Older adult entrepreneurs as mentors of young people neither in employment nor education and training (NEETs). Evidences from multi-country intergenerational learning program

ABSTRACT

Population aging is exacerbating the loss of competences in the workforce and simultaneously young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEETs) are struggling to be reengaged in employment. These issues, which are deemed priorities for the European policy agenda, could be addressed by triggering active aging dimensions, valuing and exploiting older adult entrepreneurs’ knowledge for enhancing youngsters’ entrepreneurial attitudes, through mentoring. This paper reports the results of a study based on an intergenerational learning program, carried out in 2018 in Germany, Italy and Slovenia. The study was aimed at developing and testing one training on mentoring addressing 41 older adult entrepreneurs (55 and over), and two intergenerational learning trainings aiming at boosting entrepreneurial competences of 33 NEETs (aged 18–29). The impact of the program on older adult entrepreneurs and NEETs was assessed through a pre and post-evaluation using qualitative and quantitative tools. Findings at country level were treated as national case-studies and then the latter were compared by considering them as a multiple embedded case-study. Results indicated that, to different extent in the study countries, mentors learned and enhanced mentoring competences, e.g. active listening and the capability of orienting, improved well-being and self-esteem, social inclusion and active aging attitude. Moreover, NEETs acquired entrepreneurial and socio-relational competences by benefiting from the full exploitation of mentors’ know-how and the trust relationship with them. Companies, trade unions, educational and voluntary organizations should cooperate to adopt intergenerational learning programs as good practices for older adults and NEETs’ lifelong learning promotion.     

The relationship between achievement and IQ in students with learning disabilities

To investigate the relationship between achievement and IQ in the learning-disabled (LD) population, changes in the IQ scores of LD students from the early elementary grades to the high school grades were studied. The intercorrelations among those IQ scores and a variety of achievement scores were then explored for the purpose of ascertaining causal relationships. The results were interpreted as support for the contention that the underachievement of LD students (in particular, reading underachievement) plays a predominant causal role in the achievement-IQ relationship in this population.     

Seeing the forest as well as the trees: general vs. specific predictors of environmental behavior

The domain of environmental protection is comprised from many sub-domains as recycling, conserving water, or reducing the consumption of energy. The attitude–behavior gap is partly explained by the gap between the specificity levels of the particular measured behavior and of its antecedent(s). The present study aimed at assessing the effects of general vs. domain-specific behavior’s proximal antecedents included in the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model (intentions, attitudes towards the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) on performance of specific environmental behaviors (EBs) in five environmental sub-domains. We found that in all of the environmental domains examined, a specifically worded TPB model predicted specific behaviors better than a generally worded TPB model did. However, the magnitude of the improvement varied among behavioral domains and the improvement did not arise from the same TPB elements in every domain. The implications for environmental education and for EB research are discussed.     

Contextual cues and memory retrieval in rats: Alleviation of forgetting by a pretest exposure to background stimuli

With a relatively complex maze, reliable forgetting is clearly seen when the training-test interval is 25 days. This forgetting is evidenced by the longer time taken to run the maze and in an increase in the number of errors from the last training trial to the first test trial. In this case, forgetting is a lapse, not a loss, since performance attains the last training trial level at a subsequent test. Furthermore, a reminder which does not in itself contain sufficient information to facilitate performance of a naive animal, significantly improves maze performance of animals which have “forgotten,” even on the first retention test. With the use of additional control groups, it is shown that there must be a memory lapse before contextual cues can be demonstrated to be effective in facilitating memory retrieval.     

Effect of the kinesthetic conflict on promoting scientific reasoning

The importance of the kinesthetic-cognitive conflict (bodily experience that contradicts cognition) in the development of thinking is rooted in Piaget's theory. This article presents three studies which demonstrate the efficiency of the kinesthetic conflict in promoting the understanding of three scientific concepts among children aged 5–12. The first study examines the effect of the kinesthetic conflict on promoting the concept of length in children aged 4.5–5.5 years; the second study compares the effect of four types of cognitive conflicts—two physical ones (visual and kinesthetic) and two social ones (between peers and between children and adults)—on promoting the concept of balance among children aged 5–6 years; and the third study compares the effect of the kinesthetic conflict with the visual conflict on promoting the concept of speed among sixth graders. In all three studies, the kinesthetic conflict was found to be the most efficient in causing a significant cognitive change. The results support Piaget's theory which determines that scientific thinking begins with the sensomotoric experience of the physical surroundings. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 1083–1099, 1997.     

