Multidisciplinary Journal of School Education

Editorial

Ewa Dybowska; Paweł Kaźmierczak — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:53:12 +0100

MacIntyre and the Challenges of Higher Education in the 21st Century

Miguel Angel Belmonte — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:40:39 +0100

Reflection on the nature of the university and its role in contemporary society occupies an important place in the work of the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. His academic career and his view of the incommensurable nature of moral discourses combine to suggest an original and provocative proposal for a new model of higher education. This model is characterized by a unity based on a philosophical and theological formality capable of dispelling the dangers of fragmentation and utilitarian specialization. In MacIntyre’s proposal, the university becomes the most important vehicle for organizing knowledge and, consequently, for ordering social life.

Entrepreneurship in High School Education – Perspectives of Colombian Teachers

Angélica Rico Alonso, Angela Cardenas — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:41:21 +0100

The term entrepreneurship has been seen from a productive perspective, tending towards the development of business ideas. However, today it is also associated with the strengthening of skills and attitudes on a personal level. In Colombia, Law 1014 of 2006 regulates entrepreneurship as part of academic training, at all educational levels. Despite it being an initiative raised by the government, concrete actions on the subject are being directed by teachers in classrooms. For this reason, the views of high school teachers, through the lens of qualitative research, are essential for exploring the reality that education occupies in this aspect, and that increasingly highlights some obstacles which hinder its progress.

Therefore, the aim of this article – immersed in the framework of a doctoral thesis about the practices of entrepreneurship among high school teachers in public schools in Bogotá – is to expose which actions have been aimed at integrating entrepreneurship into Colombian high school education from the experience of teachers, as well as to unveil their criticism of the absence of the entrepreneurial process from the first grades established in the law, the role of the National Service of Learning (SENA) as an important institution in Colombia related to entrepreneurship in the classrooms, the lack of a more human vision that is less focused on production in entrepreneurship education, and the huge gap in teacher training in the area.

Motivation of Early Childhood Education Teachers in the Pursuit of Pedagogical Mastery

Anna Szkolak-Stępień — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:41:57 +0100

The article concerns the role of motivation among early education teachers in striving for pedagogical mastery. The aim of the exploratory research was to outline the motives of early childhood education teachers in their pursuit of pedagogical mastery. The main challenge was to determine what factors motivate a teacher to strive for excellence and what methods are used to achieve it. This question was answered by collecting empirical evidence from January to May 2019. The research conducted by the author was of a mixed nature (quantitative and qualitative).

The findings suggest that there are many motives for Polish teachers of early childhood education to achieve pedagogical mastery, but chief among them is financial gratification. In Poland, the amount of remuneration depends on one’s professional degree. A professional career and its further advancement is balanced with the journey to achieve pedagogical mastery.

Perceptual Motor Skills in Children and Pupils with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

Jan Viktorin, Lucie Loosová — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:42:30 +0100

This literature review analyzes eight specialized papers which focus on issues of the perceptual motor skills of children and pupils with mild intellectual disabilities. Children and pupils with mild intellectual disabilities have deficits in perceptual motor skills. The deficits of adaptive and intellectual skills of these children and pupils may be greater (mainly because of their conceptual and abstract reasoning) than their relative deficits of perceptual motor skills. Stronger perceptual motor skills in children and pupils with mild intellectual disabilities may be the target of school intervention as a means of alleviating problems in adaptive functions.

Teachers’ Awareness of the Development of Perceptual Motor Functions in Pupils with Mild Intellectual Disabilities at a Primary School in the Czech Republic

Jan Viktorin, Lucie Loosová — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:43:07 +0100

The main aim of the study was to determine teachers’ awareness of the development of visual and auditory perception in pupils with mild intellectual disabilities at a mainstream school in the Czech Republic. Based on this main aim, additional goals were set: to determine to what extent teachers are aware of the importance of developing visual and auditory perception in pupils with mild intellectual disabilities, by what means teachers develop visual and auditory perception in pupils with mild intellectual disabilities, and how teachers use pupils’ homework to develop visual and auditory perception. To achieve the aims of the study, the qualitative method was used with the technique of a semi-structured interview. The results show that teachers are aware of the importance of developing perceptual motor functions in pupils with mild intellectual disabilities, but the level of training in working with pupils with mild intellectual disabilities in mainstream primary schools is low. Teachers should receive more expert advice on the development of perceptual motor functions, especially from the staff of school counseling services.

