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Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper deals with the objective, outcome and content of constitutional law and other subjects of constitutional law matter that is thought in public law schools in Republika Srbija and Republika Srpska, and at the Criminal police Academy in Belgrade. Processing, first of all, the content of these academic courses is a continuation of previously published work on some formal data about the courses. The paper emphasizes the need for a critical approach to the constitutional system which is, as part or whole, the topic of the constitutional law matter subjects. With such scientific approach, the constitutional system can become more harmonious and functional which will affect the quality of the academic courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to test the hypothesis about the influence of students' socio-economic status (SES) on their school achievement. Many studies, including PISA results, reveal positive correlation bet-ween students' SES and their educational outcomes meaning that students with higher SES in average have higher school achievements as well. This paper is based on the assumption that the influence of students' SES on their educational outcomes is mediated by school anxiety and intrinsic motivation, and by formative assessment done by teacher. This hypothesis implies that the influence of SES would be annulled by introducing mediating variables in the structural model. Data analysis has been done on PISA 2009 data, which is collected on representative sample of Serbian students in the secondary education, counting 4843 students in total. The results show that three mediating variables explain small part of SES effect. Among these mediating variables, the most influential mediator is school anxiety - students with lower SES, in average have higher level of school anxiety, which consequently lowers their educational outcomes. Apart from that, students' SES does not influence significantly intrinsic motivation for school learning, which means that all students, no matter of their SES, can be motivated for school learning. Finally, the analysis revel that there is a positive correlation between SES and formative assessment done by teacher, but this correlation is very low, which means that high school teachers manage to apply encouraging practices toward all the students, no matter of their SES. Observed results suggest that, apart from the factors studied in this paper, there are some other which mediate educational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper considers correlation between student prosocial behavior and academic achievement. Attention first focuses on the issue of prosocial behavior defining, making it operational and measuring it. Next consideration is given to the ways that prosocial behavior contributes to academic achievement. It is thought that prosocial behavior can produce indirect effects on student prosocial behavior because it is bound to certain academically relevant forms of behavior leading to successful learning and work. Also, correlation is interpreted by means of teacher’s preferences of prosocial students, which is reflected in teacher expectations and behavior towards students but in evaluating their work too. In addition, prosocial behavior may produce direct effects, for it is through peer prosocial interactions that positive intellectual exchange is performed, which contributes to more successful mastering of teaching content. The paper provides a survey of investigations whose results indicate that there exists correlation between student prosocial behavior and academic achievement. Also, consideration is given to possible methods and treatments for encouraging prosocial behavior in school context, especially the role of teacher in the process and the importance of the program for promoting student prosocial skills.

Childhood trauma can have long-term adverse effects on an individual throughout childhood and into adulthood. For pupils with a traumatic experience, school can be a very challenging environment and an unpleasant experience. Problems with: concentration, ability to sit still and calmly follow classes, self-regulation skills, as well as difficulties in establishing and maintaining relationships with peers and adults are expected for traumatized school-age children. All of the above can lead to low educational achievement. In this article, the emphasis is on children and young people whose chronic traumatic experience is happening at home environment. Research indicates that the importance of teaching and other school staff is very significant in recognizing the presence of childhood trauma in the classroom, because the earlier the trauma is recognized, the sooner help can be provided to the child. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present contemporary theoretical knowledge and explain why school practice should be trauma informed. Adverse childhood experiences and trauma will be explained, also will be presented by which parameters teaching and non-teaching staff can recognize traumatized pupils in their classrooms, acquiring competencies for recognizing signs of traumatization and understanding what challenges traumatization poses to children and their ability to learn. In addition, it is important to raise awareness and recognize that trauma has consequences for those adults who work with traumatized children.

