Problems of Education in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 56, PEC, 2013

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Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The role of ICT in education on the whole and particularly in science education is a very important topic. The growth is characteristic not only at university level but also at other levels of the education system. It is accepted that ICT makes the process of teaching/learning more effective and beneficial whereas the education system starts functioning faster. The implementation of new technologies in the educational process raises new possibilities for both teacher and learner, enhances education quality and makes the educational process more versatile (Lamanauskas, Šlekienė, Ragulienė, 2010). 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.

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Authors: Hernan Casakin, Nitza Davidovitch

The social climate created in the classroom has been recognized to have important implications for learning. This study was motivated by the explore how design students in the design studio compared to other other architectural courses view their social-academic climate. Despite the role played by social climate in classroom, some have argued that classroom climate has been largely ignored in studies of higher education and most studies on classroom climate explore the perceptions of teachers rather than views of students themselves. The present study focuses on social-academic climate and its significance in architectural studies and its effect on academic satisfaction. A survey was conducted of students of architecture, following an approach developed by Moos (1970), who claimed that behavior is largely affected by environmental and situational factors. The model he constructs presents social climate as a product of bilateral pressure systems - environmental pressures that affect the individual, and pressure that the individual exerts on his or her environment. This study evaluates social-academic climate and academic satisfaction in an academic architectural program, focusing on a comparison of perceptions of students in the design studio and traditional classes, based on the eight dimensions proposed by Moss (1979). Findings shed light on the importance that students attribute to the measures of social-academic climate. These factors (specifically, students' involvement, competence, innovation, and teacher support) were rated higher in the design studio than in the courses. Social-academic climate measures such as involvement, order and organization, teacher's control, and orientation of the learning material were higher in the first year than in more advanced years. Academic satisfaction was higher in the first year design studio. Ratings of order, organization, and teacher support were the major predictors of students' academic satisfaction with the architectural program.

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Authors: Alexandra David, Ileana Hamburg

There is high (youth) unemployment in several EU countries. These present the latest examples from e.g. Greece, Spain or Italy. Other countries such as Germany or Austria are suffering a brain drain, and consequent depletion of knowledge sources, due to emigration of highly skilled and knowledgeable people. To ensure a broad and productive regional knowledge base, which would enable innovation, regions should develop an integrated human capital agenda. A main pillar of such an agenda is the use of regional untapped potential. To date scholars have only examined the meaning of highly skilled workers as knowledge-holders thereby neglecting the role of vulnerable and marginalized (VAM) groups. This paper focuses on the (re-)integration of vulnerable and marginalized groups to the vocational education and training (VET) system and labour markets using innovative VET solutions such as the approach of mentoring, social media (Web 2.0 and 3.0) as well as social networks. Social networks in particular, contain potential such as the formation of regional social capital through the ability of learners to interact in common learning situations, which may raise regional human capital of vulnerable and marginalized groups. Vice versa, if human capital accumu-lates into a strong regional knowledge base, which can be used for regional (economical) issues, the result will be regional social capital increases.

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Authors: Tomasz Huk

Mass media play an essential role at almost every stage of human’s life. The media have a particular influence on children who are not entirely aware of their message. A part of reality surrounding children was examined in order to determine the features of favourite movie characters and preferable situations in which said a character participates. The results obtained through a diagnostic survey indicate that there is a statistically significant difference between girls and boys choices of a movie character. This article focuses on the aspects of using children’s favourite characters by a teacher in education. The presented discussion regarded also the problem of children emulating movie characters.

