Lifelong Competence Research Articles

Sustaining Lifelong Competency of Surgeons: Multimodality Empowerment Personal and Institutional Strategy.

Sustaining Lifelong Competency of Surgeons: Multimodality Empowerment Personal and Institutional Strategy.

What American children's museum mission statements say about Lifelong Competencies

AbstractChildren's museums are a distinct type of museum—one particularly poised to engage and support the development of Lifelong Competencies that will help children live into their own successful and fulfilling futures. Understudied in the children's museum, which one(s) they prioritize is largely unknown, and, thus, so is their optimization. This work draws upon the important communication tool of institutional mission statements. Frequency analysis of the terms in 321 American children's museum mission statements (Study A) identified that children's museums prioritize the Lifelong Competencies of creativity and curiosity. Thematic analysis of the 119 mission statements that included these terms (Study B) indicated that children's museums' intended practice for achieving creativity and curiosity is through experiences, environments, and play with a focus on hands‐on and interactive elements, family‐friendly features, eliciting a positive affect, and experiences that are educational and innovative. Furthermore, creativity and curiosity are primarily valued as mediators toward learning.

Self-Esteem among University Students: How It Can Be Improved through Teamwork Skills

Teamwork skills have been demonstrated to be excellent allies for the academic and professional sphere, and they can improve students’ psychological balance and self-esteem. For this reason, it is important to explore the relationship between teamwork skills and self-esteem. Considering the relevance of soft skills and self-esteem in university training, the main objective of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between teamwork skills and the successful development of self-esteem, a fundamental emotional factor in education. Additionally, we will analyse how self-esteem is related to other socio-academic factors (age, sex, and GPA). A questionnaire was distributed to social science university students. The Rosenberg 10-item scale, which aims to measure feelings of personal worth and self-respect, has been used to determine self-esteem. To measure soft skills for teamwork, we chose the Teamwork Skills Questionnaire, which evaluates the skill level of an individual in order to participate effectively in teamwork. The regression model indicates that self-esteem predictors related to teamwork skills are decision making, leadership, and communication. The results suggest significant differences in some individual variables, such as sex and age, with lower self-esteem being observed in females and older students. The described enriching interactions suggest the need to integrate teamwork training and self-esteem fostering at university to offer students lifelong competencies for their future success.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN GEORGIAN’S TEACHERS, STUDENTS AND PARENTS

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) model on Digital Citizenship Education (DCE) has at its basis the ‘Competencies of Democratic Culture’ model, which considers being an active and responsible citizen and implies the development of a set of lifelong competencies both online and offline at various levels, as well. Taking the ‘Competencies of Democratic Culture’ the CoE experts elaborated on the DCE domains, which are the appropriate way to develop democratic culture competences in the digital environment. Georgia, as a member country, signed the agreement on DCE to be applied at the K-12 curriculum level and joined the DCE project of the CoE in July 2020. Thus, as an educational concept, DCE is relatively new to the education system of Georgia. The aim of the study was to describe the current situation concerning DCE in Georgia, namely on awareness of the concept and its foundations, as well as identifying self-reported DCE competences by teachers, students and parents, in the light of the Ribble’s and the CoE’s models. Data was collected in five schools in 2020. The issue was studied using the quantitative method, an online survey, 1954 respondents were involved in the research. It was demonstrated that most of the respondents had a lack of awareness about information-communication technologies. It can be concluded that communication among school teachers, students and parents about the issues of digital security has not started yet. The correlation between the geographic location of a school and teachers’ digital competences is not confirmed. Keywords: digital citizenship education, digital domains, digital competences, digital school culture, exploratory sequential design

Systems Thinking Skills and the ICT Self-Concept in Preschool Teachers for Sustainable Curriculum Transformation

