Original research. Рубрика в журнале - International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education
Didactic trends and perceived teachers’ training needs in higher education: a case study
Отчет
Today’s world requires people who manage their learning and professional updating processes, which claims for a change in educational practices in all levels of education. However, in Higher Education, this transformation relies mostly on teacher’s efforts to innovate within the learning environments, requiring institutional efforts to generate strategies towards educational innovation. This paper presents the analysis of didactic trends and training needs of teachers at UNIMINUTO Colombia, based on the data gathered at the Annual Meetings for Innovative Pedagogical Practices and an additional survey applied on-line, to determine teachers’ training needs and, furthermore, institutional strategies to strengthen the teaching-learning process. The study uses a mixed methodology through a concurrent triangulation design with qualitative and quantitative methods, with an exploratory scope; both quantitative and qualitative parts of the study counted on a voluntary sampling method. Trend analysis shows that the most used didactic methods are Project-Based learning, Research-Based Learning, and Collaborative Learning. However, the analysis of teachers’ appropriation of knowledge about didactics, especially on those strategies, is low or basic, which compared to the training needs expressed by teachers demonstrate that training processes in educational innovation and new teaching methods is crucial to help educational innovation initiatives to evolve. The study stablishes a trend towards the use active-learning methodologies in pedagogical practices, highlighting the necessity of teachers’ training in how and when to use them, and setting the importance of including communication skills as a topic in teachers’ training programs.
Бесплатно
Different self-attitude indicators in students and their self-realization in a university
Статья научная
The problem raised in the study is also due to the lack of a common conceptual framework explaining the conditionality of foreign students' realization by subjective characteristics. The purpose of the paper is to present and analyze the results of an empirical study of self-attitude indicators as subject predictors of students' self-realization in a foreign cultural environment. The study was conducted in 2019-20 among students of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia getting undergraduate and Master's degrees in Humanities. 412 respondents aged 18-25 took part in the survey. The authors used “Multidimensional questionnaire of self-identity” method by S. I. Kudinov; “Test - questionnaire of self-attitude” method by V. V. Stolin, S. R. Panteleev; the self-assessment diagnostic technique by Dembo-Rubinstein in A. M. Prikhozhan's modification; “Individual preferences of self-expression sphere” questionnaire by S. S. Kudinov; methods of mathematical and statistical analysis (descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, K. Pearson's correlation analysis, factor analysis, the program of standard statistical package “Statistica-7.0”. In the course of an empirical study of students in a multinational university it was found that the respondents' self-realization is carried out mainly in the course of educational activities. As a result of cluster analysis, three groups of respondents with dominant indicators of self-attitude have been identified, which were conventionally designated as positive-stable, negative-rigid and socially dependent type of self-attitude. It is determined that respondents with a positive-stable type of self-attitude demonstrate most successful self-fulfillment due to the expression of such personal qualities as self-acceptance, self-confidence, faith in their possibilities and abilities, self-management. At the same time, the greatest difficulties in self-realization are experienced by students with a socially dependent type of self-attitude, due to low self-esteem, external self-regulation and constant expectation that others would evaluate their activities, actions and reactions.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The predictive abilities of children are little investigated in cognitive psychology. The results of empirical studies of predictive thinking of senior preschool age children with underdevelopment are presented. The sample group was 6-7 year old children attending kindergarten. There are 18 children with somatic, speech disorders. We used techniques: “Psychodiagnostic complex (PDC)”, the method of investigating the peculiarities of predictive activity; the method for diagnostics the level of development of verbal-logical thinking. We used the method of participant observation. We presented the data proving that children with a mental underdevelopment more often make mistakes in predictions and mistakes of distractions, elements alternating, strategies change, classification, which reduces their cognitive efficiency. The results demonstrate statistical relationships between the indicators of the ability to prediction, verbal-logical and visual-creative thinking in children of preschool age. Factors influencing the formation of mental abilities of children are discussed.
