Description:
New opportunities for research collaborations within universities are explored through reflection on a recent collaboration between an academic researcher, the library and the eResearch Centre at a regional Australian university. Such opportunities arise from significant changes to the research landscape, including increased emphasis on open access publication of research outputs and the growth of eResearch capabilities. The latter has resulted in increases in data size and complexity and provides opportunities for collaboration across research institutions. This article reflects on the dynamics and assesses the outcomes of a collaboration formed during an externally funded open research data project. This project and a precursor project are briefly described, together with the specific contribution of each collaborator. Collaboration dynamics and the reasons for project success are assessed, as are implications for future research practice. Outcomes from eResearch collaborations may provide broader benefits to universities, as well as rewards to academic researchers.
Description:
New opportunities for research collaborations within universities are explored through reflection on a recent collaboration between an academic researcher, the library and the eResearch Centre at a regional Australian university. Such opportunities arise from significant changes to the research landscape, including increased emphasis on open access publication of research outputs and the growth of eResearch capabilities. The latter has resulted in increases in data size and complexity and provides opportunities for collaboration across research institutions. This article reflects on the dynamics and assesses the outcomes of a collaboration formed during an externally funded open research data project. This project and a precursor project are briefly described, together with the specific contribution of each collaborator. Collaboration dynamics and the reasons for project success are assessed, as are implications for future research practice. Outcomes from eResearch collaborations may provide broader benefits to universities, as well as rewards to academic researchers.
Description:
Objectives: Two experimental studies were conducted to test and compare whether different pre-performance routines (i.e., left-hand dynamic handgrip and an extensive routine) can improve (and potentially have a combined effect on) accuracy in closed, self-paced motor tasks. Design/method: Study 1 used a standardised laboratory task to measure motor performance, while Study 2 was a field experiment measuring tenpin bowling accuracy and in-game performance as outcome variables. Both studies consisted of a pretest phase followed by one or two test phases using a group-specific pre-performance routine (PPR), or control, condition. Results: Results of both studies indicated that the inexperienced students (Study 1) and experienced athletes (Study 2) within the intervention groups were more accurate when using the intervention than a control group (not provided an intervention). Using a combined (i.e., left-hand dynamic handgrip and extensive) PPR may not have additive performance effects. Furthermore, using a PPR intervention did not equate to better in-game performance in Study 2. Conclusions: These studies indicate that the element of left-hand dynamic handgrip as a PPR may be comparable to control groups, but further research is needed to determine if it is comparable to extensive PPR interventions that promote concentration on the task for increased performance generally (and under pressure).
Description:
Objectives: Two experimental studies were conducted to test and compare whether different pre-performance routines (i.e., left-hand dynamic handgrip and an extensive routine) can improve (and potentially have a combined effect on) accuracy in closed, self-paced motor tasks. Design/method: Study 1 used a standardised laboratory task to measure motor performance, while Study 2 was a field experiment measuring tenpin bowling accuracy and in-game performance as outcome variables. Both studies consisted of a pretest phase followed by one or two test phases using a group-specific pre-performance routine (PPR), or control, condition. Results: Results of both studies indicated that the inexperienced students (Study 1) and experienced athletes (Study 2) within the intervention groups were more accurate when using the intervention than a control group (not provided an intervention). Using a combined (i.e., left-hand dynamic handgrip and extensive) PPR may not have additive performance effects. Furthermore, using a PPR intervention did not equate to better in-game performance in Study 2. Conclusions: These studies indicate that the element of left-hand dynamic handgrip as a PPR may be comparable to control groups, but further research is needed to determine if it is comparable to extensive PPR interventions that promote concentration on the task for increased performance generally (and under pressure).
Description:
Internationalisation of curriculum (IoC) practices promote students developing knowledge of other cultures, attitudes, values and ethics. This conceptual article argues that embedding critical reflection in the IoC program–through integrating insights from both IoC thinkers and critical reflection literature–may allow educators and students to not only gain understanding and/or competency in other cultures but better address questions of privilege, power and colonisation and thereby interrogate their own normative cultural understandings. Borrowing from debates within IoC pedagogy, as well as from Ahmed’s work on critical reflection, this article also argues that cross/intercultural understanding should be understood (and taught) not as a competency but a disposition towards thinking, analysing and understanding the world which is based on critiquing the ‘self’ and its relationship with the ‘other’.
