Exploration du support social et de l'école auprès des jeunes durant la période de lockdown de la pandémie de COVID-19

editorial reviewedObjectives: This study aimed to explore social and school support for physical activity during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in adolescents, to investigate how those young people interacted with their school environment during the spring 2020 lockdown, and to examine how this could have impacted their practice of physical activity. This study also meant to provide an international perspective to these outcomes. Methods: Between December 2020 and March 2021, 2,948 Canadian and 1,356 Belgian high school students completed an online questionnaire assessing their perceived change in physical activity, their interaction with schools regarding physical activity, and the physical activity-related resources offered to them by their schools. Results: During the spring lockdown, most of the participants from both Canada and Belgium perceived a decrease in their practice of physical activity in comparison to prior to the spring lockdown, reporting important barriers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, significant decrease in the proportion of participants reporting a strong or a very strong support was observed during the spring lockdown for family, friends, community, and school. Finally, most of the participants indicated that they did not have contact with any of the school team members to discuss about physical activity during that period. Conclusion: Results of the present study describe a perceived decrease in adolescents physical activity levels an unsatisfactory overall picture of the social and school support provided to them during the spring 2020 lockdown, encouraging to take a step back and reflect on subsequent adapted strategies

Activité physique, temps d’écran et sommeil chez les adolescents belges et canadiens: le rôle de l’école lors du confinement lié à la COVID-19

Lors de la première vague de la pandémie de la COVID-19, plusieurs régions du monde ont imposé un confinement général à ses citoyens, forçant ainsi les écoles à fermer. C’est le cas notamment de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Belgique) et de la région de de Montréal (Canada), où la poursuite de l’enseignement à distance a pris un certain temps à s’organiser. Dans ces deux régions, les écoles secondaires sont demeurées fermées de la mi-mars jusqu’aux vacances estivales, entraînant une diminution des contacts entre les élèves et leurs enseignants en éducation physique, en plus d’une diminution des opportunités de pratique d’activités physiques. Néanmoins, peu d’information existe concernant ce qui a été mis en place par les écoles secondaires durant cette période afin de promouvoir la pratique d’activités physiques des adolescents. Les objectifs de cette étude sont de : 1) documenter comment les écoles secondaires de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles et de Montréal ont promu l’adoption d’un mode de vie physiquement actif chez leurs élèves, et 2) comparer la pratique d’activités physiques, le temps d’écran et le sommeil de ces élèves lors de la période précédant le confinement avec la période du confinement. Près de 2000 élèves de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles ainsi que 2661 élèves de Montréal ont complété le questionnaire en ligne. Les résultats obtenus permettront de brosser un portrait des contacts réalisés entre le personnel scolaire et les élèves, des sujets abordés lors de ces prises de contact, des ressources proposées et de l’impact de ces ressources sur la pratique d’activités physiques des élèves, en plus d’évaluer les effets du confinement sur leur pratique d’activités physiques, leur temps d’écran et leur sommeil. Une analyse comparative entre la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles et la région de Montréal est également proposé afin d’exposer les différences et les similitudes vécues dans ces deux régions

Effect of terminal accuracy requirements on temporal gaze-hand coordination during fast discrete and reciprocal pointings

Background\ud \ud Rapid discrete goal-directed movements are characterized by a well known coordination pattern between the gaze and the hand displacements. The gaze always starts prior to the hand movement and reaches the target before hand velocity peak. Surprisingly, the effect of the target size on the temporal gaze-hand coordination has not been directly investigated. Moreover, goal-directed movements are often produced in a reciprocal rather than in a discrete manner. The objectives of this work were to assess the effect of the target size on temporal gaze-hand coordination during fast 1) discrete and 2) reciprocal pointings.\ud \ud Methods\ud \ud Subjects performed fast discrete (experiment 1) and reciprocal (experiment 2) pointings with an amplitude of 50 cm and four target diameters (7.6, 3.8, 1.9 and 0.95 cm) leading to indexes of difficulty (ID = log2[2A/D]) of 3.7, 4.7, 5.7 and 6.7 bits. Gaze and hand displacements were synchronously recorded. Temporal gaze-hand coordination parameters were compared between experiments (discrete and reciprocal pointings) and IDs using analyses of variance (ANOVAs).\ud \ud Results\ud \ud Data showed that the magnitude of the gaze-hand lead pattern was much higher for discrete than for reciprocal pointings. Moreover, while it was constant for discrete pointings, it decreased systematically with an increasing ID for reciprocal pointings because of the longer duration of gaze anchoring on target.\ud \ud Conclusion \ud \ud Overall, the temporal gaze-hand coordination analysis revealed that even for high IDs, fast reciprocal pointings could not be considered as a concatenation of discrete units. Moreover, our data clearly illustrate the smooth adaptation of temporal gaze-hand coordination to terminal accuracy requirements during fast reciprocal pointings. It will be interesting for further researches to investigate if the methodology used in the experiment 2 allows assessing the effect of sensori-motor deficits on gaze-hand coordination

Play, Learn, and Teach Outdoors—Network (PLaTO-Net): terminology, taxonomy, and ontology

