The English Football Association Charter for Quality: the development of junior and youth grassroots football in England

In this article, we provide a practitioner’s account of the work undertaken by the English football association (FA) in the field of junior and youth grassroots football over the past two decades. We cover The FA’s main achievements and challenges in implementing strategies and changes in the delivery and provision of grassroots football. In doing so, we draw upon some of the research The FA has commissioned and undertaken to inform the developments that have been and continue to be made. It is rare for organizations such as The FA to communicate their work and contextualize the challenges and innovations within which this work takes place. As such, we hope this contribution will inform the reader of the past and future innovations that are central to sustaining and developing the grassroots game.     

Networked Cultural Diffusion and Creation on YouTube: An Analysis of YouTube Memes

Web 2.0-based cultural diffusion occurs not only through viral word-of-mouth communication but also through Internet memes in which cultural consumers review, resemble, and recreate old cultural components, resulting in the creation of new cultural forms. YouTube features a platform for memetic creation with a host of user-generated parodies, reviews, and mashups derived from viral videos. This study examines the cultural ecosystem of YouTube memes inspired by Korean artist Psy’s viral production “Gangnam Style.” The study focuses on the salience of various genres of YouTube memes and structural connections between memetic videos. According to the results, the viral video of “Gangnam Style” sparked a sizable amount of user creativity, including remixes, parodies, self-directed performances, and reviews, among others. A network analysis of connections between memetic videos shows that various memetic genres drew different levels of audience attention and actions across various stages of the 3-month-long diffusion process. In addition, the content of the traditional mass media played a key role in giving the viral video wider publicity and acknowledgement, but this role was later shared by user-generated content.     

The making of personal meaning: Some thoughts for teacher educators

Much of the focus in schools today is on teaching critical thinking skills. This article challenges the current practice of teaching thinking as a set of skills and procedures. We propose a more thoughtful way of encouraging learners to make personal meaning of what they are learning by searching for insight, making connections between their past and present learning experiences, and using reflection as a tool for gaining understanding, all of which we do quite naturally.This article focusses on the experience of one post-secondary teacher as she attempts to take a more thoughtful approach to her practice with a class of student teachers. Specific ideas for assisting students in using reflection as a learning tool for furthering understanding and for promoting thoughtfulness are provided.     

The effect of number and minimum duration of post-response-prevention escapes on the resistance to extinction of an avoidance response

After one-way avoidance training, rats were exposed, during avoidance response prevention, to light (CS-only) presentations or to light-shock (CS-US) pairings. Subgroups were then given 1, 5, or 10 trials during which they could escape immediately (unrestricted) or after 5 sec (restricted) by means of the previously conditioned avoidance response from a simultaneous light-shock compound. All animals were then exposed to avoidance extinction. The number of unrestricted escapes increased responding for CS-only animals, but had no significant effect on the performance of CS-US animals. Nevertheless, resistance to extinction was considerably less for CS-only animals given 10 unrestricted escapes than for CS-US animals given one unrestricted escape. One restricted escape had no more effect than one unrestricted escape for either response-prevention group. However, 5 restricted escapes elevated responding for CS-only animals to the level of CS-US animals. Extinction responding for CS-US animals increased significantly only after 10 restricted escapes. Since CS-only animals showed no further increase, resistance to extinction once more was greater for CS-US animals. These results, together with the very brief unrestricted escape latencies of CS-only animals, support a greater role for Pavlovian extinction than for response competition in the facilitation of avoidance extinction by CS-only response prevention. The fact that 10 restricted escapes were required to elevate resistance to extinction for CS-US animals over that obtained with one unrestricted escape attests to the effectiveness of Pavlovian conditioning during avoidance response prevention in elevating CS aversiveness to a near ceiling level.     