Бесплатно
Diffusion of innovation in modern school
Статья научная
This paper presents the results of research aimed to examine how teachers are interested in the application of innovation in teaching and in their personal development. An attempt was made to determine their opinion on the application of innovation in education. Sample consisted of 162 teachers (N = 162) in primary and secondary schools. We used the technique of scaling and instrument evaluation scale that was specifically designed for this research. The results show that teachers easily and smoothly implement innovations in their educational work and the knowledge gained by applying innovation far better in terms of practical application and durability of the knowledge acquired without the use of innovation. A qualitative analysis has shown that the majority of respondents had positive views of the use of innovations in their schools.
Бесплатно
Digital competencies in the context of preschool music education
Статья научная
Given the digitalization of modern society and the way a child acquires musical experiences, practitioners are expected to apply various media in everyday educational praxis. The theoretical framework of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is an approach that connects the knowledge of educators with Information and Communications Technology (ICT), concurrently developing technology-supported pedagogical knowledge and integration of technology into education. The paper aims to investigate educators’ self-assessment of their digital competencies and their implementation in musical activities with preschool children. The respondents are full-time and part-time graduate students of the Early Childhood and Preschool Education study program from faculties of teacher education in Croatia. The obtained results indicate that 91,1 % of respondents didn’t have any formal ICT education while 59,5 % didn’t have any additional type of music education except during their studies. Nevertheless, the greatest knowledge participants have shown on the competencies for using digital tools (CFUDT) scale succeeded by a technological knowledge (TK) scale of the adapted TPACK-TCCMA survey, thus the respondents rated their digital and ICT competencies exceedingly high unlike music and pedagogical competencies. Considering the results obtained, it can be concluded that additional attention should be given to the development of digital, music, and pedagogical competencies during studies that will be applicable in both music and other areas of education.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
This research is a descriptive study in the survey model to determine the direct and indirect effects between visual perception, phonological awareness, and literacy errors. The design of the study is exploratory correlational design. 552 first-grade primary school students participated in the study. The data were collected using measurement tools named phonological awareness, visual perception, word-sentence writing/spelling, and reading errors. According to the findings, visual perception affects sentence writing/spelling both directly and through word-writing-reading errors. Visual perception affects reading errors both directly and through word-sentence writing errors. The results show that the development of prerequisite skills and reading are mediated by writing, writing/spelling are mediated by reading, and learning develops in a spiral manner. It can be said that children’s reading-writing/spelling errors increase because they have difficulty in converting from sound to the letter, from letter to sound, and in synthesizing and analyzing according to their initial level of phonological awareness and visual perception development.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the features of distance learning at universities and its impact on the characteristics of anxiety, psycho-emotional states and stress resistance of modern students. The purpose of the study was to determine the specifics of anxiety and stress resistance in Russian and Chinese students during the period of distance learning. The novelty of the paper lies in the fact that Russian and Chinese students took part in a cross-cultural empirical study: in total, the sample consisted of 80 students: 40 Russian students (20 boys and 20 girls) and 40 Chinese students (20 boys and 20 girls) aged 18 to 25 years studying in 2-3d years of Bachelor programs. The following methods were used in the study: 1) Spielberger anxiety scale adapted by Yu. L. Khanin; 2) the questionnaire “Well-being, activity, mood” by V.A. Doskin, N.A. Lavrentieva, V.B. Sharaya and M.P. Miroshnikov; 3) a short scale of stress resistance by E.V. Raspopin. The conducted research identified specific features of anxiety and stress resistance manifestation in Russian and Chinese students. We established significant differences in indicators of anxiety, stress resistance and psycho-emotional state components as well as determined meaningful between indicators of well-being, activity, mood, anxiety and stress resistance in students. Based on the data obtained, the content of the paper presents conclusions and recommendations on optimizing the educational process at the university in order to reduce anxiety and increase stress resistance in students who have to endure the distance-learning format.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The aim of this study is to examine the cognitive flexibility before and during the COVID-19 pandemic through a different performance measurement suitable for online application. In the study, three different data collected in 2019 (T19), 2020 (T20) and 2021 (T21) were compared with both within-and between-subject designs. One-hundred-and-twenty-three university students were included in the study for within-subjects, 239 for between-subject. According to the findings of the study, the cognitive flexibility of the students who continue formal education in T19 is higher than the students who continue distance education in T20 according to both within-subject and between-subject design. Besides, in both designs, fewer total words were produced in T19 than in T20. The sentences created by the students who continue their distance education in pandemic stay around less categories and contain more words. According to the within-subject findings obtained at T20 and T21, the cognitive flexibility and total words produced at T20 were greater. In other words, the scores of the students decreased over time during the pandemic period. In T21, cognitive flexibility is not related to vulnerability, perceived risk, and fear of COVID-19. However, according to the regression results, vulnerability at T21 was predicted by the total word and total emotional word in T20. Accordingly, producing more total words in T20 reduced vulnerability in T21; however, using more emotional words in T20 increased vulnerability in T21. In addition, the number of siblings was negatively associated with vulnerability. Lastly, cognitive flexibility test was found to be reliable.
