Interdisciplinary Education Program Research Articles

Development and pilot of an interdisciplinary health education program to address health disparities for gender-diverse persons at the U.S./Mexico border

Purpose: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals face substantial barriers to health equity, which are magnified for TGD persons of color and those living in medically underserved areas. This article presents the development and pilot of an interdisciplinary health education program for TGD individuals in an underserved U.S./Mexico border community. Feasibility of the initiative and challenges of implementing such a program are discussed. Method: A health education program was developed and piloted through a collaboration between The University of Texas at El Paso and a community partner, Borderland Rainbow Center. The program trained graduate students from various health sciences to educate TGD community members, along with their friends, families, and allies, on gender-affirming care and resources. The program took place in El Paso, TX and southern NM, USA between March and October, 2023. Results: Examples of quantitative and qualitative data that were collected from this pilot program are provided. We present descriptive statistics of pre- versus post-survey data as a demonstration of feasibility and as an example of how such data may be structured in future studies that aim to incorporate more robust statistical analysis. Conclusion: The details of the program’s conceptualization and implementation can serve as a model for developing targeted health education interventions for TGD populations in diverse geographic and sociocultural settings. These interventions are critical as they address both community needs and student education to combat health inequities faced by underrepresented or marginalized groups.

Tensions, coherence, and/or progress in early childhood teacher education (ECTE) in the Nordic countries

This special issue provides some needed insight into the tensions, coherence, and/or progress in early childhood teacher education (ECTE) in the Nordic countries. These topics warrant exploration due to complex, and at times contradictory educational landscapes, which must deal with the question of how to generate comprehensive, coherent, and interdisciplinary education programs. Drawing on studies utilizing different theoretical perspectives on tensions, coherence, and progress in higher education, and with the use of a variety of research methodologies, the Nordic authors in this special issue expand our knowledge on current issues and tendencies in ECTE in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. In light of the great importance of and real challenges in the field of early childhood education and care, the question of how to educate early childhood education teachers is highly relevant, and requires more research in, and reflection on, how these teachers are educated. This special issue draws specific attention to opportunities and challenges in ECTE, which has so far received limited research attention.

Sustainable Education for Sustainable Heritage: Managing the Tension Between Professional Practice and Critical Inquiry

ABSTRACT This paper reflects on Uppsala University’s experiences from organizing higher education in conservation, and argues how curricula can be rethought and reorganized to foster a genuine shift towards sustainable education. It discusses various experiences of developing and planning interdisciplinary higher education programs in conservation and how curricula can be transformed to broaden the sustainability competence of future heritage professionals. We need to foster heritage professionals that are capable of exploiting the dynamic and negotiated nature of heritage for the good of society. By embracing change and loss there are opportunities to use heritage in more benign and sustainable ways. But there are profound differences between how heritage and its role in society are understood in conservation as a field of practice and as a field of inquiry. Based on the experience from Uppsala University, the authors argue that there is a need for a conservation curriculum in higher education that balances and integrates normative competence and critical inquiry: a middle path, where opposing perspectives can thrive in parallel.

Building bridges - Fostering collaborative education in training dental informaticians.

Dental informatics is an emerging discipline. Although the accreditation agency governing dental education programs asserts the importance of informatics as foundational knowledge, no well-defined dental informatics courses currently exist within the standard predoctoral dental curriculum. There is a nationwide lack of dental informatics academic programs. This training gap is due to a lack of qualified dental informaticians to impart knowledge on dental informatics. This paper aims to introduce a novel conceptual framework for an interdisciplinary dental informatics program in preparing students to become dental informaticians. In 2023, we developed a standalone graduate certificate program in dental informatics at Indiana University (IU) School of Dentistry in collaboration with IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and IU Fairbanks School of Public Health. Feedback was collected through online surveys to assess course quality from students who took Introduction to Health Information in Dentistry. Feedback was analyzed qualitatively, utilizing a thematic analysis approach. Common responses relevant to dental informatics education were grouped into themes. Five major themes emerged during our analysis of the students' feedback: foundational knowledge and skills; experiential learning: learning by doing; access to resources and working on clinical information systems; health promotion through team-based learning; and retention of knowledge assessment and application. A conceptual framework was formulated through these themes as a guideline for future program improvement. This interdisciplinary educational program framework showed how students and faculty from various disciplines could collaborate, learn from each other, and bring in expertise from different domains. The collaboration happens in clinical, laboratory, and virtual settings to acquire hands on learning through practice and research projects. The developed conceptual framework aligned with the interdisciplinary nature of dental informatics. It can potentially be adopted by other interdisciplinary informatics programs in health and non-health care disciplines.

