Conceptions of Ability Influence the Learning of a Dance Pirouette in Children.

Conceptions of ability induced by instructions or feedback have been shown to influence motivation, reactions to failure, and learning in various populations. Few studies, however, have examined such effects on motor learning. The present study investigated the influence of conceptions of ability on the learning of a dance pirouette in 10-year-old children. Two groups of participants were given either acquirable-skill (AS) or inherent-ability (IA) instructions before they began practicing the dance skill. All participants performed 15 practice trials of a (right) pirouette in which the objective was to rotate as far as possible in a circle divided into eight equal sections, where the dependent variable was the number of sections rotated. One day later participants completed retention and transfer (left pirouette) tests, five trials of each, without ability conception instructions. The induced conceptions of ability affected children's motor learning differently, with AS participants consistently scoring higher. These results demonstrate the advantage of using acquirable versus inherent conceptions of ability to promote the learning of dance skills in particular and add to the growing body of research demonstrating the importance of socio-cognitive-affective variables in motor performance and learning generally.

Temporal-Comparative Feedback Facilitates Golf Putting.

The present experiment investigated the influence of temporal-comparative feedback in young adults learning a sport motor skill. A positive temporal-comparative feedback group and a control group practiced putting golf balls to a target from a distance of 150 cm and received augmented feedback (deviation in cm) in addition to their intrinsic visual feedback. The temporal-comparative feedback group was given additional feedback after each block of 10 trials, suggesting that their average performance was better than it was in the previous block. One day after the practice phase a retention test was performed, to observe learning effects. The results showed that positive temporal-comparative feedback enhances the learning of a putting golf task. Greater putting accuracy was observed on the retention test for the temporal comparison group relative to the control group. Questionnaire results also indicated that participants in this group reported higher perceived competence at the end of practice relative to control participants. The findings provide further indication that temporal comparison affects the learning of motor skills and highlight the important motivational role of feedback in motor learning.

A produção do conhecimento em Educação Física e suas subáreas: um panorama a partir de periódicos nacionais da área / Scientific publications in physical education and related areas: a snapshot based on brazilian journals in the field

Esse artigo descreve a produção do conhecimento em Educação Física em periódicos brasileiros da área, agrupando esses produtos em subáreas, verificando sua relação com a Pós-Graduação e a distribuição geográfica dos autores com base na sua afiliação institucional, a partir do último número disponível de cada periódico. Trata-se de análise documental, com dados extraídos do website dos 12 periódicos científicos da Educação Física classificados nos estratos B2, ou superior do WebQualis da CAPES de 2014. O último número disponível de cada periódico foi avaliado e os artigos publicados foram categorizados em subáreas, descritas a seguir. Foram analisa-dos 163 artigos relacionados à área da Educação Física, distribuídos nas seguintes subáreas: Pedagógica e Sociocultural = 42,9%, Treinamento Físico e Fisiologia = 26,5%, Atividade Física e Saúde = 20,4%, Comportamento Motor = 10,2%. Pelo menos um autor dos artigos estava vinculado a um Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Física em 99 (60,7%) dessas publicações. A maioria das publicações são oriundas de programas com conceito quatro e cinco da CAPES. Assinala-se a importância de os Programas de Pós-Graduação com conceitos superiores a quatro publicarem com maior frequência em revistas brasileiras, a fim de fortalecer os periódicos nacionais e auxiliar na consolidação da área da Educação Física no país.

This article described publications related with Physical Education in Brazilian scientific journals, grouped publications by sub-area and verified its connection with specific graduation programs and geographical distribution of authors' institutional affiliation based on the last available number of each periodical. Data were extracted from the website of 12 scientific journals that publish Physical Education related articles and are classified as B2 or higher in the WebQualis system proposed by CAPES in 2014. The most recent issue of each journal was evaluated and the articles were classified into sub-areas described below. We analyzed 163 articles related with Physical Education distributed in the following subareas: Pe-dagogic and Sociocultural = 49.2%, Physical Training and Physiology = 26.5%, Physical Activity and Health = 20.4%, Motor Behavior = 10.2%. In 99 publications (60.7%) at least one author was a postgraduate program member. Most publications were from postgraduate programs with scores of four or five (scores range from three to seven). In order to strengthen national journals and help to consolidate the area of Physical Education in the country we emphasize the importance of post-graduation programs with concepts above 4 to publish more frequently in Brazilian journals.

Additive benefits of autonomy support and enhanced expectancies for motor learning.

Two factors that have been shown to facilitate motor learning are autonomy support (AS) and enhanced expectancies (EE) for performance. We examined the individual and combined influences of these factors. In a 2 × 2 design, participants learning a novel motor skill (throwing with the non-dominant arm) were or were not provided a choice (AS) about the ball color on each of 6 10-trial blocks during practice, and were or were not given bogus positive social-comparative feedback (EE). This resulted in four groups: AS/EE, AS, EE, and C (control). One day after the practice phase, participants completed 10 retention and 10 transfer trials. The distance to the target--a bull's eye with a 1m radius and 10 concentric circles--was 7.5m during practice and retention, and 8.5m during transfer. Autonomy support and enhanced expectancies had additive advantages for learning, with both main effects being significant for retention and transfer. On both tests, the AS/EE group showed the greatest throwing accuracy. Also, the accuracy scores of the AS and EE groups were higher than those of the C group. Furthermore, self-efficacy measured after practice and before retention and transfer was increased by both AS and EE. Thus, supporting learners' need for autonomy by given them a small choice--even though it was not directly related to task performance--and enhancing their performance expectancies appeared to independently influence learning.