Estratégias de aprendizagem utilizadas por estudantes cegos

Learning strategies can be understood as a planned sequence of procedures or activities, selected in order to facilitate the acquisition, storage and use of information. Although important to the learning process, the knowledge on these strategies is still insufficient, especially with regard to students with visual impairments. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize learning strategies used by blind and sighted students, registered in elementary education in schools and special institutions. Were participants 23 teachers, male and female, aged between 26 and 51 years, and 102 students, of whom 25 were blind and 77 seers, of both genders, registered on the 3rd to the 9th grade of elementary school, aged 7 to 16 years old. The instruments used were: field diary (students and teachers); structured questionnaire (teachers); sociodemographic questionnaire, interview and Assessment Scale of Learning Strategies for Elementary School (students). Initially were made observations in the classroom and the teachers received the questionnaires, with instructions for completion. Then were made the interviews with blind students and the scale was administered with these and with the seers. All instruments were administered individually. We conducted content analysis of the questionnaires with teachers and the interviews with blind students. The scale of strategies and sociodemographic questionnaire were analyzed with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics. It was noticed that the blind students use few learning strategies in the classroom, regardless of city, series, sex or age. It was found that teachers didn t receive training to deal with blind students, either during graduation or after have completed it, in such a way that few of them were able to inform about the learning strategies the students use, and demonstrated low ability to deal with these inefficiencies. It was also found that the blind and the sighted use cognitive and metacognitive strategies during learning, but those used by the blind seem to be more basic, low complexity, given that the seers have achieved higher scores on all subscales. We conclude that the repertoire of learning strategies for blind students is inflexible, requiring increments so that they can achieve significant results. It is important that teachers receive training to understand the learning strategies and how they positively influence learning

Avaliação da relação entre qualidade de sono e uma intervenção com jogos para o desempenho de crianças e adolescentes

The sleep is an active brain process that allows the efficient realization of daily tasks. The changes on sleep patterns may influence the different cognitive processes performance. Many recent studies show the possibility of cognitive performance improvement, through the cognitive training with the use of computer games. The question is if these interventions may be influenced by the sleep quality. Thus, we evaluated the sleep quality effect about the efficacy of an intervention with computers games based on the working memory and attention for a cognitive performance training of elementary school students. The sample was constituted by 42 students with average age of 10,43 years old (SD=1,23), with 22 male participants and 20 female participants. We used to evaluate the sleep with the parents a sleep questionnaire, a sleep diary and the Sleep Behavior Questionnaire. In regard to intervention, the subjectives were distributed in an experimental and in a control group, both with 21 participants. In the first group occurred the intervention that consisted in the working memory and attention training with two cognitive tasks (Safari e Brain Workshop) during 30 daily minutes, for a 6 weeks period. In an equal period, the students from the control group should reproduce an artwork using drawing software. To evaluate the cognitive performance we applied before and after the intervention period the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). The results showed that in both the groups the performance of the intelligence, working memory, attention and visuospatial skills was below of the mean. The cognitive processes evaluated after of intervention in the experimental group had a performance significantly higher in the Perceptual Reasoning Index (t = -6,24; p < 0,01) and in the Full Scale IQ (t = -5,09; p < 0,01) and Performance IQ (t = -6,52; p < 0,01), suggesting a improvement on the visuospatial skills, attention, working memory and processing speed. On the control group, the performance was significantly higher in the Coding subtest (t = -5,38; p< 0,01) and in the Perceptual Reasoning Index (t = -3,66; p = 0,01), suggesting a improvement on the visuospatial skills and attention. The mean obtained with the Sleep Behavior Questionnaire was 53,76 (SD=14,96) for an experimental group and 61,19 (SD=12,82) for a control group, indicating tendency for a bad sleep quality in that last one. Not only during the first days, but also in the last fifteen days of the intervention we verified in the two groups an adequate time to sleep, duration and regularity, in the weekdays and on the weekends. We didn t find significant differences between the two groups in none of the sleep variables. We verified statistically meaningful improvement on the performance of the experimental group with the intervention in the two games. We didn t verify significant correlations between the games performance index and in the sleep variables of the experimental group individuals. We verified significant correlations among the performance on the Brain Workshop and the Cubes subtest, the Perceptual Reasoning Index and the Scale Performance IQ, suggesting that the significant improvement of the visuospatial skills and of the attention was correlated with the performance in the Brain Workshop. Although the absence of correlations with the performance in the Safari, possibly it also has relieved in the improvement of the cognitive performance. The findings support the hypothesis that the computer games might be a satisfactory tool for the improvement of the performance in visuospatial skills and attention. This can be resulted of the insertion of visuospatial stimulations in the task, for example, graphical elements with thematic for children that increase the interest. The IQ below mean the individuals might have influenced the improvement absence on the cognitive processes like the working memory with games. Moreover, it wasn t verified a relation between the sleep quality and the intervention efficacy. It might have been influenced by the n of the sample. Future studies must focalize in the improvement of the effect of the interventions with games

Produção de narrativas escritas no ensino fundamental: estudo de casos

This paper focuses on the construction of the narrative for elementary school students, searching to identify strategies they employed in the production of narrative texts representative of miniconto genre. Therefore, we take a sample forty texts produced by students of 6 and 9 years of basic education, twenty in the 6th year students (ten public school and ten private school) and twenty students in 9th grade (distributed similarly between public education and private). In general, we aim to understand the mechanisms by which producers build their narratives, as well as providing input for analysis of textual production of this genre. This research is based on Functional-Linguistic assumptions of the American side, inspired by Givón (2001), Thompson (2005), Hopper (1987), Bybee (2010), Traugott (2003), Martelotta (2008), Furtado da Cunha (2011), among others. In addition, from the theoretical framework presented by Labov (1972) about the narrative, coupled with Batoréo contribution (1998), we observed the recurring elements in the structure of narratives under study: abstract, orientation, complication, resolution, evaluation and coda. Also approached, but that in a complementary way, the notion of gender presented in Marcuschi (2002). This is a research quantitative and qualitative, with descriptive and analytical-interpretive bias. In corpus analysis, we consider the following categories: gender discourse miniconto; compositional structure of the narrative; informativeness (discursive progression, thematic coherence and narrative, topical-referential distribution); informative relevance (figure / ground). At the end of the work, our initial hypothesis of the better performance of students in 9th grade, compared to 6, and the particular context of education in relation to the public context, not confirmed, since, in the comparative study revealed that the groups have similar performance as the construction of the narrative, making use of the same strategies in its construction.

Produção de narrativas escritas no ensino fundamental: estudo de casos

This paper focuses on the construction of the narrative for elementary school students, searching to identify strategies they employed in the production of narrative texts representative of miniconto genre. Therefore, we take a sample forty texts produced by students of 6 and 9 years of basic education, twenty in the 6th year students (ten public school and ten private school) and twenty students in 9th grade (distributed similarly between public education and private). In general, we aim to understand the mechanisms by which producers build their narratives, as well as providing input for analysis of textual production of this genre. This research is based on Functional-Linguistic assumptions of the American side, inspired by Givón (2001), Thompson (2005), Hopper (1987), Bybee (2010), Traugott (2003), Martelotta (2008), Furtado da Cunha (2011), among others. In addition, from the theoretical framework presented by Labov (1972) about the narrative, coupled with Batoréo contribution (1998), we observed the recurring elements in the structure of narratives under study: abstract, orientation, complication, resolution, evaluation and coda. Also approached, but that in a complementary way, the notion of gender presented in Marcuschi (2002). This is a research quantitative and qualitative, with descriptive and analytical-interpretive bias. In corpus analysis, we consider the following categories: gender discourse miniconto; compositional structure of the narrative; informativeness (discursive progression, thematic coherence and narrative, topical-referential distribution); informative relevance (figure / ground). At the end of the work, our initial hypothesis of the better performance of students in 9th grade, compared to 6, and the particular context of education in relation to the public context, not confirmed, since, in the comparative study revealed that the groups have similar performance as the construction of the narrative, making use of the same strategies in its construction.

