Intercultural education in physical education: results of a quasi-experimental intervention study with secondary school students

Background: Due to migration processes, cultural diversity and strangeness are becoming characteristics of modern society. The competence to handle this heterogeneity – the so-called intercultural competence – is a key competence for all children and youths. Sports and physical education (PE) are often considered as a particular field for enhancing intercultural competence. However, until now there is no theory-based empirical study that proves this assumption. Purpose: This study was designed to examine the effects of a standardised, theoretically driven programme in PE on the development of underlying cognitive concepts of intercultural competence: acculturation attitudes and attitudes towards cultural diversity. Research design: The research design consists of a quasi-experimental design with four measurement points. The intervention group (N?=?69; mean age?=?11.6 years (SD?=?0.60)) followed standardised and theory-driven intervention lessons following the didactical guidelines of the concept of ‘Intercultural Movement Education’ (IME). The developed games tend to trigger ‘crises’ with the aim to insecure students. These experienced insecurities were afterwards reflected upon with the students. The internal control group (N?=?63; mean age?=?11.8 years (SD?=?0.62)) and external control group (N?=?93; mean age?=?10.8 years (SD?=?0.69)) were taught in a unspecific manner. The impact of the intervention study programme was tested with a reliable and valid questionnaire. Results: A significant time by group interaction effect for the subscale ‘assimilation/segregation’ of acculturation attitudes was found in boys and in girls. The attitudes increased significantly after the intervention. For the girls, the intervention group showed also a significant decrease of the attitude ‘integration’. No significant impact of the intervention study on the attitudes towards cultural diversity could be identified either with boys or girls. Discussion: The effects of the study are ambivalent. The significantly increased assimilative attitudes can be interpreted as a need for a sense of security. This is also underlined by the decrease of the integration attitude that values the maintenance of cultural integrity. It must be critically discussed whether the ‘crises’ were too intense and not adapted to the children’s skills to overcome them. Second, we have to critically analyse whether the discussions with the students about their experiences were sufficiently focused to debrief the students. Summary for practitioners: The competence to handle heterogeneity – the so-called intercultural competence – is a key competence for children and youths. Sports and PE are often considered as a particular field for enhancing intercultural competence. However, until now there has been no theory-based empirical study that proves this assumption. This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of an intervention programme on intercultural learning in PE along the didactic guidelines of IME. This programme tries to trigger ‘crises’ that stimulate the students to react and think about their self- and world relations. The statistical analyses show that the ‘crises’ were probably too intense as the students’ scores in assimilation attitudes increased. This lead to the didactical reflection of the implementation of intercultural learning processes in PE.     

Sport disciplines,types of sports,and waist circumference in young adulthood – a population-based twin study

Purpose: The benefits of physical activity (PA) in preventing abdominal obesity are well recognized, but the role of different sport disciplines remains open. We aimed, therefore, to investigate how participation in different sport disciplines, and the number and types of sports engaged in are associated with waist circumference (WC) in young adulthood. Methods: This population-based cohort study comprised 4027 Finnish twin individuals (1874 men), with a mean age of 34 y (32–37), who answered a survey, including self-measured WC. We extracted the number and identified the types (aerobic, power, and mixed) of the different sport disciplines respondents reported participating in. Results: The number of sport disciplines participated in was inversely associated with WC, the linear decrease averaging 1.38?cm (95% CI 1.10–1.65) per each additional sport discipline. The result persisted after adjustment for the main covariates, such as volume of PA and diet quality. Among dizygotic twin pairs discordant for sports participation (0–2 vs. 5 or more disciplines), the mean within-pair difference in WC was 4.8?cm (95% CI 0.4–9.1) for men and 11.2?cm (95% CI 4.4–18.0) for women; among discordant monozygotic pairs, no differences were observed. In men, all three types of sports were individually associated with smaller WC, while in women, only mixed and power sports showed this association. Conclusions: Participation in several sport disciplines and sport types was associated with smaller WC among young adults in their mid-30s. Shared genetic background may explain some of the associations.     

A plea for mixed methods approaches in research on teaching in physical education

Research on teaching in Physical Education (RT-PE) comprises a great deal of complex phenomena. These can be understood at a more profound level by using mixed methods research approaches (MMR). Hence, the aim of this paper is to analyze potentials and limitations of mixed methods research in RT-PE, also trying to generate an additional value for MMR.     

What’s the value of an acceptance letter? Using admissions data to estimate the return to college

This paper exploits discontinuities and randomness in the college admissions in Sweden in 1982, to estimate the economic return to college in the 1990s. At the time, college admissions were highly selective and applicants were ranked with respect to their formal merits. Admissions were given to those ranked higher than some threshold value. At the margin, applicants were sometimes randomly assigned to college. Exploiting this Regression-Discontinuity design, individuals who were admitted in 1982 are estimated to have about 0.20 years longer college education in 1996. However, the earnings effects for applicants at the margin of admission are insignificant. Controlling for the college admission determinants, the OLS-estimates of the return to college is 1.4 percent in 1991–96. The IV-estimates are not significantly different from the OLS counterparts.