Examination of motor skill competency in students: evidence-based physical education curriculum

Abstract Background Researchers found that children with a competent level of motor skill performance are more likely to be physically active. This study examined how well K-1 students demonstrated motor skill competency in relation to Physical Education Content Standard 1. Methods Participants were K-1 grade students (N = 1,223-1,588; boys = 568–857; girls = 526–695; Mean age = 5.5 yrs old) who were enrolled in nine elementary schools. The K-1 students’ motor skill competency in running, weight transferring, hand dribbling, and underhand catching skills was assessed using four PE Metrics skill assessment rubrics in the intervention year 1 and year 2, respectively. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests. Results The students in the intervention year 1 and year 2 cohorts performed at the Competent Level or higher in the four skill assessments. The prevalence of the students’ demonstration of skill competency across the four skills was high in the two intervention years. The intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than the intervention year 1 cohort in the four skill assessments. The boys significantly outperformed than the girls in the two manipulative skills in the intervention year 1 and in the two manipulative skills and the weight transferring skill in the intervention year 2. No gender differences in the running skill in either year were found. Conclusions The evidence-based CATCH PE play a critical role in developing and building K-1 students’ ability to demonstrate motor skill competency in four fundamental skills. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03015337 , registered date: 1/09/2017, as "retrospectively registered".http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136120/1/12889_2017_Article_4105.pd

Effectiveness of quality physical education in improving students' manipulative skill competency

AbstractPurposeThis study aimed to examine the extent to which the quality physical education teaching (QPET) practices contributed to improving 4th- and 5th-grade students' manipulative skill competency.MethodsParticipants were 9 elementary physical education (PE) teachers and their 4th- and 5th-grade students (n = 2709–3420). The students' skill competency was assessed with 3 manipulative skills using PE metrics assessment rubrics. The PE teachers' levels of QPET were assessed by coding 63 videotaped lessons using the assessing quality teaching rubrics (AQTR), which consisted of 4 essential dimensions including task design, task presentation, class management, and instructional guidance. Codes were confirmed through inter-rater reliability (82.4%, 84.5%, and 94%). Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, multiple R2 regression models, and independent sample t tests.ResultsThis study indicated that the 4 essential dimensions of QPET were all significant contributors to students' manipulative skill competency. These predictors were significantly higher for boys than for girls in soccer and striking skills, while they were significantly higher for girls than for boys in throwing skill competency. Of the 4 essential dimensions of QPET, task presentation played the most significant role in contributing to all 3 skill competencies for both boys and girls. Further, students who experienced high QPET were significantly more skillfully competent than those students who did not have this experience.ConclusionIt was concluded that the QPET practices played a significantly critical role in contributing to students' manipulative skill competency

Development and Validation of Assessing Quality Teaching Rubrics

Purpose: This study aimed at examining the psychometric properties of the Assessing Quality Teaching Rubric (AQTR) that was designed to assess in-service teachers’ quality levels of teaching practices in daily lessons. Methods: 45 physical education lessons taught by nine physical education teachers to students in grades K-5 were videotaped.  They were all Caucasians (5 females and 4 males) with their teaching experience ranging from 6 years to over 20 years. Four investigators coded the taped lessons using AQTR assessment sheet. Results: The total scale and the four sub-scales of the AQTR had satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. The results of t-test and the MANOVA revealed that the AQTR was a valid instrument to differentiate quality levels of the Overall Quality Teaching, Task Design, Task Presentation, Management, and Instructional Response among each teacher, and between the above-average and the below-average groups. The confirmatory factor analysis further confirmed the establishment of the construct validity of the AQTR. Conclusions: The AQTR was a reliable and valid measure that can be used to assess in-service teachers’ quality levels of teaching practice

Development and Validation of Assessing Quality Teaching Rubrics

Purpose: This study aimed at examining the psychometric properties of the Assessing Quality Teaching Rubric (AQTR) that was designed to assess in-service teachers’ quality levels of teaching practices in daily lessons. Methods: 45 physical education lessons taught by nine physical education teachers to students in grades K-5 were videotaped.  They were all Caucasians (5 females and 4 males) with their teaching experience ranging from 6 years to over 20 years. Four investigators coded the taped lessons using AQTR assessment sheet. Results: The total scale and the four sub-scales of the AQTR had satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. The results of t-test and the MANOVA revealed that the AQTR was a valid instrument to differentiate quality levels of the Overall Quality Teaching, Task Design, Task Presentation, Management, and Instructional Response among each teacher, and between the above-average and the below-average groups. The confirmatory factor analysis further confirmed the establishment of the construct validity of the AQTR. Conclusions: The AQTR was a reliable and valid measure that can be used to assess in-service teachers’ quality levels of teaching practice

