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ACADEMIA DE STUDII ECONOMICE DIN BUCUREȘTI DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGĂTIREA PERSONALULUI DIDACTIC

Str.Mihail Moxa nr. 5-7, Sector 1, Bucuresti; Tel. +4 021 319 19 00 Int: Secretariat studenti – 448; Perfectionare – 130; Fax +4 021 311 75 59

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EdPROF 2015

Professionalism in education Bucureşti, 05 iunie 2015, ISSN 2285 - 0910

Conferinţa internaţională de comunicări ştiin ţifice

EdPROF 2015

Professionalism in education

Bucureşti, 05 iunie 2015

AGENDA CONFERINTEI

0930 - 1000 Primirea şi înregistrarea participanţilor (sala 3606)

1000 - 1030 Deschiderea conferinţei (Plen)

1030 – 1130 Lucrări în plen

1130 – 1145 Pauză de cafea

1145 - 1430 Prezentări şi dezbateri pe secţiuni

1430 - 1500 Pauză de cafea

1500 - 1700 Prezentări şi dezbateri pe secţiuni

1700 - 1715 Concluziile finale ale conferinţei



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COMITET ŞTIIN ŢIFIC

Preşedinte: Prof. univ. dr. Corina Cace Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic

Membri: Conf. univ. dr. Olga Ciobanu Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic Prof. univ. dr. Otilia Dandara Universitatea de Stat din Chisinau Republica Moldova

Conf. univ. dr. Camelia Stăiculescu Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic Conf. univ. dr. Maria Liana Lăcătuş Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic Conf. univ. dr. Monica Elisabeta Păduraru Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic Conf. univ. dr. Daniela Dumitru Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic

Lect. univ. dr. Elena-Ramona Richiţeanu - Năstase Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic Lect. univ. dr. Alexandru Robert Mihăilă Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic Lect. univ. dr. Codrin Nisioiu Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul de Informatică şi Cibernetică Economică



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COMITET DE ORGANIZARE

Conf. univ. dr. Mihai Diaconu Conf. univ. dr. Monica Elisabeta Păduraru Lect. univ. dr. Elena-Ramona Richiţeanu - Năstase Lect. univ. dr. Vladimir - Aurelian Enăchescu Lect. univ. dr. Alexandru Robert Mihăilă

COORDONATORI VOLUM

Prof. univ. dr. Corina Cace Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic

Lect. univ. dr. Alexandru Robert Mihăilă Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti Departamentul pentru Pregătirea Personalului Didactic



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LUCRĂRILE CONFERIN ȚEI

Nr. Ordine

Nume Autor (i) Institu ţie Titlu lucrare

1. Alexandrache Carmen University „Dunarea de Jos” of Galati

Cultivation of social consciousness at the students. The role of ethical reflections

2. Arsene Mihaela School of International Business

and Economics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Enhancing student employability in the english class. or the gap between attitudinal and structural

change in two post-bologna educational institutions

3. Bolboacă Cătălina-Maria Bucharest University of

Economic Studies

Influenţa social media asupra inteligenţei emoţionale a

adolescentului

4. Călin Mihaela Individuals motivation in

choosing paths regarding their education and profession

Individuals motivation in choosing paths regarding their

education and profession

5. Călin Răzvan-Alexandru Teacher’s Training Department /

Craiova University

Communication reference marks in the successful

marketing

6. Ciurez Ionela-Cristina Bucharest University of

Economic Studies Bridging neuroscience, therapy and educational psychology

7. Cotarcea Ionut Bucharest University of

Economic Studies

Strategic education - student-centered education

determinants

8. Cuciureanu Monica Institute for Educational Sciences Familal model in school

9. Enăchescu Vladimir Aurelian The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Teacher`s

Training Department

The impact of formal and informal education

10. Fercu Diana Maria Fulga Ana-Maria Ti ță Alexandra-Cristina

Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Faculty of

Marketing

Using words: the powerful weapons for building

personality

11.

Fülöp Bîrsan Eugenia Șandor Melania Fülöp Bîrsan Alice

Palatul Copiilor Târgu Mureș -Sighişoara

Palatul Copiilor Târgu Mureș Liceul Teoretic ”Joseph Haltrich

”Sighişora

Professionalism in non-formal education

12. Gherghina Ştefan Cristian Bucharest University of

Economic Studies, Department of Finance

Towards the impact of higher education and technology on

economic growth: an empirical investigation on central and eastern european countries

13. Lăcătuş Maria Liana The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Teacher`s

Training Department

Economic education in practice. Lessons learned from a study

tour in USA.



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EdPROF 2015


14. Manea Monica The Bucharest University of

Economic Studies

Using business intelligence tools for visualization and

manipulation of information in economic environment – an interdisciplinary approach

15. Mih ăilă Alexandru Robert

The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Teacher`s

Training Department

Using e-learning platforms in the educational environment.

evolution and trends

16. Mih ăilă Alexandru Robert Richițeanu-Năstase Elena-Ramona


Training Department

Students assessment through e-portfolios. Case study

17. Marinas Laura Elena Prioteasa Eugen

The Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Diversification of universities public funding. A case study:

European Social Fund to support university education in

Romania

18. Nisioiu Codrin-Florentin The Bucharest University of

Economic Studies

Developing data science curriculum in the “web of data”

context

19. Mircea Georgeta-Elena

Romanian Academy Library

Information and Communication Technologies in libraries – a better way to open

education

20. Păduraru Monica Elisabeta


Training Department

A look at students’use of

information sources

21. Petre Adriana

International Business and Economics Faculty, The Bucharest University of

Economic Studies

Facebook’s influence on the learning process of

postgraduate students and its future contribution to didactic

activities

22. Simionescu Liliana Staiculescu Camelia

Bucharest University of Economic Studies

The role of human capital as a determinant for economic

growth in developing countries

23. Păduraru Monica Elisabeta Staiculescu Camelia


Training Department

The influence of migration on specific indicators from

educational field

24. State Cristina Cace Corina

The Bucharest University of Economic Studies

School organization’s eficiency through the communication

skills training at the management level



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CULTIVATION OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS AT THE STUDENTS . THE ROLE OF ETHICAL REFLECTIONS

Alexandrache Carmen, University „Dunarea de Jos” of Galati

Abstract:

In the context of demographic dynamics and information of actual world, the formation and development of social skills becam a priority of Romanian and European education system. Our paper aligns of this conviction showing the importance of social consciousness in the education of students.

This situation is even more necessary as such a problem is not the training of any scholar discipline from the plan of education preschool, primary and secondary. In this propose we focus on the role of ethical reflections that a teacher have to intentionally provoke them whatever subject they teach students. Throughout our proposal we offered practical examples that students can perform ethical reflections.

So the work, we believe, is a good argument of the need to cultivate ethical reflections in the formation of responsible and accurate attitude toward themselves but towards others also.

Keywords: social skills, education, reflexivity

The interest manifested by the science of education towards the development of the social-civic

dimension of the pupils’ personality by cultivating one’s proactive capacities is not a recent one, as the

history of pedagogy proves its existence and the development of some similar concepts a long time ago

(Stanciu, 1995, pp. 43-69; Joiţa, 1998; Antonesei, 2002, pp. 26-31).

Therefore, there were generated different opinions and solutions which support the need to

involve the pupil in the instructive-educational activities, according to each one’s own physical –

psychological structure, his/her own developmental capacity, interests and desires (Siebert, 2001). The

basis of these preoccupations is of course given by the social-political, economic and cultural realities of

their time, realities which mark, orient and make the pedagogical initiatives more substantial.

In order to build-up a social behavior adequate for the contemporary society, it is necessary to

gain a set of civic, moral, social and patriotic values and attitudes, them being also a means to make the

individual more responsible. So, the social behavior is dependent on the social conscience which gives it

value and autonomy towards manipulation and persuasion. The two components, behavior and

conscience, are associated, are supporting each other and they are interlinked; no one can manifest a



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moral-civic behavior without believing that this is the good and the right one to have. Neither can the

social conscience develop if it is not based on a social behavior considered to be right and good. In order

to make sure that this interdependent relationship contributes to the development of the individual’s

personality in the context of the social expectations, the simplest method is to think upon the values of

one’s intentions and actions and upon the effects the gestures have.

The present paper starts from the premise that in order to cultivate the social conscience, it is

important to organize one’s reflections regarding the value of an already accomplished action or of a

potential one from the perspective of what is right and good. In this way, the reflection is subordinated to

the ethical principles which are represented both at the level of the social behavior and conscience. Thus,

we are pinpointing the importance of the personal reflection act which will allow pupils to adopt a

behavior considered to be right, both towards others and towards one self. Avoiding the need to clarify

this concept, the paper has focused upon some practical means by which the reflection process done by

pupils, at the teacher’s advice or not, can support the cultivation and the manifestation of the social

conscience.

In the specialty literature, the personal reflection act is represented both as a “means to

communicate based on the inner language” („an internal dialogue”, Cerghit, 2008, p. 245) and as an

ability, a way to mentally communicate, the focus of the intellect which is meant to generate learning by

having personal reflections. Therefore, reflexivity covers a larger field which by means of the “looking

back” action will allow the pupil to understand the emotional states in which he finds himself because of

the educational act in which he is involved. He will understand the experience he has lived by comparing

his reactions with the ones generated in other situations and he will also analyze the things which took

place, be they lived experiences or ones which were discovered. This implies an intricate processing of

the information gathered by thinking over the situation he was confronted with (e.g.: a general principle,

a theory, a moral or philosophical position). All of these define the perspective of our present paper

which is: personal thinking represents an individual means to exert control over one’s own learning

process and implicitly, over the conscience and behavior which are considered to be undesirable from the

ethical point of view.



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Understanding by means of reflecting over the consequences of our actions towards others or

towards ourselves, determines the building-up and consolidation of the moral values. So, the quality of

these reflections, correlated with the moral norms, is responsible in a great deed for assuming a certain

modus operandi, a certain behavioral pattern which will be used in certain situations.

The ethical reflections depend on the quality of the act of knowing what defines a moral behavior,

getting used with the idea of good/evil, of right/wrong, justice/injustice, of duty, gratitude, etc. Before

analyzing the fact, the pupil is getting used with the standards according to which an action is considered

to be right or wrong, good or evil, and also with the principles so called moral which determine the

behavior expected from him by his community. Therefore, the ethical reflections are interdependent to

learning and internalizing the moral norms, values and judgments. Reflecting over the social experiences

develops the pupil’s self-awareness ability and the control needed towards the others. All of these

components manifested as conscious acts, contribute at building-up the moral conscience which is also

social by definition (the one which reflects the relationships between people and which define a

regulating function over the human co-habitation, by stimulating and orienting the human behavior as per

the social requirements) (Bocos, 2013, pp. 161-170).

From this perspective, personal reflection may be included in the category or ethical competences

because it demonstrates the person’s ability to understand an ethical argument, to identify the ethical

implications of a certain situation in which one has been involved, and to come up with practical

solutions for the problems which were relevant from ethical perspective (Tompea, 2011, pp. 21-49).

Thus, the way in which a person should act depends on the degree of reflexive involvement manifested

by that specific character.

Generally speaking, the school offers enough situations to show personal reflection, even though

not all of them are being well used. This situation is generated by the priority one gives to the

development of the cognitive competences, and by the fact that this type of activity presents the risks to

become time consuming and hard to evaluate (Ionescu, 1980).

In order to increase the teachers’ belief in the usefulness of the pupils’ reflective activities so as to

develop the desired moral and civic attitude, you will find in the table below a short presentation of some



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such activities which we have correlated with the means to stimulate them and with the consequences

they will have at the level of the social conscience. This presentation we hope will represent an example

of best practices for every teacher interested in developing reflexivity from the perspective of the ethical

competences.

Level of personal reflection and him specifics

Implications of social consciousness

Ways to stimulate the personal reflection

Structural question

1. Simple Reflections (emotional reactions)

Manifesting feelings by means of mimics and gestures (provoqued by certain lived experiences, without a good analysis of “the data”)

The pupil confronted with some ethical and moral aspects (be they read, heard, observed or lived) will manifest not in an elaborate way the emotions caused by these.

The emotional reflexivity will have a stronger impact over one’s own personality, but especially over others, influencing “the dialogue”

This modality reflects the interest, the degree of attention paid, the feeling towards discovering information, the degree of fulfillment felt towards the way in which he has interacted with the colleagues, the satisfaction towards the colleague’s participation at the activity or towards his own, the satisfaction towards the results accomplished and towards the efforts done, etc.

What state am I identify?

What I feel now?

How I feel when...?

I liked experience...? What is the state in which I find myself after ...?

2. Realized reflections Construction language concerning the impressions, emotions, personal experiences

Reflection must lean more towards ration than towards feelings because it must lean towards finding solutions and towards thinking the aspects that should later assure the success.

• exercises of verbalizing the activities and the interactions with others

• the critical or imaginative reflections;

• exercises of writing and rewriting, and of summarizing;

• the descriptions, problem-solving, awareness and revaluationa experience actions.

I do not know....

I know...

We agree / disagree with ... Why?

Did I enjoy the (learning) experience? Why yes, why not?



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3. The elaborate reflexivity (self control activity);

That reflection is the result of some more complex psychological operations by means of which “the data” have been analized from different moral perspective.

The elaborate reflexivity is focuse on the assimilated knowledge, the representations and the built up skills and very little on the emotional- volitional feelings

• activities that are facilitated by the new technologies of information (cyber): e-mail, blog, site,

• the programmes and spaces for storage and communication on-line, the space for reflection and for personal expression (the oracle, the shows, essays, interviews,ePortofolios, on-line diary etc.).

• description of the types of moral attitudes, the moral relationships, the moral vices and virtues, the moral qualities and flaws, the moral characters, etc.

Which of the ideas, documents and working strategies were more interesting from my point of view? Why?

What values or principles should adopt?

How should I be treated by others?

What does being good, fair and honest?

4. Internalizing the experience and ethical behavior modification

There reflections took place as an intrinsic need, them being the cause for fueling the changes taking place in the psycho-behavioral and emotional structure of the person making them.

These reflections are superior in the sense that they are dependent on the behavioral changes. Therefore, the pupil thinks over the examples, analyzes and sorts the norms according to their usefulness degree.

Reflexivity creates motivational situations and it uses their results in order to prepare some new activities

• the personal diary, of the student or of the class / of the team diary, "the logbook", "the double entrance journal", the essay of five minutes etc);

• write down some impressions, information, thoughts and feelings regarding some events, happenings and facts which took place in the community or the class/school which the pupil attends;

• read periodically some literary works written by (a) pupil(s) and the

What have I learned from the activity I have just done? How have I learned? What would you

like to add?

In the future, how will I use this learning experience?

How would I like to learn/ do the next activity?

If I would be able to change



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comments of the other classmates;

• propose some moral and ethical cases which could be analyzed in writing or during another lesson;

• book some short moments each class in order to allow each pupil in turn to read a self chosen fragment from the diary writings;

• encourage the pupil to critically reflect over the social experiences, not only the positive ones, but also over the discontent caused by oneself or by others.

anything, what would that be?

What must I do to be a good person?

How should I judge others? What are the goals that I must follow in life? What is the best way of life?

Tabel: Reflective activities so as to develop the desired moral and civic attitude

By way of the reflection activity, the pupil is helped to establish a connection between the social

conscience (ideas, representations, feelings, attitudes) and the social existence (relationships, the

conditions in which people live and act). In this sense, it is hoped that the pupil will succeed to eliminate

the prejudices and the convictions which fuel the deviant social behaviors. In other words, it is hoped that

by means of ethical reflections, the pupil will show a prospective and positive conscience. It will generate

and consolidate a certain model of individual behavior which will have a (general) supra-individual

significance and validity.

No matter the level or the form of manifesting, the reflective activity is anchored in the sphere of

subjectivity, individuality, a fact which makes it even more difficult to examine it critically. Still, its

purpose is to make the pupil more responsible during his reflective activity, and to make him correct,

orient and develop his intellectual and attitudinal training towards respecting some right moral principles

which should ensure a quality life. Such exercises will help the pupil establish a harmonious relationship

with the social environment, shape adequately his moral conscience and attitude. Also, the pupil will get



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used to examine from the moral perspective some specific problems from the private or public life, will

analyze some social cases or phenomena linked to businesses, politics, administration, public relations,

environmental protection and others, by using the criteria, the theories and the concepts generated by

ethics in general.

Bibliography:

� Antoanesei, Liviu, (2002), O introducere în pedagogie, Editura Polirom, Iași.

� Bocoş, M. (2002). Instruire interactivă. Repere pentru reflecţie şi acţiune, Editura Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca.

� Cerghit, Ioan, (2008), Sisteme de instruire alternative și complementare. Structuri, stiluri și strategii, Editura Polirom, Iași.

� Ionescu, M. (1980). Strategii de activizare a elevilor în procesul didactic, Editura Universităţii “Babeş-Bolyai”, Cluj-Napoca.

� Joiţa, E., (1998), Eficienţa instruirii. Idei pedagogice contemporane, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică Bucureşti, 1998.

� Stanciu, Ion Gheorghe, (1995), Şcoala şi doctrinele pedagogice în secolul XX, ed a II-a, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1995.

� Siebert, H., Pedagogia constructivistă, Editura Institutul European, Iaşi , 2001.

� Tompea, Doru, (2011), Etică, morală şi putere, Editura TipoMoldova, Iaşi.



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ENHANCING STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY IN THE ENGLISH CLAS S. OR THE GAP BETWEEN ATTITUDINAL AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE I N TWO

POST-BOLOGNA EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Arsene Mihaela, School of International Business and Economics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract:

The presentation focuses on the impact of the Bologna process at curricular level at HEIs in

Europe and the corresponding change in structure. Both the impact and the change are illustrated by

means of a multi-media project intended to develop the students' self-marketing strategies, as well as

their creativity and entrepreneurship, so as to help them acquire a competitive edge on today’s tight

labor market. The students' reaction to the shift in structure is documented by a Portuguese case study

recently replicated at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. Based on the students’ response,

both case studies appear to indicate that the attitudinal change that the Bologna process was expected

to induce is still lagging behind the structural change that has been implemented.

Keywords: employability, soft-skills development, change in attitude, profile raising on the labor

market

Introduction

The Bologna Declaration has triggered a massive shift in the structure and content of the

academic services provided by the signatory countries. As such, the Romanian universities’ traditional

goal of offering students a formal, specialist education has been further enhanced by the comprehensive

objectives of the Bologna process. The Bologna requirement that universities “prepare students for their

future careers and for life as active citizens in democratic societies, and support their personal

development” (as stated in the officials’ website of the Bologna Process in its early years of

implementation, over 2007-2010) inspired the redesign of degree programs so as to increase the relevance



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of the academic input to market needs, thereby enhancing the students’ prepration for successfully

meeting the labour market needs.

In practical terms, this new approach reflected in new curricula and methodological shifts

emphasizing student-centered learning processes intended to facilitate student acquisition of skills that

will further their professional and social integration upon graduation. In the new framework laid out by

the Bologna Process, university graduates are expected to develop competences that make them both

attractive to their potential employers and strong community members. Therefore enhanced employability

and citizenship are the desired corollary of the university education throughout the entire EHEA.

Consequently, universities struggle to develop both generic and specific competences in students,

with the two-fold purpose of furthering their employability and ultimate success on the labour market and

also laying the foundation for their on-going education and life-long learning process meant to help them

stay current in their profession and gainfully employed.

The competitive advantage the Bologna Declaration wants EU students to develop and then

maintain on the labor market throughout their professional life is underlain by the hard skills, that is the

knowledge that universities customarily impart to their students, but also by the soft skills, the non-formal

dimension of their university education which can significantly help in raising their professional profile.

That is why new courses have been designed and piloted and our institution is no exception: a good case

in point is the recent emphasis attached to developing students’ creative thinking skills which is currently

tackled in a year-long course offered to third year students in the School of International Business and

Economics/REI of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies/ASE. Such transversal skills can be

transferred to any work environment and they significantly enhance any position on the market as well as

all community interactions. Alongside critical thinking, soft skills encompass but are not limited to

creativity, team spirit, problem solving, leadership, decision-making, entrepreneurial approach, success

orientation and resilience.



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Employability, A Portuguese Case Study and BUES Replication

The inspiration for the educational activity replicated at BUES with their purpose of encouraging

the students’ creativity and entrepreneurial spirit in order to position themselves successfully on the labor

market came from two sources: the Bologna work plan over 2009-2012 which makes employability a

priority for education in the current decade and the case study reported in the journal ADVANCES IN

HIGHER EDUCATION published by the European Network for Business Studies and Languages in

2010. In what follows I will first highlight the Bologna focus on student employability and then the

relevance of the case study developed by a Portuguese University in 2009, finally outlining the current

situation as gleaned from the replication of the Portuguese case study at the Bucharest University of

Economic Studies. Both the Portuguese and the Romanian research have at their core the student

employability priority, the soft skills development endeavors under way in the Business English class,

and the desired shift in student attitude, as a follow up to the shift in the university structure induced by

the Bologna Process.

Employability is the cornerstone of the Bologna Process and significant debate has gone into

producing a working definition and a consistent approach to it throughout the whole range of the EHEA.

As early as 2004 the Bologna Process defined employability as a “set of achievements – skills,

understandings and personal attributes – that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be

successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the

economy” (Albuquerque, p. 148).

Once this definition was accepted as a working instrument, universities adhering to the Bologna

principles have risen to the challenge and have taken major actions to address the issue and adjust

curricula accordingly. A random example from the British academia illustrates the breadth of the

process: “A common theme across HE policy and funding throughout the UK is the need to ensure that

graduates are prepared for, and able to contribute to, the economy and society. The development of

graduates with relevant attributes, skills and knowledge has placed graduate employability at the centre of

the HE agenda“ (https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/workstreams-research/themes/employability)



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The new structures have been in place for several years by now, but this is by no means the end of

EU educational policy-makers’ concerns. As the classroom practice consistently reveals, and the Business

English class is no exception, injecting employability into the curriculum takes care only of the teaching

and learning input, not necessarily of the students’ intake. As a result, in line with the findings of the

Portuguese case study that has inspired the current research, educators in the UK and not only are

becoming aware that the shift in academic structure – that is market-relevant learning content and

student-centered teaching approach – has not been matched yet by the students’ change of attitude, as

apparent from the following findings indicative of still painfully limited soft skill development: “There is

some evidence that students do not always appreciate what they have to offer a potential employer, and

may sell themselves short as a result. Others might – without a curriculum process that required some

self-analysis of strengths and weaknesses – simply not be faced with matters that, if tackled, would help

their self-development”. (http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/documents/Staff/HEABriefings/ESECT-3-

Embedding_employability_into_curriculum.pdf, p. 23)

The Portuguese case study was inspired by this very reality: the business students who were the

target group for this soft-skill development project conducted in their Business English class showed

limited interest in developing effective self-marketing strategies for themselves, although very committed

to developing marketing plans for businesses and focused on honing their effective communication skills.

Specifically, they all relied on the European Curriculum Vitae and an equally standardized job

applications for landing their first job, with no interest whatsoever in customization and in creative and

innovative approaches. In order to challenge their attitude and their self-marketing strategies, their

Business English teacher assigned them a semester-long project requesting them to produce a multimedia

CV, 3-4 minutes long, in which the video file was to be complemented by an audio text in the native

language with subtitles in English.

The multimedia CV project invited the students to reflect and explore, and finally decide on how

to best advertise themselves as adding value to a business company. The project was intended to motivate

students to generate a customized, real-life product they could afterwards “sell” to employers. According

to the Portuguese case study, once the projects were submitted and presented in class, the students



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showed enthusiasm for the project and increased self-confidence in their own abilities to position

themselves effectively on the labor market and distinguish themselves in the pool of applicants.

In the original case study conducted at a Business School in Porto, five months after graduation

the participants in the project were requested to take a questionnaire so as to provide information on the

project outcomes in terms of their own approach to employment and their success rates. The analysis of

the data generated by the questionnaires revealed that the customized multimedia CV project was

perceived by the graduates as conducive to an increased level of self-confidence and a changed, more

realistic perception of the the job market and a more positive attitude to their own chances of success:

“the responding students admitted that they had changed their outlook towards a job application and the

need for self-marketing and generic transversal skills when working on the multimedia CV.”

(Albuquerque, p. 152)

The Portuguese case study demonstrates that the change of structure induced by the Bologna

Process is not necessarily accompanied by a change of attitude. Given the similar framework, focus and

concerns, the case study was replicated at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies with 4 groups of

third years students in the first semester of the academic year 2013-2014 and denoted a similar unfolding:

the Romanian students showed initial reluctance and ultimately full excitement and amazing creativity

when conducting the multimedia CV project. They also echoed their Portuguese counterparts in terms of

their end-of-project perception that this type of activity promotes the development of their soft skills, thus

increasing their self-confidence and inducing a more self-assured and positive attitude to the challenges

of securing employment.

The Portuguese case study identified the need “to stimulate students’ generic transversal skills

such as creativity, problem solving, decision-making, initiative, entrepreneurial spirit, and the will to

succeed” (Albuquerque, p. 153) alongside the development of the traditional hard skills commonly

achieved by means of knowledge acquisition through formal learning. The overall goal in both projects

designed and carried out by Business English teachers was to raise the graduates’ profile on the labor

market and increase their chances of gainful professional and civic integration.



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The replica conducted at our institution proceeded in a similar fashion and generated data that

produced conclusions within the same range. Interestingly enough, a significant number of the Romanian

students who engaged with gusto in the development of the the multimedia CV project still chose to use

the standardized CV instead the multimedia version durind their own job hunt, as documented by the

questionnaires and interviews conducted in January 2015, 6 months after graduation. Therefore the

Romanian replica confirms both the slow pace of the change in attitude that lags behind the change in

academic structure, as well as the need for the soft skill dimension to be added to formal university

education in order to enhance student employability.

Bibliography:

� Albuquerque, A. (2010), After Bologna: Does the Shift in Structure Bring Forth a Shift in Attitude? Contribution of a Portuguese Case Study, in Advances in Higher Education, vol. 3, number 1, published by Space:European Network for Business Studies and Languages

� https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/workstreams-research/themes/employability

� Anderson, D. (2014), “Employer Insights”: a case of embedding employability in the curriculum, accessed at https://www.srhe.ac.uk/conference2014/abstracts/0051.pdf on May 4 2015

� Fry, H., Ketteridge, S., Marshall, S. (2009), A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Enhancing Academic Practice, Routledge, New York and London, third edition, accessed at http://mail.biblioteca.ucv.cl/site/colecciones/manuales_u/A%20Handbook%20for%20Teaching%20and%20Learning%20in%20Higher%20Education%20Enhancing%20academic%20and%20Practice.pdf on May 2 2015

� Kneale, P. (2009), Teaching and Learning for Employability: Knowledge Is not the Only Outcome, in Fry, H., Ketteridge, S., Marshall, S., A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Enhancing Academic Practice, pp. 99-112.

� London Metropolitan University, Staff Guide to Embedding Employability in the Curriculum, accessed at https://metranet.londonmet.ac.uk/fms/MRSite/psd/StudServ/CDES/Employability_Quick_Guide.pdf on May 10 2015

� https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/workstreams-research/themes/employability accessed on May 2 2015

� Pegg, A., Waldcock, J., Hendy-Isaac, S, Lawton, R. (2012), Pedagogy for Employability. The Higher Education Academy



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� The Open University, Enhancing Employability, accessed at http://www.open.ac.uk/cobe/docs/FINALEnhancingEmployability-web.pdf on May 4 2015

� Yorke, M., Knight, P. (2006), Embedding Employability into the Curriculum, Learning & Employability Series, The Higher Education Academy, accessed at http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/documents/Staff/HEABriefings/ESECT-3-Embedding_employability_into_curriculum.pdf on May 11 2015

� Winstead, A. S., Adams, B., Sillah, M. R. (2009), Teaching the “Soft Skills”: A Professional Development Curriculum to Enhance the Employability Skills of Business Graduates, in American Journal of Business Education, August 2009, Volume 2, Number 5, accessed at http://www.cluteinstitute.com/ojs/index.php/AJBE/article/view/4068/4121 on May 12 2015



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INFLUEN ŢA SOCIAL MEDIA ASUPRA INTELIGEN ŢEI EMOŢIONALE A ADOLESCENTULUI

Bolboacă Cătălina-Maria, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Introducere

Optarea pentru aceasta temă este datorată propriei dezvoltări ca adolescent în perioada apariției

mediilor de socializare online, în special a rețelelor de socializare. Întreaga mea generație a avut contact

cu instrumente precum bloguri, forumuri, enciclopedii online, rețele sociale, jocuri și lumi virtuale.

Studiul se va axa pe influența și impactul mediilor de socializare asupra inteligenței emoționale a

adolescentului, vizând și inteligența socială a acestuia. Obiectivele acestui studiu sunt analiza frecvenţei

de utilizare, dar şi a preferinţei şi a angajamentului faţă de aceste medii online. Opinia personală a

adolescenţilor cu privire la impactul social media asupra inteligenţei emoţionale este un alt factor cheie

analizat.Prin discuţii libere cu 4 adolescenţi se vor determina şi avantajele şi dezavantajele utilizării

acestor instrumente, dar şi efectele generate de aceasta.

Avantajele acestei ere informaționale sunt evidente, însă nici dezavantajele nu sunt dificil de

identificat sau minore. Se observă o tendință a individului spre comunicarea “artificială”, fiind neglijată

reala inteligență socială. Accentul este pus pe ceea ce deții, de aici stringența pentru rețele de socializare

ca Instagram, și pe ceea ce pari a fi, de aici necesitatea Facebook. Se preferă contentul virtual, în favoarea

celui “emotional ” și “afectiv”. Este iminentă criza dintre IQ-ul în creștere si EQ-ul în scădere al

indivizilor. Trebuie combătute carențele în inteligența emotională încă din perioada dezvoltării

adolescentine.

Suntem judecați după un nou etalon: nu doar inteligența sau competența profesională sunt

importante, ci și comportamentul nostru. Accentul este pus pe atribute personale, cum ar fi empatia, forța

de convingere, inițiativa. ” Ceea ce contează cu adevărat este un alt mod de a fi inteligent”.1 Este astfel

1 Goleman, Daniel,( 2004 ) Inteligența emoțională, cheia succesului în viață, ALLFA,pg 4



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evident esențială dezvoltarea inteligenței emoționale a adolescentului înainte de integrarea pe piața

muncii, dar și studierea a ceea ce influențează această dimensiune a inteligenței.

Adolescența este perioada în care indivizii se cunosc și se autodefinesc. Ei explorează și

cercetează atât universul exterior, cât și pe cel interior propriu. Individualizarea este în această etapă

conturată, atât pe plan intelectual, cât și pe plan relațional. Conform Grand Dictionnaire de la

Psychologie, Larousse, Paris, 1999 adolescența este „perioada dezvoltării de la copilărie la vârsta adultă.

Adolescentul tipar care va fi analizat are vârsta cuprinsă între 10 și 19 ani, pentru a include si limitele

inferioare relative ale adolescenței.

Centrală în adolescenţă este problema identităţii, care nu poate fi elucidată de subiect fără să se

refere la corp, chiar dacă esenţialul maturizării nu se referă la organic. Adolescentul trebuie să se

adapteze acestor schimbări şi să integreze în imaginea de sine aceste transformări. În cadrul reţelelor de

socializare tendinţa utilizatorilor este de a-şi „edita” propria imagine; astfel că şi adolescenţii ajung să nu-

şi mai accepte propria imagine, ci să creeze un virtual, pe placul celorlalţi. Adaptarea la schimbările

corporale se realizează şi în contextul relaţiilor cu celălalt, fiind adesea influenţate de reprezentările

colective şi de standardele culturale de frumuseţe şi de seducţie; puternic distorsionate în aceasta era a

frumuseţii artificiale şi „plastice”.

Ar fi de preferat ca informaţiile acumulate de adolescenţi în ceea ce priveşte autocunoaşterea, dar

şi înţelegerea celorlalţi indivizi să fie fondate pe o cunoaştere şi percepere corectă a realităţii, fără

influenţa unor sisteme de valoare greşite induse de mass-media. Gândirea adolescentului se remarcă prin

tentativele pe care el le face pentru a conferi sau găsi un sens tuturor aspectelor experienţei sale concrete

în lume, îmbogăţită de contactele cu noi grupuri, instituţii şi recent medii online. Astfel că percepţia

acestora este una relativ „hipersensibilă” la orice stimul, iar cantitatea de informaţii acumulată este de

asemenea foarte mare; însă capacitatea de filtrare a acestora nu este definitiv dezvoltată. De aici

necesitatea studiului, pentru a stabili influenţa pozitivă, negativă sau nulă a mediilor de socializare online

asupra dezvoltării inteligenţei emoţionale a adolescentului.



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Cercetare

Mediile sociale ne influenţează în mod evident existenţa: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube şi multe

alte platforme ne conturează acum obiceiurile de comunicare şi manifestare creativă. Secolul 21 este

marcat de o o schimbare rapidă a ecosistemului mediului de conectare online.

Comportamentul celorlalţi ne poate influenţa sentimentele, sentimentele ne pot influenţa

performanţele, iar performanţele pot fi îmbunătăţite printr-un comportament pozitiv.2 În lucrarea sa, The

Ripple Effect3, Barsade Sigal evidenţiază că autoevaluările de stare atât ale observatorilor externi, cât şi

ale participanţilor direcţi, sunt afectate de dispoziţia celor din jur. În cadrul acestui experiment, un actor

mima buna dispoziţie, iar acest fapt avea efect asupra participanţilor, optimizând gradul de cooperare al

acestora şi al performanţelor în rezolvarea sarcinilor şi reducând frecvenţa conflictelor.

Un exemplu relevant cu privire la influenţa social media asupra stării de spirit a indivizilor este

experimentul desfăşurat de Facebook. Aproximativ 155000 de internauţi au fost manipulaţi să aibă

anumite trăiri în raport cu fluxul de actualităţi de pe această reţea de socializare. Studii precedente au

arătat că elementul descris de cercetători "contagiere emoţională" poate să se transfere în cadrul unei

reţele.4 Rezultatele acestui studiu evidenţiază mai multe caracteristici ale contaminării emoţionale.

Deoarece fluxul de noutăţi nu este direcţionat către cineva anume, contaminarea nu a fost doar efectul

unei interacţiuni specifice cu un alt utilizator fericit sau deprimat. Deşi cercetarea a examinat iniţial dacă

o emoţie poate fi transferată prin interacţiune directă, s-a demonstrat că simplul contact tangenţial cu

expresia emoţiilor via Facebook este suficient pentru a influenţa. În al doilea rând manifestarea

nonverbală este cunoscută ca fiind cu predispoziţie medie de transfer, însă aceste date sugerează că

fenomenul contaminării nu necesită manifestări nonverbale: Conţinutul textual pare să fie un canal

satisfăcător. Acesta nu este un caz de mimetism, ci din contră de încurajare emoţională reciprocă (de

exemplu: reducerea postărilor negative generează majorarea numărului de postări pozitive). Absenţa

tendinţei negative indică faptul că rezultatele studiilor nu pot fi atribuit integral conţinutului postării: dacă

2 Adaptare după Lynn, Adele B., (2006), Avantajul EQ:un plan magistral de mobilizare a inteligenţei emoţionale,Codecs, pg 8-

12 3 Sigal G. Barsade , (2002), The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and its Influence on Group Behavior

4 Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks:

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full.pdf?sid=d600bf36-8805-4bb9-b07b-bb114b08d39e



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o persoană împărtăşeşte veşti bune sau rele, astfel motivându-şi starea emoţională, răspunsul prietenilor la

noutăţi ar trebui să fie mai vehement când informaţiile sunt negative, comparativ cu cele pozitive.(“if it

bleeds, it leads”5). În mod contrar, reacţia la expresia trăirii unui prieten, mai degrabă decât la informaţia

în sine este proporţională cu expunerea emoţiei. Cercetătorii au observat şi un efect de inhibare: indivizii

expuşi la mai puţine postări cu conţinut emoţional se exteriorizau mai puţin în cadrul reţelei de

socializare, fiind implicată astfel şi problema angajamentului social în mediul online. Această observaţie

şi faptul că indivizii răspundeau pozitiv la stimuli pozitivi din partea prietenilor, contrastează cu teoriile

care sugerează că expunerea la postări pozitive alea prietenilor ne afectează în mod negativ, de exemplu

prin comparaţie socială (Facebook depression).6

Luând în considerarea scala masivă a reţelelor de socializare, precum Facebook, chiar şi efectele

minore pot avea consecinţe agregate majore. Mesajele online influenţează trăirile noastre, şi automat

inteligenţa emoţională şi empatia faţă de trăirile celorlalţi, generând comportamente variate în mediul

offline.

Analiza calitativă a studiului ‘Generation Facebook’7 descrie procesul de formare a atitudinii

adolescenţilor în raport cu reţelele de socializare. În cadrul studiului de caz au fost intervievaţi 9

adolescenţi cu vârste cuprinse între 13 şi 19 ani. Vom analiza doar datele relevante pentru ipoteza lucrării

în cauză. Beneficii majore menţionate relevante pentru inteligenţa emoţională sunt: prezentarea proprie ca

individ, dar şi sprijinul reciproc. Efectele reţelei de socializare personale, deci relevante pentru IE, pot fi

încrederea în sine, suportul emoţional şi conexiunea socială. Majoritatea efectelor remarcate de

adolescenţi se referă la relaţionări, în sensul menţinerii şi intensificării acestora. Toţi adolescenţii au

menţionat comunicarea ca şi activitate de bază, dar nici obţinerea de informaţii referitoare la terţi nu este

neglijabilă. Vor fi analizate şi citări ale respectivilor adolescenţi cu privire la efectele menţionate anterior.

