The Importance of Psychological Teachers’ Preparation for Educational Activity

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Lithuanian Gymnasium Students’ Career Education: Professional Self-Determination Context

Professional self-determination/career choice is one of the most essential things in a young human’s life. Choosing a further life path is rather complicated. Self-cognition, harmony of one’s abilities and desires is difficult to be achieved. It is important for the young people to choose a profession corresponding to their interests, values, inclinations. It is not less important that the work/chosen profession would have a demand in the labour market. So, professional self-determination is inseparable from the all-round and directional personality education. A representative, complex research was conducted at the beginning of 2018, in which 643 Lithuanian gymnasium 11-12 grade students participated. Applying a questionnaire as an instrument, the gathered data were analysed using measures of descriptive statistics, correlation and factor analysis. In this research, it was emphasized on how Lithuanian gymnasium students valued their future personal career, how they planned their future professional activity, and the internal structure of the career choice process was established. The most significant factors for career choice were Personal feature importance, Profession prospects, and Important people’s position. The least significant factor was Coincidence factors. Some gender differences were found in significance of the factors contributing to career choice. Research results allow stating that differentiated and individualised approach remains urgent in the career education of students in the gymnasium. The role of psychologists, social workers and professional consultants working at school and its development remains very important as well

Work Values of Lithuanian University Students: Internal Structure

Individual’s work values define his/her career purposefulness. Individual’s chosen work values allow foreseeing what activity context and career model is important for him/her, seeking to successfully realize oneself in professional activity. Planning his/her professional career an individual is searching for the activity sphere, which could conform not only to his/her personal features, but also to his/her value orientations. Work values important for the individual allow realizing if they form conditions for planning modern career (successfully solve constantly changing activity problems and to correspond to always new raised requirements for a person in the organisation or in labour market), the realisation of which in today’s constantly changing labour market and social context becomes more and more problematic. Empiric research was carried out seeking to discover the work (activity) value structure. The research instrument was created by the authors of the research. Two hundred sixty five first-year students from three Lithuanian universities participated in the research. These are the main higher education institutions, preparing teachers in Lithuania. The obtained results show that work value structure of the first year students studying in social and humanitarian science programmes can be expressed by 6 main factors: responsible activity values, active work values, harmony values, reward values, activity style values, and social status values. Also, the main differences were ascertained between female and male work value structure. Responsible activity values, active work values and harmony values were much more important for female than male students

Exploring the Usage of Social Networking Websites: Perceptions and Opinions of Romanian University Students

Social networking websites (SNWs) have become a popular virtual meeting place allowing users to voluntarily post personal information, send and receive message, stay connected online with their offline friends and new online friends, or share photos, videos, bookmarks, blogs, private messages and join groups. People are spending ample amount of time on social networking websites such as You Tube, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Hi5 etc., and this high usage has also brought changes in the way people behave. These social networking websites present a variety of features for their users to facilitate socialization. This paper presents the results of a study aiming to identify the Romanian student opinions regarding SNWs. The main findings of this study are: the most frequently visited and most popular social networks among Romanian student are You Tube and Facebook; the majority of the respondents use social networking websites a few times a day; only a small part of the respondents know how social networking websites use published and other type of information; the usage of SNWs is related with the usage of computers and internet. Also the most important functions of SNWs for Romanian student are: communication (including communication in interest groups), learning and exchanging information, exchanging photo, video, friend search and texting

Mokykla ir jos problemos mokinių akimis

This is a presentation of the results of a sociological survey that took place in Lithuanian schools in 1990-1991 and 1991-1992. We look at the school through pupils' eyes, because the information received in such way is very important. We are sure that time is changing the opinions and problems, and the results in 1993-1994 may be quite different. The article deals with these main problems: 1) the constructive interactions between pupils and teachers aren't suitable; 2) the school's structure, content of education and the organization of the teaching process are often inadequate for the constantly rising social requirements; 3) the school's material base is weak; 4) there is an apathetic, public indifference to the school, reforms, and the teacher.Straipsnyje pristatomi sociologinio tyrimo, atlikto Lietuvos mokyklose 1990-1992 metais, rezultatai. Teorinė išeities pozicija ta, kad, ugdydami vaiką, bandydami jį keisti, turėtume itin gilintis į jo individualybę, žinoti jį jaudinančias problemas. Mokiniams buvo pateiktos anketos. Į klausimus jie atsakinėjo savarankiškai, laisvai. Kai kurie klausimai buvo plačiau komentuojami. Tiriant dalyvavo 972 VIII-XII klasių (512 kaimo ir 460 miesto mokyklų) mokiniai. Analizuojant mokinių atsakymus, pokalbius su mokytojais, išryškėjo šios svarbiausios problemos: netinkami mokinių ir mokytojų tarpusavio santykiai; netinkama mokyklos struktūra bei mokymo proceso organizavimas; keistinas ugdymo turinys; silpna mokyklų materialinė bazė (pasenę baldai, techninės mokymo priemonės, o turimos retai naudojamos, mokytojai pasitenkina žodiniais mokymo metodais; abejingas visuomenės požiūris į mokyklą, jos reformą, mokytoją; mokslo prestižo nuosmukis

