Key Words: Arendt, Philosophy, Education, Society, Jewish Question, World, Life

PAULINA SOSNOWSKA

FROM THE PARIAH-PARVENU DISPUTE TO THE LIFE-WORLD TENSION. THE GENESIS OF HANNAH ARENDT'S PHILOSOPHICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL CONCEPTS

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the genesis of some of Hannah Arendt’s philosophical and pedagogical concepts. The author argues that the crucial distinctions for Arendtian mature anthropological and pedagogical exercises in thought stem from the dubiousness of pariah-parvenu aspects of Jewish social situation. Subsequently they shape in the private-social-political structure in order to finally polarize into the opposition of life and world (profoundly justified in Human Condition). The final opposition can be analyzed also independently of its intellectual origins in Arendt’s biography, i.e. as a hermeneutic context of Arendtian thinking of Greek and Latin antiquity. It is only this distinction that allows us to fully appreciate the difficult condition of Western education in philosophical terms. However, awareness of its biographical and political genesis casts a new light upon their structural, independent, philosophical sense.

Key words: Arendt, philosophy, education, society, Jewish question, world, life.

DOBROCHNA HILDEBRANDT-WYPYCH

BETWEEN GLOBALISATION AND EUROPEANIZATION – REFLECTIONS ON THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Internationalisation has become a key issue in the public debate on higher education. Since at least two decades higher education is losing ground to globalisation. Simultaneously, higher education policy is also developed at a European level, constituting a “regional” version of internationalisation – Europeanisation. The growing role of student mobility, cross-border research initiatives and growing international competition diminish the significance of the national level of policy making.

Poland, as well as many other European countries, is set to a two-fold process of internationalisation: simultaneous globalisation and Europeanization. The article focuses on the nature of those two processes and their relation to each other. Are they really opposites? Can we still associate Europeanisation with a controlled and convergence-focused cooperation, whereas globalisation with a spontaneous and market-driven competition? The aim of the article is to address and discuss the above mentioned issues, and – by doing this – to refer to a broader context of changing discourse on the internationalisation of higher education.

Key words: internationalisation of education, globalisation of education, Europeanization of education, commodification of education, academic capitalism, European integration.

KAROLINA STAREGO

UNIVERSALITY AND PARTICULARITY AND THE CONDITIONS OF POSSIBILITY OF THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM – RETURN TO THE ISSUE OF THE UNINTENDED OUTCOMES OF EDUCATION

In this paper, the author returns to the conception of a “hidden curriculum”, placing it in the perspective of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s theory of hegemony. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the conditions of possibility of a hidden curriculum in schools, and to analyze its functioning, through the prism of Foucault’s thesis on the concurrent rationality and non-subjectivity of power relations, and the assumption of social conflict being the basis for emergence of any dominant interpretation of reality. The main theses of this paper are that while analyzing hidden curricula we must take into account a strong interplay between the schools and socio-economic and political framework within which they function; and that the notion of conflict is the main element which is omitted by the education process. The New Left theory gives us the means to take on that issue, not only in the perspective of schools’ reproductive function, but by enabling us to look at the unintentional outcomes of education as a phenomenon connected to the emergence of social consent (which effects from the privileging of consensus) concerning the “dominant rationality” within the given social context.

Key words: hidden curriculum, Laclau, Mouffe, hegemony, conflict, dominant rationality.

SABINE SCHMIDT-LAUFF

PROFESSIONAL LIFELONG LEARNING IN WORK PLACES IN DIVERSE WORK

AND LIFE CONTEXTS

What are the conditions for learning throughout life, or lifelong learning (Weiterbildung) from the professional and personal aspects? What are the relations between opportunities for employment and lifelong learning? What are the employers’ attitudes toward the participation or the lack of participation of the employees in professional lifelong learning? These are the main issues discussed by the author, who compares professional lifelong learning in work places in Poland and Germany.

The comparison serves to put forward certain suppositions concerning future changes, developmental processes and challenges facing adult education in both countries. In the Summary and Conclusions sections the author formulates three fundamental postulates or directives: relevant institutional structures should be created and appropriate legal regulations should be implemented; lifelong learning should not come down to useful professional training; and also, adults should have the best possible education conditions.

