SSPEL Newsletter: Research and Scholarly Activities

Publishing success

2011-03-31T02:50:00.000-07:00

Dr Mike Tripp has just had accepted for publication an article based on his recent PhD in

Sporting Traditions, the official journal of the Australian Society of Sports History.His article is entitled ‘Cornish Wrestling in Australia’.

Double whammy for Leisure folk

2011-02-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

Both Ian Gilhespy and Dave Harris are to have material published in the prestigious Journal of Hospitality. Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education (the organ of the HEA Subject Centre HLST).

The articles are:

Gilhespy, I. (2011) Evaluating the effectiveness of digital learning objects: student perspectives and issues of design, Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, Vol 10

Harris, D. (2011) Presentation software: pedagogical constraints and potentials, Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, Vol 10

Both are outputs from the lengthy project to develop and use RLOs

Dean leads from the front!

2010-10-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Sam Peach who got her doctorate published:

Peach, S. (2010) Understanding Curriculum in HE: A case-study, Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing.

and she also got a follow up published:

Peach, S. (2010) 'A curriculum philosophy for HE: socially critical vocationalism', Teaching in Higher Education, 15(4): 449--60.

Book chapter

2010-09-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

Dr. Valerie Reardon (another 'newcomer', recent member of the Faculty) has been published. Her chapter is entitled ‘British Art in the Twenty-First Century’ and it’s in The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Culture eds. Michael Higgins, Clarissa Smith and John Storey. Cambridge University Press 2010.

Gareth Picknell's elevation

2010-09-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

Gareth is now a section representative as part of the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group (PsyPAG) committee for a Coaching Psychology Group. As such he is keen to present events (e.g., conference/workshops/seminars) to all members and thus needs to be made aware of these

5 in 14

2010-07-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

You wait for a conference invitation then 5 come along at once. Here is my schedule:

July 5-6 -- CREST conference in London. Meet and greet colleagues in GuildHE and do a quick (10 minute!) TED-talk on my research interest. I chose Bourdieu, the high aesthetic and the connection with 'deep learning'.

July 8 -- C-SAP e-learning conference, London. Discuss work undertaken as part of OER project and link it to discussions of pedagogy -- Bourdieu on rational pedagogy to be precise.

July 9 -- Faculty of Education Health and Welfare Research Day, Marjon, Plymouth. A talk on the RAE, REF and the Centre for Educational Research (which I head up). Tried a parody of modern school teaching practice to lighten the bad news I had to offer about Marjon's appalling position on various league tables.

July 13 -- Faculty of Sport, Media and Creative Arts Research Day, Marjon, Plymouth. I am MC for the day and I am also giving a paper on 'authenticity' and how we might research it.

July 19th -- C-SAP national half-day conference on assessment, Marjon, Plymouth.I helped organise this one too and I am giving a presentation on 'teaching to the test'

Dave Harris

Coaching conference: Jamie Oxley

2010-07-01T14:10:00.001-07:00

Please find a link to the presentations from the 5th UK Coaching Summit which I had the pleasure of attending over the past 2 days.

http://www.sportscoachuk.org/index.php?PageID=6&sc=27&uid=1458 – not all the presentations are on the system yet but they should be loaded by next week.

If you have any questions about the materials then please let me know.

For your interest I attended the following workshops:

2b – Participant Development Theory - a very interesting presentation from Richard Bailey who reminded me of a cross between the actor Richards Griffiths and Ricky Gervais!! This was followed up by a presentation from Kelly Gordon from England Netball on how they are moving forward with the player development pathway.

3c – a rather dry presentation from Sue Jolly about innovative delivery in coach education. I personally thought it was more use with regards to the use of ICT to support coaching and not coach ed.

4d – This provided an update on progress with the coaching degree endorsement programme which Marjon is one of 6 pilot institutions involved. There is still some considerable progress needed to link the work of NGBs and their UKCC coaching courses with the curriculum delivered in coaching based degrees to enable a more streamlined and systematic/flexible approach to the delivery of coaching awards. UCP Marjon could play a key role in this work.

7b – A very interesting array of presenters and updates about the development of the UK coaching workforce. Andy Miles from UWIC, who I met at the previous conference in Glasgow delivered a short session looking at the TESCO club card scheme relating it to the work on knowing your coaching workforce!! Those like me, who have a club card did not need to have the scheme sold to them!! However those who either did not have a card, or never use it, were later seen in the nearby Tesco store signing up. Did you know there is an iphone/blackberry club card application on your phone!! Andy’s presentation/overview was supported by a very dynamic account from Equestrian Federation by Suzanne Genery and a less entertaining update from Transition Coaching and British Gymnastics.

Day 1

* Keynote B: UK Coaching System: Review of Progress since March 2009 and Outline of the Current Coaching Landscape
* Keynote C: Targeting Your Legacy Efforts: The Opportunities and Challenges Offered by 2012 (Awaiting final presentation)

Session 2

* Session 2a: Targeting Your Strategic Planning for the Legacy
* Session 2b: Participant Development: Theory to Practice (Awaiting final presentation)
* Session 2d: The Challenges and Opportunities of Coaching within a Paralympic Sport Environment (Awaiting final presentation)
* Session 2e: Good Governance in Coaching (Awaiting final presentation)
* Session 2f: Improving Performance through a Diverse (Ethnic) Workforce (Awaiting final presentation)

Session 3

* Session 3a: Who is your Coach? Regulating the Coaching Workforce
* Session 3b: World Cup Rugby: Learning from Experience
* Session 3c: Innovative Delivery in Coach Education: Issues and Solutions
* Session 3d: UK Coaching Certificate: The Journey (Awaiting final presentation)
* Session 3e: Managing Change: Experiences of Judo Scotland
* Session 3f: Meeting the Coaching Needs of Women (Awaiting final presentation)
* Session 3g: Making Apprenticeships of Coach Education (Awaiting final presentation)

Session 4

* Session 4b: Tennis' Engagement with the Education Sector (Awaiting final presentation)
* Session 4c: Getting Results from Coaches in Schools
* Session 4d: The Role of the Higher Education Coaching Advisory Group
* Session 4e: Coaching Matters - Scotland
* Session 4f: Connecting the Dots: The Impact of Coordinated coach CPD on Education and the Coaching Network
* Keynote D: Transferable Skills: How the John Lewis 'Partners in Sport' Programme is Bringing Coaching Skills into the Workplace (Awaiting final presentation)

Day 2

* Keynote G: Team Jessica Ennis: 2020 Vision

Session 7

* Session 7a: Coaching Workforce Auditing and Development Planning: Policy to Practice
* Session 7b: Who is Your Coach? Regulating the Workforce
* Session 7c: How to Make the Most 2012 Games Through Volunteering: Creating Local Games-Inspired Volunteering Opportunities on Recruiting Coaches
* Session 7d: Coaching Workforce in Partnership (Awaiting final presentation)
* Session 7e: Raising the Profile and Recognition of Coaching: Past Experiences and the Way Forward (Awaiting final presentation)

Overall 2 long enjoyable and stimulating days with lots of food for thought with regards to coaching in the UK and the role of UCP Marjon in achieving the government/Sports Coach targets of delivering a lasting Olympic Legacy and becoming the leading coaching nation in the world!!

New members -- Abi gets published

2010-06-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

From April 1st 2010 we became the new Faculty of Sport, Media and Creative Arts, and acquired some new colleagues, including Abimbola Alao. Abi has just published a book: The Goshen Principle:A Shelter in the Time of Storm, Lampo Education

DETAILS
Thousands of years ago, a group of people sojourned in a place called ‘The Land of Goshen’, in Egypt, where they experienced divine protection from deadly plagues and deliverance from slavery. According to history, certain supernatural events occurred in Goshen that cast a metaphoric spotlight on the name. In this book, Abimbola Alao explores the symbolism of Goshen and she draws significant parallels about how to experience God’s deliverance in every situation.

REVIEWS
“Abimbola Alao is a gifted teacher and storyteller who uses her skills to paint a picture with words. She finds powerful metaphors and illustrations that draw parallels for the present day and point us towards trusting in Christ for all we need.” Rev Ian Coffey MTh. Author and Broadcaster, UK

“The Goshen Principle is rich, rewarding and utterly compelling. It confirms Abimbola Alao as one of the major prophetic voices coming forth from the ‘Church’ in England.”
Anatu Ben-Lawal. Country Director, SIFE Ghana

“This is a book of practical assurance of God’s help and protection even when we appear to be in the darkest place. A good uplifting read!”
Paul Thompson. Chaplain, UCP Marjon, UK

“Abi is an inspirational writer. Her voice is clear, distinctive and fires the imagination.”
Martin Freeman. The Herald, Plymouth UK

“I was captivated by this book and read it at a single sitting. Abimbola Alao combines ancient and modern in a story that is as rich and compelling today as the original Goshen drama was thousands of years ago. The Goshen Principle will give hope and reassurance to those who search for true meaning and purpose in our turbulent, fallen world.”
Professor David Baker, PhD. Former Principal, UCP Marjon, UK

“As a navy officer, I spend many days at sea. However, in spite of my training and experience, there are times when I am full of apprehension, especially when we hit a storm. The Goshen Principle is a powerful reassurance that I have a refuge in the time of storm.”
Theo Faleye. Marine Engineer, The Royal Navy

About the Author
Abimbola Gbemi Alao is a lecturer at the University College Plymouth, St. Mark & St. John (UCP Marjon), in the UK. Besides her academic commitment, she is also a professional storyteller and playwright. Her short play, ‘Legal Stuff’, recently won the BBC and Royal Court ‘24 Degrees’ Writing Competition. She published her first fiction book, ‘The Legendary Weaver’, in 2003 and later translated eight children’s books for dual language publisher, Mantra Lingua.

Abimbola is the founder of Adura Ministries, a prayer and resource organisation based in the UK. In addition to prayer and outreach events, the ministry offers training and coaching on a variety of topics which include, creative evangelism, the role of the market place apostle, and practical application of the Goshen principle. Abimbola also contributes regularly to her local newspaper and she is a conference speaker and trainer.

Research presentations

2010-06-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

Two presentations from Sports Science colleagues. Congratulations to all concerned!

Picknell, G., Thomas, R., & Cusack, A. (2010). Psychological stressors experienced by student sports coaches. Research presented at the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group Annual Conference, Sheffield, UK, 2010.

Picknell, G., Thomas, R., & Cusack, A. (2010). Stepping into the unknown: An investigation of psychological stressors experienced by student coaches. Research presented at the British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences Annual Conference, Glasgow, UK, 2010.

Innovative methods conference

2010-05-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ian Gilhespy, Dave Harris and three other Marjon colleagues attended the 2-day conference at UoPlymouth. Papers ranged from material on visual methods to debates about mixed methods and there were some useful plenaries, including one on commissioning research. Gilhespy produced a poster on the work with Harris on visual ethnography and the crtitique of realism, and Harris chaired a session on visual depictions of work (nice website here)

Dr Leather can see you now

2010-04-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Mark Leather on gaining his EdD from Exeter!

Title: An Explorartory Case Study of a 'Successful' Pupil Referral Unit (PRU).

Published as : To collection: Doctoral Theses

Your submission has been accepted and archived in ERIC, and it has been assigned the following identifier:
http://hdl.handle.net/10036/97436

Open Repository

2010-04-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Ian Gilhespy, Dave Harris and Adam Read have been working on a funded C-SAP project to produce blended learning materials to be deposited in JORUM (the open repository run by JISC -- alphabet soup anyone?). We designed two large modules, one on the sociology of leisure and one on introductory research methods. Both use presentations (PowerPoint and Prezi) and RLOs (Producer and Xerte). Both also have extensive face-to-face teaching focusing on discussing the issues and practising the techniques (in the case of research methods). You can find them online on JORUM:
sociology of leisure:
http://open.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui/browse?value=sociology_of_leisure&type=subject
research methods:
http://open.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui/search?rpp=10&etal=0&query=research_methods&page=1&order=DESC&sort_by=0.
Dave Harris

New Sports Therapy Publication

2010-02-25T06:23:00.000-08:00

Sarah Catlow has just got the page proofs for her chapter: 'Pathophysiology of skeletal injuries' in Comfort, P. and Abrahamson, E. (eds) ( 2010) Sports Rehabilitation and Injury Prevention, London: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Congratulations from all her colleagues

Jackie Arthur achieves mastery

2010-01-27T08:39:00.000-08:00

Jackie graduated on Sunday from Exeter University with a masters degree. Congratulations all round

Publication

2010-01-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Gill, Nicky and Erica on this publication, which has already attracted some interest and comment.

British Journal of Special Education Volume 36 Issue 4 (December 2009) Strengthening the special educational needs element of initial teacher training and education (p 183-190)
Gill Golder, Nicky Jones, Erica Eaton Quinn

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117989206/home

Cracking publication

2009-11-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Ian Gilhespy on this publication.

Gilhespy, I. (2009) Issues in the development of an inclusive curriculum: Listening to student voices in the evaluation of reusable learning objects in the subject areas of sport, leisure and outdoor adventure Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education Vol. 8, No. 2. ISSN: 1473-8376

www.heacademy.ac.uk/johlste

Gareth Long -- master coach

2009-11-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

Gareth Long has found time to complete successfully his MSc in Coaching. Congratulations from his colleagues.

Exeter gongs

2009-11-03T16:28:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Mike Tripp, who has completed his PhD ( on the history of Cornish wrestling) , and to Jackie Arthur who has completed her MEd, both at Exeter.

3b1 conference 9th &10th July

2009-07-12T05:20:00.000-07:00

This was a conference hosted by St Mary's University College,Twickenham and attended by ourselves (Aaron Beacom, Pauline Couper, Katherine Hamley, Julie Evans and myself) and colleagues from Glendywr University (formerly NEWI). The original idea was to organise a collaboration between three similar institutions to push on with research. The Principals/Vice Chancellors orginally met (well 2 of them anyway) at a Change Academy event and go some money from the Leadership Foundation to pursue the collaboration. The full title is the 'Three HEIs are better than One" project.

We met in the rather pleasant grounds of SMUC and had a series of discussions and some input from Prof West-Burnham on leadership. I was pleased to see that the 3 institutions were pretty much facing the same problems of dealing with the pressures towards developing research and gaining RDAP -- Glendwyr slightly ahead of us in the process and SMUC slightly behind. This was a largely preliminary discussion with some idea-swapping rather than a tight agenda, though.People attended from Education, various Sports related things and Creative Arts.

I have papers and notes for anyone who wants more details, and some contact emails. A fuller report will be available in the next issue of Research Matters.

Dave Harris

Masters of all they survey

2009-07-02T08:00:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Phil Brown and Ryan Thomas who have both just been awarded the degree of MSc Sport Management from the University of Northumbria.
Phil won the Falcon prize!

Dave Harris

New book

2009-06-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

The long-awaited book by Gareth Long and Harvey Grout has appeared:
Improving Teaching and Learning in Physical Education, with chapters written by 3 Marjon colleagues -- Ian Luke, Gill Golder and Stuart Taylor
Here are the details
ISBN: 0335234062 –
By: Harvey Grout, Gareth Long
Edition: 01 –
Pub Date: 01-JUL-09

‘This book is essential reading for all trainee and practising secondary school PE teachers’.