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Modern information and communication technologies (ICT) are a pervasive phenomenon in the lives of today's children and young people, and are also increasingly being used in education. Data regarding the effect of young people's ICT use on their academic achievement have been contradictory, and in Serbia, only a few studies have so far been carried out. The aim of the study presented in this paper was to examine the extent and purpose of computer, cell phone and internet use among young people, to determine whether there is a relationship between these behaviors and young people's school grades, and to provide a description of young people's behavior on social networks, with particular reference to their potential exposure to the risks of digital communication. The sample consisted of a total of 1,814 eighth-grade primary school students and second, third and fourth-grade secondary school students in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia, 41% of whom were male and 56% female. The results show that young people spend much more time using cell phones than computers. As many as 36% of young people use cell phones more than two hours a day, while 11% spend an equal amount of time on computers. A quarter of respondents feel that their parents control the amount of time they spend using computers and cell phones. Over 90% have a social media account, which they use primarily to keep in touch with friends and relatives. The majority of respondents personally know the persons they are in contact with through social media and do not behave differently than in real life. The study also looks at differences in computer and cell phone use between genders and according to age, as well as its relationship to academic achievement. The results have been analyzed and discussed in the context of relevant research.

The aim of the research presented in the paper was to study the basic aspects of teaching quality and to establish the effects of students' academic characteristics on teaching quality evaluation. The sample consisted of 534 students of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad. The students completed an evaluation questionnaire on a voluntary basis as part of the Faculty's internal quality control. Analysis has yielded three components of teaching quality: organization of teaching, curriculum and classroom instruction. The findings indicate that fourth-year undergraduates are less satisfied with the quality of teaching organization i.e. with teachers' competences than students in other years of study. On the other hand, second-year undergraduates and M.A. and PhD students tend to assess classroom instruction more positively than other students. There is significant statistical correlation between academic achievement and satisfaction with classroom instruction in all years of undergraduate studies, while a significant correlation of academic achievement with satisfaction with classroom instruction and curriculum was obtained from fourth-year students and M.A. and PhD students. The findings indicate the importance of taking into consideration the academic characteristics of students when analyzing the results of students' evaluation of teaching quality.

Self-regulation of learning is an important concept for understanding and enhancing the learning process. Self-regulation skills are often associated with the student's academic achievements. The paper offers different approaches and models of learning self-regulation and stresses the most important characteristics of the process of learning self-regulation. The empirical research was aimed at establishing the connectedness of some components of self-regulation and academic achievement. The Motivation and Self-regulation of Learning Scale, based on Pintrich's model of learning self-regulation (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990) was adapted for our research. The sample included 111 students from two elementary and two secondary schools. The results show that academic achievement is most positively linked with self-efficiency as a motivational factor of self-regulation, and two more factors of self-regulation, cognitive strategies and social factors showed significant correlations with academic achievement. Based on the accepted model of self-regulation of learning and the obtained results relevant pedagogic implications are discussed.

The research presented in this paper was aimed at establishing whether there is significant difference in the levels of creativity, intelligence and anxiety among the students with excellent, very good and good academic achievements. The sample included 132 elementary - school students of the seventh and eighth grades among which 26 (19.7%) students had good academic scores, 40 (30.3%) very good, while 66 (50%) students were excellent. For measuring the main research variables the following instruments were used: the Different Needs Test (Gilhooly et al., 2007; Đorđević, 2005), as a prototype test of divergent thinking, the Preconscious Activity Scale (Holland & Baird, 1968) as a measure of the disposition to originality, COG 3 Intelligence Test Battery (Wolf i sar., 1992), and Spielberger's (Spielberger et al., 1983) Inventory of Anxiety as a state and a trait, i.e. instantaneous and general anxiety (STAI-S and STAI- T). The results show that excellent students are more creative and have higher levels of not only general intellectual capabilities but also perceptive, verbal and spatial abilities, compared to very good and good students and, at the same time, a lower level of anxiety. There was no difference between the students with different achievements regarding the levels of disposition to originality and general anxiety. The findings are analyzed from the angle of their pedagogic implications.

