Submaximal expression of the bilateral deficit

Thirty-six participants performed bilateral and unilateral isometric elbow flexion trials at what they perceived to be 100, 75, 50, and 25% of maximal effort. Absolute bilateral deficits ranged from--16% at 25% effort to--10% at 100% effort. The deficit included a component independent of consciousness and a component inversely related to intensity attributable to perceptual differences between unilateral and bilateral tasks. Forty-two participants performed bilateral and unilateral isometric elbow flexion trials at 100, 80, 60, 40, and 20% of maximal effort. Perception of effort in submaximal bilateral trials was consistently and significantly higher (5.5-9.6%) than corresponding unilateral trials. These data suggest that the bilateral deficit exists at submaximal levels of effort and is based on perceptual and physiological components.     

Defining the attributes for specific playing positions in football match-play: A complex systems approach

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Talent identification and development programmes that retain and develop athletes are integral to the sporting success of National Governing Bodies in football. Currently, player attributes are studied in isolation without considering the complexity of interacting components of football performance. The current study applied a systems analysis framework to describe, in a structured and systematic way, the attributes for specific playing positions in football match-play. Methods: Eight high-level football coaches were interviewed. Models of the interacting attributes were developed for each position using Work Domain Analysis (WDA). Results: Six WDA models detail the attributes associated with each playing position. The models identified purposes of playing positions (restrict opposition actions, organise and coordinate, building up of offence, goal scoring and stretch opposition), performance-related measures and the functions required to achieve the playing position purposes (game play, psychological functions, time and space and player actions). Critically, the relationships between the purposes, measures, functions, processes, and objects are described in the models.     

Aggression in Pretend Play and Aggressive Behavior in the Classroom

Research Findings: Pretend play is an essential part of child development and adjustment. However, parents, teachers, and researchers debate the function of aggression in pretend play. Different models of aggression predict that the expression of aggression in play could either increase or decrease actual aggressive behavior. The current study examined pretend play and classroom behavior in preschoolers. Children (N = 59) were administered a measure of pretend play, and teacher ratings of classroom behavior were obtained. Pretend play skills were positively associated with prosocial behavior in the classroom and negatively associated with physical aggression in the classroom. In particular, expression of oral aggression in play related to less physical aggression and more prosocial behavior in the classroom. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that pretend play should be encouraged, as these skills relate to positive behaviors in the classroom. In addition, it was found that aggression in pretend play was not an indicator of actual aggressive behavior, as it related to positive behaviors in the classroom. Implications for parents and teachers are discussed.     

Educational expansion or credential inflation? The evolution of part‐time study by adults at McGill University,Canada

Part‐time students have accounted for a significant proportion of rising participation in higher education in many countries. The objectives of this paper are to enrich the empirical literature concerning the inclusion of part‐time adult learners in higher education, and to assess the two competing theoretical frameworks that have emerged to explain the international expansion of higher education in recent decades: human capital theory and social exclusion theory. Human capital theorists argue that increasingly complex demands of economies and workplaces have caused the expansion of educational provision. Theorists of social exclusion argue that increasingly intense competition among labour market participants has caused the inflation of educational credentials. This paper uses original, archival research to narrate the history of part‐time, degree‐credit study at McGill University in Canada. It finds that McGill provided a wide range of part‐time study opportunities in the 1920s and early 1930s, resisted the provision of such opportunities from the 1940s through the 1960s, and reinstated extensive part‐time study opportunities for adults in the 1970s. While both educational expansion and credential inflation took place at McGill neither human capital theory nor social exclusion theory can fully account for the rise, fall, and re‐birth of part‐time study for adults. To understand this evolution, more proximate causes, such as institutional politics and government funding models, must be explored. This paper raises important questions for future research, including those relating to gender and equity in the participation of part‐time students in higher education.     

Developing a university course for online delivery based on learning objects: from ideals to compromises

A course instructor and his assistant at Athabasca University investigated whether the process of transferring interoperable learning objects from online repositories facilitated course production, both pedagogically and economically. They examined the efficiency of the objects‐assembly method from several perspectives while developing an online university course based on learning objects for this, one of Canada's leading online and distance education institutions. The two researchers examined issues that confronted them as they gathered, assessed, repaired, assembled and created learning objects. When their search for suitable objects appeared fruitless, they questioned assumptions made by theoreticians and visionaries about pedagogical and economic efficiencies associated with the objects‐assembly metaphor and production. They highlighted this metaphor's failure to guide their course design based on learning objects in a climate of uncertainty and explained the nature of the compromise that eventually compelled them to acquire a proprietary online delivery system.     

Learning,Training, and Performance Timeline: A Walk Through History

Does your professional tool bag include the well‐known ideas, models, and practices that training and performance improvement professionals use? This article organizes the advent of essential tools using the Learning, Training, and Performance Timeline, describes the major patterns that developed during historical periods, and explores relevant practical and scholarly uses for the Timeline. Resources are provided for those who have further inquiries about the historical background of training and performance improvement.