The effectiveness of a high-intensity games intervention on improving indices of health in young children

This study assessed the effectiveness of a 6-week, high-intensity, games-based intervention on physiological and anthropometric indices of health, in normal weight (n = 26; 32.5 ± 8.9 kg) and obese (n = 29; 49.3 ± 8.9 kg) children (n = 32 boys, 23 girls), aged 8–10 years. Children were randomised into an exercise or control group. The exercise group participated in a twice-weekly, 40 min active games intervention, alongside their usual school physical education classes. The control group did not take part in the intervention. Before and after the intervention, participants completed both a maximal and submaximal graded exercise test. The submaximal exercise test comprised of a 6 min, moderate- and 6 min heavy-intensity bout, interspersed with a 5 min recovery. The exercise group demonstrated improvements in maximal oxygen uptake (51.4 ± 8.5 vs 54.3 ± 9.6 ml · kg^?1 · min^?1) and peak running speed (11.3 ± 1.6 vs 11.9 ± 1.6 km · h^?1), and a reduction in the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise between assessments (P < .05). A decrease in waist circumference and increase in muscle mass were observed between assessments for the obese participants randomised to the intervention (both P < .05). This study demonstrates that a short-term, high-intensity games intervention may elicit positive changes in physiological and anthropometric indices of health in normal weight and obese children.     

Training Interventions to Foster Skill and Will of Argumentative Thinking

Argumentative thinking requires not only the skill to apply argumentative strategies such as supporting theories with evidence but also the will to apply these strategies by considering argumentative thinking to be both reasonable and worthwhile. Focusing on direct instruction for the initial acquisition of both skill and will, we developed a new short-term computer-based training intervention. We tested its effects on learning processes and learning outcomes in an experimental study with 147 German high school students. Our intervention fostered facets of both skill (i.e. a declarative knowledge about argumentation) and will (i.e., epistemic orientation, intellectual values, and epistemic knowledge). We gained additional insights into learning mechanisms, such as the mediating effects of the learners' self-explanation activities and the advantage of addressing will before skill.     

How to improve argumentation comprehension in university students: experimental test of a training approach

Instructional Science - The ability to comprehend informal arguments is essential for scientific literacy but students often lack structural knowledge about these arguments, especially when the...     

The development of the concept of atoms and molecules Dalton and beyond

The concept that all matter is made up of atoms was suggested by Dalton in 1803. It was a very useful concept, which could explain many of the experimental observations, but people were sceptical and considered atoms to be hypothetical objects until the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of the 20th century, advances in science and technology led to imaging of atoms and molecules. Now we are in a position to actually ‘see’ them using the scanning probe microscopies.     

Developing a community of inquiry instrument: Testing a measure of the Community of Inquiry framework using a multi-institutional sample

This article reports on the multi-institutional development and validation of an instrument that attempts to operationalize Garrison, Anderson and Archer's Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (2000). The results of the study suggest that the instrument is a valid, reliable, and efficient measure of the dimensions of social presence and cognitive presence, thereby providing additional support for the validity of the CoI as a framework for constructing effective online learning environments. While factor analysis supported the idea of teaching presence as a construct, it also suggested that the construct consisted of two factors—one related to course design and organization and the other related to instructor behavior during the course. The article concludes with a discussion of potential implications of further refinement of the CoI measures for researchers, designers, administrators, and instructors.     

Pattern recall,decision making and talent identification in rugby union

The ability to make fast, accurate decisions is an essential skill for all who play sport. However, measuring this ability has proved difficult for coaches and talent identification practitioners. Pattern recognition (a key factor in decision making) has commonly been measured using pattern recall tasks. This study aimed to understand whether accuracy when recalling rugby union patterns is a valid measure of on-field decision making performance. In Study 1, professional players recalled structured patterns of players from still images (N?=?20) viewed for 5?s. On-field decision-making markers, including coaches’ rankings of decision-making ability, playing position, number of years playing professionally and total number of years playing rugby union, were used as predictor variables of recall accuracy. Results showed that only total number of years playing rugby union was correlated with recall accuracy, suggesting that caution is necessary when adopting these tasks for talent identification purposes. The structured stimuli used in Study 1 were not representative of a true rugby union game, so Study 2 tested novice and expert players on a pattern recall task that included structured, semi-structured and unstructured rugby union patterns. Experts were significantly more accurate than novices when recalling structured and semi-structured patterns; however, there were no differences when recalling unstructured patterns. It was concluded that structured and semi-structured patterns should be used in future studies to test whether pattern recall tasks can be used for talent identification in rugby union.     

Challenging the “deficit model” of innovation: Framing policy issues under the innovation imperative

As innovation is increasingly becoming an imperative for policymakers around the globe, there is a growing tendency to frame policy problems as problems of innovation. This logic suggests that we are unable to address grand societal challenges and ensure economic competitiveness because our societies, institutions, scientific activities or individual predispositions are not sufficiently geared towards innovation. In this paper, we analyze this “deficit model” of innovation in which a lack of innovation is routinely invoked as the main obstacle to social progress. Drawing parallels to research on the deficit model of public understanding of science (PUS), we develop a theoretical framework that captures the dynamics and normative implications of deficit construction, highlighting five salient dimensions: problem diagnoses, proposed remedies, the role of expertise, implied social orders, and measures of success. We apply this framework to three empirical case studies of recent innovation strategies in Luxembourg, Singapore, and Denmark. Attention to this deficit framing around innovation is important, we argue, because it is an essential part of how innovation transforms societies in the 21st century: not only through new technological possibilities or economic growth, but also by shaping public discourse, narrowing policy options, and legitimizing major institutional interventions. The implied pro-innovation bias tends to marginalize other rationales, values, and social functions that do not explicitly support innovation. It further delegates decisions about sweeping social reconfigurations to innovation experts, which raises questions of accountability and democratic governance. Experiences from the history of PUS suggest that, without a dedicated effort to transform innovation policy into a more democratic, inclusive, and explicitly political field, the present deficit logic and its technocratic overtones risks significant social and political conflict.