Corporate reputation past and future: a review and integration of existing literature and a framework for future research

The concept of corporate reputation is steadily growing in interest among management researchers and practitioners. In this article, we trace key milestones in the development of reputation literature over the past six decades to suggest important research gaps as well as to provide contextual background for a subsequent integration of approaches and future outlook. In particular we explore the need for better categorised outcomes; a wider range of causes; and a deeper understanding of contingencies and moderators to advance the field beyond its current state while also taking account of developments in the macro business environment. The article concludes by presenting a novel reputation framework that integrates insights from reputation theory and studies, outlines gaps in knowledge and offers directions for future research

Diving below the spin-down limit:constraints on gravitational waves from the energetic young pulsar PSR J0537-6910

We present a search for continuous gravitational-wave signals from the young, energetic X-ray pulsar PSR J0537-6910 using data from the second and third observing runs of LIGO and Virgo. The search is enabled by a contemporaneous timing ephemeris obtained using NICER data. The NICER ephemeris has also been extended through 2020 October and includes three new glitches. PSR J0537-6910 has the largest spin-down luminosity of any pulsar and is highly active with regards to glitches. Analyses of its long-term and inter-glitch braking indices provided intriguing evidence that its spin-down energy budget may include gravitational-wave emission from a time-varying mass quadrupole moment. Its 62 Hz rotation frequency also puts its possible gravitational-wave emission in the most sensitive band of LIGO/Virgo detectors. Motivated by these considerations, we search for gravitational-wave emission at both once and twice the rotation frequency. We find no signal, however, and report our upper limits. Assuming a rigidly rotating triaxial star, our constraints reach below the gravitational-wave spin-down limit for this star for the first time by more than a factor of two and limit gravitational waves from the l = m = 2 mode to account for less than 14% of the spin-down energy budget. The fiducial equatorial ellipticity is limited to less than about 3 x 10⁻⁵, which is the third best constraint for any young pulsar

The population of merging compact binaries inferred using gravitational waves through GWTC-3

We report on the population properties of 76 compact binary mergers detected with gravitational waves below a false alarm rate of 1 per year through GWTC-3. The catalog contains three classes of binary mergers: BBH, BNS, and NSBH mergers. We infer the BNS merger rate to be between 10 $\rm{Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}}$ and 1700 $\rm{Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}}$ and the NSBH merger rate to be between 7.8 $\rm{Gpc^{-3}\, yr^{-1}}$ and 140 $\rm{Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}}$ , assuming a constant rate density versus comoving volume and taking the union of 90% credible intervals for methods used in this work. Accounting for the BBH merger rate to evolve with redshift, we find the BBH merger rate to be between 17.9 $\rm{Gpc^{-3}\, yr^{-1}}$ and 44 $\rm{Gpc^{-3}\, yr^{-1}}$ at a fiducial redshift (z=0.2). We obtain a broad neutron star mass distribution extending from $1.2^{+0.1}_{-0.2} M_\odot$ to $2.0^{+0.3}_{-0.3} M_\odot$. We can confidently identify a rapid decrease in merger rate versus component mass between neutron star-like masses and black-hole-like masses, but there is no evidence that the merger rate increases again before 10 $M_\odot$. We also find the BBH mass distribution has localized over- and under-densities relative to a power law distribution. While we continue to find the mass distribution of a binary's more massive component strongly decreases as a function of primary mass, we observe no evidence of a strongly suppressed merger rate above $\sim 60 M_\odot$. The rate of BBH mergers is observed to increase with redshift at a rate proportional to $(1+z)^{\kappa}$ with $\kappa = 2.9^{+1.7}_{-1.8}$ for $z\lesssim 1$. Observed black hole spins are small, with half of spin magnitudes below $\chi_i \simeq 0.25$. We observe evidence of negative aligned spins in the population, and an increase in spin magnitude for systems with more unequal mass ratio