Unsettling the Body: The Institutionalization of Physical Activity at the Turn of the 20th Century

The turn of the 20^th century was a time of major political and economic fluctuation and demographic shifts in American cities. As a result, physical health and physical supremacy became serious concerns. Between 1880 and 1930, the Progressive Era, politicians, doctors, and educators advocated for physical activity with the intent to improve individual living conditions, health, and well-being. Exploring the history of the playground movement provides insights into the impetus for legalizing physical education in American public schools. In this paper, we examine the complexity and multiplicity of competing educational and political discourses emerging from the playground movement at the turn of the century—civilized play and democratic play. Democratic play provides an example for physical education researchers and physical educators about creating and sustaining progressive physical education curricula and adopting pedagogies that “unsettle the body” to subvert the racial and gender order in physical education classes today.     

Integrating Critical Approaches to Technology and Service-Learning Projects

Discussions of service learning emphasize opportunities for students to gain real world experience through work in community contexts. Less attention, however, has been given to the role of technology in these projects. Incorporating critical reflection on the rhetorical and social dimensions of technology throughout students' collaborations with clients can help to situate their practices within larger public contexts. This sort of reflection can encourage student engagement on a variety of levels: professional, rhetorical, intellectual, personal, and civic.     

Curricular design and implementation as a site of teacher expertise and learning

Previously, research about teacher expertise has adhered to relatively fixed notions of teacher expertise. However, in this study, we share data from teacher study group (TSG) meetings, which demonstrate a dynamic understanding of teacher expertise. In these meetings, teachers discursively positioned themselves, their colleagues, and the research team as both experts and learners as they engaged in a community of enquiry around questions of curriculum design and implementation. We argue that teachers’ dynamic and multiple positionings generated especially striking opportunities for learning. As teachers externalized their expert knowledge, their assumptions were brought forth to be examined, challenged, and reconsidered, thus opening space for further learning. We argue that these TSGs thus existed as a site for teacher learning, in which teacher dialog around curricular design, redesign, and the student learning that occurred in the lessons influenced their own learning about their students’ capabilities. We make a case for further research that explores how teacher expertise is interwoven with episodes of teacher learning. We assert that a complex understanding of teacher expertise, grounded in principles of learning occurring through social interaction, has important implications for how the field should move forward in its approach to fostering teacher learning throughout teachers’ careers.     

Considering Social Validity in Special Education Research

This article is part of a special LDRP research-to-practice series introducing key concepts to enable special education practitioners and other nonresearchers to be more informed research consumers. In the article, we explore how social validity is assessed in special education research and how to interpret social validity assessments. Rather than focusing on measuring intervention effects, social validity involves assessing the social importance of the goals, procedures, and outcomes of interventions and programs. We define social validity, provide questions to consider when examining assessments of social validity in research papers, review approaches commonly used to assess social validity with examples from the research literature, and make recommendations for reconciling findings of positive intervention effects on targeted outcomes but absent or negative findings related to social validity in a study. Our take-home message is that considering social validity assessments helps research consumers interpret study findings and informs how to apply findings in practice.     

Exploring the Experiences of Preschool Teachers Working with Children Living with Parental Mental Illness

Early Childhood Education Journal - Children exposed to the risk factors associated with parental mental illness are seen to be at risk of developing cognitive, emotional, and behavioural...     

Does early childhood education help to improve high school outcomes? Results from Tulsa

Early childhood education contributes to improved school readiness but impacts on high school remain unclear. This study estimates the effects of Tulsa, Oklahoma's universal pre-K and Head Start programs through the junior year of high school (in 2018/2019; N = 2902; M_age = 16.52, SD = .39; 48% female; 28% white, 34% Black, 27% Hispanic, 8% Native American). Propensity score weighted regressions suggest students who attended pre-K, but not Head Start, missed less school, were less likely to fail courses and be retained in grade, were more likely to take an Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate course, but did not have higher test scores or grades. Subgroup analyses by race/ethnicity demonstrated some differences in the pattern of associations favoring students of color.     

A Laplace pressure based microfluidic trap for passive droplet trapping and controlled release

Here, we present a microfluidic droplet trap that takes advantage of the net Laplace pressure force generated when a droplet is differentially constricted. Mathematical simulations were first used to understand the working range of the component; followed by finite element modeling using the CFD software package to further characterize the behavior of the system. Controlled release of the trapped droplets is also demonstrated through both a mechanical method and a chemical method that manipulates the total pressure exerted on the trapped droplet. The unique design of this trapping device also provides the capability for selection of a single droplet from a train, as well as droplet fusion.     

A feminist poststructuralist examination into the President’s Challenge Physical Fitness Awards Program

The purpose of this viewpoint is to systematically synthesise the intersection of research that focuses on poststructuralism as related to a physical education discourse (namely President’s Challenge Physical Fitness Awards Program). A feminist poststructuralist framework will be used to investigate the ways in which the hegemonic design of norm‐referenced youth fitness tests influence students’ gendering of the body through the notion of the normalised body. We propose that the tests and qualifying standards that are markedly different for prepubescent girls and boys fosters a gendered continuum that forces some students into dominant positions, while others are pushed to the margins.     

Examining Secondary Special Education Teachers’ Literacy Instructional Practices

This study presents findings from a survey of secondary special education teachers who teach reading. Respondents were 577 special education teachers from a large Midwestern state who completed an online or mail survey. Results based on quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate predominant foci of secondary special education teachers’ reading instructional practices were teaching vocabulary and comprehension, engaging in ongoing formative assessment, and incorporating technology into instruction. Major themes included the widespread use of commercial reading programs and a bifurcation of instructional roles. These findings are discussed in relation to the national discourse on adolescent literacy and current schooling initiatives including the Common Core State Standards and Multi-tiered Systems of Support.     

A Framework for Defining Contextual Features of Training and Coaching Practices

Training and coaching are cited frequently to achieve different goals, by different people, across different fields. Who provides training and coaching and where and how they are provided may influence the effectiveness of the training and coaching efforts, making the clear identification of these contextual features of paramount importance to successful implementation and dissemination of training and coaching programs. First, we propose a framework for elucidating these contextual features, and then we apply this framework to a circumscribed review of the literature on parent training and coaching in early intervention services to assess its utility. We discuss the extent to which contextual features have been described in this body of research, offer additional considerations for applying the framework based on this review, and propose possible implications of our findings for implementation, dissemination, and future research efforts.