Activities and Attitudes of Retired University Staff

A national sample of 1662 academic and academic related university staff, who had retired 3-5 years earlier, completed a postal survey about their current employment, research, other academic activities, and the academic resources available to them, and about their attitudes to retirement, and the extent of their leisure, voluntary, and other caring activities. Over two-thirds of academics and four-fifths of academic related staff had retired early. Younger staff were more often currently employed, but the employment rate amongst academics aged 66-73 was very much greater than in the general population. The extent of research and other academic activities was related to university rank rather than age, with professors and readers more committed, and less involved in leisure activities. The most frequent reasons for early retirement were dissatisfaction with changes in the universities and financial inducements. The majority said they were more contented because of retiring, and most would not have wanted to retire later than they did, but concerns were expressed about the failure of universities to give adequate status and resources to retired academics. There was some evidence that women were discriminated against in retirement.     

Sedentary Behavior and Health: Broadening the Knowledge Base and Strengthening the Science

We provide an overview of a recently published, edited book in a rapidly emerging field of research, policy, and practice for physical activity: Sedentary Behavior and Health. In this commentary, we highlight the broad perspectives provided in the 27 chapters of Sedentary Behavior and Health and suggest a research strategy to move the field forward—not only with scientific rigor, but also with breadth of scholarship. The book’s chapters provide an overview of the background to and contexts for sedentary behavior and health. They then highlight the importance of understanding health consequences and underlying mechanisms; introduce key measurement technology and analytic strategies; consider sedentary behavior in subpopulations; describe conceptual models and theories to guide sedentary behavior interventions; and explain what is known about interventions in different settings. Considering the breadth of perspectives brought to bear on the field and the plethora of opportunities for research, policy, and practice, we suggest 3 elements of an interdisciplinary research strategy drawing upon the primary knowledge bases of physical activity and health: through the experimental methods of exercise science, through the observational tools of epidemiology, and through the conceptual approaches and methods of behavioral science. A better understanding of the health consequences of sedentary behavior and how they may be influenced can be encompassed by 3 key questions: What changes are needed to most effectively influence sedentary behaviors? What elements of sedentary behavior should be changed to improve health outcomes? What are the feasibility of and the benefits from changing sedentary behavior?     

Private initiatives in higher education in Kenya

Africa's higher education crisis has prompted the growth of private institutions. Enrollments are very low and in most African countries do not account for a significant proportion of university enrollments. The largest number of private institutions are in Kenya which is the subject of a case study. Private institutions provide professional training in fields of employment opportunity but also offer an education that emphasizes character building functions of higher studies. Private higher education is expensive to provide and costly to attend. Many private institutions are caught in a dilemma. They can not achieve significant efficiencies by reducing instructional costs without damage to the quality of their programs, and they are reluctant to raise tuition and accommodation charges because of the distorting effects on student recruitment. As long as public higher education is provided at low or no cost and private higher education is entirely self-supporting, the private sector will have a peripheral role in higher education in Kenya and other African countries.     

Marriage, adult adjustment, and early parenting

The impact of parents' marriages, measured prenatally, on their parenting of firstborn, 3-month-old infants was assessed. Though the association between marriage and parenting was the focus, adult psychological adjustment was measured also to rule out the alternative hypothesis that psychological adjustment relates to both marital quality and parenting quality and accounts for any association between them. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses in which parental adjustment was entered first as a covariate were used to test the relation between close/confiding marriages and parenting of 3-month-old infants. From the findings, it was concluded that even when differences in individual psychological adjustment are taken into account, mothers are warmer and more sensitive with their infants and fathers hold more positive attitudes toward their infants and their roles as parents when they are in close/confiding marriages. It is asserted that qualities of marriage play an important part in the development of parent-child relationships.     

A novel approach to London: Infusing ethnography and the study abroad experience

Courses: Qualitative Research Methods, Ethnographic Research Methods.

