Home advantage and player nationality in international club football

Abstract

The home advantage effect was investigated at a team and player level in Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League football using in-depth performance and disciplinary variables. Performance analysis revealed that the home team scored more goals, had more shots on and off target, had a greater share of possession, and won more corners than the away team. There was an opposite trend for disciplinary variables, with the home team committing less fouls than the away team, and receiving less yellow and red cards. There were home advantage effects at player level for goals, total shots, shots on target, assists, and yellow cards, as found in the team analysis. In addition, foreign players demonstrated a home advantage effect for goals scored, whereas domestic players scored an equivalent number of goals at home and away venues. Results are discussed in relation to the home advantage literature and wider implications for the sport.     

Consensus statement on placebo effects in sports and exercise: The need for conceptual clarity,methodological rigour,and the elucidation of neurobiological mechanisms

In June 2017 a group of experts in anthropology, biology, kinesiology, neuroscience, physiology, and psychology convened in Canterbury, UK, to address questions relating to the placebo effect in sport and exercise. The event was supported exclusively by Quality Related (QR) funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The funder did not influence the content or conclusions of the group. No competing interests were declared by any delegate. During the meeting and in follow-up correspondence, all delegates agreed the need to communicate the outcomes of the meeting via a brief consensus statement. The two specific aims of this statement are to encourage researchers in sport and exercise science to

1. Where possible, adopt research methods that more effectively elucidate the role of the brain in mediating the effects of treatments and interventions.

2. Where possible, adopt methods that factor for and/or quantify placebo effects that could explain a percentage of inter-individual variability in response to treatments and intervention.     

Perception-action coupling in complex game play: Exploring the quiet eye in contested basketball jump shots

The duration of the final fixation before movement initiation – a gaze strategy labelled quiet eye – has been found to explain differences in motor expertise and performance in precision tasks. To date, research only addressed this phenomenon in situations without adversarial constraints. In the present study, we compared the quiet-eye behaviour of intermediately-skilled and highly-skilled basketball players in defended vs. undefended game situations. We predicted differences in quiet-eye duration as a function of skill and performance particularly resulting from late quiet-eye offsets. Results indicated performance-enhancing effects of long quiet-eye durations in the defended but not in the undefended game situation. Furthermore, in line with our prediction, later quiet-eye offsets were associated with superior performance elucidating the phenomenon’s relevance in online-demanding motor tasks. Further, earlier quiet-eye onsets were linked to successful performance supporting earlier suggestions that it is not only the duration but also the timing that matters. These findings not only extend the positive effects of the quiet eye in motor performance to dynamic game-play situations but also support the role of the quiet eye in response to programming and information processing respectively.     

The ‘foreign’ language teacher: negotiating the culture of a school when unfamiliar with the language of instruction

This article examines and theorises the experiences of 12 primary pre-service teachers at an Australian university, undertaking a two week professional teaching experience in Bangkok. This qualitative ethnographic study of our students’ and to some extent our own experiences draws on interviews, questionnaires and observations from the students, as well as reflective notes from two participating supervisors, and sets out to account for and understand the sources of the achievements and frustrations experienced by our pre-service teachers. The findings illustrate differences between the students’ overseas experiences and Australian-based experiences. These differences include organisational structures, teacher mentoring and cultural understandings, and the effects these had on the students. In particular, we distinguish the more readily observable structural nature of the schools in which the pre-service teachers were teaching, and the less visible cultural aspects that underlie these structures. We propose ways of helping students, as part of pre-departure briefings, to become more aware of these cultural underpinnings, with a view to helping them become more at ease negotiating intercultural workplaces.     

Wechsler scale performance patterns of American Indian children

Using WISC, WISC-R, and WPPSI subtest scores recategorized according to the Bannatyne scheme, the study uncovered evidence for the existence of an Indian Wechsler Scale performance pattern that is different from that found in normal and learning disabled groups. The Indian pattern finds spatial abilities more well developed than sequencing skills, which are superior to conceptual and acquired knowledge performances. The sample was composed of 142 Indian children, primarily Ojibwa (Chippewa). Supporting hypotheses addressed differences between groups of traditional Indian children and those who are more Anglo acculturated. The traditional children evidenced the Indian pattern of recategorized Wechsler subtest performance, while the more acculturated groups did not. Discussion of results centers on factors that may be related to the Indian pattern, such as cultural heritage, otitis media, and the school curriculum.     

Assessing schematic knowledge of introductory probability theory

The ability to identify schematic knowledge is an important goal for both assessment and instruction. In the current paper, schematic knowledge of statistical probability theory is explored from the declarative-procedural framework using multiple methods of assessment. A sample of 90 undergraduate introductory statistics students was required to classify 10 pairs of probability problems as similar or different; to identify whether 15 problems contained sufficient, irrelevant, or missing information (text-edit); and to solve 10 additional problems. The complexity of the schema on which the problems were based was also manipulated. Detailed analyses compared text-editing and solution accuracy as a function of text-editing category and schema complexity. Results showed that text-editing tends to be easier than solution and differentially sensitive to schema complexity. While text-editing and classification were correlated with solution, only text-editing problems with missing information uniquely predicted success. In light of previous research these results suggest that text-editing is suitable for supplementing the assessment of schematic knowledge in development.     

The quality of teaching and learning via videoconferencing

Now that videoconferencing is being widely used for the delivery of mass lectures between sites, there is concern that the quality of teaching and learning experienced, using this method of delivery, is not as good as that experienced in a traditional classroom situation. The study aimed to investigate this concern by using a research diary to collect information on classroom activities and cognitive outcomes which students at local and remote sites experienced over a ten–week period. The results indicated that remote site students did not experience the same quality of teaching and learning as local site students.     

Precursors to the development of flexible expertise: Metacognitive self-evaluations as antecedences and consequences in adult learning

The current study investigates a conceptualization of flexible expertise as it relates to adult learning within the context of management and leadership training. Three research domains and their relation to metacognitive outcomes are integrated: 1) individual differences in abilities, personality, and mindsets, 2) deliberate practice and routine expertise, and 3) self-regulatory processes. The theoretical focus of the research is on the extent to which metacognitive self-evaluations around person- and management-specific concepts taught during training may act as precursors to flexible expertise. We asked 172 mid-level managers to provide evaluations of concept importance (antecedent), behavioral change (proximal consequence), and impact on job performance (distal consequence) resulting from knowledge acquired during the course of training. A series of hierarchical linear modeling analyses unveil a constellation of core personality characteristics, mindsets, and deliberative processing experiences that together interact to predict metacognitive self-evaluation of impactful training. Our results suggest support for our contention that flexible expertise is a context appropriate, balanced cluster of learning oriented, self-regulatory, and metacognitive processes that moderate and mediate the application of abilities and previously acquired knowledge to problem solution, future knowledge acquisition, and ultimately effective leadership.     

Forging an identity over the life-course

Using a social constructionist approach, this study explores the self-perceptions of young men who, when at school, were classed as boys with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). The aim is to understand how these perceptions were forged throughout the young men's life-courses resulting in changing self-identities. The study also explores how, through the language that the participants employed, they made it possible for different aspects of their socialization to influence their ability to influence the development of their lives, especially when making decisions such as choosing a particular partner or deciding to stop taking drugs. This study indicates participants acting on their own appraisals of their identity in forging opportunities and highlights their perceptions of the influence of different agents of socialization on how they turned out as adults.