Gestão da qualidade e o modelo Common Assessment Framework (CAF). Reflexão sobre a evolução recente nos Serviços Académicos da Universidade de Évora

As expetativas e exigências crescentes dos cidadãos face ao serviço público introduziram uma nova orientação nos processos de reforma e modernização administrativa. É neste contexto que surge o modelo de autoavaliação Common Assessment Framework (CAF), que está essencialmente direcionado para a administração pública, com o fim de promover a melhoria contínua dos serviços. Neste estudo pretende-se analisar a aplicabilidade da CAF como ferramenta de autoavaliação dos serviços públicos nos Serviços Académicos da Universidade de Évora (SAC), bem como verificar o impacto que a aplicação da CAF teve nos SAC, após o estudo realizado por Nogueira (2008), e efetuar um diagnóstico junto dos alunos, colaboradores e gestores para avaliar os processos desenvolvidos, bem como averiguar o seu grau de satisfação. Para atingir os objetivos propostos foi aplicado um inquérito por questionário junto dos alunos, colaboradores e gestores dos SAC. Os resultados obtidos permitiram extrair os pontos fortes (e.g. bons procedimentos para acolhimento e integração dos colaboradores, gestores não resistentes à mudança), evidenciar os pontos fracos (e.g. tempo de obtenção de respostas às solicitações efetuadas, atendimento telefónico desadequado), e enumerar as sugestões de melhoria para o serviço (e.g. maior número de funcionários a fazer atendimento, horários de abertura e de atendimento mais alargados); ABSTRACT: Expectations and increased demands of citizens on the public service introduced a new orientation in the reform and administrative modernization. lt is in this context that the model of self-assessment Common Assessment Framework (CAF), which is primarily directed to the government, in order to promote continuous improvement of services. This study aims to analyze the applicability of the CAF as a self-assessment tool of public services at the Academic Services of the University of Évora (SAC) and verify the impact that the implementation of the CAF had the SAC after the study by Nogueira (2008) and make a diagnosis with the students, employees and managers to assess the processes developed and ascertain their degree of satisfaction. To achieve the proposed objectives a questionnaire was applied to students, employees and managers of SAC. The results allowed to draw on the strengths (eg: good procedures for reception and integration of employees, not resistant to change managers), highlight the weaknesses (eg: time to obtain answers to made requests, inadequate telephone service), and list suggestions improvement for the service (eg: greater number of employees to service, opening hours and more extensive service).

