Journals of Rezekne Academy of Technologies
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PRECONDITIONS FOR CHOOSING ONLINE STUDIES IN LATVIA
Get PDFAfter the Covid-19 pandemic, when every educational facility switched to studying from a distance, online studies have become available in practically any area. At the moment, the restrictions are reduced, and more opportunities to choose between online, offline and mixed education have become available. The goal of this research is to identify and describe the tendencies of choosing online studies for adult education in Latvia. The following questions are viewed in this research: Which factors affect the tendency to choose online studies for adult education? What are the correlations between the respondent profiles (age, marital status, previous education, etc.) and the affecting preconditions for choosing online education? During the research, 131 respondents from the entire country filled a form and participated in a survey, which was available online. The statistical data processing was done using the Kruskal-Wallis test, the Spearman’s correlation and descriptive statistics
FIRST-YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL/COGNITIVE MOTIVES FOR STUDYING IN RIGA AND SMOLENSK SAMPLES
Get PDFFor a successful pedagogical process, university teachers need to know the learning motivation of students, monitor it, and take into account its peculiarities while developing learning materials and choosing educational strategies. Especially great attention should be paid to the motivation of first-year students, as in the first months of studies freshmen face increasing difficulties sometimes negatively affecting their motivation. The paper presents some results of an international study of students’ motivation and focuses on one group of learning motives of first-year students, namely, on their Educational/cognitive motives. The aim of the study is to analyse and compare the Educational/cognitive motives of the first-year students at the universities of Riga and Smolensk, as well as to study the interrelationship between this kind of learning motives and the psychological atmosphere in the student group. In the survey carried out in December 2019, 129 students from EKA University of Applied Sciences (Riga, Latvia) and Smolensk State University (Russia) participated. The technique of diagnostics of learning motivation by 7 content scales was used for data collection. For studying the psychological atmosphere in the student group, the technique of 10 bipolar scales was chosen. Table method, descriptive statistics, analysis of statistical indicators, method of comparison, correlation analysis were used in the data processing. The data analysis shows that a few months after the start of studying, the learning motivation of the first-year students is at an average level. However, for successful training, it could and should be improved. In the Latvian sample, indicators for both the general learning motivation and Educational/cognitive motivation are slightly higher than in the Russian one. The correlation analysis reveals statistically significant correlations between the psychological atmosphere and motivation of students. The results of the study are useful for further investigation of students’ motivation and search of the ways to increase it.
SEXUALITY EDUCATION TO PREVENT INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
Get PDFThe “discovery” of intimate partner violence in the 1970s by the feminist movement, which considered it to be a private affair between two people, showed that the phenomenon is a recurrent one, occurring in a wide range of romantic relationships, whether committed, dating, or casual, and both current and former, across races, social classes, ages, adults and adolescents. Research has shown that existing criminal justice, health and social interventions do not address intimate partner violence. Changing culturally constructed attitudes that make men dominant and controlling, women dependent and invisible, and the use of gender-sensitive policies are key to addressing violence against women. It is argued that comprehensive sexuality education, as a preventive measure that introduces an appreciation of personal needs in terms of the well-being of the other person and of society, can help to address intimate partner violence. The aim of this article is to show the importance of a sexuality education perspective in the prevention of intimate partner violence against women. The study shows that in order to prevent intimate partner violence against women and girls, it is important to develop the ability to recognise violence related to unequal power in relationships, to be able to name types of violence, and to be able to identify symptoms of violent behaviour. The research design used was qualitative research, semi-structured interviews to collect data, and the participants were women who had experienced violence in intimate relationships
THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES ON SELF-LEARNING IN MATHEMATICS
Get PDFDuring the pandemic, digital technologies had a major impact on self-directed learning in mathematics. Without digital skills and self-directed learning, everyday learning is unthinkable, as learning in 2020 has largely taken place remotely. It is important for students to acquire these skills in order to learn fully and qualitatively at a distance. These acquired skills are and will be useful in full-time studies and later in life. Digital literacy allows the student to develop self-directed learning and self-directed learning develops digital literacy. Both of these skills are interrelated and help you learn math. The student\u27s skills are greatly influenced by internal and external life factors, which unfortunately cannot be influenced by the educational institution. Thus, these negative factors also affect the student\u27s motivation and discipline for learning and learning outcomes are low. The research analyzes the scientific literature and emphasizes the author\u27s personal experience
A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF EVOLUTION OF THE IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE SECTOR IN MOROCCO
Get PDFPurpose and aim of the study: The paper aim is to analyse scientific and other relevant literature on the sustainable development of the irrigated agricultural sector in Morocco.Design / Methodology / Approach: The method of data collection is literature review. Literature review was chosen as it is the basis for further research. The obtained data is presented in accordance with the identified historical periods. A summary of results is delivered.Main Findings: In light of scarce water resources, the technical, legal and institutional levels in the agricultural sector are permanently updated by the public authorities in order to mitigate the impact of climate change and adapt the management of water resources.Originality: Sustainability is regarded as gradual and sequential growth and development. Sustainability means the consideration of all the stakeholders’ interests in the decision-making process.Implications: Concerted efforts of the public authorities, companies and other stakeholders in the improvement of the efficiency of water use in agriculture through the development of localized irrigation technology and modernization of collective or private water supply networks in large irrigated areas would be beneficial for all. Innovative irrigation systems that allow the exploitation of unconventional, largely unused water resources must be developed. Low cost solutions with natural and locally available materials (Low Technology, Low Energy, Low cost, Easy to Use) should be used
SCHOOL STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING PHYSICS: HOW DOES INSTRUCTIONAL CLARITY IN PHYSICS LESSONS ENGAGE?
