Problems of Education in the 21st Century

5-12

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The discussion about integration cannot dispense with antithesis (differentiation) which is also of high importance. The default of it is a fairly serious lack of comprehensive school. Both processes have to follow each other as this is the most plausible way of human understanding and knowledge improvement (Vaitkevičius, 1979). A public knowledge is always wider than personal information. Ipso facto human cognition and public experience are not differentiated. Teaching constricted by undivided educational drafts and curricula frequently ignored personal schoolchildren’s qualities. Pupils unable to satisfactorily adopt teaching material are overloaded while others state that such load is insufficient. This is why a general background of a number of learners recedes and the motivation of all pupils decreases. Research indicates that genetically all people differ. Genetic inequality most frequently determines the child’s abilities. Natural differences are highlighted by a different situation of upbringing and an environment.

19-24

Authors: Valentin Cosmin Blandul

Special Sport Olympics România is a non-governmental organization which wants to make a scholar, social and profesional integration by sport of the children with disabilities. This result could obtain by developing the physical and physical particularities at children with special needs (such as: their health, cognitive, emotional and volitive processes, their entire personality). The most important category of children, which is addressed Special Sport Olympics România is represented by menthal deficiency and the sport which is the most frequent practice is athletism. In this study, the principal aims are to identify the factors which transform a mental disorder child into a very good sportsman, the way in which sport can improve the quality of life for these persons and the most effective curriculum for scholar of the pupils with menthal disability. The research took place in 2008, at local and national leg of Special Sport Olympics România’s competition and the used method are observation, applying scale and questionary of personality and IQ tests. The results which are obtained prove that pupils which practice sport are more sociable, comunicative, have superior scholar results and they can integrate themselves in the society much better.

32-36

Authors: Manuel Fandos Igado

Companies use many different marketing strategies in order to make their products known and place their corporate image and branding in the market. Besides, nowadays, being on the Internet is a must for every company striving for success. A company devoted to open and distance learning such as Master-D Corporation is a clear example of how a proper and planned use of the different possibilities offered by the Web 2.0 –based on blogs- allows a company to achieve bigger market shares and brand positioning following the Win – Win Principle. Blogs are, undoubtedly, channels of communication that prove the power of attraction of good information.

44-53

Authors: Sofia Freire, Mónica Baptista, Carolina Carvalho, Ana Freire, Teresa Oliveira, Mário Azevedo

We live in a highly complex society that presents its citizens with many challenges and problems. In order to respond it, by making informed decisions, citizens have to appropriate certain key competencies, for instance, reasoning, communication, lifelong learning, among others. So education has never been seen such a central issue to promote individual growth as nowadays, and also a central issue to enact societal and economical growth. Despite education playing a central role in the international agenda, the failure of the school systems to teach all the students has never been so visible. Nowadays, one of the greatest challenges is to provide an answer to those students who have dropped out of school, or to those who have disengaged from it. Several actions have been developed, some of which concern pedagogic actions. Activities based on investigations in science classes are seen nowadays as a way to enact key competencies, but also to involve students with their own learning. But, what make these activities so successful in getting to all students and, even more, to those who have disengaged from the school system? In this paper, we will discuss the impact of activities based on investigation in secondary students’ involvement with school. Its efficacy seems to be related to identity issues. By changing classroom practices and relationships, not only among teachers and students, but also between students and school knowledge, this kind of activity allows the students to reconstruct new identities, where they can envisage new future paths.

66-73

Authors: Martina Manenova, Martin Skutil

Modern, constructive conception of teaching process presumes adequate choice of teaching methods and learning corresponding to pupil’s possibility in the first place. Also the university teachers have to conform with this trend. The contribution shows on the base of research investigation, how the teaching methods and processes are exploited by the teachers, who take part in the preparation of the students of the line Teaching for the 1st level at elementary (primary) at the Institute of primary and pre-primary education, Faculty of Education, University Hradec Králové. An interesting question seems to be perception of efficiency of the separate teaching methods and subsequently their utilization in teaching process. It could be stated that in teaching the students of teaching profession for the 1st level of primary school, the academic staff uses different teaching methods. Positive finding is that the lecture, even when it is placed among the most employed ones, does not have dominant position as it was in the past. On contrary, activating and complex teaching methods e.g. discussion and group teaching are coming forward. This phenomenon reveals in performance of the students during their pedagogical practice, which is confirmed by the feedback from the teachers at primary schools.

83-93

Authors: Josef Molnar, Slavomira Schubertova

The work looks for phenomena related to the development of spatial imagination. In the theoretical part, we define spatial imagination and the aim of finding factors which influence its development, e.g. schooling, sex, laterality or the role of the senses. Research investigation forms the practical part of the paper. In the individual investigations, we search for the relation between spatial imagination and general intelligence, between spatial imagination and imagination in plane. By means of the Top-view or bottom-view test, we search for the answer to the question how spatial imagination relates to laterality. Based on the findings obtained in the research investigations, we developed the worksheet Wire and cube that was checked during the class work at an elementary school. The benefit of the paper for the development of the scientific branch and pedagogical practice is the study of phenomena related to the performance and the results of the spatial imagination tests that can be influenced by these phenomena.

103-109

Authors: Inge Raudsepp, Maie Vikat

The recent decades have been revolutionary in Estonia and in all spheres of life including education, quests and changes have taken place. In the period of globalisation it is the time to find out whether and to what extent Estonia manages to maintain its cultural values and national identity in the process of those dynamic changes. In the Estonian context joint singing can be viewed as a representative of cultural transmission. Joint singing originates from the so-called older folk song, Lutheran hymns and, most recently, powerfully emerged choral singing. Joint singing has developed into an important cultural metaphor of the identity of Estonian nation – song festivals. The current article focuses on the nature of joint singing and its development in the music education of Estonian comprehensive schools, what was founded by the pedagogue, composer, publicist and researcher Riho Päts in 1930s. The methodological basis of the research is the concept of joint singing, one type of which is choral singing, in the cultural transmission of the new generation of Estonians today. In the study participation of pupils in youth song festivals (1962-2007) is analysed to investigate the tendencies of development of joint singing. The results of the study prove that in contemporary Estonia choral singing is the most powerful type of joint singing and carries a phenomenon of cultural transmission based on innovative-traditional approach in music education.

