scholarly journals The Influence of Biographical Factors on Adult Learner Self-Directedness in an Open Distance Learning Environment

Author(s):  
Jo-Anne Botha ◽  
Mariette Coetzee

<p>This study investigated the relationship between self-directedness (as measured by the Adult Learner Self-Directedness Scale) and biographical factors such as age, race, and gender of adult learners enrolled at a South African open distance learning (ODL) higher education institution. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses were used. A stratified random sample of 1,102 mainly black and female learners participated in the study. The Adult Learner Self-Directedness Scale (ALSDS) identified four constructs of adult learner self-directedness in an Open Distance Learning Higher Education (ODLHE) milieu, namely the strategic utilisation of officially provided resources, engaged academic activity, success orientation for ODLHE, and academically motivated behaviour. The research indicated that significant differences exist between the gender, race and age groups with regard to self-directedness.</p><p>With regard to gender, males scored significantly higher than females on success orientation for ODLHE and engaged academic activity. With regard to race, Indian participants scored significantly higher than the other race groups on strategic utilisation of officially provided resources and engaged academic activity. The white participants scored significantly higher than the other race groups on success orientation for ODLHE. In terms of age, the age group &gt;50 scored significantly higher than the other age groups on success orientation for ODLHE and self-efficacy. In terms of success orientation, the means for the age groups seem to increase as the ages of participants increase. The age group 18-25 scored significantly higher than the other age groups on engaged academic activity.</p>

Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Chehab ◽  
Maria Doughan ◽  
Rami Z. Morsi ◽  
Amjad Kanj ◽  
Ali Abdallah ◽  
...  

Introduction: Periodontal disease (PD) is an acquired disorder characterized by inflammation of the gums, resulting eventually in loss of teeth. Epidemiological studies have shown a link between PD and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The aim of this study is to evaluate differences in the prevalence of CVD amongst US patients with PD of different age, race and sex. Method: Using the US national in-patient sample database (NIS) from 2005-2014, patients with PD and CVD were identified. Results: 155,732 hospitalizations with PD were included in the study, of which 36.5% had at least one CVD. Ischemic heart disease was the most prevalent CVD (17.6%), followed by heart failure (10.9%), atrial fibrillation/flutter (10.1%) and cerebrovascular disease (CRVD) (9.7%). The overall in-hospital mortality was higher in PD patients with CVD (2.6% vs 1.2%, p<0.0001). Figure 1C highlights the prevalence of various subtypes of CVD among different gender. When stratifying hospitalized patients with PD and CVD based on race and age, there was higher prevalence of CVD among Asians and Pacific Islanders (42.4%) (Figure 1A-B) and with increasing age (≥70, 56-69, and 18-55; 67.4% vs 50.1% vs 20.3%, p<0.001, respectively). Significant increase trends in the prevalence of AF, HF, and CRVD in the young, middle, and older age group was noted (P-trend<0.001) (Figure1A). Conclusion: CVD is prevalent in patients with PD and is more common in males and among Asians and Pacific Islanders. Higher mortality was reported among hospitalized PD patients with CVD. An increase in trend in the prevalence of AF, HF, and CRVD was noted across all age groups. This may require age, race, and gender specific strategies in PD patients for primary prevention of different CVD.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simran Sharma

The aim of the present study was to find out whether age and gender have an influence on the sexual attitudes of people. The following components of sexual attitude were studied namely: Attitude towards lesbianism and homosexuality. The sample consisted of 100 subjects in which 50 were from the age group of 18-28 years further divided equally with respect to gender (25-male, 25-female) and the other 50 in the age group of 50-60 years similarly divided into male and female. 2×2 Factorial design was used as the research design for the present study. The sample was first divided in two groups on the basis of age and then further on the basis of gender. Personal data sheet and a questionnaire titled ‘Sexual Attitude Scale’ developed by Amit Abraham was used for data collection. Gathered data was calculated and analysed by F-test (ANOVA). The results revealed that subjects in the age group of 18-28 years had a favourable sexual attitude and 50-60 years had an unfavourable sexual attitude. On the basis of gender, males showed a favourable sexual attitude over females. While studying the interaction of age and gender on sexual attitudes it was found that males in the age group of 18-28 years had the most favourable sexual attitude whereas the females in the age groups of 50-60 years had the least favourable sexual attitude.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simran Sharma

