The report reveals the problem of the creative activity. The gained experience of the solution of the problem has been studied. The effective ways of solving the problem have been proposed. But the inner source of the creative activity is the interest in new knowledge. And an interest is the main motive and acts as the driving force of the learning process. Without the interest to knowledge it is difficult to teach. The solution of this question is the creative activity. The article describes the experience of higher educational institutions of Ukraine аnd Poland, which prepared and have been carrying out training of specialists of fine arts.

The aim of the study was to establish the level of cultural sensitivity of Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian students, as well as characterize the differences in this respect between these groups. Cultural sensitivity is understood here as an indicator of intercultural communicative ability, which manifests itself in willingness to engage in interactions with people of different cultures.
The study was conducted using a diagnostic poll with the research tool Intercultural Sensitivity Scale developed by G.M Chen and J.W. Starosta. Another methods employed included the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and LSD test. The subjects of the study were 293 students of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and Vincent Pol University in Lublin, 91 of whom were Polish, the same number of Ukrainians and 101 Belarusians.
The research showed that the Ukrainian students are the most willing to engage in conversation with a person of different culture, obtaining average and high results for all factors. The lowest results, in turn, belong to the Poles, whose results were all average. Statistical analyses showed that the differences are statistically significant for 4 out of 5 examined dimensions of sensitivity. The students from Ukraine turned out to be the most diversifying group.

W artykule podjęto rozważania dotyczące czynników, które motywują studentów przy podjęciu decyzji o wyjeździe zagranicznym w ramach programu wymiany Unii Europejskiej Erasmus+. Omówiono teoretycznie czynniki zarówno o podłożu poznawczym, takie jak: chęć poznawania kultury kraju przyjmującego, doskonalenie kompetencji językowych uczestników, możliwość podniesienia kompetencji zawodowych, czy też te o podłożu ekonomicznym, dotyczy to na przykład czynników związanych z kosztem utrzymania się w kraju wyjazdu. Grupę badaną stanowili polscy studenci wyjeżdżający w ramach programu Erasmus+ do czeskich uczelni oraz czescy studenci przyjeżdżający do uczelni znajdujących się w Polsce. Badaniami zostali objęci studenci kierunków pedagogicznych i filologicznych, studiujący w uczelniach czeskich oraz polskich. Przedmiotem przeprowadzonych badań były czynniki motywujące studentów do wyjazdu zagranicznego w ramach programu Erasmus+ oraz takie, które mogą stwarzać bariery i trudności podczas pobytu za granicą. Wyniki przeprowadzonych badań pozwalają zauważyć, że przy wyborze kraju goszczącego przez studentów największy udział mają nie czynniki motywacyjne o podłożu poznawczym, lecz czynniki ekonomiczne, takie jak, np. koszty utrzymania – ten aspekt wskazało najwięcej osób, jako najbardziej istotny przy wyborze miejsca wyjazdu. Można stwierdzić, że studenci wyjeżdżający na częściowe studia zagraniczne w ramach programu Erasmus+ kierują się najczęściej czynnikami o podłożu ekonomicznym, a więc sam wyjazd jest dla nich przede wszystkim czasem pewnej niezależności finansowej, a czynniki o podłożu poznawczym stanowią wartość dodaną mobilności. Optymizmem napawa fakt, że studenci w grupie badanej okazali się otwarci na poznawanie kultury kraju goszczącego.

W niniejszym artykule autor przedstawia problem kryzysu legitymizacyjnego współczesnej demokracji. Dane empiryczne wskazują, że obywatele wielu skonsolidowanych demokracji stają się dzisiaj coraz bardziej nieufni (cyniczni) wobec wartości, jaką jest demokratyczny system polityczny. Okazuje się, że problem ten dotyczy dzisiaj młodszych pokoleń obywateli. Autor próbuje odpowiedzieć na pytanie o to, jak młodzi ludzie (studenci) postrzegają i oceniają system polityczny w Polsce, także stara się przedstawić szerszy społeczny kontekst legitymizacji demokracji. Dlatego też analizuje związek pomiędzy preferowanym modelem władzy a poglądami na skali przekonań autorytarnych/demokratycznych.

The article presents the diagnostic and analytical results of the research on higher school teachers’ competence at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University (Ukraine). Theoretical and methodological analysis is carried out and the content of three competence profiles of lecturers in higher education is defined: professional and pedagogical, social and personal, academic, reflecting the main areas of the lecturer’s activity. Diagnostic tools of qualitative assessment of teachers’ competence components in each of the profiles are developed. The study allowed for revealing the development of certain lecturer competences according to the identified profiles: innovative, digital, management (professional and pedagogical profile), leadership, civic (social and personal profile), research, international cooperation, and scientific PR (academic profile). The results of the diagnosis are the basis for the development and implementation of a system of measures for increasing the quality and standardization activities of higher education lecturers at the institutional, national and European levels. The article provides appropriate recommendations.

The teacher’s misbehaviour has an adverse influence on students’ motivation and adjustment in school. It even has more permanent effects on students than the teacher’s good behaviour. The objective of this study was to apply Korthagen’s model of levels of change in exploring teachers’ most unacceptable characteristics from the perspective of students (n = 158), teachers (n = 78) and parents (n = 148), and to reveal possible differences depending on primary and secondary school and the length of teachers’ experience. The listed characteristics fit Korthagen’s model mostly in the levels of mission, behaviour and identity. Some differences were found between primary and secondary school, as well as ones related to teachers’ length of experience.

Social competence (SC) is one of the most important competences required for successful performance of the teaching profession. Strengthening students’ social and emotional competences provides aid and support for lifelong learning and social and emotional implementation of the teaching process. By triangulating the results of a questionnaire, sociometry and interviews with students of teacher study, a significant level of social competence was observed. Students’ sociometric status is not in full accordance with their self-assessment of SC, so more frequent are the allocations of popular students, but one rejected. SC is usually acquired in the family; college is placed in second place, which increases the importance of this issue in terms of intentional education.

The study examined the relationship between metacognitive learning strategies and motivational beliefs, predicting academic performance of student teachers. The main aim of the study was to examine the predictive value of motivational beliefs and metacognitive learning strategies for students’ academic performance. In the study 307 student teachers of the Faculty of Education completed the revised version of Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich & de Groot, 1990). Regression analyses revealed that a higher sense of self-efficacy predicted better academic performance and a higher test anxiety predicted poorer academic performance. The implications of motivational orientation for cognitive engagement and self-regulation at the faculty are discussed.

The purpose of this research was to determine the level of study competences among students of physical education. The study encompassed first-year students aged 18 to 26, who began their studies in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Standard Progressive Matrices Plus, the Social Competence Questionnaire, the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, the Coping Orientation of Problem Experience Inventory, NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory were used. Students were characterised by a high level of study competence with regard to skills and personality. The study group was moderately homogeneous: the students starting their studies in consecutive three years did not significantly differ with respect to the analysed skills. This undermines the circulating opinions of lowering the level of competence of students in the recent years.

This study describes the model of living values education (LVE) in school habituation activities and its impact on character development. It employs the design of research and development in junior and senior high-schools in Bandung. The model of LVE in school habituation is carried out by clearly defining the values of life and expected behaviors, learning of values in the real life contexts, regular awards for expected behaviors, proactive correction of deviant behaviors through clear procedures, and by using the principle of example, correction, awards, and enforcement. The application of the model of LVE in school habituation significantly affects the student’s character development by 42.1%. Thus, the model of LVE in habituation program can be implemented in schools.

