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International Academic Mobility as a Capacity Building Factor in Higher Education
82-91Views:193International academic mobility means the teaching or research activity of higher educational instructors or researchers, which spans a couple of days or a few months, during which individual professional growth, the establishment of international cooperation and networks, personal relations and friendships may develop. It is also considered to be a fundamental necessity for building capacity and an outstanding supremacy, even if a country’s academic resources are modest. Thus it is crucial to gain information about its current and actual state, quality, standards, struggles and the direction it is heading towards. As a part of a bigger research study, we wanted to know how international academic mobility, used for capacity building, changes over time, and whether country-specific features and patterns could be traced. In this present study we made an attempt to uncover the international activity based on the academic mobility of the full-time instructors at two Hungarian higher educational institutions. One of them is a large university that plays a leading role in internationalization. The other is a dynamically developing regional knowledge center. We examined the instructors of two faculties from the first, and everybody from the regional knowledge center, since it is smaller in size. Altogether 210 instructors responded to our 60 questions in the survey. The surveys were processed in the SPSS statistical analysis program. Concerning the examined discussions, categories and proposed topics, our research was built upon two previously carried out investigations – a Hungarian and a Norwegian one. We found that in Hungary in the given time period (2012-2014), the instructors with the strongest international activity were: 1. the men; 2. those who held higher academic positions; 3. those who were married or were in a relationship; and 4. who were from the field of social science.
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The Use of Linguistic Features in Indonesian Students’ Texts at Hungarian Universities
131-141Views:137Students enrolled in a higher level of education may face challenges in producing assignments, including writing an essay. They need to present appropriate linguistic features in the text to demonstrate their writing quality. Comparing linguistic features during university study is one fundamental aspect of administering writing quality and showing student writing development. The topic presented in this study describes an initial statistical analysis and the frequency of linguistic features in the texts produced by Indonesian graduate students enrolled at Hungarian universities. This study proposed two research questions: 1) How frequently do pre-selected linguistic features appear in the texts of Indonesian graduate students? 2) How do these features appear in a paired T-test statistical analysis? Seven MSc and MA graduate students took part in the study to meet the goal. They are students at three different universities in Hungary, which all have a Social Science Faculty. During their second-year studies, fourteen essays with a minimum text length of 2000 words were collected. The findings revealed an increase in conjunctions, adjectives, abstract nouns, concrete nouns, noun phrases, expanded noun phrases, active verbs, verb phrases, and passive forms. Meanwhile, the frequency of linguistic features such as prepositions, definite articles, indefinite articles, noun clauses, adverbial clauses, and adjective clauses decreased. In addition, both the rise of nine linguistic features and the decrease of six features in the second semester are not statistically significant.
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Students’ Motivations to Study Abroad: The Case of International Students at the University of Debrecen
76-81Views:1221Today there is a growing demand among international students to study in Hungary, more specifically with the launching of Stipendium Hungaricum program in 2013. The number of international scholarship holders increases each year, but till now, we have no significant research results about their study motivations, research has focused only on institutional perspectives (Kasza, & Hangyál 2018). The motivation of students is an important research field in higher education, particularly because there could be various factors to motivate students studying abroad. The motives can be categorised as intrinsic and extrinsic. Our research question is, what are the main intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that encourage students to study in Hungary? We performed 15 qualitative interviews among international scholarship holders on postgraduate levels. We gathered semi-structured interviews with the help of an interview scheme with five main questions. The investigated dimensions include the following: 1. introduction and context of interviewees, 2. Reasons for leaving the country of origin, 3. Reasons for country choice, 4. Preliminary knowledge about Hungary, 5. Personal expectations. After the data collection, we analysed texts with open coding process in which line by line and word for word was analysed (Khandkar, 2009). Then we were able to form a typology of motivations and we found subcategories within the intrinsic and extrinsic classification.
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Is it Worth Getting a Doctorate?
