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Parental involvement is a crucial force in children’s development, learning and success at school and in life [1]. Participation, defined by the World Health Organization as ‘a person’s involvement in life situations’ [2] for children means involvement in everyday activities, such as recreational, leisure, school and household activities [3]. Several authors use the term social participation emphasising the importance of engagement in social situations [4, 5]. Children’s participation in daily life is vital for healthy development, social and physical competencies, social-emotional well-being, sense of meaning and purpose in life [6]. Through participation in different social contexts, children gather the knowledge and skills needed to interact, play, work, and live with other people [4, 7, 8]. Unfortunately, research shows that children with a physical disability are at risk of lower participation in everyday activities [9]; they participate less frequently in almost all activities compared with children without physical disabilities [10, 11], have fewer friends and often feel socially isolated [12-14]. Parents, in particular, positively influence the participation of their children with a physical disability at school, at home and in the community [15]. They undertake many actions to improve their child’s participation in daily life [15, 16]. However, little information is available about what parents of children with a physical disability do to enable their child’s participation, what they come across and what kind of needs they have. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate parents’ actions, challenges, and needs while enhancing the participation of their school-aged child with a physical disability. In order to achieve this aim, two steps have been made. In the first step, the literature has been examined to explore the topic of this thesis (actions, challenges and needs) and to clarify definitions for the concepts of participation and social participation. Second, for the purposes of giving breadth and depth of understanding of the topic of this thesis a mixed methods approach using three different empirical research methods [17-19], was applied to gather information from parents regarding their actions, challenges and needs.
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Communication plays an important role in manyprofessional contexts. This is especially truefor students in the field of social work. Theaim of this study was to develop formative,self-regulated multimedia self-assessment ofsocial-communicative competencies for socialwork students. First, a pilot study wasconducted to gain insight into the students'specific characteristics. This insight was usedto design guidelines for the development of theassessment instrument in order to tune these tothe students' perceptions, instructionalpreferences, and personalities and thusenhancing the students' enthusiasm to use theself-assessment instrument. This might increasethe chance for successful implementation ofthis new form of assessment. A first version of a multimedia test wasdeveloped. A quality expert meeting wasorganised to gain insight into expertjudgements on the quality of the test and toobtain indications for improvement of theassessment. A second version of the test wasconstructed and put on the Internet. Nearly 400students completed the assessment and expressedtheir opinions on this new way of communicationassessment. We found it was possible to testsocial-communicative competence by means ofmultimedia, with the help of digital video. Theuse of Internet makes assessments available atany time to fit curriculum needs and alsoresolves time and space constraints. Ourconclusion was that the multimedia test isreasonably valid. All students reported havingliked the multimedia assessment.
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Building on the Minds-On project, this study developed the online module “Celestial Bodies” to enhance hands-on and minds-on learning, providing students with individualised feedback prompts to monitor and identify weaknesses in their understanding. The lesson centred on classifying 14 celestial bodies based on three properties, with the guidance of the online module and a map and cards. This study aimed to (1) enhance student engagement with the software, and (2) asses the impact of guided instructions and feedback prompts. We introduce our interactive lesson, present findings, and discuss their benefits in upper primary education classes to enhance student engagement, concept learning, emphasising enhanced integration of minds-on and hands-on activities.
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Collaborative learning tasks may represent an effective way to stimulate higher-order processes among high-ability students in regular classrooms. This study investigatedthe effects of task structure and group composition on the elaboration and metacognitive activities of 11th grade preuniversity students during a collaborative learning task: 102 students worked in small groups. On an ill-structured or moderately structured task. Differential effects forcognitive ability were investigated using a continuous measure. Likewise, the effects of group composition were examined using a continuous measure of the cognitiveheterogeneity of the group. The group dialogues were transcribed and coded. Analysis revealed an interaction effect between task structure and cognitive abilityon students’ elaboration and metacognitive activities. Task structure had a negative effect on the elaborative contributions of high-ability students. For students with lower abilities, task structure had a positive effect onelaboration and metacognitive activities. No effects were found of the cognitive heterogeneity of the group. Group composition seemed not to be related to group interactionamong 11th grade pre-university students. The results indicate that open-ended collaborative tasks with little guidance and directions on how to handle them, canstimulate higher-order processes among high-ability students and may offer them the challenge they need.
