The New Journal of Jewish Education at Ten: An Appraisal

This article documents the Journal of Jewish Education’s acquisition by the Network for Research in Jewish Education, in 2004, and evaluates the contribution of the re-launched Journal to the field of Jewish education. I explore how the Journal contributed over the past decade in three discrete yet often overlapping areas, thereby realizing its editors’ vision. First, the Journal of Jewish Education became the venue for conversations between researchers, practitioners and funders about the direction of Jewish education research and policy; second, it became an outlet for the sharing of research and other Jewish education scholarship; and third, it became a venue where scholars introduced research and theoretical constructs from the field of general education and sought to demonstrate their relevance to Jewish education. Finally, I suggest some reasons why the editors had less success in realizing a fourth goal for the Journal; that is, making it a forum for new ideas and the charting of new directions in research and practice.     

Markers of isometric training intensity and reductions in resting blood pressure

In this study, we examined the correlations between selected markers of isometric training intensity and subsequent reductions in resting blood pressure. Thirteen participants performed a discontinuous incremental isometric exercise test to volitional exhaustion at which point mean torque for the final 2-min stage (2min-torque(peak)) and peak heart rate peak (HR(peak)) were identified. Also, during 4 weeks of training (3 sessions per week, comprising 4?×?2?min bilateral leg isometric exercise at 95% HR(peak)), heart rate (HR(train)), torque (Torque(train)), and changes in EMG amplitude (ΔEMG(amp)) and frequency (ΔEMG(freq)) were determined. The markers of training intensity were: Torque(train) relative to the 2min-torque(peak) (%2min-torque(peak)), EMG relative to EMG(peak) (%EMG(peak)), HR(train) ΔEMG(amp), ΔEMG(freq), and %MVC. Mean systolic (-4.9 mmHg) and arterial blood pressure (-2.7mmHg) reductions correlated with %2min-torque(peak) (r?=?-0.65, P?=?0.02 and r?=?-0.59, P?=?0.03), ΔEMG(amp) (r?=?0.66, P?=?0.01 and r?=?0.59, P?=?0.03), ΔEMG(freq) (r?=?-0.67, P?=?0.01 and r?=?-0.64, P?=?0.02), and %EMG(peak) (systolic blood pressure only; r?=?-0.63, P?=?0.02). These markers best reflect the association between isometric training intensity and reduction in resting blood pressure observed after bilateral leg isometric exercise training.     

健身锻炼心理预测因素与运动损伤的相关性研究

目的:从运动心理学角度探讨大众健身人群风险认知、风险承担、运动能力判断、运动损伤经历等心理预测因素与运动损伤的相关性,同时测定以上因素对实际健身锻炼中运动损伤的预测效度,并探究其间的性别差异,旨在为进一步有效减少和预防运动损伤提供理论依据.方法:从健身俱乐部新入会的学员中,随机选取300名(男性150人,女性150人)年龄在26～35岁之间的健康成年志愿者组成实验组,进行为期12周,每周3～4次的健身锻炼.要求受试者在俱乐部每次锻炼前及时记录并提供风险认知、风险承担、运动能力判断及运动损伤经历等信息.利用运动损伤风险量表(RISSc)、风险承担行为量表(RTB)和李克特五级评分法(Likert-Type Scale)等对以上因素进行测试与评价.之后,对实验数据进行相关性分析、多元Logistic回归分析和多元方差分析等统计学处理.结果:1)“风险认知”并不与“风险承担”或“运动损伤”呈负相关;2)低水平的“风险认知”和“运动能力判断”使锻炼者受伤风险显著增加,其比值比( ORs)区间为:3.79～7.95;3)“运动能力高估”与“运动损伤”呈正相关;4)“运动能力判断”与“风险承担”呈正相关;5)“风险承担”与“运动能力高估”、“运动损伤”或“运动损伤经历”之间不存在相关性;6)“运动损伤经历”与运动损伤之间也不存在相关性;7)女性的“风险认知”水平比男性高,“风险承担”水平比男性低;但在“运动能力判断”和“运动能力高估”上,并无性别差异,且随后男性和女性在健身锻炼中发生的运动损伤量较为接近.结论:1)健身锻炼心理预测因素中,“风险认知”不与运动损伤呈负相关;“运动能力高估”与运动损伤呈正相关;“风险承担”与运动损伤之间无相关性.2)低水平的“风险认知”和“运动能力判断”是健身锻炼者发生运动损伤的重要心理危险因素;3)女性风险认知力比男性高,运动能力判断(高估)与男性相似,风险承担行为比男性少,且易受过去运动损伤经历的影响.     

