Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of many human activities. As a result, education quickly shifted from a classroom setting to an online one, challenging educators and students alike. Multiple issues that had barely been known to educators surfaced: technophobia, lack of rules or guidelines regarding online learning, politeness in a virtual environment, limited social interaction, but some of the greatest challenges remain cheating, and academic integrity concerns during online examinations. Technological and software advances can oftentimes identify cases of academic dishonesty. However, with mass education and faculty unpreparedness it is rather problematic to combat and avoid cheating during online assessment. This mixed-methods review based on the limited empirical research on the topic of cheating during online examinations will identify the factors that lead to cheating and will discuss the best ways of combating and avoiding academic dishonesty.

Keywords: Academic dishonesty, assessment, cheating, online examination, online learning

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Abstract: The relationship between the learning environment and the learning behaviours has long been of interest in educational literature. When addressing the socioemotional stages, Erickson raises awareness of the psycho-social influence of school by way of diligence vs inferiority (Harwood et al., 2010), while Galos and Aldridge (2020) explore how designing a learning environment focused on student self-efficacy triggers statistically significant differences in 4 (out of 9) areas of analysis: fairness, task clarity, learning responsibility and task achievement.

The aim of the present study is to highlight the significance and the differences in the main student psychosocial representations of school and teachers before and during the pandemic, the latter being characterised by government-imposed restrictions as well as changes in the student-teacher interaction, both during the second school term of 2019-2020 and the two school terms of the academic year 2020-2021.

The areas we intend to explore are: overall attitude to school and student emotional states, the perception on teacher and peer relations, the perception on school as an organisation but also as a learning environment, the parents as a filter on schoolrelated perceptions, and the projective dimension on school life.

The resulting statistical analysis (both nonparametric tests for independent groups and correlation) reveals major changes in the student perception on school and teachers, which will require systematic future intervention, as well as an upgrade of educational strategies, considering that the approaches designed and applied during the pandemic proved unable to compensate for the changes brought about by the restrictions on learning.

Keywords: Pandemic, perception, school, student, teacher

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Abstract: Heyse & Erpenbeck (2009) define counselling competence very broadly as the ability to counsel people and organisations. This requires for teachers an extensive knowledge of content, social-emotional competence and solution-oriented thinking. In this context, the article focuses on the one hand on the location of the legal basis for teacher training in higher education in the context of counselling competence and how counselling skills can be improved to avoid conflicts in the classroom. On the other hand it describes the handling and use of counselling skills in everyday school life based on the results of focus group discussions within the Erasmus+ project SEEVAL.

Keywords: Conflicts in school, content analysis, counselling, focus groups, social emotional learning

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Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition to the online education substantially changed the characteristics of the teachers’ activities, especially due to the intensive use of telecommunications. A number of recent studies are already exploring the effects of these framework changes on individual behavior and drawing attention to the risks of mental health for those involved. Previous data indicate that the level of burnout experienced between the teachers is much stronger compared to the symptoms felt by other professionals (Shoji et al., 2016), but studies exploring the stress and burnout associated with working online are incipient.

The present study analyzes the relationship between burnout and self-efficacy for a group of 50 teachers from a secondary school during online teaching. The need to research this correlation starts from the premise that self-perceived effectiveness is important in mobilizing the teachers for the expected changes during online teaching. Previous data indicate an inverse correlation between self-efficacy and burnout (Friedman, 2003), respectively between teachers self-efficacy and two facets of the burnout: emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2010). Our aim is to explore the momentary correlation between the dependent variables and to estimate the factors that had a negative impact on the perceived self-efficacy of teachers during online work. Even if the captured data cannot be generalized and we cannot talk about a cause-effect relation, the present study captures a real moment that can substantiate an improvement/optimization of the intervention, at least at the level of the reference/referential school.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, online teaching, teacher burnout, teacher selfefficacy

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Abstract: Well-being, a concept so often discussed, has increasingly come to the attention of specialists and practitioners, especially during the pandemic period whose magnitude has significantly influenced the well-being of all of us. The purpose of the comparative-correlational study was to investigate the perceptions and practices of teachers in Romanian preschool education regarding their role in ensuring the well-being of preschoolers in kindergarten, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, starting from the theoretical framework that delimits the factors that influence the well-being at this age (Aulia et al., 2020; Kwi-Ok et al., 2020; Sönmez & Ceylan, 2016), we used The Scale of Self-assessment of Wellbeing – IASB (Rodawell, 2019), developed by the University of Bucharest within the Rodawell project, and The Scale of Happiness Strategies for Children Used by Preschool Teachers – HSCPT (Sapsağlam et al., 2019). The online questionnaire was answered by 149 teachers for preschool education, especially from Timiş county. The results of the study (analyzed by The Independent-Samples T-Test, ANOVA One-Way, Spearman Correlation) highlight the existence of a positive association between perceptions and practices of educators in ensuring wellbeing, but also the existence of statistically significant differences between teachers’ practices in urban vs. rural environment, in the sense that, although they perceive children’s well-being similarly, rural teachers tend to use happiness strategies more often. At the same time, teachers’ perceptions differ depending on how the teaching activity is carried out in a pandemic context: the self-perceived role and the practices dedicated to ensuring well-being are more intense in hybrid and online format than the traditional one.