Încrederea în sine este generată de numărul de poze, opinii şi like-uri; ce îi conferă individului respectiv

5 https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/two-takes-depression/201106/if-it-bleeds-it-leads-understanding-fear-based-

media 6 Festinger L , (1954),A theory of social comparison processes, Hum Relat 7(2):117–140.

7 Koroleva, Ksenia; Brecht, Franziska; Goebel, Luise; and Malinova, Monika, (2011), "‘Generation Facebook’ – A Cognitive

Calculus Model ofTeenage User Behavior on Social Network Sites" AMCIS 2011 Proceedings - All Submissions. Paper 392,

http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2011_submissions/392



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încântare şi mândrie că a creat un astfel de grup.Suportul emoţional este descris prin recepţionarea unui

mesaj de genul: „nu îţi face griji şi eu am aceeaşi problemă”. Se conturează ideea de empatie, deşi

persoana emiţătoare a mesajului nu este neapărat o cunoştinţă din mediul offline. Conexiunea socială este

descrisă ca manifestarea colegilor la o actualizare de status de genul „ astăzi la şcoală a fost neplăcut” a

unui individ,iar emoţia trăită este aceea de interconectare şi din nou empatie. Relaţiile menţinute sunt un

alt efect pozitiv al reţelelor, posibilitatea de contact fiind facilitată. Se observă că reţelele de socializare

pot fi un liant al relaţiilor, deja stabilite în contextul offline. Mediile sociale online ajung să fie preferate,

datorită disponibilităţii ridicate a prietenilor pe aceste platforme, a funcţionalităţilor variate şi eficiente,

dar şi a barierelor de comunicare reduse : „Pe Facebook poţi comunica cu mai multe persoane simultan, şi

e complet diferit în comparaţie cu a vorbi cu ele în fiecare seară la telefon.”

Reţelele de socializare par să inhibe în anumite situaţii comunicarea faţă în faţă, iar prin această

carenţă indivizii sunt privaţi de limbajul corporal ( un factor important în comunicare), expresii faciale şi

inflecţiuni vocale. Frecvenţa neînţelegerilor cauzate de accente plasate incorect în comparaţie cu intenţia

emiţătorului este foarte ridicată. Comunicarea aceasta în masă este, consider eu, sufocantă, superficială şi

generează un deserviciu inteligenţei emoţionale.

Acelaşi studiu evidenţiază şi implicaţii practice precum faptul că adolescenţii sunt preocupaţi de

publicare informaţiilor personale şi au menţionat faptul că nu au utilizat diverse aplicaţii, dacă nu au fost

informaţi în mod corect despre cum vor fi folosite datele proprii. O concluzie este aceea că Facebook ar

trebui să faciliteze conturi speciale pentru cei de vârste cuprinse între 13 şi 18 ani. Pentru a evita

publicarea nedorită a unor informaţii, astfel de conturi ar putea necesita acordul persoanelor protagoniste

pozelor sau videoclipurilor postate pe Facebook, la fel cum fac alte reţele online, precum Youtube.

Complementar, aceste conturi necesită o filtrare mai riguroasă a informaţiilor recepţionate, pentru a

reduce expunerea adolescenţilor la conţinuturi licenţioase, şi setări de confidenţialitate implicit mai

stricte.

Este evidenţiat un impact puternic asupra presiunii sociale în ceea ce priveşte activitatea

adolescenţilor pe mediile online de socializare. Acest efect era previzibil deoarece adolescenţii se află

într-un stadiu de formare al identităţii şi uneori nu au alte alternative decât să se bazeze pe împrejurimile

imediate.



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Frontierele adolescenţei sunt umane, morale şi sociale. În această „criză a dezvoltării” sunt foarte

importante evenimentele şi valorile cu care adolescentul intră în contact, şi pe care le integrează în

propriul sistem de valori. Adolescenţii posedă un simţ al „eului exacerbat”, iar aceste reţele de socializare

le permit să-şi creeze o extensie virtuală, nu neapărat relevantă pentru autocunoaştere şi autoprezentare.

Este pregnantă „educaţia libertină” conturată de utilizarea internetului, însă adolescenţii, la fel ca

şi copiii necesită orientare continuă. Anumite reguli care să limiteze utilizarea acestor instrumente nu pot

afecta creativitatea şi libertatea de exprimare a adolescentului într-un mod critic. Internetul este un

instrument pentru adulţi, la fel ca şi reţelele de socializare, unde limita inferioară a vârstei utilizatorilor

este de 13 ani, iar utilizarea acestuia de către minori provoacă o falsă maturizare precoce, permiţând

accesul la informaţii neadecvate pentru dezvoltarea lor. Mediile de socializare devin astfel un instrument

complet decontextualizat în raport cu minorii. Există ţări care au reglementat vârsta minimă pentru

crearea unui cont Google, în mod diferit : Spania şi Coreea de Sud - minimum 14 ani, Olanda – minimum

16 ani.

„Computerele dau iluzia activităţii de gândire, dar este un tip de gândire care poate fi introdus

într-o maşină prin comenzi şi instrucţiuni, şi este o caricatură a ceea ce ar trebui să fie gândirea umană.”8

Prin analogie mediile sociale dau impresia autocunoaşterii şi a cunoaşterii şi înţelegerii celorlalţi, deci a

unui nivel ridicat de inteligenţă emoţională. Dar acestea generează de fapt o carenţă a inteligenţei

emoţionale şi treptat chiar şi a creativităţii şi manifestării originale a indivizilor.

Întrebarea crucială este dacă mediile sociale afectează vieţile adolescenţilor. Elemente esenţiale în

definirea acestei probleme sunt identitatea, intimitatea, siguranţa, pericolul şi agresiunea virtuală ( cyber-

bullying). Societatea tinde să eşueze în a informa şi angaja adolescenţii în interacţiuni online corecte şi

nedăunătoare. Tehnologiile emergente au efect asupra întregii societăţii, culturii şi asupra comerţului.

Existenţa într-o astfel de eră a reţelelor nu este facilă sau uşor de administrat. Într-o societate mediată

permanent de tehnologie, viaţa tinde să fie mai complicată.

8 Gheorghe, Virgiliu,(2005), Efectele televiziunii asupra minţii umane şi despre creşterea copiilor în lumea de azi, Editura

Evanghelismos,Bucureşti, pagina 418



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Un alt mediu online important este Youtube, lansată iniţial ca o platformă pentru depozitarea

videoclipurilor „home-made”. Motto-ul reţelei se modifică în 2006 în „Broadcast YourSelf”, sugerând

încă o dată crearea unei extensii virtuale a eului. A doua funcţiei a platformei este desigur cea de reţea de

socializare.În prezent stimulează mai degrabă consumul de videoclipuri, şi nu neapărat producţia. Apare

de aici tendinţa de „couch potato” internaut, deoarece doar 20% dintre utilizatorii YouTube generează 73

% content, dupa cum arată cercetările recente ( Ding et al. 2011). Altfel spus, 4% din utilizatorii

YouTube generează aproape ¾ din conţinutul site-ului, nefiind reprezentativi din punct de vedere

demografic şi al sexului şi vârstei. Clasificarea ierarhică a YouTube este în generatori şi consumatori de

conţinut, respectiv star-uri şi fani. Sunt arhicunoscute videobloggurile sau chiar jurnalele publice a multor

adolescenţi, care au o rată de succes surprinzătoare. 9

Un studiu relevant pentru lucrarea actuală este „Clinical Report—The Impact of Social Media on

Children, Adolescents, and Families” realizat Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, Kathleen Clarke-Pearson &

Council on Communications and Media, Pediatrics, 201110.

Acesta evidenţiază necesitatea conştientizării de către părinţi a naturii mediilor sociale online, dat

fiind faptul că nu toate sunt medii optime dezvoltării psihice a copiilor şi adolescenţilor. Este stringentă

monitorizarea părinţilor a posibile probleme precum cyberbullying, “Facebook depression” şi expunerea

la conţinuturi inadecvate. Conform unui sondaj11 menţionat în acest articol 22% dintre adolescenţi

accesează platforma preferată de mai mult de 10 ori pe zi, şi mai mult de jumătate se loghează pe cel

puţin o platfomă de mai multe ori pe zi. 75% dintre aceşti adolescenţi deţin un telefon mobil pe care 25%

dintre ei îl utilizează în special pentru social media. Astfel o mare parte a dezvoltării sociale şi emoţionale

a acestei generaţii este intermediată de Internet sau telefonie mobilă. Aceştia se expun unor riscuri prin

experimentarea în mediile online sociale, deoarece o capacitate limitată de autocontrol şi cedează uşor

sub influenţa presiunii de grup. Unii părinţi nu percep aceste noi forme de socializare, integrate în stilul

de viaţă al copilului. Ei nu posedă deseori abilităţile tehnice sau timpul, pentru a ţine ritmul cu proprii

copii în peisajul dinamic al Internetului. De asemenea, această clasă de părinţi nu înţelege că existenţa

9 van Dijc, De José , (2013) The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, Oxford University Press

10 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.full.html

11 Common Sense Media. Is Technology NetworkingChanging Childhood? A National Poll. San Francisco,

www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/CSM_teen_social_media_080609_FINAL.pdf



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online a propriilor copii este o extensie a naturii lor offline. Iar rezultatul acestor conjuncturi nefavorabile

este decalajul tehnic între părinţi şi tineri, ce generează la rândul său o deconectare în care cele două părţi

activează în mediul online.

Riscul principal conturat de acest studiul este efectul de „depresie Facebook”, asociat cu o carenţă

a inteligenţei emoţionale. Acesta se manifestă atunci când adolescenţii petrec foarte mult timp pe site-uri

de socializare şi apoi manifestă simtome clasice de depresie. Acceptarea şi contactul cu semenii este un

element important în perioada adolescentină. Tinerii ce suferă de această afecţiune tind să se izoleze

social şi să refuleze pe alte site-uri neadecvate ce promovează practici agresive sau autodistructive.

Larry Rosen, profesor şi fost preşedinte al catedrei de psihologiei la California State University

este un cercetător al social media. Acesta a concluzionat în urma studiilor că efectul social media asupra

adolescenţilor, este deopotrivă pozitiv şi negativ. Unele cercetări demonstrează că o activitate pe

Facebook intensă este asociată cu semne de afecţiuni psihiatrice precum narcisismul. Pe de altă parte un

număr mai mare de prieteni în această reţea determină o predispoziţie mai scăzută pentru depresie.

Interesantă este afirmaţia acestuia că utilizarea Facebook îi ajută pe adolescenţi să înveţe să fie empatici

în mediul offline, după cum reiese din studiile de laborator. Un alt aspect pozitiv este dezvoltarea

capacităţilor de comunicare la adolescenţi timizi prin practica în mediul online. Acesta afirmă că

adolescenţii nu sunt dependenţi de social media, ci au o obsesie compulsivă pentru a îşi verifica în mod

constat notificările. Cercetările sale arată că un număr mare de adolescenţi accesează la fiecare câteva

minute o astfel de platformă. Efectul negativ este ca pentru unii tineri social media nu este doar o parte

integrantă a vieţii, ci este unica lume socială la care apelează. 12

Pentru un articol din The Guardian, Teenagers and technology 13 publicat în anul 2010, profesorul

Patti Valkenburg al Universităţii din Amsterdam declară ca adolescenţa este caracterizată de o nevoie

acerbă de auto-reprezentare sau comunicare a propriei identităţi celorlalţi, dar şi dezbaterea unor subiecte

12

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/08/social-kids.aspx

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20120630/more-of-us-suffer-from-idisorder-due-to-over-use-of-social-media-and-

mobile-devices-says-csu-dominguez-hills-professor 13 Henley, Jon, Teenagers and technology: “I'd rather give up my kidney than my phone”, The Guardian, Thursday 15 July

2010 : http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/16/teenagers-mobiles-facebook-social-networking



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intime. Ambele sunt considerate esenţiale în dezvoltarea identităţii individului, permintându-i să îşi

valideze opiniile şi să determine adecvarea şi acordul propriilor atitudini şi comportamente în societate.”

Aceste tehnologii le oferă utilizatorilor simţul unui control ridicat”, menţionează de asemenea profesor

Valkenburg. ”Acest fapt îi face să se simtă siguri pe comunicare, şi astfel mai liberi în relaţiile

interpersonale.” Însă această libertate lasă loc şi confuziilor şi superficialităţii. Controlul asupra

comunicării online are trei dimensiuni: libertatea de a afirma orice fără a avea tracul contactului direct,

abilitatea de a reflecta şi edita mesajul iterativ înainte de a-l transmite şi capacitatea de a fi în contact cu

un număr mare de prieteni, la orice moment şi în orice loc. Întrebarea crucială pentru părinţi şi profesori

este dacă această carenţă a comunicării faţă în faţă, diminuează capacitatea lor de a menţine relaţii

tradiţionale şi transformându-i în sclavi ai touchscreen-urilor şi conexiunii 4G.

Ancheta propriu a fost realizată prin intermediul unui formular Google, completat de 122 de

adolescenți cu vârste cuprinse între 10 și 19 ani. Intervalul de vârstă a fost ales astfel pentru a cuprinde și

limitele inferioare ale perioadei adolescenței, în raport cu începerea etapei pubertare precoce, dar și cu

durata prelungită a finalizării maturizării datorată efectului de „nesting”- părăsire a căminului părinţilor la

vârste înaintate, atât de pregnant prezent în rândul milenialilor din cauza fenomenelor economice şi

sociale. Adolescenţii tind să se maturizeze precoce din punct de vedere fizic şi sexual, însă în privinţa

stabilităţii emoţionale şi psihice consideră că este preferabil să mai tergiverseze, comparativ cu generaţiile

anterioare.

Chestionarul este disponibil la link-ul: http://goo.gl/forms/50Wlon5GgL Am ales metoda online

de sondare, datorită accesibilităţii acestui instrument, dar şi din raţiuni ecologice.

Alte 2 metode de cercetare neconvenţionale folosite sunt discuţiile libere cu 4 adolescenţi, dar şi

utilizarea, în mod ironic, unei platforme online pentru Q&A ( Quora ), pentru crearea unei secţiuni Online

Vox Populi. Răspunsurile sunt disponibile la link-ul http://www.quora.com/How-are-the-social-

networks-influencing-the-emotional-intelligence-of-teenagers

1. Durata timpului petrecut în mediile de socializare online

Timpul petrecut de adolescenţii români pe reţelele de socializare variază de la sub 2 ore la peste 10 ore

săptămânal. Majoritatea adolescenţilor care au răspuns la acest sondaj (41 adolescenţi din 122) petrec



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între 2 şi 5 ore săptămânal navigând pe platformele de socializare. Doar 15% dintre respondenţi petrec

mai puţin de 2 ore în mediile online. Aproape o treime a celor chestionaţi petrec mai mult de 5 ore pe

reţelele de socializare, iar 20% mai mult de 10 ore. Nu omis negat faptul că există şi alte instrumente de

divertisment ce necesită tehnologii, care „consumă” timpul liber al adolescenţilor. Consumul „media”

este de aproximativ 7 ore pe zi conform unui studiu14 pe tineri cu vârste cuprinse între 8 şi 18 ani realizat

de Kaiser Family Foundation în S.U.A., 2010. În prezent panta duratei utilizării instrumentelor de

divertisment tehnologice nu poate fi decât ascendentă. Aceste activităţi exclud însă contactul real cu terţi

şi socializarea reală, atât de necesară dezvoltării inteligenţei emoţionale, dar şi a aptitudinilor sociale

esenţiale. Studiul menţionat evidenţiază şi o creştere a utilizării dispozitivelor mobile cu mai mult de o

oră pe zi, comparativ cu datele din 1999.

Din discuţiile deschise cu 4 adolescenţi au fost evidenţiate următoarele efecte negative ale utilizării

platformelor sociale:

- privarea de ore de somn pentru a petrece mai mult timp online;

- stări de nervozitate şi iritabilitate când sunt în incapacitate de a-şi accesa conturile;

- substituirea timpului ce se necesită a fi acordat lecţiilor şi sarcinilor impuse de părinţi cu

navigarea în mediul online;

- ipocrizie în legătură cu timpul petrecut online;

- imposibilitatea de a-şi impune limite de utilizare;

- incapacitatea de a contoriza timpul petrecut în mod realist;

- carenţe în acceptarea celorlalţi şi în colaborare;

- confuzii în comunicare;

- preferinţa pentru comunicare online, comparativ cu cea faţă în faţă.

Tinerii cu probleme de integrare în societatea tind să se izoleze şi mai mult, găsind un fals refugiu în

online, unde eul lor virtual este acceptat.

14

http://www.washingtonpost.com/postlive/teens-are-spending-more-time-consuming-media-on-mobile-

devices/2013/03/12/309bb242-8689-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html



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Avantajele descrise de aceştia cu privire la reţelele online sunt:

- posibilitatea de conectare cu oricine de pe glob, care are aceleaşi interese, de exemplu;

- confirmarea imaginii de sine;

- posibilitatea de a fi în „contact” cu celebrităţile preferate;

- facilitatea în comunicare.

2. Distribu ţia conturilor pe diferite re ţele de socializare

După cum era previzibil 99% dintre adolescenţii chestionaţi deţin un cont de Facebook, astfel că un

singur individ dintre cei 122 intervievaţi nu deţine un cont pe platforma adictivă creată de M. Zuckerberg.

Peste 3/4 dintre adolescenţi deţin un cont pe YouTube. Următoarele 2 platforme utilizate sunt Google+ şi

Instagram, un trend recent în rândul adolescenţilor. Platforme similare de conţinut exclusiv vizual sunt

Pinterest şi Weheartit. Content vizual promovează şi Flickr, însă cu o rată de succes redusă în rândul

adolescenţilor români. LindkedIn, reţeaua dedicată contactelor profesionale, este la fel de puţin populară

în rândul adolescenţilor. Aproximativ 20% dintre adolescenţi au menţionat că deţin conturi şi pe alte

medii sociale din online, de genul Ask.fm, Tumblr, Whisper, Wattpad şi 9Gag. Elemente de noutate

pentru mine au fost Whisper, o reţea care permite emiterea şi recepţionare de mesaje anonime online, şi

Wattpad, o comunitate pentru cititori şi autori.

3. Reţeaua de socializare preferată

După cum era probabil preconizat majoritatea adolescenţilor menţionează Facobook ca fiind cea mai

utilizată platformă. Cu un procent radical mai mic de 17% este menţionat Youtube. Celelalte reţele de

socializare sunt doar complementare, în mod aparent, utilizării Facebook. Cel mai probabil acestea sunt

doar surse pentru postările de pe conturile Facebook, care nu au caracter personal. Însă un procent de 8%

au stabilit ca preferate alte reţele decât cele menţionate, de genul 9gag sau Tumblr.

4. Frecvenţa de postare pe reţele sociale

Principala activitate în mediile online este de „urmărire” a fluxului de conţinuturi, eventual de

manifestare a interesului prin like-uri, comentarii sau share-uri. Majoritatea adolescenților au un

angajament ridicat faţă de aceste reţele şi de conturarea propriului eu în mediul online. Este preferată

astfel exprimarea sinelui prin intermediul distribuirii de imagini sau videoclipuri preferate şi nu prin alte



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manifestări în mediul „real”. Un motiv poate fi şi posibilitatea de contorizare a impactului pozitiv sau

negativ a manifestării individului. 65% dintre adolescenţii chestionaţi au declarat că postează de maxim 5

ori pe săptămână. Un sfert dintre ei realizează între 6 şi 10 postări pe săptamână, iar doar o zecime dintre

adolescenţi postează cu o frecvenţă mai mică decât o postare.

5. Opinia personală a adolescenţilor cu privire la impactul social media asupra inteligenţei

emoţionale

Tendinţa generală a adolescenţilor este de negare a efectelor mediilor sociale din online asupra

comportamentului lor. Din sondajul realizat reiese faptul că 40% dintre adolescenţi neagă orice fel de

efect al social media asupra IE. Un sfert dintre cei chestionaţi consideră că impactul asupra inteligenţei

emoţionale este pozitiv. Motive favorabile menţionate în discuţiile libere cu cei 4 adolescenţi sunt

capacitatea de a empatiza cu trăirile celorlalţi, determinarea facilitată a intereselor comune, dar şi

acceptarea diversităţii preferinţelor personal. Social media generează un efect negativ asupra inteligenţei,

conform opiniei a 33% dintre cei chestionaţi. Motive menţionate în favoarea acestei afirmaţii sunt

carenţele în manifestarea din cadrul interacţiunilor directe, dar şi tendinţa de autoizolare, falsa impresie că

suntem înţeleşi şi acceptaţi de cei din jur, doar pentru că aceştia nu îşi manifestă dezacordul în mod

direct.

6. Online Vox Populi15

Am ales să adaug şi această secţiune, tocmai pentru a demonstra şi faptul că impactul reţelelor

de socializare poate fi şi pozitiv. Motive pentru influen ţa pozitivă menţionate de respondenţi sunt

posibilitatea de a cunoaşte trăirile pozitive sau negative a celor de care suntem apropiaţi, de alegere

a unui partener luând un considerare criterii detaliate, dar şi libertatea mai mare de exprimare a

individului .O alt ă prezumţie în legătur ă cu generaţia Y este că probabil vor putea„citi” mai u şor

comportamentele celorlalţi.

Influen ţa negativă a mediilor sociale asupra IE este motivată de exemple, de genul: agresivităţii

accentuate în mediul online, exemplificată prin cazuri de cyber-bullying, superficialitatea în

relaţiile afective, privarea de limbajul corporal şi al mimicii şi de comunicarea „reală”.

15

http://www.quora.com/How-are-the-social-networks-influencing-the-emotional-intelligence-of-teenagers



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Raine Leigh, autor, antreprenor şi coach, descrie succint dezavantajele generate de despăr ţirile

dintre indivizi ce au loc doar în mediul online şi nu faţă în faţă. Prin intermediul unei discuţii faţă

în faţă ambele păr ţi beneficiază cel puţin de posibilitatea de autocunoaştere şi adaptarea mai facilă

la situaţie, eventual continuarea relaţiei la nivel amical. În mediul online indivizii tind să fie mai

agresivi, deşi există posibilitatea de editarea iterativă a mesajelor transmise.

Concluzii

Este evident că impactul general al social media şi al tehnologiei asupra adolescenţilor, dar şi asupra

întregii societăţi este unul accentuat. Principalul efect negativ este acela asupra abilităţii de comunicare,

incluzând astfel inteligenţa emoţională şi socială. Sunt foarte frecvente problemele adolescenţilor cu

fenomene de genul cyber-bullying, „Facebook depression”, dependenţă de lumi virtuale sau platforme de

socializare. Din cauza nivelului de confidenţialitate atât de scăzut, în mod voluntar, în ceea ce priveşte

trăirile personale, totul tinde să fie superficializat. Succesul este măsurat acum în like-uri sau share-uri şi

nu comportamentele rezonabile şi morale sunt cele generatoare de impact în mediile online.

Părinţii şi educatorii trebuie să supravegheze foarte atent comportamentul adolescenţilor şi să dezbată

cu aceştia avantajele şi dezavantajele utilizării reţelelor de socializare şi riscurile la care se expun. Părinţii

trebuie să se familierizeze cu aceste medii, pentru a putea evalua corect efectele acestora şi a înţelege

activitatea pe care propriul copil o desfăşoară cu atât de mare angajament. Filtrele pentru browser sunt

necesare în mod evident pentru adolescenţii cu vârste sub 14 ani. De asemenea stabilirea unor reguli

rezonabile sau chiar a unui program de utilizare a internet-ului este recomandabilă. Plasarea computerului

într-un spaţiu deschis şi nu în camera adolescentului este o metodă de a preveni privarea acestuia de somn

pentru „navigări nocturne”. Aceste măsuri de precauţie nu sunt pentru a controla copilul, ci pentru a

preveni această dependenţă psihologică sau chiar refugiere în mediul online. Adolescenţii trebuie

încurajaţi să întreprindă mai multe activităţi în aer liber şi să se implice în proiecte sociale. Părinţii trebuie

să le explice că relevante pentru reuşita lor nu sunt numărul de like-uri sau followers, ci reala reţea de

cunoştinţe pe care o deţin şi abilităţilor lor de comunicare şi autoreprezentare în societate. Adolescentul

trebuie să ştie să utilizeze aceste reţele ca instrumente pentru comunicare, fără a-şi autogenera prejudicii.

În era tehnologizării comunicarea reală devine cu atât mai importantă, cu cât relaţionările între indivizi se



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bazează mai puţin pe încredere şi mai mult pe „cercetări” reciproce de profil. Inteligenţa emoţională şi

cea socială sunt secretul integrării eficiente în societate şi adaptării la orice situaţie, în această societate

atât de dinamică.Pentru cercetări viitoare mai elaborate pe această temă sugerez măsurarea nivelului

inteligenţei emoţionale la utilizatorii şi non-utilizatori ai social media, dar şi a utilizatorilor diferitelor

mediile online sociale în comparaţie pentru a se stabili care dintre aceste medii favorizează sau daunează

inteligenţei emoţionale.

Bibliografie

� Goleman, Daniel,( 2004 ) Inteligența emoțională, cheia succesului în viață, ALLFA,pg 4

� Lynn, Adele B., (2006), Avantajul EQ:un plan magistral de mobilizare a inteligenţei

emoţionale,Codecs, pg 8-12

� Sigal G. Barsade , (2002), The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and its Influence on Group

Behavior

� Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks:

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full.pdf?sid=d600bf36-8805-4bb9-b07b-bb114b08d39e

� Festinger L , (1954),A theory of social comparison processes, Hum Relat 7(2):117–140.

� Koroleva, Ksenia; Brecht, Franziska; Goebel, Luise; and Malinova, Monika, (2011), "‘Generation

Facebook’ – A Cognitive Calculus Model ofTeenage User Behavior on Social Network Sites"

AMCIS 2011 Proceedings - All Submissions. Paper 392,

http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2011_submissions/392

� Gheorghe, Virgiliu, (2005), Efectele televiziunii asupra minţii umane şi despre creşterea copiilor

în lumea de azi, Editura Evanghelismos,Bucureşti

� van Dijc, De José , (2013) The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media,

Oxford University Press



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INDIVIDUALS MOTIVATION IN CHOOSING PATHS REGARDING THEIR EDUCATION AND PROFESSION

Calin Mihaela, Scoala gimnaziala nr. 39, Bucuresti

Abstract:

Since the early years of study, students are attracted more by certain materials. Some of the real

part of the human others. The first step in choosing the path we want to follow you think it is self-

knowledge. When we realize we know and what we like to do, things go without saying. The effort to

reach better results hardly feels, is combined with pleasure and satisfaction.

In a general manner, the motivation could be defined as a process of orientation and selection,

maintenance of human behavior. The motivation understand why people choose to act a certain way,

which he keeps in the long term, whether favorable or unfavorable conditions. Wanting to explain the

behavior of individuals in society and not only that, several authors have found that there are some

clear issues underlying motivation. Often, this concept of motivation is used to explain differences in

behavior of individuals, their direction of behavior, and the different choices they can make.

Motivation can be positive or negative. Positive motivation is a direct relationship between the

system between results and behavior promoted personal satisfaction.

If until recently the passions have played an important role in the choice of a profession, currently,

they are less used by future employees simply because they no longer correlated with labor market

expectations. Career choice is a process of knowledge, but also emotional one. The key factor is the

motivation. Unfortunately, today, increasingly, career choice involves criteria that aim to ensure a good

standard of living, renouncing professional satisfaction, affective. Lately, people are guided in choosing

the profession using criteria such as salary, promotion opportunities or sphere of relationships that may

lead to the job. On the other hand, choosing a profession, no criteria have changed, but priorities. The

financial terms has maintained importance in the selection of a profession, but currently it has a different

intensity.

Although career education must be present throughout the educational path of students, high

school is the privileged place where career assistance through various means optimal results can be

achieved, given the growing interest of students for the subject and the need for adequacy expectations



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their existing occupational context. Moreover, the high school is where students own psychological

maturity required an approach of self-awareness, a process that requires knowledge of their personality

characteristics, abilities and limits, skills, interests, values, beliefs, in order to make a career decision.

Since puberty, the child consciously submits efforts to knowing oneself. The desire for self-

knowledge is accentuated in adolescence and youth. Self-knowledge can be improved by training and

habituation to observe behaviors, how to interact with others, to act and react in different situations. It is

also important to develop the ability to realize their own thoughts, emotions, feelings, motivations. It

must not neglect the importance of verbal and nonverbal information received from others, and above all

the opinions of significant others (friends, family).

Often, teenagers tend to choose those professions valued by the company at a time, without

making a personal judgment. Beyond difficulties due to a lack of education, there is a problem that

conditions the choice of career objective, namely socio-economic context of a society in transition. In

such a context, students are not thinking long term and make choices that bring immediate economic

benefits, which is justified in the circumstances. Experience shows that long-term, in most cases, these

choices lead to dissatisfaction and frustration due to inadequate professional that individual charge related

to the chosen profession. Since we can not change the socio-economic conditions, our intervention might

focus on changing the mentality: to present the situation in terms of costs and benefits, giving them

enough information to make informed choices, and strategies conflict management, adapting to

circumstances without sacrificing their ideals.

Career education modules are designed to assist students to identify their strengths and

weaknesses, their likes and dislikes, and attitudes and values. Throughout the school years, students

develop skills and strengths and each experience will outline a certain way of life and worldview. As you

are given the opportunity to reflect on the ideas they have and the role they can play in society, students

improve their self-knowledge and skills required.

Self-knowledge is important when individuals want to understand the type of business and career,

we can provide a level of job satisfaction that they want. Activities must consider the personal qualities of

students, issues that interest them and things that are good, both in school and in activities and hobbies in

their spare time. It is equally important that students realize that they are unique and it is absolutely

normal that the type of activity that suits their friends is not of interest to them. Finding the right place in



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the labor market is essential, but it does not happen automatically, and students must have the opportunity

to reflect and to analyze experiences and to develop confidence in their abilities.

To have successful career awareness skills is very important. A person has skills in a field that has

the opportunity to achieve superior performance in that area. We must realize what skills we have and in

which areas have the greatest chance of success. Skills are part of our strengths. They may be known

primarily through introspection and comparing our performance with those obtained by others. We

believe that we have the skills to an area where we can make our own knowledge easily and quickly to

form specific skills, if we get better results than others, if we can get involved in that activity for a longer

period of time without weary. Skills development we have assumed motivation, perseverance, acquisition

of knowledge and skills, in a word: work. Also must find the best ways to exploit our skills.

Awareness interests are another important aspect of self-knowledge. The interests represent a

person's preferences for certain fields of knowledge or activity; have a key role in making decisions about

career paths. Formation of interests depends on genetic factors (potential skills) and life experiences on

which the individual learns to prefer some activities and avoid others. One possibility available to

everyone in order to realize the interests is to reflect on previous elections they made: in what activities

engaged in what areas he worked as a volunteer, what elective courses / optional attended? Reflecting on

the similarities between the preferred ranges, can realize their interests, values system. Interests in

behaviors approach to certain activities and can be identified on the basis of qualitative (focus attention

on activity, positive affectivity, involvement) and quantitative (increased frequency, persistence over

time, intensity of expression).

Values are the fundamental beliefs of the people of what is important in life, interpersonal

relationships and employment. Everyone develops their lifetime in a system of values that guide life

options, including those relating to career. Sample values are: family, health, security, money, power

etc. Work-related values may refer to the working environment, labor relations, work content and work in

general.

The main conclusion is that the starting point for guidance in choosing a career is self-

knowledge. Each individual must discover, through its own analysis, what kind of person he is, what his

temperament, that personality. Developing self-discovery in the youth is in constant development; they

begin to make decisions ever since are low, based on limited understanding of self and the world around



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them. As they grow, become more refined and logical decisions and begin to understand the

consequences of their actions.

Often, young people spend more time analyzing what the pros and cons of options for social activities

(where to go, with whom, how to dress, what to do at the destination) than to address options for careers

in especially if they are interested in a career that is hard to follow. A significant part is influenced by the

circumstances surrounding their parents, friends, colleagues and sometimes suppresses their natural

inclinations because they do not conform to society's norms around.

Career education lessons are the first step toward self-knowledge to students through activities /

exercises that take into account what he likes / dislikes a pupil who, on the understanding around . They

are developing an educational intervention in advance of the skills and abilities necessary for their career

development.

In a changing labor market, decision-making realistic and well informed is extremely important

and schools must ensure that students are prepared enough to efficiently and optimally plan their future

professional careers; teachers play an important role, I understand that involve career development

services they can support the process to ensure that young people take professional decisions can

implement realistic and career action plans. The teachers help ensure a smooth transition of students from

school to work, training or further education.

Bibliography :

� Barbulescu Razvan - Changes In Males' And Females' Work Time During The Economic

Crisis- Revista Economică, 2011;

� Dramnescu Marin - Building pedagogical model based on social learning theory and other

� psychological theories of Albert Bandura in Scientific Bulletin-Education Sciences Series,

2004;

� Enachescu Vladimir-Aurelian; DA Hristache, CE Paicu - The interpretative valences of the

� relationship between sustainable development and the quality of life in Review of Applied

Socio-Economic Research (Volume 4, Issue 2/ 2012 ), pp. 93



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� Enachescu, V.A. (2013). UNDERSTANDING MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION

AND COOPERATION THROUGH MULTICULTURAL DOBROGEA, Journal of

Community Positive Practices, Nr. 2/2013, 108-115

� Mihaila Alexandru Robert - Developing an interactive model of academic communication in

International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories International Journal of Economic

Practices and Theories, vol 2, no. 4, 2012

� Rosca Vlad - The Coach-Athlete Communication Process. Towards A Better Human

Resources Management In Sport in Management Research and Practice, 2010;

� Stavre I., Mocanu R., Imaginea organizatiei si relatia între imaginea organizatiei si imaginea

liderului, 100 pag., Editura FCRP, Bucuresti, 2005;

� Stavre, I., Managementul românesc în faza marelui salt: de la entuziasm la profesionalism,

Cariere, iunie 2006;

� Vladutescu Stefan - Principle of the Irrepressible Emergence of the Message- Jokull Journal,

2013

� Vladutescu Stefan - Uncertainty Communication Status - International Letters of Social and

Humanistic Sciences, 2014



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COMMUNICATION REFERENCE MARKS IN THE SUCCESSFUL

MARKETING

Răzvan-Alexandru Călin, Teacher’s Training Department / Craiova University

Abstract:

Regardless of the job we have or the position we occupy within the structure of an organization,

we permanently aim to induce a beneficiary that our product, project, idea or our own person are the

best of all. We are therefore talking here about a communication process we are directly interested in

its success.

To provide real increased successful results to this communication process, the results of an

exploration study have identified series of causes the public does not generally pay attention for and

does not listen to the message of a presentation.

Subsequently, using it as a starting point, the present study intends to make a synthesis, in

personal manner, of some of the most important conditions for a successful communication in

marketing, grouped as a list of determinant factors. These factors have been selected as a consequence

of the systematic observation of 18 presentations that 12 marketing communication specialists have

shown.

Keywords: oral presentation, efficient communication, marketing communication

Anyone can provide a successful presentation!

In spite of the fact that this could seem a hazardous assertion, having an obvious motivational

touch, this statement reflects and relies on several essential realities and truths.

In the first place, a memorable marketing presentation supposes, as we already shown in one of

our recent studies (Călin, 2014), a close and responsible planning of the communicational act, which

implies to take into account some action coordinates associated to the constituent elements of any

efficient communication (Pânișoară, 2004), such as: feedforward, speakers’ repertory, the communication

context (Călin & Bunăiașu, 2010).



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Then, although we are not all of us extroverted persons, the required abilities for a successful

presentation rely on long systematical practice and training.

Joining and corroborating the two stages, on one side with the conclusions found after analyzing the

causes of the public indifference regarding the communication message and, on the other side, with series

of factors, determinant for an efficient presentation, are meant to induce us the conviction that their

operational performance only in a synergical manner can raise the chances of successful marketing

presentation.

Why the public does not listen to?

Any action having as a final goal to sell a product is addressed to a target public. As we already

shown (Călin, 2014), to know in advance the target public features is an essential condition for the

marketing speech planning.

We took here into consideration the general case of an adult target public, the most frequent

situation within the observed context.

One first specification that we have to do here is to discern the general features defining the adult

public. In this sense, Roger Mucchielli defined as adults the men and the women of 23 years old at least,

having a professional and an active social life, family responsibilities and a direct life experience

(Mucchielli, 1982).

According to the same author, these are persons who are generally able to organize their own

existence and social life (individual and social projects) and, being realistic and practical, they have a

sufficient awareness of their social position, situation, aspirations and possibilities.

The joy given by the discovery of the world, specific to the teen-age, is replaced in most of the

cases in the adult age, by everyday cares and by the preoccupation for a personal way consolidation, after

they realized that nobody can do anything, anyway and anytime.

The social positions put their marks on the personality and, under certain circumstances, they

deform it or suppress it, the motivations change, the plasticity of the ego, its unlimited adaptability power



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restrict themselves, being replaced by a certain defensive balance; the resistance to changes becomes

stronger and stronger (Mucchielli, 1982).

All these, together with the data of the differentiated psychology of ages, become the premises of

our investigation research having in mind, in a first stage, to identify the causes leading to the lack of

attention and interest on the part of the adult public in receiving the message of a presentation.

