Problems of Education in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

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Authors: Paolo Bussotti

The literature concerning the various methods by means of which the teaching of mathematics can be developed is simply huge and is increasing more and more. Several aspects are dealt with: the use of new technologies, especially as far as new computer programs or web sources are concerned; new techniques to develop calculations; researches concerning the possible relations between the everyday life of the pupils/students and the mathematical concepts; the best way to frame a lesson (frontal lessons, interactive lessons, discussions), and so on. This literature covers the entire school-life of a young boy/girl: from the elementary school to the university. It is my conviction that Euclidean Geometry should be the basis of mathematics education and that the students who desire to become teachers of mathematics should sustain two examinations on Euclidean geometry.

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Authors: Elaine A. Colagrande, Simone Alves de Assis Martorano, Agnaldo Arroio

Teachers often consider experimental activities to be fundamental to the teaching of scientific concepts. However, there are different views about their purpose in science classes; these views are linked to teachers' different understandings of the construction of scientific knowledge. It was analyzed the views of 19 pre-service science teachers (PST) on the use of experimental activities in science classes. These PSTs were enrolled in the subject of science teacher training course of a Brazilian federal university. In their course work, the PSTS were organized into groups and they participated in a pedagogical activity during which they reported their views on two experimental scripts. They answered questions about how they would use these experiments in the future. The activity occurred in two stages: the first was before studying texts on the nature of science with an emphasis on the role of experimentation in the foundation of hypotheses; the second stage was after this. The data analysis was performed using the content analysis technique. The results suggest the importance of debates and deep themes in training courses for science teachers, so that experimental activities are not seen reductively and only as ways to motivate classes or to complement theory, but rather as potential aids in the construction of scientific meaning.

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Authors: Manuel Joaquín Fernández González, Dmitrijs Semjonovs, Irma Narica, Diāna Strautmane, Sandra Ozola

Fast-track maritime career is a topical question worldwide due to the shortage of seafarers in maritime industry. Assuming that the fast-track career officers’ relevant common characteristics in adolescence could predict future maritime career speed, the research questions of this research are: What were the common characteristics of fast-track career officers when they were 16-18? Were there any statistically significant differences between the fast-track career groups and the officers with a slower career at that age? A questionnaire survey involving 175 maritime officers was conducted in Latvia in January – October 2016, regarding officers’ family context, school achievement, involvement in sports, and personality traits when they were 16-18. Fast-track career officers perceived themselves as more conscientious, calm and more leadership oriented than the whole group in adolescence. Statistically significant differences among career-speed groups were found regarding family socioeconomic status, family atmosphere and family career support at that age. Based on those communalities among maritime officers with a fast-track carrier when they were 16-18, maritime education and training institutions could better find and give appropriate career guidance to prospective maritime officers. Even if maritime career speed is a very individualized phenomenon, family characteristics could be studied further as a potential good predictor of fast-track maritime career.

581-590

Authors: Alzira A. M. Manuel, Domingos Buque, Rosário Quive

Adult education has been and continues being an important area of education. In developing contexts, it is considered the way for social inclusion and poverty reduction and it is expected to provide knowledge, skills and values to youth and adults who did not get opportunity to education in their early age. Adult education also serves as a way to improve people’s competences throughout their life span. However, the concept of adult education in Mozambique has been used as literacy, referring only to the development of reading, writing and calculation skills. Using content analysis of documents, this research attempts to gain insight of adult education in the context of Mozambique. The findings reveal that adult education in the perspective of change and development as it is in Mozambique is linked to the objectives of poverty reduction and social inclusion. In this sense quality and relevance in adult education, as in other type of education, is needed to be able to develop functional knowledge and skills to youth and adults and allow them continuing learning in their life. Literacy and adult education have been considered an important field for social and economic development in the country, but contextual factors contribute to a narrow perspective of adult education, focusing mainly on literacy and numeracy as its final goal.

