Problems of Education in the 21st Century

757

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 76, No. 6, 2018, PEC

760-761

Authors: Ivana Z. Bogdanović

The problem that teachers meet in every educational system is how to teach efficiently, while at the same time students are facing the problem how to learn efficiently. These two problems are closely related and if they are not treated well, they result in poor students’ performance. Teachers should find the way to help students to learn better and that should result in better students’ performance. Moreover, if the learning process is efficient, students would need less time for learning, and their mental effort would decrease, while their motivation for learning would increase.

779-799

Authors: Martin Bílek, Małgorzata Nodzyńska, Wioleta Kopek-Putała, Paulina Zimak-Piekarczyk

Writing and balancing equations of chemical reactions is one of the \most difficult elements of chemistry education for students, which is why it was decided to analyse part of the process which is the most difficult. The process itself consists of multiple stages. it is important to highlight that the focus of research was not only on balancing the chemical equations. This stage can be independent of chemical skills and knowledge and is based on combinatorial and mathematical skills. The aim of the research was to examine whether using computer simulations can help younger children to balance chemical equations before they start to learn chemistry by using the psychological theory of transfer. It was decided first to teach children how to “make sandwiches” using a computer simulation game. When they have mastered in this activity, they can balance chemical equations. If the children learned how many pieces of cheese, ham and bread would be necessary to “make sandwiches” they began to learn how to balance chemical equations. The children were acquainted with the elements of chemical knowledge necessary to understand the simulation, and then they worked independently with it. Tests were carried out to check the acquired level of ability to balancing chemical equations. The obtained results proved that the balancing of the simple equation of reaction was mastered by over 50% of the children tested. It seems, therefore, a good solution that elements of reconciliation of chemical reaction equations should be introduced at an earlier stage of education, for example during maths lessons.

816-833

Authors: Durmuş Karci, Cemal Özdemir, Nuri Balta

Turkish is spoken by a large number of people in a wide geographical area and teaching Turkish as a foreign language is a subject that gains importance nowadays. This research employed a quantitative survey strategy to address the issue of anxiety in learning Turkish language in and outside the classroom. Participants were 356 students of two high schools, one college and one university in Kazakhstan. Participants were given the Second Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (SLSAS), which was analyzed with: correlation to search for possible relations between anxiety, age, duration of studying Turkish, and Turkish course grades; MANOVA to assess the effect of gender and school type on students’ anxiety in speaking Turkish; and an exploratory factor analysis to identify factor structure of SLSAS. Additionally, an ANOVA was carried out on a second data set with 52 students to see any differences between students’ anxiety in speaking Turkish and English. The results of this research indicated that anxiety in speaking Turkish is weak and not related to students’ age, gender, years studying Turkish, and Turkish course grades. In addition, no significant differences were found between students’ anxiety in speaking Turkish and English. The only significant result was the relatively high anxiety of college students in the classroom. This research implies that anxiety in speaking Turkish does not differ so much from anxiety in speaking English.

847-863

Authors: Ifunanya Julie Adaobi Ubah, Sarah Bansilal

Many researchers and education stakeholders in South Africa point to the need to develop teachers' personal knowledge of the mathematics concepts that they teach to their learners. In this research study we explore the understanding of 42 pre-service mathematics teachers of one aspect of school level mathematics, that of quadratic functions. Data were generated from the written responses to an assessment as well as semi-structured interviews. The purpose was to explore the methods used by pre-service mathematics teachers to derive a symbolic equation for a quadratic function expressed in graphical form. Furthermore, we looked at whether the pre-service teachers were able to use different methods to generate the symbolic equation. The results showed that 25 participants were able to determine the equation of a parabola using one method, while 11 of them were able to use two different methods. The most common method used was based on the intercept form of the equation. Some students identified different forms that the equation of a quadratic function could be expressed as but were unable to apply this to derive the equation. These results indicate that these students are not yet ready to teach these school level concepts even though they have studied advanced mathematics topics as part of their pre-service training. The study recommends that pre-service teachers should also be provided with more structured opportunities to help develop pedagogic content knowledge of the school level content as part of their teacher training programme.

