Tracing the Cascade of Children’s Insecurity in the Interparental Relationship: The Role of Stage‐Salient Tasks

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage‐salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi‐informant design, 201 two‐year‐old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual measurement occasions. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that coder ratings of children’s insecure responses to interparental conflict from a maternal interview predicted observer ratings of their difficulties with stage‐salient tasks (i.e., emotion regulation, autonomy, resourceful problem solving) 1 year later after controlling for initial stage‐salient task performance. Stage‐salient task difficulties, in turn, predicted experimenter reports of children’s behavior problems 1 year later. Associations remained robust in the broader context of other pathways hypothesized in prevailing developmental cascade models.     

Through the looking glass … preservice professional portfolio's

Abstract

This article shares one institution's experiences using professional portfolios to assist future teachers in becoming effective practitioners and making the transition between school and work. It describes the portfolio development process and the exit presentations. Both give students a peer/faculty forum to showcase their competencies, growth, and promote reflection, self‐confidence, job search preparedness, and an increased awareness of professional standards. In order to ascertain students’ perceptions regarding the development of a professional portfolio, faculty administered a questionnaire. Student feedback highlighted the benefits of portfolio development and offered suggestions for future improvements. They overwhelmingly viewed the invested time as worthwhile, saw the process as an appropriate program exit assessment, and recommended its continuation with future students. In addition, their suggestions held implications for portfolio use in teacher training programs.     

Reviews

Abstract

This paper explores the connections between physical education (PE), sport, nationalism and citizenship in Wales, focusing upon how recent education policies relating to PE and sport are implicated in the cultural production of ideational differences between and among the peoples of Wales and England. The analysis suggests that tendencies towards narrow, conservative, cultural restorationist ideals, as evident in Wales as they are in England, may obstruct progress towards more innovative and progressive ideals in the curriculum of PE.     

Towards a framework for financial literacy in the context of democracy

This paper contrasts the prevailing individualistic approach of financial literacy measurement and financial education with an educational framework that seeks to equip young people to play an active democratic role and to develop a broader understanding of the financial world. In particular, the framework suggests how important dimensions of financial literacy may be addressed in terms of the individual, the financial industry and government.     

Representing education 1969–80: notes on ‘Kes’ and ‘Grange Hill’

Focusing on the Working Men’s College (WMC), this study charts the chequered fortunes of a Victorian project: providing workers with a ‘liberal education’. The paper analyses the project’s aim (making ‘better citizens’), its disciplinary content (the humanities and/or the sciences) and its challenges (the increasing prestige of vocational studies). It argues that, in an increasingly professionalised society, a ‘liberal education’ for workers became contentious ground. As the role of the sciences within a ‘liberal education’ diminished, and the provision of practical skills took precedence in the local-authority-funded courses, Victorian workers’ opportunities for education became polarised between ‘useful’ sciences and ‘profitless’ humanities. With natural scientists losing the intellectual independence of their discipline to technicians, the WMC Edwardian educators chose to side unequivocally with the humanities. The paper contends that it was in the Edwardian context of the adult education movement that the ‘two cultures’ debate first emerged in Britain.     

Education for citizenship: the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the educational settlement movement

David Reeder was one of the most important conservers of the traditions of urban history scholarship established during the 1960s at the University of Leicester under the leadership of Professor H. J. Dyos. Among Reeder’s major achievements were the application of the skills and objectives of such scholarship to the history of education, and in turn his reminding of urban historians of the importance of the educational dimension within their studies. Reeder was also a key figure in the international diffusion of teaching and research in urban educational history, and in promoting an interdisciplinary perspective that drew together past and present studies of urban educational policy and related social issues. This tribute article places his work in the context of changing attitudes to the history of urban education from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, and focuses by way of illustration on collaborative work between its writer [BM] and David Reeder in national conferences and in contributions to publications on the subject.     

