THE DIGITALIZATION OF THE LEARNING PROCESS IN SERBIA DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS

The COVID-19 crisis significantly disturbed the teaching process in Serbia. The subject of this research is the reaction and response of Serbian educational system during this crisis. The aim of this paper is the analysis of modifications of the teaching process and distance learning activities in primary and secondary schools, and teaching using the national public television service. The use of the method of content analysis, legal acts in the field of education adopted during the state of emergency in Serbia, decisions and instructions for the implementation of teaching, the manner of implementation of teaching, as well as the results of research on distance learning were investigated. Measures and activities for improving the digital alternative for future educational practice are proposed.

ANTI-DOPING PROGRAMS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT

Anti-doping programs are implemented for the purpose of preservation of the essential value in sports, which is often termed „spirit of sport“ and represents the foundation of Olympism. Therefore, doping is fundamentally opposed to the spirit of sport. Anti-doping programs directed towards the children aged 8 to 12 years have a teaching character, with the aim of the education about the values of respect, equity, and inclusion. During the last three decades, the use of doping substances by adolescents and individuals who cannot be recognized as athletes in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code has become a significant problem in modern society. Physical education teachers and sports coaches should have special training to be able to recognize behavioural symptoms in their students or clients as potential users of doping substances. All the adverse effects of doping substances use on physical and psychological health should be explained in detail in a plastic, vivid, and concrete way, stressing the seriousness and long-lasting nature of these effects. Since the use of doping frequently starts in the period of early adolescence, the education to fight it should be introduced as early as the school age.

THE PROBLEM OF LEARNING BORROWINGS IN SERBIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ON THE EXAMPLE OF GERMANISMS (IN RELATION TO SPORTS VOCABULARY)

The paper sheds light on the problem of borrowings, which is extremely important when learning Serbian as a foreign language. The Serbian language is very open to elements from other languages. On the example of Germanisms (in the field of sports vocabulary), as foreign elements, it is possible to expand the vocabulary of students of the Serbian language as a foreign language. Borrowings, as part of the lexical subsystem, provide an opportunity to become important material that will meet studentsʼ expectations in terms of greater autonomy in language learning, didactic cooperation instead of learning itself, as well as the inclusion of various work techniques that would make language learning more attractive.

JOURNALS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN SERBIA BETWEEN GLOBAL AND NATIONAL INTERESTS

The paper problematizes the current situation and development perspectives of social science journals in Serbia in the context of global (international) and national interests. Scientific articles in national social science journals are commonly the most prevalent form of dissemination and production of scientific knowledge, standpoints and views, a clear indicator of research excellence of university teachers, as well as the indicator of the quality of scientific journals, and the quality of scientific research in general. Therefore, it is not surprising that national and global interests and values intertwine in the domain of national journals. The reference framework for the analysis of selected issues is placed within the range of existing scientometric and bibliometric research, as well as the legislation referring to scientific research, manner and procedures for the evaluation of research results, and election to academic titles. The analysis we conducted led to the general conclusion that national social science journals are in a gap between the national and global context. Although their significance is beyond question, by promoting national and cultural values and interests, they exist as insufficiently competitive and globally invisible media for transfer and valorization of scientific knowledge in the academic community. In addition to analyzing the implications of the current education policies, editorial policies of the journals and strategic solutions aimed at raising and evaluating the quality of national social science journals, and integrating them into global information system trends, the paper also proposes potential directions for further development of national social science journals as a prerequisite for raising scientific productivity in the domain of social sciences.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL THINKING IN SOCIAL WORKERS` EDUCATION

In this paper, the authors discuss about the importance of critical thinking in the education of social workers, as well as its implications in the practice of this profession. Namely, the authors start from the assumption that students largely uncritically accept knowledge as true, reliable and accurate. On the other hand, the paper shows how critical thinking can be encouraged in the classroom. In the light of this, the authors analyze the components of critical thinking, a brief history of it (in context of social work practice), as well as various contemporary paradigms in this context. At the end of paper, there is a room for potential challenges, as well as barriers in the implementation of the above-mentioned paradigms in the educational system.

PREVENTION OF SCHOOL FAILURE IN CONTEMPORARY TEACHING: A THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL APPROACH

Through theoretical analysis of school failure factors and empirical examination, in a comprehensive and interdisciplinary way, we tried to explore this complex problem that is constantly present in the teaching process, and at the same time point out the importance of systematic work on its prevention. The context of the research problem is empirical and refers to the examination of the main factors of school failure. Students’ self-reflections on: 1. family relations, 2. curricula, 3. motivation for learning and 4. teaching methods and contents as possible factors of school failure were examined. Specific hypotheses set in the research refer to the existence of statistically significant correlation of students’ self-reflections on school failure factors with set independent research variables: grade students (p < 0.05) and school success (p < 0.05). Survey research method with scaling technique was used in the research. The research included 235 primary school students in the territory of southern Serbia, in the 2019 school year. The results show that the factor analysis from the Likert-type assessment scale constructed for the needs of the research, highlights 4 factors important for the research of school failure: family, curriculum, motivation, teaching methods and contents. The process of factor analysis extracted the main factors of school failure, which were brought into a correlative relationship at the level of statistical significance with students’ self-reflections. The results of the research indicate the theoretical and practical significance of the problem of school failure, thus representing a good starting point and incentive for further research work.

THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

In order for a person to motivate others, he must first find an adequate way to motivate himself. If we want to make the work with other people more successful, it is very important to know what motivates people in the environment. Motivation involves the process of initiating and directing human behavior, it is an internal force that drives us to achieve our goals and meet our needs. Greater curiosity and interest contribute to achieving greater success in all fields, and in particular the success of students in school. In contrast, lack of motivation impedes anything to be done in a better way. Poor motivation leads to failure, to the extent that one performs activities without ambition and with great difficulty. Studying the literature aims to determine what role motivation plays in the educational context, which is at the same time the basic goal. It also wants to point out the importance of motivation in teaching. The paper used the historical method as the basic method of historical research and analysis of the contents of pedagogical documentation. One of the basic tasks of teachers is to familiarize students with the nature of motivation and to teach them the procedures that develop motivation for students to learn. This is the key to the success of both the teacher and the students themselves.

CAUSES OF LEARNING DIFFICULTIES IN THE TRANSITIONFROM CLASS TEACHING TO SUBJECT TEACHING

The period of transition from class teaching to subject teaching is marked by changes that greatly affect students. The aim of the paper is to analyze the potential causes that lead to learning difficulties in the transition from class teaching to subject teaching. The goal is achieved at the theoretical level, applying the method of theoretical analysis and content analysis technique. Because of the pre-puberty and puberty period that they are in, students are in a phase of intense growth and development where they are more easily fatigued; their attention is short-lived, which often leads to clumsiness in performing activities and solving tasks. The analysis of the results of the research so far indicates that the fifth grade students are achieving lower school success compared to the previous four years of schooling. The causes of many difficulties that occur in the fifth grade are: the volume and difficulty of the teaching material, the difference in the criteria of students’ assessment, the problem of adaptation to changes in work, the adaptation of teaching procedures to the age of students. The pedagogical implications of this paper are reflected in the identification of causes and their prevention in order to ensure the best possible adaptation of students to new changes.

LITERARY TEXT RECEPTION IN DEVELOPING TEACHING AND LEVEL OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNGER SCHOOL AGE STUDENTS

The processes and outcomes of literary text reception are determined by the flows and methodical specificities of the traditional and innovative-developing teaching system. Increased intensity of literary text reception can be achieved in the models of developing teaching at a younger school age. Starting from the premises of the reception theory, the theory of innovative-developing teaching and the findings of tangent research, transferable theoretical foundations of literary reception and literary text reception microplans were developed in the models of developing classroom teaching (different complexity levels interactive teaching ‒ DCLIT and responsible teaching ‒ RT). During the one-year experimental-methodical programme, elementary school fifth grade students were adopting literary-artistic texts in the context of one innovative-developing model of classroom teaching (different complexity levels teaching ‒ E1 or responsible teaching – E2), and in the regular teaching of literature. On average, students in the experimental groups (E1 and E2) achieved generally statistically significantly higher scores during the final evaluation of the knowledge of moral qualities and knowledge of human personalities than the students in the control groups (K1 and K2). The obtained findings of the experimental-methodical research can be a significant contribution to the advancement of work on literary text in the teaching practice.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SAVA’S SPELLING BOOK IN THE BEGINNERS’ COURSE OF READING AND WRITING AND IN THE TEACHING OF SERBIAN CULTURE

The authors of this paper deal with the pedagogical and philological significance of Sava’s Spelling Book printed in Russia (Moscow) in 1692, in the Russian-Slavonic language. This spelling book is about 100 years younger than the First Serbian Spelling Book (The Spelling Book of Sava Inok of the monastery Dečani). This spelling book of the Russian recension reached all the way to the Serbian lands, being, on one hand, the precedent, and on the other hand, the follower to the books that are to appear in Serbia and its new literary language. The authors of this paper explain in a detailed way the method of letter teaching by which each letter (Slavonic, Greek, and Latin) is being assigned a corresponding picture. This points out to the pedagogical approach to the acquisition of new knowledge (the basics of reading and writing) which uses pictures of animals and plants in order to facilitate the process of letter learning. In his lecture, KarionIstomin, the author of the spelling book, suggested totally new teaching methods i.e. the new methods. Namely, Sava’s Spelling book is the precursor of contemporary spelling books, since all of them use the connection between letters and pictures as the basis of their teaching method.