Joca ZurcUniversity of Maribor | UM · Department of Pedagogy
Joca Zurc
PhD in Kinesiology, Philosophy and Statistics
About
123
Publications
30,454
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303
Citations
Introduction
Joca Zurc graduated in primary education (2001) and holds three PhDs in kinesiology (2005), philosophy (2016), and statistics (2017). Her main research is focused on physical activity and health education to increase physical and mental well-being, academic performance and school behaviour among children and youth. She is also a methodologist, dedicated to the mixed methods research and quality assessment. During 2017-2019, Zurc served as JSPS Fellow at the Okayama University in Japan.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
November 2017 - November 2019
August 2009 - July 2015
April 2001 - June 2002
Education
September 2010 - May 2016
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts
Field of study
- Philosophy
October 2009 - October 2017
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences
Field of study
- Statistics
October 2001 - December 2005
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport
Field of study
- Kinesiology Sciences
Publications
Publications (123)
Sport and physical activities offer a sensitive environment where the values of humanity, human rights, empathy and fair play come to the fore. However, at the same time the competition nature of sport and the interest of winning at any cost represent a risks of harm, especially for young preadolescent athletes. Therefore, the need arises to identi...
Background
Increasing numbers of people are delaying retirement. Studies of their motives are scarce and biased to Western contexts.
Aims
The aim was to explore internal and external motives of older Slovenians who continue to work after becoming eligible for retirement.
Methods
Nine workers, aged 59–72, were interviewed. The interviews were anal...
Physical activity has beneficial effects on overall academic performance in children. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding how the individual characteristics of physical activity interact with other confounding variables of academic competence. Leisure-time physical activity with potential confounders—such as developmental, behavioral, fa...
School-based health promotion interventions (HPIs) are commonly used in schools, but scientific evidence about the structures of effective interventions is lacking. Therefore, we conducted a mixed methods systematic literature review to recognize the HPI structures related to their effectiveness. Based on the inclusion criteria, 49 articles were se...
The health education in schools became the focus of public attention during the global pandemic of COVID-19. Teaching practice changed to meet the increased demand for pupils’ health, triggering a reevaluation of higher education curricula for pedagogical students. Therefore, this mixed methods study aimed to investigate the lifestyle of university...
Zadovoljstvo zaposlenih v visokem šolstvu se najpogosteje spremlja s kvantitativno metodologijo pedagoškega raziskovanja, kot so ocenjevalne lestvice in zaprta anketna vprašanja. Bolj poglobljen vpogled v osebna razmišljanja, poglede in izkušnje zaposlenih na visokošolskih ustanovah pa zahteva vključitev tudi kvalitativne paradigme pedagoškega razi...
Despite inclusive education being high on the agenda of educational systems worldwide and part of international legislation and policy, particularly the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which emphasises inclusion and equality as the basis for quality education for all, there is still a need to identify how teachers in regular schools who te...
The monograph titled "Interdisciplinary Research in Teaching and Learning: New Perspectives and Approaches," brings together 37 original scientific articles that explore the multifaceted dimensions of education. The contributions span a wide range of topics including innovative teaching methodologies, the integration of technology in learning, comp...
The monograph titled "Interdisciplinary Research in Teaching and Learning: New Perspectives and Approaches," brings together 37 original scientific articles that explore the multifaceted dimensions of education. The contributions span a wide range of topics including innovative teaching methodologies, the integration of technology in learning, comp...
Today’s remarkable technological development challenges the teaching profession to develop new approaches to meet student needs for living in a rapidly growing digital society. The functionality of teachers becomes crucial, particularly related to their transversal competences, such as the competence in using artificial intelligence (AI) systems an...
In this article, we will discuss the case of fair and inclusive schools that are considerate of the specific and unique needs of their pupils and offer quality education for all. We will highlight the most important indicators of inclusive education and focus on research that confirms the importance of the teachers’ willingness to establish good in...
A healthy lifestyle, especially regular physical activity, has been shown to be a significant predictor of a childʼs health and academic success throughout the lifespan. The early years of childhood are crucial in developing a healthy lifestyle. Positive effects can be achieved with planned and organized health education in kindergartens as one of...
The quality of educational work is inextricably linked to many factors at the system, school, teacher, and student levels. This research was carried out within the project ‘Education of Teachers as a Factor of Providing High-quality Life-long Learning in the Learning Society/The Society of Fast Socio-economic Changes and Unsure Future’, funded by t...
