The Use of Indigenous People's Pedagogic Way of Learning for Preschool and School Teachers

The main issue that bothers indigenous people is an unequal and unjust representation of their knowledge in relation to the formalized Western education system. Despite the affirmation of indigenous knowledge by the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Western formal education system defines what knowledge and teaching methods are authentic or not. The purpose of this chapter is to determine the value of the indigenous knowledge and their pedagogic methods for preschool and school teachers. The data collected has been critically analyzed through John Rawls' theory of social justice. There is an agreement between authors and teachers that indigenous people had education systems that sustained them for years. This chapter provides some recommendations on how these valuable methods of teaching can be incorporated into the mainstream education systems.

Proposed Framework of Competences for Career Counsellors Employed at Primary Schools

During the last decade, research and introduction of career guidance has been becoming an increasingly important need of contemporary society. This is highlighted by a number of documents at EU level that emphasize the development of counselling and establishment of career guidance with the aim of developing lifelong learning and of development of career counselling services in various institutions, especially in schools. The chapter is thus based on the formation of a competence framework for career counsellors employed at basic schools. The authors notice in the area of career guidance the surveyees put the competences in the forefront that refer to counsellor's interpersonal intelligence and the knowledge of enrolment procedures and of secondary school programs. Pedagogues have proved to be the occupational group the most competent to perform the job of a career counsellor. In the conclusion, the chapter presents a model of competence framework with six areas of knowledge, the competences following each other arranged by relevance.

Child's Readiness for Compulsory Education in the Context of Research and Development Aimed at Czech Kindergartens

The present review study informs the readers about the development and the concept of school maturity and about research studies performed during the last 10 years at the Faculty of Education, Palacký University in Olomouc. The first part of the study presents an overview of experimental as well as theoretical approaches in the area of starting compulsory education in the context of chronological changes related to psychology, education, and education policy. The second part of the study comprises an overview of research studies and relevant outcomes in the context of preschool curriculum. The present study is based on research conducted at the Faculty of Education, Palacký University under various projects and theses. The third part of the study includes a critical analysis, the purpose of which is to identify positive and negative impacts of current approaches on preschool education. The final part includes recommendations for educational practice in kindergartens. The objective of the paper is to describe the development of the concept of school maturity, which has a significant effect on starting compulsory education and children's attitudes to school and learning. The results presented herein not only highlight the system of assessment of school maturity in the Czech Republic but also the problem areas that need to be addressed in order to achieve the objectives of the preschool curriculum and develop children's key competences. In many European countries, preschool education is being reformed to reflect on the introduction and verification of the preschool curriculum. The results have the potential to open a broad international debate on the issue of preparing children for starting school in the context of the development of their key competences. The present research study is of a mixed design. The basic method is a document content analysis. The analysis was performed from a historical development perspective and included relevant documents, legal acts, and data from previous research studies carried out in the Czech Republic. Based on the resulting data, an overall assessment was performed and practical conclusions for kindergartens formulated. The research was conducted between 2016 and 2017.

Educational Paradigm and Professional Development

The culture of an educational institution is a set of individual values and norms, attitudes, beliefs, rituals, expectations, and actions of its members. Without changing the basic assumptions (implicit theories) of individuals working in an institution, there are no fundamental changes in the quality of the educational process. Professional development is understood as continually testing the quality of our own educational interventions, and redefining and modifying them based on the feedback from practice. In this chapter, the authors will focus on the results of preschool teachers' attitudes towards the different aspects of the educational process and the results of the frequency of using modern forms of professional development, obtained by survey method. There is a positive correlation between the modern educational paradigm of the preschool teacher and her participation in the contemporary forms of professional development, which testifies of the mutuality and interdependence of these two dimensions of the culture of the institution of early education.

A Theoretical Conceptualization of the Hidden Curriculum in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

The chapter is based on the presentation of an understanding of the hidden curriculum in the twentieth century. In this period, four theoretical concepts existed: functionalism, criticism, liberalism, and postmodernism. The starting point for the concept of the hidden curriculum was that of the functionalists. Their understanding of the hidden curriculum was based on the transfer of social norms and values to students. Representatives of criticism, for example, Michael Apple, Michael Young, carried the knowledge of functionalists to the concrete social environment and sought the reasons for social inequality and the role of the hidden curriculum in this. Also, liberal authors, such as John Dewey and Phillip Jackson, dealt with practical issues, being, however, interested in the impact of the hidden curriculum in educational practice. With postmodernists, like Michael Foucault, a critical view of the presented concepts is shown and a warning that the hidden curriculum takes place in a complex social system. This chapter explores a theoretical conceptualization of the hidden curriculum in the second half of the twentieth century.

