In September 2023, in Slovakia a curriculum reform of primary and secondary schools, announced by the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic in 2020, has entered in its pilot phase. In this phase first schools have started to teach according the new State Educational Programs, while from September 2026 all schools are expected to teach according to them. The paper presents the selected results of a cross-sectional survey research carried out in three regions of Slovakia with the aim to explore the opinions of parents on the technology curriculum. In each of the three selected regions two urban and two rural schools were involved in the survey research, i.e. parents of pupils attending the given schools were asked which thematic units in their opinion should be taught in technology classes. The collected data were analysed for the whole sample of the respondents, without any differentiation, and in dependence on the segmentation factors of the respondents, which were gender of their children (daughter or son, i.e. male or female) and affiliation of their children to the school they attended (rural school – urban school). The analyses were performed to find out possible significant differences among the results recorded for each of these sub-groups in dependence on the stated segmentation factors.
Author : Alena Hašková
Adaptation and Empirical Evaluation of the Questionnaire on Mentor Teacher Burnout
The aim of this research is to determine the characteristics of the questionnaire for teacher burnout. In this study, Teacher Burnout questionnaire developed by Wrench et al. was used. The survey was conducted in May 2022. The sample consisted of 103 teachers. Cronbach alpha was 0.974. The results showed that the surveyed teachers experience low burnout (M = 31.53, SD = 17.89). Although being a mentor or the years of experience did not prove to be a statistically significant parameter, it is noticed that teachers who are not involved in mentoring activities express a higher feeling of burnout than mentors. Teachers who have between 11 and 30 years of experience show the signs of burnout; even young teachers (up to 5 years of service) report feeling burnout to some degree. The obtained results should be seen as indicators for next changes in the Serbian education system in terms of reducing the demands placed on teachers, especially administrative tasks. Therefore, the main recommendation is aimed at the education policy makers to take into account as many parameters as possible when introducing new changes, especially an underlying risk for teachers’ burnout.
The Curriculum Reform as a Means to Upgrade Technology Education at Lower Secondary Schools in Slovakia
In Slovakia, various initiatives aimed at supporting technical or polytechnic education at lower secondary schools (ISCED 2) were carried out. Despite the efforts made, these initiatives did not have a positive effect on increasing the interest of pupils in studying at technical vocational schools (ISCED 3). The curriculum plays a significant role in this. The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic is currently preparing a curriculum reform plan for primary and secondary levels of education (ISCED 1-3). The paper presents the results of a survey focused on assessing the curricular content of the school subject technology from pupils’ point of view.
The research survey was carried out with a sample of 101 pupils. To collect research data, a questionnaire was used. The key items of the questionnaire were focused on finding out pupils’ favourite subjects, favourite topics or activities, the impact of teaching technology on pupils’ professional orientation, and their expectations in connection with technically-oriented subjects taught at secondary schools.
It has been found out that pupils’ attitudes to the school subject technology is significantly negative. However, this statement has to be considered not only in relation to the content of the subject but also in relation to the way in which the subject is taught at schools. The pupils express an interest in practical activities during which they can produce various objects or products. When the pupils were asked to evaluate the subject using a traditional classification scale 1 (excellent) – 5 (fail/insufficient), only four pupils rated technology with the grade 1, while up to 11 pupils evaluated the discipline by the grade 5. The final (average) grade of the subject was 3.
Impact of Two Coronavirus Waves on Higher Education: Comparative Study
The first wave of the coronavirus pandemic caused the largest disruption of education systems
in the history of mankind. All schools and education institutions were forced to shift their
education processes from face-to-face to online forms. Some of them had better conditions
and more experienced staff for this transition, some of them had to start to create appropriate
conditions both for teachers and students. Subsequently, numerous studies and analyses on the
impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education have been done worldwide. The paper deals
with a specific research question of how schools and education institutions used their experiences
from the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic to ensure sustainable quality of education under the
pandemic conditions. In this comparative study the authors present the findings resulted from
two questionnaire surveys. The study has been processed with a focus on three areas: the quality of
teaching, technical equipment used by students and students’ opinions and experiences with online
forms of education, and influence of the home schooling (microclimate of the home environment)
on student’s education. In the paper the authors present and discuss in more detail the first area,
i.e. they analyse how experiences from the first wave of the pandemic were used to eliminate the
negative impact on education and to provide adequate quality of education.
