Feeding students’ creativity with language arts: a project developed at ESEV (2013-15)

Children live at a time when the rapid turnover of information and the ongoing changes in the technological, social, cultural, political and economic spheres make it more difficult for teachers to prepare lessons that enhance students’ interest and motivation. There is so much to be learnt outside of the classroom’s four walls that traditional methods of teaching may not be the most effective way to teach today’s learners. When it comes to classes of Portuguese language, teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching culture, literature, grammar and skills such as reading, writing and speaking in a way that involves students as active participants, that is, in a way that engages while also instructing. It means that several strategies need to be adopted, from games to the use of new technologies or, among others, an interdisciplinary approach with maths, (social) sciences and arts, for instance. In an attempt to motivate gifted and talented children that were attending elementary school in a small town near Viseu, in Portugal, The School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu was asked to be part of a project in 2013, in a collaborative partnership that proved successful and that was re-enacted in 2015. It is in light of the above that, in this paper, we aim to: a) describe the support that the School of Education provided to these participants, children who were between six and fourteen, by presenting Portuguese language activities that intended to stimulate creative thinking and artistic production; and b) discuss the results of the project, by analysing the students’ productions across verbal and visual modes (ie. script writing and dubbing an excerpt of an animation film, interviews, news reports, drawings, the creation and recitation of poems…). Future activities are on the table, meaning that the School of Education’s commitment to feeding the students’ creativity has shown promising results. Creativity in Portuguese classes is not a guarantee of success but it certainly is food for thought.

Entre riscos e rabiscos: da leitura à representação (gráfica) de provérbios

De tradição oral e de origem remota, os provérbios circunscrevem a realidade cultural dos seus criadores e utilizadores. A sua riqueza reside, por um lado, na mensagem sintética e por isso, também, pragmática, ao ser utilizada como âncora em contextos específicos; reside, por outro lado, na construção de metáforas conceptuais, tradutoras de verdades e generalizações sedimentadas na observação empírica. É nestas que a língua portuguesa (LP) germina a dimensão cultural e permite a exploração de mundividências partilhadas, transparentes, translúcidas ou opacas. O trabalho que propomos apresentar descreve um conjunto de atividades realizadas com alunos do 5.o ao 8.o ano de escolaridade, no âmbito de um programa desenvolvido por um agrupamento de escolas da região de Viseu e uma instituição de ensino superior durante o ano letivo de 2013-2014. As atividades que propusemos implicaram considerar a LP a partir de diferentes prismas, perspetivando-a não só como código verbal, como herança cultural, mas também como espaço de criação e criatividade. Assim, a sedimentação de significados que foram construindo a LP é apresentada aos alunos como enigma a desvelar. Neste sentido, propomos a) analisar a representação gráfica de provérbios feita por alunos do ensino básico; b) refletir sobre a influência da LP na formação de provérbios em países de expressão portuguesa. A sua interpretação é padronizada, mas permeável a ambiguidades. Neste caso, e a partir da comparação de um exercício de equivalência entre provérbios representados pela variedade do português, revelamos a seleção dos alunos.

Measuring attachment to life in old age: the Portuguese version of the Positive Valuation of Life Scale (Positive VOL)

Purpose This study aims to present the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Positive Valuation of Life Scale (Lawton et al. in J Aging Ment Healt 13:3–31, 2001). Method Sample included 207 community-dwelling elders (129 women; MAge = 77.2 years, SD = 7.5). The data collection included the translated and adapted Portuguese version of Positive Valuation of Life Scale, Life Satisfac- tion Index Z, Meaning in Life Questionnaire and Geriatric Depression Scale. Results From exploratory factor analysis, two factors emerged, existential beliefs and perceived control, ex- plaining 49 % of the total variance. Both factors were positively related with meaning in life and life satisfaction and negatively related with depression (p\0.05). The values obtained for internal consistency for the total scale and for each subscale were good (a [ 0.75). Conclusion The Portuguese version of Positive VOL Scale represents a reliable and valid measure to capture the subjective experience of attachment to one’s life. The two-factor structure is an update to Lawton’s previous work and in line with findings obtained in the USA (Dennis et al. in What is valuation of life for frail community-dwelling older adults: factor structure and criterion validity of the VOL, Thomas Jefferson University, Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Research, 2005) and Japan (Nakagawa et al. in Shinrigaku Kenkyu 84:37–46, 2013). Future research is required to investigate VOL predictors and the potential changes toward the end of the life span.