This study describes the results of a research that was aimed at studying the dynamics of changes in positive mental states during the educational activities of students at a higher educational institution, their relationship with mental structures and the effectiveness of self-regulation of states. The relationships between mental structures (reflexive, semantic, self-system) and positive mental states were studied and subsequently analyzed during the course of the lesson (the beginning of the lesson, the middle, where the peak of students’ activity is observed, and the end of the lesson). The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between the structures of consciousness and the effectiveness of self-regulation of positive states in the dynamics of students’ educational activities. The study of the characteristics of mental states and the effectiveness of their self-regulation was carried out during the students’ performance of a group assignment at a seminar. Separately, outside of educational activities, we diagnosed the severity of mental structures. In our work, we used both well-known questionnaires for diagnosing mental structures and mental states, and specially developed methods for studying the effectiveness of self-regulation and the severity of positive states. As a result, we found that by the middle of the lesson, there is an increase in the activity of experiencing positive states, and by the end, there is a decrease in its intensity. We found that positive states in the classroom are interconnected with the expression of mental structures and a high level of self-regulation efficiency. We found that the effectiveness of self-regulation of states at the beginning of the lesson is associated with semantic structures, in the middle – with value-semantic structures and the self-system, and at the end of the lesson reflexive structures acquire special importance. The results obtained can be used to update and maintain positive states during educational activities and they are novel.
Journal Articles
Modern Russian Postgraduate Education: Main Problems and Key Factors in the Development
The article explores the key issues of postgraduate training. Today, there are a number of contradictions that are associated with the need to develop a holistic concept for determining the place and functions of postgraduate studies in modern society.
The paper aims to analyze the main difficulties and problems that candidates for an academic degree face during their postgraduate studies.
Research methods: the Main Problems of Postgraduate Studies questionnaire developed and tested by the authors, a method of statistical data analysis.
The study revealed that the main goals of entering postgraduate studies for most postgraduate students are associated with obtaining an academic degree, and more than 50% of respondents consider scientific activity to be their calling. The main difficulty noted by postgraduate students is the lack of opportunity to conduct research work and test its results. Among other factors, they highlight the need to combine the work with education. But at the same time, almost 77% of students do not plan to drop out. The paper concludes that postgraduate students of the Siberian Federal University have high motivational and target settings, allowing them to successfully study, engage in scientific activity, and obtain an academic degree.
The study findings will help create measures of legal and organizational support, which will allow establishing collaborations, building interdisciplinary links between specialties to obtain high-quality scientific research, as well as attracting foreign applicants to study at the postgraduate level in Russia.
The Effect of Physical Activity of Varying Intensity on Students’ Cognitive Abilities
There is increasing evidence that physical activity positively affects cognitive function. Physical exercise activates molecular systems involved in metabolism and synaptic plasticity, and the interaction between these systems has been shown to influence cognitive function.
The challenge for the scientific community is to find an optimal level of physical activity for students that will promote harmonious development and enhance the effectiveness of their academic performance. This article highlights the influence of various intensities of physical activity on the dynamics of intelligence indicators in male and female students. In the process of the pedagogical experiment, the students were distributed into two groups according to a certain mode of physical activity. The classes in the experimental group included exercises of high intensity, while the classes in the control group included mainly exercises of low intensity.
Intellectual abilities were measured before and after 2 months of the pedagogical experiment. The Raven’s Standardized Performance Matrices (SPM) test was used to assess intellectual abilities.
The results of the study showed that the increase in intelligence indicators in the students of the experimental group is statistically significant, in contrast to the control group. At the same time, it was not possible to identify significant differences using ANOVA.
The obtained data are useful in the context of further research, as they show specialists engaged in the study and development of the cognitive abilities of students, different possibilities of influence and a certain range in the organization of further.