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Purpose: This study aimed to determine the motivations of a select group of South Africans in terms of their potential engagement with cultural tourism; more specifically, the study set out to show whether these motivations influence the cultural activities that the tourists want to participate in and whether their interest in specific cultural activities determines their destination choices. Furthermore, the mediating role of activities in the relationship between cultural motivations and destination choice was also assessed. Design/methodology/approach: An online panel survey collected responses from 1,530 potential cultural tourists across South Africa. Hypotheses were tested, using structural equation modelling. Findings: The results show that tourists' motivations for cultural tourism influence their likelihood of participating in specific cultural activities. Cultural tourism is shown to be influenced by more than learning and includes entertainment, relaxation, novelty and escape dimensions. There also seems to be a difference in the activities engaged in by destination type. For example, tourists likely to take part in indigenous cultural tourism activities are more likely to do so at hedonic destinations. Practical implications: This paper contributes to the understanding of cultural tourism activities, aiding destinations in attracting cultural tourists. Destinations need to develop activities that match visitor motivations, increase satisfaction and encourage visitors to return. Originality/value: The paper increases the understanding of cultural tourism in South Africa and underlines the importance of communities in providing distinctive tourism activities. The study also has an important social dimension, highlighting the role of social status in cultural tourism consumption and destination selection.
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Increasingly, internationalisation at home and internationalisation of the curriculum are adopted by universities across the globe but their systemic implementation is a complex process. For instance, academics and academic disciplines understand and approach internationalisation differently, as previous studies have shown. However, there is little research on the role of such disciplinary perspectives in relation to different internationalisation practices and interventions. Using the Becher-Biglan framework of academic tribes, this exploratory study compares 12 undergraduate programmes at a Dutch university of applied sciences and addresses the question if the different disciplinary approaches to internationalisation as identified in previous studies are also reflected in the choices of internationalisation at home activities. The findings show there is more variation in the range of activities rather than in the types of activities and that it is within the rationales underlying those choices where the influence of disciplinary perspectives is more visible.
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In most shopping areas, there are place management partnerships (PMPs) that aim to increase the competitiveness of the area. Collective digital marketing activities, such as the adoption and update of collective websites and social media pages, provide opportunities in this regard. Currently, the extent to which digital marketing activities are being employed varies widely among PMPs. However, studies investigating the factors that influence the uptake of digital marketing activities are lacking. This study applies a resource-based view to fill this gap, using data from an online survey about collective digital marketing activities among 164 official representatives of PMPs in urban shopping areas in the Netherlands. Regression analyses were employed to examine the extent to which the resources of PMPs influence the adoption and update frequency of the two most often used digital marketing channels: websites and social media pages. The results revealed that while the adoption of collective digital marketing channels is strongly influenced by the physical resources that characterize the shopping area itself, the update frequency of these channels is influenced more by the organizational resources of PMPs. In addition, the strategic choice of PMPs to deploy human and financial resources for the benefit of collective digital marketing activities leads to increased use of these activities. This effect is reinforced by the fact that digital marketing skills gained through experience contribute to a higher update frequency of the adopted channels. As such, this study provides empirical evidence on the influence of PMPs shared resources upon their digital marketing activities.
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Background: Community care professionals need to encourage older adults in performing functional activities to maintain independence. However, professionals often perform functional activities on behalf of older adults. To change this, insights into the behavior and barriers of professionals in encouraging activities are required. In the current study, the MAINtAIN questionnaire, which was developed for nursing homes, was adopted. The objective was to create a modified version that is suitable for measuring behavior and barriers of community care professionals in encouraging functional activities of clients in the community care setting. The overall aims were to assess the content validity, construct validity, and internal consistency of the modified version. Methods: Data was collected by qualitative and quantitative methods in two phases. During phase one, the MAINtAIN was assessed on appropriateness and feasibility by community nurses (N = 7), and the adapted questionnaire was assessed on content validity by research experts (N = 9) and community care professionals (N = 18). During phase two, the psychometric properties of the adapted MAINtAIN-C were assessed in community care professionals (N = 80). Construct validity was evaluated by an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and internal consistency was determined by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. Results: The formulation, verbs, and wording of the MAINtAIN were adapted; some items were excluded and relevant items were added, resulting in the MAINtAIN-C with two scales, showing good content validity. The Behaviors scale (20 items) measures perceived behavior in encouraging functional activities, expressing good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha: .92). The Barriers scale measures barriers in encouraging functional activities related to two dimensions: 1) the clients’ context (7 items), with good internal consistency (.78); and 2) the professional, social, and organizational contexts (21 items), showing good internal consistency (.83). Conclusions: The MAINtAIN-C seems promising to assess the behavior and barriers of community care professionals in encouraging functional activities. It can be used to display a possible difference between perceived and actual behavior, to develop strategies for removing barriers in encouraging activities to foster behavioral change. The results also provide guidance for further research in a larger sample to obtain more insight into the psychometric properties.
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The participating universities and their associated partners under the Committed project have formulated the following recommendations to help the European legislators create a coherent system in educating and preparing the HEIs for proper handling of compliance risks and issues in research and education activities. To lay down the fundamentals of a uniform, European export compliance andrisk management system for higher education and scientific research, the project members scrutinized the currently existing and effective European regulations, the European Commission’s recommendation in this subject and the respective national rules, and also U.S. legislation in the field of deemed export.
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