Prevalence of strabismus among students in Natal-RN - Brazil

To estimate the prevalence of strabismus in Natal, Brazil, among elementary and high school students of the public and private educational systems, in addition to detecting etiological factors. Methods: 1024 students were randomly selected and submitted to a questionnaire and a complete ophthalmologic examination, by professors and resident physicians in Ophthalmology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Results: Of 1024 students, 1015 were examined; 29 were found to have strabismus (2.9%), 20 of whom had manifest exotropia (2%), 2 had intermittent exotropia (0.2%), 6 had esotropia (0.6%) and 1 had V anisotropies (0.1%). Conclusions: The strabismus prevalence of the student population of Natal falls within the range of the worldwide population. There was ocular lesion in only one student (retinochoroiditis scar on the posterior pole in both eyes) related to strabismus

Prevalence of strabismus among students in Natal-RN - Brazil

To estimate the prevalence of strabismus in Natal, Brazil, among elementary and high school students of the public and private educational systems, in addition to detecting etiological factors. Methods: 1024 students were randomly selected and submitted to a questionnaire and a complete ophthalmologic examination, by professors and resident physicians in Ophthalmology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Results: Of 1024 students, 1015 were examined; 29 were found to have strabismus (2.9%), 20 of whom had manifest exotropia (2%), 2 had intermittent exotropia (0.2%), 6 had esotropia (0.6%) and 1 had V anisotropies (0.1%). Conclusions: The strabismus prevalence of the student population of Natal falls within the range of the worldwide population. There was ocular lesion in only one student (retinochoroiditis scar on the posterior pole in both eyes) related to strabismus

O argumento de inclusão enquanto política de acesso à universidade pública

There are a great number of evidences showing that education is extremely important in many economic and social dimensions. In Brazil, education is a right guaranteed by the Federal Constitution; however, in the Brazilian legislation the right to the three stages of basic education: Kindergarten, Elementary and High School is better promoted and supported than the right to education at College level. According to educational census data (INEP, 2009), 78% of all enrolments in College education are in private schools, while the reverse is found in High School: 84% of all matriculations are in public schools, which shows a contradiction in the admission into the universities. The Brazilian scenario presents that public universities receive mostly students who performed better and were prepared in elementary and high school education in private schools, while private universities attend students who received their basic education in public schools, which are characterized as low quality. These facts have led researchers to raise the possible determinants of student performance on standardized tests, such as the Brazilian Vestibular exam, to guide the development of policies aimed at equal access to College education. Seeking inspiration in North American models of affirmative action policies, some Brazilian public universities have suggested rate policies to enable and facilitate the entry of "minorities" (blacks, pardos1, natives, people of low income and public school students) to free College education. At the Federal University of the state Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), the first incentives for candidates from public schools emerged in 2006, being improved and widespread during the last 7 years. This study aimed to analyse and discuss the Argument of Inclution (AI) - the affirmative action policy that provides additional scoring for students from public schools. From an extensive database, the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique was used as well as a Quantile Regression considering as control the variables of personal, socioeconomic and educational characteristics of the candidates from the Brazilian Vestibular exam 2010 of the Federal University of the state Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The results demonstrate the importance of this incentive system, besides the magnitude of other variables

Avaliação das condições higiênico-sanitárias de manipuladores de alimentos e utensílios de mesa de escolas públicas municipais de Natal, RN

