Ladylike/butch,sporty/dapper: exploring ‘gender climate’ with Australian LGBTQ students using stage–environment fit theory

Research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning (LGBTQ) and genderqueer (GQ) students has highlighted the links between school-based marginalisation and decreased school outcomes. This paper applies stage–environment fit theory to an investigation of school ‘gender climate’, the official and unofficial policing of gender expression by school staff and students, to explore what role gender climate plays in the above relationship. Three school life components associated with stage–environment fit theory – (1) the organisational, (2) the instructional and (3) the interpersonal – were used to scaffold interview data on school gender climate from five LGBTQ Australian young people. Results implicate school staff in the maintenance of gender climate and highlight the deleterious impact of school silences on related subject matter.     

The influence of club-head kinematics on early ball flight characteristics in the golf drive

Despite many coaching and biomechanical texts describing how the kinematics of the club-head at impact lead to distance and accuracy of the ball flight, there is limited quantitative evidence supporting these assertions. The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationships between club-head kinematics and subsequent early ball flight characteristics during the golf drive. An opto-reflective system operating at 400 Hz was used to capture the swings of 21 male golfers using their own drivers. The 3D displacement data permitted the calculation of club-head kinematics at impact, as well as subsequent early ball flight characteristics. Using regression analyses, club-head kinematics at impact (velocity, orientation, path, and centeredness) were used to explain the variability in five dependent variables of early ball flight characteristics (resultant velocity, launch angle, side angle, back spin, and side spin). The results of the study indicated that club-head kinematics at impact explained a significant proportion of early ball flight characteristics (adjusted r ² = 0.71–0.82), even when generalized across individual clubs.     

Indoor Golf Skill Test for Junior High School Boys

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of concurrent augmented feedback on isometric force output during familiar and unfamiliar muscle movements, 18 men and 21 women, 18 to 23 years of age, completed two isometric exercises: flexion of the thumb (a familiar muscle movement) and abduction of the fifth digit (an unfamiliar movement). The exercises consisted of 10 maximum voluntary isometric contractions lasting 10 s each and separated by 10-s intertrial rest intervals. Concurrent visual feedback was provided during alternate contractions. The order of exercises and trials for feedback was randomly assigned and balanced over subjects. Peak force output during abduction of the fifth digit was significantly (p ≤ .01) greater with (4.4 ± 0.29 kg) than without feedback (4.1 ± 0.26 kg). Feedback did not influence (p > .05) peak force output during thumb flexion (232 ±1.09 kg vs 22.5± 1.05 kg). Muscular fatigue was more pronounced during thumb flexion without feedback (18.4 ± 1.17%) than when feedback was provided (11.8 ±136%). These data suggest that fatigue may increase the effect of feedback on force generation during familiar muscular movements. To obtain maximal isometric force measures during strength testing, augmented feedback should be provided.     

Relationship between Modern-Dance Experience and Balancing Performance

Abstract

Nicholls's theory of achievement motivation (1989) assumes one's goal orientation in an achievement activity is consistent with one's views concerning what is acceptable behavior in that setting. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of a task and ego goal orientation (i.e., the tendency to focus on personal mastery or beating others, respectively) to sportsmanship attitudes and perceptions of the legitimacy of aggressive acts by testing this assumption in the context of interscholastic sport. Fifty-six male and 67 female high school basketball players completed a three-part questionnaire assessing (a) individual differences in goal orientation, (b) approval of “unsportsmanlike play/cheating,” “strategic play,” and “sportsmanship behaviors,” and (c) subjective ratings of the legitimacy of intentionally injurious behaviors. All measures were basketball-specific. Results indicated a low task orientation and high ego orientation corresponded to an endorsement of unsportsmanlike play/cheating. Ego orientation positively related to the rating of aggressive acts as more legitimate. Gender differences in goal orientation, sportsmanship attitudes, and legitimacy ratings were observed.     

