Volume 5 (2015): Issue 1 (June 2015)

This research study concerns the trends in the lifelong learning of teachers including self-education as a form of teacher personal development. It explores the importance, role and objectives of lifelong learning, andragogic pedeutology, as well as the trends and further education of possibilities of teachers in Slovakia with regards to the forms of learning, qualification education and continuing education. We present the findings of a research survey on the educational needs of secondary vocational school (SVS) teachers as one of the results of the KEGA 005 DTI-4/2013 project in the study. We also present the research objectives, research questions, research sample of SVS teachers, research methods and instruments. In addition to presenting the findings of the current and updated education needs of SVS teachers in the sample and their interpretation, we formulate the research conclusions on the educational needs of SVS teachers as one of the results of the KEGA 005 DTI-4/2013 project.

The article discusses education of older people for combating their loneliness, the reasons for it, and its consequences. The current theoretical findings were the reason for the empirical study of the research problem by the authors. In the empirical part, some aspects of the life of older people regarding their residences were compared: among older people living with their relatives, alone, with a partner, or in a retirement home, with special regard to the reasons/causes for residence, and the feeling of loneliness and contacts with relatives. The obtained empirical results showed that older people living alone or in a retirement home are in a worse position compared to those living with relatives or with a partner. The most at risk are older people living alone.

There have been a number of studies investigating the media’s role in body image dissatisfaction, eating disorders, self-esteem, and the internalization of the thin body ideal in young girls and women. However, much of the research focuses on girls ages 10 and older; very few examine those girls of pre-primary or primary age. This paper seeks to explore the studies that do focus on the younger age groups, and understand the relationship between the media and young girls’ self-esteem.

We live in the era, when a lack of understanding the elementary family's functions and ineffectiveness in creating lasting and open relations within the family backgrounds are a frequent phenomenon. The breakdown of the family is often caused by immaturity and inadequate conditions for the parental and marital role. Personal tragedies, as well as the consequences in the upbringing, are serious effects of divorce and family breakdown. In this article we are attempting to point out an importance of the family in our current society with an emphasis on the particularities of the father’s and mother’s role in child rearing.

PIB is a research project pertaining to the psychotherapeutic potential of Lego bricks. This is based on Lego Group’s own method called Lego Seriousplay and Eric Berne's transactional analysis as a theoretical background. If we see it from the Lego’s aspect, our plan is a training like LSP. It is only alike because of the special application. We made a lot of modifications according to the original methodology. In this document we would like to present details of our research we have been working on for almost two years. The characteristics of our methodology will be illustrated, too.

With almost five million English language learners in the United States, digital storytelling is increasingly being used in second language learning classrooms. As a teaching and learning strategy, digital storytelling can promote critical thinking, connect new content with prior knowledge, enhance memory, and foster confidence and motivation for learning. Digital stories possess unique narrative qualities that often center on identity negotiation and the ways culturally and linguistically diverse students make meaning out of their lives. Fostering hands-on, active learning, digital storytelling is an interactive way to include culturally and linguistically diverse students’ voices in a curriculum that may not easily represent them. Practical implementation of digital storytelling is included.

A school climate is the product of a specific social group. It influences the work of both teachers and students; it is a reflection of the objective reality in schools. It is experienced, evaluated and perceived by the actors of school life subjectively. In agreement with the current approaches to education (neuropedagogy, neuroscience), the importance of a positive school climate is accentuated. It is a part of school environment in the emotional, social and physical contexts. We put an accent on the interconnection and mutual determination of the climate and some selected determinants - inappropriate behaviour, interaction and safe educational environment. Nowadays, the notion of the school climate is joined with the adjective “optimal”. Based on the undertaken research, we make a conspectus of empirical findings which are related to school environment and school climate.