Editorial statement

Grounded in the interdisciplinary educational work of Cultural Studies, this paper examines the pedagogical potentials of narrative and performance for the teaching of writing as a mode of public discourse. Guided to address a wide readership, students engage in critical communication aimed at linking self inquiry and narrative discourse to the contextual analysis of the social. Drawing on research findings derived from the undergraduate teaching of cultural criticism as a genre of public writing at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, we look at how educational drama mediates the work of narrative and performative acts involving the young learner-writers and contributes to the shaping of a dialogic mode of address and communication, thus articulating the process and impact of writing to the public-oriented discourse in Cultural Studies education. In light of such acts in critical discourse and imagination targeted at the potential reader, we show how the young writers' own engagement with critical thinking and communication are opened up by drama-in-education adopted in the class, and argue how, in this sense, both writing and its learning process become effective stages in the making of the kind of cultural criticism we want to help students to learn.     

Normal Accidents of Expertise

Charles Perrow used the term “normal accidents” to characterize a type of catastrophic failure that resulted when complex, tightly coupled production systems encountered a certain kind of anomalous event. These were events in which systems failures interacted with one another in a way that could not be anticipated, and could not be easily understood and corrected. Systems of the production of expert knowledge are increasingly becoming tightly coupled. Unlike classical science, which operated with a long time horizon, many current forms of expert knowledge are directed at immediate solutions to complex problems. These are prone to breakdowns like the kind discussed by Perrow. The example of the Homestake mine experiment shows that even in modern physics complex systems can produce knowledge failures that last for decades. The concept of knowledge risk is introduced, and used to characterize the risk of failure in such systems of knowledge production.     

Employing teachers' ratings in selection of achievement tests in reading and mathematics with a behaviorally disturbed population

The usefulness of a particular standardized achievement test with a specific population may be determined largely on the basis of experience. Sixty-six behaviourally disturbed students were administered portions of a test battery including the Reading Recognition subtest of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT), PIAT Reading Comprehension, the Reading subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), and Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT); PIAT Mathematics, WRAT Arithmetic, Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test (SDMT), and KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test. Toward the end of the academic year, teachers estimated students' grade levels in reading and mathematics. Results indicated that, in mathematics, the SDMT and the PIAT predicted teachers' ratings equally well and better than the other tests; in reading, all tests predicted teachers' ratings equally well except for the PIAT Reading Comprehension, which performed less well than others. Explanations for these results are offered, together with suggestions for identifying achievement tests suitable to specific populations.     

The effect of success or failure on self-efficacy and task persistence of conduct-disordered children

Twenty-four children with conduct disorders were familiarized with a pattern-matching task, and their self-efficacy expectations for this task were assessed. Subjects were then given either “Success” or “Failure” feedback for a series of similar problems, and their self-efficacy was reassessed. Finally, task persistence was evaluated by allowing subjects to attempt as many additional pattern-matching problems as they wished, with all subjects receiving failure feedback. Results indicated that, although the two groups of subjects were initially similar, the success group's self-efficacy was significantly higher following feedback. The success group also attempted significantly more problems while later receiving failure feedback, and there was a significant positive correlation between task persistence and the second self-efficacy rating. These findings were related to Bandura's self-efficacy theory and to educational programming for conduct-disordered children.     

How Haptics and Drawing Enhance the Learning of Anatomy

Students’ engagement with two-dimensional (2D) representations as opposed to three-dimensional (3D) representations of anatomy such as in dissection, is significant in terms of the depth of their comprehension. This qualitative study aimed to understand how students learned anatomy using observational and drawing activities that included touch, called haptics. Five volunteer second year medical students at the University of Cape Town participated in a six-day educational intervention in which a novel “haptico-visual observation and drawing” (HVOD) method was employed. Data were collected through individual interviews as well as a focus group discussion. The HVOD method was successfully applied by all the participants, who reported an improvement of their cognitive understanding and memorization of the 3D form of the anatomical part. All the five participants described the development of a “mental picture” of the object as being central to “deep learning.” The use of the haptic senses coupled with the simultaneous act of drawing enrolled sources of information that were reported by the participants to have enabled better memorization. We postulate that the more sources of information about an object, the greater degree of complexity could be appreciated, and therefore the more clearly it could be captured and memorized. The inclusion of haptics has implications for cadaveric dissection versus non-cadaveric forms of learning. This study was limited by its sample size as well as the bias and position of the researchers, but the sample of five produced a sufficient amount of data to generate a conceptual model and hypothesis.     

The Development and Evaluation of the Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory for Use With Counselors-in-Training

As counselor preparation programs are compelled to demonstrate student social and cultural competence, valid inventories are needed to measure development consistent with contemporary standards. The Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory was created for this purpose, was assessed using 4 types of validity evidence, and has results supporting its use in student development.     

Acute cardiovascular responses to interval exercise: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Interval exercise training is increasingly recommended to improve health and fitness; however, it is not known if cardiovascular risk is different from continuous exercise protocols. This systematic review with meta-analyses assessed the effect of a single bout of interval exercise on cardiovascular responses that indicate risk of cardiac fibrillation and infarction compared to continuous exercise. Electronic databases Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus and Cochrane were searched. Key inclusion criteria were: (1) intervals of the same intensity and duration followed by a recovery period and (2) reporting at least one of blood pressure, heart rate variability, arterial stiffness or function. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and GRADE approach were used. Meta-analyses found that systolic blood pressure responses to interval exercise did not differ from responses to continuous exercise immediately (MD 8 mmHg [95% CI ?32, 47], p = 0.71) or at 60 min following exercise (MD 0 mmHg [95% CI ?2, 1], p = 0.79). However, reductions in diastolic blood pressure and flow-mediated dilation with interval exercise were observed 10–15 min post-exercise. The available evidence indicates that interval exercise does not convey higher cardiovascular risk than continuous exercise. Further investigation is required to establish the safety of interval exercise for clinical populations.     

Never the gentleman: caste,class and the amateur myth in English first-class cricket, 1920s to the 1960s

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the near-impossibility, for the duration of the amateur-professional divide, of cricketers born into working-class families being admitted to amateur status and, thus, to county captaincy, in the English first-class game. Its principal argument is that the hegemony achieved in the latter half of the nineteenth century by the English upper class (the aristocracy, major landowners and leaders of financial capital and their families) had one of its most visible manifestations in the culture of first-class cricket. The hegemony of this group (represented by the Marylebone Cricket Club) was sustained by a specific myth of amateurism that was rooted in caste-like social relations. By the late 1930s these relations had become unsustainable and hegemony was maintained by a subtle and unacknowledged switch to relations of class. The article charts this process, using four case studies of working-class professional cricketers, each of which brought the ideological reality of the amateur myth into sharp relief.