The big four skills: Teachers’ assumptions on measurement of non-native students cognition

The four-skills on tests for young native speakers commonly do not generate correlation incongruency concerning the cognitive strategies frequently reported. Considering the non-native speakers there are parse evidence to determine which tasks are important to assess properly the cognitive and academic language proficiency (Cummins, 1980; 2012). Research questions: It is of high probability that young students with origin in immigration significantly differ on their communication strategies and skills in a second language processing context (1); attached to this first assumption, it is supposed that teachers significantly differ depending on their scientific area and previous training (2). Purpose: This study intends to examine whether school teachers (K-12) as having different origin in scientific domain of teaching and training perceive differently an adapted four-skills scale, in European Portuguese. Research methods: 77 teachers of five areas scientific areas, mean of teaching year service = 32 (SD= 2,7), 57 males and 46 females (from basic and high school levels). Main findings: ANOVA (Effect size and Post-hoc Tukey tests) and linear regression analysis (stepwise method) revealed statistically significant differences among teachers of different areas, mainly between language teachers and science teachers. Language teachers perceive more accurately tasks in a multiple manner to the broad skills that require to be measured in non-native students. Conclusion: If teachers perceive differently the importance of the big-four tasks, there would be incongruence on skills measurement that teachers select for immigrant puppils. Non-balanced tasks and the teachers’ perceptions on evaluation and toward competence of students would likely determine limitations for academic and cognitive development of non-native students. Furthermore, results showed sufficient evidence to conclude that tasks are perceived differently by teachers toward importance of specific skills subareas. Reading skills are best considered compared to oral comphreension skills in non-native students.

Metacognitive awareness inventory (MAI): Adaptação e validação da versão portuguesa

O Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) de Schraw e Dennison (1994) avalia duas dimensões metacognitivas de natureza geral nos adolescentes e adultos: o conhecimento da cognição, que inclui três subprocessos, e a regulação da cognição, que compreende cinco subprocessos. Neste estudo apresenta-se o processo de tradução e de adaptação do MAI à população portuguesa. A consistência interna nas dimensões conhecimento e regulação da cognição foi 0,82 e 0,90, respetivamente. Os resultados da Análise Fatorial Confirmatória sugerem um fator de segunda ordem com base na correlação dos resultados nas duas dimensões. A subescala conhecimento declarativo apresentou melhor validade relativa ao critério comparativamente com as demais subescalas. O MAI constitui-se um instrumento adaptado à realidade portuguesa, tanto para a avaliação da metacognição no global, como nas suas dimensões principais, permitindo apoiar a investigação relativa ao rendimento em processos de aprendizagem e formação na população adulta e de adolescentes.