The importance of early learning is even greater today if we are to prepare children for the 21st century by developing several lifelong competencies. With the advent of digitalization, some educators already integrate information communication technology (ICT) into early childhood, whereas others also have concerns about early implementation. However, the introduction of digital competencies from the perspective of systems thinking among preservice and in-service preschool teachers has not yet been demonstrated. The purpose of this study is to identify preschool teachers’ systems thinking skills and their ICT self-concept and to develop a pathway model for developing an ICT self-concept for sustainable and digital preschool education using systems thinking. An empirical research design with advanced statistical analysis and structural equation modeling was used. The sample consists of 172 preschool teachers. The results showed small differences between the preservice and in-service preschool teachers in the areas of “sequence of events” and “communication” in favor of preservice preschool teachers. Regardless of the group of preschool teachers, systems thinking develops self-concept in relation to ICT equally. The pathway diagram shows that “understanding the relationships between patterns” is the strongest predictor of the ICT self-concept, that only perceiving and understanding the inter-relationships of factors influence problem solving, and that understanding variations of different types (random/specific) and causal sequences alone has predictive power for “process and store” in the context of the ICT self-concept. The developed model will help educators, researchers, and curriculum designers to improve preschool education practices and transform the curriculum in a sustainable way.

Doctoral students' intention to use assessments in their career: The incremental role of self-reported competence.

Attaining competence in assessment is a necessary step in graduate training and has been defined to include multiple domains of training relevant to this attainment. While important to ensure trainees meet these standards of training, it is critical to understand how and if competence shapes a trainees' professional identity, therein promoting lifelong competency. The current study assessed currently enrolled graduate trainees' knowledge and perception of their capabilities related to assessment to determine if self-reported and performance-based competence would incrementally predict their intention to use assessment in their future above basic training characteristics and intended career interests. Self-reported competence, but not performance-based competence, played an incremental role in trainees' intention to use assessments in their careers. Multiple graduate training characteristics and practice experiences were insignificant predictors after accounting for other relative predictors (i.e., intended career settings, integrated reports). Findings are discussed about the critical importance of incorporating a hybrid competency-capability assessment training framework to further emphasize the role of trainee self-efficacy in hopes of promoting lifelong competence in their continued use of assessments.

High School Students' Social Jetlag, Lifelong Competency, and Academic Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study.

With the prolongation of non-ordinary situations such as school closures due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, high school students have experienced irregular sleep-wake cycles and elevated academic stress resulting from reduced academic achievement and widened gaps in academic performance. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the associations among chronotype, social jetlag, lifelong learning competency, and academic stress in high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected through an online survey from May–June 2021. The mean social jetlag was found to be 2 h and 9 min, and multiple regression analysis revealed that social jetlag and lifelong competency affected academic stress. Thus, measures to minimize social jetlag and improve lifelong learning competencies should be implemented to reduce academic stress among high school students. School nurses should identify students with severe social jetlag and provide guidance and interventions to promote sleep hygiene and regular lifestyles.

가정배경이 초등학생의 생애학습역량에 미치는 영향 분석

Objectives This study primarily aims to analyze the variables that affect the lifelong competencies of elementary school students, focusing on the variables associated with family background
 Methods To explore the research question, variance analysis, regression analysis, and other analyses were conducted on data from ‘2018 Youth Competency Index Measurement and International Comparative Study V’
 Results With respect to elementary school students’ lifelong competencies, student gender, academic grades, parental education, household income, and school location were found to have a statistically significant influence on them. The analysis of the sub-competencies of the lifelong competencies—critical thinking, the ability to utilize intellectual tools, learning agility, and self-directed learning—were found to be influenced by student gender, school year, academic grades, and household income, and the ability to utilize intellectual tools was influenced by student school year, academic grades, household income, and school location. In addition, student gender, academic grades, parent education, household income, and school location had a statistically significant influence on learning agility, and student gender, school year, academic achievement, family composition, household income, and school location had a statistically significant influence on self-directed learning.
 Conclusions Based on the analysis results of the variables that affect the lifelong competencies of elementary school students and the sub-competencies of these lifelong competencies, relevant policies and follow-up studies have been proposed

Quality-driven university curriculum reform in Zimbabwe: a critical conceptualisation of harmonised minimum bodies of knowledge