In Brazil school food is constitutionally guaranteed to public school students at the preschool and elementary level. This food must be nutritious, hygienic and sanitary. The aim of the present study was to assess the hygienic/sanitary conditions of food and table utensil handlers in municipal public schools in Natal, Brazil. In total, 27 public schools were assessed, using a checklist and microbiological analysis of the hands and table utensils. For the microbiological analyses of the hands, coliforms were analyzed at 45ºC and for the utensils aerobic mesophilic bacteria, using methods recognized by AOAC, 2002 and APHA, 1992, respectively. Most of the schools studied did not exhibit good food and utensil handling practice procedures in any of the variables analyzed. It was shown that 74.1% of the handlers received no periodic training, 51.9% did not undergo annual health examinations and 100% did not practice proper hand hygiene, which reflected significantly (p < 0.05) in hand contamination, where fecal coliforms were detected on 55.6% of the hands analyzed. With respect to the utensils, it was found that 100% of the schools studied did not follow correct hygiene practices and most were classified as very bad ; that is, aerobic mesophilic bacteria values above the limits established by PAHO (Pan American Health Organization), with schools in the north and south districts recording the highest percentages. The results show that the hygienic-sanitary conditions of the food and utensil handlers in the schools studied were inadequate, demonstrating the need for implanting good handling practices aimed at protecting the health of children that take part in the program and offering safer foods. Researchers from the areas of food microbiology, nutrition, public health and statistics participated in this study, a decisive factor for characterizing it as multidisciplinary

O uso pedagógico das TIC como expansão das capacidades : o ProInfo Natal/RN

The broad objective of the research The pedagogic use of ICT as development of teaching capacity: the case of ProInfo Natal/RN was to realize an evaluation of this program effectiveness in public schools. Specifically, we ve tried to observe if the program: a) succeeded by promoting the pedagogical use of new ICTs, b) stimulated the improvement of teaching and learning using ICT, and c) performed functionings and expanding its capabilities. The methodology consisted of literature revision; realization of half-structured interviews with administrators and teachers, and leading four focal groups with students in 9th grade of elementary school, were also made observations and analysis about the official documents which regulates the program. Our results showed that ProInfo presents various interferences in its effectiveness, causing a gap between its marks and the actual results of its use in everyday life of schools. We ve concluded that the program needs to challenge these weaknesses in order to contribute to the promotion of functionings and expanding its capabilities

Pedagogia etnomatemática : ações e reflexões em matemática do Ensino Fundamental com um grupo sócio cultural específico

mongst the trends in Mathematics Education, which have as their object a more significant and criticallearning, is the Ethnomathematics. This field of knowledge, still very recent amongst us, besides analyzing an externalist history of the sciences in a search for a relationship between the development of the scientific disciplines and the socio-cultural context, goes beyond this externalism, for it also approaches the intimate relationships betwe_n cognition and culture. In fact, the Ethnomathematics proposes an alternative epistemological approach associated with a wider historiography. It struggles to understand the reality and come to the pedagogical action by means of a cognitive approach with strong cultural basis. But the difficulty of inserting the Ethnomathematics into the educational context is met by resistance from some mathematics educators who seem indifferent to the influence of the culture on the understanding of the mathematics ideas. It was with such concerns in mind that I started this paper that had as object to develop a curricular reorientation pedagogical proposal in mathematics education, at the levei of the 5th grade of the Ensino Fundamental (Elementary School), built from the mathematical knowledge of a vegetable farmers community, 30 km away from the center of Natal/RN, but in accordance with the teaching dimensions of mathematics of the 1 st and 2nd cycles proposed by the Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais - PCN: Numbers and Operations, Space and Form, Units and Measures, and Information Treatment. To achieve that, I developed pedagogical activities from the mathematical concepts of the vegetable farmers of that community, explained in my dissertation research in the period 2000 through 2002. The pedagogical process was developed from August through Oecember 2007 with 24 students of the 5th Grade of the Ensino Fundamental (Elementary School) of the school of that community. The qualitative analysis of the data was conducted taking into account three categories of students: one made up of students that helped their parents in the work with vegetables. Another one by students whose parents and relatives worked with vegetables, though they did not participate directly of this working process and one third category of students that never worked with vegetables, not to mention their parents, but lived adjacent to that community. From the analyses and results of the data gathered by these three distinct categories of students, I concluded that those students that assisted their parents with the daily work with vegetables solved the problem-situations with understanding, and, sometimes, with enriching contributions to the proposed problems. The other categories of students, in spite of the various field researches to the gardens of that community, before and during the pedagogical activities, did not show the same results as those students/vegetable farmers, but showed interest and motivation in ali activities of the pedagogical process in that period

