Alina S. Rusu

• Professor
• Professor (Full) at University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca

This study examines the impact of a special education practicum program on the perceptions of Israeli pre-service teachers (PSTs) regarding their professional identity development. The sample comprised of 30 PSTs, 15 Jewish and 15 Arab, attending a ccollege of education in Israel. The study implemented a methodological approach that consisted of a...

This paper presents a series of critical reflections on the transcultural need for animal welfare education, that were formulated from my perspective as a member of the Higher Education teaching staff in the field of animal-oriented sciences in Romania, with a background in ethology and psychology, as well as a certified Humane Educator. The critic...

Abstract: This study provides new insights into the oviposition strategy of Eriogaster catax (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae), an endangered species of moth found in semi-natural habitats within agricultural landscapes. Protected under various European directives and listed as Data Deficient by the IUCN, E. catax inhabits warmer region...

Cunostintele si atitudinile parentale legate de sexualitate joacã un rol vital in ceea ce priveste educatia sexualã a copiilor cu cerinte educative speciale, deoarece parintii sunt recomandati ca educatori primari in procesul de educatie sexuala a copiilor lor. Aceasta lucrare are ca obiectiv elaborarea unui continut curriular pe baza consultatiilo...

While the interest in the connection between neuroscience and education continues to increase, there is a gap between the declarative statements regarding its importance and the small number of programs that put it into practice. The perceptions of the participants in these programs might offer valuable insights regarding the applied values of this...

The human tendency to help others in need has been subject to trans-, inter-, and multidisciplinary studies (e.g., anthropology, neurobiology, evolutionary psychology, economy), within the frame of studying the mechanisms and adaptive significance of human prosocial behavior. Volunteering directed to unrelated and unfamiliar individuals is one comm...

Educators that undergo training in diverse pedagogical approaches enhance their instructional abilities, enabling them to form quality interactions with children and foster an overall positive classroom atmosphere. Training programs should carefully consider, acknowledge and respect teacher's prior beliefs regarding their role, while addressing any...

This study aims to test the effect of a program intended to promote personal and professional well-being for kindergarten teachers. The program is based on positive psychology and social-emotional learning (SEL) principles. Seventy-seven kindergarten teachers from Israel participated in the study. The research tools used were four questionnaires th...

International guidelines on sexual health education suggest that parents should be the primary educators in their children’s sexuality education, considering that sexuality education is a lifelong process that begins in early childhood and continues into adulthood. The study aimed to investigate the relationships among parental self- efficacy, pare...

Gifted children are often portrayed in a positive light, with little attention given to the potential emotional and behavioural challenges they may face. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive role of parental and child-related socio-demographic factors, as well as giftedness factors (learning, motivation, creativity and leadership), o...

The objective of this study was to develop a caretaker-completed questionnaire en- titled “Cats’ Behavioral Suitability for Animal-Assisted Interventions” (CatSAAI), covering two categories of items associated with seven feline personality factors. These feline personality factors were previously identified and validated by Mikkola et al. (2021) on...

This article discusses the benefits of integrating visual language, such as photographs, into Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs. It presents a study conducted in an Israeli high school, where students in one class (experimental group) participated in the SEL program with a photography component, while students in another class (control group...

The purpose of ecological education (EE), in addition to promoting understanding of environmental issues and the motivation to deal with them, is to ensure that preschoolers understand that humans are part of the biosphere and that they have the ability to impact its functionality in various levels. Kindergarten teachers are important agents of cha...

This study proposes a narrative analysis aiming at understanding through a personal experience of an Erasmus+ student hosted by a Higher Education Institution in Portugal how the principles stated by academic hospitality act as an enabler of positive behaviour leading to Service-Learning. The multicultural approach is also a key element for this st...

It is generally acknowledged that today's most important means of communication is the image, with its various forms of representation. The new visual language that is continuously developing due to available technologies in everyday lives, creates new ways of expressing thoughts and emotions, especially among adolescents. In parallel, the Social-E...

Research has shown that early childhood education can have a positive impact on individual career development and can reduce social problems, emphasizing the importance of investing in quality education for young children. Kindergarten teachers play a critical role in building a high-quality education. To achieve that, kindergarten teachers perform...

Environmental education plays a critical role in shaping sustainable behaviours and cultivating a deeper understanding of ecological systems. This paper presents a theoretical framework supporting the interdisciplinary design of an environmental educational program in primary schools, with a specific focus on insect conservation. Insects, as vital...

Instructing students enrolled in animal-oriented study programs on how to analyse and issue recommendations to promote responsible human-animal interactions in cases of individuals and/or families deciding to adopt companion animals, for example, requires interdisciplinary knowledge and a multiperspective based approach. In this paper, I present se...

The decline of biodiversity and natural habitats, and the lack of progress in society's behaviour towards conservation, has prompted research into effective educational programs. Studies have shown that positive emotions towards nature, particularly in relation to the innate human predisposition towards the natural environment, can encourage enviro...

Literature indicates that teachers and students who experience trust and belongingness in their school communities have higher levels of indicators of positive quality of life, such as performance, innovation, and creativity. Also, they are open to creating more authentic relationships and fostering an environment based on psychological safety with...

Dialogue is defined as a process where people communicate in words what they are thinking or feeling in a question-and-answer manner in order to produce new ideas for all involved. Classroom dialogue includes all forms of verbal interactions that occur between a child and a teacher, all being a form of pedagogy. Teachers often "think" that are prom...

This theoretical study aims to investigate the connection formed between the variables: social connectedness, self-esteem and life satisfaction in the context of teacher-student relationships (TSR). The analysis is based on the following research questions: (1) Which are the most significant individual psycho-social factors indicated in the literat...

The 21st century has brought many technological, social, and educational changes. These changes affected teachers, including kindergarten teachers. Today, resilience and social-emotional skills adapted to the 21st century are required besides cognitive skills and knowledge. These skills must be integrated from early childhood education into the lea...

Photography has been a tool for visual expression for almost two centuries. If owning a camera was a privilege in the past, technological development in the 21st century has made the camera a standard tool used as a means of everyday life interpersonal communication. While the verbal communication (spoken language) can vary among individuals, group...

This study aims to examine the differences and similarities between Arab and Jewish pre-service teachers in Israel, in terms of their professional identity, their perceptions of the role of a Special Education (SE) teacher and their self-efficacy in teaching. The sample comprised of 205 students from a college for education in Israel, 141 Jewish an...

This study examines the differences and similarities between Arab and Jewish pre-service teachers (PSTs) in Israel, in terms of their professional identity development, their perceptions of the teacher's role and their self-efficacy in teaching. The sample consisted of 168 PSTs from a College for education in Israel, 103 Jewish and 65 Arab. All the...

Teacher's role perception questionnaires exist in different domains. However, none refer to their role perceptions on conducting authentic dialogue in classrooms or with the pre-schoolers. There was a need for this type of questionnaire in order to quantitatively analyze the results before and after a preschool teacher's training program on authent...

Preschool it is the optimal time to introduce environmental education in order to form positive behaviors of preschoolers regarding the environment. A systematic literature review of studies published from the last two decades was carried out, by using th

Teacher-student relationship (TSR) is a component of the interpersonal human relationships category, that can have positive and negative psycho-social effects on both sides. The aim of this study is to perform a systematic review of the literature in orde

This study proposes an integrative analysis of the moral intelligence and ethical intelligence concepts in order to understand the chronological and conceptual evolutions of a new type of intelligence, which will later on serve as a base for the operationalisation of the concept. The methodological approach consists in an integrative literature rev...

The identification of the attitudes towards sexuality and sexual education in family settings are starting points for the development of sexual education intervention programs for people with special needs, as well as training parents to convey objective and needs-oriented sexual health education to their children. The purpose of this study is to p...

