Club Experience Research Articles

Occasioning possibilities, not certainties: professional learning and peer‐led book clubs

How might four teachers working together in a book group utilize their learning to better ensure students’ academic success? In what ways might this collective’s learning emerge as the group worked together? Questions such as these prompted the author to investigate the professional learning that occurred during book club sessions with one group of teachers enrolled in a graduate course. Her intention in presenting this case study of four elementary teachers and the complex learning associated with the book club process is two‐fold: to describe how the teachers participated in peer‐led book clubs and made use of the book club experience as a practice field in which they rehearsed instruction they would conduct with students; and to conclude this discussion by focusing on how book clubs are potential communities of practice that exemplify complex professional learning.

English is getting weirder, and so R wee

ABSTRACTAn exploration of how technology is making English – and the human race – evolve. In The Dead Emcee Scrolls, poet and rap artist Saul Williams describes how his writing was transformed by a dance club experience in which the club's beats reset his biorhythms. He writes, Hail Mary. Mother of God. / Got the whole host of angels in my iPod (Williams, 2006:16). Then, later, Neck back jump kiss BREAK. / Uprock freeze pop lock BREAK. / Don't stop don't stop snap BREAK (30). These lines illustrate a growing use of urban hip-hop vernacular that has been distributed with alarming efficiency by the global music trend, through downloadable music and ipods. Music and its beats have created a rhythm to which this iGeneration dialogues, both internally and externally. Technology has given way to a continuum for emotional highs that can be sustained at any place and time. The technological revolution influences the way we socialize, collaborate and exchange acoustic information. Our changing and globalized subjectivities, as well as increasingly powerful acoustic technology, have exerted changes on the English language, making visible a significant revolution in the shaping of language within an increasingly mobile and technological world.

Elite Athletes as Migrants in Danish Women's Handball

A number of studies have been done on the migration of male athletes in well-known sport disciplines such as football. However, we lack knowledge about migration in smaller sport disciplines and about female athletes as sport migrants. The present article examines first of all the growing number of foreign players in the Danish women's handball league from 1999 to 2007. Second, the athletes' motives for moving to Danish handball clubs are categorized, and third, the migrants' experiences in Danish handball clubs are related to the strategies of integration in two prominent handball clubs. The analysis reveals, among others, family- and space-related aspects which have not been covered in the literature on sports migration. Moreover, integration theory forms a useful supplement to migration theory in explaining the ways in which the club experiences of the migrants affect their motives.

Using Journal Clubs to Promote Skills for Evidence-Based Practice

Occupational therapy students in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, participated in a 9-week journal club experience within an evidence-based practice course. Working in groups of seven, students were provided with an overall framework to develop and conduct weekly journal club sessions. They determined the focus and direction for their journal club section, decided on the number, type, and focus of research articles that were discussed each week, created methods for evaluating individual and group performance, and determined the effect of the journal club experience on their knowledge and professional behavior. Students completed a weekly reflective journal and at the conclusion of the course, results were uniformly positive. Review of the reflexive journals indicated substantive changes in the students' professional development, commitment to evidence-based practice, and perceived responsibility to demonstrate leadership in this area.

Research on the Critical Factors Affecting Taiwan Secondary School Teachers’ Initial Acquisition of Formal Teaching Position

