Journals of Rezekne Academy of Technologies
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DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN WITH INSUFFICIENT LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN A PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
Get PDFCommunicative competence in a pre-school education institution allows children to get to know each other and gives them the opportunity to learn about things and events that are happening around them. Communicative competence includes the linguistic, discourse, pragmatic, strategic and socio-cultural elements of language. Educators need to be able to find appropriate methods to develop communicative competence. The aim of the paper is to study theoretically how to promote the development of communicative competence in children with insufficient language development in a pre-school.Research method: analysis of scientific literature.The paper concludes that research is needed on the impact of the use of drama as a method on the development of communicative competence in pre-school children with insufficient language development
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE USE OF THEATER ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN\u27S DEVELOPMENT SOFT SKILLS: EUROPEAN CONTEXT
Get PDFThe article substantiates the importance of introducing European experience in the training of future teachers in Ukrainian higher education institutions. Features of preparation of future teachers for realization of theatrical activity in work with children are opened, attention is focused on social and educational value of theater for development of the general and special abilities of children. The functions realized by theatrical activity in the process of soft skills development of children of primary school age are singled out. The article emphasizes the various forms and types of theatrical activities and ways of organizing them with children (from creating a theatrical character or a specific image to its interpretation and display on the stage).The purpose of the publication is to present the experience of the higher education institution of Ukraine in preparing future primary school teachers for the use of theater activities for children`s development soft skills taking into account the European context.In the research the results of diagnostics of primary school teachers on the use of theatrical activities in their own pedagogical practice are presented. The results of monitoring the awareness of future primary school teachers with the theoretical and methodological principles of using theatrical activities as a means of developing soft skills in primary school children and their level of readiness to organize theatrical activities with children are demonstrated. The experience of teachers of Ukrainian pedagogical universities in the implementation of European innovative technologies and practices in lectures and practical classes is demonstrated. The article reveals the content of preparing students for the use of European experience in the organization of theatrical activities in the education of children, offers guidelines.
BOOSTING LIFELONG LEARNING FOR GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOLTEACHERS: DIGITAL COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT AMID BLENDED LEARNING
Get PDFThe research is targeted at examining general secondary schoolteachers’ strategies for assessing, self-assessing and improving their digital competence. The authors also define the scope of the most effective strategies for developing schoolteachers’ digital competence amid blended learning caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The main aim of research is to clarify the most effective ways of improving schoolteachers’ digital competence amid blended learning caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The research activities have been organized and realized taking into account the undisputable fact that digital competence is the key one for lifelong learning. The research methodology for generalizing theoretical material and empirical data collecting implies combining theoretical (analysis and synthesis) and empirical (a web-based questionnaire, individual interviews, conversations with respondents and analysis of reflexive texts) methods of investigation. The research sample consists of 1284 general secondary schoolteachers from different regions of Ukraine. The authors examine information obtained by using the mentioned combination of empirical methods of investigation. As a result of research some certain strategies for developing schoolteachers’ digital competence are found out, described and recommended for being implied into both the system of general secondary school education and the system of general secondary schoolteachers’ postgraduate education. It is also proved that the process of developing general secondary schoolteachers’ digital competence amid blended learning organized effectively is the basis for boosting their further lifelong learning.
SELF-ASSESSMENT OF LATVIAN SUPERVISORS’ DIGITAL COMPETENCE
Get PDFThe importance of digital competence (Dc) is significantly increasing as global digital transformation continue rapidly to develop and digital solutions are extensively integrating into all areas. As a result, Dc is included as one of eight core competences for lifelong learning. The present study aimed to find out the self-assessment of the importance (an assessment of how significant and necessary a certain value is) and attainability (an assessment of how attainable a certain value is) of Latvian supervisors’ Dc. Digital competence self-assessment questionary is theoretically based on a major European Union research project, DigComp 2.1 and identifies the key components of Dc in 5 areas, namely, information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety and problem solving. 56 respondents participated in the online survey during October 2021. The importance and attainability indicators of Dc statements were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale. The study indicated rather high importance of Dc (3 of 51 statements were evaluated as very important, 43 as rather important and 5 as moderately important). The indicators of the attainability of Dc varied from rather unattainable to rather attainable (26 of 51 statements were evaluated as rather attainable, 21 as average attainable and 4 as rather unattainable). Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated statistically significant differences in 34 out of 51 statements of Dc that was evaluated higher in importance than attainability. The study results show high level of supervisors’ awareness of the digital competence importance. The obtained attainability results allowed to highlight the need for the further digital competence improvement for the supervisors, especially at such digital competence areas as safety and problem solving.
DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL VALIDATION OF THE SECOND VERSION OF THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL SOCIAL CAPITAL SCALE (MSCS V2)
Get PDFThis article describes the development and initial validation of the second version of the Multidimensional Social Capital Scale (MSCS V2). The scale is based on the concept of Social Capital (SC) developed based on the results of the Rapid Review. The developed theoretical concept covers such types of SC as bonding, bridging, and linking, and there are two dimensions in each of these types: cognitive and structural. The initial version of the Multidimensional Social Capital Scale (MSCS) covered only the cognitive dimension of all three types of SC. This study aimed to develop an improved second expanded version of the MSCS V2 and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Data were collected online in the period from 11th June to 3rd October 2021, using a cross-sectional study design and a convenience sample strategy (N=353, 87% women and 13% men), aged between 18 and 80 years, M=41.8 years). As a result, the 25-item version of the MSCS V2 was developed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a 6-factor structure that encompasses the following types and elements of cognitive dimension: two types of bonding (Perceived social support or family members and close friends and Sense of belonging), two types of bridging (Perceived social support for acquaintances and General social trust), one type of linking (Institutional trust) and for Structural dimension: one type of bonding (Social participation). This 6-factor structure was approved using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Overall, the items are internally consistent on all scales (α = .73 - .90). Findings from this study showed significant evidence for the reliability and validity of the MSCS V2 and it would be advisable to repeat the study in a homogeneous sample, including full socio-demographic data.
SCHOOLTEACHERS-PARENTS INTERACTIONS AMID DISTANCE AND BLENDED LEARNING: TWO-YEAR EXPERIENCE OF OVERCOMING NEGATIVE INFLUENCES OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Get PDFThe paper aims to show the shifts within the paradigm of schoolteachers-parents interactions amid distance and blended learning. The authors examine two-year experience of overcoming negative influence of the Covid-19 pandemic onto the system of general secondary school education. Two web-based questionnaires (for schoolteachers and for parents) were developed using Google Forms. The main objective is to get information from schoolteachers, on the one hand, and from parents, on the other hand, as for challenges they faced amid blended learning caused by the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on the system of general secondary school education. The research methodology targeted at summarising theoretical issues on the topic and collecting empirical data comprises both the theoretical method of analysis and synthesis and the empirical method of web-based surveys. The research sample includes 2269 respondents (619 general secondary schoolteachers and 1650 parents) from different regions of Ukraine. As a general conclusion the researchers identified and substantiated the system of psychological and didactic tasks that are to be solved for harmonising further schoolteachers-parents interactions amid distance and blended learning caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the researchers do believe that the existing theoretical and methodological foundations of organising and providing the educational process at the stage of general secondary education are to be radically reviewed.
