Relationship between accuracy and complexity when learning underarm precision throwing

Learning precision ball throwing was mostly studied to explore the early rapid improvement of accuracy, with poor attention on possible adaptive processes occurring later when the rate of improvement is reduced. Here, we tried to demonstrate that the strategy to select angle, speed and height at ball release can be managed during the learning periods following the performance stabilization. To this aim, we used a multivariate linear model with angle, speed and height as predictors of changes in accuracy. Participants performed underarm throws of a tennis ball to hit a target on the floor, 3.42 m away. Two training sessions (S1, S2) and one retention test were executed. Performance accuracy increased over the S1 and stabilized during the S2, with a rate of changes along the throwing axis slower than along the orthogonal axis. However, both the axes contributed to the performance changes over the learning and consolidation time. A stable relationship between the accuracy and the release parameters was observed only during S2, with a good fraction of the performance variance explained by the combination of speed and height. All the variations were maintained during the retention test. Overall, accuracy improvements and reduction in throwing complexity at the ball release followed separate timing over the course of learning and consolidation.     

Uso/adquisición de una lengua extranjera en el marco escolar entre los tres y los seis años

A partir de actividades organizadas en torno a la escenificación activa de cuentos por parte de toda la clase—maestra y alumnos—, y que funcionan como primer «territorio compartido» en la nueva lengua. Se presentan en este artículo un conjunto de materiales elaborados para la introducción escolar de una lengua extranjera entre los 3 y los 6 años (preescolar y primero de EGB). El diseño presentado se ha realizado partiendo de una doble hipótesis: en primer lugar, que, lejos de ser primero aprendida y posteriormente utilizada, la nueva lengua es adquirida a través de su propio uso; en segundo lugar, que este « uso/adquisición» de la lengua que aún no se conoce (suficientemente) es un proceso interactivo que, inevitablemente, sólo podrá construirse en colaboración con otros interlocutores.     

“It’s easier to read on the Internet—you just click on what you want to read…”

Today’s youth spend a lot of time on the Internet where they meet a multimodal world. The focus in the present study has been on the skills and abilities needed for on-line reading. This study explores reading on the Internet, with pairs of Swedish students aged 10 and 15. The pairs completed tasks on the Internet and these sessions were video-taped. Five main categories of skills and abilities were found: traditional literacy, multimodal literacy, path-finding, IT abilities, and information abilities. The results support earlier research in the field at large, and also add to the literature on on-line reading, in areas such as the crucial need for the ability to spell and knowing web address conventions in English.     

Distinct Influences of Mothers and Fathers on Kindergartners’ Numeracy Performance: The Role of Math Anxiety,Home Numeracy Practices,and Numeracy Expectations

The current study analyzed maternal and paternal differential influences on numeracy performance in kindergarten children. Participants were 180 Chilean children from backgrounds of low and high socioeconomic status (SES), their mothers, and their fathers. A path analysis was used to explore the influences of both maternal and paternal numeracy practices on children’s numeracy performance and the influences of maternal and paternal expectations and anxiety on those activities. Research Findings: Results showed that mothers and fathers who endorse higher numeracy expectations for their children and who report lower levels of math anxiety also report engaging more frequently in advanced numeracy practices with their children. Mothers’—but not fathers’—engagement in numeracy practices at home predicted children’s numeracy performance. Also, low-SES mothers engaged more frequently in numeracy practices with their children, and mothers in general engaged more often in numeracy activities with girls than with boys. Practice or Policy: These findings improve understanding of how maternal and paternal processes relate differently to numeracy performance in kindergarten children. Moreover, these results highlight the need to take into account parents’ numeracy attitudes and practices, as well as their SES, when designing interventions directed at increasing family support for math achievement.     

A theoretical framework towards understanding of emotional and behavioural difficulties

Children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties are the result of multiple individual, social and contextual factors working in concert. The current paper proposes a theoretical framework to interpret students’ emotional and behavioural difficulties in schools, by taking into consideration teacher–student relationships, students’ social and emotional skills and classroom context. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, according to which process, person and context are the main sources of children’s development, the current paper combines three theoretical approaches: firstly, in terms of process, the systems communication approach referring to teacher–students’ relationships; secondly, in terms of person, the Social and Emotional Learning, which refers to children’s social and emotional competences and skills; and thirdly, in terms of classroom context, the achievement goal theory, with emphasis on mastery classroom goal structure. The derived framework provides a means to capture the dynamic multidimensional process through which emotional and behavioural difficulties arise. This perspective provides educators with a comprehensive theoretical and practical preventative tool for emotional and behavioural difficulties.     

Structured Constructs Models Based on Change‐Point Analysis

This study proposes a structured constructs model (SCM) to examine measurement in the context of a multidimensional learning progression (LP). The LP is assumed to have features that go beyond a typical multidimentional IRT model, in that there are hypothesized to be certain cross‐dimensional linkages that correspond to requirements between the levels of the different dimensions. The new model builds on multidimensional item response theory models and change‐point analysis to add cut‐score and discontinuity parameters that embody these substantive requirements. This modeling strategy allows us to place the examinees in the appropriate LP level and simultaneously to model the hypothesized requirement relations. Results from a simulation study indicate that the proposed change‐point SCM recovers the generating parameters well. When the hypothesized requirement relations are ignored, the model fit tends to become worse, and the model parameters appear to be more biased. Moreover, the proposed model can be used to find validity evidence to support or disprove initial theoretical hypothesized links in the LP through empirical data. We illustrate the technique with data from an assessment system designed to measure student progress in a middle‐school statistics and modeling curriculum.     

Influences on the intention to enter higher education: the importance of expected returns

Research points to several determinants of the private demand for higher education, which include individual, social, economic, and institutional variables. Of these variables, economic factors are considered to be highly relevant, especially in the current financial crisis. The paper investigates the link between expected rates of return to higher education and the intention of secondary education graduates to pursue university studies. The effect of additional variables influencing the choice of higher education (ability, gender, socioeconomic status [SES], type of secondary school, area of residence) is also examined. The findings show a significant link between the perceived rates of return and the intention of secondary school graduates to enter tertiary education. With the exception of residence, all independent variables are strong determinants of the intention to enter higher education. The paper also points to the considerable effect of the financial crisis on students’ expectations in that respondents reported lower perceived rates of return compared to previous estimates in the same country. The implications of the findings for higher education policy are discussed.     

Activity Achievement Emotions and Academic Performance: A Meta-analysis

Educational Psychology Review - Achievement emotions are emotions linked to academic, work, or sports achievement activities (activity emotions) and their success and failure outcomes (outcome...     

Employing discourse: universities and graduate ‘employability’

What constitutes graduate employability is discursively framed. In this paper we argue that whilst universities in the UK have long had an involvement in producing useful and productive citizens, the ongoing neoliberalisation of higher education has engendered a discursive shift in definitions of employability. Traditionally, universities regarded graduate employment as an aspect of institutions’ relationship with the labour market, and one where they enjoyed a significant degree of discretion. Now, employability is a performative function of universities, shaped and directed by the state, which is seeking to supplant labour markets. We argue that this has three profound implications. First, state intervention in labour markets adjusts power balances in favour of employers. Second, contrary to the legitimising rationale of enhancing social justice, pursuit of employability agendas may well be creating two tiers of universities – those that produce docile employees and those that produce employers/leaders. And third, employability discourses may be adversely affecting pedagogies and curricula, to the disbenefit of students, institutions, employers, social justice and civil society.