A service learning (SL) course is carried out at higher education institutions in cooperation with community partners to facilitate the development of students’ civic engagement. It consists of several phases, including the identification of a social need; the development and implementation of a concept to meet that need; and, above all, the reflec...

Introduction: Goal setting, public posting, and positive reinforcement are behavior modification techniques used in a variety of fields, including sports performance. Objective. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effect of a behavioral intervention consisting of goal setting, public posting, and positive reinforcement on the total dis...

Animal cruelty, which is included in the category of animal abuse, is commonly defined as any intentional (and repeated) behavior that causes physical or psychological distress in animals, including death. There is an increasing number of studies conducted by researchers on mental health (psychology, social work, psychiatry), experts and human-anim...

An increasing number of studies in the field of Social Work (SW) address the incorporation of animal presence in practice and improved understanding of social support and therapeutic components. Education programs on the ethical and practical principles of animal-assisted interventions, including models and theories supporting the psycho-physiologi...

The aim of this book is to introduce the readers, which are expected to be students and researchers with interests in understanding the applied values of human behavior and psychology, to the scientific approach of dyads, particularly of parent-offspring dyad. The book presents the dissertation thesis in the field of clinical psychology and psychot...

Neuroeducation (NE) can contribute to evidence-based policies and practices in education (Ansari, DeSmedt & Grabner, 2012; Meltzoff et al, 2009). However, relatively few studies have examined the relationship between findings from the neuroscience field and their practical implementation in educational processes (Dubinsky et al., 2019). In addition...

This theoretical paper proposes an educational solution based on interdisciplinary curricular development (i.e., elements of neuroeducation, applied evolutionary psychology), which refers to the insertion in the existent curricula of a learning objective that has the potential to foster the development of social connectedness of HEI students in tim...

Literature indicates that authentic dialogue can play an essential role in the social and emotional development of young children. In the classroom settings, it enables the children to speak their minds on topics that are relevant to them in an intimate face to face conversation, without the fear of being judged through an imbalance of power by an...

Literature indicates that trust is a central element to many aspects of life, with implications for the manner in which people think, the ways people reach decisions, and model their behaviours, as well as their social, and professional interactions. Some research emphasises the fact that the organisations, the schools, and the teams in which peopl...

The teaching practicum programs in schools represent a key element in teacher training in Higher Education Institutions, in terms of connecting curricular content with professional competencies development and real life situations. The current study provides a contemporary overview of the practicum programs in training special education pre-service...

This study investigates in a qualitative manner the psychosocial benefits perceived by the parents of children enrolled in a private Aftershool (AS) program in Romania. The theoretical background includes aspects of school-family-community collaboration and characteristics and legislative frames supporting Afterschool programs in Romania and in the...

The decision to become a music educator can be influenced by the musical background of an individual, the cultural values, and by the perceived utilitarian value in terms of viable career option. This study was conducted among Jewish and Arab music-education students in Israel. The aim was to identify aspects related to choosing a career in music,...

This paper introduces an example of good practices of Service-Learning (SL, community-oriented pedagogy), that can be used in primary and middle schools to address the problem of community cats in urban areas, by civically engaging the students. The learning goals of the SL program to be presented here are: students will we able to enrich their cur...

Simple Summary The objective of this exploratory study was to investigate through a qualitative thematic analysis the reflections of six animal protection and wildlife conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Romania regarding the development of the first specialized master’s degree program in ethology and human-animal interaction in t...

As a proxy of community-engaged teaching and learning pedagogy in higher education institutions (HEIs), service-learning (SL) has just recently become a phenomenon of research and policy interest in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This study explores the first-ever service-learning experience of 246 students coming from three universitie...

Background. Alpine skiing is a winter sport that includes descent of the snow-slopes through specified gates using skis with fixed hell ties. Organization of the instructive and educational activities within alpine skiing is based on the necessities and interest of individuals for practical experience, as well as on natural conditions and material...

