bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Do Learning Activities Improve Students' Ability to Construct Explanatory Models with a Prism Foil Problem?
Authors: Gojkošek Mihael , Sliško Josip , Planinšič Gorazd 
Published: November 2021

The transfer of knowledge is considered to be a fundamental goal of education; therefore, knowing and understanding the conditions that influence the efficiency of the transfer from learning activity to problem solving play a decisive role in the improvement of science education. In this article, the results of a study of 196 highschool students’ ability to transfer knowledge in explanatory model construction are present. Three test groups were formed, traditional, prediction and lab groups, in which students were involved in three different learning activities. A week after instruction, students were tested with a foil test and Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning. According to the results, little knowledge transferfrom learning activities to the foil test occurred. Among the three tested learning methods, the one asking for prediction seems to best improve the transfer of knowledge. Time spent on activities had little or no effect on the transfer of knowledge. Some possible reasons for the observed results are presented, and the importance of correct scientific explanation duringthe learning process is considered.
Changing University Students’ Alternative Conceptions of Optics by Active Learning
Authors: Hadžibegović Zalkida , Sliško Josip 
Published: November 2021

Active learning is individual and group participation in effective activities such as in-class observing, writing, experimenting, discussion, solving problems, and talking about to-be-learned topics. Some instructors believe that active learning is impossible, or at least extremely difficult to achieve in large lecture sessions. Nevertheless, the truly impressive implementation results of the SCALE-UP learning environment suggest that such beliefs are false (Beichner et al., 2000). In this study, we present a design of an active learning environment with positive effect on students. The design is based on the following elements: (1) helping students to learn from interactive lecture experiment; (2) guiding students to use justified explanation and prediction after observing and exploring a phenomenon; (3) developing a conceptual question sequence designed for use in an interactive lecture with students answering questionsin worksheets by writing and drawing; (4) evaluating students’ conceptual change and gains by questions related to light reflection, refraction, and image formation in an exam held a week after the active learning session. Data were collected from 95 science freshmen with different secondary school backgrounds. They participated in geometrical optics classes organized for collecting research results during and after only one active learning session. The results have showed that around 60% of the students changed their initial alternative conceptions of vision and of image formation. It was also found that a large group of university students is likely to be engaged in active learning, shifting from a passive role they usually play during teacher’s lectures.
Competencies in Science Teaching
Authors: Mathelitsch Leopold 
Published: November 2021

The role of competencies is discussed with respect to science teaching. In particular, competence models from Germany, Switzerland and Austria are presented and compared. A special topical program, ‘Competencies in Mathematics and Science Teaching’, was started in Austria three years ago. Initial experiences with this program are reported, specifically with regard to how the teachers adopt this new idea of competencies and which kind of support is appreciated. Two aspects of the program are explained in detail: the evaluation of the program and the role of exercises and problems.
Outdoor Motor Play: Analysis, Speculations, Research Paths
Authors: Ceciliani Andrea , Bortolotti Alessandro 
Published: November 2021

In our rapidly changing contemporary society, it has become apparent that children spend significantly less time playing outdoors than their parents did. Therefore, considerable attention must be paid by professionals to engage this challenge, especially within early educational contexts. The goal of this study was to first explore the continual drive of play in educational growth and, second, the ways in which children play outdoors at school, in order to reap the developmental benefits of outdoor play in a supportive context, where such fundamental activity is not only allowed, but also supported. The results of this study reinforce existing research in this area, highlighting the findings of children’s physical play behaviour and its frequency, also in connection with the use of tools and toys; further findings highlight teacher’s attitudes and suggest several options for early childhood professionals to foster children’s enjoyment of outdoor play. Finally, the study results have implications for future opportunities in the planning of active spontaneous-play.
European Higher Education Area and the Introduction of a Quality Assurance Program in Greek Universities: Is Policy-Oriented Learning Present?
Authors: Stamelos George , Kavasakalis Aggelos 
Published: November 2021

This paper aims to investigate the production (or not) of policy-oriented learning during the establishment and implementation of a specific policy program in the policy sub-system of the Greek university as well as the interpretation of the existence (or not) of policy-oriented learning. The theoretical tools were drawn mainly from the theoretical work of Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, termed the ‘advocacy coalition framework (ACF)’. The Greek university is therefore considered to be a policy subsystem in which actors form coalition networks that share policy core beliefs and values, and engage in coordinated action in order to translate these beliefs and values into public policy. Thirty-five semi-structured interviews were used for the production of data, in combination with policy paper analysis.
School and the Cultural-Heritage Environment: Pedagogical, Creative and Artistic Aspects
Authors: Ivon Hicela , Kuščević Dubravka 
Published: November 2021

