Stress and cognitive functioning in sport

This paper considers the relationship between stress and cognitive functioning and discusses some of the concepts and methods that may be adopted to examine the relationship between stress and sports performance. It considers only that literature that may be relevant to, or furthers, the understanding of sports performance under competitive stress. One of the most popular approaches has been to explain the relationship in terms of the unidimensional inverted-U hypothesis. The validity of this approach to explaining sports performances in specific situations is discussed and it is generally concluded that the inverted-U hypothesis is too vague and simplistic. The discussion considers multidimensional approaches and discusses the suitability and implications of some more recent and more complex models of stress and performance which are now available in the psychological literature. It is concluded that the relationship between stress and sports performance is an extremely complex one and involves the interaction between the nature of the stressor, the cognitive demands of the task being performed and the psychological characteristics of the individuals performing it.     

The fault is in ourselves: looking at ‘failures in implementation’

While implementers are often blamed, reformers themselves are usually responsible for sub‐optimal implementation of educational reform projects. This article shows that the conditions for successful implementation, which are known and accessible, are frequently ignored. The case study concerns a university that is engaged in in‐service teacher education reform in Pakistan, focusing on introducing a ‘learner‐centred’ approach in schools. The research identified severe shortcomings related to implementation of the new approach, mostly relating to a failure by the teacher‐educators to understand and adapt to the actual contexts in which the teachers work. Finally, we suggest reasons why there are so many instances of failed reforms in developing countries.