Knowledge Of Citizens Research Articles

Entrepreneurship, Science and Technology Education for Self-Reliance and Economic Diversification

Science education which is the application of educational (learning) theories in the endless search for knowledge, resulting in the development of the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains through some systematic processes involving careful observation, deduction and testing by empirical means is a sure tool for the promotion of development of any state. This is because the application of its knowledge will enable its beneficiaries to solve the ever occurring challenges of life in society. One of the fundamental principles in National Policy on Education is to engender knowledge, effort, skill and well-being of citizens for national development. Entrepreneurship, Science and Technology Education in Nigeria incorporates industrial development, provide institutional framework for economic efficiency and reduce technological dependence on developed nations. In spite of this, its proper development in the country appears elusive due to the government underfunding of the entire education sector resulting in the non-actualization of the its science education dreams in the country,. This paper highlights the concept of Entrepreneurship, science and technology education, self-reliance for sustainable development, strategies for enhancing science and technology, and recommendations for the enhancement of science and technology for self-actualization.

Dietary salt consumption and the knowledge, attitudes and behavior of healthy adults: a cross-sectional study from Jordan

ABSTRACTHigh dietary sodium is recognized as a silent killer responsible for 2.3 million deaths worldwide in 2010 predominantly secondary to hypertension and its complications. Although high salt consumption is considered a worldwide public health problem, its magnitude is highly variable among different communities; therefore, it is important to study locally. This study aimed to evaluate habitual salt consumption, its important correlations, as well as the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of healthy Jordanian citizens. As potassium consumption is highly correlated and important we aimed to study both jointly. In this descriptive cross-sectional study we enrolled 103 healthy adult Jordanian citizens. All participants were interviewed for questionnaire filling, physical examination, and instructed on proper 24-hour urine collection procedure. We measured sodium and potassium concentration in the provided controlled 24-hour urine collection samples, as it is presently considered the gold standard for evaluating daily intake. The results showed an average sodium intake of 179 mmol (4.1 g) per day [higher in males at 186 mmol (4.3 g) vs. 173 mmol (4.0 g) for females], significantly above the current WHO recommendations, though only 8% regularly add salt to food. Ironically, most participants (82%) believe their salt consumption was appropriate and only 29% thought they may benefit from reducing salt intake. On the other hand, potassium intake is far below the current WHO recommendations. High sodium and low potassium intake have synergistic adverse effects on public health that is not currently addressed in Jordan. We conclude that Jordanian citizens currently consume high sodium and low potassium diet and are mostly unaware of its negative impact on their health. Hence, it is crucial for healthcare providers to intervene and adopt long-term strategies to control salt intake to reduce its negative effects in Jordan and elsewhere.

Combining Biosensing Technology and Virtual Environments for Improved Urban Planning

The Urban Emotions initiative uses biosensing technology to determine how people feel in the city, which is of particular relevance for architecture and urban planning. While past experiments focused more on pedestrian or bicycle traffic, accessibility and wayfinding, this paper proposes the use of virtual models as a basis for human sensorial measurement. Virtual space offers the possibility of minimizing external (environmental) influences to focus on the evaluation of design impressions. Inspiration for the method was ‘Q-sorting’ according to Stephenson (1953) and, in the context of urban planning, Krause (1974). Virtual models of real situations are used to determine whether test participants respond positively or negatively to the architecture or their environment. 360° videos, virtual reality ambience and VR glasses are used as output devices. In this virtual environment, it is possible to create standardized, comparable laboratory situations allowing researchers to draw more reliable and focused conclusions about human responses to their physical environment. The challenge for the future will be to transfer this knowledge of citizens’ responses to the built environment into real design processes.

Open Knowledge about Slaughter on the Internet-A Case Study on Controversies.