881-899

Authors: Zurqoni, Heri Retnawati, Ezi Apino, Rizqa D. Anazifa

Many studies reported the importance of character education for students to support their future success. Currently, the countries have strengthened the implementation of character education in their educational system, including Indonesia. Related to the previous statements, this research aimed to describe the impact of character education implementation as well as challenges and strategies of teachers in implementing the character education. This research was an evaluation research type using a goal-free evaluation model (impact evaluation) with a qualitative approach. The participants of the research were principals, teachers, students, parents, and community members from three provinces in Indonesia; East Kalimantan, Special Region of Yogyakarta, and West Nusa Tenggara. Data were collected through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and also in-depth interviews. The data were then analysed using a model of Bogdan and Biklen to find out the refinement among themes and generate a detailed understanding. The findings showed that character education had a positive impact on increasing the students’ character values including religiosity, personality, social attitude, and competitive attitude. Role-modelling by teachers and other members of the school community and parents, character-oriented activities, and moral and material support from educational stakeholders are key factors in character education implementation. However, some improvements need to be made, such as improving the teacher training and workshops and giving financial support (funding) for character education implementation.

579

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 76, No. 5, 2018

583-586

Authors: Saleh A. Alabdulkareem

Interaction and Information technologies have reshaped our live today, and nowadays' students and teachers have a massive use of smart phones, iPads and other portable devices; moreover, they are continually looking for cutting edge technologies. But often the use of these devices is not in ways anticipated by technology proponents. All these smart phones and other portable devices are equipped or ready for social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram, Snapchat, which are part of what is known as Social Web 2.0, best characterized by the notions of social interaction, content sharing, and collective intelligence.

601-619

Authors: Sibel Er Nas, Muammer Çalık

The relevant literature has shown that student teachers hold alternative conceptions of soil erosion. Even though Turkish science student teachers are expected to teach the concept of ‘soil erosion’ in lower secondary schools (grades 5-8), none of the earlier studies have explored their conceptual growth and/or mental models throughout a 4-year undergraduate program. Indeed, science (student) teachers, who play a pivotal role in teaching the sustainability of soil as an environmental heritage, are able to transfer their environmental knowledge and mental models to younger generations. Therefore, the aim of this research was to elicit science student teachers’ (SSTs) understanding of soil erosion. In a cross-age comparison, the sample of the research was comprised of the first-year (n=54), second-year (n=62), third-year (n=60), and fourth-year of a four-year science education program (n=65), a total of 241 SSTs, enrolled at the Department of Science Education in Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey. A questionnaire with 4 open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The results indicated that the majority of the SSTs confused the concept of ‘soil erosion’ with the one ‘landslide’. For this reason, the current research suggests the development of analogies and computer simulations to overcome this confusion.

633-648

Authors: Hare Kiliçaslan

Students who receive architectural education are expected to be individuals who can think critically. For this reason, it becomes a necessity to cultivate creative individuals who are curious, inquiring and multi-faceted thinkers. The aim of this research was to determine the levels of tendency for critical thinking of first-year and fourth-year architecture students. The research sample consisted of 88 (54 females, 34 males) first-year and 83 (47 females, 36 males) fourth-year students who are studying at Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture. The "California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI)" was used as data collection tool in the research. In addition, information about the demographic characteristics of students were collected through the Personal Information Form. Findings of the research showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the GPAs and critical thinking tendency levels of the first-year and fourth-year students. It can be argued that all students need some guidance to attach importance on critical thinking starting from the first year of the program.

663-677

Authors: Maimunah, Lenny Marzulina, Herizal, Muhamad Holandyah, Amirul Mukminin, Robin Pratama, Akhmad Habibi

It seems that plagiarism has not been seen as misconduct in higher education in some developing countries including in Indonesia which might be affected by cultural, economic, and technological issues. The research aimed at exploring the perceptions of Indonesian student teachers towards plagiarism in four higher education institutions. The research was undertaken as a mixed-method research. Questionnaire and face to face interviews were the instruments to collect data. A paper-based questionnaire was administered to 534 student teachers while face to face interviews were conducted with twenty voluntary participants. The data from the questionnaire were analyzed and presented in the form of percentages, frequencies, and standard deviation while interview data were first analyzed by transcribing the audiotaped interviews into texts, which were then read line-by-line to find and list every significant statement relevant to knowledge of plagiarism definition, research ethic, and research misconduct types, attitudes towards plagiarism, practicing of plagiarism, and reasons of plagiarism among twenty participants. Results showed that most student teachers knew the definition of plagiarism, but they did not know the types of research misconduct. They considered plagiarism as an act of stealing but being unable to avoid in for their study. They tended to do plagiarism because they wanted to save time and they considered about the pressure of their study. Based on the findings of this study, it is important that participants should be required to have more education on plagiarism and its effects and consequences on the ethics of research and education. More strict policies should be implemented to evaluate and supervise plagiarism emerged in Indonesian higher education institutions for undergraduate programs.

