Terminology | Jotup

National wants to change how NZ schools teach reading – but 'structured literacy' must be more than just a classroom checklist

Retrieved on:

Monday, September 18, 2023

Part of this education overhaul includes a pledge to require the teaching of “structured literacy” in all year 0-6 classrooms.

Key Points:

Part of this education overhaul includes a pledge to require the teaching of “structured literacy” in all year 0-6 classrooms.
It signals a move to an explicit and systematic form of teaching reading that educators, researchers and parents have long been calling for.
There is a growing body of research supporting the introduction of explicit reading instruction – what informs the label of structured literacy.
And, if we don’t remain adaptable, we could end up with a reading curriculum that fails the promise to lift literacy rates.

How has reading been taught?

This places value on being immersed in literature, and on the development of oral language.
So children might look at the first letter of a word and then think what might fit in the sentence.
Structured approaches to reading use decodable books that are designed to help children practise a particular letter-sound pattern.

Defining and trademarking reading instruction

When we consider mandating a single approach to reading instruction, we need to develop a clear understanding of the terminology.
Their definition requires the explicit teaching of foundation skills, including phonics for word reading, in a way that is systematic and cumulative.
But as one part of the broader and evolving body of science of reading research, educators need to be careful not to ascribe too much to one definition of structured literacy.

Teachers and researchers need to work together

The National Party has promised to introduce structured literacy as part of teacher training and ongoing professional development – but research to support the teachers will be key.
Teachers have the best knowledge about their classrooms, while researchers can examine and evaluate whether implementation of a new programme has worked or not.
But it is essential that curriculum guidelines provide a clear framework for teachers, while allowing educators to adapt their teaching practices to ongoing research.

Presidential pauses? What those 'ums' and 'uhs' really tell us about candidates for the White House

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

That is the number of “uhs” that former President Barack Obama uttered in a period of two minutes during a 2012 presidential debate.

Key Points:

That is the number of “uhs” that former President Barack Obama uttered in a period of two minutes during a 2012 presidential debate.
By comparison, former President Donald Trump rarely uses them at all – as infrequently as once every 117 words.
Considering Obama’s skill as an orator garners high praise, while Trump’s eloquence is less often so regaled, what’s to be made of this great, uh, imbalance?

So who is prone to ‘umming’?

Studies into their use also reveal why we utter them and who is more prone to using them.
Southerners and New Englanders tend to “uh,” while Midwesterners prefer “um” – at least when tweeting.
Perhaps even more surprising, as someone’s education level and socioeconomic status go up, research suggests so does their rate of “umming” and “uhing.”

Deliberate debate device

That is, “ums” and “uhs” emerge because we are doing more work in terms of planning and executing the next thing we need to say.
These are exactly the linguistic challenges that politicians face when answering debate questions requiring complex terminology and strategic word choices.
Taking a verbal pause instead of a silent one makes it crystal clear that one still intends to contribute to the conversation – particularly vital in a debate where floor time is the equivalent of political gold.

‘Uh … I’m talking here!’

This signaling helps listeners understand what you are saying.
That’s because, even past our teenage years, we are still fairly lazy listeners.
Adding in an “um” or “uh” can help tear the listener away from their iPhone or other distractions and alert them to the fact that something new and difficult is coming up.

The ponderous pause

As can be seen in the Obama vs. Trump filled-pause rates, we also have a unique signature pause pattern.
In other words, some of us are, to put it in the words of one pause researcher, “heavy ummers,” while others are “um-avoiders.” What doesn’t change, however, is that they signal cognitive heavy lifting ahead.
So, as we head into the season of presidential stumping and debate, perhaps we can look past the pause when deciding how to weed out the good candidates from the bad.

We need more than police checks: how parents and educators can keep childcare services safe from abuse

Retrieved on:

Thursday, August 10, 2023

There are about 1.4 million children using a childcare service (including centre-based care, family daycare and outside school hours care) around the country.

Key Points:

There are about 1.4 million children using a childcare service (including centre-based care, family daycare and outside school hours care) around the country.
In response to a confidential briefing about the case last year, Education Minister Jason Clare set up a review into safety practices in the childcare sector.
This will need governments, childcare services, educators and parents to work together.

