Defining professional needs in early childhood education

This article describes a research project, ‘Improving Learning: The Pupils' Agenda’ (supported by the Nuffield Foundation) in which a team of researchers from Homerton College, Cambridge and the University of Keele, investigated how schools were listening and responding to pupils' perspectives on effective teaching and learning. An account of the project is presented, outlining how the team carried out the investigation and the three themes on which was based. The article goes on to look at the strategies being developed in primary schools, using extracts from the data to illustrate the impact of these strategies in schools. In conclusion it is suggested that the answer to the question posed in the title — can listening and responding to pupils' views give new directions for school improvement — is clearly ‘yes’ and that the advantage of taking this approach lies principally in its potential for improving pupils' attitudes to learning.     

Does the long tail really favor small publishers?

A growing body of literature is devoted to testing the reality of the “long-tail” phenomenon. This literature is mostly, if not exclusively, focused on the impact of Internet on the distribution of sales by product. However, the long tail also raises the issue of a possible change in the usual market structure of cultural industries: an oligopoly with a competitive fringe. To our knowledge, no paper addresses the following question: If the long-tail effect does exist, is it of more benefit to small or dominant publishers? The aim of this paper was to address this issue in the context of the French publishing industry. Our main findings are as follows: (1) the market concentration of the French book industry is lower online than offline and (2) the difference in concentration between the two channels of distribution tended to widen over the period 2004–2010. Strategies adopted by leading publishers on the Web do not allow them to maintain the market share obtained with bricks-and-mortar retailers. Furthermore, we show that the market share lost by dominant firms is captured by small publishers online and by medium-sized publishers in conventional stores.     

Quantifying the offensive sequences that result in goals in elite futsal matches

The aim of this study was to quantify the type of offensive sequences that result in goals in elite futsal. Thirty competitive games in the Spanish Primera Division de Sala were analysed using computerised notation analysis for patterns of play that resulted in goals. More goals were scored in positional attack (42%) and from set pieces (27%) compared to other activities. The number of defence to offense “transitions” (n = 45) and the start of offensive plays due to the rules of the game (n = 45) were the most common type of sequences that resulted in goals compared to other patterns of play. The central offensive zonal areas were the most common for shots on goal, with 73% of all goals scored from these areas of the pitch compared to defensive and wide zones. The foot was the main part of the body involved in scoring (n = 114). T-pattern analysis of offensive sequences revealed regular patterns of play, which are common in goal scoring opportunities in futsal and are typical movement patterns in this sport. The data demonstrate common offensive sequences and movement patterns related to goals in elite futsal and this could provide important information for the development of physical and technical training drills that replicate important game situations.     

Do karate fighters use situational probability information to improve decision-making performance during on-mat tasks?

This study examined the contribution of situational probability information to the perceptual and cognitive processes underlying decision-making behaviour during in situ Karate performance. Experts and novices were required to make decisions about various attacks in different fight scenarios. The order in which the fight situations were presented was modified in order to provide advanced probability information and identify whether fighters were able to use the latter information to make better decisions. Specifically, one of the attacks was repeated every four actions. Results revealed that experts were more accurate and faster than their less skilled counterparts to block and counterattack the opponent. The experts picked up the occurrence of the attack pattern after the fifth repetition whereas novices did not. This enabled experts to improve decision time and decision accuracy. Findings suggest that such superiority could stem from the perceptual and cognitive skills possessed by the experts, thus giving them the opportunity to recognise a situation more easily. This was reinforced by gaze behaviour which demonstrated that experts used a more efficient search strategy involving fewer fixations of longer duration on a lesser number of areas relative to the novices. Moreover, experts generated more refined karate-specific knowledge structures compared with the novices.     

Timescales for exploratory tactical behaviour in football small-sided games

The aim of this study was to identify the dynamics of tactical behaviour emerging on different timescales in football small-sided games and to quantify short- and long-term exploratory behaviour according to the number of opponents. Two teams of four professional male footballers played small-sided games against two different teams with a variable number of opponents (3, 5 and 7). Data were collected using a combination of systematic observation and a non-differential global positioning system (15 Hz). The temporal diversity and structural flexibility of the players were determined by calculating the dynamic overlap order parameter q, entropy and trapping strength. Analysis of the exploratory dynamics revealed two different timescales, forming a different metastable landscape of action for each constraint. Fast dynamics lasted on average a few seconds and consisted of changes in tactical patterns. The long timescale corresponded to the shared tasks of offence and defence lasting tens of seconds. The players’ tactical diversity decreased with an increasing number of opponents, especially in defence. Manipulating numerical imbalance is likely to promote changes in the diversity, unpredictability and flexibility of tactical solutions. The fact that the temporally nested structure of constraints shaped the emergence of tactical behaviour provides a new rationale for practice task design. The manipulation of numerical imbalance on the timescale of a few tens of seconds, on which the exploratory behaviour of players saturates, may help coaches to optimise the exploratory efficiency of the small-sided games.