693-705

Authors: Larisa Nikitina, Ma Tin Cho Mar, Fumitaka Furuoka

In the context of higher education foreign language courses are viewed as skills-oriented subjects that aim to enable students to communicate in a foreign language. The main four language skills to be developed are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Until recently, decisions about which of the linguistic skills should be emphasized in a foreign language program have been taken without seeking the opinions of language learners. To address this issue, the present research examined needs for learning the Russian language among students in a Malaysian public university. To achieve this research aim, a survey questionnaire was distributed among prospective learners of Russian. Four different statistical methods were performed to analyse the data, namely, the descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, the exploratory factor analysis and the reliability test. The findings from the descriptive statistics revealed that the respondents considered developing face-to-face interactive skills, such as the speaking and listening skills, as most important. The findings of the t-test suggested that demographic variables might have some influence on the students’ perceptions of the skills’ importance. For example, the students who spoke Malay at home placed a higher value on developing their ability to speak in a polite manner and to understand non-verbal communitive acts, such as gestures. The results of the exploratory factor analysis revealed that the language skills as perceived by the students formed several dimensions where interactive and non-interactive skills tended to form distinct clusters. This research concludes with a discussion of pedagogical implications to be drawn from the findings.

720-738

Authors: Nyet Moi Siew, Scott Jones

This research took a case study approach to researching the common conflicts faced by school managers, their sources, impacts and the approaches used to manage them. The research involved 18 in-service Malaysian school managers who undertook a 16-hour professional development workshop where they engaged with different conflict management tools. Data on participants’ workplace experience in resolving conflicts were captured through written diaries collected before and two months after the workshop, and face-to-face semi-structured interviews during the following months. Intragroup conflicts due to goal incompatibility were the most common conflicts faced. Negative impacts of conflicts on school communities far outweighed the benefits. Participants reported that the most effective approaches to resolving workplace conflicts were sincere efforts in problem-solving coupled with (1) culturally relevant negotiations and coaching (e.g. using a GROW coaching model); (2) stakeholder and conflict analysis, to consider and respond to everyone’s needs and feelings; and (3) reflecting on personal conflict management styles and adopting a positive attitude to personal and professional development. Certain elements in customary approaches such as respectful discussion and consultation were found relevant in resolving several of the participants’ workplace conflicts. It is suggested that practical training courses on conflict management that build on people’s strengths should be included in the curricula of further and higher education institutions and teacher training institutes.

756

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 76, No. 5, 2018

419

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 76, No. 4, 2018

422-424

Authors: Aleksandra Tłuściak-Deliowska

Contemporaneity, defined as post-modernity, is a stage of civilization changes, which in its nature entails changes in the sphere of didactic and educational thinking and practice. The rapid pace of social change, shaping new interpersonal relationships, progressive axiological chaos, enforce a kind of revision of views on the school as a place and the role of the teacher in it. Challenges in education are caused by a variety of factors, which have affected not only teachers and students and relationships between them, but also the school community as a whole. Challenges in education have changed over the social development and technological progress indicated above.

437-450

Authors: Marilou Ioakimidis, George Papakonstantinou

The ostensibly free university education in Greece actually has several private costs. A comparative research design was used to compare Greek families’ private expenditures for university education in 2014-2015 to families’ costs for the same education in the year 2000 to determine whether there have been any changes during ensuring years. Data were gathered from a 2014-2015 survey of a random sample of over 2.300 Greek first-year university students and compared to results from a similar survey of over 3.000 first-year university students conducted in the year 2000. Income elasticity of demand was the theoretical framework used to examine and compare results. As with the older survey data, it is shown that despite the “free education” supposedly available in Greece, families actually still spend more than the state in preparing students for and supporting them at a university. It is also demonstrated that lower-income families spend a higher share of income on a university education for their children, a discrepancy that has grown over the past 13 years. Finally, it is shown that private expenditures for a university education appear to remain a necessity in Greece, with income elasticity calculated at between 0.2 and 0.3. Results suggest the need to reallocate the Greek university budget to help relieve the financial burden on families of lower-income students. Results also suggest the importance of reducing the Greek emphasis on expensive preparation of secondary students for national university entrance examinations.

