Low Performance Group Research Articles

Seizing opportunity towards sustainable rice cultivation in sub-Saharan Africa

Increasing rice production on a sustainable basis is a major challenge to research for development in sub-Saharan Africa. However, apart from yield, little efforts have been made to benchmark related performance indicators (PIs) including net profit, labor productivity, and nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiencies (NUE and PUE). The objectives of this study are to (i) assess these PIs and their determinants, and (ii) identify areas needed to improve them. Data were collected from 2,060 farmers in irrigated lowland (IL), rainfed lowland (RL), and rainfed upland (RU) rice production systems across two agroecological zones (semi-arid and subhumid) in the 2018/19 wet season at 18 sites in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. Average yields were 4,952, 2,988, and 1,816 kg ha −1 in IL, RL, and RU. Higher yield was associated with higher profit. Labor productivity was 55 kg day −1 in IL, 75 kg day −1 in RL, and 49 kg day −1 in RU. Labor productivity was generally low because of limited use of agricultural equipment. NUE and PUE differed across production systems: 17%, 42%, and 49% of farmers had below desirable NUE (<40 kg grain kg −1 N) in IL, RL, and RU. Meanwhile, 62%, 44%, and 34% of farmers had above desirable PUE (100–250 kg grain kg P −1 ) in IL, RL, and RU, indicating a need to increase P application to avoid soil P mining. Cluster analysis of PIs identified four groups across 24 site–production system combinations. The low-performing group had larger field size, lower values for five PIs, and poorer crop management practices. These results suggest opportunities for improving rice productivity in low-performing groups through introduction of integrated crop management options, including improved crop and nutrient management together with labor-saving technologies such as mechanization.

Problematic Social Media Use and Academic Performance among University Students: An Evaluation from The Middle East

Background: The widespread use of social media applications generated a problematic behavior of excessive and inappropriate use that has been associated with mental health problems. Available data assessed this behavior using different surrogate markers in certain university majors. This study aims to assess the effect of this behavior on academic performance, using a validated tool, across different majors. Methods: A cross-sectional study that randomly recruited university students from three Middle Eastern countries. using an online survey. The study included 277 participants with an average age of 21.53±2.1 years. The problematic social media use (PSMU) was evaluated using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) and academic performance was evaluated using the GPA. Data regarding the demographics and the characteristic of social media use were collected. Results: PMSU was identified as an independent predictor of academic performance. The low academic performance group was more likely to use social media applications during the night, which negatively affected the ability to wake up the next day and be ready for exams. Conclusion: There is a need for a more large-scale systematic evaluation of the extent of PSMU and its effect on academic performance among university students at both the regional and international levels. These analyses will help in building effective interventions to reduce the impact of PSMU on university students.

Multi-Subject Analysis for Brain Developmental Patterns Discovery via Tensor Decomposition of MEG Data.

Identification of informative signatures from electrophysiological signals is important for understanding brain developmental patterns, where techniques such as magnetoencephalography (MEG) are particularly useful. However, less attention has been given to fully utilizing the multidimensional nature of MEG data for extracting components that describe these patterns. Tensor factorizations of MEG yield components that encapsulate the data's multidimensional nature, providing parsimonious models identifying latent brain patterns for meaningful summarization of neural processes. To address the need for meaningful MEG signatures for studies of pediatric cohorts, we propose a tensor-based approach for extracting developmental signatures of multi-subject MEG data. We employ the canonical polyadic (CP) decomposition for estimating latent spatiotemporal components of the data, and use these components for group level statistical inference. Using CP decomposition along with hierarchical clustering, we were able to extract typical early and late latency event-related field (ERF) components that were discriminative of high and low performance groups ([Formula: see text]) and significantly correlated with major cognitive domains such as attention, episodic memory, executive function, and language comprehension. We demonstrate that tensor-based group level statistical inference of MEG can produce signatures descriptive of the multidimensional MEG data. Furthermore, these features can be used to study group differences in brain patterns and cognitive function of healthy children. We provide an effective tool that may be useful for assessing child developmental status and brain function directly from electrophysiological measurements and facilitate the prospective assessment of cognitive processes.

