The role of social partners in reforming social dialogue for vocational education and training in Greece
Georgios K. ZARIFIS
Charikleia MANAVI
Abstract
The Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Greece needs reforms that are related to accessibility and connection with the labor market as well as the recognition of professional qualifications in order for horizontal and vertical transitions to get facilitated into national and European qualifications systems. In this follow-up paper, we discuss the role of the social partners in the social dialogue on the existing operational framework for Vocational Education and Training, apprenticeship and workplace learning. Based on a set of desired measures as these are expressed in a recent manifesto for social dialogue in VET launched by the representatives of social partners, we present and analyse some of the key results of a recent study that was carried out on behalf of the Hellenic Institute for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (IME-GSEVEE) as part of the social partners’ plan for joint actions to restore public confidence and strengthen their effective participation in a targeted and meaningful social dialogue for VET.
Key words: social dialogue, social partners, vocational education and training, labor market, apprenticeship, workplace learning, Greece.
The Educational Team – an Alternative Solution for Romanian Secondary Education?
Anca LUȘTREA
Mariana CRAȘOVAN
Abstract
In the last twenty-five years’ Romanian society sought solutions for the improvement of students` performances. Many problems were reported by diverse educational factors: students, parents, teachers, decisional factors and several solutions have been proposed. Our paper theoretically analyzes a possible solution to improve the students’ academic performance and learning understanding: the educational team approach. Traditionally, teachers work alone in every step of the didactic process: student`s assessment, planning, and implementation of the curriculum and monitoring student`s progress. Current research demonstrates that team work in education has benefits both for teachers and students. A definition of the concept is proposed and some characteristics of an efficient educational team are taken into consideration. The three main team models, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary are critically analyzed and their benefits and disadvantages underlined. Also, possible solutions for practically implement this model in the Romanian educational context are proposed.
Key words: educational team, secondary education, professional learning communities
Do Teachers Really Need a Master’s Degree? Student Teachers’ Perspectives
Marta KOWALCZUK-WALĘDZIAK
Otilia CLIPA
Linda DANIELA
Abstract
In recent years, considerable attention has been paid in European debates on teacher education to upgrade teaching qualifications at the master’s level. However, still little is known about the usefulness of master’s level preparation for teachers’ professional practice. This study seeks to add to the existing body of knowledge by exploring student teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness of master’s studies for their (future) professional practice. The survey questionnaire was completed by 343 student teachers enrolled in master’s programs in Polish, Romanian, and Latvian universities. Generally, the surveyed student teachers declared that master’s level education was an appropriate and useful type of education for teachers. However, this study also found that some student teachers had unclear or even negative views on this type of education for teachers. Several issues which emerged from the results are discussed, with reference to implications for current efforts in developing teaching as a Master’s level profession.
Key words: Master degree, student teacher, teacher education, teaching as a Master’s level profession
Analysis of scientific research on test anxiety and other emotions identified in the academic field
Roxana I. HOLIC
Abstract
The results of studies addressing the impact of emotions on the academic field support that affective states influence the motivational and cognitive processes that are relevant to cognitive performance. More specifically, it has been shown that mood and emotions facilitate congruent memory processes, suggesting that positive affective states can increase motivation in addressing tasks, while negative emotional states can increase motivation to avoid them. In the control- value theory, academic emotions are defined as the emotions directly associated with learning activities or school results. According to this theory, there are four groups of emotions identified: positive activating emotions (e.g. joy, optimism, pride); positive deactivating emotions (relaxation, satisfaction, relief); negative activating emotions (anger, frustration, anxiety, shame); and negative deactivating emotions (boredom, sadness, disappointment, despair). Students’ anxiety, especially anxiety manifested in evaluative contexts - is one of the most studied emotions in the academic field, and has been addressed in more than 1,000 studies. Test anxiety is a serious problem for many of the students in gymnasiums and high schools. Even though large-scale studies have seen some decrease, nearly 33% of students experience anxiety over evaluation, and those with high levels of test anxiety don`t achieve a very good academic performance. For students with test anxiety, both preparations for an examination and examination itself are causing a high level of worry and discomfort. As a result, affected students fail to meet their potential, and the results of evaluations do not represent them, or their real level of knowledge and learning.
Key words: academic emotions; control-value theory; test anxiety; academic performance
How new media has enabled the harnessing of implicit learning
Claudiu SCHWARZ
Abstract
The term of implicit learning is still subject to controversy. “At least a dozen different definitions have been offered in the field” (Frensch & Rünger, 2003 p.13). While some scholars consider it downright inexistent (see Chun & Jiang, 1998), many others are trying to identify how we seem to acquire knowledge in absence of conscious awareness. Since it manifests in complex environments where patterns can be intuitively observed and interiorized by the learner, various forms of new media and particularly digital games seem to be the best method of investigating its efficiency. This paper aims to demonstrate how strategic use of new media, combined with digital games can facilitate the emergence of unconscious knowledge acquisition and how some of the knowledge acquired in such manner is better stored in memory and translated into skill.
Key words: implicit learning, explicit learning, new media, big G games.
Comparative theoretical approaches of developmental disorders to normal and disabled children
Doru Vlad POPOVICI
Viorel AGHEANA
Abstract
Developmental disorders are a complex concept relevant to the multidisciplinary approach of children with special educational needs. The person with a developmental disorder is affected both by integrity - the complete somattic and psychological structure and functionality – and the ability to be a psycho-biological wholeness, the two aspects being in close interdependence. Developmental disorders are inherent in children with disabilities, but can also occur under the conditions of a normal intellect, for example, in the form of learning disabilities. In both situations, developmental disorders lead to increased learning and adapting to school requirements difficulties, imposing the implementation of a system of services appropriate to the individual needs of children with developmental disabilities that satisfactorily support the global integration effort.
Key words: Developmental disorders, disability, special educational requirements, learning disabilities
A follow-up study of implementation of a positive approach of discipline at school and classroom levels
Mihai PREDESCU
Ioana DARJAN
Abstract
There is a continuous preoccupation on developing efficient, scientifically and pragmatic-based strategies and techniques in order to improve the educational and therapeutic practices in educational and therapeutic/remedial contexts, The helping and caring professionals are constantly involved in their continuous specialization, by participating in training and courses.
There are insights, there are enthusiasm and optimism, there are motivations, and assuming of personal changes and improvement, there are pledges of improving owns professional practices, for the benefit of those carried out!
But the newly learned methods should be introduced and exercise in the life spaces of the trainee. And then begin the battle between new and familiar, between not yet fully mastered and quite automatized actions/reactions, between commodity of conformity and the efforts and risks of innovation.
In this paper, we want to investigate the factors who promote the change and those who explain the inertia and the resistance to change. Identifying the mechanisms which enhance the acquisition and the implementation of new methods grants efficient professional and institutional evolution and improvement
For this purpose, we will present the assessment of two initiatives of introducing and promoting changes in educational context and in intervention strategies. The follow-up techniques (scales and focus group) reveal the factors that promote the change, and, also, the factors that favor the inertia and the resistance to change.
We assessed the impact of a training on positive discipline and LSCI methods to the teaching and discipline strategies, in a follow-up study of 40 trainees, primary and secondary teachers, from mainstream and special schools.
Key words: PBIS, resilience, school policies, LSCI
Book Review. Gerrit de Moore. The Sacred Snaction
West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Sociology and Psychology, Department of EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