115-126

Authors: Katri-Liis Vainio

Considerable research has been done concerning the prevalence of vocal problems and disorders among teacher students and teachers. All research shows that voice disorders are very typical and are mostly connected to external factors such as environmental factors associated with vocal loading, health-related factors and stress-related factors. How voice disorders are connected to speakers posture, use of resonance and registers has not yet been studied. The primary prevention of voice disorders refers to elimination of circumstances that might cause a voice disorder, involving also teaching vocal hygiene strategies, while secondary prevention involves early detection and treatment of voice disorders. This article shows how teachers´ attitudes towards their voice in field condition can be changed by giving them new models of (1) vocal hygiene strategies and (2) vocal exercises, combined to the Eerola ABC and balance-method and the Pilates-method. The article also gives a model to incorporate such training for all new teachers, for example in Tallinn University.

138-152

Authors: Tamara A. Artashkina

The conducted research is devoted to the issue of target-setting in the system of higher education. The stated issue was initially solved as a development of models of specialists. In the late 1960s there formed two directions that researchers followed. The first one represented by E. Smirnova’s works focused on two separate objects: humans and their activity. The second direction is connected with the name of N.F. Talyzina who proposed a special language to describe the goals of learning – the language of professional tasks. However, “a model of specialist” in all its aspects used in the late 1960s – early 1980s contained regulatory characteristics, that is, standard (etalon) attributes, thus not being a model proper. The analysis of professional activity proper requires methodological framework suitable for this activity. Activity approach and psychological activity theory become such a universal framework but remain the matter of scholarly and philosophic discussions. Within this approach the author analyzes the structure of creative activity and singles out the structure of humanitarian activity and the structure of professional activity of PR specialist. Based on the analysis of the stated structures the conclusion is made that humanitarian training is not only capable of but bound to perform professional functions to educate non-humanitarian specialists. Activity approach is also employed by the author to analyze the concept of professional goal. Based on this concept two ways to train generalists are proposed. In the first case generalist mode is maintained by the system of professional goals of a certain personnel “module”. The second way is based on the usage of general methods to solve professional goals of different personnel modules. Finally, the conclusion is made that competence approach is not applicable to distinguish activity structures but it can be extensively applied to distinguish professional goals.

161-169

Authors: Ekaterina V. Gapanovich-Kajdalova

The requirement for experts, quickly and flexibly adapting to the changing conditions, constantly raising the qualification and level of professional skill assumes presence of steady motivation to mastering by new kinds of activity. Retraining on a speciality «Practical psychology» frequently is means of the decision of personal problems. As the motivation of reception of the second speciality in many respects defines efficiency of educational process, its research gets a special urgency. A methodological basis of our research are Z.A.Barsukovoj, T.V.Vasilevoj, E.A.Guzjuk's works, etc. in which the motivation of listeners ИПК and the personal computer is considered as the factor of efficiency of retraining. In article results of research of motivation of the teachers, passing retraining on a speciality «Practical psychology» in ГГУ of F.Skoriny are presented. The comparative analysis of self-estimations of respondents with the various pedagogical experience on a number of indicators is carried out: self-realisation in pedagogical activity; the general professional readiness; theoretical preparation on pedagogics and psychology; the motivation to work as the psychologist; aspiration to self-improvement in a trade; the general satisfaction a trade of the teacher. Representations of teachers about professionally important qualities, features of work, the basic difficulties of the psychologist are studied; the factors influencing a choice of a trade of the teacher-psychologist as the second speciality are analysed. Respondents in большей degrees are focused on social motives, motives of self-improvement and personal growth. Reception of the second speciality is considered not only as possibility to guarantee to itself stability in labour relations, but also to raise level of the профмастерства, to deepen and expand knowledge on psychology, to be engaged in scientific researches in the field of psychology, самореализоваться as the person.

183-191

Authors: Olga Logashenko, Lyudmila Lomakina

In the paper a problem of the pedagogical support of students’ health maintenance during the period of their professional training at higher school is studied. On the stage of the educational-introductory practice an innovative pedagogical technique of psychological-pedagogical accompaniment (PPA) of the scientific-practical activity (SPA) was elaborated to ascertain the influence of this technique on the characteristics of mental-physiological health of students. The main elements of PPA and SPA are: normative-legal, psycho-diagnostic, methodological, organizational, psychosomatic maintenance and phased monitoring. The psychosomatic maintenance is to influence the psychological health, personal and physical health of a student. In our research the strengthening and maintenance of health means: • for psychological health – the development of a creative way of thinking, attention, memory and volitional sphere; the growth of emotional resistance; • for social health – the formation of social adaptation; the development of responsibility, empathy, active position in life; the correction of self-concept and self-control; the focus on self-development; • for physical health – the teaching of self-control methods for the state of adaptive potential of the cardiovascular system; the prevention of neuropsychic disorders. The elaboration of psycho-pedagogical bases for maintaining and strengthening of health and the application of PPA and SPA is aimed at maintaining and strengthening of health due to reducing the state of neuropsychic tension, the stimulation of the professional interest and the satisfaction of students’ needs to acquire knowledge in the atmosphere of psychological comfort.