Background: A recent dialogue in the feld of play, learn, and teach outdoors (referred to as “PLaTO” hereafter) demonstrated the need for developing harmonized and consensus-based terminology, taxonomy, and ontology for PLaTO. This is important as the feld evolves and diversifes in its approaches, contents, and contexts over time and in diferent countries, cultures, and settings. Within this paper, we report the systematic and iterative processes under‑taken to achieve this objective, which has built on the creation of the global PLaTO-Network (PLaTO-Net). Methods: This project comprised of four major methodological phases. First, a systematic scoping review was conducted to identify common terms and defnitions used pertaining to PLaTO. Second, based on the results of the scoping review, a draft set of key terms, taxonomy, and ontology were developed, and shared with PLaTO members, who provided feedback via four rounds of consultation. Third, PLaTO terminology, taxonomy, and ontology were then fnalized based on the feedback received from 50 international PLaTO member participants who responded to≥3 rounds of the consultation survey and dialogue. Finally, eforts to share and disseminate project outcomes were made through diferent online platforms. Results: This paper presents the fnal defnitions and taxonomy of 31 PLaTO terms along with the PLaTO-Net ontol‑ogy model. The model incorporates other relevant concepts in recognition that all the aspects of the model are interrelated and interconnected. The fnal terminology, taxonomy, and ontology are intended to be applicable to, and relevant for, all people encompassing various identities (e.g., age, gender, culture, ethnicity, ability). Conclusions: This project contributes to advancing PLaTO-based research and facilitating intersectoral and inter‑disciplinary collaboration, with the long-term goal of fostering and strengthening PLaTO’s synergistic linkages with healthy living, environmental stewardship, climate action, and planetary health agendas. Notably, PLaTO terminology, taxonomy and ontology will continue to evolve, and PLaTO-Net is committed to advancing and periodically updating harmonized knowledge and understanding in the vast and interrelated areas of PLaTO

Variance in exposed perturbations impairs retention of visuomotor adaptation

International audience—Sensorimotor control requires an accurate estimate of the state of the body. The brain optimizes state estimation by combining sensory signals with predictions of the sensory consequences of motor commands using a forward model. Given that both sensory signals and predictions are uncertain (i.e., noisy), the brain optimally weights the relative reliance on each source of information during adaptation. In support, it is known that uncertainty in the sensory predictions influences the rate and generalization of visuomotor adaptation. We investigated whether uncertainty in the sensory predictions affects the retention of a new visuomotor relationship. This was done by exposing three separate groups to a visuomotor rotation whose mean was common at 15° counterclockwise but whose variance around the mean differed (i.e., SD of 0°, 3.2°, or 4.5°). Retention was assessed by measuring the persistence of the adapted behavior in a no-vision phase. Results revealed that mean reach direction late in adaptation was similar across groups, suggesting it depended mainly on the mean of exposed rotations and was robust to differences in variance. However, retention differed across groups, with higher levels of variance being associated with a more rapid reversion toward nonadapted behavior. A control experiment ruled out the possibility that differences in retention were accounted for by differences in success rates. Exposure to variable rotations may have increased the uncertainty in sensory predictions, making the adapted forward model more labile and susceptible to change or decay. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The brain predicts the sensory consequences of motor commands through a forward model. These predictions are subject to uncertainty. We use visuomotor adaptation and modulate uncertainty in the sensory predictions by manipulating the variance in exposed rotations. Results reveal that variance does not influence the final extent of adaptation but selectively impairs the retention of motor memories. These results suggest that a more uncertain forward model is more susceptible to change or decay

L’aménagement flexible de la classe : le point de vue d’enseignantes du primaire au Québec

Bien que l’aménagement flexible de la classe ait connu un regain d’intérêt dans le milieu scolaire au cours de la dernière décennie, encore relativement peu de recherches se sont intéressées à cette pratique. Cette étude exploratoire trace un portrait des perceptions d’enseignantes quant à leurs motivations et inspirations à opter pour cette pratique, à leurs intentions et à leur manière de la mettre en œuvre, aux défis rencontrés, aux bénéfices perçus, ainsi qu’aux ressources et au soutien sur lesquelles elles ont pu compter. Pour ce faire, 27 enseignantes du primaire ont été interrogées en lien avec ces dimensions et 6 d’entre elles ont également participé à des entretiens semi-dirigés individuels. Les résultats indiquent que l’aménagement flexible de la classe pourrait favoriser la différenciation en permettant de mieux répondre aux besoins des élèves, ainsi qu’à ceux des enseignantes.Despite a growing interest for flexible classrooms in this past decade, few studies have been initiated to investigate this strategy. This exploratory study focusses on teachers’ motivations and inspirations, intentions and ways of implementing flexible classroom, challenges encountered, perceived benefits, and available resources and support helping to promote this type of layout. To do so, an online survey was conducted with 27 elementary school teachers to get their perception about the aforementioned topics ; 6 of them also participated in an individual semi-structured interview. Results show that flexible classrooms may result in enhancing differentiated instruction, as it has the potential to answer pupils’ needs, as well as meeting some needs of teachers themselves