Abstract: Creative thinking, identifying new solutions, taking risks, the proactive attitude, initiative, self-esteem, social and innovative intentions to contribute to societal well-being are competencies listed down in the Learning Compass (OECD, 2019a). Such abilities can be connected with social entrepreneurial competence. Meaningful constructs for the social entrepreneurial competence are: risk taking, self-esteem, personal creativity (Scale of Konakli & Göğüş, 2013), as well as personal traits, social characteristics, and characteristics of social initiative (Scale of Capella-Peris et al., 2019), scales used also in this article.
The teachers, as role models for their students, have to demonstrate this competence in order to scaffold it effectively in their students’ minds. We aim to identify to what extent the students in educational sciences in Romania, who will become teachers, demonstrate abilities on this dimension during their BA initial teacher education. Thus, we investigated elements of social entrepreneurial competence in groups of students from Pedagogy, Pedagogy of Primary and Pre-school Education, and Special Needs Education. 509 respondents, students in the first and third year of the BA program, from nine public universities, answered the online questionnaire.
The results of the study highlight possible correlations between risk taking and elements of personal creativity, or personal traits, but it could not identify statistically significant differences between the 1st and 3rd year students regarding social entrepreneurial competence.
To identify to what extent the social entrepreneurial competence can be noticed at the level of the student teachers, represents a reference for possible curriculum revision of the academic offers.

Keywords: Education for social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurial competence of teachers, social entrepreneurship in education

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Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic brought about changes both at the socio-economic level and in our private life. The measures that were taken by governments worldwide have generated a model of action, subsequently customized by each nation. Although the implemented measures aimed at proactively reducing the risk of infection, their consequences were multiple. In this context, the education system was forced to rethink the way of carrying out teaching-learning-assessing activities. Our analysis looks into the feeling of emotional security experienced by students during the online courses.
In this context, we conducted a qualitative research, based on the use of the focus group method. The participants in the investigation were students belonging to the 11 departments with a technical profile within the “Gheorghe Asachi” University in Iaşi. We organized three focus groups per year of study – respectively years I, II and III. The aim was to understand the effects of online education on students in the pandemic context from the perspective of “the emotional security feeling”. The objectives focused on identifying the individual difficulties experienced by students and on analyzing the coping strategies they applied. The results highlighted feelings such as fear, anxiety, sadness, insecurity, that worsened with the distance from college and friends. Understanding how the pandemic has affected students is important for teachers in order to identify appropriate ways to come to their support later.

Keywords: Coping strategies, emotional security, online education

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Abstract: As a result of the closure of higher education institutions, students and teachers had to swiftly adapt to online teaching and learning. The need to design learning environments for students implies choices, adjustments and decisions in order to meet not only students’ expectations but also the conditions in which universities had to operate. Our study seeks to explore the innovative practices used by educators that allowed them to form engaging classrooms in a pre-service teacher education programme during the Covid-19 pandemic. The participants of the present study were educators (n=9) from the teacher training department. By making use of a qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews via ZOOM videotelephony software.
The key findings suggest that the digital instructional setting has been a distinctively challenging experience for university teachers. The sudden shift in institutional teaching activities and conditions reshaped pedagogical practices and challenged the academics to identify and creatively respond to the students’ needs with ingenuity and speed. Therefore, it is paramount that educators retain the advantages of working from home in ways that transform their practice.

Keywords: Covid-19, innovative practices, teacher education, technology

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Abstract: The article presents the conclusions of a research carried out in 2021, in Iaşi County, in order to identify the managerial steps used by disadvantaged school principals in order to ensure access to education for all children. The data collection strategy aimed at a mixed design (quantitative and qualitative) and took place in six disadvantaged schools in Iaşi County, three in urban areas and three in rural areas. Approximately 5,000 children study in these schools, from preschool to high school. 18 databases were analyzed on students’ school results, the remedial programs implemented and the digital technological resources used by schools to ensure equal access to education. The quantitative data were correlated with the qualitative data obtained from the six interviews conducted with school principals. The research findings illustrate that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated problems with access to education. Thus, a quarter of students studying in the six schools included in the research (1167 children out of a total of 4714) studied in the first semester of the 2020-2021 school year only through educational packages and did not benefit from online courses, interaction with colleagues and teachers for an entire semester. Educational projects have been initiated to reduce the negative effects, but the problem remains with lasting consequences.