Authentic interdisciplinary online courses for alternative pathways into computer science

The field of computer science (CS) is facing a crucial challenge in broadening participation and embracing diversity, especially among underrepresented gender groups. The presented interdisciplinary educational program is an efficient response to this challenge, designed to catalyze diversity in CS through engagement with complex, interest-driven problems. This paper outlines the program’s structure, elucidates the pedagogical underpinnings, and reflects on the emergent challenges and opportunities. We delve into how the fusion of CS with other academic disciplines can allure a more varied demographic, emphasizing the engagement of female high school students—a demographic pivotally positioned yet significantly untapped in CS. Through a systematic survey analysis, we measure the program’s efficacy in increasing interest in CS and in cultivating an appreciation for its application in addressing real-world, cross-disciplinary challenges. Our findings affirm the program’s success in bridging the engagement gap by leveraging students’ intrinsic interests, thus charting alternative pathways into the CS field. These insights underscore the critical role of interdisciplinary approaches, establishing a new standard for transformative CS educational methods.

Higher legal education in Ukraine: vectors of reforms

It is indicated that the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which has been going on for the third year, and the progress of European integration processes taking place in our country, require overcoming challenges in the field of higher legal education. One of the important such challenges is the increase in demand from employers for qualified graduates of higher educational institutions who have modern theoretical and practical training in the fields of tax, administrative, contractual, economic and corporate law. At the same time, there is a high demand among employers for specialists who specialize in the field of corporate relations for legal support of the business activities of international corporations working in the agricultural and other sectors of the Ukrainian economy; participation in international and national arbitration and commercial courts in the consideration of corporate disputes in the interests of companies that do not fulfill their obligations in favor of counterparties that maintain relations with the aggressor state or sanctioned persons; judicial protection of corporate rights of foreign and domestic investors; protection in international arbitrations of the interests of Ukrainian business companies that supply material property for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in case of violation of their obligations to them by foreign companies; participation in legal proceedings regarding the recovery of funds and other assets from sanctioned persons in favor of Ukraine or its business entities, etc. The article examines ways of reforming higher legal education in the conditions of armed aggression of russian federation against Ukraine and its European integration into the European Union. The current requirements of employers for law graduates of higher educational institutions are analyzed. The proposed vectors of reforming the educational process, in particular, from the corporate law course, through the introduction of innovative educational programs that meet international world standards, including EU requirements in the field of higher legal education. The need to develop and use interdisciplinary educational programs for the training of lawyers is substantiated. It is recommended that a separate section in these programs provide for the teaching of a corporate law course. Suggested topics from this course include, in particular, corporate law under martial law; adaptation of Ukrainian corporate legislation to the legislation of the European Union - status and prospects; the accession of Ukraine to the European Union as a factor in its victory over russian aggressor country and other topics. A comparative analysis of EU directives and regulations and Ukrainian legislation regulating corporate relations was made.

Crossing troubled waters: building a bridge across gender divisions among water professionals in South Asia

This paper examines the reasons for the limited presence of women in the water sector in South Asia and reviews recent efforts at reversing this trend. The reasons for the under representation of women in the sector are the perceived masculine nature of the sector, gender-based discrimination at the work place, and the absence of gender sensitive working environment. A change in the curricula of water education programs from engineering-oriented programs to inter-disciplinary programs and the launch of new inter-disciplinary water resources education programs is likely to reverse this trend. Increased donor interest in this has given a push to such efforts. The launch of new initiatives and programs is likely to increase the number of women water professionals in the near future; however, given the large absolute numbers of men, these numbers would still relatively be low. Financial and administrative support to female students will be necessary to make the water sector more gender sensitive and gender balanced, along with creating conditions that would allow a better expression of women’s interests.

