2015 Vol. 40. No. 2sd@umbc edu Sinjur Andreja (Ph D student) University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Educa-tion, Kardeljeva ploščad 16, Ljubljana, Slove-nia, e-mail: andreja sinjur@dusanabordona

2015 Vol. 40. No. 2

© Copyright by Wydawnictwo Adam MarszałekToruń 2015

ISSN 1732-6729

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CoNteNts

Stanisław JuszczykEditor’s Preface � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 11

� Social PedagogyKrzysztof Rubacha, Mariana Sirotova

Child-rearing practices in Slovakia – A comparative study � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17Mohammad Hassani, Soheila Ahmadi, Jafar Parhizgar

Does Cultural Intelligence Influence Management Effectiveness and Conflict Management Styles of University Managers? � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 26

Magdalena Cuprjak, Violetta Kopińska,Discrimination in the discourse of Polish textbooks dedicated to civic education courses � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 38

Demet Aktaş, Nurcan Ertuğ, Esra ÖztürkInvestigation into Intercultural Sensitivity among Nursing Students at a University in Turkey � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 48

Violetta RodekSense of the Meaning of Life among Students Demonstrating Different Self-Education Activity Levels � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 58

Svitlana IvashnovaThe Model of Projection of a Fuzzy Individual Professional Educational Trajectory � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 69

Bohumíra Lazarová, Milan Pol, Jana Poláchová Vašťatková, Václav Trojan, Tomáš Bouda

Working with data: Both an opportunity and challenge for school leaders � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 81

4 Contents

� general didacticSValdonė Indrašienė, Odeta Merfeldaitė, Asta Railienė, Violeta Jegelevičienė

Experience in Using Information Communication Technology during Lessons in General Education Schools � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 97

Lada KaliskáCreativity Development Curve in Slovak Pupils at the Lower Secondary Education Level: Historical-Comparative Study � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 109

Monika Guszkowska, Anna Kuk, Adriana Zagórska-Pachucka, Katarzyna Skwarek

The Study Competences of Physical Education Students � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 119Manoj Joseph D Souza, Paul Rodrigues

Investigating the Effectiveness of the Flipped Classroom in an Introductory Programming Course � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 129

Nataliia Morze, Svitlana Spivak, Eugenia Smyrnova-TrybulskaDesigning a Modern Cloud-Oriented Virtual Personalized Educational Environment � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 140

José Javier Verdugo-Perona, Joan Josep Solaz-Portolés, Vicente SanjoséIs Digital Literacy Improving Science Education? � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 155

� PedeutologySoňa Karikovám Terézia Rohn

The “Nervousness” Factor in the Personality Profile of Teachers in the Slovak Republic � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 169

Elżbieta PerzyckaTeachers’ Learning Processes of Information Competences in the Network Society – Proposed Theoretical and Methodological Solutions � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 180

Kate Tzu-Ching Chen, Alison Yi-Chen TsaiPeer Tutoring for EFL learning : A Multidimensional Analysis of Elementary School Students � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 189

Alice Dombi, Krisztina Kovács Mentor Teacher Training in the Light of a Study at the University of Szeged � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 201

5Contents

Kim Koh, Lyndon Lim, Charlene Tan, Mubarak HabibBuilding Teachers’ Capacity in Formative Assessment: the Singapore Example � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 211

Kamil Wilk, Tomasz HukAssessment of Chosen Musical Competences of Kindergarten Teachers as an Employment Criterion � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 222

� SPecial PedagogyYunus Emre Karakaya, Sebahattin Devecioglu, Hasan Huseyin Kilinc

Teachers’ Behaviors towards Mentally Disabled Students in Physical Education Classes � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 235

Maja Matrić, Matjaž DuhCreativity Among Gifted and Non-Gifted Students � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 247

Mitja Krajnčan, Andreja Sinjur, Tanja KranjecThe Existing Level of Social Competence of Children with Special Needs from the Teacher’s Point of View � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 260

� choSen aSPectS of PSychologyMałgorzata Górnik-Durose, Aleksandra Wąsik

Market Regulations in Social Relationships and Attitudes Towards Disabled People � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 275

� chronicleTallinn University of Technology (TUT), Estonia � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 291

CoNtributors

Ahmadi Soheila M�A of Educational Administration, Department of Education, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Urmia Univer-sity, Iran

Aktaş Demet, RN, Msc, PhD

Assist� Prof�, Turgut Ozal University School of Nursing, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Nursing, Ankara, Turkey

Bouda Tomáš (PaedDr�)

Centrum dalšího vzdělávání, PedF OU, 709 00 Ostrava, F� Šrámka 3

e-mail: tomas�bouda@osu�cz

Cuprjak Magdalena (PhD

Faculty of Educational Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

e-mail: mcuprjak@umk�pl

D’Souza Manoj Joseph

Research scholar, Dept� of Computer Science and Engineering, DMI College of Engineering, Chennai-66, India

e-mail: frmanoj@gmail�com

Dombi Alice (PhD�, habil�)

college professor, head of department, University of Szeged Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, Institute of Kindergarten and Lower-Primary Education, 6 Boldogasszony sgt� Szeged H-6725

e-mail: dalice@jgypk�u-szeged�hu

Duh Matjaž (PhD) Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Koroška cesta 160, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia

Ertuğ Nurcan, RN, Msc, PhD

Assist� Prof�, Turgut Ozal University School of Nursing, Department of Surgical Nursing, Ankara, Turkey

e-mail: ertugnurcan@gmail�com

Górnik-Durose Małgorzata (Dr hab�)

Department of Psychology of Health and Quality of Life, Institute of Psychology, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

Guszkowska Monika (Dr hab�, prof� nzw�)

Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, ul� Marymoncka 34, 00-968 Warszawa, Poland

e-mail: monika�guszkowska@awf�edu�pl

Habib Mubarak Education Officer, Ministry of Education, Singapore

Hassani Mohammad (PhD)

M�A of Educational Administration, Department of Education, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Urmia University, Iran

7Contributors

Huk Tomasz (PhD�) University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, ul� Grażyńskiego 53 40-126 Katowice

e-mail: tomasz�huk@us�edu�pl

Indrašienė Valdonė (Prof� Dr�)

Mykolas Romeris University, Faculty of Social Technologies, Ateities st� 20, LT-08303 Vilnius, Lithuania

e-mail: v�indrasiene@mruni�eu

http://www�mruni�eu

Ivashnova Svitlana (PhD�)

Institute of postdegree pedagogical education, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kiev, Ukraine

e-mail: s�ivashnova@kubg�edu�ua,

www�ippo�kubg�edu�ua

Jegelevičienė Violeta (Dr�)

Mykolas Romeris University, Faculty of Social Technologies, Ateities st� 20, LT-08303 Vilnius, Lithuania,

e-mail: violeta�suboc@mruni�euhttp://www�mruni�eu

Kaliská Lada (doc� PaedDr� PhD�)

Pedagogical Faculty, Matej Bel University, Department of Psychology, Ružová 13, 974 11 Banská Bystrica, Slovak Republic,

e-mail: lada�kaliska@umb�sk

Karakaya Yunus Emre (Ass� Prof�)

University of Utah, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Utah, USA (Visiting Research Scholar)

e-mail:yunus�karakaya@utah�edu

Kariková Soňa (prof� PhDr� PhD�)

Pedagogical Faculty, Matej Bel University, Department of Psychology, Ružová 13, 974 11 Banská Bystrica, Slovak Republic,

e-mail:sona�karikova@umb�sk

Kilinc Hasan Huseyin (Ass� Prof�)

University of Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli, Faculty of Education, Nevsehir, Turkey

e-mail: hhkilinc_23@hotmail�com

Koh Kim Associate Professor, University of Calgary, Canada

Kopińska Violetta (PhD)

Faculty of Educational Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland,

e-mail: Violetta�Kopinska@umk�pl

Kovács Krisztina (PhD)

senior lecturer, University of Szeged Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, Institute of Kindergarten and Lower-Primary Educa-tion, 6 Boldogasszony sgt� Szeged H-6725,

e-mail: kovacs�k@jgypk�u-szeged�hu

Krajnčan Mitja (PhD)

University of Primorska, Faculty of Education, Cankarjeva 5, Koper, Slovenia,

e-mail: mitja�krajncan@pef�upr�si

Kranjec Tanja special education teacher, Grad Primary School, Grad 172E, 9264 Grad, Slovenia,

e-mail: tanja�kranjec1@guest�arnes�si

Kuk Anna (PhD) Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Faculty of Physical Education, ul� Marymoncka 34; 00-968 Warszawa, Poland,

e-mail: annakuk1@wp�pl

Lazarová Bohumíra (Doc�, PhDr�, Ph�D�)

Ústav pedagogických věd, FF MU, 602 00 Brno, Arna Nováka 1

e-mail: lazarova@phil�muni�cz

8 Contributors

Lim Lyndon Education Officer, Ministry of Education, Singapore

Matrić Maja (Postgraduate student)

Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Koroška cesta 160, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia

e-mail: maja�matric@gmail�com

Merfeldaitė Odeta (Prof� Dr�)


e-mail: o�merfeldaite@mruni�eu

http:// www�mruni�eu

Morze Nataliia (PhD)

Professor, Corresponding Member of National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, Vice-Rector on Informational Technologies, Borys Grinchenko Kiyv University, Bulvarno-Kudryavska St� 18/2, Kyiv, Ukraine,

e-mail: n�morze@kubg�edu�ua

Öztürk Esra, RN Turgut Ozal University Hospital, Clinic Nurse Practitioner, Ankara, Turkey,

e-mail: esraa_ozt@hotmail�com

Parhizgar Jafar M�A of Educational Administration, Department of Education, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Urmia Univer-sity, Iran

Perzycka Elżbieta (Dr hab�)

University of Szczecin, Poland, eperzyk@gmail�com

Pol Milan (Prof�, PhDr�, CSc�)

Ústav pedagogických věd, FF MU, 602 00 Brno, Arna Nováka 1

e-mail: pol@phil�muni�cz

Poláchová Vašťatková Jana (Doc�, Mgr�, Ph�D�)

Katedra sociologie, andragogiky a kulturní antropologie, Filozofická fakulta, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Třída Svobody 26, 779 00 Olomouc

e-mail: jana�polachovavupol�cz

Railienė Asta (Assoc� Prof� Dr�)


e-mail: asta�railiene@mruni�eu http:// www�mruni�eu

Rodek Violetta, (PhD�)

Department of General Didactics and Pedeutology, University of Silesia in Katowice

Rodrigues Paul (Ph�D)

Professor, Dept� of Computer Science and Engineering, DMI College of Engineering, Chennai-66, India

e-mail: drpaulprof@gmail�com

Rohn Terézia (Mgr� PhD�)

, Pedagogical Faculty, Matej Bel University, Ružová 13, 974 11 Banská Bystrica, Slovak Republic,

e-mail: terezia�rohn@umb�sk

9Contributors

Rubacha Krzysztof (Prof� dr hab�)

Department of Pedagogy, University of Ss� Cyril and Methodius (UCM) in Trnava, Slovak Republic,

e-mail: krzysztof�rubacha@ucm�sk

Sanjosé Vicente (Prof� PhD�)

Department of Science Education, Univer-sity of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

e-mail: vicente�sanjose@uv�es

Sebahattin Devecio-glu (Assoc� Prof�)

University of Maryland (UMBC), Depart-ment of Economic, Baltimore, USA� (Visiting Researcher Scholar),

e-mail: sd@umbc�edu

Sinjur Andreja (Ph�D student)

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Educa-tion, Kardeljeva ploščad 16, Ljubljana, Slove-nia,

e-mail: andreja�sinjur@dusanabordona�si

Sirotova Marina (Doc� PhD)

Department of Pedagogy, University of Ss� Cyril and Methodius (UCM) in Trnava, Slovak Republic,

e-mail: mariana�sirotova@ucm�sk

Skwarek Katarzyna (Mgr)

Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Faculty of Physical Education, ul� Marymoncka 34; 00-968 Warszawa, Poland,

e-mail: marika�k�s@gmail�com

Smyrnova-Trybulska Eugenia (dr hab�)

Head of Department of Humanistic Education and Auxiliary Sciences of Pedagogy, Institute of Science of Education, the Faculty of Ethnology and Sciences of Education, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, Bielska 62, 43-400 Cieszyn, Poland,

e-mail: esmyrnova@us�edu�pl

Solaz-Portolés Joan Josep (Prof� PhD�)


e-mail: Joan�Solaz@uv�es

Spivak Svitlana Lecturer of the Department of Computer Science, Institute of Society, Borys Grinchenko Kiyv University, Bulvarno-Kudryavska St� 18/2, Kyiv, Ukraine,

e-mail: s�spivak@kubg�edu�ua

Tan Charlene Associate Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Trojan Václav (PhDr�, Ph�D�)

Centrum školského managementu, PedF UK, 110 Praha 1, Myslíkova 7

e-mail: vaclav�trojan@pedf�cuni�cz

Tzu-Ching Chen Kate

Department of Applied English, Chaoyang University of Technology, 168 Jifong E� Rd�, Wufong Township, Taichung County, 41349, Taiwan R�O�C�

Verdugo-Perona José Javier


e-mail: joverpe@alumni�uv�es

Wąsik Aleksandra Department of Psychology of Health and Quality of Life Institute of Psychology, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

10 Contributors

Wilk Kamil University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, ul� Grażyńskiego 53 40-126 Katowice

e-mail: kamil�wilk75@gmail�com

Yi-Chen Tsai Alison Jing-Siou Elementary School, Changhua Country, Taiwan R�O�C�

Zagórska-Pachucka Adriana (PhD)

Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Faculty of Physical Education, ul� Marymoncka 34; 00-968 Warszawa, Poland,

e-mail: adazagorska@wp�pl

editor’s Preface

The second number of The New Educational Review in 2015 is the fourtieth issue of our journal since the start of its foundation in 2003� In this issue there are mainly papers from: Canada, the Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Iran, Lithu-ania, South Korea, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, and the USA, because our journal is open for presentation of scientific papers from all over the world�

In the present issue the Editors’ Board have proposed the following subject sessions: Social Pedagogy, General Didactics, Pedeutology, Special Pedagogy, and Chosen Aspects of Psychology�

The subject session “Social Pedagogy” consists of seven articles� The article by Krzysztof Rubacha and Mariana Sirotova reports on empirical research into the dif-ferences in child-rearing practices between present-day families and families living at the turn of the 21st century� The study presented by Mohammad Hassani, Soheila Ahmadi and Jafar Parhizgar aims to investigate the impact of cultural intelligence on management effectiveness and conflict management styles� Violetta Kopińska and Magdalena Cuprjak present a critical analysis of visual materials contained in civic education textbooks with the purpose to identify traits of discrimination of individuals with a «skin colour» other than «white»� The purpose of the study described by Demet Aktaş, Nurcan Ertuğ, Esra Öztürk is to investigate intercul-tural sensitivity among nursing students in Turkey� Violetta Rodek describes the results of empirical research whose goal is to recognize mutual relations between students’ self-education activity and their sense of the meaning of life� The article by Svitlana Ivashnova suggests considering certain components of the professional competence as fuzzy sets and strictly the professional competence as a universal fuzzy set� The discussion presented by Bohumíra Lazarová and her co-workers analyses the concept of data, presents various purposes of working with data in schools and deals with the readiness of people at school to work with data�

Stanisław Juszczyk

12 Stanisław Juszczyk

In the subject session “General Didactics” we publish six articles� The aim of the research presented by Valdoné Indrašienė, Odeta Merfeldaitė, Asta Railienė, and Violeta Jegelevičienė is to analyse the experience of pedagogues in using ICT during lessons� The paper by Lada Kaliská presents research findings of the historical-comparative study concerning the development of creativity measured by the KREATOS test in pupils of the 5th to 9th grades at the lower secondary level� The purpose of the research described by Monika Guszkowska, Anna Kuk, Adriana Zagórska-Pachucka, and Katarzyna Skwarek is to determine the level of study competences among students of physical education� The experimental study described by Manoj Joseph D Souza and Paul Rodrigues compares the effectiveness of a flipped classroom with a traditional classroom in two areas: programming self-efficacy, and academic performance� The research carried out by Natalia Morze, Svitlana Spivak and Eugenia Smyrnova-Trybulska focuses on students’ research ability to use information and communication technologies to carry out information activities in their professional field� In their quantitative study José Javier Verdugo-Perona, Joan Josep Solaz-Portolés, Vicente Sanjosé analyse the relationship between Spanish digital mass media and scientific literacy in pre-service primary teachers�

In the subject session “Pedeutology” we publish six articles� The contribution by Soňa Kariková and Terézia Rohn focuses on the issue of the current statutory requirement for teachers’ mental fitness to exercise the teaching profession in the Slovak Republic� Elżbieta Perzycka in her paper discusses the conditions of the constitution of information literacy as a result of the revision of theory and practice� The study by Kate Tzu-Ching Chen and Alison Yi-Chen Tsai investigates dimensions of academic performance, learning motivation and learning attitudes by adapting peer tutoring as the major EFL classroom activities in an elementary school classroom� In the course of the study characterised by Alice Dombi and Krisztina Kovács it is analysed how the students of the mentor teacher course imagine a successful mentor� The objective of the study by Kim Koh, Lyndon Lim, Charlene Tan, Mubarak Habib is to contribute to the knowledge base of teacher professional development of formative assessment using Singapore as an example� The research conducted by Kamil Wilk and Tomasz Huk in the Silesian region of Poland over the years 2014-2015 shows that the surveyed directors of kindergartens view musical skills, in most cases, as an essential supplement to other competences of teachers, among which the ability to play a melodic instrument and vocal skills are, in their opinion, the most important musical competences�

The subject session “Special Pedagogy” consists of three articles� The goal of the research carried out by Yunus Emre Karakaya, Hasan Huseyin Kilinc, Sebahattin

13Editor’s Preface

Devecioglu is to examine the verbal and non-verbal behaviors of teachers towards mentally disabled students in physical education classes in Special Education Prac-tice Centers (Schools for Mentally Disabled Students) in Turkey� In order to find out what differences occur in the creativity levels of gifted and non-gifted students, their creativity levels were recorded by Maja Matrić using the LV1Test, measuring their artistic-creative and artistic-appreciative abilities� Mitja Krajnčan, Andreja Sinjur, and Tanja Kranjec in their article compare teachers’ opinions on attained social competence of pupils with special needs and other pupils�

In the subject session “Chosen Aspects of Psychology” we publish an article by Małgorzata Górnik-Durose and Aleksandra Wąsik, who present an empirical study on some predictors of attitudes to disabled people�

We hope that this edition, like previous ones, will encourage new readers not only from the Central European countries to participate in an open international discussion� On behalf of the Editors’ Board I would like to invite representatives of different pedagogical sub-disciplines and related sciences to publish their texts in The New Educational Review, according to the formal requirements placed on our website: www�educationalrev�us�edu�pl – Guide for Authors�

Social Pedagogy

Child-rearing practices in slovakia – A comparative study

AbstractThe article reports on empirical research into the differences in child-rearing practices between present-day families and families living at the turn of the 21st century� The concept of child-rearing practices is addressed from the point of view of social theories of learning and socio-cognitive theories which constituted the basis for the research discussed� Results show that a portion of practices significantly differs in each group, and a portion remains unchanged� The biggest difference concerns ‘deferment of gratification’ as a factor for the development of many social skills� In the present-day family group this child-rearing effect has largely disappeared�

Child-rearing practices are an essential factor in the activation of educational processes understood here as mechanisms of development� This claim derives from W� Mischela’s (1973) social learning theory as well as K�Busseya and A� Bandura’s (1999) socio-cognitive theory� Both theories focus on modelling as one of the main mechanisms responsible for learning behaviour considered as a socio-cultural standard� Accordingly, one can view child-rearing practices in general from two perspectives: from the point of view of formal development mechanisms, or in terms of the influential content triggering these mechanisms� Formal mechanisms of development should be seen as relatively constant and unchanging� Following the conventions adopted by neo-behavioural cognitive theories we can talk about learning through observation, direct learning, indirect experience or modelling (Bussey, Bandura 1999, p� 686)� These processes, however, are realized through concrete content hidden in stereotypes, social reinforcement, social pressures, the stratification and segregation of the sexes, social sanctions, etc� (Chomczyńska-Miliszkiewicz 2002, p� 91)� While the mechanisms of development,

Krzysztof Rubacha, Mariana SirotovaPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.01

18 Krzysztof Rubacha,Mariana Sirotova

from the formal point of view, are relatively unchanging, the content which triggers them changes over time� In this article, we try to look at educational practices from the point of view of this changing content� We would like to see how the content of educational influence has changed over the last 4-18 years, at the same time taking into account that it is realized through unchanging mechanisms of learning� Our question, therefore, is the following: what differences can be found in child-rearing practices, including children’s reactions to them, between contemporary families (2014-2015) and families at the turn of the 21st century (from 1997)� Why do we want to compare these two periods? Because the cultural transformation observed in precisely these periods is – owing to the technological developments in information and communication – more significant than that of earlier periods� The sheer spread of the use of mobile phones and the possibility of maintaining contact within a global network have introduced new qualities to the interaction between people� These advancements, in turn, have changed the cultural standards and values regulating the everyday affairs of all generations, and it is these same changes that we want to identify in family educational practices� To this end, we constructed a list of criteria for the analysis of child-rearing practices which, from the perspective of the (socio-cognitive and social learning) theories guiding this study, seem crucial for describing and clarifying educational processes� What is often mentioned in this context are the daily duties children living in family homes have, the role of the father and mother in raising children, whose behaviour chil-dren model, how parents react to their children’s needs, how children react to their parents’ needs, what parents’ and children’ attitudes are to religion, schools and teachers, how parents react to their children’s lies and vice versa, how parents and children spend their free-time, how parents and children behave with regard to others, what child-rearing methods parents use, what punishments, what rewards, what children find precious, how much time parents and children spend with each other, what interests parents have and how they realize them, what children expect from their parents and vice versa, which of the parents has a stronger position in the family� In the presented study we will describe several of the above-mentioned criteria� We will focus, however, on children’s daily duties, parents’ contribution to child-rearing, the authority figure in the family, the reciprocal reactions of parents and children with regard to communicating their needs and expectations, the ways of spending free-time, parents’ and children’ attitudes toward school, as well as toward sexual education� These criteria will be the subject of comparative analysis of two groups of parents and children�

19Child-rearing practices in Slovakia – A comparative study

Method

The study was conducted using quantitative strategies in a comparative scheme as a practical diagnostic study� It is, however, worth noting that the measurements of variables were undertaken on a nominal level, and therefore variables were identified qualitatively� Two samples (A and B) were selected for comparison� The first sample (A) focused on subjects who had the competency to analyze their own childhood and adolescent experiences� Therefore, university students tak-ing teacher-training courses, who had several didactic classes in psychology and pedagogy under their belt, were among those chosen� These were undergraduate and graduate (N = 112) students between the ages of 20-23, studying history, Slovakian philology, and pedagogy� Whereas, the second sample (B) was made up of subjects of both sexes and their children� The parents were between the ages of 28-46, whereas the children were between the ages of 7-17� The sample of university students (A) were asked to record their own childhood and adolescent family experiences based on an earlier agreed on set of criteria� This was, therefore, a guided attempt to garner insight into past familial and childhood interactions� All of the studied subjects worked at the same time in one location� There were no time limitations� Completion of the task took between 2 and 3 hours� A group of researchers, who, having previously completed schooling and subsequently passing the “pedagogical research” module, worked with the second group (B), conducting observations and interviews with the parents who were currently rais-ing their children� The research consisted in ten-day observation of each family, conducted for three hours every day� The data were coded on special observation sheets and collected with the help of guided interviews and open conversation� One researcher was assigned to each family� In total, 53 elementary families were observed� It is worth noting that the students in group A described their child-hood experiences starting from 1997, while the researchers observing the family’s activities provided data for the years 2014-2015� The smallest difference separating the two sample groups was 4 years, and the biggest difference – 18 years� The median amounts to an 11-year difference between the childhood experiences and the data supplied by the observations undertaken in 2014-2015� We began the data analysis by coding the students’ own descriptions of childhood experiences� This entailed conferring quality codes, which in themselves comprised indicators of the criteria for the analysis of childhood experiences, onto specific fragments of the text� Then, the material thus prepared was passed on to another researcher who had not participated in the study planning or data collection, but rather played the role of a competent judge, verifying the accuracy of the indicators identified in the


codes� This triangulation of researchers ultimately allowed us to assemble verified analytic codes� Next, we counted the frequency of specific variables and, in turn, prepared the data for quantitative analysis� A similar approach was used with the data gathered from the observations and ethnographic conversations� The authors of this study also received the data in the form of a text, which included observa-tion logs as well as transcripts of the ethnographic conversations and interviews� Firstly, we checked the quality of the gathered data, weeding out semantically vague and deficient or illegible material� We then proceeded to code the collected material, building codes which consisted of criteria indicators – variables, which the field researchers used� Similarly to the descriptions regarding the data obtained in the subjects’ own recollections of experiences, the selected codes were subjected to researcher triangulation, abandoning a part of the codes or changing them� After this verification process we calculated the frequency of specific variations in the studied variables, preparing data for statistical analysis� As the level of the measured variables was nominal, we solely calculated the frequency and measure-ments of covariance understood as the probability sums of a given variant of the variable assessed – if it showed up as definite, then another variant was considered� This statistical effect was achieved by counting the values for a portion of the data from the chi-square test, taken as a test determining the relevance of differences between the groups (data from samples A and B)� However, as mentioned above, the study was conducted using quantitative strategies in a comparative schema� We also used elements of qualitative research, both during the data collection phase (the elements of observations and ethnographic interviews) and data analysis (coding data and identifying qualitative indicators) as well as the interpretation of data ( invoking significations behind the identified child-rearing practices)�

Analysis and Interpretation of Results

The results will be analyzed with regard to specific categories describing familial child-rearing practices� The two groups of participants in the studies yielded simi-lar data regarding the daily duties children were to do� Among the most frequently observed duties were keeping one’s own room tidy and sporadic cleaning of the whole house, usually on a Saturday� Doing one’s homework figured as the main responsibility in both groups, while a quantitative difference was noted in the dimension of this phenomenon� Sample B, the contemporary group of parents, clearly placed more pressure on their children fulfilling their school responsibilities than group A, the group whose task it was to analyze their past childhood experi-ences� The values of the chi-square test were statistically significant – p < 0�05� The


qualitatively coded data, in turn, show that the observed children used the phrase: ‘I’m doing my homework now’ as an alibi, allowing them to shirk other daily duties� This phenomenon had also been the experience of the A sample, however, in the case of this group, the parents had not allowed themselves to be tricked, which is also true for the present-day mothers and fathers� Our research observers (group B) also provided us with data which show that the contemporary parents spend more time with their children than the studied subjects who reconstructed their past childhood experiences (A) (p < 0�05)� The difference is significant and works in favour of sample group B only when the children are under 12� The time together is for the most part spent doing homework, which could mean that this effect does not translate to building up deeper relations between parents and children, but rather shows the parents’ desire to stimulate their child’s academic achievement� This is of course only our interpretation, and not the results of the analysis� Keeping with this issue, we can look at the data concerning the roles of both the fathers and mothers in raising their children� In terms of content, and thus the area of the parents’ involvement, the role of the mother is identical in both sample groups� The focus is on securing the child’s needs: those pertaining to care, education, cognitive needs, emotional needs, and social needs� What also emerges, however, are differences in the fulfilment of the father’s role� In terms of quality there is a new area of paternal involvement, mainly taking responsibility for child care� Some of the observed fathers in study group B took part in feeding their children, changing nappies, cooking, putting the children to bed, and taking them for walks, all of which the fathers from sample group A did not do� The frequency of such activities rises with the decreasing age of the fathers studied� One could, therefore, aver that this is a new phenomenon, concerning, as it does, not the entire contemporary group of fathers, but mainly those whose children are under the age of 3� Generally, this difference holds up, which means that the likelihood of a new style of paternal involvement is on the rise if we look to the analysis of study group B – it is on the decline, however, if we focus on the analysis of frequency in study group A�

Comparing the time the fathers in both sample groups spend with their children presents the group of present-day fathers favourably� In the materials obtained from the analysis of their own past childhood experiences (A) we find the prevalent phrase: ‘father was away from home and focused on securing mate-rial means for the family’, ‘he was not involved in raising the child on a daily basis’� On the other hand, no prevalence of this phrase is found among sample group B� Here, the data are more diversified and about 40% of the fathers declare having spent an amount of time at home similar to that of the mothers� What is somewhat


surprising in this context is the rise in the children’s attestations that mothers were their authority figures at home� Perhaps this effect can be clarified if we consider A� Bandura’s writings on the topic of modelling� According to Bandura, children imitate the behaviour of the parent who experiences more social gratification because of his or her own career-orientated activities, as well as who and how he or she is (Bussey Bandura 1999, pp� 686-688)� If we consider being the authority figure as synonymous with supplying children with a model to imitate, then the rising social status of women, their increasing commitment to their careers and the resulting social gratification they receive should strengthen their authority in the eyes of the child�

We obtained interesting data with regards to the mutual reactions of parents and children to each other’s needs and expectations� Let us start with the extent to which parents meet their children’s needs and expectations� What comes to the fore is a qualitative difference� A lot of the data collected from the group of present-day parents (B) was coded as ‘immediate gratification’ or as ‘immediate fulfilment of the child’s expectations’� Categories such as these were not coded in study group A, i�e�, in the recollections of past childhood experiences by the present-day students� In the course of the analysis both codes were combined into one whose frequency was very high and reached 69%� A transformation such as this in the span of 11 years could be treated as significant� Moreover, we noticed that the parents in sample group B fulfilled their children’s expectations almost ‘lit-erally’� The children do not have to wait for anything, they do not have to work to earn their rewards (we will return to this point) and are growing more impatient� This last finding was confirmed by the research observers who studied the family lives of the subjects� Shoda’s findings indicate, however, that early deferment of gratification in child-rearing strongly correlates with the level of achievement in secondary school as well as at work later in life, whereas immediate gratification generates child-rearing and social functioning problems in adulthood� Mischel added that children who defer gratification in their pre-school years become more careful teenagers managing to concentrate, express their thoughts and react to argumentation (Shoda, Mischel, Peake 1990, pp� 979-985)� These findings were identified in longitudinal studies, spanning several years, and belong to some of the best documented developmental psychology� Of course, the calculated coef-ficient of difference between groups chi-square is high and statistically significant (p < 0�05)� From the perspective of development, the probability of the parents’ proper conduct in this area decidedly falls when we shift from the results of sample A to sample B� In as much as in sample B children had to earn their parents’ rec-ognition, in sample A they were aware that their needs were at the centre of family


life� This, however, does not translate to the children’s ways of reacting to their parents’ expectations� What we have in mind here is the sample of present-day families� A portion of the observational data regarding these families was coded as: ‘lack of a positive reaction to parents’ expectations’� This concerned the data describing the parents’ expectations with regard to their child’s behaviour toward strangers, in public places, the interaction between parents and children, as well as the fulfilment of daily duties� From this code we disabled expectations connected with academic achievement� Perhaps when it comes to academic achievement parents are less likely to ignore their children’s behaviour, whereas in previous examples they are more likely to acquiesce� It is difficult to give an unequivocal interpretation of this state of affairs� However, we can get wind of the parent’s part in the mechanism’s trajectory� The students described their past family relations in terms of soliciting for their parents’ acceptance� In general, what was mentioned were the exchanges between the parents and children; and it was this connection that the children grasped� The recorded change deserves monitoring and studying under the auspices of research strategies involving a random assortment of repre-sentative samples which would allow for a diagnosis on the level of a population� What the extent of this dangerous phenomenon is among the population we do not know� Keeping to our analytical perspective, however, it is worthwhile at this point to look into the data describing the attitudes of parents and children to school�

The parents showed a strong belief in the academic success of their child (71%)� A high rate of academic success was perceived as a bridge to attaining a successful, because affluent, adulthood� Connected with this is the focus on achievement in all possible disciplines� School is perceived as a place for winning academic trophies� This market-based rationale, seeing school as a departure point leading to a life of consumerism, was not yet present in sample A, although a portion (23%) of the data allowed us to codify it in exactly this way� The dominant attitude, nevertheless, was one in which the parents treated school as a place of learning and peer-play for their children� Academic marks were important� However, what was equally as important was the child’s behaviour in school and his or her developing relation-ships with others� These qualitatively varied results translate into a quantitative variation confirmed by the statistically significant chi-square coefficient� What do the children think of school in this context? In each of the studied groups, the attitudes of the children toward school were identical to their parents’ attitudes� In sample group A the subjects reconstructed their attitudes toward school using the same terminology in which they described their parents’ attitudes� A similar situ-ation was observed in regards to the present-day families� This seemed to be more


a modelling of the parental attitudes by the children than the latter demonstrating their own original views on the subject�

The next pool of criteria for comparing child-rearing practices between each group concerned extracurricular contexts� It dealt with, among other things, the ways in which the children and parents spent their free-time� It should be mentioned here that no qualitatively or quantitatively significant differences were noted in the parent group between the parents in group A, about whom the stud-ied student subjects had written, and the parents in group B, whom the students, in the role of researchers, had studied� In both cases the parents spent their free-time taking care of their children, and visiting their families and friends, time permit-ting, at the end of the week� However, the present-day parents travelled outside of Slovakia slightly more often than in the present-day students’ recollections� Although this did not present a statistically significant quantitative difference, it was, however, perceptible as a quantitative category� On a daily basis, however, the parents had almost no free-time, because the researchers did not include the time spent, specifically by the women, running the household in free-time� The fathers in both generation-groups devoted most of their time to work� However, a change was noted in the manner in which the children spend their free-time� The time spent outside of the home in a physical sense, e�g�, at a playground, was decidedly reduced� The present-day children spend their time for the most part at home in front of their computers� With respect to both categories, i�e�, the time spent outside of the home and the time spent in front of the computer, a statisti-cally significant difference was found between groups A and B (p < 0�05)� Group A spent more time outside of their homes, while group B spent more time in front of their computers� It should be added that the children from group A, i�e�, the present-day students writing about their own childhood experiences, also had computers at home with games installed on them� The children from group B, however, lived on the net, spending a lot of time on social networking websites� Through these websites, they establish contact with their peers� In some sense, one can say that these children also spend time outside of their homes, yet this is a virtual environment, perhaps an analogy of the old playground� Besides, children find in this environment a source of more and more information about the world� This situation particularly pertains to the sexual sphere of teenage life, as it is teenagers that our analysis now concerns� Both the studied groups A and B could not rely on their parents to transmit knowledge about sexuality� In a word, there is no difference between the two studied groups in terms of a lack of sexual educa-tion at home� To this day this topic remains a taboo sphere for the studied families (Chomczyńska-Rubacha 2010, pp�147-162)� Nowadays, young people acquire this


knowledge on the Internet, whereas in the past (group A) it was acquired from peers and older friends�

The findings presented here, comparing educational practices in both groups is not focused solely on differences� Certain similarities between the two groups were also revealed, ones which in fact indicate a lack of change despite the chang-ing external conditions� This cursory analysis shows, however, that educational practices are not undergoing revolutionary changes, but are rather evolving, and quite unevenly� There are, however, a few differences which, from the point of view of knowledge on childhood developmental processes and growing up, in the future can bring unexpected consequences� Without a doubt, what we find here is an almost complete lack of ‘deferring gratification’ and almost ‘unconditional satisfy-ing of children’s needs by parents’, combined with parents’ acceptance of children not fulfilling their expectations� These findings demand deeper (quantitative) and broadened (quantitative) studies�

referencesBussey K�, Bandura A�, (1999) Social cognitive theory of gender development and dif-

ferentiation� “Psychological Review”, 4�Chomczyńska-Miliszkiewicz M� (2002) Edukacja seksualna w społeczeństwie współcze-

snym� Konteksty pedagogiczne i psychospołeczne� Wydawnictwo UMCS Lublin�Chomczyńska-Rubacha M� (2010) Standardy rozwojowe edukacji seksualnej� “Studia

Edukacyjne” 12/2010Mischel W� (1973)� Toward a cognitive social learning reconceptualization of personal-

ity� “Psychological Review”, 80�Shoda Y�, Mischel W�, Peake P�K� (1990)� Predicting adolescent cognitive and self-regulatory

competencies from preschool delay of gratification: Identifying diagnostic conditions� “Developmental Psychology” 26�

Does Cultural intelligence influence Management effectiveness and Conflict Management styles

of university Managers?

AbstractThe presented study aims to investigate the impact of cultural intelligence on management effectiveness and conflict management styles� The target popula-tion of this research includes all senior managers of universities and higher education institutions in Urmia� The nature of the study requires the use of a descriptive-correlational research method� Findings of the study show that there is a significant relationship between cultural intelligence and management effectiveness� Results of stepwise regression analysis show that components of cultural intelligence allow for predicting the avoidance style� Moreover, among the components of cultural intelligence only the metacognitive cultural intel-ligence allows for predicting management effectiveness�

Keywords: cultural intelligence, cultural intelligence components, management effectiveness, conflict management.

1. introduction

In the 21st century, when the world has been experiencing globalization and emergence of communication technology, cultural intelligence has been con-ceived� The question behind the idea of cultural intelligence is: why do some but not other individuals easily and effectively adapt their views and behaviors cross culturally? (Van Dyne, Ang, & Livermore, 2010)� Cultural intelligence refers to the talent to apply skills and abilities in different environments (Peterson, 2004)� It is often believed that cultural intelligence consists of four components: metacogni-tive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral cultural intelligences� High cultural

Mohammad Hassani, Soheila Ahmadi, Jafar ParhizgarIran

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.02

27Does Cultural Intelligence Influence Management Effectiveness

intelligence requires unity and application of the four components composing cultural intelligence (Ang et al�, 2004)� Cognitive cultural intelligence is an individual’s cultural knowledge of norms, practices and conventions in different cultural settings� Triandis (1994) suggests that cognitive cultural intelligence shows knowledge of cultural universals and cultural differences� Motivational cultural intelligence can be defined as an individual’s ability to direct attention and energy toward cultural differences� According to Early and Ang (2003), there are two general motivational frameworks used for the understanding the motiva-tional component: self-efficacy and self-consistency� Self-efficacy is an important and inclusive human mechanism which controls human performance through cognitive, motivational, emotional and decision making processes (Ang et al�, 2007, 44)� Behavioral cultural intelligence is the practical aspect of this concept (Early & Ang, 2003; Early et al�, 2006), which includes an individual’s ability to adapt appropriate verbal and nonverbal behaviors when he/she interacts with people from different cultures (Ang et al�, 2004)�

Management is the science and art of organizing the activities of an organiza-tion in accordance with clear policies in order to achieve the pre-established objec-tives and one of the important concepts of management science is effectiveness, based on which many organizations evaluate their function� Peter Drucker (1964) regards effectiveness as doing the right things� He reminds us that effectiveness can and must be learned (Peter Drucker, 2006)� The system resource model, developed by Seashore and Yuchtman (1967), defines organizational effectiveness through the survival of the organization, “the ability to exploit its environment in the acquisition of scarce and valued resources to sustain its functioning” (p� 393)�

Hoy and Miskel refer to conflict as being a source of positive change and neces-sary for authentic involvement, empowerment and democracy (Hoy & Miskel, 2008)� Furthermore, cultural differences lead to misunderstanding, which leads to conflict, low morale, and lack of productivity in work settings (Levy-Leboyer, 2004)� Certainly, it is not possible to manage such organizations which have poten-tials to create conflict, without having the appropriate strategies to resolve conflicts� Conflict management is the long-term management of conflicts� Putnam and Wilson (1982) identified three styles of conflict management: solution-oriented, avoidance, and control style� Putnam and Wilson (1982) stated that avoidance strategies manage conflict indirectly, by either simply avoiding disagreements or by minimizing controversial issues� Solution-oriented strategies manage conflict both by searching for creative, integrative solutions and by making compromises� Control strategies manage conflict by arguing persistently for their positions and using nonverbal messages to emphasize demands�

28 Mohammad Hassani, Soheila Ahmadi, Jafar Parhizgar

University managers have to work and interact with students and professors who have different cultures and ethnic backgrounds� In order to do this effectively, they should possess cultural intelligence� It is believed that it influences other organizational behaviors� Therefore, the presented study aims to investigate the impact of cultural intelligence on management effectiveness and conflict man-agement styles� Deng and Gibson (2008) tried to investigate the importance and implementation of cultural intelligence (CQ) as a key component of cross-cultural leadership capabilities within the context of Western–Chinese cultural differences� The study confirmed that expatriate leaders’ CQ can positively impact on their cross-cultural leadership effectiveness� In a study, Ramirez (2010) suggested a 2X2 factorial design test to find out if cultural intelligence levels predict the appropriate conflict resolution strategy adoption, thus the conflict resolution ability� The 2X2 factorial test is used to measure high/low cultural intelligence and strong/weak conflict resolution ability�

2. Methodology

The target population of this research includes all senior managers of universi-ties in Urmia; 263 managers were selected as the study sample due to the limited volume of statistical population� A survey instrument (questionnaire) used in the study contained three essential sections� The first section contained the cultural intelligence scale, a 20-item scale developed by Ang et al� (2007), which consists of positively worded question items: “four metacognitive, six cognitive, five motivational, and five behavior” (p� 344)� The Cronbach alpha coefficient of reli-ability of the whole scale was satisfactory (α = 0�74)� The second section contained the standardized questionnaire of conflict management styles which had been designed based on the viewpoint of Putnam and Wilson� Putnam and Wilson (1982) developed the Organizational Communication Conflict Instrument� This measure consists of 35 items designed to assess communicative choices in conflict within organizations� Initially, items were based on the five-category Blake and Mouton scheme but as a result of factor analysis they were later grouped in three subscales: (1) avoidance, (2) solution-orientation, and (3) control� Reliabilities of the subscales were relatively high (alphas ranging from �82 to �93), the Cronbach alpha coefficient of the reliability of the whole scale was determined as α = 0�85� Final part of the survey was the management effectiveness scale developed based on the viewpoint of Zimmermann et al� (2007)�They assessed five functions of the POSDCORB management tasks: planning, organizing, directing, staffing and


coordinating� It contained 20 questions, four questions for each of the functions� The respondents were asked to grade on a scale from 0 to 4� Reliability was estab-lished by means of Cronbach’s alpha and the value was 0�95, which shows that the reliability of the scale is acceptable� In this study, descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson’s correlation coefficient and stepwise regression analysis and ANOVA test) were used to analyze data�

3. results

H1. There is a significant relationship between the managers’ cultural intel-ligence and management effectiveness�

1-1� there is a significant relationship between cultural intelligence components and management effectiveness�

Table 1 shows that Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) equals 0�288 and ρ= 0�011� Thus, it can be said with the confidence of 0�95 that there is a significant relationship between cultural intelligence and effectiveness (ρ< 0�05)� As the sig-nificance levels obtained from the motivational and metacognitive components of cultural intelligence are lower than the level of 0�05, it can be said with the confidence of 0�95 that there is a significant relationship between motivational and metacognitive cultural intelligence with management effectiveness� Moreover, the significance levels obtained from the behavioral and cognitive components are larger than 0�05 and it can be said that there is no significant relationship between behavioral and cognitive components of cultural intelligence with management effectiveness�

Table 1. The results of testing the correlation between cultural intelligence and its components with effectiveness

Predictive variable Criterion variable Correlation coefficient Significance level

Cultural Intelligence Effectiveness 0�288* 0�011Motivational component 0�248* 0�028Metacognitive component 0�31199 0�005Cognitive component 0�136 0�231Behavioral component 0�173 0�130

* Significance at the level of 0�05 ** Significance at the level of 0�01


H2. There is a significant relationship between managers’ cultural intelligence and conflict management styles.

Considering the significance levels obtained from the relationship between cultural intelligence and solution-oriented as well as cultural intelligence and control style are lower than the significance level (0�05); it can be said with a con-fidence of 0�95 that there is a significant relationship between cultural intelligence with solution-oriented and control style� It should be noted that the relationship between cultural intelligence and the control style is negative� In addition, con-sidering the significance level obtained from the relationship between cultural intelligence and the avoidance style is greater than 0�05, it can be said that there is no significant relationship between cultural intelligence and the avoidance style�

Table 2. The results of testing the correlation between cultural intelligence and conflict management styles

Predictive variable Criterion variable Correlation coefficient

Significance level

Cultural Intelligence Solution-oriented style 0�281* 0�012Avoidance style 0�046 0�685Control style –0�328** 0�003

* Significance level 0�05 ** Significance level 0�01

In this section, the hypotheses will be investigated using stepwise regression analysis, in which the components of cultural intelligence have been considered as predictors of conflict management styles as well as management effectiveness�

As Table 3 shows the significance level obtained from cultural intelligence components for predicting the solution-oriented style is greater than 0�05, the regression is not significantly different from zero� Therefore, cultural intelligence components are not significant predictors of the solution-oriented style�

Table 3. Stepwise regression analysis results for predicting solution-oriented style

Criterion variable Predictive variable β t Significance

levelSolutionOrientation

MetacognitiveCognitiveMotivationalBehavioral

–0�057–0�056

0�1050�205

–0�432–0�425

0�7060�635

0�6670�6720�4830�528


Table 4 indicates that the coefficient obtained from the factors tested is 0�133 in model number (1) and 0�183 in model number (2)� This shows that the predictive variables studied in the presented study influence the selection of the avoidance style, and 0�133 and 0�183 of the variability in the avoidance style can be explained by these factors respectively�

Table 4. Summary of the model of avoidance style predicted by research variables

Model Variables entered Coefficient of determination

Adjusted coefficient

Standard Error of Estimate

12

CognitiveCognitive/metacognitive

0�1330�183

0�1200�158

4�9094�801

The data in Table 5 show coefficients and the significance of each of the factors influencing the avoidance style� The column of standardized coefficients (β) shows the order of the effect of the variables on the avoidance style�

Table 5. Stepwise regression analysis results for predicting the avoidance style

Model Non-standardized coefficients Standardized coefficients Sig

B SE β t SEConstant 24�81 3�080 – 8�056 0�000Cognitive score 0�514 0�162 0�364 3�178 0�002Constant 33�74 5�378 – 6�276 0�000Cognitive score 0�545 0�159 0�386 3�429 0�001Metacognitive score –0�623 0�310 –0�226 –2�006 0�049

Table 6 shows the results of regression analysis for predicting the control style� Given that the significance levels obtained from the components of cultural intelligence for predicting are greater than 0�05, the regression is not significantly different from zero and the components of cultural intelligence are not significant predictors of the control style�

Table 6. Stepwise regression analysis results for predicting the control style

Criterion variable Predictive variable β t Statistics Significance

levelControl Metacognitive

CognitiveMotivationalBehavioral

–0�124–0�003–0�037–0�036

–0�970–0�024–0�267–0�254

0�3350�9810�7910�800


Tables 7 and 8 show stepwise regression analysis results for predicting effective-ness� The coefficient of determination for the factors examined in model number (1) is 0�093� This shows that the predictive variable (metacognitive component) studied in the presented research influences management effectiveness and 0�093 of the variability in effectiveness can be explained by this factor� In addition, Table 9 shows the results of variance analysis of the regression test� As the obtained sig-nificance level is less than 0�05, model number (1) can be used to explain changes in the criterion variable� Data of Table 10 show the coefficients and significance of the factors influencing effectiveness� The column of the standardized coef-ficients (β) indicates the order of the influence of the variables on management effectiveness�

Table 7. Stepwise regression analysis results for predicting effectiveness

Criterion variable Predictive variable Regression coefficient β t Signifi-

cance levelEffectiveness Metacognitive

CognitiveMotivationalBehavioral

2�905–––

0�3050�0920�1920�085

2�7900�8381�7410�734

0�007*0�4050�0860�465

*Significance level 0�01

Table 8. Summary of the prediction model of effectiveness based on research variables

Model Variable entered Coefficient of determination

Adjusted coefficient

The standard er-ror of estimate

1 Metacognitive 0�093 0�081 18�616

Table 9. Results of variance analysis for predicting management effectiveness

Model 1 Sum of squares

Degree of freedom

Mean squares F Statistics Significance

levelRegression 2697�105 1 2697�105 7�782* 0�007Remaining 26338�658 76 346�561Total 29035�764 77

* Significance level 0�01


Table 10. Stepwise regression analysis results for predicting management effectiveness

Model 1 Not-standardized coef-ficients Standardized coefficients sig

B SE β t S.EConstant 60�859 60�929 – 3�821 0�000Metacognitive score 2�905 1�041 0�305 2�790 0�007

4. Discussion and Conclusion

The results of the correlation coefficient test between two variables of cultural intelligence and effectiveness indicate that there is a significant relationship with the confidence of 0�95 between these two variables� Managers with higher cultural intelligence are more effective in their tasks in different cultural situations� The results of research on the performance of managers of multinational companies showed that managers with higher cultural intelligence have achieved better per-formance compared with managers with lower cultural intelligence (Ang et al�, 2004)� Ang et al� (2007) showed the effects of cultural intelligence on performance� In a study on the effects of cultural intelligence on the success of immigrants, the researchers reached a similar conclusion (Templer et al�, 2006)�

Moreover, the results of the correlation test between the motivational compo-nent of cultural intelligence and effectiveness indicate that there is a significant relationship between these two variables� Highly motivated managers will be more effective than less motivated managers for learning and interaction with different people in work conditions� The results of the test of the correlation coefficient between two variables of the metacognitive component of cultural intelligence and effectiveness indicate that there is a significant relationship between these two variables� Thus, managers with high metacognitive cultural intelligence are expected to be more effective compared with those with lower metacognitive cultural intelligence in various cultural situations� Some studies stressed the role of the metacognitive component in the job performance and success of managers in various environments from the cultural viewpoint (Ang et al�, 2004; Alon and Higgins, 2005; Templer et al�, 2006)�

It should be noted that the conflict management styles are the managers’ different styles for dealing with conflict and these styles are separate from each other� Thus, there is no overall score for conflict management based on which


the relationship of a variable with conflict management could be evaluated� The relationship between a variable with conflict management is examined based on the relationship of that variable with each of the conflict management styles� The results of the correlation test between cultural intelligence and the solution-oriented style indicate that there is a significant relationship between these two variables� Managers with high cultural intelligence are inclined towards the solu-tion orientation style, which is based on collaboration� Several research findings indicate that successful managers use the solution orientation style when facing conflicts� But regarding the relationship between cultural intelligence and the conflict management styles, no studies have been conducted in this field to be compared with the findings of this research� Test results of the correlation test between cultural intelligence and the control style indicate that there is a negative relationship between these two variables� In other words, managers with high cultural intelligence are not willing to use the control style to resolve conflicts� Little research has been conducted in this field�

Regression analysis was performed to check the effects of the components of cultural intelligence on the conflict management styles and effectiveness� The results of regression analysis regarding the solution-oriented and control styles showed that the cultural intelligence components do not have the ability to predict these two styles� Also, the results of regression analysis regarding the avoidance style reveal that the cognitive and metacognitive components have a positive contribution to predicting the avoidance style� The results of regression analysis showed that management effectiveness can be predicted by the metacognitive component of cultural intelligence�

While most studies have focused on examining and explaining cultural intel-ligence, cultural differences and their influence on management effectiveness in business organizations (e�g�, Deng & Gibson, 2008; Mohammed, White, &� Prabhakar, 2008; Ersoy, 2014), this study evaluates a new and important avenue of research in educational settings, especially universities� And it also provides empirical data to the understanding of both practical and theoretical discussions on the role of CQ among university managers� As for real effectiveness, leaders need all the four CQ capabilities because focusing only on one factor of CQ may actually result in increased cultural ignorance rather than resulting in enhanced cultural intelligence (Van Dyne, Ang, & Livermore, 2010), this study investigated four components of cultural intelligence and their relationships with manage-ment effectiveness and the conflict management styles� As selecting an appropri-ate conflict resolution strategy that is suitable for the situation has been found to be one of the key factors in determining the quality of the outcome resolving


conflict (Wood & Bell, 2008), this study builds on previous literature to present a model examining how the components of cultural intelligence might poten-tially impact on the conflict resolution ability� Since different ethnic and religious groups live in Iran, students or faculty members of different cultures may study or work in a single university� Therefore, managers should improve their cultural intelligence in order to manage educational activities of their departments or universities effectively�

Cultural intelligence can be learned by almost anyone� Given that the research findings related to the main hypotheses and considering the development of cul-tural diversity in the organizations as well as the growing trend of globalization and positive effects of cultural intelligence on management in diverse cultural environments, the authorities should take action to improve the cultural intel-ligence of managers by holding training courses and educational workshops� To improve motivational cultural intelligence, it is recommended that sufficient training should be considered to enhance the sense of self-efficacy� Also, it is rec-ommended that respect for sub-cultures and other cultures should be considered in the higher education system and positive aspects of other cultures should be mentioned to improve the motivational component� In addition, since the coef-ficient of the effect of the metacognitive components on management effectiveness is the most important (β=0�305), it should be more emphasized in cultural intel-ligence� The findings of this study also have significant implications for individual higher education managers� As cultural intelligence is not inherent and can be learned (Earley & Ang, 2003), managers should strive to improve their cultural intelligence in their daily practice�

Limitations include the geographical concentration of individuals found in Urmia universities, which might not be indicative of individuals found through-out the other regions� Future studies are required to confirm the results� Another limitation is that the individuals being tested on cultural intelligence, conflict management styles and management effectiveness are managers dealing with students and professors from various cultures daily since various ethnic groups live in this city� This might cause the results to be skewed toward higher levels of cultural intelligence than pulling a random sampling from the general public�

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intelligence� Kelly, school of business, business Horizons, N� 48, 501 – 512�Ang, S�, Van Dyne, L�, Koh, C�S�K, & Ng, K�Y� (2004)� The measurement of cultural Intel-


ligence� Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, New Orleans� August�

Ang, S�, Van Dyne, L�, Koh, C�, Yee Ng, K�, Templer, K�J�, Tay, C�, & Chandrasekar, N� (2007)� Cultural intelligence: Its measurement and effects on cultural judgment and decision making cultural adaptation and task performance� Management and Organization Review, 3(3), 335 – 371�

Deng, L & Gibson, P� (2008)� A Qualitative Evaluation on the Role of Cultural Intelligence in Cross-Cultural Leadership Effectiveness� International Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol� 3 No� 2, 2008, pp� 181 – 197�

Drucker, Peter� (2006)� The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done� NePw York: Collins�

Earley, P�C�, & Ang, S� (2003)� Cultural intelligence: Individual interactions across cultures� Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press�

Earley, C�, Ang, S� & Tan, S� (2006)� CQ: developing cultural intelligence at work. Stanford Business Books, Stanford, Calif�

Ersoy, A�(2014)� The Role of Cultural Intelligence in Cross-Cultural Leadership Effective-ness: A Qualitative Study in the Hospitality Industry� Journal of Yasar University9 (35) 6099 – 6260

Hoy, Wayne K� & Miskel, Cecil G� (2008)� Educational administration theory, research, and practice� New York, NY: McGraw- Hill Companies, Inc�

Levy-Leboyer, C� (2004)� Cultural intelligence: Individual interactions across cultures (Book Review)� Personnel Psychology, 57(3), 792 – 794�

Mohammed, U�K�, Prabhakar, G�P� and White, G� (2008)� Culture and Conflict Management Style of International Project Managers� International Journal of Business and Manage-ment 3( 5)�

Peterson, B� (2004)� Cultural intelligence: A guide to working with people from other cultures� Yurmouth, ME� Intercultural Press�

Putnam, L�L�, & Wilson, C�E� (1982)� Communicative strategies in organizational conflicts: Reliability and validity of a measurement scale� In M� Burgood (Ed�), Communication yearbook (Vol� 6, pp� 629 – 652)� Beverly Hills, CA: Sage�

Ramirez, A�R� (2010)� Impact of Cultural Intelligence Level on Conflict Resolution Ability: A Conceptual Model and Research Proposal� Emerging Leadership Journeys, Vol� 3 Iss� 1, 2010, pp� 42 – 56�

Seashore, S�E�,&Yuchtman, E� (1967)� Factorial analysis of organizational performance� Administrative Science Quarterly, 12, 377 – 395�

Templer, K�, Tay, C�, & Chandrasekar, N�A� (2006)� Motivational cultural intelligence, realistic job preview, realistic living conditions preview, and cross-cultural adjustment� Group & Organization Management, 31(1), 154 – 173�

Triandis, H�C� (1994)� Cultural and social behavior� New York: McGraw Hill�Van Dyne, L�, Ang, S�, & Livermore, D� (2010)� Cultural intelligence: A pathway for leading

in a rapidly globalization world� In K�M Hannum� B� McFeeters, & L� Booysen (Eds�), Leading across differences: cases and perspectives� San Francisco� CA: Pfeiffer�


Wood, V�F�, & Bell, P�A� (2008)� Predicting interpersonal conflict resolution styles from personality characteristics� Personality and Individual Differences, 45(1), 126 – 131�

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Discrimination in the discourse of Polish textbooks dedicated to civic education courses

AbstractThe study presents a critical analysis of visual materials contained in civic education textbooks with the purpose to identify traits of discrimination of individuals with a “skin colour” other than “white”� The undertaken quantitative and qualitative analyses allowed for drawing a conclusion that the depiction of persons in the researched visual material did in fact bear certain traits of discrimination� Moreover, it was concluded that what may be observed is compound discrimination� The studies presented in the article were conducted within a larger-scale project entitled Gender in textbooks.

