A significant cohort of Southeast Asian women in Taiwan, having married locals, constitutes a disadvantaged group entangled in the issues of gender, marriage migration, and social class. The lack of human capital, social discrimination and urgent personal economic demands have caused immigrant women in Taiwan to become a source of inexpensive labor in the labor market, they usually prioritize vocational training for employment. Furthermore, the rapidly growing elderly population has resulted in a severe shortage of quality care services in Taiwan. Despite Taiwanese government training for immigrant women, diverse sociocultural factors hinder them from pursuing caregiving professions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of care service attendant (CSA) training based on culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) and design thinking (DT) for immigrant women in Taiwan. Nine Vietnamese and Indonesian immigrant women in Taiwan attended and completed the training. The CSA training comprised core academic modules and practicum modules and was conducted in groups for 170 h over 5 weeks. This study employed a qualitative research approach, gathering data through interviews, observation, and document analysis. The results revealed that CSA training based on CRP and DT was effective in improving immigrant women’s satisfaction with training and their rate of employment as CSAs. Specifically, in addition to basic care service professionalism, the female immigrant trainees developed proactive attitudes toward problem-solving. Moreover, the integration of Taiwanese culture and frequent communication in the training facilitated the self-confidence of these trainees. In the workplace, these female immigrant CSAs’ commitment to meeting clients’ needs and innovating their service boosted the clients’ appreciation and their own cultural competency and empowerment. Overall, this study suggests that the application of CRP and DT in CSA training is a promising way of enhancing the workforce capacity of female immigrant CSAs and has value for low-skilled adult trainees. However, structuring the learning processes clearly and involving instructors with multicultural education and DT education competency are critical to implementing such vocational training.

This empirical study explores the influence of Hollywood product placements on cultural perceptions and teaching practices of preservice English teachers in higher education in China. Hollywood movies and TV series routinely use product placements as a tactic to blend commercial goals with compelling storylines, which could possibly influence the perceptions, and potential teaching practice of Chinese preservice English teachers. The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which material culture in the form of product placement in Hollywood affects preservice English teachers’ image of America, and their future teaching practice, altering their expectations and goals as well as how they view the West. The study uses a quantitative study method by means of an online questionnaire (N = 497) and applies structural equation modelling to conduct data analysis. The results find notable significant relationships including those from food, architecture, transportation, and electronic devices to positive image of America, as well as architecture and transportation to potential teaching practice. The most prominent path is from image to teaching. However, certain relationships, including those from fashion to image and food to teaching, do not demonstrate statistical significance. These results contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of how preservice English teachers see Hollywood’s material culture, and how it affects their perception and possible teaching methods. The findings also demonstrate how preservice teachers’ perceptions and educational approaches are shaped by Hollywood’s material culture in the form of product placement, while simultaneously emphasizing the significance of integration of media literacy and upholding their cultural identity amidst these influences.

The principal objective of this article is to gain insight into the biases that shape decision-making in contexts of risk and uncertainty, with a particular focus on the prospect theory and its relationship with individual confidence. A sample of 376 responses to a questionnaire that is a replication of the one originally devised by Kahneman and Tversky was subjected to analysis. Firstly, the aim is to compare the results obtained with the original study. Furthermore, the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) will be employed to ascertain whether behavioural biases are associated with cognitive abilities. Finally, in light of the significance and contemporary relevance of the concept of overconfidence, we propose a series of questions designed to assess it, with a view to comparing the various segments of respondents and gaining insight into the profile that reflects it. The sample of respondents is divided according to gender, age group, student status, professional status as a trader, status as an occasional investor, and status as a behavioural finance expert. It can be concluded that the majority of individuals display a profile of underconfidence, and that the hypotheses formulated by Kahneman and Tversky are generally corroborated. The low frequency of overconfident individuals suggests that the results are consistent with prospect theory in all segments, despite the opposite characteristics, given the choice of the less risk-averse alternative. These findings are useful for regulators to understand how biases affect financial decision making, and for the development of financial literacy policies in the education sector.

