Tiltai

Referring to research data of different authors, the article presents the Z generation characteristic by disclosing its essential features, which should be evaluated in modelling the perspective of this generation’s education/self-education. The article discusses the data of the qualitative research on the new generation, which was performed in 2014, by illustrating the Z generation features indicated by the representatives of the Y generation as well as their arguments on the attachment of some features to this generation. The insight of the Z generation’s education methodological direction discusses the sightings on the identification of the features of the new generation, which should be strengthened, by the Institute for Emerging Issues in North Caroline State, USA. The article also points out why in the education methodology it is necessary to highlight points of reference – educational references, grounded virtues, by means of them to substantiate educational interaction as well as to project all elements of educational system in the appropriate methodological approach. So it would suit to identify present characteristics of education actors as well as characteristics to be educated / self-educated.

In the article was analysed service quality and its impact on firm’s profitability. The profitability factors in the economic activities were determined and the importance of profitability analysis was emphasized. Summarised profitability in telecommunications firms. In the article were listed analysed firms’ (for the analysis were selected services, which face high need from customers – services of Lithuania telecommunications firms LTD “Bitė Lietuva”, LTD “Omnitel”, LTD “Tele2”) service quality improvements as well as calculated profitability indexes. Statistical analysis and evaluation was made. The evaluation of the data shows, that LTD “Bitė Lietuva” indexes are correlated, but the correlation is not significant because of lack of data. Activity of LTD “Omnitel” shows, that improved service quality did not affect firm’s profitability. Improved service quality of LTD “Tele2” affected only part of analised profitability indexes. Inspite this the results show significant dependence.

In today’s life, the formation of a new twenty-first century society structure, which is changing people’s personal, professional and social conditions of existence, more and more frequent are demands from the public and there is a trend of social competence development. First of all, thinking about the teachers, who often run initiatives, internal motivation, knowledge, sometimes in interaction with students in strengthening the social competence phenomena such as communication and cooperation. It is never too late to improve communication and cooperation culture. The article seeks to reveal the importance of social competence for self-assessment process. The article presents the theoretical background of self-assessment process. In order to reveal social competence, a model which illustrates the parts of social competence such as communication (reciprocity) and cooperation (activity) is presented. That‘s why teacher-teacher, teacher-student, student-student, student-teacher have been chosen as research subjects who reflect the characteristics of reciprocity and activity in the process of learning. The instrument of the research is a questionnaire. The research participants were 49 Lithuanian teachers, 142 students and 23 Belgian teachers and 86 students.

In this article authors present the development of intercultural competences as a part of study process. Organization of study process in the modern world is not confined within one institution or one country. Possibilities to study in different joint programmes or choose Erasmus courses are open for many students. Not only the language abilities, but also intercultural awareness and competences influence the quality of communication and level of understanding by the representatives of other cultures. Intercultural competences are one of the very important abilities that are also presented as the outcomes of new methods of education that should prepare students to cope with intercultural environment. Study process requires students to obtain various abilities (application of knowledge, research, special, personal, social). All these abilities are particularly important in conducting comparative research and adopting foreign experience. The article emphasizes that intercultural competencies in modern study process can be assessed on two levels: the level of intercultural communication and intercultural level of scientific research.

The paper reveals the phenomenon of jazz music and analyses the expression of vocal jazz in a historical, philosophical, and educational context. The historical origins of jazz are related to a community culture and to the natural and authentic creative process; inner freedom is one of the most significant aspects of jazz music, based on improvisation. The global practice of jazz vocal studies is predominated by a systemic approach that links the physiological, psychological, and mental levels. The study process is not separated from the personality (self) development and the creation of a sensitive and enabling relation culture. The paper presents a reflection on personal practical experience and is based on the data of a presentation Unique Self Search in Vocal Jazz: Jazz Voice + Theatrical Elements: Wider Opportunity for Self-Expression, given in the 2nd International Scientific Jazz Vocal Conference held in the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland).

Although the representatives of different social sciences are trying to highlight and raise the methodological and methodical peculiarity of social sciences with respect to natural sciences, it should be noted that a big part of social sciences research is based on the positivist research paradigm. The positivist tradition allows a researcher to choose certain research methods that originated from natural sciences and to apply them in the research of social sciences. Regarding the possibilities to determine causality, an experiment is considered to be the best empirical research method. However, the emphasis is placed on the complicated application of this method to social sciences due to certain practical, political and ethical aspects. When developing ideas about an appropriate and effective use of the experimental research method in social sciences, the use of natural experiment is recommended. Although in recent years, the research based on the methodology of natural experiment is gaining popularity, there is still a lack of literature on how and when this methodology can be applied, what problems it can help to solve, how data can be collected and analysed. Thus, on the basis of methodological literature analysis, this article is an attempt to present natural experiment as a method for social researches, to provide guidelines and recommendations for the application of the methodology of natural experiment and to inspire scientific discussion about using the strategy of natural experiment in social sciences.

The conception of creativity is introduced and the specifics of development thereof at pre-school age are discussed in the article. It is argued that the pedagogues play a decisive role at this stage when organizing the educational process focused on the development of children’s creativity. A research aimed at revealing the peculiarities of the pedagogues’, who are employed in a pre-school institution, conception of creativity and development thereof in the kindergarten is presented in the article. A questionnaire survey was chosen in order to achieve this objective; 174 pre-school pedagogues took part in this survey. The content analysis method and the descriptive statistics method were applied in order to process the data obtained.

The article discusses the results of value-based communication analysis in the electoral programs of winning parties in Republic of Lithuania Seimas’2016 year election (LVŽS, LSDP, TS-LKD, LRLS, TT, LLRA-KŠS). With the application of three criteria of programs’ analysis – the volume of thematic parts, semantic segments, and ideological values – these questions were addressed: the connection and differences between winner parties’ attitudes towards values; whether traditional parties have preserved ideological identity; what coalitions after the election in the Seimas were possible based on values. The research data revealed that communication of values relevant to society in all analyzed programs is very similar, and, through cluster analysis, the connections between ideological values’ communication were established foremost between traditional parties (first cluster). The second cluster consists of less related programs of other parties. Almost identical results were established when analysing this aspect based on programs’ structural parts. Thus two separate structural elements with stronger (first case) and weaker (second case) interconnections were determined.

The aim of the paper is to review the global research on household saving behaviour, to review the scientific literature, and to consider the selection of the optimal research methodology for the thesis ‘Lithuanian Households’ Saving Behaviour for Retirement in an Ageing Society’. The paper reviews the main theoretical perspectives defining household behaviour and the methodological approaches of research conducted in the USA, Germany, Japan, the UK and Scandinavian countries. The traditional approach of economists to the human being in the economy is compared with the theoretical perspective of behavioural economists. The article presents recommendations for the methodology of research in Lithuania, by proposing to analyse the data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, and, based on the assumptions of behavioural economists, to provide recommendations to help people save more for retirement.

Survival of the organizations nowadays depends on their ability to learn how to properly and quickly increase their efficiency and performance and adapt to the changing environment. Creating an organizational learning culture (OLC) has achieved an increase in the survivability of organizations. This paper examines OCB and OLC questionnaires, tests their reliability and validity and adapts them to the public sector. This study analyses 161 questionnaires filled in by municipality employees of one of the northern cities in Israel.