Search results for "Social learning"

Parental role models and the decision to become self-employed: The moderating effect of personality

2010

This paper uses social learning theory to examine the influence of parental role models in entrepreneurial families. We distinguish between paternal and maternal role models and investigate how their influence on offsprings’ decision to become self-employed is moderated by personality, specifically the offsprings’ openness. We use data on 461 alumni from eight German universities. Our results show not only that the presence of a parental role model increases the likelihood that individuals become self-employed, but that the influence of role models also depends on the individual’s openness. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on entrepreneurial families, role models, an…

Nutrient mitigation under the impact of climate and land-use changes: A hydro-economic approach to participatory catchment management

2020

Abstract Excessive nutrient loadings into rivers are a well-known ecological problem. Implemented mitigation measures should ideally be cost-effective, but perfectly ranking alternative nutrient mitigation measures according to cost-effectiveness is a difficult methodological challenge. Furthermore, a particularly practical challenge is that cost-effective measures are not necessarily favoured by local stakeholders, and this may impede their successful implementation in practice. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of mitigation measures using a methodology that includes a participatory process and social learning to ensure their successful implementation. By …

Rural futures in developed economies: The case of Finland

2015

Abstract This study presents four possible images of rural futures in Finland: decentralized bio-economy, colonial countryside, museum countryside and rural business islets. They are distilled through literature reviews, futures workshops and futures tables. Alternative specifications of structures, contents and agencies result in highly divergent states of key dimensions and, consequently, divergent rural futures. This diversity challenges the conventional public wisdom or intellectual monoculture that considers decay as the only future for rural areas. Key challenges in crafting plausible but divergent futures images are finding an appropriate level of abstraction or “flight altitude”, es…

The authenticity of ‘authentic’ assessment some faculty perceptions

2017

The attempt to embed Authenticity within the learning process in higher education has been a driving principle within many pedagogical approaches to Higher Education developed over the past three decades. The desire to allow students to learn in a manner that closely resembles the way in which expertise is developed outside the academic environment is a central element of problem-based, inquiry-based and projectbased learning. Exploring the implications of authenticity for student achievement and the ways in which this should be assessed has led to innovative teaching methods and ways of evaluating student performance. Unfortunately, authenticity, and authentic assessment in particular, are…

Communities of Communication: Making Sense of the “Social” in Social Media

2012

As social media usage permeates people's lives, an increasing portion of their daily behavior leaves digital traces to be used by researchers. Social scientists can hope to gain new insight into the previously hidden but digitally recorded aspects of our digital social lives. Beyond aggregate and individual-level studies of user behavior, the digital traces also enable scientific examination of the structure of social interaction through networks. At the same time, the large scale and networked nature of social media data pose a new set of challenges to be overcome through the development of sound methodologies. We take stock of current methodological promises and challenges in social media…

The effect of an MBA on the development of women's management competencies: A gender viewpoint

2014

Purpose – This article aims to report the findings of a study of the effect of a women's Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme in Finland called the femaleMBA on the development of women's management competencies. The gendered nature of the competency development was also analyzed. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative interview study was conducted with 20 women who completed the programme. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings – In addition to improving the women's business competencies and their mastery of management language, the programme contributed to the creation of a clearer managerial identity, greater assertiveness, and increased credibility in…

New behavioural trait adopted or rejected by observing heterospecific tutor fitness

2010

Animals can acquire behaviours from others, including heterospecifics, but should be discriminating in when and whom to copy. Successful individuals should be preferred as tutors, while adopting traits of poorly performing individuals should be actively avoided. Thus far it is unknown if such adaptive strategies are involved when individuals copy other species. Furthermore, rejection of traits based on tutor characteristics (negative bias) has not been shown in any non-human animal. Here we test whether a choice between two new, neutral behavioural alternatives—breeding-sites with alternative geometric symbols—is affected by observing the choice and fitness of a heterospecific tutor. A fiel…

Freedom and pressure in self-disclosure

2013

Today there is great openness about breast cancer, and the current ideology is that this is considered positive. This article draws upon sociological and philosophical theories to explore psychological practices. We ask: do women experience as much freedom to not talk about their illness as they do to talk about it? Do they experience that not being open is as favourably valued as openness is? The article is based on an ethnographic study in which women have given detailed accounts of how, to whom and in which situations they have been open or closed about their illness. It shows that breast cancer sufferers do not always experience a real choice between withholding and sharing information.…

2015

Learning new words is an increasingly common necessity in everyday life. External factors, among which music and social interaction are particularly debated, are claimed to facilitate this task. Due to their influence on the learner’s temporal behavior, these stimuli are able to drive the learner’s attention to the correct referent of new words at the correct point in time. However, do music and social interaction impact learning behavior in the same way? The current study aims to answer this question. Native German speakers (N = 80) were requested to learn new words (pseudo-words) during a contextual learning game. This learning task was performed alone with a computer or with a partner, w…

Emerging identity of Finnish nurse teachers: student teachers' narratives in a group exam.

2005

Summary In Finland students pursuing in Master's Degree Programme have a previous degree in nursing from polytechnics. Nurse teacher qualification also includes at least five year's experience of working in practice. This article concentrates on the conflicts student teachers brought up in a group exam as regards changing a nurse's identity into a teacher's identity in teacher training. The approach of the study on this group was narrative. The data were collected by videotaping two group exam situations (five hours in all) of volunteer student teachers ( N =5) during the last course (Nurse teacher's inquiring mind) of their nurse teacher studies in 2002. The material was transcribed and an…