Back to Reality: The Complex Relationship Between Patterns in Immigration News Coverage and Real-World Developments in Dutch and Flemish Newspapers (1999–2015)

Although prior studies investigating immigration news typically documented a dominant focus on negativity and threats, only limited empirical research is available, which scrutinizes the way real-world developments affect these patterns in immigration news. This study aims to fill this void. First, we report results of a large-scale and longitudinal content analysis (N = 4,340,757) of trends in immigration news coverage in two Western European cases, Flanders (the northern, Dutch-speaking, largest region of Belgium) and the Netherlands, from 1999 to 2015. Both the salience of immigration as a news topic on itself and its linkages with three prominent issues (i.e., crime, terrorism, and socioeconomic issues) are explored. Second, this study builds on previous insights by comparing dynamics in immigration news to real-world events and developments. Overall, the results show that the linkage of immigration to issues of crime, terrorism, and the economy in Flemish and Dutch newspapers was considerable throughout the 17-year period under study. Yet there is limited evidence for a close relationship between news and real-life developments; hence, trends in immigration news seem largely unaffected by trends in society.     

Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education (TARE): Instrument Development,Content Validity,and Inter-Rater Reliability

Numerous scholars have stressed the importance of personal and social responsibility in physical activity settings; however, there is a lack of instrumentation to study the implementation of responsibility-based teaching strategies. The development, content validity, and initial inter-rater reliability testing of the Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education (TARE) are described here. Inter-rater agreement was calculated for paired observations focused on 2 different teachers delivering a total of 18 separate physical education lessons for students in grades 1 through 6. Findings indicate that the Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education provides scores with adequate inter-rater reliability. The procedures employed in this study proved feasible and enable observers to characterize the implementation of responsibility-based teaching in physical education. The Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education has numerous research and training applications relative to the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model (Hellison, 2003 Hellison, D. 2003. Teaching responsibility through physical activity, 2nd, 15–38. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.  [Google Scholar]) and the national content standards for K–12 physical education, specifically Standard 5: Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings (National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2004 National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE). 2004. Moving into the future. National standards for physical education, 2nd, 39–43. Reston, VA: Author.  [Google Scholar]).     

Investigating the role of bilingual teaching assistants in Hong Kong: an exploratory study

Background:?Recent government initiatives in Hong Kong have focused on raising the participation of students from South Asian backgrounds in mainstream schools, to encourage their further integration into Hong Kong's educational system and society. These students' learning in mainstream schools takes place within the context of the central curriculum and, thus, students face the challenge of learning Chinese as an additional language. Mainstream schools sometimes provide additional support, including the provision of bilingual teaching assistants to address the specific needs of the students from South Asian backgrounds.

Purpose:?This exploratory study aims to investigate the roles of bilingual teaching assistants in Hong Kong.

Method:?Interviews were held with two bilingual teaching assistants from the South Asian community in Hong Kong who were working in a mainstream secondary school. Teachers from the school were also interviewed. Open-ended interview questions focused on perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of bilingual teaching assistants in Chinese-language-medium classes. The data were analysed to identify any emergent patterns and themes.

Findings:?The research findings indicate that the bilingual teaching assistants from the South Asian community not only took on the role of helping the learners from South Asian backgrounds in Chinese language acquisition, but also acted as cultural mediators between mainstream school culture and the culture of the South Asian community in Hong Kong.

Conclusions:?This small-scale exploratory research study suggests the importance of the role of bilingual teaching assistants in promoting equal access to quality education for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.     

The long-term athlete development model: physiological evidence and application

Within the UK, the "Long Term Athlete Development" (LTAD) model has been proposed by a variety of national governing bodies to offer a first step to considering the approach to talent development. The model, which is primarily a physiological perspective, presents an advancement of understanding of developing athletic potential alongside biological growth. It focuses on training to optimize performance longitudinally, and considers sensitive developmental periods known as "windows of opportunity". However, it appears that there are a number of problems with this theoretical model that are not necessarily transparent to coaches. Principally, the model is only one-dimensional, there is a lack of empirical evidence upon which the model is based, and interpretations of the model are restricted because the data on which it is based rely on questionable assumptions and erroneous methodologies. Fundamentally, this is a generic model rather than an individualized plan for athletes. It is crucial that the LTAD model is seen as a "work in progress" and the challenge, particularly for paediatric exercise scientists, is to question, test, and revise the model. It is unlikely that this can be accomplished using classical experimental research methodology but this should not deter practitioners from acquiring valid and reliable evidence.     