The present paper explores the idea that learning, both in and out of school,is a cultural act, and that school and its cultural-heritage environment stamp their own characteristics on pupils. This implies that pupils gradually, with the help of teachers and other relevant adults from their close social environment, develop and adjust their behaviour and lifestyle to their cultural and civilisational milieu. An integrative approach to learning and teaching, through the concept of “learning-centred teaching”, can be instrumental in this regard (Terhart, 2001). This approach aims at linking cognitive, social and moral teachings. According to this teaching concept, pupils learn to appreciate the value of their cultural-heritage environment by living and reliving its experience, while freely and reflexively interpreting and becoming active participants in the culture of those who “learn about life by living” (Terhart, 2001). The relationship between school and its cultural-heritage environment is discussed from a creative and artistic perspective in the second part of the paper. By visually stimulating artistic expression when learning about the culturalheritage and natural environment of school, and through the concept of “action- centred learning”, we explain how pupils can be motivated to learn and display creative-artistic expression, and how they can be actively involved in their communities (participating in organising art exhibitions in their neighbourhood, working in museum workshops, etc.). Pupils’ art projects, inspired by the historical, cultural and natural heritage of their environment, confirm that such projects are an effective way of encouraging pupils’ identity development and sensitivity towards the arts. They teach pupils about the importance of preserving cultural heritage, which is one of the basic principles in the upbringing of future participants and creators of new cultural values. Children’sartistic works illustrate examples of good school practice.
Visual Art Education: Between Spatial Sustainable Development and the Image of Architecture
Authors: Tomšič Čerkez Beatriz Gabriela 
Published: November 2021

If we consider the role of education and its implications in the formation of a critical and conscious user of architecture, it is obvious that the development of educational strategies related to the sustainable development of our common space and environment becomes fundamental. Among the objectives of art education, we should consider our commitment with authentic and actual problems in our societies. One of them is the awareness of the characteristics of the built environment. Our cities are, in fact, the results of time-space plasters that function as units of spatial experiences in everyday life. The oldest buildings are iconic points of reference, and their simple presence produces a collection of unique meanings to the collective memory of a culture. Their demolition would in many cases injure the cities’ images and memory. The main question is how to develop programs at all educational levels to promote critical and responsible attitudes towards the common environment covering all the aspects that shape the concepts of sustainable spatial development. However, it is not possible to create strategies without proper information about the views of the students. The collection and analysis of this views is the main theme of the paper. It is supported by an empirical research on the image of architecture and the environment, held among secondary school students. The research is based on the idea that one of the most efficient critical attitudes towards the world would be to develop an unconditional connection of art work with »everyday life conditions« to promote the education of critical and responsible »perceivers« of the environment.
Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
Authors: Šarić Marjeta , Šteh Barbara 
Published: November 2021

Critical reflection in teachers’ professional development has received much attention in the scholarly literature, and there is an overwhelming consensus about its great significance to the quality of teachers’ work. Nevertheless, despite the well-established role of reflection, a large gap between the professed goals and the actual reflective practice of teachers remains. The article starts with a short overview of the different definitions of critical reflection in the context of teachers’ professional development and then underlines some empirical research findings on the problems that teachers and teacher educators face when putting reflective practice into practice, especially at the deeper and more complex levels of reflection. It continues with a consideration of teachers’ qualifications for in-depth reflection as well as the obstacles and challenges facing teachers and teacher educators. The obstacles occur at the level of individual teachers’ personal traits and at the level of the context in which reflection is done. Employing an analysis of the obstacles, the authors develop some guidelines on how to support teachers in their attempts at making critical reflection part of their teaching practice. It is crucial for this encouragement not to overlook the principal purpose of teachers’ critical reflection; to contribute to new insights, knowledge reframing, and the introduction of such changes in teaching that will support students’ learning and the development of the community for the better learning, work, and life of all its individuals.
Towards Professionalism in Music: Self-assessed Learning Strategies of Conservatory Music Students
Authors: Virkkula Esa , Nissilä Säde-Pirkko 
Published: November 2021