Keywords: discrimination, visual material, textbooks, civic education

introduction

The approach to contemporary civic education is required to encompass the legal context� Regulations from the following legal acts should be emphasised: Annex to Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of Europe of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning, Recom-mendation CM/Rec (2010)7 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the Council of Europe – Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education, Convention on the Rights of the Child as of 20 November 1989, ratified by Poland in 1991� All of them highlight the significance of social diversity, promotion of intercultural dialogue and valuing of diversity and equality in the education for democratic citizenship and human rights� However, the discourse articulating key civic competences is of a consolidating character, legitimising a certain construct of citizenship and of predicative nature (De Cillia, Reisigl, Wodak 1999, Reisigl 2010), e�g�, due to the sole fact of defining such com-

Magdalena Cuprjak, Violetta KopińskaPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.03

39Discrimination in the discourse of Polish textbooks dedicated to civic education courses

petences as key ones� It results from the coexistence of modern and post-modern perspectives in education (Dahlberg, Moss, Pence 2013, pp� 70 – 73)�

The characterisation of civic education in Poland should take into considera-tion Poland’s history� For many years, communism ruled out the possibility for diversity, multi-perspective, and, at the same time, caricatured the concept of uni-formity and universality� System transformation, on the other hand, led to a quick change, resulting in a hybrid system, i�e� one working according to democratic principles, yet an undemocratic one (Czarnota, 2006, pp� 18 – 21)� How significant is it for civic education? It should be noted that some of the indicators pointing to the favourable position of civic education adopt a very specific form in Poland� The aforementioned hybridity consists, among other things, in the fact that the presence of particular social organs in the school is of non-participatory nature (Kopińska, 2013, pp� 165 – 184)� Excluding practices are present both at the legal level (lack of significant establishing competences), as well as within the applica-tion of law (excluding practising of school statute resolutions) and its observance�

In the International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) (Wiłkomirska 2014, p� 71) Polish fourteen-year-olds were highly ranked in the area of civic knowledge (ibidem, pp� 102 – 105)� Simultaneously, on the basis of the same studies, a con-clusion was drawn that Poland belonged to the group of countries where little emphasis is placed on the development of knowledge and shaping of positive attitudes towards others (Wiłkomirska, 2013, p� 93)�

The aim of the undertaken studies consists in a critical analysis of visual mate-rial together with captions included in school textbooks used for civic education at the 4th educational stage (from the tenth year of school education) in relation to the representation of people of different “race”�

The textbooks are an essential part of formal civic education� It is required that a textbook provides content adjusted to the core curriculum (Regulation of MNE, 2012)� Although the context for an analysis of school textbooks is always related to the currently applicable core curricula, the textbooks themselves also present a certain analytical value� By being regarded as texts of culture, they are carri-ers of the “world vision, values, norms, prohibitions and orders, but also cultural stereotypes and prejudice” (Chomczyńska-Rubacha, Pankowska 2011, p� 19), they reconstruct the social knowledge imposed through education� They allow for understanding of how specific competencies are evaluated and what results are expected from school students� For instance, if a sense of efficacy is understood “as a construct based on personal experience at the disposal of cognitive and motiva-tional resources to solve everyday problems” (Chomczyńska – Rubacha, Rubacha, 2013, p� 108), the textbook discourse gives an insight into the area (a part of it) of

40 Magdalena Cuprjak, Violetta Kopińska

students’ experiences characteristic of contemporary education� It is obvious that the sense of efficacy does not depend on what is in the textbooks, however, the textbook discourse emphasizes what is important, desirable, necessary at the time and place in society� Thanks to textbooks it is possible to identify conflicting mat-ters with regard to the current requirements or declarations� Although they are not the most important element of school education, especially at higher education stages, they do provide an insight into the education system�

It should be emphasised that visual material constitutes an integral and compulsory component of every textbook that is approved for school use (Regulation of the MNE, 2012) And at the same time, it is a part of the discourse, and discourse is understood as “framework for making sense of things” (Van Leeuwen, 2005, p� 95) and “resources for representation, knowledge about some aspect of reality, which can be drawn upon when the aspect of reality has to be represented” (ibidem)� In T� van Leeuwen’s opinion “Evidence for the existence of a given discourse comes from text, from what has been said or written – and/or expressed by means of other semiotic modes� (…) it comes from similarity between the things that are said or written in different texts about the same aspect of reality” (ibidem)�

The problem of this study was formulated in the course of data collection and encoding, on the basis of an initial overview of the material in the framework of the project entitled Gender in textbooks. Moreover, the choice of the subject matter was dictated by the results of the previous research carried out before the modification of the general education core curriculum� Despite the declared toler-ance and openness the said research revealed the presence of content promoting an intolerant attitude as well as failure to discuss migration (Chmielewska 2004, pp� 46 – 51, 53, Ryabinska, 2008, pp� 23 – 25)�

research Methodology

The primary category applied in the presented studies is “skin colour”� An interesting part of the research consisted in the identification of the traits of discrimination of individuals presented in the visual material used in textbooks� According to Reisigl (2010, pp� 29 – 32), the concept of discrimination assumes the existence of at least several elements:

• social actors who, at least temporarily, have or assume the power to dis-criminate others and undertake discriminatory actions,

• particular persons or groups experiencing discrimination,


• discriminatory actions or processes, • “a distinguishing feature” or element on which the discrimination may be

based, • an individual or a group in relation to whom or which one may be perceived

as discriminated�In the article the “distinguishing feature” upon which the presumed dis-

crimination is based is the said “skin colour”, and the underlying reason for the discrimination is racism� The group in relation to which particular individuals represent a given “skin colour” is white men/women� Whereas the area for these actions is education or, more precisely, the visual elements contained in school textbooks� Thus, the assumed discrimination is of indirect and implicit nature (Makkonen, 2002)� The selected analytical categories allowing for identifying discrimination with regard to “skin colour” were: the significance of a particular individual, social evaluation of persons’ activities, symbolic distancing, homog-enization and negative cultural connotation� The choice of the above-listed categories was based on the strategies of visual representation of social actors identified by Theo van Leeuwen (2008, pp� 136 – 148)� In order to assure precise analysis of the material, the said categories were subjected to operationalisation at the definitional level (Rubacha, 2008, p� 58)� Due to the small number of values related to the variables “skin colour,” they were grouped� In consequence, for the purposes of a statistical analysis it was assumed that the variable would represent two values, which were also used in the analysis description� The above note is necessary, otherwise the value other than “white” could be perceived as discriminatory�

The indicated categories were complemented with: “age” and “sex”, allowing for the identification of traits of compound discrimination (Makkonen, 2002, p�11), thus taking into account such reasons as ageism and sexism�

On the basis of the above conceptual framework, the following research ques-tions were posed:

1� What is the frequency of the occurrence of persons belonging to particular “races” in the researched textbooks?

2� Does the presented visual material based on analytical categories allow for identification of traits of discrimination with regard to “skin colour”?

3� Do the categories of age and sex impose additional burden on persons discriminated due to “skin colour”?

In order to answer the question of the rate of occurrence, the percentage value of frequency of persons of different “skin colour” was calculated� Whereas for the purpose of answering the question of the possibility of identification of traits of


discrimination and compound discrimination with regard to the representation of persons of various “races” within the said categories, the Chi-square test was per-formed with the significance level of at least 0�05� At this point it should be added that all illustrations and photographs together with captions were subjected to critical evaluation, whereas the values of particular analytical categories in relation to the representation of individuals were defined on the basis of the conceptual framework provided by T� van Leeuwen (2008, pp� 136 – 148)� The collection of data was performed with the use of a tool constructed for the purposes of the afore-mentioned project – Gender in textbooks, complemented with variables specific to the analysed material�

The research sample encompassed all the textbooks currently admitted for school use (by the Minister of National Education) dedicated to teaching of the subject of civic education (7) in upper-secondary schools, basic level (the list of the textbooks: http://www�men�gov�pl/podreczniki/wykaz_dopuszczone_lista1�php, access: 2014 – 07 – 22)� In order to avoid overrepresentation of “white” persons of Polish descent, analysis of the illustrations and photographs with captions was conducted in accordance with three main thematic areas/scopes: human rights, protection of rights and liberties, education and work in Poland and the Euro-pean Union� The possibility to identify an exclusion strategy only makes sense if it concerns situations where the exclusion is related to persons that are normally present�

Altogether 283 photographs/illustrations (excluding satirical drawings) were subjected to analysis, depicting 388 persons and 60 groups (those persons that could not be counted or isolated)�

research results

The collected data indicate the dominance (67�5%) of persons of “white” “race” (Figure 1)�

Among the persons with the “skin colour” other than “white,” the dominant group comprises persons of the “black” “skin colour” (50%), then the persons of dark complexion (32%) and “yellow” “skin colour” (18%)�

Further analyses involved statistical calculations carried out in isolation from those observations, where an identification of “skin colour” was infeasible� With regard to the “skin colour” variable, 8�5% of the cases were excluded�

An important category related to the discrimination of persons of a “skin col-our” other than “white” was the significance of particular persons� It was shown


that such individuals were more frequently depicted as anonymous real persons (over 75% of the cases), while the persons of white “skin colour” were more often presented as anonymous unreal persons (36%), but also to a similar extent as well-known persons (32%) and anonymous unreal persons (30%)� Generally speaking, the manner of the representation of persons as real is not equivalent to their discrimination� However, it should be pointed out that anonymous unreal persons occurring in the visual material are male and female models shown as students, persons performing particular professions, family members, etc� Therefore, the discriminatory fact is that the persons of a “skin colour” other than “white” are not used as models to depict particular social roles� The comparison of relations of anonymous persons and well-known individuals in the case of persons differing in “skin colour” also exhibits the advantage of the “white race”� This means that among the persons of a “skin colour” other than “white” there is a relatively lower representation of well-known persons�

Another significant difference was demonstrated with regard to the social evaluation of activity� It was observed that individuals with a “skin colour” other than “white” were more often used to depict activities characterised by poor social recognition� They were, e�g�, prisoners, illegal workers, immigrants� What is also interesting is that at times such persons happen to be presented as hold-ing a privileged position towards others, e�g�, when distributing food, guarding prisoners; however, the role of the “subordinates” and “dependent” persons is always attributed to those assigned to the category of “others”� In the analysed material a “black” guard never watches over “white” prisoners, as well as a “white” person is never dependent on “black” soldiers, even if he acts on behalf of the

01020304050607080

no information white other than white persons of various"races" together

Figure 1. The frequency of occurrence of persons of various “skin colours”


UNO� A characteristic feature of the activity attributed to the representatives of a “skin colour” different from white also consists in exhibiting limited rights of such persons� Although it was observed that such individuals also appeared as representing an active role, the performed activity usually involved demonstra-tions, protests against various types of prejudice, dictatorships, etc� Even when a given photograph seems neutral, e�g�, an image of Chinese bikers or pupils shown in a classroom, the provided caption points to their limited rights or low social position; e�g�, “becoming orphans” and the need for the so-called distance adoption – with regard to the mentioned pupils�

The above-analysed category is combined with another one, namely the nega-tive cultural connotation� On the basis of the conducted analysis the occurrence of discrimination with regard to “skin colour” was confirmed� The analysis of the visual material indicated that in the photographs depicting persons with a “skin colour” other than “white” one could more often find negative cultural predicates� They are mainly related to the activity performed by such persons, e�g�, an image of child shooting from a machine gun, refugees crowded together on a ship�

The differences in the tendency level were found within the category of symbolic distancing of the presented persons� Namely, the figures of a “skin colour” other than “white” were more commonly depicted from a larger distance in relation to the viewer (47% and 35% respectively)� These were, e�g�, people reaching out to soldiers handing them portions of food, immigrants, or prisoners�

In those studies it was investigated whether the category of “skin colour” was overlapped with the categories of age and sex, thus resulting in “added burden”� In accordance with the definition “ ‘compound discrimination’ should be taken to refer to such a situation in which several grounds of discrimination add to each other in one particular instance: discrimination on the basis of one ground adds to discrimination based on another ground to create an added burden” (Makkonen 2002, p� 11)�

In the analysis of sexes of the representatives of various races it was observed that both the “white” and other than “white” categories were dominated by the male sex (approx� 50%)� However, slight differences were noted in the representa-tion of women, which with regard to the “white race” amounted to about 30%, and for other than “white” almost 20%� These are statistically significant differences� Other statistically significant differences were also observed in the category of age� In both cases, adult persons constituted the dominant group (nearly 70%)� Therefore, one may notice that the most commonly depicted figures are adult males, irrespective of representing the “white race” or other than “white”�


Discussion and Conclusions

The form of representation of persons shown in the visual material of Polish social science textbooks for upper-secondary schools bears traits of discrimina-tion� A “distinguishing feature” on which the discrimination is based is mainly concerned with the “skin colour” of the presented individuals� The strategy of exclusion was applied in relation to persons with a “skin colour” other than “white”� The obtained result is even more disturbing if one remembers that the analysis did not cover the entire textbooks, but rather placed the main focus on those thematic areas that involved the presence of representatives of various cultures, “races”, nationalities and ethnic groups� Moreover, it included compound discrimination� In consequence, visual representations of women, small children, teenagers and elderly with a “skin colour” other than “white” are relatively rare� Therefore, in the world visualised in the textbooks, the dominant group consists of “white” figures� This is also true for the areas related to education and work in Poland and the EU� The thus created representation of the world is false; however, due to the support of the authority of formal education it seems to be legitimate� Persons representing other “races” generally appear in chapters devoted to human rights and the protection of rights and liberties� Their depiction allows for iden-tifying further discrimination strategies� Firstly, persons of a “skin colour” other than “white” are more often seen to be involved in activities which do not enjoy social recognition, and it is the type of activity that constitutes the main source of a negative cultural connotation� However, it needs to be emphasised that in the context presented in the textbooks, such individuals are not negatively evaluated� In the parts devoted to the violation of human rights, the material shows people whose rights are being violated or those that fight for their rights� Naturally, there is nothing odd about that� However, in the case that such representations are the only or the dominant ones, as a result the discourse will be perceived as operating with stereotypic images in which persons with a “skin colour” other than white are those of limited rights: illegal workers, immigrants, the orphaned, the dirty, people struggling to receive food� The depictions of figures holding significant social positions and performing socially valued activities are scarce and usually involve well-known persons� Their number is small, since among the people represented in the textbooks of a “skin colour” other than “white” the prevailing group consists of anonymous and real persons� The discrimination consists in the fact that the male and female models shown in the photographs as pupils, representatives of various professions, etc� are rarely persons of a “skin colour” other than “white”�


The presented conclusions fit in the European and Polish context of functioning of contemporary civic education� Thus, on the one hand the declarations concern-ing the shaping of attitudes supporting diversity and equality, tolerance, respect towards people of various nationalities, cultures, ethnic and religious groups are present� Based on a superficial analysis of the content of the civic education text-books, the implementation of those declarations seems to be affirmed� However, a critical analysis of the visual material leads to a conclusion that the discourse of the textbooks applied in Polish civic education for the upper-secondary school level bears traits of discrimination and preserves stereotypes related to persons of different “skin colours”� The results of the research are a contribution to critical pedagogy because they reveal another form of domination included in formal education, which officially promotes the valuing of diversity and equality�

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Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego�

investigation into intercultural sensitivity among Nursing students at a university in turkey

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate intercultural sensitivity among nursing students in Turkey� This study is a cross-sectional study� It was con-ducted with nursing students at a university in Ankara� The sample comprised 152 nursing students at the university� This study was carried out between May 2013 and June 2013� Data were collected using an Interview Questionnaire and Intercultural Sensitivity Scale� The data were analysed using frequency, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA� The study found out that the nursing students had higher scores of cultural sensitivity (88�92 ± 12�20)� It was found that senior year students, the students who speak a foreign language and the students who had chosen the school willingly had higher scores of cultural sensibility (p < 0�05)� The study found that the nursing students had higher scores of cultural sensivility� To increase intercultural sensitivity of nursing students it is recommended that the maintenance strategies and the concept of intercultural sensitivity should be integrated in the curriculum of nursing education and postgraduate training programs�

Keywords: culture; intercultural sensitivity; nursing students; nursing education; intercultural nursing education.

1. introduction

Many individuals from different cultures around the world live together� Every individual furthers his/her perception of the world from his/her own cultural perspective and shapes his/her cultural values and beliefs according to his/her cultural structure (Bagnardi, Bryant & Colin 2009; Temel Bayık 2008; Clark 2003)� Thus, culture is defined as values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, customs and rituals, which have been learned, shared, and passed down and brought into being by man,

Demet Aktaş, Nurcan Ertuğ, Esra ÖztürkTurkey

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.04

49Investigation into Intercultural Sensitivity

corresponding to the things nature has shaped (Clark et al� 2011; Hotun, Bayram & Avcı 2009)�

An individual’s daily life is rooted in the cultural structure in which he/she lives and this, in turn, affects health/disease perceptions (Öztürk & Öztaş 2012; Starr & Wallace 2009; Temel Bayık 2008)� For example, it is known that communities that have kept their own cultural characteristics while living together with other cultures for centuries have sought solutions for their health problems within their own cultural life� Therefore, every culture has different ways of perceiving health/disease and treatment (Öztürk & Öztaş 2012; Bulduk, Tosun & Ardıç 2011; Clarke, McFarland, Andrews & Leininger 2009; Bolsoy & Sevil 2006)� Moreover, these differences support the fact that an individual has a right to get health care service appropriate to their cultural structures� In recent years, especially in multicultural and globalized world countries, more emphasis has been put particularly on cross-cultural sensitivity/awareness (ethnic characteristics, such as prevention of dis-crimination) in newly developed health policies in order to provide health care to individuals according to their cultural structures� Besides this, new arrangements have been made in nursing care and education programs to provide knowledge and skills necessary for intercultural sensitive nursing care (Rew, Becker, Chon-tichachalalauk & Lee 2014; Tortumluoğlu, Okanlı & Özer 2004; Chen & Starosta 2000)� The importance of cultural diversity in care and education, the concepts of cultural competence and security have been included in recent regulations for nursing education curriculum (Rew et al� 2014; Loftin, Hartin, Branson & Reyes 2013; White 2003; Chen & Starosta 2000)� Thus, nursing students’ knowledge and skills pertaining to intercultural sensitivity and identification have been targeted for development and application in clinical practice� Also, intercultural sensitivity is a phenomenon which exists on the basis of nursing care and it forms an impor-tant part of nursing care (Loftin et al� 2013; Hotun et al� 2009)� For this reason, intercultural education has enabled sensitivity-based nursing to gain a greater professional standing, and thus provide more opportunities in nursing, education and in on-going care facilities for individuals from different cultures (Jeffreys & Dogan 2012; Temel Bayık 2008)� Intercultural sensitivity is defined as a necessary actionable desire to ensure personal motivation in the understanding, accepting and appreciating cross-cultural differences (Quine, Hadjistavropoulos & Alberts 2012; Bulduk et al� 2011; Chen & Starosta 2000)�

Our country also has a multiethnic society in which different cultures live� Although we are a multicultural society, cultural differences can often be ignored, especially in health care, intercultural sensitive education in nursing training can be left out in either theoretical or clinical applications and some limitations are

50 Demet Aktaş, Nurcan Ertuğ, Esra Öztürk

experienced in guidance (Öztürk & Öztaş 2012; Temel Bayık 2008)� Literature states that intercultural care models should be used at every stage of the nursing care process in nursing training (Loftin et al� 2013; Carey 2011; Collette et al� 2013; Kardong-Etgren & Campinha-Bacote 2008; Rowan et al� 2013)� For this reason, curricula related to intercultural sensitivity and understanding in nursing care and new national policies are supposed to be improved in our country�

2. Methodology

2.1. AimThe purpose of this study was to investigate intercultural sensitivity among

nursing students at a university in Turkey

2.2. DesignThis study was realized as a cross-sectional study�

2.3. ParticipantsThis study was conducted with nursing students at a university in Ankara� The

sample contained 152 nursing students at the university� This study was carried out between May 2013 and June 2013� This study did not use sample selection and all students were sampled� However, three students did not agree to participate in the study (response rate 98%)�

2.4. InstrumentsFor data collection, the study was conducted with the use of an Interview Ques-

tionnaire (17 questions) covering the socio-demographics, reasons for choosing the nursing profession and experience of people from other cultures� In determi-nation of the students’ intercultural sensitivity, The Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) was used� This scale was developed by Chen and Starosta (2000) (Cronbach’s alpha, r = 0�86) and the adaptation of the scale to the Turkish language was carried out by Bulduk et al� (2011) (Cronbach’s alpha, r = 0�72) [10]� ISS consists of 24 items that elicit ISS information on five subscales; the dimension of responsibility in communication (1, 11, 13, 21, 22, 23 and 24 items), the dimension of respect for cultural differences (2, 7, 8, 16, 18 and 20 items), the dimension of self-confidence in communication (3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 items), the dimension of enjoying com-munication (9, 12 and 15 items) and the dimension of paying attention during communication 14, 17 and 19 items)� Articles 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18, 20 and 22 of the


scale are coded inversely� The Intercultural Sensitivity Scale has a 5-point rating system: (1) I definitely do not agree, (2) I do not agree, (3) I am ambivalent, (4) I agree and (5) I definitely agree�

2.5. Ethical considerationsThe data were collected after the approval of the Turgut Ozal University Clinical

Research Ethical Committee� Prior to the data collection, informed consent of all nursing students was obtained� The nursing students were informed about the purpose of the research study, what they would be requested to do if they were to participate and that they had the right to quit the study whenever they wanted throughout the process; they were also informed that if they refused to participate in the research study or quit after accepting to participate, the healthcare they were already getting would not be affected in any way�

2.6. Data analysisThe Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15�0 (SPSS Inc�,

Chicago, IL, USA) was used for data management, and frequency, student t-test, one-way analysis of variances and Bonferroni were used for analysis� The statistical evaluation revealed a value of p < 0�05�

3. results

The nursing students were of the average age of 21�51 ± 2�08� It was determined that 26�6% of the students were in their junior year, 75�3% of the students had an adequate level of income, 69% had willingly chosen the nursing profession, 78% lived together with people from other cultures, 48% spoke a foreign language , 85,1% would like to receive nursing education in a foreign country and 68% would like to work abroad after graduation (Table 1)�

Table 1. Demographic and individual characteristics of participants

Some characteristics of nursing students n %

Years of study

Freshman yearSophomore yearJunior yearSenior year

40344137

26�022�026�624�4

The Level of IncomeAdequateİnadequate

11438

75�324�7


Some characteristics of nursing students n %

Choice of nursing professionWillinglyUnwillingly

10646

69�529�5

Coexistence with people from different cultures

YesNo

12032

78�621�4

Speak foreign languageYesNo

7577

48�052�0

Desire to receive nursing education in a different countryYesNo

12923

85�114�9

Desire to work abroad after graduation

YesNo

10646

68�831�2

Total 152 100�0

When the level of intercultural sensitivity of the nursing students had been evaluated, it was determined that the intercultural sensitivity was very high at 88�92 ± 12�20 (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, r = 0�78)� When the sub-dimensions of the intercultural sensitivity had been evaluated, it was determined that there were statistically significant differences among responsibility in interaction (26�60 ± 4�10), self-confidence in interaction (17�57 ± 3�42), paying attention dur-ing interaction (11�27 ± 2�36), prejudice in interaction (11,48 ± 2�63), and respect for cultural differences (22�28 ± 3�71) (p < 0�05, Table 2)�

Table 2. Intercultural Sensitivity Scale and Sub-dimension outcomes of Nursing Students (n = 152)

Intercultural Sensitivity Scale and Sub-dimension outcomes x̄̄̄ ± SD P-values

Responsibility in Interaction 26�60 ± 4�10 0.008Respect for Cultural Differences 22�28 ± 3�71 0.001Self-Confidence in Interaction 17�57 ± 3�42 0.023Paying Attention during Interaction 11�27 ± 2�36 0.001Prejudice in Interaction 11�48 ± 2�63 0.001Total Intercultural Sensitivity 88�92 ± 12�20 0.040

p < 0�05


In the statistical evaluation of the study it was revealed that the years of studying of the nursing students had a significant effect on their intercultural sensitivity levels� It was determined that the senior year nursing students’ paying attention during interaction (F: 1�59, p = 0�01), prejudice in interaction (F: 1�95, p = 0�01), intercultural sensitivity level (F: 7�86, p = 0�03) was higher and there was a sta-tistically significant difference (p < 0�05)� It was found that the students who had declared an adequate income level had higher scores in the responsibility in inter-action (F: −3�13, p: 0�04), self-confidence in interaction (F: −1�61, p: 0�02), paying attention during interaction (F: −2�61, p = 0�01), and intercultural sensitivity level (F: −4�22, p = 0�01) than the students who had declared an inadequate income level, and there was a statistically significant difference (p < 0�05)�

It was determined that the students who spoke a foreign language had higher scores in the responsibility in interaction (F: 1�32, p: 0�03), self -confidence in interaction (F: 1�75, p: 0�04) and intercultural sensitivity level (F: 2�97, p = 0�04) than the students who could not speak a foreign language and there was a statisti-cally significant difference (p < 0�05)�

It was determined that the students who had willingly chosen the nursing profession had higher scores in the responsibility in interaction (F: −1�98, p = 0�01), self-confidence in interaction (F: −1�90, p: 0�04), prejudice in inter-action (F: −0�31, p = 0�01), respect for cultural differences (F: 1�254, p: 0�02), and intercultural sensitivity level (F: 6�57, p: 0�02), and there was a significantly difference (p < 0�05)�

4. Discussion

Nursing care service for the cultural needs of society can be provided through cross-cultural sensitivity oriented training in theoretical and clinical applications� The care service planned according to the cultural needs of individuals can lead to healthy communication, a sense of confidence and quality care between the nurse and the person receiving care (Öztürk & Öztaş 2012; Loftin et al� 2013; Chen & Starosta 2008; Bednarz, Schim & Doorenbos 2010)� In the presented study, nurs-ing students’ high levels of intercultural sensitivity were determined� In the scale of sub-dimensional scores, higher scores related to responsibility in interaction, respect for cultural differences, and self-confidence in interaction, but lower scores on paying attention during interaction and being prejudice in interaction were determined (Table 2)� Similar results were obtained in Bulduk et al� (2011) and Banos’ studies (2006)� In Graf ’s (2004) study with a similar scale conducted on


14,500 American and British students, lower scores were obtained by students on self-confidence in interaction, and prejudice in interaction�

It is reported that taking care of patients from different cultures in clinical practice improves nursing students’ cultural awareness and makes a positive contribution to their professional development (Rew et al� 2014; Sarafis & Mal-liarou 2013; Collette et al� 2013; Chen & Starosta 2008; Upvall & Bost 2006)� Our study determined that the nursing students’ intercultural sensitivity levels, paying attention during interaction and prejudice in interaction levels increased in the scale sub-dimensions with the increase in the year of study� It was determined in the study conducted by Bulduk et al� (2011) that students’ prejudice in interaction levels increased as their class levels rose� The results of the studies showed that intercultural sensitivity levels increased as the education levels and experience of nursing students’ giving care to patients from different cultures increased (Clark et al� 2011; Quine et al� 2012; Rowan et al� 2013; Lim et al� 2004; Harrison & Malone 2004)�

Individuals’ income levels may lead to the emergence of different social classes (upper/lower classes)� These social differences can cause the upper classes to develop biases against the cultural structures of lower classes (Rew et al� 2014; Chen & Starosta 2008)� However, in the presented study it was determined that the students who had declared adequate income levels had significantly higher levels of intercultural sensitivity and responsibility in interaction, self-confidence in interaction, and paying attention during interaction than the students who had declared inadequate income levels� These results make us think that the students with adequate income levels have high feelings of confidence in establishing and maintaining communication with patients�

It was determined in our study that the students who spoke a foreign language (English, German, Kurdish, etc�) had a significantly higher intercultural sensitivity level and higher responsibility in interaction, and self-confidence in interaction than the students who could not speak a foreign language� It was determined in the study carried out by Jeffreys & Dogan (2012) that speaking a foreign language increases students’ self-confidence in interaction and makes a positive contribu-tion to patient care� Also, it was determined in Banos’ study (2006) that students who spoke English, German and Arabic had higher intercultural sensitivity than students who spoke only Spanish�

In our study, it was determined that the students who had chosen the nursing profession willingly had significiently higher intercultural sensitivity levels and higher responsibility in interaction, self-confidence in interaction, and prejudice in interaction, respect for cultural differences at sub-dimensional scales than the


students who had chosen the profession unwillingly� These results make us think that interiorizing the nursing profession is very important in terms of increasing care-giving responsibility that is sensitive to cultural needs�

5. Conclusion and recommendations

The study determined that nursing students have a high level of intercultural sensitivity� In the study, it was identified that nursing students’ intercultural sen-sitivity is affected by factors such as their year of study, income level, knowledge of a foreign language, and having chosen the nursing profession willingly� It is thought that intercultural cencepts, theories and maintenance strategies should be integrated into the curriculum of nursing education in order to increase nursing students’ intercultural sensitivity� It is recommended that the intercultural sen-sitivity education programs be implemented in postgraduate in-service training programs�

AcknowledgementsThe study was not funded by any institution� We wish to thank all the nursing

students who so willingly participated in this study�

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interests� The authors take full

responsibility for the content of the article�

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sense of the Meaning of Life among students Demonstrating Different

self-education Activity Levels

AbstractThe purpose of the presented study was to recognise mutual relations between students’ self-education activity and their sense of the meaning of life� The answer to the question : What is the sense of the meaning of life among students of high, average and low levels of self-education activity? was sought� In the study, the estimation method was used� Students’ level of self-education activity was measured on the basis of the Self-education Activity Scale (SAS), created by the author, whereas in order to define the level of the sense of the meaning of life, J�C�Crumbagh and L�T�Macholicka’s Meaning of Life Sense Scale, adapted to the Polish reality by Z� Płużek, was used� Analysis showed a relationship between the above-mentioned variables, in particular in terms of one’s sense of life and assessment of its value� As for the other components of the sense of the meaning of life level: self-esteem and approach towards death and suicide, no significant dependencies were observed�

Keywords: self-education, meaning of life, higher education didactics

introduction

A rapid pace of civilisation development, the quality and nature of changes as well as social, political and economic transformations occurring recently have created a necessity for life-long self-education� This is a chance to exist in the labour market, to find one’s own place in rapidly changing reality, to form it creatively� Without self-education efforts, it is impossible to shape a coherent and

Violetta RodekPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.05

59Sense of the Meaning of Life

autonomous personality, nor is it possible to enhance one’s creative abilities� Only with self-education does one realize subjectivity in the process of becoming, it also protects people from uniformity and instrumentality in the cultural and social life system� The issue of self-education should be perceived as a challenge faced by every individual aspiring to a high quality physical, material and non-material life, including cultural and social life� Owing to self-education, it is possible to realize the full development of humans� (cf� Jankowski D�, 2004, p�164; Bauman Z�, 2011, pp�159-160)� Self-education is a complex, multi-aspect process, realized throughout the entire human life� It is of dynamic and changeable nature, in different periods of life, depending on situations and needs, an individual may choose self-education directed towards different goals, content, also its activity and efficiency level may be different� The presented study concerns people who live in a particular moment of their lives, which falls on the period of studies� Self-education in a higher education institution should prevail over directed edu-cation, which augments the probability of its continuation during the rest of life� In practice, however, as different research shows (cf� Rodek V� (publication pending); Wróblewska W�, 2008; Dudzikowa M�, 1993), the commonness of self-education at a higher education institution, its popularity grade, level and content are not sat-isfactory� Students also do not seem to be sufficiently prepared for conscious and systematic work on themselves� The situation seems an additional argument for conducting research on self-education at higher education institutions, especially in terms of its different conditioning: personal, pedagogical, social, environmental and cultural� In the presented article, the author wants to define the relationship between students’ self-education activity level and their level of sense of the meaning of life1� The research assumed a broad understanding of self-education as an autonomous process, where an individual becomes an active subject that directs their own development, according to the appreciated values� On the other hand, the sense of meaning of life may be defined as a subjective state of feeling life satisfaction with the selected goals and assumed value system� (Klamut R�, 2002, p�42, Popielski K�, 1996, p�56)� The sense of the meaning of life cannot be achieved once, it is a result of appropriate development, related to following values which are important for the human being and to achieving appropriate goals� In this way, one may define different levels of the experienced meaning of life sense� (R�Klamut, 2002, p�42; K�Popielski, 1993, p�202)� In the presented research, the fol-

1 The inspiration for searching a relationship between the highlighted variables was the results of the author’s previous qualitative and quantitative analyses, performed on a group of 1014 randomly chosen pedagogy and non-pedagogy students (Cf� Rodek V�:Stan i uwarunkow-ania autoedukacji studentów. Publication pending)�

60 Violetta Rodek

lowing question was posed: What is the sense of the meaning of life among students demonstrating high, average and low levels of self-education activity? The condition of resolving the main problem was to formulate more detailed questions, such as:

1� What is the level of the sense of life among students demonstrating high, average and low self-education activity levels?

2� How do students demonstrating high, average and low levels of self-education activity assess the value of their lives?

3� What is the self-esteem of students presenting different levels of self-education activity in terms of: self-acceptation level, sense of freedom, responsibility and control?

4� What is the approach of the respondents with high, average and low self-education activity towards death and suicide?

The research is of exploratory and diagnostic nature and is treated as an intro-ductory phase for a wider analysis, whose main objective would be a quantitative definition of the cause and effect relations as well as correlative connections between the above-mentioned variables� In this study, the estimation method was used (Łobocki M�, 2005, pp� 27-32)� The self-education activity level was established on the basis of self-education goal achievement level,2 included in the research tool constructed by the author – the Self-education Activity Scale (AAS)�3 The entire scale consisted of 29 items (categories), assigned in different number to five subscales, referring to cognitive (S_CG), instrumental (S_IN), social (S_SC), biological (S_BI) and spiritual (S_SP) development of a human being� The research participants assessed their own grade of achieving particular self-education goals with a five-grade adjective scale, where grade 1 indicated that a given goal was fulfilled to the lowest degree, and grade 5 value – to the highest degree� The basis for defining a student’s self-education activity grade was the overall amount of points obtained by them on the entire scale� The results were duly expressed with the standard ten (men and women separately), according to which 1-4 standard ten results were treated as low; 5-6 as average, and 7-10 as high� On the other hand, to define quantitatively the sense of the meaning of life (or its absence), J�C� Crumbaugh and L�T�Macholicka’s Meaning of Life Sense Scale, adapted to the Polish reality by Z� Płużek, was used� The full version of the scale consists of three parts: one quantitative and two qualitative ones� In this study, only the quantitative

2 Self-education goals may be defined as constant states of being that are desired by a given individual, which are related to all life aspirations and which result from general perception of the world and place in the world assumed by the individual�

3 Detailed description of the study tool and its standardisation process are included in the paper by Rodek V�: “Stan i uwarunkowania autoedukacji studentów” (publication pending)�


scale was used, regarding four categories of symptoms, determining the meaning of life sense, such as: goal consciousness, value realisation, life affirmation; one’s own life assessment, approach towards death and suicide� Thus, the quantitative part consisted of 20 statements� A 7-grade scale referred to each of them, defining the approval intensity presented by research subjects towards a given statement (7 presents the highest approval intensity, whereas 1 – the lowest)� The result con-sisted, therefore, of the total of answers to all the statements� The range of possible results was located between 20 and 140 points, where the higher the result, the stronger the sense of the meaning of life (cf� K�Popielski, 1987a, p�244; T�Borowska, 2003, pp�121-122)� The study was conducted in February 2013 at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland� The study was carried out using a purposive research sample, thus the obtained results do not constitute the basis for defining generalisations regarding all the student population� However, this is a sample for initial recognition of the question of the author’s interest, which will be subjected to further, more profound quantita-tive and qualitative analyses� The research sample was composed of 130 full-time Bachelor’s students in the field of Pedagogy� In this sample, women dominated – 89�2% of all the examined students were female, which seems to comply with general trend of feminizing pedagogy studies� The following part of the article presents the results obtained in the study�

Level of the sense of the meaning of life among students demonstrating high, average and low self-education activity

In the first place, the results of the general sense of the meaning of life among students demonstrating different levels of self-education activity are presented in Chart 1�

On the basis of the data presented in Chart 1, it is possible to notice a difference in the sense of the meaning of life among the students presenting high, average and low levels of self-education activity� The least diversified results appeared in the group of respondents with an average level of such activity: a comparable per-centage of students showed high, average and low meaning of life levels� Different results were noted, however, in other groups of respondents� Among the students with a high self-education activity level, an average meaning of life sense level was predominant (45�8%), and the same percentage of the respondents with high and low meaning of life sense levels was observed (27�1% of the respondents in each group)� On the other hand, the students showing a low self-education activ-

62 Violetta Rodek

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

High levelof self-education activity

Average levelof self-education activity

Low levelof self-education acitivity

27.1

35.5

24.3

45.8

28.9

40.5

27.1

35.5

62.2

High sense of the meaning of lifeMedium sense of the meaning life

Low sense of the meaning life

Data in % for N=48 respondents with high, 37 with average and 45 with high levels of self-education activity

Source: own study (AAS and J�C�Crumbaugh’s Meaning of Life Sense Scale)

Chart 1. Meaning of life sense level among students demonstrating different self-education activity levels

ity level also presented a low meaning of life sense level (62�2% in this group)� Additionally, the lowest percentage of the respondents showed a high meaning of life sense level (only 24�3% of all the respondents of the low self-education activity level)� Hence, a cautious conclusion may be drawn that there is a relation between self-education activity and the sense of the meaning of life� In order to elaborate on the issue, in the following part of the article the research results concerning detailed components of the meaning of life sense in the group of respondents with different self-education activity levels is presented� Component I regarded assessment of one’s sense of life and consisted of 6 statements, which were evaluated by the students by means of a 7-grade scale� The obtained results were transformed into points, the maximum result to obtain was 42 points, the minimum result – 6 points (Chart 2)�

The data presented in Chart 2 show that the students presenting a high self-education activity level are characterised by high and average levels of the meaning of life� Few respondents in the group (only 4�2%) demonstrated a low life sense level� Similar results were observed among the students with an average self-edu-cation activity level� On the contrary, in the group of respondents declaring a low


self-education activity level, the highest percentage accounted for the respondents with low and average levels while the lowest part consisted of the respondents with a high sense of life level� It appears that the component is relevant in terms of an individual’s undertaking and course of the self-education process� Inclusion of self-educational objectives, important, creative ones, postponed in time may give meaning to one’s life� Research on this subject was conducted by, e�g�, Ryszard Klamut, whose results show that the most meaningful is a goal defined by someone as the most important for them, although the importance of particular goals has no influence on the feeling of sense� The author reached a conclusion that it is not the goal importance, but the possibility of achieving it and the engagement in its realisation that have an influence on the feeling of sense as a result of a purposeful activity (Klamut R�, 2002, p� 131)� In such a context, self-education goals may be sense-forming� However, it is worth attempting to examine how the pursuance of life goals other than personal ones affects an individual’s self-education activity�

General sense of the meaning of life depends not only on selected objectives, following the defined values, but also on the balance of present life experience� The positive result of the balance is related with the feeling of satisfaction and happi-ness� These feelings are some of the components of general life satisfaction which, instantaneously, confirm one’s condition in terms of the capability of coping with

0

10

20

30

40

50

50

35.5

13

45.840

43.5

4.2

24.4

43.5

High sense of the purpose of one's own lifeMedium sense of the purpose of one's own lifeLow sense of the purpose of one's own life

Low levelof self-education activity



Chart 2. Meaning of life sense level among students demonstrating different levels of self-education activity

Data in % for N=48 respondents with high, 37 with average and 45 with high self-education activity levels


64 Violetta Rodek

life difficulties, about one’s adaptation capacities� In this study, the students assessed the value of their life by means of a 7-grade scale� The component consisted of 6 statements, so it was possible to obtain at least 6 points, and 42 points at the most (Chart 3)�

As results from the above chart, the students demonstrating a high self-education level assessed quite positively the value of their own life� Only a few individuals admitted that their life was of low value (2�1% of the respondents with a high self-education activity level)� Slightly lower assessment of their own life value appeared among the students with an average level of activity directed towards self-development� The sense of contentment of the present life has an impact on the optimistic approach towards future and one’s own development, it helps overcome the feeling of emptiness, life monotony and disenchantment (Mariański J�, 1998, pp� 314-315)� Different results were obtained in the last group of respondents 52�2% of the students with a low self-education activity level also assessed negatively the value of their own life, in particular in terms of statements 2, 5 and 11� Life seems sombre and monotonous to them, a question often appears concerning a more profound purpose and meaning of life� Such a pessimistic approach may diminish the motivation to act, also in terms of working on one’s own development, confidence in the possibility to pursue self-education goals,

0

20

40

60

80

35.4 33.326.1

62.548.9

21.7

2.1

17.8

52.2

High own life's assessmentAverage own life's assessmentLow own life's assessment




Data in % for N=48 respondents with high, 37 with average and 45 with low self-education activity levels


Chart 3. One’s own life assessment in the group of respondents with different self-education activity levels


life objectives and it may significantly hinder the proper functioning of a given individual in the world�

The general sense of the meaning of one’s existence is related to positive self-esteem, understood as a group of certain judgements of axiological character, which refer to proper “I” by each human� Such judgements and opinions concern emotional, cognitive, intelligence, creativity, motivational development as well as external features and interpersonal relations� (J� Kozielecki, 2002, pp� 77–78)� The following chart presents a percentage summary of the respondents’ opinions about themselves� This component comprises 6 statements concerning the sense of self-acceptance, freedom, responsibility and control� They were assessed with the use of a 7-grade scale� The respondents could obtain from 6 to 42 points (Chart 4)�

The data presented in Chart 4 indicate poor differentiation of the results con-cerning self-esteem of the students demonstrating high, average and low levels of self-education activity� Generally, in the examined population, average and high self-esteem dominated� In the group of students demonstrating a high self-education activity level there was no person with low self-esteem, in other groups a small percentage of respondents with low self-esteem occurred� It may also be noticed that the students with a low self-education activity level scored their sense

0

20

40

60

80

29.2

53.3

30.4

70.8

37.8

60.9

0 8.9 8.7

Low self-esteemAverage self-esteemHigh self-esteem





Source: own study (AAS and J�C� Crumbaugh’s Meaning of Life Sense Scale)

Chart 4. Self-esteem of students with different self-education activity levels

66 Violetta Rodek

of achievement the least, assuming that they direct and control their own life only in a small part� In addition, they admitted that they felt lost in the modern world� A low sense of possibility to control one’s own life, constituting a significant ele-ment of an individual’s sense of subjectivity, may contribute to decreasing the students’ sense of life and influence negatively their activity in different life areas, including self-education�

The last component conditioning the meaning of life overall system is the approach towards death and suicide� It comprised only two statements, also those assessed by means of a 7-grade scale� The respondents could obtain 2 at the least, and 14 points at the most (Chart 5)�

While analysing the data shown in Chart 5, it can be noticed that the majority of students, regardless of their self-education activity level, have no fear of death and do not think about suicide� Although the lowest level of such a fear appeared in the group of students demonstrating a high level of self-education activity, differences in percentage indicators in comparison with other groups were not significant� It is worth mentioning that among the respondents declaring average self-education activity it was the average level of the fear of death and suicidal thoughts that were predominant� However, the component does not seem to be significant in the self-education process�


Source: own study (AAS and J�C� Crumbaugh’s Meaning of Life Sense Scale)

0

20

40

60

8054.2

17.8

56.5

41.7

68.9

30.4

4.213.3 13

Low level of fear of death and suicidal thoughts

Average level of fear of death and suicidal thoughts

High level of fear of death and suicidal thoughts




Chart 5. Approach towards death and suicide by the respondents with different self-education activity levels


Conclusion

This study demonstrated that there is a correlation between students’ self-education activity and their sense of the meaning of life� It is proved by differences in the sense of the meaning of life among the respondents with high, average and low self-education activity levels� Such differences are most visible in the group of students demonstrating a low level of such an activity� In the analysed group, a low meaning of life sense level was predominant, and a relatively low number of respondents demonstrated a high level of the sense of the meaning of life� More detailed analyses of its components led to the conclusion that the first two: the sense of the meaning of one’s own life and assessment of one’s life value may be significantly related to the self-education process� The students demonstrating a high self-education activity level simultaneously presented a higher level of the meaning of life as well as life assessment in comparison with the respondents with a low level of self-education activity� The third component of the sense of the meaning of life: self-esteem in terms of self-acceptance, freedom and responsibility seems not relevant for the self-education process� Only in the area of control, the results of the respondents with a low level of self-education activity were much lower than those of the students qualified to other groups� Apart from that, in the study no significant differences in terms of the approach towards death and suicide (the last component) were noticed� In all the groups, among the students demonstrating high, average and low self-education activity levels, it was possible to notice low and average levels of the fear of death and suicidal thoughts� The obtained results seem interesting and worth verifying in further, wider and more profound research on mutual relationships between the self-education process and the sense of the meaning of life�

referencesBauman Z� (2011)� 44 listy ze świata płynnej nowoczesności� [44 letters from the realm of

liquid modernity] Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Literackie�Borowska T� (2003)� Pedagogika ograniczeń ludzkiej egzystencji�[Pedagogics of limitations to

human existence] Warsaw: Published by IBE�Dudzikowa M� (1993)� Praca młodzieży nad sobą. Z teorii i praktyki. [The youth’s self-

improvement. Theory and practice]. Warsaw: Spółka Wydawnicza TERRA�Jankowski Dz� (2004)� Edukacja wobec zmiany. [Education facing the change] Toruń: Adam

Marszałek Publishing House�Klamut R� (2002)� Cel – Czas – Sens życia. [Objective – Time – Sense of life] Lublin: Pub-

lished by KUL�

68 Violetta Rodek

Kozielecki J� (2002)� Psychologiczna teoria samowiedzy� [Psychological theory of self-knowledge] Warsaw: Published by Scholar�

Łobocki M� (2005)� Metody i techniki badań pedagogicznych� [Methods and techniques of pedagogical studies] Cracow: Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”�

Mariański J� (1998)� Między nadzieją a zwątpieniem. Sens życia w świadomości młodzieży szkolnej. [Between hope and doubt. Sense of life in the consciousness of school youth] Lublin: Published by KUL�

Popielski K� (1993)� Noetyczny wymiar osobowości. Psychologiczna analiza poczucia sensu życia� [Neo-ethical dimension of personality. Psychological analysis of the feeling of sense of life] Lublin: Published by KUL�

Popielski K� (1987)� Testy egzystencjalne: metody badania frustracji egzystencjalnej i nerwicy noogennej. [Existential tests: methods of examining existential frustration and noogenic neurosis] W: Popielski K� (ed�), Człowiek – pytanie otwarte. [Human being – an open question] Lublin: Published by KUL�

Wróblewska W� (2008)� Autoedukacja studentów w uniwersytecie. Ujęcie z perspektywy podmiotu. [Self-education of students at university. Approach from the subject perspective] Bydgoszcz: Published by Trans Humana�

the Model of Projection of a Fuzzy individual Professional educational trajectory

AbstractThe article suggested considering certain components of the professional competence as fuzzy sets and strictly the professional competence as a uni-versal fuzzy set� A model of the projection of a fuzzy individual professional educational trajectory (FIPET) on the basis of modalities is “essentially” and “possibly” presented� The mathematical solution to the problem of the opti-mum choice of courses of the career enhancement on the basis of the expert estimation of the level of professional competence and one’s own preferences of a trainee is proposed�

Keywords: professional competence, fuzzy state, fuzzy modeling, linguistic vari-able, mathematical properties.

introduction

The reform of the postgraduate pedagogical education system in Ukraine contemplates, first of all, de-monopolization, which enables the teacher to choose the content, form and place of their qualification improvement� Simultaneously, an efficient influence on the pedagogical activity productivity is insured only if the content of teacher studying takes into account not only the current level of profes-sional competence, but also peculiarities of professional activity in the workplace� The presented materials are a result of research aimed at the creation of a certain model of an individual professional educational trajectory of pedagogical staff, which will bring into coherence contradictions concerning the peculiarities of the professional competence level assessment on the basis of linguistic variables; the necessity of providing the freedom of choice of professional development on the basis of modern modeling methods�

Svitlana IvashnovaUkraine

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.06

70 Svitlana Ivashnova

In the last twenty years, a true explosion of investigations into fuzzy modeling and its applications in control, diagnostics, decision making, optimization, pat-tern recognition, robotics, etc� has been observed� The main cause of the usage of fuzzy logics was formulated by Zadeh L�A�, 1975a, 1975b, 1975c: through the lack of surplus aspiration for accuracy many classes of important problems, in which data, purposes and restrictions are too complicated or insufficiently determined to provide correct mathematical analysis, have been kept out because they cannot be mathematically interpreted� The usage of fuzzy logic as a basis for the modeling of different pedagogical phenomena and processes to some degree represents the development of anthropocentric technologies in education, since fuzzy logic is closest to human thinking�

Research ProblemThe usage of fuzzy logics as a methodological basis for pedagogical research

is related to the fact that both final goals and points of the current level of dif-ferent competences are verbally expressed in the form of linguistic variables� The main statements, a terminological dictionary and the mathematical solution of different applied problems are presented in scientists’ papers (Zadeh L�A�, 1976, Borisov A�N�, Krumberg O�A�, Fedorov I�P�, 1990, etc�)� Robert Babuska, 1998, addresses fuzzy modeling from the system and control engineering point of view and focuses on the selection of appropriate model structures, on the acquisition of dynamic fuzzy models from process measurements (fuzzy identification), and on the design of nonlinear controllers based on fuzzy models� Andrzej Piegat, 2001, claims that the attraction of fuzzy modeling results from its intelligibility and the high effectiveness of the models obtained in any field process modeling, systems modeling, e�g�, economics, business, medicine, agriculture, meteorol-ogy� Nowadays, there are various opportunities of the application of fuzzy logic in the course of modeling in education (Michael Gr� Voskoglou, 2007, 2012)� Programming with the application of fuzzy sets is studied by international research groups (Tavana Madjid, Marbini Adel Hatami, Saati Saber, Hajiahkondi Elham, 2012)� Minghuang Li and Fusheng Yu from Beijing Normal University, China (Li, Minghuang; Yu, Fusheng, 2013) are involved in the sphere of fuzzy programming�

Fuzzy modeling was not used in the planning or organization of training of pedagogical workers in the past� The scientific novelty of research consists in the creation of mathematical models, expansion of Mamdani’s algorithm for the solution of practical tasks: free (but effective) choice of teacher-training courses (in systems of formal, informal or non-formal education)� Problems related to

71The Model of Projection of a Fuzzy Individual Professional Educational Trajectory

the improvement of professional competence are generally not presented in papers on fuzzy logics dedicated to the solution of applied problems� At the same time, taking into account the mathematical properties of fuzzy sets in modeling and projecting the FIPET will enhance the accuracy of the choice of an educational course and, as a result, the efficiency of the improvement of professional competence�

Research FocusThe main method of scientific research at this stage is the method of theoreti-

cal modeling on the basis of fuzzy logics (fuzzy modeling), using such general scientific methods as analysis, synthesis, upward movement from an abstract one to a concrete one, deduction, analogy, and generalization� Fuzzy modeling is staged creation of an informational and logical model with the use of linguistic variables to describe its state� Stages of the creation of the fuzzy model include: analysis of a problem situation; structuring of a researched area, formation of the fuzzy model; performance of computing experiments with the fuzzy model; application of the obtained results; and correction and adaption of the fuzzy model� The obtained informational and logical model expressing the most sufficient stages and peculiarities of the process of formation of the individual professional educational trajectory and taking into account the structure of professional competence is grounded in the theory of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logics (Leonenkov A�V�, 2005)� Such a peculiarity allows for identification of the model as a model of projecting the fuzzy individual professional educational trajectory (FIPET)�

The majority of pedagogical studies using fuzzy logics as a methodological basis are grounded in defining fuzzy sets as a result of a gradual approach to fuzzy grouping or grouping of objects being in a fuzzy state (Novak V�, Perfil’eva I�, Mochkorzh I�, 2006)� At the same time, a fuzzy state is a state of an object described with the use of linguistic variables expressing subjective categories� The uncertain choice of a priority direction of further education by a subject is not a less important moment of FIPET projecting� Fuzzy choice is defined as a lack of knowledge on the possibility of one or another choice of a direction of changes in the bifurcation point during a determined moment of time� Consequently, the diagnostics of a professional competence fuzzy state (problem 1) and the uncertainty of choice of a further direction of education (problem 2) are the main problems of projecting the FIPET requiring a theoretical solution as well as a practical one�



Research General BackgroundThe phenomenon of “professional competence”, which is a complicated open

dynamic system in itself, simultaneously expresses two aspects – a system of func-tions compulsory for the representative of a certain profession and the personal content of a certain system expressed as the performance of functions in a concrete workplace� Being a subject or object to a set of studies, professional competence remains in the area of scientific interests due to its own complicity and ambigu-ity of approaches to its examination� Analysis of a set of papers dedicated to the examination of different aspects of professionalism (Kuz’mina N�V�, 1990; Vasil’ev A�F�, Vegera A�S�, Myslovec E�N�, 2012; Grebnev I�V�, 2007) allows for emphasizing further peculiarities of the professional competence of pedagogical staff, conduc-cive to the identification of it as a fuzzy set:

• determining the level of professional competence, researchers use value judgments;

• the mentioned value judgments are expressed by linguistic variables and are of subjective character;

• the value judgments, which are used to estimate the level of the profes-sional competence of pedagogical staff, express the gradual approach being a distinctive peculiarity of a fuzzy set�

Research SampleThe model (Figure 1) of professional competence is based on a three-dimen-

sional structure containing cognitive, technological, and personal-motivational components�

The quantity and sense of special competences are determined on the basis of functions performed by an employee in a concrete workplace and of a scientifi-cally substantiated model of a special competence chosen as the background� The structural model of the professional competence of pedagogical staff can be used for the planning of professional development� The algorithm of planning has to consider the level of professional competence and freedom of choice�

Instrument and ProceduresThe algorithm of making a decision on the priority of one or another content of

education based on fuzzy logics is grounded in Mamdani's fuzzy inference method (Mamdani, Е�Н�, 1977) and consists of logic blocks: a basis for knowledge (linguis-tic variables and fuzzy rules), a system of data estimation; a block of fuzzification;


cognitive component technological component

methodological competence

communicative competence

IT-competence

other special competence

personal-motivationalcomponent

spec

ial c

omp

eten

ces

Prof

essi

onal

com

pet

ence

s

Figure 1. Structural model of the professional competence of pedagogical staff

a block of solutions; a block of defuzzification� Input data are correlated with output data� To provide a correlation of these two types of data, there is a need to involve a fuzzy system with a so-called fuzzificator (which transforms sets of input data into a fuzzy set) at the input and a defuzzificator (which transforms fuzzy sets into the concrete value of an output variable) at the output� The fuzzificator trans-forms an unfuzzy set of input data into a fuzzy set determined by the membership function and the defuzzificator solves an inverse problem, that is to say, it forms an unambiguous solution regarding an input variable on the basis of numerous fuzzy interferences produced by the block of solutions�

The model proposed by Mamdani should be modified according to the task – the estimation of the professional competence level� Moreover, the developed model should solve problems related to the projection of the fuzzy professional educational trajectory on the basis of the obtained fuzzy estimations� It is pos-sible to additionally use unfuzzy estimations obtained after passing the stage of defuzzification to make a decision on the compliance of a worker with the work status in passing attestation� The solution of a complex of problems is possible in terms of the application of modifications such as the usage of a multi-criteria system of professional competence indices, the development of a measurement system, the inclusion of a block of the determination of alternatives; the usage of the uncertain choice and modalities, “essentially” and “possibly,” for the formation of the fuzzy individual professional educational trajectory (Figure 2)�


The obtainment of the input data is provided due to a specially developed system of the three-level expert estimation of a level of indices of professional competence� Using a previously formed set of indices, which was obtained by the comparison of one or another linguistic variable with the real state of the estimated object, an expert forms a complex estimation of the level of his own professional competence�

An output signal of the interference module has the form of P of fuzzy sets, which determine a range of changes of the output variable, before it comes to the defuzzificator� The defuzzificator transforms this range into one concrete value perceived as an input signal of the whole system� The obtained unfuzzy value can be used in the process of attestation of a pedagogical worker to determine the compliance of the worker with the work status� The final expert estimation of the professional competence level presented in the form of a fuzzy set is the solution to problem 1 and the basis for the further projecting of FIPET�

A next stage is the solution to problem 2 – the choice of the content of educa-tion� To form an individual educational root as a component of the fuzzy profes-sional educational trajectory, there is a need to use the modalities “essentially” and “possibly”� The choice of modality depends on the level of usefulness of a certain

Figure 2. Model of the projection of the fuzzy professional educational trajectory.


educational course and contains 4 alternatives: courses of career enhancement, methodological work at an education institution, self-education (informal educa-tion), and training within the system of non-formal education (distance courses of professional network communities)� Ranking of the alternatives is pre-formed in accordance with the estimation of an influence on a certain component of profes-sional competence� The computation of the optimum choice of courses of career enhancement is performed on the basis of the method described by Borisov A�N�, Krumberg O�A�, Fedorov I�P�, 1990, for cases of the choice of alternatives under the additiveness of criteria�

Data AnalysisLet us consider the solution to this problem (problem 2) on the basis of a par-

ticular example� Primarily, four alternatives, the points of which are presented in Table 1, are ranked�

Table 1. Points of the usefulness of alternatives.