With this goal in mind, 250 persons have been asked to enumerate the causes of their

dissatisfaction while participating in presentations performed by persons who tried to sell different

„products”, the satisfaction degree being low (1, 2 and 3 on the Likert scale with 7 steps) concerning the

way they received the message and how they felt during the presentation.

These answers have been centralized, the data having similar meanings have been put together

and those answers have been kept with the most frequent occurrence. Consequently, a list of items

resulted indicating as main causes of the lack of interest in listening to the message of a marketing public

communication, the following aspects:

1. Easy intuition of the message and the public loses the attention concentration;

2. The tone, the volume or the voice intonation are inconvenient or inadequate;

3. The public had not or was not introduced into the required „state” for a presentation hearing;

4. The speaker’s words were difficult to understand; the message was too complicated or too

theoretical and difficult to follow;

5. The phrases of the speaker’s presentation were too easy or even childish;

6. It is not clear what the „product” is useful for and what is the public’s benefit from its acquisition;

7. The person who is talking shows a lack of attitude, interest, credibility or confidence;

8. The environmental conditions in the room are not comfortable (uncomfortable chairs, inadequate

light or temperature).



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Part of these inconveniences can be easily removed or corrected.

Others point out, once again, the importance of the careful preparation and planning of the

marketing presentation, keeping all the time in mind the specific coordinates for each essential element of

an efficient communication: Feedforward (Communication targets; Communication structure;

Communication Stages), Speakers’ repertories (Public structure; Public features; Public motivation) and

Communication context (Location characteristics; Location endowment; Communication moment

features) (Călin, 2014). In other words, all these could be, in a corporatist approach, the procedure

coordinates, previous to the communicational action, which should be respected in order to get a

successful marketing presentation.

The practice shows us that there is a difference between a correct presentation and a successful

one, this difference coming from a certain line of conduct and nuances which give „colour” to the

communicational act. All these depend exclusively by the presentation supplier behaviour, by the

speaker.

15 Tips for a 10 mark presentation

Going further with our investigative research, we propose ourselves to identify the most important

15 coordinates and their operation manner according to the aimed target, respectively to increase the

chances of a successful marketing presentation.

The 250 subjects previously mentioned have been asked to draw up a list containing the speaker’s

behaviours which, in their opinion, should contribute to the success of the presentations they have taken

part in. After the lists have been centralized and the similar items have been corroborated, the first 25

behaviour features have been kept, which had the most frequent appearance/mentioning.

This list, including the 25 behaviour features, represented the grid of indicators to be observed (on

the present/absent coordinates) within 18 „school like presentations”, filmed or existing under a video

form, performed by 12 marketing communication experts. This fact made also easier to identify some

other behaviours having a contribution to the communicational expressivity increase, the statistical



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further processing of these behaviours being therefore deprived of the subjectivism specific to a „live”

applied observation grid.

15 speaker’s behaviours resulted, their presence being associated in a significant manner with the

success of a marketing presentation that we organized in a „corporatist” way, as a list of

recommendations:

1. Be visual ! – researches have shown that messages between individuals are transmitted in

proportion of 55% by the body, 38% by the voice – inflexion, intonation, volume – and 7% by the words

(Mehrabian, quoted in Calero, 2005);

2. Make the difference between the spoken and the written languages! – the expression level and the

phrase organizing rules in the written language make difficult to follow the message without the text;

3. Be convinced of what you are saying! - even if you are not, convince yourself! You must not fail

to mention any argument that could be invoked, especially those having an applicable-practical character;

4. Be enthusiastic in your communication! – the energy and the enthusiasm are contagious;

5. Be honest to your public! – a discovered lie, even it dwells on less important aspects, transfers its

devastating negative effect over the whole speech and, certainly, you don’t want that this happen!;

6. Tell! Tell! Tell! – Tell them what you will tell them!; Tell them!; Tell them what you already told

them! (***, Presentation- Skills & Questions mgt.);

7. Catch and keep public interest and attention! – use „attention catchers” like: a question, a saying,

an adage, a joke, a „shock” opening, a short history of the theme;

8. Make a spontaneous communication! – don’t read!; don’t recite the memorized text!;

9. Smile! – enjoy together with your public the happiness of this appointment;

10. Keep the eye contact with every person from the public! – move your eyes to each person for 2-3

seconds!;



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11. Stand upright! Don’t sit down! Stand the face to the public!

12. Make sure the public is hearing you! Be intelligible! Have a varied language! – Use the

expressivity and the voice modulation!;

13. Be interactive! – give the public the opportunity to ask questions!;

14. Be relaxed and natural!;

15. Use examples! Reformulate! Summarize!

Conclusions

Several works include recommendations or theoretical and practical requirements of a successful

marketing presentation (Storz, Carl et al., 2002; ***, How to Do Public Speaking and Presentation; ***,

Presentation-Skills & Questions mgt etc.). Some of them can be also found among those that we have

identified.

Our research however aimed more than just taking them again; it also tried to organize them in an

applicative manner, as well as a certain „calibration” of those requirements to the public of Romania

having psycho-social and cultural characteristics different from the Western public, which is the

geographic area where the majority of the works in this field are coming from.

There are „perfect” works from the procedure point of view, but with a doubtful impact over the

audience, the main cause being this sensation of „impersonal”, of theater performance, of a part played by

a character where the public can’t find himself in.

The identified items, corroborated with the conclusions found at the end of the observation as

participant of some speakers and of the reactions their public had, lead us towards an integrative

conclusion, formulated again as an imperative sentence: Be as your public is, be one of them! Come

down from the stage and explain to him, in a friendly manner, what is his benefit and what does he need

for the „product” you „sell”.



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Bibliography:

� Calero, H.H., (2005), The power of nonverbal communication, Silver Lake Publishing, Los

Angeles.

� Călin, R.A. & Bunăiaşu. C.M., (2010), Communication and Mass-media - from information to

formation, în Buletinul Universităţii Petrol – Gaze din Ploieşti, Vol. LXII, Nr. 1A/2010, pp. 230-

238.

� Călin, R.A., (2014), Planning in successful verbal marketing communication - A descriptive

study, în volumul Conferinţei Internaţionale EdProf 2014 - « Professionalism in Education »,

organizată de D.P.P.D. din cadrul Academiei de Studii Economice Bucureşti, 06.06.2014, Editura

ASE, Bucureşti, pp. 57-62.

� Cioclov, Roxana, (2013), Ghid de comunicare şi discurs public, Editura Artpress, Timişoara.

http://www.practica-ta.ro/files_to_download/proiect/Ghid%20de%20Comunicare%20si%20

discurs %20public.pdf, accessed on 30 March 2015.

� Laskowsky, Lenny, (1998), How to Handle That dreaded Question & Answer Period, LJL

Seminars. http://www.ljlseminars.com/question.pdf, accessed on 30 March 2015.

� Mucchielli, Roger, (1982), Metode active în pedagogia adulților, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică,

București.

� Pânişoară, Ion-Ovidiu. (2004), Comunicarea eficientă, Editura Polirom, Iaşi.

� Pitariu, H.D, (2000), Managementul resurselor umane: Evaluarea performanţelor profesionale,

Editura All Beck, Bucureşti.

� Storz, Carl et al., (2002), Oral Presentation Skills. http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/publications

/oral_presentation_skills.pdf, accessed on 30 March 2015.



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� ***, How to Do Public Speaking and Presentation, Online Integrated Library for Personal,

Professional and Organizational Development. http://managementhelp.org/communicationsskills/

public-speaking.htm, accessed on 30 March 2015.

� ***, Presentation-Skills & Questions mgt. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/111377571/Presentation-

Skills-_-Questions-mgt, accessed on 30 March 2015.



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BRIDGING NEUROSCIENCE, THERAPY AND EDUCATIONAL

PSYCHOLOGY

Ciurez Ionela Cristina, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest

Abstract:

Recent research reveals the powerful brain mechanisms than underlie emotions, motivations,

learning, memory. The race to understand and cure brain-related diseases have pushed scientists to

discover such amazing things about the human brain that the implications for therapy have extend

beyond conventional treatment methods to include meditation, breathing techniques and other ancient

oriental practices. This article discusses the main findings in neuroscience that show how the brain

functions, learns and processes information, and how unconventional methods can be used to trigger

certain brain mechanisms, all in the light of shaping a new educational psychology and new

educational methods.

Keywords: neuroscience, educational psychology, therapy, unconventional methods

A Zen story tells of a professor who came to the Zen master Nan-in to learn about Zen. Nan-nin

poured the professor a cup of tea, and when the cup was full kept pouring. The professor protested,

‘Stop! The cup is overfull already.’ Nan-nin replied: ‘Your mind is over-full like this cup. To learn about

Zen you must first empty your cup’

Neuroscience

In order for educational psychology to understand the needs of children, parents, teachers alike

and properly address the problems that arise in education, it is necessary first to identify the basic

functioning of the human brain in its stages of development and then to find methods that help develop

new brain patterns and decrease destructive ones.

The term neuroplasticity is quite new in the field of neuroscience and its meaning comprises the

idea that the brain is capable of immense development even in the adult years. The most conclusive



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evidence of this was brought by a neuroscientist who was herself the victim of a severe stroke in the left

hemisphere of the brain resulting in a loss of brain tissue the size of a golf ball. In her book (Taylor,

2009), she describes how, even though she was in her mid 30s, she managed to recover her full brain

capacity with time, patience and will to carry on. Her example is not singular and thus neuroplasticity

became common knowledge among practitioners: meaning that any old behaviour, any old neural patters/

habits are reversible and improvable with the right training and practice.

Unconventional therapy

Recent developments in therapy have also shown how unconventional methods, encountered

before only in religious and humanistic settings (such as meditative practices, martial arts, breathing

techniques, yoga etc.) are proving to be successful in treating numerous diseases of neurological origin,

numerous conditions developed due to stress and essentially due to a “wrongly-wired” human brain.

Meditation and other such practices generally invoke a better control of the human body by

bringing adjustment to posture, breathing, attention and visualisation. In this way, practically the human

brain is distracted from the compulsive destructive thinking and through constant practice, the brains

retrains itself to “think” differently.

Among adults, studies have shown that meditation can protect against cognitive decline associated

to normal aging (Pagnoni & Cekic, 2007), it can improve attention (Lutz, Slagter, Dunne, & Davidson,

2008) cognitive abilities (Chiesa, Calati, & Serretti, 2011) and increases general well-being and

behaviour regulation by reducing psychological symptoms, emotional reactivity (Keng, Smoski, &

Robins, 2011).

Probably the most important finding of recent research was that such meditative practices have a

positive influence in treating ADHD, the most wide-spread ailment among children and students

nowadays. One study demonstrates with cases how mindfulness-based training is successfully

administered in clinical settings for children diagnosed with ADHD and proposes it as a complementary

approach to cognitive-behavioural therapy (Mitchell, Zylowska, & Kollins, 2015). Depression and

anxiety are other ailments that found a relief through a practice of art therapy combined with breath

meditation in adolescents (Kim, Kim, & Ki, 2014).



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Benefits to education

To bring the discussion closer to educational psychology, the following section focuses on the

findings of researchers who applied such unconventional practices to young children and adolescents in

order to obtain, besides the known benefits of such practices, also better results in education (by

improving grading, creativity, learning and decreasing destructive and violent behaviour).

There are many programs who implemented in schools around the world in order to test the

efficiency of ancient practise on the behaviour and performance of students. One of such studies

advocates the use of transformational tools, by providing a case of applying Tai Chi and mindfulness

meditation on school-aged boys and girls - demonstrating decreased stress reduction and emotional

reactivity, increased self-care, self-awareness, calmness, relaxation and better sleep (Wall, 2005).

Another (Sibinga, Perry-Parrish, Chung, & Johnson, 2013) described how mindfulness practices among

male 7th and 8th graders, 95% African-American, have decreased stress and anxiety (measured by

decreased levels of cortizol) during academic terms.

There are evidences of how seventh grade students who went through an experience of

Transcendental Meditation for one year registered an increased state of restful alertness, self-control, self-

reflection, and most importantly, quantitative improvements of academic performance (Rosaen & Benn,

2006). This meditation practice is actually designed to quiet the mind and induce mental relaxation but

this study shows that even among children, the effects surpass the simple benefits initially provided.

Another study (Wongtongkam, Day, Ward, & Winefield, 2015) focusing on technical college

students in Thailand showed that students who participated on a mindfulness meditation program over

three consecutive weeks registered lower levels of anger expression and violent behaviour in comparison

to a control group, leading to emotional stabilization and self-control.

Among small children, the benefits observed were increased learning and creativity, smoother

critical thinking and reflection (Fischer, 2006)

Finally, the best evidence of the undeniable effect of such practices is given by brain scans that

show how a 10 weeks transcendental meditation practice among college students can change the shape of



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the functional areas of the brain and can determine such areas to work more coherently together (Travis,

et al., 2009).

To conclude, this article proposes that such unconventional therapies are more than worthy

pedagogical attention, and thus it advocates for further study of such meditative practices and their effects

on children, as they can become a useful tool for a holistic education that takes into account not only the

cognitive development of the child but also its general well-being.

Bibliography:

� Chiesa, A., Calati, R., & Serretti, A. (2011). Does mindfulness training improve cognitive

abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical Psychology Review , 31,

449–464.

� Fischer, R. (2006). Still thinking: The case for meditation with children. Thinking Skills and

Creativity , I, 146–151.

� Keng, S.-L., Smoski, M. J., & Robins, C. J. (2011). Effects of mindfulness on psychological

health: A review of empirical studies. Clinical Psychology Review , 31, 1041–1056.

� Kim, S., Kim, G., & Ki, J. (2014). Effects of group art therapy combined with breath meditation

on the subjective well-being of depressed and anxious adolescents. The Arts in Psychotherapy ,

41, 519–526.

� Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and

monitoring in meditation. Elsevior , 163-169.

� Mitchell, J. T., Zylowska, L., & Kollins, S. H. (2015). Mindfulness Meditation Training for

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adulthood: Current Empirical Support, Treatment

Overview, and Future Directions. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice , 22, 172-191.

� Pagnoni, G., & Cekic, M. (2007). Age effects on gray matter volume and attentional performance

in Zen meditation. Neurobiology of Aging , 28, 1623–1627.



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� Rosaen, C., & Benn, R. (2006). The Experience of Transcendental Meditation in Middle School

Students - A Qualitative Report. Explore , 2 (5), 422-425.

� Sibinga, E., Perry-Parrish, C., Chung, S.-e., & Johnson, S. B. (2013). School-based mindfulness

instruction for urban male youth: A small randomized controlled trial. Preventive Medicine , 57,

799–801.

� Taylor, J. B. (2009). My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. New York:

Penguin Group.

� Travis, F., Haaga, D. A., Hagelin, J., Tanner, M., Nidich, S., Gaylord-King, C., et al. (2009).

Effects of Transcendental Meditation practice on brain functioning and stress reactivity in college

students. International Journal of Psychophysiology , 71, 170–176.

� Wall, R. B. (2005). Tai Chi and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in a Boston Public Middle

School. Journal of Pediatric Health Care , 19 (4), 230-237.

� Wongtongkam, N., Day, A., Ward, P. R., & Winefield, A. H. (2015). The influence of

mindfulness meditation on angry emotions and violent. European Journal of Integrative

Medicine, 7, 124-130.



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STRATEGIC EDUCATION - STUDENT-CENTERED EDUCATION DETERMINANTS

Cotarcea Ionut, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract:

Student student-centered education is a core pillar in the Romanian education system

missing. We conducted a case study and I chose this theme because the student receives education

must be closely linked with the skills and needs, and this usually takes place in Romania.

With regard to student-centered education, teamwork is essential for student learning. Also, a

great loss of information occurred over time because teachers have focused on the subject taught and

made a presentation to the students.

Changes in society of the late 20th century led to a growing need for accumulation of skills: such

as critical thinking, complex problem solving, the ability to be self-taught and skills relating to

information and communication.

Strategic learning model, is multidimensional and focuses on interactions between exterior

components triangle. The model is used in different ways by different students learning tasks and goals.

Variables from outside the triangle are important for completing the learning activity, but not

under the direct control of the student.

The three components of the model are: skills, will and self-discipline. Skills focuses on knowing

what to do, how to do and knowing when to use the strategy. Students must develop the level of

knowledge in order to learn strategically.

I believe that students' interest in school can be manifested by offering freedom to show that the

improvements that he receives and its transposition into teacher's role. If they had the opportunity to be

the majority of students have qualified teacher idea of trying to capture the attention of students through

activities not through small notes should help students when learning difficulties should pay more

attention to students' own views at the expense of lessons learned repeat.

Actions that students would achieve in the role of teacher are also those which are lacking in the

current system of education. In terms of capturing the attention that teachers should carry through



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activities that cause students to become involved, such as those presented at the beginning of the work:

brainstorming, jigsaw, is achieved mainly through notes have visible impact students, but unfortunately

that lead to learning objective look. Also, another way to capture students' attention is the Power Point

presentations.

Students learning objective differentiate note that from the assessments, but if students do not

perceive this difference must occur orientation emphasis on the subjects taught to students through ways

that help him learn and develop within the long-term by helping you to obtain a high note irrelevant in

intellectual development

It will focus on objectives that determine student attitudes and learn when learning difficulties.

For any student learning task should take into account three variables with specific

components. Variables related skills, will and self-discipline works in correlation to facilitate strategic

learning. Items that will be used each variable composition will be determined by the student's goals,

previous knowledge, experience and the nature of the task.

Strategic learning model is in perfect correlation with student-centered education as learning

presents current business requirements and resources that the student has. Correlating these two elements

can be applied to student-centered education, because the student is aware of the responsibilities and the

potential it has.

The concept of student-centered education is largely a concept unknown students, but after

presenting the main features students showed interest and openness towards this method, even wanting to

replace traditional methods of teaching and learning.

As regards the Romanian education system, students are fully aware that it does not give them the

necessary needs of each development paths and that numerous studies of materials that remain with little

knowledge to help them evolve. But I also noticed that the students surveyed know the learning objective,

namely to develop their culture and learn concepts that can be useful in their lives.

There are numerous ways such as those specified in the theoretical part which teachers can lead

students to learn actively participate in class, to communicate within the team to create a close

relationship between student-teacher while the students surveyed have noticed these shortcomings in their

school experience.



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In conclusion, students are open to change, willing to learn, to grow and evolve, but they need

other conditions and ways of achieving them as student-centered education requires a willingness to learn

from pupils and involvement, dedication and interest from teachers. Accordingly student-centered

education requires close collaboration between teacher and student, as if lacking interest first, this way of

learning is impossible to apply.

Student centered education teaching is an extensive process that includes a number of ways that

require the attention and interest of students.

After learning patterns observed, we found that it is extremely important that students realize that

learning is a strategic key to development and ability to be self is essential in the learning process but it

must be developed through student-centered education.

Therefore student-centered education, teacher's role shifts the emphasis from the role of student

and removes the idea of the class teacher as a guide outlining the idea of active communication and

collaboration, through which dictates what must be done, but reach a solution where students are

empowered and learn to "learn".

Bibliography :

� Barbulescu Razvan - Changes In Males' And Females' Work Time During The


psychological theories of Albert Bandura in Scientific Bulletin-Education Sciences Series,

2004;

� Economic Crisis- Revista Economică, 2011;

� Enachescu Vladimir-Aurelian; DA Hristache, CE Paicu - The interpretative valences of the

relationship between sustainable development and the quality of life in Review of Applied

Socio-Economic Research (Volume 4, Issue 2/ 2012 ), pp. 93

� Mihăilă, A.R. (2011): „Stimularea inovației și schimbării actului de educație”, Sesiunea

internațională de comunicări științifice a DPPD ASE, 2011, Editura ASE, ISBN 978-606-505-

429-5.



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� Stăiculescu, C., Enăchescu, V.-A., Dobrea, R.C. (2014): „The Impact of Decentralization on

the Romanian School”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 124: Challenges

and Innovations in Management and Leadership - 12th International Symposium in

Management, pp. 69-76.




2013





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FAMILAL MODEL IN SCHOOL

Cuciureanu Monica, Institute for Educational Sciences

Abstract:

Families have represented and still represent a very important source of influence for the

development of children. It is therefore obvious why well-known pedagogues were inspired by family-

life and family-organization, promoting those elements which could improve school-life and the

educational process. The educational environment, the grouping of children, some of the activities

were inspired by the familial model, which proved its value and efficiency. In this article some of the

experiences of consecrated pedagogues like Maria Montessori or Peter Petersen will be presented.

They promoted, about 100 years ago, the age-heterogeneous family-groups of children. Age

differences between children were regarded as formative, they were valued, contributing to the

education and general development of children. The familial model can still inspire Romanian

teachers, who work under difficult circumstances in small country-side schools with simultaneous

classes.

Keywords: education, familial model, age-heterogeneous groups

1. Introduction

Studies, which were recently completed in the Institute for Educational Sciences, revealed that the

family still represents an important factor of influence and education, especially for young children. In his

family, at micro-social level, the child learns and practices specific human behaviours. At the same time,

this protective environment offers children the opportunity to learn to negotiate, to solve conflicts, to

become responsible. All these actions train children for more complex challenges, which can arise later

on, in a wider social environment.

The family and family-life were over time an inspiration for school, since in the family natural

learning processes took place. It seemed the easiest way to attain knowledge: without visible effort, by

living certain experiences, which called the child’s ability to adapt, he learned and developed different



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skills. The natural learning happens only under certain circumstances: children should remain open to

learning, willing to reflect on their experiences, to process and internalize relevant experiences, as they

represent the basis for learning.

Important educators valued the natural learning, among them J.J. Rousseau, M. Montessori, P. Petersen.

J. J. Rousseau criticised the verbalism and intellectualism of the school at his time. He was a

fervent supporter of the idea, that children should be free to discover the world, to learn from their own

realities and experiences. He regarded the nature of humans as being good. The need of every child to

adapt to his own reality enhances his learning motivation and the exploration of the reality leads to the

autonomy of the child.

These ideas were developed in a personal manner by the two other personalities of the pedagogy,

mentioned before. At the beginning of the 20th century the New Education Fellowship was developed – a

movement of pedagogical innovation, which stimulated the rising of new school models, leading to

school reforms in several European countries. According to the representatives of this movement, the

education had to be again child-centred, focusing on the needs, actions and relationships of every child.

The community got more important than the society, the group (as free gathering of individuals with

common interests) gained more appreciation than the class (regarded as more formal and constrictive).

Natural learning was again highly valued, because it was convergent with the concept of education, man

and society of that time.

Maria Montessori and Peter Petersen were two of the representatives of the school – innovation

movement. Through their activity and their writings, each of them has designed a school model, which

lasts until today, both on international and on national level. The actuality of their ideas is proved by the

facts that:

• Parents still ask for the enrolment of their children in Montessori and Petersen (Jena Plan)

schools;

• Teachers are still interested to teach according to the principles of these two alternative models;



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• The schools still get financial support (through public and private funds) and recognition (through

the law of education).

2. Maria Montessori

“The society is not based on personal desires, but on a combination of activities, that need to be

harmonized.” (Montessori, M., 2006, p.251)

Having a valuable experience in working with children, Maria Montessori recognized that the

virtues – essential character traits – occur spontaneously, through the relationship of children with other

people around them. Their sense of order, patience, care for others occur and can be developed this way.

Both Maria Montessori and Peter Petersen acknowledged the formative role of the school

community for its members (children, parents, teachers). Of course, every child develops his own

individuality, according to his own nature; he grows, learns and develops – but this cannot be done

successfully outside an educational community. The child and, generally speaking, everyone needs

relationships with other people, in order to define himself.

Both specialists started from the family model and acknowledged, that age differences between

children can be very valuable in the educational context, having a formative role. In the described school-

models, they have decided for a flexible grouping of children in age-heterogeneous groups, which include

children of similar ages. They recommend that the differences between children do not exceed three years

of age, so that all children can benefit from the social environment. Both younger and older children

would then have the opportunity to live relevant, formative experiences.

This is how Maria Montessori describes the benefits of children in age-heterogeneous groups:

“Children of different ages help each other. The little ones look up at the oldest and demand explanations.

They are given immediately and the training process is really valuable, because a five years old child’s

mind is much closer to the mind of a three years old child, than our mind is. The little one learns easily,

what we might have difficulties to explain. There is a communication and a harmony between the two

children, which one hardly finds between a young child and an adult. (...) A young child will be interested



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in what a five years old one does, because he is not too far from his own capabilities. The older ones

become heroes and educators, while the young ones become their admirers.” (Montessori, M., 2006,

p.254)

The possible reproach addressed to age-heterogeneous groups is that older children would neglect

their own learning, by spending time and working with younger children. Montessori’s arguments against

this reproach are very pertinent: “Sometimes people are afraid, that if a five years old child is involved in

teaching lessons, it may hinder his progress. But, first of all, he doesn’t teach all the time, his freedom is

respected. And second, teaching helps him better understand, what he already knows. In order to teach,

he has to review and reorganise his small stock of knowledge, before he teaches it to someone else. In

this way, his sacrifice is also rewarded. (...) Our schools are alive. The young children are inspired by

older ones. Older children are glad to teach younger children, what they know. There is no inferiority

complex here and each child lives in a healthy normality by exchanging with the others spiritual energy.”

(Montessori, M., 2006, p.255)

Having the children organised in age-heterogeneous groups requires to allow them freedom of

movement. Each of them has a set place, but they are allowed to move around, choosing freely the

materials they work with, the place where they do it and next to whom. No child is isolated from the

others. Helping each other and learning from each other are stimulated through this form of grouping.

The teacher has more opportunities to observe the children in different contexts and to understand

them better. He can act like a scientist, using then his observations for improving the educational process.

He has thus a different role than in traditional schools – facilitating the learning of children, adopting a

discreet position, “helping children to manage on their own”.

3. Peter Petersen

The German professor Peter Petersen has developed the Jena Plan at the experimental school of the Jena

University. The Jena Plan is defined as an active school model, in which children are actively and

responsibly involved in their own education and development.



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The school is one of the educational community, formed by children, parents and teachers, and

that is reflected in the ideals, the values and the adopted attitudes of its members, promoted in school.

Children learn very early to manage individual differences, they learn to live as social beings. A flexible

grouping of children is important in order to achieve the educational goals; the age-heterogeneous

grouping, known as “Stammgruppe”, leaves room for emerging of pedagogical situations, which are the

engine of learning.

In the experimental school organised by Peter Petersen according to the principles of the Jena

Plan, children were divided in four age-heterogeneous groups: the lower group (for students aged 6 to 9),

the middle group (for students aged 9 to 12), the upper group (for students aged 12 to14) and the youth

group (for students aged 14 to 16). Later another group was added, for children of preschool age.

Students were staying in each group according to their own development and learning rhythm.

Sometimes they demanded themselves to be promoted or to stay longer in a group, if they felt, they

wouldn’t be able to cope with the demands of the next group.

Usually, each year a third of an age-heterogeneous group changed: some promoted and left the

group, new ones entered the group. Every year there were some changes, though not a total change,

which could have unbalanced or affected the group in a negative manner. The group ethos was

maintained, as well as the balance and the harmony of the group.

Some advantages of this organisation system were described already by Peter Petersen (Petersen,

P., 1940):

• The integration of new children happens easily, because there already exists a group ethos and the

newcomers are usually helped by older children to become part of the group.

• The age differences between children are stimulating both for younger and for older children.

Young children learn easily from older ones; older children learn to help younger children and this makes

them develop a good character.

• Talented children and group-leaders must subordinate several times in an age-heterogeneous

group. This diminishes the possibility, that they become proud and develop a superiority complex.



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• Both teachers and students are stimulated every year by the arrival of new colleagues in the group.

The change brings freshness into the group, but the group-harmony and balance are not affected.

• The teacher’s role is different. He gives children more freedom (to move, to decide, to choose, to

search, to observe, to learn). He is a guide, a careful observer of the group and of every single child.

Some of the responsibilities of the teacher are distributed to the group, some tasks are taken over by

(older) children. The empowerment of children increases their self-esteem.

• The large number of students in one class (about 30 children) doesn’t make the educational

process more difficult, but it facilitates this process, as well as the social development of the group

members. Different ages offer multiple valences and relationships, which represent good opportunities for

the social development of children.

The existence of age-heterogeneous groups in a school doesn’t necessarily mean that the principles of the

Jena Plan are respected. “One can only speak of core groups (“Stammgruppen”), when age –differences

between children are exploited from pedagogical point of view. The group has then a formative role and

its heterogeneity stimulates the educational process.” (Cuciureanu, M., 2006, p.82)

4. Schools with simultaneous classes

In Romania the birth rate decreased constantly and – especially in rural areas – one can see an aging of

the population. There are several problems which affect the country-side more than the Romanian towns.

Among them:

• a weak development of the infrastructure;

• generally speaking, a lower quality of life;

• lower employment rates, with direct impact on the average monthly income per family member;

• lower educational level of the rural population (compared to the urban population), associated

with a higher risk of school dropout.



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Under these circumstances, schools with simultaneous classes – especially kindergartens and

primary schools – are a common reality in the Romanian country-side. Knowing and using methods and

techniques promoted by alternative school models might be useful and may contribute to a better

educational process.

Some possible ways to enhance individualization, motivation and joy of learning in those schools

are:

• Giving children freedom of movement in the school environment;

• Encouraging older students to help and assist younger children (child tutorial);

• Fostering communication and cooperation between the group members and in the educational

community (through the work in small groups, learning from each other etc.);

• Emphasizing their independent work;

• Investigating the children’s needs, interests, level of understanding and adapting the content and

the educational process to these realities;

• Initiating multi-disciplinary projects, according to the interests and understanding of children;

• Monitoring their progress and offering them constructive feed-back;

From these activities benefit all members of the group: older children are valued, they have to

reorganise their knowledge in order to explain something to other children. They gain self-awareness,

self-esteem, but also the admiration and respect of the other group members.

Younger children learn with pleasure, easily, and their curiosity and learning motivation stay

awake. In time, knowing how useful it was to get some help, they will be able to offer help to other

children, too.

Teachers can assume different roles: they can guide children, they can observe, research, improve

and then adapt the educational process to the needs of the children, they work with.



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5. Conclusions

The recurrence in Romania of alternative school models and their extension after 1990 represents

an opportunity for the Romanian educational system. They provide models of best practice for other

schools, too, even if those schools don’t embrace those pedagogical models entirely. Some of the

promoted ideas still inspire teachers and parents in rising and educating children nowadays. They are

alive and still help in finding better ways in education.

Bibliography :

� Cuciureanu, Monica (2006), Educația altfel, Editura Cartea Universitară, București.

� Montessori, Maria (2006), Mintea absorbantă. Editura APA, Drobeta Turnu Severin.

� Petersen, Peter (1940), O şcoală primară liberă şi generală după Planul Jena. Cultura

Românească, Bucureşti



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THE IMPACT OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL EDUCATION

Enachescu Vladimir-Aurelian, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Teacher`s Training Department

Abstact: According to the dictionary the school is a "public educational institutions are taught the basics of

the main subjects". This is where students have contact with the various disciplines in a systematic manner, based on a structured curriculum accredited by the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research. The transition from one level of study to another is done by obtaining diplomas or certificates attesting student performance.

In the contemporary period, learning takes place in several stages. The first stage is called pre-school,

where children between 3 and 6 years old, are enrolled in the first form of education namely

kindergarten. Here it is where children first encounter permanent social form with other children and

teachers with different people responsible for their development. The price activity that children develop

at this stage is "the game". By playing, they learn the first knowledge and their brain development

occurs. According to a study by Maria Palic, in his "Lectures psychopedagogist" in 2002, at the end of

regular characteristic learning first six years of life, children learn vocabulary of about 3500 words of the

native language and are able to think rationally.

The next stage is the one for primary school age specific -10/11 6/7 years. This is the stage in which

children have to meet certain specific programs fall into a certain class, to adapt his environment to

respects its internal rules and especially to promote class. This promotion is done through assessment by

obtaining qualification for advancement to a higher class.

The importance of schooling in Romania is perceived by parents according to current and material

possibilities that they hold. Poverty and discrimination are still major problems facing society, which

amplifies the effect of school dropout. Another reason is the abandonment and poor communication

between school and family. Strengthening this relationship has the power to develop a sense of

belonging, their ability and academic achievement of students.

In addition to the activities mentioned it is important that parents know their children and prevent

them spend more time and be closer to family outsiders who oversee compared with his own parents. In



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this regard, it is necessary to put their children daily time in which to do enjoyable activities

children. These activities include swimming, cycling, walking in the park, video games, trips, etc.

Family environment deconstructed, characterized by lack of interest or commitment from the parents,

permissive character development school students negatively impacting the development of children's

school. A child raised in such a family can have behavioral problems may remain repeater may have

mental deficiencies and many other similar problems. In such cases, one involving school must be

appropriate. It is necessary that families having previous issues, attend meetings organized by thel

psychological department of the institution. It is extremely important that they follow the advice

psychologist and try to change our attitude by encouraging school success of children.

Specialized studies on school-family partnership shows that family involvement in school life is

deeply conditioned by the degree of interest of the family to the school, which is increased if families

have children attending school. Thus, the school is a family value, the level of family interest is higher

and the chances that their children are older.

Community is defined in the Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian language as "a group of people

with similar interests, beliefs or norms of common life, all the inhabitants of a city, of a country, all those

who live in the same place and have the same habits, the same rules of life ".

The partnership between school and community aims to allocate and use local resources to solve

community problems. This connection is based on the complementarity of the benefits and services

offered.

Education is one of phenomena that appeared with mankind and underwent significant changes with

evolution. According to the dictionary education it is a "fundamental social phenomenon transmission of

life experience and culture of adult generations to generations of children and young people for their

integration into society empowerment and knowledge of good manners and proper behavior in society."

According to Plato education represent "the art of forming good habits or develop skills for native

virtue of those who have them."

Another interpretation of this was given by Kant, who argued that "man can not become man only

through education" so we can deduce that the man he thought to evolve through modeling, language,

sentiments, art, morals and not least of behavior through education.

Education can be classified into three major categories namely formal, non-formal and informal.



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Formal education "institutionalized, systematic, structured, directed, performed synonymous with

school education in the education system on the basis of curricula, programs and textbooks necessary to

achieve their educational goals." Thus, we can say that this type of education It is done deliberately, in

institutions such as kindergartens, schools, universities. Formal education includes a timetable in which

students are guided and evaluated by specialized teachers, students to advance to the next step. This is

achieved through different diplomas or certificates accredited nationally or internationally.

Non-formal education requires the development of specific skills outside formal institutions of

learning. This education is been also one structured with different stages, but passage from one stage to

another is marked by notes or certificates obtained, as in the case of formal education. Students can

benefit from such an education through volunteer programs offered by different companies and

institutions through participation in various socio-professional (through participation in career guidance

programed), sociocultural (through involvement in theater, music) , socio-artistic (such as excursions,

television or media). With other words this education, has been named by experts as extracurricular.

This is the first form of learning education accessible to every individual and begins taking over

family routines and continues to influence our society, issues highlighted in the previous chapter. We do

so fierce that influence is informal education on the personality of each individual.

Given the evolution of technology in the contemporary world individuals are exposed in a heavily

influences the media, social networking sites and mass communication. These elements influence the

coolest teenagers who go through the formal process of personal and wish to belong to a group.

In conclusion, formal, non-formal and informal contribute to the formation and personality of each

individual. The relationship between them is strong, they complete each other as far as the national

context. We are talking about allocation approach and the importance of all three types of education

mentioned by each country. Interleaved approach to formal, non-formal and informal learning is

developed mainly in the Scandinavian and German and less developed countries of southern Europe.

Interaction with the environment in which the educational establishment it works is essential in

establishing viable partnerships that can influence and support education. A very important role on

children's academic success is the environment and family involvement in school activities. In this

respect, it is essential that parents be present at all stages of the learning set.



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As the types of education, we noted that formal, non-formal and informal contribute to the character

and personality of each individual. Thus, besides the formal education of children gained formal

educational institutions, parents have a duty to ensure children an adequate formal education and informal

children. Non-formal education of young people entails allowing their participation in extracurricular

activities that enable them to develop preferences for areas where children can make

performance. Special attention should be paid to informal education that emerges primarily from family

and continues to influence our society.

Bibliography :

� Barbulescu Razvan - Changes In Males' And Females' Work Time During The Economic

� Crisis- Revista Economică, 2011;


psychological theories of Albert Bandura in Scientific Bulletin-Education Sciences Series,

2004;

� Mihaila Alexandru Robert - Developing an interactive model of academic communication in

International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories International Journal of Economic

Practices and Theories, vol 2, no. 4, 2012

� Rosca Vlad - The Coach-Athlete Communication Process. Towards A Better Human

� Resources Management In Sport in Management Research and Practice, 2010;

� Stavre I., Mocanu R., Imaginea organizatiei si relatia între imaginea organizatiei si imaginea

liderului, 100 pag., Editura FCRP, Bucuresti, 2005;




2013





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USING WORDS: THE POWERFUL WEAPONS FOR BUILDING PERSONALITY

Diana Maria Fercua, Ana-Maria Fulgab, Alexandra-Cristina Tițăc

aThe Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Marketing, professional specialization master program

Marketing Management, senior year, group 2 bThe Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Marketing, professional specialization master program

Marketing Management, senior year, group 2 cThe Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Marketing, professional specialization master program

Marketing Management, senior year, group 3

Abstract:

Words can destroy as easily as they can build. Knowing how to gain them through a valuable

reading effort and then how to properly use them is the perfect outfit for an irresistible personality.

