Educational Policy on Emotional Intelligence: Does It Make Sense?

Educational policy on emotional intelligence appears to be based more on mass-media science journalism than on actual educational and psychological research. The first section of this article provides an overview of the research areas of emotional intelligence, social and emotional learning, and character education; it further examines how these areas became linked in the popular press. The second section examines the scientific evidence for whether emotional intelligence underpins social and emotional learning, how emotional intelligence relates to success, and whether it is central to character. We conclude that educational policy in this area has outpaced the science on which it is ostensibly based, and recommendations for the future are made.     

Kinematic sequence patterns in the overhead baseball pitch

ABSTRACT

Conceptually, an efficient baseball pitch demonstrates a proximal-to-distal transfer of segmental angular velocity. Such a timing pattern (or kinematic sequence) reduces stress on musculoskeletal structures of the throwing arm and maximises ball velocity. We evaluated the variability of kinematic sequences in 208 baseball pitches. 3D biomechanical pitch analyses were performed on 8–10 fastball pitches from 22 baseball pitchers (5 high school, 11 collegiate and 6 professional). The kinematic sequence patterns – time of peak angular velocity of five body segments: pelvis, trunk, arm, forearm and hand – were measured. None of the pitches analysed demonstrated an entirely proximal-to-distal kinematic sequence. Fourteen different kinematic sequence patterns were demonstrated, with the most prevalent sequence being pelvis → trunk → arm → hand → forearm. Fewer than 10% of the pitchers performed only one kinematic sequence pattern across the sampled pitches. The variability of the kinematic sequence was similar in high-school pitchers and professionals. Previous studies report that deviation from the proximal-to-distal kinematic sequence is associated with increased injury risk. As a method of evaluating the efficient transfer of energy to the hand, the kinematic sequence may provide insight to injury risk in the future. The ideal kinematic sequence and ideal variability of the sequence when throwing have yet to be determined.     

Special Issue

Teacher education, the process of becoming a teacher and aiding others to become teachers, is in part a journey of imaginative development. Students come to imagine teaching, and themselves as teachers, in new ways. This essay reports on an attempt to use ideas about imagination in teaching and learning as the central theme of the first semester of a one‐year teacher education program in British Columbia, Canada. Following a discussion of the theoretical and practical challenges encountered, several possible means of extending this approach are proposed. It is argued that a program thus infused by imagination may be more likely to lead to authentic professional transformation of the kind often posited as a goal of teacher education.