title: An examination of the jump-and-lift factors influencing the time to reach peak catch height during a Rugby Union lineout

authors: Smith, Tiaki Brett

subjects: Biomechanics

abstract: The goal of an offensive Rugby Union lineout is to throw the ball in a manner that allows your team to maintain possession. Typically, the player catching the ball jumps and is lifted upwards by two teammates, reaching above the opposing player who is competing for the ball also. Despite various beliefs regarding the importance of the jumper's mass and attempted jump height, and lifters' magnitude and point of force application, there is negligible published data on the topic. The squeeze technique is one lifting method commonly employed by New Zealand teams during lineout plays, whereby the jumper initiates the jump quickly and the lifters provide assistance only once the jumper reaches 20-30 cm. While this strategy may reduce cues to the opposition, it might also constrain the jumper and lifters. We developed a model to explore how changes in the jumper’s body mass and attempted jump height, and lifters’ magnitude and point of force application influence the time to reach peak catch height. The magnitude of the lift force impacted the time-to-reach peak catch height the most; followed by the jumper’s (attempted) jump height and body mass; and lastly, the point of lift force application.

text: An examination of the jump-and-lift factors influencing the time to reach peak catch height during a Rugby Union lineout The goal of an offensive Rugby Union lineout is to throw the ball in a manner that allows your team to maintain possession. Typically, the player catching the ball jumps and is lifted upwards by two teammates, reaching above the opposing player who is competing for the ball also. Despite various beliefs regarding the importance of the jumper's mass and attempted jump height, and lifters' magnitude and point of force application, there is negligible published data on the topic. The squeeze technique is one lifting method commonly employed by New Zealand teams during lineout plays, whereby the jumper initiates the jump quickly and the lifters provide assistance only once the jumper reaches 20-30 cm. While this strategy may reduce cues to the opposition, it might also constrain the jumper and lifters. We developed a model to explore how changes in the jumper’s body mass and attempted jump height, and lifters’ magnitude and point of force application influence the time to reach peak catch height. The magnitude of the lift force impacted the time-to-reach peak catch height the most; followed by the jumper’s (attempted) jump height and body mass; and lastly, the point of lift force application.

year: 2017

title: Investigating National Curriculum Implementation in Papua New Guinea (PNG)

authors: Kekeya, Joseph Lingawa

subjects: curriculum, learning, student, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, mediation, internationation, activity, macro-curriculum, micro-curriculum, student-experienced curriculum, teaching

abstract: There is a national concern in Papua New Guinea (PNG) about re-construction of social systems because the education offered was irrelevant to the needs of the PNG society. The Government of PNG reformed its national education system and developed and implemented a new national curriculum for human and societal development for elementary, primary and secondary education sectors. The purpose of this study was to investigate some PNG teachers’ pedagogical decisions and actions and the nature of student learning and development in the implementation of this new national curriculum in contemporary classroom contexts. The study was carried out in two PNG schools - one an urban church school and the other a rural government school. The understanding, perceptions and ‘lived-experiences’ were explored in the implementation of the new national PNG curriculum of twelve teachers and forty-eight students (six teachers and twenty-four students in each school). Within an interpretive research paradigm, a qualitative case study approach was employed to generate data, using interviews, video observations and documentary analysis as data gathering tools. The data were analysed inductively and grouped into themes around the key research questions. The findings of the study were underpinned by theoretical frameworks of behaviourist and constructivist pedagogies of curriculum development and delivery. The study found that the PNG teachers adapted the new national curriculum by applying iterative interpretation processes to construct their own interpretation. The teachers identified and selected appropriate international knowledge and integrated this with suitable and relevant PNG indigenous knowledge. This integration is the basis on which the teachers constructed new knowledge or realities, which they delivered to the students using both constructivist teaching approaches and traditional behaviourist teaching approaches. Although the teachers’ constructed realities or knowledge appeared to be superficial rather than deep and problem solving in nature, the PNG students mediated on the teachers’ realities, and constructed their own individual and shared realities. The student learning is being described in this thesis as the long-term learning that results from micro-curriculum implementation.

text: Investigating National Curriculum Implementation in Papua New Guinea (PNG) There is a national concern in Papua New Guinea (PNG) about re-construction of social systems because the education offered was irrelevant to the needs of the PNG society. The Government of PNG reformed its national education system and developed and implemented a new national curriculum for human and societal development for elementary, primary and secondary education sectors. The purpose of this study was to investigate some PNG teachers’ pedagogical decisions and actions and the nature of student learning and development in the implementation of this new national curriculum in contemporary classroom contexts. The study was carried out in two PNG schools - one an urban church school and the other a rural government school. The understanding, perceptions and ‘lived-experiences’ were explored in the implementation of the new national PNG curriculum of twelve teachers and forty-eight students (six teachers and twenty-four students in each school). Within an interpretive research paradigm, a qualitative case study approach was employed to generate data, using interviews, video observations and documentary analysis as data gathering tools. The data were analysed inductively and grouped into themes around the key research questions. The findings of the study were underpinned by theoretical frameworks of behaviourist and constructivist pedagogies of curriculum development and delivery. The study found that the PNG teachers adapted the new national curriculum by applying iterative interpretation processes to construct their own interpretation. The teachers identified and selected appropriate international knowledge and integrated this with suitable and relevant PNG indigenous knowledge. This integration is the basis on which the teachers constructed new knowledge or realities, which they delivered to the students using both constructivist teaching approaches and traditional behaviourist teaching approaches. Although the teachers’ constructed realities or knowledge appeared to be superficial rather than deep and problem solving in nature, the PNG students mediated on the teachers’ realities, and constructed their own individual and shared realities. The student learning is being described in this thesis as the long-term learning that results from micro-curriculum implementation.

