Education - Journal Articles

School sport and academic achievement

2013-03-08T03:02:21Z

School sport and academic achievement Bradley, John L.; Keane, Francis; Crawford, Susan ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) is an integral part of the school curriculum in Ireland. Historically the Healthy Body, Healthy Mind philosophy has promoted the inclusion of PESS alongside more cognitive school subjects and research suggests that PESS can promote cognitive function and provide educational benefits. However there is little research on how the choice of school sport influences academic achievement. This case study aims to investigate how participation in school sport influences the Leaving Certificate points score in an Irish secondary school. In particular, the study will investigate how the particular sport chosen by students participating in school sport during their Leaving Certificate years influences their Leaving Certificate results. METHODS: The study recorded the Leaving Certificate scores and sporting participation from 402 school children graduating from an all-boys secondary school in the Republic of Ireland during the period 2008-2011. Sports participation was assigned one of four categories: Rugby; Rowing; Soccer; No Sport. RESULTS: Participation in a sport during the Leaving Certificate years conferred a 25.4 point benefit to the final Leaving Certificate score. However, participation in Rowing, the only individual sport available in the study, resulted in significantly higher Leaving Certificate scores than Rugby, Soccer and No Sport (p < .05), conferring an additional 73.4 point benefit over the next highest group, Rugby. CONCLUSION: Promoting participation in school sport and providing access to a range of team and individual sports throughout the secondary school years may be a beneficial way to improve students Leaving Certificate results.

Mathematics as (multi)cultural practice: Irish lessons from the Polish weekend school

2013-03-08T03:02:07Z

Mathematics as (multi)cultural practice: Irish lessons from the Polish weekend school O'Brien, Stephen; Long, Fiachra In this article, the authors challenge the erroneous assumption that mathematics is universal, and thus culturally neutral, by critically investigating diverse cultural meanings and “ways of knowing” that influence individual/social (affective) forms of identity. The authors begin by briefly detailing the structural features of a Polish weekend school and providing an overview profile of the Polish community living in Ireland. The rationale for the “weekend” school is then discussed from both Polish and Irish perspectives. Empirical data suggest a greater need for “parallel integration,” whereby two divergent education systems attempt to culturally coalesce at some level of school policy and/or mathematics classroom practice.

Do as we do and not as we say: teacher educators supporting student teachers to learn on teaching practice

2013-03-08T03:00:34Z

Do as we do and not as we say: teacher educators supporting student teachers to learn on teaching practice Chambers, Fiona C.; Armour, Kathleen M. This paper reports data from a larger study into the ways in which Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students engaged in professional learning during teaching practice (TP) in Ireland. The study comprised one umbrella case study of Greendale University, schools and PETE students that consisted of five individual cases: tetrads of PETE student teacher, cooperating teacher (CT), University tutor (UT) and School Principal (SP). Each tetrad was defined as a unique community of practice located within the wider structures of school, education and university policies on teacher education. Data were collected over one academic year using qualitative research methods and grounded theory as a systematic data analysis tool. Findings indicate that in each of the five cases, support for PETE student learning was, to some degree, dysfunctional. In particular, it became evident that there were two conflicting teacher-learning curricula in operation. The official curriculum, expressed in policy and by SPs, UTs and CTs (also referred to as mentors), valued a PETE student who cared for pupils, had a rich pedagogical content knowledge, knew how to plan for and assess pupils’ learning, valued reflection, and was an active member of a community of practice. The unofficial but essentially more powerful enacted curriculum, encouraged PETE students to draw upon their own resources to learn pedagogical content knowledge in an isolated and unsupported manner. The data highlight the force of the unofficial curriculum and the ways in which PETE students were guided to the core of the dysfunctional community of practice by untrained CTs (mentors) and untrained UTs. PETE students in this study learned to survive in a largely unsupportive professional learning environment and, just as theories of social reproduction intimate, indicated that they would reproduce this practice with PETE students in their care in the future. The findings suggest that in cases similar to those studied, there is a need for teacher educators in Ireland, (in both universities and schools) to critically interrogate their personal practices and implicit theories of teacher education and to engage in training for their role. There is also evidence to suggest that PETE students in Ireland could benefit from the development of school–university partnerships that act as fundamental units of high quality professional learning. In the cases studied, this may have led to a stronger focus on the intended or official curriculum of TP, led by the revised maxim: ‘Do as we say and as we do’.

The sports science of curling: a practical review [with radio interview]

2011-03-14T15:10:44Z

The sports science of curling: a practical review [with radio interview] Bradley, John L. Curling is a sport played on ice in which two teams each deliver 8 granite stones towards a target, or 'house'. It is the only sport in which the trajectory of the projectile can be influenced after it has been released by the athlete. This is achieved by sweeping the ice in front of the stone to change the stone-ice friction and thereby enable to stone to travel further, curl more or stay straight. Hard sweeping is physically demanding. Different techniques of sweeping can also have different effects on the stone. This paper will review the current research behind sweeping a curling stone, outline the physiological demands of sweeping, the associated performance effects and suggest potential strategies of sweeping that can be used by both coaches and curling teams. Includes radio interview discussing the paper (Bradley, John L. 2009. The sports science of curling: a practical review. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 8 (4), pp.495-500.) with Chris Walker on 'Daybreak', Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, radio show on 26 February 2010.