Details

http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335234062.html

Back Pain Clinic Success

2009-06-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

Dr Saul Bloxham has won £15,000 funding for a Back Pain Clinic

The low back pain physical activity programme is a 6-week group programme designed to educate / help patients with low back pain to exercise safely. It is delivered in conjunction with Mount Gould Hospital Plymouth and is part of a broader low back pain service ran by GPs, osteopaths and Behavioural Cognitive Therapists (we’re the exercise referral bit)

The project has run as a pilot for 2 years and following its effectiveness in getting people back to work & reduced patients' use of NHS services, has been funded to the tune of 15k to expand for 2009/10

Students assist in the delivery of the programme which enables us to create both a social group amongst the patients and the necessary individual ‘break out’ one-to-one sessions with the students. Next year we intend to run 6 cohorts which will total 90 patients.

2009-06-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

Erica Eaton-Quinn, Gareth Jones, Jamie Oxley and Dianer Smith all attended the Sports Law Conference this morning at the beautiful new office complex of Foot Anstey. The event was well worth attending, not least because of the glorious view of the harbour, bathed in sunshine, from the 6th floor of Salt Quay House in Sutton Harbour. After we enjoyed the view and our coffee, the conference was conducted apace and included topics such as:

The World Anti-Doping (WADA) Code (New 2009 code and its implications) Whereabouts and Therapeutic Use Exemptions (Myadams, sanctions) Securing and Managing Sponsorships (Protection of brand, name, intellectual property rights etc.) Dealing with on-field and off-field incidents (risk in sport, how to manage the risk) Child Protection Issues (awareness, responsibilities, guidelines of good practice) Tax and Tips for the Sporting Sector (Community Amateur Sports Clubs, Charitable Sports Clubs, Gift Aid)

I found all the presentations extremely interesting and informative and contained much detailed information which, I am sure, would be useful to some of your lectures. The Conference pack, containing all the slides and handouts is in my office if anyone would like to borrow it and have a read through some of the info.

Diane Smith

CUAC

2009-06-01T05:40:00.000-07:00

On 27th May, I attended a conference run by the Church Colleges and Universities Association in London. I gave a short presentation, based on a paper written by myself and Paul Grosch, on a famous episode in Marjon history, when the founding Principals (Derwent Coleridge of St Mark's and James Kay-Shuttleworth of St John's) campaigned against the notorious Revised Code of 1862.

That Code abolished general funding for schools and offered payment by results instead -- grants determined by basic exam results and attendance. The Code also effectively demolished the case for skilled and well-trained teachers of the kind produced by our Colleges -- semi-trained teachers could teach to the test and keep a register.

Our Principals mounted a stirring defence of their own admirably high-quality practice, quoting some useful statistics about the benefits of the unreformed syustem and doubting the efficacy of the new policy. They also talked about a much wider vision for education - not a mere commodity but about character, in Coleridges's terms.

Paul Grosch and I used this episode as a case-study of what happens when fundamentally religious visions bump into vulgar and reductionist calculationsd of crude cost and benefit. Any links with contemporary debates was intended.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conference. Although I would not describe myself as a Christian in the sense of having any personal faith commitments, I was impressed by the ways in which Anglican theology is able to mount a superb critique of modern capoitalism generally, and rationalised political practice specifically. I have some of the papers if anyone is keen.

There were some big hitters at the Conference: Revd Profs and Pro VCs were tripping over each other in the queue for coffee. None of them had the slightest hint of pomposity or elitism though!

Dave Harris

UK Coaching Summit

2009-05-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

Gareth Long and Jamie Oxley attended the 4th UK Coaching Summit in Glasgow April 28-29 attending a range of workshops addressing the current issues, models of good practice and research relating to 'The UK Coaching Framework'. The conference marked the completion of the 'building the foundations' stage of the UK Coaching Framework 3-7-11.

On day 2 the presentation of the Coaching Workforce 2009-2016 document to all the 500+ delegates saw the official launch of the next stage of 'flight 3-7-11' (Duffy 2009), Delivering the Goals.

The event proved very informative for both Gareth and myself with a considerable amount of information to digest and disseminate. It was also a great opportunity to network catching up with new and old faces with some excellent contacts made to support the development of coaching at UCP Marjon.

Jamie Oxley

Research Methods Conference 19,20 May

2009-05-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

This was a nice small and manageable conference hosted by Plymouth Uni. It offered some presentations and some roundtable discussions to a nice mixture of senior and junior avcademnics and postgrad students - -and one interloper (me). They were very welcoming to interlopers, and even invited me to their shared evening meal (but a very painful Achilles tendon meant I had to slope off home and take some painkillers).

I particularly enjoyed a presentation on Cornish studies by J Willett of Exeter University, which covered issues such as economic regeneration of Cornwall through tourism heritage, authenticity and the like ( although in slightly different terms). The ensuing roundtable discussion on objectivity led by G Letherby, J Scott and M Williams, talked of objectivity as a relative term and as a subjective accomplishment. The audience was engaged and insightful. Next day we had an excellent presentation on visual methods and their uses in research, which included examples in leisure and tourism.

Marjon students on the MA SPD could do well to attend future versions. University colleagues made clear they would be very welcome.

Book launch 17th May

2009-05-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

Off to sunny London to celebrate the launch of the new book by Baker D and Evans W on digital library economics, published by Chandos. The launch was held in the New Academic Building at the LSE (I went there -- nice to see the old place doing so well). More delicious anomie for me, but I had a useful time chatting to the contributors, who turned out to be a pretty high-powered bunch. I found myself swapping ideas for research (again) with Principals and Professors. This book is a major event beyond any doubt.

I also chatted up the publishers' reps, as always, to find out what was selling well and if there were any gaps in the market.

We also talked about e-book readers and which one was likely to win the battle of the formats. I like the elegant Sony, but smart money seemed to be on the Kindle as soon as Amazon get their UK act together and find someone to host their online ordering system (a kind of i-tunes for books). The Chandos people also said publishers are changing to suit e-reading - publishing individual chapters, for example, so you could search for all the relevant stuff on, say, digital libraries in the EU and download six or seven chapters from different books. Can't wait! I also said I fancied reading fiction that way too -- a chapter of Jane Austen then a chapter of Moby Dick, maybe mixed with a chapter from Capital Vol 1 -- but they looked at me as if I were strange

QAA conference, 12th May

2009-05-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

As part of my onerous duties, I had to attend a conference run by The Quality in London. I am not a quality person, and I felt deliciously anomic, but I picked up some tips about the key documents used by QAA to guide their institutional audits. They include an interesting FHEQ (everything is acronyms in Quality Land) -- a Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, which defines what counts as a PhD as opposed to a Masters degree etc. We also had some practical tips for getting through an institutional audit.
Every bit as useful was the chat I had with colleagues from big active unis on how they had managed to get research going and growing. Huddersfield especially seemed very successful.
I also got some advice on things like which open repository software to consider (a database that we could use to publish our research outputs). The main choice seems to be something called EPrints,although there is also some kit called IntraLibrary. I use the OU's one quite a lot and the sooner we get one the better.

BSA Annual Conference, Cardiff

2009-05-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

Sociology conferences used to be lively counter-cultural affairs in the 1970s, when I first went to one. A well-known American professor of sociology used to have parties in his (student) accommodation every night. In the interests of positive discrimination, he would often make sure that young and attractive girls were over-represented. One evening, moans, groans and appeals to the Almighty were heard in the early hours, and his neighbours simply assumed that the party had escalated to a new level. In fact, the professor had fallen in his shower and broken a leg. He was found next morning and treated before dying of exposure.

The 2009 conference was a much more sedate affair, held in the Victorian splendour of Cardiff City Hall. Victorian splendour used to just look rather comically self important, but this year there was an unfortunate undertone of unearned wealth and bankers' bonuses. Attendance was rather thin. Although the conference had a main theme – globalization – other streams were well populated. My own paper (Work and Leisure in Higher Education) was given on the first day, and attracted a small but enthusiastic audience, and that left me free to enjoy the rest of the event. My co-presenters in the same session reported findings from their own project on the impact of university expansion on city regeneration. There seem to be interesting contradictory effects: on the one hand, university expansion brings jobs to city regions; on the other student ghettos arise and this introduces unwelcome fluctuations in property values and community life.

For many, the highlights were the sub-plenaries. I chose the ones which focused on my specific interests. Alan Warde led the session on his interests in consumerism and the sociology of culture, and reported some of the findings from the long running ESRC project which sets out to apply the work of Bourdieu to modern Britain. This project has finally produced a substantial book as well, available only in hardback so far. Several other contributory elements have led to publications in the journal Cultural Sociology (e.g. Warde et al 2007) . Brown and Lauder reported their findings of their long running ESRC project on the notion of the ‘knowledge economy’ in another sub-plenary. This project has also been reported in several publications already (including an online ESRC Report) , and offers a sceptical discussion on current government policy to use the education system to generate highly skilled graduates who will compete in the global economy (Brown & Lauder 2006). Both of these substantial projects seem to me to reflect the classic concerns of sociology such as social stratification, and its effects on education, jobs, and culture.

Among the other sessions that I attended was a very interesting discussion on the problems of teaching research methods. I found myself in a group of people who teach to a wide range of undergraduate and graduate audiences, by no means all of them sociologists. Those who still teach in elite universities to single honours sociology students were actually rather surprised to find that the rest of us were encountering serious difficulties and that methods courses were deeply unpopular. When we eventually got on to the sorts of solutions that would meet our concerns, a number of interesting possibilities arose. There seemed to be general consensus that methods courses should be practical and hands on. There was also widespread interest in online resources as a solution to one of the major problems of research methods courses – covering a wide enough syllabus without boring student specialists. I passed on a link to my own online research methods database on the Conference Forum.

Finally, I attended a session on methodological innovations, focusing especially on the notion of social networks and how to research them. I became interested in this topic having reviewed some work on visual methods, and having come across various methodological ‘turns’ in the process, especially the ‘narrative turn’, and the ‘performative turn’. People presenting in this session used techniques such as ‘walking fieldwork’ for example, where a researcher learns about the subjective dimensions of networking and place by walking round the area with a resident, and listening to accounts triggered off by visiting particular places.

Other than the sessions attended, I spent the usual time networking, chatting up publishers, asking them what their best sellers were in particular fields, and where they thought the new trends in the market would go. I also met one of two of the Great and Good, had a chat, and picked up a few bits of intelligence about research and publication.

It is a sign of having had a good conference that one returns determined to follow up some of the issues. Since leaving Cardiff, and processing my notes, I have traced the course of the two major ESRC projects I mention and acquainted myself thoroughly with both of them. Both are very important. I have swapped notes and emails with several other colleagues about teaching methods, and I have been thinking about using walking fieldwork in a small project of my own in the local area. That small project will be a contribution to a local community regeneration effort – an unusually ‘practical’ outcome for me!

I hope the presentations will be available on the conference website in due course.

Dave Harris

References

Brown, P. & Lauder, H. (2006) 'Globalisation, knowledge and the myth of the magnet economy', in Globalisation, Societies and Education 4(1): 25-57

Warde, A., Wright, D., & Gayo-Cal, M. (2007). Understanding Cultural Omnivorousness: Or, the Myth of the Cultural Omnivore. Cultural Sociology 1(2): 143—64.

Research funds

2009-04-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

On completion of their work on RLOs, and the issue of multimedia as opposed to single media versions, Ian Gilhespy and Dave Harris have received the balance of their award from HLST.

RAE funds

2009-04-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Overall, the College received about £40k, with Sport-related receiving just over £5k. Whether this funding will survive the predicted massive Government cuts in spending remains to be seen.

New publication

2009-04-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

Harvey Grout, formerly of Southampton University, and Gareth Long of Marjon, already successful producers of Sport and IQ magazine for PE teachers, are about to release their new book: Improving Teaching and Learning in Physical Education, Open University Press, McGraw-Hill.
The book is an edited volume and contains chapters written by colleagues at Marjon: Gill Golder, Ian Luke and Stuart Taylor.
Congratulations to all concerned!

BSA conference

2009-04-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

Dave Harris attended the BSA Annual Conference in Cardiff April 16--18 and gave a paper 'Work and Leisure in Higher Education'. He got some useful feedback and a couple of suggestions for additional reading. He attended other people's papers as well, including an excellent one on the knowledge economy and some sessions on teaching research methods. A bit of networking meant he has a couple of people keen to give papers at Marjon as well.
Classic conference outcomes, in other words

E-learning and think tanks

2009-02-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

HLST Think-Tank: In January, Ian Gilhespy was invited to become part of a think tank concerning the uses and applications of e-learning in higher education for programmes relating to sport, leisure and hospitality. The invitation was made due to his interest and his production of reusable learning objects. It may be possible that a significant bid to the Joint Information Services Committee will be made as a result of this think tank (watch this space). Blogging, twittering, learning in virtual environments and 'wiki-ing' were all discussed (not sure there is a verb for wikis yet though).

RAE results and feedback

2009-01-31T12:13:00.000-08:00

We did fairly well considering it was our first attempt at the RAE Sport-Related and we had to fit in with the whole College and its policy and research strategy. 3 people entered their work, and we got a mixture of 2* and 1*, with some unclassified. You can see the RAE reports here.
The new system requires additional efforts to get cited etc -- so we will cite you if you cite us

Fit for Business Accreditation

2009-01-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

After a year of being registered with Creating Excellence’s Fit for Business scheme UCP Marjon has become the first educational establishment to attain recognition.

UCP Marjon appointed five Workplace Champions who received training from Creating Excellence on how to create a healthy and active work environment. Working closely with colleagues from a number of key departments the Workplace Champions organised interventions in seven key areas: Pulling the facts together; Maintaining the momentum; Getting active; Healthy eating; Mental health and wellbeing; Smoke free workplace and Drug and alcohol awareness. Interventions included lunchtime yoga and table tennis; promoting healthy eating (including training for catering staff) and hydration; offering workshops in time and stress management; visits for the NHS Quit Smoking Team and a Drugs and Alcohol Awareness Workshop. With the help of the School of Sport, PE and Leisure the Fit for Business initiative was also able to offer two free Health Check sessions for UCP Marjon staff which proved incredibly popular. Staff received guidance on blood pressure, body composition, posture and sport injury prevention/treatment.

To continue to be accredited UCP Marjon will complete another points based portfolio in the next 12 months. Phillipa Elford from UCP Marjon said

“The Workplace Champions are delighted at the support and enthusiasm they have received from staff at UCP Marjon. At present the Workplace Champions are formulating a plan for the coming year. It is hoped that this will include regular weight management and smoking cessation sessions.”

Belated congratulations

2009-01-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Gareth Jones has gained a PhD in Leadership. The full title is THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LEADERSHIP STYLES COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK (LSCF) ASSOCIATED WITH EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE ROLE OF THE REGIONAL RUGBY DEVELOPMENT MANAGER. Gareth gained his award from North West University (Potchefstroom Campus) Potchefstroom South Africa

The catalyst for the study came from his experiences organizing and delivering 'Leadership Training' for the Rugby Football Union.

Guest Lecture Sport Psychology

2009-01-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

Thursday 20th November 2008-11-20

Brendan Cropley, an applied sport psychologist, and lecturer at Swansea University, was invited to deliver a guest lecture to our ASC applied sport psychology third year group on professional development, with specific interest in reflective practice. The lecture contributed significantly to the module, with specific input to the case study assignment where the students meet with an elite athlete to discuss the use, knowledge, and application of sport psychology, along with strengths are areas to improve related to their own performance.