More then a tremendous rich and gorgeous vocabulary, it is all about how better can one person

expresses hiself, what kind of stories he is telling himself and to those ones around him and how soft

his relationships will look alike. Our project team want to show how learners can boost their

vocabulary through literature in order to sustain their personality.

Keywords: personality, words, literature, vocabulary

1. Personality – Real Life

Personality has to do with individual differences among people in behavior

patterns, cognition and emotion. Different personality theorists present their own definitions of the word

based on their theoretical positions. We all know that our personalities affect our behavior and especially

our daily life. This is what forces a shy person not to speak much when he meets new people and this is

why a confident person finds no problem in expressing himself.

People are fascinated with personality- their own and others'. What is the object of this fascination? It is

not simply individual differences in behavior that fascinates people. The simple fact that some individuals

display more of a particular behavior than others, such as greater cleanliness, is more likely to be

interesting to people than fascinating. What people find fascinating is the existence in some people of a



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powerful and hidden psychological force that manifests itself in a wide variety of different behaviors.

Such a force is fascinating because it reveals a commonality among behaviors that otherwise seem quite

separate. Cleanliness becomes linked not only with neatness, tidiness, and punctuality, for example, but

also with stubbornness and stinginess. In other words, personality provide us with unique explanations

for human behavior.

Furthermore, I'll talk about personality and how this can affect our jobs in order to take an

example from real life. Personality affects all aspects of a person's performance, even how he reacts to

situations on the job. Not every personality is suited for every job position, so it's important to recognize

personality traits and pair employees with the duties that fit their personalities the best. This can lead to

increased productivity and job satisfaction, helping the business function more efficiently.

People with outgoing personalities often work best in positions where they get to interact with others.

These people can provide friendly and helpful customer service, and they can boost the attitudes of other

workers by being upbeat and happy. Other people are wired to think of the big picture, to see not only

where the company is now but where it could or should be in the future. They make creative, broad plans

designed to keep the company moving forward, and they think of new initiatives to solve existing

problems. However, they aren't usually good at executing the broad plans.

So in the end, what is personality and how does it affects our daily life? Personality depends on how you

see human nature. If you believe in a mechanical universe in which people are merely puppets driven by

their genes, their brains, and their environments, then the personality is simply temperament, forged by

various genetic, biological, and environmental forces of nature and nurture. But if you believe that people

can forge themselves to some extent, then personality is more to do with character: a set of strengths and

virtues, as well as weaknesses and vices, that each individual develops through life, and sometimes

struggles to get to grips with. A way to help us struggle with real life and with daily difficulties.

2. Personality – Literature

First, we define the personality to identify the relationship with literature. The theoretical

definition we use for this paper it is presented by The American Psychological Association: “Personality

refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. The study of

personality focuses on two broad areas. One is understanding individual differences in particular



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personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The other is understanding how the various

parts of a person come together as a whole”.

We like stories since we are little. We like to read them especially at night. These are stories that

remain in our memory. We ask our parents to tell us a particular story and we remember the script even

when parents and grandparents forget to read or miss a paragraph. This is how we connect our personality

with literature. Thus we can experience life through the story. Stories are experiences from which we can

learn. There are about values and powerful ideas. So, the connection between personality and literature

can be complex and engaging. We can connect ourselves with the hero or the main character and his/her

identity. Studies reveals “that individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand

other people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective”. Human personality can be

approached through literature and, in time, can develop different associations.

Literature can have a big impact on different human archetypes. And sometimes it is important to

identify with the distinguishing features of the main characters. This connection can affect our daily

existence and our different patterns. In this context, it is important to chalange the way we think: why,

when and how. Also, literature influence how we connect the entire environment and it is like an open

door to the word. It hels us to discover ourselves and it is a case of understanding how to discover our

way to be and feel. In this context, it is important for children to read different books. Children and their

parents will choose together different storybooks. This is how the child is involved in decisions and how

parents discover what kinds of books he/she likes better. Literature must complete other activities for

children and we don’t have to see it solely.

When we read, we metamorphose and what we use are patterns of thinking, feeling in that story.

We make different connections with our lives and create a brain map like a big network of ideas an

values. And we use literature and other activities to travel through to discover them.

3. Vocabulary Traineeship

Just nice words or just simple and powerfull ones? We simply use words to generate an impact, to

draw a glamorous image about ourselves or we really try to select those ones which better reflect the way

we think, feel and act?



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Skinny words, without a valid reality connection, are just a very pretty army of words: no sense,

no use, no nothing to relate to. Training this muscle, the linguistic intelligence, is a bet that can be won as

soon as it starts earlier. Literature is a proper way to do this, but not in a passive mode, in an interactive

one. No matter how much volumes one person reads in a lifetime, what really matters is the fact that

gaining that sort of unique vocabulary lies in the power of a personalized selection of words. In the same

way an outfit can talk about us by itself, our vocabulary lift up our inner world from inside to outside.

It is wisely to remember that “any word that increases our ability to express ourselves enriches

our lives” (R. Greenman, 2000, p. xi). Our worlds wouldn’t be richer due to some wonderful pairs of

words, but, certainly, it will be more transparent. “Words are the tools of tought. Educational research has

discovered that your I.Q. is intimately related to your vocabulary. The more extensive your vocabulary,

the better your chances for succes, other things being equal – succes in attaining your educational goals,

succes in moving ahead in your business or professional career, succes in achieving your intellectual

potential” (N. Lewis, 1991, p. 17).

Fighting for increasing your vocabulary will lead you to that specified point when you will be

able to better express your thoughts and understand others. Large vocabularies help us to sharpen and

enrich our thinking. One of the most powerful gain of a such vocabularies is a stronger self-assurance. “It

is not their large vocabularies that make people succesful and intelligent, but their knowledge.

Knowledge, however, is gained largely by through words. In the process of increasing their knowledge,

these successful people increased their vocabularies” (N. Lewis, 1991, p. 23).

During school years we face all sort of words without asking ourselves what we can do with

these. Everything seems us as natural as breathing. Later we find out that words can hurt as well as they

can give faith, courage or adrenaline. Very few of us succed to understand the power of words, having the

force to use those ones which are mirror for their inner life. It is not necessary to tell nothing in a lot of

words, maybe less is more. We have the bad habit to transform our words in a real army meant for protect

us despite our principles. Words without a cover in reality are nothing at all. As human beings we are

design to search beauty in everything our eyes can reach. Just like this we adore to use beatiful words and

nothing else. These kind of words make us fly, feel like we are in an interstellar journey. Even if we want

it or not, beauty in order to be immortal must have an objective feature. It might be the way: to find those

simple, pure, objective and poweful words to be our life comrades.



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“Increasing your vocabulay does not mean merely learning the definitions of large numbers of

obscure words; it does not mean memorizing scores of unrelated terms. What it means – what can only

means – is becoming acquainted with the multitudinous and fascinating phenomena of human existence

which words are, obviously, only the verbal description. Increasing your vocabulary – properly,

intelligently and systematically – means treating yourself to an all-round, liberal education. If you can

recapture your powerful urge to learn which you were born, you can go on increasing your vocabulary at

a prodigious way, no matter what your present age” (N. Lewis, 1991, p. 19 - 20).

To acquire the vocabulary which best suits our needs, we suggest to take account of these three

possible ways as fallowing:

1. Words Cocktail

It is a technique which we like to propose for this paper and which implies the constant use of

dictonary not in order to mechanically learn new words, but in order to come close to their etymology, to

truly understand their meaning. For such a thing, we come up with what we call a story per month, made

of 28/29/30/31 sentences, one per day, using one distinct word. It may be used tools like

www.dexonline.ro or just simple, printed dictionaries. Dex online generates the word of the day that

make easier our work and also adds a spicy suspans. You don’t know what word will be next, fact that

makes your adrenaline speaks, especially because you dont’t have no idee about the road your story will

take. At the end of the month, you will have a story which you can share with your friends on social

media or speak about it in a storytelling context. Thus, you will come to know pretty much words,

discover things about which you haven’t the smallest idea you could resonate with them and entertain

social activities.

2. Insatiable Curiosity

It represents another technique we would like to talk about here and which refers to the mode we

can make words work for us in various situations. Staying hungry for knowledge, meaning reading all

what you can have access to and take notes, including underline and search new words, is the way we see

is working what we named insatiable curiosity. Furthermore, we introduce the use of personal reading

summaries with the best ideas to remember and the most catchy words get from there, all gathered in a



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Google Doc which will become some kind of stock exchange, where the users will have access to great

titles to read and feed their curiosity and explosive new words to use.

3. Speechless Jar

It is a very simple and amusing technique which is a melt of random words, everyday feelings and

storytelling sessions at the end of a month. How it works? Before going to bed, on sticky notes it will be

written something that made us feel good, amazing or special in that particular day plus a word we

enjoyed at the same time. After that, we throw that note in a jar named Speechless and we don’t look back

for that note until the end of a month. When a month is finished, we open up the jar and, starting from all

the notes we have made (feelings + special words), we are put in front of the task to wrote in our diary a

summary of the month and/or to tell that brief story to dear persons in a private context or using social

media.

Each one of all these three techniques presented encourages diving deep in the meaning of the

words, exploring both literature and our personality. We certainly gain more information about ourselves

and more words for our vocabularies after we try even just one of the three techniques indicated.

Exactly like airplanes words have such a power to make us feel higher or cast away. It’s up to us

how we choose to manage our vocabulary in order to better express ourselves. Thus, we use warm

sunrises or feared weapons. We are for the first option. We choose to train our vocabulary, leaving away

the bad habit of throwing words just like that and having the aim to build a proper infrastructure for argue

our ideas without blaming or hurting no one.

Bibliography:

� Book: Barbara, Engler, (2009), Personality Theories, Cengage Learning, Boston.

� Book: Greenman, Robert, (2000), Words That Make a Difference and How to Use Them in

a Masterly Way, Levenger Press, Delray Beach.

� Book: Lewis, Norman, (1991), Word Power Made Easy. Simon & Schuster, New York.

� Book: Wordnik, (2011), Pocket Poss Word Power: 120 Words to Make You Sound

Intellingent, Andrew McMeel Publishing, Kansas City.



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� Web: Personality – American Psychological Association.

http://www.apa.org/topics/personality/, accessed 13 May 2015.

� Web: Murphy Paul, A., (2013), Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer "Deep

reading" is vigorous exercise from the brain and increases our real-life capacity for

empathy, Time. http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/03/why-we-should-read-literature/,

accessed 12 May 2015.

� Web: Jason, Wesbecker , (2015), It’s all about personality: Bringing out humanity

in robots. http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/03/its-all-about-personality-bringing-out-

humanity-in-robots/, accessed 14 May 2015.

� Web: Thaddeus, Griebel, ( 2006), Self-Portrayal in a Simulated Life: Projecting

Personality and Values in The Sims 2, http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/griebel,

accessed 14 May 2015.



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PROFESSIONALISM IN NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

prof. ing. Eugenia Fülöp Bîrsan – Palatul Copiilor Targu Mureș/ Sighişoara

prof. Melania Șandor- Palatul Copiilor Targu Mureș

and student Alice Fülöp Bîrsan- Liceul Teoretic”Joseph Haltrich”Sighișora

Abstract: Non-formal education is an educational activity which is organized outside the existing formal system-

whether it is carried separately or as an important element of a large activity, and is designed to answer to the

educational needs of a specific group. Non- formal education is based on the educational activities of other

institutions rather than school-children's clubs and palaces, museums, libraries .It is based on the fact that a

large number of learning experiences of the children were held outside the formal education system: the palaces

of the children in the family, in various organizations and libraries. Non-formal education answers to the

learning needs of a group and can be carried out within the framework of seminars, training sessions,

workshops, through the partnership between facilitators and participants, in groups or in other organizations

(except those in the education system). Most often, non-formal education phrase is used with reference to the

continuing education of adults, although its coverage is not limited to adults.

Non-formal education is associated with the concept of lifelong learning and stresses the

importance of education that takes place beyond the formal education system. Valuing non-formal

education occurs as a result of the fact that the formal educational system adapts too slow to changes of

socio-economic and cultural of the world in which we live. That's why there are many other possibilities

to prepare children/youth/adults to respond adequately to changes in society. These learning opportunities

may come not only from formal education, but also in the wider field of society. Learning experiences of

an individual at a given time means lifewide learning, which involves the formation of links between

different forms of learning. Lifewide learning represents an important dimension of lifelong learning,

both aimed at developing, in the highest degree, of individual potential, in order to be able to participate

actively and consciously in personal, social and professional life.

Non-formal education is an educational activity which is organized outside the existing formal

system-whether it is carried separately or as an important element of a large activity, and is designed to



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answer to the educational needs of a specific group. Non- formal education is based on the educational

activities of other institutions rather than school-children's clubs and palaces, museums, libraries .It is

based on the fact that a large number of learning experiences of the children were held outside the formal

education system: the palaces of the children in the family, in various organizations and libraries. Non-

formal education answers to the learning needs of a group and can be carried out within the framework of

seminars, training sessions, workshops, through the partnership between facilitators and participants, in

groups or in other organizations (except those in the education system). Most often, non-formal education

phrase is used with reference to the continuing education of adults, although its coverage is not limited

to adults.

In the case of non-formal education, organizing and planning of learning should be undertaken

even by trainees on the principle of participation which should be understood as a participation to his own

training and to community life. If in the case of formal education, the curriculum is required, in the case

of non-formal education, it should be negotiated by the group of students, so as to better respond to their

needs.

Non-formal education covers a natural orientation for young people to get involved in practical

activities, to feel involved in the environment in which they live. Whatever abilities are transformed into

skills that are very useful in various professional fields. In non formal education is centered on customer,

on his needs, on various activities and attractions creasing the personal level of competencies and life

skills. All non formal education programmes invites to reflection, to self-examination, to processes

through which reveal personal qualities, all this through socialization, interaction and sharing of

knowledge.

Non-formal educational activities, strong outlines the relationship between the educator and

educated. Even if the teacher leads the whole school approach, students can occur spontaneously and

freely. The adult does not impose his opinion, He suggests, cooperates and assists the students to become

the best organizers of their own activities .The Student comes first, while on the second level teachers,

precisely because the student can harness his organizational skill, cooperation, collaboration, and the

willingness to assume responsibility. The variety of teaching strategies offers the student the opportunity

to gain life experience through contact with people directly, with spiritual and culture phenomena .The



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student becomes a resource producer, leader of opinion, in other words, active participant in his own

learning.

Non-formal education has already shown how, by completing the skills offered by formal

education, can create contexts in which young people become more responsible, more involved in

community affairs and eager to change things. And because we want these non-formal programs to

continue and provide much more, we need greater support from the public system.

One of the defining features of non-formal education is given by the voluntary involvement of the

learner. In this perspective, non-formal education is, at least from a procedural standpoint, a "school" for

training volunteering as a form of participation in society. Volunteering is a form of non-mandatory, self-

consenting participation, in which the subject gets involved to contribute to social development.

These are some of the methods discussed in the non-formal education:

Socio-educational animation is thus a means, a tool for networking with and inter-participants,

using the social, cultural, physical and sport activities.

Street animation is a participatory art form consisting in the practice of various techniques in

order to animate the public, to produce desire of involvement and to convey specific messages, raising

questions.

Public cafe is a method of active dialogue, information sharing and finding creative solutions for

action. In general, public café is used when you want to submit a relaxed debate while allowing greater

interaction and close relationships between participants.

Flashmob is a very short meeting of people in a public place, the participants realizing an unusual

action for a brief period of time, after which the group spreads like nothing would have happened.

PhotoVoice is a method of sending a strong message by presenting "living pictures" and has the

capacity to empower people and communities, photographs and stories, that is the essence of this method.

This method is very flexible and can be adapted to various situations.

Shadow Theatre is a performing art that forms the characters of a script, brought to life by the

actors puppeteers with a source of light and shadows of specially created objects.

Storytelling is a method that starts with a story, a letter, a value, a principle that is intended to be

forwarded, not to be copied, but to be understood, explored and then tailored by every listener in part.

Storytelling is a participatory method involving the public in all stages.



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Even if the above methods are called "non-formal" and we find them in more non-formal contexts,

they can be equally-well used in school or in other formal contexts. Their characteristics are as follows:

- have clear learning objectives;

- develop all kinds of skills (knowledge, skills and attitudes especially);

- are active, creative and interactive;

- have participatory and experiential character;

- have an innovative character (they are not part of the "classic methods" category);

- have a high degree of applicability.

In conclusion, non-formal education is the form of education that offers a new approach to

learning through enjoyable and motivating activities. The advantages of non-formal education activities

are multiple and are aimed at training all the skills that are specific to the mainstream education system,

plus the skills obtained under the freedom of expression . Non-formal education means any action that is

organized outside the school system, which forms a bridge between the knowledge taught by teachers and

their implementation.

The result: Shaping characters, you develop skills!

Bibliography:

� Regulamentul privind organizarea şi funcţionarea palatelor şi cluburilor copiilor;

� Roşca, Alexandru - Creativitatea, Editura Enciclopedică Română, Bucureşti, 1972;

� Popescu-Neveanu, Paul şi colaboratorii : Psihologie, E. D. P. Bucureşti, 1993;

� Radu, Ion; Ionescu, Miron – Experienţă didactică şi creativitate, Ed. Dacia, Cluj-

Napoca, 1987;

� Nicola, Grigore : Stimularea creativităţii elevilor în procesul de învăţământ, E. D. P.

Bucureşti, 1981;

� Stoica, Ana - Creativitatea elevilor – posibilităţi de cunoaştere şi educare, E. D. P.

Bucureşti, 1983;

� Şchiopu, Ursula : Creativitate potenţială şi virtuală – Revista de psihologie nr. 3/1979.

� Cerghit, Ioan (coord.) – Metode de învăţământ, EDP, Bucureşti, 1976



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TOWARDS THE IMPACT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TECHNOLO GY ON

ECONOMIC GROWTH: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION ON CENT RAL

AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Gherghina Ştefan Cristian

Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Department of Finance,

6 Romana Square, 1st district, Bucharest, 010374 Romania.

Email: [email protected]

Abstract:

This paper aims at empirically investigating the impact of higher education and technology on economic

growth within the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary,

Poland, and Romania. By employing the least squares method the results provide support for a positive

influence of adult literacy rate and a mixed impact of expenditure per student in higher education in

purchasing power parity terms, alongside higher education students on real GDP growth. Furthermore, the

relationship between internet users and economic growth was not statistically validated. Besides, possession of

broadband internet enabled computer, as well as possession of satellite TV system negatively influences real

GDP growth. However, we found a mixed relationship between possession of cable TV, possession of mobile

telephone, and economic growth. Even if current results are not robust to alternative specifications, this

research is important for policy makers to develop macroeconomic strategies towards achieving economic

growth.

Keywords: higher education, adult literacy rate, technology, economic growth

Introduction

Education plays a vital role in the process of economic growth, being viewed as one of the most

significant human capital investments. Human capital is defined as the set of knowledge, skills,

competencies, and abilities embodied in individuals and acquired, for example, through education,

training, medical care, and migration (Benos and Zotou, 2014). The expanded neoclassical growth model

of Mankiw et al. (1992) considers the human capital gathered by education as an additional input which

has a significant positive association with the economic growth, whereas the endogenous growth theories



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consider it a process that improves the growth of the economies by increasing the efficiency of the labor

force. Also, education provides a process that may change the production technology and may shift the

production curve outward (Romer, 1990), being found that the educated labor is better able to cope with

changing technologies (Hall and Jones, 1999). In fact, the telecommunications infrastructure can

contribute to economic and societal development through business retention, economic diversification,

enhancement of quality of life, and increasing business competitiveness (Pradhan et al., 2014).

The aim of this research is to empirically examine the impact of higher education and technology

on economic growth within several Central and Eastern European countries comprising Bulgaria (BG),

Czech Republic (CZ), Hungary (HU), Poland (PL), and Romania (RO). Education is one of the five

headline targets for the EU in 2020, by the side of employment, R&D, climate change and energy

sustainability, as well as fighting poverty and social exclusion. There is promoted the reduction of the

rates of early school leaving below 10%, alongside at least 40% of 30-34-year-olds completing third level

education. As such, this study is important for policy makers to develop macroeconomic strategies

towards achieving economic growth.

The paper proceeds as follows. The next section reveals previous related literature and designs the

research hypotheses. Section two describes the data and the quantitative research method. Section three

provides the empirical results. The final section concludes the study, points out the caveasts of the

empirical investigation, and makes suggestions for further research.

1. Prior research and hypotheses development

De Meulemeester and Rochat (1995) found evidence of Granger-causality running from higher

education to economic development in Japan, United Kingdom, France, and Sweden, but the absence of

causality in the Italian and Australian cases, therefore suggesting that the link between higher education

and economic development is not linearly mechanistic. Asteriou and Agiomirgianakis (2001) provided

evidence that there exists a cointegrating relationship between education as measured by enrollments

rates in primary, secondary, and higher education and the GDP per capita, the causality running through

educational variables to economic growth, with the exception of higher education where there exists

reverse causality. Lin (2003) investigated the effect of education and the role of technical progress on

economic growth in Taiwan over the 1965-2000 period and found that one additional year of average



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education is estimated to increase real output by approximately 0.15%, whereas the role of technical

progress did not appear to be extraordinarily important. Further, Lin (2004) concluded that one additional

percent of higher education stock is estimated to increase real output by approximately 0.19%. Holt and

Jamison (2009) stated that broadband has a positive economic impact, but that impact cannot be analyzed

with any precision. Koutroumpis (2009) used evidence from 22 OECD countries over the period 2002-

2007 to investigate how broadband penetration affects economic growth and noticed a significant causal

positive link especially when a critical mass of infrastructure is present. Whitacre et al. (2014) revealed

that high levels of broadband adoption in rural areas positively impacted income growth between 2001

and 2010, and negatively influenced unemployment growth. Besides, low levels of broadband adoption in

rural areas lead to declines in the number of firms and total employment numbers in the county.

On the basis of these considerations, we draw the following hypotheses:

H1. Higher education positively influences economic growth.

H2. Technology positively influences economic growth.

2. Data description and research design

2.1. Data description

Table 1 provides the variables covered within the empirical investigation.

Table 1 Description of the variables Var Definitions

Variables regarding economic growth

Growth

Real GDP Growth (% growth). Gross domestic product is the sum of gross value added by all

resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not

included in the value of the products. Real GDP: The number reached by valuing all the

productive activity within the country at a specific year’s prices.

Variables regarding higher education

ALR Adult Literacy Rate (% of population aged 15+). A person is literate who can, with

understanding, both read and write a short simple statement on his or her everyday life.

ESHE

Expenditure per Student in Higher Education in Purchasing Power Parity Terms (international

dollar). Expenditures per student are calculated by dividing the total expenditures for all

institutions of higher education by the corresponding full-time equivalent enrolment (log

values).

HES Higher Education Students (Incl. Universities) (‘000). Higher education incorporates ISCED

tertiary levels A and B (log values).

Variables regarding technology



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IU Internet Users (‘000). Internet users are people aged 5+ with access to the world-wide network

via home, work internet enabled computers, internet cafes, or mobile phones (log values).

PBIEC Possession of Broadband Internet Enabled Computer (% of households). % of households with

a broadband internet connection via home computer.

PCTV

Possession of Cable TV (% of households). All systems that distribute television signals by

means of coaxial or fiber-optic cables with a frequency-conversion device connected to the

television in which subscribers pay a specified monthly service charge in addition to an initial

installation fee.

PMT Possession of Mobile Telephone (% of households). All mobile telephones which use digital or

analogue narrowband networks.

PSTVS

Possession of Satellite TV System (% of households). All systems which use a broadband

network intended for the distribution of television, sound, and data signals received directly

from one or more satellites.

Source: Authors’ processing. Our sample comprises five Central and Eastern European countries as follows: BG, CZ, HU, PL,

and RO. We will employ real GDP growth as proxy for economic growth; adult literacy rate, expenditure

per student in higher education in purchasing power parity terms, and higher education students are used

as measures towards higher education; internet users, possession of broadband internet enabled computer,

possession of cable TV, possession of mobile telephone are selected as variables regarding technology.

The data source is Euromonitor’s Passport database. The initial period was 1977-2014, but due to the lack

of data for all the employed variables, the sample was adjusted accordingly.

2.2. Research design

By the instrumentality of panel data regression models, we will estimate the following models for

each considered country, as well as for the entire sample:

Growthit = β0 + β1*ALRit + β2*log(ESHEit) + β3*log(HESit) + β4*PBIECit + β5*PCTVit + uit (1)

Growthit = β0 + β1*ALRit + β2*log(ESHEit) + β3*log(IU it) + β4*PCTVit + β5*PMTit + uit (2)

Growthit = β0 + β1*ALRit + β2*log(ESHEit) + β3*log(HESit) + β4*PCTVit + β5*PMTit + β6*PSTVSit + uit

(3)

Where Growthit is the dependent variable; ALRit, log(ESHEit), log(HESit), log(IUit), PBIECit, PCTVit,

PMTit, and PSTVSit represents independent variables; β0 is the intercept for each entity; β1, β2, β3, β4, β5,

and β6 are the coefficients for the independent variables; uit is the error term; i = countries; t = time.



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3. Empirical findings

3.1. Descriptive statistics

Table 2 reveals the mean values of selected variables.

Table 2 Mean values of selected variables

Var BG CZ HU PL RO Entire Sample

Variables regarding economic growth

Growth 2.034 1.950 1.421 2.579 1.997 1.996

Variables regarding higher education

ALR 97.283 99.034 99.043 99.397 96.953 98.336

ESHE 3554.406 7251.250 5025.518 3903.483 3282.350 4641.413

HES 243.532 308.295 298.292 1552.952 562.012 600.018

Variables regarding technology

IU 1553.841 3412.077 2839.900 9748.596 3677.068 4365.376

PBIEC 14.045 21.091 22.414 22.482 12.232 18.453

PCTV 15.882 13.297 29.218 16.018 23.008 19.517

PMT 47.689 53.335 53.464 29.926 40.560 43.425

PSTVS 8.403 10.932 13.423 18.526 7.634 11.712

Source: Authors’ computations. Notes: Variables’ description is provided in Table 1. We notice that the highest mean real GDP growth is registered in PL. The highest mean value as

regards ESHE is registered in CZ; HU shows the highest mean values related to PCTV and PMT.

Furthermore, PL registers the highest mean values as regards ALR, HES, IU, PBIEC, and PSTVS. On the

other side, the lowest mean real GDP growth is showed in HU; BG shows the lowest mean values as

regards HES and IU; the lowest mean value of PCTV is revealed in CZ; PL uncovers the lowest mean

value related to PMT; the lowest mean values of ALR, ESHE, PBIEC, and PSTVS are registered in RO.

Table 3 shows the Pearson correlation matrix for entire sample.

Table 3 Pearson correlation matrix for entire sample

Var Growth ALR ESHE HES IU PBIEC PCTV PMT PSTVS

Growth 1.000 p= ---

-0.093 p=.395

-0.201 p=.064

0.142 p=.193

-0.019 p=.862

-0.359 p=.001

-0.001 p=.995

-0.180 p=.097

-0.216 p=.046

ALR -0.093 p=.395

1.000 p= ---

0.636 p=.000

0.355 p=.001

0.469 p=.000

0.414 p=.000

-0.329 p=.002

0.456 p=.000

0.444 p=.000

ESHE -0.201 p=.064

0.636 p=.000

1.000 p= ---

-0.175 p=.107

0.208 p=.055

0.560 p=.000

-0.238 p=.027

0.619 p=.000

0.247 p=.022



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HES 0.142

p=.193 0.355

p=.001 -0.175 p=.107

1.000 p= ---

0.791 p=0.00

0.159 p=.145

-0.132 p=.226

0.107 p=.325

0.583 p=.000

IU -0.019 p=.862

0.469 p=.000

0.208 p=.055

0.791 p=0.00

1.000 p= ---

0.624 p=.000

-0.013 p=.907

0.556 p=.000

0.841 p=0.00

PBIEC -0.359 p=.001

0.414 p=.000

0.560 p=.000

0.159 p=.145

0.624 p=.000

1.000 p= ---

0.097 p=.373

0.787 p=0.00

0.744 p=.000

PCTV -0.001 p=.995

-0.329 p=.002

-0.238 p=.027

-0.132 p=.226

-0.013 p=.907

0.097 p=.373

1.000 p= ---

0.217 p=.045

-0.033 p=.762

PMT -0.180 p=.097

0.456 p=.000

0.619 p=.000

0.107 p=.325

0.556 p=.000

0.787 p=0.00

0.217 p=.045

1.000 p= ---

0.596 p=.000

PSTVS -0.216 p=.046

0.444 p=.000

0.247 p=.022

0.583 p=.000

0.841 p=0.00

0.744 p=.000

-0.033 p=.762

0.596 p=.000

1.000 p= ---

Source: Author’s computations. Notes: Marked correlations are significant at p < .05000. N=86

(Casewise deletion of missing data). Variables’ description is provided in Table 1.

We point out that there are several high correlations, that exceeds 0.7, between the following

variables: HES and IU (0.791), PBIEC and PMT (0.787), IU and PSTVS (0.841), PBIEC and PSTVS

(0.744). In order to avoid the multicollinearity problem and thus to make the model more robust we will

include the highly correlated variables in separate panel data models.

3.2. Regression results

Table 4 and Table 5 provides the regression results after estimating the equations (1) - (3) designed within

Sub-Section 2.2, being reported only the valid econometric models as based on F-stat (for Bulgaria all the

estimated models were not statistically validated). We notice a positive influence of adult literacy rate on

real GDP growth but only in HU (1). The expenditure per student in higher education in purchasing

power parity terms positively impacts on economic growth in Romania (all the estimated models), but

negatively in HU (2) and PL (1). Furthermore, higher education students negatively influences real GDP

growth in RO (1), whereas positively in ES (1) and ES (2).

As regards technology, possession of broadband internet enabled computer negatively influences

real GDP growth in CZ and ES (1). Also, a negative relationship is found between possession of satellite

TV system and economic growth in ES (2). Besides, we reveal a mixed relationship between possession



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of cable TV and economic growth: positive in RO (2) and negative in HU (2), as well as HU (3).

Likewise, a mixed relationship is uncovered for the possession of mobile telephone: positive in PL (1)

and PL (2), whilst negative in RO (2). IU is statistically insignificant in all the estimated models.

Table 4 Estimated regression coefficients towards the impact of higher education and technology on economic growth in CZ, HU, and PL

Var CZ HU (1) HU (2) HU (3) PL (1) PL (2)

Constant 198.51 (0.21) -2853.65† (-1.88) 1036.81 (1.18) 83.29 (0.04) 1095.85 (1.28) 596.90 (0.69)

ALR -3.63 (-0.34) 28.61† (1.90) -8.22 (-0.90) 2.02 (0.12) -9.84 (-1.13) -5.23 (-0.61)

ESHE 11.01 (1.43) -3.24 (-0.32) -20.50* (-2.38) -18.84 (-1.80) -12.42

* (-2.72) -4.50 (-0.64)

HES 12.25 (0.73) 13.22 (1.52) -11.85 (-0.52) -3.07 (-0.45)

IU -0.75 (-0.15) -0.62 (-0.23)

PBIEC -0.20† (-2.07) -0.20 (-1.70)

PCTV 0.13 (0.26) -0.50 (-1.30) -0.98* (-2.64) -1.06

** (-3.25) -0.44 (-0.90) -0.52 (-1.36)

PMT 0.18 (1.33) 0.26 (1.51) 0.17* (2.54) 0.15

* (3.06)

PSTVS -0.75 (-1.49) -0.09 (-1.58)

Sample (adj) ‘97-‘14 ‘98-‘14 ‘98-‘14 ‘98-‘14 ‘97-‘14 ‘97-‘14

N 18 17 17 17 18 18

R-sq 0.55 0.70 0.65 0.71 0.60 0.67

Adj R-sq 0.37 0.56 0.49 0.54 0.43 0.49

F-stat 3.03† 5.23

* 4.18

* 4.23

* 3.60

* 3.78

*

Prob(F-stat) 0.05 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.02

Source: Author’s calculations. Notes: †p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001. The t-statistic for each coefficient is reported in parentheses. Variables’ description is provided in Table 1. Table 5 Estimated regression coefficients towards the impact of higher education and technology on economic growth in RO and Entire Sample

Var RO (1) RO (2) RO (3) ES (1) ES (2)

Constant -807.40 (-0.86) -1308.18 (-1.51) -570.97 (-0.70) 10.52 (0.17) 8.18 (0.13)

ALR 7.72 (0.76) 10.27 (1.31) 3.02 (0.39) -0.24 (-0.36) -0.09 (-0.14)

ESHE 28.16**

(3.28) 38.56† (2.12) 42.47

* (2.89) 1.32 (0.90) -0.32 (-0.18)

HES -26.55* (-2.96) -10.73 (-1.28) 1.09

* (2.04) 1.48

* (2.31)

IU -1.39 (-0.21)

PBIEC -0.42 (-1.58) -0.05***

(-3.57)

PCTV 0.19 (0.81) 0.69† (1.93) 0.53 (1.54) 0.01 (0.49) -0.007 (-0.22)

PMT -0.50* (-2.66) -0.40 (-1.56) 0.006 (0.36)

PSTVS 0.10 (0.39) -0.09* (-2.59)

Sample (adj) ’99-14 ’99-14 ’99-14 ’97-‘14 ’97-‘14

N 16 16 16 86 86

R-sq 0.61 0.56 0.63 0.18 0.13

Adj R-sq 0.42 0.34 0.38 0.12 0.06

F-stat 3.20† 2.59

† 2.56

† 3.52

** 2.05

†

Prob(F-stat) 0.05 0.09 0.09 0.00 0.06



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Source: Author’s calculations. Notes: †p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001. The t-statistic for each

coefficient is reported in parentheses. Variables’ description is provided in Table 1.

Concluding remarks, research limitations, and future research directions

In this article we have tried to shed light on the difficult question of the link between higher

education, technology, and economic growth. Our approach was essentially empirical and current results

are not robust for all the examined countries. On the basis of these considerations, both H1 and H2 could

not be entirely validated. The limitations of this study are mainly related to data availability, as well as

the lack of research as regards stationarity. As future research avenues, our aim is to research the causal

relationship, furthermore considering also primary and secondary education.

Acknowledgement

This work was cofinanced from the European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational Programme

Human Resources Development 2007-2013, project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/134197 “Performance

and excellence in doctoral and postdoctoral research in Romanian economics science domain”.

Bibliography:

� Asteriou, D., Agiomirgianakis, G. M. (2001), Human capital and economic growth: Time series

evidence from Greece, Journal of Policy Modeling, 23(5), 481-489.

� Benos, N., Zotou, S. (2014), Education and economic growth: A meta-regression analysis, World

Development, 64, 669-689.

� De Meulemeester, J.-L., Rochat, D. (1995), A causality analysis of the link between higher

education and economic development, Economies of Education Review, 14(4), 351-361.

� Hall, R. E, Jones, C. I. (1999), Why do some countries produce so much more output per worker

than others? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(1), 83-116.



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� Lin, T.-C. (2003), Education, technical progress, and economic growth: The case of Taiwan,

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growth, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107(2), 407-437.

� Pradhan, R. P., Arvin, M. B., Norman, N. R., Bele, S. K. (2014), Economic growth and the

development of telecommunications infrastructure in the G-20 countries: A panel-VAR

approach, 38(7), 634- 649.

� Romer, P. M. (1990), Endogenous technological change, Journal of Political Economy, 98(5),

S71-S102.

� Whitacre, B., Gallardo, R., Strover, S. (2014), Broadband’s contribution to economic growth in

rural areas: Moving towards a causal relationship, Telecommunications Policy, 38(11), 1011-

1023.



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ECONOMIC EDUCATION IN PRACTICE. LESSONS LEARNED FRO M A

STUDY TOUR IN USA.

Lacatus Maria Liana, Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract :

This paper reports on best practices in economic education provided by universities and non-formal

educational entities such as centres for economic education existing in USA with special focus on their

relationships with universities and involvement in teacher training. We want to demonstrate that the diversity in

economic education is positive related with effectiveness in education measured through results in students’

acquisitions in economics and generate incentives for studying economics, according with educational and

carrier choices people make. We also we want to emphasize the need of promoting certain values in our

educational organizations and professional communities in order to change the priorities of educational

decision makers and the mentalities of educational actors in respect with economic education.

Keywords: economic education, skills in economic education, centres for economic education

1. Economic education in action

Economic education is important for individuals to become functioning members of a free society.

Understanding basic economic concepts and principles, and developing economic way of thinking are

especially important for people who have experienced the newly financial crisis and tend to become

sceptical in respect with the long-run benefits of free market. This is however more true nowadays when

economies are facing post-crisis difficulties and new requirements one the market.



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One important source of information regarding economic education is participation in economic

education activities. This may consist in direct observation, interviews and data analysis. The author had

the opportunity to visit schools and universities in United States by participating in several study tours

during 2000-2011, to talk with students, teachers and professors, to participate in training activities for

teachers of economics, to observe classes, and work in teams with American professors of economics.

Information collected taking part in these activities was used in order to understand the diversity of

economic education programs available. In order to get updated information and to have different

perspectives on economic education in United States, the author used a set of open-questions to interview

professors of economics from several American universities and also compared information available on

their universities websites.

Important data in respect with economic education national wide in USA was available on Council for

Economic Education – CEE (former National Council on Economic Education – NCEE) from New York,

USA.

