Social anxiety with peers in 9- to 14-year-olds. Developmental process and relations with self-counsciousness and perceived peer acceptance

Social anxiety in the peer groups is currently viewed as typical of early adolescence. This awkwardness with peers is supposedly a consequence of the of the multiple changes occuring during this period. Nevertheless, empirical evidence regarding the development of social anxiety with peers, as well as its psychological correlates, is scarce. To shed light on these issues, a total of 508 French fourth-to-ninth-graders completed questionnaires assessing their perception of social anxiety with peers. They assessed also various aspects of their self-consciousness and perceived peer acceptance, because we hypothesized that these two social cognitive dimensions were correlated — positively and negatively respectively — with social anxiety. Within each of these three general domains, several more specific variables were considered. Specifically, inward and outward self-consciousness were distinguished. Overall, a decreasing tendency with age was observed for social anxiety and inward self-consciousness, although the participants increasingly perceived thewselves to be neglected by their peers. Correlational analyses suggested that inward self-consciousness, outward self-consciousness, and perceived peer acceptance contribute independently to social anxiety.     

Helping students build competences in physical education: theoretical proposals and illustrations

In the French education system, the current curriculum for students from the primary to the end of secondary school is structured around the notion of key competence. A competence can be defined as an integrated and stable network of knowledge and know-how, with normative behaviors, procedures and types of reasoning. However, without a theoretical conceptualization of building and mobilization processes, the components of a competence are considered as isolated and not interconnected. In the health and physical education (HPE) setting, too few empirical studies have analyzed how teachers would contribute to the development of student’s competence. The aim of this forward-looking article grounded on an experiential and cultural framework consists in clarifying and illustrating a conceptualization of the dynamics of development of competences among students considering the teacher activity. This theoretical framework seems to offer heuristic possibilities for the examination of teaching and learning practices which contribute to the development of the key competences, particularly when a competence is read as an experience that integrates multiple dimensions. Based on audio-video recording of PE lessons and self-confrontation interviews with the teacher and a student, the results of the present study strengthen the criticism of the definition of competence emphasizing the relevance to adopt a holistic approach corresponding to the articulation of intertwined resources (i.e. motor, methodological and social) students allocate to act in PE groups. Furthermore, the results show that the competence building depends on various roles students have the opportunity to play in PE (i.e. observer, tutor). Finally, our results underline the importance of identifying the specific characteristics of the teacher activity designed to structure the learning environment to train students to acquire new competences transferable in society.     

The Rise of Computing Research in East Africa: The Relationship Between Funding,Capacity and Research Community in a Nascent Field

The emergence of vibrant research communities of computer scientists in Kenya and Uganda has occurred in the context of neoliberal privatization, commercialization, and transnational capital flows from donors and corporations. We explore how this funding environment configures research culture and research practices, which are conceptualized as two main components of a research community. Data come from a three-year longitudinal study utilizing interview, ethnographic and survey data collected in Nairobi and Kampala. We document how administrators shape research culture by building academic programs and training growing numbers of PhDs, and analyze how this is linked to complicated interactions between political economy, the epistemic nature of computer science and sociocultural factors like entrepreneurial leadership of key actors and distinctive cultures of innovation. In a donor-driven funding environment, research practice involves scientists constructing their own localized research priorities by adopting distinctive professional identities and creatively structuring projects. The neoliberal political economic context thus clearly influenced research communities, but did not debilitate computing research capacity nor leave researchers without any agency to carry out research programs. The cases illustrate how sites of knowledge production in Africa can gain some measure of research autonomy, some degree of global competency in a central arena of scientific and technological activity, and some expression of their regional cultural priorities and aspirations. Furthermore, the cases suggest that social analysts must balance structure with culture, place and agency in their approaches to understanding how funding and political economy shape scientific knowledge.     

Effects of a nonlinear pedagogy intervention programme on the emergent tactical behaviours of youth footballers

Purpose: This study analysed the effects of a training intervention programme using principles of Non-Linear Pedagogy (NLP) on the decision making (DM) and performance behaviours (P) of youth footballers.

Method: 19 footballers (U12 yrs) participated in 14 training sessions, spread over three phases: Pre-intervention, Intervention, Retention. The intervention was based on Small-Sided and Conditioned Games. We assessed progress during the intervention phase at two different points: intermediate and final. The GPET instrument was used to analyse the DM and P during the completion of 3208 passes in the intervention.

Results: Results shown significant improvements in the DM and P after the intermediate and final points of the acquisition phase. Moreover, significantly higher values were also obtained in both variables in the retention, compared to the pre-intervention phase.

Conclusion: Results indicated that the NLP intervention programme was effective in improving both aspects of team games performance in youth players, with effects consolidated over time.     