Keywords: Children’s well-being, Covid-19 pandemic, happiness strategies for children, preschool education, teachers’ perception

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Abstract: Because of the threat of the Coronavirus pandemic, schooling in Romania moved in distance regime in March 2020. During the next school year, each municipality chose the scenario for each school – face-to-face schooling or online learning – according to the local number of infections. However, online education encountered many difficulties in terms of material and human resources, especially in rural areas. In this study we aim to explore rural teachers’ perspectives about online schooling in Romania, during the Coronavirus pandemic. The data – obtained through a series of interviews and questionnaires – were collected from rural teachers working in various parts of the country.

In this study we propose to follow two main directions. First, we explore teachers’ experiences concerning the access to material resources in the school and at home. The absence of proper digital equipment and the quality of the internet connection are two of the main concerns for policy makers. Second, the study focuses on educational practice, discussing teachers’ accounts and experiences during two periods: March-June 2020 and the next school year, until present. We intend to explore rural teachers’ experiences in depth, as rural was always disadvantaged in Romania’s education system. This study is a starting point for further research of rural teachers’ preparedness in Romania and the implications of online learning on rural teachers and students.

Keywords: Online schooling, pandemic, rural, teachers’ experiences

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Abstract: The measures put in place to stop the spread of the Covid-19 have had a major impact on the organization of educational processes. School teachers have been faced with overnight digitalization of their activities without always receiving adequate support with this transition. The present paper reports on a participatory action research project in the form of a tutoring program that sought to understand and respond to these challenges. The project took the form of an open learning initiative addressed to teachers in April – June 2020, followed by a data collection and analysis phase. 37 teachers in four Romanian counties benefited from personalized forms of support offered by 20 student- tutors enrolled in the Educational Sciences Department at the West University in Timişoara. All project activities were carried out at a distance, in the vast majority of cases, online. In analyzing the data produced by the project (tutor reflection log entries, qualitative interviews and focus groups with teachers and tutor students) we seek to answer the following research question: How did a collaborative learning process emerge as part of a participatory action research project carried out during the onset of online teaching and learning practices?. The collaborative learning responded to teachers’ immediate and individual needs regarding the development of digital competences, as well as related to pedagogical and emotional support. Through the tutoring program, the expected roles of the educational actors were reversed: since the undergraduate students were not primarily beneficiaries of the educational processes, but took on an active part as facilitators of the teachers’ learning processes. Thus, a competence transfer from the university to the pre- university environment took place, at a faster rate than it would usually happen.

Keywords: Action-research, collaborative learning, digital competences, remote teaching in times of crisis

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Abstract: Student engagement is consequential for learning outcomes and is a key factor in student achievement. While its impact on educational outcomes in a face-to-face setting has made the focus of extensive research, less is known about its effects in the context of online learning, especially in Eastern Europe. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced all higher education institutions in Romania to switch to emergency online learning, with little or no previous experience in this form of instruction. This makes it a highly relevant and interesting case for the study of online learning effects on student outcomes. This article therefore investigates disparities in student engagement in the context of emergency online learning in a sample of undergraduate Romanian students. The article focuses on active learning as a key element of student educational engagement, exploring differences in student background characteristics, such as socioeconomic status, employment status and time spent caring for dependents, as well as studying conditions. Results indicate that the sudden change to emergency online learning has created new disparities in perceived levels of student engagement based on the lack of private, interruption-free spaces and a reliable internet connection, as well as time spent doing housework.

Keywords: Disparities, higher education, online education, student engagement

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Abstract: In the current national and international context, the education “hosted” in the online environment, which was once only a secondary solution, rarely used, has become the main way to ensure the continuity of the learning process. In this study, we aimed to capture the reactions of those who were the first to experiment an exclusively online, learning process, i.e. the reactions of the students. We used an investigative approach focused on the following objectives: identifying the perception of students/learners regarding the efficiency and quality of the educational process carried out in the online environment and highlighting ways to improve teaching activities conducted online. The main research method was the questionnaire-based survey. The questionnaire was administered online, integrating a series of items that addressed issues such as: students’ participation in educational activities, problems encountered, solutions to optimize the didactic process conducted in the online environment. Following the investigative approach, the main conclusions are the following: most of the surveyed students consider that the educational activities carried out in the online environment do not have the same efficiency as the direct activities (face to face); the main problems highlighted by the respondents were: overload, fatigue, demotivation, learning difficulties in understanding and operating with certain content, poor Internet connection, but also the lack of necessary indications to facilitate learning. We appreciate that the results of our study may be relevant for practitioners in the field of education, especially for those from higher education, but also for all those interested in digital education.  