Primary school teachers are one of the largest professional groups in education. Their competences cover a wide range of knowledge, abilities, and skills. However, the curricula for teacher education rarely contain topics related to children's health and lifestyle. The purpose of this study was to gain an insight into the role of primary school tea...
Modern teaching strategies include students' abilities and interests and enable them to be actively involved in planning, implementation and evaluation of the educational process, all of which plays a decisive role in acquiring a deeper insight into learning content, better content comprehension and long-lasting knowledge. In the following research...
Physical/sporting activities provide a child with opportunities to interact with others, validate and express him/herself, while also being critical factors in socialisation and the prevention of deviant behaviour. Therefore, in this study, we were interested in which physical/sporting activities are most strongly associated with the management of...
Sport and physical activities have a positive effect on young people’s health and personal development and contribute to maintaining a healthy lifestyle in adulthood. This research aimed to define students’ physical activity, to identify the key motives for their physical activity and to determine students’ attitudes towards organised physical acti...
Background: Although extended work activity is often associated with active and healthy ageing, it meets with a polarized response. Studying workers’ lived experience may provide important insights into their motives for working beyond typical retirement age. Objective: This systematic review aims to explore why people who could retire continue to...
Annales, Series historia et sociologia (ISSN 1408-5348), 2021, 31(4), 683-698.
Every human being, as an individual and as a human species, strives to create and achieve difference, uniqueness and specialness. We focused on the issue of creating excellence in the case of classical instrumental music, which is characterised by intensive practices, co...
Physical activity throughout life is important for prevention of chronic diseases, and to improve psychosocial well-being. Regular movement during the adolescence creates a strong foundation for a healthy lifestyle in later adult life. The aim of our study was to determine the characteristics and motives for physical activity in students enrolled i...
A perspective on child, childhood and children's rights are important issues, highly valued in all historical eras all over the world. Each of this questions was trying to address a child and her/his needs from the perspective of different pedagogical approaches, institutions and legislative documents. Recognition of children's rights has been very...
The new communicable virus disease of the Covid-19 pandemic has a significant impact on the lifestyle and physical activity among all age groups of populations, particularly youths. Our study aimed to define students' physical and sports activities during the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in Slovenia and their relations with students' mental...
In remote teaching and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we faced challenges and changes in most stages of the traditional pedagogical process. Among the most demanding stages are the evaluation and assessment of student's knowledge, which require special attention. Alternative online methods provide an opportunity for a successful remote asse...
Revija Didakta: Danes se učimo na vsakem koraku, zato je toliko bolj pomembno, kakšne metode učenja pri tem uporabljamo, da bo učenje vodilo k zasluženi šolski uspešnosti. Z raziskavo smo želeli ugotoviti, kakšne so metode učenja v obdobju opravljanje mature, ko je povečan obseg in intenzivnost učenja. Raziskava, ki smo izvedli na vzorcu 40 študent...
A healthy and balanced diet and regular physical activity are key factors in maintaining, improving and protecting health. Based on a healthy lifestyle, health is essential for an individual's successful life and organisation, productive work and satisfaction at work. The research is based on an empirical qualitative methodology. We used a semi-str...
Educational organizations such as universities and secondary and primary schools are irreplaceable environments for providing education but also for promoting health and preventing disease. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, we have evidenced, probably more powerfully than ever before, the value of schools not merely as environments for education...
Sport Journal: Basketball is a team play between two teams and because of many high-intensity movements and many physical contacts between players there are of risk for injuries. Porpoise of our research was to find out how are basketball players in the Slovenian Second League dealing with sports injuries and how their experience injuries in respec...
University of Health and Sports Sciences v Osaki na Japonskem je bila organizatorka Mednarodnega foruma o gimnastični znanosti (International Forum on Gymnastic Sciences), ki je potekal kot tridnevni dogodek najaktualnejših razprav o teoriji in praksi orodne telovadbe. Osrednja tema foruma je bila povezanost znanosti in prakse na področju ocenjevan...
Background:
Croatia and Slovenia are neighboring countries with marked differences in high school and undergraduate nursing curricula. The aim was to assess and compare attitudes toward the elderly among undergraduate nursing students in Croatia and Slovenia and identify factors associated with positive/negative attitudes.
Subjects and methods:...
Music education is one of the most widespread leisure time activity of children and youth that contributes to development of numerus positive personal characteristics. On the other side, playing of musical instrument has very well developed a competition system, which leads to the serious music education in the early years of life. The purpose of o...
