Our School: Journal for the theory and practice of education

INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VALORIZATION OF INDIVIDUALLY PLANNED TEACHING

Mile Ilić — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Book Review: Jerković, Lj. (2023). Individualno planirana nastava, Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Banjoj Luci

MOTIVATION PREDICTORS IN TEACHING MUSIC CULTURE

Milena Pašić, Darko Ratković — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music Culture is one of the subjects for which many students are not particularly motivated, thus the interest of this research was establishing possible factors that are in positive correlation with motivation for this subject. Major problem of this research was to determine correlation of certain variables with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for Music Culture teaching, as well as what are the best predictors of this motivation. The differences between the students show that intrinsic motivation is higher with female respondents (F (1.311) = 5.39, p < .05), that it declines with age (F (2.313) = 11.97, p < .01) and that it is higher in classes where democratic educational style is applied (r = .274). Only the scale of learning presented appeared as a significant predictor of intrinsic motivation (β = .513, p < .001), while the scale of self-esteem (β = .316; p < .001) and sub-scale of performance goals focused on achieving success (β = .388; p < .001) appeared as significant predictors of extrinsic motivation. A positive correlation was also noticed between singing activity during the lesson and intrinsic motivation and between listening to music and extrinsic motivation as well as negative correlation regarding presentations and intrinsic motivation.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY AND PRE-SCHOOL INSTITUTION – TOWARDS A QUALITY PARTNERSHIP

Nataša Cvijanović — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

One of major indicators of the quality of pre-school education and moral education is a relationship between a family and a pre-school institution. This relationship is a prerequisite for realisation of the tasks of education and moral education determined by the Programme of pre-school education and moral education, which is the reason why the paper discusses attitudes of educators and parents concerning their mutual relationship in the process of education and moral education. In addition, the paper presents the most dominant forms of the aforementioned partnership, stating that, based on a research involving 572 parents and 811 educators from 42 pre-school institutions in the Republic of Srpska, this partnership, in most cases, comprises a two-way exchange of information about the current state of affairs in the institution designated, about general progress of a particular child, and about generating an encouraging environment for studying at home. All this points to a more traditional approach as regards the relationship in question, which mainly implies that parents take a passive role, limiting their activities to parent-teacher meetings and one-to-one office hours with the respective teacher. The results given imply the necessity for establishing new forms of parent-teacher partnership, which would lead to improvements in a family – pre-school institution relationship. That way, there would be better conditions created in order to provide a response to numerous challenges the modern-day family is confronted with, as well as more opportunities for the pre-school institution, which, as such, can mobilise its capacities in order to adapt to the changes occurring on a daily basis.

HIDDEN CURRICULUM AND TEACHER’S IMPLICIT THEORIES AS DETERMINANTS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

Stanislava Marić Jurišin, Borka Malčić, Tamara Dragojević — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Curriculum, as an important school documenmt, has been the subject of numerous research and discussions in the process of education and moral education. As far as curriculum is concerned, it is necessary that the notion of hidden curriculum be explained as well. The latter is defined as a discrepancy between what is implied by the official curriculum and what actually happens in school. For that reason, hidden curriculum may significantly affect the quality of educational process, given that it concerns the overall environment in which studying takes place. Bearing in mind the fact that it is teachers who are responsable for the implementation of curriculum, they are expected to transfer to students all those values that the formal curriculum does not recognise. This transfer is mostly facilitated through implicit messages, which often go undetected by either teachers or students. The teachers’ implicit theory represents the beliefs and attitudes of a teacher about the way a teacher perceives their students, what learning theory they apply, and how they view childhood. In this respect, hidden curriculum becomes an integral part of the teachers’ implicit theory. In a student-oriented teaching process, the teacher still holds the central position, so one can draw a conclusión that their implicit theory is crucial for the realisation of goals of education and moral education. The results of relevant research confirm the hypothesis that hidden curriculum can exert more influence than the official curriculum. In view of the contemporary paradigm of life[1]long learning, the implications of this paper are reflected in pointing out the role of a teacher as a reflective practitioner inclined to continually question and further their work.