Relationship of Activity Regulation Functions with Executive Functions in Junior School Children Bilingual and Monolingual at the Early Stages of Learning English
The article explores issues about the advantages and difficulties of balanced bilinguals in conditions of language entropy. The purpose of the study is to identify the connection between activity regulation functions and executive functions in primary bilingual schoolchildren at the early stage of learning English under conditions of language entropy. The psychologist’s software package “Practice – MSU” was used, the results of which were processed using the Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon T test, and structural equation modeling. Data were obtained confirming the syncretic effect of bilingualism in an educational situation. It has been established that learning English from primary school age by bilinguals is characterized by the productivity of attentional actions, which has effects on other control functions, in particular, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. This is due to the fact that bilingualism strengthens the processes of attention control, since the developing multilingual system requires increased attention resources to control the language being studied. The conclusion is formulated that the activation of the multilingual mental field in an educational situation ensures the activation of the system of regulatory processes of the cognitive level in primary school age.
The results obtained touch upon the solution of questions about the psychological and pedagogical conditions of the educational environment, which contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the pedagogical process in the early stages of learning English by primary schoolchildren with different language status.
E&SD 19(2) June 2024
Contents
Dinara Bisimbaeva
Editorial: Following author guidelines or how to avoid desk rejection 6
Yerkhan Abduldayev, Talgat Zhussipbek, Yedil Nurymbetov, Akmarzhan Nogaibayeva
Teachers’ Perception of the Factors Influencing English Language Use in EMI Science Classroom: A Qualitative Study 10
Novita Dewi, Yustina Devi Ardhiani, Emanuel Sunarto, Anne Shakka
Unveiling Supervisor-Supervisee Relationships in Master’s Thesis Writing: Insights from Students’ Voices 23
Musa Nushi, Vida Khazaei
Gravity of EFL Learners’ Grammatical Errors: A Survey-Based Study of Teachers’ Perception 38
Irina Ivanova, Mikhail Rozhkov
Overcoming as a Factor of Self-Development 54
Lera Kamalova
Formation of Emotional Well-Being of Younger Schoolchildren Through Fairy Tale Therapy 70
Oksana Kokoreva, Natalya Peshkova, Svetlana Bashinova, Venera Khamdamova
The Conditioning of Understanding of Social Causality by Deaf Primary School Students on Family Characteristics 85
Sergey Mikheev
The Influence of Online Discussions on the Formation of Argumentation skills in Future Engineers 100
Maria Prokhorova, Lia Kozlova, Valentina Kravchenko
Design and Approbation of a Test of Diagnosing Students’ Ability to Innovative Entrepreneurial Activity “SINPRED” 116
Margarita Khusnutdinova, Alexandra Filipova
“Unpacking” Agency in the School Project: Prospects for a Participatory Approach 139
Editorial: Following author guidelines or how to avoid desk rejection
When a new manuscript is submitted, the editorial team of Education and Self Development carries out a preliminary assessment and checks it for compliance with the journal guidelines. In case of successful initial check, the manuscript is sent out for peer review. Unfortunately, the percentage of papers that are rejected by editors prior to review is quite high. In this editorial I want to discuss why it happens and how to avoid a desk reject.
One of the key reasons for rejecting a paper is inconsistency with the Journal’s scope. When such cases occur, we realise that an author has not done the groundwork and has not read the journal aims. Before submitting a manuscript, authors must visit a journal website, get familiar with its mission, identify the target audience, learn about the submission process, and even read through some published works. It is highly recommended to select a target journal reasonably in advance, and this choice should be solely based on the scope of a journal.
The second ground for rejection is when a manuscript does not follow journal guidelines. As with the scope, submission guidelines can be found on the journal website. I should point out that instructions for authors who are interested in submitting their works to Education and Self Development are available on our website in the tab ‘Submit an article’ (Author guidelines).
Teachers’ Perception of the Factors Influencing English Language Use in EMI Science Classroom: A Qualitative Study
This article explores the factors that affect the extent of students’ English language use in English-medium instruction (EMI) science classrooms. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven science teachers from private and public schools in Astana city, and thematic analysis was employed to analyze the qualitative data. The findings from the study highlight several factors that influence the extent of English language usage in science subjects, focusing specifically on the teacher factor. The teacher’s language skills and methods affect students’ English usage, with negative factors including Kazakh/Russian language use. The initial level of English is also important, such as the number of years of English language training and preparation for international exams. Understanding these findings can help inform strategies and interventions aimed at promoting and enhancing students’ English language usage in science subjects, ultimately improving their comprehension and academic performance.
