Education - diversity and specificity - Editorial
Elena Liliana DANCIU
The Emergent Learning Model; using the informal processes of learning to address the Digital Agenda for Europe
Fred GARNETT, Nigel ECCLESFIELD
Abstract
Since the advent of Web 2.0, which established the participatory web as a platform, we have been involved in rethinking how we might design and support learning to match the potential of this possible new web-based world of education. In our Open Context Model of Learning (Luckin et al 2010) we captured what we had learnt from theory and web-based learning projects, arguing for a model of “informal e-learning”, and for fresh thinking about pedagogy in terms of both andragogy (collaboration) and heutagogy (creativity). We thought this provided an opportunity to rethink the contexts in which learning might take place in the 21st century, as education could be released by the potential of new technology platforms and tools. For us Web 2.0 highlighted the informal social processes of learning over the institutional, formal processes of organising the institutions of education, which raises ethical, cultural and social issues concerning how we might design new contexts of learning. When the EU identified that, post-Bologna, we should look to integrate informal, non-formal and formal learning, we found this inspiring and wrote the Emergent Learning Model (ELM), to both capture what we knew from our own work with informal, non-formal and formal learning and also to be socially inclusive. ELM builds on the Open Context Model and is an attempt to be a learning design tool, what we call a "development framework" for the Digital Agenda Post-Web2.0. We will discuss its origins, the "development framework" we created and how we have used it in designing new learning projects Ambient Learning City & WikiQuals.
Key words: informal learning; Bologna Process; Emergent Learning; Web 2.0; andragogy; heutagogy
Consequences of the Teacher-Student Interaction on Facebook
Andreea PELE
Abstract
Facebook has become a prevalent means of interaction between university students and their teachers. In this paper, the author argues that this informal connection, although seemingly unavoidable in today’s technological context, may have lasting repercussions on the teachers’ role in the classroom and the way their relationship with the students develops.
Key words: Facebook, teacher-student interaction, higher education
Using informational technologies in teaching history of printing to chemical engineering students
Simona POPA
Abstract
The traditional teaching methods cannot handle the huge amount of information that exists in present days. Although the personal influence of the teacher remains determinant in class, the using of modern technologies represents a necessity in educational process. The paper covers some aspects regarding the development a seminar of History of printing to chemical engineering students, using modern informational technologies in teaching.
Key words: informational technologies, teaching, learning, history of printing
Poverty of a family from provincial Poland and attractiveness of a school child among peers
Elżbieta NAPORA
Abstract
The aim of the research was to capture the factors which differentiate the socio-metric status of a child in a class. It was expected that the factors connected with a child and a family have an influence on positive as well as negative choices of a child among peers and that they would differentiate the socio-metric status in a group. 192 pupils in the age of 11-13 from 10 schools in provincial Poland were tested. A classical J. Moreno socio-metric test was used. The result showed that economic situation of a family is the most important reason influencing the attractiveness of a child in a group. Children prefer these who are better well-off. Moreover, subjective poverty is remarkably connected with the incomplete family structure and the sex of a child, which additionally differentiates the acceptance of a child by the school class.
Key words: a single-mother family, peer group
Relationship between cognitive flexibility, family resilience and parents’ transformative learning experiences
Camelia-Liliana PAVEL
Abstract
This paper focuses on pinpointing the existence of a relationship between the variables family resilience, cognitive flexibility and parents’ transformative learning experiences. Findings (after applying the questionnaire to 100 parents) show a significant correlation between perceived transformative learning and family resilience, but cognitive flexibility does not associate with family resilience (though it does correlate with resilience in general) or with parents’ transformative learning in their relationship with the child. Giving a meaning to the problematic experience is a common point between the variables that correlate positively.
Key words: family resilience, cognitive flexibility, meaning-making, transformative learning, Pearson’s correlation.
Intra-disciplinarity or interdisciplinarity in teaching mathematics in primary school?
