Best Selling Books by David Kirk

This book is a concise, practical introduction to Models-based Practice (MbP), a transformative approach to physical education and sport pedagogy that uses multiple pedagogical models in the design and delivery of physical education programs. The book introduces the core concepts underpinning the MbP approach – including models such as teaching games for understanding, sport education, cooperative learning and health-based physical education – and examines its significance for teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment. With an emphasis on evidence-based practice and student learning, and full of practical tips and features to encourage critical thinking, the book explains how to develop successful, flexible and sustainable MbP programs that can deliver real educational and health and well-being benefits for children and young people, in schools or in after-school or community-based settings. Applying Models-based Practice in Physical Education is intended for current and prospective teachers of physical education who are responsible for organising and enacting programs at all grade levels. It will also be of interest to researchers, students and other sport pedagogy practitioners, such as coaches who are looking for new and innovative ways of working with children and young people.

This book explores and formulates a response to the question: How best can those held in modern systems of mass incarceration be cared for pastorally when many prisons diminish both hope and humanity? Employing the multi-disciplinary approach of practical theology, this ethnographic enquiry will be a guide for chaplains and all who strive to embody compassion wherever human flourishing is undermined. The book’s structure follows the pastoral cycle method from practical theology, remaining context-based and practice-focused throughout. Pastoral insights are illustrated with personal, poetic and movingly reflective material drawn from the lived experience of indeterminately sentenced men who did not know if or when they would be ever released. The author, a former prison chaplain, remains reflexively and humanely present in the text, modelling the profound humane regard and pastoral presence that is central to this work. This book will take the reader deeply into penal spaces on a journey of both compassion and hope.

Environmental Management for Hotels is a textbook for hospitality students that covers the relatively new field of environmental management. The reader is guided in how to make decisions which allow hotels to obtain optimum benefits for the environment whilst not threatening their own financial viability. Students are given an understanding of both the concepts and practical implications of environmental challenges relating to hotels. The case study material incorporated ties in theory with real life, and provides an international context. The text emphasizes supervisory issues which relate to the management of hospitality operations in ways which are sensitive to the impact on the environment. The main areas of environmental management featured are: *water *energy *the indoor environment *materials and waste.

This work demonstrates the basic concepts of parallel programming and GPU architecture. It explores various techniques for constructing parallel programs in detail and features case studies to illuminate the development process.

In this powerfully argued and progressive study, Kimberly Oliver and David Kirk call for a radical reconstruction of the teaching of physical education for girls. Despite forty years of theorization and practical intervention, girls are still disengaging from physical education, dropping out of physical activity, and suffering negative consequences in terms of their health and well-being as a result. This book challenges the conventional narrative that girls are somehow to blame for this disengagement, and instead identifies important new ways of working with girls, developing a new pedagogical model for ‘girl-friendly’ physical education. The book locates our understanding of the experiences of girls in physical education in the broader context of young people’s multifaceted engagements with popular physical culture. Adopting an activist perspective, it outlines a programme of action informed by principled pragmatism and based on four critical elements: student-centred pedagogy; critical study of embodiment; inquiry-based physical education centred-in-action, and listening and responding to girls over time. It explores the implications of this new thinking for teaching, research, PETE and policy, and outlines a future agenda for work in this area. Offering a profound theoretical critique of contemporary research and practice, as well as a new programme of action, Girls, Gender and Physical Education is essential reading for all researchers, advanced students and practitioners with an interest in the issues of gender, equity and inclusion in physical education.

Written specifically with A-Level students in mind, this text presents a comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of the educational, historical, social, political, cultural and psychological dimensions of performance, studied at this level.

Draws on letters and other sources to trace the experience of Bostonians George and Gerard Hughes as they progressed from apprentice pilots to flight instructors and combat pilots in the fledgling American Air Service during World War I. George was sent to France where he flew observation planes over the front lines. Gerard spent the war in Texas as an instructor, but joined his brother in France as the war ended. About a dozen photographs are included, and short sketches of people mentioned. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Sunny Patch School Was the best place to goTo study the lessons All bugs ought to know.When the first day of school arrives, Little Miss Spider is almost beside herself with excitement. She gobbles her breakfast ("a fresh flower plate") and runs all the way to Sunny Patch School. But poor Miss Spider is in for a day of frustration. She can''t seem to master the new lessons: dung digging, leaf drilling, stinging, or flying. As the day draws to a close, Miss Spider bemoans her lack of skills. Isn''t there anything she can do well? We are all soon to find out...

