Utjecaj strukturalnoga istraživački usmjerenoga pristupa učenju na dostignuća budućih učitelja

The study examines the impact of structural inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach on future teacher performance – their test achievements and perceived mental effort invested in completing tests. The study included 38 students at the Faculty of Education in Belgrade who were trained how to create instruments for assessing physical quantities, such as thermometer and barometer, while attending the course Geographical concepts through experiments. Focusing on interdisciplinarity, the course tasks encouraged participants to think about new problem situations and detect causal relations among physical phenomena. The results show that the IBL approach has led to higher achievement and lower values of perceived mental effort. The decrease in mental effort points to the possibility of handling larger amounts of information in working memory and processing them in long-term memory. Due to complex relationship between the variables, the model of neural networks has shown that mental effort and the cognitive complexity of the item significantly affect on the participants’ achievement. The results are useful to in-service teachers as they point to the effectiveness and the guidelines for the implementation of the IBL approach.Istraživanje proučava utjecaj strukturalnoga istraživački usmjerenoga pristupa učenju (IBL) na dostignuća budućih učitelja – njihova postignuća i percepciju mentalnoga napora uloženoga u rješavanje testova. Istraživanje je uključivalo 38 studenata Učiteljskog fakulteta u Beogradu koji su tijekom sudjelovanja u kolegiju Geografski pojmovi kroz eksperimente postali osposobljeni za kreiranje instrumenata za provjeru fizičkih veličina poput termometra i barometra. Usmjeren na interdisciplinarnost, kolegij je potaknuo sudionike na promišljanje o novim problemskim situacijama i na otkrivanje uzročnih veza među fizičkim pojavama. Rezultati pokazuju da istraživački usmjeren pristup dovodi do većega postignuća i smanjenih vrijednosti percepcije mentalnoga napora. Smanjenje mentalnoga napora ukazuje na mogućnost obrade veće količine informacija u radnoj memoriji i procesiranje u dugoročnom pamćenju. Zbog složenih veza među varijablama, model neuronskih mreža pokazao je da mentalni napor i kognitivna složenost čestice značajno utječu na postignuća sudionika. Rezultati su korisni za buduće učitelje jer ukazuju na učinkovitost IBL pristupa i daju smjernice za primjenu istoga

School as an educational context for the development of students' social competence

The paper discusses the possibilities of developing the social competence of students at school using the method of theoretical analysis. The school is expected to adapt its way of working with students to new needs, in order to develop certain segments from a number of individual and social abilities as a capacity for social success - social competence. The school, with its educational mission, within which the role of teachers is crucial, encourages social competences through: acquiring and expanding students' social knowledge and understanding of social reality; drawing students' attention to other people's feelings and interests; encouraging alternative interpretations of other people's behaviour; providing students with assistance in active participation in discussions; assisting students in discovering common features; supporting communication between students (fostering verbal and nonverbal communication); encouraging the constructive cooperation among students; strengthening empathy and strengthening altruism)

The Relationship between the Level of Religiousness of the Christian Orthodox Female Students of Teachers’ Education Faculties in Serbia and Their Attitudes towards Orthodox-Moral Issues

Religion is a complex construct that defines not only the historical and social identity of a nation, but also the personal identity of an individual. The attitude towards religion can be conditioned by tradition, political ideology, true faith, education, etc. In our research, we have tried to establish the level of religiousness of the female students of teacher education faculties in Serbia, belonging to the Orthodox Christianity as the dominant confession in Serbia. We examined their attitudes towards some of the moral challenges encountered by believers, including abortion, prostitution, same-sex marriages, the use of cannabis, and euthanasia. Using a snowball non-discriminative online sample of 336 female Orthodox students, we found that the students assessed themselves as above-average religious and that out of three dimensions of religiousness measured in the questionnaire, the lowest scores were recorded for the dimension of the effect of faith on their behavior. The study showed that the level of religiousness is a good predictor of attitudes towards abortion, prostitution, and same-sex marriages, but not towards the use of cannabis. Moreover, religiousness and attitudes towards prostitution are positively correlated, which is directly opposite to religious teachings. This is why a question arises as to whether we can speak about a return to faith or merely a return to the traditional model of manifesting the religious as an antipode to the secular organization in force until 1989. The results of our research point to the latter conclusion

