Problems of Education in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 41, PEC, 2012

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Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Learner-centered approaches to teaching and schooling require supportive policies for preparing effective educators. Moving from constructivist philosophy, psychology and epistemology to the characterization of constructivist teaching and learning environments presents a challenge. Constructivist philosophy does not dictate how one should teach; however, it does make it incumbent upon the teacher to deal with each learner as an individual, to value diversity of perspective, and to recognize that the learner's behavior is a direct reflection of his / her life experiences. Bandura (1977, 1986, 1995, 1997), Fullan (1993), and other self-efficacy researchers have concluded that the catalyst for educational reform is the individual teacher and that a teacher's behaviors, values, beliefs, and ambition to act may be enhanced or suppressed during student teaching.

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Authors: Irina Kazuša

The goal of general chemistry and biochemistry – teach students to use their knowledge about chemical structure of organism and molecular processes. To better understand explanations and to prognosticate processes students are given, information presented on other courses. As time dedicated for chemistry course for first year students of RSU is reduced, use of critical thinking strategies in starting period of study process increases probability of achieving positive results. By organizing study process at the beginning of semester, students are introduced to detailed plan thus giving an opportunity to organize their own time according to previous learning experience. Students are provided with thorough study material both in printed and electronic form thus allowing them to find more time for fact analysis, problem solving and relation finding. By stepping away from the traditional routine, the proportion between lectures and practical lessons was changed in favour of practical lessons. Gained experience allows concluding that intensive work with small groups, by introducing students to different approaches to information analysis, graphical systematization of information, development of dialog skills and other methods is effective and worth developing.

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Authors: Marit Mõistlik, Lilian Liiväär, Eha Rüütel

The focus of this article is to analyse what associations are related with school's creative lessons (music, art, craft, physical education) and how should teachers interpret those associations. In addition there is a comparison across all creative lessons about the feeling which is felt by pupils before entering the lesson (response alternatives: “I’m looking forward to this lesson, I’m happy to go there”; “It’s like any other lesson, nothing special”; “I’m anxious, I feel frustrated about going there”). The sample (N = 227) consisted of seventh form pupils of seven upper secondary schools of Tallinn (the largest city of Estonia with 420,000 inhabitants) aged 13–14 (47% of them were boys, N = 107, and 53% girls, N = 120). Pupils’ associations formed six thematic categories describing the most prevalent themes: (1) Teacher, (2) Activities, (3) Emotions, (4) Objects, (5) Classroom environment, and (6) Schoolwork load. Results show that music lesson stands out from other creative lessons both with negative associations and more negative entering feeling. That outcome is discussed from the music teacher's point of view – how it could be interpreted and what it reflects from current educational situation.

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Authors: Sirje Piht, Piret Lehiste, Rea Raus, Mariliis Lazarev

When starting school, most students have a desire to learn and are motivated to participate actively in the learning process. Lack of interest is what undermines learning. Research on children's well-being in the European Union (EU), conducted at York University in 2006, indicated that Estonia stands out among 25 EU countries with the lowest level of students who enjoy school and have a feeling of well-being. However, the results of 2006 and 2009 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) research indicate that Estonian students do have good subject knowledge and study skills. The Estonian Human Development Report 2009 states that 70% of Estonian students consider their study load too heavy, 67% feel fatigue and 33% do not want to go to school at all. The report indicates that schools do not pay enough attention to personality development, analysis and discussion (Eesti Koostöö Kogu, 2010). Based on the results of the above-mentioned research, it can be said that Estonian students have good subject knowledge, but learning offers them neither pleasure nor interest (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2007; Puksand, Lepmann & Henno, 2010). The key question for this research was how learner-centered goal setting and reflection support the learners´ skills to set their own goals for the learning process and to analyze it. Learners are interested in the learning process in case they understand the goals, are actively involved, and take responsibility for their actions. Learners should experience success and get immediate feedback on their activities. Ninety-six different evocation and reflection cards were tested by 24 Estonian teachers in the spring of 2011. The purpose of testing was to clarify how effective the usage of evocation and reflection cards is in supporting students in setting goals and analysing their activities. The quantitative research method (in the form of a questionnaire) was used in order to discover teachers` personal opinions, attitudes and approach to the cards and make conclusions about the relevance of the cards in supporting students` involvement in the evocation and reflection phase of learning. The research results showed that giving and receiving feedback develop students´ self-image, motivate them to participate in the learning process and develop their study skills. The relevance of evocation and reflection cards depends greatly on a teacher's opinion and will to use them. If a teacher does not possess enough knowledge about how to involve students in goal setting and analysis of the lesson, the efficiency of these cards is not evident.

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Authors: Marija Ropič, Metka Kordigel Aberšek

This paper presents the results of the 5 months experiment in which the influence of using a web graphic organizer in the science literacy curriculum was observed. The interest of the study was focused on the quality and quantity of learning/understanding the explicatory text description from the science textbook. The experiment included students at the age of 8-9 years. Science and L1 class were integrated for this purpose: teachers were instructed to use web graphic organizer as a tool for visualizing the text structure on the level of concrete cognitive operations. The results show the effect of using the web graphic organizer on students’ competence to find out what in the science textbook text is important, on the level of text comprehension and on the competence of comparing new information with the previous knowledge.

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Authors: Maruta Sīle, Diana Liepa

This paper reviews the evidence on the impact of the inmate emotional responsiveness on educational outcomes. There are two main reasons why researchers in this field believe in prison education that may reduce a future criminal activity. The first reason involves the impact of the increased cognitive skills and changes in behaviour but the second reason acclaims that participants can learn how to live a crime-free life by participating in education courses. The research aim is to explore the impact of the prisoners’ emotional responsiveness to learning during the learning process at Ilguciema prison. In the research the authors analyse theoretical sources and research data. The research includes the analysis of pedagogical, psycho-pedagogical literature as well as Acts of Legislation. The results were analyzed on the basis of the data from the questionnaires, observation and reflection as well. The results were analysed on the basis of the examination of the interplay of data by means of the quantitative mathematical statistical program SPSS 17.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). In the research pedagogical pre-conditions that foster the inmate emotional responsiveness have been defined. It is concluded that the inmate emotional satisfaction created by steady developmental and educative sessions may provoke emotional responsiveness as well as would diminish the inmate personality degradation; also, the psychological atmosphere would improve in prison cells and the ties with life in freedom/ outside the prison walls would be strengthened as well.

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Authors: Anastassia Rezepova, Natalia Tshuikina

The article presents grounds for necessity for implying a learner-oriented course for bilinguals studying in modern Estonian school. Such a course is caused by changes in the State Curriculum. The second supposition is the need in teaching Russian to bilinguals not as a foreign language but as one of native ones, which is not provided by curricula of Estonian-speaking educational institutions, although many of them count more than 10% of students from Russian-speaking families. As a result, bilingual students fairly and without accent speak Russian, however experiencing difficulties in reading and writing texts. The realization of learner-centered approach for bilinguals via web blogs solves a vast number of organization problems, starting with the timetable settings for students from different classes and ending with individual approach to students’ personal achivements assessment. The article also decribes the course’s structure, which is organized in four cycles with eight lessons in each; contact classes are to be held in the beginning of the course and between the cycles for interim results, as well as in the end of the course for conclusion.

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Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 41, PEC, 2012