PSYCHOLOGIA PAEDAGOGIA - studia.ubbcluj.ro · studia universitatis babeŞ-bolyai psychologia-paedagogia volume 63, issue 1, june 2018

PSYCHOLOGIA

PAEDAGOGIA

1/2018

STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI

PSYCHOLOGIA-PAEDAGOGIA

Volume 63, Issue 1, June 2018

STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEȘ-BOLYAI PSYCHOLOGIA-PAEDAGOGIA

EDITORIAL OFFICE: 7th Sindicatelor Str., Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA, Phone: +40-264-405337 Web site: http://www.studia.ubbcluj.ro/serii/psychologia/index_en.html

Contact: [email protected] EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Associate Prof. ADINA GLAVA, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Associate Prof. DOROTHEA IONESCU, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania EDITORIAL BOARD: Professor VASILE CHIŞ, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Professor MUŞATA BOCOŞ, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Professor CONSTANTIN CUCOȘ, Ph.D., Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași, Romania Professor HARRY DANIELS, Ph.D., University of Oxford, UK Professor CĂLIN FELEZEU, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Professor ROMIȚĂ IUCU, Ph.D., University of Bucharest, Romania Professor ADRIAN OPRE, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Professor VASILE PREDA, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Professor VLADIMIR RADULOV, Ph.D., University of Sofia, Bulgary Professor CHARLES TEMPLE, Ph.D., Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, USA Assistant Prof. GIORGOS NICOLAOU, Ph.D., University of Ioannina, Greece Assistant Prof. FLORIN SALAJAN, Ed.D., North Dakota State University, USA Professor DOREL UNGUREANU, Ph.D., West University of Timișoara, Romania Professor ION ALBULESCU, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Professor CRISTIAN STAN, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Associate Prof. CAROLINA BODEA-HAȚEGAN, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Associate Prof. ANDREEA HATHÁZI, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Associate Prof. MIRELA ALBULESCU, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Associate Prof. IOANA MAGDAŞ, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Associate Prof. OANA DAVID, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Associate Prof. CĂTĂLIN GLAVA, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Lecturer LAVINIA CHEIE, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Lecturer OANA NEGRU, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Lecturer DANA OPRE, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Lecturer SILVIU MATU, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Lecturer JANOS REKA, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Researcher SEBASTIAN VAIDA, Ph.D., Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

YEAR Volume63(LXIII)2018MONTH JUNEISSUE 1

PUBLISHEDONLINE:2018‐06‐25PUBLISHEDPRINT:2018‐06‐25

ISSUEDOI:10.24193/subbpsyped.2018.1

STUDIAUNIVERSITATISBABEŞ‐BOLYAIPSYCHOLOGIA‐PAEDAGOGIA

1

STUDIAUBBEDITORIALOFFICE:B.P.Hasdeuno.51,400371Cluj‐Napoca,Romania,Phone+40264405352,[email protected]

SUMAR–SOMMAIRE–CONTENTS–INHALT

ÉVA KÁLLAY, SEBASTIAN PINTEA, The Role of Emotion‐RegulationStrategies in the Relationship between Demographic Factors andDepressionTendencies.................................................................................................5

CRISTINA PIELMUŞ, Teaching Legal English to Law School StudentsThroughVocabularyPracticeTasks....................................................................27

ROXANAI.HOLIC,TheValidationofPerformanceFailureAppraisal In‐ventoryfortheEducationalContextofHighSchoolStudentsinRo‐mania..................................................................................................................................49

ELENAANCUȚASANTI,COSMINSANTI,GABRIELGORGHIU,EducationintheSpiritofEcumenicalValues........................................................................79

ADELE CARPITELLI, CLAUDIA LORIA, ROBERTA TRE RE, VALENTINAPETRINI,EffectofIntensiveTactInstructiononSpontaneousVerbalBehaviorinThreeChildrenwithDevelopmentalDisability.....................91

IOANA‐MARIACÂMPEAN,OLGACHIȘ,ActiveLearning:theConditionofObtainingQuantifiableSchoolResultsinNationalEvaluationTests....103

STUDIAUBBPSYCHOL.‐PAED.,LXIII,1,2018,p.5‐26(RecommendedCitation)DOI:10.24193/subbpsyped.2018.1.01

THEROLEOFEMOTION‐REGULATIONSTRATEGIESINTHERELATIONSHIPBETWEENDEMOGRAPHIC

FACTORSANDDEPRESSIONTENDENCIES

ÉVAKÁLLAY1,SEBASTIANPINTEA2

ABSTRACT.Thedrasticchangescharacteristictoourtimesforceindi‐vidualstofacerapidlychanginglifeconditions,resultinginanincreas‐ing number of individuals who cannot adequately adapt. There is aplethoraofresearchindicatingdifferencesindepressiontendenciesbe‐tweengenderdifferencesandeducational levels.However, thecogni‐tiveandemotionalmechanismsthatmayexplainsuchdifferencesareunderstudied.Ourstudyinvestigateswhichcognitiveemotion‐regula‐tionstrategiesmediatetherelationshipbetweengender/education,anddepressivetendencies.Ourresultsindicateasignificantrelationshipbe‐tweengenderanddepressiontendencies;womenhavinghigherlevelsofdepressive symptoms.Wealso founda significant relationshipbe‐tweeneducationanddepression;lowerlevelsofdepressivesymptomsforparticipantswithhigherlevelsofeducation.Femaleparticipantsusetoahigherdegreestrategiesasself‐blame,acceptance,rumination,put‐ting into perspective, and catastrophizing. Concerning mediationalmodels,therelationshipbetweengenderanddepressiontendenciesismediated by self‐blame, acceptance, rumination and catastrophizing,whiletherelationshipbetweeneducationanddepressiontendenciesismediatedbyacceptance,catastrophizing,andothersblame.Inconclu‐sion,evenifsocialfactorsaremoreintuitiveandeasiertoidentifyinthe

1 Correspondingauthor:DepartmentofPsychology,Babes‐BolyaiUniversity,Cluj‐Napoca,Romania.Email:[email protected].

2 Department of Psychology, Babes‐Bolyai University, Cluj‐Napoca, Romania. Email:[email protected].

ÉVAKÁLLAY,SEBASTIANPINTEA

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formofsocialcategories(gender/educationgroups),behindthesecat‐egoriesstanddifferentpsychologicalprofiles,generatedbydifferencesinusingpsychologicalmechanismssuchasemotion‐regulationstrate‐gies.Ourstudypointsouttheneedtoidentifysuchsubtlemechanismsthatcanexplaintheunequaldistributionofdistressinthepopulation.Keywords:depression,emotion‐regulationstrategies,age,gender,edu‐cation,mediation.ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.DieRollederEmotion‐RegelstrategieninderBeziehung zwischen demographischen Faktoren und DepressionTendenzen.DiedrastischenVeränderungen,diefürunsereZeitcharak‐teristischsind,zwingendieIndividuendazu,denschnelländerndenLe‐bensbedingungen gegenüberstehen, was zu einer steigenden AnzahlvonIndividuenführt,diesichnichtadäquatanpassenkönnen.EsgibteineFüllevonUntersuchungen,dieaufUnterschiedeindenDepressivi‐tätstendenzen zwischen Geschlechterunterschieden und Bildungsni‐veauhinweisen.DiekognitivenundemotionalenMechanismen,diesol‐cheUnterschiedeerklärenkönnten,sindjedochzuwenigerforscht.Un‐sereStudieuntersucht,welchekognitivenEmotionsregulationsstrate‐giendieBeziehungzwischenGeschlecht/BildungunddepressivenTen‐denzen vermitteln.Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen eine signifikanteBezie‐hungzwischenGeschlechtundDepressionTendenzen;FrauenzeigenhöheredepressivenSymptomen.WirfandenaucheinesignifikanteBe‐ziehungzwischenBildungundDepression;niedrigereNiveausvonde‐pressivenSymptomenfürTeilnehmermiteinemhöherenBildungsni‐veau.WeiblicheTeilnehmerWeiblicheTeilnehmernutzeninhöheremMaßeStrategienalsSelbstschuld,Akzeptanz,Wiederkäuen,Relativie‐renundKatastrophieren.InBezugaufMediationsmodellewirddieBe‐ziehungzwischenGeschlechtundDepressionstendenzendurchSelbst‐beschuldigung,Akzeptanz,WiederkäuenundKatastrophisierungver‐mittelt,währenddieBeziehungzwischenBildungundDepressionsten‐denzenistdurchAkzeptanz,KatastrophisierungundandereSchuldzu‐weisungenvermittelt.Abschließend,auchwennsozialeFaktorenintui‐tiverundleichterinFormvonsozialenKategorien(Geschlect/Bildung

THEROLEOFEMOTION‐REGULATIONSTRATEGIES…

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Gruppen)zuidentifizierensind,stehenhinterdiesenKategorienunter‐schiedlichepsychologischeProfile,iedurchUnterschiedeinderAnwen‐dung psychologischer Mechanismen wie Emotionsregulationsstrate‐gienentstehen.UnsereStudieweistaufdieNotwendigkeithin,solchesubtilenMechanismen zu identifizieren, die die ungleiche VerteilungvonDistressinderBevölkerungerklärenkönnen.Schlüsselwörter: Depression, Emotionsregulationsstrategien, Alter, Ge‐schlecht,Bildung,Vermittlung.IntroductionOver thepast century, the entireworld haswitnessed fast and

drasticdemographic,social,technological,political,andeconomicchanges(Amundson,2006;Hidaka,2012).Thesechangeshavecreatedanenvi‐ronmentsignificantlydifferentfromwhathumanshavebeenusedtoeffi‐ciently adapt to (Eaton, Strassman, Nesse, Neel, Ewald,Williams et al.,2002).Theconsiderablediscrepancybetweenpresentandpastlifestylesconstrain individuals to dealwith a constantly growing body of chal‐lenges,whichfrequentlyleadtoimpairingsymptomsofstress(affectingcognitive,behavioral,physiological,emotional,social,etc.,functioning),further hindering the complex processes of adaptation. Consequently,thenumberofindividualswhoexperiencehighlevelsofdistressandcan‐notfunctionattheirbestisconstantlyincreasing(Cuijpersetal.,2007;Cunninghametal.,2006;EuropeanCommission,2005;Wittchen&Jacobi,2005).Thistendencyisreflectedbythegrowingnumberofadultsandchildren suffering from diagnosable mental disorders (Flett & Hewitt,2013;Hidaka,2012),trendaggravatedbyanequallyimportantphenom‐enon,namely,thecaseofthosewhodonotdevelopclinicallysignificantand diagnosable symptoms, but still cannot efficiently adapt to thesehighlystressfullifechallenges(Cuijpersetal.,2007;daSilvaLima&deAlmeidaFleck,2007).


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Researchhasallocatedincreasedinteresttotheinvestigationofstrategiesandmechanismsthataffectindividuals'emotionalreactionstothedemandsoftheenvironment(Johnson,Carver&Fulford,2010).Thereview of several studies conducted by Suveg, Morelen, Brewer, andThomassin (2010) indicate that the way one responds to adversity(stress,dailyhassles,negativelifeevents)ismorepredictiveofmentalhealthorpsychopathologythanthenatureofthenegativeeventitself,andthatemotion‐regulationstrategiesplayasignificantroleinthepro‐cessof(mal)adaptation.

Emotion regulation has been defined as "the rangeofactivitiesthatallowanindividualtomonitor,evaluate,andmodifythenatureandcourseofanemotionalresponse, inordertopursuehisorhergoalsandappropriately respond to environmental demands" (Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012,p.163,ascitedinColeetal.,2004;Johnsonetal.,2010).Emotiondysregulationisconsideredasoneofthecentralmechanismsinvolvedinthedevelopmentofdifferentformsofpsychopathology(Aldao,Nolen‐Hoeksema&Schweizer,2010;Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012).Severaltheoret‐ical approaches indicate that individualswho cannot use appropriateemotionregulationstrategiestomanagetheirexacerbatedemotionalre‐actionsarepronetodevelopmoreintenseandlongerlastingperiodsofdistress,whichmayaggravateandleadtoclinicallydiagnosabledisor‐ders(Aldao&Nolen‐Hoeksema,2010;Nolen‐Hoeksema&Aldao,2012).Accordingtoapproacheswhichemphasizethefunctionaldifferentiationofemotionregulationstrategies,rumination,suppression,avoidance,catastro‐phizing, other‐blame, and self‐blame are associated with maladaptiveemotionalreactions(Aldaoetal.,2010;Aldao&Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012),especiallywithdepressionandanxiety(Garnefski&Kraaij,2006;Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012).Ontheotherhand,emotionregulationstrategiesasacceptance,cognitivereappraisal,problemsolving,puttingintoperspec‐tive,positiverefocusing,planning,werefoundtobeassociatedwithpos‐itiveemotional(reductionofnegativeemotionality),behavioral(effec‐tiveinterpersonalfunctioning),andphysiologicalreactions(cardiacre‐activity)(Garnefski&Kraaij,2006;Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012).


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Differenttheorieshaveproposedthatemotiondysregulationmayoccurinseveraldistinctways:(i)thefailuretodown‐regulatenegativeemotionsbyusingadaptiveemotionregulationstrategies(e.g.,problemsolving,reappraisal,acceptance)(Aldaoetal.,2010);(ii)thetendencytoengageinemotionregulationstrategiesthatexacerbatenegativeemotions(e.g.,rumination)(McLaughlin&Nolen‐Hoeksema,2011),and(iii)exces‐siveattemptstodownregulatenegativeemotions(e.g.,suppression,avoid‐ance)(e.g.,Kashdan&Breen,2007;Wenzlaff&Wegner,2000).

Oneofthemajordirectionsinthescientificinvestigationofemotionregulationhasfocusedontheconsciouscognitivemechanismsinvolvedintheadaptiveandmaladaptiveprocesses.Animportantadvantageim‐pliedininvestigatingcognitiveemotion‐regulationstrategiesliesinthepossibilitytochangethem,eitherthroughpersonalexperiencesorpsy‐chotherapeutically(Garnefski,Kraaij&Spinhoven,2002).Garnefskietal.’s(2002) approach identifiednine specific conscious cognitive emotion‐regulationstrategies,as:self‐blame,acceptance,rumination,positivere‐focusing,refocusonplanning,positivereappraisal,putting intoperspec‐tive,catastrophizing,andotherblame.Positivereappraisal,acceptance,problem‐solvinghavelongbeenassociatedwithadaptiveemotionalre‐actions, while rumination, catastrophizing, self and other blame withmaladaptivereactions(Aldao&Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012).

Genderandeducationdifferencesinmaladaptiveemotional

reactionsandemotionregulation

Literaturehasdocumentedthatacrossdifferentnationsandcul‐tures, twice as many women develop depression than men (Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012;Parker&Brotchie,2010).Theorieshypothesizethatbesidessexroles,social factors,biologicaldeterminants,differencesintheuseofemotionregulationstrategiesmaysignificantlycontributetothesediscrepancies(Nolen‐Hoeksema&Aldao,2012).Furthermore,re‐searchalsoindicatesthatoverall,womenhaveagreatertendencytouse


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more (both adaptive and maladaptive) emotion regulation strategiesthanmando(Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012).Theseapproachessuggest thatwomenhaveamorepassive reaction towards their emotions andarepronetoanalyzethem(Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012),beingmorelikelytouseemotion‐regulationstrategiesasruminationforexample(Cox,Mezulis&Hyde,2010;Lopez,Driscoll&Kistner,2009).Menaremoreactionori‐ented,andinordertocontroltheemotionelicitingsituation,theyengagemore frequently in problem solving or reappraisal (Tamres, Janicki&Helgeson,2002).

Aldao and Nolen‐Hoeksema (2010), Aldao et al. (2010) haveshownthattheuseofmaladaptiveemotionregulationstrategies(rumi‐nation,suppression,avoidance,worry)aresystematically,morestronglyassociatedtopsychopathologythanadaptivestrategies(problemsolv‐ing,reappraisal,etc.)(Aldao&Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012).Thesefindingshavesignificantpracticalutility,consideringthefactthatpreventionandinterventionofemotionaldisordersheavilycapitalizesonteachingcli‐entshowtouseadaptivestrategiesefficiently(Roemer,Orsillo&Salters‐Pedneault,2008).Besidegender,levelofeducationhasalsobeenfoundtobeasignificantpredictorofdepression.Thus,lackorlowerlevelsofeducationareconsistentlyassociatedwiththeselectionofadaptiveemo‐tionregulationstrategiesacrossdifferentculturesandnations(e.g.,Oha‐yon,2007;Pikhart,Bobak,Pajak,Malyutina,Kubinova,Toporetal.,2004).Peoplewithhigherlevelsofeducationhavebetteraccesstoinformation,possessalargerpoolofoptionsregardingemotionregulationstrategies,whichincreasestheirchancestoselectthegroupofstrategiesthatbestsuitthecontextualdemandsofthesituation,aswellasfacilitatesthead‐herencetopreventionandintervention(Gotlib&Hammen,2009).

Basedonthescientificdocumentationregardinggenderandedu‐cationaldifferences inbothdepressionandemotionregulationstrate‐gies, themajor objective of our studywas to explorewhich cognitiveemotion‐regulationstrategiesmediatetherelationshipbetweengenderandeducationononehand,anddepressivesymptomsontheother.


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Study

ParticipantsInourstudyweincluded962healthyparticipantsfromthegen‐

eralpopulation,338malesand624females,withameanageof40years(SD=9years).Regarding level of education, themeanwas14yearsofschoolingwithastandarddeviationof3years.Afterprovidinginformedconsent,participantscompletedthequestionnairepacketsthattook45minutestofill,inaface‐to‐faceassessmentsessionwiththeresearcher.

Measures

Demographicvariablesare:age,gender,andlevelofeducation.

DepressiontendenciesweremeasuredwiththeBeckDepressionInventory‐II(BDI,Beck,Rush,Shaw&Emery,1979;Romanianadapta‐tionDavid&Dobrean,2012).TheBDIisa21‐item,multiple‐choicefor‐matinventory,designedtomeasurethepresenceofdepressioninadultsandadolescents.Eachof the21 itemsassessesa symptomorattitudespecifictodepression,inquiringitssomatic,cognitiveandbehavioralas‐pects.Byitsassessments,singlescoresareproduced,whichindicatetheintensityofthedepressiveepisode.Scoresrangingfrom0to9,representnormallevelsofdepression.Scoressituatedbetween10and18repre‐sentmildtomoderatedepression;valuesbetween19and29representmoderatetoseveredepression,whilescoresabovethevalueof30rep‐resentseveredepression.InternalconsistencyindicesoftheBDIareusu‐allyabove.90.Inourstudywedidnotuseclinicalcut‐offpointsforanal‐ysisorselectionofparticipants,buttreateddepressiontendenciesasacontinuumrangingfromminimaltomaximalscoresobtainedbypartici‐pantsontheBDIscale.

EmotionregulationstrategiesweremeasuredwiththeCogni‐tiveEmotionRegulationQuestionnaire(CERQ)(Garnefski,Kraaij&Spin‐hoven,2002;Romanianadaptation,Perte&Tincas,2010).TheCERQisa


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self‐reportquestionnairedesignedtomeasurecognitivecopingstrate‐gies, assessing what people think after confronting specific negativeevents,ortoassessthewaypeoplegenerallyreactafterconfrontingneg‐ativeevents.Thescale iscomprisedofninesub‐scales: self‐blame,ac‐ceptance,rumination,positiverefocusing,refocusonplanning,positivereappraisal,puttingintoperspective,catastrophizing,otherblame,eachsubscalecontainingfouritems.Subjectshavetoindicateonafive‐pointLikert scale (almost never – to – almost always) the frequency withwhich theyuse thespecificcognitiveemotionregulationstrategy.Theinternalconsistencyoftheoriginalsubscalesforadultpopulationrangefrom.75to.86.

Results

Descriptivestatistics

Table1presents thedescriptivestatisticsof themainvariablesincludedintheanalysis.Oneofthemaininformationthatcanbeidenti‐fiedfromtable1isthelevelofdepressionofwomen(M=8.73,SD=8.27),significantlyhigher(p=.006)thantheoneidentifiedformen(M=7.20,SD=8.00),butwithasmalleffectsize(Cohen'sd=0.17).Also,asthecop‐ingstrategiesareconcerned,theresultsshowthatwomenusewithasig‐nificantly higher frequency cognitive emotion regulation strategies asself‐blame,acceptance,rumination,puttingintoperspectiveandcatastro‐phizingwitheffectsizesthatvaryfromsmalltomedium.

Inthenextstep,weanalyzedwhichofthecopingstrategiesusedmostfrequentlybywomenaresignificantlycorrelatedwithdepression.InTable2wepresent the correlationmatrixbetweendepressionandcognitiveemotionregulationstrategies,alongwiththelevelofeducation,whichwillbeanalyzedinthesecondpartoftheresultssection.

AsTable2shows,amongthecopingstrategiesmorefrequentlyusedbywomen (self‐blame, acceptance, rumination, putting into per‐spective and catastrophizing), only self‐blame, acceptance, rumination


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andcatastrophizingweresignificantlycorrelatedwithdepression.Asaconsequence,onlythesefourcopingstrategiesweretestedasmediatorsoftherelationshipbetweengenderanddepression.

