A relação diagnóstica em contexto de creche e jardim-de-infância

O presente estudo enquadra-se no domínio das Ciências da Educação e na área específica da Análise da Acão Educativa. Não se afastando das preocupações inscritas nos objetivos de um mestrado de autor "A Criança em Diferentes Contextos Educativos”, também se compagina com as nossas determinações pessoais e profissionais, empreendidas na convicção da investigação como um projeto de vida. Para o efeito, arquitetámos o nosso universo de estudo a partir da observação naturalista em sete salas de creche e de jardim-de-infância do distrito de Évora. Da população estudada fizeram parte diferentes acores educativos, entre eles, as crianças dos 3 meses aos 6 anos de idade, as educadoras e as auxiliares de Acão educativa. Pretendemos, a partir dos sinais emitidos pelas crianças, retirar indicadores de necessidades educativas, para compreender as atitudes e comportamentos dos agentes educativos (educadores e auxiliares) na sua prática pedagógica, inferindo das suas próprias necessidades formativas. Procurámos saber como eram feitos os diagnósticos de necessidades (educativas das crianças e formativas dos educadores) e como organizavam a sua relação com outros acores educativos, no sentido de um desenvolvimento holístico da criança. Dada a natureza e o objeto de estudo, optámos por uma metodologia qualitativa de carácter interpretativo, configurada num estudo de caso. Utilizámos a linha de Investigação-Acão/Formação, preconizada por Luís Barbosa, integrada na sua "Escola Sensível e Transformacionista", que radica os seus fundamentos na ideia de que o jardim-de-infância, tal como outra qualquer organização educativa, deve ser um "Observatório de Caracterização de necessidades educativas das crianças e formativas dos sues agentes educativos”, gerido na perspetiva da mudança. Neste enquadramento de ideias, ao qual aderimos por convicção, utilizámos, para caracterizar o real, a Observação como técnica privilegiada, pese embora as limitações que lhe são subjacentes. Minimizámos este facto, triangulando os dados com entrevistas semiestruturadas e notas de campo. Suportámo-nos da Técnica do Espelhamento, da Pedagogia de Ajuda, da Renomeação de Experiências e da Extensibilidade de Si, às quais, pela sua importância demos ênfase no enquadramento teórico. O nosso estudo permitiu-nos inferir que, a relação diagnostica nos processos de ensino/aprendizagem, naqueles contextos, parece estar correlacionada com o facto de que os agentes educativos ainda necessitam de adquirir um leque variado de competências, relacionadas com o Saber-Ser e o Saber-Estar, que lhes permitam atitudes relacionais pró-activas e maior sensibilidade para captar as emoções e as sensações das crianças. Este facto vem corroborar o facto de termos verificado que os agentes educativos não usam o diagnóstico de necessidades como âncora de organização das suas práticas educativas o que não contribui de forma sustentável para a promoção do bem-estar e do desenvolvimento integral da criança. ABSTRACT: The present study lies within the field of Educational Sciences in the specific area of analysis of education. Not moving away from the concerns listed in the goals of an author master degree "The Child in Different Educational Contexts”, it also fits our personal and professional decisions, undertaken in the belief of research as a project of life. We chose the universe of our study from naturalistic observation in seven rooms of Nurseries and Infant Schools in the district of Évora. The study population consisted of children from three months to six years old, educators and assistants of education. From signals emitted by children, we intended to take indicators of educational needs to understand the attitudes and behavior of the educators and their assistants in their pedagogical practice, inferring their own educational needs. We tried to know how the diagnoses of needs were made (educational needs of the children and training needs of the educators) and how they organized their relationship with other educational agents towards a holistic development of children. Considering the nature and purpose of the study we opted for a qualitative methodology of interpretative nature, in a case study. We used the action research training line, advocated by Luís Barbosa in his work "Escola Sensível e Transformacionista" (Sensitive and Transformational School), whose reason lies in the idea that Infant Schools, like other educational organizations, should be centers for the characterization of children’s educational needs and educational agents' formative needs, managed in terms of change. ln this framework of ideas, that we adopted by conviction, we used the observation as the main technique, despite its limitations. To minimize them we triangulated the data with semi structured interviews and field notes. We used the techniques of Mirroring, Pedagogy of Help, renaming of Experiences and Extensibility of Yourself, and, because of their importance, we focused on them in the theoretical framework. This study allowed us to infer that the diagnostic relationship in the teaching­learning processes, in those contexts, seem to be correlated with the fact that the educational agents still need to acquire a wide range of skills related to the Know How To Be, to provide them with proactive relational attitudes and a bigger sensibility to get the children's emotions and sensations. We also found that the educational agents don't use a diagnostic of needs as anchor of the organization of their educational practices, what does not contribute in a sustainable way for the promotion of the well being and integral development of the child.

