Psychosocial outcomes associated with soccer academy involvement: Longitudinal comparisons against aged matched school pupils

ABSTRACT

Despite literature highlighting numerous risks to the healthy psychosocial development of youth elite academy soccer players, little of this research is based on high-quality research designs. This study employed a prospective longitudinal cohort design to track psychosocial outcomes of academy involvement within male youth elite soccer players (n = 33, U12-U16 age groups) compared to age-matched soccer-active school pupils (n = 44) over 12 months. Participants completed questionnaires assessing the most commonly raised psychosocial concerns at four equally spaced data collection periods (T1–T4). Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVAs) indicated that, over the year, both groups reported a healthy and improving stress and recovery balance, as well as positive and stable needs satisfaction and physical, psychological and social well-being. Academy players reported stable positive school-related quality of life, whereas school pupils reported increases from T3 to T4. Academy players reported consistent significantly higher total athletic identity and exclusivity of identity. Findings suggest that many concerns around negative psychosocial impacts of soccer academy involvement did not materialise in this context. However, heightened athletic identities remained a concern.     

Knee joint coordination during single-leg landing in different directions

ABSTRACT

Knee joint coordination during jump landing in different directions is an important consideration for injury prevention. The aim of the current study was to investigate knee and hip kinematics on the non-dominant and dominant limbs during landing. A total of 19 female volleyball athletes performed single-leg jump-landing tests in four directions; forward (0°), diagonal (30° and 60°) and lateral (90°) directions. Kinematic and ground reaction force data were collected using a 10-camera Vicon system and an AMTI force plate. Knee and hip joint angles, and knee angular velocities were calculated using a lower extremity model in Visual3D. A two factor repeated measures ANOVA was performed to explore limb dominance and jump direction. Significant differences were seen between the jump directions for; angular velocity at initial contact (p < 0.001), angular velocity at peak vertical ground reaction force (p < 0.001), and knee flexion excursion (p = 0.016). Knee coordination was observed to be poorer in the early phase of velocity-angle plot during landing in lateral direction compared to forward and diagonal directions. The non-dominant limb seemed to have better coordination than the dominant limb during multi-direction jump landing. Therefore, dominant limbs appear to be at a higher injury risk than non-dominant limbs.     

Knowledge structures for integrating working and learning: A reflection on a decade of learning technology research for workplace learning

Designing intelligent services for workplace learning presents a special challenge for researchers and developers of learning technology. One of the reasons is that considering learning as a situated and social practice is nowhere so important than in the case where learning is tightly integrated with workplace practices. The current paper analyses the experience of more than 10 years of research intending to offer intelligent services through capturing and leveraging knowledge structures in workplace learning. The reflection looks at results of several European research projects that have promoted this view. From this analysis, I arrive at a dichotomy of guidance versus emergence that describes how the technologies foregrounded one or the other, and what the effects of these design choices have been. I derive conclusions for dealing with this design trade-off in terms of conceptual, technological and empirical research.     

Articulation of Conceptual Knowledge and Argumentation Practices by High School Students in Evolution Problems

The oral arguments of 12th grade students while solving tasks related to evolution are examined. Two groups (N = 45), taught by the same teacher, were studied during a complete teaching sequence. The paper focuses on data from the last sessions, devoted to solving problems in small groups, problems related to different dimensions of the evolutionary model. Data include video recordings, the students’ written productions and the researcher (first author) field notes. The objective is to examine the process of articulation of students’ argumentation practices with their use of evolutionary models. The results show that participants were able to apply notions such as common ancestors, radiation, or gradualism to different contexts. The arguments required the articulation of evolution notions with argumentative practices as coordinating evidence with claims at different epistemic levels. The influence of the teacher’s strategies in the students’ role is discussed.     

