Problems of Education in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Problems of Education in the 21st Century, ISSN 1822-7864 Volume 30, 2011

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Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The content of natural science education gives a chance to the dynamics and structure of the educational process. However, the adaptation of natural science knowledge system depends on both the teacher (choosing and applying teaching methods and forms, etc.) and the pupil (the methods of learning, motivation, general abilities). The diversity of teaching and learning content, forms and methods, activities are typical of natural science education. All that makes the educational process effective: develop intellectual knowledge and skills, set out conditions for intense pupils’ activities, shape thinking, foster aesthetic feelings, etc. It is logical that the educational process should be promoted keeping in mind the following regularities: • the textbooks, workbooks and other sorts of teaching/learning material of natural science profile, including observation and experimentation, should be creatively used as an integral part of a balanced curriculum of the educational process. The course of natural science education is mostly auspicious for the development of children’s quick eye; • pupils have to be provided opportunities and conditions to versatile research, raise questions (general and problematic), to establish and define the main direction of activities. Textbooks should be used to extend and improve knowledge; • the integration of natural science material reading and individual experimentation is suitably effective.

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Authors: Eyvind Elstad, Are Turmo, Øystein Guttersud

The progressive movement in Norwegian education has had the hegemony among civil servants, politicians and major groups of teachers. However, during recent years the assessment system has moved towards increased educational accountability based on performance measures (exams and national tests). At the same time, progressivistic inspired assessment has remained: oral exams with prior preparation time. The pupils are typically given the topics 48 hours in advance and have the opportunity to prepare at home or at school. They may take the exam individually or in groups. The teacher, who also asks the questions during the exam, defines the topics. The grades are assigned by an external evaluator, but the subject teacher should also take part in the assessment. This amalgamation of pedagogical progressivism and educational accountability induces major challenges in education.

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Authors: Liile L. Lekena, Anass Bayaga

The objective of this study was to investigate forms of knowledge generation in educational research in South Africa in the periods 1995-1999 & 2000-2004. The study was a quantitative by approach. Data from the universities in Gauteng region (South Africa) was extracted from 2340 bound theses database. The results revealed that there are twelve sectors (forms) that have been identified for knowledge generation in educational research.

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Authors: Vuyisile Msila

The post-apartheid education in South Africa is based on the Constitution of the Republic (Act 108 of 1996). Among its aims are to heal the divisions of the past and improve the life of all citizens. The policy is also intent on preparing the learners to live in a free non-racial and democratic country. This curriculum is ideal; with learner-centred approaches, learners are expected to act in the interests of a society that respects human dignity and morality. Schools are seen as institutions that could instill the democratic ideals in a country that is still trying to address the past ills left behind by the apartheid damage. However, years after the attainment of the democratic society, there are a number of challenges that schools face: drug abuse, sexual violence and hate crimes are among these. Recently, South African children have witnessed widespread xenophobia meted by society against black African foreign nationals. This article explores Peace Education, an aspect that the current system is hardly emphasizing. Effective Peace Education goes beyond building peaceful citizen; it yearns to develop citizens that can enhance democracy and social justice. There is a need to create proactive citizens who will be creative peace soldiers, who manage conflicts effectively, showing respect for fellow human beings. Teachers and schools can play a vital role in the creation of these future citizens. Some critics perceive Peace Education as a contentious and value-laden approach; however, the society needs strategies to act against the threat of violence that has brought the culture of learning and teaching almost to a standstill in many schools.

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Authors: Matthew Osaigbovo Ovbiebo

It is believe that Knowledge is power and if literacy has to do with knowledge, then to be illiterate means one lacks power. Since most women lack reading and writing skills in this area, they are powerless when it comes to accessing written information, and this could make them vulnerable to the spread of HIV/AIDS. In this study, the findings supported the literature that women’s vulnerability is strongly influenced and tied to illiteracy. Women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is real and needs to be addressed for there to be any positive progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS. If HIV vulnerability (illiteracy) is not acknowledged and fought, women will continue to succumb to the disease overwhelmingly and Igueben will eventually disintegrate as it will be full of sick people intensifying underdevelopment. This study sought to explore the relationship between illiteracy and the spread of HIV/AIDS infection among rural women. Fifteen (15) illiterate women were purposively selected from the area to participate in this explorative study. The research approach was qualitative. The research was undertaken within an interpretavist framework in the sense that it is a communal process, informed by participating illiterate women, and sensitive to the role of context (Alvermann, D.E., & Mallozzi, C.A. 2010). The design type used in this study is a case study. Data was collected by means of interviews. The interview schedule consists of 10 open-ended questions focusing on various aspects of their views on how illiteracy contributes to their vulnerability of HIV/AIDS. The interview was tape recorded and transcribed verbatim, and the analysis was done by means of constant comparative method (Merriam 1998).

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Authors: Margarita Gavrilina

This article is devoted to the possibilities of usage lingvoculturology experience in the process of teaching mother tongue (Russian) in the conditions of diaspora, and in Russian language textbooks for the pupils of national minority schools of Latvia. These textbooks were developed by the author of the article. In the introduction, the author proves the necessity of the development of cross-cultural skills of pupils in the process of their mother tongue studies, analyses the problems in cross-cultural capacity of school-leavers. In the second part of the article, the author describes the intra-cultural and cross-cultural dialogues, which are actualized in the contents of educational course “Russian language” and in the textbooks of Russian (the necessity and didactic possibilities of development for diaspora pupils the ability to create a dialogue with facts and values of their own culture and other peoples’ cultures). The focus of author’s attention is the development of cross-cultural competence of students with the help of using cross-cultural tasks as a special type of educational exercises. The author describes the principles taken as a cross-cultural task-forming basis, and cross-cultural task types: - cross-cultural tasks aimed at the development of pupils’ cultural tolerance; - cross-cultural tasks aimed at the development of pupils’ cultural mutual understanding; - cross-cultural tasks aimed at the development of pupils’ cultural unity. The author describes the didactic possibilities of the use of cross-cultural tasks at the lessons of Russian. In the conclusion, the author highlights that the experience, which has been gained in the process of using cross-cultural tasks at the lessons of Russian, allows - to expand the culturological outlook of diaspora students, - to teach students to notice likenesses and distinctions between speech behavior of different cultures representatives and deal with them, - to teach students to think in a comparative aspect, to determine lacunae in their own knowledge, to escape stereotypes, to be able to take the position of an interlocutor – the representative of another culture, to evaluate the world from position of their value orientations; - to improve purposefully and successfully not only cross-cultural skills of students but also their communicative, language and educational abilities.

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Authors: Editorial Board

Problems of Education in the 21st Century, ISSN 1822-7864 Volume 30, 2011