465-482

Authors: Helena Brožová, Jana Horáková, Jiří Fiedler

This research identifies the lecturers’ competencies which are the most important from the students’ perspective at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague and compares students’ opinion and their change over the whole study period. It does not deal with the knowledge competencies of lecturers that students cannot objectively evaluate, but with lecturers’ managerial competencies that affect the organization, forms and ways of teaching. The examined competencies are hierarchically organized into three groups of particular competencies comprising of bipolar characteristics. Based on survey of students at the University, the evaluation of importance of managerial competencies using the Analytic Hierarchy Process was performed. The findings show that Innovative education, Good communication skills, Ability of improvisation, and Democratic way of teaching are the most important lecturers’ competencies from students’ point of view. Surprisingly, Oral based presentation is preferred to IT based one. Knowledge of the most important managerial competencies can help lecturers and universities to increase quality of educational process and attractiveness of the university for students.

499-519

Authors: Dalibor Gonda, Anna Tirpakova

The new method of teaching the problems with a parameter was designed based on the identification of the reasons for the low success rate of the kids in solving the problems. In order to identify these causes and to find ways of their elimination, pedagogical research was carried out in two phases at selected universities of Slovakia (126 students) in 2016-2017. In the first stage the validity of the research hypothesis was confirmed, that the cause of the kids´ poor success in solving problems with the parameter is an algorithmic approach to their solution, a misunderstanding of the concept of a parameter and a formal determination of solvability conditions. Based on this, a new method of teaching the tasks with a parameter was developed. Its main idea is focusing on understanding the term parameter and showing its creative use in solving multiple tasks. In the second stage of the research, the success of the new teaching method was also verified experimentally. The results of the experiment confirmed the success of the students in solving the problems with the parameter, confirming that the basis of the success in solving the problems is the understanding of the term parameter and the ability to find their own solution to the task. It has turned out that the transition from the method of solving equations with a parameter by algorithms to the solution method by understanding the basic concepts and possibilities of their use is one of the methods to improve the teaching of mathematics.

533-543

Authors: Miriam N. Kyule, Jacob J. J. O. Konyango, Agnes O. Nkurumwa

One of the major challenges of the 21st century is the increasing level of academic qualifications at the expense of relevance in education. School agriculture is one of the subjects which require teachers who as the principal implementers of the curriculum must be able to interpret agriculture curriculum objectives to meet societal needs. However, implementation of agriculture curriculum in Arid and Semi Arid Land (ASAL) secondary schools has fallen short of its expectations as it has not significantly influenced agricultural activities both in school and surrounding communities. Thus, the benefit of implementing agriculture curriculum in ASALs is yet to be fully achieved. The research sought to document the teacher factors influencing implementation of secondary school agriculture curriculum in ASAL schools in Kenya. The research focused on teacher training, teacher technical knowledge and skills about Dry Land Agriculture [DLA] practices and training and support. The research was carried out in ASAL counties of Baringo, Makueni and Narok. Survey research design was used. The researcher developed a semi-structured questionnaire to obtain data on the teacher factors from 88 agriculture teachers. The research results showed that most teachers were trained and professionally qualified thus expected to translate the curriculum objectives to learning activities relevant to ASALS. However, agriculture teachers were found to be deficient in terms of technical knowhow on DLA practices among them, insitu water harvesting and use of sunken beds. Agriculture teachers received insufficient support towards professional development. The support did not aim at DLA knowledge and skill enhancement towards agriculture curriculum implementation. Agriculture teachers’ inadequacy on DLA practices’ technical knowhow and lack of support towards professional development was impacting negatively on agriculture curriculum implementation in ASAL schools. The Government has a responsibility of ensuring that all ASAL schools are staffed with qualified teacher. Secondary school administrations in ASALs need to support teachers on continuous trainings that are relevant to agriculture curriculum implementation. Agriculture training program developers need to focus more on the acquisition of technical know on all DLA practices. Addressing the training inadequacies among agriculture teachers in ASAL schools will lead to a competent staff who can translate curriculum objectives into learning experiences that promote DLA in ASALs. This translation will in turn influence agricultural activities both in school and in the society for improved agricultural production.

