The relationship between homework and the academic progress of children in Spain during compulsory elementary education: A twin fixed-effects approach

Homework has traditionally been considered positive for students’ academic achievement, to the extent that it makes children more responsible while learning. Nevertheless, making students do a large amount of homework has been one of the most criticised practices in recent years. Parental associations have long held the view that Spanish elementary school pupils spend too much time on homework. This situation is so alarming that it has recently caused a ‘homework strike’, which has been supported by many children's parents. Furthermore, being assigned an excessive amount of homework is a serious problem which extends well beyond Spain. In light of this context, this article aims to provide new evidence on the relationship between homework and academic performance. To carry out this research, rich longitudinal census data, together with a twin fixed-effects approach and value-added models, have been used. In this way, we can control for variables that are the same within twins, allowing us to generate a better understanding of the association between homework time and primary children's academic achievement. Our main finding is that homework is not associated with young people's academic achievement (at least within this specific country context).     

“We're Trying to Take Action”: Transformative Agency,Role Re-mediation,and the Complexities of Youth Participatory Action Research

This article seeks to illuminate the complexity of youth participatory action research (YPAR) through the use of two concepts: (1) transformative agency, a collective initiative to address conflicts and contradictions in activity systems, and (2) role re-mediation, the disruption of power relations. We demonstrate that these concepts, in comparison to the concept of civic participation, allow for an expanded consideration of the cross-contextual processes that are involved in collective mobilization to enact justice. To explore this area, we examine an afterschool YPAR program involving the adult authors and youth of color with intersectional identities—including emergent bilinguals and youth perceived as struggling academically. We illustrate three avenues of transformative agency and role re-mediation within the YPAR program: (1) engagement with critical fiction and non-fiction texts that expose power relations; (2) interactions between individuals within and beyond the YPAR space; and (3) production and dissemination of knowledge. Through this exploration, we illustrate how the lenses of transformative agency and role re-mediation can provide new understandings of change-oriented action in YPAR.     

A Genealogy of Grit: Education in the New Gilded Age

Recently, due in part to the research of Angela Duckworth, the cultivation of dispositions in education, grit in particular, has gained the attention of educational policymakers and the educational research community. While much of the research has focused on how to detect grit, there has been little discussion regarding how grit came to be valued as a noncognitive disposition and what its recent prominence might tell us about current social conditions. In this essay, Ariana Gonzalez Stokas attempts to illuminate grit as a concept that has undergone a number of conceptual transformations in American culture. She seeks to show how grit developed as a way to justify social and economic inequality and how this history is bound up in its conceptual structure. Through conducting a genealogical excavation, Stokas reveals the relationship of grit to a cluster of cultural events that occurred at the turn of the twentieth century in the confluence of boxing, cowboys, and Theodore Roosevelt, and aims to illuminate how grit has served as a tool for convincing society that achievement occurs through heroic individual effort despite inadequate social supports. This historical understanding of grit, Stokas concludes, may help us to recognize that the energy and resources currently spent on cultivating grit in children would be better spent on ameliorating the problems of social and economic inequality.     

Mexican Educators Survey on Anatomical Sciences Education and a Review of World Tendencies

Anatomical sciences curricula have been under constant reform over the years, with many countries having to reduce course hours while trying to preserve laboratory time. In Mexico, schools have historically been autonomous and unregulated, and data regarding structure and methods are still lacking. A national survey was sent by the Mexican Society of Anatomy to 110 anatomical sciences educators. The questionnaire consisted of 50 items (open and multiple choice) for gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, neuroanatomy, and embryology courses in medical schools across Mexico. A clinical approach was the most common course approach in all disciplines. Contact course hours and laboratory hours were higher in Mexican anatomy education compared to other countries, with the highest reported contact hours for embryology (133.4 ± 44.1) and histology (125 ± 33.2). There were similar contact hours to other countries for gross anatomy (228.5 ± 60.5). Neuroanatomy course hours (43.9 ± 13.1) were less than reported by the United States and similar to Saudi Arabia and higher than the United Kingdom. Dissection and microscopy with histological slides predominate as the most common laboratory activities. Traditional methods prevail in most of the courses in Mexico and only a few educators have implemented innovative and technological tools. Implementation of new methods, approaches, and curricular changes are needed to enhance anatomical sciences education in Mexico.     

