2020 Vol. 59, No. 1 · didactic competences of academic teachers in a technical university as part...

2020 Vol. 59, No. 1

© Copyright by Wydawnictwo Adam MarszałekToruń 2020

ISSN 1732-6729

Publikacja “The New Educational Review” w języku angielskim oraz udostępnienie wersji cyfrowej w wolnym dostępie to zadania finansowane w ramach umowy 525/P-DUNdem/2018 ze środków Ministra

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CONTENTS

Stanisław JuszczykEditor’s Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

� PEDEUTOLOGYSoňa Kariková, Marián Valent

Life Satisfaction of Slovak Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Lenka Vojáčková

Key Motivational Factors Affecting Teachers’ Long-Term Engagement in School Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Beata Pituła, Grzegorz WlaźlakAcademic Teachers’ Self-Evaluation of English Language Competences and Teaching Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Miriam Uhrinová, Ján TirpákTeacher’s Personality with Regard to Performance Motivation in a Professional Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Oleh M. Topuzov, Oleksandr V. Malykhin, Nataliia O. Aristova, Anzhelika V. Shamne

Optimization of University Department Management: The Increase of Foreign Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy by Preventing Job Burnout . . . . 59

Muhammet Muhsin Umurbek, Murad TaşdanIdentifying the Perceptions of Academic Staff on Internationalization in the Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

� SPECIAL PEDAGOGYNachaphan Junthong, Suchapa Netpradit, Surapon Boonlue

The Designation of Geometry Teaching Tools for Visually-Impaired Students Using Plastic Geoboards Created by 3D Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

4 Contents

Izabela Bieńkowska, Krzysztof Polok, Adam SutkowskiMaking Language Teachers Creative; Teaching English in Elementary Mainstream Schools with Integration Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Tetyana Semigina, Anastasiia ChrystiakovaChildren with Down Syndrome in Ukraine: Inclusiveness Beyond the Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

� SOCIAL PEDAGOGYNatalya L. Antonova, Anna D. Gurarii, Yana S. Vysotskaia

Short-Term Student Mobility: Motivation, Expectation and Barriers . . . 129Karolina Glinka

Does School Experience Kill Confidence? Chosen Aspects of Students’ Feelings and Beliefs about Themselves over a Number of Years of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Atiqur Rahman, Yasmin JahanConfronting Yourself: Reflections on Academic Publication in Doctoral Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

� GENERAL DIDACTICSCheng-Chang Tsai

An Action Research Study Exploring the Effects of Augmented Reality for English Vocabulary Learning in an Elementary School in Taiwan . . . 163

Beata Mazepa-DomagałaIn Search of Tools for the Valorization of Children’s Artistic Creation in the Field of Imaging and the Results of the Creative Process – A Theoretical and Model Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Wojciech Kojs, Jolanta GabzdylQuestions in Textbooks and Lessons – Comparative Analysis . . . . . . . . . 191

� SELECTED ASPECTS OF PSYCHOLOGYKarel Paulík

Some Psychological Factors Related to Work Engagement in Teachers . . 203

CONTRIBUTORS

Antonova Natalya L.

PhD., Department of Applied Sociology, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia

E-mail: [email protected]

Aristova Nataliia O.

PhD., English Philology Department, National University of Life and Environ-mental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine


Bieńkowska Izabela

Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland


Boonlue Surapon PhD., Associate Professor, Department of Educational Communications and Technology, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok, Thailand


Chystiakova Anastasiia

MA, PhD., student, Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism, Kyiv, Ukraine

Gabzdyl Jolanta PhD., doc. dr, university docent, State University of Applied Sciences in Racibórz, Racibórz, Poland


Glinka Karolina MA, Institute of Pedagogy, University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland


Gurarii Anna D. Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Department of Applied Sociology, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia


Jahan Yasmin Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

Junthong Nachaphan

PhD., Candidate of Learning Innovation and Technology Program, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand


Kariková Soňa Professor, PhDr., PhD., Department of Andragogy, Faculty of Education, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia


Kojs Wojciech Full Professor, WSB University, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Malykhin Oleksandr V.

PhD., Department of International Relations and Research Collaboration, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine


mailto:[email protected]




















6 Contributors

Mazepa-Domagała Beata

PhD., Assoc. Prof., Dr hab. prof. UŚ, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Pedagogy, University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

E-mail: E-mail: [email protected]

Netpradit Suchapa

PhD., Associate Professor, Department of Printing and Packaging Technology, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok, Thailand


Paulík Karel Professor, PhDr., Csc., University of Ostrava, Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, Ostrava, Czech Republic


Pituła Beata PhD., dr hab. prof. PŚ, Silesian University of Technology, Institute of Education and Communication Research, Gliwice, Poland


Polok Krzysztof University of Bielsko-Biala, Bielsko-Biala, Poland


Rahman Atiqur Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden


Semigina Tetyana PhD., Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism, Kyiv, Ukraine


Shamne Anzhe-lika V.

PhD., Professor of the Department of Psychology, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine


Sutkowski Adam University of Bielsko-Biala, Bielsko-Biala, Poland


Taşdan Murat Professor, Kafkas University, Dean, Lecturer, Kars, Turkey


Tirpák Ján MA, Department of Preschool and Primary Education, Faculty of Education, University of J. E. Purkyně, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic


Topuzov Oleh M. PhD., National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine


Tsai Cheng-Chang

Department of Applied Foreign Lan-guages, Nan Kai University of Technology, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Uhrinová Miriam PhD., assistant professor, Department of Preschool and Elementary Education, Faculty of Education, Catholic University in Ružomberok, Ružomberok, Slovakia


http://www.wpia.us.edu.pl/

http://www.wpia.us.edu.pl/


















7Contributors

Umurbek Muhammet Muhsin

PhD., student, Atatürk University, Primary School Teacher, Kars, Turkey


Valent Marián PhD., Mgr. Ing. Department of Andra-gogy, Faculty of Education, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia


Vojáčková Lenka MA, Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Educational Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic


Vysotskaia Yana S. Director, Department of International Educational Programs, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia


Wlaźlak Grzegorz PhD., Silesian University of Technology, Institute of Education and Communica-tion Research, Gliwice, Poland











Editor’s Preface

The first number of The New Educational Review in 2020 is the fifty-ninth issue of our journal since its foundation in 2003. In this issue, there are mainly papers from: the Czech Republic, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Tai-wan, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine, because our journal is open for presentation of scientific papers from all over the world.

In the present issue the International Editors’ Board have proposed the fol-lowing subject sections: Pedeutology, Social Pedagogy, Special Pedagogy, General Didactics, and Chosen Aspects of Psychology.

In the subject section “Pedeutology” we publish six articles. The study by Soňá Kariková and Marián Valent is based on the concept of professional development as a continuous process which includes all dimensions of teacher personality development. Lenka Vojáčková in her contribution discusses the factors that support the motivation of teachers to implement school projects. The article by Beata Pituła and Grzegorz Wlaźlak presents research on the linguistic and didactic competences of academic teachers in a technical university as part of an EU project to improve the effectiveness of the education of academic teachers. In their research Miriam Uhrinová and Ján Tirpák focus on the personality of the teacher and his/her motivation for personal performance, depending on the length of teaching practice. The paper by Oleh M. Topuzov and his co-workers aims to present theoretical and empirical research investigating the optimization of uni-versity department management to prevent job burnout in university teaching staff which resulted in increasing their self-efficacy. The purpose of the study by Muhammet Muhsin Umurbek and Murat Taşdan is to identify the perceptions of instructors of internationalization in higher education.

In the subject section “Social Pedagogy” we publish three articles. The article by Natalya L. Antonova and her co-workers analyses short-term student mobility. Karolina Glinka in her research describes results of longitudinal studies among children from primary school which concern stress and anxiety. The aim of the

Stanisław Juszczyk

10 Stanisław Juszczyk

study by Atiqur Rahman and Yasmin Jahan is to understand the intricately inter-twined structures of PhD study and to explore the challenges related to scholarly publication.

In the subject session “Special Pedagogy” we publish three articles. In the study presented by Nachaphan Juthong and his co-workers, plastic geoboards and accessories were created as geometry teaching tools for visually-impaired students, using 3D printing. The contribution by Izabela Bieńkowska and Krzysztof Polok tries to examine the influence of using creative methods of teaching English on the language competency of Special Education Needs learners in mainstream Elementary Schools with integration classes in Poland. The research by Tetyana Semigina and Anastasiia Chystiakova reveals the need for the professional support from social workers for families with children who have mental retardation, and suggests steps for improving the services and inclusiveness at the centre.

In the subject section “General Didactics” we publish three articles. The purpose of the study by Cheng-Chang Tsai is to compare the use of traditional English flash cards and the vocabulary learning method of Augmented Reality to see which English vocabulary learning method is more efficient for elementary school students. Beata Mazepa-Domagała in her paper outlines considerations on crea-tivity and children’s art creation in the context/conceptual context and attempts to present a procedure for the evaluation of children’s art creations in terms of the ways of imaging in the conceptual context. The aim of the article by Wojciech Kojs and Jolanta Gabzdyl is to conduct a comparative analysis of the structures and functions of didactic tasks, in the form of questions which appear in school textbooks and during lessons.

In the subject section “Chosen Aspects of Psychology” we publish an article by Karel Paulík, which explores a number of psychological factors related to work engagement in teachers.

We hope that this edition, like previous ones, will encourage new readers not only from the Central European countries to participate in an open international discussion. On behalf of the International Editors’ Board I would like to invite representatives of different pedagogical sub-disciplines and related sciences to publish their texts in The New Educational Review, according to the formal as well as essential requirements placed on our website: https://tner.polsl.pl – For Authors.

https://tner.polsl.pl

General Didactics

Life Satisfaction of Slovak Teachers

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.01

AbstractThe study is one of the outputs of the project APVV – 16–0573 Application of the Model of Andragogical Counselling in the context of professionalization of the teaching profession. The aim of this part of the research was to find differences in life satisfaction of teachers and compare them depending on their position – managerial position vs. non-managerial position. The study is based on the conception of professional development as a continuous process including all dimensions of teacher personality development. The contribution presents results obtained from a modified Questionnaire of Life Satisfaction, while concentrating on identification of various factors in eight areas of the professional life of teachers at the given time for participants of continuing education (N 228, average age 43 years). It was found that respondents reported average to above average satisfaction in all areas studied. The highest level of satisfaction was expressed in the areas of health and relationship with pupils. They were least satisfied with their remuneration.

Key words: andragogical counselling, development needs, teaching employees, head teachers, life satisfaction questionnaire

Introduction

The project, of which this contribution is a part, is aimed at creating and verify-ing a model of andragogical counselling for schools and teachers to support their professional development and learning. The application importance of the project rests in implementation of an innovative approach to the support of teacher pro-

Soňa KarikováSlovakiaMarián ValentSlovakia

14 Soňa Kariková , Marián Valent

fessional development and self-development activities in school conditions, and in provision of innovative strategies for professional learning. The outcome of the project should be a model of andragogical counselling, created as a new model of practical support for teachers’ professional development.

Since the conception of andragogical counselling as we understand it is based on development needs, a part of the scientific research activities of the project concerned was also aimed at teachers’ life satisfaction. Our research aims were based on the fact that the term “life satisfaction” has several equivalents – e. g. the quality of life, subjective perception of well-being, happiness, social relationships, physical and mental health. At the same time, it is a significant factor with an impact also on perception and pursuit of the teaching profession.

The concept of satisfaction has been worked out in psychology in the area of human needs, but also within the theory of self-regulation, where it represents an area of psychological phenomena included in a person’s subjective experiential sphere. According to H. Koivuma-Honkanen et al. (2001) satisfaction is one of the indicators of well-being, when conceptualized as an assessment of life as a whole, on the basis of the fit between personal goals and achievements. Hence, a person is usually satisfied when succeeding in achievement of previously set goals, which also include professional goals.

A. Mahmood (2011) studied job satisfaction in the teaching profession on a sample of Canadian teachers and found that generally teachers were less sat-isfied with advancement, compensation and supervision of human-relations. In comparison with these results, we refer to findings of A. Olsen and F. L. Huanga (2019) who identified the level of satisfaction in elementary school teachers in Missouri. The authors, by contrast, found high job satisfaction in teachers, with the highest score achieved by teachers in the 36–41 year old group. M. Keierleber (2019) processed results of one of the latest surveys made in elementary schools in the USA and stated that although teachers were in general satisfied with their jobs, they had critical perceptions of their renumeration and the status of the teaching profession.

L. Pašková and M. Valihorová (2010) conducted a survey of teachers’ life satisfaction in Slovakia, comparing teachers of various school levels. They found that the highest level of satisfaction was reported by kindergarten teachers in comparison with elementary and secondary school teachers and higher educa-tion teachers.

15Life Satisfaction of Slovak Teachers

Methodology of Research

Our study included teaching employees of all school levels. In the Slovak Republic, teaching employees are categorized in several groups and sub-groups (e. g. by the career stage, position, category) regulated by Act No. 138/2019 Coll. For the purpose of this contribution, we concentrated on two employee groups:

• teaching employees not in a managerial position, thus working at school as “ordinary” teachers;

• teaching employees in a managerial position – e. g. school heads, school deputy heads, etc.

The research concentrated on differences recorded in individual areas of life satisfaction between the two groups of teaching employees.

The aim of the research was to find differences in life satisfaction of teaching employees and to compare them depending on their position (teacher/head teacher, or deputy head teacher). The research problem was defined by means of the following research questions:

Q1: In which areas do respondents show the highest life satisfaction and in which, by contrast, the lowest life satisfaction?

Q2: Which are the areas with significant differences between respondents by their position at school?

Several authors state that life satisfaction is supported by evaluation and percep-tion of various cognitive and affective components relating to various areas of life. To find out teachers’ life satisfaction in individual areas we found inspiration in the Questionnaire of Life Satisfaction (Fahrenberg, Myrtek, Schumacher & Brähler, 2000). The original questionnaire consists of 70 items identifying satisfaction with a certain area of life. Our modified questionnaire consisted of 8 areas (4 original ones – health, work and employment, financial situation, own person, and 4 new ones – further education, relationship with colleagues, relationship with pupils and career). Answers were produced by a total of 56 items (min. 7 points – max. 49 points), with the total score of satisfaction also evaluated, (min. 56 points – max. 392 points). The respondents’ task was to indicate the level of their life satisfaction to a given statement on the scale 1–7 (1 = very high dissatisfaction, 2 = high dissatisfaction, 3 = dissatisfaction, 4 = neither dissatisfaction nor satisfaction, 5 = satisfaction, 6 = high satisfaction, 7 = very high satisfaction). Life satisfaction was expressed by the sum of individual raw scores for all 8 areas together.

The research was done from April to June 2019. The research sample consisted of 228 respondents (including 45 men (19.74%) and 183 women (80.26%) to whom the questionnaire was administered during their attendance at educational


events of the Methodological and Pedagogical Centre in Banská Bystrica, events attended by teaching employees from the whole of Slovakia. Most respondents had experience of 20 to 30 years = 30.7%, followed by respondents with experience of 10 to 20 years = 25.9%; respondents with up to 10 years’ experience were 22.4% and respondents above 30 years = 21%. Almost 31% (70) of respondents were teachers in a managerial position and fewer than 70% (158) of respondents were teachers without a managerial position.

Results of Research

Research data obtained by the questionnaire method were evaluated by descrip-tive and inductive statistics. A non-parametric statistic method was chosen for evaluation of data to answer the questions, since the distribution of obtained data was not normal and they were obtained by an ordinal scale. In particular, the non-parametric method used was the Mann-Whitney U Test.

Respondents’ Level of Life Satisfaction Table 1 shows the mean values in the studied areas. In answers to the first ques-

tion, two areas are identified as having high respondent satisfaction (prevailing answers at the level of 6) – the area of health and the area of relationship with pupils. Respondents were found to be the least satisfied in the area of material security, where they are least satisfied with the item “I am … with my (financial)

Table 1. Mean values in areas studied

Areas Mean Median Mode Mode frequency

Standard deviation

Var. coeff.

Health 37.68 38 42 26 5.88 15.59

Relationship with pupils 37.21 38.5 36 18 7.17 19.27

Own person 36.95 38 41 24 5.34 14.45

Work and employment 35.98 36 38 24 5.41 15.03

Relationship with colleagues 35.68 36 37 21 6.04 16.93

Further education 35.33 35.5 33 23 5.15 14.57

Career 34.72 36 42 24 6.18 17.80

Material security 31.08 32.5 36 17 7.23 23.26

TOTAL 284.64 284 297 8 33.63 11.82


security in old age”, which achieved the lowest satisfaction of all, 3.39 (mode and median 3). However, the areas are, in general, close to each other – between 37.68 and 31.08. The difference is 6.6 points, which assumes a decrease of one satisfac-tion scale for each item within the last area in comparison with the first area. Thus, it can be stated that the respondents involved are satisfied with the given areas of life satisfaction, with the exception of financial security in old age. However, it is questionable whether this dissatisfaction is caused only by their own effort for financial security, or whether it is also the security the respondents expect from the state pension in relation to their overall salary. This response would probably also occur in other groups of respondents, not only in teachers.

The best and the worst areas are also presented with more detailed results for each item studied. We find it interesting that the area of health (Table 2) shows a mean value of above 5, with a median of 5 or 6, which speaks of satisfaction to high satisfaction with each item. Even the item about the number of medicines used is indicated by the option 7 (very high satisfaction) by the largest number of respondents (34.2%).

Table 2. Mean values in “HEALTH”

Mean Median Mode Mode frequency

Standard deviation

Var.coeff.

When I think of how many medicines I must use, I am…

5.62 6 7 78 1.44 25.69

When I think of how often I have been ill so far, I am …

5.55 6 6 77 1.38 24.80

I am… with my mental con-dition

5.47 6 6 110 1.06 19.43

I am … with my mental per-formance

5.42 5 6 94 0.88 16.16

I am… with my physical health

5.32 6 6 96 1.08 20.25

I am … with my immunity to diseases

5.31 5 5 82 1.20 22.63

I am … with my physical condition

5.05 5 6 87 1.30 25.79

The lowest mean value from the point of view of all areas studied in the ques-tionnaire is in the area of material security, therefore Table 3 gives a more detailed evaluation of individual statements in this area. In this area, too, the prevailing answer is at the level of 5 (respondents expressing satisfaction), however, mean


values tend to be in the centre of the scale – respondents are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. In the last statement, answers at the level of 3 ( dissatisfaction) prevail, and are chosen by more than 35% of respondents. Also, this statement is given the most answers of 2 ( high dissatisfaction) (17%) and 1 ( very high dissatisfaction) (8%), thus, together with the answer of 3,60% of respondents are dissatisfied.

Table 3. Mean values in “MATERIAL SECURITY”

Mean Medi-an Mode Mode

frequencyStandard deviation

Var.coeff.

I am … with what I own 5.21 5 5 94 1.14 21.98

I am … with my standard of living

5.13 5 5 82 1.13 22.10

I am … with material securi-ty of my existence

4.65 5 5 95 1.29 27.64

I am … with my current income

4.35 5 5 80 1.34 30.91

I am … with the possibilities I can offer to my family due to my financial situation

4.21 5 5 77 1.40 33.27

I am … with my possible future earnings

4.20 4 5 72 1.30 30.98

I am … with my (financial) security in old age

3.39 3 3 81 1.40 41.23

Other results of individual statements show that respondents report the highest level of satisfaction in the item “When I think about getting along with pupils, I am …” (5.67; mode 6 = 40% of respondents). By contrast, the highest level of dissatisfaction and concern is reported in connection with financial security in old age (3.39), which, however, may be considered a general tendency of the adult population.

Differences between Respondents by their PositionWhen comparing teachers with, and teachers without, a managerial position

(research question 2), statistically significant differences are found in two areas (Table 4).


Table 4. Differences between teachers with and teachers without a managerial position (MP) (Mann-Whitney U Test)

Areas Mean with MP

Mean without

MP

Sum of ranks 1

Sum of ranks 2 U Z

adjusted p-value

Health 39.09 37.06 9355 16751 4190 2.92 0.003

Relationship with pupils

35.86 36.04 7990 18117 5505 -0.05 0.957

Own person 29.76 31.67 7323 18783 4838 -1.51 0.132

Work and employ-ment

34.80 35.57 7360 18746 4875 -1.43 0.153

Relationship with colleagues

36.60 37.11 7851 18256 5366 -0.36 0.720

Further education 34.64 36.14 7312 18794 4827 -1.53 0.126

Career 39.20 36.32 9672 16434 3873 3.61 0.000

Material security 34.73 34.72 7838 18269 5353 -0.39 0.700

TOTAL 284.67 284.63 8125 17982 5421 0.24 0.812

The above results show that teachers in a managerial position are statistically significantly more satisfied in two areas, in particular in relationship with pupils and in the area of health. Values in all other areas of head-teachers´ satisfaction are lower than those of teachers without a managerial position (however, the values are not statistically significantly lower). The total score for both groups of respondents is basically the same – teachers in a managerial position = 284.7 points, teachers without a managerial position = 284.63 points.

Discussion

The questionnaire on the level of teaching employees´ life satisfaction distin-guishes levels between individual areas. Respondents are the most satisfied in the area of “HEALTH”, which may be considered agreeable and unexpected, since they express satisfaction with minimum use of medicines, they are satisfied with their low morbidity and good immunity to disease, with their physical and mental con-dition and performance, as well as with their physical health. By contrast , research findings by M. Popelková (2011), based on the identical research tool, found the


opposite, since teachers expressed the lowest level of satisfaction precisely in the area of health.

The area of “MATERIAL SECURITY” was found to meet expectations, with satisfaction gradually decreasing from items about what respondents own, through their standard of living, the material security of their existence, current income, possibilities offered to their family, possible future earnings and financial security in old age. Despite this, however, the prevailing answer is at the level of 4 (respondents expressing satisfaction), but with lower mean values for the statements “I am … with possibilities I can offer to my family due to my financial situation” (4.21); “I am … with my possible future earnings … “ (4.20); and “I am… with my (financial) security in old age” (3.39). Financial problems of teachers in the Slovak Republic have been pointed out by professional organizations for several years – e. g. a detailed analysis has been prepared by the Slovak Chamber of Teachers (available on http://sku.sk/sprava-sku-o-spolocenskom-a-ekonomick-om-postaveni-pedagogov-v-regionalnom-skolstve/), therefore this subject is not dealt with in the context of our contribution.

Compared by managerial position, teachers in a managerial position are more satisfied than teaching employees without a managerial position in the following areas: relationship with pupils, this at a statistically significant level in all 7 items (…when I think about getting along with pupils; …when I think about success of my pupils; …when I think about the joy my pupils give me; …when I think about the effort invested in my pupils; …with the influence I have on my pupils; …with the recognition I receive from my pupils; …with the recognition I receive from parents of my pupils). This may also be caused by the fact that they have a lower teaching load, they meet pupils less frequently and that is why they can treat pupils with greater enthusiasm. Also, a fact which can be taken into consideration is that pupils are more “on the alert” in the presence of a head-teacher than in the presence of a teacher. Significant differences are also recorded in the area of “health” where teachers in a managerial position are more satisfied in all seven items, with their mental condition the most, and with their immunity to disease at a statistically sig-nificant level. (Note: from 1 September 2019, if the number of classes in an elemen-tary school is above 28, the head-teacher might meet no pupils in a class since he/she has a zero teaching load – thus answers in this area could be less valid in the case of the -head-teacher respondent, thus an item should be added for head-teachers about their current teaching load when similar research is done in future. However, our research was done when the above clause was not yet applicable.)

The above areas of higher satisfaction in head-teachers may be connected with their satisfaction with the position they have achieved, since the school sector is


specific, precisely in that career advancement is limited in this sense (head-teach-ers, two deputy head-teachers). It is typical of the teaching profession and school environment that career structures are rather flat, although the Slovak Republic is included in countries with multi-level career structures. According to the latest Eurydice report (2018) a multi-level career structure includes different levels of ascending complexity and increasing responsibility. Although the law offers such possibilities, it may appear to respondents in the actual school environment that the only career advancement is to a managerial position.

E. Diener and C. Diener (1995) consider positive self-evaluation one of the main preconditions of life satisfaction in general. According to these authors, positive evaluation of one’s own life is associated with the development of self, autonomy, assertiveness, success and self-esteem and is derived mostly from the general ability to cope with life and performance-related behaviour. That is why we evaluate it positively that in this context all respondents in our sample expressed the highest level of satisfaction with the following:

• getting along with pupils (5.67) • outcomes of their effort (5.66) • getting along with others (5.66) • the minimum amount of medicines used (5.62) • their success at work (5.57).

Thus, the above attributes are associated especially with positive evaluation of their selves in the context of social relations, which we consider, from the point of view of teacher personality, a significant precondition for their professionalism. By contrast, respondents expressed (relatively) low satisfaction with the following:

• the amount of time required for further education (4.37); • their current income (4.35); • possibilities they can offer to their family due to their financial situation

(4.21); • possible future earnings (4.20); • their financial security in old age (3.39).

Conclusion

The findings will be used as a basis for implementation of an educational pro-gramme aimed at the area of andragogical counselling for teaching employees. The knowledge of teaching employees’ satisfaction may also help counsellors in the


area of education and professional development. It is also satisfying that precisely the area of “relationship with pupils” resonates within the highest satisfaction.

Limits of the study: The research sample includes respondents who are partic-ipants of further education. It may be assumed that they are motivated teachers willing to learn and develop their teaching potential. Also, it may be assumed that it is teachers’ learning and education that may lead to the higher level of their life satisfaction. They may be a more committed group of teaching employees, whose life satisfaction may be different from the whole research sample of teach-ing employees. That is why the research sample will also be extended by random sampling of teachers, or alternatively, teachers not motivated to take part in further education and personal development will be focused on.

Another potential for research can be seen in comparative research with participation of respondents from countries of the so-called eastern bloc, where a comparable cultural and social background of their activities can be assumed, since our current sample includes only respondents from the Slovak Republic.

The contribution was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency based on the Agreement No. APVV – 16 0573.

ReferencesAct No. 138/2019 Coll. of the National Coucil of the Slovak Republic on teaching employ-

ees and professional employees and on amendment and suppplement of some acts.Diener, E.& Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self esteem.

Journal of Personality and Social Psycholgy, 68, 653–663.Eurydice, Eacea (2018). Teaching Careers in Europe: Access, Progression and Support.

Retrieved 27/3/2018 from https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/index_en.php_en

Fahrenberg, J., Myrtek, M., Schumacher, J.,Brähler, E. (2000). Fragebogen zur Lebenszufried-enheit (FLZ). [Life Satisfaction Qestionnaire (QLS)]. Gottingen: Hogrefe

Keierleber, M. (2019). New teacher survey shows many educators report feeling satisfied in their job — but undervalued by their community. Le School Reporte. Retrieved 09/11/2019, from http://laschoolreport.com/new-teacher-survey-shows-many-educa-tors-report-feeling-satisfied-in-their-job-but-undervalued-by-their-community/

Koivuma-Honkanen, H. a kol. (2001). Life Satisfaction and Suicide: A 20 year Follow – up Study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 433–439.

Mahmood, A. (2011). Job Satisfaction of Secondary School Teachers: A ComparativeAnalysis of Gender, Urban and Rural School. Asian Social Science, 203–208.


Olsen, A. & F. Lim Huang (2019). Teacher job satisfaction by principal support and teacher cooperation: Results from the Schools and Staffing Survey. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27 (11), 2–29.

Paskova, L., & Valihorova, M. (2010). Life satisfaction of Slovak teachers depending on the school type. The New Educational Review. 20 (1), 157–172.

Popelková, M. (2011). Spokojnosť učiteľov so zdravím. Výchova ke zdraví: podněty ke vzdělávacím oblastem. [Health Satisfaction of Teachers. Education for Health: Sugges-tions for Learning Areas]. Retrieved 22/10/2019 from http://www.ped.muni.cz/z21/knihy/2011/38/cze.

Slovak Chamber of Teachers (2019). SCT’s Report on the Social and Economic Position of Teachers in the Regional School System). Retrieved 3/10/2019 from http://sku.sk/spra-va-sku-o-spolocenskom-a-ekonomickom-postaveni-pedagogov-v-regionalnom-skol-stve/

Key Motivational Factors Affecting Teachers’ Long-Term Engagement in School Projects

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.02

Abstract The article discusses the factors that support the motivation of teachers to implement school projects. Based on Self-Determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000), we present specific factors that influence and stimulate the moti-vation of teachers with regard to the perception of autonomy or control. What is essential for autonomous motivation is the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence), whereas external incentives have an impact on controlled types of motivation. The results also point to important motivational factors underlying participation in school projects, that is, the perception of the personal significance and meaningfulness of the project.

Key words: motivation, teacher, self-determination, project

Introduction

The goal of school projects is to improve the quality of learning and teaching and to aim at school development. However, this is not possible without motivated teachers, who often initiate, implement, or at least co-operate on project activities beyond the scope of their work, in order to do something more for their pupils, the school and their professional development. German researchers such as Jäger (2004), Gräsel (2006) and Schellenbach-Zell (2010) emphasize the importance of teachers’ motivation to participate in school projects and confirm that teacher

Lenka VojáčkováCzech Republic

25Key Motivational Factors Affecting Teachers’ Long-Term Engagement in School Projects

motivation is an important factor influencing the diffusion of innovation. However, there is a question in the given context: What motivates teachers to participate in school projects?

Problem of ResearchThe aim of our study is to identify factors that support the motivation of teach-

ers. In general, motivation means directing one’s behaviour towards a goal, which is positively evaluated (Rheinberg, 2004). This definition includes various aspects of motivation: evaluation and selection of the target state, as well as the actions leading to this target state. As a result, the area of motivational psychology deals with the questions of “why” and “what for” with regard to the evaluation and selec-tion of goals; while the question of “how” is related to activation of the targeted behaviour (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2006). In research on school development these issues prove to be significant. If development is to be achieved through new projects, it is the teachers as participants in the development processes and activi-ties that, depending on their motivation, decide whether and how to participate in the projects. The term ‘project’ refers to a comprehensive set of long-term activities that the school implements because of finances from funds (EU, government) that are used for development activities of the school (e.g. further teacher education, quality of teaching, etc.).

Research FocusLooking at past research concerning teaching and teacher motivation in the

Czech Republic and abroad, it is mostly connected with teachers’ goal orientation in their teaching practice (Elliott & Dweck, 1988). It often involves the roles of individual differences in variables such as qualifications, personality, values, or perception of students (Wayne & Young, 2003). Furthermore, there is also research on subjective theories about teachers (Janík, 2015). Paulík (2014) addresses the meaningfulness of teachers’ work. In cases where the focus of the research is on teachers’ motivation in particular, it is rather in relation to its strength than quality, which is our primary focus.

In order to explain teachers’ motivation, we use Self-Determination theory, which maintains that in order to predict important life outcomes, it is more important to know the type and quality of one’s motivation than its overall strength (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000). Based on this theory, we distinguish between various types of motivations that depend on perceived autonomy. Motivation is usually divided into internal and external motivation. Deci and Ryan elaborate

26 Lenka Vojáčková

this division and speak of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, autonomous and controlled motivation. External, often referred to as extrinsic, motivation is linked to reaching objectives beyond the field of work itself, and is accompanied by a high degree of perception of control. Internal or intrinsic motivation that is accompanied by a high degree of autonomy is connected with the satisfaction of one’s needs by the work itself. The basic premise of this theory is the proposition that one tends to satisfy three basic psychological needs – competence, relatedness and autonomy. Their satisfaction is essential for personal growth and wellbeing (Deci & Ryan, 2006). The need for autonomy is one’s tendency to perceive oneself as the originator of one’s own actions and to manage one’s actions according to one’s interests and values, or the external motifs that are in line with them (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Autonomous behaviour is one that happens independently of the social environment. An activity without the option of choice is controlled – the opposite of autonomous. The need for competence is based on White’s concept (White, 1959) and brings a sense of efficiency in interacting with one’s social envi-ronment and the feeling that one’s abilities can be demonstrated and applied. The need for relatedness refers to the need to be accepted in the social environment, to create a safe and positive relationship with the environment, and to be a part of a community.

If we apply this theory to projects implemented by schools, we can take into account the structure and potential of the school project that can meet teachers’ needs and thereby facilitate their work. This may increase the likelihood that teachers will commit to implementing projects and actively participate in school development in the long term. When implementing projects, teachers can behave autonomously, feel responsible for their tasks, perceive that there is room for their own initiative, or a chance to focus their work on their individual needs. In addition to these modes of supportive autonomy, projects can also provide useful feedback, which is important in terms of competence needs. Projects also promote co-operation between teachers in the form of working (project) teams, often across more than one school, thus serving to cultivate relationships. The reasons why teachers are involved in school projects include the development of their own personality, or the opportunity for further education. These belong to autonomous motivation. Conversely, controlled motivation can occur, for example, in situations where teachers are working on school projects because they feel it is their duty, or it is expected of them.

In addition to these basic psychological needs, we also consider the variable of the personal significance of the project, which is strongly related to internal moti-


vation and an autonomous form of behaviour, in accordance with the pedagogi-cal-psychological theory of an individual’s interest in an object (Prenzel, Krapp, & Schiefele, 1986). For our research, the most important aspect of this theory is the fact that if a person (teacher) attaches great personal importance to a given subject (project), it has an impact on strengthening his or her intrinsic motivation. Interest may be of a long-term or short-term nature, which is important with regard to the project work of teachers.

Still other factors that enter the process may also have a motivational effect. Schellenbach-Zell (2009), in accordance with the Advanced Cognitive Model of Motivation (Heckhausen & Rheinberg, 1980), points out that the concrete consequences of each action have a stimulating (incentive) character, which affects whether the action actually takes place or not. It is therefore appropriate to ask what kind of incentives support teachers’ motivation to become involved in projects. She distinguishes between (1) material incentives, such as rewards, or free hours for teachers, (2) social incentives, such as recognition by colleagues or directors, and (3) project-specific incentives, such as a well-designed project, or structured activities leading to a goal. We assume that, in addition to the above-mentioned basic needs and external incentives, the meaningfulness of the work itself can have a motivational effect. Meaningfulness of work is not a one-dimensional variable; it consists of a complex of processes, which mutually interact and define the meaning of work perceived by an individual at a given moment (Paulík, 2014).


General Background of ResearchThe aim of the research was to determine the factors that increase teachers’

motivation to work on school projects and the strength of these factors in relation to intrinsic, autonomous and controlled motivation.

Sample of ResearchWe present the results of a set of 121 teachers working at secondary schools in

the South Moravian Region participating in school projects. The teachers were asked to cooperate via an electronic version of the questionnaire sent to them by e-mail by the heads of schools.


Table 1. Structure of Sample

School type %Secondary technical school 55.4%Grammer school 40.5%Secondary vocational school 12.4%

Gender %Men 41Woman 58.7

Instrument and ProceduresThe teacher questionnaire was designed as a compilation of three questionnaires

tailored to the needs of the research: 1) The Self-Regulation Questionnaires (Deci & Ryan, 2006a, b, c) – Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, Basic Need Satisfaction at Work, Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire; 2) The Work and Meaning Inventory (Steger, 2001); 3) Conditions influencing motivation (Schellenbach-Zell, 2009).

Teachers answered questions on a scale: agree – rather agree – do not know – rather disagree – disagree, which was assigned a value of -2, -1, 0, 1, 2. The scale of intrinsic motivation corresponded to the enjoyment and pleasure of working on the projects. The variable of personal significance described the importance of a project for teachers. The range of autonomous and controlled motivation included questions related to internal and external sources of motivation. The three scales of basic psychological needs showed the extent to which teachers feel encouraged in their autonomy and competence, but also how they per-ceive relationships with their colleagues. We also asked the teachers about the external conditions influencing their motivation, namely material conditions (free hours, financial reward), social (recognition from colleagues or pupils) and project-specific conditions (project coherence and structure). Finally, the last factor was the meaningfulness of work, whose scale shows the degree of positive significance for the teachers themselves. Most scales have a reliability greater than 0.7. It is lower in only two cases, which is taken into account in the interpretation.


Results of Research

Table 2 lists the average response values expressed on the respective scales. This provides an overview of average respondents’ answers (that is, which point of the scale they chose most often). The average of the variables is on a scale of -2 to 2. For the last three conditions, the values were calculated as the number of answers given in the given area. In general, this variable could have values of 0, 1, 2, 3.

Table 2: Descriptive characteristics of the results

Variable Mean Standard Deviation

Number of Items

Cronbach’s Alpha Example Questionnaire Entry

Autonomy 0.66 0.71 5 0.60 My work on school projects is voluntary.

Competence

0.92 0.75 4 0.73

Among colleagues with whom I cooperate on the projects, I often have little opportunity to show what I can do.

Relatedness

0.87 0.80 4 0.81

When I happen to be struggling or falling behind while working on the project, I can always talk to my colleagues.

Personal Significance 0.50 0.86 5 0.85 I try to initiate new school projects

myself.Feeling of Meaning-fulness

0.42 0.91 9 0.91Working on projects helps me to see the meaningfulness of the teaching practice.

Intrinsic Motivation 0.44 0.80 6 0.76 It makes me happy to work on a pro-

ject implemented by my school.Autono-mous Motivation -0.26 0.61 7 0.76

I work/collaborate on school projects because I would like to innovate and make teaching more attractive for my pupils.

Controlled Motivation -0.42 0.48 7 0.60

I work/collaborate on school projects because the school management expects it of me.

Material Conditions

0.34 0.29 3 *

I would become more involved in school projects if I had a more interesting financial reward that would make my work on projects worthwhile.


Variable Mean Standard Deviation

Number of Items

Cronbach’s Alpha Example Questionnaire Entry

Social Con-ditions 0.21 0.26 3 *

I would engage in school projects more if my effort was recognized and appreciated by the school manage-ment.

Project-spe-cific Condi-tions

0.29 0.24 3 * I would engage in school projects more if there were a more thorough and detailed project plan.

* We do not list Cronbach’s Alpha for these variables (their items were not measured on the scale).

In order to answer the question of what factors are important for teachers’ motivation in the implementation of school projects, the dependencies between variables were tested, using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, suitable for the quantification of the correlation of two ordinal variables.

Table 3. Correlation of variables

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101 autonomy - - - - - - - - - -2 competence 0.51 - - - - - - - - -3 relatedness 0.32 0.42 - - - - - - - -4 personal significance 0.47 0.49 0.26 - - - - - - -5 material conditions 0.28 0.18 -0.01 -0.17 - - - - - -6 social conditions -0.15 -0.15 -0.15 0.11 0.24 - - - - -7 project-specific condi-tions

-0.05 -0.08 -0.03 -0.07 0.06 0.20 - - - -

8 feeling of meaningful-ness

0.51 0.59 0.36 0.73 -0.13 -0.02 -0.21 - - -

9 autonomous motivation 0.30 0.44 0.16 0.50 0.15 0.17 0.06 0.53 - -10 controlled motivation -0.20 0.13 0.14 -0.05 0.25 0.21 0.39 -0.08 0.15 -11 intrinsic motivation 0.41 0.45 0.30 0.71 -0.17 0.12 -0.10 0.69 0.45 -0.11

* significance level of 0.05


Discussion

Table 3 shows that satisfying the basic psychological needs of autonomy and competence influences the autonomous motivation of teachers to work on projects. Teachers who are more satisfied in both areas (more in the competence variable) are also, to a certain extent, more autonomously motivated. By contrast, rank correlation did not reach statistical significance for the need for relatedness.