Table1.Descriptivestatisticsforthemainvariablesofthestudy

Variables Male(N=338)M±SD

Female(N=624)M±SD

pvalue Cohen'sd

Age 40.48±9.09 39.90±8.95 0.340 ‐Education 14.27±2.89 13.95±3.29 0.133 ‐Depression 7.20±8.00 8.73±8.27 0.006** 0.17Self‐blame 8.99±2.50 9.49±9.74 0.005** 0.07Acceptance 10.97±3.95 11.76±3.27 0.001** 0.21Rumination 10.15±2.86 10.73±3.15 0.005** 0.19Positiverefocusing 10.81±3.92 11.21±3.76 0.121 ‐Refocusonplanning 13.78±3.16 14.15±3.44 0.097 ‐Positivereappraisal 13.58±3.47 13.83±3.70 0.311 ‐Puttingintoperspective 11.86±3.43 12.79±3.57 0.001** 0.26Catastrophizing 7.59±2.99 8.08±3.26 0.024* 0.15Othersblame 7.86±2.87 7.81±2.81 0.798 ‐

*Statisticallysignificantatp<0.05,**p<0.01

Table2.Correlationmatrixbetweeneducation,copingstrategiesanddepressionsymptoms

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 111.Education 12.Depression ‐.19** 13.Selfblame .02 .39** 1 4.Acceptance ‐.08* .20** .44** 15.Rumination ‐.02 .30** .52** .46** 16.Positivere‐focusing

‐.10** .00 .06 .18** .06 1


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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 117.Refocusonplanning

‐.02 ‐.05 .24** .31** .31** .46** 1

8.Positivere‐appraisal

.04 ‐.10** .20** .31** .26** .49** .73** 1

9.Puttingintoperspective

‐.05 .02 .24** .38** .25** .43** .50** .59** 1

10.Catastro‐phizing

‐.18** .47** .41** .24** .42** .06* .05 ‐.02 .12** 1

11.Otherblame

‐.14** .36** .27** .14** .31** .07* .03 ‐.09** .08* .58** 1

*Statisticallysignificantatp<0.05,**atp<0.01

Mediatorsoftherelationshipbetweengenderanddepression

Forall themediationmodels,weanalyzedtheregressionequa‐tionsusedtoassessmediationfollowingMacKinnon(2008),inwhichwecalculatedtheeffectof thepredictoruponthemediator(a), thedirecteffectofthemediatoruponthecriterion(b),thetotaleffectofthepre‐dictoruponthecriterion(c),thedirecteffectofthepredictoruponthecriterion(c'),andthemediatedeffect(a*borc‐c').Ineachofthemedia‐tiondiagramspresentedbelow,wealsoincludedthestandardversionforeacheffect(β)anditsstandarderror(SE).Fortestingthestatisticalsignificanceofeachmediationeffect,wecalculatedtheZtest inwhichthestandarderrorof themediatedeffectwascalculated followingtherecommendationsofSobel(1982).Also,foreachanalysis,wecalculatedtheeffectsizeofthemediationeffect,whichisthepercentofthetotaleffect,explainedthroughthemediator,calculatedbydividingthemedi‐ationeffecttothetotaleffectandmultiplyingtheresultby100.


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Self‐blame

InFigure1,themediationdiagramofself‐blameispresentedinrelationshipbetweengenderanddepression.

Figure1.Thediagramforthemediationofself‐blamebetweengenderanddepression

AsFigure1shows,thereisasignificantbutsmalltotaleffectofgenderupondepression(βc=‐.09,p=.006).Whencontrollingfortheme‐diator,thepredictorhasnosignificantdirecteffect(βc'=‐.05,p=.072).Themediationeffect(c‐c'=a*b)provedtobestatisticallysignificantac‐cordingtotheSobeltest(Z=‐2.66,p=.007).Theproportionaleffectsizeofthemediationeffectindicatesthat39%ofthetotalrelationbetweengenderanddepressionismediatedbyself‐blame.

AcceptanceFigure2describesthemediationdiagramofacceptanceinthere‐

lationshipbetweengenderanddepression.


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Figure2.Thediagramforthemediationofacceptancebetweengenderanddepression

AsFigure2shows,whencontrollingforthemediator,thepredic‐

torstillhasasignificantdirecteffect(βc'=‐.06,p=.038).Themediationeffect(c‐c'=a*b)provedtobestatisticallysignificantaccordingtotheSo‐beltest(Z=‐3.20,p=.001).Theproportionaleffectsizeofthemediationeffect indicates that26%of the totalrelationbetweengenderandde‐pressionismediatedbyacceptance.

RuminationFigure3describesthemediationdiagramofruminationinthere‐

lationshipbetweengenderanddepression.AsseeninFigure3,whencontrollingforrumination,genderstill

hasasignificantdirecteffect(βc'=‐.06,p=.048).Themediationeffect(c‐c'=a*b)provedtobestatisticallysignificantaccordingtotheSobeltest(Z=‐2.74,p=.006).Theproportionaleffectsizeofthemediationeffectindicatesthat31%ofthetotalrelationbetweengenderanddepressionismediatedbyrumination.


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Figure3.Thediagramforthemediationofruminationbetweengenderanddepression

Catastrophizing

Figure4describes themediationdiagramof catastrophizing intherelationshipbetweengenderanddepression.

Figure4.Thediagramforthemediationofcatastrophizingbetweengenderanddepression


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AsFigure4indicates,whencontrollingforcatastrophizing,gen‐derhasanosignificantdirecteffect(βc'=‐.05,p=.058).Themediationeffect(c‐c'=a*b)provedtobestatisticallysignificantaccordingtotheSo‐beltest(Z=‐2.26,p=.023).Theproportionaleffectsizeofthemediationeffect indicates that39%of the totalrelationbetweengenderandde‐pressionismediatedbycatastrophizing.

Mediatorsoftherelationshipbetweeneducationanddepression

AsTable2indicated,thereisanegativeandsignificantsmalltomoderaterelationshipbetweeneducationanddepression.Thesamecor‐relation matrix indicates also that education is negatively associatedwithacceptance,positiverefocusing,catastrophizingandotherblame.Inturn,amongthesefourcopingstrategiesonlyacceptance,catastrophiz‐ingandotherblameweresignificantcorrelatesofdepression.

Asaconsequence,wetestedallthesethreecognitivestrategiesasmediatoroftherelationshipbetweeneducationanddepression,follow‐ingthesamestepsofanalysisasmentionedpreviously.

Acceptance

Figure5describesthemediationdiagramofacceptanceinthere‐lationshipbetweeneducationanddepression.

AsFigure5shows,thereisasignificantbutsmalltomoderateto‐taleffectofeducationupondepression(βc=‐.19,p=.001).Whencontrol‐lingforpositiverefocusing,educationstillhasasignificantdirecteffect(βc'=‐.17,p=.001).Themediationeffect(c‐c'=a*b)provedtobestatisti‐callynotsignificantaccordingtotheSobeltest(Z=‐2.43,p= .014).Theproportionaleffectsizeofthemediationeffectindicatesthat10%ofthetotal relation between education and depression is mediated by ac‐ceptance.


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Figure5.Thediagramforthemediationofpositiverefocusingbetweeneducationanddepression

CatastrophizingFigure6describes themediationdiagramof catastrophizing in

therelationshipbetweeneducationanddepression.

Figure6.Thediagramforthemediationofcatastrophizingbetweeneducationanddepression


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AsFigure6indicates,whencontrollingforcatastrophizing,gen‐derhasanosignificantdirecteffect(βc'=‐.10,p=.001).Themediationeffect(c‐c'=a*b)provedtobestatisticallysignificantaccordingtotheSo‐beltest(Z=‐5.64,p=.001).Theproportionaleffectsizeofthemediationeffectindicatesthat47%ofthetotalrelationbetweeneducationandde‐pressionismediatedbycatastrophizing.

OtherblameFigure7describesthemediationdiagramofotherblameinthe

relationshipbetweeneducationanddepression.

Figure7.Thediagramforthemediationofotherblamebetweeneducationanddepression

AsFigure7shows,whencontrollingforotherblame,education

hasanosignificantdirecteffect(βc'=‐.13,p=.001).Themediationeffect(c‐c'=a*b)provedtobestatisticallysignificantaccordingtotheSobeltest(Z=‐3.80,p=.001).Theproportionaleffectsizeofthemediationeffectindicatesthat28%ofthetotalrelationbetweeneducationanddepres‐sionismediatedbyotherblame.


21

ConclusionsandDiscussionsOurstudyisbaseduponseveralmainpremises.First,thefastand

drasticdemographic,social,technological,political,andeconomicchangesoverthepastcenturygeneratehighlevelsofdistressinpopulation.Sec‐ond,distressisnotequallydistributedinthepopulation,suchvariationsbeingeasilyidentifiedasafunctionofgenderandeducation.Third,thereisscientificliteratureconfirmingthatemotionregulationstrategiesarehighlyinvolvedindistressingeneralandspecificallyindepression,andthosestrategiesaredifferentiallyusedbygenderoreducationcatego‐ries.Baseduponthesepremises,ourstudyaimedatexploringpreciselywhichemotionregulationstrategiesmediatestherelationshipbetweengender and education on one hand, and depressive symptoms on theother.

First of all, our studyhas identifieda significant effect of smallmagnitudeofgenderupondepression,withwomenhavinghigherlevelsofdepressivesymptoms.Theseresultsareinaccordancewiththelitera‐ture(Nolen‐Hoeksema,2001;2012;Parker&Brotchie,2010),indicatingthatwomen in general aremore prone to develop and report signifi‐cantlyhigherlevelsofdepressionthanmen.

Also,ourresultsconfirmthefindingsofpreviousstudies,whichindicatethattherearesignificantdifferencesindepressiondependingonthelevelofeducation(e.g.,Ohayon,2007;Pikhartetal.,2004).Thusinoursamplewefoundasignificanteffectofsmalltomediummagnitudeofeducationupondepression,withlowerlevelsofdepressivesymptomsforparticipantswithhigherlevelsofeducation.Suchdifferencesareusu‐allyattributedtothefactthatthosewithhigherlevelsofeducationhavebetteraccesstoinformation,possessalargerpoolofoptionsregardingemotionregulationstrategies,whichincreasestheirchancestoselectthegroupofstrategiesthatbestsuitthecontextualdemandsofthesituation,as well as facilitates the adherence to prevention and intervention(Gotlib&Hammen,2009).


22

Exploringgenderdifferencesinusingemotionalregulationstrat‐egies, our results show thatwomen use to a higher degree thanmenstrategies as self‐blame, acceptance, rumination, putting into perspec‐tive,andcatastrophizing.Itseemsthatwecannottalkaboutapredomi‐nanceofratherfunctionalorratherdysfunctionalstrategiesforwomen.As scientific literature confirms (Nolen‐Hoeksema, 2012),women useemotion‐regulationstrategiestoahigherdegreethanmen,irrespectiveoftheirfunctional(adaptive)ordysfunctional(maladaptive)value.

Concerningmediationalmodels,ourresultsprovedthattherela‐tionshipbetweengenderanddepressionismediatedbyself‐blame,ac‐ceptance,ruminationandcatastrophizing,withrelativemediationalef‐fectsizesbetween26%and39%ofthetotaleffect.Whatisworthmen‐tioninghereisthefactthatfunctionalstrategieshavelowermediationalvalues (26% of the total effect) while dysfunctional strategies havehighermediationalvalues(31%‐39%ofthetotaleffect).

Analyzing themediators of the relationshipbetween educationanddepression,webroughtempiricalevidenceforacceptance,catastro‐phizingandothersblame,withrelativemediationaleffectsizesrangingfrom10%to47%ofthetotaleffect.Again,itisworthmentioningthatfunctionalstrategiesplayalessimportantrole(10%ofthetotaleffect),whiledysfunctionalstrategiesseemtobeofgreaterimportance(28%‐47%ofthetotaleffect).

Theseresultsmaybeinterpretedinthelightoftherelationshipbetweenadaptiveandmaladaptiveemotion‐regulationstrategiestopsy‐chopathology.Researchhasrepeatedlyindicatedthatmaladaptiveemo‐tionregulationstrategiesaremorestronglyrelatedtopathologicalreac‐tionsthanadaptivestrategies(Aldao&Nolen‐Hoeksema,2012;Aldao&Nolen‐Hoeksema, 2010; Aldao, Nolen‐Hoeksema& Schweitzer, 2010),sincetheuseofdysfunctionalstrategiesmaynarrowtheindividual’sat‐tentional focus, thus hindering his/her ability to select and usemoreadaptive strategies. The finding regarding the relatively weakmedia‐tionalvalueofadaptivestrategiesisalsoimportantespeciallywhenin‐dividuals receive recommendations of how and when to use specificemotionregulationstrategies(Roemer,Orsillo&Salters‐Pedneault,2008).


23

Asanoverallobservation,evenifsocialfactorsaremoreintuitiveandeasiertoidentifyintheformofsocialcategories(gender/educationgroups),behindthesecategoriesstanddifferentpsychologicalprofiles,generated by differences in using psychological mechanisms such asemotion‐regulationstrategies.Ourstudypointsouttheneedtoidentifysuchsubtlemechanismsthatcanexplaintheunequaldistributionofdis‐tressinpopulation.

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TEACHINGLEGALENGLISHTOLAWSCHOOLSTUDENTSTHROUGHVOCABULARY

PRACTICETASKS

CRISTINAPIELMUŞ1

ABSTRACT.ThepaperaimstodemonstratethatstudentscanlearnandreinforceLegalEnglishvocabulary throughpractical tasksdevelopedbasedonauthenticmaterials.Theargumentstosupportsuchademon‐strationconsistinshowcasingavarietyofexamplesofpracticalvocab‐ularytasksthatwehavedevelopedandusedinclasswithourstudents.Yet,beforeshiftingtothepractical facetsofteachingLegalEnglishtolawschoolstudents,thearticledebutswithaclarificationofsomecon‐cepts related to English language teaching, aswell aswith languageteachingapproaches,whichisfurtherfollowedbyabriefanalysisoftheteachingresourcesavailableforLegalEnglishandtheiradvantages.Aspreviouslymentioned,the finalsectionofthepaperisdevotedtotheextensiveexemplificationofthepossibilitiesalanguageinstructorcanuseinaLegalEnglishclassbasedonthepracticaltaskshe/shemayde‐signanddevelopstartingfromauthenticmaterials.Theteachingprac‐tice,however,hasrevealedthat,thoughstudentscanaswellacquirele‐galEnglishterminologywhilebeingengagedinandasaresultofvocab‐ulary‐basedpracticaltasks,thedegreeofeffectivenessoftheirlearningofEnglishlegalconceptsishigheriflearningiscontextualized.

Keywords:EnglishforSpecificPurposes,EnglishforLegalPurposes,CBI,CLIL,LegalEnglishteachingresources,LEvocabulary

1ForeignLanguagesDepartment,“Al.I.Cuza”PoliceAcademy,Bucharest,Romania.E‐mail:[email protected].

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ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.Das Papier zielt darauf ab, zu demonstrieren,dassStudentenLegalEnglishVokabulardurchpraktischeAufgaben,dieaufauthentischenMaterialienbasieren,lernenundverstärkenkönnen.DieArgumente,diefüreinesolcheDemonstrationsprechen,bestehendarin,dasswireineVielzahlvonBeispielenpraktischerWortschatzauf‐gaben zeigen, diewir imUnterrichtmit unseren Schülern entwickeltundangewendethaben.BevorjedochaufdiepraktischenFacettendesjuristischenEnglischunterrichtsfürJurastudentenübergegangenwird,beginntderArtikelmiteinerErläuterungeinigerKonzepte,diesichaufdenEnglischunterrichtbeziehen,sowieaufSprachunterrichtsansätze,aufdieeinekurzeAnalysefolgtUnterrichtsmaterialienfürLegalEnglishundihreVorteile.Wiebereitserwähnt,widmetsichderletzteTeilderArbeit der extensiven Veranschaulichung der Möglichkeiten, die einSprachlehrer ineinemLegalEnglish‐Kursnutzenkann,basierendaufdenpraktischenAufgaben,dieer/ sieausauthentischenMaterialienentwerfenundentwickelnkann.DieUnterrichtspraxishat jedochge‐zeigt,dass,obwohldieSchülersowohllegaleenglischeTerminologieer‐werbenkönnenals auch als Ergebnis vokabularbasierterpraktischerAufgaben,derGradderEffektivitätihresErlernensenglischerRechts‐konzeptehöherist,wennLernenstattfindetkontextualisiert.Schlüsselwörter:EnglischfürspezifischeZwecke,EnglischfürjuristischeZwecke,CBI,CLIL,Rechtsenglischunterricht,LE‐Vokabular1.IntroductionAsarule,lawschoolstudentswhohaveLegalEnglishincludedin

theirsyllabushavetheadvantageofpossessingtheknowledgeofthele‐galfield,whichusuallyallowsthemtoacquireabetterunderstandingofthe English counterparts of the legal concepts they regularly operatewithintheirchosenprofession,providedthattheyareproficientinEng‐lishaswell.

TEACHINGLEGALENGLISHTOLAWSCHOOLSTUDENTSTHROUGH…

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Theaimofthepresentpaper istoshowcasea facetof teachingLegal English to Law School students by the use of vocabulary‐basedpracticaltasks.Weareusingforexemplificationtasksthatwehavede‐veloped starting from authenticmaterials, which have been adminis‐teredinourLegalEnglishlanguageclasses,wherethestudentshaveaB2toC1levelofproficiencyinEnglish.Intheend,weshalldrawconclusionsontheeffectivenessoftheteachingandlearningapproachemployedthathasbeenbasedonvocabularypracticetasks.

2.ConceptsinEnglishlanguageteaching:ESP,EAP,ELP/EALP/ELAP

ESP(EnglishforSpecificPurposes)involvesCBIinvariousdisci‐

plinessuchaseconomics,medicine,technology,lawetc.Thus,LegalEng‐lishasaformofESPhasitsspecificvocabularywhichisdistinguishablefrombothGE(GeneralEnglish)andotherbranchesofESP,suchasBE(BusinessEnglish),EAP(EnglishforAcademicPurposes),EOP(EnglishforOccupational Purposes), EMP (English forMedical Purposes), EVP(EnglishforVocationalPurposes)andsuch.

SomewordsarecommontoBEandLE(e.g.case,sentence,trialetc.),whichmaycauseconfusionamongL2learners,whereassomeotherbelongtoLEonlyandtheirmeaningshavetobecarefullylookedupinlegal dictionaries (e.g.attorney/lawyer,defendant, caselaw,prosecutor,verdict,judge,witnessetc.).

TheInternetmaybeusedtoteachLEterminologyasitisasourceofauthentictextsandapathwaytolanguageplatforms(onlinelegaldic‐tionaries, interactive legal vocabulary exercises). Eastman (1996:34)statesthatthewebwillbecomemoreandmoreimportantgivenitseaseofuseandwideaccessibility.

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LegalEnglishasEAPEnglishforGeneralPurposes(EGP)orTENOR(TeachingEnglish

forNoObviousReason)isfoundedontheprincipleofachievingahighstandard of everyday English communication skills (such as reading,writing, listeningandspeaking).Usually, theGeneralEnglish languagecoursesyllabusisbasedonaconceptionofthekindofrealitystudentshavetodealwithinEnglish(Holme,1996).

Incontrast,ESPinvolves“education,trainingandpractice,anditdrawsuponthreemajorrealmsofknowledge:language,pedagogy,andstudents’specialistareasofinterest”(Robinson,2001).Asitsnamesug‐gests,ESPisanextensionofwhatislearntinEGPanditfocusesonspe‐cificknowledge.

TherearetwomainstrandsofESP,whichareEOPandEAP.EOPinvolvesthepreparationfortheprofessionaloccupationsstudentsarelikelytogointowhentheygraduate(Flowerdew&Peacock,2001:11).EAPreferstoEnglishteachingthatrelatestoastudypurpose,whichistaughtgenerallywithineducationalinstitutionstostudentsneedingEng‐lishfortheiracademiccourses(Dudley‐Evans&St.John,1998).

EnglishforLegalPurposes(ELP)isalsoknownasEnglishforLe‐galAcademicPurposes(ELAP)orEnglishforAcademicLegalPurposes(EALP)andis“anestablishedsub‐sectionofEAP”(Dudley‐Evans&St.John,1998:48). Ithasitsspecific jargonandcomplexlanguage,whicharemostoftenfamiliaronlyforthespecialistcommunity.

3.LanguageteachingapproachesinteachingLegalEnglishContent‐basedinstruction(CBI)

CBIisanintegratedpedagogicalapproachinlanguageeducation,whichadoublefocusonlanguageskillsandcontentmastery.


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IntheESPliteraturetherearevariousdefinitionsofCBI.Forin‐stance, Mohan (1986) argues that language and content should belearnedsimultaneously,whileBritonetal.(1989)viewsCBIasthe“inte‐grationofparticularcontentwithlanguage‐teachingaims”,wherecon‐tentrefersto“regularsubjectmatterthatstudentsarecurrentlylearningsuchasmathematics, geography,andhistoryetc.”.On theotherhand,Williams(1995)statesthatanintegratedapproachprovidesabasisforlanguageteachingandincreasesthechancesofL2acquisitionsuccess.

CBIreferstocontextualizedlearning,whichmeansthatstudentsarethoughtusefullanguageingivendiscoursecontexts,notinisolatedlanguagesequences,whichmaykeepstudentsmotivatedandinterested.

Englishforlegalpurposesrunsinparallelwithlawcourses,whichallowsstudentstoassociatethelegalknowledgewiththelegalEnglishcontextsandlanguage.Usually,LegalEnglishisincludedinthecurricu‐lum of students enrolled in law studies,whose evaluation consists offormativeandsummativetestsadministeredattheendofeachsemester.

TeachingEnglishforLegalPurposescanbecenteredonteachingspecializedterminologyinlegalcontextsbyintegratingallfourlanguageskills:listening,reading,writingandspeaking.Thus,teachersmightuseauthenticmaterialsasteachingresourcesasthetargetstudents’profi‐ciencyisadequateenough(usuallyB2toC1level).

Contentandlanguageintegratedlearning(CLIL)CLILisamethodologysimilarto,butdistinctfromCBIorlanguage

immersion,whichreferstolearningcontextthroughasecondforeignlan‐guage,thusteachingboththesubjectandthelanguage.

Languageimmersionisamethodisamethodofteachingasecondlanguageinwhichthelearners’secondlanguage(L2)isthemediumofclassroominstruction.Thus learnersstudyschoolsubjects throughL2(suchasmathematics,geography,science,lawetc.).

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Thepurposeofsuchanapproachistofosterbilingualismbyoffer‐ing learners the opportunity to develop their communicative compe‐tenceorlanguageproficiencyinL2.

AccordingtoD.Marsh(2002),CLILhasadualfocusasit“referstosituationswheresubjects,orpartsofsubjects,aretaughtthroughaforeignlanguagewithdual‐focusedaims,namelythelearningofcontent,andthesimultaneouslearningofaforeignlanguage”.

InteachinglegalEnglishitisimportanttotakeintoaccountthelearners’levelofL2skillsandtheirlanguagecompetence.TeachinglegalEnglishasasecondlanguagebringsaboutsomechallengessuchasthepeculiaritiesandparticularitiesoflegalvocabularyandtheculturaldif‐ferencesbetweenthenationalandtheL2legalsystems.

Usually, thepurposeof teaching legalEnglish is topreparestu‐dentstopracticelawininternationalcontexts,tofacilitatetheiracquisi‐tionofspecializedterminologyandpreparethemtomeettherequire‐mentsofalawdegreeprogram.

DavidMellinkoff(1963:11‐29)arguesthatlegalEnglishlexisin‐cludes Latin, French andAnglo‐Saxonwords and phrases, rarewordsfrom Old andMiddle English, professional jargon and formal expres‐sions,whichmakesitdifficulttounderstandnotonlytoforeignlearnersorL2learners,butalsotonativespeakers.

