Zoekresultaten

Ondernemend participeren vanuit de wijk

Entrepreneurial participation from the neighbourhood is the final report of a two-year action research that investigated how cooperating formal and informal parties can support small-scale entrepreneurship in the Amsterdam neighbourhoods and stimulate participation by people who have unemployment benefits. The study mapped learning conditions for participants and described different types of participants, such as starting with the person instead of the entrepreneurial idea; different creative learning forms; the role of certificates and clear expectations.Three findings from our research turned out to be crucial for the cooperation between parties in this complex setting, looking at the principle of "collaborative governance": making clear agreements; have sufficient resources; and carefully consider which parties are participating. In addition, it appeared important that there is sufficiently clearly shared motivation about which goals the various parties involved want to achieve together; and that there is clarity on how they intend to achieve these goals. It is most natural to follow the dynamics of the neighborhood and invest in it. This could include joint mapping of neighborhood networks by participation professionals to focus more on their development, but also work on innovative financing structures and use people who can be 'boundary spanners' in the neigbourhood networks.

Information structure influences depth of syntactic processing: event-related potential evidence for the Chomsky illusion.

Information structure facilitates communication between interlocutors by highlighting relevant information. It has previously been shown that information structure modulates the depth of semantic processing. Here we used event-related potentials to investigate whether information structure can modulate the depth of syntactic processing. In question-answer pairs, subtle (number agreement) or salient (phrase structure) syntactic violations were placed either in focus or out of focus through information structure marking. P600 effects to these violations reflect the depth of syntactic processing. For subtle violations, a P600 effect was observed in the focus condition, but not in the non-focus condition. For salient violations, comparable P600 effects were found in both conditions. These results indicate that information structure can modulate the depth of syntactic processing, but that this effect depends on the salience of the information. When subtle violations are not in focus, they are processed less elaborately. We label this phenomenon the Chomsky illusion.

Co‐creatie met kinderen

De creatieve denkkracht van kinderen wordt nog niet vaak benut bij het vinden van oplossingen voor problemen in de dagelijkse praktijk. Hun ervaringen en ideeën zouden meegenomen kunnen worden in ontwerpprocessen door hen te laten participeren in de ontwikkeling van nieuwe producten. In het NRO‐NWO project “Co‐design with kids” hebben 32 kinderen uit groep 5 en 26 kinderen uit groep 7 van twee basisscholen gedurende zeven weken onder begeleiding van een onderzoeker en hun groepsleerkracht gewerkt aan een ontwerpopdracht van een ‘echte’ opdrachtgever gericht op het bewegingsonderwijs (Casus Gymzaal van de Toekomst) en op de speelruimte (Casus Memo). Een jury van zeven tot acht personen met expertise op het vlak van bewegen, buitenspelen, bewegingsonderwijs, onderwijs of ontwerpen heeft de kwaliteit van de ontwerpuitkomsten van de kinderen beoordeeld in termen van originaliteit en variatie, inspiratie, uitwerking en relevantie. Uit de resultaten kwam naar voren dat de kinderen goed in staat zijn tussen‐ en eindproducten te bedenken die aansluiten bij de doelgroep. De ontwerpideeën scoorden over het algemeen ook hoog op de variatie in de oplossingen, de mate waarin de producten uitgewerkt, uitgedacht en direct toepasbaar waren en de mate waarin de eindproducten pasten binnen de context van het probleem. De ontwerpideeën waren volgens de juryleden en opdrachtgevers echter niet heel origineel; de ontwerpideeën waren in hun ogen niet erg vernieuwend, waren een afgeleide van bestaande concepten of bevatten geen verrassende elementen.

Stories that matter

World Citizenship

The present study aims to investigate if – and if so, how – the intercultural training programme ‘Preparation for Foreign Learning Experience’ (PREFLEX) has a positive effect on the development of the intercultural competence of students at THUAS in international groups (i.e. school for International Business and Management Studies, IBMS) and students in intercultural groups (i.e. school for Commercial Economy, CE). In addition, the study aims to advance the design of the programme further. Accordingly, the study addresses the following central research question: In what way do the intercultural classroom and the international classroom contribute to the development of intercultural competences in first-year students at THUAS, and to what extent does preparation and guidance, by means of the PREFLEX training module, effectively enhance this development?

The influence of information structure on the depth of semantic processing: How focus and pitch accent determine the size of the N400 effect.

To highlight relevant information in dialogues, both wh-question context and pitch accent in answers can be used, such that focused information gains more attention and is processed more elaborately. To evaluate the relative influence of context and pitch accent on the depth of semantic processing, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) to auditorily presented wh-question-answer pairs. A semantically incongruent word in the answer occurred either in focus or in non-focus position as determined by the context, and this word was either accented or unaccented.Semantic incongruency elicited different N400 effects in different conditions. The largest N400 effect was found when the question-marked focus was accented, while the other three conditions elicited smaller N400 effects. The results suggest that context and accentuation interact. Thus accented focused words were processed more deeply compared to conditions where focus and accentuation mismatched, or when the new information had no marking. In addition, there seems to be sex differences in the depth of semantic processing. For males, a significant N400 effect was observed only when the question-marked focus was accented, reduced N400 effects were found in the other dialogues. In contrast, females produced similar N400 effects in all the conditions. These results suggest that regardless of external cues, females tend to engage in more elaborate semantic processing compared to males.