Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science

217-230

Authors: Gustavo Ferro, Carlos A. Romero

We are interested in how codified knowledge is produced around the globe (which inputs are used to produce scientific articles and patented inventions) and the efficiency of the process (how do the best performers produce more with the same inputs or produce the same with less inputs). Using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency frontier approach, we aim to determine which countries are more efficient at producing codified knowledge. We proxy knowledge production by publications and patents, obtained through human (researchers) and non-human (R&D expenditure) resources. We built a 15-year database with more than 800 observations of these and other variables. Our findings enable us to distinguish efficiency by country, geographical region, and income area. We run four different specifications and correlate the results with partial productivity indexes seeking consistency. Under constant returns to scale, the most traditional producers of knowledge are not fully efficient. Instead, small countries with limited resources appear to be efficient. When we add environmental conditions, both sets of countries are efficient producers of knowledge outputs. High-income regions, on the one hand, and East Asia, North America, and Europe and Central Asia, on the other, are the most efficient regions at producing knowledge.

247-257

Authors: Salih Yıldırım

This study aims to analyze the views of geography teacher students on the GIS course conducted with screencasts during the distance education process. Furthermore, the study reveals, along with the reasons, how the process of capturing and sharing screencasts with students can assist instructors. At the end of the term, 27 students studying in the second year of the geography teaching undergraduate program were asked about their opinions of the lesson. The data were collected through a structured evaluation form consisting of open-ended questions to evaluate the course. In the analysis of the comments obtained, MAXQDA software, which is frequently used in qualitative data analysis, was applied. The expressions in the answers were analyzed using the content analysis technique. Overall, the results prove that the beneficial aspects of the GIS course, which consists of applications and is conducted with screencast, outweigh the theory. Thanks to the screencast model, students can use their time efficiently and watch the videos repeatedly whenever and wherever they want. Nevertheless, the results reveal that extra methods are required to motivate students to transfer theoretical information and that screencasts have some disadvantages.

270-287

Authors: Libuše Samková, Lukáš Rokos, Lukáš Vízek

This contribution belongs to a larger empirical study that focuses on issues related to the implementation of inquiry-based learning and formative assessment in science and mathematics education, while it also refers to the issue of STEM education. Here, we discuss the two topics from the perspective of professional preparation of primary school teachers. We employ an educational tool called Concept Cartoons and perceive it as a common diagnostic tool for investigating modes of reasoning about general statements in arithmetic, geometry and biology. The presented qualitative exploratory empirical study maps and codes various kinds of reasoning that can be identified with the tool and investigates possibilities of a joint coding procedure. As a result, it provides a conversion table between various modes of reasoning in the three subject domains. The arisen code categories cover the field of generic examples, including the initial stages so that they can be used for scaffolding the process of learning the foundations of deductive reasoning. The joint approach to reasoning in mathematics and biology shows how argumentation and formative assessment can be understood equally and developed simultaneously in both school subjects. It helps us to see how the two school subjects can be integrated didactically.

143-153

Authors: Markéta Šnýdrová, Lucie Depoo, Ivana Šnýdrová

The article deals with the evaluation of university graduates’ attitudes towards job characteristics based on their generation. Research shows that the attitudes of individuals in the labor market are currently changing. However, the question is to what extent this change is related to the entry of a new generation or to what extent generational affiliation plays a role in the different attitudes of individuals in the labor market. Therefore, the aim is to test the proposition whether the age of a graduate, respectively his / her affiliation to the generation X, Y or Z affects attitudes towards job characteristics. The partial goal of the article is to identify the main attitudes of searched generations to employment, the second partial goal is to identify attitudes to the evaluation of the benefits of university study in relation to employment. This paper evaluates data from the case study of a selected business university. The return rate of primary survey was representative for the graduates of the case university. The results obtained were statistically tested. Analysis of differences between age and selected factors was used. The analysis showed statistically significant differences between members of generation X, Y and Z in all investigated factors.

167-179

Authors: Rabia Öztuzcu Küçükbere, Betül Balkar

Accountability enables teachers to exhibit professional behaviors in school processes. However, the contribution of accountability to teacher occupational professionalism depends on the effective structuring of accountability mechanisms. It is necessary to examine how the connection between teacher occupational professionalism and accountability can be effectively established in line with different conceptual models. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between teacher accountability and occupational professionalism by analyzing a proposed conceptual model of accountability and occupational professionalism dimensions. The first step for effective accountability mechanisms is to raise occupational awareness. Therefore, the effect of teacher accountability on teacher occupational awareness, which is one of the components of occupational professionalism, was examined with the mediating roles of contribution to organization, emotional labor and personal development dimensions of occupational professionalism. Employing correlational research design, the study sample included 576 middle school teachers from Gaziantep province in the southeast of Turkey. The study revealed that contribution to organization and emotional labor play a partially mediating role in the relationship between accountability and occupational awareness. However, teacher personal development has no mediating role. The results present a framework to develop teacher personal accountability supporting teacher occupational professionalism.

