Uma ponte para a realidade: o caso dos cursos de educação - formação no agrupamento de escolas de Montemor-o-Novo

Os cursos de educação e formação constituem uma medida que visa a promoção do sucesso escolar, bem como a prevenção dos diferentes tipos de abandono escolar, designadamente o desqualificado, a promoção das condições de empregabilidade e de transição para a vida activa. A problemática desta investigação foi lançada pela questão: Que Contributos proporcionam os Cursos de Educação e Formação no percurso de formação dos alunos do Agrupamento Vertical de Escolas de Montemor- o- Novo? Tendo como base esta problemática, o corpo de trabalho é constituído por duas partes. A primeira relativa ao quadro teórico e a segunda ao estudo empírico. No quadro teórico, incidimos sobre a análise de insucesso e abandono escolar, bem como na sua relação. O combate ao insucesso escolar, numa escala nacional, constituiu também objecto do nosso estudo, assim como as características dos Cursos de Educação e Formação e o seu Funcionamento. A parte relativa ao estudo empírico, envolveu a concepção e a testagem de instrumentos de recolha de dados e a realização de entrevistas semi - estruturadas. O estudo efectuado revelou que os alunos manifestam interesse por estes cursos, pelo seu funcionamento e porque lhes confere uma certificação profissional. O contributo dos cursos de educação e formação no percurso de formação dos alunos, revelou - se bastante positivo, proporcionando um impacto muito forte na melhoria dos resultados dos alunos, na sua atitude perante a escola e na valorização da aprendizagem. ABSTRACT; The courses of education and development are a measure that aims at the promotion of scholar success, as well as the prevention of the different kinds of school drop-outs, namely the unqualified, the promotion of the conditions of employment and the change to active life. The set of problems posed by this research was based on the following question: How does the courses of education and development contribute for the students' lifelong learning? Based on this set of problems, the research is made up of two parts. The former refers to the theoretical framework and the latter to the empirical study. As far as the theoretical framework is concerned, we focused on the analysis of the school unsuccess and drop-out, as well as on their connection. The fight against the school unsuccess, at a national scale, besides the characteristics of the Education and Development Courses and their Functioning, is also the object of our study. The part related to the empirical study involved the conception and the testing of instruments of data collection and semi-structured interviews. The present study revealed that the students are interested in this kind of courses due to their way of working and because these courses give them a professional certificate. The contribution of these education and development courses proved to be really positive, making it possible to improve both the students' school results and their attitude towards school giving value to learning.

Folk schools: Um estudo de caso

O presente trabalho tem como âmbito de estudo o campo da educação não formal. Trata-se de uma investigação qualitativa descritiva, com o objectivo geral de descrever todos os aspectos da actividade de uma folk school, um espaço de educação não formal, situada no sul da Dinamarca, sob as perspectivas de professores e alunos. Participaram neste estudo três entidades que fazem parte deste modelo de educação não formal, tendo sido realizadas entrevistas ao Director, a três professores e a sete alunos. Para a recolha de dados foi utilizado um guião de entrevista semi-estruturada. Os dados recolhidos pelas entrevistas foram organizados em categorias e foi realizada a análise de conteúdo. Como resultado deste estudo temos a descrição do funcionamento da escola analisada, bem como testemunhos da forma como este tipo de educação desenvolve o espírito de comunidade e cidadania, potenciando, também, o desenvolvimento pessoal e profissional. /ABSTRACT: This work develops in the study field of non-formal education. It is a descriptive, qualitative research, with the overall aim of describing all aspects of the activity of a folk school, located in southern Denmark, an institution of non­formal education, seen through the perspectives of both teachers and students. Three entities that are involved in this type of non-formal education have participated in present study, so the director, three teachers and seven students were interviewed. ln order to collect data we applied semi-structured interviews. The data thus obtained in the interviews was organized into categories and, afterwards, their content was analyzed. From this study results the description of the activity done in the school studied, as well as the testimony of how this kind of education develops a spirit of community and citizenship, also enhancing the personal and professional development and improvement.

Teaching and learning sexuality in nursing education

Sexuality is recognized as part of holistic nursing care, but its inclusion in clinical practice and nursing training is inconsistent. Based on the question "How students and teachers acknowledge sexuality in teaching and learning?", we developed a study in order to characterize the process of teaching and learning sexuality in a micro perspective of cur- riculum development. We used a mixed methods design with a sequential strategy: QUAN → qual of descriptive and explanatory type. 646 students and teachers participated. The quantitative component used ques- tionnaire surveys. Document analysis was used in the additional component. A curricular dimension of sexuality emerges guided by a behaviourist line and based on a biological vision. The issues considered safe are highlighted and framed in steps of adolescence and adulthood and more attached to female sexuality and the procreative aspect. There is in emergence a hidden curriculum by reference to content from other dimensions of sexuality but less often expressed. Theoretical learning follows a communicational model of reality through ab- straction strategies, which infers a deductive method of learning, with a behaviourist approach to assessment. Clinical teaching ad- dresses sexuality in combination with reproductive health nursing. The influencing factors of teaching and learning of sexuality were also explored. We conclude that the vision of female sexuality taught and learned in relation to women has a projection of care in clinical practice based on the same principles.

