Coming to know about the body in Human Movement Studies programmes

This paper explores how a group of undergraduate Human Movement Studies (HMS) students learnt to know about the body during their four-year academic programme at an Australian university. When students begin an undergraduate programme in HMS they bring with them particular constructions, ideas and beliefs about their own bodies and about the body in general. Those ideas and beliefs are often challenged, disrupted or reinforced according to discourses and practices to which students are exposed and which they experience throughout their programme of study. The courses that these students take in their in HMS degree programme present to them different perspectives about health and the body. Some perspectives take the status of taken-for-granted truths and others are dismissed or ignored. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, this paper explores the dominant discourses and practices to which this group of students was exposed during their four years of academic formation, and the influences that this exposure might have upon their construction of the body and their formation as pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers. The participants in this study were 14 students, 11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The data used for this paper were taken from a larger study and were analysed using a content analysis approach. Results suggest that some students may be heavily influenced by certain practices and discourses during their programme of studies, and that they embody dominant discourses of health. Furthermore, a possible change of thinking may occur across their academic programme, as a consequence of their engagement with a few alternative discourses presented during their academic programme, disrupting some of their previous beliefs and knowledge.     

The interplay between self-determined motivation,self-regulated cognitive strategies,and prior achievement in predicting academic performance

The present study examined the interplay between self-determined motivation and the use of cognitive strategies in predicting university students’ academic performance while taking into account the effect of prior achievement. A theory based model was tested using structural equation modeling on a sample of 764 Italian university students. Results showed that prior achievement influenced students’ academic performance and their motivation and use of cognitive strategies. Critical thinking was the only cognitive strategy which proved to have a significant impact on students’ academic performance. Autonomous motivation had an indirect positive impact on academic performance through its influence on the critical thinking strategy. Controlled motivation had a direct negative impact on academic performance. On the whole, our findings suggest that autonomously motivated students tend to achieve better academic performance by using critical thinking, while students who are driven by controlled motivation have lower academic performance.     

Effect of a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu-simulated tournament on strength parameters and perceptual responses

This study aimed to analyse the effects of a simulated Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) tournament on vertical jump performance, grip strength test and perceived effort responses. 22 male BJJ athletes participated in a simulated tournament consisting of three 7 min matches separated by 14 min of rest. Kimono grip strength test (KGST), counter movement jump (CMJ) and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured before and after each match, while RPE of specific areas was assessed after three matches. ANOVA for repeated measures was used to compare strength parameters after each match with the level of significance set at 5%. The key results showed a significant decrease of jump height (p = 0.001) and net vertical impulse in the CMJ (p = 0.031), as well as a reduction of the number of reps in the KGST (p < 0.001). A significant increase of RPE was found throughout the matches (p < 0.001). Considering the RPE in specific areas, no differences were observed between the upper and lower body (p = 0.743). We conclude that the BJJ simulated tournament generated a decrease of performance in both upper and lower limbs and provoked a progressive increase in the effort perception over the matches.     

Fingerspelling and sign language as alternative codes for reading and writing words for Chilean deaf signers

The study examined the role of sign language and fingerspelling in the development of the reading and writing skills of deaf children and youth. Twenty-six deaf participants (13 children, 13 adolescents), whose first language was Chilean Sign Language (CHSL), were examined. Their dactylic abilities were evaluated with tasks involving the reading and writing of dactylic and orthographic codes. The study included three experiments: (a) the identification of Chilean signs and fingerspelled words, (b) the matching of fingerspelled words with commercial logos, and (c) the decoding of fingerspelled words and the mapping of these words onto the writing system. The results provide convergent evidence that the use of fingerspelling and sign language is related to orthographic skills. It is concluded that fingerspelling can facilitate the internal representation of words and serve as a supporting mechanism for reading acquisition.     

Do performance‐based research funding systems affect research production and impact?

