拓展中华民族传统体育的休闲空间

中华民族传统体育存在于现代的夹缝之中,时代的进步亦即宣告古老民族传统体育的生存土壤随之消亡,按照西方体育的模式对民族传统体育进行改造无异于削足适履。休闲是人类社会发展的产物,是社会进步的标志,民族传统体育的存在状态与休闲文化不谋而合,其常使人置身于人类童年的嬉戏。休闲问题的中国化需要用我们自己的方式来解决,中华民族各具特色、风采各异的传统体育应借助其“天然绿色”、原生态、乡土游乐、自然和谐的价值重获新生。在实际工作中,应借助休闲文化与民族传统体育的自身特点,改造民族传统体育项目,拓展节庆旅游市场,开展农村休闲体育活动,普及休闲知识,实现中华民族传统体育的伟大复兴。     

Psychometric Properties of IRT Proficiency Estimates

Psychometric properties of item response theory proficiency estimates are considered in this paper. Proficiency estimators based on summed scores and pattern scores include non-Bayes maximum likelihood and test characteristic curve estimators and Bayesian estimators. The psychometric properties investigated include reliability, conditional standard errors of measurement, and score distributions. Four real-data examples include (a) effects of choice of estimator on score distributions and percent proficient, (b) effects of the prior distribution on score distributions and percent proficient, (c) effects of test length on score distributions and percent proficient, and (d) effects of proficiency estimator on growth-related statistics for a vertical scale. The examples illustrate that the choice of estimator influences score distributions and the assignment of examinee to proficiency levels. In particular, for the examples studied, the choice of Bayes versus non-Bayes estimators had a more serious practical effect than the choice of summed versus pattern scoring.     

Separating academic and social experience as potential factors in epistemological development

Education has been regarded as the major factor in epistemological development. However, academic and other aspects of educational experience are difficult to disentangle. In the present study, 86 Israeli students in the same selective department differed by whether they had done mandatory army service before the university or would do it after. This difference allowed a comparison between epistemological levels of students with different social experiences but with similar academic experiences. Those with the socially diverse army experience were less likely to have absolutist thinking about everyday knowledge contexts. Those with more years of education had more sophisticated academic-context epistemological beliefs in their discipline only.