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The paper deals with the importance of cultural encounters in intercultural education. The author argues that even though the acquisition of theoretical knowledge about other cultures is a significant component of intercultural education, a direct cultural encounter is an essential component in the intercultural learning. Therefore, an educator should create conditions for learners from different cultures to interact with each other and learn from these cultural encounters. To achieve this goal, an educator needs to have a deep and a thorough understanding of the cultural encounter phenomenon. While analyzing the ideas of the philosophers Jean-Luc Nancy and Bernhard Waldenfels, the paper reveals the complexity of cultural encounters. Cultural encounters can be experienced in different ways: on the one hand, a foreigner can be accepted and recognized; on the other hand, he or she can be seen as an intruder (Jean-Luc Nancy’s perspective) or an alien (Bernhard Waldenfels’ perspective). Moreover, cultural encounters can be of a contradictory nature. When someone is seen as an intruder or an alien, he or she can retain his or her cultural identity and authenticity, but then he or she remains a foreigner in the new environment he or she chooses to live in. According to Jean-Luc Nancy, when a foreigner wants to be accepted and recognized, at the same time he or she becomes invisible, and this inevitably leads to the process of assimilation. As it is difficult to avoid these contradictions of cultural encounters, an educator should take into account the complexity of every cultural encounter in the educational process. Moreover, it is important to stress that an educator should understand every cultural encounter – being seen or being accepted – to be valuable in itself
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The application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in different Lithuanian and global education contexts has been analyzed for several decades. Scientific works present insights on how the ICT might be applied not only in the general education context, but also among specific training subjects. Specialized ICT means are being used in teaching music: sound and image technologies, special software for music training, self-studying, and composing. Therefore, besides the ICT, the concept of the music computer technologies is used. The music computer technologies (hereinafter MCT) is a multi-purpose electronic computer equipment with the installed software for music composition, editing, and other music-related activities as well as training. It is the tools used for listening to music, performing, creating it or otherwise used practically which open new possibilities for teachers and students of participation in the creative musical activity. Scientific works exploring the specifics of the MCT application in the music education process indicate that display software and sound reconstruction equipment help to know the global music culture in an imaginative, interesting, and integrated way, the composition software provides all students with the possibility to try themselves in music creation. Although the significance of the MCT application in the music education process is recognized, still organization of music creational activities using the MCT as well as the recognition of musical creativity raise many challenges to educators. The Planning and organization of the educational process, selection of education contents and methods, and the character of the evaluation system depend on the teacher’s ability to recognize a creative pupil, what music creativity manifestation he / she attributes to the pupil. However, there is still a lack of the research that would reveal the peculiarities of the development of senior class pupils’ musical creativity and MCT application in the practice of musical education. Therefore, planning the empirical investigation, the essential issues were raised: how musical creativity of senior class pupils using the MCT is recognized, how teachers of music plan and organize the MCT process of the development of senior class pupils’ musical creativity. DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL CREATIVITY OF SENIOR PUPILS USING MUSICAL COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES (MCT): EXPERIENCE OF MUSIC TEACHERS Sandra Rimkutė-Jankuvienė, Rūta Girdzijauskienė Summary Object of the research – senior pupils’ musical creativity and its development by using musical computer technologies (MCT). Purpose of the research – to reveal the peculiarities of senior pupils’ musical creativity and its development by using the MCT on the basis of teachers’ experience. Methods of the research – analysis of scientific literature, interview with teachers of music. Methodology of the research. The interview with 10 teachers of music made during the research should be attributed to the type of half-structured, otherwise called directional, interview. The questions to the teachers of music were divided into two groups. The first group helped to find out how music teachers recognize the creativity of senior class pupils. The teachers were inquired what features they base on to recognize the musical creativity of the pupils using the MCT. The second group questions helped to find out how teachers plan and organize the process of the development of senior pupils’ musical creativity by using the MCT. Summation of the research results. The musical creativity of senior class pupils using the MCT is recognized according to the process and result of music creation. Pupils’ musical creativity expression in the process of music creation is related to the character of their musical and MCT work experience as well as to their involvement into musical creational activity. The musical and MCT work experience facilitates the process of creation, and the musical creation by the pupils who acquire it is typical of an unconventional form of the piece, variety of musical instruments applied, untraditional music style, and individual means of expression. The products of the pupils who acquire less experience are based on models provided by the musical software and samples of music encountered in various social contexts. The following features characterize pupils’ musical creativity expression according to the result of music creation: an idea of the piece and originality of its implementation ways, the completeness and unconventionality of the music form, the variety of music style selection, expediency of musical expression means, and their inter-tune. The informants understand the process of musical creativity development as an individualized, 104 consistent and purposeful process. The teachers refer to the fact what knowledge students are short of (language of music, composing technique, MCT), encourage them to share their knowledge, experience, to discuss issues, and to search for solutions. The pupils who have experience in music analysis and MCT application are provided with the conditions to form their music targets on their own, the freedom to decide what and how they want to create. The teacher becomes a consultant, assistant who renders special musical or creation technique-related knowledge. Evaluating the pupils’ creation process and its results, an idiographic perspective is predominant, when an individual advancement and efforts of a student are being discussed. While evaluating, special attention is paid to group discussions, analysis and evaluation of one’sown music compositions and those of classmates.
