European Journal of Contemporary Education

4-18

Authors: Jose Jaime Baena-Rojas, Paloma Suárez-Brito, Edgar López-Caudana

This article is based on the knowledge that complex thinking as a construct is nowadays shaping a system of meta-competencies which depends entirely on synergy at all its levels. In higher education contexts, it is well known that the development of transversal competencies allows fostering a better recognition and adaptation to the environment. However, the indistinct use of some concepts that allude to competencies generates confusion regarding what they imply, both theoretically and practically. Consequently, the present article analyzes the differences between complex thought and complex thinking, as relevant concepts, and competencies in higher education. We analyzed to what extent the concept of complex thought is a possible starting point for the adoption of the term and development of the competence of complex thinking, and how this is permeating all branches of knowledge. A qualitative research methodology was used to support the present theoretical reflection, through a critical reflection of the literature. Both concepts, their uses, and implications were analyzed through a compilation of scientific papers, which allowed an entire observation, and document analysis to ensure objective study. The present work presents practical implications in higher education contexts: 1) complex thought has become a relevant matter for explaining the multidisciplinary from theory of knowledge in epistemology, and 2) complex thinking has become a mean for ensuring new academic skills and strengths for problem solving among students in higher education.

28-39

Authors: Stepan A. Boyko, Elena A. Koltsova

This article deals with application of the corpus approach in ESP teaching to Bachelors of Engineering and Technology in order to reach their research goals of finding and selecting authentic language contexts, analyzing and classifying grammar structure, making conclusions about grammar environment of the terminological units, selecting the best translation method and enriching their basic terminological vocabulary. Work with the text corpus as the source of comprehensive information about actual use of terminological units can be treated as the backbone in searching for empirical and supportive material about various grammatical environments of the terminological units and further use of such information to make foreign language learning more effective. Work with the authentic text corpus develops skills of correct use of terminological units and ensures management of the learning outcomes level thanks to a vast array of examples found in the natural context environment used by native speakers. The educational experiment included three stages (introductory, operational and final); introductory and final tests, analysis and processing of the statistical learning data. In the course of the educational experiment, the experimental group of bachelors was taught to work with the corpus data and analyze the grammar environment of the terminological units, in addition to other available classical educational methods and learning aids. The outcome of the experimental learning included great improvement in information coverage when translating professional texts, correct use of terminological units in grammar structures, and terminological vocabulary enriched with characteristics of grammar environment of a term in a professional context.

56-70

Authors: María Teresa de la Garza Carranza, José Porfirio González Farías, Salustia Teresa Cano Ibarra, Laura Georgina Vázquez Lara de la Cruz

The present study is a proposal of a questionnaire of psychosocial factors for university professors based in a standard proposed in the Mexican law that considers the International Labor Organization recommendation. The study is based on five dimensions: Work environment, factors for the activity, organization of working time, leadership and relationships and work and organizational environment. The information was collected among 300 teachers with a wide range of tenure and conditions at work in Mexico. Also, the questionnaire was developed during the pandemic of COVID-19 which affected the job this kind of professionals. We performed an exploratory factor analysis to evaluate each one of the five dimensions using questionnaires previously validated by different authors. We obtained one dimension for the work environment factor, two dimensions for the factor for the activity, one dimension for the organization of working time, three dimensions for the factor leadership and relations at work and two dimensions for the organizational environment factor. The results showed that the questionnaire is valid and can be used as a tool to improve the conditions of work at universities. We found that the dimension insecurity and leadership were the worst evaluated by university teachers. This questionnaire could be used to promote safety conditions after the sanitary emergency and to promote a healthy environment among workers.

