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International Academic Mobility as a Capacity Building Factor in Higher Education
82-91Views:328International 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 Challenges of Adopting a Learner-Centered Approach to On-Line English Teacher Education: A Teacher-Research Study on Jigsaw Reading and PeerTeaching in Cambodia
60-71.Views:444In Cambodia, the shift to on-line learning due to Covid-19 reinforced an already overly teacher-centric approach to education, leading to the risk of greater learner disengagement. To address this problem, I3 embarked on a research project involving the redesign of the on-line delivery of a final year English teacher education course on ‘School and Society’, in which all lectures were replaced with jigsaw reading (JR) and peer teaching (PT) tasks. To track the impact of this innovation, I recorded class sessions, kept observation logs, and obtained data from students’ reflective journaling, interviews, and a focus group. This paper reports on the design principles behind the innovation and its impact on student motivation and engagement. The research has implications for on-line teacher education and the introduction of learner-centered pedagogies in global south contexts.
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Differences in Foreign Language Choice of Students from Different Social Backgrounds
78-86Views:355According to previous research (e.g. Bernstein, 1971; Gogolin, 2014; Hegedűs et al., 2019), family background plays a decisive role in an individual's mother tongue acquisition and in learning foreign languages. In another study, parents with a high social background (54.0%) chose German for their children, and parents with a low social background (56.9%) chose English in primary school (Sebestyén, 2021). Based on this, in the study I examine what difference can be detected in the foreign language choice of high school students from different social backgrounds. In the study, I analyze the student data (890 people) of my database entitled “German learning and teaching in Hajdú-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties” prepared in the 2018/2019 school year, during which I perform cross-tabulation and cluster analysis with the help of SPSS program. The database contains data on 11th grade high school and vocational high school students who studied German and / or English in high school. As the results, there are differences between the learned foreign languages among secondary school students according to family background. Among the clusters related to high school choice, those belonging to the “Higher Education Oriented Local” cluster are most interested in foreign languages, most German-speaking (74.0%) and English (89,0%) students tend to be in this cluster. Overall, the majority of respondents learn English, while students from higher social backgrounds (also) learn German.
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Parent-Teacher Communication from the Perspective of the Educator
13-24.Views:2695Several, 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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Foreign Language Interpretation in Teaching Soloist Singing
75-89Views:232The problems of singing in the original language have become a special feature of the soloist training in the Central and Eastern Europe. The linguistic aspects of soloist training is put to the test by international expectation that regards authentic singing in the original language as a natural part of professional efficiency. In this present paper we are looking for the answers to two questions. First, we examined what factors determine the choice of the language for vocal interpretation. Our second goal is to give an overview of a specific segment of today’s Hungarian students’ population in higher education. We examined institutional, personal and curricular components for perfecting singing in the original language. The empirical study field of our research was Hungary’s higher education institutions of music in the 2016/17 term. Our researches were based on two methodological techniques. Among the higher education instructors of solo singers we conducted structured interviews and students from six higher educational institutions with this profile were the respondents of our questionnaire. The quantitative analysis of the research unequivocally represented the stronger demand of students for the training of linguistic interpretation. Our empirical research showed that the language efficiency of the solo singer students does not meet professional expectations. Pronunciation, comprehension, vocabulary, command of language and intonation are not utilized while singing and using the mirror effect of singing in a foreign language does not help perfect language knowledge either.
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New Paths to Online Teaching – How Can We Manage Knowledge Transfer and Make the Learning More Enjoyable?
55-62Views:443This study is based on the results from a national project initiative on digitalization, supported by methodology evidence from e-learning materials at the level of teachers’ training for vocational education institutes. Looking for the new paths to online learning We have been formulating the question for almost a decade: How can we manage the transfer of knowledge and make learning more enjoyable? For the steps forwards, the first impulses for understanding the recontextualization of vocational didactics and re-defining roles and responsibilities of the actors. Our paper deals with seeking a new method for content development and its application in vocational education and training (VET). This study recommends a kind of open framework[1] is provided by the fact that the innovation, which takes open source content development as one of the approaches of reforming teacher training for VET, is connected to a technical university of long-existing traditions. In line with the peculiarities of Hungarian VET, our research group undertook to develop methodological training in terms of complex school subjects. By applying their new concept, their concrete objective was: the methodological renewal of vocational teacher training and practical training by creating and applying complex learning content units online.