A statistically significant correlation is evident in the factor of personal signifi-cance. A strong correlation of 0.71 with intrinsic motivation was found. Teachers, for whom working on projects has a strong personal significance, have a high degree of intrinsic motivation and vice versa. The factor of personal significance also has a statistically significant impact on autonomous motivation. However, no correlation was found for controlled motivation.

In accordance with theoretical assumptions, a statistically significant rank cor-relation was found between external conditions and controlled motivation. The correlation coefficient values were positive and relatively low. In case of the corre-lation of controlled motivation and material or social conditions, the correlations are rather low (r=0.25, 0.21). In case of controlled motivation and project-specific conditions, we can speak of a moderate correlation (r=0.38). Therefore, for all three types of conditions, the higher the motivation of the respondent under these conditions, the higher the degree of controlled motivation. The results also confirm that these conditions do not have a major impact on the autonomous motivation of teachers, which is in line with the theory of Self-Determination.

A statistically significant correlation was found with the variables of project meaningfulness and autonomous motivation. Teachers who view school projects as meaningful often have a higher degree of autonomous motivation, and con-versely, respondents who do not see meaningfulness in projects often have a lower degree of autonomous motivation. In the case of controlled motivation, unlike autonomous motivation, no correlation with the feeling of meaningfulness was found.

Conclusion

Self-Determination theory assumes that there are three basic psychological needs which have a positive effect on autonomous motivation. The first two needs for autonomy and competence play a crucial role, as confirmed by the results of the study. However, these basic needs do not correlate with controlled motivation.


A considerable amount of research supports the importance of these factors: Quinn (1997) shows that the freedom to make decisions at school is linked to teacher engagement. The sense of autonomy also appears to be necessary for the participation of teachers in the implementation of projects (Schellenbach-Zell, 2009). Chambers and Callaway (2008) point out that teachers’ confidence in their own competencies has an impact on how they handle new tasks, in our case, projects. Particularly teachers who are significantly involved in school develop-ment activities are characterized by a high level of competence in solving them. The social aspect, which is the third basic psychological need, is characterized by integration in a group (project team) and can act as a motivator, by providing the possibility to share views with others and participate in a team (Gräsel et al., 2006).

The Theory of Interest (Krapp, 1999) states that the basic factor of intrinsic motivation is interest. The results obtained in this study can confirm this assump-tion. The factor of personal significance proves to be the most important predictor of intrinsic motivation, however, not controlled motivation.

In addition to the three above-mentioned basic needs, we have introduced various external incentives to the theoretical model as predictors of both types of motivation. However, neither the prospects of additional financial resources (material incentives), nor greater recognition from colleagues (social incentives), nor easier understanding of the project plan (project-specific incentives) proved to be suitable for increasing the internal motivation of teachers working on school projects. This is also in line with Self-Determination theory that assumes that this type of motivation does not need to be reinforced by external incentives. On the other hand, it states that controlled motivation can be maintained if it is constantly supported by appropriate external influences. The incentives suggested by us seem to be suitable conditions for increasing controlled motivation. Where correlations are low, the influence of other variables which were not the focus of our research needs to be taken into account.

Teacher motivation, which stems from one’s autonomous motives, or the kind of motivation that is based on enjoyment and interest, tends to be long-term and is the most effective type according to Self-Determination theory. If the actions of people (teachers) are motivated autonomously, it is their own will (desire) to do the activities that motivate them and this often supports learning and their own professional growth, as well. This statement is important in relation to the research on teachers’ work on school projects, which are often of a long-term nature. The distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation is, therefore, relevant. The results confirm the theoretical assumptions that the first type of motivation does not need to be supported by any external incentives. In order to motivate


teachers to implement projects, to increase the quality of teaching, develop them-selves through further education and contribute to the development and quality of the school itself, it is particularly beneficial to support autonomous (internal) motivation. It is essential to provide teachers with information about the project’s broader links to make them aware of its importance and usefulness. Teachers should ideally already be involved in the preparation phase of the project so as to have an influence, be able to make decisions and act autonomously with regard to project activities.

The results concerning controlled motivation can lead us to the conclusion that financial reward, the director’s orders, or other material or social support will influence teachers; however, not in the long run. In addition, although this will make teachers implement projects because they are “forced” to do so by external influences, they will no longer be likely to participate out of joy, interest, autonomous incentives, or in the further education often incorporated in projects; they will only execute orders to meet the project goals. The aim of the school, however, should be its development through those who implement projects, that is, the teachers. Fortunately, even in these cases, according to Self-Determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), external motivation can be translated into internal motivation, precisely because the individual’s basic psychological needs (auton-omy, competence and relatedness) are strongly fulfilled (through the process of internalization).

As regards the limitations on interpreting the results, we point to the fact that we worked with data we have received from teachers who have been, or are, involved in school projects. A limiting factor is also the fact that it is not possible to calculate the percentage return of the questionnaire, as this was at the choice of the school head, who distributed the questionnaire to their teaching staff with regard to their involvement in the project teams. Therefore, we are not able to provide information about the motivation of teachers who do not participate in school projects, concerning, for example, the reasons that prevent them to do so.

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the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human

behavior. New York: Plenum.Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (2006a,b,c). Basic psychological needs scale. Intrinsic motivation

inventory. The self-regulation questionnaires. http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/


Elliott, E.S. & Dweck, C.S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achieve-ment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(1), 5–12.

Gräsel, C., Fussangel, K., et al. (2006). Lerngemeinschaften in der Lehrerfortbildung. [Learning communities in teacher training]. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft. 9, (4), 545–561.

Heckhausen, H., & Heckhausen, J. (2006). Motivation und Handeln. [Motivation and action]. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 3. Auflage.

Heckhausen, H., & Rheinberg, F. (1980). Lernmotivation im Unterricht, erneut betrachtet. [Motivation to learn in the classroom, dealt with in a new way]. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 8, 7–47.

Chambers, B., & Callaway, P. (2008). High and low implementers of content literacy instruc-tion: Portraits of teacher efficacy. Teaching and Teacher Education 24(7), 1739–1750.

Janík, T., & Koubek. P. (2015). Výzkumy subjektivních teorií učitelů v kontextu profesního rozvoje: přehledová studie. [Research on teachers’ subjective theories in the context of professional development: a review]. Studia paedagogica, 20 (3), 47–67. DOI: 10.5817/SP2015–3-4.

Jäger, M. (2004). Transfer in Schulentwicklungsprojekten. [Transfer in school development projects]. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Krapp A. (1999). Interest, motivation and learning: An educational-psychological perspec-tive. European Journal of Psychology of Education. Vol. XlV, n. l., 23–40.

Paulík, K. (2014). Psychologické souvislosti pracovní smysluplnosti. [Psychological context of work meaningfulness]. Psychologie a její kontexty, 5 (2), 3–15.

Prenzel, M., Krapp, A., & Schiefele,H. (1986). Main aspects of an educational theory of interest. Zeitschrift fuer Paedagogik (Heft 2).

Quinn, P. (1997). Teacher professionalization and teacher commitment: A multilevel analysis.National Center for Education Statistics 97 (069). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

Rheinberg, F. (2004). Motivation. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag.Schellenbach-Zell, J. (2009). Motivation und Volition von Lehrkräften in Schulinnovation-

sprojekten. [Motivation and volition of teachers in school innovation projects]. [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn%3Anbn%3Ade%3Ahbz%3A468–20090756]

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Bildungsforschung Online. Volume 2, 34–54.Steger, M.F., Dik, B.J., & Duffy, R.D. (2012). Measuring meaningful work: The Work and

Meaning Inventory (WAMI). Journal of Career Assessment, 20, 322–337.Wayne, A.J., & Young, P. (2003). Teacher characteristics and student achievement gains:

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Academic Teachers’ Self-Evaluation of English Language Competences and Teaching Methodology

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.03

AbstractThe article presents research on the linguistic and didactic competences of academic teachers in a technical university as part of an EU project to improve the effectiveness of education of academic teachers. It indicates the relation between language and methodological competences in teaching content classes in English. Participants who rated their teaching competences more highly also rated their language competences more highly. Based on these findings, the authors make suggestions concerning the preparation of staff for the university.

Key words: academic teachers, self-assessment, teaching competence, language competence

Introduction – Research Background

The growing migration processes of individuals nowadays have impact on the place in which they intend to pursue their educational aspirations. Educational systems also teachers prepare to meet this task, including university staff teachers who work with students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Recogniz-ing the needs, an EU funded project has been undertaken to diagnose the language and teaching competences of university staff in a group of academic lecturers. This study has been partly inspired by related research on the competences of future teachers in the Slovak Republic by Lipnická, Babianková and Cabanková (2019).

Beata PitułaGrzegorz WlaźlakPoland

36 Beata Pituła, Grzegorz Wlaźlak

Academic staff in Poland should include diagnostics and self-evaluation of competences in their annual responsibilities, as there is no formal teaching qualification required for an academic to teach at a university in Poland. Staff are required to have a relevant degree and fulfil the requirements assigned at the recruitment process. However, the in-service preparation of university teachers in Poland includes self-assessment processes. Teaching competences of the faculty consist of among others, academic teachers’ cognitive, affective and motivational capacities in the process of academic instruction. Equipped with these compe-tences teachers may carry out complex teaching activities to fulfil the objectives of their instruction, implement generally recognized and innovative strategies and methods (Gębal, 2019). Additionally, Leader-Janssen and Rankin-Erickson (2013) found that the study of theoretical disciplines connected with attendance at practical lectures and seminars has an improving influence on self-evaluation by the academic teachers.

The EU document on Education and Training (2013) defines teachers’ didactic knowledge as “knowledge of the discipline”. This includes components such as content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, general pedagogic knowledge, curricular knowledge, contextual knowledge and process knowledge (cf. Roberts, 1998). Cognitive processing of manifold knowledge and its evaluation allow aca-demic teachers to reflect on ways of instruction, their own competences and rela-tionships. University authorities ought to support the teachers’ didactic reflection on education, as a source of teacher self-development in the teaching profession. It is by self-evaluation that an individual begins to lay down realistically achievable goals for themselves, makes an effort to achieve them, and is able to assess the achievement and set new goals (Zembylas, 2003; Day, 2004;). The educational benefit of self-evaluation is in the authenticity of teachers’ assessment of their judgements. Teachers’ self-evaluation may be evoked by an external assessment, a situation which takes place, as well as by using an intentionally administered self-evaluation tool. Teachers acquire experience through events in their teaching (episodic knowledge), and through a number of various situations in the educa-tional process, which they generalize into experiential knowledge.

This study is to highlight another type of knowledge that is indispensable in teaching the content subject through the medium of English, i.e. language proficiency and linguistic skills in general. In the European Profile for Language Teacher Education, Kelly, Grenfell, Allan, Kriza, and McEvoy, (2004) state that it is the teachers’ responsibility to ensure adequate language competence to teach effectively. Furthermore, the authors claim that the greater the teacher’s language proficiency, the more creative and confident their teaching is. Lafayette (1993:135),

37Academic Teachers’ Self-Evaluation

Medgyes (2001: 440) and Farrell (2007: 55) argue in a similar vein that nothing is more important in teaching, apart from content knowledge, than to have suffi-cient command of the language to present the subject contents. This is important for practising teachers who no longer attend regular language courses, as their linguistic competences and skills are bound to gradually suffer attrition, because of lack of exposure, limited opportunities for advanced language use inside and outside the classroom and, often, overreliance on the same materials for lengthy periods (cf. Berry 1990).

Facts about the Research University

The university under study represents a technology institution that educates engineers and specialists. According to its mission statement, that technical university conducts innovative scientific research, educates highly qualified staff, and influences the development of the region. The university aims to improve the quality and attractiveness of education, to internationalize the university by increasing the international exchange of research and teaching staff, and the num-ber of students in international exchange, developing cooperation with foreign research centres and international companies. In order to accomplish these aims, the university needs to improve the number of courses offered and quality of education in English, and adapt the educational environment to foreign students. In consequence, measures taken include continuous training of staff to upgrade their teaching competences and foreign language skills, with English as the leading medium of communication for visitors.

Recently, the number of students in the university approximates 20 000, in 15 departments and 5 educational research centres (see table below).

Table 1. Data on faculty and students

Students From abroad From the university abroad2017/18 172 1952018/19 225 199Lecturers 107 220Courses in English

Foreign University for Students 223 3527by Academic teachers 101 124


The POWER Project

The project consists of 12 modules run by staff of two faculties, and is intended for 120 academic teachers from all faculties with doctorates and also includes doctoral students. Each module ranges from 60 to 120 teaching hours, comprising face-to-face classes and on-line courses. As part of the project, the organizers tried to equip the participants with materials and competences that allow them to create their own didactic activities to implement in classes conducted both with the Polish and foreign students. The major topics cover, among others, psychosocial skills, the academic lecturer as a coach, workshops on formative evaluation, and on reflective practice, and positive education in academic practice. They are more focused on conducting classes with innovative teaching methods (for example, modular classes, e-learning, etc.), using the constructions and expressions typical of academic English (lesson plans, laboratory instructions, etc.), shaping skills of information management skills, and in presenting educational content.

In connection with the objectives of the POWER project, as specified above, we posed research questions concerning differences in academic teachers’ self-eval-uation, depending on their degree, type of study, teaching practice in years and language proficiency.

Research Method

The research instrument was a questionnaire and an interview with the par-ticipants on their teaching practice. About 120 academic teachers were selected (on a voluntary basis) from all faculties, lecturers with PhD and doctoral students (mostly MSc engineers), currently employed by the university. In self-evaluation, teachers assessed both their language knowledge and teaching experience, since both appear correlated. The research goal was to analyse self-evaluation of aca-demic teachers who participated in the project, concerning their command of English and academic teaching experience, as well as the development of their English skills and didactic competences. The second objective was to find out how the teachers’ self-evaluation opinions vary in relation to the command of language and teaching competence. The research problem was defined by means of the following questions:

Q 1: How do the academic teachers evaluate their English language knowledge?Q 2: How often do they teach their subject in English?Q 3: How do they evaluate managing classes with foreign students?


Q 4: How do they, as academic teachers, evaluate the overall didactic experience in teaching?

Q 5: How do they estimate their actual performance during the classes con-ducted in English?

Items S5 to S10 focused on academic teachers’ self-evaluation of their own knowledge and experience in the development of language and didactic compe-tences. The items used Likert scales, and the teachers evaluated their knowledge and experience as follows: 1 – insufficient, 2 – sufficient, 3 – good, 4 – very good, 5 – excellent:

S5 – I evaluate my knowledge of English as (1–2 – 3 – 4 – 5);S6 – I evaluate my knowledge of didactic competences as (1–2 – 3 – 4 – 5);S7 – I evaluate my knowledge of methods for the subject I teach in practice as (1–2

– 3 – 4 – 5)S8 – I evaluate my knowledge of methods on the language and didactic competence

as (1–2 – 3 – 4 – 5);S9 – I evaluate my experience in educational activities and in language and commu-

nication skills as (1–2 – 3 – 4 – 5). S10 – I evaluate my experience of cultural education and awareness as (1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5).

The questionnaire was administered during the POWER project instruction at the beginning of each course in each group, then participant opinions were processed and evaluated statistically.

Research Results

Research data acquired by the questionnaire method were evaluated using descriptive methods. We were interested how the academic teachers evaluated their knowledge of language and didactic skills. Statistical evaluation of results, as displayed in Table 3, showed that academic teachers evaluated their didactic knowledge significantly better (significance at the level of p ≤ 0.01) than language knowledge. Better evaluation of didactic skills by the academic teachers was not confirmed statistically in item S7 that regards the knowledge of methods for the subject they teach, presumably due to the frequent changing of the courses the academic teachers are obliged to run each year. Another reason might be the on-going reform of the higher education system and the alterations in the study programmes.


Next, we investigated whether the academic teachers evaluated better their experience in educational practice. Statistical evaluation of results showed that academic teachers evaluated their experience significantly better (significance at the level of p ≤ 0.01) in both items S09 and S10. The comparison of knowledge and experience in self-evaluation by academic teachers is presented in Table 3 below.

Table 3. Statistical data on knowledge and experience self-evaluation of academic teachers

Questionnaire itemsNumber of

respondents Mean Standard deviation

Teach-ers’

t-testMA PhD MA PhD MA PhD t P

S 5 I evaluate my knowledge of Eng-lish as

45 67 2.7 3.4 0.73 0.93 -3.46 0.0007

S 6 I evaluate my knowledge of didac-tic competences as

45 67 2.7 3.4 0.75 0.88 -3.44 0.0008

S 7 I evaluate my knowledge of meth-ods for the subject I teach as

45 67 3.0 3.4 0.79 1.10 -1.70 0.0898

S 8 I evaluate my knowledge of meth-ods of language and didactic competence development as

45 67 2.3 3.0 0.79 0.96 -3.59 0.0005

S 9 I evaluate my experience in edu-cational activities and in language and communication as

45 67 2.3 3.2 0.85 1.16 -3.19 0.0018

S10 I evaluate my experience in cul-tural education and awareness as

45 67 2.3 3.0 0.79 0.96 -3.59 0.0005


Discussion

The respondents evaluated their own teaching competences better than their knowledge of the English language in which they conducted classes. They gave high marks to their subject knowledge and experience, while giving up valuing their own methodological skills. The academic teachers with doctoral degrees assessed the level of teaching and language competences much better than teachers with MSc degree. We can agree with the common thesis in pedeutology (Gołębniak & Zamorska, 2014) that greater professional experience determines higher self-esteem in terms of their professional role, to a degree, if measured in terms of work experience, and frequency of educational practice, i.e. activities strictly related to teaching. Thus, increase of didactic skills occurs along with the progressing process of professionalization, which cannot be stated about the English language skills.

Better self-evaluation of knowledge and experience, and didactic competencies, rather than English language skills by this group of teachers could be caused by insufficient feedback, and lower amount of language contact in instruction. The teaching staff do not have many opportunities for discussion, or critical feedback on the preparation and performance of their educational activities, particularly on the development of their language and didactic competences. This could also be the reason why some academic teachers were less critical of their own didactic competences and evaluated their knowledge and experience better. University teachers equipped with suitable didactic tools, strategies and teaching techniques can have a tremendous bearing on their professional development (Berry, 1990).

Interviews with Academic Teachers

Besides the above quantitative research by means of a questionnaire, interviews with the teachers were conducted in form of a presentation round at the beginning of classes in each group. This enabled a better understanding of the problems asso-ciated with their language and didactic competences; sometimes their opinions were voiced in written form in the questionnaires they returned. This time, during interview the questions from Q1 to Q5 were used by the researchers to verify the data obtained from the questionnaire. We present the following key findings from the interviews:


QUESTION 1: How do you as academic teachers evaluate your English lan-guage knowledge?

No %no knowledge 0 0.0little knowledge 26 25.5quite highly 51 50.1excellent 35 34.3Total 102 100.0

QUESTION 2: How often do you teach a subject in English language?

No %sometimes 65 63.0often 34 33.3never 2 1.9cannot say 1 1.2Total 102 100.0

The results are consistent with previous findings, thus, out of the total number of respondents 102 participants, approximately 63.0%, use the English language in the teaching process. However, the number of the teachers who do not use the English language as compared to the declared language proficiency is quite evident. These findings are a challenge for the teachers themselves, the university management, but also for further education plans and projects.

In their interviews, only a few respondents did not experience any incon-veniences of teaching in the English language. The most common opinions voiced by the respondents on the issue of using English in classes emphasized “reduced self-esteem and hopelessness”, “there are students in the group who are more fluent in English than me and they show off before the group”, “complete reluctance to go to lectures and teach in English language”. There were several respondents who provided different answers: “I never liked it, I teach a lot and have no problems in my classes”, “No, I never felt any threat”, “No, not in me, but I see it in my classmates – they struggle with the study in English language and have problems of this nature”. Thus, they declared that teaching their subject in English is not only an issue for the instructors, but also a considerable number of students find the situation demanding, or even artificial.


QUESTION 3: How do you evaluate managing classes with foreign students?

Reasons No %lack of experience 12 11.7I prefer traditional teaching 38 37.2demanding lesson preparation 27 26.4little experience with foreigners 14 13.7cannot say 11 10.7Total 102 100.0

In the respondents’ opinions, they lack sufficient professional knowledge in certain areas, which means they do not trust themselves, and prefer classical teaching that is less demanding in terms of class preparation. This is a widespread opinion in academic circles that instruction through the medium of English is more demanding, as it requires a good command of the language skills appropriate for the subject contents, and then, the choice of the teaching methods, etc. These findings show that it is necessary to make the teachers aware of this significant change in their approach to education, with a particular emphasis on the use of innovative methods to face these challenges.

The most commonly reported reasons of the problems with foreign students by the respondents were external: “Student are overloaded with many courses and dwindling expectations once at the university”, “Low motivation to study in English on the part of students”, “Poor cooperation with other academic teachers and lack-ing feedback”. The respondents also highlighted the university education system: “Malfunctioning education system”, but also “low status of the study program”, “high pressure on the students to study particular issues that they themselves consider to be futile and useless”, “a lot of study assignments and duties, a lot of responsibilities at school and at work”.

QUESTION 4: How do you evaluate the overall didactic experience in teaching, and in teaching in English language?

N %no experience 0 0.0average 9 9.4quite highly 61 60.1excellent 32 33.3Total 102 100.0


As might be noticed, the same scale of self-evaluation was applied in Questions 4 and 1 to compare the attitudes of university teachers to their language and didac-tic knowledge. The data show significant discrepancy between the two spheres of educational expertise.

QUESTION 5: How do you estimate your performance during the classes in English language?

According to the respondents, some described the positive impact of teaching their subjects in English: “One has a very different approach to those subjects where the teachers use English, and yet manage to build respect through their expertise”. “A very important course – if the teacher is empathetic, attentive and fair, it reduces the likelihood of failure”. On the contrary, some respondents voiced the possible negative influence of teaching in English: “If the teacher demands much from the students, it may happen that the students simply give up”. “An important role – the more demotivating the teachers are, the more it affects the students”.

The interviews with the academic teachers showed that the area is relatively unrecognized in our country with regard to university courses in English, and it is important for it to be researched in a relevant way. The most interesting is the remark on a continuous reduction of demands for candidates during the admission process, and the related lack of desirable intellectual and cognitive requirements of future students, another point that should also be verified with further empirical research.

This research, in sum, found that lack of didactic knowledge, due to high specialization in the subject area, created considerable inconveniences in further stages of the education career. The university staff were more concerned with the subject content and methodologies, than with theoretical aspects of education. Furthermore, the acquisition of knowledge in teaching methodology is not systematic, thus more attention must be paid to the in-service training of aca-demic teachers in particular. This investigation has shown that foreign language didactics does not receive systematic attention in the direct preparation of the university staff, and that teachers act randomly. Another issue is that the most experienced teachers are aware of such challenges and can anticipate certain fundamental problems.


Conclusions

The present research has both benefits and limitations; the major limitation of the research was the method used, as the academic teachers could not evaluate all their knowledge and experience. Interviews with academic teachers provided more precise information, even though taken from a smaller number of academic teachers. There were several items in the questionnaire which reduced its reliability. The research was limited also by its size, sample availability and local character. In line with the findings of Leader-Janssen and Rankin-Erickson (2013), our research results demonstrate that the development of future teachers and educational staff is a long-lasting process. The length of study, and the subjects taught improve the self-evaluation of didactic competences of academic teachers in their profession, however, a separate important issue is the theoretical, didactic and methodological preparation of the faculty aimed at the harmonious development of academic teachers’ theoretical knowledge and practical experience spread in full-time study. The findings discussed in the research revealed possible shortcomings in the university teachers’ attitudes to the development of their knowledge and experience. This should be improved by an extension of the study programme and more contact periods, consultations, and reflections with other teachers of the subjects. However, the research results may be of benefit for the development of the curriculum related to language and didactic competence. The investigation is meaningful also for follow-up research projects and for the improvement of the diagnostic process of academic teachers’ competences in their own educational practice.

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Killing Two Birds with One Stone. System 18, 97–105.Day, C. (2004). A Passion for Teaching. London and New York: Routledge Falmer.European Commission/Education and Training (2013). Supporting teacher competence

development. Retrieved 2/20/2018, from http://ec.europa.euFarrell, T. (2007). Reflective Language Teaching: From Research to Practice. London: Con-

tinuum.Gębal, P. (2019). Dydaktyka Języków Obcych. Wprowadzenie [Didactics of Foreign Lan-

guages. An Introduction]. Warszawa: PWN.Gołębniak B. & Zamorska B. (2014). Nowy profesjonalizm nauczycieli. Podejścia-prak-

tyka-przestrzeń rozwoju [The new professionalism of teachers. Approaches-practice – space for development]. Wrocław: Dolnośląska Szkoła Wyższa.


Kelly, M., Grenfell, M., Allan, L., Kriza, C., & McEvoy, W. (2004). European Profile for Lan-guage Teacher Education – a Frame of Reference. Final Report. Luxemburg: European Commission.

Lafayette, R. (1993). Subject Matter Content: What Every Foreign Language Teacher Needs to Know. In: G. Guntermann, (Ed.). Developing Language Teachers for a Changing World. (pp. 124–158). Illinois: National Textbook Company,

Leader-Janssen, E., and Rankin-Erickson, J. (2013). Preservice Teachers’ Content Knowl-edge and Self-Efficacy for Teaching Reading.Literacy Research and Instruction 52(3), 204–229.

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ers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 9 (3), 213–238

Teacher’s Personality with Regard to Performance Motivation in a Professional Context

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.04

Abstract In the paper we focused on the personality of the teacher and his/her moti-vation for professional performance depending on the length of teaching practice. The aim of the research was to find out the profile of the motivational structure of performance in the professional context of primary education teachers and to determine the specifics of individual dimensions related to the motivation for performance. The results showed that the motivational structure of performance is very similar for primary education teachers in the Slovakia and the Czech Republic. For teachers in the Czech Republic, the profile of the motivational structure of their performance does not change with the length of teaching practice. On the other hand, in Slovakia, motivational performance structures change in context depending on the length of teaching practice.

Key words: motivation, teacher personality, professional performance, Slovakia, The Czech Republic

Introduction

The personality of the teacher is an important motivating factor in the edu-cational process. The professional personality of a teacher is the result of his/her own desire to become a teacher, but at the same time it is formed during the undergraduate training in which the prospective teacher begins to shape his/her intuitive concept of teaching and motivation for the teaching profession. Teachers

Miriam UhrinováSlovakiaJán TirpákCzech Republic

48 Miriam Uhrinová, Ján Tirpák

can have different reasons and goals for their behavior and activities, and can make unequal efforts to achieve them, also with regard to their performance at work. Job satisfaction and motivation for teachers usually lead to greater work commitment, resulting in better work results and greater effort by teachers to make the education process more effective, even in more challenging conditions, such as education with emphasis on supporting pupils from a low incentive environment. In this context, exploring variables affecting teachers’ motivation to pursue a teaching career can be a key issue.

Research FocusCurrent tendencies in the field of education put great demands on the person-

ality of the teacher in terms of his/her performance motivation and motivational profile, the content of which is typical for individual, dominant motivational orientations or tendencies. We are of the opinion that the motivational structure differs diametrically within individual professions and different motivational dispositions are desirable in each of them. Knowing the motivational profile of a teacher enables an understanding of individual manifestations and the whole complex of their behavior or actions. Each teacher is motivated in the dimensions of their motivational structure. It is for this reason that we want to focus on the profile of the motivational structure of performance of teachers of primary edu-cation in a professional context. Inner satisfaction from the work of a teacher is a very important factor in why a person decides to become a teacher and then further develop their profession (Spear et al., 2000; Moran et al., 2001). Teacher motivation is related to what makes teachers happy, satisfied, self-sacrificing and committed to show the best performance in educating their pupils (Nayana & Mustiary Begum, 2017; Akhtar & Iqbal, 2017). Motivation is a critical variable in educational institutions (Akhtar & Iqbal, 2017; Robinns et al., 2009). There is considerable research that reflects factors that affect job satisfaction and increase motivation for performance (Kitching, Morgan & O’Leary, 2009; Fasasi et al., 2015; Mustafu & Othman, 2010; Geofrey et al. 2010). Some research has confirmed that leadership style has a significant impact on job satisfaction (Bhatti et al. 2012; and Wang et al., 2015). The results have shown that the majority of teachers have an internal motivation for professional performance, reinforced by widespread recog-nition, success and advancement and vocation, job satisfaction and understanding of their goals in life. Research also points to the existing relationship between teacher’s internal motivation for professional performance and their impact on pupil’s motivation to learn (Roth et al. 2007; Mustafa & Othman, 2010; Gorozidis & Papaioannou, 2014). Teachers with a strong internal motivation to achieve more

49Teacher’s Personality with Regard to Performance Motivation

often apply pupil-activating methods in the educational process. Thus, low moti-vation among teachers may have a negative impact on achieving high standards in education (Kocabas, 2009). At the same time, research has shown that problems associated with the teaching profession lead to demotivation among teachers and are often linked to retirement. Often the cause is not only the workload, or low pay, but also pupils who come from eg. a low-spirited environment and need more attention and more effort at work (Kitching, Morgan & O’Leary, 2009). Thus, the motivation profile of a teacher can also be influenced by age and the length of teaching experience. Motivation is thus often neglected in practice, but it plays an important role. From the perspective of helping professions within the framework of comprehensive rehabilitation, motivation is important not only for the given professions, but also for the other side, i.e. the clients or pupils. If individuals are well motivated, they also improve the outcomes (Vostrý et al., 2019).


General Background of ResearchThis empirical research was quantitative and qualitative. The subject of the

research was the motivational structure of teachers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and the study of selected determinants of motivation for professional performance.

In this paper, we want to focus on the presentation of research results, the aim of which was to determine the profile of the motivational structure of performance in the professional context of teachers at primary school, in a comparison of teachers in the Czech and Slovak Republics and to identify the specifics of each dimension related to the motivation to perform in a professional context. We started from the following research questions:

• What are the differences in the profile of the motivational structure of perfor-mance in the professional context of primary education teachers?

• What is the importance of individual dimensions related to motivation to perform in the professional context for selected groups of respondents to the research?

• Does the length of teaching practice affect the profile of the motivational structure of performance in the professional context of teachers?

These research questions also served to formulate the following research hypotheses:


H01: The profile of the motivational structure of performance among primary school teachers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic is not different.

H02: The importance of individual dimensions regarding motivation to perform in a professional context does not differ among selected respondents of the research.

H03: The length of teaching practice does not affect the motivational profile of the performance structure of primary school teachers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Sample of ResearchOur research plan was carried out using a questionnaire method during 2019 on

a sample of 138 primary school teachers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The first group consisted of 73 teachers from the Czech Republic, the total average age was 36 years, with an average length of 12 years of teaching practice. The second group was represented by 65 teachers from the Slovak Republic. The average age of teachers was 39 years and the average time of practice was 15.5 years. The choice of schools was intentional considering their number in individual regions of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Most teachers come from larger towns and villages and fewer from schools in small villages. We interviewed two prominent pedeutologists from each country in the research. Pedeutologists were selected deliberately and are working at some of the best universities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Instrument and ProceduresA standardized LMI-Motivationinventory Incentive Questionnaire (Shuler et

al., 2011) was chosen to collect the necessary quantitative empirical research data. The internal consistency coefficients (Crobnach α) for all incremental samples were calculated to verify the reliability of the overall score and the scores in each dimension. With reference to the table in the manual, the authors state that the values range between 0.68 and 0.86 and that the items are valid in terms of content, as their formulation is anchored in the theory of performance motivation. Cor-relations between scales range from 0.34 to 0.63 (Schuler et al., 2011). The length of teaching practice and the age of respondents are considered as independent variables in this research. With regard to qualitative research data, a structured interview was used.

Data AnalysisMathematical-statistical operations were used to process and analyze the results.

For the sake of transparency and clarity of data, we present data processing using


graphs and tables. To calculate the data we used the so-called Student’s t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) at a significance level of α = 0.05. The data were first subjected to the Shapiro-Wilk’s test of normality of the data distribution. For the statistical evaluation of the data obtained by the research version 15.2.00 of the software Statgraphics Centurion XV was used and Microsoft Excel.

Results of Research The motivational profile represents, over time, a relatively stable characteristic

of a person’s personality, the content of which is dominated by motivational orientations or tendencies, or their composition. One of the objectives of our research was to find out the profile of the motivational structure of performance in a professional context in a comparison of primary education teachers in the Czech and Slovak Republics. These countries were selected for comparison quite intentionally, because in most features the structure of the Czech education system is similar to the structure of the Slovak one. The education principle in both school systems is based on similar educational programs. For the presented data we work with the following abbreviations, which will be explained in more detail. The final version of the questionnaire consists of 170 items, which are assigned to 17 scales (dimensions). The total mean value of all items is 4.55 with a minimum of 2.61 and a maximum of 6.32. Data refer to a sample of N = 1671 test experimental persons.

The final authoritative concept of 17 dimensions (scale) of performance motiva-tion in a professional context includes the following personality traits involved in self-performance: stamina (VY), dominance (DO), engagement (AN), confidence in success (DU), flexibility (FX), flow (FL), fearlessness (NE), internality (IN), compensatory effort (KU), pride in performance (HV), willingness to learn (OU), difficulty preference (PO), independence (SA), self-control (SK), status orientation (OS), competitiveness (SO), purposefulness (CV) and overall score (CS).

The basic profile of teacher’s motivational performance structure in the sample we follow is shown in Chart 1, where most of the averages of the resulting teacher’s motivational performance structure profiles are above the mean value. When comparing the research set, we find very similar (almost identical) motivational structures of performance in the professional context of both groups of teachers.

In addition to the findings of these profiles, we also compared teacher’s moti-vational structure profiles in relation to the above-mentioned characteristics. Statistical analysis performed using Student’s t-test showed significant differences in dominance, which are statistically significantly better rated by teachers in the Czech Republic. Confidence in success, on the other hand, is statistically more favorably assessed among teachers of the Slovak Republic.


The intervening variable of the research investigation was the length of teaching practice, which is certainly more relevant to the teaching profession than age itself. In particular, it should be considered that most teachers in the primary education system are women, many of whom spend a relatively short, or longer, period on maternity leave, thus reducing the length of their teaching practice. Therefore, in international comparisons, it is preferable to operate with length of practice in examining the impact of teaching characteristics on educational processes and their outcomes, rather than just the age of teachers. We were wondering whether there was a change in the overall profile of the motivational structure of perfor-mance in the professional context of teachers depending on the length of their teaching practice. The results are presented with respect to the Czech Republic, in Chart 2 and with respect to the Slovak Republic, in Chart 3.

Within the ANOVA analysis, it was found that for teachers in the Czech Republic, the profile of motivational performance structures does not change in the professional context with the length of teaching practice.

In terms of research investigation and ANOVA analysis results at the signifi-cance level α = 0.05 for teachers in the Slovak Republic depending on the length of teaching practice, we can conclude that there is a statistically significant difference between the groups selected for comparison.

teachers from the Czech Republic teachers from Slovakia

Chart 1: Profile of the Motivational Structure of Performance in the Profes-sional Context by Arithmetic Average of Response for Teachers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic

[53]

teachers from the Czech Republic with 0–9 years of teaching practice; teachers from the Czech Republic with 10–19 years of teaching practice; teachers from the Czech Republic with more than 20 years of teaching practice

Chart 2: Profile of the Motivational Structure of Performance in the Professional Con-text by Arithmetic Mean Response of Teachers in the Czech Republic with Dependence on the Length of Teaching Practice

teachers in Slovakia with 0–9 years of teaching practice; teachers in Slovakia with 10–19 years of teaching experience; teachers in Slovakia with more than 20 years of teaching experience

Chart 3: Profile of the motivational structure of performance in a professional context according to the arithmetic mean of responses of teachers in Slovakia in relation to the length of teaching experience


In addition to the discovery of this difference, we further compared the above-mentioned group of respondents in terms of the guiding concepts of 17 dimensions of motivation to perform in a professional context. The statistical anal-ysis performed showed significant differences in the following scales: persistence, fearlessness, internality and self-control, which are statistically significantly more highly evaluated among teachers in Slovakia with a duration of practice of 0–9 years. In contrast, confidence in success is assessed by teachers in Slovakia with more than 20 years of work experience as being statistically significantly more valuable.

To complete this data, we conducted a structured interview with two prominent pedeutologists from the Czech and Slovak Republics. The interview also addressed the following questions:

• What do you think motivates primary education teachers the most to stay in their profession?

• Which motivational tool do you consider to be the most important for further professional development of teachers?

• Do you think that teachers change the profile of the motivational structure of their professional performance with regard to their age or length of teaching experience?

On the basis of data processing, it can be stated that an excellent teacher can be defined according to five characteristics, which can also be described as areas of professional development for teachers. According to the pedeutologists, the teacher must have vision and be able to teach. S/he has an understanding of the skills and knowledge needed to teach. Furthermore, the practice that allows him/her to teach and the ability to reflect on his/her own, that is, s/he is able to learn from experience. Finally, but just as important as the other things mentioned above, is the teacher’s own motivation.

In this respect, it has been found that it is most motivating to retain primary education teachers in the profession to influence the development of children and youth. However, the further education system and the evaluation system also play an important role, as does the work environment in terms of space, personnel and material security. Here the results of our survey correlate with results showing high preference among teachers in terms of willingness to learn, making compensatory efforts and having pride in performance. However, according to Pedeutology, the most important tool for motivation and for further professional growth of teachers is the further education of pedagogical staff, which include courses that correspond to the needs of teachers in the range further education on offer, regular expansion of professional knowledge, skills self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction,


and providing financial and non-financial benefits to teachers who are actively involved in further education. However, the economic and working conditions of the teaching profession also play a particularly important role.

In terms of the findings of the survey and the opinions of the pedeutologists, we tend to change the motivation profile depending on the length of teaching prac-tice, which is certainly a more relevant characteristic of the teaching profession than age itself. In this respect, we therefore assume that research work on teacher motivation should take into account, in particular, the length of their teaching experience.

Discussion

Based on the research we have found that the motivational structure of perfor-mance in professional contexts is very similar (almost identical) among teachers of primary education in the Slovak and Czech Republic. In addition to the findings of these profiles, we further compared the guiding concepts of the 17 dimensions (scales) of motivation to perform in a professional context and identified for which variables statistically significant differences existed. The following areas: dominance and engagement, are statistically significantly better rated by teachers in the Czech Republic. On the other hand, confidence in success is statistically more favorable for teachers in the Slovak Republic. In our view, this is a multi-factorial issue and gives the possibility of further follow-up research in terms of why these dimensions are statistically differently evaluated by teachers. The length of teaching practice is considered as an independent variable in the empirical research.

Multiple data comparisons have shown that the profile of motivational perfor-mance structures does not change in the professional context for teachers in the Czech Republic. From the results of teachers in the Slovak Republic, a statistically significant difference was found between the selected groups, which was related to respondents with the length of practice of 0–9 years and 20 years and more. In addition to finding this difference, we compared the guiding concept of 17 dimensions (scales) of motivation to perform in a professional context. The statis-tical analysis carried out showed significant differences in the scales: perseverance, confidence in success, fearlessness, internality and self-control. The arithmetic means of responses show a statistical difference in the items on perseverance, fearlessness, internality and self-control, which are statistically significantly more highly evaluated among teachers in the Slovak Republic with a duration of practice


of 0–9 years. In contrast, confidence in success is assessed by teachers in Slovakia with more than 20 years of work experience as statistically significantly more valuable. In our opinion, the results present the decisive stages of the teaching profession and the characteristics that are typical of teachers who are just starting their careers and also those who have long teaching experience in the profession.

