Evaluating the effectiveness of university widening participation activities in rural Australia

This article explores the effect university widening participation activities have had in improving access to university of students from rural government-run schools in New South Wales, Australia. An effective effort to evaluate the success of widening participation programs in rural Australia, specifically New South Wales, has not been achieved to date. This article addresses this issue in three distinct ways. First, previous efforts to evaluate widening participation effectiveness are explored and their successes and failings are described. Second, a method to rigorously evaluate university-run outreach programs in Australia’s unique socio-cultural context is constructed and explained. Third, this method is employed using a sample of Australian rural schools to evaluate outreach effectiveness. A mixed-method design combining multilevel growth models and in-depth interviews of careers advisors revealed teacher support of university outreach presence in schools did not necessarily translate to an opinion of outreach effectivity in raising university access levels. This was supported by quantitative analyses showing widening participation efforts in rural New South Wales have had little to no effect on the progression of rural students to university between 2010 and 2016.     

On Defining “Wisdom”: Baltes,Ardelt, Ryan,and Whitehead

Wisdom has been a topic of religion and philosophy since the dawning of human civilization. But only during the last two or three decades wisdom has become a topic of empirical research in developmental psychology, adult and old age education, as well as in management and leadership studies. The aim of this paper is to elaborate a new definition of “wisdom,” in order to provide a more adequate foundation for empirical wisdom research. To reach this goal, two empirical wisdom theories (Baltes and Ardelt) and two philosophical wisdom approaches (Ryan and Whitehead) are presented, discussed, compared, and synthesized. The results show that despite the fact that Baltes’ definition of “wisdom” is somewhat wider than Ardelt’s, their approaches have many aspects in common. Additionally, also Whitehead’s ideas on wisdom are quite similar to Baltes’ core criteria concerning wisdom-related knowledge, but Whitehead mentions two additional aspects which go beyond Baltes’ approach. Further, according to Ryan, wise persons must have very few unjustified beliefs; this necessary condition for a wise person is neither mentioned by Baltes, nor by Ardelt or Whitehead. Based on the ideas of these four approaches, a new definition of “wisdom” is presented, in which wisdom is relativised to time indices and moral systems. This definition consists of a cognitive, an ethical, and a reflective component. Further it is shown that Fischer’s and Dawson’s Lectical Assessment System is a major candidate for measuring wisdom on the basis of our new definition.     

Der Einfluss der kommunalen Steuerung auf die Weiterbildungsbeteiligung – Ein Mehrebenen Modell mit Daten des Mikrozensus in Deutschland

Few analyses of participation in continuing education take into account management at the local or regional level. This is surprising, since continuing education is expected to react not only to global changes in employment structures, but also to local changes in demographic structures, qualification levels or migration flows. Responding to this problematic situation with individualized and diverse choices is especially challenging considering that, in recent years, local community administrations have also been given the responsibility of managing continuing education programs. Questions arise regarding the extent to which local communities actually address the needs of specific (non-)participant groups and the role community management of continuing education plays. These questions are investigated using a multi-level model which looks at the impact of local community administrative practices on participation in continuing education by members of certain social groups. We find differences between districts in the continuing education participation of older persons as well as less qualified males.     

The role of audition in infant babbling

The traditional belief that audition plays only a minor role in infant vocal development depends upon evidence that deaf infants produce the same kinds of babbling sounds as hearing infants. Evidence in support of this position has been very limited. A more extensive comparison of vocal development in deaf and hearing infants indicates that the traditional belief is in error. Well-formed syllable production is established in the first 10 months of life by hearing infants but not by deaf infants, indicating that audition plays an important role in vocal development. The difference between babbling in the deaf and hearing is apparent if infant vocal sounds are observed from a metaphonological perspective, a view that takes account of the articulatory/acoustic patterns of speech sounds in all mature spoken languages.     