Lithuanian Gymnasium Students’ Career and Professional Self-Determination

Career education is a very important part of general/comprehensive education. One of the main components of this process is proper students’ preparation for professional choice (professional self-determination). Thus, it is important to know objective and subjective factors determining young persons’ professional self-determination. Such awareness is important and necessary for the school, which accepts responsibility for the formation of students’ professional purposefulness and professional self-determination maturity. Lithuanian gymnasium students have to make an early decision concerning future professional activity. At the beginning of 2018, a complex research was carried out, comprising qualitative and quantitative approaches. Formulating research aim is to analyse Lithuanian gymnasium students’ professional self-determination context. A total of 643 Lithuanian gymnasium 11-12 grade students took part in the research. Apart from the main research instrument (questionnaire) in the research, the researchers presented four open-ended questions. Qualitative data were processed using a quantitative content analysis. Research results revealed that the majority of female and male students thought that to properly choose a career was important, because this was a self-realisation warranty. Regardless of this, choosing a future career, both male and female students most frequently experience personal difficulties. Choosing a future career, one needs information support, different person support and self-awareness help. It has been stated that choosing a career external factors have a greater influence on both female and male students than internal ones. Choosing a career, personality character features have a bigger influence on female students, and a desire to improve, to realise oneself has a greater impact on male students

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ACTIVITY IN COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL: A POSITION OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The formation of scientific research activity (SRA) abilities acquired in comprehensive school is undoubtedly a very important field that has not received a proper attention yet. It makes student analytical thinking stronger and develops abilities to search for and use information. Thus, the object of the conducted research is SRA in comprehensive school. The purpose of research is to ascertain how the students of upper secondary comprehensive school in Lithuania evaluate the current SRA system. The following main research questions have been included in the questionnaire: • How do the students evaluate their participation in SRA? How do the students evaluate the teaching/learning process in Lithuanian comprehensive schools in terms of SRA? • What are the essential promoting and hindering factors of student participation in SRA? How do the students evaluate scholar`s profession? Research was carried out in January-April, 2011. More than 1300 respondents of senior classes participated in the event. A survey (completing a questionnaire) was chosen as a method for conducting research. In order to analyse research data, measures for descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies, popularity indexes) were applied. To identify differences between variables, non parametric chi-square (χ2) criterion was use

Some methodological trends of scientific studies of the natural science education

The author strives for revealing and characterizing the essential directions of studies of nurturing by natural sciences and identification of their content and specifics. It is obvious that nurturing by natural sciences is oriented to resolution of social and ethical problems. The practical environment studies (natural studies) activities of the learners become the main source of motivation for acquisition of natural scientific knowledge and abilities. The studies of application of information technologies in the process of nurturing by natural sciences (the computer programmes, used for teaching, use of compact discs, virtual teaching/learning environments) in a broad sense become relevant. The problems of natural sciences and technological literacy are among the most important. A lot of attention is dedicated to development of children’s cognitive abilities. An important didactic regularity is emphasized – from simple images to construction and development of scientific concepts, etc.. Attempts are made to examine not only the influence of cognitive factors on the success/achievements in learning, but also the influence of motivation, the methodology of teaching, the microclimate in the classroom, the social environment and other factors. More and more attention is dedicated to the changes of paradigms of the nurturing by social sciences. An especially big attention is dedicated to the natural science competence of the primary school teachers, different ways for making the nurturing by natural sciences in the primary school more efficient are searched for. An especially important aspect is the programmes of nurturing by natural sciences and their construction. The analysis shows that the chemistry knowledge is especially poor and comprehensive studies are necessary in the area.The “biologization” of the content eviscerates the natural scientific upbringing of school students and creates the preconditions for discontent with the sciences of physics and chemistry in the future

Gamtamokslinis ugdymas pagrindinėje mokykloje: mokytojų kompetencijos aspektas

The article analyses certain issues of competence possessed by teachers of natural sciences. The findings of the research reveal the problems of this area. The most important problem is a regular decrease of pupils’ interest in the natural sciences and insufficient level of public literacy related with natural sciences and technologies. This might be determined by inadequate natural sciences background acquired at general education school, poor motivation for natural sciences, and strained approach towards the human being’s relations with the nature