Self-perception,self-esteem and life satisfaction in adopted and non-adopted children and adolescents / Autopercepción,autoestima y satisfacción vital en niños y adolescentes adoptados y no adoptados

This paper analyses whether the specific challenges of adolescence and adoption may affect the self-assessment of adopted adolescents. A total of 618 children and adolescents from Andalusia (southern Spain) between eight and 16 years of age (105 adopted and 513 non-adopted) participated in this study. For comparison purposes, different groups of non-adopted children (current classmates, children in residential care and children who have grown up with their biological families in socially disadvantaged areas) also participated. The Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) and the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) were utilized. The results reflect positive self-assessments on average at the beginning and during adolescence. There is a decline in self-perception, self-esteem and life satisfaction at around 11 or 12 years, with a slight recovery beginning at the age of 14. This trend occurs in adopted and non-adopted children and adolescents. Adopted children present self-assessments similar to children who live with their biological family. Children in residential care exhibit self-perception, self-esteem and life satisfaction that is well below the rest.     

Balancing Institutional Demands with Effective Practice: A Lesson in Curricular and Professional Development

ABSTRACT

Online writing courses have developed in importance to meet student learning and institutional expectations; over time, a controversy about training online instructors and building sustainable programs has emerged. This article relates training demands within the University of Arizona’s Writing Program and development of an online professional & technical writing certificate. The article proposes training instructors with master courses and building a sustained program through a participatory design to create a professional and integrated environment.     

The influence of using ICT in high-skills competences and ICT competences. A structural model

Education and Information Technologies - University students have to master new competences to be able to completely form part of Knowledge Society, which are known as 21st-century competences....     

The national curriculum vs. the ideal curriculum: acknowledging student learning interests

For many students, school is a place that makes no sense; a place where students’ interests are not reflected in the curriculum. Using mixed methods research, we developed an instrument that identifies student interests. This instrument was applied in a pilot study that considered 10th-grade students from three schools in Santiago, Chile. We compared student interest and national curriculum for different factors and established how well aligned these are. The results reveal that private school students prefer subjects that require greater cognitive development, related to Young’s powerful knowledge. Students from voucher schools, on the other hand, prefer to develop their knowledge of the arts and physical education, both of which are subjects they tend to enjoy. These findings are coherent with Bernstein’s theories. This pattern is also repeated when comparing high-performing students with their low-performing counterparts, regardless of school type. The findings of this study not only help identify which subjects the students want to study, but also to understand the reasons behind their preferences. Understanding these reasons is key for developing a more contextualised curriculum that makes more sense to the students.     

The effects of low attainment on young people's outcomes at age 22‐23 in Scotland

A common concern among policy makers in Europe is the low level of qualifications of some school leavers and the possible consequences of this for their life chances and for countries' economic prosperity. This article considers the impact of young people's low levels of educational attainment on their later life chances, especially on labour market participation. It identifies the long‐term negative effects of low attainment and explores the extent to which family background also continues to influence young people's outcomes. It examines the outcomes of low attainment among young men and women and considers whether low attainment has a different impact on the prospects of young men and women. The article also investigates whether staying on at school improves longer‐term chances and opportunities for low attainers. These questions have strong policy relevance, and are explored using data from a nationally representative survey of Scottish school leavers.     

Improving Chilean In-service Elementary Teachers’ Understanding of Nature of Science Using Self-contained NOS and Content-Embedded Mini-Courses

Understanding nature of science (NOS) is considered critical to the development of students’ scientific literacy. However, various studies have shown that a large number of elementary and secondary science teachers do not possess an adequate understanding of NOS. This study investigated how elementary teachers’ understanding of NOS was impacted through a 1-year professional development program in Chile that included NOS instruction as a theme throughout two types of mini-courses in the program. Twelve teachers attended a 1-year development program focused on improving teacher content knowledge and included the instruction of NOS embedded in two self-contained NOS mini-courses (36 h) and two lessons (3 h each) within five science content mini-courses (30 h). The Views of NOS (version D+) questionnaire and interviews were used to assess teachers’ understanding of NOS at the beginning (January) and end of the program (December). Elementary teachers’ understanding of the creative, inferential, and tentative aspect of NOS showed improvement. According to the teachers’ perceptions, the most significant activities for improving their NOS understanding were decontextualized activities in both types of mini-courses (self-contained NOS and science content mini-courses). The implications for professional development programs are also discussed.     

New Features of Educational Media Development in Hungarian Secondary Education

Abstract

In 1994 Eger, a city of long standing cultural and educational tradition, hosted the Agria Media ‘94 ICEP Conference. The conference aimed at providing an analysis of new challenges gradually emerging with the development of educational media. The present paper will look at the main subject, giving an overview of new features of educational media in Hungarian secondary education.     

The Use of Clinical Reasoning Skills in the Setting of Uncertainty: A Case of Trial Femoral Head Migration

Clinical skills and medical knowledge enable physicians to overcome the uncertainty of emergent and rare clinical scenarios. Recently, a growing emphasis on evidence-based medicine (EBM) has flooded medical curricula of universities across the globe with guideline-based material, and while it has given teachers and students new tools to improve medical education, clinical reasoning must be reaffirmed in its capacity to provide physicians with the ability to solve unexpected clinical scenarios. Anatomical education in medical school should have two main objectives: to acquire anatomical knowledge and to develop the skill of applying that knowledge in clinical scenarios. The authors present a clinical scenario in which an unexpected and rare complication occurred during a routine elective hip replacement surgery. The general surgeon presiding over the case, also an anatomy professor, solved the problem using clinical reasoning and anatomical knowledge. It was a clear example of how clinical reasoning is key in approaching unprecedented, rare, or unknown complications. The intention of this scenario is to remind colleagues and medical schools that, although EBM is the standard, educators must uphold sound clinical reasoning to best prepare health care providers for their careers.     

Teacher Education in Hungary: system,process, perspectives

The author sees the Hungarian teacher education system as being in a state of transition and development and identifies a number of the planning issues to be faced.

There has existed, traditionally in Hungary, the two routes through teacher‐training familiar to many Western countries, characterised as the e'cole normale/university dichotomy. This has revealed a familiar problem: the older the age‐range for which the student is being trained, the less emphasis on pedagogy in the training.

Hungarian teacher education faces other problems. There is still a shortage of teachers, despite a high level of demand for training; demographic problems weigh heavily.

Attempts at finding solutions through mergers of institutions at different levels meet resistance, and the conflict of values from universities and teachers’ colleges echoes similar debates in, for example, France and Greece. The problems encountered raise a fundamental question: who should decide the nature of the teacher‐training programme: the specialist academics and pedagogues, or the employing community? In Hungary, the debate continues.     

Good and evil at school: Bullying and moral evaluation in early adolescence

We investigated how adolescents (sixth-graders, N = 357) morally evaluated hypothetical bullying and defending protagonists and whether these evaluations related to behavior in bullying as nominated by peers. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) resulted in four factors for the evaluation of the hypothetical bullies: Evil soul, Contempt, Cowardice, and Deviance, and five factors for the evaluation of the hypothetical defender: General admiration, Courage, Cool, Empathic care, and Fair justice. Corresponding scales were constructed. The findings showed that bullying positively correlated with evaluating the hypothetical bullies using Cowardice while victimization positively correlated with evaluating the hypothetical defender in terms of General admiration, Empathic care, and Fair justice. MANOVA for each of the two sets of the evaluative scales indicated that behavioral status (bully, victim, defender, or uninvolved) had a significant effect on the moral evaluation of hypothetical bullies, and no significant effect on the moral evaluation of the hypothetical defender.