Leading Developmental Peer Observation of Teaching in Higher Education: Perspectives from Australia and England

Whilst peer observation of teaching is well established as a practice that can enhance teaching quality, the challenge to fully embed this practice in universities remains unresolved. This article analyses the perspectives of 18 university leaders (nine Australian and nine English) drawn from a range of school-based leaders to senior leaders of learning and teaching. Our study indicates that some of the challenges associated with leading such schemes can be mitigated through approaches to educational leadership that enact a respectful and collegiate ethos. This we suggest can support developmental academic engagement in peer observation for positive and lasting change.     

Reconstructing Dewey: Habit,Embodiment and Health and Well-Being

This critical paper utilises selective education writings by John Dewey as the basis for considering how a strengths-based and personalised view of habit and embodiment could effectively thrive as part of an enhanced health and well-being focus in schools. The paper centres on Dewey’s belief that habits when allied to continuity and interaction could help children to integrate experiences in ways which enable them to constructively evaluate the contribution of health and well-being to their education. The paper concludes by reviewing how the connections between habit, embodiment and health and well-being could be pedagogically strengthened.     

The impact of austerity on Irish higher education faculty

Given the impact of austerity on higher education systems, an intellectual concern with the impact of austerity on faculty seems appropriate. In this article, austerity is explored through the everyday lived experience of faculty and its impact on both their personal and professional contexts. This aspect has been under-researched in the higher education literature and addresses the complexities and contradictions that the austerity can create for faculty. The study located in the Republic of Ireland provides an interesting context as the global financial crisis in 2008 resulted in 9 years of austerity measures that impacted on all aspects of the economy and particularly on the higher education sector. A social realist approach using Archer’s morphogenetic framework was employed. The framework facilitated an in-depth understanding of the relationship between structure, culture and agency and how austerity was experienced by faculty within their institutions.     

Classroom Interaction and the Development of Empowerment

What is the practical pedagogic value of the zone of proximal development? How might we draw from the writings of Vygotsky and Leont’ev with regard to understanding the process of children and young people’s development as socialised intellectual beings? This article applies cultural-historical theory to classroom activity in order to reveal the potential for dynamic change in subjectivity, agency, cooperation and collaboration. After a detailed theoretical contextualisation which links primary sources and the cultural-historical tradition to learning and development through classroom activity, an incident in a lesson is discussed and situated in its wider narrative of practical experimentation, diagnosis and implementation.     

Force-Time Curves of Voluntary Muscular Contraction at Varying Tensions

Abstract

A recording spring-loaded hand ergograph with fast moving paper was utilized to obtain a record of the entire hand contraction sequence. The subjects (N=40) were given a series of six contractions, each beginning at a different initial tension: 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 kilograms. The contractions were separated by one minute and the order was systematically rotated to minimize either learning or fatigue. The development of force was found to progress exponentially according to a three-component mathematical equation. The control group (zero pre-tension) achieved a greater maximal force (F=4.5) than all others, and was the only one with a clear advantage in speed and tension. The rate of change constants were comparable, but the early initial (negative) component disappeared at the 20 kilogram condition and beyond. The factor of rate seemed to be independent of tension level.     

Age-Related Differences in Muscular Strength and Muscular Endurance among Female Masters Swimmers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine age-related differences in muscular strength and muscular endurance among 73 female masters swimmers aged 24 to 71 years. Each subject was assessed on measures of body size, grip strength, peak isokinetic torque of shoulder and knee flexion and extension, and endurance of shoulder and knee movements. Although swim training appears to have resulted in higher strength values for these swimmers than for less active women, an age-related decline in muscular strength values was nevertheless apparent. The results fail to reveal a similar age-related trend for muscular endurance, suggesting that swim training influences muscular endurance more than muscular strength among adult women.     

Properties of Isokinetic Fatigue at Various Movement Speeds in Adult Males

Abstract

Eighteen male subjects, ages 20–28 years, engaged in three fatigue bouts using an isokinetic dynamometer (Cybex II). Maximum knee extension contractions were given for 100 s at a rate of 30 per minute. The three contraction speeds chosen were 120° · s ^–1 160° · s ^–1 and 200° · s ^–1.Peak torque at 120° · s ^–1 was significantly greater (p <.05) than at 200° · s ^–1 for the first 60 s, and 160° · s ^–1 for the first 50 s. Thereafter, no significant differences existed among conditions. All three curves were found to follow two-component exponential functions as shown by the equation y_t =a ₂ e^k2^t – a ₁ e^k1^t + c. The three curves possessed similar rate constants for both components. Time to peak torque was achieved at similar times for testing at 160 and 200° · s ^–1 (p <.05). It is concluded that peak torque varies inversely with movement speed, and that the pattern of decrement is independent of movement speed. Time to peak torque does not appear to change significantly across trials in isokinetic fatigue.     

Grand designs! analysing the conceptual tensions associated with new physical education and health and well-being curriculum

The positioning of physical education in the school curriculum continues to reflect external discourses circulating in political and social milieu. As increasing austerity measures influence and restrict educational priorities, we consider that there is an urgent need for physical educationalists to articulate a rationale for an educational contribution which is worthy of investment and which avoids the pitfalls of conceptual ambiguity and/or reliance on narrowly drawn health evidence. We, therefore, write as teacher educators, working within a critical framework, who are concerned by the disconnection between competing visions of physical education, when examined from contemporary sociological and philosophical perspectives. With reference to the policy opportunities available in Scotland, we identify how cultivating salutogenic approaches, where a broad, but nevertheless coherent perspective on health and well-being is advanced could offer enhanced prospects for the centrality of physical education in education and schooling. However, apart from the contribution of Quennerstedt, quite how such approaches can be modelled in curriculum has received little critical attention. We see the potential in applying Tiberius's philosophical and social psychological ideas on developing reflective wisdom and of nurturing in education productive experiences which can help pupils deepen their understanding of the health and well-being decisions they make and of the lives they choose to live. After reviewing the contextual influences on policy, we have begun to consider in embryonic terms the methodological possibilities for teachers as insightful and active curriculum decision makers in years to come. We conclude by summarising the benefits of re-conceptualising experiences in physical education in order to help pupils' make informed decisions which are based on enhanced self-awareness and a perspective on the world that views physical education as an essentially optimistic and good endeavour which is worthy of sustained commitment.     

Comparative career accomplishments of two decades of women and men doctoral graduates in education

Patterns of doctoral study and subsequent career progress were compared for 756 men and women doctoral graduates in education at a research university from two six-year periods, one before and one after a rapid nation-wide increase in the percentage of women doctorates. Despite advantages relative to men in admission, financial support and full-time study, women doctorates of both periods had achieved less career progress than men but held similarly positive perceptions concerning career impact of the degree. Work experience prior to doctoral study strongly predicted career progress for both genders. Thus, affirmative action may have positively affected the careers of recent women doctorates who were younger and who began study with less established careers than women doctorates prior to 1970.