Pre-school numeracy play as a predictor of children’s attitudes towards mathematics at age 10

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Clerkin ◽  
Katie Gilligan
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Early Numeracy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Mathematical Performance ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Attitudes Towards Mathematics ◽  
Mathematics And Science

Numeracy activities in early childhood have been linked to children’s mathematical performance in subsequent years. However, few studies have examined associations between early numeracy play and children’s subsequent attitudes towards mathematics. This study draws on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 assessment to provide a retrospective snapshot of pre-school numeracy play reported by the parents of 10-year-old children (N = 4560). Most children were found to have engaged frequently in some form of early numeracy activity. However, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds had less regular engagement with numeracy play, while spatial play (e.g. building blocks) was less common among girls. The extent to which children engaged in pre-school numeracy play was significantly associated with greater confidence and (for children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds) liking of mathematics at age 10, controlling for other factors. The results highlight socioeconomic and gendered differences in children’s early activities about which policy-makers, educators and parents should be aware. They also suggest the potential role of numeracy play in fostering positive attitudes towards mathematics, which should be considered amid efforts to increase participation in science, technology, engineering and maths domains.

Language Use and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Policy-Makers and Educators in Northeast Vietnamese Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Ha Ngan Ngo ◽  
Maya Khemlani David
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Wedding Songs

Vietnam represents a country with 54 ethnic groups; however, the majority (88%) of the population are of Vietnamese heritage. Some of the other ethnic groups such as Tay, Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, and Nung have a population of around 1 million each, while the Brau, Roman, and Odu consist only of a hundred people each. Living in northern Vietnam, close to the Chinese border (see Figure 1), the Tay people speak a language of the    Central    Tai language group called Though, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di. Tay remains one of 10 ethnic languages used by 1 million speakers (Buoi, 2003). The Tày ethnic group has a rich culture of wedding songs, poems, dance, and music and celebrate various festivals. Wet rice cultivation, canal digging and grain threshing on wooden racks are part of the Tày traditions. Their villages situated near the foothills often bear the names of nearby mountains, rivers, or fields. This study discusses the status and role of the Tày language in Northeast Vietnam. It discusses factors, which have affected the habitual use of the Tay language, the connection between language shift and development and provides a model for the sustainability and promotion of minority languages. It remains fundamentally imperative to strengthen and to foster positive attitudes of the community towards the Tày language. Tày’s young people must be enlightened to the reality their Tày non-usage could render their mother tongue defunct, which means their history stands to be lost.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 261-270
Author(s):  
Arden Rowell ◽  
Kenworthey Bilz
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Law ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Psychological Analysis ◽  
Law And Psychology ◽  
The Relationship

Throughout this book, we have sought to identify what we see as the basic building blocks for environmental law and psychology, and for applying a psychological analysis to specific environmental laws. To that end, we have identified key ways we believe that psychological research can help in understanding and predicting why, when, and how people think about and respond to environmental harm. We have also argued that a psychological approach to environmental law and policy, which takes account of this research, can help the law more effectively shape human behavior to desired ends—whatever those ends might be. This conclusion flags a set of questions, projects, and data needs that could help policy makers and attorneys to even better understand and predict the impacts of environmental law as well as develop more effective (and in some cases cheaper) environmental laws and regulations. This includes the possibility of using law to debias; the relationship between politics and the psychology of environmental law; how environmental law might be updated in light of psychological analysis; and the role of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic within environmental law and psychology.

scholarly journals Extension Agents’ Perceptions of the Role of Extension Services in Organic Agriculture: A Case Study from Saudi Arabia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4880
Author(s):  
Bader Alhafi Alotaibi ◽  
Edgar Yoder ◽  
Hazem S. Kassem
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Organic Agriculture ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Extension Agents ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Organic Farmers

Extension services (ES) play a crucial role in addressing the various needs of organic farmers and little is known about the extension agents’ (EA’s) perceptions of organic agriculture and the role of ES in organic agriculture. This study investigated EA’s perceptions of the role of ES in organic agriculture. Data were collected via a questionnaire, which was sent electronically to all enlisted extension agents in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia. In total, 69 extension agents completed the questionnaire, representing a 54% response rate. Overall, extension agents had slightly positive attitudes toward organic farming but were unsure about their role and participation in this. Furthermore, their perceptions of the role of ES in organic agriculture significantly varied according to their age, work experience in organic agriculture, and education level. These findings have implications for the design of future training programs for the professional development of extension agents and will enable planners, policy makers, and related ministries to devise viable and workable policies and plans that truly reflect the concerns and challenges of extension agents and consider the skills of extension agents that need to be improved. This research will also have positive implications for the national organic agriculture policy, as it provides research-based information on the actual players in the farming systems of Saudi Arabia.

scholarly journals Youth Culture and EFL Students’ Development of Integrative Motivation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-389
Author(s):  
Ranwa Khorsheed
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Significant Implication ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Foreign Language Acquisition ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Integrative Motivation ◽  
Efl Students