PROFILE VARIABLES OF HIGH AND LOW PERFORMING SCHOOLS: DISCRIMINATING FACTORS OF MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE

The study aimed to identify profile variables that can discriminate the high-performing schools and low-performing schools based on the Mathematics test of the National Achievement Test results. Ten high schools each from high and low Mathematics performance groups were the study areas. Purposive sampling was considered in the study; all the principals and teachers from the high and low-performing schools were taken as principal- and teacher-respondents; simple random sampling was performed to identify student-respondents from the classes of each teacher-respondents. The researcher personally conducted the study using the three validated questionnaires to the 10 principals, 24 Mathematics teachers, and 500 students from the schools with high mathematics performance, and 10 principals, 41 Mathematics teachers, and 589 students from the schools with low Mathematics performance. The data gathered were analyzed using the pairwise correlation before the discriminant analysis of the SPSS. The analysis identified 18 out of 49 variables that could discriminate between the two groups of schools. Principals played big roles to attain and maintain the schools’ high Mathematics performance. Teachers’ number of training, attainment of Master’s degrees, class size, and the provisions for Mathematics textbooks, Activity Sheets, and a functional library were associated with schools’ high Mathematics performance. Educators and administrators could adopt the established discriminant function to identify the weaknesses of their schools’ mathematics programs and to have scientific-based decisions and interventions. This study did not only establish how the identified variables were related to students’ Mathematics performance, but it also showed how the influence of these variables to discriminate the high from low performing schools.

Leadership potential of individual-sports athletes

Introduction. Achieving high performance in sport is important for various actors – sportsmen, coaches, sports club, city, country. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the factors influencing sportsman’s success. The purpose of the study is exploring the sportsman’s leadership potential as a variable influencing the sportive performance and the athlete’s position in the system of socio-group relations. Materials and methods. The empirical study involved sportsmen of Moscow and Moscow region of both sexes, aged 15 to 21, in the following individual sports: track and field athletics, gymnastics and tennis (N=168). The following methodologies were used: Diagnostics of leadership ability (E. Zharikov, E. Krushelnitsky); Goal achievement motivation test (T. Ehlers); Volitional qualities self-rating by university athletes (N.E. Stambulova); elements of T. Leary’s Diagnostic technique for interpersonal relationships; methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis, descriptive statistics methods, Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results. The research showed that the group with low performance in sports activities included people prone to dictate (10%), while there are none of them in the group with high performance. Moreover, the low sportive performance group had power dictators (7%), while the high performance group had none of them. This may prevent a sportsman from adequately perceiving the coach’s comments and improving his/her skills. It was revealed that athletes with moderately pronounced leadership qualities prevail in the high performance group. It is shown that all of the three groups showed a moderately high level of motivation for success for the most part. However 4% of the respondents in the group with high sporting performance showed a high level of motivation for success, and 14% showed the same in the group with low performance. This confirms that too high motivation for success does not lead necessarily to sportsman’s high performance. It was revealed that the high-performance sportsmen group demonstrated pronouncedly such qualities as determination, courage and firmness. Direct positive connection between leadership ability and purposefulness, self-control and self-restraint was revealed on the basis of the correlation analysis. Conclusions. It was empirically found that the development of athlete’s leadership potential requires working on improvement of one’s personal qualities and motivational sphere, namely developing motivation to success and such volitional qualities as determination, self-control and endurance.

Blended, active, and persistent: An investigative study of blended learning affordances for active learning and student persistence in university-level introductory science courses

Higher education has seen the accelerated development of blended learning (BL), active learning (AL), and STEM education. This study explores a proposed framework showing that BL affordances enable or constrain AL and that the relationship between BL affordances and AL influences student persistence in introductory science courses and the sciences. A multiple-case study examined an introductory physics course and an introductory chemistry course. Interviewed were two student volunteers from high-, average-, and low-performing groups from each course. Course documentations underwent content analysis, and in-class and online observations were evaluated using the practical observation rubric to assess active learning (PORTAAL). The researcher developed a survey instrument, blended learning for active learning (BL4AL), capturing students’ perspectives concerning AL through traditional and nontraditional learning methods for their persistence in the sciences. Findings indicated students from all levels had varying views of BL affordances. However, in-class clicker questions and a third-party tutoring service were discovered to consistently enable AL. Students’ perceptions of BL for AL had a medium effect on whether they would continue in the sciences.