Components of professional competence

Alternative1 2 3 4

technological bad good satisfactory badcognitive good good satisfactory badindividual and incentive bad good good satisfactory

The components in the table are ranked, taking into account their impor-tance – from the most important to the least important, depending on the results of the expert estimation obtained at the previous stage� The first component is determined as IMPORTANT, the second one – RELATIVELY IMPORTANT, the third one – NOT VERY IMPORTANT (Figure 3 – for components and Figure 4 – for alternatives�

The membership functions of weighed points for the alternatives are expressed by the following formulas:

where ′R1 – a left threshold of the membership function; ′′R1 – a right threshold; R1∗ – a top of the membership function�

′ = ′ ′+ ′ ′ + ′ ′′′ = ′′ ′′+ ′′ ′′+ ′′

R R W R W R WR R W R W R

1 11 1 12 2 12 13

1 11 1 12 2 12 ′′′

= + +

W

R R W R W R W13

1 11 1 12 2 12 13∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗


not veryimportant

relativlyimportant

importantμ

1

0.50

00.25 0.50 0.75 1

Wj

Figure 3. The membership functions of the indices of importance W1, W2, and W3

Figure 4. The membership functions of points of the usefulness of alternatives.

bad satisfactory goodμ

1

0.50

0

0.50 1

Rij

′ = ′ ′+ ′ ′ + ′ ′ = ⋅ + ⋅ + = +R R W R W R W1 11 1 12 2 12 13 0 55 0 1 0 25 0 6 0 1 0 055 0� � � � � � �� ;� �

15 0 0 2051 0 5 0 71 11 1 12 2 12 13

+ =′′ = ′′ ′′+ ′′ ′′+ ′′ ′′ = ⋅ +R R W R W R W 55 0 8 0 45 0 5 0 5 0 6 0 225 1 325

1 11 1 12 2 1

⋅ + ⋅ = + + =

= + +

� � � � � � � ;

R R W R W R∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗22 13 0 25 0 3 0 5 0 8 0 75 0 3 0 75 0 4 0 225 0 7∗ ∗W = ⋅ + ⋅ + ⋅ = + + =� � � � � � � � � � �

Values of ′R2 , ′′R2 , R2∗ and also ′R3 , ′′R3 , and R3

∗ are analogically computed� In this case, the weighed points account for the following values:

′ = ′ = ′ =′′ = ′′ = ′ =

=

R R RR R R

R

2 3 4

2 3 4

2

0 48 0 915 0 081 76 1 675 1 01

1

� � ��

�∗ 22 1 01 0 63753 4R R∗ = ′ =� �


Results of computations in the form of the membership functions of the weighed points are presented in Figure 5�

Having obtained the weighed points Ri , a researcher should compare the alter-natives on the basis of these points� To achieve this goal there is a need to apply the fuzzy set I determined on the basis of the set of indices of the alternatives {1,2, … m}� (Borisov A�N�, Krumberg O�A�, Fedorov I�P� (1990, p� 91))� The value μI (i), determining this index, is calculated according to the following formula:

μI (i) = sup min r1 , r2 , … , rm ≥ rj ; Vj

Consequently, there is an ordered series of alternatives, which is expressed in the following way: 2,3,1,4�

research results

The mathematical solution to the problem of the choice of the most useful alternative allows for determining of a course of education, which provides an optimum influence on each of the components of professional competence, taking into account the priority� Further choice is performed by a pedagogical worker with the use of recommendations after the choice of modality�

The choice of modality is “essentially” and “possibly” performed in accordance with the ordered series of alternatives (a variant 1) or after the additional computa-tion of indices “the priority of a course” and “personal preferences of a pedagogue” (variant 2)� In the first case, the modality is “essentially” used for the alternative

Figure 5. Membership functions of the weighed points R1, R2, R3, R4

R4 R1 R3 R2

Ri

1

0.50

0

0.50 1 1.5 2

μ


with the maximum coefficient of priority� The modality is “possibly” used for the next alternative� The obtained FIPET is considered to be a recommendation, since it is exclusively based on the results of expert estimation and does not take into account personal preferences of a pedagogical worker�

In the second case, the mathematical computations are performed with the use of the formulas mentioned above before decision making� However, since the “per-sonal preferences of a pedagogue” are of individual character, the obtained ordered series allows for determining of a course of education taking into consideration both the expert estimation of the professional preference level of a pedagogical worker, the usefulness of one or another alternative and the pedagogue’s personal preferences� This is the final aim of the formation of the FIPET�

Discussion

The application of the developed model of the projection of the fuzzy profes-sional educational trajectory allows for revealing of a group of difficulties that appeared in the process of implementation� These difficulties require solution before a mass formative experiment will be performed:

• the complicated procedure of the expert estimation and the formation of the final expert value;

• the necessity of preliminary calibrating of all used verbal estimations; • a significant number of mathematical computations at different stages of

modeling�The creation of a computer program providing automation of preliminary

calibrating of the verbal estimations of all persons who make decisions at different stages of the FIPET projection and, also, the calculation of mathematical opera-tions are effective ways of the solution to all the mentioned problems�

The model of the projection of the FIPET is substantiated by the mathematical properties of the fuzzy sets� It solves the two main applied problems: the diagnos-tics of the fuzzy state of professional competence and the determination of the choice of a further direction of education�

Peculiarities of the presented model of the process of projecting the FIPET consist in taking into account mathematically proved properties of fuzzy sets, while deter-mining the professional competence level as well as forming the content of education; the mathematical substantiation of the choice of alternatives, the usage of the modali-ties “essentially” and “possibly”, while making the uncertain choice of an educational root, and, also, the adaptation of Mamdani’s inference model to solve this problem�


Conclusions

As a result of the research, the main mathematical properties of the structure components of professional competence, which are presented in the form of fuzzy sets and which directly influence the selection of the content of education, were revealed� Despite the fact that the professional competence of pedagogical workers is considered as an example, fuzzy logics may be applied in the field of professional competence enhancement and the improvement of skills of any specialists� Fur-ther research should be aimed at revealing and analyzing of indices of additiveness and the emergency of the system; the specification of the optimum correlation between formal, non-formal, and informal education�

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Astanin, S�V� (2000) Supplementation of an educational process on the basis of fuzzy modeling Soprovozhdenie processa obuchenija na osnove nechetkogo modelirovanija� In: Distancionnoe obrazovanie, 5, 27 – 32�

Babuska, R� (1998)� Fuzzy modeling for control� Kluwer Academic Publishers�Bljumin, L�S�, Shujkova, S�A� (2001) Models and methods of decision-making in terms

of uncertainty� Modeli i metody prinjatija reshenij v uslovijah neopredelennosti� Lipeck: LJeGI

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Gavrilova, M�A� (2012) Formation and development of professional competences of mathematics teachers in the system of continuous pedagogical education . Stanovlenie i razvitie professional’noj kompetentnosti pedagogov-matematikov v sisteme nepreryvnogo pedagogicheskogo obrazovanija: avtoref� dis� … d-r ped� nauk: 13�00�08� – Moscow

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Linear Programming Model with Fuzzy Data In International Journal of Fuzzy System Applications.Volume 2 Issue 3, July 2012, 1 – 12

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UDK 371:004.89:519.876

Advised by Ivashnova Svitlana, Institute of postdegree pedagogical education, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kiev, Ukraine

Working with data: both an opportunity

and challenge for school leaders

AbstractThe article analyses the concept of data, presents various purposes of working with data in schools and deals with the readiness of people at school to work with data� In the final part the article summarizes selected results of a pilot survey carried out in Czech schools and abroad, focused on finding out how and with what data schools work, which attitudes school leaders adopt towards this activity, how those respondents evaluate their own readiness for work with data and which needs they express in this respect�

Keywords: working with data, school leaders, accountability, school leadership, school development

introduction

In many countries it has long been considered necessary to acknowledge the importance of the use of data in the operation of schools (OECD, 2007)� While earlier efforts for school development were mainly based on general managerial recommendations, today the stress is on development based on concrete data, relevant for specific schools� Thus, data are a means of fulfilling the multilateral obligation of accountability and, at the same time, a source of school development (Earl, LeMahieu, 1997; Pol, 2007; Davidsdottir, Lisi, 2012; and others)�

In the opening part this paper defines the term data and describes various kinds of data, the purpose of working with data and leaders’ readiness to work with data in schools� Part two offers results of a pilot survey aimed at how people work with data in schools, what attitudes school leaders adopt towards this activity, how these

Bohumíra Lazarová, Milan Pol, Jana Poláchová Vašťatková,Václav Trojan, Tomáš BoudaCzech Republic

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.07

82 Bohumíra Lazarová, Milan Pol, Jana Poláchová Vašťatková, et al.

respondents evaluate their own readiness for working with data� The findings are based on a survey within the DELECA project1 in the Czech Republic and partner countries (Belgium, Latvia, Slovenia and Sweden)�

Data and their types

In brief terms and in a very broad sense, data can be understood as information systematically collected and arranged, be it in the form of words, numbers or other forms� Therefore, data can be of both quantitative and qualitative nature�

Data may adopt a large variety of forms, which do not only relate to students’ results being the most important indicators of the quality of a school� In fact, data is what schools should use to prove convincingly that they work well� Schools should thus know how to search for and utilize suitable data (from outside) for their development� At the same time, they are expected to collect data on themselves and use them to develop and present their own work (cf� Pol, 2007)� Therefore, not only do data serve for planning school development, but they are an indicator of school quality�

Bernhardt (2004) identifies four fields where it is important for schools to work with data� These are (1) demographic data (enrolled students, attendance, prema-ture departure, ethnicity, gender, etc�), (2) the process of education and schooling (description of the curriculum and the main processes related to its development), (3) students’ learning and results (results of standardized tests, norms, criteria, evaluation, etc�) and (4) the approach to pedagogical work (how education and learning are perceived, what values, beliefs and teachers’ attitudes there are etc�)� Nevertheless, the data from these fields must be perceived in their mutual relations, connections and intersections� Copland et al� (2009) add to demographic data on student learning and school processes also perception of the learning environ-ment, values, teachers’ characteristics, job description, qualifications, participation in in-service training, etc� It is these areas which the research within the DELECA project was based on, as well�

Internal development and external controlBy distinguishing between data collection aimed at students’ results and other

areas of school operation, Verbiest & Mahieu (2013) offer four points of view of the use of data� Data can be used (1) from the viewpoint of accountability, focusing

1 www�deleca�org

83Working with data: Both an opportunity and challenge for school leaders

on students’ results; (2) from the viewpoint of accountability, focusing on school operation; (3) from the viewpoint of development, focusing on students’ results; and (4) from the viewpoint of development, focusing on the school� These dif-ferent views require the collection and interpretation of different types of data� For the sake of accountability, students’ results are especially important, while the viewpoints of development put more stress on data covering the impact of organizational conditions on students’ learning� The views mentioned, seemingly diverse, in many respects overlap� For instance, schools can collect, interpret and use data to improve both students’ results and school operation� Therefore, they can interconnect the prospect of accountability and that of development, use data to present educational and other work to people externally involved and, at the same time, use them as a source for development (Davidsdottir & Lisi, 2012; Dvořák, 2012)�

Readiness for work with dataFor these reasons, school leaders are expected to be able to collect data, under-

stand them and use them in a critical and detached view (cf� Copland et al, 2009)� Nevertheless, the point is not only the readiness of individuals� There is a growing call for school culture, a strong feature of which is working with data (Hargreaves, 1996; Earl & Katz, 2006)�

Vanhoof et al� (2013) pinpoint various competences in relation to particular stages of working with data� At the opening stage it is the collection (search), study and discussion of data aimed at their correct interpretation� Then there is the stage of use, including the determination of needs, planning, implementation of change and evaluation� The emphasis on the distinction between interpretation of data and their use is a consequence of the discovery that the shift from data interpretation to planning of changes and materialization of measures in schools is often protracted� In their data-based judgment, school leaders must be restrained and sensitive to the multiple meaning of interpretations (Earl & Katz, 2006)�

research methodology

In order to support school leaders’ training in working with data, the above-mentioned DELECA project started in 2012� One of the specific goals of the project was the creation of a training program curriculum for school leaders� This program should help school leaders to (a) gain an overview of the prin-cipal resources of data which are useful for learning and school development,


(b) improve their ability to understand such data and (c) improve their readiness to work with these data in order to aid school development�

First it was necessary to create a clearer idea about how schools should work with certain data, what attitudes school leaders adopt towards these issues, how they evaluate their own abilities to work with data and which educational needs they have in this respect� For this, an on-line questionnaire was constructed and distributed to all current participants of educational leadership programs (com-pulsory functional education) in 2013 at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, Brno, and the Faculties of Education at the Universities of Olomouc, Ostrava and Prague� We addressed higher education workplaces offering this type of training and willing to cooperate in data collection� The method of data collection provided for an almost 100% return rate� The leaders of the three different levels of schools with different lengths of both teacher and leadership experience (e�g� as deputy head teachers) were represented in the group of respondents� The conclusions of the survey are undoubtedly significant (even though they cannot be general-ized)� Only selected results from the pilot survey are mentioned in this article, indicating roughly which data Czech schools work with and the opinion school leaders have on this subject� A total of 171 questionnaires from school leaders were processed; 52% of them from basic schools (ISCED 1 + 2), 24% from secondary schools (ISCED 3) and 24% from nursery schools (ISCED 0), of which 121 were submitted by female respondents� Seven questionnaires were removed because of incompleteness� Because of difficult comparability of data from various levels of schools we present the results for all the schools together� Yet, it is necessary to mention that the differences among school levels were insignificant and we only remark on certain trends in different behaviour of schools as indicated by the data�

How do Czech schools work with data? results and Discussion

First we asked the respondents which types of data they usually work with at schools and which data on their schools they collect and for what purpose� The results prove the prevailing interest in data related to students’ educational process (attendance, premature departure, results) while the least interest is in data on the outside environment and how the milieu of the school is perceived by various subjects (Figure 1)�

As for the purpose of data collection, the respondents are more biased to the purpose of the cognition of their schools and their development rather than accountability� Yet, it is evident that the importance of data in terms of account-


ability grows with the level of the school� Secondary schools, which perhaps have to struggle more for students than others, make more effort to collect data through which they can present themselves positively on the outside (Figure 2)�

Figure 1. Types of data and the extent of data collection in schools

Scale used: 1 = not at all; 5 = yes, in full; the diagram represents mean values�

Questionnaire items in this field:on the infrastructure of the institution (buildings, environs, ownership, etc�); on pupils (enrolment, attendance, early departure from school, ethnicity, gender, etc�); on perception (of the school milieu, of values and beliefs, of opinions and attitudes, etc�); on pupils’ learning (tests, fulfilment of criteria, capabilities for study and learning habits, etc�); on school processes (educational programme, didactic strategies, etc�); on teachers (teachers’ tasks, qualifications, mobility, professional development, etc�); on the external community (parents, local community, etc�)

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Figure 2. Purpose of data collection

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accountability(informing others)

improvement anddevelopment

(teaching practice,school success rates)

other


Another part of the questionnaire was aimed at particular activities comprising work with data (data collection, data analysis and interpretation, data handling and statistics, work with diagrams and tables, executing a survey, use of data for decision-making in education and use of data for school development)� The first question asked about the extent to which the respondents considered particular activities in working with data as their own tasks� The results indicate that they consider it their task and duty to handle data and use them for decision-making and school development, but they consider it less to be their duty to collect data and, for this purpose, carry out surveys� It is more evident with secondary school representatives� Undoubtedly, such perception has much to do with real life and a certain unwillingness to collect data in one’s own school and execute surveys for this purpose (cf� Figures 3 a 4)� The respondents say that they use data mostly for decision-making and school development and try to analyse and interpret them, but, again, they pay much less attention to data collection and surveys in their own schools�

There may also be the feeling of a lack of time for such activities� In her research, Prášilová (2011) shows that school leaders are overloaded with administrative operations and their chances to engage in the management of educational work and other activities are limited�


Figure 3. Work with data – reality

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Figure 4 indicates the same trend, which is the highest willingness to use data for decision-making and the development of the school� This trend is most sig-nificant with regard to basic and secondary schools, while the respondents from nursery schools tend slightly more to place emphasis on data collection and execution of their own surveys� These findings may be interpreted in relation to the demographic development and the current situation in the network of schools where, in general terms, nursery schools do not face such strong competition�

In the final part of the questionnaire we asked the respondents to estimate their own ability to work with data (for the sake of simplicity we did not distinguish between knowledge, abilities and skills)� The respondents consider themselves least competent in carrying out surveys in their own schools (Figure 5)� Unlike this activity they consider themselves quite competent in other activities connected to work with data� They are most self-confident in the use of data for decision-making and school development; the leaders at basic schools believe a little more strongly that they are able to handle data and statistics as well as carry out their own research� Somewhat surprisingly for us, the need for in-service training (Figure 6) was expressed as relatively weak by the leaders of all types of schools�

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Figure 4. Work with data – willingness



Slightly more interest in such education is shown by the respondents in nursery schools, which is then logically reflected in the results of gender categorization indicating more motivation for work with data and education in this field among the female head teachers�

From the items in particular areas of the questionnaire we counted summation indices expressing the mean values of the summation of answers� This procedure enabled us to compare the participating countries as for the respondents’ tendency to engage in various fields of work with data and their estimation of their abilities and educational needs�

• The Index of Data collection expresses the extent to which schools, accord-ing to the respondents, collect data in particular areas of the school opera-tion (8 items; item others was removed because of insufficient number of options, cf� Figure 1)�

• The Index of Working with data expresses the extent to which the respond-ents engage in selected tasks connected to working with data (4 items)�2

2 Items: You look for and collect data; You plan your time to work with data; You develop the culture of data use; You involve employees or other important persons�

Figure 5. Work with data – perceived ability

Scale used: 1 = not at all; 5 = fully; the diagram represents the mean values�

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• The Index of Leaders’ tasks expresses the extent to which the respondents consider particular activities in working with data as their task or duty (7 items)�

• The Index of Reality expresses the extent to which these activities are carried out in the real life of the school (7 items, cf� Figure 3)�

• The Index of Willingness expresses the extent of the willingness of the respondents to work with data; in other words to carry out particular activi-ties working with data (7 items, cf� Figure 4)�

• The Index of Ability expresses the evaluation of the respondents’ own skills in particular activities in working with data (7 items, cf� Figure 5)�

• The Index of Training needs expresses the extent of the respondents’ needs to learn to work with data (7 items, cf� Figure 6)�

Using a statistical test (Cronbach alpha) we discovered high inner consistence with the indices, featuring values between 0�81 and 0�90�

The indices show (Table 2) more clearly that the respondents express the highest affirmation in their perception of their duty to work with data and evaluate their skills in this field� The lowest affirmation is expressed for items inquiring about educational needs� The lowest need to educate oneself in working with data is felt by

Scale used: 1 = not at all; 5 = fully; the diagram represents the mean values�

Comparison of summation indices by participating countries

Figure 6. Work with data – expressed training needs

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basic school leaders (3�11)� Simultaneously, these people evaluate themselves as the most capable (4�24)� On the contrary, nursery school leaders feel the highest need to educate themselves (3�56)� It must be remarked, though, that the Index of Training needs is where the highest standard deviation was found (0�98)� By contrast, most conformity was shown by the respondents for leaders’ tasks (standard deviation 0�62)� The need for education in working with data, as felt by the respondents, is most probably related to the attitudes expressed: if leaders do not intend to work with data, logically their need to educate themselves in this field is not so strong�

Let us finally highlight some of the findings in Czech schools that were different from those in other participating countries in the DELECA project� Our foreign partners carried out the same survey with participants in in-service training for school leaders� Aware of the nature and size of the sets surveyed, we do not want to draw unequivocal conclusions from such comparisons, but our objective is to point out certain differences in the results� Table 3 shows that the Czech school leaders adopt less positive attitudes to working with data (in relative terms), express a lower need to further educate themselves in this field (in relative terms again), but contrary to this, they assess their skills somewhat higher�

Table 3. International comparison of indices (all school levels: nursery, basic, secondary)

BE CZ LV SE SI totalIndex of Data collection 3�3 3�8 3�9 3�2 3�8 3�6Index of Working with data 3�1 3�5 3�8 3�0 3�6 3�5Index of Leaders’ tasks 3�8 4�2 4�4 4�0 4�1 4�1Index of Reality 3�3 3�9 4�1 3�4 4�1 3�8

Table 2. Summation indices

Field total average

standard deviations

I – Data collection 3�8 0�8I – Working with data 3�5 0�8I – Leaders’ tasks 4�2 0�6I – Reality 3�9 0�7I – Willingness 3,7 0�8I – Ability 4,2 0�7I –Training needs 3,3 1�0


BE CZ LV SE SI totalIndex of Willingness 3�9 3.7 4�4 4�0 4�2 4�1Index of Ability 3�8 4.2 4�3 3�9 4�1 4�1Index of Training needs 3�6 3.3 3�3 3�3 3�8 3�4

The diagram represents mean values; BE = Belgium; CZ = Czech Republic; LV = Latvia; SE = Sweden; SI = Slovenia.

For all the countries the index of educational needs shows the lowest values� However, we realize the limits of our survey� For instance, for the self-evaluation of skills in working with data, the respondents may have varying ideas concerning what such work requires if truly appropriate results are expected�

Conclusion

In today’s environment, which rather suffers from a glut in data, working with data is a subject that requires attention� To work with data requires specific knowl-edge as well as skills and attitudes� Our pilot survey shows that school leaders look at working with data in quite a positive way: they say they usually work with data and consider working with data to be their task�

Since the respondents were addressed on-line, thus in a fully anonymous man-ner, there is no reason to suspect them of being forced to comply with what is required from the outside or regarded as positive value� The credibility is even more enhanced by the fact that the respondents confess to mediocrity in their willingness to work with data and, equally, in their interest in the respective train-ing� Our questionnaire survey could not, and did not, provide a profound insight into the reality of working with data in schools� Nevertheless, the results clearly show which activities in working with data are more appealing to school leaders and what purposes they use data for, and what purposes they would want to use data for�

It is also necessary to mention that school leaders often face a difficult task: according to research, teachers do not feel the need to rely on data in their deci-sion-making, believing that their experience is sufficient for high-quality decisions (Schildkamp, Kuiper, 2010)� Therefore, the head teacher becomes a model and, at the same time, a creator and supporter of school culture in which working with data thrives� The results show a certain hesitation of head teachers, mainly in car-rying out practical research� However, practical research is what brings evidence of the efficiency of school interventions� In this respect, it is not only desirable to


educate people in schools in the field of working with data but also to intercon-nect more strongly the academic sphere (in other words, departments strong in methodology) with practical life in schools�

We are aware of the fact that this pilot survey has its limits� Undoubtedly, the respondents varied a lot in their ideas about what working with data consists in and what it means to be competent in working with data� There is little to be gained by further analysing and interpreting the differences in terms of the various levels of schools, gender, length of experience or differences among partner countries, nor is it meaningful to test the statistical significance of these differences� Our pilot survey can be considered as a good basis for creating the Working with data training modules and, at the same time, inspiration for subsequent questions and hypotheses to be potentially verified in future research�

Acknowledgement:The text was created within the Comenius project DELECA (Developing leadership capacity for data-informed school improvement); No� 526499-LPP-1-2012-1-SI-COMENIUS-CMP

referencesBernhardt, V� (2004)� Data analysis for continuous school improvement� Larchmont, NY:

Eye on Education�Copland, M�, Knapp, M�, & Swinnerton, J� (2009)� Principal leadership, data and school

improvement� In: T� Kowalski & T� Lasley (Eds�), Handbook of data-based decision mak-ing in education (s� 153–172)� New York: Routledge�

Davidsdottir, S� & Lisi, P� (2012)� Spolupráce učitelů a jak ji podněcovat (poznatky z lon-gitudinální a průřezové studie interní evaluace na Islandu)� Studia paedagogica, 17(2), 51–70�

Dvořák, D� (2012)� Nový institucionalismus v pedagogice� Studia paedagogica, 17(2), 9–26�Earl, L�, & Katz, S� (2006)� Leading schools in a data-rich world. Harnessing data for school

improvement� Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press�Earl, L�, & LeMahieu, P� (1997)� Rethinking assessment and accountability� In Hargreaves,

A� (ed�) Rethinking educational change with heath and mind: 1997 ASCD Yearbook (pp� 149-168)� Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development�

Hall, G�, & Hord, S� (2006)� Implementing change: patterns, principles and potholes (2nd ed�)� Boston: Pearson Education�

Hargreaves, D� (1996) Teaching as a reseach-based profession: possibilities and prospects. London: Teacher Training Agency�

Kowalski, T� (2009)� Evidence and decision making in professions� In T� Kowalski & T� Las-


ley (Eds�), Handbook of data-based decision making in education (pp� 3–19)� New York: Routledge�

OECD (2007)� Evidence in education: Linking research and policy. Paris: OECD�Pol, M� (2007)� Škola v proměnách. Brno: Masarykova univerzita�Prášilová, M� (2011)� Profesní rozvoj ředitelů českých škol� Olomouc: PdF UP�Schildkamp, K�, & Kuiper, W� (2010)� Data-informed curriculum reform: Which data, what

purposes, and promoting and hindering factors� Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(3), 482–496�

Vanhoof, J�, Verhaeghe, G�, Van Petegem, P�, & Valcke, M� (2013)� Improving data literacy in schools : lessons from the school feedback project� In K� Schildkamp, M�K� Lai & L� Earl (Eds�), Data-based decision making in education: challenges and opportunities (pp� 113–134)� Dordrecht: Springer�

Verbiest, E�, & Mahieu, P� (2013)� Developing leadership capacity for data-informed school improvement (DELECA). Theoretical framework. Available at http://www�deleca�org�

General Didactics

experience in using information Communication technology

during Lessons in General education schools

AbstractContemporary school is inconceivable without the integrated interactive learn-ing tools and information communication technologies (hereinafter referred to as ICT) in the education process� However, according to research, ICT integra-tion in the learning process is insufficient� The aim of this research is to analyse the experience of pedagogues in using ICT during lessons�

Keywords: information communication technologies, education process, peda-gogues.

introduction

The use of ICT in education is an important element in the European Commis-sion‘s strategy ensuring effective European education systems and competitiveness of the European economy (Key Data on Learning and Innovation through ICT at School in Europe, 2011)� European Union (EU) and UNESCO institutions place great importance on integration of ICT in the education process and on the teacher ICT competences, since successful integration enhances the learning process, makes it more attractive, promotes cooperation, authentic learning, motivation of pupils and teachers, and helps to effectively solve problems in the contemporary ICT-driven world (The ICT Impact Report, A Review of Studies of ICT Impact on Schools in Europe, 2006)� According to the strategic EU documents, promotion of teachers’ creativity and innovation through ICT is one priority area, therefore teachers’ ICT qualification should be focused (Teaching and Learning for an ICT

Valdonė Indrašienė, Odeta Merfeldaitė, Asta Railienė, Violeta JegelevičienėLithuania

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.08

98 Valdonė Indrašienė, Odeta Merfeldaitė,Asta Railienė, Violeta Jegelevičienė

Revolutionised Society, 2010, Key Data on Learning and Innovation through ICT at School in Europe, 2011)�

According to research, in other countries integration of ICT in the learning process is also insufficient; most often schools fail to develop the vision of the effective integration of ICT in the education process (Kuskaya-Mumcu, Koçak-Usluel, 2013) and are not able to reach their full potential (Fredriksson, Gajek, Jedeskog, 2009)� The main causes are: absence of a common policy in the EU Member States, and lack of trust, competence and resources in ICT integration (Bingimlas, 2009)�

Research revealed that changes related to the integration of ICT in education are slow, whereas the impact of ICT on teaching highly depends on ICT usage in the education process (The ICT Impact Report� A Review of Studies of ICT Impact on Schools in Europe, 2006)� Basic ICT skills are insufficient to teach pupils (E-Teacher 2�0 Empowering Teacher’s ICT-Pedagogical Competencies� 2010)� Effective ICT integration requires much more than the technical knowledge of how to use the devices (UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, 2011)� This requires fundamental changes in the teaching/learning framework, teaching paradigms/methods and consolidation of new methodologies; thus, teachers should have the opportunity to engage in training, to deepen their understanding and mastery of ICT as a tool for innovating teaching approaches1�

According to the data of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), the major need for further improvements in Lithuania is related to the teaching practice and understanding/adopting relevant methods� Whereas globally the major professional development needs in the rapidly changing areas are due to globalisation, e�g� teachers’ ability to use/apply ICT in the education process (Information Technologies in the 21st Century Schools, 2010, Professional Development of Lithuanian Teachers, 2010)�

Research ProblemThe research revealed that Lithuanian students’ level of computer/information

literacy is moderate� Although students do have basic skills, they are less success-ful in accomplishing creative and independent tasks (Fraillon, Ainley, etc�, 2013); besides, students are more likely to use computer at home rather than at school, and the use of the virtual learning environment (especially outside of school) is

1 A Framework to Support Teachers’ CPD in the use of ICTs� Public Progress Report, 2007; Punie, Zinnbauer, Cabrera, 2006; Key Data on Learning and Innovation through ICT at School in Europe 2011

99Experience in Using Information Communication Technology

still not common in many countries (Survey of Schools: ICT in Education� Bench-marking Access, Use and Attitudes to Technology in Europe’s Schools, 2013)� The main factor determining the level of students’ ICT skills is the teacher capable of organising and managing the ICT-based teaching/learning process in a creative manner� However, the survey (Survey of Schools: Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Education� Information about Lithuania) revealed that teachers use ICT in teaching/learning on rare occasions� Development of ICT competency and possibilities for further development could be specified only after an in-depth situation analysis and the analysis of the current experience in using ICT during lessons in Lithuanian general education institutions�


Research General BackgroundThe research was based on the methodological (or normative) paradigm of

quantitative research for social sciences interpreting social reality as a positiv-ist attitude� In view of this, what is focused is the relationship between theory and empirical research� Quality is usually determined by quantitative indicators� According to global science, quantitative analysis is a typical procedure required for in-depth research (Bitinas, 2006)�

Research SampleThe research analysis includes: the impact of ICT on teaching/learning (Punie,

Zinnbauer, Cabrera, 2006; Ross & Lowther, 2009); connection between the use of ICT tools and teaching methods (Dagienė, Jasutienė, 2007; Means, 2010, Kriliuvienė, 2010, Pečiuliauskienė, 2010, Prell, 2011, Brazdeikis, Masaitis, 2011, Gudonienė, 2011), and application of the ICT-based educational environment (Brazdeikis, 2010; Jucevičienė, 2013; Žadeikaitė, Gulbinas, 2014)� Teacher compe-tence issues are considered by the researchers as one of the key ICT usage factors (Anderesen, Weert, 2002; Gedvilienė etc�, 2010, Jucevičienė, Brazdeikis, 2012), as well as problems related to ICT integration into subject teaching (Bingimlas, 2009; Navickaitė, 2010; Orintienė, Lazauskienė, 2010; Tamošiūnas, 2010; Paulionytė et�al, 2010; Indrašienė et al�, 2010, Lukšėnienė, Žygaitienė, Pošiūnaitė, 2014)�

Instrument and ProceduresThe research instrument is a questionnaire survey for pedagogues� In order to

determine the internal consistency (reliability) of questionnaire scales, Cronbach’s


alpha coefficient was applied (based on the correlations between variables and evaluating on whether the sample size is adequate (Pukėnas, 2011): questionnaire block on pedagogues’ competence in integrating ICT into subject teaching – Cron-bach’s Alfa (α=0�764); questionnaire block on the use of ICT during the teaching process – Cronbach’s Alfa (α=0�806)� According to the obtained results, the indica-tors selected in the questionnaire define the analysed features; their analysis will determine pedagogues’ attitudes toward the implementation of ICT tools in the education process and their experience in applying these tools in practice

The research involved 605 pedagogues working in pre-middle school (n=277) grades 7 – 8 and middle school (n=328) grades 10 – 11 of the four largest Lithuanian cities� The sampling was based on a cluster sampling method due to the wide spread of pedagogues’ population� In view of this, pedagogues were selected after a random selection of pre-middle schools/middle schools� This is a representa-tive sampling assuming a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of 5 percentage points� The research analysis was made using SPSS 18 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software package� The methods of dispersive and cross-correlation analysis and multiple regression were applied to process the obtained data (Vaitkevičius et al�, 2006; Longitudinal data analysis, 2009)�

research results

Profile of the respondents. The study comprised science teachers (n=605): teachers of mathematics (25�2%), biology (24�9%), physics (25�1%) and chemistry (24�8%)� By pedagogical qualification the breakdown of the teaching staff was as follows: teachers (24�6%), senior teachers (24�5%), teachers-supervisors (25%) and teachers-experts (26%)�

The research included qualified and competent pedagogues: 58�7% of the respondents reported 10 and more years of pedagogical experience, 27�1% – 15 – 25 years, and 12�2% reported having more than 25 years of experience�

The IT (information technology) experience of pedagogues in the learning process is determined by multiple interrelated or interdependent variables� In view of this, correlation analysis was applied, as well as calculation of Spearman’s cor-relation coefficient (rs)� Correlation analysis included the pedagogues’ knowledge, abilities, attitude changes and ICT tools most frequently used in subject teaching� Table 1 provides only statistically significant outcomes�

Pursuant to the data analysis, the better pedagogues evaluate their knowledge on basic provisions for ICT integration in the subject teaching, the more frequently


Tab

le 1

. Pe

dago

gues

’ kno

wle

dge

and

ICT

tool

s Sp

earm

an c

orre

latio

n co

effici

ent (

rs)

Peda

gogu

es’ k

now

ledg

e, ab

ilitie

s an

d at

titud

es

ICT

tool

s

Pers

onal

C

ompu

ter

Not

eboo

k co

mpu

ter

(lapt

op)

Educ

a-tio

nal

com

pute

r ap

plic

a-tio

ns

Elec

tron

ic

calc

ulat

ors

Han

dhel

d co

mpu

ters

Vid

eo

cam

era

Inte

ract

ive

boar

dEm

ail

I am

aw

are

of th

e m

ain

prov

ision

s fo

r the

inte

grat

ion

of IC

T in

the

stud

y su

bjec

t0�

506*

**0�

780*

**0�

817*

**0�

937*

**0�

755*

*–0

�937

***

0�87

9**

0�75

4**

I am

abl

e to

inte

grat

e IC

T in

som

e to

pics

of t

he st

udy

subj

ect

––

–0�

655*

**0�

348*

**0�

655*

**–0

�357

***

0�34

8***

I am

abl

e to

inte

grat

e IC

T in

any

to

pic

of th

e st

udy

subj

ect

0�50

6***

0�78

0***

0�81

7***

––

–0�

879*

*–

I am

aw

are

of IC

T le

arni

ng e

nvi-

ronm

ents

app

ropr

iate

for t

he st

udy

subj

ect

0�42

2***

–0�5

25**

*–0

�360

***

0�34

1***

0�18

7***

0�34

1***

–0�4

48**

*0�

187*

**

I am

abl

e to

use

ICT

lear

ning

env

i-ro

nmen

ts in

the

stud

y su

bjec

t0�

506*

**0�

780*

**0�

817*

**–0

�337

***

0�75

5***

-0�9

31**

*0�

879*

**0�

755*

**

I can

cre

ate

lear

ning

env

ironm

ents

vi

a IC

Ts–0

�443

***

0�34

8***

0�34

2***

0�48

0***

0�25

5***

0�48

0***

–0�

255*

**

I can

pro

vide

con

sulta

tions

to

othe

r tea

cher

s on

ICT

appl

icat

ion�

0�60

8***

0�52

5***

0�56

8***

–0�

572*

**–

0�74

9***

–

*p<0

�05;

**

p<0�

0;

***p

<0�0

01


they use personal computer (rs=0�506, p<0�0001), notebook (rs=0�780, p<0�0001) computer, educational computer applications (rs=0�817, p<0�0001), electronic cal-culators (rs=0�937, p<0�0001), handheld computers (rs=0�755, p<0�001), interactive boards (rs=0�879, p<0�001) and emails (rs=0�754, p<0�001) in subject teaching�

It turned out that the pedagogues who are able to efficiently integrate ICTs in separate topics of a subject, most often use electronic calculators and video cameras (rs=0�655, p<0�0001)� And vice versa, the better pedagogues evaluate their knowledge on basic provisions for the integration of ICT in the study subject and are able to use the available ICT learning environment in subject teaching, the less they use video cameras (respectively rs= -0�937, p<0�0001 and rs= -0�931, p<0�0001)� This suggests that the tools like electronic calculators and video cam-eras are not widely applied and could be used only in teaching separate topics of a subject� A similar tendency is observed also in evaluating other knowledge, abilities and attitudes of pedagogues�

According to the obtained results, the aims of ICT usage during lessons correlate with the pedagogues’ competence� Four levels of pedagogues’ ICT competence were analysed: 1� Behavioural level of competence, i�e� elementary behaviour according to the requirements of a workplace; 2� Additive level of competence, i�e� behaviour and knowledge interpreted as value added; 3� Integrative level of knowledge, i�e� knowledge integration via creative activity; 4� Holistic competence (Jucevičienė, 2005)� The level of pedagogues’ competence is a derived indicator obtained by calculating and transforming pedagogues’ knowledge, abilities and skills�

According to the research, the more teachers consider themselves as competent pedagogues, the more convinced they are that ICT facilitates collaborative work of teachers and students (rs=0�732, p<0�0001)� ICTs help to generate a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom (rs=0�610, p<0�0001), diversify the learning process and make learning more attractive (rs=0�496, p<0�0001)�

The research revealed that ICT opportunities during the learning process are related to the pedagogical work experience: usually teachers with extensive peda-gogical work experience are among those who claim that the use of ICT impedes the learning process due to the poor computer provision in schools (rs=0�523, p<0�0001)� In other words, the pedagogues having more extensive pedagogical work experience state that the better computer provision in school is the more possibilities they have to apply ICTs in the education process�

It was noted that the respondents with shorter pedagogical experience more positively evaluated ICT as a tool providing for more effective control of the edu-cation process (rs= -0�732, p<0�0001)� This means that lack/absence of pedagogical experience prevents from an adequate evaluation of the situation� In conclusion, it


could be said that pedagogues having no extensive pedagogical work experience use all ICT opportunities in organising the education process in general education schools, and usually apply ICTs as a control measure�

In order to analyse the experience of ICT usage in general education schools, it is necessary to identify factors having a major influence on the formation of peda-gogues’ attitudes� In view of this, regressive analysis was applied for data analysis� Regression analysis is a statistical process for estimating relationships among variables and anticipating the meanings of one variable according to changes in other variables� A multiple linear regression model was applied� Dependent variables determining ICT evaluations were selected (ICT facilitates collaborative work between teachers and students (promotes cooperation); use of ICT improves the atmosphere in the classroom (there is no competition among pupils, they feel safe/protected and less distracted etc.); ICTs allow for better monitoring of the education process; the use of ICT diversifies the opportunities of learning and makes learning more attractive, as well as independent variables (pedagogues’ work experience, qualification, subjects taught, ICT competence). Indicators of the suitability of the regression model are presented in Table 2�

Table 2. Assessment of suitability of the multiple regression model

No Dependent variables: pedagogues’ evaluation R2 R2α ANOVA

Durbin-Watson

(d)

1� ICT facilitates collaborative work between teachers and students (promotes cooperation) 0�692 0�690 p<0�000 d=1�405

2�

The use of ICT improves the atmosphere in the classroom (there is no competition between stu-dents, they feel safe/protected and less distracted etc�)

0�411 0�407 p<0�000 d=2�162

3� ICTs allow for better monitoring of the education process 0�463 0�460 p<0�000 d=2�090

4� The use of ICT diversifies the opportunities of learning and makes learning more attractive 0�359 0�355 p<0�000 d=1�405

R2 – determination coefficient indicating whether the model fits the observed data� A high value of the coefficient of determination means model adequacy (the required R2≥0�25� Durbin-Watson (d) criterion indicates that there is no autocor-relation in the model (d statistics is close to 2)�

Below there is an illustration of the statistical values of the dependent variable “ICT facilitates collaborative work between teachers and pupils” and independent


variables “pedagogical work experience, pedagogue’s qualifications, taught subject, pedagogue’s ICT competence” by applying the method of multiple regression analy-sis (cf� Table 3)�

Table 3. Multiple regression model. ICT evaluations: ICT facilitates collaborative work between teachers and pupils

Dependent variable

(Y1)

Independ-ent vari-

ables

Con-stant

Non-standardised coef-ficients Standardised coefficients

b F ANOVAp β t p

H0:bj=0

ICT facilitates collabora-tive work between teach-ers and students

Pedagogi-cal work experience

–0�813

–0�044 337�435 0�0001 –0�187 –7�839 0�0001

Pedagogue’s qualifica-tions

–0�129 337�435 0�0001 –0�311 –13�457 0�0001

Subject taught –0�035 337�435 0�0001 –0�085 –3�688 0�0001

Pedagogue’s ICT compe-tence

0�785 337�435 0�0001 0�676 28�759 0�0001

The values of the indicated b coefficients are low but significant from the statis-tical point of view (p<0�001)� The coefficients of pedagogical work experience, the pedagogue’s qualifications and a subject taught are negative, therefore the increas-ing coefficient reduces the estimate of a dependent variable (ICT facilitates joint work of teachers and pupils) unless this decrease is outweighed by the coefficient of ICT competence� The pedagogue’s qualifications have a negative impact on this dependent variable (β= -0�311), whereas a positive result is determined by the pedagogue’s increasing ICT competence (β=0�676)�

Such a logical construction of the data analysis is also applied to the analysis of other dependent variables (Table 4)�

The provided standardised estimates of β coefficient with respect to all the statements demonstrate that pedagogical work experience has a negative impact on pedagogues’ evaluation regarding the following statements: ICT facilitates col-laborative work between teachers and pupils (β = –0�187); the use of ICT improves the atmosphere in the classroom (β = –0�169); ICTs allow for better monitoring of the education process (β = – 0�341)� According to the research, pedagogues’ qualifica-


Table 4. Multiple regression coefficient (β estimates) for pedagogues’ evaluation

No Dependent variables (Yi): pedagogues’ evaluation

Con-stant

X1Pedagogues’ qualification

X2Subject taught

X3 Pedagogical

work experience

X4 Pedagogues‘

ICT competence

1�ICT facilitates collaborative work between teachers and pupils (promotes cooperation)

–0�813 –0.311p=0�0001

–0�085 p=0�0001

–0�187p=0�0001

0�676p=0�0001

2�

The use of ICT improves the atmosphere in the classroom (there is no competition between students, they feel safe/protected and less distracted etc�)

–1�048 –0.015p=0.630

0�088p=0�006

–0�169p=0�0001

0�575p=0�0001

3� ICTs allow for better monitoring of the education process 0�138 –0�306

p=0�00010.007

p=0.817–0�341

p=0�00010�393

p=0�0001

4�The use of ICT diversifies the opportunities of learning and makes learning more attractive

–0�187 0�448p=0�0001

0�123p=0�0001

0�269p=0�0001

0�267p=0�0001

tions (β= 0�448) have a positive impact on pedagogues’ evaluation (The use of ICT diversifies the opportunities of learning and makes learning more attractive).

A regression equation was determined by using the non-standardised coef-ficient estimates (b) allowing for identifying which variables have major weight in forming pedagogues’ views on the use of ICT during the learning process� Below there is the equation of the fourth dependent variable the use of ICT diversifies the opportunities of learning and makes learning more attractive.

