Švietimas: politika, vadyba, kokybė /Education Policy, Management and Quality

4-7

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Information and communication technologies are changing so rapidly, that it is hardly possible to react properly to all changes. First of all, the speech is about technological changes. This inevitably touches education system as well. A certain technological “overloading” is felt in all levels of the system. It is especially felt in comprehensive education sector. On the one hand, a big demand remains for teachers’ qualification in ICT field, on the other hand, the pressure increases for the younger generation to possibly master technologies earlier. In Lithuania, as in the other Baltic region countries, a lot of attention is paid to ICT implementation at schools. For example, in Estonia, even primary class children are already learning programming; the state also devotes much attention to this, first of all, financially. One of priority fields in Lithuania, declared in education policy since 2000, has been information and communication technology application in education system. A very important moment is that technology progress rapidity is and it is likely to be much more rapid than society’s technological (and computer as well) literacy level. It is ob-vious, that every country’s social – economical development and competitiveness strongly depend on information and communication technology level. However, the ability of a concrete person to use the possibilities provided by information and communication technologies, is another thing. The opinion, that prevails in Lithuania is, that part of the problems related to ICT are determined by technical resources, computer literacy, lack of methodics and methodology, wrong attitude to the usage of technologies in general. Speaking about teachers (they are central part of education process), it is important to form an understanding, that ICT is not a thing in itself, i.e., it is necessary to use, because the others do this and do somewhere else and finally, that it is fashionable. ICT, first of all, is a didactic support seeking better educa-tion results.

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Authors: Sergejus Neifachas, Andrej Rudanov

This article was prompted by the disputes often arising in Lithuanian public discourse and concerning the change in the study environment in higher education, the limits of the interpretation of study environment as a legal category, and a certain vacuum in the legal philosophy of the educational system, which prevents proper development of the authentic science of education law. Writing about the study environment means writing about higher education, the law, and the perception of the law, while writing about the interpretation of the study environment should start with the theories of concept interpretation. We will there-fore see that the interpretation of study and environment as legal concepts will undoubtedly link the science of law to hermeneutics, education science, politics, and philosophy. Exami-nation of the study environment as a legal category in the legal discourse about Lithuanian higher education is very poorly developed. This is how the idea for this article came about: to present the perception of the study environment as a legal category through the examination of interdisciplinary public (education) policy and legal research. The article aims to discuss the concept of study environment and its content, to define aspects of the formation (content contexts) of the study environment as a legal category by highlighting methodological positions, and to explain the legal norms that establish the study environment as a legal category.

46

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

A brief info on the international scientific conference "Information & Communication Technology in Natural Science Education - 2013", which took place 23 – 26 October 2013 in the Conference centre of Siauliai University in Siauliai.

4-6

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Pedagogical practice organization questions, innovative practice approaches were discussed in the conference. Very often universities do not attach enough attention to this sphere, doing the practice in itself is rather formal. One of the essential questions is the type of practice. Nowadays, the universities are looking for possibilities to involve students into peda-gogical practice already from the first course. The other important aspect is – the process of spread, development and maturity of student’s acquired competencies takes place during pedagogical practice. Effective feedback should guarantee study process changes. In this respect, clearly fixed pedagogical practice content is a significant thing. Quite often this cannot be achieved, because students, doing pedagogical practice, get a lot of tasks according to studied university subjects. Not always their activity and responsibility limits are notified clearly during practices. Very often the dichotomy between educational (didactic) and psychological tasks can be observed. It is understandable, that carrying out various psychological tasks (e.g., related to students’ personality cognition, their individual trait observation, interrelationship diagnostics and so on) students are not able to integrate their results into the educational process. In other words, pedagogical practice is a perfect period in the whole study process to relate the acquired pedagogical (didactic) and psychological knowledge into entire wholeness and be able to apply it practically. Thus, the problematics of pedagogical practice remains topical. How to achieve, that it were an effective instrument not only helping the student to develop, but also to understand the essence of pedagogical activity, to realise your calling and possibilities to do a very complicated and responsible pedagogue’s job in future. Can we agree with the statement, that there has to be left as little theory as possible, and to transform all theory into practice? It is obvious, that pedagogical practice process, should considerably be improved, adapted to the time period. How to do this? The question remains open.

