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Connection between adverse childhood experience and the decision for the helper career
Get PDFThis master's thesis studies the connection between an individual's adverse childhood experience (ACE) and the decision to pursue a helping career. Authors have been researching the impact of far-reaching effects of ACE since 1997 and the first Slovenian study of its kind was conducted in 2019. In the theoretical introduction the paper first presents the concepts of the originial and Slovenian ACE study and explains some concerns and criticisms of ACE studies. This is followed by an overview of relevant professional theories, and the demarcation of internal and external motives, which we assume to subconsciously or consciously influence the decision to pursue a profession. The purpose of the empirical research is to check whether there are differences between students of social pedagogy (hereinafter SP) and students of pharmacy in the motives for deciding on their studies and the differences between their assessment of ACE. The master's thesis reveals the occurrence of ACE in an individual group of students, and the correlation between the assessment of ACE and the motives for choosing a profession. Furthermore, we deepen this with the providers of care and helping professions, where we are interested in their views on the decision for their profession, in connection with their assessment of the ACE and cooping with stressful situations at work. In order to better understand the studied issues, we used a combined approach with quantitative and qualitative methodology. The sample includes a total of 152 female students (81 social pedagogy students and 71 pharmacy students) and five professionals working in the field of procedural (three social pedagogues) and crisis (firefighter and rescuer) interventions. The findings show that SP students have a higher ACE score and decide to a greater extent for their profession based on their internal motives. Both groups of female students also differ in the motives that contribute to the decision to pursue their profession. SP students put greater importance to motives, such as: social orientation, empathy, personal satisfaction, joy to work, contribution to society and the desire to care for others, while for pharmacy students’ motives are, that they enjoy their work, are more science-oriented, want to work on themselves and help society. The correlation between the ACE score and the internal motive of researching and solving one's personal problems was confirmed in the group of SP students. We perceived positive feelings (and feedback) when providing help, an ambivalent form of attachment, childhood experiences and mentors during adolescence as motives important in deciding on the profession of our interviewees. As extremely important in dealing with stress, in addition of support of the team and good relations, we also perceived longer years of service
Unaccompanied children and guardianship system in Slovenia
Get PDFMigration is a constant in human history, but the number of migrants and refugees has never been higher and is increasing year by year. Among them, unaccompanied children are often overlooked. These are children who have arrived in a foreign country separated from both parents and without an adult they can trust. They represent a particularly vulnerable group. Under the law, an unaccompanied child has the right to a guardian who protects his or her rights and best interests. The Master's thesis focuses on the guardianship system for unaccompanied children in Slovenia and explores how it is experienced by unaccompanied children and their guardians and legal representatives. The theoretical part explains commonly used terms, defines theories of international migration and their characteristics, and describes the European Union's asylum policy. It also introduces unaccompanied children, highlights their vulnerability and resilience, describes their treatment and life in Slovenia, and the guardianship system. The empirical part investigates how the rights of unaccompanied children are realised and what is the role of their guardians or legal representatives in this aspect and the quality of relationship between unaccompanied children and their guardians and legal representatives. It also determines what knowledge and skills guardians and legal representatives have to perform their function, how they assess the best interests of children and what are their needs and needs of unaccompanied children. A qualitative research approach is used. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews. The sample consists of three unaccompanied children and three persons acting as guardian and/or legal representative. The data were processed using a coding procedure. The work contributes to a comprehensive presentation of how the guardianship system for unaccompanied children works in practice. The findings are important because they include the perspective of unaccompanied children as well as that of guardians and legal representatives. The work also identifies anomalies that need to be corrected and the needs of guardians and children, which are also suggestions for improving the current system
Preschool teachers' attitudes towards the inclusion of musical instruments in music-oriented activities in kindergartens in the Bela krajina region
