1,720,997 research outputs found
Education and Physical Activity in Childhood: Current Challenges and Perspectives Proceedings of the 4th CIAPSE Congress
Full text linkLike most school subjects and their respective mother sciences and research areas, physical education faces severe challenges caused by recent political and social developments. Due to the implementation of international guidelines and increased immigration, inclusion and intercultural learning, as well as corresponding teacher training, will be critical issues for the educational sciences in general and for physical education in particular. This applies also to the use of new information and communication technology. How, how often, under what conditions and for what purpose should tools such as tablets, software apps and activity trackers be used by physical education teachers and other physical activity educators and practitioners? What are the benefits and the risks? However, the most relevant problem the field of physical education and physical activity is currently confronted with is the changing physical activity behaviour of children and youth, particularly in developed countries. A joint effort of researchers, educationalists, politicians, and teachers is needed to determine the causes of young people’s physical inactivity and develop effective strategies and programmes that can be implemented in school as well as community settings in general. At the 4th CIAPSE Congress in Luxembourg, leading researchers and educationalists from all over Europe addressed these challenges and developments and presented innovative concepts. The main topics and sub-themes were: - The Promotion of Physical Activity and Play in Children - Physical Literacy in Children - Physical Education in Early Childhood and Primary Education - Physical Education Teacher Education in Early Childhood and Primary Education - Physical Activity in Active School Settings - Physical Activity for Health Promotion and Active Community in a Sustainable and Healthy World - Intercultural Learning, Diversity and Inclusion in Physical Education and Physical Activity - Physical Education, Physical Activity and New Technologie
Physical activity in the era of mHealth big data: considerations on accuracy and bias
Full text linkRecently smartphones have been considered a powerful tool with which to study large-scale population health on a global scale. Landmark Nature publications highlight the global uptake of mobile technology and the staggering potential for big data to promote large observational studies with big datasets from electronic health records. However, these data have to be generated through unbiased, accurate and validated measurement techniques. This paper discusses in detail some of the inconsistencies in smartphone health apps’ data collection and the issues arising from the increasing availability of low-quality health data. These threats to valid inference from observational studies using big data remain a great challenge to overcome and future research should focus on the development and validation of more accurate algorithms for health-related smartphone apps
Resurgence of Physical Education and physical activity in the COVID-19 era: Policy inconsistencies, implications and future considerations
Full text linkCOVID-19 has already changed the world, not only because of the disease itself, but because of the long-term effects of the world's reaction to the pandemic. Many countries worldwide have imposed large-scale or national closures of schools and sports facilities, and the practice of outdoor physical activity in public parks and playgrounds was not allowed, and these policy responses to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission have a direct impact on children and adolescents. Due to these measures, overall children's physical activity has been reduced and sedentary behaviour has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy brief aims to discuss policy inconsistencies during lockdown and physical distancing measures imposed on children and adolescents [i.e., school closures, screen-based (in)activity, curricular Physical Education, hygiene measures, active school travel, sport facilities and physical activity], in relation to current recommendations for exercise during the pandemic, and Physical Education school re-entry considerations
An opinion regarding equivalence testing for evaluating measurement agreement
Full text linkThe novel statistical approach ‘equivalence testing’ has been proposed in order to statistically examine agreement between different physical activity measures. By using this method, researchers argued that it is possible to determine whether a method is significantly equivalent to another method. Recently, equivalence testing was supported with the use of 90% confidence interval, obtained from a mixed ANOVA, which I believe is a more robust approach. This paper further discusses the use of this method in comparison to a more well-established statistical analysis (i.e. mixed design ANOVA), as well as various limitations and arbitrary assumptions in order to perform this analysis. The paper concludes with some remarks and considerations for future use in similar approaches
Physical Education students’ beliefs in four important curricular outcomes: results from three Greek Faculties
