Tatjana Tubic

Linking Learning Styles and Teaching Styles

Most European countries attempt to develop policies to increase the quality of teachers and teacher educators at national and European level. Žogla comments on these developments by declaring ‘among many complex changes taking place in European society, three major trends are pointed out: the internationalisation of the processes, the impact of the first appearances of the information society and the growing impact of scientific and technical development.’ Implying that teacher educators could be the agents of these reforms and changes, she states that ‘teacher educators comprise the most important group of specialists in the complicated sets of reform in education’ (Žogla, 2006, p. 1). The importance of teacher educators is also outlined by Reimers and Reimers, who stated that ‘the role of teacher educators is crucial in understanding and promoting effective programmes for the professional development of teachers, as they are the first to introduce prospective students to the profession, and also the ones who support teachers in their development from novice to experts’ (Reimers & Reimers, 2000, pp. 66–67). Teacher educators’ education and proficiency level seem to have a significant impact on the quality of student teacher education. This chapter examines how to achieve a better match between students’ learning styles and the teaching styles of teacher educators. It is widely accepted that the concept of learning styles is important in teacher education and coping with various learning styles of student teachers can be perceived as a major and difficult task for teacher educators. Teacher educators have a double responsibility as they have to relate their own teaching style to that of their student teachers and teach student teachers to adapt to the learning styles of their future pupils. There is little research on the relation between the learning styles of student teachers and the teaching of teacher educator, let alone about teacher educators as role models who show student teachers that it is possible and crucial to adapt to the learning styles of pupils.

Raven's colored progressive matrices (CPM) - basic metric characteristics and norms

Principal measuring characteristics and norms of Raven’s colored matrices were determined on the sample of 2.334 children from Vojvodina at the age of 3.5 and 11. The basic metric characteristics were determined according to classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT). By testing a dimensionality it was showed that the test had one main object of measuring. The norms were also evaluated in terms of their precision in statistical and psychometric sense. It was found that there was no statistically significant difference in solving the test requirements between boys and girls at any age, nor was there any significant interaction of gender and age. Reliability of the test at the age group of 6 - 11 was over 0.85, at the age of 5 it was 0.75, whereas at the youngest age it was only 0.59. The complete test was too easy at older ages due to the Flynn’s effect. It is owing to this reason that a conclusion can be drawn that there’s a big question mark over its application at the age of 11,and even 10. It is recommended that standard Raven’s matrices should be used at that age. .

Psychomotor re-education: Movement as therapeutic method

INTRODUCTION Psychomotor re-education represents a multidimensional therapeutic approach in dealing with children and adults with psychomotor disorders. Therapeutic programs should be based on individual differences, abilities and capabilities, relationships, feelings and individual developmental needs as well as emotional condition of a child. BODY AND MOVEMENT AS THE Bases OF THE TREATMENT: A movement, glance, touch, voice and word, all being an integral part of a process of psychomotor re-education, are used with a purpose of helping children to discover their own body, their feelings, needs, behaviour. When moving, children discover the space of their own bodily nature, and, subsequently, gestural space and objective space. The body represents a source of pleasure and the freedom of movement, as well as ones own existence, are soon to be discovered. PRACTICAL APPLICATION An adequate assessment is a precondition to design a work plan, select the best exercises for each child individually and direct the course of therapy. This is the most suitable method for treating children with slow or disharmonious development, mentally challenged children, children with speech and behaviour disorders. It is also used in the treatment of children with dyspraxic difficulties, difficulties in practognostic and gnostic development, pervasive developmental disorder and children with lateral dominance problems. CONCLUSION Therefore, a systematic observation seems to be necessary as well as an increased number of research projects aimed at assessing results obtained by exercises in order to get a more precise insight into the process of re-education, selection of exercises, duration period and possible outcomes.

Sports role models in elementary school students

Due to the importance of role models in youth and media coverage of athletes, the aim of this research was to analyze the significance and characteristics of sports role models and the existence of gender patterns in elementary school students. Research sample consisted of 468 students aged 11-15. Sports role models were analyzed using a modified questionnaire of Adriansee & Crosswhite [2008]. Research results indicated that most respondents (80.8%) had role models. Role models belong to different domains with the highest proportion of famous athletes (31.5%) and family members (30.4%). Gender of the respondents was significantly correlated with selection of the role model, with sports role models being selected more often by males (49.2%) than by females (22.5%). Within the category of sports role models, famous athletes were highly predominant (88.1%), and most of them were males and foreign sports stars. Since adolescence is a period when future preferences for physical activities are developed, it is important to exploit all possible ways of supporting the youth to develop a healthy life style, where sports role models can have a significant influence.

