Professional development of kindergarten teachers in Croatia – a personal choice or an obligation     

Ivana Visković 《Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development》2018,38(3):286-297

The quality of educational processes with children of preschool age and long-term educational outcomes are largely related to the work quality of teachers. Lifelong learning and professional development, as predictors of quality, need to be regarded as an ongoing task for kindergarten teachers. Findings of an empirical study of Croatian kindergarten teachers’ views (N = 388) on professional development point to a link between teachers’ intrinsic motivation and their professional development. Motivation explains 46.87% of the variance Personal commitment to professional development. A slight positive correlation was found between the level of formal education and the frequency of professional development (r = .216, p < .01). Although the level of education of kindergarten teachers is not a good independent predictor, it affects readiness to self-fund professional development (p < .01). As for the significance of conferences as a form of professional development, participants of the study identified them as an effective opportunity (M = 4.68, SD = .52), promoting both quality practices (M = 4.69, SD = .54) and exchange of experiences (M = 4.68, SD = .56). The length of participants’ professional work experience affects their assessment of the significance of practitioners’ networking as a way of improving the quality of everyday practices (F = 1.43, p < .05).  相似文献   

Computers and the thought-producing self of the young child     

Olga Fomichova  & Vladimir Fomichov 《British journal of educational technology : journal of the Council for Educational Technology》2000,31(3):213-220

This paper extends a new, informational-based cybernetic conception of the early development of child consciousness. A solution is suggested to the fundamental problem of formulating and creating the optimal cognitive preconditions of successful child-computer interaction. Some negative aspects of using intelligent computer and communications technology at school and in everyday life are analyzed. The concept of the 'Thought-Producing Self' of the child is introduced. A way of realizing the 'Thought-Producing Self' of average 7-9 year olds is outlined. The key idea is the early development of children's symbolic information processing skills. The first element is natural-language-processing abilities. The suggested approach has been successfully used during more than 9 years of teaching more than 360 4-19 year old pupils in languages (mainly English and also Russian), literature, poetry, and art. Underpinning this approach are the Theory of Dynamic Conceptual Mappings (the DCM theory) and the System of Emotional-Imaginative Teaching. The DCM theory is based upon ideas drawn from Artificial Intelligence (mainly), Philosophy of Language, Cognitive Science and Semiotics.  相似文献   

Space Scale: Models in the History of Science and Students Mental Models     

Josef Feigenberg  Lea Valentina Lavrik  Vladimir Shunyakov 《Science & Education》2002,11(4):377-392

This paper deals with the problem of relating distance and scale by way of alternative models of perception taken from the history of science.The intuitive patterns of modern school children in evaluating the Solar System are then compared with those in the history of science. Immediate experience and intuition by children often contradict scientific understanding. The children in this study, for example, do not see the rays of the Sun as being parallel and ignore the curvature of the Earth. The authors argue that children's understanding of the rays of the Sun as not being parallel as well as their ignoring the curvature of the Earth is due to the limitation resulting from the students' `actual activity zone', and not to their insufficient knowledge. This study makes specific suggestions to broaden the scientifically based `actual activity zone' of students. We suggest that laboratory work based on historical experiments using elementary geometry – as, for example, the determination of the radiusof the Earth by Eratosthenes – promotes a scientific understanding of astronomicalmeasurements....The scale of space and time, which we customarily observe on Earth, and which is part of time, we become aware of the vastness of our universe, we are awed and humbled. But if astronomers spent all their time speculating about the immensity of the cosmos and the prodigious interval of time necessary for the evolution of the stars, their accomplishments would be few. The primary concerns of the astronomer when studying the cosmos are physical and mathematical interpretations of observations, predictions of future observations, and the development and refinement of his instruments for such interpretation and prediction. To help him in the conceptualization of his problem, astronomer may, consciously or unconsciously, visualize a small model representing the cosmic system under investigation. Using this method, we can arrive at an understanding of the relative dimensions of the system and an understanding of the time intervals involved.Shklovskii I.S. and Carl Sagan (1966)Intelligent Life in the Universe  相似文献   

How students perceive teachers’ nonverbal and verbal communication at agricultural universities in Austria,Slovenia and Albania     

Marija Klopčič  Renata Bažok  Helena Virić Gašparić  Karmen Erjavec 《The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension》2018,24(5):473-483

Purpose: This study attempts to close the research gap created by the fact that existing studies neglect the problem of how effectively agricultural professors from different European countries communicate. The aim is to identify similarities and differences in the numbers of agricultural professors perceived by students as engaging in verbal and nonverbal immediacy communication.

Methodology: An online survey was conducted among students of agricultural universities from Austria, Slovenia and Albania.

Findings: The results show that professors of agriculture from Austria, Slovenia and Albania should generally not be satisfied with their own communication patterns and should thus try to improve their communication. The result also reveals cultural differences in the shares of agriculture professors employing different communication patterns in Austria, Slovenia and Albania. Compared to Austrian and Slovenian students, their Albanian peers perceive that most of their professors use nonverbal immediacy communication. According to Austrian students, the majority of their professors use verbal immediacy. On the contrary, Albanian students assessed that some of their professors employ verbal immediacy.

Practical Implications: The results show the professors of agriculture should improve the way they communicate to students. In particular, the Albanian professors should improve their verbal communication especially in terms of providing timely and quality feedback to students.

Theoretical implications: The study reveals differences in immediacy communication among countries (Austria, Slovenia and Albania) which the scientific literature considers to have a high-context culture.