Effects of a 15-week accumulated brisk walking programme on the body composition of primary school children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish whether an accumulated brisk walking programme, performed during the school day, is effective in changing body composition in primary school children aged 5–11 years. Altogether, 152 participants (79 boys and 73 girls) took part in this repeated-measures intervention study, divided into groups of walkers and controls. The walkers took part in the intervention during school time, which involved brisk walking around the school grounds for 15 min in the morning and afternoon, at least three times a week for 15 weeks. This represented an additional 90 min of moderate physical activity per week. The controls undertook their usual school day activities. Pre- and post-intervention anthropometric and body composition measures were taken. Body fat (?1.95 ± 2.6%) and fat mass (?0.49 ± 1.0 kg) were significantly reduced in the walkers after the intervention, whereas the controls showed no significant changes in these measures. Our results show that regular accumulated bouts of brisk walking during the school day can positively affect body composition in primary school children.     

Effect of asthma and six-months high-intensity interval training on heart rate variability during exercise in adolescents

ABSTRACT

Little is known regarding the influence of asthma and exercise, and their interaction, on heart rate variability (HRV) in adolescents.

Thirty-one adolescents with asthma (13.7±0.9 years; 21.9±3.9 kg·m^?2; 19 boys, 12 girls) and thirty-three healthy adolescents (13.8±0.9 years; 20.3±3.2 kg·m^?2; 16 boys, 17 girls) completed an incremental ramp test and three heavy-intensity constant-work-rate cycle tests. Thirteen adolescents (7 boys, 6 girls; 6 asthma, 7 control) completed six-months high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and were compared to age- and sex-matched controls. Standard time-domain, frequency-domain and non-linear indices of HRV were derived at baseline, three- and six-months.

Asthma did not influence HRV at baseline or following HIIT. Total power, low frequency and normalised low frequency power, and sympathovagal balance increased at three-months in HIIT, subsequently declining towards baseline at six-months. Normalised high frequency power was reduced at three-months in both groups, which was sustained at six-months. No effects of HIIT were observed in the time-domain nor in the non-linear indices.

HRV was not influenced by asthma, potentially because such derangements are a function of disease progression, severity or duration. HIIT may be associated with a short-term shift towards greater sympathetic predominance during exercise, perhaps caused by physiological overload and fatigue.     

Quality of Life Assessment for Physical Activity and Health Promotion: Further Psychometrics and Comparison of Measures

Despite the clear relationship between physical activity and quality of life, few sound, relevant quality of life measures exist. Gill and colleagues developed a 32-item quality of life survey, and provided initial psychometric evidence. This study further examined that quality of life survey in comparison with the widely used short form (SF-36) health survey. Participants (n = 446) completed the quality of life survey, short form (36) health survey, World Health Organization quality of life measure, satisfaction with life scale, and the Godin physical activity measure. All quality of life survey scales (emotional, social, spiritual, physical, activities of daily living, cognitive, integrated) were internally consistent (alpha .79–.95) and test–retest correlations ranged from .68 to .82. The SF-36 had similar internal consistency, slightly lower test–retest correlations, and weaker relationships with satisfaction with life scale. Quality of life survey scales correlated with matching SF-36 and World Health Organization quality of life measure subscales supporting convergent validity. The quality of life survey reflects positive health models better than the SF-36, and is more appropriate for research and programs that focus on physical activity and health promotion.     

Conceptions of inclusion and inclusive education: a critical examination of the perspectives and practices of teachers in Poland

This small‐scale study details the development and execution of a system of inclusive education in 20th and 21st century in Poland. A detailed review of the literature and employment of in‐depth semi‐structured interviews aimed to establish how inclusion is defined and operationalised in Poland. In addition, the study sought to establish how the teachers' levels of professional development and personal attitudes towards inclusion were influencing the evolution of this important educational initiative. The data from the study detail that the concept of inclusion is not well known in Poland, and that integrative education still dominates educational thinking. The study provides data to suggest integration in Poland works well in the early stages of education, but that it struggles to provide for and integrate older children into the mainstream educational settings. The research concludes that Poland has taken an important but perhaps faltering step towards educating all children in the mainstream schools.