Tiltai

In this article, the theoretical aspects of educational and social inclusion are considered. The level of educational services in Ukraine for children with disabilities is analysed. The basic problems of the successful implementation of educational and social inclusion into the educational process are specified. Practical recommendations for the development of educational inclusion in Ukraine are given.

The Estonian concept of ecological networks (the Green Network) is implemented at different administrative levels by including multiple stakeholders. Building ecologically coherent Green Infrastructure is also one strategic aim of the European Union’s environmental policy. An embedded case study shows that contradictions between governance levels and ineffective stakeholder involvement measures have caused negative influence on land use decision-making processes on a local level. We further identified that the process of integrating the ecological network concept into the land use planning system has characteristics of vertical decentralisation, but the lack of relevant coordination have precluded achieving satisfactory results regarding stakeholder involvement and co-operation.

The article focuses on the emotional aspects of programs performed by institutions of prenatal music education (PME) in Lithuania and reveals how the content of this education helps pregnant women to experience positive emotions, especially joy, and overcome the increased nervousness and fear of childbirth. We conducted a study where fourteen respondents were interviewed: six women who during their pregnancy attended music education classes for future mothers (the musical educational health promotion school “Sveikutis”, Vilnius; and the studio of music therapy and meditation “Dabartis”, Klaipėda) and eight women who practiced musicianship independently. The experiences of these fourteen respondents of different age (from 20 to 45 years old at the time of pregnancy) and from different cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys, Pasvalys and Šiauliai) has revealed that all women who during their pregnancy practiced musicianship had deep and significant experiences and felt the decrease of fear of childbirth. However, the women who attended music education classes had a larger spectrum of opportunities: they could play various instruments, perform additional and useful exercises, and receive more beneficial information, which allowed them to feel positive emotions more often. In addition, the women who attended PME classes claimed to achieve the connection with their unborn child faster and they rated their pregnancy with a higher grade concerning the smoothness of the period. It is significant that PME classes had a positive impact on the husbands of pregnant women as well – the received information encouraged soon to be fathers to communicate with their unborn children. The results of our study confirm that the PME classes in Lithuania promote the pregnant women’s positive emotions, especially experiencing joy, decrease the fear of childbirth, and also have a positive effect on couple’s relationships.

Research presented in the article reveals emotional expressions of early age children with developmental disorders who are brought up in families. In article discussed emotional state and factors that influence development of emotional expression. It is set up that character of relationships could vary depending on the active communication in the aspect of quantity and quality. Parents communication based on the close emotional interaction is not Always successful; and another implication supports idea that child’s closed environment must ensure satisfaction of basic emotional reactions in the process of forming and development child’s psychosocial needs.

At the focus of this article, the motivation of a social worker is presented as an important aspect of effective professional functioning, which approaches the human being as a personality able to create and accumulate unique experiences. A holistic in-depth analysis of the process of motivation is employed to search for links between different motivational dimensions, such as the personality of the social worker, and the behavioural and environmental effects on professional identity. The aim to theoretically ground the motivation of a social worker as a prerequisite for an effective professional functioning requires carrying out research into the theoretical construct of motivation in order to explain it on a poly-systemic level and distinguish its components: stimulus, identification of stimulus, adaptation phase of an identified stimulus, action, and action control. The explanation and fixation of active elements of motivation take place in a vertical system of relations, where most attention is paid to causal ties and continuity of the social worker’s professional motivation.

Social entrepreneurship serves as one of the social techniques for the social cohesion of disadvantaged and marginalised groups in society, and therefore can be used as a practical method in the field of social work. Social entrepreneurship provides an operational platform for the renewal of people’s self-dependence skills, by learning to do things together, which is a relevant motivational aspect for socially marginalised people in solving their social and personal problems. Thus, the social cohesion of disadvantaged and marginalised groups of society by being involved in social entrepreneurial activities, and thus being placed in the sphere of the productive economy at the level of the community, contributes to the development of the local community, giving citizens the socially active status of being active protagonists in their destiny and their local community. However, the renewal of a person’s social functioning, achieved by involvement in social entrepreneurial activities, covers a person’s life holistically, starting with the person’s inner processes that lead to forming external social relationships. Therefore, the analysis of this process in the article involves taking an anthropological perspective on activating people’s inner resources and human potential in the activities of social enterprises, which also shows the dimension of social entrepreneurship as a tool for personal development. The aim of the article is to explore the phenomenon and practice of social entrepreneurship in the context of social work, where social entrepreneurship can be used as an innovative approach as a tool for the development of the community, and for the transformation on a personal level of practitioners and people involved in entrepreneurial activities.

