Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science

93-100

Authors: Libuše Samková; Marie Tichá

In our contribution we focus on the possibility to use an educational tool called Concept Cartoons in future primary school teachers’ education, as an instrument for observing how future primary school teachers reason about fractions. In the introduction section we present Concept Cartoons, and also the primary school level of the fractions topic. In the first part of the research we analyse data obtained when future primary school teachers were solving a problem in the Concept Cartoon form. The task which we adapted to this form belongs to primary school mathematics, it focuses on the concept of a fraction per se (on the parts-and-whole decision and on comparison of two pre-partitioned models with diverse wholes). Using Concept Cartoons, we can observe which statements about the issue our respondents consider as correct, and which kinds of reasoning they use in their justifications. In the second part of the research we analyse problems that the respondents themselves posed in the Concept Cartoon form, with particular focus on tasks devoted to fractions.

109-115

Authors: Lucie Vnoučková; Hana Urbancová; Helena Smolová

Education quality assurance is the necessity for today’s competitive environment in university education. Quality assurance standards and strategies are being used in most of universities and higher education institutions. But the perception of quality standards is being usually seen from the perspective of a university management. This study aims to analyze and present perceptions of students towards a measurement of education quality standards and to identify significant groups of students according to their preferences in education quality. Students’ questionnaires and focus groups collected the data. Two dimensional and multi-dimensional statistical methods were used to evaluate the results. The outputs show five groups of students based on their perception of the education quality. Examination of students’ interest in specific areas, subjects and courses leads to identification of factors which affect their preferences in education. The paper found five significant groups of perceived quality by students. These are Quality receptionists, Business oriented, Expert innovators, Distance learners and Arrangement oriented. Limit of the study is a narrow focus on one private university. This study may encourage other papers to develop and test further the impact of education quality on students’ preferences for measurable improvements. The paper is an extension of the conference paper presented on ERIE conference 2017.

64-70

Authors: Husák, Jakub; Hudečková, Helena

The paper is based on the concepts of the learning society and community-led local development, specifically focused on community education in rural areas of the Czech Republic. The research questions are connected with the identification of objective and subjective conditions for the development of community education and with the development of activities of Rural Community Schools, both from the supply and demand perspectives. The aim is fulfilled through a secondary analysis of Rural Community Schools’ websites and mainly through primary research carried out by interviewing techniques with a high level of standardisation, conducted with the main actors (Community Coordinators) of Rural Community Schools. The results of the study show the higher importance of subjective conditions for the successful development of community education in the Czech Republic. The paper also identifies the demand for educational activities provided by Rural Community Schools as a positive factor in their development. On the other hand, weaknesses could mainly be seen in cooperation with local partners. This is also the main possibility or necessity for their successful future development.

76-85

Authors: Flegl, Martin; Fortoul Ollivier, María Bertha; Švec, Václav; Brand Barajas, Jennie; Vizuet, Christian

La Salle University México (La Salle) uses an internal system of professors’ evaluation, which main purpose is to evaluate professors’ performance and secure high quality of teaching at all of its faculties. Since its inception in 2010, La Salle has obtained 517,635 individual evaluations of 45,346 courses. However, no additional analysis of the obtained results has ever been done. This article provides introductory analysis of the accumulated results at faculty level. The main objective is to analyze whether there are differences between faculties regarding the evaluation. Although the results are highly skewed towards the maximal evaluation at all faculties, there are statistically significant differences. The next important task is to investigate what factors influence the evaluation. Moreover, as this is the introductory analysis, the article concludes with possible future steps that should be consider regarding eventual structural changes in the evaluation system.