TheaimoflegalEnglishteachingwillbetotrainstudentsinprac‐ticingspecificskillssoastobeabletouse itwithease inprofessionallegalcontexts.Therefore,agoodteacherof legalEnglishmustpossesstherequiredqualificationsandexperience inteachingEnglish forspe‐cificpurposesandsufficientknowledgeofrelevantlegaltopics.TeachingmaterialsandresourcesusedinlegalEnglishclassesaremainlybasedonauthentictextsdisplayinglegalmatters,contextsandsystemsoftheUSandtheUK.ThatiswhyinstructorsteachinglegalEnglishtoL2studentsshould primarily focus on the cultural differences that arise from thelearners’L1cultureandtheL2 legalcontexts theyarestudying.Thus,teachersshouldbeawareofthisspecificityandbeabletoprovideacul‐


33

turalbalanceandcross‐culturalcomparisons(forinstance,whenteach‐ingtopicssuchas“thelegalprofession”,“sourcesoflaw”or“branchesoflaw”,teachersofEnglishforlawmayresorttocomparisonsbetweenL1andL2legalsystemssoastomakethelegalnotionsmoreaccessibleandcomprehensible).

InlegalEnglishclassesstudentsareusuallyexposedtolegalcon‐textsortopicsinthetargetlanguage(L2).Suchexposurecanbeprovidedbyaskingstudentstocarryoutcertaindocumentationorresearchonacertainlegalissue,whichimpliesthestudents’availabilitytoworkinde‐pendentlyandtocarryoutindividualinformationgathering,aswellastheircompetenceincomputing.Inaddition,studentsshouldpossessanadequatecommunicativeabilitywhichisensuredbyanadvancedlevelofL2andadeepknowledgeoflegalmattersinL1.SuchcompetenceandknowledgewillallowstudentstodrawcomparisonsbetweenL1andL2legalsystemsandthusextractthepropermeaningofL2legalvocabularyitemsorlegalconcepts.

Anotheralternativetoenhancestudents’acquisitionofthelegalterminology is to assign translation exercises from L1 to L2, and theotherwayaround.Translationoflegalterminologyisnotmerelyapro‐cessof finding theequivalent inL1 (mother tongue),but it requiresagreat deal of cognitive effort and a deep understanding and solidknowledgeofthelegalmatters,doubledbyanutterawarenessofthecul‐turaldifferencesbetweenL1andL2legalsystems.InsupportofthisideaWalker(2001)arguedthat“alegalconceptisanabstractgeneralnotionorideawhichservesasacategoryoflegalthoughtorclassification,thetitlegiventoasetoffactsandcircumstanceswhichsatisfiescertainlegalrequirementsandhascertainlegalconsequences”.

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4.LegalEnglishteachingresources:textbooks,authenticle‐galtexts/resources

LegalEnglishTextbooksLegalEnglishtextbooksusuallycontainreading,listeningtextson

variouslegalissuesandtheiraimistomakestudentsfamiliarwithlan‐guageandstructureofthe legaltexts.Theyalso includepracticetasksfocused on specific vocabulary, grammatical structures and functionallanguage.Theadditionalpurposeofsuchtasksistopreparestudentsforreal‐lifesituations.

The textbooks are also centered on oral communication skillsthrough activities such as discussions, oral debates,making presenta‐tions, delivering arguments, communicatingwith clients,moot courts,representingaclientetc.

OneofthemostimportantissuesthatariseinteachingLegalEng‐lishisthatthelanguagespecialisthastobeabletounderstandandex‐plainthemattersoflawsoastoappropriatelyteachstudentslegalter‐minology.Forthisreason,thelanguageteachershavetokeepincontactwithspecialistsinthelegalfieldtoinformthemonvariouslegalissuesthatneedclarificationandcanonlybeunderstoodwithinthewholelegalsystem.Thissortofcollaborationismostoftennecessaryas therearemajordifferencesintheorganizationofthejudicialsysteminUKandRo‐mania,forinstance.

Usually,thebestapproachinteaching,forinstance,thestructureofthecourts,thelegalprofession,thebranchesorsourcesof lawistoresorttoacomparativeapproachbetweenthelegalsystemsinL1andL2cultures.Thus,besidesbeingabletomoreeasilyunderstandthelegalis‐suesbyresortingtocomparisons,thestudentsalsobecomeawareoftheculturaldifferencesbetweenL1andL2contexts.


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AdvantagesoflegaltextbooksIndisputably,textbooksareanessentialtoolforbothteachersand

studentsinteachingandlearningalanguage,ingeneral,andlegalEng‐lish,inparticular.AccordingtoA.A.Samad(Noorlen,Samad2011:1)text‐booksrepresentamajorsourceofcontactthestudentshavewithalan‐guageexceptfortheinformationprovidedbytheteachers.

Theadvantagesoftextbooksconsistinthefactthattheyprovidea clear structure and organization of the subjectmatter into units ofstudy,sectionsandsubsections.Furthermore,eachunitusuallyincludesinputsthatallowstudentstopracticethefourlanguageskillsandtasksdesignedtofacilitatethepracticeandacquisitionofspecializedlegalvo‐cabulary.Theyarealsoaresourceforstudents’developmentoflanguagecompetencesandskillsbyprovidingavarietyoftaskssuchas:matchingexercises, gap‐fill activities, cross‐word puzzles, matching terms withdefinitions, translation of specialized contexts, legal expressions etc.Moreover,textbooksallowcontinuityandcoherenceinthestudyofLegalEnglishandalsoanintegratedlearningasitintroducesvariouslegaltop‐icsandcontexts.

TheuseofauthenticlegaltextsasalternativeteachingresourcesThereisawiderangeofauthenticlegaltextsthatcanbeextracted

frompiecesoflegislation,statues,legalcontracts,legaljournalsorarti‐cles,inlegalcasesorwebsites,wherelegalglossariescanalsobefound.

TheInternetisthemostvaluablesourceofauthenticlegaltexts,whichoffersagreatvarietyofmaterialsforteachersofLegalEnglish.Ascomparedtotheprintedsources(suchas journals,newspapers,scien‐tificmagazinesetc.)offeringalimitedamountof legalmaterialswhichdateswiftly,theInternetmakesavailableresourcesthatare“continuallyupdated,morevisuallystimulatingandinteractive”,thus“promotingamoreactiveapproachtoreading”(Berardo,2006:62).

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TheauthenticlegalresourcesontheInternethavetheadvantageofofferingstudentstheopportunityofusingcomputersandfindingthislearningmethodmotivatingandattractive.StudentshaveaccesstocasesoftheEuropeanCourtsofHumanRightsortheEuropeanCourtofJusticeetc., lawschoolwebsites, legislativeacts, lawprofessionalswebpages,legaldocuments–contracts,courtproceedings, judgments,EU legisla‐tion,legislativemattersetc.

5.DesigningeffectiveLegalEnglishvocabularypracticetasks

forlawstudentsAccordingtoKrois‐Lindner(2008:57)theInternetcanofferthe

possibilitytodevelopcoherentandfullyintegratedauthenticmaterials.Thus,inordertofacilitatethestudents’acquisitionoflegalterminology,avarietyoftaskscanbedevelopedbytheteachersstartingfromauthen‐tictextsorresourcessuchas:gap‐fillexercises,matchingactivities,col‐locationexercises,matchingwordwithdefinition,wordformation,wordpuzzlesorcrosswords,exerciseswithoppositesorsynonyms, transla‐tiontasks,exerciseswithlegalidiomsetc.ExamplesofsuchLegalEnglishlanguage activities that we have developed for our law students areshowninthetablesbelow.Weshallbrieflydiscussthepurposeofeachtypeoftaskwehaveexemplified.Forinstance,theaimoftheexerciseswith legal collocations and legal idioms (tables 1 and 2 – Pielmuş,2013:42‐44,97‐98,104‐105)istoteachthestudentslearnhowtoasso‐ciatevarioustermsaroundalegalwordorphrase,thusfacilitatingtheacquisitionofnewvocabularyintheformofcollocationsandidioms.

BothtypesoftaskscanbeusedtoencouragestudentstofindthebestequivalentofthelegalwordsandphrasesinL1astheyalreadyhavea legal background in their mother tongue, which can allow them toequate the English and Romanian versions of those terms. The tasksmentionedcanalsobealead‐intofurthervocabularyexercisessuchas


37

Table1.Collocations

1.Fillineachboxbelowwiththemissingwordthatcollocateswiththeonesalreadygiven.Thengivethecorrecttranslationofeachcollocation.

grandbox

hungtrial

2.Herearesomewordsthatcollocatewiththeadjective“legal”.Findthebesttransla‐tionforeachcollocationandthenusesomeofthemtocompletethesentencesbelow.

1.Acareerinthe…legalprofession....canbeintellectuallychallenging,personallyfulfillingandfinanciallyrewarding.2.Everylawyercanprovideprobono....legalservices....tovictims.3.Undercivil law,apersonwhohasbeen injuredor suffereda financial loss canseek….legalremedies....

gap‐fillinthesentencesorinlargertexts(table3‐Pielmuş,2013:50‐51).Usually,thepurposeofagap‐fillexerciseistotestthestudents’under‐standingoftheoverallcontextthelegalwordsareusedinandtheirabil‐ityto fit theappropriatewords intherightblanksdependingontheirmeaningorthegrammaticalcategorythatismissing.Next,theword‐for‐mationtasks(table4‐Pielmuş,2013:52‐53)representbothanoppor‐tunitytoexerciseandlearnnewvocabularyandtorevisegrammaticalcategories,aswellaswordderivationwithprefixesandsuffixes.Suchataskmayefollowedbyafill‐inexercise,whichmayallowtheuseofthenewlyacquiredterminologyinshortcontextssuchassentences.

jury

feesrepresentativeadviceactionsystemservicesright(s)proceedingsframework

aidrulesprofessionadviser

processissuespositionassistanceprotectionproblemsremedies

LEGAL

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Table2.Legalidioms

Lookatthediagrambelow.Itcontainsidiomswiththeword“law”.Matcheachidiomwithitsappropriatetranslationfromthelistbelow.

a)ainterpretaolegeg)apromulga/puneînvigoareolegeb)apracticaavocaturah)aamendaolegec)avotaolegei)aaplicalegead)aabrogaolegej)aîncălcalegeae)arespectalegeak)aaprobalegeaf)aadoptaolegel)aanulaolege

Table3.Gap‐fill

Usethewordsintheboxtofillintheblanksinthetextbelow.

(the/a) LAW

enforce

uphold

obey

observe

break

violate

abide by

amend

adopt

enact

pass

annul

repeal

interpret

practise

adjudicationlegislaturesguiltyparty

enforcedconstitutionlawsuits

jurisdictionslitigantcodifies

legalremedyprecedents


39

WhatIsLaw?Lawisasystemofrulesandguidelineswhichare(0)enforcedthroughsocialin‐

stitutions to govern behavior. Laws are made by governments, specifically by their(1)__legislatures__.Theformationoflawsthemselvesmaybeinfluencedbya(2)__consti‐tution__(writtenorunwritten)andtherightsencodedtherein.

Ageneraldistinctioncanbemadebetweencivillaw(3)_jurisdictions__,inwhichthelegislatureorothercentralbody(4)__codifies__andconsolidatestheirlaws,andcom‐monlawsystems,wherejudge‐madebinding(5)_precedents__areaccepted.

The(6)__adjudication__ofthelawisgenerallydividedintotwomainareas.Crim‐inal lawdealswithconductthat isconsideredharmfultosocialorderandinwhichthe(7)__guiltyparty__maybeimprisonedorfined.Civillaw(nottobeconfusedwithcivillawjurisdictions)dealswiththeresolutionof(8)__lawsuits__betweenindividualsororgani‐zations.Theseresolutionsseektoprovidea(9)__legalremedy__(oftenmonetarydamages)tothewinning(10)_litigant__.

Table4.Word‐formation

Completethechart,wherepossible,withcorrespondingverbs,nouns,adjectivesandad‐verbsasintheexamplebelow.

Verb Noun Adjective Adverbtodefend defense

defendantdefender

defenselessdefensivedefendable

defenselessly

tolegalize …………… ……………… ………………..

AnothertaskthatcanbeusedinaLegalEnglishclassinordertocheckthecomprehensionofvariouslegaltermsismatchingwordswiththeir definitions ormatchingwordswith their L1 equivalent, or evenmatchingwordsinordertobuildupcollocationsorverbphrases.Table5(Pielmuş,2013:91‐92)exemplifiesamatchingactivitywhichhasasaimtomatchthelegalconceptswiththeirdefinitions.Suchataskrequirestu‐dentstorelyontheirL1legalknowledgeinordertobeabletoinferwhatthelegaltermreferredtoisandmaketherightassociationbetweenthe

CRISTINAPIELMUŞ

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termsandtheirdefinitions.However,thistaskmightposeacertainde‐greeofdifficultyifitisnotafollow‐upofalargercontextualdiscussionabouta legal issue,astheL2legalconceptsmayhardlyindicateanL1correspondent.

Table5.Matching

Match the legal idioms (a‐l) in the rightcolumnwith their correctdefinitions (1‐12)

intheleftone.

1‐aneventoraccidentduetonaturalcausesforwhich

nohumanisresponsibleandwhichcouldnothavebeen

avoidedbyplanningahead(astorm,anearthquake,a

volcanoetc.)

2‐causingadisturbance,violentordisorderlybehavior

3‐thenecessitytoproveadisputedfactasrequiredby

thelawsofevidence

4‐acasewhereyouincorrectlyidentifysomeone

5‐thebreakingofapromisewhichmayalsobeabreach

ofcontract

6‐alawsuitthatismadeonbehalfofagroupofpersons

inasimilarsituationorwhohavesufferedasimilarwrong

7‐propertybelongingjointlytoamarriedcoupleorac‐

quiredduringtheirmarriage

8‐acauseorreasonforlegalactionsuchasalawsuit

9‐disobedienceoftheordersandauthorityofthecourt,

disrespectforthecourtprocess

10 ‐ an oral examination that is taken under oath in

whicheachsidetoalawsuithastherighttoexaminethe

otherside'switnessesbeforeatrialorhearing

11 ‐ a section in a contract specifying an amount of

moneytobepaidifthecontractisnotfulfilled

12‐alegaldocumentgrantingauthorityforoneperson

toactasanother'srepresentative

a)burdenofproof

b)examinationfordiscovery

c)powerofattorney

d)contemptofcourt

e)abreachofpromise

f)penaltyclause

g)abreachofthepeace

h)caseofmistakenidentity

i)groundsfor(something)

j)anactofGod

k)communityproperty

l)classactionlawsuit

Key:1j,2g,3a,4h5e,6l,7k,8I,9d,10b,11f,12c


41

A different and effective approach to learning legal vocabularyconsistsintasksthatallowlearnerstopracticeandlearnlegaltermsbyassociatingtheminpairsofoppositesandsynonyms(tables6and7‐Pielmuş,2013:62‐65).Notonly is sucha taskeffective in termsof thegeneralgoalofourLegalEnglishclass,whichistofacilitatethestudents’acquisitionoflegalterminologyandencouragethemtouseitconfidentlyinlegalcontexts,butitisalsoanopportunitytorevisepartsofspeech,byassociatingwordsaroundgrammaticalcategories,suchasnouns,ad‐jectives,verbs,adverbs.

Table6.Opposites

Arrangethewordsintheboxbelowinoppositepairs.

lawful‐unlawfulinnocence‐guiltpeaceful‐violentdangerous‐safe

punishment‐rewardlegality‐unlawfulnessrelease‐imprisonmentindictment‐acquittal

encouragement‐deterrencecapture–escape

lawfulpeacefulunlawfulcaptureinnocenceguiltdangeroussafeacquittalescapedeterrencepunishmentlegalityreleaseimprisonmentrewardunlawfulnessindictmentencouragementviolent

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Table7.Synonyms

Arrangethewordsintheboxbelowinpairsofsynonyms.

leniency‐clemencypunishment‐penaltyguilty‐culpablecriminal‐unlawfullegality‐legitimacyabominable‐dreadfulcharge‐accusationexoneration‐acquittalirresponsibility‐recklessnessrestriction–constraint

Inaddition,taskssuchasword‐puzzlesandmultiplechoiceques‐

tionsmightalsobeusedinlegalEnglishclassestoimprovelearners’vo‐cabulary(tables8and9‐Pielmuş,2013:23‐26,74‐78).Multiplechoicequestionsisbasedbothonthestudents’comprehensionofthecontextandthelegalterminology.Thistypeoftaskmaychecktheknowledgeofcertainlegalcollocations,asinthefirstexampleintable8,ortheunder‐standingofthecontextasinthesecondexampleinthesametable.This

punishmentconstraintguiltyirresponsibilityunlawfulexonerationlegalitydreadfulclemencypenaltychargeacquittalrestrictionculpableabominablerecklessnesslegitimacycriminalaccusationleniency


43

exerciseformatmightbeappealingtothestudentsasitdoesnotinvolvea lot of creative effort on their part, similarly to cross‐word puzzles,whichrequirethemtodiscoverthelegaltermthatcorrespondstoacer‐taindefinition,whilehavingan indicationofthenumberof letters thetermtheyarelookingforhas.Awordpuzzlemaytesthowwellthestu‐dentshaveassimilatedthelegalconceptsfrompreviouscontent‐basedclasses.

Table8.Multiplechoicequestions

Choosethecorrectanswer.

1.Ajurythatcannotreachamajorityverdictisknownasa____________jury.

a)incongruent

b)hung

c)divided

d)nonunanimous

2.Theaccusedmanprovedhisinnocenceincourtandhewas____________.

a)pardoned

b)acquitted

c)exempted

d)absolved

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Table9.Wordpuzzles

Fillinthepuzzlewiththecorrectlegaltermsthatcorrespondtothefollowingdefinitions.

1.anopinionbyamemberofacourtthatagreeswiththeresultreachedinacasebutoffersitsownrationaleforthedecision(2words)

2.writtenquestionssentbyonepartyinalawsuittoanopposingpartyaspartofpretrialdiscoveryincivilcases;thepartyreceivingtheinterrogatoriesisrequiredtoanswertheminwritingunderoath

3.theformalwrittenstatementbyadefendantrespondingtoacivilcomplaintandsettingforththegroundsforhisorherdefense

4.asuitbroughtbypersonshavingsimilargrievancesagainstacommonentity(2words)

5.agroupofcitizenswhoheartheevidencepresentedbybothsidesattrialanddeterminethefactsindispute(2words)

6.anopportunityforthelawyerstosummarizetheirpositionbeforethecourtandtoanswerthejudges’questions(2words)

7.alowerleveljudicialofficialtowhomtheaccusedisbroughtafterthearrest,whohastheobligationofinformingtheaccusedofthechargesagainsthim/herandofhis/herlegalrights

8.therelationshipthatindividualshavewiththestateasasovereignentity,forexamplethetaxcodeorthecriminallaws(2words)

9.punishmentforacrimethatallowstheoffendertoremaininthecommunityandoutofjailsolongashe/shefollowscourt‐orderedguidelinesabouthis/herbehav‐ior

10.anopinionbyamemberofacourtthatdisagreeswiththeresultreachedinthecasebythecourt(2words)

11.theprocessbywhichlawyerslearnabouttheiropponent’scaseinpreparationfortrialbydepositions,interrogatoriesandrequestsfordocuments

12.acourtthatishigherthananordinarytrialcourtandhasthefunctionofre‐viewingorcorrectingthedecisionsoftrialjudges(3words)

13.theauthorityofacourttohearanddecidelegaldisputesandenforceitsrulings14. it is issuedafteracomplaint, filedbyonepersonagainstanother,hasbeen

presentedandreviewedbyamagistratewhohasfoundprobablecauseforthearrest15.asumofmoneyputupwiththecourtbythedefendanttoensurethatheor

shewillappearatthetimeoftrial16.thetypeoflawenactedbyalegislativebody(2words)


45

1

C

2 I N T E R R O G A T O R I E S

3 A N S W E R

4 C L A S S A C T I O N

5 T R I A L J U R Y

6 O R A L A R G U M E N T

7 M A G I S T R A T E

8 P U B L I C L A W

9 P R O B A T I O N

1

0

D I S S E N T I N G O P I N I O N

1

1

D I S C O V E R Y

1

2

C O U R T O F A P P E A L S

1

3

J U R I S D I C T I O N

1

4

W A R R A N T

1

5

B A I L

1

6

S T A T U T O R Y L A W

N

Lastbutnotleast,translations(table10‐Pielmuş,2013:111)can

beusedinLegalEnglishclasseswithaviewtoenhancetheknowledgeofvocabularyandalsofindcorrespondencebetweenL1andL2legalconcepts.

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46

Translationsstillremainahandymethodofpracticingvocabulary,byal‐lowingstudents tocheckboth theiracquisitionandcomprehensionofthelegalterms.ThiswaytheymightalsoreinforcethecorrespondencebetweenL1andL2legalconcepts.

Table10.Translation

UsethevocabularygivenbelowtotranslatethesentencesintoEnglish:

defendant∗trial∗criminaltrial∗defence∗prosecution∗theaccused∗

totestify∗courtoflawcustodialsentence∗hearing∗witness

1.Niciopersoanăacuzatănuesteobligatăsărăspundăîntrebărilorpoliţieiînainte

deproces.

2. Într‐unprocespenalse iau toatemăsurilepentruarespingeoriceavantajal

acuzăriiasupraapărării.

3.Inculpatulnuesteobligatsădepunămărturieîntr‐unprocespenal.

4.Instanţapoateimpuneinculpatuluiosentinţăprivativădelibertate.

5.Într‐unprocespenalestefoarteimportantăaudiereamartoriloracuzării.

6.ConclusionsThepaperhasprovidedanextensiveillustrationofthepossibili‐

tiesalanguageinstructorcanuseinaLegalEnglishclassbasedonthepracticaltaskshe/shemaydesignanddevelopstartingfromauthenticmaterials.ThesetaskshavebeenadministeredinourLegalEnglishlan‐guageclasses,wherethestudentshaveaB2toC1levelofproficiencyinEnglish. Furthermore, the students present the advantage of being inpossessionofthelegalknowledgeinL1,whichisusuallyconsideredaprerequisiteforthemtobeabletoattainabetterunderstandingofthelegalEnglishterminologytheywillbeusinginprofessionalcontexts.


47

Although the results of the classroompractice in Legal Englishbasedontheuseofvocabularytasks,astheyhavebeenreflectedinthestudents’finaltestgrades,havebeenmorethansatisfactory,duetothefactthatthestudentsarebothhighlyproficientinEnglishandintheirlegalfield.However,ourlong‐lastingteachingpracticehasrevealedthat,thoughstudentscanaswellacquirelegalEnglishterminologyasaresultofpracticingvocabulary‐basedtasks,thedegreeofeffectivenessoftheirlearningofEnglishlegalterminologyisconsiderablyhigherifthelegalEnglishlearningisintegratedincontextsrelatedtothelegalprofession.Thismeans that the legalEnglishvocabulary taskscanworkbetter intermsofhelpingstudentsacquire legalterminologyinthesecondlan‐guageifthesetasksareintroducedintothelessonasadditional,comple‐mentaryresourcestoacontent‐basedinstruction.