We study the potential impact of introducing performance‐based funding systems (PBFS) on national research systems, using information on the number of publications and their scientific impact (citations or publications in top‐ranked journals) for 31 countries over the period 1996–2016. The analysis is performed both at the aggregate level and looking separately at each of the six main scientific areas identified according to the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) classification. On average, PBFS are found to increase the number of publications, though the effect is only temporary and fades after a few years. Looking at the scientific impact, PBFS are found to have a negligible effect on excellence as measured by the share of articles published in the top journals, irrespective of the type of assessment adopted. On the contrary, PBFS have some influence on average research quality, as measured by the number of citations per paper normalised with respect to the field.     

Explanations in STEM Areas: an Analysis of Representations Through Language in Teacher Education

Constructing explanations of scientific concepts is one of the most frequent strategies used in the science classroom and is a high-leverage teaching practice. This study analysed the explanations provided by student teachers in STEM areas from a socio-materiality perspective focused on verbal and nonverbal language and representations. The study was conducted in a hybrid research format by scholars and a preservice teacher. First, the study compared the representational elements used by 86 student teachers to construct explanations about various concepts in a roleplay setting. Next, a positioning analysis was done by a preservice teacher, to a selection of five of these explanations focused on the concept of “force”. The positioning analysis highlighted the embedded voices in the construction of explanations, with a focus on the intersection between science and language. The results showed that the student teachers created explanations as static artefacts, mainly using examples, graphs and images to clarify the concepts. The voices of learners and scientists were mostly absent from the explanations, which led to the presentation of explanations in STEM areas as finished and unquestionable artefacts, with references neither to nature nor to the history of science. We reflect on the meanings attributed to learning to be a practitioner in the context of interconnecting science and language through explanations, as a process of meaning (re)production within the classroom. Implications for teacher education are discussed in order to enhance student teachers’ awareness about constructing knowledge by enacting explanations in the science classroom.

     

Using visual methodologies to understand pre-service Health and Physical Education teachers’ subjectivities of bodies

Socio-cultural theorists have argued that having a diverse understanding of subjectivities of normal/ideal bodies is important for Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers. When teachers hold a single understanding and perception of normal/ideal bodies, such as a thin body as normal or ideal body, which are usually informed by dominant discourses, they may (re)produce narrow understandings of bodies among their students. This paper focuses on how a group of pre-service HPE specialist teachers (11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview) from an Australian university, discuss issues related to subjectivities of bodies. It draws on visual methodologies and semi-structured interviews to understand how these pre-service HPE specialist teachers construct discourses of bodies. Foucault’s concepts of normalisation, surveillance and biopedagogies are used to explore discursive constructions of bodies, with a particular focus on how some discourses are normalised via surveillance techniques. The results of the study invite us to reflect on how images may promote certain ways of thinking about and considering the body among pre-service HPE specialist teachers. In light of contradictions which were found across the comments of two participants who constructed different discourses during the interviews, we posit that making sense of subjectivities of bodies is complex and often contradictory. Furthermore, the results suggest that photo elicitation is a useful visual method for theorising issues related to bodies. Results can inform teacher education and policy in how to better prepare pre-service HPE teachers to teach about bodies.     

Knowledge development and advice networks in professional organizations

In this paper, social network analysis techniques and regression models are used to explain the impact of the level of knowledge development on ego-network redundancy in a community of hospital physicians. Our findings document that the level of knowledge development and the extent to which knowledge is homogeneously distributed amongst collaborating physicians are related to the redundancy of their advice networks, albeit with opposite effects. Our results highlight also that the impact of these relationships on network redundancy is moderated based on whether partnering individuals belong to different professional groups. Our results provide valuable input for the management of knowledge networks within professional organizations.     

Remarques critques à propos de l'enquête internationale sur la litteratie

There is no doubt of the necessity and importance of an international comparative inquiry concerning literacy. The difficulties involved in such an inquiry are also incontestable. In France the seemingly improbable results of the survey led to the French authorities – who had no doubt been insufficiently vigilant during the earlier stages of the survey – refusing to make the results public. These results highlight a number of methodological flaws that beset this vast undertaking, drawing attention to the need for better procedural precautions and a more adequate notion of literacy. This article presents a synthesis of the counter-investigations demanded by the French authorities, which justify their doubts on the IALS methods, and opens up a debate on the conception of literacy that was applied in the tests.