Young science journalism: writing popular scientific articles may contribute to an increase of high-school students’ interest in the natural sciences

Far too few high-school students choose subjects from the natural sciences (NaSc) for their majors in many countries. Even fewer study biology, chemistry or physics at university. Those, that do, often lack training to present and discuss scientific results and ideas in texts. To meet these challenges the center for didactics of biology of Graz University has set up the program Young Science Journalism. This new workshop-based interdisciplinary concept was tested in an exploratory study with grade 10 students of one Austrian high school, engaging both the biology and the German teacher of the class. It was our aim to raise students’ interest in the NaSc by encouraging them to write popular scientific articles about self-chosen topics, and to help them improve their writing competence. In this paper we focus on interest development through writing. Results from this pilot study were promising. Using a mixed-method approach (comparing pre- and post-test questionnaires and semi-structured interviews from different time points analyzed qualitatively), we found that almost all students valued the project-related work highly. Most of them showed higher interest in the NaSc at project end with girls, in average, seeming to profit more from project participation. We thus recommend integrating such writing tasks into school curricula to increase students’ interest in NaSc or to even create new interest. Additionally, we introduce a network presentation of questionnaire data as a powerful tool to visualize the effect of an intervention on individual students and student profile groups.     

Fachspezifisches Unterrichtscoaching im Praktikum

It has been repeatedly shown that teaching placements are highly valued by student teachers. However, there is very little knowledge on the impact of different forms of support for placements on the learning of future teachers. One model to support placements is Content-Focused Coaching^SM. In a quasi-experimental intervention study, we investigated the impact of this form of support using questionnaires, video recordings and interviews with dyads of practical teaching staff and their placement students. The results of the survey show that practical teaching staff trained in Content-Focused Coaching^SM (intervention group N_IG?=?16) integrated basic elements of this model into their repertoire and that their teaching practice is significantly different to that in the control group (N_KG?=?16), which supports placement students in the traditional way. Indicators for learning in the context of lesson meetings, furthermore, give evidence that placement students in the intervention group achieve significantly better learning results than their counterparts supported in the traditional manner. The assessment of teaching quality, based on the video recordings, was also significantly better than for the control group.     

‘It's just the way it is…’ or not? How physical education teachers categorise and normalise differences

This article explores how Dutch physical education (PE) teachers discursively construct body differences between students related to gender, (dis)ability and health. Our results show how disciplinary technologies of categorisation and normalisation are embedded in two distinct discourses that our participants used: the discourse of naturalness for explaining and managing differences in gender and ability and the discourse of transformation for explaining and managing differences in health. Both these discourses produced body norms in PE as male, abled and slender. However, how the teachers managed deviance and normalcy varies per discourse. ‘Fat’ bodies that were produced as deviant through the discourse of transformation were disciplined in explicit ways. The use of the discourse of naturalness resulted in justification and naturalisation of perceived differences in gender and (dis)ability and practices such as differentiated teaching.     

Explaining Male Dominance and Sex Segregation in Coaching: Three Approaches

This article discusses various approaches that have been used to explain coaching as a male-dominated occupation. Individual approaches look at the interests, qualifications, and choices of women to explain their absence in male-dominated jobs. Structural approaches assume that gender-differentiated work behavior is more a function of location in organizational hierarchy than of gender. In the third approach, social relations, gender is seen as a verb in that women and men collectively struggle over the power to give meaning to social facts, including the meaning of coaching. This approach shows how structures, jobs, activities in those jobs, workers, and places of work are gendered through the meanings we assign to them. The ways those meanings may be altered if and when the number of women in coaching begins to increase are described.     

Visual search, anticipation and expertise in soccer goalkeepers

We used a novel methodological approach to examine skill-based differences in anticipation and visual search behaviour during the penalty kick in soccer. Expert and novice goalkeepers were required to move a joystick in response to penalty kicks presented on film. The proportion of penalties saved was assessed, as well as the frequency and time of initiation of joystick corrections. Visual search behaviour was examined using an eye movement registration system. Expert goalkeepers were generally more accurate in predicting the direction of the penalty kick, waited longer before initiating a response and made fewer corrective movements with the joystick. The expert goalkeepers used a more efficient search strategy involving fewer fixations of longer duration to less disparate areas of the display. The novices spent longer fixating on the trunk, arms and hips, whereas the experts found the kicking leg, non-kicking leg and ball areas to be more informative, particularly as the moment of foot-ball contact approached. No differences in visual search behaviour were observed between successful and unsuccessful penalties. The results have implications for improving anticipation skill at penalty kicks.     

