Habituation of 10-year-old hockey players to treadmill skating

This study assessed changes in selected physiological and kinematic variables over 6 weeks of treadmill skating in an effort to understand the process of habituation to this novel training modality. Seven male, Atom-A hockey players who were injury-free and had no previous treadmill skating experience participated in the study. Players performed four 1-min skating bouts at progressively increasing speeds, each week, for 6 weeks. One speed (10.5 km/h) was repeated weekly to allow for assessment of the habituation process. Our criteria for habituation were: a decrease in stride rate, heart rate and rating of perceived exertion, and an increase in stride length, trunk angle and vertical movement of the centre of mass, leading to a plateau, over the course of the 6-week study. Significant decreases were seen in stride rate, heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion, and significant increases were found in stride length. Some of these changes were evident after only one week of training and all were present by week 4. After 6 weeks (24 min) of exposure to treadmill skating, all participants displayed a visibly more efficient skating style.     

Library tools at the nurses' station: exploring information-seeking behaviors and needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home

Objectives:Analyze the information-seeking practices and identify the information and education needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home. Develop an online toolkit for use at the nurses'' stations to meet nurses'' health information needs.Methods:Investigators employed mixed methods to determine the health information needs of the participating nurses at the skilled nursing facility using an online questionnaire and in-person observations. Resulting data was compared to determine how nurses'' self-reported data corresponded with investigator observations.Results:Twenty-seven out of a total of thirty-five nurses responded to the online questionnaire. The study principal investigator also observed a total of twelve nurses working across all shifts. The online questionnaire asked nurses to identify when they need health information for an acute clinical scenario. Nurses self-reported feeling most confident in assessing falls and pain, followed by medication adherence and skin integrity. Issues most frequently encountered during observation of nurses were falls, interventions surrounding cognitive ability or dementia, and use of antibiotics. Nurses reported and were observed to consult colleagues most frequently, followed by drug handbooks and relying on nursing experience.Conclusion:Nurses in skilled nursing facilities will benefit from ready online access to current drug handbooks as well as information resources surrounding commonly encountered clinical issues and stated needs. An outcome of this project is an online toolkit site using a LibGuide created specifically for this purpose. Researchers purchased laptop computers that were installed at each of the nurses'' stations to provide ready access to the toolkit site.     

Gender differences in motivation and strategy use in science: Are girls rote learners?

This study explored Ridley and Novak's (1983) hypothesis that gender differences in science achievement are due to differences in rote and meaningful learning modes. To test this hypothesis, we examined gender differences in fifth- and sixth-grade students' (N = 213) self-reports of confidence, motivation goals (task mastery, ego, and work avoidance), and learning strategies (active and superficial) in whole-class and small-group science lessons. Overall, the results revealed few gender differences. Compared with girls, boys reported greater confidence in their science abilities. Average-achieving girls reported greater use of meaningful learning strategies than did their male counterparts, whereas low-ability boys reported a stronger mastery orientation than did low-ability girls. The results further showed that students report greater confidence and mastery motivation in small-group than whole-class lessons. In contrast, students reported greater work avoidance in whole-class than small-group lessons. In general, the findings provide little support for Ridley and Novak's hypothesis that girls tend to engage in rote-level learning in science classes. Differences in self-reports of motivation and strategy-use patterns were more strongly related to the student's ability level and to the structure of learning activities (small group vs. whole class) than to gender. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Review of issues in black dialect; a proposed two-way bilingual educational approach; and considerations for the congenitally deaf child

The deficit theory and the difference theory of linguistic competence are defined and reviewed. Evidence is drawn upon to support the notion of linguistic differences between the dialect of black children and that of the majority society. Implications for educational methods are discussed, culminating in a proposed “two-way” bilingual approach. The difference and deficit viewpoints and the proposed approach are applied to the testing, education, and social functioning of congenitally deaf children.     

Psychosocial Hazards in UK Universities: Adopting a Risk Assessment Approach

Drawing on the findings of a recent national survey, this article examines the extent to which higher education institutions in the United Kingdom meet the minimum standards recommended by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the management of work‐related stressors. A comparison is also made between the average weekly working hours reported in the current survey with those found in two previous studies of the higher education sector (1998 and 2004). A sample of 9,740 academic and academic‐related employees working in higher education institutions in the UK completed a measure of seven job‐related stressors (or psychosocial hazards) (that is, demands, control, support from colleagues and managers, interpersonal relationships, role clarity and involvement in organisational change). With one exception (job control), levels of job‐related stressors in the higher education sector exceeded the benchmarks stipulated by the HSE. Stressors relating to change, role, job demands and managerial support were particularly high. Recommendations made by the HSE for interim and longer‐term targets to be achieved for the management of each stressor category are provided. Findings also revealed that average working hours remain high in the sector, with many employees continuing to exceed the weekly limit set by the UK Working Time Directive. The utility of the HSE approach in higher education institutions and ways in which the sector might work towards meeting the HSE management standards and consequently enhance employee well‐being are considered.     

Judgment‐Based Scoring by Teachers as Professional Development: Distinguishing Promises from Proof

The engagement of teachers as raters to score constructed response items on assessments of student learning is widely claimed to be a valuable vehicle for professional development. This paper examines the evidence behind those claims from several sources, including research and reports over the past two decades, information from a dozen state educational agencies regarding past and ongoing involvement of teachers in scoring‐related activities as of 2001, and interviews with educators who served a decade or more ago for one state's innovative performance assessment program. That evidence reveals that the impact of scoring experience on teachers is more provisional and nuanced than has been suggested. The author identifies possible issues and implications associated with attempts to distill meaningful skills and knowledge from hand‐scoring training and practice, along with other forms of teacher involvement in assessment development and implementation. The paper concludes with a series of research questions that—based on current and proposed practice for the coming decade—seem to the author to require the most immediate attention.     

Measuring Socioeconomic Status at the School Level

Why is there an increased need for quantitative indicators of student socioeconomic status at the school level? What alternative approaches have been used to measure SES? Can principals accurately estimate the SES distribution of their student populations? How do their estimates correlate with other indexes o f family SES?