The aim of this study is to examine the role of the habitual use of English mediums (English T.V programs and English websites), being informal learning contexts, in Syrian non-English majors university students’ development of integrative motivation. Furthermore, this study aims at highlighting the importance of integrative motivation in foreign language acquisition whether for teachers, learners or language policy makers. Results showed that the students professed positive attitudes towards learning English in general and a good level of integrative motivation. Furthermore, resorting to correlational formula has proven that students’ habitual use of English mediums do have a role in developing integrative motivation especially viewing English T.V programs. It was also noticed that the students’ integrative motivation did have a positive influence on their achievement in the English language course. The most significant implication of this research is that once learners realize that they could use English for self expression, as a desire brought on by the impacts of the international youth culture, they will be more integratively motivated to learn the language.

scholarly journals The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Europeans’ Immigration Sentiments

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Economidou ◽  
Dimitris Karamanis ◽  
Alexandra Kechrinioti ◽  
Sofia Xesfingi
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Macroeconomic Conditions ◽  
The North ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigration

AbstractMigration has manifested itself to historic highs, creating divisive views among politicians, policy makers, and individuals. The present paper studies the Europeans’ attitudes toward immigration, focusing particularly on the role of social capital. Based on 267,282 respondents from 22 countries and over the period 2002–2014, we find that despite the eventful past years, Europeans, on average, are positive toward immigrants with the North European countries to be the least xenophobic. A salient finding of our analysis is that regardless of the impact of other contextual factors, namely, a country’s macroeconomic conditions, ethnic diversity, cultural origin, and individuals’ attributes, social capital associates with positive attitudes toward all immigrants, independent of their background. Furthermore, social capital moderates the negative effects of perceived threat on people’s opinions about immigrants.

scholarly journals The role of innovation ecosystems in Industry 4.0 adoption

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 369-395
Author(s):  
Dominik T. Matt ◽  
Margherita Molinaro ◽  
Guido Orzes ◽  
Giulio Pedrini
Keyword(s):  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Educational Organizations ◽  
Innovation Ecosystem ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify actions and guidelines for enabling and fostering the Industry 4.0 adoption, as well as to understand the role of three ecosystem actors in these actions (i.e. companies, educational organizations and regional policy makers).Design/methodology/approach52 semi-structured expert interviews in the Tyrol-Veneto cross-border macro-region were carried out and interpreted using the innovation ecosystem concept. In particular, drawing from this latter, six ecosystem building blocks were identified and used to analyze the interviews' content.FindingsThe findings allow not only to build a comprehensive framework for action to support Industry 4.0 adoption, but also to confirm the importance of exploring Industry 4.0 through the lens of the ecosystem concept. Indeed, the authors show that R&D activities should be complemented with interorganizational actions, such as training and networking, and that all ecosystem actors should be involved in the Industry 4.0 adoption.Originality/valueThis is among the few studies that adopt the innovation ecosystem perspective to explore best practices for Industry 4.0 adoption, thus overcoming the weakness of existing papers based on a firm-level perspective. It also complements previous ecosystem-based research on Industry 4.0 by exploring the technology adoption side, rather than the technology provision one, and by considering the adoption of a wide set of technologies.

scholarly journals To Be (Vaccinated) or Not to Be: The Effect of Media Exposure, Institutional Trust, and Incentives on Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccination

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 12894
Author(s):  
Dorit Zimand-Sheiner ◽  
Ofrit Kol ◽  
Smadar Frydman ◽  
Shalom Levy
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Media Trust ◽  
People’S Attitudes

The COVID-19 vaccine has become a strategic vehicle for reducing the spread of the pandemic. However, the uptake of the vaccine by the public is more complicated than simply making it available. Based on social learning theory, this study examines the role of communication sources and institutional trust as barriers and incentives as motivators of people’s attitudes toward vaccination and actual vaccination. Data were collected via an online panel survey among Israelis aged 18–55 and then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings show that social media trust negatively mediates the effect of exposure to information on the vaccine on attitudes toward vaccination. However, mass media trust and institutional trust positively mediate this relationship. Incentives were effective motivators for forming positive attitudes and moderating the effect of institutional trust on attitude toward vaccination. This study facilitates a deeper understanding of health communication theory in pandemics and makes important recommendations for practitioners and policy makers.

POLICY CHANGE – THE ROLE OF IDEAS AND POLICY ENTREPRENEURS

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Arwanto Arwanto ◽  
Wike Anggraini
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurs ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Problem Framing ◽  
Exogenous Factors ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACT Understanding policy process involves many distinctive approaches. The most common are institutional, groups or networks, exogenous factors, rational actors, and idea-based approach. This paper discussed the idea-based approach to explain policy process, in this case policy change. It aims to analyse how ideas could assist people to understand policy change. What role do they play and why are they considered as fundamental element? It considers that ideas are belong to every policy actor, whether it is individual or institution. In order to answer these questions, this paper adopts Kingdon’s multi streams approach to analyse academic literatures. Through this approach, the relationship between ideas and policy change can be seen clearer. Ideas only can affect in policy change if it is agreed and accepted by policy makers. Therefore the receptivity of ideas plays significant role and it emerges policy entrepreneurs. They promote ideas (through problem framing, timing, and narrative construction) and manipulate in order to ensure the receptivity of ideas. Although policy entrepreneurs play significant role, political aspects remains the most important element in the policy process. Keywords: policy change, ideas, idea-based approach, Kingdon’s multiple streams, policy entrepreneurs.

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