One of the current spearhead projects in Finnish education is learning to learn. Learning strategies have been examined from a variety of perspectives. They are policies that either promote or hinder learning. They are any behaviours or thoughts that facilitate encoding in such a way that knowledge integration and retrieval are enhanced. Strategies can be practicedand learnt. Direct and indirect learning strategies formed the model of defining music students’ self-assessed learning habits in this research. The strategies dealt with here are memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. Critical thinking strategies as well as deep and surface learning strategies were also observed. In this paper, a theoretical background and methodological solutions will first be presented. A significant finding comes from cross-professional collaboration of students, teachers, and professionals during the research period: it enhanced the use of strategies. Another finding, the profitable use of the workshop method, can be adopted by other fields of learning and make processes flexible and fruitful.
Failure of the Croatian Higher Education Reform
Authors: Kurelić Zoran , Rodin Siniša 
Published: November 2021

The authors analyse the reasons for Croatian higher education reform since 2003, as well as its consequences. The main proposition of the paper is that the implementation of the Bologna Process in Croatia has failed due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the goals of the process, a lack of correspondence between the cycles of higher education and the EuropeanQualifications Framework, and a lack of international pressure, resulting from the nature of the open method of coordination. The authors present the internal market rules of the European Union and how they affect the national regulation of higher education. The paper deals with the main characteristics of the higher education reform and how it has affected thestructure of higher education programmes, the comparability of degrees and qualifications, and student mobility. The authors propose an agenda for a “reform of the reform” that could bring the Croatian system of higher education back onto the European track.
Policy and Prediction: The Case of Institutional Diversity in Romanian Higher Education
Authors: Vlăsceanu Lazăr , Hâncean Marian-Gabriel 
Published: November 2021

Presenting key elements of post-1990 historical developments in the Romanian higher education system, the emphasis is put on recent (2011) policies of increasing higher education institutional differentiation. The view is that, in policy design, due attention should be paid to both historical roots and predicted developments. Building on an institutional analysis approach, we put forward a theoretical model that aims to explore the predictive implications of some recently promoted higher education policies. These policies are expected to increase institutional differentiation at the systemic level and enhance quality in teaching and research at university level. The predictive capacity of a model of reference is tested against a concurrent model. The key assumption of the latter is that of considering higher education institutions (HEIs) as “cooperative systems” that are unable to generate those outputs and outcomes that, by aggregation, would contribute to the construction of an institutionally diverse and heterogeneous higher education landscape.
Pre-Service Preschool Teachers’ Beliefs about Foreign Language Learning and Early Foreign Language Teaching in Slovenia
Authors: Dagarin Fojkar Mateja , Skubic Darija 
Published: November 2021

The implementation of foreign languages in preschool education has prompted the need for qualified teachers. However, most recent studies report a gap between the supply of qualified foreign language teachers of young learners and the demand for such teachers as foreign languages are introduced earlier and earlier. The authors of this paper present some models of initial and in-service training of preschool foreign language teachers in Slovenia. As learners’ beliefs about language learning have been considered an important variable, like many other individual differences in language learning, the main aim of the research was to determine pre-service preschool teachers’ beliefs about early foreign language learning. The research was conducted on a sample of 90 pre-service preschool teachers. The results imply that future preschool teachers are aware of the importance of foreign language learning and their awareness raises with the year of study. The results of the survey indicate that it would be beneficial to include early foreign language teacher training in the education of preschool teachers who are willing to teach foreign languages in kindergartens in Slovenia and elsewhere.
The Family-School Relationships in Europe: A Research Review
Authors: Dusi Paola 
Published: November 2021

The literature on research carried out in the field and parents’ and teachers’ declarations all point in the same direction: good collaboration between home and school is useful to the child-student for his education and learning. Despite this, parent-teacher relationships in Europe (and elsewhere), from Spain to Sweden, from Ireland to Greece, and from Italy to the Czech Republic, represent an unresolved issue. This is a complex relationship that calls into play various social spheres: macro (social), intermediary (institutional) and micro (relational); in fact, there are as many diverse realities as there are schools. In Europe, the relationshipbetween individual behaviours (parents vs. teachers), social orientations (neoliberalism) and institutional frameworks (school markets) appears significant: scarce parental participation, lack of adequate forms of home-school communications, and the need to make investments inparent and teacher training. Nevertheless, family and school are called on to create a dialogue in order to contribute to the processes of training new generations. They both need each other in order to carry out that task in the best way. This paper presents and discusses the results of a theoretical analysis conducted on the basis of the international literatureconcerning research on the school-family relationship, with particular attention on the situation of different European countries, and concludes with suggestions for some practical improvements.
The Role and Potential Dangers of Visualisation when Learning about Sub-Microscopic Explanations in Chemistry Education
Authors: Eilks Ingo , Witteck Torsten , Pietzner Verena 
Published: November 2021

