Omani Adolescent Information Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Omani adolescents' information behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic is a new interesting topic in the Omani literature. Since the suspension of face-to-face classes in the Sultanate of Oman, Omani adolescents have depended on Wikipedia, blogs, friends, TikTok, and social media to satisfy their crave for information about the virus. This study aims at finding out Omani adolescents' demographic characteristics when obtaining and disseminating pandemic-related content online, their information needs, and the sources of information they use during COVID-19. It is a descriptive study in which a Google survey was used to collect data from 1000 adolescents at different grades in Omani schools. An overwhelming majority of the participants were females (72%) compared to 28% males. Findings indicate that Omani adolescents display distinct traits in terms of their gender, age, grade, and governance. In addition, the study has found that Omani adolescents have several information needs during COVID-19, among which is the educational need.

Kompetencje emocjonalno-społeczne nauczyciela wobec potrzeb współczesnej edukacji

This article concerns the issue of emotional and social competences of a teacher in the face of the needs of contemporary education, in relation to the global situation caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The state of emergency introduced today is a new context for the changes taking place, challenging every sphere of life, including education. The publication presents reports from selected international and national reports, showing the state of the introduced remote education, which highlighted a multitude of problems for representatives of the school environment. The most important educational problems concern the deteriorating mental condition of pupils and teachers and the crisis in interpersonal relations. Attention was drawn to a neglected area in pedagogy, which is the sphere of emotional and social competences of the student and the teacher, as well as to the necessity of their compulsory inclusion in the problems of research. The article presents the position that school can be an environment for conscious learning of emotions, therefore it is important that teachers have emotional and social competences at an optimal level in order to provide effective support. It is assumed that only emotionally and socially competent teachers can stimulate the development of these competences in pupils. It has been recognised as a new task, challenge and educational need.

Unity lost. Negotiating the ancient roots of Pedagogy in Sweden, 1865–1971

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate attempts to safeguard classical humanism in secondary schools by appealing to a cultural-historical link with Antiquity, voiced in the face of educational reforms in Sweden between 1865 and 1971.Design/methodology/approachBy focusing on the content of the pedagogical journal Pedagogisk Tidskrift, the article highlights a number of examples of how an ancient historical lineage was evoked and how historical knowledge was mobilized and contested in various ways.FindingsThe article argues that the enduring negotiation over the educational need to maintain a strong link with the ancient past was strained due to increasing scholarly specialization and thus entangled in competing views on reform and what was deemed “traditional” or “modern”.Originality/valueFrom a larger perspective, the conflict over the role of Antiquity in Swedish secondary schools reveals a trajectory for the history of education as part of and later apart from a general history of the humanities. Classical history originally served as a common past from which Swedish culture and education developed, but later lost this integrating function within the burgeoning discipline of Pedagogy. The findings demonstrate the value of bringing the newly (re)formed history of humanities and history of education closer together.

Preparing for an outing

By law, early years settings must make it possible for every child to access all the facilities, resources and activities they offer, including off-site trips. A child cannot be excluded from a trip because they have a special educational need. This is the first article in the SEND outings series.

Right to education – young people with disabilities and children with special educational needs

One of the biggest educational challenges of the past decades is the question of the social and educational integration of young people with special educational needs (SEN) and/or youth and young adults with disabilities. The importance of the topic is provided by two factors; there is a clearly rising trend in the increase in the number of children with special educational needs, which can be identified almost immediately among the children due to the methodological results, on the one hand, and it has become a feature of the public education that was able to launch many segments of the market – developments, movement therapy, complex forms of education based on special needs – and, as a result, industries are slowly beginning to emerge to create opportunities for them to enter the system, on the other hand. In the case of the public education, the SEN category also represents a kind of set of problems, because in the case of students who study at a normal pace, those belonging to the SEN group only experience disadvantages. The purpose of this summary is, on the one hand, to describe the concept and the framework of the content of the special educational needs used in the public education, and, on the other hand, to summarize the types of disabilities in the light of such data. The study also seeks to give an answer to the question how the determination of the disability is able to reflect a specific educational need, and shed light on the usable, more relevant concept from the perspective of the interested persons.

Virtual Education in English Literature Courses during Pandemic COVID-19: Merits and Demerits, and Needs

Distance education and e-learning became widespread and necessary with the miracle of the internet and its increasing influence among the individuals much within the days of a pandemic outbreak of COVID-19. Many universities, institutions, and learners encourage using e-learning and begin growing in this field. This paper examines the merits and demerits of distance and online education teaching for English literature educators and students. Technology and increasing demand for education, traditional strategies do not meet the growing requirements of academic communities and virtual education and e-learning with all their benefits and drawbacks attempt to meet these needs. This paper investigates e-teaching and e-learning infrastructure, needs, benefits, and limitations, in addition to opportunities and challenges of online education within the days of the coronavirus occurrence. The research method of the current study was conducted through a library study along with empirical study and descriptive analysis. New challenges of English literature educators and students in pandemic COVID-19 were identified and new approaches to remove the constraints are suggested. The results confirm online education is a constant educational need not limited to pandemic period and have to be compelled to develop productivity and creativity in learning with the appearance of recent technologies such as computers, the web, and social networks. These skills development can assist educators to find solutions for these difficulties in various areas of educational, cultural, and social issues. Blended learning can contribute to post-pandemic English literature classes and sustainable higher education.

