Evaluating the sustainability of SPARK physical education: a case study of translating research into practice

Dissemination and sustainability of evidence-based physical education programs (PE) has been studied rarely. The sustainability of a health-related PE program (SPARK) was independently evaluated in 111 elementary schools in 7 states. Surveys were mailed to schools that had received SPARK curriculum books, training and follow-up (response rate = 47%). Up to 80% of schools that adopted SPARK PE reported sustained use up to 4 years later. Schools using SPARK had more frequent PE classes. Sustained use was related to support from the principal, not previously having a standard PE program, having adequate equipment, and teachers being physically active. Program sustainability was similar in advantaged and disadvantaged schools. Evidence-based PE programs can be sustained up to 4 years.     

A single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia

This study investigated the effect of a single session of resistance exercise on postprandial lipaemia. Eleven healthy normolipidaemic men with a mean age of 23 (standard error = 1.4) years performed two trials at least 1 week apart in a counterbalanced randomized design. In each trial, participants consumed a test meal (1.2 g fat, 1.1 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g protein and 68 kJ x kg(-1) body mass) between 08.00 and 09.00 h following a 12 h fast. The afternoon before one trial, the participants performed an 88 min bout of resistance exercise. Before the other trial, the participants were inactive (control trial). Resistance exercise was performed using free weights and included four sets of 10 repetitions of each of 11 exercises. Sets were performed at 80% of 10-repetition maximum with a 2 min work and rest interval. Venous blood samples were obtained in the fasted state and at intervals for 6 h postprandially. Fasting plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) concentration did not differ significantly between control (1.03 +/- 0.13 mmol x l(-1)) and exercise (0.94 +/- 0.09 mmol x l(-1)) trials (mean +/- standard error). Similarly, the 6 h total area under the plasma TAG concentration versus time curve did not differ significantly between the control (9.84 +/- 1.40 mmol l(-1) x 6 h(-1)) and exercise (9.38 +/- 1.12 mmol x l(-1) x 6 h(-1)) trials. These findings suggest that a single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia.     

Everyday life and everyday learning: the ways in which pre-service teacher education curriculum can encourage personal dimensions of teacher identity

This article presents and discusses the findings of a research project, the main objective of which is to identify curriculum components that promote personal development as a nuclear part of teacher professional identity formation through pre-service teacher education. Curriculum is viewed as an ecological scenario with different subsystems and both as formal and informal. Identity formation is conceived as an ever-provisional result of a double transaction: the biographical one and the relational one. The curricula of four different historical periods of pre-service teacher education in Portugal and the professional identity of teachers trained within them were characterised through collection and analysis of documents and biographical narratives. Crossing results from the four periods, the quality of school climate emerges as an important variable to the quality of the teachers’ identity. The lifelong learning ethos seems to emerge when the training curriculum connects everyday learning with everyday life, namely by urging the students’ involvement in school life, peer learning activities and peer and teacher educators’ informal learning activities.     

The Critical Thinking Analytic Rubric (CTAR): Investigating intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of a scoring mechanism for critical thinking performance assessments

The purpose of this study was to investigate the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the Critical Thinking Analytic Rubric (CTAR). The CTAR is composed of 6 rubric categories: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and disposition. To investigate inter-rater reliability, two trained raters scored four sets of performance-based student work samples derived from a pilot study and subsequent larger study. The two raters also blindly scored a subset of student work samples a second time to investigate intra-rater reliability. Participants in this study were high school seniors enrolled in a college preparation course. Both raters showed acceptable levels of intra-rater reliability (α ≥ 0.70) in five of the six rubric categories. One rater showed poor consistency (α = 0.56) for the analysis category of the rubric, while the other rater showed excellent consistency (α = 0.91) for the same category suggesting the need for further training of the former rater. The results of the inter-rater reliability investigation demonstrate acceptable levels of consistency (α ≥ 0.70) in all rubric categories. This investigation demonstrated that the CTAR can be used by raters to score student work samples in a consistent manner.     

Communication: One key to mainstreaming success

Mainstreaming the exceptional child necessitates that regular and special teachers work much more closely today than in the past. The most important element for successful mainstreaming is effective communication (Schubert & Glick, 1981). This article describes the collaborative consultation model as one approach to attaining good, effective communication.     

Aerial Robotics in Computer Science Education

This paper reports on experience with project courses, especially those concerning the design and construction of an autonomous aerial robot.

Dealing with this complex application task in small teams, advanced students are coached by teaching assistants in state‐of‐the‐art work in special fields of computer science.

The task includes a high potential for motivation and is sufficiently complex for a large range of techniques required. Team‐orientation is an important aspect; the students have to establish and coordinate various individual tasks.     

Sexual dimorphism in bone–muscle relationship in young adults

The purpose of this study was to analyse associations between lean soft tissue (LST), a surrogate of skeletal muscle mass and key fracture-related geometric characteristics of the proximal femur. Moreover, we examined the role that muscle played on the proximal femur geometry in response to physical activity (PA). Participants were 83 young adults. Leg LST (exposure) was assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Proximal femur geometry was derived from a left hip DXA scan. Geometric variables (outcomes) included the femoral neck axis length (FNAL), the femoral neck width (FNW), the neck–shaft angle and FNW|FNAL (an index of robustness). PA was evaluated by accelerometry. Linear regression was used to analyse relationships. Additional exposure variables included body height and mass. In males, leg LST explained 17.4% of variation in FNAL (P < 0.001) and 15% in FNW (P = 0.015). In females, it explained 8.8% of the variance in FNAL (P = 0.020). Associations remained significant in males, but not in females, when vigorous PA was added to the models. These results suggest that public health approaches to promote PA may be particularly important in females since vigorous PA seems to convey advantages in femur geometry and consequently in bone strength.