Journal of Educational Sciences

  Complete Edition

  Content

  Psychological factors related to the development of the communication competences in the first year of life
Speranța Rodica Pantelie

Abstract
The first year of life is an essential phase for all psychological areas in the child development. The key competences, vital for all development processes of the child, focus on the communication and the socio-emotional competencies, mostly because the infant is strongly dependent of adult care environment. The quality of the primary caregiving relationship can configure the cognitive, affective and social development of the child in the first year of life. This study is aiming to identify the objective and psychological factors related to the development of early communication competences of the child in the first year of life and to identify the best predictors of these competencies, in order to conceptualize the best strategies to help the parents in their parental educational tasks and to prevent any delays in infant development. The study identifies a complex system of factors influencing the infant s communication skills, the prerequisites of communication being in relation both with the individual characteristics of the child in the first year of life, mainly the temperament and resilience, and with maternal and paternal factors, such as emotional maturity, patterns of primary attachment of the parents and the mother/father reflective functioning.

Keywords: Early communication competencies, emotional competency, self-regulating processes, dyadic relationships, emotional maturity

  Self-esteem – the Decisive Difference between Bullying and Assertiveness in Adolescence?
Ioana Darjan, Mihaela Negru, Dan Ilie

Abstract
The extensive literature and researches on bullying illustrate the connections between self-esteem and the bullying phenomenon, asserting that both faces, bullying, and being bullied are related to some degrees with low self-esteem. Considering the bullying behavior as a form of aggressivity and being bullied as an expression of passive behavior, this study introduces the third subject of inquiry: the assertive behavior. The study investigates the impact of self-esteem on assertiveness, passive vs. aggressive conduct, and positive interactions among high school students. While these aspects were usually investigated at an early age, this study approaches them in adolescence, involving 82 adolescent students from high schools from Timisoara, with diverse specializations. The need to fit, the need for acceptance, and the fear of social rejection increase in adolescence. At this age of dramatic changes, students are susceptible to verbal, physical, or emotional bullying, with an essential impact on their self-esteem, as they are very dependent on peers approval, perceptions and reactions. Healthy self-esteem and assertiveness might be powerful tools to fight against bullying, but there is very little focus on teaching them in traditional education. This study shows the strong correlation between self-esteem and assertiveness, and the predisposition of students with low self-esteem to passive or aggressive types of interactions.

Keywords: self-esteem; asertiveness; bullying; adolescence.

  Exploring the Perceptions of First-Year Engineering Students on Academic Dishonesty
Lorena Peculea, Adrian Peculea

Abstract
As part of a larger study on academic dishonesty, this paper aims to be a simple investigation of students opinions on some ethical issues, such as cheating in exams and plagiarism in assignments. The main goal was to explore the level of awareness of cheating and plagiarism, the frequency of these dishonest behaviours, students attitudes toward cheating and plagiarism and differences between demographic variables and the three dimensions mentioned above. This study was conducted through a questionnaire completed by 138 first-year engineering students at a university in Romania. The study showed that cheating and plagiarism practices are sometimes common among students; at the same time, it is necessary to increase students awareness and attitudes in order to combat such misconduct. Also, students’ ethical values and actions are in dissonance. The differences in gender and residence area of students are insignificant. The paper recommends that different actors collaborate to continuously educate and discourage students from engaging in academic dishonesty.

Keywords: cheating, plagiarism, awareness, behaviours, attitudes.

  Development of the Children s Abilities in School. A comparative study between the efficiency of the Robotics vs Applied Mathematics in Movement Transmission
Ana-Maria Popa

Abstract
A qualitative and comparative analysis is performed regarding the possible consequences of the introduction in the school curriculum of 10-12 years old children, of Robotics and Applied Mathematics in Movement Transmission (AMMT) courses, respectively. The research has been done at the Gymnazial School Number 195, from Bucharest, during two scholar years (2017-2019). Each class had 36 students and the two hours Robotics / AMMT courses had a weekly frequency. Direct observation, interviews of the children and parents, together with the class and individual journals, where children noted their opinions during the two years, are analyzed and interpreted. The results show better scholar performances of the children following Robotics courses, in respect to the ones following AMMT ones and a greater attraction of the children in Robotics. Further, a quantitative evaluation regarding the improvement of mathematical performances of children is presented, given a very similar level of the two classes at the beginning of the research in respect to their average Maths scores. The analysis involved several statistical parameters, like the average scores obtained at Math tests, their variances, the evolution of the children with the lowest performances and the number of the maximum scores in each class. All of them suggest the Robotics course efficiency in increasing mathematical performances level of young children is superior to the one of the AMMT course, recommending the introduction of such courses in the school curriculum.

Keywords: math; networking; performance; robotics; students

  Educational dropout in Israel – general progress in the last decade
Usama HEIB, Theofild-Andrei LAZĂR

Abstract
In Israel, the awareness on the youth dropout from school problem has increased in the last decade. There is no doubt that dealing with this phenomenon poses a challenge to the Israeli society and to the authorities responsible for educational services. It turns out that certain groups among the Israeli population are at a higher risk of dropping out from school than others. As a result of it, many teenagers from these groups do not complete their high school studies and are unable to integrate in a qualitative and significant manner in the army and the labour market. Moreover, dropping out of the education system may have a significant impact on the mental and economic well-being of young generations of citizens. Therefore, preventing the problem of dropout and helping the youths to get back into the loop is a tremendous challenge to the Israeli education system. Even if in the last decade Israel registered lower rates of educational dropout then before, middle, and high-school students are still struggling with the issue. Therefore, the article underlines theoretical aspects regarding educational dropout as general framework and presents the specifics of the phenomenon in the Israelian educational system. The last part of the paper follows, based on secondary data analysis extracted from national official data, the differences between the two main state educational systems in Israel (Hebrew and Arabic) in terms of tendencies on educational dropout in the last ten school years. The data reveals that, even if there is progress in preventing educational dropout in both systems, the Arabic system registers significantly higher rates that the Hebrew educational system.

Keywords: Educational dropout, youth in risk, educational system, covert and overt dropout.

  Tertiary education dropout– general tendencies for the last generations of students
Elena-Alina (FEJER) VOAIDEȘ - COJAN, Theofild-Andrei LAZĂR

Abstract
Higher education dropout, or abandonment, represents a contemporary worldwide socio-economic problem that may be one of the main barriers in the future efforts of the younger generations to bring the world economy forward. Why do students leave higher education prematurely? What can be done to help solve this problem? Does our Higher Education System have a coherent support system to prevent dropout? are the core questions on this important issue. The role of education in the young generation’s development and the different factors that support or impede this process represent frequently researched topics in the field of applied socio-human sciences, especially during the last decades that are also characterised by important changes in the educational services delivery. The current article constitutes the preliminary work for a future doctoral thesis that aims to investigate the issue of contemporary educational dropout in Romanian universities following data from the last decade. Firstly, some theoretical elements on educational dropout in general will be explored, starting by defining the concept, continuing with the exploration of the main theories and finalising by detailing the main factors that influence university dropout. The last part of the present work follows as a study case the dropout rates of the last three generations of bachelor level students from a social sciences faculty of a state university from Romania. Based on secondary data analysis, the dropout rates are calculated in four steps in order to reveal the dynamics of the process during a bachelor study cycle, being presented the specificities of all four departments of the faculty.

Keywords: tertiary education, dropout rate, risk factors.

  IN MEMORIAM PROFESOR DOREL UNGUREANU