Social worlds and religious education in Poland: towards the elimination of disharmony

ABSTRACT

The goal of this article is to present the coherence between the human social world and religious education in Poland. The motive for taking up this subject is the cultural context relating to the problem of attitudes towards refugees. Reconstruction of the worlds of life demands to be expanded to include the religious education context in order to adapt the education practice to the requirements and expectations of the social environment. This has been achieved based on secondary analysis of the source texts (pedagogical, sociological and theological) and existing research results, which refer directly to the practice of lifelong religious education and concern applications in the area of shaping social competences and the developmental effort of Polish thinking and understanding. These include: (1) Dissemination of the pedagogical category of decentration; (2) Resignation in the practice of religious education from universalistic apriority and realistic ontology, and the implementation of hermeneutics of understanding to religious education and a new model – supra-confessional, pluralistic model open to the knowledge of other religions and beliefs systems; and (3) Develop competences for an internal dialogue. For the practice of lifelong learning, this means abandoning the alienated learning culture and carrying out this process within the community.     

Career development of English female head-teachers: influences,decisions and perceptions

This paper presents findings from a study examining the career development experiences of female head-teachers in the south of England. Adapting a three-stage career model, the study examined different stages of the women’s lives and careers in order to understand what encouraged and influenced them to become educational leaders and how their experiences shaped their perceptions of headship. The study used semi-structured life story interviews to generate rich accounts of women’s lives from childhood. Findings suggest that parents exerted significant influence on the participants’ values and ambitions, while teachers influenced their career choices. Their perceptions of headship developed and changed over time, transforming from feelings of shock at the reality and the complexity of headship to control and confidence that increased over first, second and third headships.     

Dual-task effect on postural control in high-level competitive dancers

Abstract

We investigated balance in 33 competitive dancers (17 females, 16 males) and 22 controls (17 females, 5 males) (age 16–27 years) on a force plate in two conditions: single task (quiet stance) and dual task (with a concurrent mental task). Balance was evaluated using centre-of-pressure shift (sway) variability, mean speed, frequency, and sample entropy. The effect of the dual task in the medio-lateral plane was comparable in both groups, decreasing sway variability (P < 0.05) and increasing mean speed (P < 0.001), frequency, and sample entropy (P < 0.001), showing that the participants effectively increased the level of automaticity. In the antero-posterior plane, the dual task also increased sway frequency and sample entropy (P < 0.01) in dancers without affecting their standing performance. In contrast, postural control in non-dancers was vulnerable to reduced cognitive investment, which adversely interfered with baseline performance. There were very high correlations between sway sample entropy and frequency in each group, plane, and task (r = 0.92–0.98, P < 0.001), indicating that both parameters may measure the same characteristic of postural control and that higher sway frequency may play an important role in protecting stability in dual tasking. The postural control of dancers and non-dancers appears to be similar, although dancing seems to facilitate the increased level of automatic control in the antero-posterior plane.     

Decreased serum prohepcidin concentration in patients with polycythemia vera

Objective: Iron deficiency is a common complication in patients with polycythemia vera (PV). Hepcidin is a principal regulator of iron homeostasis. The aim of our study was to assess prohepcidin, a hepcidin precursor, and other iron status pa-rameters in the serum of PV patients. Methods: The study was performed in 60 patients (F/M 26/34) aged 38～84 (66±10) years. The control group consisted of 20 healthy volunteers, age and sex matched. The following parameters were determined in blood serum samples: prohepcidin concentration, iron content, unsaturated iron binding capacity (UIBC), total iron binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin saturation (TfS), and concentrations of ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor (sTIR). Results: All PV patients showed significantly lower levels of prohepcidin, higher levels of sTIR and TIBC compared to the control group. 40% of the patients from the study group showed concentrations of ferritin below the normal range and significantly lower levels of serum iron and TfS, and significantly higher levels of sTfR, UIBC and TIBC in comparison with the rest of the study group. In this group of patients, prohepcidin concentrations were significantly lower than those in other patients. Conclusion: The results indicate that PV patients suffer from iron metabolism disorders. The decreased serum level ofprohepcidin in PV patients may be a result of iron deficiency.     

Multiple Employment as an Additional Source of Revenue: Under What Conditions Can it be of Advantage to Both Academics and Universities?

This paper considers the question of when it can be advantageous, for both academics and universities, for individuals to be employed by more than one institution by first analysing the meanings of “advantage”, understood as profitable and valuable, and “disadvantage”. The question is whether it is possible to reach a matrix‐like balance of these opposing meanings/factors in higher education. The analysis is followed by a presentation of the Polish higher education case study seen through three possible scenarios, or Situations: when the alma mater is (1) the only place, (2) the principal place, and (3) one of [too] many places of employment and revenue. The quantitative growth of Polish higher education and its consequences are thought to be the main reason for the emergence of Situation 3. But, with the introduction of a new Law on Higher Education and efforts to create a new institutional culture there are signs of a shift from Situation 3 to Situation 2.     

Overwrought copyright: Why copyright law from the Analog Age does not work in the Digital Age’s society and classroom

In this article, the authors argue that copyright law, conceived of in an “analog” age, yet made stricter in our present Digital Age, actively stifles creativity among today’s student creators, both by its bias toward content owners and its legal vagueness. They also illustrate that copyright law is too stringent in protecting intellectual content, because physical and virtual objects have different properties. They conclude with a call to revise copyright for new media content that meets the needs of both content creators and pre-existing media content owners, and that, most importantly, benefits the education of the creative and innovative mind in today’s mediacentric classrooms.     

Dual-task effect on postural control in high-level competitive dancers

We investigated balance in 33 competitive dancers (17 females, 16 males) and 22 controls (17 females, 5 males) (age 16-27 years) on a force plate in two conditions: single task (quiet stance) and dual task (with a concurrent mental task). Balance was evaluated using centre-of-pressure shift (sway) variability, mean speed, frequency, and sample entropy. The effect of the dual task in the medio-lateral plane was comparable in both groups, decreasing sway variability (P < 0.05) and increasing mean speed (P < 0.001), frequency, and sample entropy (P < 0.001), showing that the participants effectively increased the level of automaticity. In the antero-posterior plane, the dual task also increased sway frequency and sample entropy (P < 0.01) in dancers without affecting their standing performance. In contrast, postural control in non-dancers was vulnerable to reduced cognitive investment, which adversely interfered with baseline performance. There were very high correlations between sway sample entropy and frequency in each group, plane, and task (r = 0.92-0.98, P < 0.001), indicating that both parameters may measure the same characteristic of postural control and that higher sway frequency may play an important role in protecting stability in dual tasking. The postural control of dancers and non-dancers appears to be similar, although dancing seems to facilitate the increased level of automatic control in the antero-posterior plane.     

Engineering Education Taught in Foreign Languages in Poland

After the recent political and economic changes in Poland the country as a whole has changed beyond recognition in the last few years. These changes have also resulted in new requirements in the field of engineering education. In order to improve the quality of teaching and to meet West European standards, some Polish universities offer to Polish and foreign students courses taught in foreign languages which usually follow the American‐English pattern of education.