179 research outputs found
To What Extent Is a Highly Successful Men’s NCAA Division II Cross Country Coach Humanistic? A Case Study
The purpose of this case study was to investigate the coaching philosophy of a highly successful men’s United States National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division II cross country coach and determine to what extent his stated philosophy and actual coaching methods were humanistic. For the past 13 seasons, the participant coach’s men’s cross country team has finished either first or second at the NCAA division II national championships. In-depth semistructured qualitative interviews of the participant coach and three of his athletes were conducted in addition to eight overt naturalistic training session observations. All data were triangulated to generate themes to determine if the stated coaching philosophy and actual methods were congruent with the humanistic philosophy. The findings indicated that the coach was for the most part humanistic in regards to individualization, but was not humanistic in relation to open communication and collaborative decision-making with athletes, or a process-orientated definition of success. Implications of these findings include what may be the most effective coaching philosophy for men’s NCAA division II cross country running through examining a highly successful coach in the discipline
Facilitating Teacher Reflection through a mutual understanding of the Characteristics of Exemplary Teachers
Teachers meet challenges as they make a plethora of daily choices. It is a responsibility to learn from past choices. An exemplary teacher is a person who accepts the challenge of lifelong learning experiences in the domains of Leadership, Diversity, and Technology. Moreover, exemplary teachers must demonstrate competencies in the themes of School Context Expert, Master Practitioner, Learning Theorist, Curriculum Designer, and Instructional Leader (American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, 2010, p. 24).
Making the commitment to become an exemplary teacher is a choice one should make with care because it is a decision that will affect the way that one lives one own life and the way others will live theirs. The demands of teaching are great. The demands of becoming an exemplary teacher are even greater. In order to lead and inspire others, one must become the facilitator of his or her own learning and professional growth. In the process, one will become a role model for others to emulate. Being a reflective practitioner is compulsory for continued professional growth.
Using the domains and themes of an exemplary teacher as a framework to guide reflecting on teaching practice, this presentation will discuss how this framework was successfully implemented into a teacher education program via email journaling during student teaching. Specific examples will be provided. Any teacher will benefit from this presentation as effective reflective teaching practices are paramount to improving pedagogy
Embedding action research in teacher candidate elementary classroom and physical education settings
This article is primarily designed to assist teacher candidates and classroom teachers in conducting action research. Where the authors ask teacher candidates to discuss or share their research drafts with cooperating teachers or university faculty, the in-service teacher should share their classroom research with colleagues and administrators for constructive feedback
Transformational Perceptions of International Service Learning Projects: India and the Dominican Republic
This presentation will share qualitative research regarding two distinctly different service learning projects from two diverse universities. First, participant voices will be presented regarding Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania undergraduate students serving at a home for poverty stricken lepers’ children in India. Post-hoc interviews focused on prior expectations, the reality of the experience, lessons learned, transformational change, and service learning outcomes. In addition, preliminary data will be shared regarding Winthrop University pre-service teachers perceptions from a short-term study abroad trip within the context of poverty of the Dominican Republic. These students served through leading small teaching episodes within Dominican public and private schools in addition to partaking in other activities (i.e., zip lining, museums, etc.) related to their immersion in the culture. Qualitative data will be presented which aimed to understand to what extent an international service learning teaching experience influence a teacher candidate\u27s dispositions related to future teaching and perceived teaching ability.
Attendees will be provided with successful tips and examples on how to create relationships with international universities and public schools, craft and promote service learning study abroad programs, and results on the perceived impact of international service learning on undergraduate students serving in developing countries. Throughout, the importance of exposing undergraduate students to international service learning experiences will be stressed. Finally, the presenters will share how these types of experiences may impact teaching and learning practices
Circumnuclear Structures in Megamaser Host Galaxies
Using HST, we identify circumnuclear (- pc scale) structures in
nine new HO megamaser host galaxies to understand the flow of matter from
kpc-scale galactic structures down to the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at
galactic centers. We double the sample analyzed in a similar way by Greene et
al. (2013) and consider the properties of the combined sample of 18 sources. We
find that disk-like structure is virtually ubiquitous when we can resolve
pc scales, in support of the notion that non-axisymmetries on these
scales are a necessary condition for SMBH fueling. We perform an analysis of
the orientation of our identified nuclear regions and compare it with the
orientation of megamaser disks and the kpc-scale disks of the hosts. We find
marginal evidence that the disk-like nuclear structures show increasing
misalignment from the kpc-scale host galaxy disk as the scale of the structure
decreases. In turn, we find that the orientation of both the pc scale
nuclear structures and their host galaxy large-scale disks is consistent with
random with respect to the orientation of their respective megamaser disks.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, 4 tables; Resubmitted to ApJ after referee's
comment
Learning a Sport through Video Gaming: A Mixed-Methods Experimental Study
This study examined the impact of playing a sport video game on learning the sport as well as how the game may influence future intentions of watching or playing the sport. Utilizing American university students with little prior knowledge of cricket, this study employed a mixed-methods pre/post intervention design with randomized experimental (EG; n = 43) and control (CG; n = 46) groups. Results indicated that cricket knowledge significantly increased for the EG pre-test to post-test (p < .05, n^2 = 0.19; particularly regarding cricket rules, terminology, player positions, and field layout), while the CG did not significantly differ. A significant difference was also found between the EG and CG for interest in playing cricket (p < .05, n^2 = 0.9). Qualitative findings supported that video gaming motivated intentions to watch and play cricket. Sport video games can facilitate increased sport knowledge, sport appreciation, and intentions for future physical activity
The Structure of Nuclear Star Clusters in Nearby Late-type Spiral Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Imaging
We obtained Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 imaging of a sample of
ten of the nearest and brightest nuclear clusters residing in late-type spiral
galaxies, in seven bands that span the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared.