2. Economic education in American universities

In order to approach the extent of economic education in American universities we would

consider the following statements as reference points:

‘Economics is a popular major, consisting about two percent of the national total [...].’ (Siegfried, 1998)

‘ In 2003, there were 89,000 undergraduate’ and graduate students enrolled in economics courses in the

United States. This represents 0.4% of all enrolment for the year. 82.2% of economics students are under

the age of 25, and almost 79% are enrolled in 4-year undergraduate institutions. In 2006 a total of

22,821 Economics degrees were awarded throughout the United States.’ (2008 Digest of Education

Statistics of the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, at http://www.numberof.net/number-of-

economics-majors/ accesed in June 2012).

Many American economics faculty agree that the purpose of teaching economics at university should

be more like understanding the economic way of thinking and - as Garry Becker would say, ‘looking at

life’ than informing students in respect with economic ideas and theories. That means that while teaching

economics professors would use chains of deductive reasoning and, at the same time, specific theoretical

models such as supply and demand analysis, marginal analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and comparative

advantage (Siegfried, 1998). Moreover, economics professors are expected to:



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• Identify trade-offs in the context of existing constrains;

• Apply both positive and normative analysis, emphasizing the differences between what is and

what should be perspectives;

• Identify incentives;

• Derive implications from different changes, such as changes in demand and supply;

• Explore the consequences of aggregation;

• Describe implications of changes in economic institutions and policies;

• Interpret data to evaluate and refine an existing understanding of economy;

• Test alternative hypotheses about how economic agents - such as producers, consumers, or

investors, are making choices.

This is what is usually considered ‘thinking like an economist’. Economists are supposed to have

problem-solving skills and to use analytical reasoning techniques and principles of economics. They need

creative skills to frame questions, to select pertinent data and identify tools and principles that apply to

particular problems, to understand or explain unexpected results.

Economic approach is focused on decision making techniques and how choices are made and on

consequences of choices too. Three important aspects need to be underlined in respect to this: (1)

comparison of alternatives; (2) measuring the costs of each alternative in terms of opportunity costs ; (3)

rational decision is the less costly one, in other words - the most efficient one.

Major in economics implies three set of courses: introductory micro- and macro-economics,

intermediate micro- and macro-economics, and quantitative methods in economics.

Introductory courses introduce students to the fundamental economic concepts and demonstrate how

economics is applied to real life situations. The main purpose of introductory economics is to reveal the

power of economics analysis and its practical utility.

Intermediate economics is focused on economic theory and the usefulness of theoretical topics and

paradigms. For to achieve these objectives in teaching economics, the theory is confronted with data,

models are applied to various problems and outcomes of alternative theories are compared. In



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intermediate major professors use active learning student centered methods, ask students to apply what

they have learned and exercise critical thinking.

Quantitative methods courses are focused on: (1) measurement of economic variables; (2) organizing,

working with and manipulating data for the purpose of comparison; (3) testing hypothesis empirically;

(4) interpreting statistical data and results.

According with academic standards, an economics major requires at least 5 economics courses (2 at

introductory level – micro introductory and macro introductory; 2 at intermediate level - micro

intermediate and macro intermediate; 1 - quantitative methods). Additional elective courses are focused

on historical, international and political topics related to economics - economic history16, history of

economic thought17, comparative economic systems18, and area studies19. All elective courses are based

on active learning student centered strategies such as oral and/or written reports, interactive computer

simulations or laboratory exercises.

On a deeper level of preparation, generally considered as intellectual maturation, students are required

to apply what they have learned to an economic problem. In other words, they are required ‘to do

economics’. That involves students to formulate questions, gather structure, and analyze information, and

draw conclusions in oral and/or written form. It also involves establishing of ‘capstone experiences’ such

as special seminars, honor research projects or independent studies (Siegfried, 1998).

3. Centres for Economic education in American universities

Economic education is part of formal and non-formal education, both at pre-university and

university level. In many universities there are centers for economic education, which function with

support from university and voluntarily involvement of professors. Many of these centers are connected

and affiliated to a nation-wide network– the Council for Economic Education - (former the National

Council for Economic Education - NCEE) based in New York. Due to the activity of the centers for

16 Focused on conections between history and economics.

17 Exposes different modes of thought.

18 Compared social, political, cultural dimensions that influence economic systems.

19 Explores synthetic analysis of countries and regions.



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economic education, universities establish particular relationship with schools and teachers of economics

at pre-university level. Some relevant aspects from centers for economic education activities are

presented below.20

Colorado Springs Center for Economic Education

Colorado Springs State University (CSU) has a tradition element in its culture promoting strong

education. This objective manifests itself in a commitment to small class sizes and faculty promotion

criteria based on strength of teaching (along with research). It began in the 1960s with a focus on

attracting students within the local community through a strong focus on educational quality and small

classes. Since this approached worked well in the early days, the university has remained committed to

the goal of small classes, teaching quality, etc.

CSU is relatively unique in its focus on educational quality, as most research universities place

the primary emphasis on academic research. All universities advertise that they focus on education, but

their actions often do not support such advertising and promotion. Moreover, the actions they take

regarding such things as hiring and tenure often are inconsistent with the stated focus of educational

quality. However, CSU tends to act in a manner consistent with the objective of maximizing educational

quality for students (Brock, 2012).

Thus, any activity related to improving education is welcomed and generally rewarded; actions of

the Center for Economic Education are therefore recognized within the university (however, no funding

is provided by the university; only administration overhead support and encouragement). The Center

provides economic education to teachers throughout the state of Colorado and this activity is recognized

and encouraged by university.

The Center for Economic Education established strong relationships with teachers of economics

and schools. One particular example: university encourages students to take advanced placement (AP) 20 All information in respect with the centers for economic education was collected directly through interviews with directors of such centers. Questions are available in Appendix 1.



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economics classes, which may be the equivalent of one micro and one macro introductory course at

university level. In high schools in the district of Colorado Springs, economics is a separate subject,

disciplinary though. There are regular classes and advanced placement classes. For students enrolled in

AP economics classes there is a lot of work to do, both in the classroom and at home. Regarding that

principle of economic way of thinking that underlines importance of incentives, university recognized AP

economics as introductory course if the student score on test is ‘A’.

Another example: teachers of economics who attend in-service training delivered by the centre of

economic education get credits that count in accreditation process as teachers. In delivering teacher

training, the center for economic education work in partnership with interested businesses, such as banks,

in order to make them memorable experiences for teachers and to build professional community. Costs

are shared by participants (mainly for being certificated by university), university, and different

supporters (e.g. commercial banks, or banks associations).

Northern Illinois University Center for Economic Education

For the delivery of economic education workshops, seminars, etc. to K-12 teachers and to K-12

students, the Northern Illinois University (NIU) Center for Economic Education is located in a special

division of the University Outreach, Engagement and Information Technologies called the P-20 Center.

The P-20 Center brings together faculty and staff from various colleges on the campus to work

cooperatively on programs that reach out to the community and to the broader service area of the

university. The Center for Economic Education (CEE) is now co-directed by one faculty person from

Economics and one faculty person from the College of Education. Those departments provide one course

release time per year for these faculty members. Another person (part-time), paid for by the P-20 Center,

assists the CEE with the planning and coordination of programs. The Vice President of the Division of

Outreach, Engagement and Information Technologies is highly committed to the economic education

mission and strongly supports the Center for Economic Education. The Vice President also facilitates

support for Econ Illinois (the Illinois Council on Economic Education), which is also housed in the

Division.



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The first feature (for university level courses/students) is typical for major US universities. The

second feature (economic education for K-12) is not typical, and it is increasingly difficult to gain this

type of support from large universities for K-12 economic education efforts, unless the Center/Council is

generating considerable university credit hours (which is the case if a Center/Council offers graduate

credit programs for K-12 teachers). NIU sees the value of the Center and Council as part of their outreach

mission (Dempsey, 2012). It also values the positive image that the CEE’s work provides, the exposure

to the university through the CEE’s work with K-12 schools and students, and the exposure/goodwill

created with the business community through the Council’s boards and many contacts.

There are variances among states as to the level of support from universities for economic

education. However, NIU model is very similar (office space provided, faculty release time, etc.) to other

active university centers in the US network. The amount of support received at NIU for both the Center

and the Council is likely greater than many other centers and councils receive.

US network of university-based centers is well-established and active. They have a great

commitment to outreach – delivering programs to non-students audiences, such as K-12 teachers or other

public groups.

Conclusions

According with the available data, one of the conclusions of this paper is that economic education

is part of formal education and non-formal education too and non-formal educational organizations such

as NGO’s or non-profits can attract important resources, even highly qualified teachers and professors,

for delivering valuable economic education programs. Another conclusion is that values such as freedom

of choice and action, autonomy, responsibility for decisions individuals make and their actions,

involvement and participation, balance of power and trust in free market, or limited intervention of

government become forces that contribute to support and improve education in general and economic

education especially. Empowering people and organizations in designing, developing and delivering

economic education conducts to certain benefits, including effective educational resources allocation.

Bibliography:



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� Brock J., 2012, Interview,

� Dempsey J., 2012, Interview

� Siegfried, J. J. and Walstad, W. B. (1998) ‘Research on teaching college economics’, in W. B.

Walstad and P. Saunders (eds), Teaching Undergraduate Economics: A Handbook for Instructors,

Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

� Stiglitz, J., 1993 (2005), Economie, Editura Economică, Bucureşti

� Sumansky J., 2012, Interview

� Walstad, W. B. and Saunders, P. (eds) (1998) Teaching Undergraduate Economics: A Handbook

for Instructors, Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

� www.councilforeconed.org



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USING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS FOR VISUALIZATION AND MANIPULATION OF INFORMATION IN ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT – AN

INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Manea Monica, The Academy of Economic Studies Abstract:

This paper is an interdisciplinary approach between Information Technology and Economic

for high school. Business Intelligence is used very often in business area for economic indicators

computation. The intend of this paper is to give a way of making economic classes more attractive by

presenting them using information technology. The students can learn what business intelligence is

and how can be used in economy. As a student at Training and Department for Teaching (The

academy of economic Studies) and as researcher in business intelligence, I understand the importance

of defining the concepts and ways of gathering results in using Business Intelligence Tools. Business

Intelligence is a new approach in Economic Environment and is welcome for students in high school

for attractive school classes.

Keywords: Economy, KPI, Education, interdisciplinary approach, business intelligence tools for business

JEL classification: M15 – IT MANAGEMENT

1. Introduction

The purpose of current paper is to present a way of presenting concepts of economy and IT in the

same lessons to stimulate interest of teenagers to study economy. In a digital society where electronic

devices are everywhere, teenagers are attracted for them. In classes is more attractive the phone, tablet



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instead of take attention to the “boring” lesson of economy. To gain their attention is difficult. An

interdisciplinary approach of economy lesson is a way of making them listening and participate active to

the lessons. The first goal is to gain attention and make them participate. The second is gave an

understanding of concepts and a practical way to see how they learned is applied in economic

environment. Using in demonstration instruments of business intelligence will made them listening very

carefully. The intention is to make them know and understood concepts, applied what they learned in

interactive and interdisciplinary lessons, challenge them to make an analysis and purpose their own

practical project.

2 Economy and IT Interdisciplinary Lessons

The interdisciplinary IT and applied economics intend to give to the students the understood of

theoretical elements they learned and receive examples from day to day business environment. Is

important that students learn how in economic environment is used what they learned and applied in

exercises at economy applied lessons. The unit project and lessons are described below.

Unit Project

The unit project is described in the table 1

Contents Competencies Learning activities

Resources Evaluation

Practical Lesson on building an economic report using business intelligence tool

The students can enumerate and give the definition about production costs indicators. The students can give the definition about business intelligence The students can give 5 examples about usage of it business intelligence in economic environment The students can

Be active. Answering to the questions. Solve the economic problems. Use the computer for solving economic problems. Work in teams

Computers Power Point Presentation Mobile phones applications

Working in classes Answering to the questions Worksheets Portfolio



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enumerate and give the definition about market demand The kids can use excel in resolving economy problems Students know how to link excel to tableau for visualization data and making dynamic graphs The kids can use excel and tableau for solving economic applied exercises

Portfolio

Table 1. Unit structure The four lessons contains in this unit are described in the tables 2, 3, and 4. The last lesson is the evaluation one on portfolio.

Lesson stages Time for each stages

Professor activity Student activity

Methods, procedures and

tools

Evaluation methods and

tools Gain attention

2 minutes

A little joke about mobile phones. An asking about applications on their mobile phones and if they know about IT application in economy. Every answer is encouraged and linked with lessons objective A

Be active. Answer to the question

Conversation - student observation - control questions for attention capture



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Announce the title of lessons and objectives Title of lesson Production cost indicators and business intelligence tools for cost tracking Operational objectives enumeration: The kids can enumerate and give the definition about production costs indicators. The kids can give the definition about business intelligence The kids can give 5 examples about usage of it business intelligence in economic environment

10 minutes

Title: Business Intelligence tools for Economics Professor explain to students the Business Intelligence notion and give some examples appropriate with application on their phones

Be active. Every answer is encouraged and linked with lessons objective Answer to professor questions about economic notions.

- Exposal Conversation Power Point Explanation

- student observation - control questions for attention capture

Previous knowledge’s recap. The production’s costs indicators Production function and marginal product indicators Marginal costs definition and formula Fixed costs definition

10 minutes

Professor is making groups of 4 students Organize the groups and Ask them to -Write the definitions and computing formulas for : Production function and

Students solve the request Team work for solving a worksheet

Practical Exercise

Worksheet



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Variable costs definition Total cost definition and formula

marginal product indicators Marginal costs definition and formula Fixed costs definition Variable costs definition Total cost definition and formula Solve the problems. The results will be presented in one table

New Content communication IT Business Intelligence Tools The problem solving and presentation using IT Business Intelligence Tools

15

Professor presents the concept Professor presents Excel The professor presents how to solve problem using excel

Students will follow the demonstration.

Demonstration

Team Work 10 minutes

Professor ask individual team works on their worksheets using excel

Teams work with excel on their work-sheet

Practice

Portfolio 2-3 minute

Professor give the worksheet homework for portfolio

Students Exposure -

Table 2. Lesson 1



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Lesson stages Time for each stages



tools



2 minutes

A little joke about mobile phones. Talking about business intelligence A

Be active. Every answer is encouraged and linked with lessons objective


Announce the title of lessons and objectives Title of lesson Market demand indicators and business intelligence tools for market analysis Operational objectives enumeration: The kids can enumerate and give the definition about market demand The kids can give the definition about business intelligence The kids can use excel in resolving economy problems Students learn how to link excel to tableau for visualization data

5 minutes

Business Intelligence tools and application of them in economics

Be active. Every answer is encouraged and linked with lessons objective Answer to professor questions about economic notions.





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and making dynamic graphs

Previous knowledge’s recap. The category of business intelligence tools recapitulation Data mining definition Dynamic Dashboards definition and 2 examples Interactive Visual Analysis Tools and 1 examples Solving problems with excel

10 minutes

Professor ask and present with the power point presentation after they answer One example from class of resolving economic problems using excel

Students answer the questions Students use the computer to visualize and recapitulate the elements of previous lesson

Conversation

- student observation - control questions for attention capture - practical demonstration

New Content communication IT Business Intelligence Tools Excel usage practical exercises Link the excel to tableau

10

Professor presents the concept of interactive visual tools The professor presents how to link excel with tableau

Students will follow the demonstration.

Demonstration Power point

Team Work 15 minutes

Professor organize students in teams Professor ask individual team works on their worksheets using tableau and the previous

Teams work with excel on their work-sheet

Practice

Portfolio Professor give Students Conversation -



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2-3 minute

the worksheet theme for portfolio

Table 3. Lesson 2 Lesson stages Time

for each stages



tools



2 minutes

Asking about their own jokes an funny events they remember

Be active. Every answer is encouraged and linked with lessons objective


Announce the title of lessons and objectives Title of lesson Practice. IT Business Intelligence usage for economic Operational objectives enumeration: The kids can use excel and tableau for solving economic applied exercises

10 minutes

Professor help students to practice what they learned

Be active. Every answer is encouraged and linked with lessons objective Answer to professor questions about economic notions. Answer to the professor about business intelligence tools Ask about errors Solving on computers the problems received in class



New Content communication Tableau usage for

Professor assist students who work on

Solve the exercises on computers

Practical approach

Individual work evaluation



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solving economic problems

30 computers the themes from portfolio

Portfolio and assessment

2-3 minute

Professor give the worksheet theme for portfolio

Students Exposure -

Table 4. Lesson 3 The lessons containing is explained in the following chapters. 2.1. Gaining attention

For gaining attention very useful is attention caption using a joke. For an economic and IT

interdisciplinary lesson the digital competencies is important. So the joke will be related with electronic

devices for gaining attention and also for preparing the understanding of lessons. For this I propose an

image. I use a slide for a power point presentation and like the ones described in the figure 1.

Figure 1. Jokes for gaining attention http://short-jokes-quotes.com/joke/index.php/tag/mobile/, www.listsbuzz.com/10-common-questions-that-every-mother-continuously-asks-her-children/children/

2.2. Practical Approach: Using IT tools for economic notions explained

The unit is composed by 4 lessons. In the first lesson after gaining attention, the professor will

present a power point presentation about business intelligence and economics. The power point will

present a short presentation of business intelligence and professor will explain the slides. The power point



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contains also a short movie by 3 minutes about tableau. The students will learn in these lessons how to

use business intelligence tools like excel and tableau for economics.

2.3 Business Intelligence Tools for Economics power point presentation content and professor

explanations

In economic environment, the large and medium economic organization uses the business

intelligence tools for computing, representing, retrieve, understood and visualization the economic

indicators as opportunity cost, marginal cost, and production cost. Depending of destination, business

intelligence tools are classified in business intelligence tools for. In that lesson we will learn about

business intelligence tools for end level, used for data visualization and report economic indicators.

The power point presentation will contains the following information which will be explained by

professor

Business intelligence tools are organized in Business Intelligence platform that are looked as in the figure

2.

Figure 2. Business Intelligence Platform

Business Intelligence Tools

Business intelligence tools represent the software that is designed to retrieve, analyze and report

economic information like marginal cost, production cost and so one. In economic organization, all the



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information about sales, invoices are stocked in software systems named operational systems. In Business

Intelligence we are talking about data mining tools, self-service reports, dynamic dashboards and

interactive visual analysis.

Data Mining Concepts and Tools

Data Mining means analyzing what happened with business in the past and predicting the future

based on analyzing information from the application for invoices, sales. Data Mining means work with a

lot of information from operational systems and organized those information to understood the behavior

of the own customers. The Data Mining stages are presented in the figure 3.

,

Figure 3. Data Mining Stages. Source http://www.statsoft.com/

Self Service Reports

Self-service business intelligence means that business users can create their own reports without

IT department help. In these lessons is intend to learn how to develop self-service reports.

Figure 4. Example of Self Service Report. Source http://datawarehouse4u.info/



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Dynamic Dashboards

A way to organize together and manage multiple charts regarding on the same subject of interests

is on dashboards. If the information in dashboards is not static and can be changed based on parameters

values selections, those dashboards are called dynamic. In business is very often used because the

information came from different sources and the volume of data is huge.

Figure 4. Example of Dynamic Dashboard, Source, http://kb.tableau.com/articles/knowledgebase

Interactive Visual Analysis

Interactive Visual Analysis (IVA) is new part of business intelligence tool. The interactive visual

analysis appears as a need for analyzing high-dimensional data that has a large number of data points.

Simple graphing reports without interactive techniques give an insufficient understanding of what is

inside the data. Using interactive visual analysis the user correlated views and iteratively select and

examining features. The objective of analysis is to obtain knowledge which is not apparent from ordinary

report. For Interactive Visual Analysis are important the perceptive and cognitive capabilities of humans

who use it. This is necessary in order to extract knowledge from large and complex datasets...



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Figure 5. Example of Interactive Visual Analysis, Source, http://blog.activestrategy.com/performance-

management-software-blog/

2.4 Usage of Business Intelligence Tools for economic classes

The practical approach will learned the students how to use excel for compute the indicators learned in

economic applied classes as show in the figure 6

Figure 6. Example of Usage of excel to learn students to use business intelligence tools in economic

applied classes

After the first lesson, the students will learn how to use tableau for interactive visual analysis of

information the examples are show in the figures. The figures 7, 8 and 9 show how to link excel data with

tableau, how to filter information and how to visualizing data.



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Figure 7. Example of Usage of tableau for teach students to use business intelligence tools in economic

applied classes


applied classes


applied classes

3. Conclusions

In the digitalization century, the high school students can learn without difficulty concepts as

business intelligence and correlate them to economic applied notions. Giving them the opportunity to



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understand how what they learn in economic applied lessons is correlated with real life in terms of IT

usage, helps them improve their economic knowledge. I hope this paper will be useful for ideas in

making economic classes more interesting.

Bibliography:

� Sid Adelman, Larissa Terpeluk Moss, Data Warehouse Project Management, Ed. Addison-

Wesley, Boston, 2004.

� John Wang, Data Warehousing and Mining, Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications,

Ed. Information Science Reference, New York, 2004.

� Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross, The Data Warehouse Toolkit, The Complete Guide to Dimensional

Modelling, Second Edition

� Lungu, A. Bara, Sisteme informatice executive, ASE Publishing House, 2007

� Olga Ciobanu, Teaching Economic Disciplines, Ed. A.S.E, Bucharest, 2004.

World Wide Web

http://www.statsoft.com/

http://datawarehouse4u.info/

http://kb.tableau.com/articles/knowledgebase

http://blog.activestrategy.com/performance-management-software-blog/

www.listsbuzz.com/10-common-questions-that-every-mother-continuously-asks-her-children/children/

http://short-jokes-quotes.com/joke/index.php/tag/mobile/

http://joyreactor.com/post/532674



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DIVERSIFICATION OF UNIVERSITIES PUBLIC FUNDING. A CASE STUDY: EUROPEAN

SOCIAL FUND TO SUPPORT UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN ROMA NIA

Marinas Laura Elena, Prioteasa Eugen, Bucharest Universities of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract:

Universities are considered to be at the very heart of knowledge creation and development

underpinning economic growth and competitiveness. Technological advancement and labor market

changes raise new demands on universities. In a continuously more competitive environment, quality

university education requires significant funding for the university objectives. Education, in particular

university education, remains a top priority for EU governments, but it is competing with other

priorities for public funding. In the future, shifting priorities for public funding from education to

sectors like social protection, health etc. is likely to occur because of the demographic trends, aging

population. Therefore it is expected that traditional state budget funding for universities will not

increase or will not increase sufficiently to cover full costs of universities; the economic downturn will

also accrue this trend. Most affected by this trend will be the universities of which dependence on

public funding remains high. Thus, in order to ensure their financial sustainability without

jeopardizing achievement of quality and equity objectives, pressures on universities for diversification

of financial resources and for ensuring efficiency and effectiveness use of available funding. Good

university governance is required in order for these institutions to remain competitive. public



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universities funding is more than a mechanism for funds allocation, but it is an important part of the

universities governance enforcing the achievement of quality, access, efficiency and equity related

objectives of universities A particular attention will be paid to the way in which Romanian universities

made use of structural funding available for the period 2007-2013; in this respect the paper will

address issue related to the European Social Fund funded projects added value for the universities.

1. University funding and financial sustainability trends in European Union

Europe 2020 Strategy focuses on knowledge and innovation as main area of action for European Union to

support increased competitiveness and sustainable and inclusive development. In all EU strategies and

policy documents, universities are positioned at very heart of knowledge creation and transfer and are

expected to substantially contribute to the achievement of the EU goals. Universities have also a key role

in providing solutions to address societal challenges (such as energy efficiency, global health, climate

changes etc. - EU Modern Report – Funding Higher Education: A View Across Europe, ESMU, 2010)

through their research and education activities. Technological advancement and labor market changes

raise new demands on universities. In a continuously more competitive environment, quality university

education and research require significant funding. University education and research remain, in

Romania, as well as in the European Union, are significantly dependent on public funding. Thus,

universities are competing with health, social protection, energy, security sectors for public funding.

In general terms, governments are providing funds to universities to support achievement of

specific objectives related to increased access to quality education and quality research. Unlike other

sectors, university funding is not a simple mechanism to allocate financial resources, but it is rather a set

of tools and other governance instruments that enforce common goals set for higher education (e.g.

access, efficiency), set incentives for certain behavior (e.g. competitive research grants), and attempt to

maximize the desired output with limited resources EU Modern Report – Funding Higher Education: A

View Across Europe, ESMU, 2010) without affecting academic and institutional autonomy.

As mentioned in some reports (EU Modern Report – Funding Higher Education: A View Across

Europe, ESMU, 2010), in some European countries, it may be observed the trend to treat the public

services as corporate actors with the goal to increase efficiency and effectiveness by giving them more

autonomy and asking for more accountability, in the same time; thus, governments are expecting value



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for money invested in university activities and organizational performance is to be linked to the budgets

granted. The government – university relation is rather having a contractual basis, since the public

financing being provided to the university for delivering quality services to the society and economy, in

particular quality education (high qualifications) and quality research (capacity to produce and to deliver

relevant knowledge for the society and economy); it is the task of the government to regulate the quality

assurance rules, while the universities enjoys the autonomy to efficiently manage both the public and

private funding to achieve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness objectives. Public universities enjoy

the autonomy in attracting and managing also private funds; activities funded from private sources are

subject to the same rules for quality assurance and access to education as public funding. For both public

and private funding, university accountability is required.

Under the scarcity of public resources, competition for funding increased among public universities in

order to enhance efficiency and quality. Under these conditions, universities tried to secure their

competitive position to better cope with challenges of a dynamic and complex economic and social

environment by concentrating of research and education activities to build up a strategic profile and to

fully benefit thereof and diversifying the funding sources. Thus, European universities started to behave

as corporate actors in the sense of seeking niches, distinctive profiles and engaging in dialogue with their

external environment and stakeholders (EU Modern Report – Funding Higher Education: A View Across

Europe, ESMU, 2010), as part of the strategy for remaining competitive and attractig diversified financial

resources. Most usual and common sources for funding universitiy education and research consist of:

public funding for education, research, investments and institutional development (includding

competition based public funding); tuition fees for students enrollment; private funding for education,

research and consultancy/expertise; donations.

2. University public funding and financial sustainability in Romania. The role of European

Social Fund in case of university education

Even if, Romanian universities are incipiently following the European trends to behave as corporate

actors and diversify funding; still public funding, in particular state budget funding, remain main sources



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for supporting public university education. This inertial reaction is maintained on grounds of traditional

roles of universities: educating the future labor force and researchers.

In Romania, state funding is available, in particular, for public universities. State budget funding is

granted for: education of students; institutional development; capital investments; research activities.

State budget funding is granted to universities on contractual and competitive basis. Budget allocations

for public university education are subject to an institutional contract for university education between the

Ministry of Education and each public accredited university; global allocation for universities differs

depending on the field of specialization and the number of students to be enrolled (determined according

to the quality assurance and accreditation rules and estimates of government for the demand for the

accredited qualifications provided by the universities).

The share of budget funding for public university education is 0,29% of GDP (institutional funding

for public universities). The share of expenditures for university education in GDP shows, at different

moments in time, the choices made by government and other relevant authorities (public funding) and

individuals and employers (private funding) for distributing financial resources available. The choice is

dependent of the social and private returns to investment in university education and had influence on

number of enrollments in universities (EU Modern Report – Funding Higher Education: A View Across

Europe, ESMU, 2010).

At present, the financial sustainability of the Romanian public universities is very much challenged

since they are very much dependent of the state funding and the state resources are plagued with

recession induced shortfalls and increased funding demands from social protection, health etc. The

reduction of public support leads universities to diversify their revenues and to identify alternative

resources, private (such as tuition fees) or public (structural instruments under cohesion policy). The

aging of population and negative demographic trends are likely to affect the enrolments and,

consequently, state funding (public expenditures for students’ university education) and private funding

(incomes from tuition fees) are expected to continue to decrease. As a result of demographic trends the

number of tuition fees paying students constantly decreased from 2010 to 2013: the tuition fees paying

students represented 55% of total enrolments in public universities and decreased down to 35% in 2013),

according to 2013 CNFIS Report (Public Report 2013: Current state of funding of higher education and

optimization measures, UEFISCDI – CNFIS, 2014).



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Except for the tuition fees paying students, when facing the scarcity of public resources, universities

need to identify other revenue generating areas of activities (e.g. consultancy for business, valorization of

research outputs etc.); also relevance of university education for the labor market needs is to be

considered in order for universities to improve their position in attracting students (it is likely for

potential students to prefer to be educated in universities of which graduates rate of insertion in the labor

market is relatively higher as compared to average insertion rate of recent graduates).

Public universities enjoy the autonomy in attracting additional financial resources, private (e.g.

tuition fees) or public (e.g. structural instrument) to support increased access to university

education (increased enrolments) without challenging the quality assurance goals. Since 2007, a new

funding source was identified and exploited by Romanian universities: project based funding from

European structural instruments. This is public project based funding and universities experienced all

benefits and risks specific to external project based funding. Accredited universities (both public and

private) hade access after 2007 to EU structural instruments to improve university education (all cycles:

bachelor, master, doctorate) and relevance of university education form labor market.

The most relevant actions and EU structural funds for universities needs aimed to support:

1. Increased quality and access to university education for bachelor and master programs - under

Key Area of Intervention 1.2. ”Quality in university education” – Operational Program for

Human Resource Development 2007 – 2013 (co-funded by European Social Fund - ESF); a

total ESF allocation for the programming period of 174.47 mill Eur.

2. Improved doctoral and postdoctoral programs – to provide relevant initial training of

researchers - under Key Area of Intervention 1.5. ”Doctoral and postdoctoral programs in

support for competitiveness” – Operational Program for Human Resource Development 2007

– 2013 (co-funded by European Social Fund - ESF); a total ESF allocation for the

programming period of 284.93 mill Eur.

3. Improved transition for students from school to active life and improved recent university

graduates insertion into the labor market - under Key Area of Intervention 2.1. ”Transition

from school to active life” – Operational Program for Human Resource Development 2007 –

2013 (co-funded by European Social Fund - ESF); a total ESF allocation for the programming

period of 286.96 mill Eur.



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Empirical evidences indicates that, after 2007, the structural instruments become, the most

important source of external funding in the university budget (all budget revenues except the state budget

funding under institutional contract), as shown in table 1 below.

Table 1. Structure of Romanian universities external funding (% in universities budget revenues), 2010

Structural

funds

7th EU

Framework

Program

for

Research

Other EU

funded

Programs

Other

national

public

funds

National

private

funds

Other

external

public

funds

External

private

funds

Research

contract

Market

based

revenues

22.434 0.528 3.198 4.256 0.393 0.305 0.090 1.915 6.3738

Puiu O, Serbanica C., Regional Involvement of Romanian universities to regional development. The

impact of structural funds, 2011,

http://www.strategiimanageriale.ro/images/images_site/articole/article_188f01ed4127e9013b9d6239b593

5bf1.pdf

Annual implementing reports for SOP HRD provides some information for further analysis of the

capacity of the universities, in particular public universities, to make efficient and effective use of the

structural instruments to ensure financial diversification and sustainability (Data collected from Annual

Implementing Report for SOH HRD, http://www.fonduri-ue.ro/posdru/images/doc2014/rai2013.pdf. All

data reported are at 31.12.2013). For assessing the effectiveness of the funds, we used as reference, the

enrolments in 2010 and 2013, since most of data in Annual Implementing Reports related to 2013 SOP

HRD indicators are based on the project outputs collected from the projects funded in 2009, 2010 and

2013 and (ended or still in implementation during 2010 – 2013) and the students targeted were students

enrolled during 2010 and 2013.



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The funding available under SOP HRD 2007 – 2013 (KAI 1.2.) was additional funding for

development of curricula and learning material for the benefit of the university students and for improved

university quality assurance procedures and management. The ESF funding did not substitute state

budget funding for basic university education in public universities. 35,285 students were direct

beneficiaries of the actions undertaken to improve the equality of bachelor and master programs under

SOP HRD, KAI 1.2. The bachelor and master students reported as beneficiaries under SOP HRD 2007 -

2013, KAI 1.2, represented 6.12% of the total enrolments in bachelor and master programs in public

universities in 2010 and 7.76% of the 2013 enrolments, respectively (Public Report 2013: Current state

of funding of higher education and optimization measures, UEFISCDI – CNFIS, 2014). There is neither

study nor evaluation available to indicate if the quality/access to university bachelor and master education

increased as a result of additional funding. It is most likely that the impact in terms of quality and access

to university education to remain residual.

In case of doctoral and postdoctoral studies, we could consider that 5,184 PhD students and 1,879

postdoctoral researchers were direct beneficiaries of the ESF funded projects implemented by universities

under SOP HRD 2007 -2013 (KAI 1.5.). The interventions funded under SOP HRD for doctoral and

postdoctoral programs may be considered to be among the most successful type of support for better

university education since it created the opportunity for universities to attract the best doctoral students

and postdoctoral researchers. The projects under KAI 1.5 effectively increased available resources for

universities to ensure initial education and training of researchers, since the ESF funding was used (over

70-75%) to provide scholarships and mobility for students to increase the quality of doctoral and

postdoctoral programs as well as to improve the valorization of the results of their research.

In case of facilitation of students’ insertion in the labor market, data reported indicated that 34,834

students were direct beneficiaries and were assisted in their transition from school to active life trough

internships and career guiding and counseling under SOP HRD (KAI 2.1). The bachelor and master

students reported as beneficiaries under SOP HRD 2007 - 2013, KAI 2.1., represented 6.10% of the total

enrolments in bachelor and master programs in public universities in 2010 and 7.66% of the 2013

enrolments, respectively (Public Report 2013: Current state of funding of higher education and

optimization measures, UEFISCDI – CNFIS, 2014).



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3. Concluding remarks

The 2013 CNFIS Report indicates that Romanian public universities are facing severe difficulties in

terms of available funding for education activities. The most affecting by the reduction of the public

support and the aging trends of the population is visible, in particular in case of small/regional based

public universities (e.g. University of Petrosani, University of Pitesti etc.). The option to increase

revenues from tuition fees is not effective since the demographic trends (aging of the population and

decreasing birth rates) and low upper-secondary education attainment rates: it narrows the possibilities or

all universities to recruit new students. Thus, diversification of revenues should become a key element of

the financial governance or Romanian public universities and should be accompanied by restructuring

measures (2013, CNFIS Report). Public university restructuring and diversification strategy should lead

to increased performances in research, increased cooperation with business community and better

valorization of project management expertise aiming to attract more funding from EU and national

research programs and to support the transfer of technology and innovation. Structural funds remain an

important resource for public universities to improve research infrastructure and to promote quality and

relevant education. University governance and its capacity to make effective use of the granted

autonomy to address the present challenges will make the difference for financial sustainability.

The university needs to adapt to a new financial governance model in terms of diversifying funding

sources and efficiently managing available resources.

Bibliography:

� Annual Implementing Report for SOH HRD, http://www.fonduri-

ue.ro/posdru/images/doc2014/rai2013.pdf;

� ESMU, EU Modern Report – Funding Higher Education: A View Across Europe, Brussels,

2010;

� Puiu O, Serbanica C., Regional Involvement of Romanian universities to regional

development. The impact of structural funds, 2011,

http://www.strategiimanageriale.ro/images/images_site/articole/article_188f01ed4127e9013b

9d6239b5935bf1.pdf;



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� Trackman Leon, Modelling University Governance, University of New South Wales, working

paper, 2008, http://law.bepress.com/unswwps-flrps08/art19;

� UEFISCDI – CNFIS, Public Report 2013: Current state of funding of higher education and

optimization measures, Bucharest, 2014;

DEVELOPING DATA SCIENCE CURRICULUM IN THE “WEB OF D ATA” CONTEXT

Nisioiu Codrin-Florentin, Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract:

The metadata widely interoperable represents a new IT phenomenon that in combination with new licensing strategy creates new opportunities for the products diversification and the creation of new opportunities. In this context I think we need to develop a data science curriculum in the “Web of Data” context. The article is divided in 3 sections. The first section is describing the metadata economy in the context of Linked Open Data, the second section present the current status of RDF databases, the third section is connecting knowledge via “Web of Data” and propose a possible data science curriculum.

Keywords: Linked Open Data (LOD), Web of Data, Master in Data Science

Linked Open Data – The Metadata Economy



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The media industry has attracted attention by switching from traditional content to metadata and

by professionalizing the specific strategies in order to conserve and enhance the quality of structured data

by applying Semantic Web principles [1]. Using Semantic Web approach is relevant when the

distribution of goods increases and allows the multiplicity of services and customer portfolios. The

uniform application of RDF data model is the cornerstone of the Semantic Web and Linked Open Data,

allowing syntactic and semantic interoperability. Saumur and Shiri [2] have considered the increase of

researches conducted on issues related to metadata and the decrease of the traditional ones (such as

indexing, the artificial intelligence, etc.). They [2] have documented new areas of research such as Web-

based cataloguing, classification and interoperability.

K. Haase believes [3] that with the increasing volume of data, the economic value of metadata

increases too. Facing the necessary pressure in order to diversify business, especially in knowledge-based

business sectors such as media, life sciences, banking, insurance or trade, it requires a constant search for

new ways to create value-added products and services to existing customers or to attract new consumers.

