Genre systems and “keeping track” in everyday life

Keeping track of what needs to be done and where and when and by whom is a common practice in Canadian households. The documentary tools used to coordinate the work of keeping track in everyday life are the focus of this paper. We consider these documentary tools as belonging to genres. On the basis of four in-depth interviews, observation, and photography, we identify four genres common to all participants: check-ins or status reports, lists, reminders, and calendars. We map examples of these genres to show that they are socially and intertextually connected—in genre systems—with institutions and organizations beyond the home. Archivists have much to gain by applying the concept of genre-as-social-action and using ethnographic methods to study personal records from the creator’s perspective. Such approaches provide insight into the contexts within which personal records are created and used, including the intertextual linkages between personal and institutional recordkeeping.     

Coeducational and Single-Sex Physical Education in Middle Schools: Impact on Physical Activity

This commentary provides a review of changes in data reporting in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport from Volumes 49 and 59 to 84. Improvements were noted in that all articles reported means, standard deviations, and sample sizes, while most (87%) articles reported an estimate of effect size (ES). Additional reporting recommendations were made about ES for mean differences, use of appropriate estimates of variability, when to use a table or figure, use of multivariate analyses, and power analyses.     

Creating Realistic Data Sets with Specified Properties via Simulation

We explain how to simulate both univariate and bivariate raw data sets having specified values for common summary statistics. The first example illustrates how to ‘construct’ a data set having prescribed values for the mean and the standard deviation – for a one‐sample t test with a specified outcome. The second shows how to create a bivariate data set with a specified correlation coefficient.     

Autonomic response to a short and long bout of high-intensity functional training

The evaluation of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) recovery following exercise provides insight into the transient stress placed on the cardiovascular system. High-Intensity Functional Training (HIFT) is a form of intense exercise that is prescribed in various modalities and durations; however, little is known about the influence of HIFT duration on ANS recovery. Ten apparently healthy males (28.1 ± 5.4 yrs) performed two HIFT sessions (<5-minute and 15-minute) in a crossover fashion. ANS activity was measured using plasma Epinephrine (E) and Norepineprine (NE); Heart Rate Variability markers of the log transformed Root Mean Square of Successive Differences (lnRMSSD) and High-Frequency power (lnHF). No trial dependent differences were observed in lnRMSSD (p = 0.822), lnHF (p = 0.886), E (p = 0.078), or NE (p = 0.194). A significant main time effect was observed in both trials with a depression in lnRMSSD and lnHF following the trials (p < 0.05) and recovering by 2-hours post (p = 0.141, p > 0.999) respectively. A trial dependent increase in E and NE occurred immediately post (p < 0.05) and recovered by 1-hour post (p > 0.999, p > 0.999) respectively. The HIFT bouts examined within this study demonstrated similar transient strain of the ANS.     

The use of video-based instruction to promote independent performance of physical activity skills in students with developmental disabilities in a school and community setting

School psychologists are well-positioned to assist practitioners in engaging students in physical activity (PA) which can increase student access to improved well-being and associated health benefits. This may be of particular importance for adolescents with moderate to severe developmental disabilities (DD; autism and intellectual disability) who display various deficits in performing PA skills. Previous research suggests video-based instruction (VBI) effectively facilitated independence associated with PA skills in people with DD, however, additional research is warranted. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree a VBI impacted acquisition of skills in individuals with DD at school, and, subsequently, in a community setting. Multiple probe design was used to assess the effect of the intervention in four participants. The results indicate the intervention was effective in teaching three participants to perform the circuit in the school setting and transfer the skills to the community setting; however, maintenance was variable. Implications related to practice for school psychologists, teachers, and other practitioners, as well as, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

ASEP in the classroom—some issues for research

Conclusion It seems to me that science education in this nation will reflect the influence of ASEP for some considerable time. It may be that the Project's influence will be felt in many other subjects in the secondary school as well. Whatever the case there is an urgent need for research into the learning that occurs in ASEP classrooms. We need hard evidence to support the widely held view of science teachers that ASEP materials and the ASEP view of science education represent a large step forward in secondary science education.     

The form and substance of secondary resource models: content area versus skill instruction

The provision of core content coursework instruction by secondary learning disability (LD) teachers has increased dramatically in recent years. This article describes the results of a study that compared the perceptions of 48 LD content teachers and 45 basic skills teachers concerning (a) their relationship with the mainstream, (b) curricular structure, (c) instructional methodology, and (d) the behavioral characteristics of their students. Differences in the teachers' judgements were evaluated by t tests. Results indicated that, despite pronounced differences in caseloads and class sizes, the two groups are very similar in how they evaluate their instructional emphases. The data also indicate that the groups differ not so much in how they teach as in how they perceive their interactions and their students' with the mainstream.     

The Spatial Coding Strategies of One-Year-Old Infants in a Locomotor Search Task

The ability of 1-year-old infants to remember the location of a nonvisible target was investigated in 3 experiments. Infants searched for a toy hidden in one of many possible locations within a circular bounded space. The presence, number, and spatial arrangement of local cues or "landmarks" within this space were varied. The results of Experiment 1 showed that search performance was highly successful when a landmark was coincident with the location of the toy ("direct"), but less successful when a landmark was adjacent to the target location ("indirect"). The results of Experiment 2 suggested that search with an indirect landmark may be more fragile than search with no landmarks at all. In Experiments 3a and 3b, 2 different configurations of indirect landmarks were employed; search performance was equally poor with both of these and was inferior to search with no landmarks. It is concluded that infants of this age are able to associate a nonvisible target with a direct landmark and are able to code the distance and direction of a target with respect to themselves or with respect to the larger framework. However, there was no evidence that they can code the distance and direction of a target relative to another object. The difficulty of coding with indirect landmarks is interpreted in terms of cognitive complexity and conflict between spatial strategies.     

Quizzes: Tools or tyrants

Quiz questions can be very effective teachers. They may condition students to study in particular ways, to attend to some types of information and to ignore others, and they may determine how the student processes information.Basic reinforcement theory holds that rewarded behavior is repeated while unrewarded behavior is extinguished. Successful test performance is a powerful reward for specific study techniques; and students, consciously or unconsciously, adapt their study techniques to fit and patterns in requirements of test questions.It has been demonstrated in several studies that frequent quizzes improve final test performance. But it has also been demonstrated that students identify very subtle patterns in test questions and focus their study efforts according to these patterns. A teacher could presumably use this phenomena to insure that students will notice pre-defined classes of information, or by unintentional patterns in questions, may motivate students to memorize inert and useless data.There is some evidence that quiz questions can be used to induce reasoning about information and discovery of unstated implications of particular kinds. Two studies have demonstrated that when a particular type of reasoning is required in a series of quizzes, students improve in their ability to solve similar problems on subsequent tests.Several general rules for designing constructive quizzes may be extracted from these data. Frequent quizzes of appropriate difficulty for individuals can be constructed by identifying a particular type of information or reasoning to be learned. Questions can be written which consistently require students to use the desired knowledge or skill and the questions may be segmented into a series of quizzes to produce a desired type of study.Since any quiz may affect study habits, teachers must insure that their quizzes have positive effects.