The Application of Theories of Children to Disciplinary Practice

Shortages of middle-level teacher candidates may cause teacher educators to recruit candidates by focusing on what attracts and discourages candidates about teaching at the middle level. The authors used a survey approach (n = 110) to investigate why preservice middle school and high school teachers and in-service middle school teachers chose the middle grades. The results included ten common reasons that the respondents favored the middle grades and ten major concerns about this level. Three attractions to the middle grades—student age, content level, and employment market—and common beliefs about positive teacher-student relationships and students' maturity may guide teacher educators in their efforts to increase middle grades program enrollment.     

USING INTERACTIVE TELEVISION TECHNOLOGY TO DISSEMINATE APPLIED GERONTOLOGICAL INFORMATION

As the number of older people, particularly those 85 and older, continues to increase, older persons themselves, family caregivers, and service providers need coordinated information distilled from gerontological research to cope with the issues and conditions brought about by the aging process in the context of contemporary American society. The State of Michigan, through the Calvin College-Grand Rapids Community College Consortium on Aging, has funded the development of a model regularly-scheduled interactive television series to disseminate gerontological information to support successful independent living for elders. According to studies by the U.S. Bureau of the Census and others, increasingly, more and more middle- and older-aged persons will utilize educational approaches in trying to cope with the changing life circumstances they and their families face as they grow older. This is because the proportion of middle- and older-aged persons with at least a high school education increases with each successive cohort of the population. Professionals in the aging networks on the national and state levels are calling for increased, coordinated information/educational approaches to help people deal with the realities of aging in contemporary American communities. The Administration of Aging has suggested that there is no realistic way the United States will be able to deal effectively with all the ramifications of a rapidly aging society unless communities form partnerships between institutions of higher education and community-based agencies to develop educational strategies in combination with the delivery of key services to empower older people to maintain independent living in their own homes. This model project mobilizes and coordinates resources in a metropolitan area (Grand Rapids/Kent County with over 500,000 people) to educate older and younger persons to grow older independently and successfully through regularly scheduled interactive television programs. These programs focus on the specific issues and resources pertinent to successful aging in contemporary American society.     

Intuitive ethics: Understanding and critiquing the role of intuition in ethical decisions

This article examines the role intuition plays in forming ethical decisions. First, the article reviews examples of intuitive ethics in professional communication research. Second, the article suggests that intuition is the naturalization of dominant cultural values and beliefs. Third, the article considers naturalized values within institutions and organizations, demonstrating how naturalized values can lead to unquestioned and oppressive institutional practices. Ethical inquiry, according to this view, investigates and denaturalizes those assumptions that are carried forth by intuition. Fourth, the article offers a pedagogical example of this theory, demonstrating how a group of business communication students investigated the intuitive practices of a non‐profit organization. The article concludes by suggesting the value that a “critique of intuition” may have for the teaching, study, and practice of professional ethics.     

The trope as trap: ideology revisited

Abstract

Beginning with Wallace Stevens, the influence of Simone Weil’s philosophy of decreation on American poetry has been substantial, if often underestimated. Focusing on recent volumes by Jorie Graham and Anne Carson, I suggest that this use of Weil’s philosophy presents a new way of understanding a dominant trend towards the metaphysical and difficult in modern American poetry. In various and divergent ways, both poets’ work explicitly points towards a decreated world and explores the ways in which poetry replaces prayer when God is absent. Both in form and content, this work expands upon and illuminates ideas put forth by thinkers such as Blanchot and Nancy, but it is primarily through an understanding of Weil and decreation that such work can best be approached. For Carson and Graham, poetry is the best expression of the imminent void; by placing their work in a definite Weilian context, it is possible to reveal their claims about the nature of truth, God and the material world more fully.     

What is in a name? Credit assignment practices in different disciplines

The paper reviews the literature on disciplinary credit assignment practices, and presents the results of a longitudinal study of credit assignment practices in the fields of economics, high energy physics, and information science. The practice of alphabetization of authorship is demonstrated to vary significantly between the fields. A slight increase is found to have taken place in economics during the last 30 years (1978–2007). A substantial decrease is found to have taken place in information science during the same period. High energy physics is found to be characterised by a high and stable share of alphabetized multi-authorships during the investigated period (1990–2007). It is important to be aware of such disciplinary differences when conducting bibliometric analyses.     

Does a perceptuomotor skills assessment have added value to detect talent for table tennis in primary school children?

ABSTRACT

Talent detection intends to support lifelong sports participation, reduce dropouts and stimulate sports at the elite level. For this purpose it is important to reveal the specific profile which directs children to the sports that connect to their strengths and preferences. This study evaluated a perceptuomotor skills assessment as part of talent detection for table tennis, a sport in which perceptuomotor skills are considered essential to cope with the difficult technical aspects. Primary school children (n = 121) and gifted young table tennis players (n = 146) were assessed using the Dutch perceptuomotor skills assessment measuring “ball control” and “gross motor function”. A discriminant function analysis confirmed the added value by identifying primary school children fitting the table tennis perceptuomotor profile of the young gifted table tennis players (28%). General linear model analyses for the assessment’s individual test items showed that the table tennis players outperformed their primary school peers on all “ball control” items (P < 0.001). In conclusion, the assessment appears to be of added value for talent detection in table tennis at this young age. Longitudinal studies need to reveal the predictive value for sports participation and elite sports.     

The prognostic relevance of psychological factors with regard to participation and success in table-tennis

ABSTRACT

This study examined the prognostic relevance of self-determined motivation, coping, burnout, perceived stress and recovery experienced by 159 youth table-tennis players involved in intensive training centers with regard to their participation and success six years later. Results of ANCOVAs showed that players who still practiced at time 2 (T2; six years later; n = 130) reported lower time 1 (T1; while they were involved in intensive training centers) amotivation (large effect), disengagement-oriented coping, sport devaluation and reduced accomplishment (moderate effects) than their counterparts who dropped out at T2 (n = 29). Results of ANCOVAs also showed that international (n = 18) and/or national players (n = 86) at T2 reported significantly lower T1 amotivation (large effect), disengagement-oriented coping and sport devaluation (moderate effects) in comparison to regional (n = 26) players at T2. Finally results of correlational analyses showed that T2 performance and/or six-year performance progress were significantly and weakly correlated with introjected and external regulations, perceived stress and perceived recovery, and significantly and moderately correlated with amotivation, disengagement-oriented coping, sport devaluation, and reduced accomplishment. Overall, this study provided insights into the role played by self-determined motivation, coping, burnout, perceived stress and recovery in the table-tennis players’ dropout and performance level six years later.