Regulatory Choice in Communications: The Case of Content-Rating Schemes in the Audiovisual Industry

This article addresses challenges confronting policy makers when considering self- and co-regulatory regimes for audiovisual content. It proposes a template for regulatory choice to assess the potential of such schemes by examining institutional designs, characteristics of the industries involved, and the regulatory environment. Subsequently, the template is used to compare performance, institutional success factors, and enabling contextual factors of selected content-rating schemes in the audiovisual industry. The results of this case study demonstrate the value of the analytical approach for research and policy-making. Findings suggest a combination of industry self-regulation and public oversight for the governance of content-rating schemes.     

The adolescent motor performance development of elite female soccer players: A study of prognostic relevance for future success in adulthood using multilevel modelling

ABSTRACT

Considering the scarce empirical evidence regarding talent predictors in female youth soccer, the present study aimed to investigate the long-term prognostic validity of elite female soccer players’ adolescent motor performance for future success in adulthood. Additionally, the three-year development of highly talented girls’ motor performance and the predictive value of this motor development for reaching a professional adult performance level (APL) was analysed.

Overall, N = 737 female players participated in nationwide motor diagnostics (sprinting, agility, dribbling, ball control, shooting) within the German Soccer Association’s talent identification and development programme at least twice between the age groups Under-12 (U12) and U15. Based on their APL at least four years later, participants were assigned to a professional (first German division, 6.2%) or non-professional group (lower divisions, 93.8%).

Multilevel regression analyses revealed a general prognostic relevance for the investigated parameters with respect to players’ APL. In addition, there was a non-linear improvement in participants’ motor performance across all variables from U12 to U15. However, non-significant interactions between APL and these improvements indicate motor performance development itself cannot adequately predict players’ future success in adulthood. Findings provide insightful information that can help coaches foster optimal support for young female soccer players’ development.     

Teaching for genetics literacy in the post-genomic era

Research in genetics and genomics is advancing at a fast pace, and thus keeping up with the most recent findings and conclusions can be very challenging. At the same time these recent findings and conclusions have made necessary a reconceptualization of genes and heredity, both in science and in science education, beyond the mostly gene-centred view of the twentieth century. The teaching of genetics at schools should have a key role in helping students achieve genetics literacy. However, the literature on research in genetics education reports persistent difficulties and misunderstandings. We first consider the public understanding of and the attitudes towards genetics. Then, we review the most recent literature and present the most typical conceptions found among secondary students in various countries, ages and backgrounds. We argue that particular factors such as intuitive thinking, teachers, textbooks, and the media affect students’ development of erroneous or outdated ideas related to genetics. Finally, we suggest how these problems might be addressed in order for genetics teaching at the secondary level to fulfil the aim of contributing to students’ genetics literacy in the current post-genomic era.     

Challenges for teachers’ professional learning for inclusive education in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Efforts to prepare teachers and other professionals for inclusive education in the Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS/CEE) region are heavily influenced by the legacy of Soviet defectology (the study of children with disabilities) and Soviet traditions of teacher education. The authors identify some challenges facing those concerned with preparing teachers for inclusive education and provide examples of current projects in the region that address the complex problems associated with providing inclusive education for children identified as having disabilities. The changing role of defectologists in inclusion policy and practice is also discussed. Case examples from Armenia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, and Serbia reflect current innovations in teacher education and professional development in the region.     

Should Regularization Replace Simple Structure Rotation in Exploratory Factor Analysis?

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is an important tool when the measurement structure of psychological constructs is uncertain. Typically, factor rotation is applied to obtain interpretable results resembling a simple structure. However, an overwhelming multitude of rotation techniques is available of which none is unequivocally superior. Recently, regularization has been suggested as an alternative to factor rotation. In two simulation studies, we addressed the question if regularized EFA is a suitable alternative for rotated EFA. We compared their performance in recovering predefined factor loading patterns with varying amounts of cross-loadings. Elastic net regularized EFA yielded estimates comparable to rotated EFA. For complex loading patterns, both rotated and regularized EFA tended to underestimate cross-loadings and inflate factor correlations, but regularized EFA was able to recover loading patterns as long as a subset of items followed a simple structure. We conclude that regularization is a suitable alternative to factor rotation for psychometric applications.     

Human handedness in interactive situations: Negative perceptual frequency effects can be reversed!

Left-handed performers seem to enjoy an advantage in interactive sports. Researchers suggest this is predominantly due to the relative scarcity of left-handers compared with right-handers. Such negative frequency-dependent advantages are likely to appear in inefficient game-play behaviour against left-handed opponents such as reduced ability to correctly anticipate left-handers' action intentions. We used a pre-post retention design to test whether such negative frequency-dependent perceptual effects can be reversed via effective training. In a video-based test, 30 handball novices anticipated the shot outcome of temporally occluded handball penalties thrown by right- and left-handed players. Between the pre- and post-tests, participants underwent a perceptual training programme to improve prediction accuracy, followed by an unfilled retention test one week later. Participants were divided into two hand-specific training groups (i.e. only right- or left-handed shots were presented during training) and a mixed group (i.e. both right- and left-handed shots were presented). Our results support the negative frequency-dependent advantage hypothesis, as hand-specific perceptual training led to side-specific improvement of anticipation skills. Similarly, findings provide experimental evidence to support the contention that negatively frequency-dependent selection mechanisms contributed to the maintenance of the handedness polymorphism.     

A new instrument for measuring pre-service biology teachers' pedagogical content knowledge: The PCK-IBI

Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is highly important for effective design and implementation of school teaching. Thus, the current status, development and efficacy of this knowledge, its relationships with teaching quality parameters, and its impact on students' learning processes and success, require rigorous examination. Thoroughly validated, objective and reliable test instruments that are highly sensitive to changes in variables of proven knowledge-related relevance in teacher education are also required. Previous attempts to design such instruments for assessing science teachers' PCK have largely focused on mathematical content. Therefore, here we present an instrument (the pedagogical content knowledge in biology inventory, PCK-IBI), based on conceptualizations of teachers' professional competence, for assessing secondary school pre-service biology teachers' PCK. In a series of three evaluations and refinements it was tested with samples of N = 274 and N = 432 German pre-service as well as one sample of n = 65 German pre-service and n = 35 German in-service biology teachers. Item analysis, scale analysis and empirically obtained indicators of validity suggest that the final 34-item-version of the PCK-IBI is unidimensional, provides objective test scores and enables reliable and valid registration of pre-service biology teachers' PCK. Thus, hypotheses regarding specific aspects of the model on which the PCK-IBI's construction is based on are empirically supported. The results of our study provide empirical support for the instrument's potential utility.