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Authors: Eldina Nasufi, Silvana Vishkurti, Migena Alimehmeti

Reflective writing is an important aspect, especially for students who are majoring in teaching a foreign language, because it constitutes an initial step for finding a solution to problems arising in practice. Reflectivity in writing can be acquired by working since the first cycle studies, even in the pre-university system but in the Albanian context, it is not always realized from one level to another. This paper will focus on reflectivity in writing by means of internship reports handed by students at the end of their two-month internship in middle and secondary schools. The corpus consists of the internship reports of the last two years (2011-2013) submitted by 80 master`s students, in order to point out that the students’ reflection on their internship in various schools are not realistic due to their inability to express their viewpoint on their experience. The main results of the analysis indicate that the students fail to coherently organize the data according to the internship report’s structure and they cannot explain accurately the problems encountered in the Albanian context. Instead, in most of the cases, they depart from an ideal context found in various foreign authors’ works. They are unable to argue on the importance of teaching experience for exercising their future profession. Furthermore they display several deficiencies in describing sample classes that they have taught in the schools.

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Authors: Eleni D. Politi, Kyriakos N. Souliotis

The European Union of Medical Specialties is taking efforts to harmonize Continuous Medical Education (CME) requirements in Europe. However, in an era of financial crisis, some countries may undervalue the long-term public health impact of weak and budget-limited CME national systems. Appreciating the statement of the Greek ancient philosopher Socrates: “If you think that education is expensive, you should consider ignorance”, an assessment of the Greek CME system and its possible areas of improvement is attempted. From a questionnaire-based survey conducted to one hundred Greek practicing physicians, it seems that the vast majority respects the values of CME. However, they do not seem to clearly perceive CME as an obligatory, neither as an outcomes controlled process. They also confess CME access difficulties and geographic and financial discriminations. Overall, the Greek CME system was characterized as a non-satisfactory one and it did not seem to meet the physicians’ specific needs. Reviewing for relevant concerns also in a global context, it appears that institutionally mandating CME, controlling for the quality and the outcomes of it, as well as CME funding issues, they are all concepts where either robust evidence lacks and/or improvements warrant. Taking into consideration the above, a Greek CME system reformation is considered as utmost relevant and the comprehensive establishment of a National CME Authority, dedicated to address the above issues, is also suggested.

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Authors: Marcus Stueck, Alejandra Villegas, Cathleen Schoenichen, Katrin Bauer, Paul Tofts, Ulrich Sack

Present study addresses the question of the effects of the evidence based TANZPRO-Biodanza®-Program (Stueck & Villegas, 2009, Stück, 2013) based on BIODANZA by Rolando Toro and Cecilia Luzzi (Toro, 2010). TANZPRO-Biodanza® is the nonverbal part of the School of Empathy concept by Marcus Stueck (Stueck, 2013), which was developed in the project “Healthy Lifestyles in Kindergardens” of the Geman Ministry of Health (2009 until 2011). Biodanza is a contact and motion-based intervention method with auto-regulative claim on immune competence and the autonomic system of children of kindergarten age. The evaluation took ten weeks. A TANZPRO®-Biodanza class with girls aged four to six was carried out from September 2011 until December 2012. The immunological parameters immunoglobuline A and testosterone as well as the autonomic heart rate parameters were collected before and after each TANZPRO®-Biodanza sessions of the course as a process variable. Especially, the reduced testosterone levels after the meetings in the saliva of children show positive effects of the method on the immune system. The decrease of IgA levels after TANZPRO®-Biodanza in the saliva of children towards age norm might be due to an immune regulative effect. The specific effects of TANZPRO®-Biodanza on heart rate towards a mean level show improvement of physical autoregulatory processes.

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Authors: Elzbieta Turska

This research presents the results of a study on selected aspects of social identity of future educators which include family identity, national, European and global identities, religious identity and professional identity. The aim of the research was to find out whether Polish pedagogy students, who in future will become educators, are able to ask and answer identity questions and reflect on their own identity. The study was conducted in a group of 364 university students of pedagogy of the University of Zielona Gora, Poland. The data was gathered with the use of a diagnostic survey technique by means of a questionnaire. The study leads to an optimistic view on future educators who reflect on their identity and can give clear answers to identity questions. This ability is essential for the future educators themselves as it adds to their personal development, but it is also crucial in the job and vocation of an educator.