Conclusions

The research carried out indicates the need to monitor and study the motivation for professional performance of teachers at present. The motivation of teachers to perform usually leads to more work commitment, which results in better work results and more effort for teachers to make more enormous efforts to streamline the educational process, even in more challenging conditions, such as education with a view to supporting pupils from environments with low levels of stimula-tion in the educational process, which is currently very often solved. During the research, we have seen that primary education teachers prefer areas such as dom-inance, engagement and confidence in success in terms of motivational structure.

Research shows that primary education teachers in the Slovak and Czech Republics have a very similar (almost identical) motivational structure of per-formance in a professional context. The results of the research show that the motivational structures of performance in the professional context of teachers in Slovakia vary depending on the length of teaching practice.

Motivation to perform in a professional context can be seen as a phenomenon occurring in the complex context of the internal and external environment, in a complex of interdependent, conditioned and variable factors. Its full understand-ing therefore requires understanding of the individual elements of this system and their interaction. A growing problem for European education systems is the lack of teachers, particularly in certain subjects or in specific regions. In some countries, the aging teacher population and the perception of the overall low prestige associ-ated with the teaching profession may increase the pressure on education systems. Some studies (TIMSS 2015) attribute this fact to a decline in prestige, worsening teacher working conditions and their relatively low salaries compared to salaries in other intellectual professions. One way to support and strengthen the teaching profession is to emphasize factors that are positively linked to overall satisfaction with the work of teachers and the perception of its importance, and secondly to the school environment and working conditions. As Vostrý (2018) mentions, moti-vation can be considered as an essential element, which is an integral part of all


workers in the so-called helping professions. However, it should not be forgotten that the other party must also be motivated, i.e. pupils or persons with whom direct educational/rehabilitation activities are performed.

AcknowledgementsThis article was supported by Catholic University in Ružomberok as a grant KEGA No. 012KU-4/2019.

ReferencesAkhtar, J.H., Iqbal, I. (2017). Impact of Motivation on Teachers’ Job Performance: A Case

Study of a Public Sector University. Journal of Educational Sciences & Research Spring, 4(1). http://uos.edu.pk/Journals

Bhatti, N., Maitlo, G.M., Shaikh, N., Hashmi, M.A., Shaikh, F.M. (2012). The Impact of Autocratic and Democratic leadership style on Job Satisfaction. International Business Research, 5(2), 192.

Gorozidis, G., Athanasios G.P. (2014). Teachers’ Motivation to Participate in Training and to Implement Innovations. Teaching and Teacher Education. 39: 1–11.

Kitching, K., Morgan, M., O’Leary, M. (2009). It’s the Little Things: Exploring the Impor-tance of Commonplace Events for Early-Career Teachers’ Motivation. Teachers and Teaching, 15(1): p. 43–58. DOI: 10.1080/13540600802661311.

Kocabas, I. (2009). The Effects of sources of Motivation on Teachers’ Motivation Levels. Education, 129(4), 724–733.

Moran, A., Kilpatrick, R., Abbott, L., Dallat, J., McClune, B. (2001). Training to Teach: Moti-vating Factors and Implications for Recruitment. Evaluation and Research in Education, 15(1), 17–32.

Mustafa, M., Othman, N. (2010). The effect of work motivation on teacher’s work per-formance in Pekanbaru senior high schools, Riau Province, Indonesia. Sosiohumanika, 3(2), 259–272.

Nayana L.M., Mustiary B.P. (2017). Teacher Motivation and Classroom Teaching a Study with Reference to Teychers of Selected Primary Schools in Mangalore. Sahyadri Journal of Management (SJOM), 1(1), 54–64.

Robbins, S., Judge, T., Sanghi, S. (2009). Organizational Behavior (13th Ed.). New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Roth, G., Avi, A., Yaniv, K.M., Haya, K. (2007). Autonomous Motivation for Teaching: How Self-Determined Teaching May Lead to Self-Determined Learning. Journal of Educa-tional Psychology, 99(4), 761–774.

Schuler, H. at al. (2011). LMI –Leistungsmotivationsinventar / Dotazník motivace k výkonu. Praha: Testcentrum.

Spear, M., Gould, K., Lee, B. (2000). Who would be a teacher? A review of factors motivating


and demotivating prospective and practising teachers. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research.

Veteška, J., Paulovčáková, L. (2018). Management and Marketing of Educational Institutions. Karlsruhe: Ste-Com.

Vostrý, M. (2018). Education of seniors with respect to their cognitive functions. Palma, Mallorca, Spain: INTED2018 Proceedings.

Vostrý, M. (2018). Selected opportunities for access to geriatric clients from the perspec-tive of assisting professions. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 8(1), 89–95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20181.89.95.

Vostrý, M., Zilcher, L. (2019). Effectiveness of combination therapy for people with cere-brovascular disease from the perspective of helping professions. ICERI2019 Proceedings. Spain: IATED Academy. DOI: 10.21125/iceri.2019.1078.

Wang, F.J., Chich-Jen, S., Mei-Ling, T. (2010). Effect of leadership style on organizational performance as viewed from human resource management strategy. African Journal of Business Management, 4(18), 3924–3936.

Optimization of University Department Management : The Increase of Foreign Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy

by Preventing Job Burnout

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.05

AbstractThe paper aims to present theoretical and empirical research on investigating the optimization of university department management by preventing job burnout in university teaching staff which resulted in increasing their self-effi-cacy. The research sample was selected with the use of a non-random sampling technique. All foreign languages teachers invited agreed to take part in the study. To collect the empirical data from 205 foreign languages teachers a mixed methods approach was applied. The quantitative data were collected using the questionnaire on general self-efficacy created by R. Schwarzer and M. Jerusa-lem (1995) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (1996). The qualitative methods included observations and interviews. The obtained data were then analysed by means of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS software).The authors theoretically substantiated and practically demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed programme aimed at optimizing university department management by preventing job burnout in foreign language teachers.

Key words: university department management; self-efficacy; job burnout; foreign language teachers

Oleh M. TopuzovUkraineOleksandr V. MalykhinUkraineNataliia O. AristovaUkraineAnzhelika V. ShamneUkraine

60 Oleh M. Topuzov, Oleksandr V. Malykhin, Nataliia O. Aristova, Anzhelika V. Shamne

Introduction

University departments play a key role in providing high quality education of competitive experts who enter the global labour market. The more efficient the department’s teaching staff the better students are equipped to deal with complex professional issues when they graduate from higher educational institutions and start working. The efficiency of any university department is dependent on both the efficiency of every individual department member and on the efficiency of the department’s teaching staff. But why do some university teachers demon-strate a high level of self-efficacy? What is the cause of university teachers’ low self-efficacy? What limits the professional and personal potential of university teachers? In what way is the university teachers’ low self-efficacy reflected in the competitiveness of the department? The answers to these questions may shed light on problems concerning the optimization of university department management and the role of the university department head in this process.

In their everyday activities university department heads have to take managerial decisions which influence the establishment of a sound work flow. In this regard the managerial abilities of the university department head to quickly respond to problems which affect indicators for teaching staff performance, as well as per-formance of every individual teacher, become key in the competitiveness of the university department.

The efficiency of university departments depends on the level of teacher self-ef-ficacy. University teachers whose self-efficacy is very high are ready to improve their on-the-job skills, gain new experience and share it with their colleagues. What is more, they are not afraid of any challenges, are more committed to teaching, and report greater job satisfaction (OECD, 2014, p. 22). We agree with Cherry (2018) in thinking that people with a strong sense of self-efficacy consider challenging issues as tasks to be mastered, take a greater interest in the activities they participate in, and build a stronger sense of commitment to their interests and activities. Unlike people with a strong sense of self-efficacy, people whose sense of self-efficacy is weak believe that difficult tasks are beyond their capabilities, focus more on personal failings and negative outcomes, and quickly lose confidence in personal abilities (Cherry, 2018).

In this regard, the problem concerning the optimization of university depart-ment management through the increase in the general self-efficacy of teaching staff is of particular interest in our research.

61Optimization of University Department Management


General Background of ResearchThe main objective of this study is to present theoretical and empirical research

investigating the optimization of university department management by prevent-ing job burnout in university teaching staff which resulted in increasing their self-efficacy. The main objective was achieved by accomplishing the sequence of the following sub-objectives:

• to confirm the correlation between the foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy and job burnout;

• to develop a programme aimed at optimizing university department man-agement by preventing job burnout in foreign language teachers;

• to summarize the findings of the research in investigation into optimization of university department management.

The study was carried out in the 2017/2019 academic years among the foreign language teachers of seven Ukrainian higher educational institutions.

Research Sample Foreign language teachers from seven Ukrainian universities, namely, National

University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (52 teachers), National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (46 teachers), Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (12), National Aviation Univer-sity (28 teachers), Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University (19 teachers), Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade (10 teachers), and Taras Shevchenko State University (37 teachers) were selected to take part in the study. The research sample was selected with the use of a non-random sampling technique, based on the fact that all respondents were foreign language teachers working at state universities. In total 205 foreign languages teachers were a part of this research, 101 foreign languages teachers in the experimental group and 104 foreign languages teachers in the control group.

The demographic distribution of the collected data (the experimental group) is shown in Table 1.


Table 1. Sample demographics (the experimental group)

Variable PercentageGenderMaleFemale

7%93%

Age<=3031–4041–50>=5141–50>=51

10%34%36%20%36%20%

Scientific titleFull ProfessorAssistant Professor

9%31%

PositionProfessorAssistant ProfessorSenior teacherTeacher

9%42%27%22%

The demographic distribution of the collected data (the control group) is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Sample demographics (the control group)

Variable PercentageGenderMaleFemale

8%92%

Age<=3031–4041–50>=5141–50>=51

12%32%33%23%

Scientific titleFull ProfessorAssistant Professor

7%27%

PositionProfessorAssistant ProfessorSenior teacherTeacher

7%40%28%25%


Although the positions and roles of all respondents in the experimental and control groups usually imply different patterns of work, we have to note that all respondents were not the members of graduate departments. This means they taught mostly foreign languages for specific purposes to students of different fac-ulties and their teaching load comprised hours required for classroom instruction. Besides this, professors and assistant professors were involved in both organizing and participating in domestic and international conferences, seminars and work-shops, whereas senior teachers and teachers were involved only in participating in such events.

Instrument and ProceduresQualitative methodsThe qualitative methods included observations of participants and interviews

with them aimed at understanding the reasons for low level of general self-effi-cacy demonstrated by foreign language teachers. Like the quantitative methods, the qualitative ones made a great contribution to understanding the correlation between respondents’ general self-efficacy and job burnout and developing a programme aimed at optimizing the management of the foreign language departments.

Quantitative methodsThe quantitative data were collected using the questionnaire on general self-effi-

cacy (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996). The assessment of foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy was done using the questionnaire on general self-efficacy created by R. Schwarzer and M. Jerusalem (1995). All the respondents were asked to rate statements according to a 4-point scale (not at all true – 1 point, hardly true – 2 points, moderately true – 3 points and exactly true – 4 points). In order to get a summary score the responses supplied by the foreign language teachers were added up. Findings ranging from 10 to 26 points were taken to show a low level of general self-efficacy, from 27 to 35 points – a medium level of general self-efficacy and from 36 and higher – a high level of general self-efficacy.

For assessing the various aspects of foreign language teachers’ job burnout the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) (Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996) was used. To understand if the respondents’ self-efficacy correlates with job burnout the same respondents were asked to assess 22 statements about their personal feelings and attitudes in terms of the frequency with which they experience them. The design of the MBI enabled three components of job burnout to be assessed, namely,


emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Job burnout was evaluated by a Likert-type frequency scale ranging from 0 to 6 (0 – never, 1 – sometimes in a year, 2 – once a month or less, 3 – sometimes during the month, 4 – once a week, 5 – sometimes during the week, 6 – every day).

Each questionnaire was conducted in the presence of researchers and all respondents were guaranteed total anonymity.

ProceduresTwo months prior to the introduction of the proposed programme aimed

at optimizing university department management, a team of three researchers interviewed 205 foreign languages teachers from seven Ukrainian universities to understand the complexities of teaching experiences from their points of view and reasons for the lowering of their general self-efficacy. A team of researchers also observed how the selected respondents worked together: performed their professional activities connected with teaching, managed collaboration, or con-flict in the workplace, were ready to help colleagues, were able to organize special events and connect with colleagues from different departments and universities etc. Then, all respondents were asked to respond to the questionnaire on general self-efficacy (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996).

After the initial assessment of foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy and job burnout experimental and control groups were formed and the work aimed at optimizing the foreign language department management started. Such work was provided for 101 foreign language teachers (the experimental group). The 104 foreign language teachers who represented the control group continued working as usual. The programme aimed at optimizing the foreign language department management by preventing job burnout included: the creation of professional learning networks within the selected departments; giving assign-ments connected with the organization of conferences, round-table discussions, seminars, workshops and department presentations to mini-groups of teachers with different levels of organizational and communicative skills; running various training sessions and refresher courses on the development of foreign language teachers’ resilience in the face of professional problems.

Thus, the first measure concerning prevention of job burnout was connected with the creation of professional learning networks. According to Rheingold, a professional learning network is a group of people linked by their participation in computer networks (Rheingold, 1993). Trust, Krutka and Carpenter (2016) believe that professional learning networks are “uniquely personalized, complex


systems of interactions consisting of people, resources, and digital tools that sup-port ongoing learning and professional growth” (p. 35). As a source of collegial support, emotional engagement and reflection, sharing and filtering new ideas (Lantz-Anderson, Lundin & Selwynal, 2018), professional learning networks pro-vide continuing professional development for their members. Our practical expe-rience shows that participating in professional learning networks, foreign language teachers become more confident in handling different tasks. This happens because facing mutual challenges in the working place, members of professional learning networks try to find a common solution and accept common responsibility for its success or failure. Communication of the department teaching staff via Viber and Facebook Messenger enabled them to share different teaching materials, to be informed about important events, to discuss some acute problems and not to be afraid of voicing their opinions.

The second measure preventing job burnout involved giving assignments connected with the organization of conferences, round-table discussions, semi-nars, workshops and department presentations to mini-groups of teachers with different levels of organizational and communicative skills. Grouping foreign language teachers with different levels of organizational and communicative skills promotes the development of the sense of involvement and belonging to one community, building trust, reciprocity, patience, open-mindedness, appreciation of differences and mutual help. The use of group assignments in managing the department’s teaching staff ensures mutual assistance and a sense of unity with a definite purpose.

The third measure preventing burnout included running various training sessions and refresher courses on the development of the resilience of foreign language teachers in the face of professional problems. Participation of the department’s teaching staff in training sessions and refresher courses organized by department head provides foreign language teachers with necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes and enables them to perform their professional functions prop-erly in accordance with all the requirements of the higher educational institutions.

To achieve the main aim of the research two hypotheses were formulated:H 1: The introduction of the proposed programme, aimed at optimizing the

foreign language department management by preventing job burnout in day-to-day operation of the departments, considerably influences the increase of foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy and substantially facilitates the creation of a culture of trust and support among the teaching staff.

H 2: The introduction of the proposed programme aimed at optimizing the foreign language department management by preventing job burnout in day-to-


day operation of the departments has little impact on foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy and the creation of a culture of trust and support among the teaching staff.

Results and Discussion

The results of the interviews show that 93% are not satisfied with their workload, mentioning that the necessity to spend significant amounts of time in the work-place does not provide opportunities for personal and professional enrichment and self-discovery. Thus, although according to the new Ukrainian law “On Higher Education” the maximal load intended for regular teaching activity only is 600 hours per academic year (hours intended only for teaching activity), it is hardly possible to assess the total work load of university teachers. This is because, apart from teaching activity, university teachers have to take part in different confer-ences, seminars, prepare research-based reports, organize round-table discussions with students and colleagues etc.

82% of all respondents are convinced that the salaries they earn is the strongest negative factor in the development of self-efficacy beliefs and the desire to perform their professional functions properly. The small salaries paid to university teachers drive them to seek additional sources of income which results in irritability, fatigue and lack of time.

63% of all respondents admit that they have problems dealing with colleagues. These problems are mostly connected with individual differences between foreign language teachers, their education and work experience and unwillingness to show their incompetence in some issues.

The results of the observations, which included attendance of department heads at open English language classes and foreign language teachers’ performance evaluations, demonstrate that the majority of foreign language teachers are rather indifferent and are not interested in students’ achievements. Despite having con-siderable experience, 75% of the foreign language department’s teaching staff is not able to solve tasks concerning the organization of different events (round-table discussions, seminars, workshops, conferences etc). Moreover, when faced with a problem they lose self-confidence and self-control which, in turn, results in inability to take a sound decision.

Table 3 shows the rating of job burnout components and self-efficacy levels by foreign language teachers at seven Ukrainian higher educational institutions (N=205).


Table 3. The rating of job burnout components and self-efficacy levels by foreign languages teachers at seven Ukrainian higher educational institutions

IndicatorsN Mini-

mumMaxi-mum Mean Std. De-

viation Variance

Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Statistic

Emotional exhaustion 205 13 42 27.16 1.431 7.967 63.473

Depersonali-zation 205 5 24 14.06 0.866 4.823 23.262

Reduced professional accomplish-ments

205 9 46 35.74 1.381 7.690 59.131

General self-efficacy 205 23 37 30.61 0.741 4.143 17.455

The obtained results were compared with standard ratings on the Maslach Burnout Inventory for educators. The comparison showed that the susceptibility to burnout was recorded by foreign language teachers at Ukrainian higher educational institutions is higher than the standard indicators for the sub-scales of “Emotional Exhaustion” and “Reduction of Professional Accomplishment” (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.05); there are no differences for the “Depersonalization” sub-scale.

Correlation analysis shows that foreign language teachers’ self-efficacy nega-tively correlates with emotional exhaustion (p<0.01) and reduction of professional accomplishment (p<0.05), but shows no correlation with depersonalization (Table 4). In other words, signs of emotional exhaustion (emotional state, irritability, indifference, lack of motivation etc.) and reduction of professional accomplish-ment are shown in foreign language teachers, who often question their ability to solve various professional problems effectively. Beliefs in self-efficacy, in view of this, can be regarded as an emotional and meaningful resource to resist burnout in professional activity. Thus, we can conclude that foreign language teachers’ beliefs in self-efficacy are connected to signs of job burnout.

Table 4. Correlation between foreign language teachers’ self-efficacy and job burnout components

Emotional exhaustion Depersonalization Reduction of profes-sional accomplishment

Self-efficacy r = –0.25, p < 0.01 r = –0.11, p > 0.05 r = 0.17, p < 0.05*


Linear regression analysis was used to find cause-and-effect relationships of job burnout components (dependent variable) from independent variables – self-effi-cacy indicators presented in the questionnaire’s statements.

The regressive equation of “Emotional Exhaustion” component shown in Table 5 with a multiple coefficient correlation of 0.694 and a determination coefficient of 0.493 is statistically valid. This regressive model explains 49% of the variance of the dependent variable and is relevant according to the Fisher criterion (13.22, p=0.001).

The most influential predictors of emotional exhaustion are the following statements, all of which all had a negative contribution “I can always manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough” (B=–.824, p < 0.005); “I am confident that I could deal efficiently with unexpected events” (B=–.744, p < 0.007); “I can solve most problems if I invest the necessary effort” (B=–.640, p < 0.021). While the statement “I can remain calm when facing difficulties because I can rely on my coping abilities” (B=.510, p < 0.023) had a positive contribution. The contribution of these predictors in emotional exhaustion (49% of the distribution, p < 0.001) confirms that the insecurity of a person in his/her ability to effectively cope with life and professional problems plays a very important role in determination of emotional exhaustion. That is why the foreign language teachers with a high level of self-efficacy do not tend to experience job burnout (Table 5).

Table 5. The results of the regressive analysis on emotional exhaustion component

Β Beta T Sig.(p<) Model statistics

(Constant) 45.770 4.353 0.000

R = 0.694 R² =0.493

(49%) F (13.22) P <0.001

If someone opposes me, I can find means and ways to get what I want

–3.872 –0.371 –1.786 0.049

I can always manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough

9.765 –0.824 3.193 0.005

I can remain calm when facing difficulties because I can rely on my coping abilities

4.979 0.510 2.460 0.023

I can solve most problems if I invest the necessary effort –8.979 0.640 –2.497 0.021

I am confident that I could deal efficiently with unexpected events

–8.470 –0.744 –3.011 0.007


The findings show a close cause-and-effect relationship between the high level of foreign language teachers’ job burnout and lowering of the level of self-effi-cacy. Table 6 demonstrates the results obtained among the respondents in the experimental and control groups, before and after the experimental work aimed at optimizing the foreign language department management.

Table 6. The results obtained among the respondents in the experimental and control groups before and after implementation of the developed programme

Sub-scale GroupThe low level of self-efficacy (%)

The medium level of self-efficacy (%)

The high level of self-efficacy (%)

Before After Before After Before AfterEmotional exhaustion

Experimental 48* 30* 37 48 15 22Control 46 44 39 38 15 18

Depersonaliza-tion

Experimental 46 50 43 44 11 6Control 40 39 44 46 16 15

Reduced per-sonal accom-plishment

Experimental 25 29 57* 40* 18 31Control 30 34 50 45 20 21

Note:* − statistically significant changes after the developed programme implementation

The obtained results enable it to be stated that there were no significant changes in the control group before and after the experimental work aimed at optimizing foreign language department management. In the experimental group consider-able changes were identified on such sub-scales as “Emotional exhaustion” and “Reduced personal accomplishments”. We have to note that after implementation of the developed programme the level of emotional exhaustion among the exper-imental group respondents who demonstrated the low level of self-efficacy was reduced from 48% to 30 % (significant at p < 0.05). The level of reduced personal accomplishment among the experimental group respondents who had a medium level of self-efficacy was reduced from 57% to 40% (significant at p < 0.05); levels of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment declined among 13% of the experimental group respondents with high level of self-efficacy (statistically insignificant results which can be regarded as a tendency). On the “Depersonalization” sub-scale however, no significant changes were identified. Thus, the first hypothesis, which was an assumption that the optimization of for-eign language department management by preventing job burnout in day-to-day operation of the departments would considerably influence the increase of foreign


language teacher general self-efficacy and substantially facilitate the creation of a culture of trust and support among teaching staff was confirmed. The second hypothesis, which was an assumption that the optimization of the foreign language department management by preventing job burnout in day-to-day operations of the departments would have little impact on foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy and the creation of a culture of trust and support among teaching staff, was rejected.

Conclusions

The main objective of the study which was to present theoretical and empirical research on investigating the optimization of university department management by preventing job burnout in university teaching staff resulted in increasing their self-efficacy. The main objective was achieved by developing a programme aimed at optimizing university department management by preventing job burnout in foreign language teachers; confirming the correlation between the foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy and job burnout and summarizing the findings of the research in investigation into optimization of university department management.

The obtained findings showed that the optimization of foreign language department management by preventing job burnout in day-to-day operations of the departments resulted in the increase of foreign language teachers’ general self-efficacy and creation of a culture of trust and support among the department teaching staff.

While researchers investigating the problem of optimizing university depart-ment management by preventing job burnout can take into consideration the implications of the present study, further research is recommended in this area.

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Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117–148.Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psycho-

logical Review, 84(2), 191–215.Cherry, K. (2018). Self-Efficacy: Why believing in yourself matters. Available at https://

www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-efficacy-2795954 (Accessed: 10th December, 2018).

Lantz-Andersson, A., Lundin, M., & Selwyn, N. (2018). Twenty years of online teacher


communities: A systematic review of formally-organized and informally developed professional learning groups. Teacher and Teacher Education, 75, 302–315.

Maslach, C., Jackson, S.E., &Leiter, M.P. (1996). Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual. 3rd Edition, Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.

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Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.

Trust, T, Krutka, D.G. &Carpenter, J.P. (2016) “Together We Are Better”: Professional Learning Networks for Teachers. Computers & Education, 102, 15–34, doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2016.06.007.

Identifying the Perceptions of Academic Staff on Internationalization in the Higher Education

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.06

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of instructors of internationalization in higher education. The sample of this study consists of 325 faculty members working at four different universities. The data were collected using a scale developed by the researchers. According to findings scale points of the female instructors are better than the male instructors in the foreign language and academic sub-scales. It is seen that perception level of the instructors who were stayed in a foreign country for their education are better than the ones who were not in the academic sub-scale. It is also observed that perceptions of instructors who went to a congress or symposium abroad are better than the ones who did not go to a congress and symposium abroad in the foreign language dimension.

Keywords: Globalization, Internationalization in Turkey, Higher Education, Internationalization in Higher Education.

Introduction

With the development of information and communication technologies, people can easily access information anywhere in the world, which is transforming into a global village. As a result, the boundaries of national economic, cultural, social and educational areas will decline and this process will lead countries, societies, and foundations toward internationalization. The internationalization concept

Muhammet Muhsin Umurbek TurkeyMurat TaşdanTurkey

73Identifying the Perceptions of Academic Staff

has been used in the education sector since the 1980s. In earlier 21st Century, transnational education, borderless education, and cross-border education con-cepts came into prominence (Knight, 2015). The internationalization process in an educational establishment requires an integrated education, and a comprehensive and miscellaneous action program. Internationalization is a counter-hegemonic, continuous, comprehensive and miscellaneous phenomenon that must be inte-grated into the process (Schoorman, 2000).

Cantu (2013) stated that instructors who attend international research and education activities, attend international conferences and networks are important for the internationalization of the institution of higher education. However, he stated that there were lacks of coordination, limited economic resources, infor-mation administrative policies and procedures, and support staff in this process. In their study, Cantwell and Maldonado (2009) describe internationalization as the response of institutions to globalization. Altbach and Knight (2007) stated that it is important for higher education institutions to engage in international initiatives and to increase the quality of the institution in this regard. Altbach, Reisberg, and Rumbley (2009) stated that internationalization in higher education institutions has turned into economic, technological and scientific trends. Khalid, Ali, Khaleel, Islam and Shu (2017) stated that internationally experienced faculty members are important to the university, that quality assurance and accreditation are important, and that it is necessary to allocate economic resources for inter-nationalization.

Problem of ResearchWith the pressure of globalization, the higher education system, like many

institutions, is involved in the process of internationalization. The process of internationalization imposes new responsibilities on universities in academic and administrative terms. This study is important in terms of determining the perceptions of instructors about the internationalization process in Turkish higher education in the recent period.

Research FocusThe main purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of the instructors

of the Kafkas, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen, Iğdır and Ardahan Universities of internation-alization in higher education. Specifically: Do perceptions of the academic staff of internationalization in higher education show a significant difference according to their gender, age, whether they participate in congresses and symposia abroad, whether they have studied abroad, and the university they work in?

74 Muhammet Muhsin Umurbek, Murat Taşdan


General Background of ResearchThe aim of this study is to determine the perceptions of instructors of interna-

tionalization in higher education. This research was descriptive and quantitative in method and screening models were used.

Sample of ResearchA two-stage sample was taken in the study. In the first stage, each of the four

universities constituting the universe of the study was accepted as a layer and a stratified sample was taken. A proportional sample was taken by taking into account the ratio of the instructors of each university within the universe. In order to provide diversity in terms of variables in the third stage, it was decided, by a simple random sampling method, which measurement tool was to be applied to the instructor at the university. Accordingly, the target population of the study consists of 1923 instructors that are working in Iğdır, Kafkas, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen, and Ardahan University and the research sample consists of 325 instructors that are chosen from these four universities.

When the distribution of the sample according to age was examined, 71 (21.8%) of the instructors were 25–30 years old, 111 (34.2%) were 31–36 years, and 67 (20.6%) 37–42 and 61 (18.8%) were in the age range of 43 years and older. When the distribution of the sample according to gender was examined, 109 (33.5%) of the instructors were female and 216 (66.5%) were male. When the participants were examined as to whether they had received education abroad, 87 (26.9%) answered yes, 236 (73%) answered no. When the participants’ participation in international congresses and symposiums was examined, 155 (47.6%) answered yes and 170 (52.3%) answered no. When the distribution of the sample by univer-sity was examined, 148 (45.5%) of the instructors are working at Kafkas University, 71 (21.8%) are working at Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, 53 (16.3%) are working at Ardahan University and 53 (16.3%) are working in Iğdır University.

Instrument and ProceduresThe data collection tool used in the research consists of two different sections.

The first section contains introductory information. The answers related to the items in the second section were collected by researchers by the “The Scale of Determining Perceptions of Academic Staff of Internationalization in the Higher Education”. On the scale used, each item is answered through a 5-point Likert-type rating scale between (1) Strongly Disagree and (5) Strongly Agree.


An expert opinion was used for the logical validity of the scale. The validity and reliability analysis of the scale items were determined by applying them on 195 lecturers. According to this, exploratory factor analysis was applied for a validity study of the scale items and analysis was made of the preliminary results. The KMO coefficient was 0.87, and the Bartlett Sphericity test result was significant for exploratory factor analysis of the data set (p <.05). The total variance explained by the scale was calculated as 49.11%. The scale has four factors. The reliability of the scale was determined by Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient. The Cronbach Alpha value of the academic staff ’s Perception of Internationalization in Higher Education Scale is 0.87 Cronbach alpha values for sub-dimensions, Academic dimension was calculated as 0.94, education-teaching-management dimension is 0.83, stakeholder dimension is 0.80, foreign language is 0.82.

Results of Research

Table 1. Arithmetic mean and standard deviation values for academic dimension

Scale Item X– SD4 International studies should be encouraged. 4.63 .612 Taking part in international projects develops academic staff. 4.59 .613 To follow international education standards, develops academic staff. 4.53 .638 I would like to see better cooperation between foreign universities and ours

in terms of internationalization.4.47 .65

7 Academic activities of the university should be encouraged for the academic staff to work abroad.

4.44 .65

12 International students should be guided to overcome compliance problems. 4.30 .7116 It is important for me to speak a foreign language fluently. 4.42 .725 Programs used in education should have international standardization. 4.39 .7318 It is important for me to know and learn a different culture. 4.31 .731 It is beneficial for the university to have an academic who studies abroad. 4.42 .7715 Effective accreditation and development of quality assurance policies are

important for internationalization.4.19 .73

6 Scientific activities to be organized by the university must be of an interna-tional standard.

4.34 .78

9 The exchange of students with universities abroad contributes to the interna-tionalization of the university.

4.15 .76

17 A mindset of universal thinking for internationalization is important. 4.32 .8019 Being in a multicultural campus environment is important to me. 4.18 .79


Scale Item X– SD13 For internationalization, students from abroad should be encouraged and

supported.4.09 .80

14 The key role of a university in internationalization is activated by the work of the foreign affairs office.

4.01 .80

10 Students who come to the university from abroad contribute to internation-alization.

3.88 .85

11 Performing scientific activities with students from abroad is a step towards internationalization.

3.88 .86

20 International students need to be offered part-time job opportunities. 3.66 .89

When Table 1 is examined, the academic staff thinks that academic staff should be encouraged to work at the international level (= 4.63), and to take part in inter-national projects (= 4.59) and it is important to follow international educational standards (= 4.53).

Table 2. The values of arithmetic mean and standard deviation related to education-teaching-management dimension

Scale Item X– SD24 The publications of our university follow international standards. 3.07 .8523 The faculty members of our university conduct scientific activities

at the international level.3.01 .90

21 The training programs implemented at our university are accredited using international standards.

3.12 .98

25 Our university organizes scientific activities for internationalization. 2.96 .9428 The management of our university is open to international accredita-

tion.3.04 1.00

22 Our university considers international standards in the choice of aca-demic staff.

2.71 1.06

26 Our university is recognized internationally. 2.38 .9427 Our university is an international brand. 2.11 .91

When Table 2 is examined, it is observed that the teaching programs imple-mented at the universities are partially considered accredited by international standards (= 3.12); and the publications of the universities are partially according to international standards (= 3.07). In addition to these, the academic personnel thinks that their universities are not an international brand (= 2.11).


Table 3. Arithmetic mean and standard deviation values of stakeholders

Scale Item X– SD36 The bureaucratic procedures applied in the process of internationalization

are exaggerated.3.41 .90

35 The non-govermental and private sector does not contribute to internation-alization enough.

3.50 .95

32 The economic resource allocated is not enough for carrying out the interna-tionalization process effectively.

3.63 .99

34 There is a problem in terms of coordination between foreign student offices and police forces, immigration offices, social security institutions, banks, etc.

3.21 .89

31 The incentives for scientific research projects are insufficient. 3.65 1.0537 Our university is insufficient in organizing activities that will help interna-

tional academic members to adapt.3.37 1.00

29 The standards of our university are poor in internationalization. 3.02 1.0333 The university website is not clear, understandable or guiding for interna-

tional academics.3.07 1.13

30 The institutional culture of our university is not suited to internationaliza-tion.

3.06 1.17

When Table 3 is examined, the teaching staff stated that there are not enough economic resources (= 3.63), that the incentives and support for the effective implementation of scientific resources are not adequate (= 3.65) and that non-gov-ernmental organizations and the private sector do not contribute sufficiently to internationalization (= 3.50).

Table 4. Arithmetic mean, and standard deviation values of foreign language dimension

Scale Item X– SD42 There should be opportunities for academic staff to learn foreign languages. 4.43 .69

44 There should be campus activities where intercultural interaction will be ensured.

4.19 .72

43 Activities should be organized to communicate with foreign faculty mem-bers.

4.13 .79

39 Foreign language education programs should be offered. 4.12 .8741 In internationalization, I think the first step is the knowledge and capability

in a foreign language.3.74 1.00

38 The language of globalization is English. 3.83 1.0640 Announcements on the university campus should be made in different

foreign languages as well as Turkish.3.61 1.05


When Table 4 is examined, the academic staff thinks that they should be able to learn a foreign language and universities should offer opportunities in this respect (= 4.43), In addition, they think that the language of globalization is English (= 3.83). Table 5 shows the Mann Whitney U test results of the gender on the scale for determining the perceptions of academic personnel about internationalization in higher education.

Table 5. U test results by gender variable

Dimensions Gender N Row Avg. Row Total U P

AcademicFemale 109 177.44 19341.51 10197.57 .04Male 216 155.76 33633.58

Education-Training--Management

Female 109 152.00 16568.56 10573.58 .13Male 216 168.54 36406.59

StakeholdersFemale 109 168.01 18313.50 11225.56 .49Male 216 160.47 34661.54

Foreign languageFemale 109 184.91 20156 9383 .00Male 216 151.96 32819

There is a significant difference between the male academic staff and the female academic staff in the academic dimension of the scale (U=10197, p<.05). Consid-ering the rank averages, it is understood that international academic perceptions of female instructors are higher than the perceptions of male instructors. In the foreign language dimension of the scale, there was a significant difference between the female lecturers and male instructors’ perceptions of international foreign language (U=9383, p<.00). When the averages are taken into consideration, it is understood that the female foreign lecturers’ perceptions of an international foreign language are higher than males. Table 6 shows the ANOVA test results for age on the scale of the determination of faculty members’ perceptions towards internationalization in higher education.

There is a significant difference in terms of age between faculty members’ perception of the foreign language dimension of scale (F (3,306) =2.94, p<.05). In other words, the perceptions of the teaching staff about the foreign language dimension differ significantly according to age. According to the results of the Tukey test conducted to find out which groups are responsible for the differences between units, the international foreign language perception of the 25–30 age group (= 29.23) was found to be higher than the 37–42 age group (= 27.27) and the 43 age and over group (= 27.31). Table 7 shows the independent groups’ t-test

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results on the participation of the academic staff in international congresses and symposiums in terms of the scale Perceptions of Internationalization in Higher Education.

Table 7. Results of t-test according to the variable of participation in international congress and symposium

Dimension Answer N X– SS df t p

AcademicYes 155 84.25 12.44 323 0.176 0.23No 170 84.47 10.11

Education-Training-ManagementYes 155 22.63 5.72 323 0.41 0.20No 170 22.38 5.36

StakeholdersYes 155 24.28 6.44 323 0.33 0.45No 170 24.05 6.02

Foreign languageYes 155 28.06 4.99 323 0.22 0.00No 170 27.95 4.01

There is a significant difference between the scores of the lecturers’ participation in international congresses and symposia and the foreign language dimension scores of the scale (t (323) = .22, p<.05). When the averages are examined, it is concluded that the academic staff who attend international congresses and sympo-siums have higher international foreign language perceptions than those who do not attend. Table 8 shows the results of the Mann Whitney U test for the academic staff ’s perception of internationalization in higher education in terms of whether they have ever been abroad or not.

Table 8. U test results according to having been abroad

Dimension Answer N Row Avg. Row Total U P

AcademicYes 87 182.92 15912.50 8447.50 .01No 236 154.23 36413.50

Education-Training-ManagementYes 87 162.03 14096.50 10263.50 .99No 236 161.99 38229.50

StakeholdersYes 87 166.50 14446.50 9913.50 .63No 236 160.51 37879.50

Foreign languageYes 87 164.06 14273.50 10086.50 .80No 236 161.24 38052.50


In the academic dimension of the scale, there was a significant difference between the academic staff who have had a chance to study abroad and those who have not (U=8447.5, p<.05). Considering the rank averages, it is understood that the international academic perceptions about students who are studying abroad are higher than those who are not. Table 9 shows the results of the Kruskal Wallis H test on perceptions of the academic staff of the internationalization of higher education according to the university currently worked in.

Table 9. Kruskal Wallis H test results according to the university variable

Dimensions University N Row Avg. df x2 p

Academic

Kafkas Univ. 148 168.25 3 2.994 .39Iğdır Univ. 53 164.50Ardahan Univ. 53 169.24Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen Univ. 71 146.11

Education-Train-ing-Management


Stakeholders


Foreign language


It is seen that there is a significant difference between the academic staff working in different universities in terms of perceived levels on the scale of education-management (=15.308, p<.001). It is determined that the international education-teaching-management perceptions of Ardahan University and Iğdır University lecturers are higher than the perceptions of academic staff working in Kafkas University. There is a significant difference in terms of university between the scores of the scale for stakeholders, (=11.355, p<.05). Kafkas University’s per-ception of international stakeholders was higher than Ardahan University.


Discussion and Conclusion

The academic personnel think that the educational programs implemented at the university they work at are not accredited to an international standard, they also think that international standards are not taken into consideration when choosing the academic staff of the university and that scientific publications in the university do not fully comply with international standards. However, Hou (2011), suggested in his study that employing international students and academic staff and establishing campuses/colleges abroad would make the institution more competitive in internationalization. The academic personnel also thinks that the university’s internationalization standards are not adequate for the internation-alization of the university’s corporate culture. On the contrary, Svetlik and Lalić (2016) stated that it is necessary for the institution to increase its international standards and to work in international research and be required to be involved in studies to promote learning studies. The academic personnel thinks that the website of their university is not clear, understandable or guiding for international academic personnel. This runs counter to Ardakani, Yarmohammadian, Abari, and Fathi, (2011) who stated that it is important to organize the web pages of universities in the context of internationalization.