Development of Bio-Economics and Training Highly-Qualified HR in Russian Regions

Bibliographic and bibliometric analyses showed a serious growth in the number of investigations on bio-economics in 2016–2023. It was pointed out that for bio-economics development we need not only the generation of effective bio-technologies but also their translation – knowledge proliferation. Traditionally these functions are realized mainly through system of personnel training, which gives an opportunity to train highly-qualified workers capable of maintaining effectiveness of production forces at the advanced level. In view of this the present article compiled a sample of 36 Russian universities by ‘Bio-technology and bio-engineering’ and ‘Ecology’ ratings. In addition 10 more universities were included by ‘Economics’ rating. The entry of each university was fixed for subsequent visualization by cartography in order to find regions of prospective development of inter-disciplinary and convergent education programs. Later on a broader sample of leading home universities research was conducted on education programs aimed at training qualified personnel for developing ecologic bio-technologies based on new knowledge. Findings of the research demonstrate that Russia has got prospects for effective development of bioeconomics based on ecologic bio-technologies.

Professional Culture of Future Specialists Within the Framework of Ukraine’s Sustainable Development Concept

In an increasingly globalized world, the imperative of sustainable development underscores the pivotal role of education and professional culture in nurturing sustainability-oriented mindsets and actions. This paper aims to explore the nexus between educational practices, professional culture, and sustainable development goals, particularly within the context of the Ukrainian national educational system and professional community. Through a comprehensive review of literature and empirical analysis, the study elucidates that the integration of sustainable development into educational curricula and professional ethos fosters heightened awareness and conscientious engagement with global environmental, economic, and social challenges. It underscores the significance of organizational cultures characterized by adaptability, innovation, and collaborative learning in advancing sustainable development agendas. However, effective implementation necessitates proactive strategies adaptable to evolving societal demands. The research advocates for the augmentation of interdisciplinary educational programs coupling theoretical insights with practical applications tailored to address real-world sustainable development challenges. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of incentivizing participation in sustainable development initiatives among educators and students alike, leveraging innovative learning technologies. Future research avenues should center on assessing the efficacy of such initiatives and devising methodologies for monitoring and evaluating their societal impact, thereby advancing sustainable development objectives.

Salutogenic Design as Health Preservation Technology: Prospects for Implementation in Public Health

Introduction. The concept of salutogenic design, focused on creating a healthy environment, is based on the salutogenesis concept, developed back in the 1970s by Aaron Antonovsky. This approach is becoming increasingly popular in urban planning, development, and certification of buildings, offices, and medical fa-cilities. Due to ongoing national projects, there is an increasing demand for specialists in public health and salutogenic design in Russia, which has justified the creation of an interdisciplinary educational program. Objective. To present the implementation of the network master's program "Salutogenic Design" in the field of public health and the creation of a healthy urban environment.Materials and methods. We conducted literature review on existing practices for applying salutogenic de-sign in urban planning and described the implementation of the network master's program "Salutogenic De-sign" at the Institute of Leadership and Health Management of the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University) and Moscow institute of architecture (MIARCH).Results. The concept of salutogenic design is a prominent scientific and practical issue for researchers, pro-fessional community, and executive authorities worldwide, with particular interest in implementation studies of salutogenic design for designing and constructing environments, transport, medical organizations, and the urban landscape, as well as developing tools for urban environment assessment. The master's program "Salutogenic Design" is a unique educational experience that includes the development of professional skills in an interdisciplinary area of health sciences and urban planning, distinguishing it from other educational projects.