Description:
While there is agreement that dispositions and resilience enable teachers to negotiate the complexities of teaching, how we support pre-service teachers (PSTs) to activate and understand the nature of dispositions and resilience is less clear. This narrative inquiry, conducted at a regional university in Australia, examines ways thinking dispositions act as personal resources to enable PSTs to develop resilience and negotiate the reality of teaching. In this paper, we examine a teaching and learning experience in an initial teacher education program where PSTs engage with complexities associated with planning, teaching and assessment. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, we construct and examine PSTs’ narratives and identify the foundational influence of people-centred thinking. We also identify the central role of reflective and strategic thinking in enabling resilience. Finally, we argue that school/university partnership initiatives in teacher education provide opportunities to focus on dispositions associated with resilience.
Description:
Background: Time-to-event modelling is underutilised in sports injury research. Still, sports injury researchers have been encouraged to consider time-to-event analyses as a powerful alternative to other statistical methods. Therefore, it is important to shed light on statistical approaches suitable for analysing training load related key-questions within the sports injury domain. Content: In the present article, we illuminate: (i) the possibilities of including time-varying outcomes in time-to-event analyses, (ii) how to deal with a situation where different types of sports injuries are included in the analyses (ie, competing risks), and (iii) how to deal with the situation where multiple subsequent injuries occur in the same athlete. Conclusion: Time-to-event analyses can handle time-varying outcomes, competing risk and multiple subsequent injuries. Although powerful, time-to-event has important requirements: researchers are encouraged to carefully consider prior to any data collection that five injuries per exposure state or transition is needed to avoid conducting statistical analyses on time-to-event data leading to biased results. This requirement becomes particularly difficult to accommodate when a stratified analysis is required as the number of variables increases exponentially for each additional strata included. In future sports injury research, we need stratified analyses if the target of our research is to respond to the question: 'how much change in training load is too much before injury is sustained, among athletes with different characteristics?' Responding to this question using multiple time-varying exposures (and outcomes) requires millions of injuries. This should not be a barrier for future research, but collaborations across borders to collecting the amount of data needed seems to be an important step forward.
Description:
Background: Time-to-event modelling is underutilised in sports injury research. Still, sports injury researchers have been encouraged to consider time-to-event analyses as a powerful alternative to other statistical methods. Therefore, it is important to shed light on statistical approaches suitable for analysing training load related key-questions within the sports injury domain. Content: In the present article, we illuminate: (i) the possibilities of including time-varying outcomes in time-to-event analyses, (ii) how to deal with a situation where different types of sports injuries are included in the analyses (ie, competing risks), and (iii) how to deal with the situation where multiple subsequent injuries occur in the same athlete. Conclusion: Time-to-event analyses can handle time-varying outcomes, competing risk and multiple subsequent injuries. Although powerful, time-to-event has important requirements: researchers are encouraged to carefully consider prior to any data collection that five injuries per exposure state or transition is needed to avoid conducting statistical analyses on time-to-event data leading to biased results. This requirement becomes particularly difficult to accommodate when a stratified analysis is required as the number of variables increases exponentially for each additional strata included. In future sports injury research, we need stratified analyses if the target of our research is to respond to the question: 'how much change in training load is too much before injury is sustained, among athletes with different characteristics?' Responding to this question using multiple time-varying exposures (and outcomes) requires millions of injuries. This should not be a barrier for future research, but collaborations across borders to collecting the amount of data needed seems to be an important step forward.
Description:
There has been growing use of reflective practice as a means for examining ethically important moments that occur during research. Reflective practice enables researchers to be alert to the unfolding of these ethically important moments and to consider how they will respond to them. In this paper, we use dialogic reflection to explore an ethically important moment that occurred during one of our research projects. We present our dialogic reflective conversation as a means of exploring the ethical issues associated with data ownership. We draw on this conversation to describe a framework for dialogic reflection that provides researchers with a process for engaging in reflection on their practice as ethical researchers.
Description:
An emphasis on teacher quality in Australia has resulted in many changes in teacher education including a recent emphasis on non-academic capabilities (such as resilience) of prospective teachers. Reporting data obtained through an online survey of 73 teacher educators, this chapter presents their views about pre-service teacher resilience and the role of teacher educators and education programs in promoting resilience for pre-service teachers. Findings illustrate the multiple contexts important in the development of teacher resilience and how resilience can be demonstrated during the pre-service years. Barriers and supports for embedding resilience in teacher education programs are discussed. We argue that in times of uncertainty and complexity in teacher education, resilience is critical for sustained effectiveness and growth.
