scholarly journals The Impact of Specific Social Factors on Changes in Education in Serbia

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Ana Pešikan ◽  
Ivan Ivić

The political and economic changes that followed the adoption of the Strategy for the Development of Education in Serbia 2020 essentially betrayed the basic ideas and intentions of the strategy, creating a systematic threat to education and its role in the development of Serbia. This created an almost experimental situation for analysing the impact of political and social factors on changes in education. In the sphere of politics, new trends have emerged (centralisation of power; marginalisation of democratic institutions; encouraging foreign investment in companies with a low technological level, etc.) that strongly influenced changes (‘reforms’) in education (great centralisation in education, the strong influence of politics on education, imposing of some lower-level forms of education, reducing professional autonomy, etc.). The basic mechanism of transferring the general policy to education is changing the role of the most important national institutions in defining and implementing education policy: the National Education Council, the National Council for Vocational and Adult Education, the National Council for Higher Education, and the National Accreditation Body. The adoption of new education laws (2017) radically changed their status and competencies, resulting in a reduction of their independence and professionalism and strengthening the role of the ministry, through which the influence of the ruling political regime is transferred. Also, the role of the Chamber of Commerce in education has been strengthened. Such a system endangers the autonomy of educational institutions and teachers, as well as the quality of education. Consequently, these changes have a clear impact on the country’s development and its international position.

1990 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 30-33
Author(s):  
Alan Zollman

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommends that … mathematics programs take full advantage of the power of calculators and computers at all grade levels” (NCTM 1980, 8). Somehow, without meaning to, the calculator has taken a subsidiary role to the computer in the implementation of NCTM's An Anemia for Action recommendation. High technology is getting the majority of education's emphasis, while low technology, namely the calculator, is not having the impact that it could in the elementary school. This situation prevails despite the fact that 98 percent of this country's population uses calculators in everyday mathematics applications (Saunders 1980). It is time to reaffirm the viable role of the calculator in mathematics education (NCTM 1987). This article presents an interesting aspect of the geometrical array of the keys on a calculator that can be turned into a problem-solving, problem-posing situation for the upper elementary or middle school classroom. Read this article with a calculator in hand.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-191
Author(s):  
Lizzie Swaffield

This article considers the nature of the globally structured reform agenda including the role of international organisations and the development of new supra-national modes of governance. It discusses the impact of this agenda on education policy within national education systems with a particular focus on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) as an example of the globally structured reform agenda. It explores the role PISA has in global educational governance and in influencing the transfer of policy between education systems. Policy responses to PISA are critically discussed with a particular focus on the response in Wales. It is argued that new supra-national modes of governance shape education systems and the transfer of policy between them, but that they are also used as a tool to further domestic political agendas in order to bring about reforms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Ana Ramsha ◽  
Samrah Hidayat

This study examines the role of social parameters in the choice of address forms used in kinship domain in Punjab, Pakistan. The study targeted 140 respondents in order to test the impact of social factors along with the regional differences in the choices of address forms in kinship domain. Statistical analyses are done by applying t-test for gender in relation to choices of address forms and ANOVA for age, income, education and social class. The study finds out that there is a strong connection of different social parameters not only with language use and practice but also in choices and use of address forms especially in kinship relationships.  Moreover, it is highlighted that gender does not influence in the choices of address forms, even the participants belonging to young and middle categories show no significant difference with regard to the choices of address form despite the fact that all the factors and parameters exert influence on the choices of address forms. Hence address forms as being one of the major traits of language and society is affected by all the social factors around and regional differences are also most important as they give identity and ethnicity to the society.


Author(s):  
Shaun M. Eack

This chapter on psychological and social factors reviews landmark papers addressing the social and psychological contributors to mental disorders and wellness across a range of psychiatric conditions. These papers provide a foundation for understanding the role of stress and critical social environments in psychoses, the cognitive factors that characterize depressive thinking, the impact of environmental trauma on the development of personality conditions and suicidal behaviour, and important social avenues for protecting against risk and facilitating human resilience. Collectively, this early and landmark literature provides compelling evidence for the social and psychological contributors to the development and maintenance of many psychiatric conditions, and illustrates that garnering a better understanding of such factors has led to numerous advances in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders.


Author(s):  
I. S. Boldyreva

The paper examines the experience and role of the German public libraries in the process of assisting migrants to raise the level of language and information competence. The relevance of the problem is connected with a growing crisis in the German multicultural concept and seeks to provide means of achievement via intercultural library activities. The main tasks of the public library assistance to the National Education Plan are considered. The terms “multicultural services”, “multicultural library activities” and “multicultural user” are analyzed. The attention is paid to the possibilities of mass cultural work with migrants to improve language competence as well as analyzing four main groups of reader interests which have the impact on information competence building. Such forms of intercultural library activities as library tours, formal teaching, film lectures and training in the computer classes which are used in the process of information competence of migrants are considered.