To the Problem of Improving the Education of Industrial Design Specialists in Ukraine

New world challenges increasingly require designers to solve social problems of humanity, so designers are entrusted with increasingly complex and impressive tasks. However, the modern system of design education does not always prepare students for these tasks. This article analyses how the educational process of training designers in European countries is built.
 The realities of the development of industrial design in Spain and Ukraine are given, with an immersion in the historical prerequisites for the formation of this field of activity. The development of industrial design in countries is demonstrated, taking into account historical, economic and political prerequisites. The training programs were considered and the content of the training of industrial design engineers in Spain and the content of the training of industrial design specialists in Ukraine were compared. In the process of studying the training programs, significant differences in the understanding of the field of activity and the content of the training of industrial designers in Ukraine and Spain were revealed. This fact is reflected in the demand of students to study in the relevant training programs.
 In order to demonstrate the shortage of industrial design engineers in the production sector of industry, the labour market requirements for these specialists in Ukraine are given. According to the results of the analysis, the inconsistency of the training content of industrial designers with the requirements of the labour market was demonstrated both at the legislative level and at the level of employers’ requirements
 In order to meet the needs of industry and bring Ukrainian education to European requirements, it is proposed to introduce a new interdisciplinary educational program for training engineers in industrial design in Ukraine, taking into account the experience of the Spanish School of Industrial Design, which has incorporated the best English and European practices.
 It should contain two main focuses of training: engineering and aesthetics. At the same time, business awareness and environmental awareness when making decisions should become a mandatory component of the training of industrial design engineers.

Parental Awareness Regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome and Associated Factors in Jordan

Background: Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a serious public health issue believed to result from non-accidental trauma by violently shaking the baby. Purpose: To evaluate the awareness about SBS among parents in Jordan. Risk factors associated with SBS including psychological distress and age were investigated. Methods: A descriptive questionnairebased study consisting of demographic characteristics, SBS knowledge, and parental selfreported psychological distress was conducted. The questionnaire was conducted online between September and October 2022. Descriptive analysis of frequency and percent distribution was used for demographic analysis. Contingency table (Cross Tabulation and Chi-square) along with frequency analysis was used to describe the associations among the frequency distributions of the categorical variables. Results: Over two-thirds (67.65%) of parents (a total of 306 participants) were unaware of SBS and 68.30% of them reported shaking their children. Aging was significantly associated with less SBS knowledge and more self-reported psychological distress. Self-reported psychological distress was significantly associated with increased shaking incidents (p<0.05). Most parents who had shaken their children and were unaware of the syndrome reported psychological distress at an ages of 30 and above. Conclusion: A serious lack of SBS awareness exists among parents in Jordan. Parents’ characteristics including age and self-reported psychological distress are important factors to formulate a logical understanding of the SBS phenomenon. The triad of SBS knowledge, age and psychological distress should be essential components of successful educational programs. Implications for Nursing: The study supports the need for SBS interdisciplinary education and training programs for parents and professionals caring for babies in pediatrics units. Keywords: Shaken baby syndrome, Knowledge, Psychological distress, Abusive head trauma.

TRAINING OF FUTURE TEACHERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN THE USA

Resolving the problem of the global environmental crisis determines not only the modification of production technologies, but also changes in people's lives, their consciousness and attitude towards nature. Compliance of the values of a new culture, a person of a post-industrial society with global environmental laws requires targeted environmental preparation. Consequently, the leading role in this process belongs to the educational system. Valuable experience in environmental education has been accumulated in the USA. Its study and implementation of best practices in the Ukrainian educational sphere makes it possible to increase the level of environmental culture of future teachers. The purpose of the article is to study the experience of training of future teachers in environmental education in higher education institutions in the USA. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, systematization (to clarify the key concepts of the study), study of educational programs (to determine their environmental content), comparison, generalization (to form the author's conclusions). The features of environmental training of future teachers in some US universities have been studied. Using the example of teacher training at the University of Portland, it was established that environmental education is implemented through the study of various disciplines («Introduction to environmental education», «Factors of environmental education», «Methods of studying ecology»), as well as extracurricular work (participation in the environmental movement, work of the student ecological association). The activities of the Center for Natural Education and the interfaculty association «Environmental Science and Natural Resources Management», which operate at the university and provide environmental training to students, have been studied. The areas of environmentalization of the training of future teachers, which can be implemented in Ukrainian higher education institutions, have been identified: the formation of a system of continuous ecological training of teachers in higher education; creation of special structures (centres, associations) of environmental orientation in universities, the functions of which are the development of interdisciplinary educational programs of environmental content for future teachers of various specialties, preparation of educational and methodological materials for environmental courses, conducting environmental events.