Keywords: Access to education, educational crisis, managerial strategy

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Abstract: The theory of instructional design has progressively developed, marking the transition from a traditional prescriptive, normative meaning to a modern one, based on various approaches that are opposed to unique recipes and rigid specifications. The knowledge technology which is strictly applied, the rigorous control of the learning stages are no longer the center of attention today, but the way and level of involvement in building knowledge, collaborating through the use of the new information technologies. Technology shapes the way we teach, learn, evaluate, as well as the way we plan and design these activities. As technology does not make teaching better or worse, simpler or more complex, but entirely changes it, teachers are sometimes confused in choosing an adequate instructional planning. During the process of identifying the new tendencies in the field of didactic planning, we focused on the instructional design models that encourage teachers to be creative. We started from some of the explanatory models of technology-based instruction and, in the second part of the study, we designed a didactic activity. The design method is based on the Learning Designer tool, developed by a team led by D. Laurillard. This is a tool that supports the design process, whether learning is mixed or fully online. The tool is web-based and allows designing and sharing learning experiences, supporting the integration of technology in the instructional process.

Keywords: Design, learning, models, technology

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Abstract: School and family are considered to be basic pillars of education, the child moves, as the object and subject of education between them and the community. If these educational environments complement and support each other, then they will influence the efficient integration of the child in school activities and later in social life.
The education system is a space of social interaction, a space in which teachers interact on the one hand with students, and on the other hand establish cooperative relationships with students’ families and other stakeholders in the society. Through every relational contact with students or parents, teachers carry out activities of growth and development, leadership and direction. On class level, the communication relations, the management of the class activity, the socio-affective relations that are established between teachers and students determine the establishment of a psycho-social climate that can favor or disfavor the optimization of the teaching process.
The family-school relationship is important for the student’s school success. Lately, there has been a more consistent involvement of parents in the children’s school activity and a multiplication of personal interactions between school representatives and family members.
This article explores the importance of the relationships between teachers and students, as well as the relationships between school and students’ families due to their role in streamlining learning and developing students’ personalities. The study conducted in a primary school outlines the importance of relational strategies in the school space.

Keywords: Education, family, relationship strategy, school, student

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Abstract: Educational policy is, in a broad sense, the process of driving change and/or introducing innovations into the education system (Haddad & Demsky, 1995; Haheu-Munteanu, 2019). In the work of government, the ministries in charge usually aim to manage this process, starting from the assumed political programs. These imply strategic objectives, action directions or implementation strategies. Sometimes, however, the various crises affecting social systems, and therefore also the education system, require the implementation of contextual solutions, decisions taken under conditions of uncertainty. Given the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to implement measures that meet the need to protect the health of students and teachers, we aim, through this study, to capture the range of attitudes and perceptions related to the policies implemented, as well as the various changes in the professional training of teachers, training “forced” by the need to use technology in online teaching. By means of a sociological survey based on an online questionnaire to Romanian pre-university teachers, we aim to inventory teachers’ reports on some aspects related to the pandemic context: the beginning of the pandemic and the frustration associated with this moment, the pandemic and the development of different digital skills, but also future projections about the desirability of using different tools and digital skills developed during the pandemic in “post-pandemic” teaching activity.

Keywords: Attitudes, Covid-19 pandemic, pre-university education, Romania

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Abstract: Teaching is a social activity with a formative impact on learners, an activity in which communication plays a pivotal role. To aid the delivery of the information, a teacher can rely on both verbal and non-verbal elements. These are useful tools to provide feedback to the students and some can be used in a virtual teaching and learning environment. While distance education may have various limits in ensuring effective communication between the learners and their instructor, there are ways of combating the lack of elements that can lead to ineffective communication. Our mixed methodbased literature review will try to identify the ways in which successful and constructive communication can be established between the learners and the teachers.

Keywords: Effective communication, interaction, literature review, non-verbal communication, verbal communication

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