Opus et Educatio

Building careers through an interdisciplinary approach

Tibor Bors Borbely Pecze — 2024-07-15

Career development support deals with the progress of the professional part of our lives. Every career is accompanied by decision situations, opportunities seized or missed, to which we respond according to our increasing or decreasing security level and the resources available. Both the theory and the daily practice of career counselling and guidance are constantly working with the concept of decision, which it puts into a life-course perspective. Thus, every decision has a past, a present, and a projected future temporal dimension. In Europe, the training and further training of career guidance counsellors is based on an interdisciplinary approach. At the same time, the way each discipline views decision-making and the issues it raises differ, while the results of each discipline have an impact on the other. In this article, I explore three concepts: a) decision, b) the life course, and c) the decision-related issues of each discipline. The literature on decision theory is now vast, and this article does not, of course, undertake a comprehensive treatment of the subject. It does, however, draw the reader's attention to aspects that can be considered in the training and practice of counsellors

Students’ perception of labor market success in vocational education and training

Dora Czirfusz — 2024-07-15

This study explores how vocational students in Europe define professional success. Success, as defined by Seligman (2002), involves satisfaction with one's current situation based on personal capabilities. We analyzed survey data from over 10,000 final-year vocational students to understand their perspectives on subjective (e.g. enjoyment) and objective e.g. (salary) aspects of success. Results show students prioritize objective factors (average score: 2.31) like financial security over subjective factors (average score: 1.69) such as work satisfaction. Prior work experience doesn't affect students' perception of objective success but increases the focus on subjective success. Interestingly, students with at least one college-educated parent value subjective success more, although the impact is small. These findings provide valuable insights for educational institutions to support students' career aspirations. By acknowledging the importance of both objective and subjective goals, vocational training can contribute to individual success and broader social and economic development.

How can adult learning support digitalisation?

Szilárd Malatyinszki — 2024-07-15

Digitalisation, the widespread use and diffusion of digital technologies, has revolutionised the workplace and society in recent years. The spread of digitalisation has had a significant impact on the labour market and the business environment, creating new challenges for employers and employees alike. Adult learning plays a key role in helping workers to adapt and succeed in the new digital environment. Corporate digitalisation, i.e. the widespread use and integration of digital technologies into business processes, is now a key factor for competitiveness and sustainable development. Digitalisation creates new opportunities for companies to increase efficiency, foster innovation and improve customer experience. In this paper, we review how adult learning contributes to digitalisation, to corporate digitalisation and how it helps employees to cope with new challenges and acquire new digital skills. We will summarise the steps companies can take to effectively exploit the opportunities offered by digital technologies.

Professional debates within the international History Didactics

Barnabás Vajda — 2024-07-15

This study is a research paper that aims at analysing and discussing the most often raised scientific debates that have been taking place recently within the international scholar community on the field of history didactics. The specific goal of the study is to point out and evaluate themes such as decline of time frames devoted to school history teaching, the issue of narrativity in school history teaching, and the post-colonial debate. The author analyses and discusses these professional debates in the contex of recent international scientific conferences and scholarly literature that have been resonating among international researchers on the field of history didactics.

Exploring Academic Mobility Experiences of Russian University Faculty Members

Elena Klimkina — 2024-07-15

The paper outlines findings of an exploratory research that investigates international academic mobility experiences of faculty members in Russian universities as part of higher education institutions’ internationalization efforts. The study aims to get an in-depth understanding of academic staff’s motivation, personal expectations and the perceived outcomes of the mobility experience, as well as its influence on teaching and research activities after the mobility period. The study refers to the university context as an ecosystem and discovers the relations between the system levels as a meaningful part of the faculty mobility experience. Ten faculty members employed in different Russian universities were interviewed about their experience of academic mobility abroad. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study allowed to identify and examine 3 dimensions of academic mobility in the Russian context from the perspective of university faculty: (1) personal motivation and benefits of the participating faculty members on the microlevel of the university ecosystem; (2) institutional support and barriers that occur during the preparation and mobility process that reflect the interactions between the micro- and meso-levels of the ecosystem; (3) effects of completed academic mobility on further professional performance of the faculty members, both research and teaching.

Influences on teacher trainers’ lifelong learning competencies

Anikó Kálmán — 2024-07-15

The purpose of this paper was to explore teacher trainers’ perceptions of lifelong learning competences as well as the impacts of new learning communities and learning strategies on their competences. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 teacher trainers in education degree colleges in Myanmar selected by purposive sampling. According to the findings, they perceived lifelong learning as a learning to keep update with the contemporary things. They generally reported high confidence in their competences related to learning to learn, literacy, multilingualism, and digitalism; they reported less competences with science and math as well as entrepreneurialism and multilingualism. The teacher trainers reported both positive and negative effects of new learning communities on their lifelong learning competencies, particularly in the areas of digital and multilingualism competences. In response, most participants used self-regulated learning strategies to gain teaching competences, which then influenced their lifelong learning capacities.

