The 11th International Scientific Conference "Rural Environment. Education. Personality" was taken place in Jelgava

Eighty-eight scientific authors were contributed to the conference from 11 countries: United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Ireland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland and Germany.

The aim of the conference was to find out solutions, exchange ideas and highlight current challenges and trends in school, university and adult education in terms of competences in education, quality of life in a home environment, career and vocational education, and crafts and design.

The speakers in Plenary were: professor Ilmārs Dukulis, the dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and professor Baiba Briede, the head of the Institute of Education and Home Economics; professor Jelena Davidova and professor Irēna Kokina from the Daugavpils University delivered the presentation on "Paradigms, Approaches and Principals of Knowledge Management"; professor Joanna Kostecka together with colleagues Maria Cyrankowska and Agnieszka Podolak delivered the presentation on "Assessment of Selected Opinions of Agriculture Students of Rzeszow University in Poland, in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development in Rural Areas"; professor Jolanta Lasauskiene with colleague Jovita Bagdonaviciute from Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences presented her paper on "Building Intercultural Competence through Different International Study Programs at University".

The work continued in the four thematic sessions "Problems and solutions in today's schools, universities and adult education", "Competences in education", "Quality of life in the context of the home environment, design and crafts", "Development of professional and career education", in which 50 reports were delivered.

Topical research in pedagogy, lifelong learning, philology and psychology was considered in the work session Problems and Solutions in Schools, Universities and Adult Education Today. The session was divided into two sub-sessions, one of which was devoted to the latest methods in pedagogy, support, motivation and preparation of students – prospective teachers. The development of school management and the quality assurance of study programs was discussed. The problems of the intercultural environment in education were highlighted, as well as the need to improve the digital skills of the various professions. The debates of how to improve the teaching and learning of foreign languages and mother tongue took place in the second sub-session. The interdisciplinary education in a multicultural environment was discussed. The participants of the meeting discussed several research problems related to higher education: the management of the study program and ensuring the quality of higher education, international experience in teacher training, innovative data acquisition methods, students’ motivation in the context of future professional activities, expertise as a research method in education. The sessions were enriched with reports on: opportunities for improving the digital literacy of healthcare professionals, trends in the management of professional music education institutions in Latvia, as well as on research on gender definition in Latvia, as well as on social and psychological specificities of women and men in social and human sciences. The topical issues in psychology were also highlighted: the relationship of criminal violence and adult attachment styles to convicted men, the formation of the identity of modern leaders and the dynamics of gender-specific behaviour for women and men in Latvia.

Issues on the use of IT in teaching mathematics teachers in Kazakhstan were highlighted in the conference session on Education for Getting Competence in Higher Education. The development of intercultural competence and peculiarities in the framework of international programs in two Lithuanian higher educational institutions were evaluated in two reports. Creation and implementation of design projects for the students’ lifelong learning program was evaluated in the Institute of Education and Communication of the University of Life Sciences of the Czech Republic. The institute also presented a study on the quality of learning in vocational pedagogy in one of the rural areas of Cambodia. LLU researchers emphasized the importance of mathematics in engineering studies and factors influencing professional foreign language competence. In the field of general education, the representatives from the University of Latvia presented the research analysis of the factors influencing pupils' communicative activity in groups of mixed and homogeneous achievements in one elementary school in Latvia, as well as on reading skills in relation to the understanding of the subject of biology in the elementary school in Latvia. A study on the activities of elementary and secondary school pupils' cooperatives was presented in the report from Poland, showing their active role in education, the development of entrepreneurial skills and the promotion of democracy. Researchers from Daugavpils University presented a study on the developmental trends in the development of creative imagination in different age groups in the beginning of the twentieth century and today in Latvia.

The studies on cooking traditions in Polish families were introduced in the work session Life Quality in the Context of Home Environment, Home Economics and Design and Crafts. The teaching didactic principles and methods of handicraft training in Estonia were analysed, its interdisciplinary approach has been studied. The importance of the Home Economics and Technology lessons was discussed during this changing time, the emphasis was placed on the learning process of handicrafts, viewed through the prism of sustainability in education. Improvement of students' learning and feedback skills have been studied. The innovative approaches to teachers' professional development were searched. Māris Strautmalis, the design specialist from the Art Institute of Daugavpils University, led the master classes " Artistic photography after touch and colour correction” (processing with Adobe Photoshop) for the LLU students of study programme Design and Crafts. Conference participants were glad to see the creative works of the LLU students in design, painting, drawing and other ways in the exhibition hall.

The studies on the promotion of human capital as a basis for successful career development in the compulsory education environment were presented and discussed in the session on the Development of Professional Education and Career, solutions were sought for the returning of long-term unemployed social benefit receivers to the labour market, and the correlations between the quality of life of the part-time students and physical activity were assessed.

In the context of career development in the context of lifelong understanding, the interest was caused on the study about the impact of the work environment of social workers on their satisfaction with work and work motivation. The participants of the session had the opportunity to compare the lessons learned from reflections on personal experience in the further education of teachers and medical staff with the results of several studies. During the work of the session, discussions about the mutual influence of organizations and individuals’ values, and the role of the organization's culture in shaping the attitude of employees were discussed, as well as career guidance support models offered by researchers were evaluated.

The conference was organized by the Institute of Education and Home Economics of the LLU Faculty of Engineering.

The article was prepared by the representatives of the REEP-2018 conference Committee and sessions’ managers Baiba Briede, Vija Dišlere, Irēna Katane, Iveta Līce-Zikmane, Jānis Pāvulēns, Laura Šīmane-Vīgante.