Introduction to the Special Forum on Critical Making as Research Program

This special issue spotlights the growing diversity of critical making practices in a range of disciplinary contexts both inside and outside of the academy, and begins to develop perspectives that will foster the emergence of critical making as a coherent field. On one hand, we see great value in incorporating material practices into existing information systems (IS) and science and technology studies (STS) research programs. In particular, forms of material engagement can help overcome the ineffectual linguistic bias of traditional critiques of technoscience. On the other hand, we believe that current material practices can benefit from the conceptualization of knowledge and social organization that are foundational to IS and STS research. In this introduction to the special issue we call attention to the mechanisms by which such practices may combine representational and material work to foster and support the development of new knowledge-making communities and institutions. We believe such work can serve as a framework for others engaged in critical making practices to better contextualize and expand the relevance of their work. We intend this special issue to serve as a “stake in the ground” for research on new forms of material-conceptual critique and their incorporation in the repertoire of critical technoscience scholarship.     

The contribution of attentional processes to calculation skills in second and third grade in a typically developing sample

Attention is an important, multifaceted cognitive domain that includes many key cognitive processes involved in learning. This study aimed to identify the predictive links between different components of attentional skills and core calculation skills development, using two standardized measures assessing calculation (AC-MT 6–11) and attention skills (CAS) in a sample of 143 typically developing children of age range from 7.6 years to 9.4 years. The results showed that in 2nd grade, selective visuo-spatial attention emerged as an important predictor in the written calculation task, while the ability to inhibit distracting information seemed to better predict accuracy in oral calculation. In 3rd grade, visuo-spatial components of attention emerged as no longer predictive, whereas planning and active visuo-spatial attention abilities emerged as predictive of accuracy in the oral calculation task. These results confirm previous findings about the contribution that attentional skills may have in calculation skills development, supporting evidence for progressive automation attentional components over time.

     

Psychometric characteristics of the Persian version of the Multidimensional School Anger Inventory–Revised

The Multidimensional School Anger Inventory–Revised (MSAI-R) is a measurement tool to evaluate high school students' anger. Its psychometric features have been tested in the USA, Australia, Japan, Guatemala, and Italy. This study investigates the factor structure and psychometric quality of the Persian version of the MSAI-R using data from an administration of the inventory to 585 Iranian high school students. The study adopted the four-factor underlying structure of high school student anger derived through factor analysis in previous validation studies, which consists of: School Hostility, Anger Experience, Positive Coping, and Destructive Expressions. Confirmatory factor analysis of this four-factor model indicated that it fit the data better than a one-factor baseline model, although the fit was not perfect. The Rasch model showed a very high internal consistency among items, with no item misfitting; however, our results suggest that to represent the construct sufficiently some items should be added to Positive Coping and Destructive Expression. This finding is in agreement with Boman, Curtis, Furlong, and Smith's Rasch analysis of the MSAI-R with an Australian sample. Overall, the results from this study support the psychometric features of the Persian MSAI-R. However, results from some test items also point to the dangers inherent in adapting the same test stimuli to widely divergent cultures.     

The Ecology of the Gym: Reconceptualized and Extended

The ecological paradigm has become a powerful framework for understanding how teachers and students negotiate the learning environment. This article articulates the ecological paradigm into a more cohesive framework and expands it using influential work from the sociology of physical education. First, we explain several core concepts of ecological theory and explain how they fit together. Next, we overview past ecological work in each of the three main task systems, while integrating literature from outside traditional ecological theory to show how it better enhances the paradigm's usefulness. We show how culturally relevant content, student ownership/control, and cooperation/competition provide richness in further explaining the instructional task system. Similarly, we broaden the student social system into a social task system with three dimensions: relationships between teachers and students, relationships among students, and the social climate of the school.     

The More You Know … The More You Enjoy? Applying ‘Consumption Capital Theory’ To Motion Picture Franchises

In this article, we build on Stigler and Becker’s (1977) “consumption capital theory” and propose a novel conceptualization of film quality for the analysis of motion picture franchises. Generally, this theory predicts that the utility consumers derive from a particular good or service increases with prior consumption. We test our theoretical conjectures by drawing on the population of sequels that were running in the US between 1992 and 2011. The empirical results point to the explanatory power of the proposed framework. Film executives may use our findings to improve the profitability of their sequel productions. From a theoretical point of view, consumption capital theory allows for a more refined analysis of sequel performance along different dimensions. Moreover, it may provide a fruitful basis for the analysis of other serial media content, including books, TV, music, and games.