The results suggest that both interventions could be used to reduce epilepsy-related stigma in this age group.

This study was intended to study the effect of personal experience and subspecialization on the knowledge of epilepsy of teachers at Czech elementary schools, and on their attitudes towards children with epilepsy and on epilepsy itself in general. 193 teachers from 10 different elementary schools in Pilsen, Czech Republic, were involved in the study. We found that teachers with personal experience of epilepsy had greater knowledge of the illness. There were significant differences (P<0.05) between the attitudes of teachers with and without personal experience, mostly in terms of their views on the self-realization and the integration of children with epilepsy into the school collective. In contrast, no differences were found in their views of the intellectual capabilities of children with epilepsy or the overall quality of life of children with epilepsy. Furthermore, we found that subspecialization, aside from a few exceptions given by the specific position of first grade teachers, did not have major effect on teachers' knowledge of epilepsy and their attitudes towards children with epilepsy. The results suggest that it would be appropriate to focus educational interventions about epilepsy for teachers on those individuals who do not have any experience of epilepsy.

The paper describes a research conducted on the Faculty of Education of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen in 2011. The research aims to map the influence of project-based learning on the subjective perception of the academic achievement of students in the subject Information and communication technology (ICT). Target group was composed of high school students. Described research is a part of a broader research conception that focuses on a potential of project-based learning in educational area Information and communication technology. This conception of a project-based learning application in an educational area of ICT was determined problematic by an initial survey. Within the scope of this broader conception we already focused on adolescent student experience during project-based learning in ICT that included possibilities of emotional disorder reduction, published in (Mainz, Lovasov?, Magdin, 2012). This time, we focused on a potential of project-based learning in an area of perception of the academic achievement. Student?s performance in a subject is not determined only by his skills, but also by a manner in which he is aware of his skills. Self-perception is a major factor that influences learning, work motivation and determines a level of anxiety experienced by student in a task situations (Balcar, 1983). The research design consists of a preparatory part and a research and implementation part. In the preparatory phase, projects have been implemented in high school lessons of ICT. The projects were drawn according to the methodology of the Buck Institute for Education that allows very clear definition of boundaries among project-based learning, theme-based learning and problem-based learning. In the research and implementation part, the self-concept of student?s academic achievement was observed in these categories: evaluation of common intellectual skills, evaluation of specific skills for informatics and self-confidence in a performance in a context of a social group. For the purposes of the observation, a modified standardized psychometric tool - SPAS "Self-concept of the Academic Achievement of Children" (Mat&#283;j&#269;ek, V?gnerov?, 1992) was used. This tool was successfully used many times for evaluation of newly implemented educational methods. The results were processed according to the manual for the standardized psychometric tool and were compared to the results of control groups, in which project-based method was not implemented. The research was conducted in cooperation with the Department of Computer Science and Educational Technology and the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Education of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.

The paper describes a research conducted on the Faculty of Education of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen in 2010 and 2011. The research aims to map the influence of project-based learning in Informatics on the mental condition of high-school students. Importance, pros and cons of project-based learning have been discussed several times within professional public; however, the area of project-based learning in connection with Informatics is still to be mapped to a full extent. The pilot research, which was conducted due to social demand of high-school Informatics teachers in the Czech Republic, clearly shows that the implementation of project-based learning directly into Informatics lessons is even more difficult. As a part of our research, we are focusing on the possible added value of project-based learning in the area of experience acquisition in the process of education. The age composition of the evaluated sample of responders was chosen intentionally, while we believe that subjective perception of mental condition in education is the key factor in the process of learning, mainly for adolescents. Our assumptions are based on the statement (Štefanovi&#269; a Rosina, 1960; Magdin et al., 2011), that person’s mental processes and attributes can be recognized and observed, for example, by means of psychological analysis of the constructs of their activity. The research consists of a preparatory part and a research and implementation part. As a part of the preparatory stage, projects that were specifically aimed on Informatics were created to be implemented as parts of educational process in selected high schools. To provide the best possible respect for specific principles of project-based learning and its delimitation in relation to theme-based or problem-based education, the projects were drawn according to the methodology of the Buck Institute for Education. They were being implemented into the educational process in five to seven weeks. In the research and implementation stage, the mental condition of the students was observed, during which time the scope of components of mental condition being detected was oriented on the spheres of comfort – discomfort and acquisition of experiences versus activity. For the purposes of the observation, a standardized psychometric tool focused on the evaluation of the structure and dynamics of subjective experiences and conditions – SUPSO - was used due to its validity and reliability. SUPSO is the outcome of factor analysis of precisely delimitated and pragmatically formulated scales formally including 92, in the next stage 72 (SUPSO 8) and then 28 (SUPSO 7) adjectives describing individual particular symptoms of psychological experiences, emotions and conditions of an individual (Mikš&iacute;k, 2004). The results were processed according to the manual for the standardized psychometric tool and compared to the results of control groups. The control groups consisted of students of parallel classes of high school, i.e. of the same age and the same educational content, which did not implement the project-based learning. The research was conducted in cooperation with the Department of Computer Science and Educational Technology and the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Education of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.

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