The Development of the Concept of Music Education in Estonian Kindergartens, 1905-2008 : a Historical–Critical Overview

The dissertation focuses on the development of music education in Estonian kindergartens and the factors influencing it, analysed in the historical perspective relying on post-positivist paradigm. The study is based on the factors and subjects’ views on kindergarten music education from 1905 to 2008, recorded in written sources or ascertained by means of questionnaire and interview. The dissertation deals with music’s functions, music education in retrospective, factors influencing child’s musical aptitude and development and teacher’s role in it through the prism of history. The formation of Estonian kindergarten music education and the phenomenon of its development have been researched by stages: the first manifestations of music in kindergarten in 1905 - 1940; the formation of the concept of music education in 1941 - 1967 and the application of a unified system in 1968 - 1990. The work also outlines innovative trends in music education at the end of the last millennium and the beginning of this century, in 1991 - 2008. The study relies on a combined design and an analysis of historical archival material and empirical data. The empirical part of the study is based on the questionnaire (n=183) and interviews (n=18) carried out with kindergarten music teachers. The data has been analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The subject of the research is the content and activity types of kindergarten music education and the role of music teacher in their implementation. The study confirmed that fundamental changes took place in Estonian kindergarten music education due to the change in political power in the 1940s. Following the example of the Soviet system of education, music in kindergarten became an independent music educational orientation and the position of a professionally trained music teacher was established (1947). It was also confirmed that in the newly independent Estonian Republic under the influence of innovative trends a new paradigm of music education arose from the traditional singing-centred education towards the more balanced use of music activity types (attaching importance to the child-centred approach, an increase in the number and variety of activity types). The most important conclusions made in the dissertation are that there has been improvement and development deriving from contemporary trends in the clear concept that has evolved in Estonian kindergarten music education over a century; professionally trained music teachers have had a crucial role in shaping it; and kindergarten music education is firmly positioned as a part of preschool education in Estonian system of education. Key words: early childhood music education, history of music education, kindergarten music education, early childhood music teachers

Shaping (reflexive) professional identities across an undergraduate degree programme: A longitudinal case study

In our complex and incongruous professional worlds, where there is no blueprint for dealing with unpredictable people and events, it is imperative that individuals develop reflexive approaches to professional identity building. Notwithstanding the importance of disciplinary knowledge and skills, higher education has a crucial role to play in guiding students to examine and mediate self in relation to context for effective decision-making and action. This paper reports on a small-scale longitudinal project that investigated the ways in which ten undergraduate students over the course of a three-year Radiation Therapy degree shaped their professional identities. Theories of reflexivity and methods of discourse analysis are utilised to understand the ways in which individuals accounted for their professional identity projects at university. The findings suggest that, across time, the participants negotiated professional ‘becoming’ through four distinct kinds of reflexive modalities. These findings have implications for teaching strategies and curriculum design in undergraduate programs.

Negotiating and Renegotiating Conversational Ground Rules : Formation of an Artifact Designed to Mediate Exploratory Collaboration

This study highlights the formation of an artifact designed to mediate exploratory collaboration. The data for this study was collected during a Finnish adaptation of the thinking together approach. The aim of the approach is to teach pulps how to engage in educationally beneficial form of joint discussion, namely exploratory talk. At the heart of the approach lies a set of conversational ground rules aimed to promote the use of exploratory talk. The theoretical framework of the study is based on a sociocultural perspective on learning. A central argument in the framework is that physical and psychological tools play a crucial role in human action and learning. With the help of tools humans can escape the direct stimulus of the outside world and learn to control ourselves by using tools. During the implementation of the approach, the classroom community negotiates a set of six rules, which this study conceptualizes as an artifact that mediates exploratory collaboration. Prior research done about the thinking together approach has not extensively researched the formation of the rules, which give ample reason to conduct this study. The specific research questions asked were: What kind of negotiation trajectories did the ground rules form during the intervention? What meanings were negotiated for the ground rules during the intervention The methodological framework of the study is based on discourse analysis, which has been specified by adapting the social construction of intertextuality to analyze the meanings negotiated for the created rules. The study has town units of analysis: thematic episode and negotiation trajectory. A thematic episode is a stretch of talk-in-interaction where the participants talk about a certain ground rule or a theme relating to it. A negotiation trajectory is a chronological representation of the negotiation process of a certain ground rule during the intervention and is constructed of thematic episodes. Thematic episodes were analyzed with the adapted intertextuality analysis. A contrastive analysis was done on the trajectories. Lastly, the meanings negotiated for the created rules were compared to the guidelines provided by the approach. The main result of the study is the observation, that the meanings of the created rules were more aligned with the ground rules of cumulative talk, rather than exploratory talk. Although meanings relating also to exploratory talk were negotiated, they clearly were not the dominant form. In addition, the study observed that the trajectories of the rules were non identical. Despite connecting dimensions (symmetry, composition, continuity and explicitness) none of the trajectories shared exactly the same features as the others.

