竞技健美操托举与配合动作的创新性

托举与配合动作作为竞技健美操艺术评判的重要内容,已凸显出特有的艺术魅力。然而在现阶段,它的创新却是制约我国竞技健美操成套艺术价值提升的瓶颈。文章论述了托举与配合动作的本质特征,采用录像观察法对近三届世界健美操锦标赛成套动作中的托举与配合动作就影响动作的空间因素、时间因素、方法因素和审美因素进行分析,指出改变与重组各因素是创新的重要方法。在创新中,时空的快速转换增添惊险性,方法的综合运用体现复杂性,造型的独特创意展示唯一性,各因素的变异与重组激发创新性。     

单个恒星的谱线也会发生摆动

银河系中有许多类似太阳的恒星,它们核聚变正在间歇地进行着,它们的质量损失也是间歇的,恒星在径向加速也是间歇的;这些恒星之间的距离会出现缩短与增大交替现象,当我们观察这些恒星时,会有谱线发生摆动的恒星。银河系除双星绕转运动可引发谱线摆动外,还有一些单个恒星谱线也会发生摆动;原来认为是单谱分光双星,其实它们不完全是双星,其中包含一些谱线来回摆动的单个恒星。     

论美国高等教育制度与国家价值观的互动关系

美国大学蕴育的学术自由、独立自治、崇尚民主等精神,培育了美国的核心价值即民主、自由、平等、法制等理念。该理念又深刻影响着美国高等教育的发展方向和历史进程。美国以国家价值观为依据,以建立多元化高等教育体系为平台,以立法为手段,不断推进教育机会均等,保护学术自由和大学自治传统。高等教育的不断发展与完善又强化了人们对国家价值观的认同。正是这种国家价值理念和高等教育制度发展的一致性和良性互动,才铸就了美国高等教育今天的成就。     

Parental support of numeracy during a cooking activity with four-year-olds

While research demonstrates the importance of numeracy-related activities performed at home for young children's mathematics achievement, few studies involve observational studies of the processes which support children's mathematical learning at home. On this premise, this study reports evidence from numeracy-related interactions between parents and their four-year-old child during cookery sessions at home. Numeracy group parents who received instructions to incorporate additional mathematics into the activity provided significantly more numeracy guidance and also created more opportunities for their children to practice advanced mathematics. Comparison group parents provided enough numeracy guidance to complete the recipe but rarely provided extensive or advanced numeracy guidance. Children in the numeracy group generated significantly more correct math responses during the activity than comparison group children, though there were no significant differences on the post-test. The findings suggest the need to raise parental awareness of opportunities to support and encourage mathematics in activities at home.     

Student interactions at a college canteen: a critical perspective

Much has been written about the style of lecturing that is adopted by lecturers in institutions of further and higher education. However, little has been written about interactions that take place in the informal settings of college and university campuses. Using an ethnographic approach, this paper presents an exploration of how students at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), a post-secondary vocational college in Malta, further enable themselves to progress through a programme of studies by interacting at the college canteen. By employing an ethnographic methodology, based on participant-observation and unstructured spontaneous interviewing, the study explores, in a holistic way, different ways that students at MCAST experience student life and use the canteen as a space to give added meaning to the time they spend in this educational setting.     

Enhancing Secondary School Instruction and Student Achievement: Replication and Extension of the My Teaching Partner-Secondary Intervention

Abstract

My Teaching Partner-Secondary (MTP-S) is a web-mediated coaching intervention, which an initial randomized trial, primarily in middle schools, found to improve teacher–student interactions and student achievement. Given the dearth of validated teacher development interventions showing consistent effects, we sought to both replicate and extend these findings with a modified version of the program in a predominantly high school population, and in a more urban, sociodemographically diverse school district. MTP-S produced substantial gains in student achievement across 86 secondary school classrooms involving 1,194 students. Gains were robust across subject areas and equivalent to moving the average student from the 50th to the 59th percentile in achievement scores. Results suggest that MTP-S can enhance student outcomes across diverse settings and implementation modalities.     

The Case for e-Book Literacy: Undergraduate Students' Experience with e-Books for Course Work

This paper investigates how electronic books (e-books) are used for scholarly activity. It focuses on the end-users of e-books in a case study which aimed to establish how scholars use and learn from e-books and the limitations of academic e-books.     

The Three R's: Rapport,Relationship, and Reference

In the eyes of our patrons, the success of a library transaction depends on both the accuracy of the information conveyed and the quality of the patron/staff interaction. We each experience rapport naturally many times during the day. Skills borrowed from the field of neuro-linguistic programming allow us to learn to quickly create a state of rapport with anyone we encounter. By learning to create rapport intentionally with our patrons, we can improve the quality of their library experience.     

Classroom Emotional Support predicts differences in preschool children's cortisol and alpha-amylase levels

Accumulating evidence suggests children enrolled in full-time child care often display afternoon elevations of the hormone cortisol, which is an indicator of stress. Recent advances in immunoassays allow for measurement of activity in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and the autonomic sympathetic nervous system from saliva, and measurement of both systems provides a more complete understanding of activity in the stress response system. This study is the first to examine both cortisol and alpha-amylase in children attending child care and focuses on the influences of specific indicators of classroom process quality. A diverse sample of 63 preschool children nested in 14 classrooms of varying quality participated in this study; child salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase were collected at six times over 2 days. Results indicate that children in classrooms with higher Emotional Support displayed a greater decline in cortisol from morning to afternoon. Further, children in classrooms with higher Emotional Support exhibited lower total alpha-amylase output while attending child care. Implications for professional development for early childhood teachers and measurement of classroom quality are discussed.     

The contributions of parental management language to executive function in preschool children

This study investigated relations between preschoolers’ emergent executive function skills and their interactions with parents, with particular focus on the verbal utterances parents use to guide children's behavior (i.e., management language). Parent–child dyads (n = 127) were videotaped during a structured play task and the frequency of two types of management language, Direction (high control) and Suggestion (low control), was observed. Children's executive function was assessed using the Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders (HTKS) task. Latent growth modeling was used to investigate relations between management language and the development of children's executive function. Direction language (i.e., commands) was negatively associated with children's age three executive function but not significantly related to the rate of executive function development over time. Conversely, Suggestion language (i.e., questions and statements that offer children some degree of choice) was positively related to executive function at age three but negatively related to growth. The potential importance of management language as a parenting behavior that contributes to various aspects of children's self-regulation during preschool and kindergarten is discussed.