Unveiling Supervisor-Supervisee Relationships in Master’s Thesis Writing: Insights from Students’ Voices
One of the issues that Master’s students frequently experience when writing their theses is how they view and communicate with their supervisors. This study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of supervisor-supervisee relationships in Master’s thesis writing. The study’s objective is to explore Master’s students’ supervision practices, their interactions with supervisors, and their implications for humanistic education and holistic student development. Participants at a private university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia took the online survey using Google Forms, which contained questions about their thesis writing and other connected concerns. The accounts gathered from the 35 students who responded to the questions were processed as data and interpreted using Krippendorf’s qualitative content analysis and Polkinghorne’s narrative inquiry. The framework employed was intersectionality. The study reveals that the participants perceived supervisors as (1) affable and professional academic mentors, (2) intellectual partners, and (3) personal confidantes. The participants’ accounts may provide insight into the ideal supervisor-supervisee relationship. The supervisees’ perspectives suggest that supervisors’ triple roles assist students in managing relationships and promoting whole-person growth. Several implications for strengthening humanistic education and self-development are highlighted in the study, including supervisory responsibilities, cura personalis, emotional support, and holistic development. This study contributes to the existing literature by focusing on the often-overlooked perspectives of thesis students in Indonesia, particularly at the Master’s level.
Gravity of EFL Learners’ Grammatical Errors: A Survey-Based Study of Teachers’ Perception
The present study investigates 110 EFL teachers’ perception of the gravity of ten types of grammatical errors made by EFL learners in terms of acceptability. Moreover, it examines the relationship of age, gender, academic degree, years of teaching experience, and the highest level taught with the teachers’ judgements. Results revealed that the teachers’ evaluations form a hierarchy in which errors are placed at different gravity levels in accordance with their level of acceptability. Moreover, the three variables of academic degree, years of teaching experience, and the highest level taught had a positive correlation with the teachers’ evaluations. This study suggests that teachers should make their evaluations systematic, treat errors in accordance with their priority, and become aware of the factors that contribute to evaluations of grammatical errors.
Overcoming as a Factor of Self-Development
The article analyzes the results of a study aimed at studying overcoming as a leading factor that ensures self-development of the individual and actualizes the need to use pedagogical tools in modern educational practice that contribute to the formation in children and young people of the perception of overcoming difficulties as an opportunity for personal growth. The relevance of studying the problem of self-development and its procedural component is due to various reasons: the new socio-cultural reality, which predetermined the rapid pace of self-development as a condition for the competitiveness of the individual; a high level of motivation of the younger generation to achieve success as a result of self-development; the unpreparedness of modern children and youth to overcome obstacles on the way to achieving the goal; the presence of psychological barriers blocking readiness for self-development. The conclusions are based both on the results of a theoretical analysis of modern scientific literature and on the results of our surveys. Empirical research methods were survey methods presented by the author’s tools. The study involved 2474 students aged 11-16 living in the Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Kaluga regions. The study included the design and testing of the technology of pedagogical support for self-development of adolescents in additional education in a situation of overcoming difficulties, the implementation of which makes it possible to form adolescents’ readiness for self-development, helps to build up individual experience of successful overcoming through the purposeful formation of adaptive coping strategies. The conclusion is made about the effectiveness of the implementation of technology in the conditions of additional education, as well as the possibility of dissemination of the received pedagogical experience in educational organizations of various types and types.
Formation of Emotional Well-Being of Younger Schoolchildren Through Fairy Tale Therapy
The psychological and emotional well-being of children is one of the most discussed problems in modern scientific research.
In studies of domestic psychologists, it was found that 37% of children have increased and 16% of children have high general school anxiety. Studying at school, worries about grades and performance are the main reason for increased anxiety among schoolchildren.
One of the conditions for the development of a child’s personality is emotional well-being, which can be developed through fairy tale therapy. The fairy tale therapy method allows for the development of the emotional well-being of children, since it uses the metaphorical resources of fairy tales and creates conditions for maintaining a stable emotional-positive state and life satisfaction.
