Athletic injury, psychosocial factors and perceptual changes during stress.

In this study, we measured changes in state anxiety, visual perception and reaction time during stress among 196 collegiate athletes participating in 10 sports. The athletes also completed measures of life events and social support at the beginning of their seasons. Measures of life events stress, social support, perceptual changes and changes in reaction time during stress were used as predictors of the number of injuries. For the entire sample, the only significant predictor of injury was negative life events stress (R = 0.45, P < 0.001). Following the suggestions of Smith et al., simple correlations were performed for those with least social support (bottom 33%, n = 65). Among this group, those individuals with more negative life events and greater peripheral narrowing during stress incurred more injuries than those with the opposite profile. Our findings are in line with the model of Andersen and Williams, in that those individuals who were low in a variable that buffers stress responsivity (i.e. social support), their negative life events and peripheral narrowing under stress (large and medium effect sizes, respectively) were substantially related to their number of injuries.     

Tracking of Gross Motor Coordination From Childhood Into Adolescence

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze tracking and stability of motor coordination in children from age 6 years to ages 9 and 13 years. Method: Data were from the Copenhagen School Child Intervention Study. Motor coordination (MC) was measured using the körperkoordinationstest für Kinder (KTK) test. The crude performance score on every item was converted into a standardized “score” based on the original German reference study, which was used to generate a total standardized motor coordination (MQ) score. The MQ scores, which represented children's level of gross MC, were classified as low (MQ score < 85), normal (MQ score = 85–115), or high (MQ score>115). Pearson correlation was used to calculate the tracking coefficients of each KTK element and MQ score, and weighted kappa was used to analyze maintenance in MC classification groups. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the odds of remaining in the low MC group over time based on body mass index (BMI), weight, and height tertiles. Results: Tracking coefficients among the MQ score and each KTK element at different ages were moderate (r>.35). Children in the highest BMI and weight tertiles had a 5.44 and 5.15 times greater chance to be in the lower MC classification group during the 7-year follow-up, respectively, in comparison with children in their lowest tertiles. Conclusion: MC tracked moderately through childhood to early adolescence. Because heavier children had a greater chance to be in the lower MC group at older ages, intervention may be useful at earlier ages for those with lower MC and disadvantageous weight status.     

When one cannot not communicate: A challenge to motley's traditional communication postulates

In a recent article, Motley (1990) challenges the popular axiom that one cannot not communicate by advancing five postulates from a sender perspective. From this perspective, communication is intentional, is interactive, is encoded, requires symbols, and has a fidelity dimension. After detailing nine possible types of communication, the present article offers a receiver perspective, concluding that scholars should be interested in at least six types of communication. The receiver perspective holds that communication can be unintentional, noninteractive, and symptomatic, spontaneous, and nonsymbolic, and without a fidelity requirement. Implications of these perspectives for the study of communication are provided.     

冬奥会滑雪项目的历史演变

一、高山滑雪在5000年前,人们就开始使用雪橇了。挪威人被尊奉为滑雪运动的始祖,他们首次把滑雪当作在大雪覆盖的地方狩猎的工具。高山滑雪作为一项运动,与越野滑雪的传播相似,从斯堪的那维亚半岛到俄国都得到了发展。高山滑雪是在越野滑雪的基础上形成的。19世纪50年代,第一次     

Articulating the validity evidence for a science alternate assessment

Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) are the 1% of the total student population who have a disability or multiple disabilities that significantly impact intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors and who require individualized instruction and substantial supports. Historically, these students have received little instruction in science and the science assessments they have participated in have not included age‐appropriate science content. Guided by a theory of action for a new assessment system, an eight‐state consortium developed multidimensional alternate content standards and alternate assessments in science for students in three grade bands (3–5, 6–8, 9–12) that are linked to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013 ) and A Framework for K‐12 Science Education (Framework; National Research Council, 2012 ). The great variability within the population of students with SCD necessitates variability in the assessment content, which creates inherent challenges in establishing technical quality. To address this issue, a primary feature of this assessment system is the use of hypothetical cognitive models to provide a structure for variability in assessed content. System features and subsequent validity studies were guided by a theory of action that explains how the proposed claims about score interpretation and use depend on specific assumptions about the assessment, as well as precursors to the assessment. This paper describes evidence for the main claim that test scores represent what students know and can do. We present validity evidence for the assumptions about the assessment and its precursors, related to this main claim. The assessment was administered to over 21,000 students in eight states in 2015–2016. We present selected evidence from system components, procedural evidence, and validity studies. We evaluate the validity argument and demonstrate how it supports the claim about score interpretation and use.     

