The role of task and ego-oriented climate in explaining students’ bright and dark motivational experiences in Physical Education

Background: A distinction is made in Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) between task-oriented (i.e. effort, intra-individual progress, and self-comparison) and ego-oriented (i.e. inter-individual progress and normative comparison) climates. Combining insights from AGT and Self-Determination Theory (SDT), studies in the PE context have shown that a task-oriented climate positively relates to need satisfaction, although the findings regarding the motivating role of an ego-oriented climate are inconsistent. Moreover, little is known about the role of task- or ego-oriented climates in explaining experiences of basic psychological need frustration.

Purpose: Grounded in AGT and SDT, the aim of the present study was to examine if experiences of basic psychological need satisfaction and need frustration can explain why task- and ego-oriented climates elicit positive and negative motivational outcomes in PE, respectively.

Research design: Cross-sectional study.

Method: A sample of 524 secondary school students (51.1% boys, M_age?=?14.51; SD?=?1.81) from five different secondary schools participated in this study. Students reported on their perceptions of task- and ego-oriented climates, motivational regulations, basic psychological need satisfaction, and need frustration, as well as positive and negative outcomes in PE. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate our objective.

Results: We found that a task-oriented climate had a strong and positive relationship with basic psychological need satisfaction, eliciting a bright pathway to autonomous motivation and affective attitude. An ego-oriented climate was positively related to basic psychological need frustration, eliciting a dark pathway to amotivation and boredom. A negative cross-path from task-oriented climate to basic psychological need frustration was also found, while no significant cross-paths were found from ego-oriented climate to basic psychological need satisfaction.

Conclusions: This study provides a better understanding of the mechanisms that explain why task- and ego-oriented climates shape students’ motivational experiences in PE lessons. It is suggested that a task-oriented climate elicits a bright pathway towards more optimal functioning, because it fosters experiences of need satisfaction and buffers against experiences of need frustration. In contrast, an ego-oriented climate is primarily positively related to feelings of need frustration and negative motivational outcomes. Practical implications for PE teacher training are discussed.     

Technological research in the EU is less efficient than the world average. EU research policy risks Europeans’ future

We have studied the efficiency of research in the EU by a percentile-based citation approach that analyzes the distribution of country papers among the world papers. Going up in the citation scale, the frequency of papers from efficient countries increases while the frequency from inefficient countries decreases. In the percentile-based approach, this trend, which is uniform at any citation level, is measured by the e_p index that equals the P_{top 1%}/P_{top 10%} ratio. By using the e_p index we demonstrate that EU research on fast-evolving technological topics is less efficient than the world average and that the EU is far from being able to compete with the most advanced countries. The e_p index also shows that the USA is well ahead of the EU in both fast- and slow-evolving technologies, which suggests that the advantage of the USA over the EU in innovation is due to low research efficiency in the EU. In accord with some previous studies, our results show that the European Commission’s ongoing claims about the excellence of EU research are based on a wrong diagnosis. The EU must focus its research policy on the improvement of its inefficient research. Otherwise, the future of Europeans is at risk.     

Delinking rhetorics of neoliberalism: An analysis of South American leftist presidents’ speeches

We analyze the so-called Socialism of the twenty-first century in which nine South American governments turned to the left over the last 15 years. This South American socialist turn is seen as a delinking from the logics of dependency and pure neoliberalism. To explore the rhetorics that underlie this delinking process, we conducted both a macroanalysis and an intradiscursive rhetorical analysis of the inauguration and most significant speeches of all of the leftist South American presidents elected after 1999. We claim that a common critique of neoliberalism underlies the South American presidents’ speeches, which manifests through specific rhetorics concerning participatory democracy, social inclusion, and environmental protection. When they became transnational, these delinking rhetorics crafted a decolonial critique that calls for more indigenous models of development.     

