Interdisciplinary collaboration as a prerequisite for inclusive education

This article reports on findings from a research project on interdisciplinary collaboration between mainstream school teachers and special school teachers. The aim of the research project has been to examine the knowledge of special school teachers and how this knowledge can contribute to the development of an inclusive learning environment in mainstream schools. Not as a simple task of transferring knowledge, but as a process of transforming knowledge through interdisciplinary collaboration and co-teaching. The design of the study is inspired by the notion of participation within action research as a research approach. Thus the thick data generated from reflective activities in the study design are analysed within a narrative and practice directed strategy of analysis.     

Behavioral synchronization and affiliation: Dogs exhibit human-like skills

Behavioral synchronization is evolutionary adaptive, fostering social cohesion. In humans, affiliation between partners is associated with a high level of behavioral synchronization; people show increased affiliation towards people who synchronize with them. Surprisingly, until recently, little was known about these phenomena at an interspecific level, which is, however, essential to better understand the respective roles of evolution and ontogeny. After presenting why dog–human dyads are a relevant biological model to study this field of social cognition, we review the recent findings about dog–human behavioral synchronization. We summarize recently published findings on behavioral synchronization and affiliation between dogs and humans. We also review results showing that genetic selection modulates behavioral synchronization propensity in dogs, emphasizing the role of genetic selection on dog’s social behaviors towards humans. Finally, we discuss the possible evolutionary influences and proximate mechanisms of this phenomenon. We conclude that, as in humans, behavioral synchronization acts as a social glue between dogs and humans. After dogs’ ability to use human-directional cues or to produce referential cues towards humans, we evidenced a new human-like social process in the dog, at the interspecfic level with humans.     

Composition of Practice: Influence on the Retention of Motor Skills

Abstract

The purpose of these experiments was to investigate further the variable practice effect found by Shea and Kohl (1990). Experiment 1 was an initial attempt to determine the locus of the retention benefits demonstrated by subjects provided variable practice experiences. All groups received 20 acquisition blocks consisting of five test trials per block at a target of 150 N. The interval between test trials was either unfilled or filled, with additional trials consisting of the same target force, variable target forces, or practice on an unrelated motor task. The results indicated retention was not incremented (relative to an unfilled interval) by requiring subjects to perform an unrelated motor task in the intertest–trial interval. However, when the intertest–trial interval was filled with practice on related motor tasks, retention was significantly improved. Experiment 2 assessed the impact of increasing the number of related motor tasks interpolated between test trials. The results indicated filling the intertest–trial interval with one motor task resulted in large retention benefits relative to an unfilled interval. Further increases in the number of related motor tasks (3) interpolated between test trials resulted in only modest increments to retention. The results were consistent with the elaboration perspective proposed by Shea and Zimny (1983). The elaboration perspective proposes that the simultaneous presence of related items in working memory facilitates interitem elaborative and distinctive processing that ultimately results in retention benefits.     

Gender and age inequalities in regular sports participation: A cross-national study of 25 European countries

Abstract

This article provides a unique opportunity to compare gender inequalities in sports participation across Europe, and the extent to which this varies by age using large, cross-sections of the population. The Eurobarometer Survey 62.0 (carried out in 2004 at the request of the European Commission and covering the adult population of 25 European member states, N = 23,909) was used to analyse differences in regular sports participation by gender and by age in the different countries. For the majority of countries, the occurrence of regular sporting activity was less than 40%. Additionally, binary logistic regression analyses identified significant gender differences in sports participation in 12 countries. In Belgium, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Spain, and the UK, men were more likely to report being regularly active in sports than women, whereas in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands the opposite was true. Moreover, the extent to which these gender inequalities differ by age varies considerably across countries. The results imply that: (i) in some European countries more efforts must be undertaken to promote the original goals of the Sport for All Charter, and (ii) to achieve more female participation in sports will require different policy responses in the diverse European member states.     

Modifications to the Bassin Anticipation Timer

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain and to analyze the attitudes of men and women undergraduate students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, concerning the desirability of intensive athletic competition for girls and women. In January 1966, a questionnaire and an attitude inventory were administered to a random stratified sample of 300 undergraduate students. The attitude inventory consisted of 38 statements which were divided into four categories— social-cultural, mental-emotional, physical, and personality. Two hundred and eighty-four questionnaires and attitude inventories (94.7 percent) were completed and were submitted to statistical analysis.

