Preliminary Investigation on the Effect of Cognition on Jump-Landing Performance Using a Clinically Relevant Setup

Objective: Little is known about cognition’s effect on jump-landing movement patterns. Design: Participants completed three baseline cognitive tasks. Then, participants performed three jump-landing trials per condition (dual-task trials (DT)): Stroop Color Word test (SCWT), Symbol Digits Modalities test (SDMT), Brooks Visuospatial task (BVT), and no concurrent cognitive task (single-task). Main Outcome Measures: Total Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) scores were used to evaluate movement patterns. Participant’s reaction time (RT) for the jump-landing task was recorded. Results: LESS scores were not different between conditions (F_{3, 17} = 1.77, p = 0.16). RT was different between DT-SCWT and single-task (difference = ?0.107 sec, SD = 0.095) and DT-SDMT and single-task (difference = ?0.164 sec, SD = 0.245). Additionally, correctness on the BVT (t₁₉ = 2.57, p = 0.019) and SDMT (t₁₉ = 2.93, p = 0.009) decreased significantly during the dual-task condition relative to baseline task scores. Conclusion: Individuals slowed their RT and were less accurate on the cognitive task during a dual-task condition to create an appropriate jump-landing movement.     

The changing value of vigorous activity and the paradox of utilising exercise as punishment in physical education

Background: Previous research on physical education (PE) teaching practice indicates that an exercise physiology discourse has assumed a dominant position within the field. Research shows that PE teachers are likely to emphasise physical fitness training in their teaching, and PE teachers seem to appreciate pupils who show high levels of physical exertion.

Purposes: Our aim is to examine how vigorous activity/exercise is represented in the practice of PE teaching. We will also examine teaching as a discursive practice, and thereby contribute to a critical perspective on PE pedagogy.

Research design: This study was conducted in four upper secondary schools in Oslo, Norway. Data material was produced through fieldwork, during which we observed 92 PE lessons. Additionally, we conducted qualitative interviews with the eight teachers who participated in the study. Our methodological framework was discourse analysis.

Findings: Our material shows that vigorous activity plays a complex role in PE class: it can be beneficial, but it can also be punitive. The PE teachers we observed drew on an exercise physiology discourse to portray vigorous activity/exercise as beneficial and valuable to the promotion of pupils’ physical fitness and health. However, the teachers also drew on a military discourse when assigning vigorous activity to rebuke a disobedient pupil. The teachers also introduced vigorous activity in the form of additional exercise ‘punishment’, which they assigned to losers in competitive activities. In these instances, the teachers drew on exercise physiology and sports discourses. Thus, we identified how vigorous activity changed value according to context, and discuss how teachers’ use of vigorous activity as punishment can seem paradoxical in a PE setting.

Conclusion and recommendation: Our study indicates that, rather than adhering to modern educational practices, PE is rooted in ideas and practices derived from military, sports and exercise physiology discourses. PE teachers inculcated with these discourses have limited ability to discern the paradox of assigning vigorous exercise to their pupils as both a high-value activity and a punishment. PE Teacher Education should therefore problematise how teaching practice is influenced by these discourses, and facilitate discussions on how such discourses constitute PE.     

Archives in motion: Concrete steps towards the digital disclosure of audiovisual content

Various authors have stressed the need for an adequate archiving and preservation policy of audiovisual material, given its cultural, historical, juridical, social and economic value. In view of the sustainable preservation of audiovisual material, the opening up of the archive is seen as a real challenge. Various aspects, such as requirements concerning formats, metadata standards and legal implications, need to be taken into account. Furthermore, different types of users should be able to consult the archive in a user-friendly way, a factor which should not be neglected. This article studies and discusses the current situation in Flanders regarding the digitisation and disclosure of the Flemish audiovisual cultural heritage, comprising the audiovisual material in the archives of different Flemish institutions, including broadcasters, (post-) production companies, government institutions and cultural organizations. Based on 45 qualitative interviews, a SWOT analysis is created to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats concerning the digitisation and disclosure of the audiovisual archive. Moreover, this environmental analysis includes some recommendations concerning the future preservation of this audiovisual cultural heritage.     