561-574

Authors: Eva Stranovská, Mária Lalinská, Ivana Boboňová

A relevant field of research in teacher’s professional competence assessment is taking the factor of motivation into account, as this enables teachers to differentiate between, i. e. to be aware of the significance of the individual professional competences and their development through their assessment. This research supports the understanding of how important motivation is in the process of the (continual) development of a teacher’s professional competence, taking his/her perception of the importance of competences in the educational process into account. The emphasis of the current research lays on the perception of the assessment by the selected number of primary and secondary school teachers. The following is the range of teacher's motivation perception: 1) motivating, 2) discouraging, 3) unnecessary, and 4) unfair in the process of life-long development of their professional competences. The research aim is to find out the differences in the individual motivational degrees in mutual assessment (motivating, discouraging, unnecessary, unfair, and other) relating to professional competences and find out the differences between the perception of the importance of the respective professional competences in the motivational category. Seven hundred thirty respondents - primary and secondary school teachers from Slovakia – participated in the research. The results showed the difference between the perception of the importance of professional competences among teachers who consider assessment to be motivating, discouraging, unnecessary, or unfair concept. Motivation towards assessment supports student-oriented competences, educational process and self-development of the teacher.

283

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 76, No. 3, 2018

286-288

Authors: Ching-Ching Cheng, Kuo-Hung Huang

The rapid change of technology, society, and economy creates pressure for education reform on a national level. In respond to the demand for quality improvement, educational organizations are engaging in educational innovation including curriculum, teacher competency, and effective teaching. Nevertheless, this top-down approach for change is likely to fail and lead to an unintended consequence if teachers are antithetical to the reform policy. As institutional agents, teachers make instructional choices to shape implementation of reform and thus influence the educational change in institutionalized practices (Bridwell-Mitchell, 2015). Briggs, Russel, and Wanless (2018) point out that teacher buy-in is a critical factor in educational change. As “an alignment between teacher beliefs and the goals of a change or reform, as well as feelings of competence in implementation” (p. 126), teacher buy-in for reform plays a crucial role in times of change. Teachers’ receptivity to reform is closely related to how they perceive the policy-level change. In addition to meeting the external demands, teachers characterized as real change agents are willing to change from the internal drive to reflect and learn (van der Heijden, Geldens, Beijaard, & Popeijus, 2015).

299-308

Authors: Alena Hašková, Miriam Bitterová

During as near as three decades after the political changes in Slovakia its system of education has undergone many reforms. As an integral part of them have been changes regarding school autonomy as it influences quality of education. To achieve an optimal model of autonomy offered to schools is very difficult, as appropriate level of autonomy is dependent on time and social conditions. To improve democratic participation of primary and secondary school leaders in Slovakia, a research aimed at assessment of the current state of the level of school autonomy was carried out. The research data were obtained from a questionnaire survey, the respondents of which were 93 headmasters and deputy headmasters. These school leaders assessed the power they (the schools) have in five fields, namely in the fields of school activity in the whole, school curricula matters, school financing and budgeting, staff recruitment, selection, employing and sacking, administrative and operational management. The assessment they give once with respect to the level in which to them given autonomy matches the tasks and problems they have to cope with, and the second time with respect to their opinion where the scope of the autonomy should be changed. Although the school leaders assessed the level of the powers they are given in a positive way, as average or broader, they still feel a need to have a broader scope of the powers and responsibilities, mainly in the field of financing and budgeting.

318-332

Authors: Pilnam Yi, In-soo Shin

External accountability policies have spread fast across various educational systems over the past decades. This research examines the relations of internal and external accountability with students’ math achievement drawing on PISA 2012. With a sample of 44 educational systems, of which external accountability policies were identified, the research conducted three-level hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) analyses. This research found that some internal accountability factors had tighter relations with math achievement, while the relations of external accountability policies with student performance were rather tenuous. However, equity of student math achievement was better ensured under strong accountability systems. The results suggest that policy makers of each country should consider strengths and weaknesses of external accountability in their own educational contexts.

