Jolita Dudaitė

LITERACY CHANGE AS A RESULT OF THE EDUCATION REFORM: LITHUANIAN POPULATION LITERACY COMPARISON AGAINST OTHER POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES POPULATION LITERACY

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989–1991 allowed structural changes in the educational systems in 28 new countries which were under control of the Soviet government for a long time. Almost three decades have passed and several generations have been raised within the reformed educational systems. Therefore, it is important to assess the results of these reforms. One, yet not the only, of the main units of measurement for the assessment of the results of the educational system or education reform refers to population literacy and competencies gained through certain educational systems. The purpose of the article is to compare the results of the education reforms in Lithuania and other post-communist countries based on the population literacy as the expression of learning achievements. Data of the survey of adult skills under the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) organized by the OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) were used for comparison of the learning achievements. The OECD PIAAC survey databases of Lithuania, Estonia, Russian Federation, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia were used for comparison of the results of the reforms carried out in the post-Soviet countries. 5093 participants from Lithuania participated in the OECD PIAAC survey. Accordingly, 7632 participants participated in Estonia, 3892 in Russian Federation, 9366 in Poland, 6102 in Check Republic, 5723 in Slovakia, and 5331 in Slovenia. The total number of respondents in the seven analyzed countries is 43139. Analysis of the data of the said countries showed that in the education reform context the lowest value added generated by the secondary school was observed in Lithuania. The most positive results of the education reform at vocational education level were recorded in Estonia, at secondary education level – in Estonia and the Czech Republic, at lower secondary education level – in Lithuania. At secondary education level, the most considerable deterioration of the results was recorded for Russia, at lower secondary education level – for Russia and Slovakia. The most moderate change in the results at vocational education level was observed in Lithuania, at secondary and lower secondary education levels – in Poland.

EXPERIENCE OF LITHUANIAN TEACHERS WORKING WITH AN INTERACTIVE SYSTEM ACTIVINSPIRE IN USING ACTIVINSPIRE EVALUATION SYSTEM

Technology is recognized as an instructional tool in the classroom in more and more schools today. One of the technological innovations in Lithuania, which was introduced in 2013 and oriented towards science and mathematics teaching process in the 5th classes, was ActivInspire system. The problem analysed in the article – experience of Lithuania’s school teachers in evaluating students’ achievement in a classroom using ActivInspire system of evaluation. The research object: one school year’s experience of teachers who use ActivInspire interactive whiteboard and student response system (voting clickers) in mathematics and science lessons in the 5th classes. The research purpose: to summarize one school year’s teaching experience of teachers in evaluating students using interactive evaluation tools (ActivInspire system). The research was carried out in the 2013–2014 school year. Teachers using ActivInspire interactive whiteboard and student response system for teaching mathematics and science in the 5th classes participated in the survey. The research character: qualitative. During a school year, the teachers were writing reflections about their experience in using the interactive tools in lessons: interactive whiteboard, electronic textbooks and student response system. Electronic textbooks for mathematics and science lessons in the 5th class were prepared by publishing house Sviesa. The reflections were written from September to May (inclusive) (January and February excluded), once a week, in free format describing experience in working with the interactive teaching tools. The teachers who participated in the survey, in principle, give positive assessment to their one school year’s experience in using interactive evaluation system. Mostly teachers distinguish the usefulness of student response system (voting clickers). In addition to usefulness teachers identified as important such aspects: interest, time management and the impact for learning results. While talking about the negative experience in using interactive evaluation system teachers referred to the fact that the evaluation system is not appropriate for each lesson, it takes time and using the system is not always possible to achieve the desired learning outcomes.

