Identifying the Critical Time Period for Information Extraction When Recognizing Sequences of Play

We analyzed the effect of an 8-week strength training (ST) program on the rate of force development (RFD) and electromyographic activity (EMG) in older women. Seventeen women (M age = 63.4 years, SD = 4.9) without previous ST experience were randomly assigned to either a control (n = 7) or training (n = 10) group. A leg-press isometric test was used for assessment. ST (three sessions/ week, three sets of 10–12 repetition maximum, five different exercises) induced significant increases (p < .05) on peak RFD (48.4%) and on RFD and EMG of vastus medialis at time intervals of 0–50, 0–100, 0–150, and 0–200 ms (41.1–69.2% and 43.8– 64.3%, respectively). Therefore, ST resulted in favorable changes in neuromuscular responses in older women.     

Age and Sex Differences in Motor Performance of 3 through 6 Year Old Children

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of age and sex to the performance of 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds on seven motor performance test items. Although significant age and sex differences were found on most of the motor tests, it appears that age generally was related more to performance than was gender. Overall, change with age was fairly linear except perhaps for balancing and a general tapering in improvement in the 5 to 6 year old category. On the tests of throwing and balancing, gender was as important as age, or more so, in its relationship to performance. Boys were superior to girls at all ages on the throwing tests; girls were superior to boys at age 6 on the Balance test. Gender differences of a lesser magnitude were found on the Speed Run and Standing Long Jump tests with the performance of boys generally being superior to the performance of girls. Thus, it appears that gender differences in motor performance occur as early as the preschool years. Interestingly, except for the Balance test, on all the tests the 3 and 4 year old boys performed similarly and the 5 and 6 year old boys performed similarly. For the girls there were more significant differences from year to year in performance, with the data generally indicating at least three distinct skill groups for girls from age 3 to 6.     

Learning mathematics for teaching in the student teaching experience: two contrasting cases

Student teaching (guided teaching by a prospective teacher under the supervision of an experienced “cooperating” teacher) provides an important opportunity for prospective teachers to increase their understanding of mathematics in and for teaching. The interactions between a student teacher and cooperating teacher provide an obvious mechanism for such learning to occur. We report here on data that is part of a larger study of eight student teacher/cooperating teacher pairs, and the core themes that emerged from their conversations. We focus on two pairs for whom the core conversational themes represent disparate approaches to mathematics in and for teaching. One pair, Blake and Mr. B., focused on controlling student behavior and rarely talked about mathematics for teaching. The other pair, Tara and Mr. T., focused on having students actively participating in the lesson and on mathematics from the students’ point of view. These contrasting experiences suggest that student teaching can have a profound effect on prospective teachers’ understanding of mathematics in and for teaching.

Reimagining the role of mentor teachers in professional experience: moving to I as fellow teacher educator

New accreditation requirements for Australian initial teacher education programs require that universities and schools establish quality partnerships to ensure strong links between pre-service teachers’ university-based learning and school-based professional learning experiences. This paper focuses on the shifts of identity, thinking and practice that occurred for five school-based mentor teachers as they co-created new professional experience practices alongside university-based teacher educators in a Teaching Academies of Professional Practice (TAPP) project. Interview data was analysed through the theoretical framework of Dialogical Self Theory to examine how the repositioning of mentor teachers as fellow teacher educators allowed for expansion in the understanding and enactment of their role. The findings of this study suggest that partnerships between schools and universities can enhance learning opportunities for all participants when commitments are made to creating collaborative and dialogical spaces to support new approaches to teacher education.     

A Matter of Time: Emotional Responses to Timed Mathematics Tests

This study examines the emotional responses of three individuals to timed mathematics tests. We examine the emotional responses of two adult women who look back to timed skills-tests in elementary school and the emotional response of a grade-three girl currently taking timed skills-tests. To interpret the individual reactions, we use a non-Newtonian view of time and draw on Mandler's insights into the nature of emotional responses. We examine the implications of these emotional responses for equitable assessment practices.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Associations between peer bullying and classroom concentration: evidence for mediation by perceived personal safety and relationship with teacher

Being bullied is associated with a psycho-social maladjustment during childhood. One hitherto largely overlooked correlate is disrupted classroom concentration. Using data collected from 364 9–11-year-old children attending seven junior schools in the UK, we tested a model in which children’s perceived safety in two contexts (classroom and playground) and their perceived relationship with their teacher were hypothesised to mediate the association between being bullied and classroom concentration. Two analytical approaches to testing multiple mediation – product of coefficients and bootstrapping – supported the model. None of the mediation effects was moderated by sex but they were by year; in all cases the mediation effect was stronger in the older children than in the younger children (but still significant among the latter). These data suggest mechanisms through which bullying might have its effects on classroom concentration. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Use and exchange value in mathematics education: contemporary CHAT meets Bourdieu’s sociology

Empirical work has shown how mathematics education exhibits certain tensions between its value as being practically useful to production and consumption on the one hand and in offering access to scarce resources on the other hand. These tensions can be ultimately traced to the contradictions in the way mathematical knowledge enhances the use value and exchange value of labour power, respectively. To understand this as a social psychological phenomenon, I look to two well-known theoretical perspectives on education, first that of the Marxist psychology of Vygotsky and activity theory (and contemporary cultural–historical activity theory) which I find tends to marginalise ‘exchange value’. Second, I look to Bourdieu’s sociology of education that tends to marginalise the use value. I then bring together these two perspectives in a joint theory of education as both development and re-production of labour power, in which use and exchange value both have their place (in commodity production). This helps explain where mathematics education might be critical.