The Generalizability Effectiveness of a Learning Strategy on Achievement in Related Closed Motor Skills

Abstract

This study determined the effectiveness of a global learning strategy on the skill level attained in one closed primary task and two related ones. Eighty subjects were randomly assigned to five groups equal in number and sex: a content-dependent strategy group (CDS), a content-dependent strategy plus reminders group (CDSR), a content-independent strategy group (CIS), a content-independent strategy plus reminders group (CISR), or a control group. A content dependent strategy is one learned in reference to a specific task; in this case, the primary one. A content independent strategy is learned in the context of many example tasks. Subjects performed underhanded dart throwing as the primary task, jart throwing (similar in nature to dart throwing) as the directly related task, and soccer foul shooting as the slightly related task. The strategy used to test the hypotheses generated was the Singer 5-Step Strategy. ANOVAs indicated that all of the strategy learning conditions were significantly more effective than the control condition for each task. Furthermore, the CIS learning situation was more beneficial for the learning of the task most related to the primary task than the CDS learning situation. The CISR group outperformed the other strategy groups in the less-related task.     

Analysis of Event-Related Potentials to Filmed Action Situations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how one secondary physical education teacher understood gender at her school and how that understanding developed. Theoretical perspectives on feminism and the nature of teachers' knowledge guided the inquiry. Data were collected through 20 teacher observations and 60 interviews over 4 months and analyzed using constant comparison with frequent member checks to facilitate accuracy. Three main findings emerged. First, this teacher identified two aspects of the broader school culture, which she believed sent students, particularly girls, gendered and patriarchal messages of social positions. Second, she described a number of practices in the traditional physical education program, which she believed contributed further to girls' disempowerment. Finally, this teachers' stance in the political structure of the school both constrained and enhanced the development of her understanding of gender. Findings are discussed in relation to feminist theoretical stances and feminist teacher knowledge development.     

Sequential Skill Learning and Retention Effects in Volleyball

Abstract

Four required physical education volleyball classes were taught four distinct volleyball skills in varied sequential order. The skills learned were the serve, dig, set-up, and spike. Between- and within-group differences were observed on tests administered on three different occasions throughout the quarter.

Immediate and later retention effects due to the order in which the skills were learned when measured yielded a few isolated significant differences, but no pattern was established. It was concluded that the order in which volleyball skills are taught had little bearing on their learning or retention.     

Bowling and the Warm-Up Effect

Abstract

College male subjects (N = 132) who participated in the Intramural Bowling League served as subjects for this study. During 5 weeks of bowling, one night a week, frame by frame and game by game score analysis was made. In game one, frames 5 and 10 yielded significantly greater scores than frame 1. As to the 3-game scores, the third game totals were significantly higher than the first game totals.     

Biology Education Research: Lessons and Future Directions

This feature draws on a 2012 National Research Council report to highlight some of the insights that discipline-based education research in general—and biology education research in particular—have provided into the challenges of undergraduate science education. It identifies strategies for overcoming those challenges and future directions for biology education research.Biologists have long been concerned about the quality of undergraduate biology education. Indeed, some biology education journals, such as the American Biology Teacher, have been in existence since the 1930s. Early contributors to these journals addressed broad questions about science learning, such as whether collaborative or individual learning was more effective and the value of conceptualization over memorization. Over time, however, biology faculty members have begun to study increasingly sophisticated questions about teaching and learning in the discipline. These scholars, often called biology education researchers, are part of a growing field of inquiry called discipline-based education research (DBER).DBER investigates both fundamental and applied aspects of teaching and learning in a given discipline; our emphasis here is on several science disciplines and engineering. The distinguishing feature of DBER is deep disciplinary knowledge of what constitutes expertise and expert-like understanding in a discipline. This knowledge has the potential to guide research focused on the most important concepts in a discipline and offers a framework for interpreting findings about students’ learning and understanding in that discipline. While DBER investigates teaching and learning in a given discipline, it is informed by and complementary to general research on human learning and cognition and can build on findings from K–12 science education research.DBER is emerging as a field of inquiry from programs of research that have developed somewhat independently in various disciplines in the sciences and engineering. Although biology education research (BER) has emerged more recently than similar efforts in physics, chemistry, or engineering education research, it is making contributions to the understanding of how students learn and gain expertise in biology. These contributions, together with those that DBER has made in physics and astronomy, chemistry, engineering, and the geosciences, are the focus of a 2012 report by the National Research Council (NRC, 2012 ).1 For biologists who are interested in education research, the report is a useful reference, because it offers the first comprehensive synthesis of the emerging body of BER and highlights the ways in which BER findings are similar to those in other disciplines. In this essay, we draw on the NRC report to highlight some of the insights that DBER in general and BER in particular have provided into effective instructional practices and undergraduate learning, and to point to some directions for the future. The views in this essay are ours as editors of the report and do not represent the official views of the Committee on the Status, Contributions, and Future Directions of Discipline-Based Education Research; the NRC; or the National Science Foundation (NSF).     

Television and the Developing Imagination of the Child

The paper examines whether television enriches a child's imagination, leads to distortions of reality, and whether adult mediation while a child views a program or immediately after can evoke constructive changes or stimulate make‐believe play.     

Assessing the Effects of Experiencing the Acting White Accusation

Adolescence is a period when many youth are subjected to close scrutiny by peers. Acting white is one of the most negative accusations one African American adolescent can hurl at another. The accusation has been documented as early as elementary school; however, the research indicates it is most salient and first likely to occur during early adolescence. In this paper, the assessment of adolescents’ experience of the acting white accusation is sought. A series of studies are presented that explore both qualitative and quantitative approaches to assessing the acting white accusation wherein the qualitative data and findings guide the formation of a quantitative assessment of the acting white accusation experience. Based on the results, a mixed methods approach is recommended to facilitate further understanding of the accusation.