Theory development in sport management: My experience and other considerations

This article is designed to generate thought about the development of theory in sport management. A basic overview of theory and theory development is offered along with the author's thoughts on features necessary for generating strong theoretical contributions. Further, the author provides the strategies she utilizes when engaging in these academic endeavors. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of potential barriers to the development of theory within the field of sport management.     

Introduction to the special section: life design interventions (counseling,guidance, education) for decent work and sustainable development

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance -     

Alphabetic access route in beginning reading acquisition in Portuguese: The role of letter-name knowledge

The present study investigates Ehri's (Ehri & Wilce 1985; Scott & Ehri 1990) hypothesis that knowledge of the alphabet enables children to learn to read by processing and storing letter-sound relations in words. In particular, it examines whether letter-name knowledge facilitates the learning of spellings in which the names of one or more letters can be heard in the pronunciation of the words. Preschool children who could not read any word out of context were divided into two groups on the basis of their ability to name the letters of the alphabet: one group knew the names of the letters while the other did not. Both groups were taught to read two types of simplified spellings: visual spellings, that is, spellings whose letters did not correspond to sounds in the pronunciations of the words but which were visually more salient (e.g., X_QKO for the word cerveja), and phonetic spellings, that is, spellings whose letters corresponded to sounds in the pronunciation of the words (e.g., CRVA for the word cerveja). In all phonetic spellings, the name of at least one letter could be clearly heard in the pronunciation of the words. Results corroborated Ehri's hypothesis. The children who did not know the names of the letters learned to read the visual spellings more easily than the phonetic ones. On the other hand, the children who knew the names of the letters showed the opposite pattern, that is, they learned the phonetic spellings more easily than the visual ones.     

Cyberbullying and moral disengagement: an analysis based on a social pedagogy of pastoral care in schools

The practice of cyberbullying in its various forms carried out by pupils has increased substantially. Many pupils, on a daily basis, are now using electronic devices such as mobile phones, smart phones and tablets, to transmit distressing messages and images to their peers. These often include the use of publically accessible social networking sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Given this increase, cyberbullying in schools has been widely investigated by researchers in many countries. A common feature of cyberbullying is the moral disengagement of those who practise it, based on the desensitization of prosocial values and emotional empathy towards another person. A consensus has emerged regarding the importance of establishing anti-cyberbullying policies and practices, and the need to address cyberbullying within the school’s pastoral care system and its personal and social education programme. However, few researchers have justified anti-cyberbullying practices within the framework of a particular educational theory. This paper examines how the theoretical and methodological assumptions underpinning a social pedagogy of pastoral care in schools can enable the education community to better understand and avert the moral disengagement which commonly underpins cyberbullying.     

Training Visual Control in Wheelchair Basketball Shooting

We examined the effects of visual control training on expert wheelchair basketball shooting, a skill more difficult than in regular basketball, as players shoot from a seated position to the same rim height. The training consisted of shooting with a visual constraint that forced participants to use target information as late as possible. Participants drove under a large screen that initially blocked the basket. As soon as they saw the basket they shot. When training with the screen, shooting percentages increased. We conclude that visual control training is an effective method to improve wheelchair basketball shooting. The findings support the idea that perceptualmotor learning can be enhanced by manipulating relevant constraints in the training environment, even for expert athletes.     

Learning from the Experts: Practice Activities of Expert Decision Makers in Sport

Abstract

This study was an experimental investigation of the emotional responses of boys 9 through 15 years of age to highly organized competitive baseball. The subjects were 75 boys who participated in Little League Baseball, 50 boys who were members of Middle League teams, and 80 boys who did not play on an organized team.

The Galvanic Skin Response test was employed to measure the emotional changes of boys participating in league baseball and to compare the results of these tests with those of the same boys participating in softball competition in physical education classes. Insofar as the Galvanic Skin Response test can be taken to be a valid measure of emotional excitation of boys of this age level, the results of this study suggest that youngsters were no more stimulated by competition in league games than they were by competition in physical education games.     

Mental mathematics, emergence of strategies, and the enactivist theory of cognition

In this article, I present and build on the ideas of John Threlfall [(Educational Studies in Mathematics 50:29–47, 2002)] about strategy development in mental mathematics contexts. Focusing on the emergence of strategies rather than on issues of choice or flexibility of choice, I ground these ideas in the enactivist theory of cognition, particularly in issues of problem posing, for discussing the nature of the solving processes at play when solving mental mathematics problems. I complement this analysis and conceptualization by offering two examples about issues of emergence of strategies and of problem posing, in order to offer illustrations thereof, as well as to highlight the fruitfulness of this orientation for better understanding the processes at play in mental mathematics contexts.     

Application and Reliability of the Retrospective Interview Procedure to Trace Physical Activity Patterns in Master Athletes and Nonactive Older Adults

This paper reports the results of two studies. The purpose of the first study was to determine if lifestyle variables and past involvement in physical activity was related to current activity levels in master athletes and sedentary older adults. Retrospective interviews were conducted with 12 master athletes and 12 sedentary older adults. Results demonstrated that education level, spouse participation, smoking, and recent physical activity levels were indicators of current involvement. The second study investigated the reliability of the data collected in the retrospective interviews. Similar to results with younger samples, we confirm that lifestyle variables and physical activity involvement could be accurately recalled for a period of 25 years, making this tool a useful addition for the study of physical activity in older adults.     

Modeling Conceptualization and Investigating Teaching Effectiveness

Science & Education - Our research addresses the issue of teaching and learning concepts in science education as an empirical question. We study the process of conceptualization by closely...