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GOOGLE MEET PLATFORM IN TEACHING PROCESS UPON THE BREAKOUT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Marija Marković, Zorica Stanisavljević Petrović — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of higher education institutions resorted to the Google Meet platform in order to facilitate the transfer from a traditional to online teaching process. Accordingly, there is an increase interest in the issues concerning the platform’s efficiency, its advantages and downsides, as well as the level of acceptance by crucial actors – students and staff members. This research aims at providing answers regarding the attitudes of students of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Nis (Serbia) towards implementation of the platform in question. In this respect, the research features the descriptive method, with the sample consisting of 211 students from various departments of the University. The instrument used in the research is a 5-point Likert scale, and the results show that students are mostly undetermined concerning the implementation of this platform, as well as that there are no statistically significant differences as regards independent variables of the research – sex, year of study, average grade, and department, except for certain items in the questionnaire.

EDUCATIONAL EFFECTS OF LEARNING BY SOLVING RESEARCH TASKS IN SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES CLASS

Jovana Končar — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The focus in contemporary teaching is on the replacement of the traditional encyclopedic approach by procedures, methods, and forms and systems of work directed towards solving problems, practical application of knowledge, and research. Research tasks represent a prerequisite for acquisition of comprehensive and long-lasting knowledge. This paper features the latest theoretical-methodological knowledge about educational effects of learning by solving research tasks concerning the subject of Science and Social Studies. In relation to this, the research aims to determine whether learning by solving research tasks as regards the subject of Science and Social Studies can help one achieve a greater level of knowledge. The sample of the research is 40 fourth-grade elementary school students from the city of Prijedor (Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The experimental method is used in the research, the testing technique is used for collecting data, whereas the research instrument is the A form knowledge test concerning the contents of the subject of Science and Social Studies (initial and final). According to the results, there is a statistically significant difference in learning outcomes (a greater level of knowledge) among the students who were assigned research tasks in relation to those attending traditional classes (first hypothesis), as well as a statistically significant difference in learning outcomes of all students who were assigned research tasks in relation to students attending traditional classes (second hypothesis). In this respect, the results point to a necessity and a possibility of revising the existing patterns Science and Social Studies classes, along with implementation of more research tasks encouraging individual, group, and pair work.

ENCOURAGEMENT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN A KINDERGARTEN ACCOMMODATING ROMA AND EGYPTIAN CHILDREN

Marijana Blečić, Veselin Mićanović — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The kindergarten represents a physical environment that is authentically connected with narrower and wider social context which is in the state of constant change. As a reflection of happenings within a wider social community, practitioners/educators should, from the very beginning, take full responsibility for continual adaptation to the changes taking place in the family and in local community and society in general by means of establishing a partnership with families, among other things, and by means of creating an environment that supports learning through play. This partnership is more challenging if the family concerned does not belong to any of dominant social groups, an environment that the respective educator usually comes from, in particular when it is deprived on multiple levels, such as Roma and Egyptian families (RE families). In order to determine whether a physical environment encourages/reflects the development of/support for cultural diversity and cultural competences at pre-school age by means of the case study method and by means of a qualitative analysis of responses provided through observation techniques and interviews conducted, we point to inadequate encouragement of cultural diversity in the physical environment of the ‘Srcolovka’ kindergarten (‘Djina Vrbica’ public pre-school institution, Podgorica (Montenegro)), which has, since 2005, assumed the dominant role concerning the education and moral education of these vulnerable, minority groups. The results not only reveal inadequate knowledge about creating an inspiring environment as regards understanding and accepting cultural diversity, but also the lack of understanding of the significance of establishing a partnership with RE families, who must become important partners in realisation of this goal at an early age.

Dragan Partalo — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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