THE ATMOSPHERE OF FAMILY LIFE AS AN IMPORTANT CONDITION FOR OPTIMIZING FAMILY EDUCATION ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE FUNCTIONING OF FOSTER FAMILIES IN THE CITY OF SZCZECIN
Get PDFThe family, influencing a child in the course of everyday life, has many mechanisms at its disposal, which it uses intentionally and unintentionally. The basic value of a family home is a unique atmosphere, a climate specific to each family, in which it organizes conditions for the child\u27s development in all its areas and personality development. In addition, the atmosphere of family life significantly contributes to building the emotional balance of the child, protects it against various unfavorable phenomena and situations, and builds the child\u27s awareness of himself as a person. The atmosphere of family life is not an easy phenomenon to define. It consists of many factors, such as internal factors, such as the personality of the mother and father, mutual coexistence between family members. Another group of factors are those of an external nature, for example the size of the family, its economic and social status, place of residence. The first part of the text is a discussion of the atmosphere of family life in the light of pedagogical and psychological literature, indicating various approaches, their specificity and its importance in optimizing upbringing in a family. The empirical part focuses on the description of the atmosphere of family life and its specificity in foster families operating in the city of Szczecin. Here, particular attention was paid to the types of atmosphere in these families, its conditions and importance for the optimal development of a child. The final part of the text consists of the final conclusions and conclusions resulting from the research on the practice of working with families, including foster families, as well as with families of children in this form of foster care
ENSURING THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD IN PARENTS` CONFLICT: EXPERIENCES OF DIVORCING FAMILIES
Get PDFDivorce causes structural family changes, which require specific decisions to be made. While making any decision that might have any impact on ones‘ children welfare it is necessary to consider what is best for the children, thus children should be involved in the decision-making process. This article aims to investigate what sort of challenges parents under the divorce process face while they seek to ensure that children interests would be met.In order to conduct such an investigation, a qualitative methodology is employed. For data collection, analysis utilizes the semi-structured interview method, for the analysis of data the method of qualitative content analysis is being used. The research analysed seven couples of parents, all these couples are undergoing the divorce process and has children under 18 years of age.Research‘s data reveals that it is important for parents to meet the needs of a child, to protect the child from negative effects of the divorce, to keep the child in touch with both parents, to involve the child in the changes that are caused by the divorce. However, parents have different evaluations of children needs, on one hand, some parents do consider a child‘s opinion as of utmost importance, on the other hand, some parents believe that child‘s opinion is irrelevant. It is also has been noticed that while parents aim to ensure that child keeps in touch with both of the separated parents, conflict occurs between the parents and the child and among the parents themselves. Parents usually fight with the child over a couple of issues. Firstly, children find it inappropriate to have restricted conditions for interaction with separately living parents. Secondly, it is usually unacceptable for a child to live in a household without his father or mother. Conflicts among divorced parents occur due to different approaches to childcare as well as disputes during collaboration agreement implementation.
THE OPPORTUNITIES TO DEVELOP COMMUNICATION AND COOPERATION SKILLS AT CHILDREN\u27S COMMUNITY CARE HOMES
Get PDFThe purpose of the article is to reveal the opportunities to develop communication and cooperation skills in children living at children’s community care homes (further on CCCHs) based on the experience of social workers working at CCCHs. Problematic question: What are real opportunities for children to develop communication and cooperation skills while living at CCCHs? Nine social workers, who work at CCCHs in seven different locations in Lithuania, participated in the research. The study revealed that, while living at CCCHS, the opportunities to develop communication and cooperation skills change in the positive direction. At CCCHs, a positive family environment, in which closer and warmer relationships form, is created, more time is devoted to mutual communication. Children develop communication and cooperation skills while creating home rules, negotiating and obliging themselves to stick to the set order, learning to create and maintain harmonious mutual realtionships, empasising attentiveness, politeness, empathy, as well as learning to resolve problems and conflicts in a constructive manner, conculting and agreeing regarding the ways to spend their leisure time. In addition, children, while expanding their social ties in their community, learn to coexist with others, as well as to develop social resilience while learning to resist the pressure of others, not to give in to bad influences, to trust their own strength and to take decisions independently
LIFELONG LEARNING AS A VALUE
Get PDFDue to changes in the labour market over the last thirty years adult education has developed significantly. Adult education is becoming an integral part of every person’s life and advancement towards certain goals. Many adults attempt to learn independently, by using information technology. During the Covid-19 pandemic, educational processes could only continue in e-environment, using e-platforms (Zoom, Microsoft Team, etc.) or blended learning (a mix of face-to-face lessons and lessons on e-platforms).The study was carried out within the framework of the Master`s Thesis “Transformation of Educational Values in Lifelong Learning”. Aim of the research: to seek the views of the Latvian population on the current educational values in lifelong learning in order to compare them in the period before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.The paper analyses scientific literature and research; analytical reasoning is based on the results of the questionnaire