Systems model and individual simulations of training strategies in elite short-track speed skaters

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of simulated training strategies on performance potential in elite short-track speed skaters. Training load and field-based criterion performances from fifteen athletes (10 males, 5 females) were collected over a 3-month training period and the relationship between training loads and performance was computed with a variable dose-response model using a genetic algorithm. Individual simulations of tapers preceded or not preceded by an overload training (OT) were assessed. We obtained a significant correlation between actual and modelled performances (R² = 0.76 ± 0.07). Regarding model parameters, no significant difference was found between males and females but the time to recover performance tended to be lower in females. Simulations in which the taper parameters were free highlighted that an exponential or a step taper were the most effective for increasing performance compared to a linear taper (p < 0.05). Optimal exponential taper duration after OT was 10.7 ± 2.4d and the optimal load reduction was 75.9 ± 3.7%. OT intensity had the greatest influence on the predicted performance, followed by OT duration, taper decay, and to a lesser extent load reduction during taper and taper duration. Thus, a variable dose-response systems model allows the evaluation of different taper strategies and their potential effect on performance changes.     

Delving deeper into the black box: formative assessment,inclusion and learners on the autism spectrum

This paper explores the implementation of formative assessment through the ‘autism lens’ in order to analyse why the process can be exclusionary for some learners on the autism spectrum. The central thesis of the paper is that, where teachers have no understanding of the autism learning style, they are likely to revert to a normative, ‘majoritarian’ construction of learning. Two problems may flow from this. First, majoritarian assumptions about learning could dominate the inferential process that is the foundation stone of formative assessment. This could lead teachers to mis-read what is going on inside the heads of learners on the autism spectrum, and cause them to make partial and inaccurate inferences about their learning. Second, majoritarian assumptions may also inform the interactive process that underpins formative assessment. Social interaction can be challenging for learners on the autism spectrum and can limit or exclude their participation unless sensitive modifications are made to the social and communication environment. The case is, therefore, made for teacher awareness of a ‘minoritarian’ perspective that foregrounds knowledge and understanding of the autism learning style. Arguably, this knowledge and understanding could enable teachers to adapt the formative assessment process so that it is more effective and inclusive for this group of learners.     

What we know now: education,neuroscience and transdisciplinary autism research

Background: Knowledge about the brain has been growing rapidly since the 1990s as a result of developments in neuroscientific research linked to improvements in functional neuroimaging and other brain imaging technologies. As the brain is the ‘principal organ involved in learning’ (1), it would seem reasonable to assume that education should be one of the chief beneficiaries of this research, leading to advances in our understanding of how people learn, the development of new curricula and innovative teaching and learning approaches. However, the linkage between neuroscience and education has, historically, always been weak, and, we suggest, continues to be so, notwithstanding important research initiatives since the year 2000.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically explore current theoretical understanding of joint neuroscientific and educational research, herein referred to as ‘neuroeducational’ research. There is a particular focus on a critique of the transdisciplinary model as applied in a study of imitation in learners with autism.

Main argument and sources of evidence: The review of the literature in the first half of the paper identifies the key barriers to neuroeducational research, including neuromyths, lack of shared understanding, the problem of the translation of neuroscientific findings to schools and clashing research assumptions, methodologies and traditions. However, a model of transdisciplinarity is presented as a possible way forward. This model is tested in the second half of the paper against the experiences of the authors in conducting transdisciplinary research in autism and imitation in the secondary classroom. Here, we develop the concepts of ‘transfer affordances’, ‘transfer challenges’ and ‘transfer opportunities’ to structure our analysis of the various dimensions of the transdisciplinary research process. These new concepts are defined, and their relevance and utility explained.

Conclusions: The main conclusion of the paper is that the transdisciplinary research process within neuroeducation is complex, far from fully understood and requires further mapping. It is proposed that the concepts of ‘transfer affordances’, ‘transfer challenges’ and ‘transfer opportunities’ are useful theoretical ideas in pursuit of this aim.     