Timescales for exploratory tactical behaviour in football small-sided games

The aim of this study was to identify the dynamics of tactical behaviour emerging on different timescales in football small-sided games and to quantify short- and long-term exploratory behaviour according to the number of opponents. Two teams of four professional male footballers played small-sided games against two different teams with a variable number of opponents (3, 5 and 7). Data were collected using a combination of systematic observation and a non-differential global positioning system (15 Hz). The temporal diversity and structural flexibility of the players were determined by calculating the dynamic overlap order parameter q, entropy and trapping strength. Analysis of the exploratory dynamics revealed two different timescales, forming a different metastable landscape of action for each constraint. Fast dynamics lasted on average a few seconds and consisted of changes in tactical patterns. The long timescale corresponded to the shared tasks of offence and defence lasting tens of seconds. The players’ tactical diversity decreased with an increasing number of opponents, especially in defence. Manipulating numerical imbalance is likely to promote changes in the diversity, unpredictability and flexibility of tactical solutions. The fact that the temporally nested structure of constraints shaped the emergence of tactical behaviour provides a new rationale for practice task design. The manipulation of numerical imbalance on the timescale of a few tens of seconds, on which the exploratory behaviour of players saturates, may help coaches to optimise the exploratory efficiency of the small-sided games.     

A response to strategies and tactics through participatory action research in a developmental mathematics course

This paper explores the value of participatory action research in a community college developmental mathematics course. The authors used the framework of critical mathematics education in order to understand the critical conversations of students about their learning experiences, and also to help the instructor of the course develop the curriculum that attended to student experiences. The authors also draw on Michel de Certeau’s ideas about strategies and tactics to understand how students responded to their past learning experiences. Data results from the study show that students can gain a better understanding of their own learning and subsequently develop deeper content knowledge when they are more involved in the teaching and learning process. Lastly, the authors conclude that as adult learners grow in their understanding of the learning processes and of the content being presented, participatory action research can play an important role in the entire development of thinking and intellectual engagement.     

Effects of vanadate supplementation on high fat-diet and diabetes-induced metabolic changes in liver

Normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were fed the control high starch-diet or a high fatdiet supplemented with or without sodium orthovanadate (1.5 mg/g diet) for six weeks. Plasma glucose, insulin and triacylglycerol levels and the activities of hepatic glycogen synthase, phosphorylase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme, and ATP-citrate lyase were measured in these eight groups of rats. The high fat-diet increased the levels of insulin (P<0.05) and triacylglycerol (P<0.01) in plasma and decreased the activities (P<0.001) of phosphorylase (active from and total) and the lipogenic enzymes. Vanadate supplementation led to significant (P<0.001) decreases in the elevated insulin and triacylglycerol levels whereas the enzyme activities remained unaffected. Diabetes and fat diet in combination caused 3.7-fold increases in plasma glucose and triacylglycerol levels and vanadate decreased them by 58% and 74% respectively. Vanadate improved the activities of hepatic glycogen metabolizing and lipogenic enzymes in diabetic rats when they were fed on control starch-diet but not with high fat-diet. This study shows that vanadate normalizes hyperinsulinemia and hypertriglyceridemia but not the defective hepatic glycogen metabolism in high fat-fed rats.     

Effect of a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu-simulated tournament on strength parameters and perceptual responses

This study aimed to analyse the effects of a simulated Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) tournament on vertical jump performance, grip strength test and perceived effort responses. 22 male BJJ athletes participated in a simulated tournament consisting of three 7 min matches separated by 14 min of rest. Kimono grip strength test (KGST), counter movement jump (CMJ) and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured before and after each match, while RPE of specific areas was assessed after three matches. ANOVA for repeated measures was used to compare strength parameters after each match with the level of significance set at 5%. The key results showed a significant decrease of jump height (p = 0.001) and net vertical impulse in the CMJ (p = 0.031), as well as a reduction of the number of reps in the KGST (p < 0.001). A significant increase of RPE was found throughout the matches (p < 0.001). Considering the RPE in specific areas, no differences were observed between the upper and lower body (p = 0.743). We conclude that the BJJ simulated tournament generated a decrease of performance in both upper and lower limbs and provoked a progressive increase in the effort perception over the matches.