Aswehaveanalyzedatthebeginningofthispaper,Englishteach‐ing ingeneral,aswellasEnglish forLegalPurposes inparticular,asavariantofEnglishforSpecificPurposes,hastobecircumscribedtoacer‐tainteachingapproach,whichtheESPinstructorfindsmostappropriateforhis/herclasses.Wehavedescribed twosuch teachingapproaches,suchasCBIandCLIL,inrelationtoteachingLegalEnglish,whichprovidethelanguageinstructorwiththeopportunitiestofocusbothoncontentandlanguageinthelanguageclass.Thus,studentscanmoreeffectivelyreinforce theEnglish legal terminology,as theycan link the legalcon‐cepts to a certain professional content (such as legal profession, thebranchesoflaw,thesourcesoflaw,theorganizationoflawcourtsetc.),whichtheyalreadypossessknowledgeofinL1.Assuch,additionalvo‐cabularypractice that complements the content‐based lessonwill fur‐therbuildonthestudents’languagecompetenceinthelegalfield.

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REFERENCES

Berardo,S.A.(2006).TheUseofAuthenticMaterialsintheTeachingofReading,TheReadingMatrix6(2):62.

Briton,D.M.,Snow,M.A.,Wesche,M.B.(1989).Content‐basedsecondlanguageinstruction.NY:NewburyHouse.

Dudley‐Evans,T.&St.John,M.(1998).DevelopmentsinESP:Amultidisciplinaryapproach.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.

Eastman,D.(2000).TheInternetandELT.TheImpactoftheInternetonELT.TheBritishCouncilEnglish.

Flowerdew,J.&Peacock,M.(2001).ResearchPerspectivesonEnglishforAca‐demicPurposes.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.

Holme,R.(1996).ESPIdeas.London:Longman.Krois‐Lindner,A.(2008).UsingAuthenticTextsforAuthenticDiscourseintheLE

Classroom.Retrievedon15September,2010fromhttp://tvnlingua.onet.pl/1,4,1490700

Marsh,D.(2002).ContentandLanguageIntegratedLearning,TheEuropeanDi‐mension–Actions,TrendsandForesightPotential.

Mellinkoff,D.(1963).Thelanguageofthelaw.Boston:LittleBrownandCompany.Mohan,B.(1986).LanguageandContentReading.Addison‐WesleyPublishing

Company.Noordin,N.&Samad,A.A. (2011).Examining the ImportanceofESTandESL

TextbooksandMaterials:Objectives,ContentandForm.Retrievedon14September,2011fromAFnfhWYJ:www.scribd.com/walido_william/d/65908526‐RMeurant‐UCMA‐EFLtextbookSelectionKEA+Noordin,+N.,+Samad,+A.+A.+Exam‐ining+the+Importance+of+EST+and+ESL+Textbooks+and+Materi‐als:+Objectives,+Content+and+Form&cd=1&hl=lt&ct=clnk&gl=lt&cli‐ent=firefox‐a.

Pielmuş,C.(2013).PractiseYourLegalEnglish.AVocabularyWorkbookforLawStudents.Craiova:UniversitariaPublishingHouse.(Romanian)

Robinson,P.(2001).ESPToday.APractitioner’sGuide.Hertfordshire:Prentice‐Hall.Walker,D.M.(2001).TheScottishLegalSystem.AnintroductiontotheStudyof

Scots.Edinburgh:W.Green/Sweet&Maxwell.


THEVALIDATIONOFPERFORMANCEFAILUREAPPRAISALINVENTORYFORTHEEDUCATIONAL

CONTEXTOFHIGHSCHOOLSTUDENTSINROMANIA

ROXANAI.HOLIC1

ABSTRACT. Fear of failure is a concept that has been studied since1969,butovertheyearsthatfolloweditsconceptualizationhasunder‐gonevariouschanges.Evenifthefearoffailureiscurrentlybeingstud‐iedextensivelyamongstathletes,weconsideredthatresearchisneededinotherfields,suchaseducation.Thus,theobjectiveofourstudywastovalidatethePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventoryamongtheRo‐manianpopulation,referringtotheeducationalcontextofadolescentsparticipating in national competitions. Therefore, the internal con‐sistency,thefactorialstructure,theexternalvalidityaswellasthegen‐derdiscriminatingpowerofthequestionnairewereanalysed.Thesam‐pleofourstudyconsistedof541teenagers,9th‐12thgradepupilsfrom41districtsinRomania,participatinginnationalOlympiadsinvariousschool subjects (RomanianLiterature, English, French, Italian, Portu‐guese,Spanish,ReadingasLifeSkills,Socio‐HumanSciences,Religion,Geography, History, Mathematics, Biology, Informatics, Physics, andChemistry).Theresultsobtainedsupportthefactorialstructurerepre‐sentedbythefivefactors(Fearofexperiencingshameandembarrass‐ment,Fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,Fearofhavinganuncertainfuture,Fearof importantotherslosinginterest,andFearofupsetting

1AlexandruIoanCuzaUniversity,FacultyofPsychologyandEducationSciences,Iași,Ro‐mania.Email:[email protected]

ROXANAI.HOLIC

50

importantothers).Also,theresultsobtainedwithregardtothepsycho‐metricpropertiesofthequestionnairesupportthatitcanbesuccess‐fullyusedintheeducationalfield.ThroughthevalidationofthePerfor‐manceFailureAppraisalInventorywehopetopromotemoreintenseresearchintheeducationaldomainoffearoffailure,whichinthelastyearssuffersfromalackofstudiesinthisdirection.Keywords: fearof failure,educationalcontext, factorialstructure,psy‐chometricproperties

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.DieValidierungdesLeistungsausfallBewer‐tungInventarsfürdenBildungskontextderGymnasiasteninRumä‐nien.AngstvordemScheiternisteinKonzept,dasseit1969untersuchtwurde,aberindenfolgendenJahrenhatseineKonzeptualisierungver‐schiedene Veränderungen erfahren. Auch wenn die Angst vor demScheiternderzeitbeiSportlernintensivuntersuchtwird,warenwirderMeinung,dassForschunginanderenBereichenwiederBildungbenö‐tigtwird.ZielunsererStudiewaresdaher,dasInventarderBewertungvonLeistungsausfall bei der rumänischenBevölkerung zu validieren,wobei auf den Bildungskontext von Jugendlichen, die an nationalenWettbewerbenteilnehmen,Bezuggenommenwird.DaherwurdendieinterneKonsistenz,diefaktorielleStruktur,dieexterneValiditätsowiediegeschlechterdiskriminierendeAussagekraftdesFragebogensanaly‐siert.DieStichprobeunsererStudiebestandaus541Jugendlichender9.‐12.Klasseaus41BezirkenRumäniens,dieannationalenOlympiadeninverschiedenenSchulfächern(rumänischeLiteratur,Englisch,Franzö‐sisch,Italienisch,Portugiesisch,Spanisch,LesenalsLebensfähigkeiten,Soziohumanwissenschaften, Religion, Geographie, Geschichte, Mathe‐matik,Biologie,Informatik,PhysikundChemie)teilnehmen.Dieerziel‐tenErgebnissestützendiefaktorielleStruktur,diedurchdiefünfFak‐torendargestelltwird(Angstdavor,SchamundPeinlichkeitzuerleben,Angstdavor,dieeigeneEinschätzungzuentwerten,Angstdavor,eineungewisseZukunftzuhaben,AngstvordemVerlustvonInteressedenwichtigenanderenPersonenundAngstdavor,anderezuärgern).Auch

THEVALIDATIONOFPERFORMANCEFAILUREAPPRAISALINVENTORY…

51

dieimHinblickaufdiepsychometrischenEigenschaftendesFragebo‐genserzieltenErgebnissebestätigen,dasserimBildungsbereicherfolg‐reicheingesetztwerdenkann.DurchdieValidierungdesLeistungsaus‐fallBewertungInventarswollenwireineintensivereForschungimBe‐reichderAngstvordemScheiternfördern,dieindenletztenJahrenaneinemMangelanStudienindieserRichtungleidet.Schlüsselwörter:AngstvordemScheitern,Bildungskontext, faktorielleStruktur,psychometrischeEigenschaften1. Introduction Fearoffailurecanbeinterpretedasaself‐evaluativeframework

that influenceshowthe individualdefines,orientates,andexperiencesfailure in assessment situations (Heckhausen, 1991). The underlyingresearchontheoriginsoffearoffailureseemstosuggestthatithasitsfoundation in social relationships with parents and parent‐childrelationships.Teevan(1983)indicatesthatchildrenwithahighleveloffear of failure hadmotherswho punished the failure, and respondedneutral tosuccess.Smith (1969)showed thatmotherswithboyswithhighlevelsoffearoffailurehadsethighstandardsfortheirsonsbutdidnot perceive their children as having the ability to achieve thesestandards.Schmalt(1982)examinedintimetheexpectationsofparentsregarding the academic behaviors and independence of their childrenand identified a positive relationship between early expectations andfearoffailure.Maternalirritabilityandaddiction(Singh,1992)andthepaternal absenceof the family (Greenfeld&Teevan,1986)havebeenshowntobepositivelyassociatedwiththechild’sfearoffailure.

Ingeneral,existingdataindicatesthatpeoplewithhighlevelsoffearoffailureseemtohavelearnedtodefinefailureasanunacceptableevent that has negative implications for its own value and relationalsecurity,whichurgesthemtoorientvigilantlyandseektoavoidfailureinsituationsofachievement.

ROXANAI.HOLIC

52

Atkinson (1957) defines the concept of fear of failure as thedispositional tendency of an individual to focus on avoiding failure inassessmentcontexts,fornotexperiencingthefeelingofshameincaseoffailure.Itisnotthefailureinitselfthattriggersfear,buttheshamethataccompaniesfailure(Atkinson,1957).Giventheacutedisappointmentofexperiencing a failure, in contexts of achievement, the individual isperceptivelyandcognitivelyoriented towards information relevant tofailure. He/she experiences anxiety before and during work tasks, inwhichhe/sheengagesandseekstoprotecthis/herselffromfailurebyeitherphysically(quitting)ormentally(retreatingeffort),orbyforcinghimself hard to achieve success with the aim of avoiding failure(Covington,1992;Elliot&Church,1997).

In the past, the fear of failure was measured by the scales ofanxiety, but Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory by Conroy andcollaborators(2002)iscurrentlybeingused.Sinceithasbeenrealized,therehasbeenagrowinginterestinitsusebyvarioussportsresearchers.Thus, we identified studies whose objective was the validation ofPerformanceFailureAppraisalInventoryinotherlanguagesorcountries,suchasTurkey(Kahraman&Sungur,2016),Portugal(Correia,Rosado&Serpa, 2016) and UK (Sagar & Jowett, 2010). In these studies, weidentified that the factorialstructureof the inventorywasretainedbyexploratoryand confirmatory factorial analyzes, andeach scaleof thequestionnaireobtainedasatisfactoryinternalconsistency.

This questionnairewasdesigned tomeasure the fear of failureamongstathletesandisoftenusedforthispurposeamongvarioussportsandisvalidatedinotherlanguages,butthisquestionnairehasneverbeenused (at least we did not identify studies existing to date) in othercontexts than sports. For this reason, the objective of our study is tovalidatethisquestionnaireamonghighschoolstudentsparticipatinginnational competitions in Romania to identifywhether itmaintains itsfactorialstructureandpsychometricpropertiessothatitcanbeausefultoolinresearchinthefieldofeducation.


53

Inrecentyears,withthePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventory(Conroyetal.,2002),amultitudeofstudies insportshave focusedoninvestigatingtherelationshipbetweenfearoffailureandothervariablessuchas competitiveanxiety (Conroy,2004;Wilt,2016),perfectionism(Sagar&Stoeber,2009),achievementgoals(Conroy&Elliot,2004),be‐haviour(Sagar,Boardley,&Kavussanu,2010),etc.,butintheeducationalfieldnoresearchhasbeenfoundtousethisinventory.

Ina studyonavoidingsportsexercises,Ellis (1994) found thatmanyoftheathletesavoideddoingphysicalexercisesbecauseofthefearofexperiencingafailureinfrontofthepublic;thusavoidingthemisba‐sicallyastrategytoavoidshame.Foranathlete,thethreatofapossiblefailureandtheassociatedshamemayalsocauseanxietybythefearofexperiencingshame(Spielberger,1966apudElison&Partridge,2012).

Tangney(2002)arguesthatperfectionismandemotionssuchasshame,embarrassmentandguiltmixtogetherbecausetheseemotionsareoften causedby self‐evaluation, anessential componentofperfec‐tionism.Perfectionists cansethighstandards for themselvesoradopthighstandardssetbyothers,butalso focusontheirself‐evaluation inrelationtothesestandards,andanyimperfectionwillgenerateshameorembarrassment. For example,Hewitt andFlett (1991) have identifiedtheexistenceofmoderatepositivecorrelationsbetweenperfectionismandshame.Similarly,Tangneyexploredtherelationshipbetweenshameandperfectionisminthreerecentstudies,andfocusingonsociallypre‐scribedperfectionism,amaladaptivedimension,identifiedcorrelationsfrom.15to.33.

Insports,Conroy,KayeandFifer(2007)alsoexaminedthelinkbetweenperfectionismandthefearoffailureamongstudentsenrolledinphysicaleducation.Their findingssupportthe linkbetweensociallyprescribedperfectionismandbeliefsthatfailurewillleadtoexperiencenegativeconsequencessuchasthedisappointmentofimportantpeople.Sagar andStoeber (2009) also identified that the fearof experiencingshameandembarrassmentisthecentrallinkintherelationshipbetween

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fearof failureandperfectionism,butalso in the relationshipbetweencertain forms of perfectionism and negative emotional states experi‐encedafterafailure.

Thereisalsoapossibilitythatindividualswithahighlevelofper‐fectionism‐becausetheyhaveexcessivelyhighstandardsandaretooself‐critical‐areparticularlyvulnerabletofailureandreactnegativelyafterexperiencingafailureinperformancecomparedtothosewithalowlevelofperfectionism(Besser,Flett,&Hewitt,2004).

Frost and Henderson (1991) investigated the relationship be‐tweenperfectionismandtheorientationtosuccessandfailureamongfe‐male athletes. Perfectionismwasmeasured using Frost'sMultidimen‐sionalPerfectionismScale(FMPS,Frostetal.,1990).Twodimensionsofperfectionismwereused‐personalstandardsandconcernovermistakes‐whichwereidentifiedasrepresentingtheadaptiveandmaladaptiveper‐fectionism(Stoeber&Otto,2006).FrostandHendersonindicatedthatperfectionismasageneralscorecorrelatedstronglywithbothorienta‐tiontosuccessandfailure,supportingtheparadoxicalnatureofperfec‐tionisminathletes(Flett&Hewitt,2005).However,foreachdimensionoftheanalysis,correlationsweremuchmoredifferent:whilepersonalstandards correlated bothwith orientation to success and failure, thecorrelationwith theorientation tosuccesswassignificantlyhigher. Intermsofconcernovermistakes,itcorrelatedsignificantlymorestronglywiththeorientationtofailure,indicatingthatthenegativeaspectsofper‐fectionisminathletesaremorecloselyrelatedtothefearoffailurethantothehopeofsuccess,whilethepositivedimensionofperfectionismismorecloselyrelatedtothehopeforsuccessratherthanthefearoffailure(Flett&Hewitt,2005).

Therelationshipbetweenperfectionisminsportandfearoffail‐ureishighlightedbyfindingssuggestingthataspectsofbothdimensionsofperfectionism‐adaptiveandmaladaptiveperfectionism‐indicatepos‐itivecorrelationswiththefearoffailure,suggestingthatfearoffailureisassociated with all aspects of perfectionism (Kaye, Conroy, & Fifer,


55

2008).However, inamoredetailedanalysis,thescalesofmaladaptiveperfectionismarethosethatmainlycorrelatepositivelywiththefearoffailure.

Intheirstudy,SagarandStoeber(2009),whichaimedtoinvesti‐gatehowperfectionismandfearoffailurepredictedthepositiveandneg‐ative affect resulting from scenarios illustrating success and failure insportscompetitions,theywerealsointerestedinhowthescalesofper‐fectionismandthoseof fearof failurewererelatedinasampleof388athletes.The resultsof the studyhave shown thatpersonal standards(theadaptiveperfectionism)haveanegativerelationshipwiththefearofexperiencingshameandembarrassmentandapositiverelationshipwiththepositiveaffectresultingfromsuccess,whileconcernovermis‐takes and parents' pressure (the maladaptive perfectionism) haveshownapositiverelationshipwiththefearofexperiencingshameandembarrassmentandwiththenegativeaffectresultingfromfailure.More‐over,thefearofexperiencingshameandembarrassmentfullymediatedtherelationshipbetweenconcernovermistakesandnegativeaffectandbetweenperceivedpressurefromthecoachandnegativeaffectalso.

Sagar,BoardleyandKavussanu(2010)conductedastudyamong331athleticstudentswhoseaimwastoverifytheextenttowhichfearoffailure and sport experience predict antisocial behaviour in academicandsportscontextsandwhetherthispredictionisthesameformenandwomen.Asecondobjectiveofthestudywastotesttheexistenceofpos‐siblegenderdifferencesinthemanifestationofantisocialbehaviourandfearoffailure.Theresultsofthestudyindicatethatthefearoffailureandsports experience predicts antisocial behaviour in the university andsport,andthepowerofthesepredictionswasnotdifferentbetweenmenandwomen.Also,femalesubjectsreportedhigherlevelsoffearofself‐devaluationcompared tomales,who in turnreportedhigher levelsoffearoflosingsocialinfluence.Similarly,theresultsshowedthatmaleen‐gagedmoreoftenthanwomeninantisocialbehaviourinbothcontexts.

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Inathletics,fearoffailureoccurswhenbeliefsaboutthenegativeconsequencesoffailurearetriggeredbysituationswherethisispossible(forexample,inacompetition,Conroy,2004).Thisfearofexperiencingafailurehasbeenshowntocausefeelingsofbothcognitiveandsomaticanxiety, cognitive disorders and worry (Conroy, 2001; Conroy et al.,2002).

InastudybyWilt(2016),onasampleof77femaleparticipantsintherunway,therelationshipbetweenanxietymanifestedinthecompet‐itivecontextandthefivetypesoffearoffailurewasanalysed,inaccord‐ancewithConroy'smodel(2001).Theresultsofthestudyshowedthatthetotalscoresofthefearoffailurescalecorrelatedsignificantlywithconcern(cognitiveanxiety),butdidnotsupportanyrelationshipwithsomaticanxiety,arguedby the fact that thescaleof the fearof failuredoesnot include items referring tophysiological symptoms.The rela‐tionshipbetweenfearoffailureandcognitiveanxietycansuggestthatsubjectswhoarethinkingaboutfailurehavemorenegativethoughtsbe‐forethecompetition,whichcontributestotheirlevelofcognitiveanxiety.Thisstudyincludedtwofactors(ageandexperience,thatis,thenumberofcompetitions)consideredtohaveaninfluenceonthelevelofanxietyexperienced.Theinitialassumptionwasthatwiththeincreaseinageandexperience,anxietyandfearoffailurewilldecrease.However,ageandyearsofexperiencedidnotsignificantlypredictcognitiveanxietyorfearoffailurescores,althoughpreviousstudiescorrelatedthemwithanxietyand fear of failure. Hanton, Neil, Mellalieu and Fletcher (2008) haveshownthateliteathleteswithhighlevelsofexperiencehavereportedin‐creasedlevelsofself‐confidenceandlowerlevelsofanxiety.

ConroyandElliot(2004)inastudyusingasampleof356studentsenrolledinsportactivitiesshowedthatfearoffailurehaspositiverela‐tionshipswithperformance‐avoidancegoals,performance‐approachgoalsandmastery‐avoidancegoals.


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2.MeasuringthefearoffailureInthepast,researchersconsideredfearoffailureasaone‐dimen‐

sionalconstructbecausemanyaspectsofthereasonswhypeoplewor‐riedandwhytheyfearthattheycouldnotbesuccessfulwerenotknown(Conroy,2001).Tounderstandbetterthisconstruct,Birney,BurdickandTeevan(1969apudJackaway&Teevan,1976)proposedathree‐dimen‐sionalmodelinaddressingthefearoffailure.Modeldimensionsinclude:a)fearofself‐devaluation,b)fearofpunishment,andc)fearofreducingsocial value.Moreover, Conroy, Poczwardowski andHenschen (2001)haveimprovedthismodelanddefinedfiveaversiveconsequencesoffail‐ure:a)experiencingshameandembarrassment,b)self‐devaluation,c)thepossibilityofhavinganuncertainfuture,d)thepossibilityoflosingthesocialinterest,ande)thepossibilityofdisappointingtheothers.

The firstdimensionof fearof failure is theoneofexperiencingshameasaresultoffailure,andreferstothenegativeself‐evaluationsofthepeoplethemselves,orinotherwords,theybelievethatfailurebringsthemshameandembarrassment,andforthisreasontheytrytoavoidfailure.Theseconddimensionreferstoself‐devaluation,andtothefactthatsomepeoplecanblamethemselves forexperiencinga failureandthismay lead toadecrease in self‐confidence.A thirdpossible conse‐quenceoffailureisthefearofhavinganuncertainfuture.Somepeoplebelievetheirfutureplansmustchangeafterexperiencingafailure,andthesechangesmakethemseethefutureambiguous.Anotherreasonwhypeopleareafraidoffailureisthepossibilitythatothersarelosinginter‐estintheirperson.Peoplewhofearlosinginterestthinktheirvaluede‐pendson their successand they think that if they fail, theirvaluewilldropforsomepeople.Accordingtothem,failurehasanegativeimpactthat leads toa lossof social influence.The lastdimension,asaconse‐quenceofexperiencingafailureisthepossibilitytodisappointtheim‐portantpeople,suchasparentsorteachers(Conroy,2001;Conroy,Wil‐low&Metzler,2002).

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Inlinewiththisrevisedmodel,Conroyandcollaborators(Conroyetal.,2001)havedevelopedthePerformanceFailureAppraisal Inven‐tory(PFAI)toassesspeople'sbeliefsabouttheconsequencesoffailure.Theyexplainthefearoffailurethroughfivesub‐scales:fearofexperienc‐ingshameandembarrassment,fearofself‐devaluation,fearofhavinganuncertainfuture,fearoflosingsocialinfluence,andfinallyfearofdisap‐pointingtheimportantothers.

