Improving Academic Performance of Sport and Exercise Science Undergraduate Students in Gross Anatomy Using a Near-Peer Teaching Program

Peer and near-peer teaching programs are common in medical undergraduate courses. However, there are no studies that have investigated the effectiveness of a near-peer teaching program on the academic performance of undergraduate students pursuing sport and exercise science coursework. This study was conducted to analyze the effectiveness of such a program for students who participated in a course on the functional anatomy of the locomotor apparatus. A total of 39 student participants were divided into two groups: students in one group voluntarily attended at least one session of a near-peer teaching program, and students in the other group attended no sessions. The final grade (range 0–100%) was recorded and used as an indicator of academic performance. The final grade of students who attended the near-peer teaching program (69.5 ± 16.0%) was 38.7% higher (P = 0.002, d = 1.06) than those who did not (50.1 ± 20.4%). When the academic performance of the same students was evaluated in another course (exercise physiology) that did not offer a near-peer teaching program, there were no significant differences between the groups (students who attended or did not attend the near-peer teaching program). A significant positive association was found between near-peer teaching program frequency and the number of students approved and not approved in the course (P = 0.041). A significant difference (P = 0.001) was found in the attendance at regular classes between the group who participated in the near-peer teaching program (median: 62 hours; IQR [interquartile ranges]: 4.0 hours) and those who did not (median: 58 hours; IQR: 4.0 hours). Gender was not a moderating factor on academic performance or near-peer teaching program attendance. These results highlight the effectiveness of a near-peer teaching program on the academic performance of students from a sport and exercise science degree program while enrolled in an anatomy course. Anat Sci Educ. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Glenohumeral internal rotation deficit in table tennis players

ABSTRACT

Table tennis requires rapid and extreme movements that may result in shoulder adaptations, such as glenohumeral internal rotation deficit, which is a risk factor for several injuries. This study compared range of motion of internal and external rotation and total rotation motion of glenohumeral joint between dominant and non-dominant shoulders of table tennis players. This is a cross-sectional observational study. Twenty healthy male table tennis players that were enrolled in an official table tennis league took part in this study (mean age: 22.9 ± 12.9 years, time of sports practice: 6.2 ± 7.12 years). Measurements of passive glenohumeral external rotation and internal rotation were taken with the individuals in the supine and sidelying positions. Total rotation motion was calculated by summing external and internal rotations. The dominant side showed decreased internal rotation when compared to non-dominant side in both supine (mean difference: 14.9°, p = 0.02) and sidelying positions (mean difference: 16.3°, p = 0.01). No significant difference (p > 0.05) was found for external rotation and total rotation motion between dominant and non-dominant shoulders. The findings indicate that table tennis players exhibit glenohumeral internal rotation deficit of dominant shoulder.     

The Influence of Ernst Mach in the Teaching of Mechanics

We present Newton's main ideas for the formulation of classical mechanics as given in the Principia. Then we discuss Ernst Mach's criticisms of Newtonian mechanics as contained in his book The Science of Mechanics. We analyze the influence of Mach's ideas in the teaching of classical mechanics considering five representative textbooks: those of Kittel, Knight and Ruderman; Marion and Thornton; Symon; Feynman, Leighton and Sands; and Goldstein. We conclude that the influence of Mach's ideas has been very great, being incorporated in the textbooks, although not always with the deserved acknowledgment.     

Understanding crowdsourcing projects: A systematic review of tendencies,workflow, and quality management

Crowdsourcing is a powerful method that leverages human intelligence to solve problems in the medical, linguistics, machine learning, and in a considerable number of other fields of study. This systematic review aims to understand how crowdsourcing projects are designed and executed in the state-of-the-art, considering the following dimensions: Task execution, quality management, and platform usage. Our results summarized trends of the important aspects of a crowdsourcing project, such as crowd and task types, crowdsourcing platforms, and activities used to manage the quality; we also addressed functions and limitations in traditional crowdsourcing platforms, the definition of a crowdsourcing workflow, and the lack of standardization when developing a crowdsourcing project. As future works, we wish to design a conceptual model that represents the important elements of a crowdsourcing project and their relationships, also, we wish to do further researchers focusing on how the quality mechanisms listed in this work should be used in crowdsourcing projects to get reliable results.