Evaluation of an Interdisciplinary Educational Program to Foster Learning Health Systems: Education Evaluation.

Learning health systems (LHS) have the potential to use health data in real time through rapid and continuous cycles of data interrogation, implementing insights to practice, feedback, and practice change. However, there is a lack of an appropriately skilled interprofessional informatics workforce that can leverage knowledge to design innovative solutions. Therefore, there is a need to develop tailored professional development training in digital health, to foster skilled interprofessional learning communities in the health care workforce in Australia. This study aimed to explore participants' experiences and perspectives of participating in an interprofessional education program over 13 weeks. The evaluation also aimed to assess the benefits, barriers, and opportunities for improvements and identify future applications of the course materials. We developed a wholly online short course open to interdisciplinary professionals working in digital health in the health care sector. In a flipped classroom model, participants (n=400) undertook 2 hours of preclass learning online and then attended 2.5 hours of live synchronous learning in interactive weekly Zoom workshops for 13 weeks. Throughout the course, they collaborated in small, simulated learning communities (n=5 to 8), engaging in various activities and problem-solving exercises, contributing their unique perspectives and diverse expertise. The course covered a number of topics including background on LHS, establishing learning communities, the design thinking process, data preparation and machine learning analysis, process modeling, clinical decision support, remote patient monitoring, evaluation, implementation, and digital transformation. To evaluate the purpose of the program, we undertook a mixed methods evaluation consisting of pre- and postsurveys rating scales for usefulness, engagement, value, and applicability for various aspects of the course. Participants also completed identical measures of self-efficacy before and after (n=200), with scales mapped to specific skills and tasks that should have been achievable following each of the topics covered. Further, they undertook voluntary weekly surveys to provide feedback on which aspects to continue and recommendations for improvements, via free-text responses. From the evaluation, it was evident that participants found the teaching model engaging, useful, valuable, and applicable to their work. In the self-efficacy component, we observed a significant increase (P<.001) in perceived confidence for all topics, when comparing pre- and postcourse ratings. Overall, it was evident that the program gave participants a framework to organize their knowledge and a common understanding and shared language to converse with other disciplines, changed the way they perceived their role and the possibilities of data and technologies, and provided a toolkit through the LHS framework that they could apply in their workplaces. We present a program to educate the health workforce on integrating the LHS model into standard practice. Interprofessional collaborative learning was a major component of the value of the program. This evaluation shed light on the multifaceted challenges and expectations of individuals embarking on a digital health program. Understanding the barriers and facilitators of the audience is crucial for creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment. Addressing these challenges will not only enhance participant engagement but also contribute to the overall success of the program and, by extension, the broader integration of digital health solutions into health care practice and, ultimately, patient outcomes.

ANALYSIS OF INTERDISCIPLINARITY AND TRANSDISCIPLINARITY OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS IN THE GROUP "LAW" IN THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

The paper discusses the problem of interdisciplinarity of education as a reflection of the interdisciplinarity of social and professional legal activity. The article considers the interdisciplinarity of university legal education, the formation of general education programs of various directions on an interdisciplinary basis. The special role of the choice of tools and mechanisms for achieving interdisciplinarity of educational programs is emphasized. The article analyzes the features of creating a system of evaluation of interdisciplinary educational programs in the group "Law" in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The author reveals the essence and place of transdisciplinary research in the higher school education system as an innovative direction in the training of scientific personnel. Transdisciplinarity is understood as the study of the subject (more precisely, the elements of the subject area) of one scientific discipline using the methods and terminology of another discipline; in other words, it is the study of the subject by representatives of one discipline of another. It is with interdisciplinarity that the successes of modern natural sciences can be linked, many areas of which (for example, nanoscience) do not "fit" into a narrow disciplinary framework. An interdisciplinary approach is best suited for studying complex, multi-level, heterogeneous, continuously changing institutional systems. The author of the article suggests some ways to implement the recommendations of the World Declaration on Higher Education for the 21st Century. In turn, in order for transdisciplinarity to become accessible and understandable to teachers and university students, it should be presented in the form of a scientific approach. In other words, transdisciplinarity should be an independent scientific direction with its own research subject and concept, transdisciplinary approach and language, units of measurement and models of reality, method of information analysis and methodology of risk analysis of decisions. In this context, transdisciplinarity will allow for the general scientific classification and systematization of disciplinary knowledge. After such processing, disciplinary knowledge becomes fully adapted to their joint use in solving research and practical problems of any complexity and complexity.

