Buffering against performance classroom goal structures: The importance of autonomy support and classroom community

The culture of schooling in the United States has become increasingly focused on outwardly proving student competence. Some achievement goal theorists suggest that a major casualty of performance-oriented classroom environments may be student motivation for developing and improving competence. The present study extends across theoretical frameworks of motivation to highlight student perceptions of contextual variables that may mitigate or “buffer” the negative relationship between a perceived performance-oriented classroom goal structure and mastery goals. Survey data were collected from 178 high school students in 15 mathematics classes. Multilevel modeling was used to test student perceptions of three contextual buffers: classroom community, teacher’s autonomy support, and a mastery classroom goal structure. Two significant interactions revealed that classroom community and autonomy support erased the negative effect of a perceived performance classroom goal structure. Results provide practitioners with tools for counteracting potential negative implications of emphasizing performance in the classroom.     

Making better decisions by better managing information

This article examines how to improve decision making. We tend to prefer simplified thinking and revise our bias only when we are under overwhelming pressure. The article suggests some ways to better use information technology and offers a prioritizing approach to using information to produce better decisions.     

Extinction and blocking of conditioned inhibition in human causal learning

Two experiments investigated extinction and blocking of a conditioned inhibitor in a human contingency learning task. Lotz and Lachnit (2009) and Melchers, Wolff, and Lachnit (2006) reported extinction of inhibition only when participants experienced outcome levels lower than those used in training. In Experiment 1, which used more neutral instructions than the previously mentioned studies, we found that extinction of inhibition occurred, whether or not participants experienced lower outcome levels. In Experiment 2, we applied this outcome manipulation to blocking of a conditioned inhibitor. We found blocking of inhibition both when participants had experience with lower outcomes and when they did not. The results of our two experiments are consistent with Rescorla and Wagner’s (1972) associative model, and inconsistent with an inferential account of causal learning (De Houwer, Beckers, & Vandorpe, 2005).     

The Negotiated Project Approach: Project-Based Learning without Leaving the Standards Behind

The purpose this study was to explore how a veteran first-grade teacher collaboratively negotiated the implementation of a project with her students while, at the same time, addressed grade-level standards. Researchers investigated the teacher’s strategies for integrating the district’s standards into project topics, investigative activities, and final presentations. They also examined the teacher’s strategies for promoting students’ participation in project planning and independent problem-solving. Data sources included field notes, teacher interviews, videotaped observations, and transcribed teacher, and student interviews. As an extension to teacher-directed approaches to implementing the project approach, the results of this study revealed a collaborative approach to implementing projects that allowed the teacher and the students to work together for project planning and learning. The teacher felt successful with meeting grade level learning needs, and the students were given the opportunity to fuel their learning by expressing their natural interests and curiosities, and become problem solvers.     

The influence of equipment variations on sliotar–hurley impact in the Irish game of hurling

The game of hurling is ranked as one of the fastest and most skilful field games in the world. It is played by a stick, hurley, made of ash wood and a ball, sliotar, made of a cork core or similar viscoelastic materials. Better standardisation of the game equipment requires analysing impacts to quantify precisely the effect of variations in equipment design on the resultant impact force at low and high striking speeds. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to use a high-speed camera to (1) characterise the impact dynamics in term of impact force magnitude and duration, and (2) investigate whether a relationship exists between the game equipment and the magnitude of the impact force. An air cannon unit (ACU) test rig was set up to cause the sliotar to strike the hurley at predetermined speeds. A high-speed camera operating at 12,500 frames per second (fps) was used to capture 32 experimental impacts covering a range of sliotar and hurley brands, impact locations and impact speeds. The factor ??sliotar brand?? was identified as the most significant factor for the impact force among other main factors and two-factor interactions at a constant speed and it had a significant effect with up to 27?% difference between sliotar brands. It was demonstrated that, at higher impact speeds, the force?Cdeformation curves of the sliotar brands varied significantly, even though similar force?Cdeformation curves have been reported at quasi-static compression and similar COR values at low impact speeds using the standard free-drop test. This is the first known study to characterise the unique, highly non-linear and anisotropic sliotar?Churley impact using high-speed camera technology. It highlights the need for a tighter standard for sliotar materials and manufacturing to increase uniformity between different brands and strongly suggests that the standard free-drop test is not sufficient to characterise and compare game equipment.     