Y= -0�187+0�448·x1+0�123·x2+0�269·x3+0�267·x4It was noted that pedagogues’ qualifications have a major impact on the forma-

tion of pedagogues’ attitudes (β= 0�448)�In applying the dispersion analysis (ANOVA) major differences were deter-

mined between the pedagogues of different subjects (mathematics, physics, etc�) and time allocated for ICT integration (F=1�668; p=0�173)� In view of this, the analysis was pursued by applying the Scheffe criterion (p<0�01)� It was established that statistically the major difference was in the time allocated by the teachers of biology and mathematics in integrating ICT tools in teaching subjects during the recent three months� On average the teachers of mathematics allocated about 50% of their time for the integration of ICT tools (teachers of biology – about 30%)�


Conclusions

1� The aims of ICT usage during lessons precisely correlate with pedagogues’ ICT competence� The teachers mastering ICT skills realise that ICT usage for educational reasons has a positive impact on education and can increase the effectiveness of the process; this determines diversity of ICT usage goals�

2� Pedagogues’ work experience correlates with the ICT usage during the teaching/learning process: the pedagogues with longer work experience have more experience in ICT usage and see more possibilities for ICT usage in the teaching/learning process� The teachers having short pedagogical work experience relate the use of ICT during lessons to the improvement of organisational lesson elements (atmosphere, control)�

3� Pedagogues’ opinion about the use of ICT during the learning process is mainly determined by their qualifications, work experience and ICT com-petence�

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Creativity Development Curve in slovak Pupils at the Lower secondary education Level:

Historical-Comparative study

AbstractThe historical-comparative study presents research findings concerning the development of creativity measured by the KREATOS test in pupils of the 5th to 9th grades at the lower secondary education level (N = 386)� The aim was to create the creativity development curve of contemporary pupils in the 5th to 9th grades of elementary school, where pupils achieved the highest level of creativity in the sixth (p ≤ 0�001) and then in the ninth grades� Our aim was to compare the current creativity development curve with elementary school pupils’ creativity development curves of 1979 and 1985, created by E� Sollarová (1979, 1985) using also the KREATOS test� Our findings indicated a signifi-cantly higher level of creativity (p ≤ 0�001) in pupils in the years 1979 and 1985 as compared to the creativity level in pupils in 2013�

Keywords: creativity, creativity development, creativity development curve, KREATOS test

introduction

Creativity is an ability analyzed by a wide professional educational, psychologi-cal and lay public� It is wherever man is, it is a universal attribute of our behaviour, thinking and feeling, our overall being (Zelina, 1997)� From the ministers and advisors of education, school, educational and counselling psychologists and teachers themselves to parents, we all talk about creativity development; develop-ment of non-cognitive parts of pupil personality, development of creative abilities; development of creative thinking is one of our major goals in personality develop-ment� Are we doing it? Is it really so? We can state that with the increased interest

Lada KaliskáSlovakia

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.09

110 Lada Kaliská

of the wide public creative abilities of our pupils increase, too� This scientific study analyzes creative abilities in pupils at the lower secondary education level with a 30 years’ shift in time�

The concept “creativity” comes from the Latin word “creare”, meaning produce, give birth to, create, initiate� Systematic research in the field of the psychology of creativity began in the 50s of the last century, following the meeting of the Ameri-can Psychological Society, where with his lecture on creativity the US psychologist J�P� Guilford responded to the overestimation of the importance of intelligence and criticized the lack of interest in the ability leading to new and inspiring thoughts� He also suggested the direction and methods of research, various modifications and adaptations of which are in use even today�

However, due to its complicated and complex nature, creativity cannot be easily defined or measured, since there are no objective criteria for identifying the level of creativity� Evaluation criteria depend on the individual and on the cultural context of society� So far, the approach to creativity has been reduced to creative, divergent thinking, but M� Jurčová (2002) draws attention to the fact that it is necessary to overcome the exclusiveness of divergent thinking as the cognitive potential of creativity and put more emphasis also on convergent thinking and their interconnectedness� She understands creativity as a complex and dynamic factor of personality, which not only develops but also accentu-ates personality� In psychology, the concept of creativity is understood in two ways� The longest tradition is that of its narrower understanding, according to which creativity is an elite activity of the chosen talented and gifted (artists, inventors)� A wider understanding of creativity looks for creative elements in everyday actions, activities, and many authors (e�g� Jurčová, 2002; Zelina, 2006; Zelinová, 1998; Sollárová, 1985; Lokšová, Lokša, 2001; Hlavsa, Dočkal, 1996 and Torrance,1988, and others) share the opinion that elements of creativity are present in any activity, even if not providing the same possibilities for its development�

Creativity is a complex process of personality, thus we state that it is not only a matter of abilities and thinking� Creativity as the highest cognitive ability in the hierarchic organization combines in itself all lower cognitive functions and is independent, to a considerable extent, of the influence of heredity (Dočkal, 1996)� Closest to the pedagogical understanding is the explanation of creativity as a human intrinsic ability (of various strength and orientation) manifesting itself in the individual’s self-realization at formation of something new, which should be developed, preparing space for it and removing obstacles standing in its way (Zelina, 2006; Lokšová, Lokša, 2001) in particular in the educational environment,

111Creativity Development Curve in Slovak Pupils

which is declared also in the fundamental documents aimed at transformation of education (ISCED 0, 1, 2, 3, 2008)�

Differences in creativity are influenced by the individual’s motivation, which means that creativity is subject to environmental influences and this ability can be developed by a purposeful intentional educational effort� Researchers (whether the world’s ones: Torrance, 1968; Rogers, 1995; Isaksen, 1987or the Czech and Slovak ones: Hlavsa, 1978; Ďurič, 1985; Jurčová, 2009; Zelina, 2006; Sollárová 1985, Kováč, 1982, and others) found out that individuals do not differ only in the amount, degree, development or level of the ability, but also in the creativity “style”, i�e� in the manner in which they present their own creativity� It means that individuals, whose level of creativity is the same, may express their creativity in a different way� At the same time, their creativity can be developed and promoted in the process of education, not only by the personality of the teacher and pupil, but also by specific tasks and situations themselves� However, contemporary research in Slovakia (Salbot, 2007) shows that if the teacher himself/herself is not creative, he/she is not able to influence this personality dimension of the pupil sufficiently, nor develop it�

Already in 1964, E�P� Torrance assumed that creativity had an ascending ten-dency aligned with the general personality development from 3 to 17 years of age (Szobiová, 1999)� However, J� Szobiová (1999) empirically recorded declines in creativity at the age of 5 and in the 4th, 7th and 12th grades of compulsory school attendance� Creativity in the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th grades was at about the same level� The author explained the creativity declines in the above grades as caused by inter-vening factors from the outer environment (changes in school conditions upon entering the higher level of education) as well as the developmental tendencies of personality to mould one’s own position and identity in society� Creativity devel-opment curves were studied also by other psychologists (M� Jurčová, 1983 and E� Sollárová, 1979, 1985) and both authors recorded a decline in the 8th grade of elementary school, almost to the level of the 6th grade� They observed an increase between the sixth and seventh grades� L� Ďurič (1985) remarked on those results that such curves were not rare and occurred also in the research of several foreign authors (Arasteh et�al�, 1968, 1976; Csikszentmihalyi et�al�, 1973, 1979; Kogan, et�al�, 1972, and others)�

research Aim

Based on the proclaimed principles of education transformation in the Slovak Republic since the end of the 20th century, emphasizing the necessity to integrate

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creativity into the school curriculum, learning and study programmes and plans, as well as teacher professional competences and the organization of educational facilities itself (State Education Programme, 2001, 2008), we decided to compare the creativity development curve of contemporary pupils at the lower second-ary education level with the curves empirically observed by E� Sollárová (1979; 1985) about 30 years ago� We assumed that due to the accentuation of creativity development in Slovak education, the curve of contemporary Slovak pupils would show a shift towards higher creativity values in comparison to the curves of Slovak pupils of the same age 34 and/or 28 years ago�

E� Sollárová conducted two studies aimed at recording the creativity develop-ment curve in pupils at the 2nd level of elementary school (in 1979 and 1985)� In 1979 her research sample consisted of 437 pupils (212 boys and 225 girls) of the 5th to 8th grades of elementary school� To find out the creativity level, she used the KREATOS test by Schürer to assess total figural creativity (fluency, flexibility and originality) and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking to record only figural originality� The author recorded no significant differences in creativity between the genders and no significant grade-to-grade differences (Sollárová, 1979)� In 1985 E� Sollárová continued her research on creativity development curves using the KREATOS test (figural fluency, flexibility and originality) with 413 pupils of the 2nd to 7th grades of elementary school� Thus, the aim of our research was using the KREATOS test to record the creativity development curve in contemporary pupils at the 2nd level of elementary school and compare it with the development curves recorded by E� Sollárová in 1979 and 1985�

research Method

The research sample consisted of 386 Slovak pupils (50�26% boys) in the 5th to 9th grades of nine elementary schools in the region of Banská Bystrica in the 2012/2013 school year� The schools were ordinary state schools and no class was specialized to promote development of specific abilities or used any form of alter-native teaching� We strived to get an approximately homogenous sample similar to the sample of pupils in 1979 and 1985 (pupils were selected from medium-size towns with the number of inhabitants up to 30,000 and the representation of the genders was similar)� More detailed information about the research sample is presented in Table 1�

We used the performance KREATOS test by M� Schürer (1978), constructed similarly to the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking� It is a projective method


used in counselling and clinical practice for multidimensional diagnostics of teenager personalities� It examines the adequacy and originality of figural solu-tions, originality of semantic designation of solved tasks, the way in which one’s own performance is self-evaluated, interest orientation and drawing skills� It analyzes the level of creativity by means of three factors (fluency, flexibility and originality)� The respondent’s task is to finish 12 incomplete drawings, give them a title and evaluate each drawing with a mark from 1 to 5� The test administra-tion time is 20 minutes� The authors verified several criteria of the KREATOS test psychometric properties, where the reliability in terms of the test-retest stability in time after 4 weeks was at the level of 0�52 ≤ r ≤ 0�71� Validity returned also satisfactory coefficients in relation to validation variables from the Eysenck Personality Inventory B-JEPI (neuroticism, extraversion, lie-score), to the pupil’s phantasy estimated by the teacher and/or the pupil him/herself and to academic achievement�

Statistical analysis was made by parametric tests because the check of the stud-ied variables for normal distribution by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test returned normal distribution of the variable creativity (p ≥ 0�20)�

research results

The aim of our study was to record the cross-sectional level of creativity, i� e� quasi-longitudinal research, using the KREATOS test with pupils of the 5th to 9th grades at the lower secondary education level� The average values of the test total score in the studied research sample are presented in Table 2�

Table 1. Characteristics of the research sample

GradeGender

TotalGirls Boys

N % N % N %5th grade 44 52�38 40 47�62 84 21�766th grade 42 53�16 37 46�84 79 20�477th grade 37 47�44 41 52�56 78 20�218th grade 38 46�34 44 53�66 82 21�249th grade 31 49�21 32 50�79 63 16�32Total 192 49�74 194 50�26 386 100

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Based on the ANOVA for more independent samples the existence of signifi-cant grade-to-grade differences was proved� Subsequently, the Tukey test (POST HOC) was used to find out which differences between the grades were the most significant� The level of creativity of the pupils at the 2nd level of elementary school in 2013 had a growing tendency between the 5th and 6th grades, with a subsequent decline continuing until the 8th grade� It regained the ascending tendency between the 8th and 9th grades, in the 9th grade achieving approxi-mately the level of the 6th grade� Calculation of the statistical significance of the grade-to-grade differences returned highly significant differences for the 6th and 9th grades compared with the 5th grade (p ≤ 0�001) and a significant difference for the 7th grade compared with the 5th grade (p ≤ 0�05)� We found out that the pupils of the 6th grade achieved the highest level of creative abilities measured by the KREATOS test�

Further, in accordance with our research aim, we compared our recorded creativity development curve with the curves observed by E� Sollárová (1979; 1985)� The values producing the curve of 1985 had been obtained by averaging three measurements recorded by the author in control groups with no creativity developing programme implemented� The graphic comparison of the creativity development curve is presented in Picture 1, where the obtained raw average score of the pupils of the specific grade is plotted on the Y-axis�

The 2013 development curve has an ascending and descending tendency similar to the development curve of 1985� However, the graphic illustration of the three creativity development curves shows that the pupils achieved the highest creativity level in 1979 and the lowest in 2013� The significance of differences in the creativ-ity level of the contemporary pupils at the 2nd level of elementary school compared to the pupils of matching grades 34 and 28 years ago was tested by the one-sample t-test� Results of the statistical analysis are presented in Table 3�

Table 2. Average values of the creativity total figural scores in the KREATOS test in 2013

2013 Grades KREATOS SD Min Max T p

5th grade 26�73 5�43 19�00 36�00 5�85 p ≤ 0�056th grade 32�05 3�48 19�00 49�007th grade 30�57 4�67 8�00 53�008th grade 29�58 6�78 6�00 41�009th grade 31�80 4�89 17�00 43�00


Table 3. Differences in the creativity level between contemporary pupils and pupils in 1985 and 1979

Year5th grade 6th grade 7th grade 8th grade

1979 2013 1979 2013 1979 2013 1979 2013AM 35�23 26�73 36�75 32�05 41�4 30�57 38�25 29�58P p < 0�001 P < 0�001 p < 0�001 p < 0�001Year 1985 2013 1985 2013 1985 2013AM 35�63 26�73 38�8 32�05 35�8 30�57p p < 0�001 P < 0�001 p < 0�001

The development curves of 1979 and 1985 achieved higher values of creativ-ity than the creativity level values measured in the pupils in 2013� The statistical analysis shows highly significant differences in the level of creativity for all the observed pupil pair groups, in favour of the contemporary pupils�

Discussion and Conclusions

The creativity development curve of the contemporary pupils at the lower secondary education level was recorded and analyzed� It was found out that the pupils achieved the highest level of creativity in the sixth and ninth grades, which

Picture 1. Creativity level development curves in 1979, 1985 and 2013

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was a highly significant difference in comparison with the fifth grade pupils who achieved the lowest creativity level from among all the grades� This result cor-responds to E� Sollárová’s findings of 1985, where the pupils of ordinary 6th grades (with no creativity developing programmes) of elementary schools also achieved a higher level of creativity in comparison with the pupils of the fifth and seventh grades� In our research, as well as in the research by E� Sollárová (1979), M� Jurčová (1983) and others, the creativity development curves show a decline in the eighth grade� L� Ďurič (1985) explains this as a certain developmental tendency, the causes of which are yet unknown and the intervening factors of creativity development should be subject to further research�

J� Szobiová (1999) states a decline in creativity in the 7th grade, which also cor-responds to the creativity curve created on the basis of our data� Since we did not examine input variables determining the selected samples in our research, explanation of the changes in the creativity level requires further research�

Our main finding in relation to the creativity development curve is that the contemporary pupils at the lower secondary education level compared with the pupils of 1979 and 1985 show a highly significant decline in the creativity level compared to the years 1979 and 1985� At the same time, creativity and its develop-ment is one of the most important and current topics in the contemporary school� We consider this remarkable and believe that it is this historical-comparative research study that can indicate the actual level of creativity development in contemporary pupils�

As already mentioned above, there are legislative documents about the imple-mentation of creativity in educational reality; nevertheless, we state that there are some reservations and limits in the intended development of creativity at contem-porary school� We are aware of the fact that the above findings cannot be widely generalized because of the lower representativeness of the compared research samples; however, they indicate a possible trend� What is remarkable, and a subject for further research, is the fact that even despite a certain reduction made in the subject matter of the curriculum as a result of curriculum transformation (State Education Programme, 2008) there might still be no sufficient space for effective education aimed at the development of key competences with the activation of all cognitive processes including creativity�

We do not deny a possible effect of other negative factors on the significant decline in the creativity level of the contemporary pupils (problems of upbring-ing in the family, lack of free, unstructured play, over-stimulation of children, confrontation with a rigid and structured environment, increasing negative influence of media, developing creativity only exceptionally)� However, we can


see possible solutions in contemporary education, where one of the important and indispensable places in the development of the highest cognitive function is that of the school creative environment with a creative teacher, who is aware of the fact that creativity can be developed in any activity in any person� Thus, a question appears on whether teachers themselves have sufficient knowledge and competences required for the development of creativity, which generates suggestions for further research�

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ofCreativity in Childhood, Adolescence and Adulthood. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill�Arasteh, A�R�, Arasteh, J�D� (1976)� Creativity and Human Development: An Interpretative

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and theoretical exploration� In British Journal of Psychology� Vol� 64� pp� 91 – 104�Dočkal, V� (1996)� Free tribute: Is Creativity Independent of Heredity? In: Studia psycho-

logica, 38, SAP, 1 – 2, pp� 107 – 118�Ďurič, L� (1984)� Psychológia a škola IX. Naša škola a rozvoj tvorivého myslenia žiakov.

Bratislava: SPN, 1984� 212 p�Ďurič, L� (1985)� Poznávanie žiakov a rozvíjanie ich tvorivého myslenia� Bratislava : Sloven-

ská pedagogická knižnica a ústav školských informácií, 1985� 250 s�Hlavsa, J� (1986)� Psychologické metody výchovy k tvořivosti� Praha: Statní pedagogické

nakladatelství, 1986� 192 p�Hlavsa, J�, Jurčová, M� (1978)� Psychologické metódy zisťovania tvorivosti. Psychodiagnos-

tické testy a didaktické testy, n�p�, Bratislava�ISCED 0,1,2,3� 2008� Štátny vzdelávací program� Bratislava: Štátny pedagogický ústav, 2008�Isaksen, S�G� (1987)� Frontiers of Creativity Research: Beyond the Basics. In: Szobiová,

J� (1999)� Tvorivosť, od záhady k poznaniu� Bratislava�Jurčová, M� (2009)� Tvorivosť v každodennom živote a vo výskume. Bratislava: IRIS, 2009�

265 p�Jurčová, M� (2000)� grant VEGA č� 2/7163/20 – M� Jurčová� [citované 27�6� 2007]� Dostupné

na internete: < http://www�psychologia�sav�sk/sprava 2000�rtf > Jurčová, M� (1984)� Torranceho figurálny test tvorivého myslenia, forma B. Bratislava: Psychodiagnostické a didaktické testy, 1984� 129 p�

Jurčová, M� (1979)� Tvorivosť učiteľova žiakov v Torranceovom neverbálnom teste� In Psychológia a patopsychológia dieťaťa, roč� 14, 1979, č�4�, s� 321 – 336�

Kogan, N�, Pankove, E� (1972)� Creative ability over a five-year span� In Child Development. Vol� 43� pp� 427 – 42�

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Kováč,T� (1982)� Pri ontogenetických začiatkoch tvorivosti� In Psychológia a patopsycholó-gia dieťaťa, roč� 17, 1982, č� 4�, pp� 355 – 358�

Lokšová, I�, Lokša, J� (2001)� Teória a prax tvorivého vyučovania. Prešov: Grafotlač�Rogers, C�R� (1995)� Ako byť sám sebou. Bratislava: Iris�Salbot, V� 2007�Tvorivosť a škola� Banská Bystrica: PF UMB, 2007� 89 p�Schürer, M� (1977)� KREATOS. Projekční a kresební test kreativity a osobnosti. Bratislava:

Psychodiagnostické a didaktické testy� 190 p�Sollárová, E� (1979)� Porovnávanie úrovne tvorivosti žiakov na rôznych typoch ZDŠ. Diplo-

mová práca, FFUK Bratislava, 1979�Sollárová, E� (1985)� Možnosti zámerného rozvíjania tvorivého myslenia žiakov základnej

školy na hodinách literárnej výchovy. Kandidátska dizertačná práca� FFUK, Bratislava: 1985�

Szobiová, E� (1999)� Tvorivosť. Od záhady k poznaniu. Bratislava: STIMUL, 1999, 282 p�Szobiová, E� (2005)�Tvorivosť dievčat/žien a chlapcov/mužov v širších súvislostiach� In

Psychológiaa patopsychológia dieťaťa, roč�40, 2005, č� 1�, pp� 1 – 16�Torrance, E�P�, Rockenstain, Z�L� (1988)� Styles of Thinking and Creativity, pp� 275 – 290�

In: Schmeck, R�R� ed� 1988� Learning Strategies and Learning Styles (Perspectives on Individual Differences)� New York : Plenum Press�

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č� 9 – 10�

the study Competences of Physical education students

AbstractThe purpose of this research was to determine the level of study competences among students of physical education� The study encompassed first-year students aged 18 to 26, who began their studies in 2010, 2011 and 2012� The Standard Progressive Matrices Plus, the Social Competence Questionnaire, the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, the Coping Orientation of Problem Experience Inventory, NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory were used� Students were characterised by a high level of study competence with regard to skills and personality� The study group was moderately homogeneous: the students starting their studies in consecutive three years did not significantly differ with respect to the analysed skills� This undermines the circulating opinions of lowering the level of competence of students in the recent years�

Keywords: study competence, students, physical education, sport

introduction

In the last 25 years, the number of students in Poland has significantly increased, both in absolute values and in relative values, such as the coefficient of school-ing� This was accompanied by a sharp increase in the number of institutions of higher education, especially private schools that offer learning opportunities at the university level to an increasing number of students, that are closer to students’ places of residence, and that have decreased admissions requirements� After an educational boom in the 1990s, a drop in the birth rate and an economic crisis resulted in a decreased number of candidates� Eventually, the number of places at higher education institutions exceeded the number of candidates� Although first seen only at private schools, the phenomenon is now appearing at public universi-

Monika Guszkowska, Anna Kuk, Adriana Zagórska-Pachucka, Katarzyna SkwarekPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.10

120 Monika Guszkowska, Anna Kuk,Adriana Zagórska-Pachucka,Katarzyna Skwarek

ties, too� It is estimated that all students who want to study will soon be able to find their places at public universities as well� Universities will need to offer more and expect less from candidates�

What are the consequences of this phenomenon? Since an increasing propor-tion of the population is studying, it seems natural that the level of competences relevant to the effectiveness of the learning process decreases among students� We propose to name them study competences� The question arises about what the level of study competences is among contemporary students� Some academ-ics believe that in coming years, secondary school graduates with increasingly decreased abilities to acquire knowledge at an advanced level will be admitted at universities� Is the claim justified? We will try to find it out in our research�

Competence is an outcome of knowledge, skills and attitudes determining the effectiveness of task implementation (Białecki, 2006)� According to the majority of authors, competence comprises abilities, personality, and psychosocial and cognitive predisposition (Dudkiewicz, 2006; Szorc, 2007)� In our opinion, a study competence includes: intellectual competence (so-called academic or psychomet-ric intelligence, especially fluid intelligence, including learning abilities); social competence (social intelligence; skills and abilities conditioning effective social interactions); emotional competence (emotional intelligence, especially the abil-ity to use emotions to solve problems); coping competence (the ability to cope effectively with stress); and a personality profile that favours studying (including positive and stable self-esteem)� Clearly, this list comprises more potential com-ponents of study competence: for instance, the ability to acquire knowledge and to think creatively seems to be important�

The aim of the research was to determine the level of study competences among physical education (PE) students and their differentiation depending on the start year of study and gender�


Research SampleThe study included the first-year students of the Faculty of Physical Education

aged 18 to 26 (M %= 20�08; SD %= 1�06) who began studies at the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and attended the psychology classes on the day of research� Depending on the measurement tool, the number of men ranged from 222 (52�8% of all the male students) to 310 (73�8%); the number of women ranged from 115 (63�9% of all the female

121The Study Competences of Physical Education Students

students) to 141 (78�3%)� The men and women did not differ significantly in terms of age�

InstrumentsThe study applied standard psychological inventories and scales:

• Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices Plus (SPM Plus) (Jaworowska & Szuster, 2010); its result is an indicator of current intellectual capacity (learning ability)�

• The Social Competence Questionnaire by Matczak (2001), only the global index of social competences was used�

• The Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (INTE) by Jaworowska and Matc-zak (2001)

• The Coping Orientation of Problem Experience (COPE) Inventory by Carver, Scheier and Weintraub in the Polish adaptation by Juczyński and Ogińska-Bulik (2009), used to measure dispositional coping: action-oriented coping, avoidance-oriented behaviour, and seeking support with a focus on emo-tions�

• The NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) by Costa and McCrae in the Polish adaptation by Zawadzki, Strelau, Szczepaniak, and Śliwińska (1998), which measures the five dimensions of personality: neuroticism, extraver-sion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness�

• The Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI) by O’Brien and Epstein in the Polish adaptation by Fecenec (2008); only the index of global self-esteem was used in the presented study�

The tools applied (except for the COPE) have sten standards for appropriate age groups� The results of the study will be presented at three levels: low (1 – 4 sten), average (5 – 6 sten), and high (7 – 10 sten)� In the case of the COPE, the relative frequency of a certain type strategy was identified based on the means of the results�

research results

Table 1 shows the percentage distribution of sten scores at three distinguished levels in the study group� In the majority of cases the most numerous group were not students with average scores, but with high or low scores� That is particularly clear in the case of intellectual competence: more than 90% of the respondents were in the range of high scores, which indicates their extraor-


dinary learning abilities� Almost two-thirds of the individuals obtained high scores on the extraversion scale and nearly half of them obtained high scores on the scales for conscientiousness and global self-esteem� On the other hand, in terms of neuroticism and openness to new experiences, approximately half of the respondents were in the range of low scores� The only dimension in which the average scores were most numerous was emotional intelligence� In the case of social competence, the proportion of high scores was slightly higher than that of average and low scores�

COPE scores in the particular factors may range from 1 to 4� The highest mean was recorded for action-oriented coping (M %= 2�76; SD %= 0�36), while the lowest was recorded for avoidance-oriented behaviour (M %= 1�99; SD %= 0�38)� The average score in the factor of seeking support with focus on emotions fell in between them (M %= 2�45; SD %= 0�59)�

A two-dimensional analysis of variance (gender x start year of study) was con-ducted in order to determine whether the students starting study in consecutive years significantly differ with respect to the study competence and whether they are varied depending on gender (Table 2)�

The results show that among the students admitted to the university in 2010 – 2012, the variation of results was slightly greater in terms of personality traits than the skill dimensions (intellectual, emotional, social, and coping compe-tence)� They differed in regard to almost all personality dimensions included in the study (except extraversion) and global self-esteem� Differentiation of emotional intelligence was statistically significant, while in the case of fluid intelligence, dif-ferentiation reached the level of trend� There were no significant differences with respect to social or coping competences�

Means and post hoc test results indicate that the students in consecutive years were increasingly neurotic and open to new experiences (however, in this dimen-sion, only the difference between the students of the 2010 and 2012 years was significant)� The students of the 2012 year exhibited greater conscientiousness and agreeableness than their counterparts who started their studies prior to them� The students of the 2011 year manifested a higher level of global self-esteem compared to the other two groups�

The students who started their studies in 2010 were characterised by sig-nificantly lower emotional intelligence than their fellow students in the next two years� The students of the 2011 year scored slightly worse in the intelligence test compared to the students who began their studies one year later�

Gender significantly differentiated all the coping factors, three personality dimensions, the level of global self-esteem, as well as intellectual and social com-


petences� The men were characterised by a greater intellectual potential, higher levels of social competence, higher levels of global self-esteem, and were more likely to actively cope with stress, while the women were more neurotic, agree-able and open to new experiences, more often used an avoidance strategy and an emotional strategy� There were no significant differences with regard to emotional intelligence, extraversion, and conscientiousness�

Discussion

Firstly, it is worth looking at the study results in terms of the effectiveness of acquiring knowledge and skills at an academic level� A particularly distinctive feature is learning ability, which is a manifestation of fluid intelligence� The PE students obtained high and very high scores in SPM Plus, which means they have a large ability to obtain an insight, go beyond the information provided, and cre-ate new concepts, which favours effective acquisition and (especially) processing information� The results of previous studies confirmed the importance of the so-called psychometric intelligence (measured by conventional intelligence tests) as a determinant of academic achievement (e�g� Furnham, Chamorro-Premuzic, & McDougall, 2003; Gottfredson, 2003)� It may be assumed that the relationship between the intellectual competence and academic performance of the PE students can be slightly weaker than that at other universities due to the large proportion of practical (movement-oriented) subjects in the curriculum�

The greatest numbers of PE students had high social competence� According to MacCann et al� (2011), success in studies not only depends on intellectual potential� Studying requires cooperation with others, which social skills facilitate� The ability to establish contacts and maintain social relationships is crucial to obtaining social support and maintaining emotional well-being, which also serve academic performance�

The students represented different levels of emotional intelligence� Based on the previous studies carried out in different cultures (Afolabi, Ogunmwonyi, &Okediji, 2009; MacCann, Fogarty, Zeidner, & Roberts, 2011; Pope, Roper, & Qualter, 2012), it may be claimed that high levels of emotional competence allow students to bet-ter regulate negative emotions and to be free to a greater extent of their negative effects, especially in examinations�

Due to the lack of standards for the COPE, it is impossible to determine the intensity of the tendency to use particular groups of strategies to cope with stress� Based on the study results, it can only be concluded that the students are more


likely to deal with stress in an active, task-oriented manner, and they are least likely to opt for avoidance-oriented behaviour� Such a disposition system seems beneficial for coping with the stressor that often accompanies all students: exami-nation stress� Results of previous studies have confirmed the positive relationship between coping focused on the problem/task and marks obtained by students (McCann et al�, 2011)�

Conscientiousness is a personality trait that plays an important role in condi-tioning the marks obtained by students� The results indicate that conscientious students are motivated internally, are characterised by greater determination and a stronger desire for achievement, and are more diligent, orderly and responsible, which is associated with better marks (Busato, Prins, Elshout, & Hamaker, 2000; Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2003a, 2003b; Furnham, Chamorro-Premuzic, & McDougall, 2003)�

Strong neuroticism does not facilitate academic successes (Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2003b); therefore, its low level should be considered to be beneficial in regard to academic performance�

Unfortunately, that cannot be said about small levels of openness to new experi-ences� Studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between this personality trait and the results obtained at university (Farsides & Woodfield, 2003)� A low level of openness to new experiences can be regarded as an unfavourable charac-teristic for effective studying�

Research has not clearly answered the question of whether high levels of extra-version increase the chances of succeeding at university� Ackerman and Heggestad’s meta-analysis (1997) indicates no significant correlation between extraversion and academic performance� Other studies have shown negative relationships (Busato et al�, 2000; Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2003b)�

In the case of agreeableness, previous studies are more unequivocal and they mostly indicate a lack of significant correlations (e�g� Busato et al�, 2000)�

Almost half of the students have high global self-esteem� People with high self-esteem are more persistent in performing their tasks, they more efficiently regulate behaviour while doing their jobs, are ambitious, and are aware of their competence� They are characterised by an internal locus of control, but when they fail, they tend to use external attributions, blaming others (Dandeneau & Baldwin, 2004; Crocker & Park, 2004, Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003)� They cope better with stress, feel happier, are optimistic, and are less susceptible to anxiety and depression (Baumeister et al�, 2003; Neiss, Sedikides, & Stevenson 2006)� All this seems to increase the effectiveness of education at the university level� Results of the research on Iranian students demonstrated a relationship between emotional


intelligence, academic self-awareness, and achievement (Zahra, Maliheh, Somayeh, & Nasibeh, 2014)�

Before attempting to answer the question about the differences in study compe-tence depending on the year of beginning studies, we would like to emphasise that the research covered only three consecutive years of students� All the three groups were dominated by those who took their school final examinations in the year of admission to universities; however, there were also secondary school graduates from previous years� In addition, all of them studied at the same university and at the same faculty� For these reasons, it is unlikely to expect significant differences between them�

Interestingly, the subjects differ more in regard to their characteristics of the contents (dimensions of personality) than skills (competence)� The students from the three consecutive academic years are increasingly neurotic and open to experience� The 2012 year students are distinguished by increased levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness� The 2011 year students have slightly lower fluid intelligence, but higher self-esteem, while the 2010 year students show lower emotional intelligence than the students from the other years� Therefore, there is no basis to formulate a claim that the consecutive year students have more positive or negative personality traits system and higher or lower levels of competence determining the course of education at the university level� The consecutive years of students are not getting “worse” or “better”, but they are moderately different�

The results show that the men have a greater intellectual potential, demonstrate higher levels of social competence, higher general self-esteem, and are more likely to actively cope with stress, while the women are more neurotic, agreeable, and open to experience� The latter more often use an avoidance strategy and a strategy that seeks support and that focuses on emotions� There are no significant differ-ences in regard to emotional intelligence, extraversion and conscientiousness�

Gender-dependent variations in personality found in the study mostly corre-spond to differences between men and women observed in the general population� However, the comparative results of particular interest are those that differ from the population data� One of them is the higher global self-esteem of the male students� Such a difference was not found in the study of people aged 16 – 19 and 20 – 64 when adapting the MSEI to Polish conditions (Fecenec, 2008)� At present, it is difficult to identify the cause of the observed variation� A certain role may be played by the fact that physical activity, physical fitness and endurance – and thus perhaps also studying at the faculties related to sports activities – are closer to our society's stereotype of a man rather than of a woman� Perhaps the low scores are


obtained by the students who represent the feminine type of psychological gender and feel dissonance resulting from the discrepancies described above�

Studies indicate higher emotional intelligence in women (Jaworowska & Matc-zak, 2001)� The male and female students of the University of Physical Education did not differ significantly in this respect� When analysing the sten scores distribu-tion, it can be observed that the group of women is dominated by female students of average emotional intelligence, while the number of students with high and average scores is similar� This suggests that the lack of differences is due to high levels of emotional intelligence among some men and rather low levels among women� This is probably the result of natural selection during the recruitment for university� The lack of differences in social competences may result from the use of the global index, which took away the most commonly observed differ-ences depending on gender: higher levels of competence in intimate situations for women and lower levels of competence in situations of social exposure, which require assertiveness for men (Matczak, 2001)�

Conclusions

The students starting studies at the Faculty of Physical Education of the Uni-versity of Physical Education in Warsaw from 2010 to 2012 were characterised by high levels of study competences in regard to both skills (fluid and emotional intelligence, social competence) and personality (high global self-esteem, low neuroticism and high conscientiousness)� The study group was moderately homo-geneous: the consecutive years of students did not significantly differ with respect to the analysed competences� This undermines the circulating opinions of lower-ing the level of competence of students in the last years, at least in relation to the students of the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw� Most of the differences between male and female students are present in the general population�

AcknowledgementsThe study was conducted within the research project “Assessment of axiological param-eters, physical efficiency and study competence of young people starting studies at the Faculty of Physical Education of the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw,” funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education�


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investigating the effectiveness of the Flipped Classroom in an introductory

Programming Course

AbstractA flipped classroom is a teaching-learning environment in which students self-learn content by watching video lectures outside of the classroom and engage in learner-centered activities in the classroom with the guidance of an instructor� Earlier research into programming education has shown that students in the traditional classroom find introductory programming courses hard� This experimental study compared the effectiveness of a flipped classroom (experimental group, N=48) with a traditional classroom (control group, N=52) in two areas: 1� programming self-efficacy; and 2� academic performance� The results show that the students in the flipped classroom increased programming self-efficacy and achieved higher grades�

Keywords: flipped classroom, programming self-efficacy, academic performance, introductory programming.

introduction

Traditional classroom, in which knowledge is transmitted to students through one-way discourse and manner (Foertsch, Moses, Strikwerda, & Litzkow, 2002), has been found ineffective, inefficient and irrelevant to contemporary students (Brunsell & Horejsi, 2013)� Students find that information imparted during lec-tures may come too slowly or cover what they already know; weaker students have trouble in acquiring information rapidly or may lack prior knowledge to understand the presented topic (Goodwin & Miller, 2013)� To address many of the issues of the traditional classroom, educators have recently introduced a new pedagogical approach called a ‘flipped classroom’, which offers an opportunity to

Manoj Joseph D Souza, Paul RodriguesIndia

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.11

130 Manoj Joseph D Souza,Paul Rodrigues

incorporate active learning methods in the classroom, while still covering neces-sary learning material� Research studies suggest that active learners show higher learning outcomes in terms of problem solving, time mastery and conceptual understanding (Chi, 2009)�

The ability to write and understand programs is the most essential skill required from software engineers� Engineering education has paid increased attention to programming related courses so that students develop the conceptual understand-ing and master problem solving techniques� There has been a trend to introduce newer strategies to teach the principles of programming to students and one of them is a ‘flipped classroom’ (Zingaro, 2014)� This study was undertaken with a primary motivation to explore the effectiveness of this pedagogy in the area of programming education�

Literature background

Flipped Classroom: A flipped classroom is a kind of blended learning environ-ment, where students learn instructional content watching video lectures at home and what used to be homework is done in class, where teachers offer personal-ized guidance and interaction with other students, instead of lecturing� Lage et al� (2000) provide the simplest definition of the flipped or inverted classroom: “Inverting the classroom means that events that have traditionally taken place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom and vice versa”� Bishop and Verleger (2013) define the flipped classroom as one consisting of two parts: interactive group learning activities inside the classroom and direct computer-based individual instruction outside of the classroom�

There is a considerable amount of research in support of the flipped classroom� Flumerfelt and Green (2013) showed impressive learning achievement, behav-ioural improvement and increased interaction between teachers and students in a flipped classroom� Students in a flipped classroom become more conscious of learning, improve their learning and make connections to course content (Strayer, 2012; Mason, Shuman, & Cook, 2013)�

Research shows three primary motivations for implementing the flipped classroom� First, the flipped classroom replaces lecture time in class for active, col-laborative, and problem-based learning and thus helps in reinforcing the concepts learnt without sacrificing the content (Papadopoulos & Roman, 2006; Bland, 2006; Demetry, 2010)� Second, the flipped classroom allows the instructor to design the course material in different ways to cater to the varying needs and learning styles

131Investigating the Effectiveness of the Flipped Classroom

of students (Zappe, Leicht, Messner, Litzinger, & Lee, 2009; Lage, Platt, & Treglia, 2000)� Third, the flipped classroom can motivate students to become self-learners and life-long learners (Bland, 2006)�

Self-efficacy: According to Bandura (1986), self-efficacy is a person’s confidence in their abilities to complete a certain task successfully� Self-efficacy beliefs are important influential factors of whether individuals will be able to put in effort on a task and continue performing the task coping with difficulties� The person with high self-efficacy beliefs attempts tasks and performs them even though the tasks might be difficult and challenging, while the person with low self-efficacy beliefs gives up difficult tasks easily� Self-efficacy is not a measure of skill but it signifies what persons believe they can do with the skills they possess (Bandura, 1997)� Since self-efficacy beliefs affect individuals’ approach to new challenges and contribute to performance, they influence the person’s thought processes, motiva-tion and behavior (Bandura, 1997)�

Four factors that determine self-efficacy are: enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and psychological states, of which the most influential factor is the enactive mastery experience which indicates a per-son’s experiences with the past failures and successes (Bandura, 1997; 1986)� If the past successes enhance a person’s self efficacy, the past failures lower it�

Research suggests that self-efficacy is one of the most important factors that affect students’ academic performance (Arslan, 2013)� Some research studies showed a direct positive correlation between self-efficacy and academic achieve-ment (Klomegah, 2007; Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012)� Other research showed that self-efficacy was a significant predictor of academic achievement (Azar, 2013; Coutinho, 2008)�

research questions and hypotheses

The aim of this experimental study was to investigate the effect of the imple-mentation of a flipped teaching methodology on the learning outcomes and pro-gramming self-efficacy of students of an introductory programming course� This study had one independent variable: the teaching method (traditional classroom or flipped classroom) and two dependent variables: 1� academic performance and 2� students’ programming self-efficacy� The study addressed the following research questions�

1� Will the flipped teaching method improve students’ programming self-efficacy in an introductory programming course?


2� Will the flipped teaching method improve students’ programming self-efficacy compared to the traditional lecture-based teaching method in an introductory programming course?

3� Will the flipped teaching method improve students’ academic performance compared to the traditional lecture-based teaching method in an introduc-tory programming course?

Based on the above research questions, the investigators formulated the follow-ing research hypotheses�

H1: Flipped teaching will improve students’ programming self-efficacy beliefs in an introductory programming course�

H2: Flipped teaching will improve students’ programming self-efficacy beliefs compared to the traditional lecture-based teaching method in an introductory programming course�

H3: Flipped teaching will improve students’ academic performance compared to the traditional lecture-based teaching method in an introductory programming course�

Methodology

The traditional lecture-based method was used in the first section of the first year students of Computer Science and Engineering� The class was composed of 52 students, of whom 22 were male and 30 female, who served as a control group for this experimental study� Flipped teaching was conducted in the second sec-tion of the first year students of Computer Science and Engineering� The flipped classroom was composed of 48 students, of whom 26 were male and 22 female, who served as an experimental group� Computer Programming, an introductory programming course, was taught in both the sections by the same instructor� It was a three-credit course, which lasted 15 weeks� The students in the traditional classroom had three classes per week, each class lasting fifty minutes and a pro-gramming laboratory session of three hours� In the flipped classroom, the students had three programming sessions per week, each lasting 110 minutes�

Flipped programming classroom

Each student was given the relevant video lectures on Computer Programming by the instructor to be watched outside of the class time� The instructor selected


appropriate videos available from YouTube, using the criteria of duration, clar-ity and content� The duration of each video was chosen to be between 5 to 15 minutes, as students do not have patience to watch long videos� To ensure that all the students would follow audio, the videos were selected in such a way that they had subtitles in English� Every video clip covered a topic of the course material included in the syllabus�

In the flipped model, all the classes were conducted in the programming labora-tory�The students sat in pairs in front of each terminal� The instructor allowed the students to choose their own pairs for the sake of compatibility� However, once the pairs were formed, they had to remain in them throughout the course� The class time was divided for various in-class activities� At the beginning, the instructor revised the objectives of the class� The instructor then gave time for the students to ask questions, clarify doubts on the video lectures they had watched at home� The students spent a large amount of time (approximately 80 minutes) doing programming exercises assigned by the instructor� Unlike the traditional laboratory where the students did all the programming exercises individually, in the flipped model the students used the pair-programming strategy to do the programming exercises�The instructor conducted a short quiz, which normally contained ten multiple choice questions to ascertain whether the students had watched the lecture videos before coming to class and to find out the students’ learning progress� Before concluding a class, the instructor gave learning objectives for the next class so as to excite interest in the students to watch lecture videos at home� The students were also given lecture notes and reference material and some homework exercises� Table1 presents the model of the flipped programming classroom�

Table 1. Flipped programming classroom

In class Outside of the class• Instructor revises goals and objectives of the

class (5 mins)• Students ask questions and clarifications

(10 mins)• Students do programming exercises in pairs

(80 mins)• Students answer a short quiz (10 mins)• Instructor specifies goals and objectives for

the next class (5 mins)

• Students watch videos• Read lecture notes / reference material• Solve homework problems


Assessment methods: Student learning was evaluated by both internal as external assessment� The students from both the control group and experimental group were given three internal assessments after the 4th, 8thand 12th week, which contributed to 20% and a final exam, which contributed to 80% of the total mark� The design and evaluation of the internal assessment was done by the instructor, whereas the question paper setting and evaluation of the final exam was done by an external examiner and evaluator respectively�

The management of the college had randomly assigned the students of Com-puter Science and Engineering to two sections� To assess the similarity between the experimental and control groups before the experimental study, the students’ performance in class, 12 examination as well as the pretest scores of program-ming self-efficacy were compared� Statistical analysis showed that there were no significant statistical differences between the two groups, indicating that both the flipped and traditional groups were similar in academic performance and self-efficacy beliefs�

Instrumentation: Data concerning the self-efficacy of the students of Computer Programming was collected through C Programming Self-Efficacy Scale (CPSES), developed from the Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale by Ramalingam and Wiedenbeck (1998)� Their instrument was validated by giving the test to 421 students during the first week of the semester� Factor analysis identified four fac-tors which Ramanlingam and Wiedenbeck (1998) labelled: (1) independence and persistence, (2) complex programming tasks, (3) self-regulation, and (4) simple programming tasks� The alpha reliability of the scale was 0�98 and the corrected item-total correlations ranged from 0�5 to 0�84�

CPSES was administered to both the experimental and control groups in the first week (pre-test) of the semester and also in the 15th week (post-test) of the semester� The participants were to rate their confidence in doing some specified C program-ming related tasks� The scale contained 29 items and the students had to rate their confidence for each item in a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 7 i�e�, ‘not confident at all’ to ‘absolutely confident’� The alpha reliability of the scale was found to be 0�94� The item-total correlation the self-efficacy varied from 0�42 to 0�86�

Results

The first research question: To find out whether the flipped teaching will improve students’ programming self-efficacy in an introductory programming


course, a paired-samples t-test was done to compare the students’ programming self-efficacy mean scores before and after implementing the flipped strategy� Analysis was made across four factors: independence and persistence, complex programming tasks, self-regulation and simple programming tasks� Significant differences were observed in the mean scores of the students’ pre-test scores and post-test scores across all the four factors� The overall analysis showed that the post-test mean score (M=3�83, SD=0�45) was higher than the pre-test mean score (M=2�63, SD=0�52) at the 0�05 level of significance t(47)=14�8, p<0�001� The results confirmed the hypothesis (H1) that the flipped teaching would improve students’ programming self-efficacy in an introductory programming course� Table 2 sum-marizes these results�

Table 2. Paired-samples t-test results of the four factors of students’ programming self-efficacy before and after the use of the flipped teaching model

Factor Pre-test mean

Pre-test SD

Post-test mean

Post-test SD

Mean difference t-value p

Independence and persistence 2�52 0�90 3�85 0�71 1�33 9 0�000

Complex programming tasks 2�25 0�70 2�63 0�57 0�38 4�3 0�000

Self-regulation 2�63 0�67 3�96 0�71 1�33 10�5 0�000Simple programming tasks 3�08 0�87 4�87 0�83 1�79 11�1 0�000

Overall 2�63 0�52 3�83 0�45 1�2 14�8 0�000

The second research question: To find out whether the flipped teaching model will improve students’ programming self-efficacy compared to the students taught in the traditional lecture-based model in an introductory programming course, an independent samples t-test was done to compare the programming self-efficacy scores of these two models� The data was collected from both groups in the last week of the semester� The results showed that there were significant differences between the mean scores of the flipped classroom (M=3�83, SD=0�45, N=48) and the traditional classroom (M=3�38, SD=0�49, N=52) at the 0�05 level of significance t(98)=4�7, p<0�001� These results confirmed the second hypothesis (H2)�

The third research question: To determine if the flipped teaching strategy improved the academic performance of the students as compared with the students of the traditional classroom, an independent samples t-test was done, comparing the exam marks of the students of the flipped classroom and the traditional class-


room� Statistical analysis showed that there were significant statistical differences between the mean marks of the flipped classroom (M= 65�9, SD = 11�72, N=48) and the traditional classroom (M=60�4, SD = 12�54, N=52) at the 0�05 level of significance t(98)= 2�28, p<0�01� These results confirmed the third hypothesis (H3) that the flipped classroom students performed academically better than those of the traditional classroom�

Discussion

The results clearly show that the students in the flipped classroom increased their programming self-efficacy� A closer look at different factors reveals some important information� The overall programming self-efficacy measured during the pre-test showed that the students were little confident (mean 2.63 out of 7) before the course began� A possible interpretation of this could be that some stu-dents had not studied computer programming in their higher secondary school, as observed by the instructor� It could be also that even those students who had learnt computer programming, had not developed algorithmic thinking and problem-solving strategies but merely memorized worked-out examples to pass the examination� The results show an increase in self-efficacy in all the four areas: independence and persistence, complex tasks, self-regulation and simple tasks� However, there was the least increase in programming self-efficacy in complex programming tasks (mean 0.38) and the highest increase in simple programming tasks (mean 1.79)� From Bandura’s theory we can explain that the students gained mastery experiences that gave them a sense of accomplishment when they solved simple tasks which in turn increased their self-efficacy significantly, but on the other hand, lack of such mastery experiences in complex tasks failed to do the same�

It may be observed that the students’ programming self-efficacy in the flipped classroom was significantly higher than that of the students in the traditional classroom after the completion of the course� A probable explanation could be that the students in the flipped classroom spent more time doing practical exercises that promoted their cognitive engagement and enabled them to interact efficiently with the learning material than the students in the traditional classroom� This explanation is consistent with the results of earlier research on self-efficacy reveal-ing that enactive mastery experiences gained through performing a task while applying knowledge and skills are the most powerful source of developing a strong sense of self-efficacy (van Dinther, Dochy, & Segers, 2011)�


A significant finding of this research study is that the flipped model has a poten-tial to improve students’ academic performance in an introductory programming course� These results support other earlier findings with different population and different subject areas (Sparks, 2013)� A possible explanation of this result is that the students in the flipped classroom had opportunities to work together collabo-ratively on authentic, hands-on activities� Prior research on the flipped classroom reports that increased learning outcomes are due to the additional opportunities students get in the flipped classroom (Strayer, 2012)�

Some earlier research studies showed that the flipped classroom was more suit-able for upper division engineering courses, as the flipped format may be hard and difficult for students who have not developed strong study skills (Mason, Shuman, & Cook, 2013)� Mason et al� (2013) report that there is a lack of research pertain-ing to the applicability of the flipped classroom to a first-year course and suggest future studies should investigate into this research gap� This study reports success of implementing the flipped classroom in a first-year course�

Conclusion

The important findings of this study are that the flipped classroom has a great potential to improve students’ programming self-efficacy in an introductory pro-gramming course as well as students’ academic performance� The study showed that the flipped classroom strategy can be applied in the first-year university courses where students are new to university education and have no prior experi-ence of this method� The study also showed that the flipped teaching method is suitable for introductory programming courses, where students find programming difficult� The experimental results confirm the relevance of self-efficacy to the gaining of programming skills and support Bandura’s theory�

Engineering education requires graduates who demonstrate strong problem-solving skills, independence and persistence, self-regulation and team spirit� These are the skills industry looks for while recruiting them� The flipped programming classroom offers a great opportunity to students to develop these skills�

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Designing a Modern Cloud-oriented Virtual Personalized educational environment

AbstractThis paper focuses on students’ research ability to use information and com-munication technologies to carry out information activities in their profes-sional field� The results of studies on personalized and adaptive learning, based on the consideration of learning styles were analyzed� Based on the statistical analysis of the pedagogical experiments some recommendations were formulated for technology training for teachers and students, to improve efficiency training�

Keywords: personal e-learning environment, cloud computing, network services, distance courses, formal, informal and non-formal learning.

introduction

Today’s realities and the tendencies of the modern labor market development create new requirements for education systems and upgrade the level of e-learning in today’s world that results in the higher percentage of unformal learning for self-development and competitiveness (What do employees of Y generation want? 2011, West 2011)�

Research ProblemThe virtual learning environment of a modern educational institution does not

always take into account its students’ learning needs, or the content and technol-ogy that they use in creating and maintaining their own personal educational environments�

Nataliia Morze, Svitlana SpivakUkraineEugenia Smyrnova-TrybulskaPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.12

141Designing a Modern Cloud-Oriented Virtual Personalized Educational Environment

Research FocusThe modern university has to take into account new educational tendencies

of percentage growth of unformal education and become interested in their students and understand their wishes of personification in the global network and individual-oriented learning that, under normal conditions, is the basis for the formation of informational-communicative and key competencies of the stu-dents and professors by the creation and implementation of a personal e-learning environment, the usage of new social services during the educational process and establishment of corporate standards


Research question 1: Does the quality of the virtual learning environment of a modern educational institution need to be based on its students’ learning needs, on content and technology? Does the quality of the virtual learning environment of a modern educational institution depend on the level of ICT competence?

Hypothesis 1: The quality of the virtual learning environment of a modern educational institution must be based on the learning needs of its students, on the content and technology that they use in creating and maintaining their own personal educational environments, and it depends on the level of ICT compe-tence� Independent variables: students’ own personal educational environments� Dependent variables: the level of ICT competence; the quality of the virtual learn-ing environment of a modern educational institution�

Research question 2: Are contemporary students active Internet users, and if yes on what scale?

Hypothesis 2: Contemporary students are active Internet users, on a large scale� Independent variables: The level of the Internet use by students� Dependent vari-ables: Scale of the implementation of remote and blended forms of teaching and learning; use of the university and faculty Internet services by students�

Research question 3: Is the university creating an e-learning platform as well as developing distance courses, on what scale?

Hypothesis 3: Management and use of an e-learning platform as well as devel-oping courses determines the scale of the implementation of remote and blended forms of teaching and learning� Independent variables: The level of the man-agement and use of the e-learning platform and developing courses� Dependent variables: Scale of the implementation of remote and blended forms of teaching and learning�

142 Eugenia Smyrnova-Trybulska

Methods of pedagogical research:During research several quantitative as well as qualitative methods were

used, such as: quantitative methods: 1) pedagogical monograph (research papers), 2) method of individual cases, 3) method of diagnostic survey� Quali-tative methods: 1) in-depth interview, 2) qualitative analysis of the text (docu-ments), 3) observation� Techniques of educational research: 1) observation, 2) interview, 3) questionnaire, 4) study and analysis of documents, 5) content analysis� Main research tools: 1) interview questionnaire, 2) questionnaire, 3) survey, 4) observation tools, 5) development of the subject dictionary, 6) research trip and visiting a partner university, 7) meeting, (video)conference, seminar, workshop, etc�

Research toolsIn order to consider a wide range of modern information and communication

needs of a future professional in the context of personal-oriented learning, and the objectives of the competency-based approach in formal and informal learning, and to clarify the peculiarities of vision and building of content-structural model of cloud-oriented learning environment, a study involving students of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, specialty “Informatics,” was conducted, using the following empirical methods:

• respondents (students of 1 – 4 courses with a specialty in “Informatics”) were interviewed on the following topics:

– use of modern cloud and web technologies and open educational resources;

– formation of a personal electronic space based on the portfolio method; – use of formal, unformal and informal training to increase the competi-

tiveness of the modern student in the labour market; – support of communication and collaboration among students and

teachers to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching and research activities�

• after conducting the survey, the primary data were collected to create an expanded questionnaire for further study;

• by direct and indirect survey the necessary information was collected; • after processing and analysis of the obtained statistical data, the content-

structural models of cloud-oriented learning environment in the context of personal-oriented learning and competency-based approaches to training students in the system of preparation of the future teachers of “Informatics” were created�


Study participants and procedureAccording to the scenario of the pedagogical experiment, during the first phase

the students with a specialty in “Informatics” were presented with more than 40 positions of various contemporary Web services and applications, on which individual electronic educational platforms of content management and electronic communication, cooperation and solution of educational and scientific problems that enable students to set learning goals and manage their personal process of academic progress monitoring were based and, on the basis of a portfolio to form their personal e-learning space, conduct and publish educational and scientific project activities, etc� From this list, the respondents had to choose forms of learning, frequency of use and type of activity among which they distributed the proposed web services and applications�

research results

In the following graphs (Figures 2 – 5) the detailed results of the statistical processing of the experiment are presented� According to the requirements, the students independently marked the type of activity on which they distributed the proposed web services and applications, frequency of their use�

During the second phase of the pedagogical experiment the students were asked to answer questions about what cloud storage services are used by the future teachers of information sciences� As in the first part of the survey, the respondents had to choose forms of learning, frequency of use and type of activity among which they distributed the proposed cloud web services and applications�

After analyzing the data, it appeared that most of the students in their work hardly used cloud storage services (Figure 6)�

As a result of statistical processing of the data obtained after the pedagogical experiment it appeared that the students of the 4th year of study regularly use only a small number of software and web applications:

• 75% of the respondents use YouTube for unformal education for research and search for information;

• 76% regularly use the social network VKontakte in informal education and for communications;

• 80% use Wikipedia regularly in formal education; • 76% of students regularly use Google search in all types of learning in most

cases for research and search for information; • 99% of the respondents regularly use different translators and mail�


0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Facebook Google+ In Connect"ВКонтакті"

Сhats

Stud

ents

(%)

Type of activity

Communication

E-mail

Figure 1. PLE instruments and frequency of their use in communication according to a survey of 4th year students

Source: Own work

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Youtube RSS--feeds

WIKI GoogleSearch

YandexSearch

BingSearch

Wikipedia

Stud

ents

(%)

Type of PLE instruments for research and search for information

Research and Search for Information

GoogleScholar

Source: Own work

Figure 2. PLE instruments and frequency of their use in research and search for information according to a survey of 4th year students.


0%

20%

40%

60%

Stud

ents

(%)

Type of collaboration

Collaboration

Collaboration withdocs in Google docs

Collaboration withdocs in other services

Collaboration withdocs in Microso� Office 366

Source: Own work

Figure 3. PLE instruments and frequency of their use for communication according to a survey of 4th year students

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%

Mentalmaps

Moodle Webinars Translators

Stud

ents

(%)

Type of PLE instruments for education

Education

ElectronicJournals

andPublishers

Socialnetworkslearningprocess

DistanceLearning

at the Schoolof Education

University'selectronic

environment

Source: Own work

Figure 4. PLE instruments and frequency of their use in education according to a survey of 4th year students.


0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Blogging Microblogging Instagram Picasa Twitter Other Imagehosting services

Stud

ents

(%)

Type of PLE instruments for publication

Publications

Figure 5. PLE instruments and frequency of their use in publications according to a survey of 4th year students

Source: Own work

Source: Own work

0%

20%

40%

60%

Amazon Dropbox 4 Shared Sky Drive oi.ua Google Drive

Stud

ents

(%)

Type of cloud storage services

Cloud Storage Services

Figure 6. Frequency of use of cloud storage services according to a survey of 4th year students.


Other web applications and software either are not used or not in high or medium demand� This must be taken into consideration as most of the tools are very useful and according to recent research are in the ‘Top 100’ of the best web applications and software (Hart 2013) used in remote, formal and unformal learning�

Consequently, the quality of a virtual learning environment of a modern educa-tional institution must be based on the learning needs of its students, content and technology that they use in creating and maintaining their own personal educa-tional development� What also needs to be considered is the content of a virtual learning environment, its quality and effectiveness of use by students to achieve the objectives of education and training of the future competitive specialists on which the modern labor market depends� Meanwhile, as proved by the results of the conducted pedagogical experiment, the quality of a virtual learning environ-ment also depends on the level of teachers’ ICT competence and matching the services that they use in the creation of their personal learning environment, with services used by students�

Additionally, the research was conducted within the framework of the inter-national IRNet project (www�us�edu�pl) as well as the PhD study of one of the authors� During our research study, one of the most popular and priority tools and techniques used in the framework of WP2 was a diagnostic survey and question-naires� This paper describes only a part of the research conducted at the University of Silesia in Katowice and in Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University� More than 190 students from different faculties and specializations participated in this research� BGKU students from the Faculty of Information Technology took part in the survey; 104 students in total� The University of Silesia conducted the survey at the Faculty of Ethnology and Sciences of Education among students of the human-istic specialization: Integrated Primary Education and Kindergarten Education, Kindergarten Education with Child Development Early Support, Social-Cultural Animation with Cultural tourism, Integrated Primary Education and Pedagogical Therapy; in total 105 students participated� Generally, within the IRNet Project, nearly a thousand students from partner universities are scheduled to take part using LimeSurvey services as well as Google Drive� The questionnaire covered several groups of topics concerning the aim of the research� The research instru-ments were described in more detail in the authors’ other publications (Kommers et al� 2014, Smyrnova-Trybulska et al� 2014)

Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3 present percentage distribution of the answers of the students from US and BGKU in the group of questions reflecting the students’


educational strategies and their opinions about the most effective ways of submit-ting their final work for checking to the instructor�

Table 1. Percentage distribution of the answers of the students from US and BGKU in the group of questions reflecting the students’ educational strategies.

Question US BGKUIf you have access to the Internet, with what aim do you use it most frequently?To search for course materials, to advance your own knowledge 79�5% 87�2%To participate in the e-learning course(s) 41�9% 27�4%To contact friends (e-mail, social network, messenger) 72�4% 90�3%For entertainment (on-line games, free surfing, watching movies) 45�7% 44�4%For file sharing (P2P) 15�2% 42�1%To develop your interests, hobbies 42�9% 72�2%Looking for interesting materials on the Internet, do you use most frequently:Search systems, e�g�, Google 84�8% 85�1%Wikipedia 53�3% 81�5%Electronic catalogues (bibliographical references and data bases) 21�9% 37�3%References to other web sites, placed on the pages 27�6% 28�1%Social networks 21�9% 31�3%Reliable and well-tested portals 33�3% 37�2%Blogs 6�8% 7�1%

Source: own research, 2014

After analyzing the results, we can conclude that the percentage distribution of the responses of the BGKU students, almost in respect of all the positions, though to a small extent, is higher than the distribution of the answers provided by the students of US� Thus, items such as search for learning materials, entertainment resources, using search engines, social networking sites, blogs, etc� differ by only a small percentage ± 10%, serve to express the similarity and typicality of the psychological development of the US and BGKU students�

However, one should focus on the points where the gap between the percent-ages of the students’ responses is significant (20%–30%)� Thus, the students of BGKU showed less tendency to use e-learning than the students of US, suggesting the need for greater involvement in, or improvement of the existing e-learning systems in the educational process� However, at the same time, the students of BGKU show almost twice as much regularity using the services of file sharing and finding interesting and scientific materials in electronic catalogs and on the pages


of the free Wikipedia encyclopedia� The biggest difference between the percentage of the students’ responses, almost 30%, is found in the issue of the development of interests and hobbies: for 72�2% of the students of BGKU to use the Internet is self-development, and thus it can be concluded that the share of informal learning increases significantly and cannot be taken into account in educational activities of the university�

Table 2. Students’ opinions about rating of the substantive value of the materials mentioned in the (1 – 5)

Type of materials

(1 – 5) point1 2 3 4 5

US BGKU US BGKU US BGKU US BGKU US BGKU

Wikipedia 8�6% 0% 4�8% 0% 3�8% 1�5% 1�0% 9�5% 2�7% 38�5%file-sharing sites 4�8% 1% 17�1% 2�5% 12�4% 10�5% 8�6% 20�5% 12�4% 15�5%found with the help of search systems 3�8% 0% 34�3% 1�5% 43�8% 5�5% 33�3% 19�5% 29�5% 24%

contained in public PDF files 1�0% 1% 34�3% 3% 30�5% 7% 46�7% 18% 44�8% 21�5%

papers, presentations, multimedia, scenarios of classes published on the website, published by other users

2�9% 3% 9�5% 4�5% 9�5% 7% 10�5% 18% 10�5% 18%


After analyzing the data, we can conclude that, when searching for necessary information on the Internet, all Internet services, the students of BGKU often use search engines (85�1%) as well as the students of US (84�8%) and resources of the free Wikipedia encyclopedia (81�5%) (among the Polish students, 53�3% admit looking for interesting materials on the Internet most frequently)�

The table above shows that the students of BGKU appreciate most materials of informative value and meaningful level published on Wikipedia (38�5%), while their US counterparts trust more materials placed in the popular PDF file (44�8% of the respondents) and materials found using search engines (29�5% (US stu-dents) and 24% (BGKU students))� Simultaneously, the Polish respondents prefer participating in the e-learning course(s) (41�9%) in comparison to the BGKU students (27�4%)�

Generally, the Ukrainian as well as the Polish respondents rate the cognitive level of significance and contents of different types of materials published on the


pages of the Internet as more than satisfactory� However, the Polish students are a little more critical in relation to the information submitted in the network and trust the e-learning courses with verified information more�

Table 3. Students’ opinions about the most effective transfer of final work for checking to the instructor as well as the methods actually used

Questions US BGKUWhat methods of submitting final work for checking to the instructor do you consider the most effective?By e-mail 71.4% 76%By portable (external) means of information storage (e�g� a flash-memory stick) 23�8% 26%By means of distance learning platform, e�g� the Moodle system or similar ones (Forum, Tasks, etc�)

31�4% 18%

Cloud services 9�5% 6%Social networking sites 83.8% 19%Traditional paper forms (press, photo-copying) 27.6% 59%Orally during classes 5�7% 47%Which method do you in fact use most often to forward your assignments to the teacher for correction?By e-mail 66.7% 30%By portable (external) means of information storage (e�g� a flash-memory stick) 31�4% 10%By means of distance learning platform, e�g� the Moodle system or similar ones (Forum, Tasks, etc�)

20�9% 7%

Cloud services 4�7% 3%Social networks 5.7% 7%Traditional paper forms (press, photo-copying) 43.8% 24%Orally during classes 9�5% 19%


The results of BGKU show that the students are less involved in e-learning and prefer traditional debugging sessions with a “real” relationship, visual communica-tion and the use of traditional paper check of forms of knowledge, and believe that such training is most effective for them� This can be explained using non-system e-learning systems in various disciplines�

The students of BGKU are quite familiar with the Moodle platform� What was surprising was the fact that almost half of the students prefer the traditional system of learning in groups and only one third chose the distance form of classes� This is an important signal for the further improvement of the information environment�


At the same time nearly 60% of the students of the University of Silesia prefer and choose the distance form of classes�

Two questions concerned methods of submitting final work for checking to the instructor that is considered the most effective. The answers were as fol-lows: by email – 71�43% (US), 76% (BGKU), social networking sites – 83�81% (US),19% (BGKU) traditional paper forms (press, photo-copying) – 27�62% (US), 59% (BGKU) , orally during classes – only 5�71% (US) and 47% (BGKU)� The answers to the second question “Which method do you in fact use most often to submit your assignments to the teacher for correction?”, not covered by the answers to the previous question, show the following results – 66�67%, traditional paper forms (press, photo-copying) – 43�81% (US), 24% (BGKU), orally during classes – 9�52% (US), 19% (BGKU)� The Polish students prefer, and consider as the most effective, submitting final work by email and social networking sites, however in fact use email and traditional paper forms (press, photo-copying); on the other hand, the Ukrainian students prefer using email and traditional paper forms (press, photo-copying), and in fact use the same form of submitting tasks for assessment�

Discussion

Analysis of the data obtained at US shows that the contemporary students are active Internet users�

Thus, we can conclude that the analysis of the student’s information behaviour in the university’s virtual environment is an effective tool to verify the correctness of the existing decisions and findings� These data are also important for further virtual environment development in accordance with the informational and communicational requirements of its main users - students� At the same time, these data help to understand how we can help students to correctly apply and understand existing open resourses and learning opportunities�

As a result of a number of interviews, questionnaires, surveys and statistical data processing, our pedagogical experiment gave us the opportunity to make a content-based structural model of a cloud educational environment for train-ing future teachers of information sciences, with the vision of the students of the fourth year of study and make clarification of a personal electronic environment model under the influence of individual factors� The research instruments were described in more detail in the authors’ other publications (Morze et al� 2014)�


Conclusions

In modern society, a clear trend is visible of increasing the share of informal learning that should be considered as an indicator of quality self-development and competitiveness of the employee in the labor market under current conditions� After all, unlike traditional formal learning, it is able to fully take into account the personal needs of people and promotes certain knowledge quickly and con-veniently, the quality of which depends on the student’s ICT literacy and creating a comfortable environment for personal fulfillment of their own activities�

Analysis of typical university e-learning environments demonstrates quite a high level of qualitative and quantitative indicators of the implementation of electronic resources for educational purposes, but cannot ignore the fact that the university portals cover only scientific and educational aspects of students’ lives, and stay out of sight of their individual needs� In order to really consider how wide the spectrum is of modern information and communication needs of the future in the context of professional student-centered learning and the objectives of the competency approach to formal and informal learning, and to clarify the characteristics vision and building a content-structural model of a cloud-oriented learning environment with the students of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, the specialty of «Informatics,» a study was conducted using empirical methods� According to the scenario of the pedagogical experiment, the respondents reported learning, frequency of use and type of activity to which they attributed the proposed cloud web services and applications� Analysis of the data revealed that most students in their activities hardly use cloud storage services and regularly use only a small number of software and web applications� It should be noted because most of the proposed recognition tools are useful, and these are the best web applications and software used in remote, formal and informal learning�

The modern student’s ICT competency plays a key role in the shaping of the electronic learning environment of educational institutions and a cloud-oriented personalized learning environment� It allows students to set learning goals and manage their own process monitoring academic progress and, based on its own electronic portfolio form educational space, create their own e-libraries, make and publish educational and scientific project activity, etc�

Studies on students’ ability to use information and communication technologies to carry out information activities in their professional field have shown that the quality of a virtual learning environment of a modern educational institution must be based on students’ needs, the content and the technology they use in creating


and maintaining their own personal educational environments and the content of the virtual learning environment�

Analysis of student information behavior in a university’s virtual environ-ment is an effective tool for building and continuous refinement of the model of a personal learning environment, so in the context of student-centered learning universities can produce valuable competitive professionals, and students are able to acquire modern and up-to-date knowledge and constantly improve themselves�

AcknowledgmentsThe research leading to these results received, within the framework of the IRNet project, funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007 – 2013/ under REA grant agreement No: PIRSES-GA-2013 – 612536

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is Digital Literacy improving science education?

AbstractMass media, and especially digital media, have become an important tool of literacy and have increased their use in classrooms for educational purposes� This is of great interest in scientific literacy and Brossard and Shanahan (2006) developed an instrument to evaluate the understanding of scientific terms and basic science concepts� In this quantitative study we analyse the relationship between Spanish digital mass media and scientific literacy in pre-service pri-mary teachers (N = 189)� Results showed that these university students have a term knowledge level lower than the one found by Brossard and Shanahan in the USA� On the other hand, conceptual knowledge was not correlated at all to the term frequency in the Spanish digital newspapers considered� The conclusions suggest that participants do not use digital newspapers to improve their science education so a change in students’ use of those digital media from ludic to educational purposes is needed�

Keywords: science education, mass media, digital media, scientific literacy, media literacy, pre-service primary teachers, education and media, scientific knowledge.

introduction

Mass media are frequently considered as important tools of literacy, not only in informal or non-formal contexts (Ingle, 1974; Aparici, 2005), but also in edu-cational formal contexts like classrooms (López, 2003; Wellington, 1991)� On the other hand, the dominance of technology in our era has promoted socio-cultural changes that directly affect education and make it necessary to deal with techno-logical progress in schools, encouraging the ability to participate in the utiliza-tion of technology as a cultural element� (Kožuchová, 2010)� ICT have improved citizens’ access to information and have fostered communication in such a way

José Javier Verdugo-Perona, Joan Josep Solaz-Portolés, Vicente SanjoséSpain

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.13

156 José Javier Verdugo-Perona, Joan Josep Solaz-Portolés, Vicente Sanjosé

that experts refer to media literacy to account for people’s ability to access, analyse, assess and produce electronic media as well as printed media (Aufderheide & Firestone, 1993; Martinsson, 2009; Wilson et al�, 2011, p�16)�

In the last years, traditional media have used the Internet as a new channel for diffusion purposes among the younger generation� Most newspapers offer digital versions with the advantage of immediacy to their readers� Readers’ preferences are changing so fast that some authors have pointed out that these digital channels will soon substitute the traditional ones (Casero-Ripollés, 2012)�

However, accessing information and facilitating citizens’ communication does not guarantee their education� High levels of media literacy could be associated with low instructional levels and thus with limited possibilities for personal devel-opment or social participation in important decisions�

Scientific literacy through mass mediaOptimizing the mass media use in the classroom for educational purposes leads

to an emergent and very interesting educational field (Brown, 1998)� Experts refer to it as education through mass media. Using mass media with educational purposes allowed teachers to deal with daily questions in order to create reflective citizens able to face the big world-wide problems and actively engaged in decision processes�

Even though some researchers have pointed out teachers’ low use of mass media to reach their educational goals (Ronda, 2002), the new generations of teachers frequently use daily news to bring world problems into the classroom (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009), in this way linking education to real life situations� An important part of citizens’ education is scientific literacy, strongly associated with basic sci-ence education goals (Gil & Vilches, 2006)� Scientific literacy (…) is seen as a civic competency required for rational thinking about science in relation to personal, social, political, economic problems, and issues that one is likely to meet throughout life (Hurd, 1998, p� 410)�

More and more science teachers use mass media as an educational tool, espe-cially those in digital format� For instance, Alvarez (2007) proved the effectiveness of using newspapers in the classroom comparing an alternative instructional methodology to another, traditional one based on expositive procedures� Envi-ronmental attitudes and concept knowledge, as well as the knowledge of environ-mental problems were evaluated in pre-service primary teachers� Statistical tests showed that the experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group in concept knowledge and environmental attitudes�

Taking into account the increasing interest of mass media in the citizens’ scien-tific literacy, Brossard and Shanahan (2006) developed an instrument to evaluate

157Is Digital Literacy Improving Science Education

the level of knowledge in one of Miller’s scientific literacy dimensions: under-standing of scientific terms and basic science concepts� These authors focused on scientific terms or concepts very frequent in mass media, which citizens in general should know� First, 185 terms were randomly selected from the Oxford Diction-ary of Sciences (Isaacs, Daintith, & Martin, 1999)� Next, each of these terms was classified according to their level of presence in the most important international newspapers in the world� For that purpose they used the Lexis-Nexis database (www�lexisnexis�com)� Finally, Brossard and Shanahan selected the most frequent terms in these newspapers and then built a 31-item questionnaire� Each item con-sists of a sentence defining one of the concepts (or terms) in a standard scientific way� The answer has to be provided by filling in the blank with the particular term� The questionnaire was validated in the USA using a sample of 120 university students of science and social university grades� Results were compared to other results obtained using the Science National Foundation instrument� This compari-son showed a positive relationship between the scientific literacy associated with mass media terms and the scientific literacy associated with the classroom, when controlling for age, gender and level of education in science� However, there was no clear evidence of the relationship between the level of newspapers use or TV exposition and the level of scientific literacy�

Aims and hypotheses

In this paper we aimed at studying the relationship between Spanish digital mass media and scientific literacy in pre-service primary teachers� In order to reach this goal, we will develop three tasks:

T1�-We will use the Brossard and Shanahan instrument (MSL; cf� Appendix) to obtain individual scores of knowledge on basic scientific terms present in impor-tant international newspapers� In that way, we can assess the level of scientific literacy among Spanish educated adults, non-specialists in science�

T2�-We will account for the presence of scientific terms in important Spanish digital newspapers� For that purpose, we will explore digital newspapers to obtain the scientific terms frequency by selecting the news with scientific content includ-ing each of the terms in MSL�

T3�-Finally, we have to associate the occurrence of scientific terms in digital newspapers with the level of term knowledge among the considered population� We will use statistics to assess the significance of the relationship between term frequency and term knowledge�


Our hypotheses can be formulated as follows:H1: Pre-service primary teachers are educated people as university students

should be� Therefore, if we considered only basic scientific terms (concepts) fre-quent in mass media, those students would show a high level of knowledge and thus a high level of scientific literacy�

H2: If digital newspapers are considered by students as a source of science con-tent information, then the more frequent a term or concept is in those newspapers, the higher the knowledge among the participants of this term�

From the above ideas we can infer that citizens’ scientific literacy could be improved if primary teachers learnt how to use mass media with educational purposes� Actual pre-service primary teachers are usually young university students presenting a high level of mass media literacy� In addition, even though they are not specialists in science, they are supposed to be educated people with basic science knowledge as they have studied several courses on this subject� As young people in a developed western country, they are digitally literate students, and so online newspapers as well as social networking sites could become sources of scientific information in addition to books and teachers in the classroom�

Research SampleA total of one hundred eighty nine male and female undergraduate students

in the third year of the pre-service primary teacher training course answered the questionnaire� The University was placed in one of the main Spanish cities� The grade is based on EU guidelines for university degrees� The students’ ages ranged from 19 to 52 but, as Figure 1 shows, 90% of the study population were students aging 18 to 25, and 64% were 20 – 22 years old�

Procedure to obtain the MSL dataThe instrument developed by Brossard and Shanahan (MSL) was translated into

Spanish without any suppression or arrangement� It was administered to every intact group of participants in normal class sessions� Only 20 min were needed for the 31 items of ‘filling-in the blanks’ nature� Instructions were delivered in a different sheet and they were read aloud� After resolving a few minor doubts, the MSL instrument was delivered to students� Every single item was scored as 0 (error or no answer) or 1 (correct answer)� The possible maximum score was 31� For every participant the MSL mean score was obtained (between 0 and 1)� When it was considered appropriate, mean scores for every item in the sample were also computed�


Term frequency in Spanish digital newspapersThe MSL scientific literacy test uses the 5% most cited scientific and technical

terms in “major newspapers” as reported by Lexis-Nexis database� However, how frequent are these terms in Spanish digital media? To answer this question, we carried out a search of every one of these terms in the three main online digital Spanish newspapers� The selection of the digital newspapers was made according to the data provided by the ComsCore company (http://www�comscore�com), which measures and analyses the audience of digital media� These data were also published in several digital media (público�es and elmundo�com)� In February 2014, the digital newspapers in Spain with the highest level of readership were ElMundo�es, ElPais�com and ABC�es� Therefore, the question asked before is sim-plified now: How frequent are the terms in the MSL questionnaire in these three Spanish digital newspapers?

We established a time interval to keep terms searching in reasonable bounda-ries� Taking into account the typical age in our sample, we chose a 5-year window for this interval because five years ago the youngest students in our sample became adults and started to show interest in information� This period covers the last five years of news stories, from January 2009 to December 2013�

Figure 1. Age distribution in the sample


Some potential problems that might influence the results were identified� Bros-sard and Shanahan (2006) excluded some ambiguous terms from their study� In the same way, when we translated some terms into Spanish they became polysemic, as they could be used in contexts other than the scientific one� For instance, Luna (“Moon”) can be the Earth’s satellite or a Spanish surname; “Tornado” in Spanish is also a verbal form having the meaning “(has) become”, “(has been) transformed”, etc� We did not exclude any term but searched carefully in the digital newspapers to identify news including the undesired meaning�

There were important differences among the search engines provided by each digital newspaper� These differences implied different strategies and procedures to exclude inappropriate meanings from the corpus�

«ABC�com»: This search engine allowed for careful search� The search depended on whether the term had other meaning apart from the scientific one or not� If so, the term was introduced as a keyword and one or two additional “neighbour” words were introduced to better delimit the context (e�g� “ray” was searched together with “storm” and “thunder”)� If the term had a unique scientific meaning (e�g� “protein”), we did a simple search using the specific term as a keyword� The news was ordered by relevance, based on the position of the searched word on the text, and date� Only the national edition was considered but not the local or regional ones�

«Elmundo�es»: This newspaper has an advanced search engine, but in contrast to the previous case, it is not possible to introduce any word other than the requested one to specify the context� This implied difficulties to isolate news with the desired meaning and long search times to avoid the ones using a particular term in a non-scientific alternative meaning�

«Elpais�com»: The search engine in this digital newspaper is quite simple so the searching process was time consuming� The list of results can be ordered by date or coincidence, first showing the news containing the searched word more often� For each term, we had to determine the threshold level of coincidence beyond which the system discriminated the news containing a concrete word from others containing words in the same lexical family (i�e� “infection”, but not “infectious”)� Once this threshold value had been established, we organized the list of news by coincidence value and counted the news items above the threshold in the interval 2009 to 2013�

In some terms the percentage of coincidence was not clearly defined� In those cases, the list of news items was ordered by date and we checked the news items one by one searching for the term in its scientific meaning� Again, we excluded news with the particular term having a non-scientific meaning�


results and discussion

Pre-service primary teachers’ knowledge of scientific concepts present in mass-mediaThe global mean score (and standard deviation) for the group of participants

was X = 0�44 (SD = 0�14)� Quartiles were placed on 0�33, 0�42 and 0�52 scores� About 95% of the participants obtained an average between 0�16 and 0�71 and only 5 students scored over 0�70� These results can be compared to the results obtained in the USA with a sample composed of science and social undergradu-ates (X = 0�54; SD = 0�17)� Although our participants’ global knowledge about the scientific terms included in MSL was unsatisfactory, according to the expected result in university students, it was not so different from the USA sample, which also included science students�

The instrument consistency was high enough as Kurder-Richardson’s 20th-for-mula value was 0�71� Further item analysis allowed us to appreciate items having high averages and others with very low averages� We also computed discrimination indexes, D, by means of the usual procedure: we considered the 27% of the upper global score (in MSL) sub-group of students, to the 27% of the lower global score sub-group of students� For each item, its D-value was obtained by subtracting the lower sub-group average from the upper sub-group average in this particular item� Twelve items resulted in D values under 0�30, so having low discriminating power� Six of these 12 items were “difficult” items even for the high global score sub-group (upper sub-group score under 0�30) and 4 were “easy” items as the lower sub-group of students obtained high scores in them (lower sub-group score over 0�70)� These 12 items obtained low item-total correlations and so, the participants’ knowledge about these terms resulted in being disconnected from the rest in the instrument�

Table 1. Data obtained for each term

Term Mean SD D-values Term Mean SD D-valuesNova �31 �46 �55 Proteins �22 �41 �30Genetic engineering �19 �39 �23 Nuclear weapons �55 �50 �54Microprocessor �22 �42 �30 Tornado �74 �44 �13Compact disc �59 �49 �54 Lightning �79 �41 �15LSD �25 �43 �53 Sulphur �53 �50 �48Gill �74 �44 �46 Watt �36 �48 �57Aluminium �24 �43 �42 World Wide Web �38 �49 �38Fiber optic �03 �18 �09 Electronic mail �48 �50 �15


Term Mean SD D-values Term Mean SD D-values

Bacteria �08 �27 �20 Gram �46 �50 �31

Infection �18 �39 �31 Petroleum/ Oil �42 �50 �67

Irrigation �58 �50 �10 X-rays �62 �49 �56

Earthquake �98 �13 �04 Satellite �72 �45 �42

Hurricane �50 �50 �40 Solar energy �26 �44 �11

Asbestos �07 �26 �19 Temperature �10 �30 �08

Moon �96 �19 �11 Vaccination �37 �48 �46

Flora �61 �49 �44

Presence of the scientific terms in Spanish digital newspapersTerm frequency in the considered Spanish digital newspapers was not balanced

in all cases: there were differences among the three newspapers in some terms, more frequent in one digital newspaper than in the others� Differences varied from just a few to several thousand and increased in those terms having more wide-spread use (e�g� “gram”, “petroleum/oil” or “temperature”)� Total item frequency was calculated by adding the frequencies in each newspaper� There were also great differences among terms, from f = 48 (“asbestos”) to f = 20678 (“temperature”) as some terms have extensive use and they were quite common in daily news, while others have appeared just in a few news stories in the last five years� Therefore, some of the scientific terms selected by Brossard and Shanahan as being very frequent in international important newspapers, have not been so frequent in the most read Spanish digital newspapers, in the 5-year period considered�

Figure 2 shows the accumulated term frequency in the considered digital news-papers� We split the terms in two groups (‘high level’ and ‘low level’ frequency) according to the median total frequency (M = 1286)� It seemed appropriate to use the median instead of the average (X = 3234), due to the wide range covered by the values, as an average is very sensible to extreme values� In fact, the standard deviation from frequency averages was also very high (SD = 4462), greater than the mean value� This is a measure of the vast dispersion in frequency values�

Term frequency was distributed in a way that did not significantly differ from a normal distribution, according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (Z = 1,322; p = �061)� However, the significance was marginal and close to the standard limit (p = �050)� Taking this into account, together with the huge variability in the frequency, in some analyses we considered the logarithm of the frequency values as usual when data differences involved more than one order of magnitude� Log-


frequency values distributed closer to a Gaussian curve (K-S; Z = 0�623; p = �833) and ranked from 1�68 to 4�32 with an average (and SD) of 3�07 (0�72)�

Figure 2. Term frequency in digital newspapers

Term frequency in digital newspapers as a predictor of scientific concept knowledgeIn order to contrast our second hypothesis, H2, we computed Pearson’s correla-

tion between the frequency, the log-frequency and the mean values for items in MSL (Table 2)�

Table 2. Pearson’s correlation between mean values for term knowledge and term frequency in digital newspapers

frequency Log-freqMSL-mean r = –�011 �150

Sig� �954 �421

In addition, we performed a less fine-grained analysis and classified the MSL terms in two groups, high/low frequency (Figure 2)� Then, we studied whether


or not these two groups obtained a different level of knowledge in our sample, according to the score in MSL� The level of term frequency did not have a sig-nificant influence on the mean scores for term knowledge (t(29) = -�398; p = �694)�

ConclusionsOur first hypothesis, H1, stated that pre-service primary teachers as educated

people would show a high level of the knowledge of basic scientific terms, espe-cially those frequently appearing in digital mass media� Data collected using Brossard and Shanahan’s instrument (2006) did not confirm this hypothesis� Contrary to our expectations, the university students in the sample showed a level of knowledge (average of 44% of correct answers) lower than the one obtained by the authors in the USA from a sample including undergraduate science students (average 54%)� That means that our participants recalled the basic scientific terms included in the questionnaire in a worse way than they should do according to their education level, but perhaps not so far from the USA undergraduate non-science university students� Our result agrees with other recent study that has found a similar low level of scientific literacy in Spanish university students (Verdugo, Solaz-Portolés & Sanjosé, 2014)�

Therefore, our sample was particularly singular, or some of the terms asked about were not appropriate to our sample, or the scientific literacy in Spanish young educated university students, not specialised in sciences, should be seriously reconsidered�

Looking at particular items, some terms obtained quite low average values (cf� Table 1)� This is the case of “Fiber optic” (X = 0�03), “Asbestos” (X = 0�07), “Bacteria” (X = 0�08) and “Temperature” (X = 0�10)� The latter term is a special case� It is the most frequent term in the digital newspapers analysed (Figure 2), but despite its high presence, its formal scientific definition is not widely known by pre-service primary teachers, university students� This suggests low levels of comprehension monitoring when reading or learning science: these students are probably con-vinced they do know what temperature is (and other terms), without noticing that they are not able to give a correct definition�

Fortunately, scientific literacy also involves other kinds of knowledge, apart from concepts, but these results make us alert to university students’ literacy, in particular, pre-service primary teachers�

We formulated another hypothesis, H2: If digital newspapers are considered by students as a source of science content information, then the more frequent a term or concept is in those newspapers, the higher the knowledge is among the participants of this term� In our sample, mean values for term knowledge were


not correlated at all to term frequency or to log-frequency in the Spanish digital newspapers considered�

Thus, this result suggests that probably our students do not read digital news-papers as often as we expected, or if they read them these newspapers are not considered as a source of science education�

In summary, the participants, pre-service primary teachers, university students, have a lower level of basic scientific knowledge than they should have, and it seems that they do not use digital newspapers to improve their science education�

Only a few decades have passed since Tichenor, Donohue and Olien (1970) found a significant relationship between the flow of news in mass media and edu-cated citizens’ literacy� At that time, most of the newspapers readers were a minor part of society and they were also highly educated people� Nowadays, in the digital era, things seem to be different: information sources are at hand and are very easy to access by most people� However, their educational use is not straightforward and needs teachers’ particular and conscious effort�

Even though digital mass media are frequently used by the new generations of students, and science teachers are using them as an instruction resource, special attention in instruction is needed to change students’ use of those digital media from ludic to educational purposes� This implies including mass literacy in teacher education curricula as Torres and Mercado (2006) have pointed out� Kinds of literacy other than scientific literacy could benefit from this consideration, as well�

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experiencia (“Newspapers as a didactic resource for the environmental education”)� Comunicar, 29, 165 – 172�

Aparici, R� (2005)� Medios de Comunicación y Educación (“The media and education”)� Revista de Educación, 338, 85 – 99�

Aufderheide, P� & Firestone, C�M� (1993)� Media literacy: a report of the national leadership conference on media literacy, Washington DC, Aspen Institute�

Brossard, D� & Shanahan, J� (2006)� Do they know what they read? Building a scientific literacy measurement instrument based on Science media coverage� Science Commu-nication, 28, 47 – 63�

Brown, James A� (1998)� Media literacy perspectives� Journal of Communications, 48, 44−56�Casero, A� (2012)� Beyond Newspapers: News Consumption among Young People in the

Digital Era� Comunicar, 39, 151 – 158� (DOI: 10�3916/C39 – 2012 – 03 – 05)�Gil, D� & Vilches, A� (2006)� Educación ciudadana y alfabetización científica: mitos


y realidades (“Citizen education and scientific literacy: myths and realities”)� Revista Iberoamericana de Educación, 42, 31 – 53�

Hobbs, R� & Jensen, A� (2009)� The past, present and future of media literacy education� Journal of Media Literacy Education, 1, 1 – 11�

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Ingle, H�T� (1974)� Communication Media and Technology: A Look at Their Role in Non-formal Education Programs. Washington, D�C�: Information Center on Instructional Technology� Academy for Educational Development, Inc�

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Kožuchová, M� (2010)� Creating the socio-cultural model of scientific-technical literacy� The New Educational Review, 20, 109 – 119�

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Educational Studies: A Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, 39, 260 – 282�

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Pedeutology

the “Nervousness” Factor in the Personality Profile of teachers in the slovak republic

AbstractThe contribution focuses on the issue of the current statutory requirement for teachers’ mental fitness to exercise the teaching profession in the Slovak Republic� The object of our study is the diagnostics of selected personality factors of pre-primary and primary education teachers, we believe to be of key importance in relation to their requisite mental fitness to exercise the teaching profession; we particularly focus on the “Nervousness” factor�

Keywords: teacher of pre-primary and primary education, mental fitness, teacher personality, Freiburg Personality Inventory, diagnostics of teacher personality, “Nervousness” personality factor

introduction

In 2009 in the Slovak Republic, Act No� 317/2009 Coll� on educational employ-ees came into effect� Among other things, it focuses on the issue of medical fitness of educational and specialist employees, including as its part in addition to the physical fitness also the mental fitness requisite for the performance of educational or specialist activities� Under the act, a certificate of medical fitness, thus also of mental fitness, must be produced by any new educational or specialist employee on entry to the profession� According to the Ministry of School, Science and Sports of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter only the MSSS), assessment of medical fitness is fully within the capacity of the Ministry of Health� As an introduction we state that by adoption of the Act (as opposed to other departments, e�g� police forces), neither requisite personality characteristics were specified, nor a uniform diagnos-tic procedure for their assessment was developed� It is adoption of this Act that inspired us to do research on the psychological diagnostics of a selected sample

Soňa Kariková, Terézia RohnSlovak Republic

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.14

170 Soňa Kariková, Terézia Rohn

of teachers, focussed on their specific personal characteristics� The contribution describes the occurrence of the “Nervousness” factor in the personality profile of teachers�

theoretical background

Pupils’ attitude towards the teacher and towards learning and results of edu-cational activities depend, above all, on the teacher’s personality, on his or her attitude towards pupils, on the teacher’s humane attitude to children� This is con-firmed also by Krueger (1997), according to whom there are numerous studies showing that the teacher’s personality is a significant predictor of the educational process efficiency� Curtis and Liying (2001) write that the teacher’s performance is considerably influenced by their personality characteristics� It means that the teacher’s personality impacts on both the way of teaching and its effectiveness� Lorentz and Coker (1977) find a significant correlation between teachers’ score in the MBTI (Mayers–Briggs Type Indicator) and behaviour of their pupils� They conclude that the teacher’s personality influences the way students respond in class� Fisher and Kent (1998) find a significant correlation between a teacher personality type and the perception of the class environment by pupils� In fact, it is the teacher who reveals pupils’ needs and interests, creates conditions to satisfy them, mediates stimuli to develop thinking, facilitates pupils’ journey of knowledge (Babiaková, 2011)� At the same time, he or she is a permanent social model for children, to identify with and conform to� The teacher, namely, offers children intentionally various social and moral strategies respecting cultural values, by which he or she facilitates the children’s recognition of these values and more effective identification with them, their interiorization (Koláriková-Pupala, 2001)� According to other authors (Cruickshank, et al� 2003), one of the most important personality factors is the teacher’s cordiality� It supports positive teacher-pupil interactions, supports open expression of thoughts and eliminates fear in pupils� Malikow (2005) considers such characteristics as flexibility, sense of humour, sense of justice, patience, enthusiasm, creativity, care of and inter-est in students to be important� In the context of the above-mentioned act, we believe it is important to define the term “the teacher’s mental fitness”� Despite the statutory requirement, there is no precise definition of this term� According to Kariková (2011), the term mental fitness in general includes psychological or personality dispositions and corresponds to the term “mental health”� According to WHO (World Health Organization), mental health is a state of emotional and

171The “Nervousness” Factor in the Personality Profile of Teachers in the Slovak Republic

psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life�

From the point of view of the teaching profession, it concerns the use of the teacher’s mental capabilities in teaching practice� The quality of mental capacities, capabilities used in everyday educational work may be considered a limiting fac-tor� Atkinson (2007) considers the following signs to be the basic characteristics of a mentally healthy individual: adequate perception of reality, self-knowledge, ability to control one’s own conduct, self-esteem and acceptance, ability to form emotional bonds and being active�

The requirement on the teacher personality is of particular importance at the pre-primary and primary levels of education� The reason is especially the relevance of the teacher’s influence on a child of this sensitive age� Due to the age-related particularities of children who are often emotionally attached to their teacher, for them he or she is one of significant identification models and a significant authority, yet not too much disturbed by forming peer relationships (Spilková, 2001)� The initial uncritical identification with the teacher has its developmental sense because it helps the pupil to overcome uncertainty in the strange school environment and to adapt to school requirements (Kolárikova-Pupala, 2001)� Through the teacher, pupils build their relationship with school, education, other people and themselves� In other words, a healthy personality (of the pupil) may be formed only by a healthy personality (of the teacher)�

Research findingsIn connection with the above theoretical background, research was carried out

in 2012-2014, primarily focused on the psychological diagnostics of teachers�

Research problemIn connection with the above-mentioned Act about teacher mental fitness, the

primary aim was finding out if there are significant deviations from the popula-tion standard in measured personality factors of teachers of pre-primary and primary education�

In connection with requisite characteristics of teacher personality, our con-tribution focuses only on the “Nervousness” personality factor, in our opinion important, but also unwanted in teachers’ personality profiles�

Our main research intent was to find out if there is a significant difference in the “Nervousness” factor in teachers of pre-primary and primary education in comparison with the population standard.


The following research questions were also derived from the above intent:1� Is there a positive relationship between the “Nervousness” factor and the

subjective perception of health?2� Is there a positive relationship between the “Nervousness” factor and the

length of professional practice?

Research sampleTo measure teachers’ personality factors, respondents were selected by stratified

random selection� The research sample consisted of 141 teachers of pre-primary and primary education� As to gender, our respondents were only women, thus the term “teachers” or “respondents” hereinafter refers only to female teachers�

The following criteria were taken into account in the research sample selection:1� Profession – proportional representation of teachers of pre-primary (N –

68) and primary education (N – 73)�2� Locality in Slovakia – proportional representation of respondents from all

the three regions of Slovakia�3� Length of teaching practice – proportional representation of respondents

with various length of practice�

research methods

The basic research method was application of the Freiburg Personality Inventory (Freiburger Personlichkeits Inventar – FPI – J� Fahrenberg, H� Selg, R� Hampel; Slovak version Kollárik et al�, 1984, form A)� The FPI is a multidimensional personality inventory tracing 12 personality dimensions� The inventory contains statements about behaviours, mental states, habits and somatic problems� At the same time, subjective perception of general health (General Health Questionnaire – GHQ 28) and attitudes to the teaching profession (Questionnaire of Attitudes to the Teaching Profession – of our own origin) were measured�

Quantitative collection of data was followed by their statistic processing using methods of descriptive and inductive statistics� Values of the expected normal distribution of standard population were compared with the respondents’ values by means of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov distribution test and Shapiro-Wilk test� To test differences among the respondents’ groups regarding the profession, the Mann-Whitney U test was used� Relationships among the variables were traced by means of Spearman’s non-parametric correlation coefficient�


research findings

Description and analysis of the “Nervousness” factor (FPI 1)According to the authors of the inventory, increased scores in this dimension

indicate physical problems in various functional areas, vegetative disorders, motor disorders, pain, psychosomatic disorders (sleep disorders, fatigue, increased fatiga-bility, increased sensitivity to weather), irritation, anxiety, strong somatic response to affects and intense vegetative muscular manifestations in affective agitation�

Table 1 shows that the largest number of the respondents (63�1%) has a moder-ate level of Nervousness� A low level of Nervousness is indicated by 7�8% of the respondents, which is less in comparison with the expected results� A high level of Nervousness is indicated by a higher number of the respondents when compared with the expected standard (29�1%)� Due to the high amount of the 3rd category in the Nervousness factor in our respondents, we were concerned if there is a sig-nificant difference between the expected and observed results in this category� On the basis of the results, we state that there is a statistically significant difference between the expected and observed results in Category 3 in the FPI 1 factor (con-dition – if the absolute value of the difference between the % of observed results and the % of expected results equals or is greater than 5�67375%, the difference is considered to be statistically significant)�

Table 1. Research results in the factor FPI 1

FPI 1Observed

resultsExpected

resultsObserved

resultsExpected

results DifferenceAbsolute numbers (n) Relative numbers (%)

1 11 14�8 7�8 10�5 –2�72 89 111�4 63�1 79�0 –15�93 41 14�8 29�1 10�5 18�6Total number 141 141 100�0 100�0

Table 2. Statistical difference between the observed results and the normal distribution in the F1factor

Factor F1

Chi-square 82�833

p-value �000


For better illustration of the results see the graph depicting the expected and the observed distribution of data in the “Nervousness” factor�

On the basis of the above findings we can state that more than a third of the respondents show a high level of Nervousness, thus we can state that the teachers of pre-primary and primary education reach a statistically significantly higher level of “Nervousness” in comparison with the population standard.

Correlation between the “Nervousness (FPi)” personality variable and the subjective perception of general health (GHQ)

By means of response to the research question 1 we wanted to find out if there is a positive correlation between the Nervousness (FPI) personality factor and the perception of general health (GHQ) in the teachers of pre-primary and primary education�

To interpret the correlation coefficients, Cohen’s (1988) matrix of correlation coefficients in psychological research was used, according to which a correlation below 0�1 is trivial, 0�1-0�3 small, 0�3-0�5 medium and above 0�5 large� Results of the correlation analysis show that there are medium positive linear relationships between the Nervousness personality variable and the somatic symptom variables, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunctions and perception of general health in

Category 1 Category 2 Category 3

% Observed% Expected

Graph 1. Comparison of the significance of differences between the observed and expected distribution

of the F1factor data


both groups of respondents� The correlation with the Nervousness variable in the depressiveness scale is small�

Table 3. Results of correlation between the Nervousness factor and the subjective perception of general health and its subscales

Nervousness Somatic symptoms

Anxiety and insomnia

Social dysfunctions

Depres-siveness

General health summary

assessmentCorrelation Coefficient 0�471(**) 0�438(**) 0�341(**) 0�207(*) �470(**)p-value 0�000 0�000 0�000 0�014 �000n 141 141 141 141 141

** Correlation is significant at the 0�01 level (2-tailed)�

On the basis of the results of the analysis it can be stated that there is a positive relationship between the measured personality factors of the teachers, statistically significantly different from the population standard (Nervousness), and the sub-jective perception of their general health�

Correlation between the “Nervousness” personality variable and the length of teaching practice

Within this research question, a relationship was found between the length of practice and the “Nervousness” (FPI 1) variable� The sample of the respondents (n=141) was divided by the length of practice into 4 intervals, in more detail shown in Table 4�

Table 4. Distribution of the respondents by the length of teaching practice

Group Length of teaching practice

Absolute frequency (n)

Relative frequency(%)

1 0-7 35 24�82 8–15 28 19�93 16–25 31 22�04 26 and more 47 33�3

Total 141 100�0

Graph 2 presents differences in the Nervousness (FPI 1) dependent variable and the independent variable – the length of the respondents’ teaching practice� Our


attention is focused on the interesting fact� The value of Nervousness was higher in the respondents with a shorter length of practice; it decreased with increasing years of practice�

To interpret the correlation coefficients, again, Cohen’s (1988) matrix of cor-relation coefficients in psychological research was used� Results of the correlation analysis (Table 5) give evidence of a small correlation at the significance level of 0�01% between Nervousness and the length of teaching practice in both groups of respondents� The correlation analysis was made by means of Spearman’s rank cor-relation coefficient, from which it follows that there is a small, negative correlation between the variables of Nervousness and length of practice�

Table 5. Results of the correlation analysis between the factors of Nervousness and the length of teaching practice

Correlation Coefficient –0.234(*)p-value 0�005n 141

** Correlation is significant at the 0�01 level (2-tailed)�

On the basis of the results it can be stated that there is no positive relationship between the variables of Nervousness and length of practice in the teachers of pre-primary and primary education�

Length of practicen

Median value

100

80

60

40

20

01 2 3 4

Graph 2. Differences in the FPI 1 factor according to the respondents’ length of practice


Conclusion and discussion

As to our assumption concerning the measured personality factors, we found out that there were significant differences in the research sample of teachers in the following four factors:

• Nervousness – a significantly higher level in comparison with the popula-tion standard

• Moderation and calmness – a significantly higher level of moderation and calmness in comparison with the population standard

• Excitability – a significantly lower level of excitability in comparison with the population standard

• Reactive aggression and striving for dominance – a significantly lower level of reactive aggression and striving for dominance in comparison with the population standard�

Since our contribution focused only on the analysis of the "Nervousness" factor, only related starting-points will be described in detail� We believe that main causes of the increased Nervousness in the teachers of both levels of education include some serious problems Slovak teachers must face� The most serious ones include the teacher’s low prestige and low socio-economic status, uncertainty and instabil-ity of positions, a discrepancy between requirements on and actual dispositions of teachers, frequent changes in legislation, increased aggression of children and parents, the teaching profession as a caring profession� All the above causes may to some extent disturb the mental well-being of teachers and keep them in a state of tension manifested by the very psychosomatic disorders and anxiety characteristic of the Nervousness personality factor� Analogical findings by John and Stein (2008) show that up to 15 – 45% of teachers indicate increased Nervousness in their health assessment� In connection with the measured "Nervousness" factor, also an increased level of anxiety in the teachers of both levels of education was revealed� In line with our findings, Kenney and Kenney (1982) stated, on the basis of the measurement results of 16 personality characteristics (16 PF – Cattel) in teachers and librarians, that the teachers showed a higher level of anxiety in comparison with the control group� In accordance with the presented results, Řehulka and Řehulková (1998) also recorded a high degree of neurotic problems in teachers, especially in elementary school teachers� They found increased neuroticism in up to 42% of teachers, even pathological values in 11%� In his research, Fontana (1997) also presented an increased level of neuroticism in teachers�

To sum up, we would like to state that the results obtained may be used for the development of a "teacher mental fitness" model in the Slovak Republic, while


they may inspire also colleagues – psychologists in other countries� The results also offer possibilities to prepare and implement programmes within continuing teacher education�

referencesAtkonsonocá, R� (2007)� Psychologie� Praha: Portál� ISBN 807-17-86403�Babiaková, S� (2011)� Riadenie školy v meniacich sa spoločenských podmienkach. Banská

Bystrica: PF UMB� ISBN 978-80-557-0251-3�Cohen, J� (1988)� Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2� vyd��), New Jersey:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, ISBN 0-8058-0283-5�Cruickshank, D�R�, Jenkins, D�B�, Metcalf, K�K� (2003)� The act of teaching. Boston: McGraw

Hill�Curtis, A�, Liying, C� (2001)� Teachers� Selfevaluation of knowledge, skills and personality

characterstics needed to manage change� In: Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 29, pp� 139-143�

Fisher, D�L�, Kent, H�B� (1998)� Associations Between Teacher Personality and Classroom Environment In: Journal of Classroom Interaction, 33, pp� 5–13�

Fontana, D� (1997)� Psychologie ve školní praxi� Praha: Portál� ISBN 80-7178-063-4�John, D�, Stein, R� (2008)� Lehrergesundheit: Forschungsstand und Schlussfolgerungen

unter besonderer Berucksichtigung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern in Kontexten der Erziehungshilfe� In: Zeitschrift fur Heilpädagogik , 59(11), pp� 402–411�

Kenney, S�E�, Kenney, J�B� (1982)� Personality patterns of public school librarians and teach-ers� In: Journal of Experimental Education, 50, pp�152–153�

Kokkinos, C�M� (2007)� Job stressors, personality and burnout in primary school teachers� In: British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, pp� 229–243�

Koláriková, Z�, Pupala, B a kol� (2001)� Predškolská a elementárna pedagogika. Praha: Portál� ISBN 80-7178-585-7�

Kollárik, T� a kol� (1983)� Freiburský osobnostný dotazník� Bratislava: Psychodiagnostické a didaktické testy, n�p�

Krueger, T� (1997)� Oral communication skills necessary for successful teaching: The students’ perspective� In: Educational Research Quarterly, 21 (2), pp� 13–26�

Lorentz, J�L�, Coker, H� (1977)� Myers-Briggs Types as Predictors of Observed Teacher Behaviour In: Second National Conference on the Use of the MBTI� Michigan State University, East Lansing�

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Oravcová, J�, Kariková, S� (2011)� Psychológia v edukácii� Banská Bystrica: PF UMB� Pianta, R�C�, Hamre, B�, Stuhlman, M� (1999)� Relationship between techers and children In: Educational psychology, 7, pp 199–243�


Řehulka, E�, Řehulková, O� (1998)� Problematika tělesné a psychické záťeže při výkonu učitelského povolání� In: Učitelé a zdraví� Brno: Nakladatelství Pavel Křepela�

Spilková, V� (2001)� Profesní standard a klíčové kompetence učitele primární školy� In Učitelé jako profesní skupina, jejich vzdelávání a podpurný systém 2. díl� Praha: Univerzita Karlova�

Zákon č� 317/2009 Z� z� o pedagogických zamestnancoch a odborných zamestnancoch�

teachers’ Learning Processes of information Competences in the Network society – Proposed

theoretical and Methodological solutions

AbstractDynamic changes characteristic of modern societies, especially those involved heavily in technological transformation create special conditions for adapta-tion of the network environment to the needs of education� The introduction to this article discusses contexts of the issue as a precondition resulting from the threat of digital divide of teachers� Then, the paper includes considerations on the conditions of the constitution of information literacy as a result of the revision of theory and practice� It proposes a process of examination of teacher information literacy in the digital environment in the perspective of herme-neutic methodology� Conclusions provide the proposal to include research on the development of teacher information literacy in the process of the network society formation�

Keywords: information literacy, network society, learning process, educational programme.

introduction

Considering the theoretical determinants of teacher information literacy, this paper focuses on information as a psycho-physical phenomenon and con-siders information education in terms of cognitive psychology (Clarc, Lockhart, 1972)�

Teachers’ learning process of information competences in the network society is highly contextualized� Its basis lies in a critical theory considered in the socio-cultural context� This can be presented in the form of the regularity of the elements presented in Scheme 1�

Elżbieta PerzyckaPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.15

181Teachers’ Learning Processes of Information Competences

Scheme 1. Highly contextualized learning process of information literacy of teachers

The learning process of information literacy in

the network society⋀

Individual, environmen-tal and school learning

contexts→

The learning process of information literacy com-petences in the network

society

In relation to the concept of information literacy used by English literature, among other things, terms such as: 1) information literacy – understood as the ability to recognize, process, evaluate, create information and a number of other activities related to information (Taylor, 1998; Brevik , 2000; Bruce, 2002; Potter, 2004; Taylor, 1998); 2) media literacy – referred to as a range of skills to acquire, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms (Celot, Lopez, Thompson, 2009; Martinson, 2009; Perzycka, 2004); 3) information literacy and communications technology ICT literacy – the use of digital technology and social networking tools for communication (Ellis, 2001); 4) digital literacy – the ability to read and understand multimedia texts and hypertext (Tapscot, 1998); 5) infor-mation skills (Erstad, 2010; Mills, 2010)� In Polish literature, there is information literacy proposed by Perzycka and discussed in the article: Struktura i dynamika w społeczeństwie sieciowym (Structure and dynamics in the network society), Szczecin, 2008�

The inspiration for the development of the prolegomena to the conditions for teachers’ learning process of information competences in the network society were primarily different theoretical (Bruner, 1978; Bruce, 1998; Tadeusiewicz, 2002) and methodological assumptions (Gnitecki, 2005), as well as the author’s in-depth characteristics of the determinants of teacher information literacy in Poland (Perzycka, 2004, 2008)� It was shown in the research procedure, including: 1) planning to solve problems using digital information, 2) searching for digital information, 3) selecting digital information, 4) creating digital information, and 5) sharing digital information�

From a scientific perspective, this paper is based on a principle which states that the educator oriented in ideas of pedagogy does not need any maps as he is given a route that he follows� A situation in which an educator uses two approaches is more complex; he has to face the problem of making decisions within a dichoto-mous structure as he interprets the available concepts of education in the form of opposing possibilities� He is separated from other ideas that do not fall within the two-part structure, and in this sense he does not focus on obtaining the orienta-tion of the whole issue, which makes the map a not very useful item also for him (Rutkowiak, 1995, p�13)�

182 Elżbieta Perzycka

Teachers’ information literacy is placed in the context of the network society� So far, there have not been any documents of efforts to clearly define the two concepts well enough to be able to highlight significant differences between them� Therefore, it is worth referring to an explication method used in this paper to clarify these concepts� An explication method leads to the clarification of relations between the name, the sense and the meaning, where the name will explicitly invoke its meaning (Pawlowski, 1986, p� 99)� It aims to explain the meaning used in everyday speech or science, so its ambiguous or not clear content becomes clear (Gnitecki, 1994)�

M�Castells (2008) created his own systematic theory of the network society, emphasizing the impact of the Internet on human beings� In Polish literature, T�Goban – Klas (2004) used the concept of the network society in relation to the transmission of human relationships� The network takes a form of media, the content of which is information, and the essence is communication� The adjective network identifies each member of the community using information technology, but it is also an integral part of this society� On the Internet, it is possible to see the diversity of applications, due to the collective contribution of its users� On the other hand, the Internet is primarily a tool, and its users are using it in connection with their work and private life� Despite its linguistic ambiguity, the concept of the network society seems to be a term which describes the nature of what has been presented in the context of teachers’ information literacy competences far more accurately�

theoretical considerations

The core of research is to give the information education the key characteristic and to develop theoretical and practical frameworks for teachers’ information literacy competence development in the network society� The creation of these frameworks is possible as a result of: 1) clarification of terms and explanation of key concepts, 2) building of a theoretical basis for teachers’ information literacy competences in the network society, 3) determination of methodological conse-quences arising from theoretical assumptions, 4) establishment of the theoretical and methodological assumptions of research, 5 ) use of the theoretical and meth-odological assumptions for the analysis and projections of diverse experiences of teachers in the field of information literacy�

The determination of a theoretical basis of the learning process should be referred to as an adequate theory of learning (Lewowicki, 1984; Perzycka, 2008)�


Moreover, such a theory should be considered in terms of contemporary formative change, i�e�, in the modern, postmodern and neomodern discourse� These three aspects of formative change have far-reaching epistemological and research conse-quences� Therefore, it is worth recalling assumptions of the theory: 1) structuralist, 2) poststructuralist, 3) pragmatic, post-pragmatic and neo-pragmatic� Referring to the inspiration contained in the publication, it is possible to talk about sug-gesting theories: 1) a certain pattern of change in the teacher (post-structuralist, associative and pragmatic theories), 2) a change in this pattern (post-structuralist, post-associative and post-pragmatic theories), and 3) advocating a new pattern of change (neo-structural, neo-associative and neo-pragmatic theories)� This may lead to radical changes in the conduct of empirical and hermeneutic research on the development of teachers’ information literacy in the network society�

Methodological considerations

In order to assess current capabilities of teachers’ learning about information lit-eracy in the network society, it is proposed to conduct quantitative and qualitative research� In order to specify the conditions of development, the research process can use a specific intermediate context, including a hermeneutic perspective, focus-ing on: the causes of the formation and determination of the status and prospects for the development of teacher information literacy in the network society� These are proposals for modifying agents (stimulants or inhibitors), which are major components in teachers’ learning processes of acquiring information literacy competences� The proposed system consists of the following elements: 1) a set of events Z, including the sum of the conditions for the development of teachers’ information literacy skills, as individual variables expressed in the language L of teachers’ educational activity, 2) a subset of individual predicates (properties and relations) P1, … Pk, which are denotations of individual variables (determinants of literacy development), 3) the functions F1, … Fn as actions performed on indi-vidual variables from the set Z (theoretical predicates and observational predicates and their expression in the units of a measurement scale using the appropriate indexes and scales), 4) fixed individuals a1, … ar including the names of objects, people and institutions; it is the highlighted area of the theory of pedagogy and information education (Perzycka, 2008)� This can be written as follows: D=(Z; P1,…Pk,; F1,…Fn; a1,…ar)� What is noteworthy is the determination of individual variables, the correct implementation of the theoretical and observational predi-cates and expression in units of the measuring tool scale�


In addition to modifying agents (determinants of development, i�e�, the con-ditions for changes in teachers’ competences), the in-depth examination of the learning process of information literacy must also take into account the main agents, namely the source of changes in teachers’ competences, and the same change in teachers� In this way the teacher’s learning process of information literacy becomes highly contextualized, in which it is necessary to clearly iden-tify: 1) the sources of changes in the teacher, 2) the conditions for change, and 3) changes in the teacher�

Research on teachers’ learning process of information literacy skills acquisition in the network society can be conducted in at least four ways: 1) as a basis for conducting evaluation studies on the state of teachers’ information literacy skills, 2) as a methodological basis for conducting correlation research (it concerns the agents differentiating teacher information literacy), 3) as a basis for ex post facto research (often referred to as experimental studies carried out after the occur-rence of the facts focused on the study of agents that were successful), and 4) as an experimental research project� The first three types of research result directly from the a priori adopted theoretical and methodological assumptions, and can be widely applied� In order to develop the accurate research instruments of these aspects (which was noted before), there should be a link between the language of theory (teachers’ information literacy in the network society – the theoretical predicate) and the language of observation (observation predicate variables tested, which are expressions for denoting states of studied agents which can be seen directly or indirectly)� If theoretical predicate is denoted by U(X) and observa-tion predicate by S(X) – (set of variables, indicators), a logical sentence ⋀X[S(X)U(X)] is a real and wanted link between an observation predicate and a theoretical predicate�

In turn, the fourth type of research requires building a model stimulating and supporting the development of teachers’ information literacy skills in the network society, taking into account the main (the main independent variables – ZNg) and control (ZNk) agents and dependent variables (ZZ)� The system of relations between variables can then be written as follows: ZNg + ZNk = ZZ, where the main variables are the system of integrated educational events (Ziii(x)), independ-ent control variables (p1(x), p2(x),… pn(x)) are control variables modifying the influence of the main variables, and the dependent variables are variables obtained as a result of the use of integrated states – teachers’ information literacy in the net-work society (Wiii(x))� Accordingly, the system of relationships between variables in the experimental studies can be written as follows: Ziii(x) + (p1(x), p2(x),… pn(x)) = Wiii(x)� In view of the fact that the systems of integrated events are the


main component of the information education program, the control agents, in turn, form a hierarchical scale of modifying agents (stimulators and inhibitors), and the dependent variables are the effects of the program use, and therefore the symbolic content scheme can be represented as follows (Scheme 2):

Scheme 2. The information education program focused on teachers’ learning information literacy skills acquisition in the network environment

Information education program ⋀ Modifying agents → Effects of

the program

The proposed research allows for recognizing the relationships that exist between the applied empirical method (diagnostic survey) and the hermeneutic method (interpretation in differentiated contexts)� In scholarly literature there are at least three relationships of that type (Gnitecki, 2007)� The first is to reject the empirical method for the hermeneutic one or vice versa� The second is to apply them in an integrated manner, and the third is to place the hermeneutic method over the empirical and praxeological ones�

Use of the hermeneutic research perspective can be realized in two ways� The first is based on formulating a theoretical problem (concerning the meaning and significance of teachers’ information literacy skills in the network society) and specific problems� The second is to understand the meaning and significance of studied phenomena – at the stage of their clarification – explication of the vari-ables tested and an in-depth interpretation of test results in conjunction with the diverse individual and social context�

If hermeneutic research is to be placed over empirical research, it is essential for the researcher to gain adequate hermeneutic knowledge (Gnitecki, 2007)� Following the methodological assumptions on the state (essence and existence) of teachers’ information literacy skills in the network society, it is possible to reconstruct the field of pedagogy and information education using a procedure of esoteric implication (Wisniewski, 2003, pp� 389-427)� Esoteric recognition of the concept of explanation by clear specification shows the cognitive function of clarification – seeking mechanism (Globler, 2008, p� 119)� Esoteric implication (Im) is used to modify specific questions, where a theoretical problem (Q) will be an implying question and specific questions (Q*) will be implied questions� Such conduct will be possible through theoretical and practical knowledge (X)� In such reasoning the field of hermeneutic questions is called D, and it can be defined as follows: D=<Im [Q,X,Q*]>� The formulated main problem and specific questions can be used to conclude not only in the field of research questions, but also in


the preparation of the research process� The correct formulation of theoretical problems and specific questions is half of the success of the research process� The remaining half will be the development of accurate research instruments, as well as reliable and in-depth analysis of the results of quantitative and qualitative research methods� This approach to this research is an important contribution not only to the issues of determining the conditions for teachers’ information literacy skills acquisition, but also to the broader contexts of justifying the consideration and acceptance of conditions in the network society (Reichenbach, 1938)�

Conclusions

The actual creation of the theory for teachers’ information literacy skills acqui-sition in the network society requires the development of training programs to stimulate and support the development of information literacy skills and the transition from the stage of diagnostic and explanatory research to the research of the projective, experimental and verification nature� To make this possible, it is necessary not only to be able to use the classic model of objectivist research, but primarily the constructivist and neo-objectivist model of research� Iden-tification and description of diverse and intricate external and internal agents and conditions for teachers’ learning process of information literacy skills in the network society allows for the actual determination of the direction of the teacher’s training in media and their pedagogical applications� Since the role of the teacher in preparation for the valuable and educationally useful application of digital information in the learning process is still the teacher’s primary role, it is important to recognize the potential stimulators and inhibitors of the formation of the network society�

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Conference Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia�Bruce C�S�, (1997)� Seven Faces of Information Literacy in Higher Education, AUSLIB Press,

Adelaide, South Australia�Bruce C�S� (2002), Information Literacy as a Catalyst for Educational Change� In: White

paper prepared for UNESCO�Bruner J�, (1978)� Poza dostarczone informacje. Studia z psychologii poznania, PWN, War-

szawa 1978�


Castells M�, (2003)� Galaktyka Internetu, Refleksje nad Internetem, biznesem i społeczeń-stwem, Poznań�

Castells M�, (2008)� Społeczeństwo sieci, Warszawa�Celot, P� Lopez L�G� Thompson N� (2009)� Study on Assessment Criteria for Media Literacy

Levels. Brussels, http://ec�europa�eu/culture/library/studies/literacy-criteria-report_en�pdf

