Facebook and sport education: mirroring the model at home to promote parental involvement

ABSTRACT

Social networks had become so important that they constitute a way of life for many individuals, and Facebook is probably the most popular one. Society has become totally connected, but classrooms still remain rather isolated. The goal of the study was to extend the Sport Education Model (SEM) through a social network, Facebook, to promote parental involvement, assessing its impact at home. 41 parents of 49 grade 12th secondary education students agreed to participate (39?57 years): 14 fathers and 27 mothers. The vast majority of participating parents that included information about their socio-economic and educational background considered themselves medium level (11 out of 13). Unfortunately, most parents did not provide this type of information (69.30%). An AcroGymnastics learning unit was implemented using the SEM during 16 sessions. All Facebook activity was recorded by the site, and semi-structured interviews were used to obtain data directly from the parents. Quantitative data was analysed using Gytrics, while MAXQDA 11 helped with qualitative data management. Quantitative results showed that the Facebook group had a notable effect in parents’ involvement: 42.26% joined (67% mothers), 100% reacted, 70.47% published content, 48.69% uploaded a picture/video, 503 posts, 14,528 hits, and 2025 reactions: 1912 likes and 113 comments. Themes derived from the analysis of the qualitative data reinforced the idea that Facebook helped promote parental participation: involvement, affiliation and learning, and some SEM features at home: affiliation, festive atmosphere and participation. Finally, a change in the PE status was also observed among parents. In conclusion, the combination Facebook-SEM had a notable positive effect on parental involvement, especially among mothers of medium socio-economic background. The number and type of activities posted by the administrator seemed to be a key element to positively integrate Facebook in education.     

Assessing the unidimensionality of the School and College Ability Test (SCAT,Spanish version) using non-parametric methods based on item response theory

The aim of this work is to analyze the dimensional structure of the Spanish version of the School and College Ability Test, employed in the process for the identification of students with high intellectual abilities. This test measures verbal and mathematical (or quantitative) abilities at three levels of difficulty: elementary (3rd, 4th, and 5th years in Primary school), intermediate (6th year in Primary school plus the 1st and 2nd years of Compulsory Secondary School or ESO), and advanced (3rd and 4th years of ESO plus the 1st and 2nd years of bachillerato – equivalent to High school). For each level there are two forms, X and Y. The research was undertaken with the results obtained from the application carried out for the validation and norming of the Spanish version of the test, and for which a representative sample of students from Navarre at these mentioned levels was taken. This study assessed the possible unidimensionality of the simplicity or the complexity of the structure of this test as an essential aspect of construct validity. To this end, the results were triangulated for the classic factorial techniques and non-parametric methods based on the item response theory.     

Predictor variables of written picture naming in the deaf

Studies conducted in recent years on oral andwritten language production show that the ageat which words are learned is the main variablethat influences lexical access in both hearingpeople and people who have suffered brainlesions. No studies have been done with deafpeople and, since they use sign language inaddition to oral language, differencesregarding hearing people might be found intheir lexical organization. The aim of thisstudy was to test which variables determine thelexical production of deaf people. For thispurpose, 40 deaf people between the ages of 13and 58 years were asked to write individuallythe names of 100 pictures. The regressionanalyses performed on a total of 4000 responsesshow that the main predictor variable ofperformance was also age of acquisition. It isconcluded that the organization of the lexicalsystem in deaf people is similar to that of hearing people, although the phonologicalrepresentations of deaf people may be moreinaccurate.     

What if privatising higher education becomes an issue? The case of Chile and Mexico

Over the last 30 years, Chile and Mexico have been implementing neoliberal policies to reform their higher education systems. This report compares the development and impact of those policies within three main areas in both countries, namely: (1) trends and characteristics of the growing private higher education sector, (2) commercialisation and business-like trends that private academia is experiencing and, finally, (3) it discusses how all this has created tensioning situations with assessment and accrediting agencies to ensure quality in their private higher education systems. This study shows that private higher education is facing the following challenges in both nations: (1) an uncritical implementation of neoliberal policies, (2) that there is a very unregulated legislation that has allowed many private institutions to profit within loopholes in the law, (3) that quality has become a central concern and some of the mechanisms applied to correct it have not been effective, showing a lack of a comprehensive system of quality assessment, and (4) that enrolment has grown but with several mismatches that challenge the initial goal of advancing economic development through human resources capacities. Alternative policies are discussed.     

Avoiding communication barriers in the classroom: the APEINTA project

Education is a fundamental human right, however unfortunately not everybody has the same learning opportunities. For instance, if a student has hearing impairments, s/he could face communications barriers in the classroom, which could affect his/her learning process. APEINTA is a Spanish educational project that aims for inclusive education for all. This project proposes two main accessible initiatives: (1) real-time captioning and text-to-speech (TTS) services in the classroom and (2) accessible Web-learning platform out of the classroom with accessible digital resources. This paper presents the inclusive initiatives of APEINTA. Also an evaluation of the into-the-classroom initiative (real-time captioning and TTS services) is presented. This evaluation has been conducted during a regular undergraduate course at a university and during a seminar at an integration school for deaf children. Forty-five hearing students, 1 foreign student, 3 experts in captioning, usability and accessibility, and 20 students with hearing impairments evaluated these services in the classroom. Evaluation results show that these initiatives are adequate to be used in the classroom and that students are satisfied with them.     

Temperament Predicts Processing Speed in Low Socioeconomic Status Rural Preschoolers

Extreme poverty all over the world is concentrated in rural settings. However, studies about cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part conducted in urban populations. This paper investigates, in a poor rural sample, what are the individual and socioenvironmental variables that make the difference in performance in a processing speed task. Forty four 5‐year‐old children were evaluated with a processing speed task; individual and socioenvironmental information was obtained from parents' interviews. Higher scores in the effortful control dimension of temperament were associated with higher performance in the processing speed task. No other individual or socioenvironmental variable predicted the performance. These results showed that effortful control is important in processing speed and suggest that in low SES rural contexts, low effortful control children would require stronger interventions.     

The research environment of universities

Part‐time study is one of the foci of the widening participation agenda in the UK. The experiences of part‐time students, however, have received remarkably little attention from scholars, especially in a comparative context. This paper explores existing historical data going back over a decade to identify the main themes of part‐time experience at a number of UK higher education institutions and how it compares and contrasts with the full‐time experience. The surveys use the Student Satisfaction Approach. The main themes emerging from institutional survey data over time are the work/family/study balance, assessment and feedback, access to learning and catering resources, and students' financial situation. There is sometimes a question of identity, but unlike many studies of part‐time student experience, which focus on aspects of disadvantage, social, and cultural capital, the data for this paper indicate that many part‐time students have a sense of themselves as being ignored or at worst marginalised in contemporary higher education.