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis is to ascertain kindergarten teachers’ attitude to including musical instruments into guided musical activities in kindergartens in Bela Krajina. The theoretical section presents said musical activities: listening, creating, and preforming (playing instruments, rhythmical articulation, and singing). This is followed by a description of a child’s musical development, impactful recommended activities, as well as the positive effect music has on a child’s comprehensive development. The theoretical part also contains current state-of-the-art studies by different authors on carrying our musical activities and including musical instruments, which have indicated that kindergarten teachers seldom opt to include musical instruments. The most common reasons for this are said to be their insufficient knowledge of music and low self-esteem. An overview of the kindergartens in Bela Krajina rounds out the theoretical part of this thesis. The empirical section presents the results of the quantitative research. I designed a survey questionnaire and distributed it among the kindergarten teachers employed in kindergartens across Bela Krajina. I received 44 filled out questionnaires. The research results showed that kindergarten teachers have a positive stance on including musical instruments into guided musical activities. Nevertheless, the frequency of musical instruments being included in activities is determined by: the kindergarten teachers’ musical knowledge and capabilities, the available time and musical instruments, confidence, an inclination for music, the children’s level of interest, the teachers’ education and participation in additional training in this field
Comparison of outdoor play and learning in the preschool period and in the first triad of primary school
Get PDFNowadays, sedentary lifestyles are unfortunately very prevalent. Slovenian children and pupils are no exception. Many studies, especially international ones, have shown
the many benefits of outdoor play and learning. Play and learning in a natural environment has a positive impact on a child's or pupil's motivation, self-esteem, selfconfidence,
concentration, social inclusion, motor skills, coordination and many other areas. Examples of good practice in outdoor play and learning come mainly from abroad. To a lesser extent, they are also present here. Slovenia is rich in natural environments, and more attention should be paid to outdoor play and learning in Slovenian kindergartens and schools. The aim of this master thesis was to find out the real situation of outdoor play and learning in pre-school and the first educational period of primary school.
We wanted to know how often educators and teachers of the first educational period implement outdoor play and learning, what activities they do, what benefits they see
in implementing outdoor play and learning, and what barriers they face in implementing more outdoor play and learning. We also investigated whether there are differences in the frequency of outdoor play and learning in parent and branch
schools and in kindergartens and schools that are or are not part of The Slovenian Network of Forest Kindergartens and Schools. We also tried to find out whether there
are differences in the frequency of outdoor play and learning between kindergartens and the first grades of primary school, and between kindergartens and the second
and third grades of primary school. We conducted a predominantly quantitative survey. The survey included 319
educators and teachers of the first educational period. Data were collected using an online survey questionnaire containing questions of different types. The survey was
also, to a lesser extent, qualitative, as we interviewed two educators and two teachers of the first educational period.
The survey results showed that 75,2 % of educators and teachers of the first educational period implement play and learn outdoors several times a week during the warm season. In the cold season, the percentage is lower (48,4 %). The most common outdoor play and learning activities with children and pupils are in meadows and woods. The results show that respondents perceive the impact of outdoor play
and learning to be mainly in the physical, cognitive and social development of children and pupils. There are no statistically significant differences in the frequency
of outdoor play and learning between parent and branch schools. The results showed statistically significant differences in the frequency of outdoor play and learning in the warm season between kindergartens and schools participating in The Slovenian Network of Forest Kindergartens and Schools and those not participating in the
aforementioned network. There are also statistically significant differences in the frequency of outdoor play and learning between kindergartens and the first grades of
primary school, and between kindergartens and the second and third grades of primary school. The findings are useful for educators and classroom teachers. Outdoor play and learning are of great importance for children and pupils, as well as for educators. That's why adults should give children more time and opportunities to play and learn outdoors
Kindergarten coperation with galleries
Get PDFArt offers a holistic experience and creativity to the individual, which is why experiences in this field are an important element of balanced development and mental health (Kindergarten Curriculum, 1999). The theoretical part of this thesis entitled Kindergarten Cooperation with Galleries presents the field of art defined in the Kindergarten Curriculum, the characteristics of the artistic-creative development of the pre-school child, the principles of art education in the pre-school period, the cooperation of pre-school education with galleries and the artistic experience of the pre-school child.
