The paper deals with the research and promotion of inter-faculty cooperation in the field of foreign language teaching. By focusing on educational comic strips as an underutilised language strategy at university level, we have tried to reduce or completely eliminate the tensions and uncertainties that accompany the learning or teaching of a new academic field. The study explores how a particular narrative from geoforensic practice is transformed into adapted educational comic strips. The focus then turns to the application of educational comic strips in language classes, and how six lecturers at two different faculties and their students in the first year of study perceive that application and respond to the challenges of teaching/learning in this way. Two surveys were conducted in order to obtain more precise data on the quality of the comic strips as a teaching/learning activity: the former, a qualitative survey of lecturers, and the latter, a quantitative survey of students. The results of the research indicate that even when the area of exploration such as geoforensics and comic strips is somewhat unknown for both teachers and students, the authenticity of material, the quality of preparation, the conscious and explicit participation of all sides, all potentially lead to new forms of good practice and positive linguistic outcomes.

The paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the features of distance learning at universities and its impact on the characteristics of anxiety, psycho-emotional states and stress resistance of modern students. The purpose of the study was to determine the specifics of anxiety and stress resistance in Russian and Chinese students during the period of distance learning. The novelty of the paper lies in the fact that Russian and Chinese students took part in a cross-cultural empirical study: in total, the sample consisted of 80 students: 40 Russian students (20 boys and 20 girls) and 40 Chinese students (20 boys and 20 girls) aged 18 to 25 years studying in 2-3d years of Bachelor programs. The following methods were used in the study: 1) Spielberger anxiety scale adapted by Yu. L. Khanin; 2) the questionnaire “Well-being, activity, mood” by V.A. Doskin, N.A. Lavrentieva, V.B. Sharaya and M.P. Miroshnikov; 3) a short scale of stress resistance by E.V. Raspopin. The conducted research identified specific features of anxiety and stress resistance manifestation in Russian and Chinese students. We established significant differences in indicators of anxiety, stress resistance and psycho-emotional state components as well as determined meaningful between indicators of well-being, activity, mood, anxiety and stress resistance in students. Based on the data obtained, the content of the paper presents conclusions and recommendations on optimizing the educational process at the university in order to reduce anxiety and increase stress resistance in students who have to endure the distance-learning format.

Many research has been conducted to examine the acceptance factors to use mobile learning (m-learning) for regular students. During the COVID-19 most of the higher education institutions around the world were converted to m-learning especially for regular students, in order to continue supporting the educational stage for these students. This situation, allow researches to tested the use of m-learning for regular students while they are studying in distance learning environment. However, limited researches, especially in developing countries, have been tested the acceptance factors to use m-leaning for distance learning students. In this study the behavioral intention to use mobile learning (m-learning) were examined as well as the m-learning factors that affecting its acceptance amongst the distance learning students were outlined. The study framework was depended on the model of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). A quantitative approach was used to analyze the data that collected from a random sample of 154 male and female participants from Saudi universities. The results indicated that significant factors influencing distance learning students’ behavioral intention include quality of service, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, gender, educational level, and type of device. The regulations governing distance learning programs and the implementation of mobile learning by Saudi universities under the direction of the Ministry of Higher Education are having a good impact and encouraging widespread use of m-learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of high school pupils toward peers with blindness. Using the CATCH-scale (Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes towards Children with Handicaps), 218 high school students’ attitudes were assessed. High school students generally had a positive attitude towards students with blindness. The total scores on the CATCH- scale was a little higher for female students, but with no statistically significant difference (p>.05). Generally, the implications of this research suggest that regular schools must implement coexistence programs that will lead to even better attitude in inclusive settings.

Augmented reality is often indicated as a usable educational technology that can be integrated into biology classes to overcome the shortcomings of traditional teaching (such as lack of visualization of abstract teaching content, students’ low participation and interest in classes, and their insufficient understanding of complex topics). Mobile applications with augmented reality experience mode have the potential to be used in online, blended/hybrid, and in-person teaching, which is particularly important during emergencies. This study’s purpose was to determine primary and secondary school students’ acceptance of augmented reality content in commercial mobile applications that can be used as a supplement in biology teaching. A total of 188 students (from schools included in this research) completed the online questionnaire. The results showed that the majority of students perceived mobile augmented reality applications as useful and easy to use, had a positive attitude, and expressed intention to use this educational technology if given the opportunity. The importance of prior evaluation regarding educational usability and performance is highlighted since technical quality (of used mobile applications) had a strong positive effect on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. There were no statistically significant differences between female and male and primary and secondary students, but students with prior experience with augmented reality rated perceived usefulness higher. Despite positive results, we need to raise our concerns regarding the reliability of using mobile augmented reality in biology education due to the lack of usable free content and the frequent cancellation of authoring tools and applications.