PurposeThe surging demand for higher education in Africa for expedited socio-economic growth and global sustainable development demands customising gains made elsewhere for local benefit through quality provision. This study contributes to local and international discourses on the refinement of results-based university learning content determination on the lines of the Bologna Process, and advocates the development of situationally relevant curricula for successful national advancement in Zimbabwe.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative study uses records and documentary analysis, interviews and meetings with key participants involved in shaping academic processes at one of the country's young and fragile universities. The introspective research approach enabled the cumulative experiential and reflective contributions of participants to shape both the dialogue and follow-up action on the adoption of minimum bodies of knowledge in university curriculum reform.FindingsParticipants celebrated efforts to pit harmonisation alongside autonomy in academic discourses, and suggested improvements on the mechanisms to define policy and operational frameworks for diversely-oriented academic establishments. They lauded and interrogated the discourse around minimum bodies of knowledge, calling for further critical research and analysis for defining clarity on its harmonisation function.Originality/valueThis paper traverses the rapidly expanding Zimbabwe higher education system's endeavours to regulate mandates and operations, in pursuit of relevance, quality and excellence and examines stakeholder efforts at determining streamlined university curricula. It contributes uniquely to collective regulation of multiple institutions towards quality academic agendas that underpin the life-long competences of the institutions' graduates.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIRECTIONS AND CONDITIONS OF THE FORMATION OF LANGUAGE AWARENESS AMONG YOUNG MEN AND GIRLS

The article emphasizes the interdependence between language and civic competence: language and its manifestation in consciousness (language consciousness) is one of the decisive factors in the formation of national consciousness. It has been proven that language, language consciousness plays the most important role in realizing the individuality of the people. Therefore, the priority educational task in the institution of higher education is the preparation of students for active professional activity in today’s conditions. The conditions for the formation of students’ language awareness were determined and methodical recommendations were given for conducting work in this direction. The basis of modern language education is personally oriented, student-centered learning, which determines the personal development of the student as a national-linguistic personality, the development of his individual abilities and the formation of lifelong competences through the formation of linguistic consciousness. Forming the civic competence of students on the basis of language awareness, we must, first of all, optimize the forms, methods and means of education aimed at the development of the national language personality, the bearer of the national language picture of the world, future highly cultured professional citizens with highly developed language awareness on moral and spiritual grounds, legal, democratic principles, which are the key to the development of the Ukrainian state and its entry into the European community.

수업컨설팅 기반의 교수역량 및 교수생애주기별 프로그램 교육요소 탐구

본 연구는 2013년도부터 2018년도까지 K대학 교수학습지원센터에서 운영하는 전문 컨설턴트의 수업컨설팅 프로그램에 참여한 교수들을 대상으로 수업 관찰과 자료 분석을 통해 교수자가 갖추어야 할 교수핵심역량과 이를 강화할 수 있는 교수생애프로그램의 교육요소들을 도출하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 이를 위해 본 연구에서는 수업컨설팅 관련 연구 및 사례 및 대학의 교수자로서 기본적으로 갖추어야 할 교수역량에 대해 탐구하고 수업컨설팅을 통해 수집된 자료들을 분석하여 교수가 갖추어야 하는 교수역량과 교육 요소를 도출하고 이를 바탕으로 하는 교수생애주기별 프로그램 모형을 고안하였다. 연구결과, 교수자에게 요구되는 교수역량은 대학문화적 역량, 교수전문역량, 교수기본역량, 교수연구역량이었으며 해당 교육요소는 교육철학 및 교육혁신, 교수설계 및 학습성과 평가, 학습자 분석 및 동기유발, 연구방법 이해 및 활용 등인 것으로 밝혀졌다. 이에 본 연구는 대학의 CTL에서 추진할 수 있는 교수생애 주기별 프로그램 모형을 제시하고 연구의 한계점과 추후 연구 과제를 제시하였다.