In the research academic staff think that there is a coordination problem between institutions and international student units such as police forces, migration offices, social security institutions, banks, etc. It is also stated that non-governmental organizations and the private sector do not contribute enough to internationalization. In the research, the academic personnel thinks that the university they work in is insufficient in organizing activities that could help the international academic personnel to adapt. The universities should bear in mind the fact that White and Domene (2017) stated that internationalization could be used as a tool to provide diversity on campus and to develop international teaching and research relations. Hayward (2000), in his study, refers to internationalization as the development of instruction according to various cultural views, in order to achieve a position among the societies of the world by integrating an international approach to curricula.

In the research the perception of female academic staff with regards to inter-national academic and foreign language concepts is higher than the perception of male instructors. When the foreign language dimension of the scale is examined, foreign language perception of the 25–30 age group is higher than the age groups 37–42 and 43 and above. It was determined that the foreign language perceptions


of the lecturers attending international congresses and symposia were higher than those who did not attend. The academic perceptions of the academic staff who were found to have studied abroad are higher than the perceptions of the instructors who do not have this opportunity. The lecturers think that the language of globalization is English. They believe that the education programs should be presented in a foreign language, the announcements made on the university campus should be done in different foreign languages and that there should be opportunities for academic staff to learn foreign languages and opportunity for intercultural interaction should be provided. This echoes Qiang (2003), who in his study emphasizes that the institution should give importance to foreign language studies.

ReferencesAltbach, P.G., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L.E. (2009). Trends in global higher education:

Tracking an academic revolution. A Report Prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education, 1–278.

Altbach, P.G., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. Journal of studies in international education, 11(3–4), 290–305.

Ardakani, F., B., Yarmohammadian M., H., Abari, A., A., F. & Fathi, K. (2011). İnterna-tionalization of higher education systems. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences. 15, 1690–1695.

Cantu, P., N. (2013). Three effective strategies of internationalization in American Univer-sities. Journal of International Education and Leadership. 3(3), 1–12.

Cantwell, B., & Maldonado-Maldonado, A. (2009). Four stories: Confronting contemporary ideas about globalisation and internationalisation in higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 7(3), 289–306. DOI: 10.1080/14767720903166103.

Hayward, F.M. (2000). Internationalization of US. Higher education: Preliminary Status Report. Washington, DC 20055–0191.

Hou, A.Y.C. (2011). Quality assurance at a distance: international accreditation in Taiwan higher education. Higher Education, 61(2), 179–191.

Khalid, J., Ali, A.J., Khaleel, M., & Islam, M.S. (2017). Towards Global Knowledge Society; A SWOT Analysis of Higher Education of Pakistan in Context of Internationaliza-tion. Journal of Business, 2(2), 08–15.

Knight, J. (2015). Updated definition of internationalization. International higher education. (33). 2–3. DOİ:10.6017/ihe.2003.33.7391.

Qiang, Z. (2003). Internationalization of higher education: towards a conceptual frame-work. Policy Futures in Education, 1(2), 248–270.

Schoorman, D. (2000). What really do we mean by ‘internationalization? Contemporary Education, 71(4), 5.


Svetlik, I. & Lalić, A.B. (2016) The impact of the internationalisation of higher education on academic staff development – the case of Slovenian public universities, Studies in Higher Education, 41(2), 364–380, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2014.942266.

White, M. & Domene, J. (2017). Education in the context of internationalization, immi-gration, and forced migration: Introduction to the Special Issue. Antistasis, 6(2). 1–4.

Special Pedagogy

The Designation of Geometry Teaching Tools for Visually-Impaired Students Using Plastic Geoboards

Created by 3D Printing

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.07

AbstractIn the present study, plastic geoboards and accessories were created as geom-etry teaching tools for visually-impaired students, using 3D printing. Lines, shapes, and angles were illustrated by stretching rubber bands around rivet heads on a geoboard with square edge of 10 x 10 grid array and circular edge of 4-quadrant graph. The coordinate points of 2D geometry were explored by blind touch on braille scales and raised grid lines, while z-axis pillars were used for 3D geometry by connecting rubber bands to the plane. The experimental group revealed significantly more learning achievement than did the control group, and all participants agreed that the new geoboards enhanced the mental imagery and understanding of geometry.

Keywords: geometry, geoboard, teaching tool, 3D printing, visually-impaired students

Introduction

Geometry is one area of mathematics for teaching about lines, line segments, rays, angles and geometric shapes. The contents are developed to learn how to measure lengths of lines, angles, perimeters and areas of 2D shapes. The volumes and surface areas of 3D shapes can be calculated using geometry concepts. Almost

Nachaphan JunthongThailandSuchapa NetpraditThailandSurapon BoonlueThailand

88 Nachaphan Junthong, Suchapa Netpradit, Surapon Boonlue

all geometry problems require a drawing which cannot be used on a Braille typewriter. Zahra, Budayasa, & Juniati (2018) interviewed blind students about their interpretation of two-dimensional shapes according to their thinking. They explained that “the visual experience of a blind student with total blindness from birth has an important role in the way s/he illustrates or describes a two dimen-sional shape. The shape and the length of the subject line is explored by using tactual ability through its sense of touch”. Jurmang (2015) found that the new adapted teaching strategy developed applied orientation and mobility programme gave access to learners with visual impairment to participate in geometry and it enhanced task performance of the learners in geometry. Sibiya & Mudaly (2018) investigated the effects of the Geoboard on learners’ understanding of geometric theorems in two secondary schools. The results revealed that Geoboards improved learners’ understanding of geometric theorems, especially understanding geomet-ric terminology and reasoning.

Recently, geoboards have become popular effective tools for teaching geometry to visually-impaired students. Geoboards can benefit teachers and students by helping to capture their explanation of a geometric concept for discovery or illustration by students with visual-impairments, low vision and normal vision. There are several teaching tools available on the market that can serve this purpose effectively; however, the imported products are too expensive. Therefore, teachers need to implement certain techniques to provide visually-impaired students with an effective math education by using braille cards. Mathematics’ teachers in schools for the blind always need geometry teaching tools for students who are blind or visually impaired.

In our previous work (Junthong, Netpradit, & Boonlue, 2017), the requirements of teachers and visually-impaired students in mathematics classes of many schools for the blind were obtained using semi-structured interviews. The information revealed that the most difficult content was geometry and that the teaching tools were not sufficiently effective for visually-impaired students in elementary classes. The braille books were not good enough for the students’ understanding because students need real materials/objects to improve their visual imagery. All visual-ly-impaired students also need 3D models to help them with their blind touch following the teachers’ instruction, in order to enhance their learning, especially for geometry. The researchers found that the old wooden geoboards in the mathe-matics classes at the Bangkok School for the Blind were large, heavy, colorless and hard to use. There were carved grid lines on a plane with square edges and circular edges which were designed by Chaiyadech (2011), as shown in Fig. 1. According to

89The Designation of Geometry Teaching Tools for Visually-Impaired

the difficulty of wooden geoboard making and carrying, we propose to replace the existing model with the unlimited design of light and colorful geoboards.

Figure 1. The traditional wooden geoboard with square edges and Chaiyadech’s geoboard with circular edges

Recently, 3D printing technology is one of the most advantageous technolo-gies for inventions, when compared to the traditional manufacturing methods (Tractus3D, 2019) because of the high level of accuracy and the ability to make decisions which reduce cost, time, and errors. Loconsole, Leonardis, Bergamasco, and Frisoli (2016) investigated how Braille characters can be produced through the upcoming 3D printing technology and explained that “the printing algorithm and printer parameters can be modified and optimized for Braille”. Visually-impaired volunteers evaluated the different printing approaches in terms of readability and comfort in reading. The optimal dimensions of braille dots for readability and raised lines for easy exploring by the sense of touch were tested with fourth-grade visually-impaired students (Junthong, Netpradit, & Boonlue, 2018). We found that the appropriate dot height of each braille cell for 3D printing should be increased to 1.5 mm, however the dot cell diameter was 1.5 mm as with standard braille (Loconsole, et al., 2016). Implementation has also been tested by the teachers of mathematics in a school for the blind. Therefore, the researchers produced new teaching/learning materials by creating a set of geoboards developed as per the users’ requirement by using 3D printing, in which the material was joined or solidified under computer control, in order to create a three-dimensional model. The properties of the geoboard models were sometimes adjusted to be optimized for the users’ requirements.

Research QuestionsIn this study, the researchers created and produced new geoboards with a square

edge and circular edge for teaching about line segments, shape areas, angles, circle components, and 3D geometric shapes; cube, pyramid, prism, etc. Colorful porta-


ble effective geoboards were mainly designed for low-vision and visually-impaired students in an elementary classroom at the Bangkok School for the Blind, Thailand. New teaching tools, including plastic geoboard, arrowheads, pillars and 3D object models, were created so that the students could learn about geometry, 2D and 3D shapes with mental imagery ability improvement. The learning achievement was evaluated for the experimental group that studied using the new geoboard sets compared with the control group that studied using traditional tools. The perspectives of the students regarding their use of the new geoboard sets were observed. Therefore, the specific research questions were as follows:

1. Could the new plastic geoboards and other accessories be applicable to teach and learn for 2D and 3D geometry contents?

2. Does use of the new plastic geoboards improve the learning achievement in geometry with mental imagery abilities of visually-impaired students?

3. Do the new plastic geoboards satisfy the teachers and students in the math-ematics class who were the participants in this study?


InstrumentsThe new geoboards were created with several patterns and colors for prototype

testing using 3D software (SketchUp) and 3D printer (Flashforge Creator Pro). The plastic geoboards were designed to form solid objects under computer control using data from 3D modeling and design programs which were drafted and set up before being exported to a STL file format. The model drafting for the geoboard with a grid array in a square shape and with a circular shape was then printed by adding layers of Polylactic acid (PLA) filament that is molten within the printing nozzle, which extruded on the underneath printed layer, and cools down to ambi-ent temperature. The eco-friendly PLA filament was provided in a roll which is commercially distributed for below 30 USD. A colored geoboard was produced in 18 hours with half a roll using a small-size Flashforge Creator Pro 3D printer, as shown in Fig. 2.

The colorful materials were created to enhance the learning activities for the teachers, the low-vision students, and the visually-impaired students. The portable plastic geoboards were produced in an optimal size of 20 x 20 cm, with a thickness of 1.4 cm, for exploring and being held by children. There were two patterns: a 10 x 10 grid on x-axis and y-axis with a square edge and a 4-quadrant graph with a circular edge with 24 circumference scales. Each coordinate point


had a hole of 3.75 mm in diameter and 1.4 cm in depth for sticking half of rivets. In order to be used with visually-impaired students, there are braille scales to identify 0 to 10 on the x-axis and y-axis, and raised dots with two columns of three dots at the top-right corner as a symbol for the upright position. Z-axis pillars with different heights, identified by braille, were also created for 3D geometry teaching. On the circular edge, there were 4 quadrants identified by Arabic numbers and braille on the 4 corners. There were 24 points identified by the letters A to Y on the circumference with a 15-degree angle difference for teaching about circles and tangents. The central point was identified by the letter O and the circle diameter was 13 cm. Raised grid lines 1.5 mm in height were also generated for exploring direction by blind touch. The teaching tool set included other teaching accessories, such as rulers, protractors and arrow heads, as shown in Fig. 3. Solid objects; spheres, cones, cylinders, pyramids and cubes, were made of PLA plastic for teaching about 3D geometry. The teachers could teach the visually-impaired students about the surface areas and volumes of 3D shapes, as well as the areas and perimeters of 2D shapes. The 3D object models could be separated into unit segments for study of the composition and connection of it step by step.

Figure 2. The model of geoboards by drafting with the SketchUp 3D software and appli-cation of 3D printer in producing the PLA plastic geoboards


ParticipantsThe learning achievement regarding geometry between the experimental group

and the control group was evaluated by comparing mean scores on pre-test and post-tests. The participants in this study were 3 teachers and 15 students with visual impairment in a 4th grade elementary school class. The students were separated into 2 groups; an experimental group (n=8) and a control group (n=7) which were sampled using random cluster sampling. Three teachers who had experience of at least 7 years provided the information, requirements and suggestions during the process of the geoboard production. All of the students in the experimental group accepted participation in this research by signing an informed consent form, or by allowing a legal representative sign for him or her before the implementation of the study.

ProceduresThere were 15 periods of 1 hour each for different learning activities between

the experimental group and the control group. In the first period, all of the students

Figure 3. A plastic geoboard with square and circle edges including learning accessories, and the segments of 3D objects for spheres, cones, cylinders, pyramids and cubes


had a pre-test using 21 exercises based on the lessons in the book of The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (2008). The contents for teaching and assessment were limited to the basic scope of geometry lessons for primary education issued by the Ministry of Education in Thailand. The new geoboard set was introduced, presented, and demonstrated to the experimental group during the second period. After that, the experimental group studied using the new plastic geoboards, while the control group used the regular method with the same contents. The post-test was then conducted for both student groups in the classroom after the learning activities in every period. The differences in the mean scores between pre-test and post-test of the two groups were analyzed using independent two-sample t-tests. In order to evaluate their learning achievement, the significant scores were compared between the experimental group and the control group.

In the experiment, the researchers presented the new plastic geoboard and taught basic geometry to the experimental group of visually-impaired students, while the teacher of mathematics in the school taught the same contents to the control group using the regular tools. The contents of the teaching and assessment by post-test with exercises related to the lessons during the 15 periods are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Contents of teaching and assessment in the experimental group class

Peri

od Content of Teaching/As-

sessment

Assessment methods Tool and Figure

Scor

e1 Knowledge

background of students

Pre-test with 21 prob-lems or instructions

30

2 Introduction, Tool presentation, and Application of the new geoboard for learning about geometry

3 Straight line, Ray, Line seg-ment

Post-test: 2 exercises1. Draw a straight line.2. Draw a ray.

2


Peri


sessment


Scor

e

4–5 Angle, Angle types, Angle measurement

Post-test: 3 exercisesFrom figure:3. Where is the vertex of

the angle?4. Which angle is

bigger?5. Which angle is

smaller?

3

6–7 Right angle, Acute angle, Obtuse angle

Post-test: 3 exercisesFrom figure:6. Which one is a right

angle?7. Which one is not

a right angle?8. Which one is an acute

angle?

3

8–9 Several types of Rectangles

Post-test: 2 exercises9. Identify the types of

angles in a rectangle.10. Which one is a rec-

tangle?

7

10–11

Squares and Rectangles

Post-test: 2 exercises11. Draw a rectangle.From figure:12. Which one is

a square?

3

12 Diagonal and Parallel lines

Post-test: 2 exercisesFrom figure:13. Which line is a di-agonal?14. Which lines are parallel?

3

13–14

Circle Post-test: 2 exercisesFrom figure:15. Which line is a ra-

dius?16. Which lines are a ra-

dius and diameter?

4


Peri


sessment


Scor

e

15 Area of 2D shapes Volume of 3D shapes

Post-test: 5 exercisesFrom figure:17. Calculate the area of

a rectangle.18. Calculate the area of

a square19. Find the volume

of cube with a unit height.

20. Find the volume of a cube with a 2-unit height.

21. Find the volume of a 3D cube by stretching rubber bands round 4 pil-lars of 4 corners.

5

Data AnalysisThe differences in the mean scores between pre-test and post-test of the two

groups were analyzed using independent two-sample t-tests. In order to evaluate their learning achievement, the significant scores were compared between the experimental group and the control group. The quality of the tools and question-naire were checked by 5 experts: 2 mathematics teachers, 2 chiefs of the Educa-tional Technology for the Blind Center in Thailand, and 1 Director of Primary Mathematics at The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Tech-nology. The satisfaction level of the teachers and students that had used the new plastic geoboard was then determined using a Likert scale questionnaire. There were 3 main issues for evaluation: the quality of the teaching tools (9 items); the benefits of the learning activities (4 items); and the properties of real application (11 items). The questionnaire for the students was similar to that of the teachers but there were differences in a few items. There were open-ended questions on the participants’ opinions of the tool application, areas for improvement, and other suggestions. The data on the pretest-posttest and satisfaction level were collected after implementation to be analyzed using the SPSS program.


Results and Discussion of Research

Application of Teaching Tools for 2D GeometryA geoboard with a square edged grid was used to draw a straight line from 2

points and an angle of 2 lines from 3 points on the coordinate plane by stretching rubber bands around the geoboard’s rivets, which were half driven into the holes. Arrowheads could be attached to the line ends so that the students could learn geometry concerning straight lines, parallel lines, rays, right angles, acute angles and obtuse angles. The geoboard was also applied for learning about parallel lines and different angles so that the students could compare between right angles, acute angles and obtuse angles, as shown in Fig. 4.

Figure 4. Teaching about straight lines, parallel lines, rays, and angles on a geoboard

The shape of a square, rectangle and any 2D geometric shapes could be drawn from 4 points by stretching rubber bands around the rivet heads, as shown in Fig. 5. Since the distance between the points represented 1 unit (around 1 cm), the shape area could be used for teaching students to calculate. To find the area of a rectangle or a square, the students only need to find the length of one of the sides and the width of one of the other sides, and then multiply its height by its width to find the area.

Figure 5. Teaching about 2D shapes, parallelograms and diagonals on a geoboard

The plastic geoboard with a circular shape can be applied for teaching about different angle types such as acute angles, obtuse angles, right angles and also angle


measurements, or comparisons. The circle and circle components such as diameter, radius, circumference, and tangent can be studied for advanced mathematics. In addition, it can be applied for learning about 2D geometric shapes such as trian-gles, rectangles, and squares, as shown in Fig. 6.

Figure 6. Teaching about angles, circle components, squares and triangles on a geoboard

Application of Teaching Tools for 3D Geometry3D geometry using the z-axis can be applied on the geoboard by using a plas-

tic pillar to create a pyramid with square base as an object of a pyramid model. A pillar was stabbed down into the center and connected with rubber bands from the plane using 4 rivets, one by one, as shown in Fig. 7. A cube might be effectively created by using 4 pillars with rubber bands stretched around 4 corners to repre-sent an object of a cube model.

Figure 7. Teaching to create 3D shapes on a geoboard using z-axis pillars, similar to the object models of a pyramid and a cube

For the volume calculation of a cube, the students need to know the length of the square base, which can be explored from the raised grid lines on the geoboard. After the square base area is known, the volume can be found by multiplying it


by the height. Teachers must advise their students to compose the object model of the cube from one segment (1-unit height) to four segments (4-unit height). The students should learn that the volume of the cube will increase if the height is increased. The volume of 3D geometric shapes such as cubes, cylinders and pyramids is related to the base area and the factor of the height. The height of the object models from the base can be measured by counting the number of 1-unit segments.

Z-axis pillars with different heights of 4, 5 and 6 units can be used to teach 3D geometric shapes and volumes after the students understand the 3D object models. A pyramid with a triangular base, a pentagonal base, and a hexagonal base is rela-tively easy to work with. A prism might be effectively created by using more than one pillar, as shown in Fig. 8. Geometric lines and shapes can be created by either teachers or students, as well as many other items in the geometry syllabus. The raised grid lines with braille numbering are handy for identifying shape locations, measuring distance, and calculating areas or perimeters; and scales can be applied for measuring the diameter or radius of a circle on a cylinder, cone, or sphere and multiplying the area by the height to find the volume.

Figure 8. Teaching to create 3D geometric shapes for pyramids and prisms, similar to the three-dimensional object models on a plastic geoboard

Evaluation of Learning Achievement in GeometryAn independent t-test was used to determine the difference between the mean

scores of the pre-test and post-test for the experimental group versus the control group for the related content. The mean scores (x) and standard deviations (SD) for the pre-test and post-test are displayed in Tables 2 and 3. The t-test results


showed a significant difference for the experimental group (P<0.01), indicating that the new geoboards were more effective for learning and for the students’ understanding than the traditional teaching method. A lower SD of the post-test scores for the experimental group indicates that their scores tend to be close to the mean scores or the expected scores, while a higher SD of the post-test scores for the control group means that some students who learned with the regular method did not understand some contents of geometry.

Table 2. Achievement in learning about geometry using the new plastic geoboard related to the pre-test and post-test for the experimental group

Experimental group (N=8) Full score x SD t P

Pre-Test 30 7.75 2.25 50.55 .00**Post-Test 30 27.88 1.64

**P<0.01

Table 3. Achievement in learning about geometry using the new plastic geoboard related to the pre-test and post-test for the control group

Control group (N=7) Full score x SD t P

Pre-Test 30 6.43 2.70 9.49 .00**

Post-Test 30 15.14 4.81

**P<0.01

Evaluation of Participants’ SatisfactionA questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale was used to evaluate the satisfac-

tion levels of 3 teachers and 8 students in the Bangkok School for the Blind. The response showed that the new geoboards as a teaching tool were considered to be much more satisfactory than the traditional tool because the mean scores were very high (>4.8) in all areas, as shown in Table 4.

The results show that the tools made the classes more enjoyable for the vis-ually-impaired students and made them enthusiastic about learning with each other. Furthermore, geometry was not thought to be difficult to understand, if the visually-impaired students could generate their mental imagery on any topic using simulation-based learning from tangible objects. The learning activities of the experimental group in the class were observed, as shown in Fig. 9, and it was


revealed that the students rapidly knew how to apply the new geoboard set in the geometry class. They could draw various geometric shapes according to the teach-ers’ instructions and understand easily the contents of either 2D or 3D geometry. In addition, they paid more attention to their learning with enjoyment and showed a good attitude toward using the new plastic geoboard in their class. The teachers and 8 visually-impaired students in the 4th grade agreed that this new geoboard design and accessories were good teaching tools to support their imagery for the learning and understanding of geometric concepts.

Figure 9. Sets of geoboards and learning accessories for geometry teaching and learning

Conclusions

The new geometry teaching tools in the present study were designed according to the requirements of the teachers and visually-impaired students in the 4th grade in the Bangkok School for the Blind. The new plastic geoboards, including other accessories for the teaching and learning of geometry, were created and produced from colorful PLA using a 3D printer. They were seen to be effective teaching tools for many topics of geometry, such as lines, rays, angles, and 2D and 3D shapes. The students could learn to draw line segments and two-dimensional shapes on the

Table 4. The satisfaction level of the teachers and students with the new plastic geoboard compared to the old wooden geoboard

SamplesQualities of teaching tools Benefits of learning

activitiesProperties of tool

application X S.D. Satisfaction X S.D. Satisfaction X S.D. Satisfaction

Students 4.86 0.14 very satisfied 4.75 0.27 very satisfied 4.90 0.15 very satisfiedTeachers 4.81 0.23 very satisfied 5.00 0.00 very satisfied 5.00 0.00 very satisfied


geoboard with rivets and rubber bands. The geoboards can be used to learn about the areas and perimeters of 2D shapes as well as the surface areas and volumes of 3D shapes.

The prototype testing showed that the experimental group had a higher mean score on the post-test than did the control group, indicating that the learning achievement of the visually-impaired students who learn with the new geoboards is significantly higher than that of the students who learn with the regular tools. The participants’ satisfaction with the geoboards in terms of learning about geom-etry was evaluated highly on the part of the teachers and the students because the tangible teaching tools were considered more effective for understanding geometry with good visual imagery than when using the traditional tools. The students enjoyed learning to draw the geometric lines and shapes, and creating the 3D shapes.

AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank the experts at the Foundation for the Blind in Thailand under the royal patronage of Her Majesty the Queen, the Thai National Institute for the Blind for Research and Development, the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology, the Information Technology Service Center for the Blind, the Educational Technology for the Blind Center and the Bangkok School for the Blind.

ReferencesChaiyadech, J. (2011). Efficiency of using Geoboard compare with Geometric tactile mate-

rials: Case study of fifth grade students with Visual Impairment at school for the blind. M.S. thesis, M.A. (Rehabilitation Science for Persons with Disabilities), Ratchasuda Foundation (college), Mahidol University, Thailand.

Gattegno, Caleb (1971). Geoboard geometry. [S.l.]: Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc., 72.

Jurmang, I. (2015). Effect of Applied Orientation and Mobility Programme on Attitude and Achievement in Geometry of Learners with Visual Impairment in Abuja and Gindiri, doctoral dissertation, University of Jos, Nigeria, xiii.

Junthong, N. Netpradit, S. & Boonlue, S. (2017). The Study of Status and Needs for Instruc-tional Media of Blind Students from Upper Elementary School in Thailand. Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Education, Humanities and Social Sciences Studies (EHSSS-17), Singapore, 5–9.

Junthong, N. Netpradit, S. & Boonlue, S. (2018). Design and Development of Teaching Tools in Dimensional Geometry for Visually Impaired Students Using Object Models


from 3D Printing. Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Languages, Humani-ties, Education and Social Sciences (LHESS-18), Kyoto (Japan), April 19–20, 2018, 78–84.

Loconsole, C. Leonardis, D. Bergamasco, M. & Frisoli, A. (2016). An Experimental Study on Fused-Deposition-Modeling Technology as an Alternative Method for Low-Cost Braille Printing. Proceedings of the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Design for Inclusion, Florida (USA), July 27–31, 2016, 201–211. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41962-6_18.

Mudaly, V. & Sibiya, M. (2018). The effects of the Geoboard on learner understanding of geometric theorems. International Journal of Sciences and Research, 74, 90–98. DOI: 10.21506/j.ponte.2018.11.8.

Teachnology. (2019). What Is Geometry? When Do You Use It In The Real World?. Teachnology. Retrieved 1/12/2019, from https://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/subject_matter/math/geometry/

The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST), Ministry of Education. (2008). Nangsư rian raiwicha phưnthan khanittasat chan prathomsưksa pi thi si (Phim khrang thi 10) [Textbook mathematics for Grade 4 (10th ed.)]. (32–57, 116, 146–156). Bangkok: Office of the Welfare Promotion Commission for Teachers and Education Personnel.

Tractus3D. (2019). Learn more about the advantages of 3D printing. Tractus3D. Retrieved 1/12/2019, from https://tractus3d.com/what-is-3d-printing/advantages-of-3d-printing/

Zahra, A. Budayasa, I. & Juniati, D (2018). The blind student’s interpretation of two-dimen-sional shapes in geometry. Journal of Physics, Conf. Series 947, 1–6. DOI:10.1088/1742–6596/947/1/012055.

Making Language Teachers Creative ; Teaching English in Elementary Mainstream Schools

with Integration Classes

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.08

AbstractThis article tries to examine the influence of using creative methods of teach-ing English on the language competency of Special Educational Needs (SEN) learners in mainstream Elementary Schools with integration classes in Poland. We questioned 64 English teachers working in such facilities throughout Poland. In the course of the research, we have proved the hypothesis that using creative techniques and approaches enhances growth of SEN learners’ language competency in an integration environment. Statistical tools are used to test answers to research questions. The first question measures the correlation between age, gender and seniority with the attitude towards implementing creative approaches, while the second concerns aspects of a creative teacher.

Key-words: creativity, creative teachers, SEN learners, Mainstream schools, Integration Classes.

1. Introduction

In recent years, the growing number of Special Educational Needs (SEN) learners that are allowed to enter mainstream education forced policymakers to include such learners into the functioning system, thus allowing them to achieve educational goals. Although there are special education facilities, SEN learners want to be a part of mainstream schools. The Polish educational system introduced

Izabela BieńkowskaPolandKrzysztof PolokPolandAdam Sutkowski Poland

104 Izabela Bieńkowska, Krzysztof Polok, Adam Sutkowski

mainstream schools with integration classes in order to guarantee a chance for disabled learners to become valuable members of society. As, following Hulek’s (1987) claim, Integration Classes are visible exclusively in Poland, there is a need to investigate this phenomenon, especially from the perspective of lessons of Eng-lish as a foreign language. What is more, given the numerous studies conducted throughout the world (cf. Albert & Kormos, 2004; Dacey, 2011), English teachers in the aforementioned schools have been reported to be given an opportunity to introduce creativity into their classrooms. With this idea in mind, this paper tries to measure teachers’ attitude to incorporating creative approaches to the teaching of English and the likelihood of English language competence growth of SEN learners.

This study aims to fill the gap in the research on Integration Classes. Most of the existing studies discussing various aspects on ELT/ELL are not designed for the Polish integration environment. However, they shed light on the importance of incorporating creativity while working with FL learners (SEN learners included). What is more, the studies emphasise the complexity of the term “creativity” as each possesses their own view on the topic.

2. Theoretical background

Several contemporary scholars (cf. Jones & Richards, 2016; Runco & Jaeger, 2012) agree that creativity cannot be defined without the notion of novelty. More-over, each branch of science, without exception, supports novelty, and this is visible in its definition of creativity. Nonetheless, this notion is not the only component of pure creativity. Apart from novelty, a creative act incorporates relevance and effectiveness. The former represents the necessity to conduct such an act. In terms of education, this means that the teacher’s creativity has to correspond with his/her learners’ proficiency.

Having examined the similarities and differences among scholars regarding cre-ativity, a standard definition of creativity can be formulated. Scholars’ implications may use different vocabulary, but they relate to the same ideas. Throughout the 20th century, when scholars identified creativity as a scientific phenomenon, each paper on creativity included its own definition of the term. Therefore, a standard definition of creativity demands originality and effectiveness. According to Runco & Jaeger (2012), who have analysed numerous definitions of creativity in their 2012 article on standard definitions, Barron (1955) and Stein (1953) should be cited whenever such standard definitions are used. However, the one that especially fits

105Making Language Teachers Creative

here could be the one offered by Torrance (1965, p. 663), who sees creativity as “the process of becoming sensitive to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge (…); identifying the difficulty; searching for solutions (…) or formulating the hypotheses; testing and retesting these hypotheses (…) and finally communicating the results.”

The main reason for this paper is to support the idea that creative techniques and approaches regarding disabled students within mainstream education need to be introduced into the EFL classroom. Following Dacey (2011, p. 610), there is scarcely any evidence that disabled learners are less susceptible to creativity in comparison to regular leaners. On the other hand, the same scholar observes that there is little research done on creative approaches to teaching English learners with various disabilities.

Hulek (1987) created the foundations of contemporary integrated education in Poland. His views are visible in the legislation and implementation of this form of education in Polish schools, including the idea of equal educational opportunities for all students, regardless of their economic status or health. His pedagogical implications required adaptation of content, methods and changes in the organi-zation of work and forms of education to the educational needs and development opportunities of each student participating in this process. Integration, although in its essence playing an important role, carries some risks, including those related to the implementation of the core curriculum1.

Ideally, mainstream schools with integration classes exercise the main ideas of partial integration to the core-curriculum. Their structure is meant to support not only SEN learners, but also their parents and the local community. An assis-tant teacher is present in every lesson of an integration class in order to aid SEN learners. What is more, each mainstream school with integration classes provides a spectrum of specialists committed to SEN learners. Hulek (1987) concludes that in order for genuine integration to occur, a SEN learner has to be a full and equal member of a class.

The central idea behind introducing integration classes is to allow all the learn-ers to learn according to the same curriculum as the rest of the class. Therefore, they all use the same course-books, and the only difference between the learners

1 In the Polish education system, learners who have an opinion from a psychological and pedagogical counselling centre implement at least the minimum core curriculum, whereas the learners with a judgment issued also by the mentioned-above counselling centre must have adaptations that take into account their type of disability and psychophysical abilities. Both groups of learners are classified as SEN are covered by psychological and pedagogical assistance in the facility.


is the pace of learning. Thanks to the high number of specialists in each Elemen-tary School with Integration Classes, SEN learners are provided with guidelines to help them meet educational goals. Each of them has a meticulously prepared individual plan based on an opinion from a psychological counselling centre. The plan includes all of the additional classes and revalidation classes which are crucial in SEN learners’ knowledge growth.

Mainstream Elementary Schools with Integration Classes are not only the first stage of integrating SEN learners with regular members of the community, but also the teachers working in such facilities have a strong impact on SEN learners. Such learners spend almost half of each weekday at school so the more they gain at school, the better members of society they can become.

Even though Polish scholars (e.g. Hulek, 1987) published a few works about incorporating SEN learners into the classroom, there is still a lack of works on SEN learners in English classrooms within the Polish mainstream school system (especially schools with integration classes). This paper aims at filling that void by researching teachers’ perspectives. It is our theory that the teacher as a creative facilitator of the lesson plays an important part in introducing new material. In this way, the successfulness of such an educational process may be determined by the level of creativity that an educator is willing to awake in disabled learners.

In the course of this paper, since creativity is said to be unmeasurable (cf. Jones & Richards, 2016, p. 3) and the source of it can be as well inborn as developed through training or courses, its various instances in educational life are meant to be analysed.

3. Methodology

The primary purpose of the research concentrates on discovering and develop-ing creative approaches to teaching English students with various disabilities in Mainstream Elementary Schools with Integration Classes. While investigating this phenomenon, we tried to analyse the following hypotheses.

H0: Creative approaches to teaching English do not enhance the general English performance of disabled students.

H1: Creative approaches to teaching English enhance the above-mentioned performance of disabled students.

During the analysis, two variables are to be cross-referenced with the findings. The dependent variable is the fact that all of the subjects interviewed are teachers


who work in an Elementary Mainstream School with Integration Classes, and the independent variable is age, gender, and teaching seniority.

Creativity is a complex term itself and combined with a disability makes it a growing subject in the contemporary classroom; this makes room for research regarding these two issues merged together. There is only a handful of papers regarding both matters (cf. Bogdan & Biklen, 2007, Albert & Kormos, 2004); thus, our research may expand understanding in this area.

In order to achieve precise answers, it was decided to use a semi-structured Likert scale questionnaire; additionally, each of the research participants was requested to answer a few precisely formatted interview-like questions, asked in the form of online interviews carried out with each of the research participants (all together 64 teachers of English). The above-mentioned online interviews mostly focused upon the conditions of work of the teachers, as well as their attitude to creative forms of lesson design. Both sections of the mixed research were aimed to help us discover answers to the following research questions:

RQ1: Is there a correlation between age, gender and years of experience as an English teacher and the attitude towards creativity?

RQ2: What are the aspects of a creative teacher?The research is designed for teachers who work in Elementary Mainstream

Schools with Integration Classes. All the participants, who work various schools in Poland, declared they had graduated from universities and received numerous forms of special training; this declaration is hoped to guarantee the objectivity and validity of the research, despite the probable likeness of the information provided by the research participants.

4. Results

In the course of the study, 64 teachers of English, 52 females (81%) and 12 males (19%), were asked to complete the questionnaire; subsequently, they were also requested to take part in online interview. All of them work in Mainstream Elementary School with Integration Classes throughout Poland. We selected par-ticipants of different ages and with different teaching experience to give a varied sample.

We have separated experience in working in Mainstream Elementary School with Integration Classes from overall teaching experience (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). We could observe a significant disparity in experience between male and female teachers, which is analysed later in the paper.


Following the results presented in Fig. 1. and Fig. 2., the overall teaching senior-ity of female interviewees does not change practically, whereas the study almost lacks male participants with more than twenty years of experience. What is more, none of the male subjects have worked in Elementary School with Integration Classes longer than fifteen years.

The third and final variable is age. One of the RQs touches upon the correlation of age, teaching seniority, and the educator’s level of creativity. The participants are assigned to one of five age groups (Fig. 3).

Among 64 teachers that took part in the study, only four are at the threshold of their professional careers. The most numerous group contains relatively expe-rienced teachers aged between thirty-one and forty (40.6% of the respondents).

Fig. 2. Years of teaching experience among male participants (own work)

17%

50%

25%

8% 0%

Teaching seniority

< 5 years

6-10 years

11 -15 years

16 -20 years

> 21 years

50%

17%

33%

0% 0%

Teaching seniority in Elementary School with

Integration Classes

< 5 years

6-10 years

11 -15 years

16 -20 years

> 21 yeras

21%

19%

25%

12%

23%

Teaching seniority

<5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years

16-20 years >21 years

37%

33%

11%

11%8%

Teaching seniority in Elementary School with

Integration Classes

<5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years

16-20 years >21 years

Fig. 1. Years of teaching experience among female participants (own work)


5. The hypothesis

In order to deduce if to accept or reject the null hypothesis, we combined statistical tools with both independent and dependent variables. Among the independent variables, we tested age and gender, while dependent variables were measured by questions regarding teaching seniority, teaching seniority working with disabled students and how respondents perceive their own personal and professional creativity.

Table 1. Pearson’s r correlation calculations for the hypothesis (own work)

X Values ∑ = 261 Mean = 4.078 ∑(X – Mx)2 = SSx = 42.609

Y Values ∑ = 255 Mean = 3.984 ∑(Y – My)2 = SSy = 48.984

X and Y Combined N = 64 ∑(X – Mx)(Y – My) = 33.078

R Calculation r = ∑((X – My)(Y – Mx)) / √((SSx)(SSy)) r = 33.078 / √((42.609)(48.984)) = 0.724 r = 0.724 p-value < 0.001

64 teachers of English, working in Elementary Mainstream Schools with Integration Classes were asked whether SEN learners appreciate using creative approaches during the lesson. To measure their responses, a Likert five-point scale was implemented (from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree). Having calcu-

Fig. 3. Age diversity between female and male participants (own work)

<25 years 26-30 years 31-40 years 41-50 years >50 years

AGE 4 11 26 12 11

AGE female 3 9 19 10 11

AGE male 1 2 7 2 0

0

5

10

15

20

25

30


lated the results of RQ1, being the basis for proving the hypothesis, we arrived at the following results: Mx = 4.08 and SDx = 0.85. The second question asked for their opinions about whether the successfulness of using creative approaches leads to the language competency growth of SEN learners. The five-point Likert scale gave the values of: My = 3.98 and SDy = 0.93.

Table 2 presents the calculations for the hypothesis where X values represent teachers’ opinion on the appreciation of creative approaches during the lesson while Y values represent teachers’ views on the belief that successfulness of such approaches leads to learners’ language competency growth.

Pearson’s r data analysis revealed a moderate positive correlation ( r = 0.724 with p-value < 0.001). Taking this into consideration, we accept H1, that according to the teachers using creative approaches enhances SEN learners’ language compe-tence. Consequently, the null hypothesis is rejected as the correlation is closer to the highest possible value with the significance level at p-value < 0.001. (Table 1.)

According to Fig. 4, the results rise with the responses to the questions. Therefore, the hypothesis proves that the higher the appreciation of incorporating creative methods, the higher the SEN learners’ language competency growth. What is more, the general tendency of the respondents that creative lessons enhance the process of gaining knowledge promotes the notion of incorporating creative approaches as a means to strengthen SEN learners’ performance during the English lesson.

44

5

44

55

4

5

4

5

3

4 4

33

4

3

5

3

5

3

444

2

444

55

3

5

3

4

2

4

33

4

33

5

2

3 3

4

55

444

5 55 5

3

44

3

5555

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Fig. 4. Linear representation of Pearson’s r correlation regarding the hypothesis (own work)


5.1. Analysis of RQ1In order to determine statistically valid data, Pearson’s r is used to facilitate the

answer connected with RQ1. This shows that there is a weak correlation between interviewees’ age, gender, teaching seniority and their level of creativity (Table 2). The table is divided into twelve sections which analyse different variables. Such design of weighing the data allows us to fully understand the differences between each of the aspects analysed in RQ1.

The conclusion that we draw upon the results of RQ1 is that the level of personal as well as professional creativity is not implied by any factor measured in the study. Therefore, these aspects cannot be taken into consideration while assessing the influence of personal features on the level of creativity. The results are mainly insignificant, as the p-value varies from .302 when age and personal level of creativity are analysed to .671 in the correlation between gender and personal creativity.

