Academic Self‐concept,Implicit Theories of Ability,and Self‐regulation Strategies

The purpose of the present study is to explore how academic self‐concept and implicit theories of ability are related to four self‐regulation strategies—motivation/diligence, concentration, information processing, and self‐handicapping. The hypothesis is that academic self‐concept and an incremental theory of ability are (1) positively related to motivation/diligence, concentration, and information processing strategies, and (2) negatively related to self‐handicapping strategies. On the basis of inventories 168 teacher students and 60 sport students (a total of 178 females and 50 males) were scored on academic self‐concept, incremental and fixed theories of ability and the four self‐regulation strategies. Multiple regression analysis was used for each self‐regulation strategy as dependent variable, and with academic self‐concept and the ability theories as independent variables. Results revealed that an incremental theory had, as predicted, a positive relation with motivation/diligence and concentration, but had only trivial relations with information processing and self‐handicapping, whereas a fixed theory had only the predicted relation with self‐handicapping. As hypothesised, a high academic self‐concept was positively related to motivation/diligence, conception, and information processing and negatively to self‐handicapping. The findings may indicate that, in order to promote meta‐theoretical processing and prevent student from self‐handicapping, it is important to strengthen academic self‐concept, and to foster an incremental conception of ability among students.     

The Prevalence of Additional Problems among Mentally Retarded Pupils as Compared to Mentally Normal Pupils1

Abstract:Haugen, R. 1981. The Prevalence of Additional Problems among Mentally Retarded Pupils as Compared to Mentally Normal Pupils. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 25,189‐200. The concept of additional problems is introduced in relation to mentally retarded pupils (MRP). It is defined as a significant discrepancy between a pupil's a) MA and achievements in reading‐writing, mathematics, and speech, b) CA and achievements in vision, hearing, fine and gross motor expression, and c) ‘normal’ somatic and emotional behavior and actual somatic and emotional behavior. The results strongly confirm the hypothesis that the prevalence of additional problems among MRP is greater as compared to mentally normal pupils with respect to all the nine variables under comparison.     

EDUCATIONISTS AND ACADEMICS: RATINGS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS

Relationships between student ratings, instructor pedagogical training, subject‐matter preparation in teaching field, and length of teaching experience were examined for community college university transfer instructors. Moderate but statistically signficant relationships were found between pedagogical training, amount of subject‐matter preparation in teaching area, and the rating subscale of Course Organization and Planning. Results indicated that students tend to give higher ratings to instructors with pedagogical training, while instructors with greater amounts of graduate‐level, subject‐matter preparation tend to receive lower ratings.     

The continuous measurement of the springboard reaction force in gymnastic vaulting

Abstract

A new method was established for the continuous measurement of force applied from a springboard to a gymnast in vaulting (board reaction force). Male gymnasts performed a handspring vault using a springboard mounted on force platforms. A high-speed video camera sampled the springboard motion at 500 Hz. The springboard was initially partitioned into 29 segments. The force due to the accelerative motion of the springboard was determined by summing the forces of the individual segments. The board reaction force acting on the gymnast was calculated by subtracting the force due to the accelerative motion of the springboard and weight from the force recorded by the force platform. The new method succeeded in illustrating transient changes of the board reaction force. The horizontal and vertical components of the peak values of the board reaction force were three and two times greater respectively than the average values. A series of tests was conducted to determine whether the number of segments of the springboard model could be reduced without affecting accuracy. A model consisting of only four segments produced almost the same accuracy as the 29-segment model. The simplified model is recommended as a more efficient method to measure board reaction force.     

Query-oriented text summarization based on hypergraph transversals

The rise in the amount of textual resources available on the Internet has created the need for tools of automatic document summarization. The main challenges of query-oriented extractive summarization are (1) to identify the topics of the documents and (2) to recover query-relevant sentences of the documents that together cover these topics. Existing graph- or hypergraph-based summarizers use graph-based ranking algorithms to produce individual scores of relevance for the sentences. Hence, these systems fail to measure the topics jointly covered by the sentences forming the summary, which tends to produce redundant summaries. To address the issue of selecting non-redundant sentences jointly covering the main query-relevant topics of a corpus, we propose a new method using the powerful theory of hypergraph transversals. First, we introduce a new topic model based on the semantic clustering of terms in order to discover the topics present in a corpus. Second, these topics are modeled as the hyperedges of a hypergraph in which the nodes are the sentences. A summary is then produced by generating a transversal of nodes in the hypergraph. Algorithms based on the theory of submodular functions are proposed to generate the transversals and to build the summaries. The proposed summarizer outperforms existing graph- or hypergraph-based summarizers by at least 6% of ROUGE-SU4 F-measure on DUC 2007 dataset. It is moreover cheaper than existing hypergraph-based summarizers in terms of computational time complexity.     

Segmental dynamics of soccer instep kicking with the preferred and non-preferred leg

Detailed time-series of the resultant joint moments and segmental interactions during soccer instep kicking were compared between the preferred and non-preferred kicking leg. The kicking motions of both legs were captured for five highly skilled players using a three-dimensional cinematographic technique at 200 Hz. The resultant joint moment (muscle moment) and moment due to segmental interactions (interaction moment) were computed using a two-link kinetic chain model composed of the thigh and lower leg (including shank and foot). The mechanical functioning of the muscle and interaction moments during kicking were clearly illustrated. Significantly greater ball velocity (32.1 vs. 27.1 m . s(-1)), shank angular velocity (39.4 vs. 31.8 rad . s(-1)) and final foot velocity (22.7 vs. 19.6 m . s(-1)) were observed for the preferred leg. The preferred leg showed a significantly greater knee muscle moment (129.9 N . m) than the non-preferred leg (93.5 N . m), while no substantial differences were found for the interaction moment between the two legs (79.3 vs. 55.7 N . m). These results indicate that the highly skilled soccer players achieved a well-coordinated inter-segmental motion for both the preferred and non-preferred leg. The faster leg swing observed for the preferred leg was most likely the result of the larger muscle moment.     

Proof image

The emergence of a proof image is often an important stage in a learner’s construction of a proof. In this paper, we introduce, characterize, and exemplify the notion of proof image. We also investigate how proof images emerge. Our approach starts from the learner’s efforts to construct a justification without (or before) attempting any formal argument, and it focuses on the process by which a complete but not necessarily communicable image of that justification becomes available to the learner and provides explanation with certainty. We consider the interplay between the learner’s intuitive and logical thinking and, using the theoretical framework of Abstraction in Context, we trace the construction of knowledge that results from and enables progress of this interplay. The existence and identification of proof images and the nature of the processes by which they emerge constitute the theoretical contribution of this paper. Its practical value lies in the empirical analyses of these processes and in the potential to apply them to the design of tasks that support students in constructing their own proofs images and proofs. We believe that such processes are likely to considerably enrich students’ mathematical experience.     

Upper Secondary Schools and Sparsity: The Case of Northern Sweden

Governmental reforms since the early 1990s have acted as a push factor for starting new schools in Sweden and have created options for pupils to choose a school irrespective of municipal borders. This study highlights the upper secondary school system in small municipalities in northern Sweden since the late 1990s. The analysis shows that the reforms led to more schools, and thereby also to more competition in recruiting pupils both within and across municipal borders. When the cohorts started declining, the vulnerability of the school structure became obvious. The competition generated higher costs per capita and fewer available programs in small municipalities. Furthermore, it was noted that fewer pupils attending schools in small municipalities completed their education compared to those in larger municipalities.