Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-41).

South African has experienced a decline in world netball rankings from being second in 1995 to fifth position since 2003. One of the reasons for this situation relates to the drop out of talented players, sometimes before even reaching the elite level. Secondly, the immigration of senior players to other countries is also a major concern. The aim of this research is to establish the main factors that contribute to this state of affairs by considering the sacrifices that are made by elite netball players with regard to the rewards that they obtain in return. Cohesion was also investigated to establish the impact it has on players. Management of South African elite netball was revisited to determine the effect it has on players. Possible factors that enhance participation among players were also investigated. The study was conducted by combining a quantitative with qualitative approach. The results indicated that serious attention should be given to professional management of elite netball to ensure that the rewards received counteract the sacrifices of an elite netball career. The biggest challenge in facing netball in South Africa however is the fact that netball is an amateur sport. Strategies were offered and recommendations made on how to effectively manage elite netball players in South Africa. / Prof. J. M. Uys Prof. Cora Burnett-Louw

Thesis (M. S.)--Literature, Communication, and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Pearce, Celia; Committee Member: Burnett, Rebecca; Committee Member: Do, Ellen Yi-Luen; Committee Member: Knoespel, Kenneth. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

A substantial amount of evidence exists which strongly suggests that elementary school teachers play a significant role in the socialization process through the inculcation of value and attitude systems in their students. Further, it is the teacher's own personal set of attitudes and beliefs that are either knowingly or unknowingly communicated. In this regard, the researcher undertook the systematic study of attitudes held by Vancouver elementary school teachers toward physical activity as manifest in sports and games, in an effort to gain some understanding of the role played by the elementary school system in influencing values held by children for physical activity. A sample of 135 non-specialist, elementary school, classroom teachers was drawn from the Vancouver Public School system. Each subject was requested to complete and return to the researcher, a copy of "Kenyon's Attitude Inventory." The data gleaned from the completed inventories was statistically analyzed through univariate analysis of variance techniques to determine what, if any, differences existed in teacher attitudes held toward physical activity, as a function of their sex, age and grade levels taught. With the exceptions of an age x level interaction effect for the ascetic subdomain for female teachers and a statistically significant, more positive attitude held by older as opposed to younger female teachers toward the vertigo subdomain, the attitudes held by Vancouver elementary school teachers toward physical activity failed to differentiate according to the sex, age, and grade levels taught criteria. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Group cohesion has been operationalized in the literature by measures which tend to focus only upon limited aspects of the phenomenon, usually interpersonal attraction or attraction to the group. In sport, it is imperative that instruments developed to assess group cohesion reflect factors associated with the goals and objectives the group is striving to achieve as well as factors associated with the development and maintenance of harmonious positive interpersonal relationships. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to develop a valid and reliable group cohesion instrument that measures both task related forces as well as social related forces that exist in sport groups.

