The art of freedom in HE teacher development

This paper considers the benefits of framing the education of Higher Education teachers as an art, and of facilitating a creative and artistic approach to teaching in Higher Education. It recognises the difficulties this poses in an international context in which Higher Education is increasingly presented as a commodity which must be standardised to provide guaranteed outcomes for students and governments. It presents the findings from a study of two cohorts of academic staff at a UK University who followed an arts-informed development programme and suggests that they and their students benefitted from the freedom to improvise and experiment. The study suggests that teachers appreciate the structure and discipline offered by the arts, as well as the opportunity to work with methods and materials outside their normal comfort zones.     

An evaluation of the role of email in promoting science investigative skills in primary rural schools in England

This project evaluated the effect of collaboration via email links on the quality of 10–11 year old students’ science investigative skills in six primary rural schools. After a joint planning meeting, sixty children collected, identified and shared information via email about moths in their area, in order to produce a joint booklet. All email traffic was monitored throughout the project. Indepth structured observations and interviews were carried out at the schools. Children completed daily diaries. The children demonstrated a variety of science skills, particularly observation and recording. Their competence and confidence in using computers, handling email and in manipulating a data base developed during the project. The project identified a number of important issues relating to teacher inservice training requirements, the importance of a suitable progression of IT experiences throughout the school, development in cooperative groupwork for children, and software design.     

Notions of development and their implication for adult education

Clarifying initially the concepts of development and adult education, this brief article explores possible relations between development and four ideological perspectives upon education: conservative, liberal, reformative, and radical. Whereas the first two of these approaches are initiated from the higher echelons of the power structure, the other two models of development are postulated. It seeks to show that there is a correlation between ideological approaches to education and notions of development.

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Zusammenfassung Am Anfang des Artikels werden die Begriffe Entwicklung und Erwachsenenbildung definiert. Anschließend werden mögliche Verbindungen zwischen Entwicklung und ideologischen Perspektiven zur Erziehung untersucht: eine konservative, eine liberale, eine reformative und eine radikale. Während die ersten beiden Ansätze von höheren Stufen der Machtstruktur ausgehen, werden die anderen beiden postuliert. Der Verfasser versucht, die Korrelation zwischen dem ideologischen Ansatz zur Erziehung und Konzepten der Entwicklung zu verdeulichen.

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Résumé En présentant tout d'abord les concepts de développement et d'éducation des adultes, ce bref article recherche les relations possibles entre le développement et les quatre perspectives idéologiques de l'éducation: conservatrice, libérale, réformatrice et radicale. Alors que les deux premières de ces approaches sont initiées par les échelons les plus hauts du pouvoir, les deux autres modèles de développement sont postulés. On cherche à montrer dans cet article qu'il y a une corrélation entre les approaches idéologiques de l'éducation et les notions de développement.

     

What goes up must come down: Consequences of jump strategy modification on dance leap take-off biomechanics

ABSTRACT

Chronic foot and ankle injuries are common in dancers; understanding how lower extremity loading changes in response to altered task goals can be beneficial for rehabilitation and injury prevention strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine mechanical demands during jump take-offs when the task goal was modified to focus on either increasing jump distance or increasing jump height. It was hypothesized that a jump strategy focused on height would result in decreased energetic demands on the foot and ankle joints. Thirty healthy, experienced female dancers performed saut de chat leaps while travelling as far as possible (FAR) or jumping as high as possible (UP). Ground reaction force (GRF) impulses and peak sagittal plane net joint moments and sagittal plane mechanical energy expenditure (MEE) of the metatarsophalangeal (MTP), ankle, knee, and hip joints were calculated. During take-off, vertical and horizontal braking GRF impulses were greater and horizontal propulsive GRF impulse was lower in the UP condition. MEE at the MTP, ankle, and hip joints was lower in UP, and MEE at the knee was higher in UP. These results suggest that a strategy focused on height may be helpful in unloading the ankle and MTP joints during dance leaps.     

Support and barriers in long-term recovery after Hurricane Sandy: improvisation as a communicative process of resilience

ABSTRACT

This study examines the long-term recovery and resilience processes of households on the New Jersey coast after Hurricane Sandy. Based on theoretical frameworks of community ecology, communication ecology, and the Communication Theory of Resilience, we analyzed focus group interviews and timeline data to examine the sources and forms of support and barrier and provide a detailed account of the ways in which individuals engaged with support and barrier sources. Results show that resilience was enacted through the process of mobilizing and improvising networks of informal and institutional ties, sometimes joining them, to access resources. Communicative processes were central to improvisation, and ineffective communication and coordination constituted a majority of barriers in accessing social support for recovery. Results also detail how processes varied temporally. This study contributes to the literature on resilience as a communicative process, with improvisation at its core, that is enacted through interacting informal, institutional, and physical systems in communities.     

Developing attitude to science education scales for use with primary teachers

This paper reports the development of attitudes to science and science teaching scales for primary teachers. The investigation is part of a project intended to improve pupil achievement in science in 16 English city schools. The baseline performance of the attitude scales is reported with 76 teachers, half of whom formed a control group. The 49-item attitudes to science teaching scale of Cronbach-alpha reliability 0.96 has sub-scales of practical science teaching and professionalism. The project teachers were less confident of teaching science than teaching the English language. They particularly lacked confidence in teaching physical processes, 'guided discovery' investigations and planning lessons within the National Curriculum as required in English schools. Attitude findings suggest appropriately focused in-service might be successful. Being a promoted teacher with some subject or administrative responsibility tends to lower certain attitudes to effective science teaching. This 'regression upon promotion effect' is speculated to be a consequence of the demands of the English school National Curriculum.