The relationship between performance of a single-leg squat and leap landing task: moving towards a netball-specific anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk screening method

ABSTRACT

Field-based screening methods have a limited capacity to identify high-risk postures during netball-specific landings associated with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. This study determined the biomechanical relationship between a single-leg squat and netball-specific leap landing, to examine the utility of including a single-leg squat within netball-specific ACL injury risk screening. Thirty-two female netballers performed single-leg squat and netball-specific leap landing tasks, during which three-dimensional (3D) kinematic/kinetic data were collected. One-dimensional statistical parametric mapping examined relationships between kinematics from the single-leg squat, and the 3D joint rotation and moment data from leap landings. Participants displaying reduced hip external rotation, reduced knee flexion, and greater knee abduction and knee internal rotation angles during the single-leg squat exhibited these same biomechanical characteristics during the leap landing (p < 0.001). Greater ankle dorsiflexion during the single-leg squat was associated with greater knee flexion during landing (p < 0.001). Ankle eversion during the single-leg squat was associated with frontal and transverse plane knee biomechanics during landing (p < 0.001). Biomechanics from the single-leg squat were associated with landing strategies linked to ACL loading or injury risk, and thus may be a useful movement screen for identifying netball players who exhibit biomechanical deficits during landing.     

The Impact of Caregiving Disruptions of Previously Institutionalized Children on Multiple Outcomes in Late Childhood

This study examined disruptions in caregiving, as well as the association of these disruptions, with cognitive, behavioral, and social outcomes at age 12 in a sample of 136 Romanian children who were abandoned to institutions as infants and who experienced a range of subsequent types of care. Children were found to experience significantly more caregiving disruptions (CGD) earlier in life than later in childhood. More frequent CGD predicted increases in externalizing and internalizing behavior problems at age 12. Results are discussed in terms of the association between CGD and the long-term development of children who have experienced institutional rearing.     

Working with systems and thinking systemically – disentangling the crossed wires

This article explores two separate traditions that educational psychologists (EPs) in the UK have for working with systems. One of these is “systems work” with organisations such as schools. The other is “systemic thinking” for working with families. Over the years these two traditions, systems work and systemic thinking, have become crossed and intertwined. This article clarifies the connections between them by providing a historical overview, largely based on articles published by Educational Psychology in Practice and the thinking of R. Dallos and R. Draper on Family Therapy, of how they have developed. Opportunities for EPs working in Children Services to use systemic thinking and systems work are highlighted.     

Understanding the Work and Perceptions of Teaching Focused Faculty in a Changing Academic Landscape

Teaching Focused Faculty (TFF) roles are growing across Canada and around the world, raising questions about how to understand the nature of faculty work and how faculty in non-traditional work distributions feel about their work. Our study is the first attempt to survey TFF members’ work and job attitudes at large research intensive universities in Canada. Our data contribute to the literature on the nature of faculty work, by revealing that TFF engage in a wide variety of work, including teaching, service, curriculum leadership, and often research in pedagogy and/or disciplines. TFF report mixed messages about what their departments and institutions expect of them. Our data also contribute to the literature on how faculty feel about their work. Consistent with other research on faculty job attitudes, TFF report valuing their jobs highly. Our data also reveal that feeling integrated into mainstream institutional culture is a particularly important contributor to this sense of value. Taken together, our findings can be used to inform the research literature on faculty work, as well as by administrators seeing to implement or enhance TFF ranks at their institutions.     

A Seat at the Table: How the Work of Teaching Impacts Teachers as Policy Agents

Policy reflects and shapes society's beliefs about schools, teachers, children, learning, and society, as well as the power structures embedded in our communities and decision-making processes. Although teachers may be central to the implementation of education policy, they are marginal to the design of policy agendas and text, especially around issues of teaching and learning. Their absence in the policymaking process creates a disconnect between the goals and design of education policy and the actual lived challenges of implementation. In examining the dynamics in this critical disconnect, we address the following research questions: How do institutional norms and routines affect teachers' agency in the policymaking process? Following this research question is our action question: How do we support conditions that support teachers as policy agents? We draw on qualitative data from two sites (West Virginia and Wisconsin) where K–12 teachers partnered with university researchers in a range of capacity-building efforts. Analysis illustrates how teachers interact with certain institutional norms that make it hard to engage in policy design. Based on our findings, we discuss how a teacher–university partnership can better support the conditions that facilitate greater teacher agency in thinking, talking, and acting on policy.