When “Where” is More Important Than “When”: Birthplace and Birthdate Effects On The Achievement Of Sporting Expertise

In this study, we assessed whether contextual factors related to where or when an athlete is born influence their likelihood of playing professional sport. The birthplace and birth month of all American players in the National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and Professional Golfer's Association, and all Canadian players in the National Hockey League were collected from official websites. Monte Carlo simulations were used to verify if the birthplace of these professional athletes deviated in any systematic way from the official census population distribution, and chi-square analyses were conducted to determine whether the players' birth months were evenly distributed throughout the year. Results showed a birthplace bias towards smaller cities, with professional athletes being over-represented in cities of less than 500,000 and under-represented in cities of 500,000 and over. A birth month/relative age effect (in the form of a distinct bias towards elite athletes being relatively older than their peers) was found for hockey and baseball but not for basketball and golf. Comparative analyses suggested that contextual factors associated with place of birth contribute more influentially to the achievement of an elite level of sport performance than does relative age and that these factors are essentially independent in their influences on expertise development.

Perspectives of Teachers Regarding the Integration of Mathematics and Science at the Secondary School Level

The integration of mathematics and science in secondary schools in the 21st century continues to be an important topic of practice and research. The purpose of my research study, which builds on studies by Frykholm and Glasson (2005) and Berlin and White (2010), is to explore the potential constraints and benefits of integrating mathematics and science in Ontario secondary schools based on the perspectives of in-service and pre-service teachers with various math and/or science backgrounds. A qualitative and quantitative research design with an exploratory approach was used. The qualitative data was collected from a sample of 12 in-service teachers with various math and/or science backgrounds recruited from two school boards in Eastern Ontario. The quantitative and some qualitative data was collected from a sample of 81 pre-service teachers from the Queen’s University Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) program. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the in-service teachers while a survey and a focus group was conducted with the pre-service teachers. Once the data was collected, the qualitative data were abductively analyzed. For the quantitative data, descriptive and inferential statistics (one-way ANOVAs and Pearson Chi Square analyses) were calculated to examine perspectives of teachers regardless of teaching background and to compare groups of teachers based on teaching background. The findings of this study suggest that in-service and pre-service teachers have a positive attitude towards the integration of math and science and view it as valuable to student learning and success. The pre-service teachers viewed the integration as easy and did not express concerns to this integration. On the other hand, the in-service teachers highlighted concerns and challenges such as resources, scheduling, and time constraints. My results illustrate when teachers perceive it is valuable to integrate math and science and which aspects of the classroom benefit best from the integration. Furthermore, the results highlight barriers and possible solutions to better the integration of math and science. In addition to the benefits and constraints of integration, my results illustrate why some teachers may opt out of integrating math and science and the different strategies teachers have incorporated to integrate math and science in their classroom.

Conhece o microsoft mathematics? Não?! Então este workshop é para si!

A vertiginosa difusão das TIC e o crescente desenvolvimento de diverso software científico estão a produzir mudanças relevantes nos processos formativos em matemática, estando estas a favorecer a criação de novos e melhores recursos didáticos e de autoaprendizagem, assim como uma nova forma de gerar e difundir conhecimento ou experiências cognitivas (Atencio, 2013). No entanto para tirar partido, a nível pessoal ou profissional, da variedade de recursos que estão ao nosso alcance para aprender/ensinar matemática, como os programas Geogebra, Surfer, GeCla, Microsoft Mathematics etc., é importante conhecê-los e saber trabalhar com eles. Tendo em vista este objetivo, neste Workshop pretende-se “apresentar” o software Microsoft Mathematics, explorá-lo como recurso na resolução de algumas tarefas de matemática, assim como discutir as suas potencialidades e limitações. O software Microsoft Mathematics, inicialmente com a designação Microsoft Math, foi lançado pela Microsoft Corporation em 2006, e surgiu para tentar resolver o problema de muitos alunos brasileiros que tinham dificuldades nas disciplinas que envolviam cálculo. No início estava apenas disponível para uso de uma comunidade estudantil que, com o apoio de empresas e universidades, visava formar alunos na área de tecnologias de informação para o mercado de trabalho. Depois de algumas melhorias, o programa passou a ser disponibilizado para o público em geral e a ser comercializado (Sousa e Araújo (s.d.)). Atualmente a versão 4.0 é a mais recente, é gratuita e está disponível para download na internet no site https://www.microsoft.com/ptpt/ download/details.aspx?id=15702. Do ponto de vista da matemática, o Microsoft Mathematics abrange domínios como a aritmética, o cálculo, a álgebra e a estatística. Por exemplo, permite executar uma diversidade de cálculos: resolver equações, inequações e sistemas de equações, converter unidades de medida, calcular estatísticas básicas (como média e desvio-padrão), efetuar operações com números complexos, calcular derivadas e integrais, realizar operações com matrizes, entre outros, e, em alguns casos, possibilita a consulta da resolução passo a passo. Tem também uma vertente gráfica, podendo representar-se gráficos a duas ou a três dimensões. Esta funcionalidade possibilita, ainda, representar graficamente equações com parâmetros, o que permite visualizar as mudanças em função da variação do valor do parâmetro, que pode ser de grande utilidade, por exemplo, na discussão de sistemas de equações lineares. Em termos de usabilidade, o Microsoft Mathematics tem uma interface simples e facilmente compreensível para o utilizador e a sintaxe para comunicar com o software é quase sempre a que se utiliza em matemática. Torna-se igualmente uma mais-valia quando se pretende produzir documentos em Word com simbologia matemática, pois permite exportar para este aplicativo o trabalho realizado. Conclui-se, assim, que o Microsoft Mathematics é um software educativo que fornece um conjunto de ferramentas que podem constituir um apoio para os estudantes do 3.º ciclo do ensino básico, do ensino secundário e ensino superior, na resolução de tarefas que exigem conhecimentos matemáticos. Pode, ainda, tornar-se um recurso útil para os professores tanto na preparação de aulas como no contexto de sala de aula, na medida em que, para além de facilitar a execução de cálculos, permite explorar alguns conteúdos de uma forma interativa e com maior profundidade.

European Policy Uses of International Comparisons of Academic Achievement. ACES Working Papers, 2012

International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) and the resulting ranking of countries in key academic subjects have become increasingly significant in the development of global performance indicators and national level reforms in education. As one of the largest international surveys, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has had a considerable impact on the world of international comparisons of education. Based on the results of these assessments, claims are often made about the relative success or failure of education systems, and in some cases, such as Germany or Japan, ILSAs have sparked national level reforms (Ertl, 2006; Takayama, 2007, 2009). In this paper, I offer an analysis of how PISA is increasingly used as a key reference both for a regional2 entity like the European Union (EU) and for national level performance targets in the example of Spain (Breakspear, 2012). Specifically, the paper examines the growth of OECD and EU initiatives in defining quality education, and the use of both EU benchmarks and PISA in defining the education indicators used in Spain to measure and set goals for developing quality education. By doing so, this paper points to the role of the OECD and the EU in national education systems. It therefore adds to a body of literature pointing to the complex relationship between international, regional, and national education policy spaces (cf. Dale & Robertson, 2002; Lawn & Grek, 2012; Rizvi & Lingard, 2009).