Table 2. Pearson’s r correlation for key features of RQ1 (own work)

Correlation of age and being a creative

person

Correlation of age and being a creative

teacher

Correlation of gender and being a creative

person

Correlation of gender and being a creative

personr = -0.1312 The P-val-ue is .302166. The result is not signifi-cant at p < .05.

r = -0.3135 The P-val-ue is .011793. The result is significant at p < .05.

r = 0.0541 The P-value is .671142. The result is not significant at p < .05.

r = -0.0594 The P-val-ue is .643292. The result is not signifi-cant at p < .05.

Correlation of teaching seniority and being a creative person

Correlation of teaching seniority and being a creative teacher

Correlation of teach-ing seniority in Ele-mentary School with Integration Classes and being a creative person

Correlation of teach-ing seniority in Ele-mentary School with Integration Classes and being a creative teacher





On the other hand, statistically significant correlations concerning the subjects of the study appear in three (out of eight) instances measured in the course of the analysis. The first is the relationship between age and being a creative teacher, where r = -0.3135 with p-value as .011793. Such a result indicates that the level of professional creativity decreases with age. The second valid correlation appears in the correlation of teaching seniority and being a creative teacher where r = -0.2624


while the p-value is .036495. The result is significant at p < .05 and shows that there is a mild negative correlation between the two aspects. The last statistically relevant correlation is between teaching seniority in Elementary School with Integration Classes and being a creative teacher. There r = -0.2652 and the p-value is .034327. Analogically to the previous instance, a mild negative correlation is visible in the sample tested in the course of the research.

5.2. Analysis of RQ2The main aim of RQ2 is to produce a set of the attributes of a creative teacher.

Each respondent was presented online with five statements that could describe a creative teacher. They could either choose as many statements as they preferred or provide their own. Unfortunately, none of the respondents chose to provide additional input. Another aspect analysed was the attitude towards each statement separately. The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale to determine the results.

Table 3. Aspects of a creative teacher according to the respondents (own work)

n = 64The number of

respondents that chose the answer.

The average score of each

statement (5 = strongly agree).

1. Creative teacher guides classes enthusiastically. 48 (75%) 4.19

2. Creative teacher does not impose rules. 6 (9.4%) 2.29

3. Creative teacher has security and scientific compe-tence.

36 (56.2 %) 3.89

4. Creative teacher is a friend of the students. 24 (37.5 %) 3.28

5. Creative teacher promotes student autonomy. 54 (84.4%) 4.28

According to Table 3, there are two predominant features of a creative teacher. The opinion that the creative teacher promotes student autonomy is favoured by 84.4% of the respondents, and creative teacher guides classes enthusiastically are named by 75%. To support the importance of these two features we looked at the interviewees’ attitudes towards the statement. The average score of the former option is 4.19 while the latter has an average of 4.28.

What is more, the teacher’s pedagogical competence is another major factor as the majority (56.2%) of respondents accept this feature as a vital one. Forty interviewees see the necessity of drawing a line between the teacher and a learner, since they do not choose to be a learner’s friend as a crucial aspect in becoming a creative teacher. The least favoured response is lack of teacher-imposed rules


in a creative environment. Only six teachers named it as essential and the overall average of attitude towards the statement is only 2.29, which means that the major-ity of respondents disagrees with it.

Fig. 4 presents detailed results to the five statements. The diversity within the answers to each statement is visible for every statement. As mentioned above, statements one, three and five depict the respondents’ positive attitudes towards views provided in the questionnaire. What is more, the respondents are aware of the importance of maintaining order in the classroom in order to conduct a lesson successfully, as 19 of the respondents strongly disagree with the statement that a creative teacher does not impose rules.

While analysing the data provided by the teachers who took part in the whole study, we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis. There-fore, the main aim of the thesis is achieved. The fact that according to teachers incorporating creative approaches into the English classroom in Polish Main-stream Education system leads to the English competency growth of SEN learners supports our belief that creativity is the key to successful learning and teaching.

In the course of the study, the answers to the four RQs are scrutinised and provide a deep insight into the teacher’s mind. Moreover, the teacher’s role as

Fig. 5. Division of responses to the five statements regarding creative teachers (own work)

19

82

22

3

11

8

11

10

13

4

26

9

34

19

35

27

3

15 13

24

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Creative 1 Creative 2 Creative 3 Creative 4 Creative 5

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree nor agree

Agree Strongly Agree

1 102


a facilitator of the lesson is visible, in particular in an integration environment which concludes our study as scientifically accurate and pedagogically meaningful.

6. Concluding Remarks

This paper provides its reader with an insight into the Mainstream Elementary School with Integration Classes, a specific environment that can be observed in such a school and the vital role of the teacher in shaping young learners. What is more, we provide a comprehensive description of various aspects of creativity that can influence the lesson.

The study has accomplished all the aims that we formulated at the beginning of the research. We accept the hypothesis stated in the thesis. In the course of the study, we proved that creative approaches to teaching English are not only are useful but according to teachers also enhance the SEN learner’s competence and language growth.

What is more, we are satisfied with the results to all the research questions. The results to RQ1 suggest that creativity is such a personal feature that it is not embedded in any variable measured in the study. Each can influence and facilitate creativity. What is more, when it comes to teachers, they, as professionals, carry all the necessary tools to implement creativity in the classroom.

The results regarding RQ2 unearthed the fundamental aspects of a creative teacher. The results correspond with our personal opinion of such a person, as the statements regarding a lack of teacher-imposed rules in a creative environment played the role of a false agent. During the online interviews the respondents agreed with us that the requirements for creative English teachers are universal and, apart from pedagogical expertise, they evolve around the teacher-student relationship.

Throughout the process of designing the thesis, the main objective remained the same. Teachers as a major force in shaping young learners ought to have a firm foundation to be able to achieve educational goals. Moreover, SEN learners deserve the same appreciation. The outcome of the research proves that teachers are aware of SEN learners’ needs and the limitations they are faced with when working with them. What is more, teachers provide a thorough insight into the educator’s mind-set and the qualities one ought to possess while working within the integration class.


7. Suggestions for Further Research

Although the researchers covered a broad spectrum of views on creativity within the English classroom, we suggest that the field needs further research in this area. 64 respondents interviewed online in the study are a limited group. So as to meet the expectations of nowadays society much broader and more compre-hensive selection is needed. The fact that SEN learners do not always choose to attend Mainstream Elementary School with Integration Classes and the notion of inclusion in education suggest that integration classes may not be the sole envi-ronment for incorporating SEN learners into the mainstream education system. Studies on this notion are crucial to assess the importance of this switch in trends.

ReferencesAlbert, A. & Kormos, J. (2004). Creativity and narrative task performance: An exploratory

study. Language Learning, 54, 277–310. Barron, F. (1955). The disposition towards originality. Journal of Abnormal and Social

Psychology, 51, 478–485.Bogdan, R.C. & Biklen, S.K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to

theories and methods. Boston, MA: Pearson. Dacey, J. (2011). Historical Conceptions of Creativity. In: M. Runco & S. Pritzker

(eds.) Encyclopedia of Creativity. Second Edition (pp. 608–616). Cambridge, Massachu-setts: Academic Press.

Hulek, A. (ed.) (1987). Integracja społeczna ludzi niepełnosprawnych. Zadania Pedagoga. [Eng: Social Integration of the Disabled People. A Teacher’s Tasks]. Wrocław, Poland: PAN.

Jones, R. & Richards, J. (2016).Creativity in language teaching. Perspectives from Research and Practice. London, Routledge.

Runco, M.A. & Jaeger, G.J. (2012). The Standard Definition of Creativity, Creativity Research Journal, 24, 92–96.

Torrance, P. (1965). Creativity and Learning. Deadalus, 94/3, 663–681.

Children with Down Syndrome in Ukraine: Inclusiveness Beyond the Schools

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.09

Abstract Based on a survey of clients and interviews with experts, the study evaluates rehabilitation services for children with Down Syndrome provided through the out-of-school center “Socium”. It is the only non-governmental organization in Kyiv (Ukraine) which is fully engaged in physical health and sport rehabilita-tion of disabled children. The findings demonstrate the positive effects of sport education on the social functioning and health of children and their families. The research reveals the need for the professional support of social workers of families with children who have mental retardation, and suggests steps for improving the services and inclusiveness at the centre.

Key words: inclusion, sport activities intellectual disability, rehabilitation centre, Ukraine.

Introduction

In Ukraine, 400–450 children with Down Syndrome under the age of one year are registered annually (State Statistical Service of Ukraine, 2018).

Research (Duranovic, Klasnic & Opic, 2017; Ogston Mackintosh & Myers, 2011) indicates that children with Down Syndrome and their parents have special needs and problems: various health issues associated diseases, sleep disorders, eating disorders, speech development disorders, communication difficulties, adverse reactions to sensory stimuli, weakening of their touch with reality, limitations

Tetyana Semigina UkraineAnastasiia ChystiakovaUkraine

117Children with Down Syndrome in Ukraine: Inclusiveness Beyond the Schools

when communicating with other people. According to studies (Næss et al., 2017; Scheer et al., 2003), these problems are worsened by unfavorable living conditions in boarding facilities, denial of the right for an education, absence of learning con-ditions and methods for children with certain diagnosis, absence of appropriate conditions for living and rehabilitation in society, absence of residential care which would offer an alternative to boarding facilities etc.

At the times of the Soviet Union the majority of people with intellectual disa-bilities were kept in closed boarding facilities and nursing homes. Today there is a trend for educating “special” children in families. In 2017, a new Law of Ukraine “On Education” was adopted (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2017). Article 19 of this regulation guarantees rights and opportunities for people with special edu-cational needs to enable them to progress through all educational levels, taking into account their individual needs, capacities, abilities and interests. The forms and kinds of education which take into account their needs and individual devel-opment programs are used to provide education, professional qualification, or refresher training for such people.

However, social integration and inclusion of children must not be limited to educational institutions only. Researchers (Pierson, 2009; Tisdall et al., 2008) pointed out that inclusion is understood as increase of participation of all citizens in social life. This is a policy and process which allows all children to participate in all education, rehabilitation and sport programs. Inclusive education excludes all discrimination of children, ensures equal treatment towards all people and enables special conditions for children with special needs. An inclusive approach aims to create an environment where all have equal access to social and other kinds of services, including children with special needs and children with Down Syndrome.

The key objective of the rehabilitation of children with Down Syndrome is their adaptation to the closest social environment. Ways to such rehabilitation include not only a special education according to their capacities and needs, but also a whole complex of social and medical activities, sport rehabilitation, recovery and placing a child into an inclusive environment. These are the ways which allow such children to develop better and be healthier. The integral parts of social rehabilitation of children with intellectual development disorders and their families are: inclusion of such children into physical training exercises which are able to correct and compensate for the psychological and physiological disorders that they have (Austin & Lee, 2013; Tsai & Fing, 2009); formation of responsible parenting practices which decrease the level of aggressive behavior in children and increase the level of parental satisfaction with the process of education and interaction with children (Cassidy, 2005; Singh et al., 2014).

118 Tetyana Semigina, Anastasiia Chystiakova

In Ukraine, the issue of sports and recreational activity as a component of social integration of children with Down Syndrome, is a poorly researched field. There are almost no developments in the organization of rehabilitation by means of physical education, or rehabilitation which contains the element of inclusion. However, some elements of such activities are available and comply with key provisions of the current legislation. This emphasizes the need to study both the characteristics of sports and recreational activities and the factors that influence them, as well as the development of relevant models of such activities in the Ukrainian context. Therefore, the aim of this research is to evaluate the rehabilitation services for children with Down Syndrome provided through an out-of-school center, with elements of inclusive sports and a fitness component.


General Background of ResearchIn 2014, the center for disabled children “Socium” was created. As of 2019,

it is the only non-governmental organization in Kyiv which is fully engaged in physical health and sport rehabilitation of disabled children. It is run by a family which has a child with Down Syndrome. Its aim is to introduce recreational, amateur sport and educational activities to protect the rights and legal interests of intellectually disabled children. It functions as an out-of-school institution.

The organization now provides services to more than 100 children ranging from 1 to 14 years old and with a number of intellectual disabilities (the majority of them – with Down Syndrome). Classes take place at five sports locations in the city, including pools. The classes are made possible by voluntary and membership donations. Five specialists qualified in various sports, physical rehabilitation and social work are the teachers and trainers working at the centre.

Sample and Procedures of ResearchThe research was conducted from December 2018 till February 2019. The study employs the following methods of empirical studies. 1. An anonymous survey of parents who are members of “Socium”. Criteria

for the selection of respondents: parents who have children with intellectual development disorders, who visit the center regularly and agreed to participate in the research. The focus was to evaluate the level of the parents’ satisfaction with available services, the need for other services and to identify the direction for


the centre’s development. 70 people were interviewed using a questionnaire with closed and open questions.

2. An expert interview with people who made academic and practical contri-butions to help intellectually disabled children and their families. Criteria for the selection of the experts: relevant education, experience in working with children with special needs for no less than 5 years, a corresponding position. The interview was focused on the impact of the centre’s available services on the families who use them, identification of flaws in the functioning of the centre and the generation of ideas for further development. Six experts were questioned via a semi-structured interview.

All respondents were informed about the aims of the research and the peculi-arities of the use of its results.

Data AnalysisData collected during the survey of the parents was analysed via Excel. Due to

the small sample size, statistical analysis is represented by univariate distribution. Data collected during the interviews with the experts was processed based on

thematic analysis. The core themes were: 1) success of children with intellectual disability; 2) the impact of sport activities; 3) further development of inclusiveness at the centre.

Research Findings

Characteristics of Families and Children The composition of families which participated in the research is as follows: full

families (father and mother) – 42; single-parent families (mother) – 28. Intellectual disability is associated with medical conditions which greatly inter-

fere with rehabilitation, in particular: sight disorders, allergic reactions, autism, joint disorders, disorders related to ear, nose and throat, heart disease, intestinal disorders. Only 28 of 70 children did not have any diagnosed associated disorders. The time that the respondents’ children spent at the rehabilitation centre varies from 1 month to 4 years.

Answering the question “Do your relatives and friends know about the child’s mental retardation?” 61% of respondents gave affirmative answer, 5% indicated that only people closest to the family knew about this, 4% of respondents indicated that they had not told anyone about the child’s mental retardation. At the same time


only 15% of respondents indicated that their child attends a public educational institution (pre-school or school), 5% indicated that a child attends private school and 8% indicated that a child attends Sunday school (or has informal education).

However, 95.7% of respondents affirmed the need for help from social work-ers, and this goes even beyond the need for psychological support, which was indicated by 58.6% of those questioned. Almost all respondents understood the fact that the task of social workers is to solve social problems, counsel, support a child socially, provide temporary care for a child during his/her parents’ absence, develop individual social rehabilitation programs, etc.

Evaluation of the Existing Rehabilitation CentreIn order to evaluate the results of “Socium”s work parents were asked the ques-

tion “Are you satisfied with the work of the centre?”. The centre received a medium satisfaction grade of 8.86 on a scale from 1 to 10 (where 1 is minimum and 10 is maximum) .

Children who attend “Socium” are offered a wide variety of sports and recrea-tion activities and services. The research results (see Table 1) indicate that visual arts, acting, music, choreography and equestrian sport classes are not frequent in the process of rehabilitation of the intellectually disabled children who attend the centre. The majority of children swim, have massage sessions, visit disability spe-cialists and speech therapists, and attend enrichment courses in integrated groups.

Table 1. Attendance of social rehabilitation activities (N=70)

№ Social rehabilitation activities N (%)1 Attend swimming pool 65 (92.8)2 Attend physical therapy and massage 62 (88.6)3 Attend enrichment courses in integrated groups 40 (57.1)4 Visit disability specialists and speech therapists 62 (88.6)5 Attend music classes 4 (5.7)6 Attend visual arts classes 07 Attend acting classes 08 Do equestrian sport 3 (4.3)9 Attend choreography classes 2 (2.9)

90% of respondents answered “once a month” to the question “How often would you like to get together with other parents (e.g., for a tea party)?” which can be indicative of the above-average level of busyness among parents. Still, what they


needed most was attendance at cultural and artistic activities and self-help groups. They also agreed to participate in camping trips (see Table 2).

Table 2. Suggestions concerning the forms of communication with other parents and children (N=70)

№ What are other forms which enable communication, leisure and experience exchange? N (%)

1 Joint attendance of cultural activities 52 (74.3)2 Camping trips 48 (68.6)3 Self-help group 52 (74.3)

Parents indicated their children’s successes and progress before the rehabili-tation and at the time of the survey. Table 3 represents typical answers of the respondents.

Table 3. Successes and progress of a child

Before attending the centre At the time of the survey• Poor attention span, hyperactivity.• Weak muscle definition, poor motor skills.• Morbidity, weak physical development.• Was afraid to be in the water and touch the

bottom of the pool. Did not want to obey the instructor’s directions, was not having fun in the water, could not float, was clinging to his mother

• Child was weak and not motivated.

• Physical condition improved, child is calm.• Good physical shape, general development is

above average, perfect concentration and motor skills. Sociable child who is gladly accepted by society.

• Straight posture, good muscular development, good discipline and attention, feels good in the collective.

• Better head and body posture.• Good attention span, responds to the instructor. • Child is developing harmoniously and

physically faster than the children of his age, doctors have not observed hypertension or developmental problems even once.

During the interview, the experts confirmed the positive influence of sports on the children with Down Syndrome.

• “When a child attends sports classes, he/she has contact with many people, such as instructors, specialists, other children and their parents. Children learn to greet, say goodbye and other rules of conduct. The “Socium” centre is a favorable environment for special children where they can socialize. Here


people understand hardships, are happy with every success, they support, encourage, cheer, congratulate each other on successes and during holidays. In such an atmosphere it is easier for a child to become uninhibited and open towards new impressions, new knowledge, and thus, to be in contact with people who surround him/her”;

• “Sports provide an opportunity to work in groups and develop interaction skills. Children learn ways to relieve their stiffness and shyness and to acquire communication skills”;

• “Thanks to sports classes children with intellectual disabilities meet friends and communicate with other children”.

Parents also feel the positive influence: • ”Regular sport exercises with other children gradually contribute to a health-

ier lifestyle. Sharing their failures and successes teaches parents and children to become more stress tolerant, to set achievable goals and to win by seeing their own achievements. Parents learn to enjoy other people’s success and to support each other by sharing positive emotions”.

The majority of the experts and members of the organization evaluate the exist-ing model of the rehabilitation centre as successful. Respondents connect current problems with the following factors: lack of finances, absence of proper sports equipment, lack of sport, social and psychological services and specialists with appropriate qualifications.

The following are the experts’ answers to the question “What additional sports classes does the “Socium” centre lack (besides the available swimming pool and gym) ?”:

• “Outdoor games, scooters and bicycle riding”; • “It lacks a separate area for children over 6 which would have a gym, a disa-

bilities specialist, a massage room and a 25m swimming pool for training and preparation for international competitions”;

• “Parents lack a room of their own for stress relief and chatting with other parents”;

• “It lacks yoga classes”.Research also confirms that specialists who work at the inclusive rehabilitation

centre learn empathy and start to see children more coherently, learn new reha-bilitation methods, develop individual rehabilitation programs and improve their professional skills.


Respondents’ Vision of an Inclusive Rehabilitation Centre and Its Further DevelopmentThe parents who participated in the research evaluated the idea of an “inclusive

rehabilitation centre” generally positively. In their opinion, the advantages of such a centre would be: 1) the disabled children take typically developing children as an example; 2) Socialisation and adaptation of children is better and all their vital functions are improving; 3) Neuro-typical children learn not to fear children with intellectual disabilities and help them. As an example, we can quote one of the respondents:

• “Creation of a support atmosphere which is friendly to a child and the par-ents”; “Sports classes unite family and children, and neuro-typical children help children with special needs”.

In the parents’ opinion, an inclusive rehabilitation centre must have: 1) Inclusion of neuro-typical children in the learning process as well as in classes, training and leisure; 2) Modelling of an environment as close to real life as possible; 3) Environment which is accessible for everyone. As an example, we can quote one of the respondents:

• “It is a centre where everyone feels comfortable, where the barriers between the children are erased”.

Both parents and experts believe that the presence of a social worker, intro-duction of summer recovery programs, an opportunity to have combined leisure activities with an inclusive component and the expansion of sports services will all contribute to the improvement of an inclusive rehabilitation model for children with intellectual disabilities.

The next steps in the development of the inclusive rehabilitation centre that would also help children with Down Syndrome could be: development of com-plex social rehabilitation programs for mentally retarded children of different age groups; social education programs with inclusive components; a complex program of leisure organization with an inclusive component, and a program of psychological support for parents.

The results of the research indicate that in order to develop the centre’s inclu-siveness certain financially demanding steps must be taken: 1) Rebuilding of the centre according to universal design requirements; 2) Construction of grounds where access without barriers will be made possible; 3) Opening of a summer sports and recovery camp.


Discussion

The positive effects of sports and physical activity on health and well-being are recognized worldwide, while people with intellectual disabilities are often physically inactive (Fiorilli et al., 2016; Ogg-Groenendaal, Hermans & Claessens, 2014). The results of this research showed significant differences between sportive vs. non-sportive groups in the overall domain scores. Our findings confirm sim-ilar positive effects of the inclusive sports activities for children with intellectual disabilities, including Down syndrome.

It is worth noting that in Ukraine it is a common practice that the ratified inter-national documents on the rights of disabled people are not fully implemented. Governmental social benefits do not fulfil the needs of families and the framework of establishing complex rehabilitation (social, psychological, physical, professional, labour and, especially, physical health and sports) is not developed (Semigina, 2017). Currently, neither state nor civil society have created conditions for optimal physical, intellectual and social livelihood for children with Down Syndrome and their parents. Our study affirms this fact as well as the high level of unfulfilled needs of parents who have children with Down Syndrome, or other intellectual developmental problems. Hence, it is not surprising that almost all parents who participated in the research indicated the need for the help of a social worker.

At the same time, our research, as well as other works (Scheer et al., 2003), indi-cate the advantages of adding an inclusion component, not only to educational, but also to sports and rehabilitation services and the need to ensure their availability.These advantages are beneficial not only for children with special needs, but also for other children, parents and specialists. However, a number of important theo-retical and practical approaches should be taken into account when constructing a model of an inclusive rehabilitation centre for children with intellectual disabil-ities. First of all, the cultural model of disability has to be considered (Devlieger, Rusch & Pfeiffer, 2003; Tisdall et al., 2008). We have to take into account the fact that society has already accumulated considerable sociocultural experience in adapting people with Down Syndrome to a productive life in the community. This includes the functioning of inclusive sports and recreational facilities, which are backed by the state in many countries (Austin & Lee, 2013) and combat stigma (Singh et al., 2014).

At the same time, our research shows the possibility of developing an improved model of an inclusive rehabilitation centre which would include components (departments, divisions and staff) which the “Socium” centre currently lacks, and the possibility of offering such a model to be implemented in other regions of Ukraine.


Overall Conclusion and Next Steps

Our study shows the positive effects of inclusive educational sports activities on children with Down Syndrome. Parents gave positive reviews of the services of the rehabilitation centre. Research confirmed that swimming, fitness and inclusive classes for children are attended the most. Parents use the services of a psychologist quite often and get psychological relief in self-help groups. The help of social workers is needed for social support, professional help with solving social problems, representation of their interests and organization of leisure for both parents and children. The urgency of the introduction of an improved dynamic model for the centre is beyond any doubt. Step by step execution of tasks related to the management of social organization at the centre, development of a wide range of complex social rehabilitation programs and separate services for children and parents, construction of spaces and the grounds according to universal design requirements, exchange of experience with similar civic organizations and the search for new resources and opportunities are the tasks the strategic plan can be based on. The model of the centre needs to be promoted and replicated all over Ukraine.

ReferencesAustin, D.R., Lee, Y. (2013). Inclusive and Special Recreation: Opportunities For Diverse

Populations To Flourish. 6 ed. Urbana: Sagamore Publishing. Cassidy, T. (2005). Leisure, coping and health: The role of social, family, school and peer

relationship factors. British Journal of Guidance and Counseling. 33(1): 51–65.Devlieger, P., Rusch, F., Pfeiffer, D. (2003). Rethinking disability as same and different!

Towards a cultural model of disability. In Devlieger, P., Rusch, F., Pfeiffer D (eds.). Rethinking Disability: The Emergence of New Definitions, Concepts and Communities (pp. 9–16). Garant: Antwerpen.

Duranovic, M., Klasnic, I., Opic, V. A (2017). Child with Down Syndrome-Challenge for Families, Kindergartens and Schools. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences, 5: 32–41.

Fiorilli, G., di Cagno, A., Iuliano, E. et al. (2016). Special Olympics swimming: positive effects on young people with Down syndrome. Sport Sciences for Health, 12: 339–346.

Næss K.-A.B., Nygaard E., Ostad J., Dolva A.-S., Halaas Lyster S.-A. (2017). The profile of social functioning in children with Down syndrome. Disability and Rehabilitation, 39 (13): 1320–1331.

Ogg-Groenendaal, M, Hermans, H, Claessens, B (2014). A systematic review on the effect of exercise interventions on challenging behavior for people with intellectual disabili-ties. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 35:1507–1517.


Ogston, P.L, Mackintosh, V.H., Myers, B.J. (2011). Hope and worry in mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder or Down syndrome. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder, 5: 1378–1384.

Pierson J.H. (2009). Tackling Social Exclusion: Promoting Social Justice in Social Work. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

Scheer, J., Kroll, T., Neri, M.T., & Beatty, P. (2003). Access barriers for persons with disabil-ities: The consumer’s perspective. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 13(4): 221–230.

Semigina, T. (2017). Is zero discrimination possible? Voices from Ukraine. In Henrick-son, M. et al. (Eds.). Getting to zero: Global social work responds to HIV (pp. 255–280). Geneva: UNAIDS and IASSW.

Singh, N.N., Lancioni, G.E., Winton, A.S.W., Karazsia, B.T., Myers, R.E., Latham, Larry L., Singh, J. (2014). Mindfulness-Based Positive Behavior Support (MBPBS) for Mothers of Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effects on Adolescents’ Behavior and Parental Stress. Mindfulness, 5: 646–657.

State Statistical Service of Ukraine (2018). Morbidity of population. Retrieved from: http://medstat.gov.ua/ukr/statdan.html

Tisdall, E.K.M., Davis, J.M., Prout, A., Hill, M. (eds.) (2008). Children, young people and social inclusion: Participation for what? Bristol: Policy Press.

Tsai, E. H-L., Fing, L. (2009). Parents’ Experiences and Decisions on Inclusive Sport Partic-ipation of Their Children with Intellectual Disabilities. Human Kinetics Journal, 26(2): 151–171.

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Social Pedagogy

Short-Term Student Mobility : Motivation, Expectation and Barriers

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.10

Abstract The article analyses short-term student mobility. In the context of interna-tionalisation of higher education and the development of the global market of educational services universities develop and implement short-term pro-grammes of student mobility in order to recruit international students. These programmes are less restricted than full time programmes, which allows them to meet the needs and expectations of students. International experience gained as a result gives them the opportunity to choose their path in postgraduate education in institutions abroad. A questionnaire survey of the Chinese stu-dents participating in the short-term student mobility programmes (n=31) is reported. In addition, a number of interviews with the staff whose work is connected with teaching overseas students (n=5) was conducted in 2019. The findings of this research may demonstrate that Chinese students intend to become familiar with an additional set of common cultural competences. In other words, their interest in Russia, its history, culture, traditions and customs is becoming a strong motivation in choosing a university and a short-term educational programme. It could be the case that low language proficiency, bureaucracy, (namely, difficulties in acquiring the necessary paperwork and being accommodated in a hall of residence) become hurdles on the way to completing such a programme successfully. While developing programmes, host universities should be guided by common cultural competences in order to promote further development of short-term student mobility.

Key words: short-term student mobility, short-term educational programmes, inter-national students, internationalisation of the education, higher education, university

Natalya L. AntonovaRussiaAnna D. GurariiRussiaYana S. VysotskaiaRussia

130 Natalya L. Antonova, Anna D. Gurarii, Yana S. Vysotskaia

Introduction

In the era of globalisation questions about the internationalisation of higher education have been raised among both the academic community and the academic administration. The global market of educational services, at which universities present international academic mobility programmes, thus showing their status, prestige and the number of international students, for all intents and purposes dictates its terms, defining the structure, factors, mechanisms and tools of internationalisation. The traditional understanding of internationalisation, given by Knight (2012, pp. 4–5) as the process of inclusion of intercultural and international dimensions in the aims and functions of higher education, is being redefined and modified today (Teichler, 2017, pp. 177–216). This is connected with the commercialization of education, the “race” for ratings, the transformation of knowledge from a public good into a resource.

National systems of higher education develop in accordance with the vectors of globalisation, one of which is organizing short-term and long-term international educational programmes. What is being discussed is that universities are actively trying to attract international students, responding to their request to be educated abroad. The experience of studying in another country furthers the personal and academic development of students, helping them grow in global and cultural consciousness, which, in the XXI century, is becoming an increasingly important institutional goal (Gaia, 2015, pp. 21–31).

Universities all over the world are aiming to develop and implement educa-tional projects which give the students of the XXI century the opportunity to navigate the global information space freely, to become full-fledged participants of international processes, at the same time acting in the interests of their own countries (Knight, 2004, pp. 5–31). Integration of students into the global student community by means of overcoming national isolation and gaining the experience of international cooperation is a major task of international educational pro-grammes. New competences that develop in the process of collaborative research, and the experience of collaboration itself, lead to new social and professional opportunities, determine the position of a student as a professional-to-be within the system of global connections and on the global labour market (Shields, 2003, pp. 609–636).

The global numbers of international students in programmes of higher educa-tion, according to data published by OECD (Education at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators, 2017), have increased dramatically over the lifetime of one generation – from 0.8 million at the end of the 1970s to 4.6 million in 2015. Students from

131Short-Term Student Mobility

Asia comprise the largest group of international students at all levels of higher education, with 612,000 out of 1.56 million of students studying in 2015 being from China. Such countries as the USA, Australia and the UK attract the largest proportion of Asian students (44%, 16% and 15% respectively).

By attracting foreign students, a university as a social organization becomes a ‘conductor’ for a student’s realization of a chosen educational trajectory. At the same time, in the current research not enough attention is being paid to the question of short-term student mobility, its attractiveness, and the demand for it among students.

Materials and Methods

According to the documents that regulate the implementation of the Bologna agreements (Bologna Process Implementation Report, 2015) there are two main forms of international academic mobility. Degree mobility can be defined as enrolment in a foreign university with the aim of completing a full degree, while credit mobility means completing a limited period of studying abroad within the framework of on-going studies at a home institution. A crucial moment here is the necessity to make the definition of short-term international student mobility wider, as modern conditions demand, not limiting it merely to studying in a for-eign university for the period of one or two terms. Apart from credit mobility, other forms of short-term student mobility can be observed, among them: winter and summer schools, work placements, internships, familiarization trips, and language courses, which in the current conditions are becoming more and more popular with young people in the academic environment. Less strict regulation and increased flexibility that make quick and efficient response to the changing needs of the students possible are some of the advantages of short-term programmes.

Modern universities are aiming to develop international thinking in their students by offering their own academic mobility programmes and sending their students abroad. The main goal of short-term student mobility is the familiariza-tion of participants with the international community (Slotkin, Durie, & Eisen-berg, 2012, pp. 163–173). The international experience gained enables students to correct their educational trajectory, determine the interest and desire for further education, for instance, in post-graduate programmes in universities beyond the borders of their own countries. For instance, Lewis and Niesenbaum (2005, pp. 251–264) demonstrated that more than half of the participants of short-term student mobility programmes had chosen to study abroad again. Dwyer considers


that this is an indicator of the successful academic work of a student (2004, pp. 151–163).

Short-term student mobility promotes cross-cultural sensitivity and serves as a factor increasing interest in the language of the host society (Martinsen, 2008, pp. 504–530). Mastering the language, in its essence, means entering a new, unfamiliar lifestyle, conceptualizing cultural differences, reproducing the norms, notions, practices, and standards of behaviour of foreign-language societies (Schwald, 2012, pp. 44–55). Along with this, however, integration in the foreign language environment might cause tension but, as McKeown (2009) claims, it also stimulates the personal growth of the students, together with helping them self-actualise, find and assert their place in the world. Not only do the students start to understand another culture in the process of intercultural immersion, but they also learn to understand themselves, which furthers self-development and helps them unlock their adaptation potential.

The development of short-term student mobility may indicate the complexity of institutional bonds in the global educational space, together with the coming into being and development of new organizational structures, which function within universities and are oriented to attracting international students, the institution must pay attention to actualisation of the students’ educational needs and to the promotion of short-term educational projects. Researchers note the tendency for regionalization of higher education, in other words, the orientation to neighbour-ing countries for collaboration (Yonezawa, Kitamura, & Kuroda, 2014).

The main goal of the research conducted in January 2019 was the analysis of opinions and beliefs of Chinese students on short-term mobility programmes at Ural Federal University (UrFU). During this time the university offered such programmes as sports, gamification, and cross-cultural communication in the modern Russian reality.

The following goals were set: firstly, to determine students’ motivation for enrolling on a short-term educational programme; secondly, to estimate the expec-tations the foreign students had in relation to the programme; thirdly, to ascertain the difficulties the students faced in the process of studying. The number of those surveyed totaled 31. The questionnaire, distributed after the classes, was completed in 10 minutes on average. The gender ratio of participants, three quarters of whom were aged 21 to 23, was 10 females to 21 males. Every third surveyed was a 4-year undergraduate student.

It is necessary to draw attention to the fact that in the process of devising the methodological strategy of the research authors were guided by the notion that the students acquiring education in UrFU experience difficulties understanding


the Russian language (Merenkov, & Antonova, 2015, pp. 122–132), which stops them accessing it as the basic mechanism of human interaction (Guzikova, 2019, pp. 114–123). For this reason, the questionnaire was translated into Chinese, which afforded us the opportunity to eliminate the language barrier and acquire reliable information. The choice of a questionnaire as a means of gathering information for such a small group of survey participants was dictated by the language barrier, as in order to conduct interviews the authors would have had to engage Chi-nese-speaking professionals.

The tool of the research comprised 10 questions, including open-ended (2), semi-closed (3) and closed-ended (5). As a result, students were provided with the opportunity to express their own opinions on questions of motivation behind the choice of the short-term educational programme, the hurdles they encountered while studying and the role of academic mobility in their plans for the future. The data obtained was processed with the help of the sociological and marketing information analysis software Vortex (version 10).

To ensure deeper understanding of aspects of implementation of short-term educational programmes at the university and to determine the main obstacles Chinese students face in acquiring education, semi-structured interviews were carried out with those faculty members and employees of UrFU who work with students from China. The interview guide consisted of 5 questions, with the interviews lasting for approximately 30 minutes. Five females who had worked at university for periods from 7 to 17 years were interviewed in their time off, after which the interviews were transcribed, the answers collated and grouped in accordance with the aims of the research.

Results and Discussion

The leading positions in the motivational structure of the arrival to UrFU were taken by such motives as desire to see Russia, interest in the programme and its low cost. Notably, as the results of the survey show, only every tenth student did not possess any information about Russia before arrival. First of all, Chinese students educated themselves on the economic and political situations, with every third of those surveyed being informed about Russia’s history, and every sixth – about its art and culture. The research revealed insufficient socio-cultural background information among Chinese students, which tends to lead to a prolonged period of adaptation and decreases the level of success in communication with members of the host society.


The fact of coming to another country within the framework of academic mobility evokes hardship in the everyday life of a student. Only every fifth sur-veyed student remarked that they possessed information about the rules and social norms of behaviour in the street, in shops, cafes and other public places of a large Russian city.

Speaking about the short-term educational programme chosen by Chinese students, the survey indicated a high level of awareness. For instance, more than half of the respondents had acquainted themselves with its contents before coming to Russia, which means that they had made an informed choice.

The low cost of higher education in Russian universities was emphasized by the experts. “The cost of education, in comparison with the foreign institutions, is negligible …” (female, 7 years’ work experience). To illustrate, the cost of a short-term educational programme varies from 500 to 1000 USD.

Practically every surveyed student stated that their expectations of studying at UrFU were met. Just one respondent indicated dissatisfaction with the choice of the vector of short-term student mobility. Interestingly, while only three students answered a definitive yes to the question of whether the reality matched their expectations (the others choosing the “more likely yes than no” option), three quar-ters of those surveyed plan to recommend the short-term educational programme to their friends and relatives. As one of the experts stated during interview, “… Chinese students often make a choice in favour of the higher education institution with which they have links and connections, which one of their family members, or acquaintances have attended…” (female, 17 years’ work experience).

At the same time, the data collected reveals several trouble spots. On the one hand, the short-term educational programmes offered by the university fulfil the needs of the Chinese students, which is supported by their desire to recommend them upon returning to their homeland. Nevertheless, it is necessary for the university as a host to solve a number of issues in problematic areas that hinder the meeting of the needs of student migrants. Among such issues, which, per-haps, might be alleviated at the managerial level, the respondents named lack of organised leisure activities, subpar quality of accommodation and the ordeal of obtaining required paperwork. The problem of the growing level of bureaucracy in education in Russia was also raised by the experts, one of whom remarked “…yes, there is such problem. A student has to knock on many doors to achieve results in solving everyday issues. …quite often students choose to solve problems via the Chinese consulate: they were not given something at some stage, but they clearly understand that they can get it via the consulate…” (female, 17 years’ work experience).


Low language proficiency and lack of understanding of the norms and customs of everyday life were mentioned among other obstacles that decrease the effec-tiveness and hinder success in completing educational programmes. The language barrier is the major issue in the inclusion of the foreign students in the process of education, and the lack of grasp of the culture of the host society and its traditions further hinders language acquisition.

What is the role of short-term student mobility in the life of students from China? The findings of the survey showed that participation in the programme was conducive to the broadening of their horizons, by giving them access to infor-mation about the Russian culture and the life of the inhabitants of a large industrial city. Every eighth respondent claims to have improved their communication skills, while every tenth considers the knowledge acquired as a personal asset that will be instrumental in them getting a prestigious job. According to the assessment of the experts, for almost every Chinese student the educational programme, no matter how short it is, serves as an indicator of status “…coming to Russia to study is in itself prestigious.” (female, 7 years’ work experience).

Looking at higher education through the lens of the competency approach, we can observe the need foreign students have for obtaining, first of all, common cultural competences within the framework of short-term student mobility. This suggests that within such frameworks both specialised disciplines and subjects oriented to the wider scope of general education should be represented. Further-more, immersion in the foreign language environment will be more effective in the context of acquiring communicative competences on condition that the students’ need for better leisure activities is taken into account by the developers of short-term student mobility programmes.

Conclusions

The study conducted has led authors to the following conclusions. Short-term student mobility of the Chinese students is connected, in the first place, with the mastering of additional common cultural competences. The need to acquire information about Russia plays a leading role in the structure of motivation for coming to the country to study. Besides this, the students name the broadening of their horizons and the knowledge gained about the culture of the host country among the results of receiving such education.

Barriers observed spoil the successful outcome of a visit to Russia and the par-ticipation in short-term educational programmes. Firstly, there are the obstacles


that a student is capable of surmounting on their own, such as the low level of proficiency in Russian and the lack of information about the cultural norms that characterise the host society. Secondly, there are some organisational, systemic hurdles that could be overcome by introducing corrections to the management of the educational projects aimed at international students. In this case we are talking about reducing bureaucracy related to paperwork, accommodation et cetera, as well as including organised leisure activities for foreign students.