599-611

Authors: Marika Ratnik, Eha Rüütel

This research focuses on the personal well-being of basic school students and on the school environment factors affecting it. The authors were also interested to know whether there are any differences between two age groups (6th grade and 9th grade) in the perception of the school environment and school relations. The research included 934 students (426 boys and 508 girls) aged 12 to 17 years. The well-being was measured by the WHO-5 Well-Being Index; school factors included perceived school relationships, perceived learning environment and academic performance. The indicators differentiating between the groups with low and high well-being were: obtaining help from the school, the pleasantness of lessons, relationships with teachers, and relationships with schoolmates. In both age groups, higher well-being was predicted by relationships with teachers and schoolmates, obtaining help from the school, and parents’ relationships with the school. The results indicated that students establish relationships supporting their well-being not only in their class. It is rather the wider communication culture in the school that supports the students’ well-being. The results also indicate the wider effect of school relationships in that the factor of obtaining help from the school (the school`s pro-social organization) is more significant for the students’ well-being that the pro-social behaviour of the classmates.

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Authors: Marcus Samuelsson, Joakim Samuelsson

A not entirely unusual position among teachers is that they believe that they must first establish a peaceful classroom before they can begin to teach the subject. This research, shows how a proficient mathematics teacher teaches his subject and thereby creates a quiet and focused classroom and exerts effective leadership, just by teaching mathematics. The researchers observed a male mathematics teacher for almost half a year, i.e. one semester. The results of research present several patterns that the researchers saw during the observations of his teaching. The teacher showed an interest in each student’s mathematical thinking and expressed explicitly how students were expected to learn mathematics. He also directed students’ attention to mathematics and established a culture where all solutions were important in the teaching process. In the teaching process, he used multiple representations to motivate students and a lot of supportive expressions that made them feel that they were able to learn mathematics. He worked patiently to establish structures, and there was almost no disruptive behaviour. Students simply did not have time to interfere because they were so engaged in learning mathematics.

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Authors: Agnaldo Arroio

Today it is possible to consider that the new technologies can offer many possibilities to be explored. There is no doubt about the changes in society when it is adequately supported by the new technologies. In fact, people from all over the world used to have high hopes that new technologies will be able to improve and promote healthier life, as well they also expect a huge impulse to promoting social freedoms, and at least to increase knowledge and more productive livelihoods. But for this scenario become true the traditional education goals should change to a different direction to gaining locally relevant goals and skills. In order to establish networks for all kind of partnerships, the new technologies could be used as the means for providing an access to and engaging in the lifelong learning programs all social groups of population around the world.

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Authors: Luca Bussotti, Paolo Bussotti

Mathematics has always been a difficult issue, especially in the African countries. Mozambique is not an exception. This country had been colonized by Portugal until 1975. When the independence was obtained, a socialist regime was adopted (1977). The learning of mathematics entered the struggle against colonial and imperialistic ideas. Its best ally was Paulus Gerdes, one of the most relevant ethnomatematicians of the world, who carried out an intense promotion of this approach to mathematics in Mozambican school system. Albeit the great international impact of Gerdes’ ideas, Mozambique never implemented his methodology. When, at the end of the 80s, the country changed from socialism to liberalism, voting a democratic Constitution in 1990, its school system was aligned to the measures of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). The most recent ones are represented by the Millennium Development Goals. Despite the various reforms of Mozambican school system, the results of Mozambican children in mathematics are among the worst in Africa. The reasons of such a failure are here explained, through a historical approach based on national documents. The most recent experiences of school reform carried out by international agencies together with national institutions are stressed. The negative results obtained by the Mozambican learners as to mathematics are due to several reasons: 1) a lack of consideration of the Mozambican cultural substrate; 2) an improper massification of the school system, where the quality of instruction has been neglected; 3) the specific choice to marginalize mathematics education.

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Authors: Mohammad Hasan Mirzamohammadi, Hamdollah Mohammadi

Present research aims to explore the effects of Neoliberalism on higher education based on the Henry Giroux's artistic view points and to examine the process of commercialization and privatization of higher education in Iran, from the same perspective. Giroux considers market-oriented reforms in higher education as a part of the hegemony of Neoliberalism, which seeks to realize the competitive homo economicus, as the ideal man, through using the new techniques of governmentality. Today market-oriented reforms in higher education are prevalent throughout the world. But what is currently in progress as privatization and commercialization in the higher education of Iran is a pale copy of Neoliberalism’s logic which is to justify the profit-oriented view of the knowledge and university. Market-oriented reforms of this type are not compatible with Islamic educational goals and will do much harm to Iranian higher education and will have negative impacts on Iranian universities.

