Adaptation Period of Beginning Teachers from the Point of View of Strategic Documents – Czech Republic and Bavaria

The induction period is considered one of the most difficult in a teacher’s career. In Israel, support systems for beginning teachers (BTs) include a learning community (LC) and a mentoring process, over a 2-year period. The study was based on self-determination theory and examined how support for BTs’ psychological needs and exploration from the LC facilitator and teacher-mentor contributed to their functioning. The study was conducted over 2 years during which BTs participated in LCs and were accompanied by a teacher-mentor. Questionnaires were administered to Bedouin-Arab and Jewish teachers, 308 interns in the first year, and 205 new teachers in the second. Results of SEM analysis indicated that supporting BTs’ needs and exploration by LC facilitators in both years predicted their autonomous motivation, which in turn predicted positive feelings and satisfaction in the LC. The LC facilitators’ support also predicted the BTs’ autonomous motivation in teaching, which was also predicted by the teacher-mentors’ support. This in turn positively predicted the BTs’ sense of competence and self-actualization, and negatively predicted burnout. In both years, autonomous motivation mediated the association between the support the BTs received, and teacher outcomes in the LC and school. No significant differences were found between the two cultures. The effects found in the second year are above and beyond the effects of support from the LC facilitators and teacher-mentors in the first year. The study indicates the importance of combining multiple induction programs over time and highlights the importance of supporting BTs’ needs during the induction period.

The professional literature describes the complexity of the induction process and the importance of support systems for beginning teachers (BTs). The article discusses a unique self-determination theory (SDT)-based intervention program of learning communities (LC), called Multi-Players Induction Teams (MIT) that operate in schools. The program was developed and implemented as part of the international Proteach Program (Erasmus+ Project, European Union). It was led by a college of education in Israel, and has been researched as a three-year case study in one high school. Each year, 30 - 40 BTs, mentors, administrators, and policymakers participated in the program. The main tool employed in the study was a semi-structured interview. Additional tools included the workshop facilitators’ end-of-year reports, meeting minutes and the participants’ reflective journals. The findings show collaborative systemic work between the school and the policymakers in its locality. The absorption of BTs into the school contributed to improved school climate, and became part of school culture. Additionally, organizational structures promoting BT absorption were established at the school, and a need-supportive environment was established in both the MIT and the school. BTs and mentors express a sense of need satisfaction. The MIT affected the BTs’ positioning at the school as influencing figures who led meaningful educational initiatives. The findings present a unique model of LCs that support teachers during their induction period. They can promote processes for integrating BTs into the education system as autonomous and proactive teachers by creating an environment that supports the psychological needs of BTs and experienced teachers alike.

Reports on drop-out rates and difficulties experienced by beginning teachers require an examination of the motivational processes that characterize teachers at this stage. Support systems for beginning teachers in the induction period in Israel include a workshop and a mentoring process. This study examined how support in beginning teachers’ psychological needs by workshop facilitators and teacher-mentors in schools contributed to their optimal functioning in workshops, schools, and in teaching. Questionnaires were administered to 261 Bedouin Arab and Jewish beginning teachers. Based on structural equation modeling analysis, results indicated that support in teachers’ needs by workshop facilitators predicted a sense of competence and autonomous motivation in the workshops, which in turn predicted autonomous motivation in teaching. Autonomous motivation in teaching was also predicted by the teacher-mentors’ support and in turn predicted teachers’ sense of competence, investment in the school, and sense of self-actualization. The findings have implications regarding the conditions needed to improve the functioning of beginning teachers of various cultural groups and highlight the importance of an environment that supports teachers’ needs during their induction.

