Learning from Culture: The Importance of the Museums and Galleries Education Program (Phase I) in England

Abstract During 1999–2002, the British government invested £3 million (roughly $5.5 million) in an unprecedented set of initiatives that explored the potential of museums and galleries for educating students in novel and compelling ways. The Museums and Galleries Education Program (Phase 1), or MGEP1, consisted of 65 projects linking schools and museums of all kinds. Projects took many forms and were spread across England, reaching students between the ages of 5 and 16. They also enlisted the talents and energies of creative professionals, such as artists and media producers, and involved parents, community members, and museum workers. This paper describes MGEP1, gives a “before and after” picture of museums and education in England, and assesses the program's impact. Learning outcomes for pupils and teachers are discussed, and the importance for museum education policy and practice is outlined.     

Individual Action Planning in Initial Teacher Training: Empowerment or discipline?

The article explores the impact of Individual Action Planning (IAP) on Postgraduate Certification in Education student teachers, in terms of whether it can be seen as a process of empowerment or discipline. The context of changes in teacher education introduced by recent Governments is established and the literature on empowerment, discipline and education is reviewed. The findings of the reactions of a group of student teachers to the IAP process are reported, with a focus on whether they experienced Action Planning as enabling or controlling. The authors conclude that the main perception of IAPs by the student teachers has more to do with empowerment than discipline, but that neither concept fully encompasses those responses. They propose that further study is needed to explore whether a system of self-surveillance is operating through IAP.     

Establishing a successful physical activity program to recruit and retain women

Increasingly, health organisations and governing bodies in developed countries are paying serious attention to the problem of adult inactivity. Many of the programs designed to increase levels of activity, particularly amongst target populations, such as women, have not been systematically assessed for their effectiveness in recruiting women and helping them maintain activity levels. The purpose of this study was to determine what attracted and sustained women to participate in physical activity programs. Responses from a survey to sport and recreation program providers identified 64 successful programs in the state of Victoria, Australia. Eight of these programs were purposively selected for case study analysis. Data was collected from a focus group with women participants from each of these eight programs. Six core themes emerged from inductive content analysis of the focus groups. The most frequent participant responses related to the social aspects of the exercise environment. Women in the focus groups valued instructor professionalism and instructors’ technical knowledge, however, it was their awareness and sensitivity that participants appreciated most. This exploratory study is important because it reflects the voices of women talking about what made physical activity programs successful for them. The study raises critical questions that should be examined systematically through large-scale survey research and field-based intervention studies, which in turn should stimulate program development to encourage women in physical activity.     

Enhancing children's literacy skills: designing the Q‐Tales ecosystem for children's e‐book design and publication

This article describes the conceptualisation and development of a pedagogical framework to support the design of e‐books for children to enhance literacy development. It emerged from research undertaken within the Q‐Tales international consortium project of the EU's Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation, where the aim was to facilitate key stakeholders to collaborate and participate in the online production and publication of high‐quality, educational e‐books for children. The pedagogical framework described here sought to answer the question “What concepts and principles undergird the effective design of pedagogically impactful e‐books for children?” It is grounded by the theoretical underpinnings of socio‐constructivism, constructionism and skill theory, and how they relate to children's literacy development. A framework describing different narrative forms and component features, key pedagogical activities appropriate for different stages of reading development and design recommendations regarding the integration of multimedia into e‐books are also central to the pedagogical framework. As well as informing the design of the Q‐Tales infrastructure for children's e‐book design and publication, we hope the guidelines and pedagogical activities enumerated here will be widely useful for those designing and developing digital, interactive narratives, particularly e‐books to enhance children's emerging literacy.     

What determines the duration of patent examination in China? An outcome-specific duration analysis of invention patent applications at SIPO

Although China is now the largest patent filing country in the world, research on the duration and outcomes of patent examination remains scarce. In this study, we conduct a replication and extension of Harhoff and Wagner’s (2009) work on the determinants of patent examination duration at the European Patent Office (EPO), using a rich dataset covering the population of about 1.1 million invention patent applications to China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) from 1993 to 2006. By considering all three competing examination outcomes (grant, withdrawal, and refusal) simultaneously, our competing risks analysis replicates many of the results in prior research and confirms that a number of the determinants have differential effects on pendencies for different outcomes. Our analysis also reveals several applicant and application characteristics whose effects on pendencies for specific outcomes differ from prior research. Finally, by incorporating a number of new determinants, we report a set of new findings about their effects on the examination duration for the three outcomes at SIPO.     

‘Playing Dead’ and Killing Off Amateurism: Bribery Scandals,Illegal Player Payments,Rule Expunging,and the Victorian Football League’s Authorization of Professionalism in 1911

Abstract

Australian football is an indigenous game codified in 1859. In Melbourne, the code’s birthplace, the game remained officially committed to the amateur ideal for over a half-century. Illegal player payments nonetheless became increasingly commonplace. Moreover, periodically rumours swirled of champion footballers taking bribes to ‘play dead’. By the early 1900s, the code’s leading competition, the Victorian Football League (VFL), was derided with the ‘shamateurism’ label. Following a sensational match-fixing investigation that resulted in two players receiving five-year bans, in 1911 the VFL expunged its rule prohibiting player payments. Was the timing merely coincidental or was the League’s historic switch to professionalism a deliberate countermeasure to redirect press attention, renew public confidence, and restore the game’s integrity? By consulting the League’s official records and contemporary press articles, this work examines the overlooked yet discernible linkages between rising match-fixing allegations and the VFL’s decision to eschew amateurism and embrace professionalism. It argues that Australian football offers an instructive historical perspective of a sporting body tackling mounting concerns over corruption, taking back the ascendency by amending its rules to better govern over dishonest players and duplicitous club officials, thereby growing its popularity and restoring public perception of its integrity in the process.     

Time motion analysis of 2001 and 2002 super 12 rugby

The aim of this study was to quantify movements of Super 12 rugby players in competition because information on elite rugby players' movements is unavailable. Players were categorized into forwards [front (n = 16) and back row (n = 15)] and backs [inside (n = 9) and outside backs (n = 7)] and their movements analysed by video-based time motion analysis. Movements were classified as rest (standing, walking and jogging) and work (striding, sprinting, static exertion, jumping, lifting or tackling). The total time, number and duration of individual activities were assessed, with differences between groups evaluated using independent sample t-tests (unequal variances), while differences between halves were assessed with paired sample t-tests. Forwards had 7:47?min:s (95% confidence limits: 6:39 to 8:55?min:s, P<0.01) more time in static exertion than backs, but backs spent 0:52 (0:34 to 1:09, P = 0.01) min:s more time sprinting than forwards, and had a 0.7 (0.3 to 1.2, P = 0.01) s longer duration of each sprint. Forwards spent 7:31 (5:55 to 9:08) min:s more time in work activities (P = 0.01) and had 2.1 (1.3 to 2.8) s longer work durations (P<0.01) than backs. The results indicate frequent short duration (<4?s) work efforts followed by moderate duration (<20?s) rest for forwards, and extended (>100?s) rest duration for backs. High-intensity efforts involved static exertion for forwards (mean?±?standard deviation frequency = 80?±?17) and sprinting for backs (27?±?9). In conclusion, after nearly a decade since becoming professional, elite rugby union is still characterized by highly intense, intermittent movement patterns and marked differences in the competition demands of forwards and backs.