The Effects of Physiological Demands on Visual Search Behaviours During 2 vs. 1 + GK Game Situations in Football: An in-situ Approach.

We examined the effect of physiological workload on gaze behaviour during defensive performance in 2 vs. 1 +goalkeeper game situations in football. Twenty-two players were assigned to either a high- or low-performing group based on a validated measure of tactical performance. A total of 12 game sequences (trials) were presented under high- and low-workload conditions. At the end of each sequence, participants were asked to indicate their perceived exertion using the Rating Scale of Mental Effort and the Borg Scale. The low- and high-workload conditions were defined when the players achieved 60 and 90% of their maximal heart rate, respectively, as per their performance in the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test. Visual search behaviours were recorded using Tobii Pro eye-movement registration glasses. Players reported higher rates of perceived exertion on the high- compared to low-workload condition. Participants in the low-performing group increased their average fixation duration and decreased the number of fixations and number of fixation locations from the low- to high-workload conditions. The low- and high-performing groups displayed different visual search strategies with regards the areas of interest fixated upon. Participants in the high-performing group focused on the SpaceFrontPlayer, followed by Ball, and AnotherOpponent. The low-performing group spent more time focusing on the SpaceFrontPlayer and SpacePlayer than Ball and AnotherOpponent. It appears that physiological workload and tactical expertise interact in constraining visual search behaviours in football players. Coaches and practitioners should consider ways to manipulate individual and task constraints while attending to the close interplay between physiological workload, visual behaviour, and tactical performance during practise.

Effect of Transcranial Electrical Stimulation over the Posterior Parietal Cortex on Tactile Spatial Discrimination Performance

The intraparietal sulcus region, which is part of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), has been shown to play an important role in discriminating object shapes using the fingers. Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) and anodal transcranial pulsed current stimulation (tPCS) are noninvasive strategies widely used to modulate neural activity in cortical regions. Therefore, we investigated the effects of tRNS and anodal tPCS applied to left or right PPC on the tactile discrimination performance of the right index finger in 20 neurologically healthy subjects. A grating orientation task (GOT) was performed before and immediately after delivering tRNS (stimulus frequency 0.1–640 Hz) in Experiment 1 or anodal tPCS (pulse width 50 ms and inter-pulse interval 5 ms) in Experiment 2. Performing tRNS over the right PPC significantly improved discrimination performance on the GOT. Subjects were classified into low and high baseline performance groups. Conducting tRNS over the left PPC significantly reduced the GOT discrimination performance in the high-performance group. By contrast, anodal tPCS delivered to the PPC of the left and right hemispheres had no significant effect on the tactile GOT discrimination performance of the right hand. We show that transcranial electric stimulation over the PPC may improve tactile perception but the effect depends on stimulus modality, parameters, and on the stimulated hemisphere.

Performance analysis based on GPS data of Olympic class windsurfing

ABSTRACT This study examined the technical and tactical variables that determine performance before departure and during a race in all wind conditions. Data were collected from 44 Olympic-class windsurfers who participated in the World Cup and Allianz Regatta. Distance to the start line and speed 5 s before departure, distance to start line and speed when starting, and distance travelled and time at each leg were recorded via GPS (5 Hz). Average speed was calculated through distance travelled and time. Results indicated that the high-performance group had significantly (p < 0.05) less distance from the starting line and faster speed when starting than the low-performance group in heavy wind conditions. During the first or third legs with light and medium winds, the high-performance group demonstrated a significantly (p < 0.05) faster average speed in heavy wind and significantly less distance travelled, and faster average speed was observed in all legs. The first half of the high-performance group had significantly (p < 0.05) longer distance travelled than the second half. Significantly faster average speed was observed in light wind. These results may assist in preparing for the tactical and technical requirements during a race and enhance performance in every situation.

