Do field position and playing standard influence athlete performance in wheelchair basketball?

Improved understanding of mobility performance in wheelchair basketball is required to increase game performance. The aim of this study was to quantify the wheelchair-athlete activities of players in different field positions and of different playing standard during wheelchair basketball matches. From video analysis, absolute and relative duration and frequency of wheelchair movements and athlete control options were examined in 27 national standard and 29 international standard players during entire wheelchair basketball matches. Between-group factorial analysis of variances identified that national players drove more forward (42.6 ± 6.8 vs. 35.4 ± 3.7%; effect size Cohen’s d (ES) = 1.48) and started more often driving forward (33.9 ± 2.6 vs. 31.8 ± 2.8; ES = 0.77) during a match while the mean activity duration for a single driving forward activity was longer (4.3 ± 0.9 vs. 3.7 ± 0.6 s; ES = 0.75) than for international players. Furthermore, national players performed fewer rotational movements (21.8 ± 4.0 vs. 28.9 ± 7.8%; ES = –1.30) and started less often with the rotational movements (35.0 ± 3.6 vs. 40.5 ± 5.5; ES = –1.21) while the mean activity duration for a single rotation activity was shorter (2.1 ± 0.3 vs. 2.3 ± 0.3 s; ES = –0.67) than for international players. Differences in mobility performance among guard, forward and centre players were minimal. The results should help wheelchair basketball coaches specify wheelchair-handling training techniques and means to optimise wheelchair-athlete configurations.     

The use of correlation coefficients in test validation

Although the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, r, is commonly used in student selection, it is argued here, that it is frequently more appropriate to use the Bi-serial Correlation Coefficient r_bis for this purpose.Now working in Clinical Psychology.     

The advising system: An alternative model related to the evaluation of self-directed learning

The proposed advising model focuses on creative learning. To operationalize such a model, there must be not only structural but behavioral changes in the existing system. This requires that professional educators have special concern for the quality of relationships between faculty and students. In a program which focuses on creative learning, most students need assistance in developing the understanding and skill necessary for creative learning. An alternative advising model is proposed, therefore, which enhances the behavioral requirements. The alternative model views the advising function as a teaching-consulting function with a priority goal of helping the student learn the art of self-evaluation as a prerequisite to life-long learning.     

Testing Role Models’ Differential Effect on Use of Aggressive Compliance Gaining Strategies

Using a repeated measures design, this empirical study confirmed that a differential relationship exists between significant role models’ use of aggressive compliance gaining strategies (ACGS) and an individual’s use of the same in romantic and non-romantic interactions. As expected, peer use was found to have the strongest relationship to individual use of ACGS with romantic partners. Unexpected was the similarity in strength of parent and peer use to individual use of ACGS with non-romantic partners. Relevance and opportunity are mechanisms used to explain role model impact as an antecedent variable of ACGS use. Future studies to advance theory regarding aggressive communication are discussed.     

Le diagnostic du potentiel d’apprentissage par LPAD: Une etude de la fidélité

The present study was intended to test some of the psychometric properties of Feuerstein’s Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD), in particular the reliability of the Set Variations II, considered to assess modificability or learning capacity. Thirty 10-year-old children were studied: an experimental group (N=20) submitted to two training sessions with Set Variations II and a control group (N=10). Both groups were administered three times the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM). The experimenter’s interventions during training were semi-standardized, based on an examination guide, and the helps given were classified in four types. Analyses dealt with the number and type of helps provided as well as with errors during training. Correlations between these indices for the two sessions of training were rather low, indicating weak stability, in particular with respect to the helps provided. Correlations were also computed between the gains in SPM for the three administrations, indicating low stability in amount of progression. Further, it was also noted that the experimental group did not progress more than the control group. Conclusions are drawn with respect to reliability and validity of the Set Variations Test, as well as, on a more theoretical level, with respect to the concept of cognitive modifiability.     

New understandings of communities and ourselves: community-based participatory research with Alaska Native and Lower 48 youth

In the summer of 2014, students from universities in the contiguous United States (Lower 48) and Inupiat youth from Alaska carried out a pilot project as participants/co-researchers in a process called Intergenerational Dialog, Exchange, and Action (IDEA). This action-oriented, community-based, and participatory research method was first developed in 2008, as a platform for structuring dialog between adults, Elders and youth within a community, and for extending resonant ideas emerging from these discussions through Photovoice and digital storytelling amongst youth participants. This pilot study was designed to investigate the feasibility and potential of university students from the Lower 48 and Indigenous youth from Alaska to carry out the IDEA process together as co-researchers. The results of the pilot suggest that it is both possible and meaningful for IDEA to be conducted by a team of youth co-researchers. We found that participation in IDEA expanded the perspectives of youth co-researchers from both Alaska and the Lower 48 in parallel, yet different ways. Exploring the strengths of older community members, being exposed to different ways of living and being, and having opportunities to reflect on and build narratives around these ideas, allowed all the co-researchers to develop a new understanding of their own communities and their roles and responsibilities within them. This paper shares youth co-researcher reflections of the process and the ways in which the process prompted these new perspectives about themselves, their respective communities and their roles within them.     

The Impacts of Course Restructuring on Student Performance

Analysis of student performance in a Geography degree course over a ten year period, as part of a larger study of student performance in large classes, revealed a five year cycle of change in student performance and in the ability of the course to cope with large classes. The cycle exactly matched the introduction of new degree programmes with performance taking four years to recover to the levels eventually achieved with the previous course design. It is concluded that radical change in course design can initially reduce performance and that stability for several years may be necessary to achieve the potential of a new course.