This research treated the secondary school teachers as the research scale and the research targets included the following: secondary school (employ unit), center of teacher education, and qualified teachers. In terms of these three groups of people, the topics of exploration focused on the perception of suitable teachers, perception of evaluation standard during the process of teacher examination and the relationship among teacher examination systems. The research was managed by two phases: the first phase referred to literature reorganization, expert interview, the qualities and conditions of suitable teachers, important evaluation standard during the process of teacher examination and teacher examination system used; the second phase included questionnaire survey, employ school acquisition, the perception of centers of teacher education and qualified teachers toward the suitability condition and examination evaluation standard in the first phase and teacher examination system used. This research found out that as to the perception of suitable teachers, through data collection, there were six factors reorganized. The levels of their importance were as follows: education devotion, teaching capacity, class management, capacity to guide special students, capacity to communicate with the parents and the will to undertake administrative works. Noticeably, employee unit and centers of teacher education apparently valued class management more, compared with trained teachers; as to evaluation standard of examination, the analytical result found out that the perception of three groups were different in terms of the views toward educational works, written examination data, candidate’s age, club experience at school and capacity to use multimedia support teaching materials. This research further proposed six suggestions for centers of teacher education and trained teachers: (1) employ schools considerably valued educational devotion; (2) trained teachers tended to neglect the importance of class management; (3) employee unit considerably cared about the new teachers’ competence to use multimedia support teaching materials; however, trained teachers did not have the same view; (4) employee unit considerably cared about new teachers’ views toward educational works as well as the candidates’ ages; (5) generally speaking, trained teachers neglected the importance of club experience at school; (6) the data revealed that written examination data was not relatively important in terms of teacher examination

Youth Participation in Radio Listening Clubs in Malawi*

This article reports on a qualitative research study that used community radio and radio listening clubs to examine the involvement of youth in community debate in Malawi. The study sample was chosen from young members of radio listening clubs in Mangochi district in Malawi's southern region. Research topics included the radio listening clubs' mode of operation in relation to community radio, the issues dominating discussion in each radio listening club and youths' experiences of constraints placed on debate. Findings suggest that community radio and its associated radio listening clubs have together created an emerging public sphere for the local community, including a space for youths and other disadvantaged groups to discuss solutions to local socio-economic problems. Intergenerational factors and the divisive nature of the political environment at the national level, however, place some constraints on debate in the clubs. While young club members avoid the more divisive political issues, they, nevertheless, freely discuss those factors that affect socio-economic development, such as HIV/AIDS, general community health, agriculture/farming and education.

Life after the Bee: A Teen-Led Geography Club Experience

Life after the Bee: A Teen-Led Geography Club Experience

Beyond body: Buying and selling attitude and fantasy

The acceptance‐rejection dynamic associated with strip clubs creates a conundrum as to whether these establishments are purveyors of deviant leisure. Strip club imagery is used to market clothes, music and movies while, simultaneously, strip clubs face regulations that zone them to specific areas and dictate the amount of nudity allowed. The purpose of this study was to use ethnographic methods to shed light on specific components of the strip club setting and perceptions of buyers and sellers. The meanings derived from open coding of ethnographic fieldnotes and interview data suggested four integrative themes: (1) manipulation of external and internal spaces; (2) participation impetus for buyers and sellers; (3) role expectation and removal; and (4) relationship development and connectedness. The aura of deviance that pervades the strip club experience was found to negate the chic imagery suggested by the mass media.

Ethics, Agency, and Desire in Two Strip Clubs: A View From Both Sides of the Gaze

In the following two performance texts, the author uses autoethnography and feminist and performance theory to explore agency and ethics as they operate in the culture of a strip club. Part 1 is an autoethnography in which the author investigates issues of agency from a dancer’s perspective. In part 2, the author reports and reflects on her experience in a gay male strip club, writing from the position of spectator, customer, and ethnographer. By exploring this site from both ends of the gaze, the author hopes to complicate and problematize notions of agency, as well as call into question research ethics, especially when these ethics collide with desire in the field.

From Outside-In to Inside-Out: A Qualitative Analysis of Childhood Motivation by Achievers in AWANA Programs

This study explored the motivational factors of elementary students participating in AWANA, an evangelical Christian religious club. A qualitative research design was employed to gather data from 52 participants in six states. Participants consisted of 24 male and 28 female sixth grade students in the final year of club participation who were eligible to complete the program in Spring 2004. Involvement with AWANA entails Scripture memory and other character-building activities. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions regarding their overall club experience and motivation. Results were analyzed to assess motivational factors contributing to long-term club participation and completion of the program. By long-term, we indicate that the majority of students had participated in the program enough years to complete the required books for the Timothy Award. Overall, we found that award recipients began AWANA with an outside-in, or extrinsic, motivation. However, by the time they achieved their awards, they seemed to have converted to more of an inside-out, or intrinsic, motivation.