EXPERIENCE OF LITHUANIAN TEACHERS WORKING WITH AN INTERACTIVE SYSTEM ACTIVINSPIRE IN ORGANISING CLASSROOM WORK

The teachers who seek to improve and modernise classroom routines are increasingly offered technological solutions which are not limited only to application of a computer or projector. One of the innovations in Lithuania, which was introduced in 2013 and oriented towards science and mathematics teaching process in the 5th classes, was ActivInspire system. The problem analysed in the article – experience of Lithuania’s school teachers in organising their educational activities in a classroom using ActivInspire system. The research subject – one school year’s teaching experience of teachers who use ActivInspire interactive whiteboard in mathematics and natural science lessons in the 5th classes. The research purpose – to summarize one school year’s teaching experience of teachers in organising their educational activities in classroom using interactive teaching tools (ActivInspire system). The research was carried out in the 2013–2014 school year. Teachers using ActivInspire interactive whiteboard for teaching mathematics and science in the 5th classes participated in the survey. The research character – qualitative. During a school year, the teachers were writing reflections about their experience in using the interactive teaching tools in lessons: interactive whiteboard, electronic textbooks and student response system. Electronic textbooks for mathematics and science lessons in the 5th class were prepared by publishing house Sviesa. The reflections were written from September to May (inclusive) (January and February excluded), once a week, in free format describing experience in working with the interactive teaching tools. At the end of the article, the conclusions are provided. The teachers who participated in the survey, in principle, give positive assessment to their one school year’s experience in using ActivInspire system. Work with interactive tools in organising a lesson is useful for teachers in various aspects – it provides greater opportunities for both teachers and pupils, increases lesson efficiency, is effective and convenient, helps to manage lesson time and all class, thus increasing pupils’ work performance, making task differentiation easy and keeping attentiveness of pupils. However, in terms of teachers’ experience, mixed attitude towards influence of interactive tools on the management of lesson time and class is observed – alongside positive experience, teachers also notice that use of interactive teaching tools sometimes causes discipline-related problems, as well as prolongation of a lesson time due to lack of teachers’ skills, technical failures, etc.

PREPARATION FOR INDEPENDANT LIFE OF CHILDREN LIVING IN FOSTER HOMES: ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES

Over the last decades, an increase in the number of studies on the problems of children who have lost parental care and are living in foster homes has been observed. The purpose of foster homes for children is to ensure education, care, social services and other appropriate conditions to children, as well as to maintain the environment where they could grow, develop and prepare for independent life in the society. Educational activity of the foster homes must be mainly focused on developing social competences of children which would help them to integrate into society, be more successful in various social contexts, and live active social life. Development of the entrepreneurial competencies is also particularly significant in achieving those goals. The entrepreneurial competencies allow finding your place in the society and promoting your social advancement which is particularly important to children who have lost parental care and live in foster homes. But can entrepreneurship be taught? Scholars agree on this point by stating that it is possible to teach functional abilities of entrepreneurship, to transfer knowledge, but natural abilities of entrepreneurship cannot be taught. People are born with entrepreneurial abilities, but higher level of entrepreneurial competence will be reached if entrepreneurial skills are developed. So, to what extent are children in institutional care in Lithuania ready for life? The survey tries to find out whether education of children living in foster homes in Lithuania covers entrepreneurship, whether the children consider that they have enough entrepreneurial competencies, and how they understand entrepreneurship. The said questions define problem of the survey. Purpose of the survey is to ascertain the attitude of children living in foster homes towards their entrepreneurial competencies. Data collection and analysis methods: scientific literature and document analysis, questionnaire, descriptive statistics, T-test for independent samples, graphs. Children from four foster homes participated in the survey. In the opinion of children who live in foster homes their entrepreneurial competencies are not sufficient. It was found out that entrepreneurial competencies are related with education philosophy and living conditions in foster home, i.e. the more conditions are provided for entrepreneurship education, the better development of entrepreneurial competencies is observed. Each foster home provides different conditions for development of entrepreneurial competencies.

