Microcontroller programming competencies contribute to the sustainable employability of engineering graduates of both higher and secondary education. To develop the required programming skills, one of the challenges for educators is to determine which programming environments should be implemented in introductory programming courses. Conceptually,…

We study whether autonomous schools, which are publicly funded but can operate more independently than government-run schools, affect student achievement and school segregation across 15 countries over 16 years. Our triple-differences regressions exploit between-grade variation in the share of students attending autonomous schools within a given…

The changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have compelled schools to transform their pedagogies, with two seemingly contrasting trends emerging: the growing digitalisation of schools and the increased recognition of outdoor education. Our study, based on the experience of a European project, addressed the following questions: What digital…

The present work deals with career counselling for people with special needs based on the paradigm of positive psychology, which is becoming increasingly relevant in counselling and therapeutic processes. It is an approach to counselling and working with clients based on the strengths of the individual and represents a paradigm shift -- a…

The article deals with financial education. The data were collected as part of the Slovenian project "NA-MA POTI" (NAroslovje, MAtematika, Pismenost, Opolnomocenje, Tehnologija, Interaktivnost- Science, Mathematics, Literacy, Empowerment, Technology, Interactivity), which aims, among other things, to promote financial literacy at the…

The study of variables related to the use of ICT in the classroom is a topic of interest that has been frequently researched. In this paper, after examining the importance of teacher training in explaining the use of ICT in the classroom, we focused on analysing the weight of variables related to teaching practices and the organisational context…

Computational thinking (CT) is seen as a key competence of the 21st century and different countries have started to integrate it into their compulsory school curricula. However, few indications exist on how to assess CT in compulsory school. This review analyses what tools are used to assess CT in European schools and which dimensions are…

This article attempts to conceptualise the relationship between the individual (professional) and the structural in a period of relatively radical changes in society. The challenging and revealing dialectic of such relations is analysed through the combination of auto-ethnographic reflections and archival documents showing the changes in the…

The aim of the Regional Dossier series is to provide concise descriptions of minority languages in education, mainly in Europe but also in other parts of the world. In the Slovene Littoral, Slovene and Italian are official languages and thus they share equal status in public and private life. Learners in this region attend schools either with…

The paper analyzes the education system of private security personnel in Slovenia. Through the presentation and comparison of education and training programs for obtaining national professional qualification (hereafter: NPQ) and secondary and post-secondary education programs, it indicates shortcomings and opportunities for improvement. The…

Ethnic hierarchies, that is, hierarchical representations of ethnic groups, are typical for multiethnic societies. However, little is known about whether pupils elicit such hierarchies and whether these hierarchies vary with respect to the pupils' ethnicity. This awareness may shed light on whether and to what extent pupils perceive particular…

The effectiveness of class size reduction on student performance has been of great research interest and policy debate worldwide. Nevertheless, the evidence has been largely inconclusive partially due to potential bias arising from non-random placement of students and teachers in classrooms of different sizes. This study applied instrumental…

In this study we describe a short history of homeschooling in Europe, with particular emphasis on Slovenia and Croatia. We describe the legal frameworks of both countries, with a focus mostly on Slovenia where homeschooling is legal, whilst in Croatia it is not legal. To find out how parents think about homeschooling and especially their thoughts…

In mid-March 2020, Slovenia declared the COVID-19 epidemic, which led to the closure of schools and the transition to remote education. This article presents the findings of a study conducted during the lockdown among school heads in primary and secondary schools. The authors identify the challenges and issues the school heads faced in the first…

The worldwide school closures in early 2020 led to losses in learning that will not easily be made up for even if schools quickly return to their prior performance levels. These losses will have lasting economic impacts both on the affected students and on each nation unless they are effectively remediated. While the precise learning losses are…