Longitudinal study of preadolescent sport self-concept and performance: reciprocal effects and causal ordering

Do preadolescent sport self-concepts influence subsequent sport performance? Longitudinal data (Grades 3, 4, and 6) for young boys and girls (N= 1,135; mean age = 9.67) were used to test reciprocal effects model (REM) predictions that sport self-concept is both a cause and a consequence of sport accomplishments. Controlling prior sport performance (performance-based measures and teacher assessments), prior sport self-concept had positive effects on subsequent sport performance in both Grade 4 and Grade 6 and for both boys and girls. Coupled with previous REM studies of adolescents in the academic domain, this first test for preadolescents in the sport domain supports the generalizability of REM predictions over gender, self-concept domain, preadolescent ages, and the transition from primary to secondary school.     

Enhancement and constraint: student-mothers’ experiences of higher vocational education,emotion and time

Student-mothers who study vocationally related higher education programmes are a relatively under-researched group. Specifically, there is a paucity of research into the emotions that these learners experience. This article discusses a qualitative investigation that examined the emotional narratives that a group of vocational student-mothers offered. They were studying for a foundation degree for teaching assistants at a university in the North of England. The student-mothers were largely found to have experienced positive emotions. However, familial and workplace guilt had also been encountered. These emotions emanated from notions about how family and workplace time should be used. Student-mothers managed this cognitive dissonance by stressing the reciprocal relationships that existed between their studies, family lives and school work. However, for many of these learners familial and workplace guilt was a strong and continuing emotion.     

Student performances on the science processes of recording data,analyzing data,drawing conclusions,and providing evidence

The National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment (1994 draft) viewed several science processes as important to an understanding of science as inquiry: formulating usable questions, planning experiments, conducting systematic observations, interpreting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating, and coordinating and implementing a full investigation. This study is one of three undertaken to develop research rubrics for a performance assessment of science processes and to evaluate seventh-grade science students' ability to perform them. Specifically, this article focuses on the processes of recording data, analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and providing evidence. A total of 364 students field tested the Alternative Assessment of Science Process Skills. Their responses were used to develop a research rubric, and then this rubric was used to determine response patterns that could inform both instruction and assessment of science process skills. Only 61% of students performed the activity and recorded data successfully. Sixty-nine percent of students did not attend to the hypothesis in drawing their conclusions. Eighty-one percent did not provide specific evidence for their conclusions. These results were discussed in light of relevant theories and models as well as their implications for instruction and assessment. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Business Giving,the Tsunami and Corporates as Rock Stars: Some Implications for Arts Funding?

Financial and cultural aspects of corporate giving by UK and non-UK companies in response to the December 2004 South Asia Tsunami disaster are explored in this article. Literatures on corporate giving rationales, concepts of disaster and donor activity in disasters provide an underpinning. The article seeks to make connections between this high profile if short-lived business giving and the funding of the arts that is sought from business; and to draw tentative lessons for arts funding when seeking business support. The giving accounts in the wake of the Tsunami from a non-probability sample1 1. A probability sample is one in which each person (or company in this case) in the population has an equal chance (probability) of being selected. In a non-probability sample some people (in this case, companies) have a greater chance than others of being selected. For this study the availability of public information on the companies was the deciding factor on being selected. View all notes of 56 UK companies and 16 non-UK companies were examined. Reported online to the UK charity Business in the Community, these accounts were accessed in February 2005 and scrutinized thematically. Concurrently, company financial profiles to accompany giving figures were constructed. Although linkages between donation levels and financial performance were lacking, emerging themes included the role of employees, influencing company giving and creating a climate of expectation of firms' contributions. These developments may have important implications for business funding for the arts, where leading philanthropists are prominent as individuals in the giving landscapes; but employees' collective involvement is not marked. Alternatively, cultivation of employees as would-be donors, indirectly via their firms, may be a more secure, if lower level route to funding for some arts organizations than dependence on high profile business leaders. The article considers alternative scenarios for company giving in disaster contexts, including as a sustained and lasting giving theme or as company support as a ‘one-off’ event, rock-star style. The likely development of employee power as a key element in company giving is explored; and its wider meanings for funding in arts settings, (where the giver as rock star heroine/hero is also prominent) are considered.