EXPERIENCE OF LITHUANIA’S TEACHERS WORKING WITH INTERACTIVE SYSTEM ACTIVINSPIRE

New technological tools and solutions, which nowadays are becoming more widely predominant, change the traditional approach to teaching and learning (in terms of both education content and selection of forms and application of methods). Lately the teachers were offered a new system in Lithuania – ActivInspire – which was primarily oriented towards the teaching process of mathematics and science in the 5th classes. The problem analysed in the article – the experience of Lithuania’s school teachers in using new technologies (ActivInspire system) in educational process. The subject of the research is a school year’s teaching experience of teachers who use ActivInspire interactive whiteboard in mathematics and science lessons in the 5th classes. The purpose of the research is to summarize one school year’s teaching experience of teachers in terms of work with the interactive teaching tools (ActivInspire system). The research was carried out in the 2013–2014 school year. Teachers using ActivInspire interactive whiteboard for teaching mathematics and science in the 5th classes participated in the survey. The research character – qualitative. During a school year, the teachers were writing reflections about their experience in using the interactive teaching tools in lessons: interactive whiteboard, electronic textbooks and student response system. The reflections were written from September to May (inclusive), once a week, in free format describing experience in working with the interactive teaching tools. At the end of the article, the conclusions are provided. The teachers who participated in the survey, in principle, give positive opinion about the use of new technologies. The teachers find work with interactive tools interesting, useful (in various aspects), effective and handy. As regards negative experience, most remarks are related to the fact that use of the interactive tools in lessons and preparation for such lessons require more efforts and time; moreover, it is not always clear how to use these interactive tools – due to lack of competence and skills, difficulty. In any case, work with interactive teaching tools change teachers’ work pattern and the centre of gravity of their activity by giving more attention for the detailed preparation for a lesson.

Studijų kokybės kriterijai ir jų įgyvendinimas magistrantų požiūriu

The purpose of the research analysed in the article is to set study quality criteria and estimate their implementation at university in terms of master’s degree students. Research methods include analysis of literature and documents and a written questionnaire survey. Empirical research is a quantitative research, whereas pilot research is a qualitative research. The results of the pilot research showed which specific criteria for the quality of studies of the master’s degree students considered important. Based on these data, a questionnaire was prepared. When filling in the questionnaire, students had to provide their estimation how important certain criteria were to them personally and how they were implemented in their studies. Master’s degree students of the Social Technologies Faculty of Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) participated in the survey. The results of the survey showed that in terms of quality criteria the following aspects were considered important by the MRU students: study results, study process, traits of a teacher and educational environment. The results revealed that at the university the fulfilment of the major part of quality criteria is even higher than the importance given to those criteria by the students themselves. However, students give more attention to the practical (related to the professional activity) side of the studies than the university, as an institution providing education and not profession, could. Master’s degree students’ expectations related to the studies and estimation of the quality of the studies do not depend on the form of study and study fees, but partly depend on the division.

The Conception of the Entrepreneurship of Master Students

This article discusses the conception of entrepreneurship of two groups of Master students: one group consists of Master students of the study program of Educology of Entrepreneurship and another group consists of Master students of the study program of Child Rights Protection. The study program of Educology of Entrepreneurship was chosen because of the fact that the program is directly related to entrepreneurship. Having searched all existing degree programs of all universities and colleges in Lithuania, only one study program, which contains the term “entrepreneurship” in its name, was found: Education of Entrepreneurship, which is provided at Mykolas Romeris University. Therefore, it was decided to include in the survey Master students of this particular program of Mykolas Romeris University. By comparison, the second group of Master students was taken from the same context (the same University and the same faculty), but not having a direct link with the entrepreneurship in the name of the study program: the Master study program of Child Rights Protection. The aim of the article is to identify the conception of entrepreneurship of Master students. Theoretical research methods were applied, which included literature review and document analysis. Collection of empirical data provided focus groups. Empirical data were analysed in the following way: the obtained data were analysed on the basis of quantitative content analysis. The empirical data highlighted two positions of the conception of entrepreneurship: Master students of the program of Child Rights Protection had a narrow sense of the conception, whereas Master students of the program of Educology of Entrepreneurship had a broad sense of the conception. The narrow sense of the conception of entrepreneurship included personal qualities, skills and knowledge that are targeted specifically for business development and support. The broad sense of the conception of entrepreneurship included two dimensions: entrepreneurship as the ability to create and develop business and entrepreneurship as self-realization and successful achievement of goals in any field.