The Validity of the Tritrac-R3D Activity Monitor for the Assessment of Physical Activity in Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of the Tritrac-R3D Activity Monitor, a new instrument designed to improve assessments of physical activity. Comparisons were made with a heart rate monitor and with a Caltrac Activity Monitor. Thirty-five children (ages 9–11 years) were monitored on 3 different school days with all 3 instruments. The Tritrac was moderately correlated with the heart rate monitor (r =.58) and highly correlated with the Caltrac monitor (r =.88). By taking advantage of the minute-by-minute timing capability of the Tritrac and the heart rate monitors, it was discovered, that the correlations between these instruments were highest during free play situations (lunch/recess, recess, after school) and were lower when activity was more limited (class time) or structured (physical education). The ability of the Tritrac to assess activity on a minute-by-minute basis may greatly enhance its overall utility.     

Teaching within a Curricular Zone of Safety: School Culture and the Situated Nature of Student Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to continue the theoretical delineation of the nature of pedagogical content knowledge. Two student teachers were observed teaching an elementary games and high school sport unit and interviewed in depth about their lessons, biography, pedagogical content knowledge, and aspects of the school culture. Data were analyzed by constant comparison and analytic induction. Trustworthiness was established through member checks and triangulation. In the high school, both student teachers tried to use extending and refining tasks, as they had in the elementary school. But, when confronted with aspects of the high school culture, both retreated to a curricular zone of safety relying on application tasks. This zone, the defining aspect of their pedagogical content knowledge of teaching sports, emerged from and was constituted by the relations among goals, capabilities, teaching, inadequate pedagogical content knowledge, and aspects of the school culture. It is argued that situated and cultural orientations contribute to psychological orientations currently used to delineate pedagogical content knowledge. A curricular zone of safety is offered as a concept that helped account for the emergence and persistence of particular ways of knowing content.     

Physiological Effects of Deep Water Running following a Land-Based Training Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in knowledge representation and problem solutions in expert and novice youth baseball players. Ninety-four players in two age divisions, 7–8 years of age and 9–10 years of age, were assigned to three levels of expertise: high; average; and low skilled. Each subject participated in an interview session to elicit knowledge representation and solutions to five different defensive game situations. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for content, solution to the problem, errors in problem solution, and qualitative trends. The frequency of advanced solutions to each of the five situations were analyzed in separate chi-square tests for age and expertise. Differences among the levels of expertise were found for the accuracy of solutions to three complex situations. Age was significant for only one situation. Patterns of knowledge content accessed during advanced and less advanced responses indicated both experts and novices were in a beginning stage of developing baseball knowledge structures. Errors in problem solutions indicated children had difficulty monitoring critical conditions and making correct inferences. Players' and teammates' ability to execute baseball skills seemed to influence the content and structure of tactical knowledge accessed during problem solution.     

The use of computers in K-12 schools in turkey

Through the determined efforts of MONE, more than one third of the existing 5,851 schools have at least one computer lab. It is clear that the number of computers in schools in Turkey will continue to increase.     

Elementary Teachers’ Selection and Use of Visual Models

As science grows in complexity, science teachers face an increasing challenge of helping students interpret models that represent complex science systems. Little is known about how teachers select and use models when planning lessons. This mixed methods study investigated the pedagogical approaches and visual models used by elementary in-service and preservice teachers in the development of a science lesson about a complex system (e.g., water cycle). Sixty-seven elementary in-service and 69 elementary preservice teachers completed a card sort task designed to document the types of visual models (e.g., images) that teachers choose when planning science instruction. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to analyze the card sort task. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a subsample of teachers to elicit the rationale for image selection. Results from this study showed that both experienced in-service teachers and novice preservice teachers tended to select similar models and use similar rationales for images to be used in lessons. Teachers tended to select models that were aesthetically pleasing and simple in design and illustrated specific elements of the water cycle. The results also showed that teachers were not likely to select images that represented the less obvious dimensions of the water cycle. Furthermore, teachers selected visual models more as a pedagogical tool to illustrate specific elements of the water cycle and less often as a tool to promote student learning related to complex systems.     

Erstad,Ola (2013) Digital learning lives Peter Lang (New York & Bern) isbn 978‐1‐4331‐1163‐1 280 pp € 30.75 (paper and e‐book) http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=78334&cid=448

Digital learning lives aims to describe a set of practices in school education and beyond that are well developed and based on digital technology. With rich examples from our digital lives, the author shows that digital natives should be able to go beyond spaces and places with which they are familiar. People closely interested in broadening the scope of digital learning and creativity should think of buying this. Gi‐Zen Liu     

Philips,Rob et al (2012) Evaluating e‐learning Routledge (New York & London) isbn 978‐0‐415‐88194‐4 207 pp £25.99 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415881944/

This book seeks to formalise approaches to e‐learning by ensuring that e‐resource design is evaluated and appropriately supported by evidence. The book is aimed at academics who design e‐learning systems and need to devise scholarly evaluation research to assess their success. If this book's likely to relate closely to what you do, I suggest you borrow a copy so you can assess it for yourself. John G Hedberg     

Stratified at seven: in‐class ability grouping and the relative age effect

There is an established body of evidence indicating that a pupil's relative age within their school year cohort is associated with academic attainment throughout compulsory education. In England, autumn‐born pupils consistently attain at higher levels than summer‐born pupils. Analysis here investigates a possible channel of this relative age effect: ability grouping in early primary school. Relatively younger children tend more often to be placed in the lowest in‐class ability groups, and relatively older children in the highest group. In addition, teacher perceptions of pupils' ability and attainment are associated with the child's birth month: older children are more likely to be judged above average by their teachers. Using 2008 data for 5481 English seven‐year‐old pupils and their teachers from the Millennium Cohort Study, this research uses linear regression modelling to explore whether birth month gradation in teacher perceptions of pupils is more pronounced when pupils are in‐class ability grouped than when they are not. It finds an amplification of the already disproportionate tendency of teachers to judge autumn‐born children as more able when grouping takes place. The autumn–summer difference in teacher judgements is significantly more pronounced among in‐class ability grouped pupils than among non‐grouped pupils. Given evidence that teacher perceptions and expectations can influence children's trajectories, this supports the hypothesis that in‐class ability grouping in early primary school may be instrumental in creating the relative age effect.     

Tronto's notion of privileged irresponsibility and the reconceptualisation of care: implications for critical pedagogies of emotion in higher education

This article takes on some of care theorist Joan Tronto's ideas on care and responsibility and asks what implications they have for critical pedagogies in higher education. The authors argue that Tronto's political ethics of care framework enriches the transformative potential of critical pedagogies, because it helps expose how power and emotion operate through (ir)responsibility. In particular, Tronto's notion of ‘privileged irresponsibility’ is analysed in relation to the gendered and emotional ideologies and practices that are constructed discursively and materially. It is argued that critical pedagogies of emotion grounded in Tronto's political ethics of care provide the concepts and openings to critically explore the emotions arising from failing to recognise different teachers' and students' needs and from engaging in practices of privileged irresponsibility. Also, critical pedagogies of emotion encourage students and educators to be attentive to their own emotional positions and practices with regard to caring responsibilities and (gendered and other) privileged irresponsibilities.     

Foreign Media

Robert E. Babe's Cable Television and Telecommunications in Canada: An Economic Analysis (East Lansing: Micigan State University Graduate School of Business Administration, 1975— $7.50, paper)

Manry Lisann's Broadcasting to the Soviet Union: International Politics and Radio (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1975—$16.50)