Clarc, Lockhart, (1972)�Ellis, C� (2001)� Innovation in education: The increasing digital world – issues of today

and tomorrow. Presented at the National IT Workforce Convocation of the Information Technology Association of America, San Diego, CA� http://www�intel�com/education/community/contribution�

Erstad, O� (2010)� Educating the Digital Generation� Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 1�Globler, A�, (2008)� Metodologia nauk, Wydawnictwo Aureus, Kraków�Gnitecki, J�, (1994)� Zarys pedagogiki ogólnej, Gorzów Wielkopolski�Gnitecki, J�, (2005)� Przemiany informatyki oraz cywilizacji i edukacji informacyjnej [Change

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telewizji i Internetu, Warszawa�Lewowicki, T� (1984)� Proces kształcenia wielostronnego: od schematu zmiany do zmiany

schematu, Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny, 2�Martinsson, J� (2009)� The Role of Media Literacy in the Governance Reform Agenda�

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Oficyna Wydawnicza CDiDN, Szczecin�Perzycka E�, (2008)� Struktura i dynamika kompetencji informacyjnych nauczyciela

w społeczeństwie sieciowym, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego, Szczecin�Potter, W� (2004)� Theory of media literacy: a cognitive approach� Thousand Oaks, Calif�

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Peer tutoring for eFL learning : A Multidimensional Analysis of elementary school students

AbstractThis study investigated dimensions of academic performance, learning motivation and learning attitudes by adapting peer tutoring as the major EFL classroom activities in an elementary school classroom� Exams, classroom observation, exit survey and comments after each class were administered as the source of research data� Results indicated that peer tutoring has a positive effect on tutors’ and tutees’ academic performance due to the increase in stu-dents’ grades� Students’ learning motivation and attitudes toward EFL learning also increased significantly� On the whole, the use of peer tutoring significantly contributed to better English ability, motivation and attitude�

Keywords: peer tutoring, EFL academic achievement, learning motivation, attitude, elementary school students, Taiwan.

introduction

In English as a foreign language (EFL) classes, facing a mixture of abilities is a challenge for the teachers, who must cope with the selection of course materials and determine an appropriate approach to teaching� Great differences in ability can also cause students to become less motivated and to develop negative atti-tudes towards learning English� An effective way of reversing this disadvantage of a mixed-ability class is to use peer tutoring (Goodlad and Hirst, 1989), a teaching method that has been adapted by teachers in a variety of academic areas such as ESL (English as a Second Language), EFL, mathematics, nursing education, and computer science (Brannagan et al�, 2013; Mynard and Almarzouqi, 2006; Vacilotto and Cummings, 2007)� Few studies have explored whether peer tutor-ing can be included as a major teaching method for the purposes of elevating

Kate Tzu-Ching Chen, Alison Yi-Chen TsaiTaiwan

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.16

190 Kate Tzu-Ching Chen, Alison Yi-Chen Tsai

elementary pupils’ academic performance and boosting their learning motivation and learning attitude� This study investigates the extent to which adapting peer tutoring improves elementary school students’ academic performance, learning motivation, and attitude in EFL mixed-ability classes�

Literature review

Peer Tutoring in Language LearningNumerous studies define peer tutoring as a way of having students who are

learning well help those who are having difficulty (Mynard and Almarzouqi, 2006; Vacilotto and Cummings, 2007)� Helping young learners to build a solid foun-dation is the task many elementary school teachers aim to complete, especially when the learners are learning an unfamiliar language (Penn, 2012)� Moreover, peer tutoring produces superior academic gains and greater cost efficiency for academic achievement (Fantuzzo, Polite and Grayson, 1990)� Slower learners are provided with the chance for one-on-one tutoring� In addition, tutees are less intimidated by peer tutors than by adults (Grubbs and Boes, 2009)�

Peer tutoring provides learners with an opportunity to learn by interacting with each other rather than with only the teacher and constructs cognitive processes resulting from social interaction or the zone of proximal development (ZPD) proposed by Vygotsky� The ZPD is the distance between the actual developmental level when solving problems alone and the potential developmental level when working in collaboration with more capable peers (Mynard Almarzouqi, 2006)� Wood and Wood (1996) pointed out that tutors serve as the link between tutees’ existing knowledge and skills and the new tasks in hand by providing instructions to support tutees’ problem solving� Tutors’ engagement in instructional activities such as explaining, answering questions, correcting tutee errors, and manipulat-ing different representations contributes to what is known as tutoring learning (Roscoe and Chi, 2008)� Adult supervision is also crucial for providing answers as well as feedback to tutors (Grubbs and Boes, 2009)� Moreover, it is preferable to match tutors to tutees of similar gender and socioeconomic status, as such match-ing allows for the best means of collaboration and provides more effective and comfortable communication (Grubbs and Boes, 2009)�

Language Learning Motivation and AttitudeMotivation, the instigated and sustained process of goal-directed activity, is one

of the most crucial factors in learning English (Carreira, 2006)� It is used to explain

191Peer Tutoring for EFL learning

why one succeeds or fails in a task in a foreign language classroom (Dörnyei, 1994)� Motivation is one of the most influential factors that affect students’ aca-demic or non-academic performance� The term refers to the “cognitive, emotional, and behavioral indicators of student investment in and attachment to education” (Tucker, Zayco and Herman, 2002, p� 477)� Students who are not motivated usually do not perform as well as those who are motivated�

One avenue of research into L2 motivation is being explored by R�C� Gardner and associates (Masgoret and Gardner, 2003)� They have indicated that moti-vation strongly influences L2 achievement� Gardner further proposed a socio-educational model of second language acquisition, stating that “integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning situation are two correlated variables that sup-port the individual’s motivation to learn a second language, but that motivation is responsible for achievement in the second language” (Masgoret and Gardner, 2003, p� 124)� Previous research has expanded the notion of whether integrative motivation can be related to achievement in L2, especially in EFL, since in many EFL contexts, contact with L2 speakers and the target culture is quite limited (Lamb, 2004)�

People with a favorable attitude toward the learning of a foreign language tend to be more intrinsically motivated (Lamb, 2004)� Intrinsically motivated students are likely to become involved based on personal interest, and they receive a sense of pleasure when improving their English ability (Wang and Guthrie, 2004)� Other studies have indicated the validity of intrinsic motivation in relation to learners’ positive attitudes toward language learning� In a study of 301 eleventh-graders in Budapest, Clément, Dörnyei and Noels (1994) found the intrinsic motivational factor of an interest in the cultural aspects of the English world to correlate with learners’ EFL learning attitude�


ParticipantsThirty-four (20 boys, 14 girls), fifth-graders in one class were chosen from an

elementary school in central Taiwan, where one of the researchers works as a full-time English teacher� Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1990) have examined stu-dent differences in self-regulated learning and found higher scores in the domain of goal-setting and planning in fifth-graders� The students had never experienced any form of peer tutoring in their curriculum before�


InstrumentsIn the presented research, STYLE was used as a placement test to discover the

participants’ English ability� STYLE/JET is a children’s English proficiency test designed by the Saxoncourt Examinations Center in Britain along with scholars and specialists in related fields from Europe, America, and Asia� The students were sorted into two groups, tutors or tutees, according to the results of a pre-test� Consent forms signed by their parents were collected prior to the study� The textbook, Kid Castle New Magic Land 6, was selected by a committee formed by the school authorities in an open meeting and was the main text used for peer tutoring in this study�

The study used a questionnaire called MALESC to measure the participants’ motivation and attitude� It was created by Carreira (2006) of the Tsuda College in Japan when she found out that most questionnaires with similar purposes were designed for adults and adolescent students� The questionnaire includes 19 items (cf� Table 1): eight on intrinsic/instrumental motivation to learn English (2&4), five on interest in foreign countries (1), three on caregivers’ encouragement (3), and three on anxiety (5)� The questionnaire was translated into Mandarin and administrated to the participants before and after the application of peer tutoring in order to identify any differences resulting from the intervention� Open-ended questions were also given to the tutors and the tutees for them to answer anony-mously, as supplementary information�

Table 1. The list of questionnaire items

Factor Item

Learning Motivation

2

1 English lessons are great fun�3 I always look forward to the day when we have the English class�6 I would like to try to use the English which I have learned�8 I hope that we have more English lessons�

4

7 I study English in order to make English easier for me in junior high school�

11 I study English because I think English will be necessary for me when I am an adult�

14 I am studying English for a future job�

19 I am studying English in order to enter a high school or a univer-sity�

Learning Attitude 1 2 I would like to go to various foreign countries�


Factor Item

Learning Attitude

1

4 I would like to make a lot of foreign friends�

12 I would like to try and talk to foreigners when my English be-comes proficient�

15 I would like to live abroad�17 I would like to know more about foreign countries�

39 In my family, we all feel that it is very important to learn English�

13 My parents hope that my English will be proficient�18 My parents tell me to study English hard�

5

5 I get worried when I am doing worse than my classmates in the English class�

10 I am somehow always anxious in the English class�

16 I get nervous when I answer or give a presentation in the English class�

Procedures and data analysisAt the beginning of the semester, the participants took the STYLE exam as

a placement test� Fourteen students scored above 90% on the pre-test and were assigned as tutors, distributed evenly into 7 groups with two tutees in each and trained by the teacher before the tutoring session began� The MALESC was given to the participants before the tutoring session and ran for ten weeks� The tutoring sessions were designed into a mission list that was given to the students during the first tutoring session� The mission list contained peer-led activities that were normally done by the teacher or as a class activity� Evaluation, including self-eval-uation and group competitions, was an important part of the participants’ study to encourage the students to be self-regulated and motivated to lead to greater success� Therefore, at the end of every lesson, both the tutors and the tutees had to evaluate themselves by writing notes of reflection for them to be aware of their own progress� The teacher needed to carefully monitor the amount of support the tutors gave to ensure the effectiveness of the tutoring sessions� At the end of each session, the teacher recorded log entries�

The data collected, including the results of the STYLE/JET, the midterm exams scores, and the MALESC questionnaire, were analyzed using the SPSS computer program� Factor analysis was used for extracting underlying factors behind aca-demic performance, L2 learning motivation, and the attitude of the elementary students before and after the implementation of peer tutoring� The efficacy of dif-ferent sessions and activities was determined based on classroom observation and


the teacher’s log� In addition, the overall performance of the program quality was examined with open-ended questions (an exit survey) completed by the students in the last session�

research results

Quantitative data analysis

The improvement of students’ academic achievementPeer tutoring was implemented after the first midterm� On the second midterm,

the average dropped from 85�88 to 81�65 (SD = 17�81678)� Three students scored a perfect 100, and sixteen students scored below average� Among them, four stu-dents failed� The students had never experienced peer tutoring as the main teach-ing method of course content� Therefore, the drop in grades may have been caused by their unfamiliarity with peer tutoring� On the final exam, the average rose from 81�65 to 88�90 (SD = 13�61324)� The decrease in the SD shows that the data became more concentrated around the mean� Not only was the average improved, but the number of students who failed the exam also fell to one� However, as shown in Table 2, the minimum score dropped from 42 to 33� These grades were from the same student, who actually really enjoyed his lessons, according to the qualitative data (exit survey)� For some students, it may take longer than 10 weeks to adjust to a new teaching method�

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Academic Achievement (N=34)

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation1st Midterm 34 42�00 100�00 85�8824 14�749972nd Midterm 34 38�00 100�00 81�6765 17�81678Final Exam 34 33�00 100�00 88�3529 13�99108

Learning motivation and attitude The MALESC questionnaire was given to the participants before and after

the implementation of peer tutoring to find out sthe tudents‘ language learning motivation and attitudes� The scores of the items related to learning motivation (1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14 and 19) on the pre- and post-test were calculated using SPSS� As shown in Table 3, the results of paired-sample t-test indicated no significant dif-ferences between the students’ pre- and post-motivation� However, the students


wrote about different aspects of their views toward the peer tutoring program� Their responses were analyzed qualitatively�

In addition, factors 1 and 3 (item 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 and 18) were related to the students’ attitudes toward learning English� According to the results of the paired samples t-test, there was no significant difference in the students’ learning attitudes�

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics and t-test for Pre- and Post- Motivation (Paired Samples Statistics)

Mean Number SD df t

Pre Motivation 34�6471 34 4�62459 33 �468Post Motivation 33�7353 34 5�04710Pre Attitude 42�4118 34 5�12343 33 �215Post Attitude 44�0294 34 5�50198

In terms of the learning attitude, items 13, 15, 16, and 18 had significant differ-ences (cf� Table 4)� Items 13 and 18 indicated a possible increase in the parents’ involvement in the participants’ study of English, since all of the parents were informed from the beginning of the implementation of peer tutoring with the consent form� On Item 15, the participants showed an increased interest in a more positive attitude and heightened curiosity toward foreign countries with the implementation of peer tutoring� That students showed interest in learning English for a practical reason is a good indication of an increased likelihood that they will pursue further study of English� A significant difference was also found on item 16� Because peer tutoring involved more teamwork and competition, the students became more aware of how their own performance would affect their group’s performance�

Table 4. Paired samples (Pre- and post-Test) t-test for items related to learning motivation

Paired Differences

t df Sig.(2-tailed)Mean Std.

DeviationStd. Error

Mean

95% Confidence Inter-val of the DifferenceLower Upper

Item 8 �61765 1�07350 �18410 �24308 �99221 3�355 33 �002*Item 19 –�88235 1�80512 �30958 –1�51219 -�25252 –2�850 33 �007*


Paired Differences

t df Sig.(2-tailed)Mean Std.

DeviationStd. Error

Mean

95% Confidence Inter-val of the DifferenceLower Upper

Item 13 –�44118 1�15971 �19889 –�84582 –�03654 –2�218 33 �034*Item 15 �50000 1�28511 �22040 �05160 �94840 2�269 33 �030*Item 16 –�91176 2�00556 �34395 –1�61154 –�21199 –2�651 33 �012*Item 18 –�55882 1�33010 �22811 –1�02292 –�09473 –2�450 33 �020*

*p < 0�05 by t-test

Qualitative data analysis

Students exit survey- responses from the tutorsThe first question was, “Which of the following best describe your feeling during

this English class? And why?” Nine tutors said it was fun, relaxed, and likeable� They wrote, “I like the English class because we always practise with games and activities, which makes it interesting�” A few students stated that they felt chal-lenged in the English class� “It is challenging for me, because not only do I need to study for myself, I also need to teach my classmate because I am his/her tutor� I felt there was more responsibility for me now than before�”

The second question was, “Are you afraid to attend this English class?” Six tutors responded that the English class was interesting and that they were not afraid to attend it� The third question was, “Do you find it difficult to understand the teacher during the English class?” Most of the tutors just answered with a simple “No,” and did not explain any further� One tutor pointed out, “No, because the teacher explained everything to us first, and organized the course materials into charts, forms and activities for us to practise with our classmates�”

The fourth question was, “Do you find it helpful for you to be a tutor during the English class? Why?” Some wrote, “Being a tutor gives me more confidence, and I found it fulfilling to teach my classmate�” The fifth question was, “Do you think being a tutor gives you more confidence to learn English? Why?” Some wrote, “Yes, I feel more confident� I could only be the one who was being taught before� Now I am the tutor, and I study harder to be a good example for my tutee�” “I really like English now! I think it is because of the different method we used to learn in class�”

The sixth question was, “Do you enjoy being a tutor? Why or why not?” Eleven out of the fourteen tutors indicated that they enjoyed being a tutor� A few tutors mentioned that tutoring had a positive influence on their temperament and their friendships with classmates� As one wrote, “I am really proud of my tutee, who


worked really hard to improve�” The seventh question was, “How helpful is it for you to assist your fellow classmates who are academically behind?” Some tutors mentioned that being a tutor taught them how to teach, and that helping their classmates gave them a chance to review the material� “I treasure the opportunity to teach others� I think it is helpful for me because I could also review the materials myself while teaching�”

The final question for the tutors was: “Are you in favour of being a tutor in the English class from now on? Why?” Ten of the fourteen tutors were in favour of being a tutor from then on� One tutor wrote, “I think the peer tutoring program not only gave me the chance to help my classmates but also helped me to make more friends�” Most tutors were in favour of the practice because they thought helping others was exhilarating�

Student exit survey – responses from the tuteesThe first question was, “Which of the following best describe your feelings dur-

ing this English class? And why?” Sixteen of the twenty tutees responded that it was fun and relaxing because they enjoyed the English class� However, one student was apparently not happy to be a tutee� She wrote, “I didn’t like having a tutor, because I didn’t like to be bossed around�”

The second question was, “Are you afraid to attend this English class? Why?” Most of them were not afraid and found it interesting� One tutee said, “The method we used in the English class was different from what I had experienced before� It was diverse and challenging, which made it interesting�” The third question was, “Do you find it difficult to understand the teacher during the English class?” Most tutees mentioned that even though they did not understand at first, the repeated practice with the teacher, the tutor, and their teammates helped them to improve, stating, “My tutor would explain things to me after class if I had any questions�” The fourth question was, “Do you find it helpful to have tutors assisting you during the English class? Why?” Most of them found it helpful because they could get instant responses when they had questions about the course materials�

The fifth question was, “Do you think having tutors to assist you gives you more confidence about learning English? Why?” One tutee said, “My tutor was really nice� Whenever I had a question, he would assist me until I truly understood� I don’t find English so difficult now�” The sixth question was, “Do you enjoy having tutors to assist you? Why or why not?” One tutee said, “I was afraid to ask the teacher questions during class� Now that I have a tutor, I can just ask him instead�” The final question for the tutees was, “Are you in favour of having tutors in the English class from now on? Why?” One tutee wrote, “I like this system because


my grades have improved�” One tutee talked about the benefit of learning English: “I think learning English well with my tutor is important because it will be helpful for my future job hunting�”

Discussion and Conclusion

In this study, one problem that arose between a tutor and a tutee was that the tutee did not seem to understand the tutor’s instruction and therefore showed limited improvement� Apparently, the tutor was frustrated and believed that he was paired with problematic tutees� Therefore, it is suggested that special attention be paid to the initial pairing when implementing peer tutoring to avoid problematic matches� It might be better to wait until students are comfortable with the process before assigning them a partner� One other issue that arose in this study was that some pupils felt they were wrongly chosen to be tutors� Tutors may not feel com-fortable with or confident in the task� In such cases, the teacher may have to give the tutors further training to make sure the tutors understand the curriculum and syllabus that they are going to teach and ways to complete the task�

Peer tutoring is a non-traditional learning method not normally applied in public classrooms in Taiwan� Although not significant, an overall improvement in the students’ academic performance was evident from the quantitative data collected� Qualitative information generated from the teacher’s observations (the teaching log), the students’ reflections, and the post-session feedback provided data from different angles� By observing the participants, the researcher/teacher could make necessary adjustments to respond to unexpected problems in the planned syllabus� By writing down reflections after every session, the participants became more aware of their own progress and also provided their opinions so that the researcher could tailor lesson plans to better meet the students’ preferences in order to maximize the effectiveness of the peer tutoring program�

The students enjoyed this alternative way of learning English, and peer tutor-ing improved their motivation and willingness to study English� Moreover, not only did the students become more aware of the importance of learning English, but their parents also wrote comments in support of the program� They became more actively involved in group discussions and their written feedback showed increased motivation and academic drive� The written feedback at the end of every session contained clear signs of increased motivation and a positive learning atti-tude� However, sometimes, busy lesson plans caused the feedback to be crammed in at the last minute� Future research should ensure that sufficient time remains


for students to write what they truly think about every activity� Moreover, this research was conducted over a period of only three months� If the time span were expanded, perhaps the effects of peer tutoring would be even more obvious�

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Clément, R�, Dörnyei, Z�, & Noels, K�A� (1994)� Motivation, self-confidence, and group Cohesion in the foreign language classroom� Language Learning, 44 (3), 417-448�

Dörnyei, Z� (1994)� Understanding L2 motivation: on with the challenge! The Modern Language Journal, 78 (4), 515-523�

Fantuzzo, J�W�, Polite, K�, & Grayson, N� (1990)� An evaluation of reciprocal peer tutoring across elementary school settings� Journal of School Psychology, 28, 309-323�

Goodlad, S�, & Hirst, B� (1989)� Peer tutoring: A guide to learning by teaching� London: Kogan Page Ltd�

Grubbs, N�, & Boes, S�R� (2009)� An action research study of the effectiveness of the peer tutoring program at one suburban middle school� Georgia School Counsellors Associa-tion Journal, 16 (1), 21-31�

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learning: a meta-analysis of studies conducted by Gardner and Associates� Language Learning, 53, 123-163�

Mynard, J�, & Almarzouqi, I� (2006)� Investigating peer tutoring� ELT Journal, 60, 13-22�Penn, S� (2012)� What Are the Benefits of Tutoring to Elementary School Children?

Elementary School Tutors� Retrieved 3/23/2015, from http://www�ehow�com/list_6401375_benefits-tutoring-elementary-school-children_html

Roscoe, R�D�, & Chi, M�T�H� (2008)� Tutor learning: The role of explaining and responding to questions� Instructional Science, 36 (4), 321-350�

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Vacilotto, S�, & Cummings, R� (2007)� Peer coaching in TEFL/TESL programmes� ELT Journal, 61 (2), 153-160�

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Wood, D�, & Wood, H� (1996)� Vygotsky, tutoring and learning� Oxford Review of Education, 22 (1), 5-16�

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Mentor teacher training in the Light of a study at the university of szeged

AbstractThe study starts with the introduction of main characters of Hungarian mentor training, then it demonstrates the results of exploratory empirical research and development, which has analysed the mentor image of students taking part in mentor training, started at the University of Szeged in 2011� In the course of the study it was analysed how the students of the mentor teacher course imagine a successful mentor� The images of successful examples as well as students’ expected basic personality traits were also examined� The methods applied in the studies of mentor image were based on the method of quanti-tative and qualitative content analysis� The main methods were observation, a questionnaire, written reports based on specified aspects, a mind map and documentation of project tasks� The results of the research serve to develop mentor training by the help of deeper exploration of the content of mentoring roles� The research results demonstrate the characteristics of common elements of mentoring roles, the mentors’ and mentees’ interpersonal relationships, the cooperative structure as well as the competence clichés and development indicators�

Keywords: mentor training, mentor image, mentoring skills, mentoring roles, career socialization

introduction

A more detailed approach to the mentoring concept may help to more deeply understand the details of mentor training and the process of mentoring� The use of the term mentor is not really new� There have been several definitions of it in teacher training and research, which approach the role of mentors from different sides (Koc, 2011)� In foreign literature, Rhodes’ definition is the most well-known

Alice Dombi, Krisztina Kovács Hungary

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.17

202 Alice Dombi, Krisztina Kovács

about the mentoring of school leavers� ”It is a term used in the field of human services, which means the connection between an older and more experienced person and a younger one who is not the relative of the older person, and the older one offers continuous advice, guidance and encouragement to the younger one in the interest of development of his/her efficiency, competence and personality development” (Rhodes, 2002: 3)� Freedman (1992) formulates similar views namely (1) the mentor is a consultant and teacher with more life experience and wisdom; (2) the mentor instructs the mentored person and helps his/her development; (3) the mentor and the mentee develop emotional ties based on mutual trust�

A central theme of teacher research is analysis of the determinants of career socialization� Some researchers analyse the factors that affect the successful start of career� Others try to find the answer to the question of what role mentors have in the early-stage of teachers’ professional socialization (Nagy, 2004)� In their study presented in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education, Hobson, Ashby, Mal-derez and Tomlinson (2009) emphasize that mentoring is one of the most basic elements in the help offered to the early-stage teachers� Thus, mentors’ activity and mentoring itself play an important role in the first critical years of pedagogical work� According to Bullogh and Draper (2004), mentoring decreases the feeling of isolation, assists the professional development of the mentee, increases confidence and self-esteem as well as improves reflection and problem-solving skills� In the long term, the emotional support of mentees contributes to the decrease in the number of profession leavers by providing them with experience�

In their literature summary, Hunya and Simon (2013) state that the need to sup-port early-stage teachers appears in the European Commission’s guidelines as well� According to these guidelines the emotional, social and professional support of early-stage teachers must be a part of such a mentoring program, the key elements of which are collegial learning, consultancy and support for self-assessment� Such mentoring programs function in half of the European countries� The Hungarian practice is also related to this European trend� According to the Lisbon strategy, the teacher’s career appears as a continuum, therefore the teacher training, men-toring of early-stage teachers and the teacher’s continuous professional develop-ment and training should be carried out in a unified system (Simon, 2013)� In the training period the aim is to develop the teacher competences of students, which can be realized by cooperation of higher education institutions and the institu-tions providing practical training� The tasks of mentors are determined by the practical training program prepared on the basis of the training and qualification requirements of the educational institution� The Act No� 2011 CXC on National Public Education and the government decree No� 326/2013� (VIII� 30) on the

203Mentor Teacher Training in the Light of a Study at the University Of Szeged

teacher promotion system as well as the Act No� 1992 XXXIII on the legal status of civil servants are fundamental for the operation of the mentoring system� The latter act entered into force on 1 September 2013� According to the government decree, the first stage of the career is a trainee period, which is compulsory for each teacher� The teachers in a public education institution who have the necessary qualifications but their professional experience is shorter than two years are put to the trainee level� During the trainee period the mentor helps the early-stage teacher to integrate into the institutional structure, assists the practical realiza-tion of pedagogical and methodological tasks as well as the preparation for the qualification examination� In the period of continuous professional training the aim of mentoring is to assist the continuous professional development, to develop the quality of pedagogical experience as well as to support the reflectivity and innovativeness (Kovács and Fáyné Dombi, 2015)�

The studies dealing with the mentoring role and the tasks connected to it are extremely instructive (Bullough, 2005; Martínez-Figueira and Raposo-Rivas, 2014)� Analysing the randomly selected literature the differentiation of mentoring roles can be observed in the institutional education and training� In his research, Dombi (2002, 2004) emphasizes that giving an example of mentoring activities is an outstanding job role for mentors in teacher training and the early-stage of teachers’ work, as mentors use their own personality, which is one of the main sources of mentoring� The trainee can easily adopt the mentor’s style and some elements of his/her values and norms� The mentor, who is a prestigious person because of his/her role, serves as moral support and reference example that they can identify with� The mentor as a critical friend develops a friendly, collegial rela-tionship with the mentees, based on the difference of their experiences, and helps the professional activities of the early-stage teachers with a facilitative attitude� In their study, Costa and Kallick (1993) claim that every teacher needs a confidential person who asks provocative questions or provides assisting criticism� The activi-ties of mentors and mentees are mostly realized as a result of a common learning process� According to Rhodes, during the time spent learning together, the mentor and the mentee often develop a relationship based on shared commitment, respect, loyalty and common personality traits, which promotes the transition of youth to adulthood (Rhodes, 2002: 3)�

The structures of the mentoring role and the responsibilities are complex, and their realization is not simple� Its theory and practice are learnt in the course of mentor training� One form of this training is the two-semester-long post-graduate training of mentor teachers, the prerequisite of which is at least a BA in Pedagogy� In Hungary, mentor training programs have been started recently in all regions of


the country in the frame of the TÁMOP project� The aim of mentor training is to prepare the participants in the training for the instruction of practical training of students as well as for the helping of career socialization of early-stage teachers� The competences gained in the course of training can be summarized as knowl-edge, skills and attitudes� In the professional training mentor candidates are taught the levels and competence expectations of the teacher career model, Hungarian and foreign literature necessary for the mentoring activity, the responsibility, roles and tasks of mentors in the course of mentoring, improve their knowledge of their profession and develop their pedagogical competence� The aim of the training is that the students should be capable of effective professional cooperation and communication needed in the mentoring activity as well as planning, organizing, management and evaluation of the institutional work of early-stage teachers, lead-ing and following their work for constructive feedback and preparing the early-stage teachers for the qualification examination� (Kovács and Fáyné Dombi, 2015)�


Research General BackgroundThe research highlights the (1) motivation of students in choosing mentor

training� The main goal of the empirical study was (2) to identify the mentor image of mentor-teacher students� The abilities and personality traits needed for successful mentor teachers according to students were also examined� What are the elementary virtues that are needed for mentor teachers to be able to satisfy the requirements and role expectations? Another goal of the study was to analyse (3) what difficulties and professional challenges are seen by mentor students in the mentoring tasks, the knowledge of which would contribute to the more efficient training of mentor teachers�

Based on foreign research results, our research started with the assumption that (1) the realities of pedagogical practice are represented in the property lists given by students, (2) mentor-teacher candidates chose their institutions mainly because they had felt a calling to the mentor-teachers’ tasks, which positively influences their mentoring views�

Research SampleAt the Juhász Gyula Teacher Training Faculty of the University of Szeged

postgraduate courses have been run in mentor training continuously since 2011 for teachers having pedagogical practice� In our presentation, the results of 82


students of four groups taking part in the mentor training are demonstrated� There are no students in the sample having less than five years of pedagogical practice, and those ones who have 5 –10 years of pedagogical practice represented a minority in the sample (14�63 %)� This is very important because according to international literature at least 2�5 – 5 years are needed for the early-stage teachers to get the necessary experience to be able to work as a teacher confidently (Turner, 1995 cited Berliner, 2005)� The majority of the students (46 = 56�09%) have 11 – 20 years of professional practice� There are two people (4�88%) in the sample who have more than 30 years of experience in the teaching profession� The mentor students are highly experienced teachers, who have outstanding professional theoretical knowledge and practical skills� 53�66% of the students in the sample are nursery school teachers, 9�76% lower primary teachers, 9�76% upper primary teachers, 7�32 secondary school teachers, 9�76 % technical instructors and 9�76 % special education teachers� A part of the students of mentor training (36�59%) has mentoring experience�

InstrumentAnalyses of the mentor image were carried out by the methods of quantitative

and qualitative content analysis� The applied methods were the following: observa-tion, a questionnaire, written reports based on specified aspects, a mind map and documents of project tasks� The main types of questions in our own questionnaire were as follows: (1) fact questions needed for background variables, (2) open ques-tions connected to the mentoring views of the mentor students, and possibly their experiences in mentor training� The results obtained by the different methods were analyzed after summarizing them�

research results

In our research the answers were investigated to the question of what motivated the students to enrol on the mentor training� The students gave inner and outer reasons influencing their choice of the mentor training� The inner motives were the following: willingness to supply the mentoring tasks (1) possibility to deal with people, (2) dealing and (3) cooperation with young people, (4) joy of transfer of professional knowledge and (5) motivation for assistance� Their choice was deter-mined by outer motives like (1) fulfilment of obligatory postgraduate training, (2) free training and (3) encouragement by their principals (headquarters)� Among the answers there were some which proved the students’ own higher professional


expectations towards themselves e�g�, (1) to learn from the mentees, (2) possibility of professional rejuvenation and (3) realization of personal career plans� Taking into account all the respondents, the answers demonstrate that the choice of this training had been induced mostly by the teachers’ personal interests, their demand of professional development and social sensitivity�

Based on the experiences, the fundamental, but not sufficient, condition of being a good mentor is that the mentor teachers would carry out their professional duties as a teacher at a high level� It often happens that a nursery school teacher doing methodologically superior educational work, or an expert teacher of his/her subject will not be a good mentor as there are several competences which are more closely connected to the mentoring activities than to the educational and teaching practice� Berliner (2005) differentiated five levels in the process of becoming a teacher: (1) level of early-stage teacher, (2) intermediate level, (3) level of competence, (4) proficient level, and (5) expert level� Having studied the stages of the professional development of teachers it can be concluded that only those teachers are suitable to fulfil the mentor-teachers’ tasks who have reached the two upper levels of their professional development�

Starting from this basic statement the students’ views on the competence of effective mentors were identified� Our first conclusion was that carrying out mentoring tasks means specific role-tasks which are partly the same as teachers’ activities, but in a way they complete those� This way the mentoring profession is supposed to require special skills which define the relationship between the men-tor and the mentored beside helping, supporting, guiding and protecting factors� Considering these topics, the following key ideas were emphasized: mentoring skills, mentoring role and mentoring activity�

The expectations for the mentor’s personality were the following� The students’ expectations towards the mentor were described as follows: the mentor should be able to get into the situation of their early-stage colleagues, as otherwise they cannot treat their early-stage colleagues’ problems with understanding and in an accepting atmosphere� At the same time, the mentor has to keep their necessary objectivity, so they cannot fully identify with the life situation of their early-stage colleagues� Gentleness occurred as an accompanying feature of the helper role� The students emphasized that the facilitating discussions must take place in an intimate atmosphere, and only the topics relevant to the solution of a given prob-lem should be discussed� It is also important that the mentor would accept his/her mentee and would not want to change him/her by any means� With the help of acceptance and respect it is possible to make an early-stage colleague open up and cooperate� An honest, open and supportive approach is extremely important as


the mentor-teacher should encourage his/her early-stage colleague continuously in the course of solution of a given problem, and has to offer honest feedback� The mentor-teacher has to be well-prepared in the given topic offering his/her profes-sional competence to the mentee� Good communication skills are essential� Verbal and non-verbal communication, constant attention, eye contact, active silence and continuous feedback play a serious role in the helping activity� The mentor-teacher assists the early-stage teacher in the development of his/her problem solving abil-ity� One of the most difficult tasks in the course of the mentoring activity is the creation of a symmetrical and equal relationship between the mentor and the mentee� It is also essential that the mentor should be able to identify themselves with the wide circle of people having different ideals and views, even if a part of these values is distant from their own ones� It is essential that the mentor should be able to identify themselves with the helper’s role, but at the same time, they must be able to recognize the limits of their own competences, and to know clearly what they have to transfer� Furthermore, they must be good team workers and must be creative as well�

The components of exemplary mentors’ personal characteristics listed by the students can be divided into three groups: (1) professional characteristics, (2) per-sonality traits and (3) communication skills� The most significant element of professional characteristics is professionalism (63�41%), calling (34�15%), setting

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Features of mentors profess

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empath

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helpful

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-minded

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Figure 1. The most important features necessary for the mentoring function according to the students


a good example (29�27%), and creativity (12�20%)� Empathy (48�78%), helpfulness (48�78%), patience (26�83 %) and social sensitivity (12�20 %) are also emphasized� The components of good communicative ability are good communication skills (39�02%), credibility (21�95%), critical vision (19�51%) and good reflective capabil-ity (14�63%)� Analysing the mentor’s personal characteristics it can be stated that a wide range of elements of pedagogical practice appears among the characteristics of mentors� According to the students, a successful mentor is a professionally and personally well-prepared, motivated and congruent person who is committed to the mentoring tasks�

Another aim of the study was to explore what challenges mentors face according to the students, and to identify the factors which might be difficult for mentors in the process of mentoring� Analysis of these issues is considered to be important as the professional knowledge and self-awareness may play a significant role in the career choice, and as a result new mentors will be able to comply with the requirements of the mentoring career, and identify with it� This is strengthened by the thoughts on teaching talent (Dombi, 2004; 2006)� At the same time, this study is a good opportunity for reflection on mentor training� It assists the improvement of the quality of training, and if necessary further development of the content of subjects� The answers given to the open questions are analysed in the context of mentoring roles� There was a tendency among the students to find new professional challenges mainly in compliance with the coop-erative role of mentors� According to the students’ opinions, under-motivated and unprepared dealing with the mentee can be the biggest problem in the course of mentoring, which may end in an inadequate interpersonal relationship between the mentor and the mentee� Another difficulty mentioned by the students was efficient cooperation with the colleagues and the higher education institution� In the field of expert consultant roles effective exercise of duties is made dif-ficult by the presentation of institutional documents, continuous professional renewal and innovation� The professional wording of criticism in a friendly way, reflection, lack of patience, communication skills and conflict resolution are the main problems for the students� This feedback shows that in mentor training it is essential to develop the students’ meta-level thinking skills, their reflection and self-reflection skills as well as their social sensitivity and critical thinking, which contribute to the improvement of the quality of professional contacts between the mentor and the mentee�


Conclusions

In conclusion, the authors would like to quote the summary of one of their mentor training groups, because it highlights the fine structure of systematic construction� It includes the pedagogical phenomena and cooperative structure of the mentor – mentee relationship, as well as the common trends of competence clichés and development indicators�

The mentor appears as a helper, or an accompanying person who escorts the mentee in the mentor-mentee relationship and helps the mentee to go on the right track with support, advice and concrete assistance� The professional competence of the mentor is based on the existence of the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge necessary for mentoring work, and on their willingness to work accord-ing to the values required by the helpng profession� Analysis demonstrated that the mentor image of our students of mentor training moves towards the formation of metacognition of mentoring knowledge based on the dynamic system of training of the mentoring profession through the development of common views�

Analysis of the mentoring skills believed to be the most important by the men-tor students might be the subject of further research which takes into account the well-known competence models that allow for the standardization and systema-tization of mentoring skills�

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building teachers’ Capacity in Formative Assessment: the singapore example

AbstractThe objective of this study is to contribute to the knowledge base of teacher professional development and formative assessment using Singapore as an example� The study was carried out through an exploratory case study in a Singapore school� Our study shows that while the teachers find formative assessment beneficial, they do not have sufficient knowledge of it and face the challenges of heavy workload, time pressure and lack of confidence� The results serve to inform policymakers and educators of the need to provide effective and sustained teacher professional development in formative assessment as well as continual teacher support and collaboration�

Keywords: formative assessment, Singapore, teacher professional development

introduction

One of the most important strategies is for teachers to use effective classroom assessment that measures what students are learning and how they are learning it� At the same time, teachers are expected to use the assessment information to plan and adapt instruction� In other words, classroom assessment should be integrated with the instructional process for teachers to understand and reinforce student learning� These are the key principles of assessment for learning or formative assessment as advocated by many assessment experts (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Shepard, 2000)�

Research Problem Despite the importance of teacher professional development in assessment,

there is also limited empirical evidence documenting teachers’ perceptions

Kim KohCanadaLyndon Lim, Charlene Tan, Mubarak HabibSingapore

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.18

212 Kim Koh, Lyndon Lim, Charlene Tan, Mubarak Habib

of formative assessment, especially in theAsian context� Using Singapore as an example, this paper critically discusses the issues and challenges faced by teachers in implementing formative assessment� The paper begins by highlighting the need to build teachers’ capacity in formative assessment, followed by a discussion of an empirical study conducted in a Singapore school�

Research FocusAn integral part of teacher professional development is to equip teachers with

formative assessment or assessment for learning practices� Formative assessment or assessment for learning can be used to facilitate learning by providing students with opportunities to judge their own work and learning progress based on feedback to various kinds of teacher-made tests and performance tasks such as student portfolios� A shift in focus from rote learning and the memorisation of the content of core subjects to the mastery of higher order thinking skills as well as self-directed learning skills such as learning how to learn is also driven by the need for 21st century skills, knowledge and competencies (Boud & Falchikov, 2006; Shepard et al�, 2005; OECD, 2005)�

Black and Wiliam (1998) point out that the absence of formative assessment in the classroom has contributed to ineffective teaching, self-doubt amongst low achieving students and potential adverse effects on students’ self-esteem and motivation� Stiggins (2002) reiterated that the raising of standards through standardized testing does little to encourage students with already low academic achievement and low self-efficacy to try harder� Whilst accountability through infrequent standardized testing provides information for policy makers and educators to make informed decisions, the student as an active user of assessment information is ignored� Classroom support in the form of formative assessment crafted by teachers provides regular if not daily information for the students to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning� Classroom environments in which students use assessment to understand what success looks like and how to do better encourage students to attribute academic success to individual effort�

There is a need to build teachers’ capacity in formative assessment practices because such an innovation is relatively new to many teachers who may not have received any formal assessment training in their pre-service teacher education programs� According to Dede, Korte, Nelson, Valdez, and Ward (2005), no edu-cational improvement effort can succeed without building teachers’ capacity to innovate� Likewise, Wiliam and Thompson (2008) point out that developing the capability of the existing teaching workforce is far more effective than reducing

213Building Teachers’ Capacity in Formative Assessment: the Singapore Example

class size or hiring new teachers to replace the old ones in the effort to improve educational outcomes�


General Background of ResearchThis study explores the Singapore teachers’ experiences with and perceptions

of formative assessment, as well as the challenges they face in implementing formative assessment in the classroom� A brief introduction to assessment in Singapore is helpful here� Prior to the 1990s, assessment in Singapore schools was predominantly summative in nature, with all students having to sit for national terminal examinations at the end of their primary, secondary and junior college education (for details, cf� Lim & Tan, 1999)� A turning point was in 1997 when the Singapore Ministry of Education aimed to reform the nation’s education system so that holistic development of a new generation of students can be made possible through high quality teaching, assessment and learning (Goh, 1997, PERI, MOE 2009; SERI, MOE 2010)�

Among the educational reforms in Singapore an emphasis is placed on going beyond purely summative assessment towards formative assessment� This was manifested in the introduction of performance assessment for coursework in subjects such as Design and Technology, Art and Computer Applications, as well as the implementation of a new subject known as Project Work since 2003 (Chong, 2009)� The most recent reform in education is evident in the Primary Education Review and Implementation (MOE, 2009), in which the semestral exams for Primary 1 and 2 are replaced with bite-sized modes of assessment, such as topical tests, to provide regular feedback on pupils’ learning to parents� The PERI Com-mittee recommended that assessment should support the holistic development of pupils and the school-based assessment and feedback system should be adjusted to focus more on developmental objectives� It should also encourage the balanced development of knowledge, skills and values in children�

Research Sample An exploratory case study was conducted in a secondary school in Singapore�

We conducted professional development workshops on formative assessment with the participating teachers in the respective school� A focus group interview was conducted with three of the participating teachers to understand their learning


experiences and constraints� Pseudonyms have been given to both schools to ensure anonymity of the subjects interviewed�

instrument and Procedures

SampleThe sample comprised 30 mathematics and science teachers from Princess Alice

Secondary School� The school is an autonomous government-aided secondary school that caters for diverse learners from three main academic streams, namely express, normal academic and normal technical� Currently, the school is classified as a Band 5 school (out of 9 banded schools) for the express stream and a Band 1 school (out of 5 banded schools) for the normal academic stream by the Ministry of Education�

Context One of the strategic thrusts of the school is holistic education, and in recent

years, there has been a paradigm shift from conventional classes to differentiated classes to better meet the myriad academic dispositions of pupils that attend the school� Along with these major curricular changes, the school leaders felt that there is a need for changes in assessment, albeit the traditional paper-and-pen assessment is still the dominant assessment mode�

Professional Development Due to the curricular changes, a 2-day professional development workshop on

formative assessment was conducted in November 2009� On the first day of the workshop, the teachers were first tasked to reflect on their current assessment practices, after which, they were introduced to, discussed and shared in groups the definitions of formative, alternative and authentic assessment� The major part of the workshop focused on the concepts and ideas of formative assessment as well as the five formative assessment strategies� Once the teachers were exposed to the ideas and strategies of formative assessment, they worked in teams to identify whether their current assessment practices were formative in nature� Toward the end of the workshop, the teachers worked in teams again according to their teaching subjects to re-visit their current curriculum and highlight some possible areas in which assessment can be formative� They then discussed in general how they would implement different strategies of formative assessment in their classes�


On the second day of the workshop, the teachers were introduced to crafting rubrics and giving formative feedback� About half of the day 2 workshop was set aside for the teachers, in their teams, to work on the rubrics that would complete their plan of formative assessment for their classes� The different teams of teachers used the remaining time of the workshop to share their ideas of formative assess-ment with the big group so that the other teachers could critique and learn from each other�

Data Analysis

A focus group interview was conducted with three teachers in a meeting room within the school compound on 31 May 2010� The interview was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim� The discussion sought to understand whether they benefited from the 2-day workshop and whether they had implemented what they planned� Any issues and problems they faced in implementing formative assessment in the classroom were also surfaced� The three teachers were invited as follows:

• Teacher C was a biology and principles of accounts teacher • Teacher D was a mathematics and physics teacher • Teacher W was a chemistry and mathematics teacher

All the three teachers have at least 5 years of teaching experience and have taught across grade levels (Secondary 1 to 5)�

research results

When asked about their formative assessment practices, all the three teach-ers stated that they had not used any formative assessment in class so far� Only Teacher W had used journaling but did not use it as formative assessment and the journaling assignment was not accompanied by a set of rubrics� When the teachers were asked why they did not use formative assessment in class, several issues emerged from the interview data�

Definition� While all the three teachers found the workshop an eye-opener, and said that it was effective in exposing them to other modes of assessment besides the traditional pen-and- paper test, not all of them were clear about the definitions of formative, alternative and authentic assessment�

‘OK, actually I still don’t really understand what formative assessment is so I don’t think I can give much�’ (Teacher W) ‘For me, I think, it is like giving a class


test or common test, I mean, not at the end of the year but throughout the year, after every chapter just to check their understanding�’ (Teacher C)

It appears that although the workshop was introductory, it did not fully manage to weed out the underlying misconceptions of formative assessment� Teachers W and C had likened formative assessment to bite-sized tests� This is similar to what has been proposed in PERI�

Teaching workload� The discussion of teacher workload was noteworthy� Two of the three teachers attributed their inability to use formative assessment in class to their overwhelming teaching workload� Teacher W mentioned that “time” was a critical factor in implementing formative assessment in class�

‘I think it is because when the time pressure is there to complete the syllabus, you will always go back to a form of assessment or even teaching that you are most comfortable with…� if I were to do formative assessment, maybe that particular half a year, I should have maybe 1 or 2 classes fewer�’ (Teacher D)

Teacher D further suggested that the implementation of formative assessment is currently an add-on burden, and that nothing has been done by the school administrators to reduce teachers’ workload�

Teacher beliefs� All the three teachers stated that they believed in the value of formative assessment and how it can assist students in learning�

‘Formative assessment is the assessment of students at different stages of their learning, so it allows them to have intervention at appropriate moments so that their learning is more holistic�’ (Teacher D)

‘I think I will definitely implement it because there is definitely some usefulness in doing it but I will do it in a very scaled down version…’ (Teacher W)

These beliefs, however, were apparently weighed down by their workload, time pressure and their lack of confidence in implementing formative assessment in class�

‘… I also don’t have the confidence in implementing it across the classes�’ (Teacher W)� ‘Because at the end of the day, let’s be very frank, I’m not very confident of implementing formative assessment and I happen to teach 3 classes, and if I do it one shot with 3 classes, it is going to be… all 3 will not get it right�’ (Teacher D)

Students’ perceptions� There was a concern that if the teachers implemented formative assessment this year, their students might not understand the rationale behind it� This might be detrimental to their learning as they might resist that type of assessment and request paper-and-pen tests instead�

‘Students are also new to this formative assessment� So if we just bring in some-thing at this level, there will definitely be tension because students’ focus is just


doing well in their N and O level exam at the end of the year and they might be wondering why we do journaling, projects, portfolios and all these and how this will help them�’ (Teacher W)

The discussion further suggested that it could be more beneficial if formative assessment was introduced to students as early as the secondary 1 level�

Support� Teacher C highlighted that there could be more professional support if teachers were required to implement formative assessment in class�

‘For me, it will be teacher support� Maybe not so much like Teacher Aide but more like real professional teachers doing the same thing, and thus when we make mistakes we make the same mistakes�’ (Teacher C)�

This suggests that building sustainable school-embedded TLCs is of paramount importance� Besides the professional support that was discussed, Teacher D also linked teacher support to lesser workload�

‘If I can off load some of my classes to another capable teacher, then why not?’ (Teacher D)

Stakeholders’ expectations� The issue of the value of marks from traditional high-stake assessment came out relatively strongly� It was emphasised that if marks were still what is expected from the stakeholders and industry, formative assess-ment may not outweigh paper-and-pen tests�

‘However you put it across, they (students) know that at the end of the day, O levels are just going to be marks� So if we were to implement it now, it will be very tough…� They (students) want to see some kind of marks that can be objective� And to them, one thing that gives them the greatest assurance and objectivity is pen and paper�’ (Teacher D)

‘I think as much as teachers, we want our students to learn and develop not just in the academic aspect, we want them to also leave the school with good character, being critical thinkers, and have skills that can help them through the greater part of their lives in future when they work as 21st century workers, learners� But at the end of the day, I think marks are still important because that is what everybody looks at unless this whole thing is taken away and there is a whole new way of grading�’ (Teacher W)

Teacher D also emphasised how schools offering the integrated programme, where students need not sit for the ‘O’ level national examination, are more able to engage in more formative assessment� Teacher D’s responses suggest that he held a misconception of the purpose and function of formative assessment�

Policy� Despite teacher beliefs and all other resistance, the teachers agreed that if one component of their appraisal and ranking consisted in whether the teacher had conducted formative assessment in class, they would definitely implement


formative assessment� This suggests that the teachers’ mind-set or beliefs are driven by accountability demands in a performative culture�

‘For me, if I am ranked, then I will� If not, then I will maybe still just try�’ (Teacher C)

Teacher D highlighted that if formative assessment was done because of direc-tives, it would not be done so much for student learning, but rather for the ranking of teachers�

Discussion

Our study of a school in Singapore has pointed out that the teachers generally recognize the merits of formative assessment in helping their students to learn better� However, they face the main challenges of time constraint as they juggle multiple responsibilities, their own insufficient knowledge of and confidence in implementing formative assessment, and their concern that their students lack the ability to perform formative assessment� There is therefore a need for policymakers and educators to provide effective teacher professional development in formative assessment supplemented by continual teacher support and collaboration so as to equip them with the wherewithal and confidence to implement such a form of assessment�

The professional development for teachers to improve their assessment literacy should go beyond techniques and skills in carrying out assessment to interro-gating the teachers’ beliefs on teaching, learning and assessment� Guskey (2002) points out that teachers’ formative assessment practices are influenced by their beliefs about student learning and their assessment literacy� These beliefs in turn may relate to their experiences with student success due to formative assessment practices� It is also important to measure the impact of formative assessment practices on student academic performance in terms of learning gains and changes in teachers’ attitudes towards formative assessment practices and how they are related to student learning gains� The ultimate goal of formative assessment is to guide students toward the development of their own ‘learning to learn’ skills or metacognitive or ‘control’ strategies (OECD, 2005)� Students who acquire ‘control’ strategies are equipped with their own language and tools for learning as well as their own strategies for problem solving (OECD, 2005)� Professional development of teachers should shift from technical training for specific skills to opportunities for intellectual professional growth (NRC, 1996, p� 58)� When teachers have the time and opportunities to describe their own views about learning and teaching,


and to compare, contrast, and revise their views, they come to understand the nature of exemplary science teaching (NRC 1996, p�67)�

Teacher professional development should be supplemented with continual teacher support and collaboration in the school� Research on teacher professional development has consistently pointed out that teachers learn and work best in a community of practice� Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) define a com-munity of practice as a set of people who ‘share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis’ (p� 4, as cited in the Author)� Comprising an informal aggregation, it is defined not only by its members but also by the shared manner in which they do things and interpret events (Brown & Duguid, 1991; Eckert, 1993; Lave & Wenger, 1991)� Such a community, according to Lave and Wenger (1991, p� 98), is “an intrinsic condition for the existence of knowledge, not least because it provides the interpretive support necessary for making sense of its heritage”� The ‘interpretive support’ includes the dimensions of culture, technology, economy and politics�

Conclusion

Using Singapore as an example, this article highlights the potentials and challenges in building teacher capacity in formative assessment� Addressing these challenges requires not just structural changes in the school (e�g� lighten the teachers’ workload to solve the issue of workload and insufficient time) and ad-hoc workshops on formative assessment for teachers� Rather, there is a need to improve teachers’ assessment literacy and support teachers in a continuous and sustained manner through teacher professional development and teacher collaboration�

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Assessment of Chosen Musical Competences of Kindergarten teachers

as an employment Criterion

AbstractThe importance of music in the general development of kindergarten children implies that teachers providing education, including music education, should be equipped with elaborate musical skills that, as might be assumed, should become a vital element taken into consideration during preschool teacher interviews� Research conducted in the Silesian region over the years 2014 – 2015 shows that the surveyed directors of kindergartens view musical skills, in most cases, as an essential supplement to other competences of teachers, among which the ability to play a melodic instrument and vocal skills are, in their opinion, the most important musical competences� The majority of directors only review documents confirming such competences, whereas almost a quar-ter of the surveyed participants admit to not verifying musical competences of future kindergarten teachers; the surveyed individuals claim, most frequently, that kindergarten teachers are sufficiently prepared to play a role of musical educators for small children, and that kindergarten teachers, instead of special-ist musicians, should implement the content stipulated in the core curriculum� What is more, no statistically significant differences between respondents from urban and rural environments were identified�

Keywords: kindergarten teacher, musical competences, competence evaluation, child, employment

Kamil Wilk, Tomasz HukPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.19

223Assessment of Chosen Musical Competences

introduction – theoretical background for selecting the subject, terminological findings

The contemporary discourse on the role of broadly defined art in shaping attitudes and abilities of a kindergarten child is free of any doubts as to the therapeutic influence of art as the most effective form of education (Popiołek-Rodzińska, 2012, p� 245) (Burdeva, 2005)� As I� Popiołek-Rodzińska (2012) claims, in the context of repeated reforms of the education system and changes to core curricula, which result in a dramatic degradation of music (and arts) education, that a kindergarten is admittedly a proper place for shaping the sensitivity of a little human being� It is there – in the “child development space” (Watoła, 2009) – that competent and committed teachers should encourage their pupils to copy and adopt positive models, treating music with due respect – in compli-ance with provisions of relevant acts of law (Collins, 2014) (Ordinance of the Ministry of Education of 23rd December 2008 …) – and as an integral element of kindergarten education (Herod, 2012, p� 18)� In order to properly implement contents resulting from the core curriculum, it is necessary to have sufficiently prepared teaching staff (Herod, 2012, p� 283 et seq�), since in the contemporary teaching reality it is a kindergarten teacher who, in most cases, plays the role of the only one music educator for pupils (Wilk, 2004, p� 9)� With the above in mind, and being familiar with basic conditions determining the child’s musical development, one has to agree with B� Bonna as to the considerable significance of teachers’ competences, music competences included, since a lack of proper musical influences – especially when combined with an improper didactic pro-cess caused by lacking skills – may result in the sheer inability to make use of beneficial effects of music in the future (Bonna, 2002, p� 29)�

Bearing the above in mind, it becomes obvious that one needs to specify the notion of competence, both in its general sense and in the sense of musi-cal competences� However, it needs to be emphasised that the area is relatively heterogeneous, considerably vast and impossible to be thoroughly discussed in a single article – hence, the authors shall focus solely on a rough description of the most essential approaches to be found in the primary sources�

For the purpose of our further considerations, we can adopt a definition of competence, elaborated by W� Okoń, in which a competence is (…) an abil-ity for determined task areas, perceived (…) as an effect of the learning process (Okoń, 1996)� It is also (…) an ability to properly fulfil one’s duties and make right decisions based on (…) knowledge and experience (Inny słownik języka polskiego, 2000); (…) vocational training, knowledge scope, abilities and responsibilities for

224 Kamil Wilk, Tomasz Huk

performing defined tasks (E� Groźlińska, Szlosek, 1997, p� 52); (…) a balanced mix-ture of knowledge, capabilities, comprehension and desire (Czerepaniak-Walczak, 1997, p� 88) or (…) an amalgamation of knowledge, skills and attitudes (Kwiat-kowski, Bogaj, Baraniak, 2007, p� 61)� In other words, it is a set of (…) knowledge, skills, dispositions, as well as attitudes and values necessary for task fulfilment (Kowolik, 2010, p� 146 et seq�)�

M� Kołodziejski rightly claims that music education, including early music education (authors’ note) in its present shape is (…) a process of educating and upbringing through music and for music (…)� Thus, music education is shaped by various musical activities (Kołodziejski, 2011, p� 11), which requires teachers to possess musical competences of a high level (this matter was also raised by other renowned authors, such as K� Lewandowska (1988, p� 20), R� Ławrowska (2003, p� 6), M� Kisiel (2011, 153,160), B� Podolska (1987, p� 5), W� A� Sacher (2011) et al�)� The required level of musical competences is so high that – as stated by M� Biliński (2006, p� 102) – few individuals are able to meet the criteria (this opinion is shared by B� Bonna (2006, p� 65), R� Ławrowska (2003, p� 67) and W� Sacher (1997, 19 – 21)� M� Suświłło (2001, pp� 185, 248 – 249, 274) believes that vocational training of teach-ers in early education should deal with both pedagogical competences (referring to the capability of preparing and carrying out a didactic process – authors’ note) and music competences, while the latter should be – due to their immense significance in early-year music education – as broad as possible� M� Suświłło elaborated an interesting model of an early education music teacher, encompassing – apart from intellectual, psychological, pedagogical and ethical competences – music compe-tences, among which there are basic musical skills (pitch-related hearing, analytical hearing, music-related memory and sense of rhythm), musical knowledge (knowl-edge of the history of music, music literature and theoretical background for music education), methodology-related skills connected to early-year music education (ability to use basic forms of music activities, knowledge of current curricula and concepts in music education), knowledge of the musical development of the child and its determinants, ability to diagnose the levels of pupils’ musical abilities and achievements, ability to work with children with special music-related needs, and an ability to use technical devices as well as music-related interests� On the basis of the assumed teacher model, and for the purpose of the presented research findings, the authors determined the following musical competence areas, the perception of which the authors attempted to determine in the sample group:

• ability to play a melodic instrument; • vocal skills; • dancing skills;


• knowledge of music theory and musical notation; • knowledge of music literature in its broad sense; • knowledge of music literature for children (songs, counting-out rhymes, etc�)

The theoretically indisputable and strong position of music education among other contents resulting from the kindergarten core curriculum, standing in sharp contrast with the above-mentioned conviction of authorities as to a frequent lack of sufficient musical background among kindergarten teachers, was a drive and justification for the research findings presented herein, particularly as the authors had not met any similar inquiries in the primary sources�

Methodological assumptions of the authors’ own research

The aim of the research stipulated herein was to reach a diagnosis, followed by a summary (Skulicz, 2010, pp� 221 – 236) of an assessment, made by potential employers, of selected musical competences of kindergarten teachers as a cri-terion determining their employment� In other words, the authors attempted to determine to what extent the said employers would take into consideration candidates’ musical skills, identified as a result of the recruitment process, which among the above-mentioned areas the employers regarded as a crucial area for working with children, and whether and how they would verify these skills� The authors attempted to find out whether the respondents would, on the basis of their experiences, perceive musical competences of kindergarten teachers as sufficient for a proper implementation of musical contents in the core curriculum, whether the respondents would identify any discrepancies between an assumed and a real model of these competences, what – in their opinion – would be a cause of any possible differences between models, as well as who – they believed – would be a main children educator: a kindergarten teacher or a specialist musician? Fur-thermore – by means of hypotheses verification (as stipulated hereunder) – the authors compared the research findings against two categories of respondents, established on the basis of a differentiating factor which referred, in this case, to types of environment: urban or rural (Skulicz, 2010, p� 232)�

Research problems, arising from the above-mentioned objectives, took a form of the following research questions:

1� To what extent do potential employers take into account determined musi-cal competences of a candidate for a kindergarten teacher?