Social representations about the Portuguese adolescent alcohol consumption

Alcohol is currently the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world and Portugal is the second country where such consumption is greater, registering a large increase in consumption by young people. Currently continue still, beliefs, myths and prejudices that because they are well rooted culturally serve as good reasons for drinking. This study sought therefore to identify the myths associated by adolescents to alcohol consumption. A questionnaire was developed for this purpose (74 items, α = 0.947) and applied to a sample of 1176 adolescents schooled between 14 and 18 years old, with a return rate of 42.6% (margin of error of 5% for a confidence level of 95%) in the district of Beja, Portugal, in 2012. The collected data were statistically analyzed using measures of association, factor analysis and linear regression. The results show that many myths are unknown among adolescents, verifying the presence of many questions, among which stands out: alcohol "warm", "thirst quenching", "gives strength", "facilitates digestion" "whet the appetite", "is a medicine", "is aphrodisiac", "facilitates social relations", among others. Age and sex are variables significantly affected the myths and objectives of alcohol consumption. These results clearly point to the need to be disassembled beliefs and wrong conceptions about the effects of alcohol consumption, particularly in the school environment, reducing the risk of the consequences and promoting adolescent health, preventing any future dependence on this psychoactive substance.

Oral food perception and polyphenol-rich foods acceptance - the importance of knowing individuals saliva characteristics for promoting consumption

Polyphenols are widely present in fruits, vegetables, cereals and beverages. Their study gained scientific interest because of their beneficial effects on health. Although there is currently no official dietary recommendation for polyphenol intake, health professionals recommend the consumption of 5-8 daily portions of fruits and vegetables. This is not always achieved and, despite possible causes associated to practical schedule difficulties, the aversive bitter and astringent sensations associated to polyphenols may also lead to avoidance. As such, a better understanding on mechanisms responsible for differences among people, in polyphenol oral perception, is needed for promoting healthier choices. Saliva has been linked to polyphenol consumption. We have previously observed, in animal models, changes in salivary proteome induced by tannin-enriched diets. Moreover, differences in astringency perception were attributed to differences in salivary protein composition. In a recent experiment, we observed differences among individuals with dissimilar tannic-acid perception: people with high sensitivity for the oral sensations elicited by tannins have higher amounts of salivary cystatins and lower capacity to maintain their levels after tannic-acid ingestion. Additionally, and similarly to previous studies, salivary amylase was observed to be involved in tannin perception. In this presentation, oral cavity characteristics influencing the perception of polyphenol-containing foods will be discussed.

‘Crows’ vs. ‘Avatar’, or: 3D vs. total-dimensional immersion

3D film’s explicit new space depth arguably provides both an enhanced realistic quality to the image and a wealth of more acute visual and haptic sensations (a ‘montage of attractions’) to the increasingly involved spectator. But David Cronenberg’s related ironic remark that ‘cinema as such is from the outset a «special effect»’ should warn us against the geometrical naiveté of such assumptions, within a Cartesian ocularcentric tradition for long overcome by Merleau-Ponty’s embodiment of perception and Deleuze’s notion of the self-consistency of the artistic sensation and space. Indeed, ‘2D’ traditional cinema already provides the accomplished «fourth wall effect», enclosing the beholder behind his back within a space that no longer belongs to the screen (nor to ‘reality’) as such, and therefore is no longer ‘illusorily’ two-dimensional. This kind of totally absorbing, ‘dream-like’ space, metaphorical for both painting and cinema, is illustrated by the episode ‘Crows’ in Kurosawa’s Dreams. Such a space requires the actual effacement of the empirical status of spectator, screen and film as separate dimensions, and it is precisely the 3D caracteristic unfolding of merely frontal space layers (and film events) out of the screen towards us (and sometimes above the heads of the spectators before us) that reinstalls at the core of the film-viewing phenomenon a regressive struggle with reality and with different degrees of realism, originally overcome by film since the Lumière’s Arrival of a Train at Ciotat seminal demonstration. Through an analysis of crucial aspects in Avatar and the recent Cave of Forgotten Dreams, both dealing with historical and ontological deepening processes of ‘going inside’, we shall try to show how the formal and technically advanced component of those 3D-depth films impairs, on the contrary, their apparent conceptual purpose on the level of contents, and we will assume, drawing on Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze, that this technological mistake is due to a lack of recognition of the nature of perception and sensation in relation to space and human experience.