IT in Mathematics across the Curriculum—NCET

Book reviewed in this article: P'raps, P'raps Not By Mary Brading and Michelle Selinger Statistics AEB Maths for AS and A level By David Cassell, Ian Hardwick, Mary Rouncefiled and David Burghes Further Statistics AEB Mathematics for AS and A Level By John White and Roger Williams Heinemann Modular Mathemtics for London AS and A Level Statistics 2 By Greg Attwood and Gill Dyer Understanding Probability and Statistics: A Book of Probliems By Ruma Falk     

Believing in Neuromyths Makes Neither a Bad Nor Good Student‐Teacher: The Relationship between Neuromyths and Academic Achievement in Teacher Education

Neuromyths have been discussed to detrimentally affect educational practice, but the evidence for this assumption is still very scarce. We investigated whether 255 student‐teacher' beliefs in neuromyths are related to their academic achievement (overall grade point averages and first‐year practical courses). Believing or rejecting neuromyths that make no direct assumptions about learners' educability was not related to academic achievement. Believing in neuromyths that explicitly deny the educability of learners was only marginally related to academic achievement. We conclude that self‐reported beliefs in neuromyths do not differentiate between high‐ and low‐achieving initial teacher education students.     

People use math as a weapon: critical mathematics consciousness in the time of COVID-19

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased attention to the critical mathematical literacy of citizens in the United States and around the...     

RTP payload format for H.264/SVC scalable video coding

The scalable extension of H.264/AVC, known as scalable video coding or SVC, is currently the main focus of the Joint Video Team‘s work. In its present working draft, the higher level syntax of SVC follows the design principles of H.264/AVC.Self-contained network abstraction layer units (NAL units) form natural entities for packetization. The SVC specification is by no means finalized yet, but nevertheless the work towards an optimized RTP payload format has already started. RFC 3984, the RTP payload specification for H.264/AVC has been taken as a starting point, but it became quickly clear that the scalable features of SVC require adaptation in at least the areas of capability/operation point signaling and documentation of the extended NAL unit header. This paper first gives an overview of the history of scalable video coding, and then reviews the video coding layer (VCL)and NAL of the latest SVC draft specification. Finally, it discusses different aspects of the draft SVC RTP payload format, including the design criteria, use cases, signaling and payload structure.     

Comprehending animations: Effects of spatial cueing versus temporal scaling

In the present experiment the animation of the operating mechanism of a pendulum clock was used in order to compare the effects of spatial cueing with those of temporal scaling on the comprehension of the animation. The presentation speed of the clock mechanism (normal vs. fast) and signalling cues to three different parts of the mechanism (weight, pendulum, and an irrelevant gear as blinking elements) were used in a 2 × 3 between subjects design with 144 participants. It was found that compared to normal speed condition, understanding was improved in the fast speed condition, but was unaffected by any of the cueing conditions. The results indicate that, although guidance of attention to relevant parts of an animation is often seen as a key to effective instructional design, the way temporal manipulations affect understanding is independent from local attention guiding.     

Classroom projects – full steam ahead

Practical project work based on eBay selling prices is described. It is suitable for secondary school students of a wide range of statistical expertise and it may be used to introduce a statistical package.     

Kulturelle Partizipation bei Jugendlichen als Feld der Person-Umwelt-Transaktion

What motivates adolescents to cultural participation? This question is important for the discourse on aesthetic education, in which cultural participation is regarded as contributing to the development of adolescents’ personality, values, and competencies. However, research on this issue suffers from fragmentation. Unconnected research on cultural participation from the sociology, cultural education, and differential psychology literature are reviewed, and it is shown how they may be supplemented using the theory of planned behaviour and integrated in a single theoretical framework. This framework centers on cultural participation as a field of person-environment transaction. Participation is regarded as being determined by both person and environmental variables and has the potential of changing these variables. On both its person and its environment sides, the model contains domain-specific determinants that mediate effects of the domain-general variables on which research on cultural participation has focused up to now. An overview of own empirical research related to the model is given and avenues for future research on cultural participation are discussed.     

Determining the influence of the social versus physical context on environmentally responsible behaviour among cycling spectators

The paper explores the relationships between three factors and environmentally responsible behavioural intentions among cycling spectators: place attachment, subculture identification and subjective norms. Two categories of behavioural intentions are presented namely situational (while spectating) and future (before attending similar events). Analysis of covariance is used to test the relationships in a sample of 619 spectators from both road race and mountain bike events. The paper supports previous research highlighting the importance of the social dimension of sport spectating and the link to social norms that drive environmental behaviour. It also adds to existing research on place attachment as a precursor to environmentally responsible behaviour with reference to sport spectating.     

Defensive transition in soccer – are prompt possession regains a measure of success? A quantitative analysis of German Fußball-Bundesliga 2010/2011

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the time required by German Bundesliga soccer teams to recover ball possession – which was operationalised as defensive reaction time – and identify both the differences between top teams and the rest of the league and the influence of match status on the aforementioned indicator. Therefore, teams were classified into 3 distinct groups according to their final league position: top, in-between and bottom. In total, all 306 games of the season 2010/2011 were analysed post-event. Top teams recovered ball possession quickest after losing it in comparison to the other groups and demonstrated lower defensive reaction times (approximately 1 s in each match status) compared to the remaining teams. Moreover, all groups showed the lowest defensive reaction times when trailing. The results of this study imply that recovering ball possession as quickly as possible after losing possession was an important determinant of successful defensive performance in German Bundesliga season 2010/2011. Further, the current score seemed to be highly influential on the defensive reaction time. The implications of the results for future research, especially considering opponent interactions, are critically discussed.