This paper aims to shed light on the level of social acceptance among students with learning disabilities (LD4 ) in various secondary school vocational programs in comparison with their peers without disabilities. Our findings are based on an empirical study that comprised 417 students, 5 of whom 85 were students with LD. Based on sociometric analyses of all participating classes, we determined that students with LD were less integrated into the classroom in comparison to their peers without LD. The results of the sociometric analysis show statistically significant differences in the sociometric position between students with LD and students without LD. While students with LD were most frequently perceived as rejected, students without LD were seen as popular or average. In addition, students with LD see themselves as less socially self-efficient compared to their peers. The results of our study mostly refer to boys, because the sample comprised 359 boys and 58 girls. We believe that pro-inclusion teachers with appropriately developed strategies for strengthening students' social skills, as well as positive attitudes and sufficient knowledge about the special needs of students can have a significant impact on the social acceptance of students with special needs in the classroom community.
COBISS.SI-ID: 21468680
This paper describes the instructional design framework and assessment criteria for mathematical problem solving and digital storytelling introduced to an ICT course for student-teachers. Based on the analysis of pre- and posttesting of the subjects' capabilities and reports of their perceptions, it is suggested that preservice teachers can efficiently develop their content knowledge in mathematics problem solving and that an integrative approach such as that described here may facilitate both mathematical problem-solving competences and pedagogical competences for applying digital storytelling in solving mathematical problems. The cohort of preservice teachers had no prior experiences of digital storytelling or multimodal design and perceived them as new practices. Their conceptions changed during the course from the passive recipients to active producers of media content. They perceived digital storytelling as a strategy and means for empowering the "student-voice" and the active construction of knowledge. The findings of the study contribute to preservice teacher education indicating that an integrated approach of instruction that deploys digital storytelling and multimodal design can help facilitate preservice teachers' pedagogical competencies and mathematical content knowledge.
COBISS.SI-ID: 6979425
The researchers of education have tried to find out when the grouping should start and what the objective of grouping is, how it should be performed, and if students should be grouped into heterogeneous groups regarding their abilities or should they stay in homogeneous group. The aim of the research was to analyse the effects of different forms of learning differentiation and individualization in the ninth grade of the primary school in Slovenia. Authors’ aim was analysed two teaching forms of differentiation and individualization that are primarily chosen in mathematics education, i.e. teaching in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. The efficiency was analysed from the point of cognitive aspects (results obtained in various examinations, subject grades etc.) and conative aspects (pupils’ answers in surveys concerning teaching of the subject, attitude towards the subject, teacher-pupil relations etc.).
COBISS.SI-ID: 1537691588
Social integration of students with special needs (SSNs) belongs to efforts for social responsibility as one's responsibility to practise interdependence and requisite holism of approach and wholeness of outcomes. Since the mid-1990s, Slovenia gradually included SSNs in high school programmes. Schools must prepare individualized programmes (IPs) for each SSN. Authors empirically examined implementation of IPs for SSNs and the roles of teachers, students and parents in IP design with grammar school, vocational and technical school teachers, who had a SSN in their class and offered additional professional support (n=131). Authors checked the role of the type of school, impairment and teachers' training. Results show that most students know IPs but only rarely participate in expert team meetings. They are excluded from the decision-making regarding IP learning objectives, particularly students with learning difficulties. Parents are included in the IP implementation and evaluation; however, parents of children with learning difficulties are less involved in this process than the other SSNs. Grammar school teachers are more reserved towards SSNs and IP implementation. Thus, the attained level of systemic behavior via social responsibility, ethics of interdependence and holism differs.
COBISS.SI-ID: 20293896
The purpose of the research was to establish the impact of the application of a concept map in chemistry lessons on the effective solving of tasks with organic reactions content. In the first phase of the research, a concept map was produced representing the reactions of hydrocarbons, organic halogenated compounds and organic oxygen compounds, and in the second phase the produced concept map was introduced in lessons. Its impact was tested on a sample consisting of 186 students (average age of 17.8 years), who were divided into a control group (88 students) and an experimental group (98 students). Prior to the experiment, the two groups were equalized in terms of their level of development of formal logical thinking and their average grade in chemistry. A knowledge test, consisting of five problem tasks comprising multiple parts, was used as a quantitative instrument for measuring the impact of the applied concept map. The content of the knowledge test was selected on the basis of the chemistry lesson plan (reactions of organic oxygen compounds) for general upper secondary schools (in Slovenian: gimnazija). An analysis of the task solving showed statistically significant differences in the responses of the experimental group members and the control group members (experimental group M = 15.9; SD = 6.33; control group M = 13.6; SD = 7.93; p = 0.03). The produced concept map contributed to the more effective interrelation of concepts and, consequently, to more effective problem task solving.
COBISS.SI-ID: 10604617