An international investigation on the validity of the CSAPPA scale in screening for developmental coordination disorder /

The main objective of the present investigation was to continue the research initiated by Hay and colleagues (2004) in examining the efficacy of the Children's Self-Perceptions of Adequacy in and Predilection for Physical Activity (CSAPPA) scale as a proxy for the short form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP-SF) in screening for Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) in children. To better appreciate DCD knowledge outside Canada, the measurements of this investigation were expanded in Greece. A translated Greek CSAPP A scale and the BOTMP-SF were administered for the first time in Greek children. A second objective was to investigate the relationship between DCD and various risk factors of coronary artery disease (CAD) in Canadian and Greek children. A sample of 591 (Ms=322; Fs=269) Canadian and 392 (Ms=211; Fs=181) Greek children, aged 9 to 13 years, consented to the BOTMP-SF, CSAPP A Scale, participation in physical activity questionnaire, Leger 20-meter Multistage Shuttle Run test, and body fat using bioelectric impedance. Prevalence of DCD in Canada and Greece was 8% and 19%, respectively. Significant agreement (p

Perceptions of some teachers about the similarities and/or differences in teaching online versus in a classroom environment /

The introduction of computer and communications technology, and particularly the internet, into education has opened up some new possibilities for teaching and learning. Courses designed and delivered in an online environment offer the possibility of highly interactive and individually focussed teaching and learning experiences. However, online courses also present new challenges for both teachers and students. A qualitative study was conducted to explore teachers' perceptions about the similarities and differences in teaching in the online and face-to-face (F2F) environments. Focus group discussions were held with 5 teachers; 2 teachers were interviewed in depth. The participants, 3 female and 2 male, were full-time teachers from a large College of Applied Arts & Technology in southern Ontario. Each of them had over 10 years of F2F teaching experience and each had been involved in the development and teaching of at least one online course. i - -; The study focussed on how teaching in the online environment compares with teaching in the F2F environment, what roles teachers and students adopt in each setting, what learning communities mean online and F2F and how they are developed, and how institutional policies, procedures, and infrastructure affect teaching and learning F2F and online. This study was emic in nature, that is the teachers' words determine the themes identified throughout the study. The factors identified as affecting teaching in an online environment included teacher issues such as course design, motivation to teach online, teaching style, role, characteristics or skills, and strategies. Student issues as perceived by the teachers included learning styles, role, and characteristics or skills. As well, technology issues such as a reliable infrastructure, clear role and responsibilities for maintaining the infrastructure, support, and multimedia capability affected teaching online. Finally, administrative policies and procedures, including teacher selection and training, registration and scheduling procedures, intellectual property and workload policies, and the development and communication of a comprehensive strategic plan were found to impact on teaching online. The teachers shared some of the benefits they perceived about teaching online as well as some of the challenges they had faced and challenges they perceived students had faced online. Overall, the teachers feh that there were more similarities than differences in teaching between the two environments, with the main differences being the change from F2F verbal interactions involving body language to online written interactions without body language cues, and the fundamental reliance on technology in the online environment. These findings support previous research in online teaching and learning, and add teachers' perspectives on the factors that stay the same and the factors that change when moving from a F2F environment to an online environment.

Sensitivity to differences between posed and genuine facial expressions : are children easily fooled? /

Adults and children can discriminate various emotional expressions, although there is limited research on sensitivity to the differences between posed and genuine expressions. Adults have shown implicit sensitivity to the difference between posed and genuine happy smiles in that they evaluate T-shirts paired with genuine smiles more favorably than T-shirts paired with posed smiles or neutral expressions (Peace, Miles, & Johnston, 2006). Adults also have shown some explicit sensitivity to posed versus genuine expressions; they are more likely to say that a model i?,feeling happy if the expression is genuine than posed. Nonetheless they are duped by posed expressions about 50% of the time (Miles, & Johnston, in press). There has been no published study to date in which researchers report whether children's evaluation of items varies with expression and there is little research investigating children's sensitivity to the veracity of facial expressions. In the present study the same face stimuli were used as in two previous studies (Miles & Johnston, in press; Peace et al., 2006). The first question to be addressed was whether adults and 7-year-olds have a cognitive understanding of the differences between posed and genuine happiness {scenario task). They evaluated the feelings of children who expressed gratitude for a present that they did or did not want. Results indicated that all participants had a fundamental understanding of the difference between real and posed happiness. The second question involved adults' and children's implicit sensitivity to the veracity of posed and genuine smiles. Participants rated and ranked beach balls paired with faces showing posed smiles, genuine smiles, and neutral expressions. Adults ranked.but did not rate beach balls paired with genuine smiles more favorably than beach balls paired with posed smiles. Children did not demonstrate implicit sensitivity as their ratings and rankings of beach balls did not vary with expressions; they did not even rank beach balls paired with genuine expressions higher than beach balls paired with neutral expressions. In the explicit (show/feel) task, faces were presented without the beach balls and participants were first asked whether each face was showing happy and then whether each face wasfeeling happy. There were also two matching trials that presented two faces at once; participants had to indicate which person was actuallyfeeling happy. In the show condition both adults and 7-year-olds were very accurate on genuine and neutral expressions but made some errors on posed smiles. Adults were fooled about 50% of the time by posed smiles in thefeel condition (i.e., they were likely to say that a model posing happy was really feeling happy) and children were even less accurate, although they showed weak sensitivity to posed versus genuine expressions. Future research should test an older age group of children to determine when explicit sensitivity to posed versus genuine facial expressions becomes adult-like and modify the ranking task to explore the influence of facial expressions on object evaluations.