Investigations Of Glasses In The System Pbo-Pbf2

Glass formation in the system PbO–PbF2 has been investigated. The structure of these glasses has been studied using X-ray diffraction. Densities, heat capacities, glass-transition and crystallization temperatures and Vicker's microhardnesses have been measured. D.c. conductivities of these glasses have also been measured as a function of temperature. A structural model has been developed which suggests the existence of [PbO2F4]-type units over the entire composition range. It is suggested that covalent linkages of the type—O—Pb—O— play a crucial role in determining the composition limits to glass formation. The structural model has been shown to be consistent with other physical properties of the glasses.

Median muotoilema : Muotoilun mediajulkisuus suomalaisessa talouslehdistössä

Designed by the Media The Media publicity of Design in the Finnish Economic Press The meaning of design has increased in consumer societies. Design is the subject of debate and the number of media discussions has also increased steadily. Especially the role of industrial design has been emphasised. In this study I examine the media publicity of design in the Finnish economic press from the late 1980s to the beginning of the 2000s. The research question is connected to media representations: How is design represented in the Finnish economic press? In other words, what are the central topics of design in the economic press, and to what issues are the media debates connected? The usually repeated phrase that design discussions take place only on the cultural pages of the daily press or in cultural contexts is being changed. Design is also linked to the consumer culture and consumers everyday practices. The research material has been collected from the Finnish economic press. The qualitative sample consists of articles from Kauppalehti, Taloussanomat and from several economic papers published by the Talentum Corporation. The approach of the research is explorative, descriptive and hermeneutic. This means that the economic press articles are used to explore how design is represented in the media. In addition, the characteristics of design represented in the media are described in detail. The research is based on the interpretive tradition of studying textual materials. Background assumptions are thus grounded in hermeneutics. Erving Goffman s frame analysis is applied in analysing the economic press materials. The frames interpreted from the articles depict the media publicity of design in the Finnish economic press. The research opens up a multidimensional picture of design in the economic press. The analysis resulted in five frames that describe design from various points of view. In the personal frame designers are described in private settings and through their personal experiences. The second frame relates to design work. In the frame of mastery of the profession, the designers work is interpreted widely. Design is considered from the aspects of controlling personal know-how, co-operation and the overall process of design. The third frame is connected to the actual substance of the economic press. In the frame of economy and market, design is linked to international competitiveness, companies competitive advantage and benefit creation for the consumers. The fourth frame is connected to the actors promoting design on a societal level. In the communal frame, the economic press describes design policy, design research and education and other actors that actively develop design in the societal networks. The last frame is linked to the traditions of design and above all to the examination of the cultural transition. In the frame of culture the traditions of design are emphasised. Design is also connected to the industrial culture and furthermore to the themes of the consumer culture. It can be argued that the frames construct media publicity of design from various points of view. The frames describe situations, action and the actors of design. The interpreted media frames make it possible to understand the relation of interpreted design actions and the culture. Thus, media has a crucial role in representing and recreating meanings related to design. The publicity of design is characterised by the five focal themes: personification, professionalisation, commercialisation, communalisation and transition of cultural focus from the traditions of design to the industrial culture and the consumer culture. Based on my interpretation these themes are guided by the mediatisation of design. The design phenomenon is defined more often on the basis of the media representations in the public discourses. The design culture outlined in this research connects socially constructed and structurally organised action. Socially constructed action in design is connected to the experiences, social recreation and collective development of design. Structurally, design is described as professional know-how, as a process and as an economic profit generating action in the society. The events described by the media affect the way in which people experience the world, the meanings they connect to the events around themselves and their life in the world. By affecting experiences, the media indirectly affects human actions. People have become habituated to read media representations on a daily basis, but they are not used to reading and interpreting the various meanings that are incorporated in the media texts.