Originality/Value: Given that no study has yet examined how students perceive professors’ communication in different European countries, this research helps understand the characteristics of agricultural professors’ communication.  相似文献   

Serbia and Montenegro: the catalytic effects of higher education     

Gordana Zindović‐Vukadinović 《Higher Education in Europe》2004,29(3):329-341

Brain drain has been a long‐lasting phenomenon. It existed in the former Yugoslavia, and was affected by various factors, from political through economic ones to the attractive offers for advanced studies and work in scientific institutions or firms in developed countries. Some ad‐hoc analyses were made concerning individual groups or periods, but there was no systematic monitoring and no complete and all‐inclusive data. It is however possible to draw a picture showing trends in the – mostly one‐way – movement towards highly developed countries.

Therefore, the current study has a mosaic character, which – we hope – shall throw some light and try to explain brain drain in the academic circles of Serbia and Montenegro (former SFRY). As the Republic of Serbia represents the largest component part (about 90 percent), most of the data is about Serbia.  相似文献   

Fluid balance and hydration assessment during the weight-stable preparation phase in elite youth boxers     

Damir Zubac  Tomislav Antelj  Dragana Olujic  Vladimir Ivancev  Shawnda A. Morrison 《Journal of sports sciences》2017,35(8):719-726

This study investigated (i) the prevalence of hypohydration and (ii) association between urinary indices of hydration status and confounding factors (e.g., urine protein content, water intake) in elite youth boxers during their weight-stable phase before competition. Sixteen national champion boxers (all male, 17 ± 1 y) were measured on 3 occasions (baseline, day 3, day 10), 30-day prior to competition. Body mass, total body water, urine specific gravity (USG), osmolality (UOSM) and total protein content (TPC) were evaluated to determine hydration status and fluid balance. Overall macronutrient and water intake were assessed using dietary records. Both UOSM and USG increased from day 3 to day 10 by 16% and 0.4% (P < 0.001), despite athletes being in their weight-stability period, and regardless of ad libitum fluid intake. Hypohydration was universally prevalent among all athletes on both test days with USG: 1.027 ± 0.003 g · mL^?1 and UOSM: 1035 ± 108 mOsmol · kg^?1. An inverse association between mean UOSM values and mean water intake was observed (R = ?0.52, P = 0.04), while TPC was not associated with any urinary dehydration markers (USG, P = 0.51; UOSM, P = 0.61). The present outcomes find that the most prevalent urinary dehydration markers used to classify hydration status in competition exhibit large variability, even during weight-stable periods.  相似文献   

New developments in teacher education in the United States     

Maureen T. Hallinan  Vladimir T. Khmelkov 《Irish Educational Studies》2013,32(1):369-396

  相似文献   

Work-related burnout syndrome in special education teachers working with children with developmental disorders – possible correlations with some socio-demographic aspects and assertiveness     

Vesna Jovanović  Jasmina Karić  Goran Mihajlović  Tamara Džamonja-Ignjatović 《欧洲特需教育杂志》2013,28(5):692-701

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research was to examine the levels of burnout syndrome dimensions in special education teachers and correlations with some socio-demographic characteristics, job characteristics, and levels of assertiveness. The research included 225 special education teachers from Serbia (82% were women, 18% were men, with the average age of 42.51 ± 9.23 years). Research instruments included Maslach Burnout Inventory, Rathus Assertiveness Schedule, and a socio-demographic questionnaire. There were differences in all burnout dimensions in relation to types of students’ special needs. Higher levels of burnout symptoms were observed in teachers working with children with motor skill disorders. The assertiveness scores had a significant negative correlation with emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, and a positive correlation with a lack of accomplishment. The results obtained may help in the planning of the adequate preventative measures for improving the mental health of those professionals.  相似文献   

The science(s) of adult education     

Nikola Pastuović 《International Journal of Lifelong Education》2013,32(4):273-291

This article deals with the problems of forming a scientific system for adult education. The first part contains different concepts of sciences of education in developed countries, with a special emphasis on the difference between pedagogy as ‘practical theory’ and the sciences of education than can withstand meta‐scientific criteria. This is followed by a survey of the educological system of the knowledge of education, and the scientific and non‐scientific knowledge of adult education are contrasted. To enable us to distinguish unambiguously between scientific and non‐scientific knowledge the survey contains some major criteria for determining whether a discipline is a science or not. In this context andragogy, as well as pedagogy, are defined as ‘technological’ disciplines with the task of applying the principles discovered by the sciences of adult education: the educational psychology of adults, the sociology of adult education, the economics of adult education and the educational anthropology. In other words, andragogy is the ‘praxiology of adult education’, i.e. the science of applying scientific knowledge about adult education in the practice of that education. Andragogy could become ‘the general science of adult education’ and acquire a supra‐technological character if it grew into a science of the effectiveness of systems of adult education. In that case andragogy would study the interaction between the elements of the system as well as the interaction between these elements and the subsystems of the educational environment.  相似文献   

Generalized Hamming Distance   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

Abraham Bookstein  Vladimir A. Kulyukin  Timo Raita 《Information Retrieval》2002,5(4):353-375

Many problems in information retrieval and related fields depend on a reliable measure of the distance or similarity between objects that, most frequently, are represented as vectors. This paper considers vectors of bits. Such data structures implement entities as diverse as bitmaps that indicate the occurrences of terms and bitstrings indicating the presence of edges in images. For such applications, a popular distance measure is the Hamming distance. The value of the Hamming distance for information retrieval applications is limited by the fact that it counts only exact matches, whereas in information retrieval, corresponding bits that are close by can still be considered to be almost identical. We define a Generalized Hamming distance that extends the Hamming concept to give partial credit for near misses, and suggest a dynamic programming algorithm that permits it to be computed efficiently. We envision many uses for such a measure. In this paper we define and prove some basic properties of the Generalized Hamming distance, and illustrate its use in the area of object recognition. We evaluate our implementation in a series of experiments, using autonomous robots to test the measure's effectiveness in relating similar bitstrings.  相似文献