Applying the ‘least dangerous assumption’ in regard to behaviour policies and children with special needs

Children with special needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools have a wide range of complex conditions rendering it impossible for teachers to fully understand all the complexities of their needs. Difficulties with understanding and self-control lead to much of the behaviour that is considered unacceptable within schools and that can ultimately lead to the large numbers of children with SEND who are excluded. Schools often wish to provide a behaviour policy where everyone is treated equally despite people’s needs and abilities being different. Government guidance in relation to behaviour policies is that they should comprise a mixture of sanctions and rewards, but this behaviourist view leads to a lack of equity of response to behaviour, again feeding into disproportionate numbers of children with SEND being excluded. The move from sanctions and rewards to the operation of a relationships policy where students’ actions yield consequences, within a humanist ethos of understanding, would far more effectively support all children to learn to moderate and control their behaviour and would allow staff to apply the ‘least dangerous assumption’ when dealing with challenging students.     

Effect of fatigue on reaction time,response time,performance time,and kick impact in taekwondo roundhouse kick

Reaction time and response time are considered important abilities and can potentially affect combat performance. This study investigated the effect of a specific fatigue protocol on reaction time, response time, performance time, and kick impact. Seven male athletes reported to the laboratory on two different days. During day one, athletes performed a specific progressive taekwondo test, and on day two, a protocol for determining reaction time, response time, performance time, and kick impact before and after a time to exhaustion test at an intensity level corresponding to the maximal kick frequency obtained during the specific progressive taekwondo test. Muscle activation from rectus femoris and kick impact of the preferred limb were assessed. No differences were observed for response time and performance time. However, kick impact decreased (43 ± 27 to 13 ± 10 g, p < 0.01) while reaction time increased (145 ± 51 to 223 ± 133 ms, p < 0.05). Moderate correlation was observed between kick impact and response time (r = 0.565; p < 0.01), and kick impact and performance time (r = 0.494; p < 0.05). Results indicate that coaches and athletes may use taekwondo training programmes on coordination-based exercises leading to improve response time and to reduce fatigue effects in order to improve technique effectiveness and enhance the possibilities of scoring in a competitive situation.     

‘If they're the customer,I'm the meat in the sandwich’: an exploration of tertiary teachers' metaphorical constructions of teaching

Metaphors are a primary influence on the way we perceive and construct our world; they are also a way of revealing beliefs and attitudes that might otherwise be difficult to identify. Furthermore, metaphor has been found to be an effective way of shifting people's beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. This paper details the findings of a pilot study designed to explore New Zealand tertiary teachers' understanding of the consumer metaphor, and metaphor more generally, within tertiary education. Examining the responses of over 200 tertiary teachers to questions concerning their use of metaphor in relation to teaching, using Sfard [1998. On two metaphors of learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27, 4–13] and Martinez and colleagues' [2001. Metaphors as blueprints of thinking about teaching and learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(8), 965–977.] system of categorising metaphor, our findings suggest that teachers are generally resistant to the consumer metaphor as it is applied to tertiary education. However, rather than rejecting the metaphor outright, teachers have tended to transform the metaphor from a purely behaviourist interpretation to a more cognitive interpretation, thus repositioning the student as active within the teacher?learner relationship, and focusing on transformation or enlightenment as the product of learning. The ambiguity of the metaphor may be contributing to a mismatch of expectations between teachers, institutions and policy-makers.     

Multimodal learning analytics for game-based learning

A distinctive feature of game-based learning environments is their capacity to create learning experiences that are both effective and engaging. Recent advances in sensor-based technologies such as facial expression analysis and gaze tracking have introduced the opportunity to leverage multimodal data streams for learning analytics. Learning analytics informed by multimodal data captured during students’ interactions with game-based learning environments hold significant promise for developing a deeper understanding of game-based learning, designing game-based learning environments to detect maladaptive behaviors and informing adaptive scaffolding to support individualized learning. This paper introduces a multimodal learning analytics approach that incorporates student gameplay, eye tracking and facial expression data to predict student posttest performance and interest after interacting with a game-based learning environment, Crystal Island . We investigated the degree to which separate and combined modalities (ie, gameplay, facial expressions of emotions and eye gaze) captured from students (n = 65) were predictive of student posttest performance and interest after interacting with Crystal Island . Results indicate that when predicting student posttest performance and interest, models utilizing multimodal data either perform equally well or outperform models utilizing unimodal data. We discuss the synergistic effects of combining modalities for predicting both student interest and posttest performance. The findings suggest that multimodal learning analytics can accurately predict students’ posttest performance and interest during game-based learning and hold significant potential for guiding real-time adaptive scaffolding.