Physical activity and school recess time: Differences between the sexes and the relationship between children's playground physical activity and habitual physical activity

The aims of this study were: (1) to observe participation in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during school recess periods; (2) to determine the relative importance of physical activity during recesses to overall daily physical activity; and (3) to examine differences in physical activity between the sexes during unstructured recess periods. The participants were 22 school children (10 boys, 12 girls) aged 8?–?10 years (mean = 8.9, s = 0.7) in the third and fourth grades. Daily totals for the physical activity variables were calculated by summing the values for each hour of 14?h of physical activity measurements (08:00 to 22:00?h). Recess times (minutes) were as follows: morning 10:30 to 11:00?h and afternoon 15:30 to 16:00?h. We did not differences between boys and girls in daily total accelerometer counts or the overall time spent in MVPA. However, girls were significantly (P <?0.05) more involved (38%) in MVPA during recess time than boys (31%). Participation in MVPA during recess contributes significantly more (P <?0.05) for girls (19%) than boys (15%) to the total amount of physical activity suggested by international health-related physical activity guidelines, while the percentage of time engaged in MVPA during recess time at school accounts for a small amount of the daily MVPA (6% for boys and 8% for girls). The results of this study suggest that school recess time is an important setting to promote MVPA and contributes to daily physical activity in young children, especially in girls.     

Towards standardization of language for teaching in the Andean countries

Former Director of the National Institute of Linguistics and the National Institute of Anthropology. Author of numerous books, textbooks and articles on linguistics and the Quechua language.     

Correcting for sample problems in PISA and the improvement in Portuguese students’ performance

The results of large-scale international assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have attracted a considerable attention worldwide and are often used by policy-makers to support educational policies. To ensure that the published results represent the actual population, these surveys go through a thorough scrutiny to ensure their validity. One important issue that may affect the results is the occurrence of different participation rates across groups with heterogeneous average student scores. In this study, we illustrate how problems of representativeness of the samples may be corrected by the use of post-stratified weights. We use the case of Portugal, a country where we uncover a meaningful difference between the actual population and the PISA samples in terms of the distribution of students per grade and track of studies. We show that after post-stratification, the temporal evolution of the PISA scores is quite different from the one reported.     

Middle School Engagement with Mathematics Software and Later Interest and Self-Efficacy for STEM Careers

Research suggests that trajectories toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) emerge early and are influenced by multiple factors. This paper presents a longitudinal study, which uses data from 76 high school students to explore how a student’s vocational self-efficacy and interest are related to his or her middle school behavioral and affective engagement. Measures of vocational self-efficacy and interest are drawn from STEM-related scales in CAPAExplore, while measures of middle school performance and engagement in mathematics are drawn from several previously validated automated indicators extracted from logs of student interaction with ASSISTments, an online learning platform. Results indicate that vocational self-efficacy correlates negatively with confusion, but positively with engaged concentration and carelessness. Interest, which also correlates negatively with confusion, correlates positively with correctness and carelessness. Other disengaged behaviors, such as gaming the system, were not correlated with vocational self-efficacy or interest, despite previous studies indicating that they are associated with future college attendance. We discuss implications for these findings, which have the potential to assist educators or counselors in developing strategies to sustain students’ interest in STEM-related careers.

     

Developing and validating a competence framework for secondary mathematics student teachers through a Delphi method

Initial teacher education programmes provide student teachers with the desired competences to develop themselves as teachers. Although a generic framework for teaching competences is available covering all school subjects in Spain, the initial teacher education programmes curriculum does not specify which competences secondary mathematics student teachers should acquire during their initial teacher education. This explains why this study aimed at developing and validating a competence framework for secondary mathematics student teachers in Spain. Building on existing models and international frameworks, a preliminary list of competences was drawn up. The validation process was based on a Delphi method. In addition experts expressed their opinions about the formulation of the chosen competences. A comprehensive framework of 33 competences for secondary mathematics student teachers could then be validated.