As habilidades sociais em dependentes de álcool: Um estudo exploratório

A vida social de um indivíduo dependente do álcool é na maioria das vezes um factor de risco para continuar ou aumentar o consumo excessivo de bebidas alcoólicas. Um dos grandes fracassos do alcoólico é não cumprir adequadamente um papel social desejado, o que resulta em prejuízos para si mesmo e para os outros. O indivíduo que abusa no consumo, depressa perde a sua reputação junto de colegas, amigos e familiares, o que o deixa mais intolerante à frustração e aumenta o consumo. A mentira toma-se então sua aliada, pois através dela ele vai reduzindo a ansiedade causada pelo fracasso na vida social e que os outros teimam em deixar bem nítido. Identificar os problemas sociais dos quais o indivíduo padece, é fundamental para planear melhor uma estratégia de intervenção, quer seja ela de prevenção, de psicoterapia ou de reabilitação. Os programas de tratamento habitualmente propostos para a abordagem dos problemas derivados do consumo de álcool centram a sua atenção, quase exclusivamente, no comportamento aditivo como guia orientador da intervenção e como indicador objectivo do êxito do próprio programa Mas na maioria dos casos o comportamento aditivo é sim a manifestação mais objectiva de um profundo desajuste entre o sujeito consigo mesmo e com o seu meio ambiente. É por isso, objectivo dos processos de recuperação oferecer-lhe a possibilidade de recuperar a crença na palavra ou aprender o seu valor como meio de comunicação fundamental entre os homens. Para além de possibilitar aos sujeitos dependentes de álcool este valor, importa também incutir nos sujeitos o valor positivo de viver com limites; pois são especialistas em tentar sabotar a acção dos técnicos e em descobrir as suas debilidades para as utilizarem em seu interesse. Importa por isso, que aprendam o valor das leis e a utilidade, para todos, de cumpri-las (Kalina, 2001). Assim, o treino de habilidades sociais constitui uma parte importante dos tratamentos para os sujeitos com problemas de abuso de álcool e drogas. Foi nesse sentido que nos propusemos a identificar o nível de habilidades sociais em pessoas dependentes de álcool. O estudo que desenvolvemos é de carácter exploratório/descritivo, para o qual optámos por utilizar uma metodologia quantitativa. A amostra foi constituída por 229 indivíduos, do sexo masculino, dependentes de álcool, em instituições nacionais de referência na área da alcoologia O instrumento de recolha de dados é constituído por um Questionário de dados sócio demográficos, uma Escala de Habilidades Sociais e uma Escala de Auto-apreciação Pessoal. Constatamos que a amostra constituída por indivíduos dependentes de álcool apresenta uma pontuação média na Escala de Habilidades Sociais de 89.96, equivalente ao percentil 55 na tabela de parametrização de Gismero (2002). Este valor é claramente inferior ao conseguido por qualquer uma das outras amostras analisadas, seja a do estudo preliminar, seja a do estudo comparativo, constituída por indivíduos da população em geral e que conseguiram um percentil 70. ABSTRACT; The social life of a person dependent on alcohol is, most of the time, a risk factor to continue or increase the alcohol excessive consumption. One of the alcoholic failures is the fact that he is unable to perform an adequate social role, to the detriment of himself and others. A person, who abuses alcohol consumption, soon loses his reputation next to his colleagues, friends and relatives, which makes him intolerant of frustration and increases the alcohol consumption. To lie becomes his best ally, because it helps him to reduce the anxiety caused by the failure of his social life, what is promptly pointed out by others. To identify the individual social problems is essential to plan the best intervention strategy. This can be of prevention, psychotherapy or rehabilitation. The treatment programmers, usually proposed to deal with the problems caused by alcohol consumption, focus almost exclusively on the addictive behaviour, as a guide line for the intervention and as an objective indicator of the success of the programme itself. But, in most cases, the addictive behaviour is an objective manifestation of a deep break off of the individual with himself and with his environment. That is why the aim of the recuperation process is to offer the individual the possibility to recover their belief on the word or to learn its value as an essential means of communication for men. Besides getting the message trough, it is also important to make the individuals aware of the positive value of living within limits. These individuals are specialists on trying to sabotage the technicians’ actions, discovering their weaknesses so they can use them on their own behalf. That is why it is so important that they learn the value of rules and the importance of accomplishing them (Kalina, 2001). Therefore, the training of the social skills is an important part of the treatment of individuals with problems of alcohol or dugs addiction. So, we committed ourselves to identifying the level of social skills on people who have an alcohol addiction. The study we developed is exploratory/ descriptive and we chose to use a quantitative methodology. The sample was of 229 male alcohol dependent individuals, staying in national institutes of reference in the area of alcohol abuse and alcoholism. The means to collect data were a social demographic data questionnaire, a scale of social skills and a scale of personal self- assessment. We realized that the sample of alcohol dependent individuals presents an average score in social skills of 89.96, equivalent to a percentile of 55 in the parameterization of Gismero (2002). This is clearly a lower value than the one obtained by any other sample we analyzed, whether in the preliminary study or in the comparative study, constituted by individuals of the common population that achieved a percentile of 70.

