A normative study of distortion product otoacoustic emissions in six-year-old school children

Evoked otoacoustic emissions have demonstrated potential for application in the community-based hearing screening of paediatric populations. Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), as opposed to transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs), have not been extensively researched in this regard. The current study aimed to describe the range of DPOAE values obtained in a large cohort (1576 ears) of 6-year-old children in school settings and to examine possible ear asymmetry, gender and history of ear infection effects on the data. Results indicated a variety of significant effects, particularly in the high frequencies, for DPOAE signal-to-noise ratio. The measurement parameter, DPOAE amplitude (DP-amp), was found to display potentially less clinical applicability due to large standard deviation values. Use of descriptive normative data, as derived in the present investigation, may contribute toward future improvements in the hearing screening of 6-year-old schoolchildren

Determinants of physical activity in middle school children

Objective: To evaluate the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and planned behavior (TPB) in predicting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in sixth-grade youth. Methods: One hundred ninety-eight students completed a questionnaire measuring attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions to be active. MVPA was measured using the CSA 7,164 accelerometer. Results: Although demonstrating an acceptable fit, the TRA and TPB accounted for only a small percentage of the variance in MVPA. In support of the TPB: the addition: of control perceptions to the reasoned! action model! added to the prediction of intentions and MVPA. Conclusion: Within our sample of sixth graders, the utility of the, TRA or TPB;as a framework for activity interventions appears to be limited.

Social competence and peer interactions of students with intellectual disability in an inclusive high school

This paper reports descriptive information on the relationship between social competence and the amount and type of peer interaction for nine adolescents with intellectual disability attending a regular high school. Each adolescent's social competence was assessed using the AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School (2nd edn) (ABS-S:2). Naturalistic observations were conducted to obtain information on the amount and type of peer interaction. Data were analysed to determine the relationship between social competence and peer interactions. Social competence was not consistently correlated with the amount of peer interaction. Results from the naturalistic observations showed individual differences in patterns of peer interaction with a tendency towards more frequent interactions with peers who also had intellectual disabilities. These data suggest that social competence did not significantly influence the amount and type of peer interaction. Implications for facilitating peer interactions between adolescents with and without intellectual disability are discussed.

Aligning school reform and teacher education reform in the middle years: An Australian case study

This paper discusses the development of a new Bachelor of Education (Middle Years of Schooling) at The University of Queensland. The middle years of schooling have increasingly been the focus of education reform initiatives in Australia, but this has not been accompanied by significant increases in the number of teacher education institutions offering specialised middle schooling-level teacher preparation programmes. Considering the rapidly changing social and economic context and the emergent state of middle schooling in Australia, the programme represented a conceptual and practical opportunity and challenge for The University of Queensland team. Working collaboratively, the team sought to design a teacher education preservice programme that was both responsive and generative: that is, responsive to local school contexts and to current educational research and reform at national and international levels; and generative of cutting-edge theories and practices associated with middle schooling, teachers' work, and teacher education. This paper focuses on one component of the Middle Years of Schooling Teacher Education programme at The University of Queensland; namely, the practicum. We first present the underlying principles of the practicum programme and then examine "dilemmas" that emerged early in the practicum. These issues and tensions were associated with the ideals of "middle years" philosophy and the pragmatics of school reform associated with that new approach. In this paper, and within this context, we explore what it means to be both responsive and generative, and describe how we as teacher educators negotiated between the extremes these terms implied.

Educa????o do campo no Estado de S??o Paulo: an??lise do n??vel de ruralidade das escolas no desempenho escolar

Este trabalho tem como objetivo central analisar a influ??ncia da localiza????o da escola e da origem dos alunos (rural e urbano) na taxa de evas??o, na taxa de aprova????o/reprova????o, no desempenho obtido no Ideb e na Prova Brasil. Para tanto, foram considerados os alunos do 5?? ano (quarta s??rie) do ensino fundamental das redes municipais e estaduais do Estado de S??o Paulo. A tipologia do IBGE para classifica????o das escolas em rurais e urbanas e o local de moradia dos alunos foram utilizados como forma de caracterizar o n??vel de ruralidade das escolas. O trabalho organiza um diagn??stico das pol??ticas em andamento; aponta algumas diretrizes para o aperfei??oamento das futuras interven????es na ??rea espec??fica de atua????o governamental; e mostra que, em v??rias situa????es, o desempenho das escolas ???rurais???, considerando os itens analisados, ?? inferior ao desempenho das escolas urbanas

Brazilian National School of Public Administration

The Brazilian National School of Public Administration (Escola Nacional de Administra????o P??blica ??? ENAP) is a public foundation linked to the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management. Founded in 1986, its core mission is ???to develop competencies of civil servants in order to enhance government capacity for managing public policies???. To fulfill its mission, a wide program of learning and continued education is offered to public policy managers as well as e-learning and customized courses, in accordance to governmental and institutional strategic objectives. ENAP???s courses are framed according to governmental strategic demands for social inclusion, poverty reduction as well as economic development in order to strengthen the leading South American democracy. The range and diversity of its programs mirrors the challenges of deep changes in the jobs market and the work environment, faced by the current 550,000 federal civil servants and the over 7,000,000 state and municipal civil servants in Brazil, as last counted in 2006.

Meninos não choram? um estudo sobre fracasso escolar e jovens masculinidades no ensino médio

A temática do fracasso escolar tem sido muito discutida atualmente. As taxas de evasão e de reprovação escolar são significativas, em especial quando é considerado o sexo masculino. Investigar informações sobre o fracasso escolar, seja enquanto repetência ou enquanto abandono, possibilitou um olhar mais sensível a esse problema em nossa sociedade e possibilitou a reflexão sobre o quanto há para ser feito em relação ao ensino médio, pois, na medida em que se propõe a universalização do ensino fundamental, pouco tem se feito para garantir a continuação dos estudos a fim de que os alunos concluam a educação básica. Assim, partindo de estudos e dados estatísticos que indicavam que os meninos tendem a fracassarem na escola, consideramos que seria possível supor que os significados atribuídos por esses jovens a evasão possam estar relacionados ao seu tornar-se homem. Desta forma a questão central de nossa investigação foi: Em que medida o processo de constituição da masculinidade de jovens homens influenciam ou interferem no fracasso escolar? Questionávamos como jovens do sexo masculino, que já abandonaram a escola durante a etapa do Ensino Médio, significam a sua ou suas história (s) de abandono escolar e em que medida os significados atribuídos por esses jovens à evasão escolar são relacionados ao processo de constituição de suas masculinidades. Adotamos as categorias Gênero e Juventude para compor a investigação sobre o fracasso de jovens do sexo masculino que evadiram e regressaram a escola. O objetivo de nosso estudo foi analisar a relação que jovens homens traçam entre a constituição de suas masculinidades e o fracasso escolar. Utilizamos entrevistas com 12 jovens do sexo masculino, 7 que haviam evadido e retornaram a escola e 5 que estão evadidos. E realizamos um grupo focal com o grupo que regressou. A partir das informações obtidas nas entrevistas e no grupo focal, podemos inferir que a questão da masculinidade influencia a evasão escolar destes meninos, uma vez que se relaciona, dentre outros com o aspecto da independência, da responsabilidade e da resistência ao modelo adotado pela escola atual, na qual se espera que os sujeitos sejam vistos apenas como aluno, sendo esquecido o fato de serem jovens.