In most cases the internet has a positive effect on its users – it offers unrestrained communication, expression of opinions and sense of openness. On the other hand, excessive usage leads to internet addiction. The most important features of the internet include rapid spread of information and news, access to tremendous amount of information, personalization and anonymity. After the literature review of theoretical research of authors from Lithuania and abroad, and application of theoretical analytical, resumptive, analogical, deductive and comparative methods, the features of XXI century media literacy were identified. A questionnaire allowed to examine the internet’s specifics and nature of users’ media literacy online. Empirical research was conducted to analyse the internet users’ behavior based on age groups as well as to identify their level of literacy. A big part of today’s daily activity and free time is related to usage of the internet media. Many services take an online form. Therefore, the issue of Lithuanian users’ online behavior becomes a concurrent to the development of welfare society, and media literacy gets to be one of the necessities for future skills. Instead of searching for and passively using the given information, internet users start to make their own, evaluate it and spread further. The users are enabled to fashion their private social networks, they become responsible for organization of the whole personal communication infrastructure. This research points out the main reasons of Lithuanian internet users not using e-services: the lack of media literacy and insufficient spread of the service-related information. The biggest difference in literacy among age groups was noticed while evaluating personal predisposition to internet addiction. Levels of literacy based on age groups were significantly different in terms of ability to critically evaluate online information.

Higher education curriculum has been a subject of various disputes in the scholar literature. Official curriculum (such as study programme description, syllabus, study material) and unplanned hidden curriculum that occurs in during the learning process. Official curriculum defines learning goals, tasks, methods and learning outcomes. Meanwhile actual learning process contains not only the official parts of the curriculum, but also knowledge that is created and shared during learning process, especially in collaborative learning environments. That leads to assumption, that collaboration between learners and knowledge sharing is a condition for hidden curriculum to appear. In this article, a problem question is analysed: what elements of collaborative learning enables hidden curriculum in study educational environments? Main goal, using scholar literature analysis, to define the balance between official and hidden curriculum in collaborative learning environments. The article looks into the definitions of official and hidden curriculum and applications in study environments. Certain variations of collaborative learning allow to reach different levels of interaction (and hidden curriculum). The application of collaborative learning in study process has to be well guided and balanced, encouraging students to work in homogenous groups seeking for one well defined purpose.

This article presents findings of the study on the structure of social representation of lecturers’ activities and their dynamics on the basis of the credibility of a source of information. The study is sought to find out what constitutes central and peripheral elements of social representation of lecturers’ activities in view of survey participants (undergraduate programme students of Klaipėda University), whether the said elements change upon reliable and unreliable sources of information, and what determines potential dynamics of elements of the representation. Answers to the above questions will significantly help to understand lecturer-student relationships, to change negative or adverse communication attitudes into positive ones. Insights of this study can be applied in lecturers’ activities so as to better understand today’s students, a role of lecturers, formation of positive attitudes in students towards lecturers’ activities and communication.

Straipsnyje analizuojama jaunų bedarbių, turinčių aukštąjį išsilavinimą, karjeros projektavimoproblema. Jauno žmogaus integracija į darbo rinką priklauso nuo daugelio individualių, socialinių,ekonominių veiksnių. Karjeros projektavimas yra vienas iš profesinę sėkmę lemiančių veiksnių.Aiškus siekiamų tikslų ir konkrečių uždavinių sau iškėlimas, optimaliai suplanuota ir lanksti jųįgyvendinimo sistema padeda įgyti pranašumą konkurencinėje darbo rinkos aplinkoje. Straipsnyjepristatomi tyrimo su jaunais bedarbiais, turinčiais aukštąjį išsilavinimą, rezultatai. Tyrimas atliktas remiantis pozityvizmo paradigma, taikant kiekybinio tyrimo metodą, geriausiai tinkantį tirti jaunų bedarbių, turinčių aukštąjį išsilavinimą, požiūrį į karjeros projektavimą, identifikuoti šį reiškinį lemiančius veiksnius. Nustatyta, kad jaunus bedarbius projektuoti savo karjerą skatina nuolat kintanti ekonominė situacija, statusas visuomenėje, nuolatinio mokymosi galimybės. Išsilavinusio jaunimo karjeros projektavimui teigiamos įtakos turi individualios savybės: atsakingumas, aktyvumas, smalsumas ir kt., taip pat gebėjimai planuoti ir valdyti karjerą. Karjeros projektavimą apsunkina pasirinktai profesijai būtinų savybių stoka, savo jėgų ir galimybių pervertinimas, praktinių profesijos žinių bei įgūdžių trūkumas, darbo rinkos tendencijų nežinojimas.