Problems of Education in the 21st Century

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.