Development of an instrument to measure high school students' global awareness and attitudes: Looking through the lens of social sciences

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure high school students’ perspectives on global awareness and attitudes toward social issues. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) Can acceptable validity and reliability estimates be established for an instrument developed to measure high schools students' global awareness? (b) Can acceptable validity and reliability estimates be established for an instrument developed to measure high schools students' attitudes towards global social issues? (c) What is the relationship between high school students’ GPA, race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, parents’ education, getting the news, reading and listening habits, the number of classes taken in the social sciences, whether they speak a second language, and have experienced living in or visiting other countries, and their perception of global awareness and attitudes toward global social issues. ^ An ex post facto research design was used and the data were collected using a 4-part Likert-type survey. It was administered to 14 schools in the Miami-Dade County, Florida area to 704 students. A factor analysis with an orthogonal varimax rotation was vii used to select the factors that best represented the three constructs – global education, global citizenship, and global workforce. This was done to establish construct validity. Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Descriptive statistics and a hierarchical multiple regression were used for the demographics to establish their relationship, if any, to the findings. ^ Key findings of the study were that reliable and valid estimates can be developed for the instrument. The multiple regression analysis for model 1 and 2 accounted for a variance of 3% and 5% for self-perceptions of global awareness (factor 1). The regression model also accounted for a 5% and 13% variance in the two models for attitudes toward global social issues (factor 2). The demographics that were statistically significant were: ethnicity, gender, SES, parents’ education, listening to music, getting the news, speaking a second language, GPA, classes taken in the social sciences, and visiting other countries. An important finding for the study was those attending public schools (as opposed to private schools) had more positive attitudes towards global social issues (factor 2) The statistics indicated that these students had taken history, economics, and social studies – a curriculum infused with global perspectives.^

Teachers' experiences in and perceptions of their 12th-grade British literature classrooms

The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of 12th-grade literature teachers about curriculum, Post-Colonial literature, and students. Theories posed by Piaget (1995), Vygotsky (1995), and Rosenblatt (1995) formed the framework for this micro-ethnographic study. Seven teachers from public and private schools in South Florida participated in this two-phase study; three teachers in Phase I and four in Phase II. All participants completed individual semi-structured interviews and demographic surveys. In addition, four of the teachers were observed teaching. The analysis yielded three themes and two sub-themes: (a) knowledge concerned teachers' knowledge of British literature content and Post-Colonial authors and their literature; (b) freedom described teachers' freedom to choose how to teach their content. Included in this theme was dilemmas associated with 12th-grade classrooms which described issues that were pertinent to the 12th-grade teacher and classroom that were revealed by the study; and (c) thoughts about students described teachers' perceptions about students and how literature might affect the students. Two subthemes of knowledge were as follows:(1) text complexity described teacher responses to a Post-Colonial text's complexity and (2) student desirability/teachability described teachers' perception about how desirable Post-Colonial texts would be to students and whether teachers would be willing to teach these texts. The researcher offers recommendations for understanding factors associated with 12th-grade teachers perceptions and implications for enhancing the 12th-grade experience for teachers and curriculum, based on this study: (a) build teacher morale and capacity, (b) treat all students as integral components of the teaching and learning process; teachers in this study thought teaching disenfranchised learners was a form of punishment meted out by the administration, and (c) include more Post-Colonial authors in school curricula in colleges and schools as most teachers in this study did not study this type of literature nor knew how to teach it.

Understanding the cycle of violence: an examination of bully and victim social roles in early childhood

The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of bullying and victimization in a metropolitan area. A cross-sectional study with kindergarten (n = 127) and first grade (n = 126) children was conducted in two Miami-Dade County Public Schools and three private schools in the same area. Bullying and victimization behavior and social acceptance were assessed through peer nomination and the mental health outcomes of depression and anxiety were assessed through children's self-report. Teachers and parents also completed a social behavior scale for each child. Three areas of analyses were conducted pertaining to membership classification of social roles and the social acceptance and mental health outcomes associated with those roles, reporter agreement within the social roles, and the psychometric properties of the Childhood Social Behavior Scale. Results showed an overall negative pattern of adjustment for children identified as a member of any of the negative social roles. Also, the results support a new analytic approach to the investigation of social roles. The implication of these findings for early identification, social policy, and effective prevention strategies are discussed.