5-8

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

There have been more and more discussions going on in recent years about the quality of service provided in different level and different type of educational institutions. It is not one educational institution that characterizes quality as the most important priority of the activity. However, one thing is to characterize and declare and another is to actually strive for this quality. In other words, the priorities of educational institutions can be quite different however, it is inevitably obligatory to try to survive in the market. Quality system is one of the mechanisms helping the institution to organize and fulfill the activity so that to ensure its effective work under competitive conditions. Moreover, no institution should wait for its prestige to start diminishing on the contrary it has to do its best to guarantee successful functioning in the future. Thus, the head of every educational institution today has to care about how effectively its institution functions, what are possible ways and methods of its activity improvement. It is not enough to have practical experience and intuition to do this. Theoretical knowledge is necessary here. It is worth mentioning such a relatively new science field as Qualitology; (квалитология-Russian) which by its nature is triple. The essential parts of it are: quality theory, quality evaluation theory (kvalimetrija) and quality management theory. On the other hand, the analysis of quality management problems is impossible without systemology, management, innovation and theoretical and practical achievements in other spheres. Eventually, the most major are international quality standards ISO 9000:2000. Everything is joined here into a closely related system.

15-21

Authors: Andrea Bernhard

The model of a “knowledge-based society” represents an ideal towards which the whole world strives. Today’s society is based on knowledge as the main good, virtue and competitive advantage and higher education plays a crucial role in shaping a knowledge-based society. The purpose of this article is to position higher education within knowledge-based societies and to emphasis the growing importance of higher education. Discussions about the shift from elite to mass higher education will be outlined as well as the concept of “universal higher education“in the 21st century. With this theoretical basis the need of quality assurance in higher education will be stressed in to enhance, improve and even maintain a quality-focused orientation. Higher education institutions are in a time of great tensions – they have to react quickly to educational needs of a fast-changing society and to assert one’s position with other higher education providers. At present as well as for the future the necessity to assure quality for higher education systems to compete in a knowledge-based society at all levels – national and global – is evident.

30-35

Authors: Ineta Daiktere

The primary purpose of this study was to explore communication process in schools provided by principals and the degree of stakeholders’ involvement in the process of development of the desirable school culture. 357 principals, 152 teachers and 78 technical staff members anonymously completed specially developed questionnaires about school culture. It was revealed that the main target groups for principals are teachers, parents, community and pupils. There is still an opportunity to develop better communication with assistant staff members. Communication in schools is still realized in more traditional ways i.e. in oral form of communication with different size of groups and in written form as leaflets distributed in the staff rooms. This study demonstrates that electronic communication was rarely used in a respondent group or at least was not used systematically in the assistant staff group.

46-60

Authors: Nitza Davidovitz, Shlomo Sharlin

This study examines the direct and indirect influence of the Ariel University Center of Samaria on the attitudes of its graduates who did not choose to settle in the geographic region in which the institution is located, compared to their counterparts who moved to and settled in the Samaria. According to consistent multi-annual University Center data, the majority (84.0%) of students at the Ariel University Center come from outside the region. Although students on campus focus on their academic assignments toward their degrees, students come into considerable daily contact with the region. Study findings indicate that a very small percentage of students who did not live or work in the region during their studies settled in their region after graduation. An interesting finding is that over two-thirds of all graduates (67.3%)- independent of whether or not they currently live in the Samaria - believe that an effort should be made to encourage graduates to live in the region. The study findings indicate significant differences in the typical profiles and values of graduates who settled in the Samaria region and those who settled outside Samaria after graduation. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

68-73

Authors: Thanassis Karalis

Lifelong learning seems to be the key concept for educational policy in almost all developed and developing countries. National and international organisations put emphasis on lifelong learning, while at the same time the concept is equated with continuing vocational training in the majority of policy making texts. In this paper, we investigate the continuously evolving concept of lifelong learning and the relationship between lifelong learning and preschool education. In the first section of the paper we will define lifelong learning as a unifying project for all educational and learning activities. Based on Coombs and Ahmed’s typology for educational activities, our analysis will lead to a definition of lifelong learning encompassing all levels and types of education. In the second section of the paper we will explore the location and significance of preschool education in lifelong learning, analyzing all possible ways and frameworks of learning in early childhood (family learning, kindergartens, non-formal educational activities) and their contribution to the making of a lifelong learner.

88-99

Authors: Olasehinde-Williams Olabisi, Henry Owolabi, Lasiele Yahaya

This paper presents the report of quantitative and qualitative measures of perceived prevalence of academic integrity problems among lecturers of tertiary institutions in Kwara State, Nigeria. Participants comprised 566 students, lecturers and administrative staff selected through the stratified sampling technique from four tertiary institutions; and data were collected via a Questionnaire, Focus Group Discussions and Informal Interview. Descriptive and ANOVA statistics were employed for data analysis across the variables of status, gender and type of institution. Findings of the study showed that relationship with female students, handling of text books/ handouts, project supervision and examinations were perceived by about 10% of the respondents to be the highly prevalent academic integrity problems among lecturers. It was also revealed that only small proportions of lecturers were indicted in this regard. Also, significant differences were found in the perceptions of respondents from the university, college of education and polytechnic. Based on the findings, advocacy was made for implementing laws relating to integrity and instituting academic integrity policy in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