The aim of the present study was to find out whether age and gender have an influence on the sexual attitudes of people. The following components of sexual attitude were studied namely: Attitude towards lesbianism and homosexuality. The sample consisted of 100 subjects in which 50 were from the age group of 18-28 years further divided equally with respect to gender (25-male, 25-female) and the other 50 in the age group of 50-60 years similarly divided into male and female. 2×2 Factorial design was used as the research design for the present study. The sample was first divided in two groups on the basis of age and then further on the basis of gender. Personal data sheet and a questionnaire titled ‘Sexual Attitude Scale’ developed by Amit Abraham was used for data collection. Gathered data was calculated and analysed by F-test (ANOVA). The results revealed that subjects in the age group of 18-28 years had a favourable sexual attitude and 50-60 years had an unfavourable sexual attitude. On the basis of gender, males showed a favourable sexual attitude over females. While studying the interaction of age and gender on sexual attitudes it was found that males in the age group of 18-28 years had the most favourable sexual attitude whereas the females in the age groups of 50-60 years had the least favourable sexual attitude.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mårten Lagergren ◽  
Noriko Kurube ◽  
Yasuhiko Saito

Population aging is expected to increase long-term care (LTC) costs in both Japan and Sweden. This study projected LTC costs for 2010 through 2040 for different assumptions of population change, LTC need by age group and gender, and LTC provided per level of need and cost in Japan and Sweden. Population data were taken from the official national forecasts. Needs projections were based on epidemiological data from the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging and the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions. Data on LTC provision by need and cost were taken from nine Japanese municipalities collected by assessments in the LTC insurance system and from surveys in eight Swedish municipalities. Total initial costs were calibrated to official national figures. Two projections based on two different scenarios were made for each country from 2010 to 2040. The first scenario assumed a constant level of need for LTC by age group and gender, and the other assumed a continuation of the present LTC need trends until 2025. For Japan, this resulted in a projected cost increase of 93% for the one and 80% for the other; for Sweden it was 52% and 24%, respectively. The results reflected differences in population aging and health development.


2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinde Coetzee

The main objective of this study was to explore broad trends regarding how individuals from various age, educational, marital, race and gender groups in the South African organisational context differ in terms of their psychological career resources, as measured by the Psychological Career Resources Inventory. A sample of 2 997 working adults registered as students at a South African higher distance education institution participated in this study. The results indicate significant differences between the various biographical variables and the participants’ psychological career resources. In the context of employment equity, and with more women entering the workplace, this study is expected to contribute important knowledge that will inform career development practices concerned with enhancing employees’ career meta-competencies as an important element of their general employability.


Author(s):  
Elżbieta Janczyk-Strzała

The basis of any business, including non-public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), is financial security, which is ensured by achieving sufficiently high profits and financial liquidity. Especially in these times, a rapidly changing market, the competition, and the upcoming birth rate forces HEIs to optimize operational and strategic decisions. On one hand, it creates new opportunities for non-public HEIs, but on the other, it is a source of danger for the future of their operations. Therefore, they must not only overcome the difficulties encountered in everyday life but also try to respond to the challenges posed by their environment, demonstrating the special care to ensure the efficiency of their operations. They must not only try to increase the quality of offered services or manage their funds rationally but with equal attention should “invest” in modern management methods and concepts. Through the use of controlling, contemporary non-public HEIs are able to choose an optimum variant of decision facilitating the achievement of their goals. In view of the above, this chapter discusses the special considerations relating to controlling HEIs from the point of view of increasing their effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Sereana Naepi

