Journals of Rezekne Academy of Technologies
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FUNCTIONS OF PARENTS HOMESCHOOLING THEIR CHILDREN: THE CASE OF LITHUANIA
Get PDFThe origins of homeschooling can be traced back to the ideas of John Holt, an educational theorist and advocate of school reform in the 1970s, who argued that schools created an oppressive emotional environment and that education at schools aimed to make children’s achievements meet the standards required of compliant employees. Homeschooling is understood as an independent way of organising a form of individual learning, when the child is educated in a family and community environment using a variety of learning tools and environments. The number of homeschooled children is growing, and more and more parents are becoming interested in this form of education and in the legal aspects of its regulation. This article analyses the case of Lithuania. The aim of the article is to answer the questions of how homeschooling of children is organised and what functions parents perform in homeschooling. The qualitative research approach was chosen to analyse the experiences of parents homeschooling their children and to identify the functions of parents as educators.
SCHOOL LEADERS MATTER: THE ROLE OF SCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN IMPLEMENTING UDL IN K-12 SCHOOLS
Get PDFThe aim of this article is to fill the gap of scientific evidence on the role of school principals in implementing UDL in K-12 schools. The case study research was conducted, and field notes were taken from one district in Lithuania, which has been implementing UDL in its schools since 2019. The data for this research was gathered using in-depth semi-structured interviews involving 5 participants. Based on an inductive thematic analysis, six themes emerged: initiating UDL as an organisational change; planning and ensuring the development of staff competencies related to didactic decisions; initiating changes in teachers’ attitudes; motivating teachers to take leadership at the classroom level; promoting the sharing of experiences among teachers (successes and failures); and establishing and maintaining an organisational culture. The discussion explores the implications of the findings for the successful and effective application of UDL in K-12 schools.
AIM AND MEANING OF BREATHING EXERCISES: INTERDISCIPLINARY LITERATURE REVIEW
Get PDFRespiration is an indispensable aspect of life that significantly influences both the physical and mental well-being of individuals, depending on such factors as depth and rhythm. Exploring the distinctions between chest and abdominal breathing is crucial for understanding their profound impacts, and embracing appropriate breathing exercises has proven to be advantageous for short-term relief and long-term holistic health. While acknowledged for diverse therapeutic applications, such as mitigating vocal cord fatigue, a comprehensive exploration of breathing exercises remains essential. Sport scientists and coaches are encouraged to acquire a set of breathing exercises for future implementation in the training routines. This study strives to conduct an interdisciplinary literature review to shed light on the aims, meaning, and classification of breathing exercises. Employing a literature review methodology, were analysed peer-reviewed articles from PubMed and ScienceDirect published during the years from 2000 to 2023, focusing on such keywords as breathing exercises, deep breathing, nasal breathing, abdominal breathing, thoracic breathing, pursed-lip breathing, breathing control, and respiratory muscle training. The research findings illustrate the multifaceted definitions, components, aims, and classifications of breathing exercises. This study establishes a foundation for identifying distinct subtypes, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the significance and purpose of breathing exercises in enhancing overall well-being.
