Waiting for the Second Treat: Developing Culture‐Specific Modes of Self‐Regulation

The development of self‐regulation has been studied primarily in Western middle‐class contexts and has, therefore, neglected what is known about culturally varying self‐concepts and socialization strategies. The research reported here compared the self‐regulatory competencies of German middle‐class (N = 125) and rural Cameroonian Nso preschoolers (N = 76) using the Marshmallow test (Mischel, 2014). Study 1 revealed that 4‐year‐old Nso children showed better delay‐of‐gratification performance than their German peers. Study 2 revealed that culture‐specific maternal socialization goals and interaction behaviors were related to delay‐of‐gratification performance. Nso mothers’ focus on hierarchical relational socialization goals and responsive control seems to support children's delay‐of‐gratification performance more than German middle‐class mothers’ emphasis on psychological autonomous socialization goals and sensitive, child‐centered parenting.     

'NO OPINION'-FILTERS: A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Research on the use of ‘no opinion’-filters suggeststhat respondents are the less likely to offer a substantiveresponse the more strongly the filter question is worded. Aseries of experiments is reported that demonstrates that filterquestions influence respondents' perception of their task: themore strongly the filter question is worded, the more respondentsassume that they will have to answer difficult questions, andthat they may not have the required knowledge. Accordingly,filter questions discourage respondents from offering globalopinions that they may hold. In line with this assumption, allrespondents who reported not having an opinion in response toa filter question, subsequently provided substantive responseson a global opinion question—presumably because the globalquestion asked was less demanding than expected on the basisof the filter. Analyses of these substantive responses indicatedthat respondents who initially reported not having an opiniondiffered from respondents who reported having one. Methodologicalimplications of these findings for the use of filter questionsand for research on the nature of ‘floating’ arediscussed.     

Assimilation attitudes predict lower immigration-related self-efficacy among Israeli immigrant teachers

This study focuses on self-efficacy among teachers working in culturally diverse educational contexts. We put forward the notion of immigration-related self-efficacy and provide initial support for its relationship with the acculturation attitudes held by immigrant teachers. One hundred thirty-three teachers who immigrated to Israel from the Former Soviet Union participated in this study. We found that teachers tend to report high levels of self-efficacy in all the investigated aspects. According to our predictions, immigrant teachers endorsing more assimilative approaches report lower levels of self-efficacy vis-à-vis their immigrant students. Our results can contribute to a critical discussion on the place and roles of immigrant teachers in schools.     

Quantification of improvement in triathlon swimming performance by textile speedsuits

To quantify swimwear-induced differences under triathlon-specific conditions, we compare the swimming performance, the metabolic cost, and the standardised passive drag of well-trained triathletes when wearing (1) five speedsuit models by different manufacturers from 2017, (2) usual swimming trunks/swimsuits (men/women), and (3) individually preferred competition trisuits. Because of the complexity of the underlying hydrodynamic and biomechanical effects, three separate experimental stages were realized, each with 6–12 well-trained short- and middle-distance triathletes (male and female, mean age 22?±?5 years) from the German national elite or junior elite level. All measurements were conducted on the basis of real athletes’ motion in the water to correctly account for all relevant effects, including skin and muscle vibrations. First, the athletes took part in a series of 100 m short-distance tests at maximal effort in a long-course pool to quantify swim-time differences in absolute terms. Second, the subjects completed multiple submaximal 400 m tests at 95% of their individual maximal speed in a swimming flume, with their swimwear-related differences in metabolic load being explored in terms of blood lactate and heart rate. Third, the passive drag of the triathletes was measured in the flume during a towing test under standardised conditions in velocity steps of 0.2 m/s within the triathlon-relevant range of 1.1–1.7 m/s. In all three test stages, the speedsuits exhibited performance advantages over trunks/swimsuits: in the 100 m maximal test, the mean swim time with speedsuits decreased by 0.99?±?0.30 s (????1.5%). During the 400 m submaximal flume test, the mean heart rate showed a reduction of 7?±?2 bpm (? ??4.0%), while the post-exercise blood lactate accumulation decreased by 1.0?±?0.2 mmol/L (? ??26.2%). Similarly, the passive drag in the towing test was lowered by 3.2?±?1.0 W (????6.9% as for normalised power and ??5.2% as for normalised force) for the speedsuits. Wearing speedsuits instead of usual trunks/swimsuits is shown to improve the swimming performance and to reduce the metabolic cost for well-trained triathletes under triathlon-specific test conditions. The reduction in passive drag of the passively towed athlete’s body due specific speedsuit surface textures seems to be only one reason for performance advantages: the effective reduction in muscular, soft tissue, and skin vibrations at the trunk and thighs during active propulsive motion of the swimmer seems to further contribute substantially.     

Interacting for learning: Digital portfolios for a learning community in a university course

This study investigates student interactions in a blog-based learning community in a university course. In addition, this study explores the dynamics of group interactions in individual blog-based environments compared with collaborative wiki-based educational activities. A learning community of 56 graduate students wrote individual blogs and weekly group summaries using a wiki environment. The posts were analyzed by identifying a post content type and explicit feedback promotions, and by counting the number of the blogger's own comments and the number of others’ comments per post, received from peers studying in the same versus the other offline group. The results show that choosing the appropriate type of post content (i.e., sharing experiences rather than providing information, explicitly calling for feedback, and providing the blogger's own comments) augments peer interaction in a blog environment, thus explaining 51.4% of variance in peer comments. Group interactions through comments in individual blogs, without the possibility of changing one another's content, seem to be non-intrusive and prompt interactions with offline as well as with online peers. In contrast, actual editing of texts through multi-authored collaborative wikis remained affected by student offline former acquaintance. The results are discussed in terms of social interactions and pedagogical beliefs.