Corporeidade e humanescência na fonte dos saberes da vida: a formação de professores que valoriza o ser

The present study comes from inquietudes of an investigative posture assumed by a Physical Education Graduation Professor, before her educative action with undergraduate teachers. The research was done with 16 (sixteen) Kindergarten and Elementary School teachers, who teach at public schools. The referred teachers are undergraduate students of the Graduating Normal Course at Superior Educational Institute President Kennedy, in Natal/RN. The analysis and discussion of the intertwining of knowledge, within the four Pillars of Education, at the Fountain of Knowledge , is a metaphor, especially created for this study, as for its epistemological and methodological structure, guiding all the investigative process. It provided to show up the repercussion of bathing and drinking these humanizing waters of a pedagogical practice that values the Being, aiming his self-transcendence. The conclusions obtained were the following: 1) The professor, while bathing himself in the Fountain of Life Knowledge, reflects his personal and professional life, recalling feelings and emotions that through time were forgotten, but as they were remembered and lived again, impulse people towards humanity. 2) While bathing himself at the Fountain of Life Knowledge, the professor realizes he is awoken to humane knowledge, caring about his practices, which he develops in the classroom. Practices he considers the learning of knowing, of doing, of living together, and of learning how to be, having and integrated form on the Being. 3) When the worries about the developing of the Being exist coming from the undergraduate teacher there is a practice the shows up the web of corporeity knowledge knowing how to play, how to create, how to feel, how to think, and how to humanize. 4) The presence of the professional of Physical Education, with knowledge and experience of the budgets of corporeity, is essential in the process of graduating the Kindergarten and first years of Elementary School undergraduate teacher, for he, the former, has a huge responsibility as to the learning and developing of the educational process the humanizing developing of the Being In a proposal of education that occurs through the whole life. 5) The Professional of Physical Education has positions to conquer, for the existent gap in the educational process, as for the understanding of the body and of corporeity in the perspective of totality, urges to be modified in name of another mankind, with full humanity

Professoras e projetos: concepções e práticas no ensino fundamental

The discussion we have established in this study is about how the practice is developing educational projects based on work with because the methodological choice of the teacher. The study of an ethnographic qualitative approach was conducted with a group of six teachers in two public schools in School Administrative Zone north of the city of Natal / RN. Data were constructed from semi-structured, reinforced by the direct observation of the practice of teaching of teachers. The goals outlined were to identify the reasons why the option for the project, listing the benchmarks that subsidized their construction, the observation of everyday experience in educational planning and development of projects developed. In the light of information we can notice a complex and even contradictory, which is confusing the concepts and practices are weakened. The analysis revealed inconsistencies between theory and practice in working with projects, the fruit of little theoretical development of teachers. The adoption of the project as a methodological option has meant a change in direction of the effective action didactic. Reflects on this situation, it was concluded that there is a need to broaden the understanding of the significance of this type of work, covering the different dimensions that involve the practice of research, research and training of teachers. Even preventing the intentions and initiatives of the teachers, it must be emphasized is the process of learning within an approach that focuses the process of learning in multiple dimensions, inter-relational, both the capabilities of students in the areas of knowledge.

Representações sociais de formação continuada: com a palavra as professoras do ensino fundamental da rede pública de Natal RN

Metaphorically, research is presented as a journey by sea, having as object of study the social representations of Continuing Education for teachers of elementary school and as aim, to analyze them in comparison of participants from state and municipal systems, located in Natal-RN, Brazil .They have contributed to the achievement of this objective the voices of 158 teachers, the vast literature on training in professional development and the theoretical formulations proposed by Moscovici and colleagues, with relevance to the Central Nucleus Theory advocated by Abric. The corpus resulting from evocations about continuing education, as well as teachers' justifications were submitted to different computer methods/techniques, through the EVOC ALCESTE Programs, respectively, providing the opportunity to highlight a network of interconnections between the likely core and the production of discourse. Although the educational ideologies that underlie social perception of the state teachers are anchored in New School and technicist concepts and the teachers in the city tend to an ideology of social interaction, the choice of working with the symbolic field identified the political-social commitment of groups with the impacts of training on learning of their students

