Inclusion of Pupils with SENs into Mainstream Physical Education – Potential Research Ideas to Explore Issues of Engagement

One consequence of the 1981 Education Act (DES, 1981) was that there began a transference of pupils from special educational schools to mainstream schools over the coming years. Thus, for the first time in many cases, mainstream schools were expected, through policy developments, to provide an inclusive education culture for pupils with SEN (Special Educational Needs). The aim of this paper is to analyse some of the consequences, intended or otherwise, of including pupils with SEN in mainstream school National Curriculum Physical Education (NCPE) lessons and extra-curricular physical activity. In this regard, it is argued that team games and competitive sports are activities which teachers find particularly difficult to plan for and deliver in an inclusive way, whereas more individual activities such as dance, gymnastics, tennis, badminton and athletics are identified as activities that may be easier to plan and deliver inclusively. The paper is punctuated with potential field research ideas; being possible investigations prompted by this critique of literature. These ideas typically involve suggestions for primary data gathering in the school setting with either pupils or staff, exploring issues for engagement (and non-engagement) with PE and physical activity. The paper concludes that an over emphasis upon competitive team sports and performance in PE may be eroding the quality of learning experience for all pupils, not least those with SEN

An evaluation of the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale

The West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre (WMRC) is responsible for the National Health Service provision and maintenance of Environmental Control Equipment to patients across the West Midlands Region, England. It is important to measure outcome of provision using a paradigm that has meaning for those patients. The Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale is a 26-item, self-rating questionnaire designed to measure user perceptions of how assistive devices affect quality of life. This outcome measure is being evaluated in the West Midland

Boots-and-me: an ethno-sensual account of love, dedication and smelly old boots

Boots-and-me is an ethno-sensual narrative of my life with some rock-climbing boots and more specifically, my feet within them. It explores my physical, sensual engagement with these items of sports equipment, spanning a period of twenty-eight years. The story is a stylised form of writing with frequent, colourful use of analogies for a more vivid interpretation. From this sense-laden and textured narrative, a deeper story is revealed about aspects of my personality and character. Establishing that my feet are connected to my head(!) leads to critical consideration of some ideas emerging from the tale; shared experiences in research. A short prologue introduces the main story; Boots-and-me, followed by an epilogue of theoretical analysis and discussion from respondents to the story. It is concluded that physically and emotionally rich auto-accounts about how people come to rely on items of equipment may be a window to some of their life-management strategies

Australian mechanical engineers : industries and attributes

The US and UK have had significant influence on the delivery and content of engineering programs both globally and particularly on Australia and yet the industrial profile of Australia has historically been significantly different from that of the US and UK. This paper first presents a study into the differences in industrial profile in the employment of mechanical engineers in the US, UK and Australia. This paper then presents key findings from a role-based study that identified the relative significance of a broad range of attributes for the most common mechanical engineering roles in the six industries that employ the greatest number of Australian mechanical engineers.<br /

An investigation into the adoption of CDIO in distance learning

The Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate Initiative (CDIO) uses integrated learning to develop deep learning of the disciplinary knowledge base whilst simultaneously developing personal, interpersonal, product, process and system building skills. This is achieved through active and experiential learning methods that expose students to experiences engineers will encounter in their profession. These are incorporated not only in the design-build-test experiences that form a crucial part of a CDIO programme but also in discipline focused studies. Active and experiential learning methods are, of course, more difficult to incorporate into distance education. This paper investigates these difficulties and the implications in providing a programme that best achieves the goals of the CDIO approach through contemporary distance education methods. First, the key issues of adopting the CDIO approach in conventional oncampus courses are considered with reference to the development of the CDIO engineering programmes at the University of Liverpool. The different models of distance based delivery of engineering programmes provided by the Open University in the UK, and Deakin University and the University of Southern Queensland in Australia are then presented and issues that may present obstacles to the future adoption of the CDIO approach in these programmes are discussed. The effectiveness and suitability of various solutions to foreseen difficulties in delivering CDIO programmes through distance education are then considered. These include the further development, increased use and interinstitutional sharing of technology based facilities such as Internet facilitated access to laboratory facilities and computer aided learning (CAL) laboratory simulations, on campus workshops, and the development of a virtual engineering enterprise

