Fundamental movement skill proficiency amongst adolescent youth

Background: Literature suggests that physical education programmes ought to provide intense instruction towards basic movement skills needed to enjoy a variety of physical activities. Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are basic observable patterns of behaviour present from childhood to adulthood (e.g. run, skip and kick). Recent evidence indicates that children have the developmental potential to master most FMS by 6 years of age during physical education, physical activity (PA) and sport.

Purpose: With a noticeable absence in the literature relating to adolescent movement patterns, the present study assessed the performance of 9 FMS during physical education class amongst 12- to 13-year olds. The study further assessed the range of FMS at the behavioural component level with a view to identifying weaknesses within performance across individual skills.

Participants and setting: Baseline data were collected in 2010 as part of a larger longitudinal study evaluating the effectiveness of a prescribed adolescent physical education intervention. Participants included all (N?=?242) first-year post-primary youth in a specific geographical area of Ireland.

Data collection: The following 9 FMS were assessed during an 80-minute physical education lesson time period using a reliable instrument protocol; run, skip, horizontal jump, vertical jump, kick, catch, overhand throw, strike and stationary dribble. Each of the nine FMS was assessed in conjunction with the behavioural components from three established instruments, namely the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD), TGMD-2 and the Victorian Fundamental Motor Skills manual. To ensure participant consistency, no feedback from any of the trained field staff was given during skill performance.

Data analysis: Prior to data analysis, the trained field staff were required to reach a minimum of 95% inter-observer agreement for all nine skills on a pre-coded data set to ensure that all testers were competent. The FMS data set was analysed using SPSS version 17.0 for Windows using appropriate statistical analysis.

Findings: Overall, 11% was scored as either mastery or near mastery for all nine FMS. There was a significant difference in the overall mean composite FMS score (object control and locomotor) between genders, with adolescent males scoring higher (p?=?.015). There were marked differences in the number of participants who failed to obtain mastery level across the range of the nine FMS (e.g. vertical jump 87% and run 13%) and their associated behavioural components.

Conclusions: It is alarming that adolescents aged between 12 and 13 years entering their first year of post-primary physical education do not display proficiency across nine basic movement patterns. This finding indicates that adolescents may have a difficult time in making the successful transition towards more advanced skills within the sport-specific stage. Implications from this study potentially indicate that targeting the weakest skill components during physical education and outside of school hours may prove a valuable strategy in increasing the current FMS levels and the subsequent PA levels amongst adolescent youth.     

Enhancement of short-term retention by appetitive-reinforcer reminder treatment

Choice accuracy by rats in a delayed-alternation paradigm was shown to decrease over a 120-sec retention interval. The decrement in choice accuracy was reversed by presentation of the appetitive reinforcer outside of the apparatus during the retention interval. This suggests that the reinforcer served to reactivate the target spatial memory and that the short-term retention deficit in the absence of such memory reactivation was not due to a loss of information. The results are discussed with respect to recent criticisms of memory-reactivation treatments in short-term retention tasks.     

Getting to know nature: evaluating the effects of the Get to Know Program on children’s connectedness with nature

People in industrialized countries may be losing their connection with nature. The Get to Know Program (Get to Know) is a multi-faceted program aimed at encouraging direct connection with nature through a variety of activities (observations of wildlife, hiking, creative arts, and special events), specifically among youth. Three studies assessed the effects of three Get to Know program activities on youth’s implicit connectedness with nature (measured using a computer based game). Participants were youth recruited from southern California schools or youth organizations. Participation in the Get to Know Program’s Creative Arts Contest was associated with increased implicit connectedness with nature. However, participation in the Get to Know Natural Treasure Adventure and Virtual Hike did not have an effect on connectedness with nature. Implications of these findings are important for agencies seeking to find effective tools for outreach focused on connecting participants with nature.     

Extinction of the overshadowing CS after overshadowing in conditioned taste aversion

Using a conditioned taste aversion preparation overshadowing of flavor-illness association was produced through the presentation of a second flavor during the interval between the first flavor and illness. The modulatory effects of extinguishing the association between the second (over-shadowing) flavor and illness on conditioned responding to the target flavor was investigated. In Experiment 1, we found that, following one-trial overshadowing, extinction of the overshadowing flavor had no effect on conditioned responding to the target flavor. In Experiment 2, we found a similar absence of an effect of extinction of the overshadowing stimulus in a multitrial over-shadowing paradigm. Experiment 3 confirmed the results of Experiments 1 and 2 using conditioning parameters that were designed to weaken the association between the overshadowed flavor and illness. In Experiments 4 and 5, we used simultaneous presentation of the flavors during conditioning and obtained a weakened aversion to the overshadowed flavor when the overshadowing CS was extinguished. These findings are inconsistent with previous observations in conditioned fear preparations that suggest that extinction of the association between the overshadowing stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus attenuates overshadowing. Possible reasons for the discrepant results are discussed.     

