groundstrokes and service; (2) the Loughborough Intermittent Tennis Test (4 min work plus 40 s recovery) to volitional fatigue. Body mass decreased by 1.5% ( P ? 0.0001). Mean heart rates differed between rest, post-warm-up and all intermittent test values ( P ? 0.01), between the pre- and post-skill tests ( P ? 0.0001) and between bouts and recoveries ( P ? 0.01). Peak blood glucose and lactate concentrations were 5.9 mmol· l -1 (50% into the intermittent tennis test) and 9.6 - 0.9 mmol· l -1 (25% into the test) respectively. Mean time to volitional fatigue was 35.4 - 4.6 min. Groundstroke hitting accuracy decreased by 69% from start to volitional fatigue in the intermittent test ( P ? 0.01). Service accuracy to the right court declined by 30% after the intermittent tennis test. The results of this study suggest that fatigue was accompanied by a decline in some but not all tennis skills.     

Repeatability of three-dimensional thorax and pelvis kinematics in the golf swing measured using a field-based motion capture system

Field-based methods of evaluating three-dimensional (3D) swing kinematics offer coaches and researchers the opportunity to assess golfers in context-specific environments. The purpose of this study was to establish the inter-trial, between-tester, between-location, and between-day repeatability of thorax and pelvis kinematics during the downswing using an electromagnetic motion capture system. Two experienced testers measured swing kinematics in 20 golfers (handicap < or =14 strokes) on consecutive days in an indoor and outdoor location. Participants performed five swings with each of two clubs (five-iron and driver) at each test condition. Repeatability of 3D kinematic data was evaluated by computing the coefficient of multiple determination (CMD) and the systematic error (SE). With the exception of pelvis forward bend for between-day and between-tester conditions, CMDs exceeded 0.854 for all variables, indicating high levels of overall waveform repeatability across conditions. When repeatability was compared across conditions using MANOVA, the lowest CMDs and highest SEs were found for the between-tester and between-day conditions. The highest CMDs were for the inter-trial and between-location conditions. The absence of significant differences in CMDs between these two conditions supports this method of analysing pelvis and thorax kinematics in different environmental settings without unduly affecting repeatability.     

It is only an intervention,but it can sow very fertile seeds: graduate physical education teachers’ interpretations of critical pedagogy

The role that school health and physical education (HPE) plays in the making of physically active and healthy citizens continues to be rearticulated within the field of HPE practice. In Australasia, for example, this is evident in HPE curricula changes that now span almost two decades with ongoing advocacy for greater recognition of socially critical perspectives of physical activity and health. This paper reports on one part of a larger collaborative project that focused on how HPE teachers understand and enact socially critical perspectives in their practice. The paper draws on interview data obtained from 20 secondary school HPE teachers, all of whom graduated from the same physical education teacher education (PETE) programme in New Zealand, a programme that espouses a socially critical orientation. The teaching experience of the study participants ranged from 1 to 22 years of service. The preliminary analysis involved deduction of common themes in relation to the research questions and then, drawing on the theoretical framework of Bourdieu [1990. The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press], these themes were analysed in more detail to gain insight into how and why the graduate teachers’ expressed their particular understanding of HPE and critical pedagogy. The findings suggested that this PETE programme did have some impact on the participant teachers’ perceptions of physical activity and health, and the role of socially critical thinking. However, there was also evidence to suggest that many of them did not have a clear understanding of the transformative agenda of critical pedagogy. We conclude by suggesting that although this PETE programme did plant ‘seeds’ that had an impact on the graduate teachers’ awareness and thinking about socially critical issues in relation to physical activity and health, it did not necessarily turn them into critical pedagogues.     

Variability in measurement of swimming forces: a meta-analysis of passive and active drag

An analysis was conducted to identify sources of true and error variance in measuring swimming drag force to draw valid conclusions about performance factor effects. Passive drag studies were grouped according to methodological differences: tow line in pool, tow line in flume, and carriage in tow tank. Active drag studies were grouped according to the theoretical basis: added and/or subtracted drag (AAS), added drag with equal power assumption (AAE), and no added drag (ANA). Data from 36 studies were examined using frequency distributions and meta-analytic procedures. It was concluded that two active methods (AAE and ANA) had sources of systematic error and that one active method (AAS) measured an effect that was different from that measured by passive methods. Consistency in drag coefficient (Cd) values across all three passive methods made it possible to determine the effects of performance factors.     

The Intersection of Language,Education, and Content: Science Instruction for ESL Students

In this study, the author investigated the relationships among Turkish students' perceived computer skills, computer attitudes, quantitative skills, qualitative skills, and gender. The author collected data from a total of 362 undergraduate students. He found that gender was a significant variable to predict computer attitudes but not perceived skills. The author found no significant correlations between perceived computer skills and attitudes. Although computer attitudes and qualitative skills were significantly and negatively correlated, the author found no significant associations between computer skills and quantitative skills and between computer attitudes and quantitative skills. At least one variable explained variances in each of the subscales of the computer-attitude scale.     

Health Psychology and Exercise Adherence

The association between vigorous exercise and certain aspects of mental health is well documented. Explanations for this relationship are not well understood, however, and recent developments in sport psychology suggest a renewed interest in health-related topics. Paradoxically, the more fundamental or prerequisite issue of exercise adherence has received little attention from a psychological perspective. Moreover, the research related to adherence has tended ro be atheoretical and unsystematic. The following discussion is designed to reinforce the significance of understanding influences on habitual exercise behavior and to characterize the nature of previous research in this area. An attempt is also made to provide some heuristic advantages which may facilitate future study of the exercise adherence question at both basic and applied levels.     

“Do you see what I see?” Reading a different classroom scene

This paper examines the problem of representing a research site in poststructuralist terms, suggesting that “data” often taken for granted cannot be read to represent “reality” or “truth.” The representation of classroom life produced for analysis is both multifaceted and contradictory. The researcher's positioning within the major discourses governing educational practice may have as much influence on what is seen in the classroom as does the researcher's physical positioning within material reality. Rather than being seen as an impediment to ongoing educational research for change, the findings presented offer a challenge to researchers to make explicit their underlying interests and agendas.