Definition and model of life skills transfer

For a sport skill to be considered a life skill, it must be successfully transferred and applied beyond sport. Life skills transfer is an essential process, but it has yet to be fully delineated within the sport psychology literature. The purpose of the current paper is to present a definition and model of life skills transfer and outline future research needs. A critical review of the literature within sport psychology and other learning-based disciplines is offered to assess our current understanding of learning transfer. A definition and model of transfer are then presented, focusing on the athlete learner’s experience of life skills transfer. Within the model, we first examine how athletes bring personal assets and autobiographical experiences to sport. Second, we explore how sport is a learning environment with distinctive demands, programme designs, and coach characteristics and strategies. Third, we explain how transfer contexts provide environmental conditions, which, depending on how they are interpreted or experienced, can help or hinder the transfer of life skills. Ultimately, we postulate that an individual experiences life skills transfer as an ongoing process whereby he/she continually interacts and interprets his/her environments to produce positive or negative life skills transfer outcomes.     

Dissociation between running economy and running performance in elite Kenyan distance runners

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between running economy (RE) and performance in a homogenous group of competitive Kenyan distance runners. Maximal aerobic capacity (VO_2max) (68.8 ± 3.8 ml?kg^?1?min^?1) was determined on a motorised treadmill in 32 Kenyan (25.3 ± 5.0 years; IAAF performance score: 993 ± 77 p) distance runners. Leg anthropometry was assessed and moment arm of the Achilles tendon determined. While Achilles moment arm was associated with better RE (r² = 0.30, P = 0.003) and upper leg length, total leg length and total leg length to body height ratio were correlated with running performance (r = 0.42, P = 0.025; r = 0.40, P = 0.030 and r = 0.38, P = 0.043, respectively), RE and maximal time on treadmill (t_max) were not associated with running performance (r = ?0.01, P = 0.965; r = 0.27; P = 0.189, respectively) in competitive Kenyan distance runners. The dissociation between RE and running performance in this homogenous group of runners would suggest that RE can be compensated by other factors to maintain high performance levels and is in line with the idea that RE is only one of many factors explaining elite running performance.     

Error Orientation and Reflection at Work

Reflection on events at work, including errors is often as a means to learn effectively through work. In a cross-sectional field study in the banking sector, we investigated attitudes towards workplace errors (i.e. error orientation) as predictors of reflective activity. We assumed the organisational climate for psychological safety to have a mediating effect. The study participants were 84 client advisors from the retail banking departments in branches of a German bank. The client advisors’ were being affected by a range of changes in their workplaces at the time of the data collection. This situation afforded these workers opportunity for learning but also involved the risk of error by these staff. Regression analyses identified that error competence and learning from errors were significant predictors of reflection. The results confirmed the mediating role of psychological safety on the association between attitudes towards errors and reflective working behaviour.     

Exploring connections between teacher interpersonal behaviour,student motivation and competency level in competence-based learning environments

Learning Environments Research - Studies of connections between teacher behaviour and student outcomes are numerous, but those specifically addressing such connections in a competence-based...     

Perception of the Culture and Education Programme of the Youth Olympic Games by the Participating Athletes: A Case Study for Innsbruck 2012

The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) were introduced and officially inaugurated in Singapore in 2010, constituting the first new Olympic event to be staged since the 1924 Winter Olympic Games. The structure of the YOG is based on the model of the European Youth Olympic Festival, which was introduced three decades ago. Being a new international sports event targeting young athletes, a major innovation of the YOG is its unique Culture and Education Programme (CEP). To date, very little literature deals with the CEP and its influence on the athletes' overall experience. Thus, the objective of this study was to give a deeper insight into the athletes' perception of the CEP. A survey of 662 participating athletes as well as 6 focus groups with 43 athletes was conducted during the first 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. The results of the focus groups corroborated the results of the survey: young athletes participating in the CEP liked it very much; nevertheless, the tight training and competition schedule represented an issue for many athletes. The findings of this study underline the necessity to plan the CEP more carefully and to raise interest in the CEP among coaches and Chefs de Mission.     

Where practice and theory intersect in the chemistry classroom: using cogenerative dialogue to identify the critical point in science education

This paper argues for an inclusive model of science education practice that attempts to facilitate a relationship between “science and all” by paying particular attention to the development of the relationship between the teacher, students and science. This model hinges on the implementation of cogenerative dialogues between students and teachers. Cogenerative dialogues are a form of structured discourse in which teachers and students engage in a collaborative effort to help identify and implement positive changes in classroom teaching and learning practices. A primary goal of this paper is to introduce a methodological and theoretical framework for conducting cogenerative dialogue that is accessible to classroom teachers and their students. I propose that researchers must learn to disseminate their findings to teachers in ways that are practical, in that they provide teachers with information needed to make concrete connections between the research and their teaching, while continuing to make available the theories that support their findings. Using an integration research framework in conjunction with a temporality of learning model, I introduce a method of disseminating research findings that provides both classroom teachers and researchers with access to different forms of knowledge about cogenerative dialogues in the same paper. In doing so, this article examines the relationships between teacher knowledge and researcher knowledge by exploring the practical application of cogenerative dialogues for classrooms teachers and the theoretical implications of using cogenerative dialogues for researchers.

Talent identification and deliberate programming in skeleton: Ice novice to Winter Olympian in 14 months

Abstract

The aims of this study were to talent transfer, rapidly develop, and qualify an Australian female athlete in the skeleton event at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games and quantify the volume of skeleton-specific training and competition that would enable this to be achieved. Initially, 26 athletes were recruited through a talent identification programme based on their 30-m sprint time. After attending a selection camp, 10 athletes were invited to undertake an intensified skeleton training programme. Four of these athletes were then selected to compete for Australia on the World Cup circuit. All completed runs and simulated push starts were documented over a 14-month period. The athlete who eventually represented Australia at the Torino Winter Olympic Games did so following approximately 300 start simulations and about 220 training/competition runs over a period of 14 months. Using a deliberate programming model, these findings provide a guide to the minimum exposure required for a novice skeleton athlete to reach Olympic representative standard following intensified sport-specific training. The findings of this study are discussed in the context of the deliberate practice theory and offer the term “deliberate programming” as an alternative way of incorporating all aspects of expert development.