Бесплатно
EEG interface module for cognitive assessment through neurophysiologic tests
Отчет
The cognitive signal processing is one of the important interdisciplinary field came from areas of life sciences, psychology, psychiatry, engineering, mathematics, physics, statistics and many other fields of research. Neurophysiologic tests are utilized to assess and treat brain injury, dementia, neurological conditions, and useful to investigate psychological and psychiatric disorders. This paper presents an ongoing research work on development of EEG interface device based on the principles of cognitive assessments and instrumentation. The method proposed engineering and science of cognitive signal processing in case of brain computer interface based neurophysiologic tests. The future scope of this study is to build a low cost EEG device for various clinical and pre-clinical applications with specific emphasis to measure the effect of cognitive action on human brain.
Бесплатно
Economic implications of education in Southeast Europe
Статья научная
This research covers an evaluation of the impact of education system, educational, scientific and other institutions on the economic growth in nine countries of Southeast Europe (SEE). The main hypothesis is the following: GDP pc growth is significant and positively correlates with the indicators of the state of education system. In addition to educational institutions, there are other social and economic indicators on which education and science depend, namely the budget and fiscal system, corruption and protection of intellectual property rights, which also have positive and significant impact on GDP pc. The stated fields are interactive. Besides GDP pc, the analysis includes another 11 variables. Factor analysis for the variables grouped into two factors shows high significance. The F-test result shows significance of the regression model. ANOVA test, too, confirms the aforementioned significance. Both variables (the first and second factor) have positive direction with GDP pc. The results show significance of the institutional-educational variable, while the impact of educational population in the model is not sufficiently significant. Econometric analysis has mainly confirmed the initial hypotheses.
Бесплатно
Education in online environment from students’ and teachers’ perspective
Статья научная
The pandemic related to COVID-19 has affected education particularly in terms of the massive shift towards online teaching and study. Students and teachers had to face new challenges they had not met before. The aim of the paper is to research how both, students and teachers perceive the online educational process, to identify advantages and disadvantages of online teaching, as well as to analyze and evaluate the quality of online teaching in comparison with the attendance form of education from both students’ and teachers’ perspective. In order to fulfill this purpose, we carried out two separate questionnaire surveys (among students and teachers at the Faculty of Economic Informatics at the University of Economics in Bratislava). Based on conclusions resulting from our research, we can affirm that both students and teachers prefer the attendance form of education rather than online teaching, students mainly because of need of socialization, personal contact with teachers and classmates, better and faster communication with teachers, and active class discussion. The attendance form of education eliminates technology related problems, such as outages of the Internet, electricity, missing technology equipment, and this form of education is performed on higher quality level in comparison with online education. Among the most frequently limitations of online education mentioned by teachers were anonymity of students, complexity of preparation of study materials, and cheating during exams and tests. There are also some advantages the online education offers, such as time savings, more effective, creative and flexible modern way of teaching, and recording lectures.
