Practice or Perish: How Overexposure and Premature Claims of Success Undermine Men of Color Initiatives

Steven Thurston Oliver warns of the institutional tendencies and practices that disrupt the creation of communities for marginalized students.     

Value of Family and Group Counseling Models Where Grandparents Function as Parents to their Grandchildren

Those involved in circumstances in which children are raised by their grandparents often encounter serious problems that require assistance from counselors. Research suggests that grandparents and parents in these families typically experience heightened stress and psychosocial distress. Additionally, the children often encounter behavioral, emotional, and academic difficulties. These difficulties usually occur partly as a result of the factors that lead to grandparents having to assume responsibility for the children. This paper provides a report of the phenomenon, particularly as it relates to the various members’ psychosocial well-being. In addition, family and group counseling are advanced as valuable relational psychotherapeutic models to enhance the well-being of the children, grandparents and parents involved.     

Stimulation of thinking skills in high school students

The objective of this research was to examine the effects of the instruction method “thinking actively in an academic context (TAAC)” on thinking skills, creativity, self‐regulation and academic achievement. The design was pre‐test–intervention–post‐test with control group. The sample included 46 participants (aged 16 to 18 years), 24 experimental and 22 controls. Before and after application of the method, six instruments were used to measure thinking skills and academic achievement. The method, divided into eight stages, was followed in each didactic unit during an academic course. The method allows teaching the thinking skills, the creativity and the self‐regulation simultaneously with the syllabus content. The results showed that greater changes were obtained with the new method of instruction in all the dependent variables. Relevant scientific and educational implications are drawn from the study.     

The nature (and nurture) of children's perceptions of family chaos

Chaos in the home is a key environment in cognitive and behavioral development. However, we show that children's experience of home chaos is partly genetically mediated. We assessed children's perceptions of household chaos at ages 9 and 12 in 2337 pairs of twins. Using child-specific reports allowed us to use structural equation modeling to explore the genetic and environmental etiology of children's perceptions of chaos. We found that these perceptions are significantly heritable (22%), with the remainder explained by environmental influences. Finding that genes influence children's experience of chaotic environments has far-reaching implications for how we conceptualize the family home and its impact on cognitive and behavioral development.     

A model of equitable and sustainable redistribution of knowledge

Education is one of the pillars in which a Welfare State is effectively based on in order to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth. In contemporary society, knowledge and education are among the most appreciated goods, and everyone should have the right to acquire them, without distinction of gender, race, age, health or religion. From our experience of over 15 years at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya we can claim that virtual learning makes access to education easier for certain population strata, whereas otherwise, they would be excluded from such a right. A very significant group of students to consider are women with family burdens who, thanks to this kind of education, are able to gain access to higher education for the first time in their lives and at their maturity ages. Another significant group is students with disabilities, for whom virtual education makes it possible to get training in fields for which it would be more difficult to get in the case of the non-virtual university. Geographic factors are also relevant, since virtual education has provided rural areas and other places with poor infrastructures with a chance to gain access to higher education. This brings with it a redistribution of wealth among territories, and also among different social strata with fewer resources and limitations to commute long distances to higher education institutions. Another issue that needs pointing out is virtual communication. As it is asynchronic, it can lead to a high degree of reflection. All these elements enable us to have a virtual discussion about cultural and linguistic issues which have huge educational value.     

Straight sprinting is the most frequent action in goal situations in professional football

The present study aimed to analyse the influence of speed and power abilities in goal situations in professional football. During the second half of the season 2007/08, videos of 360 goals in the first German national league were analysed by visual inspection. For the assisting and the scoring player the situations immediately preceding the goal were evaluated. The observed actions were categorised as: no powerful action, rotation (around the body's centre-line), straight sprint, change-in-direction sprint, jump, or a combination of those categories. Two hundred and ninety-eight (83%) goals were preceded by at least one powerful action of the scoring or the assisting player. Most actions for the scoring player were straight sprints (n = 161, 45% of all analysed goals, P < 0.001) followed by jumps (n = 57, 16%), rotations and change-in-direction sprints (n = 22, 6% each). Most sprints were conducted without an opponent (n = 109, P < 0.001) and without the ball (n = 121, P < 0.001). Similarly, for the assisting player the most frequent action was a straight sprint (n = 137, P < 0.001) followed by rotations (n = 28), jumps (n = 22) and change-in-direction sprints (n = 18). The straight sprints were mostly conducted with the ball (n = 93, P = 0.003). In conclusion, straight sprinting is the most frequent action in goal situations. Power and speed abilities are important within decisive situations in professional football and, thus, should be included in fitness testing and training.     

Learning in virtual worlds: Using communities of practice to explain how people learn from play

Although there is interest in the educational potential of online multiplayer games and virtual worlds, there is still little evidence to explain specifically what and how people learn from these environments. This paper addresses this issue by exploring the experiences of couples that play World of Warcraft together. Learning outcomes were identified (involving the management of ludic, social and material resources) along with learning processes, which followed Wenger's model of participation in Communities of Practice. Comparing this with existing literature suggests that productive comparisons can be drawn with the experiences of distance education students and the social pressures that affect their participation.