David Adé

Neurobiological degeneracy and affordance perception support functional intra-individual variability of inter-limb coordination during ice climbing.

This study investigated the functional intra-individual movement variability of ice climbers differing in skill level to understand how icefall properties were used by participants as affordances to adapt inter-limb coordination patterns during performance. Seven expert climbers and seven beginners were observed as they climbed a 30 m icefall. Movement and positioning of the left and right hand ice tools, crampons and the climber’s pelvis over the first 20 m of the climb were recorded and digitized using video footage from a camera (25 Hz) located perpendicular to the plane of the icefall. Inter-limb coordination, frequency and types of action and vertical axis pelvis displacement exhibited by each climber were analysed for the first five minutes of ascent. Participant perception of climbing affordances was assessed through: (i) calculating the ratio between exploratory movements and performed actions, and (ii), identifying, by self-confrontation interviews, the perceptual variables of environmental properties, which were significant to climbers for their actions. Data revealed that experts used a wider range of upper and lower limb coordination patterns, resulting in the emergence of different types of action and fewer exploratory movements, suggesting that effective holes in the icefall provided affordances to regulate performance. In contrast, beginners displayed lower levels of functional intra-individual variability of motor organization, due to repetitive swinging of ice tools and kicking of crampons to achieve and maintain a deep anchorage, suggesting lack of perceptual attunement and calibration to environmental properties to support climbing performance.

Evaluation of the Measuring Active Drag system usability: An important step for its integration into training sessions

This paper is the first stage of an iterative process aiming at the (re)design of a training device for swimming. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability of the Measuring Active Drag (MAD) system, a technical device for biomechanical evaluation and performance analysis. To do so, this study examines real activity of elite swimmers using this system. It was conducted within an activity-centred approach: the course-of-action technological research programme. Three international male swimmers volunteered to participate in the study. Two types of data were collected: (a) video recordings, and (b) verbalisations during post-protocol interviews. The data were processed in two steps: (a) reconstructing each swimmer’s course of action, and (b) comparing these courses of action. The results are presented in two stages: (a) the concerns and modalities of using, and (b) use sensations. One of the most important results was that these components changed according to the swimmer’s speed when using the MAD system. The discussion is organized in two sections: (a) usability of the MAD system, and (b) design proposals to insert MAD system into training sessions.

When design of everyday things meets lifelong learning

The present article deals with how the processes of learning and development can be taken into account in the design of everyday things. The objective is to encourage designers to consider the role of appropriation in their work in order to anticipate: (1) the integration of technical tools, objects and devices into a variety of spheres of activity; and (2) the long-range transformations initiated by the use of these things. We hope that this article will encourage exchanges between designers and researchers in the field of lifelong learning, as we are firmly convinced that mutual enrichment is likely and certainly desirable between the fields of design and learning theory. We also assume that making appropriation the basis for design will encourage reforms in the design of training situations.

Dynamics of Student Interactions: An Empirical Study of Orienteering Lessons in Physical Education.

ABSTRACT Introduction: Many studies in physical education (PE) have sought to identify and categorize the modes of student interaction in order to gain greater insight into the nature of cooperative activity. More others recent studies have examined how modes of interaction evolve on the basis of the modes of collective activity that they generate. These studies have shown to describe and explain the interactions among individuals and the processes they generate, which then lead to the construction, deconstruction or reconstruction of different interaction modes. Although some studies have sought to describe the dynamics of student interactions, very few have quantified these dynamics. By doing so, however, researchers might gain a new perspective on student interaction modes that inspires new designs for teaching in PE, thereby having professional impact. The present study extends this research by investigating the dynamics of student interaction, with a focus on the emergence of interaction modes during orienteering lessons. For this purpose, the study was conducted within the methodological framework of course of action theory, which is an effective approach for examining activity in natural situations to provide insight into the experience of activity from the actors perspective. Method: The study was conducted in two classes of seventh-grade students (about 12 years old) in which 16 students volunteered and were available for post-action interviews immediately after the lessons under study. These volunteers were placed in eight affinity-based dyads. The teachers planned orienteering lessons at similar levels of difficulty and duration but modified the lessons across a range of contextual features. Two categories of data were collected: (1) data from audiovisual recordings as the students searched for the checkpoints and (2) verbalization data during the post-action interviews with the students. The data were processed in two steps: one qualitative, the other quantitative. The qualitative step consisted of processing the data of the student experiences to characterize their interactions in the three different contexts. In the quantitative step, the data from the first step were graphically represented to depict the interaction dynamics within the student dyads. Results and discussion: The qualitative analysis showed the emergence of three modes of student interaction shared across each learning context: co-construction, confrontation and delegation. The quantitative analysis revealed the percentages of the different modes of interaction and therefore characterized the interaction dynamics. Our results showed that the interaction dynamics within the dyads were both unique and similar in the task contexts in terms of both ratios of change and distribution. Results are discussed across two major points of interest: (1) the observation of the same interaction modes whatever the context yet with quite different dynamics and (2) proposals for PE teacher interventions.