108-116

Authors: Kofi Poku Quan-Baffour, Akwasi Arko-Achemfuor

‘Transformation’ became the buzz word in South Africa in 1994. Lots of changes have taken place in all aspects of the new South Africa as a result of democratization and education is not an exception to this reality. The changes in education seek to provide equal opportunities for all citizens of the new democratic society. With the introduction of Outcomes Based Education stakeholders of education e.g. government, communities, parents and the general public, have become obsessed with quality of teaching and learning. To achieve quality education teachers must be more knowledgeable and skillful in some particular subjects to be able to teach well. This is however contrary to the observation of these writers. The reality is that most economic and management science teachers in the rural black schools have some gaps in content knowledge of the subjects. The existence of insufficient content knowledge among Business Studies (i.e. Accounting, Business economics and Management) teachers is a direct result of the apartheid education policy which did not provide better resources for training of teachers for countryside schools. Most of the teachers in the countryside schools were trained in under-resourced ‘home land’ colleges of education with little emphasis on content knowledge of business studies subjects. With the drastic changes taking place in the curriculum and content, particularly of business studies subjects in the new South Africa, it has become more apparent that teachers of these subjects need both in-depth knowledge of the content as well as the methodology or skills for imparting the specific content to their learners. The paper which is a case study advocates for the use of in-service training programmes for Business Studies teachers in the countryside schools as a strategy to fill in the gaps in content knowledge. The experiences of the authors are validated by a small-scale empirical investigation.

126-132

Authors: Larissa Turusheva

The objective of the paper is to define information competence, its levels and components, to find out the reasons of low level of information competence among first-year students. Scientific literature analysis, CLRIT (Commission on Learning Resources and Instructional Technology) materials, Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (ACRL, 2000) and other data are used to analyze the role of foreign languages and IT skills for the development of information competence of a student. Questionnaires and interviews with the students give the necessary data for the analysis of students' information competence. The main conclusions are that self-management and time management of students pay an important role in their use of the Internet and the library, showing preference for the Internet resources for the reason of their easier and quicker accessibility in comparison with the use of library resources. Foreign languages are often needed to gain the necessary information, especially for some specialties, for which information can be found only in English. Information competence is developed during the whole life, and teachers of any subject should pay serious attention to developing information search, selection, evaluation, analysis and presentation skills.

144-150

Authors: Akbar Zolfaghari, Mohammad Shatar Sabran, Ali Zolfaghari

Literacy has played a very important role in Community Development. Without literacy; people have difficulties improving their quality of lives. Iran is no exception. For this reason, Iran has implemented the various literacy programs. One of the programs is Community Learning Center Program (CLCP). So far, CLCP has been implemented into 3517 communities in the country. Therefore, the general objective of this study was to examine the challenges faced by Community Learning Center Program (CLCP) in Community Literacy Development (CLD) while the specific objective of this study was to describe the necessary actions to strengthen the CLCP in CLD.

159-167

Authors: Nadezhda D. Guskova, Tatiana A. Salimova, Yulia R. Enaleeva

Nowadays, the problem of improving approaches to the quality management in education is a most challenging one. The article deals with the theory and practical issues of the organizational self-assessment as a means of quality management. For this purpose, scientific viewpoints on the content of this category, models, principles, methods of self-assessment have been analyzed. Peculiar features, possibilities and results of applying self-assessment to the educational process have been considered as an important means of permanent process aimed at improving organizational activity, the Economic faculty of N. P. Ogarev Mordovia State University being an example. The article describes the procedure of self-assessment at the economic faculty; it analyses the results achieved, the system of monitoring information about the satisfaction level of customers and other parties involved; it shows the mechanism of integrating self-assessment results into the process of planning. The research was done on the process and system approach; the following methods were applied: comparing analysis, self-assessment, questionnaires, web-diagram.

5-8

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

To one who understands at least something about education it is obvious that science education in primary school is very important. Every person’s education fundament is formed here. It is understandable that children before school already have certain knowledge about nature. Pre-school children have to know about animal, plant life, should have knowledge about objects and phenomena of inanimate nature, perceive the essence and meaning of care works. Research works show that pre-school children’s knowledge about nature is not sufficiently exact and exhaustive. We should especially focus on enriching and making the knowledge about animal and plant acclimatization more accurate among 5-7 year old children (Ušeckienė, 2000). On the other hand, it is stated (applying modified Kern test) that in the group of 5-7 year old children cognizing nature and its phenomena an average level of thinking functions and intellect predominates which directly depends on child’s mental maturity level and not on child’s sex and age (Plytnykienė, 2002). It is very important for this knowledge to be deepened and broadened in primary school, i.e., in the 1st -4th forms. In this case, natural science preparation quality largely depends on the teacher, on his competence in natural science. Since 1992 a new subject “The world science” has been introduced in primary school which can be interpreted as one of the components of natural science education. Currently in Lithuanian primary school science education fundamentals are integrated into the world cognition course. Biology, physics, chemistry, technological, ecological problems make the part of this natural science program. The main nature cognition purpose is to educate children’s ability understand the world of nature and communicate with it. So, integration of natural science fundamentals on the one hand and social and natural science components on the other hand will further remain a very meaningful sphere of educational process in primary school.

14-20

Authors: Hana Böhmová, Milada Roštejnská

Education of the gifted and talented children, as potential contributors for the whole society, is emphasized and actively supported in the educational policy of the European Union. The project “Talnet – Online to Science“ originated in Czech Republic is one example of a wide scale of extracurricular activities focused on the education of the gifted and talented. The methods used in Talnet are based mostly on the interaction of the experts with the children, primarily in the on-line “T-courses“. The paper describes the structure, content and results of a two-semester on-line course “Biochemistry and Natural Compounds” that integrates the problem solving method with the home-made chemistry experiments in the form of an e-learning course. About ten talented high-school students from Czech and Slovak Republic participated in the first semester of the course. According to the evaluation results, the students find the course interesting and enriching. Four final theses were written and will be defended; one of them is intended to be applied for the national Contest for Young Scientists.

