Eva Milkova

The growing prevalence of problematic social media use (PSMU) and its negative association with health has become a significant public health concern. Despite increasing attention to its psychological correlates, there remains a critical need to investigate factors that might be associated with the co-occurrence of physical health and PSMU on a fine-grained level. This study aims to examine the symptom-level relationships between PSMU, physical health, self-esteem, and self-compassion and investigate potential gender differences in these relationships. A sample of 2912 Czech adults (Age: M = 27.6, SD = 12.3, Females: 61.02%) was used to examine the relationships. A stratified network analysis based on undirected mixed graphical models and network comparison tests were conducted to inspect the gender differences. Distinct gender-specific patterns were found. In women, the use of social media to escape negative emotions emerged as a bridge symptom linking PSMU with physical health. In men, fewer and weaker connections were observed between specific PSMU and physical health symptoms. Self-esteem bridged a new cluster of physical health symptoms through escape-use in both genders. Self-compassion bridged escape-use with physical health symptoms in women, whereas no direct associations were observed in men. However, the inclusion of self-compassion in the men’s network was associated with changes in existing connections, making all links between PSMU and physical health absent. These findings highlight the gender-specific nature of PSMU and underscore the need for nuanced approaches when fostering potentially protective factors that may be relevant to physical health.

Background: Developing young people’s technical and Information and Communication Technology skills is an SDG 4 target (4.4.), while the use of online educational material is a promoted tool to implement SDGs-related measures. Methodology: This is a case study exploring the complex role of ICT in teaching social sciences at a higher education institution using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Employing Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the research investigates how digital tools impact students’ academic performance across three courses with varying levels of ICT integration. The study evaluates students’ digital skills, compares the effectiveness of ICT-based and traditional teaching methods, and analyses how these methods influence the students’ comprehension and performance of the subject matter. Results: The findings revealed that while certain ICT skills and competencies enhance students’ academic performance, students value ICT tools differently depending on the course’s subject matter and their own digital competencies. The research also highlights the importance of teachers’ ability to blend ICT and non-ICT activities effectively to enhance students’ understanding. Conclusions: The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on ICT in education, emphasising the need for a more nuanced, multi-layered approach to understanding the intersection between technology and education, particularly in non-technical fields like social sciences.

Background: Developing youth’s technical and Information and Communication Technology skills is an SDG 4 targets (4.4.), while the use of online educational material is a promoted tool to implement SDGs-related measures. Methodology: This is a case study exploring the complex role of ICT in teaching social sciences at a higher education institution using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Employing Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the research investigates how digital tools impact students' academic performance across three courses with varying levels of ICT integration. The study evaluates students' digital skills, compares the effectiveness of ICT-based and traditional teaching methods, and analyses how these methods influence the students' comprehension and performance of the subject matter. Results: The findings revealed that while certain ICT skills and competencies enhance students’ academic performance, students value ICT tools differently, depending on the course’s subject matter and own digital competencies. The research also highlights the importance of teachers' ability to blend ICT and non-ICT activities effectively to enhance students' understanding. Conclusions: The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on ICT in education, emphasising the need for a more nuanced, multi-layered approach to understanding the intersection between technology and education, particularly in non-technical fields like social sciences.

Mathematical culture is an essential part of general culture, and mathematical proof is the essence of mathematical culture, which plays an essential role in education for sustainable development. The presented research focuses on the following issue: Can the use of visual tools contribute to a better understanding of mathematical proofs presented within the framework of courses in graph theory? The research focuses on Czech university students of computer science. The presented results were achieved in a pedagogical experiment based on a pre-test, treatment and post-test design carried out during three academic years before the COVID pandemic period. In the pre-test and post-test phases, students were tested to determine their level of mathematical logic knowledge. Visual applications were used in teaching in the treatment phase. The research results clearly showed that the use of visual tools supporting formal explanation of mathematical proofs results in better understanding of the abstraction of the presented process and thus contributes significantly to sustainability in mathematical education. Thanks to the use of the mentioned visual tools during the COVID pandemic period, when schools had to switch to on-line education, the students’ results were comparable to those from face-to-face classes.

The main purpose of the presented study is to explore the existing risk of Internet addiction for undergraduate students of Czech universities. The research was conducted as quantitative research; a CIAS-R questionnaire was applied. The data were collected in the years just before the Covid-19 pandemic (between October 2019 and March 2020). 3,366 respondents (2,151 females and 1,215 males) participated in our questionnaire survey. The average CIAS-R score achieved by our respondents was 44 points. It equals 6% of addicted college students (when applying the cut-off point of 63/64), and 3% of addicted students (when applying the cut-off point of 67/68). A significantly higher risk was revealed in males and in full-time students compared to females, and part-time students, respectively. The type of faculty studied was proved to be a significant intervening variable. Applying the 63/64 cut-off point, we revealed 5.6% of addicted students among the students of faculties of education, which is alarming (even if we consider the fact that applying the 67/68 cut-off point, we revealed 2.7% of addicted students.). These students represented almost 50% of our respondents, and they, as future teachers, will play an important role in the prevention of risky behavior.

The presented study focuses on children aged from 5 to 6.5 who attend Czech kindergartens. Its purpose is to explore a potential positive impact of an educational game application on malleability of children’s spatial skills through the application usage. The research was conducted as a pedagogical experiment in which the pre-test and post-test phases were carried out with the Mosaics, Puzzles and Patterns subtests of the SON-R 2.5-7 test battery, which is suitable for measuring general non-verbal intelligence in children aged 2.5–7. The game application which was created in the initial phase of the research was applied in the treatment phase to the experimental group. The results showed a statistically significant difference in the preschool children’s spatial ability test scores in favour of the experimental group and confirmed statistically significant benefits of the game application in each of the measured skills. The results have clearly shown that supporting the development of spatial skills through game applications is more effective than a mere use of toys and activities recommended in the current educational guidelines for pre-school children elaborated by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic.

School readiness is recognized as one of the key starting points for children’s further success in their school work and in their subsequent career. However, many kindergarten teachers still miss and long for a comprehensive, reliable and standardized diagnostic tool which could help them recognize the level of children’s school readiness. That is why the Psychological-pedagogical Centre called STEP (in the Czech Republic) developed in 2018 such a tool called the iSophi-diagnostics. Moreover, to prevent children with potential problems from being left behind, the Centre developed also the iSophi-SMART tool, which is an educational game in which a haptic and tactile experience is used in the desired learning process with the aim to develop the level of graphomotoric skills, mathematical thinking, spatial skills, time perception, verbal reasoning, and visual perception appearing in children aged 5–7. The research aimed at the investigation of the effect of the iSophi-SMART on the developmental level of the school readiness of preschool children will start this year. The first experience gained from our pilot study has already confirmed statistically significant benefits in almost each of the above mentioned cognitive areas. The biggest achievement has been noticed in the areas of spatial skills and time orientation.