Ionel MOȘ, Mariana CRAȘOVAN
Abstract
The new curriculum for primary school has brought from kindergarten not only a new
class - the preparatory class, but also a new approach of teaching, learning and assessment of mathematics. Specifically, the study plan provides for pre-school class, the 1st class and the 2nd class a new subject, Mathematics and explore the environment, which carries an integrated approach of former subjects Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The paper points some elements of monodisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches and seeks an answer to the question Intra-disciplinary or interdisciplinary teaching mathematics in primary education?
Key words: intra-disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, integrated approach, curriculum
Nutritional education in kindergarten – an analysis of the Romanian preschool curriculum
Simona ILAȘ
Abstract
If the guidelines of nutrition education are followed, they will ensure a good health and a high level of comfort in life. Creating healthy eating habits and involvement in sports has a positive impact on children. This article presents a qualitative research regarding the specificity of nutritional education in preschool. The study contains an analysis of the Romanian preschool curriculum from the above-mentioned perspective. The results of the collected data are discussed by taking into account the educational objectives and behaviors as they are listed in the Romanian curriculum, and the nutritional education contents from the angle of the structured activities that take place in kindergarten.
Key words: nutrition, nutritional education, kindergarten, Romanian curriculum, content analysis
Schools and local comunities
Ramona-Elena TUTUNARU
Abstract
Schools – along with all the other institutions which operate in a community – are directly influenced by the community’s level of development of the community. Basically, the main purpose in the development of a community is the community’s progress – which is a living process that sets in motion a multitude of elements, that involves carefully planned actions and requires constant control, and a perpetual reorganisation of subsystems – which are, in turn, in a permanent state of evolution.
The main purpose of community development is securing the wellbeing of the population. Community development aims to form and crystallise, in the members of a community, a feeling of belonging to the respective community they are part of and the desire to play an active social role in the community. Such results can only be achieved by getting people involved in social activities, by enhancing participatory mind-set and their desire to get involved in social matters. In this respect, it becomes natural for schools, families, and the community as a whole to cooperate with each other, to be open to dialogue and communication, and to be willing act. All stakeholders can benefit from partnerships between schools, families, and local communities and these partnerships become a good way to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the means through which each of the stakeholders involved can contribute to the greater good.
Key words: Schools, local community, family, educational partnerships, society
How to use the Hanen approach in developing communication and language in children
Elena Liliana DANCIU
Abstract
Modern approaches in education have pointed out that, though neglected for a long time, early intervention is increasingly necessary in children’s development. As a key component of early intervention, parent training responds to the need for explicit training with a view to reach effective education. The experiment presented here showing the efficiency of some programmes and methods in the development of communication and language in autistic children and difficulties of communication aimed at implementing the Hanen programme in parents’ activities with children. The three groups of children involved in research got parental help after a training programme run by a specialist in communication and language and certified Hanen for three months. The approach, the results of this implementing together with its limits, blockage, and success, as well as the project of continuing the programme is the topic of this paper.
Key words: communication, language, Hanen approach, parent training, parent coaching
Possibilities and Challenges for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
Claudia Vasilica BORCA
Abstract
The current pedagogy is based on effective learning achieved in the education bidirectional relationship; the student becomes an active part of their training, engaging in a systematic and organized effort of learning.
The study of school population with disabilities cannot be achieved outside the new trends transforming the educational process concerns in this area focuses on the most appropriate ways of recovery / rehabilitation/reduction of the gap between actual and potential manifest.
It has conducted a study on a group of 55 children with vision impairment. We proposed to investigate whether there are differences in metacognitive reading achievement for students with low vision and students with blindness. It has applied an Inventory of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARSI). We conducted a comparative analysis based on metacognitive reading achievement: Global Reading Strategies, Strategies for Problem Solving, and Strategies for Reading Support.
The results of this research revealed that students with blindness not more frequently used metacognitive reading strategies.
Key words: teaching, students with visual impairments, metacognition, metacognitive strategies, reading process
Social Media in Higher Education: Teaching in Web 2.0 – Book review
Gabriela GROSSECK
West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Sociology and Psychology, Department of EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
