Exploring The Influence of COVID-19 on Initial Teacher Education in Malta: Student Participation in Higher Education

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid transition from onsite to online learning spaces for initial teacher education (ITE); with Universities even adopting new modes of pedagogy and assessment. This study explores: (1) how Maltese ITE undergraduate early years and postgraduate primary education students dealt with more remote forms of learning during the pandemic in Malta, and (2) the teaching/lecturing modes used, by lecturers, for remote learning, assessment and concerns that tie-in with broader student wellbeing. The data were gathered through an online quantitative survey designed to collect information about ITE students’ views. Student responses strongly suggest that in the eventuality of an ongoing vaccination ‘post-COVID’ era, ITE within HE programmes should consider revisiting the course content and delivery, supporting and fostering, blended and online approaches. A ‘blind spot’ reflecting the struggle for independence, autonomy, and control during COVID-19 in a postcolonial Maltese Higher Eduction context also emerged. The insights gained highlight how ITE students’ views on their experiences of online pedagogy, assessment, and how these new modes impacted their wellbeing within a Maltese HE context can serve to inform policy and practice. These results emphasize the need to promote participatory research amongst university students as key to inform HE policy and practice. Keywords: Initial Teacher Education; Online learning; Covid-19; student participation; Higher Education

Language competency, group development and sociometric status of foreign students in Russian higher eduction institutions (a case study of Chinese students)

The article presents the results of an empirical study of Socio-psychological characteristics of group of Chinese students who are studying at Russian universities. 132 Chinese students aged between 18 to 26 years from Foundation course were involved in the study. Using investigational methods we found a correlation between language competence and sociometric and referentometric status of Chinese students throughout the academic year. It is expected that the acquired results are due to three factors: socio-psychological, where interpersonal relationships depend on the students' achievements; cultural-specific factors, where tenacity and diligence in work are valuable, and processes of socio-cultural adaptation.

Que piensan los alumnos sobre el aprendizaje: Un estudio exploratorio en educación básica y media superior / An exploratory study in higher eduction: To help students think about learning

Las concepciones de aprendizaje es un aspecto que precede a la postura que los alumnos toman ante las distintas demandas educativas, ya sea desde el espacio escolar o del espacio social. Este estudio realizado en el grupo de investigación Aprendizaje Pensamiento y Desarrollo del Instituto de Investigación y Postgrado de la Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, tuvo por objetivo explorar las concepciones de aprendizaje de los alumnos de los distintos niveles educativos, preescolar, primaria, secundaria y medio superior. Basado en una metodología cualitativa se obtuvieron y analizaron los argumentos expresados acerca del aprendizaje y sus distintas implicaciones.

Инновационная методологическая платформа развития личности в информационном образовательном пространстве

Current higher-eduction systems are characterized by an absolute crisis of an outdated methodological paradigm. Therefore the continuation of „test-tube studies“ of individual „fragments“ of human beings, without reference to new methodologicla realities, has no prospects. At the same time, the dominat model of the university, prevalant for 200 years, remains unaltered. Today, however, the aims, means and players of socialization are changing. This article proposes and discusses a new methodological basis for personality development from the perspective of an behavioural-therapeutic approach is. The role of behaviour patterns is portrayed in the context of social and professional personality successes.

The Madwoman in the Academy, or, Revealing the Invisible Straightjacket: Theorizing and Teaching Saneism and Sane Privilege

<p>In this paper, I suggest that one way to bring mad perspectives and discussions about saneism/mentalism--systemic discrimination against people who have been diagnosed as, or are perceived to be "mentally ill"--into higher eduction is to situate them within existing curricula across disciplines. One of the ways curricula can be modified is by adapting existing theoretical frameworks from other interdisciplinary fields to mad issues and contexts. As an example of this adaptation, I turn Peggy McIntosh's article "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" (1988), a staple of undergraduate humanities curricula, into a teaching tool for showing not only the ways in which "sane" people--those who have never been psychiatrized or perceived as "mentally ill"--have access to privileges that mad people do not, but also the ways in which saneism/mentalism intersects with other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism and ableism.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Keywords:&nbsp;saneism, mentalism, mad studies, privilege, feminism, intersectionality, pedagogy</p>

Ongoing Conversations about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Agendas and Directions

As we move forward with the shaping of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research agendas and directions in Australia we are confronted with many issues basic to the beginning of any discipline: the problem of small numbers; the complexity and enormity of the problems; the diversity in the intellectual field; the limited albeit developing expertise; the limited opportunities for intellectual dialogue; and, of course, the absence of resources to build a professional base. The issue of our relative absence from developing academic knowledge traditions over the last two centuries, and our recent entrée to the higher eduction sector, understandably, compounds our beginning point. This paper was the basis of a keynote address at the third Indigenous Researchers’ Forum in Melbourne in 2001 and, in the main, is part of an ongoing conversation that speaks to the developing issues.