Reconciliation of natural and social: Rethinking Rousseau’s educational theory

This article intends to re-examine Rousseau’s educational theory in the context of the nature/culture opposition. In contemporary discussions on the nature/culture dualism, it has been often stated that his educational theory is based on the assumption that a child is a natural being. However, the author demonstrates that Rousseau was instead committed to a duality of human nature; this influences his educational theory. In his model, human nature consists of a natural and a social side; these two parts are in conflict which seems unsolvable due to the present state of society. A child is regarded as a figure which is open to the future reconciliation of nature and culture. Thus, Rousseau’s model of education is presented not from the standpoint of the present state of society, but from the standpoint of an ideal state which might be built in the future. In addition, the examination of human duality allows one to show that Rousseau’s ideas on civil and private education are closely interrelated.     

Improving teaching in different disciplines of natural science and mathematics with innovative technologies

Education and Information Technologies - The study describes an innovative methodology for teaching natural and mathematical sciences in the context of distance learning using modern technological...     

Lexical and default stress assignment in reading Greek

Greek is a language with lexical stress that marks stress orthographically with a special diacritic. Thus, the orthography and the lexicon constitute potential sources of stress assignment information in addition to any possible general default metrical pattern. Here, we report two experiments with secondary education children reading aloud pseudo‐word stimuli, in which we manipulated the availability of lexical (using stimuli resembling particular words) and visual (existence and placement of the diacritic) information. The reliance on the diacritic was found to be imperfect. Strong lexical effects as well as a default metrical pattern stressing the penultimate syllable were revealed. Reading models must be extended to account for multisyllabic word reading including, in particular, stress assignment based on the interplay among multiple possible sources of information.     

Sociological Research and the Kremlin Museum Library

Until very recently, Russian libraries attached to museums have not envisioned the general public as potential users, but rather have focused on the information needs of museum staff and special researchers. In this article, the author analyzes some of the results of a research project that examined information expectations and needs of actual and potential visitors to the Moscow Kremlin Museums, the visitors' sources for obtaining museum information, their perceived gaps in such information, and the implications of these issues for the services, operations, and “image” of the museums' library. The project was facilitated by a public-opinion organization.     

Contextual and individual-level predictors of abused children's reentry into out-of-home care: a multilevel mixture survival analysis

Objectives

This study examined the effects of individual and contextual factors on reentry into out-of-home care among children who were discharged from child protective services in fiscal year 2004-2005. The objectives were to: (1) examine individual and contextual factors associated with reentry, (2) explore whether there are meaningful groups of youth who differ in terms of risk for reentry, and (3) determine whether relatively homogeneous clusters of child welfare agencies, based on contextual characteristics, differ significantly in terms of the reentry rates of the children whom they serve.

Method

The study design involved a multilevel longitudinal analysis of administrative data based on an exit cohort. Two Cox proportional hazards multilevel mixture models were tested. The first model included multiple individual level predictors and no agency level predictors. The second model included both levels of predictors.

Results

The results of multilevel Cox regression mixture modeling indicated that at the individual level, younger age, being placed in out-of-home care because of neglect and having physical, health problems corresponded to a decreased likelihood for reentry. At the agency level, lower average expenditures per child and contracting out case management services were associated with faster reentry into out-of-home care.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that children who reenter out-of-home care appear to be a homogeneous population and that reentry is associated with both contextual factors and individual characteristics.

Practice implications

The most important implication that can be drawn from the study findings is that reentry may be most effectively prevented by focusing on such factors at the organizational level as contracting out case management services and funding allocation. Child welfare agencies that are responsible for an array of services and decide to contract out case management should consider the use of performance-based contracts and emphasize and strengthen quality assurance approaches for contracted services. In addition, to compensate for lower funding allocated for children served in out-of-home care, child welfare workers should become more familiar with community resources and help connect families to these supports.     

Finnish and Russian teachers supporting the development of social skills

We argue that a key aspect of inclusive pedagogy is the interaction between the learners, their teachers and the environment. For effective interaction, learners need to develop social competence. This study explores how teachers support the development of the key social skills in schools in Finland and in Russia. The data were collected by questionnaires and observations, and analysed by theory-guided content analysis. While all teachers supported the development of social skills, their pedagogical choices reflected their personal interaction style. The teachers who favoured informal interactions engaged in real-life situations with learners, whereas those favouring formal interactions chose separate activities for practising social skills. The study highlights aspects that deserve more attention in developing teacher education programmes for inclusion.     

Undergraduates' orientations towards student–university relationships: Measurement and associations with student characteristics and engagement

This study explored students' orientations towards student–university relationships and how they differ with regard to student characteristics and engagement. We developed an instrument measuring student orientations and utilised it in a survey of Russian undergraduates. Using latent class analysis, we identified the following types of Russian students' orientations: instructivists, consumerists, constructivists, and students with mixed orientations. As the results showed, the majority of our respondents have consumerist or mixed orientations that mostly mismatch with the actual models of student–university relationships at Russian universities. We also found that students with these orientations are less engaged than instructivists and constructivists. These findings demonstrate the importance of seeking an optimal match between diverse undergraduate orientations and the actual educational model, which fits national and institutional contexts.     

Transprofessional competences of school teachers in the digital environment: education employers’ perspective

Education and Information Technologies - The shift towards digitalization in education, intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic-related issues, has led to the emergence of a need to expand the borders...     

Impact of digital game-based learning on the social competence and behavior of preschoolers

Education and Information Technologies - Digital gaming has become a regular part of life for today’s pre-schoolers. Hence, there is a need to look at the integration of digital technology...