Problems of Education in the 21st Century

9-18

Authors: Andrea Bencsik

Significance of knowledge is realized and appreciated in the life of every competitive economy. But a question must be put. What is the right and required knowledge enterprises need? How can employees acquire this knowledge and how our educational system can keep steps with these continuously changeable economical demands to serve these requirements? In an empirical survey we have tried to find the answer to the following question: How can the higher education and labour market interpret knowledge? What does knowledge mean to enterprises? What kind of competencies are needed to a successful economy? Do the young employees with a new degree have these competencies? Can higher education provide students with competencies which are required by the labour market? Does higher education take notice of these demands in their courses? This survey researched requirements and assumptions from three sides. The questioned people were students and teachers from higher education, managers of enterprises. In this paper information is given about a part of the results with the help of two verified hypotheses.

30-41

Authors: Jana Bouwma-Gearhart

This paper documents results of research regarding one pre-service educator’s motivation to remain in the teaching profession at the secondary level. This qualitative research was based on semi-structured interviews and collaborative analysis between researcher and pre-service educator that included an iterative process of theory building informed by a pre-espoused theory treated as a secondary source of data. We present an instrumental case examined through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT), a theory of motivation shown to successfully inform a wide array of psychological data concerning human behavior and optimal functioning in a variety of social contexts but that, nonetheless, remains underutilized in the field of education. Applying this theoretical lens, we document the struggle that early educators may experience as a result of the felt loss of autonomy and volition with respect to the pedagogical competencies that teacher preparation programs help to instill. We provide recommendations for both teacher educators and school administrators hoping to secure educator success and retention in schools operating under strong teacher accountability mandates. We argue that self-determination theory is a powerful conceptual model that may inform and predict the experiences of others like our instrumental case subject working in similar environments, with our ultimate motive being the better preparation of aspiring educators’ in terms of their pedagogical savvy regarding professional realities.

52-65

Authors: John Gowland-Mwangi, John Odiaga Oloo, Stephen Wambugu Maina

Land degradation, characterized by bare ground, wanton destruction of vegetation and poor farming practices, still threatens food production in Africa where poverty and insufficient resources for income generation impacts negatively on the population. The Farmer Field Schools’ (FFS) Extension and Non-Farmer Field Schools’ (NFFS) Extension Methodologies have been used to teach farmers how to minimize the problem in both Bondo and Rarieda districts of Kenysa through soil and water conservation. However, it is not yet clear whether FFS are more effective than NFFS in enhancing adoption of Contour Farming, Un-ploughed Strips and Farm Yard Manure Application. This study sought answers to this question using a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from 150 FFS-trained and 150 NFFS-trained farmers randomly selected from both districts. Ten extension experts ascertained the questionnaire’s content validity whose reliability was 0.85α at 0.05 confidence level. A t-test was used to determine the presence of significant differences between mean scores of FFS-trained and NFFS-trained farmers in adopting the three conservation techniques. The FFS-trained farmers’ adoption rate of the three conservation technologies was significantly higher than that of the NFFS-trained farmers. The FFS extension methodology was more effective than the NFFS extension methodologies. Extension providers should consider using the FFS extension methodology more in their daily extension work because it is interactive and more effective than the NFFS.

79-89

Authors: Ginta Kronberga, Līga Paula, Dina Bite

There is a discussion within social science literature on theoretical models looking at the relationships between universities and stakeholders in the process of knowledge transfer particularly explaining whether universities are involved in the triple helix relationships (politicians, businesses representatives and university officials) or a quadruple helix system where public constitutes the forth party. Universities have a number of functions which among the other include both creation and obtaining of knowledge and transferring it within wider community, thus promoting socioeconomic development. By studying the case of the Latvia University of Agriculture (hereinafter – LUA), the authors of the paper focus on cooperation networks that are involved in the process of knowledge transfer from the university to regional stakeholders and vice versa. The research methodology is based on the qualitative approach. For identification of cooperation agents, nineteen individual and six group semi-structured interviews were held involving 35 informants. For a deeper analysis of relationships between the LUA and regional stakeholders, policy documents concerning socioeconomic development of Zemgale planning region were analysed. The research results show that the LUA operates as a unique agent of knowledge transfer in many fields (agriculture, veterinary science, forestry, wood processing, food technology, etc.) at both regional and national levels thus diversity of structural elements in cooperation networks depends on demand and supply of knowledge as well as on involvement of institutions responsible for facilitation of successful knowledge transfer. The authors discuss which of the theoretical cooperation models is more evident in the case of the LUA and conclude that currently the triple helix relationships dominate; however, in some cases particular relationship patterns and activities indicate transformation towards the quadruple helix system.

103-123

Authors: Vassilis Orfanos, Michalis Evripiotis

The swift technological development compels an enterprise manager for additional education of employees. The survival of an organism depends on his ability to learn faster from his competitors. This is achieved with systematic and long-lasting effort. Each employee owes to enrich permanently his knowledge so that he is capable to face the new market requirements. A lot of projects are cancelled because the enterprise personnel cannot cope with their requirements. Changes essential for the reorganization of enterprise are suspended because her personnel cannot accept them. These problems are possible to be solved with the permanent training, briefing, education and training of employees. This responsibility of enterprises for the aid of employees with new knowledge and dexterities is recognized more and more, while the human capital constitutes nowadays the more important productive factor. However, while many times over we invest millions in installations, instruments, offices, material and software of computers, we neglect the investment in the persons, those that is to say that shape, develop and give added value in the material elements of production. Aim of this article is to present the policy of Greek banks in the business-to-business education giving accent in the way of resolution of problems that they face. Furthermore, the banking sector is the eminently branch that requires continuous education of personnel.

132-141

Authors: Olga Logashenko, Tatiana Shaposhnikova

In the given work the problem of training and education of students at higher technological schools in the context of the personal formation of a future expert – technologist under the influence of psycho-pedagogical support (PPS) is investigated. The basic criteria confirming the efficiency of PPS helped us to choose the following indicators of cognitive and personal development: thinking, intelligence, impulsiveness and morals. The primary PPS goals of training and education of students at higher technological school were: application of pedagogical diagnosis; use of various methods of education; consideration of merits and abilities of students; formation of a positive self-appraisal; training of the self-stimulation positive behavior technique. To solve the highlighted problems the following methods have been applied: the organization and holding of conversations and seminars on self-education within the limits of the developing at the university system of students’ moral education; holding some lectures on psychology and pedagogics for strengthening the liberal-moral component of vocational training; the socio-psychological training directed on the formation of communicative skills, the development of abilities to come into contact with associates, helping to remove the internal barriers, disturbing the effective interaction but promoting the consciousness of personal qualities; the self-reports of students stimulating internal activity and work of consciousness. The efficiency of PPS influence on training and education of students at the higher technological school is confirmed by the fact that students have increased their analyticity of thinking, have raised their IQ level while impulsiveness has decreased and the indicator of good manners has improved. The presented PPS model is a part of the innovative system of psycho-pedagogical support of vocational training of students at higher school that we have been developing throughout a number of years.