PREPARING TEACHERS FOR INCLUSION IN LITHUANIA: TEACHER EDUCATORS’ APPROACHES TO DIVERSITY AND EXISTING CHALLENGES
Get PDFInclusive education is a universal pedagogical trend, covering a broad range of research areas such as race, ethnicity, gender, culture, language, religion, and ability. An inclusive system concerns the rights, social justice, and equity within education for all, especially the marginalised groups (UNICEF, 2022). Lithuania has officially rolled out new legislation (in 2011) and structural changes (in 2024) to its educational system, moving it from a multi-track system to an inclusive one. However, teachers have reported implementation difficulties such as differentiating teaching methods, fostering student socialisation, and lacking multiprofessional collaboration and dialogue with parents (Lakkala et al., 2019). Contextual urgency lies in the changing demographics of the student body and impacts the reconsideration of diversity and inclusion in Lithuanian classrooms. This study focuses on teacher educators\u27 (TEs) perspectives at a major teacher training university in Lithuania. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with faculty members to understand how diversity and inclusion are understood, interpreted, and implemented within the faculty. This research revealed current practices within teacher training regarding diversity, highlighting strengths, challenges, and potential enhancements. Critical implications for preparing future educators for inclusive classrooms are discussed
STUDENTS’ VISUAL LITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOL: THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS’ ABILITY TO VISUALIZE EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION
Get PDFIn modern digital society visual content is an integral part of human life. Developing visual literacy strongly which is connected with such soft skills as critical thinking, creative thinking, communicating and collaborating is an important aspect in school education. The research is aimed at demonstrating the dependence of primary school students’ visual literacy on the primary school teachers’ abilities to visualize effectively educational information in the process of teaching. The survey was conducted within the time period of 2019–2023. The team of researchers from Institute of Pedagogy of National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine (Didactics Department) carried out an exploratory study within the primary school system in Ukraine. The total number of respondents consisted of 52 primary school teachers and 415 students. The study finds out that nowadays the primary school teachers’ visualizing educational information skills are not sufficiently developed. Boosting the development of visualizing educational information skills among primary school teachers will be resulted in primary school students’ visual literacy development. Having significant positive effect on primary school students’ visual literacy development the mentioned primary school teachers’ skills guarantee serious positive impact on learning results of primary school students in total.
TUTORING AS A MEANS OF INDIVIDUALIZING THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Get PDFThe new information type of society has qualitatively changed the concept of training future specialists. Currently, technocratic relations in the "teacher-student" system are being replaced by humanistic ones, with a transition to cooperation with students as active subjects of the individualized educational process.
The authors of the article, taking into account the European experience of individualizing education, analyzed the peculiarities of using tutoring technology as a means of individualizing the education of master\u27s students in the conditions of mixed education.
The results of the ascertaining stage of the pedagogical experiment, the participants of which were teachers and master\u27s students of Dragomanov Ukrainian State University (Kyiv), National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” (Kharkiv), Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University (Vinnytsia), are presented.
The purpose of the confirmatory experiment was to identify the level of understanding of university teachers, as well as master\u27s students – future teachers of the essence of tutoring technology and the presence of experience in using it in professional activities.
The article proves that the use of tutoring technology in conditions of mixed learning allows students of higher education to gain experience in independent planning, obtaining and improving educational results. It is substantiated that the acquisition of such experience takes place during the work of tutors (with systematic tutoring support) on individual tutorials, which contain multi-level complex tasks from a certain educational subject. The role and place of the scientific essay as a component of tutoring technology and as a means of individualizing the educational process, which ensures the development of independent creative thinking of students, the formation of their ability to structure information, skillful presentation of arguments, establish cause-and-effect relationships, and formulate conclusions, is characterized
LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS: COMPARISON OF CROSS-ENTROPY AND BINARY CROSS-ENTROPY LOSS