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Authors: Natalya Mikhailova

Consumer orientation is an important aspect of creating and functioning of quality management system of the educational establishment. However, monitoring of consumer satisfaction in the system of the additional adult education requires certain conceptual and technological development projects. A synthesizing of existing approaches for monitoring allowed us to make the model approximation of monitoring consumer satisfaction of educational services of the Institute for Professional Skills Upgrading and Retraining. It determines aim and functions of the monitoring, its object and subjects, the content, structure, etc. Then content monitoring is determined on the basis of several criteria and indicators for evaluating consumer satisfaction, characterizing consumer perception of the Institute. Monitoring of listeners of training satisfaction, courses for skills upgrading for managers and professionals, the training courses (including working trades), as well as employers is included to the structure. Diagnostic materials are developed for each type of monitoring. Questionnaires contain questions assessed by nominal and point scale. We have identified six stages in the developed technology of monitoring and consumer satisfaction evaluations of educational services of the Institute: organizational-preparatory, questionnaires, and analysis of incoming documents, data processing, analytical, synthesis, reflective. The automation of the procedure of monitoring has allowed to reduce time and efforts. The program «Questionnaire» was developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. The examples of the analysis of monitoring results (dynamics of motives, reasons for satisfaction specialty retraining, choice of the most effective forms of organization of educational work and other; 2005-2011; 826 respondents) reflect the possible impact of monitoring on the management of educational process in the system of additional adult education.

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Authors: Vladimir Karapetyan, Hasmik Sargsyan

“Organization of practice in the sphere of higher education continues to remain the Achilles’ heel of our education system,” Armenia’s Minister of Education and Science Ar-men Ashotyan said during the opening of the international conference entitled Modernization of Constant /Continuous/ Practice and Introduction of Organizational Mechanisms in the System of Higher Pedagogical Education that kicked off at Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) on July 1. Professor Alexander Gluzman, Rector of the Crimean University of Humanities, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Academician of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, presented the main directions of practical training at Ukraine’s higher pedagogical institutions. He emphasized that the con-formity of educational programs and practice provisions is an important step in preparing future pedagogues. The plenary session was concluded by Professor Vladimir Karapetyan, Head of the Chair of Age and Pedagogical Psychology, ASPU, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, who in his report “Broadening the Base of Operations as a Necessary Condition for the Formation of Practical Skills” dwelt on the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge. The professor said there are many problems in the education system, but practice is a scientific matter which should be subjected to a thorough and comprehensive study: it is not merely an educational problem, but also a guarantee for developing a person’s outlook and belief as a specialist. The international conference “Modernization of Constant /Continuous/ Practice and Introduction of Organizational Mechanisms in the System of Higher Pedagogical Education” wrapped up at Armenian State Pedagogical University on July 4.

4-7

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Deep economic, technological, social changes form new challenges for universities. University management continues to be a problem. The main problem is how to find an optimal balance between the autonomy of the universities, the so-called democracy, and regulation from the state. Today the future of the universities in Lithuania is more uncertain than it has been in the last 30 years. A wide range of conditions and circumstances require constant change. The traditional model of university management becomes ineffective. The labor market makes new demands to universities (new study programms, short-term courses etc.). It is possible to tell that universities undergo constant pressure from the labor market. Does this mean that universities and government should resist labour-market pressures? The mentioned pressure is quite often inadequate and negatively influences university develop-ment. On the other hand, there are some hindering factors for more positive development of universities, such as low competence of managers, a separation from real practice, ignoring of world technological, social and economic tendencies.

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Authors: Aušrinė Gumuliauskienė