V prispevku predstavljamo pedagoške izkušnje uporabe spletne učilnice Moodle pri poučevanju na daljavo v času pandemije COVID-19. Na primeru predmeta Kvantitativne in kvalitativne metode v pedagogiki bodo predstavljeni inovativni pedagoški pristopi in aktivnosti, ki smo jih zasnovali v spletni učilnici, kot so pristop obrnjenega učenja, kviz z razl...
Background: Croatia and Slovenia are neighboring countries with marked differences in high school and undergraduate nursing curricula. The aim was to assess and compare attitudes toward the elderly among undergraduate nursing students in Croatia and Slovenia and identify factors associated with positive/negative attitudes.Subjects and methods: This...
Mixed methods research (MMR) is well recognized third methodological path in science, dealing with the challenges of the integration of positivist and constructivist world views, methodologies and methods. The integration caused the development of new methodology approaches, which are calling for common standards to prevent insufficient practices....
ニュースレター(Newsletter) (2020年5月発行）
The town of Hamamatsu, placed in Western Japan in Shizuoka Prefecture, hosted the international scientific conference on the mixed methods research (MMR) (September 14-16) organized by the Japan Society for Mixed Methods Research (JSMMR) and the Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA). Hamamatsu is a...
Background
One challenge a modern society faces is this: providing those vulnerable and ageing groups of adults who have intellectual disabilities with appropriate support for improving static and dynamic balance. Balance is a crucial component of physical fitness and, consequently, of fall reduction and prevention. The aim of the present randomise...
A modern society faces the challenge of providing vulnerable groups of adults with intellectual disabilities in the aging process with appropriate support in improving physical fitness and an active lifestyle. In the study we used the integration of a quantitative (randomized clinical study) and a qualitative (phenomenological study) research metho...
School-based health promotion interventions are commonly implemented but ethical perspectives of the interventions are rarely reported. The aim of this research is to describe ethical issues reported in articles describing the effectiveness of school-based
health promotion interventions. The literature search was performed in 2016 in PubMed and CIN...
The International Association for the Philosophy of Sport – IAPS, in cooperation with the Japan Society for the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education – JSPSPE organized an international research seminar on the philosophy of sport from 17 to 20 September 2019 in Kyoto (Kyoto International Conference Center), Japan. This international scientific...
Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za šport in Slovensko društvo za filozofijo športa, 2019, 386 strani, 14 EUR, ISBN-978-961-6843-95-9 (Fakulteta za šport), COBISS.SI-ID-299051520.
Ko je pred dobrim letom dni Slovensko društvo za filozofijo športa opozorilo na svojo aktivno vlogo v slovenski kineziološki stroki in znanosti z izdajo stroko...
BPSA Conference Programme 2019 - http://philosophyofsport.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/BPSA-2019-Conference-Programme.pdf
"The second conference on topics from ethics, bioethics and sport is a new step in developing sports-philosophical discourse and furthering the discussion and research in specific areas in sport, and building the community, in globally successful sports countries of Southeast Europe".
Matija Mato Škerbić, University of Zagreb, Croatia
The purpose of this study was to examine academic performance among girls and boys in the second educational cycle of primary school on a representative sample. Another aim was to find factors explaining any difference between genders. The survey sample consisted of 1783 children. We collected the data with a standardized SSRS questionnaire and ana...
Sport represents the ideal values such as fairness, justice, equal opportunities, respect among performers, winning and losing with dignity, and promotes the excellence of humankind as such. However, those positive values turn to negative direction when sport becomes a struggle for prestige and profit with all possible means such as doping, corrupt...
Women's artistic gymnastics is one of the most attractive Olympic sports and is marked by an early age training, top achievements in sport career during the adolescence and short competitive period. In our study we were interested, what is the way to success in women's artistic gymnastics from the perspective of the elite athletes. A phenomenologic...
The phenomenon of the elite achievements raises a questions of its visibility and specific approaches of their creations at any area of the human activity. These features come to the foreground even stronger when the elite achievements are created by children and youth. At one side, the society is responsible to develop the full potential of indivi...
V letu 2017 je potekalo 22. srečanje mladih statistikov, ki so se ga tradicionalno udeležili podiplomski študenti ter mladi doktorji znanosti statistike s svojimi mentorji iz Slovenije, Hrvaške, Avstrije, Italije in Madžarske. Srečanje je potekalo od petka, 13. do nedelje, 15. oktobra 2017, v odlični organizaciji Hrvaškega statističnega društva, Me...
