Music schools in Latvia provide pupils with musical education both in the towns and rural areas of Latvia. Studies include instrumental playing, history of music, and music theory lessons. An actual pedagogical problem at the time is activation of pupils' learning. Self-regulated learning acquires significant meaning for pupils' future life. A way of helping pupils' self-regulation in learning is differentiation of learning methods and forms. The aim of the paper is to research the meaning of music schools' ensemble work (collective performance) for enhancing pupils' self-regulated learning. Learning is a process where an individual inherits accumulated experience of the society acquires skills, knowledge, attitudes, enhances his experience, individually and responsibly working and discovering himself, nature and society. Learning as an activity is based on learning experience. According to L.S. Vygotsky's theory of learning, the cultural development depends upon social interaction. The use of ensemble work (collective performance) in school as a form of learning activity and method observes a reciprocal movement towards didactic goal, includes the components of due learning contents (knowledge, skills, instrumental playing experience, attitudes), the results of learning process and its evaluation. Analysis of the obtained data shows that music teachers choose ensemble work as method and form of teaching to indirectly influence the self-regulated learning of pupils, whereas the pupils do not fully understand the significance of ensemble work for enhancing self-regulated learning techniques.

This study was conducted to investigate the lifestyle of post-graduate students. The purpose of the present study was to find out opinion of the post-graduate students how significant are physical activities and healthy eating in their life. The study was initiated due to the growing knowledge of the importance of healthy food. The study was carried out by using empirical methods and the opinion of post-graduate students living in Latvia analysed. The authors have used questionnaire method and in February 2008 received answers from 86 respondents who are the post-graduate students of Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU). Studies showed that the biggest part of research subjects appreciates the importance of physical activities and healthy eating, and treats it as a positive part of the post-graduate studies process.

The urban forest is recognized as a potential to improve the quality of life of urban dwellers and increase the sustainability and ecological stability of the city. However, there is little data on professional attitude to urban naturalistic landscapes. This research studies the attitude of professionals and decision makers to the naturalistic forest landscapes in urban area of Riga city, Latvia, in contrast to more traditional – formal landscape. The survey includes the opinions of territorial planners and environment specialists from Riga municipality and other institutions related to ecological, practical, planning and conservation activities, and private working landscape architects. The statistical analysis and data’s empirical distribution showed that professionals in Riga city recognize the values and benefits of naturalistic forest landscape. However, environmental preferences may depend more on affective reactions than on ecologically-based logical operations.

Increasing competition among health care service providers for pets and constantly growing requirements for the veterinary service quality, force veterinary service providers to search for some possibilities to remain competitive in the market in order to meet both customer needs and expectations, and animal needs best. The aim of the research is – having identified the choice motives for animal health care service, to enumerate the factors, influencing the choice of veterinary service. In order to find the pet keepers’ approach concerning the factors, influencing the choice of veterinary service, a pilot research was completed. According to the gained primary data results in the research, it was found that the key factors, influencing the choice of veterinary service are as follows: the service quality of health care, the recommendation of the person responsible for animal care and the price for the delivered service.

Nowadays, when the general rate of unemployment in Latvia is not that high anymore, there are still a lot of people who are unemployed for many years and during all those years they are abusing the budget of municipality by receiving social benefits. The aim of the article was to examine the way how the long-term unemployed social benefit receivers assess the meaning of support in job searching. On the basis of The Theory of Planned Behaviour a questionnaire was developed by the authors, 37 long-term unemployed social benefit receivers registered in Riga Social Service were asked to take part in the survey and gave informed consent. The results show that the respondents who are longer unemployed receive more support from their families. Statistically significant correlations (p=0.03) were found between the duration of unemployment and person’s determination to search a job, the unemployed who are longer without a job are less active in job searching process. Direct support in the job searching process is deeply connected with the possibility to share individual’s thoughts and emotions with the family. There is no statistically significant correlation between men and women responses.

Considering the deficiencies of social services for the elderly in governmental institutions and growing demand of ensuring services in rural areas, the paper aims to assess the needs of elderly people for social services in the selected rural areas and to propose the social services’ development opportunities in terms of domestic help for the elderly. The social services facilitate support to elderly dependents in their homes, without interrupting their relationships with the family and the community, and improving their quality of life. The survey has shown that the municipality usually satisfies only basic biological needs of old people in rural areas. In order to ensure the well-being of elderly people, a complete cooperation among governmental and non-governmental institutions is required. Development of the services should be focused on the provision of the domestic help services for elderly people who do not receive them, and the diversity of the services for those residents who receive services from the municipality. The implementation of the development project of the domestic help services would enable the elderly residents of the rural municipality to have access to the most necessary services at the required frequency and intensity, considering the recipients’ needs, thus improving the quality of life of the elderly people of local community and ensuring their dignified ageing.

In recent years, farmers’ markets have become one of the most popular places for alimentary shopping. People searching for the alternative and healthier products often choose farmers’ markets instead of shopping centres. However, farmers’ markets face the same or even tougher competition than the conventional shopping places: farmers not only compete with powerful shopping chains, they have to compete among each other for every single customer. Therefore, customer loyalty becomes inevitable in this industry. Knowing the factors that lead customers to switch to another vendor becomes very important for consumer retention. The aim of the research is to determine the factors influencing customer switching behaviour in farmers’ markets in Lithuania. In order to reach the aim, the research was conducted in several stages: 1) the expert evaluation was provided to determine the factors influencing the customer switching behaviour that would be relevant to the industry; 2) a questionnaire survey regarding latter factors was provided; 3) the influence of the factors on customer switching behaviour regarding the different states of customer loyalty was assessed.

Nowadays the demand for fast and easy-to-make meals is ever increasing. This type of food is an essential dietary component of a large section of people in developed countries. Given the economic importance of ready-to-eat meals there is a need for a better understanding of the factors that determine their consumption. The aim of this research was to determine consumer attitudes towards the introduction of ready-to-eat meal (MRE) sets in the Latvian market. A survey was performed to determine the Latvian citizens’ attitudes towards the introduction of this type of quick-tomake, ready-to-eat products into the market of Latvia. The survey included a total of 800 respondents who answered 14 questions which were related to the interest in MRE sets that can be prepared (warmed up etc.) in less than 10 minutes and taste like home-cooked food, and the types of MRE sets these consumers would like to purchase. The demand forecast for MRE sets in the Latvian market is rather high as 67% of the respondents expressed a desire to purchase these products; the development and implementation of MRE sets is topical. The results show that the highest rated MRE set the respondents, a total of 77.1%, expressed a desire to purchase, was chicken fillet with vegetables. No significant differences in terms of liking were observed between chicken fillet with vegetables and chicken fillet with rice, the second highest rated MRE set by 73.9% of the respondents (p is greater than 0.05).

Sherbet with crunchy peanut chips could be classified as milk pomade. It is one of popular sweets in Latvia produced by Joint-stock Company Laima, which is one of the oldest producers of sweets in the Baltic States. Freshly made sherbet is soft and savoury but after several days’ storage at the open air gradually hardens, the product loses eye appeal, taste and becomes unmarketable. This problem limits the shelf life, so sherbet with crunchy peanut chips can be marketed only at the local market. The target of this study was to clarify the situation on the market in Latvia and to examine an issue of Latvian consumers’ awareness of milk pomade sweets – sherbet quality indicators, packaging and its presentation to consumers, as well as the sherbet market expandability. A questionnaire was developed – 800 respondents answered on the 14 questions – how well-recognized the milk pomade sweet – sherbet is, what the main features for this kind of sweets selection by consumers are, which quality indices are important for consumers. One of most important questions was to get know the consumers opinion about sweets, mainly sherbet possible packaging kind and the market turnover. Summarizing the questionnaire data, the response from consumers in Latvia was heartening – they like milk pomade candies. As a primary quality defect the hardness of sherbet was mentioned. Eliminating this main failing of quality, the demand of sherbet on the market could rise, as well the product marketing opportunities will grow.

Great emphasis has been placed on agriculture by the European Union (EU), considering that agricultural production provides a framework for development of the processing industry and ensures food provision. Europe 2020 Strategy presents coordinated objectives of support for the rural development for the years 2014–2020. It has been emphasized that each Member State needs to set its national headline targets. Implementation of strategic provisions of the EU and Lithuania requires adequate identification of the priorities of agricultural scientific research and experimental development. It may significantly contribute to securing competitiveness, economic and social progress of the agricultural sector. The aim of the research was to prepare proposals for the Lithuanian Programme that sets the scientific research and experimental development priorities, long- and short-term research programmes for the period until 2020 in the view of demands of economy. Individual Working Groups (WG) have been formed of specialists of Lithuanian research and educational institutions as well as the advisory services. WG have proposed prospective applied research to develop within different areas of agriculture in 2014–2020. This served as the basis for the survey aimed at identifying a general demand for applied scientific research and potential problem areas in relation to agriculture, food economy and rural development that could be addressed by prospective applied scientific research. An anonymous survey was used across the country and summary results have been presented for two areas: crop management and agricultural engineering.