Keywords: Digital competences, digital resources, online education, quality of university education, reflective practice

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Abstract: The challenges of online learning, created by the COVID-19 pandemic, have prompted a significant demand in researching this particular field of education. The adaptation to online learning, unfortunately, was applied in a context of unprepared teachers and students. This situation was caused by the new format of education, which differs significantly from massive open online courses, traditional learning or distance learning. The new hybrid model of education, prompted by the pandemic, has certainly become a trend that could incite future transformations in terms of teaching and learning. To better understand the specifics of this type of online learning, we asked the students (N = 705) from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest to express their opinion on their learning experience during the pandemic. The survey included the problems and expectations of the interviewees, and the research results were analyzed in the article. Our goal was to improve educational practices in the virtual educational environment. In this regard, we analyzed the important components of online learning, focusing on the following ones: the quality of the educational resources used to support the content, the improvement of the quality of the teacher- student relationships, time management, online assessment. The article also provides solutions for effective online learning, from the students’ perspective.

Keywords: Digital learning, online education, students’ perspective, teacher training

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Abstract: Online education is of various types and can be defined in numerous ways. Over the last few decades, online education has gained popularity, but has also been regarded with reluctance and scepticism as to the benefits it may have. The COVID- 19 pandemic was declared on the 11th of March 2020 and forced many countries to impose lockdowns and restrictions. As such, several activities were shut down, schools and universities were closed, thus, the need for rapid solutions arose. Since the online environment was there for the taking, physical classrooms were virtualised overnight, homes became learning and teaching spaces for students and educators, whereas the latter were faced with adapting content and transferring it in order to suit its delivery via online platforms. With little to no experience in online education, educators sought to find ways to continue their work bringing emergency modifications. Although digital transformation is not a new phenomenon, the transit from physical classrooms to online ones has been and still is a rough learning curve for many educators. Apart from optimising digital technology to apply to education, another difficult task of any online teacher is to keep students motivated and involved, which can be achieved in different ways. This article discusses methods of content and course delivery, the technology-induced problems that online teaching implies, assessment, ethical behaviour in a virtual setting, and the risk of cheating in online examinations, as well as ways of preventing cheating. Nevertheless, the abrupt onlinification of education may lie at the basis of future exploration and research.

Keywords: Assessment, content delivery, online learning, online teaching, student motivation

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Abstract: The technology use is flourishing in a growing set of educational contexts. Music education is no exception, seeing more and more learning practices be actively incorporated into educational frameworks. Our study seeks to investigate the online teaching and learning experiences of music university students who are participating in the pre-service teacher education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The participants of the present study are pre-service music students (n=22) enrolled in the teaching education programme in their 2nd or 3rd year at the university. By making use of a phenomenological qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews via ZOOM videotelephony software in January and February 2021. The key findings indicate a neither overtly positive or negative teaching and learning experience, even if the students had to navigate an avalanche of offline learning technology requirements both as students and teachers in a limited amount of time. The results of the study indicate that teacher training programmes should consider the move to virtual teaching and learning as an opportunity for change and to go beyond the emergency online practices and develop quality online educational activities.

Keywords: Covid-19, music education, pre-service teacher, teacher education, technology

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Abstract: In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the educational process has undergone significant transformations. Teachers, students, lessons, additional materials, homework, school guidance and discussions displayed new ways of expression, while applications commonly used for communication became working tools. Specialists in the field of education were encouraged to identify the most appropriate scenarios for the specifics of the school and the local context, so that the training and development of students’ competences be continuous, both in accordance with specific school curricula and new ways of organizing the teaching process. The debates about the digitization of education are accentuated by the major structural problems that the Romanian educational system is facing. In many rural schools, especially, the digitization remains a difficult goal to achieve. As the Ministry of Education has recently acknowledged, more than 250,000 students today do not have access to the infrastructure needed for education during the pandemic. Without proactive measures to balance the situation, education during the pandemic is currently discriminating, instead of being an integrative solution. The present study offers a model for conducting online education in a rural school: Secondary School no. 1 in Valu lui Traian, Constanþa County. Through this, we want to show the benefits of online education, but also its limits determined, especially, by the absence of collaboration and direct communication between teachers, students and parents in a space suitable for the educational process: namely the school and the class of students.

Keywords: Digitization, online education, pandemic, teaching activity

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Abstract: The paper highlights the results of PISA in reading literacy as well as the new computer-based released items published by OECD. Screen reading allows – and challenges for – rapid access towards several texts. In order to get informed and mainly for quality learning it is crucial to identify the source and its quality. In this context, the research question that our study refers to is the following: How do we prepare students to deepen the multiple text and to identify credible information? Our investigation targets a group of 95 students in grades 8 and 9 from four schools located in two big cities, one of them being a technological high school. The students went through one of the reading units in the anthology published by PISA OECD (Galapagos) which requires reading several texts, from different sources, viewed on the screen, in order to answer comprehension questions which focus processes of different complexity. Depending on the difficulties of the students and the problems they have with various issues related to the credibility of the sources, the article indicates solutions to improve learning by the innovation of reading practices in the class. The conclusion of the article shows the need for change in the selection and approach of information texts in order to prepare young people for in-depth reading in a world where learning and documentation take place mainly through the screen.

