The aim of the proposed study is to present the partial results of a research study on the organizational climate in vocational schools as perceived by teachers. Special attention is paid to the applied leadership style by school leaders, and the existence of associations between school leaders’ and teachers’ behaviour in schools. Organizational climate was measured by the standardized OCDQ-RS adapted to the conditions of the Slovak educational environment on the sample of 474 vocational schoolteachers. The scale measures five dimensions: Supportive principal behaviour; Directive principal behaviour; Engaged teacher behaviour; Frustrated teacher behaviour; and Intimate teacher behaviour, allowing for calculation of the Index of school climate openness, which is an indicator of the quality of the organizational climate. The obtained results confirmed the existence of associations between teacher and principal behaviour and school climate openness. It can be assumed that the applied leadership style in an institution can affect the quality of interpersonal relationships and teacher behaviour both in positive and negative directions. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to building favourable organizational climate in schools, which represents a challenge for school leaders and educational systems that should provide school leaders with sufficient learning opportunities in the field of school leadership.

In the study, an overview of the current situation in the field of inclusive education in Slovakia is presented. Since teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education are among the key determinants of the success or failure of SEN students’ inclusion in mainstream schools, the main objective of the study was to investigate them in the context of implementing the new Strategy for Inclusive Education in Slovakia. In this quantitative study, Mahat [1] "The Multidimensional Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES)" was used and three components of teachers’ attitudes – cognitive, affective, and behavioral – were examined by means of univariate, bivariate, and multivariate methods of statistical analysis. As the aging of the teaching population is an issue in Slovakia, age-related peculiarities were focused on in the study. The findings revealed statistically significant differences in the affective and behavioral components between the two examined age-groups of teachers. Since no extensive study has been focused on teachers’ attitudes towards replacing school integration by school inclusion in Slovakia, the proposed study aims to fill the gap and provide unique data useful in the process of changing traditional schools into inclusive ones. The obtained results also point to the importance of considering teachers’ attitudes towards any changes to be introduced. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-SIED-02 Full Text: PDF

The aim of the proposed study is to present the partial results of research activities focused on vocational school teachers’ resilience realized within the grant project IGA003DTI/2022. The present study aims to examine the existence of associations between teacher resilience and years of teaching experience. The research sample consisted of 474 vocational school teachers in Slovakia. The level of their teacher resilience was measured by The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale CD-RISC-25^SLOVAK. The scale measures seven dimensions—Hardiness, Coping, Adaptability/Flexibility, Meaningfulness/Purpose, Optimism, Regulation of emotion and cognition, and Self-Efficacy. The findings confirmed the existence of associations between teacher resilience and years of teaching experience as novice teachers and teachers with ten or fewer years of teaching experience achieved lower scores in the scale than their more experienced colleagues. Although we are aware of the limits of the research study given the size and composition of the sample, the findings suggest that years of teaching experience can be considered an important variable from the aspect of teacher resilience and it is important to pay increased attention especially to novice teachers’ well-being and building their resilience, e.g., by providing guidance through developing effective coping strategies. As there are a lack of available data on vocational school teachers’ resilience, the present findings have the potential to broaden the existing knowledge and have implications for further research.

Resilience is an individual’s capacity to recover, adapt, and keep mental balance and normal functioning when exposed to significant adversity. This competence plays an important role in one’s life because it increases the probability of achieving success in various spheres of life. Schools can foster students’ resilience by providing a positive school environment and a sufficient number of protective factors, but it is the subjective interpretation of conditions and experiences rather than the exposure to them that is significant. The main objective of this research was to study to what extent school satisfaction, i.e. subjective interpretation of the school climate, influenced the level of students’ resilience. Not all our findings are compatible with the results of other studies. Despite the limits of our research, its results can serve as a basis for further work as not much has been done in the field of resilience research in Slovakia.

The aim of the study is to present information about the main findings of a research study on the application of the inquiry-based approach in undergraduate teacher training in the field of technical education. The authors seek the answer to the question ‘To what extent are the graduates of teacher training programs prepared for the application of the inquiry-based approach in technical education?’ For the above purposes, an exploratory qualitative research design was used. A qualitative pedagogical experiment was carried out, which was supported by additional research tools and methods (essays, microteaching, participative observations, an analysis of the research subjects, and reflection). The obtained findings show that, in the process of experiments, it has come to a shift in the participants’ opinions about the application of the inquiry-based approach in technical education. The participating future primary school teachers showed an inclination to using the method of inquiry, and the results suggest that they are sufficiently equipped with competencies for its realization. Since there is a lack of research in the field, the present study provides unique data that can help experts (primarily field didacticians) understand the need for searching for an optimal teaching model that can contribute to increasing the quality of education. Doi: 10.28991/HEF-2024-05-03-09 Full Text: PDF

In the present study, the issues of teacher resilience and the persistent gender stereotypes in the field are discussed. The main objective of the conducted research study was to examine the presence of gender-stereotype-confirming behavior in coping with adversity in vocational school teachers. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale CDRISC-25SLOVAKwas selected as the most suitable research instrument, by means of which gender differences in the participants’ (N=474) responses in its subscales were studied. The results obtained confirmed the hypothesis presuming the existence of gender differences in the achieved scores in five of the seven dimensions of the scale, and also stereotype-confirming behaviors—according to which men are rational problem solvers while women tend to apply emotion-focused coping strategies—were reported. This knowledge can be the first step towards introducing measures with the aim to provide individuals of all genders with opportunities to broaden their scale of coping strategies and promote resilience in them. Since vocational school teachers are on the periphery of researchers’ interest and no available extensive study has been focused on gender differences in teacher resilience, the research findings aim to fill the gap in the existing knowledge, provide unique data for policymakers, and create a basis for further resilience research. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-SIED1-011 Full Text: PDF