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Sewing as a participation project in the preschool period
Full text linkThe daily lives of children are intertwined with carefree play, through which they get to know the world around them. As we know, in the past the children also played, and for the play they mainly used objects that were meant for daily work or tasks. Today, we often shower children with toys, but at the same time, we often deprive them of the opportunity to actively participate in everyday tasks that would enable them to learn new things. We want children to be more active co-creators of life, both in the home environment and in kindergarten. The main purpose of the thesis was to present the participation of children and to determine how the participation project affects the acquisition of new knowledge in the field of sewing with a sewing machine. In the theoretical part, participation is presented gradually. We started with the role of the child through time, identified an important turning point, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which empowered children. We went on to describe Reggio Emilia’s approach, its starting points and compared them with the principles of the Kindergarten Curriculum. We also referred to a project work, which is an important part of the mentioned Reggio Emilia approach, and with more detail presented the open way of active learning. The second part of the theoretical part presents textiles - cotton, jute and wool - and the technique of sewing with a sewing machine. In the empirical part, we presented the results of the questionnaire. In the research participated 315 kindergarten teachers and assistant kindergarten teachers. It was found that kindergarten teachers involve children in co-creating life in kindergarten. Most often, children are allowed to freely choose the materials/means for play, but rarely do they have the opportunity to co-decide on the course of the day in kindergarten and redesign the play areas according to their wishes. Most kindergarten teachers offer paper to make children's products, but less than half of the respondents offer fabric. Cotton, wool, felt, yarn and thread are often available for children to play in the playroom, but less often they can use silk and viscose, as kindergarten teachers do not offer it on a daily or weekly basis. Kindergarten teachers together with children often make dolls, toys, pillows, etc. from textiles. Textile activities are most often carried out by kindergarten teachers in the form of free play (play area with textile), and least often in the form of project-based learning. When carrying out activities with textile, kindergarten teachers most often use gluing as a working technology, and least often wool felting. During these activities, children's progress is often monitored through observation, checklists and photography. More than half of the respondents in the research used the sewing technique in the kindergarten - mainly they use the manual sewing technique with a real needle, but sewing with a sewing machine is a technique that is far behind. In their opinion this method is dangerous, or they say that they are not qualified in this field. Those who use these techniques, carry out the activity in small groups and pay more attention to safety at work. Kindergarten teachers believe that sewing mainly encourages the development of concentration, accuracy and fine motor skills, and least of all the development of critical thinking.
With children aged 4-6, we carried out a technical sewing activity in the kindergarten as a participation project. We found that the children, through their own activity, acquired new knowledge in the field of sewing techniques with a sewing machine and gained knowledge of sewing tools. Through our questions, they looked for ideas to solve problems and solved them successfully. We can say that they experienced a sense of self-worth during the activity.
With the thesis, we want to show one of the possibilities of participation in kindergarten and encourage professionals to use these findings in planning their everyday life in kindergarten and more frequently enabling active participation of children in solving problems
Computer and board game for teaching orientation and cardinal direction in 3rd grade of elementary school
Full text linkIn class, both in science lessons and in general, it is important that the students are active in the learning process. Teachers implement this in different ways and one of them is using didactic games. These are distinguished from regular games by educational effects which teachers want to achieve with didactic games. To achieve this, teachers need to pay attention to different aspects of didactic games. Proper planning and implementation of didactic games in the classroom brings positive effects such as diversification of lessons, greater motivation of students, better results, more lasting knowledge, etc. Quite a few studies have examined the positive effects that didactic games bring to the classroom. Recently, due to distance learning the subject of didactic computer games has become more frequently studied.
For the purpose of the master's thesis, we have created two didactic games – a didactic board game and a didactic computer game. Both didactic games are designed to teach orientation and cardinal directions in the third grade of elementary school and cover the same learning aims. The purpose of research was to determine how teachers and students evaluate didactic games from a visual, motivational, difficulty and content point of view. Because we also wanted to find out how they value playing a didactic game at school in a group or individually on a computer and what they remember as good or bad, we asked both students and teachers some general questions about both didactic games. Our intent was also to evaluate the progress in knowledge after playing one of the two didactic games, the progress in knowledge in individual tasks and the progress according to the learning abilities of students. We were also interested in the extent to which the students acquired the learning aims when playing a particular didactic game.