142-149Views:147PhD training is part of the global education competition. The number of doctoral students per 100,000 people is a feature that moves together with the scientific performance of a country. Thus, doctoral training is an important element of a country’s innovation, in which Hungary is lagging behind. We assume that the main reason for the limited amount of doctoral students in Hungary is the low level of individual demand for training which, in turn, is due to the fact that the academic career of doctoral students promises low earnings compared to the placement of university graduates in other spheres. The earnings test and life earnings analysis presented by the study support this assumption: the earnings of those entering academically qualified academic careers are significantly lower than those of graduates working in the corporate sector. Though there are limitations present which impede the generalizability of these results, it does call to attention important trends to be acknowledged in future research.
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Self-Study: Tensions and Growth in Graduate Teaching Assistant Development
14-22Views:252Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) development is an important undertaking for many higher education institutions in the United States. During the GTA preparation process, tensions can arise when the supervisor challenges GTAs by engaging in critical reflection and pushing them to advance their pedagogical skills beyond their comfort zone. Guided by Berry’s (2008) framework of tensions, this self-study aimed to answer the research question: How do tensions that arise during GTA development contribute to the professional growth of teacher educators and GTAs in their teaching? Self-study was the research method, and the data were analyzed using the strategy of inductive analysis and creative synthesis (Patten, 2002). This self-study reports five types of tensions: telling and growth; confidence and uncertainty; safety and challenge; valuing and reconstructing experience; and planning and being responsive. The findings explain how these tensions pushed the supervisor and the GTA to reflect on teacher preparation, manage challenges, and improve teaching. While tensions place teacher educators and novice teachers in uncomfortable positions, this study shows that reflections on and articulation of tensions in collaborative dialogues can help both discover aspects of their teaching that provide opportunities for growth and lead both to transform tensions into teachable moments.
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Characteristics of Teaching Community Capital - Focus on Teachers in Reformed Public Education Institutions
48-55Views:225The issue of the effectiveness of teaching is constantly at the center of research. "Teachers count", presents the OECD report (2005), which confirms the research of the day that the work of the teacher contributes significantly to the performance of students. The question is how to capture the factors that influence school performance. The focus of the examination of the theoretical background is on the professional capital theory, with the emphasis on the examination of social / teaching capital in addition to the human capital and decision capital components. Our research is based on a secondary analysis of a questionnaire among teachers working in Calvinist institutions in 2017. The focus of our interest is on identifying the characteristics (frequency) and content (agreeing with norms) of staff capital and the need for teachers to develop collaborative networking opportunities for future professional development.
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Attendance of Pop and Classical Music Concerts among the Hungarian Youth
67-74Views:172In this paper we wanted to give a comprehensive picture of capital theories from a theoretical point of view, looking at it from several angles. In our empirical study, we analyzed the Hungarian Youth Research 2016 database, which was recruited Hungarian youth aged 15-29. The study was conducted with several variables in mind, mapping the influence they have on the attendance of classical and pop music concerts. We took into account the gender, age, place of residence of the respondents, the highest level of education and looked at the frequency of the concert attendance by counties and regions. Our results show that many variables influence the frequency of attendance at concerts by both genres.
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Educational poverty in Italy: concepts, measures and policies
1-10Views:564In recent years in Italy, as a result of the initiative by the NGO Save the Children Italia and of the government action, we have witnessed the success of the notion of “povertà educativa”, as an effective way to indicate severe inequalities in education across the country. Firstly, the aim of this paper is to shed light on the different concepts and measures of educational poverty in socio-economic literature, in order to highlight specific and innovative aspects of this idea. Moreover, the paper intends to scrutinize Save the Children’s proposal in order to monitor and tackle educational poverty as well as to show how the action of the NGO has influenced the development of Italian recent government policies against child and educational poverty.