Miss Spider and Holley explore car lots, test drive some cars and encounter a few near misses, but all ends well thanks to the help of benevolent Moth, Sue.

IN THE EPIC HISTORICAL NOVEL SWORD OF HONOR, DAVID KIRK CONTINUES THE SAGA OF MUSASHI MIYAMOTO, THE GREATEST SWORDSMAN IN JAPANESE HISTORY, AS HE JOURNEYS TO THE ANCIENT CITY OF KYOTO TO FIGHT FOR HIS LIFE AND HIS IDEALS. Having survived the cataclysmic battle of Sekigahara, which established the mighty Tokugawa Shogunate, young Musashi Miyamoto travels through Japan determined to proclaim his revolutionary epiphany that the “way of the samurai,” the ancient code that binds warriors to their masters, needs to be abolished. But during the battle Musashi insulted an adept of the powerful Yoshioka school, and a price has been put on his head. Musashi is drawn to Kyoto, domain of the Yoshioka, driven by anger and certain that he will deal a crushing blow to the traditional samurai dogma by destroying the school. Musashi will learn, however, that the capital of the nation is rife with intrigue and potential rebellion against the newly established government, a struggle into which he unwittingly enters. Among other outcasts, Musashi will find the worth of his spectacular skill with the sword weighed against the deep cunning of manipulative Lords, and must make his reckoning with the Yoshioka, the way of the samurai, and ultimately his own nature. Only then will he be able to take one step closer to becoming the wise old sage who wrote The Book of Five Rings. Sword of Honor seamlessly blends meticulous research, mesmerizing action sequences, and a driving narrative to bring this extraordinary figure to life.

"Based on the TV episode A cloudy day in Sunny Patch, written by Steven Sullivan, from the animated TV series Miss Spider''s Sunny Patch friends"--T.p. verso.

Tertiary text introducing the socio-cultural dimensions of exercise, physical education, physical recreation and sport. Covers psychological, pedagogical, philosophical, sociological and historical aspects. Includes Australian and NZ examples, ideas for assessment tasks, a bibliography and an index. May be used with the companion volume, ''The Biophysical Foundations of Human Movement''. Also available in hardback. The authors teach in the department of human movement studies at the University of Qld.

Offers abridged versions of three of Miss Spider''s best-loved adventures.

Miss Spider worries that she is not a good mother when one of her recently hatched spiderlings goes off to find where an egg belongs.

This book explores the social construction of children''s bodies in Australian and British schools between 1870 and 1950, focusing on practices within physical training, medical inspection, and sport. The key argument is that there was a process of constructing the body in accordance with that phase of modernity Foucault calls ''disciplinary society''. The docile body produced was pliable, yet economically productive, a body that could, through close scrutiny and careful measurement, be regulated to ensure the healthy propagation of the race and a ready supply of economically productive citizens. Until 1915, a matrix of precise, meticulous and ponderous discursive practices to achieve this end was employed in Australian and British schools. The inter-war years saw a process of reconstruction, and by 1945, more liberalized forms of physical education had been introduced, which form the basis of contemporary practices that are only in the 1990s beginning to be challenged.

The creator of the Miss Spider series presents the adorable tale of Biddle Pig, who thinks she is much too pretty to be rolling around in the mud with all the other pigs, until she begins to feel lonely and decides to dive right in!

La obra ''Educación Física y Currículum. Introducción crítica'' aparece dentro de la literatura hispana específica en un momento en que el estudio del currículum despierta un gran interés dentro del mundo de la educación fisica española. Sin embargo, debemos recordar que la preocupación por los temas del currículum en la educación fisica surge, desde sus inicios, en conexión con la génesis del currículum como campo de estudio alrededor de los años veinte del siglo XX.

