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Labour market perspective on the quality of vocational education in PolandThe aim of this article is to summarise the evolution of the labour market situation of vocational education graduates in the last 20 years in Poland. With the use of statistical analyses of LFS and PIAAC data, we present the main changes in the situation of vocational education graduates in terms of their number, employment status, wages and skills. The number of students has decreased sharply in the last 20 years, in basic vocational schools, but not in vocational upper secondary schools. Our results support the thesis that the main challenges facing vocational education in Poland are not the decline in the number of students, but the strong negative selection mechanisms, low effectiveness of attaining basic skills and the inability of vocational education to quickly adapt to structural changes in the economy. We show why the key success factor of vocational education should be the development of general skills, and why introducing a dual education system is unlikely to solve its most important problems in Poland.Maciej Lis, Agata Miazga, Institute for Structural Research   Corruption in schools? The scale and sources of corruption perceptions in PolandThis paper analyses the scale and sources of views on the prevalence of corruption in the education sector in Poland. Through the use of public opinion surveys, I answer questions on how the corruption level in Polish educational institutions has changed over time and how it compares to other public institutions (such as the health care sector and police) and to the situation in other European countries. My goal is to investigate the effect of individual-level predictors of perceiving schools as corrupt in Poland, with special attention given to structural determinants and previous bribe-giving experiences of respondents. The results reveal that in Poland relatively few respondents have experienced recent acts of giving bribes in schools or perceive educational institutions as corrupt. However, there is a structural pattern behind the sources of negative opinions. The effect of socio-economic determinants on views relating to corruption in Polish schools is strongly pronounced and trends in the opposite direction compared to the effects reported in other European countries. Ilona Wysmułek, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences The goal of this paper – set in the context of the reform to lower the school starting age in Poland – is to investigate the determinants of parental decisions to enrol their six-year-old children in the 1st grade versus leaving them in preschool or preparatory class. It was found that starting school before the compulsory term occurs primarily in response to objective symptoms of a child’s readiness for school, but there is also some evidence for a deliberate investment in education by parents with a higher socio-economic status. Finally, early enrolment may also be driven by a cost-reducing strategy. The discussion highlights the possible reasons for the political failure of school age reform, which was recently cancelled after having been gradually introduced for six years. Using various representations in the process of solving mathematical problemsMathematics uses a wide range of representations, but the mathematical symbol is not the only way to code information. Different ways of representing mathematical concepts and relationships are used, especially in the early stages of learning. Generally, the teacher decides on the choice of representational forms to use. But in the process of solving mathematical problems, it is the pupils – not the teacher – who are engaged in the problem-solving, and the coding used should support their cognitive work. This paper analyses how different representations can influence the results of work on an untypical mathematical problem. The task was solved by a group of 7–8 year-old pupils participating in a mathematics club. The examples selected for analysis indicate a strong relationship between the choice of representations and the final result of the pupils’ work.Ewa Swoboda, Faculty of Economics, University of Rzeszów Abandoning mathematics. Reconstructing the process in the context of the social perception of mathematicsMathematics, as no other school subject, evokes conflicting emotions and contradictory attitudes – from “the gate to a career” and “the queen of science” to the widespread acceptance of mathematical ignorance in society. The process of studying mathematics requires systematic work and patience, as mathematical knowledge has a cumulative nature. In the case of mathematics education, some students abandon mathematics at quite early levels of education and begin to consider themselves “humanists”, which results in serious consequences for future educational and career choices. In this paper, I propose a description of the process of escaping from mathematics in the context of students’ perceptions of this subject, using the results of two studies – one qualitative and the other quantitative.Anna Baczko-Dombi, Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw Assessment of instrumental music performance: definitions, criteria, measurementThe concept of music performance achievement or musical achievement is variably understood and operationalised in different ways in research. Assessing the level of instrumental music performance is a complex task, requiring the assessment of many aspects of music performance. The aim of this article is to analyse (a) the ways achievement in music performance is understood, (b) factors affecting the assessment of instrumental music performance, and (c) tools used to measure such achievements. We describe the distinctions made in terms of the level of music expertise attained and the quality of the performance. We also present factors considered when assessing performance achievement: types of musical performance tasks, choice of repertoire, assessment criteria, such as the overall impression of the performance, technical ability, expressive components, and the basic parameters of the quality of the performance. Finally, we discuss available assessment tools, indicating their limitations.Zofia Mazur, Mariola Łaguna, Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin |