The present study aimed to explain the relationship between critical thinking and social tolerance among the students of the faculty of psychology and educational sciences of Zahedan University. The study methodology was descriptive-correlational. 294 students were selected from the faculty of psychology and educational sciences of Zahedan University in BA and MA courses by the stratified sampling method by Morgan Table. For data collection, a researcher-built questionnaire of social tolerance and the critical thinking questionnaire by Ricketts were applied and the reliability of these two questionnaires by Cronbach’s alpha was 0.84 and 0.85, respectively. The results of the correlation test showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between critical thinking and political, ethnic, nationality toleration, toleration against coverage and relationship and total toleration. The stepwise regression analysis showed that critical thinking dimensions explained the variance of social tolerance.

Is school culture able to reduce the negative influence of work stressors present in teacher’s work? The goal of the study presented in this paper was to test a hypothetical mechanism, according to which school’s culture moderates the links between stressors and teachers’ job engagement. Relying on job demandsresources theoretical model, in the investigation conducted on a large (N=449) sample of teachers we found that although indeed the exposition to stress in an everyday teachers’ work is negatively related to teachers’ engagement, school culture serves as a buffer that moderates the relationship between stress and engagement. Among the teachers who perceived their school culture as supportive, stress did not reduce their engagement, while this effect was find in less supportive schools.

The cyclic survey, carried out on a representative group of Poles, indicate some changes taking place in the Polish society – what has changed is Poles’ attitude to their own activity which brings no profit but is of general social significance. With no doubt, growing social engagement is a positive phenomenon. The issue which the author has explored for years is the activity and engagement of teachers – especially those inhabiting the Polish-Czech borderland. Borderland is a space which enhances intensive activity and engagement. Transfrontier activities are largely addressed to schools and teachers and the cooperation in the examined area of the southern borderland is very intensive. The research was inspired by earlier projects addressed to teachers on both sides of the border. Its aim was to find out whether the views of teachers engaged in projects are close to the views shared by a broader, representative group of school workers. The obtained empirical data were processed with the use of statistical methods: for testing the statistical significance of differences between variables the chi-square test (χ2) was used, and for measuring the intensity of the relation between variables – Cramer’s V coefficient (0 ≤ V ≤ 1). The research focus was on the surveyed teachers’ activeness concerning both the participation in transfrontier projects and the search for knowledge of the neighbours. The research was also aimed at finding out how the teachers evaluate the activeness, in the field of establishing closer contacts between Poles and Czechs, of other subjects – politicians of all levels and educational institutions or associations. The analyses of the research results concerning this issue reveal the respondents’ strong criticism. It seems worth mentioning, that the respondents themselves present little interest in the activities aimed at establishing closer Polish-Czech contacts.

This study addresses the question how students’ engagement and burnout are related to academic achievement the grade point average and the number of passed exams. The study involved 205 students. Multiple regression analysis indicated that burnout is direct significant predictor of grade point average, but the engagement is not. Relation between students’ engagement and the grade point average was mediated by level of burnout. Further analysis revealed that students who have passed all the exams in the first term were characterized by lower level of burnout than students who have not passed all the exams in the first term. However, students from both groups did not differ, in the level of study engagement. The results indicate that high academic achievement is related to the lack of a burnout rather than the presence of engagement. Results also show that the grade point average and the number of passed exams are poor indicators of the level of students’ engagement.

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is often seen as a risk factor for lower academic achievement, so this study explains how teacher support and equity are related to higher student engagement and achievement in low SES school contexts. Based on the results, student behavioural engagement is related to their achievement. The results of the multiple regression analysis show that teacher support and equity predict student emotional engagement statistically significantly, while behavioural engagement predicts only equity. No significant teacher support and equity prognostic values were found for student achievements. The study’s results encourage further research and the search for answers to the question of what kind of teacher behaviour creates a favourable learning environment for all students in low SES context schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced higher education students to change their academic functioning, as well as the process of their social integration. This study focuses on the impact of the pandemic on student well-being, engagement and commitment to the university. The research group comprises 184 students from two universities (Poland and Germany). The research has shown that engagement with the university and the sense of commitment are negatively related to students’ well-being before the pandemic. It has also been revealed that females show higher commitment and engagement regardless of the country. Findings contribute to understanding student engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic.