Brief counselling: A user's guide for traditionally trained counsellors

This article presents a model of brief counselling applicable to individual counselling in a variety of settings. Therapeutic and theoretical orientations and counselling procedures provided are intended to compliment the practitioners preferred style of counselling.     

Trial-by-trial analysis or averaging: implications for electromyographic models of rapid limb control

The control of human limb movement has been the focus of research for more than a century. A major issue to emerge from this work is the manner in which the central nervous system regulates electromyographic (EMG) activity to produce movements that differ in distance, velocity, and movement time. However the different methods of analysis often used to analyze EMG data could result in different kinematic-EMG relationships. In this study, participants performed an elbow flexion task to one of five distance goals (between 5 degrees and 50 degrees) using three movement speeds. EMG data from the right elbow flexors were compared using a trial-by-trial analysis and one based on averaged data. Averaging across trials underestimated biceps EMG amplitude at all movement distances and speeds compared to a trial-by-trial analysis. Averaging overestimated EMG burst duration compared to the trial-by-trial analysis. Peak agonist EMG amplitude was positively related to distance and inversely related to movement time. Agonist EMG duration was constant for movement distances less than 30 degrees but increased in the 50 degrees condition. The results support the view that peak EMG amplitude and duration can be controlled independently, but EMG duration changes only for longer distance movements when additional force is required.     

Benefits for immigrant-origin and nonimmigrant-origin youth of discussing immigration in gender and sexuality alliances

In a time of unprecedented polarization in the United States, particularly concerning immigration, schools are uniquely positioned to help students understand the consequences of drastic policy changes. Beyond formal settings such as social studies classes, extracurricular activities may be important for fostering discussions about sociohistorical and policy issues. Such discussions could serve to empower youth from marginalized populations and raise their critical consciousness. Yet the potential outcomes of discussions in these extracurricular settings have not been studied in depth. Using data collected in school-based Gender-and-Sexuality-Alliances (GSAs) throughout Massachusetts during the periods leading up to and following the 2016 US Presidential election, we examined whether discussions of immigration issues in GSAs were associated with greater empowerment and critical consciousness among 580 youth (M _Age = 15.59, range = 10–20 years). Multilevel structural equation models showed that the frequency with which youth discussed immigration, relative to their fellow members, was positively associated with residualized change in perceived peer validation for members in general and with residualized change in hope for immigrant-origin members only. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find significant associations for critical consciousness. Findings suggest how groups addressing issues of equity and justice can promote members' empowerment.     

Identifying Key Features of Effective Active Learning: The Effects of Writing and Peer Discussion

We investigated some of the key features of effective active learning by comparing the outcomes of three different methods of implementing active-learning exercises in a majors introductory biology course. Students completed activities in one of three treatments: discussion, writing, and discussion + writing. Treatments were rotated weekly between three sections taught by three different instructors in a full factorial design. The data set was analyzed by generalized linear mixed-effect models with three independent variables: student aptitude, treatment, and instructor, and three dependent (assessment) variables: change in score on pre- and postactivity clicker questions, and coding scores on in-class writing and exam essays. All independent variables had significant effects on student performance for at least one of the dependent variables. Students with higher aptitude scored higher on all assessments. Student scores were higher on exam essay questions when the activity was implemented with a writing component compared with peer discussion only. There was a significant effect of instructor, with instructors showing different degrees of effectiveness with active-learning techniques. We suggest that individual writing should be implemented as part of active learning whenever possible and that instructors may need training and practice to become effective with active learning.     

EMG amplitude and spatial assimilation effects in rapid bimanual movement.

To investigate whether spatial assimilation effects are due to premovement control processes or postinitiation feedback processes, surface EMG recordings were made from two agonists and one antagonist during both single and dual movements involving the upper limb(s). In the single condition, subjects (N = 7) made 25 Short (20 degrees) and 25 Long (60 degrees) reversal movements using levers in the sagittal plane, in 195 ms to reversal. In the dual condition, both Short and Long movements were performed simultaneously for 75 trials, the last 25 of which were without knowledge of results. Subjects overshot the Short target in the dual condition, showing spatial assimilation effects. Overshooting was associated with increased peak EMG in the initial (premovement) agonist burst, supporting the notion that spatial assimilation effects are modulated via premovement control processes.     

The Multiple Meanings of Play: Exploring Preservice Teachers' Beliefs About a Central Element of Early Childhood Education

This basic qualitative study explores preservice teachers' beliefs about what constitutes play. Research for this study focused on 7 preservice teachers enrolled in an early childhood through Grade 4 practicum course at a small private university in south central Texas. The findings of this study indicate that both on an individual and group level the 7 preservice teachers seemed to believe that play had multiple meanings. Even though commonalities existed among some of the attributes used by the preservice teachers to describe play, no two preservice teachers used the same combination of attributes to define play. Instead, based on the influences that had shaped their beliefs, they strung these attributes together in unique ways. Thus, for each of the preservice teachers, play seemed to have an individualized meaning consisting of multiple parts.     

Influence of perceptions: Listening to early childhood preservice teachers

Abstract

This qualitative study examined how the perceptions of preservice teachers influenced their developing teaching role, and how the perceptions of preservice teachers can be influenced by teacher preparation programs. The influences of perceptions are mostly unrecognized, but are significant to the teacher preparation process. Without identifying their perceptions about the teaching role, and explicitly enhancing or changing perceptions, preservice teachers may return unknowingly to their implicit perceptions when they begin teaching. Thus, their practices may or may not reflect what they have been taught about appropriate practices for young children. Suggestions are made to facilitate the learning of prospective teachers about the influence of their perceptions, and how they can begin the process of changing/enhancing their perceptions regarding the role of the practitioner. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.     

Validation of a videogrammetry technique for analysing American football helmet kinematics

ABSTRACT

Professional American football games are recorded in digital video with multiple cameras, often at high resolution and high frame rates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of a videogrammetry technique to calculate translational and rotational helmet velocity before, during and after a helmet impact. In total, 10 football impacts were staged in a National Football League (NFL) stadium by propelling helmeted 50th percentile male crash test dummies into each other or the ground at speeds and orientations representative of concussive impacts for NFL players. The tests were recorded by experienced sports film crews to obtain video coverage and quality typically available for NFL games. A videogrammetry procedure was used to track the position and rotation of the helmet throughout the relevant time interval of the head impact. Compared with rigidly mounted retroreflective marker three dimensional (3-D) motion tracking that was concurrently collected in the experiments, videogrammetry accurately calculated changes in translational and rotational velocity of the helmet using high frame rate (two cameras at 240 Hz) video (7% and 15% error, respectively). Low frame rate (2 cameras at 60 Hz) video was adequate for calculating pre-impact translational velocity but not for calculating the translational or rotational velocity change of the helmet during impact.