Effects of 8 Weeks with Embodied Learning on 5–6-Year-Old Danish Children’s Pre-reading Skills and Word Reading Skills: the PLAYMORE Project,DK

Educational Psychology Review - The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of embodied learning on children’s pre-reading and word reading skills. We conducted a three-armed...     

Where Culture Takes Hold: “Overimitation” and Its Flexible Deployment in Western,Aboriginal, and Bushmen Children

Children often “overimitate,” comprehensively copying others' actions despite manifest perceptual cues to their causal ineffectuality. The inflexibility of this behavior renders its adaptive significance difficult to apprehend. This study explored the boundaries of overimitation in 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children of three distinct cultures: Westernized, urban Australians (N = 64 in Experiment 1; N = 19 in Experiment 2) and remote communities of South African Bushmen (N = 64) and Australian Aborigines (N = 19). Children overimitated at high frequency in all communities and generalized what they had learned about techniques and object affordances from one object to another. Overimitation thus provides a powerful means of acquiring and flexibly deploying cultural knowledge. The potency of such social learning was also documented compared to opportunities for exploration and practice.     

The German dual system of initial vocational education and training and its potential for transfer to Asia

Germany has a “dual system” of initial vocational education and training, one that other countries admire and would like to adopt. Can it hand this model over to them? This article argues that doing so will require far more than a simple process of copying. Instead, any transfer must reflect the existing conditions in the country adopting the system, and must be adapted to its unique social, cultural, and economic objectives. In addition, though the dual system can serve as a model, no other country can implement the dual system as a whole, or components one by one. Instead, it must use five constitutive elements in order to transfer the dual spirit of the German model appropriately. The article ends by describing some considerations that apply to the transfer process and reviews some German projects that transferred the system to countries in Asia.     

Drop-outs from Swiss Universities: an empirical analysis of data on all students between 1975 and 2008

This study presents in-depth empirical analyses of drop-outs from all Swiss universities for the entire student population between 1975 and 2008. The results show that most identifiable factors associated with a greater or lesser probability of dropping out are identical to those found in a recent Systematic Review (Larsen et al., 2013). The main findings are that: first, since the 1970s, there has been a marked trend towards falling drop-out rates which is largely due to female students who, today, have lower drop-out rates than their male counterparts; secondly, not only are there different drop-out rates for specific subjects of study, but there are also differences in baccalaureate profiles, which indicates that the skills acquired prior to entering university have a great impact on successful study; thirdly, students who change their first subject choice are at great risk of dropping out. No firm conclusions can yet be drawn about the Bologna reform but, based on the subjects which changed to the Bachelor/Master system between 2001 and 2003, no reduction in drop-out rates can be found as a result of the reform.     

Heart rate and movement pattern in street soccer for homeless women

Street soccer has been shown to be effective in improving cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness in homeless men, due to high heart rate (HR) and multiple intense actions. The purpose of this study was to investigate HR, movement pattern, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), flow and worry during street soccer for homeless women. Fifteen homeless women (30.3?±?5.0?years [± standard deviation, SD], 1.65?±?0.08?m, 65.1?±?11.0?kg, 5?±?4?years football experience) from three countries participated in 4?a-side street soccer games in Women’s Homeless World Cup 2015. Mean and peak HR were 174?±?7 and 188?±?10?beats per minute (bpm), respectively, and >160 bpm 76?±?23% of the playing time (11.1?±?2.6?min). Distance covered per minute was 68.6?±?8.9?m of which 82?±?14, 15?±?6 and 3?±?3% were covered with low- (0–9?km/h), moderate- (9–13?km/h) and high-speed (>13?km/h) running, respectively. The 43?±?5, 45?±?3 and 12?±?3% of the distance were covered running forward, sideways, and backward, respectively. Player Load was 9.2?±?1.7?arbitrary units (AU) per minute and the number of accelerations >1.5?ms^–2 was 15.3?±?2.7 per minute. The score for flow was high (5.5?±?0.8), whereas rating of perceived exertion (RPE) values (4.8?±?2.5) and the score for worry (4.6?±?1.3) were moderate. Street soccer for homeless women elicits high HR and a movement pattern comparable and for some parameters even higher than street soccer and recreational football for homeless and untrained men. Street soccer may be a suitable training intervention for homeless women, and especially moderate RPE and high flow score speaks in favour of an expectation of high participation and adherence.     

A biomechanical comparison of countermovement performance after short-term traditional and daily-undulated loaded vertical jump training

In order to assess lower extremity muscle mechanical properties in athletes, power-load characteristics during multi-joint tasks are frequently examined. This work compared 6 weeks of traditional (TP) and daily-undulated (DUP) periodized loaded countermovement jumping (CMJ). 20 amateur athletes (age: 24.2 ± 2.6 years, height: 175.6 ± 7.1 cm, body mass: 71.5 ± 7.7 kg, 10 males/10 females) exercised three times weekly using maximal CMJs with loads corresponding to 0%, 15% and 30% of body mass. Prior to the training period, subjects were once-only assigned by random to either the TP or DUP training scheme. Pre-to-post training, maximal center of mass (COM) -height, -take-off velocity, -power output and -impulse were compared during CMJ with additional loads corresponding to 0–30% of body mass. ANOVA (time * group) with repeated measures revealed significant (P < 0.05) temporal gains of maximal COM-height (2–11%), -take-off velocity (1–7%), -power (2–8%) and -impulse (3–9%) over most loading conditions for TP and DUP. However, ANOVA indicated no group effects for any outcome. Independent from the periodization model, maximal power output remained statistically unchanged with increased testing loads. For short-term conditioning periods, TP and DUP were equally effective in enhancing biomechanical jumping variables under varying loading conditions.     

Knowledge marketing: How can strategic customers be utilised for knowledge marketing in knowledge-intensive SMEs?

This study aims to analyse the use of various forms of “knowledge utilisation” to integrate strategic customer knowledge in order to be one step ahead of the market and competitors. For this purpose, premises, processes, and factors are highlighted, which are essential to incorporate the knowledge of strategic customers into the knowledge base of knowledge-intensive small- to medium-sized enterprises (SME) and therefore contribute to the commercialisation of knowledge-intensive products as well as services. Here a knowledge marketing strategy may support the commercial exploitation of these products and services. Since research and literature in the field of knowledge marketing (especially in knowledge-intensive SMEs) is still scarce, the authors regard a qualitative research approach as appropriate. In the analysed cases, three necessary processes have been identified: (1) Developing knowledge networks, (2) solving customer problems, and (3) possessing the absorptive capacity to understand and integrate customer knowledge.     

The role of the printed answer in programmed instruction

Using a variety of programmed materials, this series of studies showed that students observed available answers in the program far less than 100% of the time. Answer observing was found to be correlated with student error on the related frame. The view that the printed answer in a program is always a reinforcer for the preceding response(s) is severely questioned.     

Beyond linearity: Using IRT-scaled level models to describe the relation between prior proportional reasoning skills and fraction learning outcomes

Previous research on the role of prior skills like proportional reasoning skills for the development of mathematical concepts offers conclusions such as “more (prior skills) is better (for later learning).” Insights, which prior skill level goes along with which level of learning outcomes, may advance the understanding of the development of mathematical concepts. An exploratory approach is presented based on level models to describe the relation between symbolic proportional reasoning skills and fraction outcomes beyond linearity. Analyses draw on samples of German fourth to sixth graders from a scaling (2017, N = 325, 54.8% female) and longitudinal study (2018/2019, N = 436, 42.7% female). Particularly mastering natural and internal rational ratios in proportional reasoning seems relevant for successful fraction learning.