STUDIES
FEEDBACK: UNVEILING ITS IMPACT AND ENHANCING ITS EFFECTIVENESS IN EDUCATION | Réka KUTASI
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Abstract: The information provided to students regarding their performance or comprehension of a particular task or idea is referred to as feedback in the educational context. It can be expressed in various ways, including through written feedback, conversational exchanges, grades, or assessments. Feedback’s primary goal is to help students reach their learning objectives by pointing out their strengths and recommending areas for development. Additionally, feedback encourages active learning, which raises student engagement. Students are motivated to review their assignments and make corrections when they receive quick and constructive feedback. Thanks to this iterative approach, they can take an active role in their learning process, which results in greater comprehension and memory retention. In this paper, the researcher discussed how essential it is to integrate feedback into the educational process and reviewed prior research on using it to enhance students’ learning abilities. The present article aims to offer a systematic literature review based on the limited empirical research to identify the effects of feedback on students’ performance and development. This information shows that while feedback is one of the most important elements, the type and manner in which it is given can affect its success. The article also proposes to offer a model of feedback that defines the specific characteristics and conditions that make it effective. Furthermore, specific commonly disputed issues are addressed, including the timeliness and the results of positive and negative feedback on the practical development of the students’ competence/ competencies.
Keywords: educational context, feedback model, learning process, negative feedback, positive feedback
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YOUNG CHILDREN’S AGENCY IN NURSERIES: PREMISE FOR LEARNING FOR LIFE | Cătălina ULRICH HYGUM, Erik HYGUM
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Abstract: In the current landscape of restructuring early childhood education and care (ECEC) services for children under three years old in Romania, this article aims to delve into the concept of child agency. It emphasizes children’s learning for life as a complementary aspect to prevailing discourses that view ECEC solely as a foundation for lifelong learning. Through an exploratory study employing a case study approach within early childhood institutions (crèches), the article scrutinizes the agency of young children. It is immersed in interpreting the agentic child within Romania’s multifaceted national ECEC context, seeking to answer the question: How can the perspective of child agency contribute to the development of ECEC institutions and staff?
The authors’ understanding of agency draws inspiration from recent discussions on agential realism, marking an ontological shift within education and sociology (Barad, 2007). Agency, entwined within relationships, navigates between the child’s intentions, daily routines, structures, materiality (Spyrou, 2018), and interactions with staff and peers. Empirical data, presented as vignettes, offer glimpses into the child’s agency during play, meals, and other activities.
Insights into how children utilize their bodies, indoor and outdoor spaces, sounds, and materials possess the potential to guide further research in the realm of early childhood education. Additionally, these insights may inform professional development within the ECEC field.
Keywords: agency, early childhood education, nursery, sociology of childhood
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WHAT’S IN A-WORD? MAKING AN IMPACT BY INTEGRATING VIDEOS IN ONLINE ASSESSMENT | Anişoara POP
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Abstract: This paper is an empirical descriptive and at the same time exploratory case study of using Google Forms (GF) with integrated video listening as part of an online formative assessment (FA) in English for Medical Purposes (EMP), with a group of 74 first-year undergraduate students in medicine (N = 74), to engage students and facilitate constant autonomous learning. The online FA was based on a segment of the movie entitled A-word – standing for Autism – and it checked the students’ application of medical vocabulary, language functions, doctor-patient interviewing, and symptoms of autism. The online formative assessment was compared with a traditional onsite listening FA in terms of administration and results. The onsite FA had a similar degree of complexity and was conducted with the same group of students – a segment from One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a classic on life in a psychiatric institution, within the same scope of neuropsychiatric conditions. The impact of online FA on students was measured with Mentimeter (https://www.mentimeter.com/). The results of this case study demonstrate that the GF-based FA of listening in EMP is an enhanced version of the traditional one. In traditional FA feedback was general and approximate while overall statistics were not automatically generated. Reaching a more refined picture of the overall and individual student performance with question breakdown in onsite FA required additional time investment, and consequently, remedial teaching could not take place immediately. Online FA was low-anxiety, highly participative, and user-friendly. It offered students timely feedback on their learning and teachers a faithful, automatic picture of individual and group performance for further remedial strategies. Likewise, the impact and attitude to online FA measured by Mentimeter were positive and were associated with increased autonomy, online delivery, engagement through professionally relevant content, and focus on learning rather than testing and grading.
Keywords: formative assessment, Google Forms, impact assessment with Mentimeter, listening in English for Medical Purposes
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THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL-FAMILY PARTNERSHIP IN THE EMOTIONAL REGULATION OF STUDENTS TAKING THE BACCALAUREATE EXAMINATION | Rodica Gabriela ENACHE, Mihaela Mirela DIDOACĂ
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Abstract: School anxiety belongs to the category of social anxiety disorders and has broader consequences on emotional development. If a student’s academic self-concept does not align with their academic goals (such as success on an assessment), this can cause anxiety. Students may then try to use strategies to reduce the level of anxiety they feel. The ability to cope adequately with difficult academic assessment situations plays a major role in emotional regulation and increasing students’ psychological well-being. Our objectives for the study were to assess the level of test anxiety and level of worry of 12th-grade students, the level of communication between the school and the families of students taking the Baccalaureate Examination, to identify associations between students’ test anxiety and family involvement in students’ preparation and emotional regulation.