Efficacy of Skinfold Training Clinics: A Comparison between Clinic Trained and Experienced Testers

Abstract

In an attempt to differentiate more adequately between the terms motor ability and athletic participation in their relationship to some measurable aspects of personality, a group of 167 Pomona College junior and senior male students were classified both as to level of motor ability and participation in athletics and were administered the CPI. Utilizing a total test response derived from the sum of ranks of median scores, low and middle motor ability groups ranked higher in the main effects and within the nonathlete and intramural participation groups, but athletic participation did not appear to have any effect upon the measures studied. The pattern of results suggested an expectation hypothesis wherein higher ratings in the personality inventory might be achieved by groups of subjects who participated at a level which would be “expected” in relation to their motor ability.     

An Exploratory Investigation of the Counseling Competencies Scale: A Measure of Counseling Skills,Dispositions, and Behaviors

The authors examined the psychometric properties of the Counseling Competencies Scale (CCS; University of Central Florida Counselor Education Faculty, 2009 ), an instrument designed to assess trainee competencies as measured in their counseling skills, dispositions, and behaviors. There was strong internal consistency for the 4‐factor model for midterm data (.927) and the 5‐factor model for final data (.933). Interrater reliability for the total CCS score was .570, and criterion‐related validity (correlation between the total score on the final CCS and semester grade) yielded a moderate correlation (r= .407, p < .01). Thus, the results provide initial support for using the CCS to assess counseling students’ professional competencies.     

Graphing as a Means to Improve Middle School Science Learning and Mathematics-Related Affective Domains

Research in Science Education - This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Mathematics Infusion into Science Project (MiSP), which integrated science and mathematics in an engaging middle school...     

A simplified approach to teaching medical students ocular movements and the rationale in testing the oculomotor,trochlear, and abducent nerves

The actions of the individual extraocular muscles are best explained to medical students in a lecture format by showing the relationship of each muscle to the axes of the globe and the walls of the bony orbit. The lateral and medial rectus muscles cross only the vertical axis, and consequently, cause only abduction and adduction, respectively. These muscles can be tested simply by asking the patient to abduct or adduct. Inability to do so indicates that the muscles and/or their innervation have been compromised. In contrast, the superior and inferior oblique and rectus muscles cross all three axes (vertical, horizontal, and anteroposterior) of the globe. Therefore, concentric contraction of each of these muscles results in three movements; abduction or adduction, elevation or depression, and intorsion or extorsion. These muscles must be tested with a sequence of two movements. Gaze can be either elevated or depressed by both an oblique and a rectus muscle. If abduction or adduction occurs first, one muscle of the pair becomes incapable of causing elevation or depression of the pupil. The rationale for abducting or adducting first is that either the oblique or rectus muscle of the pair will no longer cross the horizontal axis and will then be unable to effect the desired movement. Inability to elevate or depress gaze from the abducted or adducted position shows which muscle, the oblique or rectus, and/or its innervation has been compromised. Anat Sci Ed 1:126–129, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

Teaching the Immigrant Child: Application of Child Development Theories

Immigrant children are an under-researched yet a steadily growing group. It is therefore compelling for practitioners to understand challenges these children are likely to encounter in the classroom so as to effectively meet their needs. In this article various theoretical perspectives of prominent child development theories are analyzed in an attempt to understand immigrant children in the classroom. Theories of Maslow, Freud, Erikson, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bronfenbrenner are explicitly discussed. Some suggestions for practice are also provided.     

Children's Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviour,as Perceived by Children,Parents and Teachers

Within the context of a widespread concern with children's antisocial behaviour, especially bullying, the development of ‘whole‐school’ policies on bullying, and also recent national guidelines which emphasise the importance of fostering children's prosocial behaviours, this research examines the extent to which children, parents and teachers exhibit within‐ and between‐group consensus, both in their perceptions and relative judgements of different forms of child prosocial and antisocial behaviours, and in their responses to such behaviours. Less consensus was found in judgements of prosodal than of antisocial behaviours, both within and between groups, and significant between‐group differences are discussed in the context of the teaching of social behaviour.