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The Pedagogy of Witness. An Anthropological-Kreygmatic Perspective by Zbigniew Marek SJ & Anna Walulik CSFN – the Reflective Challenge for Education
111-115Views:157Review of the book The pedagogy of witness. An anthropological-kreygmatic perspective, by Zbigniew Marek SJ & Anna Walulik CSFN
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Third Culture Kids: Growing Among Worlds by David C. Pollock & Ruth E. Van Reken
161-163Views:459Bibliography of the reviewed book: Pollock, D., & Reken, R. (Revised Edition 2009). Third Culture Kids: Growing Among Worlds. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
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Labour Market Characteristics of Helping Professionals
66-75Views:220In Hungary, considerable efforts have been made in recent years to analyse the career paths of higher educational graduates, which have highlighted the need for field-specific and training-specific analysis. In this context, our research concentrates on a special training segment, focusing on the position of young professionals working in occupations helping the function of the society. Previous research focused only on the professionalization of the different occupations and the recruitment was examined from institutional and regional aspects. However, during the statistical analysis we examined the social recruitment base and the labour market situation of social pedagogy graduates in the Graduates 2012 (Frissdiplomások 2012) national database. The novelty of our work lies in the comparison of those who graduated in social work, pedagogy and andragogy in full-time programs. The most important result of our quantitative analysis is the statement that the differences in the composition of the group are strongly explained by the regional location of the institutions providing the training. In terms of horizontal and vertical congruence, the values of the humanities group are the most unfavourable.
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Social Integration of the Former Transcarpathian Students of the Balassi Institute
82-89Views:171In the present study, we examine the social integration of former Transcarpathian students who participated in the university preparatory training of the Balassi Institute. Social integration plays a major role, both among mobile students settling in the destination country and in the sending country. Despite the fact that Hungarian students from Transcarpathia have the same linguistic and cultural background as their motherland, their integration into Hungarian society is often hampered: migration often involves giving up home connections, and the success of building new ones is unpredictable. Successful adaptation to the social environment of the destination country is not always an automatic mechanism. Our research was conducted using a questionnaire method. In the survey, we sought to answer the question of where the former Transcarpathian students participating in the preparatory training of the Balassi Institute settled after completing their studies and how they managed to integrate into the society of their place of residence. We compare the social integration of people returning to Transcarpathia, settling in Hungary and living abroad. In summary, we would like to present the results of the survey.
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Tools Supporting the Measurement of Fair Play in Sport
75-79Views:174In the course of our work so far, we have repeatedly emphasized the loss of morality and value in societies, which has an impact on all areas of life (including sport). Today, we are far from the original values of sport and the ideals of Baron Coubertin; fair play as pure play. Among the ethical issues of sport, special attention should be given to two extremes: fair play and doping. In our study, we aimed to review the available literature related to the topic of fair play in both the domestic and international setting. In selecting the processed research, our main goal was to present results that are useful for Hungarian educational science, including specific, internationally validated fair play attitude surveys and educational programs. Our current study is the first theoretical partial result of a larger-scale research, which includes the Hungarian adaptation of the presented tests.
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Scouts' and educational stakeholders' perceptions of integrating scouting methods into formal education
98-109Views:457Scouting is a non-formal learning environment which implies a form of learning that is “less organised than formal learning, but still consists of planned activities and educational objectives. It is also seen as being more concerned with action, and learning by doing from experience; and more holistic, with a particular focus on developing social and emotional skills” (Bridwell et.al., 2015: 27). The Scouting Method used relies on the concept of experiential learning or learning by doing and combines it with other educational elements such as the symbolic framework, team or patrol system, gamification elements such as the badge system (Christians 2018) and active learning or personal progression so that each young person is “consciously and actively involved in his or her own development” (WOSM 1998: 47). The present paper aims to explore scouts' and educational stakeholders' (teachers and scout teachers) beliefs and opinions regarding scouting methods and the way these methods could be integrated into the formal learning environment. Qualitative and quantitative methods of analyses were used to examine and interpret the results gathered through an online questionnaire. Results show that all respondents have a positive attitude towards scouting and the methods used within their activities and they would encourage others to join the association. Even school subjects have been identified which could serve as bridging points between non-formal and formal educational situations.
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Attendance Without Presence: Measuring Cognitive Class Avoidance Among Students
71-82Views:217While the term “school absenteeism” refers to a student’s withdrawal from the reach of classroom instruction, we explicitly opt for the term “class avoidance.” Existing studies on this phenomenon have primarily dealt with unauthorized physical absence from class. However, in our contribution, we extend the scope to cognitive absence. The behavior of students who are physically present but cognitively disengaged has largely been neglected in educational research thus far. This deficit stands in contrast to the widely accepted importance of cognitive activation in the classroom. The core of our contribution consists in the presentation and the construct validation of a newly developed scale for measuring cognitive class avoidance (inattention in class). We evaluated this measurement instrument in a cross-sectional study with a sample of 171 seventh- to ninth-grade students (M = 14.3 years, SD = .94). Our data confirmed a theoretically founded g-factor model. The results of the analysis point to a limited prevalence of cognitive class avoidance. Such forms of behavior were significantly more frequently reported by boys than by girls, however.
