Problems of Education in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, Vol. 43, 2012, PEC

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Authors: Valentin Cosmin Blândul

Pupils’ school dropout could be defined as an early and final abandonment of school before graduation, which prevents the pupil from registering in the following stage of education, losing in this way the possibility of benefiting from a proper and higher education. The statistics show that, unfortunately, in recent years school dropout rates have been increasing among secondary school pupils. The University of Oradea and The Bihor County School Inspectorate, Romania, have implemented a project called “School. My chance!” The aim of the project was to prevent and reduce the phenomenon of early school leaving by 100 pupils. The pupils attended five schools in Avram Iancu, Bogei, Carasau, Les and Suncuius, all village in Bihor, Romania, and were identified with higher school dropout risks. This paper proposes to present the partial results obtained at the end of the first period of the project implementation – the second semester of the 2010 / 2011 school year. The sample was represented by those 100 pupils from the above mentioned schools, who were included in Cognitive Therapy, implemented with the help of the project. The method consisted of analysing and comparing the pupils' school marks at the beginning and at the end of the relevant period. The results proved that, after one school semester, the pupils' marks remained rather unchanged, but in a few specific cases (schools or school subjects) small progresses were made. These results can, however, be seen as a significant success, because in education it is very difficult to obtain some spectacular improvements in such a short time and the most important aim of our project was to help those pupils to remain in the formal learning system so that that the positive conditions were created for their personal development.

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Authors: Vera V. Khitruk, Olga A. Ulianova

The article describes the results of the comparative analysis of tolerance as a basis of professional competence of prospective teachers, whose professional activity can be carried out under the conditions of educational integration or/and inclusive education. The research purpose is to study tolerance among first-year and senior pedagogues, which makes it possible to discuss determinacy of the formation process of inclusive tolerance by the content of pedagogical education in the comparative (the first-year and senior students of the department of pedagogy) aspect. The study of inclusive tolerance of prospective teachers has been carried out using a set of standardized methods adapted to the conditions of the research purpose. Thus, the stimulus material of the methods included the questions among many others the answers to which implied the expression of attitudes towards children/persons with special needs. The obtained results show, that the actual formation level of inclusive tolerance of the students of pedagogical specializations do not permit to determine their professional competence as sufficient in professional realization under the conditions of inclusive education. The paradoxicality of the obtained results consists in the fact, that in general the indices characterizing the formation level of inclusive tolerance decrease from the first to final years. This fact enables to state, that the content of pedagogical education does not have strong enough influence on the formation of this professional quality.

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Authors: Francisco Manuel Morales Rodríguez

The transformation process occurring in the educational field, which has resulted from the generalized development and application of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), differs from preceding technological revolutions in the amazingly accelerated pace it sets. Reflecting upon the implications of the generalized and increasing adoption of ICT is undeniably important for the present and future of social sciences and, particularly, for the areas of pedagogy and didactics. The new model of Higher Education involves new methods, demands and challenges, where the use of ICT represents one of the basic competences. The present study aims to provide an evaluation of interests and attitudes towards Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in a sample of 224 post-graduate students of the Master's Degree in Teacher Training: Secondary and Upper Secondary Education, Vocational Training and Language Teaching, aged from 22 to 49 years old. The questionnaire includes questions aimed to evaluate different aspects, which facilitate interactive learning: computer knowledge; knowing the value of the Internet; place and frequency of online access; and usefulness of certain tools such as video-film, power point, Moodle, forums, wikis, chats, video-forums and blogs. Additionally, the questionnaire includes a number of questions about the potential applications of the Internet in an educational context. Results showed that all students are familiar with the Internet and that they first got to know it from friends. More important is the fact that most of them consider the Internet as a potential educational resource and not only as a support or reinforcement tool that complements the textbook and they like to use ICT and think of them as useful tools in their learning/teaching process. There are differences based on gender and specialization in the perception of the role that ICT is to play in the university context. In particular, men from the specialization Foreign Language consider that weblogs do facilitate peer-to-peer and student-teacher communication and give less importance than women to the item stating that the families’ socioeconomic level has an influence on our knowledge of the Internet. To conclude, the information obtained from the present study is of interest both for training teachers and for integrating ICT in the academic curricula.

