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Smartphones and tablets have permeated various aspects of life. This study explores the differences in wishes between students, parents, and teachers regarding the use of smartphones and tablets in biology classes in the upcoming school year. An online questionnaire was used for the study, which provided eight different scenarios for the use of smartphones for teaching purposes. The data were collected from 934 participants, including 465 students, 282 parents, and 188 biology teachers from various Slovenian lower secondary schools. The principal component analysis revealed the unidimensional structure of the instrument, explaining 59.7% of the variance (alpha = 0.91). The results showed that the use of smartphones and tablets for distance learning, teaching purposes, schoolwork and homework is generally desirable. There was less consensus on their use for laboratory and field work, evaluation of knowledge, and biology lessons. The main finding was that the differences between the groups were small or even negligible in terms of effect sizes. Statistically significant differences were found between the focus groups, with students and teachers expressing greater agreement than parents. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing parents' concerns and understanding the perspectives of stakeholders in order to effectively integrate smartphones and tablets into the classroom.

Many researchers have explored instructional use of information communication technology (ICT) in higher education and uncovered several factors that affect its application in teaching. The effect of age on university teachers' ICT use, however, has attracted much less attention. This study uses quantitative data from a survey of 401 teachers from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia to reveal any differences in instructional ICT use in terms of age. The results show that age is not a factor in instructional ICT use, although some age-related differences appear in teachers' personal ICT uses. The findings may inform planning for teacher support along with training and quality assurance at the university's centre for ICT-supported teaching.

The article deals with mathematical literacy in relation to mathematical knowledge and mathematical problems, and presents the Slovenian project NA-MA POTI, which aims to develop mathematical literacy at the national level, from kindergarten to secondary education. All of the topics treated represent starting points for our research, in which we were interested in how sixth-grade primary school students solve non-contextual and contextual problems involving the same mathematical content (in the contextual problems this content still needs to be recognised, whereas in the non-contextual problems it is obvious). The main guideline in the research was to discover the relationship between mathematical knowledge, which is the starting point for solving problems from mathematical literacy (contextual problems), and mathematical literacy. The empirical study was based on the descriptive, causal and non-experimental methods of pedagogical research. We used both quantitative and qualitative research based on the grounded theory method to process the data gathered from how the participants solved the problems. The results were quantitatively analysed in order to compare the success at solving problems from different perspectives. Analysis of the students' success in solving the contextual and non-contextual tasks, as well as the strategies used, showed that the relationship between mathematical knowledge and mathematical literacy is complex: in most cases, students solve non-contextual tasks more successfully; in solving contextual tasks, students can use completely different strategies from those used in solving non-contextual tasks; and students who recognise the mathematical content in contextual tasks and apply mathematical knowledge and procedures are more successful in solving such tasks. Our research opens up new issues that need to be considered when developing mathematical literacy competencies: which contexts to choose, how to empower students to identify mathematical content in contextual problems, and how to systematically ensure -- including through projects such as NA-MA POTI -- that changes to the mathematics curriculum are introduced thoughtfully, with regard to which appropriate teacher training is crucial.

The use of social annotation tools in higher education has attracted the attention of researchers with many studies having looked at student perceptions and attitudes to them. This paper investigates students' activity and perceptions of the social annotation tool Diigo along with the extent to which they correlate with their approaches to learning. Quantitative analysis was conducted with year 1 Administration students as part of cross-curricular cooperation between the courses Basic Informatics and English for Specific Purposes. The revised two-factor study process questionnaire and a questionnaire about students' attitudes to collaboration in Diigo were used, together with qualitative analysis of a learning achievement post-test. Spearman's correlation coefficients, the Kruskal-Wallis H test and Dunn's Test were used for statistical analysis. The empirical results reveal a positive attitude to collaboration in Diigo, and a connection between a deep learning approach and quantity of activity as well as a connection between a deep learning approach and positive perceptions of the experience. The results suggest that collaborative tasks in Diigo can be useful in cross-curricular cooperation, and that considering students' different study approaches while forming groups can improve student activity and motivation.

The study of primary teacher students' knowledge of fractions is very important because fractions present a principal and highly complex set of concepts and skills within mathematics. The present study examines primary teacher students' knowledge of fraction representations in Slovenia and Kosovo. According to research, there are five subconstructs of fractions: the part-whole subconstruct, the measure subconstruct, the quotient subconstruct, the operator subconstruct and the ratio subconstruct. Our research focused on the part-whole and the measure subconstructs of fractions, creating nine tasks that were represented by different modes of representation: area/region, number line and sets of objects. The sample consisted of 76 primary teacher students in Slovenia and 93 primary teacher students in Kosovo. Both similarities and differences of the primary teacher students' interpretations of the representations across the two countries were revealed and compared. The findings suggest that primary teacher students from both countries need to upgrade their understanding of fractions. The analysis confirms that the formal mathematical knowledge acquired by primary teacher students is not necessarily adequate for teaching elementary concepts in school.

