Education Source

This paper reports on an investigation of the functions of the English causal discourse markers ‘because’ and ‘so’ and their Lithuanian counterparts and analyses the Lithuanian translation equivalents of these discourse markers using the multilingual open translation project TED Talks as a data resource. The results revealed that the discourse marker ‘because’ and its Lithuanian counterparts express ideational cause, followed by its rhetorical equivalent. However, the discourse marker ‘so’ and its Lithuanian counterparts express rhetorical consequences, followed by the rhetorical specification.

Within the context of the 21st century education paradigm competence and new skill require new authentic learning methods. The growing popularity of the project-based learning (hereinafter PBL) paradigm, as an active, student-centric methodology, is related to extended opportunities in terms of knowledge attainment, facilitating the acquisition of several transversal competences such as team work, search and selection of information and synthesis and analysis abilities. Therefore in this paper authors would present main features of PBL identifying aspects that give both students and teachers a kind of drive for the involvement of all parties in the learning process; also discussion on the innovativeness within PBL paradigm is presented and finally some obstacles/challenges are dealt on the basis of leaving an open space for further considerations and possible explorations on the effectiveness using this approach in learning and teaching.

The phenomenon of effectiveness of studies becomes a hot issue because of its close connection to the quality of studies. The assessment of students’ achievements is one of the factors influencing effectiveness of studies. Assessment is considered as a rather problematic part of study process. Theoretical analysis revealed the components of students’ achievements assessment positively influencing effectiveness of studies if used properly: frequency of assessment events, assessment methods, feedback information provided to students, students’ involvement into assessment process (self-evaluation). The questionnaire survey of 622 social pedagogy students was performed in 2008 in order to investigate students’ opinion about the influence of periodic assessment of their achievements to the effectiveness of studies. The opinion of social pedagogy students about the influence of the mentioned above components of the assessment to the effectiveness of studies was analyzed. The research results revealed that the opinion of Lithuanian undergraduate day-time social pedagogy students is adequate and confirms the theoretical insights about the positive influence of properly used students’ achievements components (such as assessment frequency, methods of assessment, feedback characteristics, students’ involvement into the assessment process) to the effectiveness of studies.

Straipsnyje aptariamos jaunimo poreikio mokytis aukštosiose mokyklose atsiradimo priežastys. Mokslinės literatūros apžvalgos pagrindu apibūdinami veiksniai, skatinantys jaunimą rinkos sąlygomis siekti aukštojo išsilavinimo. Gvildenama mintis, kad norint nustatyti žmogaus poreikio siekti tam tikros vertybės formavimosi priežastį, būtina tą vertybę analizuoti dviem aspektais: iš vienos pusės - žiūrėti į vertybę kaip į žmogaus vidinę vertybę, o iš kitos - kaip į išorinę (socialiai suformuotą). Mokymasis išanalizuotas aksiologiniu požiūriu. Tokia metodologija leidžia išryškinti vertybių problemą ir parodyti, kas riboja žmogaus galimybes įgyvendinti savo troškimus bei kodėl tarp individo atliekamo socialinio vaidmens ir jo paties siekių gali atsirasti įtampa.