Curve and instep kick kinematics in elite female footballers

The three-dimensional kinematics of international female footballers performing a simulated direct free kick (curve kick) were compared with those of an instep kick. Reflective markers attached to the participants were tracked by 17 Vicon cameras sampling at 250 Hz. Foot velocity at ball impact did not differ between the two types of kick, but the way in which foot velocity was generated did differ, with instep kicks using a faster approach velocity and greater linear velocities of the hip and knee, and curve kicks using a greater knee angular velocity at impact. In both types of kick, peak knee angular velocity and peak ankle linear velocity occurred at ball impact, providing biomechanical support to the common coaching recommendation of kicking through the ball. To achieve a curved ball trajectory, players should take a wide approach angle, point the support foot to the right of the intended target (for right-footed players), swing the kicking limb across the face of the goal, and impact the ball with the foot moving upwards and in an abducted position. This information will be useful to coaches and players in identifying the fundamental coaching points necessary to achieve a curved trajectory of the ball compared with the more commonly described instep kick kinematics.     

Practice task design in team sports: Representativeness enhanced by increasing opportunities for action

Abstract This study investigated effects of manipulating the number of action possibilities in a futsal passing task to understand the representativeness of practice tasks designs. Eight male senior futsal players performed a passing task in which uncertainty on passing direction for the player in possession of the ball was increased in four conditions and compared with passing data from a competitive match. Performance during a passing task and competitive futsal performance was compared using ball speed and passing accuracy data. Ball speed data were analysed by approximate entropy (ApEn) to capture their regularity in each of the four conditions and during competitive performance. Significantly high levels of regularity were observed in predetermined passes in comparison with emergent passes (i.e., passes with high number of possibilities for action). Similar results for ball speed regularity were observed between practice tasks with a high number of possibilities for action (i.e., emergent passes) and competitive performance. Similar results were observed for passing accuracy in practice tasks with a high number of possibilities for action compared to competitive performance. Increases in the number of action possibilities during practice improved action fidelity of tasks in relation to competitive performance.     

Multimedia learning and individual differences: Mediating the effects of working memory capacity with segmentation

Research in multimedia learning lacks an emphasis on individual difference variables, such as working memory capacity (WMC). The effects of WMC and the segmentation of multimedia instruction were examined by assessing the recall and application of low (n=66) and high (n=67) working memory capacity students randomly assigned to either a segmented instruction (SI) or non-segmented instruction (NSI) version of a multimedia tutorial on historical inquiry. WMC was found to have a significant, positive effect on participants' recall and application scores; however, the use of segmentation mediated the effects of WMC to allow learners with lower WMC to recall and apply equal to those with higher WMC.     

Preparing Entry‐Level Counselors for Collaboration

Over a period of 5 years, faculty members from the North Carolina State University's Counselor Education Program have integrated a curriculum enhancement to promote collaboration behaviors among program graduates across the master's degree options for training school, college, and community counselors. The School–College–Community Collaboration (SC3) idea was integrated into a 48‐credit master's degree curriculum accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. The authors present the rationale for the training program, historical background, program enhancement content, evaluation findings and faculty responses, and future plans for the SC3 enhancement program.     

Multidimensional Linking for Tests with Mixed Item Types

Numerous assessments contain a mixture of multiple choice (MC) and constructed response (CR) item types and many have been found to measure more than one trait. Thus, there is a need for multidimensional dichotomous and polytomous item response theory (IRT) modeling solutions, including multidimensional linking software. For example, multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) may have a promising future in subscale score proficiency estimation, leading toward a more diagnostic orientation, which requires the linking of these subscale scores across different forms and populations. Several multidimensional linking studies can be found in the literature; however, none have used a combination of MC and CR item types. Thus, this research explores multidimensional linking accuracy for tests composed of both MC and CR items using a matching test characteristic/response function approach. The two-dimensional simulation study presented here used real data-derived parameters from a large-scale statewide assessment with two subscale scores for diagnostic profiling purposes, under varying conditions of anchor set lengths (6, 8, 16, 32, 60), across 10 population distributions, with a mixture of simple versus complex structured items, using a sample size of 3,000. It was found that for a well chosen anchor set, the parameters recovered well after equating across all populations, even for anchor sets composed of as few as six items.