Phonological awareness training and remediation of analytic decoding deficits in a group of severe dyslexics

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Auditory Discrimination in Depth Program (ADD) in remediating the analytic decoding deficits of a group of severe dyslexics. A group of ten severely dyslexic students ranging in age from 93 to 154 months were treated in a clinic setting for 38 to 124 hours (average of 65 hours). Pre- and post-treatment testing was done with the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test and the Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization to assess changes in phonological awareness and analytic decoding skills. Results revealed statistically significant gains in phonological awareness and analytic decoding skills.     

Media consumption and population characteristics of political opinion leaders

The information sources from which opinion leaders and nonleaders hear about political candidates in a race for the United States Senate were examined in this study. The age and sex of political opinion leaders were examined, and data were gathered to determine if political opinion leaders are more likely to develop candidate preferences than nonleaders. Results demonstrated that opinion leaders hear about candidates from all media as well as interpersonal communication. No significant age differences were found between leaders and nonleaders. Males, however, were significantly more likely to be political opinion leaders than females. The incidence of political opinion leadership was also found to be higher among registered voters who state their preference for a political candidate.     

Video-Based Analyses of Motivation and Interaction in Science Classrooms

An analytical framework for examining students’ motivation was developed and used for analyses of video excerpts from science classrooms. The framework was developed in an iterative process involving theories on motivation and video excerpts from a ‘motivational event’ where students worked in groups. Subsequently, the framework was used for an analysis of students’ motivation in the whole class situation. A cross-case analysis was carried out illustrating characteristics of students’ motivation dependent on the context. This research showed that students’ motivation to learn science is stimulated by a range of different factors, with autonomy, relatedness and belonging apparently being the main sources of motivation. The teacher’s combined use of questions, uptake and high level evaluation was very important for students’ learning processes and motivation, especially students’ self-efficacy. By coding and analysing video excerpts from science classrooms, we were able to demonstrate that the analytical framework helped us gain new insights into the effect of teachers’ communication and other elements on students’ motivation.     

Tricks,Lies, and Mobile Phones: ‘Phone Friend’ Stories in Papua New Guinea

Since their arrival in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2007, mobile phones have become objects of broad moral concern, particularly around issues of female social and physical mobility. I explore these concerns through a discussion of stories about ‘phone friends’ – frequently unknown callers who initiate long-term correspondence and exchange relationships via mobile. I argue that these stories, which resemble the long-established genre of giaman (trickster) folktales, condense and make explicit one of the central problems generated by mobile phone use in PNG: that of how to maintain morally appropriate forms of exchange in a context where spatiotemporal relations have been radically distorted and in which the identity of participants can be easily hidden. The appeal of phone friend stories, I suggest, lies not so much in their critique of social climbing or female mobility, but in their consideration of the problem of mediation.     

Children's self-perceived bodily competencies and associations with motor skills,body mass index,teachers' evaluations,and parents' concerns

Abstract

The associations between physical competence, self-perceived bodily competence, parental concern for their children's motor skill development, and teachers' evaluation of their bodily competence were assessed in 646 six- to seven-year-olds. Physical competence was assessed by the German motor ability test “Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder”, while the children's, their parents', and their teachers' evaluations were obtained through questionnaires. Parental concern, teacher evaluation, and a high body mass index were the strongest predictors of low physical competence (motor skill quotient <85). Teachers' evaluation of bodily competence was associated with low self-perceived bodily competence in the children even after adjustment for motor skill quotient, with an odds ratio of 2.3 (P < 0.05) between the lowest and highest of the three levels after correction for motor skill competence. Results indicate that teachers' evaluation of children's motor skills should be considered a key factor when tracking and assessing physical competencies among youth.