The Unique Role of Early Spelling in the Prediction of Later Literacy Performance

ABSTRACT

We examined the predictive value of early spelling for later reading performance by analyzing data from 970 U.S. children whose spelling was assessed in the summer following the completion of kindergarten (M age = 6 years; 3 months). The word reading performance of most of the children was then tested after the completion of Grade 1 (age 7;5), Grade 2 (8;5), Grade 4 (10;5), and Grade 9 (15;5). A computer-scored measure of postkindergarten spelling was a significant predictor of later reading performance even after taking into account postkindergarten phonological awareness, reading, and letter-sound knowledge and prekindergarten vocabulary. The results suggest that, by the end of kindergarten, spelling is more than just a proxy for phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge. Given the information that spelling provides, it should be considered for inclusion when screening children for future literacy problems.     

Alternative courses in upper secondary vocational education and training: students' narratives on hopes and failures

Counteracting upper secondary dropouts is an increasingly common issue across the Western part of the world. In Norway, the government has developed different measures to counteract dropouts, one of which concerns alternative educational courses involving increased workplace practice. This article is based on interviews with eight students who participate in the alternative course. The narratives show an identity shift from being outsiders in compulsory education to being participants in the alternative course, something which inspires to learn and installs in the students a hope for the future. This article discusses how and to what extent the alternative courses respond to the purpose of education. We argue that even though the alternative courses respond to many features that may represent educational purposes, this is altogether not enough for the courses to qualify as education. For the courses to qualify as education, a tighter connection to the curriculum is necessary. If the educational system does not respond to the students' construction of new identities through enabling pathways towards more formal qualifications, the development of alternative courses with increased workplace practice might lead to an unintended result of further marginalisation, exclusion and social reproduction.     

Preferred social organization of learning formats among pupils experiencing different kinds of internalizing problems in secondary school

The aims of this study were to investigate the dimensionality of internalizing problems among secondary high school pupils and to find out about their preferences for the social organization of learning formats. We wanted to see if preferences varied for pupils reporting different kinds of internalizing problems. Five hundred and one pupils in Grades 8, 9 and 10 (aged 13–16 years) from two secondary schools in a city in the south of Norway participated in the study. The results indicate that internalizing problems can be sub‐divided into symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety and social passive behaviour. We found a high association between symptoms of depression and symptoms of anxiety. However, scores for social passivity showed relatively low associations with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Our results indicated that all pupils with internalizing difficulties had lower than average negative preferences for most of the learning formats. Our results also suggest that depressed pupils have a particularly low preference for individual work, whereas socially passive pupils are most negative about whole class interactions.     

Who is granted authority in the mathematics classroom? An analysis of the observed and perceived distribution of authority

The article deals with the way in which authority was established and interpreted by teachers and students in two Flemish sixth-grade mathematics classrooms. Problem-solving lessons during a seven-month observation period were analysed regarding three aspects of teacher–student interactions that explicitly or implicitly reflect who bears mathematical authority: (1) to whom were students allowed to ask for help; (2) who was allowed to answer students’ mathematics-related questions; and (3) who was allowed to evaluate students’ responses. For each of these aspects, we were interested whether authority was ascribed only to the teacher or whether authority was distributed more broadly, with students being considered accountable for their own and other’s learning process. Interviews with teachers and students were conducted to investigate the meaning that participants gave to the practices in which they were involved.     

Prediction of Academic Performance by Means of the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test

This article reviews ten predictive validity studies of the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test (SweSAT). A primary result is that the predictive validity of the SweSAT seems to be highly dependent upon the study programme being examined; that is, the predictive validity is better at some programmes than others. When compared with the upper‐secondary school grade point average, the predictive validity of the SweSAT seems to be fairly good, but there are major differences between study programmes in this case as well. However, it is suggested that the validity of the results is to some extent threatened by methodological issues. A general conclusion is, therefore, that there is room for improving the test itself, as well as the way that predictive validity studies are carried out.