Is starting with the feet out of the water faster in backstroke swimming?     

Cecilia Nguyen  Elizabeth J. Bradshaw  David Pease  Cameron Wilson 《Sports biomechanics / International Society of Biomechanics in Sports》2014,13(2):154-165

This study aimed to determine if starting with the feet above the water (FAW) in male backstroke swimming resulted in faster start times (15-m time) than when the feet were underwater (FUW). It was hypothesised that setting higher on the wall would generate increased horizontal force and velocity, resulting in quicker starts. Twelve high-level male backstrokers performed three trials of the FAW and FUW techniques. A biomechanical swimming testing system comprising one force plate (1,000 Hz), four lateral-view (100 Hz), and five overhead (50 Hz) video cameras captured the swimmers' performance. Data for each participant's fastest trial for each technique were collated, grouped, and statistically analysed. Analysis included Wilcoxon, Spearman Rho correlation, and regression analysis. Wilcoxon results revealed a significantly faster start time for the FAW technique (p < 0.01). Peak horizontal force was significantly smaller for FAW (p = 0.02), while take-off horizontal velocity was significantly greater (p = 0.01). Regression analysis indicated take-off horizontal velocity to be a good predictor of start time for both techniques, and the horizontal displacement of the centre of mass for the FAW start.  相似文献   

A Genetically Optimized Predictive System for Success in General Chemistry Using a Diagnostic Algebra Test     

Cameron I. Cooper  Paul T. Pearson 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2012,21(1):197-205

In higher education, many high-enrollment introductory courses have evolved into “gatekeeper” courses due to their high failure rates. These courses prevent many students from attaining their educational goals and often become graduation roadblocks. At the authors’ home institution, general chemistry has become a gatekeeper course in which approximately 25% of students do not pass. This failure rate in chemistry is common, and often higher, at many other institutions of higher education, and mathematical deficiencies are perceived to be a large contributing factor. This paper details the development of a highly accurate predictive system that identifies students at the beginning of the semester who are “at-risk” for earning a grade of C- or below in chemistry. The predictive accuracy of this system is maximized by using a genetically optimized neural network to analyze the results of a diagnostic algebra test designed for a specific population. Once at-risk students have been identified, they can be helped to improve their chances of success using techniques such as concurrent support courses, online tutorials, “just-in-time” instructional aides, study skills, motivational interviewing, and/or peer mentoring.  相似文献   

Development and Testing of a Curriculum to Improve Decision-Making Skills in Middle and High School Students     

Tricia Shelton  Corinne Benatowicz  Pat Healy  Neal D. Ryan  Judy L. Cameron 《Mind, Brain, and Education》2023,17(1):53-60

Adolescence is a key developmental period for developing and strengthening brain circuits that underlie effective decision-making skills, which profoundly impact lifelong health and academic, professional, and economic achievement. But decision-making skills are learned rather than inherent. School presents an ideal environment for the direct instruction and frequent practice of decision-making skills, however, finding time in the school day is a challenge for contemporary educators. We have developed a learning curriculum that involves active student participation to strengthen decision-making skills that is sufficiently flexible and adaptable to be utilized in a wide variety of content-specific classwork. Using this curriculum, students show evidence of improved decision-making skills, including increased consideration of the number of factors that are relevant to their decision, the resources needed to make a particular decision, and both the short-term and long-term consequences of decisions.  相似文献   

Development of moral reasoning in situational and cultural contexts     

Jesse Ho-Yin Lo  Genyue Fu  Kang Lee  Catherine Ann Cameron 《Journal of moral education》2020,49(2):177-193