Ukvarjanje z gibalno aktivnostjo ob ohranjanju zdravja in telesnega razvoja ponuja otroku možnosti za socializacijo in navezovanje stikov ter s tem predstavlja enega izmed ključnih dejavnikov njegovega socialnega razvoja in obvladovanja nezaželenih oblik vedenja. Namen raziskave je bil proučiti povezave med gibalno in športno aktivnost otrok v pros...
The mixed methods methodology has emerged and significantly developed over the past 30 years and became recognised as the third methodological group in science (Creswell, 2014; Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009; Koller and Sinitsa, 2009; Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Research quality and, in particular, the validity of mixed methods research constitut...
The field of art is one of the main elements dealing with freedom of human expression, which strengthens personal and collective identity as well as values in society (Kroflič, 2007a), and it is recognised by the fundamental international children’s right regulations (Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989; Kalčina, 1999; Šelih, 2014). Experie...
The Olympic Movement emphasizes the importance of protecting athletes' health and eliminating all possible risks. Many international documents provide similar recommendations, especially the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, elite sport continues to represent a risk, especially in athletes who compete as pre-adolescent chil...
ABSTRACT Background: Our society is becoming increasingly diverse. Encountering people of different ethnicity, culture and beliefs is becoming more and more common. Diversity of the society is also reflected in the field of nursing, thus requiring nurses to be cultural competent. Cultural competence represents the ability to understand, respect and...
Background: promotion of health is the fundamental strategy for controlling risk factors of unhealthy lifestyle
and consequently improving health of individuals and society. Health professions play a leading role in this
process.
Aim: the purpose of our empirical study was to gain an insight of the role of health professions in health and
wellbeing...
Introduction: Physical activity enables nurses to better control their mental and physical strain at work, which is important for ensuring quality patient treatment. The aim of the research was to study differences in graduate nurses' physical activity in terms of their working hours, motives and obstacles to regular, free-time physical exercising....
The aim of research was to study the nutrition habits, physical activity, alcohol and tobacco consumption, mental health, and motives for lifestyle change among students. The empirical research was carried on the sample of 171 undergraduate and master students at Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. The collected data with semi-stru...
Introduction: Low back pain is a common health complaint among health care workers. The aim of the study was to identify the prevalence of low back pain among health care personnel in relation to selected risk factors.
Methods: The study is based on a non-experimental quantitative method of empirical research. A close-ended questionnaire on low bac...
Theoretical backgrounds: The mixed methods research allows defining more holistic picture of the research phenomenon. Successful implementation of the mixed methods research depends on researcher’s knowledge and personal attitudes towards this methodology. The purpose of our study was to investigate the opinions and attitudes of the postgraduate st...
Physical activity has proven important effects on the development, as well as physical and mental health through all lifespan. Insufficient physical activity on the one side or inappropriate, excessive physical activity on the other side could cause issues in child’s development. Athletic environment, especially on the level of competitive sports,...
The aim of our study was to assess the children's motor skills on a sample of preschool children between the age of 4 and 5 (x = 4.44 ̅, SO = 0.46), using a checklist questionnaire and movement assessment battery for children. We wanted to know whether the examined sample shows any deficits in movement or any physical difficulties, as well as what...
Introduction: Health education is one of the fundamental strategies for changes in health improvements by individual and society. The nursing profession has the leading role in this process in health care system. The purpose of our study was to gain insight into the health education in clinical setting from the perspectives of nursing master’s stud...
Introduction: Physical activity and a healthy diet are significant predictors of healthy ageing—they help the elderly maintain their physical and mental health, and prevent chronic diseases.
Methods: The data for the empirical quantitative survey were collected on the sample of 218 elderly community-dwelling participants (aged 65 years or more), us...
Sport is a key part of the Slovene national identity. Despite this, there are only limited empirical studies of violence, child abuse and broader safeguarding issues in Slovenian sport. This chapter reviews the laws and policies within Slovenian sport and brings to the fore recent allegations of child abuse in sport that have received significant m...
Aim: To describe attitudes towards caring for older people among nurses and student nurses in six
participating countries.
Background: Working with older people has historically had a negative profile and with a global rise
in the numbers of older people and a global shortage of nurses, it is essential to recruit nurses into
this area. This study g...
Introduction: The aim of the study was to achieve consensus on a proposed definition of HIS - healthcare improvement science.
Methods: A Delphi survey technique with quantitative and qualitative approaches was used on the sample of 87 HIS experts from United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland and Slovenia. Collected data from of the 1st Delphi...
