Good School/Bad School: paradox and fabrication

This paper, drawn from an ESRC‐funded research project, deploys data from one secondary school to raise some general issues about the development of disciplinary technologies of surveillance and uses of performativity in education. It is argued that the use of Total Quality Management, School Development Planning and Ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education) Inspections, individually and collectively produce an intensification of teachers’ work, submit teachers more directly to the ‘gaze’ of policy, and encourage schools and teachers to ‘fabricate’ themselves for the purposes of evaluation and comparison. The paper is premised on the argument that schools cannot be represented adequately within research (or evaluation) by simple stories or single essentialising tags; ‘good/bad’, ‘successful/failing’ ‐‐ they are inherently paradoxical institutions.     

The development of auditory temporal acuity in children

The development of auditory temporal acuity was studied in 56 children aged 6-12 years and compared with that of 8 adults. Acuity was measured by determining the minimum detectable duration of a brief cessation in a noise band with the 2-alternative forced-choice method. For detection of gaps in a broadband noise, acuity improved significantly with age and reached adult values by 11 years. The minimum detectable duration was significantly shorter at higher levels of the noise. For narrow-band noises, acuity also improved significantly with age and depended on the center frequency of the band. The improvement in temporal acuity with age was attributed to the development of sensory processes and not to age-related changes in nonsensory factors.     

Comprehensive Student Profiling: Furthering Academic and Pastoral Care Objectives

Comprehensive student profiling is described as an alternative to exclusively teacher-controlled, academic subject focused records of students' progress. Features of profiling that are highlighted include its multidimensionality, participatory nature, and formative and summative functions. The rationale for adopting comprehensive student profiling rather than relying only on discrete, norm-referenced performance evaluations is discussed with reference to the historical innovation and eventual nation-wide adoption of profiling in British schools and the developmental objectives of the pastoral care movement in Singapore schools.     

Vertical stiffness and muscle strain in professional Australian football

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish if vertical stiffness was greater in professional Australian rules footballers who sustained a lower limb skeletal muscle strain compared to those who did not, and to establish if a relationship between age, or training history, and vertical stiffness existed. Thirty-one participants underwent weekly rebound jump testing on a force platform over two seasons. Vertical stiffness was calculated for injured players and the uninjured cohort 1 and 3 weeks prior to sustaining an injury and at the end of preseason. Eighteen athletes were in the “uninjured” cohort and 13 in the “injured” cohort. No significant difference in vertical stiffness was observed between groups (P = 0.18 for absolute stiffness; P = 0.08 for stiffness relative to body mass), within groups (P = 0.83 and P = 0.88, respectively) or for a time*cohort interaction (P = 0.77 and P = 0.80, respectively). No relationship between age and vertical stiffness existed (r = ?0.06 for absolute and relative stiffness), or training history and vertical stiffness (r = ?0.01 and 0.00 for absolute and relative stiffness, respectively) existed. These results and others lend to suggest that vertical stiffness is not related to lower limb muscle strain injury.