Writing Swiss Sport History: A Quest for Original Archives

Abstract

Writing Swiss sport history was never an actual aim in my career; but, while I was doing my PhD in Switzerland, its archives eventually seduced me and convinced me to move from writing about European medical history to writing more sports-based histories on every level (local, national, or international). Mainly empirical, my work has always been focused on the way individuals are slowly building entire institutions around sports (creating rules, administrations, and competitions). Moreover, this passion opened a complete new world full of possibilities where documents are scattered between German, French, and Italian. Thus, to me, empirical-based research were never ‘naïve’, as the explanatory potentials of sport are very strong. And regarding this amazing potential, I always felt dedicated to pursue every possible effort, to identify new archives, to take this history to a higher epistemological level and to spread these results beyond academic circles.     

Teachers’ information processing and judgement accuracy: effects of information consistency and accountability

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Research has shown that teachers are able to adapt their processing strategy of student information to situational demands, whereby they flexibly use...     

Between-school variation in physical activity,aerobic fitness,and organized sports participation: A multi-level analysis

Abstract

A large proportion of a child's day is spent at school interacting with certain physical surroundings, teachers, and school friends. Thus, schools could have a marked impact on establishing physical activity habits. The aim of the present study was to assess between-school variation in physical activity, aerobic fitness, and organized sports participation. Altogether, we tested 1766 nine- and fifteen-year-old children attending 242 school classes at 35 different schools in Denmark in 1997–2003. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for objectively assessed physical activity ranged between 0.06 and 0.18 depending on the dimension of physical activity and the time considered (i.e. school time vs. leisure time). For aerobic fitness, an ICC of 0.10 was observed, whereas that for organized sports participation ranged between 0.01 and 0.10 depending on the age group. Studying between-school variation in physical activity provides information about the extent to which children adjust their physical activity habits according to the social and environmental circumstances that they share, and helps to plan future school-based physical activity studies, especially in terms of sample size and power calculation.     

Repeated-sprint training in hypoxia induced by voluntary hypoventilation improves running repeated-sprint ability in rugby players

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine the effects of repeated-sprint training in hypoxia induced by voluntary hypoventilation at low lung volume (VHL) on running repeated-sprint ability (RSA) in team-sport players.

Methods: Twenty-one highly trained rugby players performed, over a 4-week period, seven sessions of repeated 40-m sprints either with VHL (RSH-VHL, n?=?11) or with normal breathing (RSN, n?=?10). Before (Pre-) and after training (Post-), performance was assessed with an RSA test (40-m all-out sprints with a departure every 30?s) until task failure (85% of the reference velocity assessed in an isolated sprint).

Results: The number of sprints completed during the RSA test was significantly increased after the training period in RSH-VHL (9.1?±?2.8 vs. 14.9?±?5.3; +64%; p?p?=?.74). Maximal velocity was not different between Pre- and Post- in both groups whereas the mean velocity decreased in RSN and remained unchanged in RSH-VHL. The mean SpO₂ recorded over an entire training session was lower in RSH-VHL than in RSN (90.1?±?1.4 vs. 95.5?±?0.5%, p?Conclusion: RSH-VHL appears to be an effective strategy to produce a hypoxic stress and to improve running RSA in team-sport players.     

A Comparison of Self-Report Scales and Accelerometer-Determined Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity Scores of Finnish School Students

The current article provides an important insight into measurement differences between two commonly used self-reports and accelerometer-determined moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) scores within matched samples across 1 school year. Participants were 998 fifth- through eighth-grade students who completed self-reports and 76 fifth- and sixth-grade children with accelerometers. The Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) Research Protocol showed the higher frequency of days exceeding 60 minutes of MVPA than the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF). Larger proportions of children achieved the MVPA guidelines based on HBSC results (girls 16%, boys 29%), than IPAQ-SF (girls 5%, boys 11%), or accelerometers data (girls 0%, boys 0%). MVPA remained stable over 12 months on the basis of both self-report and accelerometer results. Both self-report scales presented should be used with discretion in population studies, whereas accelerometer-determined data can be more authentic when personal guidance is required.     

Counting at nursery school and at primary school: Toward an instrument for diagnostic assessment

For about ten years, new research data have led us to enlarge the Piagetian model of the learning of the concept of number. Research investigations of counting have especially emphasized the importance of some abilities related to the construction of the concept of number. We think these researches should more greatly influence the practice of assessment. But valid tests should be available for psychologists and teachers to appraise the child development of the mastery of counting. For this purpose, we developed a set of tasks on the base of a critical analysis of Gelman and Gallistel counting principles. In a first step of our research, we used these tasks in a large sample of children from the French-speaking community of Belgium. This sample was composed of pupils from the third year of the nursery school (N=439) and from the first year of the primary school (N=103). Some of our results are quite different from those of previous investigations. We observe that many 5-year-old children are far from mastering and to coordinating the counting principles. A significant percent of pupils in the first year of the primary school are in the same situation. The implications of these difficulties for the beginning of the learning of arithmetic are emphasized.     

Representing learning designs – making design explicit and shareable

Most teachers’ design practice is implicit and practice based, focusing primarily on discipline content. In recent years, a number of visual design representations have emerged that help guide teachers’ design practice, enabling them to create explicit designs, which can then be shared and discussed with others. These design representations help guide the design process and help teachers to think beyond content to the learning activities the learners will be engaged with and the ultimate learner experience. The paper will describe the representations and draw on empirical evidence of their use in a range of contexts, including the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded OULDI project, the European Union (EU)-funded Design Practice project and the Hewlett-funded OLnet project. It will also report on their use in a number of workshops being undertaken at Leicester University, UK and Wollongong University, Australia.     

Turkish‐speaking First Graders in Norway Acquiring Second Language Vocabulary,Listening Comprehension and Literacy Skills

This study explored relationships between characteristics of classroom talk exposure and immigrant first graders' acquisition of second language oral skills (vocabulary and listening comprehension) and literacy skills. Twenty‐six children (mean age = 6.10 years) with Turkish as their first language and Norwegian as their second, attending various multilingual and ethnically diverse classrooms in Norway, were videotaped during classroom conversations. Classroom talk was coded for vocabulary richness, discursive complexity and emergent phonics talk and the children's oral language and literacy skills were assessed. Classroom vocabulary richness and discursive complexity predicted the children's second language vocabulary skills and listening comprehension after controlling for maternal education, but did not predict their literacy skills. The density of emergent phonics talk did not predict target children's code‐related skills in this sample. Applied perspectives related to second language learning in multiparty settings are discussed.     

Numerical estimation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia

It has been hypothesized that developmental dyscalculia (DD) is either due to a defect of the approximate number system (ANS) or to an impaired access between that system and symbolic numbers. Several studies have tested these two hypotheses in children with DD but none has dealt with adults who had experienced DD as children.This study aimed to compare these two hypotheses in an adult population in order to investigate which deficits still persist at that age. To that aim, numerical estimation tasks were given to adults who had or had not experienced DD as a child. Three of the estimation tasks required a mapping between the ANS and symbolic numbers: participants had to estimate the number of same or different-sized dots presented by producing the corresponding Arabic number or, conversely, to produce the number of dots corresponding to a presented Arabic number. A fourth task did not require any processing of symbolic numbers; participants had to produce a collection of dots of the same numerosity as another one previously presented.Consistently, in all the four numerical tasks and irrespective of whether the tasks used symbolic numbers or not, the estimates of DD participants were less accurate than those of the control participants. These results indicate that adults who had experienced DD as children continue to demonstrate a less precise magnitude representation.