Orientador : Roberto Rodrigues Paes / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação Física / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T02:43:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Balbino_HermesFerreira_D.pdf: 708315 bytes, checksum: 7877dc8e531cc053708c56dd3e60a048 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Os jogos desportivos coletivos, como parte de modalidades integrantes do fenômeno complexo Esporte, têm se manifestado significativamente no cenário esportivo nacional e sua expressividade tem se confirmado com a participação significativa das Seleções Nacionais em eventos internacionais, com destaque para diversas conquistas de posições expressivas em Jogos Panamericanos, Campeonatos do Mundo e Jogos Olímpicos. Técnicos brasileiros de modalidades coletivas têm seus nomes ligados às conquistas das seleções nacionais e tomados como responsáveis diretos pelo sucesso das equipes. Este estudo, realizado com o método de análise de conteúdo através de entrevista semiestruturada, contou com a participação de oito técnicos esportivos reconhecidos no contexto esportivo nacional e internacional, e teve como objetivos indicar fundamentos para a composição de um corpo teórico que abrigue a Pedagogia do Treinamento integrada à Pedagogia do Esporte e conhecer o conjunto de competências dos técnicos esportivos de seleções nacionais, de modalidades coletivas, com resultados relevantes em âmbito internacional. A proposição da pesquisa foi a de verificar os conjuntos de estratégias e procedimentos que estão além da aplicação de métodos de treinamento, compondo um contexto de ações na condução do processo de treinamento esportivo voltado para o esporte profissional. O corpo teórico, composto em dois capítulos para realizar as análises inferenciais das entrevistas dos sujeitos, abrigou no primeiro capítulo o entendimento dos jogos coletivos, na ótica da descrição de sua estrutura por autores da área, da sua compreensão na perspectiva sistêmica, dos princípios organizacionais e de treinamento. No segundo capítulo, compôs-se pela integração dos conceitos Esporte, Pedagogia e Treinamento, com a finalidade de dar base para o entendimento de estratégias e procedimentos pedagógicos do técnico esportivo. O desenvolvimento do processo de treinamento das modalidades pertencentes aos jogos desportivos coletivos exige o constante relacionamento do treinador com as informações nos mais diversos níveis, e com os conhecimentos desenvolvidos nas ciências do esporte. Concluiu-se que o ambiente do treinamento esportivo é um campo de práticas onde a educação se faz presente, podendo-se justificar a partir daí, uma pedagogia do treinamento e que a ação pedagógica do técnico esportivo transcende o método na medida em que supre as necessidades de procedimentos elaborados na flexibilidade de suas atitudes, e no entendimento de que as suas intervenções também se dirigem a níveis que um programa de treinamento não prevê, pelo padrão de imprevisibilidade dos jogos desportivos coletivos e da compreensão da multidimensionalidade do atleta / Abstract: The team sports games, as part of events which integrate the complex phenomenon Sport, have manifested significantly in the national sport scenario and their expressiveness has been confirmed with the significant participation of national teams in international events, with highlights on several conquests of expressive positions in Pan-American, World and Olympic Games. Brazilian coaches from team events have their names linked to the conquests of the national teams and are taken as directly responsible for the teams¿ success. This study, made with the content analysis method through semi structured interviews, counted with the participation of eight sports coaches recognized in the national and international sports context, and had as targets the indication of fundaments for the composition of a theoretical body that shelters Training Pedagogy integrated to Sports Pedagogy and the knowledge of the group of competences of sports coaches from national teams, from team events, with relevant results at international level. The research¿s proposal was to verify the group of strategies and procedures which are beyond the application of training methods, composing a context of actions in the conduction of the sport training process turned to Professional sport. The theoretical body, composed in two chapters to perform the inferential analysis of the subjects¿ interviews, sheltered in chapter one the understanding of team sports, from the point of view of description of its structure by authors from this area, its comprehension in the systemic perspective, in the organizational and training principles. Chapter 2 was composed by the integration of the Sports, Pedagogy and Training concepts, aiming the base for the understanding of strategies and pedagogic procedures of the sports coach. The development of the training process of the events which belong to the team sports games requires the constant relationship between the coach and information at the most varied levels, and with knowledge developed in sports science. It was concluded that the sports training environment is a field of practices where education makes itself present, making it possible to justify, from then on, a training pedagogy and that the pedagogic action of the sports coach goes beyond the method considering that it fulfills the procedure needs elaborated in the flexibility of its attitude and in the understanding that his interventions are also driven to levels a training program doesn¿t foresee, by the Standard of unpredictability of the team sports games and the comprehension of the athlete¿s multidimensionality / Doutorado / Ciencia do Desporto / Doutor em Educação Física

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of South Africa, 2002.

This thesis explores economic aspects of virtual worlds by focusing on a specific massively multiplayer online role-playing game, RuneScape. In particular, it examines the similarities and differences between the virtual economics and real world economics, the economic understanding of RuneScape players and the possibility of using virtual worlds as a laboratory for testing economic behavior and theory. This thesis uses a versatile methodology that includes texts, direct observation, self-reports, and other reports to investigate the research questions. Virtual economics in general and RuneScape in specific are understudied so far and this study fills a gap in the literature. The unique contributions of this thesis are: a comprehensive survey that reveals player perceptions of economics, a new equation useful for modeling money supply, and a new use of faucet-drain economy in massively multiplayer online games. The results indicate that virtual economics of RuneScape partially reflects real world economics, player perceptions of virtual and real world economy are surprisingly complex, and virtual worlds can be used to study real world economics. Game developers, players, economists, educators, researchers, and individuals who are interested in massively multiplayer online games and economy in general can benefit from this study.

