The Role of National Culture in Student Acquisition of Cognitive Skills

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore R. Breton
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Cognitive Skills

scholarly journals Extended parenting and the evolution of cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1803) ◽  
pp. 20190495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Uomini ◽  
Joanna Fairlie ◽  
Russell D. Gray ◽  
Michael Griesser
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cultural Learning

Traditional attempts to understand the evolution of human cognition compare humans with other primates. This research showed that relative brain size covaries with cognitive skills, while adaptations that buffer the developmental and energetic costs of large brains (e.g. allomaternal care), and ecological or social benefits of cognitive abilities, are critical for their evolution. To understand the drivers of cognitive adaptations, it is profitable to consider distant lineages with convergently evolved cognitions. Here, we examine the facilitators of cognitive evolution in corvid birds, where some species display cultural learning, with an emphasis on family life. We propose that extended parenting (protracted parent–offspring association) is pivotal in the evolution of cognition: it combines critical life-history, social and ecological conditions allowing for the development and maintenance of cognitive skillsets that confer fitness benefits to individuals. This novel hypothesis complements the extended childhood idea by considering the parents' role in juvenile development. Using phylogenetic comparative analyses, we show that corvids have larger body sizes, longer development times, extended parenting and larger relative brain sizes than other passerines. Case studies from two corvid species with different ecologies and social systems highlight the critical role of life-history features on juveniles’ cognitive development: extended parenting provides a safe haven, access to tolerant role models, reliable learning opportunities and food, resulting in higher survival. The benefits of extended juvenile learning periods, over evolutionary time, lead to selection for expanded cognitive skillsets. Similarly, in our ancestors, cooperative breeding and increased group sizes facilitated learning and teaching. Our analyses highlight the critical role of life-history, ecological and social factors that underlie both extended parenting and expanded cognitive skillsets. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals’.

Barriers to Arab female academics’ career development

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 1058-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waed Ensour ◽  
Hadeel Al Maaitah ◽  
Radwan Kharabsheh
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hrm Practices

Purpose Arab female academics struggle to advance within their universities in both academic and managerial ranks. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the factors hindering Arab women’s academic career development through studying the case of Jordanian academic women. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered through document analysis (Jordan constitution, Jordanian Labour Law and its amendments, higher education and scientific research law, Jordanian universities’ law and universities’ HR policies and regulations), interviews with 20 female academics and a focus group with 13 female academics (members of the Association of Jordanian Female Academics). Findings The results indicate female academics as tokens facing many interconnected and interrelated barriers embodied in cultural, social, economic and legal factors. The findings support the general argument proposed in human resource management (HRM) literature regarding the influence of culture on HRM practices and also propose that the influence of culture extends to having an impact on HR policies’ formulation as well as the formal legal system. Originality/value The influence of culture on women’s career development and various HR practices is well established in HR literature. But the findings of this study present a further pressure of culture. HR policies and other regulations were found to be formulated in the crucible of national culture. Legalizing discriminatory issues deepens the stereotypical pictures of women, emphasizing the domestic role of women and making it harder to break the glass ceiling and old-boy network.

scholarly journals Anime in Academia: Representative Object, Media Form, and Japanese Studies

Arts ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaqueline Berndt
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Japanese Studies ◽  
Media Form

The transcultural consumption of Japan-derived popular media has prompted a significant amount of academic research and teaching. Instead of addressing globalization or localization as such, this article investigates the interplay of anime research and the institution of Japanese studies outside of Japan, addressing recurrent methodological issues, in particular, related to representation and mediation, intellectual critique and affective engagement, subculture and national culture. The inclination towards objects and representation in socio-cultural as well as cinema-oriented Japanese-studies accounts of anime is first introduced and, after considering discursive implications of the name anime, contrasted with media-studies approaches that put an emphasis on relations, modalities, and forms. In order to illustrate the vital role of forms, including genre, similarities between TV anime and Nordic Noir TV drama series are sketched out. Eventually, the article argues that the study of anime is accommodated best by going beyond traditional polarizations between text and context, media specificity and media ecology, area and discipline.

scholarly journals Social Role of the Librarians of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline da Rosa Ferreira Becker
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Federal Institute ◽  
Educational Institute ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education Science

The study was carried out through the theoretical foundation about the conceptions and objectives of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, and also on the social role of the librarians of this educational institute. These Federal Institutes were created in Brazil in 2009 and they offer basic and higher education. This study aims at investigating, analyzing, and understanding if the librarians of the Federal Institutes of Education, Science, and Technology recognize their social roles as professionals that can contribute to the development of cognitive skills with regards to the information in the library’s users. A case study was carried out with all the librarians of the Federal Institutes and questionnaires were the method used for collecting data. It should be noted in the librarians’ answers that they recognize their social roles, and they act according to what they recognize. In their everyday practices, these librarians try to minimize the difficulties that the library’s users face in relation to the search, location, use, assessment, dissemination, and understanding of information.

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