The relation of unimanual and bimanual reaching to crossing the midline

The present study assessed the development of reaching for objects positioned in front of the contralateral shoulder. In particular, it examined how the development of crossing the midline is related to the development of bimanual reaching. Twenty infants were observed longitudinally at 12, 18, and 26 weeks of age while reaching for two balls (3 cm and 8 cm in diameter) located at three positions (ispsilateral, midline, and contralateral). The reaches were analyzed from video recordings. With age, the infants increasingly adapted the number of hands used to the size of the object. The number of reaches crossing the body midline increased with age. Furthermore, the majority of the midline crossings were part of two-handed reaches for the large ball and occurred at or after onset of bimanual reaching. Together, these findings strongly suggest that the development of crossing the body midline emerges in the context of bimanual reaching. It was concluded that the need to grasp a large ball positioned contralaterally with two hands induces midline crossing. Hence, the development of midline crossings is not exclusively dependent on organismic constraints (e.g., the maturation of hemispheric connections), but rather on their interaction with environmental constraints (e.g., object size).     

Advancing Research and Measurement on Fathering and Children's Development

Fathers are more than social accidents. Research has demonstrated that fathers matter to children's development. Despite noted progress, challenges remain on how best to conceptualize and assess fathering and father–child relationships. The current monograph is the result of an SRCD-sponsored meeting of fatherhood scholars brought together to discuss these challenges and make recommendations for best practices for incorporating fathers in studies on parenting and children's development. The first aim of this monograph was to provide a brief update on the current state of research on fathering and to lay out a developmental ecological systems perspective as a conceptual framework for understanding the different spaces fathers inhabit in their children's lives. Because there is wide variability in fathers’ roles, the ecological systems perspective situates fathers, mothers, children, and other caregivers within an evolving network of interrelated social relationships in which children and their parents change over time and space (e.g., residence). The second aim was to present examples of empirical studies conducted by members of the international working group that highlighted different methods, data collection, and statistical analyses used to capture the variability in father–child relationships. The monograph ends with a commentary that elaborates on the ecological systems framework with a discussion of the broader macrosystem and social-contextual influences that impinge on fathers and their children. The collection of articles contributes to research on father–child relationships by advancing theory and presenting varied methods and analysis strategies that assist in understanding the father–child relationship and its impact on child development.     

What Are the Effects of Science Lesson Planning in Peers?—Analysis of Attitudes and Knowledge Based on an Actor–Partner Interdependence Model

This study focuses on the effects of collaborative lesson planning by science pre-service teachers on their attitudes and knowledge. In our study, 120 pre-service teachers discussed a preparation for a science inquiry lesson in dyads. The teacher with the lesson preparation had the role of the coachee, while the other was the coach. We investigated the following research questions: (1) Does learning occur between the two peers? and (2) Is the competency in lesson planning affected by the attitude and knowledge of coach and coachee? Based on an actor–partner interdependence model (APIM), we could clarify the relations of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and attitudes (ATT) between and within the dyads of coach and coachee, as well as their development over time. Furthermore, the APIM allowed the inclusion of a mediator (lesson planning competency). Both PCK and ATT increased slightly but significantly during our project. ATT and PCK seemed to converge between coach and coachee at the end of the project. However, we could not find any cross-lagged effects, meaning there was no effect of coach on coachee or vice versa over time. Further, preceding PCK showed a significant effect on the competency of lesson planning, but planning competency did not influence succeeding PCK or attitude. Finally, these results are discussed with respect to science teacher education.     

Individual Differences Influencing Immediate Effects of Internal and External Focus Instructions on Children’s Motor Performance

Purpose: A large pool of evidence supports the beneficial effect of an external focus of attention on motor skill performance in adults. In children, this effect has been studied less and results are inconclusive. Importantly, individual differences are often not taken into account. We investigated the role of working memory, conscious motor control, and task-specific focus preferences on performance with an internal and external focus of attention in children. Methods: Twenty-five children practiced a golf putting task in both an internal focus condition and external focus condition. Performance was defined as the average distance toward the hole in 3 blocks of 10 trials. Task-specific focus preference was determined by asking how much effort it took to apply the instruction in each condition. In addition, working memory capacity and conscious motor control were assessed. Results: Children improved performance in both the internal focus condition and external focus condition (?_p² = .47), with no difference between conditions (?_p² = .01). Task-specific focus preference was the only factor moderately related to the difference between performance with an internal focus and performance with an external focus (r = .56), indicating better performance for the preferred instruction in Block 3. Conclusion: Children can benefit from instruction with both an internal and external focus of attention to improve short-term motor performance. Individual, task-specific focus preference influenced the effect of the instructions, with children performing better with their preferred focus. The results highlight that individual differences are a key factor in the effectiveness in children’s motor performance. The precise mechanisms underpinning this effect warrant further research.