Determinants of farmer retirement and farm succession in Finland

In the past decade, the Finnish agricultural sector has undergone rapid structural changes. The number of farms has decreased and the average farm size has increased when the number of farms transferred to new entrants has decreased. Part of the structural change in agriculture is manifested in early retirement programmes. In studying farmers exit behaviour in different countries, institutional differences, incentive programmes and constraints are found to matter. In Finland, farmers early retirement programmes were first introduced in 1974 and, during the last ten years, they have been carried out within the European Union framework for these programmes. The early retirement benefits are farmer specific and de-pend on the level of pension insurance the farmer has paid over his active farming years. In order to predict the future development of the agricultural sector, farmers have been frequently asked about their future plans and their plans for succession. However, the plans the farmers made for succession have been found to be time inconsistent. This study estimates the value of farmers stated succession plans in predicting revealed succession decisions. A stated succession plan exists when a farmer answers in a survey questionnaire that the farm is going to be transferred to a new entrant within a five-year period. The succession is revealed when the farm is transferred to a suc-cessor. Stated and revealed behaviour was estimated as a recursive Binomial Probit Model, which accounts for the censoring of the decision variables and controls for a potential correlation between the two equations. The results suggest that the succession plans, as stated by elderly farmers in the questionnaires, do not provide information that is significant and valuable in predicting true, com-pleted successions. Therefore, farmer exit should be analysed based on observed behaviour rather than on stated plans and intentions. As farm retirement plays a crucial role in determining the characteristics of structural change in agriculture, it is important to establish the factors which determine an exit from farming among eld-erly farmers and how off-farm income and income losses affect their exit choices. In this study, the observed choice of pension scheme by elderly farmers was analysed by a bivariate probit model. Despite some variations in significance and the effects of each factor, the ages of the farmer and spouse, the age and number of potential successors, farm size, income loss when retiring and the location of the farm together with the production line were found to be the most important determi-nants of early retirement and the transfer or closure of farms. Recently, the labour status of the spouse has been found to contribute significantly to individual retirement decisions. In this study, the effect of spousal retirement and economic incentives related to the timing of a farming couple s early retirement decision were analysed with a duration model. The results suggest that an expected pension in particular advances farm transfers. It was found that on farms operated by a couple, both early retirement and farm succession took place more often than on farms operated by a single person. However, the existence of a spouse delayed the timing of early retirement. Farming couples were found to co-ordinate their early retirement decisions when they both exit through agricultural retirement programmes, but such a co-ordination did not exist when one of the spouses retired under other pension schemes. Besides changes in the agricultural structure, the share and amount of off-farm income of a farm family s total income has also increased. In the study, the effect of off-farm income on farmers retirement decisions, in addition to other financial factors, was analysed. The unknown parameters were first estimated by a switching-type multivariate probit model and then by the simulated maxi-mum likelihood (SML) method, controlling for farmer specific fixed effects and serial correlation of the errors. The results suggest that elderly farmers off-farm income is a significant determinant in a farmer s choice to exit and close down the farm. However, off-farm income only has a short term effect on structural changes in agriculture since it does not significantly contribute to the timing of farm successions.

Photodimerization of olefins in solid state

Photochemical transformations of organic solids provide an exciting area of research with new synthetic possibilities. These reactions are generally governed by topochemical factors rather than the normal rules of chemical reactivity. Defects play a crucial role in some of the reactions. Some of the transformations such as the photodimerization of 4, 4'-dimethoxystilbene occur in a single crystal fashion.

Activity recognition using binary tree SVM

This paper presents an effective classification method based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) in the context of activity recognition. Local features that capture both spatial and temporal information in activity videos have made significant progress recently. Efficient and effective features, feature representation and classification plays a crucial role in activity recognition. For classification, SVMs are popularly used because of their simplicity and efficiency; however the common multi-class SVM approaches applied suffer from limitations including having easily confused classes and been computationally inefficient. We propose using a binary tree SVM to address the shortcomings of multi-class SVMs in activity recognition. We proposed constructing a binary tree using Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM), where activities are repeatedly allocated to subnodes until every new created node contains only one activity. Then, for each internal node a separate SVM is learned to classify activities, which significantly reduces the training time and increases the speed of testing compared to popular the `one-against-the-rest' multi-class SVM classifier. Experiments carried out on the challenging and complex Hollywood dataset demonstrates comparable performance over the baseline bag-of-features method.