PFAI (Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory, Conroy, 2001)wasdesignedtobeausefulclinicaltoolinassessinganindividual'smo‐tivation to fear failure. Lazarus (1991) stated that an individual's ap‐praisalaboutaperceived(realorimaginary)changeinhisrelationshipwiththeenvironmentleadstotheoccurrenceofanemotion.Inthecaseoffearandanxiety,thecentreofappreciationhighlightsthethreateningoraversiveconsequencesassociatedwithfailure.Thesefivetypesofap‐preciationareinterconnectedmoderatelyandstronglywitheachother,andtherelationshipsbetweenthemcanbeeffectivelysummedupbyasingletotalscore,whichisageneralfearoffailure(thebeliefthatfailureisassociatedwiththreateningoraversiveconsequences).

Inhisfinaldevelopment,theauthormadethreepreliminarystud‐ies.Thefirstonewasaqualitativestudyconductedtoidentifytheaver‐siveconsequencesoffailurethatprovidesthebasisforassessmentsas‐sociatedwiththefearoffailure.AsecondstudythatdescribeshowPFAIwasdevelopedand it includeda firstattempt to test itspsychometricpropertiesalso.AndathirdstudyanalysingtheinstrumentaswellastheissuesthatledtoachangeinPFAI.Conroyandcollaborators(Conroyetal.,2002)didbothaversionofthe25‐itemtool(namedbythemasthelongversion)andashortversionof5items.

Inhisapproachtofearoffailure,Conroy(inhisfirstqualitativestudy)conductedtheanalysisofthethemesfoundininterviewsonhowrespondents see the failure and its consequences. Among the issueslistedbytheinterviewedsubjectsaboutwhatdeterminesanindividualtoassertthathehasexperiencedafailureweretheunfulfilledpersonalgoals,thelossofopportunities,thelostcontrolofaspectsthatcouldbe


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controlled,insufficientorinefficientadaptation,inefficientcommunica‐tion,theperspectiveontheindividualroleplayedinachievingperfor‐mance,theinefficiencyofthecontrolmanifestedincertainaspects,thecreationofsituationsthathaveledotherstodoubt,thedisappointmentofothers,self‐devaluation,self‐orientedskepticism.WithregardtotheconsequencesofthefailurefoundbyConroyintheinterviews,thesub‐jectsreferredtomaterialloss(things,jobs,opportunities,etc.),repeatedfailures(failureattractotherfailures),blockedaspirations,improvedper‐formance(useoffailureasacatalystexperience)byincreasingmotivationand efficiency of activities, inhibiting motivation by refusing to engageagain,usingcopingstrategies,theinfluenceoffailureonpersonallifeorre‐lationshipswiththoseclosesttothem,experiencingnegativeemotions.

Duringhisdevelopment,Conroy(2001)testedtheoriginalques‐tionnaire among 396 high school students and college students (167womenand229men)throughaseriesoffactorialconfirmatoryanalyses.Since theoriginalquestionnairecontained toomany items(41 items),Conroy,WillowandMetzler (2002) revised thePFAIanddevelopedasecondversionbyremovingitemsfromtheoriginal.Therevisedversionconsistsof25 items,according to theoriginalversion ‐placedon fivesubscales,asfollows:fearofshameandembarrassment(7items),fearofself‐devaluation(4items),fearofhavinganuncertainfuture(4items),fear of losing social influence (5 items), and fear of disappointing im‐portantothers(5items).Thetypeofresponseusedisona5‐stepLikertscale,where“‐2”means“Idonotbelieveatall”,“0”‐“Ithink50%”and“+2”–“Itotallybelieve”.Inordertoreviewtheinventory,researcherscon‐ductedavalidationstudywith438students(234femaleand204male).Theinternalconsistencyobtainedforeachofthescaleswas:.80fortheshameandembarrassmentscale,.74forthescaleofself‐devaluation,.80forthefearofhavinganuncertainfuture,.81forthescaleoflosingsocialinfluence,and.78forthefearofdisappointingtheimportantothersscale.Theauthorsalsoconductedaconfirmatoryfactorialanalysis,obtainingthenecessarydatasupportingtheexistenceofarelevantmodel(GFI=.98,CFI=.95,RMSEA=.04,SRMR=.09).

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3.TranslationofthePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventoryThetranslationofthequestionnaireintoRomanianwasdoneby

3peopleindividually,andthethreeversionsresultedwerecomparedtosetthefinalversion.ThefinalversionhasbeenbacktranslatedintoEng‐lishsothatcanbecomparedtotheoriginalversion.Becausetherewerenodifferencesinthecontentoftheitemsbetweenthetwoversionsofthequestionnaire, theRomanianversionwasusedamonghighschoolstudentstocarryoutthevalidationprocess.InthePFAIvalidationpro‐cess,wewillusetheexploratoryandconfirmatoryfactorialanalyses,theinternalconsistencycoefficientsofeachscale,thegenderdifferences,aswellastheconvergentexternalvalidity.Accordingtotheauthorofthequestionnaire,thefearoffailureisassociatedwithhighlevelsofworry,anxiety,intrusivethoughtsandsportsanxiety;andwithlowlevelsofop‐timism(Conroy,Willow,&Metzler,2002).

4.Method

4.1.Participants

Theselectedgroupof subjectsconsistedof541 teenagers (357girlsand184boys),9th‐12thgradestudents,agedbetween15and19years(M=16.71,SD=1.17)whoparticipatedinvariousnationalOlympi‐ads.Distributionbygendervariablewasasfollows:66%girlsand34%boys.Inthestudywereselectedstudentsparticipatinginvariouscom‐petitionstargetingthefollowingsubjects:RomanianLiterature,English,French,Italian,Portuguese,Spanish,ReadingasLifeSkills,Socio‐HumanSciences,Religion,Geography,History,Mathematics,Biology,Informat‐ics,Physics,andChemistry.TheywereselectedfromthepubliclistsontheofficialOlympicswebsitesandcontactedonlinetocompleteasetof2questionnaires.


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4.2.MeasuresPerformance Failure Appraisal Inventory (Conroy et al., 2002)

madeupof5scalesthatrefertotheaversiveconsequencesassociatedwithfailure:fearofshameandembarrassment(7items),fearofself‐de‐valuation(4items),fearofuncertainfuture(4items),fearoflosingsocialinfluence(5items),andfearofdisappointingimportantothers(5items).Thetypeofresponseusedisona5‐stepLikertscalewhere“‐2”means“Idonotbelieveatall”,“0”‐“Ithink50%”and“+2”‐“Itotallybelieve”.Generalfearoffailureiscalculatedbyaveragingthe5subscales.Thein‐ternalconsistencyreportedbytheauthorsforeachofthescalesofthequestionnaireis:fearofshameandembarrassment(.80),fearofself‐de‐valuation(.74),fearofuncertainfuture(.80),fearoflosingsocialinflu‐ence(.81), fearofdisappointing importantothers(.78),and forentireinventory(.78).Thescoreforeachofthefivescalesiscalculatedbyav‐eragingtheitemsofeachscale.Andthescoreforgeneralfearoffailureiscalculatedbyaveragingthefivescales.Highscoresrepresentthatthepersonhasahighleveloffearoffailure.

Developed by Spielberger (1980), the Test Anxiety Inventory(TAI)isaccordingtoChapellandcollaborators(Chapelletal.,2005),themostimportantandoftenusedtoolinmeasuringtestanxietyamonghighschoolstudentsanduniversitystudents.

TheTestAnxietyInventorytranslatedandadaptedforaneduca‐tional competition context (Olympiads and Interdisciplinary Competi‐tions)(Holic,2018)consistingof20items,groupedintothreedistinctdimensions(Worry,EmotionalityandTotalAnxiety).

TestAnxietyInventoryisascaleofresponsesthatismeasuredbythe4steps(Likertscale),therespondents’optionsforchoosingthean‐swerareasfollows:“1”–“Almostnever”,“2”‐“Sometimes”,“3”–“Often”,and“4”–“Almostalways”.

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4.3.ResultsExploratoryfactorialanalysisFortheexploratoryfactorialanalysis,theSPSS(StatisticalPack‐

ageforSocialSciences)version20wasused.Theextractionmethodusedinthiscase isPrincipalaxis factoring, throughwhichwewillmakeaninitialestimateofthecommonvarianceinwhichcommunalitieshavethelowervalueof1.Obliminrotationwasusedbecauseitisageneralformtoobtaintheobliquerotationswhenfactorsareexpectedtocorrelate,theaspectconsideredbyperformingthisanalysis. Inthiscase, theex‐ploratoryfactorialanalysisperformedbytheextractionmethodgener‐atedastructurerepresentedbyfivefactors,usingK1Method(Kaiser),bywhichweretainedthefactorswhoseeigenvaluewere≥1.

Followingtheanalysis,thedistributionofthe25itemswasdeter‐minedbyfivefactors,thusconfirmingthefivequestionnairescales,butoneitem(item16)wasdistributeddifferentlyfromtheoriginalversion,migratingfromfactor2tofactor3.Thus,onFactor1wereloadeditemsno.19,14,3,6,8;onFactor2items4,7,1;onFactor3items24,16,18,15,20,25,10,22;onFactor4,items8,5,2,12;andonFactor5,items21,17,13,23,11.

Table1containstheloadsofeachitemofthefivefactors.TheAp‐pendixpresentstheRomanianitemsforeachscaleoftheinventory.

Table1.TheExploratoryfactorialanalysis–distributionofitems

ItemsFactor

1 2 3 4 5

Item19 .909

Item14 .721

Item3 .622

Item6 .472

Item9 .443


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ItemsFactor

1 2 3 4 5

Item4

‐

.809

Item7

‐

.705

Item1

‐

.680

Item24 .772

Item16 .686

Item18 .650

Item15 .592

Item20 .584

Item25 .482

Item10 .387

Item22 .340

Item8 ‐.771

Item5 ‐.759

Item2 ‐.644

Item12 ‐.471

Item21 .876

Item17 .612

Item13 .557

Item23 .522

Item11 .467

ConfirmatoryfactorialanalysisInperformingtheconfirmatoryfactorialanalysis,theAMOSver‐

sion20programwasusedtoanalysethefivefactors.Also,wehaveusedidentifieddataonvalidatedversionsinothercountriestoillustratetheresultsobtainedbyus.ThefitindicesobtainedarepresentedinTable2.

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Wementionthatinsomeadaptedversionswehavenotidentifiedallthedataanalysedbyusandforthisreasontherearemissingdatainthetablebelow.

Table2.ThefitindicesforPerformanceFailureAppraisalInventory(Conroy,2002)‐Romanianversion

Subscales df ᵪ2/df RMSEA CI CFI TLI

PFAI(Romanianversion) 265 3.05 .06 .05‐.06 .93 .92

PFAI(originalversion) .05 .92

PFAI(UKversion) 265 2.96 .06 .05‐.06

PFAI(Turkeyversion) .08 .95

PFAI(Portugalversion) 134 .04 .96

RMSEA‐RootMeanSquareErrorofApproximation;CIA–ConfidenceintervalforRMSEA;CFI–TheComparativefitIndex.

PsychometricpropertiesoftheinstrumentThe Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (Conroy et al.,

2002)Romanianversioniscomprisedoffivesubscalesasfollows:Fearofexperiencingshameandembarrassment,Fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,Fearofhavinganuncertain future,Fearof importantotherslosinginterest,andFearofupsettingimportantothers.

As required, the mean, standard deviation and internal con‐sistencycoefficientwerecalculatedforboththewholequestionnaireandeachsubscale.

InTable3wepresentthemean,thestandarddeviationandtheinternalconsistencyofthequestionnairePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventory(Conroyetal.,2002)Romanianversion.


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InTable4wepresentthemean,thestandarddeviationandtheinternalconsistencycoefficientsforeachsubscaleofthequestionnaire.

Table3.Themean,thestandarddeviationandtheinternal

consistencyofthequestionnairePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventory(Conroy,2002),Romanianversion

Mean Standarddeviation AlphaCronbachcoefficient

‐13.30 20.63 .85

Table4.Themean,standarddeviationandtheinternalconsistencycoefficientsforeachsubscaleofthequestionnaire

Subscale Mean Standard

deviation

AlphaCronbach

coefficient

Fearofexperiencingshameandembar‐

rassment

‐1.7 8.4 .88

Fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate ‐1.33 3.26 .82

Fearofhavinganuncertainfuture ‐1.99 3.08 .81

Fearofimportantotherslosinginterest ‐4.47 4.97 .88

Fearofupsettingimportantothers ‐2.52 4.17 .86

ExternalValidityInordertoachieveexternalvalidity,authorsfindingswereused,

whichclaimedthatfearoffailurewasassociatedwithhighlevelsofanxiety,intrusivethoughtsandsportsanxiety;andwithlowlevelsofoptimism(Conroy,Willow,&Metzler,2002). Inordertoachievetheconvergentexternalvalidity,wechosetoexaminetherelationshipbetweenfearoffailureandtestanxiety(whichisaformofstateanxiety),measuredbyTestAnxietyInventory(Spielberger,1980).

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Thus,thehypothesisfromwhichwestartedreferstothefactthatthereisapositivecorrelationbetweentestanxietyandthescoresofthePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventory,meaningthatsubjectswhoob‐tainedhighscoresatthetestanxietyscalewillachievehighscoresonmeasuringscalesoffearoffailure.

Regarding the examination of the relationship between fear offailureandtestanxietysubscales,thecorrelationsbetweenthemwerecalculated.TheidentifiedcorrelationsareshowninTable5.

Table5.Thecorrelationsbetweenfearofexperiencingshameandembarrass‐ment,fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,fearofhavinganuncertainfuture,fearofimportantotherslosinginterest,fearofupsettingimportantothers,cognitivetestanxiety,emotionalitytestanxiety,generaltestanxiety,

andgeneralfearoffailure.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9(1)Shameandembarrass‐ment

‐ .598** .582** .674** .624** .560** .493** .584** .916**

(2)Devaluingone’sself‐esti‐mate

‐ .552** .419** .554** .428** .367** .436** .714**

(3)Uncertainfuture

‐ .490** .755** .418** .392** .441** .720**

(4)Losingin‐terest

‐ .545** .385** .289** .371** .830**

(5)Upsettingimportantoth‐ers

‐ .430** .403** .457** .719**

(6)Cognitiveanxiety

‐ .678** .885** .553**

(7)Emotional‐ityanxiety

‐ .923** .465**

(8)Generaltestanxiety

‐ .562**

(9)Generalfearoffailure

‐

**p<.01


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Thus,inthecaseofcognitivetestanxietyandallfivefearoffailuresubscales theresultsobtainedshowthat there isasignificantpositivecorrelationbetweenthem,meaningthatsubjectswithahighleveloftestanxietyhaveahighleveloffearofexperiencingshameandembarrassment,fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,fearofhavinganuncertainfuture,fearofimportantotherslosinginterest,fearofupsettingimportantothers.

Also,thecorrelationsbetweenemotionalitytestanxietyandallfivefearoffailuresubscalestheresultsobtainedshowthatthereisasignifi‐cantpositivecorrelationbetweenthem,meaningthatsubjectswithahighleveloftestanxietyhaveahighleveloffearofexperiencingshameandembarrassment,fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,fearofhavinganun‐certainfuture, fearof importantothers losinginterest, fearofupsettingimportantothers.Whatcanbenoticed is that thecorrelationsbetweencognitivetestanxietyandfearoffailuresubscalesarehigherthanthoseexistingbetweenemotionalitytestanxietyandfearoffailuresubscales.

Inthecaseofgeneraltestanxietyandgeneralfearoffailurescores,theresultsshowthatthereisasignificantpositivecorrelationbetweenthem,meaningthatsubjectswithahighleveloftestanxietyhaveahighleveloffearoffailure(r=‐.56,df=539,p<.01).

GenderdifferencesTo identify the gender differences in the fear of failure among

Olympichighschoolstudents,weusedamultivariatevarianceanalysis(MANOVA).Thedependentvariableswererepresentedbythefivesub‐scalesofthequestionnaire(fearofexperiencingshameandembarrass‐ment,fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,fearofhavinganuncertainfuture, fear of important others losing interest, fear of upsetting im‐portantothers).Theobtainedresultssupportedtheexistenceofsignifi‐cantdifferencesbetweenfemaleandmalesubjectsintermsofdepend‐entvariables(PillaiF₅,₅₃₅=4.3,p<.01,ƞ²=.04).

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EachdependentvariablewassubjectedtoanANOVAanalysistodemonstratewhetherthistrendissimilartoeachofthedependentvari‐ablestakenseparately.Whenmeasuringthedifferencebetweenfemaleandmalesubjectsintermsoffearofshameandembarrassment,ANOVAanalysisdemonstratedthatoveralltherewasasignificantdifferencebe‐tweenmeans(F₁,₅₃₉=10.28,p<.01,ƞ²=.02),andalso,inthecaseofthefearofanuncertainfuture(F₁,₅₃₉=4.6,p<.05,ƞ²=.008).

Asforthefearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,fearofimportantotherslosinginterest,andfearofupsettingimportantotherstherewerenosignificantdifferencesbetweenthetwogroups.

Regardingthedifferencesinthetwoscales,ttestsforindepend‐entsampleswereusedtoidentifydifferencesbetweenfemaleandmalesubjects.Thus, in the caseof fearof shameandembarrassmentmeanscoresformalesubjects(M=‐3.29,SD=7.92)aresignificantlylower(t=‐3.2,df=539,p<.01)thanthoseoffemalesubjects(M=‐.86,SD=8.53).

Inthecaseofthefearofanuncertainfuture,themeanscoresofthemalesubjects(M=‐2.38,SD=2.93)aresignificantlylower(t=‐2.14,df=539,p<.05)thanthoseoffemalesubjects(M=‐1.78,SD=3.14).

5.DiscussionsThe current study investigated the validity of the Performance

FailureAppraisal Inventory in aRomanian sampleof high school stu‐dentswhotakepart todifferenteducationalcompetitions.Weconsid‐eredthatthecompetitivecontextisrelevanttoassessthefearoffailureofthevariousOlympicsparticipants,giventhatthistypeofcompetitionisahighlyimportantoneforthestudents.SowewereconcernedwithtranslatingthePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventory(Conroyetal.,2002) and investigatingboth internal and convergent validity, and itspowerofdiscrimination.


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Translationandadaptationstudieshavebeenconductedinotherlanguages,demonstratingbothitsfactorialstructureanditspsychomet‐ricproperties(Sagar&Jowett,2010;Kahraman&Sungur,2016;Correia,Rosado&Serpa, 2016). In the studies aboutPFAI validationonotherpopulations,thefollowingresultswereobtainedwithregardtointernalconsistencycoefficients:inTurkey(Kahraman&Sungur,2016)inafirststudy,thecoefficientsrangedfrom.64to.85,andinasecondstudyfrom.70to.86;inPortugal(Correia,Rosado&Serpa,2016)aftertheremovalofsomeoftheitems,theinternalconsistencycoefficientsforFearofex‐periencing shame and embarrassment was .78, for Fear of devaluingone’sself‐estimate.75,Fearofhavinganuncertainfuture.76,Fearofim‐portantotherslosinginterest.76,andFearofupsettingimportantothers.77;andinUnitedKingdom(Sagar&Jowett,2010)theresultsobtainedwere.81,.70,.71,.81,and.77.Thesameprocedurewefollowedinthiscase,butweusedthescaleinthecontextofeducationalcompetitions.Basedontheexploratoryfactorialanalysis,wefound,takingintoaccountthedataanalysisandguidingusbytheresultsofthecommunalitiesoftheitems,thatitwasnotnecessarytogiveupanyofthem.Onlyoneitemhasmigratedfromonefactortoanother,andmoreprecisely,fromtheFearofdevaluingone's self‐estimatescale to theFearofexperiencingshameandembarrassmentscale.Theresultingscalewithallfivefactorsis identicalwith theoriginalversion (Fearof experiencing shameandembarrassment,Fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,Fearofhavinganuncertainfuture,Fearofimportantotherslosinginterest,andFearofup‐settingimportantothers).Andinthecaseofconfirmatoryfactorialanal‐ysis,thefitindiceswereappropriatecomparedwiththeotheridentifiedversionssowepreservedtheinitialformthatresultedfromexploratoryfactorialanalyzes.

Wealsocomparedtheresultsobtainedwithregardtotheinternalconsistencyandthefitindicesoftheconfirmatoryanalysisinthecaseofseveralversionstranslatedandfoundintheresearches(Sagar&Jowett,2010;Kahraman&Sungur,2016;Correia,Rosado&Serpa,2016)carried

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outonthevalidationofthePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventoryanditwasobservedthattheyaresimilartothoseobtainedbyusfortheRo‐manianversion.

Regardingtheconvergentvalidity,wedecidedthat itshouldbecarriedoutbyinvestigatingfearoffailurerelationswithotherconstructslikeanxiety,andmorespecificallywithasituationalanxiety,proceedingthesuggestionsmadebytheauthorofthequestionnaire,Conroy,whofoundthatfearoffailureisassociatedwithhighlevelsofworry,anxiety,intrusivethoughtsandsportsanxiety;andwithlowlevelsofoptimism(Conroy,Willow,&Metzler,2002).InthiswaywechosetheTestAnxietyInventory(Spielberger,1980)inordertoverifythehypothesisthatthereisapositiverelationshipbetween fearof failureand testanxiety (andtheirscales).Asexpected,relationshipsbetweentheRomanianversionofPerformanceFailureAppraisalInventoryandtestanxietyweresignif‐icantandintheexpecteddirection.ThePerformanceFailureAppraisalInventorydemonstrated significant positive relationshipwith the twocomponentsoftestanxiety(cognitivetestanxietyandemotionalitytestanxiety).Thus,subjectswithahighleveloffearoffailure(Fearofexperi‐encingshameandembarrassment,Fearofdevaluingone’sself‐estimate,Fearofhavinganuncertainfuture,Fearofimportantotherslosinginter‐est,andFearofupsettingimportantothers)showedhighlevelsofcogni‐tivetestanxietyandemotionalitytestanxiety.Whatcanbenoticed,how‐ever,isthattherelationshipsbetweenthefivetypesofaversiveconse‐quencesoffailureandcognitivetestanxietyarestrongerthanthosewiththeemotionalitycomponentoftestanxiety.Thisputsintoquestionthefactthattheitemsofthisinventoryevaluatethefearoftheaversivecon‐sequencesof failurebyreferring to the intrusive thoughts that fearoffailuregeneratesandthisaspectissimilartothecognitivescaleoftestanxietythatmeasurestheconcernthatastudentfacesduringatest.Thesame aspectwasmentioned by the authors of the questionnairewhostatedthatfearoffailurewasassociatedwithhighlevelsofanxiety,in‐trusive thoughts and sports anxiety; andwith low levels of optimism(Conroy,Willow,&Metzler,2002).


