Community improvement through resource conservation and development : Q's and A'S.

Issued June 1974.

Learning mathematics in a classroom community of inquiry

This article considers the question of what specific actions a teacher might take to create a culture of inquiry in a secondary school mathematics classroom. Sociocultural theories of learning provide the framework for examining teaching and learning practices in a single classroom over a two-year period. The notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is invoked as a fundamental framework for explaining learning as increasing participation in a community of practice characterized by mathematical inquiry. The analysis draws on classroom observation and interviews with students and the teacher to show how the teacher established norms and practices that emphasized mathematical sense-making and justification of ideas and arguments and to illustrate the learning practices that students developed in response to these expectations.

Universities Masters World Cup Soccer:integrated sports science research and implementation of an international masters soccer community

Ageing populations with greater wellness and athletic expectations require quality sports and active living experiences in order to increase and sustain participation levels. Responding to the diverse needs and circumstances of Masterslveterans players is a complex and multi-faceted process. While sports science contributions have been very effective at enhancing active living in a variety of youth and adult sports events, very little has been documented regarding their efficacy in events for Masterslveteran players. This paper draws upon action research to examine the growth and development of a unique Masters World Cup 6-0-side Soccer Tournament, involving representative teams from twelve nations. lntegrated sports science concepts and strategies were employed to develop quality soccer experiences. Longitudinal data suggest that fostering a community of practice is critical to the success of Masters soccer programs. In addition to critical leadership contributions, an eclectic range of age-appropriate and responsive soccer experiences are essential to ensure that Masters events meet the diverse needs and circumstances of the players.

In God we trust: Faith-based development, spiritual transformation, and economic change in southern Andean indigenous communities

In communities throughout the developing world, faith-based organizations (FBOs) focus on goals such as eradicating poverty, bolstering local economies, and fostering community development, while premising their activities and interaction with local communities on theological and religious understandings. Due to their pervasive interaction with participants, the religious ideologies of these FBOs impact the religious, economic, and social realities of communities. This study investigates the relationship between the international FBO, World Vision International (WVI), and changes to religious, economic, and social ideologies and practices in Andean indigenous communities in southern Peruvian. This study aims to contribute to the greater knowledge and understanding of (1) institutionalized development strategies, (2) faith-based development, and (3) how institutionalized development interacts with processes of socio-cultural change. Based on fifteen months of field research, this study involved qualitative and quantitative methods of participant-observation, interviews, surveys, and document analysis. Data were primarily collected from households from a sample of eight communities in the Pitumarca and Combapata districts, department of Canchis, province of Cusco, Peru where two WVI Area Development Programs were operating. Research findings reveal that there is a relationship between WVI’s intervention and some changes to religious, economic, and social structure (values, ideologies, and norms) and practices, demonstrating that structure and practices change when social systems are altered by new social actors. Findings also revealed that the impacts of WVI’s intervention greatly increased over the course of several years, demonstrating that changes in structure and practice occur gradually and need a period of time to take root. Finally, results showed that the impacts of WVI’s intervention were primarily limited to those most closely involved with the organization, revealing that the ability of one social actor to incite changes in the structure and practice of another actor is associated with the intensity of the relationship between the social actors. The findings of this study should be useful in ascertaining deductions and strengthening understandings of how faith-based development organizations impact aspects of religious, economic, and social life in the areas where they work.

Community social innovation: a view of experiences of housing occupation from the Social Work perspective

This work aims to reflect on the concept of social innovation, questioning its explanatory capacity for the discipline of social work. For this purpose, certain on-going debates with regard to this concept are examined and certain minimum dimensions are offered to enable an analysis of the social innovation strategies that certain affected groups implement to meet social needs. The approach is to construct «glasses» that permit an analytical engagement with new realities and with the strategies used by certain social groups to resolve situations of severe vulnerability. Finally, a case study is presented: a strategic group known as the Corrala Utopía that seeks to respond to severe housing problems and is developing in the city of Seville. The article highlights the elements of community social innovation emerging from the experience studied.

Indicators on community art practices: some reflections

From the Divercity project, the article reflects on methodology, good practices and indicators useful for community art practices. At first term, social exclusión is defined as well as community art, and which features it presents. Subsequently, the article reviews the indicators that are being used to measure the success or achievement of community arts practice, raising criticism from equality and including indicators that measure the well-being of women.

