‘Teaching’ the path towards university: understanding student access through storied-futures and meritocratic grand narratives

The notion that the stories of our lives shape dispositions towards imagined futures is another lens through which university underrepresentation should be viewed. A storied lens attends to how futures, like university attendance, are storied during childhood to the extent that some youth imagine, and therefore plan, these futures as natural progression. Such was the case for study participants, indicating that childhood stories contain answers for mitigating social reproduction connected to parental education and cultural forces within the home. Examining social mobility through the underexplored storied-futures grand narrative presents unique solutions that lay hidden within the dominant meritocratic grand narrative.     

Discrete Choice Modeling in Education: An Innovative Method to Assess Teaching Practices

Self‐reported measures are an easy, time‐efficient, and low‐cost way to collect research data compared to other assessment methods. They are, however, characterized by several limitations regarding the quality and the clarity of the data they produce, especially when they are implemented in education. The main purpose of the current study was to use a method called discrete choice modeling (DCM) in education, in order to develop a self‐reported instrument that will reduce the bias for socially desirable responses and to assess teachers’ practices in physical activity. DCM method has the ability to overcome the respondents’ tendency to answer in a socially desirable way. A nationally representative sample of 531 Greek early educators participated in this study and were administered a self‐assessment questionnaire based on DCM. Results showed that the DCM based newly developed instrument manages to assess effectively educators’ practices and provided evidence of the applicability of the method in education. Further implications and future recommendations regarding the effective application of DCM in education are discussed.     

Parents’ son preference,childhood adverse experience and mental health in old age: Evidence from China

BackgroundSon preference is an enduring phenomenon in China and may often be related to childhood adverse experiences. According to a life-course perspective, adverse experiences during a childhood period may have a long-term effect on mental health in later age. However, little is known about this relationship between parents’ son preference, childhood adverse experiences and adulthood mental health in China.ObjectiveThe study aims to evaluate the association of parents’ son preference and individual mental health in old age in China. The mediating role of childhood adverse experiences was also estimated.Participants and settingThe China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2015 combined with CHARLS life history survey was analyzed (N = 11,666).MethodsMental health was measured by a shortened modification of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale including seven items, and higher scores indicated worse mental health status. A four-step mediating model was applied.ResultsRespondents growing in families with son preference had on average 0.75 (P < 0.001) points higher on the mental health scale than their counterparts, and the effects were consistent for both males and females. Childhood adverse experiences measured by physical maltreatment, emotional adverse experiences and witnesses of inter-parent violence mediated the relationship between parents’ son preference and individual adulthood mental health by 47.87%. For females, physical maltreatment and emotional adverse experiences explained the most parts of health effects of parents’ son preference, whereas witnesses of inter-parent violence was the most influential mediator for males.ConclusionParents’ son preference led to adverse childhood experiences, which influenced mental health in adulthood.     

A longitudinal investigation of protective factors for bereaved maltreated youth

BackgroundMaltreated youth are at an elevated risk for the development of problem behaviors. Coping with the death of a family member or close friend during adolescence, referred to as bereavement, is a stressful event that could potentiate risk linked to maltreatment. However, developmental research suggests that youth adjustment is a product of multiple risk and protective factors. Although maltreated youth who experience loss may be particularly vulnerable to behavior problems, personal and contextual factors may attenuate or exacerbate youths’ risk for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.ObjectiveThe overarching goal of this study is to examine individual, family, and community-level protective factors for maltreated youth who experience bereavement. Specifically, we aim to examine the effect of age 12 bereavement on age 16 internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, and to investigate the moderating role of multi-level protective factors at ages 14 and 16.MethodsThe study consisted of a sample of 800 youth (52.4% female, 45.1% African-American) drawn from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), collected from 1998 to 2011.ResultsMaltreated youth who experienced significant loss were at increased risk for externalizing symptoms, compared to non-bereaved maltreated youth (β = 0.085, p < .05). Individual future orientation (β = 0.103, p < .05) family future orientation (β = −0.120, p < .05), parental monitoring (β = −0.123, p< .01), and neighborhood collective efficacy (β = −0.126, p < .01) each significantly moderated the association between bereavement and externalizing symptoms.ConclusionsThese results have implications for future interventions aimed towards reducing problem behaviors in adolescents with a history of child maltreatment and who experience bereavement.     

Diversity Literary Awards: A Tool for Assessing an Academic Library’s Collection

Abstract

Diversity literary awards and other sources were used to create a list of high-quality titles written by and about underrepresented groups. This list was used to assess the diversity and inclusiveness of the library collections of a land-grant university in the Pacific Northwest and compare it to peer institutions. Gaps in the collection and acquisition processes were identified and will be used to improve the processes to increase the number of diverse titles added to the library’s collections.     

Analyzing Food Science Research for Publishing Characteristics as a Model for Understanding the Needs of Researchers

Abstract

This paper provides a methodology to study the characteristics of the research output from a university department. The faculty publications and their cited references over a 10-year period were used as the basis for this study to identify their publishing patterns and the types of material they are publishing; a core set of journals and other resources they are publishing in and citing over this period; the characteristics of the journals in which they publish and cite; the degree of openness of their publications and their citation advantage; and the age of resources that are referenced.     

关于足球专修课成绩评定问题的探讨

采用文献资料法、调查法、因素分析法和实验法，对足球专修学生成绩的评定问题进行了比较系统的综合研究，为制定评定学生足球专项成绩体系和权重等提供了客观依据。建立了技、战术考核评分模式。     

Interactive Storytelling: From the Book of Genesis

Keith Park, advisory teacher for Sense (the National Deafblind Rubella Association) in Greenwich and Lewisham, London, has written about his approach to interactive storytelling for BJSE before. This article describes a series of poetry workshops based on chapters 37 to 45 of the Book of Genesis (the story of Joseph and his family) using the text of the King James Bible of 1611. The workshops took place at Charlton School in Greenwich between September and November 2002. The full text of the Genesis workshops, with a clear exposition of their implementation, is provided here but the article begins with a restatement of the principles of interactive storytelling. The importance of developing curriculum access for pupils with multi-sensory impairments while simultaneously supporting staff who work with these young people in schools is emphasised. Keith Park discusses the relevance of the circle concept in storytelling and the strong focus, in the poetry workshops, on rhythm. He goes on to evaluate the impact of the workshops, both in terms of staff confidence and through examples of the pupils' responses mapped against the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) framework for recognising the attainments of pupils with learning difficulties. The article concludes with some indications of further developments in this exciting and innovative area of practice.     

Accurate assessment of the brake torque on a rope-braked cycle ergometer

Sports Engineering - A Monark cycle ergometer is a device globally used in physiological studies to measure the work and energy levels of exercising humans. In this paper a rope-braked cycle...     

体育无形资产评估体系研究

通过文献法对我国体育无形资产的评估体系进行了研究,提出并分析了体育无形资产评估中的主体、客体、职能、遵循的标准、法定程序和评估方法等6大要素,探讨了体育无形资产评估中的重置成本、收益额、机会成本、最低收益额、技术成分率、经济寿命、折现率、损耗率等指标和参数,并从申请立项、资产清查、评定估算、验证确认等4个方面论述了体育无形资产评估的工作程序。