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ThesameresultswereobtainedbyWilt(2016)whoinvestigatedhow competitive anxiety is associatedwith fear of failure. His resultsshowedthatthecognitivecomponentofthecompetitiveanxietyshowedverystrongrelationshipswiththefearoffailure,butdidnotsupportanyrelationshipwithsomaticanxiety,arguedbythefactthatthescaleofthefearof failuredoesnot include items referring tophysiological symp‐toms.Theauthorexplainedthisstrongrelationshipbetweenfearoffail‐ureandcognitiveanxietybythefactthatsubjectswhoarethinkingaboutfailurehavemorenegativethoughtsbeforethecompetition,whichcon‐tributestotheirlevelofcognitiveanxiety.

TheresultsobtainedalsorevealedthatthePerformanceFailureAppraisal Inventory presents a gender‐specific discrimination power.ConcerningFearofexperiencingshameandembarrassmentandFearofan uncertain future, it has been observed thatmale participants havemuchlowerlevelsthanfemalesintermsoftheseaversiveconsequences.Theexistingdifferencesbetweenboysandgirls regarding thescaleoffearofhavinganuncertainfuturewerenotverybig,butthesamecan’tbesaidaboutthefearofexperiencingshameandembarrassment.Inthiscase,thegirlsobtainedmuchhigherscoresthantheboys.Thesamere‐sultswereobtainedbyKahramanandSungur(2016)whoidentifiedanexistingdifferencebetweengirlsandboysonthisscale,buttheydidnotanalysewhichofthesubjectsachievedhigherscores.Inthecaseoftheotherthreescales, therewerenosignificantdifferencesbetweengirls’andboys' scores.This resultscanbeconsidered tobeconsistentwithpreviousfindingsindicatingthatthereisnodifferencebetweengirlsandboys in termsof fearof failure(Carawayetal.,2003;Conroy,Elliot,&Pincus,2009).

Inconclusion,thefindingsofthecurrentstudyareconsistentwithprevious research supporting the five‐factor new conceptualization offearof failure.Throughtheanalyseswhichwehaveconductedweob‐tained the necessary results to support that Performance Failure Ap‐praisalInventoryusedinaneducationalcompetitioncontexthasasolidstructureandinternalconsistency,anditcanrepresentausefultoolto

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assess the aversive consequences of experiencing failure in an educa‐tionalcontexttooandnotjustinsports.Theuseofthistoolcouldbringgreatbenefitstoeducationalpractice,thusencouragingschoolcounsel‐lorsandteacherstoidentifythenecessarymeasurestoimprovethewell‐beingofstudentsparticipatingineducationalcompetitions.

Thistoolcanbeusefulbothinknowingtheoriginofthefearoffailureamongstudents,byaddressingthefiveaversiveconsequencesas‐sociatedwithfailure,andbyputtingitinrelationwithotherconstructssuchaspersonalityfactors,achievementgoals,orwiththesymptomsofsomevariouspathologiessuchasanxietyordepression.Onereasonwhythistoolcanbeusedinexchangeforothers(suchasanxietymeasure‐ments)referstothefactthatknowingtheoriginofthefearoffailurecanrepresentastartingpointinunderstandingthemanifestationsofpathol‐ogiessuchasanxiety.PFAIcanalsobeusedinexaminingtherolethatparents,teachers,orotherpeopleinthestudentenvironmenthaveinthedevelopmentoffearoffailureinchildren(forexample,inparent‐child,teacher‐students,coaches/mentors‐studentsrelationships,etc.).Itcanalsobehelpfulintestingvarioustreatmentsframeworks(e.g.,cognitivebehaviouraltherapy,rational‐emotivetherapy;Sagaretal.,2009).Fromaclinicalpointofview,byusingthisinventory,fearoffailurecanbeiden‐tified,treatedorpreventedbydiscoveringthewrongthinkingpatternsassociated with failure and in this way specialists can propose sometypesofprogramsinaccordancewiththeneedsoftheaffectedperson.Whatisrecommendedforthefuturewithregardtothestudyofthiscon‐structreferstoitsrelationshipwithschoolperformance.Passer(1988)drawsattentiontothefactthatconcernsaboutperformancefailureandnegativesocialevaluationarethemostprevalentsourcesofcompetitivestressandworryforyouth.


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Conroy,D.E.,Willow,J.P.,&Metzler,J.N.(2002).Multidimensionalfearoffail‐uremeasurement:Theperformancefailureappraisalinventory.JoumalofAppliedSportPsychology,14,76‐90.

Correia,M.,Rosado,A.,&Serpa,S.(2016).Fearoffailureinsport:aPortuguesecross‐cultural adaptation. Motriz: Revista de Educação Física, 22(4).http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1980‐6574201600040024

Covington,M.V.(1992).Makingthegrade:Aself‐worthperspectiveonmotiva‐tionandschoolreform.NewYork:CambridgeUniv.Press.

Elison,J.&PartridgeJ.(2012).Shamecoping,fearoffailure,andperfectionismincollegeathletes.JournalofSportBehaviour,35(1),19‐39.

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Sagar,S.S.&Jowett,S.(2010).ValidationofaMultidimensionalMeasureofFearofFailureinaBritishSample:ThePerformanceFailureAppraisalInven‐tory(PFAI).InternationalJournalofCoachingScience,4(1),49‐63.

Sagar,S.S.,Lavallee,D.,&Spray,C.M.(2009).Copingwiththeeffectsoffearoffailure:Apreliminary investigation of young elite athletes. JournalofClinicalSportsPsychology,3,73‐98.

Sagar,S.S.,&Stoeber,J.(2009).Perfectionism,fearoffailure,andaffectivere‐sponsestosuccessandfailure:Thecentralroleoffearofexperiencingshameandembarrassment.JournalofSportandExercisePsychology,31,602‐627.

Schmalt,H.D.(1982).Twoconceptsoffearoffailure.InR.Schwarzer,H.VanDerPloeg,&C.D.Spielberger(Eds.),Advancesintestanxietyresearch(Vol.1,pp.45‐52).Lisse:Swets.

Smith,C.(1969).Achievementrelatedmotivesinchildren.NewYork:RussellSageFoundation.

Spielberger,C.(1966).AnxietyandBehaviour,NewYork:AcademicPress.Spielberger,C.D.,Gonzales,H.P.,Taylor,C.J.,Anton,W.D.,Algaze,B.,Ross,G.

K.,&Westberry,L.G.(1980).TestAnxietyInventory.PaloAlto,CA:Con‐sultingPsychologistsPress.

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Stoeber, J., & Otto, K. (2006). Positive conceptions of perfectionism: Ap‐proaches, evidence, challenges.Personality and Social PsychologyRe‐view,10(4),295‐319.

Tangney, J.P. (2002).Perfectionismandtheself‐consciousemotions:Shame,guilt,embarrassment,andpride.In.G.L.Flett,&P.L.Hewitt(Eds.),Per‐fectionism:Theory,research,andtreatment(199‐215).Washington,DC:APA.

Teevan,R.C. (1983).Childhooddevelopmentof fearof failuremotivation:Areplication.PsychologicalReports,53(2),506.

Wilt,K.M.(2016).TheRoleofFearofFailureinCompetitiveAnxietyandtheMediatingRoleof2x2AchievementGoalsinFemaleHighSchoolandCollegiateRunners.IthacaCollegeTheses.Paper319.


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AppendixThe itemsforeachscaleofthePerformanceFailureAppraisalIn‐

ventory(Conroyetal.,2002),translatedintoRomanian

ScalaTeamadeaexperimentarușinea

10.Atuncicândnuamsucces,suntmaipuținvaloros(oasă)decâtatuncicândreușesc.

15. Atunci când nu am succes, acest lucruparesămăcopleșeascărepede.

18.Atuncicândnureușesc,estejenantdacăalțiisuntacolocasăvadăacestlucru.

20.Atuncicândnureușesc,credcătoatălu‐meaștiecăacestlucruseîntâmplă.

22. Atunci când nu reușesc, cred că acelepersoane care nu aveau încredere înminesimtcăaveaudreptateînprivințamea.

24.Atuncicândnureușesc,măîngrijoreazăcecredalțiidespremine.

25.Atuncicândnureușesc,îmifacgrijicăal‐țiiarputeacredecănuîncerc.

16.Atuncicândnureușesc,urăscfaptulcănuamcontrolulasuprarezultatului.

ScalaTeamadeauto‐devalorizare

1.Atuncicândnureușesc,seîntâmplăade‐sea pentru că nu sunt suficient de inteli‐gent(ă)pentruaefectuacusuccesaceaacti‐vitate.

4.Atuncicândnureușesc,dauvinapelipsameadeabilitate.

7. Atunci când nu reușesc,mă tem că esteposibilsănudeținsuficientăcapacitate/abi‐litate.

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ScalaTeamadeunviitorincert

2.Atuncicândnureușesc,viitorulmeupareincert.

5.Atuncicândnureușesc,credcăplanurilemeleviitoaresevorschimba.

8. Atunci când nu reușesc, mi se perturbă,,planul”ceurma.

12.Atunci cândnu reușesc, numă îngrijo‐reazăcăacestlucruvaafectaplanurilemeleviitoare.

ScalaTeamadeapierdeinfluențasocială

11.Atuncicândnuamsucces,oameniisuntmaipuțininteresațidemine.

13.Atuncicândnuamsucces,oameniiparsăvreasămăajutemaipuțin.

17.Atuncicândnuamsucces,oameniitindsămălasesingur(ă).

21. Atunci când nu am succes, unele per‐soanenumaisuntinteresatedeminedeloc.

23.Atuncicândnuamsucces,valoareameascadepentruuniioameni.

ScalaTeamadeadezamăgipersoaneleapropiate

3.Atuncicândnureușesc,acestlucruîisu‐părăpeceilalți.

6.Atuncicândnureușesc,măașteptsă fiucriticat(ă)depersoaneleimportante.

9.Atuncicândnureușesc,pierdîncredereaunor oameni care sunt importanți pentrumine.

14.Atuncicândnureușesc,persoaneleim‐portantenusuntfericite.

19.Atuncicândnureușesc,persoaneleim‐portantesuntdezamăgite.


EDUCATIONINTHESPIRITOFECUMENICALVALUES

ELENAANCUȚASANTI1,COSMINSANTI2,GABRIELGORGHIU3*

ABSTRACT.Theeducationofthe21stcenturyshouldrespondtosocietalchanges,aswellastochallengesoccurringinlinewiththeunprecedenteddevelopmentof technology,massmigrationandglobalisation.Theprinciplesunderlyingthecurrenteducationalpoliciessupporttheneedtopromoteanaxiologicaleducation,inharmonywithhuman and social valueswhich should lead to agoodco‐existence,acceptanceandrespectbetweendifferentciv‐ilisationsandcultures.Inthisrespect,theecumenicaleducationpromotespro‐socialattitudes,opennesstopeople,peaceandso‐cialjustice.Nearthefamily,themainagentsshapingthechildrenmoralcharacterareschoolandchurch.ThereligiouseducationintheRomanianschoolsaimsattheholisticdevelopmentofthein‐dividuals,theirspiritualityandmorality,butalsoatformingahar‐moniouspersonalityofapersoncapabletocohabit,communicateandpositivelyrelatetohisorherpeers.Thispaperfocusesonre‐vealingtheformativeaspectsofthereligiouseducationprovidedtosecondaryschool students, theway theyrelate to thevaluesandprinciplesofecumenicaleducationandhowspecificelementstoecumenicaleducationareappliedinparticularcontexts.

1TeacherTrainingDepartment,ValahiaUniversityTargoviste,Romania.2ValahiaUniversityTargoviste,Romania.3TeacherTrainingDepartment,ValahiaUniversityTargoviste,Romania.*Corresponding author:[email protected].

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Keywords:ecumenicaleducation,religiouseducation,ecumeni‐calprinciplesandvalues.ZUSAMMENFASSUNG. Bildung im Geist der ökumenischenWerte.DieBildungdes21.Jahrhundertssolltesowohlaufgesell‐schaftlicheVeränderungen,alsauchaufHerausforderungenrea‐gieren, die zusammen mit der ohnegleichen Entwicklung vonTechnologie, Massenmigration und Globalisierung stattfinden.DiePrinzipien,diedergegenwärtigenBildungspolitikzugrundeliegen,unterstützendieNotwendigkeit,eineaxiologischeErzie‐hungimEinklangmitmenschlichenundsozialenWertenzuför‐dern,diezueinergutenKoexistenz,AkzeptanzundRespektzwi‐schenverschiedenenZivilisationenundKulturenführensollte.Indieser Hinsicht fördert die ökumenische Erziehung prosozialeEinstellungen, Offenheit fürMenschen, Frieden und soziale Ge‐rechtigkeit.InderNähederFamiliesinddieHauptagenten,SchuleundKirche, die denmoralischenCharakter der Kinder formen.DiereligiöseErziehungindenrumänischenSchulenzieltaufdieganzheitlicheEntwicklungderIndividuen,ihrerSpiritualitätundMoralab,aberauchaufdieBildungeinerharmonischenPersön‐lichkeiteinerPerson,dieinderLageist,mitGleichaltrigenzusam‐menzuleben, zu kommunizieren und sich positiv zu verhalten.DieserBeitragkonzentriert sichdarauf,die formativenAspektedes Religionsunterrichts für Sekundarschüler aufzuzeigen, wiesiemitdenWertenundPrinzipienderökumenischenBildunginBeziehung stehen und wie spezifische Elemente der ökumeni‐schenBildunginbestimmtenKontextenangewandtwerden.

Schlüsselwörter: ökumenische Erziehung, religiöse Erziehung,ökumenischePrinzipienundWerte.


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IntroductionThe evolution of the human society entails some significant

changesbothat social, collective level,butalsoatpersonal, individuallevel. Those changes are characterized, among others, by a profoundneedtosearchtheownidentityandsense,asapsychological,social,cul‐tural,spiritualandnationalexistence.Theidentityconstructionrepre‐sentsapsychologicalprocess,closelyinterdependentonseveralfactorssuch:heredity,environment,education,aswellastheindividuallifeex‐periences.Today,almosteverybodycanhaveaccesstoworldwideinfor‐mationanytime,canreachanyplace, cancommunicateusingmultipletechnologicalmeans.Peopletodaylivearealitywhichisdifferentfromwhattwoorthreegenerationsinthepastusedtolive.Inthiscontext,theconstruction of the individual’s personality starts considerably earlierandhasaunique,different,difficult itinerary,astheselectionof infor‐mation,thevarietyofstimuli,thelivedexperiences,theeducationalandsocial context, irremediablymarkcertainstructuraldimensionsof thepsychicalandsocialself.

InRomania,educationhasalwayshadareligiouscomponent,be‐ingstronglyshapedwithanimportantChristianvalence.AsearlyasthefirstschoolsemergedunderthewingsoftheChurch,thefirstwritings,religiousprintings,traditions,ethos,culture‐allhaveastrongreligiousnature.Comingtotheactualdays,thesocietywitnessesalossofauthen‐ticvalues,havingastrongfeelingofdisorientation,sothatthosewhotrytofindlandmarksandlifemodelsappealtomanyelementsmetinthepast,whenthefirstsevenyearsofearlychildhoodmeantthefoundationofthelife,thebasisonwhichabeautifulharmoniouscharacterwasbuilt.Thetraditionalfamilyusedtoconveythespiritualendowmentortreas‐uretotheirsuccessors,whiletheschoolcarriedonworkinginfertilelandand therefore embeddedgenuineand real valuesofmankind into thechildrenmind.Butformoreandmorepeople,thematerialvaluescomefirstinline,havingbecomesmoreimportantthanbeing,theindifference


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andtheselfishnessreplacethegoodco‐existencewhichreliesonrespectandacceptance.Inthiscontext,educationmaybethesolutionforasoci‐etyinwhichauthenticvaluesshouldbekeptaliveandfunctional.

EducationandGlobalization

Globalizationshouldbeunderstoodasalargephenomenonthatrequiresmajorchangesintheactualeducation,beingdefinedasapara‐digmthatimposesthere‐thinkingofbeliefsandstructuresintraditionalconsciousness (Misra,2012). Inconcrete terms,educationredefines itsfrontiers,directionsofaction,objectives,goalsandactors,instrongrela‐tiontosocialdemandsandchanges.Thechallengefacedupbytheedu‐cationistolayemphasismainlyondevelopingofinternationallyrecog‐nizedkey‐skillswhichhelptheindividualstosucceedintheirfieldofac‐tion.Amongthosepossibilitiesandchallenges,temptationsandmirages,eachpersonhastoremainuniqueandthereforedifferentfromtherest,asglobalizationmayhavecertainconsequencesatpersonallevel,suchasdepersonalizationorlossofidentityanduniqueness.

Inadditiontoitsgeneralandordinaryelements,theeducationhasaseriesofexceptionalfeaturesthatarelinkedtothenationalandcul‐turalspecificity,tothelocalandreligious/spiritualethosandtotheper‐ennialvaluescomingfromgenerations.Eachcountryisdefinedbyathe‐saurusofparticularelements.Thephenomenonofglobalizationhasim‐posedtherestructuringofphysicalcountrybordersandtheestablish‐mentofanuniversalstandardmadeupofsetsofvalueswhichacquiresuchintensitythattendstogobeyondthenationalboundariesandbethereforerecognizedonalargerscale(Niculescu&Norel,2013).


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EcumenicalEducationandReligiousEducation

Tounderstandtheecumenicaleducation,itisnecessarytoexplainthemeaningof theword:ecumenism.Theecumenismcomes fromtheGreekword oikoumenē, ofwhich basis are the terms oikéō and oikía,meaningintheancientGreek:landonearthinhabitedbyhumans,ascom‐paredtotheuninhabitedregionsoftheearth.Consequently,inageneralsense,itmeanstheentireworld,but,inareligioussense,itreferstotheChristianworld,unitedunderasinglechurch.

AftertheGreatSchism(1054),thedivisionwhichdestroyedtheChristian world, the term ecumenism designated everything and any‐thingthatbroughtChristiansofallchurchestogether,inanincreasinglybiggerunityoffaith,worship,missionandaction,towardsbuildingtheKingdomofGod(Kunuba,2015).Atpresent,ecumenismmeansworkingin cooperation andmutual understanding between different churchesandChristiandenominations.

Theeducationinthespiritofecumenicalvaluesprovidespeoplewithvastopportunitiestoexpresstheirmodelofthinking,whichmaybeachievedinthecontextofexplorationandmutualopennessaswellaslistening to others. Ecumenical education is the educationwhich sup‐ports a dialogue‐oriented environment, mutual respect, exchange ofideasasenrichingtheco‐existence.Oneoftheprinciplesoftheecumen‐icaleducationrefers to interconnectionofknowledgeandunityof thediversityofknowledge.Ecumenicaleducationalpromoteseducationforpeacebycreatingsomeopportunitiestoovercomereligiousandethnicalprejudices,inanenvironmentofauthenticdialogue,opennessandatti‐tudeswhicharefavorabletointeraction.

Among the ecumenical education principles, one may find(Kunuba,2015):(a)tolerance;(b)loveforothers;(c)acceptanceofdif‐ferentthinkingandopinions;(d)collaboration;(e)promotingmoralval‐ues;(f)peaceandrespectfortheenvironment;(g)promotingsocialjus‐ticeandpeopledevelopment.


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Through itsvalues,attitudesandparadigms,ecumenicaleduca‐tiontriestoshapetheindividual,whoshouldco‐existinabalancedandpeacefulmannerwithhis/herpeers,acceptandrespectvarious ideas,expressions,customsandtraditions.Ecumenicaleducationcontributestoformattitudesoftoleranceforpeopleofdifferentreligionsandethnic‐ities, encourages co‐existence in diversity, harmony between culturesandpeople,dialogueandcommunicationbetweenpeople.Inthespiritoftheecumenicalvalues,thereligiouseducationdevelopsaseriesofskills,asfollows(Niculescu&Norel,2013):(a)understandingandfurtherac‐ceptanceofspecificaspectsofdifferentreligionsandformsofworship;(b)positivelyanalyzing,comparingandvalorizingbasicconcepts,rulesandtraditionsofdifferentreligions;(c)tolerantattitude;(d)realcapac‐itytolovethehumanbeing;(e)positivelyvalorizingtheculturalvaluesbasedondifferentreligionsorformsofworships.

Allthosevalues,specifictoecumenicaleducation,arepromotedwiththehelpofreligiouseducation,inreferencetowhichCucoș(2009)statedthatitisfundamentalandnecessaryforthemodernperson.Infact,thereligiouseducationwasreintroducedasadistinguishdiscipline intheRomaniannationalcurriculum(partofthecommoncore)in1990,afteralongperiodwhentheeducationwasdeprivedofthisdimension.TheChristian‐orthodoxreligionistaughtinprimaryandsecondaryedu‐cation,andalso inhighschoolsandvocationalschools,althoughthereare18religiousformsofworshiprecognizedacrossthecountry.

MethodologyTheageofadolescenceis,bydefinition,adifficultperiod,charac‐

terizedbysignificantpsychologicalandphysicalchanges,byexistentialquestions that contribute to the crystallization of the self, and to thebuildingoftheteen‐ageridentity,includingtheexplorationofthereli‐giousdimensionseenaspartoftheindividual’sspirituality.


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Inthisrespect,wetriedtohighlightontheformativeinfluenceofreligiouseducation‐concerningitsprinciplesandecumenicalvalues‐intheprocessof formationoftheethicalandmoraldimensionofhumanpersonality, byperforming a researchwhichwas conducted involvinghigh‐schoolstudents,whoareatthedelicateageofadolescence,intheperiod of their psychological and social development stage, generallycharacterized by the appearance of different problems. The researchmethodologywasbasedontheadministrationofaquestionnairewithopenitems,fromwhichseveralitemshavebeenselectedtobeillustratedinthispaper.200students from9th to12thgradesparticipatedtothisresearch (questioned students). Out of the participating students, 50were enrolled in the Theological Seminar, and 150 in the “IenăchiţăVăcărescu”NationalCollege.AllofthemattendedspecificclassesofRe‐ligiousEducation.

Thedesignedquestionnaireisjustaninstrumentofabroaderre‐searchthataimstoexploremoredimensionsofthestudents’religiouslife:theirperceptions,emotions,feelingsandattitudes,religiousrepre‐sentations,butalsothespecificityconcerningtheunderstandingofreli‐giousdimensionattheageofadolescence,togetherwiththeindividualand social implicationsof religiousmanifestations.The selected itemsconsideredinthispaperrelatebothdimensionsofreligiosity(internalandexternal),thelastonebeingappliedinsocialcontexts.