Lifestyle, body composition, and physical fitness changes in Hungarian school boys (1975-2005)

General socioeconomic conditions as well as the physical environment have undergone remarkable changes in Hungary during the past 30 years. Unfortunately, these positive processes have resulted in a reduction of habitual physical activity along with unfavorable changes in dietary habits. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare some selected morphological and functional parameters of 7-14-year-old Hungarian schoolboys living in the middle of the 1970s and at the beginning of the new millennium. It was hypothesized that there would be significant differences in morphological and functional characteristics of the Hungarian schoolboy populations, because they were assessed 30 years apart. Means of height, body mass, body mass index (BMI), the sum of five skinfold tests, percentage of body fat, and two running performance times (400 m and 1,200 m) of the boys (N = 3,672) studied in 1975 were compared to those of the boys (N = 3,758) in 2005. Data were analyzed using two-tailed independent samples t tests (p < .05). We observed significant secular changes in body mass and height. In addition, boys in 2005 had significantly more subcutaneous fat compared to 1975. The running times for the two distances were significantly poorer at the time of the second investigation. The remarkable and unfavorable changes in body composition and cardiorespiratory performance were attributed to the continuously decreasing intensity of habitual physical exercise and a lifestyle that had become more sedentary (watching TV playing computer games, etc.). Radical interventions are necessary to reduce these risks associated with the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease in Hungary, and the challenge to resolve the problem requires combined efforts at the educational, societal, corporate, and governmental levels.     

Review of several optical non-destructive analyses of an easel painting. Complementarity and crosschecking of the results

Five optical analyses of a given work of art are presented, using multispectral imaging, optical coherence tomography, goniophometry, UV-fluorescence emission spectroscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. All these methods are non-destructive, contactless, and implementable in situ. They all lead to results in quasi-real time. The multispectral camera allows imaging of the whole painting with very high definition and recording of 240 millions of spectra. Optical coherence tomography allows local 2D and 3D imaging with in-face and in depth stratigraphies inside the painting with a micrometric accuracy. It allows the evaluation of the pigment volume concentration inside a layer, the measurement of the thickness of one or two varnish layers, the detection and measurements of gaps inside the paint layer, the depth of varnish micro-cracks. Goniophotometry allows the measurement of the upper surface state of the painting in different locations, by quantifying the mean slope of the facets making up the surface. UV-fluorescence emission spectroscopy allows the identification of the resin, the binder and the ageing state of varnishes by use of databases of reference varnishes. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy leads to pigment, pigment mixture and dye identifications again by use of databases. The three last methods are implemented with the same portable multi-function instrument. It allows time saving, locations on request in front of the artwork and easy use by non-scientists. Each instrument is described with its protocol and accuracy. The studied painting is a portrait of a lady painted by the Austrian artist Franz Strotszberg, chosen for its several restorations. The five kinds of results are successively detailed, analysed and compared between themselves. It is shown that the different results are complementary and their crosschecking brings thorough information. For example, the shape of the network of varnish micro-cracks detected on the surface with the multispectral camera is added to the measurement of their depth with optical coherence tomography. Another example allows connecting two different surface states of the upper varnished surface measured by goniophotometry with the identification of these varnish with UV-fluorescence and with their thicknesses measured with optical coherence tomography.     

Multivariate predictive model for dyslexia diagnosis

Dyslexia is a specific disorder of language development that mainly affects reading. Etiological researches have led to multiple hypotheses which induced various diagnosis methods and rehabilitation treatments so that many different tests are used by practitioners to identify dyslexia symptoms. Our purpose is to determine a subset of the most efficient ones by integrating them into a multivariate predictive model. A set of screening tasks that are the most commonly used and representative of the different cognitive aspects of dyslexia was proposed to 78 children from elementary school (mean age = 9 years ± 7 months) exempt from identified reading difficulties and to 35 dyslexic children attending a specialized consultation for dyslexia. We proposed a multi-step procedure: within each category, we first selected the most representative tasks using principal component analysis and then we implemented logistic regression models on the preselected variables. Spelling and reading tasks were considered separately. The model with the best predictive performance includes eight variables from four categories of tasks and classifies correctly 94% of the children. The sensitivity (91%) and the specificity (95%) are both high. Forty minutes are necessary to complete the test.     

Further Distinctions between Magic, Reality, Religion, and Fiction

Children's representations of counterintuitive phenomena can be better understood if we take into account the following: (1) Children may develop a conceptual slot for "counterintuitive+real" phenomena, (2) Notions of "reality" in early children's handling of fiction. (4) Cultural systems of religious representations make particular demands on developmental processes.