79-91

Authors: Elena V. Frolova, Olga V. Rogach, Rinat V. Faizullin

Despite the lifting of epidemiological restrictions, online learning has not lost its relevance. There are noted the development of hybrid forms of education, the integration of traditional and remote work formats. In this regard, the relevance is the study of the communication process, which becomes a predicate of many dysfunctions in the education system. It is the communication between students and the teacher that is subject to the greatest transformations in the conditions of online learning. The purpose of the author's research is to analyze the experience of online learning for students of Russian universities, to identify the problems of communication between participants in the educational process in the new conditions. The authors used a set of general scientific research methods and analytical procedures (document analysis, comparative analysis, analysis of arbitrary contingency tables using the x2 criterion, etc.). A questionnaire survey of students of Russian universities was chosen as the key research method. Empirical data are presented by the results of two measurements: N1 = 1553 (2020) and N2 = 1107 (2021). The results of the study showed that in the conditions of online learning, students for the most part highlight such negative trends as “deterioration of communication skills” and “decrease in skills for live communication with a teacher”. The personal experience of students during the pandemic led to a decrease in “technological optimism” and increased the importance of personal interaction with the teacher. Respondents who rated the quality of teacher feedback excellently feel less of such online learning problems as “routine” and “heavy workloads”. The authors established the relationship between the choice of the form of education (online or traditional) and the assessment of feedback between students and the teacher. In the course of the study, an inverse relationship was established between the involvement of students in the educational process and the opportunity to ask a question (or make a comment during the lesson). Students with a high level of involvement in the learning process were in the most vulnerable position in terms of maintaining communication. It is concluded that communication dysfunctions are the main limitation of the effectiveness of online learning, reducing student satisfaction from the educational process.

105-117

Authors: Duc-Long Le, Thien-Vu Giang, Dieu-Khuon Ho, Hong-Ngan Pham-Huynh

Studies on short-term online courses in form of the massive open online course have become an e-learning trend in higher education institutions to transfer a sufficient amount of credits’ knowledge in a short period. This article focused on exploring the factors that affected undergraduate students’ satisfaction when participating in a short-term online course at a key pedagogical university in the South of Vietnam. This was a cross-sectional study with 1720 pedagogical students. The study aimed to explore and understand the factors affecting the satisfaction when studying online courses of pre-service teachers to prepare them with experience and knowledge for future online teaching. The results showed a positive correlation between perceived ease of use; perceived usefulness, information quality; system quality; instructors dimension; support service; subjective norm; perceived behavior control with students’ satisfaction when participating in a short-term online course. This is the basis for research team to continue to develop and improve the quality of online courses and provide a theoretical framework on factors affecting learners' satisfaction when participating in a short-term online course for students in countries with higher education online education systems similar to Vietnam.In addition, this study expanded our understanding of the factors that influence the preparation of pre-service teachers to meet the requirements of digital transformation and international integration in e-learning educational trend from a developing country’s perspective.

132-138

Authors: Tuong Nguyen Van, Truong Phan Nguyen Dong

The research was aimed at investigating the relationship between Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City students’ emotional intelligence and their academic performance throughout self-reported academic results. By understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic results, the research could give suggestions for educators and lecturers to improve students’ academic performances and the quality of the teaching-learning process in the higher education context. The sample of this research was 675 students (aged from 18 to 24) out of 73000 students participating in Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City. The research was administered within the academic year of 2020–2021 with a google survey form. To achieve the objectives of this study, the scale of Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (2004) was administered within this research. The scale could be accounted as the point of view from which VNU-HCM students stated their emotional intelligence. The academic results were self-reported by participants. The results indicated that students with high emotional intelligence reported performing better academically. Students attending a training course on emotional intelligence performed better in emotional intelligence. Theresults imply that the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City board of managers should cascade more training courses on emotional intelligence for students to improve their academic performance.

152-172

Authors: Ekrem Nurovic, Mersid Poturak

With the rapid progress in technology and the advancement in learning systems, E-learning has become the topic of many studies in the last several decades. The success of a society is based on education; those who have a better educational system prosper and develop faster. The schooling systems of countries that are in transition are facing many problems. Due to the complex governing structure, the reforms of the education system are very slow thus researchers opt for an alternative to traditional education. The goal of this research is to examine what tiger intention to use online-courses and the current barriers that exist. This researcher aims to answer the following questions. “What are the main factors affecting the intention to use online-courses? For this research four variables have been developed (Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, and Motivation) and their influence on students' behavioural intention to use MOOCs was measured. Moreover, in the main model of the study, five variables (Age, Gender, Experience, Language Barriers, and Level of Education) were used as controlling (moderating) variables. The research used a quantitative method where data has been collected using surveys that have been done among high school and university students. Regression analysis was used to test hypotheses and the main findings showed that all four variables have an influence on students and their intention to use MOOCs. The findings of the study show that performance expectancy and device consistency have an influence on MOOC use intentions. Facilitating environments, instructional consistency, and MOOC use purpose all influence MOOC use. MOOC use intention was found to be influenced by social impact and effort expectationsand further, this study has confirmed that motivation impacts behavioural intention to use MOOCs. The study finally concluded that the universities must have systems and tools in place to encourage students to use MOOCs. At all stages of education, tech skills instruction should be included in the curriculum. MOOC designers must use the best teaching and learning methods to ensure that MOOCs have good instructional content, as well as ensure that the sites and learning materials are in excellent quality.