Research on home economics teacher training curriculum that approaches general-purpose skills by focusing on the essence of the subjects

Home Economics is a mandatory subject in Japanese schools. While the subject teaches valuable life skills, few understand the significance and the science behind this important topic. Professor Akiko Suzuki from the Graduate School of Our Humanities and Social Sciences at Hiroshima University, believes in the value of developing and teaching Home Economics in schools to prepare the children of today for the challenges of tomorrow. Akiko has been working on the curriculum for training Home Economics teachers at the University. In such an uncertain global environment, with the home becoming the centre of not only family life, but also work life, Home Economics is even more important than ever before. Suzuki believes that, through this work, her team can have a big impact on improving and supporting teacher training to provide students with lifelong skills and competencies.

Creating and Performing Contemporary Music as a Way of Learning

The article analyses the results of a case study on a workshop for contemporary music which represents an excellent example of arts partnership in Slovenia. The aim of the workshop was to stimulate creative use of contemporary musical language in connection with the development of the lifelong cultural awareness and expression competence. The results of the interviews with 17 participants of the workshop pointed out the complex occurrence of various indicators, which, at the level of personal, social and intellectual competences, determined the nature of musical expression through contemporary music and indirectly influenced the development of the lifelong cultural awareness and expression competence. Through the creative process, participants expressed motivation and sensitivity for contemporary music and developed their musical abilities as well as their sense of community and self-identity. The identified challenges included students’ lack of musical experience with contemporary music, the low priority given to contemporary music in schools as well as teachers’ lack of professional knowledge in this field. Key words: contemporary musical language; educational and cultural institutions; lifelong culture awareness and expression competence; personal and social competences

Development and validation of lifelong learning facilitation competency diagnostic tool for elementary school teachers

Development and validation of lifelong learning facilitation competency diagnostic tool for elementary school teachers

The role of vocational education in developing entrepreneurial competences of students

Entrepreneurship is defined as one of key lifelong competences and it represents ability to turn ideas into real projects. As such, it includes creativity, initiative, taking responsibility, taking risks, planning and managing projects. The development of entrepreneurial competences via formal education has become a priority for governments of a large number of European countries. Many EU documents emphasize the importance of investing into education that focuses on the development of entrepreneurial competences, as it directly affects students’ employment. However, this guideline represents a new challenge for the educational system – the need to change educational programs and organize them so that they influence the development of entrepreneurial competences, which enables students to become more employable and to cope with uncertainty, complexity and dynamics of the labor market. High unemployment rate of young people and challenges and demands of the labor market have led to a debate about the effectiveness and efficiency of educational programs at all levels. In this context, effectiveness and quality of vocational education and training (VET) are particularly important, since most vocational school students, after finishing secondary level, will not continue towards tertiary education, but will rather find themselves on the labor market. Therefore, vocational education should focus on the development of such skills (generic competences and vocational qualifications) that will correspond to the needs of the labor market, thus enabling easier and faster employment. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which vocational education contributes to development of students’ entrepreneurial competences. The data used in this paper comes from a survey that covered 1272 students from 15 secondary vocational schools in Osijek-Baranja County, one of the most underdeveloped regions in Croatia. The analysis of the results has shown that there is a positive correlation between extracurricular activities and entrepreneurial environment with the level of students’ entrepreneurial competences. No correlation between the formal educational program and the level of entrepreneurial competences has been found. The findings of this research may serve as the basis for the development of vocational education programs that would include and meet the labor market demands, thus increasing students’ employability.

Towards a Semantic Framework for Lifelong Integrated Competency Management and Development

Abstract In the domain of technology-enhanced competency-based learning and training, there is an increased interest in the integration of competency-related information for supporting competency-driven decision-making purposes. Indeed, since competency development draws upon several related areas, including teaching subjects, instructional design, learning resource annotation, e-Portfolios and motivated by the need for an integrated and semantic-based approach to competency management and development, a series of ontological structures have been formalized and developed for each of these areas. This paper aims to provide a framework specification for lifelong competency management and development, called LCMDF. The main advantage of this framework lies in its ability to provide a unifying semantic foundation in the form of a set of controlled vocabularies for describing competencies and their related details within the contexts of technology-enhanced competency-based learning and training. Moreover, this framework provides a novel integrated model to support a wide range of use cases. The proposed framework results from reusing widespread international standards for competency modeling which helps designing and implementing interoperability architecture of semantically-enhanced competency-based learning/human resource (HR) systems.

