title: The Influence of Analogy Instructions on Motor Skills: Processing, Preference and Performance

authors: van Duijn, Tina

abstract: When teaching a movement to novices, communicating knowledge about the movement by comparison with a similar, well-known concept (an analogy) may be effective, as no other verbal instructions or rules need to be provided. The aim of this PhD thesis was to investigate the potential underlying mechanisms that influence motor performance after analogy instruction. This may help guide the development of appropriate and useful analogies in clinical and other practical settings. Five chapters discuss experiments conducted in early learning of complex motor skills. In order to investigate the mechanism of analogy learning in children, Chapter 2 investigated children’s acquisition of a golf-chipping task. We asked whether an analogy presented after initial, explicit practice has an influence on performance, and whether this effect is moderated by the propensity to consciously control the mechanics of one’s movements (movement specific reinvestment). Movement-specific reinvestment predicted improvement in chipping accuracy after introduction of the analogy, indicating that children’s motor learning by analogy may depend on personal characteristics associated with conscious control. 
A reliable and objective measure to deduct underlying conscious processes during movement is electroencephalography (EEG). Chapter 3 explored the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity, cortico-cortical communication (EEG high-alpha power and coherence), and propensity for conscious control of movement (movement specific reinvestment) during novice performance of a complex motor task. Results revealed that the capacity for short-term storage and processing of visuo-spatial information is an important factor in early motor control. 
Analogies allegedly reduce reliance on verbal information processes during motor planning, which is a feature of psychomotor efficiency. In Chapter 4, we investigated whether analogy instructions promote higher psychomotor efficiency, characterised by greater high-alpha power in the left hemisphere of the brain and reduced coactivation between the verbal processing (T7) and motor planning regions of the brain (Fz) during motor performance. Hockey push-pass accuracy during a combined task (passing coupled with decision-making) was significantly better following practice using an analogy instruction compared to explicit instructions, and left-temporal EEG high-alpha power was significantly higher in the analogy condition. The analogy instruction may have influenced verbal aspects of information processing without impacting on efficiency of motor planning, and may thus promote cognitive, rather than psychomotor, efficiency. 
Individual characteristics of information processing may have an influence on how analogy instructions are interpreted and used. Chapters 5 and 6 investigated the associations between analogy learning and verbal or visuomotor processing as measured by EEG coherence, visual-verbal instruction preference, and performance. While Chapter 5 tentatively suggests that analogy learning may be of greater benefit to people who tend to rely on visual processes during motor planning, Chapter 6 suggests that changes in information processing (measured by EEG high-alpha power) and in performance after analogy instruction, depended on verbal preference. The findings are discussed with respect to the implicit motor learning framework and theories of movement automaticity. The thesis is rounded off by suggesting future studies and providing some guidelines for the use of analogy instructions in different groups of learners.

text: The Influence of Analogy Instructions on Motor Skills: Processing, Preference and Performance When teaching a movement to novices, communicating knowledge about the movement by comparison with a similar, well-known concept (an analogy) may be effective, as no other verbal instructions or rules need to be provided. The aim of this PhD thesis was to investigate the potential underlying mechanisms that influence motor performance after analogy instruction. This may help guide the development of appropriate and useful analogies in clinical and other practical settings. Five chapters discuss experiments conducted in early learning of complex motor skills. In order to investigate the mechanism of analogy learning in children, Chapter 2 investigated children’s acquisition of a golf-chipping task. We asked whether an analogy presented after initial, explicit practice has an influence on performance, and whether this effect is moderated by the propensity to consciously control the mechanics of one’s movements (movement specific reinvestment). Movement-specific reinvestment predicted improvement in chipping accuracy after introduction of the analogy, indicating that children’s motor learning by analogy may depend on personal characteristics associated with conscious control. 
A reliable and objective measure to deduct underlying conscious processes during movement is electroencephalography (EEG). Chapter 3 explored the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity, cortico-cortical communication (EEG high-alpha power and coherence), and propensity for conscious control of movement (movement specific reinvestment) during novice performance of a complex motor task. Results revealed that the capacity for short-term storage and processing of visuo-spatial information is an important factor in early motor control. 
Analogies allegedly reduce reliance on verbal information processes during motor planning, which is a feature of psychomotor efficiency. In Chapter 4, we investigated whether analogy instructions promote higher psychomotor efficiency, characterised by greater high-alpha power in the left hemisphere of the brain and reduced coactivation between the verbal processing (T7) and motor planning regions of the brain (Fz) during motor performance. Hockey push-pass accuracy during a combined task (passing coupled with decision-making) was significantly better following practice using an analogy instruction compared to explicit instructions, and left-temporal EEG high-alpha power was significantly higher in the analogy condition. The analogy instruction may have influenced verbal aspects of information processing without impacting on efficiency of motor planning, and may thus promote cognitive, rather than psychomotor, efficiency. 
Individual characteristics of information processing may have an influence on how analogy instructions are interpreted and used. Chapters 5 and 6 investigated the associations between analogy learning and verbal or visuomotor processing as measured by EEG coherence, visual-verbal instruction preference, and performance. While Chapter 5 tentatively suggests that analogy learning may be of greater benefit to people who tend to rely on visual processes during motor planning, Chapter 6 suggests that changes in information processing (measured by EEG high-alpha power) and in performance after analogy instruction, depended on verbal preference. The findings are discussed with respect to the implicit motor learning framework and theories of movement automaticity. The thesis is rounded off by suggesting future studies and providing some guidelines for the use of analogy instructions in different groups of learners.

