Internal and External Focus of Attention in a Novice Form Sport

Abstract

In the current experiment, we examined optimal focus for novices during a movement sequence in which performance was measured on accurate movement form/technique. A novel gymnastics routine was practiced under either an internal skill-relevant, internal skill-irrelevant, external, or no attention focus. Retention and transfer tests were then completed. During acquisition, adopting an internal irrelevant focus significantly improved performance, whereas an external focus degraded performance. There were no significant group differences in the retention and transfer tests. This suggests that learning of movement form/technique did not benefit from a specific focus of attention. The results are interpreted via an attentional capacity viewpoint and the notion that form tasks do not always contain obvious movement effects central to common coding and the constrained action hypothesis.     

Dartmouth's College Course I

Abstract

This article describes the background, activities, and outcomes of the Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center and its Summer Fellows Institute as a model for disciplinary and cross-disciplinary infusion of environmental science and technology content, curriculum, and methods into the classroom. The authors describe experiences, themes, and activities that occurred during 5 years at the Summer Institute for some of the nation's top high school and community college teachers.     

Perceived professional needs of Korean science teachers majoring in chemical education and their preferences for online and on‐site training

In this study, we investigated the perceived professional needs of Korean science teachers majoring in chemical education, and examined their preferences for online and on‐site inservice teacher training programmes. The results were also compared with those of preservice teachers. Participants were 120 secondary school teachers and 67 preservice teachers, whose majors were either chemical education or science education with emphasis in chemistry. A questionnaire consisting of a modified Science Teacher Inventory of Need and a section concerning respondents’ demographic information and their use of the Internet was administered. In contrast to previous studies, the perceived needs of Korean inservice and preservice teachers were found to be very strong in all 30 needs assessment items, and their prominent needs were from all seven categories. Preservice teachers indicated significantly greater needs than inservice teachers on several items. Korean teachers generally tended to prefer online inservice to traditional on‐site training programmes, although they still preferred on‐site types of programmes in areas such as conducting laboratory sessions and demonstrating manipulative skills. Preferences for online programmes tended to be stronger among preservice teachers than inservice teachers, and among non‐veteran teachers than in veteran teachers. Educational implications are discussed.     

Best Practices for Teaching Those Afraid in Water

The primary purpose of this study is to share what has been found to work well in professional practice based on a series of exploratory scholarly studies as well as information gathered informally from students and through specialized aquatic workshops, conferences and seminars. Research has shown that there is an existing population of at-risk swimmers, and, therefore, it is inevitable that many aquatic professionals will encounter individuals in need of a specialized approach to learning. The concept of systematic desensitization holds great promise and, when refined, can be introduced to educators to augment existing swimming instruction and eventually contribute to the extinction of preventable drowning.     

Sales Teams or Salespersons: Performance Implications for Embracing Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultural Values in a Global Marketplace

Identifying antecedents of salesperson performance is a long‐standing objective in the sales management research field. The purpose of this article is to outline how the practical understanding of, and the willingness to embrace, sales employees' cultural value‐systems adds value while considering performance drivers, individualistic versus collectivistic values, and performance outcomes. The cultural dimensions under consideration, individualism and collectivism, cannot be approached as a dichotomy. As is the case for all cultural dimensions, they represent a continuum and not absolutes. In this study, the work preferences and predispositions of participants were compared using an international data set. Respondents were culturally classified based on research (i.e., Americans and Australians as individualists and Japanese and South Koreans as collectivists). Specifically, it was found that individualists were less attached to their current work situation; collectivists indicated less work/family conflict; and individualists valued independent work more while collectivists valued deciding work time. This is important because of the need to understand how to effectively connect with the values of people to encourage positive performance outcomes. The reality is that value holds differing degrees of emphasis; the performance formula is the theoretical framework to guide this research. The implications of the results for sales management professionals are discussed.