Investigation of Stressors Teachers Face in Schools
Teachers have to face many different stressful situations in schools. In this context serious attention
has been paid, and much research has been carried out, to investigate the issue of potential stressors
occurring in school or class environment. Although pre-service teacher training does not usually
include training related to the development of the teachers` competence to solve stressful situations
in lessons, as soon as teachers start their teaching career, they are automatically considered to be
equipped with this competence. In the research, presented in this paper, the main goal was to identify
the most frequent stressors that primary and secondary school teachers face in their everyday
teaching. Two methods were used to collect necessary research data: a semi-structured interview
with teachers, and observation of teachers during the lessons they taught. Based on the interview
data analyses the following nine stressors were identified as the most frequent and most serious (in
order): difficult students, mismatch between students’ performance requirements and their abilities,
disruptive behavior of students, inadequate student attention, social and emotional factors of the
environment in which students live, use of mobile phones during lessons, overwork and fatigue of
teachers, insufficient school equipment and lack of teaching aids, conflicts among students. The aim
of the observation was to confirm in practice, the types of the stressors identified from the interview
data. Analysis of the records from observations, confirmed some of the previously (in interviews)
identified stressors and also identified some further stressors.
How students perceive educational support through Facebook
Since the beginning of the 21stcentury social media has expanded world-wide in all aspects of human
lives. Mainly for the youth they have been a natural part of their “digital ecosystem”. As the results of the surveys of social media use by teens, carried by the Pew Research Centre, showed, in 2014 in the USA 71 % of teens reported being Facebook users and no other platform was used by a clear majority of the interviewed. In 2018, three further online platforms, other than Facebook, have been reported by the significant majority of the teens. These were YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. As to Facebook, “only” 51 % of the respondents stated to be Facebook users. Furthermore, smartphone ownership has become a ubiquitous element of teen life. Up to 95 % of teens have reported they have a smartphone or access to one, and 45 % of teens have proclaimed they are online on a near-constant basis. Even more important, they are becoming more and more used, in the time of the world-wide corona pandemic and the need for connection in social quarantine.
As for teachers and their opinions on social media, on the one hand they are aware of their usefulness as regards to sharing information or organizing school tasks. But on the other hand, they identify social media as a reason for the pupils and students` low attention during classes at school. But since the youth devote a lot of time to social media, there is no point of not using these means also in education, as shown by the current efforts to organize education processes during the corona pandemic.
At the Faculty of Education, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, we have been aware of the significance of the social media in relation to different aspects of education and pedagogical communication. That is why for several years, attention has been paid to this new education phenomenon. The paper presents the authors experiences with the use of Facebook as a mean of support for education while the main focus is given to the results of a questionnaire survey which examined students` opinions and attitudes towards Facebook (before the pandemic situation), in comparison with Moodle, as a new phenomenon in university education.
Teacher’s Professional Competences and Their evaluation
The reform process of Slovak system of education requires a professional discussion aimed at
enhancing the quality of the teacher’s professional performance in the context of the pupil’s needs
and overall optimization of the education system, including qualitative changes in the content
and organization of education as well as a change in the social status of teacher. One of the topics
discussed was the possibility of increasing the quality of the teacher’s performance by mapping
them to the requirements of the teacher’s professional competency profile. A team of experts from
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (Slovakia) has been addressing this issue in the
form of a research project Evaluation of Teacher Competences, which focuses on the development
and design of a comprehensive evaluation model and tools for evaluating different teaching
competences.
The research team has developed special evaluation tools – a set of assessment sheets aimed at
assessment (Assessment Sheets for evaluators), self-assessment (Self-Assessment Sheets for
the observed and evaluated teachers), and a tool to correlate the assessment positions of the
evaluator and the evaluated teacher. In developing the tools, the specific focus of each professional
competence and the content and performance requirements on teacher’s work have been taken
into account. The methodology for verifying the efficiency of the designed tools included panel
discussion, piloting, and personal interviews. The results of the pilots in primary and secondary
schools all over Slovakia were analyzed, evaluated and taken into account when modifying the
final version of the evaluation tools. These are now offered for implementation by school managers
in Slovak schools.
One of the issues in the research project, testing the process aspect of education, is the competence
of planning education. The research, focused on identifying the complex of the given competence
components and their analysis. The most important part of the competence is the ability to create
a model (plan/scenario) of a lesson, the success of which is based on the correct identification and
realization of the educational aims and objectives. The teachers demonstrate competence through
their ability to implement relevant didactical transformation of the curriculum content, not only
in the view of the requirements of particular subjects, but also in the view of the current societal
challenges and needs, taking into account modern and effective methodological approaches. The
assessment tools for the competence in educational planning were verified in a pilot. The paper
presents partial results of the research, which confirmed the relevance and reasonability of the
methodology for the competence assessment. Education and training requirements in the Slovak
Republic accept common aspects related to the education of citizens of the European Union and
at the same time prioritize education as an essential means for ensuring sustainable development.
Achievement of these goals can be ensured not only via transforming the Slovak school system, but
also via teachers’ personal, professional and career growth.