Playing with rules around routines: children making mealtimes meaningful and enjoyable

Children attending early childhood education and care centres spend a lot of time fitting in with institutional routines. This paper uses ethnographic methods and sociocultural activity theory to describe and analyse the processes whereby young children in an early childhood centre collectively created meaning and interest during potentially boring routine mealtimes. The research explores the relationship between rules and children's playful activity. Using their imaginations children negotiated and played with and within the rules around ‘eating‐together’ times. While physically constrained in chairs around tables children enjoyed the freedom of playing with word sounds and meanings. Children actively, collaboratively and at times subversively, created their peer community culture.     

Book Reviews

Ted Goodhew, T.R.I.S.T. Advisory Teacher, Berkshire County Council, ‘New Directions in Pastoral Care’, Edited by Peter Lang & Michael Marland, 1985 Blackwell —

Professor R. F. Dearden, University of Birmingham, Profiles and Records of Achievement, Patricia Broadfoot (ed) 1986 Holt, Rinehart and Winston £6.50 paperback

Pat Salder, Education for Capability, Ed Tyrrell Burgess N. F. E. K./Nelson 1986 £10.95

John Alcock, University of Warwick, Solo Monologues for Drama,John Goodwin and Bill Taylor 1985 Edward Arnold Ltd £2.15

Caroline Lodge, White Hart Lane School, London, Sharing,Beryl Heather FPA Education Unit 1984 52pp £3.50     

Convergence of Sequences and Series 2: Interactions Between Nonvisual Reasoning and the Learner’s Beliefs about their own Role

This paper examines the work of students who, when reasoning about real analysis, do so almost exclusively by means of verbal and algebraic reasoning, and tend not to incorporate visual images into their work. It examines the work of students from two parallel courses of introductory real analysis, whose reasoning ranges from those who introduce definitions appropriately and work with them competently, to those who cannot recall definitions and appear to manipulate notation without regard for its reference. It presents a theory that relates the differences to students expectations regarding their role as learners of mathematics. Throughout, the argument is illustrated with interview data from which the theory was inductively generated.     

Learning to spell a regularly spelled language is not a trivial task – patterns of errors in Kiswahili

Various theories of spelling development are discussed, includingtheir relevance to regularly spelled languages. For those languagesstudied so far, models including the incorporation of a wide variety oflinguistic knowledge seem most fruitful. Data from studies of reading,however, suggest that when the language is regularly spelled children donot make many errors after the initial stages. Data are presented fromspelling errors in children learning to spell Kiswahili, a regularlyspelled, non-European language. Patterns of errors and even specificphonemes and graphemes that are problematic are shown to resembleclosely the patterns found in English and other European languages. Itis concluded that, as in other languages, children are integrating manydifferent types of linguistic knowledge in their attempt to spell wordscorrectly; dialect, orthography, and grammatical knowledge are allimportant. Unlike reading such a language, spelling a regularly spelledlanguage is a cognitively challenging task.     

Humanising Writing centre Practice: Peer tutor Reflections at a University of Technology

Abstract

Traditionally, universities of technology (UoTs) have focussed on education to prepare students for the workplace. The Durban University of Technology (DUT) is currently undergoing a pedagogical transformation with the inclusion of a general education curriculum that aims to prepare students for an increasingly complex globalised work environment. This critical paradigm shift in curriculum design foregrounds new ways of teaching, thinking and learning based broadly on humanistic principles. Writing centres in universities are positioned to sustain a teaching and learning environment in which students grow as critical citizens. This article reports on research that explored – through the thematic analysis of tutor reflections – how a humanising pedagogy underpins a responsive writing centre practice within the changing South African context. Thematic analysis of the tutors’ reflections revealed their self-awareness of the significance of communities of practice in their work. These communities of practice could be seen to cultivate a humanising pedagogy within writing centre work, which might contribute to the aesthetic, socio-political and cultural environments in which students live and work.     

Convergence of sequences and series: Interactions between visual reasoning and the learner's beliefs about their own role

This paper examines part of a set of students who were followed during their first-term, first-year studies in formal definition-based real analysis at a British university. It explores the approaches to problems about convergence of sequences and series made by students who have a tendency to include visual imagery in their reasoning. We explore links between the students' mathematical behavior in solving these problems and their perception of their roles as learners. We develop a theory in which the tendency to visualize, coupled with the students' view of their role, can be used to account for their mathematical behavior. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Validity and Reliability of the MyJump2 Application to Assess Vertical Jumps in Trained Junior Athletes

This study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of jump assessments using the MyJump2 application. Eleven junior athletes (15 ± 1.4 years) performed five countermovement (CMJ) and drop jumps (DJ) measured simultaneously by a force platform and MyJump2. Additionally, intra- and inter-day reliability was assessed over two sessions, 7 days apart. Extremely high agreement between MyJump2 and the force platform (intra-class correlation coefficient, ICC ≥ 0.99) and the intra- and inter-operator agreement (ICC = 0.98–0.99) confirmed the validity and reliability of MyJump2. Mean typical errors (coefficient of variation percentage, CV%) within the first and second sessions were 4.9% and 4.5% respectively for CMJs, and 8.0% to 11.8% for DJ outcomes. CMJ height held acceptable inter-day reliability (CV < 10%; ICC > 0.8), while DJ did not. Results supported MyJump2 to be a valid and reliable tool for assessing jumps; however, with variability in DJs in this cohort, appropriate caution should be taken if including in a junior assessment battery.     

Curve and instep kick kinematics in elite female footballers

The three-dimensional kinematics of international female footballers performing a simulated direct free kick (curve kick) were compared with those of an instep kick. Reflective markers attached to the participants were tracked by 17 Vicon cameras sampling at 250 Hz. Foot velocity at ball impact did not differ between the two types of kick, but the way in which foot velocity was generated did differ, with instep kicks using a faster approach velocity and greater linear velocities of the hip and knee, and curve kicks using a greater knee angular velocity at impact. In both types of kick, peak knee angular velocity and peak ankle linear velocity occurred at ball impact, providing biomechanical support to the common coaching recommendation of kicking through the ball. To achieve a curved ball trajectory, players should take a wide approach angle, point the support foot to the right of the intended target (for right-footed players), swing the kicking limb across the face of the goal, and impact the ball with the foot moving upwards and in an abducted position. This information will be useful to coaches and players in identifying the fundamental coaching points necessary to achieve a curved trajectory of the ball compared with the more commonly described instep kick kinematics.     

A student-centred approach: a qualitative exploration of how students experience access and success in a South African University of Technology

This article investigates students’ understanding and students’ experiences of access and success at a Higher Education Institution. There is a growing discourse around how students at Higher Education Institutions experience access and success. These discussions are imperative so that educational practices, university systems and processes as well as educational development initiatives can be tailored to meet the needs of all students. This specifically relates to issues of how students access the university, both epistemically and culturally and what their stories of success are in their path to and through the university. Qualitative research methodologies have been used for data collection and analysis. This article describes a six-month pilot study, which falls under the Siyaphumelela (‘we succeed’) student success project. In this pilot, forty-five interviews were conducted with undergraduate students. This article is underpinned by Tinto’s theory of integration. Moving away from the discourse of unprepared and underprepared students, our approach advocates that institutions prepare better for students who have not had the advantage of acquiring the necessary skills and knowledges that would assist them to be successful in their higher education journey. This study has found that the institution is already providing services which are much needed by students for their success. However, an extension of these systems needs to take place so they reach the entire student population. Our approach in this project is holistic because we understand that how students experience access, success and student centeredness is intricately linked to becoming university students.