Get PDFThe paper explores Large Language Model (LLM) training on custom datasets for classification microservice development. As training general purpose models for every possible situation is not feasible on smaller scale, because of limitations of computation power, usage of smaller model architectures, such as NanoGPT for training LLM model for specific use-case is a more cost-effective solution. In this article the dataset “Internet Movie Database (IMDB)” is applied in the experiment for LLM training. The dataset IMDB contains user comments about movies. Training criteria was Cross-entropy Loss (CELoss) and Binary Cross-entropy Loss (BCELoss), which were compared in the experiment. LLM training showed that validation accuracy for CELoss is 85.84% while validation accuracy for BCELoss is 86.1%. The biggest difference was in the consistency of results as distance between minimal and maximal accuracy for CELoss was 2.36%, but BCELoss distance between minimal and maximal accuracy was 1.04% providing more stable accuracy
LEADERSHIP OF 5-6 YEAR OLD CHILDREN AND ITS ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Get PDFThe research aim is analyze theoretical literature to ascertain the relevance of leadership skills of 5-6-year-old children and leadership assessment criteria. When comparing and analyzing the information provided in various studies, the leadership abilities of adults and educators are more often emphasized. The content of competence education reveals how important it is to develop leadership skills in preschool children. During the research, it was concluded that the leadership skills of adults are equivalent to the typical skills of 5-6-year-old children, which develop at this age. Several of these skills are learned by integrating cross-cutting skills into the pedagogical process. As a result of the theoretical analysis, six leadership evaluation criteria and 4 levels of 5-6-year-old children were identified. Children who have developed their leadership skills are more successful in the next stages of education. According to the summary of the results, it can be concluded that every 5-6-year-old child possesses leadership skills to a greater or lesser extent, it is important to notice these skills in time and continue further development based on children\u27s strengths
UNLOCKING THE ESSENCE OF LONELINESS IN THE OLDER ADULTS: AN EXPLORATION THROUGH PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH
Get PDFIn Lithuania\u27s aging culture, aspects of older individuals\u27 "loneliness" and social isolation are becoming increasingly relevant. Despite this, older adults frequently refuse to acknowledge these life\u27s intricacies. Numerous studies indicate that older individuals link social isolation and loneliness to a life of failure and personal worthlessness. As a result, rather than finding solutions, people frequently choose to isolate themselves even more and refrain from discussing these issues with friends or family. The loneliness experienced by older people should be acknowledged, and steps to increase social inclusion will not only extend but also greatly enhance their quality of life. Participatory research was employed to conduct the study. It is a systematic study in direct cooperation with persons for whom the research question is relevant, with the aim of acting or changing something. Participatory research favours collaborative research, where researchers and interested groups actively collaborate with sharing information and expertise. The study was conducted in a care institution providing social services. Every participant in the participatory research gave their consent to participate in the study, and they were informed about its goals, methods, and use of data. They were also given the choice to leave the study at any time if they felt it was inappropriate. The study revealed that loneliness is discerned through the emotions and behaviours of older adults; an individual\u27s loneliness is reflected in both mental and physical health. Emotions like indifference, rage, despair, boredom, needing attention, longing, and the want to speak are signs that someone is lonely. Older people sometimes openly express loneliness but loneliness can also be associated with depression. Concerning employee motivation for change, it was observed that employees displayed a keen interest in training, comprehending its necessity and benefits. Simultaneously, it was noted that some employees may exhibit passivity and a lack of motivation to embrace change and accept innovations. Therefore, the myth that older workers are less likely to change and innovate as well as to increase their knowledge and abilities has been partially validated by participatory studies.
THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF EDUCATIONAL TOURISM
Get PDFIn today\u27s technological era, rural tourism with its unique and unusual offer, which carries the traditions, culture and culinary heritage of ancestors, becomes a proper and unique cultural capital, and it has opportunities to hybridize with other types of tourism, for example, with educational tourism. As a separate type of tourism - educational tourism, becomes an innovative opportunity to revive the usual rural tourism offer. In order to retain the interest of tourists, the tourism experience must have transformative potential. Consumer experiences can contribute to tourists\u27 cognitions and emotions, resulting in psychological, physical, social, or knowledge changes. Educational tourism combines the features of two fields: education and tourism, which at the intersection gives the actual educational tourism. In Latvia, educational tourism is not defined as a separate economic category. This type of tourism can become a successful platform for travelers\u27 self-growth, creating opportunities for them to learn, relax and improve spiritually. The aim of the study is to analyze the interpretations of the definition. The research uses the scientific literature research method. The research questions are (1) What research has been done on aspects of educational tourism? (2 ) Which scientists have focused on the study of this concept? (3) What are the prerequisites for the introduction of educational tourism in Latgale/regions? An exploratory study was implemented and described in this paper