Description:
Recently there has been a growth in the surveillance of students' online activities. This has been facilitated not only by the increasing numbers of digital devices, but also through surveillance creep (Marx, 1998). Drawing upon this concept and associated ideas, including data creep, policy creep and concept creep, this paper explores the digital monitoring of students via classroom management software, social media surveillance and education apps. It is concluded that driven by commercialisation, commodification and normalisation surveillance creep is problematic insofar as it results in over-blocking, undermines digital rights, invades privacy, appropriates personal property and proprietorially harvests data. Language
Description:
This paper focuses on the development of the academic and personal literacy and numeracy skills of pre-service teachers. It examines how an embedded enhancement framework of literacy and numeracy support named the DEER (Developing, Embedding, Extending, Reflecting) framework by the researchers was created in initial teacher education (ITE) programs in regional Victoria. The implementation of the DEER framework will be discussed and an evaluation of the impact of the DEER framework will be presented. Quantitative data draws on two test results in both literacy and numeracy, comparing the performance of students. These tests were undertaken by pre-service teachers, before and after the implementation of the DEER framework. Effect sizes for the changes in the test results are presented with the effect size for the numeracy testing calculated as 0.99, while the effect size for the literacy testing was 0.75.
Description:
This paper focuses on the development of the academic and personal literacy and numeracy skills of pre-service teachers. It examines how an embedded enhancement framework of literacy and numeracy support named the DEER (Developing, Embedding, Extending, Reflecting) framework by the researchers was created in initial teacher education (ITE) programs in regional Victoria. The implementation of the DEER framework will be discussed and an evaluation of the impact of the DEER framework will be presented. Quantitative data draws on two test results in both literacy and numeracy, comparing the performance of students. These tests were undertaken by pre-service teachers, before and after the implementation of the DEER framework. Effect sizes for the changes in the test results are presented with the effect size for the numeracy testing calculated as 0.99, while the effect size for the literacy testing was 0.75.
Effectiveness of online tailored advice to prevent running-related injuries and promote preventive behaviour in Dutch trail runners : A pragmatic randomised controlled trial
Description:
BACKGROUND: Trail running is popular worldwide, but there is no preventive intervention for running-related injury (RRI). AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of adding online tailored advice (TrailS6 ) to general advice on (1) the prevention of RRIs and (2) the determinants and actual preventive behaviour in Dutch trail runners. METHODS: Two-arm randomised controlled trial over 6 months. 232 trail runners were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. All participants received online general advice on RRI prevention 1 week after baseline. Every 2 weeks, participants in the intervention group received specific advice tailored to their RRI status. The control group received no further intervention. Bayesian mixed models were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Trail runners in the intervention group sustained 13% fewer RRIs compared with those in the control group after 6 months of follow-up (absolute risk difference -13.1%, 95% Bayesian highest posterior credible interval (95% BCI) -23.3 to -3.1). A preventive benefit was observed in one out of eight trail runners who had received the online tailored advice for 6 months (number needed to treat 8, 95% BCI 3 to 22). No significant between-group difference was observed on the determinants and actual preventive behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Online tailored advice prevented RRIs among Dutch trail runners. Therefore, online tailored advice may be used as a preventive component in multicomponent RRI prevention programmes. No effect was observed on determinants and actual preventive behaviours. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR5431).
Description:
BACKGROUND: Trail running is popular worldwide, but there is no preventive intervention for running-related injury (RRI). AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of adding online tailored advice (TrailS6 ) to general advice on (1) the prevention of RRIs and (2) the determinants and actual preventive behaviour in Dutch trail runners. METHODS: Two-arm randomised controlled trial over 6 months. 232 trail runners were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. All participants received online general advice on RRI prevention 1 week after baseline. Every 2 weeks, participants in the intervention group received specific advice tailored to their RRI status. The control group received no further intervention. Bayesian mixed models were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Trail runners in the intervention group sustained 13% fewer RRIs compared with those in the control group after 6 months of follow-up (absolute risk difference -13.1%, 95% Bayesian highest posterior credible interval (95% BCI) -23.3 to -3.1). A preventive benefit was observed in one out of eight trail runners who had received the online tailored advice for 6 months (number needed to treat 8, 95% BCI 3 to 22). No significant between-group difference was observed on the determinants and actual preventive behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Online tailored advice prevented RRIs among Dutch trail runners. Therefore, online tailored advice may be used as a preventive component in multicomponent RRI prevention programmes. No effect was observed on determinants and actual preventive behaviours. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR5431).
