Student teachers’ beliefs about the teacher’s role in inclusive education

The main aim of this research is to examine the basic features of student teachers’ professional beliefs about the teacher’s role in relation to teaching mainstream pupils and pupils with developmental disabilities. The starting assumption of this analysis is that teacher professional development is largely dependent upon teachers’ beliefs about various facets of their professional work. These concepts strongly influence the way that teachers teach and the way that they develop as teachers. The participants in the research are 314 student teachers at the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb who are being prepared to teach in lower grades of primary school. The beliefs were explored using a metaphor technique derived from cognitive theory of metaphor. The differences between beliefs about the perceived teacher role in general, and the perceived teacher role in the education of pupils with developmental disabilities were analysed. The results indicate that the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching mainstream pupils is of the teacher as a transmitter of knowledge, while the findings regarding the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching pupils with developmental difficulties appeared to be self-cantered orientation. No differences were found between student teachers at different study levels. The findings are discussed in the light of the curriculum of initial teacher education.     

Motivational Characteristics in Mathematical Achievement: a study of gifted high‐achieving,gifted underachieving and non‐gifted pupils

The aim of this study was to examine whether motivational‐emotional variables such as intrinsic orientation toward schoolwork, Mathematics anxiety, academic self‐esteem, attribution of success and failure in Mathematics and situational interest in Mathematics could differentiate different groups of mathematically gifted pupils. The research was based, theoretically, on an interactional model of giftedness. The sample consisted of 147 selected primary school pupils (9‐10 years of age) who were assigned to the following groups for comparison: mathematically gifted achievers (n = 31), mathematically gifted under‐achievers (n = 31) and mathematically non‐gifted pupils (n = 85). The results of a discriminant analysis show that the gifted pupils differ from the non‐gifted ones in attaining higher levels of intrinsic orientation toward Mathematics, lower Mathematics anxiety, lower attribution of success to external factors and effort, as well as in lower attribution of failure to external factors and abilities. Also, gifted achievers have lower attribution of success to effort than gifted under‐achievers and non‐gifted pupils.     

Broad strokes of recovery: the case of Croatia

For a long time after the proclamation of independence, Croatia suffered economic stagnation that negatively affected the development of science and higher education. However the turn of the millennium brought higher state investment in science and higher education, and all statistics now show a steady increase in the number of students and scientific personnel for the past several years. With these trends the focus has moved from the role the state can play in reviving science in Croatia to the necessity of greater participation in scientific funding, as well as the role that university graduates can play in the development of the country. The role of European integration and the brain drain phenomenon thus increase in importance, and this study provides some parameters for brain drain and the academic and intellectual labour market in Croatia.     

Entrepreneurialism at the University of Zagreb: Managing the Sustainability of Change

This article presents a study of the different aspects of entrepreneurialism at the University of Zagreb in the context of Croatian higher education. The recent history of changes at the University of Zagreb is described using a temporal perspective from the beginning of the development of the European Higher Education Area to the implementation of the Bologna Process in Croatia. The theoretical framework for the study has been Burton Clark's (1998 Clark, B. R. 1998. Creating Entrepreneurial Universities, Oxford: Pergamont and Elsevier Science. Organizational Pathways of Transformation [Google Scholar]) seminal analysis of the main features of academic entrepreneurialism. Each feature: the strengthening of steering capacity, the diversification of financial sources, a stimulated academic heartland, an extended periphery, and integrating entrepreneurial culture have been elaborated using the illustrative examples from university practice and university statistics. The last part of the study gives an overview of the results of the empirical study conducted among university managers, teachers, and students on their perceptions of the university's entrepreneurial culture at the level of the institution as a whole as well as at the level of their respective faculty. In the final conclusions, the main requirements for effective change management within the university context are listed.     

Spatial Analysis of the Public Library Network in Slovenia

Column Editor's Note. As the Column Title indicates, this column brings Global Perspectives to the Journal of Library Administration. Library administrators in different types of libraries share case studies, research, reports, or articles from a wide variety of geographic locations outside of North America. Prospective authors are invited to discuss possible future contributions with the column editor at: Jim.Agee@yahoo.com.

The article presents the project Spatial Analysis of the public library network in Slovenia; the approach, related work, methods used, main findings, impacts, and transferability to other environments. The network of public libraries in Slovenia is quite well developed and consists of slightly over 1,000 service points, i.e., local libraries, their external service points, and bookmobile stops. Public libraries are one of the pillars that preserve the Slovenian language and enhance the local social life. The travel distance to the nearest library is highly important, even more when taking into account social gatherings, access to online databases, and participation in educational and other meetings. Spatial analysis has been performed by using the methods of geographical information systems. A part of the project is also the development of a lightweight Web geodatabase/geoprocessing tool for the planning of library services. Library administrators could directly and easily use the tool for daily and strategic planning to analyze in detail the spatial level of the sociodemographic characteristics of the potential users in the vicinity. The findings have shown significant differences among regions, recommended improvements of the library network, suggested the refinement of the role of the library services according to the perceived needs of the local people, and confirmed the importance of the mobile libraries for rural and remote areas.     

The Impact of Teacher-Directed and Child-Directed Pretend Play on Cognitive Competence in Kindergarten Children

The goal of our research was to study different forms of organization of pretend play on children's cognitive performance in a mixed-age environment. We studied two forms of management of the playing process: (a) teacher-directed play with simultaneous involvement of all children in the classroom, where the teacher plays the dominant role in the education process directing children's activity, and (b) child-directed play in various small groups. Twenty-six observations were performed on 51 children in two mixed-age classrooms. The mean age of the children was 4.6 years, with age span from 3 to 6 years. Data were collected regarding children's affective and cognitive behavior according to generally accepted taxonomies: Bloom for the cognitive domain, and Krathwohl for affective domain. We found a significant increase in cognitive manifestations during direction of the playing process in groups compared with frontal management of the lesson (113.1 ± 12.1 vs. 45.7 ± 10.3, mean ± SEM, p < 0.0001), which is related with better employment of the powerful education engine of the free-play children.     

Didactic strategies in early science teaching

The purpose of the article is to show the results of empirical research on the prevailing teaching strategies for teaching contents of the subject environmental studies (specifically when dealing with natural content) in the first triennium of the nine‐year primary school in the Republic of Slovenia. The information was obtained through a survey of 141 teachers from 60 randomly selected primary schools in the Republic of Slovenia. We found that teachers use different teaching strategies as students gain knowledge through experience, participation in education, they express their opinion, views, solve simple problems and explore. Such notice shall then direct the transmissions to the transaction and transformation, which was an important objective of the reform of the subject.