THE IMPACT OF FAMILY AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS ON 4TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE IN READING LITERACY: RESULTS FROM PIRLS 2016

The self-confidence of a child and an adult is associated with performance and achievement results. It is well-studied, and the correlation has been proved that higher self-efficacy leads to higher achievements and performance, including better performance in reading literacy. It is also known that both a family and a home environment have a tremendous impact on the child’s development and academic performance. This article focuses on the 4 th graders and their family factor impact on the development of a child’s self-confidence and concepts related to self-confidence. The purpose of this article is to define concepts that are closely related to self-confidence and to identify family factor…

MANAGEMENT OF PSYCHOSOCIAL RISKS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR OF LATVIA

Risk management is gaining acknowledgement in organisational management due to the benefits it brings with it, such as ability of managers to forecast possible threats and plan the most appropriate prevention measures. Psychosocial risk group is one of the largest risk group types and is related to the aspects of staff overburning, lack of employee motivation, health problems due to stress, etc. Study carried in Latvia about risk management showed that psychosocial risks are significant for educational institutions. Empirical research carried out in Latvia has shown that the top risks perceived by the education sector professionals in Latvia are overloading of employees and lack of employee…

PARENTS’ IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ READING ACHIEVEMENT

Scientific studies have proved that a family has a high impact on the students’ academic achievement, including their reading literacy. This paper focuses on the parents’ undertaken activities for promoting the development of child’s reading literacy at the preschool age (reading together, singing, discussing the read text with a child, playing together, etc.) to explore the impact of these activities upon the reading literacy achievement of students in Grade 4. The research problem addresses the following questions: whether and to what extent the parents’ undertaken activities for promoting the development of child’s reading literacy at the preschool age have an impact on students’ reading…

CREATING A POSITIVE WORKING ENVIRONMENT FOR TEACHERS

The purpose of the research paper is to study a positive working environment importance for teachers work satisfaction and the role of principal in improving working conditions. Whereas teacher profession is subject to different changes and reforms it makes the whole profession and teacher well-being an important subject to discuss.The research paper includes analysis of the theoretical material about physical environment as well as psychological (also called microclimate). Empirical part is based on teacher’s survey – 97 teachers from different schools in Riga were involved. The statements of survey have partially adopted from Teaching and Learning International Study TALIS 2013. The main …

High Performance Athletes' Dual Career Possibilities in Latvian Higher Educational Institutions

Izglītības pētījumu aptaujas - no izveidošanas līdz datu apstrādei

Aptaujas ir ļoti svarīgs izglītības pētījumu instruments. Bieži vien jauniem pētniekiem ir maldīgs priekšstats, ka to izveidošana ir ātra un vienkārša. Tikai rūpīgi un precīzi izstrādātas aptaujas ir sekmīga pētījuma pamats. Autori cer, ka šī mācību grāmata būs drošs ceļvedis kursa darbu, diplomdarbu, maģistra darbu un promocijas darbu izstrādes laika pētījumos. Grāmata būs noderīga studentiem, maģistrantiem un doktorantiem, kā arī visiem, kas izstrādā un īsteno pētījumus izglītības jomā, datu savākšanai izmantojot aptaujas. Aptauju plānošanas, izstrādāšanas, pārbaudes un lietošanas izklāsts balstīts uz plašu teorētisko bāzi un autoru praktisko pieredzi starptautiskajā izglītības pētniecībā…

The Health Competency Determinant Factors of Latvian Population

Competencies develop and changes throughout a person’s life, they can gain or lose, going through various age stages. Their development does not end in youth, but continue on through the adult life. The ability to thing and reflect those thoughts specifically come forward in the center of structure of competency, which grows at the same time as the individual matures. One of the competency types is health competency. Health competency is a relatively new concept; it is not sufficiently researched. Aim of the study was to determine the factors of an adult individual health competency. 827 respondents participated in the study, in the processing of data was used SPSS. Was used factor analysis…

TEACHER IN CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION LEARNING PROCESS

The recent reforms in the Latvian general education curriculum along with a school network reorganization have brought new attention  to the issues related to a teacher education and the level of professionalism in everyday teaching work. Soviet-era education and work experience in diverse political and education systems (under the Soviet rule and after the restoration of independence) are factors that should be taken into account when analyzing the teacher in the citizenship education learning process. For the needs of this Paper, the authors used the data of the IEA ICCS 2016 (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement International Civic and Citizenship Study…

The Influence of Civic and Citizenship Education Achievements on the Development of Students' Citizenship Attitudes

Civic skills, knowledge and attitudes are the elements forming the citizenship concept. How do they suit multicultural societies? What are the mutual links among civic attitudes, knowledge and skills of different ethnic groups? The aim of the research is to establish the model of students’ civic competence and to find out factors which explain the influence of civic achievements on civic attitudes. IEA (the International Association for the Evolution of Educational Achievement) ICCS 2009 (the International Civic and Citizenship Studies 2009) are used for the analysis. SEM (Structural Equation Modelling) is used for data processing. The authors used multi-modelling to compare Latvian and Est…

THE IMPACT OF HEADMASTER’S LEADERSHIP PRACTICE ON THE FORMATION OF A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY AT SCHOOL

In the context of general education content reform initiated in Latvia, which also provides change of teaching approach, the issue of the role of headmaster has raised. The introduction and implementation of competence approach requires strengthening and development of cooperation between teachers in professional learning communities (PLCs) at school, in order to address didactic issues, regularly analyze pupils` learning outcomes and find best ways to increase the learning outcomes of each pupil, and give an opportunity for teachers to improve their teaching by sharing good pedagogical practice. The change of teaching approach prompts a revision of school management practices as well. In o…

Teachers’ Job Satisfaction: Findings from TALIS 2013 Study

<p><em>This paper examines teachers’ satisfaction with their profession and work environment in relation to other environmental factors in schools. Latvian data from the OECD TALIS 2013 study are used in the data analysis. The aim of the study was to find out whether there is any relationship between teacher satisfaction with their work environment and profession and a varietyofvariablescharacterizingschoolsandstudents. The research question is: what are the most important factors associated with teachers' satisfaction with their job at school? Applied research methods are frequency analysis and measures of central tendency. The results of the research reveal that overall Latvia…