Author(s):  
Viktor Koziuk

This article introduces the hypothesis that resource-rich countries display a low degree of central bank independence (CBI). This hypothesis is proven based on multivariable regression, but the influence of resource factors is not considered strong enough compared with previous inflationary experience and the characteristics of the political regime. It stresses that the impact of the commodity wealth factor on CBI choice is direct (through the share of commodity exports in total export) and indirect through the lower level of democracy in commodities countries that feature more dependent central banks. Also, this hypothesis is proven based on the grouping of countries. Such grouping shows that despite a general tendency of CBI increase in the world, a group of commodity exporting countries experiencing a substantially lower level of mean GMT-index, ECWN-index, and transparency-index resulted in lower CBI compared with groups of emerging markets and developing countries. Explaining these phenomena is rooted in features of institutional distortions in commodity economies, the specific structure of interventionist policy to overcome a "resource curse", and the specific role of the exchange rate and FX reserves in intertemporal macroeconomic policy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 1839-1870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Śledzińska-Simon

AbstractThis article argues that the establishment of the National Council of the Judiciary in 1989 and the empowerment of the general assemblies of court judges gave rise to the idea of judicial self-government in Poland. This very idea of self-government, implying that judges hold important decision-making or veto powers on matters concerning the judiciary, was regarded as a precondition of the separation of powers and judicial independence, neither of which existed under Communist rule. However, the package of laws introduced in 2017 marks the end of judicial self-government as we know it. Not only did it undermine the independence of the National Council of the Judiciary by altering the mode of electing its judicial members, but it also concentrated the power over the judiciary in the hands of the executive branch, allowing for, inter alia, the exchange of key positions in court administration and the reconfiguration of the Supreme Court. This article examines the impact of this “reform” on such values as independence, accountability, and transparency. Investigating the role of judicial self-government in ensuring the principle of separation of powers and democracy, the article concludes with an assessment of the early consequences of the introduced changes for the Polish judiciary.


1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan H. Spence

Individuals with chronic pain differ markedly in their physical and psychological adjustment to the pain condition. Many factors influence this adjustment process, and the nature and severity of the physical injury or illness and the degree of pain experienced cannot account fully for the impact of chronic pain. A variety of other psycho-social factors are involved, including the individual's attitudes and beliefs about his or her condition, coping skills, operant reinforcement factors, avoidance learning, and psychophysiological variables. Intervention programs that are designed to facilitate positive adjustment to chronic pain need to consider these biological, psychological, and social factors within an integrated framework. Cognitive therapy has a significant role to play in this process, in order to tackle maladaptive cognitive factors that interfere with adjustment. Evidence concerning attitudes and beliefs relevant to the pain condition and their relationship with the use of coping skills and response to pain, is reviewed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 62-79
Author(s):  
Sergei Alevtinovich Smirnov ◽  

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to analyze L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology from the perspective of distinguishing the structure of the act of development within its framework and understanding its explanatory potential as a whole. This analysis enables to clarify and understand the essence of the digital and virtual shift. Moreover, it is required in order to overcome the limitations associated with the currently dominant behavioral models, which are used by researchers in their attempts to explain and describe the phenomenon of the influence of digital technologies on people, in particular, on schoolchildren and students. Materials and Methods. The paper considers the concept derived from L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology, which is proposed to be adopted as a basic one in order to build an explanatory model used by the author to describe and comprehend the phenomenon of transformation of the human development process in the new reality of the digital environment. Results. The article introduces the basic principles and provisions, the explanatory model is built on, concerning the role of symbolic-instrumental mediation in human development, the role of an adult as a mediator, the structure of the act of thinking and the act of development, the basic mechanism of mastering a person's behavior, which permeates the formation of higher mental functions. The author compares this explanatory model and the behavioral model used in most modern research investigations that examine the impact of digital technologies on schoolchildren and students. Conclusions. The findings show that the student is presented in the behavioral model as a passive reactive being that reacts to external stimuli. In this sense, a human being is not treated as a personality with highest abilities, but is considered as a function. The proposed model cannot be used to explain and comprehend modern development processes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliya Kosyakova ◽  
Theodore P. Gerber

Adult education influences how labor market opportunities are structured in the later life course. We propose a theoretical framework for understanding the stratifying role of adult education resting on the distinction between two forms of adult education—upgrading and sidestepping: Resources, incentives, and selection processes systematically structure rates of participation. Using educational history data from Russia, we test hypotheses derived from our framework and examine the impact of the Soviet collapse and the ensuing economic recovery. Upgrading exacerbates patterns of socioeconomic stratification by delivering better credentials to individuals with higher levels of initial resources. Sidestepping is less common than upgrading and less related to socioeconomic origins and previous attainment. The Soviet collapse produced short-term declines in the rates of both upgrading and sidestepping. However, once growth resumed, market institutions proved durable, and the political regime stabilized, rates of upgrading soared to levels exceeding those of the Soviet era.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document