Examining social identity and intrateam moral behaviours in competitive youth ice hockey using stimulated recall

Social identity – identity formed through membership in groups – may play an important role in regulating intrateam moral behaviour in youth sport (Bruner, M. W., Boardley, I., & Côté, J. (2014). Social identity and prosocial and antisocial behavior in youth sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), 56–64. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.09.003). The aim of this study was to qualitatively examine this potential role through stimulated recall interviews with competitive youth-ice-hockey players. Twenty-three players (M_age = 13.27 years, SD = 1.79) who reported engaging in high, median or low frequency of antisocial teammate behaviour (determined through pre-screening with the Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviour in Sport Scale [Kavussanu, M., & Boardley, I. D. (2009). The prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport scale. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 31(1), 97–117. doi:10.1123/jsep.31.1.97]) were recruited from eight youth-ice-hockey teams in Canada. Interviews involved participants recalling their thoughts during prosocial/antisocial interactions with teammates, prompted by previously recorded video sequences of such incidents. Thematic analysis of interview data revealed all athletes – regardless of reported frequency of intrateam antisocial behaviour – felt prosocial interactions with teammates enhanced social identity. In contrast, the perceived influence of antisocial teammate behaviour on social identity differed depending on athletes’ reported frequency of intrateam antisocial behaviour; those reporting low and median frequencies described how such behaviour undermines social identity, whereas athletes reporting high frequency did not perceive this effect. The study findings highlight the potential importance of intrateam moral behaviour and social identity for youth-sport team functioning.     

Human runners exhibit a least variable gait speed

This study characterises the relationship between gait variability and speed in runners using data from trunk accelerations in each axis.

Twelve participants of varying fitness ran on the treadmill with three sessions of six randomly ordered self-selected speeds. A VO_2max test was conducted on the fourth session. Running gait was tracked with inertial sensors. The occurrence of a mid-range speed was analysed for the anterior–posterior, vertical and lateral directional coefficient of variation (CV) of root mean square (RMS) acceleration data.

One participant with noisy gait signals was omitted. The results show all remaining participants consistently showed significant quadratic U-shaped relationships between vertical RMS CV acceleration and speed. Neither anterior–posterior nor lateral RMS CV acceleration were clearly related to speed. These least variable gait speeds were similar to estimates of optimal speed derived from minimum cost of transport with speed.

In conclusion, there exists a mid-range speed for each runner with the least variable gait in the vertical direction, and this occurred significantly more often than would be expected by chance (P < 0.05). However, there are no prominent patterns for the anterior–posterior and lateral directions. This finding supports anecdotal evidence from runners and coaches concerning gait consistency.     

Erika Love (1925–2020)

Erika Love, MLA president and early advocate for research in libraries, died October 8, 2020. Erika held many leadership positions in the profession and received several MLA awards recognizing her contributions. She has been called “the midwife” of MLA''s early research initiatives [1].

Erika Love, Medical Library Association (MLA) president and early advocate for research in libraries, died October 8, 2020, at the age of 95. Born in Germany, Erika grew up in an educated and culturally rich environment. Her family did not support the National Socialism regime and suffered political persecution and economic hardship. After World War II, she matriculated at the University of Heidelberg. She worked as a library assistant at Amerika Haus in Darmstadt, a postwar organization fostering cultural interchange. In 1948, Erika married Victor Lamar Love; they moved to Indiana, his home state [2].     

Developing Motivation to Teach Elementary Science: Effect of Collaborative and Authentic Learning Practices in Preservice Education

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Exclusion from school in Scotland and across the UK: Contrasts and questions

This article draws on findings from the first cross-national study of school exclusion in the four jurisdictions of the UK. It casts new light on the crucial aspects of children's education that lead to school exclusion. It investigates the reasons for the UK disparities, as well as the policy and practice in place. The focus of this article is on a detailed analysis of the policy context in Scotland, where official permanent exclusion reduced to an all-time low of just five cases in 2014/15. This is much lower than in Northern Ireland and Wales and in stark contrast to England, where exclusions have increased substantially since 2012. Our analysis seeks to understand Scotland's success in reducing exclusion and offers new insight into the ways in which national policies and local factors more generally shape schools and their practices and the consequent impacts for children and young people more broadly in the UK.     

Does authentic assessment assure academic integrity? Evidence from contract cheating data

ABSTRACT

Contract cheating occurs when a student outsources their assessment to a third party, regardless of the third party’s relationship with the student, or whether money is exchanged. In higher education, there is a widespread belief that assessment design is a solution to the problem of contract cheating and that authentic assessment tasks are particularly effective. This research analysed two datasets – 221 assignment orders placed on academic custom writing websites and 198 assessment tasks in which contract cheating was detected – to investigate if authentic assessment can assure academic integrity. The authenticity of assessments was determined using five factors derived from the literature: frequency, fidelity, complexity, real-world impact and feed forward. Our analysis found that assessment tasks with no, some, or all of the five authenticity factors are routinely outsourced by students.     

Imperatives in Teaching for Lifelong Learning: moving beyond rhetoric to effective educational practice

Changes wrought by the ongoing technological, economic and social revolutions have once again emphasised the importance of lifelong learning. Current projections are for three or four changes of occupation during a working lifetime. There appears clear evidence of the need for the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies to cope with continuous change and maintain knowledge and skill currency during an entire lifetime. The Australian government commissioned report by Candy, Crebert and O'Leary raised a number of issues at undergraduate level, but failed to address the need for teaching more broadly for genuinely lifelong learning. This paper considers a range of approaches and strategies which it will be necessary to adopt to move beyond rhetoric to effective educational practices. Central to effective teaching of cognitive learning strategies will be adoption of appropriate curricula in teacher education courses.