The Examination of Competencies in Master’s Degree Programs in the Context of Lifelong Learning Key Competencies

The importance and support of higher education in implementing the lifelong learning has been emphasized in Bologna Process, which is really effective in devising higher education programs. In the present study, it is aimed to find out the competencies of the higher education programs which support lifelong learning by examining the program competencies of the master’s degree programs under the Graduate School of Educational Sciences within the framework of the key competencies of lifelong learning. In the study, a multiple case holistic design has been used as one of the case study designs. The unit of analysis consists of the key competencies of lifelong learning. The master’s degree programs examined in 12 different fields constitute multiple cases. Document analysis has been used as the method in the study. Content analysis has been conducted on the documents by taking the lifelong learning key competencies into account. The data has been encoded by two different encoders having researches in the field of lifelong learning, and the consistency between the encoders has been examined. As a result of the analysis of the data, it has been concluded that the content of the program competencies in the graduate fields examined within the scope of the study is insufficient to include all the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are covered by the key competencies of lifelong learning and the results of the study indicate that in particular, social competency and cultural awareness and expression competency have not been included in the content of the program competencies examined.

«In Our Universities, Sociologists Are not Taught to Theorize» (interview with G.A. Kliucharev)

Interview with Sociological Studies Editor -in-Chief Professor G.A. Kliucharev touches upon some key issues of editorial policies, as well as problems of engagements with the authors, of outlook for the journal development, etc. Themes of methodology and methods were discussed, ranging from Big Data to social ontology. Interdisciplinarity, so the interviewee, is a basic attribute of contemporary social science research. Also the issue of promising lines for Russian sociology is debated, along with the crucial knots of sociologists’ education, including postgraduate and postdoctoral one – within the framework of Lifelong learning and competencies of graduate sociologists.

Tiny Moments Matter: Promoting Professionalism in Everyday Practice.

Professionalism rests upon a number of individual, environmental, and societal level factors, leading to specific professional behavior in specific situations. Focusing on professional lapses to identify and remediate unprofessional physicians is incomplete. We explored professionalism in practicing internal medicine physicians in the context of everyday practice, to highlight how typical experiences contribute to positive, yet often unnoticed, professional behavior. In-depth interviews were used to uncover 13 physicians' most meaningful experiences of professionalism. Data were collected and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results revealed several themes around which physicians embody professionalism in their daily lives. Physicians feel most professional when they are able to connect and establish trust with patients and colleagues and when they serve as positive role models to others. Physicians conceptualize professionalism as a dynamic and evolving competency, one that requires a lifelong commitment and that provides opportunities for lifelong learning. Focusing on actual perceptions of experiences in practice offers important insights into how physicians think about professionalism beyond a traditional remediation and lapses perspective. Physicians often go out of their way to connect with patients and colleagues, serving and modeling for others, often at the expense of their own work-life balance. These moments help to infuse energy and positivity into physician practices during a time when physicians may feel overburdened, overscheduled, and overregulated. Understanding professionalism as developmental helps frame professionalism as a lifelong competency subject to growth and modification over time.

PLE & PLN for language learning and teaching: a case study

Recent developments in learning technologies are creating a significant shift in the educational experience. The paper aims at exploring the potential of PLEs (Personal Learning Environments) and PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) through the description of a case study relating to an online training initiative: an innovative answer to the “lifelong competency” management approach to language teaching. The case study refers to an online international initiative promoted in 2012 addressed to teachers, trainers and educators from all over the world, passionate about language learning with the use of technologies.The authors of this contribution planned and moderated a five-week training session within “EVO 2012” (Electronic Village Online), offering a free opportunity to discuss and share ideas, practices, experience through a Moodle platform, in synch meetings with international experts and asynchronous working tools.The main aim was to promote greater awareness of this topic, guiding teachers and trainers to the effective exploitation of the potential of PLE and PLN in EFL classes.