Crianças que se revelam agressivas: um estudo fenomenológico sobre o reconhecimento da agressividade em escolares

A agressividade na infância tem sido apresentada como queixa recorrente por pais e educadores, o que instaura um cenário preocupante na medida em que a identificação da criança e sua família como principais responsáveis ainda é acentuada. Neste estudo apresenta-se inicialmente uma compreensão da agressividade na infância a partir da Abordagem Centrada na Pessoa, assim como a proposta de educação neste referencial articulando com alguns princípios da teoria da complexidade. Considerando que a criança reconhecida como agressiva vem se constituído num processo de subjetivação no qual as pessoas socialmente significativas a ela estão implicadas, esta pesquisa por meio de uma investigação fenomenológica teve como objetivo verificar a configuração deste reconhecimento a partir da análise dos depoimentos dos participantes: a criança identificada como agressiva, um colega, a mãe e a professora. O estudo foi realizado numa escola selecionada a partir do mapeamento feito pelo Observatório de Violência nas Escolas Núcleo-Pa. Os resultados encontrados apontam para: uma visão de subjetividade linear subsidiando as forma de relacionar; o distanciamento docente utilizado como recurso para evitar o conflito; a agressividade manifestada denunciando as histórias pregressas do aluno e a vivência atual; uma relação entre a condição da criança reagir ao rótulo e a história familiar; as repercussões da forma como é reconhecida na escola em seu processo de aprendizagem. Os sentimentos vivenciados pelos participantes permitem alertar para a condição de implicabilidade que os envolve, reafirmando a necessidade de se buscar caminhos que promovam mudanças na forma de ver o aluno e a própria escola. Tais mudanças precisam ser instauradas a partir de uma visão de subjetividade humana interativa complexa, que possibilite entender a agressividade a partir de um cenário intersubjetivo que pode revelar múltiplos significados.

Uma experiência de plantão psicológico no CTI: semera e acolher

Este estudo avalia a implantação e desenvolvimento do Serviço de Plantão Psicológico em um Centro de Terapia Intensiva - CTI de um hospital universitário vinculado a rede pública de saúde, na capital paraense. O serviço foi disponibilizado aos familiares de pacientes internados e demais membros da equipe de saúde intensivista, funcionando na antessala do referido setor, duas vezes por semana, durante quatro meses. Alicerçado sob os pilares da Abordagem Centrada na Pessoa (ACP) buscou-se compreender os pressupostos teórico-metodológicos que fundamentam essa modalidade de cuidado, as especificidades do setting no que se referem aos objetivos, ações e funções do plantonista, assim como, as urgências reveladas neste contexto. Para tanto, elegeu-se como método do estudo a pesquisa qualitativa de base fenomenológica, sendo avaliadas as trajetórias do semear e germinar do Plantão Psicológico. São analisados seis casos clínicos, os quais lançam luz sobre essa modalidade de atenção psicológica no CTI. Quanto ao perfil da clientela atendida se observou que essa foi composta predominantemente por familiares, mulheres entre 20 a 75 anos, em média com o Ensino Fundamental e renda de um salário mínimo mensal. Os resultados indicam a necessidade e viabilidade da oferta do Plantão Psicológico no CTI, as demandas urgentes por auxílio psicológico, desveladas nos sentidos que os clientes atribuíram as suas experiências, tais como, medo de que o familiar faleça, sensação de abandono do familiar, culpa por não poder permanecer ao seu lado, tristeza intensa em razão do estado de saúde ou quando do óbito, entre outros. Dois tipos de atendimentos foram, naturalmente, criados: o individual e o grupal, sendo consideradas as especificidades das demandas. Ressalta-se também quanto a esta modalidade a disponibilização do pronto atendimento as urgências, acolhimento e estímulo a comunicação. Portanto, considera-se que a oferta do Plantão Psicológico no CTI revelou-se necessária como um espaço de cuidado psíquico aceito, utilizado e legitimado pelos clientes, além de se configurar em dois momentos distintos, antes e após ás visitas, sendo que no primeiro destes, destacam-se as intervenções voltadas ao acolhimento e fortalecimento da organização do self, enquanto no segundo, aquelas voltadas a ajudar os clientes na ressignificação de suas experiências ameaçadoras e a reorganização do self.