The empirical part deals with the research based on survey questionnaires on how and to what extent cooperation between kindergartens and galleries takes place across Slovenia. The results of the survey have shown that participation most often takes the form of guided tours of the exhibitions or galleries and workshops for pre-school children
Opinions of parents and professionals on the participation of parents of children with special needs in the process of individual assistance and support
Get PDFIt is empirically proven that the active involvement of parents in the child's school environment and the related collaboration with professionals influence the child's schoolwork and success, behaviour, personality, and interests. The most appropriate model of cooperation is the partnership model, which is based on mutual respect, trust, shared responsibility and the associated equal role of both partners. The active role of parents in their child's school environment is particularly important for pupils with special needs who require even more help, encouragement, and understanding to cope with everyday challenges. A high-quality individualized program based on agreement between parents and professionals is needed to ensure optimal education and progress for pupils with special needs. This can only be achieved through a process of continuous involvement of parents and professionals in a partnership relationship in the process of assessing the child's current abilities, planning, implementing and evaluating the individualized program.
The main objective of the master's thesis was to investigate the involvement of parents of children with special needs in the process of individualized program (IP), where we were interested in the active participation of parents of children with special needs, providing the program with adapted implementation and additional professional support in the planning, implementation and evaluation of an individualised programme. We compared parents' and professionals' experiences with the interaction, their satisfaction with the IP and their opinion about parents’ involvement in all steps of the IP (planning, implementation and evaluation). Data were collected through a survey technique using two non-standardized questionnaires (for parents and professionals) developed for the purposes of the master’s thesis. We used descriptive and causal non-experimental method and a quantitative research approach. The sampling was non-random. The first part of the study included 66 parents of children with special needs from different elementary school in Slovenia and 127 professionals, and the second part of the study included 52 parents of children with special needs and 105 professionals.
Survey results indicate that while parents are familiar with the content of the individualized programme, only slightly more than half of parents indicate that their child's IP includes certain technically and legally required elements common to all groups of children with special needs. Parents are involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation process, but most do not actively participate, although both parents and professionals are aware of the importance of participation. It was found that parents of children from small schools are more likely to belive that an individualized program is a team effort than parents of children from large schools. Parents emphasise that they would like to cooperate more with professionals in the future and receive more information about sources of help, while professionals would like to maintain the level of cooperation with parents but would like parents to pay more attention to tips for working with children.
The results show that both parents and professionals have a positive attitude towards team relationships and communication. They see the responsibility for the individualised programme on all members of the expert group, in which parents should be an important and equal member, but professionals are not sure whether parents should be equal members of the professionals. We found that parents were most likely to work with the provider of additional professional support, according to parents two to three times a year and according to professionals once a month. Both parents and professionals are quite satisfied with the content and process of the IP, but parents of children from small schools are more satisfied with certain items than parents of children from large schools
Reading a sixth grader with hyperkinetic disorder
Get PDFAccording to the Slovenian curriculum (2018), one of the main objectives of the Slovenian language classes is to develop communicative competence. This also includes developing reading competence as one of the four communicative activities and one of the key competence for lifelong learning. This master thesis deals with the reading of a sixth-grade student with hyperkinetic disorder who has some deficits in specific areas of learning.
Reading in the context of communicative activities, reading literacy, motivation for reading, reading strategies and techniques to improve reading were presented in the theoretical part of the thesis along with hyperkinetic disorder and learning deficits associated with it.