The paper sets out to experimentally test the effectiveness of using fairy tale therapy in the formation of the emotional well-being of schoolchildren.
The diagnostics selected were: 1) test tasks “The Magical Land of Feelings” (authors: T.D. Zinkevich-Evstigneeva, T.M. Grabenko, D.A. Frolov); 2) SAN test questionnaire (V.A. Doskin’s method).
A fairytale therapy program “My Emotions” was created to develop the emotional well-being of elementary school students. The study showed a positive growth trend in the number of children in the experimental group demonstrating emotional well-being, a sense of joy, motivation to study and communicate with peers. The developed program for fairy tale therapy “My Emotions” can be used by primary school teachers to develop the emotional well-being of children in extracurricular activities, and for the professional training of teachers and psychologists.
The Conditioning of Understanding of Social Causality by Deaf Primary School Students on Family Characteristics
The most important natural condition for the social development of the personality of any child is full-fledged interpersonal communication, which is impossible without the elementary skills of a cause-and-effect analysis of a problem situation of interaction based on an understanding of social causality, identifying causal relationships between the actions of individuals in the process of joint activity and communication. The process of developing an understanding of social causality in a child with hearing impairment has its own specifics. These children have difficulty mastering the logical connections and relationships between phenomena, events and people’s actions. This hinders both their adequate assessment of others and the formation of an understanding of social causality. There is a relationship between the emotional, moral and social development of deaf children and the characteristics of the parental family. In families where both the child and the parents have hearing impairments, emotional relationships develop that are close to those that are typical for hearing families. In contrast, hearing parents cannot develop the same successful relationship with their children. Thus, the focus of our attention is the conditionality of the understanding of social causality by deaf junior schoolchildren by the characteristics of the family. Based on the foregoing, the purpose of the study is to analyze the influence of the characteristics of a family with deaf and hearing parents on the general level of development of a child’s understanding of social causality, which will optimize this process in a family and educational organization.
The paper presents the results of our own experimental study, containing a qualitative analysis of empirical data. It has been established that the impoverishment of understanding of social causality in deaf children with hearing parents is largely due to the inability of adult hearing people to provoke small deaf children to emotional communication. Deaf elementary school students raised by deaf parents are relatively more socially adapted and have a greater level of development of understanding of social causality than deaf elementary school students from families of hearing parents.
The results of the study can be used as a basis for purposeful correctional and developmental work with deaf junior schoolchildren and their families to develop an understanding of social causation.
The Influence of Online Discussions on the Formation of Argumentation skills in Future Engineers
The paper presents the results of empirical research on the effectiveness of online discussions (OD) as a tool for forming argumentation skills among technical university students. On the one hand the actuality of the research is conditioned by the significance of discussion-based training of modern technical specialists under conditions of networking and socio-technical transformation of engineering activity. On the other hand, this problem is not elaborated in the domestic, pedagogies and also contradictory and poorly studied aspects in the foreign one. The results of the present study are important for scientifically substantiated methodological implementation of new approaches to engineering training under conditions of digitalization of education and increased requirements for discussion and information competence of a modern technical specialist. The research was conducted on the basis of two Novosibirsk universities and covered 350 second – and third-year students in “construction” and “automation and computer engineering” baccalaureate specialties. The analysis of the OD results conducted in VLE “Moodle” using “debate” (synchronous discussion) and “forum” (asynchronous discussion) methods showed that inclusion of online-discussions in to the educational process of technical universities improves argumentation skills of future engineers by 20-30 %. The data obtained at the stages of the forming and control experiment let us reveal a higher efficiency of asynchronous forms of online-discussions in comparison with synchronous ones. Their advantage is to 28,68 %, depending on the formed component of argumentation. Based on the results of the study recommendations were given to teachers to improve the effectiveness of social interaction of students during OD, including the feasibility of replacing debates with synchronous discussion methods, more focused on the joint search for solutions.
