Crawling versus Walking Infants' Perception of Affordances for Locomotion over Sloping Surfaces

14-month-old toddlers vs. 8.5-month-old crawling infants were encouraged to ascend and descend a sloping walkway (10°, 20°, 30°, and 40°). Infants in both locomotor groups overestimated their ability to ascend slopes. However, on descending trials where falling was more aversive, most toddlers switched from walking to sliding positions for safe descent, but crawlers plunged down headfirst and many fell at each increment. Toddlers touched and hesitated most before descending 10° and 20° slopes, and they explored alternative means for descent by testing out different sliding positions before leaving the starting platform. In contrast, crawlers touched and hesitated most before descending 30° and 40° slopes, and they never explored alternative sliding positions. In addition, we analyzed measures of locomotor skill and experience in relation to children's ability to perceive affordances. Findings indicate that children must learn to perceive affordances for locomotion over slopes and that learning may begin by fine-tuning of exploratory activity.     

Return to play after acute infectious disease in football players

Abstract

Acute infectious diseases are common in athletes and can impair their ability to train and to compete. Furthermore, continuing exercise during infectious diseases may lead to prolongation or aggravation of illness with severe acute or chronic organ manifestations. Therefore, even simple infectious diseases require a sufficient period of convalescence and recovery, during which exercise may be not allowed. Nowadays, especially in professional football with high pressures on players, staff and clubs due to broad public interests as well as financial constraints, the return-to-play decision is of utmost significance. Based on previous suggestions and our own experience within amateur and professional athletes and football players, this article aims to give a short overview on return-to-play decisions after common acute infectious diseases in football players.     

Injury prediction in veteran football players using the Functional Movement Screen™

ABSTRACT

The Functional Movement Screen? (FMS?) is aimed at assessing fundamental movements and is often used to identify players’ injury risk. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the FMS? can be used to predict injuries in veteran footballers (aged > 32 years). Eighteen veteran football teams (n = 238) were recruited and prospectively followed for 9 months. The players (44 ± 7 years; 178 ± 7 cm, 84 ± 11 kg) performed the FMS? at the start of the study period. Players’ exposure hours and injuries were recorded. The difference of FMS? overall score between injured and uninjured players was not significant (11.7 ± 2.9 vs 12.2 ± 2.8 points; Mann-Whitney U-test P = 0.17). Players scoring <10 (score < 1 standard deviation [SD]) below the mean) had a significantly higher injury incidence (z-statistics P < 0.05) compared to an intermediate reference group (mean ± 1 SD; scores of 10–14). No lower injury incidence for players with scores of >14 (score > 1 SD above the mean) was found. Further analyses of potential risk factors suggest higher age, lower body mass and a longer football career to be risk factors for injuries. The findings of this study suggest that the suitability of the FMS? for injury prediction in veteran footballers is limited.     

Difference as privilege: identity,citizenship and the recontextualisation of human rights in Japan’s social studies curriculum

ABSTRACT

While global human rights knowledge has become a central facet of curricula used to shape multicultural societies and develop cosmopolitan citizenry, such knowledge is shaped by sociopolitical context. Japan has a long history of incorporating human rights concepts into its citizenship curriculum; however, this curriculum is produced in a political context where there is resistance to extending rights to minorities and the disadvantaged, and where there are renewed attempts to emphasise traditional Japanese cultural values through education. Potential tensions have been recognised, yet little has been written about educational knowledge as end product. Based partially on Basil Bernstein’s concepts, a mixed-method approach utilising computer-based analytical techniques was used to examine the structure and content of human rights knowledge within upper-secondary Contemporary Social Studies textbooks representing Japan’s official curriculum. This article will argue that the curriculum establishes an inconsistent standard toward rights that undermines respect for individuals.     

Enhancing Teachers' Knowledge and Use of Inquiry Through Environmental Science Education

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

What predicts adult readers’ understanding of STEM texts?

The current study examined the relations among key variables that underlie reading comprehension of expository science texts in a diverse population of adult native English readers. Using Mechanical Turk to sample a range of adult readers, the study also examined the effect of text presentation on readers’ comprehension and knowledge structure established after reading. In Study 1, ratings of situational interest, select reading background variables, and select measures of readers’ knowledge structure accounted for significant variance in comprehension. In Study 2, the knowledge structure metrics of primacy, recency, and node degree as well as several text ratings were found to be comparable across text presentation formats. Participants who read the text sentence-by-sentence obtained higher scores on measures of comprehension and provided higher ratings of situational interest than those who received the whole paragraph text at once. Knowledge structure measures for the sentence-by-sentence and paragraph formats were similar (68% overlap). We discuss implications for future research examining factors that underlie the successful comprehension of science texts.     

Das Fach und die Schüler

Zusammenfassung In diesem Beitrag geht es darum, die Bedeutung des Fachunterrichts aus Schülersicht herauszustellen und dabei zugleich unterschiedliche Arten der Beteiligung der Schüler an eben diesem Unterricht zu beschreiben. Dafür liefere ich Auszüge aus einem Unterrichtsprotokoll und dazugeh?rigen Lehrer-und Schülerkommentaren und interpretiere sie. Das Beispiel stammt aus dem Geschichtsunterricht der gymnasialen Oberstufe, Jahrgangsstufe 11. Abschlie?end versuche ich, Bausteine einer Theorie der Partizipation im Fachunterricht zu identifizieren.

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Summary A Subject and its Pupils: Lesson analyses and preparatory notes on a theory of participation The aim of this paper is to show the importance of lessons in particular subjects from the perspective of the pupils and, at the same time, to describe the different ways in which pupils participate in these lessons. To this end, I will present and then interpret excerpts from records of particular lessons along with teachers’ and students’ comments on these lessons. The example comes from a History class in year 11 of the German Gymnasium. To conclude, I will attempt to identify the building blocks of a theory of participation in subject lessons.

     

Improving engagement in an early career academic setting: can existing models guide early career academic support strategies?

ABSTRACT

Early career academics (ECAs) represent the future of the academic workforce, but competition and career uncertainty is resulting in disengagement and burnout. In professions outside academia, increased engagement is associated with perceived organisational support and fair recognition and rewards, as well as opportunities to meet basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. In contrast, decreased engagement is linked with increasing demands on effort and over-commitment to work. The current study used multiple linear regression to test whether comparable relationships were observed in a sample of 151 ECAs in an Australian university. Opportunities to build and demonstrate competence at work, the presence of meaningful relationships and perceived organisational support were independent and statistically significant predictors of engagement. The need for autonomy and fair rewards and recognition appeared to be correlated but not statistically significant predictors of engagement. Contrary to prediction, increasing effort and over-commitment to work did not predict decreases in engagement. These results are discussed in light of implications for programs designed to support the development of ECAs into various career pathways.     

The influence of gender composition in a field of study on students' drop‐out of higher education

Combining Tinto's classical model of student drop‐out with Kanter's assessment of minorities, this article examines the influence of gender composition in a field of study on drop‐out from higher education. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of students who left German higher education in 2014. Our results confirm previous findings that women in gender‐atypical subjects show a higher drop‐out risk than their male fellow students. We assess several mechanisms which could contribute to explain this effect. Contrary to our expectations, social integration, in the sense of contact with lecturers, seems to be a protective factor for women and men in gender‐atypical subjects. For women in gender‐atypical fields of study, contact with peers is an additional protective factor against drop‐out. The most important mechanism to explain higher education drop‐out is women's more negative self‐assessment of their suitability for male‐dominated subjects.