Public speaking in New England colleges

Parliamentary debate played a significant part in bringing about the famous split between Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke over the issue of the French Revolution and English domestic reform. Two important rhetorical phenomena are investigated: the gradual drawing out of Fox's position on France and domestic reform; and the polarization of opinion in Commons by Burke's rhetorical destruction of traditional middle‐of‐the‐road Whig principles.     

Skill Acquisition in Physical Education: A Speculative Perspective

How we learn motor skills has always been of interest to physical educators. Contemporary conceptual frameworks about motor skill learning draw from earlier behavioral and cognitive psychology learning theories. As a point of departure this paper foregrounds complexity theorizing, arguing that skill is contingent upon the performer's physical and social context. Drawing on nonlinear dynamics systems theory, ecological psychology (Gibson, 1979), its associated perception/ action coupling (Kugler and Turvey, 1988), an adaption to Gibson's ecological theory (Withagen & van der Kamp, 2010), and the sociological framework of Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1990, 1998, 2000), it is argued that ecological perspectives and social theories that take account of the complexity of the performance contexts have a part to play in explaining how physical skills are performed and learnt. The relational properties between the learner and the context are essential elements of skill.     

Women of Color in Society and Sport

This article reviews literature that discusses parallels between women of color in society and sport. Although special emphasis is placed on African American women's social, historical, and sport traditions, information on other ethnic groups' socioeconomic status and participation in sport is included. The discussion focuses on the absence or silence of diverse ethnic women within the mainstream of society, sport, and scholarship and summarizes literature that highlights intersections of gender, race, and socioeconomic class. Research completed on women of color in sport is reviewed using Douglas's analysis of the levels of research. A call is made for more scholarship on women of color from diverse ethnic backgrounds and different social realities in order to have more inclusive womanist/feminist scholarship and race-relations theory.     

History of Amateurism in Men's Intercollegiate Athletics: The Continuance of a 19th-Century Anachronism in America

Claiming that American intercollegiate athletics are amateur at the end of the 20th century is an anachronism, for colleges in the 19th century took on professional characteristics. The upper-class British concept of amateurism did not work effectively in a more egalitarian and achievement-oriented American society. Hypocrisy resulted when colleges claimed amateurism while accepting such professional practices as hiring professional coaches, allowing athletes to play summer baseball for money, and paying athletes through grants-in-aid. Attempts to preserve amateurism, such as the Graham Plan in the 1930s and the Sanity Code in the 1940s and 1950s, yielded to the professional spirit. Thus, while Americans had generally rejected the upper-class British social hierarchy that fostered amateurism, they retained the name amateur, continuing the hypocrisy that had begun in the previous century.     

Teacher Planning,Instruction and Refl ection: What We Know About Teacher Cognitive Processes

The process of teaching is complex and multidimensional. Teaching behaviors and actions are shaped by numerous cognitive decisions made by the teacher before, during, and after instruction. This article examines teacher cognition across the broad field of education and, more specifically, physical education in teacher planning, instruction, and reflection. To date, research has largely examined the areas of planning, instruction, and reflection separately and often in controlled settings. It is suggested that future researchers examining teachers. thoughts and actions employ methodologies, such as case study, that examine the three processes holistically and in the natural teaching environment, thereby linking actual behaviors with the cognitive processes that produced them.     

A Developmental Framework for Enhancing Resiliency in Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse

Roughly one third of children subjected to abusive environments grow into healthy and capable adults, demonstrating remarkable resiliency, despite risks for developing maladaptive self-structures and destructive behaviors (Werner, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 59:72–81 1989; Kendall-Tackett et al., Psychological Bulletin 113:164–180 1993). This paper suggests that, for adults with developmental arrests due to childhood traumas, it may be beneficial to approach enhancing resilience through interventions meant to foster resiliency factors in adolescents and children, tailored appropriately for an adult. Connections to current and effective interventions are reviewed as well as an invitation to the international community for additional perspectives.     

Organisational self-evaluation and teacher education for community relations in a transforming society?

During 2004, the School of Education at the University of Ulster embarked on an innovative three-year project designed to embed community relations objectives within initial teacher education. With the advent of more peaceful times in Northern Ireland, this was a precipitous time for initial teacher educators to review the preparation given to beginner teachers for teaching in an increasingly pluralist society emerging from conflict. The present paper reports on one very specific and time-limited element of the broader project. That is, development work designed to investigate the possibilities of using processes of self-review and evaluation as a lever for improvements in initial teacher education for community relations. Following a brief contextualisation, the background to, and the development of, a set of materials designed to support rigorous and systematic self-review of all aspects of provision in a university-based initial teacher education department is described. The Community Relations Index for Initial Teacher Education (Cr-ITE) was envisaged as being of use to initial teacher education establishments in order to help teacher educators take responsibility for rigorous learning from their practice, whilst placing inclusive values at the centre of organisational development. The final section includes further critical reflection on the role of organisational self-review in transforming teacher education for inclusion in a society emerging from longstanding communal conflict.