Skiing

The purpose of the investigation was to study the relationship between thrust phase duration, ground reaction force, velocity increase after pole thrust and pole angles versus pole length during double poling in roller skiing. Seven male regional elite cross‐country skiers volunteered as subjects for the study. The subjects performed a maximal double pole thrust on roller skis with each of the three different pole lengths: ‘short’, self‐selected (normal) and ‘long’. The short and long poles were 7.5 cm shorter and 7.5 cm longer than the self‐selected pole length. The subjects made seven maximal pole thrusts with each pole length, which were randomly selected during 21 trials. For each trial the subjects accelerated from a 1.2 m high downhill slope attaining a speed of 3.92 m.s^‐1 before making a maximal double pole thrust on a force plate placed at the bottom of the slope. The vertical (F_z), anterior‐posterior (F_y) and medio‐lateral (F_x) reaction forces of the left pole were measured by the force plate. The positions of the pole were recorded in 3‐D by an opto‐electronic system. Thrust phase duration, impulse, mean force, velocity increase after pole thrust and pole angles were calculated from the recorded data. Double poling with long poles produced a significantly larger propulsive anterior‐posterior reaction force impulse and velocity increase than normal (p < .05) and short poles (p < .05). This was in spite of a larger mean anterior‐posterior reaction force being produced with short poles. Thus, thrust phase duration was a primary factor in determining propulsive anterior‐posterior impulse. For the practitioner, the results can be useful in the selection of pole length when the aim is to increase thrust phase duration, anterior‐posterior force impulse and velocity.     

A new device for measuring ski running surface force and pressure profiles

The pressure/force acting between the running surface of a ski and the snow may indirectly change glide friction. Thus, measuring the pressure/force distribution may be important for a deeper understanding of glide in skiing. The present aim was to construct a device that allowed the pressure/force underneath the ski running surface (SRS) to be recorded. Pressure sensors were attached on top of a platform. Sheets of different materials were used to improve the interaction between the SRS and the sensors. Possible functions of the device are demonstrated in three applications that emphasized comparison of force distribution underneath skis selected for similarity, force distribution under both skis and a single ski as well as backward weight distribution. The results show that the device with the pressure sensors mapped pressure/force distribution underneath the skis in the applications presented, and the system can thus be a useful tool for further optimizing e.g., ski designs.     

Agroecology Education: Action-oriented Learning and Research

Abstract

Purpose: This article examines and evaluates the potential contributions from action learning and action research with stakeholders to higher education in agriculture and food systems.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is based on our experiences over the past two decades of running PhD courses and an MSc degree programme in Agroecology in Norway that have attracted students from the Nordic region and other countries.

Findings: We conclude that collaborating with non-university stakeholders as an integral part of a university course or programme serves four main purposes, two directly related to learning and two that can be considered as practical implications. Firstly, it enables learning about complex topics, a learning that cannot be achieved by merely reading or listening. Secondly, the real-life flare of such activities provides the students with enthusiasm and energy to delve into theory.

Practical Implications: Thirdly, students collaborating with non-university stakeholders connect university and society. Fourthly, this process builds social relevance and civic engagement not found in conventional courses or curricula.

Originality/Value: The article presents conceptual foundations and practical implementation of a unique educational programme in agriculture and food systems.     

Classroom Social Structure and Motivational Climates: On the influence of teachers' involvement,teachers' autonomy support and regulation in relation to motivational climates in school classrooms

This study investigates the relationship between students' perceptions of the social structure in the classroom and perceptions of the motivational climate among 1171 Norwegian eighth‐grade students from 65 school classes. A multilevel approach was implemented to investigate relationships at the individual level as well as at the class level. Results showed that perceptions of motivational climates varied considerably more within than between school classes, as well as a general trend for students to perceive the motivational climate to be more mastery than performance oriented. Moreover, emphatic teacher involvement yielded the strongest positive association with perceptions of a mastery motivational climate, as well as the strongest negative association with perceptions of a performance motivational climate. Besides, a mastery motivational climate was also found to be associated with a certain amount of student influence, whereas the final aspect of social structure investigated, regulation, showed relatively weaker associations with students' perceptions of motivational climate.     

Identifying and promoting self‐regulated learning in higher education: roles and responsibilities of student tutors

This article reports on a case study of learning and academic achievement in engineering education. Two sets of oral exams were used as a source of information in relation to students’ learning and needs in the learning situation. Through ensuing interviews, patterns of learning strategies were discerned. Academically successful students utilised self‐monitoring skills, such as self‐evaluation and comprehension monitoring, while these skills were used only to a minor extent by those less successful. Promoting self‐regulated learning could be one way to improve student learning. The research literature, however, suggests that merely teaching self‐monitoring skills does not necessarily make a difference. This study therefore focuses on roles of tutors in identifying and promoting self‐regulated learning.     

Teamwork in sport: a sociological analysis

The importance of creating and maintaining a working order and solidarity among sports teams is one of the more taken-for-granted assumptions among participants and observers. Even so, delineating the dynamics of its importance, especially in regard to teamwork and insider knowledge (or secrecy) remains unexplored. This paper attempts to fill this gap by employing classical sociological concepts from Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman to discuss the practical and sociological importance of teamwork. We examine two internationally successful Icelandic sport teams to show how the prosocial aspects of teamwork, secrecy, and backstage behavior, keep teammates bonded to each other and to the culture in which they become embedded. Our analysis also highlights the importance of collective representations, organic solidarity and the dynamic processes involving self-presentation, ideoculture and negotiation of meaning.     

EMOTIVE AND REPRESENTATIONAL COMPONENTS OF MEANING IN WORD SORTING AND RECALL

Kyöstiö, O. K. 1973. Failures and Passes in the Secondary School Career. Scand. J. educ. Res. 17. 47‐54. The study is partly a replica of a predictiveness research by the same author, reported in this journal (No. 3/1970). Instead of a nation‐wide sample the research population (N=892) now came from one city only. Points in the entrance examination were correlated with marks in the third, fifth, and eighth grades, and in the matriculation examination. School success and the entrance examination stand in high correlation, and the prediction variables did not show any diminishing trend from form three to form eight. Prediction is clearer among girls than boys. Social status has positive but not significant correlation with school success but it does not correlate highly with the career after school.     

The validation of a swimming turn wall-contact-time measurement system: a touchpad application reliability study

The effectiveness of the swimming turn is highly influential to overall performance in competitive swimming. The push-off or wall contact, within the turn phase, is directly involved in determining the speed the swimmer leaves the wall. Therefore, it is paramount to develop reliable methods to measure the wall-contact-time during the turn phase for training and research purposes. The aim of this study was to determine the concurrent validity and reliability of the Pool Pad App to measure wall-contact-time during the freestyle and backstroke tumble turn. The wall-contact-times of nine elite and sub-elite participants were recorded during their regular training sessions. Concurrent validity statistics included the standardised typical error estimate, linear analysis and effect sizes while the intraclass correlating coefficient (ICC) was used for the reliability statistics. The standardised typical error estimate resulted in a moderate Cohen’s d effect size with an R² value of 0.80 and the ICC between the Pool Pad and 2D video footage was 0.89. Despite these measurement differences, the results from this concurrent validity and reliability analyses demonstrated that the Pool Pad is suitable for measuring wall-contact-time during the freestyle and backstroke tumble turn within a training environment.