Analysing expertise through data mining: an example based on treading water

Abstract

A classification system of treading water based on a conceptual typology was first established and then verified empirically. The typology was established on two concepts: the nature of the forces created within the water and the type of inter-limb coordination used. Thirty-eight participants were videotaped while treading water. Multivariate statistics were used to understand how the different behavioural types related to expertise. Three distinct groups of coordination patterns were adopted during treading water. A support vector machine procedure was used as a confirmatory procedure. The data mining process provides a methodological framework to analyse expertise in sports activities, and in this context suggests that a taxonomy can be established among the numerous coordination solutions that allow humans to create stabilising forces in the water.     

A training programme on managing science class interactions: Its impact on teachers' practises and on their pupils' achievement

This research evaluates the impact of a training programme on trainee physics and chemistry teachers, focusing on the way pupils' explanations are dealt with during teacher-pupil interaction. The population is composed of 10 teachers and 303 pupils, from which the experimental sample was taken (8 teachers and 172 pupils). The qualitative analysis of the recordings of the sessions shows that teachers, after training, are more ready to take pupils' productions into account, use a greater number of appropriate arguments, and are more frequently aware of pupils' misconceptions. A quantitative analysis of the achievement of pupils whose teachers followed the complete programme indicates that pupil outcomes improve. The conditions required for this training to be effective are also explored.     

Substitutability and complementarity of technological knowledge and the inventive performance of semiconductor companies

This paper analyses whether complementarity and substitutability of knowledge elements are key determinants of the firm's inventive performance, in addition to the more conventional measures of knowledge stock and diversity. Using patent data from 1968 to 2002 in the semiconductor industry, we find that the overall level of complementarity between knowledge components positively contributes to firms’ inventive capability, whereas the overall level of substitutability between knowledge components generally has the opposite effect. Yet a relatively high level of substitutability is found to be beneficial for explorative inventions. These results suggest that a firm's inventive capacity significantly depends on its ability to align its inventive strategies and knowledge base structure.     

Future EU-UK research and higher education cooperation at risk: what is at stake?

The UK higher education sector has entered a period of turbulence, as the consequences of the UK leaving the European Union (EU) hit home. Higher education institutions are bracing themselves for what will no doubt be a period of substantial change, uncertainty and challenge. The complexity of the intricate relationships linking EU member states, as well as the EU institutions and their member states, appears to have been misunderstood and understated in the UK, by both the political class and the general public, at the time of the June 2016 referendum. If information is indeed power, its current unavailability is a concern, given that the UK government’s plans to remain firmly embedded within the European Research Area and the Erasmus+ programme remain non-committal. In what can be described as a game of high politics between the EU and the UK government, the fate of research and higher education collaboration will be sealed by high-level inter-governmental agreements decided behind closed doors.

     

Whose story is this? Discrepancy triggers readers’ attention to source information in short narratives

Three experiments investigated the role of source information (i.e., who said what) in readers’ comprehension of short informational texts. Based on the Discrepancy-Induced Source Comprehension assumption (Braasch, Rouet, Vibert, & Britt, 2012), we hypothesized that readers would be more likely to make use of source information when summarizing stories that included discrepant statements. Readers would also memorize source information more accurately. Experiments 1 and 2 found that American and French college students were more likely to refer to source information when they summarized news reports containing discrepant assertions. A detailed content analysis of the summaries also indicated that students use hedging and several other tactics to resolve contradictions. Experiment 3 replicated Braasch et al.’s finding that sources of discrepant stories were more likely to be recalled than sources of consistent stories. Experiment 3 also extended these findings using longer texts and a different reading task. Altogether the data support the Documents Model framework of multiple source comprehension.     

Effects of academic training on metatextual knowledge and hypertext navigation

We investigated the effects of college training on students’ metatextual knowledge, hypertext navigation strategies and their acquisition of problem-relevant information. Ten psychology undergraduates and nine clinical psychology post-graduate students were asked to study a 3,400-word, 14-section hypertext with the purpose of drafting a short essay on a specific, complex issue in the area of teenage psychopathology. The specialists outperformed the novices on a metatextual knowledge test. They spent more time visiting relevant sections of the hypertext, and wrote essays containing more critical information. They also displayed a better incidental memory for the hypertext structure. We discuss the data in terms of the late acquisition of metatextual knowledge and study strategies.