Stavovi učitelja seoskih i gradskih škola prema inkluzivnom fizičkom vaspitanju // Attitudes of teachers in rural and urban schools on inclusive physical education

Apstrakt: Uvođenjem inkluzivnog modela obrazovanja u Republici Srbiji, skolske 2010/11. godine, u sredistu strucnog i naucnog interesovanja nasli su se nastavnici kao neposredni realizatori inkluzivne nastave. S obzirom da stavovi nastavnika prema inkluzivnoj nastavi fizickog vaspitanja predstavljaju jedan od kljucnih faktora efektivnosti inkluzivne nastave, kao i da 70% teritorije Srbije cine ruralne regije, sprovedeno je istraživanje sa ciljem da se ispitaju razlike u stavovima prema inkluzivnom fizickom vaspitanju ucitelja seoskih i gradskih skola. Na uzorku od ukupno 84 ucitelja (80 žena, 4 muskarca) primenjen je upitnik ATIPE (Hutzler, Zach, & Gafni, 2005) za procenu stavova prema inkluzivnom fizickom vaspitanju. Dobijeni rezultati pokazuju da ucitelji iz seoske i gradske sredine imaju slicna obeležja socio-profesionalnog statusa. Ucitelji naginju umereno pozitivnim stavovima prema inkluzivnom fizickom vaspitanju. Razlike između subuzoraka su na granici znacajnosti (p = .06), pri cemu su u proseku nesto pozitivnije stavove iskazali seoski ucitelji.

Učitelji kao nosioci inkluzivnog fizičkog vaspitanja

Zakon o osnovama sistema obrazovanja i vaspitanja (2009), krovni obrazovni zakon u Republici Srbiji, sistemski podržava inkluziju kao drustveni proces. U novonastalim okolnostima, ucitelji i nastavnici fizickog vaspitanja kao nosioci inkluzivnog fizickog vaspitanja, suocavaju se sa brojnim izazovima. U okviru sireg istraživanja inkluzivnog fizickog vaspitanja, sprovedeno je anketiranje ucitelja (N=132) u vezi sa kompetencijama, iskustvom i stavovima prema inkluzivnom fizickom vaspitanju. Inicijalni rezultati pokazuju da je vecina ucitelja imala priliku da bliže upozna osobe sa razvojnim smetnjama/invaliditetom (61.4%), međutim, do sada je takvoj deci predavalo 47.0% ispitanika. Vecina ucitelja (58.3%) nema poverenja u sebe kada je rec o poducavanju dece sa razvojnim smetnjama/invaliditetom, a samo 9.1% je pohađalo seminar iz inkluzivnog fizickog vaspitanja. Svoje kompetencije pozitivnije opažaju ucitelji koji imaju nastavnog iskustva sa takvom decom i koji su imali prilike da bliže upoznaju osobe sa razvojnim smetnjama/invaliditetom. Dobijeni rezultati ukazuju na važnost negovanja inkluzivne kulture i osnaživanja strucnih kompetencija ucitelja.

Dimensions of self-concept and sports engagement in early adolescence

The aim of this paper is to examine the differences in particular dimensions of selfconcept in female and male adolescents depending on sports engagement, as well as to determine which domain-specific self-perceptions provide the highest contributions to global self-worth in female and male adolescents engaged in sport and those not engaged in it. This research included 400 subjects at early adolescent age, of both genders (235 females and 164 males) further divided to sub-samples of athletes and non-athletes. An adapted version of a scale Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (Harter, 1988) was applied, which consists of nine subscales. The obtained results indicate that sport-engaged adolescents of both genders provide more favourable perception of themselves in most tested aspects of self-concept than those not engaged in an organized sports activity. Engagement in sport has special effect on selfconcept of male adolescents. Results of multiple regression analysis point out unambiguously the significance of self-perception of physical appearance in global self-worth of adolescents of both genders, irrespective of whether they are involved in sports activity or not.

Effects of physical activity on children's behavior

Results Results showed that children of preschool age are less involved in organized physical activities, and also that girls of all ages have a lower participation rate than boys in organized physical activities. Factor-analysis isolated four contributors to aberrant behavior in children: negativity, anxiety, lack of adjustment, and lack of established controls. Relation of these four factors to participation in physical activity was also analyzed. A structure of aberrant behavior points to a strong interconnection between neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms and socio-emotional aspects of behavior in children.