The present study focuses on the amount of brain knowledge that children have, and specifically, which neuromyths they believe. Previous research suggests that brain knowledge, either right or...Show moreThe present study focuses on the amount of brain knowledge that children have, and specifically, which neuromyths they believe. Previous research suggests that brain knowledge, either right or wrong, can influence the way children think about themselves, and how they behave. If this knowledge is negatively framed, this can have a negative effect on their development. Therefore, we investigated whether curiosity, prior knowledge, and science-related curiosity were predictive of correctly distinguishing neuromyths and truths and whether these same predictors were related to the perceived relevance of brain knowledge in their daily lives. Furthermore, we looked at the difference between children in primary school and in secondary school with respect to how much they want to know about the brain, and what they want to know about the brain was examined. To test this, 321 children in primary and secondary schools, aged between 10 and 15 years, filled out a questionnaire about their curiosity and prior knowledge, and they judged whether 25 statements about the brain (13 myths, 11 facts, and 1 opinion) were right or wrong. We found that curiosity, prior knowledge, and science-related curiosity as measured with a questionnaire were not predictive of being better able to distinguish neuromyths and truths. However, in an exploratory analysis we found that a higher number of correctly detected facts predicted a lower number of correctly detected neuromyths. When looking at perceived relevance, higher levels of curiosity and science-related curiosity predicted higher levels of perceived relevance, while prior knowledge did not. No differences between children who go to primary school and secondary school were found in how much they want to know about the brain. Also, the themes they would like to know more about were quite the same, mostly focused on general brain knowledge and brain development. This is the first study that focuses on neuromyths and brain knowledge in children. It is important that more research is done on the effect of believing neuromyths and the influence it has on children’s behavior.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
Achieving universal primary education is both promoted as a global development goal and as a priority for the Tanzanian government. To reach this goal, the government is committed to making primary...Show moreAchieving universal primary education is both promoted as a global development goal and as a priority for the Tanzanian government. To reach this goal, the government is committed to making primary education accessible for as many children as possible by making it both compulsory and free of charge. Nevertheless, there is still a problem with absenteeism in Tanzania. This ethnographic research explores the range of factors and reasons, besides tuition fees, that influence children's absenteeism through a case study of three primary schools in rural northern Tanzania. It analysesthe collaboration between these three schools and the Dutch-Tanzanian NGO Kamitei Foundation in addressing this issue. Based on interviews with teachers, parents, and pupils themselves, the main argument of this thesis is that the different roles that children have within rural households have consequences for their level of attendance. These household activities differ according to gender, and to the extent of how indispensable the children are within their household. Moreover, I found that differences in classroom pedagogy and in schools' policies of dealing with absenteeism also influenced the rate of absenteeism among pupils. Based on my findings, I argue that punishment or ignorance by the teachers as a response to not being present at school is one of the main factors that makes absence recurring, which makes it hard to reduce it. The Kamitei Foundation and the schools try to reach a consensus on this issue by working together to offer good quality education, even though it can be hard to reach the same level of understanding.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
The thesis is based on empirical fieldwork that investigated a disaster-induced relocation project in eastern Indonesia. Choosing an actor-focused approach that followed development brokers of a...Show moreThe thesis is based on empirical fieldwork that investigated a disaster-induced relocation project in eastern Indonesia. Choosing an actor-focused approach that followed development brokers of a Christian NGO in the course of the project, enabled the author to expose multiple conflicting interests and agendas between and within government, the NGO and the 'host-community'. In this complex and contested discursive arena, brokers were strategically translating and shifting interests to create common realities and alliances from heterogeneous networks. By adapting and transforming objectives of the 'good governance' discourse, they were able to unify groups and win over supporters, despite the poor implementation of the project. How these translations competed with interpretations of other actors and how they influenced the brokers' positioning towards the goverment was of particular interest within this research. Applying visual methods has shed light on the performative and emotional dimensions of these translation processes. The ethnographic film 'Fighting for Nothing to Happen', which is the main part of the thesis, is accompanied by the multi-media pdf file that employs different interacting media and provides historical, political and socioeconomic background to selected sequences of the film. The different media inform and contest each other in a rhizomatic structure that produces a multi-layered and comprehensive understanding of the complexity of brokerage and development in Indonesia.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-09-05T00:00:00Z
This eye-tracking study investigates whether age-related changes in the ability to take perspective influence narrative text comprehension. Thirty-two typically-developing children (M = 11.73; SD =...Show moreThis eye-tracking study investigates whether age-related changes in the ability to take perspective influence narrative text comprehension. Thirty-two typically-developing children (M = 11.73; SD = 0.74) and 34 young adults (M = 21.02; SD = 1.98) read stories in which the need to use perspective-taking abilities was systematically varied. The offline measure (after reading) suggested that adults were better and faster at making inferences in general, and both 10-12-year-olds and 18-25-year-olds were faster in making an inference in the complex perspective-taking condition (which required them to take the perspective of one of the story characters and imagine how this character would react to the intentions, thoughts, or feelings of another story character) compared to the control condition (which required them to make an inference about physical causality with regard to an object). The reading process itself revealed that 18-25-year-olds read stories faster across all conditions we examined. In addition, both 10-12-year-olds as well as adults revealed the longest reading times in the most difficult condition in which complex perspective-taking was needed to draw inferences. Stories in which the interaction between two story characters has to be taken into account are processed differently compared to stories in which no social-cognitive information is needed, as well as compared to when one only has to take the perspective of one story character. Narratives in which perspective-taking is crucial for comprehension are more difficult to process, even for adults, but are better represented in the situation model readers construct.Show less
Introduction: Research on the development of executive functions (EF) in children can focus on multiple facets, but can also focus on a specific part such as planning, working memory and inhibition...Show moreIntroduction: Research on the development of executive functions (EF) in children can focus on multiple facets, but can also focus on a specific part such as planning, working memory and inhibition. The various executive functions can be distinguished clearly from each other, but cannot be seen independently. There is no clear data on the differences in the development of EF between boys and girls in their childhood. The present study focuses on the development of the executive functions planning, inhibition and working memory in boys and girls aged four to seven years over a period of one year. Methods: This study consisted of 462 children of the data from the ongoing study ‘Talentenkracht’. The data was collected between January to April 2009 (T1) and between January to May 2010 (T2). In this study, the executive functions planning (subtest "zoo map" of the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children (BADS-NL)), inhibition (subtest GoNoGo of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT)) and working memory (subtest Spatial Temporal Sequencing (STS) on the ANT) were investigated. Using paired-samples T-tests and univariate analyses of variance, the relation and development of the three executive functions, gender and age have been studied. Results: This study involved 247 boys (53.5%) and 215 girls (46.5%). The mean age (M) at T1 was 5.2 years and at T2 6.2 years. The mean outcome on T1 for planning was -1.45, inhibition 34.4 and working memory 12.0. This was at T2 -1.03, 28.4 and 22.4, respectively. For boys and girls, there was a significant difference in mean outcomes between T1 and T2 for inhibition and working memory. The development of inhibition has a significant relationship with gender at T1 and T2. Both measurements remained significantly different after adjustment for age. In the development of the working memory, there is both a significant relationship with age at T1 as well as at T2. Conclusions: The present study showed differences in the development of the executive functions planning, inhibition and working memory in boys and girls aged four to seven years. Apart from the expected (natural) development of the EF over a period of 11.3 months average, gender was also a profound influence on inhibition. As for planning, no significant results did occur. In the development of the EF memory, time is more indicative than gender.Show less