Get PDFThe article deals with the eighth-grade school students’ motivation for learning physics. The spectrum of factors influencing the school students’ motivation for learning physics is very wide. This study addresses the phenomenon of school students’ motivation for learning physics in the light of an educational factor. We analyze the role of instructional clarity in physics lessons on school students’ motivation for learning physics based on TIMSS 2019 data set of Lithuania and Finland. To disclose the influence of instructional clarity in physics lessons on school students’ motivation for learning physics confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used. The results of our research reveal that instructional clarity in physics lessons is directly and positively associated with school students’ motivation for learning physics. SEM results disclosed not only significance but magnitudes of associations between instructional clarity in physics lessons and school students’ motivation for learning physics as well.
ICT SCAFFOLDING FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION IN COVID-19 LOCKDOWN
Get PDFThe COVID-19 situation, where the educational process had to be as flexible as possible, revealed that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has become a challenge for Lithuanian schools. In early 2021, we conducted focus group discussions in four Lithuanian schools to investigate how educational technology can enable an inclusive educational process. The analysis of the key determinants of pedagogical success and schools’ decisions on the unified use of ICT to include all students in learning, the scaffolding of the educational process using ICT revealed the two main factors. These factors ensuring the scaffolding process are: (1) how teachers remove the learning barriers and support students by use of educational technologies; (2) what helps teachers to transfer responsibility to students and enables their participation in the educational process. When we examined the potential of ICT to engage students, we found several differences between schools, namely: technology provision, the teachers’ ICT skills, the experience of the school community itself, the readiness of the school, teachers, and students to teach and to learn by distance or blended learning applying new ICT-based educational scenarios. The study results showed that the gains made during the COVID-19 lockdown in Lithuania in combining teaching solutions with the use of technology can become the ‘new normal’ and can help schools address the issue of inclusion for all students.
THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITIES IN A PANDEMIC
Get PDFThe research relevance ties with the necessity to form future teachers’ digital competence under forced blended learning conditions due to COVID-19 preventive quarantine measures implementing. The purpose of the article is to reveal the content and analyze the results of the study on the experience in cloud technologies usage while teaching pedagogical courses to students in a modern pedagogical higher education institution. The methods are: theoretical analysis of the cloud technologies usage in higher education institutions, documentation analysis in the European Higher Education Area, information collection, questionnaires for students and lecturers, observation, evaluation, systematization of the results. The results are: the experience in cloud technologies usage while teaching pedagogical courses to future teachers is determined; issues with the information and communication technologies usage are identified: constant access to the network, poor service, lack of equipment. It has been clarified that students gained an enough experience in cloud technologies usage before the quarantine same as during it, identified the factors that contributed to it (inclusion in distance learning, studying the course “Digital Technologies”, testing of cloud services and technologies). It has been established that the lecturers used to have small experience in cloud technologies usage before the quarantine because there was no special necessity, but during it, these indicators have changed (forced distance learning and the conditions for its implementation contributed to the rapid capture of cloud services, attending courses, testing the experience in cloud technologies usage). The most popular cloud technologies are Classroom, Zoom, Meet, Moodle have been lined out.
GENERAL SECONDARY TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON EDUCATIONAL PROCESS AMID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: TWO-YEAR EXPERIENCE OF BLENDED LEARNING
Get PDFThe main purpose of the paper is to identify and generalize the tendencies of changes in the system of education influenced by the unexpected shift from face-to-face learning (traditional) to blended learning (as being regarded as a pattern of a certain mix of face-to-face and distance learning). The research is also targeted at investigating general secondary teachers’ readiness to respond to the educational challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper presents the information obtained at the very beginning of the sudden and unpredictable shift to total distance learning and then after the gradual transition to blended learning. The pros and cons of blended learning under conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic are revealed. The ideas that are closely connected with the accepting or not accepting absolutely new ways of teaching and learning from the points of view of general secondary school teachers, schoolchildren and their parents are given in the paper. The main problems of general secondary school teachers, schoolchildren and their parents face and practical ways to address these problems are enumerated and analyzed. The authors offer a variety of possible ways and means for overcoming the problems identified. Some certain innovative approaches and technologies, methods, techniques and means of blended learning aimed at delivering quality education to general secondary schoolchildren are mentioned. The research sample includes 3600 general secondary school teachers from different regions of Ukraine.
A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING MIGRANT SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM LATVIAN EMIGRANT SURVEYS
Get PDFPeople migrate for a variety of reasons, not only economic ones, but most expect to increase their quality of life and happiness by changing their place of residence. Most research on the integration of Eastern European migrants focuses primarily on their structural integration into the labour market, much less is known about the implications of migration on the general subjective well-being (SWB) of individuals. The terms ‘SWB’ and ‘happiness’ refer to people’s evaluations of their life which can be either cognitive or affective (e.g. Diener, 2009). From a theoretical perspective, migration decision-making can still be encompassed within a utility-maximising framework. Now, however, utility is captured by subjective judgements of satisfaction rather than monetary income. Quantitative data from two waves of a large-scale longitudinal survey of Latvian emigrants (2014 -2019 ) were used to identify the determinants of SWB and explore the impact of different factors (such as changes in family status, employment or health) on changes in life satisfaction over time