Contribuições ao desenvolvimento curricular da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu: descrição e análise dos cursos de Pediatria e Saúde Coletiva como iniciativas de mudança pedagógica no terceiro ano médico

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Avaliação de força de preensão manual e teste de usabilidade em embalagens com tampas de segurança: parâmetros para o design ergonômico

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

The informal market of education in Egypt: Private tutoring and its implications /// Arbeitspapiere / Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien ; 88

Education is generally perceived as a public good which should be provided by the state. In Egypt, free and equal access to education has been guaranteed to all citizens since President Nasser’s socialist reforms in the 1950s. However, due to high population growth rates and a lack of financial resources, the public education system has been struggling to accommodate rapidly increasing numbers of students. While enrolment rates have risen steadily, the quality of state-provided services has deteriorated. Teachers and students have to cope with high class densities, insufficient facilities, a rigid syllabus and a centralized examination system. Today, teaching is among the lowest-paying occupations in the public sector. One strategy to cope with this situation is the widespread practice of private tutoring, which usually takes place at students’ homes or in commercial tutoring centers. Based on research carried out in Cairo in 2004/05 and 2006, I use an actor-centered approach to analyze the motivations of Egyptian teachers and students for participating in private tutoring and the impact that this practice has on the relationship between teachers and students. Students of all socio-economic backgrounds resort to tutoring in order to succeed in a highly competitive and exam-oriented education system. However, the form and quality of tutoring that can be accessed depends on the financial means of the family. For teachers, tutoring provides a good opportunity not only to supplement their income, but also, in the case of renowned “star teachers”, to improve their professional status and autonomy. On the informal “market of education” that has developed in Egypt during the last decades, the educational responsibilities of the state are increasingly being taken over by private actors, i.e. the process of teaching and learning is dissociated from the direct control of the state and from school as an institution. At the same time, education is turned into a marketable commodity. Despite the government’s efforts to provide free education to all citizens, the quality of social services that can be accessed in Egypt, thus, depends mainly on the financial means of the individual or the family.

How do we teach usability? An Investigation of Usability Instruction in Technical Communication

This dissertation investigates the curricular implementation of usability instruction in technical communication. Though there are a plethora of publications and studies on usability in technical communication, little discussion focuses on usability instruction in the classroom or its implementation in the curriculum. Thus, this exploratory qualitative research seeks to contribute to a better understanding about technical communication students' and instructors' knowledge of and experiences with usability practices in the classroom, the challenges that impacted their usability efforts, and their recommendations on how their efforts could be improved. The study results demonstrate the need for more productive discussion on this issue and for developing more effective strategies for implementing usability in the classroom.

Enhancing multidirectional communication for cognitive cities

This paper presents the technical background and functionality of a meta-application (meta-app) for cognitive cities. This app enhances communication and thereby facilitates e-governance. This paper focuses on a user-centered implementation of the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) by presenting its technical specifications in relation with cognitive cities. For didactical reasons, a use case from the user perspective is included. Finally the findings are summed up and future work is presented

Career-choice readiness in adolescence: Developmental trajectories and individual differences

Developing career-choice readiness is an important task in adolescence, but current theory and research has provided a rather static view of the phenomenon. The present study investigated the development of career-choice readiness among a group of 325 Swiss students assessed four times every 5 months from seventh through eighth grade. A variable-centered approach applying latent curve modeling showed not only a linear increase of readiness over time but also significant inter-individual differences in the level and development of readiness. Higher levels were predicted by more self-esteem and generalized self-efficacy and fewer perceived barriers while increase in readiness was predicted by increase in occupational information. A person-centered approach applying latent class-growth analysis identified four distinct developmental trajectories: high-increasing (42%), high-decreasing (5%), moderate-increasing (42%), and constantly low (11%). Students with different trajectories showed significant differences in core self-evaluations, occupational knowledge, and barriers. The results suggest that environmental demands promote a developmental trend in readiness development that overrules individual differences for the majority of students. Individual differences affect the level of readiness to a greater extent than the process of its development. Career information seems pivotal for readiness increase.

Career adaptability profiles and their relationship to adaptivity and adapting

Research on career adaptability predominantly uses variable-centered approaches that focus on the average effects in terms of the predictors and outcomes within a given sample. Extending this research, the present paper used a person-centered approach to determine whether subgroups with distinct adaptability profiles in terms of concern, control, curiosity and confidence can be identified. We also explored the relationship between the various adaptability profiles and adapting (career planning, career decision-making difficulties, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy beliefs) and adaptivity (core self-evaluations and proactivity). Using latent profile analysis, we found distinct adaptability profiles among 350 German university students. Students with different profiles differed significantly in their levels of adapting. This finding was confirmed in a second study of 1226 students selected from the same population. In both samples, the adaptability profiles differed mainly in terms of their adaptability levels but not their shape. Moreover, in both samples, the students whose profiles indicated generally higher adaptability showed more adapting compared with the students whose profiles indicated generally lower adaptability. Study 2 also showed that students with higher-adaptability profiles showed significantly higher adaptivity. The results suggest that level effects dominate adaptability profiles, implying the existence of a general adaptability factor within university students that is meaningfully related to adapting and adaptivity.

