Evaluating Approaches to Physical Literacy Through the Lens of Positive Youth Development

The potential of physical activity and sport programs to promote positive youth development (PYD) is well-recognized among youth sport researchers and practitioners. More recently, physical literacy has gained traction among sport organizations as an important component of long-term athlete development. With conceptual roots in academic writing, two approaches to physical literacy emerged: a holistic approach, encompassing cohesive developmental processes and outcomes; and a performance-driven approach, focused largely on physical competencies and performance. This article will evaluate the dual approaches to physical literacy through the lens of PYD. By pairing the theoretical foundation of the holistic approach with the attention to measurement in the performance-driven approach, we subsequently propose an integrated approach to physical literacy grounded firmly in sport and physical activity PYD research. Guided by this approach, we offer key insights and practical recommendations for the implementation of programs that seek to foster both physical literacy and PYD.     

The Reality of Sustaining Community-Based Sport and Physical Activity Programs to Enhance the Development of Underserved Youth: Challenges and Potential Strategies

Many community-based sport and physical activity programs take a positive youth development approach when operating in underserved communities around the world (Forneris, Whitley, & Barker, 2013). However, one of the biggest challenges for these programs is sustainability (Lindsey, 2008). The purpose of this article is to present the 3 authors’ experiences related to program sustainability when working with community-based sport and physical activity programs using a positive youth development approach in underserved communities. The authors describe the challenges faced with program sustainability, including ineffective development approaches, building strong relationships with community partners, knowledge translation, and securing funding. Also described are the strategies used to overcome these challenges, such as planning, capacity building, recruitment, and evaluation. This article is intended to stimulate more open and honest discussions about the realities of positive youth development program sustainability around the world.     

Interrogating Positive Youth Development Through Sport Using Critical Race Theory

ABSTRACT

Sport has the potential to serve as a context in which youth can develop as players and people. Positive youth development (PYD) through sport is a prevalent strength-based approach that aims to promote life skills acquisition in youth participants. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the utility of critically interrogating PYD through sport using critical race theory (CRT). Select key tenets of CRT serve as analytical tools that can highlight potentially problematic assumptions that underline current approaches to PYD through sport. Interrogation of PYD through sport using CRT exposes its limitations in theory, research, and practice. This race-centered perspective can help to reimagine sport coaching for positive development from a more socially responsible, critical praxis.     

Composition-Effects of Context-based Learning Opportunities on Students’ Understanding of Energy

Context-based learning has become a widespread approach in science education. While positive motivational effects of such approaches have been well established empirically, clear results regarding cognitive aspects of students’ learning are still missing. In this article, we argue that this circumstance might be mainly rooted in the definition of context itself. Based on this argument, we shift from the issue of if contexts are cognitively beneficial to focus on the question of which composition of contexts is, at least by tendency, more effective than another. Based on theories of conceptual change, we therefore conducted a small-scale intervention study comparing two groups of students learning in different sets of contexts focusing on the same scientific concept—the cross-cutting concept of energy. Results suggest that learning in a more heterogeneous set of contexts eases transfer to new contexts in comparison to learning in a more homogeneous set of contexts. However, a more abstract understanding of the energy concept does not seem to be fostered by either of these approaches. Theoretical as well as practical implications of these finding are discussed.     

The Costs and Benefits of Early Sport Specialization: A Critical Review of Literature

ABSTRACT

There is a growing trend toward specialization in American youth sport, evident in the number of elite youth competitions and position statements from major medical organizations. Despite growing interest on this topic for kinesiology professionals within higher education, there is a dearth in research regarding the relationship between specialization and athlete health outcomes, especially psychosocial outcomes. This critical review describes specialization theory and the limited extant research on the costs and benefits of single-sport specialization. Topics include: (a) the proposed benefits of specialization from the performance perspective; (b) early specialization and alternative sport participation pathways; (c) the posited psychosocial and physical health risks of sport specialization; (d) ethical concerns; and (e) methodological issues and recommendations for future research. Deeper understanding of the costs and benefits of sport specialization has significant practical implications for youth athletes’ performance and well-being and for other relevant stakeholders in the youth sport system.     

Improving educational outcomes for at‐risk students

Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of at‐risk youth (n = 593), this article reports on the analysis of factors that enabled these youth to succeed at school. It considers the impact of three baseline factors (age, gender, ethnicity) and a number of time‐dynamic factors [positive school environment, additional educational support, positive peer and parent relationships, exclusion/expulsion from school, depression and externalising individual risk, as well as the involvement of a range of services (mental health, justice, welfare)] upon educational progress. Over time, the educational status of this group of youth deteriorated. Differences were observed for indigenous, older and male youth who had poorer outcomes on average. Positive peer groups and a positive school environment predicted better outcomes, while the use of harsh disciplinary practices such as expulsion was the strongest predictor of poorer educational outcomes and had a pervasive negative impact on all three educational progress measures. Formal services did not make an appreciable difference to educational outcomes, while the provision of additional educational support only contributed to keeping youth enrolled in educational programmes but did not appreciably improve their educational outcomes. Improving educational outcomes for at‐risk youth requires a pan‐system response, whereby schools reduce the use of expulsion and create a positive school climate, other professionals support schools to retain challenging students at school and the positive resources generated by pro‐social peer groups are harnessed.     