Supporting the Professional Development of Science Teacher Educators Through Shadowing

Despite calls for more attention to the preparation of those who prepare teachers, there have been few examples of institutionally sanctioned and structured learning opportunities created to equip faculty with the knowledge and skills necessary to become effective teacher educators. In this paper, we describe a cross-disciplinary and collaborative initiative that involves shadowing of colleagues as a means of supporting the professional learning of science teacher educators. We illustrate the unique affordance of this model and highlight our professional learning across multiple dimensions: cognitive, practical, relational, and emotional. We illustrate how shadowing can support the learning of faculty at different career stages and from different disciplinary backgrounds and entry points to teacher education through a series of vignettes of shadowing in a variety of course contexts. Finally, we offer considerations for the transferability of our model to other institutions and contexts, and how further research conducted in the context of shadowing could help deepen our understanding of the knowledge base of science teacher educators and how this knowledge is developed.

     

Using social networking sites for language learning to develop intercultural competence in language education programs

This article examines the ways a social networking site for language learning (SNSLL) enhances or hinders intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The study identifies the components of intercultural competence that emerge from students’ interactions and reflections about the SNSLL Livemocha. The research was conducted with second-year students of an English class in a Colombian university. Data were collected through screen recordings, students’ logs, surveys, and a focus group. Findings indicate that, of the five dimensions of ICC, the components of Attitudes, Knowledge, Skills of Interpreting and Relating, and Skills of Discovery and Interaction featured strongly on students’ exchanges and reflections. SNSLLs hold potential to enhance intercultural skills; however, pedagogical adjustment and refocusing of some of their activities are required to expand opportunities for intercultural engagement.     

Goal effectiveness after players’ dismissals in professional futsal teams

The purpose of this study was to analyse the effect of players’ dismissals on the outcome of attacks in elite futsal matches, and to establish the performance profile of the attacks made in numerical superiority by elite futsal teams. One hundred and twenty five attacking game situations in numerical superiority (dismissal of opponents from defensive team) were analysed from the regular season of the Spanish professional Futsal League. The effect of contextual-related variables (quality of opposition, match-location, match-periods, opponent team’s fouls, match-status, attack-duration and match-type) on goal effectiveness was analysed using binomial logistic regression and two-step cluster analysis. Results from the binary logistic regression showed that the highest attack effectiveness was achieved when the teams play at home, perform the attack during minutes 33–36 and the opposing team has 3 fouls. Secondly, the two-step cluster analysis technique allowed identifying four types of attacks when the teams were playing with numerical superiority. The results showed the great importance (in order) of match-type, match-status, attacking team’s fouls, match-period, quality of opposition, opposing team’s fouls, match-location, goal situation, and attack duration. The identified trends may help coaches to design the superiority/inferiority scenarios more specifically during training and to monitor them during competition.     

Assessing Fat Mass of Adolescent Swimmers Using Anthropometric Equations: A DXA Validation Study

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to determine which of the published anthropometric equations is the most appropriate to estimate body-fat percentage (BF_%) in adolescent swimmers. Method: Eighty-eight swimmers (45 boys, 43 girls) participated in this study. Following the recommendations of the International Society of the Advancement of Kinanthropometry, biceps, triceps, subscapular, iliac-crest, supraspinale, front-thigh, and medial calf skinfold thicknesses were measured. Waist, hip, midthigh, calf, relaxed arm, and arm flexed and tensed girths were also registered. BF_% was measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to obtain the reference value. Existing anthropometric equations were applied, and BF_% results obtained from anthropometric equations were compared to DXA BF_% results with the modified Bland-Altman. Results: The Flavel, Durnin-Rahaman-Siri, and Durnin-Rahaman-Brozek were the only equations that did not demonstrate statistically significant differences when compared with DXA. Conclusion: The present study showed that the best anthropometric equation from existing literature to estimate BF_% in swimmers is that proposed by Durnin-Rahaman (independently of applying the Siri or Brozek equation).