In Serbia, primary education is compulsory, and it lasts eight years with two educational cycles, while in the Czech Republic, primary education lasts nine years with three cycles. Analysis of the teachers` attitudes toward primary education in Serbia and the Czech Republic has a goal to determine the current educational state in the two countries. Also, in this research it has been shown if there are similarities, as well as differences between the two educational systems. Views of the teachers on this topic are significant for this paper, so the survey was used as an instrument. The survey should have revealed whether the primary education was in line with the need of modernization and enhancement of young peple’s intellectual potential. It was necessary to reveal if the education in the two countries is in accordance with the modern world and whether the teachers agree with this. One of the aims of the research was to determine whether there are statistically significant differences in the teachers’ answers and to relate those differences to the general educational situation in Serbia and Czechia.

This research is a descriptive study in the survey model to determine the direct and indirect effects between visual perception, phonological awareness, and literacy errors. The design of the study is exploratory correlational design. 552 first-grade primary school students participated in the study. The data were collected using measurement tools named phonological awareness, visual perception, word-sentence writing/spelling, and reading errors. According to the findings, visual perception affects sentence writing/spelling both directly and through word-writing-reading errors. Visual perception affects reading errors both directly and through word-sentence writing errors. The results show that the development of prerequisite skills and reading are mediated by writing, writing/spelling are mediated by reading, and learning develops in a spiral manner. It can be said that children’s reading-writing/spelling errors increase because they have difficulty in converting from sound to the letter, from letter to sound, and in synthesizing and analyzing according to their initial level of phonological awareness and visual perception development.

The current study explores the differences in metacognitive awareness perceptions of students who had high and low scores on TIMSS-like science tests. The sample consisted of 937 Omani students, 478 in Grade Five and 459 in Grade Nine. TIMSS-like tests were specially designed for both grade levels, and students also completed a metacognitive awareness perceptions inventory which explored their use of four main skills: planning, information management strategies, debugging strategies and evaluation. MANOVA was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that students with high scores in the TIMSS-like test out-performed students with low scores in the test on all four metacognitive skills surveyed. This was true for all three performance areas analysed: performance in the TIMSS-like test as a whole, performance in lower-level test questions and performance in higher-level test questions. These findings highlight the extent to which students’ metacognitive skills influence their performance in science tests. The study recommends that students be trained to improve their metacognitive skills, reviews several methods for doing this, and suggests that such training might better prepare them for taking science tests. However, it also notes that further research is needed to explore the impact of metacognitive training on student performance in specific science examinations such as TIMSS.

It is generally accepted that the use of the most informative areas of the input image significantly optimizes visual processing. Several authors agree that, the areas of spatial heterogeneity are the most interesting for the visual system and the degree of difference between those areas and their surroundings determine the saliency. The purpose of our study was to test the hy-pothesis that the most informative are the areas of the image of largest increase in total luminance contrast, and information from these areas is used in the process of categorization facial expressions. Using our own program that was developed to imitate the work of second-order visual mechanisms, we created stimuli from the initial photographic images of faces with 6 basic emotions and a neutral expression. These images consisted only of areas of highest increase in total luminance contrast. Initially, we determined the spatial frequency ranges in which the selected areas contain the most useful information for the recognition of each of the expressions. We then compared the expressions recognition accuracy in images of real faces and those synthe-sized from the areas of highest contrast increase. The obtained results indicate that the recognition of expressions in synthe-sized images is somewhat worse than in real ones (73% versus 83%). At the same time, the partial loss of information that oc-curs due to the replacing real and synthesized images does not disrupt the overall logic of the recognition. Possible ways to make up for the missing information in the synthesized images are suggested.

Parental involvement is an important factor in students’ achievement, and numerous studies have shown that it increases students’ success. As research on father’s involvement has become one of the current topics in education today, there is a need to separate the effect exercised by fathers from the overall family one. The aim of this study is to synthesize various studies which have focused on different aspects of fathers’ involvement; therefore, a meta-analysis would be an ideal method to create a synthesis of these perspectives and provide one general measure of fathers’ involvement effect. Nine studies have been included in the meta-analysis, where fathers’ involvement has been operationalized through father’s involvement in: education of children at school and at home, psychosocial well-being of children, modelling of behavior and leisure activities. The results show that the total measure of effect size differs from zero after applying the fixed model (z=13.510, p=0.000) and the random effect model (z=4.588, p=0.000), that is, there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the involvement of fathers and the academic success of their children. The value of the heterogeneity test (Q=66.560, df=8, p=.000, I2=87.981) indicates that the overall effect can be viewed according to the assumptions of the random effects model. The conducted meta-analysis has confirmed the assumption that fathers’ involvement is positively related to children’s academic performance.