Tom 13 (2022): Zeszyt 2 (December 2022)

This paper presents the conceptual framework for positioning a government-funded higher education institution (HEI)in the Philippines as a regenerative university. It grounds the notion that academia should rethink and redefine Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through regenerative development and futures thinking. While Davao Oriental is home to a rich biological, social, and cultural heritage, this paper outlines how an academic institution can contribute to its protection, conservation, management, and regeneration. The end goal is to mainstream regenerative futures in the university’s four-fold functions: instruction, research, extension, and production. Consequently, the paradigm shift aims to influence local communities to engage in a shared regenerative future that would equally benefit the environment and human societies.

The high prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) necessitates acquiring early detection tools that can lead to appropriate interventions for children and assist children in performing as many life functions as possible. In addition, early detection tools for ASD can realize quality early childhood development. This study aims to review various types of assessments for early detection of ASD in children using the literature review method. The following articles are from the website https://eric.ed.gov/ as search engine for scientific articles. Using the keywords “autism spectrum disorder assessment tools” and “early detection for autism,” then peer-reviewed only and year filters since 2018, 2,829 articles were found. Then from the identified articles, they are re-elected based on title, abstract, and time of publication to produce 16 articles whose early detection tool was tested on more than 50 participants and began at the earliest possible age. The results show that various screening and diagnostic tools for ASD prioritize areas such as social communication, behavioral problems, emotional problems, sensory regulatory issues, and engagement issues. The instrument’s limitations, which include an expensive price, a lengthy process, the need for expert involvement, and cultural differences, create a growing gap that must be bridged immediately.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of in-service education designed to improve early childhood teachers’ environmental awareness, knowledge, attitudes and their skills on integrating environmental issues in their teaching. Thirty early childhood teachers in the treatment group and Thirty in the control group participated the study. Teachers in the control group did not attain in-service education. Teachers responded to the Environmental Problems Attitude Scale (EPAS) before and after the in-service education. After the education process, teachers in the treatment group provided qualitative data about the impact of this education. For the treatment group the Mann-Whitney U test revealed a significant increase from pretest to posttest. Mann-Whitney U did not indicate a significant increase for the control group. Three major themes derived from qualitative data. These are an increase in environmental awareness, an increase in individual responsibility and taking action, as well as increased motivation and being better equippedfor environmental education.

The aim of the study is to identify the entrepreneurial tendencies of primary school fourth grade students. The study was designed using the survey research model, which is one of the quantitative research methods. The participants of the study are 505 students attending the fourth grade of a primary school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the province of Izmir, located in the western region of Turkey, during the 2020–2021 school year. The Personal Information Form developed by the authors and the Entrepreneurial Tendency Inventory for Children (ÇGEE) developed by Yurtseven and Ergün (2018) were used to collect the data of the study. The data obtained were analyzed using the statistical package program. The findings of the study indicate that while a significant difference is found in all of the entrepreneurship tendencies inventory factors in terms of gender, a significant difference is found only in the innovativeness factor based on the number of siblings. Based on the social activities that the students participated in, it is found that there is a significant difference for the students who deal with dancing. While no significant difference was found based on the mothers’ educational background, a significant difference was found in the success and problem-solving factors based on the fathers’ educational background.

In Sweden and in other parts of Europe, the nature of religious education (RE) and its place in schools is the subject of ongoing discussions. Concepts used in the RE classroom can either open or close classroom conversations. A growing consensus can be observed among researchers that the concept of ‘religion’ is not sufficient to describe – and give space to – the meaning-making of the diversity of individuals in society. As a result, discussions about worldviews have gained momentum. But not even the worldview concept – and the choice to frame the subject of RE with this addition – can solve the real problem, which is how young people can relate to the content of the subject in the first place. In this article the view is presented that the concept of existential configurations is equipped to adequately capture a complex and personal understanding of life that, not least, can be observed among young people today. Furthermore, it is argued that this concept of existential configurations gives access to a theoretical language that enables individuals to understand their own existential meaning-making, and to see how it relates to the plurality of religions and worldviews that can be encountered in society – even when they do not describe themselves as religious or as having a specific worldview.