Thailand's Department of Agricultural Extension and Agrochemical Dependency: Perspectives on Contributing Factors and Mitigation Strategies

Purpose: This paper discusses theoretical, policy and practical issues concerning the problem of ‘agrochemical dependency’ in Thailand, including roles that public extension services play in advocacy or mitigation of agrochemical use.Methodology/Approach: Our research aimed to better understand department of agricultural extension (DOAE) institutional and officials’ perceptions of contributing factors to agrochemical dependency as well as strategies for mitigating agrochemical use. We reviewed relevant policies, web materials and technical cooperation agreements. We supplemented theoretical and document analysis with interviews totalling15 DOAE managers or senior officers comparing Bangkok headquarters and Nan Province perspectives. We refer to relevant secondary literatures for explanatory context.Findings: Results showed differences as well as similarities between views of DOAE officials in Bangkok headquarters and those from one province (Nan) about DOAE priorities, responsibilities and perceived reasons why farmers overuse agrochemicals or do not adopt organic agriculture (OA). A national policy encouraged ‘safe use’ of agrochemicals but not (necessarily or effectively) mitigation while the DOAE still (to a much lesser extent) promoted self-sufficiency and OA alternatives. Interviews and documentary evidence revealed DOAE public–private partnerships with corporate advice, technical support, human resources and learning activities that encouraged or normalized agrochemical use and dependency.Practical Implications: Study results should be useful for governments, donors, international agencies and department officials in policy development, program planning, training design, budgeting and delivery.Originality/Value: This study is unique for: better understanding implications of agrochemical dependency and privatization of public extension services; analyzing factors inhibiting OA adoption; and examining contentious policies, partnerships, and training activities.     

Inquiry in Higher Education: Reflections and Directions on Course Design and Teaching Methods

Our 5-year experiment with teaching and evaluating an inquiry course has led us to conclude that inquiry is a potent pedagogical tool in higher education, encouraging students to become self-directed and engaged learners. This article offers key ingredients and procedures for designing an inquiry-based course. It provides a pragmatic model of inquiry that describes the structure and function of such a course and the goals and learning objectives for students. This model of inquiry is widely applicable and will help faculty members from a variety of disciplines develop an innovative way of engaging and teaching students. Christopher Justice, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and health social scientist, and is an associate of the Centre for Leadership in Learning.e-mail: justice@mcmaster.ca James Rice, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work.e-mail: ricejame@mcmaster.ca Wayne Warry, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology. His interests include aboriginal issues, aboriginal health and health systems evaluation, and educational research.e-mail: warrywa@mcmaster.ca Sue Inglis, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Kinesiology. Her interests include organizational behaviour and student inquiry.e-mail: ingliss@mcmaster.ca Stefania Miller, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science. Her interests include international human rights and democratization in post-communist systems.e-mail: millers@mcmaster.ca Sheila Sammon, M.A., is Associate Professor, School of Social Work. Her interests include social work education and the integration of theory and practice.e-mail: sammon@mcmaster.ca     

Stimulus control of immunization against chronic learned helplessness

Two experiments investigated the effectiveness of multiple (five) sessions of signaled eseapable-shock pretraining in preventing (immunizing against) the shack-escape impairment produced by an equal number of sessions of signaled inescapable shock. In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to 50 pairings per session of a white-noise stimulus with escapable shock during the immunization phase. Subsequently, they were exposed to 50 pairings per session of a different (houselight) stimulus with inescapable shock. Shock-escape performance in a shuttlebox test with constant illumination revealed no evidence of immunization relative to the performance of rats given five prior sessions of light-signaled inescapable shock only. Experiment 2 was identical in all respects to Experiment 1, except that both the escapable- and the inescapable-shock phases for animals in the immunization treatment group involved the same stimulus (houseüght) as a shock signal. Under these circumstances, the prior escapable-shock training significantly reduced the shuttle-box escape deficit engendered by chronic exposure to signaled inescapable shock; performance in the shuttle-box was not reliably different from that of rats exposed to signaled escapable shock alone. These findings suggest that, under chronic conditions, the development of stimulus control using Pavlovian conditioning procedures may serve to modulate the normally prophylactic influence on later shock-escape acquisition of serial exposure to escapable and inescapable shocks.