Wissenschaft bewegt Sport bewegt Wissenschaft

According to Kuhn (1977) a paradigm and institutionalization are the two constitutive pillars of a science. In this article it is examined how the two pillars of sports science, namely the paradigm of interdisciplinarity and the institutionalization of the field, have developed over the course of the last 30 years. The focus is on the problems in the practical application of an interdisciplinary framework as well as how these problems can be solved. The further discussion is on how an interdisciplinary sports science parallel to work within single disciplines, can (and should) be further institutionalized. This contribution is an elaboration of an introductory lecture presented by the author at the conference “Sportwissenschaftlicher Hochschultag” in Halle, 2011.     

The understanding heart: aging parents and their favorite children

This paper compares the characteristics of adult children who provide comfort and sympathy and serve as confidants to parents with those whom parents perceive as disappointing. Interview information from 117 couples having children who had left home was analyzed using aggregate and intrafamilial strategies. The latter analyses compared the characteristics of the selected child with those of her or his sibs instead of comparing the aggregate of selected children with the aggregate of their siblings. Differences in the findings from the 2 techniques are discussed. The findings confirmed the importance of daughters who live nearby as understanding children. More important than proximity among the factors influencing parental judgments on disappointing and understanding children were intergenerational shared interests and values.     

SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR OF GIFTED PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

This paper is divided into two parts: in the first a short overview of the current state of research on social behaviour of gifted preschool children is given; the second reports a small experimental observation study on social/cooperative play behaviour of gifted preschool children as compared with a normal kindergarten group. The study was conducted within the broad framework of a two year model project with a group of gifted children aged 3 to 6. Most striking in the results is the high absolute and relative amount of positive verbal interaction in the project group.     

Teaching at a Distance — Reflections on the relationship between discipline‐based and general teaching theories

German readers would immediately associate the term ‘discipline-based’ with Didaktik, which in the German-speaking world is an established branch of education science. The first section therefore deals with the development of Didaktik, understood as a theory of teaching and learning which seeks to investigate the relationships between discipline-based and general teaching theories. Didaktik was originally a strictly theory-oriented discipline in German-speaking countries, but changes in its terms of reference have led to an acceptance of the more pragmatically oriented curriculum theory of the English-speaking world. The term ‘discipline-based’ seems to indicate that here, too, education science has turned its back on positivistic, ‘purely scientific’ standards, so a knowledge of the German discussion of teaching-learning theory may be of interest.

The second section shows that in distance education, too, general teaching models need concretization in terms of discipline-based teaching theory, and that on the other hand, any discipline-based theory needs to have its foundations in general teaching theory, i.e. in pedagogic principles.

The third section therefore postulates the necessity of a theory of distance education which is based on practical experience.     

Concepts of special educational need

Editor's note. This article first appeared in 'Education Today' in 1981. At that time issues of classification and categorisation of children with special educational needs were being debated in many countries, and in England an enquiry into the education of children with disabilities had recommended the abolition of categories of disability in favour of the concept of special educational need ( DES, 1978 ). Today, as the government consults on the reintroduction of disability categories, it seems appropriate to reconsider this concept and the thinking that led to its adoption.
The use of the male pronoun has been retained in this article for fluency of reading. 'He' and 'his' should be understood as 'he or she' and 'his or her'.
The article is reprinted with the kind permission of the College of Teachers – http://www.collegeofteachers.ac.uk .