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Teacher Work and Job Satisfaction among Romanian Lower Secondary Teachers
93-100Views:307The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical based understanding of the Romanian context of teacher work, which provides an opportunity to identify characteristics considered to affect teaching activities and gives a basis for planning and conducting other research on teachers working conditions. The paper is based on authors' research which is a secondary analysis of Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 database. The database contains the survey responses of teachers of lower secondary education (ISCED 2) and the principals of their schools. During the investigation cross/tables, cluster analysis, linear and logistical analyses were used. Based on our research results, we can see that the factors attributed both to the individuals and to the elements of pedagogical culture show a strong correlation with the characteristics of the teaching and the satisfaction with the teaching. Considering the factors attributed to the individuals, professional development and the total career time is the most influential factor of job satisfaction and teacher’s self-efficacy. Among the variables included in the school culture dimension, the effectiveness of teacher work, the disciplined atmosphere, the values of student/teacher relationships and the positive effects of teacher-teacher relationships indicated satisfaction and self-efficacy.
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Assessing the Role of the Coach in Terms of Dropping out from Youth Sports
66-74Views:239Much of international research deals with the subject, so we can say that probably one of the most important issues in the field of youth education today is to explore the causes of early drop-out from organised sport. The aim of this essay was to test our self developed measurement tool and gain insight into what coaches see as causes of dropping out within their own sport and what percentage of this phenomenon is experienced in their field. The main question for us is, why junior athletes between the age of 13–16 are dropping out of competitive sports, what role the coach’s personality has (in this), and what other reasons might the phenomenon have. In our enquiry, we sought to find out the opinion of coaches of team sports such as handball, football or icehockey, in addition to individual sports, like athletics and karate. In the research, we used only certain parts of the interviews during the analysis, paying special attention to the coaching attitude, the coach-athlete relationship, and the ways of motivation and methods used by the coach. The results confirmed that the causes of dropout should be sought for in the dimensions which we set up earlier. In the respect of the exploratory nature of the study, we cannot draw far-reaching conclusions, but we certainly consider it as a good starting point for our further research.
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Parent-Teacher Communication from the Perspective of the Educator
13-24.Views:237Several, mostly quantitative, studies have already examined the relationship between teachers and parents, as well as the positive effects of parental involvement. The aim of this study is to explore how parental involvement is realized in communication between the two actors. In the framework of a qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 teachers teaching in elementary schools, and the analysis was performed using the Atlas.ti software. Based on our findings, we concluded that regular communication, common language use, a positive attitude from both parties, and the appropriate use of information and communication technology tools are essential for effective communication. The practical significance of this is that teacher trainees should also emphasize practical education, with a special focus on their ability to establish appropriate communication with parents of different socioeconomic backgrounds.
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The Vehicle for Bringing Positive Education Into the English-As-A-Foreign-Language Classroom: Task-Based Language Teaching
80-89Views:119The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the distinctive features of interventions, tasks, and exercises. It is intended to lay theoretical ground to a forthcoming dissertation which is based on action research using positive psychology-based tasks designed or adapted for the secondary English-as-aforeign-language classroom. Therefore, it is essential to first understand the theoretical underpinnings of task-based language teaching and define certain key concepts as well as find the features that distinguish interventions, tasks, and exercises from each other in the language learning classroom. Since literature sometimes refers to these concepts in an interchangeable manner (cf. Seligman et al., 2005; Seligman et al., 2009; Gregersen et al., 2014), an attempt will be made in this theoretical paper to compare them, and then to provide a framework for task descriptions to be used in the dissertation project which is intended to be convergent with current theory and practical enough for teachers.