Multiple instance dictionary learning for activity representation

This paper presents an effective feature representation method in the context of activity recognition. Efficient and effective feature representation plays a crucial role not only in activity recognition, but also in a wide range of applications such as motion analysis, tracking, 3D scene understanding etc. In the context of activity recognition, local features are increasingly popular for representing videos because of their simplicity and efficiency. While they achieve state-of-the-art performance with low computational requirements, their performance is still limited for real world applications due to a lack of contextual information and models not being tailored to specific activities. We propose a new activity representation framework to address the shortcomings of the popular, but simple bag-of-words approach. In our framework, first multiple instance SVM (mi-SVM) is used to identify positive features for each action category and the k-means algorithm is used to generate a codebook. Then locality-constrained linear coding is used to encode the features into the generated codebook, followed by spatio-temporal pyramid pooling to convey the spatio-temporal statistics. Finally, an SVM is used to classify the videos. Experiments carried out on two popular datasets with varying complexity demonstrate significant performance improvement over the base-line bag-of-feature method.

Analysis of Heterogeneous IP Traffic in Wireless Environment

Wireless access is expected to play a crucial role in the future of the Internet. The demands of the wireless environment are not always compatible with the assumptions that were made on the era of the wired links. At the same time, new services that take advantage of the advances in many areas of technology are invented. These services include delivery of mass media like television and radio, Internet phone calls, and video conferencing. The network must be able to deliver these services with acceptable performance and quality to the end user. This thesis presents an experimental study to measure the performance of bulk data TCP transfers, streaming audio flows, and HTTP transfers which compete the limited bandwidth of the GPRS/UMTS-like wireless link. The wireless link characteristics are modeled with a wireless network emulator. We analyze how different competing workload types behave with regular TPC and how the active queue management, the Differentiated services (DiffServ), and a combination of TCP enhancements affect the performance and the quality of service. We test on four link types including an error-free link and the links with different Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) persistency. The analysis consists of comparing the resulting performance in different configurations based on defined metrics. We observed that DiffServ and Random Early Detection (RED) with Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) are useful, and in some conditions necessary, for quality of service and fairness because a long queuing delay and congestion related packet losses cause problems without DiffServ and RED. However, we observed situations, where there is still room for significant improvements if the link-level is aware of the quality of service. Only very error-prone link diminishes the benefits to nil. The combination of TCP enhancements improves performance. These include initial window of four, Control Block Interdependence (CBI) and Forward RTO recovery (F-RTO). The initial window of four helps a later starting TCP flow to start faster but generates congestion under some conditions. CBI prevents slow-start overshoot and balances slow start in the presence of error drops, and F-RTO reduces unnecessary retransmissions successfully.

A single point mutation disrupts the capsid assembly in Sesbania Mosaic Virus resulting in a stable isolated dimer

Protein-protein interactions play a Crucial role in Virus assembly and stability. With the view of disrupting capsid assembly and capturing smaller oligomers, interfacial residue mutations were carried Out in the coat protein gene of Sesbania Mosaic Virus, a T=3 ss (+) RNA plant virus. A single point mutation of a Trp 170 present at the five-fold interface of the virus to a charged residue (Glu or Lys) arrested assembly of virus like particles and resulted in stable Soluble dimers of the capsid Protein. The X-ray crystal structure of one of the isolated dimer mutants - rCP Delta N65W170K was determined to a resolution of 2.65 angstrom. Detailed analysis of the dimeric mutant protein structure revealed that a number of Structural changes take place, especially in the loop and interfacial regions during the course of assembly. The isolated chiller was ``more relaxed'' than the dimer found in the T=3 or T=1 capsids. The isolated dimer does not bind Ca2+ ion and consequently four C-terminal residues are disordered. The FG loop, which interacts with RNA in the Virus, has different conformations in the isolated dimer and the intact Virus Suggesting its flexible nature and the conformational changes that accompany assembly. The isolated choler mutant was much less stable when compared to the assembled capsids, suggesting the importance of inter-subunit interactions and Ca2+ mediated interactions in the stability of the capsids. With this study, SeMV becomes the first icosahedral virus for which X-ray crystal Structures of T=3, T=1 capsids as well as a smaller oligomer of the capsid protein have been determined.