Design and Approbation of a Test of Diagnosing Students’ Ability to Innovative Entrepreneurial Activity “SINPRED”
Due to the need to ensure economic growth and improving competitiveness of the Russian economy, the development of youth innovative entrepreneurship is relevant for our country. This requires not only the implementation of appropriate educational programs, but also selection of young people for admission on the basis of an effective assessment of their abilities and readiness to create an innovative business. The goal of the investigation is to design and test psychodiagnostic method that solves the problem of prompt assessment of students’ ability to innovative entrepreneurship. The test SINPRED is elaborated on the basis of the authored by Prokhorova and Belokon model of psychic determinants of effective entrepreneurial activity, connected with innovations. The test contains: instruction, 56 statements, the agreement with which the testee expresses on a seven-rank scale; key of primary data processing; normalized points (stens), worked out for two groups of testees (women and men); manual on processing and interpretation of diagnostics results. For empirical foundation of the methodics indices of students’ behavior, singled out by 5 experts, are used. Verification of discriminatory power, internal consistency, reliability of the test is carried out on the sampling of 180 students. 152 students comprise the sampling for evaluating of methodics validity. For defining the test factor structure and its standardization the results of 308 students questioning are utilized. It is revealed that the created test possesses a high level of discriminatory power and test-retest reliability. All test assignments are correlated with each other. The scales of the methodics have a sufficient level of validity. During the test approbation significant differences between women and men are unveiled on four primary scales: leadership, creativity, nonconformity, early entrepreneurial experience. The acquired differences additionally confirm discriminatory power and criteria validity of the test, and also indicate perspective of scientific investigations, that uncover peculiarities of determination and molding ability to innovative entrepreneurship, conditioned by sex.
“Unpacking” Agency in the School Project: Prospects for a Participatory Approach
School has become more project-oriented. There is tremendous potential for student agency here. Children’s agency can be revealed through a participatory approach to childhood sociology.
The analysis model is based on the principles of participatory methodology and interpretive reproduction by Corsaro. Three groups of variables are identified: the subjectivity of the child, the balance of power between the child and the adult, and the joint creativity of the participants.
The empirical basis of the study is the “Green School” case, implemented online with the participation of five schoolchildren and one teacher from the Khabarovsk Territory. Observation, interviews, focus groups, and text analysis were used for the monographic analysis of the “case”.
In a space of “equal participation”, where students and a teacher are co-participants and co-researchers, children’s agency can be disclosed. Children maximally expresses themselves through free choice, gaining personal experience in the process of making decisions. Responsibility arises not as an “obligation”, but as a motivation for learning: “how can we do it to make it better”. The results of this work can be used by educators in organizing project-based research activities for students, utilizing sociological methods adapted to the study of children.
E&SD 19(1) March 2024
Contents
Dinara Bisimbaeva
Editorial. To cite or not to cite? Text recycling in scholarly writing 6
Thao Thanh Le, Thi Anh Nguyen, Yen-Khoa Thi Nguyen, Yen Hoang Phuong, Thuy Trut Pham, Anh-Thu Thi Nguyen, Tra Huong Nguyen
Exploring the EFL Teachers’ Satisfaction: Professional Development Activities at a Language Center in a Non-Anglosphere Context 10
Ivan Mamaev, Maria Khokhlova, Maria Dayter
Lessons of Secondary School Teachers: From Automatic Speech Analysis to the Markers of Effective Teaching Practices 27
Marija Sablić, Ana Mirosavljević
Implementing Flipped Classroom in the Digital Learning Environment 38
Nailya Salikhova, Martin F. Lynch, Albina Salikhova, Aida Fakhrutdinova
Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction among Students in Higher Education 50
Julia Andreeva, Albina Shakurova, Aliya Yakupova, Irina Kosokina
Narrative Analysis of Motivational Structures of Students’ Civic Activity in the Cultural and Educational Sphere 66
Tatyana Bokova, Valentina Tsybaneva
Comparative Approach: The Essence and Prospects 81
Marina Valiullina
Academic Stress and Academic Motivation of Students with Different Levels of Neuroticism 92
Viola Larionova, Natalia Goncharova, Liudmila Daineko, Fjodor Kovalev
Introduction of Adaptive Learning at the University: UrFU Case of Implementing “Foreign Language” Discipline 111
Venera Zakirova, Vera Vlasova
Traditional Pedagogical Culture: A Humanist Phenomenon of the Tatar Family 128
Olga Karina, Marina Luchenkova, Natalya Shustova
Students’ Views on Mentoring as a Type of Guidance Activity 143
Pavel Sorokin, Svetlana Chernenko, Yulia Vyatskaya
Skills as a Result of Entrepreneurship Training in Russia: Supply and Demand 159
Editorial. To cite or not to cite? Text recycling in scholarly writing
Text recycling is widely discussed in the research community. However, editors and authors may have contrasting opinions on this matter. What are the reasons for their disagreement, in what sections text recycling is appropriate and how to avoid self-plagiarism? In this editorial I am going to illuminate these issues.