Keywords: Multiple text, PISA, reading for comprehension, sources credibility

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Abstract: This article is the general presentation of the project “English for the Community” set up by British Council Romania in partnership with the Romanian American Foundation (RAF), and which has as target group about 150 teachers of English as a foreign language in nine counties in Romania, who teach in schools located in villages or small towns. The first stage of the project took place from 2018 to 2020, and a second stage began in March 2021, and it will last until 2023. There are presented details related to the general aim of the project: to provide professional development for the Romanian EFL teachers who teach in lower and upper secondary schools located in areas which have potential to develop ecotourism. The article includes information about the way in which the project has been organized from the beginning up to now, the areas where it takes place, how it has been developing, which steps have been taken, and the impact it has not only on the members of the target group, but on the whole community as well. A special focus is on Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs), an innovative method for Romania, in the benefit of the teachers directly involved in the project. All these are further illustrated by testimonials provided by the members of the target group, the trainers, and the direct and indirect beneficiaries of the program.

Keywords: Ecotourism, local community, professional development, teacher activity groups (tags), teachers of English

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Abstract: According to the UNESCO reports, the health crisis caused by SARS-COV-2 affected more than 1.7 billion students from around 150 countries worldwide this past spring. Teachers at all levels of education were forced to switch to digital resources and tools and were required to transition and adapt promptly to remote teaching. This transition took place also within the Teacher Training Department at the West University of Timisoara. Teachers together with their students had to find pragmatic, technology-based, creative solutions that would allow them to carry out the remote teaching, learning and assessment activities at a level that would ensure the development of the desired skills and the achievement of the desired learning outcomes.

This paper explores the way in which the teaching, learning, and assessment activities have been adapted for emergency remote teaching at the West University of Timisoara. We focus on the first and second levels of the Teacher Training Program offered to future science teachers at this university.

We present the adopted strategies, communication tools, and the applications used to deliver the proposed teaching, learning, and assessment activities. Furthermore, we identify the most common technological and pedagogical difficulties encountered throughout these activities, as well as the future science teachers’ concerns regarding the transition to remote teaching. 

We conclude that the health crisis has had both negative and positive influences on the training process of future science teachers at the West University of Timisoara, providing a unique opportunity that allowed both teachers and their students to jointly discover effective remote teaching-learning-assessment approaches.

Keywords: Challenges and opportunities, emergency remote teaching, preservice science teachers

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Abstract:
The present study deals with the use of a weblog in the further training of teachers at Romanian public schools with German teaching. The question whether an educational blog meets the needs, wishes and expectations of the target group was

investigated using the IMMS questionnaire based on the ARCS model by Keller (1983, 1987). The evaluation results show a positive impact of the blog on the study participants and point out the importance of motivational factors in designing online learning content. This referred to the multimedia narrative presentation and the clear structuring of current psycho-educational topics with practical relevance for the target group.

Keywords: ARCS model, blog, further training, motivational design, online learning

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Abstract: In this article I analyse the discursive context of two classes of students bringing into discussion the concepts of educational knowledge and the organization of teaching-learning activities. Although there is much research that provides nuanced insights into how teachers and students are involved in the social construction of classroom discourses about knowledge, in Romanian literature the issue of classroom interactions has been approached from the perspective of teachers ‘ and students’ perceptions, while school knowledge has been studied only incidentally Therefore, I present a qualitative study, based on a critical discourse analysis that highlights how different versions of knowledge are socially constructed in the discursive space of the classroom, in order to point out ways in which the classroom and school can become spaces in which interactions no longer revolve around knowledge defined only by reference to disciplinary content. Bimonthly observations and audio-video recordings were made in the 2017-2018 school year during language and communication activities, in two classes, from two different schools. The results show that classroom interactions and participation structures differ depending on the purpose of the activities, and student participation is not only based on generally accepted communication rules, but varies depending on the implicit or explicit purpose of the activities.

Keywords: Classroom discourse analysis, curriculum, interactions, school knowledge, students participation

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Abstract:
This study aims to explore the online communication habits and practices of 12-14-year-old 50 students from an urban school. Measuring their answers on the Digital Native Scale of Timothy Teo (DNAS), this study refers to the suggested four-factor by the author, creating a framework for the analysis of their digital native profile: grown up with technology, comfortable with multi-tasking, reliant on graphics for communication, and thrive on instant rewards (Teo, 2013). The results of the study enhance the understanding of digital natives. As we expected, this research shows a high degree of comfort in online communication in their differentiated profile. It is relevant the issue of age when exemplifying digital natives’ skills. Also, it is estimated that there are similar behaviours, related with the debut age of technology use (4-5 years old). The most common actions in virtual space are surfing on the Internet, photographing, communicating, downloading, disseminating, adding to comments on colleagues’ posts. According to this study, the online communication practices of these 12-14-year-old students include in terms of content various symbols, instant bonuses, and feedback elements. From an educational point of view, these can be included in a structured manner of learning. The article proposes, in this view, several ways to integrate usual students’ communication practices in learning activities with the support of digital resources (virtual bulletin boards, online presentations, digital stories so on). The results indicate that students showed the digital native characteristics, that can be successfully used in school.

