The effect of dimple error on the horizontal launch angle and side spin of the golf ball during putting

This study aimed to examine the effect of the impact point on the golf ball on the horizontal launch angle and side spin during putting with a mechanical putting arm and human participants. Putts of 3.2 m were completed with a mechanical putting arm (four putter-ball combinations, total of 160 trials) and human participants (two putter-ball combinations, total of 337 trials). The centre of the dimple pattern (centroid) was located and the following variables were measured: distance and angle of the impact point from the centroid and surface area of the impact zone. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify whether impact variables had significant associations with ball roll variables, horizontal launch angle and side spin. Significant associations were identified between impact variables and horizontal launch angle with the mechanical putting arm but this was not replicated with human participants. The variability caused by “dimple error” was minimal with the mechanical putting arm and not evident with human participants. Differences between the mechanical putting arm and human participants may be due to the way impulse is imparted on the ball. Therefore it is concluded that variability of impact point on the golf ball has a minimal effect on putting performance.     

Ethical Leaders Resist: A Feminist Response to ACCEL

This response to Sternberg’s ACCEL (Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership) model aims to provide a feminist perspective on the rationale and relevance of the model in mitigating harmful patriarchal gender expectations. Additionally, this response investigates potential barriers to the implementation of ACCEL as a model for gifted education. Furthermore, it examines Sternberg’s ACCEL model as a tool that can help create a more egalitarian society that actively challenges and resists harmful gendered stereotypes.     

Evaluating a method for eliciting children's voice about educational support with children with speech,language and communication needs

This article reports the development and evaluation of a toolkit‐based approach to eliciting children's experiences of educational support, where the children in question experience speech and communication needs. The ‘Your Voice Your Choice’ approach was evaluated using a cross‐case analysis methodology, which represents a novel approach to critical examination of the effectiveness of such resources. We explored seven case studies within a critical realist framework. We found that the toolkit was effective at supporting most (although not all) of the children with speech and communication needs to explore their school learning and support experiences through a scaffolded emotion‐based ‘dialogue’, which was corroborated by observations and other data sources. The toolkit facilitated access to children's voice as they revealed how they felt across a number of relational, learning and support areas, which could be used by services to focus provision and consider how to better support children's social and emotional needs.     

Rethinking the relationship between pedagogy,technology and learning in health and physical education

This paper seeks to address two key questions: (1) how could a pedagogically driven approach to the use of DigiTech in health and physical education (HPE) benefit young people’s learning and (2) what steps are required to develop new DigiTech pedagogies? The paper is a response to the largely pessimistic views presented in this journal by Gard, Lupton and Williamson about the role of technology in HPE. In this paper, we argue that while we need to be aware of the risks, we also need to explore the opportunities for digital technologies (DigiTech) to shape HPE in new and positive ways. Specifically, we argue that a focus on pedagogy is largely missing from earlier discussions. In mapping the evidence-base on DigiTech against a three-dimensional categorisation of pedagogy – in the form of learners and learning, teachers and teaching, and knowledge and context [Armour, K. M. (Ed.). (2011). Sport pedagogy: An introduction for coaching and teaching sport. Harlow: Prentice Hall] – we are able to demonstrate the value of a pedagogically informed debate on this topic. The paper concludes by arguing for a ‘profession-wide’ debate to co-construct, trial and evaluate new ways in which we should – and should not – use DigiTech to optimise young people’s learning in HPE.     

Paying the piper: the costs and consequences of academic advancement

In many professions there are qualifications to gain and professional standards to achieve. Lawyers pass the bar and doctors pass their boards. In academic life the equivalent is a doctorate, closely followed by a profile of peer-reviewed publication. To hold a doctoral degree is the common requirement to become ‘academic’ but does it prepare individuals to advance in an academic career? In choosing the idiom ‘paying the piper’ (i.e. where one must pay the costs and accept the consequences of one's actions) we recognise that in seeking to develop our scholarly profiles we had to choose to adapt successfully to global workplace expectations, modify our professional aspirations or refuse to participate. In this paper we examine the challenges we faced as academics in physical education as we progressed from beginning to mid-career stages. We focus particularly on challenges related to seeking external research funding, exploring our assumptions about academic life and the perceived expectations that lie under the surface around research funding, teaching and service. Through the use of self-study we demonstrate how our perceptions of academic career progress meant paying personal and professional costs that we were largely (and perhaps naively) unaware of when we entered the academic workforce. Data consisted of Ashley’s reflective diaries generated over the past six years, which were analysed deductively based on an understanding of salient experiences of academic life, most notably, those related to the pursuit of funding and its relationship to academic advancement. Tim played the role of critical friend by asking probing questions, relating personal experiences to instances in Ashley's data, and offering alternative interpretations of Ashley's insights. By sharing our experiences we hope early career academics (ECAs) may relate to and learn from our naivety. In this way, there may be implications for the induction and mentoring of future ECAs.     

“Honorable Piracy” and Chile’s Digital Transition

This article examines debates around Chile’s digital television transition in order to trace the socio-historical relation between piracy and social change. During the military dictatorship (1973–1990), media activists used what they called “honorable piracy” for counter-communication efforts aimed at restoring democracy. Following the return to democracy, community television participants have rationalized their unauthorized transmission of alternative programming to low-income sectors using a similar logic of honorable piracy. For these community television participants, the digital transition represented the possibility of redefining democratic access to the public sphere and attaining legal recognition. Through an analysis of citizen activism around the move from analog to digital television, this article argues that discussion of piracy emerges as an expression of conflicting notions of the definition, use, and distribution of public resources.     

Addressing the big picture: Deaf children and reading assessments

In the field of education, there is a great emphasis placed on literacy, from reading fluency to writing. There are various approaches that teachers can use in their classroom to design and identify needed areas of instruction, but these approaches do not always apply to Deaf Education. The act of using the same assessments throughout all student populations presents some potential issues, particularly the question of whether or not the students’ actual literacy abilities are being identified. The focus is to spotlight a frequently used approach for measuring reading fluency and present an alternative approach.     

Thermodynamic properties of reactive gas mixtures

The foregoing study shows that the comparative behavior of fixed composition and chemical equilibrium, when compelled to undergo isentropic changes of state from the same initial point, depends first on the type of chemical reaction present. Chemical reactions are shown to fall into three classes, depending upon the algebraic sign of the product of the mole change and heat of reaction. The order of magnitude of the difference between the two systems depends on the magnitudes of temperature, heat of reaction, heat capacities and a fourth quantity best described as the mobility of the system.To include more general problems in which inert gases may be present, or more than a single reaction takes place, the analysis must be extended considerably.