28-36

Authors: Vivien Mweene Chabalengula, Frackson Mumba, William F.J. Hunter, Erin Wilson

The assessment of students’ manipulation skills is often neglected by teachers. This trend can be partially attributed to traditional assessment practices which focus upon what the student writes in a lab report rather than the student’s physical performance during the lab activity. Therefore, this article reports on the processes which were undertaken when designing the Performance-Based Lab Assessment Technique (PBLAT). The PBLAT can be used to assess the process skill of manipulation of equipment/materials in biology (i.e. assembling, measuring, and experimenting) as the students conduct science lab activities in high schools and colleges/universities. The PBLAT is not limited to biology lab situations as it can be adapted to other sciences.     

45-50

Authors: Pavel Doulík, Jiří Škoda

The paper deals with basic functioning, objectives and challenges of science education at the threshold of the 21st century. The authors define complex issues of science education: global environmental issues and problems, interrelation of science, technology and society, key concepts and crucial issues of science education along with inter-disciplinary thinking. Due to global trends in curricula management, the autonomy of science teachers rises as well as the amount of their responsibility. The most important selected issues are discussed within the article and the authors attempt to seek optimum solution.

60-68

Authors: Jezek Bruno, Vanek Jan, Slaby Antonin

For the past several years computer graphics subjects have played an important role in information and computer technology studies. The inclusion of computer graphics subjects into university curricula is motivated not only by modern technologies and methods being used in this branch, but above all by the training of programming techniques and math application these subjects provide. At the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the University of Hradec Kralove, subjects Computer Graphics I, II and III (CG) have been professed for several years within the curricula of the Applied Informatics and the Information Management study programs. Besides visualisation and graphical data processing, these subjects are focused on practicing and widening the knowledge and practical skills of students, future IT specialists. This paper introduces goals, structure and educational techniques in the CG subjects, which expand informatics subjects such as programming and algorithm development. Educational methods that involve a term project, a special framework and an e-learning support are also described. Finally several specific examples of math application used during problem solving are presented.

78-85

Authors: Sirpa Kärkkäinen, Tuula Keinonen, Risto Juvonen

Exposure to harmful substances such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs, is a danger and risk for the well being and health of children. The better children understand these dangers, the easier it is to avoid the adverse effects. Several studies have dealt with harmful substances and the well-being of young people. However, the role of formal, as well as informal education has not been studied as extensively. This paper presents the first preliminary results from a larger project. This project focuses on what and how toxicology is taught in Finnish schools and how children and young people get information about harmful compounds. The aim of the project is to create a better way of teaching toxicology in school. This paper reveals teacher's students’ thoughts on the teaching of intoxicating substances in primary school. Teacher students wrote before their studies of module “The Human being”. The result of the study shows that primary school teacher students thought that teaching which relates to intoxicating substances, should be neutral and based on facts. We believe that the preliminary results of this study will be useful in improving the teaching of intoxicating substances in teacher education.

104-128

Authors: Stéphanie Mathé, Laurence Viennot

With this investigation, we sought to assess the extent to which future journalists and science mediators are able to take a positive attitude towards stressing the coherence of physical theories in their chosen profession. To this end, we also examined a second question: how members of this same population react to an exercise designed to stress the value of coherence in physics, as a possible source of intellectual satisfaction. We sought to document the possible impact of the obstacles we had anticipated, and to characterize the students’ progression in relation to the goals just described. Our investigation was based on 14 interviews with third-year university students who hoped to become journalists or science mediators. We focused our interaction with them on a specific example in physics, concerning a problematic hypothesis widely used in explaining how a hot air balloon operates. We provided elucidation in the course of each student’s intellectual progression during the interview. Finally, we report their value judgements – impressively positive – concerning the two questions outlined above. The results suggest that, despite their low level of specialization in physics, such students can develop, at least in the very particular circumstances described, a critical and positive attitude towards searching for and stressing coherence in physics. They also support the idea that, were a concern for coherence to be taken as a desirable component of a training programme, corresponding teaching-learning sequences should be prepared, designed and evaluated in great detail, to ensure optimum adaptation to each individual’s progression.

139-150

Authors: Marek Persona, Andrzej Persona, Tomasz Gęca, Agnieszka Kaczor, Dariusz Matosiuk

The application of computational technique for predicting biological activity of chemicals plays an important role in the development and design of new drugs. Being now a routine approach in medicinal chemistry, the method still encounters difficulties in teaching medical science students. In this paper the project of introduction the students to the computational tools and approaches usually used in pharmacy and medicine is presented. The project involves estimation of the skin permeability of theaflavonoids in respect to their usefulness in topical application. Topical application of flavonoids for inhibition of skin tumor is preferred because flavonoids are poorly absorbed from intestines and are decomposed by intestinal microorganisms.

159-169

Authors: Tiia Rüütmann, Jüri Vanaveski

Engineering educators should gain greater confidence through the use of extended range of contemporary teaching tools by obtaining specifics of the art of teaching. Teaching methods fostering active and long-term engagement with learning tasks are used at Estonian Centre for Engineering Pedagogy. Understanding student different learning styles is one of the midpoints of teacher training. The aim of the study programme for engineering educators is to abolish mismatches between students’ common learning styles and traditional teaching styles of engineering educators. The curriculum for engineering educators concentrates on interactive lectures and contemporary teaching methods emphasising conceptual understanding, adapted specially for engineering education, being introduced in the following article.     

5-8

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The interpretation of the concept ‘value’ is extremely varied and brings a historic background. Values are fostered since childhood through the process of sharing and analysing individual experience based on certain concepts such as goodness, beauty, love, etc. Rules and standards are also important for value development. All people tend to seek values and their cognition (“When Values Change”, 1999). ‘The Dictionary of Psychology’ explains that value attitudes as if determine all human works, the main patterns of behaviour, different actions or even a single act (The Dictionary of Psychology, 1993). The revision of modern scientific information sources maintains that little attention is paid to the aspect of fostering value-based relations with nature as not enough research in the field has been carried out. Also it is important to elaborate the most appropriate model of fostering value-based relations with nature. All these questions are mostly connected with science education process in comprehensive school. It is important to shift our attention from fact-based knowledge to value-based knowledge at all educational levels. Science education today should be much more value-based than many years ago. It can not be neutral. It must contain a spiritual dimension. Generally speaking, it is obvious, if we want to improve education of the young generation, the process of fostering value-based relations and sensual perception of nature should be devoted more attention.