Keywords: Digital literacy, digital native, online communication, technology

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Abstract: The current context determined by the social distancing has changed the way of carrying out the learning activities which are taught and evaluated at school; during this situation the Romanian and also the global education system faced an unprecedented challenge, namely the transfer of the whole school activity to the online environment. Given this situation, we analyzed data from national and international studies in order to have an overview of the characteristics of digitization and existing digital skills, especially in the Romanian education system. This analysis allowed the understanding of the structure on which this sudden digitization developed and the premises of public policies on which the process was built. The analysis was combined with the presentation of projects carried out during this period, in order to prepare the various school actors in the field of digital education in the form of recommendations to support the empowerment processes in training digital skills of teachers and students in the current context and on a long-term.

Keywords: Digital competences, education and social distance, online school, projects, public policies

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Abstract:
According to Eurostat data, the young NEETs (Not in education, employment or training) rate in Romania is one of the highest in Europe. It ranks 4th in Europe in 2019 (after Italy, Greece, and Slovenia) (Eurostat, 2020), with 11.5% for men, and 27.8% for women (while the EU average is 12.2% for men, and 20.8% for women). In addition, Romania has one of the highest rates of ’other NEETs’, not registered by public employment agencies: only 4.8% were registered in 2018, and received the NEETs benefits (CE, 2018). Recent data show the low performance of Romania in monitoring the school to work transition of youths, in accessing the European funds to support young people entering the labor market, or for offering the Youth Guarantee (Beadle et al., 2020). Even so, Romania, like all other member states, cannot afford to lose the youth capital, while it faces sharp population ageing and outgoing migration.

During the last decade, we saw emerging a strong know-how for understanding and addressing the NEETs issue. Reflecting on the research data from different reports and studies, from various findings in large scale H2020 research and innovation projects on NEETs, the paper elaborates on proactive or remedial integrative solutions for improving the situation of young NEETs in Romania, building up on the good practices in atracting NEETs, at national and European level, while using the theoretical framework of the governmentality studies applied to the youth field (Besley, 2010).

Keywords: Educational policies, educational practices, NEETs, outreach, youth policies, youth ’at risk’

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Abstract:
Under the pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic, the school activities have moved from the classroom to the online environment. Considering these circumstances, the teachers have made serious efforts to adapt their teaching and assessment methods to the possibilities offered by the virtual space. They have used various educational platforms and digital resources, trying to be in contact with their students, learning “on the go” to make the most efficient use of them in the teaching process.

Being an important topic in education in the current period, we present, in this paper, the results of the online testing for Physics and Chemistry of some middleschool students, realized through the Kahoot educational platform. These results support the opinion that face-to-face school or even blended-learning are, in general, more efficient than online school.

Some advantages of the online assessment were also highlighted, most of them attitudinal; for example, most of the students were excited about the opportunity to participate in this assessment, and some of them returned to the platform and solved some tests twice, so using them for learning. The results of the online assessment have also underlined some components of the school curricula that are harder to be transformed into student’s acquisitions, and for which more time and explanations are needed.

Keywords: Competence-based education, middle school education, online assessment

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Abstract:
The present study focuses on the role, importance and complementarity of science and technology extracurricular activities. The research is based on the analysis of the students’ views on how the science activities should be conducted in Children’s Palaces and Clubs, namely which topics should be explored and how the activities should be organised. An online questionnaire was designed for data collection (N=3945). The research design included opinions from specialized literature. Thus, the success of the extracurricular activities increases in direct proportion to the approached topics, didactic strategies and the community involvement – parents, schools – with relevant experiences in carrying out the activities (Albulescu & Catalano, 2019). And as far as the organization of this type of activity is concerned, the following should be considered: the pupils’ age level characteristics, their psychological needs, and the specific inclinations and interests (Cucoº, 2017). The science and technology activities include the curricular areas involved in a coherent learning paradigm, which is based on practical applications that are used in everyday life (Albulescu, 2014). The current legislation also supports an innovative way of carrying out extracurricular activities.

The findings show us the important role of the technical and scientific extracurricular activities, which along formal education help to improve learners’ results, furthermore, they are complementary for the development of competences in science and technology. This study helps in the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the extracurricular activities, and the results tell us about the needs of the pupils and to what extent the use of the pupil-centered educational strategy will help to achieve better results in education and reduce school dropout. This is a confirmation that complex educational objectives require the combination of curricular with extra-curricular activities (Bocoş & Jucan, 2017).

Keywords: Children’s palaces and clubs, competences, extracurricular activities, interdisciplinarity, science and technology

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Abstract: The paper presents the results from a study involving 70 students in grade 9, from two technological highschools situated in a large town in Romania. In September 2020, the 15 year olds read and answered the questions from one of the released units after PISA 2018, and then reflected on their reading experience in a self assessment sheet. The results show good results in working with information from one article and poor ability in corroborating conflicting information from two sources that focus on a same topic. The students display little familiarity with biased information even if the majority enjoyed the reading challenge of two divergent points of view. The results are consistent with the PISA reading trend for Romania. In order to improve reading comprehension, teachers should renovate the reading practices by challenging students with work on multiple texts and tasks that focus on evaluation and reflection and on the sources credibility.