2� Which of the determined musical competences do potential employers regard as essential for working in kindergarten?


3� Do potential employers really assess candidates’ musical competences dur-ing the recruitment processes? If yes, what does the assessment involve?

4� Do kindergarten teachers – in the opinion of potential employers – pos-sess musical competences allowing them to implement in a proper way the content contained in the core curriculum?

5� Is there a difference – in the opinion of potential employers – between assumed and real levels of musical competences of kindergarten teachers? If yes, what does the difference involve? What are – in the respondents’ opinion – its origins?

6� Who – in the respondents’ opinion – should be a main musical educator for small children: a kindergarten education teacher or a specialist musician?

7� In order to compare results obtained from two categories of respondents, selected due to a differentiating factor – i�e� urban or rural areas – a hypoth-esis was adopted (Juszczyk, 2005, pp� 72 – 75; King, Minium, 2009, p� 271) that there was a statistically significant difference between answers to the above-mentioned questions given by respondents from urban and rural environments, which was reviewed by means of the chi-squared test (Juszc-zyk, 2005, p� 241)�

The research mainly involved a method of a diagnostic survey carried out by means of the CSAQ technique (computerized self-administered questionnaire) (Juszczyk, 2005, pp� 81 – 83)� Furthermore, the researchers made use of an uncat-egorised direct survey (Łobocki, 2007, pp� 261 – 266), individual direct conversa-tion (Łobocki, 2007, pp� 273 – 282) as well as participant observation (Łobocki, 2007, pp� 45 – 49)�

The research object concerned the way how determined musical competences of kindergarten teachers were perceived by their potential employers, with a special emphasis on the importance of the competences for outcomes of the recruitment processes�

The sample group, the research subject, consisted of directors of state kinder-gartens (also preschool and school complexes) as well as private kindergartens operating within the territory of the Silesian region� Simple random sampling was employed, where the sampling frame covered all preschool education facilities operating over the selected area, stipulated in the form of a list available at www�szkolnictwo�pl�


results

The surveyed group (N=167, where 80�84% of the respondents – N=135 – come from urban areas, whereas rural areas are represented by 19�16% – N=32) appeared – in compliance with earlier assumptions – to have been almost homog-enous as to sex (women accounted for as many as 97�01% of the respondents)� Diversification of the group in relation to their professional development level is presented in Table 1, which shows that certified teachers constituted the consider-able majority of the respondents (91�02% of the total; nominated teachers – 8�38% of the total; a mere 1 professor of education – 0�60% of all the respondents)�

Table 1. Structure of the surveyed group classified according to levels of professional development

Nominated teachers Certified teachers Professors

of education Total

N % N % N % N %City/Town 11 8�15% 123 91�11% 1 0�74% 135 100%Village 3 9�37% 29 90�63% 0 0% 32 100%Total 14 8�38% 152 91�02% 1 0�60% 167 100%

source: authors’ own research

The research findings showed that most respondents (78�44%) believed that musical competences of kindergarten teachers were a valuable supplement to their other skills� Only 18�56% of the surveyed persons pointed out that the musical competences were crucial for finding a job� 1�80% of the directors claimed that musical competences were of marginal importance for the recruitment process, whereas 1�20 % of the respondents stated that they were of no importance what-soever for the employment process� There were assumptions that the importance of teachers’ musical competences depended on whether a given kindergarten had already employed a person dealing with music education, or that musical skills could sometimes become a “cover-up” for deficiencies in other areas�

Among determined musical competences (multiple choice), the ability to play a melodic instrument was classified as the most essential competence (106 refer-ences), vocal skills (103 references), knowledge of music literature for children (63 references) and dancing skills (42 references)� The respondents assigned the


lowest level of importance to the knowledge of music literature in its broad sense (4 references) and knowledge of music theory and musical notation (2 references)� There was also one opinion that all these competences were essential and each teacher should have them� One of the respondents claimed that a teacher candidate deprived of these competences should not be admitted to the faculty of educa-tion studies� The evaluation of the significance of selected musical competences, according to the surveyed group, is shown in Chart 1�

Most respondents (61�68%) claimed that they verified musical competences of a candidate during the recruitment process� It was thus pointed out that the course of a candidate’s earlier professional career was of importance; reluctance to employ a candidate on a permanent basis during the first year of his/her career was a certain sort of “defence mechanism”� However, the subject of the procedure (multiple choice) turned out to be, in most cases (79 references), documents that confirmed formal qualifications� The assessment of practical skills mainly involves playing an instrument (41 references), singing (31 references), and then danc-ing skills (13 references) and knowledge of music literature (10 references)� 38�32% of the respondents admitted that during the recruitment process they had failed to assess musical competences of future teachers� In the latter case, it was feared that any assessing activities performed by an employer might have been perceived negatively� Chart 2 presents areas to be assessed during the processes of recruiting kindergarten teachers�

The surveyed individuals mostly claimed that kindergarten teachers had com-petences that allowed them to implement the musical content in a proper way,

Source: authors’ own source

0

100

200

Singing Dancing

105 10363

424 2

Playingan instrument

Knowledgeof musicliterature

for children

Knowledgeof musicliterature

(in a broadsense)

Musicalnotation

and musictheory

Chart 1. Evaluation of the significance of selected musical competences of kindergarten teachers.


as stipulated in the core curriculum (yes – 20�36%; rather yes – 55�09%; rather no – 20�36%; no – 4�19%)� However, spontaneous utterances of the respondents indicated that part of the surveyed individuals valued the vocal skills of the senior staff more highly (graduates from Teacher Training Institutes), perceiving academic background as minimalistic (among deficiencies one can name a few, such as lack of education on how to play a melodic instrument and a low level of methodology of music education)� Most respondents (41�32%) claimed that there was no differ-ence between the assumed and real levels of musical competences of kindergarten teachers� 34�73% indicated that the level of assumed musical competences was lower than that of the real ones, whereas 23�95% were of a contrary opinion�

Most respondents (71�86%) indicated that musical content, resulting from the core curriculum for kindergarten education, should be implemented by a kindergarten teacher� An external specialist was chosen solely by 28�14% of the respondents�

The results of the diagnostic surveys were submitted to a statistical analysis that allowed for determining differences between the statements of the directors of urban kindergartens and those of the directors of rural kindergartens (Table 2)� The authors determined an empirical test value χ2 for selected statements of the directors, for statistical significance 0�05, and rejected five alternative hypotheses� Thus, as a result of statistical analysis, it was found out that:

• there is no statistically significant difference between statements made by the urban kindergarten directors and the rural kindergarten directors, which would refer to the significance of musical competences during the recruitment process of a kindergarten teacher�

• there is no statistically significant difference between verifying real musical competences of teacher candidates during the recruitment process�

• there is no statistically significant difference between statements made by the urban kindergarten directors and the rural kindergarten directors, which would refer to the teachers’ having competences that would allow them to implement, in a proper way, the musical content determined in the core curriculum�

• there is no statistically significant difference between assumed and real levels of musical competences of kindergarten teachers, in the opinions of the rural and urban kindergarten directors�

• there is no statistically significant difference between statements made by the urban kindergarten directors and the rural kindergarten directors, which would refer to implementing, in a proper way, the musical content determined in the core curriculum�


Table 2. X2 Statistical analysis

Hypothesis α χ2emp χ2teor

There is a difference between statements of directors of rural and urban kindergartens as to the significance of musical competences for the process of recruiting kindergarten teachers�

0�05 1�94 7�815

There is a difference concerning the way in which candidates’ real musical skills are assessed during the recruitment process� 0�05 1�224 3�841

There is a difference between statements of directors of rural and urban kindergartens as to the musical competences of kindergarten teachers, allowing them to implement, in a proper way, the musical content determined in the core curriculum�

0�05 1�703 3�841

There is a difference between assumed and real levels of musical competences of kindergarten teachers in the opinion of directors of rural and urban kindergartens�

0�05 4�091 5�991

There is a difference between statements of directors of rural and urban kindergartens as to the implementation, in kindergartens, of musical content resulting from the core curriculum�

0�05 0�889 3�841

Conclusions

On the basis of the presented research findings, an assumption may be drawn that although musical competences of kindergarten teachers are perceived by potential employers as a considerable supplement, and only a supplement, to other skills, the said competences may be, more often than not, an important and decisive argument in the recruitment process� One can have considerable reservations as to the way the competences are verified, as the said verification was frequently reduced, in the sample group, to the assessment of formal qualifica-tions� Nonetheless, it needs to be emphasised here that numerous respondents drew attention to the low level of music education at higher education institutions where future child educators were educated� They particularly pointed out that educators’ common inability to play a melodic instrument was the most severe deficiency� Among other reasons for the status quo, the respondents mainly pointed out that higher education institutions failed to evaluate teacher can-didates as to their musical competences (and also as to skills related to speech therapy), thus proving a predominance of no longer existing teaching studies� A lack of statistically significant differences between the respondents working in urban and rural areas gives rise to a conviction that the level of requirements related to the above-mentioned skills is relatively balanced�


It seems that the research problem mentioned in the paper needs to be sub-jected to more thorough research, taking into account other regions� Thus, the researchers would surely achieve a deeper insight in this very fragment of Polish education reality�

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i kulturową� Bielsko-Biała: Wyższa Szkoła Administracji�Sacher, W� (1997)� Wczesnoszkolna edukacja muzyczna� Cracow: Impuls�Smak, E� (Ed�)� (2006)� Nauczyciel w edukacji przedszkolnej� Opole: Wyd� Uniwersytetu

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i edukacji wczesnoszkolnej� Cracow: Wyd� WAM�Suświłło, M� (2001)� Psychopedagogiczne uwarunkowania wczesnej edukacji muzycznej�

Olsztyn: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego�Watoła, A� (2009)� Przedszkole – przestrzeń rozwoju dziecka� Dąbrowa Górnicza: Wyd� WSB�Wilk, A� (2004)� Problemat kompetencji muzyczno-pedagogicznych studentów pedagogiki

wczesnoszkolnej i nauczycieli klas początkowych szkoły podstawowej w świetle przeprow-adzonych badań w latach 1992 – 1999� Cracow: Wyd� Naukowe Akademii Pedagogicznej�

Special Pedagogy

teachers’ behaviors towards Mentally Disabled students in Physical education Classes

AbstractThe goal of this research was to examine the verbal and non-verbal behaviors of teachers towards mentally disabled students in physical education classes in Special Education Practice Centers (Schools for Mentally Disabled Students) in Turkey� The study was based on qualitative research and data was collected through interview forms prepared by the researchers� The interviews consisted of four semi-structured questions, which were analyzed by using the method of content analysis and qualitative data analysis software� Accordingly, it was observed that teachers used a variety of mimics and gestures as reflections of their body language in order to establish and control class management� The teachers interviewed stated that they consciously used their specific way of pos-ture, walking and sitting in the classroom� They also stated that they frequently changed their positions in the classroom and embraced a variety of distance and touch behaviors towards the mentally disabled students� In conclusion, these teachers have the greatest responsibility to achieve the goals of physical education class for the mentally disabled students� These responsibilities are crucial for the educational advancement of the mentally disabled students� The non-verbal behaviors and expressions of these teachers play a vital role in the mental and behavioral development of the mentally disabled students�

Keywords: mentally disabled students, teachers, physical education class, class-room management, teacher behaviors

introduction

Today, more emphasis is given on teachers’ class management skills and their advancement rather than the problems related to students’ misconduct in the classroom (Wragg and Wragg, 1998)� For instance, Selçuk (2001: 64) suggests that

Yunus Emre Karakaya, Sebahattin DeveciogluUSAHasan Huseyin KilincTurkey

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.20

236 Yunus Emre Karakaya, Sebahattin Devecioglu, Hasan Huseyin Kilinc

it is more important for teachers to consider whether students are aware of the behaviors expected from them, especially those students who misbehave in the classroom� Class management is a multi-dimensional task and it entails a long-term commitment� Good management of the class is considered as a precondi-tion for a successful teacher (Demirel, 2000; Balkı, 2003)� The teachers who are incompetent in class management are most likely to be less successful in teaching activities (Celep, 2002)�

If an individual shows a qualitative difference from his/her peers in terms of personal characteristics and education qualifications, he/she entails a special education (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, 2002)� In Turkey, Special Education Practice Centers are institutions for mentally disabled students who cannot benefit from general education programs� These institutions are mostly focused on education programs dealing with basic life skills and functional academic skills (Sucuoğlu, 2010: 44)� The goal of these special education programs for the mentally disabled is to educate them toward daily living practices without being dependent on others (Karabulut and Yıkmış, 2010: 104)� Mentally disabled individuals aspire for skill sets of independent living in the public sphere� The realization of these goals depends on the education programs that they attend and the presentation of contextualized methods and approaches (Özyürek, 1990; Gürsel, 1993)�

In this context, it is likely that teachers would have difficulties in communication with mentally disabled students and thus it is vital to take the nature of educational methods and approaches into account� For this reason, the ways teachers behave and the ways they talk to mentally disabled students are crucial in the classroom� Overall, the goal of this research was to examine and determine the non-verbal behaviors and verbal expressions of teachers toward mentally disabled students in physical education classes in Turkey’s Education Practice Centers� The results of this research are likely to be instructive for the development of teaching practices in these instutions in terms of increasing the physical education teachers’ aware-ness of their verbal and non-verbal behaviors toward mentally disabled students�


As this study adopted the qualitative research method, the research design par-ticularly relied on a case study approach� Yıldırım ve Şimşek (2006) defined case studies as a qualitative research design that thoroughly and deeply investigates a specific case or cases� For sample selection, “convenience sampling” was used� The sample of this research included 45 teachers who work in Special Education

237Teachers’ Behaviors towards Mentally Disabled Students in Physical Education Classes

Practice Centers (schools) in the cities of Elazig (11 teachers), Adana (7 teach-ers), Cankırı (5 teachers), Amasya (7 teachers), Siirt (6 teachers), and Gaziantep (9 teachers)� The sample demographic and occupational characteristics are as fol-lows: 26 male teachers and 19 female teachers; 26 teachers with an undergraduate degrees and 14 teachers with a graduate degrees; 22 teachers have occupational experience between 0–5 years, 13 teachers between 6–10 years, and 10 teachers between 11–15 years� Finally, according to the service experience in these special education institutions, 35 teachers have experience of 0–5 years and 10 teachers have experience between 6-10 years�

The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and these interviews consisted of four questions� The aim of these questions was to reveal the teachers’ thoughts on their non-verbal behaviors and verbal expressions in the classroom� The interview questions are listed below:

• What kind of mimics and gestures as reflections of your body language do you use in your physical education class in order to manage the class?

• Do you intentionally use your way of posture, walking, and sitting in order to manage your physical education class?

• Do you use behaviors of distance and physical contact (touch) in order to manage your physical education class? If you do, what kind of student behav-iors do you use them as a response or reaction to?

• What kind of verbal expressions do you use in order to manage your physical education class? Please provide examples.

A study by Baş (2010) was used in the process of preparing the interview questions� The validity of the content and the interview form were formed by consulting the faculty members of educational sciences (n=3), who are special-ists in their fields� The teachers’ participation was voluntary� Yıldırım and Şimşek (2006) explain that this is important in terms of establishing the validity and reliability of research� The interviews with the sample group were conducted in the teachers; offices in their institutions and one interview took between 5 to 15 minutes� Together with audio recording of the interviews, note taking was also preferred to analyze the interview data� After the completion of the interviews, analysis of the obtained data was made with qualitative content analysis process� The teachers’ views in the interviews were taken without revision while parsing the interview data�

The interviewees’ views were encoded as Teacher 1 Female (T1F), Teacher 2 Male (T2M)… and the data was transferred to the computer� In data analysis, computer aided qualitative-data analysis was used� In this context, content analysis was con-ducted� The content analysis was conducted with the identification of findings and


interpretation, codes and the arrangement of the theme, the presence of the theme, and coding of data (Yıldırım ve Şimşek: 2006)� That data analysis and modeling of the situation were carried out with the use of QSR NVIVO-8 program (Figure 1, 2, 3 and 4)� Moreover, some of the important remarks of the interviewees are given in the findings section below�

research results

The interview results are modelled and discussed below�

1. The Views of the Interviewed Teachers on Their Use of Mimics and Gestures In Managing the ClassroomAs stated above, the first question in the interview process was: What kind of

mimics and gestures as reflections of your body language do you use in your physical education class in order to manage the classroom? Answers to this question and their frequency numbers are thematically organized in the model shown below (Figure 1)�

As shown in Figure 1, the teachers’ mimics and gestures for managing the class show differences� Based on the teachers’ responses in the interviews, a variety of mimics is used such as “making eye contact,” “eye movements,” “winking,” and

Figure 1. Model Based on the Teachers’ Mimics and Gestures


“emotion signals�” Examples of “emotion signals,” include the mimics of “smile,” “frown,” “making a face,” “surprise,” and “sadness�” In addition, the gestures used by the teachers interviewed include “hand and arm motions,” “head motions,” “foot and leg motions,” “signal,” “voice adjustment,” “physical approach,” “touching,” and “imitation�” One of the teachers interviewed stated that s/he did not use any mimic or gesture in class management� According to this research, it is safe to state that many teachers tend to use mimics and gestures in class management� Some of the responses by the teachers interviewed are presented below:

T-3 F: In class management, I frequently use mimics and gestures towards the mentally disabled students. I think these are effective in reducing the negative behav-iors of the students. Yet, these mimics and gestures are not sufficient themselves to establish positive behavioral conduct for the mentally disabled students.

T-6 M: I try to use mimics and gestures in a way that the mentally disabled stu-dents can perceive physically, emotinally, socially, behaviorally, and visually.

2. The Views of the Teachers on Their Intentional Use of Their Way of Posture, Walking, and Sitting In this context, as stated above, the interviewees were asked the following ques-

tion: Do you intentionally use your way of posture, walking, and sitting in order to manage your physical education class? Answers to this question and their frequency numbers are thematically organized in the model shown below (Figure 2)�

Figure 2. Model Based on the Teachers’ Intentional Use of Posture, Walking, Sitting


As shown in Figure 2, the teachers’ responses show differences� Only 7 of the teachers interviewed indicated that they had no intentional interest in function-ally using their way of walking, posture, and sitting in their class management� On the other hand, the responses of those who stated that they intentinally use these behaviors in the classroom include “walking around the students,” “giving a self-confident posture,” “authoritative sitting,” “confident walking,” “walking fast,” “standing still,” “making fast turns,” and “sitting upright�” According to these responses, it can be stated that the teachers consider walking around students and making self-confident movements as the most efficient class management� Some of the responses by the teachers interviewed are presented below:

T-42 F: Yes, I pay attention to my way of walking and posture in the classroom because the students can adopt these for themselves. Since they can adopt any of my mistaken movement, I have to be careful on this subject.

T-45 F: I intentionally use my way of walking, posture and sitting. For instance, I make sudden turns and carefully raise my voice in the sports hall in order to get their attention.

3. The Teachers’ Views on the Behaviors of Space, Distance, and Touch for the Management of the Physical Education ClassAs stated above, the teachers were asked: Do you use behaviors of distance and

physical contact (touch) in order to manage your physical education class? If you do, what kind of student behaviors do you use them as s response or reaction to? Answers to this question and their frequency numbers are thematically organized in the model shown below (Figure 3)�

As shown in Figure 3, the teachers’ views show differences in terms of space, distance, and touch (pyhsical contact) behaviors in the classroom� Two of the teachers stated that they did not get involved in such behaviors� On the other hand, those who stated that they funtionally used space, distance, and touch aspects in the classroom resort to these behaviors “to increase class participation,” “when students misbehaved,” “to increase the attention to the subject,” “when class order is disrupted,” “to control the classroom,” “based on the activity,” “to give reinforc-ment,” “based on the class content,” and “based on the approach of the student�” Accordingly, it seems that the teachers mostly resort to the behaviors of space, distance, and touch to increase class participation, on the one hand, and when students misbehave in the classroom, on the other� Some of the responses by the teachers interviewed are presented below:

T-1 F: In physical education classes, I try to become closer to the students when class order is disrupted. I try to change my position along with the positions of the students.


Figure 3. Model Based on Teachers’ Space, Distance, and Touch (pyhsical contact) Behaviors

T-43 M: I use touch behavior toward the students. When student misbehavior occurs in the classroom, I change my position properly and accordingly.

4. The Teachers’ Views on Their Verbal Expressions in Their Interactions with the Students for Managing the Physical Education Class

The last question in the interviews, as stated above, was: What kind of verbal expressions do you use in order to manage your physical education class? Answers to this question and their frequency numbers are thematically organized in the model shown below (Figure 4)�

As shown in Figure 4, there are differences in the teachers’ views regarding the verbal expressions they use in class� In terms of class management, these verbal expressions include “advisory statements,” “addressing the students by their name,” “encouraging statements,” “affectionate expressions,” “statement of the rules,” “warning,” “positive reinforcement,” and “orders�” It seems that the teachers mostly use advisory statements, addressing the students by their name and encouraging statements in the management of the class� Some of the responses by the teachers interviewed are presented below:

T-15 M: In my physical education class, I mostly use affectionate expressions to my students such as dear and darling. In addition, I encourage them by expressions such as “you are very athletic.”


T-22 M: During the class, I usually make statements such as: “Listen to me care-fully. If you rightly do what I show you, I will let you play the educational games that you like in the last 15 minutes of the class.”

Conclusions

In this section, the data presented in the findings section is discussed in relation to the existing literature and policy recommendations are suggested� The teachers’ mimics and gestures in their interactions with the mentally disabled students for managing the physical education class have shown differences (Figure 1)� These mimics and gestures seem to be used by the teachers frequently, whenever they consider them necessary in managing their physical education classes� In the inter-views, the eachers stated that they mostly used eye contact and emotion signals in terms of their mimics in class� Among the gestures, hand and arm motions are the most frequent non-verbal expressions of the teachers� The reason for the use of these mimics and gestures is that they create a positive interaction and relationship between the teacher and the students� According to Baş (2010: 24), the teacher’s body posture, walking style, and facial expressions directly affect and shape the perceptions of the students in the starting periods of classes� These examples of body language also provide feedback for teachers of how class activites are performed� For instance, according to Ertuğrul (2002: 165), many explanations

Figure 4. Model Based on Verbal Expressions Used in Class Management


are given via eyes and they are perceived via eyes as well� Students’ reactions and impressions in subjects lectured in class can be perceived by the way they look at the teacher� If there are positive reactions in the eyes, faces, and behaviors of the students during the lecture, it means that they are interested in the subject and this leads to positive reactions in their psyche� For this reason, the teacher needs to carefully observe and evaluate the process of his/her interaction with students and the meaning of their body language and reactions (Çalışkan and Yeşil: 2005: 206)� In a study by Pektaş (1988), it is shown that non-verbal communication of teachers with their students such as by hand and arm motions and facial expressions has positive effects on education in general and the learning process in particular� Yet, as Çalışkan (2003) argues in his study on teachers’ non-verbal communication, mimics and gestures are not sufficiently used by teachers� Moreover, he argues that senior and female teachers are more efficient in using mimics and gestures�

The responses from the teachers interviewed show differences in terms of their intentional interest in functionally using their way of walking, posture, and sit-ting in class management (Figure 2)� According to these responses, the teachers consider walking around students and making self-confident movements as the most efficient class management� On the other hand, some teachers interviewed indicated that they had no intentional interest in functionally using their way of walking, posture, and sitting in their class management� The reason for this choice seems to be the lack of knowledge of efficient class management and in efficient communication with mentally disabled students� According to Çalışkan and Yeşil (2005: 205), communcation and interaction with students are very important for teachers and the teacher needs to examine his/her behaviors carefully as well as students’ reactions� Teachers can use their body postures and positions to show students their presence and command in the classroom� Teachers also need to be energetic in class rather than showing signs of tiredness or exhaustion because behavioral education is more contributory to individual development than advi-sory education in the teaching-learning processes� For instance, Erden (2005: 98) states that self-confident teachers who are approachable and have a sense of humor lead to a positive classroom environment and teacher-student relationship�

The views of the teachers show differences in terms of space, distance, and touch (pyhsical contact) behaviors in the classroom (Figure 3)� The teachers mostly resort to these behaviors of space, distance, and touch to increase class participa-tion, on the one hand, and when students misbehave in the classroom, on the other� According to Schober (1999: 120), the position of the teacher in class affects the process of communication and interaction with the students� Behaviors and appearance in addition to knowledge are likely to improve the sense of authority


in class� Teachers need to see the whole classroom from a two-meter distance and make students appeal to positive behaviors� For instance, Ertuğrul (2002: 64) states that teachers need to adjust and readjust their distance from students as an instrument of transmitting non-verbal messages in class� All students should be seen from the position of the teacher� Moreover, Erden (2005: 98) argues that teachers’ posture style and their way of touching students may enhance a positive teacher-student relationship�

There are differences in the teachers’ views regarding the verbal expressions they use in class (Figure 4)� The teachers interviewed stated that they mostly use advisory statements, addressing students by their name and encouraging state-ments in the management of the class� In this process, effective class management is crucial to develop a fruitful teaching-learning environment and communication mechanisms� For this purpose, teachers need to be able to change students’ nega-tive behaviors, establish rules, communicate robustly and manage time efficiently� The role of the teacher in creating a positive classroom atmosphere depends on his/her efficient and robust class management� This, in turn, is likely to improve student success and positive approach to schooling and education (Norris, 2003: 313-318; Marzano and Marzano, 2003: 6-13; Çelik, 2002; Aydın, 2000)� While some teachers tend to design fun and enjoyable class management, others might be strictly disciplinary� In fact, the education that teachers have gone through themselves is the most important factor in their verbal expressions in class� The teacher’s approach to class management, the way he/she lectures and the content of the lecture are some signs of the structure of the class adopted by that teacher (Baş, 2010: 45)� According to Celep (2002: 161), the teacher needs to be able to control his/her own behaviors in class as well as examine the behaviors and reac-tions of his/her students� Teachers’ behaviors play a primary role in the personality development of their students�

Overall, this research has revealed the verbal and non-verbal behaviors of teachers toward mentally disabled students in physical education classes� For class management, a variety of mimics and gestures is used functionally and intention-ally by the teachers interviewed in this study� Moreover, some teachers stated that they intentionally and functionally use their way of body posture, walking, and sitting in the management of their physical education classes� Moreover, the teach-ers also stated that they funtionally use the space, distance, and touch aspects in the classroom along with a variety of verbal expressions such as encouraging and advisory statements to achieve more efficient class management� In conclusion, the teachers in Special Education Practice Centers play a key role in fulfilling the goals of physical education classes, on the one hand, and the development of mentally


disabled students, on the other� Teachers' appropriate verbal expressions and non-verbal behaviors are likely to positively affect the pyschological and educational development of mentally disabled students� This is why the structure of class management which pays attention to the aforementioned verbal and non-verbal behaviors is crucial for positive improvement among mentally disabled students� Thus, the teachers who are interested in developing their skills of class manage-ment should be provided with additional training either in their institutions or at universities�

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tion technology and practices in contemporary class management), Selçuk University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Management and Organization Project of Human Resources Management Program, Konya�

Baş, Ö� (2010)� Qualitative research on analysis of verbal expressions and nonverbal behaviours teachers use in classroom, Gazi University, Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Primary Education, Ph.D. Dissertation, pp� 24, 45�

Celep, C� (2002)� Sınıf yönetimi ve disiplini (Class management and discipline), Anı Press, Ankara, p� 161�

Çalışkan, N� (2003)� Sınıf öğretmenlerinin sözel olmayan iletişim davranışlarının değerlendirilmesi (Evaluation of Non-Verbal Communication Behaviors of Primary Education Teachers), Ph.D. Dissertation, Institute of Social Sciences, Ataturk University, Erzurum�

Çalışkan, N� and Yeşil, R� (2005)� The teacher’s body language in educational process, Gazi University, Journal of Kırşehir Education Faculty, 6 (1), pp� 205, 206�

Çelik, V� (2002)� Sınıf yönetimi (Class management), Ankara: Nobel Press�Demirel, Ö� (2000)� Plandan uygulamaya öğretme sanatı (Art of Teaching from Plan to

Practice), Pegem A Press, Ankara� Erden, M� (2005)� Sınıf yönetimi (Class management), Epsilon Press, İstanbul, p� 98�Ertuğrul, H� (2002)� Öğretmenlikte yeni teknikler (New techniques in teaching), İstanbul:

Timaş Press, pp� 64, 165�Gürsel, O� (1993)� Zihinsel engelli çocukların doğal sayıları gerçek nesneleri kullanarak

eşleme, resimleri işaret ederek gösterme, rakamlar gösterildiğinde söyleme becerilerinin gerçekleştirilmesinde bireyselleştirilmiş öğretim materyalinin basamaklandırılmış yöntemle sunulmasının etkililiği (The efficiency of presentation with an ordered method of personalized teaching material in the realization of speaking abilities when numbers are shown, when pictures are shown by pointing, and when natural numbers are equated with real objects of mentally disabled children), Anadolu University, Insti-tute of Social Sciences, Eskişehir�


Karabulut, A� and Yıkmış A� (2010)� The effectiveness of simultaneous prompting on teach-ing the skill of telling the time to individuals with mental retardation, Journal of Abant Izzet Baysal University, 10 (2), p� 104�

Marzano, R�J� and Marzano, J�S� (2003)� The key to classroom management, Educational Leadership, 61 (1), pp� 6-13�

Ministry of National Education� (2002)� Eğitim uygulama okulu eğitim programı (Teaching curriculum of education practice school ), Ankara: National Education Press, Ankara�

Norris, J�A� (2003)� Looking at classroom management through a social and emotional learning lens, Theory and Practice, 42 (4), pp� 313-318�

Özyürek, M� (1990)� Özel eğitimde teşhis sorunları ve öneriler (Diagnosis of problems and suggestions in private education), First National Congress of Education Sciences, Ankara: Ankara University Education Sciences Faculty Press.

Pektaş, S� (1988)� Sözel olmayan öğretmen davranışlarının öğretime etkilerinin değer-lendirmesi (Evaluation of the Effects of Non-Verbal Teacher Behaviors on Teaching), Ph�D� Dissertation, Ankara University, Institute of Social Sciences, Ankara�

Selçuk, Z� (2001)� Okul deneyimi ve uygulama- öğretmen ve öğrenci davranışlarının gözlenmesi (School experience and practice: examination of teacher and student behaviors ), Nobel Press, Ankara, 2� edition, p� 64�

Schober, O� (1999)� Beden dili (Body language), Translated by: Süeda Özbent, İstanbul: Arion Press, p� 120�

Sucuoğlu, B� (2010)� Zihin engelliler ve eğitimleri (The mentally disabled and their educa-tion), 3� edition, Ankara: Kök Press, p� 44�

Wragg, E�C� and Wragg, C�M� (1998)� Classroom management research in the United Kingdom, Eric Document, Accessed: http://files�eric�ed�gov/fulltext/ED418971�pdf, Access Date: March, 15, 2015�

Yıldırım, A� and Şimşek, H� (2006)� Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri (Qualita-tive research in social sciences), 6� edition, Ankara, Seçkin Press�

Creativity Among Gifted and Non-Gifted students

AbstractAn overview of the literature on gifted students suggests that students can be gifted by showing intelligence and/or creative abilities� Whether teachers are able to recognize intelligent and/or creative students is a matter of being skilled and can have a tremendous impact on students’ course of education� In out study, we included students of Slovenian primary schools who were either rec-ognized as gifted or non-gifted by their teachers� To find out what differences occur in the creativity levels of gifted and non-gifted students, their creativity levels were recorded using the LV1Test, measuring their artistic-creative and artistic-appreciative abilities� Data analysis reveals that the gifted students were more successful in gaining a higher average score on the test, as well as the majority of individual items in the test�

Keywords: creativity, gifted, non-gifted, gender, elementary school, primary school

introduction

Even though the roots of the concept of creativity reach far into the 20th century, it is still very much present in contemporary pedagogical research� Creativity is a complex concept, which is evident from various definitions we are offered by the relevant literature (Mumford, Mobley, Uhlman, Reiter-Palmon and Doares, 1991; Robinson, 2001; Sefton-Green and Sinker, 2000; Torrance, 1977)� Koestler (1964) perceived it as the ability to connect previously unconnected ideas and the production of outcome, hence emphasizing the cognitive aspect� Other authors, emphasizing the thought-action aspect, describe it as the ability to produce new, creative ideas (Hitt, 1965; Newell and Shaw, 1972), while others see it as using the

Maja Matrić, Matjaž DuhSlovenia

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.21

248 Maja Matrić, Matjaž Duh

existing knowledge to find creative solutions, however maintaining that the new solution must have value (Higgins, 1999; Jurman, 2004)� Borden (1998) added the aspect of motivation and emotion to the generation of new ideas, linking it to cultural context and personality�

The importance of environment in boosting creativity was extensively stressed by Feldhusen and Hoover (2006), who claim that creativity results from the envi-ronment which places emphasis on academic growth on the basis of talent� It is not surprising that a growing number of countries strive towards incorporating creativity into their educational curriculums (Sharp and Le Métais, 2000; Craft, 2005; Davies, 2006; Stables, 2009)� A creative learning environment, consisting of both the physical and pedagogic environment, is therefore supposed to be a place of knowledge, ownership, relevance and innovation (Jeffrey, 2006)� Duh (2004) stresses the importance of creativity in children’s environment, claiming that a creative atmosphere inspires students towards spontaneous work, adding that it is teachers’ job to help develop children’s creative joy by means of creative tasks and didactic tools� Juriševič (2011) points out that teachers can acquire additional competences in various programmes of in-service teacher training in order to deepen their knowledge of work with gifted students� Fryer (2009) also discovered that teachers’ willingness to develop creativity differed mostly in variables related to teachers’ ability to take students’ needs into consideration� Recent research on teachers’ and students’ perceptions of needs satisfaction in the Slovenian environ-ment revealed consistent discrepancies across subject areas (Matrić and Košir, 2014)� Namely, the teachers believed they were satisfying the students’ need for autonomy at a higher level than the students reported�However, Dawson (1995) reveals that teachers often place little value on creative behaviours of their students, although they do generally claim to value creativity in their students� However, in art education, creativity can only be achieved through the implementation of productive and receptive art activities (Duh and Korošec-Bowen, 2014)�

Creativity, intelligence and giftedness

Research reveals low correlations between IQ and creativity� Namely, even though creative thinking tends to be more frequent in children with a high IQ, IQ itself does not suffice, resulting in low creativity capacities in children with high IQs or their disinclination to use their imagination (Guilford and Christiansen, 1973; Torrance, 1980; Getzels and Jackson, 1962; Wallach and Kogan, 1965)� Therefore, a high IQ does not forecast creative skills and, yet, creative thinking

249Creativity Among Gifted and Non-Gifted Students

occurs more often in highly intelligent individuals� With this in mind, Torrance (1959) revealed that when using traditional IQ tests, 70% of individuals with the highest 20% of scores on creativity tests would be missed� To more specifically establish the role of IQ in creativity, Terman and Oden (1947) paired an IQ test with a test of creative ability to show that high-IQ participants were more produc-tive in arts and sciences than their average-IQ counterparts� Yamamoto (1964, as cited in Ulmann, 1968) proved that, apart from these two groups recognized by Getzes and Jackson, there are other students who are extremely intelligent and creative� Flescher (1963, as cited in Ulmann, 1968) identifies yet another group of students, characterized as neither creative nor intelligent� These results show that all four combinations of intelligence and creativity are possible and they overlap with the results of Hitt (1965), who states that all four combinations occur in logical (convergent) and original (divergent) thinking� However, later research (Houtz, Rosenfield and Tetenbaum, 1978) showed that gifted students, whom Gagné (1991) described as having above-average abilities, such as intellectual or creative aptitude, did not generally achieve high scores in creativity tests as their results showed great individual differences� Their findings were in accordance with previous research on gifted students in terms of intelligence and creativity�

the presented study

The research was aimed at recording artistic-creative abilities and artistic-appreciative abilities among 8th-grade and 9th-grade students of elementary schools in the Posavje region, Slovenia� To do so, the students were given a test measuring their artistic-creative abilities and artistic-appreciative abilities�

The specific research questions were:(1) What are the general levels of creativity and what gender differences occur

(RQ1)?(2) What are the levels of creativity of gifted students and what gender differ-

ences occur (RQ2)?(3) What are the levels of creativity of non-gifted students and what gender

differences occur (RQ3)?(4) What differences in creativity levels occur among gifted students accord-

ing to different types of giftedness they were ascribed to by their teachers (RQ4)?

(5) What differences in creativity levels occur among gifted students according to visual art giftedness they were ascribed to by their teachers (RQ5)?


Methods

ParticipantsThe sample was composed of 35 students (51�4% female) attending the 8th

(65�7%) and 9th (34�3%) grades of elementary schools from the Posavje region, Slovenia� Out of the 35 students, 12 (34�3%) were gifted (58�3% female)�

Table 1. School demographic information

N Male%

Female%

Gifted male

%

Gifted female

%

Non-gifted male

%

Non-gifted female

%8th grade 23 47�8 52�2 50�0 50�0 46�7 53�39th grade 12 50�0 50�0 25�0 75�0 62�5 37�5Gifted 12 41�7 58�3Non-gifted 23 52�2 47�8

According to the type of giftedness, 50% of the students achieved the highest score on the general intellectual scale (16�7% female), 25% on the specific academic scale (0% female), 0% on the creativity scale, 25% on the leadership scale (8�3% female), 16�7% on the psychomotor scale (0% female), 16�7% on the technical scale (0% female), 33�3% on the literary scale (33�3% female), 16�7% on the drama scale (16�7�% female), 8�3% on the musical arts scale (8�3% female) and 58�3% on the art scale (33�4% female)�

Table 2. Gifted students according to the type of giftedness

Type of giftedness N Male%

Female% Type of giftedness N Male

%Female

%General intellectual 6 67�7 33�3 Technical 2 100 0Specific academic 3 100 0 Literary 4 0 100Creative 0 0 0 Drama 2 0 100Leadership 3 67�7 33�3 Music 1 0 100Psychomotor 2 100 0 Art 7 42�9 57�1

ProcedurePrior to administering the LV1 Test questionnaire, the parents were asked to

sign permission, allowing their children to take the LV1Test, as well as the school counsellor to provide us with the giftedness assessment scales for each gifted student� The students completed the LV1 Test after lessons under the supervi-


sion of the researcher� The students responded anonymously, with the exception of the gifted students, whose identity was known in order to enable us to make a comparison of their LV1 test results and their score on the giftedness assessment scales� The scales were provided by the school counsellors who organize the work with the gifted students at particular elementary schools in the Slovenian Posavje region�

MeasuresFor the purpose of measuring the artistic-creative and artistic-appreciative

abilities, the LV1Test was used (Duh, 2004)� The test consists of two parts� The first part contains six tasks and measures students’ artistic-creative development� The tasks require from students to complete a drawing or draw an artistic sign� Individual tasks represent one of the aspects of artistic-creative development, namely flexibility (Fx), fluency (Fl), originality (Or), redefinition (Re), sensitivity to visual problems (sp) and elaboration (El)� A student is awarded between 0 and 6 points for each task- a total of 36 points� The second part of the test measures students’ artistic-appreciative abilities and consists of eight multiple choice ques-tions� The second part of the test is divided into two groups: the first (questions 7-10) measures students’ perceptive abilities, while the second (questions 11–13) measures students’ receptive skills and question 14 their artistic knowledge� A student is awarded 2, 3 or 4 points for individual question – a total of 26 points� The questions in this part were about Paul Cezanne’s painting “The blue vase”, therefore each student was provided with a quality printed reproduction of the painting� The test included questions, such as: (7 P1) Which is the most important object in the painting?; (8 P2) Which two colours are the most important in the painting?; (9 P3) In which part of the painting are the colours the strongest?; (10 P4) Is there anything you would add to the painting?; (11 R1) What in the painting caught your attention the most?; (12 R2) The beauty and freshness of the flowers give the impression of…; (13 R3) How would you feel in the room with the vase?; (14 K) What are the basic artistic means in the painting?, etc� The authors of the instrument based the LV1Test on previously validated instruments used to measure the artistic-creative and artistic-appreciative development of children and their perceptive and receptive skills (Karlavaris and Kraguljac, 1970; Berce-Golob, 1990; Duh, 2004; Duh, Čagran and Huzjak, 2012; Duh, Zupančič and Čagran, 2014)� For the purpose of the research, an additional measure was used� Namely, the assessment scale of each gifted student, completed by their teachers in the process of the nomination of a gifted student (Žagar, Artač, Bezič, Nagy in Purgaj, 1999)�


results and interpretation

General levels of creativityIn this research, we were particularly interested in all the students’ art creativity

and art appreciation tests� Furthermore, we aimed at discovering any gender dif-ferences that might occur� The results can be seen in Table 3�

Table 3. Means and standard deviations of general creativity levels (N = 35)

Item

Meansall

(N = 35)

Standard deviation

all

Meansboys

(N = 17)

Standard deviation

boys

Means girls

(N = 18)

Standard deviation

girlsM SD M SD M SD

Art

istic

-cre

ativ

e de

velo

pmen

t

1� Fx 1�40 1�56 1�24 1�48 1�56 1�652� Fl 4�49 2�02 4�35 2�12 4�61 1�973� Or 1�37 0�73 1�35 0�79 1�39 0�704� Re 0�71 1�02 0�53 1�01 0�89 1�025� Sp 1�86 1�14 1�59 1�00 2�11 1�236� El 3�69 1�28 3�00 1�46 4�33 0�597�P1 2�63 0�77 2�76 0�66 2�50 0�86

Art

istic

-app

reci

ativ

e ab

ilitie

s

8� P2 1�71 0�57 1�59 0�62 1�83 0�519� P3 2�94 1�49 3�12 1�41 2�78 1�59

10� P4 1�89 1�75 1�71 1�69 2�06 1�8311� R1 2�14 1�19 2�00 1�27 2�28 1�1312� R2 0�94 1�41 1�24 1�52 0�67 1�2813� R3 2�51 1�01 2�53 1�07 2�50 0�9914� K 1�97 1�44 1�76 1�52 2�17 1�38

Group average 2�16 1�24 2�05 1�26 2�26 1�20

In Table 3, analysis of the LV1Test includes the results of all the participating students� In terms of artistic-creative development, we can notice that the students’ scores were highest for fluency and lowest for redefinition� In terms of artistic-appreciative abilities, the scores for questions pertaining to the perceptive skills were highest for the item “In which part of the painting are the colours the strong-est?” and lowest for the item “Which two colours are the most important in the painting?” The scores for questions pertaining to the students’ receptive abilities were highest for the item “How would you feel in the room with the vase?” and


lowest for the item “The beauty and the freshness of the flowers give the impres-sion of…”�

Analysing individual items according to gender showed significant statistical differences for the following items: “fluency” (χ2 = 7�177, df = 4, p = 0�049), where the average score for the boys (M = 4�35, SD = 2�12) was lower than that for the girls (M = 4�61, SD = 1�97); “redefinition” (χ2 = 5�738, df = 3, p = 0�053), where the average score for the boys (M = 0�53, SD = 1�01) was lower than that for the girls (M = 0�89, SD = 1�02) and “elaboration” (χ2 = 16�363, df = 4, p = 0�001), where the average score for the boys (M = 3�00, SD = 1�46) was lower than that for the girls (M = 4�33, SD = 0�59)�

The data reveals that the students’ average scores were roughly halved compared to the total score� Analysing the data according to gender showed higher aver-age scores for the girls than for the boys� Higher achievements of the girls could be ascribed to the greater manoeuvrability and concentration on schoolwork of the girls during adolescence� Higher fluency and success of redefinition could be attributed to conscientious planning of the process work or art elaboration�

The gifted vs. the non-gifted students’ creativity levelsIn this research, we were interested in comparing the achievements of the gifted

and the non-gifted students in the art creativity and art appreciation tests� Also, we wanted to know whether gender differences might occur� The results are shown in Table 4�

As can be seen in Table 4, the gifted students’ scores in artistic-creative devel-opment were highest in “fluency” and lowest in “redefinition”� Their scores in perceptive skills were highest for the item “In which part of the painting are the colours the strongest?” and lowest for the item “Which two colours are the most important in the painting?”, whereas their scores in receptive skills were highest for the item “How would you feel in the room with the vase?” and lowest for the item “The beauty and freshness of the flowers give the impression of…”� Analysing their scores according to gender showed significant statistical differences for the item “elaboration” (χ2 = 8�571, df = 4, p = 0�028), where the boys’ (M = 2�40, SD = 1�52) average scores were lower than the girls’ ones (M = 4�29, SD = 0�49)�

Furthermore, we were interested in the achievements of the non-gifted students’ results of the art creativity and art appreciation tests� We wanted to know whether gender differences occur in this part of the research, as well� The results are dis-played in Table 5�

In Table 5, we can see the scores of the non-gifted students� The non-gifted students’ scores in artistic-creative development were highest in “fluency” and


Table 4. Means and standard deviations of the gifted (N = 12) students’ creativity levels

Item

Meansall

(N = 12)

Standard deviation

all

Meansboys

(N = 5)

Standard deviation

boys

Meansgirls

(N = 7)

Standard deviation

girlsM SD M SD M SD

Art

istic

-cre

ativ

e de

velo

pmen

t

1� Fx 1�67 1�67 1�40 1�52 1�86 1�862� Fl 4�58 1�83 4�80 1�64 4�43 2�073� Or 1�42 0�79 1�40 0�89 1�43 0�794� Re 1�08 1�08 0�80 1�30 1�29 0�955� Sp 2�33 0�89 2�00 0�71 2�57 0�986� El 3�50 1�38 2�40 1�52 4�29 0�49

Art

istic

-app

reci

ativ

e

abili

ties

7�P1 2�42 0�90 2�60 0�89 2�29 0�958� P2 1�75 0�62 1�80 0�45 1�71 0�769� P3 2�92 1�62 2�80 1�64 3�00 1�73

10� P4 2�42 1�73 3�00 1�41 2�00 1�9111� R1 2�17 1�34 1�80 1�64 2�43 1�1312� R2 1�25 1�55 1�80 1�64 0�86 1�4613� R3 2�75 0�87 2�40 1�34 3�00 0�0014� K 1�75 1�55 1�20 1�64 2�14 1�46

Group average 2�29 1�27 2�16 1�30 2�38 1�18

lowest in “redefinition”� Their scores in perceptive skills were highest for the item “In which part of the painting are the colours the strongest?” and lowest for the item “Is there anything you would add to the painting?” Their scores in receptive skills were highest for the item “How would you feel in the room with the vase?” and lowest for the item “The beauty and freshness of the flowers give the impres-sion of…”� Analysing their scores according to gender showed significant statistical differences for the item “elaboration” (χ2 = 8�711, df = 4, p = 0�039), where the boys’ (M = 3�25, SD = 1�42) average scores were lower than the girls’ ones (M = 4�36, SD = 0�37)�

Data analysis reveals that the gifted students were more successful in gaining a higher average score on the test, as well as the majority of individual items in the test� However, the non-gifted students scored higher in the last item of the test “What are the basic artistic means in painting?”, which was the only item assessing the students’ knowledge� This may indicate that the non-gifted students may be less creative but they learn about art; on the other hand the gifted students might be


inherently more creative, but do not pay attention to learning about art in school� The difference between the gifted and the non-gifted students was the highest for the item “Is there anything you would add to the painting?” (∆M = 0�81) and the lowest for the variable “In which part of the painting are the colours the strongest?” (∆M = 0�04)� Analysing the data according to gender revealed that the girls’ average scores were higher than the boys’ for both the gifted and the non-gifted students�

Creativity levels among the gifted students according to the type of giftedness

The gifted students’ scores were analysed according to the type of giftedness� Table 6 shows the gifted students’ scores in individual items� The general creativity levels were the highest for the student who was recognized as gifted in music (M = 2�71, SD = /)� The creativity levels were the lowest for the students who were

Table 5. Means and standard deviations of the non-gifted students’ creativity levels (N = 23)

ItemMeans

all(N = 23)

Standard deviation

all

Meansboys

(N = 12)

Standard deviation

boys

Meansgirls

(N = 11)

Standard deviation

girlsM SD M SD M SD

Art

istic

-cre

ativ

e de

velo

pmen

t

1� Fx 1�26 1�51 1�17 1�53 1�36 1�572� Fl 4�47 2�15 4�17 2�33 4�73 2�003� Or 1�35 0�72 1�33 0�78 1�36 0�674� Re 0�52 0�95 0�42 0�90 0�64 1�035� Sp 1�61 1�20 1�42 1�08 1�82 1�336� El 3�78 1�24 3�25 1�42 4�36 0�67

Art

istic

-app

reci

ativ

e

abili

ties

7�P1 2�74 0�69 2�83 0�58 2�64 0�818� P2 1�70 0�56 1�50 0�67 1�91 0�309� P3 2�96 1�46 3�25 1�36 2�64 1�5710� P4 1�61 1�73 1�17 1�53 2�09 1�8711� R1 2�13 1�14 2�08 1�16 2�18 1�1712� R2 0�78 1�35 1�00 1�48 0�55 1�2113� R3 2�39 1�08 2�58 1�00 2�18 1�1714� K 2�09 1�41 2�00 1�48 2�18 1�40

Group average 2�10 1�23 2�01 1�24 2�19 1�20

Tab

le 6

. M

eans

and

sta

ndar

d de

viat

ions

of t

he g

fted

stu

dent

s ac

cord

ing

to th

e ty

pe

of g

ifted

ness

: a G

ener

al in

telle

ctua

l bSp

ecifi

c ac

adem

ic c Le

ader

ship

d Psyc

hom

otor

e Tech

nica

l fLi

tera

ry g D

ram

a h M

usic

i Art

Item

Meansa(N = 6)

Standard deviationa

Meansb(N = 3)

Standard deviationb

Meansc(N = 3)

Standard deviationc

Meansd(N = 2)

Standard deviationd

Meanse(N = 2)

Standard deviatione

Meansf(N = 4)

Standard deviationf

Meansg(N = 2)

Standard deviationg

Meansh(N = 1)

Standard deviationh

Meansi(N = 7)

Standard deviationi

MSD

MSD

MSD

MSD

MSD

MSD

MSD

MSD

MSD

Artistic-creative developmnent

1� F

x1�

831�

721�

672�

083�

001�

73�5

0�7

1�5

0�7

1�7

5�5

03�

002�

831�

001�

141�

35

2� F

l4�

502�

074�

001�

733�

332�

524�

502�

124�

502�

124�

501�

736�

000�

006�

004�

142�

12

3� O

r1�

671�

031�

000�

001�

671�

152�

001�

411�

00�0

01�

75�9

61�

000�

001�

001�

430�

79

4� R

e1�

171�

170�

330�

581�

331�

531�

502�

12�5

0�7

11�

501�

000�

000�

000�

001�

140�

90

5� S

p2�

000�

632�

330�

582�

330�

582�

50�7

12�

50�7

12�

75�9

62�

001�

413�

002�

290�

76

6� E

l3�

001�

553�

001�

002�

332�

081�

001�

413�

001�

414�

25�5

05�

000�

005�

003�

570�

79

Artistic-appreciative abilities

Perceptive abilities

7�P1

2�33

1�03

3�00

0�00

1�67

1�15

2�00

1�41

3�00

�00

2�50

1�00

3�00

0�00

3�00

2�57

0�79

8� P

21�

670�

821�

670�

581�

331�

151�

50�7

11�

50�7

12�

00�0

02�

000�

002�

001�

570�

79

9� P

33�

501�

222�

001�

734�

000�

002�

502�

121�

00�0

03�

251�

504�

000�

004�

002�

571�

81

10� P

42�

671�

513�

001�

732�

001�

734�

00�0

04�

00�0

02�

252�

062�

502�

121�

002�

711�

70

Receptive abilities and knowledge

11� R

12�

001�

552�

001�

732�

001�

731�

502�

121�

502�

122�

75�5

01�

502�

123�

002�

571�

13

12� R

21�

001�

552�

001�

730�

000�

001�

502�

123�

00�0

0�7

51�

503�

000�

003�

001�

291�

60

13� R

32�

501�

222�

001�

733�

000�

003�

00�0

01�

502�

123�

00�0

03�

000�

003�

002�

571�

13

14� K

2�00

1�55

1�00

1�73

2�00

1�73

�00

�00

�00

�00

2�25

1�50

1�50

2�12

3�00

2�14

1�46

Gro

up

aver

age

2�27

1�33

2�07

1�21

2�14

1�22

2�00

1�21

1�96

�76

2�45

�98

2�68

0�76

2�71

2�27

1�22


recognized as gifted in the technical field (M = 1�96, SD = 0�76)� Statistically sig-nificant differences according to gender were detected for the item “redefinition” (χ2 = 4�958, df = 2, p = 0�034), where the boys’ (M = 0�33, SD = 0�58) average score was lower than the girls’ (M = 1�75, SD = 0�50)�

Our research suggests that the individuals who were identified as gifted based on their high IQ were ranked 3rd most successful according to their average LV1Test score (M = 2�27, SD = 1�33)� Their average score was equal to that of the artistically gifted students (M = 2�27, SD = 1�22); it was surpassed by the average scores of the literary gifted students (M = 2�45, SD = 0�98), students gifted in drama (M = 2�68, SD = 0�76) and the musically gifted (M = 2�71, SD = /)� We can conclude that in this group of participants, creative thinking was not more prominent for high-IQ students�

Conclusions

The research firstly aimed at establishing the general levels of creativity among the gifted and non-gifted students of elementary schools in the Posavje region, Slovenia (RQ1)� Using the LV 1 Test instrument, we were able to establish the average creativity levels of all the participating students, which were below the test average� We also found that the girls’ average scores were higher than the boys’� The existing data on gender roles in measuring creativity has either not shown gender differences in creativity (Kaufman, 2006; Kogan, 1974) or shown that males are more successful in creativity tests (Stolitzfus, Nibbelink, Vredenburg and Thyrum, 2011; He and Wong, 2011)� Our research findings reveal the opposite, with the girls being more successful in creativity tests� We then separately analysed the scores for the gifted (RQ2) and the non-gifted students (RQ3)� The gifted students’ average score was higher than that of the non-gifted students’� The girls proceeded to achieve a higher average score in both groups of students� These findings are in accordance to previous research in this field (Terman and Oden, 1947; Houtz, Rosenfield and Tetenbaum, 1978)� Lastly, we analysed the gifted students’ scores according to the different types of giftedness they were ascribed to by their teach-ers (RQ4)� The data revealed that none of the gifted students reached the LV1 Test average score – in fact, most of them were well below� The students who were gifted on the basis of their general intellectual skills also failed to show high creativity levels, as can be, surprisingly, said for artistically gifted students� The best score was obtained by a musically gifted student, whereas the score was the lowest for the group of technically gifted students� Our research revealed data which are contrary


to the findings of previous research in this field (Guilford and Christiansen, 1973; Torrance, 1980; Getzels and Jackson, 1962; Wallach and Kogan, 1965)� The sample included students who were recognized as gifted in visual arts by their teachers (RQ5)� The results show that these students did not achieve above-average scores in the LV1 Test and therefore did not stand out in terms of their creativity levels�

Such results are worrying – one would expect gifted students to show higher levels of creativity, at least the students gifted in technical, artistic or general intel-lectual areas� The research findings may indicate a lack of creative teaching among the participating students, as well as the teachers’ inability to recognize creative students�

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the existing Level of social Competence of Children with special Needs from the teacher’s

Point of View

AbstractThe development of social competence is reflected in the individual’s potential for constructive cooperation and behavior in social situations, in the possibility of establishing interpersonal relationships and understanding different view-points and in the capability of to tolerance and compassion� The purpose of this research paper is to compare teachers’ opinions on attained social competence of pupils with special needs and other pupils� A questionnaire for teachers was adapted� Pupils with special needs were slightly better at accepting diversity and difference and demonstrated a higher level of politeness than other pupils�

Keywords: social competence, relations, pupils with special needs, pupils, teachers.

introduction

Social competence represents a comprehensive ability of the individual, reflected in effective ways of coping with the requirements imposed by the specific social environment and successful coping with differences and conflicts between social and individual relevant objectives (Oppenheimer, 1989)� It includes a fixed repertoire of social competence which has cognitive dimensions (assessment of the social experience, judging the correct and incorrect actions, the ability to iden-tify possible solutions to conflict situations and anticipating their consequences, understanding other people’s mental states), the emotional dimension (empathy, ability to put oneself in the position of others in order to understand their feelings, as well as their ways of solving problems, understanding and expressing one’s own feelings, accepting other perspectives – identifying expectations, desires, interests

Mitja Krajnčan, Andreja Sinjur, Tanja KranjecSlovenia

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.22

261The Existing Level of Social Competence of Children with Special Needs

and intentions of others and assessing the social situation in the light thereof), and behavioral dimensions (actual behavior of an individual in social conflicts, e�g� a viable solution of interpersonal conflict)� The second element of social com-petence is the appropriate level of self-evaluation (e�g� a person believing in his/her own value, the ability to achieve the desired results, etc�) (Ford, 1985)� Social competence relates to skills that are connected to an individual’s involvement in social situations� Therefore, the individual has the option to gain skills in this area in every pertaining formal as well as informal form� Both are obtained from birth onwards, but education received from parents or teachers with various forms of social learning is highly important�

Among the general objectives of elementary education (Article 2 of the Law on Changes and Amendments to the Law on Elementary Schools, 2007) it is also pos-sible to find the matter of social competence� This implies that the development of social competence is integrated into the objectives of elementary education, which means that at the end of elementary education individuals are expected to master certain skills in this area� Teachers can develop pupils’ social competence through various forms of work (e�g� through the learning of appropriate communication and reaction patterns, by enabling pupils to use role-play in accepting diversity and practicing the displays of emotion), but pupils can also acquire these in vari-ous extra-curricular activities, class hours, by voluntary work, etc� Thus, what is of the greatest significance is the development of social competence by parents with (in)appropriate means of education, school, environment surrounding the individual and peers as well�

Pupils with special Needs and social Competence

Pupils with special needs (children with intellectual disabilities, blind and visually impaired children, deaf and hard of hearing children, children with speech and language disorders, physically challenged children, children with long-term sickness, children with deficits in specific areas of learning, children with autistic disorders, children with emotional and behavioral disorders) should receive special attention in schools� When dealing with pupils with special needs we should focus on: (1) a comprehensive and complex approach and (2) detec-tion and identification of pupils’ skills (strengths, interests, talents)� Pupils with special needs may show lower social competence� Congruent with the concept of the study “Learning difficulties in elementary school”, Magajna (2008) points out that these children face difficulties in: communication; planning of activities,

262 Mitja Krajnčan, Andreja Sinjur,Tanja Kranjec

organization of ideas and materials; use of non-verbal forms of communication; demonstrating low achievement motivation (lesser self-efficacy), visible in nega-tive, inappropriate attitudes and expectations; controlling despondency (depres-sion); abandoning activities and contacts with peers and having problems in the field of social inclusion�

Research Problem At elementary schools there are individuals who show low social competence�

There is increasing dependency of pupils, inability to work with others, intolerance to the individual and to work, etc� The focus is increasingly put on the individual’s egoism� This is notable both with pupils with special needs, as well as other pupils� The extent to which teachers perceive the presence of social competence in these pupils in primary schools will be presented�

Research FocusThe aim of this study was to compare teachers’ opinions on attained social

competence of pupils with special needs and other pupils� Therefore, we drew up the following hypotheses:

H1: Teachers believe that all pupils show a low level of development of indi-vidual social competence�

H2: Teachers believe that pupils with special needs show a lower level of devel-opment of individual social competence than other pupils in:

• recognizing their own emotions and the ability to put oneself in the place of another person

• independence and responsible behavior within a group • development of closeness, feelings of trust, security and belonging • acceptance of diversity and differences


General Background of ResearchA questionnaire for teachers was adapted� The data were analyzed in compara-

tive and quantitative manners� The descriptive (narrative) and explicative (causal) non-experimental methods of empirical research were used� The descriptive method was used to describe the state of social competence in schools while the explicative method served for the search of the causes and consequences of such a situation�


Research SampleThe sample consisted of elementary teachers from different subject areas�

The questionnaire was completed by 69 teachers� 30 of them were class teachers (43�5%), 7 teachers originated from various fields of social sciences (geography, his-tory, ethics and civics), with an equal number of teachers in the field of counseling and additional learning assistance (10�1%), as well as 8 teachers working in the field of natural sciences (mathematics, science and engineering, biology, chemistry, physics) (11�6%), 9 teachers (12�2%) from the field of visual arts education and music education, 6 teachers (8�1%) from the field of linguistics (Slovenian, English, German) and 2 teachers (2�7%) active in after-school activities and the library� All of the teachers did not answer all of the questions as will become evident in the further analysis of the data�

Instrument and ProceduresA questionnaire for teachers was adapted� It was based on the Social Learn-

ing program, which is implemented as a special educational activity for a tar-geted educational program with lower educational standards (www�zrss�si/doc/210911085601__pp_nis_socialno_ucenje�doc, retrieved 8/3/2012). There-fore, the validity of the questionnaire was ensured� The questionnaire included claims relating to the development of individual social competence of pupils� 4 questions of a three-level scale were used� De Vaus (2001, p� 53) claims that “a valid measure is one which measures what it is intended to measure�” To ensure the efficient collection of valid and reliable data, a pilot study was necessary in order to identify possible shortcomings of the instrument� Therefore, a prelimi-nary form of the questionnaire was provided� Reliability and objectivity of the questionnaire was ensured by providing detailed instructions and unequivocal specific questions� The calculation of Cronbach’s coefficient (α = 0�906) showed that the questionnaire proved a high degree of reliability� Questionnaires were submitted online�

Data AnalysesData were processed and analyzed with the use of SPSS version 14�0 soft-

ware� The results are presented both in a tabular form as well as descriptively� Since different hypotheses were verified, various tests were used for that purpose:

• The independent-samples T-Test (for the development of individual social competence in pupils with special needs)

• Mann-Whitney U test (to evaluate the arguments where the assumption of the equality of variances was not confirmed�


research results

Table 1. Agreeing on the development of identifying one’s own emotions and the ability of empathy among pupils with special needs and other pupils

Identifying one‘s own emotions and the capability of empathy n M S

Levene’s Test for Equality of

Variances

T-test for Equality of Means

F P t g 2P

They know how to com-fort their peers who are upset or not feeling well

pupils 69 1.900 0�458

2�943 0�089 -1�223 134 0�224pupils with SEN

67 2.015 0�639

They can find help for their peers when needed

pupils 68 1.779 0�418

12�438 0�001 / / /pupils with SEN

67 2.239 0�630

They know how to help their peers when needed

pupils 67 1.850 0�530

2�012 0�158 -2�832 130 0�005pupils with SEN

65 2.139 0�634

They have the capabil-ity of empathy

pupils 66 1.985 0�5683�803 0�053 -1�289 130 0�200

pupils 66 2.121 0�645

(1=I strongly agree, 2=I agree, 3=I strongly disagree)

Table 2. The Mann-Whitney U test on the development of identifying one’s own emotions and the capability of empathy among pupils with special needs

and other pupils

Statement Mann-Whitney U test results They can find help for their peers when needed U=1440�000, 2P=0�000

In regard to the statement They know how to comfort their peers who are upset or not feeling well the teachers expressed stronger agreement when deal-ing with other pupils (M = 1�900) than was the case with the pupils with special needs (M = 2�015)� The assumption of Equal Variances for this claim (F = 2�943, P = 0�089) was confirmed� The teachers estimated that there was no statistically


significant difference (t = -1�223, g = 134, 2P = 0�224) in the assessment of these arguments between the pupils with special needs and other pupils�

The assumption of Equal Variances for the statement They can find help for their peers when needed (F = 12�438, P = 0�001) was not confirmed� Mann-Whitney test showed a statistically significant difference between the pupils with special needs and other pupils� The teachers expressed stronger agreement with the statement when dealing with other pupils (M = 1�779) than was the case with the pupils with special needs (M = 2�239)�

In the case of the statement They know how to help their peers when needed the teachers believed that other pupils could better help their peers (M = 1�850) when in need, than the pupils with special needs (M = 2�139)� The assumption of Equal Variances for the statement (F = 2�012, P = 0�158) was confirmed� The result of t-test (t = -2�832, g = 130, 2P = 0�005) shows that between the two groups there is a statistically significant difference, suggesting that the teachers estimate that there are differences in terms of how able the other pupils are to help their peers when needed� According to the teachers, the pupils with special needs are supposed to have more problems in this regard�

Regarding the statement They have the capability of empathy, the teachers again expressed weaker agreement with the statement referring to the pupils with special needs (M = 2�121), when compared with other pupils (M = 1�985)� Dispersion of the teachers’ responses about other pupils (s = 0�568) is lower than in the case of the answers concerning the pupils with special needs (s = 0�645)� The assump-tion of the homogeneity of variances for the statement (F = 3�803, P = 0�053) was confirmed� Between the two groups, there are no statistically significant differences (t = -1�289, g = 130, 2P = 0�200), thus the teachers estimated that there were no dif-ferences regarding the capability of empathy�

The hypothesis stating that the teachers consider other pupils show a low level of the development of social competence can be confirmed by this social compe-tence, as the ratings given by the teachers to other pupils were rather low�

According to the teachers’ answers in the evaluation of recognizing pupils’ own emotions and the capability of empathy, we can confirm the hypothesis that the teachers consider the pupils with special needs as showing a lower level of social competence than other pupils� This was also confirmed by the theoretical part� Within the given statements, two statistically significant differences appeared, suggesting that the teachers perceive certain differences between other pupils and the pupils with special needs, particularly regarding the statements about finding help and assisting their peers�


Table 3. Agreeing on the development of independence and responsible behavior within the group among pupils with special needs and other pupils

Independence and respon-sible behavior within a group n M S

Levene’s Test for Equality of

Variances


F P t g 2P

They are able to participate within the group

pupils 67 1.672 0�5040�334 0�565 –5�691 132 0�000pupils

with SEN 67 2.194 0�557

They conscien-tiously carry out their tasks within the group.

pupils 68 1.838 0�536

8�237 0�005 / / /pupils with SEN 66 2.349 0�620


Table 4. Mann-Whitney U test for the development of independence and responsible behavior within the group among pupils with special needs

and other pupils.

Statement Mann-Whitney U test results They conscientiously carry out their tasks within the group. U=1310�500, 2P=0�000

The results show that there are significant statistical differences in both statements between other pupils and the pupils with special needs in terms of independence and responsible behavior within the group, at the level of statistical significance 2P = 0�000�

Regarding the statement They are able to participate within a group, the teach-ers gave other pupils the rating of M = 1�672, which represents a relatively high rate of agreement with this statement in the case of other pupils� The pupils with special needs were given a lower score (M = 2�194)� The assumption of homo-geneity of variances for the claim (F = 0�334, P = 0�565) was confirmed� Between the two groups, there was a statistically significant difference (t = -5�691, g = 132, 2P = 0�000), which means that the teachers believe that the pupils with special needs have greater difficulties when participating within the group�

Similar results were shown regarding the statement They conscientiously carry out their tasks within the group� The teachers gave other pupils a higher score (M = 1�838) than the pupils with special needs (M = 2�349)� The assumption of the homogeneity of variances for the claim (F = 8�237, P = 0�005) was not con-firmed� The Mann-Whitney U test (F = 1310�500, 2P = 0�000) showed that there is


a statistically significant difference between the given groups, which means that the teachers believe the pupils with special needs have greater difficulties with the performance of certain tasks within the group�

The hypothesis that the pupils with special needs show a lower level of develop-ment of social competence than other pupils in assessing the independence and responsible behavior within the group was confirmed, since in both statements a higher level of disagreement was evident for the pupils with special need, when compared to the other pupils� Within the frame of the given statements, a statisti-cally significant difference was also demonstrated, suggesting that the teachers perceive certain differences between other pupils and the pupils with special needs in the area of independence and responsibility� What was quite obvious were also the low scores when assessing the presence of specific social competence among other pupils, thus the hypothesis that teachers consider that other pupils have a low level of development of social competence was confirmed�

Table 5. Agreeing on the capability of closeness, feelings of trust, security, feelings of belonging among pupils with special needs and other pupils

Development of closeness, feelings of trust, security, feelings of

belongingn M S

Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances


F P t g 2PThey are able to recog-nize mutual similarities and differences with their peers.

pupils 66 1.833 0�450

8�375 0�004 / / /pupils with SEN 66 2.227 0�602

They cultivate healthy interpersonal relation-ships.

pupils 68 2.029 0�4881�106 0�295 –0�708 132 0�480pupils

with SEN 66 2.091 0�518


Table 6. Mann-Whitney U test for the development of closeness, feelings of trust, security, feelings of belonging among pupils with special needs and other pupils

Statement Mann-Whitney U test results They are able to recognize mutual similarities and differences with their peers. U=1450�500, 2P=0�000

In the case of the statement They are able to recognize mutual similarities and differences with their peers, the assumption of the homogeneity of statement vari-ances (F = 8�375, P = 0�004) was not confirmed� The Mann-Whitney U test showed


a statistically significant difference between the pupils with special needs and other pupils (2P = 0�000)� The teachers rated the other pupils with M = 1�833, while the pupils with special needs received a lower score, i�e� there was a higher disagree-ment with the given statement (M = 2�227)�

The assumption of the homogeneity of variances regarding the statement They cultivate healthy interpersonal relationships (F = 1�106, P = 0�295) was confirmed� Both values of arithmetic means were similar, as the value for other pupils was M = 2�029, while for the pupils with special needs it was M = 2�091, therefore the significant statistical difference did not appear (t = -0�708, g = 132, P = 0�480)�

Other pupils showed a low degree of development of this social competence, as predicted� The hypothesis that the pupils with special needs show a lower level of development of social competence than other pupils was confirmed in the evaluation of this social competence, since both statements evoked a higher level of disagreement for the pupils with special needs than for other pupils� Within the frame of the given statements, a statistically significant difference was also revealed, regarding the assessment of the ability to recognize similarities and dif-ferences between the given groups from the perspective of the teachers�

The findings can be additionally corroborated with theoretical work, as it was stated that pupils with special needs face problems due to the lack of feelings of safety and acceptance, as well as a lack of self-control�

The statement Pupils show an equal attitude towards individuals who are of reli-gion a different from their own was evaluated similarly by the teachers for the other the pupils (M = 1�971), as well as for the pupils with special needs (M = 1�969)� The assumption of the homogeneity of variance (F = 0�312, P = 0�577) was confirmed� There was no significant statistical difference between the evaluated groups in the assessment of these statements (t = 0�014, g = 131, 2P = 0�989)�

The teachers evaluated the statement Pupils show an equal attitude towards individuals who originate from other countries, have different cultural habits and use their mother tongue in a similar way� As was the case with the preceding state-ment, the pupils with special needs again received a higher level of agreement (M = 1�939) than other pupils (M = 1�955)� The assumption of the homogeneity of statement variance (F = 0�000, P = 0�994) was thus confirmed� There was no signifi-cant statistical difference in the assessment of these statements, when comparing both evaluated groups (t = 0�173, g = 129, 2P = 0�836)�

In the case of the statement Pupils show an equal attitude towards pupils with special needs, the teachers also granted a higher level of agreement to the pupils with special needs (M = 1�890)� Other pupils were given M = 2�030� The assumption of the homogeneity of variance (F = 0�314, P = 0�576) was confirmed� There was no


significant statistical difference between the evaluated groups in the assessment of these statements (t = 0�541, g = 128, 2P = 0�126)�

In assessing the acceptance of diversity and differences, the pupils with special needs, according to the teachers, show a higher level of development than other pupils, nevertheless there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups, while the assessments for both groups were relatively low, which was also predicted�

Discussion

The teachers estimated that other pupils show a low degree of development of individual social competences� They also estimated that the pupils with special needs show a lower level of development of social competences than other pupils in almost all issues (i�e� the identifying of their own feelings and empathy, as well

Table 7. Agreeing on the capability of accepting diversity and differences among pupils with special needs and other pupils

Acceptance of diversity and differences n M S

Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances


F P t g 2PPupils show an equal attitude towards individuals who are of a religion different from their own

pupils 68 1.971 0�546 0�312 0�577 0�014 131 0�989

pupils with SEN 65 1.969 0�585

Pupils show an equal attitude towards individuals who originate from other countries, have different cultural habits and use their mother tongue

pupils 66 1.955 0�539 0�000 0�994 0�173 129 0�863

pupils with SEN 65 1.939 0�527

Pupils show an equal attitude towards pupils with special needs.

pupils 66 2.030 0�525 0�314 0�576 1�541 128 0�126pupils with SEN

64 1.890 0�507



as independence and responsible behavior within the group; the development of closeness, feelings of trust, security and belonging) except when evaluating the acceptance of diversity and difference, where the pupils with special needs showed a level of development similar to other pupils� The hypothesis stating that other pupils show a low level of development of social competences and the pupils with special needs even lower was therefore confirmed�

Conclusion

The results confirm that the area of social competences in elementary school still needs serious improvement� Social competences are extremely important for an individual, however pupils in Slovenian elementary school show a relatively low level of these skills, which could prove to be a worrying fact� In addition, pupils with special needs should receive more attention especially in areas where they are ahead when compared with their peers as this could contribute to a greater sense of their importance within society and raise their self-esteem, which represents the very foundation of social competence� According to Csóti (2009) the development of social, emotional and behavioral skills of children is essential if we want them to develop into mature adult individuals�

On the other hand, the society we live in today offers and ultimately requires the use of technology, multimedia and computers� This implies even greater individu-alization of the individual, which stands in contrast to social competence� Con-cerning this issue the following questions still need to be answered: To what extent, with whom and how do our pupils spend their leisure time?; What is the extent to which we could supervise our children and pupils, as parents and teachers, to encourage their independence?; Do they have the opportunity to demonstrate their accountability, do we trust them enough?

referencesCsóti, M� (2009)� Developing Children΄s Social, Emotional and Behavioural Skills. New York:

Continuum International Publishing Group�De Vaus, D�A� (2001) Surveys in Social Research. London: Routledge� Ford, M�E� (1985)� The concept of competence: Themes and variations� In: H�A� Marlowe,

Jr� & R�B� Weinberg (Eds�)� Competence development (pp� 3–49)� New York: Academic Press�

Ključne kompetence za vseživljenjsko učenje (2007)� Evropski referenčni okvir� Retrieved


8/2/2013 from http://ec�europa�eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/ll-learning/key comp_sl�pdf�

Magajna, L� (2008)� Koncept dela Učne težave v osnovni šoli� Ljubljana: Zavod za šolstvo� Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah zakona o osnovni šoli (2007)� Retrieved 8/2/2013 from http://www�uradni-list�si/1/objava�jsp?urlid=2007102&stevilka=5073�

Oppenheimer, J�R� (1989)� Atom and Void: Essays on Science and Community� New Jersey: Princeton University Press�

Warden, D� & Christie, D� (2001)� Spodbujanje socialnega vedenja. Ljubljana: Inštitut za psihologijo osebnosti�

Chosen Aspects of Psychology

Market regulations in social relationships and Attitudes towards Disabled People

AbstractThe article presents an empirical study on some predictors of attitudes to disa-bled people� The assumption was that in market-oriented societies attitudes to the needy and underprivileged are connected with the calculation of the costs and benefits of their inclusion in society� Psychological mercantilism is an indi-vidual characteristic which makes people especially keen on conducting such calculations� The relation between mercantilism and attitudes to the disabled with the perception of costs and benefits as mediators was examined in the group of 126 university students� The results showed a negative correlation between the main variables as well as the assumed mediation effect�

Keywords: attitudes to the disabled, psychological mercantilism, costs and benefits of social inclusion

introduction

Members of contemporary societies pay a lot of attention to the physical, intel-lectual, emotional, and – as a result – social “fitness” of themselves and others� Any sort of disability obviously does not meet this ideal, so it induces an expectation that it should be immediately “repaired” and if it is not possible – marginalized (Wojtyna, Stawiarska, 2013)� Despite numerous regulations aiming at ensuring equal rights for people with disabilities and an axiological orientation towards tolerance and integration, feelings of discomfort or even fear during interactions with disabled people are still quite common� In addition, such feelings are sup-ported by misconceptions about the psychological features and social potential of the disabled� Many problems encountered by people with disabilities are generated by inappropriate social attitudes� Positive attitudes can facilitate inclusion and

Małgorzata Górnik-Durose, Aleksandra WąsikPoland

DOI: 10.15804/ tner.2015.40.2.23

276 Małgorzata Górnik-Durose, Aleksandra Wąsik

acceptance of the disability, whereas negative attitudes can result in exclusion and the transformation of specific functional impairments into generalized personal and social handicaps (Findler, Vilchinsky, Werner, 2007)� In order to reduce these problems a comprehensive picture of factors shaping attitudes towards people with disabilities is necessary�

One of the predominant characteristics of contemporary societies is their con-centration on the economic aspects of life (Baudrillard, 1970/1998; Bauman, 2009, Barber, 2008, de Graaf, Wann, Naylor, 2005) reflected in the mindsets (mentality) of their members (Sikora, Górnik-Durose, 2013)� As Michael Sandel stated in his inspiring book: “The most fateful change that unfolded during the past three decades was […] the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of life where they don’t belong” (Sandel, 2012)� It means that market and economic cost – benefit analyses rule domains of human existence that until recently were clearly separated from this kind of regulation�

In social psychology there is a well-established distinction between two types of social relationships – communal and exchange (Clark, Mills, 1993)� The communal relationships bring to mind close interactions, such as those between family mem-bers, the exchange relationships are more business-like� They are distinguished by principles of giving and receiving benefits� In communal relationships, people take into consideration the welfare of others, benefits are given in response to needs or to demonstrate concern for the other� People do not expect a straight repayment of comparable benefit� In exchange relationships, on the other hand, a benefit is given with the expectation of receiving a comparable benefit in return or in repayment for a benefit received previously� Also Fiske (1992), while listing forms of sociality, locates certain forms of relationships based on market pricing among them� This orients people towards proportionality in ratios and rates to which various aspects of interactions are reduced�

Returning to Sandel (2012) and his analyses, it could be argued that in societies that were shaped by the free market and individualism as a core social value, the exchange and market pricing dominated the way social relationships of all kinds have been created� The domination of market orientations in various domains of human lives reflects also at the individual level� In economics it is shown in the concept of a rational homo economicus – a model of a human being whose behavior is aimed strictly at maximizing his/her utility (benefits of all sorts), in philosophy and psychology – in a concept of mercantile character, described by Fromm (1976/1995)�

In such a social and cultural context a question about the position of disadvan-taged and needy members of society within systems of welfare rationing has to

277Market Regulations in Social Relationships and Attitudes Towards Disabled People

be addressed� Disabled people can be perceived as a cost and burden in societies valuing exchange relationships and market regulations, especially in the case of less affluent societies (van Oorschot, 2006)�

research problem

In the presented study a problem related to attitudes to the disabled from the perspective of social orientation towards market values has been addressed� The social orientation towards market values was specified at the individual level in terms of psychological mercantilism (Górnik-Durose, 2007), a concept related to traditionally understood materialism (Richins, Dawson, 1992; Belk, 1985), but extending its meaning towards the extrinsic regulation as conceptualized by Deci and Ryan in their self-determination theory (cf� Deci, Ryan, 2000; Kasser, Ryan, 1993, 1996; Ryan, Deci, 2000)� Psychological mercantilism is a psycho-behavioral complex of multidimensional nature� It is constructed around extrinsic values such as money and material possessions, image and fame (cf� Kasser, Ryan, 1993, 1996) and accompanied by a perception of the world as a zero-sum game, with “social Darwinism” as a ruling principle (cf� Duckitt, Fisher, 2003; Skarżyńska, Radkiewicz); decision criteria used by people in relation to their everyday activity are based on a “cost-benefit analysis” and tend to secure mainly material gains, and a style of self-presentation involves an exposition of the socially approved signs of material success, physical attractiveness and social recognition�

If people are asked about their attitude to the disabled and at the same time confronted with information related to the economic aspects of social inclusion of this group their attitudes could vary� People presenting a high level of the above-mentioned psychological mercantilism should be more sensitive to economic information and that might negatively influence their attitudes towards disadvan-taged members of society� Such an assumption is based on the data showing that people with extrinsic orientation have a lower level of empathy and are unwilling to engage in any sort of pro-social activities (Kasser, Cohn, Ryan, Kanner 2007)� They are also prone to prejudice, tend to accept social inequalities and prefer hierarchical relationships (Duriez, 2011; Duriez, Vansteenkiste, Soenens and De Witte 2007)� In addition, materialism correlates positively with racism (Roets, van Hiel, Cornelis, 2006), which may suggest a lack of acceptance of any sort of social diversity�

In their empirical analysis of materialism and racism, Roets, van Hiel and Cornelis (2006) showed also a mediating effect of self-interest on the relation


between these two variables� It means that the belief that support given to ethnic minorities collides with personal welfare increases even more racism in mate-rialistic people� It could be expected then that such an effect will appear also in the context of other deserving social groups, e�g� the disabled� Thus, the attitudes towards the disabled might be at least less positive if people were to perceive social actions from which the disabled benefit as being in conflict with their own potential outcomes�

However, Roets et al� took into consideration only a situation when self-interest was connected with protecting themselves against potential loss� There is, though, the other side of the coin – the welfare actions towards one group of people could also bring benefits for others� In this situation self-interest is connected with potential gains, not losses� This way of thinking is supported by prospect theory, a seminal theoretical framework proposed by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), which has been applied by psychologists and even economists to explain various aspects of human behavior over the decades� From the point of view of the prospect theory, which states that losses and gains have non-equal utility and the subjective weight of loss is more substantial that the weight of gain, it could be argued that the perception of costs connected with the social inclusion of the disabled will be more important for attitudes to them than perceptions of gains� There should be, then, a negative relation between attitudes towards the disabled and the perception of costs of their inclusion and a relatively weaker positive rela-tion between these attitudes and the perception of benefits� These effects should become more and more prominent with increasing mercantilism and in the case of self-interest as opposed to social interest, understood in terms of cost and benefits for the whole society�

To summarize, in the presented study the following hypotheses were verified:1� There is a negative correlation between psychological mercantilism and

attitudes towards disabled people�2� Perception of potential gains connected with social inclusion of the disabled

will increase positive attitudes towards them, whereas perception of poten-tial costs of the inclusion will weaken these attitudes�

3� Perception of costs and benefits in relation to self-interest versus social interest significantly mediates the relation between psychological mercantil-ism and the attitudes towards disabled people�


Method

SubjectsThe data was collected from 126 students from Silesian universities, of whom

73 were women and 53 men, aged 18 – 25� 42�1% of the subjects had previously had some sort of contact with disabled people from the group to which the research materials were related�

Instrument and ProceduresAt the beginning the subjects were asked to complete the Questionnaire of

World Beliefs created by the first author to measure psychological mercantilism (Górnik-Durose, 2007, 2013)� The questionnaire consists of three parts related to the theoretical aspects of the construct, which are: (a) world beliefs, i�e� opinions about the way the world is organized (e�g� “There is a wide-spread belief in today’s world that if you do not have money and appearance you are nobody”), (b) the char-acter of social relations, i�e� personal beliefs about principles underlying human behavior (e�g� “Friendship is OK, but it is useful to have influential acquaintances”), (c) preferences concerning self-presentation (an assessment of people who “Talk mainly about costs of everything and what is worth or not spending money on”). The core aspect of psychological mercantilism is the character of personal relations with the world� Each part of the questionnaire contains a pair of 4-item subscales� One subscale from each pair describes mercantile mentality and behaviors, the other – its contradiction� The subjects were asked to mark their answers on a 7-point scale ranging from 1(definitely not/negative) to 7 (definitely yes/ posi-tive)�The scores for each aspect were calculated as the difference between sums derived from mercantile and non-mercantile items� The internal consistencies of all the 4-item subscales, indicated by Cronbach’s alpha, varied from 0�61 to 0�73 in the presented study�

After completing the questionnaire, the subjects were presented with a short description of the situation of people with intellectual disability and some aspects of their inclusion in Polish society� There were five versions of the descriptions (cf� Wąsik, 2014)� The first (basic) version included only facts about the population of the disabled and about some inclusion efforts undertaken� The remaining four descriptions included additional notes related to: (a) benefits of inclusion for an individual (self-interest/benefits), (b) benefits of inclusion for society (social inter-est/benefits), (c) costs of inclusion for an individual (self-interest/costs), and (d) costs of inclusion for society (social interest/costs)� The descriptions were assigned randomly to the subjects� After reading one of the descriptions, all the subjects


were asked to complete a questionnaire which measured their attitudes towards the disabled and answer the following questions:

(a) In your opinion, do attempts to integrate people with intellectual disabili-ties into society bring significant benefits for that society?

(b) In your opinion, are attempts to integrate people with intellectual disabili-ties connected with significant social costs?

(c) Do you see any personal benefits from the integration of intellectually disabled people?

(d) Do you think that you personally pay any costs or lose something because of these integration attempts?

The subjects placed their answers on the scale from 1 (definitely not) to 6 (definitely yes)�

The attitudes towards people with disabilities were measured with the Attitudes Towards Disabled People Scale created by Sękowski (1994)� The scale consists of 30 items, which relate to various attitudes to the disabled, but build one strong factor� The higher score in the scale the more positive the attitudes are� The internal consistency of the scale indicated by Cronbach’s alpha was 0�88 in the presented study� The subjects gave answers on the scale ranging from –3 (I strongly disagree) to +3 (I strongly agree)�

Data AnalysisData analysis included examination of zero-order correlations between variables

and mediation analysis based on the approach proposed by Preacher and Hayes (2008), applied in order to test multiple mediator models with a bootstrapping technique� All statistical analyses were conducted in IBM SPSS 22 and PROCESS for SPSS by Hayes (http://www�afhayes�com)�

results

Attitudes to the disabled, perception of costs and benefits of inclusion and psychological mercantilismThe first step of data analysis was to check zero-order correlations between three

aspects of mercantilism and attitudes to the disabled� Only the Social Relations aspect correlated significantly with attitudes to the disabled (r = –0�22, p<0�05) as well as with the perception of costs and benefits of their inclusion (r = 0�24, p<0�01 for self-interest/cost, r = –0�32, p<0�01 for self-interest/benefits, r = –0�23, p<0�01 for social interest/benefits, no significant correlation was found for social inter-


est/costs)� However, Social Relations is the core aspect which defines the whole construct, so it may be stated that there was a relationship between mercantilism and the examined attitudes� The correlations were relatively weak, but statisti-cally significant� They showed the assumed relation: the stronger psychological mercantilism was the less positive the attitudes to the disabled were� That result confirmed the first hypothesis� In addition, mercantilism appeared to be connected with the perception of costs and benefits of the social integration of the disabled� The stronger it was the more costly the inclusion was perceived to be from the self-interest point of view and fewer benefits were perceived in both social and individual aspects�

At this point it has to be remembered that in order to enhance concentration on the issue of social inclusion of the disabled the subjects were faced with different kinds of description, which included information about the social and individual costs and benefits of the inclusion� It was expected that the descriptions would differentiate attitudes, however, it was not the case� There were no significant dif-ferences in attitudes between the groups of subjects who had read different texts and even more – the answers to the questions related to the cost-benefit assess-ment did not differ significantly across the groups� It means that the evaluation of costs and benefits of the social inclusion of disabled people was not situational, but deeply rooted in the beliefs and attitudes of the subjects�

The correlation coefficients indicating relations between the attitudes and perception of costs and benefits were also significant (r = 0�40, p <0�01 for social interest/benefits, r = 0�44, p<0�01 for self-interest/benefits, r = –0�42, p<0�01 for social interest/costs and r = –0�19, p<0�05 for self-interest/costs)� They confirmed the second hypothesis – perception of potential gains connected with the social inclusion of the disabled was associated with more positive attitudes towards them, whereas the perception of potential costs of the inclusion significantly weakened these attitudes�

Mediating effect of perception of costs and benefits on the relation between psychological mercantilism and attitudes to the disabledAs shown before, psychological mercantilism in its core aspect related to the

character of social relations was significantly correlated with attitudes to the disabled, as well as with the perception of the costs and benefits of their social inclusion� On the other hand, attitudes to the disabled were also connected with the perception of the costs and benefits of inclusion� Such a configuration suggests that the perception of costs and benefits might be the major factor explaining the attitudes to the disabled in mercantile people� The basic assumption related to the


nature of mercantilism is that the construct is founded on the calculation of losses and gains (Górnik-Durose, 2007)� Thus, the perception of costs and benefits should be a significant mediator of the relationship between mercantilism and attitudes�

Figure 1 shows the model and Table 1 shows the results of mediation analysis, which was conducted according to the method of assessing indirect effects in multiple mediator models proposed by Preacher and Hayes (2008)� The boot-strapping technique for multiple mediator models allows for the estimation of indirect effects for several mediators� The analysis was conducted twice� First, all the four indicators of the perception of costs and benefits from personal and social perspectives were included as mediators, second – the indicators of the combined assessment of costs and benefits were taken into consideration (social interest/costs + self-interest/costs and social interests/benefits + self-interest/benefits)�

Figure 1. A hypothetical model of the relation between psychological mercantilism and attitudes to the disabled mediated by the perception of the costs and benefits of

their inclusion

The results show the mediating effect of the perception of the costs and benefits of social inclusion of disabled people from the social and personal perspectives on the relation between mercantilism and attitudes to the disabled� The regression coefficients (c’) were reduced in comparison to c, when the perception of costs or benefits was controlled, both in their four forms and as combined indicators of costs and benefits�

As Table 1 shows, the total indirect effect of mercantilism on the attitudes to the disabled through all the four types of costs/benefits assessments was significant, the examination of the specific effects revealed, however, that only the effect of the perception of benefits from the self-interest perspective was significant� Confi-dence intervals for the effects of the perception of costs and perception of benefits

Perception of costs and benefits:social interest/costself-interest/costs

social interest/benefitsself-interest/benefits

Psychological mercantilism Attitudes to the disabled

a b

c

c’


Table 1. Estimates in the tested models of relations between psychological mercantilism and attitudes to the disabled mediated by the perception of costs

and benefits

Mediators a b c c’Bootstrap results

(5000 bootstrap resamples)Estimate SE 95% CI

Social interest/costs 0�14 –0�24*

–0�22*–0�06

–0�03 0�03 –0�12; 0�00Self-interest/costs 0�24** 0�06 –0�00 0�03 –0�04; 0�07Social interest/benefits –0�23** 0�19* –0�04 0�03 –0�15; 0�00Self-interest/benefits –0�32** 0�24** –0�08 0�04 –0�18; –0�01COSTS 0�15 –0�11

–0�06–0�02 0�02 –0�09; 0�01

BENEFITS –0�33** 0�44** –0�14 0�05 –0�28; –0�06TOTAL –0�15 0�06 –0�29; –0�07

Note: *p<0�05; **p<0�01; a, b, c, c’ – unstandardized regression coefficients

from the social point of view included zero that suggested a non-significant mediation�

The analysis of the combined costs and combined benefits perceptions showed clearly that although the total indirect effect of mercantilism on the attitudes towards the disabled through combined costs and benefits was significant, only the effect of benefits was responsible for it� The confidence interval for costs included zero� As expected in such a situation, the contrast between mediators was also significant (95% confidence interval of 0�04 to 0�28; point estimate of 0�13)� It means that the negative attitudes to the disabled associated with psychological mercantilism are due mostly to reluctance to perceive benefits and advantages of the social inclusion of this group�

Discussion

The results show that if an economic perspective is involved in thinking about the problems of disabled people a “cost-benefit analysis” could influence attitudes towards them� The more mercantile people are, the less positive attitudes they show towards the disadvantaged members of their society� These findings correspond with the results showing that people who are extrinsically oriented (as mercantile individuals) are less empathic, not keen on pro-social activities (Kasser, Cohn, Ryan, Kanner 2007) and prone to prejudice (Duriez, 2011; Duriez, Vansteenkiste,


Soenens and De Witte 2007; Roets, van Hiel, Cornelis, 2006)� The link between mercantilism and attitudes to the disabled seems to be founded on the reluctance to admit that there could be benefits or advantages from the social inclusion of disabled people in society�

There are two results of the study which need to be explained� The first is that mercantilism was connected with attitudes towards the disabled only in one of its three aspects� The way people see rules underlying social life (World Beliefs) and the way people tend to present themselves (Self-Presentation) did not relate to these attitudes� Only the core aspect (Social Relations) – reflecting personally approved principles on which an individual’s behavior is founded – appeared to shape the attitudes to the disabled� Mercantile world beliefs could result in both compassion and the understanding of difficulties disabled people encounter in the world ruled by social Darwinism or its opposite – rejection of the disabled who do not fit in such reality� Mercantile self-presentation could also go in both directions – towards rejec-tion of the weak and needy or towards a calculated expression of empathy intended to create a desirable social image (Kasser, Ryan, 1993, 1996; Sandel, 2012)� Only core personal beliefs when mercantile could lead directly to the negative reactions towards the underprivileged and potentially less effective members of society�

The second result which needs to be explained shows the dominant effect of the perception of a lack of benefits connected with the social inclusion of the disabled, especially in connection with self-interest� As assumed on the basis of prospect theory (Kahneman, Tversy, 1979), a perspective of losses is more important for people than a perspective of gains� “Pains” caused by loss hurt more than the “joys” of gains please� Thus, it would be expected that the perception of costs would shape attitudes more than the perception of a lack of benefits� However, it could be argued that a lack of potential gains is a loss, thus the results fit into the framework of prospect theory� Also, it is possible that psychological mercantilism is a feature which makes people more responsive to gains than losses, and a lack of benefits is experienced by them as more disappointing than could be expected� This assump-tion must be verified in future research�

Conclusions

The main conclusions from the study are as follows:1� Individual expression of the societal market orientation in the form of

psychological mercantilism is connected with a lack of support and under-standing for the problems of disabled people�


2� This is based mainly on an unwillingness to acknowledge potential benefits of the inclusion of such people in society�

These conclusions may be important from the point of view of actions taken in order to integrate disabled people into other members of society� In the face of the above-mentioned market orientation of contemporary societies (cf� Baudrillard, 1970/1998, Bauman, 2009, Barber, 2008, de Graaf, Wann, Naylor, 2005, Kasser, Cohn, Ryan and Kanner 2007; Sandel, 2012) and a dominant “body and mind perfect” ideal (Dittmar, 2008; Sikora, Górnik-Durose, 2013; Wojtyna, Stawiarska, 2013), attempts to integrate people who are “different” may be a big challenge� If psychological mercantilism as an expression of this orientation at the individual level is an important component of the contemporary mindset, the only way to promote acceptance for diversity and positive attitudes towards people with disabilities is to stress any sort of gains – for society as a whole as well as for individuals within this society – connected with inclusion� The economic mes-sages could be effective for the economically oriented mind, however, other kinds of advantages should be also presented� They may be effective especially when positioned within a self-interest frame�

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Dittmar, H� (Ed�) (2008)� Consumer Culture, Identity and Well-Being. The Search for the ‘Good Life’ and the ‘Body Perfect’. Hove and New York: Psychology Press�

Duckitt, J�, & Fisher, K� (2003)� Social threat, worldview, and ideological attitudes� Political Psychology, 2, 63 – 84�

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The moderating role of general causality orientation� Personality and Individual Differ-ences, 50, 684 – 687�

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Findler, L�, Vilchinsky, N�, & Werner, S� (2007)� The Multidimensional Attitudes ScaleTo-ward Persons With Disabilities (MAS): Construction and Validation� Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin 50, 166 – 176�

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logia. Edukacja i Społeczeństwo, 4, 211 – 226�Górnik-Durose, M� (2013)� Kwestionariusz Przekonań o Świecie – klucz� Materiały niepub-

likowane�Kahneman, D�, & Tversky, A� (1979)� Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk�

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rate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflict� Psychological Inquiry, 18, 1 – 22�

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Chronicle

tallinn university of technology (tut), estonia

On September 17, 1918, Tallinn University of Technology was established� Stud-ies began under the name of Special Engineering Courses in an Estonian-language engineering school established by the Estonian Engineering Society� Programmes were offered in mechanical, electrical, civil and hydraulic engineering, architecture and shipbuilding�

The only university of technology in Estonia; TUT has 8 faculties, i�e� Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Power Engineering, Faculty of Information Technol-ogy, Faculty of Chemical and Materials Technology, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Mechanical Engineer-ing, Faculty of Social Sciences, and 5 colleges�

TUT creates and mediates the values that secure Estonia’s development in the globalised world� By fulfilling its mission, the University of Technology promotes science, academic and professional higher education, and technological culture� TUT establishes a synergy between technological, natural, exact, health and social sciences, thus benefitting the development of society�

TUT is a modern and compact campus belonging to the world’s best (the only comprehensive campus in the Baltic countries, area 53 ha, buildings renovated or constructed in 2002–2014) next to Tehnopol science park with more than 150 incubator companies� An up-to-date infrastructure (classrooms, presenta-tion equipment, scientific equipment, etc�) required for studies and research and complying with international requirements�

TUT owns one of the most modern research libraries in Europe – an innova-tive, open, user-friendly studying, working and communication environment with rational organisation of work� Synergy of areas – research supports the develop-ment of the areas of responsibility of TUT studies: Research and development key priority areas are civil engineering; power engineering; information and com-

292

munication technology; chemistry and biotechnology; environment; mathematics and physics; materials science and technology; social sciences (incl� economics); health; production technologies, mechanical and instrumental engineering; areas of responsibility of studies, study programmes: engineering, manufacturing and technology; transport services; business and administration; architecture and building; informatics and information technology; physical sciences; and engi-neering pedagogy�

TUT offers studies in approximately 100 study programmes; the proportion of TUT students in the Estonian student body: 25%, annual revenue from continuing education: € 2�6 million� TUT is a provider of the best opportunities to study in English in Estonia� Altogether 23 study programmes in English (4 bachelor’s programmes, 19 master’s programmes)� In the majority of the Estonian master’s programmes some subjects can be studied in English�

In general, studies could be divided into three broad groups: engineering, manufacturing and construction (more than 50% of the study programmes); sci-ence (approximately 20% of the study programmes); social sciences, business and law (approximately 25% of the study programmes)� Doctoral studies are available in all broad groups�

institute of industrial Psychology

The Institute of Industrial Psychology is one of Tallinn University of Tech-nology’s youngest institutes, which was established by the Tallinn University of Technology Council’s decision no� 10 on 17 February 2009 and officially opened on 1 July 2009� The Institute of Industrial Psychology belongs to TUT’s Faculty of Social Sciences�

The focal points of the Institute of Industrial Psychology are Industrial Psychol-ogy and Engineering Psychology, Work and Organizational Psychology, and the branches of psychology related to these fields (including Managerial Psychology, Economic and Business Psychology, Quality of Life including Quality of Work-ing Life studies), as well as engineering education and new educational/didactic methods (such as E-teaching)�

There are three study chairs in the Institute of Industrial Psychology: • Chair of Psychology, • Chair of Personnel and Development, • Estonian Centre of Engineering Pedagogy�

293Tallinn Universityof Technology (TUT), Estonia

Since 1996 at the Chair of Psychology there is World Health Organization (WHO) Estonian Quality of Life Centre� All chairs have their own history and long-lived traditions�

Today our institute has three accredited study programmes: the Office Admin-istration bachelor’s programme, personnel and Development master’s programme, Work and Organizational Psychology Double Diploma master’s programme for psychologists (in English), and the Technical Educators master’s programme� Regarding our educational activities, we feel it is extremely important that through our institute TUT offers psychology instruction at the bachelor, master and doc-torate levels�

We are in the developing process of International Joint Baltic PhD programme with two specializations: in Work and Organizational Psychology for psycholo-gists, and in Industrial Relations as specialization for non-psychologists� This regional Joint Baltic PhD programme is developed in cooperation with four EU universities, namely University of Silesia (Poland), University of Latvia, Mykolos Romeris University (Lithuania) and TUT�

Joint baltic PhD in Work and organizational Psychology (WoP) and in industrial relations Programme

Encouraged by the discussion that took place at EAWOP Constituent Meeting (Munster, 22nd of May 2013) and focused on doctoral training centre, we are in the development process of Joint Baltic PhD in Work and Organizational Psychology Curriculum�

The need for Baltic Joint PhD in Work and Organizational Psychology Programme 1� Despite employers’ demand for highly qualified WOP professionals to the

Baltic region, there are no work and organizational psychology doctoral studies;

2� Opening of Joint PhD in WOP ensures continuity of the profession in all the three Baltic countries and Poland1;

1 The experience of partner universities shows that PhD students who were sent to study to American or European universities do not come back to home universities after their doctoral studies and they stay to work abroad

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3� Joint PhD in WOP offers possibilities to combine the scientific competence of the Baltic region, and thereby increases the competitiveness in European level research funding, and contributes to university excellence within the European Higher Education system;

4� The cooperation of four EU universities and four EAWOP Constituents increases the quality of teaching, research and development activities, as well as the popularization of work and organizational psychology as both a profession and a specific field of applied science;

5� Joint Baltic PhD in WOP also contributes to the development of work and organizational psychology in other Eastern European countries2;

6� Consultations with the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP), and European Federation of Psychologists’ Profes-sional Associations (EFPA) have been concluded and both European profes-sionals’ organizations will support the idea of opening Joint Baltic PhD in Work and Organizational Psychology�

Partners:• Vilnius Mykolas Romeris University, Institute of Psy-

chology, Faculty of Social Policy, leading Prof� Alfredas Laurinavicius (allaur@mruni�eu);

• Latvian University, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art; leading Prof� Ivars Austers (austers@lanet�lv);

• University of Silesia in Katowice, Chair of Work and Organizational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, leading Prof� Barbara Kożusznik, who is the President of the Polish Association of Organizational Psychology (PAOP) and Polish representative in ENOP* (barbara�kozusznik@us�edu�pl)

• Tallinn University of Technology, Institute of Industrial Psychology, leading Prof� Mare Teichmann, who is the President of the Estonian Work and Organizational Psychology Association (EWOPA) and Estonian rep-resentative in ENOP (mare@pekonsult�ee)�

* ENOP – European Network of Work and Organizational Psychology Professors

2 So far, unlike EAWOP BAA cooperation, none of the Eastern EU countries has imple-mented EAWOP–ENOP European Curriculum in W&O Psychology Reference Model and Minimum Standards (http://www�ucm�es/info/Psyap/enop/rmodel�html)� Many of these countries do not participate in EAWOP collaboration (e�g�, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia)


Previous collaboration milestones

• EAWOP Task Force (Tallinn, 2006): the profession and specialization opportunities in Work and Organizational Psychology in the Baltic Sea Area are weak or absent at all;

• EAWOP BAA project3 (Tallinn, 2009): for WOP profession creation / restoration and for joint Master’s Programme in Work and Organizational Psychology� Baltic Area Alliance Board (BAAB) was formed (including rep-resentatives from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland EAWOP Constituents and academics);

• Joint Baltic Work and Organizational Psychology Master’s Programme development was entrusted to the Institute of Industrial Psychology at Tallinn University of Psychology� Accordingly, it started in 2012 at Tallinn University of Technology and it has "exported" to the other partner uni-versities� Vilnius Mykolas Romeris University will start exactly the same Master’s Programme in 20144, and University of Latvia will open it in 2015;

• In Poland there are different legal regulations for psychology education (there is a 5-year study programme, no separate Master’s programme)� Accordingly, we harmonized all subjects in one study semester to allow the exchange of students (Partnership Contract with the University of Silesia, 21st November, 2011);

• All the partner universities entered into bilateral agreements ERASMUS LLP (2011) for student and academic staff mobility;

• On 21st of August, 2013 the Institute of Industrial Psychology at Tallinn University of Technology hosted BAA academic group meeting to discuss the substantive issues of the joint doctoral programme in WOP5;

• In September 2013 all the partners signed a Preliminary Agreement/Let-ter of Intent concerning the declaration of their willingness to develop an international Baltic Joint PhD programme in WOP�

3 EAWOP BAA project – EAWOP Baltic Area Alliance for collaboration and establishing (re-establishing) WOP as a profession (project leader was Dr� Angela Carter)

4 Vilnius Mykolas Romeris University won the governmental funding (2012-2015) for “export” and started the Baltic Joint Work and Organizational Psychology Master’s Programme

5 Participants : Vilnius Mykolas Romeris University - seven faculty members, two faculty members from the University of Latvia, one faculty member from the University of Silesia, and seven academics from the Institute of Industrial Psychology, Tallinn University of Technology)

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the first vision of the baltic Joint PhD in Work and organizational Psychology Programme

Study size: 240 ECTSNominal length of study: four yearsAcademic degree: PhD in work and organizational psychology or PhD in Work

and Industrial Relations Language of instruction: EnglishThe program is designed for two specializations: Specialization 1: Work and Organizational Psychology - for psychologistsSpecialization 2: Industrial Relations – for non-psychologists

Content logic

LEVEL BASICSWORK

Work Psychology

PSYCHOLOGYtechno-

psychology

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Personel psychology

Individual Employee (per-son) & Personnel Psychology

Employee & Work

Employee & Techno-psychol-ogy

Employee & New Industrial Rela-tions

Organization Organization & Organizational Psychology

Organization & Work

Organization & Techno-psychol-ogy

Organization & New Industrial Relations

Society Society (com-munity) & Social Psychology

Society & Work Society & Tech-no-psychology

Society & New Industrial Rela-tions

Legal Legal Framework Labor Law, Occupational Health & Safety Law

Techno Law, Intellectual & In-dustrial Property & Competition Law, ICT Law

Labor Law, Unions‘ & Work Councils‘ Laws, Contract Law

Research & Im-plementation

Research & Implementation Methods

Qualitative & Quantitative Research Methods and Multi-level Analysis Implementation Methods

Joint Baltic PhD in Work and Organizational Psychology Curriculum will develop in collaboration with all the partner universities and the PhD programme is planned to start in 2016�


Mare TeichmannResearch interests: Psychosocial factors at work; human factors in engineering context; management in virtual workplaceResearch Gate https://www�researchgate�net/profile/Mare_Teichmann?ev=hdr_xprf Google Scholar: http://scholar�google�com/citations?user=gh2CcroAAAAJ&hl=en

recent publications: Teichmann, M�; Lõhmus, M� (2015)� Employee Representatives in Estonia� How are they

Perceived and what are the Expectations by Employers? Euwema, M�; Munduate, L�; Elgoibar, P�; Pender, E�; Belen Garcia, A� (Eds�)� Promoting Social Dialogue in European Organizations: Human Resource Management and Constructive Conflict Management (53 - 67), Springer�

Murdvee, M�; Teichmann, M� (2014)� Quality of Life and Income� 28th International Con-gress of Applied Psychology� Paris, France 8-13 July 2014�

Teichmann, M� (2014)� Occupational Stress and Quality of Life� 28th International Congress of Applied Psychology� Paris, France 8-13 July 2014�

Lõhmus, M�, Teichmann, M� (2014)� Developing social dialogue in new EC member states: a showcase from Estonia� 28th International Congress of Applied Psychology� Paris, France 8-13 July 2014�

Documents

2015 Vol. 40. No. 2sd@umbc edu Sinjur Andreja (Ph D student) University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Educa-tion, Kardeljeva ploščad 16, Ljubljana, Slove-nia, e-mail: andreja sinjur@dusanabordona