A value‐added study of the impact of science curriculum reform using the National Pupil Database

This article compares the examination performance of students following General Certificate of Secondary Education Applied Science and Double Award science on a value‐added basis. It uses data from the National Pupil Database, which are analysed by a variety of methods, including multilevel modelling. It argues that the claims made within Office for Standards in Education reports on the impact of the new Applied Science course are inaccurate, and in some cases positively wrong. The authors' analysis, based on the second (2003–05) cohort of students following the course, shows that students of lower attainment at Key Stage 3 appear to perform better than would have been predicted from their Key Stage 3 attainment, but that higher attaining pupils perform less well. Schools offering Applied Science show greater diversity in the value‐added effects they produce than they do with Double Award science. The article argues that analyses of this kind are of value in seeking to understand the impact of curriculum reform, but that they are dangerous as a generalized guide for policy. They must be complemented by work in schools in which the sources of the effects observed and of school diversity are examined.     

A comparison of the agreement,internal consistency,and 2-day test stability of the InBody 720, GE iDXA,and BOD POD® gold standard for assessing body composition

The study compared the agreement, internal consistency, and measurement stability of the GE iDXA, BOD POD, and InBody 720. Body composition of 43 men and 37 women (31.4 ± 10.7 years; 90% Caucasian and 10% other) was assessed in triplicate using each method over two different days. Mean percent body fat (% BF) of the participants was different for all three machines (27.6 ± 10.0% [GE iDXA)] 25.6 ± 10.4% [BOD POD], and 21.3 ± 10.6% [InBody 720]; p < .05). The coefficient of variation for same day repeated measures was 1.06% (GE iDXA), 3.29% (BOD POD), and 2.97% (InBody 720). The coefficient of variation for 2-day repeated measures was 1.81% (GE iDXA), 4.61% (BOD POD), and 4.24% (InBody 720). The difference between the GE iDXA and BOD POD was within acceptable variability, while the InBody 720 significantly underestimated % BF. The internal consistency was highest for the GE iDXA, followed by the InBody 720, and then the BOD POD.     

The Challenges of Supporting Equity Literacy Skill Development in White Teacher Candidates: A Self-Study of Two White Field Instructors

In classrooms, race-based bias, discrimination, and inequities result in unsafe and unproductive learning environments. Teacher educators are charged with helping preservice teachers develop racial literacy skills. This self-study explores the ways in which two White teacher educators recognize and attempt to manage challenges during field instruction of White teacher candidates. The teacher educator researchers explore their own Whiteness and use a racial lens to critique their practices. Post-lesson-debriefing conferences between teacher educators and their candidates are shared as illustrative vignettes to reveal instructors’ teaching challenges and failures. Implications for working with White teacher candidates, improvements to field instruction practices, student teaching curricula revisions, and programmatic changes are posited.     

International conference on sport,leisure and ergonomics

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the physical demands of women’s rugby union match play using time–motion analysis and heart rate (HR) response. Thirty-eight premier club level female rugby players, ages 18–34 years were videotaped and HRs monitored for a full match. Performances were coded into 12 different movement categories: 5 speeds of locomotion (standing, walking, jogging, striding, sprinting), 4 forms of intensive non-running exertion (ruck/maul/tackle, pack down, scrum, lift) and 3 discrete activities (kick, jump, open field tackle). The main results revealed that backs spend significantly more time sprinting and walking whereas forwards spend more time in intensive non-running exertion and jogging. Forwards also had a significantly higher total work frequency compared to the backs, but a higher total rest frequency compared to the backs. In terms of HR responses, forwards displayed higher mean HRs throughout the match and more time above 80% of their maximum HR than backs. In summary, women’s rugby union is characterised by intermittent bursts of high-intensity activity, where forwards and backs have similar anaerobic energy demands, but different specific match demands.     