Biomechanics of the two-handed dyno technique for sport climbing

The two-handed dyno technique was studied in nine experienced climbers. According to textbooks, the preferred technique is to jump only as high as necessary and to grab the upper hold exactly at the dead point (highest position of the body centre of mass). Piezoelectric force transducers were connected to the right and left footholds and to the lower and upper handholds. From the forces, the vertical take-off velocity and the jump height were calculated. The results showed that in unsuccessful jumps, the vertical take-off velocity is too small. In successful jumps, however, the vertical take-off velocity is higher than required. In order to reach the same required minimal height, the successful jumper produced a higher force than the unsuccessful (including marginal fail) jumper did. The force produced by the feet was approximately 1.8 times higher than that of the hands. Unsuccessful jumps were significantly closer to the dead point than successful ones. The peak force at the fingers after touchdown at the upper hold ranged from 1.1 to 1.63 times body weight. Overshooting, i.e. jumping higher than required resulted in a smaller peak force and a greater chance of performing a successful jump. In successful jumps, the climber jumps higher than required and grabs the upper hold before and below the dead point. Furthermore, the closer to the dead point the climber grasps the upper hold, the higher is the peak reaction force at the fingers. The advice for the climber is to jump higher than necessary (at least 10 cm), and to grab the handhold before the dead point. This results in a high success rate and a minimal finger injury risk.     

Attitudes of social science students in Israel and Austria towards the belated twins scenario--an exploratory study

This article discusses results of a questionnaire survey of 156 university students in Israel and Austria examining reactions towards the Belated Twins scenario, which entails the artificial twinning of embryos of which one is immediately carried to term while the other one is born later. The scenario resembles a case of human reproductive cloning in terms of result (the creation of genetically identical individuals in a time-delayed manner) but it involves gamete fusion like "natural" reproduction. By means of qualitative text analysis we discuss the core themes mobilized both in support and opposition to the scenario. While Israeli and Austrian respondents held similar general attitudes (about half were in favour of legalizing Belated Twins, while about a third opposed it), they drew partly on different arguments to arrive at their conclusions. In both groups, uncertainty stemming from "novel" elements in the scenario was regularly interpreted as negatively exacerbating existing issues.     

Activity identification and classification in wheelchair rugby using fractal dimensions

The purpose of the study was to develop an evidence-based method for identification and classification of wheelchair sports (rugby) activities and performance during a match using fractal dimensions. The approach involves five wheelchair rugby athletes of different classifications who were monitored during six different matches using mobile devices with in-built accelerometers. The linear acceleration signals were processed using two different approaches based on calculating fractal dimensions. One was based on Rényi’s entropy, which produced the probability dimension (S ₀), and the other was based on Hausdorff’s definition, resulting in the Hausdorff dimension (D _H). When both dimensions were individually plotted as cumulative distribution plots, they offered two approaches to analyze the performance of a wheelchair rugby athlete. Combining the two dimensions produced a two-dimensional (2D) mapping that identified five different activities of each athlete during a wheelchair rugby match—(1) no activities, (2) low activities, (3) high-speed coasting, (4) high-speed pushing, and (5) extreme collisions. In the 2D mapping, four boundary lines separate the five different activities, which produced a template for each athlete. It was found in this research that the classification and skill level of the athlete had an effect on the boundary line values that form the template. The outcome of the activity identification was also verified by comparing with video footage of the athletes. The method developed in this research has possible applications for coaching, match analysis, and talent identification.     

Effects of a structured midsole on spatio-temporal variables and running economy in overground running

Research to enhance running performance has led to the design of a leaf spring-structured midsole shoe (LEAF). In treadmill running, it has been shown that LEAF led to an increased running economy and increased stride length (SL) through a horizontal foot shift during stance compared to a standard foam shoe (FOAM). The purpose of this study was to analyse whether (a) these findings can also be observed in overground running and (b) relations exist between spatio-temporal variables and running economy. Ten male long-distance heel-strike runners ran at their individual 2?mmol/l blood lactate speed with LEAF and FOAM in randomized order. Kinematic data were recorded with an inertial measurement unit synchronized with 2D video. Oxygen consumption was measured using an automated metabolic gas analysis system. Blood lactate was collected after each run. The strike pattern was unaffected by LEAF. SL was increased by 0.9?±?1.1?cm (95% CI 0.2 to 1.5; p?=?.040; d_z?=?0.76), stride rate (SR) was reduced by ?0.4?±?0.3?strides/min (95% CI ?0.6 to ?0.1; p?=?.029; d_z?=?0.82) and oxygen consumption tended to be reduced by 1% (?0.4?±?0.6?ml/min/kg; 95% CI ?0.8 to 0.0; p?=?.082; d_z?=?0.62) when running with LEAF compared to FOAM. Changes in oxygen consumption in LEAF were correlated with SL (r?=?0.71; p?=?.022) and SR (r?=??0.68; p?=?.031). It can be concluded that LEAF has the potential to cause small changes in spatio-temporal variables during running. Runners increasing SL and decreasing SR in response to LEAF can achieve small improvements in running economy, which is beneficial in terms of performance.