Understanding and enabling marketplace literacy in subsistence contexts: The development of a consumer and entrepreneurial literacy educational program in South India

To function in the economic realm, two important resources that individuals need are finances and know-how. Whereas there has been considerable attention on microfinancing, we describe an educational program that focuses on enabling generic skills about the marketplace and complements these important efforts. We conducted research aimed at understanding lives and marketplaces in subsistence contexts in urban and rural parts of a state in South India. We used the research as a basis for developing a consumer and entrepreneurial literacy educational program. This program uses the “know-why”, or an understanding of marketplaces, as a basis for the know-how of being an informed buyer or seller. Despite the difficulties with abstract thinking that low-literate individuals experience, we enable deeper understanding of marketplaces by leveraging the social skills that participants bring to the program and relating educational content back to their lived experiences. Such understanding can enable individuals to place themselves on a path to lifelong learning. Implications of this work for research and practice in non-formal education are discussed.     

Training and supporting the ‘volunteers’: Revisiting total literacy campaigns in India

Teacher effectiveness is one of the most important determinants of the success of adult literacy programmes. From the outset of the campaign movement, the National Literacy Mission (NLM) of the Government of India has emphasised the need for a training and support system for campaign personnel, who often have limited education and lack of experience to understand the problems of literacy and to effectively teach adults. This article is part of a larger case study illustrating how the campaign approach, approved at the national level, was de facto implemented at the grassroots level with local specific variations beyond the campaign model. The article examines the campaign strategies with respect to training and supervision, and presents qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews with the village level volunteer force, so as to illustrate local responses to the district plan. When the implementation process, as well as the outcome of the campaign is studied, the gap between policy and practice becomes more apparent. The mass movement approach of the campaign appears to have been replaced by a top-down effort to achieve the national goal of universal literacy, with little attempt to allow managerial flexibility at the ground level. The article argues that decentralisation of the campaign structure may be necessary to make it relevant to the local context.     

Financial literacy and classroom practices among early childhood and elementary teachers in India and the US

This study compared the financial literacy and teaching practices of 82 early and elementary teachers in India and US using a 43-item survey. Analysis showed that financial literacy of Indian teachers was lower than their American counterparts. Teachers in India enjoyed teaching financial literacy more than teachers in the US. Indian teachers received more professional development training than American teachers. Indian teachers reported using the school store, children’s literature and pictorial worksheets while American teachers reported using learning centres, play money, fake credit cards, technology and games to teach financial literacy.     

Acquisition of computer literacy skills through self-organizing systems of learning among children in Bhutan and India

This article describes a study under the Reaching the Unreached component of the Chiphen Rigpel project between the governments of Bhutan and India. This initiative is an attempt to provide computer literacy to children of Bhutan through setting up “hole in the wall” (HiWEL) Playground Learning Station(s) (PLSs). The study described here involves 14 sites (the experimental group), where PLSs are installed, and another 8 sites (the control group) without PLSs, but having similar demographic and socioeconomic profiling as the experimental group. This article compares the acquisition of computer literacy of school-going children in India with those in Bhutan. Results indicate that Bhutanese children have acquired computer literacy on their own and that their level of computer skills acquisition is similar to that of Indian children when the scores are normalized. This study was done over a one-year period, with results reported for eight months. In addition to verifying the earlier Indian results, this article hints at the fact that, irrespective of ethnicity, culture, and country, an identical—and possibly universal—self-organized learning mechanism seems to work with children vis-à-vis the Internet.     

Socio-economic Factors Affecting Adoption of Modern Information and Communication Technology by Farmers in India: Analysis Using Multivariate Probit Model

Purpose: The paper analyzes factors that affect the likelihood of adoption of different agriculture-related information sources by farmers.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper links the theoretical understanding of the existing multiple sources of information that farmer use, with the empirical model to analyze the factors that affect the farmer's adoption of different agriculture-related information sources. The analysis is done using a multivariate probit model and primary survey data of 1,200 farmer households of five Indo-Gangetic states of India, covering 120 villages.

Findings: The results of the study highlight that farmer's age, education level and farm size influence farmer's behaviour in selecting different sources of information. The results show that farmers use multiple information sources, that may be complementary or substitutes to each other and this also implies that any single source does not satisfy all information needs of the farmer.

Practical implication: If we understand the likelihood of farmer's choice of source of information then direction can be provided and policies can be developed to provide information through those sources in targeted regions with the most effective impact.

Originality/Value: Information plays a key role in a farmer's life by enhancing their knowledge and strengthening their decision-making ability. Farmers use multiple sources of information as no one source is sufficient in itself.     

Socio-economic position and higher education in Australia

The proportion of students enrolled at university from the lowest quartile of socio-economic position has remained static at around 15% for at least the past 15 years (DEEWR, Transforming Australia’s higher education system, 2009). This paper argues that the apparent lack of progress towards equity of access has been exacerbated due to how socio-economic position (SEP) is measured within higher education. Three major methodological issues are identified: (a) the use of socio-economic indicator for areas (SEIFA) at an inappropriate unit of geographic area (postcode), (b) an inappropriate choice of index (education and occupation), and (c) using the index of education and occupation as the sole indicator of SEP thereby increasing the risk of misclassification of individuals through the operation of ecological fallacy. This paper argues that to address these methodological deficiencies, alternative methods of determining SEP are required at both the aggregate and individual level. Possible options are proposed for use as replacements for the geographic area (postcode) and index (education and occupation) as well as additional measures at the individual or household level.     

