Number 2 / Year 2015

 Complete Edition


  Content


  Editorial: Didactics and Transdisciplinarity
Adia Chermeleu


  Explanations and developments in the sphere of concept of teaching competence. The specifics of university teaching competencies
Ecaterina Sarah Frăsineanu

Abstract
The training of academic teachers is an important aspect in the international and European context because of how they are set firstly, then developed the competencies of academic teachers considerably influence outcomes in higher education. The competencies and professional standards are the core training, they being discussed nowadays in terms of ensuring the quality of higher education, centering it on the student, but also on the external or internal evaluation of teachers. With the help of these competencies, in higher education, the training and relations can keep pace with the changes taking place on the social level: the internationalization of education, interenlightenment, globalization, the mobility of students, use of communications and technologies. From the most definitions results that a competence combines knowledge, skills and personality characteristic features – attitudes, skills in a particular context. Very interesting is the observation that, in identifying the key competencies is necessary to consider the psychosocial prerequisites of success and good living. Therefore, the key competencies are necessary to adapt to a world characterized by change, complexity and interdependence among people. Cumulating a number of theoretical explanations on the concept of teaching competence, we intend to identify the core aspects of the manifestation of these skills for the teacher in higher education, by reference to feedback concretely achieved in the interactions with the participants in a university training program. We referred to academic teacher in general and we did not consider the levels of his evolution, but a desirable model of the teacher as a professional, from the perspective of the training subjects. The competencies of academic teachers include specific competencies, and of them the critical ones are of training and transversal competencies, the psychosocial, and the latter are those that help them adapt to the dynamics of academic environment. At the practical level, our study presents the results of an empirical research, conducted on the base of questionnaires and experiment for the participants in a program of psycho-pedagogical training. The results confirmed the important role of competencies of teachers to ensure the quality of training programs, starting from the educational needs analysis. The latter refers to both the learning, training requirements and the expectations, desires, motivations, interests, goals of beneficiaries; the request to value the main competencies of teachers who educate them, being an indirect expression of educational needs and yet, unusual for students. Our prerequisite was that the quality education implies interdependence between the suppliers and beneficiaries involved in the educational supply and one of the ways to ensure it is the compatibility among the components of the professional development of teachers and the real focusing on student. As a result, the profile of the capitalized competencies after the empirical research conducted includes: the competencies to unfold training, by clear, attractive contents presentation, providing the learning an applied and interdisciplinary aspect, using interactive methods; optimization competencies of the use of educational resources; networking and mentoring competencies, learners support, based on a better knowledge, communications; curriculum building and implementation competencies, by organizing the contents; competencies to grant the feedback and of proper, objective assessment; learning and professional improvement competencies; competencies to participate in the development of the educational institution, to involve in the university-other social institutions partnership. The competencies based approach has advantages and limitations. The main advantage is that a structured pattern favors monitoring the professional training, gives a sequential, progressive approach. At the individual level, it can get better motivation and personal development and at the organizational level, an inventory of competencies is an assessment tool of the personnel and quality management tool. But even a well-determined framework of competencies does not always guarantee the possibility to put it into practice and measure its direct usefulness in profession and society. The professional needs are reassessed continuously, they are modified, adapted or even changed in the course of practicing their profession throughout life, as a result of social demands (improvement, retraining, reconversion), but also due to the intervention of self-organized learning approach within the framework of self-education and self-improvement. The success of a self-training project depends on practice, involvement in a sufficient number of activities and organizing the results into a coherent whole. As a synthesis, among the characteristics of teaching competencies is the fact that they evolve gradually, involving a deployment which lies in a continuum, with a development from simple to complex; they affirm themselves in a real professional context, are dependent on context; are based on a set of resources (of skills and attitudes); are indivisible; they are heterogeneous by their components and homogeneous by goals; they are subject to change; involve opening, globality and interactivity; require learning and development processes well defined; they are a project influenced by many factors and, not least, they are interdependent.

Key words: competence, university teacher, standard, professionalism


  The didactic speech – a new disciplinary field in the Educational Sciences
Adia CHERMELEU

Abstract
The studies in the field of Communication Sciences have demonstrated that the didactic speech, also known as pedagogical communication, may as well favorand hinder the learning, depending on the way it is used. The peculiar nature of the communication in the educational institutions results not only from the stake specific to the school system, but also from the social practices, in accordance with the educational objectives of the society applying it. This paper is based on a series of reflections born during the debates with the students specializing on the Pedagogy of Elementary School and Preschool Education during the classes:The didactics in the field of language and communication –in the preschool education and the Didactics of Romanian language and literature teaching –in the elementary school education. We aimed to bring to the present the main features of the didactic speech, as a formof meeting between the language sciences and the education sciences, as well as the need of introducing, at the level of the initial and life-long training of the teachers, of a initiation in the rhetoric, in the speech analysis and the comprehension of the lecture, considering that in front of a class of pupils is not only a history expert, a literature or mathematics expert, but also a specialist in the pedagogy of such relevant specialization and in the didactics of discipline.