For a university as a whole, inviting international students to participate in short-term educational programmes is instrumental in achieving a certain num-ber of strategic goals, the inclusion into the global educational space being one. Making such a project happen provides new opportunities for the involvement of students in postgraduate studies. Collaboration with the leading businesses and institutions in the area will increase the university’s recognition and appeal for future academic mobility. The faculty’s worth as an asset will grow as they develop their English skills by presenting lectures in English in their given subjects. The interdisciplinary projects carried out within the framework of short-term educational programmes will promote the understanding of common cultural competences.

The results of the conducted research, in our opinion, reveal a number of pro-spective directions in which it is possible to study short-term student mobility further. The development of the global market is posing a challenge to Russian universities. In light of this fact, studying existing marketing strategies of univer-sities, analysing the institutional cooperation of the players on the market, and defining pressing educational needs, not only of the students but of the faculty as well, all appear important.

AcknowledgementsThis research was supported by a Russian Science Foundation grant to the Ural Federal University (№ 18–18–00236). The authors are grateful to Ekaterina S. Purgina for the organization of the translation of the questionnaire from Russian to Mandarin Chinese.

ReferencesDwyer, M.M. (2004). More is better: the impact of study abroad program duration. Fron-

tiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10, 151–163.Gaia, A.C. (2015). Short-term faculty-led study abroad programs enhance cultural


exchange and self-awareness. The International Education Journal: Comparative Per-spectives, 14(1), 21–31.

Guzikova, M.O. (2019). Multilingualism in motion: evolution of the phenomenon. Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science, 49, 114–123. DOI: 10.17223/1998863Х/49/12.

Knight, J. (2004). Internationalization remodeled: Definitions, approaches, and rationales. Journal of Studies in International Education, 8(1), 5–31. DOI: 10.1177/1028315303260832.

Knight, J. (2012). Five Truths about Internationalization. International Higher Education, 69, 4–5. doi: 10.6017/ihe.2012.69.8644.

Lewis, T.L., & Niesenbaum, R.A. (2005). Extending the stay: Using community-based research and service learning to enhance short-term study abroad. Journal of Studies in International Education, 9, 251–264. DOI: 10.1177/1028315305277682.

Martinsen, R.A. (2008). Short-term study abroad: predicting changes in oral skills. Foreign Language Annals, 43(3), 504–530. DOI: 10.1111/j.1944–9720.2010.01095.x.

McKeown, J.S. (2009). The First Time Effect: The Impact of Study Abroad on College Student Intellectual Development. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Merenkov, A., & Antonova, N. (2015). Problems of social adaptation of international students in Russia. New Educational Review, 41(3), 122–132. DOI: 10.15804/tner.2015.41.3.10.

OECD (2017). Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators. Retrieved 23/08/2019, from https://www.hm.ee/sites/default/files/eag2017_eng.pdf.

Schwald, R. (2012). Toward a new practice of internationalization: a case study on a short-term study abroad program at European institutions of higher education. Review of European Studies, 4(2), 44–55. DOI: 10.5539/res.v4n2p44.

Shields, R. (2003). Globalization and International Student Mobility: A Network Analysis. Comparative Education Review, 57(4), 609–636. DOI: 10.1086/671752.

Slotkin, M.H., Durie, C.J. & Eisenberg, J.R. (2012). The benefits of short-term study abroad as blended learning experience. Journal of International Education in Business, 4(2), 163–173. DOI: 10.1108/18363261211281762.

Teichler, U. (2017). Internationalisation Trends in Higher Education and the Changing Role of International Student Mobility. Journal of international Mobility, 5(1), 177–216. DOI: 10.3917/jim.005.0179.

The European Higher Education Area in 2015. Bologna Process Implementation Report. Retrieved 23/08/2019, from www.ehea.info/media.ehea.info/file/2015_Yere-van/73/3/2015_Implementation_report_20.05.2015_613733.pdf.

Yonezawa, A., Kitamura, Y., & Kuroda, K. (eds.). (2014). Emerging International Dimensions in East Asian Higher Education. Dordrecht: Springer.

Does School Experience Kill Confidence? Chosen Aspects of Students’ Feelings and Beliefs about

Themselves over a Number of Years of Education

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.11

AbstractStress and anxiety experienced at school is negatively correlated with school achievements and mental health. Experiencing stress and anxiety is common for young people of school age from all over the world. Previous experiences have significant influence on children’s self-efficacy and their self-confidence. Students’ school experiences are the main subject of this text.

This article presents results of longitudinal studies among children from primary school. In 2016 a questionnaire was distributed among children in 2nd and 3rd grade (N=82). In 2019 the same survey was conducted among the same children in 4th and 5th grade (N=82). After several years of education students declare higher levels of stress and anxiety and lower levels of self-confidence and beliefs in their abilities in situations when they are evaluated at the board. Results of the research disclose a disquieting tendency in school experience.

Keywords: education, school experience, stress, anxiety, self-confidence, self-ef-ficacy

Theoretical Background to the Research

School, especially primary school, should be recognized as a safe, friendly place and excellent environment for education and self-development. Nowadays school experiences are not free from stress and anxiety is experienced by students, even

Karolina GlinkaPoland

139Does School Experience Kill Confidence

the youngest pupils. There are many situations which cause unpleasant feelings at school, one of which is evaluation of children’s knowledge and skills (Philips, 1978).

Stress and anxiety in school has been examined over the years by scientists from various disciplines. A relationship between anxiety and academic achieve-ment among early elementary school children has been shown (Grills-Taquechel, Fletcher, Vaughn, Denton & Taylor, 2013). There are many factors related with school life that can increase stress and anxiety among students. Fairbrother (2003) recognized academic stressors as too many assignments, competition with peers, failures and poor social relationships. According to research conducted in 2011 (Agarwal, 2011), academic stress had a significant negative correlation with aca-demic achievement and mental health. Stress and anxiety among students can be related to self-confidence and student beliefs about their capabilities when faced with school tasks, which can be described as self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is a concept created and developed by Albert Bandura (1982). In short, it can be considered to be an individual’s belief in their innate ability to achieve goals. In the school context it could be described as a child’s belief in their ability to do school tasks. A high level of self-efficacy decreases fear and inhibition of action. According to Bandura (1977) there are four main sources of self-efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, emotional and physiological states. As a result of these factors it may be considered that fear and stress experienced at school have an impact on students’ beliefs about themselves. Bandura’s theory has been the foundation of other research conducted in the area of education. Indeed previous experience, others’ experience and support from the environment are significant in self-efficacy creation and in increasing a child’s beliefs in their capabilities (Usher, & Pajares, 2006).

Children’s beliefs about themselves are also related with social aspects of being part of a class. Students’ self-efficacy is strongly correlated with anxiety about peers and shyness (Matsuhima, & Shiomi, 2003).

Students with high self-efficacy tend to have higher optimism, health parameters and more effective personal adjustment, show better academic performance, and are better at coping with stress. They have higher satisfaction and commitment to remain in school (Chemers, Hu & Garcia, 2001). By contrast, relationships between low self-efficacy, a sense of futility and depression have also been demonstrated (Bandura, Pastorelli, Barbaranelli & Caprara, 1999).

Regarding changes in student self-efficacy as a result of school experience, according to an investigation conducted in 2007, elementary school students

140 Karolina Glinka

reported stronger self-efficacy than did middle school and high school students (Pajares, Johnson & Usher, 2007).

During three years of education in school, a child’s skills and knowledge is examined many times and the success of this evaluation, as well as the support the child receives from the teacher, or the experience of their peers, has an influence on the child’s beliefs about him/herself in the future.

Research Process

Main Research ProblemAt the beginning of the research process the author asked the question if over

three years of education students have the same experiences in relation to situa-tions when their knowledge and skills are evaluated. The main area of experiences considered related to students’ beliefs about themselves, their self-confidence, self-efficacy and feelings.

SampleAs this was a longitudinal study, selection of the sample was non-random, due

to necessity of following the same group of children over several years. In the first part of the research participants were 100 students of primary school (at the beginning of 2nd and 3rd grade), including 44 males, ranging in age from 7 to 9. All were students of early education. Three years later participants came from the same sample from the same primary school, however then numbering 43 males and 39 females (N=82), aged from 10 to 12 in the second level of primary education (end of 4th and 5th grade). To ensure reliable results only the 82 children who took part in in both parts of the research were included.

Participants of the investigation are children born in 2007–2008, growing up today, in the reality of universal internet connection and new technologies, living in a small city in heart of the Silesian Agglomeration in Poland. The research is located in a public primary school in Czeladz, with an undifferentiated environ-ment. The building is surrounded by housing estates and old mining districts, where the low cost of living are benefits for people who do not earn enough money to live in more expensive places.

At this school most of teaching staff are experienced and conservative teachers with long work experience. Both the teachers working there and the institution are well perceived by the local society.


ProcedureThe research method was a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire created by

the author. The questionnaire items used a 5 point Likert scale (from “always” (1) to “never” (5). Included were 28 items from the areas of feelings, emotions and beliefs about themselves. There are also 12 questions with statement describing feelings and emotions, from unpleasant feelings (e.g.1 – “totally stressed”) to pleasant feelings (e.g. 5 – “totally calm”).

The first part of the investigation was conducted in September 2016 and the final part was conducted in May 2019 (after children had completed almost three years of education).

Data Analyses Statistical analyses include descriptive statistics (measures of the central ten-

dency: mean, standard deviation) and differential significance tests. As the research was conducted twice on the same sample it is necessary to use a paired t-test (Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test). According to procedure of differential significance tests it is necessary to test normality of differences distribution (The Shapiro-Wilk Test).

Main ResultsTable 1. presents the main results of the research conducted in 2016 and 2019.

All of these results are statistically significant, there are significant differences between examination in 2016 and in 2019.

Table 1. Students’ feelings and beliefs in relation with evaluation at the board. Chosen results

Item Interpretation on Likert Scale

Results in 2016 (mean,

standard deviation):



Results of Wilcoxon

signed-rank test

p(α=0.05)

When I am exam-ined at the board…

1- I am embar-rassed very much5- I am not em-barrassed at all

4.07SD=0.94

3.13SD=1.18

Z=5.04 p=0.00


1- I am afraid very much5- I am not afraid at all

3.93SD=1.06

3.02SD=1.14

Z=6.56 p=0.00

142 Karolina Glinka

Item Interpretation on Likert Scale





Results of Wilcoxon

signed-rank test

p(α=0.05)


1 – I am not confident at all5 – I am very confident

3.71SD=1.01

2.93SD=1.06

Z=4.91 p=0.00

When I am exam-ined at the board I am nervous

1 – always5 – never

3.63SD=1.20

2.70SD=1.10

Z=4.73 p=0.00

When I am exam-ined at the board I expect I will not be able to answer


3.82SD=1.19

3.10SD=1.19

Z=4.3 p=0.000017

When I am exam-ined at the board I am ashamed if I didn’t know the right answer


3.92SD=1.22

3.18SD=1.42

Z=3.48 p=0.00048

When I am exam-ined at the board I am afraid

1– always5 – never

4.17SD=1.14

3.33SD=1.26

Z=4.49 p=0.00

According to the results of survey, in 2019 children indicated that “evaluation at the board” was more terrible and embarrassing than in 2016. After 3 years of education children found that evaluation at the board was a situation that makes them feel rather unconfident (2.93), afraid (3.33), embarrassed (3.18). In 2016 their answers was located higher on the level of pleasant emotions. In 2019 children confirmed they are often nervous when answering at the board, while in 2016 they had usually chosen the answer “sometimes” on the same question. In 2019 they are often afraid and embarrassed because of prospect of defeat.

The rest of the results also show significant differences between frequency of stress, fear and low self-confidence in situations when they are being evaluated. Older children experience these feelings more often. Other results likewise con-firm higher levels of stress in association with written tests after three years of school experience (presented in Table 2).


Table 2. Students’ feelings and beliefs in relation with evaluation by the written tests. Chosen results

ItemInterpre-tation on

Likert Scale





Results of Wilcoxon

signed-rank test

p(α=0.05)

When I write a test… 1 – I am nervous very much5 – I am totally calm

3.99SD=0.98

3.29SD=1.18

Z=3.95 p=0.00005

When I am writing a test I am stressed


3.78SD=1.24

3.06SD=1.34

Z=3.47 p=0.0005

When I am examined at the board I am afraid I will not be able to answer


3.96SD=1.28

3.13SD=1.08

Z=3.93 p=0.00008

In the questionnaire there was a question about children’s preferences in the area of evaluation. The researcher asked if students like to answer at the board.

Table 3. Students’ preferences in the area of evaluation at the board

Do you like to answer at the board?2016 (N=82) 2019 (N=82)

yes no yes no55 (67%) 27 (43%) 27 (33%) 55 (67%)

In 2016 most of them (67%) had answered “yes” to the question if they like to answer at the board. After 3 years of education most of them said “no” to the same question.

Table 3. presents one of the most interesting results of this research. Children were asked to answer the question if they have ever forgotten at the board what they had learned.

Table 4. Reasons of difficulties during evaluation at the board. Students’ opinion

Have you ever forgotten what you had learned during evaluation at the board?What do you think is the reason for this situation? Stress anxiety/fear peers’ presence fear about marks2016 2019 2016 2019 2016 2019 2016 20197 (8%) 23 (28%) 3 (3%) 10 (12%) 4 (4%) 5 (6%) 0 (0%) 3 (4%)

144 Karolina Glinka

As explanation of this situation the children indicated various factors. These are similar in both parts of the research, however in 2019 there were more indications. Children experience the influence of stress, anxiety and the presence of peers. In 2019 some people pointed to “fear about marks” as a reason for lapses of memory.

Research Extension – Qualitative Research

An additional aspect of the researcher’s investigation is the approach of primary education teachers, who had worked with the evaluated children at the first level of education (1st-3rd grades). After the second part of the investigation (2019) the researcher conducted two interviews with primary education teachers who had worked earlier with the participants of the research. After three years of teaching and observation they know the examined students very well. The main aim of this part was to consider teachers’ opinion about changes in childrens’ beliefs and rea-sons for these differences. Interviews were conducted as structured conversation with main areas of consideration framed as general questions.

The very first conclusion concerns differences between levels of education in Poland. According to teachers, at the stage of early school education (grades 1–3) children perceive the evaluation process and the school environment as a more friendly and safe space than later. They are evaluated using descriptive assessment, which usually underlines also the good aspects of a child’s work and points to ways to improve their skills. All education should be individualized and focused on the student. A calm and pleasant atmosphere is also considered very important, especially at this first level. Over several years of learning children experience problems and difficult moments (e.g. a failed exam). According to the teachers, bad experiences could also increase the level of stress and fear in children’s beliefs.

Teachers also mentioned the approach of parents and pressure. Over several years of learning children can experience many situations where parents have an impact on their beliefs. Children would like to make their parents proud of them, rather than disappointed. One of the ways to gain parental satisfaction is getting good grades.

With age children perceive themselves and society in a different way than earlier. The second level of school education (grades 4–8) could be considered also as the beginning of adolescence. Children notice that they are all the time observed and evaluated by peers. In this period acceptance of peers, and positive feedback from school mates are valuable for young people. This is why (in teachers’


opinion) the children could be more embarrassed and afraid answering at the board. Children compare themselves to others and school marks could serve to make social comparisons.

Discussion

Findings from both parts of this study are comparable with other research. The school environment is not free from stress and anxiety. An investigation conducted in 2010 in China (Hesketh, Zhen, & Lu, 2010) showed that taking exams is highly related with stress and experience anxiety. In Chinese elementary schools over 80% of children from 9 to 12 (N=2191) declared feelings of stress and anxiety in case of evaluation. Most of them experienced somatic symptoms of stress and anxiety such as headache, stomachache or sickness.

According to the results of the current research older children believe less in their capabilities than children from early elementary education. This confirms results of research conducted by F. Pajares, M. Johnson and E. Usher (2007) where the researchers noted that the level of self-efficacy is higher among younger students. There is no conclusion that this effect is caused by any specific factors. It could be also be a natural tendency of children growing up, related with adoles-cence and changes in cognitive and emotional development. Even if this tendency is natural and common for children this discovery could play a very significant role in the learning process and become an interesting issue for teachers who would like to improve children’s self-efficacy.

Researchers Margolis and McCabe (2006) offer a recommendation for teachers who would like to support children’s beliefs in themselves. They suggest dealing with three sources of self-efficacy: enactive mastery, vicarious experiences and verbal persuasion. In their opinion the best way to increase the self-efficacy of children is to create opportunities for students to make small gains, to celebrate even the smallest successes with them, to support them through positive commu-nication and to motivate them to make an effort.

Conclusion

Results of the research presented in this article put emphasis on a significant problem in Polish education. After three years of school experience children declare a higher level of stress, anxiety and a lower level of self-confidence. In situ-

146 Karolina Glinka

ations of being evaluated at the board they feel stressed, nervous and embarrassed more often than earlier. They lost pleasure in being examined. This tendency is compatible with results of research conducted by other scientists and points to the significant role of teachers in increasing children’s self-efficacy and students’ pleasure in education.

This article should also be a source for teacher reflection. It is really important for teachers to be aware of students’ feelings and emotions in situations when the child is being evaluated. Only with full consciousness of children’s experiences can changes be made in education and especially in the evaluation process.

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Usher, E.L., & Pajares, F. (2006). Sources of academic and self-regulatory efficacy beliefs of entering middle school students. Contemporary Educational Psychology. 31, 125–141.

Confronting Yourself: Reflections on Academic Publication in Doctoral Study

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.12

AbstractScholarly publication is a leading requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program. Publishing articles, therefore, has become an appealing expecta-tion for early-stage doctoral researchers (ESDRs). However, little has been done to address the dynamic relationship between the PhD and the academic publication system. The purpose of this study is to understand the intricately intertwined structures of PhD study and to explore the challenges related to scholarly publi-cation. A group discussion method was deployed for data collection by recruiting international ESDRs (n=15) from three different countries. Primary results indi-cate that common anxiety is associated with the requirement to publish in high impact factor journals as well as the publication process. Quality supervision is recognized as inevitable to improve a mentor-mentee relationship and was found helpful in reducing the barriers to scientific publication. Moreover, the dominant structural factors of PhD study determine the ESDRs’ decision-making. The study suggests that the PhD study should remain research-intensive rather than simply for the sake of obtaining a higher qualification.

Key word: Doctoral study, early stage researcher, journal impact factor, publication

Introduction

Scholarly publication is a way that gives the opportunity for researchers work-ing for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) to disseminate their research outcomes to the wider community. The rate of research outcome has been found to

Atiqur RahmanSwedenYasmin JahanJapan

148 Atiqur Rahman, Yasmin Jahan

increase within the academic hierarchy, where people in lower academic positions tend to publish fewer publications per year (see e.g. Abramo et al., 2011, Aksnes et al., 2011). In other words, publication usually carries deterministic impacts on PhD education regardless of disciplines (Robins & Kanowski, 2008). The impacts are often derived from the program evaluation, directed toward some common categorization such as where the article is published, the journal ranking, the journal impact factor etc. (Aiken et al., 1990). Although the scientific impact of a research output is considered a major concern for researchers, basic questions about the relationship between publication quality and quantity remain uncertain (Haslam & Laham, 2010). In fact, it creates additional two-fold appealing expecta-tions for the early-stage doctoral researcher (ESDR); namely, to publish research outcomes in a topnotch journal, and to give preference to quantity over quality of the research outcome (Norton & Cherastidtham, 2016). In this study, we defined the aim of the ESDR as to “[create] the new ideas and knowledge upon which future educational activities can be built, sustained and nourished” (Davis, Evans, & Hickey, 2006, p. 236).

Publication in international journals has become a conspicuous prerequisite to PhD graduation (Huang, 2010). Hence, the PhD program is an avenue that allows an ESDR to grow both professionally and intellectually (Zygouris-Coe & Roberts, 2019). However, there are ambiguities surrounding the contemporary purpose of PhD education (Mowbray & Halse, 2010). What is missing is clear-cut empirical evidence on disentangling the complex relationship between the scholarly pub-lication process and PhD education from the perspective of ESDRs. Therefore, our concern is with the ambiguities about the purpose of the PhD, entangled in scholarly publications.

Understanding PhD Education and Scholarly Publication

Winter and colleagues (2000) conceptualized the doctoral monograph writing and article-based thesis in a comprehensive way by integrating four characteristics namely- a report which others would want to read; a compelling story with inev-itable critiques; a work which will carry the reader into complex realms; a work sufficiently speculative and original that it will command respectful peer attention. A PhD degree (similar terms such as DPhil, D.Lit, D.Sc, LL.D, Doctorate) contains a moral value which can be considered rather as ‘diligence’ than ‘intelligence’. Moreover, the PhD is signified differently with respect to inquisitiveness, creativity, discipline, persistence, perseverance, and meticulousness. The key purpose of a PhD

149Confronting Yourself: Reflections on Academic Publication in Doctoral Study

education- as a field of academic research- is to extend the boundary of knowledge (Dowling et al., 2012). The successful accomplishment of a PhD degree is supposed to be a little bit more than merely adding two letters (Dr) or three letters (Ph.D) as prefix or suffix to an individual’s name. According to Zygouris-Coe and Roberts (2019), the degree eventually serves as certification of the expertise of the individual in a particular field of research that is challenging, as well as life-changing.

Scholarly publication is a specific way of presenting research output that is dis-tinguishable from other forms of publication by its transparency (Hyland, 2016). Today’s article-based PhD is rooted in the systematic growth of the scholarly community that was formulated in the mid-17th century (Vekkaila et al., 2012). The fundamental objective of the community was to produce advanced scientific knowledge and to avoid duplication of research outcomes. A fully peer-reviewed journal article was circulated by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, under the name of Medical Essays and Observations in 1731 (Merton, 1963). However, the peer-review system was not exactly like today’s version that has been intervened by technological advancement. The current breakneck speed of modern technol-ogy gives academics access to choose an electronic platform for faster and better communication with research communities. As a point of departure, in 1990, the first online publication system was launched, known as open access (Harnad et al., 2004). This digital platform reduced typesetting costs for publication houses on the bright side but created some other pertinent complexities.

Academic or scholarly publication throughout the PhD study represents greater research productivity and is becoming one of the dominating factors in the profes-sional lives and career opportunities of academics across the globe (Kehm, 2015; Hyland, 2016). Consequently, a new tenet of doctoral study has emerged with the rising demand for scientific publications (Powell, 2004). The OECD (2014) reported that recipients of doctorate degrees have increased both at national and international levels, however, the candidates have commonly been encountering challenges, shown in the variation in the dimension of publication across countries and disciplines. Moreover, this publication trend has been criticized as ‘unclear contribution by the PhD candidate’ (Sharmini, Spronken-Smith, Golding, & Harland, 2015, p. 95).

The Research Objectives

The current study was an attempt to investigate the intricately intertwined structures between the PhD study program and challenges related to scholarly publication. Thus, the formulated research objectives were:


(a) to explore the ESDR’s experiences and perceptions in relation to scholarly publication;

(b) if and how the doctoral program has lost its educational purpose due to the overwhelming pressure for publication.

Methodology

Study DesignThe study adhered to a cross-sectional qualitative design, using the method of

group discussion. Group discussion, like a normal conversation, contributes to understanding the participant’s everyday experiences and interaction among peers (Tuckett & Stewart, 2004). This approach is used to gain an in-depth understand-ing of the selected research area. The purpose of using a group discussion tool was to obtain data from a purposely selected group of individuals and to understand how they interacted with the phenomenon.

ParticipantsParticipants were recruited from three different institutions and countries and

were contacted prior to organizing the discussion session. All participants were fully informed about the purpose of the study and the how the data would be reported. The inclusion criteria of study participants were that they should be doc-toral students who are currently pursuing their degree, who agreed to participate voluntarily and who have experience in the phenomenon (Table 1). Across the 15 participants, the majority were non-native English speakers.

Table 1. Demographics of participants

Participants Region Year of education SexESDR (n=15) Sweden (n=5); Japan

(n=4); Australia (n=6)

1st year (n=9), 2nd year (n=4), 3rd year (n=2)

Male (n=9); 60%,Female (n=6); 40%

Data CollectionA group discussion guide was developed based on existing literature to facilitate

the conversation. The discussion guide put a spotlight on five key features that enabled the discussion sessions to be interactive (Table 2). Extensive field notes- an accurate description of what is observed which comprises jotting notes and obser-


vations- were the primary means of capturing data (Mulhall, 2003). Documentary sources were synthesized along with field data. Two face-to-face (one in Sweden, one in Japan) and one online group discussion were arranged from October 2018 to March 2019.

Table 2. Data sources and Discussion guide

Data Collec-tion Method Data Sources Key features of discussion guide

Group Discus-sion

PhD forum discussion, informal conversations with PhD students, International Conferences, Seminars, and Workshops

1. What are people doing? What are they trying to express?2. How exactly do they respond?3. How do people characterise and understand what is going on?4. What are the emotional stances?5. What do I see going on here? What did I learn from the conversation?

Written doc-uments (both printed and electronic)

Newspapers, Magazines, Evi-dence-based research articles, Web-sites, and Annual reports

Data AnalysisThe commonly adopted data analysis method- thematic analysis- was adhered

to for encoding qualitative data. Further, a data-driven approach was followed, where the data drives the selection of codes and themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The potential texts were coded to identify patterns with similar meanings and to determine the associations between them. Data trustworthiness was maintained by following the criteria recommended by Graneheim and Lundman (2004).

ResultsThis exploratory study contributes to the existing literature on scholarly pub-

lications in two important ways. Firstly, the cross-national nature of the study is a unique investigation of international doctoral students pursuing degrees abroad. Secondly, the emic (insider) perspective (Merriam, 2009) explores the growing pressure to publish scholarly work. The study results are framed in four themes: (1) challenges related to the scholarly publication process; (2) challenges related to authorship and journal impact factor; (3) challenges related to quality and quantity; (4) challenges related to supervision.

(1) Challenges related to scholarly publication processOverwhelming the article submission procedure was of prime concern. ESDRs

have found manuscript writing, as well as the submission process, daunting and tiresome. An ESDR shared experience and stated,


Article submission process is so much time consuming especially when you get rejection. Formatting the manuscript following every journal’s author instruction is difficult. For example, one will ask for 300 word abstract, other required 150 words.

The word limitation of the manuscript was also referred to by the ESDRs. According to ESDRs,

As an early-stage researcher, our writing is not yet condensed like the expert writers. Thus, we experience difficulties to maintain the word limits.

Putting importance on the language barrier, an ESDR said,

Since English is not my first language, I had to invest more time than needed.

(2) Challenges related to authorship and journal impact factorThe difficulties related to authorship, work recognition, and the sequence of

authors often evolved around who will be the first author, corresponding author, or senior author. ESDRs expressed the following concern,

Senior and experienced researchers (e.g. supervisors, fellows from the collaborating institution) take advantage of reporting research outcomes due to having the ability to [make] the best possible presentation.

With respect to the journal selection, some institutions have specific principles. The value of the manuscript is regulated, and even determined, by the journal impact factor. ESDRs stated,

In my institution, we are not allowed to published an article in a journal below a pre-scribed impact factor for the successful accomplishment of the degree.

(3) Challenges related to quality and quantityWhen asked which (quality or quantity) should be prioritized in dissemination

of their research outcome, a group of ESDRs debated several arguments to find the right answer. One group preferred to maximize the number of publications, whereas others criticized this overtly. According to them,


The bindings [i.e. requirements] of a specific number of publications can be helpful to maximize the quantity, however, a piece of research outcome can be impactful if it has merit, potential and is exciting.

Along with this dilemma, the study design has an impact on the speed of pub-lication. An ESDR stated,

Research with the qualitative design always takes a longer time than a paper with quantitative data.

Besides, different supervisors have different approaches and these are influenced by disciplinary practices. According to an ESDR,

My supervisor does not ask me to produce any specific number of articles. Rather, [s/he] suggests me to produce good quality research output.

(4) Challenges related to supervisionDubious instruction from supervisors emerged as an issue while addressing the

importance of quality supervision. An ESDR stated,

I feel that the supervisors, as an expert, are the resources who can disseminate exem-plary articles so that we can engage in and build a strong grounding.

Importance of straightforward instructions from supervisors was mentioned by several ESDRs with comments such as,

I am not fully aware of, or familiar with, the current trend in my research area. Simple and direct instructions of the supervisors can make the task easier.

In most cases, the ESDRs have more than one supervisor they need to mediate with. There was widespread agreement across the groups about the common dilemma mentioned as,

Different views, comments, and advice on the same issue from the supervisors create difficulties and hinder the cooperation process.


Discussion

The primary finding of the present study demonstrates some influential factors related to scholarly publication in PhD study programs and the impact this has on ESDRs perspectives of it. The issue is not that the mechanism of the current article-based PhD program pushes ESDR’s attention towards publications. The main argument is that an evaluation process based on scholarly publications cannot be the only determiner to judge, or measure, the potential of a researcher. This corresponds to the findings of a previous study (Davies & Rolfe, 2009), where the authors claimed that if education is considered an inherently social or learning process, the experience of undertaking a doctorate is hardly educational at all.

Besides, article-based PhD programs somehow nudge doctoral researchers to look for a short-cut to publication. The study participants collectively endorsed that publishing research findings as early as possible is advantageous and can secure originality. This approach may produce a premature publication and pres-ent incorrect, or incomplete work. Roberts (1991) described the rapid, or ultrafast publication (alternatively rush to publish) tendency which is exacerbated by heightened competition among researchers. The implicit pressure for publication found generates other adverse impacts on doctoral candidates, such as stress, isolation and even increases the likelihood of attrition or withdrawal from the program (Jairam & Kahl Jr, 2012; Gardner, & Gopaul, 2012; Levecque et al., 2017).

The study participants were concerned with diverse author guidelines in jour-nals and with the overall publication process. This complexity in some ways leads them to cut corners of good research findings and publish in several articles. While synthesizing the ESDR’s perspectives, we found a generic publication cycle which has been illustrated below (Figure 1).

Our study findings showed that the research output is more likely seen as ‘indi-vidual success’ rather than ‘research excellence’. These findings strengthen previous research, where it was argued that the researcher’s success, journals, articles, as well as funding opportunity, are intertwined components of scholarly publication (Mabe, 2003, Jinha, 2010; Bromham, Dinnage & Hua, 2016). Moreover, scholars, as a consequence, in their early-career, as well as at the mid-career stage are increas-ingly influenced to submit their research for publication in high indexed (e.g. Web of Knowledge SCI databases, Institute for Scientific Information) journals (Björk et al., 2009). Therefore, the ‘production of knowledge’ has become a ‘commodity’ that can be parceled up (Hyland, 2016).

Producing a scholarly article and appropriate allocation of authorship are two associated aspects of the author’s reward. Moreover, the recognition of scientific


accomplishments serves as a source of psychological energy (Seeman & House, 2015). This issue is important in particular with regard to multiple authorship or co-authorship. The opportunity to collaborate with others enhances doctoral students’ networks, as well as raises the levels of competition in academic life in response to performative pressures (Moore & Griffin 2006).

We found a tension among ESDRs in choosing between pursuing quality or quantity. A single exponential and comprehensive research output can create a noteworthy impact, rather than a series of predatory publications. However, there is no harm in examining one model to answer multiple research questions. It can also be justified to generate two papers from one potential piece of research, as long as the findings convey two compatible and convincing messages. Authors need to be careful to decide the ideal time to submit both manuscripts. Unfor-tunately, evidence exists where research findings are ‘sliced’ like salami from one piece of research which could have been presented in one comprehensive article. This tendency has potentially negative implications. The message could hype the reader, oversimplification of the finding could be misleading, the take-home message could lead future relevant research astray. It can be suggested that striving for quantity of research publications may, therefore, reduce quality, and vice versa.

Our study has shown a pertinent concern which emerged with relation to the supervisor’s impassive attitude to the timeline of the doctoral study. Supervisory

Simple TaskSpelling, Capitalization,

page layout,punctuation, jargon, grammar,

(sub)heading,graphs, figures, tables

Manuscriptwriting/Revising

ESDR/PhDStudent Supervisor

Complex TaskLink between sentences, link

between paragraphs, logical flow of infromation between and within

sections, Overall coherence and focus, Abstract writing

Type of article, references, the journal’s aims and scope,

availability of journal, performance metrics,

target audience

Journal’s guidelines (font type, font size, margin, reference style,

heading style, word limit, plagiarism check), cover letter,

professional English editing (language and grammar)

Journal Selection Formatting

Desk Rejection Submission

Peer-review

Re-submission

Accept

Reject

Copy, editing, author approval

Publish

Addres Review CommentsMajor/Moderator/Minor revision

Figure 1. Perceived publication cycle


capabilities directly influence the student’s abilities to write and publish. Dissatis-faction and other related tensions rise when this fundamental role is overlooked. A disproportionately lengthy time from registration to degree completion was identified as a common difficulty. Dissatisfaction toward supervision, lack of rigor and a clear supervision strategy is evidenced as leading to a higher attrition rate in doctoral study (Kamler, 2008). Some common and well-known tensions (Gun-narsson, Jonasson, & Billhult, 2013) related to supervision such as low frequency of meetings, disagreements, mediating between supervisors, and inadequate funding came to the fore during discussions. Can and Walker (2011) found the content of feedback and tone of feedback received from the supervisor has an influence on managing the emotional state of mind and contributes to the willingness to learn of doctoral students.

Finally, we argue that measuring the quality and importance of publications based on journal impact factor reinforces scholarly polarization. It perpetuates academic hierarchy as well as patronages imbalanced academic practice. Publish-ing academic works in a high impact factor journal may be a good strategy, while a blind faith in it could lead to a simplified view of scholarship. Therefore, scholars need to avoid simplified views of journal impact factor.

Limitation and Strength

This study has several limitations that need to be considered in further discus-sion. First, the presented study findings might be considered self-reflexive. Second, the authors were concurrently an insider and outsider in the study so their views could be contradictory. Third, using single data collection method could restrict to draw a general conclusion. Nonetheless, the in-depth interpretation of the data has helped to bring together our different views and we found that the topic of the research had the potential to transform personal experiences across cultures and find common themes.

Conclusion

The study suggests a tension related to the dynamic relationship between the nature of PhD study, publication trends, and the academic publication process. From the research findings, it can be suggested that ESDRs should not be overly concerned about publishing a number of poor quality papers and that a successful


researcher should have an open mind and embrace different aspects of criticism. Doctoral research is more likely to make a significant contribution to, advance-ment, or alteration in existing research.

Ethical Consideration

For ethical reasons, this article has preserved the anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality of the participants. Neither video nor audio recording took place, respecting the participants’ requests. Verbal consent was received at all levels in the production of this manuscript. The negative use of data was mitigated through open discussion and dissemination of the preliminary draft of this article to all available participants who showed interest, in order to justify the information included.

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.FundingNo funding was received for the manuscript writing or publication.

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General Didactics

An Action Research Study Exploring the Effects of Augmented Reality for English Vocabulary Learning

in an Elementary School in Taiwan

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.13

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to compare the use of traditional English flash cards and the vocabulary learning method of Augmented Reality to see which English vocabulary learning method is more efficient for elementary school students. The study was conducted at an elementary school in Taiwan, and there were 60 student participants in total. This study adopted an unequal pre-test and post-test experimental design. The study was conducted in two stages in terms of data collection. In the first stage, the control and experimental group took the English vocabulary test, without any teacher instruction, as the pretest. In the second stage, the control group used flashcards to learn 20 target English words by themselves for 40 minutes. The experimental group adopted the Augmented Reality 3D effect on the 20 target words by themselves for 40 minutes. After that, both groups took the same English vocabulary test again, as the posttest. On the whole, Augmented Reality teaching effects apparently exceed the effects of the traditional vocabulary learning method. The results of this study show that the learning method of Augmented Reality was more efficient than that of learning with English flash cards among the various proficiency levels (high, intermediate, and low) in terms of English vocabulary learning. The way of using English flash cards showed significant differences between high and low level groups, as well as between intermediate and low level groups, with the exception being the difference between high and intermediate level groups. It is worthwhile improving children’s English vocabulary learning by using Augmented Reality, by incorporating it into their daily lives through mobile learning.

Key Words: Augmented Reality, English Flash Cards, English Vocabulary Learning

Cheng-Chang TsaiTaiwan

164 Cheng-Chang Tsai

Introduction

In recent years, as the era of the global village has arrived, being able to com-municate through a common language for worldwide public communication has become relatively important. Therefore, the importance of English increases daily, because English has become the main language in the world, and is regarded as our foreign language. Because technology is being applied ever more widely, how to use the improvement of information technology to increase English learning efficiency and the disposing of traditional English learning methods has become a global trend. Several scholars think that a multimedia learning system which combines words, graphics, sounds, and animations is interaction-driven with learner-centered characteristics and provides an ideal learning environment. During the learning process, learners can select their own learning content as well as progress and repeat, based on their own needs, which is helpful in raising learning efficiency (Juan, et al, 2010; Kerawalla, et al, 2006; Richardson, 2016).

English, a common language in the world, has become increasingly valued by Taiwanese parents. Accordingly, the question of how to strengthen children’s English vocabulary ability has drawn everyone’s attention, and the resulting cram schooling atmosphere has become extremely prevalent. However, in such intensified English education, numerous methods are employed in the cramming teaching content, so learners feel bored. Because of this, learners are always full of enthusiasm and interest when starting learning, but then their learning motivation disappears fairly quickly. Nowadays, there are a variety of flash cards and English vocabulary learning books, but all of them are limited to words and graphics printed on paper.

In order to solve this problem, we intend to apply more interesting and interaction-like learning methods to help learners learn. Take learning English vocabulary, for example. If the to-be-learned English vocabulary is not only made into flash cards but also integrated into Augmented Reality, the meanings of words with images and voices can be expressed more vividly and interestingly, as well as helping the students to memorize the words more easily. In addition, now more and more studies reveal that multimedia-assisted language teaching can indeed help learners promote their language learning (Bower, et al, 2014; Bull &Wasson, 2016; Kerawalla, et al., 2006). Apart from the rise of learners’ English learning efficiency, how to boost learners’ learning interest, as well as learning motivation, has also gradually become a trend in scholarly discussions. In recent years, English teaching has been highlighted domestically by all parties. “Edutainment”, immersing English in our daily lives to get children accustomed to English, is the

165An Action Research Study Exploring the Effects of Augmented Reality

most viable method of the time. During the children’s learning process, plenty of materials and media assist children in their learning activities to increase the entire learning efficiency as well as interest (Mahadzir & Phung, 2013). With the development of digital technology, teaching media have become more diversified. Not only do they enrich the entire learning content and way of presentation, but they also bring new learning interaction. Children can experience the learning content in more abundant and interactive learning ways, such as games, since multi-sensory stimulation can enhance learning outcomes (Richardson, 2016).

English learning for children focuses on four skills: listening, speaking, read-ing, and writing; nevertheless, while children are learning English, colorful and animated graphics draw their attention first, and then they feel interested, so that they can learn English unconsciously. Using lively interaction flash cards with 3D images to recognize English vocabulary and reading vocabulary to intensify users’ listening and pronunciation can help users easily increase their interest in learning English and better boost their learning efficiency (Kirova, Petkovska, & Koceva, 2012; Rose & Bhuvaneswari, 2014). Hence, the purpose of this study is to compare the use of traditional English flash cards and the vocabulary learning method of Augmented Reality, to see which English vocabulary learning method is more efficient for elementary school students. The research questions are as follows:

1. In comparison between traditional English flash cards and the vocabulary learning method of Augmented Reality, which increases elementary school students’ English vocabulary learning efficiency?