Fractions are an important part of the primary school mathematics curriculum, being introduced to children in the Slovenian educational system during the second grade (at age seven). For clarification of terms it is worth mentioning that the term "fraction" is only introduced in the sixth grade. Before that, the term "equal parts of a given whole" (In Slovene language, there are two different terms which are used in teaching about fractions: one is "equal parts of a given whole" as "deli celote" and another is "fraction" as "ulomek." Fraction in our elementary school has the meaning of all other subconstructs proposed by Kieren (1976) except part-whole subconstruct. This subconstruct is covered by another term, namely "deli celote." For easier understanding, we use in this paper only the term "fraction.") is used. When we speak about "fractions" in primary school, we actually speak about parts of a given whole where the whole could be a set of objects or a single object that can be divided into equal parts. We used the fractional scheme theory for the theory framework of our research, focusing mainly on "parts within the whole," the "part-whole" fraction scheme, and, to some extent, the "partitive unit" fraction scheme. Ninety fifth-grade pupils took a test we developed with the aim of achieving a better understanding of the field of pupils' understanding of the part-whole aspect of fractions. More precisely, we were interested in how pupils understood the idea of dividing a whole into equal parts: is the idea of dividing mainly connected to dividing into congruent parts, are pupils able to reason about equal parts as parts of equal area, and do they adapt their reasoning according to the demands of the problems. The test consisted of four problems, each of them divided into parts (a total of eight problems to solve altogether). We used descriptive statistics and qualitative research based on the grounded theory method to process the data gathered from how participants solved the problems. We used the inductive process to determine how to categorize the responses and find relationship between the different categories. The findings showed that at the end of the fifth grade, pupils did not yet master the part-whole subconstruct of fractions and had problems related to linking congruency and parts of the whole. The mistakes pupils made clearly showed that a number of types of misunderstandings were prevalent: for example, not being able to connect the idea of fractions to equal parts of the whole or connecting the idea of fractions only to congruent parts of the whole as well as mistakes related to determining what part of the whole is presented.

Motivation for biology can be considered as one of the most important factors influencing the teaching and learning of biology. Thus, the main objectives of this research were to test the validity of an instrument that measures students' motivation for the subject of biology, and to determine the situational motivation of Slovenian secondary school students for learning biology. Based on 516 completed web questionnaires filled in by various secondary school students from Slovenia, we came to the following conclusions. By applying non-parametric tests, we concluded that there were certain statistical differences between genders and between students from different secondary schools and regions when it came to motivation for studying biology. First-year students are more concerned with assessing knowledge. Those from the fourth year, on the other hand, are more interested in the knowledge they have acquired rather than the grade they have achieved. They also considered knowledge in biology as important for their life and thus for their career. The factor analysis yielded a structure different from the theoretical constructs. The responses of Slovenian secondary school students formed five factors for the motivation to learn biology: (1) intrinsic motivation and personal importance, (2) anxiety about assessment tasks, (3) self-efficacy in assessments, (4) career motivation and (5) responsibility. This information could be useful for teachers and researchers to promote motivation for the discipline and subject of biology. A lack of motivation in science can hinder science and science literacy, which is necessary for responsible decision-making and behaviour and in choosing a career in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the school year 2012-2013 about 50 students (Fig. 1), managed by mentors (teachers from the middle school Gimnazija Vic in Ljubljana, Slovenia) created an atmospheric probe and launched it into an altitude of more than 30 km above Earth's surface. The aim of this "space expedition" was to take pictures of Earth and to measure how air pressure, the temperature, CO[subscript 2] and O[subscript 2] concentrations, the level of UVA and UVB radiation, and the amount of light change with altitude. There was also a yeast sample placed inside and outside of the probe. Here we report on some of the successes and failures of this endeavor.

The article discusses the understanding of infinity in children, teachers and primary teacher students. It focuses on a number of difficulties that people cope with when dealing with problems related to infinity such as its abstract nature, understanding of infinity as an ongoing process which never ends, understanding of infinity as a set of an infinite number of elements and understanding of well-known paradoxes. In the empirical section of the article, a study is described that was conducted at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. It encompassed 93 third-year students of the Primary Teacher Education study programme with the aim of researching their understanding of the concept of infinity. The focus was on finding out how primary teacher students who received no in-depth instruction on abstract mathematical content understand different types of infinity: infinitely large, infinitely many and infinitely close, what argumentation they provide for their answers to problems on infinity and what their basic misunderstandings about infinity are. The results show that the respondents' understanding of infinity depends on the type of the task and on the context of the task. The respondents' justifications for the solutions are based both on actual and on potential infinity. When solving tasks of the types "infinitely large" and "infinitely many", they provide justifications based on actual infinity. When solving tasks of the type "infinitely close", they use arguments based on potential infinity. We conclude that when they feel unsure of themselves, they resort to their primary method of dealing with infinity, that is, to potential infinity.

This paper describes a teaching method that allows for the fast and early detection of students' conceptions, misconceptions and their development. The empirical study of two examples where the method was applied is reported. The prerequisites for the efficient use of the method are discussed and results of the pilot study of its effectiveness are briefly presented. (Contains 4 figures and 3 tables.)

Wikis are believed to be a powerful tool assisting the development of constructivist learning environments, as their very nature supports collaboration. However, not much research has been done into the types of collaborative interaction that take place in wikis when used for learning. The main purpose of this study is to explore the factors that affect the ways students collaborate in the wiki environment. To this end, a qualitative exploration of students' perceptions of collaboration in the wiki was carried out among sociology students at university level who used this environment in blended, problem based learning as part of their "English for Specific Purposes" course. The research shows that the wiki promoted many collaborative behaviours among students, such as learning from each other and communicating with the teacher. However, the data indicate that the wiki was less successful in facilitating other types of collaboration, such as communicating with peers and co-constructing products, primarily because the students had the opportunity to collaborate in live meetings and preferred to use "Messenger" and email to communicate. Overall, the results obtained here confirm that the wiki can be used to enhance effective collaboration in a constructivist approach to language learning. (Contains 4 figures.)

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Copyright of Kakovostna Starost is the property of Anton Trstenjak Institute 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.)