Book description: https://www.routledge.com/Career-Paths-in-Human-Animal-Interaction-for-Social-and-Behavioral-Scientists/Kogan-Erdman/p/book/9780367366155 Career Paths in Human-Animal Interaction for Social and Behavioral Scientists is an essential text for students and professionals wanting to pursue a career in human-animal interaction (HAI). I...

CHAPTER 1: THE OBSERVATORY’s ACHIVEMENTS IN 2020 CHAPTER 2: THE RESPONSE OF SERVICE-LEARNING TO THE COVID-19 CHAPTER 3: EUROPEAN ASSOCIATIONS & NETWORKS RELATED TO SERVICE-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN 2020 CHAPTER 4: ACTIVE EUROPEAN PROJECTS RELATED TO SERVICE-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN 2020

This paper investigates the relationship between dating anxiety (DA), self-esteem (SE) and social connectedness (SC), particularly the degree in which self-esteem and social connectedness can be considered predictors of dating anxiety, as well as the differences and similarities between participants regarding the three concepts (dating anxiety, sel...

Parents play an important role as primary educators in the sexual education of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). This current study investigates by using a qualitative approach the attitudes and needs of parents regarding the sexual health education (SHE) of their ASD children. A sample of N=19 parents with ASD children and...

Belongingness has been related with several positive aspects in the life of an individual, including academic and psychosocial success. The current paper aims to review the theoretical foundations of belongingness and to present the results of the implementation of a 2-months wellbeing-based program targeting the development of belongingness for hi...

Program In the last two decades, there is an increasing interest in the connection between neuroscience and education. However, there is a gap between the declarative statements about the importance of implementation of neuroscience in education and the small number of suggested programs which actually present an implementation in practice. This st...

Literature in the field of criminal justice frequently places incarceration (i.e. the state of being confined in prison) in the context of the normative nature of human activities and institutions. Features of violations of social rules are considered to meet the input conditions for development of mechanisms designed to respond to inter-individual...

Cartea oferă cititorilor studenți, cadre didactice și membri ai comunității, aspecte privind valorile definitorii ale educației bazate pe compasiune, strategii și exemple de implementare și evaluare a învățării spre comunitate, dar și o serie de reflecții personale privind parcursul profesional al autoarei. Nevoia de interdisciplinaritate în planif...

Literature in the field of human-animal interactions indicates multiple psycho- physiological benefits of animal presence for persons in animal-assisted professions (veterinary medicine, veterinary social work, animal-assisted therapy, animal protection and shelters-related activities). Also, studies show that development of empathy through activit...

The aim of this paper is to present a qualitative study using a focus-group method applied to a group of educators in a private nature-oriented school in Romania (Green School Romania), with the purpose of identifying ecological friendly behavioral models, values and virtues shown by children in relation to the natural environment. The importance o...

Social isolation and the switch to remote forms of education represent strong challenges in terms of planning and implementing direct in-person volunteering and Service-Learning activities. However, in many countries, experts in Service-Learning have started to observe and document cases of community-oriented activities involving cooperation betwee...

A meta-analysis was conducted to determine the efectiveness of Animal Assisted Therapy procedures (AAT) on the communication and social skills of several categories of individuals. The inclusion criteria for the articles were: (1) to be published in English, (2) to cover the AAT domain, (3) to utilize a control group, and (4) to offer enough data t...

This paper presents an exploratory study designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) that investigates children's awareness of being imitated by a robot in a play/game scenario. The Nao robot imitates all the arm movement behaviors of the child in real-time in dyadic and triadic interactions. Different behavioral criteria (i.e., eye...

Imitation plays an important role in development, being one of the precursors of social cognition. Even though some children with autism imitate spontaneously and other children with autism can learn to imitate, the dynamics of imitation is affected in the large majority of cases. Existing studies from the literature suggest that robots can be used...

With the aim to clarify if there is a European approach of Service-Learning in Higher Education, the Observatory organized the first Experts’ Seminar in Madrid, 26TH February 2020. This Newsletter is based on the information thrown by twenty-six experts on Service-Learning from twelve European countries that contributed to this event.

The European Observatory of Service-Learning in Higher Education (EOSLHE) aims to enhance and disseminate the knowledge of service-learning (therein after S-L) in Higher Education in Europe as an educational approach that enhances students’ civic engagement and brings them closer to different social realities while allowing them to work in a real e...

The purpose of this handbook is to provide support to academic personnel (teachers) who decide to deliver courses based on SL in any type of higher education institution. The manual is structured in five chapters, which provide an overview of the key issues of SL understanding and implementation in higher education. In addition to the main text, yo...

Neuroeducation is defined as a growing interdisciplinary field based on the synergic connection between neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology and education to improve the theoretical and practical understanding of learning and education. Besides the characteristics of the learners, the process of implementation of an innovative approach such...

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact on knowledge and attitudes to sexuality, as well as the capability to teach sexual education topics, of a Sexual Health Education training program designed for pre-service teachers in the field of Special Education in Israel. The findings from the pre/ post investigation and the comparison w...

Sexual Education (SexEd) in general is a controversial topic throughout the world. When it comes to sexual education of people with disabilities, the subject becomes even more difficult and sensitive for both caregivers and specialists. In order to implement a SexEd program for persons with intellectual disabilities, different individual and social...

The European Observatory of Service-Learning in Higher Education (EOSLHE) aims to enhance and disseminate the knowledge of service-learning (therein after S-L) in Higher Education in Europe as an educational approach that enhances students’ civic engagement and brings them closer to different social realities while allowing them to work in a real e...

Literature in the field of antisocial behavior indicates that education can play an important role in the prevention or reduction of delinquency. This study aims to investigate the impact of programs provided by corrective institutions on the self-serving cognitive distortion and antisocial behaviors of delinquent adolescents from Romania, after 6-...

Coping strategies that are used by adolescents and young individuals to adapt to stressful situations can provide indication on their psycho‐emotional well‐being, as well as inferences regarding their functional development within the origin or adoptive family. Coping is commonly explained as the investment of effort to solve personal and interpers...

Animals represent a constant component of human existence, not only in every day life contexts such as companion and farm animals, but also in therapeutic settings addressing psycho-social and physiological aspects of human quality of life. Interaction with animals involves also negative aspects on both sides, such as cruelty toward animals and for...

The current study investigates the associations between interpersonal and pet attachment (anxiety and avoidance dimensions), empathy toward animals, and anthropomor-phism in the Romanian cultural context, where problems regarding the effectiveness of pet management programs are still being reported. A sample of 244 adult respondents, with a mean ag...

The social changes that occurred in the last decades accelerated the need for teaching sexual health education (SHE) for Special Education pre-service teachers (PST). This pilot study aims to compose a validated and reliable package of questionnaires to assess the attitudes, knowledge and self-efficacy (as dependent variables) of Israeli pre-servic...

Neuroeducation is an emerging research field that bridges neuroscience and education in an interdisciplinary manner, aiming to increase the efficiency and efficacy of the educational process. This research is a part of a larger doctoral study, which focuses on the questions of whether and how Israeli teacher training students from the special educa...

Service-Learning (SL) is an innovative pedagogical practice that combines services addressing the needs of the community with learning opportunities offered to students, in the context of their civic development and participation. Recent analys of the of the readiness and awareness toward SL practices at Babes-Bolyai University, which is one of the...

Literature in the field of delinquency indicates that social support (SS) can play an important role in termsof prevention or decreasing of antisocial behaviours among young individuals. SS is generally consideredas the perception or experience of an individual that he/she is loved, nurtured, esteemed or appreciated within a given social network. T...

Service-Learning (SL), also known as community-based learning, is seen as an emerging pedagogical practice that combines services to community with learning opportunities offered to students, in connection to their curricula and with clear reflection component. This theoretical paper presents examples of evidence-based models of SL implementation i...

This study of parents in Romania explores how perceptions of their couple relationship quality and of factors associated with it (such as sexual communication anxiety and sexual perfectionism) were related to their perception of aspects describing parenting dimensions relevant to the sexual education and sexual health of their children. The hypothe...