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The main purpose of this paper is to represent the notion of the computational thinking for Lithuanian audience. Problem solving and computational thinking are important abilities that pupils should obtain in their daily activities by using different means and techniques. Very little research specifically exploring gender differences in young children’s problem solving and programming abilities exists, most likely because computational thinking is still a very little investigated domain. The paper discusses the issue of pupils’ cognitive abilities on computational thinking and problem-solving in an annually organized contest Bebras on informatics (computer science) and computer fluency. Running the contest for more than ten years, we have noticed that the pupils (and their teachers) consider the contest experience very engaging and exciting as well as a learning experience on computational TASKS FOR DEVELOPING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: AN ANALYSIS OF GIRLS’ AND BOYS’ PROBLEM SOLVING RESULTS Valentina Dagienė, Eimantas Pėlikis, Gabrielė Stupurienė Summary thinking and problem solving. A Bebras contest is a tool to involve pupils of all grades (the Bebras contest is developed to be run in five age groups from primary to upper secondary school) as the taskssolving activity. The crucial point of the contest is questions (tasks): they focus on the informatics concepts, they are short, attractive, answerable in a few minutes, half of them have the multiple-choice answers and another half have interactive components (solving by dragging, clicking, sorting, etc.). The study focuses on the results of nearly 24 000 students aged 11–18. In the paper, the main focus is on how girls and boys have performed the tasks within different age groups and whether there are any differences or similarities.
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Over the past several years, there has been an explosion in the availability and widespread use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. This study evaluates the potentially relative effectiveness of Facebook as one of the most popular social networks applied for the development of English language skills, fostering metacognitive awareness and promoting learner autonomy by Lithuanian intermediate EFL learners in university settings. To this end, 63 intermediate EFL learners were questionnaired to express their beliefs about the use of Facebook and to assess their views on the improvement of language skills and motivation in English language learning, fostering their metacognitive confidence, attitudes and sense of autonomy towards English language learning. The research revealed that applying Facebook by learners improves their language skills and promotes their sense of autonomy
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Language learning is a prerequisite for successful intercultural communication. Learning the official language of a coun-try is of significant importance for this process as well as for learning English, which is a globally accepted language in the international community. The training of students, prospective teachers, to work in an intercultural environment includes a complex development of linguistic, pedagogical and intercultural competence. This article is dedicated to developing student teachers’ pedagogical skills in teaching the official language of a country (Bulgarian language in this case) as part of their overall training in intercultural education. The theoretical part contains a brief analysis of specialized linguistic, pedagogical and methodological literature as well as an analysis of preschool education programs in the Republic of Bulgaria.
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This issue of Acta Paedagogica Vilnensia explores varied theoretical, methodological, contextual and personal aspects of conducting ethnographic work in complex and fast-changing human social environments.
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The history of ethnography in social science in Europe dates back to before a 1907 debate in Paris involving leading social scientists, such as Emile Durkheim and René Worms. Worms was one of the first speakers. His account of ethnography was of a descriptive, a-historical method for researching the so-called “primitive societies.” Durkheim, who spoke after Worms, disagreed. Ethnography, he suggested, can provide a basis for both analyzing and synthesizing the understandings of past cultures in relation to the present and, as all human societies have their version of civilization, ethnography can be applicable to any of them, he added. Ethnologists and historians in Germany had made this point in fact over a hundred years earlier and most ethnographers have taken this position since Durkheim’s proposition. Martyn Hammersley is amongst them. In his opening article in the inaugural number of the Journal of Ethnography and Education in 2006, he described how ethnography has been used for over 100 years in social science, as a method to investigate cultural meanings and practices influenced by both modern and postmodern epistemologies and a diverse range of theories and methodologies. This article addresses the development sketched by Hammersley and other writers in the field.
