Forming expert environment for accreditation of educational programs: A case of Ukraine

The new system of educational programs’ accreditation and the establishment of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (NAQA) as an independent regulator has led to the demand for professional experts who can evaluate the educational programs of universities at a qualitatively new level. The paper aims to analyze the formation of the expert environment in Ukraine by conducting numerous training in various formats, as well as to assess the relationship between training and the quality of accreditation visits. The correlation analysis was used to substantiate the conclusions. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the experience of training experts in the accreditation of study programs in Ukrainian higher education institutions, the results of a pro-active approach by the NAQA in 2019–2021 were presented. It is shown that the accreditation system has been working without red tape, the taint of corruption, using transparency mechanisms, and expert advice since the end of 2019. The accreditation format according to the ESG-2015 standards made it possible to form an expert environment in Ukraine in a short time and encourage changes in higher education. Despite many pieces of training and consultations, many experts and representatives of the Sectoral Expert Council (SEC), evaluating study programs, still provide criticism, prejudice, and not advice and assistance. To minimize such negative practices, NAQA regularly conducts online webinars, briefings for expert groups and heads of study programs, and rotates experts and members of the SEC.

INVESTMENT ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE COUNTRY AND HER COMPONENTS

Important role in creating favorable conditions for the development of any economy is played by foreign investment. The attraction of foreign investment enables the recipient country to obtain a number of advantages, the main of which is the improvement of the balance of payments; transfer of the latest technologies and know-how; complex use of internal resources; development of export potential and reduction of dependence on imports; achievement of socio-economic effect (increase of employment level, development of social infrastructure, etc.). Possibilities of attracting investments into the country are depended first of all for the conditions for the investors who are created, that is, from the investment attractiveness of the country. The paper substantiates the theoretical positions that reveal the essence of the notion of investment. It is shown that investment attractiveness should be considered as an integral (factorial) characteristic, since the investment attractiveness of the country reflects the current state and level of development of the state, which is determined by the set of its economic, political, social, cultural, scientific and technological, infrastructure, financial, resource and raw materials, environmental and other factors that determine the solvent demand for investment. That is, this parameter is a cumulative estimate of all industries of the state's operation. The proposed approach to the estimation attractiveness of the country allows us to identify and assess the causes and problems in the economy, the degree of their importance and urgency, there is an opportunity to comprehend the influence of various factors on the increase or decrease of investment attractiveness of the state and there is a basis for an active approach to the identification of its constituent parts.

Collaboration, movement and change: An intra-active action research approach

This article elaborates an intra-active approach to action research, with examples from a recently started action research project carried out in collaboration with three preschools. The aim of the article is to contribute to the discussion about how practice-based research for change can take shape. Therefore, these questions are asked: Which concepts are central and what is produced in intra-active action research? Which potentialities for change are enabled via an intra-active approach to action research? New materialism theories, starting with Barad, are used to rethink action research, focusing on collaboration, movements, and change. An analysis workshop within the project, starting in circular and horizontal movements, inspired by Deleuze and Guattari through the work of Lenz Taguchi, is revisited. The intra-actions in the workshop produce both generative and undermining processes. Therefore, the intra-active action research approach implies that staying in the complexity of practices, rather than seeking to reduce the ‘messiness’, holds potentialities for change that unwind from the middle.

DISCUSSION AS AN APPROACH TO DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCIES

The article considers discussion as an active approach to teaching foreign languages and the development of communicative competencies, given the use of a communicative approach to learning. The phenomenon of discussion, stages of its organization, presence of discussion tasks in educational materials are analyzed. The possibility of using discussion in foreign language classes as an interactive form of learning is considered. It was found that the main task of the discussion is to involve different points of view in the active discussion of problems in a foreign language, which, in turn, stimulates the cognitive interest of students. The main role of the teacher in ensuring the effectiveness of the discussion in the classroom is determined. The results of research on the efficacy of discussion show that the correct use of this method will increase the effectiveness of foreign language classes. Wide application of the method of discussion in solving problem situations promotes the development of logical, independent and critical thinking of students, allows them to acquire important personal and social activities skills to express and defend their point of view and at the same time listen to other people's opinions.

Basic Principles of Creating and Using the Waste-free Technologies in the System of Recycled Water Supply and Water Purification

The need to protect the environment makes it necessary to significantly change the general approaches to environmental efficiency of production, to minimize the impact on nature at the present level of productivity and quality. Today instead of the temporary measures aimed at overcoming the effects of pollution, the long-term measures are being taken more and more often at the design and construction stages to nullify the causes of pollution in advance rather than to have its effects in the future. The processes and devices that have been previously used to collect and dispose the industrial waste are now considered a passive approach to environmental protection. The matter is that the amount of waste generated during the production process remains almost unchanged, and this does not meet the new environmental requirements. The active approach involves creating the modern low-waste and non-waste technologies that can efficiently use raw materials in production processes, as well as converting the waste into easily recyclable components that are least harmful to the environment. The article considers the conceptual principles that show the essence of the active approach to improving the industrial technologies in order to protect the environment. It is mainly focused on studying the features of recycled water supply and water purification.

