Neuroscience and education: prime time to build the bridge

As neuroscience gains social traction and entices media attention, the notion that education has much to benefit from brain research becomes increasingly popular. However, it has been argued that the fundamental bridge toward education is cognitive psychology, not neuroscience. We discuss four specific cases in which neuroscience synergizes with other disciplines to serve education, ranging from very general physiological aspects of human learning such as nutrition, exercise and sleep, to brain architectures that shape the way we acquire language and reading, and neuroscience tools that increasingly allow the early detection of cognitive deficits, especially in preverbal infants. Neuroscience methods, tools and theoretical frameworks have broadened our understanding of the mind in a way that is highly relevant to educational practice. Although the bridge’s cement is still fresh, we argue why it is prime time to march over it.

Neuroscience and education: prime time to build the bridge

As neuroscience gains social traction and entices media attention, the notion that education has much to benefit from brain research becomes increasingly popular. However, it has been argued that the fundamental bridge toward education is cognitive psychology, not neuroscience. We discuss four specific cases in which neuroscience synergizes with other disciplines to serve education, ranging from very general physiological aspects of human learning such as nutrition, exercise and sleep, to brain architectures that shape the way we acquire language and reading, and neuroscience tools that increasingly allow the early detection of cognitive deficits, especially in preverbal infants. Neuroscience methods, tools and theoretical frameworks have broadened our understanding of the mind in a way that is highly relevant to educational practice. Although the bridge’s cement is still fresh, we argue why it is prime time to march over it.

Fazer a ponte para a escola de todos(as)

The purpose of this study is to understand what are the matrix elements in which everyday activities of social author/authors, actor/actors and actress/actresses are embedded, in order to carry out the Escola da Ponte s political and pedagogic process (PPP). Thus, the object of this study is to reflect on an experience developed in a public school supported by the Portuguese State within the scenario of institutions that are committed to building up a school of the people by investing in democratization and community participation in their management process. The methodological course of action was targeted at the presuppositions of qualitative research (WOODS, 1999; BURGESS, 1997; MILLS, 1982; OLIVEIRA, 1998; BOGDAN and BIKLEN, 1994; MACEDO, 2000; CASAL, 1996; GEERTZ, 2000), with data collected from random word association (MACHADO and CARVALHO, 2003), the discourse of the interviewed (KAUFMANN, 1996; SILVA, 2006; 2002), observation notes and documents (ELIAS, 1997). Based on a multiple reference and theoretical framework, the investigation revealed elements that are construed as the raw material and pillars supporting the bridge of a school of the people, as well as the self-organization of the school community which emerges as a dimension that binds together all the elements and brings new arrangements into the school dynamics by moving from the individual to the society (DUPUY, 1990). Along this line, the central argument is that in the short and long run the public school quality does not spring from macro educational policies, nor from ephemeral mass-production programs, projects or governmental policies, but from the intent of the professionals working there in becoming authors and characters in the process of building up and carrying out the PPP. The Project has been conceived in the light of the needs and intentionality of the community whose support comes from the participation and social control held by the students families and the community s power to force to action public administration central agencies aiming at having the State fulfill its responsibilities

A sistematização do conteúdo jogo nas aulas de educação física do ensino fundamental e médio

Since the enactment of LDBEN 9.9394/96, Physical Education began to be understood as a curricular component in school. Thus, we see the need for systematization of content. We observed that the physical education classes at the public schools in Natal/RN from the game content, teachers did not use the existing proposals for systematization. And it was on this reality that the study occurred, aiming to present and discuss a proposal to systematization the game content in physical education classes in elementary and secondary education. Accordingly, we departed of following question: What possibilities of systematization of the game content in school physical education classes?. The methodology used was the action research, which allowed us to structure the intervention plan for the game content, directed to a reflective didactic process. The dialogue with action research provided an opportunity to understand of the proposal of systematization, the knowledge of game content, the planning and process of teaching and learning in physical education lessons developed. We use the proposed systematization the book Educação Física Escolar e Organização Curricular , to direct and organize the lesson plans. As research technique, we use the participant observation, filming, photographic records and field diary, guiding us in the debates and discussions about the field of research. The applications of the lesson plans were carried out in three schools, all located in Natal / RN: Escola Municipal Professora Ivonete Maciel, Escola Municipal Professor Ulisses de Góis e Professor Escola Estadual Josino Macedo. The members of this study were students PIBID-EF-UFRN, teachers, supervisors and school. They made the bridge between research and action, theoretical foundation and pedagogical practice, university and school. The results were advanced for beyond the propositions submitted by the above-mentioned book. For the Elementary School 1, the proposed systematization broadened experiences and learning of knowledge of the game and of playful and body manifestations. Provided an opportunity to know and learn about game of make account, rules, popular games, cooperative games, among others. For Elementary Schools 2 and Middle education, systematized lessons allowed the practical, the incorporation of knowledge of the game and its features: such as rules, origin, meaning of the name, different denominations, among others. The students experienced and learned, popular games, pre-sport games, cooperative games, with recycled material, among others. The treatment from three dimensions of contents: procedural, conceptual and attitudinal, occurred parallel to approach the game content, and in conjunction with our interventions, not being done separately during practice, but an ongoing process during class. This new perspective of work the game, in a systematized way, with applying, description and discussion the activities, allowed elaborate a summary framework of thematizations for game content, by year of teaching

A construção da ponte metálica sobre o Rio Pontengi: aspectos históricos, construtivos e de durabilidade - Natal/RN, Brasil (1912-1916) - estudo de caso

It is a case study that reports the construction of metal truss bridge in the river Potengi in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, between the years 1912 and 1916. From testimonials on steel bridges in Brazil and worldwide including foundations. Documentary research from procurement of projects and contracts was performed. A chronology of construction, with a description of the equipment used and its original budget with the Brazilian government. Still, we used interviews and surveys with experimental sampling / testimonies, laboratory tests. This study aims to analyze historically and technically the Bridge over the River Potengi, emphasizing primarily the construction process, the qualities and characteristics of the materials used and the technological, chemical, mineralogical and microstructural properties of cement and concrete used in its construction. Taking as conclusions that cements pozolônicos ensured a good durability to the concrete in a hundred-year period and that the solution employed with the compressed air caissons was right

Jardim do Seridó: A construção dos espaços públicos na Veneza Seridoense nas primeiras décadas do século XX

As the space and the city are objects of desires, interests, seduction, sedition, appropriations, battles, victories, defeats, require to be analyzed historically. This research investigates and discusses the construction of public spaces in Jardim do Seridó City, backwoods of Rio Rio Grande do Norte, in the first decades of twentieth century, when the municipality was chaired by Heráclio Pires Fernandes, who ruled from 1917 to 1930 and was graduated from the University of Pharmacy of Recife, where he contacted the architectural, political and artistic influences circulating in the capital of Pernambuco. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the space of Jardim earns statements and practices, against the discourse of modernity, which sought to justify the title of Veneza Seridoense . At the time, the city had undergone several transformations in its public spaces through the construction of the Butchery, the Market, the Public Roads connecting the city to other urban centers, the building of the Bridge of the Pedra Lavrada Farm, the Elementary School Antônio de Azevedo , the creation of the Music Band Euterpe Jardinense , the Literary and Recreative Guild, the pavilion, the paving, tree planting, lighting, streets naming and listing of the annual painting of households, the arrival of automobiles, mail and telegraph. The construction of these new sceneries and the arrival of equipments generated impacts in the daily life of the population and were received differentiated ways by individuals involved in the process, which shows the tension between old and new, the relationship between history and space