The study involved 22 students from a rural primary school and five teachers from different primary schools. Data were collected through knowledge tests (pretests and posttests), semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires. We divided the class in half so that in each half there were about the same number of more able learners, average learners and weaker learners. With the students divided into smaller groups, we conducted a knowledge test (pretest) after which each group played a specific didactic game – the first group the didactic board game and the second group the didactic computer game. After playing the didactic games, the same test of knowledge (posttest) followed. Then, we conducted a group semi-structured interview with students divided into smaller groups. Then, the teachers filled in a questionnaire that contained similar questions to those we asked the students in the semi-structured interview.
The students and the teachers evaluated both didactic games as aesthetic, attractive, entertaining and professional. Two teachers expressed the opinion that the two didactic games were more suitable for the 4th or 5th grade, while the other three teachers thought that the didactic games were more suitable for playing in the 3rd grade. The qualities of each didactic game were thought of as positive by both the students and the teachers. In the didactic board game, those qualities are competition with classmates, strategic thinking and a clear gradation of the tasks, and in the didactic computer game the qualities are the explanation intertwined with the story of the didactic game, and the possibility to read the instructions as well as listen to them in recordings. According to the results of pretests and posttests, we noticed progress in students’ knowledge after playing both didactic games. By playing the didactic board game, the more capable students progressed the most in knowledge while by playing the didactic computer game, the weaker and average students progressed the most. When it comes to achieving the learning aims, both designed didactic games turned out to be more suitable for the realization of the learning aims directly related to orientation and cardinal directions than the aims related to the wind vane
Male involvement in contraceptive decision making
Full text linkThe master's thesis focuses on the involvement of men, who are in relationships, in contraceptive decision making. Before the contraceptive revolution, men were crucial because male forms of contraception were widely available and used. In today’s society, however, it seems that women are the ones responsible for using contraception. The master's thesis focuses on exploring the role of men.
The theoretical part contains information on contraception, its history, social shifts during the sexual revolution, with special emphasis on male forms of contraception currently available and forms of contraception that are still in development. It also covers the importance of sex education and the factors that influence men’s involvement in the contraceptive decision. The theoretical part ends with the placing of the topic in social pedagogy.
The empirical part is based on interviews with ten men who used contraception at the time of research. It represents their experience of their own role in contraceptive decision making while in a relationship.
The purpose of this research was to examine and investigate in more detail how men see their role in choosing contraception in a monogamous relationship, to explore their satisfaction with their role. The aim was also to find out which male forms of contraception they know of, how they talk to their partners about sexuality and what forms of contraception they have used in the past
How we address the topic of death in kindergarten
Full text linkEach of us faces the death of a loved one once in a lifetime, one sooner, than other. No matter when it happens to us, it affects us and we need comfort, understanding and time to get over it. How we understand and perceive death depends mainly on the way we face it and how it was presented to us as a child. Feelings of death are transferred from childhood to adulthood, so it is important how death is presented to us in childhood. This topic is exactly what I will talk about in my dissertation, which is consists of theoretical and empirical work. In the theoretical part, it is written how we talk about death in kindergarten and in what way the topic can be introduced into the department through the curriculum. How taboo topics are included or excluded in the kindergarten groups. There are explained child's ideas about death and at the end is written about the role of the educator in the conversation about death with the preschool child.
In the empirical part, I present the results that I performed with the interview method. I interviewed 6 educators and I was mainly interested in how and if educators introduce the topic of death in their department and the ways in which they introduce the topic or otherwise why they do not talk about it with children. The results showed me that educators still largely avoid this topic. Death topic is mostly included in the kindergarten when someone in the group loses a loved one. Only occasionally, however, some educators take advantage of actual situation to discuss this topic
Learning to programme through mobile game development in Stencyl
Full text linkIntroductory programming as part of the compulsory curriculum is important for every student. In this way, students should acquire both knowledge of computer science and more advanced or transferable knowledge and skills, such as creativity, accuracy, logical thinking, problem solving, time control, self-control, perseverance in solving problems from beginning to end. Primary computer science teachers often face the dilemma of how to continue teaching programming after students have mastered the basics of particle programming, which usually takes place in a Scratch programming environment. Another option is to teach programming in environments that enable mobile application development, such as AppInventor or Stencyl. The aim of the master's thesis is to present a model of teaching programming that will allow students to acquire and deepen knowledge of basic concepts and skills in programming by creating an application for mobile devices in the software environment Stencyl. Since computer topics are missing in the Slovenian primary school curriculum, there is a need to create learning environments that allow flexible teaching. One possibility is to organize a summer school. To this end, we designed a 20-hour workshop in the form of a free summer school for students aged 10 to 15 from a selected primary school. Half of the students with prior knowledge of programming and half without prior knowledge were included. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic and associated constraints, learning took place live on three days and online in the Teams video conferencing environment on two days. Students learned the user interface and the basics of using the Stencyl software environment live and expanded and deepened their knowledge while working online under the guidance of instructors. Since it was a combination of learning, we supported the learning process with additional materials and activities in the online Moodle classroom. In the theoretical part of the master thesis we presented the theoretical foundations on which the workshop is based. We have defined in more detail the learning approach of the workshop, which is based on project-based learning. The goal of the workshop is to develop computational thinking. Students develop it with activities that are typical of computer science. Therefore, we have provided an overview of the inclusion of computer science content in the compulsory and elective parts of the Slovenian primary school curriculum, with an emphasis on programming. We examined the placement of computer science topics in the curriculum in other countries in Europe and the world. We presented the basic concepts of the CS K-12 Framework for Computing Education, which provides detailed conceptual guidelines for teaching computing from kindergarten to the end of high school. The workshop participants were familiarised with the concepts proposed in the aforementioned framework. In the empirical part, we focused on analysing the factors that influenced students' knowledge. We were interested in the influence of prior knowledge on students' performance in the final project (maze video game). Prior knowledge of basic programming concepts was assessed with a pretest, while acquired knowledge was examined with a test and assessment of the final project. Learning outcomes were significantly influenced by the transition of the educational process from live to online learning. We were also interested in the percentage of students who will continue with online learning. We were also interested in the percentage of students who were able to create a final project that worked well with the help of an instructor. Projects were assessed using the final project assessment criteria and unstructured observation. We analyzed the program code that students used in creating their own projects and found that the concepts most often included a sequence of commands, conditional sentences, loops, and, rarely, counters. We found that all students continued to work remotely and that most students successfully completed their projects. The conclusion of the master thesis is that the creation of a game in the software environment Stencyl, after reviewing the literature? and in accordance with the described research, is an appropriate challenge for students of the 2nd and 3rd educational period and motivates them to program. For this reason, and due to the wide range of functionalities, we believe that Stencyl is a suitable environment to continue programming after Scratch. The master thesis will serve teachers as additional material in teaching introductory programming, and the online classroom will help students to create and improve simpler applications and programs so that they can develop their computer science knowledge and skills
Classification of finite simple groups of small order
Full text linkAt the end of the 19th century Otto Hölder proposed one of the most important problems in group theory, the mathematical field this master’s thesis belongs to. Part of the problem represents the classification of finite simple groups. Finite simple groups are finite nontrivial groups whose only normal subgroups are the trivial group and the group itself. There were many mathematicians that participated in solving Hölder’s problem which was finally resolved almost a century later. This master’s thesis focuses on a small part of the mentioned classification. We want to find all finite simple groups of order no more than 200. All groups of prime order are simple. It turns out that those are also the only commutative simple groups, which follows directly from Lagrange and Cauchy theorems. Therefore, we want to find all noncommutative finite simple groups of order no more than 200. The most important step in achieving this goal in this master’s thesis are two propositions that help us eliminate orders of special forms. Together with all primes there are 189 orders of such form. We prove those propositions using some important structural results from group theory (e.g. Sylow theorems, Cauchy and Lagrange theorems, group actions) and we then determine the corresponding orders using the MAGMA software. To find all finite simple groups, mathematicians have been using many more complex results. That is why this master’s thesis also demonstrates the usefulness of the two propositions we used for eliminating higher orders. After eliminating most of the 200 orders by using the mentioned propositions, there are only 11 orders left. We show that there are no finite simple groups for 9 of those orders by using the above results and some additional arguments. It turns out that there are exactly two noncommutative finite simple groups of order no more than 200. These groups are A5 of order 60 and PSL(2, 7) of order 168. They are part of two very important infinite families of groups, the alternating groups An and the projective special linear groups PSL(n, q), most of which are simple groups. In the master’s thesis we prove the simplicity of the mentioned two groups. We also prove that the group A5 is the only simple group of order 60 and is therefore the smallest noncommutative finite simple group
Men and masculinities in social pedagogical profession
Full text linkThis master thesis researched how social pedagogues experience their gender identity and the negative and positive sides of masculinities in social pedagogical professions. Feminist studies and gender studies throughout history have largely focused on developing theories around gender binary and the development of women’s gender identity. Following the second wave of feminism in the 1970s, there have been developments that question men's gender identity which resulted in critical studies of men and masculinities. Masculinity was understood as multi-layered and manifold and a concept of hegemonic masculinity was developed. It describes a type of most desirable form of masculinity in a certain society and time and it is shaped in relation to other masculinities and women. Furthermore, gender order also influences labour relations. Care work has been for centuries understood as women's work. In social pedagogy, like in many care professions, women greatly outnumber men. This research is qualitative, half structured interviews were used for gathering data. Questions were focused on understanding why men enter the social pedagogical profession, whether they experience any advantages or disadvantages due to their gender identity and how they experience their masculinity. The analysis has shown that social pedagogues try to differentiate their work from their female colleagues, they take on a more stereotypical male role and experience many benefits. Their experiences differ based on their idea of masculinity – men run into more problems if they can't lean onto their »male« characteristics such as physical strength
Relationship between student's physical activity, health, and attitude towards education
Full text linkIn this paper, we studied physical/sporting activities of elementary school students in grades 4 and 5 and how these are connected with their health and their attitude towards school. Our research questions were:
• How are physical/sporting activities of students connected with their experience of health?