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie navorsing het die verband tussen vroee adolessenterugbyspelers se doelorientering en selfkonsep, empiries en in die literatuur, ondersoek. Die literatuurondersoek het getoon dat doelorientering oar twee komponente beskik, naamlik taakbetrokkenheid en egobetrokkenheid. Taakbetrokke sportdeelnemers fokus op vaardigheidsontwikkeling en gebruik hulle eie prestasies as maatstaf vir sukses. Hulle beleef sukses wanneer 'n taak bemeester is, leer plaasvind, of daar 'n verbetering in die uitvoering van die taak is. Sukses word toegeskryf aan die mate van inspanning gelewer. Egobetrokke sportdeelnemers fokus op die wenmotief, gebruik normatiewe vergelyking as maatstaf vir prestasie, en beleef sukses wanneer hulle eie prestasies gunstig met die van ander kan vergelyk. Sukses word aan aangebore talent toegeskryf. Die empiriese ondersoek het bevind dat taakbetrokkenheid positief verband hou met die globale, persoonlike, en sosiale self. Egobetrokkenheid hou negatief verband met die fisieke self, en positief verband met kompetisie-angs. / The research investigated, in the literature and empirically, the possible relation between the goal orientation of male adolescent rugby players and their self-concept. The literature study indicated that goal orientation has two components, namely task involvement and ego involvement. In task-involved sport participation, skills development is emphasized, evaluation of achievement is self-referenced, and success experienced when learning takes place, a task is mastered, or when there is improvement in the execution of tasks. Success is attributed to effort. In ego-involved sport participation objective outcomes are emphasized (i.e. winning), evaluation of achievement is norm-based, and success experienced when own achievements are favourably compared to those of other sport participants. Success is attributed to natural ability. The empirical study indicated a positive relation between task-involved sport participation and the global, personal, and social self. A negative relation between ego-involved sport participation and the physical self, and a positive relation between ego involvement and competition-anxiety was found. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Spesialisering in Voorligting)

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie navorsing het die verband tussen vroee adolessenterugbyspelers se doelorientering en selfkonsep, empiries en in die literatuur, ondersoek. Die literatuurondersoek het getoon dat doelorientering oar twee komponente beskik, naamlik taakbetrokkenheid en egobetrokkenheid. Taakbetrokke sportdeelnemers fokus op vaardigheidsontwikkeling en gebruik hulle eie prestasies as maatstaf vir sukses. Hulle beleef sukses wanneer 'n taak bemeester is, leer plaasvind, of daar 'n verbetering in die uitvoering van die taak is. Sukses word toegeskryf aan die mate van inspanning gelewer. Egobetrokke sportdeelnemers fokus op die wenmotief, gebruik normatiewe vergelyking as maatstaf vir prestasie, en beleef sukses wanneer hulle eie prestasies gunstig met die van ander kan vergelyk. Sukses word aan aangebore talent toegeskryf. Die empiriese ondersoek het bevind dat taakbetrokkenheid positief verband hou met die globale, persoonlike, en sosiale self. Egobetrokkenheid hou negatief verband met die fisieke self, en positief verband met kompetisie-angs. / The research investigated, in the literature and empirically, the possible relation between the goal orientation of male adolescent rugby players and their self-concept. The literature study indicated that goal orientation has two components, namely task involvement and ego involvement. In task-involved sport participation, skills development is emphasized, evaluation of achievement is self-referenced, and success experienced when learning takes place, a task is mastered, or when there is improvement in the execution of tasks. Success is attributed to effort. In ego-involved sport participation objective outcomes are emphasized (i.e. winning), evaluation of achievement is norm-based, and success experienced when own achievements are favourably compared to those of other sport participants. Success is attributed to natural ability. The empirical study indicated a positive relation between task-involved sport participation and the global, personal, and social self. A negative relation between ego-involved sport participation and the physical self, and a positive relation between ego involvement and competition-anxiety was found. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Spesialisering in Voorligting)