6,174 research outputs found
The teaching of reading
The ability to read is an essential skill for all who live in societies where print can be seen ; that is, in most societies of the world. In everyday life, reading is vital for us to get around and understand where we live. At school, knowing how to read is the basic too l for all other academic learning. The child's ability or inability to read affects learning in all other school areas, such as: arithmetic, social studies, Maltese, English and science in the primary school. As Stones (1976) put it, "When a child becomes a fluent reader s/he is no longer directly dependent upon the teacher or other adults for language experience. Through reading s/he extends his/ her knowledge of the physical world, of society, of human relationships, and of his/her cultural heritage." So how does one go about teaching reading? Many people ask this question. However, the answer is not simple because there are many methods one can use and which method/ s to adopt depends on a number of factors. Teaching reading methods depend on the person being taught and his/her mental ability, the age, the level one has reached and difficulties already encountered in trying to read and the learner's interest in books. As Hall (1976) suggests accordingly, "before any formal instruction in reading is begun, it is important that children develop a desire to read." This is called Reading Readiness. Therefore, getting to know the child's likes and dislikes is fundamental and only books from within his/her areas of interest must be used. There would be no sense in giving a book of trees to a child who has no interest in them. This will only make the learner hate books even further.N/
Authors Losing Control: The European Transformations of Henry Nevilleâs 'The Isle of Pines' (1668)
Henry Nevilleâs utopian travel narrative The Isle of Pines, first published in London in June 1668, became an instant bestseller on the European market. Within a few months more than twenty foreign editions were printed in five western European languages, and numerous responses, commentaries, and adaptations followed over the years, leaving the reader wondering whether the story was fact, fiction, or something else entirely. This essay traces the complex transformations of this successful pamphlet as it traveled across the Continent in an attempt to shed new light on its contemporary impact and significance outside of England. In an attempt to shed new light on its contemporary impact and significance outside of England
The Local Relevance of Human Rights: A Methodological Approach
This paper proposes a methodology for examining the use and relevance of human rights in local communities as they quest to change their reality of poverty, social exclusion or marginalisation. The methodology draws on an innovative conceptual approach denominated âlocalising human rights,â a process which takes the human rights needs and claims formulated by local people as a basis for further interpreting and elaborating human rights in the context of economic globalisation. This paper, through a literature review of interdisciplinary methodological approaches and participatory case studies, offers an introduction on how local communitiesâ use of human rights can be researched in the context of field studies.
Mobile library and staff preparedness
The provision of access to information and effective delivery of information services is central to the role of librarians. Mobile technologies have added another dimension to this role â one that requires new knowledge, skills and competencies to ensure the needs and expectations of users are met. If libraries are to be successful in developing services for mobile technologies, their managers will have to consider two significant staffing issues. Firstly, it is important to understand what knowledge, skills and competencies are needed by staff to enable them to deliver services through mobile technologies, and secondly, to use that understanding to provide support and training for staff in the use of mobile technologies. In order to explore these issues and to contribute to the planning and professional development in the mobile library environment, a survey was undertaken of librarians working in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia and New Zealand
The changing life cycle pattern in female employment: a comparison of Germany and the UK
It is often noted that employment rates of females have been rising during the last decades. However, in contrast to men, women are often part-time employed and the allocation of working time over the life-cycle is linked to family formation. In addition, employment rates may differ across skill groups and countries due to differences in incentives to work and in labor market attachment. This paper analyzes empirically macroeconomic trends and life-cycle profiles in full-time and part-time employment of different skill groups of women in the UK and West Germany. The analysis is based on large cross{sectional data sets for a time period of 20 years. We find that patterns of part-time and full-time employment are surprisingly different across skill groups and countries. In particular, the life-cycle patterns are such that full-time employment declines and part-time employment increases with age in both countries. Time trends do not change in a monotonous way across skill groups and they differ by country. There is almost no evidence for a positive time trend in part-time employment thus the strong increase in part-time rates in both countries can mainly be attributed to composition effects. Our findings are based on an empirical model taking the effects of time, age, and birth cohort membership simultaneously into account. --Part-time and Full-time Employment,Females,Cohort Analysis
Judgements of a speakerâs personality are correlated across differing content and stimulus type
It has previously been shown that first impressions of a speakerâs personality, whether accurate or not, can be judged from short utterances of vowels and greetings, as well as from prolonged sentences and readings of complex paragraphs. From these studies, it is established that listenersâ judgements are highly consistent with one another, suggesting that different people judge personality traits in a similar fashion, with three key personality traits being related to measures of valence (associated with trustworthiness), dominance, and attractiveness. Yet, particularly in voice perception, limited research has established the reliability of such personality judgements across stimulus types of varying lengths. Here we investigate whether first impressions of trustworthiness, dominance, and attractiveness of novel speakers are related when a judgement is made on hearing both one word and one sentence from the same speaker. Secondly, we test whether what is said, thus adjusting content, influences the stability of personality ratings. 60 Scottish voices (30 females) were recorded reading two texts: one of ambiguous content and one with socially-relevant content. One word (~500 ms) and one sentence (~3000 ms) were extracted from each recording for each speaker. 181 participants (138 females) rated either male or female voices across both content conditions (ambiguous, socially-relevant) and both stimulus types (word, sentence) for one of the three personality traits (trustworthiness, dominance, attractiveness). Pearson correlations showed personality ratings between words and sentences were strongly correlated, with no significant influence of content. In short, when establishing an impression of a novel speaker, judgments of three key personality traits are highly related whether you hear one word or one sentence, irrespective of what they are saying. This finding is consistent with initial personality judgments serving as elucidators of approach or avoidance behaviour, without modulation by time or content. All data and sounds are available on OSF (osf.io/s3cxy)
Constraints and Dedication as Drivers for Relationship Commitment: An Empirical Study in a Health-Care Context
The objective of this study is to empirically determine the role of constraints and dedication as drivers of relationship commitment as most of the existing work is of a conceptual nature only. We assess how and to which extent these two drivers fit into the established relationships between overall service quality, satisfaction, trust and commitment. Using LISREL, we estimate the conceptual model based on a sample of customers of health-care centers. The results indicate that both constraints and dedication are important drivers of relationship commitment. The study has important implications for relationship marketing theory and for service providers aiming at relationship commitment.marketing ;
Segment selection by relationship strength
Relationship management is becoming more important, also in direct marketing. Measuring the strength of relationships is relevant, since relationship strength can be used as a segmentation variable. However, in measuring relationship strength, mostly one or more behavioral indicators are used (e.g. the R/F/M-formula). So, these indicators measure customer quality instead of relationship quality, which is mainly determined by customer perceptions. This paper shows some preliminary results of a relationship audit, which depends on customer attitudes towards the relationship.marketing ;
A simple Hidden Markov Model for midbrain dopaminergic neurons
Poster presentation: Introduction Dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain show a variety of firing patterns, ranging from very regular firing pacemaker cells to bursty and irregular neurons. The effects of different experimental conditions (like pharmacological treatment or genetical manipulations) on these neuronal discharge patterns may be subtle. Applying a stochastic model is a quantitative approach to reveal these changes. ..
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