Beginning teachers try to turn their theoretical pedagogical knowledge and knowledge of their subjects into practically applicable knowledge and at the same time develop their self-image as teachers. In the moments where beginning teachers can be confused, the personal knowledge of experienced teachers can help in their continuous self-reflection. The most natural form for sharing of such personal experience, which the experienced teachers choose, are stories. In stories it is possible to share personal, moral, emotional, or practical meanings of situations. This article reports on thematic analysis of experienced teachers’ stories. Which stories do experienced teachers share with their new colleagues? Which themes are the most important for experienced teachers that they like to share with others? Such narrative contains hidden, otherwise incommunicable (tacit or practical) knowledge and can help beginners in their process of self-reflection, professional development and in the continuous creating of their self-image as teachers. In this qualitative resarch study, I present several patterns of themes in 20 stories of 15 experienced teachers, in stories that high school and elementary and secondary school teachers tell their beginning colleagues. These people worked as teachers for 15-51 years at primary and secondary schools as well as high schools in the Czech Republic and during these years they got various experience on different positions as educators, as teachers of many subjects, as school directors, school inspectors etc. This was an ideal selection of respondents who do not form any average group of teachers, but rather teachers who wanted to collaborate on research and who like to share their stories with beginning teachers. This article presents results of thematic analysis. The themes that experienced teaches share are tightly connected with teacher careers, understanding the profession and with their own continuous process of self-reflection.

This sketch of art history in the Czech and Slovak Republics starts by following the trajectory of newcomers to the field. In the Czech Republic, about 2,000 young people apply each year to study art history, with fewer than 25% accepted for Bachelor's studies; approximately 100 students then continue on to undertake Master's degrees. In Slovakia, the numbers are close to fifty students accepted every year for Bachelor's study, and twenty for Master's. Thanks to the democratic character of the interwar Czechoslovak Republic, both countries were lucky to evade the more virulent forms of Eastern European nationalism. One of the distinctive features of Czech and Slovak scholarship is an exclusive reliance on topics of local artistic heritage and an almost total evasion of writing on art history outside the country. Keywords:art history; Czech Republic; European nationalism; Slovakia

The study focuses on the emotional-motivational experiences of Bedouin-Arab beginning teachers during the induction period, from the perspective of Self-Determination Theory. A phenomenological study was employed. Seventy-four teachers participated, 62 of whom completed open questionnaires, while semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 other participants. The findings indicate that the beginning teachers reported experiences of coercion, exploitation, and gender-based discrimination (autonomy suppression). They also experienced a judgmental attitude, lack of assistance, and difficulties with students (competence suppression), and their sense of relatedness to the school is impaired due to cultural factors (relatedness suppression). As a result, they expressed controlled motivation, a sense of burnout, stress, impaired well-being and disengagement in school. They also suppressed their students' autonomy. At the same time, the findings also show that when the teachers experience a sense of need satisfaction, they integrate well into the school. These findings indicate the necessity for establishing a need-supportive school environment for beginning teachers during their induction period.