Police checks are just the start

There are differences between state and territory jurisdictions but applicants are required to prove their identity and provide prior aliases.
At the centre of the process is a police criminal history check.
Certain records, including charges or convictions for child sexual offences or other violent offences would see an application denied.

Safer recruitment processes

With the current shortage of childcare workers, employers may be tempted to expedite the employment of new staff.
But rigorous recruitment practices are vital.
A history of frequent job changes and working at multiple sites and organisations – particularly when accompanied by residential relocations – suggests someone might be trying to evade detection.

The importance of open plan centres

Open plan centres allow for natural surveillance and reduce the likelihood of offending.
On top of all this, centres can require staff to always be in line of sight of another staff member.
Centres should also ban staff from carrying personal mobile phones during work hours and stipulate where they should be stored.

Beware of cognitive biases

Both parents and centre workers are susceptible to cognitive biases, that can lead them to discount the likelihood a person could abuse children.
In the childcare context two factors can increase these biases.
Read more:
Use proper names for body parts, don't force hugs: how to protect your kids from in-person sexual abuse

Share information

Information sharing is a key part of reducing risk.
Centres should have clear processes for staff and parents to safely raise concerns and have them investigated quickly.
Importantly, we must also equip children with the skills to communicate concerns if they arise.

Elon Musk aims to turn Twitter into an 'everything app' – a social media and marketing scholar explains what that is and why it's not so easy to do

Retrieved on:

Thursday, August 10, 2023

His recent announcement might have left you wondering what an everything app is and whether you need really one.

Key Points:

His recent announcement might have left you wondering what an everything app is and whether you need really one.
If everything apps are so great, why isn’t there one that’s widely used in the U.S. already?
As someone who studies how consumers use social media and what that means for digital marketing, I find the idea of an everything app intriguing.

What is an everything app?

Essentially it’s a fusion of many apps you may often use, like Instagram, Uber, WhatsApp and PayPal.
The intended goal of an everything app is to simplify daily tasks by saving time and effort needed to use multiple platforms.
It has become an essential app for over 1 billion users and is an important marketing tool for many businesses.

Privacy and security concerns

This extensive amount of tracking raises concerns about surveillance and user profiling, especially in countries with weak data protection laws.
Some countries have banned or are considering banning WeChat because of security concerns.
To address privacy concerns, I believe everything apps need to be transparent about their data collection practices.
Users will be more open to embracing an everything app if they have the means to manage their privacy settings and delete their data.

Building a user base

Advertising can motivate someone to download an app, but word of mouth is often far more effective.
Good security and privacy aren’t enough to build a strong user base – the app also needs to be easy to use.
There’s also the possibility that some U.S. users may not buy into the idea of an everything app.
But, whether it’s X or not, I think there’s certainly room in the U.S. for an everything app to move in.

Young people need more support coping with online sexual harms

Retrieved on:

Monday, August 7, 2023

While that increased connectivity brings many benefits, it can also open youth up to online harm and abuse.

Key Points:

While that increased connectivity brings many benefits, it can also open youth up to online harm and abuse.
It is important that meaningful supports are in place to protect young people from sexual harm.
Fifty-eight per cent of participants reported having personally experienced some form of online harassment, including sexual harassment.

We need to use the right words

Our research shows that terms like “cyberbullying” no longer capture the scope of harms young people experience in digital spaces.
These digital harms can include receiving unsolicited explicit images, sexual harassment, exploitative sexual extortion and non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
This is the first research project in Canada to specifically examine technology-facilitated sexual violence among young people aged 13-18 years old.

Lack of Canadian research

Although there is a growing amount of Canadian research on technology-facilitated sexual violence, most research on this topic has been conducted in countries like the United States or Australia.
Specifically, there is little research on what young people in Canada are experiencing online, what terminology we should use to identify these harms and what supports young people find effective.

Consistent and accessible support

However, young people still receive confusing messages about how these laws apply to them and which sexual behaviours are harmful.
In reality, many are looking for various forms of support from schools, friends, family, non-profit organizations and victim-service organizations.
In some regions, there is minimal or even no language related specifically to technology-facilitated sexual violence in the curricula and policies.
With technology being a consistent part of young people’s lives, it is key that school policies and curricula are updated to address the realities of young people’s increasingly digitized relationships.
Kaitlynn Mendes receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canada Research Chairs Program.