Simple SummaryAnimal products are consumed by a large majority of the global population, yet public knowledge about animal handling and welfare during the slaughter process is limited. An open educational resource about slaughter, called “Animal welfare at slaughter and killing” has been openly available on the Internet since 2012. The resource includes learning objectives, 650 webpages, 800 illustrations, 150 video clips, self-tests with feedback and a series of take-home messages. The resource is designed to not only be relevant to the primary target group, i.e., the abattoir staff, but also to anyone with an interest in the topic. A study was conducted to evaluate the use and impact of this educational resource with participants from slaughterhouses, universities, authorities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Focus group sessions were video recorded and analysed using an interpretive thematic analysis. Improved knowledge among consumers may lead to more well-founded decisions at purchase of meat and improved awareness among citizens to increase public pressure to improve animal handling at slaughter.Knowledge about slaughter of animals for human food is often perceived as controversial and therefore not made widely available. An open educational resource on the Internet about the slaughter of animals has created tension at launch but also resolved tension. Aiming to explore how this resource at the boundary between academia and society is perceived, a study was carried out with participants from slaughterhouses, universities, authorities and NGOs. Focus group sessions were video recorded and transcripts were coded using an interpretive thematic analysis. The results show that an open educational resource in addition to contributing to learning and awareness raising can also induce dialogue (and thus resolve tension) about animal welfare and contribute to animal welfare resilience. Our results also indicate that participants had diverse opinions about the influence of multimedia on attitudes towards animal slaughter. The use of additional instruments such as comment fields may lead to more knowledgeable citizens and socially robust knowledge, but has to be carefully weighed against the risk of false or fake data.

Evolution of Higher Education:Are we Future Ready?

The objective of this editorial is not to suggest a roadmap for the future, but to try and identify the areas of concern in the domain of higher education which deserve immediate attention from the authorities. Higher education is no longer elitist, much less a luxury, but has become more accessible and is, moreover, essential for survival in today’s world. Hence, higher educational institutions and universities have to be centres for entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, scholarships and knowledge production. Universities should be a platform to breed knowledgeable citizens with cultural and ethical values imprinted in them.

Learning, using and exchanging global competence in the context of international postgraduate mobility

ABSTRACTThe paper offers a theoretically grounded analysis of international postgraduate students’ perspectives on the importance and development of global citizenship knowledge and competences while they are studying, and how these are valued and enacted afterwards. It draws on a series of interviews with non-Western international postgraduates during their studies in the UK and upon return to their home countries. It uses the concepts of social and cultural cosmopolitan competences as a framework to discuss the perceived benefits of educational mobility, and the possibilities and limits of social connectedness and openness in the internationalised university environment.

English

This study evaluates the positive impact of citizenship education in students with an intellectual disability in disability centers in Saudi Arabia. The understanding of citizenship rights is widely perceived to be helpful for the successful integration of disabled students in a diverse society. A qualitative close-ended questionnaire was used as a data collection tool to evaluate the citizenship knowledge of 6-12-year-old students who were randomly recruited from the disability centers in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The study revealed an average level of citizenship knowledge among the students with intellectual disabilities. The results of the present study are statistically significant and suggest the importance of reforms in the educational institutes of disabled students, in order to ensure the development of citizenship knowledge in these students and help them to be a part of a diverse society.  Key words: Citizenship, students, intellectual disabilities, citizenship education.

Brazilian Citizens' Opinions and Attitudes about Farm Animal Production Systems.

Simple SummaryThe inclusion of societal input is needed for food animal production industries to retain their “social license to operate”. Little is known about the knowledge and attitudes of Brazilian citizens regarding food animal production systems. The aim of this study was to explore the beliefs and attitudes of Brazilians not associated with livestock production towards farm animal production systems. Overall, our participants expressed a preference for free-range, cage-free, and more “natural” production systems. They also expressed concerns with livestock production systems that limited the movement or expression of natural behaviours, particularly those that they associated with animal suffering or distress. They recognized farm animals as deserving respect and dignity beyond the provision of basic needs. Our findings indicate that Brazil’s current farm animal housing practices that are associated with restriction of movement may not align with societal expectations.The inclusion of societal input is needed for food animal production industries to retain their “social license to operate”; failure to engage with the public on this topic risks the long-term sustainability of these industries. The primary aim of this study was to explore the beliefs and attitudes of Brazilians citizens not associated with livestock production towards farm animal production. A related secondary aim was to identify the specific beliefs and attitudes towards systems that are associated with restriction of movement. Each participant was shown pictures representing two of five possible major food animal industries (laying hens, beef cattle, pregnant sows, lactating sows, and poultry meat). Participants were presented a six pages survey that included demographic questions plus two sets of two pictures and a series of questions pertaining to the pictures. Each set of pictures represented a particular industry where one picture represented a housing type that is associated with behavioural restrictions and the other picture represented a system that allowed for a greater degree of movement. Participants were asked their perceptions on the prevalence of each system in Brazil, then their preference of one picture vs. the other, and the reasons justifying their preference. Immediately following, the participant repeated the same exercise with the second set of two pictures representing another industry followed by the same series of questions as described above. Quantitative data were analysed with mixed effects logistic regression, and qualitative responses were coded into themes. The proportion of participants that believed animals are reared in confinement varied by animal production type: 23% (beef cattle), 82% (poultry), 81% (laying hens), and 60% (swine). A large majority (79%) stated that farm animals are not well-treated in Brazil. Overall, participants preferred systems that were not associated with behavioural restriction. The preference for free-range or cage-free systems was justified based on the following reasons: naturalness, animals’ freedom to move, and ethics. A minority of participants indicated a preference for more restrictive systems, citing reasons associated with food security and food safety, increased productivity and hygiene. Our results suggest that the majority of our participants, preferred farm animal production systems that provide greater freedom of movement, which aligned with their perception that these systems are better for the animal. Our results provide some evidence that the current farm animal housing practices that are associated with restriction of movement, which are gaining traction in Brazil, may not align with societal expectations.

