Movement patterns and physical strain during a novel, simulated cricket batting innings (BATEX)

A simulated cricket batting innings was developed to replicate the physical demands of scoring a century during One-Day International cricket. The simulated innings requires running-between-the-wickets across six 5-over stages, each of 21 min duration. To validate whether the simulated batting innings is reflective of One-Day International batting, movement patterns were collected using a global positioning system (GPS) and compared with previous research. In addition, indicators of physical strain were recorded (heart rate, jump heights, sweat loss, tympanic temperature). Nine club cricketers (mean ± s: age 20 ± 3 years; body mass 79.5 ± 7.9 kg) performed the simulated innings outdoors. There was a moderate trend for distance covered in the simulated innings to be less than that during One-Day batting (2171 ± 157 vs. 2476 ± 631 m · h?1; effect size = 0.78). This difference was largely explained by a strong trend for less distance covered walking in the simulated innings than in One-Day batting (1359 ± 157 vs. 1604 ± 438 m · h?1; effect size = 1.61). However, there was a marked trend for distance covered both striding and sprinting to be greater in the simulated innings than in One-Day batting (effect size > 1.2). Practically, the simulated batting innings may be used for match-realistic physical training and as a research protocol to assess the demands of prolonged, high-intensity cricket batting.     

On the determinants of employment-related organised education and informal learning

This paper analyses the distribution of employment-related organised education and informal learning in the Canadian workforce. The paper draws on a large-scale survey, the Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL), which was based on structured and standardised telephone interviews with a representative sample of 5783 Canadian members of the employed labour force. In exploring the determinants facilitating employment-related informal learning, three analytical categories of factors derived from previous research on learning participation were used: individual-level factors, job characteristics and workplace environment. The analyses focus on differences in individuals, jobs and workplace characteristics among adult workers who acquired or improved their job-related skills through different training pathways. In addition, analyses were performed to compare the extent to which these factors differ in their influence on learning decisions among workers who combine both organised education and informal learning and those who receive only informal learning. The results indicate that important predictors of participation in employment-related organised education and informal learning are age, educational attainment, learning skills, occupational class, education-job relation, degree of autonomy, degree of labour intensity, principal area of production and organisation size.     

A comparison of haemolytic responses in fore-foot and rear-foot distance runners

This study examined the haemolytic effects of an interval-based running task in fore-foot and rear-foot striking runners. Nineteen male distance runners (10 fore-foot, 9 rear-foot) completed 8 × 3 min repeats at 90% vVO_2peak on a motorised treadmill. Pre- and post-exercise venous blood samples were analysed for serum haptoglobin to quantify the haemolytic response to running. Vertical ground reaction forces were also captured via a force plate beneath the treadmill belt. Haptoglobin levels were significantly decreased following exercise (P = 0.001) in both groups (but not between groups), suggesting that the running task created a haemolytic stress. The ground reaction force data showed strong effect sizes for a greater peak force (d = 1.20) and impulse (d = 1.37) in fore-foot runners, and a greater rate of force development (d = 2.74) in rear-foot runners. The lack of difference in haptoglobin response between groups may be explained by the trend for fore-foot runners to experience greater peak force and impulse during the stance phase of their running gait, potentially negating any impact of the greater rate of force development occurring from the rear-foot runners’ heel strike. Neither type of runner (fore-foot or rear-foot) appears more susceptible to technique-related foot-strike haemolysis.     

Sibling negotiations and the construction of literacy events in an urban area of Tanzania

This study presents findings from analyses of naturally occurring literacy events, where children jointly focus on reading and writing letters of the alphabet, illustrating social constructions of learning created through language and embodied action. Video recorded data from two different families living in an urban low-income area in Tanzania is presented to illustrate the findings. The analysis shows how participation frameworks are negotiated in terms of symmetries and asymmetries between younger and older siblings with both older and younger siblings initiating these frameworks: older siblings using different directives to guide the younger child's focus of attention and younger children both following and resisting such strategies.     

The political economy of post-secondary education: a comparison of British Columbia,Ontario and Québec

A policy sociology approach is taken to examine the connections between neo-liberalism, post-secondary provincial education (PSE) policy in Canada and the impact of those policies. Our thesis regarding the broad political economy of PSE is that over the last two decades the adoption of this ideology has been a major cause of some dramatic changes in these policies and has brought about a fundamental transformation of PSE in Canada. The discussion builds on a comparative, multiple, nested case study conducted at the provincial (Québec, Ontario and British Columbia) and national level. Through the analysis of key provincial and federal documents, the team concludes that five themes dominated the PSE policy-making process. These themes are Accessibility, Accountability, Marketization, Labour Force Development and Research and Development. In discussing these themes, we illustrate their impact on and within the three provincial PSE systems: BC, Ontario and Québec. In the conclusion, we place the changes in their political and economic contexts and explicate the intended and unintended consequences of these policy priorities. We argue that the pressure for access has led to the emergence of new institutional types, raising new questions about differentiation, mandate and identity and new lines of stratification. A trend toward vocationalism in the university sector has coincided with ‘academic drift’ in the community college sector, leading to convergences in programming and institutional functions across the system, as well as competition for resources, students, and external partners. Unprecedented demand has made education a viable industry, sustaining both a proliferation of private providers and a range of new entrepreneurial activities within public institutions. Levels and objectives of public funding have swung dramatically over the period. Public investments in PSE, in the form of capital grants and tuition subsidies, have alternately expanded and contracted, being at some times applied across the board and at others targeted to specific social groups or economic sectors. Likewise, policymakers have treated PSE at times as a mechanism for social inclusion and equality, at others as an instrument for labour force development, and at yet others as a market sector in its own right.

