Observational analysis of student activity modes, lesson contexts and teacher interactions during games classes in high school (11—16 years) physical education

This purpose of this study was to examine student activity, lesson contexts and teacher interactions during secondary school physical education, using a recently validated systematic observation instrument termed the System for Observing the Teaching of Games in Physical Education (SOTG-PE). Thirty, single-gender high school (11—16 years) physical education games lessons were systematically observed and recorded using SOTG-PE. Results showed the pupils were engaged in high levels of inactivity. The highest level of inactivity was recorded (52.8 percent) in the striking/fielding category. In the lesson context category general management was recorded highest (47.4 percent). The highest recorded teacher interactions across the three games categories were verbally promoting technical behaviour (40.9 percent). </jats:p

The Influence of Relative Age Effect in the Assessment of High School Students in Physical Education in the United Kingdom

The common practice of annually age grouping children in education, likely done under the assumption of similarly aged children sharing similar abilities and learner characteristics, may actually undermine equity and fairness in student assessments. This strategy has received criticism for (dis) advantaging those older children born closer to the “cut off” date for entry into an academic year and for promoting the existence of relative age effects (RAEs). This paper explores the possibility that RAEs may be prevalent in the end-of-year attainment levels of junior high school physical education (PE) students. The PE end-of-year attainment scores were collected from 582 students in grades 7, 8 and 9 (aged 11–14 years) in the United Kingdom (UK). The results from a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated a significant main effect for month of birth (p = .001) and gender (p = .001). Follow up interviews with heads of PE (HoPE) revealed a lack of awareness of RAEs and inconsiderate assessment strategies, which deviated from the requirements of the formal curriculum. The implications of RAEs in school PE assessment and possible recommendations are discussed.</jats:p

The influence of relative age effects on the cardiorespiratory fitness levels of children age 9 to 10 and 11 to 12 years of age

The aims of this study were firstly to examine whether there was an observed relative age effect in the cardiorespiratory fitness scores of 9-10 and 11-12 year old children, and secondly whether any observed effect was maintained after controlling for somatic maturity. Cardiorespiratory fitness data from 11,404 children aged 9-10 years and 3,911 children aged 11-12 years were obtained from a large cross-sectional field-based fitness testing program. A one-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant relative age effect (p &lt; .01) existed in the 20mSRT scores across all the age groups. Furthermore, ANCOVA analyses identified a statistically significant relative age effect was maintained after controlling for somatic maturation (p &lt; .05). From a public health perspective these results confirm the existence of relative age effects for the first time and consequently may hold implications for relatively younger children in the accurate assessment of their cardiorespiratory fitness scores.</jats:p

Hegemony through responsibilisation : getting working-class students into higher education in the United Kingdom

This article examines the role of the New Labour governments’ agenda for widening participation in higher education as a form of responsibilising discourse of working-class young people. Under the New Labour administrations of 1997—2010, a concerted attempt was made to attract working-class students into higher education through promotional initiatives such as the Aimhigher programme. Drawing from Raymond Williams’ discussion of hegemony and also from Nikolas Rose’s concept of the ‘enterprising self’, this article examines three explanatory/promotional documents from the Aimhigher programme aimed at working-class young people and their parents. The documents are analysed as materialisations of a powerfully hegemonic discourse of ‘responsibilisation’ towards participation in higher education. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the widening access agenda has shifted since the coalition government came to power in 2010

Wing scale ultrastructure underlying convergent and divergent iridescent colours in mimetic Heliconius butterflies

Iridescence is an optical phenomenon whereby colour changes with the illumination and viewing angle. It can be produced by thin film interference or diffraction. Iridescent optical structures are fairly common in nature, but relatively little is known about their production or evolution. Here we describe the structures responsible for producing blue-green iridescent colour in Heliconius butterflies. Overall the wing scale structures of iridescent and non-iridescent Heliconius species are very similar, both having longitudinal ridges joined by cross-ribs. However, iridescent scales have ridges composed of layered lamellae, which act as multilayer reflectors. Differences in brightness between species can be explained by the extent of overlap of the lamellae and their curvature as well as the density of ridges on the scale. Heliconius are well known for their Müllerian mimicry. We find that iridescent structural colour is not closely matched between co-mimetic species. Differences appear less pronounced in models of Heliconius vision than models of avian vision, suggesting that they are not driven by selection to avoid heterospecific courtship by co-mimics. Ridge profiles appear to evolve relatively slowly, being similar between closely related taxa, while ridge density evolves faster and is similar between distantly related co-mimics