34-43

Authors: KOMÁREK, Jaroslav; DOČKAL Jaroslav; MARKOVIČ, Peter; NOVOTNÁ BŘEZOVSKÁ, Barbora; RIGEL, Filip

The current criticism of higher education is that the education offered does not match the needs of practice. In terms of competitiveness, Germany is about the forefront in Europe, and logically the question of whether higher education is the source from which leads to this result. The objective of this paper is to compare the corresponding study programs of Czech and German universities in the area of Economics by identifying the relevant differences and to confirm or dismiss the validity of the research hypothesis „Business Economics programs at German universities differ in ways that can boost competitiveness“. In order to compare the study programs between Czech and German universities, the eight faculties of Economics geared towards Business and Economics and Bachelor degree program were selected. As an introductory information, the structure of the programs was compared in terms of course load and which courses being compulsory, elective, and various forms of actual work practice and Bachelor thesis. The portfolio analysis of compulsory courses was organized into more general course groups and the percentage share of the total extent of compulsory courses was evaluated and the percentage of the active part. The analysis of Bachelor’s degree programs justifies the validity of the research hypothesis such that German study programs are more focused on practical application in a work environment. To that, contribute significantly the German specific institutions, the universities of applied sciences, which are strongly geared towards the needs of actual practice. The reflection of findings may apply in the context of the forthcoming implementation of amendment to the Higher Education Act.

51-57

Authors: LENGYEL, Peter; HERDON, Miklós; PANCSIRA, János; RÁTHONYI, Gergely; FÜZESI, István

The success and the efficiency of e-Learning should be measured by a reliable method in order to use it effectively. Although, there are several studies about the success of e-Learning systems, only a few of them deal with the measurement of this success within the institutions. We made two questionnaires to evaluate the e-Learning application. The aim was to develop such questionnaires which are suitable to evaluate e-Learning’s quality. The basis of the e-Learning’s quality questions was Wang’s article (2007), in which he measured the success of e-Learning systems, therefore the questions of the students’ and the lecturers’ questionnaires were the same. The aim of the questionnaires were to compare the opinions of the students and the teachers and also to evaluate the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) of the University of Debrecen and the Corvinus University of Budapest (CUB) regarding the application of e-Learning. The role of the questionnaire for quality development is to give guidance for the FEB in implementing and using e-Learning. E-Learning in the CUB is applied under certain organized institutional circumstances. The e-Learning application of CUB works with an organization defined extended several faculties of the University, which can be a good example for FEB. We have used the Mann-Whitney test to evaluate the questionnaires of the students who use the e-Learning system. This method is used to compare the means of two groups in case of ordinal scales or not normally distributed variables. We have also used factor analysis and binominal logistic regression. We have examined whether the background variables manipulating the variables are possible to be developed on the basis of the answers. We used factor analysis to demonstrate this since it contracts the coherent factors into one common factor. Finally we used logistic regression to determine the importance of a given factor for the users of both faculty.

1-6

Authors: ČAPKOVÁ, Halka, KROUPOVÁ, Jarmila

One of the main concerns of educational specialists is the relevance of their programmes to the graduates’ success on today’s highly competitive labour market. As a result of these concerns academics at the English Department of the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic decided to conduct a survey of undergraduates, graduates and their major employers as well as the academic staff at the university in order to determine the suitability of English language courses offered to students. The result of this research has been implemented in the adaptation of new teaching materials which aim to satisfy real world requirements. A needs analysis used in this study proved to be very valuable as it emphasises the practices of using multiple sources and multiple methods in the data gathering stage. Triangulation was employed to validate the findings. This type of analysis encouraged the creation of more suitable and appropriate teaching material. Such an analysis also facilitates the collection of information regarding the needs of students and the requirements of other stakeholders.

16-23

Authors: VONDRA, Zdeněk

Quality control mechanism that allows long term improvements of a study field or a study program is necessary for good functioning of educational institution or department in actual nature of competitive universities’ environment. This paper focuses on quality control mechanisms in general and more closely on professional study fields. The professional study fields have been settled in Czech higher education by approving the amendment to the Higher Education Act. This brings new need for control and improvement mechanisms based more on connection to industry practice than on academic publications. The aim of this paper is to explain the importance of gathering information from contact with study field’s stakeholders. These information lead to form appropriate improvements implemented on time. In the case study, there are presented examples of gathered findings and how they are being handled. They include the student‘s expectations that underrate theory although it is needed for basic insight to the industry. The students are also motivated to start their own business. What this paper brings is the proposed continuous development mechanism that helped to improve the bachelors study field Multimedia in Economic Practice and also the general recommendations that should help to any other study field.