Discriminant analysis of anthropometric and biomotor variables among elite adolescent female athletes in four sports

The aim of this study was to identify anthropometric and biomotor variables that discriminated among groups of elite adolescent female athletes aged 14.3 ± 1.3 years (mean ± s) from four different sports (tennis, n = 15; swimming, n = 23; figure skating, n = 46; volleyball, n = 16). The anthropometric variables included body mass, height, bi-epicondylar breadth of the distal extremity of the humerus and femur, maximal girth of the calf and biceps and the sum of five adipose skinfolds. The biomotor variables were maximal aerobic power, muscular endurance and flexibility of the trunk. Discriminant analysis revealed three significant functions (P ? 0.05). The first discriminant function primarily represented differences between figure skaters and all other groups of athletes. The other two underlined anthropometric and biomotor differences between swimmers and volleyball players and between tennis players and swimmers, respectively. After validation, the analysis showed that 88% of the athletes were correctly classified in their respective sports. Our model confirms that elite adolescent female athletes show physical and biomotor differences that clearly distinguish them according to their particular sport.     

Relational Poetic Encounters: Opening Spaces at Tate Liverpool

This article explores poetic inquiry through a creation‐research framework as a method of exploring issues surrounding identity and subjective relationality. As a Métis visual artist, poet and educator, the author explores knowledge and meaning based in ontological experience and Indigenous understandings of the subjective inward journey and its role in our relational interconnectedness. The implications of the connection between the inward and outward paradigms of experience, knowledge and knowing creates a space to value and honour our unique understanding of the world. Through a found poetry activity designed and implemented in the gallery space at the Tate Exchange, Liverpool, the author delves into a reflective analysis of the potential of understanding the Other within us and the Other in front of us through critical creative praxis in a generative public context.     

La reforme de l'enseignement en France

Sans résumé     

Vers une Theorie de l'Education/Apprentissage

Résumé L'auteur a entrepris de clarifier la notion de curriculum comme domaine distinct de savoir propre à la science de l'éducation dans le cadre plus général des sciences de l'éducation. En s'inspirant de la méthode d'analyse comparée élaborée par George Z. Bereday, l'article procède à une analyse de données qui sont operationnalisées en utilisant une typologie de définitions basées sur la causalité aristotélicienne. L'article s'attarde plus longuement à suggérer et à définir une méta-théorie du curriculum basée sur les aires de consensus découvertes chez les auteurs analysés.Le curriculum y est examiné sous son acception originale telle que proposée par John Dewey, à savoir le processus de l'éducation/apprentissage organisé et intentionnel. Par ailleurs le plan ou programme d'éducation/apprentissage, souvent identifié à la notion de curriculum, y est présenté comme n'étant qu'un des paramètres qui déterminent la nature de tout processus d'éducation/apprentissage organisé. Les quatre autres paramètres, dont la convergence, constituent un processus d'éducation/apprentissage particulier réalisé de façon différenciée en chaque apprenant, sont l'agent-bénéficiaire (apprenant) lui-même, l'agent-initiateur (l'intervenant), l'environnement physique et social ainsi que le savoir ou la culture à transmettre. La théorie traite ensuite de la nature paradigmatique du processus et des quatre niveaux d'intentionnalité qui caractérisent la planification et l'actualisation de chaque processus. La théorie présente le curriculum comme étant un phénomène agissant à la manière d'un système ouvert dont le tout ou la Gestalt constitue l'apprentissage réalisé en chaque apprenant, soumis aux lois de l'équifinalité et de l'homéostasie.L'article conclue en présentant un modèle spiroidal qui tente de représenter la trame des influences tant réelles que perceptuelles qui contribuent à l'apprentissage visé par toute institution d'éducation/apprentissage.

---

The author has attempted to clarify the idea of the curriculum as a distinct area of knowledge which is characteristic of educational science within the wider framework of educational sciences. Inspired by the method of a comparative analysis which was developed by George Z. Bereday, the author analyzes the data which are used referring to a typology of definitions based on the Aristotelian idea of causality. In the article a meta-theory of the curriculum is proposed and defined based on the consensus discovered among the authors whose views are analyzed.The present curriculum is examined with respect to its original meaning as proposed by John Dewey in order to establish the process of organized and intentional education/learning. However, the plan or programme of education/learning which is often identified as the notion of the curriculum, is presented here as being only one of the parametres determining the nature of the whole process of organized education/learning. The convergence of the remaining four parametres constitutes a special process of education/learning realized to suit each learner as the beneficiary agent (learner), the initiating agent (intervener), the physical and social environment as well as the knowledge or the culture to be transmitted. The theory goes on to deal with the paradigmatic nature of the process and the four levels of intentionality characterizing the planning and actualization of each process. The theory presents the curriculum as if it were a phenomenon which functions like an open system, i.e. where the total or the Gestalt constitutes the realized learning by each learner, referring to the laws ofequifinality and homeostasis.The article closes by presenting a spiral model which seeks to represent the web of real and perceptual influences which contribute to the learning aimed at by the whole institution of education/learning.

