A Field Study of Traditional and Nontraditional Children's Baseball

Abstract

Nine- to 10-year-old children have difficulty playing baseball using adult rules because pitchers lack the ability to throw the ball over the plate with consistency and batters lack ability to hit erratically thrown balls. Thus a natural field experiment investigated a modification of adult baseball for 9- to 10-year-old children. Instead of one of the players on the opposing team pitching, the coach of the offensive team pitched to the batters. Teams in a league who played baseball by adult rules (traditional league) were compared with teams in a league who played the modified game (nontraditional league), and both these leagues were compared with 11- to 12-year-old teams (older league). Various offensive and defensive activities were recorded by two observers and satisfaction scores were obtained from the players after the games. More offensive and defensive activity occurred in the nontraditional league games than in the traditional and older league games.     

Introduction to Technology in Kinesiology and Physical Education

Students in an undergraduate course, entitled “Writing in Sport Management” experienced a service-learning component through an outreach program with local sport organizations. The primary tenet behind implementing this teaching method was that students would garner a better understanding of business writing if they wrote within the context of the private sector. The aim of the study was to make preliminary observations regarding the potential of servicelearning as a means of providing field experiences that could benefit both students and teachers. Class instructors sewed as support staff and evaluated results through student logs, class presentations, student memorandums, product review, and interviews with agency personnel and students. Results indicated that service-learning improves learning and supported the notion that this teaching technique can provide substantive field experiences while allowing the instructor to monitor the process.     

PISA as an ideational roadmap for policy change: exploring Germany and England in a comparative perspective

Education policy has undergone transformation in many countries over the last decade. In this article, we focus on the effects of the most significant international initiative in secondary education, which is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We analyse two countries that provide variation regarding the degree of change in their respective education policy-making due to this study; while Germany substantially reformed its education system in reaction to its mediocre PISA results, almost no change has been observed in England. As we show, alterations and shifts in ideas of education policy best account for such a change.     

The role of intuition in pedagogical tact: Educator views

Pedagogical tact concerns a teacher's ability to adequately handle complex classroom situations that require immediate action. As such, pedagogical tact can be viewed as an enactment of teachers’ intuition. While most teachers, teacher educators, educational leaders and scholars readily recognise the importance of pedagogical tact (and by extension, intuition), few pre-service or in-service programmes devote explicit attention to developing this important teacher quality. This study set out to understand why. Specifically, data were collected to investigate how educators perceive intuition, and its role in teacher pedagogical tact. Ten focus group discussions were held with school board members, teacher educators, school principals, in-service teachers and pre-service teachers. Participants recognised two types of intuition commonly described in the literature (local and nonlocal), and affirmed the importance of intuition for teacher pedagogical tact. These educators also noted that teachers are rarely if ever encouraged to make conscious use of their intuition, let alone develop it. There was consensus that teachers differ in how well they are able to tune into their intuition. Though the scale of the study is small, the findings suggest that more attention should be given to developing teacher intuition and pedagogical tact than is currently the case.     

Computer-based tools for instructional design: An introduction to the special issue

Modern instructional theories are characterized by their focus on rich, multidisciplinary and often collaborative learning tasks that are somehow representative for authentic, real life tasks. This new view on learning heavily increases the complexity of the design process and the resulting instructional systems. It is argued that computer-based instructional design (ID) tools may help to deal with this growing complexity. A framework to distinguish different kinds of ID tools is presented. This framework is then used to introduce the contributions to this special issue.     

Sex differences in arithmetical performance scores: Central tendency and variability

The present study aimed to analyze sex differences in arithmetical performance in a large-scale sample of 390 children (193 boys) frequenting grades 1–9. Past research in this field has focused primarily on average performance, implicitly assuming homogeneity of variance, for which support is scarce. This article examined sex differences in arithmetical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) in central tendency and variability. Central tendency analyses revealed a male advantage, predominantly in addition and subtraction, from grade 6 onward. Variability analyses showed that sex differences were largest among higher achievers and absent among lower achievers. Thus, central tendency and variability analyses provide complementary information on sex differences in arithmetical performance. In conclusion, sex differences in arithmetical performance exist, but depend on the studied arithmetical operation, age group and achievement level. The present study thereby offers new directions for future research by indicating the need for a broader perspective on sex differences.     

Latinx Parents’ Literacy Practices and Concientización in Petitioning Their Local School Board Regarding Funding Priorities

A case study of a Latinx parent-school engagement program is presented illustrating how immigrant parents became collective political actors providing input into their California school district’s formulation of its Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP was part of newly adopted statewide Local Control Funding Formula policy providing supplemental funding to schools in support of services needed by students who were identified as low-income, English Language Learners (ELLs), and foster-care. The study investigated how Latinx parents developed a face-to-face understanding of the LCAP policy and planning process, and their rights and collective power as advocates for their children’s education. Focused attention is given to one parent group advocating for summer academic programs and how parents negotiated rhetorical and linguistic formulation of arguments in their letter petition to the local school board. In so doing, parents drew on their cultural funds of knowledge and developed sensitivity to the communicative practices of school boards, and to the need of parents to present their voice and stances persuasively and assertively indicative of their rights as community members. The study helps ground theories of political action in the face-to-face world of parent engagement programs.     

Motivated learning with digital learning tasks: what about autonomy and structure?

In the present study, the ways in which digital learning tasks contribute to students?? intrinsic motivation and learning outcomes were examined. In particular, this study explored the relative contributions of autonomy support and the provision of structure in digital learning tasks. Participants were 320 fifth- and sixth-grade students from eight elementary schools throughout the Netherlands. The results show that a digital learning task that combined autonomy support and structure had a positive effect on both intrinsic motivation and learning outcomes in students. A digital learning task that only provided structure also had a positive effect on learning outcomes, but a digital learning task with only autonomy support did not yield a similar effect.