ASQ and ISPI: Mutual Opportunities for Influencing Global Performance

To help organizations get closer to their value objectives, a number of approaches and fields of practice have been developed. Two fields common in today's business environment are human performance technology (HPT) and quality. The recent publication of the Global State of Quality Research: Discoveries 2013 by the American Society for Quality provides customer‐ and practitioner‐related data and offers an opportunity to link the purposes, philosophies, research, and practices of quality and HPT.     

Pre-exercise antioxidant enzyme activities determine the antioxidant enzyme erythrocyte response to exercise

Free radical production increases during exercise and oxidative damage occurs in several tissues. We examined the effects of three different exercise tests on the pattern of change of erythrocyte enzyme antioxidant activities. The tests were a short maximal exercise test, a submaximal prolonged exercise test and a cycling stage during competition. The participants were amateur and professional cyclists with different training statuses and different basal erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme activities. The maximal test produced no changes in the erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme activities of amateur sportsmen. The submaximal test, performed at 80% of maximal oxygen uptake, decreased erythrocyte catalase (12%), glutathione peroxidase determined with H₂O₂ (14%) and glutathione reductase (16%); superoxide dismutase activity increased by about 25%. The cycling stage performed by professional cyclists increased erythrocyte catalase (29%) and glutathione reductase (10%) activities. The in vivo changes in glutathione reductase activity were confirmed by in vitro measurements: hydrogen peroxide decreased and the presence of catalase increased the activity of this enzyme. In conclusion, we suggest that the different erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme responses to diverse exercise tests can be explained by the effects of hydrogen peroxide and the superoxide anion on the antioxidant enzyme activities in erythrocytes.     

Body Fatness and Motor Performance During Preadolescence

Abstract

Performance differences between males and females have been attributed to both biological and cultural factors, although the relative significance of each has not been ascertained. Differences in body fatness between males and females has been frequently mentioned as one biological factor responsible for variations in physical performance. In children, it has been shown that boys exhibit slightly higher performance levels than girls until adolescence, when the differences favoring the boys become greater. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between selected physical performance tests and body fatness in preadolescent boys and girls. Measures of age, height, weight, skinfold thicknesses at two sites, and performance scores on the vertical jump, standing broad jump, modified pullup, 40-yard dash, and 400-yard run were obtained on 563 elementary school children. The results of a one-way ANOVA indicated that there was a significant difference between boys and girls on all of the physical performance tests. Although the boys were slightly taller and heavier and scored better than the girls on the performance tests, there was no significant difference between the sexes in the sum of two skinfolds. Separate regression equations for the sum of two skinfolds by performance on each test indicated that, with the exception of the modified pullup test, body fatness was only marginally related to performance. These findings indicated that, although inversely related to the ability to move the total body weight, body fatness was of minimal importance in explaining performance differences between young boys and girls.     

Book reviews

Richard Cox, Sport — A Guide to Historical Sources in the UK (London, Sports Council, 1983). Pp.vii + 61. £8.00 ISBN 0 906577 34 9.

P.B. Munsche, Gentlemen and Poachers: The English Game Laws 1671–1831 (Cambridge, CUP, 1983). Pp.x + 255. £18.50. ISBN 0 521 23284 8.

Garry Whannel, Blowing the Whistle: The Politics of Sport (London, Pluto Press, 1983). Pp. 117. £2.50. ISBN 0 86104 508 4.

David Smith and Gareth Williams, Fields of Praise: The Official History of the Welsh Rugby Union 1881–1981 (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1980). Pp.xii + 505. £12.95. ISBN 0 7083 07663.

John Arlott, Jack Hobbs — Profile of ‘The Master’ (London, John Murray and Davis‐Poynter, 1981). Pp. 144. £6.95. ISBN 07195 3886 6 (John Murray) and 0 7067 0214 X (Davis‐Poynter).

Richard S. Gruneau, Class, Sports and Social Development (Amherst, The University of Massachusetts Press, 1983). Pp.x + 213. $18.50 and $9.50. ISBN 0 87023 387 4 and 0 87023 388 2.

R. Roberts, Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler (London, Louisiana State University Press 1984). Pp.314. £8.50. ISBN 8071 1161 9.

Richard Cashman and Michael McKernan (eds.), Sport: Money, Morality and the Media (Kensington, NSW, New South Wales University Press, 1981). Pp. 343. ISBN 0 86840 160 9.     

“Spanish as a foreign language” teachers’ profiles: inclusive beliefs, teachers’ perceptions of student outcomes in the TCLA program, burnout, and experience

The present study focuses on the Temporary Classroom of Linguistic Adaptation program (TCLA program) in which specialist teachers (Spanish as a foreign language teachers—SFL teachers) teach Spanish to immigrants who are not proficient in the language. We suggest that support for immigrant students in Spanish schools should adopt a new inclusive educational approach. The present investigation is a preliminary attempt at characterizing the profiles of SFL teachers by assessing, simultaneously, five relevant variables (through cluster analysis): inclusive beliefs, teachers’ perceptions of student outcomes in TCLA program, general burnout, diversity-related teacher burnout, and years of teaching experience. Eighty-one SFL teachers from 132 schools in Spain (EU) were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. Cluster analysis found two clearly differentiated groups: the larger one, Innovative SFL Teachers and the smaller, Traditional SFL Teachers. The Traditional SFL Teachers are characterized by more years of experience, lower inclusive beliefs scores, lower teachers’ perception of student outcomes in the TCLA program scores, and higher burnout scores as compared with the Innovative SFL Teachers. Moreover, Traditional SFL Teachers conceptualize their teaching role as a "teacher of Spanish" whereas Innovative SFL Teachers see themselves much more as playing a supportive role.     

Philosophy as Literature

How best to introduce philosophical ideas? Is the best and only way by studying the history of philosophy and its rational arguments and discussions? But can literature, usually hived off from philosophy, be used instead and can this be as effective as rational argument? This paper explores these questions. First it considers a text which introduces philosophy through the analysis of literature, in particular James Joyce's 'Araby', arguing that the traditional analytic approach employed by the text, by concentrating on epistemology, obscures other philosophical insights offered by Joyce. It then turns to French philosophy and literature and suggests that Sartre, Beauvoir and Camus by 'blurring' the analytic distinction between philosophy and literature have much to offer to the grasping and understanding of philosophical ideas and principles.     

Promoting Issues-based STSE Perspectives in Science Teacher Education: Problems of Identity and Ideology

Although science, technology, society and environment (STSE) education has gained considerable force in the past few years, it has made fewer strides in practice. We suggest that science teacher identity plays a role in the adoption of STSE perspectives. Simply put, issues-based STSE education challenges traditional images of a science teacher and science instructional ideologies. In this paper, we briefly describe the development of a multimedia documentary depicting issues-based STSE education in a teacher’s class and its subsequent implementation with 64 secondary student-teachers at a large Canadian university. Specifically, we set out to explore: (1) science teacher candidates’ responses to a case of issues-based STSE teaching, and (2) how science teacher identity intersects with the adoption of STSE perspectives. Findings reveal that although teacher candidates expressed confidence and motivation regarding teaching STSE, they also indicated decreased likelihood to teach these perspectives in their early years of teaching. Particular tensions or problems of practice consistently emerged that helped explain this paradox – including issues related to: control and autonomy; support and belonging; expertise and negotiating curriculum; politicization and action; and biases and ideological bents. We conclude our paper with a discussion regarding the lessons learned about STSE education, teacher identity and the role of multimedia case methods.