Original research. Рубрика в журнале - International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education
Validation of the Social Skills Rating System: The Serbian Preschool Teacher Version
Статья научная
Social competence is a key aspect of early development, with long-term implications for children’s functioning in educational and social environments. Given its importance, it is essential to have reliable and valid instruments for assessing both social skills and challenging behaviors in early childhood. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties, factorial structure, and measurement invariance across developmental status and age groups of the preschool teacher version of the Social Skills Rating System, which includes the Social Skills Scale and the Problem Behaviors Scale, within the Serbian preschool population. A total of 309 teachers provided evaluations for 450 children aged 3 to 7, including both typically developing children and those with developmental challenges. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original structure of the Social Skills Rating Scale, with good overall model fit. While the Problem Behaviors Scale was retained in its original form, three items were removed from the Social Skills Scale due to low factor loadings or validity concerns, resulting in a refined 27-item version. Both scales demonstrated high internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity. The present findings suggests that the instrument holds potential for assessing social skills and behavioral challenges in Serbian preschool children aged 3 to 7 years, including those with and without developmental disabilities, thereby extending its applicability beyond the originally intended age range of 3 to 5 years. Although preliminary psychometric results are promising, further research is needed to more robustly confirm its validity and reliability across broader populations and contexts.
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Статья научная
The business culture in the educational system remains conservative, despite the fact that the values of tolerance are wide-spread in the world. This affects the transformation of ideas about the profession of teachers. The article establishes the relationship of ideas about the profession and satisfaction with the profession with the values and meanings of university teachers. It is assumed that in modern conditions of higher education, values and life meanings may differ among teachers with different ideas about the profession. The study sample consists of 270 university teachers aged between 25 and 65 years, work experience from 3 to 25 years, 150 women and 120 men. We used the questionnaire of professional satisfaction (Kissel), the method of measuring values (Schwartz), the semantic differential (Osgood), and the method of identifying life meanings (Kotlyakov). We defined groups of teachers with a neutral view and a positive view of the profession, with varying degrees of satisfaction with the profession. As a result, it was found out that the group of teachers with a neutral attitude to their profession has the most manifested values: conformity, hedonism, security, and meanings: hedonistic, status, and family. The group of teachers with a positive view of the profession, has the values of independence, achievement and security, combined with the meanings: altruistic, self-realization, family and cognitive. It is concluded that university teachers with positive ideas about the profession are more altruistic about their activities, and teachers with neutral ideas about the profession are pragmatic about it.
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Value-semantic scope of personal space of university students
Статья научная
The analysis of theoretical and empirical works on psychology of the personality and axiological sphere of students' activity of the university has been carried out in this article. During the empirical research of formation of the axiological sphere of students of the second - fourth courses of Pedagogical Institution of the South Federal University they have got the definite results. These results helped to find out not only dynamics of these processes, but also the development of personal space components. The analysis of this problem revealed that a person values have the basic impact on all components of a personal space of the subject. The personal space of a man is at all stages of ontogenetic development. During a person's studentship it is the most noticeable. They have also found some connections between the students' values and their personal space formation and development.
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Verbal-performance activities for optimizing foreign language education
Статья научная
The modern world, characterized by dynamic changes, rapid development of ICT and globalization processes sets new challenges to present-day education. This research aims at investigating the influence of applying verbal-performance activities in foreign language education. A pedagogical experiment was conducted in authentic environment with the participation of 99 pupils aged 10 to 11 who formed an experimental and a control group. The study combined qualitative and quantitative approach. It measured pupils’ entry and exit levels of practical English knowledge and communicative skills and also traced the effect of the experimental education on the pupils from the experimental group. The interpretative analyses of the results revealed that applying verbal-performance activities in foreign language education led to higher achievements in terms of knowledge and communicative competence for the pupils from the experimental group compared to the progress of the children from the control group. A measurement of the attitude of the pupils from the experimental group towards applying verbal-performance activities in the educational process proved the potential of the method to increase children’s motivation for learning. The findings of this research confirm the need of further studies on the influence of applying verbal-performance activities in a broader context of school education.
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Violence against teachers- rule or exception?
Статья научная
The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of violence against teachers by students. The study included 175 teachers, five primary and five secondary schools. The age of respondents (teachers) ranges from 20 to 65, with average age being 44,33 years. The used instrument has assessed violence against teachers and has consisted of data about the characteristics of respondents, frequency and type of violence experienced from students. The results suggest that violence against teachers in primary and secondary schools in Zagreb taken in to sample is very much present. Since 74,3% teachers has experienced violence from their students during the year that kind of behavior is more of a rule than an exception. Students in primary and secondary schools show violent behavior against their teachers at an equal level. Male teachers, as opposed to female teachers, are more frequently victims of violent behavior (posting inappropriate content online) from their students. Also, there is a statistically significant correlation (negative) between age (years of service in school) and frequency of experienced violence from students.
