Stress and anxiety surrounding forthcoming Standard Assessment Tests in English schoolchildren

The Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) taken by pupils in their final year of primary schooling in England have been widely criticised for placing children under too pressure and contributing to an increase in test-related stress and anxiety. In this exploratory study we set out to explore the experiences of forthcoming SATs in a small sample of children using an appraisal model of stress and to reflect on whether these criticisms are justified. Results from focus groups with pupils and interviews with class and head teachers suggested that there was diversity in pupils’ experiences their tests. The pressures associated with SATs did not necessarily lead to negative outcomes and some children described SATs in more positive ways, as challenging rather than threatening. Self-worth judgements played a central role in individual-level appraisal and may also provide a useful link to discourses surrounding the value of academic credentials.     

Negotiating national identity through loss: Australian newspaper coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Sport and the media have long served as arenas for the development of national identity, both of which are examined in this study of the newspaper coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This article reports on the findings of a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the FIFA World Cup; the newspaper data collected included all major daily Australian newspapers. Following an in-depth analysis, five themes emerged: patriotism; dealing with loss; celebrity; national identity; and ethnicity. This paper examines the related themes of dealing with loss and national identity. Analysis revealed that during the pre-event phase, a clearly articulated national identity was constructed through the media; this was then used as a reference point for subsequent media coverage following Australia’s loss to Germany, a significant turning point for the Australian team. The aim of this article is to investigate the role played by the mass media in the representation, production and construction of Australian national identity within the context of sporting loss in an international competition. Media representation of Australian sporting nationalism is used as a lens through which to examine how elements of Australian national identity were represented, reproduced and reinforced by the media following the Australian soccer team’s poor performance.     

Some Attitudes Associated with Sport Participation among Junior High School Females

This paper focuses on young female participants and their self-perceptions. The findings indicate that self-perceived characteristics of ambition, competition, strength, and speed were more evident for participants than nonparticipants. However, there was no significant difference between participants and nonparticipants concerning characteristics of happiness, affection, femininity, sensitivity, gentleness, and attractiveness. The data also indicated that the young female participants have not developed a highly professionalized orientation toward competition, yet they are more likely to be concerned about playing well than are nonparticipants. The findings suggest that even by early adolescence either selectivity and/or socialization differences are emerging between female participants and nonparticipants.     

The effects of antecedent physical activity on the academic engagement of children with autism spectrum disorder

A multiple baseline design was used to examine the effects of participation in antecedent physical activity on the academic engagement of four elementary‐school children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results indicated large effect sizes for academic engaged time for all four students. It was suggested that physical activity in the form of something as simple to implement as jogging may be efficacious in promoting academic achievement for students diagnosed with ASD. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Teaching Statistics – Despite Its Applications

Evidence‐based policy requires sophisticated modelling and reasoning about complex social data. The current UK statistics curricula do not equip tomorrow's citizens to understand such reasoning. We advocate radical curriculum reform, designed to require students to reason from complex data.     

Reading Wars: A Brief History and An Update

The term “reading wars” is a way of describing the intensity of the debate that has raged over the last 20 years between the major theorists of the whole language approach, Kenneth Goodman and Frank Smith, and their critics, particularly Philip Gough. It has been a dead‐serious debate, though to an outsider it may have seemed like a series of pitched battles, with no prisoners taken. This review describes in detail the positions taken by both sides in the debate, and concludes that the Goodman/Smith theoretical position has not stood the test of time.