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Authors: Angela James

Teaching for five, 10, 15 years. Why are you still teaching? Why are you still teaching science subjects? So, what is it about teaching that attracts you or in other words – What is in it for you? Most importantly, what is in it for the learners, the community and the world? Teaching is a double-binded affair with yourself and with others (learners, colleagues and others). With every aspect of what you do the introspective and reflexive questioning and responses to why you teach how and what you teach has a historical and almost umbilical cord to your first days of teaching or even learning how to teach or becoming a teacher. Reflecting on these days may reveal much about the decision to teach or was it just an act of putting pen to the teacher degree application form because there was nothing else? Or was it – “My daughter has been working for an insurance company for five years and she is now unemployed. I told her to do teaching because she will always have a job” (a conversation with a school principal).

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Authors: Valentin Cosmin Blândul, Adela Bradea

In a general sense, competence represents a higher finality which ensures the transfer of acquired theoretical knowledge to effective teaching practices. In the teaching profession, there are three types of competences: professional (they show the teacher's theoretical knowledge), psycho-pedagogical (they concern the teacher's ability to know their students and to establish interhuman relationships with them) and methodical (concerns the teacher's ability to teach effectively the elements of the didactic content). Due to the particularities of special / inclusive education, teachers involved in this form of education should possess mainly psycho-pedagogical and methodical competences so that they can meet successfully the educational needs of students with disabilities. The aim of the research was to identify the psycho-pedagogical and methodical competences of special / inclusive education teachers, as well as ways to improve them using continued professional training activities. The sample consisted of 225 teachers, who work in various forms of special education in Bihor County, Romania. The instrument consisted of a questionnaire with 21 items. The research was conducted in April 2017. The results of the research showed that special education teachers are more empathetic and use a more diversified range of didactic strategies, while inclusive education teachers are concerned with continued professional training in the field of special education.

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Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas, Dragos Daniel Iordache, Costin Pribeanu

The time spent on Facebook by university students is continuously increasing. This fact is raising many questions as regards the relation between the social networking websites and the university. The educators are challenged to understand the factors that are driving the adoption of social networking websites, the characteristics of the daily use as well as the positive and negative effects on the university work. The social influence has been recognized as one of the factors that are driving the adoption of information systems. On another hand, the excessive use may lead to addiction. The first objective of this research is to explore the correlation between the social influence and the Facebook dependence. A model with these latent variables has been specified and tested on two samples of university students, the first from Romania and the second from Lithuania. The second objective of the research is to comparatively discuss the measures in each country. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis has been carried on to test the configural and metric invariance. The comparison of means shows that university students reporting higher social influence have a higher risk of Facebook dependence. The comparative analysis revealed that for both variables, the mean values are higher for the Romanian sample.

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Authors: Nyet Moi Siew

This research was conducted to evaluate the scientific imagination of Grade 10 students from one Malaysian rural secondary school that adopted the integration of the imagination process in an Engineering Design Process (EDPI) through an outreach program in STEM. Three stages of scientific imagination process were evaluated: initiation, dynamic adjustment, and virtual implementation. A total of 50 students aged 16 participated in a 10-hour program, which engaged them in designing and building two different prototypes. Data on students’ scientific imagination were captured through a pre-test and post-test, and teachers’ field notes based on focus group interviews and observations. The results of paired sample t-tests showed significant differences in all three stages of scientific imagination process, except in the brainstorming of the initiation stage. The findings reveal that students required both personal experience and social or environment interactions in order to progress from the initiation stage to the virtual implementation stage. The findings also suggested that the EDPI approach is able to create a supportive environment for fostering scientific imagination among rural secondary school students.

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Authors: Mónica Baptista

Maria is a 17 year old 9th grade student with low academic success. Her school history is marked by several stories of failure in Physics and Chemistry. Yet, the 9th grade of Maria was different; as she says, she managed to achieve “a great mark ". Therefore, what has taken Maria to find the Physics classes so good? The answer to this question leads us to another one, more complex, that can have various possible answers: After all, what is a good practice of science teaching? To answer this question requires, first of all, to think about what students are expected to learn and what competencies they should obtain in school to meet the challenges of today's society, in all its uncertainty and endless changes. Nowadays, it is widely acknowledged that to understand and act in an informed and reflected manner in such a society it is essential that students develop their critical thinking and creativity as well as problem solving, communication, digital, social, intercultural and linguistic skills.

