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Organic food consumption as an example of pro-environmental behavior: application of the theory of planned behavior
Urban, Jan ; Šubrt, Jiří (vedoucí práce) ; Smith, Michael Lee (oponent) ; Buriánek, Jiří (oponent)
This work has two objectives. At the empirical level, it seeks to investigate the role of attitudinal, normative and other factors influencing the intention of Czech consumers to purchase organic food, specifically by exploiting the theoretical framework of the theory of planned behavior. On a more theoretical level, this thesis seeks to extend the theory of planned behavior by including descriptive norms in its framework and subjecting such extended theory to an empirical test. The dissertation proceeds in seven chapters. The first three chapters are introductory in the sense that they discuss the motivation for the present work, provide definitions of organic food, and attempt to establish the link between the choice of organic food, as an example of individual pro-environmental behavior, on the one hand, and processes that lead to environmental degradation on the other. Chapter 4 introduces the theory of planned behavior, its assumptions and empirical applications in various domains, including organic food consumption. The empirical data from a small (N=253) yet country-representative survey of the general adult population are described in Chapter 5, together with the method of structural equation modeling that is primarily used to analyze them. In Chapter 6 we test four empirical models of...
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Children left behind: self-confidence of pupils in competitive environments
Federičová, Miroslava ; Pertold, Filip ; Smith, Michael
Early-tracking systems naturally divide many classes of 11 years old students into two groups:\nstudents preparing for exams to enter better schools and everyone else, who decide not to compete for selective schools. Utilizing TIMSS data and a follow-up study in the Czech Republic, which has an early-tracking system similar to other European states following the German model, we show that this environment has a detrimental effect on the self-confidence of pupils in mathematics who do not apply for selective schools but have peers in their classroom who do apply. In particular, we show that girls who do not apply for selective schools experience a 11% drop in confidence in mathematics if they have four applicants among classmates and this effect is even larger if the applicants are successful in the admission process. We focus on self-confidence in mathematics as an outcome variable because the literature suggests it is directly linked to pupils' motivation to study STEM fields as well as subsequent educational achievement. Our results suggest that the decrease in selfconfidence among girls is long lasting and implies that gender gaps in self-confidence can be a result of the competitive environment of the educational system.
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Sebedůvěra třídy a soutěž spolužáků o osmiletá gymnázia
Federičová, Miroslava ; Pertold, Filip ; Smith, Michael
Česká republika patří k menší skupině evropských zemí provozujících vzdělávací systém, který vede k velmi rané diferenciaci žáků do škol podle studijních výsledků a sociálně-ekonomického zázemí žáků. V Česku se tak na osmiletá gymnázia hlásí a náročnou přípravu na přijímací zkoušky podstupuje cca 18 % žáků pátých tříd. Z průměrné třídy s 18 žáky se na osmiletá gymnázia hlásí v průměru tři žáci a přijati jsou v průměru téměř dva. Naše analýzy na datech z unikátního šetření ve školách ukazují, že přítomnost spolužáků hlásících se na gymnázium má negativní dopad na sebedůvěru ostatních žáků. Největší negativní dopad evidujeme v případě sebedůvěry dívek v matematice. Pokles sebedůvěry (z úrovně ve čtvrté třídě, tj. před přípravou na přijímací zkoušky) je přibližně 7 % u žákyní s alespoň dvěma přihlášenými spolužáky. Jako kontrolní skupinu používáme třídy, kde se na gymnázia nehlásil nikdo.
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