ABSTRACT

This article examines relationships between children and youths’ judgments and their justifications of truth telling and verbal deception, in situational and cultural contexts. Han Chinese, Euro-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians, seven- to 17-years of age were presented competitive scenarios in which protagonists told either lies to protect, or truths to harm, various levels of collectivity. Participants evaluated protagonists’ statements, using a 7-point scale, and justified their judgments. Cultural variations in moral evaluations emerged among the three groups of participants. Older Chinese participants reflected significant collective cultural values in their judgements; by contrast, Euro-Canadians identified more individualistically; and Chinese-Canadians demonstrated notable variability between these perspectives in their judgments. The article enhances understanding of situational and cultural sources in the development of moral reasoning within a sociocultural framework.  相似文献   

Fifth graders' science inquiry abilities: A comparative study of students in hands‐on and textbook curricula     

Jerome Pine  Pamela Aschbacher  Ellen Roth  Melanie Jones  Cameron McPhee  Catherine Martin  Scott Phelps  Tara Kyle  Brian Foley 《科学教学研究杂志》2006,43(5):467-484

A large number of American elementary school students are now studying science using the hands‐on inquiry curricula developed in the 1990s: Insights; Full Option Science System (FOSS); and Science and Technology for Children (STC). A goal of these programs, echoed in the National Science Education Standards, is that children should gain “abilities to do scientific inquiry” and “understanding about scientific inquiry.” We have studied the degree to which students can do inquiries by using four hands‐on performance assessments, which required one or three class periods. To be fair, the assessments avoided content that is studied in depth in the hands‐on programs. For a sample of about 1000 fifth grade students, we compared the performance of students in hands‐on curricula with an equal number of students with textbook curricula. The students were from 41 classrooms in nine school districts. The results show little or no curricular effect. There was a strong dependence on students' cognitive ability, as measured with a standard multiple‐choice instrument. There was no significant difference between boys and girls. Also, there was no difference on a multiple‐choice test, which used items released from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). It is not completely clear whether the lack of difference on the performance assessments was a consequence of the assessments, the curricula, and/or the teaching. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 467–484, 2006  相似文献   

Infant Auditory Temporal Acuity: Gap Detection     

Lynne A. Werner  G. Cameron Marean  Christopher F. Halpin  Naney Benson Spetner  Jay M. Gillenwater 《Child development》1992,63(2):260-272

The development of auditory temporal acuity during infancy was examined in 3-, 6-, and 12-month-old infants and in adults using the gap detection paradigm. Listeners detected a series of gaps, or silent intervals, or variable duration in a broadband noise. In order to vary the acoustic frequencies available to the listener, a high-pass noise was used to mask frequencies above specified cutoffs. High-pass maskers with cutoffs of 500, 2,000, and 8,000 Hz were used. The minimum detectable gap was determined using the Observer-based Psychoacoustic Procedure. The thresholds of 3- and 6-month-olds were considerably poorer than those of the adults, although the effect of masker condition was about the same for these 3 groups. The thresholds of 12-month-olds were significantly worse than the adults when the stimulus was unmasked or when the masker cutoff frequency was 2,000 or 8,000 Hz. When the masker cutoff frequency was 500 Hz, 12-month-olds fell into 2 groups: some had gap thresholds that were about the same as 3- and 6-month-olds, while some had gap thresholds that approached those of adults. In a second experiment, a larger group of 12-month-olds were tested with a 500-Hz masker cutoff. Average performance of 12-month-olds was about the same as that of 3- and 6-month-olds in Experiment 1. Some infants attained thresholds close to those of adults. Thus, gap detection thresholds are quite poor in infants, although the similarity of the effect of frequency on performance in infants and adults suggests that the mechanisms governing temporal resolution in infants operate qualitatively like those in adults.  相似文献   

Caring for our infants: parents’ antenatal childcare intentions and nine-month reality     

Polly E. Atatoa Carr  Elaine Reese  Dinusha K. Bandara  Cameron C. Grant  Susan M. B. Morton 《Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development》2019,39(1):17-35