Brendan’s lecture was highly informative and provided useful information for the students to absorb and hopefully utilise within their own professional development. Key concepts discussed were professional development in applied sport psychology, evaluation of applied sport psychology practice, and the main concept which was reflective practice.

Student Adam Griffiths said “I felt the lecture was definitely beneficial to second aspect of assignment. Brendan was interactive with the group which was good, and he kept my attention for two hours which is usually a difficult task. Reflective practice was not something I had considered previously but will do from now on, I really enjoyed it”

Gareth and I would personally like to thanks Brendan for his time, enthusiasm, and professional presentation and hopes he will return to us to present again in the future.

Melissa Coyle

New Publication

2009-01-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

Louise Ansell has just published an article jointly with an external colleague --

Leach, J., Ansell, L. (2008). Impairment in attentional processing in a field survival environment. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22(5), 643-652.

There is a link to the online version here

The article has also been discussed on the British Psychological Society Research Digest Blog Spot here

New publication

2008-07-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

Gill Golder has published a new article:
Tearle P and Golder G. (2008) The use of ICT in the teaching and learning of Physical Education in compulsory education: how do we prepare the workforce of the future? European Journal of Teacher Education Vol 31(1): 55-72

Research Day 2008

2008-07-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

Experiencing hard times with the Royal Air Force (RAF)-

An investigation of cognitive functioning during a survival situation

Louise Ansell

By its very nature, a survival situation (either real or perceived) will comprise physiological and psychological pressures. Survival requires the ability to cope under conditions of environmental duress which, in turn, requires a capacity to interact flexibly with that environment in a goal directed manner. This interaction is dependent upon the ability to control attention. (Feldman Barrett et al., 2004). However, disaster inquiries and anecdotal accounts suggest that perceiving psychological or physical harm can cause cognitive impairment and maladaptive behaviour. This can limit an individual’s ability to take appropriate actions (Mileti & Peek, 2000), and may even result in cognitive paralysis in the face of danger (Leach, 2005).

An investigation was undertaken testing the attentional processing of 14, RAF aircrew who were participating in a two week survival training exercise. Compared to a baseline condition and control group those undergoing environmental duress showed significant impairment in controlled attention. These findings would suggest that this type of cognitive impairment makes flexible interaction with the survival environment difficult, and the victims behaviour becomes dominated by environmental cues at the expense of goal directed survival behaviour.

This short presentation provides an overview of this piece of research and explores the potential relevance within Outdoor Adventure.

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Beyond Measured Time: Teaching alternative discourses on sport and physical education

Jackie Arthur and Aaron Beacom

The teaching of sport and physical education rests on a set of pre-conceptions concerning what constitutes acceptable forms of physical culture, as well as how particular types of physical activity relate to the trajectory of modern sport. While there is an acknowledgement of the value of participation in ‘basic’ forms of physical activity, these are legitimised through their relationship to the health, educational or wider sport development agendas. At the same time the individual’s journey through sport is often viewed in terms of a linear path from rudimentary movement toward enhanced efficiency of effort. From the perspective of the development of swimming, this presentation re-assesses dominant discourse relating to sport and physical education and suggests an alternative discourse that rests partly on development theory, partly on learning theory. The presentation reflects work in progress, with the ultimate objective of developing into a cross-disciplinary investigation.

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Physical Activity Programming as a Treatment for Patients with Low Back Pain

Saul Bloxham & Phil Barter

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common (17.3 million sufferers in the UK) and costly (£1 billion each year) conditions in industrialized countries (Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance [ARMA], 2004). Exercise therapy has been used to treat LBP, although there is limited research into the effectiveness of such interventions. The aim of this study was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a physical activity programme in the treatment and education of a group of back LBP patients. Six patients (aged 50.7 ±17 years) completed a 6 week physical activity programme lasting 2 hours per week. Each session provided the patients with a different practical and educational focus including aerobic fitness, core stability, ergonomics and muscular strength and endurance. In addition, patients were required to use diary sheets to record exercises completed at home. Results showed significant (p < r =" 0.93)" r =" 1.0).">

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Exactly how hot are some of the male SSPEL staff?

Caroline Brokenshire

Last year I stated that during thermoregulatory research, core and peripheral temperatures are monitored to assess thermoregulatory strain. To date published paediatric thermoregulatory work has calculated mean skin temperature (T_sk) from adult weighted, unweighted or variable formula equations.

It is well documented that children have a higher surface area to body mass ratio than adults. The alterations in surface area through maturation may impact upon the validity of adult based T_sk equations to the paediatric population. Furthermore, during the adolescent growth spurt it is acknowledged that children experience accelerated growth in different regions that may impact upon peripheral temperatures and the surface area used for weighted equations.

Infrared thermography is a technique which allows detection of the entire body surface area. Through combined monitoring of a thermal imaging camera and skin thermistors; the validity of adult based equations can be assessed.

This presentation compares thermal images from young adult male SSPEL members to a cohort of trained 14-16y old boys.

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Exploring the role of volunteers at the Plymouth Race for Life

Phil Brown

Volunteers are often described as the backbone of British Sport. This presentation will explore the role of volunteers within the delivery of Cancer Research UK’s Plymouth Race for Life.

This evaluation was undertaken for a Sports Event Management module assessment, which forms part of my Sport Management MSc.

The ‘research’ aims to explore the recruitment, deployment and recognition of volunteers at the event. Primary research was undertaken using semi-structured interviews with Cancer Research UK’s Event Organiser, the volunteer Race Co-ordinator and volunteer Race Marshalls on the day of the race.

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Research, teaching, fieldwork, higher education and the origins of Marjon: historical and Geographical connections

Pauline Couper

As lecturers, we face multiple demands: not just to teach, but to develop our understanding of pedagogy, and to undertake scholarly and research activity in our subject, not to mention widening participation, developing employability, providing pastoral support… It’s easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of the big question about what ‘higher education’ is – or should be – all about.

On-going discussions among a small, multi-disciplinary group of staff have led me to reflect on my own assumptions about higher education, and to begin to develop a better appreciation of the historical roots of the ideas that have influenced them. This presentation traces some of the connections.

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The applied practice of sport psychology

Melissa Coyle

The main focus to become an accredited sport psychologist with the British association of sport and exercise science (BASES) is to work in the field setting as a psychology consultant within a number of different sports. However it can be a very demanding environment to break into and expectations from athletes, managers and coaches to succeed are high. The difficulty with sport psychology as an applied discipline, and where expectations from managers and coaches can be hard to meet, is that definitive results can be difficult to measure and are strongly linked to athletes perceptions, unlike other disciplines such as nutrition and physiology where results are physically visible and can be presented in a more concrete manor.

This research presentation will reflect on personal experiences of working as a consultant mainly within professional football clubs. Key factors that will be considered are gaining entry to the field, first impressions, working as part of a team, barriers faced, characteristics of an effective practitioner, -and an honest insight to what is truly involved.

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The Optimisation of Triple Jump Performance

Lance Doggart

Resistance training methods have been adopted by athletes from a diverse range of sports to enhance performance. A number of training options are available from traditional weight training methods to dynamic plyometrics, where the acceleration and deceleration of body weight serves as the overload for training (Siff, 1994; Chu, 1984). Chu (1994) defined plyometric training as:

“any exercise that uses the natural elastic recoil elements of human muscle and the neurological stretch, or myotatic, reflex that are inherent in all muscle to produce a stronger, faster muscle response “ (p4)

Sport specific training exercise can be selected to provide resistance to relevant movements through the appropriate range of motion. The desired movement should not only occur in an exercise, but the movement must be resisted. If a sport involves rapid application of force eg. triple jumping, then ‘explosive’ exercises should be incorporated into the training programme (Fowler et al. 1994; 1995). Coaches have tended to use generalised plyometric training progammes however a more structured, systematic and sport specific approach may be beneficial.

The aims of this research were twofold:-

1. To identify triple jump specific plyometric exercises which enhance triple jump performance.

2. To develop a triple jump specific plyometric training programme.

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Issues in the development of an inclusive curriculum: Listening to student voices in the evaluation of reusable learning objects (in the subject areas of sport, leisure and outdoor adventure)

Ian Gilhespy

The paper reports the outcomes of a study designed to examine the educational effectiveness of reusable learning objects for students with particular needs (with specific reference for disabled students on programmes related to sport, leisure and outdoor adventure). Reusable learning objects (RLOs) are briefly defined. This is followed by an outline discussion of the potential of RLOs in the creation of an inclusive curriculum. The study pays particular attention to the voices of students in expressing the constraints of their own educational experiences and relating the uses of RLOs in managing these constraints. The findings of the study suggest that RLOs provide a rich source of learning material but that this may be a function of the students established coping strategies including ‘lone working’, and anxiety management.

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Happy Healthy Playtimes: Pedometer Intervention Project.

Erica Eaton Quinn

There is overwhelming concern for the future health of our nation the seriousness of which has been acknowledged at government level. Epidemiological and physiological research clearly links health in adults to levels of physical activity among other factors. Whilst the link is more tenuous in children, tracking studies suggest that an active child is more likely to become an active adult who will then reap the benefits of enhanced health and certainly reduced risk of death as a result of degenerative diseases.

Physical activity guidelines put forward by the Health Education Authority (HEA) (1998) suggest that children should engage in 30 to 60 minutes of moderate physical activity daily. Studies of children’s physical activity patterns generally suggest that many children are not reaching these recommendations, hence initiatives at city, county and national levels have been implemented through school and community settings to address this. Not all children have access to initiatives set up through the community, however as children spend a high proportion of the day at school this offers one of the most effective and influential settings through which to address such issues.

This study investigates the effect of extrinsic motivation to encourage children to take part in physical activity during playtimes. The extrinsic motivation in this case is provided by pedometers. Pedometers are now affordable and indeed a number have been made freely available to the public, for example through cereal companies as free gifts. Despite research suggesting these free devices to be inaccurate measures of physical activity they could still act as a motivational tool to encourage primary aged children to choose to be physically active in their free time in this case playtime. Note that all measurement of physical activity during the research project will be carried out through the use of downloadable hearty rate monitors worn by the children during playtimes.

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Part timer PhD – the story so far!

Gill Golder

I am working on a research study for my PhD into the relationships between inclusive education (specifically special educational needs), collaborative practice and school organisation. To date I have gathered information from 25 different schools in 5 different Local Authorities. Questionnaires were dispatched to schools to gain whole school staff opinion about inclusive policy and practice. The initial data gathered by questionnaire highlighted some common themes under the four sub headings of inclusion, school structure, collaboration and school ethos. The findings for the first phase of data collection are to be used to explore in detail three case study schools / colleges where inclusive practice was evident but structure, ethos and collaboration were different. The ethnographic research has already changed focus in light if the initial data collection and I am sure will do so again as the case studies unfold.

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Music and Learning

Dave Harris

There are two quite different traditions which analyse the possible effects of music on mood. In Leisure Studies, there is a large body of work ranging from formal analysis of musical styles and their social meanings to material on popular music and youth culture. I have discovered another tradition recently in Sports Science which uses music in various RCTs and lab experiments to focus on outputs like sporting performance. Both traditions are formidably technical, and I am only scratching the surface at the moment.

My interest is in comparing the work and thinking of possible implications for my own practical interest in using music on RLOs to motivate or involve people undertaking learning tasks. Here there is much anecdotal material on music as helpful.

Contributions from colleagues would be especially welcome.

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The development of a Leadership Styles Competency Framework (LSCF) associated with effective leadership in the role of Regional Rugby Development Manager

Gareth Jones

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of leadership styles competency frameworks on the leadership effectiveness of Regional Rugby Development Managers (RRDMs) at the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

An analysis of literature resources was undertaken by employing the use of electronic media, library searches and a search of leadership and management related journals. A range of senior leaders across a raft of businesses, sporting and other organizations were contacted via electronic media for input and assistance on the research topics.

Leadership training was undertaken with key RFU personnel on a number of occasions, and a total of 78 delegates were engaged in exclusive testing in relation to leadership effectiveness in terms of 360 degree feedback processes (such as a leadership styles inventory). This multi-rater survey provided the RRDMs with a profile of their leadership styles in six dimensions. Each RRDM was also engaged in testing which sought to measure a group of personal competencies selected as most likely to make a performance difference in their role. Results were statistically processed, recorded and compared with earlier literature studies.

A Leadership Styles Competency Framework (LSCF) was proposed with the philosophy that the ‘best’ organizations now have competency models at different levels to help leaders clarify expectations of performance and describe the skills necessary for effective leadership.

Recommendations were made, shortcomings of the study identified and suggestions for further study were proposed.

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The Journey so far…

Keith Jones

Like all colleagues, I have been engaged in Research and scholarly activity, with varying intensity throughout the academic year.

As the College moved into a new era, I was acutely aware that some Institutions of Higher Education “measure” R and S activity by outcomes. Thus, I made the decision to embark upon a structured programme of study in the form of an Ed.D.

I chose to study for an Ed.D as opposed to a Ph.d for the following three reasons:

The first reason is that the Ed.D allows participants to reflect upon their own practice and thus improve their own performance. This form of reflective approach encourages me to integrate “study” and “work” and to manage both, appropriately. For me this is an important aspect when trying to balance part-time study and family/work commitments. Secondly, the content of the Ed.D is relevant to past work history and my present professional role. I worked as an M.Ed. tutor for a number of years. The focus upon research, practice and key contemporary issues, allows me to engage at an appropriate level and secondly, it moves me from my comfort zone and challenges and enlightens my educational perspective. Finally, my job is a busy one! I feel that the “taught” element, the framework and the residential elements provide me with a structured programme which I can manage around my job.

Colleagues will recognise the problems we all have in getting the balance right between research demands, home life and ‘the real job’. I will update you on my journey this far!

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Identifying Trends in Physical Education ITTE Recruitment and Selection

Nicky Jones

Recruitment to ITTE programmes in Physical Education has always enjoyed a buoyant market. For several years now the national target numbers have been significantly reduced for these programmes. Within SSPEL, a database has been set up to collate information received from the Physical Education ITTE application forms in order to provide the school and the institution with a range of information regarding the recruitment and selection process. The availability of this specific information allows for comparison with available national data (TDA ITT benchmarking profiles) and provides the opportunity to identify current trends at the application stage of the recruitment process. Current national priorities within the ITTE sector are the recruitment of BME trainees and trainee retention rates.

Scrutiny of the database information should provide opportunity to review of the current recruitment and selection process plus the opportunity for exploration of potential target groups.

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The production of a DVD video resource and its potential in enhancing sports performance.

Kelvin Kirk

This Action Research project started 12 months ago with the aim of developing a teaching/coaching resource, in the form of an instructional digital video disc (DVD), which would assist in taking the volleyball player from participation to a performance level (Cross and Lyle, 1999; Crisfield et al, 1996) in a more efficient manner. Since then the video has been piloted with a group of experienced volleyball players, after which this sample group was invited to share their views regarding the video and any proposed enhancements. They proposed a few minor additions to enhance it, but unanimously supported and encouraged its production.