Five-year follow-up of an interdisciplinary oral health education program: Clinical practice behaviors in working pediatric nurse practitioners.

Many interdisciplinary oral health education programs have been implemented for pediatric primary care providers (e.g., pediatric nurse practitioner [PNP]) to raise awareness and gain skills related to the prevention of early childhood caries (ECC). However, no studies have evaluated if these educational programs provided to PNPs during their training resulted in clinical practice behavior changes. A 33-item survey was designed on a web-based platform (Survey Monkey) and distributed to 71 PNP graduates. The survey included demographics, current clinical practice, clinical practice behaviors, and perceived barriers to practice. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the survey items and thematic analyses on the open-ended questions. The survey response rate was 70% (50/71 PNPs). Most practicing PNPs were in acute care or specialty clinics (n = 33; 66%) where oral health was not part of the focused visit. Majority used knowledge learned in assessment and anticipatory guidance skills. However, only 14% of primary care providers were applying fluoride varnish with 10% billing for this procedure. Barriers to application were time, available supplies, COVID protocols, lack of support staff, or not billing due to minimal reimbursement. Many primary care-trained PNPs were practicing in acute or subspecialty areas where prevention of ECC is not viewed as part of their focused visit. Pediatric nurse practitioners working in primary care demonstrated some clinical practice changes. However, areas for improvement are time to perform a risk assessment and application of fluoride varnish, access to these supplies, and standard billing and insurance reimbursement for these preventable services.

Impact of an Interdisciplinary Educational Programme on Students' Physical Activity and Fitness.

Educational initiatives and actions are needed to provide students with skills to create active habits and lifestyles in order to increase the physical activity and fitness levels of young people. The main objective of this study was to analyse the effects of a classroom-based physical activity and life skills programme on students' physical activity and fitness levels. The sample consisted of 65 students in the 6th grade of Primary Education, aged between 11 and 13 years (11.86 ± 0.53), divided into a control group (CG) and an experimental group (EG) for convenience and accessibility. This was a quasi-experimental, repeated measures, longitudinal cut-off research design. For 16 weeks, an interdisciplinary educational programme based on a combination of classroom-based physical activity and life skills was implemented. The results showed that the educational programme had a positive effect on students' physical activity levels during school hours, specifically on reducing sedentary time (p < 0.001) and increasing light (p < 0.001) and moderate-to-vigorous (p < 0.001) physical activity. Positive effects were also found on the variables of explosive strength (p < 0.05) and aerobic capacity (p < 0.05) related to physical fitness. In conclusion, interdisciplinary educational programmes based on the promotion of physical activity and life skills could contribute to the development of responsible daily physical activity habits in students to facilitate their transfer to other environments (social and family) outside school.

Responding flexibly to the complex problem of chronic pelvic pain: Incorporating patient needs into program development.