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Virtual Reality as Anxiety Management Tool
Статья научная
Virtual Reality technologies have been established as an effective tool for the treatment of a variety of mental health disorders. Despite those positive results, it remains unclear whether these findings can generalize to the healthy population. In the current study, we assessed to what degree a virtual scenario consisting of a tropical beach can be successfully applied for the reduction of state anxiety and negative mood in healthy individuals. The study was performed on 50 volunteers aged 18 to 45 that were individually exposed to virtual reality. Before and after the virtual reality session, the emotional state of the participants was measured through questionnaires. Using linear mixed effect models, we obtained evidence for the effectivity of a single virtual reality session for negative state reduction, namely, we observed a decrease in state anxiety and negative mood. Additionally, a positive mood of participants increased after the session, however, no statistical evidence was obtained. The results confirm our hypothesis that state anxiety and negative mood can be decreased using a low-cost virtual reality device. Based on our findings, we suggest that virtual scenarios can improve the emotional well-being and the quality of life of the general population.
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Статья научная
A visual discrete format was developed for use in surveys as an alternative to a Likert-type format to measure changes in a relatively stable construct before and after an intervention. Visitors to a science centre ranging in age from 8 years old upwards were asked to complete surveys that included a seven-item questionnaire scale on self-concept in science using either the Likert-type format (n=446) or the visual discrete format (n=375), before and after their visit. A new set of statements to assess self-concept in science were developed and validated so they could be conducted on either format. Matched responses were used to calculate internal consistency, standard deviation, confidence interval and percentage of missing values; these were all similar for both formats. In the visual discrete format, text labels were replaced by visual labels with a single image of different size for each response option. While a Likert-type format describes a level of agreement/disagreement with a specific item, the visual discrete format relates more to choosing the best reflection of the self in relation to that item. The Likert-type format included a set of emoji in its descriptions to appeal to younger participants. The visual discrete questionnaire scale detected a small increase with medium effect size in self-concept in science after the visit to the science centre while the Likert-type questionnaire scale did not detect any change. This suggests the proposed new format can not only be a viable and useful alternative, but potentially more sensitive under certain conditions.
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War lessons or how social and personal back-ground shapes our perception
Статья научная
It is well-known that cognitive metaphor can reflect the process of conceptualization of the surrounding world in the human mind. The metaphorical transfer of the source domain's conceptual features to the target domain shows the essence of the reality perception in the consciousness. This study is focused on the intracultural variation of cognitive metaphors, particularly the phenomenon of the implicit-explicit dispersion in metaphors, dependence of their perception on the occupation, gender, and age of members of a culture, and type of metaphors. Based on conceptual metaphors, associated with the target domain WAR in the Russian culture, the researchers elaborate a novel approach to the analysis of conceptual metaphors, providing full-fledged scrutiny of the reflection of the surrounding realm in the minds of native speakers. The study involved 124 people, some of whom have direct professional experience in the military sphere. The obtained differences in the perception of simulated metaphorical models allow us to talk about intracultural variation of the WAR cognitive metaphor and the significant influence of personal experience on the perception of reality.
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Статья научная
The professional self-efficacy of young teachers plays a crucial role in shaping the quality of education and student outcomes. However, limited research has explored how self-efficacy perceptions are influenced by pedagogical reform initiatives. Addressing this gap, the present study aims to assess young teachers’ professional self-efficacy perceptions and evaluate their perspectives on the implementation of the pedagogical reform program. Employing mixed-methods research design, data were collected from a sample of 418 teachers. Quantitative data were gathered using the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale, while qualitative insights were obtained through semi-structured interviews developed by the researchers. Quantitative data were analyzed using statistical software, and qualitative data were examined through descriptive analysis. Findings indicate that young teachers exhibit a high level of professional self-efficacy, with no significant differences observed across gender or teaching discipline. Additionally, while many participants reported a moderate understanding of the pedagogical reform program, they expressed positive attitudes toward professional growth under the mentorship of experienced educators. These results suggest that structured mentorship and targeted professional development initiatives within the pedagogical reform framework can further enhance teachers’ self-efficacy and instructional competencies.
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Статья научная
The present article is a study of the opportunities and constraints for youth transitions from education to employment vis-a-vi the structural relationships (of compliance and discrepancy) between the sectors of education, training and the labor market. The analysis examines the deficiencies in the coordination of the demand and supply of skills in Bulgaria, which hinder the successful employment integration of the current young generation. The mismatches in the system are highlighted on the national and the regional level where we focus on the contextual cases of Blagoevgrad and Plovdiv functional regions. The paper reveals that there is a discrepancy between labor supply and demand in the skills systems in both regions where less than half of university graduates work in the specialty they have acquired during studies. One of the conclusions of the study is that social changes under way require new strategies and approaches of lifelong learning policies that should go deeper into the regional and local level taking into account both the needs of young people for training throughout their lives and the needs of the regional labor markets.
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