Metrópole digital: o jovem aprendiz na educação tecnológica

This thesis was elaborated in the scenario of Digital Metropolis Institute (IMD) – a supplementary unit at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in the training of personnel with technical and higher level courses whose technical level training is associated with a process of digital inclusion, with the purpose of attracting young people to this area, with emphasis on Software and Hardware Development. It aims to investigate the cognitive change of young apprentice on technological education and his/her entrance into the labor market, through the formation and the social inclusion proposed by the Instituto Metrópole Digital; understanding the juvenile subjectivity production through the Instituto Metrópole Digital’s education by performance in the labor market; recognizing the Brazilian professional qualification public policies for youth and identifying the role of Tutoring in the learning process during the course of formation of the young apprentice of the technological education proposed by the Instituto Metrópole Digital.The clipping of the object of investigation was the process of cognitive change and constitution of subjectivity of the young apprentice in information technology (IT) in the IMD. It was searched support in theory Freireana as proposal that problematizes the policies and the process of formation and professional qualification, in the perspective of a citizen and liberating consciousness. By qualitative and ethnographic nature, descriptive-explanatory, it counts with the participation of young people, high school students from public and private schools, aged between 15 and 18 years. There are strong aspects: a cognitive change on the young apprentice of technological education onto overdrive high school as the student of the Instituto Metrópole Digital; it happened the social integration for those who remain in the course, both in the neighborhood where they reside and at school where he attended high school, the young man is recognized and becomes reference to other young, favoring him a life projection which when the activities of mentoring is learning motivator, it exerts a positive influence to the young on the continuity of studies, it provides intellectual and institutional affiliation and continuity in the investments to the academic life for a better insertion in the labor market, which refers to the modification of the life project-invest in academic training, in exchange for a technical job in the labor market. There are weak aspects: the absence of professor in the course, in his most important role, which involves awareness of his/her condition in action, in explicit position that the professional practice constitutes as this constitution requires reciprocity of its students and the context in which it operates; fragile formation of mentoring, absence of dialogues in the classroom that favors the formation of subject learning, mainly in guiding action, mediator of the young; There is a lack of methodological proposal to develop real projects on the labor market with problem solving and collaborative learning. It considers that without converting information into knowledge cannot discern clearly enough that there is no direct causal relationship between Professional and technological Education and the level of employability of the young worker certificate. It suggests to the evasion: a greater knowledge of the reality of the student of the Institute Metropolis Digital; better knowledge of youth and their expectations of life project; the Tutoring will be Teacher-tutor; investing in employability conditions effective the young into the labor market.

Perfil desenvolvimental das funções executivas em crianças de 05 a 08 anos da cidade de Natal - RN

This study aimed to establish the developmental profile of executives components in typical child development. This is a correlational cross-sectional study of predominantly quantitative. The instruments for data collection are the subtests included in the NEPSY-II Attention and Executive Functioning domain. Eighty children between 5 and 8 years of age, of both genders, students from public and private schools in the city of Natal were evaluated. The sample was divided into six-month intervals for subsequent analysis of strategies and types of errors. Analysis of variance (univariate and multivariate) and Tukey and Games-Howell post hoc tests were conducted to verify the effect of age on test performance. Subsequent correlations indicate the strength and direction of the relationship between variables. Were identified two peaks of development in the six-month interval adopted for the skills of selective attention and inhibitory control. The results indicate that there’s no significant influence of sex and type of school on the performance of the sample. The performance of preschool children (5 and 6 years) was lower than the other subgroups in most tests. Highlights the role of autoregulation discourse among preschool children during activities of greater executive demand and the abstraction resource as a resolution strategy between the older. Were identified similar development trajectories among selective attention abilities and inhibitory control. In general, there is a decrease in the number of mistakes and increase of success with the age progression. Future longitudinal research can extend the age range encompassed in this study, investigating the developmental course of executive abilities.

Generosidade e cooperação de crianças monitoradas e não monitoradas: a interação entre a condição socioeconômica e o ambiente escolar

Studies have shown that a person's socioeconomic status (SES) and the environment in which they are inserted modulate their pro-sociality. While children studying in schools with a more affluent student body tend to be more generous, adults with high SES in both real and experimental situations tend to be more selfish, greedy and individualistic. Another factor that influences pro-sociality is monitoring. When we do something under the supervision of another person, we tend to be more generous and cooperative, compared to situations in which no one is watching, even if the "observer" is a drawing of eyes. This monitoring effect occurs in both adults and children. To date, no studies have investigated whether the SES and the environment influence the pro-sociality of the children. There have also been no studies on how the monitoring effect might be influenced by SES and the environment (in this case, whether the environment is a public or private school). Given this context, our main objective was to investigate whether the generosity and cooperation of monitored and unmonitored kids is modulated by these factors. To this end, we did eight matches of the public goods, under monitoring and control conditions, with 249 children from the ages of 7 to 10 years enrolled in public and private schools in Natal, state of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil). The SES of each child's family was assessed according to the Economic Classification Criterion of Brazil (2013). Contrary to our predictions, SES, school environment and experimental conditions did not significantly influence cooperation and generosity behavior when analyzed separately. We discuss whether the influences of resource and experimental design adopted for the current study and the historical and economic conditions of Brazil might explain these observations. Interestingly, when SES and school environment were analyzed together, an effect of monitoring on generosity and cooperation was detected. More specifically, monitoring had the effect of decreasing generosity among children with greater SES in private schools; and increased cooperation among children with greater SES in public schools. These results suggest that there is an influence of monitoring on the pro-sociality of children in relation to their SES and acquaintanceship environments. We argue that these observations may be explained by different preoccupations with reputation, according to the environment in which a child is inserted.