Research problem: The focus of the research was to determine the differences and connections in subjective well­being, time perspective and values among groups from various cultures and socio­economic status. The samples of Polish and Ugandan population, which are highly diverse geographically, socially, economically and culturally, were examined and compared in the study. Participants: The Polish data were collected from 58 management students (45 F, 13 M) from Jagiellonian University in Krakow; mean age M=20.21 years old, SD=1.10. The Ugandan data were collected from 47 management students (28 F, 19 M) in similar age from Makerere University in Kampala and Fort Portal. Measures: Respondents from Uganda completed the Subjective Well­Being Scale (SWLS) by Diener, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) and the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) by Schwartz. The original versions of methods, written in English (which is official language in Uganda) were used. In Poland were used version of SWLS adapted by Juczyński, ZTPI adapted by Cybis, Rowiński and Przepiórka, and Polish version of PVQ adapted by Cieciuch and Zaleski. Results: Statistical analysis carried out on Polish and Ugandan sample survey data revealed statistically significant differences in time perspective and in basic personal values, but not in subjective wellbeing. The results were interpreted in the context of specific social, economic, and cultural conditions and discussed with reference to previous findings.

The following article comprises the description of methodology and the presentation of the results of individual research. The aim of the realised project was recognising and characterising the educational orientations of pedagogy students. The author used the Polish adapted version of W.F. O’Neill’s questionnaire on ideological orientations to survey the educational orientations of students. The questionnaire estimates six detailed educational ideologies. This article presents the results of a survey concluded on a group of 506 students of the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw. Among students the choice of liberal educational ideology is predominant. The number of followers of radical right-wing educational ideologies is marginal.

The study aimed at discovering whether gender, age, and different cultural background may be associated with procrastination. Therefore, procrastination tendencies by students of Polish nationality residing in Poland with Polish students living in Austria were compared. All participants completed the Pure Procrastination Scale that measured the degree of self-reported procrastination. Results revealed higher procrastination scores by emerging adults living in Poland than Austria. Males from the Polish diaspora reported more procrastination behaviors than females. In contrast, procrastination was higher among Polish female than male citizens. Delaying tasks were higher in older than younger respondents within the Polish sample; for students in the Polish diaspora, procrastination decreased with age.

The paper presents practical execution of a course The Qualitative Research Methods at the two-year master’s programs 3+2 (MA) in pedagogy at the Faculty of Education of University of Białystok, conducted according to premises of research-based learning (RBL). The aim of The Qualitative Research Methods is to develop research competence of students in the area of designing, conducting and reporting qualitative research. During classes the students prepare team projects of qualitative research dealing with their everyday life. The paper presents the results of analysis of 161 projects of qualitative research done over three-year period (2017–2020). Methodological premises done by the students at the stage of research planning were reconstructed: 1) the topic of research; 2) the subject and the goals of research; 3) motivation of a subject choice; 4) research problems. The analysis allowed to establish that linking research with teaching enables students to gain knowledge of: 1) conducting scientific research; 2) the scientific field they study as well as the fields related to it; 3) team work (including one dealing with executing and presenting the scientific research); 4) themselves as researchers.

Using the Atti della Nazione Polacca at the University of Padua as a main source, the author describes the role that this university played in the education of students from the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth from the 16th to 18th centuries. According to the author’s research, this role was crucial in the 16th century, when a significant part of Polish elites included a stay at this university in their curriculum. In the 17th century, the number of students from Poland-Lithuania studying in Padua decreased slowly but continuously, and in the 18th century, the number was marginal. In the period under discussion, the social structure of this group significantly changed: students looking to acquire knowledge that was necessary for their future professional career were gradually replaced by young men of aristocratic and noble families, for whom a visit in Padua, be it long or short, was only a stage in their educational European Grand Tour. According to the author, this can be explained by intellectual changes in Polish-Lithuanian society: a general and rather superficial education was gradually preferred to university-based and professionally-provided knowledge. A study of selected travel diaries supplemented and confirmed the results of the presented statistical analysis. All Polish travellers visiting Padua in the 16th and 17th centuries described the University and considered it as the most important institution of the city; meetings with compatriot students were also often mentioned. Later on, the University was no longer the obvious subject of the descriptions and 18th-century travellers often did not even mention it at all. Nevertheless, there is still available evidence that the Polish presence in Padua, although reduced, was visible and important for the city.