Description:
Teacher education programs in Australia increasingly comply with new and narrowing accountabilities so that they can be approved by diverse regulatory authorities and accredited. This is an auto-biographical narrative study which draws upon the memories of a teacher educator who contrasts her experience of learning to teach in the early 1980s with her recent experience as a Program Leader working with colleagues to design a new Master of Teaching program. She interviews Professor Bernie Neville who was responsible for the design and implementation of the teacher education program she completed in 1983. He reflects on the principles guiding his practice at a time when greater freedoms were possible. She contrasts this with an interview her colleagues conducted with her during the program accreditation phase and highlights tensions in the current process of program design related to an increasing performance-orientation, greater levels of compliance, and managing an over-crowded curriculum.
Description:
Teacher education programs in Australia increasingly comply with new and narrowing accountabilities so that they can be approved by diverse regulatory authorities and accredited. This is an auto-biographical narrative study which draws upon the memories of a teacher educator who contrasts her experience of learning to teach in the early 1980s with her recent experience as a Program Leader working with colleagues to design a new Master of Teaching program. She interviews Professor Bernie Neville who was responsible for the design and implementation of the teacher education program she completed in 1983. He reflects on the principles guiding his practice at a time when greater freedoms were possible. She contrasts this with an interview her colleagues conducted with her during the program accreditation phase and highlights tensions in the current process of program design related to an increasing performance-orientation, greater levels of compliance, and managing an over-crowded curriculum.
Description:
Introduction Head injuries represent a concern in skiing and snowboarding, with traumatic brain injuries being the most common cause of death. Aim To describe the mechanisms of head and face injuries among World Cup alpine and freestyle skiers and snowboarders. Methods We performed a qualitative analysis of videos obtained of head and face injuries reported through the International Ski Federation Injury Surveillance System during 10 World Cup seasons (2006-2016). We analysed 57 head impact injury videos (alpine n=29, snowboard n=13, freestyle n=15), first independently and subsequently in a consensus meeting. Results During the crash sequence, most athletes (84%) impacted the snow with the skis or board first, followed by the upper or lower extremities, buttocks/pelvis, back and, finally, the head. Alpine skiers had sideways (45%) and backwards pitching falls (35%), with impacts to the rear (38%) and side (35%) of the helmet. Freestyle skiers and snowboarders had backwards pitching falls (snowboard 77%, freestyle 53%), mainly with impacts to the rear of the helmet (snowboard 69%, freestyle 40%). There were three helmet ejections among alpine skiers (10% of cases), and 41% of alpine skiing injuries occurred due to inappropriate gate contact prior to falling. Athletes had one (47%) or two (28%) head impacts, and the first impact was the most severe (71%). Head impacts were mainly on snow (83%) on a downward slope (63%). Conclusion This study has identified several characteristics of the mechanisms of head injuries, which may be addressed to reduce risk.
Description:
Effective feedback is an essential tool for making learning explicit and an essential feature of classroom practice that promotes learner autonomy. Yet, it remains a pressing challenge for teachers to scaffold the active involvement of students as critical, reflective and autonomous learners who use feedback constructively. This paper seeks to present a recalibrated perspective of feedback by exploring the concept as a student-initiated learning action, manifested within classroom practice as help seeking for learning. Teachers and students from years 2, 4 and 6 at an Australian primary school worked together on a writing project, which was structured as a three-phase learning process. The value of this approach was revealed by data gathered through students’ planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers along with email correspondence with the teachers. A framework of social cognitive theory guided the analysis. It is suggested that the three-phase Assessment as Learning (AaL) process has the potential to support teachers in scaffolding students to seek help at a time when they are receptive to feedback. Furthermore, this AaL approach appears to have enhanced the teachers’ practice, particularly in respect to providing support for students during the forethought stage of the learning process. Practical techniques for scaffolding students’ adaptive help seeking and autonomy as learners are presented in the paper.
Description:
Effective feedback is an essential tool for making learning explicit and an essential feature of classroom practice that promotes learner autonomy. Yet, it remains a pressing challenge for teachers to scaffold the active involvement of students as critical, reflective and autonomous learners who use feedback constructively. This paper seeks to present a recalibrated perspective of feedback by exploring the concept as a student-initiated learning action, manifested within classroom practice as help seeking for learning. Teachers and students from years 2, 4 and 6 at an Australian primary school worked together on a writing project, which was structured as a three-phase learning process. The value of this approach was revealed by data gathered through students’ planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers along with email correspondence with the teachers. A framework of social cognitive theory guided the analysis. It is suggested that the three-phase Assessment as Learning (AaL) process has the potential to support teachers in scaffolding students to seek help at a time when they are receptive to feedback. Furthermore, this AaL approach appears to have enhanced the teachers’ practice, particularly in respect to providing support for students during the forethought stage of the learning process. Practical techniques for scaffolding students’ adaptive help seeking and autonomy as learners are presented in the paper.