Objective: This purpose of this activity is to document the enculturation process through which students begin to understand a new culture during a study abroad experience. To accomplish this, we created a new pedagogical approach for study abroad experiences that involved a combination of academic and fictional readings to help students make sense of and perform ethnographic research techniques.     

Schooling,cognition and creating capacity for technological innovation in Africa

This paper examines the important role of schooling in creating capacities for technological innovation in Africa. Schooling is a principal source of the modern scientific knowledge which most individuals possess. However, increasing levels of educational attainment does not necessarily increase capacities for innovation; it is what students learn in school rather than how long they attend school that is important. Policies to strengthen the impact of schooling must be based on a better understanding of how the content, language and processes of instruction influence the ways individuals think about the natural world and perform practical tasks in daily life involving use of modern health and agricultural technologies.

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Zusammenfassung Im vorliegenden Artikel wird die bedeutende Rolle der Schulbildung zur Schaffung von Fertigkeiten und Fähigkeiten für die technologische Innovation in Afrika untersucht. Die Schulbildung ist die Hauptquelle der modernen wissenschaftlichen Kenntnisse, die die meisten Menschen besitzen. Jedoch bedeutet die Erhöhung der Leistungsanforderungen nicht notwendigerweise eine Erhöhung der Kapazitäten für die Innovation; wichtig ist nämlich eher, was die Schüler in der Schule lernen, als die Zeit, die sie sie besuchen. Strategien, um den Stellenwert der Schulausbildung zu steigern, müssen auf einem besseren Verständnis der Zusammenhänge beruhen, inwieweit Inhalt, Sprache und Lehrprozesse die Art und Weise beeinflussen, in der die einzelnen Schüler die natürliche Welt denken und die praktischen Aufgaben des täglichen Lebens erfüllen, indem sie sich der modernen Gesundheits- und Landwirtschaftstechnologien bedienen.

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Résumé Le présent article examine le rôle important de la scolarité dans le développement de capacités d'innovation technologique en Afrique. La scolarité est la source majeure du savoir scientifique moderne que la majorité des personnes possèdent. Cependant, les niveaux toujours plus hauts de compétences éducatives n'agrandissent pas nécessairement les capacités novatrices. C'est moins la durée de la scolarité des élèves que ce qu'ils apprennent qui importe. Les politiques visant à renforcer l'impact de la scolarité doivent s'appuyer sur une meilleure compréhension de la manière dont les contenus, la langue et les processus d'enseignement influencent l'opinion que les individus ont du monde naturel et la façon dont ils accomplissent quotidiennement leurs tâches pratiques en ayant recours aux technologies médicales et agricoles modernes.

     

Cross-cultural comparisons of child-reported emotional and physical abuse: rates, risk factors and psychosocial symptoms

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to assess the incidence of child emotional and physical abuse, associated risk factors and psychosocial symptoms in a cross-cultural comparison between post-communist bloc countries. Method: One-thousand one-hundred forty-five children ages 10-14 from Latvia (N = 297), Lithuania ( N = 300), Macedonia (N = 302), and Moldova (N = 246) participated in the study. They completed questionnaires assessing their experience of emotional or physical abuse, and provided information about family risk-factors and psychosocial symptoms, including PTSD-related symptoms. RESULTS: Incidence rates of maltreatment differed by country, as did levels of reported psychosocial symptoms. Incidence of emotional and physical abuse differed by region, with higher levels of abuse reported in the rural regions. In all four countries, a similar association between emotional/physical abuse and psychosocial symptoms was found, with the uniformly largest correlation between emotional abuse and anger. When examining the combined scores of emotional and physcial abuse, even higher correlation's were found, particularly in relation to anger and depression. In all four countries, parental overuse of alcohol was associated with emotional and/or physical abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Findings show differences by country in child-reported levels of emotional and physical abuse, but similar patterns of correlation with psychosocial symptoms and the risk factors of parental alcohol overuse and living in a rural area.