Contingent Valuation and Semiparametric Methods: A Case Study of the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, Spain

Research on cultural economics is very interested in the economic valuation of non-market goods, particularly in the field ofcultural heritage where contingent valuation techniques are currently being used with both parametric and non-parametric statistical methods to estimate the willingness to pay for cultural goods. In the literature analysed, the number of studies using semiparametric methods, however, is very limited. Our analysis is intended to help fill this gap by offering a parametric, non-parametric and semiparametric economic valuation of the National Museum of Sculpture (Museo Nacional de Escultura), located in Valladolid,Spain. In addition, we also gain insight on a controversial issue affecting most European museums, particularly those located in Latin countries: the role voluntary donations might play in the funding of public museums.     

Parental beliefs about child development and parental inferences about actions during child-rearing episodes

The way parents’ beliefs on child development support the elaboration of practical inferences during everyday child-rearing episodes was examined. We contrasted two models based respectively on the classical and the connectionist view of schema approaches. According to the classical view, parents activate preformed packages of beliefs in order to produce inferences whereas under the connectionist view, they activate the network of interconnected episodic traces that better fits the information provided by the situation. In the former case, the quality of the inferences depends on the activation of the proper schema whereas in the latter case it depends on the structure of the information given. Two experiments were designed in which parents holding a particular global belief about child development (either constructivism or environmentalism), were presented with a target couple with similar or different views with respect to them. In Experiment 1, constructivist parents bearing in mind the couple’s belief had to judge a set of words describing the couple’s image as parents, their educational goals as well as a number of sentences describing the couple’s child-rearing practices during hypothetical episodes. In Experiment 2, environmentalist parents had to judge the couple’s practices and the amount of information presented about the couple’s ideas as well as its plausibility were manipulated. The results indicate that the accuracy and speed in the production of inferences depends on the information presented in the task. When the information is embedded in episodes and a full, plausible and distinctive account of the couple’s belief are provided, then the production of inferences is performed faster and with more accuracy. The results are discussed in terms of the classical and connectionist views of schema approaches.     

Teacher training colleges in the rural areas of Angola

The Aid for the Development of the People by the People (ADPP), a non-governmental organization (NGO), in collaboration with Angola’s Ministry of Education, has set up a network of secondary schools to train teachers to work in primary schools in the rural areas of Angola. These schools, called Training Colleges for the Teachers of the Future (CTFs), are involved in training a new type of teacher. This article discusses this educational practice, the main aim of which is to train primary teachers to work in the rural areas where too few trained teachers are willing to be posted. The authors describe the measures taken to better meet the needs of the rural areas in terms of teachers who have been properly trained and are motivated to work in such an environment, and then go on to analyse the reasons underlying the success of the CTF programme, specifically the fundamental differences from the state-run teacher training colleges, the way this new practice forms part of the overall reform of the education system and its role in the Education for All (EFA) initiative, and the fight against poverty.