Teaching assistants’ perspectives of deaf students’ learning experiences in mainstream secondary classrooms

This study aims to investigate the teaching assistants’ perspectives of deaf students’ learning experiences within a mainstream secondary school. The majority of deaf students in the UK are educated within such settings and they continue to underachieve in all curriculum areas when compared with their hearing peers. A qualitative, collaborate methodology was developed that facilitated a trustworthy method to collect data that accurately represented the teaching assistants perspectives. Consideration was given to how the teaching assistants talked about learning and the challenges they perceived the deaf students encountered in the classroom as a result of their deafness. This paper presents one of the early findings which indicates deaf students learning in a mainstream setting is may frequently be different from that experienced by their hearing peers. The teaching assistants described a range of challenges that related to the students’ knowledge acquisition, skills and mental state along with the environmental factors they perceived impacted on the students’ learning experience. From this perspective the findings indicate that deaf students may be engaged in a significant amount of accommodative learning, as opposed to assimilative learning, in secondary classrooms. This study is the first of its kind in the UK to investigate deafness and learning in mainstream secondary schools with a specific focus on the perspectives of teaching assistants who support these students. The collaborative methodology provides a new approach to investigating the functional learning of deaf students in order to inform educational support practices and develop new understandings of learning

Investigating deaf children’s plural and diverse use of sign and spoken languages in a super diverse context.

This paper examines the meaning of plurality and diversity with respect to deaf children’s sign and spoken language exposure and repertoire within a super diverse context. Data is drawn from a small-scale project that took place in the North of England in a Local Authority (LA) site for deaf education. The project documented the language landscape of this site and gathered five individual case studies of deaf children to examine their plural and diverse language practices at home and at school. Analysis of the language landscape and case studies from this context is undertaken in order to define and exemplify deaf children’s language plurality and diversity in terms of context and individual experience. Concepts of repertoire are explored with particular reference to the unique type of translanguaging that the plural use of sign and spoken languages affords.Implications of these preliminary insights are discussed in terms of the development of methodologies that are sensitive to the particular translanguaging practices of deaf children, and approaches to pedagogy that are appropriately nuanced and responsive to deaf children’s language plurality and diversity

The effects of pre-exercise blood glucose on responses to short duration high intensity exercise

Purpose To investigate the relationship between pre-exercise blood glucose levels and performance during a 7-point incremental swim test. Methods Forty-two National level swimmers undertook a 6 × 200 m incremental training set at predetermined pace, followed by an additional maximum effort swim, with each swim starting every 6:30 minutes. Subjects were asked to be one hour post-absorptive. Results were analysed in three groups based on pre-test blood glucose level; Low Blood Glucose (LBG) below 4.3; Euglycemic (EUG), 4.3 mmo/l to 6.0 mmol/l; High Blood Glucose (HBG) above 6.0 mmol/l. After each 200 m - swim, blood glucose, blood lactate, and heart rate were taken. Additionally, swim speed, stroke count, and stroke rate were recorded for each swim. Values were plotted against the swim time of each swim. Results Significant differences were observed between responses for both LBG and HBG when compared to EUG for blood glucose, lactate and heart rate (P < 0.01). Additionally, markers of swim efficiency and swim speeds were significantly affected by LBG (P < 0.01). High blood glucose appeared to be beneficial to swimming efficiency against LBG and EUG (p < 0.01). Conclusions Blood glucose levels prior to swimming had a marked effect on performance. LBG resulted in a significant reduction in the blood glucose, lactate, heart rate, and swimming efficiency responses to swimming at a range of intensities, up to maximal effort

Glucose turn point as a marker of exercise intensity in elite swimmers

Purpose: To investigate a blood glucose profile and turn point during incremental exercise. Methods: Thirty-three national and international-level swimmers undertook a 7 × 200 m discontinuous, incremental, training set on a six-minute turnaround. Subjects were asked to be two hours post-absorptive, which resulted in a mean blood glucose level of 5.5 ± 0.57 mmol/l. After each 200 m-swim blood lactate, blood glucose, and heart rate were taken and values plotted against the velocity of each swim. A Glucose turn point (Gt) was observed and defined in this study as an upward deflection after which blood glucose continues to rise. The Dmax, Borch, and LogLog methods were used to calculate Anaerobic Threshold (AnT). Results: Significant differences were observed between Gt and all three methods of AnT for swim pace, heart rate, blood glucose, and lactate (P < 0.005). Conclusions: Blood glucose profiles and the identification of Gt are not linked to AnT. Gt may be an effective tool for the observation of exercise intensity that is independent of the mechanisms underlying AnT

The effects of swimming fatigue on shoulder strength, range of motion, joint control, and performance in swimmers

Purpose To investigate the effects of training induced fatigue on shoulder strength, ROM, joint position sense, and stroke length in elite competitive swimmers. Methods Seventeen national level swimmers performed maximum isometric strength (internal and external rotation), ROM, and joint position sense tests before and after a fatiguing 8 × 100 m training set. Stroke length, heart rate, blood lactate and blood glucose levels were recorded throughout. Results Peak blood lactate, blood glucose levels, and heart rate increased significantly (P&lt;0.001) post-training confirming fatigue. Reductions were observed in stroke length of both arms (P&lt;0.001), external rotation range of motion (P&lt;0.001, −5.29°, Right shoulder; P = 0.04, −3.18°, Left shoulder) and joint position sense in their dominant (breathing side) arm (P = 0.03). Conclusions This investigation revealed a reduction in stroke length across both arms and also an arm bias in swimming whereby a greater reduction in both external rotation range and joint position sense was observed in the dominant arm when fatigued. This has highlighted a relationship between fatigue and potential mechanism of shoulder pathology in swimmers