Needed research in the introduction and use of audiovisual materials: A special report

Conclusion Though many appropriate questions on which research needs to be done have been raised in this report, there is still one significant point which must be kept in mind: The conduct of the research itself must conform to acceptable procedures for educational research. A major concern in this whole field, but especially in the specific area of media research, has been that of such matters as the appropriateness and efficiency of the research techniques, instrumentation, and statistical procedures. Of the various activities that have been under way to upgrade research one of the more promising is a book prepared by A. A. Lumsdaine and others. Entitled Experimental Research on Educational Media: A Guidebook, it will be published soon by the U. S. Office of Education. Publications of this type should help greatly to promote the development of good researchable questions, improved procedures for studying a problem, and the postulating of tenable and generalizable conclusions. Wesley C. Meierhenry was chairman of the group of researchers who assembled at NEA headquarters in Washington to take stock of research in the educational uses of the newer media and to identify areas requiring further or initial investigations. The recommendations they drafted are presented here as edited by Dr. Meierhenry and with his linking comments.     

That noun phrase may be beneficial and this may not be: discourse cohesion in reading and writing

This paper examines the effects of attended and unattended demonstratives on text processing, comprehension, and writing quality in two studies. In the first study, participants (n = 45) read 64 mini-stories in a self-paced reading task and identified the main referent in the clauses. The sentences varied in the type of demonstratives (i.e., this, that, these, and those) contained in the sentences and whether the referent was followed by a demonstrative determiner and noun (i.e., an attended demonstrative) or a demonstrative pronoun (i.e., an unattended demonstrative). In the second study, 173 persuasive essays written by high school students were rated by expert judges on overall writing quality using a standardized rubric. Expert coders manually counted the number and types of demonstratives (attended and unattended demonstratives) in each essay. These counts were used to predict the human scores of essay quality. The findings demonstrate that the use of unattended demonstratives as anaphoric references is disadvantageous to both reading time and referent identification. However, these disadvantages become advantages in terms of essay quality likely because linguistic complexity is a strong indicator of high proficiency writing. From a text processing and comprehension viewpoint, the findings indicate, then, that anaphoric reference is not always beneficial and does not always create a more cohesive text. In contrast, from a writing context, the use of unattended demonstratives leads to a more linguistically complex text, which generally equates to a higher quality text.     

Impact of classroom design on teacher pedagogy and student engagement and performance in mathematics

A resurgence in interest in classroom and school design has highlighted how little we know about the impact of learning environments on student and teacher performance. This is partly because of a lack of research methods capable of controlling the complex variables inherent to space and education. In a unique study that overcame such difficulties by using a single-subject research design in one Queensland school, open and flexible classroom arrangements, together with an infusion of one-on-one technologies, improved student perceptions of the quality of teaching and students’ levels of engagement. Separate statistical analysis also indicated significant differences in these students’ performance in mathematics when compared to like peers in more ‘traditional’ classrooms. The paper ends with a caution; on these measures, the classroom design is certainly one, but probably not the only, influence.     

Matters of HEARTS: health,experience of abuse,resilience, technology use,and safety of older adults

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to assess the HEARTS (Health, Experience of Abuse, Resilience, Technology use, and Safety) of older adults (OAs). More particularly, we aimed to assess three components of the HEARTS (health, experience of abuse, and resilience) of OAs and explore the relationships among health, resilience, the experience of abuse, and other demographic variables. Forty-two male and female OAs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA participated in the study. A correlational design was used in this study. The variables correlated were health, the experience of abuse, and the resilience of OAs. We used a community-engaged research approach in that participants were more than research volunteers but stakeholders in the research project. Findings showed that the means for more positive health features (physical function, and social roles) increased with increases in education, while more negative health features (anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbance, pain interference, and pain intensity) decreased with higher levels of education. Regression models indicated that above and beyond demographic features, resilience had a significant prediction of anxiety and depression. None of the other health outcomes were significantly predicted by either resilience or older adults’ abuse suspicion.

Adding health to years in older adults is a collaborative effort with healthcare providers, healthcare systems, families, and communities. This study has identified three components of HEARTS (Health, Experience of Abuse, and Resilience) that blend with successful aging and provide data and possible prevention and intervention strategies, and family and community education programs that could add health to years in older adults.     

Deconstructing Meritocracy in the College Classroom

The purpose of this article is to discuss meritocracy as it impacts our undergraduate college teaching. As college educators, we have come to realize how little students have been challenged to critically examine the notion of meritocracy. Seeking to understand why this is so and what we can do to engender a more nuanced understanding of how social class is structured and perpetuated across generations, we present an assessment of why the majority of students believe we live in a meritocratic society and how college educators can use specific activities to complicate this view. As we do this we include evidence of how social class and social mobility are structured and why an adherence to meritocracy is, we believe, an anathema to teaching for social justice.     

Where excludability matters: Material versus intellectual property in academic biomedical research

On the basis of survey responses from 507 academic biomedical researchers, we examine the impact of patents on access to the knowledge and material inputs that are used in subsequent research. We observe that access to knowledge inputs is largely unaffected by patents. Accessing other researchers’ materials and/or data, such as cell lines, reagents, or unpublished information is, however, more problematic. The main factors associated with restricted access to materials and/or data include scientific competition, the cost of providing materials, a history of commercial activity on the part of the prospective supplier, and whether the material in question is itself a drug.