Švietimas: politika, vadyba, kokybė /Education Policy, Management and Quality

10-19

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas, Laima Railienė

The aim of research is to ascertain, how Lithuanian comprehensive school students value Lithuanian education system, what its advantages and disadvantages they discern and what recommendations they present for its improvement. The research data were expressed in writing. The received answers of the respondents were coded. The most frequently recurring notional units were grouped until initial groups were found, called sub-categories. In the second stage the sub-categories were combined into categories. The qualitative research data were processed using content analysis, when essential characteristics are distinguished in the information base. The obtained verbal data base, referring to conventional content analysis methods, was analysed in three stages: • Multiple answer reading; • The search of semantically related answers and “key” words; • The interpretations of notional units. To guarantee the reliability of data analysis, the distinction of notional units and subsequent grouping was carried out independently by two researchers. The results of quantitative analysis were analysed and announced earlier (Lamanauskas, Railiene, 2010b). In recent years secondary education stage students feel a considerable amount of stress because of constant changes taking place in educational process. The essential education system advantages in respect of students are these: good preparation of students, acquisition of knowledge, good theoretical preparation, also good preparation for further education; free general education; a possibility to choose subjects according to demands and a wide choice of them. The choice of students’ individual learning plan in the 11th- 12th forms is determined by: intention to study and to acquire a desirable profession, hobbies, having been acquired by students up to 11th form, the desire to know more. Also, the students choose the subjects which they are good at, and reject those which are difficult for them. Students pay rather big attention to teachers’ qualification, learning atmosphere and to material basis available in comprehensive school. The essential disadvantages in respect of students are these: too big learning load and pace at school, students are overloaded with work, expensive education in general, especially higher education, very high fee for studies, poor practical preparation, too much attention for conveyance of information; annual changes, there is no stability, nobody knows what novelties are expecting next year, never-ending reforms. They are especially worried about reconstructions in higher schools as well. In students’ opinion, more attention at school should be paid to the development of students’ creativity. Also, a very important thing is the implementation of the newest technologies into the education process.

29-38

Authors: Violetta Khmel

The Republic of Belarus in series implements an elaborate model of socially oriented market economy. The analysis of the educational level of the Belarusian population revealed that the high rate of state development is provided by specialists with specialized secondary education. The analysis of teaching situation in specialized secondary schools in respect to accountants’ training allowed to discover contradictions in the formulated aims and planned results of vocational education. Although the Republic of Belarus has not joined the Bologna process yet, it does not reject the key approaches of European education used to ensure the organizational and pedagogical conditions of the teaching process. The competency-based approach to choosing of the contents of teaching is not only widely researched, but is being introduced into the educational standards of different specialties. But the system of competences of a graduate proving its competence remains sometimes ill-conceived. The system analysis of concepts of the competency-based approach in Pedagogics and Management let us formulate the essence of competences of a specialist working in the real economy. In this research the professional competence is determined as willingness and ability of specialists to implement their knowledge, skills and experience in the real conditions of professional activity. The peculiarities of forming of professional competence are reflected by the example of accountants’ training. In the context outlined above professional competence of an accountant can be defined as an integrative personality characteristic of a specialist formed on the basis of and in the process of learning theory as well as getting expertise in economics, finance and accounting, acquiring professional skills and experience. It reflects the readiness of a specialist to solve professional problems in the dynamics of their development. The analysis of the peculiarities of accountants’ work that are important in terms of innovative development of economy and the synthesis of theoretical approaches to the concept of professional competence allowed us to substantiate and formulate the methodology of determining the professional component of specialists’ competence. The essence of the methodology lies in the fact that during the development of the model of professional component of a specialist’s competence consisting of a system of competences, the following conditions should be taken into account: • Competencies pertaining to knowledge and skills which pass down from generation to generation, the ability to use them in professional activities as well as professional consciousness. These competences are generalized and systematized in the educational standard of the specialty; • Competencies that define the essence of the process and the results of professional activities described by Human Resource Management and dependant on the current state and development of the society. The proposed algorithm was tested among the students of the specialty 2-25 01 35 Accounting, analysis and control at the level of specialized secondary education in the Republic of Belarus.