Learner error,affectual stimulation,and conceptual change

Pupils' expectation‐related errors oppose the development of an appropriate scientific attitude towards empirical evidence and the learning of accepted science content, representing a hitherto neglected area of research in science education. In spite of these apparent drawbacks, a pedagogy is described that encourages pupils to allow their biases to improperly influence data collection and interpretation during practical work, in order to provoke emotional responses and subsequent engagement with the science. The usefulness of this approach is borne out quantitatively by findings from a series of three randomized experiments (n = 158) which show superior gains using this pedagogy that are still significant 2 and 3 years after the initial treatment. In addition, pupils who experienced more intense emotions during treatment demonstrated the most gains after 6 weeks. This research is one element of a large‐scale study of expectation‐related observation in school science whose findings impact generally on the proper consideration of empirical evidence and the learning of science content. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:151–173, 2010     

Sexual choreographies of the classroom: movement in sexuality education

This paper is interested in thinking more about sexuality education at school. As such, it is concerned with a mundane and unacknowledged feature of the sexuality classroom – the mapping of movement. While human movement is a familiar focus of educational research, the movement of things is not. With reference to Barad’s concept of intra-activity, the paper maps human-non-human movements and characterises these as a sexual choreography of schooling. Instead of asking what does movement mean or reveal about sexuality education, I attend to the event movement inaugurates. Predominantly theoretical, the paper weaves together ideas from conventionally disparate disciplinary fields. These include Edensor’s concept of rhythm from geography, Eggermont’s notion of the choreography of schooling from education, and Barad’s spacetimemattering from quantum physics. This theorisation enables a recognition of movement as a force in human-non-human classroom intra-actions implicated in the becoming of sexuality education as event.     

Associations Between School Readiness and Obesity‐ and Inflammation‐Related Biomarkers in Low‐Income Preschoolers Within the Healthy Kids Study

Previous research suggests obesity is negatively related to cognitive functioning and academic outcomes in addition to physical health. However, not much is known about this association in early childhood or potential physiological underpinnings. Biomarkers related to obesity have been associated with cognition, in particular the adipokine leptin, and pro‐inflammatory cytokines including interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐alpha) and C‐reactive protein (CRP). These associations may be further exacerbated for children who experience early life stress. With a sample of low‐income preschoolers, the current study examined associations between obesity‐related biomarkers and aspects of behavioral and cognitive school readiness. Partial correlations controlling for child age show hypothesized negative associations between pro‐inflammatory cytokines and school readiness, while leptin was positively associated with cognitive school readiness and body mass index (BMI) z‐score. Findings suggest connections between obesity, physiology, and school readiness need further examination, but may have implications for early childhood education and health interventions.     

Disruptive innovation,labor markets,and Big Valley STEM School: network analysis in STEM education

A defining characteristic of contemporary trends in global education policy is the promotion of STEM learning in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors of education as a means to generate innovation and prosperity in the economy. Intertwined with common sensical assumptions about future labor markets and the transformative potential of technology in education, STEM has become a hegemonic discourse informing policy formation and educational practice. In Gramscian terms, the struggle over STEM as a discursive practice, between proponents of instrumental learning of marketable economic skills and those of education towards humanistic goals, reveals insights about the ideological characteristics of the push for STEM learning. This article explores the power dynamics behind the push for STEM learning as an ideological discourse propagated by global networks of elite policy actors and enacted by non-elite policy actors at the school level. The findings point toward a disjuncture between the discourse of elite policy actors in the US, the realities of STEM labor markets, and the actualization of this policy discourse into classroom practice. The implications of this study indicate that analyses of vertical power relations in network governance in STEM education should attend to the semiotics, materiality, and mutability of networked spaces.     

Impact of a pedometer-based goal-setting intervention on children’s motivation,motor competence,and physical activity in physical education

Background: School physical education (PE) programs provide a prime environment for interventions that attempt to develop school-aged children’s motor competence and overall physical fitness, while also stimulating competence motivation to engage in physical activity during childhood. It is generally recognized that a pedometer-based intervention strategy combined with a goal-setting strategy may be effective in increasing physical activity participation among school-aged children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an 8-week pedometer-based goal-setting intervention on children’s motivation in PE, motor competence, and physical activity.

Methods: A pretest–posttest comparison group design was used with the 8-week intervention (3 days/week for 24 sessions). Participants were 273 (boys?=?136, girls?=?137) students recruited from 3 elementary schools in the US. Classes in each school were randomly allocated to three experimental conditions: (1) an intervention group with a personalized pedometer weekly target to reach in their PE class (N?=?110), (2) an intervention group with the fixed pedometer target range to reach in each PE class based on the recommended criteria (N?=?90), or (3) a control group without intervention (N?=?73).