• How are physical/sporting activities of students connected with their attitude towards school?
• How are the assessed health of students and the sedentary behaviour of students connected?
Research was conducted with a quantitative approach, while the research method was causal non-experimental. The research involved 205 elementary school students in grades 4 and 5. The sample was non-random and opportunistic. The students completed a survey that included close-ended questions. In some questions, students market to what degree they agree or disagree with the statement given, in line with the Likert scale.
We used the following statistical procedures: frequency and percentage distribution, chi-square test of independence, and Pearson correlation coefficient.
The results of the research showed the following:
• Students who are more physically active are less tired in school, more focused and motivated for school work, and, conversely, students who are less physically active in school and with friends are thus more tired and less motivated for work;
• Although children are physically active in a club or with their families, they still have sleep problems;
• Students who are less physically active in their free time still have a high opinion of school, and the results do not show a clear positive or negative impact on their attitude towards school;
• Although students spend a great deal of time in a sedentary position, they assess their health as good
Chemical reaction comprehension on triple levels of chemical concepts representations
Full text linkOne of the purposes of researchers in the scientific discipline of chemistry education is to popularise research findings among students, future chemistry teachers. By informing teachers of chemistry education at the university level and teachers of chemistry at the primary and secondary level about the results of the study and transferring the findings into the educational process, we will contribute to a more successful education in the field of chemistry. Researchers in the field of chemistry education devote much of their research interests to investigating the understanding of the triple nature of chemical concepts in connection with visualisation and other measures that further influence the acquisition of qualitative knowledge of chemical content without developing misconceptions. Based on the relevant theoretical starting points, a research problem was formulated to address the conceptual understanding of chemical reactions at three levels of representation of chemical concepts. The main purpose of the study was to determine what strategies are used by students of chemistry in the Two-Subject Teacher study programme to solve contextual problems involving chemical reactions and how students in different years of study differ in these problem-solving strategies. Due to the complexity of the concept, the strategy for solving a chemical problem was defined as the use of the expert or non-expert path of attentional fixation that focuses on areas of interest in solving a chemical problem. The study was also conducted to examine how prior chemical knowledge, visualisation, intellectual abilities, and intrinsic motivation influence the prior knowledge and the use of the expert path of fixations when solving a chemical problem. Based on a qualitative analysis of audio recordings combined with the eye-tracker data, the most common misconceptions and incomplete understandings of selected chemical concepts of content about redox reactions were identified. Semi-structured interviews were also performed to identify the possible causes of errors in solving three chemical problems. The eye movement tracking technique was used in the empirical part of the study to triangulate the data, thus contributing to a more objective and reliable interpretation of the results. Fifty-five students of the Two-Subject Teacher study programme majoring in chemistry participated in the study. They took a pre-knowledge test, a series of other tests, and completed a questionnaire. The tests and the questionnaire showed satisfactory measurement characteristics in the included sample.
