Effects of Class Size and Equipment Availability on Student Involvement in Physical Education

This study examined the effects of two different environmental conditions upon the classroom behaviors of teachers and students. Three primary school physical education teachers were videotaped teaching introductory soccer lessons to year 5 and 6 students. Class sizes were 12, 24, and 44; equipment availability was either unlimited or limited to two balls and four markers. The “academic learning time-physical education” instrument was used to measure teachers’ time allocations to subject matter and student involvement. Students in the double-sized class conditions spent significantly more time in nonacademic tasks and in game/scrimmage motor activities, whereas more time in the half-sized class condition was spent in skill practice. Student involvement showed significantly more motor-appropriate activity and more cognitive and less organizational activity in classes where there were unlimited amounts of equipment available, irrespective of class size. These data are interpreted as demonstrating that teacher decision making and resultant pupil opportunity to respond are strongly influenced by environmental variables and that such influence can be both systematic and predictable. The reporting of significant environmental features and increased attention to their effects is thus seen as essential for future research in the teaching of physical education.     

Book reviews and notices

The Comparative Abilities of White and Negro Children. By Joseph Peterson (Comparative Psychology Monograph, No. 5, George Peabody College for Teachers). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Co., 1923. Price, $2.25.

Statistical Method. By Trumak L. Kelly (Stanford University). New York: The Macmillan Co., 1923. Pp. 3d + 390.

Psychology for Students of Education. By Arthur I. Gates (Teachers College). New York: The Macmillan Co., 1923. Pp. xvi + 489.

Elements of Retailing. By Ruth Leigh (Mrs. Sclater). New York: D. Apple‐ton & Co., 1923. Pp. ix + 385.

Social Science for Teachers. By C. E. Martz (Cleveland School of Education) and J. A. Kinneman (State Normal School, West Chester, Pa.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1923. Pp. xii + 340. Price, $1.90.

Economics of the Household. By Benjamin E. Andrews. New York: Macmillan Co., 1923. Pp. 609.

The Boy's Own Book of Great Inventions. By Floyd H. Darrow. New York: Macmillan Co., 1923. Pp. ix + 385. Price, $1.75.

The Boy's Own Book of Science. By Floyd H. Darrow. New York: Macmillan Co., 1923. Pp. ix + 331. Price, $2.50.

Human Geography, by Grades. By James Faiegrieve and Ernest Young. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1923.     

Costing part‐time provision

This article examines the varied approaches which have been adopted to the costing of part‐time higher education, and considers the consequences of these alternative models both for the providers themselves and for national policy. Though the analysis concentrates on face‐to‐face provision in universities, polytechnics and colleges, a series of comparisons are made with the Open University. It is hoped that it will assist in understanding the likely impact of proposed changes in funding where such changes encounter established arrangements. This is especially so in the PCFC sector where a new methodology is proposed for 1990‐91. The research reported here forms part of a larger study supported by the CNAA and Middlesex Polytechnic and shortly to be published under the title: Other Routes. The authors are both members of the Centre for Community Studies at Middlesex Polytechnic.     

Measuring gifted adolescents' implicit theories of creativity

This paper examines the structure of implicit theories of creativity in a sample of gifted adolescents and describes the development and use of the Creative Self Checklist and the Creative Individual Checklist, adjective checklists designed to assess endorsement of creativity‐related personality and behavioral attributes. Findings indicate that the gifted rate aspects of risk‐taking and inquisitiveness as primary facets of their own creativity while defining artistic abilities and energy and motivation as important parts of creativity in others. This study also assessed the role that these implicit theories play in the display of creative behaviors with regard to both performance on creativity tests and participation in creative hobbies. Findings indicate that while performance on creativity measures is predictive of creative hobby participation, greater self‐endorsement of beliefs that are positively related to creativity also significantly predict creative behaviors.