“健康中国”视域下女性领导健康素养提升策略

健康素养对于提升女性领导的社会责任感,真正使健康的概念融入其各种管理行动中,不但管理好自身的健康,而且完成好对环境和他人健康的倡导与促进的使命,具有较大的影响.女性领导健康素养的提升除了依靠政府层面的高度重视、社会层面社会资源的广泛动员、机关层面的建章立制与大力宣传等环境因素以外,女性领导自身还需要建立清晰的角色意识,树立正确的健康价值观和制订科学的锻炼计划,在健康体验中不断提升健康素养.     

Socio-economic status,cultural diversity and the aspirations of secondary students in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne,Australia

Using data from a recent survey of Australian secondary students, we find that those from higher socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to aspire to attend university. The same can be said for students who do not speak English at home. We find that students with an ethnic minority background are more likely to perceive higher levels of support from parents. However, we find that all students believe they receive encouragement from their parents to do well at school (rather than discouragement or disinterest), and that there is little difference in the level of importance placed on the views of parents between students from English and non-English speaking background. While interest in university education is strong across all socio-economic groups, particularly for students who do not speak English at home, there is a considerable gap between aspirations and enrolment levels. We suggest that this ‘aspirations gap’ is larger for students from low socio-economic backgrounds. This analysis also supports growing evidence that the postcode methodology for allocating socio-economic status to individuals is unreliable.     

Relationship between household literacy and educational engagement: Analysis of data from Rajkot district, India

Household engagement in a child??s education is a complex process; depending on the culture and the context, it may be revealed through a variety of behaviours. Using data from one district in rural Gujarat, India, four indicators of a household??s educational engagement were employed to investigate the relationship between household literacy levels and the household??s engagement in the education of its child members. The findings on educational engagement were also compared across households with different wealth and income levels. Uniformly, indicators of household literacy levels were found to be more important in understanding a household??s educational engagement than a household??s wealth and income levels.     

鄂州大学女生身体素质现状分析及对策

以鄂州大学04、05级女生为对象,调查了她们的体育达标成绩,并进行了相美的比较分析。根据调查分析结果,对目前高校体育工作提出了改革建议。     

Integration of information and scientific literacy: promoting literacy in undergraduates

The Association of College and Research Libraries recommends incorporating information literacy (IL) skills across university and college curricula, for the goal of developing information literate graduates. Congruent with this goal, the Departments of Biological Sciences and Information Science developed an integrated IL and scientific literacy (SL) exercise for use in a first-year biology course. Students were provided the opportunity to access, retrieve, analyze, and evaluate primary scientific literature. By the completion of this project, student responses improved concerning knowledge and relevance of IL and SL skills. This project exposes students to IL and SL early in their undergraduate experience, preparing them for future academic advancement.     

Apprenticeship in literacy

A four-level taxonomy is proposed for categorizing the ways in which literacy is defined operationally in education. The four levels—performative, functional, informational, epistemic—are distinguished in terms of conceptualizations of the relationships between writing and speaking and between writing and thinking. This taxonomy is then used to examine the results of recent research on early literacy development. Two major findings emerge: (a) the universal predisposition among children to develop actively an understanding of the forms and functions of written language and (b) differences between cultural groups in the ways literacy activities are organized. It is argued that an emphasis should be placed on the highest level of literacy in the school curriculum and that this should be the case forall children and at all ages.     

科学素养与人文素养的比较研究

科学素养与人文素养,是当前教育界比较热门的两个词汇.二者在内容与培养方式上,既有相似和联系,也有天然存在的区别.本文就此做一比较,以抛砖引玉.     

Socio-economic status has major effects on math achievement,educational aspirations and future job expectations of elementary school children in Thailand

This study was designed to investigate the effects of specific variables on the math achievement of 5th-grade children. It involved a random sample of 373 families (parents and children) from a larger pool of 685 families residing in Bangkok, Thailand. We utilized Walberg's productivity model by analyzing the interconnections among a diverse set of family prcesse, family structure, and SES variables within the home environment section of the model. Campbell's differential socialization paradigm was used to analyze the gender differences. The results of the study show that certain family processes (support and intellectual resources) had positive effects on math achievement, while other processes (excessive pressure and help) had negtive effects. Another key finding is that Walberg's home environment factor was found to contain a mix of SES, family structure variables, and family processes. These variables have strong effects on children's overall academic achievement, academic self-concepts, and math achievement. The SES variables were found to be especially important in Thailand. The authors propose the establishment of parent training programs, particularly for low SES families, as a way to increase children's math achievement, aspirations, and future job expectations.     

Education and literacy

Resumen

En esta investigación se analizaron los intercambios verbales registrados a lo largo de 12 sesiones de apoyo a 2 grupos de alumnos con necesidades educativas especiales. Los resultados muestran una estructura de participación particularmente diádica y “vinculada” maestra-alumno. Más de una tercera parte de las interacciones configuraban secuencias encadenadas de Iniciación-Respuesta-Ayuda-Respuesta, dirigidas a que un mismo alumno verbalizara y, posteriormente, reelaborara su representación interna de la tarea, hasta definir un significado suficientemente compartido con la profesora. Las ayudas se centraron principalmente en corregir las respuestas erróneas o dar instrucciones, aunque también se detectaron un elevado número de acciones que otorgaban una mayor participación al alumno (encaminadas a evaluar, evocar, precisar, sintetizar o justificar ideas…). Cuando se trataba de una respuesta incompleta, las maestras reaccionaron principalmente demandando más precisión a través de preguntas. Cuando los alumnos no respondían, la ayuda más frecuente se centró en recuperar conocimientos previos relevantes. Las maestras con más experiencia registraron casi el doble de interacciones, provocaron menos aportaciones erróneas y ofrecieron ayudas más eficaces para conseguir que los propios estudiantes las reelaboraran.