Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

We examined the cross‐lagged relations between the home literacy environment and literacy skills in Japanese, and whether child's gender, parents' education and child's level of literacy performance moderate the relations. One hundred forty‐two Japanese children were followed from Grades 1 to 2 and assessed on character knowledge, reading fluency and spelling. Their parents responded to a questionnaire assessing the frequency of their teaching and shared reading. Results showed that parent teaching increased and shared reading decreased from Grades 1 to 2. Cross‐lagged path analysis indicated that the literacy skills in Grade 1 were negatively associated with parent teaching in Grade 2. The results further suggested that more educated parents of higher performing children, particularly boys, adjusted their involvement to their children's literacy skills, while less educated parents of lower performing children did not. These findings indicate the importance of parents' sensitivity to their child's performance. What is already known about this topic

• Home literacy environment (HLE) plays an important role in children's literacy acquisition in Western and some East Asian contexts.
• Children's early reading skills can have an impact on later HLE.
• The direction of the relationship between HLE and children's reading skills may change from positive in Kindergarten to negative in Grade 1.

What this paper adds

• In line with the findings of previous studies in other languages, Japanese parents adaptively adjust their home literacy activities to their child's literacy skills.
• The effect of children's literacy skills on later shared reading is stronger among boys than among girls.
• More educated parents of higher performing children adjust their involvement to their child's literacy skills, while less educated parents with lower performing children do not.

Implications for theory, policy or practice

• We should encourage parents to be sensitive to their child's literacy skills to help them build a foundation that will boost future literacy development.
• This can be particularly true of less educated parents with poorly performing children.
• We should encourage educators to communicate the children's literacy achievement to their parents and also suggest the means by which HLE could be beneficial for their children's literacy development.

     

Specific types of sports and exercise group participation and socio-psychological health in older people

ABSTRACT

Older people who engage in sports and exercise in a group render greater benefits for socio-psychological aspects compared to exercising alone. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of specific types of sports and exercise groups and the association with self-rated health, depressive symptoms, and frequency of laughter among community-dwelling older people. We used cross-sectional data from the 2016 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study and analysed 63,465 males and 68,497 females aged ≥65 years. The top three most popular types among males were golf (11.3%), walking (8.4%), and ground golf (6.3%). Among females, the top three were fitness exercises (13.8%), walking (8.3%), and weight exercises (6.2%). After adjusting for potential confounders, engaging in golf with a group was significantly related with excellent self-rated health (prevalence ratio, PR, 1.31 in male and 1.78 in female), low depressive symptoms (PR, 0.70 and 0.71), and a high frequency of laughter (PR, 1.12 and 1.13). Among females, walking displayed a significant relationship with all three characteristics (PR, 1.23, 0.79, and 1.06, respectively). Golf in older males and walking in older females might be the first choice for an effective programme to spread sports and exercise groups within the older Japanese community.     

Gender and science in Hiroshima's aftermath: a cross-cultural approach

A comparative study of Japanese and Japanese-American survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 suggests that there is much to be gained by looking at the history of the Bomb as a cross-cultural history. Issues of science and gender in survivors' experiences and memories illuminate three key features of the trans-Pacific history: a Japanese female author's literary responses to the Bomb, the Japan-U.S. relationship after the war that shaped Japan's antinuclear movement, and Japanese-American survivors' effort to gain governmental recognition and medical care in the U.S. within the context of the Asian American movement. Using variety of sources--literature, popular political discourse, congressional hearings, and oral histories--this article shows the volatile diffusion of political and cultural ideas revealed by a trans-Pacific perspective.     

Development of a method for automatic basso continuo playing

The purpose of this study is to develop an automatic basso continuo playing system. In order to find a musically appropriate sequence of chords, we propose the principle of “harmony cost”, which is defined as the sum of two different costs: one is the “local cost” which indicates the unlikelihood of a certain chord allocation and the other is the “transition cost”, which indicates the unlikelihood of a certain connection between two chords. Automatic basso continuo playing is realised by searching for the optimal chord sequence, which minimises the accumulated harmony cost. The proposed method is evaluated by three experiments. Each experiment verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

A comparative institutional analysis on strategies that graduates use to show they are ‘employable’: a critical discussion on the cases of Australia,Japan, and Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Employability has become a key concept that has attracted the attention of scholars and industries in many countries. At the same time, this concept is highly fluid and vague because its nature is not evidenced by real employment and differences in the nature of labour markets from country to country. Thus, it would be more worthwhile to discuss strategies that graduates utilise while job hunting in order to show how employable they are, and then compare these strategies across countries. Therefore, in this study, the aim is to compare the strategic tendencies of graduates entering the labour markets in three countries: Australia, Japan, and Vietnam. To this end, a comparative institutional analysis is performed. Through the investigation, three types of strategy are identified. In Australia, as the market tends to consist of various competitors with different experiences, graduates must differentiate themselves from others. In Japan, the market consists of competitors from the same academic year cohort and employment tends to be more long term, so employment is seen more as a type of membership, where one must match the corporate culture. In Vietnam, as trust in universities is low in terms of their training programmes and little support is provided, university students utilise their human networks for entry into the labour market and demonstrate their capacity for growth during a probation period.     

Comprehensive cost analysis of the University of the Air of Japan

The University of the Air of Japan (UAJ) was established to provide all people access to university level education. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate from several different perspectives the cost-effectiveness of UAJ and its nationwide expansion.Even when considering only direct cost, the per student cost of UAJ is lower than that of any conventional campus-based university program. When indirect cost such as opportunity cost and study expenses are also considered, the economic advantage of UAJ is especially apparent. Much of UAJ's economic advantage is the result of the very low opportunity cost to UAJ students.The economic advantage of UAJ as indicated by cost per graduate and cost per credit is smaller than that indicated by cost per student. When both direct and indirect cost are considered, the cost per credit of UAJ is 0.51 and 0.53 of that at national and public universities; 0.65, 0.86 and 2.8 of that of day programs, evening programs and correspondence programs respectively at private universities.Simulations of a nationwide expansion demonstrate that UAJ will be more economical if a satellite broadcasting system is used. Although it will require high initial and fixed costs, the cost per credit will decrease with an increase in the number of students. The most economical method of expansion may be to send video tapes to study centers and students until the number of students reaches economical levels, and to increase cooperation with conventional universities in the cooperative use of classrooms for study centers and credit transfer.     

Correction to: Science and education across cultures: another look at the Negev Bedouins and their environmental management practices

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In p. 986, second paragraph should read, “For example, Chris Andersen (1997) described how Basarwa (Bushman) collected water while living in the...