Keywords: Biased information, PISA, reading comprehension, reading practices

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Abstract: The current analysis starts from a teacher’s experience with cognitively disabled students. In such cases, the management of the teaching-learning process is challenged by the limitations of various activities (generalizations, abstraction or inductive-deductive operations). In these situations, the teacher has to select effective activities for developing the competences in the curriculum. In this context, success could only be obtained if proper attention is given to the individual learning needs of each student. At the same time, an emotional relationship that is based on trust needs to be developed between the teacher and the students and their parents. The communication competence is a priority since it is absolutely necessary for the social integration of students with disabilities as it provides the means to express feelings, needs and views. The challenge to plan adequate

teaching strategies is correlated with understanding the child’s real issue and its timely solution: the more serious the cognitive disability, the later speech develops and remains at a low level in the adult life, generating difficulties in expressing thought and emotion. If the youngsters experience a false disability triggered by the lack of educational stimulation or if they have an authentic cognitive disability, these students need sustained support. The examples of interventions we present in this paper come from our attempts to best value the intellectual potential of these children and, consequently, to find solutions for a differentiated adaptation to each child’s needs by planning competence-oriented creative teaching activities.

Keywords: Adapted teaching strategies, communication competences, (false) cognitive disability

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Abstract:
Teaching using a synchronous and an asynchronous online environment has become increasingly widespread across the education sector and now this process has been accelerated, temporarily or permanently, due to the Corona Virus (SARSCoV-2) pandemic. The mass closure of nurseries, kindergartens, schools, high schools and universities has prompted the rethinking of the teaching and learning processes. Educators were forced to shift to an online mode of teaching overnight even if they did not properly feel capable to do so. Our study seeks to explore the experiences on teaching and learning online encountered by preschool teachers during their work in the context of COVID-19 physical school closure and explore the meaning of such practices in shaping in-service kindergarten educators’ perceptions of digital media and online delivery. The participants of the present study are kindergarten teachers (n=21) with a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years of teaching experience. They work with the same age group (three- to sixyear- old children), from 9 public inner-city kindergartens. By making use of a phenomenological qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews via ZOOM videotelephony software program in June 2020. After the data was recorded and transcribed, three main themes were distinguished. The key findings indicate that all the teachers experienced challenging moments while delivering online, but they were also able to identify advantages in such a stressful context. The results of the study show the need of a modernized approach to pedagogies on educational technologies and media that is driven by research informed analysis.

Keywords: Digital media, ICT, in-service kindergarten teachers, perceptions, young children

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Abstract:
IDELA (International Development and Early Assessment of Learning) is an assessment tool developed following a three-year activity by Ivelina Borisova, from Save the Children, with the help of Vidur Chopra. It allows to evaluate the development and early education of young children (3.5-6.5 years).

The assessment tool resulted after three years of verifying and modifying the instrument, in several locations in 12 different countries. The tool includes 24 items, is easy to translate and manage and presents levels of high fidelity and validity.

When applied in different countries, the instrument has been adapted taking into account the feasibility of administration, the relevance of the instrument and policy at country level, as well as its applicability at international level.

In Romania, the application of the instrument was made face to face during the initial evaluation of 300 children aged 3 -6 at the Kindergarten “Căsuţa Bucuriei” no. 11 from Braşov. The innovative dimension of the application was the final assessment: it was conducted in a “virtual classroom” with 230 children, but adapted to the pandemic context in which the learning took place, either in a hybrid scenario or exclusively online.

Keywords: Early education, face to face class, innovative assessment, international assessment tool, virtual class

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Abstract: In this article, I analyze the situation of vulnerable young people in Romania, with a focus on NEETs, one of the categories at risk of social exclusion in the European countries. The main objective is to understand the vulnerabilities of young people in relation to the outcomes of the education system, labor market, and the efficiency of the social protection system. The first part of the paper aims to describe the social inequalities to which young people in Romania are exposed. The second part proposes a descriptive analysis of the NEETs profile in Romania and the European Union. I use quantitative data provided by Eurostat to outline the diversity of NEETs in Romania, complemented with secondary qualitative data collected from NEETs and social workers from a research report published by the Institute of Educational Science in Romania (ISE, 2015). The third part focuses on the problems that young people face when leaving the education system, as well as on labor market inequalities and issues related to the efficiency of social transfers in Romania. The last part aims to analyzing Youth programs in the context of austerity after the global economic crisis of 2008.

Keywords: NEETs, social inequalities, vulnerability, youth programs

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Abstract: The association of three concepts – quality, equity, inclusion –represents the transversal axis of international and European educational policy documents nowadays, hence being an important aim for all education systems. According to the UNESCO strategic documents on education for the period up to 2030 and to the development objectives for this millennium, the creation of inclusive educational systems stands as the surest path to social inclusion. Inclusion is an aspect consistent with value and with the principle of equity, aimed at ensuring the right of all children to develop and reach their full potential. The European Commission defines equity as the extent to which individuals can benefit from and access educational opportunities, educational interventions and outcomes, along with those of professional education and training.
At an international level, the early school leaving indicator assesses the extent to which a given system manages to fight inequalities in terms of exclusion. Accordingto the Eurostat 2019 data on Romania, at a level of 16.4% in 2018, the early school leaving and training rate (for individuals aged 18 to 24) remains one of the highest rates in the EU. The percentage is significantly higher compared to the EU average and to the national target for 2020. The study argues that in spite of the policies for improving the quality of education over the past decade, most of the measures are focused on approaching the social barriers regarding the access to education, and less on increasing the quality of the education provided in schools (education as a process).

