Mapping psychology students’ perspective on group peer-tutoring in statistics

Students in psychology generally have difficulties to successfully accomplish mandatory courses in statistics. Group peer-tutoring is a pedagogical strategy to support them with a peer that has already successfully mastered the content of such a course. In order to specifically tailor group peer-tutoring to the needs of students and to sustain tutees’ participation, it is important to understand how they conceptualize tutoring. The aim of this study was to provide an empirical investigation of psychology students’ conceptualization regarding cross-year group peer-tutoring in statistics. A multivariate concept mapping analysis generated a relevant three-cluster structure (Tutoring setup, Tutor knowledge, interpersonal skills, and relational dynamics and Student role and commitment to the course) that underlies students’ cognitive structure regarding group peer-tutoring. The implications of the results for selecting and training peer-tutors are discussed.     

La conducta autopunitiva en el autismo: un nuevo enfoque conductual de tratamiento

Resumen

En este trabajo se investigan dos procedimientos de reducción de las conductas autopunitivas que frecuentemente presentan los niños autistas. El primer procedimiento consiste en el reforzamiento de respuestas incompatibles con estas conductas, lográndose así una franca disminución en su frecuencia. El segundo procedimiento parte del supuesto (comprobado en el análisis conductual) que las autopuniciones representan una respuesta de escape ante la ansiedad generada por determinadas situaciones; de este modo, el procedimiento va encaminado a la reducción, o eliminación, de esta ansiedad situacional mediante la técnica de la desensibilización sistemática «in vivo», dando como resultado la eliminación total de las conductas autopunitivas ante estas situaciones, y a más largo plazo, su erradicación del repertorio conductual del sujeto.     

Fellows' Perceptions of a Mandatory Reflective Electronic Portfolio in a Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program

Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) can be useful for evaluating and documenting mastery of competencies. We investigated geriatric medicine fellows' perceptions of an ePortfolio. We conducted surveys and focus groups followed by quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Our study revealed that fellows considered the ePortfolio acceptable and accessible. Fellows reflected on aspects relevant to postgraduate training and future practice and documented adherence to competencies. However, fellows expressed resentment about the self-reflection component, which interfered with the overall acceptance of the ePortfolio. Although ePortfolios can be powerful and reflective tools for competency assessment, care must be taken in their implementation.     

Effect of dual-attention task on attack and defensive actions in fencing

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect that the presence of two stimuli that require two different responses (dual-attention) has both, on offensive reaction-response time to a light stimulus, and on defensive response time when the stimulus is a real fencing attack. Twenty-five elite fencers and a fencing master were included in the study. The equipment included four force plates adapted to a scaffold that served as a fencing piste. Two force plates were placed, at the start position, under the fencer’s feet and another two plates were placed under the master’s feet. The results demonstrate that choice reaction time to visual stimuli increases in dual-task conditions with respect to simple reaction time, whereas the mean horizontal force tends to decrease in dual-task. However, when the stimulus was an opponent’s movement, dual-task conditions did not have any effect on the time required to initiate a defensive action. The changes in reaction time when real movements were used as stimuli challenge the validity of the reaction time to visual stimuli paradigm as a predictor of performance in fencing. Also, the results obtained demonstrate that perceptual and attentional processes play a major role in fencer performance in real competition.     

Selection and evaluation of Internet information by adults with intellectual disabilities

Internet offers people with intellectual disabilities (ID) unique opportunities to access information and to participate in society. But concerns have been raised about the potential risks they face when accessing the Internet (e.g. giving credit to false information, being exposed to manipulative content). As part of the current debate between positive risk-taking and overprotection, our study empirically tested the extent to which 43 adults with ID identified and selected topically relevant as well as trustworthy web pages while searching the Internet for several topics (e.g. Can social networks use your pictures for advertisement?). Participants also justified their search decisions. Results revealed that while searching familiar topics (i.e. social networks), participants selected more relevant and trustworthy pages than irrelevant and less trustworthy ones. Searches of less familiar topics (i.e. daily health), were carried out randomly, that is, without applying a specific criterion. Results point to the importance of topic familiarity on people’s with ID performance on Internet searching tasks. This pattern of results suggests that, first, we should avoid overprotection when people with ID search for familiar topics and, second, they need more support when searching for information about less familiar topics.     