Reflexões sobre a construção e evolução de conceitos geométricos nas séries intermediárias do ensino fundamental

This thesis represents a didactic research linked to the Post-graduation Programme in Education of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte which aimed to approach the construction of the geometrical concepts of Volume of the Rectangular Parallelepiped, Area and Perimeter of the Rectangle adding a study of the Area of the Circle. The research was developed along with students from the 6th level of the Elementary School, in a public school in Natal/RN. The pedagogical intervention was made up of three moments: application of a diagnostic evaluation, instrument that enabled the creation of the teaching module by showing the level of the geometry knowledge of the students; introduction of a Teaching Module by Activities aiming to propose a reflexive didactic routing directed to the conceptual construction because we believed that such an approach would favor the consolidation of the learning process by becoming significant to the apprentice, and the accomplishment of a Final Evaluation through which we established a comparison of the results obtained before and after the teaching intervention. The data gathered were analyzed qualitatively by means of a study of understanding categories of mathematical concepts, in addition to using descriptive statistics under the quantitative aspect. Based on the theory of Richard Skemp, about categorization of mathematical knowledge, in the levels of Relational and Instrumental Understanding were achieved in contextual situations and varied proportions, thus enabling a contribution in the learning of the geometrical concepts studied along with the students who took part in the research. We believe that this work may contribute with reflections about the learning processes, a concern which remained during all the stages of the research, and also that the technical competence along with the knowledge about the constructivist theory will condition the implementation of a new dynamics to the teaching and learning processes. We hope that the present research work may add some contribution to the teaching practice in the context of the teaching of Mathematics for the intermediate levels of the Elementary School

Uma ação reflexiva sobre o processo de (re)escrita de textos: a prática pedagógica da professora Maria

T he reflexive action on the process of texts (re)writing, central topic of this study, is still a challenge within the elementary school. What made this issue a special theme of study was the fact that the chosen focus is based on a lived experiences with (re) writing activities where the uniqueness of the professional practice would be transformed into a place of knowledge production, offering theoretical and a practical support to a teacher, in order to understand the interactive nature of language as a space for recovery of the individual (as a historical, social, and cultural being). The empirical field research, structured in the light of assumptions of qualitative research into the action research format, was a public school in Bahia, in a third grade classroom. The instruments of data collection were open questionnaire, semistructured interviews, observations with video recording, documentary analysis of texts produced by students, and reflective sessions. The objectives that supported the research study were: 1) Investigate, in the pedagogical action of teacher Maria, activities on the writing process, 2) Interact with the teacher, in the form of action inquiry to: a) reflect on the procedures for theoretical and methodological development of reflective practice on the process of the (re) writing of the text, b) intervene in the construction of didactic situations that enable the learning and the development of reflexive actions in the (re) writing of texts. To accomplish these goals, it was established as a commitment a dialogic communication with the protagonist, providing reflection sessions so she could examine her teaching practices. The most relevant theoretical arguments to the establishment of this research came from the theoretical and methodological approaches of Bakhtin s theory of enunciation-discourse (2003, 2004) and Vygotsky s socio-interactionist theory (1989, 1998), as it is believed that both theories, through a paradigm shift, in which the constitution of the individual and the participation of others in the actions of analysis and reflection on the language, would give opportunities for internalization and construction of knowledge. The systematic and critical pondering led the participating teacher into reviewing her teaching praxis, compelling her to promote a more insightful understanding of the writing process of her students. That experirence brought into evidence three categories of actions: 1) actions that reflect the technical rationalism, 2) actions that reflect an emancipatory metamorphosis, and 3) actions that reflect empowerment and awareness. The results confirm that the action / reflection on the process of the (re) writing of a text has a dimension of increasing levels of awareness and self criticism, reproducing other meanings for teaching praxis