In light of the interrelation between motor and cognitive development and the predictive value of the former for the latter, the secular decline observed in motor coordination ability as early as preschool urges identification of interventions that may jointly impact motor and cognitive efficiency. The aim of this study was twofold. It (1) explored the outcomes of enriched physical education, centered on deliberate play and cognitively challenging variability of practice, on motor coordination and cognitive processing; (2) examined whether motor coordination (...) outcomes mediate intervention effects on children’s cognition, while controlling for moderation by lifestyle factors as outdoor play habits and weight status. Four hundred and sixty children aged 5-10 years participated in a 6-month group randomized intervention in physical education, with or without playful coordinative and cognitive enrichment. The weight status and spontaneous outdoor play habits of children (parental report of outdoor play) were evaluated at baseline. Before and after the intervention, motor developmental level (Movement Assessment Battery for Children) was evaluated in all children, who were then assessed either with a test of working memory (Random Number Generation task), or with a test of attention (from the Cognitive Assessment System, CAS). Children assigned to the ‘enriched’ intervention showed more pronounced improvements in all motor coordination assessments (manual dexterity, ball skills, static/dynamic balance). The beneficial effect on ball skills was amplified by the level of spontaneous outdoor play and weight status. Among indices of executive function and attention, only that of inhibition showed a differential effect of intervention type. Moderated mediation showed that the better outcome of the enriched physical education on ball skills mediated the better inhibition outcome, but only when the enrichment intervention was paralleled by a medium-to-high level of outdoor play. Results suggest that specifically tailored physical activity games provide a unique form of enrichment that impacts children’s cognitive development through motor coordination improvement, particularly object control skills, which are linked to children’s physical activity habits later in life. Outdoor play appears to offer the natural ground for the stimulation by designed physical activity games to take root in children’s mind. (shrink)

La obra filosófica de Michel Henry forjó una filosofía del cristianismo que se articula como una Fenomenología de la Vida, engarzada con una filosofía de la carne y consumada como una Fenomenología de la Encarnación. El núcleo de dicha fenomenología comienza distinguiendo entre la fenomenología del mundo y la Fenomenología de la Vida. La fenomenología del mundo planteó y plantea siempre un pensamiento confinado en la exterioridad, en el estar fuera; en lo ek-stático, que siempre olvida y niega la vida. (...) La Fenomenología de la Vida, en cambio, es la inmanencia y la auto-afección (el experimentarse a sí del viviente), que se expone desde las intuiciones esenciales del cristianismo: una vida que es auto-revelación; que es auto-donación, y que está caracterizada por el gozo infinito de sí en el abrazo patético de Sí, en la auto-afección. Ello, la Vida absoluta (Dios Padre, Dios de la Vida) auto-engendra eternamente a Dios Hijo, Cristo, el Primogénito, el Archi-Hijo. En Él nacemos a y por la Vida los vivientes, que somos los Hijos de Dios, Hijos de la Vida en el Archi-Hijo. Él nos singulariza engendrándonos en su Archi-Ipseidad. La carne del viviente es engendrada en el Verbo hecho Carne; Palabra de Vida, Palabra de la Verdad, Verbo de Vida, Verbo de Amor. (shrink)

Francesco Pesce | : Le présent article étudie l’enseignement des évêques italiens sur la famille et quelques questions éthiques, sur une période de dix ans. Pour les catholiques italiens et les Italiens en général, il n’est pas facile de faire la distinction entre le Vatican et la Conférence épiscopale italienne et, par conséquent, on donne de l’importance aux discours d’un évêque en fonction de son rapport à la position « officielle » du pape. Dans ce contexte, on examinera les (...) discours de quatre évêques qui ont une résonance publique, c’est-à-dire des interventions dans lesquelles ces évêques sont conscients de s’adresser non seulement aux catholiques mais aux Italiens. Il en résultera un panorama diversifié, qui montre différentes approches des problèmes de l’homme d’aujourd’hui. | : The article considers the specific Italian situation : Italian Catholics and Italians in general have difficulty distinguishing between the Vatican and the Italian Episcopal Conference. Thus, the voice of a single bishop is evaluated in connection to the “official” position of the Pope. In this context, the speeches taken into consideration have the following features : 1) have wide appeal according to public opinion, 2) are about family and ethical questions, and 3) want to give a contribution to the public discussion on the topics of above. Finally, after a comparison between the various positions and effectiveness and eloquence, a different approach to the problems of contemporary men and women will appear. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 212 Seiten: 155-178.