The specific concepts of metadata such as metadata schemas, vocabularies, ontologies, identifiers,

queries, etc. have become central factor of production in the efficient operation of existing and opening

new ways of diversifying products and services. But the approach of Sjurts [4] believes that

diversification can be seen in the light of interoperable metadata. The resource-based approach

investigates how valuable economic resources are created and exploited commercially.

The market-based approach investigates the new consumers and the market segments that can be

penetrated and are safe. Both approaches are intertwined and affect each other. The recognition and the

understanding of the specificity of interoperable metadata is crucial in developing a business around the

metadata semantics especially when there are applied the appropriate licensing strategies. Due to the

increasing interaction between the factors specific to the creation of goods it has been passed from the

value chain approach to the network approach [5].

The network approach takes into account two factors:

1. an input can be used in various contexts for different purposes

2. an economic actor can be active at different levels of simultaneous creation of added value.



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Latif [6] used this approach to describe the structural coupling of economic actors, their roles and

the sets involved in creating Interconnected Data. Added value networks are characterized by a highly

organizational complexity and require different governance principles in the "open source" projects.

Demil & Lecoque in [7] developed the concept of "Governance Bazaar" in which interactions

between economic actors are characterized by: decentralization, collaborative engagement model,

resource sharing and hybrid business models composed of strong and weak property rights.

RDF Databases – Current status

In recent years the US has increased the volume of RDF data published from DBpedia (wikipedia

specific data sets) to government data from data data.gov and large volumes of biomedical sets. The first

generation of stores (stores) RDF was either only memory or used a external relational database

management system (RDBMS) - most often MySql for persistent storage. The performance of these

solutions has been marginal due to: RAM limitations, latency due to the use of a database server and an

RDF query engine in separate processes or SQL-type systems and uncommitted semantic RDF query

languages. The next generation of stores (stores) RDF uses a persistent storage format and structure

derived from the relational. Query processor and storage are located in the same process and were

removed incompatibilities between different types of systems and specific semantics of SPARQL and

SQL. As a further development of some of these systems allow scalability, partitioning data on multiple

servers in a cluster. Most of these stores have been developed from scratch, only Oracle and Virtuoso

platforms were built on existing relational. RDF technology is noted for using heterogeneous data that

cannot be easily modelled by a relational schema. In general it can be said that a representation of a triple

or quadruple in a RDBMS can be done by specialized RDF stores. Given the maturity of the large

number of installations and technology investments in relational data warehouse (storage systems,

pipelines ETL, dashboards analytical / graphical user interface) it is not reasonable to assume that BI or

data warehouse will pass from relational model to RDF and SPARQL.



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Linked Open Data (LOD) can create added value in this space by integrating data warehouse,

enrichment of data and the use of open government to create a mix of quality information.

Big gains by adopting RDF generally felt in data integration field. It comes from a combination of

technical factors and cultural / market:

a) a lot of reusable identifiers (DBpedia);

b) a lot of vocabularies, data schemes (Good Trade Relations, FOAF social networking);

c) a large number of datasets published (government data, e-science, business information);

d) adoption of RDF built in search engines used to generate summaries and categorization;

e) the existence of best practices for publishing self-described data sets (principles of Linked Data).

These factors make a useful RDF for publishing structured data. We can also identify other factors that

have an impact on the success of the integrated approach based on RDF data:

1) the maturity of standards;

2) standards for interoperability with relational infrastructures.

Connecting Knowledge - “Web of Data”

"Web of Data" is built on two simple ideas: using RDF data model to publish structured data on

the Web and creating explicit links between different entities data from different sources. RDF links can

be divided into three types:

1) relational connections - permit the use of background information;

2) identification ties - pointing allied URI sites used by other data sources to identify the

same object in the real world. These bonds have an important social function in

"Web of Data" providing different views of the world;

3) links between vocabularies - showing vocabulary terms used to represent data with their

definitions, and with similar definitions in other vocabularies.

The work of finding new links between data sources identification is known as discovery of links

and connections is closely related to recording and duplication. Current frameworks for independent

domain discovery of links can be divided into two categories:



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1) fully automatic tools - link data sources without the need for domain-specific

configuration. Unsupervised learning is used to identify the binding rules of the courts.

Fully automated discovery tools are RiMOM links [9], ASMOV [10] and CODI [11].

2) semi-automatic tools - link data sources based on a specific domain configuration. Semi-

automatic discovery tools are Silk [12] and LIMES [13].

Various interconnected data sources often use different vocabularies to represent data of the same

type of entity. Applications for the scheme can translate interconnected data from different sources into

application-specific schema. A mapping framework that provides for publishing and discovering Web is

the R2R [14].

In the context previously defined I consider absolutely necessary to develop a master's program in

Data Science in Romania.

The Master in Data Science will offer thorough training in predictive, descriptive and prescriptive

analytics. With this training, graduates will be prepared to design and build data-driven systems for

decision-making in the private or public sector.

The study program will be organized around the following coordinates:

• Statistics and Machine Learning

• Optimization and Operational Research

• Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, RDF Databases, Linked Open Data and Big

Data Analytics

• Economics, Finance, and Policy Making

• Web of Data

Courses will be taught both by leading academics in the fields of Business Informatics, Statistics,

Economics, and Operations Research, and experienced professionals from the Analytics industry. The

study program also will include top guest speakers who are expanding the frontier of knowledge in

Analytics. The students will learn how to put in practice what is taught in the classroom by using real

data and answering real business questions from a wide array of companies from different industries.



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Potential employers of Data Science graduates will be analytics departments in companies in the

following industries: Telecommunications, E-commerce, Entertainment and Sports, Transportation and

Logistics, Pharmaceutical, Fast-moving consumer goods, Finance and Insurance Industry, Consulting

Firms, Research Institutes, Public institutions, central banks and European agencies

Conclusions

As data availability gradually penetrates more aspects of the economy, the data scientist will

become an increasingly important figure in private companies, public institutions and research centers. In

this context I consider absolutely necessary to develop a romanian curriculum in Data Science.

Acknowledgment

This work was cofinanced from the European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational Programme

Human Resources Development 2007-2013, project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/142115 „Performance

and excellence in doctoral and postdoctoral research in Romanian economics science domain”

Bibliography:

� Rachel Lovinger, (2010) Nimble: a razorfish report on publishing in the digital age. Technical report.

� Kristie Saumure and Ali Shiri, (2008) “Knowledge organization trends in library and information studies: a preliminary comparison of the pre-and postweb eras”. Journal of Information Science, vol. 34(5), pp. 651-666.

� Kenneth Haase, (2004), “Context for semantic metadata” in Proceedings of the 12th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia, MULTIMEDIA '04, New York, USA, pp. 204-211.

� Insa Sjurts, (2002). “Cross-media strategien in der deutschen medienbranchhe. eine okonomische analyse zu varianten und erfolgsaussichten.” In Bjorn Muller-Kalthoff, editor, Cross-Media Management, pages 3-18. Springer.

� Axel Zerdick, Arnold Picot, Klaus Schrape, Alexander Artope, Klaus Goldhammer, Ulrich T. Lange, Eckart Vierkant, Esteban Lopez-Escobar,and Roger Silverstone, (2000) “E-conomics: Strategies for the Digital Marketplace”. Springer, 1st edition.



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� Atif Latif, Anwar Us Saeed, Partick Hoeer, Alexander Stocker, and Claudia Wagner, (2009) “The linked data value chain: A lightweight model for business engineers”. In Proceedings of I-Semantics 2009 - 5th International Conference on Semantic Systems, Graz, Austria, pp. 568-577.

� Benoit Demil and Xavier Lecocq, 2006, “Neither market nor hierarchy nornetwork: The emergence of bazaar governance.” Organization Study, vol. 27(10), pp. 1447-1466.

� Rachel Lovinger, (2010) Nimble: a razorfish report on publishing in the digital age. Technical report.

� J. Li, J. Tang, Y. Li, and Q. Luo. RiMOM, (2008), A dynamic multistrategy ontology alignment framework. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, pages 1218-1232.

� Y.R. Jean-Mary, E.P. Shironoshita, and M.R. Kabuka, (2010) ASMOV: Results for OAEI 2010. Ontology Matching, page 129, 2010.

� J. Noessner and M. Niepert, (2010), CODI: Combinatorial Optimization for Data Integration-Results for OAEI 2010. Ontology Matching, page 142.

� Anja Jentzsch, Robert Isele, and Christian Bizer, (2010) Silk - Generating RDF Links while publishing or consuming Linked Data. In Poster at the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2010), Shanghai.

� Axel-Cyrille Ngonga Ngomo and Soren Auer. Limes - a time-e cient approach for large-scale link discovery on the web of data.

� C. Bizer and A. Schultz, (2010), The R2R Framework: Publishing and Discovering Mappings on the Web. In 1st International Workshop on Consuming Linked Data (COLD 2010), Shanghai.



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USING E-LEARNING PLATFORMS IN THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT.

EVOLUTION AND TRENDS

Mihaila Alexandru Robert, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Teacher`s Training Department

Abstract:

The evolution of information and communications technology (ICT) in the last two decades has

had a major impact in all fields. This development was also felt in the educational environment, both

in the design of teaching activities and in terms of how they actually are being conducted. Therefore,

if 15 years ago we were talking about the use of e-learning platforms for certain forms of education,

such as distance learning, now these interactive platforms are commonly used, both in higher

educational system and in undergraduate level. Are they a solution to increase the quality of teaching?

What are the advantages, disadvantages, but also the limitations of using such solutions? These are

questions to which the present paper aims to answer.

The 21st century changes the cultural, social, political and technological plan, a change

characterized by a multilateral development. In this context, human resource gains added value in the

educational environment. Thus the people of that society are more inclined towards knowledge. This

knowledge society of today is geared towards searching and processing the information they discovered.

Access is unlimited using the existing technology and the expansion of Internet (World Wide Web). The



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term knowledge society agreed that the dynamics and complexity of the changes that take place, are

developing with great speed on a fairly large area.

In these circumstances, an e-learning system takes place. The system gives learning a new concept

that allows the one eager to receive information, to travel without restrictions or taxation track of hours,

environmental or other contingencies.

First the concept of e-learning is defined as an electronically learning, combining the

accumulation of knowledge and / or skills training through technology, namely through computer and

internet. Achieving the objectives this way can be made by using digital media or online courses.

E-learning makes a pretty big step for increasing adaptability to the demands and opportunities of

those who form themselves taking into account the fast pace of our lives. The difficulty may be reduced

through a flexible education system, where the one involved in the training brings more innovations in

addressing certain issues in order to successfully stimulate the desire to learn and obtain an easier

knowledge accumulation for the lesson participants. The method used in this system is directly or from

distance, managing each way to make the participant active in class, using visual, audio and verbal

capabilities. These details define more accurately the e-learning system, which requires a dynamic

process of teaching and learning. Providing learning content is made more effectively by using an

appropriate learning multimedia environment. E-learning system requires no co-presence or timing,

realizing human potential development regardless of inconveniences occurred, but conditioned however

by the existence of a digital environment. An example of e-learning originally used in digital technology

can be the text editors, able to correct any spelling or grammatical and the spreadsheets that allow the

rapid and accurate calculations of basic to complex.

Cultural diversity is common today, the aim being to reach a common point enabling access to

information from different areas via a digital format that can accessed from anywhere, by anyone.

Unrestricted access to information of general education makes possible the idea of global documentaries,

propagating the idea of a knowledge society. The desire to explore knowledge, to get involved and

identify personal needs are stimulated by the tools used in e-learning system. The existence of feedback

from the student brings forward the importance of using an e-learning system, as it comes with new ideas,



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positive and negative aspects about the platform they use. This is where e-learning system is the pillar for

maintaining the educational system and the continuity of teaching activity.

Thus, we see the emergence of a virtual learning environment, student’s environment that

provides all necessary learning resources but at the same time ensures the teacher tools necessary for

teaching and evaluation activities. This virtual learning environment is presented as a set of teaching

tools, learning and assessment, which aims to expand students' learning experience through the use of

information technology and communication. Components of a VLE system (Virtual Learning

Environment) includes software resources or course content divided into sections, support for learners

and teachers, electronic communication channels (email, chat, blogs), links to external curricular sources,

hardware equipment: applications server, network equipment, Internet. Users of virtual learning

environment have roles of teacher or student.

Designing a platform focused on learning and educational performance verifies the following:

Elements Remarks/ Examples

Learning content • skills

• abilities

• competences

• knowledge in various fields of knowing

• habits

• information

Target group • employees

• teachers

• pupils

• unemployed

• students

ITC tools used • online conferences

• e-mail



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• web-site

• educational software

• videoconferencing

Program objectives • deepening knowledge

• communicating new knowledge

• creating skills and competence of different areas

• professional development

• training

Resources • budget

• individual allocated time

Teaching strategies • Project-based learning

• inductive learning

• cooperative learning

• discovery learning

Table 1. Elements of an e-learning program (www.elearning.ro)

What is new about e-learning technologies and how they affect the educational process?

E-learning technologies use interactive multimedia material (software, graphics, animations, video

and music to be transmitted simultaneously through computer screens). Using the e-Learning technology

allows user interaction through software-based computer programs. Interactive teaching materials of high

quality are obtained at low cost using sophisticated hardware and software available in the market for an

improved and pleasant learning result that can be used anywhere, anytime and by anyone through

wireless networks. The individual is free to choose the time to study, to select an appropriate level so as

to be able to study at his own pace at home or during work breaks or trips. Implementation of e-learning

platforms eliminates the need to attend workshops, seminars, conferences, site visits, saving time and

resources. All teaching materials provided in the classroom can be compacted in an audio-video format.

Building a multimedia package teaching multi-dimensional, with help menus and links enables the user to

interrogate the system and be answered, like in the classroom situation. This package of teaching never



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gets out of fashion, always being updated on recent information, each user remaining as fresh as the first.

The information is updated through the internet that offers a wide range of incommensurate materials and

knowledge. E-learning technologies have rapidly entered the education sector and as a result, there are

increasingly more new learning tools. They change how teachers and students work and interact, thus

enabling a more efficient learning process.

A major advantage offered by e-learning platforms is the multitude of free solutions that we have

available. Among the most used IT solutions in order to make e-learning platform functional, we mention

Moodle, frog, RM Learning Platform - Our VLE for Schools, e-Front, Open Hive and other solutions that

enable rapid collaborative platforms that can be customized according to particularities of educational

activities that need to be managed online.

In Romania, in pre-university level, it was implemented the AeL solution, a solution which,

although it offers users a wide range of new tools in the area of ICT, is rarely used by teachers. The

major reason? Insufficient training of teachers regarding the use of the solution. So we can emphasize one

of the main limitations of using e-learning platforms, namely the skills needed to use such solutions.

In the educational environment, opinions of using modern education in teaching activities versus

traditional methods of teaching-learning-assessment are divided. Part of teachers and pupils / students

consider the use of all the resources offered by ICT is beneficial, the main arguments being increasing

interactivity, unlimited access to information, felling barriers of space and time and another part of them

believes that the use of ICT resources to the detriment of traditional methods constitutes a disadvantage,

the main arguments being the decreased ability to communicate face to face and unable to observe how

group members engage in work tasks.

What is the solution for the above situation?

The solution accepted by most of those involved in the development of teaching and training

activities is the combination of classical teaching-learning-assessment with modern means of education.

Thus, emerged the concept of blended learning.



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The concept was developed with the idea to give each student a level of knowledge highly

technical, based on modern working techniques, such as individual study or assisted by a trainer. Blended

Learning System is aimed at those who want to continuously improve without abandoning professional

activity.21

This learning has many advantages also in learning foreign languages, so Catrinel Postema

predicts in her article "Blended learning or the fragrant bouquet" appeared in Cariereonline.ro, that

Blended Learning is the future in terms of methods and learning and training strategies. The author

discusses in this article Blended Learning issues from a perspective less circulated in the literature,

namely the application of the Blended Learning formulas in learning foreign languages:” A certain

mixture of species can create the perfect scent for a certain person, just as perfectly balanced mixture of

ingredients can explode the flavor of coffee. The mixture according to the forms and content of learning,

active use of motivational factors and involving participants from the first step of the project ensures

success of a "blended learning" project in learning a foreign language.”

Blended Learning represent thus the "process of incorporating the diverse learning styles, which can be

achieved through mixed physical and virtual resources [...]Through mixed learning, this can be done by

creating a variety of learning tasks and activities using technology instructor and type of interaction peer

to peer "

Advantages and disadvantages of using e-learning platforms:

Using the computer and associated equipment (video cassettes, CDs etc) in the teaching process

causes a number of benefits, such as:

- The individualization of learning. Each learner is different, in the sense of a different style of

learning, of prior knowledge (background), with different interests and motivations. Although it is

recognized that every person is strictly individualized, the "classic" conduct of the educational

process does not allow a good individualization of the training process.

21

Postema,Catrinel(2009),”Blended learning or the fragrant bouquet”, available online at http://www.cariereonline.ro/articol/blended-learning-sau-despre-buchetul-parfumului



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- Motivation. The individualization of the training process generally results in an increase in the

motivation of the trainee. At the same time playful character of the use of certain programs cause

a hardening of motivation

- Interactive Learning. The student has an active role. Interactivity supports creative learning

processes, by discovering.

- The individualization of content. The student can control the content and its learning methods to

adapt in different styles of learning interaction.

- Changes in employment status. The Teacher organizes the training resources, gives advice on

what should be done during the educational interaction.

- Changes in evaluation techniques. With the computer, testing and training can be achieved

simultaneously. The assessment can therefore be continuous.

- Changes in the organizational framework of operation of the training. It can fructify, in this

regard, flexibility inherent interactivity. The study groups can vary in size, establishing criteria for

being particularly flexible. It is also possible to practice the distance learning system.22

Conclusions

We can say, without a doubt, that the use of e-learning platforms is a real solution for increasing

the efficiency of teaching and training activities. Given the huge opening of young people and not only

for the use of ICT in teaching resources, we can better understand and accept that modern means of

learning below has become a "must".

Besides the advantages and disadvantages offered by e-learning platforms, it is necessary to

mention using such solutions limits, limits that refers to the need for infrastructure but also functional

skills set that users of e-learning platforms must have.

22

ROŞCA, ION GHEORGHE; ZAMFIR, GABRIEL; APOSTOL, CONSTANTIN–GELU; BODEA CONSTANŢA–NICOLETA, Informatica instruirii, Bucureşti, Ed. Editura Economică 2002 pg 19



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An important aspect that I want to emphasize it is related to the usage of such solutions. The

techniques and technologies online should not replace the teacher, only to optimize the educational act,

facilitating access to information, enabling a fast and efficient accesses to all resources required for

training pupils / students.

As a general conclusion, I believe that the use of such interactive solutions combined with

traditional methods of teaching-learning-assessment is the optimal solution for increasing the quality of

education.

Bibliography:

� M.M.Popovici, T.D. Chicioreanu, “Program pentru evaluarea asistata de calculator la

disciplina –Didactica Specialitatii”, Universitatea Tehnica de Constructii Bucuresti – Simpozionul

National „Tehnologii educationale pe platforme electronice in invatamantul ingineresc” 2003

� G.Oproiu, T.D. Chicioreanu „Evaluare asistata de calculator”, Universitatea Tehnica de

Constructii Bucuresti – Simpozionul National „Tehnologii educationale pe platforme electronice

in invatamantul ingineresc” 2003.

� Adăscăli ței Adrian, “Instruire asistata de calculator”, Editura Polirom, 2007

� Mihaela Brut,Instrumente pentru E-learning ghidul informatic al profesorului modern,

Ed.Polirom,2006

� Roşca, Ion Gheorghe; Zamfir, Gabriel; Apostol, Constantin–Gelu; Bodea Constanţa–Nicoleta,

Informatica instruirii, Bucureşti, Ed. Editura Economică 2002

� Brut, M., Instrumente pentru e-learning: ghidul informatic al profesorului modern, Iaşi



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STUDENTS ASSESSMENT THROUGH E-PORTFOLIOS. CASE STUDY.

Mihăilă Alexandru Robert, Richițeanu-Năstase Elena-Ramona

Bucharest University of Economics Studies, Romana Square, no. 6, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract:

The portfolio is a complementary method constantly used in educational sciences and beyond,

focusing on tracking the process and the progress of the students rather than the learning outcome.

The IT&C revolution in recent years led to another method of assessment, e-portfolios. The scope of e-

portfolios is very wide and ensures the flexibility of their objectives and content, limited only by the

creativity and technological skills of the teachers and students. Considering the effects of using the

new information and communication technologies on teaching, on the one hand, and the pupils,

students and teachers tendency to use increasingly more often the IT&C resources and solutions in

teaching activities they are involved in, on the other hand, e-portfolio proves to be one of the most

effective and logical solutions for evaluation activities. In this paper the authors will present the

theoretical elements such as portfolio assessment method; e-portfolio, starting from the definition,



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basic characteristics, the advantages and disadvantages and how to use them in teaching activities as

well as an example of good practice in the use of e-portfolios. The example follows the design,

implementation and evaluation of e-portfolios for Computer Assisted Training subject, (compulsory

subject in the students` curriculum that are following courses offered by the Teachers' Training

Department. The conclusions of the paper will highlight the strengths of using e-portfolios in teaching

activities, with emphasis on evaluation, the possibilities of replication for other subjects and limitations

of the method which require some caution in the widely application of the method.

Keywords: portfolios; assessment; e-portfolios; Computer Assisted Training; education.

CHAPTER I - CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS

The explosive evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from the past two

decades made itself present in all areas of activity. Starting with the design, implementation, testing,

evaluation and analysis of results, continuing with the development of simulation and ending with

shaping managerial decisions, the tools, techniques and ICT technologies are found at every turn.

Educational environment has also felt the full effects of ICT evolution. Corroborating this trend

with the increased sensitivity of pupils / students for the teaching activities where specific ICT tools are

used, we can easily explain the tendency of teachers adapting to this trend by implementing ICT tools for

optimal development of courses and seminars.

This paper intends to clarify a number of specific notions such as evaluation, evaluation based on

portfolio, e-portfolio, by highlighting the basic characteristics and advantages, but also the disadvantages,

and in the second part we propose a good practice model which was implemented in Computer Assisted

Training subject, compulsory subject in the students` curriculum that are following courses offered by the

Teachers' Training Department.



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Evaluation is that „activity by which the information is collected, processed and interpreted,

regarding the condition and operation of a system, the results obtained, activity that leads to their

assessment based on some criteria and by which is influenced the evolution of the system.” (Radu, I.T,

2000, p. 18).

Based on this information, we can see that the evaluation brings to the forefront two important

operations or processes: one of quantification, objective registration of educational phenomenon and

another one of appreciation, of issuing judgments of value on it. This approach indicates the complexity

of the evaluation act, especially if we consider the educational effects that the evaluation has on students.

To measure school performance, the teacher has a wide range of assessment methods. The

specialty literature (Radu, IT, 2000, Stoica, A, 2003 Manolescu, M., 2003) highlights the existence of

some traditional assessment methods (written, oral or practical) that focuses on the result, the product of

learning and alternative methods that are interested in learning process and progress (case study,

observation, project, portfolio, essay).

The advantages of alternative evaluation methods are related to the fact that:

� They intend to evaluate the results closely with training / learning;

� It is used simultaneously with the training and learning process;

� The evaluation of school results covers a longer period of time (usually one semester);

� Learning outcomes that can be measured exceeds the sphere of knowledge (as in traditional methods)

and measures abilities, skills, competencies and even attitudinal, value aspects.

These advantages also apply the portfolio method. Considered also the "evaluation report" method

(Radu, I.T, 2000) it takes in consideration a relatively large time (semester or school year cycles) and

covers all student products, in terms of the progress from one stage to another.

The portfolio may represent a true picture of the student, to the extent that the learning activities

proposed are able to stimulate different aspects of student's personality:

� The overall level of training / understanding of the field (concepts, theories);

� Competences (skills and abilities);

� Outstanding results and interests to certain areas;

� Learning difficulties encountered.



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W. Popham (1995, p.164) makes a comparison between the portfolio and the characteristics of a

written test. Thus, he reveals some clear advantages of portfolio: engages students in evaluation and

provides a formative feedback, measures student performance and also the evaluation of their differences,

is a way of collaborative evaluation and self-evaluation, evaluates complex elements such as acquisitions,

effort and attitude and makes a very good connection between teaching, learning and evaluation.

In terms of evaluation disadvantages based on portfolio, we mention the following:

� The time allocated to evaluation increases because of the multitude and complexity of issues

contained;

� An increased difficulty in building a grading scale that reflects elements like creativity and

originality of a student;

� Does not evaluate basic level of knowledge;

� Difficulty in choosing the best themes that contributes to achieving objectives / competences

discipline.

Beyond these disadvantages, we mention that the use of portfolio as an evaluation method should

track the student’s progress and not be used as a summative evaluation method, in which the student just

"checks" portfolio pieces. Used incorrectly, the portfolio is transformed into a traditional method of

evaluation.

By e-portfolio we understand a collection and a reflection of digital files (artefacts) that are shared

electronically for the purpose of reflection, comment and evaluation.

Compared to the advantages and disadvantages referred for the evaluation method based on

portfolio, e-portfolio shows the major advantage of using ICT resources. Further on we present the main

advantages offered by e-portfolio:

� E-portfolio can be accessed online, anywhere;

� Can be shared with anyone with access to the internet;

� Portfolios can be annotated with comments to provide feedback;

� The owner of the portfolio may decide if comments should be private or shared;

� The ability to store, organize and reorder contents quickly and easily;

� Provide opportunities to integrate student course work and rising their motivation and satisfaction of

the outcome;



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� Develops their ability to form the basis for collaboration;

� Enhance the potential for development of information management, self-organization, planning, and

presentation skills.

Besides these advantages presented above, we mention that using e-portfolio for evaluation

reduces the stress for students by working in a collaborative, comfortable environment (they can work

both in the classroom but also in the campus, library or even in their own home) and in their own pace.

CHAPTER II - GOOD PRACTICES USING E-PORTFOLIO. CASE STUDY

In what follows, we present an example of good practice following the design, implementation

and evaluation of e-Portfolios for Computer Assisted Training subject, compulsory subject in the

curriculum students` that are following courses offered by the Teachers' Training Department from

Bucharest University of Economic Studies.

We mention that were evaluated using e-portfolio 223 III-rd. year students from 11 faculties of

Bucharest University of Economic Studies.

As the infrastructure for creating e-portfolio was chosen the informatics solution Google Sites -

https://sites.google.com, free solution offered by Google. We have to mention that there are other e-

solutions that can be used to create e-portfolios (e.g. Joomla, Moodle, WordPress). We selected Google

Sites because we noticed that the majority of students have a Google account. Another reason for

choosing Google site is that it has a easy to use interface that doesn’t`t requires a high level of knowledge

and experience in using this kind of e-solutions.

Designing via e-portfolios forced us to a number of clarifications like:

� Purpose of e-portfolio: what are the competences required: knowledge, skills and abilities, attitudes

that we want to be formed in relation to requirements, abilities and interests of students to the

subject;

� E-portfolio context: age, specific specialization of students;

� E-portfolio content: designed activities in relation to the established objectives and thematic units of

the discipline.



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In this context, the skills that were targeted by using e-portfolio evaluation method were:

designing a collaborative platform, layout skills training, implementation, design and maintenance of a

website, development and peer feedback evaluation capacity.

Given the diversity of specialization of students and different level of IT&C skills acquired until

the third year of college, the theme of e-portfolio was chosen by students in compliance with minimum

standards set by the teacher (e.g. minimum 5 web pages, implementation of at least two gadgets, inserting

multimedia objects, using a chat mode & comments, formatting a page in order to allow the administrator

to load different platform resources).

We present below four e-portfolios. Their selection is not random. We have chosen some e-

portfolios from different categories just to underline that these methods of assessment can be used in any

area of knowledge. We mention that for visiting the site you must access the link under the picture.

Figure 1. e-portofolio ”Tourist in Romania”

https://sites.google.com/site/turistinromania123/



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Figure 2. e-portofolio ”Rose flower shop”

https://sites.google.com/site/florariarose100/home

Figure 3. e-portofolio ”Discover Japan”

https://sites.google.com/site/descoperajaponia/



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Figure 4. e-portofolio ”Contabilitatea pentru toti”

https://sites.google.com/site/contabilitateapentrutoti/home

CONCLUSIONS

Following the above context, we can clearly see strengths in terms of using e-portfolio for

evaluating students. Regarding the possibility of replication, we believe that, basically, it can be applied

to any discipline, but we recommend using it as a way of blended learning. Also, we think it must be

taken into account the limits of the evaluation method, basically elements of the teacher and the student's

skills related to ICT, but also the ability of the teacher to select and design the best learning experiences,

capable to increase motivation in learning and satisfaction of the student’s work.

Therefore we believe that the use of e-portfolio as an evaluation method is a "must", considering

the impact of ICT evolution in educational environmental and the need of designing teaching activities

from a collaborative perspective.

Bibliography:

� Manolescu, M., 2005. Evaluarea scolara. Bucharest. Meteor press



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� Gore, Paul A.; Leitwerke, Wade C., 2008. Computer-Assisted Career Counseling. În

Encyclopedia of Counseling. 2008. SAGE Publications. Online: [http://www.sage-

ereference.com/counseling/Article_n521.html] 7 Apr. 2010.

� Popham, J. W., 1995. Classroom Assessment. Boston. Allyn and Bacon

� Radu, I.T., Evaluarea în procesul didactic. Bucuresti. EDP

� Soica, A., Evaluarea progresului scolar educational. Bucuresti. Editura Humanitas

� Adascalitei, A., 2007. Instruire Asistata de Calculator. Iasi. Editura Polirom

� Codrin-Florentin Nisioiu, METHODOLOGY FOR THE COHERENT ROMANIAN

LINKED OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA ECOSYSTEM, Conference: 14th

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATICS IN ECONOMY -

EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, Scientific Section: e-

Society, Enterprise and Business Solutions, Conference Venue: Bucharest University of

Economic Studies, Dates: 30.04 - 3.05, Volume: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

INFORMATICS IN ECONOMY, Publishing place: Bucharest University of Economic

Studies, Publishing Year: 2015, Pag: 326-332, ISSN: 2284-7472;

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN LIBRA RIES – A BETTER WAY TO OPEN EDUCATION

Mircea Georgeta-Elena, Romanian Academy Library

Abstract: This paper refers to the great influence of ICT to improve the quality in the info-documentary

structures, considered a direct partener in the educational process. The users search more and more information

from various domains, following their life long learning education. In this way, the libraries must permanently

know and analyze the informational needs of users and provide them by means of the hight level technological

development. That why, the libraries have a contribution to knowlegde transfer to a divers public through their

collections, online services, partenerships and educational activities. Through digitisation, the libraries want the

users to have open and easier access to their treasures, to innovate the methods of research, to make the content

more visibile, all these efforts for an open education.

Keywords: ICT, library, education, open education, users.



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1. ICT changes the access to knowledge

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow the processing and dissemination of

information in a revolutionary technique, by digitising the content and by a forming digital culture among

the users, which is meant to produce deep changes in the society, generally, and in the economy,

particularly, aspect noted by Michael Dertouzos: “Quietly, but continuously, the information technology

will soon change the world so profoundly that the movement will vindicate its place in history as a socio-

economical revolution which equals as dimension and impact with the two industrial revolutions.” [1]

ICT permanently evolves and, for that reason, they need to be integrated to the knowledge

process, which intends the storage, conveyance and generation of knowledge, adequate for a proper

community development of any activity fields. According to the European strategies in force, both the

current as well as the future European community space needs to be understood as an equilibrated

environment in which the economy, the administration, the education or the digital culture means the

internet market, where the manufacturers, the distributors and consumers communicate online,

simultaneously and independently, and the most part of transactions are made online. In this respect, the

access to information, to knowledge becomes one of the goals of implementing ICT in all fields,

exercising a major influence over individuals by means of internet, considered by the academic Mihai

Drăgănescu “not only a technological phenomenon, but also a social one through the participation of

users to its current structuring”. [2]

2. ICT in libraries – Resizing Education

- Knowledge transfer

Obviously the accelerated development of the technological environment hall-marks also on the

library and information services, contributing to the improvement of functionality, of the utility of

documenting structures, especially in relation with the user, with other educational environments, namely

schools, universities. With the aim of answering the numerous challenges of the digital environment, the

library and information services have taken over and have adapted a series of concepts specific to the

economic area such as the quality management, the marketing, the performance management, stressing

the need of a cooperation between the local and central libraries, the public authorities, but also



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institutions that promote research-development programs. In this respect, the libraries play a key role

through the preoccupation to become “part of a global reservoir of knowledge, organizations that need to

play an active role in the revolution of knowledge, getting involved in the organization of knowledge, in

the creation of an interference between knowledge and people, making a global network of

knowledge”.[3]

In the same train of ideas, participating to the innovation of knowledge, the library and the science

of information represent a field of maximum interest of the European Commission, taking into account

the importance that they have through the essential contribution to the educational progress in the

contemporary society. Through the programs conceived within the Digital Agenda for Europe 2010,

assumed also by Romania, several action lines are distinguished, envisaging direct measures related to:

- The implementation and use of a sole access point of the digital information linked to the

cultural heritage but also to education, to spending the leisure time etc.

- Materialization and digitising of cultural heritage (libraries, physical and audio visual archives

for its opening at European level and for its preservation in time.

- The creation of Europeana – the sole European library – in close cooperation with all

institutions involved.

- The promotion of creating original digital content, specific to the communities in Romania.

- The improvement of the library-individual interaction by means of the ICT resources. [4]

Synthetizing these premises related to the cultural field, it is remarked the interest for obtaining a

global consensus with a view to interoperability and standardization, thus a cultural policy being

developed, which “creates and improves viable, logical structures, adapted to the social reality, insures

the minimum necessary in respect of funds and makes sure these funds are used well”. [5]

By convergence as to the technological progress, the role of libraries changes and is amplified,

especially in the transfer of knowledge, their mission being that of ensuring the informational resources in

a most rapidly and completely manner, guaranteeing the freedom of information. In this respect, the

library can be seen as an essential instrument of the educational process, as an environment in which the

man is offered the chance of a permanent education, of a broad opening of the self-instruction capacity

during his lifetime. That is why, the academic Florin Filip stresses the fact that “The access without

frontiers, at any hour, to cultural values (…)” may be considered not only as an accessible and



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comfortable surrogate, but also as a manner of democratization, of integration and non-discrimination. [6]

In this train of ideas, the informational content preserved by libraries becomes permanently updated and

extended through the ICT means, having an impact on education, especially through the growing of the

quality and attraction, variety and efficiency. [7]

Beyond all doubt, the library needs to be considered as an integrating part of the educational

process, partner of education, setting as target to improve the quality of education through the

information supplied to the factors involved actively in education. The purpose of this perspective

becomes multiple: ensuring the universal and continuous access to education, the increase of the

investments level in human resources, the ensuring of accessing the information necessary to learning, the

training of the cognitive potential of users, the efficient collaboration and communication, up to the

stimulating of the teaching-learning-assessment methods. Thus, it is observed the contribution brought by

libraries in the development of certain learning instruments, precisely by means of the open access to

information, offering support for the creation of opportunities regarding the activities of learning in

cooperation. The users may be directed towards special exploration fields, they may get in touch with the

ones that possess knowledge, and knowledge may be shared.

- Frame for the sustainable development

At the same time, the European perspectives redefine the conceptual and practical role of libraries

in the society, which should become “a centre of information and documentation for the community, a

public service for the formation and information of users, which is active, dynamic, adaptable, involved

in the social and cultural life”. [8] Thus the library plays nowadays an important role in the social

integration process, offering diverse services for citizens, contributing to the growth of the quality of life

through permanent education programs and social integration.

In this respect, the specialists from libraries and from the information centres will have an essential contribution in the creative and productive organization of knowledge, these “being perceived as intermediaries between the universe of information resources and the community of users [9], allowing the access to the vast field of knowledge, helping the others to acquire, use and create knowledge, developing the interactivity within libraries, so that the librarian becomes an advisor of the citizen, capable to offer him any type of information that could be of interest. The librarian’s role has become more complex now because to the traditional obligations of the latter are added the management, retrieval, analysis, organization and information facilitation for the user, from the network [10] The librarians need to be appreciated as educational partners of the educational institutions and they will help



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the users to become the direct beneficiaries of information, through the methodology and necessary approaches in order to locate and use efficiently the electronic information sources”.

- Strategies to attract users

The structure of the documentary content within a library is vast, covering different cultural-

scientific fields of interest, and the ICT means manage to make more effective the link between the

library, the knowledge supplier, values, and the beneficiary, user, who becomes bound to know how to

search for, to identify correctly the desired contents, the useful information. That is why, the new mission

of the library takes shape by performing a strategy to attract users by offering unique, challenging

services, following the organization and preservation of the documentary content, the search, the retrieval

and dissemination of the information necessary in the educational process. Lately, one needs to remark

the manners of promoting a library, both in the physical space, by means of different advertising

materials, exhibitions, fairs, volunteering activities, announcements, leaflets, as well as on the online

space, through the website, through virtual interaction channels.