---

Zusammenfassung Der Verfasser versucht eine Klärung des Begriffs des Curriculums als eigentlichen charakteristischen Wissensbereich der Erziehungswissenschaft im allgemeinen Zusammenhang der Erziehungswissenschaften. Inspiriert durch die von George Z. Bereday entwickelte Methode der vergleichenden Analyse, werden in dem Artikel die Daten analysiert, die unter Anwendung einer Typologie von auf dem aristotelischen Kausalitätsdenken aufbauenden Definitionen operationalisiert werden. In dem Artikel wird eine Metatheorie des Curriculums vorgeschlagen und definiert, gestützt auf die Konsensusbereiche der in die Analyse einbezogenen Autoren.Das Curriculum wird hier gemäß seiner ursprünglichen, von John Dewey vorgeschlagenen Bedeutung untersucht, um den organisierten und zielgerichteten Erziehungs-/Lernprozeß zu verstehen. Dennoch wird der Plan bzw. das Erziehungs-/Lernprogramm — oft mit dem Begriff des Curriculums gleichgesetzt — hier nur als einer der Parameter vorgestellt, die die Art des ganzen organisierten Erziehungs-/Lernprozesses bestimmen. Die vier anderen Parameter stellen durch ihr Zusammenwirken einen besonderen Erziehungs-/Lernprozeß dar, der gemäß der Eigenart jedes Lernenden verwirklicht wird, bestehend aus dem Nutznießer (Lernenden) und dem Initiator (Vermittler), aus der natürlichen und der sozialen Umwelt ebenso wie aus dem zu vermitelnden Wissens- und Kulturbereich. Im Anschluß daran behandelt die Theorie das paradigmatische Vorgehen und die vier Ebenen der Intentionalität, die die Planung und Verwirklichung jedes Prozesses kennzeichnen. Die Theorie stellt das Curriculum als ein Phänomen vor, das nach Art eines offenen Systems funktioniert, dessen Ganzes oder Gestalt das realisierte Lernen bei jedem Lernenden darstellt, aufbauend auf den Gesetzen der Gleichgerichtetheit und Homöstasie.Am Schluß des Artikels wird ein spiralenartiges Modell vorgestellt, das das Geflecht der realen und perzeptuellen Einflüsse darstellt, die zu dem von jeder Erziehungs-/Lerninstitution angestrebten Lernen beitragen.

     

Worldwide variation in the performance of children and adolescents: an analysis of 109 studies of the 20-m shuttle run test in 37 countries

This study is a meta-analysis of 109 reports of the performance of children and adolescents on the 20-m shuttle run test (20-mSRT). The studies were performed in 37 countries and included data on 418,026 children, tested between 1981 and 2003. Results were expressed as running speed (km x h(-1)) at the final completed stage of the 20-mSRT. Raw data were combined with pseudodata using Monte Carlo simulation. The 20-mSRT performances were expressed as z-scores relative to all children of the same age and sex from all countries. An overall "performance index" was derived for each country as the average of the age- and sex-specific z-scores for all children from that country. Factorial analysis of variance was used to compare scores among countries and regions, and between boys and girls of the same age. There was wide and significant (P < 0.0001) global variability in the performance of children. The best performing children were from the Northern European countries Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania, and Finland (0.6 - 0.9 standard deviations above the global average). The worst performing children were from Singapore, Brazil, USA, Italy, Portugal, and Greece (0.4 - 0.9 standard deviations below the global average). There is evidence that performance was negatively related to being overweight, as well as to a country's average temperature.     

Innovating Education Through the Use of New Technologies: Reflections from the Field (Part 1)

Abstract

A series of in‐depth interviews was conducted with a sample of 65 experts on the challenges and opportunities of introducing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into education. Interviewees were chosen for their expertise in the field, and the interviews reflect mainstream ideas and concerns on learning and learning support of the future, challenges and emerging changes at the organizational level of the educational institution, and new tasks and responsibilities for educational policy makers.