Training and education of teachers in higher education in developing countries

The article describes our experience and experiments in helping to develop a training programme for academic staff at Universiti Sains Malaysia and the model of staff training associated with this programme. This is used as a basis for proposals for a more general scheme of staff training for universities in the South East Asian region, a special feature of the proposals being the use of distance teaching and of individualised learning materials in teaching and learning in higher education. The ultimate aim of the scheme is to make the region independent of outside assistance.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Open University Conference on The Education of Adults at a Distance, Birmingham, 19–24 November, 1979.     

Some Experiments in Man—Machine Interaction Relevant to Computer Assisted Instruction

Some experiments in man-machine interaction are briefly described in the context of their relevance to multi-media audio-visual instruction. Two important points emerge: the need for the development of appropriate data-base management systems and the necessity for a suitable author language capable of providing the instructor with a means of coordinating the use of instructional resources.     

Learning through group work in physical education: a symbolic interactionist approach

In line with contemporary constructivist pedagogies, students are frequently expected to learn through interaction in physical education (PE). There is a relatively sophisticated body of literature focusing on learning in groups, peer teaching, and cooperative learning. Current research has not, however, focused on how the body is implicated in interactional learning. This is surprising given that much learning in PE is expected to take place in the physical domain. The aim of this paper is to contribute to current theorizing by examining social interactions in PE practice. By drawing on symbolic interactionist theory, we put forward a framework for considering how inter-student interactions occur in a multimodal sense. Key ideas relate to (1) the sequential organization of interactions; (2) the ways in which semiotic resources in different fields are used to elaborate each other; (3) the importance of interpretation as a driver of interaction; (4) the creation of local environments in which participants attend to and work together within a shared world of perception; and (5) the influence of material environments on social interaction. The specific concepts employed are epistemic ecology, epistemic position, and learning trajectory. The paper includes observational data from an investigation of learning in Swedish PE to demonstrate the explanatory power and limitations of the theoretical tenets presented. The paper is concluded with practical implications of understanding group work in a multimodal manner.     

Meanings within meanings: skilled readers activate irrelevant meanings of radicals in Chinese

Reading and Writing - Many characters in written Chinese incorporate components (radicals) that provide cues to meaning. These cues are often partial, and some are misleading because they are...     

Priorities,identity and the environment: Negotiating the early teenage years

This study focuses on the negotiation of environmental identity by 10 New Zealand students as they progressed from late primary school to junior secondary school. Interviews with these students and their parents focused on six theoretical perspective prominent in environmental education: significant life experiences, transformative learning, environmental literacy, values, action competence, and environmental identity. Thirteen major themes emerged, which are discussed in terms of two overarching findings. First, the deep-seated, composite and pivotal resonances between home and school influences in effective environmental education for sustainability (EEfS) learning are described, and suggestions are made for how this can be better taken into account. Secondly, a focus on the complex negotiation of the early teenage years suggests how promoting EEfS might occur more productively in secondary schools.     

Power,performance, and expectations in the dismissal of NBA coaches: A survival analysis study

Researchers focusing on coach dismissal often examine organizational performance as an antecedent; however, there has been minimal attention to the ways in which countervailing dimensions of power associated with coaches and ownership influence dismissal decisions, while still considering performance as well as expectations. To understand how power, performance and expectations affect coach dismissals, the authors examine the tenures of coaches in the North American-based National Basketball Association and use survival analysis to test a model of coach dismissals using 31 years of observations. The authors find that coach dismissal is a process influenced not only by team performance, but also expectations and a coach’s power that accrues from both structure and prestige. Additional findings suggest that expert power influences the likelihood of coach dismissal, but only after the coach has been in the job for several years. Finally, the authors found a non-linear relationship between performance and the probability of coach dismissal, suggesting that single events (i.e., wins or losses) have less influence on the probability of dismissal when performance is very poor or above average.     

Developing the practising model in physical education: an expository outline focusing on movement capability

Background: Physical educators currently have a number of pedagogical (or curricular) models at their disposal. While existing models have been well-received in educational contexts, these models seek to extend students’ capacities within a limited number of ‘human activities’ (Arendt, 1958). The activity of human practising, which is concerned with the improvement of the self, is not explicitly dealt with by current models.

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to outline how a model of human practising related to movement capability could be enacted in physical education.

Findings: Building on a theoretical exposition of human practising presented in a separate paper, this paper provides a practically oriented discussion related to: (1) the general learning outcomes as well as teaching and learning strategies of the model; (2) an outline of five activities that describe how the model could be implemented; and (3) the non-negotiable features of the model.

Discussion: The model’s potential contribution to the ongoing revitalization of PE as an institutionalized educational practice is discussed. Points concerning how the model relates to wider physical cultures, its position regarding transfer of learning, standards of excellence, and social and cultural transmission are considered.

Conclusion: The paper is concluded with some reflections on pedagogical models generally and how they relate to the pedagogical model of practising movement capability presented in this paper.