Developing Innovative TEL Practice in Teacher Education

This interactive symposium will focus on the use of different technologies in developing innovative practice in teacher education at one university in England. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is a field of educational policy and practice that has the power to ignite diametrically opposing views and reactions amongst teachers and teacher educators, ranging across a spectrum from immense enthusiasm to untold terror. In a field where the skills and experience of individuals vary from those of digital natives (Prensky 2001) to lags and lurkers in digital spaces, the challenges of harnessing the potential of TEL are complex. The challenges include developing the IT skills of trainees and educators and the creative application of these skills to pedagogy in all areas of the curriculum. The symposium draws on examples from primary, secondary and post-compulsory teacher education to discuss issues and approaches to developing research capacity and innovative practice using different etools, many of which are freely available. The first paper offers theoretical and policy perspectives on finding spaces in busy professional lives to engage in research and develop research-informed practice. It draws on notions of teachers as researchers, practitioner research and evidenc-ebased practice to argue that engagement in research is integral to teacher education and an empowering source of creative professional learning for teachers and teacher educators. Whilst acknowledging the challenges of this stance, examples from our own research practice illustrate how e-tools can assist us in building the capacity and confidence of staff and students in researching and enhancing teaching, learning and assessment practice. The second paper discusses IT skills development through the TEL pathway for trainee teachers in secondary education across different curriculum subjects. The lead tutor for the TEL pathway will use examples of activities developed with trainee teachers and university subject tutors to enhance their skills in using e-tools, such as QR codes, Kahoot, Padlet, Pinterest and cloud based learning. The paper will also focus on how these skills and tools can be used for action Discussant - the wider use of technologies in a university centre for teacher education; course management, recruitment and mentor training. research, evaluation and feedback and for marking and administrative tasks. The discussion will finish with thoughts on widening trainee teachers’ horizons into the future direction of educational technology. The third paper considers institutional policies and strategies for promoting and embedding TEL, including an initiative called ‘The Learning Conversation’, which aims ‘to share, highlight, celebrate, discuss, problematise, find things out...’ about TEL through an online space. The lead for ‘The Learning Conversation’ will offer reflections on this and other initiatives across the institution involving trainee teachers, university subject tutors, librarians and staff in student support services who are using TEL to engage, enthuse and support students on campus and during placements in schools. The fourth paper reflects on the use of TEL to engage with trainee teachers in post-compulsory education. This sector of education and training is more fragmented than primary and secondary schools sectors and so the challenges of building a community of practice that can support the development of innovative practice are greater.

The impact and compensation of offshore wind farm development: Analysing the institutional discourse from a french case study

In France, the public acceptability of marine renewable energies and their impacts on ecosystem services (ES) involves questions about compensation for stakeholders, who may perceive some of their activities and interests to be modified. This paper seeks to understand how impacts on ES are perceived by institutional stakeholders and what is expected in terms of compensation. It also seeks to identify the communities of practice affected. We focus our study on the planned offshore wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc. Our results show that institutional discourse is heterogeneous, depending on sensitivities, interests, and who or what the stakeholders surveyed represent or defend. Stakeholders' discourse can be interpreted on various gradients of perception. Six distinct communities of practice have been identified, based on the impacts perceived by institutional stakeholders. Lastly, we show that the community of practice seems to be a proper level at which to study perceptions and assess the no-net-loss goal.

Training civic bridge builders: Outcomes of community leadership development programs

As rural communities experience rapid economic, demographic, and political change, program interventions that focus on the development of community leadership capacity could be valuable. Community leadership development programs have been deployed in rural U.S. communities for the past 30 years by university extension units, chambers of commerce, and other nonprofit foundations. Prior research on program outcomes has largely focused on trainees’ self-reported change in individual leadership knowledge, skills, and attitudes. However, postindustrial leadership theories suggest that leadership in the community relies not on individuals but on social relationships that develop across groups akin to social bridging. The purpose of this study is to extend and strengthen prior evaluative research on community leadership development programs by examining program effects on opportunities to develop bridging social capital using more rigorous methods. Data from a quasi-experimental study of rural community leaders (n = 768) in six states are used to isolate unique program effects on individual changes in both cognitive and behavioral community leadership outcomes. Regression modeling shows that participation in community leadership development programs is associated with increased leadership development in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are a catalyst for social bridging. The community capitals framework is used to show that program participants are significantly more likely to broaden their span of involvement across community capital asset areas over time compared to non-participants. Data on specific program structure elements show that skills training may be important for cognitive outcomes while community development learning and group projects are important for changes in organizational behavior. Suggestions for community leadership program practitioners are presented.

Comunidades de prática nas organizações de saúde: proposta de modelo numa organização hospitalar

Mestrado em Intervenção Sócio-Organizacional na Saúde - Ramo de especialização: Políticas de Administração e gestão de Serviços de Saúde

Modellus: Learning Physics with Mathematical Modelling

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências da Educação, área de Teoria Curricular e Ensino das Ciências

Modelling text file evaluation processes

Text file evaluation is an emergent topic in e-learning that responds to the shortcomings of the assessment based on questions with predefined answers. Questions with predefined answers are formalized in languages such as IMS Question & Test Interoperability Specification (QTI) and supported by many e-learning systems. Complex evaluation domains justify the development of specialized evaluators that participate in several business processes. The goal of this paper is to formalize the concept of a text file evaluation in the scope of the E-Framework – a service oriented framework for development of e-learning systems maintained by a community of practice. The contribution includes an abstract service type and a service usage model. The former describes the generic capabilities of a text file evaluation service. The later is a business process involving a set of services such as repositories of learning objects and learning management systems.

Processos de scaffolding num contexto pedagógico mem em jardim-de-infância

Relatório da Prática Profissional Supervisionada Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY IN PORTUGAL

The rise of anthropology in Portugal is examined within the framework of several cycles of development. The chapter discusses how the consolidation of anthropology at university level was the main focus until the 90’s. Applied anthropology, as distinctive from academic anthropology received very little attention. Consequently, there was an absence of an institutionalization of applied anthropology in the country. Nowadays, however, two main trends converge that supports the growth of applied anthropology and is providing work for anthropologists outside academia. First, anthropology departments in Portugal have stabilized their staff quotas resulting in very few positions open for anthropologists at the university level. Second, global changes are impacting the social framework of the country and, consequently, opening up new horizons of research and practice for social scientists. Several examples of these opportunities are discussed which is creating an optimism about the various niches for new and relevant anthropological practices.