Balance Among Cognitive Control Processes: A Case Study of a Gifted Youth

This case study analyzed the cognitive strategies of Ethan, a gifted youth, when performing a Stop Signal Task assessing cognitive control processes including response inhibition as well as proactive and reactive adjustments of response. In the case of Ethan, the response inhibition score was biased, revealing that Ethan did not follow the instructions but challenged them and was successful in doing this. Specifically, he made important proactive adjustments, by both slowing down and speeding up (i.e., risk taking) his responses according to the likelihood of the apparition of the stop signal (triggering response inhibition). Ethan’s performance indicated that he perfectly understood the procedure behind the task and completed it according to his own comprehension. Ethan’s results showed that researchers and clinicians must be careful when assessing gifted children and adolescents by using tasks that they cannot defeat.     

Effects of the Nordic Hamstring exercise on sprint capacity in male football players: a randomized controlled trial

This assessor-blinded, randomized controlled superiority trial investigated the efficacy of the 10-week Nordic Hamstring exercise (NHE) protocol on sprint performance in football players.

Thirty-five amateur male players (age: 17–26 years) were randomized to a do-as-usual control group (CG; n = 17) or to 10-weeks of supervised strength training using the NHE in-season (IG; n = 18). A repeated-sprint test, consisting of 4 × 6 10 m sprints, with 15 s recovery period between sprints and 180 s between sets, was conducted to evaluate total sprint time as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes were best 10 m sprint time (10mST) and sprint time during the last sprint (L10mST). Additionally, peak eccentric hamstring strength (ECC-P_HS) and eccentric hamstring strength capacity (ECC-CAP_HS) were measured during the NHE.

Ten players were lost to follow-up, thus 25 players were analyzed (CG n = 14; IG n = 11). Between-group differences in mean changes were observed in favor of the IG for sprint performance outcomes; TST (?0.649 s, p = 0.056, d = 0.38), 10mST (?0.047 s, p = 0.005, d = 0.64) and L10mST (?0.052 s, p = 0.094, d = 0.59), and for strength outcomes; ECC-P_HS (62.3 N, p = 0.006, d = 0.92), and ECC-CAP_HS (951 N, p = 0.005, d = 0.95).

In conclusion, the NHE showed small-to-medium improvements in sprint performance and large increases in peak eccentric hamstring strength and capacity.

Trial Registration Number: NCT02674919     

The effects of football match congestion in an international tournament on hip adductor squeeze strength and pain in elite youth players

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a congested international tournament match schedule on adductor strength and pain in elite youth football players. Twenty-two male players (age: 15.53 ± 0.48 years, height: 174.87 ± 7.59 cm, weight: 67.45 ± 7.40 kg) were included. The 5-second adductor squeeze strength was captured daily using a hand-held dynamometer during a 7-game international tournament. Pain during the squeeze test was recorded using numerical pain ratings (0–10) to quantify groin pain. Sessional rate of perceived exertion (sRPE) was collected during the tournament. Adductor strength changed significantly during the tournament in relation to time (F(14,294.94) = 1.89, p = 0.027) and cumulative sRPE (F(1,314) = 5.59, p = 0.019). Cumulative sRPE displayed a negative relationship with strength (B = ?0.008, SE = 0.0032, 95%CI = ?0.014,-0.002). The results indicate that for every 100 match sRPE arbitrary units the squeeze peak force reduced by 0.8N. Sixteen (72.7%) players demonstrated clinically meaningful strength reductions (>15%) during the tournament. Match congestion impacts on hip adductor squeeze strength in male youth football players. A negative relationship between match sRPE and adductor strength exists. Player monitoring involving the 5-second adductor squeeze test can be captured effectively and is suitable to include as part of secondary injury prevention during or immediately after a congested tournament.     

The Swedish riding school: a social arena for young riders

The aim was to explore how young riders experience the riding school. By analysing focus groups interviews, a picture emerged showing that young riders’ main motive for participating at riding schools was the social aspects. Riding schools could be characterized through an institutional perspective in which the young riders became internalized and socialized into a stable culture. The young riders identified with the norms and values of the riding instructors through master–apprentice learning. In addition, the results revealed a change in the stable culture since the instructors encouraged social interactions and participation in the community that became central to learning and development. Opportunities to influence and interact were important for the individuals and from a child’s rights perspective. Through participation in the community of practice at riding schools, young riders not only learn about riding and horse management but also develop important personal social skills.     

Imaginaries and problematisations: A heuristic lens in the age of artificial intelligence in education

This paper suggests that artificial intelligence in education (AIEd) can be fruitfully analysed as ‘policies frozen in silicon’. This means that they exist as both materialised and proposed problematisations (problem representations with corresponding solutions). As a theoretical and analytical response, this paper puts forward a heuristic lens that can provide insights into how AI technologies (or advocated AI technologies) function as proposed solutions to certain problematisations based on various imaginaries about how education and learning are best performed or supported. The combined reading of imaginaries and problematisations can thereby aid in our understanding of why and how visions of learning and education are framed in relation to AIEd developments. The overall ambition is to advance theoretical and analytical approaches towards an educational system which is (anticipated as) increasingly permeated by AI systems—systems that also support and implement, more or less, invisible models, standards and assessments of learning, as well as more grand visions of (technology-augmented) education in society.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Artificial intelligence in education (AIEd) is repeatedly presented as a solution for a range of educational ‘problems’.
• This means that such ‘solutions’ must also frame certain aspects as ‘problems’.
• Such problems and ‘solutions’ (problematisations) also exist within certain imaginaries of the present times and of the future, where these problematisations are presented as particularly significant and acute, and promoting specific anticipations of learning and ideals of education.

What this paper adds

• An exposition of problematisations in educational settings.
• An exposition of educational imaginaries.
• A heuristic lens for understanding the ‘present’ and ‘future’ in a particular imaginary as entangled in, and dependent on, a certain ‘past’.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• The approach presented in this paper provides a heuristic lens for examining how AI technologies (or advocated AI technologies) function as proposed solutions to problematisations based on imaginaries about how education and learning are best performed or supported.
• This aids our understanding of how and why certain visions of learning and education are framed in relation to AIEd developments (real or imagined).
• It also advances theoretical and analytical approaches towards an educational system, which is (anticipated as) increasingly permeated by AI systems—systems that also support and implement, more or less, invisible models, standards and assessments of learning, as well as more grand visions of (technology-augmented) education in society.

     

Fostering and assessing student critical thinking: From theory to teaching practice

In an age of innovation and digitalisation, critical thinking has become one of the most valued skills in the labour market. This paper shows how teachers can empower students to develop their students' critical thinking. After recalling why critical thinking matters for democracy and the economy, a definition of critical thinking is outlined. Next, a demonstration is given of how the concept critical thinking can be translated and simplified using teacher-friendly rubrics that can support the design or redesign of lesson plans, teacher observations and formative assessment—as well as standardised assessments. In conclusion, the paper argues that critical thinking should be mainstreamed in all subjects in school curricula, and that it leads to deeper understanding of subject matter content.     

Local education authority’s quality management within a coupled school system: Strategies,actions, and tensions

Journal of Educational Change - International policy trends point to an increased focus on student achievement, teaching quality, and school outcomes. Attention to Swedish students’ poor...