Latent profiles of work motivation in adolescents in relation to work expectations, goal engagement, and changes in work experiences

Motivation plays a key role in successful entry into working life. Based on a cross-sectional and a one-year longitudinal study, we used a person-centered approach to explore work-related motivation (i.e., autonomous goals, positive affect, and occupational self-efficacy) among 577 students in 8th grade (Study 1) and 949 adolescents in vocational training (Study 2). Based on latent profile analysis, in both studies we identified four groups that were characterized by different levels of overall motivation and one group characterized by low positive affect and mean levels in autonomous goals and self-efficacy. Profiles characterized by high levels of motivation showed the highest levels of positive work expectations and goal engagement and the lowest levels of negative work expectations in Study 1 and the highest levels of person-job fit, work engagement, and job satisfaction in Study 2. Moreover, latent difference score analysis showed that motivational profiles predicted changes in person-job fit and work engagement across one year but not in job satisfaction. The results imply that career counselors should be aware of characteristic motivational patterns of clients that may require specific counseling approaches.

Chance Events and Career Decidedness: Latent Profiles in Relation to Work Motivation

Research has shown that chance events affect careers but has not established the nature of their effects. Moreover, the relationship between chance and career decidedness is not well understood. The present study used a person-centered approach with latent profile analysis to examine 312 Swiss adolescents in their first year of vocational training. We identified five qualitatively differing profiles according to levels of perceived chance events and career decidedness: balanced scorers, undecided with mean chance, undecided with high chance, decided with chance, and decided without chance. The groups differed significantly in work motivation (i.e., occupational self-efficacy beliefs, perceived person-job fit, and work engagement). Decided adolescents reported more favorable work motivation regardless of their level of perceived chance events. The results imply that promoting decidedness remains a valuable goal in career counseling despite the occurrence of unpredicted events.

A Renewed Day for Family Preservation

The philosophy and principles of family preservation have emerged in new forms over the past eight years. From the Family Preservation and Support Act of 1993 to the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of today, the value of the family to individuals and society is clear. While family preservation "programs" per se may not be as plentiful, the principals are founding almost every array of services from children, corrections, D.D. to mental health and work with the elderly. The Administration's priorities of healthy marriage, fatherhood, incarcerated parents, and faith-based programs reflect a family-centered approach to social issues. This redefining of the village will require our renewed efforts to articulate the importance of family centered practice and policy.

I feel you: Towards affect-sensitive domotic Spoken Conversational Agents

We describe the work on infusion of emotion into limitedtask autonomous spoken conversational agents (SCAs) situated in the domestic environment, using a Need-inspired task-independentEmotion model (NEMO). In order to demonstrate the generation of a?ect through the use of the model, we describe the work of integrating it with a naturallanguage mixed-initiative HiFi-control SCA. NEMO and the host system communicates externally, removing the need for the Dialog Manager to be modi?ed as done in most existing dialog systems, in order to be adaptive. We also summarize the work on automatic a?ect prediction, namely frustration and contentment from dialog features, a non-conventional source, in the attempt of moving towards a more user-centric approach.

Methodology for developing a Speech into Sign Language Translation System in a New Semantic Domain

This paper proposes a methodology for developing a speech into sign language translation system considering a user-centered strategy. This method-ology consists of four main steps: analysis of technical and user requirements, data collection, technology adaptation to the new domain, and finally, evalua-tion of the system. The two most demanding tasks are the sign generation and the translation rules generation. Many other aspects can be updated automatical-ly from a parallel corpus that includes sentences (in Spanish and LSE: Lengua de Signos Española) related to the application domain. In this paper, we explain how to apply this methodology in order to develop two translation systems in two specific domains: bus transport information and hotel reception.

I feel you: the design and evaluation of a domotic affect-sensitive spoken conversational agent

We describe the work on infusion of emotion into a limited-task autonomous spoken conversational agent situated in the domestic environment, using a need-inspired task-independent emotion model (NEMO). In order to demonstrate the generation of affect through the use of the model, we describe the work of integrating it with a natural-language mixed-initiative HiFi-control spoken conversational agent (SCA). NEMO and the host system communicate externally, removing the need for the Dialog Manager to be modified, as is done in most existing dialog systems, in order to be adaptive. The first part of the paper concerns the integration between NEMO and the host agent. The second part summarizes the work on automatic affect prediction, namely, frustration and contentment, from dialog features, a non-conventional source, in the attempt of moving towards a more user-centric approach. The final part reports the evaluation results obtained from a user study, in which both versions of the agent (non-adaptive and emotionally-adaptive) were compared. The results provide substantial evidences with respect to the benefits of adding emotion in a spoken conversational agent, especially in mitigating users' frustrations and, ultimately, improving their satisfaction.