AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
EXPERIENCE EDUCATION TO ALLEVIATE FEARS OF EDUCATOR CANDIDATES IN THEIR
UNIVERSITY STUDIES
a
AGÁTA CSEHI,
b
KATALIN KANCZNÉ NAGY,
c
ANITA
TÓTH-BAKOS
J. Selye University, Bratislavská cesta 3322, 945 01, Komárno,
Slovakia
email:
a
csehiovaa@ujs.sk,
b
kancznenagyk@ujs.sk,
c
tothbakosa@ujs.sk
Abstract: An intensive piece of research has been conducted at the Teacher Training
Faculty of J. Selye University since 2017 to investigate the drop-out conditions of
university students. We compared the results of these studies to some indicators of
recent international studies. Based on the findings so far, we have outlined a set of
procedures that are expected to enhance students engagement with and through
university studies, and to assist them in the areas of social relationships, learning,
curriculum development, and personality development. Our goal is, first and foremost,
to reduce early school leaving, to help students integrate into university life, to
complete their university studies successfully and, last but not least, to prepare mature
personalities for the teaching profession.
Keywords: dropout, personality, self-confidence, self-image, self-confidence, vocation
1 Introduction
An intensive piece of research has been conducted at the Teacher
Training Faculty of J. Selye University since 2017 to investigate
the drop-out conditions of university students. Surveys on the
topic were carried out at four higher education institutions. First
at Selye János University (Komárno, Slovakia) and at three other
institutions, namely II. Rákóczi Ferenc Hungarian University of
Transcarpathia (Beregsk, Ukraine), the Christian Partium
University (Oradea, Romania) and the Faculty of Hungarian
Language Teacher Training at the University of Novi Sad
(Subotica, Serbia).We compared the results of these studies to
some indicators of recent international studies. Based on the
findings so far, we have outlined a set of procedures that are
expected to enhance students engagement with and through
university studies, and to assist them in the areas of social
relationships, learning, curriculum development, and personality
development. To accomplish this, we plan to use the tools of
experiential education by classifying an optional personality
development course in higher education. Our goal is, first and
foremost, to reduce early school leaving, to help students
integrate into university life, to complete their university studies
successfully and, last but not least, to prepare mature
personalities for the teaching profession.
Early school leaving is one of the most pressing issues in
education in recent years. Churn is a phenomenon in practice and
a defined concept in the literature. It is a complex and
multidimensional process that is exploring the causes of this in a
growing number of investigations both domestically and
internationally (Kenderfi 2011, Stiburek 2017, Jungert 2015,
Frey 2014, Şahin 2014, Houssemand-Meyers 2013, Larsen et al.
2013, Faria 2012, Charmaraman-Hall 2011, Jacot et al. 2010,
Wudu-Getahun 2009). To get to the end, the Ratio Research
Group, founded in 2017, at The Teacher Trainig Faculty of Selye
János University started its research.The first studies were
carried out among the students of Selye János University of
Komárno, and continued at three other institutions of higher
education in the Carpathian Basin, namely at II. Rákóczi Ferenc
Hungarian University of Transcarpathia (Beregszász, Ukraine),
the Christian University of Partium (Oradea, Romania) and the
Hungarian Language Teacher Training Faculty of the University
of Novi Sad (Subotica, Serbia)
1
1
The results of the research and the resulting conclusions have been made public in
several scientific publications. For example: Horváth-Tóth 2018; Horváth-Tóth 2019;
Horváth 2018; Kanczné Nagy 2019; Kanczné Nagy-Csehi 2018; Kanczné Nagy-Tóth
2018; Nagy-Horváth-Szabóová-Kanczné-Nagy
2018; Nagy-Horváth-Szabóová-
Kanczné-Nagy-Orsovics-Strédl 2019; Nagy-Szabóová-Horváth-Kanczné-Tóth-Bakos-
Orsovics-Strédl 2018; Tóth-Bakos 2018; Tóth-Bakos-Tóth 2018;
. We used standardized and
proprietary measuring instruments, tests and questionnaires as
measuring instruments. The results obtained were compared with
the results of the latest research published in the international
literature. Following the analyzis, we drew the necessary
conclusion, which is based on the outline of our plans and
proposals to be implemented in pedagogical practice.
2 Procedure, realization, results of the investigation
The first phase of our longitudinal research was represented by a
pilot study in the school year 2107/2018
2
. The Ratio research team,
which conducted the study series, chose the specific way of
achieving the objectives, according to which the students' opinion
was the primary source. In the initial phase, information was
collected with 123 first- year teacher students at J. Selye University
through a questionnaire survey after the end of the first semester.
Some of the questions concerned the personal background of the
students (family, study conditions, life situation), the other focused
on the difficulties experienced during the first semester and the first
exam period and the mapping of the helping circumstances
3
. We
have been paying close attention to the difficult circumstances that
may hinder the successful completion of university studies. Our
questions on this aspect included:
1)
What difficulties did you have during the semester in
completing your studies?
2)
What was the difficulty in meeting the requirements during
the exam period?
From the results obtained it can be seen that in the case of
clusters formed among the answers to the questions, the majority
of the clusters show a relation to some person. Concerning the
clusters of difficulties, the qualitative analysis of the answers
reveals that the different circumstances, clusters, are due to
reasons related to the people living in the students' environment
and this applies to both the diligence and the exam period. The
percentages of difficulty for students in their term of study were
as follows, in descending order:
Different conditions:
36.6%
Teachers Requirements:
31.7%
Travel:
16.3%
Work rate:
8.1%
Companions:
6.5%
(Graph 1)
Graph 1: Percentage of learning difficulties reported by first-
year teacher students during the term
Percentages of student reported difficulties during the exam
period:
1. Different conditions:
29,3 %
2. Timing schedule:
31,7 %
3. Material amount:
22,0%
4. Stress, excitement:
7,3 %
5. Failure:
4,1 %
2
Horváth 2018; Kanczné Nagy-Tóth 2018; Nagy-Horváth-Szabóová-Kanczné Nagy
2018; Nagy-Szabóová-Horváth-Kanczné-Tóth-Bakos-Orsovics-Strédl 2018; Tóth-
Bakos 2018;
3
The questionnaire survey was conducted with the help of Moodle system in order to
optimize the collection of information and data processing.
36,60%
31,70%
16,30%
8,10%
6,50%
Different conditions
Teachers Requirements
Travel
Work rate
Companions
The proportion of difficulties in the term
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