Investigation of Poor Academic Achievement in Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a neurogenetic developmental disorder that presents with progressive muscular weakness. It is caused by a mutation in a gene that results in the absence of specific products that normally localize to muscle cells and the central nervous system (CNS). The majority of affected individuals have IQs within the normal range, generally with lower verbal than performance IQ scores. Prior work has demonstrated selective deficits on tests of verbal span and immediate memory. For the current study, 26 boys with DMD (and normal intellectual function) and their unaffected siblings were evaluated. Paired comparisons demonstrated that the children with DMD had significantly poorer academic achievement scores than their siblings, even though their vocabulary levels and home and educational environments were comparable. Children with DMD also had more behavioral concerns, physical disabilities, and poorer verbal memory spans. Linear regression indicated that behavioral concerns, executive function, and physical disability did not contribute substantially to academic performance, whereas performance on verbal span did. DMD presents with a selective developmental aberration in verbal span that has wide‐ranging consequences on learning skills.     

Assessing School Readiness: Validity and Bias in Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers' Ratings

As a part of efforts to evaluate and monitor the increasing public investment in early childhood education, teachers are being asked to assess children's school readiness. In this study, preschool teachers and kindergarten teachers rated children's skills in three areas (kindergarten readiness, academic skills, and communication skills), and these ratings were compared with direct assessments of the children's skills. Ratings by both groups of teachers tended to be more highly related to basic skills, such as counting and number naming, than to abilities such as solving applied problems and using expressive and receptive vocabulary. Preschool teachers' ratings had a lower association with children's observed skills and abilities than kindergarten teachers' ratings. Ratings of children attending Head Start were systematically inflated, but this relationship was mediated to a significant extent by the teachers' levels of education. More educated teachers rated children in a manner consistent with the children's directly assessed skills. Implications of these findings for informing future efforts to assess school readiness by using teacher ratings are discussed.     

对我国高校体育发展现状的调查

采用搜集文献资料、访谈、问卷等方法 ,对我国高校体育工作现状进行调查。研究表明 :各高校体育课的授课形式有所不同 ,多数高校进行大胆改革 ;对体育理论课重视程度不够 ;体育课开设项目相对集中 ,受学生欢迎的一些项目不少学校没有开展 ;课外体育活动丰富多彩 ;场地、器材相对短缺。     

我国西南诸省(区)农村学校体育现状调研

就西南诸省 (区 ) (广西、四川、贵州 )乡镇以下中、小学的体育教学、课余体育、影响农村学校体育发展的因素等问题进行了调查 ,发现西南诸省 (区 )农村学校体育仍然处于明显的落后状态。观念落后、场地、器材和专业及兼职师资缺乏、无适用教学大纲和教材是制约其发展的主要因素 ,据此提出了发展对策建议。     

剖析CUBA联赛的几点不足

本文就中国大学生篮球联赛CUBA开始举办至今已6届，为什么联赛水平一直得不到实质性的提高，培养不出优秀运动员进入CBA联赛，成为CBA联赛的人才基地，尽快实现学历教育和运动训练相结合的培养体系进行了大量的调查、论证。其原因是多方面的，而CUBA因规程制定不合理而造成生源质量不理想是直接影响CUBA联赛水平提高的主要原因，巧媳妇难做无米之炊，自然很难培养出优秀运动员进入CBA联赛，低水平的联赛同样很难吸引优秀运动员加盟，本文就此问题提出自己的看法。     

试论休闲与休闲体育

运用文献资料调研的方法对休闲的概念、发展及休闲体育的概念、特征、分类、功能进行探讨。休闲体育是指人们在可自由支配时间内,自主地选择自己爱好的身体练习和运动项目,以达到愉悦身心、修身养性,实现和完善自我的一种社会活动。它是体育运动的重要组成部分,也是休闲的重要活动内容,在未来人们的日常生活以及社会经济发展中它将发挥着越来越重要作用。