A avaliação das escolas: efeitos da avaliação externa nas dinâmicas de autoavaliação da escola

No contexto educativo português existem, atualmente, orientações legais para que as escolas sejam, por um lado, sujeitas a processos de avaliação externa e, por outro, induzidas a criar mecanismos de autoavaliação. Embora a escola seja, pelo menos em parte, um “locus de produção normativa”, na prática não tem sido fácil o diálogo entre a avaliação externa e os processos de mudança e melhoria, através da autoavaliação institucional. Num contexto onde as politicas nem sempre criam os estímulos e as condições adequadas, a ação organizacional em torno dos processos avaliativos acaba por refletir o jogo dos atores. Face à “natureza política” da avaliação, as escolas e os seus atores recorrem a “soluções organizacionais” que lhes permitem, em função dos interesses e dos objetivos individuais e organizativos, gerir as pressões e as expetativas do seu meio institucional. O presente trabalho pretende encontrar respostas sobre os efeitos do programa de avaliação externa das escolas (AEE) nas dinâmicas de autoavaliação e nos planos de ação para a melhoria da escola. Trata-se de uma investigação inserida numa matriz de cariz essencialmente qualitativo que opta pelo estudo de casos múltiplos. A informação foi recolhida através de várias fontes: observação direta, grupo focal (focus group), entrevistas, inquérito por questionário e análise documental. Os resultados tendem a evidenciar que as organizações educativas, nas respostas às prescrições externas para a avaliação e melhoria da escola recorrem a estratégias e táticas plurais, de tal modo que as mudanças que ocorrem, mais do que respostas à necessidade de eficácia e melhoria interna da escola, traduzem-se em processos de adaptação, que variam consoante as tensões existentes entre o contexto institucional e o ambiente competitivo onde as escolas estão inseridas; Abstract: The Evaluation of Schools: Effects of External Evaluation in the dynamics of Self-evaluation of Schools In the Portuguese educational context, there are currently legal guidelines for schools to be subject to external evaluation process, on the one hand, and on the other hand induced to create self-assessment mechanisms. Although the school is at least partly a "normative production locus", in practice the dialogue between the external evaluation and the processes of change and improvement through institutional self-assessment has not been easy. In a context where the policies do not always create the incentives and the right conditions, the organizational action around the evaluative process ends up reflecting the set of actors. Before the "political nature" of the evaluation, the schools and their actors recur to "organizational solutions" that allow them, in the interests of individual and organizational goals, to manage the pressures and expectations of its institutional environment. This work aims at finding answers to the effects of the External Schools Evaluation (ESE) programme, in the dynamics of self-evaluation and action plans for the improvement of school. It is an investigation inserted into an oriented matrix, essentially of qualitative nature that opts for multiple case studies. The information was collected through various sources: direct observation, focus group, interviews, questionnaire survey and document analysis. The results tend to show that educational organizations, in response to the external requirements for assessing and improving, use plural strategies and tactics. Similarly, the changes that occur in the structures, processes and practices, more than answers to the need for efficiency and indoor improvement of the school, result into adjustment processes, that change according to the existing tensions between the institutional context and the competitive environment where schools are located.

Relatório da prática de ensino supervisionada realizado no agrupamento nº 2 de Évora, Escola Básica Integrada André de Resende e Escola

Este Relatório corresponde à Unidade Curricular da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada (PES), do Curso de Mestrado em Ensino de Artes Visuais no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e Secundário, desenvolvida no ano lectivo 2009/2010, e tem como objectivo principal a auto-reflexão sobre a prática de ensino efectivada, pois a dimensão reflexiva é um factor fundamental na formação de professores. É importante estar-se actualizado na reunião de um conjunto de conhecimentos e competências que permitam exercer correctamente a actividade profissional docente, mas não menos relevante é a capacidade de se saber reflectir e auto-avaliar, enquanto professor, transmissor de saberes para uma melhoraria do ensino dos jovens e também das metodologias e estratégias educativas requeridas. ABSTRACT: Report of Supervised Teaching Practice conducted by Cátia Marisa Barrenho Casquinha, No.2 in the Group of Évora, André de Resende Integrated Primary School and Gabriel Pereira High School, for the specialty master’s degree in Visual Arts Education in the 3rd Cycle Elementary and Secondary Education. This report corresponds to Supervised Teaching Practice (PES) curricular unit of the Master Course in Teaching Visual Arts at the 3 rd Cycle of Basic and Secondary Education, developed in 2009/2010, and has as main objective self-reflection on teaching practice considering the reflective dimension as a key factor in teacher education. It is important to be updated on a set of knowledge and competences to properly exercise teaching professional activity, but not least is the ability to reflect and learn self-assessment practices as a teacher, transmitter of knowledge, in order to improve youngster education and also the required methodologies and educational strategies.

