Teachers’ role in curriculum design in Portuguese schools

Teachers’ role in curriculum design is a broad question that inspires political educational reforms among European countries, a trend that even extends to higher education politics. The perspective on teachers’ role in curriculum, both at the level of the policies and of the practices, shapes recent educational reforms in Portugal. These are the concerns underlying our research that intends to substantiate school teachers’ involvement in curriculum development as it is experienced by them, and while comparing their views to the roles they are attributed in the political and academic dominant discourses. To reach teachers’ perceptions, we distributed questionnaires which were completed by 214 teachers in primary and secondary schools. We could conclude that the enactment of a professional identity on the basis of teacher assumption of their role as real curriculum designers is still far from being achieved.     

From Hand to Eye: a Meta-Analysis of the Benefit from Handwriting Training in Visual Graph Recognition

Educational Psychology Review - Handwriting (HW) training seems to boost recognition of visual graphs and learning to read more than other learning experiences. However, effects across studies...     

Do Students Effectively Regulate Their Use of Self-Testing as a Function of Item Difficulty?

Educational Psychology Review - Retrieval practice is beneficial for both easy-to-learn and difficult-to-learn materials, but scant research has examined students’ use of self-testing for...     

Reaction time and muscle activation patterns in elite and novice athletes performing a taekwondo kick

ABSTRACT

Fractionated reaction time can be used to determine distinct epochs known as pre-motor, response and movement times (MTs) of a reaction time task. The purpose of this study was to compare elite and novice athletes performing a taekwondo kick in terms of the fractionated reaction time and electromyography (EMG) activation patterns of the muscles of the striking lower limb and the lower back. We hypothesised that the pre-motor time, response time (RT) and MT would be the shorter for elite athletes compared to novices. We collected data on 13 elite and 10 novice athletes when performing a roundhouse kick. The experiment included EMG electrodes placed on five low back and lower extremity muscles and an electrogoniometer placed on the kicking knee. We found that pre-motor time was shorter and the RT was longer for elite athletes than novice athletes. Moreover, the integrated EMG of the main knee extensor does not differ between groups though other leg and trunk muscles do. The results allow coaches and teachers to understand this particular taekwondo kicking movement which could ultimately improve the technique in order to establish training and teaching goals.     

Do the Youth Olympic Games promote Olympism? Analysing a mission (im)possible from a local youth perspective

On the basis of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), we assess if and how the youth in the communities of the YOG host cities have been influenced concerning their perception of the Olympic values (OV) and the Olympic movement (OM). Special attention of the study is paid to the analysis of intervention mechanisms which the local youth underwent (e.g. attending the YOG on-site, participating in school programmes). Our study was conducted among 1004 adolescents living in the host region three years after the Innsbruck 2012 YOG had been staged. Our analyses extend the corresponding literature by (1) showing that the YOG and the involvement of the local youth in such an event have the power of creating an interest in the OM and its events, but do not have the power to influence the young citizens’ perception of the OV significantly; (2) illustrating that the perception adolescents have of the OV depend mainly on their socio-demographic background, their a priori interest in sports events, social capital (norms, institutional trust) and the extent to which the youngsters follow the event in the different media; and (3) corroborating the hypothesis that intervention programmes (e.g. school programmes) for promoting (Olympic) values and ideals should not be single, obligatory and isolated activities. We conclude that it is not surprising that the International Olympic Committee has reformulated the goals for the YOG in the Olympic Agenda 2020, as some goals relating to the promotion of the OV might have been a mission impossible.     

Teachers as Change‐Agents for Young People with Special Needs: an approach to teacher training in Portugal

The practice of integrated education for pupils with special needs has been attempted nationally in Portugal. This has prompted the development of area support teams across the country. Whilst this is a positive move, it has created a pressure for specialist training of teachers. This demand is yet to be fulfilled; an example of an inservice course is outlined in this report.     

Rethinking the learning of ＂culture＂： A Chinese inquiry

While China has certainly taken a great stride in English teaching and learning since its open policy about 30 years ago, there＇s no denying the fact that a lot of concomitant problems occur during its development. This paper explores into two of the hot issues nowadays, and presents the author＇s own experiences in two strikingly different classrooms in China and the United States, and hence some reflections on how to be rational in utilizing multi-media aids as well as research on basic theories.     

Children’s Home Numeracy Environment Predicts Growth of their Early Mathematical Skills in Kindergarten

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between children’s early mathematics and their home numeracy environment (HNE). Chilean children from families who varied widely in socioeconomic status were assessed at the beginning and end of prekindergarten in 2016 (N = 419, M_age = 4:7 [years:months]), and at the end of kindergarten in 2017 (N = 368, M_age = 5:10). Children whose parents provided frequent operational numeracy activities (e.g., learning simple sums) at prekindergarten showed better arithmetic performance and growth in nonsymbolic and symbolic number comparison at the end of kindergarten. Parents’ knowledge of number-related games predicted children’s arithmetic skills and growth in nonsymbolic number comparison. These findings underscore the persistent relations between the HNE and the development of children’s mathematical skills.     

Politicians’ perspective on the community-related impacts of major sports events – a case study for Innsbruck-Tyrol

While scholarly attention with respect to the social impacts of sports events has increased in recent years, there is still little research discussing the wide-ranging community-related impacts stemming particularly from major sports events. Local political leaders, as (elected) representatives of the community, are important stakeholders within this context and face the challenge of balancing diverse interests in the implementation of major sports events. The purpose of this study is to assess the importance politicians attribute to event impacts that create sustainable outcomes for residents living in a host city. Based on a content analysis, a list of general event impacts (outputs and legacies) produced by major sports events was created and subsequently discussed with scholars and experts in the field to classify the criteria as community relevant or not. A final number of 56 criteria (34 of which are considered community relevant) was then used in the assessment of the politicians’ (representing either the State of Tyrol or the City of Innsbruck) attitude towards these impacts. The findings of the study indicate that, though aware of community interests, politicians nevertheless prioritize economic and touristic benefits for the host city/region such as place marketing. Moreover, politicians seem to have a better understanding of tangible impacts (e.g. infrastructure), underestimating the important intangible impacts (e.g. voluntariness) closely related to community issues. Thus, the research in hand outlines the need to sensitize governments to community interests when planning and implementing major sports events.