The Preparation of Physical Educators: A Public Health Perspective

Sedentary living is a serious global public health problem that is associated with numerous preventable diseases. Schools are in a position to be the most costeffective public resource to combat inactivity. In schools physical educators are positioned to be the strongest advocates of a healthy, active lifestyle. To effectively promote physical activity on school campuses and to encourage it in communities beyond the school day, physical educators will need to develop skills that are not typically stressed in undergraduate physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. As a result, both undergraduate PETE and in-service staff-development programs will need to be revised if schools are to play a major role in physical activity promotion.     

School head teachers’ views of the drive towards educational innovation in Catalonia / La visión de los directores de escuela sobre el impulso de la innovación educativa en Cataluña

Abstract

Today, educational change and innovation are a clear priority in educational centres across the world. This article analyses the strengths and opportunities presented by the process of educational innovation taking place in Catalonia from the perspective of school head teachers, employing a quanti-qualitative methodology using 227 surveys and 29 semi-structured interviews. The results locate the innovation process in a phase characterized by efforts aimed at updating existing practice, resistance to change generated by the system itself, and a lack of systematic reflection on current practice. Two strengths of the process reported relate to its scale and transversality across the whole territory on the one hand, and the importance that collaboration between teachers and schools is having in order to facilitate innovation. Other aspects highlighted are: the need to invest more planning in innovation processes; the need for the Deparment of Education to reflect on its own role within the process; and, finally, the need to develop the role of technologies as facilitators of innovation and communication.     

Measuring Personal Networks and Their Relationship with Scientific Production

The analysis of social networks has remained a crucial and yet understudied aspect of the efforts to measure Triple Helix linkages. The Triple Helix model aims to explain, among other aspects of knowledge-based societies, “the current research system in its social context” (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000:109). This paper develops a novel approach to study the research system from the perspective of the individual, through the analysis of the relationships among researchers, and between them and other social actors. We develop a new set of techniques and show how they can be applied to the study of a specific case (a group of academics within a university department). We analyse their informal social networks and show how a relationship exists between the characteristics of an individual’s network of social links and his or her research output.     

Informing choice: The organization of institutional interaction in clinical midwifery care

Researchers in LIS have called for the study of the social practices out of which informing is achieved. This article analyzes the informed choice discussion (ICD) between midwives and childbearing women as a form of institutional interaction that accomplishes informing. The ICD institutionally presumes a woman to have information needs that must be met before she can make a decision. Conversation analysis, a method commonly used to study practitioner–client interaction but little used in LIS, is employed to identify the unique “fingerprint” of the ICD. Analysis shows how participants develop a joint sense of the interactional tasks of informing and deciding. As an ideal, informed choice divides the cognitive labor: informing is midwife-led and deciding is client-led. In practice, however, informing and deciding are intertwined to such an extent that their resolution is neither automatic nor straightforward but must be negotiated. To be accepted as adequate, a decision must also be deemed adequately informed. Difficulties in negotiating transitions can result in one speaker treating a decision as resolved while another treats it as still open. Analyzing the fingerprints of institutional informing interactions can provide a starting point for analyzing the interactional accomplishment of informing in other settings.     

Inclusive education: Open debates and the road ahead

This special issue is devoted to the outcomes of the 48th International Conference of Education, “Inclusive Education: The Way of the Future” (Geneva, 25–28 November 2008). In addition to presenting the conclusions and recommendations from the conference, this introduction tackles a wide range of questions in the field of inclusive education on which there are still controversy and debate. The issue draws together a selection of articles that analyze these open debates at a deeper level. Special emphasis is placed on several issues: Should inclusive education be a comprehensive approach or follow a policy of piecemeal social engineering? How can educational systems pursue equity and quality simultaneously? What is the role of government, and of decentralization and autonomy? What teaching methods are needed, and what changes in teacher education, development and motivation? Finally, what are the roles of communities, social attitudes, and behaviours?     

Learning and behaviour of three- to five-year-old children with ADHD / Aprendizaje y conducta de niños y niñas con TDAH de tres a cinco años

Early childhood education is a developmental period in which early symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be observed. This work examines the educational background of 206 children, from the ages of three to five years (109 of them with an ADHD diagnosis and 97 without a clinical diagnosis), by analysing 306 reports from their teachers. The aim of this study is to discover if these educational reports reflect differences in academic performance and behaviour between both groups. The 123 educational goals analysed in the reports have been classified into 15 categories. A nonparametric analysis (Chi square) was performed on each variable to compare ADHD/control groups. Our results claim that ADHD children show more difficulties in different curricular and behavioural aspects like attention, self-regulation, independence, motivation, basic learning, social relationships, motor skills and communication. These reports are useful in identifying children who are at risk of developing the disorder and in establishing intervention goals that decrease negative effects in children’s development.     

Technological change and managerial challenges in the movie theater industry

The recent rise of digital technology in the delivery of entertainment casts doubt among industry stakeholders on whether movie theaters will continue to be the primary channel of the release of motion pictures. Despite the growth of competing outlets due to the spread of digitalization, we argue that the movie theater industry may benefit from digital technologies as well. Enhancing the cinemagoing experience, better matching of the cinemagoing experience to consumer preferences, and improving capacity utilization are crucial if movie theaters are to continue having a pivotal role in the distribution of filmed entertainment. In particular, our data analysis demonstrates that the use of new digital technologies and “big data” may be one way to turn the current threats into future opportunities for movie exhibitors. Therefore, managerial strategies that aim to raise the value proposition of theaters by enhancing the cinemagoing experience, and that boost adaptability to rapidly changing consumer preferences about how and when they view filmed entertainment, ought to be studied and implemented.

     

Land education: Indigenous,post-colonial,and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research

This editorial introduces a special issue of Environmental Education Research titled ‘Land education: Indigenous, post-colonial, and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research.’ The editorial begins with an overview of each of the nine articles in the issue and their contributions to land and environmental education, before outlining features of land education in more detail. ‘Key considerations’ of land education are discussed, including: Land and settler colonialism, Land and Indigenous cosmologies, Land and Indigenous agency and resistance, and The significance of naming. The editorial engages the question ‘Why land education?’ by drawing distinctions between land education and current forms of place-based education. It closes with a discussion of modes and methods of land education research.     

Blockbusters and market expansion: evidence from the motion picture industry

Like other cultural industries, the theatrical film industry is subject to the ‘blockbuster effect’, where popular products often dominate their competition by orders of magnitude over relatively short-run time horizons. This paper investigates this particular feature of the industry and the implication for overall market size. Using simple regression analysis, a positive relationship between (product-level) market concentration and market size is established using weekly box office revenue data from the US motion picture industry. This empirical evidence supports a simple theoretical model of heterogeneous consumers who selectively participate in the market.