Teachers’ views of inclusive education in Serbian schools

This study was conducted to determine the attitudes of teachers concerning inclusion in schools all over Serbia. The respondents were teachers of different subjects who were tasked to anonymously complete the provided closed-type questionnaire (970 respondents). Primary and secondary school teachers from urban and rural areas of the Republic of Serbia participated in the research. The results indicate that the teachers are supportive of inclusion. Despite significant differences in respondents’ answers, the results of the research show that there are many similarities in teacher responses toward inclusive education. The results show that it is still necessary to work on the implementation of inclusive education in Serbia, especially to educate the teaching staff and involve experts in the planning and development of individual educational plans.Keywords: attitudes; inclusive education; Serbia; teacher

THE EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF TEACHING AIDS IN STIMULATING PUPILS’ ACTIVATION IN GEOGRAPHY

This paper discusses the methodological procedures of application of teaching aids through the subjects: World around us, Nature and Society and Geography, as well as an adequate choice of teaching resources that encourage students to earn a permanent knowledge. The idea is to use teaching aids in active teaching and to turn it into the practical use of the material, in order to efficiently adopt the fundamental knowledge about the nature of science in the classroom teaching. The procedures are identified, which are especially important from the point of maximum achievements in teaching the use of teaching aids, and especially significant for subjects the World around us, Nature and Society and Geography. The aim of this study was to determine the importance of teaching aids in active teaching, as well as whether the student becomes mentally active participant in the educational process using teaching aids. The study involved class teachers (154) who evaluated the importance of teaching resources for permanent adoption of knowledge of students. In addition, the survey was analyzed and different types of learning resources in terms of their values in the activation of thinking in students were analyzed as well. This survey has confirmed the hypothesis about the importance of teaching aids for thoughtful activation of the students

Possible Application of Virtual Reality in Geography Teaching

Abstract Virtual reality represents simulated three-dimensional environment created by hardware and software, which providing realistic experience and possibility of interaction to the end-user. Benefits provided by immersive virtual reality in educational setting were recognised in the past decades, however mass application was left out due to the lack of development and high price. Intensive development of new platforms and virtual reality devices in the last few years started up with Oculus Rift, and subsequently accelerated in the year 2014 by occurrence of Google Cardboard. Nowadays, for the first time in history, immersive virtual reality is available to millions of people. In the mid 2015 Google commenced developing Expeditions Pioneer Program aiming to massively utilise the Google Cardboard platform in education. Expeditions and other VR apps can enhance geography teaching and learning. Realistic experience acquired by utilisation of virtual reality in teaching process significantly overcome possibilities provided by images and illustrations in the textbook. Besides literature review on usage of virtual reality in education this paper presents suggestion of VR mobile apps that can be used together with the Google Cardboard head mounted displays (HMDs) in geography classes, thereby emphasising advantages and disadvantages as well as possible obstacles which may occur in introducing the immersive virtual reality in the educational process

The influence of German settlers on the formation and development of an industrial town in Habsburg Bosnia: Teslić (1878-1918)

This paper studies the formation and development of the Bosnian town of Teslić from the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 to the end of the First World War in 1918. The goal is to emphasize the significant characteristics of the town's development: the spread of capitalism; economic modernization; the arrival of a non-Slavic, predominantly German population; and the town as the leader of industrialization in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The industrial origin of Teslić and its structure demonstrate Austria-Hungary's need to economically integrate Bosnia and Herzegovina into its state area. The aim of this paper is to show to what extent the dynamics of industrial development influenced the town's formation and to see how the colonist population, which was mostly of German origin, influenced the industrial development and social life of the town

Is the Integrative Teaching Approach Beneficial for Learning?

Environmental protection contents are characterized by a wide range of interdisciplinarity. They are realized separately within the teaching of biology and geography (5th–8th grade) in elementary school in Serbia. Numerous concepts and facts are similar, especially within the content Nature Protection. The application of an integrative teaching approach in the realization of environmental protection contents in elementary schools was investigated. Pedagogical experiment with parallel groups of elementary school students was conducted by applying integrative teaching approach in the experimental (E) and traditional approach in control (C) groups of students. The data were obtained through the pre-test and post-test. Integrative teaching approach has proven to be effective in the realization of the above-mentioned program contents

Attitudes of university students towards institution of a marriage

Until recently, marriage was the only socially acceptable community of two partners of different gender, with the goal of creating a family and prolonging the human race. The aim of this paper is to examine the attitudes of University students towards marriage and family. The research was based on the survey regarding the attitudes of students from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia towards institution of marriage. Collected data were analysed by using the SPSS statistical software. The main results indicate that 93.8% of respondents want to get married one day; an ideal number of children for a family to have been two (48.4%); 54.6% of respondents strongly agreed that if being in a marriage does not work properly, they should divorce. The results of these analyses and their limitations suggest guiding a future research according to different attitudes of respondents. This research provides the most ambitious and systematic analysis to date the attitudinal evidence on the attitudes of family, future children, and divorce among University students

Attitudes of university students towards institution of a marriage

Until recently, marriage was the only socially acceptable community of two partners of different gender, with the goal of creating a family and prolonging the human race. The aim of this paper is to examine the attitudes of University students towards marriage and family. The research was based on the survey regarding the attitudes of students from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia towards institution of marriage. Collected data were analysed by using the SPSS statistical software. The main results indicate that 93.8% of respondents want to get married one day; an ideal number of children for a family to have been two (48.4%); 54.6% of respondents strongly agreed that if being in a marriage does not work properly, they should divorce. The results of these analyses and their limitations suggest guiding a future research according to different attitudes of respondents. This research provides the most ambitious and systematic analysis to date the attitudinal evidence on the attitudes of family, future children, and divorce among University students

Primary Education in Serbia and Czechia. Are There Similarities?

In Serbia, primary education is compulsory, and it lasts eight years with two educational cycles, while in the Czech Republic, primary education lasts nine years with three cycles. Analysis of the teachers` attitudes toward primary education in Serbia and the Czech Republic has a goal to determine the current educational state in the two countries. Also, in this research it has been shown if there are similarities, as well as differences between the two educational systems. Views of the teachers on this topic are significant for this paper, so the survey was used as an instrument. The survey should have revealed whether the primary education was in line with the need of modernization and enhancement of young peple’s intellectual potential. It was necessary to reveal if the education in the two countries is in accordance with the modern world and whether the teachers agree with this. One of the aims of the research was to determine whether there are statistically significant differences in the teachers’ answers and to relate those differences to the general educational situation in Serbia and Czechia