Intervenção e avaliação inclusivas: estudo de caracterização do desenvolvimento do potencial em jovens com necessidades específicas

Este estudo centra-se na intervenção e avaliação inclusivas com o objectivo de caracterizar o desenvolvimento do potencial de alunos, com necessidades educativas específicas que desenvolvem projectos inovadores. A fundamentação teórica apoia-se no modelo inclusivo de Ainscow (1998) que propõe uma avaliação ajustada à diversidade dos alunos, reorganização das escolas para responder adequadamente a todos, e nos modelos sobre potencial humano de Gardner (2000) e Sternberg (1985) focalizados na multiplicidade da inteligência. No estudo empírico de carácter qualitativo com metodologia de estudo de caso de 4 jovens da APPACDM - Évora, utilizaram-se como instrumentos de recolha de informação: entrevista; análise documental; portefólios; observação/avaliação de competências. Os resultados demonstraram que a avaliação inclusiva centrada nas potencialidades facilita a caracterização da funcionalidade de cada um na diversidade dos domínios do desenvolvimento. Os portefólios fomentaram uma avaliação follow-up, destacando-se a autoavaliação, o registo das mudanças do aluno, o feedback contínuo aos professores, aluno e fann1ia. ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the inclusive assessment and intervention in order to characterize the development potential of students with special educational needs who develop innovative projects. The theoretical framework relies on Ainscow's inclusive model (1998) which proposes an assessment tailored to student’s diversity, school’s reorganization to respond appropriately to everyone, and in models of human potential of Gardner (2000) and Sternberg (1985) focused at the multiplicity of intelligence. ln the empirical study of the qualitative methodology with a case study of 4 youths of APPACDM - Évora, were used, as instruments for collecting information: interviews, documental analysis, portfolios, observation and evaluation skills. The results showed that inclusive assessment focused at the potentialities facilitates the characterization of the functionality of each one in the diversity of fields development. Portfolios fostered a follow-up evaluation, especially the self-assessment, registration of students changes and continuous feedback to teachers, students and families.

A qualidade e o modelo common assessment framework: O caso dos Serviços Académicos da Universidade de Évora

Uma das condições que mais influencia a competitividade entre instituições de ensino é a Qualidade. Sendo a sociedade cada vez mais exigente, é necessário medir e avaliá-la. A utilização de uma ferramenta de autoavaliação, desenvolvida ao nível da União Europeia, a Common Assessment Framework (CAF), que teve como modelo de origem o European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), veio permitir a medição da qualidade dos serviços prestados na administração pública. Este estudo apresenta os diversos aspectos referentes à temática da qualidade, o modelo CAF e os principais resultados obtidos num inquérito por questionário, junto dos alunos, colaboradores internos e gestores dos Serviços Académicos da Universidade de Évora, com o objectivo de avaliar o grau de satisfação com a qualidade do serviço prestado, o desempenho de todas as partes interessadas e, consequentemente, a sustentabilidade desse serviço. Desses resultados retiraram-se alguns pontos fortes, enunciaram-se diversos pontos fracos e evidenciaram-se sugestões de melhoria para o serviço em estudo. Neste sentido, este trabalho serviu de diagnóstico e apresenta uma ferramenta que permite aos Serviços académicos da Universidade de Évora conhecerem-se melhor e poderem mover-se no caminho da qualidade. ABSTRACT: One of the conditions that most influences the competitiveness among institutions of education is quality. As society increasingly demanding in terms of professional skills, it is necessary to measure and assess the quality of education, through continuous improvement to achieve excellence. Currently, the quality must be measured and seen as a competitive advantage. The use of a tool for self-evaluation of the quality, developed at EU level, the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) that has had its origin on European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), carne allow the measurement of quality of services provided to the clients, based on an internal guidance for quality in the organization and on the adoption of quality ratings as a routine in their work. This study presents the various aspects relating to the issue of quality and the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and presents the main results obtained through a survey by questionnaire. These questionnaires were applied to the students, staff and internal managers from the Academic Services of the University of Évora with the aim of assessing the grade of satisfaction with the quality of the services provided, the performance of all interested parties and therefore the sustainability of this service in this institution of higher education. As results obtained on this research there are some strengths, several weaknesses and suggestions for improvement that can benefit the service under study. This work can be used as a diagnosis and gives a tool that allows Academic Services of the University of Évora know themselves better and to be able to move on the path of quality.