year: 2013

title: “It was… like a fight and rape club”: A foucauldian discourse analysis of New Zealand’s abuse in care inquiry, exploring child sexual abuse in residential care

authors: Simpson, Karen

subjects: child sexual abuse

abstract: Children and adolescents brought to the attention of New Zealand care and protection authorities are sometimes removed from their homes and placed into State-run residential care facilities. While the aim placing young people into residences is to improve their wellbeing, child sexual abuse is common in this setting and more pronounced than in the general population. There are many psychological theories, perspectives and movements which have attempted to explain child sexual abuse spanning from the 1800s to the present day. These partial and, at times, unsupported understandings of abuse have been shaped by socio-cultural and socio-political conditions. This has had serious implications for our collective (mis)understanding of child sexual abuse and the ways in which we respond to abuse with dominant discourse often transcending into policy, law, and the courtroom where social (in)justice occurs. In addition, despite there being three centuries of child sexual abuse research, to-date there has been limited exploration of the phenomenon in residential care settings both globally and within Aotearoa. However, the opportunity to explore child sexual abuse in this setting has availed itself with the New Zealand Government launching a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in 2018 to better understand abuse across State and faith-based settings between 1950 and 1999. This thesis aims to provide additional insights to the inquiry by exploring the different ways in which child sexual abuse in residential care is understood as well as the conditions which legitimise or silence these understandings.

A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was used to analyse 47 publicly available documents from the inquiry including statements, transcripts, and evidence briefs from survivors, survivor advocates, counsel, and representatives from institutions that provide care and protection for young people. Analysis found six discourses: control and punishment, fabrication, harmful, power and oppression, shameful, and State and institutional failure. These discourses reaffirm previous findings in sexual abuse research including sexual abuse as shameful and notions of fabrication. New insights were also found and include the use of sexual abuse as a method of controlling and punishing young people; predatory sexual behaviour in young people as a method of self-protection; cultural genocide and intergenerational care placement as victim sequelae; and the development of adaptive survival behaviours in residents in response to the State’s failures to protect them. In addition, systemic failures were uncovered including inadequacies in internal and external monitoring, failures in vetting, poor investment in professional capabilities of frontline workers, and a culture of tolerance toward abuse. Overall, the analysis found cultures of sexual violence and cultures of tolerance toward abuse within residential care, which emerge from the young person’s status as a State Ward.

text: “It was… like a fight and rape club”: A foucauldian discourse analysis of New Zealand’s abuse in care inquiry, exploring child sexual abuse in residential care Children and adolescents brought to the attention of New Zealand care and protection authorities are sometimes removed from their homes and placed into State-run residential care facilities. While the aim placing young people into residences is to improve their wellbeing, child sexual abuse is common in this setting and more pronounced than in the general population. There are many psychological theories, perspectives and movements which have attempted to explain child sexual abuse spanning from the 1800s to the present day. These partial and, at times, unsupported understandings of abuse have been shaped by socio-cultural and socio-political conditions. This has had serious implications for our collective (mis)understanding of child sexual abuse and the ways in which we respond to abuse with dominant discourse often transcending into policy, law, and the courtroom where social (in)justice occurs. In addition, despite there being three centuries of child sexual abuse research, to-date there has been limited exploration of the phenomenon in residential care settings both globally and within Aotearoa. However, the opportunity to explore child sexual abuse in this setting has availed itself with the New Zealand Government launching a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in 2018 to better understand abuse across State and faith-based settings between 1950 and 1999. This thesis aims to provide additional insights to the inquiry by exploring the different ways in which child sexual abuse in residential care is understood as well as the conditions which legitimise or silence these understandings.

A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was used to analyse 47 publicly available documents from the inquiry including statements, transcripts, and evidence briefs from survivors, survivor advocates, counsel, and representatives from institutions that provide care and protection for young people. Analysis found six discourses: control and punishment, fabrication, harmful, power and oppression, shameful, and State and institutional failure. These discourses reaffirm previous findings in sexual abuse research including sexual abuse as shameful and notions of fabrication. New insights were also found and include the use of sexual abuse as a method of controlling and punishing young people; predatory sexual behaviour in young people as a method of self-protection; cultural genocide and intergenerational care placement as victim sequelae; and the development of adaptive survival behaviours in residents in response to the State’s failures to protect them. In addition, systemic failures were uncovered including inadequacies in internal and external monitoring, failures in vetting, poor investment in professional capabilities of frontline workers, and a culture of tolerance toward abuse. Overall, the analysis found cultures of sexual violence and cultures of tolerance toward abuse within residential care, which emerge from the young person’s status as a State Ward.

year: 2024-02-25