Effects of intensity on muscle-specific voluntary electromechanical delay and relaxation electromechanical delay

The purposes of this study were to examine: 1) the potential muscle-specific differences in voluntary electromechanical delay (EMD) and relaxation electromechanical delay (R-EMD), and 2) the effects of intensity on EMD and R-EMD during step incremental isometric muscle actions from 10 to 100% maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC). EMD and R-EMD measures were calculated from the simultaneous assessments of electromyography, mechanomyography, and force production from the vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), and rectus femoris (RF) during step isometric muscle actions. There were no differences between the VL, VM, and RF for the voluntary EMD_E-M (onsets of the electromyographic to mechanomyographic signals), EMD_M-F (onsets the mechanomyographic to force production), or EMD_E-F (onsets of the electromyographic signal to force production) as well as R-EMD_E-M (cessation of electromyographic to mechanomyographic signal), R-EMD_M-F (cessation of mechanomyographic signal to force cessation), or R-EMD_E-F (cessation of electromyorgraphic signal to force cessation) at any intensity. There were decreases in all EMD and R-EMD measures with increases in intensity. The relative contributions from EMD_E-M and EMD_M-F to EMD_E-F as well as R-EMD_E-M and R-EMD_M-F to R-EMD_E-F remained similar across all intensities. The superficial muscles of the quadriceps femoris shared similar EMD and R-EMD measurements.     

“I Could Not Believe That Would Happen”: Challenges and Opportunities in a Critical,Project-Based Clinical Experience

As part of a youth summer program—a partnership between a large Southeastern university and the local school district—middle-school-aged youth, preservice teachers, and doctoral candidates interested in arts-based literacy practices spent their mornings in June 2016 engaging in activities that both explored and expanded thinking around their communities, schools, and families. Whereas the youth were enrolled in a monthlong creative arts and tentative unschooling experiment that ran roughly the length of a typical school day, university faculty and graduate students were engaged in a course on the application of youth participatory action research (YPAR). This article is an examination of the experience of preservice teachers, through an analysis of their reflections on events within the course, to suggest ways forward through the promises and perils of project-based, clinical preservice teaching experiences. In our exploration of the experiences of focal preservice teachers when engaged with youth coresearchers in a monthlong YPAR project, we found the work to have been filled with contradictions, unexpected shifts, and moments of great understanding, community affiliation, and suffering.     

Past and Future Issues in Motor Programming

The physiological responses of high (HF) and low fit (LF) individuals at given perceived exercise intensities were compared to ranges provided by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Participants were 7 LF and 8 HF men between the ages of 22 and 26 years. All participants performed a maximum oxygen uptake and lactate threshold test and two 15-min experimental runs in which they exercised at a constant perceived exercise intensity (RPE 13 and 17). The LF group exhibited significantly greater maximum oxygen uptake reserve (%VO₂R; p < .05) and velocity of lactate threshold (p < .01) values than HF at RPE 13 and 17. Both groups had significantly greater %VO₂R and maximum heart rate values at RPE 13 in comparison with the ACSM ranges, using the highest value for the given range (p ≤ .001).     

The relevance of innovative school architecture for school principals

In many cases, innovative forms of learning require innovative concepts of using space in school. However, so far there has been a lack of research concerning the perspectives of school principals as important stakeholders in the adoption of alternative school architecture. The present study examines the importance of alternative school architecture in a sample of 1164 principals (56% females, mean-age 52.7 years) in Austria. An online questionnaire was conducted, containing questions about the school building, innovative forms of learning, and principals’ level of information, perceptions, and thoughts on the relevance of school architecture, as well as their motivation and self-efficacy. Results showed that principals are aware of the advantages of certain architectural elements, although these elements have been implemented in only a few schools. A high proportion of respondents report a lack of information about configurations of space that go beyond the traditional corridor-scheme. We conclude that although principals are in general open for the alternative configuration of space further efforts have to be made to overcome the obstacles that prevent principals from launching new concepts of using space, which are a lack of competitive resources and knowledge as well as an inadequate professional network.     

Essential Conditions for Technology-Supported,Student-Centered Learning: An Analysis of Student Experiences With Math Out Loud Using the ISTE Standards for Students

This article explores links between student experiences with technology-rich mathematics instruction and the ISTE Standards for Students. Research methods applied constructivist grounded theory to analyze data from student interviews against the ISTE Standards for Students to identify which elements of the design of this learning environment seemed to support the attainment of both mathematics content objectives and the ISTE Standards for Students. Researchers then identify guiding principles for the effective design of technology-supported, student-centered learning environments based on analysis of the results. (Keywords: ISTE standards, mathematics education, student- created work, technology-rich learning)     

The relation between individual interest and knowledge acquisition

The objective of this study was to examine how individual interest and knowledge acquisition are causally related. Three hypotheses were tested using a cross‐lagged panel analysis (N = 186) and two quasi‐experimental studies (N = 68 and N = 108) involving students from schools in Singapore. The first hypothesis is the broadly shared standard assumption on the relation between individual interest and knowledge: the more an individual is interested in a topic, the more (s)he is willing to engage in learning. An alternative hypothesis assumes that individual interest is not the cause but the consequence of the process of learning: individual interest as an affective by‐product of learning. Finally, a third possibility is that interest and knowledge influence each other reciprocally. The results supported the affective‐by‐product hypothesis. Our findings seem at variance with commonly held conceptions that being interested guides knowledge attainment. The implications of these findings for interest research are discussed.