The concept of ‘worldview’ is widely used today in education and religious education, including the sub-concepts of ‘personal worldview’ and ‘organized worldview’. This leaves the door open for both further reception and elaboration and, of course, also for theoretical and empirically based criticism. In her Keynote Address at the 2022 Nordic Conference on Religious Education in Riga, in June, Caroline Klintborg articulated the claim that instead of using the notion of ‘worldview’ – and its sub-concepts – there are good reasons for using the concept of ‘existential configurations’ instead. In this response I weigh the power of her argumentation, and conclude from what I coin as a form of conceptual sustainability that her conceptualization should be interpreted as an elaboration of the concept of ‘worldview’ instead of as a replacement.

The aim of the research and investigation methodology was based on an expert survey, using questionnaires translated into German, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese languages. The experts, interviewed in this study as part of the international community, represent institutions or organizations, that are involved in educational policy or in university research and teaching contexts with the topics and content as well as the implementation of ESD. The answers of the experts provide a different and wide range of variations in assessments of the implementation of the UN Decade and its characteristics of democratic potential and support. This shows that the potential democratic influences can always be assessed much more positively through sustainable development than that of actual democratic changes, particularly in reference to good governance, to the basic and human rights, to the protection of minorities, to civil society participation and to the separation of powers and the rule of law.

How can the individual preserve his identity within a crowd? How can he/she counter the threats and the temptations of the mass phenomenon? In the following, these questions are answered, correctly based on two contrasting and complementary situations and approaches: on the one hand, the beginnings of the Soviet Union in the 1920s as manifested in everyday life in Moscow (journalistic-systemic view). On the other hand, on biographies of NSDAP members in Germany in the 1920s (biographical approach). The theoretical background provides philosophical treatises from this period (Elias Canetti, José Ortega y Gasset, and Karl Jaspers). Because the situations characterize starting points of totalitarian system (Sowjet-Union/Nazi-Regime), they allow transformations into current and future experiences of collective and group pressure in private and business life, where people experience similar challenges and temptations that are more elementary.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a teaching and learning approach that is based on the principles that underpin sustainability and applies to all levels of education. However, there is a scarcity of research on the integration of curricula with ESD. In this study, secondary school curricula in Germany (Bavaria) (geography, nature and technology) and secondary school curricula in Turkey (social studies, sciences) were compared in terms of learning outcomes and learning areas to the principles of sustainable development (social-environmental-economic). Attempts have been made to shed light on how ESD is reflected in the curricula of Turkey and Germany, as well as how the approach of ESD directs the education curricula. According to the findings of the study, the learning outcomes and learning areas of the curricula of Turkey and Germany are related to the principles of sustainable development, and learning outcomes related to SD dimensions are given more place in the upper grades. Turkey’s social studies curriculum is more related to SD’s social dimension principles; the science curriculum is more related to SD’s environmental dimension principles; and Germany’s geography, nature and technology curricula are more related to SD’s environmental dimension principles. The number of learning outcomes related to the economic dimension principles of SD in both countries’ curricula has been determined to be very low. Especially in Germany’s curricula, unlike Turkey’s curricula, it has been determined that students offer solutions to existing environmental-social-economic problems for sustainability in the context of problem-solving skills and learning outcomes that include case study activities are included.

Elevkanalen is a web-based digital educational resource containing videos, animations, pictures, learning paths, texts, quizzes, and many features that meet the Norwegian authorities’ requirements for adapted and inclusive learning issued by The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (UDIR). The interest of this paper is to examine how the editors of Elevkanalen comprehend video as an educational resource and accordingly contribute to a discussion of professional assessment and didactical utilisation of video in teaching and learning. The protagonists of video-based learning are generally not reluctant to advocate the benefits of using video in education. Nevertheless, in order to be beneficial, it is reasonable to suppose that a deliberate and professional didactical utilisation is required. Video-based learning is at the centre of this study, and the ICAP theory is applied to critically assess video as a learning resource. Moreover, this is discussed in relation to perspectives on education for sustainable development