Preschool teachers' and students' attitudes towards playful preschool activities: a cross-cultural comparison between Germany and the Netherlands

This study compares the attitudes of preschool teachers and students between the Netherlands and Germany towards typical play activities in preschool. The data were responses to short video clips of preschool children's play and elicited the respondents’ attitudes through questionnaires. The data were analysed by classifying the written responses into four categories. The frequencies of the categories were tested with MANOVA with regard to expert–novice position and country. Differences between professionals and novices were found, and for professionals only, the four categories were interrelated, showing a stronger holistic view of early childhood activities. Differences were also found between the countries, and two of the categories seemed especially sensitive to cultural differences. We discuss how reflection on activities can add to a higher degree of professionalism, as well as a more profound understanding of ways to improve preschool teacher training.     

Working on educational research methods with masters students in an international online learning community

In this paper we discuss the background to this study in the development of the international MSc e‐Learning Multimedia and Consultancy. The aims of the study focus on the conditions for achieving communication, interaction and collaboration in open and flexible e‐learning environments. We present our theoretical framework that has informed the design of programme as a whole which is based on a socio‐constructivist perspective on learning. Our research is placed within an action research framework and we outline our position within the critical or emancipatory tradition and also our standpoint on the use of ICT in education. We discuss the design of the programme and also our pedagogical approach and describe in detail the particular context for this study. We report on the student experience of being learners on this module, their perceptions of what they have gained most from learning from and with each other and their responses to the various ways in which ‘scaffolding’ has been designed and implemented by the tutors. Finally we offer some reflections on the conditions for achieving well‐orchestrated interdependence in open and flexible e‐learning environments.     

“None of the Kings on Earth is Their Equal in ʿaṣabiyya”: The Mongols in Ibn Khaldūn's Works

The rise of the Mongol empire was a shock to the Arab world and led many Arab authors to describe these conquerors in decidedly negative terms. The great historian Ibn Khaldūn also discusses the Mongols' rise and their conquests. As a nomadic people they challenged and defeated sedentary populations and founded their own dynasties. Consequently, the Mongol conquests perfectly fit Ibn Khaldūn's theories on ?a?abiyya – which is superior in nomadic groups – and the rise and fall of dynasties. For the Maghrebi historian, the rise of the Mongols was a natural step in the course of history. This consequently colours his view of the Mongols and affects the way he portrays them, especially regarding the themes of violence and religion – recurring themes in many contemporary works dealing with the Mongols – and in his depiction of the Turco-Mongolian conqueror Timur, who is presented in a more favourable light by Ibn Khaldūn than he is in many contemporary works.     

The links that bind: WikiLeaks,Twitter, and the Julian Assange case

In the decade since the founding of WikiLeaks, no non-leak-related issue has dominated coverage of the organization more than the August 2010 allegations made by two women in Stockholm against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This case has been addressed on the WikiLeaks Twitter feed on a consistent basis over the past 6 years. The tweets from WikiLeaks to millions of followers constitute a form of popular communication where a broad—albeit somewhat prefigured—audience is targeted using an open social media platform. With this audience in mind, I analyze the use of Twitter by WikiLeaks to address the 2010 rape allegations against Assange (and the subsequent follow-on events after those allegations), with a particular focus on two issues: (a) the framing by WikiLeaks of the allegations, Sweden, rape, and feminism; and (b) how the sources (links) used in those tweets to back up claims should be seen as part of the general framing process.     

Arts participation and the three faces of time: A reflection on disentangling the impact of life stage,period and socialization on arts participation,exemplified by an analysis of the US arts audience

Arts participation bears the threefold imprint of time: people's life stage (age), their earlier socializing imprint (cohort) and the historical circumstances of the moment (period). A proper understanding of these three effects is of great importance in understanding the present and future sizes and preferences of arts audiences. Such understanding implies disentangling those three effects properly, rather than overlooking or confusing them. An example of how that might be done is presented here with regard to arts participation in the US.     

Is the occurrence of the sticking region the result of diminishing potentiation in bench press?

In this study we investigated if the occurrence of the sticking region was a result of diminishing potentiation (coinciding delayed muscle activation) or the result of a mechanically poor region in which the muscles can produce less force. A regular one-repetition maximum (1RM) free-weight bench press was compared with isometric bench presses performed at 12 different positions. A lower force at the sticking region compared to the other regions in the isometric bench presses would confirm the mechanically-poor-position hypothesis. Twelve resistance-trained males (age 21.7 ± 1.3 years, mass 78 ± 5.8 kg, height 1.81 ± 0.05 m) were tested in 1RM and in isometric contractions in bench press in 12 different positions, indicated by the vertical distance between barbell and sternum, covering the whole range of motion during the concentric phase. Barbell kinematics and muscle activity were registered. In both types of executions a region of lower force output was observed, which supports the mechanically-poor-position hypothesis. Electromyographic activity of four muscles showed the same pattern in the isometric and 1RM attempts. It was concluded that diminishing effect potentiation could not explain the existence of the sticking region.     

What do we see out of the corner of our eye? The role of visual pivots and gaze anchors in sport

ABSTRACT

The role and importance of peripheral vision have been discussed across various sports. Yet, its functionality remains unclear and the terms employed in the literature to characterize the use of peripheral vision are not well defined. We present a review of 29 studies focusing on the use of peripheral vision in sports. We focus on the methodological approaches employed to study its use and identify the mechanisms that may underlie the effective use of peripheral vision in sport. We define key differences between ‘gaze anchors’ and ‘visual pivots’ and introduce the concept of a ‘foveal spot’. All three gaze behaviors, while being characterized by a consistent, dynamically adjustable gaze location, have different functionalities. A gaze anchor is a cue-optimized position used for the monitoring of peripheral cues and avoiding the negative consequences of saccades (i.e. information suppression), especially under time pressure. A visual pivot is a distance-optimized location between relevant cues which allows athletes to optimally initiate saccades to those cues, especially if the costs of eye-movements are low. A foveal spot is primarily used for information processing via the fovea. Finally, we highlight suggestions for future research to improve our understanding of the functional differences between these gaze behaviors.     

Socialisation into organised sports of young adolescents with a lower socio-economic status

Studies investigating sport socialisation often focussed on the barriers for youngsters from lower socio-economic status (SES) families to participate in sport. In the present study, the socialisation into sports of young adolescents from lower SES families that do participate in organised sports was investigated. A total of 9 girls and 12 boys from lower SES families (18 Dutch; three foreign ethnic background) from one city in the Netherlands who participated in organised sport were interviewed. Although multiple agents may be of influence on the socialisation process, this study was limited to the family, school and peers as potential socialising contexts. Drawing on the theoretical work of Bourdieu and Bernstein, parents were found to be the main influencers of the sports habitus of these young adolescents. The school context appeared to have no influence on their sport socialisation. Peers were found to have an influence on the choice for a specific type of sport. This interplay between socialising contexts for young adolescents from lower SES families is similar to the sport socialisation of youngsters from higher SES families. Therefore, it is suggested that if sport socialisation takes place, then the role of SES is less pronounced than often assumed. Moreover, there seem to be differences in the relative importance of the socialising contexts with younger children with a lower SES. Therefore, it is hypothesised that the relative importance of socialising agents changes over time. Although the findings may be limited to the specific sample of this study, they provide hypotheses that challenge the often-presumed importance of SES if sport socialisation takes place.