Mechanisms of KCC2 upregulation during development

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) acting through ionotropic GABAA receptors plays a crucial role in the activity of the central nervous system (CNS). It triggers Ca2+ rise providing trophic support in developing neurons and conducts fast inhibitory function in mature neuronal networks. There is a developmental change in the GABAA reversal potential towards more negative levels during the first two postnatal weeks in rodent hippocampus. This change provides the basis for mature GABAergic activity and is attributable to the developmental expression of the neuron-specific potassium chloride cotransporter 2 (KCC2). In this work we have studied the mechanisms responsible for the control of KCC2 developmental expression. As a model system we used hippocampal dissociated cultures plated from embryonic day (E) 17 mice embryos before the onset of KCC2 expression. We showed that KCC2 was significantly up-regulated during the first two weeks of culture development. Interestingly, the level of KCC2 upregulation was not altered by chronic pharmacological blockage of action potentials as well as GABAergic and glutamatergic synaptic transmission. By in silico analysis of the proximal KCC2 promoter region we identified 10 candidate transcription factor binding sites that are highly conserved in mammalian KCC2 genes. One of these transcription factors, namely early growth response factor 4 (Egr4), had similar developmental profile as KCC2 and considerably increased the activity of mouse KCC2 gene in neuronal cells. Next we investigated the involvement of neurotrophic factors in regulation of Egr4 and KCC2 expression. We found that in immature hippocampal cultures Egr4 and KCC2 levels were strongly up-regulated by brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)and neurturin. The effect of neurotrophic factors was dependent on the activation of a mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction pathway. Intact Egr4-binding site in proximal KCC2 promoter was required for BDNF-induced KCC2 transcription. In vitro data were confirmed by several in vivo experiments where we detected an upregulation of KCC2 protein levels after intrahippocampal administration of BDNF or neurturin. Importantly, a MAPK-dependent rise in Egr4 and KCC2 expression levels was also observed after a period of kainic acid-induced seizure activity in neonatal rats suggesting that neuronal activity might be involved in Egr4-mediated regulation of KCC2 expression. Finally we demonstrated that the mammalian KCC2 gene (alias Slc12a5) generated two neuron-specific isoforms by using alternative promoters and first exons. A novel isoform of KCC2, termed KCC2a, differed from the previously known KCC2b isoform by 40 unique N-terminal amino acid residues. KCC2a expression was restricted to CNS,remained relatively constant during postnatal development, and contributed 20 50% of total KCC2 mRNA expression in the neonatal mouse brainstem and spinal cord. In summary, our data provide insight into the complex regulation of KCC2 expression during early postnatal development. Although basal KCC2 expression seems to be intrinsically regulated, it can be further augmented by neurotrophic factors or by enhanced activity triggering MAPK phosphorylation and Egr4 induction. Additional KCC2a isoform, regulated by another promoter, provides basal KCC2 level in neonatal brainstem and spinal cord required for survival of KCC2b knockout mice.

Interactions of nandrolone and psychostimulant drugs on central monoaminergic systems