Keywords: school-family collaboration, teenagers, test anxiety
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THE ATTITUDE OF ROMANIAN SCHOOL PRINCIPALS TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION | Andra-Maria JURCA, Simona SAVA
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Abstract: Many countries face the challenge of inclusion to provide all children with an equitable education. Inclusive education involves a continuous process of meeting the needs of students by providing quality education for all. Research in the field of inclusive education showed the essential role the principal of a school has in developing educational practices and cultures favorable to school inclusion. Studies highlight that the attitude of school principals is related to the commitment of school teachers to implement inclusive education. In this direction, the aim of this paper was to investigate the attitudes of Romanian school principals towards inclusive education. The Multidimensional Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale – MATIES was translated and distributed online, between September-October 2022. It measured the teachers’ attitudes on three dimensions: affective, cognitive, and behavioral. 1040 teaching staff, of which 115 were school principals from the entire country offered valid answers to the questionnaire. The research design was quantitative, non-experimental, correlational, and comparative. The results show that principals are willing to implement inclusive education. They have a more open attitude towards inclusive education compared to teachers, and this is not predicted by seniority in teaching but by experience of working with students with special needs.
Keywords: attitude of school principals, inclusive education, teachers’ attitude
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATE ANXIETY, SOCIAL ANXIETY AND COGNITIVE BIASES IN STUDENTS: A MEDIATION MODEL | Alina C. CHIVU, Teodora VLAD
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Abstract: State anxiety, as well as social anxiety, are portrayed as common phenomena experienced by students. However, the mechanisms which lead to their development are not yet fully known. Student mental health has become a global public health issue, thus understanding its potential underlying factors is particularly relevant. As anxiety is closely connected to the way students interpret information, cognitive biases are thought to play a key role in the development and maintenance of both state and social anxiety. Therefore, the first objective of this study was to examine the relationships between cognitive biases of interpretation, state anxiety, and social anxiety. The second objective was to test a mediation model, more specifically, to test whether the relationship between state anxiety and social anxiety can be explained by cognitive biases of interpretation. 127 students (M = 21.8, SD = 3.15, 84.3% women) enrolled at the University of Bucharest completed two online scales measuring state and social anxiety, over two months, between January and February 2021. Additionally, they completed the Scrambled Sentences Test, a computerized task that assesses cognitive biases of interpretation. Results indicated a positive association between all variables, more precisely, a significant positive correlation between social anxiety and cognitive biases of interpretation (r = .512, p < .001), social anxiety and state anxiety (r = .482, p < .001), and a significant positive correlation between cognitive biases of interpretation and state anxiety (r = .348, p < .001). The mediation analysis indicated that cognitive biases partly explain the relationship between state anxiety and social anxiety. These preliminary findings have significant theoretical and practical significance regarding the importance of student mental health. Keywords: cognitive biases of interpretation, mediation model, social anxiety, state anxiety
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DOES THE ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT DEVELOP TEAMWORK EFFICIENCY AMONG STUDENTS? | Florentina Ionela LINCĂ, Florentina Lavinia MATEI
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Abstract: Teamwork skills are considered essential for all areas of a person’s life, so universities take them into account when designing their curricula. These skills are especially important if we are talking about humanities fields. However, little is known about how students’ factors can affect the process of developing teamwork skills. Consequently, our study proposes to fill this gap and to analyze the mastery of teamwork skills by higher education students, measured by the efficiency of working in a team, in relation to teamwork styles, but also with the number of courses whose content allows the development of these skills. One Hundred Ninety-Five female students participated in this study, with an average age of M = 31.5, a standard deviation of SD = 9.2. The participants filled out a questionnaire that measured the efficiency of teamwork and the styles of teamwork based on specialized literature. Also, the questionnaires were first applied in a pilot study in which 50 female students participated and the Cronbach’s internal consistency index was 0.8 for the first questionnaire and 0.77 for the second. The results showed that there are statistically significant correlations between teamwork efficiency, teamwork styles, and the number of courses in which the development of these skills is encouraged, p < 0.01. Moreover, we also noticed that the number of courses in which the development of these skills is encouraged has a mediating effect on the relationship between working styles in a team and the efficiency of working in a team, p < 0.01. These results can support teaching staff in higher education to adopt the most suitable educational methods for the development of teamwork skills, essential skills, especially for students in the humanities domains. Keywords: courses, students, teamwork efficiency, teamwork style
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RESHAPING TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONS IN THE DIGITISED SOCIETY | Mihaela VOINEA
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Abstract: This article highlights the need to redefine teacher-student relationships according to the generations of students’ characteristics (Generation Z, Generation Alpha). Each generation has a specific way of learning and interacting with peers or adults. The theoretical premises of the study are to be found in the recent work of psychologists, sociologists, and specialists in educational sciences on how social characteristics influence the life style of people belonging to that generation. The school with all its structure, content, and relationships cannot but be affected by the changes imposed by technology, globalisation, and social dynamism. This study used qualitative methods (interviews and observation of teachers’ classroom behaviour) carried out in the school year 2022-2023. We have taken a constructivist-interpretive approach in conducting the research. A number of 60 participants (20 teachers from primary, 20 secondary, and 20 from high school level) from Braşov were involved in the study. Five teachers from primary schools were observed in the classroom. The results revealed that there are still teachers who have a classical view of relationships with pupils but who are making efforts to understand, accept, and adapt to the generations of pupils. One of the conclusions of the research is that teachers need to restructure their conceptions of the teacher-student interaction to suit the way students in the society of the future will learn and, more importantly, live. In fact, this teacher-student relationship is based on the values of accepting the diversity of students, personalising learning, motivating, and empowering students while ensuring their well-being is the basis of quality education.