EBA consults on amendments to the Guidelines on the specification and disclosure of systemic importance indicators

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

BCBS, Financial Stability Board, Disclosure, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, FSB, European Banking Authority, EBA, Finance, European, CRD, Basel, Terminology, Cryptocurrency, Risk management, Audit, EU

01 August 2023

Key Points:

01 August 2023
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on amendments to its Guidelines on the specification and disclosure of systemic importance indicators.
To ensure consistency between the internationally agreed standards and the EU regulatory framework, the annex of the EBA Guidelines has been amended to replicate the yearly updated Basel reporting template.
The EBA will not hold a virtual public hearing on the consultation paper considering the low impact of the suggested changes.
The scope of the consultation, and of the consultation questions, is limited to the amendments and additions.

Renaming obesity won't fix weight stigma overnight. Here's what we really need to do

Retrieved on:

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Some researchers think the term “obesity” itself is part of the problem, and are calling for a name change to reduce stigma.

Key Points:

Some researchers think the term “obesity” itself is part of the problem, and are calling for a name change to reduce stigma.
We study the stigma that surrounds obesity – around the time of pregnancy, among health professionals and health students, and in public health more widely.
Here’s what’s really needed to reduce weight stigma.

Weight stigma is common

Up to 42% of adults living in larger bodies experience weight stigma.
Weight stigma is associated with harms including increased cortisol levels (the main stress hormone in the body), negative body image, increased weight gain, and poor mental health.
Weight stigma may even pose a greater threat to someone’s health than increasing body size.

Should we rename obesity?

Calls to remove or rename health conditions or identifications to reduce stigma are not new.
Following many years of protests and activism, the term and condition were removed from the globally recognised classification of mental health disorders.
Perhaps it is finally time to follow suit and rename obesity.

A new name needs to go beyond BMI

First, most people use the term for people with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30kg/m² or above.
Most, if not all, public health organisations also use BMI to categorise obesity and make assumptions about health.
However, BMI alone is not enough to accurately summarise someone’s health.

Is obesity a disease anyway?

Yet there is still no universal consensus on whether obesity is a disease.
By this definition, obesity may not be classified as a disease until after harm from the additional weight occurs.
Renaming obesity may improve public understanding that while obesity is often associated with an increase in BMI, the increased BMI itself is not the disease.

Workshopping alternatives

Read more:
Today's disease names are less catchy, but also less likely to cause stigma

What else can we do?

Our constant exposure to the socially-defined and acceptable idealisation of smaller bodies (the “thin ideal”) and the pervasiveness of weight stigma means this stigma is deeply ingrained at a societal level.
Blake Lawrence is a member of The Obesity Society and The Obesity Collective.

How Canada's first national cycling map will benefit both riders and public planners

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Gaps, OpenStreetMap, Google Street View, Classification, City, Built environment, Woman, Terminology, Vehicle registration plates of Nepal, Data, Map, Algorithm, OSM, Transport, Bias, Safety, Civil engineering, Road, Asset management

Yet, there has historically been no consistent and complete way to measure or communicate cycling infrastructure.

Key Points:

Yet, there has historically been no consistent and complete way to measure or communicate cycling infrastructure.
In 2019, we developed the Canadian Bikeway Comfort and Safety Classification system (Can-BICS) to classify cycling infrastructure by comfort and safety.
The Can-BICS project not only provides a useful tool for Canadian cyclists, it also provides a clear window into the current state of Canadian cycling infrastructure.

How we built a national dataset

As researchers specializing in the links between the built environment and cycling, we often found ourselves piecing together datasets from different Canadian cities.
Another issue was that complete and up-to-date data are not even available for all municipalities in Canada.
A national map needs to indicate different types of facilities, as not everyone is willing to cycle alongside motor vehicles.
The result is the first-ever national dataset of cycling infrastructure in Canada.

Cycling infrastructure mapped across Canada

With the national dataset in place, we identified nearly 23,000 km of cycling infrastructure meeting Can-BICS standards across Canada.
We found that in Canada, multi-use paths are the most common infrastructure type by length (16.6 per cent of all cycling infrastructure detected), followed by painted bike lanes (11 per cent).
High-comfort infrastructure (cycle tracks, bike-only paths and local street bikeways) made up only 4.3 per cent of all detected cycling infrastructure.

