Cultural Manifestations of Infant Caregiving

SYNOPSIS

Hechler and colleagues in this special show that prenatal behaviors predict the quality of postnatal caregiving practices. Adding to their arguments and findings, the present commentary discusses the possible role of culture in caregiving. Considerations of cultural norms, ideologies, and values may take the scientific understanding of infant caregiving to a new stage.     

An analysis of policy initiatives to promote strategic research partnerships

Strategic research partnerships (SRPs) have become a salient feature of the US National Innovation System. We provide an overview of SRPs and examine the antecedents and consequences of centerpiece legislation designed to stimulate the formation of SRPs: the National Cooperative Research Act (NCRA) of 1984. NCRA allows firms to disclose their research joint ventures (RJVs) to the Department of Justice, which enabled them to significantly reduce their exposure to antitrust litigation. We estimate an econometric model of trends in RJV filings and find that, as intended by the legislation, the propensity of firms to engage in RJVs is sensitive to changes in the global competitiveness of US high-technology industries. More importantly, our results suggest that the establishment of the Commerce Department’s Advanced Technology Program, which provides financial support to firms that engage in collaborative research projects, induced firms to engage in additional (privately financed) RJVs. This is a spillover mechanism that warrants further attention as national innovation systems evolve.     

The effects of a structured learning sequence on Children's correlative thinking about biological phenomena

The purpose of this study was to determine if the achievement on correlational thinking tasks could be enhanced by a set of structured training exercises. The exercises were based on Piaget's analysis of the development of correlative thinking in adolescents. The achievement of the ninth grade students was greater than the achievement of the fifth and seventh grade students. However, some of the ninth grade students exhibited difficulty with the equivalence and reciprocal exclusion operations that were necessary for the solution of the correlation tasks. The results of the study suggest that the ninth grade students may be in the transition zone for this particular operation.     

Changing Notions of Lifelong Education and Lifelong Learning

Drawing on material from IRE as well as other sources, this article describes how the notion of lifelong education came into prominence in the educational world in the late 1960s, how it related to the concepts of formal, non-formal and informal education, and how it contrasted with the idea of recurrent eduction, as promoted by the OECD. The author goes on to discuss the emergence of the broader and more holistic concept of lifelong learning and the various ways in which it is understood. The article shows how IRE and its host institute have played an important part in the debate on these issues.     

Explaining technology integration in K-12 classrooms: a multilevel path analysis model

The purpose of this research was to design and test a model of classroom technology integration in the context of K-12 schools. The proposed multilevel path analysis model includes teacher, contextual, and school related variables on a teacher’s use of technology and confidence and comfort using technology as mediators of classroom technology integration. Data were collected from 1235 K-12 teachers, who were located in 336 schools in 41 districts across the state of Florida. The results suggest that a teacher’s experience with technology significantly influenced his or her classroom technology integration. Access to technology in classrooms and the availability of quality technology support were related to classroom technology integration. In addition, how frequently a teacher uses technology and his or her confidence and comfort using technology were mediators for classroom technology integration. These results provide preliminary evidence that the proposed model is both useful and relevant in explaining classroom technology integration in K-12 schools.     

The expansion of adult education and training in Europe: Trends and issues

The main purpose of this article is to describe the factors that are contributing to the recent expansion of adult education and training in the European region, A second purpose is to spell out the ramifications of the problems and policy issues that arise. The focus is on the dilemmas faced by decision-makers which, formulated as challenges confronting European adult education, will be summarized towards the end of the article. The central theme running through these concluding paragraphs is that there may well be a conflict between the economic and labour market objectives of adult education, on the one hand, and its cultural, social and redistributive goals on the other. The overriding challenge is how to find innovative ways of reducing this apparent conflict.

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Zusammenfassung Hauptziel dieses Artikels ist die Beschreibung von Faktoren, die zu der kürzlich begonnenen Erweiterung von Erwachsenenbildung und Weiterbildung im europäischen Raum beitragen. Außerdem sollen die Zusammenhänge der auftretenden Probleme und politischen Themen verdeutlicht werden. Im Brennpunkt stehen die als Herausforderung für die europäische Erwachsenenbildung formulierten Schwierigkeiten der Entscheidungsträger. Im Schlußteil werden diese Schwierigkeiten noch einmal kurz zusammengefaßt. Zentrales Thema dieses letzten Abschnitts ist der befürchtete Konflikt zwischen den Zielen der Erwachsenenbildung in Bezug auf Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt auf der einen Seite und kulturellen, sozialen und umverteilenden Aspekten auf der anderen. Die vorrangige Herausforderung besteht darin, innovative Möglichkeiten zur Verringerung dieses offensichtlichen Konflikts zu finden.

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Résumé L'objectif majeur du présent article est de décrire les facteurs qui contribuent à l'expansion récente de l'éducation et de la formation des adultes dans la région Europe. Le second objectif consiste à mettre en lumière les ramifications des problèmes et des questions politiques qui se manifestent. L'accent est mis sur les difficultés auxquelles font face les décideurs. On les résume à la fin de l'article où elles sont présentées comme les défis auxquels l'éducation des adultes est confrontée en Europe. Le thème central qui sous-tend les paragraphes de cette conclusion se rapporte au fait qu'il pourrait très bien y avoir un conflit entre les objectifs de l'éducation des adultes en matière d'économie et d'emploi, d'une part, et ses buts culturels, sociaux et de redistribution, d'autre part.

     

Parental family stress during pregnancy and cognitive functioning in early childhood: The Generation R Study

We investigated whether parental family stress during pregnancy is associated with cognitive functioning in early childhood in a population-based cohort (n = 3139). Family stress was assessed using the Family Assessment Device at the 20th week of pregnancy and was reported by mothers and fathers. Mothers completed the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory, measuring children's verbal cognitive functioning, when children were 18 months and they completed the Parent Report of Children's Abilities, measuring nonverbal cognitive functioning, when children were 2 years old. Maternal prenatal family stress was related to children's low word comprehension and poorer nonverbal cognitive development independent of paternal reports. In a subset of 639 children, maternal prenatal family stress was also associated with observational assessments of poor effortful control at age 37 months. Paternal prenatal family stress was only related to poorer nonverbal cognitive development, independent of the mother. When both parents had high levels of prenatal family stress, children displayed particularly poor nonverbal cognitive development. These findings emphasize the significance of parental prenatal family stress for child developmental outcomes.