Recurrent education policy in Sweden: A moving target

The initiative to establish a programme of recurrent education in Sweden arose from a government commission appointed in 1968. The idea received strong support from certain sections of the Swedish trade union movement, who saw it as a way of sharing the benefits of education more equitably among the population. The scheme, however, ran into opposition and was never implemented as a comprehensive strategy. In the 1980s, with the shift of emphasis towards the private sector and the rapid development of information technology, the idea of recurrent education reappeared, although not explicitly acknowledged as official policy. During this period there was a rapid expansion of courses sponsored by employers. Under the present government, recurrent education has ceased to play an important role in education policy. The author argues that these shifts in priorities illustrate how education, and especially adult and recurring education, acts as an arena for ideological struggle.

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Zusammenfassung Eine 1968 eingesetzte Regierungskormmission leitete die Aufstellung eines Programmes über periodische Weiterbildung in Schweden ein. Die Idee fand großen Anklang in verschiedenen Teilen der schwedischen Gewerkschaftsbewegung, die sie als Weg zu einer gerechteren Verteilung der mit Bildung verbundenen Vorteile unter der Bevölkerung ansahen. Der Plan stieß jedoch auf Widerstand und wurde nie als umfassende Strategie angewandt. In den 80er Jahren taucht die Idee periodischer Weiterbildung im Zuge der Änderung der Gewichtung zum pivaten Sektor hin und der schnellen Entwicklung der Informationstechnologie wieder auf, obwohl sie nicht ausdrücklich als offizielle Politik anerkannt wird. Während dieser Periode verbreiteten sich schnell von Arbeitgebern gesponsorte Kurse. Unter der gegenwärtigen Regierung spielt die periodische Weiterbildung keine wesentliche Rolle mehr in der Bildungspolitik. Der Autor argumentiert, dieser Wechsel der Prioritäten zeige, wie Bildung und besonders die periodische Weiterbildung und die Erwachsenenbildung als Arena für einen ideologischen Kampf diene.

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Résumé L'initiative d'instaurer un programme de formation permanente en Suède fut prise par une commission gouvernementale créée en 1968. L'idée fut fortement soutenue par une fraction du mouvement syndical suédois, qui voyait en elle un moyen de faire profiler plus équitablement la population des bienfaits de l'éducation. Le projet rencontra cependant des résistances et ne fut jamais réalisé en tant que programme général. En raison de l'accent donné davantage au secteur privé et de l'évolution accélérée des techniques de l'information, l'idée de formation permanente réapparut dans les années 80, sans pour autant devenir une mesure officielle. Cette période vit une expansion rapide de cours financés par les employeurs. Sous le gouvernement actuel, la formation permanente a cessé de jouer un rôle important dans la politique pédagogique. L'auteur démontre que ces changements de priorités illustrent que l'éducation, et en particulier la formation des adultes et la formation permanente, fait fonction de champ de bataille idéologique.

     

Editorial

This article focuses on evidence regarding cross-national patterns of participation in adult education and an interpretation of these patterns from an institutional and public policy perspective. The interpretation follows from the perspective that sustaining high and widely distributed levels of investment in the development and maintenance of skills over the lifespan of individuals is to a large extent interconnected with a high-level of non-market coordination via institutional arrangements and/or specific public policy measures. Such arrangements and measures are seen to alleviate coordination problems that otherwise lead to underinvestment in skills and/or inequity in the distribution of access to education and training and hence skills. Consequently, it is argued that institutional contexts and public policy measures condition participation patterns in adult education, and are thus worthwhile to understand better for the purposes of informing policy.     

The Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE): Strengths,weaknesses and future directions

International Review of Education - One of the core outcomes of the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) held in 2009 was the Belém Framework for Action (BFA). Its...     

Assessing the status of lifelong learning: Issues with composite indexes and surveys on participation

International Review of Education - A quick review of national policy documents reveals how lifelong learning has evolved as the key principle for a comprehensive education and learning strategy...     

Movement patterns and physical strain during a novel,simulated cricket batting innings (BATEX)

Abstract

A simulated cricket batting innings was developed to replicate the physical demands of scoring a century during One-Day International cricket. The simulated innings requires running-between-the-wickets across six 5-over stages, each of 21 min duration. To validate whether the simulated batting innings is reflective of One-Day International batting, movement patterns were collected using a global positioning system (GPS) and compared with previous research. In addition, indicators of physical strain were recorded (heart rate, jump heights, sweat loss, tympanic temperature). Nine club cricketers (mean ± s: age 20 ± 3 years; body mass 79.5 ± 7.9 kg) performed the simulated innings outdoors. There was a moderate trend for distance covered in the simulated innings to be less than that during One-Day batting (2171 ± 157 vs. 2476 ± 631 m · h^?1; effect size = 0.78). This difference was largely explained by a strong trend for less distance covered walking in the simulated innings than in One-Day batting (1359 ± 157 vs. 1604 ± 438 m · h^?1; effect size = 1.61). However, there was a marked trend for distance covered both striding and sprinting to be greater in the simulated innings than in One-Day batting (effect size > 1.2). Practically, the simulated batting innings may be used for match-realistic physical training and as a research protocol to assess the demands of prolonged, high-intensity cricket batting.