2. How does the vocabulary learning method of Augmented Reality influence elementary school students’ English vocabulary learning efficiency among high, intermediate, and low proficiency groups?

3. How do traditional English flash cards influence elementary school stu-dents’ English vocabulary learning efficiency among high, intermediate, and low proficiency groups?

Literature Reviews

Mobile LearningThe application of information and communication technology to education

and training has made numerous changes in the paragons of education and learn-ing over the past ten years (Hossain & Prybutok, 2008). Among them, mobile learning, m-learning for short, has currently become one of the most highlighted learning trends, followed by remote learning, as well as digital learning. Yang and


Yang (2010) stated that mobile learning can be conducted through mobile com-puting devices. Furthermore, Traxler (2007) mentioned that mobile learning was not only digital but also movable, and by means of handy mobile learning devices and wireless networks, it offered a real opportunity – information was accessible. Apparently, compared to other technologies which support learning strategies, mobile learning tends to be less restricted by time and space. According to Stock-well (2008), mobile learning can be categorized into four types – indoor individual m-learning, outdoor individual m-learning, indoor cooperative m-learning, and outdoor cooperative m-learning.

Not only can mobile learning make learning unlimited by time and space, enlarging teaching places from traditional classrooms to the network environ-ment, free of space and time limitations, but it also can help educational institutes enhance their teaching quality with mobile learning, because of a large increase of the penetration rate of mobile carriers (Shin, 2007). Mobile learning connects to cloud servers via the Internet, placing teaching materials, tests, etc. in the cloud, so that on the school teaching side teachers can share information with students to construct an educational platform for information sharing, and students can instantly access teaching resources (Sole, Calic, and Neijmann, 2010). Thus, the links between teaching content and students become closer. Students’ learning processes can also be recorded in the system in detail, which can be referred to by teachers and parents to better understand students’ learning statuses, in order to establish a seamless learning environment, either at school, at home, or in other places of learning.

Augmented Reality for English Vocabulary LearningVan Krevelen and Johnson (2010) stated that AR can be used as a teaching

tool, which allows learners to smoothly interact with virtual objects in virtual and real environments. Besides, learners’ using AR as a teaching tool will lead to new types of teaching and learning. AR can help learners immerse themselves in the characteristics of the learning content, rather than merely learning being static memorization of information. Yuen, Yaoyuneyong, and Johnson (2011) proposed that Augmented Reality can provide learners with a new type of learning tool. Benefits from applying AR to education include: 1) Interaction: students are able to operate it easily, as well as have discussions about it; visual and audio stimula-tion can arouse school children’s curiosity and increase their learning motivation. 2) Sensory feedback: the 3D real-time model presented in front of school children helps them enter the space formed by virtual objects and the real environment as a way of immersion. 3) Spatial association: the spatial association between


each virtual object, each real object, and the environment can be easily identified. 4) Learning novelty: owing to AR’s novel way of presenting knowledge and its simple and intuitional interaction, AR can also act like multimedia, which can make learning fun for students and trigger their learning motivation and interest.

In the Taiwanese field of English teaching, several researchers have begun using the technology of Virtual Reality and English learning results to do relevant teach-ing research. Lin (2009) took Elementary School English as an example, applying Augmented Reality to his teaching research and assisting school children’s English learning with Augmented Reality, in hopes of promoting school children’s learning outcomes and intensifying learning processes by means of new teaching media applications. Its teaching effects apparently exceed the effects of the general teach-ing methods. Furthermore, it had a remarkable effect on English learning for the school children of the highest and the lowest English levels; students of different genders all received remarkable learning results. Huang (2009) tried to apply Augmented Reality to English teaching research on nouns, verbs, and adjectives and to assist students’ English vocabulary learning with an Augmented Reality computer, expecting that the AR applications could enhance students’ learning outcomes. Meanwhile, the differences in students’ English learning with respect to nouns, verbs, and adjectives were discussed when the AR computer was used to assist teaching. The results showed that teaching with Augmented Reality was helpful in promoting English learning ability in elementary school.

Method

ParticipantsThe study was conducted at an elementary school in Taiwan, and the partici-

pants were 60 fourth grade students in total. On the whole, the group of fourth grade students had the same characteristics in terms of their English proficiencies. The 20 target words were chosen from the Happy Playground Learning Box, which is produced by the Happito Creative Company. These 20 words are basic level for students, and all words are nouns. The researcher adopted these 20 target words to assess students as their pre-test. The highest possible pretest score was 100. Based on the results of the pretest, students were classified into three English vocabulary proficiency groups: low, intermediate, and high. 20 students who received scores below 60 were classified into the low level group; 24 students between 60–79 points were classified into the intermediate level group; and 16 students who obtained above 80 were classified into the high level group.


According to stratified random sampling, in the high level group, 8 students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (using AR to learn English vocabulary) and the other 8 students (using flashcards to learn English vocab-ulary) were assigned to the control group. In the intermediate level group, 12 students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (using AR to learn English vocabulary) and the other 12 students who used the traditional vocabulary learning method (using flashcards to learn English vocabulary) were assigned to the control group. In the low level group, 10 students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (using AR to learn English vocabulary) and the other 10 students (using flashcards to learn English vocabulary) were assigned to the control group. They were given a time limit of 40 minutes to learn 20 English vocabulary words

MaterialsThe 20 target words were chosen from Happy Playground Learning Box, which

is produced by the Happito Creative Company. These 20 words are basic level for students, and all words are nouns. In order to help students learn all English vocabulary with letters of the alphabet, we made some letters of the alphabet into flashcards, which were presented to them as displayed in Figure 1, including Chinese and English names and the pictures which represent the vocabulary. As mentioned above, the control group used this method to learn English vocabulary. With respect to the experimental group, the participants were asked to download the Augmented Reality (A R) App to the ipads that the school provided, so that participants could view the Augmented Reality 3D effect of the vocabulary on the screens of their ipads. Not only can the English vocabulary be displayed, but also sound effects and actions can be made via learners’ gentle touches with their fingers. Sound effects refer to the pronunciations of the vocabulary. The Augmented Reality 3D effect of the vocabulary on the screens were presented as displayed in Figure 2.

Figure 1. An example of the English vocabulary flashcard


Data CollectionStudents’ English vocabulary acquisition was measured through a multi-

ple-choice test. The tests had 20 items, with four choices for each item. Scores ranged from 0–100 on the multiple-choice test. The study was conducted in two stages in terms of data collection. In the first stage, the control and experimental groups took the same English vocabulary test, without any teacher instruction, as the pretest. In the second stage, the control group used flashcards to learn 20 target English words by themselves for 40 minutes. The experimental group adopted the Augmented Reality 3D effect of the 20 target words by themselves for 40 minutes. After that, both groups took the same English vocabulary test again as the posttest.

Data AnalysisIn order to analyze the study results, a paired-sample t-test was conducted to

evaluate effects between the control (traditional English flash cards) and experi-mental (the learning method using Augmented Reality) group on students’ English vocabulary learning. A One-way ANOVA was used to evaluate influences between the control (traditional English flash cards) and experimental (the learning method using Augmented Reality) group on students’ English vocabulary learning on various levels of low, intermediate, and high level participants.

Results

Overall, the paired-sample t-test showed that whether the method of learning through the use of traditional English flash cards, or the learning method of Augmented Reality was used, both had a significant effect on English vocabulary learning, as shown by the t value t(59)=5.70, p<.0001 (See Table 1). In addition, the results also showed that the learning method using Augmented Reality was more

Figure 2. One example of augmented reality information


efficient than the learning with English flash cards with various proficiency levels (high, intermediate, and low levels) with respect to English vocabulary learning (See Table 2).

Table 1. Paired Samples Test (A comparison of English flash cards and augmented reality training effect overall on participants (n=60)

M SD t df P7.60 13.10 5.70 59 .000*

Table 2. A comparison of English flash cards (FC) and augmented reality (AR) training effect on each proficiency level (high, intermediate, and low)

AR FCM(SD) 95% CI M(SD) 95% CI

High 5.31(4.52) (1.53, 9.09) 1.25(2.99) (-1.25, 2.99)Intermediate 12.71(4.19) (10.05, 15.37) 6.25(4.71) (3.26, 9.24)Low 20.75(5.90) (16.53, 27.97) 13.25(7.82) (7.65, 18.85)

Note: CI refers to confidence interval

The One-way ANOVA identified that the learning method using Augmented Reality had a significant effect on students’ English vocabulary learning with various levels of low, intermediate, and high groups, as shown by the F value (2.27)=22.23, p<.0001(See Table 3). Besides this, the results also showed that the high proficiency level group was higher than intermediate and low level groups. The intermediate level group was higher than the lower level groups (See Table 4).

Table 3. One-way ANOVA (A comparison of students’ English vocabulary learning efficiency overall on participants

by using augmented reality)

Sources SS df MS F Pbetween groups 2 1069.22 534.61 22.23 < .0001within groups 27 649.32 24.05total 29 1718.54


Table 4. A comparison of Students’ English vocabulary learning efficiency among various proficiency levels (high, intermediate, and low)

when using augmented reality

Proficiency groups MeanDifferences 95% CI Phigh vs. intermediate 7.4 (1.60, 13.19) *high vs. low 15.44 (9.41, 21.46) *intermediate vs. low 8.04 (2.60, 13.48) *

Note: * refer to P < .005

However, the One-way ANOVA identified that the learning using English flash cards also had a significant effect on students’ English vocabulary learning among various levels of low, intermediate, and high groups, as shown by the F value (2.27)=10.40, p<.0001(See Table 5). High and intermediate level groups were better than the low level group. Interestingly, there was no significant difference between high and intermediate level groups (See Table 6).

Table 5. One-way ANOVA (A comparison of students’ English vocabulary learning efficiency overall on participants when using flash cards)

Sources SS df MS F Pbetween groups 660 2 330 10.4 0.0004within groups 856.88 27 31.74total 1516.88 29

Table 6. A comparison of students’ English vocabulary learning efficiency among various proficiency levels (high, intermediate, and low)

when using flash cards

Proficiency groups Mean Differences 95%CI Phigh vs. intermediate 5 (-1.66, 11.66)high vs. low 12 (5.08, 18.92) *intermediate vs. low 7 (0.75, 13.25) *

Note: * refer to P < .005


Discussion and Conclusions

Overall, the results of this study have showed that the learning method of Aug-mented Reality was more efficient than that of learning using of English flash cards among the various proficiency levels in terms of English vocabulary learning. In other words, Augmented Reality teaching effects apparently excelled the effects of the traditional vocabulary learning methods. In addition, it had a significant effect on English learning for the school children of the highest and the lowest levels of English. As mentioned above, the results of this study are in tune with Lin’s (2009) study. By contrast, the learning method using English flash cards produced significant differences among high and low level groups as well as intermediate and low level groups, with the exception being between high and intermediate level groups. It appears that the learning method using Augmented Reality is more efficient and suitable for various proficiency level groups with respect to learning English vocabulary.

Currently, Augmented Reality is being applied to diversified aspects of learning, such as teaching assistance, guidance, exhibition, and so forth. The technology of Augmented Reality has been also melded into our lives. Meanwhile, if we can apply this technology to teaching, not only can it increase the fun of interaction between students and teaching materials, but also characteristics of the Augmented Reality technology can solve problems encountered in the current teaching of language (Bordbar, 2010). Augmented Reality has been in development for decades. It differs from Virtual Reality in that Augmented Reality puts real-life scenes into users’ perceptions and superimposes virtual objects on real scenes, so that users’ will have more explicit perception as regards space. Besides, it is also applied more widely than Virtual Reality; for example, Augmented Reality can be seen in clothing, education, and entertainment. At present, the technology of Augmented Reality has turned into a popular trend, instead of being a professional skill used by experts, becoming a main goal of development for our daily commodities such as games and cell phones (Carmigniani, et al, 2010).

In children’s English vocabulary learning, this paper uses the technology of Augmented Reality, simultaneously overlapping virtual objects and scenes in the real world, to create the feeling of being personally in the scene. By means of this technology with 3D images presented in the real world, the original boring English learning will become more interesting, so that students’ learning interest and motivation will be triggered. Therefore, using colorful and lively pictures can draw children’s attention. With the effects of games and interaction entertainment, children can subconsciously directly associate an object with its English word and


are happy to learn, so that children can gain learning interest from the games. It is worthwhile improving children’s English vocabulary learning by using Augmented Reality in their daily lives via mobile learning.

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in education cases, places, and potentials. Educational Media International, 51(1), 1–15.Bull, S., & Wasson, B. (2016). Competence visualization: Making sense of data from

21st-century technologies in language learning. ReCALL, 28(2), 147–165Carmigniani, J., Furht, B., Anisetti, M., Ceravolo, P., Damiani, E., & Ivkovic, M. (2010).

Augmented reality technologies, systems and applications, Multimedia Tools and Appli-cations, 51(1), 341–377. doi:10.1007/s11042–010–0660–6

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Juan, C.M., Llop, E., Abad, F., & Lluch, J. (2010). Learning Words Using Augmented Reality. In 2010 IEEE 10th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) (pp. 422–426).doi: 10.1109/ICALT.2010.123

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Lin, B.J. (2009). A study of augmented reality on language teaching – A case study of ele-mentary English teaching (master’s thesis), Graduate Institute of e-Learning, National Changhua University of Education.

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Shin, D.H. (2007). User acceptance of mobile Internet: Implication for convergence tech-nologies. Interacting with Computers, 19(4), 472–483.

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Van Krevelen, D.W.F., & Johnson, E. (2010). A survey of augmented reality technologies, applications and limitations. International Journal of Virtual Reality, 9(2), 1.

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In Search of Tools for the Valorization of Children’s Artistic Creation in the Field of Imaging and the Results

of the Creative Process – A Theoretical and Model Approach

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.14

AbstractThe presented text is the result of reflection on the issue of children’s artwork and the procedure of valuing the work of children at a younger school age in the process of art education. The article outlines considerations on creativity and children’s art creation in the context/conceptual context and attempts to present a procedure for the evaluation of children’s art creations in terms of the ways of imaging in the conceptual context. The study is addressed to research-ers and teachers of early childhood education, it is also a voice in the discussion on evaluating student achievements and – according to the author – a stimulus for reflective educational activities.

Keywords: creativity, artistic creativity, artistic creation, evaluation, valorization, child at a younger school age

Initial Considerations

Many facts and processes, as well as the vastness of information and its instanta-neous availability to the recipient, indicate that the 21st century is significantly dif-ferent from the previous century. Socio-economic changes, changes in political life, culture, communication or media are so rapid that the existing methods of action in many disciplines are becoming inadequate in various aspects. Among other

Beata Mazepa-DomagałaPoland

176 Beata Mazepa-Domagała

things, the current conceptual apparatus is not enough to name all the elements and phenomena, the methodologies of analysis are not enough to capture all the factors and relationships, and controlling reality, achieving planned objectives, and even formulating them may not be obvious. As a consequence, the development of many disciplines ceases to be evolutionary in nature, and thus their rebuilding from scratch is required. As this is a difficult and time-consuming task in each of the individual, institutional and systemic dimensions, the effects of metamorpho-sis are not always positive and disciplines may fall into a state of crisis, which may mean a serious threat to the object and objectives of the cognition process and the social significance of their results.

There is no doubt that the current process of change also applies to education in its broadest sense, understood as a system of actions aimed at making it possible for a learning individual, or a collection of individuals, to get to know both the world created by nature, and the world that we owe to culture, which includes science, art and technology. This also includes preparation for the transformation of the world through the development of physical and mental qualifications, abilities and aptitudes, interests and passions as well as self-education needs and skills, the formation of an individual personality through the development of creative attitudes, and a personal attitude towards moral, social, cognitive, artistic and religious values. Therefore, individual areas of education must be transformed within a theoretical foundation that adapts 20th century achievements to the needs and possibilities of today.

Early childhood education is the first stage of education aimed at assisting the child in his or her overall development, so that he or she is prepared to live in a rapidly changing reality. This situation requires special attention and caution on the part of the school institution and the teacher as regards the scope and form of educational activities and is quite a challenge. At this point it should be emphasized that the period of early childhood education is a time of significant change in the child’s life, in their way of perceiving the world, in the scope of their own abilities and controlling themselves. On the cognitive side, the child’s cognitive activity is a transition from dependence – to a large extent – on an adult, to achieving gradual cognitive independence. For the teacher, on the other hand, it is the task of involving targeted educational activities in the process of supporting the child’s development which are aimed at the acquisition by the child of skills relevant to his or her further educational career. It is a difficult task for a teacher to combine reading, writing and thinking skills together with the acquisition of basic concepts, as well as to open the student to the need to acquire knowledge and to build in him or her the belief that the quality and scope of this knowledge depends on his

177In Search of Tools for the Valorization of Children’s Artistic Creation

or her perseverance in action. If we take into account the diversity of knowledge and skills of children on the threshold of school, their different abilities, different levels of motivation and interest in learning, as well as the family’s attitude towards the school and the teacher, it becomes a real challenge.

At the level of early childhood education, the teacher’s basic educational tasks include recognizing the current developmental needs of the child, diagnosing basic school-type skills, as well as monitoring the child’s development, which involves launching a procedure of evaluation, including evaluative-analysis of the child’s creative potential through artistic creation.

The assessment of students’ achievements and prioritization of their skills is a procedure deeply rooted in the culture of school functioning and the problem of valuing children’s artwork has been a source of much controversy for years. Doubts relate to the legitimacy of assessment itself and also to the various ways assessment is conceived. These concerns arise from awareness of the great subjec-tivity of assessments and the consequences that can result from them for the child’s development process, because each child is a different personality, an individuality that the teacher must first get to know in order to avoid mistakes in assessment. However, the polemic related to assessment is not limited to the dispute about its subjectivity, but also concerns the factors subject to evaluation. This state of affairs means that no tool has been developed to assess the effects of children’s art creation. At present the scope of evaluation of a child’s progress in the area of art education at the early school level is defined and concerns the level of mastery and understanding of the knowledge of art, artistic function, which is defined as a set of manual skills and abilities, and the system of aesthetic and extra-aesthetic values produced in the creative process. It adopts a specific structure which consists of evaluation of the product in the context of formal values (shape, composition, color, value, character of means of expression. However, discussion is still ongoing in this area, as well as about the assessment of the progress of creative work, and attitude to the subject and work in the classroom, the involvement, interests, artis-tic preferences and the psychophysical well-being of the child. The problem of valuing artistic creation in the educational process is still not unequivocally solved, and practical solutions in this area are still far from perfect, or satisfactory for all concerned. It is likely that achieving the ideal state is only a utopian dream, but the inability to reach agreement should not preclude efforts made in this direction.

Thus, guided by the assumption that valuing is an integral part of our lives from childhood to old age, and that every human activity, including children’s art creation is aimed at achieving its goal and thus has to be controlled and evaluated, there is a need to develop a tool for getting to know the student – also through his


or her creations and monitoring his or her progress in creative work. Following on from these considerations is the original concept of valuing children’s artistic creation in terms of the ways of imaging used and the results of the creative pro-cess, which is based on the original concept of analyzing the quality of children’s artistic creations towards free artistic expression (cf. Mazepa-Domagała, 2009).

However, before the procedure of valorization of children’s artistic creation is presented, the importance and interest of children’s artistic creation from the point of view of its content range should be considered. Therefore, further analyses will be carried out in the area of creativity and children’s art creation1.

A Few Words About Creativity and Children’s Art Creation

The world we are moving in today is volatile, elusive, unpredictable, multidi-mensional and ephemeral. This state of affairs forces people to constantly change and means that the demand for individuals to be able to adapt to new conditions and challenges, to be able to meet the demands of the modern world, in a word – to be independent and creative, is growing. For this reason, creative potential and activity have gained in popularity, becoming a commonly desired good and the subject of scientific reflection in virtually all leading human sciences which have made human creativity and its functions their subject, such as philosophy, psy-chology and pedagogy. At this point, it is worth mentioning that the exploration of creativity in its broadest sense is aimed at understanding the nature of creative activity, determining the factors influencing its occurrence, and recognizing the possibility of applying knowledge about the nature of creativity to stimulate crea-tive behavior (cf. Csikszentmihalyi 2000).

In the context of these statements, analysis of human creativity appears to be an extremely complex subject, covering both issues of cognitive processes (skills and creative abilities), emotions and motivation (mechanisms of creative action, personality (e.g. creative vs. re-creative, creative vs. non-creative), individual differences, group processes, or social norms and values (e.g. cultural dimension

1 This subject has been elaborated by: K.J. Szmidt: School inhibitors of students’ creative activ-ity in the light of action research results, in: New contexts (for) XXI century alternative education, Ed. B. Śliwerski, Cracow: Impuls Publishing House, Cracow 2001; J. Uszyńska-Jarmoc: Creative activity of a child. Bialystok: Trans Humana, 2003; Ibid.: Subjective determinants of creative activity of children at a younger school age, in: A child in the modern world, Ed. B. Muchacka, K. Kraszewski, Impuls Publishing House, Cracow 2008; Psychopedagogy of creative activities, Ed. K. Szmidt, M. Modrzejewska-Świgulska, Cracow: Impuls Publishing House, 2005.


of creativity), and finally, educational and training activities (mechanisms of ped-agogical support for development of creative motivation). At this point it should be added that in the theoretical reflection on creativity one can note a dispute which is important from the pedagogical point of view, concerning the creativity of children and youth. The dispute is based on the clash of two positions on chil-dren’s creativity: elitist-objective and subjective-humanistic. According to the first position, the phenomenon of creation does not occur in children, or seems very rare, because children do not create anything valuable or new, so their activity does not meet the definition criteria for creativity, although sometimes children are able to compete creatively with adults although this mainly concerns so-called miraculous children. The second approach is clearly opposed to the first one and expresses the conviction that children are certainly creative and that their creative activity has all the characteristics attributed to creative activities. It should also be mentioned that between these poles there are still positions saying that children show a creative attitude in some areas only, mainly in art among others, while children do not create.

With regard to the positions presented, it seems that the dispute over whether children create is in fact a dispute over understanding two criteria regarding cre-ative work: novelty and value. This assumes that the category of novelty is relative and is not a dichotomous feature (new vs. non-new), but takes on a continuous form, which can be described on a continuum from the absolutely familiar to the absolutely new, and that the aspect of values includes four groups of values belonging to areas of creation: cognitive, aesthetic, pragmatic and ethical values. Researchers who emphasize the universality and superficiality of these qualities deny children creativity (Csikszentmihaly 2000; Feldman 1986). And those who recognize the subjectivity of novelty and values also extend the definitions to children.

In relation to the outlined positions on the understanding of creativity included in children’s creative activities, the position of Mark Runco and Robyn Charles (1997) has been adopted for the purpose of this study. These authors suggest that children’s creativity should be understood as personal creativity, and should be considered and evaluated using the criteria of originality and usefulness. For if this is done for adults, and their activity is described as creative , if it is original and useful on an individual scale, then why not do the same for children? At this point it is worth noting that the child’s creativity is specific, characterized by self-creation and self-cognition, which exerts a significant influence on the development of all cognitive functions, from observation to understanding and processing reality. Creativity influences the formation of emotional sensitivity, higher feelings and


fosters the affirmation of personality, i.e. internal values that are the source of self-cognition and personality projection. It should also be mentioned that over the last few years, it has not been possible to systematize the divergent positions relating to the problems of genesis and development of children’s art. Although many empirical studies have been carried out, the differences in goals, the methods used, and especially the different theoretical-cognitive approaches have created a kind of mosaic of views on the interpretation of the development of children’s art.

While conducting analyses in the field of creativity, creative potential and activity, it is also worth referring to the conceptual sphere of this issue. And so, the notions of creator, creation, create have become such common terms in recent years that it would seem that there is a full understanding of their meaning and scope. Meanwhile, the degree of understanding of the categories and determinants of the essence of creativity are far from being able to communicate with each other, or explain the mechanisms of this process. The expansion of the scope of the notion of creativity over a number of years has made precise definition of this notion very complicated today. Difficulties with a precise definition of this term are connected both with the complexity of the subject matter and with the tendency to expand the concept, and also result from the imperfections of theoretical and methodological pedagogical and psychological tools and the philosophical tradition related to the concept. In spite of these limitations, without referring to an exhaustive historical review, or to a textbook, or a list of definitions of creativity, we can indicate four categories of understanding of this term: creativity as a product of human activity (work); creativity understood as a creative process – the most important of which is the act of creation; creativity as a set of individual personality traits (creative personality); and creativity in the context of the relation between the creator and external (socio-material) conditions that accompany it (Strzałecki, 2003). It should be noted that human creativity in its broadest sense is a concept typical only of our times. Thus, nowadays, “any human action beyond simple reception” is considered to be creativity. The scope of creativity includes not only the results of creative activity, but also human attitudes, abilities, actions, character, and mainly processes that cause significant changes in social awareness and the state of culture, art, science, technology and undoubtedly also in everyday life.

To conclude these deliberations – on the conceptual approach to artistic output, which are abbreviated by necessity, we should refer to the concept of creativity. The literature on the subject allows us to note that the concept of artistic output is often considered as a synonym for the term creativity, thus causing fuzziness and the fuzziness of these concepts. After all, creativity is about disposable features,


and artistic output is about updating. The conceptual area of the term creativity is much narrower, because it refers to the individual and his or her disposition, while the concept of artistic output includes not only the results of creative activity, but also human attitudes, abilities, actions, characters, and mainly processes that cause significant changes in social awareness and the state of culture, art, science, technology and everyday life. Creativity is treated as “low creativity”, while artistic output provides for outstanding works (Kaufman & Sternberg 2010; Sternberg 2006, p. 88).

Based on this conceptual organization, it is assumed that creativity is a certain trait or ability belonging to each person to a certain extent. It is a mental process that involves the creation of new ideas, concepts or new associations, and links with existing ideas and concepts. Creativity is defined as the creative power that is associated with our skills, the ability to understand and communicate, which at the same time stimulates the critical ability and self-esteem, and requires the use of imagination. A creative activity is an intentional act, aimed at achieving a result in the form of an original and valuable work in the concept of the assumed objectives. In this paper, creativity is understood as the ability to produce all kinds of ideas – a composition of products that are new and original (objectively or subjectively), resulting from the activity of imagination and fantasy, intuition or the deliberate action of divergent thinking.

In the concept of contemporary education, the priority has become to support students’ talents and develop their creativity. One of the most important educa-tional subjects, which in a special way takes up the tasks related to the education of a search-oriented individual, is art education.

In the process of art education at the level of early childhood education, the main form of children’s activity is art creation, the subject matter and scope of which are subordinated to educational goals aimed at preparing students for active and conscious participation in cultural life, by stimulating creative expression, active perception and reception of art. At this point it should be noted that the processes of perception and expression accompany every activity related to art. The differences in the scope of their participation in a specific action are of a quan-titative nature – artistic creation is mainly based on expression, while perception prevails in the reception of art.

On the basis of the approaches used in the literature on the subject, taking into account contemporary psychological orientations, it is assumed that perception is the process of giving meaning to information provided by the senses, which allows for selected recognition (the recipient pays attention to factors important from the point of view of his/her needs only, building in his/her consciousness their own


image of reality), as well as the interpretation of stimuli contained in the message. This process may involve the assessment of probable size, shape, movement, distance and position and is conditioned by a number of factors, which include: the situation, i.e. the factors influencing the first impression, depending on the place, conditions and circumstances; attributes constituting conclusions covering internal states of mind and emotions, based on observed behaviors; expectations, i.e. needs and current mood; projection, i.e. transferring one’s own feelings and value system; selective perception, i.e. perceiving only the stimuli one wants to perceive, and stereotypes, i.e. perceptions that are difficult to change.

In the light of the above statements, artistic perception appears to us to be a complex process, running in phases, from seeing, through understanding, and experiencing to valuing. It consists of confronting and comparing works of art, their contents, information about the world and life in them – both concrete and general – concerning different ranges and fields, different epochs and cultures.

In plastic art education at the level of early childhood education, perception education is one of the important and fundamental objectives. It is a process that takes place on the basis of artistic knowledge and the language of art (which is a kind of key in the perception of works of art), and which becomes the founda-tion of visual and artistic culture, which is needed by a child in all their activities.

The second of the processes taking place in the area of art, and thus in the area of artistic education is expression, a key process for artistic creation, in which internal contents (thought, images, emotions) are transformed into the language of metaphors and then encoded in a symbolic form in the artistic structure of the work. In different scientific disciplines, the interpretation of meaning, as well as the multitude of definitions of the concept of expression are presented differently. Therefore, due to the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon of expression and the point of view adopted in this paper, further brief deliberations will be con-ducted in the area of plastic expression.

Thus, artistic expression is a specific kind of language, which consists of various forms of expression, visual signs, juxtaposed in systems of different intensity, which create specific dynamics and contrasts and create different compositional systems. An important role in this activity is played by the material, its structure, and type of surface or texture. These elements – artistic signs – acquire the value of expression if the artist gives them a unique, individual character. Children’s artistic expression is for a small creator, one of the natural forms of activity in which experiences are expressed and communication with the outside world takes place, apart from play. The character and features of artistic expression are determined by the degree of psychophysical development of the small creator, in particular the


quality of cognitive and emotional processes and the influence of the environment. Thus, we can assume that a child’s artistic expression is an image which represents the attitude of the child-creator to the presented reality, and is expressed by means characteristic of the visual arts, i.e. colors, size of shapes, expressiveness of artistic signs on the page or through the formation of three-dimensional space.

But let us go back to artistic creation. Using the term creation in this paper, it has been assumed that it is the creation of a work of art by the creator according to their own ideas, which are often independent of reality or of the prevailing conventions and styles. However, when defining the notion artistic creation, it was considered to be a process of the artist intentionally transforming the material (physical object), which leads to giving the work a form (in the sense of a basic existence) that ensures its accessibility to many recipients.

Based on the findings outlined above, children’s artistic creation appears to us as a kind of creative attitude. Creative activity used for educational purposes of a non-professional nature is connected with a physical activity based on a targeted creation, i.e. broadly understood, creation using a means of artistic expression and forms of activity typical of the visual arts. For the purposes of further considera-tions, the term is used in a broad sense and refers not only to activities related to the creation of visual compositions – in the traditional understanding, but also to all artistic manifestations in the field of visual arts

The Procedure for the Valorization of Children’s Artistic Creation in Terms of Imaging Methods And Results of the Creative Process – a Conceptual Approach2

In the context of general considerations about the evaluation of children’s artwork at a younger school age an attempt has been made to create a tool for valorization/evaluation of a child’s artwork – an instrument of evaluation that describes and valorizes the ways of childhood imaging as objectively as possible. This takes into account all the various views on the criteria for the evaluation of children’s artwork, and also considers the fact that in school practice, educators with different views on the evaluation of children’s artwork meet and that their evaluation judgements, depending on their preferences, knowledge and personal-

2 As the study is conceptual in nature (as is apparent from the title of the text), this is assumed to be only a starting point for discussion and further analysis – that is why the research report was not included in the study. This will be taken up in subsequent empirical texts.


ity traits, are very unreliable and lead to harmful distortions in shaping children’s aesthetic attitudes. At this point, it should be pointed out that the valorization of artistic creation within the methods of imaging, in addition to determining the level of ability to function artistically in the creative process, aims to determine the ability of a child to see the surrounding reality. Thus, it can serve as a basis for defining the determinants of contemporary children’s art creation.

As it has been mentioned, the approach presented is the author’s own approach to the issue of valorization of children’s artistic creation, characterized by a ped-agogical approach, which results from the author’s interest in the process of chil-dren’s artistic perception, and in creative activity in the area of artistic education at the level of early school education, including the evaluation of children’s artistic creations.

When undertaking the development of a tool for the valorization of childhood artistic creation in the field of imaging methods, it has been assumed that the model range of its structure will be determined by valorization criteria relating to features of artistic imaging, which are presented as dominants of the child-hood imaging method and include such properties as: colorfulness, detail, clarity, dynamics, and relation to reality. The individual imaging criteria have been further specified by a framework for evaluation and the three-stage imaging method/level of imaging.

The list of criteria and features of childhood visual arts imaging presented in Table 1 gives an insight into the spectrum of the conducted valorization and possible ways it might be interpreted.

Tab.1 Valorization structure of children’s artistic creation of the area of artistic imaging

Basic imaging criteria – dominants of imaging structure and child’s imaging /

Imaging frame

Imaging dominant in the artistic realization – by level of imaging

Colorful-ness

Artistic realization character-ized by intensity and variety of colors

Colorfulness as a dominant feature of the whole picture

Partial colorfulness of the image Colorfulness minimally noticeable in artistic realizationLack of color in the artistic image


Basic imaging criteria – dominants of imaging structure and child’s imaging /

Imaging frame

Imaging dominant in the artistic realization – by level of imaging

Details Accuracy, meticulousness Ar-tistic realization with details

Details as a dominant feature of the whole picture – realization saturated with detailsNumber of details kept in balance – harmony of the layoutLack of detail in an artistic image – image without details

Expres-siveness

A suggestive artistic reali-zation, consisting of sharply outlined elements, definitely cutting off from the back-ground, easy to distinguish

Expressiveness as a dominant feature of the whole picture – high expressiveness of the artistic image

Noticeable expressiveness of the artistic image

Lack of expressiveness of the artistic image

Dynamics

Artistic realization creating the impression of movement thanks to asymmetrical arrangements of elements without a strong optical base

The dominant feature of the whole picture – image dynamic globallyImage dynamic locally

Lack of dynamics in the artistic image

Relation to reality

The nature of the image in relation to its real counterpart

Relationship to reality as a dominant feature of the whole picture – a system of elements having a reproductive-reproducible character, noticeable conformity with realityThe layout of the image in relation to its counter-part is in fact difficult to determineThe layout of the elements has a creative character; a noticeable inconsistency with reality, the abstract-ness of the plastic image

Source: Own work

In the proposed valorization procedure, a particular difficulty may be caused by the method of assessment – scoring the qualities of imaging distinguished. While in the case of the evaluation of children’s activity in areas of education other than artistic education(broadly defined), a relatively precise method of numerical evaluation can be chosen, in relation to artistic creation, as we are by nature subject to the great temptation of subjectivity. A possible way out of the problem is to break down one (subjective) assessment into a series of objective sub-assessments which form a complementary reference system and give the possibility of a final overall assessment.

Thus, in order to objectivize the evaluations, the percentage evaluation of par-ticular imaging qualities has been applied, which, metaphorically speaking, is the


key opening the book of analyses and interpretations in the area of evaluation of children’s artworks. Thus, it was assumed that the maximum value of the artwork in percentage terms is 100%, and since each quality is considered to be equally important in the overall assessment of the artwork, regardless of the level of imaging established within each quality, the highest percentage of each quality is 20%. Thus, the maximum rating on a percentage scale is given to products that are in the 90–100% range.

When comparing the evaluation results in percentage terms to the evaluation expressed in the form of a four-stage evaluation scale, omitting the borderline level, “very good” projects are those in the range of 90–100%, “good” art projects are in the range of 70–89%, “quite good” projects are in the range of 50–69%.On the other hand, the projects “not yet good enough” are those that receive a score of 49% and lower.

To sum up, the evaluation of children’s artistic products/creations in the given categories and according to the proposed procedure may take the form of a school grade, may be expressed by a conventional symbol, or a number of points with a commentary, and may also take the form of a descriptive evaluation on a four-level qualitative scale (very good, good, quite good, not yet good enough). The approach presented enables not only the valorization of individual artistic creations, but also allows for comparative analyses within a number of realiza-tions, thus enabling the assessment of both the progress of creative work and the aesthetic disposition of the potential creator-child.

An illustration of the designed procedure of valorization of a child’s artistic creation is a matrix of valorization of a child’s artistic creation in terms of the ways in which the artistic product is imaged and the results of the creative process.

[187]

A MATRIX FOR THE VALORIZATION OF CHILDREN’S ART CREATION IN TERMS OF IMAGING METHODS AND RESULTS OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS

First and last name of the child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Subject of artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Artistic technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Basic Imaging Criteria – imaging structure dominants / imaging

frameImaging structure dominant by imaging level

Assessment in per-centage terms in the range 0–20%

Colorfulness Artistic realization characterized by intensity and variety of colors

Colorfulness as a dominant feature of the whole picture

Partial colorfulness of the image – color-fulness minimally noticeable in artistic realization

Lack of color in the artistic image

Details Accuracy, metic-ulousness, artistic realization with details

Details as a dominant feature of the whole picture – realization saturated with details

Number of details kept in balance – harmo-ny of the layout

Lack of detail in the artistic image – image without details

Expressive-ness

A suggestive artistic realiza-tion, consisting of sharply outlined elements, definitely separated from the background, easy to distinguish

Expressiveness as a dominant feature of the whole picture – high expressiveness of the artistic image

Noticeable expressiveness of the artistic image

Lack of expressiveness of the artistic image

Dynamics Artistic realization creating the impres-sion of movement thanks to asymmet-rical arrangements of elements without a strong optical base

The dominant feature of the whole picture – image dynamic globally

Image dynamic locally

Lack of dynamics in the artistic image

Relation to reality

The nature of the image in relation to its real counterpart

Relationship to reality as a dominant feature of the whole picture – a system of elements which have a reproductive-reproducible character, noticeable conformity with reality

The layout of the image in relation to its counterpart is in fact difficult to determine

The layout of the elements has a creative character; there is a noticeable inconsistency with reality, abstractness of the artistic image

Source: Own work


Final Reflections

The issue discussed in this study does not exhaust the issue of evaluation of children’s art creation, but can be treated as a source of inspiration, an encourage-ment to deepen considerations and a stimulus for reflective educational activities undertaken in the process of art education at the level of early school education, which aim at seeking new and better educational solutions.

When taking innovative actions to value children’s artwork, one should always bear in mind the high emotional load that accompanies the process of the evalua-tion of such artwork. Children, even if they are attached to their own creations for a short time, experience every critical judgment very strongly. Over time, the lack of a sense of success in artistic creation may lead to inhibitions and a premature crisis in creative attitudes.

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New York: Continuum. Csikszentmihaly M. (2000) Creativity: An Overview. in: A. Kazdin (ed.), Encyclopedia of

Psychology, vol. 2. (pp. 337–342). Washington: American Psychological Association.Feldman D.H. (1986) Nature’s gambit: Child prodigies and development of human potential.

New York: Basic Book.Kaufman B.J.C. & Sternberg R.J. (2010) The Cambridge Handbook of creativity. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.Mazepa-Domagała B. (2009) Dziecięce spotkania ze sztuką. Strategia projektowania spot-

kań ze sztuką oparta na rozumieniu , interpretacji i tworzeniu przekazów wizualnych [Children’s meetings with art. A strategy of designing meetings with art based on understanding, interpretation and creating visual messages]. Katowice: “Śląsk” Scientific Publishing House.

McNiff, R. (2008) Art-based research, in J.G. Knowles & A.L. Cole (Eds.) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues (pp. 29–40), Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Runco, M.A. (2003) Education for Creative Potential, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 47, (3), 317–324.