Evidence-based medicine journal club

Critical Care is introducing a new section to the website http://ccforum.com – the evidence-based medicine journal club. The aim of this section is to help individuals to evaluate critically the current literature and assess the likelihood of it changing clinical practice. A journal club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to evaluate critically the clinical application of recent articles in the medical literature. As an entity, journal clubs have a long history in postgraduate medical education, which is well documented by Linzer [1]. The earliest reference to a journal club is found in a book of memoirs and letters by the late Sir James Paget [2], a British surgeon and one of the founders of modern pathology. He describes a group at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London in the mid-1800s with 'a kind of club ... a small room over a baker's shop near the Hospital-gate where we could sit and read the journals.' It is believed that Sir William Osler established the first formal journal club at McGill University in Montreal in 1875, though Osler himself might have been aware of similar gatherings that were taking place elsewhere [3]. The purpose of Osler's early journal club was 'for the purchase and distribution of periodicals to which he could ill afford to subscribe'. Over the ensuing one and a half centuries, journal clubs have taken a variety of forms that have evolved to meet the needs of the participants. Three goals, however, have persisted over the years: to keep up with current literature, to impact clinical practice, and to teach critical reading skills [1]. Evidence-based medicine is '... the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.' [4]. The term 'evidence-based medicine' was coined at McMaster Medical School in Canada in the 1980s [5]. Some important concepts regarding the implementation of evidence-based medicine were presented in a classic series – entitled Users' Guides to the Medical Literature – that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association from 1993 to 2000 [6]. When using the principles of evidence-based medicine to evaluate an article critically, we seek to answer two questions [7]. First, are the results of the study valid? Second, are the results clinically useful? Many young trainees are frustrated with their early journal club experiences because too often the more senior faculty focus on the minutiae that make the answer to the first question 'maybe' or 'no', without giving a satisfactory answer to the second question. The Department of Critical Care Medicine in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine was the first academic department of critical care medicine in the USA, and it has established an international reputation for excellence in clinical care, education, and research. With its Multidisciplinary Critical Care Training Program, the Department has trained more than 550 fellows in critical care, including many of the most distinguished clinicians and researchers in the field of critical care medicine worldwide. Each month the Department convenes a multidisciplinary evidence-based journal club. With the guidance of a faculty mentor, fellows in the University of Pittsburgh Critical Care Training Program lead the discussion of an article, which is chosen based on the following criteria: the article must have been published within the past 2 years and not previously discussed in the journal club; the study must contain no major flaws of methodology; and the results of the study, if valid, must impact clinical practice in some way. After the fellow's presentation, the article is open for debate. As is the case in many journal clubs, things sometimes get bogged down in minutiae. However, the overall tone is one of truly trying to understand the implications of the study. A point is made always to answer the second question, which has been rephrased to read as follows: 'Based on the results of this study, should we change clinical practice?' Afterward, the fellow and faculty mentor prepare a written record of the proceedings in the form of an expanded abstract with a three to four paragraph commentary. These proceedings, previously available only to members of the Department, will now be available in Critical Care online. To say that things have changed considerably since Osler's time would be a gross understatement. It is unlikely that he could have imagined the dissemination of journal club proceedings over the internet. Even so, we are sure that he would approve.

Structured angel groups in the USA: The Dinner Club experience

The angel marketplace has evolved over the past 20-30 years from an informal, word-of-mouth network dominated by 'lone wolf' chequebook angels making deals occurring on an ad hoc basis after cursory due diligence to a much more professional and sophisticated approach. The emergence since the mid-1990s of organized groups of angels has been responsible for this change. Structured angel groups and clubs are providing a more efficient market place for entrepreneurs and enable angels to find deals more effectively and invest in deals that they would never otherwise have been able to do. The activities and operation of the Dinner Club, one of the leading angel groups in the USA, based in the Washington DC area, is described.