It is not proposed that this video resource be a replacement for current practice but as a tool used to enhance and improve existing teaching methods. It would be designed as a modelling tool focussing on the learner with more visual preferences. This supports the view of Magill (2001) who believes that when video is used as augmented feedback observational learning is enhanced through modelling. From the results of the first stages of this action research project, it is clear that the feedback from the experienced players used in the pilot study reinforces this view of Magill (2001) and, with a few technical enhancements, believe this could be a useful teaching resource. It was therefore recommended that the phases undertaken thus far be expanded upon to take this action research project through its next logical stages and the curriculum resource be produced and then tested on an actual beginner student group.

Having now successfully piloted and written up this first action research cycle the next one, which should result in the production of the actual resource, has just begun.

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Innovative methods of feedback – changing behaviours.

Stuart Taylor

The coaching / teaching of sports, or any other performance element is largely credited to be a complex process (Saury & Durand, 1998 & Cassigy, Jones, & Potrac, 2004). The Coach(es) and teacher(s) must develop skills and strategies that create intervention and success within the performances of his / her charges. Embracing, analysing, deconstructing and constructing all these performance attributes is the coaches / teachers largest challenge, however it may be seen that ultimately the final piece of the jigsaw, that of the coaches / teachers feedback, is the most vital in the overall process.

Within the last 20 years developments in a range of technologies have permeated through society as a whole and many forward thinking practitioners realise that what is now on offer can be of benefit to both themselves and athlete / student / trainee to allow for a more detailed and objective experience.

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A Special Coach-Athlete Dyad? A Case Study of a Coach and their Captain

Gareth Long

The objective of the present study was to examine the coach-captain relationship of an elite basketball dyad. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with both members of the dyad, and an analysis of the interview transcripts, informed by the 3C’s + 1C model carried out. Results from the study indicate that an effective and successful coach-captain relationship are characterised by a close professional relationship (closeness) in which shared goals (commitment) and role clarity (complementarity) are salient. Analysis of the coach’s and captain’s direct and meta perceptions, in relation to the captain’s injury, suggest that despite empathetic understanding existing, contextual influences may affect satisfaction in aspects of the relationship. Duration of the relationship and the context of elite-level team sport are seen to shape the coach-captain relationship. The study adds to the literature by expanding the population studied in the existing coach-athlete domain, and provides understanding of a case study from which future studies may generalise from.

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Recall agreement between actual and retrospective reports of competitive anxiety: A comparison of intensity and frequency dimensions.

Gareth Picknell

This study aimed to compare athlete’s abilities to recall the intensity and frequency of anxiety symptoms experienced in previous competition. A mixed-method design was employed where athletes (n = 35) from a range of sports completed the CSAI-2 at four pre-competition and four post-competition intervals to compare actual and recalled responses. Subsequently, interviews (n = 6) were conducted with a random sample of the original participants to explicate the quantitative results. Quantitative data were analysed using limits of agreement, indicating that memory for frequency was generally more reliable, and recall ability of this dimension was less biased for symptoms that occurred earlier in the week. Analysis of the follow-up interviews signified that athletes were more attuned to the frequency of their competitive anxiety symptoms. These findings provide support for the notion that the frequency of symptoms may act as a precursor for increasing intensity. Implications of this study relate to practitioners responsibility for managing the amount of time anxiety symptoms are experienced in order to suppress the negative impact of perceived symptom intensity on performance.

Key words: Anxiety, Memory, Intensity, Frequency, Mixed Method

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Coaching Orienteering to Large Groups

Su Porter

(not presenting)

Orienteering is a complex sport of fine navigation techniques andrapid decision making fr route choice at speed in a competitive situation. When orienteering it is not possible to trail every competitor to observe their actions as they run the course. It is possible to undertake this with small groups but there comes a point when an orienteer must run alone and make their own decisions as they navigate around the course.

The aim of this study is to undertake small group coaching opportunities when students undertake an orienteering course. This will be followed by students taking it in turns to wear head cams to observe and records their progress. The headcams will need to not only film but also record voice as the students talk aloud their thought processes as they progress over the course. The aim is then to use this footage as an analysis tool to play back the experience and address coaching points through the scenario. The aim is that all students at some point are able to analyse their own and others performance using this technique. An outcome of this study may also demonstrate where novice orienteers focus their effort when undertaking a course through to more experienced orienteers focus on the same course.

This is a fledgling idea that I hope to progress and put into practice possibly in 2008/9 term one with B.Ed students but certainly in Semester 2 with BA students.

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PhD study on: Patients’ and doctors’ attitudes towards health and fitness during the course of an exercise referral scheme’.

Martyn Queen

The aims of the study are to investigate:

· the effects of exercise prescription.

· the different ways that participants experience the exercise referral scheme.

· the adherence to and sustainability of physical activity behaviour.

Outline of theoretical context:

The frameworks that inform this research project are located within the schools of thought relating to realism (structure) and idealism (agency). These perspectives were adopted to allow the researcher to gain insights in to how societal structures can impact on a persons health, as well as how the peoples behaviours within these structures can affect their health.

Methodology:

Multiple case study approach was used.

Semi-structured interviews used to collect the data.

Three sets of interviews:

First January 2008 18 interviews (12 patients, 6 doctors)

Second set July 2008 (12 patients, 6 doctors)

Third set January 2009 (12 patients)

Results: initial analysis

Still bowling along

Ian Roberts

Action research can be a never ending business and its focus changes with the results of the research and its impact on the external environment. Over the past year the work has achieved several successes as well as problems. In this presentation I will be looking at the practical considerations of action research with the bowling community in Plymouth and the Catholic Schools Sector and extended services. These include:-

· Funding achievements

· Partnership development and maintenance

· Public consultation and public relations

· Developing Best practice in Sports Development

· The role of the researcher, empowerment of the participant

· Contribution of research to teaching practice

· Is action research acceptable research?

· Management issues`

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Sport Science Support Programme for Junior Athletes

Chris Smietanka

Throughout the academic year the sport science support team has undertaken a Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) support programme to junior athletes. The aim of this programme was to educate and empower the young athletes to engage in safe and effective training practices. These children were identified as Gifted and Talented by their schools within the city of Plymouth and currently participate in a variety of different sports. This programme was designed to support junior athletes to effectively develop and maximise their potential within the Training to Train stage of the LTAD model (Balyi and Way, 2002). The young athletes that were chosen for the programme were both male and female aged 12 – 15 years. The programme consisted of nine x 1 ½ hour monthly sessions. Baseline anthropometric and physiological measurements were taken in the first and last sessions. Thereafter, the junior athletes would participate in different activities that underpin the principles of sport science e.g. training speed and agility, developing explosive power and sport psychological profiling.

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Just Another 1000 words!

Mark Leather

This presentation will look at a work in progress which is ‘An illuminative evaluation of a Pupil Referral Unit in South West England’

I am undertaking an EdD, and having successfully completed part 1, the so called ‘taught’ aspect of the course (ha ha ha) I am currently undertaking the final thesis.

The presentation will outline the thesis, title, aims and research methods and provide some personal reflections upon the process.

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An investigation into the marketability of elite female football in England

Ryan Thomas

In 1995, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) secretary Sepp Blatter declared that ‘the future is feminine’ (cited in Williams, 2004). ‘However, the notion that the future is feminine does in an English context appear a little quixotic’ (Harris, 2005: 185).

Arguably, football is a highly visible aspect of popular culture in Britain, and its views are widely debated by fans and professionals alike (Williams, 2004). In fact Williams (2004) suggested that most British people could name a male football star – whether they consider themselves to be enthusiasts of the sport or not, but in contrast, many self-confessed football fans would struggle to identify a single female player. This despite participation figures significantly increasing from approximately 11,000 affiliated players across the country in 1993, to 132,800 in 2004-05 (Football Association, 2007; Thomas, 2008).

With growing numbers of females now playing the game, media representations of sport continuing to be particularly powerful in naturalising and normalizing hegemonic meanings about the body and social relations, and many associated images of sporting bodies heavily gendered for audiences; (Wright and Clarke, 1999; Stevenson, 2002) how can women’s and girls' football be marketed and promoted in order to generate sufficient finance to develop further?

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Using census returns in sports history research

Mike Tripp

In a recent text that analyses postmodern approaches to sport history, Hill suggests that ‘[p]ress reports have become a staple – perhaps the staple – source in the task of reconstructing the history of sport and games’ (Hill, 2006: 118). However he also notes that some commentators have observed there is ‘…an inclination on the part of sport historians to use the press to the exclusion of other sources, and therefore at the detriment of the history they produce.’(Hill, 2006: 118) He therefore reminds colleagues there is ample material contained in archival deposits, which should also be exploited, especially official documents. One source of evidence, which has been used successfully by only a handful of sport historians, is census returns. The intention in this presentation is to explore the use of census returns in sport history research, with examples taken from Cornish wrestling during the nineteenth century, which will show the wealth of information that can be uncovered.

Hill, J. Anecdotal Evidence: sport, the newspaper press, and history, in Phillips, M.G. (ed.) (2006) Deconstructing Sport History: a postmodern analysis. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp.117-129

International Distance Education Handbook

2008-05-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

This huge collection of material from all over the world has finally made it to publication in the form of a superb hardback from Emerald Publishing. Its appearance is a testament to the organizational skill and endurance of the three editors -- Terry Evans and David Murphy from Australia and Margaret Haughey from Canada -- who have overcome no end of problems to get it done, including negotiating a new publisher halfway through. Collaborative work is hard at the best of times, as we know, but on this scale it must have been a nightmare, especially in trying to get some sort of uniformity of a basic kind.

I had the great honour of doing the critical end chapter for a section, entitled ' Distance Education: In Whose Interests?', and, best of all, had my 1987 book on the Open University cited as one of the taproots of the critical tradition on DE in the opening Introduction by the editors.

No money -- but nice to be recognized!

Dave Harris

Website of the month

2008-02-25T17:09:00.000-08:00

Dave Harris and Colleagues has been nominated as website of the month on the Higher Education Academy's LTSN for Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism ( see link here).

The large number of RLOs constructed by Ian Gilhespy and Dave Harris seems to have been what secured the nomination. The LTSN has also set up a link to our website from their own RLO Collection.

Dave Harris

Bowling for all

2008-02-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

Ian Roberts was able to lend his business expertise to Plymouth bowlers, helping them to write a very successful business plan in a very short time. The Plymouth Bowling Group contacted Mandi Barnett,who does business liasion at the College and she contacted Ian. Ian found himself presenting the plan about 4 weeks later.

The sport is very popular and plays a major part in providing sporting opportunities to a range of people. Recently, facilities have been lost. Ian's efforts led to Plymouth City Council agreeing to provide superb new facilities for bowlers to the value of £3.1 million, which promises to revitalise the sport locally.

The whole exercise shows the importance of 'knowledge transfer' activities, an important area of applied research for the College. The goodwill alone must have been priceless!

Panathlon

2007-12-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

The panathlon was held here in college on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday this week.

We had 1700+ pupils from 21 secondary schools ( including Special Schools ) in the City involved -- the biggest event of its kind in the country. We had 12 SPD students from years 2 and 3 responsible for organizing, hosting and running the event each day, along with a large number of other students from other SSPEL courses involved in officiating individual competitions. We also had half a dozen coaches from local clubs working with different sports and even a Chair of Governors, who turned up to support his pupils.

In the feedback session on Thursday afternoon, our students acknowledged how much they had learned from the experience as well as how much they had enjoyed it.

This event also has huge value as a pr exercise for us to the kids and their families, as well as across the city through teachers and local clubs.

Successful bid for funds

2007-12-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Dave Harris and Ian Gilhespy have been successful in a bid to the Higher Education Academy Network for Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Pedagogic Research and Development Fund 2007/08 (Round 9).

The title for the project is ‘Reusable Learning Objects: Evaluating the Outcomes of Multi-Media and Single Medium RLOs’. The intention is to set up a trial to see if students learn equally well with PowerPoints, podcasts, video, handouts or multimedia RLOs. The implications for costs are obvious, but we are also keen to pin down any emergent 'multimedia effects'.

Anyone interested in RLOs might like to scan our own collection, covering topics like Sport and Leisure, Research Methods and Study Skills, available here

Dave Harris

College Award

2007-12-13T12:14:00.000-08:00

Helen Bowstead (Study Skills) and Dave Harris have won a College Teaching Award. The project involves getting students to 'think aloud' as they undertake various typical tasks such as taking notes from lectures or reading academic articles. Students will be given standard questionnaires to establish their learning styles to see if this relates to these specific learning behaviours.

Subsequently, lecturers will be asked to 'think aloud' as they design typical tasks,and the results compared to those of the learners. Implications will be explored for both learners and teachers.

Outcomes will include the production of learning materials, perhaps in the form of RLOs, and some publications at various levels.

Helen and Dave would also like to acknowledge the useful input made by the Deputy Dean for SSPEL, Dr Ian Luke.

Dave Harris

Hitherto unsung hero of sport

2007-12-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

Harry Richardson last night received the award for “Outstanding Contribution to Sport” at the Evening Herald Sports Personality of the Year Awards 2007.

Well done Harry – a well deserved accolade!

Round table discussions with the BASES Paediatric exercise science special interest group: Long-term athlete development

2007-11-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

Introduction

On Wed 24^th October I travelled to the University of East London to discuss the merits of Long-term athlete development with like minded academics across the country.

The model of LTAD has been adopted or revised by a large number of NGB’s within the UK. With origins traceable to the old eastern block, LTAD has been heralded as the saviour of UK sport and is to form the framework through which our young athletes can be nurtured to achieve success in the 2012 Olympics. Interestingly, the support from empirical science for the efficacy of LTAD is ominously lacking. This is not to say that once conducted it may endorse the model. Rather the model in its current form has very little, if any scientific support from well controlled studies within the published literature.

Much of the roundtable discussion centred on testing Bayli’s windows of trainability. Bayli (2001; 2004) proposed that young people had key training windows which coaches could use to maximise speed, aerobic fitness and muscle strength. These windows, according to Bayli’s (2001; 2004) LTAD model need to be targeted during specific periods of athlete’s growth and maturation. For this to be achieved each athletes’ PHV would need to be ascertained.

Academics at the discussion were in agreement that these were indeed the times where young athletes would see the greatest increase in certain fitness components, but these increases would occur through normal growth. Any additional improvement induced through systematic training has yet to be proved. Moreover, scanning of the paediatric exercise science literature clearly indicates that young people’s response to training is at best blunted when compared to adults. Thus advocating additional training at these critical times to maximise performance should be interpreted cautiously, at least until empirical evidence has come to light to support such programmes.

Three projects were discussed at the meeting. Firstly a major project in collaboration with UK athletics and the University of East London was to test and monitor 300 elite young athletes for 7 years aged between 13-17 years. The purpose was not just to prepare young athletes for 2012 but also understand the relationship between growth, maturation and training in light of the windows of opportunity proposed by Bayli (2001; 2004). Similarly the University of Exeter was working with the Exeter City youth academy to try to identify whether training speed in the speed sensitive window would augment players’ speed further than growth and maturation itself. Our very own LTAD support project in conjunction with the Marjon Hub Club was also discussed, and as a result key growth indicators and fitness tests will mimic those of East London and Exeter. The long term intension is to try to provide some scientific support for the wide scale implementation of LTAD, something that it currently lacks.