Analyzing Teachers' Competencies in Regular Classroom Practice With Gifted Students in Slovenia

The highest level of educational quality can be achieved with teachers' awareness of their fundamental responsibilities in teaching gifted and talented students, knowing their capacities and characteristics and their different needs. The chapter presents research on teachers' self-assessment of their competencies, efficacy, and attitudes towards gifted students in Slovenia. Such students should have the opportunity to develop their skills not being limited by the class average. A selection of appropriate teaching personnel is needed to accomplish such achievement. The obtained results are presented in relation to three research questions and expose that teachers in Slovenia are usually inadequately informed on working approaches with gifted students; they tend to have low self-esteem in identifying children personal characteristics and commonly choose inappropriate teaching strategies. The study discusses different options that would allow teachers to ensure as best education for the gifted children.

Creative Realization of Art Tasks in Interdisciplinary Learning Process

In the interdisciplinary learning process of visual art, the teachers must provide for the students effective gaining of integrated knowledge such that will encourage them to solve the art tasks creatively. This chapter presents partial results obtained on the basis of an experimental study by means of which the authors wished to determine the effects of visual art learning process conducted in an interdisciplinary manner. The findings of the qualitative analysis of sculpting works showed more creative art solutions by the students from experimental group, which additionally enforced the results of quantitative part of the experimental research carried out. This means that the guidelines concerning the manner of teaching visual art concepts will eliminate ambiguities in the planning of interdisciplinary teaching process applied in visual art education, and will provide the students with more efficient acquisition of integrated knowledge and creative solving of art tasks.

Teaching Teacher Agency in an Era of Standardization

This chapter explains the roles of self-study, teacher agency, and co-teaching as tools of critical pedagogy, to uncover and address hidden curriculum in the era of standardization. The authors provide examples of how critical pedagogy and teacher agency have been effective in teaching for social justice and countering hegemony. The authors also argue and support the idea that teacher agency and co-teaching must be fostered and practiced in teacher-preparation programs. Specifically, they argue that if future teachers are to enact and utilize critical pedagogy, teacher agency, and co-teaching in their own classrooms, they need the opportunity to learn about and practice those skills as student teachers. The authors also detail an experience in which student teachers had the opportunity to collectively engage in co-teaching and teacher agency, with immediate and direct consequences. Finally, they detail the benefits and detriments of implementing teacher agency in the teacher-education capstone course.

The Implicit Pedagogy and the Hidden Curriculum in Postmodern Education

This chapter addresses everyday educational practices known as the “hidden curriculum” and the related term “implicit pedagogy” in today's dominant postmodern theory. It presents results of a survey with preschool and school teachers (N=813) in Croatia and Slovenia in selected three determinants of the hidden curriculum: empathy, personality traits, and preschool and school teachers' attitudes towards space characteristics. In addition to interesting results describing current conditions in these vital populations of institutional life of children, the chapter is getting closer to answering questions like: “What else do children learn in kindergarten and school?” “What affects children's learning, and is nowhere to be ‘measured' in the context of learning?” “Are the phenomena of hidden curriculum that we want to look at the same in the two neighboring countries, in the same groups of professionals?” This is, in the context of postmodernism and postmodern education theories, one of the crucial points.

Irresponsible/Unmindful Parenting

The aim of this chapter is to examine the relationship between contemporary parenting practices, understanding of the child, implicit parenting pedagogy, and the influence of the media on the child which seems an indispensable determinant of child development and upbringing. Given the development of technology, especially the information and communications one, this should not surprise us but make us reflect more on parental roles and responsibilities in this process. Special attention should be directed to understanding implicit parenting pedagogy, where the processes of raising awareness and reflection play the most important role. Parents who are aware of their implicit pedagogy, who cultivate mindful parenting have the advantage over those who do not. When shaping their own parenting practices on these grounds, they can create optimal conditions for child development. The potential adverse effects of modern technologies will be that much smaller if by raising the awareness of their own parenting practices parents develop and progress towards responsible and competent parenting.