ResultsandDiscussionOneofthefirstissueunderresearchwasdefinedbytheindividual

perceptions of the students concerningwhat represents being a goodChristian, more precisely, the way students internalise and mentallybuildthepsychologicalportraitofarealChristian.Figure1illustratestheresults,inwhichthemajoroptions‐lovefortheothers(26%),helpingtheothers(21%)andselflessness/altruism(19%)‐refer to thesocialdimensionofbeingreligious,intherespectofScripturalteachings(the


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commandmentonlove‐loveyourneighborasyouloveyourself),oneofthebasicChristianprecepts,alsopromotedbytheecumenicaleducation.Otheroptionswere:praying(12%)‐namelythediscussionbetweenthehuman and God, proof of religious practice; respect (11%); kindness(9%);andothers(2%).Thestudentsassociatereligionanditsteachingstointerhuman,pro‐socialbehaviors,consideringthataChristian(abe‐liever)hastohavebehaviorsforthebenefitoftheothers.

Fig.1.Students’individualperceptionsconcerning

themeaningofbeingagoodChristian

Figure2 illustrates the students’ emotions, feelingsandexperi‐

encesinrelationtotheirattendanceoftheHolyServicesoftheChurch(DivineLiturgy).Thus, love (32%)andpeace (30%)are themost fre‐quentemotionalstatesofthestudents,whogotoreligiousservicesandpinpointthetherapeuticeffectsatemotionallevel.Otherfeelingswerehope(18%)andjoy(14%),6%mentionedadmiration,fear,findingone‐self,amazement,communion,confidence(groupedasotheranswers).Itisimportanttorecognizetheemotionsgeneratedbyattendingthereli‐giousservices,becausereligion,similartolife,meansexperiences,emo‐tions, feelings. It is worthmentioning that all emotions that studentsspokeaboutarepositive,whichleadstotheconclusionthatparticipation


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tothereligiouslifeofthecommunitymayrepresentfortheyounggen‐erationahealthyalternativetothechaoticlifestyle,sedentaryandexces‐sivelytechnologizedlife.Youngpeopleshouldbemoreinvolvedinthelifeoftheirparishes,becausetheeffects‐atpsychologicallevel–canbebeneficialfortheirharmoniousdevelopment.

Fig.2.Students’emotionsandfeelingsrelatedtotheirparticipationintheChurchHolyService

Figure3illustratesstudents’perceptionsinrelationtothemoral

qualitiesofagoodChristian.Kindness isagainpresenttoaverygreatextent(37%),whichindicatestheawarenessofbeinggoodandkindtootherpeople.Forgiveness(20%)representsanothermoralfeaturethatagoodChristianshouldhave,followedbyrespect(15%)andtolerance(9%).Allthosearevaluespromotedandsupportedbytheeducationintheecumenicalspirit.

Tohighlightthemoralandsocialvaluespromotedanddevelopedbythereligiouseducationintermsofstudents’personality,thepartici‐pantscompletedtheresponsestotheenunciationDuetothereligioused‐ucation,...,synthesizedinFigure4.Here,itcanbeseenthatthestudentsare aware of being tolerant (14%), being better andwithmore faith(13%),more open to others (11%),more optimistic (8%),more em‐phatic(7%)andkinder(6%)‐allthosebeingfoundintheprinciplesand


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valuesoftheecumenicaleducation,whichbalanceshumanrelationsandfacilitates the intercultural dialogue, conditionswhich are essential inthecurrentsocialcontext.Inaddition,thestudentsappreciatethatreli‐giouseducationhaspositiveeffectsonhowtheyperceivelife:theyarehappieraboutthemselves,acceptthemselvesandconsidereasiertofindthescopeoftheirlife,aspectswhichareveryimportantatthisage,whenteen‐agers go through the age crisis. Other given answerswere: I amwise,responsible,free,Ifindeasiertomakedecisions,Igrow.Nonega‐tiveresponseswereofferedandnostudentavoidedtoanswer.

Fig.3.Students'individualperceptionsconcerning

themainmoralqualityofagoodChristian

Fig.4.Students'individualconsiderationsconcerningthecharactertraitsdevelopedbythereligiouseducation


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The final results may constitute the solution to the issue thatmanyteachersandparentsarestrugglingtosolve:Howcanonehelpad‐olescentstoovercomethiscriticalperiodoftheirlife?Thereligiouseduca‐tionishighlyimportantfortheshapingofeachmoralcharacter,tobe‐comingtolerant,pro‐social,moralandtohavinganethicalbehavior,tobeingopentodialogue,startingwithearlyagesandespeciallythrough‐outtheadolescenceperiod.

ConclusionTheresultsoftheresearchhighlightthatstudentsunderstandthe

impactofreligiouseducationontheirpersonalityandacknowledgetheimportanceofsuchimpactforlivingintheactualsociety,pleadingforagoodco‐existence.Theresulteddatapresentagladdeningcharacter,butnevertheless,thisresearchhasalimit:theparticipantstudentsarecom‐ingfromschoolsconsideredbythecommunityasofhighquality,schoolswhereteachersareclearlydevotedtotheir job.However,anotherele‐mentwhichindicateshowimportantthereligiouseducationis forthedevelopment of the students’ conscience of local traditions is repre‐sentedbytheReligiondisciplineitself.Despitethefactthat,inorderforthedisciplinetobeattendedbythestudents,awrittenexpressionofin‐terestissuedbythestudents’parentsisrequired,atthenationallevel,outofatotalofover2millionstudents(in2015),apercentageof91.39%madeawrittenrequestforReligiontobestudiedinschool. Inthisre‐spect,astudyconductedinDâmbovițaCounty(in2014)illustratesthattoaverygreatextent(morethan95%),theparentsofpre‐primarystu‐dentswantedexpresslytheintroductionofReligiouseducationinkinder‐gartens(Santi&Santi,2014),beingawareofitseducativesignificanceinrelationtoshapetheirchildrenpersonality.

ItisclearthatReligiouseducationinschoolsoffersanintegratingofthespiritualhorizon,abondwhichrelatesandintegratestheknowledgeacquiredinotherdisciplines,towardsbuildingaspirituallandmarkwhich


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isbrightandprobativeforlife,livingsointhecommunionofloveandco‐responsibilityforthecommonwelfare(MessageofHisBeatitudeDaniel,PatriarchoftheRomanianOrthodoxChurch,March2015).

In conclusion,we canmention theopinionof aChristianpeda‐gogue‐ProfessorConstantinCucoș(2009)‐whoexpressedthenecessityofareligiouseducationfromearlyages,takingintoaccountthecharac‐teristicsofthoseages,andfurtheron,duringtheperiodofyoungerde‐velopmentstages,asthebenefitsofthiseducationarefoundinthede‐velopmentoftheauthenticvalues,inthestructuringofone’sownper‐sonalandsocialidentity,inthesettingofsomelandmarksandlifemod‐els,inthepersonaldevelopmentandintheprocessofbuildingofrela‐tionsbasedonsolidarity,communionandresponsibility.

REFERENCES

Cucoș,C.(2009).Educațiareligioasă.Repereteoreticeșimetodice.Iași:Polirom.Kunuba,AC.(2015).TheRelevanceofPhilosophicalandEcumenicalEducation

intheNigerianEducationalSystem.TheInternationalJournalofHuman‐itiesandSocialStudies,3(6),240‐243.

Misra,S.(2012).ImplicationsofGlobalizationonEducation.RomanianJournalforMultidimensionalEducation,4(2),69‐82.

Niculescu,RM.,&Norel,M.(2013).ReligiousEducationanImportantDimen‐sionofHuman’sEducation.ProcediaSocialandBehavioralSciences,93,338‐342.

Santi,C.,Santi,EA.(2014).Elementedeeducațiereligioasăîngrădiniță.Teorieșiaplicațiipractice.București:Basilica.

*** ‐ Message of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian OrthodoxChurch,expressedatthenationalmeetingofthe“ParentsforReligionClass”Association.Availableat:http://basilica.ro/cooperare‐benefica‐intre‐familie‐scoala‐si‐biserica‐in‐domeniul‐educatiei/.


EFFECTOFINTENSIVETACTINSTRUCTIONONSPONTANEOUSVERBALBEHAVIORINTHREECHILDRENWITHDEVELOPMENTALDISABILITY

ADELECARPITELLI1*,CLAUDIALORIA2,ROBERTATRERE3,VALENTINAPETRINI4

ABSTRACT.Thepresentstudyisapartialreplicationoftheintensivetactinstructiontactic,inthreestudentswithdevelopmentaldisability.ThedependentvariablewastactsemittedinNonInstructionalSettings(NIS)priorandafterthemasteryofsetsof5differentstimuli.TheNISincludedthetoyareaoftheclassroom,lunchtime,andgroupactivity.Allprobe sessionswere conducted daily for a cumulative 15minutes, 5minutesineachNISforthreedifferentdays.Intensivetactinstructioninvolvedincreasingthetactinstructionsto100‐tactlearnunitsabovethedailylearnunitsstudentswerereceivingdaily.Theresultsshowedasignificantimprovementofvocalverbaloperants(tactsandmands)emittedbythestudentsinnaturalenvironment.

Keywords: IntensiveTact Instruction,Tact,Mand,Disability,VerbalBe‐havior

1AllenamenteLearningCenter,Scandicci(Fi),Italy&TiceliveandLearn,Piacenza(PC),Italy.

2AllenamenteLearningCenter,Scandicci(Fi),Italy.3AllenamenteLearningCenter,Scandicci(Fi),Italy.4AllenamenteLearningCenter,Scandicci(Fi),Italy.*Correspondingauthor:[email protected].

ADELECARPITELLI,CLAUDIALORIA,ROBERTATRERE,VALENTINAPETRINI

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ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.Wirkung von intensiv Tact Anweisung aufspontanesVerbalverhaltenbeidreiKindernmitEntwicklungsbehin‐derung.DievorliegendeStudieisteineteilweiseReplikationvon“in‐tensive tact Instruction Tactic”, in drei Studenten mit evolutionärerBehinderung.DieabhängigeVariablewardieNummervonTacts,dieinunstrukturiertenKontextenvorundnachdemErwerbvonSets5ver‐schiedener Stimuli produziert werden. Die unstrukturierte KontexteschlossendenSpielberichderKlasse,dasEssenundGruppenaktivitätenein.AlleProbe‐Sitzungenwurdentäglich,fürinsgesamt15Minuten,5MinuteninjedemKontextan3verschiedenenTagen,durchgeführt.“In‐tensive Tact Instruction” umfasste die tägliche Zunahme von 100Lernmöglichkeitenvon“Tact”fürjedenSchüler.DieErgebnissezeigeneine signifikante Zunahme der verbalen Stimmoperanten (Tacts undMands),diedieSchülerinnatürlicherUmgebungproduzierten.

Schlüsselwörter:IntensiveTactInstruction,Tact,Mand,Behinderung,SpracheINTRODUCTIONTheacquisitionof languagetypicallyoccursinthefirstyearsof

life,quicklyandspontaneously,asaresultoftheopportunitiesforsocial‐isingamongchildrenwith thecaregivers (Greenwood,Hart,Walker&Risley,1994)andtheentityofwordsrepertoirepresentinchildrenwithtypicaldevelopmentisnotattributabletolearningthroughdirectteach‐ing(Greer&Ross,2008).Themajorityofchildrenwithautismspectrumdisordershaveadelay in languagedevelopment (Stevensetal.,2000;Tager‐Flusberg,1988;Tager‐Flusberg&Sullivan,1998),theonsetandfrequencywiththeyreachthedifferentstagesoflinguisticdevelopmentareoftendelayedwhencomparedtochildrenwithtypicaldevelopment(AmericanPsychiatricAssociation,2013).

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Differentstudiesinliterature(Delagado&Oblak,2007;Greer&Du,2010)triedtoidentifythemostefficientstrategiestostimulatethespontaneous languageof childrenwithdisabilities and the analysis ofverbalBehaviorofSkinner(1957)formstheconceptualbasisformanyeffectivelanguagetrainingthatreceivedattentionbothinliteratureandinpractice(Leaf&McEachin,1999;Sundberg&Michael,2001;Sundberg&Partington,1998).Skinner(1957)definesverbalBehaviorasaBehaviorreinforcedthroughthemediationofanotherperson'sBehavior. In thetextVerbalBehavior,Skinner(1957)identifiedsixtypesofverbaloper‐antsbasedontheirfunction:Echoic,Mand,Tact,Intraverbal,Textualre‐spondingandTranscription.Amongtheseverbaloperants,MandsandTactsareparticularlyrelevantforthepresentstudy.

Mandisaverbaloperantinwhichtheresponseisreinforcedbyaspecific consequence and is functionally controlled by relevant condi‐tionsofdeprivationoradversestimulation(Greer,2002;Greer&Ross,2008;Skinner,1957).Tactisaverbaloperantcontrolledbyanonverbalantecedentstimulusthatfunctionasdiscriminativestimulus(Sundberg,Juan,Dawdy&Arguelles,1990),andisreinforcedbygeneralizedrein‐forcements(Greer&Ross,2008;Tsiouri&Greer,2003).Severalstudies(Greer&Du,2010;Greer&Ross,2008;Pistoljevic&Greer,2006;)suggestthattactrepertoireiscriticalforverbaldevelopmentofchildren,asitisthebasis for the acquisitionofmore complexverbalBehaviors, like naming(Greeretal.,2005;Loweetal.,2002),conversationalunits(Lodhi&Greer,1989)andreading(Greer&Ross,2008).

Manystudies(Delgado&Oblak,2007;Pistoljevic&Greer,2006;Schauffler&Greer,2006)suggestthattheIntensiveTactInstructionpro‐tocolhelpspreschoolandschoolagechildrenwithtypicalandatypicaldevelopment,toincreasethenumberofverbaloperants,PureTactsandPureMands,innaturalenvironments.MostofTactsthatparticipantsindifferentresearches(Delgado&Oblak,2007;Pistoljevic&Greer,2006;Schauffler&Greer,2006)emittedinnon‐educationalsituationswerenotlimited toTacts taught in the IntensiveTact Instructionprotocol.This


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seemstosuggest,aspointedoutbyPistoljevicandGreer(2006),thatstu‐dentshavelearnedtoemitTactstogetgeneralizedreinforcementintheformofattentionfromteachers.

ThepresentstudyaimstoevaluatetheeffectivenessofIntensiveTactInstructionprocedure(Pistoljevic&Greer,2006;Delgado&Oblak,2007)onthenumberofPureTactsandPureMandsemitted,innon‐ed‐ucationalcontests,bytwostudentswithAutismSpectrumDisorderandastudentwithdifficultiesinverbalandnon‐verbalcommunicationstillindiagnosticassessmentphase.

METHODOLOGY

ResearchObjective

The objective behind the development of this researchwas toelaborateandinvestigatethebenefits,intermofeffectivenessandeffi‐ciencyofanIntensiveTactInstructionintwochildrenwithAutismSpec‐trumDisorderandinastudentwithdifficultiesinverbalandnon‐verbalcommunicationstillindiagnosticassessmentphase.

Researchhypothesis

TheapplicationinstudentswithAutismSpectrumDisorderanddisabilityofanintensivetactprotocolproducedanincreasednumberofverbaloperants innaturalsettings. Inthisresearchwefocusedonthecoordinatedescribedasaspecifichypothesis:increasingthetactinstruc‐tionsto100‐tactlearnunitsabovethedailylearnunitsstudentsimprove‐menttheemissionofpuretactsandpuremandsinnon‐istructionalsetting.


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ResearchvariablesThedependentvariablesmeasuredinthisstudywasthenumbers

ofpuretactsandpuremandsemittedduringthe5‐minuteprobesacrossthreenon‐instructionalsettings.

TheindependentvariablesinthisstudywastheIntensiveTactIn‐structionProcedure.During the intervention thepresentationofaddi‐tional100tactlearnunitsweredeliveredthroughouttheday(Albers&Greer,1991;Greer&McDonough,1999;Greer,2002).

Foursetsofmultimediadigitalpictureofstimulidepictingvariousobjectswereused.Fivecategorieswithfourtargetstimuliineachcate‐gorywere included in each set. The five categories targeted includedfood,animals,partsofhumanbody,houseobjectsandcommunityhelp‐ers.Thereweremultipleexemplarsofeachstimuli(atleastthree)andtheywereallinterspersedinallteachingconditions.Twentylearnunitswerepresentedforeachofthefivecategorieswithinaspecificsetonadailybasis.Thetargetsetswererotateduntil100tactlearnunitswerepresentedtotheparticipant.Thesamesetsofstimuliwererepeatedlypresenteduntiltheparticipantachievedmasteryforallfoursetsofstim‐uliwithinthetargetedfivecategories.

Procedure

During the initialprobe, and following themasteryof each set,data were collected during 5‐minute observation probes conductedacross3differentnon‐instructionalsettings;thelunchtable,thegroupactivityandtheplayareaoftheclassroom.Weusedeventrecordingtorecordthenumbersoftactsandmandsemittedbythestudentsduringtheprobes.Wecountedeachtactandmandemitted inthethreenon‐instructionalsettings,bywritingalltheutterancesstudentsemitteddur‐ingthedesignatedtimeperiod.

During the tact intervention, a correct response was recordedwhentheparticipantvocallylabelledthetargetiteminthepictureaccu‐rately and independentlywithin 3 seconds of the presentation of the


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stimuli.Theantecedentforapuretactoperantisnon‐verbalandconsistsinamultimediadigitalpicture.Positivereinforcementintheformofgen‐eralizedsocialpraise(i.e.verbalpraisesuchas“Welldone”,“Goodjob”ortickles)wasthenpresentedimmediatelycontingentonacorrectre‐sponse.Responsesthatdeviatedfromthecorrectresponsewereomit‐ted, or those that occurred outside of the three‐second intraresponsetime resulted in the delivery of a simple correction procedure by theteacher.Inthesimplecorrection,thetargetantecedent(picture)wasre‐presentedandaccompaniedbyanechoicprompt.

Werecordedaplus(+)onadatacollectionsheetwhenthestu‐dentemittedacorrectresponsetoalearnunit,andaminus(‐)wasrec‐ordedifastudentemittedanincorrectresponseornoresponse.Eachintensivetactinstructionalsessionconsistedof20‐learnunitsdeliveredpercategory;therefore,fivelearnunitsweredeliveredpertargetstimuliinasinglecategory.Criterionwasdefinedasrespondingcorrectlywithatleast90%accuracyacross2consecutivesessions.Afterachievingcri‐terionononeofthetrainingsets,anewsetoftactswasimplemented.Students mastered a single set, all five categories, before they weretaughtthenextset.

Results

ThisstudyinvestigatingtheeffectivenessandefficiencyofInten‐siveTact Instructionprocedure (Pistoljevic&Greer, 2006;Delgado&Oblak,2007)onthenumberofPureTactsandPureMandsemitted,innon‐educationalcontests,bytwostudentswithAutismSpectrumDisor‐derandastudentwithdifficultiesinverbalandnon‐verbalcommunica‐tion still in diagnostic assessment phase. Figure 1 shows the delayedmultipleprobedesignusedinthestudy.

StudentA emitted a total of 1 tact, in the secondprobe, and 4mandsacross3‐probessessionsrespectively0inthefirst,1inthesec‐ond,and3inthethird.FollowingmasteryofSet1,StudentAemittedatotalof16tactsand12mandsinasinglesession.FollowingthemasteryofSet2StudentAemittedatotalof22tactsand15mandsinasingle


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session.After themasteryofSet3,StudentAemitted27 tactsand19mandsinasinglesession.FollowingthemasteryofSet4,mandsinasin‐glesession.FollowingthemasteryofSet2StudentBemittedatotalof15tactsand10mandsinasinglesession.AfterthemasteryofSet3,Stu‐dentBemitted21tactsand10mandsinasinglesession.Followingthemastery of Set 4, StudentB emitted a total of 24 tacts and 12mandsacrossallthreeprobes.

StudentAemittedatotalof30tactsand25mandsacrossallthreeprobes.StudentBemittedatotalof8tacts,respectively3inthefirst,3inthesecondand2inthethird,and7mandsacross3‐probessessionsrespectively2inthefirst,2inthesecond,and3inthethird.FollowingmasteryofSet1,StudentBemittedatotalof10tactsand8

StudentCemittednotactandnomandacross3‐probessessions.FollowingmasteryofSet1, StudentCemitteda totalof2 tactsand3mandsinasinglesession.FollowingthemasteryofSet2StudentCemit‐tedatotalof7tactsand4mandsinasinglesession.AfterthemasteryofSet3,StudentCemitted9tactsand7mandsinasinglesession.FollowingthemasteryofSet4,StudentCemittedatotalof12tactsand8mandsacrossallthreeprobes.

This procedure did demonstrate a functional relationship be‐tween IntensiveTact Instructionand the frequencyofPureTactsandPure Mands emitted by the students in the non‐instructional setting.ThesefindingsaconsistentwiththeresultsofPistoljevic&Greer(2006)andPereira‐Delgado&Oblak(2007)inthattheIntensiveTactInstruc‐tionfacilitatedtheacquisitionofmandsandtacts.Inseveraloccasionthetactsemittedbythestudentsduringpostprobeswasdifferentfromthetactlearnedduringthetraining,thatcansupportthethesisofTsiouri&Greer(2003)andPistoljevic&Greer(2006)thatIntensiveTactInstruc‐tionenhancedtheacquisitionofreinforcementforsocialattention.

Futurestudiesmaytargetthelong‐termeffectsthattheintensivetactprotocolhasonstudentswithandwithoutthistypeoftraining.Fur‐therresearchisnecessarytotestotherpositiveeffectsthattheintensivetactprotocolmayhaveotherverbaloperantswithotherpopulationsoflearners.


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Figure1.StudentA,B,andC’sfrequencyoftactsandmandsemittedacrossallnon‐instructionalsettings,blockedinto15‐minutesession.


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Conclusion

Our data suggest that increasing the number of pure tacts andmandschildrenaretaughtcouldleadtoagreaternumberofverbalBe‐haviorandinteractionwithothers.Bylearningtoemitmoretactsandmands, young children whit autism can recruit more attention fromadultsandpeersintheirenvironment,therebycreatingmoreopportu‐nitiesforverbalexchanges.

REFERENCES

AmericanPsychiatricAssociation(2013).DSM–V,DiagnosticandStatisticalMan‐ualofMentalDisorder(5thed.),WashingtonDC.