Strategic education-related documents reflecting the content of the education policy emphasise the priorities, provisions, principles of the organisational development of the edu-cation system and its separate sectors, target societal attention and endeavours on the essen-tial changes in the field of education focusing on expectations of the state society, the global, European Union tendencies within education policy and practice as well as assessment of the condition of education. The education policy as a prerogative of the state sector, a constituent part of public policy is closely related to policies of other fields, is multilayered, contextual, based on ideological and value attitudes, relatively encompasses closely interrelated strategic, managerial (tactical), administrative (operational performances) levels. The coherence of the education strategy and its implementation in education practice defined at the political level is a multifaceted issue. The article actualises the contradictions of formation and implementation of the edu-cation policy aims in the contexts of societal transformations. The correlations between the formation of the education system and globalisation processes, economic factors are dis-cussed in detail, the demand for research-based formation and implementation of the education policy is underlined, significance of the strategy of integrated development of educational organisations when implementing the education policy at the organisational level is theoretically reasoned. On 12 November 2002, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania approved the Long-Term Development Strategy of the State. It projected the development of Lithuania, the EU state-to-be. Its purpose was to provide a basis for implementation of the education vision of Lithuania. The provisions of the strategy complemented the long-term development strategy of the state and set the mission, values, principles of education in Lithuania; also, they set the aims of education development and means to implement it, defined quantitative and qualitative outcomes which would ground and be regarded when estimating the education development in Lithuania in 2003–2012. During the latter period, Lithuania set three major tasks for education: to ensure accessibility of education, development and perfection of human resources focusing on the tendencies of development of economy, culture and science in Lithuania and other states of the European Union, the demands of the labour market, the strategy of sustainable development, aiming at higher competitiveness of the state and higher social cohesion; to ensure proper quality of education adequate to the quality of education in the European Union and other countries of the world; to increase efficiency of performance and management more clearly defining its mission and exceptionality, improving self-governance, consolidating independence and autonomy of education organisations as well as striving for education to become the major factor pre-determining the progress of Lithuanian economy and society as well as competitiveness. Assessing creation and implementation of the Strategy from the today’s perspective, formers of the education policy state the following: skills of strategic planning have changed very much, i.e. this was one of the first big-volume strategic documents of the state one dec-ade and a half ago, therefore, there was lack of experience in creating such documents; today we obtain much more data and other sources of information, therefore prognostication of the future and creation of the strivings can be more exact; after entering the European Union, projects being generously supported by structural funds started being implemented, they partially directed the investment to smaller aims and thus evoked challenges; undergoing the changes of coalitions in power, each time political priorities of the government would change, in some cases they even would not properly match the provisions of the Strategy; in some cases, reality and education underwent changes faster than expected, whereas in some other cases it lasted for too long (Valstybinės švietimo strategijos įgyvendinimas 2003–2012 metais, 2012). The analysis of implementation of the state education strategy for the period 2003–2012 reveals not only the tendencies of education development, the condition of its quality, but also the tendencies of development of the education policy in Lithuania. Creation and implementation of education strategies are complex, first of all, because of specificity of their object, i.e. education. Strategies for its development are to be projected with regard to complex junctions of social, economic, technological, cultural, political processes, constantly altering their contexts, the coherence of globality and nationality. Formation and implemen-tation of the education system are inseparable processes; their coherence determines the quality change and efficiency of education. At the political level, education is given excep-tional significance in the societal life; however, its social impact should not be overesti-mated. The coherence of formation and implementation of the education policy is a multifaceted issue. The problem of this coherence is most vividly reflected by the following tendencies: the lack of connections between education policy and public policy as well as policies of other fields, especially at the level of administration of the education policy; insufficiency of methodological, scientific interdisciplinary approaches when analysing, assessing and contextualising educational processes; the lack of ideological and value-based reasoning; at the strategic level, there is too much emphasis on internationalisation, whereas national priorities of education, its purpose in the postmodern society are not clear; processes of policy formation are insufficiently based on a complex analysis, experts’ assessment of achievements, threats, opportunities of education and its separate sectors; the direction “top down” is too much enabled in the political decision-making, increasing the volume and potential of administration; ambitious political strivings are too weakly grounded on financial capacities and vice versa economic/financial priorities dominate over social, value priorities; there is lack of coherence between strategic and tactical/administrative levels. Implementation of the education policy at the organisational level is too little linked with development of human resources, managerial potential as well as actualisation of the demand for projection and implementation of the integrated development strategy. Having the above-mentioned strategies dominating, the education policy loses the status of a national priority, its formation becomes the most significant process for the group of interests of education policy-makers, participants of the education system processes are too weakly empowered, majority of strategic aims remain declarative orientations because their implementation is not grounded on real resources, opportunity studies and responsibility.

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Authors: Judita Stankutė

A short communication with head of Skuodas P. Žadeikis gymnasium, Lithuania.