Redefining the ResponsibiIities of Teachers and the Social Position of the Technical Communicator

As we increasingly recognize the social nature of technical communication, our responsibilities as teachers need to be redefined. Three levels of responsibility are suggested: at the theoretical level, we should study technical communication as a historically emergent social practice; at the pedagogical level, we need to incorporate social and historical perspectives into technical communication courses and curricula; at the level of social action, we should participate in defining and creating new sites of practice for technical communicators. Several suggestions are offered for helping students locate or develop alternative sites of technical communication practice.     

Focus-on-form instructional methods promote deaf college students' improvement in English grammar

Focus-on-form English teaching methods are designed to facilitate second-language learners' noticing of target language input, where "noticing" is an acquisitional prerequisite for the comprehension, processing, and eventual integration of new grammatical knowledge. While primarily designed for teaching hearing second-language learners, many focus-on-form methods lend themselves to visual presentation. This article reports the results of classroom research on the visually based implementation of focus-on-form methods with deaf college students learning English. Two of 3 groups of deaf students received focus-on-form instruction during a 10-week remedial grammar course; a third control group received grammatical instruction that did not involve focus-on-form methods. The 2 experimental groups exhibited significantly greater improvement in English grammatical knowledge relative to the control group. These results validate the efficacy of visually based focus-on-form English instruction for deaf students of English and set the stage for the continual search for innovative and effective English teaching methodologies.     

Primary physical education subject leadership: along the road from in-house solutions to outsourcing

The modern primary school is a complex institution containing a growing community of individuals and organisations with potentially competing agendas. Within this environment, subject leaders are typically looked upon for advice and guidance within a given subject area such as Physical Education. Yet for those endeavouring to provide Physical Education subject leadership within primary schools, the challenge has grown significantly over the last two decades amidst an ever-changing policy landscape. This paper is for and about primary Physical Education subject leadership; the purpose of which, to plot primary Physical Education's policy journey and explore the implications of reform in shaping the subject leader's role. The paper addresses the current lack of guidance for the subject leader and examines the professional knowledge, skills and experience required to do the role effectively.     

1982 FIFA World Cup: from Spain’s struggle for democratic legitimacy to Italy’s rediscovery of football nationalism

ABSTRACT

One of the most memorable moments in the World Cups history is Marco Tardelli’s second goal in Italy’s win over Germany in the 1982 World Cup finals. Better known as Tardelli’s scream, it is thus a perfect object to analyse in order to understand football’s deeper social meanings and its political and cultural undertones, in this case both for the World Cup champions, Italy, and for the host country, Spain. In the Spanish case, organizing the World Cup was a huge political opportunity for the just restored democracy to showcase to the world a modern and pluralistic society leaving behind the authoritarian and outdated dictatorship. As for Italy, their first World Cup winning since World War II was heavily politically used by actors across the political spectrum. Such nationalistic approach constituted a novelty after decades of a low profile national discourse.     

Sand training: Exercise-induced muscle damage and inflammatory responses to matched-intensity exercise

This study compared markers of muscle damage and inflammation elevated by a matched-intensity interval running session on soft sand and grass surfaces. In a counterbalanced, repeated-measures and crossover design, 10 well-trained female athletes completed 2 interval-based running sessions 1 week apart on either a grass or a sand surface. Exercise heart rate (HR) was fixed at 83–88% of HR maximum. Venous blood samples were collected pre-, post- and 24?h post-exercise, and analysed for myoglobin (Mb) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Perceptual ratings of exertion (RPE) and muscle soreness (DOMS) were recorded immediately post- and 24?h post-exercise. A significant time effect showed that Mb increased from pre- to post-exercise on grass (p?=?.008) but not on sand (p?=?.611). Furthermore, there was a greater relative increase in Mb on grass compared with that on sand (p?=?.026). No differences in CRP were reported between surfaces (p?>?.05). The HR, RPE and DOMS scores were not significantly different between conditions (p > .05). These results suggest that in response to a matched-intensity exercise bout, markers of post-exercise muscle damage may be reduced by running on softer ground surfaces. Such training strategy may be used to minimize musculoskeletal strain while still incurring an equivalent cardiovascular training stimulus.     

Creating the plural self: athletic teams’ use of members’ bodies

Galatzer‐Levy and Cohler's (1993) definition of “ self” allows for the possibility of a “ plural self,” that is, moments when an individual locates the center of initiative for action, feeling, and awareness among a group of people. Using observations and interviews, this investigation explores the ways four basketball teams used players’ bodies to create such a plural self, transforming autonomous individuals into interconnected, deindividualized members. One set of somatic practices made the team perceptible as a whole: huddles, team movements, hand slapping, and certain passing drills. A complementary set of practices encouraged the players to incorporate the team into their bodies. Examples presented of such incorporation are communal relaxation of bodily tension, the rhythms of shared ritual music, and a “sixth sense” of the location of teammates. Acute pain interferes with the emergence of this plural self in both injured and healthy players. The possibility is raised that for many athletes this temporarily realized plural self continues as a possible self and invites the development of certain virtues and failings.     

Early Literacy Measures for Improving Student Reading Achievement: Translating Research Into Practice

The importance of early literacy instruction and its role in later reading proficiency is well established; however, measures and procedures to screen and monitor proficiency in the area of early literacy are less well researched. The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the technical adequacy and validity of early curriculum-based literacy measures, Letter–Sound Correspondence, Onset Phoneme Identification, and Phoneme Segmentation, developed for use within the problem-solving model in the Minneapolis Public Schools and (b) describe the district-wide implementation of these measures. In general, these measures were found to have adequate reliability and validity, have moderate to moderately high correlations with criterion measures (oral reading, report cards), and be sensitive to growth across the school year. A case study of how these measures are used for screening and progress monitoring to improve reading achievement within 1 school is included. Limitations and future directions are also presented.