350-363

Authors: Mārīte Kravale-Pauliņa, Eridiana Olehnoviča, Inta Ostrovska, Alīna Ivanova, Viktorija Šipilova

The social capital of youth as a social segment is a major resource to contribute to any country’s social sustainability. Social sustainability requires active youth participation in solving the issues that are important for local communities and education as a main source for youth knowledge, skills and opinions. Youth policy is a tool, which enables the state and municipalities to work with youth and stimulate their interest to participate. Ongoing research activities concerning youth policy significance for developing social sustainability usually are prepared at a more global scale, although, there is also a need at local municipality level. Scientific experience indicates that youth policy monitoring contributes to wider understanding of youth needs, as well as possible participation forms in solving the topical issues for local society. Additionally, youth policy monitoring that is based on youth knowledge and opinions brightly demonstrates the results of the previous and areas for the future educational work with youth. In Latvia, to date, youth research has been fragmentary and still has not gained the position of an independent discipline. Additionally, there is no sufficient experience in youth policy monitoring at municipal level. The aim of the article is to analyse youth policy at municipal level and provide feedback for municipality and non-formal education that is more flexible and allows to realize youth policy and may support needs of each municipality. A case study in one Latvian municipality is presented as an example, which includes a youth policy monitoring, a survey conducted among 401 respondents using eight major youth policy fields as stipulated in the European Union’s Strategy for Youth. Results from the obtained data, recommendations are proposed for a more effective implementation of youth policy, understanding fields for more active educational work for promoting social sustainability in a local community. The results and discussed approach for youth policy monitoring can be applied practically at the level of local municipality for planning educational work with youth.

380-392

Authors: Mª del Carmen Pegalajar Palomino

This research analysed future teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the development of inclusive educational practices. Adopting a quantitative research approach, data were collected through an ad hoc questionnaire administered to fourth-year early childhood education and primary education degree students from the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM), southeast Spain (n=231). Results revealed favourable perceptions towards ICT use in the classroom, with students viewing these resources as contributing to their professional development and improving digital competence. Furthermore, they report how ICTs present didactic opportunities for the development of the teaching-learning process when working with learners with specific educational support needs. Lastly, the research highlights statistically significant differences in future teachers’ perceptions towards the implications of ICT for teaching when developing inclusive educational processes as well as in their attitudes towards professional development and the training needs required for supporting learners with special educational needs. These differences are appreciated between early childhood education degree students and their primary education peers, the latter reporting more favourable assessments.

406-414

Authors: Sara Zamir

Discussion about the need for professionalization has accompanied the development of informal education from its very early stages. Some people believe informal education is staffed by temporary players whose main value derived in part from the fact that their work embodies the principles of altruism, hence they need no professional training. In contrast, others believe that work in this field is complex, hence appropriate training settings should be set up for those working in informal education as well. The aim of this research was to evaluate the perception of formal education by informal education educators. The research methodology is qualitative; it employs a structured interview of the participants and a semiotic analysis of pictures that participants were asked to provide that they felt represented the formal education system. The main findings of the semiotic analysis clearly show that the pictures chosen raise connotations of rigidity, emptiness, loneliness, sadness, insufficiency and boredom. Those images are strongly connected to the debate of recruiting resourceful and capable teachers to formal education systems in the era of accountability.

113

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 76, No. 2, 2018

116-120

Authors: Nicos Valanides

The integration of these tools in education and in authentic and effective learning/teaching environments has become an issue of great concern among educators, researchers and other related audiences. All emphasize the need to design and develop technology-enhanced curricula and teaching/learning environments (formal, non-formal and informal) that are developmentally appropriate for young and/or older learners. The vision is to integrate the tools and their associated technical affordance in teaching/learning environments in such a way, so that all learners, irrespective of their cognitive differences and abilities, could increase their learning gains, and develop the abilities and skills that are needed for citizens of the 21st century.

140-158

Authors: Artyom Sergeyevich Dontsov, Elena Ivanovna Burdina

The aim of the present research is to identify whether teachers' attitudes towards the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the Republic of Kazakhstan can undergo significant changes if they study a course introducing them to the fundamentals of CLIL. Despite the country's plans to adopt English as one of the languages of education, stakeholders’ attitudes towards teaching through the medium of this language remain rather skeptical. A survey was held among Master’s degree students majoring in Education (n = 59) at Pavlodar State University before the course and after its completion. Since it is the affective component that largely determines the quality of attitudes, the levels of participants' anxiety, self-esteem and motivation were used as the indicators. The tools for measuring these variables were the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Dembo-Rubinstein's Method of Self-esteem Measurement and Dubovitskaya's Diagnostics of Learning Motivation Orientation. The end-of-course results show a marked reduction in the level of participants' state anxiety, a growth in self-esteem in terms of the readiness to use CLIL, and a shift towards intrinsic motivation. It is argued that for attitudes shift to take place, it is necessary to adopt a constructivist approach to teaching and learning.

