Special Edition on Access and Diversity Guest Editors' Introduction

In the knowledge economy, now more than ever, students are encouraged to attend an institution of higher education. Students actively search for resources to assist them in their progress toward a college degree, even before high school graduation. Dual enrollment is an opportunity for students to complete college courses while still in high school, and it encourages stronger collaborations between K–12 and higher education. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between demographic and policy variables in South Carolina technical college dual enrollment programs and first-to-second-year persistence of dually enrolled students once entering college. All participants in this study were high school students who continued at a technical college after graduation. Outcomes were analyzed using logistic regression to determine persistence, defined as first-to-second-year retention. Variables included dual enrollment course type, course setting, ethnicity, gender, and county of residence. Results show that course type and course setting are significant in predicting college student persistence. Recommendations and implications for future research are discussed.     

The relationship between the use of kinaesthetic imagery and different visual imagery perspectives

In two studies, we examined the strength of relationship between internal and external visual imagery with kinaesthetic imagery. In Study 1, 56 participants completed the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire and the Movement Imagery Questionnaire. Pearson's product–moment correlations failed to reveal a significant correlation between external visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery. However, the correlation between internal visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery approached significance. In Study 2, the instructional set of the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire was changed to make the participant the ‘agent’ of the external visual perspective images rather than somebody else. Sixty-four participants completed the two questionnaires. The results indicated a significant correlation between external visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery (r?=?0.60, P?<0.01). However, the correlation between internal visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery was non-significant (r?=?0.23, P?>0.01). The results are discussed in relation to who is the agent of the image and the processes that may underlie kinaesthetic imagery. The implications for researchers trying to establish the functional, behavioural and neurological differences within, and across, imagery modalities are considered.     

Quantifying athlete self-talk

Two studies were conducted. The aims of Study 1 were (a) to generate quantitative data on the content of athletes' self-talk and (b) to examine differences in the use of self-talk in general as well as the functions of self-talk in practice and competition settings. Differences in self-talk between the sexes, sport types and skill levels were also assessed. Athletes (n = 295, mean age = 21.9 years) from a variety of sports and competitive levels completed the Self-Talk Use Questionnaire (STUQ), which was developed specifically for the study. In Study 1, single-factor between-group multivariate analyses of variance revealed significant differences across sex and sport type for the content of self-talk. Mixed-model multivariate analyses of variance revealed overall greater use of self-talk, as well as increased use of the functions of self-talk, in competition compared with practice. Moreover, individual sport athletes reported greater use of self-talk, as well as the functions of self-talk, than their team sport counterparts. In Study 2, recreational volleyball players (n = 164, mean age = 21.5 years) completed a situationally modified STUQ. The results were very similar to those of Study 1. That the content of athlete self-talk was generally positive, covert and abbreviated lends support to the application of Vygotsky's () verbal self-regulation theory to the study of self-talk in sport. Researchers are encouraged to examine the effectiveness of self-talk in future studies.     

Researching Professional Educational Practice: The Case for “Dirty Theory”

In this essay, Ian Hardy argues that a research process involving generalizing from professional educational practice can and should inform the work of educators, including academic researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, but that these generalizations need to be derived from, and in dialogue with, the complexity and specificity of actual practice, the myriad ways such practice might be understood, and a conception of practice as historically informed. In making this case, Hardy draws upon social theorist Raewyn Connell's concept of “dirty theory,” and he uses an example of teacher professional learning in a rural community in southeast Queensland, Australia, to show how Connell's notion of dirty theory might be applied to research professional educational practice. Hardy maintains that such an approach has the benefit of making historically informed, context‐aware, and epistemologically sensitive generalizations available as resources for informing the work of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. He concludes by providing examples of such generalizations as evidence of the potential of Connell's theory.     

Postgraduate coursework in Australia: issues emerging from university and industry collaboration

Coursework masters degrees in Australia have experienced rapid, decentralised growth since deregulation at the end of the 1980s. The result is an extraordinarily high level of diversity and some confusion as to standards, strategic positioning, purpose and educational approaches. Throughout this period of growth, a sense that large-scale (often distance-education based) collaboration between universities and with industry would be beneficial has not always led to successful outcomes. Using a new collaborative, industry-funded postgraduate coursework program as a case study, this paper describes the issues that decision-makers need to address and evaluates the challenges and benefits of the coursework masters in higher education. The outcomes of industry surveys, student interviews and action research suggest that postgraduate coursework can facilitate technology transfer and aid capacity building, through mechanisms similar to ‘mode 2’ research. With some additional systems to ensure sustainability and standards, this could position coursework masters to be uniquely valuable nationally.

Twenty-five years of psychology in the Journal of Sports Sciences: a historical overview

We provide an overview of some of the outstanding papers published in the Journal over the last 25 years within the discipline of psychology. Altogether, almost 300 papers had been published in the Journal under the psychology banner at the start of its silver anniversary year. The greatest contribution of papers has come from the motor control and learning and sport psychology sub-areas, with papers focusing on exercise psychology being a more recent addition. Prominent research themes that have emerged from each of the different sub-areas are reviewed and some notable omissions highlighted. Finally, some issues for sport and exercise psychologists to consider in coming years are briefly highlighted.     

The ‘doublethink’ of data: educational performativity and the field of schooling practices

This article provides insights into teachers’ and school administrators’ responses to the current ‘fetishisation’ of school performance data in Australian schooling. Specifically, the research investigates the accountability practices that emerged in a Queensland metropolitan primary school in response to this broader focus upon performance data. Drawing upon interviews with teachers and school administrators, literature and theorising on educational performativity and data, and Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the article reveals how performative, data-driven practices play out at the level of the school. This process reveals a ‘field of schooling practices’ characterised by contradictory and contested logics of deifying, delivering and denying data. We describe this as the ‘doublethink of data’, involving teachers engaging with performative processes for purposes of compliance but without any real sense of the value of doing so. The research reveals the extraordinary energy involved in this work, and cautions against these performative practices and associated technologies.     

Stressors,social support,and effects upon performance in golf

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of eccentric exercise on position sense and reaction angle of the elbow and knee flexors. Twelve males underwent two eccentric exercise sessions involving a randomized crossover design. In the first session participants used their elbow flexors and in the other session their knee flexors. Muscle damage indices, position sense, and joint reaction angle to release of the elbow and knee flexors were measured before, immediately after, and up to 7 days after exercise. Exercise induced greater muscle damage in the elbow flexors than knee flexors. Exercise disturbed position sense of the elbow and knee joint. For both limbs, the participants adopted a more extended position than the reference angle. The elbow and knee joint reaction angles to release increased after exercise for both the elbow and knee flexors. The disturbances in position sense and reaction angle after exercise were greater in the elbow flexors than knee flexors. The elbow flexors remained more accurate and faster than the knee flexors at all time points. These results may be explained by the higher density of muscle spindles and the lower innervation ratio of the elbow flexors compared with the knee flexors, as well as the fact that the arms are more accustomed than the legs to perform fast and accurate movements.