Jack in two boxes: A postmodern perspective on the transformation of persons into portraits

The paper explores issues surrounding portrayal in educational research and interrogates the notion of a life as a textual product, via an analysis of two short biographical narratives which happen to portray the same person — a British primary school head teacher nearing the end of his career. The discrepancies between these two texts point to the problematic nature of the relationship between person and portrait, and make visible some of the textual devices that writers/researchers use in order to achieve coherence and authenticity in biographical narratives.     

Enhancement of anatomical learning and developing clinical competence of first‐year medical and allied health profession students

Hands‐on educational experiences can stimulate student interest, increase knowledge retention, and enhance development of clinical skills. The Lachman test, used to assess the integrity of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), is commonly performed by health care professionals and is relatively easy to teach to first‐year health profession students. This study integrated teaching the Lachman test into a first‐year anatomy laboratory and examined if students receiving the training would be more confident, competent, and if the training would enhance anatomical learning. First‐year medical, physician assistant and physical therapy students were randomly assigned into either the intervention (Group A) or control group (Group B). Both groups received the course lecture on knee anatomy and training on how to perform the Lachman test during a surface anatomy class. Group A received an additional 15 minutes hands‐on training for the Lachman test utilizing a lightly embalmed cadaver as a simulated patient. One week later, both groups performed the Lachman test on a lightly embalmed cadaver and later completed a post‐test and survey. Students with hands‐on training performed significantly better than students with lecture‐only training in completing the checklist, a post‐test, and correctly diagnosing an ACL tear. Students in Group A also reported being more confident after hands‐on training compared to students receiving lecture‐only training. Both groups reported that incorporating clinical skill activities facilitated learning and created excitement for learning. Hands‐on training using lightly embalmed cadavers as patient simulators increased confidence and competence in performing the Lachman test and aided in learning anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 7: 181–190. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Bullying, ‘cussing’ and ‘mucking about’: complexities in tackling homophobia in three secondary schools in south London,UK

In countries such as the UK, schools have a responsibility to prevent all forms of bullying, including those related to sexual orientation. However, relatively little is known about how schools go about this work successfully. This study aimed to identify how three secondary schools in south London, England, were addressing homophobia. Three different kinds of schools – a co-educational, boys' and girls' school – were selected, each known to have conducted work to counter homophobic bullying. In each school, interviews were conducted with staff and pupils. Work on homophobia and homophobic bullying was said by most staff respondents to be part of a general commitment to countering bullying. Pupils stated that they were keen that homophobic bullying should be tackled – and distinguished bullying from ‘cussing’, ‘taking the mick’ and ‘mucking about’. Work carried out in schools had influenced pupils to consider homophobia and its effects – although the media as well as personal and family relationships were also important in this respect. Findings are discussed with regard to ways in which schools might better align what they do with regard to pupils' own values and understandings about how best to address homophobia and bullying.     

Modeling Skipped and Not‐Reached Items Using IRTrees

When dealing with missing responses, two types of omissions can be discerned: items can be skipped or not reached by the test taker. When the occurrence of these omissions is related to the proficiency process the missingness is nonignorable. The purpose of this article is to present a tree‐based IRT framework for modeling responses and omissions jointly, taking into account that test takers as well as items can contribute to the two types of omissions. The proposed framework covers several existing models for missing responses, and many IRTree models can be estimated using standard statistical software. Further, simulated data is used to show that ignoring missing responses is less robust than often considered. Finally, as an illustration of its applicability, the IRTree approach is applied to data from the 2009 PISA reading assessment.     

Roots and Rhizomes—Some Reflections on Contemporary Pedagogy

During this article, I look at three images of thought which feature in Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus and consider their relevance to contemporary pedagogy. Deleuze and Guattari begin by discussing tree‐like thought, which involves an insular depiction of the world. I suggest that the performative apparatus, which structures contemporary pedagogy in the comprehensive school, is also tree‐like. Deleuze and Guattari's second image of thought is the fascicular root. Here the principle root is aborted leading to a multiplicity, which flows from it. With fascicular thought, the unity, which is aborted in the object, is returned to in the subject who gains control of multiplicities. In this section I provide a reading of a Classics lesson portrayed in The Secret History by Donna Tartt and go on to focus on Ronald Barnett's contribution to a debate with Paul Standish, which features in The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education. In the third section of the article, I consider Deleuze and Guattari's third image of thought—the rhizome. Rhizomes grow by a process of cloning or lateral spreading; they do not have the central trunk of the tree, with roots and branches extending outwards from this. At the end of this section, I look at two Classics lessons that represent tree‐like and rhizomatic pedagogies in turn. I attempt to enrich this discussion by providing a reading of a scene from The History Boys.     

Which starting style is faster in sprint running--standing or crouch start?

The purpose of this study was to further understand the biomechanical differences between the standing and crouch starting methods, and to investigate whether one of the starting styles provides better acceleration and proves to be faster. Six university track team sprinters performed 2 x 3 x 50 m trials. Digitised video, photocell timing, and velocity data revealed that during the first steps of the performance the standing start produced higher body centre of mass horizontal velocity than the crouch start. This may be due to the longer distance between the feet in the standing start, which caused longer push-off phases, and the work against gravity in the crouch start. However, this advantage in horizontal velocity disappeared by the 10 m mark, where similar velocities were recorded with both start styles. Further, there was no statistically significant difference between the two starting styles in horizontal velocity at the 25 m mark, nor in the time to reach the 25 m or 50 m mark. Regarding relay running, where athletes need to decide to adopt either a crouch start without starting blocks or a standing start, there seems to be no specific reason for outgoing athletes to use a crouch start, although this area warrants further investigation.     

Explaining Post-War Cinema Attendance in Great Britain

This paper models the interaction between cinema admissions and cinema supply in response to changes in exogenous variables, chiefly competition from television viewing. The relationship is estimated empirically by applying near Vector Autoregression (VAR) techniques to a long run of British annual data from 1950 to 1997. The results indicate that sustained negative shocks to cinema demand throughout most of the period reduced the supply of screens, inducing further falls in admissions and closures until a new equilibrium was attained. More recently, the introduction of multiplex cinemas has interrupted and partially reversed this downward demand-supply spiral.