Using internet assessment tools for health and physical education instruction

Conclusions Physical education should provide opportunities for students to participate in activities that promote fitness and well-being. Implementing best practices into the physical education curriculum can contribute to the understanding and application of a healthy lifestyle for students. Technology applied in the physical education curriculum can provide an opportunity for improved instruction and enhanced student learning in physical education. The current study showed that students not only enjoyed working with computer technology but also preferred this interactive instructional method to a lecture method of instruction. The use of technology within the physical education program seemed to motivate students to engage with the material presented. After completing the web-based activities, students also seemed to be aware of their eating and physical activity habits and the changes that they needed to make in their lifestyles. They also expressed positive attitudes toward the use of technology in their physical education class. This study supports Cradler’s (1992) observation that outcomes will be positive when the effective physical educator uses the appropriate technology with sound pedagogical strategies and applicable content in their curriculum.     

On Consultation and Beginner Educational Psychologists

In this article, we describe some of our purposes and processes when introducing consultation as a comprehensive model of service delivery to course members in their programme of initial professional education. We also note some of the impacts from this model, both in the course modules and the placement experiences. While it is written from the perspective of course tutors, we hope that this account may trigger useful thoughts for readers-about their own initial training, about their current model of practice, about their current professional development or even their current contribution to initial training.     

Liminal spaces constructed by primary schools in predominantly white working-class areas in England

ABSTRACT

Despite successive policy interventions, students’ socio-economic status continues to strongly predict educational outcomes. Many schools aspire to ‘close’ this ‘gap’. This paper presents an ethnographic study of a group of Primary schools in predominantly white working-class areas in the Midlands of England. Generating ethnographic data through time-recurrent, multi-sited fieldwork including observation, informal conversations, semi-structured interviews, photography and documentary analysis, findings were constructed through critical dialogue between the group of six researchers. A concept of liminal spaces is used to analyse the schools’ work in seeking to move individuals, families, and communities beyond that which they previously knew, foregrounding norms, practices, and discourses constructed on the ‘inside’, and highlighting aspects in tension with the imagined ‘outside’. These schools’ conceptualisations of poverty are shown to be complex and multifaceted, and suggestions are made to employ liminality for articulating and critically exploring the spaces and transformations that schools seek to construct.     

Family preservation and family support programs: child maltreatment outcomes across client risk levels and program types.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated client-level outcomes among an entire statewide group of Family Preservation and Family Support (FPFS) programs funded under PL 103-66. METHOD: A total of 1,601 clients (primarily low income, moderate to high risk with no current involvement in the child protection system) were assessed and followed over time for future child maltreatment events reported to Child Protective Services. The study compared program completers with program dropouts, compared recipients of more lengthy full-service programs with recipients of one-time services, and examined the effects of program duration, intensity, service site (center-based vs. home based) and service model/content. Effects were modeled using survival analysis and variable-exposure Poisson hierarchical models, controlling for initial client risk levels and removing failure events because of surveillance bias. Changes in lifestyle, economic and risk factors were also examined. RESULTS: A total of 198 (12.2%) participants had at least one defined failure event over a median follow-up period of 1.6 years. Controlling for risk and receipt of outside services, program completers did not differ from program dropouts or from recipients of one-time services, and there was no relationship between program intensity or duration and outcomes. Program types designed to help families meet basic concrete needs and programs using mentoring approaches were found to be more effective than parenting and child development oriented programming, and center-based services were found to be more effective than home-based services, especially among higher risk parents. CONCLUSIONS: The findings did not support the effectiveness of these services in preventing future maltreatment cases, and raised questions about a number of common family support assumptions regarding the superiority of home-visiting based and parent training services. A number of possible reasons for this are explored.     

A day in the life: Interviews with three PE/VC librarians

ABSTRACT

This article is an interview with three librarians with extensive experience in private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) research. Two of the participants work in a business research consultancy and one works in an academic library within a graduate business school. They shared their thoughts on what is unique or noteworthy about conducting research in these areas. Topics covered include: a typical workday; common research requests; information resources used; differences in research in private equity and venture capital; the information needs of entrepreneurs, students and professors; and challenges that arise in conducting PE and VC research.     

Emotions about Teaching about Human-Induced Climate Change

Global climate change is receiving increasing attention as a classroom topic. At the same time, research has shown that individuals have strong emotions about the topic. Emotions about controversial topics and individuals' dispositions toward knowledge have been shown to influence judgments about these topics. This study examined the relationships among preservice elementary and in-service secondary science teachers' emotions about and plausibility perceptions of climate change, background knowledge of weather and climate distinctions (a principle related to understanding climate change), and dispositions toward knowledge. Teachers' topic emotions (anger and hopelessness) were significant predictors of plausibility perceptions, with more anger associated with lesser plausibility and greater hopelessness associated with higher plausibility. Decisiveness—an urgent desire to reach closure—was also significantly related to plausibility perceptions with greater decisiveness associated with reduced plausibility perceptions. In-service secondary teachers who do not currently teach about climate change exhibited greater anger and decisiveness than preservice elementary teachers and in-service secondary teachers who do teach about climate change. Implications for climate literacy education are discussed.     

When Traditional Won't Do: Experiences from a “Lower-Level” Mathematics Classroom

High school teachers who engage students through active learning in their classrooms can more fully understand this instructional practice by examining the theories and strategies underlying the cognitive perspective of educational psychology, which addresses the development of knowledge in the individual mind. Two theoretical explanations, psychological constructivism and information processing, promote learning as a constructive process that can be aided by strategies such as activating prior knowledge, chunking, elaborating, and invoking a schema. High school teachers can use these cognitive active learning strategies in classroom instruction or incorporate them into out-of-class assignments to increase students engagement in their learning.