Calypso cricket: connecting cultures in California

This paper is an early field-report from an ongoing PhD project investigating socio-cultural phenomena displayed through cricket in the USA. The targeted location, Los Angeles, California, is a melting pot of cultures from English to Indian, Jamaican to Australian, and not forgetting American, so it is an ideal place for ethnographic research around this trans-cultural activity. The paper attempts to highlight the grounded nature of ethnography when using narratives to (a) approach the field, followed by (b) observation notes in the field through participant observation, arriving at (c) representation of emergent concepts or new themes to guide the research further. The field notes made in the USA (b) are chronological and written stylistically to include a rich, detailed description of events that took place across one social cricket match (in the 4th tier of the Southern California Cricket Association) between teams from Bangladeshi and Caribbean backgrounds. This glimpse into the world of cricket in the USA mimics a style of writing in minutia used by Nicholson Baker (1988) when describing his observations during a lunch hour at work

Outdoor Learning through the school day – the National Curriculum in a tent.

This paper is concerned with creating an Outdoor Learning day within the grounds of a Primary school, but with the aim of reducing perceived barriers to Learning Outside of the Classroom. The phenomenological study aimed to capture the teacher’s and children’s perspectives towards the day that involved practical activities around tent building, making cross-curricular links to Maths Science and English. Problem solving, working in a team and developing numeracy and literacy skills were also core learning outcomes. Data collection for the study was through a questionnaire, in-class observations and an interview with the teacher as well as a focus group with four pupils. The data suggested that learning had taken place and that learning outdoors made a positive contribution to pupils’ engagement. Also that the teacher’s overall view of Outdoor Learning was a positive one, the study closing with a growing sense of confidence regarding the teacher’s freedom to construct their own Outdoor Learning experiences for pupils in the future

Sport and the aesthetic

This paper discusses some perspectives as to whether the status of a form of art can claimed for sporting activities. I would like to question the assumptions contained within this point of view, by examining the idea of sporting activities being open to, and objects of, aesthetic appraisal; but also to go further and question the idea of sporting activities ever achieving the status of an art form. I would like to hypothesise that while a sporting activity can be an object of aesthetic appraisal, sports cannot attain the status of an art form

Call and response in learning, voices for change in teaching: a narrative analysis

This research is prompted by the call from two reflective accounts written by Ethan Williams; Old People on Screens and Musical Chairs, as stimuli for a number of his fellow degree students to respond to (acknowledged above). Adopting student-voice for both the call and response moves the pedagogical inquiry firmly towards that of Research Informed Teaching, when students become active partners in the research process. When students reflect this deeply on their educational experiences and transform their thinking in to new, rich learning-narratives, it will inevitably cause the teacher who instigated it to reflect on their teaching (and learning) as well. This research, building on previous educational narratives, helps to reveal a cycle of active pedagogical change. This being actioned through meaningful writing about learning, shared in a community who will soon become the teachers and leaders of tomorrow

'The Sweet Pain of Life’ - Dancing Metaphysical Longing: A Theological Reading of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake

The performing arts offer opportunities for the creative representation of spiritual and moral values and serve an important function in contemporary culture. Dance, and in particular ballet, has the potential through its somatic dynamics centred around graceful movement and stylised gesture, to offer an alluring spectacle of beauty and value to any audience. What we offer in this article is a philosophical, theological and spiritual reading of Matthew Bourne’s 2018 production of Swan Lake. The dance revolves around the longing of one male swan for another and the obstacles they encounter due to their desire. We argue that this work is important, not because of its homoerotic appeal, but because it offers a portrayal of universal, spiritual longing as an analogue to, and constituent of, sexual erotic yearning. Since this religious and transcendent approach to sexual love is found in Platonic, Biblical and other theological sources, we interpret the dance through these philosophical and religious lenses, but freely admit that it takes a certain purifying of the eye of the soul (as ascetics have suggested throughout the ages) to interpret the dance in this manner