A Soft Computing Approach to Quality Evaluation of General Chemistry Learning in Higher Education

In contemporary societies higher education must shape individuals able to solve problems in a workable and simpler manner and, therefore, a multidisciplinary view of the problems, with insights in disciplines like psychology, mathematics or computer science becomes mandatory. Undeniably, the great challenge for teachers is to provide a comprehensive training in General Chemistry with high standards of quality, and aiming not only at the promotion of the student’s academic success, but also at the understanding of the competences/skills required to their future doings. Thus, this work will be focused on the development of an intelligent system to assess the Quality-of-General-Chemistry-Learning, based on factors related with subject, teachers and students.

Assessing the Role of General Chemistry Learning in Higher Education

The inclusion of General Chemistry (GC) in the curricula of higher education courses in science and technology aims, on the one hand, to develop students' skills necessary for further studies and, on the other hand, to respond to the need of endowing future professionals of knowledge to analyze and solve multidisciplinary problems in a sustainable way. The participation of students in the evaluation of the role played by the GC in their training is crucial, and the analysis of the results can be an essential tool to increase success in the education of students and improving practices in various professions. Undeniably, this work will be focused on the development of an intelligent system to assess the role of GC. The computational framework is built on top of a Logic Programming approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, complemented with a problem solving methodology moored on Artificial Neural Networks. The results so far obtained show that the proposed model stands for a good start, being its overall accuracy higher than 95%.

Actas da II International Conference «Learning and Teaching in Higher Education/ Learning Orchestration in Higher Education»

É ponto assente que o desenvolvimento social e económico de um país depende do conhecimento e do nível educativo dos seus cidadãos. Num momento de crise económica profunda em que a sustentabilidade do ensino superior se encontra ameaçada e a sua organização com rumo incerto, importa, mais do que nunca, criar um espaço de reflexão em que a ciência se pronuncie, aproximando e colocando em evidência os contributos que em vários domínios se vão produzindo. Nesta conferência, que se pretende em continuidade com a realizada em 2010, elegemos como tema central a qualidade do ensino e da aprendizagem e, tendo em conta a realidade em que nos inscrevemos, alargamos a discussão aos contextos e aos modelos de organização que os podem consubstanciar. Pode parecer um paradoxo centrar esta conferência na componente mais pedagógica do ensino superior quando toda a pressão de avaliação interna e externa das instituições e dos docentes incide particularmente sobre a produção científica. Mas talvez não. Assumimos que a reflexão de cariz pedagógico continua a não ser uma prática corrente no meio universitário português que, durante gerações, se habituou a um ensino universitário tradicional destinado apenas a uma pequena elite e se alheou dos desafios da massificação de que foi alvo. A ideia de que pedagogia apenas diz respeito à relação do professor com crianças ou jovens até ao ensino secundário permaneceu latente, tornando estéril qualquer discussão que, na perspectiva de alguns, seria desnecessária e até contraproducente no ensino superior. Um novo paradigma terá de ser assumido por um ensino universitário que busca o ideal da excelência, colocando no centro do debate o equilíbrio entre as dimensões pedagógica e investigativa e uma redobrada atenção à sociedade e às mudanças se, verdadeiramente, o que pretendemos é ganhar o desafio da qualidade.

Teaching and learning sexuality in nursing education

Sexuality is recognized as part of holistic nursing care, but its inclusion in clinical practice and nursing training is inconsistent. Based on the question "How students and teachers acknowledge sexuality in teaching and learning?", we developed a study in order to characterize the process of teaching and learning sexuality in a micro perspective of curriculum development. We used a mixed methods design with a sequential strategy: QUAN-qual of descriptive and explanatory type. 646 students and teachers participated. The quantitative component used questionnaire surveys. Document analysis was used in the additional component. A curricular dimension of sexuality emerges guided by a behaviourist line and based on a biological vision. The issues considered sage are highlighted and framed in steps of adolescence and adulthood and more attacghed to female sexuality and procreative aspect. There is in emeergence a hidden curriculum by reference to content from other dimensions of sexuality but less often expressed. Theoretical learning follows a communicational model of reality through abstraction strategies, which infers a deductive method of learning, with a behaviourist approach to assessment. Clinical teaching adresses sexuality in combination with reproductive lealth nursing. The influencing factors of teaching and learning of sexuality were also explored. We conclude that the vision of female sexuality taught and learned in relation to women has a projection of care in clinical practice based on the same principles