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An Analytical Review of Cross Cultural Child-Rearing and Care Practices: A Special Reference to India
7-18Views:401Child-rearing is an individualist, social and cultural process. This paper proposes that Child-Rearing has invariable characteristics and huge diversity. It has been considered that cultural perspective may contribute to the understanding of such multiple forms of child-rearing. The present paper provides an analytical account of dominant factors of child-rearing and caring. The factors selection is done by reviewing the articles which have either more than 50 Google scholar citations or are indexed in top-class journals. It also aims to ascertain whether or not Indian child-rearing intrinsically has something different in its practices and which child-rearing patterns are global and common among all the countries. This article took majorly dominating factors in the area of child-rearing and provided a qualitative comparative account of India especially in relation to the world. Some factors are individualistic as parental attitude and the parent-child relationship. But the study found that corporal punishments, socialization and cultural factors have a strong impact on child-rearing. Altogether these factors affect the cognitive skills of children. The study will give a critical overview of child-rearing patterns in India and across the globe, which would be helpful for policymakers to create new policies and act accordingly.
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Assessing Children’s Mastery Motivation using the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ): Theoretical and Practical Consideration
90-93Views:129Bibliography of the reviewed book: Morgan, G. A., Liao, H.-F., & Józsa, K. (Eds.) (2020). Assessing Mastery Motivation in Children Using the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ). Gödöllő: Szent István Egyetem.
http://www.staff.u-szeged.hu/~jozsa/DMQbook.html -
The Different Patterns of Religiosity and Their Relationship with Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Model
76-83Views:222The aim of our study is to create a more detailed and accurate picture of the complex relationship between personality and religiousness by describing the person’s religiousness in a multidimensional way. The sample for study consisted of 240 subjects (161 females, 79 males; mean age: 22,53, SD= 2,98) who attended church at least occasionally. We divided up different types of religiosity by the way in which they are followed: compiling the participants’ different critiques based on their responses regarding religious practice, on the data from the Hungarian Shortened Post Critical Belief Scale (Martos et al., 2009), and the Hungarian version of the Age Universal I-E Scale (Kézdy et al., 2018). For the measurement of personality based on the Cloninger’s psychobiological theory, we used the Shortened Hungarian Cloninger Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI 56) (Paksi et al., 2009). K-means clustering and one-way ANOVA-s were used to explore and compare the patterns. The results of the study show that in terms of personality traits, there are significant differences between the different types of religiousness. Therefore, interpreting and analyzing piety and personality as a complex system could help to understand religious practice and education in a more differentiated way.
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Criteria determining school choice among the ethnic minority high school students
17-25Views:179In our paper we sought for the answer to the question: based on which motives do students from various types of high schools (in our case, denominational or non- denominational school) make their choice of educational institution? The target group of our research consists of the 9th and 11th grade students of Harghita County’s denominational (Roman Catholic, Reformed, Unitarian) schools and the non-denominational ones added to them. All in all, eight high schools got into our sample. We conducted a survey by questionnaire, the sample including 1,064 people. We analyzed the decision criteria formed based on motives behind the decision (primary and secondary effects) on the one hand, and followed the decision making process on the other. The non-denominational sector is often chosen by the elite- and institution-oriented student group, who has great expectations of the institution, e.g. - top of the line standards of education, outstanding achievement indicators, prestige of the institution, local reputation. According to the clusters created from the motives, the value- and community-oriented student group, as well as the one following the orientation of the peer group, can be found in significantly higher proportion in denominational schools.
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The anthropological meaning of marriage: main lines
1-6Views:210Marriage is a deeply rooted institution, but today it is in big crisis. In Italy – with regard to 2015, the latest available survey – 194,377 marriages were celebrated (246,613, in 2008), but separations were 91,706 (84,165 in 2008) and divorces 82,469 (54,351 in 2008). It is a trend in line with European data. Is marriage only an "archaeological" residual? Actually, also today the fascination of marriage survives as it is confirmed in many books on the theme and within the media where, even when the marriage takes place between subjects who have experienced the previous failure, it is described as if it were the first and the last. Of course, so many cohabitations out of marriage are related to a change of mentality, but not so deep to reject marriage as public institution. My short contribution (recently I published a book on the issue) aims to support the challenge of love in the perspective of marriage. In my opinion, the mistake about freedom could be the cause of current fragility, and education to marriage could be the possible strategy to face the problem. I start by focusing on the anthropological depth of the institution of marriage, whose recognition supports the motivation to preserve and promote the value of the wedding.