Revealing the decision-making of dribbling in the sport of futsal

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate why futsal players decide to dribble. For this purpose, we analysed 396 trials comprising the dribbles (n = 132), passes (n = 131) or shots (n = 133), performed by 70 male futsal players. Passing and shooting angles, and interpersonal distance, including their rates of change (velocity and variability), were regarded as measures of interpersonal coordination tendency and a comparison was made among dribbling, passing and shooting situations. In addition, the variables identified as constraints on deciding to dribble were analysed in relation to age categories, dribbling outcomes and futsal court zone. Results revealed that passing and shooting angles, and interpersonal distance showed higher variability in dribbling than in passing and shooting situations. The findings allowed us to conclude that decision-making on dribbling was influenced by the variabilities of passing angles as well as shooting and interpersonal distance, and that success in dribbling was affected by the variability of interpersonal distance. Such variabilities were interpreted concerning their meaning of risk and/or uncertainty in the execution of motor skills.     

Stings,Hoaxes and Irony Breach the Trust Inherent in Scientific Publishing

Trust has traditionally been a cornerstone of traditional science publishing. However, events over the past few years, an increase in the number of retractions and the fortification of the vigilant science movement, coupled with better tools to detect and report or publicize misconduct and/or errors in the literature, has revealed that this pillar of trust has in fact not always been present, or has been severely abused or compromised. Further disintegration in the integrity of academic publishing by no or almost non-existent peer review in so-called “predatory” open access publishers has given reason to increasingly distrust the accuracy of the published academic record. Finally, a topic that tends to invoke mixed reactions, but which we feel adds to the overall level of mistrust and erosion of ethical values in science publishing, is the use of stings, hoaxes and irony academic journals. We focus on six such cases, providing a rationale why such studies undermine trust and integrity and why such bogus publications are best left to blogs or non-academic forms of publishing science-related topics.     

The pathways to higher education: lexical availability in adult candidate students and in young first-year students

In the past few years there has been an increase in the number of adult students in higher education courses, many of whom have returned to school after a break. Most of these students do not intend to continue their studies from the point where they stopped; rather, they want to prepare for specific tests in order to have direct access to higher education courses, which in Portugal is a legal option for students over the age of 23. In response to this new cohort, higher education institutions need to find out what kind of students these are, determining their characteristics, capabilities and major problems, if they are to provide them with successful learning opportunities alongside younger students. This article presents a comparative study of lexical competence, focusing on lexical availability, contrasting those adult applicants to higher education who are attending a course preparatory to higher education with first-year students who have just entered higher education. The results show significant differences between the two groups, the adult group in general showing poorer results. Their withdrawal from schooling is clearly reflected in their vocabulary activation with regard to transversal themes. The most salient contrasts are related to the number of words mentioned and the frequency of words in the group, as well as the greater or lesser proximity to the topic of the terms mentioned.     

Ethical Practices and Implications in Distance Learning Ugur Demiray and Ramesh C. Sharma,Eds.

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of traditionally spoken linguistic analysis approaches for understanding the nature and outcomes of online interaction. The study took place with twenty-eight elementary school teachers in ten suburban Chicago schools involved in a technology-supported, problem-based learning curriculum development effort. The asynchronous and face-to-face communications of participants were monitored to test the utility of linguistic discourse variables for understanding interaction. The evidence showed that similar sense-making and interaction strategies are used in both face-to-face and online dialogue but that the strategies were significantly more prevalent in the face-to-face than online dialogue. When critical reflection was studied as an outcome of both forms of dialogue, asynchronous electronic communication was significantly more reflective than face-to-face discourse.     

Sexualities,teenage pregnancy and educational life histories in Portugal: experiencing sexual citizenship?

This article focuses on Portuguese working-class teenage girls’ voices and experiences concerning sexuality and pregnancy. Within a sociological, feminist and educational framework, it explores the girls’ perspective on sexual and intimate citizenship as evidence of fairer forms of regulation of teenage sexualities. Through building life histories of three pregnant and teenage mothers, this article aims to understand how girls rehearse and live out their sexualities and pregnancies as well as listen to their voices and recognise their demand for inclusion and respect. Gender power relations emerge as central in configuring girls’ pathways and shed light on youth pregnancy.     

The visualization of spatial transformations in diagrams of molecular structures

Summaries

English

The investigation sets out to determine in absolute terms the average level of performance of English and Portuguese students in visualizing how diagrams of molecules should be drawn after performing a rotation, reflection or inversion on the molecule itself. A second aim was to determine the factor structure of these tasks. Both aims were investigated using tests comprising samples of items randomly selected from domains of items which operationally defined each task. The results showed that for the students in both countries, the average level of performance on each of these tests was far from satisfactory. The factor structure separated items corresponding to the rotations, reflections and inversions. Within the categories of items corresponding to rotations and reflections, the students from the two different countries give rise to different patterns of loadings for the three different types of rotations and three different types of reflection.