The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide range of negative consequences for higher education students. We explored the generalizability of the control-value theory of achievement emotions for e-learning, focusing on their antecedents. We involved 17019 higher education students from 13 countries, who completed an online survey during the first wave of the pandemic. A structural equation model revealed that proximal antecedents (e-learning self-efficacy, computer self-efficacy) mediated the relation between environmental antecedents (cognitive and motivational quality of the task) and positive and negative achievement emotions, with some exceptions. The model was invariant across country, area of study, and gender. The rates of achievement emotions varied according to these same factors. Beyond their theoretical relevance, these findings could be the basis for policy recommendations to support stakeholders in coping with the challenges of e-learning and the current and future sequelae of the pandemic.

The theoretical framework of the present research is based on the socio-psychological model of sustainable behaviour by Juárez-Nájera (2010). For the purposes of this paper, just part of the research is related to personal norms. The paper provides the results of the awareness of consequences and the attribution of responsibility for environmental/ sustainability problems among students of the four Faculties of Teacher Education in four countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia. Research results indicate that students from Croatian and Slovenian Faculties of Teacher Education are characterised by a more pronounced awareness of environmental/sustainability problems than the students from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. The responsibility for environmental/sustainability problems is higher among the students of the Faculty of Teacher Education from Croatia and Serbia than among students from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. It seems that a country is the major determiner of awareness and responsibility for environmental/sustainability problems. In general, the results of the present research provide significant guidelines for the reflection on the future of initial teacher education for sustainability and need for conducting interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research on personal norms and sustainable behaviour.

The aim of this paper is to provide guidelines for reflection and improvement of transversal competences of teachers in the field of self-regulation, education for sustainable development and inclusion in the context of their continuing professional development. Also, the moderatory effect of personality based on literature analysis and insight into empirical results will be demonstrated. Teachers’ reputation determines the framework of their professional development and is strongly influenced by social challenges, globalization, integration, sustainability, technological development, etc. In addition, a strongly biologically determined teacher’s personality significantly moderates the relationship of their professional development and transversal competences. Transversal competences are recognized as the teachers’ important skills in their organization of the teaching and learning process and their professional development, as well as in the process of them teaching these competences to their students. “Learning to learn” is recognized as the key lifelong learning competence in the European policy documents and the environmental and sustainability issues are some of the most common transversal themes of the general education curricula. The focus on the transversal competences is relatively new in education policies and has emerged as a reaction to the increased professional demands for a response to current educational needs of all students in inclusive environments. Analysis of transversal competences in the aforementioned three fields and their connection to personality traits will contribute to new knowledge regarding the teachers’ professional education. Therefore, this paper will present the theoretical frameworks of the complex relationship between the teachers’ reputation, personality and transversal competences in the light of the contemporary educational contexts.

Although children use social and emotional learning skills (SEL) across the world, the expression of these skills may vary across cultures and developmental levels. Such variability complicates the process of assessing SEL competencies with consequences for understanding differences in SEL skills and developing interventions. To address these challenges, the current study examined the measurement invariance of translated versions of a brief, multi-informant (Teacher, Parent, Student) measure of SEL skills developed in the US with data from six European countries (Croatia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, and Romania; n = 10,602; 8,520; 6,611, for the SSIS SEL b – Teacher, Parent, and Student versions, respectively). In addition to cross-country invariance testing, we conducted measurement invariance testing across ages (Primary and Secondary students) for the Teacher and Student forms of the measure. Results revealed a high degree of measurement invariance across countries (Scalar for the Teacher form and Partial Scalar for the Parent and Student form) and developmental levels (Scalar for the Teacher form and Partial Scalar for the Student form), supporting the use of translated versions of the SSIS SEL b for international research across these countries and developmental levels. Implications are discussed for assessment and promoting children’s SEL competencies globally.

The main aim of this study was to examine personality traits and life satisfaction of future preschool and primary school teachers and to examine if there are differences between these two groups of students. The study was conducted on a sample of 290 students of the University of Rijeka attending Early and Preschool Education and Teacher Education programs. Significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and personality traits were found: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience. Neuroticism was significantly decreased in both groups of participants. Differences in these two groups of students are not significant in life satisfaction and personality traits except in conscientiousness, which is significantly higher among future primary school teachers as opposed to future preschool teachers. Given the significant correlation of age and the year of study with personality traits, the established findings are discussed in terms of the varying length of the study programs.