Diagnosing listening and reading skills in the Chinese EFL context: Performance stability and variability across modalities and performance levels

This study employed cognitive diagnostic modeling to examine whether learners' performance on the common subskills of listening and reading varied across modalities and performance levels, aiming to provide a better understanding of the similarities and differences between listening and reading in the Chinese EFL context. Specifically, we retrofitted a large-scale EFL test taken by 797 non-English-major undergraduates. We utilized the G-DINA package in R to obtain test takers’ mastery patterns of global and local subskills in the listening and reading tests and further compared them through a mixed-design ANOVA. The results showed that the comprehension subskills were manifested similarly in listening and reading, but a modality effect did exist. Learners generally performed worse in listening and their mastery status of local and global skills was significantly different across modalities in that learners fulfilled global tasks better in listening and local tasks better in reading. The high-performing group mastered global skills better in listening and local skills better in reading while the low-performing group mastered global skills better in both listening and reading. The findings of the study provide backing for a modality effect in L2 comprehension, encouraging comprehension theorists and language teachers to reconsider the value of the modality-specific characteristics.

What characterize high and low achieving teams in Interprofessional education: A self-determination theory perspective

ObjectivesCalls to promote team-based interprofessional collaborative practice in managing patients with complex health problems are ubiquitous. However, the literature remains silent on what characterises successful teams in interprofessional education (IPE) and on profiling successful teams. To help conceptualise successful teams, this study investigated the differences in attitudes and achievement between high- and low-performing teams in an online asynchronous and synchronous IPE programme, and the role of autonomous motivation in determining team membership. MethodsUsing extreme case sampling involving health and social care students, we identified ten high-performing teams and seven low-performing teams based on their team composite scores on three interprofessional collaborative outcomes: team effectiveness, goal achievement, and scores on the readiness assurance test. Each team had five to seven members of diverse backgrounds. Independent t-tests were performed to identify differences in interprofessional collaborative outcomes, namely teamwork and collaboration, patient-centredness, diversity and ethics, community-centeredness, and interprofessional biases for the affective domain and application exercise for the cognitive domain. We employed logistic regression in which autonomous motivation was used to predict group membership. ResultsHigh-performing teams were characterised as those whose members endorsed or valued “teamwork and collaboration” in IPE simulations. Compared with the low-performing groups, they better recognised and endorsed diversity and ethics, patient-centeredness, and community-centeredness. Membership to high- and low-performing teams was linked to autonomous motivation. ConclusionsHigh-performing teams have higher favourable valuing of important interprofessional collaborative competencies, and membership to which is predicted by autonomous motivation. The results suggest the need to pay special attention to struggling teams to facilitate desirable collaborative competencies, especially in terms of members' motivation. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

Understanding student teachers’ collaborative problem solving: Insights from an epistemic network analysis (ENA)

Collaborative problem solving, as a key competency in the 21st century, includes both social and cognitive processes with interactive, interdependent, and periodic characteristics, so it is difficult to analyze collaborative problem solving by traditional coding and counting methods. There is a need for a new analysis approach that can capture the temporal and dynamic process of collaborative problem solving in diversity online collaborative learning context to provide some insights into online collaborative learning design. During an eight-week semester, a total of 42 student teachers participated in two online collaborative learning activities. Student teachers' discourse data were collected, and the data were coded based on a collaborative problem solving assessment model. This study used Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to explore the collaborative problem solving processes of student teachers in different online collaborative learning tasks. The results showed that both the high and low academic performance groups worked to maintain positive communication, but the students in the high academic performance groups negotiated on ideas while the students in the low academic performance groups focused on sharing resources/ideas. Moreover, fine-grained centroid analysis on a weekly basis showed that the high academic performance groups began by maintaining positive communication, and ended by negotiating ideas, while the low academic performance groups began by sharing resources/ideas and ended by regulating problem solving activities. Finally, the implications, limitations, and future research were discussed.