Although the population was found to be favorable in attitude, the range of scores indicated that considerable differences of opinion existed concerning the desirability of athletic competition for girls and women.     

Stimulus Velocity,Duration and Uncertainty as Determiners of Response Structure and Timing Accuracy

Abstract

The present experiments examined the effects of stimulus velocity, stimulus duration, and stimulus uncertainty on the spatial-temporal structure and timing accuracy of coincident timing responses. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that the response structure for aimed movements differed from that of ballistic movements but response accuracy was comparable for both movement conditions. However, when information concerning the stimulus velocity was provided, the responses to the faster stimuli (i.e., stimuli of shorter duration) appeared to be “speeded up” copies of those to slower stimuli and response accuracy increased as the stimulus velocity increased (i.e., stimulus duration decreased). When the stimulus velocity was not known, subjects initiated a common response for approximately 260 msec and response accuracy appeared to decrease as the stimulus velocity increased (i.e., stimulus duration decreased). Experiment 2 indicated that the stimulus duration rather than the stimulus velocity was the major determiner of both the spatial-temporal structure and timing accuracy and that a very fast and a very slow stimulus will be responded to similarly when the stimulus duration remains constant.     

Comparison of Hydrostatic Weighing at Residual Volume and Total Lung Capacity in Children

Abstract

The influence of perceptions of the motivational climate and perceived ability on situational motivation and the physical activity behavior of 213 male and 229 female adolescent physical education students (M age= 12.56 years; SD = 0.96) was examined over a 3-day period. A significant age by gender interaction emerged, with physical activity declining from the sixth to eighth grade. The decline was more pronounced among female than male students. Perceptions of a mastery climate were strongly related to more self-determined forms of situational motivation. In contrast, perceptions of a performance climate were strongly related to less self-determined forms of situational motivation. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis revealed gender, perceived ability, and perceptions of a mastery climate to explain a significant amount of variance in physical activity. These findings suggest that promoting a mastery oriented motivational climate in physical education will foster self-determined situational motivation and physical activity.     

Discrimination of Visual Linear Velocities

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine velocity discrimination characteristics of subjects in a difference threshold paradigm. After recruitment, 180 male and female subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 groups differentiated by the length of the stimulus runway and the subjects' orientation to the stimulus. Stimulus velocities were presented on a modified Bassin Anticipation Timer with presentation rate controlled by a programmed timer. The criterion velocities were 134.11, 268.22 and 402.33, cm/sec with variable velocities ranging 44.7 cm/sec above and below the criterion in 8.94 cm/sec increments. The method of constant stimuli was used with 198 trial pairs presented (constant 7 second stimulus presentation interval). The results indicated that the discrimination of horizontal linear velocity follows a prothetic continuum. That is, the just noticeable difference increased in proportion to the increase in the criterion velocity. In addition, the subjects' orientation to the stimulus and the viewing distance (length of runway) seemed to play little or no role in the discrimination process.     

Assimilation Effects in Coincident Timing Responses

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate ways in which gender-related perceptions and actions influenced students' construction of realities in curriculum-in-action in secondary school physical education. The participants were junior and senior secondary school students in a midwestern city in the United States. Data collection methods included observations and interviews. Data were analyzed with inductive analytical procedures. The findings of the study revealed that a majority of the female and male students reproduced traditionally dominant forms of femininity and masculinity. Female students patterned their behavior consistent with feminine ideology in selecting and participating in class activities, and male students chose and participated in class activities along masculine conceptions. The results were interpreted with reproduction and resistance theories. While femininity and masculinity cultures were reproduced through students' choice of activities and participation patterns, these cultures were resisted through students' construction of oppositional behavior.     

Reduced Knowledge of Results Frequency Enhances Error Detection

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of consonant and dissonant role playing with high or low justification on attitude change toward physical education courses. An analysis of the attitude of 311 college subjects before and after role playing showed that role playing in a physical education course produced an attitude change in the direction of the role played. Consonant role playing reinforced initial attitudes, but dissonant role playing resulted in a significantly greater change in the direction of the role played. Low justification tended to produce greater attitude change in the dissonant role playing, but high and low justification seemed equally effective in reinforcing a prior attitude in consonant role playing.