Analysis of Satisfaction and Perceived Learning of Science in Different Distance Education Delivery Modes for Rural Elementary School Teachers Involved in a Professional Development Project

The Science Co-op is a local systemic change project that connects eight regional clusters of elementary schools in rural Missouri and Iowa in the USA. These clusters are comprised of 38 school districts distributed over 40,000 square miles and include more than 1,400 teachers and 20,000 elementary school students. The project stresses inquiry science in the classroom and involves investigating science ideas using a constructivist approach and cross-curricular connections. Within the frameworks of the Science Co-op project a technology known as Interactive Television (ITV) allows for almost real-time interaction (a 3–5 second delay) within the state boundaries of Missouri and Iowa, respectively. The primary goals of the ITV sessions are to enhance the science content and science pedagogical knowledge among the population of elementary school teachers that they may have lacked in their prior education, and to reinforce and extend instructional strategies emphasized in this local systemic change project. In this study the participants' self-reported learning and reactions to live ITV sessions and videotaped, delayed broadcast of ITV sessions were compared. Regression analysis results show teaching experience's influence on overall satisfaction with ITV (p<0.05) while mode attended, perceived technical difficulty, preferred mode, and perceived new skills or content learned in the session entered the regression equation at p=.000. Further t-tests suggested p>0.05 for perceived new skills and content learned on the different modes of communication.     

Child abuse: adolescent records vs. adult recall

In a follow-up study of incarcerated Connecticut youth, 69 subjects were interviewed during young adulthood. On follow-up, 26 gave histories of abuse discrepant with histories obtained from records and interviews conducted in adolescence. Eleven subjects agreed to an additional clarification interview, at which time they were apprised of the discrepancies. Of these, eight had adolescent records indicating that abuse had occurred but denied abuse during the adult follow-up interview. The remaining three had adolescent records indicating no abuse had ever occurred, but, on follow-up, reported having been abused. The additional clarification interviews revealed that all 11 subjects with discrepant histories had, in fact, been abused. Reasons for these discrepant data and strategies to enhance the investigator's ability to obtain accurate data regarding abuse are discussed.     

Scientific conviction amidst scientific controversy in the transatlantic livestock and meat trade

A century before the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Great Britain and North America grappled with pleuro-pneumonia - a disease in cattle that had equally maddening consequences. Towards the end of the 19th century, this condition was at the heart of a transatlantic trade dispute that lasted for decades and attracted the attention of livestock farmers, diplomats, shipping moguls, veterinarians, public health regulators and journalists the world over. Scientific controversy aggravated the situation when there were doubts about the scientific judgment of Privy Council veterinary officials, who were simultaneously conducting disease-diagnosis activities and pushing for tighter regulations at British ports. At this point, William Williams, principal of the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, waded into this troubled arena. His strong convictions spawned a long-running disagreement with the British Government over the diagnoses of pleuro-pneumonia in cattle imported from the USA and Canada.     

The Art of Straying: Benjamin on Distraction and the Informal Education of the City

In this article, Tyson E. Lewis argues for an alternative form of educational attunement beyond attentiveness. Discourses and practices of schooling emphasize being attentive as a primary educational virtue. This emphasis casts distraction as either the negation of attention or its deterioration. In either case, distraction lacks educational use and, as such, must be overcome through the cultivation of attention. Yet this approach to the question of attention versus distraction misses how distraction contains within itself a different kind of educational potentiality, a different kind of educational attunement. In an attempt to carve out space and time for distraction, Lewis turns to the writings of Walter Benjamin who offers up a more complex view of distraction than is presently found in educational philosophy. In particular, Benjamin argues that cities are not only places of negative forms of distraction (as mere diversions), but also places for cultivating productive distraction in the form of an open and alert attunement to new ways of experiencing and perceiving the relationship between world and self. Cities, for Benjamin, become educational spaces that teach lessons in a distracted form of life, the culmination of which is the creativity expressed in what he refers to as “the art of straying.”     

Opportunities for educational innovations in authentic project-based learning: understanding instructor perceived challenges to design for adoption

Educational technology research and development - Authentic project-based learning (APBL) is a highly effective way for instructors to help students learn disciplinary skills, modes of thinking,...     

From unbundling to market making: reimagining,reassembling and reinventing the public university

ABSTRACT

In Britain and New Zealand the neoliberal assault on universities has shifted from new public management and funding models to the special status of the public university. The project aims to complete neoliberal business initiated 25 years ago by more fully marketising and financialising universities, starting with ‘unbundling’ and outsourcing and culminating in new forms of privatisation, rent-extraction and rebundling. This paper analyses two documents commissioned beyond government to create political momentum for this project: Avalanche is Coming and The University of the Future. These both capture the zeitgeist of reform while simultaneously creating the university futures that they portend. We examine the market-making work they perform in reimagining and reinventing universities ahead of policy reform. We argue that claims made to support fundamental restructuring of public universities lack substance or evidence. Rather, each is underpinned by different configurations of ideology and self-interest that together envelope universities in new agendas of marketisation, financialisation and privatisation. We suggest that in this latest restructuring of public universities critics should pay more attention to the work of consultancies and think tanks alongside the micro-details of market making. By doing so, they too might reimagine public universities, but for a different political project.     