Pasifika women in the academy face many of the same challenges as other racialised women working in universities. At the intersection of race and gender, we experience the white and masculine imprints of higher education. These imprints lead to Pasifika women experiencing excess labour, infantilization, hyper-surveillance, stranger making, expectations of intelligibility, and desirable diversity. In spite of this daily onslaught Pasifika, women continue to work and engage in higher education and the question needs to be asked: Why? This chapter explores these experiences and more importantly the motivations of Pasifika women to continue to engage with higher education in spite of the systemic exclusion they face.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangio FERRARI ◽  
Elisa Cantú Germano DUTRA ◽  
Henrieli Correia ZANARDI ◽  
Bruno Lorenzo SCOLARO ◽  
Odemari Miranda FERRARI

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The bacterium Helicobacter pylori is strongly associated with the development of gastric adenocarcinoma. Currently, the prevalence in developed countries is 40%, but this value increases considerably in developing countries, which can reach rates bigger than 90%. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the mean and annual prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in patients from Itajaí during the period from July 1992 to April 2016, as well as the gender and age groups most affected. METHODS: After consent of the clinical director of the Gastroclinica Itajaí and confidentiality commitment about the research, the database of the Endoscopy Service of the clinic was evaluated. All the patients who underwent their first upper digestive endoscopy with urease test and/or histological analysis were included. The data were submitted to statistical analysis of prevalence by gender, age group and years of study, with subsequent correction through the confidence interval. RESULTS: The mean prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection thru all years of study was 50.07%. With the calculation of the annual prevalences, it was evident the gradual reduction of infection in the population of Itajaí, that was 81.3% in 1992, declining to 33% in the year of 2016. When classifying the prevalence of infection by gender, it was higher in males (53.59%), and gender distribution by age group showed no statistically significant difference among genders between the ages of 40 and 80 years. In relation to the age group, the highest prevalence was in the group between 40 and 49 years. CONCLUSION: Although this study is retrospective and based on endoscopic database analysis, without access to clinical data of patients such as prior use of proton pump inhibitor and antibiotics to endoscopy, its results are important because they may reflect the current panorama of Helicobacter pylori infection in the city under study, where it has been presenting a gradual reduction of prevalence over the years, with current rates similar to that of developed countries (33%). Future studies are needed to confirm our data.


1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (41) ◽  
pp. 55-61
Author(s):  
Kim F. Hall

This article and the two following were prepared as complementary contributions to a panel of the American Association for Higher Education conference on ‘Theatre and Cultural Pluralism’, held in Atlanta, Georgia, in August 1992. In the first, Kim F. Hall, from the Department of English at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, describes her experiences as an African American feminist teaching Shakespeare – often against the expectations of students who expect either an affirmation of his supposed universality, a simplistic condemnation of his politically incorrect positions on race and gender – or his appropriation, on behalf of those wishing to stake their own claim to the ‘culture of power’ he is taken to represent. Instead, Kim F. Hall proposes that feminism offers ‘one way of helping students look at Shakespeare ‘multiculturally’, since gender is one area of inquiry that both crosses cultures and forces one to think about the differences between cultures’.


2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 713-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELE KAIL

This study examined the on-line processing of French sentences in a grammaticality judgment experiment. Three age groups of French children (mean age: 6;8, 8;6 and 10;10 years) and a group of adults were asked to detect grammatical violations as quickly as possible. Three factors were studied: the violation type: agreement violations (number and gender) vs. word order violations; the violation position: early vs. late in the sentence; the target type of the violations: intra vs. interphrasal. An example of an early interphrasal verbal agreement violation follows: ‘Chaque semaine la voisine remplissent le frigo après avoir fait les courses au marché’ (Every week the neighbour fill the fridge after shopping at the market). The main developmental results were the following: not surprisingly, children were always slower than adults in the detection of grammatical violations. At each age level, morphological violations were more rapidly detected than word order violations. Each age group was faster at judging sentences with later occurring violations and the position effect was especially strong in the youngest groups. Finally, intraphrasal violations were more rapidly detected than interphrasal ones, this effect being observed only in the oldest groups (i.e. 10;10 years and adults). The results were compared to previous on-line data obtained in modern Greek (Kail & Diakogiorgi, 1998) showing strong similarities, even though Greek is a very rich morphological language. These results are discussed within the framework of the Competition Model, outlining the necessity to incorporate new processing constraints into the model.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document