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Authors: Cheng Chieh Chang, Sari Muthia Silalahi

Research collected and reviewed a number of empirical studies in the field of educational research regarding the analysis of mathematics textbooks to provide summary and overview the information there in. The questions were identified via Google Scholar and collected from different data sources. A total of 44 papers published from 1953 to 2015 were selected based specific criteria, with 24 articles include in the SSCI database. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate and interpret the results. A perspective on the learning analysis methods was used to collect studies and showed the mathematics textbooks analyzed were investigated under four themes: The analysis of standards, distributive property, language in mathematics, and others. School’s level which is investigated textbooks: Kindergarten, elementary, junior school, and senior school. Subjects covered in the mathematics textbooks included algebra and arithmetic, geometry, measurement, data analysis and probability, number and operations, among others. Research found the most frequently discussed in perspective on learning was the analysis of the standards and the distributive property (15 studies), the most common subject was number and operations (16 studies), and the highest number in school’s level was elementary school (18 studies). Nevertheless, fewer studies have been found to analyzing mathematics textbooks. Future research can pay attention for the relevant theoretical issues and collaborate studies in more perspective learning analysis.

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Authors: Özgür Özcan

Special theory of relativity is one of the difficult subjects of physics to be understood by the students. The current research designed as a qualitative research aim to determine the pre-service physics teachers’ understanding level and the alternative conceptions about three core concepts of special theory of relativity, such as time dilatation, length contraction and reference frames. The data were collected through semi structured interviews and were analyzed by using content analysis. At the end of the analysis process the understanding level of the students was determined to be “complete understanding”, “incomplete understanding” and “misunderstanding”. In order to achieve this, the students’ conceptual frameworks based on the operational definitions made by the students were determined firstly. The findings obtained in this research indicate that high school teachers as well as university instructors should take special care with some points in the teaching of the subjects related with special theory of relativity. This research might be useful to other studies to be done in the future, especially for investigating the students’ mental models related to special theory of relativity.

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Authors: Roni Tinell, Mervi A. Asikainen, Pekka E. Hirvonen

The aim of this research is to depict foreign entrant students’ preparedness for studies in an international Master’s degree programme of physics at a Finnish university in order to lay the ground for a research-based development of the study programme. Interviews were conducted with the academic staff involved in the programme to investigate their views on the international physics students as learners. Conceptual tests were deployed to assess international students’ conceptual understanding of the areas fundamental to acquiring a solid expertise in physics. To enrich the data, a survey was conducted to obtain information about students’ physics-related epistemological views. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used for the data analysis. The main results suggest that the entrant international students comprise a very heterogeneous group with regard to their preparedness for commencing physics studies. The staff were specifically concerned with the international students’ pre-knowledge of physics, a notion that is supported by the test results. Suggestions based on present findings are made for further development of international degree programmes such as the one considered in this article.

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Authors: Daria Becker-Pestka

The problems presented in the text refer to the education of convicts in Poland. It has been based on current Polish legal regulations, statistical data and specialist literature. The problems which refer to the education of convicts in Poland are regulated by the Act of 6th June 1997, the Executive Penal Code, the Act on the Education System and executive acts to the above-mentioned regulations. The current situation in the labour market requires people to acquire education and to improve their qualifications. People without education, who are excluded from the access to professional development and in-service training, find themselves in an extremely difficult situation. The lack of qualification and vocational skills usually leads to exclusion from the labour market. People who serve their sentences in prisons find themselves in a particularly difficult situation, because their lack of education may push them back into crime. A very positive tendency that may be observed in Poland is a growing demand for prison education. Convicts may acquire knowledge and raise their qualifications at various levels and in various fields. They may follow the curricula at the level of a primary or secondary school; they may pass their Matura certificate and, after the consent of relevant authorities, they can continue their education at the university level. Convicts may also learn a new profession, change their professional qualifications or acquire new additional skills during specialist courses. The qualifications acquired in this way shall meet current demand in the labour market, and convicts may find employment after they leave prisons. Education allows them to improve their self-esteem and self-reliance, to catch up with any deficiencies and to work on their self-discipline. At the same time, education offers opportunities to expand knowledge, to return to the society and to the labour market. It is important for convicts to obtain opportunities for education, since such a chance comes as a significant factor of their social re-adaptation. Considering social values, it is important to foster the pursuit for education among convicts. A lot of prisoners still do not want to learn, and this fact may result from their previous school failures, the sense of embarrassment caused by their knowledge deficiencies, the lack of interest and faith in their own potential. The material for the text has been collected on the basis of the method of theoretical analysis, and it includes available statistical data, legal regulations and literature which refers to the discussed problems. The article aims at the presentation of prison education, how it is organised in Poland and what advantages it presents for both: convicts and the society. The text also presents programmes of prison education which are implemented by correctional staff in prisons.