Health-related fitness knowledge growth in middle school years: Individual- and school-level correlates

BackgroundHealth-related fitness knowledge (HRFK) has been an essential concept for many health and physical education programs. There has been limited understanding and longitudinal investigation on HRFK growth. This longitudinal study examined HRFK growth and its individual- and school-level correlates in middle school years under 1 curriculum condition: Five for Life.MethodsParticipants were 12,044 students from 47 middle schools. Data were collected at both individual/participant and school/institution levels. Individual-level variables included gender, grade, and HRFK test scores. School-level variables included percentage of students receiving free and reduced meals (FARM), student-to-faculty ratio for physical education, and school academic performance (SAP). We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine HRFK 3-year growth in relation to individual- and school-level correlates.ResultsThe average HRFK score at 6th grade for females was 42.81% ± 1.32%. The predicted HRFK growth was 17.06% ± 1.02% per year, holding other factors constant. A 1-standard deviation increase in FARM correlated with a 14.68%-point decrease in predicted test score (p = 0.02). A 1-standard deviation increase in SAP was associated with an 11.90%-point increase in HRFK score. Males had a significantly lower growth rate than females during the middle school years (0.78%/year, p = 0.02).ConclusionThe result showed that both individual- and school-level variables such as gender, FARM, and SAP influenced HRFK growth. Educators should heed gender differences in growth curves and recognize the correlates of school-level variables.     

Anthropometric dimensions of male powerlifters of varying body mass

In this study, we examined the anthropometric dimensions of powerlifters across various body mass (competitive bodyweight) categories. Fifty-four male Oceania competitive powerlifters (9 lightweight, 30 middleweight, and 15 heavyweight) were recruited from one international and two national powerlifting competitions held in New Zealand. Powerlifters were assessed for 37 anthropometric dimensions by ISAK (International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry) level II and III accredited anthropometrists. The powerlifters were highly mesomorphic and had large girths and bony breadths, both in absolute units and when expressed as Z(p)-scores compared through the Phantom (Ross & Wilson, 1974). These anthropometric characteristics were more pronounced in heavyweights, who were significantly heavier, had greater muscle and fat mass, were more endo-mesomorphic, and had larger girths and bony breadths than the lighter lifters. Although middleweight and heavyweight lifters typically had longer segment lengths than the lightweights, all three groups had similar Zp-scores for the segment lengths, indicating similar segment length proportions. While population comparisons would be required to identify any connection between specific anthropometric dimensions that confer a competitive advantage to the expression of maximal strength, anthropometric profiling may prove useful for talent identification and for the assessment of training progression in powerlifting.     

Influence of Session Context on Physical Activity Levels Among Russian Girls During a Summer Camp

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of summer camp session context on Russian girls’ physical activity (PA). Method: Girls (n = 32, M_age = 10.7 years, SD = 0.6 years) from a resident summer camp taking place in the Vologda Region of Russia were exposed to 1 session context/day (i.e., free play, organized with no choice, organized with choice) on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for 3 weeks, with the context order counterbalanced across the 3 weeks. The organized session sport/game changed weekly. The primary outcome was accelerometer-assessed PA. Repeated-measures mixed models were used to analyze all outcome data. Results: Findings showed that girls spent a greater percentage of session time (%time) in moderate-to-vigorous PA (p < .001; effect sizes between free play and organized with no choice and organized with choice, respectively = .60, .42) and moderate PA (p < .001; effect size = .57, .39) and a lower %time in light PA (p < .001; effect size = .55, .52) in organized PA contexts compared with free play. Conclusions: This study provides novel findings in a Russian setting, suggesting that a well-planned, organized camp session can elicit higher PA levels in girls, relative to a free-play session.     

Developing Culturally Competent Preservice Teachers

An unfortunate, yet persistent, truth in U.S. public schools is the large achievement gap existing between children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their White, middle-class counterparts. The potential for cultural dissonance between contemporary teachers and their students necessitates that educators must persistently seek culturally responsive practices. Much has been written regarding strategies for culturally responsive pedagogy; therefore, this article moves beyond a review of culturally responsive pedagogy. Rather than providing teacher candidates with more suggestions for culturally responsive teaching activities, the authors provide teacher educators with specific resources for facilitating the development of cultural competence among preservice teachers.