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Mediation in the university setting is an actual and important subject, because all university groups (students, faculty members, university staff and others) face conflicts. When conflicts are not pending properly, they might cause a lot damages – usually in terms of wasted money and time. When people are unable to resolve conflicts arising within a university’s community, either the reputation of the institution or the morals of the university’s members could be compromised. The purpose of this article is to analyze the opportunities of mediation while solving conflicts emerging within a university. The first part of this article analyzes the concept of conflict resolution strategies and mediation as one of conflict resolution method. The second part analyzes the mediation service model in Great Britain’s universities (N=15). The third part discusses mediation opportunities and ways of these to be implemented in Lithuanian universities.
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In this paper, I investigate the relationships between classroom talk and dialogic literary argumentative writing. My work is situated within a larger body of recent research on argumentative writing, taking up a social practice understanding of argumentative writing as being a set of social practices that are situated within a larger process of learning over time (Newell, Bloome & Hirvela 2015). This perspective aligns with the current understandings of writing that have been taken up over the past fifteen years (Nystrand, Green & Weimelt 1993; Klein & Boscolo 2016; Newell, Beach, Smith & VanDerHeide 2011). I adopt a Bakhtinian frame to investigate classroom argumentative writing and talk, which entails a negotiation between the meaning of events and utterances through interaction. Because of this, all interactions and utterances are inherently dialogic, as they are connected to histories and in anticipation of the future. This perspective frames the teaching and learning of argumentative writing as being negotiated locally over time, with unique practices and ways of knowing established through classroom interaction. This means that the teaching and learning of argumentative practices will always be unique to the contexts in which they are practiced.
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While schools still lack balance between subject knowledge and social and emotional education (hereinafter – SEE), and despite that the focus is put more on academic achievement, SEE has recently been attracting more attention. Although the teachers are given a hard challenge – to successfully develop pupils’ social and emotional competencies – SEE is, nevertheless, still a relatively new and unexplored phenomenon in Lithuania. Thus, there is a lack of studies and scientific analyses that are needed to reveal the role of the teacher, which is required in order to successfully implement the social and emotional development concept of an educational institution. The goal of this article is to reveal the teachers’ attitudes and opportunities and empirically discover their experiences within the context of social and emotional education. The article is based on humanistic psychology provisions. The methods used were theoretical (an analysis of literature) and empirical (a qualitative study that applied a structured interview method, and the data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis). This article analyzes the theoretical aspects of social- emotional education and emotional intelligence. It reveals the role of SEE and the role of the teacher in developing social and emotional education.
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The spectrum of identity possibilities based on the gender factor is way larger than the normative society recognizes. In most of the cases, we adopt our sexuality from an already existing model. Gender, as part of our identity, is not being considered and is normative. Posthumanism discusses the difference and the singularity of every subject, and that a human being is more than ever connected with the global processes; an individual can no longer be disconnected from the whole global movement. Gender, from an identity point of view, is scarcely discussed in Lithuania, and posthumanism, which analyzes the newest motions of the global processes, is, too, almost never applied.
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The importance of purport in human's life is raised in the article. According to the philosophical and psychological Iiterature, purport is defined as a basis human life. Herewith, there is a problem of purport' discovery in a contemporary society defined, in which a lot of people experience the feeling of inanity or loses their identity and human dignity. The Beginning of these negative phenomena are associated with nowadays individual's alienation from spiritual values, which help to orientate in the world and find what is meaningful in it. There is an attempt to define the spiritual values, which form purport of Iife basis made. According to systematic and hierarchical codes, the priority is given to the moral values as the core of the good, which has a close connection with the truth, the beauty and sanctity. There is also the attitude of elder pupil's towards the search of purport and their connection with spiritual values revealed in this article.