PROBLEMATIC BEHAVIOR OF STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN THE CLASSROOM

Referring to this study, its purpose is to identify the level of knowledge of parents, citizens and professionals as well as educators regarding the level of recognition of children with autism. Objectives, aims of the work are: to know the level of engagement these classmates (learners) know and analyze the anxiety of young parents and professionals, how much they work with these children, and in this paper, we will analyze the weaknesses in the recognition of working methods with these children and the provision of contemporary methods during the teaching hours. Work analyzes have been done directly with the students in the classroom. Also within the framework of this paper are questionnaires and surveys directly with parents of these children and professionals dealing with this thematic of the problem, analyzed the encyclopedic dictionary research, to know the term autistic. During the study of literature and data processing developed during our research, we have concluded that: knowing autism as a phenomenon, but also as a term that is still widespread, shows that the integration of autistic children into a regular education system is very necessary and needs no education, and their integration into special schools. From the conclusions drawn from this paper, we think that we have to organize many workshops with the children with the parents of these children and with the responsible persons dealing with the education of these children to clarify what is autism and its characteristics, as the paper has concluded that there is a lack of information about these children. Article visualizations:

Are you more civically minded than a sixth grader? An investigation of pre-service teacher civics and citizenship knowledge, understandings and dispositions

Abstract The process of civics and citizenship education is a complex and multifaceted affair. Research in Australia and elsewhere has indicated a dearth of civics and citizenship understanding. To assist their students, schoolteachers need to be in command of the knowledge, understandings and dispositions related to civics and citizenship education. This article discusses teacher readiness for teaching this subject in primary schools, by asking a cohort of first year pre-service teachers to respond to a test recently administered to a sample of year six children (aged about 11 years) in Australia. The results were somewhat disconcerting, with numbers of the pre-service teachers furnishing incorrect answers. Patterns of incorrect answers and reasons for these are analysed, in the context of the student cohort and the education they have received to date, and the education they are to provide upon graduation. Beyond this, the test paper itself, and some of the assumptions it appears to make, as well as some of its silences, are also put under scrutiny. Some brief implications for teacher education, teaching, learning, assessment and socially just futures are also included.

Atlas of Invisible Spaces: mapping in school environments

Contemporary city planning frequently involves participation processes which are based on the ability to communicate about architectural and urban cultures. This raises the issue of whether and how all members of a diverse society can be empowered to address matters concerning urban quality and atmospheric values. Consciousness of a place develops intensively in adolescence, a period in which young people spend an increasing amount of time at school. Therefore, the influence of the school surroundings on the urban knowledge of young citizens is essential. This paper discusses the question which spatial image young adults produce of their school environment and how this knowledge can be improved through architectural education. The goal of this research project is to develop a set of transferable mapping strategies, which allow to collect urban knowledge and to communicate urban qualities among heterogeneous groups in educational settings. A case study set in Vienna focuses on a school with diverse student groups to test non-normative mapping methods for the visualisation of city images. These maps combine mind maps, artistic representation and narratives to challenge the relation of pupil, school and the city and to make everyday spatial knowledge visible and valuable.