Albers,A.E.,&Greer,R.D.(1991).Isthethree‐termcontingencytrialapredictorofeffectiveinstruction?JournalofBehavioralEducation,1(3),337‐354.

Delgado,J.A.P.,&Oblak,M.(2007).Theeffectsofdailyintensivetactinstructionontheemissionofpuremandsandtactsinnon‐instructionalsettingsbythreepreschoolchildrenwithdevelopmentaldelays.JournalofEarlyandIntensiveBehaviorIntervention,4(2),392‐411.

Greenwood,C.R.,Hart,B.,Walker,D.,&Risley,T.(1994).Theopportunitytore‐spondandacademicperformancerevisited:Abehavioraltheoryofdevel‐opmentalretardationanditsprevention.Behavioranalysisineducation:Focusonmeasurablysuperiorinstruction,213‐223.

Greer,R.D.,&Du,L.(2010).Genericinstructionversusintensivetactinstructionandtheemissionofspontaneousspeech.TheJournalofSpeechandLan‐guagePathology–AppliedBehaviorAnalysis,5(1),1‐19.

Greer,R.D.,&Ross,D.E.(2008).Verbalbehavioranalysis:Inducingandexpandingnewverbalcapabilitiesinchildrenwithlanguagedelays.Boston,MA:Allyn&Bacon.

Greer,R.D.,Stolfi,L.,Chavez‐Brown,M.,&Rivera‐Valdes,C.(2005).Theemer‐genceof the listener tospeakercomponentofnaming inchildrenasafunctionofmultipleexemplarinstruction.TheAnalysisofVerbalBehav‐ior,21(1),123‐134.


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Greer,R.F. (2002).Designing teaching strategies:Anappliedbehavioranalysissystemsapproach.NewYork:AcademicPress.

Greer,R.D.,&McDonough,S.H.(1999).Isthelearnunitafundamentalmeasureofpedagogy?Thebehavioranalyst,22(1),5‐16.

Leaf,R.,&McEachin,J.J.(1998).Aworkinprogress:Behaviormanagementstrat‐egiesandacurriculumforintensivebehavioraltreatmentofautism.NewYork:DifferentRoadstoLearning.

Lodhi, S.,&Greer,R.D. (1989).The speaker as listener. Journalof theExperi‐mentalAnalysisofBehavior,51(3),353‐559.

Lowe,C.F.,Horne,P.J.,Harris,F.D.,&Randle,V.R.(2002).Namingandcategori‐zationinyoungchildren:Vocaltacttraining.JournaloftheExperimentalAnalysisofBehavior,78(3),527‐549.

Delgado,J.A.P.,&Oblak,M.(2007).Theeffectsofdailyintensivetactinstructionontheemissionofpuremandsandtactsinnon‐instructionalsettingsbythreepreschoolchildrenwithdevelopmentaldelays.JournalofEarlyandIntensiveBehaviorIntervention,4(2),392.

Pistoljevic,N.,&Greer,R.D.(2006).Theeffectsofdailyintensivetactinstructiononpreschoolstudents'emissionofpuretactsandmandsinnon‐instruc‐tionalsetting.JournalofEarlyandIntensiveBehaviorIntervention,3(1),103‐120.

Schauffler,G.&Greer,D.(2006).Theeffectsofintensivetactinstructiononaudi‐ence‐accuratetactsandconversationalunits.JournalofEarlyandInten‐siveBehaviorIntervention,3(1),121–134.

Skinner,B.F.(1957).VerbalBehavior.Acton,MA:CopleyPublishingGroup.Stevens,M.,Fein,D.Dunn,M.,Allen,D.Waterhouse,L.,Feinstein,C.etal.(2000).

Subgroupsofchildrenwithautismbyclusteranalysis:Alongitudinalex‐amination.JournaloftheAmericanAcademyofChildandAdolescentPsy‐chiatry,39,346–352.

Sundberg,M.L.,&Michael,J.(2001).ThebenefitsofSkinner’sanalysisofverbalbehaviorforchildrenwithautism.BehaviorModification,25(5),698‐724.

Sundberg,M.L.,&Partington,J.W.(1998).Teaching languagetochildrenwithautismandotherdevelopmentaldisabilities. PleasantHill,CA:BehaviorAnalysts.

Sundberg,M.L.,SanJuan,B.,Dawdy,M.,&Argüelles,M.(1990).Theacquisitionoftacts,mands,andintraverbalsbyindividualswithtraumaticbrainin‐jury.TheAnalysisofVerbalBehavior,8(1),83‐99.


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Tager‐Flusberg,H.(1988).Onthenatureofalanguageacquisitiondisorder:Theexampleofautism.Thedevelopmentoflanguageandlanguageresearch‐ers:EssaysinhonorofRogerBrown,249‐267.

Tager‐Flusberg,H.,&Sullivan,K.(1998).Earlylanguagedevelopmentinchildrenwithmentalretardation.InJ.Burack,R.Hodapp,&E.Zigler(Eds.),Hand‐bookofmentalretardationanddevelopment (pp.208–239).NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress.

Tsiouri,I.,&Greer,R.D.(2003).Inducingvocalverbalbehaviorinchildrenwithseverelanguagedelaysthroughrapidmotorimitationresponding.Jour‐nalofBehavioralEducation,12(3),185‐206.


ACTIVELEARNING‐THECONDITIONOFOBTAININGQUANTIFIABLESCHOOLRESULTS

INNATIONALEVALUATIONTESTS

IOANA‐MARIACÂMPEAN1*,OLGACHIȘ2

ABSTRACT.Ourresearchanalysesindetailsignificantaspectsthatarespecifictoactivelearningwiththepurposeofoptimizingschoolperfor‐manceinprimaryschool.Inthisrespect,thescientificapproachfollowsthecurrentmethodologicaldirectionsthemainfocusofthespecialist’sbeingtheinterestinactivationandparticipatorystrategies.Theworkdepicts learning aspects in the following subjects: Romanian,Mathe‐matics and Science, following a heuristic approach, a discovery‐ andproblem‐basedlearning,inteachingandintheacquiringofthespecificcontent.ThemainfocuswastoobservetowhatdegreetheuseoftheseteachingstrategiescanleadtoobtainingsuperiorschoolresultsthatarequantifiableinNationalTesting.

Keywords:activelearning,discovery‐basedlearning,heuristicapproach,problem‐basedlearning,NationalTests.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.AktivesLernen‐VoraussetzungfürdasErhaltenQuantifizierbarerSchulergebnisseinnationalenEvaluationstests.Das aktive Lernen stellt eine Herausforderung und einen Aufruf zurSelbsreflexionaufseitenderInteressiertendar,dieAnteilandieInno‐vationundEffizientisierungdesdidaktischenVorgehensnehmen.DasSyntagmaaktiveBelehrungwurdesichdurchdieStärkungderpositiven

1"NicolaeBălcescu"Highschool,Cluj‐Napoca,Romania.*Correspondingauthor.Email:[email protected],FacultyofPsychologyandEducationalSciences,Babeș‐BolyaiUniversity,Cluj‐Napoca,Romania.

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RollevondersozialenDimensionimFallevomLernenverschrieben.InderTheorieundPraxisderheutigenDidaktikkenntdasProblemderaktivenBelehrungneue,komplexe,interdisziplinärewissenschaftlicheAnsätze,dievonArgumentenunterstütztwerden,dieeineaktiveundnachdenklicheTeilnahmevondemSchüler anLern‐undBewertung‐sverfahrenserfordern.Schlüsselwörter:aktivesLernen,entdeckendesLernen,dasheuristischeVerfahren,problemorientiertesLernen,NationalePrüfungen.1.IntroductionIn the theory and practice of the contemporary Didactics, the

problemofactive teaching followsnew,complexand interdisciplinaryscientificapproachesthatrequireanactiveandreflectiveparticipationofthepupilinthelearningandevaluationprocess.Fromthisperspectivethepupilsbecomeactiveparticipantsintheirowntraining,exceeding,throughtheirpersonaleffortthelevelofempirical,partial, incompleteknowledgethatislimitativeandsometimesevenwrong,succeedinginbuildingandmodellingtheirownpersonalityinafavourabledirectionandinapositiveway(M.Bocoș,2013).Theroleoftheteacheristomakethepupilsresponsible,tohelpthemintheirdevelopment,helpthemde‐veloptheirpersonalityandtrusttheirownstrengths.Educatorsadapttheireducationalspeechonthebasisofcultivatinganewunderstandingintheirpupils,onethatisbasedontheirownlifeexperiencesthatpushesthemtotakeanactivepartinthesuggestedactivities,withthepurposeofreachingthestatededucationalobjectives.

Cognitiveandconstructivetheoriesareconsideredfundamentalintheprocessofactivelearning.Thetrainingprocessisverywellcarriedoutwhenthelearningexperiencesstartfromthepupils’basicneedsandexpectations.Aslongasthepupilsgetthechancetoreflectupontheir

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ownexperiences,theydiscoverthatideasdevelopfurtherintermsofin‐fluenceandcomplexityandtheylearntoacquiresuperiorabilitieswiththepurposeof integratingnewpiecesof information.Oneof themostimportantrolesofateacheristoencouragethislearningandself‐reflec‐tionprocess.

ThecontemporarydirectionoftheRomanianschoolisguidedbysomelandmarkssuchas:"decentralization/autonomy,accessibility,cre‐ativity,flexibility,qualityandperformance"(V.Chiș,2005).Themodernschoolimperativelyrequiresthedevelopmentofactiveandefficiented‐ucationalstructuresthatcouldberenderedpermanent,offeringthein‐dividualthenecessarysupportinlearningthroughouttheirentirelife.

Theeducationlawinforceclearlysetsuptheeducationalfinality:"shapingcompetence,viewedasafunctionalandtransferableensembleofknowledge,skills/abilitiesandaptitudes",allbeingnecessaryinone’sonedevelopmentandfulfilment,intheabilitytointegrateinthesociety,to develop interpersonal communication skills, to form conceptionsabouttheworldandlifebasedonhumanisticandscientificknowledgeandonthenationalaswellastheuniversalculture.

Thecurricularreformbeguninthe90’s,proposesarethinkingoftheeducationalplans,oftheschoolprogrammersandcoursebooks,in‐citesthereorganizationofthenationalcurriculumfromaEuropeanper‐spectiveandtheintegrationoflearningexperiencesintocomplexcogni‐tivestructures(M.Bocoș,D.Jucan,2008).Startingfromthispremise,theprocessnaturallyledtothenecessityofcontentcorrelationasaresultofthe intersectionofdifferentdisciplinaryareas.Asaresult theprimaryschoolcurriculumsetsasagoalthephysical,socio‐emotionalandcogni‐tivedevelopmentoflanguageandcommunication,aswellasthedevel‐opmentoflearningcapacitiesandattitudes,providingbridgesforthede‐velopmentoftheeightkeycompetencies.Startingwith1998,withinthespaceofthenewcurriculathetermof"integratedteaching”isimposed.Learningandteachingareviewedinaholisticapproach,havingaspur‐posethereflectionofrealityandmoreprecisely,aninteractivereality.


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Integratedteachingdoesn’thaveasareferencejustasinglesub‐jectofstudy,butahomogenousthemethatiscommontoseveraldisci‐plines.Thesuccessofsuchanactivitydependsonthestructuringdegreeoftheprojectedcontent,alwaysfollowingthedesiredfinalities,aswellasontheresultofcombiningthenaturalprocessoftransmittingandac‐quiringinformationwiththerigorousmentalstructuresofthelearningprocess.Integratedteachingtargetstheactivationthatleadstothepu‐pils’articulationof"thereflective,logical,critical,imaginative,evaluativeandcreativethinkingprocesses"(M.Bocoș,2013).

2.GeneralResearchCoordinatesTheaimofthepresentpedagogicalexperimentistostudythead‐

vantagesandthelimitsoftheheuristicapproach,ofthediscovery‐andproblem‐basedlearninginachievinghighquantifiableschoolresultsinNationalTesting,inprimaryschools.

Thegeneralobjectivesoftheresearchare:

1. AchievinghighquantifiableschoolresultsinNationalTesting:2. OptimizationofthelearningprocessinRomanianlanguageand

MathematicsandSciencesubjects;3. Increase the pupils’ active and conscious involvement in the

processofacquiringnewknowledge;

Inordertobeabletopostulatetheresearchhypothesis,ourstart‐ingpointwasthefollowingresearchedquestion:

Whicharethecoordinatesoftheheuristicapproach,ofthediscov‐ery‐andproblem‐basedlearninginachievingquantifiableschoolresultsinNationalTesting,inprimaryschools?

Lookingforanswerstothesequestions,theresearchhypothesiswasidentified:


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Achieving active learning bypromoting the heuristic approach,discovery‐andproblem‐basedlearningwhenstudyingforthesubjectsofRomanian,MathematicsandScienceinthe3rdand4thgrade,con‐tributes toasignificant improvementofquantifiableschool results inNationalTesting.

Thus,theresearchvariablescanbeidentifiedasfollows: Theindependentvalue:‐thevalorisationofactivelearningby

promotingtheheuristicapproach,discovery‐andproblem‐basedlearn‐ingwhenstudyingforthesubjectsofRomanian,MathematicsandSci‐enceinthe3rdand4thgrade.

The dependent variable: ‐ the quality of the quantifiableschoolresultsinNationalTesting.

Theresearchtookplaceoveraperiodof2schoolyears,onanex‐perimentalgroupof90pupils,partof"NicolaeBălcescu"Highschool,inCluj‐Napoca,andonacontrolgroupthatincluded132attendingthefol‐lowingschoolsfromCluj‐Napoca:"AvramIancu"TheoreticalHighschool,"EmilRacoviţă"TheoreticalHighschool, "Gheorghe Şincai"TheoreticalHighschooland"IoanBob"SecondarySchool.

Theselectionofthecontrolgroupwascarriedoutstartingfromthepotentialoftheseindicestovalorisetheinteractiveconnectionsofthedidacticalmethodsandstrategies(primarilytheheuristicapproach,thediscovery‐andproblem‐basedlearning).Theresearchmethodsap‐pliedintheinvestigation,aswellastheinstrumentsthathavebeenused,arepresentedinthetableno.1.

Table1.Researchmethodsandinstrumentsused

ResearchMethod ResearchinstrumentDidacticalexperiment DidacticalactivitiesThemethodofsystematicobservation Observationsheet

PsychpedagogicalcharacterizationsheetTheQuizMethod Myowndrawn‐upquizThe method of analysing the activity re‐sults

Theresultsofthepupils’activities


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Thestatisticalanalysisofdata MicrosoftOfficeExcelIBMSPSSSoftware

Themethodofcurricularandlegislationre‐search

Legaldocumentscurrentlyinforce

Themethodoftestingandwrittentry‐outsStandardizedtestsMyowndrawn‐upquiz

Methodsofmeasuringresearchdata DiagramsTStudentTesting

Themethodoforganizing,presentingandresearchdataprocessing

TablesDiagrams

The method of verifying the statistical hy‐pothesis

IBMSPSSSoftware

Thepedagogicalexperimentwentthrough4differentstages:

thepreparationstage‐inwhichthespecificconditionsofthecarryingoutoftheexperimentarebeingestablishedandthestrategyap‐pliedintheexperimentisbeingindicated.Thisstagehascoincidedwiththe running, evaluation and interpretation of the testswithin theNa‐tionalTestinginMay2015.

theformativestageoftheexperiment‐whichconsistsoftheactualcarryingoutoftheexperiment,thisbeingastagethattakesplaceoveralongerperiodoftime,becausetheissuingofresultsdoesn’trep‐resentanimmediateconsequence.Thepedagogicalresearchwascarriedoutthroughoutaperiodoftwoschoolyears:2015‐2016and2016‐2017.

A relevant group of activitiesweremade through applying theheuristic strategies in the study of Romanian language and literature,mathematicsandsciences,inthethirdandfourthexperimentalclasses

Forexample,inRomanianlanguageandliterature,activitieswerecarriedoutonthematicareassuchastheliterarytext;thelyrics;thebook‐thereadingjournal;theword‐themeaningofthewords;theoralandwritten narrative of fragments; composition based on given words;quotes;suspensionpoints,etc.


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thepost‐teststage‐whichconsistsinregisteringandmeas‐uringtheresultsoftheexperiment.Inthisstagethecontrolgrouppupils,aswellastheonesintheexperimentalgroup,weresubjectedtothefinalexamination.

the retesting or remote verification stage is carried outwithinacertaintimeframe.Inourcasethisstagetookplaceafteronemonthandthedurabilityoftheknowledgeacquiredbyourpupilscon‐firmed,onceagain,theresearchhypothesis.

Thecarryingoutoftheformativeexperimentcompressesthedidactical activities that have taken place in the experimental classes.Theteachingand learningactivitieshavebeen influencedbythe inde‐pendentvariableproposed,whichrepresentedthewholeformativeped‐agogicalassessment.

Thedynamicof the schoolperformance throughout the assess‐menttargetedthepupils’evolution,schoolperformancebeingquantifiedbasedonthecontinuousformativeevaluation.

Thecomparativeanalysis, throughouttheassessment,hasbeencarriedoutbycomparingtheexperimentalandthecontrolgroup,byus‐ingthecriteriaofclassaverage,averticalanalysisbeingdrawn.Atthesametimeahorizontalanalysishasbeenachievedbycomparingschoolperformancetendencieswithintheexperimentalgroup.

Thepost‐teststagecoincidedwiththerunning,evaluationandinterpretationofthetestswithintheNationalTestinginMay2017.Theanalysisofthepost‐teststageanditscomparisonwiththeotherresultsarerelevant for theevolutionof theexperimentalandcontrolgroups.This comparative analysis allowsus to establish the significantdiffer‐encesbetweentheresultsachievedbythetwogroupsandtheirrelationtotheefficiencyofthemethodsusedintheformativeperiod,thereforeconfirmingourhypothesis.

Thereteststageregisteredadifferenceof1.25pointsinfavouroftheresultsachievedbytheexperimentalgroupinRomanian(Fig.1)and0.38pointsinMathematics(Fig.2).


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Fig.1.TheevolutionofschoolperformanceinRomanian(testscores)

Fig.2.TheevolutionofschoolperformanceinMathematics(testscores)


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3.Conclusions

The quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis of theachieved results of the experimental and control group, allows us todrawthefollowingconclusions:

1. Inthepost‐testandreteststagetheaverageoftheexperimentalgroupsissignificantlyhigherincomparisonwiththecontrolgroup.

2. Theperformanceofthepupilsintheexperimentalgroupissu‐periortotheresultsachievedbythepupilsinthecontrolgroup,duetothe heuristic approach, the discovery‐ and problem‐based learning inteachingRomanian,MathematicsandScience.

3. Theresultsachievedbytheexperimentalgroupduringretest‐ing,provethelong‐lastingacquisitionsachievedthroughactivelearning.

4. Teaching the content from the perspective of active learninggivepupils thechancetobecomekeyplayers in theirownintellectualdevelopment,whiletakinguponthemselvesrolesandresponsibilities.

Theformativeexperimentrepresentsthecentralpartofpedagog‐ical research, a stage addressing the experimental intervention, in ac‐cordance with the intervention project. The experiment’s data pro‐cessingandinterpretation,basedontheelaboratedhypothesis,allowustodrawthefollowingconclusions:

1. Systematic use of the heuristic approach, of the discovery‐basedlearningandproblem‐solvinglearning,significantlyinfluencetheformationanddevelopmentofthecompetenciesthatarespecifictotheRomaniansubject,namelytheabilitytoreceiveanoralmessage,theabil‐ity to express oneself orally, the ability to receive a writtenmessage(reading/perusing),theabilitytoexpressoneselfinwriting.

2. Systematic use of the heuristic approach, of the discovery‐basedlearningandproblem‐solvinglearning,significantlyinfluencetheformation and development of the competencies that are specific toMathematics,namelyknowingandusingtheconceptsthatarespecificto


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Mathematicsandthatareapplicabletoevery‐daylifeandthedevelop‐mentofexploration/investigationcapacitiesaswellasproblem‐solvingabilities.

3. Systematic use of the heuristic approach, of the discovery‐basedlearningandproblem‐solvinglearning,significantlyinfluencetheformationanddevelopmentofthecompetenciesthatarespecifictoSci‐ence,namelyunderstandingandusing,whencommunicating,termsandconceptsthatarespecifictoNaturalSciences,developingexperimentingandexploration/investigationcapacitiesandabilities,whileusingspe‐cificinstruments.

4. Systematic use of the heuristic approach, of the discovery‐basedlearningandproblem‐solvinglearning,significantlyinfluencetheefficiencyofthedidacticalactivities’management.

Theresearchthathasbeencarriedoutproved,throughitsregis‐teredresults,thattheheuristicapproach,thediscovery‐basedlearningandproblem‐solving learning, presented in the teaching‐learningpro‐cess,significantlyimprovethequantifiableresultsofpupilsinNationalTesting.Atthesametimeithasbeenshownthatthebenefitsofsuchanapproachhavenotbeen reduced to the cognitive level,buthavebeensensedintermsofmotivationandemotion,behaviourandattitude.Thesuccessofdidacticalactivitieshasbeenmeasuredthroughtheimplica‐tionofthepupilsintheproposedtasksandthroughthedurabilityoftheacquiredknowledge.Thedynamicsoftheclassesledtothesettingofalivelyatmosphereandamotivatingenvironment, thus contributing tothecreationofanefficientlearningstyle,thepupilsdevelopingtheirownactivestyleofintellectualwork.

Thegeneralconclusionsofthisactiveandintegratedteachingandlearningresearchprovewithoutadoubtthattheheuristicapproach,dis‐covery‐andproblem‐basedlearningcontributesignificantlytotheim‐provementofschoolperformance,whilebringingaplusintermsofthemotivational‐affectiveandthebehavioural‐attitudecomponent.


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REFERENCES

Bocoș,M.,JucanD.(2008)–Fundamentelepedagogiei:teoriașimetodologiacur‐ricumului;repereșiinstrumentedidacticepentruformareaprofesorilor,EdituraParalela45,Pitești.

Bocoș,M.(2013)–Instruireainteractivă.Repereaxiologiceșimetodologice,Edi‐turaPolirom,Iași,pag.51,96.

Chiș,V.(2005)–Pedagogiacontemporană–pedagogiapentrucompetențe,Edi‐turaCasaCărțiideȘtiință,Cluj‐Napoca,pag.26.

***(1998),CurriculumNațional–Cadrudereferință,M.E.N.–C.N.C.,EdituraCorint,București.

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PSYCHOLOGIA PAEDAGOGIA - studia.ubbcluj.ro · studia universitatis babeŞ-bolyai psychologia-paedagogia volume 63, issue 1, june 2018