Effects of Two Instructional Approaches on Skill Development,Knowledge, and Game Performance

Two instructional approaches that have been of interest in promoting sport have been the Sport Education Model (SEM) and the Traditional Style (TS) of teaching physical education. The purpose of this study was to investigate how SEM and TS would affect skill development, knowledge, and game performance for volleyball at the secondary level. A 2 × 3 (group × time) research design was utilized on 47 secondary students testing volleyball skills, knowledge, and game performance. Participants were placed in either the SEM or the TS via stratified randomization, and then were tested pre, mid, and post intervention through the 20-lesson volleyball unit. The 2 × 3 repeated measures Analysis of Variances (ANOVAs) with Bonferroni correction revealed no significant difference between models for skills and knowledge, but there was for game performance for group [F(1, 45) = 10.27, p < .008, η² = .19], time [F(2, 90) = 8.62, p < .008, η² = .16], and group × time interaction [F(2, 90) = 8.43, p < .008, η² = .16]. If the goal of the physical education program is to promote quality game play, the SEM may be more effective than the TS.     

The Pass Survey: school‐based preferences of 500 + adolescent consumers

Survey sheets requiring three responses, written in order of preference, to each of 10 items regarding various aspects of school, were administered to 595 secondary school students attending three rural and four urban comprehensive schools. Data were assembled from the highest preference responses only, and compiled into three levels of rank‐order for incentive preferences regarding good behaviour, incentive preferences regarding good work, preferences for teacher support of good behaviour, preferences for teacher support of good work, observed teacher qualities, projected teacher qualities, preferred changes to the school environment, and reasons for attending school.

Results revealed that an almost universal level of support existed for the use of incentives linked directly to good social behaviour and or academic performance. Overall, social outcomes were preferred for good behaviour, and tangible outcomes were preferred for good schoolwork. However, age, sex, and ability effects provided some qualification of these trends. Academic outcomes were very poorly supported throughout. In terms of feedback preferences, overt feedback received significantly more support than covert feedback overall, and was linked significantly more often to social behaviour than schoolwork. This sample also favoured teachers who show empathy and explain well.

The majority of these adolescents indicated that they would like their schools to be redecorated more than any other physical change they could think of, and almost without exception exhibited positive reasons for attending school.     

Television,Learning and Distance Education

’High quality’ television is a valuable part of open and distance education, as exemplified in its use by The Open University. Television has a unique role to play in distance education because of its distinctive delivery, presentational, and control characteristics. The ways in which these characteristics could be exploited are discussed in depth, and related to different kinds of learner.     

Antecedents and behavior-problem outcomes of parental monitoring and psychological control in early adolescence

The early childhood antecedents and behavior-problem correlates of monitoring and psychological control were examined in this prospective, longitudinal, multi-informant study. Parenting data were collected during home visit interviews with 440 mothers and their 13-year-old children. Behavior problems (anxiety/depression and delinquent behavior) were assessed via mother, teacher, and/or adolescent reports at ages 8 through 10 years and again at ages 13 through 14. Home-interview data collected at age 5 years were used to measure antecedent parenting (harsh/reactive, positive/proactive), family background (e.g., socioeconomic status), and mother-rated child behavior problems. Consistent with expectation, monitoring was anteceded by a proactive parenting style and by advantageous family-ecological characteristics, and psychological control was anteceded by harsh parenting and by mothers' earlier reports of child externalizing problems. Consistent with prior research, monitoring was associated with fewer delinquent behavior problems. Links between psychological control and adjustment were more complex: High levels of psychological control were associated with more delinquent problems for girls and for teens who were low in preadolescent delinquent problems, and with more anxiety/depression for girls and for teens who were high in preadolescent anxiety/depression.     

NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR HOME‐BASED LEARNING: THE CHALLENGE TO CAMPUS‐BASED INSTITUTIONS

Although there may be little expansion for conventional higher education on campus in the next decade, there is an unmet and growing need to provide home‐based continuing education. This will require an effective means of delivering learning materials to homes on a greater scale than can be handled by broadcasting alone, as well as the production of high quality software appropriate both to the means of delivery and the needs of students. There are several developments in technology which hold out promise for home use; these need to be developed as part of a wider learning system. Campus‐based institutions are well placed both to develop the hardware and to produce suitable learning materials, but this means that higher education institutions must show a much more flexible attitude to continuing education and to co‐operation with other organisations.     

The future of the humanities in primary schools – reflections in troubled times

ABSTRACT

This article reflects on the implications for practitioners, researchers and policy-makers of the future of the humanities in primary schools in the light of the challenges facing future generations. There is wide divergence in the four jurisdictions of the UK. The humanities are perceived as important, in principle, though curriculum frameworks differ. However, the status of the humanities is often uncertain, in practice, given the current emphasis on outcomes in literacy and numeracy. There is a lack of robust research on how, and by whom, the humanities are taught. The more theoretical articles suggest that the humanities, broadly conceived, are an essential aspect of young children’s education – to enable a deeper understanding of human culture and identity, and to develop the qualities and values needed in a diverse world. Additionally, curricular breadth is required alongside a realisation that narrowly focusing on propositional knowledge is limiting. While this has implications for the whole curriculum, History, Geography and Religious Education have key roles in meeting these aims and in engaging and motivating young children. A stronger policy steer is called for, to ensure that schools give more priority to humanities education, with greater investment in professional development in Initial Teacher Education and beyond.     

ASSESSMENT METHODS AND ECONOMICS DEGREES

Our objective in this paper is to investigate, and comment upon, the assessment methods in use to monitor student progress and success in Economics Degree programmes. Our reasons for undertaking this study were twofold:

(a) while the content and teaching methods of economics courses have been the subject of debate and change, the corresponding methods of assessment have received little consideration, and (b) colleagues from other academic disciplines at our own institution, the Coventry Polytechnic, and elsewhere, comment adversely upon the terminal achievement record of economics students.     

Humanities in the primary school – philosophical considerations

ABSTRACT

Drawing on a range of philosophical traditions, this article argues that the humanities are essential aspects of the development of the whole child. The humanities help children to understand themselves and other people in relation to place, time, belief, identity and culture and to become empathetic, thoughtful and critical citizens. Learning the content, language, concepts, skills and ways of working associated with separate disciplines is important, as is exploration of key ideas related to human experience and culture, including controversial ones. Defining the humanities in the primary years by the types of knowledge, qualities and values involved may be more appropriate than by subject. These can be learned, and reinforced, in all subject areas, with some offering particularly fertile opportunities, and through cross-curricular approaches. An emphasis on factual knowledge is too limiting, with active, first-hand experience helping to engage and include children. To teach and demonstrate appropriate ways of working and thinking, teachers require pedagogical content knowledge and enthusiasm as well as subject knowledge.     

Mentoring for Principals: Pre-Service and In-Service Models

Mentoring is an increasingly important element in the preparation of principals in many countries, including Singapore, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). In Singapore and the US, mentoring forms part of a pre-service programme of training for intending principals. In the UK, it is a voluntary programme which takes place during their first year as principals. The efficacy of mentoring depends on the quality of the mentor/protege relationship at least as much as the organisational and cultural framework within which it operates. Definitions and conceptions of mentoring are remarkably similar in different societies and its advantages appear to outweigh its disadvantages in both Singapore and the UK.