Engaging Elementary Teachers in Reform: What Administrators and Policy Makers Should Know

This qualitative case study sought to illuminate the voices of elementary educators experiencing reform. Common and disparate concerns in reform from both elementary teachers and administrators were explored. The study revealed the motivations, desires and fears of 14 elementary teachers and three administrators through semi-structured interviews. Teacher interview data revealed a passion for teaching, the ethical tensions involved in reform, and the ways their sense of competence is challenged by reform. An examination of administrators’ assumptions regarding reform/trend cycles, issues of time for reform, and a failure to engage teachers in decision making were presented. The findings indicated both teachers and administrators care for students, but a strong theme of care revealed itself as a “hidden” curriculum in the main concerns of teachers. In addition, findings showed reform disrupts the relationships between teachers, administrators and students. Analysis of the data also indicated a lack of clarity in communication from administrators to teachers, an assumption by administrators that teachers do not need time to adjust to reform, and while dialogue in reform exists between administration and teachers, teachers are usually excluded from decision-making in reform initiatives. Recommendations for administrators and policy makers include applying Kotter’s (1996) eight change stages and the translated lessons from the data in reform. Future study could include an examination of standardized testing and reform on students’ emotional safety, as well as the notion that reform creates competition between teachers, schools and districts

The Cowl - v.83 - n.13 - Jan 17, 2019

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 83 No. 13 - January 17, 2019. 24 pages

The Cowl - v.82 - n.16 - Feb 8, 2018

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 82, Number 16 - February 8, 2018. 28 pages

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

A Communal Language for Decision Making in Team Invasion Sports

Invasion team sports coaches are faced with the problem of developing players who, in any given situation, can make decisions that lead to successful outcomes. Research into human decision making has established three widely accepted perspectives, which sports coaching has used to understand player decision making and inform practice: information processing, ecological psychology and naturalistic decision making. As a result, coaches are challenged with perspective-specific terminology and having to draw connections between similar findings that are explained in quite different ways. This conceptual paper presents a plainer account of player decision making by proposing a communal language within a conceptual framework for decision making in invasion team sports. It is hoped that the proposed language and framework will, together, facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers and coaches for the betterment of player development

The Cowl - v.82 - n.6 - Oct 19, 2017

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 82, Number 6 - October 19, 2017. 24 pages

The Cowl - v. 84 - n. 16 - Feb 13, 2020

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 84 - Number 16 - February 13, 2020. 39 pages

The Cowl - v.77 - n.17 - Mar 14, 2013

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 77 - No. 17 - March 14, 2013. 28 pages

The Cowl - v.77 - n.4 - Sep 27, 2012

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 77 - No. 4 - September 27, 2012. 28 pages

The Cowl - v.82 - n.18 - Mar 1, 2018

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 82, Number 18 - March 1, 2018. 24 pages