Using a theoretical-critical and historical approach, this paper analyses the implications of the Cold War in national curricula and educational reforms of the second half of the 20th century with emphasis on the 21st century. The context of the time after the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War is shown, as well as the social and political changes that are significant for education and were prompted by the wars. The emergence of the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (whose focus is not educational but economic) and the role of behavioural psychology were also analysed, which explained their significance in later educational reforms. The role of the Cold War in reducing socio-humanistic teaching contents and the implementation of natural sciences and mathematics has also been explained. The synthesis of the analysed aspects suggests that the Cold War military and technological race resulted in the implementation of the STEM area, thus the measurability of learning outcomes, which influenced the psychologisation, standardisation, economisation, and globalisation of education. Most of the current (un)successful national educational and curricular reforms were initiated in that direction without respect for the social, cultural, and historical features of individual countries. These changes have left a mark in pedagogy, in which the humanistic approach appears to counteract other approaches. Some educational systems demonstrate a shift from such trends, from the technical-scientific curriculum towards the didactic tradition of Bildung and the philosophy of education. The reasons can be found in the above-average results on international standardised evaluations of those countries that have national curricula, in contrast to what is recommended by the globalisation and standardisation of education as some of the elements of the Cold War heritage.

U novije vrijeme u društvenim znanostima, a posebno u pedagogiji, različita istraživačka iskustva podrazumijevaju različite istraživačke stilove i filozofske pristupe koje je potrebno poznavati prije provođenja istraživanja. U radu se daje pregled različitih istraživačkih pristupa i znanstvenih paradigmi u okviru kojih je moguće kreirati i usmjeriti osobni istraživački projekt (istraživanje). Cilj i svrha rada je istražiti i upoznati različite istraživačke pristupe i metodološke okvire koji se ogledaju u zastupljenosti stanovitih znanstvenih paradigmi, primjeni kvalitativne i kvantitativne metodologije te različitih istraživačkih tehnika kojima se u svojim istraživanjima koriste budući učitelji. Iz navedenih je razloga istraženo 159 diplomskih radova studenata Učiteljskoga studija Fakulteta za odgojne i obrazovne znanosti Sveučilišta u Osijeku koji su javno obranjeni od siječnja 2015. do prosinca 2017. godine. Uvidom u diplomske radove studenata dobiveni su sljedeći rezultati: od ukupnoga broja diplomskih radova (159), njih 132 (83 %) ima istraživanje. Nadalje, znanstveno područje koje je najzastupljenije u istraživanjima su društvene znanosti (36,47 %), a unutar njih polje pedagogije (46,55 %). Prema vrsti istraživanja dominiraju empirijska, temeljna, transverzalna i istraživanja sadašnjosti. Od svih istraženih znanstvenih paradigmi, najzastupljenija je pozitivistička (60,6 %), a potom konstruktivistička (17,43 %) i postpozitivistička (15,91 %) paradigma. Dominiraju primijenjena istraživanja (78 %), dok su razvojna istraživanja (5 %) još uvijek nedovoljno zastupljena i prihvaćeno kod studenata.

On the basis of the analysis of the general characteristics of alternative schools and the methodology of pedagogical research, the comparison and synthesis of the obtained facts were formed. It is pointed out that in the field of pedagogy, the adoption of (positivist) methodology has become a global trend. It emphasizes the uncritical application of research tools from the corpus of quantitative methodology in research of specific educational problems, as well as in research of alternative schools in which the context of the research is significantly different than the one of the conventional public schools.

Social competence (SC) is one of the most important competences required for successful performance of the teaching profession. Strengthening students' social and emotional competences provides aid and support for lifelong learning and social and emotional implementation of the teaching process.By triangulating the results of a questionnaire, sociometry and interviews with students of teacher study, a signifi cant level of social competence was observed. Students' sociometric status is not in full accordance with their self-assessment of SC, so more frequent are the allocations of popular students, but one rejected. SC is usually acquired in the family; college is placed in second place, which increases the importance of this issue in terms of intentional education.