Бесплатно
Education process visualization in metacognition development and sustainability
Статья научная
The article reflects on the role of visualization in education. Modern society is characterized by rapid growth of information that people have to process in order to maintain progress and sustainability in science and development of education. The amount of information is growing so quickly that a person is no longer able to perceive actual data about the outside world and process it using traditional methods. The basis of the “image of the world” contains not only concepts, but the semantic images created with the help of visual thinking. In our study we assume that students are quite limited in their knowledge about cognitive phenomena or in their meta-cognition and do relatively little monitoring of their own memory, comprehension, and other cognitive enterprises. But we also assume that every student is potentially capable of meta-cognition, which is thinking of how better to perform cognitive actions and to be aware of how to learn. Developing meta-cognitive awareness is important because it helps learners become more efficacious and more autonomous. For many of them it can be identified as the most effective way of acquiring knowledge. Visualizing the very process of learning can help see how well it is going. Schema theory offers different ways of using schemas, especially in education. So far, there have been researches on schema as a tool for particular skills such as better comprehension, memorizing and retrieval of the knowledge received. It means students can use schemas to better understand the process of learning and skills acquired.
Бесплатно
Education, technological changes and economic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Статья научная
Accumulation of knowledge, the role of education and innovations in the stimulation of economic development are important for understanding the endogenous theory of growth. The aim of this paper is to determine the strength and direction of relations between independent variables of education, technological development, innovations, foreign investments and the economic growth of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The relations between variables are assessed by multiple regression analysis for the period 2005 - 2017. GDP per capita (pc), as a measure of general wellbeing and economic development is a dependent variable of the regression model. Education Years Average, Technological readiness and Innovations are explanatory variables, whereas Foreign investments and Macroeconomic environment are control variables. The results indicate statistical significance of variables Education Years Average, Technological readiness and Innovations. The first two variables indicate a positive effect on the economic development, whereas Innovations have a negative effect on the economic development. The control variables are statistically insignificant. Therefore, more investment is recommended in the field of education, science and research. Institutions should be more developed and scientific-research systems should be harmonized with the European Union. It is the only way for B&H to be able to respond to global challenges when it comes to competitiveness, export and the GDP growth. Examples and experiences of this country can be useful for research activities in similar post-transition countries.
Бесплатно
Educational challenges of Roma minorities: the case of the Republic of North Macedonia
Статья научная
Linguistic diversity comes in various forms. The most common ways of developing knowledge of more than one language according to some authors are either by learning a second language through participation in some form of bilingual education or being raised in a bilingual environment, such as school or a bilingual family. The phenomenon of development of literacy competencies of minority groups, specifically, the context of Roma people, in the Republic of North Macedonia, whose mother tongue is not even considered a standard language is the main research purpose of this paper. Research conducted in comparative studies on integrated education shows that in the elementary schools with high numbers of Roma students actions are rarely taken to enhance the integration of these minority students, because of 1) the lack of iconography, which is important for the ethnic identity of this minority and 2) low competence level of parents and teachers who are not adequately trained to work with students coming from different linguistic backgrounds or social backgrounds that are characterized by low literacy levels and low learning competences. Participants in this study were from several primary schools in North Macedonia and the responses were categorized according to the major themes that occurred. The findings show how women are excluded from obtaining better education and that multilingual children from deprived economic settings with poorly educated parents struggle and are seriously challenged to obtain proper literacy and education in elementary schools. The study reveals important details about the educational legislation, treatment of Roma people by local and international organizations and provides suggestions for improvement of the current status of the Roma population.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The research focus of this work raises the issue that refers to the assessment of the effects of the project models for safe schools, which are derived from the National Strategy for Reducing Violence in Schools in R. Macedonia (2012-2015) through promoting a sustainable educational concept for safe secondary schools. This work offers answers, in the form of conclusions to the stated questions, such as: whether, and how much do the project models, which are realized in secondary schools, supported and in a “dialectic” relation with the relevant educational institutions from the governmental and non-governmental sector (Ministry of Education and Science, the municipalities, and non-governmental organizations), achieve the primary goal; what are the benefits from the implementation; and what are the models of sustainability? The goal of the research is to assess the conceptual insights and efficiency of the projects, and their influence on strengthening the educational concept of securing a safe school environment in secondary schools in R. Macedonia. Research of this issue is done with assessment research. Due to the complex and diverse nature of the issue under investigation, primary significance is given to the views and needs of all the relevant factors involved in the process. This benefits the idea that the research is of empirical character. It is also supposed that the conceptual insights of the projects have a positive influence on strengthening the educational concept for securing a safe school environment in secondary schools in R. Macedonia.