Preference and resistance to change in concurrent variable-interval schedules

Pigeons were trained on a multiple schedule in which separate concurrent schedules were presented in the two components of the schedule. During one component, concurrent variable-interval 40-sec variableinterval 80-sec schedules operated. In the second component, concurrent variable-interval 40-sec variableinterval 20-sec schedules operated. After stable baseline performance was obtained in both components, extinction probe choice tests were presented to assess preference between the variable-interval 40-sec schedules from the two components. The variable-interval 40-sec schedule paired with the variableinterval 80-sec schedule was preferred over the variable-interval 40-sec schedule paired with the variableinterval 20-sec schedule. The subjects were also exposed to several resistance-to-change manipulations: (1) prefeeding prior to the experimental session, (2) a free-food schedule added to timeout periods separating components, and (3) extinction. The results indicated that preference and resistance to change do not necessarily covary.     

THE UMIST CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONAL METHODS‐A MODEL OR A MISTAKE P

The article contains a report of the formation and development of a Centre for Educational Methods established at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). The Centre is a group of the academic staff of the Institute interested in education. It was originally formed to evaluate both old and new teaching methods for use in the Institute. It has developed into a group concerned also with the improvement of education and now organises discussion meetings, courses for lecturers, and an audio‐visual workshop. As an example of the Centre's audio‐visual work, the article stresses the use of television. A personal assessment of the effects of the Centre is included with the suggestion that other educational establishments should consider the formation of such a unit, if they do not already have one.     

Conducting Rigorous Survey Research in the Study of School-Based Consultation

The evidence base for school-based consultation practice and training is limited by a small number of studies, possibly due to unique challenges in researching consultation. For example, there are myriad variables to measure and idiosyncratic cultural and contextual factors to account for when investigating what works, for whom, and in what circumstances. Survey methodology offers one means for conducting consultation research. This article proposes a process for rigorous survey research in school-based consultation training and practice, which addresses some potential concerns regarding survey research. Specifically, issues of survey development, survey validation, sampling, and data collection are addressed. These processes are illustrated through the design and administration of an online survey of 262 early career school psychologists; preliminary data analyses suggested strong scale reliability, minimal item response bias, and population representativeness. Recommendations for future consultation survey research are provided.     

Wider access and progression among full-time students

By 2010 the UK government intends to widen access and provide experience of higher education to half of those aged up to 30. Unlike many institutions, University of Paisley (UP) has exceeded its individual target on access. It has done this by providing entry routes for students with ‘non-traditional’ qualifications. It is feared that low entry qualifications will adversely influence performance and progression statistics as wider access is pursued. Drawing on a student-attrition theory, performance and progression are investigated using data for students enrolling at UP for the first time in 2000. At UP non-traditional entry coincided with the enrolment of many students over 21. The relationships between age and performance and between age and progression are nonlinear and involve interactions with gender. Also, there are interactions between entry qualification and field of study. These relationships and interactions could complicate the important task of translating wider access into academic success.     

Exploring Gender and Phenomenography

A critical feature of phenomenographic study is its generation of the “outcome space” which constitutes the results of the study. The central idea underlying this article is that women may be “lost in space" — the phenomenographic outcome space. First, women seem to be literally missing in the majority of phenomenographic studies. These studies have usually been in fields in which women are poorly represented and in research samples in which women have not been present. Second, the traditional disciplines of study, the values of which largely determine the structure of the typically hierarchical outcome space, are patriarchal. Without attention to the hidden as well as the explicit aspects of what learners are coming to know, the understanding that we gain from the outcome space may be distorted. Third, the outcome space tends to be defined in many studies in cognitive terms, excluding or neglecting the affective dimension often associated with women's ways of knowing. This article explores the implications of looking for and elaborating on women's experience in phenomenographic research and suggests several ways in which women's experience might be recognised: by ensuring that women are included in research; by questioning in gender‐sensitive ways; by collecting and analysing the data with attention to the gendered construction of disciplinary knowledge and gendered ways of knowing.