Tom 18 (2016): Zeszyt 1 (June 2016)

Nowadays, teacher professionalization has been upgrading and the status, training and working conditions of teachers have received a great deal of interest for sustainable education. It is recognized that if teachers are equipped with adequate professional knowledge and personal practical knowledge, they will become active curriculum planners at schools - and will have the potentials to transform from “cook” to “chef” in teaching. Therefore, in-service training of teachers is one of the most effective ways of sharing professional experiences and a medium of sustainable education in the society. Based on the existing literature, the present study was conducted to investigate the preschool teachers’ needs about in-service training courses (INSET) to suggest an effective INSET model based on their INSET needs assessment for sustainable education in a Turkish setting. A questionnaire consisting of fixed-response, open-ended and Likertstyle questions was administered to preschool teachers (n=133) currently working in Tokat, one of the vicinities of Turkey, to obtain information about their background characteristics and to determine their conceptions and needs for INSET for sustainable education. The study comprises two steps. As a first stage, socio-demographic structures of the INSET participants are analyzed in respect to different variables. In the second stage, the preferences of the INSET participants are analyzed regarding before in-service training, while in-service training and after in-service training process.

This study investigates the practices of public (high) school, private language institute, and public-private teachers. In particular, it aims at addressing the role of contextual factors, the variations teachers introduce to cope with them, and the degree of sustainable behaviour among these three groups of teachers. High school teachers consisted of those who taught only in high schools and the ones teaching both in high schools and private language institutes. For this purpose, classroom practices of 60 EFL teachers (N=20 per group) with 3 to 6 years of teaching experience and BA degree in TEF) were compared in terms of group/pair work, teacher talking time, L1 use, questioning, corrective feedback, and coverage of language skills. The findings of the study indicate that a significant difference exists among these three groups of teachers in terms of their practices. It is noteworthy that in the same teaching context of high school, the practices of teachers with and without private language teaching experience are significantly dissimilar except in the duration of pair/group work activities and the rates of repetition and explicit correction. This study suggests that high school EFL teachers with teaching experience in private language institutes subscribe more closely to the tenets of communicative language teaching and thus can act as powerful agents of sustainable language teaching in Iranian public schools.

The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between the teaching approach adopted by mathematics teachers and their 9th grade students’ mathematical self. The study searched for the answers to three research questions: 1) the approaches prevailing in mathematics teachers’ beliefs about effective teaching and self-reports about their classroom practices, 2) the qualitative and quantitative features of students’ mathematical self and 3) the relationships between the teaching approaches supported by mathematics teachers, the indicators of their 9th grade students’ mathematical self, teachers’ sociodemographic indicators, and students’ socio-demographic indicators. The outcomes of the study show that because of the complex structure of the phenomena, it is difficult to classify mathematics teachers’ beliefs on teaching and their self-reported practice into theoretically predefined groups though the use of constructivism in a lesson has a more positive influence on students’ mathematical self than mere support of the constructivist beliefs.

Many ministries of education focus on twenty-first century education but unless they are looking at this topic through a sustainability lens, they will be missing some of its most important elements. The usual emphasis on developing skills for employability in the current global economy begs the question whether the global economy is itself sustainable over the course of this century. According to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) whose membership comprises 29 of the largest, most important companies on the planet, it is not. Continuing on the current development path would require approximately 2.3 planets earth to support existing levels of resource and energy use, and waste production, projected out for a global population which will reach 9 billion by 2050. And yet most discussions of 21^st century education are premised on servicing, rather than transforming, the current global economy.

This paper explores the opportunities and benefits of connecting the discourse on twentyfirst century education with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) which seeks to prepare learners for the varied and interrelated environmental, social, and economic challenges they will meet as they confront a changing world. ESD emphasizes futures thinking and strategic planning that will enable learners to help create and flourish in a more sustainable economy. Conventional teaching models must also shift to a “transformative” style of education for the twenty-first century in order for humankind to learn how to live more sustainably on this planet.