The Problem with Universities Today

Managerialism creates burdens for academics with no evidence for its benefit. Business imperatives override educational. There is needless competition between universities. Research imperatives override education. Global inequalities in educational need are ignored, universities have not kept up with the way young people gain information and initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of higher education are ‘tinkering’ rather than the required total re-thinking of higher education.

Educational and health outcomes of schoolchildren in local authority care in Scotland: A retrospective record linkage study

Background Looked after children are defined as children who are in the care of their local authority. Previous studies have reported that looked after children have poorer mental and physical health, increased behavioural problems, and increased self-harm and mortality compared to peers. They also experience poorer educational outcomes, yet population-wide research into the latter is lacking, particularly in the United Kingdom. Education and health share a bidirectional relationship; therefore, it is important to dually investigate both outcomes. Our study aimed to compare educational and health outcomes for looked after children with peers, adjusting for sociodemographic, maternity, and comorbidity confounders. Methods and findings Linkage of 9 Scotland-wide databases, covering dispensed prescriptions, hospital admissions, maternity records, death certificates, annual pupil census, examinations, school absences/exclusions, unemployment, and looked after children provided retrospective data on 715,111 children attending Scottish schools between 2009 and 2012 (13,898 [1.9%] looked after). Compared to peers, 13,898 (1.9%) looked after children were more likely to be absent (adjusted incidence rate ratio [AIRR] 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24 to 1.30) and excluded (AIRR 4.09, 95% CI 3.86 to 4.33) from school, have special educational need (SEN; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.48, 95% CI 3.35 to 3.62) and neurodevelopmental multimorbidity (AOR 2.45, 95% CI 2.34 to 2.57), achieve the lowest level of academic attainment (AOR 5.92, 95% CI 5.17 to 6.78), and be unemployed after leaving school (AOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.96 to 2.29). They were more likely to require treatment for epilepsy (AOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.78), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; AOR 3.01, 95% CI 2.76 to 3.27), and depression (AOR 1.90, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.22), be hospitalised overall (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.23, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.28) for injury (AHR 1.80, 95% CI 1.69 to 1.91) and self-harm (AHR 5.19, 95% CI 4.66 to 5.78), and die prematurely (AHR 3.21, 95% CI 2.16 to 4.77). Compared to children looked after at home, children looked after away from home had less absenteeism (AIRR 0.35, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.36), less exclusion (AIRR 0.63, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.71), less unemployment (AOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.62), and better attainment (AIRR 0.31, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.40). Therefore, among those in care, being cared for away from home appeared to be a protective factor resulting in better educational outcomes. The main limitations of this study were lack of data on local authority care preschool or before 2009, total time spent in care, and age of first contact with social care. Conclusions Looked after children had poorer health and educational outcomes than peers independent of increased neurodevelopmental conditions and SEN. Further work is required to understand whether poorer outcomes relate to reasons for entering care, including maltreatment and adverse childhood events, neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities, or characteristics of the care system.

Use and perception of complementary and alternative medicine among Iranian psychologists

Objectives The seeking and use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) modalities by people to treat mental disorders has increased and it is necessary for psychologists to have the necessary information in this field. This study aims to evaluate the use and perception of CAM by Iranian psychologists. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 psychologists selected by the census in 2019. Data collection tools consisted of four sections of the demographic section, the CAM questionnaire for psychologists, awareness of CAM, and use of CAM. The validity and reliability of this questionnaire were confirmed. Results The mean (standard deviation) scores of attitude and educational needs were 40.45 (11.36) and 33.93 (5.96), respectively. Only 19.25% of psychologists had sufficient knowledge of CAM, and most of them (56.34%) reported that there is an educational need for CAM. In this study, 64% of psychologists used CAM for themselves. There was a significant relationship between the attitude toward CAM modalities and the suggestion of CAM to the clients (p=0.025). There was also a significant relationship between the use of CAM by psychologists and the suggestion of these modalities to their clients (p<0.001). Conclusions Psychologists had not sufficient awareness about CAM and had a moderate attitude. Most of the psychologists reported that there is educational need for CAM. Therefore, it is necessary to design and implement appropriate training courses for psychologists toward CAM modalities.