The politics are personal: The Australian vs the Australian curriculum in history

This article reviews the relationship between the conservative newspaper The Australian and the development of a national history curriculum in Australia. The lead author surveyed the major Australian press in the five-year period between 2007 and 2012 and found clear patterns of difference between The Australian and other press outlets in relation to education in general and history curriculum in particular. Using Jonathan Haidt's five-point model of moral values, the article analyses the behaviour of the press in Australia in relation to history education as a feature of moral preferences. Extending from this analysis, it then highlights a number of cases of press campaigns in The Australian targeted against individuals including one academic involved in the development of a national curriculum. The article demonstrates that a culture of aggressive conservatism exercised in this Murdoch press outlet reaches beyond the field of conventional political debate to constitute a serious and concerning influence in the dynamics of curriculum policy development.     

A biomechanical comparison of the topspin and backspin forehand approach shots in tennis

Three‐dimensional (3‐D) high‐speed cinematographic techniques were used to record topspin and backspin forehand approach shots hit down‐the‐line by high‐performance players. The direct linear transformation (DLT) technique was used in the 3‐D space reconstruction from 2‐D images recorded via laterally placed phase‐locked cameras operating at 200 Hz. A Mann‐Whitney U‐test was calculated for the different aspects of the topspin and backspin shots to test for significance (P<0.05).

A significant difference was recorded between topspin and backspin shots in the angle of the racket at the completion of the backswing. The racket was taken 0.48 rad past a line drawn perpendicular to the back fence for topspin trials, but only rotated 0.86 rad from a line parallel to the net in the backspin shot. Maximum racket velocities occurred prior to impact and were significantly higher in topspin (26.5 m s‐¹) compared to backspin (16.6 m s^‐1) trials. This resulted in the topspin trials recording a significantly higher ball velocity compared to backspin trials (27.6 m s^‐1 vs 21.7 m s^‐1). Pre‐impact racket trajectories revealed that in topspin shots the racket moved on an upward path of 0.48 rad while in backspin shots it moved down at an angle of 0.34 rad. In the topspin trials impact occurred significantly further forward of the front foot than in backspin shots (0.26 m vs 0.05 m) while the angle of the racket was the same for both strokes (0.14 rad behind a line parallel to the net). The mean angle of the racket‐face at impact was inclined backwards by 0.11 rad for backspin strokes and rotated forward by 0.13 rad for topspin strokes. Angles of incidence and reflection of the impact between the ball and the court showed that backspin trials had larger angles of incidence and reflection than topspin strokes.     

Interrater Objectivity for Field-Based Fundamental Motor Skill Assessment

We recently published an article on arm coordination and performance level in 400-m front-crawl swimming in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (Schnitzler, Seifert, &; Chollet, 2011). The index of coordination (IdC) was used to quantify interarm coordination. Our results showed that expert swimmers exhibited lower IdC than recreational swimmers over a 400-m trial. In addition to criticizing various methodological points, Havriluk (2012) challenged our conclusion that catch-up could be an efficient model of coordination and instead suggested that it might lead to injuries. An important point in this debate, however, is that our definition of catch-up coordination may differ from the one proposed by Havriluk (2012), which would explain why we consider catch-up coordination to be the dominant mode of coordination used by expert swimmers during training sessions.     

Design issues on the World Wide Web

Considers the technical aspects of designing a World Wide Web page; including design issues, the particular potential audience, bandwidth effects, HTML limitations, and essential software.     

Special education and the law in the United States: Implications for Australian educators

Recent legislation in the United States aims to revolutionize educational services for handicapped pupils. The principles of this Act, Public Law 94‐142, are examined and possible implications are discussed. The point is made that legal solutions to educational problems can pose many additional problems. However the implementation of this Law warrants the close attention of Australian educators.