Emotional support and adult depression in survivors of childhood sexual abuse

The goals of this study were to evaluate the effects of emotional support from friends and parents at two time points (adolescence and adulthood) on adult depression in a nationally representative sample of survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and examine whether the associations were moderated by the identity of the perpetrator (parent/caregiver vs. not). Data were taken from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The study sample included 1,238 Add Health participants with a history of CSA and an equivalently sized comparison group of individuals with no history of CSA. Parental support was measured using four items from each wave that assessed the warmth of participants’ relationships with their parents and their satisfaction with those relationships. Friend support in adolescence was measured using participants’ perceptions of how much their friends cared about them and in adulthood using participants’ self-reported number of close friends. Depression was measured using a 10-item subscale of the CES-D. Logistic regressions showed that support from friends and parents in adulthood were significantly associated with lower odds of adult depression in CSA survivors who reported non-parent/caregiver abuse. Among survivors of parent/caregiver abuse, emotional support was not significantly associated with adult depression regardless of when or by whom it was provided. In conclusion, emotional support in adulthood from friends and parents is associated with reduced odds of adult depression in CSA survivors, but only in cases where the abuse was perpetrated by someone other than a parent or caregiver.     

Building on similarity: a whole class use for simplified language materials

This article examines how the recommended pedagogy for people with Down syndrome may be of use to a wide range of other individuals within a mainstream school setting. Drawing on current practices within English education, it describes the evidence behind the current advice about the language to be used in materials for people with Down syndrome, and then examines why similar language forms have been devalued as teaching tools in relation to people who are learning English as an additional language. The article then describes the use of differentiated materials in a secondary school and the problems that this both highlights and generates. Drawing on these three strands, as well as current best practice and research into comprehension and simple English, this article then proposes a possible usage for simplified language materials (SLMs) at transition points of lessons. It suggests that if SLMs are used at these specific moments within lessons they could be of value to the whole class, and serve as a useful inclusive pedagogy. The article highlights the need for further research into the possible use of SLMs within mainstream schools.     

’Always knowing’ and ‘never being sure’: familial and institutional habituses and higher education choice

In 2008, the UK Labour government unveiled plans to abolish the Learning and Skills Council and transfer funding for the education and training of 16–19‐year‐olds in England to local authorities (LAs). The transfer of 16–19 funding complements the responsibilities that LAs have already acquired in relation to the raising of the education and training ‘participation age’ and ensuring that all young people have access to a full 14–19 curriculum entitlement in their area. Such a move might be read as part of the ‘new localism’ that has gained currency under the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, as well as an opportunity to rein back from an English education and training system that has become increasingly centralised and ‘top‐down’. Indeed, some commentators have argued for a new model of governance based on ‘devolved social partnership’, with input from a wider range of stakeholders and the space for policy levers to be shaped more at local level. Drawing upon interviews with key personnel in LAs and other stakeholders, this paper examines the opportunities and challenges that LAs face in their new role, whether this amounts to a genuine devolution of power, and the prospects for ‘devolved social partnership’.     

Give Them Time – an analysis of school readiness in Ireland's early education system: a Steiner Waldorf Perspective

This paper examines a Steiner Waldorf Perspective to School Readiness and applies that international ideology to educational practice and curriculum policy in modern Ireland. The case for a later school start is championed with strong arguments underpinning the reasons why a later start is better in the long run for children's formal learning capacity and enthusiasm. Current primary school curriculums for the early years are also analysed and catalogued against Steiner philosophical best practice in early learning to promote a child-centred early learning curriculum within the Irish primary educational system.     

The Use of Assessment Data for School Improvement Purposes

Hampshire LEA has carried out two longitudinal studies: from reception intake to the end of Year 2, and from the end of Year 2 to the end of Year 6. A total, respectively, of 161 and 114 schools and about 6400 and 4700 pupil records have been analysed. Test scores at baseline (entry to reception), Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 have been used, together with pupil and school level variables. Multilevel models have been fitted and show that schools differ along several dimensions, both by curriculum subject and by prior attainment of pupil. The research sought ways of communicating the results to head teachers in ways which were meaningful without destroying the underlying complexity of the relationships uncovered. The paper describes how this can be done, in ways which can assist the process of school improvement.     

Research and practice in science education: a response to Traianou and Hammersley

A reader of Traianou and Hammersley’s article (in this issue), which discusses at some length the work we undertook in the Evidence‐based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Research Network, might attribute to us views that are rather different from those which we in fact hold, and which we have sought to present in our own accounts of this work. We highlight several points on which their interpretation of our work and views differs markedly from ours. The aim of the EPSE Network was to explore the practical implications of ‘evidence‐based practice’ in the context of a mainstream curriculum subject such as science, not to advocate any particular interpretation of that term. We would encourage readers interested in the relationship between research and practice in the teaching of specific subjects to base their view of our work, and the perspectives underpinning it, on our own account.