Literacy skills of Roma children throughout Europe are shown to be significantly lower compared with their non-Roma peers. This fact is frequently attributed to the substandard socio-economic status (SES) of the Roma population. However, there is little empirical substantiation for the extent to which the SES of Roma children can be associated with poor literacy skills, as well as the extent to which remedial programs aimed to enhance those skills can be effective after school starts. The presented study aimed to analyze comparatively the relationship between SES and one of the literacy predictors, phonemic awareness (PA), of 171 Roma (n = 42) and non-Roma (n = 129) first-graders, and the effectiveness of a classroom intervention program aimed to enhance this skill. Results showed that a) PA of Roma 1st graders is significantly lower than that of their non-Roma peers coming from the same community, but the difference is significantly reduced after accounting for SES, b) there are important inter-ethnical differences between Roma and non-Roma when PA is correlated with socio-economic indicators, c) intervention programs aimed to increase the PA of Roma children should begin earlier than 1st grade, if expected to produce significant effects above and beyond those generated by regular classroom activities and d) the development of the PA of Roma and non-Roma children has a similar growth rate once they start receiving formal education.

Research shows that teachers’ perceptions of peer bullying (PB) are an important predictor of their intervention. Therefore, the aims of the study were to find out i) how serious pre-service teachers and teachers find different types of PB, ii) how empathic to the victims and willing to intervene they are, iii) what predicts interventions in both groups and iv) what forms of intervention pre-service teachers and teachers would use regarding victims and perpetrators. Results suggest that teachers perceive all types of PB as more severe than pre-service teachers and are more willing to intervene earlier, but pre-service teachers show more empathy for the victims. The strongest predictor of intervention in both groups is beliefs about the severity of bullying, but their forms of intervention differ significantly. Implications of the study findings are also discussed.

The aim of the study was to map teachers’ preferred approaches to handling bullying among students. The scaled Handling Bullying Questionnaire (Bauman et al., 2008) was used. The structure of the research tool was determined using exploratory factor analysis indicating the existence of 5 dimensions. The good fit of the model to the actual data was verified using confirmatory factor analysis returning very good values of the good fit indices (CFI, TLI, RMSEA, SRMR, GFI). 696 teachers of the elementary school second level participated in the research. Their mean age was 46.53 years (SD = 9.34) and the mean length of their experience was 21.10 years (SD = 10.44). Male teachers scored statistically significantly higher on the dimension „Disciplining the bully“; teachers who had obtained their qualification through a supplementary pedagogical study scored statistically significantly lower on the dimension „Ignoring the incident“ and higher on the dimensions „Enlisting other adults“ and „Disciplining the bully“; class teachers scored statistically significantly higher on the dimension „Working with the bully“; teachers having received anti-bullying training within their continuing education scored statistically significantly higher on the dimensions „Working with the bully“ and „Enlisting other adults“; teachers with functions aimed at sorting out students’ problem behaviour scored the lowest on the dimension „Ignoring the incident“. Neglectful and weak effects were identified of the differences in resulting values. Also, a weak direct dependence appeared between working with the bully as the preferred approach and the length of teachers’ experience.

Children’s individual experience gained within families may lead to the development of both prosocial and aggressive behaviours. The aim of the paper is to analyse the phenomenon of aggression in the family environment. Extensive specialist literature indicates that there are often many co-occurring factors that determine child aggression. Children live in a dysfunctional family, in conditions of poverty and parental pathology, experience parental hostility and violence, are neglected, their vital biological and psychological needs are not met, they undergo inadequate upbringing training. They also experience aggression in sibling relations. Thus, the family provides them with comprehensive aggressive education for years. An important issue is to prevent and control aggression in the family. It is not easy and requires actions at three levels: social, individual and family. The article also presents an interesting intervention model in a sibling aggression situation.

Due to the emergence of new social problems resulting from weakening pro-integration moods regarding culturally, ethnically, or religiously diverse societies, the Acting in Context by Training the Trainers in Social Empowerment (ACTTE) project was prepared and implemented. The Polish National Agency of Academic Exchange (NAWA) financed the project as part of the International Academic Partnerships program. The project goals were: 1) shaping competencies/skills in the field of DPA (Developing the Power to Act) in organized training participants (NGO employees and academic teachers), 2) developing tools for intervention work based on the concept of Empowerment. Within the training, the research was carried out based on the action research methodology and the use of scaling and uncategorized interview. The article presents the excerpt of the research, which was aimed at determining the changes in the competencies related to the use of the DPA approach in the project’s participants, as well as their subjective understanding of the DPA. The presented research results show the legitimacy of the project implementation by partner institutions, which are universities and non-governmental organizations. The competences and skills acquired by the project participants can be used in academic and environmental work.

In our article we present an overview of current research on giftedness, achievement and factors influencing their development. Determinants of high achievement such as abilities, social factors, deliberate practice, personality and others are discussed, ways of better support of its successful development are sought and its possible changeability is pointed out.