Other discussion centred on the need for coaches to encourage young athletes to develop strength and explosive power before reaching maturity. This is contrary to more traditional views held amongst coaches, which tends to advocate strength and power training only upon reaching adult maturity. The censuses was that failure to do so would more than likely jeopardise the potential for young athletes to become future elite performers in sports requiring such qualities.

To sum up, the feeling amongst the group was to cautiously embrace the model given the lack of direction and the scale of confusion in developing young athletes within UK sport prior to its adoption. At least now a model is in place to evaluate. Nevertheless, key questions as to its effectiveness in achieving that which it aims to achieve, not least in supporting young talent develop into future elite, still remains to be seen. Critiques suggest that rather than the latter, it is an athlete retention model designed to increase the pool from which talent can be selected and developed, rather than focussing on developing individual athlete’s needs. Indeed calls for a more athlete centred model to supersede LTAD may not be far away!

Saul Bloxham

References
Balyi, I. (2001) Sport System Building and Long-Term Athlete Development in British Columbia. Canada: SportsMed B.C.
Balyi, I and Hamilton A. (2004) Long-Term Athlete Development. Victoria, Canada: National Coaching Institute British Columbia and Advanced training and Performance Ltd.

Book proposal despatched

2007-11-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

I am about to email Sage with the completed book proposal. It has been an interesting experience assembling it, and it shows real teamwork around the School. I have had some prior experience of collaborative work, involving several institutions, and several efforts have been utter nightmares, showing academics at their worst -- bitchy (especially the men), petty, jealous, vindictive and selfish. This one was based on thorough preparation, straightforward and open discussion and generous compromise -- long may it continue!

All we can do now is wait for comments from the reviewers. There may be difficult times to come but I am sure we will cope. (Sorry -- sounds a bit like Monty at Alamein)

Dave Harris

College Teaching Award -- RLOs

2007-11-05T03:55:00.000-08:00

I have recently been the recipient of a College Teaching Award. The award was made on the basis of a research proposal the title of which is as follows:

'The Development and Evaluation of Re-usable Learning Objects for Students with Particular Needs (with specific reference for disabled students on programmes related to sport, leisure and outdoor adventure)'

The 'particular needs' referred to in the title relate to dyslexia and hearing problems although other 'issues' may arise during the project.

The specific purpose of this application is to conduct evaluation of the effectiveness of re-usable learning objects in the learning and teaching process. My interest in re-usable learning objects has already led to a successful bid to the Higher Education Academy in conjunction with the J.I.S.C. through their Higher Education Assistive Technology project (HEAT). The aims of the project are:

i) to produce learning objects relevant to the study of leisure, outdoor adventure and sports development with enhanced visual materials;

ii) to liaise with visually and aurally impaired students concerning the design of RLOs; specific to their learning requirements (including the adaptation of existing RLOs accordingly);

iii) to explore the scope for the software in the production of innovative educational materials and approaches.

I am very keen to get the views of colleagues on RLOs too. You can see and listen to them by going to www.arasite.org and scrolling down to the RLOs section. They take a couple of minutes to load.

Ian Gilhespy

Active Devon Conference

2007-10-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

I presented at the Active Devon Conference at Exeter University on October 14th. The conference attracts coaches working across Devon. I presented two sessions during the day on Hydration, Dehydration and Hyponatraemia. The sessions were designed to raise coaches' awareness of this potentially fatal condition.

Erica Eaton-Quinn

Plymouth Secondary Heads Association Day

2007-10-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

Raising attainment in the Physical Education 14-19 curriculum

Friday 19^th October

The PASH day is a whole city closure day where a range of continued professional development conferences and held for all secondary teachers. In all there are 17 secondary schools in Plymouth and 6 special schools.

The Physical Education day was coordinated by myself in my role as lead tutor and operations manager for Plymouth and Torbay Local Delivery Agency. Representatives from Plymouth’s sports partnerships, sports colleges and Plymouth Local Authority worked together to put together a programme based upon audited need across the city.

Just under 100 Physical Education teachers met for the day’s conference hosted by Sir John Hunt Community College. The day consisted of nine workshop options, where delegates choose three. The workshops are outlined in the table below.

Time	Session	Activity 1	Activity 2	Activity 3
8am	Registration / refreshments / Market place – The Hall
8.25 – 9.45	1	Workshop 1: Using Dartfish to support analysis of performance and synoptic assessment (Practical)	Workshop 2: Looking forward changes to the 14- 19 curriculum	Workshop 3: Sports Education – a curriculum model for 14-19 age group
9.50 – 10.10	Break / Breakfast / Market place – The Hall
10.15 – 11.35	2	Workshop 4: Developing Health related exercise units for KS 4 - In line with new curriculum (Practical)	Workshop 5: Raising standards in PE and the New Curriculum KS 3 and KS4 planning	Workshop 6: Interactive learning for GCSE and A Level (including interactive whiteboard)
11.40 – 1.00	3	Workshop 7: OCR – subject specific workshop to include Nationals	Workshop 8: Long Term athlete Development - Its compatibility with the new national curriculum	Workshop 9: Raising standards in PE and the New Curriculum KS 3 and KS4 planning

A range of tutors were involved in delivering the workshops, including Stella Turner, consultant on 14-19 developments for the OCR, Brian Coates educational consultant and course leader for Southampton University PGCE PE, Jackie Arthur and Erica Eaton-Quinn from Marjon, Steve Jones subject specific consultant for national qualifications in sport from OCR, Chris Mather, Stuart Taylor and Kelvin Kirk from Marjon as well as myself and Ian Luke.

The day was not only an opportunity for teachers across the city to be engaged in relevant CPD, but also for them to reflect on current practice, share experience, practice and policy and network with other organisations. Evaluations showed the day to be very valuable, well organised and with huge potential impact on practice. A range of follow up CPD opportunities are to be developed to support teachers in school further.

Gill Golder

Physical Education Initial Teacher Training and Education Conference

2007-10-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

Woodside conference Centre

Warwickshire

Wednesday 10^th – Friday 12^th October 2007

The PE ITTE Network began life as the HEI/Schools Network, aiming to bring together HEI providers of PE ITTE and their school-based partners to discuss and agree action on related issues. As ITTE provision has been widened, so the Network has expanded to the point where it now encompasses all providers of PE ITTE, be they Secondary or Primary, HEI-based or school-based.

The focus for this year’s conference was ‘Sustaining High Quality Physical Education Initial Teacher Training’ over the course of the three days a number of workshops, discussion forums and seminars were held to enable all present to contribute to the development of consistent high quality PE ITTE, address issues and concerns raised by providers of PE ITTE and Ofsted inspection reports related to PE ITTE, and share best practice.

The conference started with an address by Margaret Talbot (Chief Executive of the Association for Physical Education) who identified successes and challenges facing PE ITTE – one issue raised was that of Primary PE provision in ITTE. During discussion that followed Marjon was used to exemplify good practice through creative module development to increase PE time (the primary B.Ed route having a half module with PE and citizenship), also the development of relevant undergraduate degrees routes preparing students for either a PGCE or GTP route into teaching (Coaching and Physical Education and the new Children’s Physical Education). Sue Campbell of Youth Sports Trust followed putting Physical Education into the bigger picture. Marjon again got a mention in the discussion with the Hub Club that was successfully launched with the visit of Seb Coe. Finally Judith Rundell (Chief HMI for Physical Education) gave an overview of characteristics for high quality PE both at school phases and ITTE. Judith headed up the team inspecting Marjon when we received out 1 for M and QA last year. She used examples of best practice from both the PGCE and B.Ed at Marjon to illustrate her talk.

Day two focused on two key themes, firstly, selection, recruitment and retention especially with widening participation and encouragement of BME students into teacher education – this is a national problem in Physical Education, a number of presentations were given that shared research findings with the group followed by workshop activities aimed at exploring strategies that could be adopted to link both to the ‘aim higher’ and the widening participation agenda. The second focus was led by Andy Frapwell (Regional co-ordinator, coordinator for PE dissemination of the new curriculum and Marjon external examiner) and addressed the new secondary curriculum now finalised and in secondary schools for planning and piloting and then to be taught to year 7 in September 2008. Small group discussions aimed at sharing best practice as to how a) HEIs were supporting schools in the planning process, b) how ITTE providers were training mentors to support trainees in schools and c) how ITTE providers were developing modules and content to meet the requirements of the new secondary curriculum. In all areas Marjon were able to provide clear examples of how mentor training has been developed, module outcomes adjusted and the new curriculum addressed through both permeation and focused elements and how, through the LDA, a programme of support for schools has been planned. The day concluded with the launch of a CD rom resource ‘Entering New Worlds’, developed by Andy Frapwell, the resource supports ITTE and teacher training in and through PE and was developed using staff expertise and trainees from Marjon.

Gill Golder

Co-creating Legacy in the South West: The Education and Skills Dimension

2007-10-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

23rd October 2007, Sandy Park, Exeter

Sam Peach and Aaron Beacom attended this conference which was essentially about disseminating the 2012 Olympic legacy plans. The conference aim was to share how the Government, LSC and other agencies are using the Games to inspire young people, improve education and increase sports and community engagement across the region. The conference was organised and hosted by the Learning Skills Council in partnership with Team South West (SWRDA).

Keynote speakers were:

Lynda Lawrence (Dept. Children, Schools and Families 2012 Co-ordinator) who spoke about the Dept.’s plans to secure education legacy of the 2012 Games and LOCOG plans on education.

Steve Dowson (Dept. Innovation, Universities and Skills 2012 Co-ordinator) who discussed his department’s plans to maximise the skills benefits of hosting the 2012 Games.

Gareth Smith (Deputy Head, Podium) whose presentation title was “Putting Education and Skills at the heart of 2012)

Guy Lavender (SW Director for 2012) who spoke about what was happening in the SW.

Paul Pettigrew (LSC 2012 Director) who discussed the education and skills legacy for the SW.

Each of these presentations will be made available on the SWRDA and LSC websites (www.southwestrda.org.uk)

The key things to emerge from the conference were:

• There are a large number of organizations and agencies involved in developing plans. It is therefore difficult to get a clear understanding of the overarching strategy – plans seemed to lack clear direction and substance at this stage.

• There is no additional funding available to develop this legacy. Speakers referred to the need to “Olympify” existing activities and projects.

• Government agencies are relying on a bottom up approach – ie for schools, Colleges, Universities and other organizations to implement projects linked to the Olympics in order to create this legacy. There appears to be a very optimistic view of what can be achieved socially, culturally, economically etc. through the staging of the Olympic Games: a presentation of the Games as having the potential to cure all ills - including health objectives relating to obesity. At the same time there appears to be few substantive initiatives concerning how objectives can be realised. Instead it is a case of saying to the regions 'its up to you - Olympify, Olympify'.

• There was certainly tension reflected in comments made by both Lavender and Pettigrew, concerning strategy for recruiting and up-skilling volunteers - both indicating that at present the focus was on London wide as opposed to country wide benefits and that they were not willing to accept this.

• Important organisations that were referred to in the conference, that people may not have heard of and might be worth referring to; 'Office of the Third Sector' (sits within the Cabinet office and deals with the important area of co-ordinating efforts to encourage volunteering).'Olympic Executive' (A governmental committee that reports to the Secretary of State for the DCMS and has a cross-governmental role with particular involvement in the legacy agenda).

• Some useful documents were referred to which colleagues may find useful:

DCMS 2012 Legacy document: “Our promise for 2012” – available to download from DCMS.

To be published early December (approx 6th Dec):
LOCOG education plan
Mori Survey Findings (on 5-19 year olds views/ understanding of the Olympics)
Legacy Action Plan for 2012

There were one or two ideas that emerged that may be of value for us as a School/ College to follow up on and consider:
• Advanced Apprenticeships (linked to Olympic Sports)
• Using the Games to attract International Students
• Curriculum developments – e.g. a module on the Olympics / international sports studies degree etc
• Volunteering opportunities
• Pre-Olympic Training camps for some of the smaller nations

Sam Peach / Aaron Beacom

Multi-Sports Hub Club

2007-10-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of a highly successful collaborative project to establish a multi-sports hub club at the College, Chris Mather is now writing up his report for Sport England. The scheme has attracted much attention, including a visit from Lord Coe.

Mentoring and eating

2007-10-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

Jackie Arthur has successfully completed the first year of a part-time masters, focusing on mentoring within ITT and she is now embarked on a second year focusing on provision for effective inclusion.

Erica Eaton-Quinn and Jackie also just attended The Big Food Debate in Liverpool where the state of the nation's eating habits were explored by a variety of public and private service providers.

School Research Day 5th July 2007-- Abstracts

2007-07-10T04:09:00.000-07:00

“Arousal makes us stupid!” (Griffin, 2007) How this may be of relevance to us...

Louise Ansell

The Human Givens approach claims to provide a synthesis of current brain and social research. It has been suggested that it can provide “templates for understanding how to unlock the best in human nature” (Zeig, 2004). Whilst this approach was initially developed to provide greater understanding of mental health, its broader applications are now being recognised. This short presentation details the key principles and research findings underlying this approach and explores the potential applications within Higher Education. In particular it highlights the possible relevance for lecturers, school teachers and outdoor practitioners.

Whether the employment of a participation Framework can help structure the practice of mentors in the search for consistency of experiential learning in school based training.

Jackie Arthur

Mentoring is claimed to contribute significantly to the professional development of trainee and mentor teachers alike. Colley (2002) defines it as the “in” thing and the preferred method of initial training within the public services sector. Mentoring has, for over a decade, formed a very profound strategy, through which to nurture the professional development of both serving teachers and trainees embarking upon one of the various programmes available to learn the art of teaching.

The enormity of the mentoring role as Roberts’ (2000) identifies as ranging from the development of a supportive relationship; to a helping process; a teaching-learning process; a reflective process; a career development process; a formalized process; and a role constructed for or by the mentor, requires considerable understanding if the practice of a mentor is to consistently guide the trainee in the dynamic environments of a school.

The aim of this, small scale, research is to consider the use and effectiveness of a participation framework in helping to establish consistency of practice by mentors in two of our training school.

The influence of physiological workload on game-related decision making in soccer referees

Phil Barter

Recent reviews of the literature have suggested that referees are likely to reach oxygen uptake levels of around 80% of maximal uptake during matches (Reilly & Gregson, 2006).

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of differing physiological workloads on referees’ decision making performance.

Methods: Participants in this study undertook decision making trials across three levels of the independent variable; at rest, following 20 minute treadmill running at 60% of maximal oxygen uptake, and following 20 minute treadmill running at 80% of maximal oxygen uptake.

The accuracy of participants’ refereeing decisions was assessed by developing a bank of 100 “decision making video clips,” consisting of critical decision making situations in soccer. Participants received a total composite decision making score based upon the accuracy of their decisions in a series of 25 clips that were presented to them at the end of each trial.

Result and discussions: Results suggested a lower level of decision making following exercise at 80% of maximal oxygen uptake and at rest. Following exercise at 60% of maximal oxygen uptake, decision making displayed increase accuracy. Furthermore, as participants recovered during the decision making task their accuracy further improved.

A Year Older, A Year Wiser (?): Reflecting on lessons learned.

Aaron Beacom

Charged with a new found enthusiasm, I travelled north in September 2006 to present the first of three conference papers delivered during this academic year. Ten mouths later, bruised and a little battered, it is time to reflect on what went right, what went wrong and why.

While the presentation will provide an overview of content of my research over the past year, I felt it might be more helpful to colleagues if I focused primarily on ‘process’ - sharing something of what I have learned along the way. To that end, I will refer to:

Chicago – contrasting research culture – same outcomes?
Interfacing – navigating the no-man’s land between academia and the professions
Publication – Highs and lows on this long and winding road.
Blogs – one dinosaur’s approach to the brave new electronic world.
Collegiality – Beginning to appreciate the efforts and help from others.

Season-of-Birth Birth Bias in Elite Female Football Players

Saul Bloxham

It has been documented that a season of birth bias exists in association football. This age effect has been identified at all levels of the game including professional football (Richardson and Stratton, 2002) elite male youth football (Simmons and Paull, 2001) and those selected for school representative football teams (Wilson, 1999). The advantage of being born early in the academic year (September to December) has been identified in a number of other sports for males (Messias, 2004), but few studies have investigated this age effect in women’s sport (Vincent, 2006). The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of birth dates in women’s association football. Birth dates from 300 elite women football players were examined. Players’ birth dates were grouped into 3, 4 month cycles (born between September – December; January – April; May – August). Significant differences between groups were identified using chi-squared analysis. Results indicated that significantly (p <>

These data are in stark contrast to the seasonal birth bias trends identified in males’ association football where players tend to be born between September and December (Brewer, 1995). In relation to body mass early maturating boys tend to benefit from increases in muscle mass and reduction in body fat which is initiated from the onset of puberty. In contrast, this physical advantage is not enjoyed by their female counterparts who tend to increase in fat mass in relation to body mass during the same process. Therefore the biological changes that coincide with maturation probably account for some of the sex differences identified between males and female birth bias in association football.

The use of thermal imaging to assess surface temperature within a paediatric context

Caroline Brokenshire

During thermoregulatory research core and peripheral temperatures are monitored to assess thermoregulatory strain. To date published paediatric thermoregulatory work has calculated mean skin temperature (T_sk) from adult weighted, unweighted or variable formula equations.

Goss et al., (1989) document that to find an accurate and procedurally convenient index of global skin temperature is challenging. Choi et al., (1997) indicate that the only way to determine true mean skin temperature is to obtain measurements of an infinite number of sites. With this in mind it is reasonable to consider that the accuracy of T_sk is increased in proportion to the number of measuring sites.

Infrared thermography is a technique which allows detection of entire body surface area. Through combined monitoring of a thermal imaging camera and skin thermistors; the validity of adult based equations can be assessed.

In order to confidently assess thermoregulatory responses within a paediatric sample in future investigations; the validity of using adult based T_sk for children must first be established.

Keeping the ‘balls in the air’ whilst ‘the plates are spinning’.

Phil Brown

This presentation considers the challenges of an eclectic mix of research and scholary activity from the past 12 months.

The presentation does not attempt to focus on a specific area of research. As the title suggests the presentation will explore the competing demands of research and scholarly activity across a number of different areas which include; the Higher Education Academy (HEA) PG Cert modules; the Northumbria University MSc Distance Learning Sports Management Modules in Strategic Sports Management, Human Resource Management and Accountancy; and the Local Exercise Action Pilot (LEAP) consultancy work for Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Primary Care Trust.

BASES accreditation

Melissa Coyle

It will be presented as to what the British Association of Sport & Exercise is and what the accreditation process entails. Also how it is achieved through supervised experience, with specific relation to the psychological components. The psychological components to be considered are core psychology, sport & exercise psychology, counselling skills, communication and presentation skills, assessment and evaluation, practical experiences as a sport and exercise psychologist, and finally practical experiences of sport, exercise and physical activity.

The Sport Scientist as a Coach – A Case Study

Lance Doggart

Historically sport scientists have been a support service for coaches. Coaches and coaching governing bodies have utilised the skills of the sport scientist to enhance training and fitness regimes (Bangsbo, Mohr & Krustrup, 2006), maximise technical performance (McGinnis, 2005), improve mental preparation prior to competition (Jarvis, 2006) and reduce the risk of injury through equipment design (Bartlett, 1997). Increasingly sport scientists are being asked to not only design and implement the theoretical concepts but to act as surrogate coaches during the implementation period. Furthermore sport scientists have taken prominent roles in coordinating national coaching programmes in the UK most notably British Athletics.

The coach, athlete, parent and child scenarios have been well documented (Abraham, Collins & Martindale, 2006) and research has offered guidelines on how to cope with such situations (Sportscoach UK, 2006). However to date there appears to be a dearth of literature or guidelines on a code of practice for a sport scientist as a coach. Sport scientists who coach could experience conflicting roles and knowing when the role changes and how to cope with role changes could provide additional challenges in demanding situations. Moreover the influence that these two roles have, and the ability of the individual to disassociate and differentiate between the two, could have a negative effect on the athlete and their respective performances.

The aim of the research was, using a case study, identify the challenges experienced by an individual acting as sport scientist and as a coach and how the dual role affects athlete performance.

Playtime Physical Activity in Primary Children.

Erica Eaton Quinn

Physical activity guidelines put forwards by the Health Education Authority (1998) suggest that children should engage in 30 to 60 minutes of moderate physical activity daily, however, there is a concern that many children are not reaching recommended levels of physical activity. Whilst schools provide an opportunity to contact most children, pressures on classroom time over recent years have had a negative effect on physical activity across a variety of curriculum subjects. The use of playtimes as an opportunity to increase children’s activity levels is both feasible and exciting. Playtimes take up almost a quarter of the primary school day and could contribute towards the daily total recommended levels of physical activity. Playtimes provide the safe setting that restricts many children out of school. Data gathered (Eaton Quinn, 2006) further suggests that playtimes can provide the opportunity to raise the heart rate to 140 bts.min^-1 or higher in proportions of available time comparable to 50% suggested by Stratton and Mullan, (2005) as guidelines for PE lessons. The sensible utilisation of this playtime period could enthuse those children who do not enjoy curriculum PE providing an opportunity for them to experience the pleasure of being physically active within a different context.

The organisation and management of playtimes directly affects opportunities to be physically active. Knowledge of the non-modifiable factors that affect a child’s choice to be physically active allows specific groups to be targeted, whilst modifiable factors can be directly manipulated. Plymouth City Council has agreed to fund an action research project to apply the possible interventions identified (Eaton Quinn, 2006) as effective to a case study school in the Plymouth locality.

Evaluating reusable learning objects for visually and aurally impaired students

Ian Gilhespy

(Not presenting on the day)

I have been producing re-usable learning objects for undergraduate students of Leisure, Outdoor Adventure and Sports Development. They have been produced using the free software MS Producer and have consisted of lecture slides and digital images that play alongside a spoken commentary often based on existing lectures or on ‘key concepts’. The production of these objects was, in part, motivated by an interest to develop materials that would be accessible to students who had been gifted a laptop.

The specific purpose of this research project is to create an opportunity – in the form of time principally- to develop an existing interest in the creation and use of re-usable(or digital) learning objects. In particular, this project concerns the evaluation of the effectiveness of re-usable learning objects in the learning and teaching process. The evaluation will consist of qualitative research in the form of listening, recording and assessing the views of students.

My interest in re-usable learning objects has already led to a successful bid to the Higher Education Academy in conjunction with the J.I.S.C. through their Higher Education Assistive Technology project (HEAT). The success was in the form of equipment. The aims of the equipment bid were as follows:

i) to produce learning objects relevant to the study of leisure, outdoor adventure and sports development with enhanced visual materials;

ii) to liaise with visually and aurally impaired students concerning the design of RLOs; specific to their learning requirements (including the adaptation of existing RLOs accordingly);

iii) to explore the scope for the software in the production of innovative educational materials and approaches.

A successful bid was made for a College Teaching Fellowship this year. In the next academic year, I shall be able to develop the project both in the form of making more reusable learning objects and engaging in their evaluation using student feedback. A selection of these R.L.Os may be viewed and listened to from Dave Harris’ website

Strengthening the Special Educational Needs element of Initial Teacher Training: A report on TDA Development Programme: ITT placements in specialist special education provision.

Gill Golder

In the academic year 2006-2007 the Teacher Development Agency (TDA) set up a development programme to enable ITT placements in specialist special education provision. The goal of the programme was to enhance knowledge, skills and understanding of inclusive practice for SEN and disability among those joining and relatively new to the teaching force. This report outlines one such project and the outcomes against the TDA’s objectives for both trainee teachers on a 3 year B.Ed secondary course in the southwest and the special schools they were attached to.

Researching ‘Otherness’ in Sport and Leisure

Dave Harris (Dr)

There is a substantial background of interest in understanding people who are ‘others’ (i.e. not like ‘self’). Options range from trying to render other people as less complete (usually inferior) versions of ourselves to trying to grasp ‘otherness’ as a perfectly viable and genuine alternative way of life. The latter might be more ethical but it is also much harder to actually research. The presentation outlines a big project on ‘otherness’ and then considers some more specific projects to understand others in different ways. Specific projects include trying to see ‘unhealthy’ activity and ‘sportophobia’ as embodying various kinds of ‘otherness’.Presentation (as an RLO here)

Measuring Effective Leadership

Gareth M Jones

Effective leadership eludes many people and organisations. A principle reason is the lack of understanding about the precise leadership behaviours that promote the best results.

A raft of studies suggest that the higher individuals move up in an organisation, then the more likely they are to over-rate themselves and develop ‘blind spots’ that hinder their effectiveness as leaders.

An appropriate research tool relating to leadership styles can help leaders discover where their strengths and areas for development actually are in terms of the six recognised leadership styles i.e. the Directive/Visionary/Affiliative/Participative/Pacesetting/Coaching. The appropriate tool can thus measure the leadership styles that the leader believes he or she demonstrates in the work place. These are the leader’s intended styles, but they might not be what others experience…. as was discovered by the Senior Managers at the Rugby Football Union that were assessed as part of my PHD study. The research tool will be examined on the research day.

Remember – no one leadership style is correct. Effective leadership is usually the direct consequence of using the appropriate styles(s) to deal with specific people in specific situations.

Internationalising a School of Sport Physical Education and Leisure - Making a start.

Keith Jones

A commitment to International Education has been part of the College of St. Mark and St. John’s mission since its formation. For example, the very first intake to St. Mark’s College had 97 students in all, three of them were Syrian (Coleridge D, 1843). However, since 1982, until recently, the responsibility for the organisation, teaching, management and administration of International Education remained with one department within the College, the International Education Centre (INTEC).

In 2004, for the first time, a college-wide commitment to Internationalisation was clearly embedded in the College’s Strategic Plan. Since this time there has been a drive, to embed the underlying values and practices within INTEC into other departments and therefore make them part of the academic practices of all departments within the institution. This task is not an easy one to achieve. The challenges faced by one department, The School of Sport, Physical Education and Leisure (SSPEL), during the process of and drive towards internationalisation, and the strategies that have been employed to overcome these challenges, are the focus of the paper.

The Impact of the Student Associate Scheme on Selection and Recruitment for Initial Teacher Training

Nicky Jones

The Student Associate Scheme (SAS) is becoming increasingly well known nationally since its introduction in 2003 as part of the Teacher Training Agency strategic aim of increasing the number and quality of recruits into teaching. The scheme gives students ‘the opportunity to discover what teaching is really like, to work alongside experienced teachers and develop new skills’ (TDA 2005). The SAS has two aims, to raise levels of attainment and aspiration of young people in schools (widening participation) and to contribute to the recruitment of able and committed students to initial teacher training (ITT).

The research explores how the students perceive the SAS to prepare them to make the choice about going into teaching.

Ofsted (2006) and the Association for Physical Education highlight concerns over the lack of relevance of first degrees in preparing students for a PGCE in Physical Education. It is hoped that the results could show that the SAS could help to bridge some of the gaps by better preparing students for a career in teaching

Kelvin Kirk

Bridging the Gap Between Participation and Performance in

Volleyball Coaching

This Action Research project seeks to produce an instructional digital video disc (DVD) which it is anticipated will become an effective component in the teaching/learning process. The aim of the study is to develop this teaching/coaching resource that will assist in taking the volleyball player from participation to a performance level (Cross and Lyle, 1999; Crisfield et al, 1996) in a more efficient manner. Cross and Lyle (1999) consider there to be two discrete forms of coaching: participation and performance. They expand upon these differences by stating, “participation and performance coaching are two very distinct roles and not two stages on a continuum” (Cross and Lyle, 1999;p12).

Having been involved over a considerable time with the teaching of the sport of volleyball to complete beginners and the coaching of experienced players, it has become increasingly apparent that a lack of resources to assist deliverers in linking these areas exists. Existing literature adequately covers the introduction of the teaching and coaching of the key elements of the game of volleyball to enable players at participation, or beginner, level to gain simple enjoyment of the game (English Volleyball Association, 2004; Neville, 1990). There is a similarly adequate level of writing which covers the delivery of the more complex levels of the game (Shondell and Reynaud, 2002; Scates and Linn, 2003; Neville, 1990). Experience has highlighted that there are minimal resources which can support the coach or teacher in taking the player from the beginner phase of the game to the performance level, which can include rather multifaceted demands.

This DVD will use video analysis techniques to visually teach the elements of ‘position specialisation’, ‘specialist roles’, ‘stacking’ and perhaps even pre-set 1^st tempo attack options, all of which are requirements needed to play at a competitive level. Participant players usually make the transition to performance, and hence learning these phases, by joining an existing team and learning through a combination of instruction by the coach and playing alongside an experience team of players. This is less feasible when working with a large number of beginner players, and it is perceived that this video resource could minimise the problem.

Personal Journeys

Mark Leather

An 8 day ski-touring trip in Norway at Easter took me on a personal journey and returned me to the roots and essence of Outdoor Adventure Education.

An illustrated description and analysis of the journey will allow an exploration of some key themes that have helped support and inform my professional practice at Marjons.

Themes that emerged for intellectual exploration:

ü Physical challenge

ü Emotional challenge

ü Personal development

ü Connections with nature

ü Outdoor Philosophies ~ Friluftsliv

ü Why am I here at Marjon?

ü The journey – literal and metaphorical

ü Finding spaces ~ reflection, growth + CPD

Developing a new teaching and learning resource for examination PE.

Gareth Long

Balls Sports Magazine launched in September 2006 and subsequent issues were published in Jan and May 2007. The Magazine resulted from a desire to more closely relate the experiences of elite sports performers, coaches and teams to the theoretical content of PE examination. In essence the aim was to ‘bring to life’ the exam board’s specifications. Evolving from a perception that whilst many curriculum areas appreciate the motivational benefits of using sport to enhance their subject delivery, existing examination PE resources were not fully exploiting this. To this end ‘text book’ resources were often ‘dry’ and ‘out of date’.

This presentation will outline the shift in philosophy of the magazine and explain how the product has developed to become two separate magazines, an electronic resource and powerpoint lessons. Future directions will be also be discussed along with the ‘problems’ that have arisen from this project.

