Identifying the ‘subnormal’ child in an age of expansion of special education and child science in the Netherlands (c.1945–1965)

Between c.1945 and 1965 across the West special education has grown and differentiated substantially. In the Netherlands this expansion ran parallel to the academic recognition and rapid development of the study of learning disabilities. How are these two processes related? This article argues that in this country child science and special education have mutually stimulated each other’s growth and development. The creation of new categories of special-needs children brought about a climate in which the study of learning disabilities and their treatment could flourish. This, in turn, produced further differentiation between children with learning difficulties. Soon problems of identification and categorisation of mentally ‘subnormal’ children proved too complicated to rely on intelligence testing and medical-psychological diagnosis alone. Educational prognosis, based on long-term observation and all kinds of testing, became the key to a child’s future at school and educationists instead of psychologists became the foremost keyholders.     

Changes in the perception of action possibilities while climbing to fatigue on a climbing wall

In two experiments we examined changes in the perception of action possibilities as a function of exertion. In Experiment 1, participants repeatedly climbed on a climbing wall in a series of trials that progressively increased in number to 10 trials, resulting in increased exertion. Before and during climbing, the participants judged their maximum reaching height and perceived exertion. On a separate day, participants climbed another 10 trials while performing actual maximum reaches. Higher perceived exertion was associated with decreases in perceived maximum reach while the actual reaches did not decrease. However, the perceptual changes occurred early during task execution when the participants were not yet fatigued. When exertion set in, neither perceived nor actual maximum reaching appeared to be affected. In Experiment 2, we included exhaustion trials. The findings replicated the early changes in perception observed in Experiment 1, which may be explained by hands-on experience with the task. Furthermore, while climbing to exhaustion, perceptual judgements largely changed in keeping with changes in the actual maximum reach. Thus, there appeared to be a functional relationship between participants' actual action capabilities, rather than their state of physical fatigue per se, and perceived action possibilities.     

The measurement of competitive anxiety during balance beam performance in gymnasts

The purpose of the present study was to investigate competitive anxiety during balance beam performance in gymnasts. Competitive anxiety was assessed continuously by heart rate monitoring and by retrospective self-report of nervousness in eight female national level gymnasts during their balance beam routine during one competition and two training sessions. A significant negative correlation was found between the score of the retrospective self-report of nervousness and performance during the routine. There were no significant differences in performance score by the judges between the three test sessions. There were also no differences in the retrospective self-report of nervousness. However, heart rate was significantly higher during the competition session than during the training sessions. The potential value of the retrospective report of nervousness for the study of critical events during gymnastic performance is illustrated. The results are discussed in the light of catastrophe theory.     

Joint power generation differentiates young and adult sprinters during the transition from block start into acceleration: a cross-sectional study

The aim of this study was to investigate differences in joint power generation between well-trained adult athletes and young sprinters from block clearance to initial contact of second stance. Eleven under 16 (U16) and 18 under 18 (U18) promising sprinters executed an explosive start action. Fourteen well-trained adult sprinters completed the exact same protocol. All athletes were equipped with 74 spherical reflective markers, while an opto-electronic motion analysis system consisting of 12 infrared cameras (250 Hz, MX3, Vicon, Oxford Metrics, UK) and 2 Kistler force plates (1,000 Hz) was used to collect the three-dimensional marker trajectories and ground reaction forces (Nexus, Vicon). Three-dimensional kinematics, kinetics, and power were calculated (Opensim) and time normalised from the first action after gunshot until initial contact of second stance after block clearance. This study showed that adult athletes rely on higher knee power generation during the first stance to induce longer step length and therefore higher velocity. In younger athletes, power generation of hip was more dominant.     

Teachers' use and children's preferences of rewards in elementary school

This study examined teacher reports of reward use and students' preferences for rewards across elementary school grades. Forty-eight urban elementary school teachers indicated which of four basic categories of rewards (edible, tangible, activity, and social rewards) they use in their classrooms and their evaluation of the effectiveness of these rewards for their age group of students. Ninety-eight second through fifth graders randomly selected to represent the students assigned to these teachers were individually administered a reward preference survey. Findings revealed high reward use by teachers. Children reported a wide variety of reward preferences, with no significant gender or age differences found. Additionally, there was no clear relationship between teacher use and children's preferences. Implications for intervention programming are discussed.     

Technology policy and the regions — the case of the BioRegio contest

Only recently, it has been argued that technology policy should give more attention to the regions as they could play a key role in the process of technological change. The German Federal Government has tried to do so by initiating a contest in which Germany's leading Biotech regions competed for a given amount of public funding. This paper reports on the aims, the conceptual design and the results of the BioRegio contest (BRC) and tries to place it into a broader theoretical context. It is shown that the new policy instrument cannot solve the fundamental information problem associated with government intervention into the process of technological change, but that it goes into the right direction by taking the regions seriously and giving prominence to the well-functioning interplay of the various elements of regional innovation systems.     

精英足球运动员教育、训练与人才培养路径

儿童和青少年时期系统的足球训练,可以促进年轻足球运动员专项技能和专项体能的发展。旨在结合最新的研究成果、科学知识和应用实践,区分5岁到成年足球运动员的训练目标和方法,审视足球长期教育过程是否符合现代足球训练、运动表现和比赛的要求。强调各个年龄组足球运动员应有特定的足球教育理念、训练目标和方法,这对青春期（U15和U17）及青春期后（U19和U21）的足球运动员尤其重要,因为他们必须准备并确保顺利过渡到精英足球运动员水平。     

Introduction of External,Independent Testing in “New Countries”: Successes and Defeats of the Introduction of Modern Educational Assessment Techniques in Former Soviet and Socialist Countries

A particular trait of the educational system under socialist reign was accountability at the input side—appropriate facilities, centrally decided curriculum, approved text‐books, and uniformly trained teachers—but no control on the output. It was simply assumed that it met the agreed standards, which was, in turn, proven by the statistics provided by authorities. The introduction of professional testing methods for national large‐scale assessment efforts and participation in international surveys such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) unveiled the myth of the traditional “all is good” message spread by the former party rulers. But another aspect of the introduction of external independent testing has probably even had a bigger impact: the fight against the pervasive corruption in student admission it became part of. If any, the successful use of independent external testing in this struggle has done a lot to have its methods accepted by the audience at large. The article describes the experiences of the author as a senior consultant to ministries and newly established testing institutes in former Soviet and socialist republics.     

Do ‘liberal market economies’ really innovate more radically than ‘coordinated market economies’?: Hall and Soskice reconsidered

In Varieties of Capitalism; The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, Peter A. Hall and David Soskice (H&S) argue that technological specialization patterns are largely determined by the prevailing “variety of capitalism”. They hypothesize that “liberal market economies” (LMEs) specialize in radical innovation, while “coordinated market economies” (CMEs) focus more on incremental innovation. Mark Zachary Taylor [Taylor, M.Z., 2004. Empirical evidence against varieties of capitalism's theory of technological innovation. International Organization 58, 601-631.] convincingly argued that Hall and Soskice's empirical test is fundamentally flawed and proposed a more appropriate test of their conjecture. He rejected the varieties of capitalism explanation of innovation patterns. We extend and refine Taylor's analysis, using a broader set of radicality indicators and making industry-level comparisons. Our results indicate that Hall and Soskice's conjecture cannot be upheld as a general rule, but that it survives closer scrutiny for a substantial number of industries and an important dimension of radicality.