An Overview of Significant Influences and Formative Experiences on the Development of Adults’ Environmental Awareness in Nine Countries

This article, like the preceding one in this special issue of the journal, examines the relative importance of various categories of influence and formative life experiences on the development of environmental educators’ knowledge of and concern for the environment. It provides an overview of data deriving from nine countries (Australia, Canada, Greece, Hong Kong, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda, UK) and highlights global similarities and differences.     

Initial teacher education: a study of the efficacy of computer mediated courseware delivery in a partnership context

The null hypotheses tested were (1) that the efficacy of computer-mediated delivery of courseware was not significantly different from that of traditional university delivery methods, and (2) that the efficacy of learning in partnership with schools was not significantly different from university-based learning.
Forty three student teachers of science were assigned to four treatment groups, in a true experimental research design. The same courseware, designed to develop lesson planning skills, was delivered to the four groups. The first group (n = 11) were taught at university, receiving a traditional lecture, supplemented with a seminar. The second group (n = 12) were taught in a partnership context, receiving the traditional lecture at university, supplemented with a courseware package completed with the student's supervising teacher in school. For groups three (n = 10) and four (n = 10), the contexts were the same as for groups one and two respectively, but courseware delivery was via the Internet with e-mail tutorial support provided by the university lecturer.
Students' achievement was pre-tested and post-tested. Post-test scores were subjected to a two-way analysis of co-variance, with the delivery strategy (traditional or computer-mediated) and the context (university-based or partnership) as factors and the pre-test scores as co-variate.
Achievement gains were 12% higher when student teachers worked in a partnership context rather than entirely at university. Achievement gains were 15% higher for computer-mediated delivery when compared with traditional delivery methods. When these two factors were combined achievement gains were 36% higher.     

Identifying swimmers as water-polo or swim team-mates from visual displays of less than one second

Opportunities for ball passing in water-polo may be brief and the decision to pass only informed by minimal visual input. Since researchers using point light displays have shown that the walking or running gait of familiars can be identified, water-polo players may have the ability to recognize team-mates from their swimming gait. To test this hypothesis, members of a water-polo team and a competition swim team viewed two randomized sets of video clips, each less than one second long, of swimmers from both teams sprinting freestyle past a fixed camera. The arm stroke clip sequence showed only the upper body, and the kick sequence showed only the lower body. After viewing each video clip, observers rated their level of certainty as to whether the swimmer presented was a team-mate or not. Discrimination was significantly above chance in both groups. Water-polo players were better able to identify team-mates from their kick, whereas swimmers were better able to do so by viewing arm stroke. Our results suggest that, as with walking and running gait, small amounts of visual information about swimmers can be used for recognition, and so raise the possibility that specific training may be able to improve team-mate classification in water-polo, particularly in newly formed teams.     

Is movement variability important for sports biomechanists?

This paper overviews the importance for sports biomechanics of movement variability, which has been studied for some time by cognitive and ecological motor skills specialists but, until quite recently, had somewhat been overlooked by sports biomechanists. The paper considers biomechanics research reporting inter- and intra-individual movement variability in javelin and discus throwing, basketball shooting, and locomotion. The overview does not claim to be comprehensive and we exclude such issues as the theoretical background to movement and coordination variability and their measurement. We overview evidence, both theoretical and empirical, of inter-individual movement variability in seeking to achieve the same task goal, in contrast to the concept of "optimal" movement patterns. Furthermore, even elite athletes cannot reproduce identical movement patterns after many years of training, contradicting the ideas of motor invariance and "representative" trials. We contend that movement variability, far from being solely due to neuromuscular system or measurement "noise"--as sports biomechanists may have previously supposed--is, or could be, functional. Such functionality could allow environmental adaptations, reduce injury risk, and facilitate changes in coordination patterns. We conclude by recommending that sports biomechanists should focus more of their research on movement variability and on important related topics, such as control and coordination of movement, and implications for practice and skill learning.