This article is focused on the description of the content and the implementation process of an originally developed, culturally appropriate and sustainable social and emotional learning program in Latvia. The article also includes the teachers’ self-reflected experience illustrated through the perspective of the program’s sample activities. The general goal of the program is to develop the emotional and social competencies of pupils, and at the same time to introduce to schoolteachers the principles necessary for combining academic and social emotional learning. As a preventive approach this program is aimed at all ages of pupils (from primary forms to secondary grades). During the school years 2012/ 13 and 2013/14 the social emotional learning program was introduced in 39 schools in Latvia (a total of 12 699 pupils). The participants implementing the program were 630 classroom teachers (614 female and 16 male with the mean age 45.04 years). As a result of the program implementation, social and emotional learning principles became a common approach for the entire school; the teachers became well versed on social emotional issues and received materials for conducting class lessons at each level; regular teacher supervisions were provided; regional supervisors were trained to sustain the pedagogical practice.

Web-based interventions (WBI) are purposefully developed online programs designed for wide range of users (clients, patients, health care specialists, as well as medical practitioners) which allow obtaining and using information on various issues related to health maintenance and improvement.

On the basis of the analysis of scientific literature, the article provides an overview of WBI types and components, as well as a structural model of WBI and its user in the context of environment factors. The possibilities of using WBI for developing long-term health literacy of individuals are specified. By summarising the main advantages and limitations of using WBI, the possible suggestions for the WBI use and development are offered.

The current study examined the effect of an online professional development learning experience on teachers’ self-efficacy through 148 (Male=22; Female=126) K-12 teachers and school educators. The Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) developed by Tschannen- Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) was administered twice with a five-week gap. Additionally, all participants’ descriptive self-analysis of their own score change was examined to analyze teachers’ attributions of their self-efficacy change. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that teacher efficacy increased as a result of their online professional development experience. Participants’ self-analysis of their efficacy change provided some possible explanations for mixed reports for the influence of experience on teacher efficacy.

This article analyses the conformity of the educational action research (EAR) process for the improvement of selected competencies that will be necessary in the near future for each active and responsible person. The most requested competencies in the near and midterm future are determined in accordance with near future structural requirements of labour demand, determined by international organoizations.

The contribution is based upon the outcomes of the action research carried out in the internet environment, by Bachelor students majoring in information technologies at Riga Technical University, Latvia. Working in groups, they supplemented each other’s ideas, developing living theories.

The content analysis of the students’ supplementary submissions and living theories was carried out to identify the features indicating the development of student actions towards the improvement of the most necessary competencies in the near future.

To accomplish the objective of action research, at first, the most requested competencies in the near and midterm future were determined. Then the changes of the features, mentioned during the three action research cycles were identified. Finally, the most important features of the students’ actions indicating the development of two of key competencies, namely, Novel and adaptive thinking and Design Mindset, were identified. Perfection of referred competencies is viewed as the substantial part of education for sustainable development (ESD). The conclusions were drawn about the development of students’ competencies according to the future needs identified during the action research process on the internet.

Personality integration and self-realisation in the global economy and coevolution with multilingual cultural environment of sustainable learning society by means of technologies actualise the paradigm shift in science, and create the necessity for transdisciplinary research to resolve the problem of transformation of the system of values in the context of acquisition of languages. The research aims to create a holistic model of autonomous learning for English acquisition in blended environment of e-studies in the context of adult non-formal education. The research is done on the basis of the holistic paradigm of the science. Holistic methodology is used for investigation of the holistic system. The research resulted in creating the holistic model and working out the recommendations to facilitate of the transformation of the system of values of participants at the programmes of English acquisition of adult non-formal education. The results of the research are significant for developing the concept of autonomous learning.

The purpose of the present study was to discuss the way of organizing free lunch at public schools as an important precondition for social equality and sustainability in school, by revealing acute forms of social disjunction in Lithuanian schools as a major incongruity with Children Rights, and an obstacle to the achievement of general education goals. The objective of the study: to study the experience of pupils subject to free lunch in public schools, as well as the experience and viewpoints of pedagogues involved in the organization of free lunch in relation to social equality and sustainable schooling.

A qualitative research was conducted in several Lithuanian schools focusing on the experience of the pupils, who had the privilege of having cost-free lunch at schools, as well as the pedagogues involved in organizing free lunch. The research data indicated the violation of children’s rights to healthy nutrition, as the respondents complained about the quality and the way of implementation of free lunch in schools. The research data revealed some discriminatory practices of separate queues to provide dishes to pupils from needy families, and limited or lacking opportunities for them to choose dishes. The analysis of the research data led to the recommendation to professionally assess the correspondence of the organization of free meals in the aspects of effectiveness, legal regulation and ethics with children’s needs.