Confessional Instruction or Religious Education: Attitudes of Female Students at the Teacher Education Faculties in Serbia

This paper presents an empirically study on the attitudes of female university students at all Teacher Education Faculties in Serbia (TEFS). For the purposes of this study, a survey was prepared to be completed by students online, and virtual exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling was applied. The independent variables were religion, major subjects, year of study, age, the completion of secondary schooling, whether an optional subject was studied during previous schooling, and whether female students were employed. The dependent variables were the respondents’ attitudes to religious instruction and civic education. The sample included 372 students from all TEFS, and the research was conducted in the period from 15 May to 8 June 2022. The data were processed with the aid of nonparametric statistics. The results showed that religion did not contribute to differences in students’ attitudes and opinions regarding the method of performing religious instruction and civic education, but that some other factors contributed to it, such as previous experience with these subjects and whether the respondent had completed secondary schooling. These results may be interpreted in the light of the weaknesses of the confessional model, that is, the lack of knowledge regarding the basic paradigms of other confessions, which is of great importance for countries such as Serbia which have numerous national minorities and religious communities

THE EFFECTS OF APPLYING A FIVE-MONTH TREATMENT OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The aim of this paperis to determine whether significant effects can be achieved on the kinanthropological space of preschool children compared to the initial state, by applying a five-month treatment of physical exercise with dominantly applied natural forms of movement. The sample consisted of 114 boys (5.89 ± .64 decimal years) from the city of Uţice. A battery of 10 motor tests was applied: Running 20 m, Polygon behind, Tapping with hand, Bending in a sitting position, Long jump from a place, Endurance in a push-up, Raising the body, Darts, Standing on one leg on the ground and Speed of hand movement. The structure of the activity was four-part (introductory, preparatory, main and final), with clearly defined tasks. The biggest and statistically significant differences were found in the variables Running 20 m, Endurance in the push-up, Lifting the trunk and Darts. Applying an experimental program of natural forms of movement in preschool age can have the effect of qualitatively improving motor skills, but it should be borne in mind that not all motor skills are equally sensitive and susceptible to influence.Publishe

Investigation of Balkan endemic nephropathy in Serbia: How to proceed?

Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) presents an unsolved puzzle despite fifty years of its investigation. Academy of Medical Sciences of the Serbian Medical Society organized a round table discussion on current unsolved problems related to BEN. The present paper summarizes presentations, discussion and conclusions of this meeting. During the last fifty years, the course of BEN prolonged and it shifted towards the older age in all endemic foci. Data on the incidence of BEN have been controversial and frequently based on the data on the number of BEN patients starting haemodialysis treatment. In Serbia, BEN patients present 6.5% of haemodialysis population and this percentage differs among different centres ranging from 5% (Leskovac) to 46% (Lazarevac). Maintenance of high prevalence of BEN patients on regular haemodialysis indicates that BEN is not an expiring disease. In addition, recent data have shown more frequent microalbuminuria and low-molecular weight proteinuria in children from endemic than from nonendemic families. Aetiology of BEN is still unknown despite numerous investigations of environmental and genetic factors. Today, there is a very current hypothesis on the aetiological role of aristolochic acid but the role of viruses, geochemical factors and genetic factors must not be neglected. Morphological features of BEN are nonspecific and characterized by acellular interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy and changes on preand postglomerular vessels. New immunohistochemical and molecular biology methods offer a new approach to BEN investigation. Association of BEN with high incidence of upperurothelial tumours is well-known. Recent studies have shown significant changes of demographic characteristics of patients suffering upper-urothelial tumours, their prevalence in different endemic foci and characteristics of tumours. Further studies of BEN should be directed to determination of incidence and prevalence of disease in different endemic foci, investigations of different insufficiently examined aetiological factors as well as pathomorphological features of the disease by the use of modern methods