Measurement error in short-term power testing in young people

The aim of this study was to examine the consistency or reproducibility of measuring cycling peak power in children and adults. Twenty-seven pre-pubertal girls and boys and 27 female and male physical education students (age 9.8±0.5 and 24.4±4.3 years, respectively; mean±s) participated in the study. All participants performed five tests over 15 days and underwent a habituation session before the study. Each test included four sprints against four different braking forces. We found that braking forces of 7.5% of body weight in children and 10% of body weight in adults were too high for most of the participants to elicit maximal cycling power. Unlike the children, the physical education students improved their performance between session 1 and session 2 (1025±219 vs 1069±243 W; P<0.001). Therefore, to obtain reproducible measures of cycling peak power, a habituation session including a complete test protocol (i.e. warm-up plus three sprints) is highly recommended. When the protocol included three sprints in children and at least two sprints in adults, measurement of cycling peak power was found to be highly reliable (test-retest coefficient of variation ～3%). Finally, to avoid performance fluctuations, especially over several consecutive evaluations (e.g. longitudinal studies), it is necessary to maintain high motivation in children.     

Cognitive Load and Classroom Teaching: The Double-Edged Sword of Automaticity

Research in the development of teacher cognition and teaching performance in K–12 classrooms has identified consistent challenges and patterns of behavior that are congruent with the predictions of dual-process models of cognition. However, cognitive models of information processing are not often used to synthesize these results. This article reviews findings from the research on teaching and teacher education through the lens of a dual-process model and emphasizes the role that cognitive load plays in driving teaching performance. Data reflecting the salience of automaticity and its relationship with cognitive overload are highlighted, and implications for teacher preparation and inservice training strategies are discussed. Specific suggestions for teacher training draw on empirical findings from cognitive approaches to training that emphasize the development of automaticity in teaching skills to minimize extraneous cognitive load and maximize effective performance.     

Is Understanding the Professional Knowledge of Teachers a Theory-Practice Problem?

The currently fashionable professional ideal of reflective practice has focused on how good teaching might be informed by theoretical (invariably social scientific) enquiry and has been commonly construed as a matter of the effective application of theory. This paper rejects technicist assumptions underpinning the idea of applied theory, tracing them to confusion between two different sorts of practical deliberation, phronesis and techne. Understanding professional reflection primarily in term of phronesis calls into doubt both the precise role of genuine theoretical studies in professional reflection and the very status as theoretical of the sort of the principled understanding and deliberation required for the wise conduct of education.