Harnessing data

The national cycling infrastructure dataset can support local, regional and federal governments in deciding where to invest in cycling infrastructure.
Better biking infrastructure, designed by women
The dataset is open for use by other researchers and planning practitioners interested in relating cycling infrastructure to other nationally available metrics such as census data.
International researchers may be interested in our methodology to develop datasets of cycling infrastructure in their own jurisdictions.

Has Russia contained the Prigozhin threat? Its long history of managing violent mercenaries suggests so

Retrieved on:

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Moreover, we still know very little about what went on when Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a brief rebellion against the Kremlin.

Key Points:

Moreover, we still know very little about what went on when Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a brief rebellion against the Kremlin.
The basic outlines of what happened are as follows: after months of conflict between the various power brokers around Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin made a move.
More importantly, his business interests and political position were threatened by an attempt to bring his Wagner Group under state control.
However, it also appears Prigozhin flew in from Russia for the speech and returned there afterwards.

Russia’s history of paramilitarism

First, while it is true Putin’s position certainly was not strengthened by the rebellion, the destabilisation should not be over-drawn.
But it is not a top-down, military-style operation, where the boss makes decisions and everybody else stands to attention.
People and power-clans can move in and out of the inner layers as they compete for power and influence.
Russia is a state with a bureaucracy, army and police forces, but its monopoly of force is eroded by the proliferation of privatised armies.
In a paramilitarised regime, the state can be challenged and undermined, but not completely destroyed, by semi-independent military, paramilitary or criminal organisations.
À lire aussi :
Wagner's rebellion may have been thwarted, but Putin has never looked weaker and more vulnerable

New private military companies emerge

In Iraq, the Russian oil companies needed to protect their assets, so they used their private armies to do so.
Soon, Russian private military companies proliferated.
However, the Russian state remained wary of the military entrepreneurs, particularly if they tried to establish a presence back home.
Two major private military company leaders, of the Slavonic Corps, were arrested in 2013 and convicted as mercenaries.

Can the threat be contained again?

This was how the Russian state managed the paramilitary threat and deployed it to its own ends.
The Prigozhin rebellion, however, showed how risky this tactic is when the mercenaries are deployed next door, in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Putin’s regime is in the process of containing the threat.

Our perception of wine has more to do with its commercial history than we think

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

As an agricultural product, we think about wine as linked to a place and sometimes to an individual producer.

Key Points:

As an agricultural product, we think about wine as linked to a place and sometimes to an individual producer.
And paradoxically, many of the cultural ideas which shape how we perceive wine today actually stem from its history as a commercial product.
I am also a wine lover and have been running the website sommeliervirtuel.com with my brother Mathieu for over 10 years.
In this first article, I demonstrate how some of our cultural conceptions of wine actually arose from the commercial nature of the product.

The importance of place

We can talk about a Bordeaux, a Burgundy or a Chianti without having to add that we are talking about wine.
It was through trade, especially over long distances, that the place of origin of wines became important and significant.

The utopia of terroir versus the realities of trade

Trade also helps explain why wine production became concentrated in certain regions and not others.
Official speeches (guidebooks, wine books, laws) claim that this is because of the quality of a specific region’s terroir, according to the idea that wine production is concentrated in the places most suitable for quality production.
In fact, trade is what explains how vineyards came to be concentrated in certain regions, but not others.

From agricultural to luxury product

In these markets, wine was not considered an agricultural product.
Wine was a luxury product, reserved for certain social groups.

Bordeaux and the English market

The Bordeaux vineyard developed in response to demand from the English and Dutch markets, which, in turn, controlled the region and its trade starting in the 17th century.
In this context, it was the English market that drove consumers and merchants to pay specific attention to vintages, as well as growths, and the crus of Bordeaux, that is to say the “Châteaux,” such as Ho Bryan (Haut-Brion) or Margose Wine (Margaux) whose first mentions are in English.
The famous classification of Bordeaux wines of 1855, still in force today, was created at the universal exhibition in Paris on the basis of wine prices that were established by the English market.