This essay explores the central role that Gentile assigns to concrete thinking. Through a combination of historical and theoretical interpretation, Pesce argues that Gentile's radical ideas had their roots in great cultural shifts of the nineteenth century, and in particular in the widespread dissatisfaction with the reduced conception of the person that had arisen through the scientific advances of that period. Gentile's stress on the richness of concrete thinking makes actualism an especially pertinent alternative to the empiricism and positivism (...) that pervade mainstream thinking today. (shrink)

When trying to help teachers cope with the critical situations they face in classrooms, public policies are mainly concerned with improving initial teacher training. I claim in this article that the role of lifelong learning should no longer be undermined and that the design of teachers' training should be supported by a thorough examination of the cognitive processes involved. A faulty view of cognition may explain both our emphasis on initial training and most of the difficulties faced in designing teachers' (...) training. Searching existing alternative metaphors of cognition and investigating new ones constitutes a way of coping with these problems: first to design new forms of training, second to understand the processes involved in innovative training methods that have already been implemented. My focus in this article is precisely the ‘metaphor of cognition’ that underlies innovative teacher training methods. This metaphor is based on Peirce's pragmaticism, and it describes teachers' training as a process of taking and changing habits. This article mainly investigates the links between Peirce's later semiotics, Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception and Varela's theory of enaction, in order to propose a threefold definition of ‘habit’ and define the notion of ‘educational gesture’, which constitutes a translation of the concept of habit in the field of education and training. (shrink)

My aim in this paper is to show the relevance of an ‘effective semiotics’; that is, a field study based upon Peirce's semiotics. The general context of this investigation is educational semiotics rather than semiotics of teaching: I am concerned with a general approach of educational processes, not with skills and curricula. My paper is grounded in a field study that I carried out in a school, L'Ecole de la Neuville, implementing Institutional Pedagogy in France. I first investigate the relevance (...) of Peirce's semiotics in such a context. I then propose several definitions for the word ‘institution’, referring to the core concepts of this particular pedagogy, before describing the concept of ‘institution-sign’, which is considered a useful tool for making effective connections between several aspects of semiotics. I finally assert that an institution constitutes a tool that allows teachers to favour semiosis in educational contexts. (shrink)

Internationally, governments, health and exercise practitioners are struggling with the threat posed by physical inactivity leading to worsening outcomes in health and life expectancy and the associated high economic costs. To meet this challenge it is important to enhance the quality, and quantity, of participation in sports and physical activity throughout the life course to sustain healthy and active lifestyles. This paper supports the need to develop a physically literate population, who meaningfully engage in play and physical activity through the (...) development of functional movement skills in enriched environments. This is a shift away from reductionist approaches to physical activity engagement and maintenance to an ecological dynamics approach that focuses on enrichment to support functional movement skill learning and development. This is an embedded approach to physical literacy that allows learners the space and time to “explore–discover” within environments that will lead to a concomitant self-organization of highly intricate network of co-dependent sub-systems resulting in functional movement solutions for the performance task and enduring positive adaptations to subsystems supporting the physical literacy journey across the life course. “Explore-discover adapt” is at the heart of two contemporary learner-centered pedagogies: Non-linear Pedagogy and the Athletic Skills Model. Both emphasize the importance of enrichment experiences from an early age, and throughout life course, and both appreciate the inherent complexity involved in the learning process and the importance of designing a rich and varied range of athletic, participatory experiences that will support the embedded development of physical literacy leading to ongoing physical activity for all. The final part of this paper will demonstrate the potential of an ecological dynamics approach for supporting the concept of physical literacy by providing a roadmap for a reliable and valid measurement of physical literacy when considered from both an ecological dynamics perspective and the phenomenology understanding of physical literacy. (shrink)

Respuesta al comentario de Carolina Sánchez. “Notas sobre la promesa en el pensamiento de Friedrich Nietzsche y Hannah Arendt.” Ideas y Valores 65.160 (2016): 279-283.

En este artículo, ofreceremos algunas reflexiones sobre la historia en la obra de Hannah Arendt partiendo de la premisa de que esta se asienta en su concepto de acción. Con tal fin, recurriremos a distintos textos en los que la autora alemana discutió nociones cruciales para su definición de la condición humana, a saber, las tres actividades bajo las cuales se le dio vida al hombre en la Tierra –labor, trabajo y acción– y la separación entre lo público y lo (...) privado. Nuestro vínculo con el pasado y su relación tanto con el presente como con el futuro estarán también en el centro del recorrido que aquí proponemos. (shrink)

Semiotic Theory of Learning asks what learning is and what brings it about, challenging the hegemony of psychological and sociological constructions of learning in order to develop a burgeoning literature in semiotics as an educational foundation. Drawing on theoretical research and its application in empirical studies, the book attempts to avoid the problematization of the distinction between theory and practice in semiotics. It covers topics such as signs, significance and semiosis; the ontology of learning; the limits of learning; ecosemiotics; ecology (...) and sexuality. -/- The book is written by five of the key figures in the semiotics field, each committed to the belief that living is a process of interaction through acts of signification with a signifying environment. While the authors are agreed on the value of semiotic frameworks, the book aims not to present an entirely coherent line in every respect, but rather to reflect ongoing scholarship and debates in the area. In light of this, the book offers a range of possible interpretations of major semiotic theorists, unsettling assumptions while offering a fresh, and still developing, series of perspectives on learning from academics grounded in semiotics. -/- Semiotic Theory of Learning is a timely and valuable text that will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduates working in the fields of educational studies, semiotics, psychology, philosophy, applied linguistics and media studies. (shrink)

The paper proposes a notion of fairness which overcomes the conflict arising between efficiency and the absence of envy in economies with uncertainty and asymmetrically informed agents. We do it in general economies which include, as particular cases, the main models of differential information economies, providing in this framework a natural competitive equilibrium notion which satisfies the fair criterion. The analysis is conducted allowing the presence of large traders, which may cause the lack of perfect competition.