Education towards self‐actualization and interdependence

This study examined whether gifted students in Texas who had learning disabilities were being identified for gifted programs. Results from a survey of gifted program coordinators (n = 388) demonstrated that few school districts (n = 75) reported selecting gifted children with learning disabilities for gifted programs. However, districts that did modify their selection process in order to include these children as well as school districts that identified more than 5% of their students for gifted programs were the most likely to include children with learning disabilities.     

Trends in Cultural Journalism

Various studies report that cultural journalism increasingly focuses on service and entertainment instead of serious arts coverage. The press prioritizes popular culture over traditional high arts to a growing extent. However, this shift in journalistic attention does not necessarily signify a straightforward decline in aesthetic standards, as popular cultural forms like film have developed along the lines of high art principles in the past decades. This article charts trends in American, Dutch, French, and German film journalism between 1955 and 2005. It demonstrates that coverage is typified by a serious aesthetic approach from the 1970s onwards. The principles of art are seen to steer journalists’ attention to an important degree: the review remains the predominant journalistic genre, and newspapers devote more attention to films by prestigious directors than strictly commercial moviemakers. As such, film’s prominence in the press does not seem to indicate a decline in serious cultural journalism but rather a revaluation of a popular cultural form.     

Do field position and playing standard influence athlete performance in wheelchair basketball?

Improved understanding of mobility performance in wheelchair basketball is required to increase game performance. The aim of this study was to quantify the wheelchair-athlete activities of players in different field positions and of different playing standard during wheelchair basketball matches. From video analysis, absolute and relative duration and frequency of wheelchair movements and athlete control options were examined in 27 national standard and 29 international standard players during entire wheelchair basketball matches. Between-group factorial analysis of variances identified that national players drove more forward (42.6 ± 6.8 vs. 35.4 ± 3.7%; effect size Cohen’s d (ES) = 1.48) and started more often driving forward (33.9 ± 2.6 vs. 31.8 ± 2.8; ES = 0.77) during a match while the mean activity duration for a single driving forward activity was longer (4.3 ± 0.9 vs. 3.7 ± 0.6 s; ES = 0.75) than for international players. Furthermore, national players performed fewer rotational movements (21.8 ± 4.0 vs. 28.9 ± 7.8%; ES = –1.30) and started less often with the rotational movements (35.0 ± 3.6 vs. 40.5 ± 5.5; ES = –1.21) while the mean activity duration for a single rotation activity was shorter (2.1 ± 0.3 vs. 2.3 ± 0.3 s; ES = –0.67) than for international players. Differences in mobility performance among guard, forward and centre players were minimal. The results should help wheelchair basketball coaches specify wheelchair-handling training techniques and means to optimise wheelchair-athlete configurations.     

Escalation vs. non-escalation of fan violence in football? Narratives from ultra fans,police officers and security employees

Despite a large body of literature about fan violence issues, research investigating perceptions and dynamics in potentially violent situations, called critical incidents (CIs), is missing. This qualitative study examined the perceptions and dynamics of CIs involving ultra football fans. Fifty-nine semi-structured interviews with individuals (fans, police officers or security employees) involved in eight CIs were conducted and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The assessment of legitimacy of an out-group’s actions strongly influenced the perception of a CI, which is in line with the Elaborated Social Identity Model. Informative intergroup communication about the own intentions seemed to increase perception of legitimacy, while arrests of fans due to pyrotechnics were perceived by fans as illegitimate. The local fan culture, e.g. the fans’ use of pyrotechnics for their support, is relevant for the understanding of this assessment of legitimacy.     

Classroom Quality and Academic School Readiness Outcomes in Head Start: The Indirect Effect of Approaches to Learning

This study used the FACES 2009 dataset to examine the possibility of an indirect effect of classroom quality on academic school readiness through teacher-rated approaches to learning in a large nationally representative sample of children served by Head Start. Research indings: Classroom quality did not directly predict gains in academic school readiness across the Head Start school year (β = -0.009, p = .844). However, classroom quality did predict gains in teacher-rated approaches to learning (β = 0.151, p = .040), which in turn predicted gains in academic school readiness (β = 0.105, p < .001), and there was a significant indirect effect of classroom quality on academic school readiness through approaches to learning (β = 0.016, p = .049). Although associations were generally small, this pattern of results suggests that approaches to learning may facilitate the relationships between classroom quality and academic school readiness. Practice or Policy: Educators should make targeted efforts to boost children’s approaches to learning as it may represent an important lever for academic success. In a society increasingly focused on high-stakes testing, we must not lose sight of the importance of domain-general skills that can help children achieve school and life success.     

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.     

Effects of violent and non-violent computer game content on memory performance in adolescents

The present study focuses on the short-term effects of electronic entertainment media on memory and learning processes. It compares the effects of violent versus non-violent computer game content in a condition of playing and in another condition of watching the same game. The participants consisted of 83 female and 94 male adolescents with a mean age of 17.6 years. The dependent variables are memory for previously learnt verbal and visual material, memory for media-related content and physiological measures of stress (heart rate, cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase). Besides the group comparisons, potential mediation effects and gender differences were examined. The results show that violent content leads to a poorer memory performance for verbal material and to an increased heart rate. The heart rate, however, does not mediate the effect on memory performance. Genders differ regarding their abilities to memorise verbal and visual material, with females showing a better performance (independent of the experimental condition), and for memorising media-contents, where the males outperform females (also independent of experimental condition). The study supports the assumption that violent and arousing media content has a negative short-term effect on simultaneous information processing and learning and that there are gender-specific media effects.