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in women is both common and disabling, and access to interdisciplinary care is limited. Patient education programs may represent a pragmatic approach to delivering interdisciplinary care, but to date the specific educational needs of patients with CPP are unknown. We surveyed 136 patients at a tertiary CPP treatment center to identify their educational needs and preferences; 71 (52%) completed surveys. Based on the results, we developed an interdisciplinary educational program, including expert presentations and an extensive participant handbook. We modified our program to a webinar format following the advent of COVID-19. Participants registered for the webinar only or for our study involving completion of three measures of pain-related functioning before and 2 months after the webinar. Our survey results indicated that CPP patients were most interested in learning about the diagnosis and treatment of CPP, coping with CPP, and diet and exercise in the context of CPP; patients also indicated a preference for brief, one-time programs. Of the 164 webinar participants, 64 (39%) enrolled in the study and completed baseline measures; 20 (31%) of those returned follow-up measures 2 months after the webinars. Participants who completed follow-up measures reported significant reduction in pain-related interference; no other significant differences were observed. Participants who completed feedback surveys were positive in their evaluation of the program. Patients with CPP desire more knowledge about their complex symptoms. Addressing their specific needs through educational supports may enhance their ability to manage their symptoms independently. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Effects of the ACTIVE VALUES Program on Psychosocial Aspects and Executive Functions

The main objective of this study was to implement an educational program named ACTIVE VALUES and to analyse the psychosocial and cognitive effects of its application. It is a quasi-experimental repeated measures research with a non-randomised experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). The sample consisted of 102 students in the 6th grade of primary school, aged between 11 and 13 years (M = 11.59; SD = 0.60), and 4 teachers aged between 27 and 52 years (M = 38.5). The intervention program lasted 4 months, in which the EG implemented a teaching methodology based on the incorporation of classroom-based physical activity (CB-PA) in the structure of the Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model to develop personal and social values in students, as well as to reduce children's sedentary behaviour in the classroom in different educational areas (e.g., mathematics, Spanish language, social sciences and natural sciences), while the CG used a conventional methodology based on direct instruction. The main results found show significant improvements in intrinsic motivation variables (including intrinsic motivation for achievement, stimulating experiences and knowledge), self-determination index, autonomy, relatedness, psychological mediators index, personal and social responsibility, teacher climate, intention to be physically active and executive functions in the EG, while amotivation values increased in the CG. In conclusion, interdisciplinary educational programs based on the combination of pedagogical models and active methodologies are postulated as methodological alternatives to achieve an integral and multilateral development of children and adolescents, as well as to improve the different learning domains of physical education, such as cognitive, social and motor. It is recommended that future research should consider longitudinal designs with mixed methods and follow-up data to assess learning retention, as well as larger samples and the measurement of a greater number of executive functions (e.g., inhibitory control and attention).

Educational and Professional Programme “Online Journalism and Blogging”: Interdisciplinary Content of the Speciality “Information, Library and Archival Management”

The aim of the study is to identify and substantiate the list of competencies required by a specialist within the interdisciplinary major “Online Journalism and Blogging” in the field of study “Information, Library, and Archival Management”. The research methodology is based on the use of a set of general scientific and special methods: analysis and synthesis, the method of comparative analysis for comparing the standards of higher education, which form the subject field of activity of a future specialist majoring in “Online Journalism and Blogging” in the field of study “Information, Library, and Archival Management”; the method of content analysis in the study of texts and documents; a hypothetical method for justifying the need for online journalism in the activities of institutions and the infrastructure of the document and information sphere. The scientific novelty consists in identifying the list of competencies required by a specialist within the interdisciplinary major “Online Journalism and Blogging” in the field of study “Information, Library and Archival Management” and substantiating the main focus of the educational programme, which is outlined as the formation and development of professional competence in providing press strategies in various forms of their implementation in the digital social and information environment as an integrative activity that includes information (document)-communicative and journalistic components. Conclusions. Increasing the competitiveness of modern specialists is normalised today by the introduction of interdisciplinary educational programmes into the educational process. The offer of the educational and professional programme “Online Journalism and Blogging” in the field of study “Information, Library and Archival Management” provides for mastering the knowledge related to the programme subject areas 061 Journalism and 029 Information, library and archival management, which determine its subject area, and the integration of educational content in these fields. The projected activity of the future specialist in the educational and professional programme “Online Journalism and Blogging” is within the framework of such basic concepts as “information resource” – “social communications” – “information product” in their interconnection and mediation by the use of digital technologies. The main focus of the educational programme and major is the formation and development of professional competence in providing press strategies in various forms of their implementation in the digital social and information environment as an integrative activity that includes information (document)-communicative and journalistic components.