The ICT role consists in the possibility to generate new knowledge, to develop new procedures

and practices for the improvement of the sharing and integration of knowledge. The creation and

development of the library website needs to follow the specific requirements of information users,

underlining the practical role, as online marketing instrument, as manner to manage and capitalize

knowledge. The permanent improvement of the informational content offered on site, leads to the growth

of the number of virtual users, to their satisfaction by returning to the website, the increased rate of

transformation of the virtual users into users of the library services. As active part in the education

process, many libraries propose to have a website as access path to the interactive services offered to

users, through presenting collections, online services, partnerships of educative activities etc. Thus, the

man becomes aware of the fact that knowledge does not have to limit only to institutions with formal

role, but integrates itself directly also in the institutions with informal role, such as libraries. In this

respect, the ITC role in libraries creates premises for the customized and cooperative learning, the



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distributed and continuous learning, in-depth, diverse, polymorph understanding, [11], stimulating the

open education resources defined as “Teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or

otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-

cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Open licensing is

built within the existing framework of intellectual property rights as defined by relevant international

conventions and respects the authorship of the work”. [12]

From such perspective it seems to be necessary for the information owners, such as libraries and

archives, to leave behind their condition of mere users of technology, with the purpose of managing data

and for the preservation of documents, and to adopt a proactive attitude, in the sense of developing an

institutional functionality which should envisage the creation which produces informational and

knowledge added value.

Much of the collections within a library concentrate the digitised value of the documents that exist

in libraries, certain magazines, special collections, old books, heritage objects, etc. In this respect, by

means of the ITC, the Library of the Romanian Academy offers to the new society of knowledge a

research field in order to reaffirm the need, which is acknowledged, nonetheless, by all specialists, to

create the possibility of searching, filtering and making the bibliography of the patrimony fund in its

entirety, depending on the knowledge interests of users. These are several examples:

http://www.biblacad.ro/Eminescu.html,

http://www.biblacad.ro/manuscriseCioran.html,http://www.biblacad.ro/Orghidan_foto.html,http://www.bi

blacad.ro/manuscrise.html,http://www.biblacad.ro/grafica.html,http://www.biblacad.ro/harti.html. etc.

[13]

At European level, the Europeana existence marks an important moment in the development of

information services in educational purpose, being an online multimedia library, in all EU languages,

which offers to the Internet users from the entire world methods to explore the European cultural

patrimony, a transnational collective catalogue of digital cultural resources exposed by all member states

of the European Union : “Digitised material from cultural institutions can be re-used for developing

learning and educational content, documentaries, tourism applications, games, animations and design



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tools. In addition, Europeana can be an important test-bed for new technologies and innovative ideas that

can then make their way to the marketplace. (...) The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is one of the key

initiatives proposed by the Commission in the context of its package for delivering sustainable growth

and jobs, directly related to the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth.

Europeana Strategy 2015 - 2020: 'We transform the world with culture'.“ [14]

More than 1000 cultural institutions contribute to Europeana (directly or by means of the content

adders) and over 150 institutions participate within the partners network. In the Romanian cultural space,

the involvement of the National Romanian Library is well known in the Europeana projects, but also

other county libraries, museums and archives have contributed to the accomplishment of this digital

project, with the purpose of creating the Digital Library of Romania. According to the European

Commission recommendations – taking into account the population and the GDP – Romania should

exhibit itself in Europeana, until the end of this year, around 750000 digital elements.

The online catalogues highlight the bibliographical databases of national interest, such as OPAC

(On-line Public Access Catalogue) which offer an organized, coherent, efficient, interrogation, the user

being able to obtain combined information related to the presence of the document in the library (author,

title, subject, collection, etc.) in a short period of time. It is known the fact that in Romania integrated

systems are implemented, such as ALEPH, ALICE, TINLIB, VUBIS.

- Partenerships and educational activities:

eCULTURA – Program for innovation in libraries

At the same time, the European initiatives have not remained unanswered, so that in order to

improve the quality of life through education and in order to stimulate the social inclusion, different

programs have been implemented in Romania in which the library was a successful partner, one of these

being the "Economy based on knowledge". eCULTURA is an initiative that is part of the “Economy

based on Knowledge” and has redefined the role of the public library within communities, by offering

modern services, access to the information from the digital environment and the development of projects

for the community members, the library has become a factor of education through lifetime. [15]



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What do the participating libraries to eCULTURA offer for the community members ?

The perspectives are multiple : a frame for the formation of local initiative groups, access to

information on the development of local education, cultural and development projects, based on specific

needs of the community, the identification of financing sources and partners for the development of

projects of any type, assistance in the identification, preservation and protection of the local cultural

heritage and its promotion at European level, access to high speed Internet connection and different

information sources, e-books, digitised literacy classes and for the IT skills, access to modern digital

services – eLearning, Internet Banking, etc., facilities of accessing the employment offers and of the

professional reconversion opportunities etc. [16]

eCULTURA Projects:

“ Tradition and Modernism in the Village life” (Vetrişoara, Vaslui county), „Tradition and Innovation in

Your Library!” (Dărmăneşti and Urzicuţa), „eLibrary&Virtual Technology” (Teiu, Argeş county),

„Library, promoter of the tourism development and of the entrepreneurial craftmanship”, (Luncaviţa and

Băneasa), „Rural Economy based on Knowledge – eGospodari” (Vii şoara and Valea Viilor, Cluj), „The

reading gift” (Ţăndărei and Băneasa), „Culture through ITC knowledge” (Valea Moldovei and Cândeşti,

Suceava), „Cultural Digital Arch through eLibrary and eReaders services”, „eDialog – Culture without

fronteers” (Borşa and Carastelec), „eReading, eTraditions – bridge between generations” (Vintileasa and

Mircea Vodă, Vrancea), „The Library – centre of information dissemination”, Cacica and Cândeşti,

Suceava etc. [17]

It is very important to look for and to keep in mind the activity of other university, central or

county libraries which, by means of the ITC, are dynamically involved in the development of activities

and partnerships with educative purpose: “Opening Opportunities 2015”, “PROFILLER – LEARNING

BY SHARING”, under aegis of e-Skills for Jobs, Stress Management for Healthy Jobs 2014-2015 etc.

[18]

Conclusions

Therefore, the presence of ITC in libraries develop an action frame meant to improve permanently

the quality of the educative act by using efficiently and transparently the technological resources,

stimulating the community interest towards education through innovation and investment on the long

term. The European education policies encourage the use of interactive informational applications with



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the purpose of resizing the cultural-educative space, so that, in the society of knowledge, the education

should promote the desire of knowledge, of training throughout lifetime, as motivation of the socio-

personal development.

In this respect, the library may impose multidimensional strategies through ITC, and the impact

on education is resizing the research-development activities, provided the education system ensures the

formal, informal and non-formal integration in the socio-cultural area. Rethought from the perspective of

an integrated complex of school experiences and not only, the curriculum receives the main purpose of

contributing to the student’s global formation, in the sense that he is not identified only with a rigid, pre-

set content of the school subject matters, but, through ITC means, he uses the entire range of educational

resources and elements. That is why, by means of the ITC, the created contents point at multiple

perspectives, namely the possibility of intentional programming, controllable from the point of view of

the rational criteria and of the formational experience, organized in a formal context.

Thus, in the view of the European educational policies, learning is not anymore a final, completed

outcome, but a flexible, permanent frame, an evolution throughout lifetime, a guarantee of integrating

ages, through the preoccupation towards the individual’s performances as part of his own potential.

Bibliography :

� Dertouzos, Michael, (2000), Ce va fi? Cum vom trăi în Lumea Nouă a Informaţiei, Editura

Tehnică, Bucureşti, p. 21.

� Drăgănescu, Mihai, (2001) Societatea informaţională şi a cunoaşterii.Vectorii societăţii

cunoaşterii, în: Florin, Gheorghe Filip, Coord., Societatea informaţională - Societatea

cunoaşterii: concepte, soluţii şi strategii pentru România. Bucureşti, Editura Expert, p. 45.

� Porumbeanu, Octavia-Luciana, (2011) Managementul cunoaşterii şi structurile

infodocumentare, ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti,



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Bucureşti, pp. 166-167.

� Guvernul României, Ministerului Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale, (2014),

Strategia Națională privind Agenda Digitală pentru România,

http://www.mcsi.ro/Minister/Contact. http://digitalagenda.ro/ , accesat la data de 05 februarie

2015.

� Banciu, Doina, Buluţă, Gheorghe, Petrescu, Victor, (2001), Biblioteca şi societatea, Editura

Ager, Bucureşti, p. 70.

� Florin Gh. Filip (1996), Tehnologiile informatice şi valorificarea patrimoniului cultural

naţional, în Revista Academica, Anul V, iulie 1996, nr. 9 (69), p. 23.

� Florin Gh. Filip (2001), Către o economie a culturii şi o infrastructură informaţională

intelectuală, în Revista Academica, Vol. XI, nr. 12 (32), p. 12.

� Banciu, Doina, Buluţă, Gheorghe, Petrescu, Victor, (2001), op. cit., p. 30.

� Porumbeanu, Octavia-Luciana, (2011), op. cit. , p. 191.

� Hu, Chengren, (1996), Network Literacy: New Task for Librarians on Users Education în 62th

IFLA General Conference, Beijing, p. 84-88.

� Cucoş, Constantin (2006), Informatizarea educaţiei. Aspecte ale virtualizării formării,

Polirom, Iaşi, p. 72-73.

� www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/pdf/Events/Paris%20OER%20Declar

ation_01.pdf, accesat la data de 15 mai 2015

� http://www.biblacad.ro/, accesat la data de 15 mai 2015.

� www.europeana.eu, accesat la data de 13 mai 2015.

� Ministerul pentru Societatea Informaţională (2013), Biblioteca în era digitală. eCULTURA-

Program pentru inovaţie în biblioteci, Bucureşti.

� www.ecomunitate.ro , accesat la data de 12 mai 2015

� Ibidem

� http://www.bjiasi.ro/program-de-orientare-in-cariera-in-biblioteca-publica/



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A LOOK AT STUDENTS’ USE OF INFORMATION SOURCES

Păduraru Monica Elisabeta

The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Mihail Moxa Street, No. 5-7, 1st district, Bucharest, Romania

[email protected]

Abstract:

This study aims to highlight students' preferences regarding the use of information sources in

support of learning and exam preparation, and their perceptions regarding the importance given to

certain sources of information in individual study activities. The idea of this study came in sight while

observing the shaping of students' learning preferences. We deemed appropriate to use a quantitative

research method for gathering the information (a questionnaire-based survey). Data were collected



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using an unrepresentative sample of students from the Department for Teacher Training from The

Bucharest University of Economic Studies. Students who took part in our survey showed a great deal

of interest in the investigated topic in terms of their relation with new media resources and virtual

environments used in their learning activities. We managed to identify several trends pertaining the

use of certain information sources as well as their preferences regarding their use.

Keywords: students’ learning; sources of information; web resources; information quality.

I. PROBLEM STATEMENT

The purpose of this study is to identify students’ preferences regarding the use of information

sources in support of learning and exam preparation, and their perceptions regarding the importance

given to certain sources of information in individual study activities. More specifically this study was

designed to explore the following questions:

- What information sources use our students?

- What are the information sources that students use most frequently?

- What information source do students value, in terms of relevance and accuracy of

information?

- What are the information sources recommended by teachers for students' individual study?

II. RESEARCH CONTEXT

Pettigrew et al. (2001) (as cited in George, et al. 2006) define information behavior as the study of

how people need, seek, give and use information in different contexts, including the workplace and

everyday living. In the context of this study, we use information behavior as it applies to students from

the Department for Teacher Training from The Bucharest University of Economic Studies (BUES), as

they seek, search for, and use information to support their individual study.

Traditionally, many teachers have treated content area knowledge as Hirsch (1987) did, as a

"basket of facts" that must be gathered from text and lecture. These facts are stored in memory, just as

one ads information to a computer database. The constructivist approach to learning objects to the



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transmission-oriented learning and questions the value of learning models that rely on only one text

(Steven, A., S. et al.).

Kintsch and van Dijk's (1978) outline a model that describes the way readers build concepts via

reading a single text. A psychological model of text-based learning needs to consider the reader’s prior

knowledge and the way the student uses it when designing a new mental model (Steven, A., S., et al.).

Searching for information is a particular process, individually tailored to certain specifications

like the information need, the learner’s individuality and the resources available. Dependence on certain

sources of information may limit access to information. Since information needs are diverse, especially as

individuals develop from one stage to another, this (need for information) should be regarded as highly

significant when teaching students (Kerins, G. Madden, R., Fulton C., 2004).

The study Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment conducted by the

Digital Library Federation and the research firm Outsell, Inc. attempted to observe how students and

faculty members at colleges and universities used information (Friedlander 2002). The study investigated

issues like information sources used for scholastic tasks, methods used for finding information and

potential problems learners may come across in the process of searching for information. Another study

conducted by the Online Computer Library Center targeted the information habits of students (2002).

This particular study’s goal pertained to describing the students' opinion on information delivery. The

study examined issues like the students' opinion about the information found on the internet, at the library

or in various texts, their preferred methods for accessing information and evaluate the information. Both

studies confirm that the Internet and online resources play an important role for most students in need of

information. (George, et al. 2006).

III. METHODOLOGY

For this study we deemed appropriate to use a quantitative research method for gathering the

information (a questionnaire-based survey). Data were collected using an unrepresentative sample of

students from the Department for Teacher Training from The Bucharest University of Economic Studies.

The survey was conducted from November 2014 - December 2014 among the Bachelor’s and Master’s

students enrolled in pedagogical training module within UES. The chosen research method was the



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survey questionnaire (questionnaires were applied electronically, using Google Docs platform) to which a

total of 82 students gave recorded answers.

The questionnaire was drawn up and pre-tested by the author and it contains of six items with

predefined answers and one item with free answers.

IV. DATA ANALYSIS

We present here in after the responses for each question given by the 82 students who took part in

the study.

First question aimed to identify the level of studies of the respondents. Thus, as we can see in the

chart below, 90% of them are bachelor students and 10% are master students.

Chart 1. Stydents’ distribution by level of studies

From the analysis of gathered data, we can see that students estimate the number of hours by week

allocated to individual study as follows: 37% study between 5 and 10 hours per week, 34% study

between 10 and 15 hours per week, 20% study between 0 and 5 hours per week and only 10% consider

that they study more then 15 hours per week.



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Chart 2. Number of hours by week allocated, on the average, to individual study, by students

The third question give us a glance on information sources used by students for individual study.

Thus, when asked to mention what sources of information they commonly use for individual study,

students have chosen, in descending order, the following sources: 98% use notes taken in lectures and

seminars, 78% use online resources, 44% use personal books, 44% use library books, 15% use e-books

and only 5% use audio-books (this was a multiple choice question). As we can see, almost all respondents

use notes taken in lectures and seminars for individual study activities. We believe that this indicates that

attending courses and seminars has an important role in individual study of students. In addition to

information provided by teachers in class or seminar, many students use online resources in individual

study.

Chart 3. Information sources used by students

By the fourth question, we wanted to find out what is the information source that students use

most frequently (in this case, only one choice was possible). We believe that the fact that 76% of



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respondents use the notes taken in lectures and seminars for individual study indicates a high level of

dependence of students towards teachers.

Chart 4. Information source that students use most frequently

Students were asked to list three reasons for choosing to use the information source mentioned

above. For notes taken in lectures and seminars, the reasons mentioned most frequently were: information

is synthesized, examples are provided, it is easy to understand, is consistent with what will be required in

the exam, it is easy to remember what has been discussed in class. Regarding the online resources,

students said that they use them because it can be quickly accessed anytime, anywhere and there are

many and diverse.

Another aspect that we wanted to identify was the information sources that are recommended by

teachers for students' individual study. 85% of the respondents stated that teachers recommend library

books for individual study. Afterward, they mention notes taken in lectures and seminars (68%), personal

books (29%), online resources (27%), magazines/other publications (20%) and, last, e-books (10%). It is

worrying the gap that exists between teacher recommendations and student choices. Although students

say that 85% of teachers recommend to use in self-study books from the library, when they were asked to

mention the source used most frequently in individual study, the library books were not even mentioned.



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Chart 5. Information sources recommended by teachers for students’ individual study

The next question asked students to choose the source of information that is most valued, in terms

of relevance and accuracy of information. Again, the notes taken in lectures and seminars have gathered

most of students’ choices (56%), followed by books from the library (29%), personal books (10%) and

magazines/other publications (5%). Surprisingly, online resources, audio-books and e-books have not

accumulated even one choice.

Chart 6. Students’ perception regarding the level of confidence granted to information sources, in

terms of relevance and accuracy of information



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IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

We found that students from the Department for Teacher Training from the Bucharest University

of Economic Studies use notes taken in lectures and seminars, at the expense of other information sources

for individual study.

There is often a general misconception that because lectures and seminars represent the majority

of contact hours spent with members of staff, they will provide the “answers” to the problems raised by

students’ reading. But they will not. Lectures and seminars are intended to provide introductions to

subjects and the debates that surround them, not to carve out definitive “tablets of stone”.

Students tend to take direction from individuals, in particular, a lecturer. But lecturers may be

unaware of all information sources available and they may rely on particular information channels, which

may not be the most effective. So, we consider that it is important to make the academic staff aware of

new information sources and their use, and to ensure that these “information gatekeepers” are pointing

students to a range of potentially helpful information sources.

We think that these elements may be a starting point for teachers in terms of:

- diversifying sources of information recommended to students for individual study;

- encouraging students to do individual and group projects;

- designing assessment tests that do not emphasize information’ memorization;

- transforming teaching activity from the mere transmission of information in activities of debate and

discussions.

As an additional result of this study we hope to increase students' interest in learning activities

and, last but not least, increase the quality of their training as future teachers who will have to guide their

own students to efficiently use the available sources of information.

Bibliography:

� Ciobanu, O., Pescaru A., Ştefan L., Păduraru, M.E., (2003), Aşteptări, nevoi şi atitudini

ale studenţilor faţă de învăţarea în mediul virtual, in Campusul virtual – repere teoretice şi

implicaţii practice, Editura ASE, Bucureşti.

� George, C., Bright, A., Hurlbert, T., Linke, E.C., St. Clair, G. & Stein, J., (2006),

Scholarly use of information: graduate students' information seeking behaviour. In



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Information Research, 11(4) paper 272 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/11-

4/paper272.html]

� Kerins, G., Madden, R., Fulton, C., 2004. Information seeking and students studying for

professional careers: the cases of engineering and law students in Ireland." In Information

Research, 10(1) paper 208 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/10-1/paper208.html]

� Steven, A., S., Cynthia, R., H., Bruce, K., B., Mary, M., M. What Happens When Students

Read Multiple Source Documents in History?. [Available at

http://curry.virginia.edu/go/clic/nrrc/hist_r45.html]

� Research, 11(4) paper 272 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/11-4/paper272.html]



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FACEBOOK’S INFLUENCE ON THE LEARNING PROCESS OF

POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS AND ITS FUTURE CONTRIBUTION T O

DIDACTIC ACTIVITIES

Petre Adriana, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania

Abstract:

Nowadays it has become a must to be connected to a social network so to be informed about

everything that surrounds you. Ever since its foundation, Facebook has gradually entered its users’

lives in an attempt to offer, through its various functions, everything that other social channels have

not. Some voices claim this target was accomplished, judging by the great number of active users

around the globe, but which are the costs? This paper intends to analyze, considering the results of a

questionnaire, the utility of Facebook use in the learning process of a group of 100 postgraduate

students specialized in economics. This article supports the introduction of an optional subject in the

initial training of the professors that would enable them to study the influence of social networks on

the learning process and motivation, and how to use these new channels in the context of didactic

activities.

Keywords: Facebook, social network, learning process, motivation, didactic activities

Introduction

From scratch to a real masterpiece it is only a step called Facebook. Initially launched in 2004 at

Harvard University, in the United States of America, as a social network to facilitate the communication

among this university’s students, ever since 2006, Facebook can be accessed worldwide, therefore it has

rapidly become one of the mandatory asset on nowadays' social challenges. There are some countries



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from the Middle East whose citizens’ access to Facebook is banned according to their regulations and

religious considerations23.

The extend of this social media has gone beyond the founder' s expectations and, judging from the

number of Facebook users around the globe, it is by far the most utilized one at the moment, with

approximately 900.000.000 users monthly24, exceeding Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus +,

Tumblr, Instagram, VK, Flick, Vine and others.

In an attempt to study the influence and contribution that particularly Facebook brings to the total

academic outcome of 100 master students enrolled in programmers with a major in economics, I

developed a questionnaire that should reveal firstly the customs that respondents have regarding the use

of Facebook and secondly they should offer arguments regarding what is already or might be Facebook's

contribution towards their learning process.

In the end, the article presents the project of a new optional subject, destined to professors who

saw the continual development of learning outside the classroom's door and would like to enter the online

world so as to better address their students' needs.

Literature review

Facebook is a social-networking site (SNS) created by Mark Zuckerberg with the purpose of

linking residential college and university students with their peers from other residence halls. It is defined

as “an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges and universities”

(Zuckerberg, 2005, p.1). Starting from this practical purpose, the functionality of Facebook has

continuously been upgraded as new trends were depicted.

Change is a constant of our modern times, no wonder that so many voices mention the nowadays’

young generation representatives as “digital natives” or “Homo Zappiens”. They are people able to

23 Facebook, http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook, accesed on 4th of May 2015.

24 The eBusiness MBA Guide for May 2015 http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites, accesed on 14th of May 2015.



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“simultaneously process multiple channels of information”25. According to the American Psychological

Association, practicing with cutting-edge technology has enabled people to develop their ability to

rapidly switch from one activity to another. This is most of the times equaled to multitasking, although

people do not have the innate ability to multitask, apart from the cases when the actions have been

automated (for example walking, talking and chewing gum at the same time). This ability is not

considered a good way of learning though, often leading to poorer learning results and poorer

performance of tasks, in comparison with the serial way of carrying out tasks, especially for teenager

users. According to the recent study of Kirschner and Karpinski applied on 102 undergraduates and 117

graduates from public Midwestern University, USA, Facebook users allocate fewer hours on average per

week for studying, as opposed to nonusers. The majority of Facebook users affirmed that academics were

a priority for them and they do not use Facebook long enough to affect their results, while the rest of

them accused poor time-management, but they considered Facebook beneficial for their learning

nonetheless. The study also revealed that graduate students recorded a higher GPA than the

undergraduate students (Kirschner, Karpinski, 2010).

The studies on Facebook use and academic performance developed on Romanian students

discovered so far that students use Facebook more for social purposes and less for academic uses,

although “they take part in discussions about their assignments, lectures, study notes or share information

about research resources”26. This suggests on the one hand that there is also a sharp difference of culture

and mentality among Romanian Facebook users and the American ones, especially, and on the other hand

that Facebook users are different worldwide as their personalities are distinct and these factors influence

the manner in which Facebook is perceived and the purposes for which it is used.

Another aspect signaled in the scientific literature is the correlation between Facebook and

Emotional Intelligence. For the university students the results show a beneficial contribution of the social

25 Kirschner, P.A..Karpinski, A.C. (2010), Facebook and academic performance, ScienceDirect, Computers in Human Behavior, Nr. 26, p. 1237-1245, accesed on 24th of April 2015.

26 Grosseck, G., Bran, R., Tiru, L.(2011), Dear Teacher, what should I write on my wall? A case study on academic uses of Facebook, ScienceDirect, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, nr 15, p. 1425-1430, Romania, accesed on 24th of April 2015.



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tool on growing personal and interpersonal skills, adaptability and stress resistance.27 Other articles show

how using Facebook as an instrument for foreign language teaching can be an effective alternative.28

Data and methodology

For this particular study, data were collected from 100 postgraduate students enrolled in a master

programme at the International Business and Economics Faculty, from Bucharest University of Economic

Studies, Romania. The sample was represented by 25 male participants (25%) and 75 female participants

(75%). The majority of them (85%) were part of the 20-24 age group, 10% were part of 25-29 age group

and the rest of 5% exceeded the age of 29.

The method used was the survey, organized in two parts. The first part comprised two preliminary

questions that were intended to select the eligible participants for the study (the active Facebook users)

and 6 items (yes/no, multiple-choice and Likert-type scaling) that were meant to evaluate the users’ basic

knowledge and attitude towards Facebook. For this part, the questions were inspired from the Facebook

Questionnaire proposed by Craig Ross, Emily Orr and co in the article “Personality and motivations

associated with Facebook use”. The second part was organized in 10 items (yes/no, multiple choice,

Likert-type scaling, open-response items) with the target to evaluate if Facebook could function as an e-

learning platform, if this social networking site could be used as a learning tool and as an interface for the

mentoring process.

Results

The outcomes of this survey are showing that 45% of the participants spend between 1 to 3 hours

online on Facebook, followed by 25% of them spending between 10-30 minutes, 20% of them allocating

for Facebook activities more than 4 hours and the rest of 10%, from 31 to 60 minutes.60% of the

respondents agree to consider Facebook a part of their everyday activity and 50% are neutral towards 27 Bektaș, E., Toros T., Miman, M.(2014), Demographic Features of University Students Uning Facebook And Its Relationship With Emotional Intelligence, ScienceDirect, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, nr 113, p.191-206, Mersin, Turkey, accesed on 24th of April 2015.

28 Buga, R., Căpeață, I., Chirasnel, C., Popa, A. (2013), Facebook in foreign language teaching-a tool to improve communication competences, ScienceDirect, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, nr 128, p. 93-98, Romania, accesed on 24th of April 2015.



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boasting of being on Facebook or dedicating a part of their daily schedule to Facebook.45% of them are

allowing everyone to seek their profile on Facebook and 80% of them do not use the blocking list feature.

The ones who do use it wanted to prevent certain people from stalking them.85% of the assessed

participants have allowed only their Friends to visualize their status updates, videos and photos tagged of

them, online status, wall, likes and comments, restricting these personal features from the large public.

When talking about the various utilities of Facebook, the survey focuses on socialization,

information and study and membership and employability. For the first function, 85% of the students

communicate for social purposes, 70% use Facebook to reenter in contact with people that they used to

know/previously met and 60% follow their friends’ profile. It does seem that participants mostly disagree

with playing games on Facebook (75%).

The following Facebook utility that was assessed is information and study. At this point students

considered that Facebook can be 100% an efficient way to communicate with their colleagues for solving

group assignments, to be members of various study groups and to be constantly informed regarding

academic news (80%), to be constantly informed regarding extracurricular activities that interest them

(75%), to share information of general interest (65%) and they mostly disagreed of using Facebook for

accessing learning apps such as Memrise.

About membership and employability utility the respondents showed interest in being constantly

up to date with news of favorite foreign/local publications, in being a member of a community one finds

oneself related to(discussion group, hobby-centered group) and in following profiles of

companies/NGOs/public institutions (55-75%). Less interest (neutral) was showed for connecting with

employers, finding job offers or joining events (45-50%).

For the second part of the survey, the objective was to decide whether Facebook could work as a

learning tool as well, for this particular sample. 75% of the participants offered arguments in favour

considering that Facebook has the following assets: accessibility in real time to many sources of

information, efficiency, good connectivity with/on various websites/browsers/applications/devices,

exchanging different opinions. The remaining 25 % expressed their disapproval because they perceive

Facebook as being the best media for socializing and not for learning purposes.

Then the last open-response questions have signaled a paradox: students want to receive feedback

from their professors, but even though in regular classes they mostly do not, the online media does not



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seem to be a feasible alternative for this purpose yet. When asked if professors gave them feedback

during regular classes regarding assignments or exam/test results, 35% of them affirmed that they never

receive feedback and if received it was not regular (40 %). Moreover students feel that feedback before,

during and after (80% of the respondents) the course are important and very important. 60% of the

respondents are friends with their professors on Facebook. However, when asked if they would use

Facebook to ask for advice from their professors, the majority said that they preferred to talk in person as

the professor could be overwhelmed with questions online and the risk would be to postpone the answer

or even not answer at all. Others say that it would be unprofessional to use Facebook for such reasons as

it is mostly used for entertainment and the regular e-mails will solve the urgent online question-answer

session. Some of the students more optimistically offered the other side of the coin, the advantages: “You

can see whether or not the teacher had seen/received your question; if installed on a smartphone, there is

no need for a laptop or PC to check, so there is a quicker response time; you can send files, pictures, and

share things”. The conclusive question referred to the possibility of using Facebook, the communication

tool, as a learning tool. The differential in percentage between the group that was pro and the one that

was against this idea was very small, however, there were more arguments against it. The reasons were

the lack of privacy, the security issues, and the socialization and relaxation purposes that surmounted the

motivation for learning, Facebook’s informal nature. On the other side the pro arguments mentioned were

sharing, connecting, informing functions, fast and effective, pleasant and accessible.

Optional subject for professors

In modern times, modern learning techniques are necessary to be used. Based on results of the

previous survey, there is a constant need of staying connected as much as possible among postgraduate

students whether this may signify entertaining or study and progressing in the field of expertise

objectives. Therefore, for professors’ initial training I propose an optional subject that would make them

aware of the great impact that social networks have on the learning process and motivation of students

and would determine them to further investigate how to use these new channels in the context of didactic

activities. The results of the survey show that postgraduate students are supporting the idea of an e-

learning platform on Facebook that would give them full access to recent data regarding their domain of

interest, although they are rejecting the case of mentorship through Facebook channel.



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A professor following this subject is required basic computer skills, adaptability and willingness

to experience new teaching methods.

The topics would be History of Social-Networking Sites, Applications and Browsers (2 courses

and 2 laboratories), E-learning (4 courses and 4 laboratories), Facebook and its influence on personality,

learning motivation and team work (2 courses and 2 laboratories), How to create and manage a course on

an e-learning platform (3 laboratories). Examination is based on a pilot project of a course taught online

on an e-learning platform (60% of the final mark) and 40% ongoing evaluation(computer skills

assessment).

Conclusion

In the concluding remarks I would like to express my personal opinion regarding the topic that I

approached in the course of this article. As being myself part of the 20-24 age group of participants that

took part in the survey, I tried to see objectively the advantages and the limits of the social-networking

media. I find myself an active Facebook user ever since 2009 and I have used it mostly for social and

informative purposes until I started university studies. Then, being part of a study group made me see

Facebook as an extremely useful instrument of communication, but at the same time a distraction from

learning as it has been initially destined to an informal, entertaining purpose. However the idea of

benefiting from the advantages of faster accessibility to information, better connectivity, availability on

various devices has made me wonder if this great features could contribute to enhancing learning skills

such as distributive attention, multitasking, communication skills.

It is possible that the near future would bring us in the situation when social networking sites

would take the lead over people’s currently social lives and this outcome is better to be surveyed and

signaled when the equilibria is shifting towards a radical change.

Bibliography

� Ross, C., Orr, E.S., Sisic, M., Arseneault, J., M., Simmering, G. , Orr, R.R. (2009), Personality

and motivations associated with Facebook use, Computers in Human Behavior 25, p. 578-586,

ScienceDirect, Canada, accesed on 24th of April 2015.



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EdPROF 2015


� Kirschner, P.A..Karpinski, A.C. (2010), Facebook and academic performance, ScienceDirect,

Computers in Human Behavior, Nr. 26, p. 1237-1245, accesed on 24th of April 2015.

� Amuchai-Hamburger, Y., Vinitzky, G. (2010), Social network use and personality,

ScienceDirect, Computers in Human Behavior, Nr. 26, p. 1289-1295, Israel, accesed on 24th

of April 2015.

� Ryan, T., Xenos, S. (2011), Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship

between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage, ScienceDirect,

Computers in Human Behavior, Nr. 27, p. 1658-1684, Australia, accesed on 24th of April

2015.

� Nadkarni, A., Hofmann, S. G. (2012), Why do people use Facebook?, ScienceDirect,

Personality and Individual Differences, nr 52, p. 243-249, United States, accesed on 24th of

April 2015.

� Grosseck, G., Bran, R., Tiru, L.(2011), Dear Teacher, what should I write on my wall? A case

study on academic uses of Facebook, ScienceDirect, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences,

nr 15, p. 1425-1430, Romania, accesed on 24th of April 2015.

� Said, M.N.H.M., Tahir, L.M. (2013), Towards identification of students’ holistic learning

process through Facebook in higher education, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, nr

97, p. 307-313, Malaysia, accesed on 24th of April 2015.

� Bektaș, E., Toros T., Miman, M.(2014), Demographic Features of University Students Uning

Facebook And Its Relationship With Emotional Intelligence, Procedia-Social and Behavioral

Sciences, nr 113, p.191-206, Mersin, Turkey, accesed on 24th of April 2015.

� Buga, R., Căpeață, I., Chirasnel, C., Popa, A. (2013), Facebook in foreign language teaching-a

tool to improve communication competences, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, nr

128, p. 93-98, Romania, accesed on 24th of April 2015.



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� The eBusiness MBA Guide for May 2015 http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-

networking-websites, accesed on 14th of May 2015.

� Facebook, http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook, accesed on 4th of May 2015.

ANNEX Facebook Survey

Do you currently have a Facebook account?

Yes No

If no, why not? Do not want to expose my identity on social networks

Do not have regular computer accesse second answer choice

Do not have time

Have not heard of Facebook before

Not interested

Other(Please Specify)

If your answer is „Yes” go to question 1. If „No”, thank you for your time. The first part of this questionnaire is to assess your basic use and attitudes towards Facebook.

1. How much time do you spend on Facebook, on average, per day? 10 minutes or less

10-30 minutes

31-60 minutes

1-3 hours

3-4 hours

More than 4 hours

2. What is your opinion regarding these statements?

Strongly Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Facebook is part of my everyday activity

I am proud to tell people I am on Facebook



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I dedicate a part of my daily schedule to Facebook

I feel I am part of the Facebook community

I would be sad if Facebook shut down

3. Who can see your...?

Friends Friends

of friends Public Custom Only me Everyone Don't

know

Facebook profile

Status updates

Videos tagged of you

Photos tagged of you

Online status

Wall

Likes and Comments

What about your Follow feature settings? (Choose from Friends/Everyone/Don't know

4. What is the level of security you have with respect to who can search you on Facebook?

5. Do you use the Block list to prevent people from searching for you on Facebook?

Yes No



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6. If yes, why?

To avoid certain people whom I do not want to communicate with

To prevent certain people from stalking me

Other (Please Specify) The second part is intended to measure the Facebook’s influence on the learning process of postgraduate students. 7. When referring to socialization, I use Facebook to:

Strongly Disagree


communicate for social purposes

keep track of other people' s life experiences

reenter in contact with people that I used to know/met previously

post comments or give likes

to play games

post pictures

follow my friends/friends's friends profile

8. About the information and study topic, I prefer Facebook when I want to:

Strongly Disagree




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communicate with my colleagues for solving group assignments

make use of the learning apps such as Memrise

be constantly informed regarding academic news

be constantly informed regarding student s extracurricular activities

share information of general interest

be part of a/various study group/s

9. When talking about membership and employability, I use Facebook to:

Strongly Disagree


be a member in the communities I find myself related to(discussion groups, hobby-centered groups)

be constantly informed with the latest news of my favourite foreign and/or local publications

join events

find job offers

connect with employers

follow profiles(companies/NGOs/public institutions)

10. Do you find feasible the idea of using Facebook as an e-learning platform? According to your answer, please give 3 advantages and/or 3 disadvantages of such a platform.



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11. Are you friends with your professors on Facebook?

Yes No 12. Do you receive feedback from your professors during regular classes for questions and/or assignment results?

13. How important is professors' feedback for you?

Very

Unimportant Unimportant Neutral Important Very

Important

before course

during course

after course

14. Do you consider using Facebook in asking for advice/mentorship from your professors? If your answer is Yes, what would be 3 pluses and 3 possible limits of mentorship on Facebook? If your answer is No, please give 3 reasons.

15. Would you consider Facebook, as a communication tool, could contribute to your learning progress? Yes or No? Give 3 adjectives to describe Facebook that would support your answer.



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16. Please complete this:

20-24 25-29 Over 29

Female

Male



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THE ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL AS A DETERMINANT FOR ECON OMIC GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Simionescu1Liliana, Staiculescu2 Camelia, Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract:

The center of attention on human capital as being a driver for economic growth especially for developing countries has brought into attention school attainment. In terms of school attainment, developing countries have made significant improvement in closing the gap with developed countries, but recent research has underlined the significance of cognitive skills as regard the economic growth. A more closed attention to these results may shifts the attention to issues such as school quality and programs learned. In this area developing countries have been less successful in their attempt to close the gaps with developed countries. The lack of improving school quality and programs, developing countries will come across in difficulties to advance their long run economic performance Keywords: Economic development, Economic performance, Demand for schooling

1. Introduction

The role of enhanced schooling has been a fundamental part of the strategies improvement for many

countries and international organizations as well. Empirical and statistical evidence show a significant

improvement in school attainment crossways developing world in recent decades. The policy on

schooling, stresses the importance of research on the human capital role regarding its growth and

development. The importance of this policy developed hot issues among researchers according to the

enlargement of school attainment has not guaranteed an improved economic conditions (Easterly, 2001;

Pritchett, 2006).). Furthermore, research base on questions raised concerns regarding the interpretation of

empirical analyses. Both policy questions and research questions are closely correlated with the

measurement of the human capital with school attainment. Current evidence on cognitive skills role in

promoting economic growth provides explanation for the uncertain influence of human capital on

economic growth. Influence of human capital that turns out to have a strong effect is when the focus turns

to the school quality role. Individuals cognitive skills– rather than simple school attainment – are strongly

related to individuals earnings, to income distribution, and most importantly to the country economic

growth level. A change in focus towards school quality does not answer by itself key questions as regard

educational policy. Further important and significant topics of current interest enter into discussions such



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as: should educational policy emphases basic skills or the higher achievers?; should developing countries

work to increase their higher education sector? The current paper underlines that both basic skills and

advanced skills are essential, mainly for developing countries. Altogether, once consideration is made of

cognitive skills, variations in tertiary education have no distinct impact on economic growth for either

developed world or developing countries. Thus, this paper considers the developing countries situations

from the standpoint of current work on economic growth. When cognitive skills are considered, the data

disclose much larger skill discrepancies in developing countries than generally derived from school

enrollment and attainment. The extent according to changes is needed become clear that closing

economic gap with developed countries will necessitate major structural changes in schooling

institutions.