The New Paradigm of Integrating Community Engagement Concept in Ethiopian Public Universities: Challenges and Opportunities

Ildikó Rudnák — 2024-07-15

The purpose of this paper was to assess the new paradigm of Integrating Community Engagement Concept in Ethiopian Public Universities. Several publications, institutional documents, and websites such as UNESCO, Ethiopian Ministry of Education, and Ethiopian universities searched as an approach. At start universities started by the concept of ‘community service’ and gradually coming to a paradigm of the concept of ‘community engagement’ with the new paradigm working “with” community partners and not “for” them. As assessment of establishment showed that 49 out 50 As time Ethiopian universities are young with average and less than 20 years except Addis Ababa University, which established half a century before the country’s first-generation universities. Staff passed through curriculum design not considering corporate social responsibility role of higher education sowing and strengthening the culture the paradigm still requires a lot of work. The paradigm importance of shifting to community engagement in that it is a good strategy to pool of resources from all concerned stakeholders this can sustain the development of the society. A strong foundation for fostering and improving higher education institutions in developing countries like Ethiopia will be extremely important for the capacity of the country's higher education sector and economic development. International higher education institutions around the world have been helping staff from higher education institutions of developing countries to enhance their institutional capacity through scholarship. It is important to keep strengthening the staff by expanding postgraduate study options and fostering collaboration between Ethiopian university personnel and international university personnel.

Gamification: is it suitable for all students?

Dóra Hegyesi — 2024-07-15

During a 6-month period two unrelated classes of a vocational school were examined with regards to their motivational changes throughout traditional and gamified learning. The students’ learner and motivational type were assessed, and their motivational changes were examined in the middle and at the end of the experimental period. Based on the data significant differences can be seen between the motivational changes of students with different learning orientations. While there were no significant changes in the motivational aspects of students with deep and organised learning orientations, students with reproductive learning orientation showed a decrease in confidence, but an increase in satisfaction regarding their schoolwork in Geography.

The Role of Internationalization in the Sustainability of Private Colleges in the Malaysian Higher Education System

Zsuzsa Béda — 2024-07-15

Malaysia is actively pursuing the status of a developed nation, focusing on enhancing economic competitiveness through strategic improvements in higher education and research. Over the past decades, the government's commitment has been evident in the significant allocation of state resources, the establishment of an independent Ministry of Higher Education, and the implementation of continuous strategic planning. These efforts have fostered the development of a well-regulated and interoperable higher education system, achieving notable successes in educational quality and internationalisation. Despite these advancements, the private higher education sector faces persistent sustainability challenges, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines the case of partner institutions affiliated with the University of Nyíregyháza, which, though small, demonstrate dynamic leadership and ambitious future goals. Through onsite data collection and experience, we explore how robust organization and enhanced internationalization processes can stabilize private institutions. The findings suggest that further strengthening internationalization is a viable strategy to address sustainability issues in smaller educational organizations. This study contributes to the discourse on the strategic development of higher education in emerging economies and offers practical insights for enhancing institutional sustainability through internationalization.

Keywords: Malaysian education, private higher institute, internationalisation, sustainable education

Impact of a Professional Learning Community on the Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Myanmar

Moet Myint Lay MOET — 2024-07-15

Professional learning communities provide ongoing professional development for teachers, where they become learning leaders and actively participate in school improvement. Continuing professional development (CPD) is vital in improving educational outcomes, as its importance has been proven over the years. This article explores the need for professional development of teacher educators in Myanmar and the utility of professional learning communities in improving teacher quality. This study aims to explore a comprehensive understanding of professional learning communities to support the professional development of teacher educators in improving the quality of education. The research questions are: (1) What are teacher educators' perceptions of PLCs' influence on their professional development? (2) Are there any variations in the teacher educator's professional development in professional learning communities regarding their factors? (3) Is there any significant relationship between professional learning communities and the professional development of teacher educators? Quantitative research methods were used in this study. Survey data were collected from 70 participants (teacher trainers) from seven Education Colleges. The analysis shows that when done well, professional learning communities can impact teacher quality. Some research suggests that teacher professional development is closely related to teacher professional skills and school improvement. The collective learning process helps teachers understand the subject better and broadens their knowledge base. This will help improve student performance and school quality in the future. Teachers' professional development in PLCs were similar based on their position and teaching service as teacher educators. However, teachers were significantly different regarding their age and educational qualifications. In this study, teachers had a high level of collective efficacy. There were significant differences among teachers based on their teaching age, position and educational qualification. Lack of time, teacher accountability, leadership skills, and the negative attitudes of participating teachers were the most frequently cited challenges in implementing PLCs. As a result, educators and stakeholders can use these findings to implement professional learning communities.

About György Molnár's book: Pedagogy, innovation, technology, digital culture

István Lükő — 2024-07-15

Welcome

András Benedek — 2024-07-15

Our first English-language issue of 2024 will seem ordinary to the reader. For us, in the opinion of the editorial staff, it also reflects the journey that we started together ten years ago, at the end of 2014.

Individual Learning Account: Modeling possible implementation solutions

Erzsébet SZLAMKA — 2024-07-15