Problems of Education in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 44, PEC, 2012

5-9

Authors: Agnaldo Arroio, Dirceu D. D. de Souza

Natural Science Education plays a very important role in broadening students’ world outlook. The Natural Science classes should discuss real, concrete things and phenomena, which are a part of students’ reality and even everyday life (Lamanauskas, 2003). Nowadays it is necessary to take advantage of the Information and Communication Technologies to support innovative methodologies of teaching natural science. As well, it leads to different ways of seeing the world and consequently leads to different beliefs concerning our comprehension of the world. Expanding the experiences as the augmented reality, it is real now. So, words and terms which are used acquire meaning in the contexts where they are used. The relevant perspective within a sector is decisive for how a question, a problem, a statement is to be interpreted, what is interesting, pertinent an objective (Arroio, 2011).

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Authors: Lali Giorgidze

Today Georgia as never before faces challenges of quality assurance. Despite reforms carried out by the Georgian government aiming at the quality improvement of higher education, many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the country still faces real problems. The concept of “management” is not so widely known, not to say anything about the lack of human resources with theoretical knowledge and experience in education management. The purpose of the research was to analyze universities management in general terms and identify how quality-oriented universities’ management is in Georgia. For this purpose quantitative research was carried out. The universities were selected according to their legal status, period of functionality and qualitative experience. By combining certain data we elaborated indicators for the purpose of comparing various aspects of universities. For ensuring validity criteria validity was applied. Results of the research show that management is the main pre-requisite for quality assurance. Drawbacks and gaps in university management have also been identified the improvement of which will make a basis for enhancing management quality and establish a management culture at the Universities of Georgia.

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Authors: Juliana Latifi

At present, Albania faces a reality in which education as a public interest is provided by both public as well as private institutions. The liberalisation of access in higher education has resulted in public and/or private institutions which provide the same service – education, compete with each other in trying to attract the same customer – the student. Competition is considered as a key instrument that has produced a diversity/variety of higher education institutions and with more choices to the student. This research is aimed at analysing the relation existing between competition and higher education as well as its impact on higher education in Albania. In this analysis we have addressed four important issues: 1. Liberalisation of higher education and the impact of competition 2. Competition law in education 3. The mechanism of free competition - the market of students 4. Using competition to promote reform in higher education This study is based on the interpretation of the domestic legislation, analysis of policy documents and articles, as well as interviews with 10 key persons and 20 students. This research helps understanding the role competition plays in the higher education sector, which has resulted in a tangible reform being undertaken by the public and private HEI themselves. This reform is based on the adaptation of competition rules with the purpose of achieving provision of a qualitative service – standards based education.

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Authors: Viera Palmárová, Gabriela Lovászová

Digital devices like smart phones, tablets, PDAs and GPS navigators provide teachers in primary and secondary schools with new and attractive chances to teach in a constructivist/constructionist way. The research was aimed at designing an engaging outdoor learning activity based on collaboration and active using of mobile technology. The suggested learning activity was inspired by a real-world treasure hunting game called Geocaching and was realized with 2 groups of pupils aged 10-14. Children used a GPS-enabled PDA to navigate from their current location to another. They encountered various types of problems while collecting hints needed to calculate the final location of a hidden container. Even collaboration between competing teams was necessary in order to succeed. The case study gives an example of a well-designed constructivist/constructionist learning activity with special focus on informatics education but can be easily adapted for using in any other school subject or some after-school context as well. The adventurous and competitive nature of the learning activity resulted in high intrinsic motivation to learn, so the educational objectives could be reached effectively. Reported findings are grounded in observations made during the learning activity as well as the interviews with participants.

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Authors: Daniela Tamo, Aljula Jubani, Mimoza Gjokutaj

Efforts are being made in many educational settings to find out the most effective ways of assuring quality of the teaching and learning process. In the framework of continuous reformation of the education system in Albania, many initiatives have been taken aiming at improving the quality of the teaching and learning process WHERE?? IN THE AREA OF???? . Several ambitious projects have been piloted. One of them is related to setting the teaching and learning process in a pragmatic global context. This project was piloted in some areas of Albania. It aimed at applying some new principles of teaching and learning by simultaneously setting teaching and learning in four dimensions: that of time (present, past, future), space, problems (environment, human rights, etc.) and internal. Teaching was based on the use of interactive, all inclusive techniques and strategies. As a result, the interactive profile of the teacher is strengthened and the quality of students’ learning has improved as well. This project is supported by the Institute of Global Education in Canada This article brings a picture of the impacts of this initiative, which are related with the best student outcomes, change of values and attitudes about life, new approaches for the world and the active participation in important social roles. This pilot work has led to a new objective, namely the one of establishment of a new teacher profile in the global area and of the new roles it should take in the course of both teaching and learning. Data and thoughts of teachers and students related to such findings are described in the current article.

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Authors: Ilya Levin

The present paper is a theoretical study of the educational system in the coming postindustrial society. The authors propose a conceptual model of that modern educational system. The model represents the approaching new school as a culturological space defined by three planes corresponding to three new phenomena closely related to the modern information technologies. These phenomena affecting the new school are: a) Social Media as a new way of forming social consciousness; b) Personal Identity Online as a new way of forming personality, and c) Data Intensive Science as a new scientific and methodological paradigm. It is shown that each of these phenomena is a result of evolution in three fields: knowledge acquiring, learning process, and science methodology. Development of the educational system/process is considered to benefit from а conflict between two tendencies: socialization and individualization. The paper also discusses digital curation as a novel educational activity which can be born in the new school based on a combined contribution of the above three phenomena. No doubt that education in the social media, within the abundance of various content, and with stimulating the students’ personal identity online - such education should drastically change roles of both the teacher and the students in the new school.

128

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 44, PEC, 2012