Knowledge and attitudes toward brain death and organ donation in Bojnurd.

BackgroundOrgan donation in Iran is common. Bojnurd (North Khorasan, Iran) is a multi-ethnic city, and people with different religions and cultures live together and that could be associated with their behavior and attitude towards health-related issues. So far, no study has taken place on brain death and organ donation in the province of North Khorasan.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes of citizens of Bojnurd toward brain death and organ donation.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted from March to September 2014, on 380 Bojnurd citizens who were selected through multi-stage sampling. The tool was a researcher-made questionnaire in three parts (demographic information, awareness and attitude surveys), containing 10 questions on awareness and 18 questions on attitude. The questionnaire validity and reliability were confirmed by content validity and Cronbach’s alpha (0.76). The data were analyzed by using SPSS version 16, using Chi-square, independent-samples t-test, and Spearman correlation coefficient. Significance level was set at p<0.05.ResultsThree hundred and eighty participants with the average age of 29.91±9.32 were studied, of which 55% were female. The average score of awareness and attitude was 11.42 (±2.40) and 39.8 (±6.01) respectively. The awareness of the majority of the people (63%) regarding organ donation was moderate and the attitude toward organ donation in the majority (74.1%) was poor. In people with poor attitudes, awareness was also lower, and this was statistically significant (p=0.047).Conclusionthe attitude towards organ donation was negative in the majority of the citizens. In order to correct the beliefs, develop positive attitude and increase citizens’ knowledge, public education is essential.

Intercultural citizenship through participation in an international service-learning program: A case study from Taiwan

Byram’s (2008) intercultural citizenship framework includes the following orientations: cognitive, evaluative, comparative, action, and communicative. Using this framework as a theoretical basis, this study explored the international service-learning (ISL) experiences of four Taiwanese non-native English speakers (NNES) during a two-week trip to a poor community in the Philippines. Data collected from these students’ individual reflections, interviews, and public presentations illustrate their acquisition of the knowledge, skills and attitudes of intercultural citizenship. This study thus demonstrates that ISL allowed students to engage beneficially for themselves and their hosts with other NNES, instead of following the tradition of study abroad in countries where English is spoken natively.

The Knowledge Deficit About Taxes: Who It Affects and What to Do About It

Tax professionals argue that the tax system is too complex for ordinary taxpayers and that this sometimes makes their work for clients more educational than strategic. Tax complexity is not only a headache for these professionals but also a source of inefficiency and unfairness in our tax system as not every citizen understands it to the same degree. We use the tax system to support our retirement, education and poverty-reduction public programs. Failures of the tax system affect these programs as well. Weak understanding of taxes has also been shown to lower the level of trust of citizens in the tax system. This lower level of trust can translate into higher rates of tax evasion or avoidance, raising the cost of taxation for everyone. Canada has experience assessing the financial literacy of its citizens and is developing policies to raise it. This issue is considered strategic as financial tools and markets become more and more complicated and our population is aging. The tax system is a financial tool that citizens must know how to use as much as mortgages or pension funds are. Drawing from the research on financial literacy, we aim to develop a method to measure “tax literacy.” We evaluate, with the use of a survey administered by the polling firm Crop to Quebec citizens, the knowledge and skills of citizens concerning fiscal matters, understood broadly to include direct and indirect taxation as well as social transfers. Age, education and income are associated with higher knowledge of these matters, but not gender or being self-employed. Higher tax literacy is associated with a higher propensity for taxpayers to produce their tax return themselves rather than with the help of a professional. It also appears that women tend to underestimate their understanding of tax. Tax literacy, and the methods for its measurement, are a new tool to assess the failures of certain policies such as the Children Fitness Tax Credit or the Canada Learning Bond to reach their target audiences. More generally, weak understanding of taxes contributes to lowered trust in our tax system, which underpins our social bonds. Assessing this issue is a first step towards making our tax system fairer and more efficient.