The core of theory-driven chemistry education consists of the constant shift between the different representational domains of chemical thinking: the macroscopic, the sub-microscopic, and the symbolic domains. Because the sub-microscopic domain can neither be seen nor directly visualised, it requires specific forms of visualisation, i.e. pictures andanimations illustrating the model-based level of discrete particles, atoms, or molecular structures. This paper considers the central role visualisations play when learning about the model-based, sub-microscopic level, but it also reflects the dangers inherent in employing insufficiently examined, poorly considered, or even misleading visualisations. This is outlined using different examples taken from both textbooks for lower secondary chemistry education (for students aged 10 to 15) and from the internet. Implications for structuring and using sub-micro visualisations in chemistry education are also given.
Exploring the Impact of and Perceptions about Interactive, Self-Explaining Environments in Molecular- Level Animations
Authors: Falvo David A. , Urban Michael J. , Suits Jerry P 
Published: November 2021

This mixed-method study investigates the effects of interactivity in animationsof a molecular-level process and explores perceptions aboutthe animated learning tool used. Treatments were based on principlesof cognitive psychology designed to study the main effects of treatmentand spatial ability and their interaction. Results with students (n=189)showed that science majors scored higher than non-science majors inretention measures (i.e., structure and function) but not in transfer.Significant main effects were found for treatment in function questions and spatial ability in structure questions. There was a significant interaction between treatment and spatial ability in structure questions. Additionally, in this study participants believed the key and the motion of ions and molecules were the most helpful parts of the animation. This study shows that students perceive the animations as being supportive of their learning, suggesting that animations do have a role in science classrooms.
The Discourse of Partnership and the Reality of Reform: Interrogating the Recent Reform Agenda at Initial Teacher Education and Induction Levels in Ireland
Authors: Harford Judith , O'Doherty Teresa 
Published: November 2021

Over the last decade, teacher education in Ireland has experienced radical reconceptualization and restructuring at both initial teacher education [ITE] and induction levels, with reform of continuous professional development now in the planning phase. The establishment of the Teaching Council (2006) as a statutory, regulatory body, with a role in the review and accreditation of teacher education, increased the visibility of and policy focus on teacher education. Significant reform of initial teacher education was announced in 2011 that included both an extension of the duration of programmes and, most notably, the period the student teachers were to be engaged in school-based professional development. This increased period has been accompanied by a shift in the understanding of what is involved in practicum and implies a redefinition of the respective roles of the university and the school, and the development of a new form of partnership between both agencies. The period of induction and probation has also become an area of reform with an emphasis on school-based coaching and the evaluation of newly qualified teachers, which devolves decisions on teachers’ full recognition and membership of the profession, to principals and colleagues.This shift, which changes the established approach to induction for primary level teachers, has resulted in the withdrawal of cooperation with this policy by the main teacher union and to the implementation process being stymied. Both policy developments bring the concept of partnership within Irish education into sharp focus: a partnership between schools and universities in ITE, but also partnership in policy development and implementation in the case of induction.
Pre-service Home Economics Teachers’ Attitudes on Selected Aspects of Practical Teaching
Authors: Lovšin Kozina Francka 
Published: November 2021

This paper presents the results of a study conducted among pre-service home economics teachers from the Faculty of Education of the University of Ljubljana with different levels of practical experience in teaching. The pre-service Home Economics teachers in the 3rd year of their studies had just completed their first class of teaching experience in contrast to thepre-service teachers from the 4th year of their faculty studies, who had conducted more teaching lessons. The results showed that the 4th-year pre-service teachers had fewer doubts and problems concerning the planning and conducting of a lesson. They also statistically significantly agreed that they are sufficiently prepared to teach than the 3rd-year pre-serviceteachers are. The results showed that the majority of the pre-service teachers agreed that the feedback from their colleagues was helpful for their professional development. The results suggest the importance of practical teaching experience in the context of professional development and the intention to continue a career in education. However, the results alsorevealed some critical points in the teacher’s development of competency. The results suggest problems related to the application of theoretical knowledge on the children’s development in practice and problems related to classroom management in specific situations.