The Role of Metacognitive Ability in Coach Education

Ian Luke

Cassidy, Jones & Potrac (2004) argued that coach education must help coaches to reflect and think critically about their practice. However, it has been argued that such self-reflection and, indeed, self-regulation would require coaches to understand their own personal learning processes, and to acknowledge that it is their own cognition that determines the quality of their instruction (Manning &amp;amp;amp;amp; Payne, 1989; Fishman et al., 2003). The implication is that metacognitive ability, the higher order control and utilisation of the cognitive process involved in thinking and learning (Flavell, 1979; Luke & Hardy, 1999), could have a significant role in coach education programmes. Whilst resistance to such ‘metacognitive’ training has been noted (Jing, 2006), teacher education programmes have had success in developing teachers’ ability to self-monitor and self-regulate their cognitive processes (Manning & Payne, 1989). As such, the key focus of the study would be how to develop a metacognitive ability ‘package’ in coach education and to assess its impact on both coaches and those who are coached.

Understanding Curriculum in Higher Education

Sam Peach

My presentation proposes a philosophical approach to undergraduate curricula and discusses selective recommendations from an empirical study of curriculum at the College, conducted as part of my doctoral research. I present a rationale for a Higher Education (HE) curriculum philosophy, conceptualised as ‘socially critical vocationalism’ (SCV) and suggest why I believe that SCV could be an appealing approach to underpin a curriculum strategy at the College. I recognise that SCV may be perceived as contentious and radical and therefore hope that the presentation will stimulate a much needed debate about the curriculum. I also discuss a number of proposals and recommendations from the study pertinent to learning, teaching and research developments at the College. These include the introduction of a quarterly in-house publication on ‘curriculum matters’, the creation of curriculum fellowships, enhancing the theoretical curriculum knowledge and understanding of academics via staff development mechanisms and the introduction of a College curriculum strategy

Outdoor Challenges as Therapy

Su Porter

(not presenting on the day)

The use of the outdoors and outdoor challenges is well documented as a means of promoting positive outcomes in peoples wellbeing in its broadest sense. This has now reached our television screen through such programmes as Brat Camps, to a lesser extent reality television such as I’m a Celebrity, Castaway etc. Awareness of potential Outdoor Programmes has grown.

Aim of this research is to undertake a series of Outdoor Programmes with Adults who stammer and their therapists to explore new ways of assisting them to address their everyday issues. It is hoped that there will be a positive outcome that in no way will be a quick fix but may go some way assisting in the therapeutic process.

A combined project with Speech and Language Therapy, staff and students, NHS staff and Out staff and students.

Patients’ and doctors’ attitudes towards health and fitness during the course of an exercise referral scheme.

The process so far!

Martyn Queen

The idea for this study developed from reviewing literature on health and fitness. The literature identified significant material on the contrasting views between the bio-medical and socio-medical models of health. It was then decided to use an exercise referral scheme (ERS) as a way of evaluating the affects that exercise could have on health, as this would provide a starting point for a person who had been diagnosed as unhealthy. There is a dearth of information on the evaluation of ERS’s and the literature available focuses on randomized control trials using physiological change, for example blood pressure and lung function to assess effectiveness. Therefore, as physical activity is a lifestyle habit and a complex social phenomenon, it was decided to locate this study in the socio-medical domain.

The purpose of this research is to provide important qualitative information on the effectiveness of ERS on the health of patients; patients and doctors perceptions of health and fitness; the effectiveness of exercise on treating hypokinetic diseases; and the long term (12 months) adherence rates to physical activity post ERS. Such information would be of significant value to the National Health Service, health professionals and patients. Whilst contributing to the body of knowledge in this area.

Plymouth Marjon Multisports Hub Club : A National Pilot Project

Harry Richardson

The Hub Club at the College was initiated two years ago with some funding from Sport England as a national demonstration project. This facilitated the appointment of Chris Mather as a Community Sports Development Tutor. Until now, working with local clubs in the focus sports of basketball, netball and hockey and the two Plymouth SSPs at Plymstock and Sir John Hunt, much of the work has centred on multiskills development in the primary schools. The success of this project has been acknowledged at national level and has spawned a collaborative project based on the Hub Club concept and closely aligned to coaching, with the Universities of Bath and Gloucester.

A bid to HEFCE for funding as part of the 2012 Olympic Legacy initiative is currently in preparation. The proposal is that the Hub Club concept provides a model of best practice nationally for HEIs to work with their local communities from grass roots to elite level in sport, whilst impacting on the strategic objectives required by HEFCE.

Applied research as action research – the case of Plymouth Bowlers

Ian Roberts

The role of the academic is often regarded as remote and clinically objective however when working within and for a community research will becomes far more subjective and enters the political dimension. Current work with Plymouth’s indoor bowlers highlights ethical, political and practical dimensions associated with Action Research that are worth discussion. It also shows that the conventional research paradigm of identifying and challenging hypotheses to develop knowledge plays little part in this sort of work. Rather this is a pragmatic style of work that uses knowledge to achieve a largely predetermined outcome.

An Investigation into the Necessity for a Longitudinal Study for the Development of Young Association Football Players

Chris Smietanka

Talent may not be evident at an early age in association football. However, there will be some indicators that enable trained people to identify its presence and may provide a basis for predicting those individuals who are likely to succeed at a later stage (Howe et al, 1998).

Several studies have used youth players (11 – 16 yrs) in terms of anthropometrical, physiological and skill acquisition predictors in association football (Vaeyens et al, 2006, Malina et al, 2004 & 2005, Reilly et al, 2000,). These studies in particular have considered growth and maturation on performance and their implications to talent identification.

There is minimal published information into the development and collection of data for young children within association football (Malina, 2003). At the very least skill acquisition, anthropometric and physiological collection of measures particularly through childhood would ensure coaches are better informed how these factors have an effect on player development and possible talent identification (Drust and Reilly, 1997). Longitudinal research of this nature would also help the predictive utility of these tests with young players (Williams & Reilly 2000).

Developing e-learning opportunities & resources.

Stuart Taylor

Caillods (2001:9) suggests that ‘e-learning is more than just on-line distance education.’ With that in mind, the application of ICT to teaching within the HEI setting should be a consideration for further development. Whilst teaching a practical invasion games module to a group of Yr 1 Bed students an interactive and ‘hands on’ approach through the use of video material was explored. The aim was for the students to produce the content for an interactive DVD resource tool that would be useful in their future development; both as an ITT student and as a fully qualified teacher of Physical Education. Topics were shared amongst the group so that students had to develop an understanding for content material, delivery methods and embrace the learning opportunity available through this e-learning medium. It was hoped that by proposing such a task it would, ‘provide the potential to stimulate depth of learning by encouraging students to engage more fully with the topics and issues covered,’ (Pavey & Garland, 2004:305). Furthermore, the use of ICT and e-activities in this manner targeted the ITT process of accreditation towards QTS standards (1.7, 1.8, 2.1, 2.1c, 2.5, 3.3.2c, 3.3.8 – TDA, 2006).

‘Moving the goalposts’. Discussing the challenges of modifications in research focus for a new academic

Ryan Thomas

Approximately 12 months ago, I gave a brief presentation regarding my research interest of the role of Talent Identification (TID) in Football. Work was to focus on TID from a sports development perspective, specifically analysing the role of Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) in creating enhanced opportunities for mass participation and elite performance in the ‘beautiful game’.

This presentation will discuss how continued work on an MSc programme has signified a change in focus for future research activity. It will examine units of work covered to date, in addition to those due to be completed in the next academic year. This will give me the opportunity to explore potential areas of research based upon the experiences gained whilst completing a Higher Degree.

Using newspapers in sports history research

Mike Tripp

In a recent text on sports historiography, Douglas Booth states that if sports historians were asked to ‘…formally define the objectives, assumptions, methods and forms of presentation of their field […] they talk in vague terms about facts, narratives, context and theory.’ (2005: 5) In particular he suggests, ‘[i]t is not much of an exaggeration to say that sport history rests on newspapers as historical sources,’ yet ‘…few sport historians pay enough attention to interrogating newspaper sources.’ (2005: 94).

In acknowledgement of this and in an attempt to provide an introductory chapter for my PhD thesis, which will include a section on research methods, the intention in this presentation is to provide a tentative rationale for the use of newspapers in sports history research. In particular the presentation will explore the reliability of newspaper sources; the justification of regarding newspapers as ‘primary’ evidence; ways to critically analyse newspaper sources.

Booth, D. (2005) The Field: Truth and fiction in sport history. London: Routledge

In-house journal launched

2007-07-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

A new in-house journal - the Journal of Physical Activity and Human Development - was launched at yesterday's SSPEL Research Conference. A collection of articles from members of SSPEL, it ranges from discussions of sport science to coaching to leisure and to sport development. As might be expected, there are also several articles which have implications for teaching at school and HE level. Comments and suggestions are welcome and should be directed to the editorial team - Aaron Beacom, Dave Harris and Philippa Elford.

Marjons Sport Courses Conference

2007-06-27T04:15:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Thursday 28 June, The School of Sport, Physical Education and Leisure (SSPEL) will be welcoming in the region of 100 young people from schools across the South West for the second Marjon Sport Courses Conference.

The attendees will spend the morning listening to the presentations about the benefits of HE and in particular Marjon, the courses that SSPEL offers and the facilities we have on site. The young people will then take part in a tour of the College campus. After lunch in the dining hall attendees will take part in practical sessions which capture the essence of the courses offered by SSPEL

Colleagues in PE

2007-06-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Colleagues in PE have been playing an active part in scholarly activity and in developing research infrastructure, largely via the HEI ITT Network, which provides funds for a series of Regional Coordinators and regional conferences. SSPEL colleagues have been presenting papers and running workshops, including a national workshop on assessment. Published outputs include contributions to resource packs and an article for the Association for PE (AFPE) Magazine.

Another colleague has been contributing to the British Educational Research Association Conference and is a member of the special interest group for PE.

Refereeing bids

2007-06-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

I can't disclose too much detail for obvious reasons, but I had two bids to consider. They were quite different, ranging from setting up a research institute with postgraduate study to thinking about the impact of undergraduate course design on first year students. The first year experience seems to be a hot issue at the moment, prompted, no doubt, by substantial drop out rates in a number of universities.

The whole process seemed pretty open and transparent. The guidelines for bids were clear, and the template for referees complemented them precisely. Referees could also add comments although everything suggested that long-winded, self-pitying rants in pursuit of private agendas were not really required (damn!).

In one case in particular, the bid was particularly tightly written to focus precisely on the required issues. That one got through as well.

Dave Harris

C-SAP meeting

2007-06-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

It was interesting to attend the C-SAP meeting of the National Reference Group for Sociology on a muggy Friday in London. The Reference Group exists to offer feedback to the LTSN and to share ideas. We discussed a number of new initiatives to develop an interest in 'critical pedagogy'. We shared some ideas about e-teaching, and I told them about our growing collection of RLOs using the Producer software. New items are likely to include the employability agenda.
My next task for C-SAP is to referee some applications for funding. Should be good experience in working up to a bid of my/our own.
Dave Harris

MPhil success

2007-06-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Erica Eaton has gained her MPhil from Exeter University. Her dissertation was based upon how effective organization and management of school playtimes can contribute to physical activity levels of primary-aged children. As a result, Plymouth City Council has agreed to provide £5000 to put the recommendations of the thesis into a action research project locally.

Online Conferences

2007-05-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

I have been participating in an big international conference on assessment organized by REAP. Derry drew my attention to it. The conference was entirely online. So far, I think the pros and cons of online conferring are:

1. Contributions like keynotes and intros are mercifully short and to the point, because they are usually in document form (there has been one rather flashy webcast)
2. All the main contributions and all the participants' contributions as well have been archived for further reference.
3. Although the chat sessions are in real time, everything else can be downloaded and read at suitable times -- for Australians and for British night owls like me, that means well after midnight BST.
4. I like being fairly anonymous when I chat. I have an online identity and that can be handy if you are old, ugly or notorious for writing spiky stuff on distance education.
5. I can go to an international conference with no travel and no personal costs. I can log in at College, at home or in any Internet Cafe. If I had a laptop I could log in on the bus!

There just are no cons from what I can see. One thing about online chat though...it is different from face-to-face (f2f) in several ways. For one thing, responses are sometimes interrupted by other questions or responses, which can make it fun to work out who is actually replying to whom. Moderators do their best, but it really is pretty unconstrained discussion. I found people dying to get in, not waiting for replies, having little side chats -- the very opposite of f2f seminars. In fact it almost made you long for the nasty regulating side of f2f where you can quell interruptions with a nasty scowl or a derisive sniff. I am sure new textual regulators will evolve.

The chat was followed by asynchronous discussion on a bulletin board (forum) thing so anyone who felt edged out could still have their say, and references and links and other things unsuitable for actual chat could be posted.

Very useful and productive.

Dave Harris

Tag rugby festival benefits children

2007-05-24T03:43:00.000-07:00

A massive exercise is underway at the College to prepare for the arrival of hundreds of children who are taking part in a tag rugby festival. This annual event will bring together youngsters from 72 West Devon Primary schools for a day-long knockout competition on 25 May.

This is the 16th year Marjon has hosted the event and staff are now well rehearsed in the logistics of co-ordinating 72 teams playing on 12 specially marked out rugby pitches in the college grounds.

The Marjon event is co-ordinated by Linzi Tynan, the Sports Centre Manager, with help from Diane Smith the Sports Centre Administrator and Mike Carpenter from Sir John Hunt School Sport Coordinators. The order for the day is to have fun and good sportsmanship is actively encouraged among the teams; bad play is not tolerated. Referees are equally provided from Marjon students and the local police.

Each participating school is asked to raise at least £25 from a sponsored rugby event for the Child Victims of Crime (CVC), the registered charity of the Great Britain Police Rugby Section. Last Year £988 was raised for this worthwhile charity. Volunteers from the police force are taught how to coach the tag teams to participate in the regional and national competitions, helping forge good relationships with the schools and their pupils. CVC provide a trophy and medals for the festival and also pay for the winners to attend a national final at Rugby School.

Registration for the event starts at 9.l5am, with the first games kicking off at 10.00. The finals begin at about 3.30pm.

Diane Smith
School Administrator
School of Sports PE & Leisure/Sports Centre

Conference on Public Health

2007-05-11T03:41:00.000-07:00

Conference Title:-
Peninsula Teaching Public Health Network Learning Event

Date:-
29th March 2007 – Plymouth

In attendance:-
Phil Barter and Melissa Coyle, SSPEL, Marjon

Phil Barter and Melissa Coyle recently attended a conference on public health. It was an opportunity to ‘network’ with the elite health workers in the peninsula area. The presenters included John Richards CEO Plymouth teaching PCT and Lindsey Hayes from the Royal College of Nursing delivering the most recent information in public health.

John Richards delivered a presentation of how much the PCT had changed and was going to change. He highlighted that education was key to this process and events like this enhanced that view. John stressed the importance of everyone working together to achieve common goals. Lindsey Hayes delivered a fantastic presentation on how health should be about the whole person and not just the physical nature of today’s public health. The importance of nursing was obviously a constant throughout the presentation but this emphasised the message about getting the balance right between the social, physical and mental wellbeing of the patient.

Kevin Ellison (Plymouth teaching PCT consultant) presented the changing face of public health in terms of pay structure and how it was now possible to earn a good wage through the non medical posts. He had produced a diagram on how you could progress through from any level and end up at the top CEO position. The only disappointing aspect to his presentation was the absence of Marjon as an education provider in the South West in this discipline.

The afternoon sessions involved an interactive quiz delivered by Paul Brown (Peak Performance) that everyone in the room had to take part in. The quiz was an opportunity for delegates to have their input on a variety of topics from the direction of public health to what was more important, the person who invented the sewage system or the person who discovered penicillin.