Infants are increasingly cared for by adults other than their parents. Here we describe non-parental infant care within a diverse cohort; and investigate the relationship between parents’ antenatal intentions and actual infant care. 6822 New Zealand women were recruited during pregnancy and asked about their intentions for childcare. Non-parental care was assessed when infants were nine months old: 1717 (25%) of the 6853 cohort children were receiving more than 8 h per week of regular non-parental care. In comparison with infants of European mothers, infants of Asian or Pacific mothers were more likely to be cared for by extended family; and infants of Māori mothers were more likely to receive centre-based care. Infants from families with lower household incomes, living in more deprived areas were more likely to be cared for by family. When their infants were nine months old, mothers from low- to medium-income households were less likely to be using the type of non-parental care they had intended antenatally, and the same was true when their children were aged 2 years.  相似文献   

Educational Psychology: The distinctive contribution     

R. J. Cameron 《Educational Psychology in Practice》2006,22(4):289-304

This paper, written in the twenty‐first anniversary year of the journal Educational Psychology in Practice, attempts to uncover those distinctive aspects of the discipline and the practice of applied psychology in general and educational psychology in particular. After considering some of the reasons for attempting this task at this point in time and outlining some of the difficulties involved in achieving this task, five distinctive dimensions are identified and discussed. These are: (i) adopting a psychological perspective to human problems; (ii) uncovering mediating/psychological variables which link particular situations with specific outcomes; (iii) employing psychological knowledge to create explanatory models of complex human problems; (iv) using evidence based strategies for change; and (v) sharing and promoting big ideas from psychology. Some of the possibilities which these distinctive features offer for innovation in educational psychology practice and research are listed, together with their implications for educational psychology practitioners in the future.  相似文献   

Do Proper Accommodation Assignments Make a Difference? Examining the Impact of Improved Decision Making on Scores for English Language Learners   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Rebecca J. Kopriva  Jessica E. Emick  Carlos Porfirio Hipolito-Delgado  Catherine A. Cameron 《Educational Measurement》2007,26(3):11-20

Does it matter if students are appropriately assigned to test accommodations? Using a randomized method, this study found that individual students assigned accommodations keyed to their particular needs were significantly more efficacious for English language learners (ELLs) and that little difference was reported between students receiving incomplete or not recommended accommodations and no accommodations whatsoever. A sample of third and fourth grade ELLs in South Carolina (N = 272) were randomly assigned to various types of test accommodations on a mathematics assessment. Results indicated that those students who received the appropriate test accommodations, as recommended by a version of a computerized accommodation taxonomy for ELLs (the selection taxonomy for English language learners accommodations; STELLA), had significantly higher test scores than ELLs who received no accommodations or those who received incomplete or not recommended accommodation packages. Additionally, students who were given no test accommodations scored no differently than those students that received accommodation packages that were incomplete or not recommended, given the students' particular needs and challenges. These findings are important in light of research and anecdotal reports that suggest a general lack of systematicity in the current system of assigning accommodations and a tendency to give all available accommodations regardless of individual child characteristics. The results also have important implications for how future accommodation research should be structured to determine the benefits of particular accommodations and accommodation packages. This study would suggest that control and treatment groups should be assembled based on specific student needs in order for direct comparisons to be made.  相似文献   

International Institute for Collaborative Cell Biology and Biochemistry—History and Memoirs from an International Network for Biological Sciences     

L. C. Cameron 《CBE life sciences education》2013,12(3):339-344

I was invited to write this essay on the occasion of my selection as the recipient of the 2012 Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). Receiving this award is an enormous honor. When I read the email announcement for the first time, it was more than a surprise to me, it was unbelievable. I joined ASCB in 1996, when I presented a poster and received a travel award. Since then, I have attended almost every ASCB meeting. I will try to use this essay to share with readers one of the best experiences in my life. Because this is an essay, I take the liberty of mixing some of my thoughts with data in a way that it not usual in scientific writing. I hope that this sacrifice of the format will achieve the goal of conveying what I have learned over the past 20 yr, during which time a group of colleagues and friends created a nexus of knowledge and wisdom. We have worked together to build a network capable of sharing and inspiring science all over the world.  相似文献