As the global ecological and environmental problems become more and more serious, the concept of green finance and sustainable development has been advocated by more and more domestic and foreign experts, scholars and investors, and the Environmental Responsibility, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Governance (ESG) rating has gradually become a hotspot of attention. ESG is a kind of investment concept and a comprehensive assessment criterion of corporate performance for systematic evaluation of enterprises, and it has become an important indicator of the ability of measuring the sustainable development of enterprises. It has become an important indicator of corporate sustainable development capability. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between ESG ratings and cumulative abnormal returns of listed companies’ stocks under the impact of sudden risk events. The outbreak of the New Crown epidemic as an exogenous risk event provides an opportunity for this paper. This paper examines the role of firms’ ESG ratings and the three sub-dimensions of ratings on the cumulative abnormal returns of listed firms’ stocks during the New Crown Epidemic outbreak and verifies the role of ESG ratings on firms in times of crisis. The final regression results prove that under the impact of sudden exogenous risk events, listed firms’ ESG ratings have a positive effect on the cumulative abnormal stock returns during the event window. Finally, this paper provides recommendations to help firms and investors prevent and mitigate risks.

Researchers at Stanford University in the USA identified the world's Top 2% of Scientists based on data from the Scopus database. This study recognized leading scientists across various sub-fields, ranking them by the sm-subfield-1 (ns) indicator. A total of 174 distinguished scientists from 25 countries were highlighted, with a notable concentration from the USA. Harvard University was a leader, producing top scientists in 16 sub-fields. Among the 174 recognized, four are Nobel Prize Laureates, and two have received the Fields Medal. Ten scientists authored the most frequently cited papers across categories in the Web of Science, including the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI). Professor Georg Kresse authored the most cited paper in three Web of Science categories: multidisciplinary materials science, applied physics, and condensed matter physics. The study further analyzed GDP and population metrics for each top scientist by sub-field. Seventy of the 174 scientists have consistently maintained their top rankings over the past five years.

The development of critical thinking (CT) enhances academic and professional opportunities. A review of literature reveals the use of fragmented analysis techniques, such as descriptive and correlational methods, among others, which hinder a deeper understanding of CT levels. This research aims to develop a methodology for analyzing Critical Thinking test scores, integrating five phases: exploratory, item analysis, scoring, gap analysis, and correlational. Using a quantitative approach, CT skills were analyzed with the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment, which includes both open- and closed-ended questions to measure five skills: Verbal Reasoning (VR), Argument Analysis (AA), Hypothesis Testing (HT), Probability Use (PU), and Problem Solving (PS). The sample consisted of 214 students aged 18 and older. The item analysis phase categorized the items into quadrants: satisfactory, for review, or for elimination, based on difficulty and discrimination indices. The gap analysis revealed that Verbal Reasoning and open-ended formats were less satisfactory. The correlational phase, using heat maps, showed a stronger association between Verbal Reasoning and Probability Use. The methodological contributions include a variety of strategies that provide recommended procedures for analyzing tests or questionnaires in general. In today’s digital age, the development of critical thinking is not only a desirable skill but an essential necessity for the higher education system.

The Malaysian government has been actively strengthening the information and communication industry’s ecosystem through talent retention to realize Malaysia 5.0 and transform the country into a developed human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of talent problems. This is done to recognize the significance of emerging in building a vibrant and dynamic economy for the country. Few of these studies, however, had developed comprehensive policy recommendations for keeping information specialists in Malaysia’s information businesses. To address this gap, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to understand the factors driving information professionals to leave the sector. The findings aim to inform talent retention strategies that will strengthen the industry’s sustainability and attract skilled leaders, ensuring the information sector’s readiness for a successful digital transition.

Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing businesses’ operations and relationships with the communities to which they cater. The widespread use of computing and network programs compels firms to digitize their operations and offer novel goods, solutions, and business for practice. Universities appear to be slow to adapt to the changes in the education sector. This study suggests using consolidated digital transformation sources to evaluate the level of ability that universities have achieved in the implementation of digital procedures and to compare it to that of other business sectors across all cities and provinces in Vietnam. The text outlines specific factors that universities should consider when implementing the model. Although the objective with the expectation of education from digital transformation is high, compare it with other industries. And the scores achieved in structural agility and create of benefit for the transformative goals are 3.4, but the score of benefit of technologies is 3.0 lower than. Additionally, the organizational component’s scores were primarily focused on leadership and culture, digital strategy, market digitalization, dynamic and digital capabilities, and strengthened logistics within each industry during the digital transformation. Our findings indicate that universities lag behind other industries, perhaps as a consequence of inadequate leadership and cultural shifts. This is exacerbated by a lack of innovation and inadequate financial assistance.