Keywords: early school leaving, educational policies, equity, inclusive education, quality education

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Abstract: In Romania, highly educated people are more likely to acquire a higher occupational status than their parents as they progress in their career (Jecan & Pop, 2012) and higher incomes with every completed school year (Varly et al., 2014). On the other hand, the gap between the students’ results mirrors the socio-economic inequalities among them (Botezat, 2019; Feşnic, 2019; Ivan, 2019; Tufiş, 2008; Ţoc, 2016). In order to gain an in depth understanding of how inequality is perpetuating, the case study this article is based on aims to explore, describe and discuss the teachers’ representations on students with low socio-economic status and the students’ representations on learning. The analysis uses data collected in February 2018 through interviews with teachers, the class’s tutor, students and nonparticipatory observation. The case study reveals that in the teachers’ discourse, the students are presented as lacking interest and responsibility for studying. Also, the students describe themselves as ’lazy’ because they do not do their homework or answer the teachers’ questions. A closer look at these ideas suggests that the students are identifying with their teachers’ deficit narrative; also they disregard their need for support in learning and think of learning as an individual act. In the classroom the students display resistance, however their narrative about learning does not question the pedagogic authority and also reveals their self-disciplinatory efforts.

Keywords: learners’ identity, learning, social class, socio-economic status, support

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Abstract: The article presents the conclusions of a research carried out in 2019 in Iaşi County, aiming to describe and measure the main school social resources, based on the teachers’ opinion. The research aimed to identify the strengths and weaknesses in order to perform a diagnosis of the schools considered. The questionnaire-based research was carried out in three urban schools and three rural schools located in socially and economically disadvantaged areas. A total of 5237 students attend the six schools involved, with 345 teachers employed, of whom 156 provided answers to the questionnaire. The instrument was built by operationalizing the concept of Child Friendly School, promoted by UNICEF, using five indicators: effectiveness, inclusion, children’s trust in school, safety, relationship with parents. The highest score was achieved by the “children’s trust in school” indicator, followed by “effectiveness”; in the second category, there are “inclusion” and “relationship with parents”, while “safety” scored the lowest. Overall, it turned out that the respondent teachers have a good opinion regarding the confidence that the children have in school and in the accomplishment of their mission, but critically evaluate the schools’ relationship with the parents and safety in schools.

Keywords: Child Friendly School, effectiveness, inclusion, school social resources

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Abstract: Roma people have been victims of oppression in Romania for many centuries, “in the long course of the Gypsy experience in Eastern Europe, none has been worse than that in Romania” (Crowe & Kolsti, 1991, p. 61). Nowadays, education can play a key role in assuring that the Roma are treated with respect and dignity, in assuring that they receive recognition, while dismantling the stigma.
This paper is the outcome of a study of the representation of minority students in Romanian textbooks. While many educational reforms were targeted to increase Roma students’ attendance and results – schools with Roma language teaching, textbooks in Roma native language, affirmative actions for high school and university students of Roma origin – it’s an open question as to whether the Romanian textbooks are sufficiently inclusive and effective in combating racial discrimination and stereotyping.
By employing a social justice perspective, I argue that textbooks systematically discriminate against Roma children by under- and misrepresenting the Roma experiences, traditions and history. My argument unfolds through two main directions from the data analysis. Firstly, we examine primary and middle school (2nd grade – 6th grade) textbooks in search for representations of Roma realities and culture. Secondly, we explore the presentation or absence of historical facts regarding Roma. This exploratory study hopes to become a starting point for a discussion about applied curriculum in Romania, specifically the textbook component. Limited comparative data was collected and stark differences can be inferred between the attention devoted to Hungarian culture and realities versus the Roma, but further research is warranted.

Keywords: minorities, oppression, Roma, social justice

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Abstract: The first years of teaching experience are crucial for beginning teachers as they face numerous challenges. Moreover, the way novices succeed in handling challenges during their first year of field work is a key determinant of their decision to continue working in the system or not. In this respect, a notable theme within the literature considers the experiences and challenges of beginning professionals, as more and more researchers talk about the “praxis shock”, “reality shock” or “transition shock” to better depict the process through which new teachers pass in order to get accustomed to their new professional context. Our study seeks to investigate the challenging experiences that novice kindergarten teachers encounter, as well as the strategies they adopt in order to overcome them. The participants of the present study are beginning teachers (n=16) with a maximum of three years’ teaching experience from six public inner-city kindergartens. By making use of a phenomenological qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews, focus groups and by filling in logbooks. After the data was recorded and transcribed, five main themes were identified. The key findings indicate that a new professional context can often lead to uncertainty and discomfort. Moreover, beginning teachers’ “challenging moments” descriptions generally emphasize their struggles concerning their own professional development, the school organizational aspects, as well as their relationships with students, colleagues, principals and parents. The results of the study show the need to restructure the collaboration process between novices and kindergartens, in order to improve collaborative relationships and provide the appropriate context for the professional development of kindergarten teachers at the beginning of their careers.

