夜的声音

The sound so beautiful
Yet cold inside
Cleela, Cleela,
The crckets chirp.     

Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development and Higher Education

This paper presents and analyses data gathered from a survey of teachers in a range of secondary school English departments. It seeks to establish the ways in which teachers perceive their subject knowledge Continuing Professional Development (CPD) needs and the ways in which they would like to engage with Higher Education (HE) English as part of their CPD. It also explores teachers’ reasons for wishing to undertake such study, and the ways in which they believe such studies could contribute to their development. Finally, it goes on to consider some of the constraints on CPD and the possible implications of this for Higher Education Institutions. The interface between schools and HE has, historically, been limited. However, engagement in CPD is one of the most significant ways in which dialogue between secondary and HE teachers of English can be fruitfully established.     

The effects of post-compulsory education and training systems on literacy and numeracy skills: A comparative analysis using PISA 2000 and the 2011 survey of adult skills

This article analyses the contribution of post-compulsory education and training systems to the development of literacy and numeracy skills across OECD countries. While there is extensive cross-country comparative research on the effects of primary and lower secondary education systems on aggregate skills levels, there has been little comparative analysis of system effects after the end of lower secondary education. This article uses a quasi-cohort analysis of the tested literacy and numeracy skills of 15-year-olds in PISA 2000 and 27-year-olds in the 2011 OECD Survey of Adult Skills (SAS) to estimate the gains in different countries in mean levels of competence in literacy and numeracy. We found that Nordic countries (Norway and Sweden) with comprehensive upper secondary education and training systems and German-speaking countries (Austria and Germany) with dual systems of apprenticeship were particular effective, whilst countries with mixed systems (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Spain) showed a relative decline in both literacy and numeracy. The education system characteristics that account for these differences are (a) the inclusiveness – as proxied by high rates of participation at 17/18 and low social gradients of level 3 completion; (b) the esteem of vocational programmes; and (c) curriculum standardisation with regard to the study of maths and the national language.     

Book reviews

Clinical sports medicine, Robert C. Cantu, (ed.), The Collamore Press, Lexington, Massachusetts, Toronto, 1984. 219 pp, £19.95 (hb), ISBN 0 669 06842 X

Sports injuries, a self‐help guide, Vivian Grisogono, John Murray Ltd, London, 1984. 293 pp, £7.95 (hb), ISBN 0 7195 4111 5

Athletes’ guide to mental training, Robert N. Nideffer, Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois (distributed in the UK by Eddington Hook & Co.) 1985. vii +156 pp, $9.95 (pb), ISBN 0 931250 96 X

Scientific foundations of coaching, R.R. Pate, B. McClenaghan and R. Rotella, Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, 1984. xii + 344 pp, £21.95(hb), ISBN 0 03 057961 9

Mathematics in sport, M. Stewart Townend, Ellis Horwood, Chichester, 1984. 202 pp (hb), ISBN 0 85312 717 4

Frontiers of exercise biology, ’Big Ten Body of Knowledge’ symposium series, Vol. 13 K.T. Borer, D.W. Edington and T.P. White (eds), Human Kinetics Publishers Inc., Champaign, Illinois, (distributed in the UK by Edington Hook & Co.), 1983. vii + 295 pp, $31.95(hb), ISBN 0 931250 49 8

The knee, Philippe Segal and Marcel Jacob, Wolfe Medical Publications, Frome, Somerset, 1984. 143 pp (hb), £15, ISBN 2 224 00887 2

Psychological foundations of sport, J.M. Silva and R.S. Weinberg (eds), Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois, (distributed in the UK by Eddington Hook & Co), 1984. xxiv + 528 pp, £22.50 (hb), ISBN 0 93 1250 59 5

Physical activity and the social sciences, W. Neil Widmeyer, Mouvement Publications Inc., Ithaca, 1983. 472 pp, £9.00 (pb), ISBN 0 932392 13 X     

Physical Education Teachers in their Figurations: A Sociological Analysis of Everyday 'Philosophies'

This paper seeks to explain the socio-genesis of PE teachers' 'Philosophical' (or, rather, ideological) orientations from a sociological (specifically, figurational) perspective. Starting from the premise that such 'philosophies' cannot be adequately explained by studying either the ideas themselves or the teacher (him or herself) in isolation, it argues that PE teachers' everyday 'philosophies', and the underlying ideologies therein, can only be fully understood when teachers are located in the figurations they form with each other--as inescapably interdependent people. Two salient dimensions of the figurations of PE teachers are identified as their deeply-rooted attachments and associated convictions (e.g. towards the value of sport) and their practice of PE or, more precisely, the constraints circumscribing their practice. It is claimed that whilst various social processes (such as medicalization and professionalization) may well prove to be motors that drive psychical change towards health and academic ideologies within PE teachers' views on the nature and purposes of their subject, the particular blend of continuity alongside change--to be found at the personal, local and national levels of their figurations--manifests itself in the continuing pre-eminence of a sporting ideology in the everyday 'philosophies' of PE teachers.     

Perinatal mortality counseling program for families who experience a stillbirth

The emotional impact of a stillbirth on a family has only recently begun to be appreciated. Literature regarding the grieving process in these families has been relatively scant and does not often facilitate applied approaches. The Perinatal Mortality Counseling Program (PMCP) at Shands Teaching Hospital, Gainesville, Florida, provides crisis intervention and support for these families as well as serving a research function. This article outlines the program, including its history, composition, procedures, and research.     

College Students' Study Strategies as a Function of Testing: An Investigation into Metacognitive Self-Regulation

We conducted the present study to investigate whether college students adjust their study strategies to meet the cognitive demands of testing, a metacognitive self-regulatory skill. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two testing conditions. In one condition we told participants to study for a test that required deep-level cognitive processing and in the other to study for a test that required surface-level cognitive processing. Results suggested that college students adjust their study strategies so that they are in line with the cognitive processing demands of tests and that performance is mediated by the study strategies that are used.Margaret E. Ross is an Associate Professor of Educational Measurement and Statistics at Auburn University. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Kansas. Her research interests include the role assessment plays in influencing student learning strategies, assessment issues and policy, and educational program evaluation. Samuel B. Green is a Professor in the Educational Psychology Department at Arizona State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Measurement and Individual Differences Psychology from the University of Georgia. His research focuses on statistical procedures. Jill Salisbury-Glennon is an Associate Professor teaching Educational Psychology courses at Auburn University. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Pennsylvania. Research interests include college student self-regulation, metacognition, and motivation. Nona Tollefson recently passed away. She was a Professor of Psychology and Research in Education at the University of Kansas and held a Ph.D. from Purdue University. Her research focused on student assessment     

Enthusiasts,fence-sitters and sceptics: faculty perspectives on study abroad in Australia and the Czech Republic

Although governments and universities worldwide recognise the value of study abroad as a means to prepare graduates to live and work in a globalising world, there is a wide gap between the rhetoric and reality. The reasons for this are complex, but one factor, not often discussed, is the role academics play in study abroad. This paper explores academics' perceptions of study abroad in universities within two higher education systems: Australian and Czech. Findings from both countries are considered across four themes: academics' perceived value of study abroad; ‘internationalising’ academic staff; academics' concerns about student equity and integrating study abroad into the curriculum at home. The implications for practice and further research are discussed.