21-29

Authors: Nitza Davidovitch, Shmuel E. Schacham, Yuri Ribakov

Tutorials are an essential part of the academic teaching process. They play an important role in students' understanding of the material and have a direct influence on their final marks. Selection of a proper tutoring policy for improving students' success in engineering disciplines is a subject investigated all over the world. It is common to think that efficiency of tutorials in smaller groups is higher. However, financial considerations limit sub-division of classes into small groups. This paper is focused on the issue of the preferred teacher of these sessions – lecturer (faculty member) or teaching assistant. The current study examines the effect of this administrative decision on students’ performance, as measured by ratings of their teachers, and also by students' final grades. The influence of additional factors like class size, students’ grades, or majors are also examined. Our findings show that there is no significant advantage of tutorials taught by teaching assistants in small groups over those taught by lecturers in plenum.

38-46

Authors: Mona Holmqvist, Jane Mattisson

The present article describes how Swedish pupils in class 4 (nine to eleven years old) learn English as a second language. The study replicates a learning study carried out within the framework of a more extensive project known as “The Pedagogy of Learning”. The present study is aimed to find out if the results from one original learning study can be generalised to other teachers and pupils. The pupils participating in the presented study learn how to use “to have”. The original Learning Study Cycle (LSC) consisted of three lessons per cycle, each lesson carried out in different groups of pupils. The teachers focused on the critical aspects, i.e. the features which must be distinguished in order to understand a phenomenon. This process entailed investigating the contrasts between the specified learning outcome(s), i.e. the ability or knowledge targeted. The lessons were planned from a variation theory perspective. The LSC demonstrated that the use of contrast – applied in only one of the three lessons – between “to be” and “to have” had a positive effect on pupils’ generative learning, i.e. continued learning outside the classroom. In order to establish if the results of the present study are coincidental or repeatable the LSC was replicated. The first replicated study was conducted by a group of teachers with a good knowledge of variation theory. These teachers had previously applied the theory in mathematics lessons. A second replication was initiated by a group of teachers with no knowledge of variation theory. The results demonstrated that contrast is important for generative learning provided that teachers are able to focus on critical aspects and thereby elucidate contrast. In the group familiar with variation theory the results were similar to those of the original study, i.e. generative learning was promoted, while contrast had little effect on the pupils generative learning in the group of teachers who had no knowledge of variation theory. The study demonstrates that generative learning is dependent on teachers’ knowledge of how the critical aspects of the target knowledge should be presented to pupils. Such knowledge enables teachers to apply contrast as a means of developing pupils’ ability to distinguish qualitative differences. In this way, pupils continue to develop their knowledge beyond the classroom.

57-68

Authors: Irena Katane, Ilze Kalniņa

Global level various processes make us questions: where and in what way can we search the possibilities for sustainable development of society and how can we promote its competitiveness in the context of globalization and integration processes? The new ecological, synergetic paradigms in pedagogy enable to study a personality as a self-developing, self-organizing and self-evaluating system which develops during the educational process, plans and forecasts; constructs and accumulates its own experience; which is able to choose and to be responsible for the consequences of its own actions under the conditions of modern changeable environment. Methodology of Research. During the last three years (2005 – 2007) a subject of our research was new meaning of concepts in pedagogy: competitiveness, competitive personality and marketable specialist in the context of human viability in the changeable environment. It bases and builds on scientific sources which represent: 1) evolutionary and cultural pedagogy; 2) developmental, ecological and applied psychology; 3) human ecology, including educational ecology. The methods of theoretical research: the analytical evaluative studies of scientific literature; content analysis of documents; reflection of experience. The ecological and synergetic approaches enable to draw the conclusion that nowadays human as an individual of society, personality must learn to live and change in the interaction with the changeable environment, including changeable social, educational, economic, career environment etc. aspects. Therefore concept of competitiveness is becoming pedagogical category, which changes its traditional meaning during the last fifteen years. Nowadays it is very important to work out the theoretical background pertaining to the new content of competitiveness in pedagogy, analysing the concept in the context of recent changes which take place in the modern society and education as well. In this article new concept of competitiveness is substantiated in the following contexts and aspects: 1) various educational paradigms: liberal-rational, ecological and synergetic paradigm, 2) several approaches: functional, biometrical and structural approach.

81-91

Authors: Julius K. Maiyo, Joan A Owiye

The foundation of present day special education in Kenya dates as far back as 1968 when the government published sessional paper NO. 5 on special education. The paper laid out a public policy framework for children with disabilities such as hearing and visual impairment, mentally and physically handicapped and multiple handicaps (GoK, 2003). Among the key policies was the integration of disabled children into regular formal schools in order to enhance their participation in formal learning. Regrettably however, 40 years down the line, the government is yet to realize reasonable access of elementary education that can help liberate and make the disabled child self-reliance. The sector still faces challenges related to access, equity and quality. The study carried out in Webuye division, Bungoma East District, adopted a descriptive survey design specifically to analyze challenges facing provision of inclusive formal education to the disabled child. The relationship between the variables was explained using Rawlasian theory of justice. A total of 6 schools out of 104 were purposively sampled. Questionnaires and interview schedules and document analysis were used to collect data from education officers, heads and teachers of sampled schools. Analysis of data was done using statistical tools such as percentages and frequencies. Findings were presented using tables. It was concluded that, as much as the policy on special education is clearly laid out, for it has not been fully implemented. People’s attitude towards inclusive education remains wanting, and therefore, only a small fraction (3.4%) of public schools is offering inclusive education. The regular school curriculum is too academic oriented and the teachers are yet to embrace inclusive education. The study recommends that, the MoE adapts inclusive curriculum, examination and grading system. Comprehensive special schools should be established to cater for pre-school, primary school, high school and technical schooling to provide meaningful education to meet their needs.