Literature in the field of aggressive and violent behavior indicated a strong link between antisocial behavior and self-serving cognitive distortions. The concept of self-serving is represented by a series of distorted cognitive processes, which can take shape due to the generally oversized tendency of self-perception. The purpose of this study was...

In this paper, we present the partial results of the SLIHE project. The first phase of the SLIHE project was focused on research on the needs of teachers in relation to the implementation of the servicelearning strategy in the following countries and institutions: • Slovakia – Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, • Czech Republic - Palacký Univ...

Literature in the fields of psychology, anthropology and ethology (i.e. scientific study of animal behavior) indicates an increasing number of studies addressing the beneficial effects of human-animal interactions (HAI), from pet ownerships to the insertion of animals in educational and therapeutic settings. This chapter offers a multidisciplinary...

Perceived dysfunctional parenting styles associated with externalized behaviours such as physical violence or juvenile delinquency are thought to play an important role in the understanding of anti-social behaviours. In the literature, juvenile delinquency is usually associated with family problems and in Romania juvenile delinquency is considered...

Self-serving cognitive distortions that are associated with externalizing behaviours such as physical violence or delinquency play an important role in understanding of antisocial behaviours in juveniles and other age categories. To explain cognitive distortions that are associated with externalized behaviours such as aggression or delinquency, som...

Adolescence has been characterized as a developmental period sensitive to risky behavior engagement. Previous research suggests that risky behaviors are connected to low academic performance and school dropout. Adolescent Risk-taking Behavior Scale (ARQ-b) (Gullone, Moore, Moss & Boyd, 2000) is a self-reporting scale measuring the frequency with wh...

The present paper investigates the existing literature in order to identify potential components for the development of Sexual Health Programs (SHP) for Special Education (SE) students. Sexual Health Education programs (SHE programs) are considered a recognized and accepted practice in educational systems in Israel and around the world (Weisblay, 2...

The Service-Learning (S-L) pedagogy is an innovative, malleable and convertible curricular tool that can be efficiently adopted by any discipline, serving a wide array of academic, community and social goals. This paper describes the restructuring and extension proposal for PedTut, a previously developed S-L e-tutoring program for pre-service teach...

There are few investigations of the involvement of parents of children with special needs (SN) in relation to the various disabilities of the children and their potential effect on teachers' attitudes towards the parental involvement (PI) in school and in the inclusion process. In a research conducted among 138 Israeli special and regular education...

This paper presents initial findings from partial analysis of a questionnaire that aims to identify individual and cultural differences related to the musical upbringing of Jewish and Arab Israeli students. The questionnaire was developed as part of a larger study. The participants are students who study for a music education bachelors' degree and...

Early childhood memories (ECM) represent an insufficiently tackled study domain, although it has triggered interest of the scientific community ever since the beginning of individual psychology. The purpose of this paper was to perform a systematic review of the specialized literature between 2000 and 2016, starting from research questions which cu...

In the field of social work (SW), social capital is generally defined as the connectivity among people (based on trust, norms and networks), which enhances community cooperation and civic engagement for mutual benefit. In terms of educational tools targeting the development of social capital by civic participation of students, Service-Learning (SL)...

Among other regions, Romania and Mexico (particularly Mexico City) are often cited as problematic areas in surveys and reports on the growing population of stray animals in urban areas. The aim of our study was to adapt for Romanian and Spanish languages usage of an instrument that includes significant psychological and social dimensions of the att...

Antisocial behaviours carried out by young individuals represent an important issue currently faced by the modern civilisation. Self-serving cognitive distortions are among the essential factors that are associated with the development and maintenance of antisocial behaviours. The present study aims to examine if there are any differences regarding...

Literature in the field of adolescence indicates that, among other social factors, the perceived mother’s behaviour towards teens can impact the development of anti-social behaviour and substance or alcohol consumption in teens. In this light, the present study aims to examine the mediating effect of substance and alcohol consumption (SAC) to the r...