The efficiency assessment of group work at the university

Group work at a university can lead to a noticeable growth of students' progress in studies, the ability to reason and motivate for further language mastering. The achievement of such results is directly dependent on each student contribution. Group support strategies such as role assignments, group contracts, anonymous grades and ratings are designed to encourage active student participation. The study objective is to reveal the students' perception of group work in general and the effectiveness of support strategies in particular. In-depth interviews were carried out in groups using support strategies. Students complained unequal contributions paying tribute to the social support provided by group members in both high- and low-performing groups. The students who scored high on the test results recognized the group work benefits regardless the overall performance of their groups, while students with lower scores perceived the group work as time-consuming «hard work»with little cognitive benefit. Anonymous comments from fellow students differed slightly between the high and low scoring groups. The numerical scores did indeed correlate with the group's overall performance. However, students in groups with the lower academic performance evaluated their classmates more rigorously, while students in higher performing groups were more generous in their ratings for less successful students. Scientific novelty lies in the approach to research group work at the university from the view point of students involving foreign experience and based on ideas, methods and technologies of Russian and foreign scientists. As a study result, it was determined that students of different levels of the subject training perceive group work as a valuable experience that has a positive effect on the learning process. The selected support strategies have shown the effectiveness varying degrees.

Visual strategies of young soccer players during a passing test - A pilot study.

In sports, studies on visual behavior have mostly focused on expert-novice differences during decision making tasks and during aiming tasks. How visual behavior changes during the early stages of skill acquisition however, has hardly been documented. The current study investigated gaze behavior of young soccer players during the execution of a soccer passing task. Gaze behavior of eleven 8- to 10-year-old soccer players was recorded while they performed the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test. Based on their score, participants were then divided into a high performance group (N=5), and a low performance group (N=6). Results showed that the low performance group tended to look more at the ball while they were handling it. These findings suggest that gaze strategies develop alongside technical skills. More insights in the interplay between technical skills and gaze strategies during skill acquisition could lead to improved training methods for young soccer players.

Communication skills in generation Z as future tourism employees

ABSTRACT Generation Z has recently entered the tourism labour market, where communication skills have been recognised as one of the most important soft skills. This paper investigates the communication skills of Generation Z as future tourism employees. Primary research was conducted using a questionnaire investigate five communication skill dimensions: written, oral, listening, digital, and non-verbal communication skills influencing the intention to improve these communication skills. The research methodology included Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) based on the PLS method. Findings indicate that nonverbal communication skills belong to the high importance-high performance group, while listening and digital communication skills belong to the low importance-high performance group. Written and oral communication skills belong to the low importance-low performance group. The paper’s contribution is an up to date conceptualisation of Generation Z’s communication skills and an examination of the most prominent communication skills among the Generation Z respondents.

Mapping primary students’ mobile collaborative inquiry-based learning behaviours in science collaborative problem solving via learning analytics

This article reports on a study focusing on understanding how primary students conducted collaborative inquiry-based learning (CIBL) supported by a mobile app during the COVID-19 pandemic when all lessons were conducted online. Learning analytics (LA) were used to map students’ behaviours in CIBL activities. One class with 35 students in Grade 4 participated in this study. Log data was collected and analysed using learning analytics with process mining techniques to understand groups’ CIBL behaviours in a mobile learning environment. The findings revealed high- and low-performance groups’ common and different features of CIBL behaviours. The research findings can help inform both teachers of making pedagogical refinement in the CIBL activity design, and researchers of developing scaffolding tools at different phases of CIBL on the mobile learning app to enhance students’ collaborative problem-solving skills.