188-203

Authors: Elena V. Soboleva, Tatiana N. Suvorova, Dmitriy V. Chuprakov, Irina Yu. Khlobystova

In accordance with the requirements of the professional standard, the teacher of the digital school must have skills related to information and communication technologies, communicative competence, and teamwork skills. The formation of relevant qualities in the conditions of higher education is complicated by a number of different problems. The purpose of the study is to study the features of the formation of teamwork skills in future teachers when developing didactic games with traditional and digital components. Research methodology. Gamification is used both as a technology for acquiring new knowledge and as a technology for team building. The team activity method is used to design didactic games. The experiment involved 60 undergraduates of the Vyatka State University of the training program "Psychological and Pedagogical Education". To assess team effectiveness Laura Stack's methodology was chosen (five levels of team building). Research results. The students of the experimental group are involved in team work on educational games: they study basic mechanics in didactic games; master interactive services; develop their own project, including both non-computer and digital elements. In conclusion problematic questions are formulated, the answers to which make it possible to determine the directions of the work of the didactic game design team: discussion of the goal of the game and the game goal, the choice of basic mechanics and formed competences, the rules and resources, etc.

221-229

Authors: Esmeralda Tejada-Peña, Violetta S. Molchanova, Arturo García-Santillán

The objective of this study is to determine the variables that explain the knowledge of financial literacy among college students in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, and to identify whether the level of financial literacy that prevails in these students differs by gender, age and school grade. To do so, the study is based on a theoretical reference recently exposed by Goyal and Kumar (2021), who analyzed 502 articles between the years 2000 to 2019, in their findings they found that the gender gap and financial education, impacts on financial behavior. The participants of the study were 600 college students of a public sector Institution. The statistical procedure for data analysis was: first, the instrument was validated with Cronbach's alpha and normality through the values of skewness and kurtosis, then the correlation matrix, Brattle’s test of Sphericity with Kaiser and the sample adequacy measure were calculated, and the extraction of components under the criterion of eigenvalues > to 1 and total variance. Finally, to verify if there is a difference in relation to the variables of financial education, gender, age and employment status, an ANOVA analysis is performed. Finally, the findings show that there is a difference between the variables: Gender and financial literacy (Saving and Investment); Age (Spending and Credit); Employment Status (Income, Money Management, Spending and Credit, Saving and Investment). This leads us to think that the higher level student presents a low level of financial knowledge, which could affect their personal growth, and that the gap of gender, age and employment status makes a difference in relation to the variables studied.

253-258

Authors: Goran Rajović, Sergei N. Bratanovskii

This work explores the system of public education and cultural life in the pre-reform uyezd town of Ostashkov, Tver Governorate. The principal sources used for this study were materials from the Memorandum Books for Tver Governorate and pre-revolutionary periodical press materials from the newspaper Tverskiye Yeparkhialnyye Vedomosti. Methodologically, the work relied on the following fundamental historical principles: historicism, systematicity, and objectivity. This helped examine the system of public education system in the town of Ostashkov, Tver Governorate, in the period up to the abolition of serfdom in 1861 in a historical sequence, as well as systematize the available material into several groups – educational institutions, student body composition, institutions of culture, and cultural life. The study’s findings revealed that on the eve of the abolition of serfdom in 1861 out of the town’s 10,876 residents 4,508 attended a civil primary school. A fairly large portion of the town’s population went to an ecclesiastical educational institution (although not all of those students were native residents of the town – some came from the uyezd). Some of its residents received education prior to 1852, including privately. Overall, around 6,000 residents of the town had a primary education on the eve of the abolition of serfdom, or more than 50 % of its total population. The high literacy rate was conducive to a corresponding level of culture (boulevards, gardens, public libraries, and a theater). These factors set the town of Ostashkov apart from most conventional uyezd towns in the Russian Empire.