A Review of the Game-Based Approaches to Coaching Literature in Competitive Team Sport Settings

ABSTRACT

Game-Based Approaches (GBAs) have been advocated as a pedagogy to improve decision-making, skill execution, and physical fitness in physical education teaching and sports coaching. To date, no review paper has reported on the use of GBAs in competitive team sport settings. The purpose of this article was to review the research evidence conducted on GBAs specifically within competitive team sport settings and discuss the implications of these findings for sports coaching researchers and practitioners. The current review identified 23 articles investigating GBAs in competitive team sport settings. The review supports the efficacy of GBAs in the development of athlete decision-making and tactical awareness. GBAs promote personal and social development (e.g. player responsibility) along with positive affective outcomes for athletes (i.e. motivation, enjoyment). There was less support for the development of technical skill through GBAs. The review concludes by identifying future research directions and implications for competitive team sport coaches’ practice.     

Instructional Strategies to Promote Incremental Beliefs in Youth Sport

Implicit beliefs about the nature of human abilities have significant motivational, behavioral, and affective consequences. The purpose of this article was to review the application of implicit beliefs to the youth sport context and to provide theoretically derived and evidence-based instructional strategies to promote adaptive implicit beliefs about human abilities within this context. A narrative overview of theory and a review of research pertaining to implicit beliefs in education, sport, and physical activity are undertaken. Theoretically derived and evidence-based instructional strategies are outlined, and specific coaching behaviors are suggested. Six instructional strategies to promote adaptive implicit beliefs in these contexts are suggested: focusing on effort and persistence, facilitating challenge, promoting the value of failure, defining success as effort, the promotion of learning, and providing high expectations. It is concluded that instructional strategies may be used to facilitate positive motivational, behavioral, and affective outcomes for young people within a sport context.     

Multiple Service Use: The impact of consistency in service quality for vulnerable youth

Little is known about the way in which variations in service quality influence outcomes when youth are clients of more than one service system. This article reports on a study of 1,210 adolescents (aged 13–17 years), half were concurrent clients of two or more services and half were not involved in two or more services. Youth completed a self-report questionnaire administered by a trained interviewer. It was hypothesized that youth reporting two positive service experiences would report lower risks, higher resilience, and better outcomes than youth reporting inconsistent or two negative service experiences and that their resilience, risks, and outcomes would be similar to those of youth not involved in two or more services. MANCOVA was used to determine the relationship among service quality and resilience, risk, and outcomes with four covariates that assessed family and neighborhood environments, history of abuse and neglect, and chronic need. Results indicate that service quality had an effect on resilience, risks, and outcomes. These relationships were mediated quite strongly by the influence of the risks youth faced in their neighborhoods and to a lesser extent by the other three covariates. Of the three dependent variables, risk appeared to be the most consistently influenced by all the covariates, and it also differentiated service experience groups. Results point to the importance of services developing strategies to effectively address risks confronted by youth and also to ensure that when more than one service is involved with youth, consistency in service delivery is achieved.     

Interdisciplinary Research: A Promising Approach to Investigate Elite Performance in Sports

While the call for interdisciplinary studies has been loud and clear over the last decade or so, the number of interdisciplinary publications in sport sciences is rather limited. One of the reasons for this scarcity is the complexity of the research process itself. Still, the combination and integration of information from different scientific disciplines seems to be important to better explain how elite performance comes about. In this article, we focus on this issue and discuss the advantages of interdisciplinary research for understanding how elite athletes are able to achieve such high-proficiency levels. The first section provides an overview of the studies that investigated elite performance in sports. In the second section, we focus on the issue of interdisciplinarity and illustrate how the ecological–dynamical approach and the concept of dimensional reduction can be used to explain how elite performers cope with the complex nature of sport skills. In the last section, we present a research outline and some practical considerations that can be helpful for researchers who aim to study sport skills from an interdisciplinary perspective.     

基于ESB的面向构件的开发模式研究

软件构件的出现提高了软件生产的效率,同时做为SOA的核心技术的ESB提供了综合、灵活而且一致的集成方法。本文在这两种技术的基础上,提出了一种基于ESB的构件开发模式。利用该开发模式,可以快速高效地建立柔性、健壮性、鲁棒性较好的服务构件,并使构件的装配和部署进一步简化,从装配和部署角度提高软件开发的整体速度。该开发模式对各行业领域的软件和构件开发都具有实际的参考价值。     

过程语体模式在写作教学中的运用

写作是英语教学中的一个关键环节,学生写作水平的高低直接反映了学生的英语语言水平。简要介绍了在写作教学实践中先后出现的三种教学方法——成品写作法、过程写作法和语体写作法。深入了解这些方法的基本原理与实质对写作教师大有裨益。分析了上述三种理论的长处与不足,并进一步探讨了将过程写作法和语体写作法结合起来以创立一种更有效的写作模式——过程语体法的可能性。     

Searching for evidence of curricular effect on the teaching and learning of mathematics: Lessons learned from the two projects

The two research projects described and discussed in the special issue provided much needed longitudinal empirical data to show the curricular influence on classroom instruction and student learning outcomes. The findings have helped to advance our understanding of whether the reform curricula can bring about positive changes in classroom instruction and student learning outcomes and how such changes might be sustained. In this article we synthesize the results from the two studies and discuss several lessons learned from the projects about investigating and understanding curricular effects on the teaching and learning of mathematics.     