Overall it was an informative event about the local PCT and an opportunity to meet a lot of the key providers in the area which could influence the future development of SSPEL programmes, in particular HEPA.

Phil Barter
Lecturer in ASC & HEPA

An unintentional journey: reflecting on a research pathway

2007-05-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

There is perhaps, nothing new in the observation that the most stimulating and rewarding research activities are frequently those arrived at accidentally. It was during preparation for a lecture on the ‘mainstreaming’ of disability sport, in spring 2005, that I stumbled across a rich vein of information on the use of physical activity by international NGOs, to assist rehabilitation of amputees in post-conflict situations. This led to preliminary research that rapidly confirmed the potential for me to synthesise my interest in the relationship between physical activity and human development, with my previous research concerning foreign policy discourses as they relate to international sport.

My journey over the past two years has resulted in engagement with the development community through a range of conference experiences and face to face meetings. I was invited to join UKIDSA (UK International Development through Sport Alliance) Wider Reference Group in January 2006. My conference programme has included:

September 2005: European Association of Sports Management conference in Gateshead. Made contact with UK Sport international development officers. I presented a conference paper entitled: Sport and Development Assistance – Extending the boundaries of international aid,

December 2005: United Nations conference on Sport and Development in Magglingen, Switzerland. This offered the opportunity to network with representatives from a range of sports organisations engaged in international development programmes.

September 2006: British Society of Sports Historians conference in Lancaster. My decision to adopt an historical approach to my research resulted in my delivery of a conference paper entitled: Whose Burden, Whose Benefit? Sport development assistance in colonial and post-colonial contexts.

November 2006: Development Studies Association conference in Reading. Opportunity to network with a range of people from the international development community. The theme of the conference was the private sector in development. I presented a conference paper entitled: Private Motive, Public Good - Sports organisations and the international development agenda.

March 2007: International Studies Association conference in Chicago (Illinois) Part sponsored by UK Sport International Development department. I was involved in the organisation of two Panels on sport and development assistance. I presented a conference paper entitled Disability Sport and the Politics of Development.

My first published paper from this programme of research is entitled ‘A Question of Motives: Reciprocity, Sport and Development Assistance. It appears in the March 2007 edition of the Routledge journal European Sports Management Quarterly. A second, using the title from my September 2006 conference paper, has been submitted for consideration to the Routledge journal Sport in History. I am currently working on a third journal article, for submission to a journal dealing with disability and development, in the early summer. I was involved in the submission to Palgrave in December, of a proposal for a joint edited book on sport and development. We were delighted to receive a contract offer for the book on 25th April. The target for submission of the manuscript is spring 2008.

In-house journal
My research over the past two years has caused me to re-visit the issue of conducting inter-disciplinary investigations. This has informed our proposal to launch our in-house inter-disciplinary journal Physical Activity and Human Development in the summer of this year. Our Dean of School Sam Peach has been very supportive of this initiative and I am currently working with my colleague David Harris to prepare the framework for the journal. Colleagues across the School have been contributing enthusiastically to this project.

The Promising Researcher scheme has certainly provided valuable assistance for this programme of research. Most importantly, it has acted as a focal point and catalyst for engaging in the research process. My thanks to all involved in supporting me through this scheme.

Aaron Beacom

How to Succeed in Your Social Science Degree

2007-04-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

After a fairly long and sometimes rather vexed gestation period, this book (written by myself and Dr Hilary Arksey of York University) finally appeared on April 18th, published by Sage. Sage were brilliant as usual and have given it a nice cover and a lot of publicity.

Briefly, the book tries to use some social science insights to amend the usual study skills material (often based on pretty dubious psychology, recycled materials, and techniques abstracted from FE practice). The argument is that students are studying research techniques and methods, say, and that they might as well use these approaches to try to understand what the Academy means by things like 'critical discussion', or why it values things like 'detachment' and loathes things like plagiarism. These suggestions emerged partly from my own work with SPDC01 students doing study skills, and, further, from a paper Hilary and I wrote for the BSA Annual Conference 2005.

We'll see how it goes. Any feedback from colleagues would be very welcome.

Dave Harris

BSA conference

2007-04-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

Me again -- sorry.

The School paid for me to attend the BSA Annual Conference at the University of East London (Docklands Campus.The location was a real disappointment and the Conference was rather dull, I am afraid.

The highlight for me was the Keynote delivered by the legendary Prof B Latour. Latour is famous for popularising 'Actor Network Theory' which has been much discussed in sociology, geography and economics, but he chose to pursue some themes related to Lovelock and the latest version of the 'Gaia Hypothesis'. The speech was very French -- not PowerPoint, no notes, hilarious digs at Anglo social theory and philosophy and very witty and ironic discussion based on what we would have to do if we took Lovelock seriously.

The other session were rather disappointing --classic RAE-affected stuff I thought with little bitty papers carefully hoarding an insight or two, ready to offer the next stage in the next paper so you can get 4 in all.

I was ill for some of the sessions too, but managed to get to a couple in each slot. I shall be pleased to 'cascade' to any interested colleagues.

Dave Harris

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology

2007-04-06T04:26:00.000-07:00

Another long-running project emerges this week with the publication in hardback of Blackwell's massive Encyclopedia (US spelling). Edited by G Ritzer (of Macdonaldization fame) and an international team of the great and the good, the Encyclopedia is obviously designed for the US market. It costs about £1000 for the hardback version although there is also an online subscription facility. Contributors get free online access for one year (very useful -- I've downloaded lots of stuff already), and, evidently the relevant volume containing their contribution ( Vol V in my case). Overall, the material in the Encyclopedia seems very good, and I am really pleased to be in such expert company.

My contribution was to discuss 'hegemony and the media'. The term 'hegemony' was used extensively by a particular group of British cultural studies academics based at Birmingham Uni (CCCS) then at the OU. They have been very influential and the work is cited in countless Media, Sociology and Youth/Community Work courses -- and in Sports and Leisure courses too. My contribution was a critical one, picking up on some of the issues raised by their account of how the media work to develop hegemonic values despite appearing to be entirely neutral and 'professional'. Colleagues might know best the most famous contribution -- S.Hall on 'encoding and decoding', or the applied work on media 'moral panic' coverage of 'mugging' in 'Policing the Crisis...'.

I have written some critical work before (e.g. in my 1992 book), and it was nice to return to the issues and see if I still thought the same way, and to pick up on any recent developments.

An additional problem I had in writing my (fairly small) piece was in making it relevant to US readers as well.

Dave Harris

HLST Development Day 28 March

2007-04-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

I attended this conference (A Pedagogic Research and Development Day) in Bournemouth primarily for the sessions on bidding for HLST funding, However, I also attended 2 keynote sessions (on linking teaching and research, and employability), and several other sessions. I like to try and attend sessions on something new to me:

1. Student project work and how students perceive dissertations (including some interesting new psychology methodology combining concept maps and 'Q-methodology' to describe and analyse student perceptions)
2. Promoting a mastery motivation climate in HE (a presentation involving video recordings of coaching sessions)
3. An Introduction to the BioLab Toolbox (a collection of excellent RLOs on basic biomechanics).

I have full details of the presentations if anyone is interested, and details of a new contact in the South West Lifelong Learning Network.

Dave Harris

HEA monograph

2007-03-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

The Sociology, Anthropology and Politics LTSN (C-SAP) has finally produced the monograph on learning and teaching Social Theory* that I have been working on for months (nearly 2 years in fact). I was one of 3 editors as well as a contributor. The publication arose from a conference held in Birmingham Uni in 2005, which attracted some good papers from an international field. Another Marjon contributor was Dr Paul Sutton of Sociology

The editing process was variable but generally rather 'light touch'. I found myself having to edit the work of some senior and well-respected colleagues as well as that of Paul who then lived 4 or 5 doors away down the corridor. I hope I didn't upset anyone too much by misunderstanding, ignoring controversial bits or by doing violence to their beautifully crafted pieces. Paul was kind enough to edit mine. Light as we were, we did finally reject one paper altogether in the end.

We had all sorts of problems getting to print. A particularly interesting paper by an eminent Russian sociologist did not materialise. One of the editors had a serious illness, and so did one of the contributors. A senior contributor had one of those academic fallings-out with another one. One contributor changed jobs. Another wanted to update their chapter. A fellow editor got the different drafts of one paper mixed up and the wrong one went to print and had to be recalled. The old metaphor of herding cats sprang frequently to mind.

Finally it appeared but with last year's publication date on it!

Overall, I think some of the contributions are excellent and it was good to retain some international inputs.

Dave Harris

* Cope, J, Canaan, J., and Harris D. (eds) (2006) Learning and Teaching Social Theory, C-SAP, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15, 2TT

Guest lecture at the University of Aberystwyth (26th February, 2007)

2007-03-06T03:57:00.000-08:00

Melissa Coyle writes...

I was contacted by Dr Sally Akehurst, whom I have met previously at a BASES psychology workshop, to deliver a lecture on my applied consultancy experiences at the University of Aberystwyth. This was presented to all the BSc Sport Science students and staff within the department of Sport and Exercise Science (approximately 150).

The lecture considered the processes that are involved when working as an applied sport psychologist within professional football clubs. Particular emphasis was given to working with the youth team apprentices.

The students were informed of the key considerations into gaining access into the respective championship and league two clubs. Also the first impressions from the coaches, managers, and players were discussed, as well as the barriers that I faced within the world of professional football, and the strategies I used to overcome them.

I also evidenced my work by providing excerpts from interviews with key players I had worked with, and also the mangers thoughts as I left the club and moved down to the sunny southwest.

It was interesting to visit another institution and also meet the staff, some I knew from my undergraduate degree many years ago. They looked after me well and I hope to repay the compliment in the near future with visiting lecturers to Marjon.

NB There is now a hard copy of the Aberystwyth Newsletter giving a review of Melissa's efforts. It is available from me (dharris@marjon.ac.uk) on request

Outdoor Adventure takes off

2007-02-26T06:29:00.000-08:00

In their first Newsletter, the OA team describe a number of ventures including INSET training (team building), placement learning on a third year module, and some important individual achievements for students in gaining coaching awards in orienteering, county and national representation, and a DofE gold award.

Full details are available from Su, Mark and Louise

Applied Research

2007-01-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

With the applied research we have been doing in the past few months and course and staff developments here at Marjon it has become obvious that we have a considerable expertise in physical activity and the health agenda. It seems obvious to pursue this and market this as a Marjon specialism. I have started networking and met with a very positive response at local and regional levels and it is apparent that no one else has expertise in physical activity . As you can see I will be representing us on two groups to which you will also be invited . In addition there is an e- research group which operates on yahoo and which you may find worth while putting your name to – contact the administrator here

I hope you would like to be involved and will let you know of progress as it happens.

Ian Roberts

Active England

2007-01-12T04:46:00.000-08:00

Pip and I attended the preview of Active England this week. I hope the following comments will be useful.

The day itself was probably a little premature and the presenters were not totally up to speed in that although the outline preview worked well, the demonstration was less so and they often seemed to be unsure of the reasons or solutions for the various blips we participants found. To add to this the room suffered from the Marjon experience of the screen being out of sight line with the audience. At least at Marjon it is only the lecturers that suffer from this.

The data base is powerful and can be interrogated rigorously on your own pc and can produce up to three factor cross tabulations for a wide range of variables in a wide variety of contexts ranging from local authority up wards.

There are real shortcomings due to confidence levels and sample size. At local authority level ( sample 1,000) there were insufficient cell sizes to produce results for even the most common variables ( e.g total participation by 10year age ranges) as for diversity ( my interest) forget it. I have a hard copy explanation of the details of confidence if any one would like it.

I have unanswered doubt about the validity of the use of land lines for this telephone survey – I would have thought this would bias response to an older non mobile using population but I was assured without explanation that this was taken care of.

The survey is a 3 year rolling survey of adults in England and Wales and runs parallel to the continuous Taking Part Survey (non active recreation) but does not ask the same questions so comparision will be hard.

I was disappointed to hear a hardening of focus by the Sport England Officers towards the definition of sport . To paraphrase Star Trek - ‘yes it is sport – but just as we know it Jim’ . There seems to be a focus on excellence and sport as opposed to active recreation and health. One passing comment was to effect ‘that we don’t need to worry about the 20% couch potatoes as they will never do sport – the focus needs to be on those thinking about sport’. Being a dinosaur this reminded me of meetings with the Sports Council in the 1970s sans blazers.

Sport England have included a wide range of activities in the survey including angling, croquet and darts which hardly meet the Chief Medical Officer’s exercise prescription. This is not too much of problem as one can filter out activities very easily. More serious is the exclusion in data collection of various active pursuits that would be approved by the CMO. There is no domestic activity such as (gardening, playing with children on the swings) there is a debate about transport ( e.g walking and cycling to work) and exclusion of countryside activities with an exercise element ( e.g blood sports, bird watching, fossil hunting) which may be a small but significant part of life in the West Country (my annual fossil hunting trip usually consists of a walk of several miles and cliff climbing usually with many dozens of other liked minded people)

While there may be a case for the exclusion of the above the biggest anomaly is that apart from competitive ballroom dancing they exclude all forms of dance such as salsa, Morris, tea dances. While I can see that ‘Pole Dancing’ may have a limited and specific exercise benefit I would seriously question the exclusion of many of the other forms which form a substantial and perhaps sole exercise regime for many people and for the over 50s is possibly a major active recreational outlet. Again I have a hard copy version of the exclusion list.

Finally for those working on disability there is a lack of detail with yes or no answer to whether a person has along or short term disability. There are no details on the type of disability. Or division between mental or physical.

On the positive side while the survey will have limited value for researchers like myself who often work at micro level on ward based statistics and beneath. For policy makers and strategic analysts working at LA level and above there will be great benefits to have benchmarked and comparative data and to provide evidence to make their funding and programming decisions.

From Marjon’s point of view it will help:-

· In the planning of the new sport facilities.
. Provide good case study material and practical exercises for research methods.
· Provide materials for SPD modules.
· Occasionally be of use in our SSPELL research.

For those wishing to access the system you will need a personalised password – for details on this and the survey as a whole contact:-

Matt Roebuck our Performance Analyst (0207 273 1871)

Simon Ridd - Head of Performance and Improvement (0207 273 1845)

Jim Barrett -Improvement Manager (0207) 273 1855

Ian Roberts

Article in Link

2007-01-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

The team that received the College Teaching Fellowship (Wendy Evans, Ian Gilhespy and Dave Harris) have just had a short article printed in Link (the LTSN Hospitality etc Newsletter).

The article is entitled 'Electronic Databases for Independent Learning', and it appears in Link 17, a special edition devoted to discussing blended learning.

This is the second published output from the Fellowship team, and it complements an article in JoHLSTE 4 by Dave Harris

Sports Development Newsletter

2007-01-08T06:53:00.000-08:00

The latest edition of the Newsletter is out , in printed form. It is available from Harry Richardson

The Newsletter contains details of a number of important research, consultancy and policy initatives undertaken by the Centre for Sports Reseach and Development, including:

1. Developing the Multi-Sports Hub Club, with the College, Sport England and the Plymouth School Sport Partnership
2. Developments in placment-based learning
3. A consultancy service for several local organizations -- Ian Roberts is the contact
4. Developing a student sports qualifications database