Lower income students and the ‘double deficit’ of part-time work: undergraduate experiences of finance,studying and employability

This paper explores how the various pressures of finance, employability and part-time work are experienced by undergraduates studying in an English Red Brick University. Drawing on the results of a 3-year qualitative study that followed 40 students throughout their 3 years of studies (n? = 40, n? = 40, n? = 38, n_total = 118), the paper details three dimensions by which students understood their part-time employment experiences: the characteristics of employment types; motivations for employment and the challenges of shaping their employment experiences around their studies. It is argued that the current shortfalls in the student budget and the pressures of the employability agenda may actually serve to further disadvantage the lower income groups in the form of a ‘double deficit’. Not only are discrepancies between income and expenditure likely to mean that additional monies are necessary to study for a degree, the resulting need for part-time employment is also likely to constrain both degree outcome and capacity to enhance skills necessary for ‘employability’.     

Global undernutrition during gestation influences learning during adult life

Intrauterine growth restriction can lead to significant long-term health consequences such as metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, but less is known about its effects on choice and behavioral adaptation in later life. Virgin Wistar rats were time mated and randomly assigned to receive either ad-libitum access to chow or 30% of that level of nutrition during pregnancy to generate growth-restricted offspring. At 60 days of age, 6 female offspring from each group were trained on concurrent variable-interval schedules. Sessions consisted of seven randomly arranged concurrent-schedule components, each with a different reinforcer ratio that varied from 27:1 to 1:27, and each component lasting for 10 reinforcer deliveries. Behavioral change across reinforcers in components, measured by sensitivity to reinforcement, was consistently lower for offspring of undernourished mothers, showing that their behavior was less adaptable to environmental change. These results provide direct experimental evidence for a link between prenatal environmental conditions and reduced behavioral adaptability--learning--in later life.     

Decision training: the effects of complex instruction, variable practice and reduced delayed feedback on the acquisition and transfer of a motor skill.

Novice, intermediate and advanced baseball hitters followed a 7-week training programme, in which they received either behavioural training or decision training. Participants in the behavioural training group received simple-to-complex instruction, variable practice and an abundance of feedback throughout the acquisition period; the decision training group received complex instruction, variable practice and reduced delayed feedback. As predicted, the intermediate and advanced hitters who received decision training hit at a lower level (%) during acquisition but at a higher level during a transfer test in week 7. Novices in the behavioural training group were better than novices in the decision training group over both acquisition and transfer trials.     

Stress and teachers of the learning disabled,behavior disordered,and educable mentally retarded

This study investigated which factors related to the professional roles of teachers of the learning disabled (LD), behavior disordered (BD), and educable mentally retarded (EMR) are most stressful, and which activities, both personal and professional, are beneficial in guarding against stress. The Special Teacher Response to Environmental Stressors (STRESS) was used to elicit responses from the 135 teachers who participated in the study. The participants rated as highly stressful legal concerns, lack of administrative and peer support, and lack of support services. In particular, teachers of the BD revealed that they were fearful of verbal and physical attacks from their students. The participants rated highly exercise and outdoor programs, confiding in significant others (i.e., wife or husband), and peer support as helpful in guarding against stress.     

Quiet eye predicts goaltender success in deflected ice hockey shots†

Abstract

In interceptive timing tasks, long quiet eye (QE) durations at the release point, along with early tracking on the object, allow performers to couple their actions to the kinematics of their opponent and regulate their movements based on emergent information from the object's trajectory. We used a mobile eye tracker to record the QE of eight university-level ice hockey goaltenders of an equivalent skill level as they responded to shots that deflected off a board placed to their left or right, resulting in a trajectory with low predictability. QE behaviour was assessed using logistic regression and magnitude-based inference. We found that when QE onset occurred later in the shot (950?±?580?ms, mean?±?SD) there was an increase in the proportion of goals allowed (41% vs. 22%) compared to when QE onset occurred earlier. A shorter QE duration (1260?±?630?ms) predicted a large increase in the proportion of goals scored (38% vs. 14%). More saves occurred when QE duration (2074?±?47?ms) was longer. An earlier QE offset (2004?±?66?ms) also resulted in a large increase in the number of goals allowed (37% vs. 11%) compared to a later offset (2132?±?41?ms). Since an early, sustained QE duration contributed to a higher percentage of saves, it is important that coaches develop practice activities that challenge the goaltender's ability to fixate the puck early, as well as sustain a long QE fixation on the puck until after it is released from the stick.     

Aspects of the Reliability and Validity of School Inspection Judgements of Teaching Quality

This paper presents the results of the first study of aspects of the reliability and validity of judgements of teaching quality made by independent inspectors in the classrooms of primary and secondary schools in England. The study shows, in particular, that two trained inspectors, independently observing the same lesson, are likely to identify the same strengths and weaknesses in the teaching and to arrive at similar conclusions about its overall quality. The strengths and weaknesses identified reflect appropriate application of the evaluation criteria specified by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), and the better the teaching is judged to be, the more the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. The agreement between inspectors reported here is comparable with that found by the Dutch Inspectorate in similar studies. Résumé Cet article présente les résultats d’une première étude anglaise sur la fiabilité et la validité des jugements émis sur la qualité de l’enseignement par des inspecteurs indépendants dans des classes d’école primaire et secondaire en Angleterre. Cette étude montre notamment que deux inspecteurs, formés à cette tâche, qui observent de façon indépendante la même leçon, vont probablement identifier les mêmes points forts et faibles de l’enseignement et parviendront à des conclusions semblables sur sa qualité d’ensemble. Les points forts et faibles qui sont identifiés reflètent l’application appropriée des critères d’évaluation définis par le Bureau pour les standards de l’enseignement (OFSTED). Plus l’enseignement est considéré comme bon, plus les points forts l’emportent sur les faibles. Le degré d’accord entre les inspecteurs décrit ici est comparable à celui qui a été mis en évidence dans des études du même type par des inspecteurs néerlandais. (Traduction: Liliane Jeanneret Clerc, IRDP, Neuchâtel / Suisse)     

Keepers of the sacred flame: patriotism,politics and the Chinese history subject community in Hong Kong

Chinese history (a subject entirely separate and distinct from ‘history’) has long been the most politically sensitive subject in Hong Kong's school curriculum. Previous studies have analysed the policies of the colonial and postcolonial Governments towards this subject. Here, we examine the role played by the Chinese history subject community (comprising teachers, academics and officials in the Government's educational bureaucracy), and look at the way in which this has operated as an autonomous interest group. We conclude that the influence of this subject community has been a key factor limiting the extent to which the local educational authorities have been able to develop a coherent policy in relation to history education in general, and the teaching of national history in particular. Specifically, advocates of the maintenance of Chinese history as a separate subject within the school curriculum have been able, by associating themselves with the post‐1997 agenda of ‘patriotic education’, to effectively hoist the local educational bureaucracy with its own petard.