Keywords: digitalisation, teacher-student interaction, Z generation
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FEEDBACK IN FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: STRATEGIES TO OPTIMIZE STUDENT LEARNING | Valeria BOTEZATU
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Abstract: Formative assessment, as an integral part of the learning process, influences student progress. A key component of this process is feedback, the mechanism by which relevant and useful information is provided to students about their performance. Through feedback, students develop their self-assessment and self-reflection skills, take responsibility for their own training, and establish learning objectives. Formative assessment provides a continuous framework for guiding student progress, and feedback provides specific information aimed at improving learning outcomes. Feedback offers a more complete perspective on students’ capabilities and learning needs, allowing teachers to adjust instruction.
The objective of this study is to determine the theoretical pedagogical and psychological approaches of feedback in the formative assessment process and to present strategies that involve feedback (feed-up, feed-back, feed-forward) in order to improve student learning. To achieve this objective, theoretical methods of analysis and synthesis of the literature on formative assessment and feedback were applied. From a methodological point of view, the basic empirical method involved the application of a questionnaire addressed to students about their opinion on the feedback given and received during learning activities. The results obtained showed that relevant and individualized feedback is efficient from the students’ perspective in achieving learning objectives. The main conclusion of this study highlights the importance of the feedback system in the formative assessment process for the development of a learning culture based on continuous improvement and the active engagement of students in their own learning process.
Keywords: feedback, feed-forward, feed-up, formative assessment, learning
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EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF A PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING PROGRAM OFFERED TO AWARDED UNIVERSITY TEACHERS | Radu BALAN, Nadia PURTAN, Velibor MLADENOVICI, Marian D. ILIE
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Abstract: A didactic grant competition for academics is organized annually at the West University of Timişoara (WUT), offering a grant to the winners of a public student-centered activity project competition. The teaching grant winners later take part in a program to develop their pedagogical skills in student-centered teaching based on the WUT’s reflexive-collaborative (i.e., RCL) instructional model. Next, during one academic semester, grant winners must implement the RCL instructional model in one specific subject matter. Based on a quantitative quasi-experimental design, this study examined the impact of a pedagogical program offered to the beneficiaries of the 2020 grant competition at both teachers’ and student levels. At the teachers’ level, we measured their conceptions of teaching, teaching approaches, and psychological resources. At the students’ level, we investigated their evaluation of their teachers’ teaching behavior and their learning approaches. Analyses such as Two-way mixed ANOVA, Quade’s ANCOVA, and Mann-Whitney U were conducted to investigate the gathered data. Academics in the EG reported statistically significant improvements in their conceptions of promoting active learning. According to their students, teachers in the experimental group employed more student-centered assessment methods and teaching behaviors that encouraged active learning. Our results also showed that academics in the control group reported higher resilience levels at the end of the academic semester, and according to their students, their more traditional teaching approaches seemed more effective in stimulating their students’ understanding of fundamental concepts. The results could have been more significant regarding the students’ learning approaches. Because of the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, we encountered several obstacles in the impact assessment process (e.g., high values at the pretest, the impossibility of matching students’ answers). Although our findings have some limitations, the present article has noteworthy implications for stakeholders involved in in-service teacher training programs, in particular, conducted in higher education institutions. Practical implications of the findings for both academic developers and future research are discussed.
Keywords: academic development, academic teaching grant, impact evaluation, pedagogical training
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REVIEWS
TRAIAN VRĂSMAŞ, ECATERINA VRĂSMAŞ, ON THE ROAD TO INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN ROMÂNIA – THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE RENINCO NETWORK. Bucharest, Universitara Publishing House, 2021, 510 PAGINI, ISBN 978-606-28-1369-7 | Daniela IONESCU, Paul LUNGEANU
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STRENGTHENING THE SOCIO-EMOTIONAL COMPETENCES OF THE PRACTITIONERS IN THE FIELD OF COUNSELING AND CAREER GUIDANCE – ERASMUS+ PROJECT STRENGTh | Alina CRĂCIUNESCU
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