Runco, M.A.& Charles R.E. (1997) Developmental Trends in Creative Potential and Crea-tive Performa, (in M.A. Runco, (Ed.) The Creativity, The Creativity Research Handbook, Volume One (pp. 115–152), New Jersey: Hampton Press.

Sawyer R.K., Johan-Steiner V., Moran S., Sternberg R.J., Feldman D.H., Nakamura J., & Csikszentmihaly M.(2003) Creativity and development, New York: Oxford University Press.


Sternberg, R.J. (2006) The Nature of Creativity, Creativity Research Journal 18, (1), 87–98Strzałecki, A. (2003) Psychologia twórczości Między tradycją a ponowoczesnością [Psychol-

ogy of creativity. Between tradition and post-modernity]. Warsaw: Publishing House of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University.

Questions in Textbooks and Lessons – Comparative Analysis

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.15

Abstract The aim of the article was to conduct a comparative analysis of the structures and functions of didactic tasks, in the form of questions appearing in school textbooks and during lessons. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the content of textbooks and lesson transcripts of lessons were carried out. The obtained data revealed differences that appeared between properties of didactic tasks of this kind found in early school textbooks and lessons. The presented research results will be used for subsequent research related to other types of didactic tasks, and may also contribute to enriching teachers’ knowledge about the ways that pupils work with a textbook.

Key words: textbook, lesson, didactic task, structure and function of a question, early school education.

Introduction

Questions are necessary elements of didactic communication processes. Treated as language messages (Kövacses, 2006) from school textbook authors and teachers directed at pupils, they are to lead pupils to activities which activate them and that accompany the processes of education: changes in their mental and emotional resources. Together, such messages help the objectives of education and upbring-ing to be achieved. Their structure indicates expressions that trigger actions or, so-called, task operators and objects (items) to which these activities are to be

Wojciech KojsPolandJolanta GabzdylPoland

192 Wojciech Kojs, Jolanta Gabzdyl

directed. Questions are assigned to specific strategies, goals and educational con-cepts. They determine the course and final results of the teaching-learning process of pupils and the processes of their control and assessment (Kojs, 2019; Knissarina, Aganina, Bashbayeva, Zame & Shaikhimov, 2016; Malik, &. Chaudry, 2013; Uljens, 1994); the use of them leads to the formation of particular personality traits in pupils, and not others.

In considering questions as sentence messages, it is important to clearly distinguish their ontological essence as activities and products and to indicate the cognitive (epistemological) possibilities related to this distinction (Hintikka, 1976). Questions as language products are thoughts, desires, resolutions, inten-tions, etc. included in words which are available to sensory observation. They can be perceived sensorily – observed, analyzed, and interpreted (cf. e.g. Betti, 2016; Gabzdyl, 2012).

Questions occur, among others in the form of interrogative sentences. They include operators and objects which have desiderative or recommending func-tions (Brożek, 2008; Osbeck, 2018). As an inseparable and natural element of the educational process, which is revealed in almost every contact of students with teachers, as well as with school textbooks – questions are more or less related to pupils’ intellectual activity and to their search for the answers the questions asked for. A good question is the essence of good teaching, as it makes a bridge between teaching and learning. It is a stimulator of the intellect because it stimulates what Piaget called cognitive conflict, thanks to which the child moves to a higher stage of development. According to Bruner’s definition, it is the scaffold for learning (Fisher, 1995; Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 1996). So, it is justified to constantly undertake research on the real properties of didactic tasks in the form of questions, and in particular, to take into account those which occur in the education process at the level of early school education (in grades 1 to 3 of primary school).


General Background of Research. The object of research was didactic facts in the form of questions, including

their operators in the form of interrogative pronouns but omitting imperative sentences used to replace questions (see Kojs & Gabzdyl, 2016), which appear in school textbooks and in the course of naturally occurring school lessons. Due to the slightly different nature of the functioning of the selected research objects – “not embedded/embedded” in the contexts of didactic communication, only

193Questions in Textbooks and Lessons – Comparative Analysis

questions fulfilling cognitive functions (intellectual and intellectual-material) were adopted; questions of organizational, order, disciplinary nature, etc. were omitted.

The goal was to determine the role of these questions, and especially the role of their operators in the didactic process. The focus of the research were the problems expressed in the following questions: What is the structure and what functions are carried out by questions, including their operators, appearing in the studied school textbooks and lessons addressed to pupils? How do the structures and functions of these questions relate to each other?

Research Sample Didactic tasks addressed to pupils of grades 1 and 3 of primary school were

examined: from textbooks: 2322 questions (grades 1: 790, grades 3: 1524); from stenographic records of lesson: 6809 questions (grades 1: 3293, grades 3: 3516).

The mentioned statistical data relate to 68 textbooks (grade 1: 46; grade 3: 22) and 60 stenographic records of lessons (30 in each grade).

Instruments and Procedures Two types of documents were used in the study. The first was textbooks

approved for school use by the Ministry of National Education in 2000–2016. Practice Exercise books, worksheets, etc. were not included, as preliminary qual-itative analyzes revealed that the questions contained in them were mainly used to consolidate messages and train pupils’ skills. The second type of document was transcripts of lessons, which were made in the years 2012–2014 and had been used in a different way as a part of other research (see Kojs & Gabzdyl, 2016).

Adopting an understanding of questions as a specific language “product” con-sisting of an operator and an object/objects allowed us to perform, in a similar way, analysis of the content of textbooks and stenographic records. Therefore, at the stage of collecting and recording the raw data, a method of analyzing the con-tent of the above-mentioned documents was adopted, while at the stage of their development, a qualitative and quantitative analysis using descriptive statistics measures was done.

Data AnalysisThe questions taken from the content of textbooks/ lesson transcripts served

as units for qualitative and quantitative analyses, including operators (activities) in the form of interrogative pronouns and the declination forms combined with appropriate prepositions. The question operators below are marked in italics to clearly distinguish them from objects.


The collected data were classified as simple and complex, as well as complete and incomplete question structures, and illustrated with relevant examples. On this basis, 131 question operators were distinguished and from them a group of the 10 most common question operators was selected (see Table). They subsequently underwent comparative analyses to distinguish and interpret their educational functions.

The calculations were carried out using the statistical package StatSoft. Inc. (2014), STATISTICA (data analysis software system), version 12.0. and the Excel spreadsheet. Chi-square independence tests were used for qualitative variables (respectively using Yates correction for cell numbers below 10, checked for Cochran conditions, and an exact Fisher test). p = 0.05 was taken as the level of significance.

Results of Research

Simple Structures Answering the research question regarding question structures, we begin

with the characteristics of simple structures. In textbooks, simple interrogative structures generally first included a language expression constituting of a (single) operator, and afterward, a language expression (expressions) constituting a (single) object, e.g.:

• What shall we pay attention to? • What does the taste of dishes depend on?

In turn, the questions formulated by teachers did not always first include ques-tion operators before objects specifying their meanings. It happened quite often that first there were objects, then operators, or operators separated the question objects into two parts, e.g.:

• The plant has a root, what for? • Activity name, what part of speech is it?

Complex Structures Questions with a complex structure were found in both the textbooks studied

and in transcripts of the lessons. The complexity of this type of question is that with one and the same question operator there are several different connecting objects, or vice versa, the same question object connects several different oper-ators. Seemingly, it gives the impression of the occurrence of only one question, but in reality, there are several different questions – as the examples below show:


• What other rhymes and counting-out rhymes do you know? – What other rhymes do you know? What other counting-out rhymes do you know?

• Who needs a weather forecast and what for? – Who needs a weather fore-cast? What do you need a weather forecast for?

In both textbooks and in class, to a lesser extent, there were other complex ques-tions: capturing at least one object and at least two operators – with the second and subsequent operator specifying the sense of the first one and it was “brought down” to the role of the object, e.g.:

• Can you say why these works are sculptures? – (1:) Can you say (2:) why these works are sculptures?

• What do you think, what are the rooms at the back of the theater for? – (1:) What do you think, (2:) what are the rooms for, (3:) at the back of the theater?

Incomplete Structures When speaking about incomplete question structures, we have in mind the

partial or total omission of the object(s), as well as the total omission of operators. There was quite often a partial omission of question objects in the textbooks and lessons analyzed. In turn, questions with a total omission of objects were noted sporadically in the case of textbooks, but could be seen much more often in the course of the lessons studied. Instead of constructing full messages using words and phrases, i.e. questions consisting of at least one operator and object, teachers used contexts (especially language, task-based). For instance: the operator why (in the case of absence of an object) depending on the language context meant:

• Why (do you like the bookmark you have chosen)? • Why (is the word “mane” written with the use of “e”)?

At the same time, regardless of the object (context), the operator “demanded” pupils perform intellectual activities in the form of explanations.

The total omission of operators, which were primarily noted in relation to the lessons studied, appeared only sporadically in textbooks. The question operators in the form of the particle “whether” was an operator most often overlooked by teachers. In this type of question it was determined that there was a lack of the operator whether and not of another, from the question of the (opened) comple-ment (e.g. what, who, where, how, etc.)? Thus, it was suggested by both linguistic contexts (students’ answers: “yes”, “no”, or eventually “I don’t know” – accepted by teachers) and the intonation of the language constructs of objects, i.e. suggesting the form of a question.


Educational Functions 131 types of question operators were distinguished from the studied textbooks

and transcripts of the lessons. They include various types of pronouns combined with various types of prepositions, which have different declination forms, e.g.:

• what: what onto, what against, what for, because of what, what into, what behind etc.;

• what with: what is on, what about, what is after, what is at, what is in, what is with, what is behind etc.;

• how: till what kind of, on what kind of, in what kinds of etc.; • who: whose, whom, who for, who to, because of whom, by whom, who about,

who with etc.; • which: of which, to which, by which, from which, near which, in which (pl),

from which etc.; • how many: up to how many, how much for, in how many, from how many etc.

Due to the large linguistic diversity of the individual operators the Table lists the 10 most commonly distinguished types of question operators. They were referred to in early childhood education levels (grades 1 and 3 of primary school).

Table. The collation of the number of types of question operators: textbook authors and teachers – grades 1 and 3 of primary school

No. Types of operators

Textbook authors Teachersgrade 1 grade 3

P-valuegrade 1 grade 3

P-valuen % n % n % n %

1 what 167 20.9 282 18.5 0.1602 717 21.8 771 21.9 0.87722 what of 28 3.5 32 2.1 0.0421 23 0.7 22 0.6 0.71123 whether 60 7.5 111 7.3 0.8366 723 22.0 823 23.4 0.15314 what with 25 3.1 41 2.7 0.5422 50 1.5 75 2.1 0.0590

5 why 46 5.8 77 5.1 0.4670 168 5.1 142 4.0 0.03556 where 15 1.9 24 1.6 0.5871 71 2.2 65 1.8 0.36497 how 110 13.8 223 14.6 0.5797 295 9.0 380 10.8 0.0107

8what kind (m., sing.) 16 2.0 53 3.5 0.0472 91 2.8 81 2.3 0.2271

9what kinds(fem., pl) 78 9.8 113 7.4 0.0494 182 5.5 273 7.8 0.0002

10 who 17 2.1 42 2.8 0.3629 368 11.2 320 9.1 0.004511 others 236 29.6 526 34.5 0.0160 605 18.4 564 16.0 0.0108


Among the question operators listed in the Table, the operator in the form of the interrogative pronoun what appeared most frequently (in total, the textbook authors and teachers formulated them 1937 times) – however, in the case of teach-ers, it came second (after the operator whether). The operator what replaces the noun and – like the operator who (see Table) – allows general information about the objects marked by these pronouns to be obtained. It can replace the question operators which are “correct” in indicating the reasons why (the Table and the following example concern determining the reasons for something), as well as (not included in Table:) what for, for what purpose, for what reason, why.

The uniqueness of the pronoun what is that it belongs to the most universal of question operators, because together with the appropriate object, it can cause a variety of different, or similar information activities, e.g.:

• Determining the content, meanings of terms, concepts (including the definition of the essence of things), e.g. What is a family tree? What shall we show as an example of “open composition”? What do you feel holding this paper in your hands?

• Determining the means (including tools, equipment, and materials) and methods for specific purposes, e.g. What shall we need to build a similar house? What can children do to help animals in winter?

• Indicating appropriate norms, rules of conduct, e.g. What should you do if you do not know how to write these words? What do you need for removing plugs from contacts safely? What are the duties of the pupil on duty in the classroom?

• Determining the causes (including genesis) of phenomena, events, pro-cesses, e.g. What caused the sudden braking of the vehicle? What makes the mood of this poem sadder, more gloomy?

• Indicating the goals, functions of things, processes, events, e.g. What was the purpose of our trip? What is used for vacuuming?

• Determining the effects, consequences (including prediction, etc.) of phe-nomena, events, processes, e.g. What would happen if the Earth ran out of water? What will change when we turn the globe? What can you do with an empty water bottle?

• Indicating relationships, compounds, dependencies between things, phe-nomena, events, and processes, e.g. What does a plant need to live? What pollutes our waters?

• Determining the belonging of the given things, phenomena, events, and processes to certain groups, e.g. What grows the lowest in the forest? What is associated with warmth in nature?


• About comparing (indicating similarities and differences) of things, phe-nomena, events, and processes, e.g. What do photos representing a bench, chair, stool, and armchair have in common? What connects the two parts of the story?

Concerning the textbooks, the percentages for the discussed operator what in grades 1 and 3 are 20.9% vs. 18.5% (p = 0.1602). In grade 3, the percentage for the operator what was significantly lower for the textbooks compared to teachers (p = 0.0060). In turn, the percentages concerning teachers who include the operator who in questions in grades 1 and 3 are 11.2% vs. 9.1% (p = 0.0045); in grade 1 the percentage was significantly higher. In grade 1, the percentage for the operator who was significantly lower for textbooks compared to teachers (p = 0.0001), while in grade 3 this percentage was significantly lower for textbooks compared to teachers (p = 0.0001). Concerning the operator why – which is so important in modeling cause-and-effect thinking for younger school children – the percentages of teach-ers examined in grades 1 and 3 are 5.1% vs. 4.0% (p = 0.0355), and in grade 1 this percentage was significantly higher. For the operator what of – the percentages of the textbooks in grades 1 and 3 are 3.5% vs. 2.1% (p = 0.0421), and in grade 1 the percentage was significantly higher. In grades 1 and 3, the percentages were significantly higher for textbooks compared to teachers (p = 0.0001). In turn, for the operator what with – in grade 1 the percentage was significantly higher for textbooks compared to teachers (p = 0.0001).

The interrogative particle whether – which is an element of “closed” questions (for decisions) was also an operator very often used in teachers’ questions (22.0% and 23.4%). The function of the operator whether is special because it allows each complement question to be transformed into the form of simple alternatives. Answering these types of questions, students most often stated something about objects and relationships occurring outside them, based on their knowledge – which, in conjunction with the large number of these questions, may suggest a significant part of the early school education process. At the same time, there were no statistically significant differences in grades 1 and 3. And in relation to the textbooks, which (compared to teachers) used the operator whether much less often (7.5% and 7.3%) – in grades 1 and 3 the percentage for the operator whether was significantly lower for textbooks in comparison with teachers (p = 0.0001).

The table contains question operators that perform the same function: what kind (m., sing.), what kinds (fem., pl). Additionally, they were separated from another operator: what kind (fem., sing.) (not included in the Table). The pronouns what kind (m., sing.) / what kind (fem., sing.) / what kinds (fem., pl) that replace adjectives, determine the quality of a noun, or relation to the determined noun. As


part of a question, an answer regarding the features of the object or relationship is expected – e.g. “what kind (m., sing.)/what kind (fem., sing.)/what kind (fem., pl) of […] is something”. The percentages of the operator what kind (m., sing.) for textbooks in grades 1 and 3 are 2.0% vs. 3.5% (p = 0.0472); while in grade 3 the percentage was significantly higher. In grade 3, the percentage for the operator what kind (m., sing.) was also significantly higher in comparison with teachers (p = 0.0173). In turn, the percentages in textbooks for the operator what kind (fem., pl) in grades 1 and 3 are 9.8% vs. 7.4% (p = 0.0494) with the percentage signifi-cantly higher in grade 1. The percentages for teachers in grades 1 and 3 are 5.5% vs. 7.8% (p = 0.0002); while in grade 3 the percentage was significantly higher. At the same time, in grade 1, the percentage for the operator what kind (fem., pl) was significantly higher for textbooks when compared to teachers (p = 0.0001).

The operator how was also used quite often both by the teachers surveyed and by the textbooks. The adverb how in questions is used to mean that the answer should include verb definitions, e.g. in relation to the questions: how do we get to know… , how do you think… , how do you suggest… , how do you like… – which is also especially valuable in the modeling of pupils’ cognitive skills. The percentages for teachers who formulate questions with the operator how in grades 1 and 3 are 9.0% vs. 10.8% (p = 0.0107); with the percentage significantly higher in grade 3. At the same time in grade 1, the percentage for the operator how was significantly higher for textbooks compared to teachers (p = 0.0001), as in grade 3.

The percentages for teachers regarding other operators in grades 1 and 3 are 18.4% vs. 16.0% (p = 0.0108); with the percentage significantly higher in grade 1. In addition, in grades 1 and 3, the percentage of other operators was significantly higher for textbooks compared to teachers (p = 0.0001).

Conclusion

The conducted research reveals issues relevant both from the point of view of theory and practice of education which relates not only to the level of early school education. Namely, questions, and in particular, their operators, properly separated and juxtaposed, can be used:

1. as systems of measurable, comparable and at the same time simple (uncom-plicated) indicators; as so-called “quick indicators”, in contrast to many different indicators, which allow the quick and quite accurate definition and evaluation of education concepts which have been taught, including the value and significance of the level of implemented goals and tasks;


2. to create systems/models of question operators needed to achieve specific goals.

It would be beneficial if the early school system/model of question operators in textbooks and used by teachers included important educational functions, especially how to shape cognitive skills such as description, explanation, and prediction. Combining the analysis of questions with the analysis of other types of questions, it will be possible in the future to significantly enrich the diagnosis of the state of early school education, to define its needs and directions for develop-ment more closely, including developing concepts to support the work of teachers and students when using textbooks.

ReferencesBetti, A. (2016). Kazimierz Twardowski, In N. Zalta (Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy (Summer 2019 Edition), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/twardowski/.

Brożek, A. (2008). Pytania i odpowiedzi. Analiza krytyczna koncepcji Kazimierza Ajdukie-wicza [Questions and Answers. Critical analysis of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz’s concept.]. Zagadnienia Filozoficzne w Nauce, XL (2), 137-168.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (1996). Guide to Teaching Practice. London and New York: Routledge.

Fisher, R. (1995). Teaching Children to Learn. Stanley Thornes (Publishers) Ltd. Gabzdyl, J. (2012). Szkice do prakseodydaktycznej teorii celów, poleceń i pytań w kształceniu

wczesnoszkolnym [Sketches for the praxeodidactic theory of goals, instructions and questions in primary school education.]. Racibórz: PWSZ.

Hintikka, J. (1976). The Semantics of Questions and the Questions of Semantics. Acta Philosophica Fennica, 28 (4).

Knissarina, M.M., Aganina, K.Zh., Bashbayeva, M.A., Zame, J. & Shaikhimov, Y. (2016). Development of Regulatory Skills in Younger School Pupils. The New Educational Review, 44 (2), 165–175.

Kojs W. (2019). The Educational Value of Control and Evaluation Activities. The New Educational Review, 57 (3), 103–114.

Kojs, W. & Gabzdyl, J. (2016). Questions Hidden in School Children's Responses – Struc-ture and Didactic Functions. The New Educational Review, 45 (3), 89–101.

Kövacses, Z. (2006). Language, Mind, and Culture: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Malik, S.K. & Chaudry, M.A. (2013). Concept building of Elementary Level through Activity-Based Instruction, The New Educational Review, 31 (1), 17–27.

Osbeck, Ch. (2018). Questions and speech genres in social studies classrooms. Compar-isons of communication patterns. In Didactic classroom studies. A potential research direction (pp. 23-45), Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

Uljens, M. (1994). A study on the foundations of cognitivism. Vasa: Via Mathesis Press.

Selected Aspects of Psychology

Some Psychological Factors Related to Work Engagement in Teachers

DOI: 10.15804/tner.2020.59.1.16

AbstractThis paper explores a number of psychological factors related to work engage-ment in teachers. Using a sample of 449 lower and upper secondary school teachers, it focuses on the Big Five personality traits, respondents’ age, and several factors based on the teachers’ subjective evaluation of their work – including the meaningfulness of their work, job satisfaction, and workload. The results indicate that teachers’ work engagement is connected primarily with their job satisfaction and perception of the meaningfulness of their work (which functioned as predictors), as well as respondents’ Big Five personality traits (of which extraversion and conscientiousness were predictors). Perceived workload emerged as a negative predictor.

Key words: teachers, work engagement, meaningfulness of work, personality traits, job satisfaction, workload

Introduction

Teaching is generally considered to be not only a demanding profession, but also one that is of high social importance in view of the role of teachers in edu-cating the next generations and preparing them for life. Teachers are irreplaceable representatives of schools, and the effects of their activities are specific and distinct from the effects of other factors in the process of education and upbringing. This fact has given rise to the assumption (quite widespread among both the general

Karel PaulíkCzech Republic

204 Karel Paulík

public and educational specialists) that the teaching profession is a form of higher calling. The effect of this assumption is that teachers are not infrequently expected to display strong professional motivation and to possess a high level of dedication and work engagement.

In this context, the present study sets out to determine the extent to which teach-ers are willing to accept and fulfil these expectations in the real-life conditions of their professional lives (conditions which are not always favourable) and to explore which factors influence this willingness. Besides the demanding nature of the educational process per se, the teachers’ situation is also complicated by a range of disruptive influences (cf. Paulík, 2012) which, if they occur with increased intensity, or accumulate over time, may lead to stress (defined as a specific type of burden in which there is a marked imbalance between the demands placed upon an individ-ual and that person’s ability to adapt to and cope with those demands).

Research ProblemThis study explores teachers’ work engagement alongside a number of other

relevant factors which may be connected with the formation of teachers’ attitudes to their work and their willingness to engage fully in it.

The concept of work engagement (job engagement) is a construct that is used alongside other similar concepts such as work commitment, organizational commitment, job involvement, job embeddedness, etc. There is no single accepted definition of the concept. The phenomenon to which it refers has been widely studied by researchers for almost three decades (cf. Kahn, 1990; Simpson, 2009) in connection with the role of humans as key bearers of creative potential in organi-zations, whether in industry, services, culture or education. Numerous researchers (cf. Yalabik, Popaitoon, Chowne, & Rayton, 2013) agree that this phenomenon probably effects job performance, and that organizations should therefore pay more attention to their employees’ needs and interests in order to ensure that staff are willing to devote their full efforts to carrying out their duties and job tasks. An organization seeking to maximize the effectiveness of its labour force should systematically utilize knowledge of psychological factors related to work engagement and apply this knowledge in its practical policies and measures. The educational sector is no exception. Engaged (committed) teachers, convinced of their usefulness to the school and the students, are willing to devote their full efforts to their job, despite the difficulty presented by the demands of the profes-sion and the disruptive influences which complicate their work. Moreover, such teachers have high job satisfaction and are better able to cope with the demands placed upon them (cf. Høigaard, Giske, & Sundsli, 2012).

205Some Psychological Factors Related to Work Engagement in Teachers

One study of teachers’ work engagement systematically conducted by the Gallup organization and carried out in the 15 most populous states of the USA (Hastings & Agrawal, 2015) found that between 22% and 35% of teachers are engaged in their jobs, while 10%–17% are actively disengaged from them. In 2014, a survey conducted across the entire USA found that 31% of teachers were engaged and 12% were actively disengaged. According to the categorization used, engaged teachers are fully involved in their work, entirely committed and dedicated to it, while actively disengaged teachers are unhappy and dissatisfied with their jobs, perform poorly and have a negative effect on their co-workers’ efforts in the workplace. These results have remained relatively stable, with no significant change since 2011.

Various authors list a number of phenomena associated with work engagement. Teachers’ work engagement can be considered a factor which buffers against feel-ings of excessive workload and its negative consequences. Some authors consider it to be an opposite of burnout (Maslach & Leiter, 1997). Strongly engaged teachers also feel better both physically and mentally, and display positive emotions towards their work, which also has a positive effect on their co-workers (i.e. engaged teach-ers transfer their own engagement to their colleagues).

The present study focuses on teachers’ work engagement, primarily with regard to its connection with age, personality traits (the Big Five model), and respondents’ subjective evaluation of their jobs and working conditions, which are reflected in their perceptions of their workload, job satisfaction and the meaningfulness of their work. The study draws from previous studies by the author as well as work by other researchers. Issues related to the sources and consequences of stress among teachers are discussed in detail elsewhere (cf. Paulík, 2012).

The lack of a unified conceptual framework in the field of work engagement has methodological consequences, as various different methods are used in researching the phenomenon. This study applies a concept of work engagement that is currently very widespread (Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006), consisting of three components: vigour, dedication and absorption; the study also uses the method developed in conjunction with this concept.

Research FocusThe aim of this research can be concretized in the following research questions: 1. What level of work engagement can be found among teachers at lower and

upper secondary schools?2. How does teachers’ work engagement depend on their age, or their length

of service in the teaching profession?

206 Karel Paulík

3. How does teachers’ work engagement depend on their evaluation of their jobs and working conditions, expressed in subjective perceptions of work-load, job satisfaction, and the meaningfulness of their work?

4. How does teachers’ work engagement depend on their Big Five personality traits?

Research Methodology

Research SampleThe research sample consisted of 449 teachers. Respondents were recruited

by the author and instructed students of psychology as part of their seminar tasks. The selection process involved the occasional and targeted selection of qualified teachers at lower and upper secondary level in the Czech Republic who were willing to participate. Of the respondents, 179 (39.9%) taught at lower secondary level, and the rest taught at upper secondary level: 49 (10.9%) at secondary vocational schools and 221 (49.2%) at high schools. 322 respondents (71.7%) were women, and 127 (28.3%) were men. The respondents’ age ranged from 24 to 73 years, and their length of service in the profession from 0 to 48 years. More details of the research sample in terms of age and length of service are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Research sample in terms of age and length of service

VariablesMen Women Total

M SD M SD M SDAge (years) 41.83 9.69 44.17 9.59 43.52 9.67Length of service (years) 15.39 9.57 18.40 10.32 17.56 10.19

M=mean, SD=standard deviation

Instrument and ProceduresSimilarly to other studies of work engagement in teachers and members of

other professions, this study applied the following pencil-and-paper methods:1. The UWES (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale) by Schaufeli, Bakker, &

Salanova (2006), in a Czech version verified by back-translation. The respondents evaluated 17 items characterizing their attitudes to their jobs,


using a 7-point scale from 0 (never) to 6 (every day, always). The total pos-sible score thus ranges from 0 to 102. The authors of the scale state that their method has been verified on more than 10 000 respondents, demonstrating its acceptable validity and internal consistency; this has also been confirmed (Cronbach’s alpha approx. 0.8 to 0.9) by other researchers (e.g. Paulík, 2017a; 2017b; Strom, Sears, & Kelly, 2014).

2. The Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI) (Steger, Dik, & Duffy, 2012), whose Czech version was likewise verified by back-translation. Respondents were asked to assess the validity of 10 statements about their own jobs, using a 5-point scale from 1 (not valid at all) to 5 (completely valid). The total possible score thus ranges from 10 to 50. Based on a comparison with other methods, the authors of the scale state that it displays adequate construct, predictive and discriminatory validity, as well as internal consistency. The author’s previous studies (Paulík, 2017) showed Cronbach’s alpha values of approx. 0.8 for this scale.

3. The NEO Five Factors Inventory (NEO FFI), modified and standardized for the Czech population by M. Hřebíčková and T. Urbánek (see Paulík, 2017a). The inventory comprises 60 items identifying the Big Five factors (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscien-tiousness). Each factor is assessed by 12 items evaluated on 5-point scales from 0 = not valid at all to 4 = completely valid. The total possible score for each individual factor thus ranges from 0 to 48. The reliability of the individual scales ranges from 0.67 to 0.81. The construct, convergent and discriminatory validity was verified by comparison of self-assessment and external assessment, and by comparing the measurement of one trait with the results given by various other methods.

4. Two 5-point scales with evident validity which the author has used for a number of years, determining the demands imposed on a person by a job and an individual’s job satisfaction. The scales range from minimum (1) to maximum (5) values for the variable.

Respondents’ age and length of service was also determined.

208 Karel Paulík

Research Results

Table 2. Descriptive characteristics of the investigated variables

M SD αWorkload 3.42 1.04 –Job satisfaction 4.32 1.03 –Choice of same profession 4.02 1.27 –Neuroticism 21.16 6.37 0.84Extraversion 30.72 7.25 0.86Openness to experience 26.80 5.95 0.69Agreeableness 31.94 5.04 0.68Conscientiousness 34.50 6.12 0.82Work engagement 71.57 4.74 0.92Meaningfulness of work 37.64 6.15 0.84

M = arithmetic mean, SD = standard deviation, α = Cronbach coefficient

Based on the mean evaluation of workload (71.57 out of 102 possible points, i.e. a sten score of 7), alongside the calculated mean evaluation 4.21 on the 6-point scale for all 17 items in the UWES, work engagement in the investigated sample can be considered relatively high. Dividing the respondents into three groups by mean and standard deviation, the group of strongly engaged teachers (more than 1 SD above the mean) constituted 14.9% of respondents, the group of averagely engaged teachers (mean +/- 1 SD) constituted 68.4% of respondents, and the group of weakly engaged teachers (less than 1 SD) constituted 15.6% of respondents.

Based on the data shown in Table 3, it is evident that teachers’ work engagement has a statistically significant correlation with the meaningfulness of their work (r =0.61) and their job satisfaction (r = 0.22). Workload correlated negatively with work engagement (r = -0.23). Correlations with age and length of service in the teaching profession were not significant. Statistically significant correlations with work engagement were found for all Big Five personality factors. The correlation with neuroticism was negative. These correlations are low to medium (so it is necessary to take into consideration the effects of other variables not investigated in this study), and they cannot be used to draw conclusions regarding the causality of the associations found.

A regression analysis was then carried out.

[209]

Tab

le 3

. Pe

arso

n co

rrel

atio

ns b

etw

een

the

inve

stig

ated

var

iab

les

1.2.

3.4.

5.6.

7.8.

9.10

.11

.1.

Age

444

448

448

448

448

448

448

448

448

448

2. L

engt

h of

serv

ice

0.94

***

444

444

444

444

444

444

444

444

444

3. W

L0.

12*

0.11

*44

944

944

944

944

944

944

944

94.

JS

0.06

0.06

0.14

**44

944

9 4

4944

944

944

944

95.

NEO

-N-0

.12*

-0.1

1*0.

20**

*-0

.22*

**44

944

944

944

944

944

96.

NEO

-E-0

.03

-0.0

1-0

.12*

*0.

20**

*-0

.33*

**44

944

944

944

944

97.

NEO

-O-0

.01

-0.0

10.

16**

*0.

050.

050.

13**

449

449

449

449

8. N

EO-A

0.10

*0.

11*

-0.0

60.

06-0

.31*

**0.

27**

*0.

0944

944

944

99.

NEO

-C0.

10*

0.10

*-0

.09*

0.11

-0.2

7***

0.29

***

0.06

0.23

***

449

449

10.

UW

ES-0

.02

0.01

-0.2

3***

0.22

***

-0.2

4***

0.39

***

0.11

*0.

21**

*0.

30**

*44

911

. WA

MI

-0.0

7-0

.05

-0.1

7***

0.21

***

-0.2

3***

0.30

***

0.09

0.18

***

0.23

***

0.61

***

* p <

0.0

5; **

p <

0.0

5; **

* p <

0.0

5.N

ote:

The

part

of t

he ta

ble

to th

e le

ft of

the

diag

onal

show

s cor

rela

tion

coeffi

cien

ts, t

he p

art t

o th

e ri

ght s

how

s the

num

bers

of r

espo

nden

ts fo

r w

hich

the

corr

elat

ions

wer

e ca

lcul

ated

(pai

rwis

e de

letio

n).

WL=

wor

kloa

d; JS

= jo

b sa

tisfa

ctio

n; N

EO-N

= ne

urot

icism

; NEO

-E=

extr

aver

sion;

NEO

-O=

open

ness

to e

xper

ienc

e; N

EO-A

= ag

reea

blen

ess;

NEO

-C=

cons

cien

tious

ness

; UW

ES=

wor

k en

gage

men

t; W

AM

I= w

ork

mea

ning

fuln

ess.

[210]

Pred

icto

rsSt

ep 1

Step

2St

ep 3

Step

4B

SEB

βB

SEB

βB

SEB

βB

SEB

βC

onst

ant

23.3

67**

*1.

064

11.9

21**

*2.

435

9.69

8***

2.46

10.

305

2.29

7W

oman

0.45

60.

501

0.04

3–0

.128

0.47

9–0

.012

–0.1

680.

455

–0.0

16–0

.293

0.39

8–0

.028

Age

–0.0

100.

023

–0.0

20–0

.020

0.02

1–0

.040

–0.0

040.

021

–0.0

070.

013

0.01

80.

027

NEO

-N–0

.066

0.03

7–0

.089

–0.0

060.

036

–0.0

080.

015

0.03

10.

021

NEO

-E0.

185*

**0.

031

0.28

30.

140*

**0.

030

0.21

40.

110*

**0.

027

0.16

8N

EO-O

0.04

60.

035

0.05

80.

060

0.03

30.

087

0.03

80.

029

0.04

8N

EO-A

0.06

40.

044

0.06

80.

058

0.04

20.

062

0.03

80.

037

0.04

1N

EO-C

0.13

7***

0.03

60.

177

0.12

4***

0.03

40.

160

0.08

2**

0.03

00.

106

WL

–0.8

86**

*0.

196

–0.1

95–0

.609

***

0.17

3–0

.134

JS0.

377*

**0.

219

0.08

20.

329*

**0.

191

0.07

1W

AM

I0.

369*

**0.

032

0.47

9F(

dfM

; df R

)0.

47 (4

45; 2

)16

.29

(7; 4

40)*

**17

.66

(10;

437

)***

33.3

8 (1

1; 4

36)*

**R2

0.00

20.

206

0.28

80.

457

adj.

R20.

000

0.19

30.

271

0.44

3Δ

R20.

002

0.20

40.

082

0.16

9Δ

F(df

M;

dfR)

0.47

(445

; 2)

22.5

7 (5

; 440

)***

16.7

7 (3

; 437

)***

135.

99 (1

; 436

)***

RMSE

4.74

34.

255

4.04

33.

534

Tab

le 4

. Li

near

regr

essi

on (s

tepw

ise

met

hod)

with

wor

k en

gage

men

t (U

WES

) as

the

dep

ende

nt v

aria

ble

*p <

0.0

5; **

p <

0.01

; ***

p <

0.00

1.W

L =

wor

kloa

d, JS

= jo

b sa

tisfa

ctio

n, W

AM

I = w

ork

mea

ning

fuln

ess.

RMSE

= ro

ot m

ean

squa

red

erro

r (st

anda

rd d

evia

tion

of re

sidua

ls).


Table 4 shows the results of a linear regression analysis with work engagement (UWES) as the dependent variable. The analysis used the stepwise method. The necessary conditions for such an analysis were fulfilled (linear relation between predictors and the dependent variable, independence of residuals and their approximately normal distribution, same variance of the dependent variable for various levels of predictors – homoscedasticity, absence of perfect multicolline-arity).

In the first step, demographic variables (sex and age) were input into the model as predictors, followed in the second step by personality variables (NEO), in the third step by perceived workload (WL) and job satisfaction (JS), and in the fourth and final step by meaningfulness (WAMI). It is evident that significant predictors of work engagement were extraversion, conscientiousness, perceived workload (negative), job satisfaction, and meaningfulness. The final model explained approx. 46% of the variance in work engagement.

Discussion and Conclusions

The analysis of the psychological factors related to work engagement among teachers has focused primarily on factors that can be expected to be relevant to teachers’ engagement both on the basis of previous research and on the basis of everyday observation. The results of the study indicate that work engagement in teachers can be evaluated as relatively high; this corresponds with expectations generated by the fact that teaching is often considered a form of higher calling. Most of the respondents (83%) can be evaluated as displaying medium to strong engagement. 15% of the respondents showed strong engagement, and 15% displayed weak engagement. Similar results were also found in a previous study (Paulík, 2017a). The expectation of a relatively high degree of work engagement in teachers is also supported by research into work engagement in members of other (non-teaching) professions, determined using the same method (Paulík, 2017b); engagement in members of these non-teaching professions was found to be lower than in teachers. The transversal methodology used in this study did not provide evidence of significant links between teachers’ work engagement and either their age, or their length of service in the teaching profession. This suggests that work engagement probably remains relatively stable during the course of a teacher’s professional career. In order to gain stronger evidence of possible changes in teachers’ work engagement during their careers, it would be necessary to carry out longitudinal, or qualitative, research. However, teachers’ work engagement

212 Karel Paulík

was found to correlate with factors based on their evaluation of their job and working conditions. The values of correlations with perceived workload indicate a non-random relationship, but other factors not investigated in this study are also likely to have contributed to this relationship. There appear to be stronger correlations between work engagement and two other measured factors – job satisfaction and meaningfulness. Both these variables functioned as predictors of work engagement; this relation was also found with other samples of teachers (Paulík, 2017a) and members of non-teaching professions (Paulík, 2017b). Simi-larly to previous research by the author of this paper as well as other authors (e.g. Inceoglu & Warr, 2011; Woods & Sofat, 2013), the study presented here found correlations between work engagement and personality traits from the Big Five model. In view of the nature of work engagement, significant correlations with Big Five factors are to be expected, particularly in the case of conscientiousness, agreeableness or extraversion, which proved to be predictors of work engagement.

In conclusion, the results of this study can be summed up as follows: despite all the demands associated with the teaching profession, work engagement among teachers is relatively high (over four-fifths of respondents displayed average or higher-than-average engagement) in comparison with the situation in non-teach-ing professions. On the basis of this research, it is possible to conclude – in accord-ance with previous research – that work engagement is related both to personality factors and to factors originating in individuals’ subjective evaluation of their jobs and working conditions. Among personality factors, extraversion and conscien-tiousness have particularly strong positive effects. Teachers’ job satisfaction and their perception of their work as meaningful likewise have positive effects, while their perception of workload had a negative effect. Similarly to other studies, this study did not reveal a correlation between work engagement and age, or length of service in the teaching profession.

Limitations of the Research

The results presented in this paper should be approached with a certain degree of caution. The generalizability of the results is limited by the fact that the research was based on a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, as well as the fact that a representative selection of teachers was not available. The research also did not differentiate between teachers at different types of schools, as no significant dif-ferences were visible for the investigated variables. Nevertheless, in general terms, it is necessary to take into consideration possible differences related to different


types of schools. Future research will probe further into the details and the broader contexts outlined here.

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Paulík, K. (2017b). Pracovní angažovanost učitelů: některé psychologické souvislosti. (Work engagement in teachers: Some psychological factors.) In A. Gregar (Ed.). Sborník příspěvků z 16. ročníku mezinárodní konference PPaO konané ve dnech 24. – 25. května 2017 ve Zlíně. Pracovní potenciál a jeho proměny v čase (Work potential and its changes in time), (pp. 464–473). Zlín: Univerzita Tomáše Bati.

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