175-188

Authors: Stojan Kostanjevec, Francka Lovšin Kozina, Martina Erjavšek

Relevant teacher qualifications that include specialist knowledge and knowledge in didactics significantly influence the level of achievement of education goals during the teaching process. Teacher's perception of their own professional competence to teach may depend on their qualification which is linked to the education obtained. The purpose of the research was to find out how teachers who teach Home Economics in Slovenian elementary schools estimate their competence to teach Home Economics contents, in reference to their formal education. 89 teachers of 5th and 6th grade Home Economics participated in the research. They were classified according to their formal education, either in the group with completed Home Economics studies (relevant education) or in the group without these studies (irrelevant education). A questionnaire was developed for the teachers to assess their own teaching competence. The obtained data was analysed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results indicated that teachers with completed home economics studies who teach Home Economics feel more competent to teach Home Economics contents than teachers without completed relevant studies. Differences in their perceptions exist in all four Home Economics modules, i.e. economics, textile and clothing, living and environment, food and nutrition. This leads to the conclusion that relevant teacher education is important for teaching Home Economics in all specialist areas of home economics education. As regards providing quality education process and achieving Home Economics education goals, the results indicate that relevant qualifications of teachers should be ensured. Teachers with irrelevant education should be provided with additional professional training.

215-230

Authors: Heri Retnawati, Hasan Djidu, Kartianom, Ezi Apino, Risqa D. Anazifa

Higher order thinking skill (HOTS) is one of the students’ abilities that should be developed through teaching and learning. Teachers’ knowledge about HOTS and its teaching and learning tactics is a key to successful education. The purpose of this research is to describe teachers’ knowledge about higher order thinking skills (HOTS). The research involves qualitative study with the phenomenological approach. The research participants are 27 mathematics teachers from state and private junior high schools across 7 provinces in Indonesia. The researcher collected data with a test followed by focus group discussion (FGD) and interviews. The analysis of data involved Bogdan & Biklen model and descriptive statistics for data from the test. The analysis of FGD, and test data intends to get information on 6 sub-themes; teachers’ knowledge about HOTS, importance of HOTS, teaching about HOTS to students, improving students’ HOTS, measuring and assessing HOTS, and teachers’ ability for solving HOTS-based problems. The results indicate that teachers’ knowledge about HOTS, their ability to improve students’ HOTS, solve HOTS-based problems, and measure students' HOTS is still low. There are facts, however, that teachers already understand the importance of HOTS and teaching it by using various innovative learning models.

250-278

Authors: Ján Záhorec, Alena Hašková, Michal Munk, Martin Bílek

One of the key issues of the EU educational policy is quality assurance. The presented research represents a contribution to solving the issue of quality assurance of informatics education on the tertiary level of education in economy and managerial study fields. Within the research current state of informatics education in selected economy and managerial study programmes was analysed based on students` views and opinions. Necessary research data were collected through questionnaire survey respondents, who were students of the relevant study programmes in the Slovak and Czech Republics. The paper presents in more detail results of the questionnaire part which was focused on finding out how the students evaluate informatics education incorporated in their pre-graduate education considering its relevance to their study and career profiles. Another task of the research was to find out whether the students` evaluations depend on their gender and study specializations, and also whether there are some differences in the evaluations done by the students of the same or at least similar study programmes studying either in Slovakia or in the Czech Republic. As the results showed, students of the economy and managerial study programmes do not connect their future career with the information technologies and they do not have ambitions to be employed in the IT area. But at the same time, they are aware of the fact that the knowledge and skills obtained within their informatics preparation are important for their everyday life and future career. On the other hand, they are not satisfied with the quality of the informatics subjects they are taught. So, to assure the quality of their pre-gradual preparation does not mean only to innovate curricula of the informatics preparation but also to deal with the issues of an efficient transfer of these curricula content to students.