The Cultural and Reading Habits of Students, Parents and Teachers: A Survey of Estonia

By:
Dr. Loone Ots
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The state-funded project TOIME (School as Developmental Environment and Students' Coping) has been on going in Estonia since 2003. Approximately 10% of the schools in Estonia participated in the research. During stage I of the project, pupils of grades 7, 9 and 12, their teachers, school administrators and parents were asked to answer questionnaires concerning their attitudes towards school and the school environment. Cultural habits, including reading habits, were investigated to give a picture of an ‘average’ pupil, teacher etc and to find out if any connections can be discerned between cultural interests, such as visiting the theatre, cinema, and concerts and so on, the status of the library in the school and the children’s reading habits. Do those pupils that have parents and/or teachers interested in reading, read more? Are they more interested in reading if they also attend cultural events such as the theatre? Is there a difference between the reading habits of the pupils, teachers and parents who have a computer of their own, and of those who have not? These are some of the questions the project tries to answer.


Keywords: Students, Teachers, Parents, Cultural Habits, Reading Habits
Stream: Community, Culture, Globalisation
Presentation Type: Virtual Presentation in English
Paper: Cultural and Reading Habits of Students, Parents and Teachers, The

Dr. Loone Ots

Senior Researcher, Dpt of Educational Studies, Tallinn University
Estonia

Born 1965, I was graduated from the University of Tartu as BA on Estonian philology (1990) and MA on Estonian folklore (1993). My PhD (Ed., 1999) is also from there and was focused on didactics on multicultural teaching on university level. Currently, I'm occupied at the University of Tartu, teaching Estonian literature and comparative history of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian culture, mainly the Soviet period. I have created several materials of study for distance and e-learning, on both university and general education level, and have some e-courses running at the Centre of Baltic Studies, the University of Tartu. My other favourite is educational research. Currently I'm involved in the state-funded research project "School as Developmental Environment and Students' Coping", focused on prevention of school dropout on the level of basic school.

Ref: L06P0579