Coronavirus as an (Anti)Hero of Fairy Tales and Guides for Children

Jolanta Karbowniczek, Beata Kucharska — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:43:36 +0100

Nowadays, preschool and school children develop, are raised, and learn in a new reality for them, caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Including the assumptions of the connectivist paradigm as a novelty in the didactic activities of teachers, remote e-learning, computer games, board games, e-books, audiobooks, and multimedia programs fill free time and are becoming a way of learning and teaching in the digital age. The literary genre introducing children to the world of the contemporary threat of COVID 19 is the new fairy tale and therapeutic children’s story, thanks to which events and characters struggling with the prevailing pandemic around the world are presented. The purpose of the article is to analyze and interpret innovative proposals for e-books of fairy tales which explain to young children what the coronavirus pandemic is, how to guard against it, what is happening in Poland and around the world, how to behave, and what actions to take to prevent the spread of viruses. In their discussion, the authors emphasize the psychological, sociological, and therapeutic aspects of the presented content of fairy tales, which are most often related to experiences, emotional sensitivity, anxiety, a fear of something bad, an identification with the characters, and overcoming any difficulties in this situation which is trying for all.

The Most Frequent Lexical Units in Mother–Infant Communication in Slovak Language

Alexandra Brestovičová — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:44:15 +0100

The basis for the research was transcripts of 24 hours of monthly video recordings of three mothers speaking to their infants (for a period of eight months in each mother–infant dyad). In the frequency lexicon compiled from the mothers’ speech, the 20 most frequently used words were “be,” “right,” “well,” “self,” “yes,” “go,” “you,” ‘this,” “and,” “what,” “give,” “still,” “here,” “well,” “have,” “already,” “on,” “there,” “want,” and “where,” which underline the situational nature of mothers’ topics (“this,” “here,” “still,” “already,” “what,” and “where”) and their positive attitude towards the child (“right,” “yes,” “you,” and “well”). Moreover, the most often used nouns were the proper names of the infants in the diminutive form and an appellative “mom”; the most frequent adjectives were “little,” “good,” “big,” “pretty,” “beautiful,” and “clever,” while the most frequent adverbs were “nicely,” “beautifully,” and “well done.” Many of these words show a supportive and encouraging manner of infant-directed speech from mothers in infants’ preverbal stage of development.

The Educational Functions of the First Woman’s Almanac in Britain: Media Literacy and The Ladies’ Diary, 1704–1713

Anna Miegoń — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:44:59 +0100

While 18th-century almanacs transmitted usable information that was meant to be relevant to daily life, at the beginning of the century they also began to function as an educational tool that enabled readers to act as producers of media content, and, as a result, to develop media literacy via the practice of writing and responding to amateur poetry. In this article, I define media literacy as a cultural category shaped by specific media-related skills: the creation, interpretation, evaluation, and negotiation of media content. I examine John Tipper’s The Ladies’ Diary (1704–1713), one of the best-selling almanacs of the era, as an educational tool that, through the strategy of inviting and publishing amateur poetry, promoted and taught media competencies. Tipper’s almanac, I argue, should thus be acknowledged as an influential document in the history of media education.

Color Symbolism in the Castilian Atlantic Bibles: Initials and Scenes from the Bible of Avila (BNM, Vit. 15-1)

Maria Rodriguez Velasco — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 19:45:32 +0100

The Atlantic Bibles of the Umbro-Roman school are associated with the needs of the Gregorian Reform, which began at the end of the 11th century. Their first impression is one of great ornamental sobriety, in accordance with the early stages of what Garrison and Berg have labelled the “geometric style.” This was first manifested in the decoration we find concentrated in the initials heading the individual books of the Bible. In Castile, one outstanding example is the Bible of Avila, begun by the Umbro-Roman school and finished in a Castilian scriptorium. This double perspective can be observed in a similarly double palette of color: Italian and Spanish.

It is especially in this second phase when a reduction to the minimum of polychromy leads us to think that color has here a symbolic use. Red and blue, having had symbolic connotations since the birth of Christian iconography, are the principal colors of the scenes illustrated in the Bible of Avila, with the addition of green and yellow, which are also rich with symbolism. This possible symbolism of color may work to reinforce the conceptual nature of these miniatures, in direct relation to the text they decorate and to the liturgy they accompany. The Bible in the Middle Ages, in the context of monastic schools, was the most important manuscript for teaching and learning. Its miniatures and the symbolism of its colors contribute to the transmission of meanings.