Individual pathways in the development of forceful throwing

Halverson, Roberton, and Langendorfer (1982) reported the development of children ages 6-13 years filmed longitudinally performing the forceful overarm throw. These authors described the children's progress through developmental sequences for trunk, humerus, and forearm actions; however, they did not study developmental relationships ("profiles") across these components. This paper reports how the profiles changed in the same children across trials within filming sessions and over time. The data revealed both common and individual developmental pathways. The frequencies of some pathways were not chance occurrences (p < or = .01), suggesting that within-person constraints eliminated certain movement relationships while encouraging others. The authors hypothesize that the kinematics of trunk rotation may serve as a control parameter for pattern change.     

Microanalytical identification of Pb-Sb-Sn yellow pigment in historical European paintings and its differentiation from lead tin and Naples yellows

The work is focused on identification of lead tin yellow types I and II, Naples yellow, and also on discrimination of a less common, distinct yellow pigment, the ternary Pb-Sb-Sn oxide.The knowledge about all those Pb-based yellows was in fact forgotten after introduction of modern synthetic yellows in 19th century. As late as in the last decade of the 20th century, the existence of Pb-Sb-Sn yellow and its production have been rediscovered, and only then it has been identified in colour layer of artworks.Pb-Sb-Sn yellow has recently been identified in colour layer of 17th century Italian paintings by Sandalinas and Ruiz-Moreno [C. Sandalinas, S. Ruiz-Moreno, Lead tin-antimony yellow, historical manufacture, molecular characterization and identification in seventeenth-century Italian paintings, Stud. Conserv. 49 (2003) 41–52], and here we report the finding of this pigment in Mid-European painting of the 18th and 19th centuries. Lead tin yellows, lead antimony yellow (Naples yellow), and lead antimony tin yellow were synthesized in laboratory following historical recipes, their colour was analyzed, and their structure was confirmed to provide a basis for their routine identification in microsamples of artworks by X-ray microdiffraction. Unequivocal identification of Pb-based yellows could help in authentication of traditional European paintings, because their use was temporally and also geographically specific. Combination of elemental microanalysis (X-ray fluorescence electron microanalysis) and X-ray powder microdiffraction were found very efficient in the microanalysis of colour layers of artworks with Pb-based yellows and their unequivocal identification.     

Validating Student Score Inferences With Person‐Fit Statistic and Verbal Reports: A Person‐Fit Study for Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment

The goal of this study was to investigate the usefulness of person‐fit analysis in validating student score inferences in a cognitive diagnostic assessment. In this study, a two‐stage procedure was used to evaluate person fit for a diagnostic test in the domain of statistical hypothesis testing. In the first stage, the person‐fit statistic, the hierarchy consistency index (HCI; Cui, 2007 ; Cui & Leighton, 2009 ), was used to identify the misfitting student item‐score vectors. In the second stage, students’ verbal reports were collected to provide additional information about students’ response processes so as to reveal the actual causes of misfits. This two‐stage procedure helped to identify the misfits of item‐score vectors to the cognitive model used in the design and analysis of the diagnostic test, and to discover the reasons of misfits so that students’ problem‐solving strategies were better understood and their performances were interpreted in a more meaningful way.     

Feedback complexity and corrective efficiency

College undergraduates read a 2400-word passage, responded to 16 multiple-choice questions, and received one of four types of feedback following their responses. Complexity of feedback was inversely related to both error correctability and criterion efficiency taken as a ratio of feedback study time to post-test corrects. The results were discussed in terms of depth of processing and instructional comprehension.     

Considering the Role of Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices Research in Transforming Urban Classrooms

We explore the first four articles in this Special Issue of Studying Teacher Education to identify challenges to the self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (S-STEP) methodology, and how this methodology supports the work of teachers and teacher educators working in urban settings. We respond to these articles by identifying strategies and tools that might be used by S-STEP researchers to strengthen the presentation of their work and to explore the challenges to transforming classrooms using this methodology.     

Towards an adolescent friendly methodology: accessing the authentic through collective reflection

The re-emergence of student voice presents a challenge to schools and researchers to become more responsive to the voice of adolescents in education and in research. However, the poor articulation of the nature of student voice to date is confirmation of the complex and important nature of the personal advocacy and human agency that is involved in all student voice activities. This lack of clarity leads to interpretations of student voice that range in authenticity from token to active and meaningful (Hart, R. 1997. Children's Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. Earthscan Publications. London: UNICEF). Researchers who are guided by more traditional methodologies may implement methods that are appropriate for adults yet are not sensitive to the needs and interests of the young person whose perspectives are usually the focus of the research. This research found that while an advocacy and empowerment worldview supports student voice research, adolescents also prefer a methodology that is agentic, socially based, reflective and embodied (Dempster, N., A. Lizzio, M. Keeffe, J. Skinner, and D. Andrews. 2010. “The Contributions of Research Design and Process Facilitation in Accessing Adolescent views of Leadership.” Leading and Managing 16 [2]: 77–89). Adolescent perspectives on research processes and methods are valuable in helping researchers to choose more responsive approaches to sharing understandings with adolescents, so that research designs may be challenging, meaningful and rewarding for all participants.