Considering that despite his average or above-average intellectual abilities the student has been experiencing significant reading difficulties, we carried out the so-called action research and realised that he has had difficulties both with reading technique and understanding of unknown words as well as reading comprehension in general and motivation, which resulted in his negative attitude towards reading. In addition, we also tested if a claim made by several authors that short reading sessions on a daily basis lead to the improvement of reading technique is also true for a child with hyperkinetic disorder and reading difficulties. A 25-day reading training was carried out to make the student more familiar with reading. After this period, his reading technique and comprehension improved as well as his motivation to read. This reading training could also be used for other children with similar difficulties; however, with some necessary adaptation to tailor it to their specific needs
Monitoring the weather and seasons in the kindergarten
Get PDFIn my dissertation, I studied children's perceptions of the weather and the seasons. In the theoretical part, I described the weather and other weather elements that are important for weather observations, as well as the seasons that are typical for our regions. I also described how science is included in the kindergarten curriculum and thus the topic of the dissertation. I presented the cognitive development of children and the methods I used in conducting the activities. Through various interviews, I learned how much the children already know about different weather situations and seasons. I recorded this in the empirical part of my dissertation. I found out that children know different weather situations but do not know very much about seasons. I planned and implemented the activities I wanted to use to influence children's knowledge on this topic. At the end, I reviewed the results and found that my activities successfully improved children's knowledge and understanding of the topic
Needs of Children and Adolescents in the First Six Months of their Stay in Residential Child Care Institutions
Get PDFPlacing a child in an institutional residential care means a big change for him and his
surroundings. In doing so, his past and future meet. The future will be different from what he
is used to. This also changes the way the child's needs are met. The master's degree thesis
explores the state of how and to what extent the needs of children in educational institutions are
met, and what are the wishes for optimal satisfaction of children's needs. The thesis is divided
into three broad areas: the children's needs, the role of educators and the existing system of
institutionalized out-of-family care (group homes).
The theoretical part of this thesis presents the children's needs through the prism of various
experts, the specifics of the population of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties,
some general information about residential care, the work of educators and the process of
placing a child in a residential care institution. The adaptation period in relation to
environmental change is also presented. Based on theoretical findings, a questionnaire was
designed for children and educators. The results of the questionnaire presented the general
situation as experienced by children and perceived by educators. With the help of three focus
groups of children living in an educational institution and four interviews with educators, we
tried to capture a comprehensive picture of children's needs in the first six months of their stay
in a residential care. We also focused on the systemic arrangements that affect the satisfaction
of how the children's needs are met within the institution. At the same time, it is not surprising
to realize that needs are individual and specific to each individual, even though we all
essentially have the same needs. To optimally meet the needs, educators must rely primarily on
the principles of socio-pedagogical work (individualization, normalization, participation,
innovation etc.)
Integration of Slovenian folk dances in the educational process
Get PDFIn this thesis, Integration of Slovenian Folk Dances in the Educational process, we wanted to research teachers use and knowledge of folk dances. We wanted to discover what teachers find difficult when teaching, how we could help them teach lesser known folk dances and help them feel more qualified to incorporate folk dances into teaching. In the theoretical section of the thesis we defined the meaning and the role of folk dances, different kinds of folk dances, different dance forms and how widespread they are. We also described the history and the current condition of dance culture in schools. The theoretical section also includes a presentation of folk dance in elementary school in connection with the development of dancing culture amongst the students and the role of the teacher in achieving quality lessons.
In the empirical part we used a quantitative research paradigm. In this research, we included 80 elementary school teachers who have a different level of education and come from randomly picked elementary schools around Slovenia. We collected the data using a questionnaire for the teachers and based on the collected data carried out an analysis.
The purpose of this thesis was to find out how much meaning teachers give to the integration of folk dances into their lessons and how well they know dance culture. Based on the current state we would like to increase the use of folk dances in the lessons, encourage teachers to use cross-curricular connections, give more meaning to the cultural heritage of folk dancing and contribute to more frequent teaching and quality lessons in this area. Based on videos and pictorial materials we have created, which are offered in this thesis we would like to empower teachers to feel more qualified and consequently teach even more complicated and lesser known folk dances