Como el título lo indica, un aspecto clave de la propuesta es la perspectiva reflexiva, planteada a veces con foco en la propia materia para apelar a la reformulación de sus fines, sus medios o sus principios disciplinarios, otras veces dirigida al docente, considerado como un sujeto capacitado para conducir su desarrollo profesional y modificar sus concepciones y actuaciones. Sin embargo, la reflexión que aquí se postula no quiere ni puede sustituir a la experiencia y a la acción, características fundamentales de la motricidad. Precisamente, el "giro reflexivo" supone que la motricidad no debe ser desvalorizada. El lugar de la Educación Física en la sociedad contemporánea, el papel del cuerpo en los procesos de identidad individual y social, las relaciones entre motricidad y cultura, entre actividad física y salud, el impacto de la formación inicial de los profesores en la identidad profesional, el cuestionamiento y el replanteo de la metodología y la didáctica de la Educación Física, los formatos de evaluación, son algunos de los temas en los que se centran las diferentes colaboraciones, cuya finalidad parece ser, pese a sus diversos terrenos y situaciones de origen, la de reflejar el estado de la cuestión en los tiempos que corren.

La straordinaria storia del più grande samurai di tutti i tempi Figlio di un guerriero. Padre della leggenda. Un grande romanzo che narra la straordinaria storia del ragazzo nato guerriero e diventato leggenda. Giappone, XVII secolo. Nel remoto villaggio di Miyamoto, nella provincia di Harima, vive Bennosuke, figlio del grande Munisai Shinmen, uno dei più valorosi guerrieri dell’impero. Ha tredici anni, sua madre è morta in un misterioso incendio, mentre suo padre ha abbandonato il villaggio dopo la tragedia, otto anni prima, e non ha fatto più ritorno. Di lui si prende cura lo zio Dorinbo, un monaco che spera che il ragazzo rifiuti la violenza e scelga invece la via della spiritualità e della contemplazione. Nel frattempo, però, Bennosuke si allena nelle arti della guerra sotto la guida di Tasumi, un anziano samurai. Quando un giorno, all’improvviso, il padre ferito torna a casa, il ragazzo decide che è arrivato il momento di reclamare la sua eredità: diventerà un samurai. Ma prima della gloria viene la battaglia, e Bennosuke dovrà guardare la morte negli occhi per poter essere chiamato Musashi Miyamoto, il più grande guerriero di tutti i tempi. Un''appassionante storia di dedizione, onore e tenacia L''epica storia del ragazzo che divenne il più grande samurai di tutti i tempi David Kirk ha 26 anni. Inglese, è nato a Peterborough ed è cresciuto a Stamford, nel Lincolnshire. Il suo interesse per la storia giapponese è nato quando, all’età di dodici anni, ha letto il romanzo Shogun di James Clavell. Vive e lavora a Sendai, nel nord-est del Giappone, come insegnante di inglese. L’onore del samurai è il suo straordinario romanzo d’esordio, di cui arriverà presto il seguito.

Japon, 1600. Musashi Miyamoto était le plus grand guerrier de tous les temps. Avant que lui et ses hommes ne soient vaincus lors de la bataille de Sekigahara qui a vu les Armées de l''Est renverser l''ancien pouvoir. Survivant mais seul, Musashi doute. Jusqu''alors, il avait vécu et combattu comme un samouraï, fier de sa tradition, loyal aux préceptes de la Voie. Depuis sa défaite, se soumettre aux exigences de l''Honneur, l''une des sept vertus du samouraï, signifie se donner la mort. Et Musashi veut vivre. Mais, considéré comme un ennemi de la nation, sa tête est mise à prix. S''il a renoncé à la violence, il lui faut se protéger et préparer sa vengeance contre ceux qui veulent sa mort. Pour cela, il n''a qu''un adage : « Le sabre donne la vie. Le sabre donne la mort. » Après le somptueux Samouraï, David Kirk livre une épopée captivante du Japon au XVIIe siècle et fait revivre une figure emblématique : le guerrier de légende Musashi Miyamoto, auteur du célèbre Traité des Cinq Roues. « Musashi est un personnage inoubliable et, avec ce roman, David Kirk est en passe de devenir un maître de la fiction historique. » Booklist

Adopting an innovative systems-based approach, the authors provide the reader with both an understanding of particular services and functions within the hospitality industry and an overview of the industry as whole. Using an array of international case studies, Hospitality Operations provides a comprehensive, integrated analysis of a diverse and complex industry.

Produced for unit ECS811 offered by the Faculty of Education in Deakin University''s Open Campus Program.