year: 2018

title: Pedagogies of difference: Unknowing immigrant teachers as subjects forever in process

authors: Arndt, Sonja Kathrina

abstract: Immersed in the bicultural, increasingly globalized, yet uniquely local, Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood landscape, immigrant teacher subjects are shaped in complicated, entangled ways. This paper attempts to open fresh spaces for re-thinking knowable teacher identities by drawing on Julia Kristeva’s work on the foreigner and the subject-in-process. It explores the immigrant teacher subject as “infinitely in construction, de-constructible, open and evolving” (Kristeva, 2008, p. 2). In a sector that is grappling with the complexities of outcomes driven expecta- tions of productivity, mass participation and often homogenized indicators of ‘qual- ity’, this paper elevates insights into the subject formation of the Other, to expose cracks in this veneer, through the notions of the semiotic and revolt. In this critical philosophical examination, I reconceptualise the idea of knowing immigrant teacher subjects, and their confrontation and (re)negotiation of social, political and profes- sional expectations and unknowable foreignness.

text: Pedagogies of difference: Unknowing immigrant teachers as subjects forever in process Immersed in the bicultural, increasingly globalized, yet uniquely local, Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood landscape, immigrant teacher subjects are shaped in complicated, entangled ways. This paper attempts to open fresh spaces for re-thinking knowable teacher identities by drawing on Julia Kristeva’s work on the foreigner and the subject-in-process. It explores the immigrant teacher subject as “infinitely in construction, de-constructible, open and evolving” (Kristeva, 2008, p. 2). In a sector that is grappling with the complexities of outcomes driven expecta- tions of productivity, mass participation and often homogenized indicators of ‘qual- ity’, this paper elevates insights into the subject formation of the Other, to expose cracks in this veneer, through the notions of the semiotic and revolt. In this critical philosophical examination, I reconceptualise the idea of knowing immigrant teacher subjects, and their confrontation and (re)negotiation of social, political and profes- sional expectations and unknowable foreignness.

year: 2015

title: Te hau mihi ata mātauranga Māori and science - Cross cultural dialogue

authors: Joseph, Robert

abstract: The Te Hau Mihi Ata Mātauranga Māori and Science research project (the research project) will explore ways to link mātauranga Māori and western science. The purpose of the research project is to open a new creative knowledge space to unleash innovative thinking and cross-cultural connection that is unique to New Zealand which can be a source of untapped economic, social, environmental and cultural potential. The historic marginalisation of alternative value and knowledge systems has prevented quality engagement and dialogue between these two knowledge systems in New Zealand. The research project will develop, inter alia, a new inter-cultural dialogue process between Māori educated in western-based science and experts in mātauranga Māori.

text: Te hau mihi ata mātauranga Māori and science - Cross cultural dialogue The Te Hau Mihi Ata Mātauranga Māori and Science research project (the research project) will explore ways to link mātauranga Māori and western science. The purpose of the research project is to open a new creative knowledge space to unleash innovative thinking and cross-cultural connection that is unique to New Zealand which can be a source of untapped economic, social, environmental and cultural potential. The historic marginalisation of alternative value and knowledge systems has prevented quality engagement and dialogue between these two knowledge systems in New Zealand. The research project will develop, inter alia, a new inter-cultural dialogue process between Māori educated in western-based science and experts in mātauranga Māori.

year: 2008-11