The article presents a training model aimed at the formation of sociocultural competence in 7-11 years old students from ethnic communities in Bulgaria, based on Geert Hofstede’s (2003) theory of culture. A schematical description of the teaching methodology of the model is offered as well as some results of a study among the trained students conducted according to pre-defined criteria and indicators. The article comprises methodological ideas for the formation of sociocultural competence in 7-11-year-old students in the conditions of digitalization considering the possibilities of the electronic textbooks, which are part of the compulsory educational content. It turns out that these textbooks are necessary for the purposes of training in the digital world, as well as for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Globalization phenomena not only enhance cultural cognition but also foster establishing close relationships, which might be also legally confirmed. Today, many borders - like the Polish-Czech one - are “dematerialized” and exist more in the memory and awareness of people than in the physical sense. For the needs of the analyses, the category of borderland in its territorial sense was applied. Living in the borderland provides chances for establishing close interpersonal relations. What enhances the establishing of such relations in the case of the Polish-Czech borderland are the similarity of languages, common history and cultural closeness. This also fosters contracting mixed marriages. However, do close neighbourhood and similar social environments really make people seek contacts with neighbours? Does this enhance shaping a positive attitude to cultural diversity. The conducted analyses were aimed at familiarizing with the declarations of the examined university students from Poland and the Czech Republic concerning the way in which mixed marriages are perceived in their environment.

Distance learning of pedagogy students during the COVID-19 pandemic – empirical considerations

The article presents the results of research conducted in 2020 among students of pedagogy of the Institute of Education and Communication Research of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice (Poland) regarding the evaluation of the quality of remote education introduced in response to the situation caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic and compared them with the results obtained by others native and foreign researchers, which made it possible to specify several conclusions for further work on the application of this form of education in academic education. The main method used in the research was a diagnostic survey with the technique assigned to it. The survey, taking into account the current situation of the university, resulting from distance learning during the pandemic, as well as other information disclosed by the media, consisted of two parts. The first part contained four questions (including those relating to demographic conditions). The second part consisted of questions focused on the research issues set out in this study, the main purpose of which was to learn about the opinions and views of students of pedagogy on compulsory distance education, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the research have brought a lot of new information, important for the extended analyzes and measurements of remote education conducted in many countries during the lockdown, which will allow, during possible subsequent epidemic threats, to exclude the diagnosed and identified problems that hinder the implementation of remote education of students.

Development of students’ social competence in an age of online learning

The article is the research report. The aim of the investigation was to address the question how students evaluate the development of their social competence regarding learning online which became inevitable due to the COVID19 pandemic. 350 students from three universities in Opole participated in the research. The diagnostic survey method was applied. In order to collect the research material, an original online survey questionnaire was used. The study participants responded to questions on the basis of a fivepoint scale. The analysis of the results indicates that the highest valued competence for the respondents was the ability of selfmanagement in time (M=3.71) along with the ability of expressing one’s own opinion (M=3.66), whereas the lowest valued competence was maintaining relations (M=2.84) and regularity of learning (M=2.87). It also turned out that women valued the development of their social competence significantly higher than men (M=3.44; M=2.94). Considerably higher results also appeared in extramural students compared to fulltime students (M=3.63; M=3.27). Moreover, early years students rated the innovative approach to problemsolving and systematic learning significantly higher than older students.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the university education system in Albania to operate in distance through information and communication technologies. The purpose of this study is to explore students’ perceptions about accessibility, learner intentions, social and lecturer issues in online learning. In order to achieve the aim of the study, the quantitative method is used. The data are collected online through the completion of a survey which contains closed questions. The sample included in this study are students of bachelor and master degree (N = 236) who belong to the teaching programs from the University of Tirana and “Aleksander Moisiu” University of Durrës. The study points out some challenges faced by students during online learning which are related to online accessibility, lack of motivation of students and the barrier of their involvement in online group work activities. It was also noted that the online environment presents challenges for lecturers, which require a better mastery of digital competence by the academic staff. The findings of this study are designed to help policymakers, education executives and academic staff to have a clearer view and make the necessary interventions to overcome these challenges faced by students during online learning.