Effects of Ving Tsun Chinese martial art training on upper extremity muscle strength and eye-hand coordination in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults: A pilot study

published_or_final_versio

Comparison between smartphone pedometer applications and traditional pedometers for improving physical activity and body mass index in community-dwelling older adults

[Purpose] The effectiveness of a smartphone pedometer application was compared with that of a traditional pedometer for improving the physical activity and weight status of community-dwelling older adults. [Subjects and Methods] This study had a nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design. Ninety-seven older adults (mean age ± SD, 60.1 ± 5.5 years) joined the smartphone pedometer group and underwent a 2-week walking intervention based on a smartphone pedometer application. Fifty-four older adults (mean age ± SD, 65.3 ± 8.7 years) joined the traditional pedometer group and underwent a 2-week walking intervention based on a traditional pedometer. The participants’ physical activity was evaluated using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire– Short Form, and their weight status was quantified by calculating the body mass index. The daily pedometer count was also documented. [Results] No significant time, group, or time-by-group interaction effects were found for any of the outcome variables. However, trends of improvement in physical activity and body mass index were seen only in the smartphone pedometer group. [Conclusion] A smartphone pedometer application might be more favorable than a traditional pedometer in improving physical activity and body mass index in community-dwelling older adults. However, further experimental studies are necessary to confirm the results.Department of Rehabilitation Science

Effects of Ving Tsun Chinese martial art training on upper extremity muscle strength and eye-hand coordination in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults : a pilot study

2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journal201804_a bcmaVersion of RecordPublishe

Examining pre-service teachers’ opinions about digital story design

Math is a subject in which students are generally not very interested and are unsuccessful compared to other courses. It has been suggested that digital stories designed for educational purposes could be used to prevent students’ lack of interest and failure in this subject. However, designing stories that are fit for purpose is important if the use of digital stories is to be successful. The purpose of this study is to investigate pre-service teachers’ opinions about how they utilized the steps of Gagne’s model while designing digital stories for math lessons. The participants in the study were 49 pre-service teachers studying at a Math Department at a tur state university in the spring term of the 2014–2015 academic year. The Pre-service Teachers’ Opinion Form and a Personal Information Form, both developed by the researchers, were used as data collection tools in the study, in which the qualitative method was adopted. Content analysis was utilized to analyze the data collected through open-ended questions. When the findings were examined it was seen that pre-service teachers had designed digital stories in which they often chose to attract attention by creating interesting characters in the “gaining students’ attention” step of Gagne’s teaching model, that the main character stated the objectives/topic in the story precisely in the “informing students of the objectives” step, and that the characters created repeated the previous topic in the “stimulating recall of prior learning” step. In the current study, the integration of digital story design into lesson plans in accordance with Gagne’s model was carried out and pre-service teachers’ opinions about their experiences of this process were investigated. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature