Project-Based Learning Application in Higher Education

Learning methodologies that are active and centred on the student are concepts that accentuate the learning process instead of the teaching process. In this way, the following chapter aims to present the application of project-based learning in higher education and the different impact it might have on the students, as well as the experience and perspective from the students' point of view on this kind of teaching approach. To be able to collect data, the authors used initially a qualitative approach to comprehend and understand the research subjects' perspectives and points of view, followed by the focus group method as a method for collecting qualitative data. Throughout the students' experience, the development of transversal competences is mentioned several times as a great aspect related to this kind of methodology. However, the need for effective management of conflicts between members and the mandatory integration of some subjects' contents are also mentioned as some less-positive aspects.

Using Cultural Framings to Disentangle Viliui Sakha Perceptions, Beliefs, and Historical Trauma in the Face of Climate Change

This article explores how a community’s perceptions of a changing climate may shift over time, and the ways in which certain cultural predilections emerge in the process. Through replicating the same focus group method with Viliui Sakha in 2008 and again in 2018, the analysis reveals both continuity in cited changes as well as new emergent ones. Following this comparative exercise, the article further probes two culturally specific phenomena: how some inhabitants continue to attribute change to a long-disproven driver, de facto perpetuating a cultural myth, and how others expressed starkly contrasting perceptions of change. For both, the analysis reveals the importance of using a cultural framing founded in a people’s vernacular knowledge system with a focus on historical precedence for the former case, and on sacred beliefs for the latter.

Validation of e-Government Information Delivery Attributes: The Adoption of the Focus Group Method

In democratic countries, government websites became an important channel for interaction with the public administration in the last few years. Nevertheless, several issues have an impact on the way users access to content and information. Lack of accessibility and usability or, in the broad sense, lack of concern with user needs, can still be found in many government websites. To address the problem, a previous literature review on e-government information delivery attributes was performed. Based on this review, a large set of attributes related to quality was obtained to evaluate these dimensions in the context of e-government. The purpose of this study is to better understand which of these attributes are the most valued, in the users’ perspective, for evaluating content delivered by government websites. A qualitative approach was adopted, using Focus Group interviews as a strategy to obtain data and Thematic Analysis to analyze such data. The main results highlighted the attributes related to content delivery, interaction, and emotional aspects. User Experience, accessibility, and usability were prioritized by Focus Group participants.

“Sewing Is Part of Our Tradition”: A Case Study of Sewing as a Strategy for Arts-Based Inquiry in Health Research With Inuit Women

In this article, we present a case study of sewing as a strategy for arts-based inquiry in health research, situated within a broader project that highlighted Nunavut Inuit women’s childbirth experiences. Five focus groups were hosted as sewing sessions with pregnant women ( N = 19) in Iqaluit, Nunavut (2017–2018). Women’s reflections on the sessions, and the significance of sewing to Inuit, were integrated with researchers’ critical reflections to examine the value of sewing as a strategy for arts-based inquiry within a focus group method: results related to the flexibility of the sessions; how collective sewing created space for voicing, sharing, and relating; sewing as a tactile and place-specific practice tied to Inuit knowledge and tradition; and lessons learned. Our results underscore the possibilities of arts-based approaches, such as sewing, to enhance data gathering within a focus group method and to contribute to more locally appropriate, place-based methods for Indigenous health research.

Conditional Parenting and its Influence on the Child’s School Activity

This article addresses the topic of conditional parenting, and it focuses on analyzing the relationship between parenting and the school activity of the student at the level of primary education. Conditional parenting, which provides the child with conditional love and self-esteem, it stands out by: focusing on the child's behavior, considering that human nature is negative and parental love is a privilege that must be earned, also being the adept of punishments and rewards. Conditional love entails the parent's desire to have an obedient child, obedience being the basis of control. `How could an obedient and conditional loved child develop competencies for the future? How well will he meets the demands of today's school or how will he relate to the faculty? These are the questions that have guided the approach of the whole mixed type research, that has been carried out over a period of half a year, using the following methods: questionnaire based survey and focus group method. Through this research, conclusions were drawn regarding conditional parenting and its influence on school activity of the pupil in the primary cycle. Starting from the interpretation of the research results, it was highlighted that the relationships between children and parents based on safety and unconditional love have contributed to the harmonious development of the child and to the skills for the future, through school.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT RUSSIAN MEDICAL SCHOOL: THE ETHICS OF COMMUNICATION BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The development of ethical standards for future doctors is one of the main goals of higher medical education. It is especially important for students from different countries studying together. But if in ordinary times the determinants of moral relationships are obvious and successfully implemented, in the "Covid era", when many international students were isolated from each other and from the university due to the closed borders, self-isolation, quarantine and switched to distance learning, it became extremely difficult to solve the problem of ethical meaning of communication [1]. In order to identify the main directions of work in this area, we applied the focus group method, inviting as experts not those students who are studying at the university now, but our international graduates from different years and those who worked with them, so that they could compare the former and the current, not yet fully formed, models of higher medical education.

Women's Participation in Wikipedia: Cross-Border Balkan Perspective

Since Wikipedia is a turning point in the way we share and read information in the 21st century, the participation of different demographic groups in this process is of great importance. In this paper, we will address the issues of greater representation of women who edit Wikipedia and more content related to women. The presented conceptual framework is part of an effort to improve the position of women on Wikipedia in Serbian, Macedonian, Croatian and Bosnian, respectively. The paper will present projects that are being implemented for this purpose in Serbia and the region, as well as the results of a recent survey. Quantitative questionnaire method and qualitative focus group method were used for data collection. The aim of this paper is to develop solutions to improve the gender balance on Wikipedia, to create opportunities for overcoming gender differences on Wikipedia and their negative effects on free knowledge democracy.

Methods and organization of research on the realization of sense of ownership in social practices

Introduction. Given the lack of methods for studying the sense of ownership, the article substantiates the feasibility and strategy of studying the psychological features of the realization of sense of ownership in social practices. Aim. To develop a set of methods for empirical research of psychological features of realization of person’s sense of ownership in social practices. Methods. A set of qualitative and quantitative methods, which included: associative experiment, focus group method, expert survey, interview, content analysis, mathematical and statistical analyses, as well as factor and correlation analyses to model the features of the realization of sense of ownership in social practices. Results. The set of methods proposed by the author consisted of three groups of methods, which aimed at: 1) determining the most typical social practices of ownership, in which a sense of ownership was manifested; 2) studying social ideas of Ukrainians regarding property; 3) studying the psychological features of the realization of sense of ownership in various social practices and constructing models of this realization. The author gives a logical substantiation of a step-by-step strategy of research into the realization of sense of ownership in social practices. Conclusions. The proposed research strategy and methods allow exploring a complex social and psychological phenomenon of sense of ownership and its realization in social practices. The quantitative and qualitative methods of the mixed research are effective and offer the possibility of generalization of the data by means of auxiliary strategy of triangulation. The proposed research model can be replicated and supplemented in further scientific research depending on the objectives and conditions of the study.