Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education

The study reported here is seeking to gain enhanced understandings of the acquisition and development of core and generic skills in higher education and employment against a backcloth of continued pressure for their effective delivery from employers, government departments, and those responsible for the management and funding of higher education. This pressure appears to have had little impact so far, in part because of tutors' scepticism of the message, the messenger and its vocabulary, and in part because the skills demanded lack clarity, consistency and a recognisable theoretical base. Any empirical attempt to acquire enhanced understandings of practice thus requires the conceptualisation and development of models of generic skills and of course provision. These models are presented together with evidence of their validity, including exemplars of the patterns of course provision identified.     

The effect of surface geometry on soccer ball trajectories

Two different measurement techniques are used to examine the effect of surface geometry on soccer ball trajectories. Five professional players are observed using high-speed video when taking curling free kicks with four different soccer balls. The input conditions are measured and the average launch velocity and spin are found to be approximately 24 m/s and 106 rad/s. It is found that the players can apply more spin (~50%) on average to one ball, which has a slightly rougher surface than the other balls. The trajectories for the same four balls fired at various velocities and spin rates across a sports hall using a bespoke firing device are captured using high-speed video cameras, and their drag and lift coefficients estimated. Balls with more panels are found to experience a higher lift coefficient. The drag coefficient results show a large amount of scatter, and it is difficult to distinguish between the balls. Using the results in a trajectory prediction programme it is found that increasing the number of panels from 14 to 32 can significantly alter the final position of a 20 m-curling free kick by up to 1 m.     

Mother-infant attachment: the importance of the mother's visual field.

The purpose of this study was to answer 2 questions: (1) how important to 2-year-old children is fact-to-face contact with the mother, and (2) do attachment behaviors, such as looking at, talking to, and being close to mothers, interact in a compensatory fashion? 24 male and female children, 18 to 30 months, were observed with their mothers for 15 minutes in 3 conditions: (1) mother facing tethered toys, (2) mother facing away from toys, and (3) mother behind a partition and not visible from toys. Observations were made by time-lapse photography techniques. Results indicated that the potential for face-to-face contact was important: children spent 94% of their time in mother's visual field when she faced the toys and 50% of their time in her visual field when she either faced away or was behind the partition. Overall, they established face-to-face contact about 12% of the time. Some compensation was observed: talking and physical proximity increased as visual contact decreased.     

An examination of multiple goals in children's physical education: motivational effects of goal profiles and the role of perceived climate in multiple goal development

In this paper, I present data from two studies that sought to examine multiple achievement goals in the context of children's physical education (PE). Study 1 examined the links that multiple-goal profiles (i.e. mastery/performance-approach/performance-avoidance goals) for PE had with self-determined motivation, affective patterns and levels of extracurricular sporting activity in a sample of 193 Year 7 pupils. Results suggested that children endorsing high mastery/high performance-approach/high performance-avoidance, high mastery/high performance-approach/low performance-avoidance, or high mastery/ low performance-approach/low performance-avoidance profiles typically exhibited the most adaptive motivational responses. In contrast, children endorsing a low mastery/high performance-approach/high performance-avoidance profile typically experienced more maladaptive motivational outcomes. Study 2 examined the development of multiple achievement goals over two terms of PE in conjunction with retrospective perceptions of the motivational climate in the sample. The results of analysis of variance suggested that children exposed to a consistent high mastery/low performance climate experienced decreased performance-avoidance goals and maintained high levels of mastery goals for PE. In contrast, children exposed to a consistent low mastery/high performance climate experienced increased performance-avoidance goals and decreased mastery goals for PE.