100-108

Authors: Anne Uusen

Writing is the most visible and probably therefore the most criticized product of education, but often the teacher has not declared to him/her what is the essence of writing and what are the main goals of teaching and assessing writing. Usually, when teachers in Estonia claim about students` bad writing skills, they often mean spelling, which is actually only one element of writing. The present article is going to introduce the research, which goal was to convince teachers, that creating text is a complex process, which involves paying attention to numerous factors: choice of words, syntax, message, peculiarities of different text forms, language usage, etc. Therefore, analytical assessment is described more closely in named above research paper and in this article, with hopes to encourage teachers to use it more systematically and consciously. Analytical assessment model, worked out for the research and used for assessing 740 pupils written texts, gave complex information about pupils' writing skills, from what brief overview will be presented in the current article. The fact, that all pupils had their strong sides and weaknesses, confirmed the complex nature of writing and proved, that for assessing pupils writing skills we need to assess many aspects of writing, not only spelling and/or content.

124-132

Authors: Nikolay V. Gapanovich-Kajdalov

In the article we deal with the substantiating of the urgent problem of a psychologist’s satisfaction with the profession and the professional competence of a graduate. The basic theoretical approaches to the researching the satisfaction with the profession are analyzed. Professional competence of a psychologist is considered as the readiness of a graduate to realize the professional work in such spheres as psychological education, psychological preventive measures, psychological consultation, psychodiagnostics, psychocorrection, etc. The components of a psychologist’s professional competence are considered as the factors of satisfaction with the profession. Various models discovering the contents and the ways of the formation a psychologist’s professional competence are offered in modern researches. A graduate links the satisfaction with the profession with the feeling of his competence in the field of theoretical and practical grounding. As the achievement of a high professional level is impossible without the realization of professional self-reflexion, we have carried out the research of the professional graduates’ competence of the Gomel state university named after Francisk Scorina as a factor of satisfaction with the profession of a psychologist. On the basis of the generalized research results, we suggest the conclusions: what necessary grounding received in high school the future psychologists link their satisfaction with; and the recommendations how to carry out the perfection in the training of experts.

140-147

Authors: Natalya Zamkovaya, Irina Moiseenko

When studying any of languages foreign to some person and not considering this process as simple as an acquiring certain knowledge and skills volume only, but to the contrary – regarding it as purposeful activity which enables this person to expand his/her cultural background notably, it can lead the student outside the mastering of ready-made knowledge to unobstructed developing of creative mind. In order to achieve that it might be necessary to organize these studies by leading each student to accept the idea that any new knowledge proffered must be accredited with some individual significance valued by this person. This can be done by engaging some modern and innovative methods representative with new style of academic activity; these can provide both for various transformed ways of knowledge presentation as well as the different types of absorbing this new information by the way of putting the body of it into practice, engaging each student in this or that joint actions and frequent discussions. The most effective methods for studying Russian as a foreign language in our opinion are the following ones which have been put to test by us and by teachers in Estonia and proved to be fruitful. These are: some developing technologies as putting up the problem and subsequent solving of it; an individual project; also the process of unraveling any communicative task and getting the answers; the work in the master-classes and the last but not least – an RWCT technology. The novelty of this research presented by authors lies in the nature and specialty of educational materials accomplished using and developing the methods mentioned above, besides its introduction into the teaching practice taking place at the moment. The results of the research are published as two textbooks for Russian language teachers and students of the same profile.

156-170

Authors: Algirdas Čepulėnas, Lota Bobrova, Lauras Grajauskas

The article deals with the main psychosocial needs of students. It presents the results of empirical research of psychosocial needs among female students in Lithuania (Šiauliai University) and the USA (California University). The psychosocial needs of students are more oriented towards tangible values compared to spiritual humanistic values of life. Students tend to underestimate logical thinking, self-cognizance; they pay too little attention to self-education. The majority of students think that they cannot meet their psychosocial needs of fortifying their health, employment, self-actualization and implementing their goals. In order to strengthen the impact of university studies on the formation of students’ psychosocial needs we should orient our educational technologies towards the formation of a free and responsible personality of a student and the development of students’ creative powers and logical thinking.

5-8

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Science Education (hereafter-SE) actuality in the world is not only not decreasing but on the contrary, it is constantly increasing. As you know, very interesting and contradictory results were received in 2004 having carried out international comparative ROSE research. Once again I’d like to encourage all who are interested in science education actualities and problems to get familiar with already mentioned research. This is also important for the reason that Lithuania didn’t take part in this research, therefore we can approximately judge about our position according to the results shown by the pupils of neighboring Latvia. However, these results are not enjoyable because 15 year old pupils’ preferences with respect to science disciplines in many aspects are negative. This is a common tendency of so called developed countries. You can find detailed information about this research on http://www.ils.uio.no/english/rose/. There are lots of publications and other interesting material related to research and its perspectives. It is foreseen to carry out a similar research once again this year and to compare the results of 2004 and 2008. It is difficult to predict how the situation will have changed. However, it is obvious that in the last decades the results of pupils’ tests in most developed countries are not getting better despite big investments and constant efforts to improve the quality of education. The conception of science education changes, much higher requirements are set for the youth science literacy. In the change of science education understanding the necessity arises to prepare new teaching devices, both traditional devices and the devices which are realized by the help of modern ICT. All this undoubtedly has direct influence on the quality of education. Quality imperative is especially emphasized in the report of UNESCO EFA, 2005. Those who are bringing up youth generation have to be interested in this.

