The paper deals with the literary form of riddles as a mandatory program and teaching content according to the curriculum of 2019. It is based on the literary-theoretical determination of the riddle. An analysis of textbooks for teaching literature in the first four grades of primary school was made with regard to the representation of the riddle and also an analysis of methodical instrumentation were performed. Time continuity has also been established with regard to the presence of the riddle in teaching as well as in the methodical approach to riddles. The analysis showed the justification of the riddle in the textbooks, but also the modesty of the methodical instrumentation accompanying it. The methodical approach as the end outcome records the creation of a riddle, which was verified by a pilot research which was presented in the paper and demonstrated the readiness of the pupils to create a riddle.

Otok (The Island), an illustrated book, depicts a dystopian future of an unnamed Croatian island. Grandma, the main heroine and narrator, welcomes her granddaughter Zrinka, who arrives by boat from Zagreb. The majority of the island has sunk, and the remainder is inhabited by a few elderly people. Former Mediterranean vegetation has vanished, there are no animals, the sea is poisonous and greasy, the land is poisoned and barren, and the sky is cloudy but devoid of rain. The goal of this paper is to determine which issues emerge in the illustrated book and how they are depicted, as well as to evaluate aesthetic characteristics of the story. The importance of narration in the book cannot be overstated - two stories are told from Grandma’s point of view: the story of the dystopian present (told in the present tense), which is the opposite of Grandma’s melancholy story of the past and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of Thumbelina. Thumbelina is also the main intertext of the illustrated book, which is dominated by a romantic concept of childhood (the kind that Grandma remembers). That image of childhood contrasts with Zrinka’s posthumanist childhood, which is represented by a completely altered Little Red Riding Hood in the form of a computer game.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is based on human rights, and children’s rights need to be interpreted in this context. As the 2030 Agenda declares that the sustainable development goals seek to realise the human rights of all, it is important to include and interpret the rights of the child as a part thereof. The comprehensive and ambitiously worded goals in the Agenda for Sustainable Development are difficult to transpose into any binding conventions or tools in the area of human, and thus especially children’s, rights. One goal could be to manage these goals and targets within the existing international framework of law and children’s rights. Children’s rights are a comparatively new branch of law. The rules pertaining to the special, vulnerable situation of children were first written down approximately 100 years ago. At the time, the only goal was the survival of the child: feeding, clothing, and medical care. The content of rules and regulations has gradually broadened, and now children’s rights are considered one of the most progressively developing areas of human rights. The purpose of this study is to closely examine the legal regulations, conventions, studies, publications, essays, and historical descriptions pertaining to children, and to examine the degree to which they deal with the role of the natural environment in the life of the child, and how these regulations recognise and necessitate the essential role played by the natural environment in the physical, spiritual, intellectual, and moral development of children. One of the main pillars in this process is environmental education, or Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and considering the current social circumstances, it is both necessary and expected to promote the ESD to the greatest extent possible. Taking the above into account, it can be seen that the provisions stating children’s rights do not clearly and unequivocally deal with the importance of the constant presence of the natural environment, while the right of the child to have fresh air and be raised in a natural environment is not suitably emphasised, even though it is an essential condition for the healthy physical, spiritual, intellectual, and moral development of the child.

One of the primary assumptions of post-digital theories is the inseparability of technology and digital media from social and human activities. Virtual and actual reality are becoming part of daily life not only for the younger population – it is in this area that the intergenerational gap is closing with each passing day (Jandrić, Knox, Bestley, Ryberg, Suoranta, Hayes, 2018). However, the definition of human identity remains unresolved, especially from the educational point of view. The global COVID-19 pandemic has become, among other things, a platform for systematic collection and analysis of information (Jandrić, 2020), providing conclusions that can be used in future crisis situations. This paper presents the collected information on distance education during the first pandemic year, from the global lockdown in Croatia in March 2019, until the end of the summer semester of the same year. Distance education can be as successful as traditional education if appropriate teaching methods and technologies are applied, if there is interaction between students and teachers, and if the teacher provides the student with a timely feedback (Ross, Morrison and Lowther, 2010; Kulik, 2003). Before, during and after the first year of the pandemic and distance education for the students of the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Zadar, several global parameters were monitored among students, with the aim of improving the performance of distance learning. 311 students (47% of the total number) from all study years at the Department of Teacher Education (University of Zadar) participated in the research. The questionnaires used in the study addressed the organization of distance learning, difficulties in concentration and motivation, the strain related to distance learning, the stress related to distance learning, and the perception of distance learning in general. At the beginning of the pandemic, the results indicated a moderate level of difficulties in concentration and motivation, and in terms of the strain caused by distance learning; the organization of distance education and optimism were rated slightly more positively; the stress related to distance learning was rated as the highest; whereas distance learning in general as an alternative to traditional teaching received the lowest rating of all. It was established that there were variations in the assessment of difficulties in concentration and motivation, strain, stress and academic achievement in the respective year. At the end of the first pandemic year, the percentage of students who attended classes more regularly, as well as those who believed that their success would be better, increased; the estimates of the organization, motivation and the perception of distance learning as an alternative to traditional classes increased; while the fear from the exam decreased (satisfaction with how the exam had been implemented was rated at 3.94). After many negative public comments on distance learning during the pandemic, this paper will try to set apart the negative consequences of the pandemic that are equated with the consequences of distance learning, put emphasis on the benefits of classical teaching today, and discuss the relationship between man and technology in the domain of teacher education from the point of view of post-digital science (Knox, 2009).