It has been hypothesized that abuse of supra-therapeutic doses of anabolic androgenic steroids (AASs) can lead to dependence and function as a gateway to abuse of other drugs. This is supported by behavioral studies on animal models and psychiatric evaluations of human subjects, although their neurochemical effects remain largely unknown. A large body of evidence suggests that the ability of the drugs to induce a strong elevation of extracellular dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), especially, plays a crucial role in their reinforcing effects. -- This study had four main aims. The first was to explore the effects of nandrolone decanoate on dopaminergic and serotonergic activities in the brains of rats. The second aim was to assess whether or not nandrolone pre-exposure modulates the acute neurochemical and behavioral effects of psychostimulant drugs in experimental animals. The third was to investigate if the AAS-pre-treatment induced changes in brain reward circuitry are reversible. And the fourth main goal was to evaluate the role of androgen and estrogen receptors in the modulation of the dopaminergic and serotonergic effects of acute injections of stimulant drugs by sub-chronic nandrolone treatment. The results showed that nandrolone decanoate at doses, high enough to induce erythropoiesis, significantly increased the levels of DOPAC and 5-HT in the cerebral cortex. Co-administration of AAS and psychostimulant drugs showed that the increase in extracellular DA and 5-HT concentration evoked by amphetamine, MDMA and cocaine in the NAc was attenuated dose-dependently by pretreatment with nandrolone. Nandrolone pre-exposure also attenuated the ability of stimulants to cause increased stereotyped behavior and locomotor activity. Despite the significant decrease in nandrolone concentration in blood, the attenuation of cocaine’s effects remained unchanged after a fairly long period without nandrolone, suggesting that nandrolone effects could be long lasting. Blockade of androgen receptors with flutamide abolished the attenuating effect of nandrolone pretreatment on amphetamine-induced elevation of extracellular DA concentration. --- In conclusion, the results show that AAS-pretreatment is able to inhibit the reward-related neurochemical and behavioral effects of amphetamine, MDMA and cocaine in experimental animals. Furthermore, it seems that these effects could be long lasting and it appears that the ability of nandrolone to modulate reward-related effects of stimulants is dependent on activation of androgen receptors.

The high- and low-activity forms of human plasma phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP)

Plasma phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) plays a crucial role in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism and reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). It mediates the generation of pre-beta-HDL particles, enhances the cholesterol efflux from peripheral cells to pre-beta-HDL, and metabolically maintains the plasma HDL levels by facilitating the transfer of post-lipolytic surface remnants of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins to HDL. In addition to the antiatherogenic properties, recent findings indicate that PLTP has also proatherogenic characteristics, and that these opposite characteristics of PLTP are dependent on the site of PLTP expression and action. In human plasma, PLTP exists in a high-activity (HA-PLTP) and a low-activity form (LA-PLTP), which are associated with macromolecular complexes of different size and composition. The aims of this thesis were to isolate the two PLTP forms from human plasma, to characterize the molecular complexes in which the HA- and LA-PLTP reside, and to study the interactions of the PLTP forms with apolipoproteins (apo) and the ability of apolipoproteins to regulate PLTP activity. In addition, we aimed to study the distribution of the two PLTP forms in a Finnish population sample as well as to find possible regulatory factors for PLTP by investigating the influence of lipid and glucose metabolism on the balance between the HA- and LA-PLTP. For these purposes, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) capable of determining the serum total PLTP concentration and quantitating the two PLTP forms separately was developed. In this thesis, it was demonstrated that the HA-PLTP isolated from human plasma copurified with apoE, whereas the LA-PLTP formed a complex with apoA-I. The separation of these two PLTP forms was carried out by a dextran sulfate (DxSO4)-CaCl2 precipitation of plasma samples before the mass determination. A similar immunoreactivity of the two PLTP forms in the ELISA could be reached after a partial sample denaturation by SDS. Among normolipidemic Finnish individuals, the mean PLTP mass was 6.6 +/- 1.5 mg/l and the mean PLTP activity 6.6 +/- 1.7 umol/ml/h. Of the serum PLTP concentration, almost 50% represented HA-PLTP. The results indicate that plasma HDL levels could regulate PLTP concentration, while PLTP activity could be regulated by plasma triglyceride-rich very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) concentration. Furthermore, new evidence is presented that PLTP could also play a role in glucose metabolism. Finally, both PLTP forms were found to interact with apoA-I, apoA-IV, and apoE. In addition, both apoE and apoA-IV, but not apoA-I, were capable of activating the LA-PLTP. These findings suggest that the distribution of the HA- and LA-PLTP in human plasma is subject to dynamic regulation by apolipoproteins.

The present attitude of African youth towards entrepreneurship

It is widely known that entrepreneurship plays a crucial role within the economy. As the African economy needs rapid development and growth, this paper investigates the present attitude of African youth towards new business creation and entrepreneurship. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used, and 204 people participated in the study. The participants were accessed via social media such as Facebook (pages and groups), LinkedIn (groups), Twitter, and WhatsApp. The results reveal that African youth have positive attitudes and that they are entrepreneurially active and ready to take risks, provided that they can be self-dependent. Similarly, the results show that entrepreneurship education is much needed to improve innovative start-ups in Africa.