Full text linkPurpose: This study aimed to investigate Physical Education (PE) students’ belief systems toward the four important curricula outcomes goals (physical activity and fitness, self-actualization, motor skill development and social development) and to compare these beliefs according to gender and undergraduate Faculty program attended. Method: 690 Students from the three major PE Faculties in Greece were enrolled (465 males, 225 females). They completed a previously validated four-factor belief systems instrument. Results: Internal consistency reliability for the instrument was .915. A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a good fit of the current sample to the hypothesized four-factor outcomes model. The students did not view the outcome goals as equally important. The prevailing goal was physical activity and fitness, followed by self-actualization. Multivariate analysis of variance results for comparisons between sub-groups revealed significant differences between genders and undergraduate programs attended. Discussion/Conclusion: The findings, coupled with those of previous researches, imply that PE students form their beliefs mostly based on their previous experiences. These beliefs appear to be very solid and thus, undergraduate studies seem to have a small effect on their formation and modification
«Χορεύοντας» με τον Νίτσε: Η συμβολή του στον επαναπροσδιορισμό της αξίας της σωματικής διάστασης του ατόμου
Full text linkFriedrich W. Nietzsche is one of the few important philosophers that often mention the art of dance in his works, especially in the Birth of Tragedy and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The purpose of this study is to analyze Nietzsche's contribution to the philosophical foundation of dance. In addition, it will be attempted to present, through dance's approach, the primary role the philosopher assigns to the human physical dimension, in contrary to the intellectual one. Through petitions in the Athenian tragedy and especially through the relation between the Dionysian and Apollonian element, he approaches dance, which represents the absolute and collective affirmation of life. Furthermore, the "dancing" Zarathustra consents in secular life and creates new values through the dancing experience. He treats the body as equal, or even superior, to the soul, which is a simple component of the physical self. In conclusion, Nietzsche exalts dance and considers it an integral part of human development.Ο Φρίντριχ Νίτσε είναι ένας από τους λίγους σημαντικούς φιλοσόφους που συχνά αναφέρει στα έργα του την τέχνη του χορού, ειδικά στην Γέννηση της Τραγωδίας και στο Τάδε έφη Ζαρατούστρα. Σκοπός του παρόντος ερευνητικού πονήματος είναι η ανάλυση της νιτσεϊκής συμβολής στη φιλοσοφική θεμελίωση του χορού. Επιπλέον θα παρουσιαστεί, μέσω της φιλοσοφικής προσέγγισης του χορού, ο πρωτεύον ρόλος που ο φιλόσοφος αποδίδει στην ενσώματη διάσταση του ατόμου, σε αντιδιαστολή με τη διανοητική. Με τη βοήθεια αναφορών στην αθηναϊκή τραγωδία, και ιδιαίτερα μέσω της σχέσης διονυσιακού και απολλώνιου στοιχείου, αναδεικνύεται ο τρόπος με τον οποίο ο Νίτσε προσεγγίζει τον χορό, ο οποίος αντιπροσωπεύει για αυτόν την απόλυτη και συλλογική κατάφαση για ζωή, επίσης, ο «χορεύον» Ζαρατούστρας συναινεί στην κοσμική ζωή και δημιουργεί νέες αξίες μέσω της χορευτικής εμπειρίας. Ο ίδιος αντιμετωπίζει το σώμα ως ίσο, ή ακόμα και ανώτερο, από την ψυχή, την οποία θεωρεί μία απλή συνιστώσα του φυσιολογικού εαυτού. Εν κατακλείδι, ο Νίτσε εξυψώνει τον χορό και τον θεωρεί αναπόσπαστο τμήμα της ανθρώπινης ανάπτυξης
Physical activity, sleep and weight management in the COVID-19 era: a case report
Full text linkThe evolving COVID-19 pandemic has caused community-wide lockdowns, resulting in social isolation. Currently the routine physical activities (PA) of millions of people worldwide has been disrupted, while there is strong recommendation for individuals to remain physically active by taking short active breaks. The case study reported aims at providing detailed information of a male individual who was physically active before the community-wide lockdown and attempted to remain physically active during the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents data, over eight weeks in total (4 x 2-week periods), of daily PA (steps and outdoor workout sessions), sleep monitoring (total and deep sleep time), and body weight and composition, as well as a structured exercise programme developed and implemented during the quarantine period. PA and sleep data were objectively measured with the use of a wearable PA monitor (i.e. Garmin Vivofit 4). The daily 30-min training programme included High Intensity Circuit Training (HICT) with the use of the 7 Minute Workout ® app for Android, as well as body weight training (e.g. push-ups, squats). Results showed that PA based on step count has plummeted during self-isolation measures, however a home-based, individualized, app-driven HICT and body weight training programme, under the continuous monitoring of an exercise expert, has the potential to outweigh the detrimental effects of lack of movement. In order to increase daily PA up to the level before the lockdown, active commuting is an indispensable factor. Lastly, insufficient sleep quality and duration may undermine weight maintenance success and exercise performance. Implications related to these themes are further discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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