Differences in game reading between selected and non-selected youth soccer players

Applying an established theory of cognitive development―Skill Theory―the current study compares the game-reading skills of youth players selected for a soccer school of a professional soccer club (n = 49) and their non-selected peers (n = 38). Participants described the actions taking place in videos of soccer game plays, and their verbalisations were coded using Skill Theory. Compared to the non-selected players, the selected players generally demonstrated higher levels of complexity in their game-reading, and structured the information of game elements―primarily the player, teammate and field―at higher complexity levels. These results demonstrate how Skill Theory can be used to assess, and distinguish game-reading of youth players with different expertise, a skill important for soccer, but also for other sports.     

Inspection of Home Education in European Countries

In many European countries and in North America, home education is a viable alternative for education at school. Parents who want to home school their child are legally allowed to do so, although some countries impose rather strict conditions. This article concentrates on the way authorities supervise or inspect the quality of home education. A comparison is made of inspection regulations in 14 European countries. Substantial differences were found, regarding among other things the function of inspection, inspection methods and the outcomes. Most countries do not have data on the effectiveness of inspection. It is recommended that governments screen their procedures for the inspection of home education using criteria such as transparency, consistency, and efficiency.     

Physics teaching and learning with multimedia applications: a review of teacher-oriented literature in 34 local language journals from 2006 to 2015

Teacher-oriented journals provide many ideas for practical use of multimedia in physics teaching and learning. However, they are often written in their respective native languages. Moreover, having 24 official languages in the European Union is a huge barrier to the exchange of teaching and learning material. Knowledge about what is discussed in neighbouring countries is rare. Hence, in this article scientific members of the MPTL group (Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning) present a review on multimedia applications and the corresponding concepts that are discussed in non-English language journals. 491 articles in 34 teacher-oriented journals from 10 countries are reviewed, using a list of 81 categories, to characterise addressed topics, teaching strategies, technology and multimedia features. Log-linear multiway frequency and cluster analysis were used to get more insights about preferred combinations of content and teaching strategies, differences between countries, changes between periods and patterns of articles. There is a divergence in the main topics focused on between countries and some changes within the periods 2006–2010 and 2011–2015. Such a large diversity of ideas and concepts covered throughout the EU highlights the potential benefits of more international exchange. However, findings also point to additional requirements, concerning theoretical background, ideas for implementations of modern features like augmented reality, and the use of internet-based sources and modern devices. Thus this article is also calling for more exchange and discussions concerning topics to be addressed in teacher-oriented journals.     

Measures of international collaboration in scientific literature: Part I

Research evaluating models of scientific productivity require coherent metrics that quantify various key relations among papers as revealed by patterns of citation. This paper focuses on the various conceptual problems inherent in measuring the degree to which papers tend to cite other papers written by authors of the same nationality. We suggest that measures can be given a degree of assurance of coherence by being based on mathematical models describing the citation process. A number of such models are developed.     

Science and Values in Undergraduate Education

Science & Education - While a conception of science as value free has been dominant since Max Weber defended it in the nineteenth century, recent years have witnessed an emerging consensus that...     

Motivation to commit oneself as a determinant of achievement in problem-based learning

Problem-based learning is a constructivist approach toprofessional education stressing the use of real lifeproblems in education. Several previous attempts tounderstand the intricacies of learning in theproblem-based context have led to a causal model,elements of which were tested in the present study.The focus of the investigation was on the students' motivation to committhemselves to studying in a problem-based healthsciences curriculum, expressed in term of levels ofattendance at tutorial meetings. Data were collectedregarding functioning of the tutorial group, tutorfunctioning, level of prior knowledge, quality of theinstructional problems, time spent on individualstudy, academic achievement and increased interest.These data were analyzed using a structural equationsmodeling approach. As hypothesized, commitment appears to bea potent determinant of achievement. In fact, itrepresents one of the strongest determinants oflearning in the model tested.     

How to assess for improvement of learning

This review summarizes and builds on a seminar about assessment of student learning in higher education. Assessment can be looked upon as simply something that has to be done at the end of a course. During the course of discussions at the seminar the participants became more aware of how assessment can have an impact on learning. This means that assessment can be used as a means to improve learning. This realization is not a new one, but it is highlighted here in a more coherent and concise way than usual. Many alternative methods of assessment are possible. Some instructional design rules will be presented here for designing assessment sessions in such a way that learning can be improved. When designing an assessment method, one can be guided by the following considerations. The content of assessment should be chosen in accordance with the learning outcomes one hopes to achieve. The organization of assessment can be designed in such a way that the desired learning process is promoted. The outcome of assessment can provide feedback to many of the stakeholders: to the students on their learning process; to the faculty on its outcomes; and to the teacher by pointing out the following steps to be taken in improving assessment, learning and teaching.     

Designing research to inform sustainability and scalability of digital technology innovations

Educational technology research and development - Considerably more research needs to be done to understand how successful technological innovations and change processes are sustained and scaled to...     

What students learn in problem-based learning: a process analysis

This study aimed to provide an account of how learning takes place in problem-based learning (PBL), and to identify the relationships between the learning-oriented activities of students with their learning outcomes. First, the verbal interactions and computer resources studied by nine students for an entire PBL cycle were recorded. The relevant concepts articulated and studied individually while working on the problem-at-hand were identified as units of analysis and counted to demonstrate the growth in concepts acquired over the PBL cycle. We identified two distinct phases in the process—an initial concept articulation, and a later concept repetition phase. To overcome the sample-size limitations of the first study, we analyzed the verbal interactions of, and resources studied, by another 35 students in an entire PBL cycle using structural equation modeling. Results show that students’ verbal contributions during the problem analysis phase strongly influenced their verbal contributions during self-directed learning and reporting phases. Verbal contributions and individual study influenced similarly the contributions during the reporting phase. Increased verbalizations of concepts during the reporting phase also led to higher achievement. We found that collaborative learning is significant in the PBL process, and may be more important than individual study in determining students’ achievement.