267-278

Authors: Andriy Ye. Lebid, Sergey I. Degtyarev

This paper examines the key milestones in the development of Imperial Novorossiya University in Odessa in the context of the development of the institution of the rectorship within the higher education system of the 19th and early 20th century Russian Empire. The study’s findings revealed that the mission of Imperial Novorossiya University was both centered on influencing intellectual, cultural, and social life in the region and aimed at expanding Russian imperial influence in the Balkans. The paper mentions that thanks to the universities there developed in the cities where they were opened a special intellectual, conceptual, and axiological space. As a consequence, each such city received the status of a university city. The study’s findings revealed that, despite being young, Imperial Novorossiya University became a powerful academic and educational center in Ukraine alongside the already running universities in Kiev and Kharkov. In large part, this became possible thanks to the progressive educational policy implemented by the university’s rectors for the purposes of closing education gaps, meeting students’ special educational needs, and providing students with comprehensive support, including financial assistance for their education. In part, this was possible through improvements in education quality via an effective staffing policy from the university’s rectors, which included enlisting prominent scholars and pedagogues to work at it. In addition, the rectors contributed to the development of the university’s own “talent foundry”, helping get university graduates and talented gymnasium teachers hooked into science and teaching. All these measures contributed to the development of a special education model to help ensure sustainable development at the level of the university, the region, and the country as a whole. The paper also examines the distinctive characteristics of the institution of the rectorship at Imperial Novorossiya University vis-à-vis Imperial Kharkov University and the Imperial University of Saint Vladimir in Kiev.

286-294

Authors: Timur A. Magsumov, Teymur E. Zulfugarzade, Mikhail B. Kolotkov, Sergei B. Zinkovskii

This set of articles relies on reference and memorandum books from the period 1873–1917 to explore the development of the system of public education in Astrakhan Governorate. This is the third piece in the set. It addresses the period 1895–1907, which covers the entire reign of Emperor Nicholas II. The principal source used in this work is the Memorandum Books for Astrakhan Governorate spanning 1895–1907. Methodologically, use was made of sets of historical (historical-systematic, historical-comparative, historical-typological, historical-genetic, and historical-statistical) and general (synthetic analysis, content analysis, and systems analysis) research methods. The study’s findings revealed that between 1895 and 1907 the system of public education in Astrakhan Governorate witnessed brisk development, with the number of secondary and lower educational institutions in the region increasing 2 times and that of primary schools there growing 3.3 times. The largest growth was registered in 1898–1903, which can be attributed to demographic growth. The number of lower educational institutions in the region rose evenly year on year, whereas its secondary and primary schools posted a sharp quantitative increase in certain years. Despite the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 and the Revolution of 1905–1907, the system of public education in Astrakhan Governorate continued its brisk development. In fact, Astrakhan Governorate even outperformed some of the country’s other regions in this respect.

302-308

Authors: Sergey Belentsov, Natalia Gorbunova, Natalia Vlasenko, Elmira Khairullina

This article characterizes the role of youth movements and organizations in the formation of civic-patriotic consciousness. The author turns to the history of youth organizations and movements in Germany in the post-war period (1920-s). The chronological framework of the work covers the time period from the late 10-s to the 1920-s of the twentieth century. The purpose of this article is to characterize youth organizations in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century and their role in the formation of civic and patriotic consciousness of the younger generation. The role of social movements and organizations in the issues of socialization of youth and the formation of civic-patriotic consciousness in these conditions is emphasized. It is social activity that is the most effective school for the education of citizenship, patriotism, and high moral qualities of young people. The role of social movements and organizations is significantly increasing in the issues of socialization of young people and the formation of civic-patriotic consciousness in these conditions. Youth public associations serve as a special institution of socialization. General scientific and private scientific approaches form the methodological basis of the study. These are historical, comparative, and systematic approaches. Applied methods are also used. This article will be useful to teaching staff, educators, heads of educational organizations on issues of civil and patriotic education of the younger generation, their involvement in creative activities and participation in various collective creative affairs and events.

319-326

Authors: Irina Yu. Cherkasova

This paper explores the international activity of Cherkas Global University in the period from 1992 to 2023. Consideration is given to the principal vectors of that work – organizational (contests and participation on editorial councils) and research (publication activity). Based on the study’s findings, Cherkas Global University has been involved in multiple international projects, including attracting international specialists to the academic journals of the university’s publishing house (Cherkas Global University Press), putting together the full-text database Open Academic Journals Index, undertaking scientific expeditions (Norway, USA, Georgia, and Armenia), holding membership in American and British scholarly societies, and engaging in collaboration in the area of academic publications. Among the institutions that Cherkas Global University has engaged in joint research projects with are some of the world’s top 100 institutions of higher learning, namely the University of Geneva and Tel Aviv University.