<p>Establishing legal protection to a geosite (or geodiversity site) is considered one of the key tools of how to conserve its values and how to avoid degradation and devastation. The proper management measures (usually included in care plans or other planning and strategic documentation) then help to balance the conservation needs and sustainable use of the sites and allow to gain public finances for these purposes.</p><p>In the Czech Republic, nature conservation is anchored in Act n. 114/1992 Coll. (Nature Conservation Act) which defines several levels of protected areas that can be applied also on geoheritage. However, there are other legislative tools that protect other entities (e.g. agricultural land, water, or forests). The special relationship to geodiversity has Act n. 44/1988 Coll. (Mining Act) which aims to protect the mineral deposits including their deposit areas. Various tools for the protection applied to a single area can cause ambiguities because every protected entity has different management and limitations.</p><p>This is the case of Hády Hill, an area situated in the outskirts of Brno, the second-largest city in the Czech Republic. The area is important from the Earth Science point of view (tectonics, paleontology, geomorphology, stratigraphy, hydrogeology) and has high ecological and cultural values, e.g. occurrence of endangered species linked to the subsoil, remnants of old landscape structures (orchards, pastures), historical mining, use of the building material for Brno monuments. Earth-science and ecological values are protected according to Nature Conservation Act within one National Nature Reserve, two Nature Monuments, and four Important Landscape Elements and partly included in Special Area of Conservation (according to the Habitats Directive - Council Directive 92/43/EEC). Moreover, due to the occurrence of quality limestone, which was extracted from the Middle Ages up to the end of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, the part of the study area is declared as a reserved mineral deposit and protected deposit area (according to Mining Act). All these areas mutually overlap.</p><p>Concerning geoheritage, some phenomena still have no degree of protection, but they are included in the Database of Geological Localities (kept by the Czech Geological Survey) and proposed for legal protection.</p><p>Last but not least, the site undergoes tourist and recreational pressure which is continuously increasing due to the COVID-19 situation (lack of indoor possibilities of how to spend the free time).</p><p>To find the balance between the various conservation needs, management measures, limitations, tourist/recreation pressure, and urban development, it was necessary to do a complex analysis of the various types of protected areas and their values. Based on the SWOT analysis and Risk Assessment, the main threats, risks, and possible conflicts of interest were identified and assessed. Then, specific proposals and possible solutions were designed with an emphasis on effective geoconservation (e.g. declaration of the new or enlarging the currently protected areas), development of sustainable forms of tourism, and future rational use of an area (e.g. via volunteer activities or participative planning of management).</p>

The level of readiness to use information and communication technologies is referred to as a measure of “e-Readiness”. South African universities may be well-placed to use some applications of information and communication technologies, but unable to use others. From review of existing literature, it is unclear as to which factors are regarded as important to be “e-Ready” in the South African Higher education context. In order to address this problem, a research project with the following objectives was proposed: 1. To determine the key focus areas and stakeholders for e-Readiness in South African Higher Education, and 2. To illustrate these key focus areas and stakeholders, and show how they relate to one another in a model for e-Readiness in South African Higher Education. A two-round Delphi questionnaire was conducted with South African universities' Information Technology directors, South African National Research and Education Network managers and Association of South African Information Technology Directors managers. The main outcomes that were achieved were: 1. New definitions for e-Readiness and e-Learning were posited, 2. The key focus areas for e-Readiness were determined as: Information, Infrastructure and Human Capital, 3. Key stakeholders and their proposed key roles were determined, 4. A model for e-Readiness for Teaching and Learning in South African Higher Education was proposed and tested.

In the United States, 50% of beginning teachers leave the classroom in their first 5 years of teaching (Ingersoll & Smith, 2004). This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Success Inventory for Beginning Teachers (PSI-BT), an instrument that can be used to make informed decisions for improving induction programs and ultimately to retain beginning teachers. The PSI-BT assessed factors that contribute to beginning teachers' perceptions of success as well as beginning teacher retention. An extensive literature review, expert opinions, and confirmatory factor analysis established the construct validity of the PSI-BT. Structural equation modeling analyses determined the factors that predicted beginning teacher satisfaction, commitment, retention intentions, and retention. When used to inform targeted professional development and support, we believe this instrument can help school districts improve retention and effectiveness of beginning teachers.

