The aim of this study is to explore the involvement of public library librarians in improving media literacy and promoting civic participation in Latvia. Within the framework of this research, 15 semi-structured interviews with librarians of public libraries were conducted. The main findings indicate that librarians can strengthen information consumption skills by providing lifelong learning opportunities for all members of society. However, several problematic aspects emerge, among them are the lack of methodological materials specifically for library use, difficulty in reaching audiences who need media literacy training and insufficient media literacy skills among librarians themselves. The librarians in the study stated that more up-to-date knowledge of media literacy is required, as technological developments have changed the criteria by which we evaluate information. Libraries also engage in building civil competence, mainly by facilitating different forms of civic participation and ensuring equal access to infrastructure and library resources. Librarians themselves consider libraries to promote local community awareness and strengthen its identity, thus perpetuating a democratic society. Libraries also promote a sense of responsibility towards the community in members of society by organizing events and organizing volunteer work. Therefore, there is the need for public libraries to become more visible in the local communities as promoters of civic participation, engage more in the communities’ life. This requires librarians to take a more active role, and their participation in community events and partnership building. Librarians’ own media literacy and pedagogical skills need to be continuously improved.

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Patient satisfaction has become one of the central indicators to measure quality of provision of health care services. However, it has been made clear in previous literature that the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care services is not directly proportional to the satisfaction level, because an array of patient’s personal, psychological, and cognitive factors such as beliefs, expectations, knowledge and others may come into play. In this current article, we report on a study aiming to examine the role of health literacy in predicting patient satisfaction with health care in Latvia. In summer-autumn 2017, data were collected from a random sample of 451 participants (44 % male) in age from 18 to 81 years. The participants filled-in the questionnaire consisting of: Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-III, Ware, Snyder, & Wright, 1976) and European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q, HLS-EU Consortium, 2012). We measured four out of the seven aspects of PSQ, namely, general satisfaction, technical quality, interpersonal aspects, and communication. HLS-EU-Q contains three subscales: health care, disease prevention, and health promotion. Study results confirm that one of the health literacy aspects - health care - was the most important predictor of all patient satisfaction aspects, while health promotion predicted technical quality.

Due to the demands of the current job market, universities need to adapt their teaching approaches to provide students with opportunities to advance their transversal skills in order to succeed with their careers. Social simulations have been considered previously as a fruitful study method that helps to advance transversal skills; however, the research in this field is scarce. This study aims to explore the perceived affordances and limitations of social simulation as an online learning method for acquisition of transversal skills of graduate and undergraduate students from communication and media study programs. The empirical part draws on a set of qualitative data. All together 32 students in two universities participated in the testing of an original simulation scenario that was created in an Erasmus+ Strategic partnership project. The results indicate that students in both simulation exercises mostly applied their negotiation, strategic thinking and planning skills. During the second simulation, self-evaluation forms filled before and after the event helped the students to realize which transversal skills they need and want to develop further. Our results demonstrate that students felt pressured to intensively collaborate and coordinate with their group members, other groups and the teachers as during both testing sessions technical disruptions were experienced. We conclude that an online social simulation is a productive interactive learning and teaching method that helps to sensitize students towards their transversal skills and stimulate self-reflection. We also argue that in exercising a social simulation online there is an additional layer of pedagogical implications: the choice of the digital platform and the potential technical disruptions such as the loss of Internet connection or sudden malfunction of some of the platform’s features may divert the flow of the simulation.

Teachers’ scientific knowledge and understanding of science are prominent in determining how teaching scientific literacy will be integrated in the curriculum. However, in previous literature in-service teachers’ understanding of scientific literacy has not been studied sufficiently. This qualitative study aims to close this gap and explore how Latvian secondary school teachers (N = 23) understand the concept of scientific literacy. In our study, we distinguished three dimensions of scientific literacy: procedural, affective, and conceptual. Our results indicate that teachers associate scientific literacy mainly with the aspects related to procedural dimension: having knowledge about conducting a scientific study, applying scientific methods, and having an understanding about scientific concepts and processes. Teachers do not perceive themselves as highly scientifically literate for a variety of reasons. For the teachers interviewed, features of scientific literacy overlap with media and information literacy and critical thinking. We conclude that the teachers’ understanding only partly covers the depth and breadth of the concept of scientific literacy, and differs depending on teachers’ previous education and school subject thought. The importance of teachers’ (further) education in developing their understanding of the concept of scientific literacy is discussed.