Mathematical pedagogical content knowledge in early childhood education: A study in initial teacher education in Portugal

The study aims to explore the specificity of mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Early Childhood Education Pedagogy. The pedagogy of ECE (Siraj-Blatchford, 2010) and the didactics of ECE (Pramling & Pramling-Samuelsson, 2011) suggest dimensions of knowledge that require strong content and PC knowledge of teachers. Recent studies about PCK of ECE teachers highlight similar specific dimensions: organization of educational environment and interactions with children (Lee, 2010, McCray, 2008, Rojas, 2008). The current framework for ECE Teacher Education in Portugal (since 2007) focuses both content knowledge and subject didactics. PCK has been labelled the 'great unknown' in ECE (Rojas, 2008) in traditions where the child's development is considered as the main knowledge base for ECE (Chen & McNamee, 2006, Cullen, 2005, Hedges & Cullen, 2005). We studied the perspectives of 27 initial teacher education students about knowledge for teaching and about ECE Pedagogy. We used one open-ended questionnaire and students' analysis of episodes focusing children's answers or discourse relevant for mathematics (about high numbers and square root). The questionnaire was anonymous and students’ permission to use the answers was obtained. In the questionnaire, interactions with children (62%) and organization of the educational environment (38%) are highlighted as the most important focus for the teacher. Students suggested tasks that were adult planned and oriented to further the situations presented in the episodes. Very few references to children's exploratory actions (Bonawitz et al., 2011) were made. The specificity of ECE (child initiated activities, e.g.) needs to be further developed in initial teacher education.

Undergraduate Social Education Student’s Perspectives about the Profession

Higher education institutions, responsible for training social educators, should ensure the construction of a profile marked by their technical versatility and whose socio-educational intervention is directed at all people, regardless of their situations in life. Reflection on the construction of this profile is fundamental given the difficulties of identity that the profession faces. In this context, we sought to develop a study which would allow us to identify how the students of a degree course in Social Education characterise this professional, in order to reflect on the contribution of training provided by the institution concerned and, if necessary, make the adjustments arising from the results. This is a qualitative, exploratory study, using an unstructured questionnaire applied to a convenience sample of 140 Portuguese students of the three years of a degree course in Social Education. Its emerging categorical content analysis was performed using the NVivo software, version 11. The main results point to a broad vision of the profession and are not limited to the work geared to specific populations or issues, valuing the relevance of the professional in the field of non-assistance socio-educational intervention. The main area of overlap between training objectives and students’ perceptions about practice allows the impact of training to be positively assessed, despite possible curricular adjustments resulting from further analysis, including the need to reinforce community intervention, undervalued by students, even though it plays a key role for social educators.

Travelers’ use of social media: A clustering approach

Research regarding the use of social media among travelers has mainly focused on its impact on travelers’ travel planning process and there is consensus that travel decisions are highly influenced by social media. Yet, little attention has been paid to the differences among travelers regarding their use of social media for travel purposes. Based on the use of travel social media, cluster analysis was employed to identify different segments among travelers. Furthermore, the study profiles the clusters based on demographic and other travel related characteristics. The findings of this study are important to online marketers to better understand traveler’s use of social media and their characteristics, in order to adapt online marketing strategies according to the profile of each segment.

To enhance employability in higher education - a real connection to labour market

School of Technology and Management of Lamego develops since 2009 a project to reinforce its connections to the real needs of labour market. in this way, we developed until now three areas: multidisciplinarity volunteering work teams, collaborative training of students and the cooperation with several organizations to improve their sutainability through strategic methodologies.with those methodologies we tried to improve our students' employability, as well as to dialogue permanently with companies and other organizations to understand what they need from their human resources to be more competitive. wuth this article we intend to present the results accomplished until now and to present the project for the next e years, as well as to find out other higher education institutions of different regions or coutries that are interested in this project.

Acrilamida alimentar

Na oitava sessão do comité intergovernamental da UNESCO, decorrida no dia 4 de Dezembro de 2013 em Baku, capital do Azerbaijão e a propósito de uma candidatura plurinacional envolvendo 7 países (Portugal, Espanha, Marrocos, Itália, Grécia, Chipre e Croácia), a dieta mediterrânica (DM) foi considerada Património Imaterial da Humanidade. Um dos sinais da descaracterização da DM é o consumo excessivo de alimentos fritos. Para além da recorrência familiar a esta técnica culinária não descuremos a oferta de uma multiplicidade de produtos alimentares tipo snack (fritos) que aumentam o aporte lipídico na dieta (gorduras degradadas) e são veículo de substâncias potencialmente tóxicas como é o caso da acrilamida. As doenças cardiometabólicas (DCM ) afetam a qualidade de vida das populações. A funcionalidade do padrão mediterrânico na reabilitação da saúde mostra-nos o antídoto a estilos de vida nefastos (fast food, sedentarismo) numa sociedade de consumo. Num contexto de nutriprevenção, a slow food mediterrânica poderá ser a solução para atenuar o risco de doença e reduzir os custos em saúde. Constituiu objetivo principal do presente trabalho fundamentar a importância que a DM apresenta para a saúde cardiometabólica e avaliar os prejuízos decorrentes do consumo de alimentos submetidos a fritura, mais concretamente à batata frita (incaracterística da referida dieta). O desenvolvimento desta dissertação mostra que o balanço entre os efeitos benéficos da DM na saúde e as consequências nefastas de um produto de grande consumo (batata frita) apela à utilização esporádica do processo de fritura e à implementação de metodologias tecnológicas que diminuam o teor de acrilamida, apontando para a importância da educação/reeducação alimentar, estruturada a partir de conhecimentos ponderados da antropologia da alimentação.