Telemedicine is a way to improve healthcare outcomes with greater efficiency for both patients and care providers. The great potential of digital technologies also lies in strengthening the patient-centered approach. The early successes and benefits of telemedicine in the Czech Republic, amplified by the COVID-19, have contributed to the fact that wider implementation of telemedicine is already generally supported at the expert and public levels. Our research focuses on the identification of key issues in the implementation of telemedicine and the challenges of telemedicine in the future, from the perspective of patients and other stakeholders. The study is based on a qualitative research approach, combining focus groups with key stakeholders, patient panels and expert panels (2021-2022). The lack of rules and uncoordinated development of various activities proved to be the main barriers to the integration of telemedicine in the health system. This regulatory uncertainty can generate a number of problems in the patient-doctor relationship in practice, including ethical ones, and can also lead to inequalities in access to healthcare and affect the overall quality of care provided. Furthermore, it has been shown that patients' interests in the implementation of telemedicine are: 1. a predictable and reliable framework that guarantees them certainty and security in the provision of telemedicine services, 2. telemedicine solutions that increase the availability and efficiency of the care provided while bringing comfort, and 3. user-friendly and simple solutions. At the same time, patients want to understand the new environment and be active participants in the process of digital innovation, including the practical implementation of telemedicine. The research team has developed recommendations for further developments in the implementation of telemedicine that reflect the patient's interest and can be implemented at three levels - the health system, institutional, and community level. In countries with a well-developed and institutionalized patient movement, the community level can be represented by patient organizations, thus becoming the link between telemedicine policy making and implementation at the individual level of healthcare provision. For the further development of telemedicine, the development of a national strategy involving all key stakeholders, including patients, in the implementation has proven essential.

Good governance as a strategic choice in brownfield regeneration: Regional dynamics from the Czech Republic

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the manner beginning teachers are mentored to enhance pedagogical skills in selected government secondary schools in Rukwa region, Tanzania. Specifically, the study explored: i) the manner through which mentoring activities were organised in schools, ii) identification and prioritisation of key areas for mentorship in schools, and iii) the professional support services provided to beginning teachers in schools. The study was guided by socio-cultural theory. Moreover, the study employed a qualitative exploratory approach and case study design in exploring teachers’ experiences on the manner beginning teachers were mentored. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussion and were thematically analyzed. Findings show that mentoring practices involved attaching beginning teachers to experienced teachers in one to one form, peer mentoring networking formation among beginning teachers and team mentoring. Further, the identified areas for mentorship included: the subject content masteries, the teaching and learning materials preparation, the teaching and learning methods application, and the students’ assessment and feedback giving. The professional supports provided to beginning teachers were schemes of work and lesson plans templates, lesson notes, online links and text and reference books. The study concluded that the manner mentorship was practiced in government secondary schools enhanced beginning teachers’ pedagogical skills as one the prerequisite teaching profession skills and personality and hence, be able to effectively implement teaching activities. The study recommended that ministries responsible for education should institutionalise mentoring in schools by enacting laws and providing circulars and guidelines to enforce implementation sustainable mentorship in schools.

Cilem přispěvku je systematicky vymezit problematiku centralniho bankovnictvi v kontextu pravniho řadu na uzemi Ceske republiky. Prace se zabýva nejen legislativnim ramcem vytvařeni suverenni měnove politiky Ceskoslovenska po roce 1918, ale předevsim legislativnim ramcem moderniho pojeti centralniho bankovnictvi v Ceske republice po roce 1993. Prace vymezuje soucasne postaveni a legislativni ramec cinnosti centralni banky a poskytuje nazor na budoucnost centralniho bankovnictvi v souvislosti s harmonizacnimi procesy v ramci Evropskeho systemu centralnich bank, budoucim legislativnim ramcem a s faktickým výkonem zakonných funkci centralni banky.

The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories Presents Abstracts from Its Annual Meeting Due North: Aligning Biobanking Practice with Evolving Evidence and Innovation May 9–12, 2017 Toronto, Canada

This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of the victim support system in the Czech Republic in an international comparative context. The analysis reveals that although the Czech Republic has a legislative framework and a network of organizations providing assistance, the system still has certain shortcomings, particularly in the areas of comprehensive support, availability of services in regions, and specialization for specific victim groups. The study identifies several key areas for improvement, including increased financial support, specialization of services, prevention of secondary victimization, international cooperation, and strengthening the role of non-profit organizations. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need for further research on the long-term impacts of crime on victims, the effectiveness of different types of interventions, the needs of specific victim groups, the role of family and social environment, and intercultural aspects. In conclusion, the victim support system in the Czech Republic has the potential for further improvement. The implementation of the proposed measures would contribute to improving the quality of life of victims and building a more just society.