Description:
The supervision and mentoring of pre-service teachers during professional experience is complex work that requires a range of skills and capacities. Professional development for this work has traditionally been limited, however, and mentor teachers report experiencing tensions in their work stemming from their roles as both supporter and assessor of pre-service teachers. Despite the central role that mentors play in professional experience, their voices are underrepresented in the literature. In this paper, I draw on interview data to examine teachers' experiences as mentors and the tensions they experience. I use poetic representation to illuminate the tensions and emotions of mentoring and present seven poems that provide insight into these tensions. I argue that poetic representation of interview data provides an opportunity to connect with the experience of being a mentor and offer suggestions for teacher educators to work collaboratively with mentor teachers to explore the dimensions of their role.
Description:
The supervision and mentoring of pre-service teachers during professional experience is complex work that requires a range of skills and capacities. Professional development for this work has traditionally been limited, however, and mentor teachers report experiencing tensions in their work stemming from their roles as both supporter and assessor of pre-service teachers. Despite the central role that mentors play in professional experience, their voices are underrepresented in the literature. In this paper, I draw on interview data to examine teachers' experiences as mentors and the tensions they experience. I use poetic representation to illuminate the tensions and emotions of mentoring and present seven poems that provide insight into these tensions. I argue that poetic representation of interview data provides an opportunity to connect with the experience of being a mentor and offer suggestions for teacher educators to work collaboratively with mentor teachers to explore the dimensions of their role.
Description:
The article comes from a research program examining the benefits of men's sheds in an Australian context. The author first addresses some of the controversial issues of disadvantage and inequality of women, takes into account the position associated with the implications of unequal distribution of materials and resources by feminists, and assumes that unequal distribution of resources not only limits many women but also some men. The author looks at the health status of men in Australia and discusses, through a research program, the link between participation in men's spades and health and wellbeing benefits. The article uses Sen's capability approach to present men's sheds in the Australian context as a useful space where enabling capabilities developed through meaningful activities can benefit men in relation to health and wellness.
Description:
The article comes from a research program examining the benefits of men's sheds in an Australian context. The author first addresses some of the controversial issues of disadvantage and inequality of women, takes into account the position associated with the implications of unequal distribution of materials and resources by feminists, and assumes that unequal distribution of resources not only limits many women but also some men. The author looks at the health status of men in Australia and discusses, through a research program, the link between participation in men's spades and health and wellbeing benefits. The article uses Sen's capability approach to present men's sheds in the Australian context as a useful space where enabling capabilities developed through meaningful activities can benefit men in relation to health and wellness.
Description:
Introduction Prior to the 2013/2014 season, the International Ski Federation (FIS) increased the helmet testing speed from 5.4 to 6.8 m/s for alpine downhill, super-G and giant slalom. Whether this increased testing speed reflects head impact velocities in real head injury situations on snow is unclear. We therefore investigated the injury mechanisms and gross head impact biomechanics in seven real head injury situations among World Cup (WC) alpine skiers. Methods We analysed nine head impacts from seven head injury videos from the FIS Injury Surveillance System, throughout nine WC seasons (2006-2015) in detail. We used commercial video-based motion analysis software to estimate head impact kinematics in two dimensions, including directly preimpact and postimpact, from broadcast video. The sagittal plane angular movement of the head was also measured using angle measurement software. Results In seven of nine head impacts, the estimated normal to slope preimpact velocity was higher than the current FIS helmet rule of 6.8 m/s (mean 8.1 (±SD 0.6) m/s, range 1.9±0.8 to 12.1±0.4 m/s). The nine head impacts had a mean normal to slope velocity change of 9.3±1.0 m/s, range 5.2±1.1 to 13.5±1.3 m/s. There was a large change in sagittal plane angular velocity (mean 43.3±2.9 rad/s (range 21.2±1.5 to 64.2±3.0 rad/s)) during impact. Conclusion The estimated normal to slope preimpact velocity was higher than the current FIS helmet rule of 6.8 m/s in seven of nine head impacts.