A Case Study of Informal Learning in the Family associated with Very-Late-Onset of Schizophrenia in Female

Beata Borowska-Beszta

Family is a place of development and informal lifelong learning also in situations of crises, associated with illness or disability of its members. This study is non-clinical, ethno-educational case study of informal learning in Polish family supporting older female, who at age of 76 was diagnosed as having very-late-onset of schizophrenia. Case study I was based on the research no: 195/FES titled "Traces of disability in Polish culture". The field project lasted 13 months, from the beginning of July 2013 – to the end of July 2014. Studies were based on analyzes of the codes and explanations categories of informal learning through family members while supporting female with very-late-onset schizophrenia. The main research question was: what is informally learned by the family in a situation of schizophrenia in female in late adulthood? In the study there were 4 informers, lonely, divorced woman aged 77-78 and 3 members of her family. Personal data research of participants were coded, ensuring anonymity. The woman received a code Prue Patton and her family name Patton. The case study method I leaned on ethnographic field techniques and data collection as: participant observation, in-depth interviews and visual data designing. The analysis was made using techniques of qualitative data analysis: coding and categorization. The results showed three main codes of informal learning in the family such as learning about the schizophrenia, learning about the communication with Prue and learning about changes of support in the family.

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Raising well-being through time management intervention

Pavel Cristian and Vaida Sebastian

Well-being conceptualized as life satisfaction, presence of positive effect and absence of negative effect, begins to be of greater importance in our times along with the benefits that it brings to health and longevity, work and income, social relationships and also its benefits on the societal level. Results from other studies show a link between low time management and stress or low performance. Time management behaviors are seen as a process of identification of needs, goal setting for satisfying those needs and dividing the goals into activities and also prioritizing and planning those activities. We have investigated these links in a pilot study which consists of a time management intervention, with the aim to raise well-being level among participants and develop time management behaviors. The intervention consisted in several group meetings in the form of workshops on time management subjects, for a fiveweek period. The results have showed that the intervention has brought improvement on the level of development of time management behaviors and lowered the negative effect, but it has not brought significant improvement on life satisfaction and on the development of positive effect. We have obtained by this study an intervention which could be applied in order to develop management abilities, but also in the direction of lowering negative effect.

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Study Habits of X Class Students in relation to their Academic Achievement

Nagarani G.

All education springs from some image of the future. If the image held by a society is grossly inaccurate, its education system will betray its youth, says Toffler. We welcome this growing concern for quality although we do not share all that is said about deteriorating standards, especially at the secondary state. We also question the popular assumption which seems to underlie so much of the discussion, that quality and quantity are mutually exclusive. There is inherent contradiction between quality and quantity in education in adequate measure and India also could do the same if the necessary finances were available. As the resources available to Indian education are limited at present and are going to be limited for some years to come, the main question which we have to face is the reconciliation between the conflicting demands of quantity and quality. The problem applies to all stage of education and redefined and made co-extensive with preparation for life. By and large, it is this policy which has been adapted to the development of Secondary Education in the Post-Independence period, although the Sargent Plan recommended differently. This plan, it may be pointed out, adopted the first approach of an uncompromising stand on quality. It suggested that every teacher must have completed the Secondary School and received two years training. It also insisted on the payment of adequate salaries to teachers, assumed low pupil-teacher ratio and made fairly adequate provision for buildings, equipment, school contingencies and ancillary services.

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Like a Bull in a China Shop - Behavioral Literacy

Wittrock M. and Schmitz-Feldhaus C.

All over the world, adolescents with severe problems behave or act behaviorally literate or illiterate in social situations. Perhaps the behavioral patterns are a little bit different in different countries or other cultures but to act “behavioral literate” is very important for everyday life and for personal advancement and so it is very important for education. The phenomenon “Behavioral Literacy” has to do with multidimensional factors such as rules, norms, situations, behavior of oneself and of others and of the frames in which those factors are related to. Many children show a behavior in specific social situations that are labeled as inappropriate. These youth are the focus of our research project. The aim is to figure out whether the reason for the inadequate attitude towards social interactions might have to do with certain aspects summarized in the construct of Behavioral Literacy. These factors include normative frames of social situations, skills to act properly in those situations, the ability to perform a transfer, or the motivation to “fit in.” But at first the theoretical background of the inappropriate behavior of children and adolescents in specific social situations is to evolve and discuss that as a basis for the construction of school-based programs for students to succeed in e.g. an inclusive educational setting. In order to get this information, a research project was started at the University of Oldenburg (Northwest Germany) called “Behavioral Literacy.” There have been several pilot and explorative studies till now. The first result indicates that some children and juveniles simply do not know about the demands of specific social situations.

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