17-23

Authors: Agnaldo Arroio, Káthia Maria Honório

The way as Chemistry is boarded in the schools can contribute for the misconceptions, a time that the concepts are presented of form purely theoretician (and, therefore, tedious for the majority of the pupils), as something that must be memorize and that it is not apply the different aspects of the daily life. So, the aim of this work is to provide the understanding of the chemical world that underlies everything around us by introducing basic chemical concepts and their everyday applications. So that, some specific topics will be presented and they were selected according to their relevance and their ability to be presented in lessons on molecular modeling. This strategy is based on the use of images and free graphics programs employed in chemistry successfully, as the visual effects help the students to “see” abstract descriptions in a concrete form. According to the results obtained by using this methodology, we can conclude that the use of images and computational techniques help the presentation of scientific topics and motivate and facilitate the "chemistry communication".

34-41

Authors: Noor Azina Ismail, Halimah Awang

This paper analyzes mathematics performance of grade eight students using Malaysian data drawn from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003. In particular it examines the effects of students’ characteristics and attitudes towards mathematics learning on their achievement. Background information including gender of students, parents’ education level and whether students speak the language of test at home are assessed in terms of their influence on mathematics score. The number of books in home, availability of study desks and computers in home are categorized as educational resources while students’ attitude takes into account students’ educational aspirations, their perception of being safe in school, time spent on mathematics homework, self-confidence in learning mathematics and the value students place on mathematics. Chi-squared tests and odds ratios are used to examine the associations and strength of the relationships of these factors with mathematics achievement. The results show that except for gender, language spoken at home and time spent on mathematics homework, all of the other variables have significant positive influence in classifying students to low, medium and high achievers.

53-58

Authors: Maria Gabriela Lorenzo

Science by and for everyone Programme provides varied activities through the Centre for Research and Support of Scientific Education (CIAEC). The improvement of both the sciences teaching and learning at different educational levels, attempting on the scientific literacy of the whole educational community is aimed. CET Programme (stands for the Spanish name Ciencia Entre Todos) proposes answers to issues of special significance to secondary school as well as first-year college students. It also addresses the training of teachers, and the advising for the resolution of specific problems in specific contexts. We take in account that it is necessary to establish and consolidate a transforming relationship between the University and society at large through a communicative, educational and scientific program that defends equal access to knowledge and an education for everyone, and contributes to a sustainable development of the region. Different activities related to teaching, research and extension, are linked. We promote training in service for teachers, new practical activities, self-evaluation, and collaborative work. Particularly, we established a team under a network way. The network is useful for thinking, analyzing and evaluating our own problems, in order to explore new answers for those problems.

65-73

Authors: Jasminka N. Korolija, Snezana Rajic, Ljuba M. Mandic

In the last century chemistry played an important role in improving the quality of living. However, uncontrolled application of many chemistry achievements has resulted in a range of problems (environmental pollution, food production…) requiring solution in the current century. Solving the problems, apart from chemists, should involve every individual who will take care of what he is taking or giving back to the living environment, who will take care of his health that well-balanced diet is one of the prerequisites for. Starting from the aforementioned, it was assumed that the introduction of foodstuffs as teaching content and/or teaching aids in the teaching of chemistry, at different levels of education would provide for observation/problem solving of a well-balanced diet and developing of chemistry literacy, vice versa. Therefore, the present paper examines the possibilities of presenting various foodstuffs and additives at the beginning of teaching themes (transition to scientific concepts is best realized through spontaneous concepts), at the end of teaching themes (systematizing numerous scientific concepts) and within knowledge testing. Investigations were carried out with primary school students (103) by applying diverse teaching methods and forms of work. Such approach to learning (from spontaneous concepts through chemistry concepts to well-balanced diets, or from foodstuffs over spontaneous concepts to scientific ones) brought about the climate, where a student gets the impression that he only expands the knowledge he already possesses, the possibility of developing chemistry (scientific) literacy and accomplishment of education about the importance of a well-balanced diet.

81-89

Authors: Danuse Nezvalova

The constructivist perspective is becoming a dominant paradigm in the field of the science education. This approach in the initial science teacher training is not still too common at many European teacher training institutions. In this article the constructivist approach in science teacher training is described. Science teacher training in five science teacher training institutions in five European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Lithuania and Turkey) is compared in this article. These countries cooperate on the project which in the main goal is to implement constructivist approach in science teacher training.

97-106

Authors: Sirje Piht, Eve Eisenschmidt

In initial teacher education, we have put a lot of effort into improving student teachers’ readiness to support learners’ motivation and use diverse teaching methods. The objective of this paper is to research the motivation to learn mathematics and mental arithmetic among primary school pupils in student teachers’ practice schools. In Estonia, the problem is that most pupils don’t like science studies, and most university students prefer social sciences. Mental arithmetic strategies and arithmetic skills used by pupils are important in mathematics, as well as in everyday life. Teachers’ skills in teaching mathematics are poor and there is a little variability. A survey was conducted in April and May 2006 among the 1st to 3rd form pupils of 7 student teachers’ practice schools in Estonia. Research results were then compared to the results of research conducted simultaneously in Finland, and also among 1st to 3rd form pupils in practice school. The present article focuses on pupils’ attitudes toward mathematics and mental arithmetic. The main results of the research show that the attitude toward mathematics among pupils is positive. The comparison showed that Finnish pupils’ attitudes are more positive toward mathematics than Estonian pupils’ and boys have a more positive attitude than girls. In teaching methodologies and teacher training, the emphasis has to be put on the problems girls are having. This is because girls are the ones who don’t like mathematics and mental arithmetic.