When solving chemical problems, it was found that the intrinsic motivation for problem-solving was increased by the introductory context, and that all three chemical problems were well known and interesting to the students and posed in the increasing order of difficulty. In predicting the total score in solving chemical problems with different predictors, statistical significance was achieved only by using the expert or non-expert fixation path, while students' definition of difficulty or interestingness did not achieve statistical significance. Students were found to be less successful at solving chemical problems due in part to their lesser ability to integrate more information at the same time, and therefore having more complex, poorer or even incorrect solution approaches (using the non-expert fixation path). Students with poorer prior chemical knowledge, intellectual and visual abilities, solved a more complex chemical problem at a macroscopic rather than a symbolic level. At the same time, more abstract sub-microscopic levels of representation were mostly not used in the solution. It seems that in most cases, the use of the non-expert fixation path, regardless of year of study or prior chemical knowledge, also led to the wrong solution. From the images of the paths and the images of the fixation densities of focused attention when solving chemical problems in student groups of different year levels, it can be generally concluded that the 1st year students and the students who solved the chemical problem using the non-expert fixation path read the instructions several times. The number of connections between different areas of interest of the chemical problem that were rated as difficult or very difficult was higher among students with good chemistry knowledge, who solved the problem using the expert fixation path. Lower-year students, students with poor prior chemical knowledge, and students who solved the chemical problems using the non-expert fixation path were more likely to link the macroscopic and symbolic levels, while the sub-microscopic level was repeatedly omitted. Students, regardless of year of study, who solved chemical problems using the expert fixation path paid greater attention to the symbolic level than students who solved the chemical problem through the non-expert fixation path. In addition to using the expert fixation path, attention to the symbolic level was significantly influenced by appropriate prior chemical knowledge, high levels of formal thinking, and appropriate working memory capacity. Students with low prior chemical knowledge mostly used the same solution algorithm (using the non-expert fixation path) when solving the problem, which was simple enough for them to understand it relatively well. Students with good knowledge of chemistry tried to convert or rewrite individual points of the chemical problem into a simple task, which also led them to an easier solution path. The students who solved the chemical problem using the expert fixation path found it easier and faster to find a strategy to solve the chemical problem, which usually led them to the correct solution. In predicting the student's placement into the higher or lower group according to their performance in redox reactions, as well as in predicting the use of the expert fixation path with the predictors of intrinsic motivation, visualisation skills, intellectual ability, and prior chemical knowledge, it was the intellectual ability (logical thinking and working memory capacity) and prior chemical knowledge that reached the level of statistical significance. Statistical significance was not achieved in intrinsic motivation for learning chemistry at three levels of presentation of chemical concepts and in visualisation skills. The fact that visualisation skills did not emerge as an important predictor of chemical problem solving may be explained in part by the fact that the chemical problems in this study required the integration of at least eight different areas of interest at all three levels of chemical concept representation. It is also possible that visualisation skills fall only under a set of general cognitive skills. While they play a key role for understanding the abstract sub-microscopic level of representation, they do not have a major impact on solving complex contextual chemical problems at three levels of representation if examined as an independent factor. However, better performance in redox reactions or the use of the expert path of fixation in solving such chemical problems are attained by those students who are sufficiently internally motivated to solve such chemical problems. When teaching abstract chemical content, it is crucial that the teacher supports the student at three levels of representation of the chemical concept to achieve better understanding when solving chemical problems. They must guide the student to the correct solution path by explaining and showing them the expert solution path. The teacher should help the student to develop problem-solving skills and competencies and encourage learning with understanding. In this way, the individual develops long-term and high-quality chemical knowledge
Validity and reliability of the Slovenian translation of the questionnaire on swallowing disorders in head and neck cancer patients
Full text linkSwallowing disorders (dysphagia) are a common consequence of head and neck cancer and its
treatment. Swallowing and feeding are essential for survival but they also play an important
role in a person's social life and enjoyment, therefore problems in this area affect quality of
life. The quality of life should be a factor taken into account when planning, implementing and
adapting the rehabilitation of dysphagia. Therefore, it is important to consider the patient's
subjective assessment of dysphagia and how it impacts their quality of life, instead of assessing
dysphagia with only objective diagnostic tools. For this reason, a patient-reported questionnaire
on the impact of dysphagia on quality of life, The M.D. Anderson Dysphagia Inventory
(MDADI), was developed specifically for head and neck cancer patients and has been, so far,
translated and validated into 15 languages.
In this master thesis we translated the original MDADI questionnaire into Slovenian and tested
its validity and reliability in the Slovenian clinical setting. The study included 71 head and neck
cancer patients (clinical group) and 41 asymptomatic individuals (control group) who all
completed the Slovenian translation of the MDADI questionnaire. We found a statistically
significant difference between the results of the clinical and control group, with the participants
in the clinical group having a significantly lower score, indicating a lower quality of life. The
content validity was confirmed by three experts and construct validity was confirmed by
exploratory factor analysis. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested with Cronbach's
alpha coefficient, which was 0,970 for the total score (0,867 to 0,967 for individual subscales),
indicating a high to excellent level of reliability. We tested the correlations between the
subscales and found high to very high correlations. We also investigated the presence of ceiling
and floor effect for each subscale and found the ceiling effect present for all subscales in both
groups.
We conclude that the Slovenian translation of the MDADI questionnaire is a reliable and valid
instrument for use in the Slovenian clinical setting