Dietary supplements

For the athlete training hard, nutritional supplements are often seen as promoting adaptations to training, allowing more consistent and intensive training by promoting recovery between training sessions, reducing interruptions to training because of illness or injury, and enhancing competitive performance. Surveys show that the prevalence of supplement use is widespread among sportsmen and women, but the use of few of these products is supported by a sound research base and some may even be harmful to the athlete. Special sports foods, including energy bars and sports drinks, have a real role to play, and some protein supplements and meal replacements may also be useful in some circumstances. Where there is a demonstrated deficiency of an essential nutrient, an increased intake from food or from supplementation may help, but many athletes ignore the need for caution in supplement use and take supplements in doses that are not necessary or may even be harmful. Some supplements do offer the prospect of improved performance; these include creatine, caffeine, bicarbonate and, perhaps, a very few others. There is no evidence that prohormones such as androstenedione are effective in enhancing muscle mass or strength, and these prohormones may result in negative health consequences, as well as positive drug tests. Contamination of supplements that may cause an athlete to fail a doping test is widespread.     

Moving beyond the barriers: supporting meaningful teacher collaboration to improve secondary school mathematics

The Collaborative Teacher Inquiry Project was a professional development initiative that sought to improve the teaching and learning of Grade 9 Applied mathematics by encouraging teachers to work collaboratively. The project brought together Grade 9 Applied mathematics teachers from 11 schools across four neighboring public school boards in the same geographic area of a large urban city in Southern Ontario, Canada. Teachers formed learning communities as a result of the Collaborative Teacher Inquiry Project through active collaboration to further teachers’ knowledge about teaching the Grade 9 Applied mathematics course and in developing teaching materials. Although it was reported that there were barriers to collaboration, teachers described various strategies that were (or could be) implemented to overcome these barriers. Teachers were enthusiastic in continuing to creatively find solutions to combat barriers as they saw the overall benefits of collaboration to their professional growth and noticed an increase in student engagement and achievement.     

Does burnout begin with student-teaching? Analyzing efficacy,burnout, and support during the student-teaching semester

The burnout process may begin as early as the student-teaching experience [Gold, Y., 1985. Does teacher burnout begin with student teaching? Education, 105, 254–257]. Data from 49 student–teachers in the southwest United States were gathered twice during their student-teaching practicum. Data assessing teacher efficacy, teacher burnout, learning climate, and cooperating teacher support (guidance or imitation) were analyzed using correlational analyses, repeated measures MANOVA, a 2×2 repeated measures MANOVA, and stepwise regression. Results indicated significant increases in efficacy and decreases in burnout symptoms over time. We found significant interactions in the three factors of burnout by guidance group, such that student–teachers experiencing high guidance demonstrated lower levels of burnout at the end of their practicum.     

Content Evaluation of an Environmental Science Field Trip

Two important content areas associated with informal environmental science programs are ecology/natural science topics and awareness of environmental problems/issues. This study attempted to evaluate which of these content areas may provide a more optimum learning experience. A quantitative analysis was conducted on two field trips to a science center that represented an ecological oriented program and an environmental issue presentation. Two variables that were chosen as indicators of program success—knowledge retention and attitude change—are outcomes that have been found prevalent in informal, environmental science education. These programs were administered and evaluated during the 1996/1997 school year at the Paul H. Douglas Environmental Science Center at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The results of this study showed significant gains in science related knowledge following both the ecology and issue oriented treatments. The data indicate that the focus of the program (ecology or issues) did not significantly alter the way students responded to the knowledge section of the evaluation instrument. Results showed little impact on students' affect toward park site or related subject matter following either presentation type. Authors recommend multiple research methods to better evaluate affect changes following an informal environmental science experience.     

Experience and Reflection: Preservice Science Teachers’ Capacity for Teaching Inquiry

In this article, we investigate the relationship between preservice teachers’ inquiry experience and their capacity to reflect on the challenges involved in implementing inquiry into classrooms. For data, we draw on the personal narratives of preservice science teachers enrolled in science instruction courses. Preservice teachers with extensive inquiry experiences perceive implementation challenges principally in terms of teaching and student learning. This contrasts with the perceptions of preservice teachers with limited inquiry experience for whom the main concerns relate to the negative perceptions of others, time, the curriculum, and materials. By identifying these perceptions, it may be possible to develop courses that assist limited and moderate-experience preservice teachers’ move toward the perceptions of their more inquiry experienced colleagues.     

An informal justification for selected degree‐of‐freedom formulae

This article offers some less‐than‐rigorous explanations for the notion of degrees of freedom, and for the particular formulae to be used when computing those values.