The starting point for the discussion is questioning Ralf Dahrendorf’s proposition from twenty years ago about “the end of the work society” and the birth of “the knowledge society” and also stating the need to reformulate the work-knowledge relation.

The author deals with the attitudes to lifelong learning and the reality, referring mainly to the postulates put forward in 2003 at the European Conference on Professional Lifelong Learning, of which the most important is: “vocational education has a specific role [...] of encouraging and supporting the motivation to learn throughout life”. Representative questionnaire research results ordered by the European Commission prove that professional lifelong learning in work places is highly valued both in Germany and in Poland, though the scope and forms of participation leave a lot to be desired. There are also significant differences in this matter as far as age, gender and form of employment are concerned, both countries, however, similarly to all Europe, present a clear dependence: the lower the education, the higher the danger of unemployment.

The final part of the article discusses the results of the representative questionnaire research carried out in 2004 in Germany. Its purpose was to find an answer to the question: who and why does not participate in professional lifelong learning. It turns out that the most vital role is played by three factors: education aspirations and previous experience, family status and the conviction that lifelong learning is a must.

Key words: knowledge society, professional lifelong learning, workplace, work society, adult education, professional training, employment, unemployment.

ALEKSANDRA SANDER

PISA IN POLAND – DO WE NEED COMPARATIVE RESEARCH?

Although Poland is one of thirty OECD countries, the PISA research meets with moderate interest. The author suggests that the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an excellent opportunity to monitor the course of the Polish educational reform and adjust our national education system to the modern trends in the development of education. Research results may also provide a chance to engage in a public debate on education which would reveal different expectations, both internal – the ones of students, teachers, and parents and also external ones – i.e. the education policy. In her article the author focuses on the results of the 2006 PISA comparative study, which mainly measured comprehension skills in natural sciences. The overall result achieved by the Polish students is 498 points, which does not diverge significantly from the results achieved by the youth examined in other OECD countries. However, an analysis of the results of Polish students in different types of skills shows significant differences reflecting some weaknesses of Polish schools, both at lower (gimnazjum) and higher secondary school levels. The 2006 PISA study also addressed the problem of the socio-economic background of students and its influence on their school achievements. The author also reveals some of the benefits that can come from considering the comparative perspective of international research for the national education system in the process of globalization and while realizing the concept of Lifelong Learning.

Key words: pedagogics, comparative studies.

SŁAWOMIR TRUSZ

THE ROLE OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS IN THE FORMATION A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY EFFECT IN THE CLASSROOM

A self-fulfilling prophecy in the classroom setting is a phenomenon which may influence the performance of a large part of students. Teachers under the impact of unfounded expectations treat their students in an unjust way. As a result, students given positive expectations will achieve higher performance than the ones given negative expectations. In this process, the feedback factor plays an important role. It includes punishments and rewards, as well as praises and criticisms applied by teachers. Results of meta-analyses show that teachers punish, reward, praise and criticize the high expectations students in a more adequate and varied way in comparison to the low expectations students. In the article, Rosenthal’s 10-arrow model for the study of interpersonal expectancy effect is discussed. On the basis of Rosenthal’s suggestion, the significance of feedback factors in the mediation of expectancies and behavioural confirmation processes are analysed. A lot of space has been given to the problem of the social context of punishment and reinforcement, and also the informative value of feedback. The issues discussed are illustrated by the results of many studies.

Key words: self-fulfilling prophecy effects, behavioural analysis of teacher expectancy effect, feedback factors.

MACIEJ SŁOMCZYŃSKI

MARCIN ZAJENKOWSKI1

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF QUESTIONNAIRE MEASURING METACOGNITIVE ASPECTS OF LEARNING STYLES

The paper presents psychometric studies of two questionnaires (organizational and subjective) measuring different aspects of metacognitive learning styles. The aim of the first study (N = 140) was to determine the structure of each tool. Results of factor analysis indicated that one factor solution in the subjective questionnaire and three factor solutions in the organizational questionnaire best fit to the data. In the second study (N = 182) psychometric properties were examined. Reliability was assessed with two methods: internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) and test-retest (Pearson’s r). Validity was assessed on the basis of correlations with other personality scales. Most hypotheses were supported. The discussion of the results emphasizes that both instruments reach psychometric standards.

Key words: learning styles, learning strategies, self-regulation, psychometrics.