How students with intellectual disabilities evaluate recommendations from internet forums

Social networks enable people with intellectual disabilities (ID) to participate actively in society and to promote their self-determination. However, concerns have been raised regarding the potential limitations of people with ID to deal with untrustworthy information sources on the Internet. In an experiment, we assessed how adult students with ID evaluated recommendations in Internet forums authored by either self-reported experts or by users under pseudonyms who supported their claim either with documentary sources or their personal experience. We compared the performances of students with ID to that of students of similar ages but higher educational levels (chronological age-matched control group) and to younger students with similar verbal mental age (verbal mental age-matched control group). Participants were asked to evaluate to what extent a fictitious user should follow particular recommendations given in a forum and to justify their evaluations by writing a message to the fictitious user. Students with ID, as opposed to the two control groups, recommended the forum advice to a higher extent regardless of authorship and evidence used, and they included in their messages to the fictitious user a higher number of opinions and information sources not present in the forum without linking them to the actual discussion. The pattern of results suggested that students with ID have a limited ability to evaluate recommendations in forums and that they do not necessarily present a delay in the development of these abilities, but rather an atypical development. Finally, we discussed the potential implications for teaching digital literacy to students with ID.     

The COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil: how statistics education may contribute to unravel the reality behind the charts

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The world is now facing the most severe health, social, and economic event of the last hundred years, which has made the need to acquire statistical thinking to...     

Mediation role of cardiorespiratory fitness on the association between fatness and cardiometabolic risk in European adolescents: The HELENA study

PurposeThis study was aimed to analyze the mediation role of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) on the association between fatness and cardiometabolic risk scores (CMRs) in European adolescents.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in adolescents (n = 525; 46% boys; 14.1 ± 1.1 years old, mean ± SD) from 10 European cities involved in the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence study. CRF was measured by means of the shuttle run test, while fatness measures included body mass index (BMI), waist to height ratio, and fat mass index estimated from skinfold thicknesses. A clustered CMRs was computed by summing the standardized values of homeostasis model assessment, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, and leptin.ResultsLinear regression models indicated that CRF acted as an important and partial mediator in the association between fatness and CMRs in 12–17-year-old adolescents (for BMI: coefficients of the indirect role β = 0.058 (95% confidence interval (95%CI): 0.023–0.101), Sobel test z = 3.11 (10.0% mediation); for waist to height ratio: β = 4.279 (95%CI: 2.242–7.059), z =3.86 (11.5% mediation); and for fat mass index: β = 0.060 (95%CI: 0.020–0.106), z = 2.85 (9.4% mediation); all p < 0.01).ConclusionIn adolescents, the association between fatness and CMRs could be partially decreased with improvements to fitness levels; therefore, CRF contribution both in the clinical field and public health could be important to consider and promote in adolescents independently of their fatness levels.     

L'Éducation à la Carrière: Une Étude Brésilienne de la Validité Transculturelle du Questionnaire sur l'Éducation à la Carrière

Abstract: Career education: A Brazilian study on transcultural validity of the Career Education Questionnaire. The purpose of this study is to validate a Brazilian version of the Career Education Questionnaire (Questionnaire sur l'éducation à lacarrière) of Dupont and Gingras (1990) and to compare the results with those for the original Quebec and Spanish versions. A Brazilian sample of 390 male and 499 female high school students is used to establish the psychometric properties of the instrument. Results of item analysis, correlations between scales, and factor analysis obtained with this sample strongly corroborate those obtained for the Quebec and Spanish samples. Future studies are needed to further investigate the cross-cultural validity of the instrument. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.