Con esta obra los autores intentan, y consiguen en aquellos aspectos en que centran su análisis, concretar un concepto, el de psicomotricidad, que a menudo ha sido utilizado de manera superficial e incoherente. Con el tratamiento que estos autores dispensan a la psicomotricidad, ésta deja de ser una mera alusión ambigua para evidenciarse como una alternativa metodológica, cuyo uso y aplicación didáctica requiere de una intencionalidad claramente expresada y de un compromiso teórico basado en el rigor de unos planteamientos multidisciplinares y de rotunda vinculación antropológica. La contribución más importante que a nuestro juicio realiza esta obra es la de demostrar que educación física y psicomotricidad no tienen por qué ser dos conceptos antagónicos o diferentes. Si se puede intentar educar físicamente desde diversas perspectivas, inspirándose en diferentes sistemas pedagógicos o en modelos teóricos y metodológicos la diversos, la educación física puede admitir formulaciones alternativas, una de las cuales sería la psicomotricista. En cualquier caso, al proporcionarnos una definición clara y concisa de lo que es la psicomotricidad, los autores de esta obra favorecen el desarrollo de una buena praxis y el diseño de intervenciones eficaces en educación física. José Luis Pastor Pradillo.

In early childhood education, children find in their own body and movement the main way to get in touch with the reality that surrounds them and, therefore, acquire knowledge about the environment in which they grow and develop. Undoubtedly, the progressive discovery of the body itself as a source of feelings and sensations, as well as exploring the different possibilities of action and bodily functions, constitutes necessary experiences on which children's thinking is built. Furthermore, the affective relationships established in psychomotor education situations, and particularly through play, are essential for the emotional development of children. Physical Education Initiatives for Early Childhood Learners offers globalized educational practices, didactic approaches, and proposals for intervention around motor development in the children ages 0-6 years. The book specifically explores laterality, coordination, relaxation, rhythm, etc. and how these are achieved through games, music, and motor stories. This book is ideal for early childhood educators, physical education teachers, administrators, daycares, preschools, early childhood learning centers, researchers, academicians, and students interested in physical education’s role in early child development.

In the stage of infant education, children find in their own body and movement the main way of getting in touch with their surroundings, thereby acquiring knowledge about the environment where they are growing up and developing. Undoubtedly, the progressive discovery of the body itself as a source of feelings and sensations, exploring the different possibilities of action and body functions will constitute the necessary experiences upon which childrens thoughts are being built. Besides, affective relationships established in situations of psychomotor education, and particularly through gameplay, will be essential for childrens emotional development. In this sense, this book is focused on justifying the necessary presence of physical education in infant education as well as showing a pedagogical proposal based on an attractive and entertaining motor intervention for children at this stage. This book contains concepts and assumptions about the psychomotor development such as the different motor skills and how to work them, the body scheme and the concepts of time and space and an explanation of how to work them in infant education. Concerning the importance of perceptions and sensations in this educational stage and from a practical point of view, it offers a teaching proposal to improve them. Additionally, this book not only details motor skills, but also explains how to work social, emotional and cognitive skills in an integrated way because the physical education in infant education is the best way to achieve this. Moreover, this book highlights the importance of motor games and the different kinds of games which can be used in infant education. With this in mind, the authors can make use of the games as a tool to improve the teaching-learning process and to make the learning visible. Furthermore, it offers different methodological strategies to improve the motricity in infant education taking into account different factors such as the materials or environments which can be used to develop motor education. This book is essential, owing to the fact that it provides examples which show how psychomotor storytelling, learning corners, workshops and projects based on action and adventure spaces can be worked in a classroom. From the authors point of view, professionals working in the field of infant childhood psychomotor skills may know and recognize the value of the proposals shown here so that they can teach other professionals to be more critical regarding their practice, increasing concerns about the development of motor skills physical education in infant education in its systematic form which, without any doubt, will result in childrens higher levels of welfare and health with regards to their own construction of the reality which surrounds them.

This book documents and disseminates experiences from a wide range of universities, across the five continents, which showcase how the principles of sustainable development may be incorporated as part of university programmes, and present transformatory projects and programmes, showing how sustainability can be implemented across disciplines. Sustainability in a higher education context is a fast growing field. Thousands of universities across the world have signed declarations or have committed themselves to integrate the principles of sustainable development in their activities: teaching, research and extension, and many more will follow.

UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles Aimed at helping readers improve the accuracy of their survey, Litwin′s book guides in assessing and interpreting the quality of their survey data by thoroughly examining the survey instrument used. The book also explains how to code and pilot test new and established surveys. In addition, it covers such issues as how to measure reliability (e.g., test-retest, alternate-form, internal consistency, inter-observer, and intra-observer reliability), how to measure validity (including content, criterion, and construct validity), how to address cross-cultural issues in survey research, and how to scale and score a survey. "I found this work to be of very high quality with respect to both content and writing. It is commendable in terms of communicating and facilitating understanding of sometimes difficult concepts. It will make an excellent text for my introductory course on survey research and, I imagine, for many similar or related courses in the social sciences or education. All the pedagogical features, including the exercises, are excellent, and the level of writing throughout not only is appropriate for an introductory volume, but also engaging and lively." --Daniel U. Levine, Department of Education, University of Nebraska