APOTEOZA SOCIJALNE DRŽAVE: IMPERATIVNI ZAHTJEV OSTVARENJA SOCIJALNE PRAVDE U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ

By deliberate choice of the Croatian constitution-makers, the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia protects all economic, social and cultural rights guaranteed by constitutions of developed European democracies and by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which Croatia is a party. This creates a dual (constitutional and international) obligation for the Croatian legislature to establish a socially just order. Although the constitutional text places both of the human rights generations within the same title, the constitutional jurisprudence adopted a position, whereby socioeconomic rights are excluded from the sphere of organic laws used to elaborate the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms. This development notwithstanding, the potential of their protection before the Constitutional Court has not been reduced, as the Court has developed an impressive list of doctrinal positions on the nature of social rights, committing to the concept of social state as a foundational element of European constitutionalism. Still, we would be remiss if we did not emphasize the Constitutional Court's passive stance towards the political branches of the government regarding the social rights and must therefore plead for a more active approach in that regard.

Echoing the Call for Multimodal Representation

The editor’s introduction to the Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 32, Issue 2, from fall 2016 emphasizes the necessity of anthropology to engage in multimodal methodologies of research and research communication. An expanded view of visual anthropology, and its methodological and analytical contributions to current debates, recognizes and builds on the field’s commitment to a reflexive awareness of the social relationships at stake in the process of making images and an engagement with the politics of representation. It also encompasses an active approach toward learning to see how others see, how technologies of imaging picture the world, and a serious consideration of the technical capacities necessary for communicating ethnographic knowledge through visual composition, editing, and design. (Chio & Cox, 2016, pp. 101–102) The claim that the reflection on images has been neglected compared to the reflection on language, echoing in the introduction of Chio and Cox (216), has been made in the context of the iconic turn in the mid-1990s. In reference to the linguistic turn in philosophy coined by Richard Rorty (1967) in philosophy, art historian Gottfried Boehm (1994, pp. 11–38) described the iconic turn, and Thomas W. Mitchell (1995, pp. 11–34) used the term pictorial turn, observing a significant shift toward communication by images. Both recognized the increasing power of images in society through the digital means of communication, which enables everyone to easily create and disseminate images. Both were aware of the lack of reflection on the meaning of images in Western thought.

Drown-proofing New Zealand: The Learn-to-Swim and Prevent Drowning Campaigns, 1936-1956

<p>This thesis examines the development of recreational amateur swimming in New Zealand between 1936 and 1956. During this period, swimming ability and drowning prevention became issues of national importance and extensive measures were introduced to encourage the expansion of amateur swimming culture. The growth of interest in swimming was partly a response to the perception that drowning deaths were too common. This thesis discusses the trends and characteristics of deaths by drowning. The extension of swimming was also largely thanks to the efforts of the Labour Government, elected in 1935, which instituted a new and active approach to enabling leisure. In 1936, just months after being elected, Labour made its first move towards extending New Zealanders’ opportunities for aquatic recreation by offering greater support to voluntary swimming and lifesaving associations. In 1938, under the newly enacted Physical Welfare and Recreation Act, the Government launched the Learn-to-Swim campaign, followed by the Prevent Drowning campaign in 1949. These campaigns helped to establish ‘proper’ swimming as a valuable part of modern life, an increasingly popular leisure pursuit, and an expected skill, as well as advocating the necessity of ‘water wisdom’. By 1956, the perceived need for government intervention into leisure had diminished and swimming and drowning prevention were once again viewed as private matters, the concern of the individual and not of the state. Consequently, the Government (now that of the National administration) withdrew its support from the campaigns. However, swimming was firmly established as an enjoyable, valuable, and important recreational pursuit. Thus, the Water Safety campaign was launched by voluntary swimming and lifesaving organisations to take the place of the Learn-to-Swim and Prevent Drowning campaigns. This thesis argues that the 1936-1956 period was one of significant growth in recreational swimming and the state was an important and active agent in this process of modernising New Zealand’s swimming culture.</p>

Drown-proofing New Zealand: The Learn-to-Swim and Prevent Drowning Campaigns, 1936-1956

<p>This thesis examines the development of recreational amateur swimming in New Zealand between 1936 and 1956. During this period, swimming ability and drowning prevention became issues of national importance and extensive measures were introduced to encourage the expansion of amateur swimming culture. The growth of interest in swimming was partly a response to the perception that drowning deaths were too common. This thesis discusses the trends and characteristics of deaths by drowning. The extension of swimming was also largely thanks to the efforts of the Labour Government, elected in 1935, which instituted a new and active approach to enabling leisure. In 1936, just months after being elected, Labour made its first move towards extending New Zealanders’ opportunities for aquatic recreation by offering greater support to voluntary swimming and lifesaving associations. In 1938, under the newly enacted Physical Welfare and Recreation Act, the Government launched the Learn-to-Swim campaign, followed by the Prevent Drowning campaign in 1949. These campaigns helped to establish ‘proper’ swimming as a valuable part of modern life, an increasingly popular leisure pursuit, and an expected skill, as well as advocating the necessity of ‘water wisdom’. By 1956, the perceived need for government intervention into leisure had diminished and swimming and drowning prevention were once again viewed as private matters, the concern of the individual and not of the state. Consequently, the Government (now that of the National administration) withdrew its support from the campaigns. However, swimming was firmly established as an enjoyable, valuable, and important recreational pursuit. Thus, the Water Safety campaign was launched by voluntary swimming and lifesaving organisations to take the place of the Learn-to-Swim and Prevent Drowning campaigns. This thesis argues that the 1936-1956 period was one of significant growth in recreational swimming and the state was an important and active agent in this process of modernising New Zealand’s swimming culture.</p>