Academic anxieties: which type contributes the most to low achievement in methodological courses?

Students’ academic achievement in courses with a high mathematical content can be affected by their levels of trait, math and test anxiety. In this study, 180 university students were assessed on these types of anxiety and the relationships between them and students’ performance were evaluated. Higher levels of math anxiety were related to a low academic achievement, but a high level of test anxiety was related only to an increase in the number of errors. Moreover, although women reported higher levels of trait, math and test anxiety than their male peers, their academic achievement was similar. We conclude that math anxiety is the main emotional factor that can affect students’ performance in these courses and some proposals to help highly math-anxious students are discussed.     

Differences in maturity,morphological and physical attributes between players selected to the primary and secondary teams of a Portuguese Basketball elite academy

The present study aims (i) to compare the maturational, morphological and fitness attributes of young basketball players of primary and secondary teams of an elite basketball academy, and (ii) to identify the set of morphological and fitness attributes which better discriminate the players from the two teams. A total of 116 male basketball players of an elite basketball academy were divided into primary (team A) and secondary (team B) teams in two age groups (U-14 and U-16). All the players were evaluated during two consecutive seasons and data related to players’ practice experience, maturational, morphological and fitness attributes were collected at the beginning of the competition period. The results of the study suggest that: (i) in both age categories, team A players were older, more mature, bigger in size and had greater fitness profiles than team B players; (ii) stature and abdominal resistance were identified as discriminant attributes for youth basketball player performance; (iii) aerobic capacity for U-14 and agility for U-16 were identified as specific discriminant attributes for performance in youth basketball. Coaches are recommended to avoid premature talent identification and provide players with opportunities to progress through the talent pathway, at least until U-16 age category.     

The evolution of student-coach’s pedagogical content knowledge in a combined use of sport education and the step-game-approach model*

Background: One of the essential elements within Sport Education is the inclusion of student roles and responsibilities. While previous research has examined students’ performance in officiating tasks, the examination of student-coaches’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) within peer-assisted tasks of Sport Education has been scarce. Indeed, the only study to date which has examined student-coach effectiveness was conducted by Wallhead and O’Sullivan [2007. “A Didactic Analysis of Content Development During the Peer Teaching Tasks of a Sport Education Season.”Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 12 (3): 225–243]. In that study, student-coaches struggled to manifest PCK by providing appropriate demonstrations, to diagnose errors, or to modify tasks for higher order content development. The study of PCK may be a useful heuristic to examine instructional effectiveness in physical education.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of the PCK of a cohort of student-coaches across three hybrid Sport Education-Step Game Approach seasons, and to examine the impact of protocols put in place to specifically enhance coaches’ PCK.

Participants and setting: Twenty-one students and one teacher from a school class in the north of Portugal participated in the present study.

Method: Data from multiple sources were collected: (a) videotape observations of all lessons, (b) field notes, and (c) pre-lesson interviews with the student-coaches. These were then subjected to deductive examination through a process of thematic analysis.

Findings and conclusions: Following a baseline season that identified four key limitations within the student-coaches’ instruction (task presentation, error diagnosis, feedback, and task modification), these students participated in specific coach preparation that involved modelling teacher’s instruction, pre-lesson meetings, and coaches’ corners. While showing marked improvement in their content knowledge across the second season, a second protocol was instigated during the third that involved the student-coaches to participate in stimulated reflections of their instruction and the incorporation of planning sheets to enhance their instruction. It was found that both interventions were efficacious in developing student-coaches’ PCK, which allowed a more complete transfer of the instructional responsibility from the teacher to the students. These results give insight into the importance of including coach education protocols within the design of seasons of Sport Education with respect to student-coaches’ instructional preparation.     

The construction of a transnational Lusophone media space: A historiographic analysis

This piece examines the historical construction of a Lusophone cultural-linguistic media space and market that spans portions of Europe, Africa, and South America. Beginning with the Portuguese colonization of Brazil and Lusophone Africa in the 17th century and continuing to the contemporary moment, our discussion examines how a combination of political, ideological, and economic patterns created linkages between Portugal, Brazil, and Portuguese-speaking colonies in Africa (namely Angola, Cape Verde, and Mozambique). After examining how Brazil grew to become the dominant cultural producer in this transnational matrix (most explicitly expressed through the massive exports of telenovelas and music since the late 1970s), we examine how other countries are beginning to carve out distinctive national niches, including the contemporary music scene in Cape Verde and the rise of domestically produced telenovelas in Portugal and Angola that are increasing in circulation in the contemporary transnational Lusophone media space.     

A Multi Proxy Investigation of Moisture,Salt, and Weathering Dynamics on a Historic Urban Boundary Wall in Oxford,UK

ABSTRACT

Boundary walls are neglected but important parts of historic urban environments, and they are often prone to serious deterioration. Understanding moisture and salt dynamics within boundary walls can help infer the causes and dynamics of deterioration. This investigation investigates the patterns of moisture, salt, and deterioration on a 300 year old limestone boundary wall in Worcester College, Oxford. Multiple methods to assess moisture and salts within and across the wall (electrical resistivity tomography, handheld resistivity-based moisture meter, paper pulp poultices, scanning electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, and ion chromatography of small scale sampling of deteriorated limestone) were used in conjunction with decay mapping of both sides of the wall. The salt weathering strongly correlates with severely weathered zones at the wall and salts, mainly sulfates, seem to be the main agent of decay processes. The combined results demonstrate that the environmental influences driving stone decay can differ on a very small scale even at a comparatively simple structure like a boundary wall, and that repairs can have adverse effects if the patterns of salt and moisture dynamics are not sufficiently known.     

Museum without walls： Imagining new formative spaces

The ＂Museum of Childhood＂ is a project connected to the Post-Graduate Program in Education at Unesc （Brazil） and since 2005 has been developing interfaces with research, teaching and extension. In this paper, the authors would like to show how the museological conception of the Museum of Childhood makes imagination from one of the central axis of its formative relation with the public. Such conception breaks with the traditional view of museums as buildings where old things are collected and preserved. In fact, the Museum of Childhood, in the light of its objective conditions, wants to be a museum without walls, a museum that, using the device of spatial demarcation, spreads itself in the university campus and other public places, with the objective of communicating with the people. This conception comes closer to the transgressive nature of modem arts, which desacralizes the work of art as masterpiece and proposed, for example, the fugacity of installations and aesthetic interventions. This conception takes the Benjaminian notion of the past as the dimension where other futures remain latent, that is, the museum is seen not as a guardian of the past, but as an establishment that wants to use its collections to communicate with the public. The overrunning of the static physical space, for example, forces the public to recreate its horizon of expectations concerning what a museum show be. In order to accomplish its original objectives, the Museum of Childhood works intensively on the formation of the public by proposing monitored visits in which creative activities are developed and by improving its homepage.     

Influencing Work-Related Learning: The Role of Job Characteristics and Self-Directed Learning Orientation in Part-Time Vocational Education

Based on the Demand-Control-Support (DCS) model, the present paper aims to investigate the influence of job characteristics such as job demands, job control, social support at work and self-directed learning orientation on the work-related learning behaviour of workers. The present study was conducted in a centre for part-time vocational education in Flanders (Belgium). The students in the centre work for 3 days a week and attend school during the other two days. A questionnaire using scales adapted from validated instruments was used. Students were asked to complete the questionnaire with the job in mind they were doing at present. A total of 115 students from different sectors completed the questionnaire. It was assumed that high scores for self-directed learning orientation and high scores for the job characteristics job demands, job control and social support would be associated with more work-related learning behaviour. All scales had acceptable Cronbach alpha values. The results of the linear regression analyses indicated that only the self-directed learning orientation scale predicted the work-related learning behaviour to a significant extent.     

Spheroid-on-chip microfluidic technology for the evaluation of the impact of continuous flow on metastatic potential in cancer models in vitro

The majority of cancer deaths are linked to tumor spread, or metastasis, but 3D in vitro metastasis models relevant to the tumor microenvironment (including interstitial fluid flow) remain an area of unmet need. Microfluidics allows us to introduce controlled flow to an in vitro cancer model to better understand the relationship between flow and metastasis. Here, we report new hybrid spheroid-on-chip in vitro models for the impact of interstitial fluid flow on cancer spread. We designed a series of reusable glass microfluidic devices to contain one spheroid in a microwell under continuous perfusion culture. Spheroids derived from established cancer cell lines were perfused with complete media at a flow rate relevant to tumor interstitial fluid flow. Spheroid viability and migratory/invasive capabilities were maintained on-chip when compared to off-chip static conditions. Importantly, using flow conditions modeled in vitro, we are the first to report flow-induced secretion of pro-metastatic factors, in this case cytokines vascular endothelial growth factor and interleukin 6. In summary, we have developed a new, streamlined spheroid-on-chip in vitro model that represents a feasible in vitro alternative to conventional murine in vivo metastasis assays, including complex tumor environmental factors, such as interstitial fluid flow, extracellular matrices, and using 3D models to model nutrient and oxygen gradients. Our device, therefore, constitutes a robust alternative to in vivo early-metastasis models for determination of novel metastasis biomarkers as well as evaluation of therapeutically relevant molecular targets not possible in in vivo murine models.     

Openness to international markets and the diffusion of standards compliance in Latin America. A multi level analysis

This study contributes to the debate on the role of openness to international markets for the diffusion of compliance with international standards in developing countries. Relying upon aggregated data for 1995-2005, as well as upon firm-level and secondary data from the Chilean salmon farming industry, the determinants of ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 diffusion at country, industry, and firm level, in Latin American are analysed. Our evidence suggests that openness to international markets acts at different levels. At both the country and industry level, it creates awareness and access to new knowledge therefore providing economic incentives or penalisations for evaluating certification. This effect competes and complements the deliberated efforts and policies in explaining diffusion of certification. At firm level, however, openness to international markets alone does not provide sufficient opportunities to acquire the knowledge required to comply with these standards. In this case, standards’ compliance depends on firm's capability to use relational and search assets, as well as on national and industrial efforts and policies to spread standards’ usage.