Digital Immersive Virtual Environments and Instructional Computing

This article reviews theory and research relevant to the development of digital immersive virtual environment-based instructional computing systems. The review is organized within the context of a multidimensional model of social influence and interaction within virtual environments that models the interaction of four theoretical factors: theory of mind, communicative realism, behavioral systems level, and situational self-relevance. The ways in which social interactional processes in digital immersive virtual environments may be easily filtered and transformed in ways relevant to instructor–learner interactions are discussed. Relevant experimental investigations are reviewed that indicate their potential to increase the adaptivity of immersive virtual environment systems for learners and instructors.     

Bottom-up estimation of industrial and public R&D investment by technology in support of policy-making: The case of selected low-carbon energy technologies

This paper discusses a bottom-up approach to estimate the level of R&D investment by technology in areas where data are scarce. It develops a four-step methodology for the estimation of corporate R&D investments at technology level. This approach can overcome gaps in existing data by combining publicly available information in a novel way, even though it introduces some uncertainty. This is illustrated for a set of low-carbon energy technologies that were identified as key for meeting Europe's long-term energy and climate objectives by the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan. The paper finds that the aggregated R&D investments dedicated to these technologies amounted to €3.3 billion in the EU in 2007, including public funding from European Union Member States and at EU-level, and industrial research activities from companies with headquarters registered in the EU. The results allow conclusions on the European energy research policy to be drawn, such as the dominance of industrial funds, and have provided significant input to the European policy making in this field. The paper ends with suggestions on how to further enhance the accuracy of the approach and how to widen its application to other sectors.     

Anthropometric, physiological, performance, and nutritional profile of the Brazil National Canoe Polo Team

The purpose of this study was to determine the physiological, anthropometric, performance, and nutritional characteristics of the Brazil Canoe Polo National Team. Ten male canoe polo athletes (age 26.7 ± 4.1 years) performed a battery of tests including assessments of anthropometric parameters, upper-body anaerobic power (Wingate), muscular strength, aerobic power, and nutritional profile. In addition, we characterized heart rate and plasma lactate responses and the temporal pattern of the effort/recovery during a simulated canoe polo match. The main results are as follows: body fat, 12.3 ± 4.0%; upper-body peak and mean power, 6.8 ± 0.5 and 4.7 ± 0.4 W · kg(-1), respectively; 1-RM bench press, 99.1 ± 11.7 kg; peak oxygen uptake, 44.3 ± 5.8 mL · kg(-1) · min(-1); total energy intake, 42.8 ± 8.6 kcal · kg(-1); protein, carbohydrate, and fat intakes, 1.9 ± 0.1, 5.0 ± 1.5, and 1.7 ± 0.4 g · kg(-1), respectively; mean heart rate, 146 ± 11 beats · min(-1); plasma lactate, 5.7 ± 3.8 mmol · L(-1) at half-time and 4.6 ± 2.2 mmol · L(-1) at the end of the match; effort time (relative to total match time), 93.1 ± 3.0%; number of sprints, 9.6 ± 4.4. The results of this study will assist coaches, trainers, and nutritionists in developing more adequate training programmes and dietary interventions for canoe polo athletes.     

Personalizing and Contextualizing Multimedia Case Methods in University-based Teacher Education: An Important Modification for Promoting Technological Design in School Science

Results of various studies suggest that multimedia ‘case methods’ (activities associated with case documentaries) have many benefits in university-based teacher education contexts. They can, for example, help to ‘bridge the gap’ between perspectives and practices held by academic teacher educators and those held by student-teachers – who may adhere to perspectives and practices commonly supported in schools. On the other hand, some studies, along with theoretical arguments, suggest that there are limits to the effectiveness of multimedia case methods – because, for example, they can never fully represent realities of teaching and learning in schools. Furthermore, often missing from multimedia case methods is the student-teacher in the role of teacher. To address these concerns, we modified an existing multimedia case method by associating it with a special practice teaching situation in a school context. Qualitative data analyzed using constant comparative methods suggest that student-teachers engaged in this modified multimedia case method developed relatively deep commitments to encouraging students to conduct technology design projects – a non-traditional practice in school science. Factors that appeared to influence development of this motivation included student-teachers’ pre-instructional perspectives about science and the personalization and contextualization inherent to the modified multimedia case method.