The results of numerous studies indicate that besides intellectual abilities, personality features figure as the strongest predictors of academic achievement. This research is aimed at exploring the relationship between personality features and academic achievement in secondary school students, as well as at testing whether academic achievement is one of the mechanisms suitable for explaining the relationship between personality features and the subjective well-being of students. The research included 408 students, with the average age of 16 years and 6 months. The results indicate that in both girls and boys a significant predictor of academic achievement is only the feature of conscientiousness. However, in conscientious students, higher academic achievement does not yield higher satisfaction with school and life, nor more frequent experiencing of pleasant emotions. Academic achievement is neither connected with openness towards experience nor with curiosity. The paper discusses practical implications of these findings and offers suggestions for future research. [Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179006: Nasledni, sredinski i psihološki činioci mentalnog zdravlja i br. 179022: Efekti egzistencijalne nesigurnosti na pojedinca i porodicu u Srbiji]

Social relations between students and their peers have not been studied more extensively in our expert scientific literature, and performed studies have rarely focused on the association between these relations and school achievement. Comparison of the quality of social relations and school achievement at different ages has been especially neglected, which is the basic goal of this paper. The sample comprised 235 fifth-grade students and 230 eighth-grade students from nine (18 in total) classes in each grade, selected from four schools from the narrow Belgrade area. Besides students, research also comprised their class teachers, whose number corresponded to the number of classes that students came from (18). Twenty-seven variables were entered in correlation matrix for fourth- and eighth-grade students, and factor analysis yielded nine factors, which were only slightly different between the two ages. In both cases, acceptance by peers and orientation towards peers had the biggest importance in explaining the total variability. The factors in multiple logistic regression which determined the school achievement of fifth-graders to the largest extent were their acceptance, parents' characteristics (educational level and employment) and social adaptation. When it comes to eighth-grade students, educational level of parents and social adaptation are directly correlated with school success, and aggressiveness is inversely correlated with this variable.

The paper deals with various performance factors in underachiever students primarily juvenile delinquents who reported declining levels of achievement throughout the duration of corrective out-of-institution measures. This raises the question: Why is there a decline in school achievement of juvenile delinquents during the treatment which is essentially aimed at improving school performance. What causes this? In the search for an answer we considered various approaches for the determination of the identity of a juvenile delinquent, underaching at school. The author takes issue with traditional views on identity and changes the focus from an individual over to the interaction between an individual and society. It is argued that poor school performance should be placed in the context of social relations; the author suggests that problems faced by underachievers at school only accidentally stem from what they can or cannot do, rather, the root of the problem lies in the manner other people relate to them. It is necessary that a teacher should realize that students are social beings in behavioral experiments who have individualities and that their personal characteristics stem from their relations with other people. A teacher is expected to attempt to construct the manner in which a student views himself and the world around himself, that is, to enter a "role relationship" with him.

There is a growing belief that academic achievement is the product of a complex network of teacher-student relations, where the identity of successful and unsuccessful student is developing with high, moderate or low self-esteem level. Self-esteem is most often defined as a conscious cognitive-affective expression of self-evaluation which is one of the most immediate indicators of self-concept integration degree. A number of authors view high self-esteem level as an important prerequisite for high academic achievement. In contrast, academic achievement and other experiences related to teaching and learning are considered to exert significant influence on self-esteem and a student should be successful at school first so as to develop a positive self-image and his academic abilities. The debate on what comes first - self-esteem or academic achievement - is in its character more academic than practical. This claim is supported by an increasing number of studies indicating the dynamism and reciprocity of correlation between academic achievement and self-esteem. The paper gives recommendations for educational practice to promote self-esteem and development of personal and social responsibility, which contributes to better student academic achievement. It is pointed out that teacher education in the field is necessary and that self-esteem and responsibility must become essential segments of curricula. Teacher is expected to become sensitive to the needs of students who are at risk to be unsuccessful and to largely apply cooperative learning methods. Findings demonstrate that cooperative learning either sustain or increase student self-esteem, whereas traditional teaching methods, in general, lead to its decline. Cooperative relations improve student self-image in respect of academic abilities and social interactions. Positive feedback, peer support, more frequent experience of learning achievement leads mainly to general increase in self-esteem and feeling of competence.