Tiltai

This article presents the review of the development of Lithuanian higher schools during the Soviet period. Chronological data of establishment and transformations of Lithuanian high-schools in 1940–1990 are presented, beginning with the Soviet occupation and ending with the Revival events. The article highlights the structure and specifics of Soviet Lithuanian high-schools, the content of specialists training, provisions of science and studies. Chronologically integral, comprehensive scientific works about higher education development in Soviet Lithuania have not been prepared yet. Most of the information about this period is provided by individual archival documents, Soviet periodical press, commemorative books, different high school publications on the history of their institution, as well as individual researchers memoirs, some features of the development of higher education are revealed in individual scientific works. This article provides an summarized material of various authors and sources and integral analysis of Lithuanian higher education during the Soviet period.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the aspects of integration of entrepreneurship into higher education (Educational sciences) in Lithuania and Latvia. The article maintains that proper entrepreneurial competencies are required to successfully start, operate and ensure the new business in the marketplace. From an educational perspective, scholars are primarily concerned with the development of individual-level competencies for entrepreneurship. Therefore the following question arises: what competencies for entrepreneurship should individuals be able to manifest when facing an entrepreneurial venture? More specifically, from educational and higher education perspectives, the question is: what competencies for entrepreneurship should universities address in their curricula for graduate programmes specifically in Educational sciences. Models of students’ entrepreneurial competencies are highlighted theoretically and some empirical insights on which competencies students in Educational sciences from Lithuanian and Latvian universities would like to have acquired are provided. The article presupposes that competence–based education can be designed to promote entrepreneurial activity among university students.

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.

The development of higher education is amongst topical issues. The modern society realizes that the most valuable capital is a humanbeing with his/her intellectual potential and this has become the main resource for social and economic development. Over thelast decade, all developed countries have introduced national education system reforms, which have received significant financialsupport. National development strategies attempt to focus on the development of adequate education system supported by state policiesbecause it is becoming more and more evident that the quality of education determines further development of a country. Thedevelopment of a strategy for the sustainable development must presuppose the identification of the mission and aims for short-termand long-term activities. The purpose for this article is to analyse the main trends of higher education in Latvia in order to identifythe mission and strategy for sustainable development of higher education institutions in Latvia. There were applied such researchmethods as analysis and synthesis of scientific literature, normative acts and documents that regulate the development of highereducation in Latvia and EU, methods of grouping, comparisons, classification, summarizing, description and prediction.

Today’s welfare system faces a variety of social challenges in terms of social vulnerability, inequality and the presence of segregated and parallel societies. Within this complexity, the professional practitioner meets opportunities for action, institutional frameworks, and the role of higher education as a future social innovator. The objective of this paper is to suggest an inquiry concerning how social work students form their conception on the complexity of every-day social work practice and professional expertise. The focus is to investigate social work students’ process and formation of knowledge regarding challenge based learning (CBL). Methodologically the examination will be based on multi-method data triangulation design. In conclusion this paper suggests the use of socio-ecological and social learning theory to develop more dynamic teaching models to enhance the understanding of the challenging pathways linking social structures in development of students’ professional self.