Is stroke smoothness a reliable indicator of fatigue in ergometer rowing?

A measure of stroke smoothness (SS) has been presented previously to indicate the degree to which rowers produce an “ideal” handle force profile that of the positive half of a sine wave [2]. This study aimed to determine the influence of fatigue on SS. Ten male rowers completed a maximal intensity trial. Fast Fourier transform methods were used to calculate SS which was given by the amplitude of the fundamental frequency as a percentage of the sum of the first ten peaks. Visual inspection of the data showed indications of a reduction in movement coordination as a function of fatigue. However, SS did not change significantly between the first, middle and last ten strokes (p = 0.205), despite a 21% reduction in mean power between the start and end of the trial. The results suggested that although the shape of the force profile can qualitatively indicate a reduction in movement coordination, the smoothness of the force profiles remains similar with fatigue.     

Art Teachers' Views of National Curriculum Art: A repertory grid analysis

There have been calls for a radical revision of National Curriculum Art. A number of prominent academics have argued that its inadequate theoretical base has led to unsatisfactory formalist and normative tendencies in school-based art courses. The paper describes a small-scale survey, using the repertory grid technique, of the opinions and attitudes of experienced heads of art departments in comprehensive schools. Although the results indicate some areas of dissatisfaction, there is a clear overall consensus for acceptance of the mandatory framework. Such views are clearly at odds with most published discourse about National Curriculum Art. It is suggested that the school teachers' attitude to art education is an essentially pragmatic one, which recognises many forms of accountability.     

Discourse-aware rumour stance classification in social media using sequential classifiers

Rumour stance classification, defined as classifying the stance of specific social media posts into one of supporting, denying, querying or commenting on an earlier post, is becoming of increasing interest to researchers. While most previous work has focused on using individual tweets as classifier inputs, here we report on the performance of sequential classifiers that exploit the discourse features inherent in social media interactions or ‘conversational threads’. Testing the effectiveness of four sequential classifiers – Hawkes Processes, Linear-Chain Conditional Random Fields (Linear CRF), Tree-Structured Conditional Random Fields (Tree CRF) and Long Short Term Memory networks (LSTM) – on eight datasets associated with breaking news stories, and looking at different types of local and contextual features, our work sheds new light on the development of accurate stance classifiers. We show that sequential classifiers that exploit the use of discourse properties in social media conversations while using only local features, outperform non-sequential classifiers. Furthermore, we show that LSTM using a reduced set of features can outperform the other sequential classifiers; this performance is consistent across datasets and across types of stances. To conclude, our work also analyses the different features under study, identifying those that best help characterise and distinguish between stances, such as supporting tweets being more likely to be accompanied by evidence than denying tweets. We also set forth a number of directions for future research.     

Pupils’ voices about citizenship education: comparative case studies in Finland,Sweden and England

The aim of the article is to present and discuss a study in which Finnish, English and Swedish pupils’ understanding of citizenship education with regard to: (a) political literacy; and (b) attitudes and values was explored. The study was a cross‐national, multiple case study and data were collected through 18 focus group dialogues with 15‐year‐old pupils. Results showed that English pupils were much more well‐informed about rights and responsibilities than their Nordic counterparts and also more skilled rhetorically, but appeared less accustomed to open and confident relationships with adults than the Swedish pupils. Finnish pupils did not seem to be encouraged to talk; instead they kept their thoughts and feelings to themselves. One conclusion, among others, was that the study illuminates conditions for the development of a so‐called key competence – i.e., ‘interpersonal, intercultural, social and civic competence’.     

Psychometric Properties of the Caregiver Assessment of Movement Participation Scale for Screening Children with Development Coordination Disorders

Using Rasch analysis, the psychometric properties of a newly developed 35‐item parent‐proxy instrument, the Caregiver Assessment of Movement Participation (CAMP), designed to measure movement participation problems in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder, were examined. The CAMP was administered to 465 school children aged 5–10 years. Thirty of the 35 items were retained as they had acceptable infit and outfit statistics. Item separation (7.48) and child separation (3.16) were good; moreover, the CAMP had excellent reliability (Reliability Index for item = 0.98; Person = 0.91). Principal components analysis of item residuals confirmed the unidimensionality of the instrument. Based on category probability statistics, the original five‐point scale was collapsed into a four‐point scale. The item threshold calibration of the CAMP with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Test was computed. The results indicated that a CAMP total score of 75 is the optimal cut‐off point for identifying children at risk of movement problems.     

The views of Irish primary teachers towards the in-class versus the withdrawal models of support when working with children with dyslexia

This article focuses on the perspectives of primary school teachers on the current provision for students with dyslexia in the mainstream classroom. Five themes emerged from this research and these were (1) Diagnosis, (2) Inclusion, (3) Effective classroom practice, (4) Difficulties encountered in the classroom and (5) Teacher education. The focus of this article is on the theme of Inclusion. The data collected explores the perspectives of twelve primary teachers towards the in-class versus withdrawal models to support children with dyslexia in the mainstream classroom. As the concept of inclusive education has evolved in recent years, the objective of this research was to identify the most effective means of addressing the needs of the dyslexic student in the mainstream classroom. The insights provided by the teachers signify the need for in-class support, as much as possible, to support inclusion for students with dyslexia in the mainstream classroom.     

Expansion and equity in Australian higher education: three propositions for new relations

This article outlines three broad propositions for student equity in Australian higher education (HE), arising from the Australian Government's recent policy announcement to expand and widen student participation. The first is that a new relationship between student demand for places and their supply is on the horizon, unlike any other in Australia's history. Specifically, demand will struggle to match the intended supply. Given these new arrangements between government, institution and applicant, the article's second proposition is that governments and universities will need to develop a new regard for the people they seek to attract. And, following on from this, they will need to pay more attention to the nature of HE and its appeal to people who traditionally have not been all that interested. Informing this account are an examination of statistical data, analysis of university outreach programs, and a comparison of current principles of effective teaching in HE. The article concludes that advancing student equity in the current context will require new relations between institutions and students, which include a more sophisticated appreciation for the diversity of students and their communities, and for what they potentially contribute to HE.     

Surprising but not shocking: The reality of the first year of teaching

The need in many countries not merely to recruit but – critically – to retain effective teachers has been a key factor in shaping induction policies. Past reviews of teacher induction have highlighted two important sources of difficulty: novices’ own unrealistic expectations of teaching and of students, and others’ unrealistic expectations of the novices. This article, which examines the relationship between teachers’ expectations of the first year of teaching and the realities that they encounter, explores the ways in which two policies in England – school-based initial teacher education partnerships (established since the early 1990s) and formal induction arrangements (re-introduced in 2000) have impacted on beginning teachers’ experience of the transition. Drawing on data from a three-year longitudinal study it focuses specifically on how the teachers’ reflections on their experience of their first year in teaching are related to the accounts that they give of their learning over the same period.