The Relationship Between Learning Approaches to Part‐Time Study of Management Courses and Transfer of Learning to the Workplace

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ learning approaches to study on part‐time, distance‐learning management courses, and transfer of their learning to the workplace. The relationship between these two variables has rarely been considered before, as they emanate from research areas that have remained distinct. Three learning approaches are identified by ASSIST, the instrument used in this study: the deep approach, the strategic approach, and the surface‐apathetic approach. Transfer of learning was measured by student self‐report. The deep approach was closely related to transfer of learning from the course to the workplace but strategic and surface‐apathetic approaches did not show a significant association. Contrary to expectations, academic grades also showed no significant association with transfer of learning. The findings are discussed in relation to cognitive changes proposed to occur during transfer of learning.     

Examining the Earnings Trajectories of Community College Students Using a Piecewise Growth Curve Modeling Approach

ABSTRACT

Policymakers have become increasingly concerned with measuring—and holding colleges accountable for—students’ labor market outcomes. In this article we introduce a piecewise growth curve approach to analyzing community college students’ labor market outcomes, and we discuss how this approach differs from two popular econometric approaches: Mincerian and individual fixed-effects models. Our results suggest that three assumptions underpinning econometric approaches—that across-student variation is constant across time, that the model specifies a counterfactual that is appropriate for all members of the sample, and that the impacts of a given award are fixed across time—may not be well founded. We then highlight how insights gained from the growth curve approach can be used to strengthen evolving econometric analyses of labor market returns.     

Teaching in a play-based curriculum: Theory,practice and evidence of developmental education for young children

This article focuses on the possibilities of teaching in a play-based curriculum, which has become an issue of international relevance. As a domain of study, the Developmental Education approach was taken in the early grades of Dutch primary schools (grades 1–4, ages 4–8). The article describes the theoretical basis of the approach and how it is elaborated in a play-based curriculum for early years classrooms. Particularly the teachers’ strategies for the promotion of development will be discussed in more detail. Finally, the article presents a piece of the evidence base of this approach by reporting a research on vocabulary acquisition. Despite methodological limitations of the empirical study, the evidence suggests that teaching in a play-based curriculum is not only theoretically plausible and practically feasible, but also seems to be effectively useful for the attainment of positive outcomes (on vocabulary learning) as compared to a strictly teacher-driven approach.     

The need for culturally sensitive sexuality education in a pluralised Nigeria: But which kind?

A substantial number of studies have been conducted on sexuality education in Nigeria. These provide evidence of the positive impact of sexuality education on the psychosocial well-being of children and youth and the value of sexuality education for the sexual health of young people. Yet another research has investigated the views of parents on the school-based sexuality education of children and the different models and approaches employed. All of these studies implicitly reflect an issue that has not yet been sufficiently discussed. Nigeria is a uniquely pluralised country, with a multitude of cultures and sexual cultures. The implications of this diversity for policy and practice in sexuality education and for how sexuality education has (or has not) responded to this heterogeneity are rarely considered. This article addresses this gap by seeking to conceptualise how sexuality education might proactively address the cultural diversity of Nigeria. It begins by sketching out key features of this diversity in Nigeria and highlights the need for a culturally sensitive approach. Thereafter, there is a critical engagement with three possible approaches that sexuality education might take. Highlighting the weaknesses of monocultural, multicultural and transcultural approaches, this article argues for an open-cultural stance as the best means of fostering culturally sensitive sexuality education.     

浅析抚州市高校体育场馆的经营与管理

进入二十一世纪,市场经济体制月趋深入社会的各个方面,引发传统的经济的大变革。在新形式下探索高校体育场馆的经营与管理．既是时代所趋也人心所向。本文采用文献资料法、逻辑推理法、调查法．对高校体育场馆的经营与管理进行了探讨。     

Youth Development in North American High School Sport: Review and Recommendations

Millions of high school student-athletes in North America practice sport, and national federations communicate through their mission statements that this fosters student-athletes’ positive development. The purpose of the current study was to review the recent literature to examine whether the educational claims made for youth development in the context of high school sport are substantiated by empirical evidence. The review indicates that recent research efforts have focused primarily on the positive outcomes and that much less is known of the possible negative outcomes of participation in high school sport. Researchers have examined stakeholders’ perspectives on development, but studies are scarce that objectively measure the actual developmental outcomes of participation in high school sport. The little available evidence indicates that adult stakeholders seldom interact and do not collaborate to foster student-athlete development. This narrative review provides insights on the current status of research on high school sport, and recommendations are provided to further facilitate youth development in this setting.