A method for personalising the blade size for competitors in flatwater kayaking

The intent of this project was to explore the feasibility of personalising the paddle blade size for individual flatwater kayakers based on their power output profiles. Twelve elite male kayakers performed on a kayak ergometer at the same intensity and resistance that they would normally experience while paddling at race pace for 500 m on the water. The kayak ergometer was instrumented so that power profiles could be determined from the instantaneous force and velocity of the representative centre point of the paddle blade. From the power profile information, the researchers calculated a personalised blade size that was expected to improve performance for those kayakers differing more than 5% from the calculated ‘ideal’ size. For the elite kayakers studied, it was recommended that seven of the paddlers should increase their blade size by approximately 5–10%. For the remaining five paddlers, the results indicated that their current blade sizes were within the expected measurement error of their predicted ideal value and should be retained. It is anticipated that this research will provide the theoretical rationale for elite kayakers to see the need to personalise their blade size based on their own muscle power profiles.     

Demonstration of Classroom Survival Skills in Kindergarten: A five-year transition study of children with intellectual disabilities

Thirty-three children with a range of intellectual disabilities who participated in a transition program embedded within a model inclusive preschool program were enrolled in mainstream kindergarten classes from 1995 to 1999. In the second of four kindergarten terms the classroom survival skills, on-task behaviour across a range of activities and following teacher directions, were measured by observing the children with intellectual disabilities and a typical peer, nominated by each classroom teacher. While the teacher-nominated peers outperformed the students with intellectual disabilities in total time-on-task, the level achieved by the children with intellectual disabilities was still at the lower end of what is regarded as average. There was no statistical difference between the two groups in on-task behaviour during independent activities but the difference between the groups during whole class instruction was highly significant. This may have implications for the selection of strategies for preparing children for transition and the adaptation of teaching practices. On-task behaviour did not vary a great deal across level of intellectual disability but gender may have been a contributing factor. There appeared to be a greater difference between students with and without disabilities in responding to teacher directions. The results of the present study suggest that successful demonstration of these critical skills requires more appropriate teacher preparation and intervention at the kindergarten level.     

Multiple‐Choice Tests and Student Understanding: What Is the Connection?

Instructors can use both “multiple‐choice” (MC) and “constructed response” (CR) questions (such as short answer, essay, or problem‐solving questions) to evaluate student understanding of course materials and principles. This article begins by discussing the advantages and concerns of using these alternate test formats and reviews the studies conducted to test the hypothesis (or perhaps better described as the hope) that MC tests, by themselves, perform an adequate job of evaluating student understanding of course materials. Despite research from educational psychology demonstrating the potential for MC tests to measure the same levels of student mastery as CR tests, recent studies in specific educational domains find imperfect relationships between these two performance measures. We suggest that a significant confound in prior experiments has been the treatment of MC questions as homogeneous entities when in fact MC questions may test widely varying levels of student understanding. The primary contribution of the article is a modified research model for CR/MC research based on knowledge‐level analyses of MC test banks and CR question sets from basic computer language programming. The analyses are based on an operationalization of Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Goals for the domain, which is used to develop a skills‐focused taxonomy of MC questions. However, we propose that their analyses readily generalize to similar teaching domains of interest to decision sciences educators such as modeling and simulation programming.     

Constructivisms and Relativisms: A Shopper‘s Guide

Diverse forms of constructivism can be found in the literature today. They exhibit a commonality regarding certain classical positions that they oppose - a unity in their negative identities - but a sometimes wild multiplicity and incompatibility regarding the positive proposals that they put forward. In particular, some constructivisms propose an epistemological idealism, with a concomitant relativism, while others are explicitly opposed to such positions, and move in multifarious different directions. This is a potentially confusing situation, and has resulted in some critics branding all constructivisms with the charge of relativism, and throwing out the baby with the bath water. In addition, since the epistemological foundations of even non-relativist constructivisms are not as familiar as the classical positions, there is a risk of mis-interpretation of constructivisms and their consequences, even by some who endorse them, not to mention those who criticize. Because I urge that some version of constructivism is an epistemological necessity, this situation strikes me as seriously unfortunate for philosophy, and potentially dangerous for the practice of education.