2. Human capital measurement in economic growth

A large number of macro-economists tried to empirically determined and turned to explain what

drove such differences in the economic growth rates around the world. Many have followed Barro (1991)

work trying to establish with cross-sectional regressions which are the factors that determined this large

observed differences.

According to Hanushek and Woessmann (2008), a distinctive difference in a country economic

development level is given by the growth rates as a direct function of human capital, a vector of other

factors, and a stochastic element. A number of critiques and reviewers start to interpret these studies on

empirical growth models. Critiques like Levine & Renelt, (1992) emphasized the issues such as

endogeneity of many of the common factors regarding the modeling (Bils & Klenow, 2000). Both,

reviewers and critique analysis focused on the form of the estimated growth model – together with

important range of factors included – as well as the likelihood of omitted factors that would bias the

regression results. Notwithstanding, attention toward measurement issues surrounding human capital was

little. Human capital modeling and its measurement helps to explain the improvement of empirical

growth analysis. In economics, are important for consideration skills of the workforce when modeling,

helping to explain a number of relevant issues in today’s analysis of a country economic level growth.

Petty (1676 [1899]) incorporated in economic growth model immigration in terms of skills and wages)

differentiations of individuals, Smith (1979 [1776]) the importance of Wealth and health of Nations.



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Researchers underlined that differences in earnings, were caused by skill or human capital differences

(Schultz, 1961: Becker, 1964; Mincer, 1970, 1974), suggesting that human capital measurement could

come from observed wage differences. According to Mincer, the primary motivation for schooling was

the development of individuals’ general skills and, as a result, this made sense to measure human capital

through the amount of schooling accomplished by individuals. Importantly, school attainment was

frequently measured and reported. Analyzing how wage differentials could significantly be explained via

school attainment was found to be correlated as the job training investments (Mincer, 1974). The generic

earnings function has become the wage determination model and has been replicated in many countries

(Psacharopoulos & Patrinos, 2004). Thus, school attainment and its accomplishments became the virtual

synonymous for the human capital measurement (Barro and Lee, 2010; Cohen and Soto, 2007). When

comparing human capital across countries, it is compulsory to differentiate among the country’s

economic level first and that the schools across different countries have the same amount of courses per

year in all countries. Meaning, a year of school in a country such as Japan has the same value in terms of

skills as a year of school in South Africa but we cannot say the same things for other countries. A second

problem identified in literature regarding human capital measurement is that it assumes schooling being

the only source of skills and human capital. However, World Bank and other development agencies

highlight that improving health and nutrition human capital can be developed.

3. Methodology

This paper aim is to empirically investigate the relation between economic și social context of

developing countries and school attainment as a proxy for human capital. Moreover, this study also

considers school failure a barrier for economic growth. In order to determine this type of relation, we

employed OLS regression model on a sample of 10 countries, members of European Union, as follow:

Bulgaria, Cech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovenia

over the periof of 2004-2013. Most of the countries used in the regression sample are developing

countries and untill 1989 belonged to the former Soviet Union bloc. After 1989 these countries

economies went through transition. During trasition period, these countries economies suffered a very

high unemployment rates, low wages, migration rate grow rapidly thus, these countries did not recorded

a GDP growth nor stagnation, but decrease. The governments of these countries recorded high budget



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deficits thus resorting to budget cutting starting with spending on educational institutions, research

areas, health, culture, etc. As underlied by Sollow (1956), a country which does not invest in research

and education cannot have economic growth, nor can reduce various problems caused by poverty

(McMahon, 1998). The role of education is to create human capital but also intellectual to be

productive in various areas of economic activities and for individuals to ensure a satisfactory income.

Therefore, between education and poverty is an inverse relationship (Tilak, 1994).

Thus, in the present study, we expect a positive relationship between GDP (GDPg) and total

expenditure on education (TOEE) but a negative relationship between GDPg and inflation (INFL) and

unemployment rate (U). The second hypothesis intendes to validate or reject a possible negative

relationship between minimum wages (MIN WAGES) and the number of students that leave school

early (ELFET) and the positive relationship between MIN WAGES and education allowances, grants /

aid for education received by students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds (FCC) and the total

annual spendings for educational institutions as a percentage of GDP (AEOPPEI).

3.1 Data and descriptive statistics

The variables employed within current empirical investigation are revealed in Error! Reference

source not found. alongside their definition.

Tabelul 1 Description of the variables

Codificare Var dep/indep Definitie DV GDPg Gross Domestic Product V1 INFLATION(-) Inflation, % V2 P&STUD (+) Pupils and students enrolled in the school system, thousands V3 MIN WAGES Minimum wages, eur/month V4 TEOE(+) Total expenditure on education (public and private),mill pps (purchasing power standards V5 U(-) Unemployment rate V6 AEOPPEI(+) Total annual spendings for educational institutions (public and private) as % of GDP V7 ELFET(-) Number of students that leave school early,% V8 STUD(+) Students enrolled in the education system,thousands V9 FCC(+) Education allowance and / or subsidy for disadvantaged people,% of all children of the same

age group

Sursa: Word Bank

Error! Reference source not found. provides descriptive statistics aiming to describe the basic

features of the data from current empirical investigation. Hence, univariate analysis implies the

observation across cases of one variable at a time. In fact, we examined the central tendency including the

mean and median, as well as the dispersion covering variance and standard deviation. In addition, we



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show the minimum and the maximum values of the employed variables. Considering TOEE, it can be

observed that Slovenia have the highest values, respevtively 6,29 mil pps followed by Latvia with 5,84

mil. pps*, whereas Romania have only 2,88 mil pps. With respect to GDPg, Polonia (4,06),Lithuania

(3,55) and Romania (3,29) recorded the highest values. Paradoxically, Romania (125.76) shows a second

place in the selected sample in terms of the lowest average values for the minimum wage, while the

highest values of the average minimum wage are found in Slovenia (601.47) and Croatia (377.16).

Croatia and Slovenia minimum wage is also reflected in low average values as % for students who left

school early. These figures reinforce the present papers arguments according to there is a link between

human capital development and economic growth as a results of school attainmnet motivated by contries

economic context, the possibility of finding a job , to make a living and failure and drop-outs school.

Tabelul 2 Descriptive statistics

DV V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 BG 3.04 5.08

1149.25 108.9 4.8 8.74 24.56 15.42 262.74 90.71

CH 2.52 2.44 1859.23 283.64 4.77 5.89 22.71 5.45 387.58 97.25 CR 0.82 2.81 719.86 377.16 4.44 10.09 25.62 4.24 142.36 88.33 ES 3.14 4.42 262.6 247.43 5.51 8.38 23.82 12.5 68.1 82.0 EU17 0.87 2.05 18311.11 2.85 8.35 24.31 15.93 28511.11 70.25 EU18 0.85 2.05 2.85 8.35 EU27 1.07 2.33 93882.3 5.88 7.71 25.88 14.38 19221.8 EU28 2.33 1.06 94602.18 2.96 7.73 6620.54 14.28 19364.19 HG 0.90 4.82 1875.48 5.37 7.82 5.18 11.7 410.17 92.25 LAT 3.27 5.37 429.67 212.71 5.84 11.0 26.93 13.37 120.63 83.12 LITH 3.55 3.850 730.32 205.63 5.61 9.8 22.37 7.89 195.11 89.5 PL 4.06 2.90 8210.34 287.96 5.81 9.71 26.46 5.39 2111.91 96.87 RO 3.29 6.45 3756.2 125.76 2.88 5.53 19.02 18.03 879.9 SLV 1.51 2.78 388.26 601.47 6.29 5.97 30.38 4.68 111.45 68.25

This paper used two regression models. First model, tested the first hypothesis and was

considered as dependend variable GDPg and as independent variables inflation, students enrolled in the

education system, minimum wages and unemployment rate (eq.1).

(1)

For the second model, minimum wage is the dependent variable and Total annual spendings for

educational institutions (public and private) as % of GDP , Number of students that leave school early,%,

Students enrolled in the education system,thousands and Education allowance and / or subsidy for

disadvantaged people,% of all children of the same age group (eq. 2). Data was colected from Eurostat.

MIN WAGES (2)



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3.2 Regression results

Table 3,4 and 5 shows the OLS results.

Tabelul 3: Regression results for Bulgary, Cech Republic, Croatia, Estonia

BG CH CR ES (1) (2) (1) (2) (1) (2) (1) (2)

V1 1.027** (0.002)

1.590 0.3494

1.257 0.310

2.230 (0.169)

V2 0.076* (0.047)

-0.546 (0.064)†

0.206 (0.030)*

-1.456 (0.225)

V3 0.123 (0.106)

-0.485 (0.070)†

-0.618 (0.236)

V4 -6.837** (0.006)

-22.166 (0.088)†

2.152 (0.017)*

-4.238 (0.712)

V5 0.810* (0.010)

3.911 (0.3603)†

-0.939 (0.054)†

0.598 (0.558)

V6 3.664***

(0.000) -10.903 (0.413)

0.0772

14.917 (0.077)†

V7 -3.107** (0.001)

-32.155 (0.276)

0.3227

11.425 (0.322)

V8 0.780*** (0.000)

0.501 (0.084)†

0.040

46.728 (0.040)*

V9 -0.813** (0.003)

-5.025 (0.753)

0.0326

3.009 (0.032)*

R 2 0.999 1.000 0.828 0.894 0.800 0.947 0.932 F-st (Prob)

413.330 (0.002)**

191

(0.000)***

1.937

(0.074)†

4.226

(0.004)**

3.050

(0.096)†

7.247

(0.125)

6.931

(0.030)*

Source: made by authors in Eviews 8.; p-values: †p < 0.10. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001.

Tabelul 3 presents the regression results for Bulgaria, Cech Republic, Croatia, and Estonia

regarding the relation between countries economic context and human capital development. The variable

TOEE (Total expenditure on education (public and private)) is statistically significant for all countries but

only for Croatiei is positive, (2.152) for Bulgaria (-6.834) and Cehia (-22.166) is negativ. In other words,

an increase of 1% in TOEE, in the case of Croatiei, would results in an increase of approximate 2% in

GDPg. In the second model Bulgaria validates this study hypothesis, respectively AEOPPEI and FCC

have a positive effect on MIN WAGES which can even lead to an increase in MIN WAGES if AEOPPEI

and FCC would increase; and ELFET have a negative impact on MINWAGES. All this variables are

statistically significant. Estonia validates the same hypothesis according to the minimum wage is strongly

dependent on the annual spending on educational systems, the number of students enrolled in tertiary

education but also of allowances and aid given by the Ministry of Education to support students in further



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education. These variables are statistically significant and positive, respectively AEOPPEI, STUD and

FCC.

Tabelul 4: Regression results for Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland

HG LAT LITH PL (1) (2) (1) (2) (1) (2) (1) (2)

V1 -0.584 (0.048)*

-2.422 (0.020)*

0.664105 0.3165

-0.297 0.7598

V2 0.187 (0.002)**

0.377 (0.003)**

-0.022256 0.6039

0.002 0.8003

V3

0.385 (0.003)**

-0.076319 (0.3331)

0.011 0.8958

V4 -13.655 (0.479)

20.261 (0.068) †

32.02961 (0.015)*

-5.898864 0.3772

V5 3.376 (0.415)

-1.905 (0.028)*

-2.250386 (0.037)*

0.108796 0.8582

V6 -18.357 (0.354)

21.227 (0.014)*

13.46133 0.0042**

31.84814 0.0602*

V7 4.901 (0.249)

3.216 (0.673)

-54.109 0.012*

-59.08668 0.5725

V8 0.173 (0.469)

-5.317 (0.022)*

2.150 0.029*

-0.058232 0.9297

V9 -2.670 (0.302)

-10.530 (0.215)

1.05086 0.1493

-71.13775 0.1127

R2 0.547814 0.805 0.969 0.995746 0.991365 0.994453 0.579620 0.904961 F-st (Prob)

0.908609

0.553933

2.068

0.351

12.791

(0.073) †

117.0472

0.008489

45.92568

0.021447

89.63602

0.011064

0.551520

0.744225

4.761008

0.081045


Tabelul 4 shows the regression results for Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Poland. Latvia and

Lithuania have positive and statistically significant values of coefficients variables regarding spending in

education system. This spending in education and training system could register a huge impact on

economic growth if would increase.

Tabelul 5: Regression results for Romania si Slovenia

RO SLV (1) (2) (1) (2)

V1 -0.574202 0.060†

1.061 0.552

V2 0.031671 0.239

0.377 0.084†

V3 0.159371 0.046*

-0.013 0.8218

V4 0.851098 0.041*

18.848 0.0406*

V5 -6.630566 0.027*

-5.553 0.098†

V6

-1.928 0.874

V7 -4.802302 0.0360*

-11.801 0.072†

V8 -0.077123 0.0014**

-16.025 0.117



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V9 0.183126 0.0886†

13.591 0.061†

R2 0.857 0.982 0.870 0.970 F-st (Prob)

2.402092

0.03194

72.77596

0.000603

2.685092

0.293312

16.28556

0.058688


The last Table shows the results regressions for Romania and Slovenia. Unfortunately, none of the

models can emphasize the link between human capital development and countries economic contex

which is a proxy for economic growth in the case of Romania. In exchange, Slovenia confirms the

hypothesis according to education spending contributes to the economic growth of a country; and the

unemployment rate affects negatively a country's GDP. Moreover, the second model validates the

hypothesis through AEOPPEI and FCC coefficients which are positive and statistically significant. In

other words, increasing the annual spending with education and educational system as well as the

allocations which supports students in their further education, may results in a positive effect on the

minimum wage. All models have an R2 which tends to 1. An R2 is a measure of the goodness-of-fit of

the model, known as the “coefficient of determination”. It represents the proportion of total variation in

the dependent variable explained by the model. Thus, this study hypothesis was accepted and validated,

meaning countries economic context is strongly related with human capital development and in order to

achieve economic growth spending with education, research and school attainment should became a

priority.

Conclusions and further research

In terms of cognitive skills, the gaps between developed and developing countries closed just a

little (Hanushek, Peterson, & Woessmann, 2012) and is still far away from total occurrence. A focus on

quality does, yet, complicate decision making. It seems to be usually easier to understand how to enlarge

access to education than to improve school and programs quality. Straightforward approaches to improve

school and programs quality have not proved extraordinarily effective. As underlined by several

researchers, providing just more resources to schools is in general ineffective (Hanushek, 1995;

Hanushek and Woessmann, 2011a; Glewwe et. al., 2013).

Political problems, countries economic level and stability may also have an important impact on school

quality and programs as well. In order to provide quality schooling and programs which are meant to



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develop human capital having as final goal countries economic growth, there must be infrastructure,

access to education and information, safety and certainty of individuals’ jobs as well as their human

rights. Our evidence from the growth analysis indicates that country’s economic context is strongly

related with human capital development and in order to achieve economic growth spending with

education, research and school attainment should became a priority. Moreover, school programs should

respond to job market and to teach not just the basic skills but also to develop individuals’ human capital

up to date. This appears to be a very good solution (Christensen et. al., (2008). The potential of

developing countries appears in particular large.

Acknowledgement

This work was cofinanced from the European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational

Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013, project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/142115

„Performance and excellence in doctoral and postdoctoral research in Romanian economics science

domain”

Bibliography:

� Barro, R. J. (1991). Economic growth in a cross section of countries. Quarterly Journal of

Economics, 106(May (2)), 407–443.

� Barro, R. J., & Lee, J.-W. (2010 April). A new data set of educational attainment in the world,

1950–2010. NBER Working Paper 15902 Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic

Research.

� Becker, G. S. (1964). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference

to education. New York, NY: National Bureau of Eco-nomic Research.

� Bils, M., & Klenow, P. J. (2000). Does schooling cause growth? American Economic Review,

90(December (5)), 1160–1183

� Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W. (2008). Disrupting class: How disruptive

innovation will change the way the world learns. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

� Cohen Daniel, & Soto, M. (2007). Growth and human capital: Good data, good results. Journal of

Economic Growth, 12(March (1)), 51–76.



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� Easterly, W. (2001). The elusive quest for growth: An economist’s adventures and misadventures

in the tropics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press

� Glewwe, P., Hanushek, E. A., Humpage, S. D., & Ravina, R. (2013). School resources and

educational outcomes in developing countries: A review of the literature from 1990 to 2010. In

Paul Glewwe (Ed.), Education policy in developing countries. Chicago: University of Chicago

Press.

� Hanushek, E. A. (1995). Interpreting recent research on schooling in devel-oping countries. World

Bank Research Observer, 10(August (2)), 227–246.

� Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2008). The role of cognitive skills in economic development.

Journal of Economic Literature, 46(September (3)), 607–668.

� Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2011a). The economics of international differences in

educational achievement. In E. A. Hanushek, S. Machin, & L. Woessmann (Eds.), Handbook of

the economics of education, Vol. 3 (pp. 89–200). Amsterdam: North Holland.

� Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2012a). Do better schools lead to more growth? Cognitive

skills, economic outcomes, and causation. Journal of Economic Growth, 17(December (4)), 267–

321.

� Levine, R., & Renelt, D. (1992). A sensitivity analysis of cross-country growth regressions.

American Economic Review, 82(September (4)), 942–963.

� Mincer, J. (1970). The distribution of labor incomes: A survey with special reference to the

human capital approach. Journal of Economic Literature, 8(March (1)), 1–26.

Petty, S. W. (1676 [1899]). Political arithmetic. In C. Henry Hull (Ed.), The economic

writings of Sir William Petty (pp. 233–313). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

o Pritchett, L. (2006). Does learning to add up add up? The returns to schooling in aggregate

data. In E. A. Hanushek & F. Welch (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of education (pp.

635–695). Amsterdam: North Holland.

� Psacharopoulos, G., & Patrinos, H. A. (2004). Returns to investment in education: A further

update. Education Economics, 12(August (2)), 111–134.

� Schultz, T. W. (1961). Investment in human capital. American Economic Review, 51(March

(1)), 1–17.



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THE INFLUENCE OF MIGRATION ON SPECIFIC INDICATORS F ROM EDUCATIONAL FIELD

Staiculescu Camelia, Paduraru Monica Elisabeta, Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract:

After 1989, Romania was confronted with international migration, which resulted in a

diminishment of the stable resident population. Being successful in school is partially influenced by

the child's family resources (financial, educational, environmental, the care and attention given to the

child during school years, emotional support and guidance). The departure of one parent or both

abroad for an extended period of time can affect school performance, shouldn’t anyone take the

functions and responsibilities, usually performed by the migrant parents.

In this paper we propose an analysis of the influence of migration on specific indicators from

educational field, such as school dropout and graduation rate. The data used in the present study were

extracted from the website of the National Institute of Statistics. Statistical analysis was performed on

data collected for year 2012, by counties (42) and on educational levels (primary school, middle school,

high school, university).

Keywords: emigration, school droptoup / early school leaving, graduation rate (high school,

baccalaureate/SAT, university)

I. PROBLEM STATEMENT

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of migration on specific indicators from

educational field, such as school dropout and graduation rate. More specifically this study was designed

to explore the following research questions:

H1. Is there a statistically significant correlation between emigration and school dropout (primary

school, middle school, high school)?

H2. Is there a statistically significant correlation between emigration and the graduation rate for

high school and university?



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H3. Is there a statistically significant correlation between emigration and the graduation rate for

baccalaureate (SAT)?

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Emigration is a phenomenon which consists of the movement of large numbers of people from

one area to another, followed by a change of residence and/or employment upon arrival (Zamfir and

Vlăsceanu, 1993, pg. 355). The migration is driven by economic, social, political or natural factors. To

emigrate is the act of leaving one’s country to settle in another country.

After 1989, Romania was confronted with international migration, which resulted in a

diminishment of the stable resident population. The country’s resident population reached 20.01 million

inhabitants on January 1st 2013, approximately equal to that of the year 1969. Between 1989 and 2012

the stable population of Romania decreased by more than 3.1 million. More than 77 % of the negative

growth of the resident population (stable) during this period was due to migration. In 2002 the number of

migrants per 1,000 inhabitants of the resident population of Romania was 48.6, while in 2012 this

indicator increased to 116.5. The largest share of the migrating population is represented by people aged

25-64. In 2012, this age group represented 74% of the total immigration, as opposed to 2002 when this

indicator was 65% (National Institute of Statistics, 2014, pg. 1).

Being successful in school is partially influenced by the child's family resources (financial,

educational, environmental, the care and attention given to the child during school years, emotional

support and guidance). The departure of one parent or both abroad for an extended period of time can

affect school performance, shouldn’t anyone take one the functions and responsibilities, usually

performed by the migrant parents. It is, however, possible that the negative impact of the parent’s

departure abroad can be mitigated by the potential positive effects such as: higher living standards,

increased opportunities for traveling abroad and the contact with another culture. The most disadvantaged

group, in terms of school performance, is the group of children who’s both parents have emigrated, a

situation that can cause a far greater negative effect than just a lower social status or a broken family.

Early school leaving (ESL) is a multi-faceted and complex problem caused by a cumulative

process of disengagement. It is a result of personal, social, economic, education or family-related reasons.



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Comprehensive approaches that focus on the root causes of ESL are required to reduce ESL. Reducing

ESL can help towards the integration of young people into the labour market, and contribute to breaking

the cycle of deprivation that leads to the social exclusion of too many young people. Reducing the

average European rate of early school leavers to less than 10% by 2020 is one of the education headline

targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy (Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth,

COM (2010)2020; available at: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm).

Based on these issues, in this paper we propose an analysis of the influence of migration on

specific indicators from educational field, such as school dropout and graduation rate.

III. METHODOLOGY

Data were obtained from the website of the National Institute of Statistics (NIS). Statistical

analysis was performed on data collected for year 2012, by counties (42) and on educational levels

(primary school, middle school, high school, university), using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.

IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Analysing the data obtained from the National Institute of Statistics we can observe that

emigration has a mean of 4170,26 when the entire sample of 170186 migrants is considered. The

minimum value is of 1824, while the maximum value is of 15292. When 5% of the extreme values are

excluded the mean value is of 3920,69. We can say with a 95% confidence that the mean value of the

population is between 3443,60 and 4896,91.

Table 1. Emigration mean – year 2012



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Source - personal processing of data from the NIS website

Regarding the normal distribution of the variable, both the Skewness (3,334) and the Kurtosis

(15,687) indicators are not that far from the values 0 and 3 suggesting that the variable follow an almost

normal distribution.

Our first research question was: Is there a statistically significant correlation between emigration

and school dropout (for primary school, middle school, and high school level)?

The scatter diagram fails to indicate any strong relationship between the above variables.

Chart 1. scatter diagram - emigration and school dropout


Since the Sig. values are above 0.05, we conclude that there is no statistically significant

correlation between emigration and school drop out for the primary school level (sig = 0,851).



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Table 2. Correlation between emigration and school drop out for the primary school level


Similar results were obtained for the correlation between emigration and school drop out for the

middle school (sig = 0,437) and for the emigration and school drop out for high school (sig = 0,162).

Table 3. Correlation between emigration and school drop out for the middle school

Source - personal processing of data from the INS website

After analyzing the data from INS we can conclude that there is no statistically significant

correlation between emigration and school dropout (for primary school, middle school, and high school

level).

Our second research question was the following: Is there a statistically significant correlation

between emigration and the graduation rate for high school and university level?



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The scatter diagrams indicate a strong positive relationship for both cases and since the Sig.

values are below 0.05, we conclude that there is a statistically significant correlation between emigration

and graduation rate, for both high school and university level.

Table 4. Correlation between emigration and the graduation rate for high school


Table 5. Correlation between emigration and the graduation rate for university level


So we can say that there is a statistically significant correlation between emigration and the

graduation rate for high school and university level.

By the third research question, we wanted to find out if is there a statistically significant

correlation between emigration and the graduation rate for baccalaureate (SAT)?



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The scatter diagram indicates a strong relationship between emigration and the graduation rate for

baccalaureate (SAT).

Chart 2. Scatter diagram - emigration and graduation rate for baccalaureate (SAT)


Sig. value is 0.000, so we can conclude that there is a statistically significant correlation between

emigration and the graduation rate for baccalaureate (SAT).

The statistically significant at 1% level Pearson Correlation coefficient of 0,958 indicates the

presence of a significant positive and strong correlation between Indicators emigrants and graduation

rate for baccalaureate (SAT).

Table 6. Correlation between emigrants and graduation rate for baccalaureate (SAT)




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The statistically significant at 1% level Pearson Correlation coefficient of 0,915 indicates the

presence of a significant positive and strong correlation between Indicators emigrants and graduation

rate at university level.

Table 7. Correlation between emigrants and graduation rate at university level


The covariance between emigrants and graduation at university level is positive (reaching a value

of 11789819,8539 - very high level) and after conducting the ANOVA, according to the F statistics, we

conclude that overall the model is statistically significant. The analysis indicates with a 99% confidence

that an increase with one percentage point of the temporary emigrants will lead to an increase of the

graduation rate for baccalaureate (SAT) with 0,74 percentage points. We can state with a 95% confidence

that the slope is situated between the interval 0,67 – 0,8. The intercept has the value of -329, indicating

that when the temporary emigrants are equal to zero, the average value of the graduation rate for

baccalaureate (SAT) is -329.

We can conclude that the third research question is confirmed by our findings, in other words,

there a statistically significant correlation between emigration and the graduation rate for baccalaureate

(SAT).



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CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the influence of migration on specific indicators from

educational field, such as school dropout and graduation rate. After analyzing the data, we were able to

find the answers to our research questions. Thus we can say that there is no statistically significant

correlation between emigration and school dropout (for primary school, middle school, and high school

level); there is a statistically significant correlation between emigration and the graduation rate for high

school and university level; and there a statistically significant correlation between emigration and the

graduation rate for baccalaureate (SAT).

It is our final conclusion that migration is a phenomenon that significantly influences indicators

specific to educational field, such as graduation rate for high school, baccalaureate (SAT), an university

level. Mere knowledge of these effects is not sufficient, requiring support measures for children left

behind and also for family members who continue to handle their education.

Bibliography:

� Institutul Național de Statistică (2014). Migrația internatională a României, București:

INS [Online] at http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/publicatii/pliante%20statistice/

Migratia%20internationala%20a%20Romaniei.pdf

� Zamfir, C., Vlăsceanu, L. (1993). Dicționar de sociologie, București: Editura Babel.

� http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/strategic-framework/doc/esl-group-report_en.pdf

� http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/files/c_2013_778_en.pdf

� http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm

� www.ins.ro

� www.arcgis.com

� www.jurnalul.ro



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SCHOOL ORGANIZATION’S EFICIENCY THROUGH THE COMMUNICATION SKILLS TRAINING AT THE MANAGEMENT LEV EL

State Cristina, Cace Corina, Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract:

A known fact though not acknowledged is that our education system excels through its informative

character...

For years and years, even decades and decades, to the students (in the most general acceptation of the term) are

being "delivered" information with an "ambition" worthy of more noble causes...

And measuring their "learning" activity is the result of an "extensive" and "complex" process of analysis and

synthesis, after which teachers give grades according to interlocutors capability (students) to reproduce as

faithfully, the information "received" and / or learned ... Is it, right? .... Is it effective? ... It is useful for us this

system? ...

The motivation of my research, is with priority not so much the stated realities, but the wish to take

the opportunity to present another point of view and a different mentality, based on both lived experiences and,

especially expressed by third parties with expertise and exceptional favorable results, including managerial

communication...

Keywords: skills, organizational communication, managerial communication, efficacity

Introduction

Increasingly often, we use communication. Increasingly more, everything we do is, with

varying degrees of intensity limited to what we like to call and / or to understand through communication.

We perceive communication as a fundamental element of our life, as we tend (if not proceed so) to give

primordially to it both for successes and (maybe), especially for failures.

Thus, if we succeed, we "congratulate" ourselves for the "mastery" that we had the ability to

communicate with. Otherwise, usually we blame the "environment" and, in general, the "system" for

what "happened"; with priority those around us that "don’t (any longer) know how to communicate" or

"poorly communicate". Especially since, more or less conscious, everything that is happening around us,

even in situations where we have the ability to do so that things happen, is and it means

communication...



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Literature review

Etymologically, the communication originates in Latin communication ("putting or having in

common").

Basically, communication has a dual origin: cum ("together, with") and munis, -e ("who does his duty,

helpful").

Starting from its etymology, the verb to communicate, in its most general sense, refers to the act

"... to inform, to ask about the..., to make known" ( www.dexonline and www.nodex.online.ro accessed

on 20.03.2014).

Very probably in no other area is manifested, at least in appearance, a so "... extraordinary

complexity of the processes taking place in organizations, in different institutions, social groups, in

general, as the communication" (Miller, 2014, p.2).

Regarding the effectiveness and efficiency for many years we are witnessing even to a genuine

"war of terms' the tendency to confuse and / or substitute them being frequent. Here, in this context, the

definitions given in Romanian language dictionaries (www.dexonline and www.nodex.online.ro accessed

on 20.03.2014), for the two notions:

a) a) efficacy: "... the quality to produce the expected effect (positive); efficiency"; “…use, efficiency,

productivity, operativity, value" ; "... effective character; efficiency"; "... the fact, the quality of being

effective" ; "... efficiency" ; "... the quality of being effective, to have an effect";

b) b) efficiency: "effective"; "efficacy"; "efficient character, effectiveness"; "the fact of being efficient,

effective" ; "effectiveness, efficiency"; " ... economic efficiency = ratio between the results of

economic activity and made efforts".

In the literature, the meaning of the two notions is generally the following:

- "effectiveness: goals and / or objectives and projections at the right time in the predetermined

conditions, element most often decisive for competitiveness of the organization." (Nicolescu et

Verboncu, 2007, p.37);

- "effectiveness: the degree to which something is successful in producing a desired, expected outcome "

(www.oxforddictionaries.com accessed on 03.15.2014);

- "efficacy: economic efficiency mathematically determined by the ratio between the income and expenses

set for a undefined period of time" (www.conta.ro accessed on 15.03.2014);



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- "efficiency: realization of activity driven by higher revenue expenditure involved... To keep in mind that

an organization can be effective, but not also efficient, and vice-versa. A competent management

performs both simultaneously scrolling an effective management in terms of efficiency, thus ensuring

the sustainability of the organization. "(Nicolescu et Verboncu, 2008, p.37);

- "Efficiency is doing things right when effectiveness is when you do the right things. Efficiency is doing

better what is already done. Much of what we call management consists in complicating people’s work"

(Drucker, 2007, pp.39-40).

From the definitions and / or presented meanings can be drawn some conclusions like, for

example:

- there is generally quite often the tendency to substitute (to confuse) the terms / concepts of effectiveness

and efficiency. In this context, the most confusing appears to be the Explicative Dictionary of the

Romanian Language (DEX) where the confusion of the two concepts acquires even a character of

generalization;

- via formulations (a fact confirmed by the statement made by Drucker) , local authors have either the

tendency to complicate or to suggest and / or formulate "definitions" which lose their semantic content,

generating even confusion between them and the way of measuring the efficiency effectiveness;

- practically, as Drucker emphasize, efficiency varies from effectiveness just as, one is doing things right,

and another to do the right things... Or else formulated, one things is what theory reveals and other is

what practice proves...

In this increasingly complex context, where the primacy of poor quality has higher valences,

validated by and through results achieved by the organizational management, is becoming increasingly clear

that, although increasingly more people have skills validated by diplomas, certificates, etc., increasingly

fewer people are entrusted by the organizations through job descriptions, with competencies. This is what

determines, consequently, the effectiveness and efficiency to stay longer to a theoretical stage, not being

confirmed also by practice.

Research Objectives

Here I wanted to see how the acquired skills in managerial communication area can help

increase efficiency and effectiveness of the managerial act in Romanian schools (in the generic sense of

the term "school").



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Research Results

A first remark was: although we acquire and have professional skills, it is becoming

increasingly possible to have at least the obligation (about the right nor can we talk!) to practice them.

The perfectibility of the managerial act is proven even more by the overall behavior of the

'teachers' which, as known fact, is not focused on a "Winner-Winner" partnership relation, but on the

induction of respect by exercising "the force of persuasion" that must be proceeded "as so" and not "as

so"!... and the result, most often, is the respect induced and / or required to "students" and even to

"colleagues" and not the one earned by demonstrating their expertise and / or communication skills

(interrelation).

Very dangerous it seems also the education’s "focus" on "student", especially given that the

Winner mentality is not the priority, but transforming education into a business where the subject of the

educational formative act is (or should be) treated as a client.

And from here, to the acts of obedience and even bowing in front of him is a small step, even very small

step which more "teachers" are making, attentive "initiated" and "guided" by the management of the

educational institutions.

Especially in the context in which the "effectiveness" of their work is proven by the fact that "it

is quiet" and there are not registered any "problems"…

And, as experience demonstrates, in general, at the level of education institutions, proving

managerial communication skills becomes from a potential and desired source of organizational effectiveness,

in one of assuring "organizational peace", while the transposition of theory into practice "defeats" clear and

unequivocal the desirable theorizing the practice...

An often "taboo" subject, communication is still for many of us, a veritable enigma. This,

primarly because our educational system forms and / or generates graduates capable of reproducing (possibly

as faithfully) information and does not prove (only partially) the power to create skills to its future

graduates.

The subject of my investigation was the way in which communication skills are formed and

applied at managerial level within schools, the main findings of my undertaken research being the

following:



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• in general, the communication skills are intuitively acquired, only in and on the light of experience

gained in time by the teachers ;

• teachers having managerial positions are not (did not) attend to any program (course) of managerial

communication skills development, but only to programs (courses) of teaching and / or pedagogy, which

presents "traditional" ways of managerial communication (primarly, with students and much less, with

colleagues) . In this context, I reiterate the opinion that it is extremely unproductive that school

inspectorates to be focused, primarily, on methodologies / procedures and much less on human

resources skills in communication;

• teachers do not talk to each other than sequentially, managerial communication being more the

prerogative of intuition and / or experience. Moreover, I have seen applied quite frequently the principle

"each with his own business," teamwork is something more of a declaratory nature. Known fact,

teachers come and go from the "school" more concerned with "tomorrow" than what they could build

together, as a team, for their "school". Communication and interaction in a professional (teaching)

purpose are sporadic, at best occasional, not to mention that the interdisciplinary is and / or ideas

remains just a goal and not a reality potentially supporting and generating progress. In this not at all

complicated context, but very complex in and through consequences, it is no wonder that TO HAVE is

more important than TO BE, fact which generates, among other consequences depersonalization and

even psycho-socio professional alienation even of the school "servants";

• far too less teachers are aware and / or have the mentality that they are in students’ service and not

of the "school" or local authorities. This fact not only perpetuate ideas like "students need to be as we

tell them" that "this is good, because only by fear and / or forced you are learning" or that "first you

should learn as and how I learned, and then claim to have"... Basically, the problem serving the

interests of those for whom we work, each of us must be solved since the level of primary education;

• not rarely, promotion and / or winning, through competition, management jobs in schools is too

much influenced by subjective factors rather than facts and / or tested and proven skills including in

management area. As, proven and unknown, but not countered (unless stated) including political

interference in school activities is and / or becomes, often de-motivating for many of the "teachers"... In

this context, I found that most of those interviewed have no (elementary) training (postgraduate) in

management;



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• fighting for money and power, the struggle for survival and immediate direct result of the "skills" of

communication proved at the managerial level only serve to perpetuate conditions and / or situations

already chronic and almost incurable for Romanian "school";

• if, on the one hand, we "grieve" for the ineffectiveness of our educational system, on the other hand,

we do (almost) anything to defame it, promoting values of others , the only real and / or able to , by

"copying" to "... lead us... where we belong: in Europe"!... It is lamentable that such conceptions persist

and are even encouraged both by institutional management (central and local) and the communication

from the management level and the mass-media, especially when young and / or students are strongly

encouraged to choose their future in other countries, in other schools, which "fight" for them

(obviously, to take the best of the best ones)... Moreover, the struggle for money and power, the

struggle for survival (normal, in terms of competition for better, for more) generated another paradox:

on the one hand, we declare favorable to progress but, on the other hand we want things to remain "as it

is" based on our "traditions"...

• general principles of success (as, for example: first we have obligations, and then rights - far fewer

than obligations- ; to put on the forefront the interlocutor and not ourselves, to be aware that

personal achievement is a direct consequence of the team success , to adapt ourselves to any

situation, to know how to ask "What is expected of us?" not "What should we do?", etc. should be

learned and or (self-) educated since primary school;

• mandatory is the improvement/development of training and, more importantly, neurolinguistic

programming skills demonstrated in the field of transactional analysis. We refer here not only to

teachers who have tasks, responsibilities and managerial skills, but to all "servants" of Romanian

school.

Here I have to underline again the opinion that it is imperative that acquiring communication

skills should be specific to any future professional person, regardless of his field. Moreover, as one of the

supreme evidence of the efficiency and effectiveness of all school types.

Acknowledgement

This work was co-financed from the European Social Fund through Sectorial Operational

Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013, project number POSDRU/159/1.5/ S/142115,



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project title “Performance and Excellence in Doctoral and Postdoctoral Research in Romanian Economics

Science Domain”.

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� www.conta.ro

� www.dexonline.ro



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