An Assessment to Toxicological Risk of Pesticide Exposure

On the one hand, pesticides may be absorbed into the body orally, dermally, ocularly and by inhalation and the human exposure may be dietary, recreational and/or occupational where toxicity could be acute or chronic. On the other hand, the environmental fate and toxicity of the pesticide is contingent on the physico-chemical characteristics of pesticide, the soil composition and adsorption. Human toxicity is also dependent on the exposure time and individual’s susceptibility. Therefore, this work will focus on the development of an Artificial Intelligence based diagnosis support system to assess the pesticide toxicological risk to humanoid, built under a formal framework based on Logic Programming to knowledge representation and reasoning, complemented with an approach to computing grounded on Artificial Neural Networks. The proposed solution is unique in itself, once it caters for the explicit treatment of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information, either in terms of a qualitative or quantitative setting.

An Assessment of Pharmacological Properties of Schinus Essential Oils: A Soft Computing Approach

Plants of genus Schinus are native South America and introduced in Mediterranean countries, a long time ago. Some Schinus species have been used in folk medicine, and Essential Oils of Schinus spp. (EOs) have been reported as having antimicrobial, anti-tumoural and anti-inflammatory properties. Such assets are related with the EOs chemical composition that depends largely on the species, the geographic and climatic region, and on the part of the plants used. Considering the difficulty to infer the pharmacological properties of EOs of Schinus species without a hard experimental setting, this work will focus on the development of an Artificial Intelligence grounded Decision Support System to predict pharmacological properties of Schinus EOs. The computational framework was built on top of a Logic Programming Case Base approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, which caters to the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information. New clustering methods centered on an analysis of attribute’s similarities were used to distinguish and aggregate historical data according to the context under which it was added to the Case Base, therefore enhancing the prediction process.

A Case-base Approach to Workforces’ Satisfaction Assessment

It is well known that human resources play a valuable role in a sustainable organizational development. Indeed, this work will focus on the development of a decision support system to assess workers’ satisfaction based on factors related to human resources management practices. The framework is built on top of a Logic Programming approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, complemented with a Case Based approach to computing. The proposed solution is unique in itself, once it caters for the explicit treatment of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information, either in terms of a qualitative or quantitative setting. Furthermore, clustering methods based on similarity analysis among cases were used to distinguish and aggregate collections of historical data or knowledge in order to reduce the search space, therefore enhancing the cases retrieval and the overall computational process.