Key words: didactic speech, rhetoric, pragma-didactics, argumentation, life-long training


  Dimensions of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in the study of literature
Ramona-Elena Tutunaru

Abstract
Designing teaching-learning activities from an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspective brings new and interesting overgrowth, merging between fields of knowledge. This approach requires the presence of notions of collaboration, connection between scientific subjects (interdisciplinary perspective), integrated treatment (transdisciplinary perspective), the aim being to assist students in understanding reality in its pure complete form. Literature but also the other arts are products of the author`s creation, but also of the reader`s, viewer`s experience. The relationship between literature and folklore, painting, music, theatre, film, places the teaching approach on new coordinates. Joining of the arts causes the production of novelty, generates suspense, curiosity, cultural enrichment. The use in Romanian language and literature classes of elements belonging to other spheres of art brings more knowledge, increases learning motivation, interest in reading, the involvement of the student in the educational process.

Key words: transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, literature, music, film.


  Interdisciplinary strategies in developing oral comprehension skills in preschool education
Cristina Andrei

Abstract
One of the tasks of preschool education is to lay the foundation of the oral comprehension competency. Through specific activities, didactic strategies and establishing development benchmarks, the preschool teacher provides support in understanding messages transmitted orally and prepares the next step, comprehension of written texts. The teaching approach has to be coherent, gradual, progresive, oriented towards achieving goals such as the understanding tasks, the reception and personal interpretation of literary and nonliterary texts. This article proposes some concrete strategies to deepen understanding adjusted to the age particularities of preschoolers, preschool strategies that practitioners can apply them in their daily activities with groups of students.

Key words: semantic integration, comprehensive strategies, textual reception, narrative language, logical and chronological connectors


  Exploring the Vertical Relationship between the Newly- Prepared Math Textbook for the 6thGrade and the Math Textbook for the 5th Grade*
Fariborz Mohamadi Farsani, Jamaloddin Koolaii Nejhad, Khadijeh Aliabadi

Abstract
The objective of present study is to explore the vertical relationship between the newly- prepared math textbook for the 6th grade and the same for the 5th grade. First, the theoretical principles and available researches are investigated. Then, the concepts of the two books in terms of the four items repetition, repetition with addition, new concepts, and the 5th grade-specific concepts are studied. The results reveal that among the concepts, 15.1% are of continuity, 39.9% are of sequence, 30.5% are new, and 12.6% are 5th grade-specific math textbook. The vertical relationship between the two textbooks is 56% which is of considerable nature. The sequences “from simple to complicated” and “spiral” have the most and “use field development” has the least usage. Some suggestions regarding the vertical relationship are recommended to amend the books.

Key words: Vertical Relationship, Math Textbook, Continuity, Addition, Sequence


  Transdisciplinary approach to case management in Special Education
Anca Luştrea

Abstract
Current trends In Romanian Special Education legislation, theory and practice are for the shift of emphasis towards inclusion, which is a goal, unfortunately quite difficult to achieve at present. The educational inclusion process is a complex one and in a permanent development. Such a difficult change of perspective is a lengthy process that includes the involvement of many factors: society, community, scientific authority and practitioners. In this paper theoretical perspectives on inclusion and current state of facts about Romanian inclusive practices are presented. Also, the transdisciplinary model of case management is analyzed and its positive effects on the inclusive process. The barriers occurred in inclusion are analyzed in relation to their possible overrun by applying a transdisciplinary model.

Key words: inclusion, transdisciplinary case management, special education


  Innovative Learning Environments - a new perspective of innovation in education
Claudia Borca

Abstract
This article brings into question the current concerns internationally in the area of learning theories and practices. Based on new trends expressed through the policies and projects of The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we intend to approach the theoretical foundations of the concept of Innovative Learning Environments (ILE), and this concept applied into practice - the “7 plus 3” framework – that is based on learning research and the analysis of the innovative cases submitted through the OECD / ILE project. In this framework we presented the OECD Innovation Strategy and particularities of innovation in education and brought arguments to support this idea.

Key words: innovation, learning, Innovative Learning Environments, education, school


  Visible learning for teachers. Book review
Ana Simona Negomireanu


  The art and science of teaching. A comprehensive framework for an efficient training - Book review
Ana Simona Negomireanu


  Special events of 2015