Keywords: challenging experiences, novice teachers, qualitative study, teacher education

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Abstract: Social distancing measures imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have led almost overnight to the digitalization of educational activities in Romania and elsewhere. This transformation has rendered visible the need to develop adequate and responsible online behavior to an unprecedented extent and has led us to ask: “Which are the digital citizenship competencies of the future professionals in the field of education?”. To answer this question, we administered an online questionnaire focusing on identifying digital citizenship competences of undergraduate students in educational sciences in Romania. Digital citizenship competences were structured along three dimensions: respect, education and protection. Our study has shown that respondents had well developed digital citizenship competences in terms of knowledge and attitudes and that there is a need to insist more on skills that translate attitudes and knowledge into action. Moreover, the study has shown that social distancing measures and the associated rapid digitalization of educational activities can be interpreted both as stress factors, as well as an opportunity to develop digital citizenship competences through experiential learning.

Keywords: digital citizenship, education during COVID-19 pandemic, pre-service teacher training

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Abstract: The new challenges faced by the future teachers make them assume a new role, that of reflective practitioner. Therefore, university programs should give future teachers the opportunity to engage in practical experiences that will stimulate their reflective skills and which can help create a strong and authentic teaching career. In this sense, a series of interventions, at a simulated level, were put into practice by the students in Pedagogy enrolled in year II at the University of Bucharest. After participating in the proposed activities, the students had to write a reflective essay. A series of focus-groups were organised in order to identify the students’ opinion towards the use of a reflective essay as a way of professional training. The results show that the reflective essay is a tool that plays a significant role in building better and more meaningful learning experiences and helps in providing evidence-based methodological decisions.

Keywords: pre-service teachers, portfolio, reflective practice, university

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Abstract: The socio-economical background of the family influences the school efficiency, but beside this, many other factors have outstanding effect on pupils’ results. Most of these factors can be found outside of the educational institutions. The studies which focus on the performance of schooling highlight the idea that extracurricular activities have enormous benefits on the school performance as well as on the overcoming of school failure and abandonment. Our research is focusing on the extracurricular and extraschool activities as well as their effect on the development of competencies. We would like to find out how the extracurricular/ extraschool activities influence the results of competence measurements. We created our background questionnaires, that analyse the effects of influencing factors, since there aren’t such questionnaires in the national assesments in Romania. Our study is based on the analysis of the KOV-ET-OM-2017 database (N = 1054), which contains the results of the competency assesment of the 4th grade students belonging of the Hungarian minority from Covasna county and information related to contextual factors from the background questionnaires. The outcome of the research highlights the fact that the extracurricular activities have beneficial effect on the development of the school competences. Among the activities organized by the schools, the camps and the activities supporting the prodigies seem to be the most effective.

Keywords: afterschool, extracurricular activities, extraschool activities, school performance

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Abstract: Building on the integrative model from the Social Cognitive Career Theory, the present study investigates in a longitudinal approach the association between students’ academic skills self-efficacy, college-going outcome expectations, and intention to drop out of their academic studies, as mediated by satisfaction with their chosen area of study. It also investigates whether vocational fit/congruence adds an increment to the aforementioned variables in explaining the intention to drop out of university. The sample included 167 freshmen students in various areas of study who filled in questionnaires of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and vocational fit in the first weeks at university. In the second semester, six months later, they filled in instruments that measure satisfaction with the chosen area of study and dropout intentions. The results showed that the best fit was that of a model in which satisfaction with the area of study is a full mediator of the relationship between self-efficacy and dropout intentions and between outcome expectations and dropout intentions. The Iachan and Zener-Schnuelle fit indices alone were a predictor of dropout intentions. However, its addition to the model does not bring an explanatory increment but rather leads to a poorer fit of the model. Implications are discussed.

Keywords: academic skills self-efficacy, college-going outcome expectations, Holland congruence index, Social Cognitive Career Theory, university dropout

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Abstract: Imposing and controlling learning actions which use the self-reflective emotions of shame and guilt of the school students, generate symptoms, behaviors and attitudes associated with anxiety (fear of evaluation, fraud – generated by fear of failure, fear of speaking in front of the classroom, fear of asking questions, etc.).
Anxiety disorders tend to start early in life and give rise to long-term negative consequences. A meta-analysis of the onset age for anxiety disorders shows that separation anxiety and specific phobia have an onset 10 to 11 years of age and indicates that elementary school years could be a significant risk phase for the development of the anxiety disorders.
The research was conducted between January 2018 and May 2019 in 10 urban and rural communities in Romania. 341 school children aged between 5 and 12 years old, from 20 Romanian educational institutions, participated together with their parents and teachers (23 respondents), using an omnibus questionnaire which measures the level of correlations between shame, guilt and clinical symptoms associated with anxiety in children.
One of the research objectives was to verify the extent to which anxiety is observable in the school and family environment. The results revealed a correlation between shame, guilt and anxiety. At the same time, it was found that there were no differences between school and family environment in terms of anxiety symptoms, and that – in general – parents and teachers could observe the behavioral and attitudinal characteristics that signal the presence of anxiety.

Keywords: anxiety, educational environment, guilt, shame

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