Information Literacy and Instruction: Teaching and Learning Alternatives: A Global Overview

Your communities need your help more than ever, in so many ways—job, healthcare, and college and occupational study applications, workplace research and problem solving, research paper and homework help, and many other community-related issues, like accessing laws and regulations. How do you address these needs when there are so many people needing your help, at any time of the day or night, almost anywhere in the world, but also right in front of you at a physical reference desk? Face-to-face personal help is still invaluable, but reference work has expanded in many ways. It includes, but goes beyond, fact finding. Reference librarians help people learn how to learn so they can participate fully in their societies as informed and knowledgeable citizens. This column takes a look at how librarians and others around the world are identifying what people need to learn for this purpose, and how to help them learn it. This column and the sites listed at the end of it provide ideas and approaches that could be used or adapted to help the people in your communities achieve this goal. Note: I gratefully acknowledge Susan Gardner Archambault (Loyola Marymount University), Dr. Jane Secker (London School of Economics), and Sarah LeMire (Texas A&amp; M University), co-editor of this column, for their very helpful comments and suggestions.—Editor, Esther Grassian

Civic Participation in a Hybrid Regime: Limited Pluralism in Policymaking and Delivery in Contemporary Russia

This article asks why the Russian government has developed new avenues for public participation in policymaking and delivery and assesses the extent to which these avenues introduce pluralism into these processes. Drawing on 50 interviews with individuals and citizens’ groups involved in either public consultative bodies or socially oriented NGOs, the article demonstrates the government’s desire to harness the knowledge and abilities of citizens and civic groups in place of state departments perceived to be bureaucratic and inefficient, while controlling and curtailing their participation. Arguing that these countervailing tendencies can be conceptualized as limited pluralism, a category elaborated by Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, we show that citizens and civic groups are able to influence policy outcomes to varying extents using these mechanisms.

The four knowledges of transport planning: Enacting a more communicative, trans-disciplinary policy and decision-making

There is widespread criticism of much transport planning practice for relying on particular, ‘technical’, knowledge forms characterized by instrumental, means-end rationality. At the same time politicians are criticized for taking ‘political’ decisions with not enough regard for the outcomes of such technical work. Increasingly attempts to capture the embodied knowledge and values of citizens are also brought into this contested terrain. But which knowledge forms should be significant in making policy and taking decisions; and how might they be brought together in political decision-making which is itself subject to its own rationality? This paper argues that the variety of knowledge forms in everyday transport planning processes should be more transparently articulated. Subsequent reflexion can help enhance the quality of transport planning processes, while such transparency bolsters the democratic legitimacy of the outputs of such processes. Such a more explicitly communicative, trans-disciplinary mode of governance would help to challenge the power of political rationality. This conclusion has implications for how transport planning as a discipline is enacted.

Toward Self-Authoring a Civic Teacher Identity: Service-Learning in Teacher Education

Previous scholarship has examined how teachers’ civic knowledge and conceptions of citizenship influence their goals, pedagogical practices, and confidence in teaching citizenship, but few studies have probed how teacher candidates develop identities as civic educators through community service-learning projects. This case study draws upon Baxter Magolda’s framework of self-authorship to investigate how teacher candidates in a Canadian university began to self-author their identities as civic educators through their experience of developing and delivering citizenship learning modules to youth through a community-based project. Our qualitative analysis of the data indicates that participating in change-oriented service-learning can lead teacher candidates to challenge their assumptions about youth engagement, increase their sense of self-efficacy as civic educators, and, to some extent, develop an awareness of self in relation to others.

Media pluralism: What matters for governance and regulation?

ABSTRACTMedia pluralism is valued in most jurisdictions because it contributes to a well-informed citizenry. The authors examine what media policy and regulatory levers appear to affect five types of citizen knowledge across the European Union. They conclude that concentration of titles matters more than ownership in newsprint; and that neither type of concentration matters in broadcasting in the same way, but the regulatory regime for public service broadcasting does, particularly for political knowledge.

Is the European Union too complicated? Citizens’ lack of information and party cue effectiveness

Previous literature suggests that citizens lack information about European Union politics and need party cues to develop attitudes toward European Union issues. This process would make party positions the cause rather than the consequence of voters’ preferences, reducing the accountability of the political elite. The article tests the premise of this top-down model investigating how issue complexity and citizens’ political knowledge affect party cue effectiveness. The results from both experimental and observational data show that party influence is higher among less knowledgeable citizens. Moreover, well-informed voters have autonomous opinions on easy issues, but they rely on party cues when facing harder ones. Given the low availability of information about European Union politics and the high complexity of the debated issues, parties appear largely able to shape voters’ attitudes.