What makes a youth-produced film good? The youth audience perspective

In this article, we explore how youth audiences evaluate the quality of youth-produced films. Our interest stems from a dearth of ways to measure the quality of what youth produce in artistic production processes. As a result, making art in formal learning settings devolves into either romanticized creativity or instrumental work to improve skills in core content areas. We conducted focus groups with 38 youth participants where they viewed four different films produced by the same youth media arts organization that works with young people to produce short-form, autobiographical documentaries. We found that youth focused their evaluations on identifying the films' genre and content and on assessing how well the filmmakers' creative decisions fit with identifications of genre and content. Evaluations were mediated by audiences' expectations and seemed to inform judgments of quality and creativity. We hope that our work can inform the design of formal learning spaces where young people are producing narrative art.     

Towards an adolescent friendly methodology: accessing the authentic through collective reflection

The re-emergence of student voice presents a challenge to schools and researchers to become more responsive to the voice of adolescents in education and in research. However, the poor articulation of the nature of student voice to date is confirmation of the complex and important nature of the personal advocacy and human agency that is involved in all student voice activities. This lack of clarity leads to interpretations of student voice that range in authenticity from token to active and meaningful (Hart, R. 1997. Children's Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. Earthscan Publications. London: UNICEF). Researchers who are guided by more traditional methodologies may implement methods that are appropriate for adults yet are not sensitive to the needs and interests of the young person whose perspectives are usually the focus of the research. This research found that while an advocacy and empowerment worldview supports student voice research, adolescents also prefer a methodology that is agentic, socially based, reflective and embodied (Dempster, N., A. Lizzio, M. Keeffe, J. Skinner, and D. Andrews. 2010. “The Contributions of Research Design and Process Facilitation in Accessing Adolescent views of Leadership.” Leading and Managing 16 [2]: 77–89). Adolescent perspectives on research processes and methods are valuable in helping researchers to choose more responsive approaches to sharing understandings with adolescents, so that research designs may be challenging, meaningful and rewarding for all participants.     

Instrument adaptation in cross-cultural studies of students’ mathematics-related beliefs: learning from healthcare research

Much comparative research into education-related beliefs has exploited questionnaires developed in one culture for use in another. This has been particularly the case in mathematics education, the focus of this paper. In so doing, researchers have tended to assume that translation alone is sufficient to warrant a reliable and valid instrument for cross-cultural research, prompting concerns that a number of necessary equivalences are unlikely to have been addressed. In this paper, we consider the nature of these equivalences before examining the literature of a different field, healthcare research, to synthesise an approach to instrument adaptation that is pragmatic but rigorous. Finally, we demonstrate how this pragmatic approach, incorporating extensive cognitive interviews, enabled us to adapt and refine a mathematics-related beliefs questionnaire, developed in Flanders, for use with students aged 14–15 in England and Spain. Analyses indicate that the instrument so developed is multidimensional, reliable and cross-culturally valid. Some implications are discussed.     

Social skills training with early adolescents: Effects on social skills, well-being, self-esteem and coping

This study discusses the educational effects of a social skills training on adolescents’ social skills, self-esteem, well-being and coping. A group of 14- to 16-year-old normal adolescents followed a social skills training based on social learning principles. A pre-test — experiment — post-test design was used and the group’s performance was compared with that of a non-intervention control-group. The training was given at school, and the data were collected by means of self-report measures. The results show that the training was successful in several respects: the adolescents’ social anxiety decreased, their social activity increased, their self-esteem improved, and they made more use of adequate coping-strategies. The implications of the results for different sub-groups of adolescents are discussed. Critical attention is also given to two other issues: the type of assessment used and the short-term nature of the evaluation.     

Adapting Active Support Interactive Training to a special school context to upskill classroom staff and increase engagement in pupils

Research indicates that engagement acts as an important precursor for learning, yet sustaining the engagement of pupils with special educational needs can be a challenge for classroom staff. An Active Support staff training package, Interactive Training, has been demonstrated as an effective way of increasing engagement in adults accessing learning disability services. In theory the logic of Active Support Interactive Training could extend to a school environment, with the aim of achieving similar outcomes. The current study evaluated a special school-adapted version of Active Support Interactive Training with the aim of increasing engagement in pupils during group-based learning. Findings showed an increase in engagement in pupils for all three settings (classrooms) immediately after intervention, which continued to either increase or stabilise at three-month follow-up. Further research could test the engagement behaviour of staff pre- and post- training intervention and explore practice leadership within the school leadership team to address maintenance.     

Comparison of advanced and intermediate 200-m backstroke swimmers' dominant and non-dominant shoulder entry angles across various swimming speeds

During backstroke, an optimum shoulder entry angle of 180° has been anecdotally suggested; however, this has yet to be investigated biomechanically. The aim of this study was to quantify shoulder entry angles for advanced and intermediate backstroke swimmers. Six advanced (season's best?<150?s) and six intermediate (season's best?>160?s) 200-m backstroke swimmers had markers applied to the medial humeral epicondyles and glenoid cavities. Following a familarization period, participants completed backstroke swimming trials (90?s each) in a swimming flume at 50%, 60%, 70%, and 80% of their season's best 200-m velocity. A camera positioned above the flume recorded frontal plane motion, which was digitized and analysed in Simi Motion Systems. The mean peak angle between the upper arm and the line of progression was established in ten strokes for each participant. The results showed backstroke shoulder entry angles for advanced swimmers (170°) were significantly closer to the suggested optimum 180° compared with those of intermediate swimmers (161°). The non-dominant arm displayed values closer to the optimum (171°), while swimming speed had no effect on backstroke shoulder entry angle. In conclusion, backstroke shoulder entry angle may help discriminate between advanced and intermediate backstroke swimmers and may be influenced by laterality dominance, being independent of swimming speed.