Facilitating children's self-concept: A rationale and evaluative study

This study reports on the design and effectiveness of the Exploring Self-Concept program for primary school children using self-concept as the outcome measure. The program aims to provide a procedure that incorporates organisation, elaboration, thinking, and problem-solving strategies and links these to children's multidimensional self-concept. The results of this research support the notion that teachers and guidance counsellors need to establish a nonthreatening framework that allows them to discuss with children a range of relevant issues related to peer pressure, parent relations, self-image, body image, gender bias, media pressure, values and life goals, in a systematic, objective and cooperative manner. Within the paper, notions associated with self-concept maturation, 'crystallisation' of self-concept beliefs, cognitive differentiation and self-concept segmentation are reviewed

The Earth: Plasma Sources, Losses, and Transport Processes

This paper reviews the state of knowledge concerning the source of magnetospheric plasma at Earth. Source of plasma, its acceleration and transport throughout the system, its consequences on system dynamics, and its loss are all discussed. Both observational and modeling advances since the last time this subject was covered in detail (Hultqvist et al., Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses, 1999) are addressed

The ‘Self-Regulated Learning Opportunities Questionnaire': a diagnostic instrument for teacher educators' professional development

Many recent studies have stressed the importance of students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) skills for successful learning. Although primary teacher educators are aware of the importance of SRL for their students, they often find it difficult to implement SRL opportunities in their teaching. To support teacher professional development, an SRL model was described in a previous theoretical study. In the present article, this SRL model is elaborated towards the ‘SRL Opportunities Questionnaire’ (SRLOQ) that can be applied by primary teacher educators as a diagnostic instrument for classroom settings. A four-phase research design is applied consisting of scale development, score validation, further validation of the SRLOQ in primary teacher education, and a confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, a single case study is described that illustrates the usefulness of the SRLOQ in classroom practice

Measuring student teachers' basic psychological needs

In the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) basic psychological needs for relatedness, autonomy and competence are distinguished. Basic psychological need fulfilment is considered to be critical for human development and intrinsic motivation. In the Netherlands, the concept of basic psychological need fulfilment is introduced in the curricula of many teacher education institutes. In five teacher education institutes for primary school teachers, study coaches use a Dutch version of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS), to collect data to be used in a discussion with student teachers about their intrinsic motivation for a specific part of the teacher education course. On the basis of the outcomes of this discussion, study coaches and student teachers derive consequences for day to day practice in their classrooms. The data were also used to establish whether the theoretical distinction between three basic psychological needs is found in this sample of student teachers in the Netherlands. The results show that the constructs of relatedness, autonomy and competence are found and can be measured by using a 14-item five-point scale, partly based on the original BPNS, and partly on new items that focus on different sources of perceived need fulfilment, namely teacher education in general, the study coach and fellow students

A theory of challenge and threat states in athletes

We propose a Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA) which is an amalgamation and extension of the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, the model of adaptive approaches to competition and the debilitative and facilitative competitive state anxiety model. In the TCTSA we posit that selfefficacy, perceptions of control, and achievement goals determine challenge or threat states in response to competition. Distinct patterns of neuroendocrine and cardiovascular responses are indicative of a challenge or threat state. Increases in epinephrine and cardiac activity, and a decrease in total peripheral vascular resistance (TPR) characterise a challenge state and increases in cortisol, smaller increases in cardiac activity and either no change or an increase in TPR characterise a threat state. Positive and negative emotions can occur in a challenge state while a threat state is associated with negative emotions only. Emotions are perceived as helpful to performance in a challenge state but not in a threat state. Challenge and threat states influence effort, attention, decision?making and physical functioning and accordingly sport performance. The TCTSA provides a framework for practitioners to enhance performance, through developing a challenge state, and encourages researchers to explore the mechanisms underlying performance in competition