Structural properties of the clusters were measured by fitting two-dimensional
surface brightness profiles to the images using GALFIT. The clusters exhibit a
wide range of structural properties. For six of the ten clusters in our sample,
we find changes in the effective radius with wavelength, suggesting radially
varying stellar populations. In four of the objects, the effective radius
increases with wavelength, indicating the presence of a younger population
which is more concentrated than the bulk of the stars in the cluster. However,
we find a general decrease in effective radius with wavelength in two of the
objects in our sample, which may indicate extended, circumnuclear star
formation. We also find a general trend of increasing roundness of the clusters
at longer wavelengths, as well as a correlation between the axis ratios of the
NCs and their host galaxies. These observations indicate that blue disks
aligned with the host galaxy plane are a common feature of nuclear clusters in
late-type galaxies, but are difficult to detect in galaxies that are close to
face-on. In color-color diagrams spanning the near-UV through the near-IR, most
of the clusters lie far from single-burst evolutionary tracks, showing evidence
for multi-age populations. Most of the clusters have integrated colors
consistent with a mix of an old population (> 1 Gyr) and a young population
(~100-300 Myr). The wide wavelength coverage of our data provides a sensitivity
to populations with a mix of ages that would not be possible to achieve with
imaging in optical bands only.Comment: Corrected a typo in author name and affiliation for MC and corrected
a typo in the conclusio
Megamaser Disks Reveal a Broad Distribution of Black Hole Mass in Spiral Galaxies
We use new precision measurements of black hole masses from water megamaser
disks to investigate scaling relations between macroscopic galaxy properties
and supermassive black hole (BH) mass. The megamaser-derived BH masses span
10^6-10^8 M_sun, while all the galaxy properties that we examine (including
stellar mass, central mass density, central velocity dispersion) lie within a
narrow range. Thus, no galaxy property correlates tightly with M_BH in ~L*
spiral galaxies. Of them all, stellar velocity dispersion provides the tightest
relation, but at fixed sigma* the mean megamaser M_BH are offset by -0.6+/-0.1
dex relative to early-type galaxies. Spiral galaxies with non-maser dynamical
BH masses do not show this offset. At low mass, we do not yet know the full
distribution of BH mass at fixed galaxy property; the non-maser dynamical
measurements may miss the low-mass end of the BH distribution due to inability
to resolve the spheres of influence and/or megamasers may preferentially occur
in lower-mass BHs.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, replaced to fix error: NGC 4594 is not a maser
galax
Using Megamaser Disks to Probe Black Hole Accretion
We examine the alignment between H_2O megamaser disks on sub-pc scales with
circumnuclear disks and bars on <500 pc scales observed with HST/WFC3. The HST
imaging reveals young stars, indicating the presence of gas. The megamaser
disks are not well aligned with the circumnuclear bars or disks as traced by
stars in the HST images. We speculate on the implications of the observed
misalignments for fueling supermassive black holes in gas-rich spiral galaxies.
In contrast, we find a strong preference for the rotation axes of the megamaser
disks to align with radio continuum jets observed on >50 pc scales, in those
galaxies for which radio continuum detections are available. Sub-arcsecond
observations of molecular gas with ALMA will enable a more complete
understanding of the interplay between circumnuclear structures.Comment: Error in Figure 4 corrected, references added. 7 pages, 4 figures, to
be published in the Astrophysical Journa
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