Educational access and poverty reduction: The case of Ghana 1991–2006

Ghana has seen notable poverty reduction alongside improvements in school participation since 1991. This paper examines the role of education in determining welfare and poverty and its reciprocal, the role of welfare and other aspects of economic privilege in the determination of school attendance and progression. Two groups of models are presented using data from the Ghana Living Standard Surveys. The results suggest that education levels play an important role in determining household welfare and that higher levels of education have relatively larger and increasing benefits. Improvements are observed in relation to lower levels of educational access over the period, while the lucrative benefits of progression beyond the compulsory phase are found largely to be the preserve of relatively economically privileged households.     

Cognitive Style and GCSE Performance in Mathematics,English Language and French

A preliminary study was undertaken of cognitive style and performance in General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), the British public examination for pupils at 16 years. The positions of 182 pupils on two fundamental cognitive styles dimensions (Wholist‐Analytic and Verbal‐Imagery) were assessed by means of the Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA). The pupils were from two comprehensive secondary schools and all took Mathematics, English Language and French in the GCSE administered by the Midland Examining Group (MEG) in 1991. Comparison of cognitive style and GCSE performance indicated that, for overall performance across the subjects, the pattern was a modified dome shape with the candidates who were intermediate on both dimensions of cognitive style doing best. There was a significant interaction between the styles of the candidates and the GCSE subjects in their effect on performance. The results were discussed in terms of the implications for GCSE and for further research.     

A new variable inspiratory muscle loading technology

Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) is becoming more popular in sporting populations as contentious issues associated with the magnitude of its effect as an ergogenic training aid are gradually dispelled. The authors believe that the efficacy of IMT can be further improved through development of the loading technologies. The basis for this belief is that current IMT stimuli do not simulate the demands placed upon the inspiratory muscles during exercise. We identify the design and initial trialling of a new, variable IMT technology, whereby the load throughout an inspiration can be adjusted to fit the dynamic pressure generating capacity of an individual. This should enable the exploration of high specificity in terms of inspiratory muscle loading as a possible means of further enhancing athletic performance. The new technology consists of a high-speed occlusion valve and control system that applies independent, sequential point loads to an inspiration. Manipulation of these point loads provides a fully variable loading profile. Twelve healthy adult male subjects participated in a feasibility study involving constant load, moderate intensity exercise in the presence of the load. The resulting data have been used to develop future recommendations for application and advancement of the technology.     

Withdrawal predictors among physical and performance characteristics of female competitive gymnasts

Future drop-outs (n = 27) and continuing (n = 41) female competitive gymnasts were compared with respect to their physical, performance and injury characteristics measured through a large battery of tests completed while they were participants in competition. Included were anthropometric variables, body composition and somatotype, strength, flexibility, endurance, power, speed and balance measurements, and previous injury information. Differences were examined through t-tests and through discriminant analyses of principal components. The results indicate that the drop-outs were as a group distinguishable from the continuing gymnasts: they were significantly older, taller and heavier which may account for the finding that they were significantly stronger, more powerful and faster, and had greater endurance. They also had a slightly more linear/ectomorphic physique with less muscularity, and performed better on most flexibility tests. Only in a gymnastic-specific flexibility variable did the continuing gymnasts out-perform the drop-outs. It was concluded that it was mainly the age factor, and presumably the social and psychological factors associated with it, that distinguished the future drop-outs from the continuing gymnasts, and that factors related to the physical make-up and performance capacities of gymnasts cannot readily predict withdrawal from the sport.     

Exploring neglected narratives: understanding vulnerability in narrative inquiry

Framed by a question around vulnerability in narrative inquiries, we show the multiple ways that vulnerability is evident in narrative inquiry. We take up the concerns around vulnerability to show how, as narrative inquirers, we are searching to find ways to think with vulnerability and with what others have called neglected narratives. Drawing on one study with Aboriginal youth and their families, we make visible how questions of vulnerability need to be considered in framing of research puzzles, selecting participants, and moving from field to field texts to interim and final research texts. In composing final research texts, we struggled with the notions of vulnerability that are placed on Aboriginal youth by labels and single stories. These assigned vulnerabilities lead to interpretations that could create experiences of judgment. We returned again to the importance of making experiences visible, in order to shift understandings of who Aboriginal youth are, and are becoming, in a complex world that will not write over or ‘erase their Indianness’ nor their or our vulnerabilities. We showed the ways questions of vulnerability are inextricably interwoven into narrative inquiry.     

Graduated compression stockings: physiological and perceptual responses during and after exercise

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of wearing graduated compression stockings on physiological and perceptual variables during and after intermittent (Experiment 1) and continuous (Experiment 2) running exercise. Fourteen recreational runners performed two multi-stage intermittent shuttle running tests with 1 h recovery between tests (Experiment 1). A further 14 participants performed a fast-paced continuous 10-km road run (Experiment 2). Participants wore commercially available knee-length graduated compression stockings (pressure at ankle 18 - 22 mmHg) beneath ankle-length sports socks (experimental trials) or just the latter (control trials) in a randomized counterbalanced design (for both experiments). No performance or physiological differences were observed between conditions during intermittent shuttle running. During the 10-km trials, there was a reduction in delayed-onset muscle soreness 24 h after exercise when wearing graduated compression stockings (P < 0.05). There was a marked difference in the frequency and location of soreness: two participants in the stockings trial but 13 participants in the control trial indicated soreness in the lower legs. Wearing graduated compression stockings during a 10-km road run appears to reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness after exercise in recreationally active men.     

The nursery school's approach to learning

There is widespread agreement that appropriately used resources help children to understand mathematics. Resources of particular kinds play a significant part in the National Numeracy Strategy (NNS) but the training materials for teachers offer surprisingly little in the way of a rationale for the use of recommended resources. This article explores different aspects of resources and analyses the use of resources in 3 video clips from the NNS training video tapes. Finally, with reference to other European countries, it considers how we might move towards a more considered use of resources.     

Graduated compression stockings: Physiological and perceptual responses during and after exercise

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of wearing graduated compression stockings on physiological and perceptual variables during and after intermittent (Experiment 1) and continuous (Experiment 2) running exercise. Fourteen recreational runners performed two multi-stage intermittent shuttle running tests with 1 h recovery between tests (Experiment 1). A further 14 participants performed a fast-paced continuous 10-km road run (Experiment 2). Participants wore commercially available knee-length graduated compression stockings (pressure at ankle 18 – 22 mmHg) beneath ankle-length sports socks (experimental trials) or just the latter (control trials) in a randomized counterbalanced design (for both experiments). No performance or physiological differences were observed between conditions during intermittent shuttle running. During the 10-km trials, there was a reduction in delayed-onset muscle soreness 24 h after exercise when wearing graduated compression stockings (P < 0.05). There was a marked difference in the frequency and location of soreness: two participants in the stockings trial but 13 participants in the control trial indicated soreness in the lower legs. Wearing graduated compression stockings during a 10-km road run appears to reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness after exercise in recreationally active men.