Sport, physical activity and social exclusion

This paper is a brief review of the concept of social exclusion and its evolution. I address which individuals are excluded from sport and physical activity and how; link inclusion policies to the 'cross-cutting issues' and the idea of social capital; and outline the intervention policies being adopted in the new sport strategy 'Game Plan' (). I address the link between transport, exercise and health in a case study. Since these policies are new, research and evaluation has been short term and scattered, and outcome measurements have not yet received academic or professional consensus, it is too soon to say for sure what works or even to confirm what is best practice.     

Integration of professional judgement and decision-making in high-level adventure sports coaching practice

This study examined the integration of professional judgement and decision-making processes in adventure sports coaching. The study utilised a thematic analysis approach to investigate the decision-making practices of a sample of high-level adventure sports coaches over a series of sessions. Results revealed that, in order to make judgements and decisions in practice, expert coaches employ a range of practical and pedagogic management strategies to create and opportunistically use time for decision-making. These approaches include span of control and time management strategies to facilitate the decision-making process regarding risk management, venue selection, aims, objectives, session content, and differentiation of the coaching process. The implication for coaches, coach education, and accreditation is the recognition and training of the approaches that “create time” for the judgements in practice, namely “creating space to think”. The paper concludes by offering a template for a more expertise-focused progression in adventure sports coaching.     

Attributional and behavioral changes following two behavior management interventions with hyperactive boys: a follow-up study

In a 6-month follow-up study of 2 interventions with hyperactive boys, different patterns of improvement were observed for an intervention which focused on self-control and 1 which employed contingent social reinforcement. Of the 2 manipulations, self-control methods produced significantly stronger long-term benefits in terms of the child's increased perception of personal control over academic outcomes; social reinforcement, on the other hand, produced significantly stronger long-term benefits in terms of teacher ratings of hyperactivity or impulsivity (Conners Teacher Rating Scale). Both interventions produced stable changes in terms of decreased behavioral impulsivity as measured by qualitative error scores on the Porteus Mazes.     

Envisaging a new education studies major: what are the core educational knowledges to be addressed in pre‐service teacher education?

Reviewing and rethinking the ‘knowledge base’ for teacher education has become a particularly critical issue in recent times, given profound social and cultural shifts and changes and the emergence of new epistemological, political and technological conditions and contexts. This paper takes up the question of what are the key conceptual and contextual knowledges that student teachers arguably need to encounter and engage in their initial professional education and training. It does so by firstly reviewing the changing kinds and orders of knowledge, education and society in and for the twenty‐first century, and then by outlining a specific initiative in this regard: a reworked, reconceptualized Education Studies Major in the pre‐service teacher education program at Deakin University. The challenge the paper takes up is how to help prospective teachers to think differently about knowledge, so that they can better use such understanding to sustain and develop themselves as active, informed, reflexive professional practitioners.