The aim of this article to reconstruction the vision of the young scientist in humanities (characteristics, competences, optimal progress requirements) written by Ryszard Borowicz based on available references and historical sources. This is the first research to focus this vision has not been noted anywhere through the R. Borowicz’s books and articles. It presents the results of a research based on historical method allowing to combine all the data from different sources from content analysis to delthi technique.

This article presents an educational internet forum, which was a part of the blended learning project the author led throughout the academic year 2011/2012 parallel to the course Introduction to the Cultural Studies at the University of Gdansk. As a result of the project the site http://wiedzaokulturze.wikispaces.com was created by a group of sixty-five Cultural Studies students. Students’ task was to take part in two discussions each semester by sharing their opinion on the topic the teacher proposed. In total they left 260 comments on 20 discussion forums. Each discussion forum was closed two days before the next class, so it prepared for the subsequent discussion. The aim of this article is to demonstrate whether participation in online discussion develops the competence necessary to lead a face to face discussion, the key ability that should be improved by humanistic education. Year-round care of the project helped to make many observations that can be used as a guide for teachers who plan to moderate the educational forum. This paper presents examples of discussion topics, analyzes students’ comments and proposes methods for moderating internet discussion. The experience gained during the project leads to the conclusion that, although the Internet educational forum solves some of the problems of traditional discussion, it generates another ones. The most serious of them result from the separation of time and space and lack of natural interaction. As explained by research results and statistics collected after closing the project, the online discussion is more cool, intellectual and less spontaneous. Because of this fact the educational forum threads should be planned as a preparation for written assignment.

Culture of Constructive Discussions. A Statement from Experimental Research

The article presents the results of experimental research on the culture of creative thinking that consists of its: characteristics, purposes, contents, principles, forms, methods of discussions, and didactic means used to activate students’ creative thinking. The research has also allowed to learn how important in the process of stimulation of students’ creative thinking are such conditions as: atmosphere of discussion, appearance of critical expressions destroying ideas (“idea killers”), and moderators’ personality traits. The main results of the described cycle of creative discussion are: stimulation of students’ creative thinking, teaching students the culture of creative discussion and strategy of “attacking” problems by generating many various and original ideas to solve problems, increasing students’ awareness of their own potential of creativity, and obtaining the ability of discussing and cooperating in teams / groups.