Analysis/results: The factorial repeated measures MANOVA indicated significant multivariate effects for the group [F(6, 528)?=?12.954, p?Post hoc analyzes showed that both experimental groups had significantly higher expectancy-value beliefs, motor competence, and physical activity compared to the control group (p?Conclusions: Health practitioners should be aware that goal-directed action can contribute to school students’ PE-related achievement motivation, motor competence, and achieving the recommended 60?min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.     

Teacher Responses to Anxiety in Children Questionnaire (TRAC): psychometric properties and relationship with teaching staff characteristics

This study describes the development and evaluation of a new measure, the Teacher Responses to Anxiety in Children (TRAC) questionnaire in 74 primary school teachers. TRAC presents 9 hypothetical scenarios in which a child displays generalized anxiety/worry, social anxiety or separation anxiety symptoms. Teachers rate each scenario on six subscales that reflect different ways of responding to child anxiety. Overall, TRAC showed good internal reliability, with factor analytic results suggesting that it assesses three factors: Autonomy-Promoting, Anxiety-Promoting and Reward responses. Male teachers were significantly more likely than female teachers to use Anxiety-Promoting responses. More experienced teachers reported significantly more reinforcement of anxious avoidance than less experienced teachers, and teaching assistants reported significantly fewer overprotective responses. Teaching staff reported significantly more Autonomy-Promoting responses in social anxiety or generalised anxiety/worry scenarios compared to separation anxiety scenarios. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for teacher training in the management of child anxiety.     

Causal attribution and emotion in the days following competition

Abstract

We examined the extent to which attributions are consistent in the days following competition and how attributions made immediately after competition may influence the temporal patterning of emotions experienced in response to competition. A sample of 60 adult female golfers completed measures of performance satisfaction, causal attribution, and emotion immediately after competition, 5 h after competition, and 2 days after competition. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that attributions did not change over this period. Emotions showed a significant decrease in intensity over the 5-h post-competition period. Regression analyses indicated that changes in anger and dejection were more likely in the case of less successful performances. For anger, attributions moderated this level of change. Golfers experienced anger for a longer period when they identified the cause of poor performance as stable rather than unstable. Thus, in the present sample although attributions did not change over 2 days, the longevity of anger depended on the attributions made immediately after competition.     

An Analysis of the Validity of the Three-Mile Run as a Field Test of Aerobic Capacity in College Males

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the concurrent and construct validity of the three-mile (4.83 km) run as afield test of aerobic capacity. Subjects included 109 college-aged males whose three-mile run time (M = 1310.31 ± 184.48 s) was measured. Fifty of the subjects were given a maximal treadmill stress test, and their peak oxygen consumption (VO₂peak) (M = 54.23 ± 7.08 ml.kg^?1.min^?1) was measured. The three-mile run was conducted on an outdoor 0.25 mile (0.425 km) track, and split tunes were recorded each 110 yds (100.32 m) for the first and last laps and total time was recorded for laps 2 through 11. The correlation coefficient between the run time and VO₂peak was -.58, indicating only moderate concurrent validity for the run as afield test for aerobic capacity. A factor analysis conducted on the split time data revealed a three-factor structure of a stable pace phase, an initial sprint, and a final sprint with the stable pace factor accounting for most of the common factor variance (69%). The three-mile run time was used to discriminate successfully between two known groups of subjects in aerobic capacity. These data provide a degree of support for the construct validity of the three-mile run as afield test of aerobic capacity.     

Active Transportation to School

Abstract

Cinematographical analysis was used to compare spatial and temporal relationships of ten skilled and ten non-skilled performances of the standing broad jump. Means of the extent and duration of major joint action for the two levels of skill were represented graphically. Characteristic likenesses appeared in the general patterns of movement of limbs and in proportion of time consumed by the phases of the movement. Characteristic differences were found in angles of take-off and of landing and in extent and duration of specific joint actions. Greater extent of movement occurred in the skilled performances. The latter characteristically used more time in hip flexion and less time in knee extension.     

Form as Content,or, It's All Style

How we say what we say is a part of what we say. In this sense, the form and the content of a statement are inseparable. Style matters semiotically as well as aesthetically. These three assertions are supported by a series of examples from a wide range of verbal and non-verbal sports-historical texts. In accordance with the post-modernist emphasis on reflexivity, several of my examples are taken from my own efforts to ‘do’ history.