In the guidelines for editors the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) defines text recycling as the use of the same text in several publications of an author (Risser, 2020). According to Professor Cary Moskovitz from Duke University, this practice involves small text fragments that are amended to a slight extent between publications (ibid, 2020). Earlier policies on text recycling applied the term “self-plagiarism”, which was disused due to inaccurate implications. Lately, the definition was elaborated. Text recycling is currently perceived as the reuse of textual information in a new document where 1) material is identical or almost identical to the original work, 2) the material is not presented as a direct quote, 3) one author of the new document is also an author of the previous document (Hall et al., 2021).
Exploring the EFL Teachers’ Satisfaction: Professional Development Activities at a Language Center in a Non-Anglosphere Context
This descriptive study aims to investigate the satisfaction levels of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors in their professional development activities at a language center situated in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. A total of 30 EFL teachers were solicited to provide data through a questionnaire, and six out of the 30 were further selected for participation in semi-structured interviews. This study incorporated two primary techniques for data analysis: descriptive statistics for the quantitative data and thematic analysis for the qualitative data. The study concludes that the EFL teachers exhibited a high level of satisfaction towards the existing professional development activities that involved mentorship, observation, feedback from experts, and learning from colleagues. These activities fostered a supportive, collaborative, and personalized approach to professional development, resulting in the enhancement of the teachers’ knowledge, skills, motivation, and job satisfaction. The results, accordingly, suggest that language centers should adopt a personalized, supportive, and collaborative approach to professional development while also addressing the various factors that hinder teachers’ interest in research and writing.
Lessons of Secondary School Teachers: From Automatic Speech Analysis to the Markers of Effective Teaching Practices
The problem of pedagogical discourse as a speech behavior form is a cutting-edge linguistic area. Within its framework, it is necessary to identify some lexical and semantic components that form a certain rhetorical and pedagogical ideal. To date, such studies are carried out manually. This paper describes the automatic study of pedagogical discourse. As part of the experiment, statistically significant discourse markers and patterns are extracted from the corpus of teachers’ speeches, such markers characterizing both general trends in teaching methods and idiostylistic characteristics of a particular teacher. The results of the marker analysis make it possible to form a preliminary list of speech patterns that beginner teachers can use.
Implementing Flipped Classroom in the Digital Learning Environment
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, all schools faced unpredictable challenges, and alternative solutions were needed to optimize the functioning of the educational process. One of these was the implementation of the “flipped classroom” in teaching practice. This idea gave rise to the concept of the online flipped classroom, which allows students to continue their educational work in a high-quality, engaging, and attractive way, even outside the physical classroom. Furthermore, the online flipped classroom has proven to be as effective as the traditional one, mainly because it promotes students’ self-directed learning, activity, motivation, collaboration, and successful interactions due to its flexible structure. The study provides a theoretical insight into the application of this teaching method in the period of distance learning and analyzes its advantages and challenges. The most common challenges were found to be difficult access to the Internet and thus to learning materials, the lack of digital skills of teachers, the time and effort required to create videos, the design of a creative learning environment, and the facilitation of different types of activities and teaching materials, which contribute significantly to students’ motivation to learn under exceptional circumstances. Students’ free access to computer equipment and internet connections from home played a key role. Therefore, the flipped classroom approach requires government investment in building/upgrading appropriate information and communication infrastructure, additional teacher commitment, and investment in teachers’ professional development.