Dutch adolescents’ narratives about democracy: ‘I know what democracy means,but not what it means to me’

In the last decade, educational scholars have studied various aspects of adolescents’ citizenship narratives. This paper reports on a qualitative study into the narratives about democracy of 27 adolescents from an urban area in the Netherlands. The aim of the study was to gain an insight into the type of democratic engagement that Dutch adolescents develop. Fourteen vocational and 13 pre-university students were selected. Each student was interviewed twice. Narrative thematic data analysis revealed that only five students had developed a strong conception of democracy. Our findings suggest that few students had spent time developing and challenging their narratives about democracy, and that few students have developed a greater sense of democratic engagement. Our paper concludes with several suggestions for furthering the study and practice of democratic citizenship education.     

PUBLIC EDUCATION ABOUT NORMAL FORGETFULNESS AND DEMENTIA: EFFECTIVENESS OF A SYSTEMATICALLY DEVELOPED INFORMATION BROCHURE

Earlier research revealed that many elderly people in The Netherlands are worried about their forgetfulness and are afraid of incipient dementia. Until now, no systematic research has been conducted on the effects of public education about normal forgetfulness and dementia, and therefore an information brochure was developed and evaluated. The main function of this brochure was to reassure people who were unnecessarily worrying about possible dementia. A second function was to motivate people to seek professional help when this seemed advisable. Sixty‐two percent of all respondents (307 of 400) who had been worried about dementia before reading the brochure said that their anxiety decreased or disappeared after reading it; approximately 3% became more worried after reading the brochure. A cognitive test battery was administered to 104 people to determine whether their increased or decreased anxiety was justified. Thirty subjects had low test scores, yet 16 of these subjects had been reassured by the brochure that their forgetfulness was nothing to worry about. This group was characterized as experiencing fewer problems in daily life as a result of their forgetfulness and as having a higher internal locus of control. Seventy‐four subjects performed well on the cognitive tests, yet 18 of them had remained worried about their forgetfulness after reading the brochure. Anxiety for heredity of dementia could be a possible explanation for their persistent concern. Although many people were reassured by the brochure, the results also show that it is important to evaluate information brochures used as intervention instruments—in one third of the present sample, the effects of the brochure were not in accordance with its goal.     

Ethics of care in participatory health research: mutual responsibility in collaboration with co-researchers

In the field of participatory health research (PHR) and related action research paradigms, limitations of standard ethical codes and institutional review processes have been identified. PHR is highly situational and relational, part of a hierarchical health care context and therefore ethics of care has been suggested as a helpful theoretical approach that emphasises responsibilities and relationships. The purpose of this article is to explore the value of Tronto’s second-generation ethics of care for reflection on ethical challenges experienced by academic researchers. Using the design of a collaborative auto-ethnography, this article starts from a story of a researcher who deals with dilemmas in responsibility to care for co-researchers with lived experiences during a PHR study in the field of acute psychiatric care. By analysing the challenges together with all co-researchers, using a framework of ethics of care, we discovered the importance of self-care and existential safety for an ethical PHR practice. The reflexive meta-narrative shows that the ethics of care lens is useful to untangle moral dilemmas in all participatory research-related paradigms for all engaged.     

Public Education about Memory and Aging: Objective Findings and Subjective Insights

Public education about memory was evaluated with a controlled intervention trial. Participants in group 1 (n = 273) attended a symposium covering memory-related topics and received a magazine with identical information. Group 2 (n = 141) only received the magazine. Participants were nonprofessionals and professionals aged between 29 and 88. Outcome measures were knowledge about memory and subjective experience. For nonprofessionals, knowledge increment was higher in group 1 than in group 2, indicating that an objective increment in knowledge is present in nonprofessionals after attending the symposium. No knowledge change occurred in professionals. Furthermore, participants were very satisfied after both interventions, even when knowledge transfer was limited.     

Firm-related training tracks: a random effects ordered probit model

A random effects ordered response model of training is estimated to analyze the existence of training tracks and time varying coefficients in training frequency. Two waves of a Dutch panel survey of workers are used covering the period 1992–1996. The amount of training received by workers increased during the period 1994–1996 compared to 1992–1994. Evidence is found for the existence of training tracks in the amount of training courses taken. It is further found that the effects of individual characteristics such as education, age and gender on training should be treated as individual varying coefficients.     

The Relation Between Information-Processing Variables and Test-Retest Stability for Questionnaire Items

Recently developed cognitive theories explain why some questionnaire items can be answered in a reliable and valid manner and others cannot. Those theories distinguish two components: (a) the interpretation or understanding of a question and (b) the role of memory. The present study investigates the ability of these two components to forecast the test-retest association coefficients of 207 pilot questionnaire items used in an international study of reading literacy in which 2 populations were involved: Grade 5 and Grade 2 of primary and secondary education, respectively. The analysis of the data showed that for both populations, both components forecast the relative sizes of the test-retest correlation coefficients. The results strongly suggest that if one wishes to use questionnaire items in research about relationships, then the items should be as unambiguous as possible. Moreover, the information needed to formulate an answer must be easily accessible in the respondent's memory.     

The use of videotaped broadcasts in interactive teaching

In 1986/87 and 1987/88 Dutch educational television broadcast a long series on mental arithmetic for the upper grades of the primary school. This study compares off-air videotape use under two conditions: (1) active use with video stops for interactive teaching, and (2) passive, uninterrupted viewing. Learning results in the active condition were better than in the passive condition. However, in a follow-up study those positive results were not confirmed, due to changing teaching styles in the active condition, and due to certain design faults in the programmes. Outcomes of both studies are interpreted as (1) providing evidence for the potential effects of interactive use of educational videotapes at classroom level, and as (2) underlining the necessity of well-considered didactic design of educational programmes for such new instructional purposes.     

Overeducation and the returns to enterprise-related schooling

This paper examines the relation between overeducation and enterprise-related schooling. If overeducation and enterprise-related schooling are substitutes the social costs of Overeducation are less. We find that correctly allocated workers have the highest probability of participation in enterprise-related schooling, while undereducated workers have the lowest probability of participation. There is no evidence of overeducation and enterprise-related schooling being either substitutes or complements. If we do not correct for self-selection, the average return on a year of education for correctly allocated workers is higher than the average rate of return to education for under- and overeducated workers. If we correct for self-selection in the participation in enterprise-related schooling the rate of return to education increases. The rates of return to under- and overeducation increase as well. If we correct for self-selection the rate of return to a year of undereducation becomes higher than the rate of return to a year of actual education. For undereducated workers the wage gain of participation in enterprise-related schooling is higher than for a correctly allocated worker. A year of Overeducation decreases the wage gain of participation in enterprise-related schooling for participants.     

Cognitive abilities and learning disabilities

Summary The greater discrepancy between spatial vs sequential/conceptual WISC subtest results in learning-disabled children is instrumental to the idea that these children might profit relatively more from an imagery based strategy in organizing and recalling noun pairs and triplets than from a verbal strategy. The results from the present studies with concrete nouns show that this is not the case. Another result is that learning-disabled children’s recall performance is also lower when strategy instructed (except in the first experiment) than normal children’s performance. Suggestions as to which strategy aspects could be responsible are given. This paper is based upon a presentation at the 30th Annual Conference of The Orton Society in Indianapolis, November 1979.