195-203

Authors: Radka Čopková

The aim of the present study was to verify the relationship of three aversive personality traits - Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy, nowadays known by experts as the Dark Triad and burnout syndrome on the sample of vocational technical subject teachers. The study was carried out on a sample of 241 participants (Mage = 44.53; SD = 10.29). Females represented 75.1% of all respondents (Mage = 44.48; SD = 10.02), males represented the remaining 24.9% of respondents (Mage = 42.36; SD = 11.8). The Slovak version of Short Dark Triad - SD3 and the adapted Slovak version of Maslach Burnout Inventory - HSS on the sample of helping professionals were administered. Significant positive relations of the Dark Triad traits with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal satisfaction were identified. Regression analysis indicated the Dark Triad as a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, psychopathy was the most significant predictor. The Dark Triad concept predicted 58% of burnout syndrome’s variance.

79-88

Authors: Simona Činčalová, Martina Černá

Volunteering is an activity that enables the development of an individual’s competency and is also an area of interest both of society and the academic community. This article aims to compare the motivation for volunteering and the experience of volunteering with students within helping professions and economics. For the purpose of this research, a questionnaire about volunteering was compiled. The article presents the research results into volunteering of Czech students of economic and non-economic study programmes of the College of Polytechnics Jihlava (n = 282). According to the results, the field of study and the frequency of volunteering depend on each other. Students’ gender and the frequency of volunteering do not depend on each other; neither do the study field and the volunteering experience. The biggest motivations for volunteering are feeling useful, gaining new experience and skills. On the other hand, the lack of time and information (ignorance) are perceived as limitations. The study provides an opportunity for developing more guidelines in promoting volunteering activities within the young population and society as a whole.

101-117

Authors: Lemecha Wariyo, Amare Asgedom

Studies revealed that college readiness promotes college success and higher education student learning outcomes. This study opted to 1) analyze the total effect and the conditional effect of college readiness on college success by university generations and departments; 2) analyze the differences in the probability of college success across departments and university generations; 3) describe the quality of university generations in terms of the conditional effects and the probabilities of college success. The study is an ex post facto research. The Ethiopian 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation universities; and the Ethiopian National Assessment and Evaluation Agency officers were the population of the study. The total sample size was 551. The Ethiopian General Education School Leaving Certificate Examination Grade Point Average, the Ethiopian Higher Education Entrance Examination score, and the College Cumulative Grade Point Average of the students were sources of the data. Using the Process Procedure for Software Package for Social Sciences, the binomial logistic regression was conducted. Maintaining the highest total conditional effect of college readiness on college success while heightening the probability of college success at a value of college readiness has been interpreted as a trait of the high performing university generation.

9-27

Authors: Hülya Yıldızlı

The present research aimed to explore actions, views, and emotions in relation to teachers’ goal orientations and the reflection of goal orientations on their teaching practices. The study also aimed to compare whether there were differences among teachers’ practices based on their goal orientations. A case study design was adopted and 10 teachers who taught in different schools and school levels participated in the study. Those 10 teachers were grouped into two goal orientations; those with Learning-Mastery-Goal-Orientations (L-M-GO) and those with Learning-Mastery-Performance-Goal-Orientations (L-M-P-GO). A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were held with teachers and the collected data were analysed using qualitative techniques. The results suggested while all teachers -regardless of their goal orientations- defined themselves as individuals who made efforts to learn, those with L-M-P-GO orientations experienced negative emotions and ideas in their learning journeys. Moreover, all teachers reported that there were certain cases where they avoided work. There were differences between teachers’ classroom practices and ideas based on their goal orientations.

41-52

Authors: Enrique De La Hoz, Rohemi Zuluaga, Adel Mendoza

This research uses a three-phase method to evaluate and forecast the academic efficiency of engineering programs. In the first phase, university profiles are created through cluster analysis. In the second phase, the academic efficiency of these profiles is evaluated through Data Envelopment Analysis. Finally, a machine learning model is trained and validated to forecast the categories of academic efficiency. The study population corresponds to 256 university engineering programs in Colombia and the data correspond to the national examination of the quality of education in Colombia in 2018. In the results, two university profiles were identified with efficiency levels of 92.3% and 97.3%, respectively. The Random Forest model presents an Area under ROC value of 95.8% in the prediction of the efficiency profiles. The proposed structure evaluates and predicts university programs’ academic efficiency, evaluating the efficiency between institutions with similar characteristics, avoiding a negative bias toward those institutions that host students with low educational levels.