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Authors: Mirela Papa, Alma Hafizi

The introduction of the Bologna Process into the higher education system in Albania has led to a review and improvement of the existing curricula. Among the variables influencing the curriculum development the professors and students are the ones directly involved in the curriculum reform implementation project. Although the Bologna Charter advocates a student – centred approach, students are not given the priority they deserve. This remiss could lead to a conflict between the students’ expectations and the curricular approaches. First and second year Master students of Translation – Interpreting at the University of Tirana are the subject of a survey aiming at finding out how the students undertaking Translation and Interpreting find the courses they follow. The method used is the quantitative method of observation. 80% of the students have filled in a questionnaire. The data processing indicates the motives driving the students to choose this curriculum as well as their expectations for their future career. It is concluded with some findings and recommendations for curriculum reform, since the academic offer is seen as a means of providing answers for a society which, under the pressure of ongoing changes, is in need of professionals who respond to new stimuli.

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Authors: Simha Sharf, Yaffa Moskovich

There have been studies on action research in small-group learning in exact and social sciences in colleges and universities in Israel and worldwide (Gorsky & Caspi, 2005; Gorsky, Caspi and Trumper, 2006). This paper is based on research which investigates teaching social sciences in higher education by means of a Training Lecturer (TL). This teaching method uses frontal instruction, immediately followed by the students working in small groups under the TL guidance. The main research question was: How do both following the class with the tutorial, as well as the lecturer himself guiding the students , affect the students’ thinking and learning process, their conceptualization skills, and their satisfaction with the learning process? The method in this study was based on combination of qualitative (open interviews) and quantitative samples of 92 students, from two classrooms. Our new method (TL) was the independent variable, the students' academic achievement, self efficiency and demographic characteristics were our dependent variables. The main research finding was a correlation between students' attitudes toward the TL method, and improvements in both self-efficacy and academic achievements. There was a strong correlation between the TL method and friendliness, self efficacy, comprehension, interest and success. The TL method discussion group, which serves as a platform for developing thinking and learning, is the greatest contributor to explained variance at 13.971% and credibility Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.779. The students participating in this project generally had higher achievements in the final test in comparison to the average achievements after previous teaching. There are usually 40% failures in courses such as “organizational behavior”; the amount of students failing dropped to 10-15%.

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Authors: Tuija A. Turunen, Raimo Kaasila, Anneli Lauriala

Getting published has become important in academia and also among teacher educators. The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential benefits and challenges when establishing an academic writing group among Finnish teacher educators. The three authors of this paper applied an autoethnographic approach to study the starting points of the writing group. In the group, mentoring and social support were used to share experiences and knowledge about academic writing. Relationships and contributions from all participants were emphasised. Each member was considered equal to the other members. The study demonstrated that writing for international academic audiences was challenging; it was deemed to be both emotionally and intellectually demanding. Many participants described the experiences of tension when allocating time for teaching and writing. Membership in the group provided possibilities for social comparison. The members encouraged self-improvement and allowed other group members to become reflective mirrors. The participants considered their membership in the writing group positively and indicated that it had contributed to their academic writing. On the basis of the project, it is recommended to establish continuing writing groups to promote academic writing and publishing as a central part of teacher educators’ profession.

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Authors: Stephen Wambugu Maina, John Gowland-Mwangi, Dave Boselie, Davies Onduru, Betty Chelang’at Buses

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has been encouraging small-scale tea (Camellia sinensis) producers through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) to adopt good agricultural practices since 2006. The up-scaling of FFS and Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification to 560,000 tea producers remains a big challenge. Hence the need to learn about options, opportunities and emerging lessons for up-scaling FFS and RA certification among smallholder tea producers in Kenya. This study sought to improve tea stakeholders’ understanding on how successful innovations such as FFSs and RA certification can be up-scaled to more stakeholders and how to produce tea sustainably. It also sought to describe the options, opportunities and emerging lessons related to up-scaling. The study used a Cross-Sectional design to collect data from a two-stage random sample of 514 small-scale tea growers drawn from KTDA factories. A semi-structured questionnaire validated by extension experts, whose 0.92α reliability was above the 0.70 acceptable was used to collect data. Face-to-Face interviews, document analysis, record reviews, site visits, observations, living the system and a stakeholders’ workshop were carried out to ensure triangulation. Data were analyzed using Chi-square at 0.05α set a priori. The results indicated that maintaining the current system with some improvements was the best option for up-scaling FFS and RA certification. The researchers concluded that FFSs and RA certification can be up-scaled by increasing resources, improving communication, training and educating non-FFS members using different methods. They showed that up-scaling training for certification and FFS come with a need for additional investments and eventually will alter KTDA’s cost and revenue model of the sustainable tea production. To sustain this system, the true costs and benefits of sustainable tea are incorporated in the KTDA business model, which implies that donors strategically move from subsidizing costs to strategic investments in human resource development, capacity building and extension technologies.