Mental health inequalities are an increasingly important global problem. This study examined the association between mental health status and certain socioeconomic indicators (personal social position and the socioeconomic status of the family) in Slovenian 15-year-old adolescents.
Data originate from the WHO-Collaborative cross-national 'Health Be...
The Olympic Medical Code states that, in order to accomplish its mission, the Olympic movement should ensure that sport is practised without any danger to the health of the athletes. However, there were many cases in sports, in which the integrity and safety of athletes were severely challenged. In the 1970s were developed the elite sport programme...
Izvleček
Izhodišča: Priljubljenost integracije kvantitativne in kvalitativne metodologije v isti raziskavi je neverjetno narasla v zadnjih letih. Nimamo pa veliko podatkov o uspešnosti njihove uporabe v raziskovalni praksi na področju zdravstva. Namen te raziskave je bil analizirati področja, osrednje raziskovalne tematike, vrste raziskovalnih načr...
Introduction: Communication and the attitude to elderly people present a significant factor of quality community nursing. A field study was designed to collect data on the levels of elderly people' s satisfaction with nursing care and the patients' involvement in decision-making related to the choice of treatment and any other services available in...
Introduction: The number of elderly people in Slovenia as well as worldwide is increasing and so is the number of patients suffering from dementia. One of the key factors contributing to high-quality nursing care of such patients is also effective and appropriate communication. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of communi...
The aim of the research was to define the didactic characteristics of health education in comparison with seven special didactics. The research was based on a qualitative document analysis of eight official documents-leaming unit plans-taking into account the didactics of the following fields: health education, natural sciences, social sciences, ma...
Background: Recognizing and understanding the role of physical activity in child development is necessarily in order to study the connection between children's developmental characteristics and physical activity. This has been well documented in previous research for physical development ; however, little is known about the role of physical activit...
Introduction: Nursing is in the midst of important changes. In increasing numbers, nurses are implementing evidence-based practice (EBP), a problem-solving approach which relies on research findings in the delivery of care. Nursesʼ perceptions and attitudes associated with evidence-based practice are key factors for successful research in clinical...
Theoretical background: Low back pain is more frequent in professional groups with a workload and overall physical work required. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the exertion on the low back pain prevalence and medical treatment among hospital staff.Methods: The study is based on the meta-analysis study design. The analysi...
Introduction: The aim of the study was to explore the lifestyle of the elderly in Gorenjska region in respect to two healthy aging
factors, injury prevention and mental health.
Methods: A cohort of 218 elderly people (≥ 65 years) from Gorenjska region (56.9% women, 43.1% men) participated in the study. The data were collected through a structured q...
Introduction: The response time in pre-hospital treatment of emergency patients is defined as the period between the time of the emergency call and the arrival of emergency medical services on scene of the incident which has a significant impact on the positive outcome of intervention. The established international standards mandate a 7 minute resp...
Introduction: A good integration of the elderly in their home environment provides a high-quality network that offers an older person the necessary support and prolongs independent living at home. Appropriate social relations within a family are a factor that provides the desired social security.
Aim: The aim of the study was to identify the facto...
V prvem delu se prispevek osredotoča na temeljne elemente metod znanstveno-raziskovalnega dela, ki jih vključuje znanstveni članek, in sicer populacija in vzorec merjencev, opis merskega instrumenta in vzorca spremenljivk, postopek zbiranja podatkov z etičnim soglasjem in metode analize podatkov. Poudarek je posvečen kvantitativnim neeksperimentaln...
The aim of this research is to analyse the characteristics and consequences of children’s participation in the elite competition level during childhood and adolescence. This is the basic question of children rights in the top-level achievements development process. A category of the top-level achievement has been studied in the two most recognised...
The research showed that frequent and quality physical activity of children increases aerobic capabilities, regulates blood pressure, contributes to the effective heart and lungs functioning and reduces overweight body mass and obesity. The aim of the present study was to examine the structure and character of physical activity by Slovene children...
Questions
Question (1)
I implemented a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews (n=42) and submitted a manuscript to the scientific journal (international journal, Scopus database). I received review evaluations for my manuscript, where they asking me to accommodate all qualitative findings with frequency. I read different methodological references on this questions (thanks to RG as well). In my case, a quantification of findings would be subjective and could lead to misleading generalization of conclusions. I would greatly appreciate your opinion, how to respond to such kind of review and explain your standpoints without jeopardizing the paper from publication. Thank you very much.
