Teachers’ role and attitudes concerning ADHD medication: A qualitative analysis

The increased use of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medication by children has led to growing concerns. In a previous study, we found that many of the teachers that were interviewed about ADHD spontaneously associated ADHD with medication. The present study is a qualitative reanalysis of what precisely these 30 primary school teachers had spontaneously said about medication in our previous semi‐structured interviews on ADHD. Almost all respondents had experience with pupils taking ADHD medication. The majority of spontaneously mentions medication as the treatment of ADHD. Attitudes towards ADHD medication use by pupils are mainly ambivalent, but more positive than negative effects of medication are reported. However, what teachers say about ADHD medication is often not based on sound information; their attitudes tend to be formed by personal experiences rather than founded on professional and scientific sources. We conclude from our analysis that it will be in the interest of reducing the number of children on ADHD medication that teachers have good access to verified and up‐to‐date information on ADHD and medication so that they are better supported in making evidence‐based pedagogical judgments.     

Cognitive controls and reading disabilities revisited

This study attempts to replicate the findings of Santostefano, Rutledge, and Randell (1965), which demonstrated a relationship between the cognitive control called field articulation and reading disability in school-aged children. Two groups, reading disability and nonreading disability, were administered a series of cognitive control measures. The results confirm the findings of earlier studies that the cognitive control called field articulation is clearly implicated in the reading process. Performance on this control significantly differentiates between children who demonstrate reading disabilities and those who do not.     

Boundary-Work in the Health Research Field: Biomedical and Clinician Scientists’ Perceptions of Social Science Research

Funding agencies in Canada are attempting to break down the organizational boundaries between disciplines to promote interdisciplinary research and foster the integration of the social sciences into the health research field. This paper explores the extent to which biomedical and clinician scientists’ perceptions of social science research operate as a cultural boundary to the inclusion of social scientists into this field. Results indicated that cultural boundaries may impede social scientists’ entry into the health research field through three modalities: (1) biomedical and clinician scientists’ unfavourable and ambivalent posture towards social science research; (2) their opposition to a resource increase for the social sciences; and (3) clinician scientists procedural assessment criteria for social science. The paper also discusses the merits and limitations of Tom Gieryn’s concept of boundary-work for studying social dynamics within the field of science.

Force transducer system for measurement of ice hockey skating force

The purpose of this study was to develop a portable force measurement system for ice hockey skating. The system consisted of three strain gauge pairs affixed to an ice hockey skate’s blade holder with wire leads connected to a microprocessor controlled data acquisition device carried in a backpack worn by the skater. The configuration of the strain gauges simultaneously determined the vertical and medial–lateral force components experienced by the blade holder with a resolution accuracy of 1.9 N and a coefficient of variation of 9.2%. On-ice testing of this system with subjects performing forward start, acceleration, and constant velocity skating permitted unencumbered, natural movement and demonstrated clear, unambiguous signal responses, high trial-to-trial repeatability, and easy data retrieval. The practicality and accuracy of this testing approach have many applications, such as a quantitative tool for skating force assessment to aid athletes and coaches, as well as providing the means to examine other skill-specific dynamics.     

Item wording and internal consistency of a measure of cohesion: the group environment questionnaire

A common practice for counteracting response acquiescence in psychological measures has been to employ both negatively and positively worded items. However, previous research has highlighted that the reliability of measures can be affected by this practice (Spector, 1992). The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect that the presence of negatively worded items has on the internal reliability of the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). Two samples (N = 276) were utilized, and participants were asked to complete the GEQ (original and revised) on separate occasions. Results demonstrated that the revised questionnaire (containing all positively worded items) had significantly higher Cronbach alpha values for three of the four dimensions of the GEQ. Implications, alternatives, and future directions are discussed.     

Preparation time influences ankle and knee joint control during dynamic change of direction movements

The influence of preparation time on ankle joint biomechanics during highly dynamic movements is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of limited preparation time on ankle joint loading during highly dynamic run-and-cut movements. Thirteen male basketball players performed 45°-sidestep-cutting and 180°-turning manoeuvres in reaction to light signals which appeared during the approach run. Both movements were executed under (1) an easy condition, in which the light signal appeared very early, (2) a medium condition and (3) a hard condition with very little time to prepare the movements. Maximum ankle inversion angles, moments and velocities during ground contact, as well as EMG signals of three lower extremity muscles, were analysed. In 180°-turning movements, reduced preparation time led to significantly increased maximum ankle inversion velocities. Muscular activation levels, however, did not change. Increased inversion velocities, without accompanying changes in muscular activation, may have the potential to destabilise the ankle joint when less preparation time is available. This may result in a higher injury risk during turning movements and should therefore be considered in ankle injury research and the aetiology of ankle sprains.     

Correlation of the PPVT and WISC-R: A function of diagnostic category

PPVT and WISC-R scores were compared for 259 students ranging in age from 6 to 16. In descending order, Pearson product correlations ranked best for the total sample, emotionally disabled, regular class, mentally retarded, and learning disabled. In all groups, the PPVT overestimated ability and was significantly different from the WISC-R scores as measured by correlated t-tests.     

The effectiveness of cognitive control methods in the classroom: A one-year follow-up

Data are presented here from a one-year follow-up of school-age children who had received structure-based remediation techniques for demonstrated deficiencies in specific areas of cognitive control functioning. The significant improvement that had occurred in cognitive control functioning as a result of the cognitive intervention had been maintained one year following the discontinuation of these intervention strategies.     

National Sporting Pastimes,Spectacles of Sporting Otherness and American Imaginings, 1880–1920

This discussion focuses on how the rise of America's national sporting pastimes, during the period 1880–1920, was inextricably tied to the ambitions and outpourings of American print capitalism and a concomitant congealing of a sense of modern American nationhood. In examining this thematic, we explicate the manner in which American national sporting audiences during the period 1880–1920 were variously constituted through discourses of national and ethnic sporting difference or Otherness. Hence, we examine the popular representation of turn of the century rodeo practices (as narrated through the spectacle of the western showman William Frederick ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody's Wild West show productions), the position of early-twentieth-century American baseball in relation to other sporting cultures (graphically depicted by Albert Goodwill, or A.G., Spalding's promotional publications, specifically the 1911 America's National Game) and the national and ethnic differences discerned within the global sporting landscape more generally (explicated within the 1919 National Geographic article ‘The Geography of Games’). These performances and representations of ethnic and national sporting Otherness played an important role in re-inscribing and legitimating the (White European American) normative core of American sport culture (as manifest within and through the dominant practices of playing and/or spectating of football, baseball and basketball).