Youth Functioning and Experiences in Inner-City After-School Programs Among Age, Gender, and Race Groups

Many dangers and challenges face inner-city minority children during their after-school hours. Youth development programs provide an alternative to spending this time unsupervised. We examined the relationship between children's experiences in selected urban Boys and Girls Clubs and child functioning. Because the sample (N = 296) consisted of African American and Hispanic boys and girls, aged 10-18, we were able to compare these relationships across race, gender, and age groups. There was no relationship between simple participation levels and child functioning, but significant linkages were identified between specific elements of the club experience and functioning. Relationships with club staff members and participation in club activities were associated with better functioning for older boys, a subgroup that is at considerable risk for delinquency. In addition, enjoyment of the club and not feeling badly treated there were associated with better functioning for all groups of children.

Social Club or Compulsory Experience: reflections on the proper role of volunteers in record offices

Description du role des personnels benevoles au centre d'archives de Canterbury : qui sont ces benevoles, que font-ils exactement, quelles aides apportent-ils a la gestion quotidienne des archives ?

Evaluating medical residentsʼ literature-appraisal skills

Measuring critical-appraisal skills is a key step in assessing physicians' abilities to engage in self-directed learning. The authors developed an instrument to evaluate the abilities of residents to critically appraise a journal article. In 1991, 62 residents in the categorical internal medicine program at the New England Medical Center were asked to respond to a questionnaire, evaluate a sample article, and complete a self-assessment of competence in evaluation of research. Critical-appraisal skill was determined by calculating the resident's deviations from a "gold standard" critique developed through a modified Delphi technique, using a panel of five physicians. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to compare the residents' actual and self-perceived abilities. Twenty-eight residents returned the questionnaire, for a response rate of 45%. The composite score for the residents' objective assessments was 63% of the gold standard, and was not significantly correlated with post-graduate year, prior journal club experience, or self-assessed critical-appraisal skill. After further validation in other settings, the assessment instrument in this study may be used to objectively assess critical-reading skills. It may also provide feedback and measure outcomes for interventions designed to improve critical reading.

Characteristics of agricultural input package users in communal clubs serviced by Acat in KwaZulu: A note

Characteristics of communal club members who use input packages are studied using a survey of communal clubs serviced by Africa Co‐operative Action Trust (Acat) in KwaZulu during 1989. Discriminant analysis shows that full input package adopters tend to belong to older clubs, have less formal savings and receive more visits each year from KwaZulu Department of Agriculture (KDA) extension officers. They also have a greater proportion of land under sugar‐cane, larger farm sizes and a higher rand monetary value of livestock. Members of older clubs benefit from greater club experience in ordering inputs and liquidity for securing discounts on bulk orders. Clubs also enable scarce KDA extension manpower resources to be used more effectively by focusing extension efforts on groups rather than individual farmers. Sugar‐cane production probably indicates member willingness to innovate and the availability of funds to buy complete input packages for other crops. Increased access to land promotes input package adop...

The therapeutic club

In Israel, where there exists a highly developed network of vocational rehabilitation services for discharged psychiatric patients, there are few organized programs of social rehabilitation. Accordingly, two years Shalvata Psychiatric Center, a medium-sized psychiatric hospital near Tel Aviv, opened a therapeutic social club in its satellite community clinic in the town of Raanana. The authors describe the establishment of the club and various critical facets of the on-going club experience. The club program appears to fulfill a variety of highly important therapeutic needs, and its positive results conform with those reported elsewhere. Among the rehabilitation benefits which can be attributed to such therapeutic clubs are: (1) a rich source of social stimulation, (2) the opportunity to help members improve their repertoire of social skills, (3) the separation of members from their overburdened families several evenings each week, (4) crisis intervention possibilities, and (5) continuous aftercare contact between professional mental health workers and a high risk population. One important result may be the reduction of the re-hospitalization rate among former patients who participate in the club.

Florida 4-H Horse Member Advancement Program Level IV

This program is designed to help members understand principles of horse management and the application of these to their horses, help them develop a high degree of proficiency in horse handeling and horsemanship, allow them to participate in a broad range of 4-H Club experiences, and allow them to assist younger members.