Assessment of the elderly’s functional ability to manage theirmedication: a systematic literature review

Background The evaluation of the elderly’s ability to manage medication through the use of a validated tool can be a significant step in identifying inabilities and needs, with the objective of increasing their self-care skills, and promoting successful aging. Aim of the review To identify studies assessing the elderly’s functional ability to manage their own medication. Method For the search strategy, the PICO method was used: P—Population(elderly), I—Instruments (tools for assessing medication management ability), C—Context (community) and O—Outcomes (functional ability to manage medication). Thefinal search query was run in MEDLINE/PubMed,CINAHL Plus, ISI Web of Science and Scopus. The whole process was developed according to the PRISMA statement. Results The search retrieved 8051 records. In each screening stage, the selection criteria were applied to eliminate records where at least one of the exclusion criteria was verified. At the end of this selection, we obtained a total of 18 papers (17 studies). The results allow the conclusion to be drawn that studies use several different instruments, most of them not validated. The authors agree that medication management abilities decrease as cognitive impairment increases, even if a lot of studies assess only the physical dimension. DRUGS was the instrument most often used. Conclusion Older adults’ ability to manage their medication should be assessed using tools specifically built and validate for the purpose. DRUGS (which uses the real regimen taken by the elderly) was the most widely used assessment instrument in the screened studies.

An Artificial Intelligence Approach to Individuals' Age Assessment

A link between patterns of pelvic growth and human life history is supported by the finding that, cross-culturally, variation in maturation rates of female pelvis are correlated with variation in ages of menarche and first reproduction, i.e., it is well known that the human dimensions of the pelvic bones depend on the gender and vary with the age. Indeed, one feature in which humans appear to be unique is the prolonged growth of the pelvis after the age of sexual maturity. Both the total superoinferior length and mediolateral breadth of the pelvis continues to grow markedly after puberty, and do not reach adult proportions until the late teens years. This continuation of growth is accomplished by relatively late fusion of the separate centers of ossification that form the bones of the pelvis. Hence, in this work we will focus on the development of an intelligent decision support system to predict individual’s age based on a pelvis' dimensions criteria. Some basic image processing techniques were applied in order to extract the relevant features from pelvic X-rays, being the computational framework built on top of a Logic Programming approach to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning that caters for the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even self-contradictory information, complemented with a Case Base approach to computing.

Self-care in Patients with Heart Failure

Objectives: To adapt for the Portuguese language the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index V6.2, analyse the self-care in maintenance, management skills and self-confidence of patients with heart failure who attend the nursing consultation of two Hospitals. Method: Explo- ratory study, sample 110 patients who frequented the nursing consultation for patients with heart failure of two Portuguese hospitals, conducted in the period of 6 months. He appea- led to the descriptive statistics and psychometric tests. Results: Internal consistency similar to the original scale. Mostly elderly, low literacy patients in self-care, low values associated with physical activity to the control of salt in meals taken away from home and inadequate control of signs and symptoms. Conclusion: Patients’ present difficulties in maintenance and management of the disease are self-confident face anyway. This instrument allows for individualized assessment leading to decision-making and action adjusted.

Cognitive Assessment System (CAS): Psychometric studies with Portuguese children from 7 to 15 years.

The Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) is a new measure of cognitive abilities based on the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive (PASS) Theory. This theory is derived from research in neuropsychological and cognitive Psychology with particular emphasis on the work of Luria (1973). According to Naglieri (1999) and Naglieri and Das (1997), the PASS cognitive processes are the basic building blocks of human intellectual functioning. Planning processes provide cognitive control, utilization of processes and knowledge, intentionality, and self-regulation to achieve a desired goal; Attention processes provide focused, selective cognitive activity and resistance to distraction; and, Simultaneous and Successive processes are the two forms of operating on information. The PASS theory has had a strong empirical base prior to the publication of the CAS (see Das, Naglieri & Kirby, 1994), and its research foundation remains strong (see Naglieri, 1999; Naglieri & Das, 1997). The four basic psychological processes can be used to (1) gain an understanding of how well a child thinks; (2) discover the child’s strengths and needs, which can then be used for effective differential diagnosis; (3) conduct fair assessment; and (4) select or design appropriate interventions. Compared to the traditional intelligence tests, including IQ tests, the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) has the great advantage of relying on a modern theory of cognitive functioning, linking theory with practice.