Identifying the Most Successful Formula 1 Drivers in the Turbo Era

Background: Formula 1 is the world’s fastest auto racing circuit and one that is among the most-watched of all televised sports. With its international flair and glamor and the glitz it brings to viewers and spectators, it is no surprise that fans, commentators, and media covering the races enjoy ranking the most successful teams and especially the most successful drivers of all time. Yet, there are few empirical studies that have developed and/or applied rigorous methodological techniques to examine which drivers are the most successful within the recent turbo-hybrid era. Objective: This study uses novel group-based trajectory methods to rank the most successful drivers within the turbo area, 2014-2019. Methods: Group-based trajectory methods are used to identify distinct groups of drivers according to accumulated points. Results: Using total points accumulated during each respective season as our measure of success, results showed that the 45 drivers who competed during this time period could be classified into three groups, with the top-performing group of drivers being Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. A second better-performing group of six drivers followed and included Bottas, LeClerc, Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Verstappen, and Vettel. The remaining 37 drivers were classified into a third low-performing group, a great number of which scored zero points during the time period. Conclusion: The most successful Formula 1 drivers during the turbo era were able to be identified using group-based trajectory modeling, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg identified as the best drivers based on accumulated points.

A Study on Low Performing Students Perception towards Mathematics: A Case of Secondary Level Community School Students of Nepal

The students' perception of mathematics is equally important for the parents as well as the teachers to deal with them effectively. Therefore, this study is concerned with the secondary level low-performing students' perception of mathematics and its effects on their achievements. The study is based on the mixed-method survey research design consisting of 312 grade IX and X students, 119 male and 193 female students from the 10 community schools of Province No. 1, Nepal. A Likert-type survey questionnaire, 'Perception Towards Mathematics Inventory (PTMI) was developed and administered by the researchers to the participants. Thus, the collected quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews were summarized and analyzed categorically in high-performing and low-performing groups. The findings revealed that the perception of the low-performing students towards mathematics was found negative or they did not prefer to learn mathematics. Similarly, the student's perception of mathematics was found to have a greater effect on their achievement. The group of higher achiever students was found more positive and confident towards mathematics and the lower achievers were found negative and anxious. However, most of the students were found aware of the value of mathematics.

Trajectories of Idea Emergence in Dialogic Collaborative Problem Solving: Toward a Complex Dynamic Systems Perspective.

According to the complex dynamic systems (CDS) perspective, learning emerges at various system levels. This study built a coherent theoretical framework based on CDS and Bakhtinian dialogic theory and further employed the concept of attractor (i.e., certain stable states that recur over time) in CDS theory to investigate the trajectories of idea emergence and how they diversified group outcomes in dialogic collaborative problem solving (D-CPS). Two contrasting groups were compared using visual and qualitative analysis approaches. The analysis based on idea tree diagrams showed that new ideas emergent in group discussion tended to attract local utterances and performed features of attractors in CDS in both high-performing and low-performing groups. The analysis based on idea hierarchy diagrams revealed how ideas emerged at various system levels. It was also found that status problems were likely to affect the functioning of regulative feedback loops, which might give rise to different structures of idea evolution. This study proposed CDS theory as an alternative perspective, augmented by the ethical considerations of Bakhtinian dialogism, for examining the dynamics of D-CPS.

Comparison of appendicular lean mass indices for predicting physical performance in Korean hemodialysis patients: A cross-sectional study.

Few studies have examined the optimal adjustment indices for predicting low muscle strength or physical performance in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Thus, the present study aimed to identify optimal adjustment indices for predicting strength and/or physical performance in HD patients.Our study was performed at an HD center (n = 84). Appendicular lean mass (ALM; kg) was calculated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. ALM were adjusted to body weight, height2 (Ht2), body surface area, or body mass index. Physical performance tests (sit-to-stand test performed 5 times test, sit-to-stand for 30 second test, 6-minute walk test, timed up and go test, gait speed, hand grip strength, average steps per day (AST), and short physical performance battery) were also evaluated. Participants with a below median value for each physical performance test were defined as the low group.The mean participant age was 55.6 ± 12.8 years; 44 (52.4%) were men. The univariate analysis revealed a significant difference in ALM/Ht2 values between the low and normal physical performance group in all physical performance tests except short physical performance battery. The multivariate analysis revealed a significant difference in ALM/Ht2 between the low and normal physical performance groups in hand grip strength, 5 times sit-to-stand test, sit-to-stand for 30-second test, and AST. In women on HD, most indices were not associated with physical performance or strength.We demonstrated that, in men on HD, ALM/Ht2 may be the most valuable among various variables adjusted for ALM for predicting physical performance or strength.