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The article deals with the survey of understanding of a concept of common fraction among 14-year-old Lithuanian students. T he model of concept understanding verification is introduced and used to analyze the survey data. Data from Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is used for analysis. The analysis of data, using the proposed model of verification of understanding of concepts, identifies that less then 50 percent of 14-year old Lithuanian students perceive the concept of common fraction in a right way. The causes of the problem are analyzed in the article. Possible extensions of application area of the verification model are discussed.
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The article provides the results of the research into social skills of the visually impaired youth. Greatest attention is given to the disclosure of the young people's approach towards the development of social skills at school. Also those social skills are emphasized which are least developed by students when they graduate from the secondary school. In order to disclose the level of social skills acquired at school by the visually impaired young people, key attention has been concentrated on the skills in the area of self-evaluation, communication, co-operation, resolving of problems and conflicts, stress-overcoming, emotion management, understanding of other people's emotions. Said skills have a strong impact on the person's capacity to create and maintain positive mutual relationships, to be on friendly terms with other people, to develop relations of partnership and they are helpful in order to have a better orientation in different situations and environments. Results obtained in the course of the research do not define the approach of all visually impaired young people to the acquisition of social skills at school, however, they allow to state certain tendencies which demonstrate the urgency of this problem. The data of the research demonstrated that although more half of the respondents had positively evaluated acquisition of skills while at school in the area of communication, co-operation, problem-solution, overcoming of stress, however, about half of the questioned indicated that they found it difficult to establish contacts with others, to find friends, to ask for assistance.
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lm Artikel wird das Problem des Gelingens von sozialpadagogischer Tatigkeit in den Organisationen der sozialen Hilfe behandelt. Zur Begrlindung werden die Ergebnisse der qualitativen Experteninterviewsforschung praesentiert. Als Folge der Analyse von Expertenwissen wurden insgesamt 7 Faktoren rekonstruiert, die einen bedeutsamen Einfluss auf Erfolg der sozialpadagogischen Tatigkeit zu haben scheinen: l) Antropologisches Menschenbild des Sozialpadagogen, bzw. der Organisation; 2) Zielformulierung der Sozialarbeitsorganisation; 3) Art der Erziehungsarbeit mit Klienten in der Organisation; 4) Art der professionellen Beziehung zwischen Sozialpiidagogen und dem Klient; 5) Innen Atmosphare der Sozialarbeitsorganisation; 6) Zusammenarbeit der Organisation mit anderen Organisationen Zugunsten der Klienten; 7) Gesellschaftliche Bewertung des Berufs Sozialpadagogik.
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The growing impact of globalisation is felt in different spheres of life. Internationalisation is one of the terms used to describe this impact, it is a phenomenon closely related to globalisation processes. Higher education sector seems to be most effected by both, because following the Bologna Declaration there should be a coherent and cohesive European Higher Education Area created by the year 2010. That is why it is important to explore the relationship between globalisation and internationalisation and analyze the international dimension of the higher education. Globalisation and internationalisation are seen as different but dynamically linked concepts: the first one is seen as catalist, while the second one as the response. Internationalisation of higher education is one of the ways the country responds to the impact of globalisation. There are different approaches to internationalisation at institutional level as well as factors influencing its implementation.
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The development of modem quality assessment systems in the higher education institutions in Lithuania is perceived as one of the cardinal imperatives. Solid base for quality assessment and management system should be provided by the sciences of management and education management. First of all, key concepts (quality, quality management) are specified more precisely in the article, having in mind particularities of educational organizations. Colleges are quiet new institutions of non university higher education in Lithuania. Achievements in the colleges' quality systems development and management are analyzed highlighting main questions: what persons had been developing quality system in colleges, what standards had been used, what system of quality management had been chosen, what are further perspectives of study quality system's development. Opinions of all interested parts, participating in the quality system's development (students, administration, teachers, employers) were analyzed.
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The paper presents some ways of fostering student's reflective thinking in learning English for specific purposes. It also describes the key aspects of reflective thinking in connection with metacognitive awareness and presents the most widely used techniques in self-assessment and self-management skills, such as evaluation sheets, learning diaries and portfolios which are wide-ranging in ESP learning - teaching context. The article focuses on self-assessment in portfolio use and students' need to self-evaluate their learning process and emphasizes the increased awareness of learning and teaching styles. Reflective thinking as central to students' self-evaluation is described as the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. Critical thinking is a shift from teaching students' facts and what the teacher knows to teaching students how to think for themselves.
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