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Authors: James Edomwonyi Edokpolor, Kayode Somorin

The intent of this research is to assess the implementation state of entrepreneurship programme and its influence in developing entrepreneurship key competencies among undergraduate students. The survey design was employed for the research. A total population of 8,101 undergraduate students from University of Benin was used. A sample of 382 undergraduate students was used for the research. A structured questionnaire, validated by two experts was used for the data collection. The Cronbach alpha statistical method was employed to determine the reliability of the instrument, which yielded the coefficient alpha value of 0.87. Twenty items questionnaire was administered to the respondents with the help of two trained research assistants. The data were analyzed using the mean, standard deviation, and t-test statistics. The research revealed that entrepreneurship programme is not properly implemented particularly at the university level. It also revealed that students are not well-equipped with entrepreneurship key competencies such as creative and innovative skills that would have helped them in starting and running their own business. It also revealed that there was no significant difference between the mean responses of Science and Arts/Humanity-based students regarding the implementation state of entrepreneurship programme. It further revealed that there was no significant difference between the mean responses of Science and Arts/Humanity-based students regarding the extent to which entrepreneurship programme has equipped students with creative and innovative skills. Consequently, the authors drew a useful conclusion for the subject matter. Providing sufficient amount of financial resources, involving employers of labour, sourcing for qualified teaching and non-teaching personnel, procuring the state-of-the-art infrastructural facilities, as well as utilizing appropriate instructional methods, that would help in equipping students with creative and innovative skills for starting and operating their own businesses were further recommended.

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Authors: Abolanle O. Lasode, Olanrewaju O. Lawal, Modester C. Ofodile

This research investigated students’ needs, awareness, perception and use of Guidance and Counselling Services (G&CS) in Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB). Simple random sampling technique was used to sample 283 respondents across the ten (10) colleges in the institution. Data were collected with the aid of questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages, and mean. The questionnaire was subjected to a pilot study that revealed psychometric properties of Cronbach’s Apha 0.86. Result revealed that 91.1% of the respondents were aware of G&CS and 74.6% of the respondents currently using the services indicated that it was very helpful. The rating of the counselling needs of the respondents revealed that academic issues with a mean of 3.62 ranked first, and exam pressure management had a mean of 3.51 ranked second. Furthermore, the rating of the perception of students on the quality and effectiveness of G&CS indicated that organized orientation services for fresh students ranked first (mean = 2.55), while effective counselling on personal, social, academic and vocational challenges ranked second (mean = 2.49). The study concluded that the G&CS needs of the students across the colleges differ due to the dissimilarities in their disciplines across the University. The G&CS was assisting students to attain competencies needed to overcome academic, career and personal concerns. The fresher’s orientation service received the highest perception (mean = 2.55) among respondents on the quality and effectiveness of G&CS in the institution.

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Authors: Nina Raud, Olga Orehhova

In-service training of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) is as a core instrument of continuous professional development of EFL teachers. Within the context of nowadays education policies, the issue of in-service training has become of topical importance. It requires systematic approach based on the analysis of individual EFL teachers’ needs and receptive practices in developing in-service teacher-training programmes. In view of that, a survey was conducted among EFL teachers in Estonia to discover the areas of in-service training they are interested in. Based on the survey results, a model of an in-service training module to implement in order to meet the needs of EFL teachers in Estonia is proposed, and it is placed against the background of in-service teacher training provided in Estonia. The module could be included into in-service teaching training programmes not only in Estonia, but in a wider European context.