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The needs and interests of teachers for the implementation of innovative models in teaching are the key factor that determines raising quality of teaching at the school. In this context, it should be borne in mind that the educational needs of teachers are closely linked to the necessity of lifelong learning, because nowadays the teachers work skills are not enough that they adopted during schooling twenty years ago or more. The paper analyzes the educational needs of teachers in exploring and implementing innovative work models of teaching. The greatest interest of teachers is for introduction and implementing individualized teaching.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
Educational policy for children with intellectual disability in Republic of Macedonia is not always consistent with the practical implications. The subject of this research was to gain an insight into the current condition of the persons with intellectual disabilities in Macedonia, before all an insight into the barriers that they are facing in their attempts to access educational information and services. This was done through conducting a qualitative (desk-top analyses of the national legislations; semi-structured interviews with parents of persons with intellectual disabilities and focus groups with relevant stakeholders) and a quantitative research (quality of life research for the disabled persons). In the research a total number of 213 examinees were included. As in many other cases, and in many other countries, policy and practice are not always coherent. Legislation in the area of education in our country has to be modified and accommodated to the needs of the persons with disabilities and their parents or care-givers. The final conclusion from our research is that the persons with ID are still on the margins of society, and they lead everyday battles to prove that their needs must be taken into consideration in context of their human rights. Although awareness for the importance of the rightful treatment of this problem is not on a satisfactory level, still we can notice a shift in perception and liberation of prejudice.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The article is devoted to the experimental research of efficiency of solving psychodiagnostic tasks by the students-psychologists with different thinking styles. In the theoretical part a style of thinking as a determinant of successfulness is concerned. The hypothesis is the supposition that efficiency and ways of diagnostic tasks made by the students-psychologists are determined by a dominating thinking style. For the examination of the hypothesis the following methods were used: questionnaire “Styles of thinking” by Brams Harrison, the method of experiment (solution of 6 tasks from real consultative practice), content-analysis of protocols and correlation analysis by Ch. Spirman. The research has been done during some years with students of 4 and 5 courses in South-Russian Humanitarian Institute. The results are the following. Students-analysts are rather successful. They demonstrate good diagnostic process, put forward adequate hypothesis and choose adequate methods, but they don't formulate recommendations. For the students-realists it is important to render support to the client and give feedback. The quality analysis showed that they are inclined to individual forms of work. Pragmatics are characterized by chaotic behavior, they don't put forward hypotheses, offer standard methods. Idealists are the worst. They have difficulties in logics and formulating questions to the client. Synthetics on the whole display insufficient success, but they can solve the task correctly due to guessing or hypotheses. Synthetics operate with the methods poorly. Experimental data demonstrate that the thinking style often defines diagnostic search; variety and quality of put forward hypotheses, adequacy of choosing methods of research.
Бесплатно
Effectiveness of Virtual Co-Teaching: A New Perspective on Teaching
Статья научная
The teaching method of virtual co-teaching helps the mutual sharing of new experiences and methods of pedagogues in teaching in formal education, through digital technologies. It also facilitates the involvement of practitioners in teaching, which can be a key mechanism for ensuring quality education. This article focused on comparing the effectiveness of co-teaching in two environments, face-to-face and virtual. In terms of methodology, an experiment was used, which was implemented in three independently selected schools, from which eight groups of thirty students were formed. The phenomenon measured was the level of understanding of the material taught during these lessons of history, mathematics and a foreign language. The test results of the individual groups were subsequently analyzed. From the results, we can confirm the null hypothesis based on the independent samples t-test and the Mann-Whitney U test, which indicates that there is no statistically significant difference between the test results of the two groups. However, it is essential to emphasize the added value in virtual co-teaching, which is primarily in the economic aspect and flexibility. Specifically, it is a reduction in the cost of commuting, reduced time and easy availability of experts. These results form the basis for follow-up research that can focus on improving the quality of teaching using this method.
Бесплатно