Rede de aprendizagem em robótica : uma perspectiva educativa de trabalho com jovens

The present research sought to comprehend what is the development perspective of a collective work of educational robotics with high school students. The work started from the development activities Mathematics Sub Project of PIBID (Programa Institucional de Bolsa de Iniciação à Docência, Institutional Program of Initiation to Teaching Scholarship) in a school network from the state of Minas Gerais. The production process of data of this research was done through the follow up of high school students that participated in workshops robotics at the mentioned public school and were selected to continue the project at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU). Subsequently, these students were involved in activities related to Robotics championships, elapsed through different spaces in public and private schools of basic education, University and Non-Governmental Organization. The data at the research were registered by photos, videos, field notes, documents produced by the participants and arising from internet like the social media Facebook, questionnaires and, mainly, interviews. At the analysis process of data the followed axes were constituted: Movement Learning Network with Robotics; The Different Roles at the Robotics Events and Experiences in Engineering and Technology. By this axes we understand what is the trajectory of the constitution process of a learning network in educational robotics that we find in expansion and consolidation. In this network the research participants performed different roles which left imprints responsible for their transformation. As a more evident imprint, we detected the robot construction and programming, which as for as they moved their studies forward, they developed the subject autonomy, collaboration, sharing and technological authorship.

AVALIAÇÃO INSTITUCIONAL NA EDUCAÇÃO BÁSICA: UMA ANÁLISE DA PRÁTICA DA EDUCAÇÃO ADVENTISTA

O tema desta dissertação é a Avaliação Institucional da Educação Básica. Para tal, faz-se a análise do processo de avaliação, com ênfase no instrumento utilizado pelas Escolas Adventistas de nível básico do estado de São Paulo, considerando que a educação adventista se tornou uma parte consistente dentro da estrutura da Igreja Adventista do Sétimo Dia. Procurou-se, neste trabalho, como objetivo geral, compreender como se configura a prática da avaliação institucional das escolas da Rede Adventista de Educação. O método da investigação incluiu análise bibliográfica dos principais teóricos da área de políticas públicas e do sistema privado bem como da avaliação institucional, seguido de exame documental do instrumento utilizado no processo de avaliação institucional. O estudo resgata a contextualização histórica do desenvolvimento da escola privada, destacando aspectos relevantes de sua relação com o Estado. Também apresenta brevemente a história da Igreja Adventista do Sétimo Dia (IASD) nos Estados Unidos (EUA) e no Brasil, de modo a situar o surgimento do sistema educacional adventista, bem como a sua filosofia de ensino, buscando conhecer as origens desse grupo religioso que há mais de um século atua no cenário educacional brasileiro. Em seguida, aborda aspectos da Avaliação Institucional. Finalmente, apresenta-se uma síntese do processo e uma descrição analítica do instrumento de avaliação institucional das escolas de nível básico da Educação Adventista. Na conclusão do trabalho, não se encontraram indícios de que o conceito adventista de avaliação educacional seja diferente do das abordagens tradicionais. Entretanto, na concepção adventista de avaliação, existe mais fortemente a preocupação de se manter um processo de avaliação contínuo e sistemático.

Information literacy: uma análise nas bibliotecas escolares da rede privada em Natal / RN

GUEDES, Clediane de Araújo; FARIAS, Gabriela Belmont de. Information literacy: uma análise nas bibliotecas escolares da rede privada em Natal / RN. Revista Digital de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação, Campinas, v. 4, n. 2, p. 110-133, jan./jun. 2007

Estado nutricional de escolares do semi-árido do nordeste brasileiro

SILVA, João B. da et al. Estado Nutricional de Escolares do Semi-Árido do Nordeste Brasileiro. Revista de Salud Pública, v. 11, n. 1, p. 62-71, 2009.

Prevalence of biomicroscopic findings in the anterior segment and ocular adnexa among schoolchildren in Natal/Brazil

Objective: To determine the prevalence of ocular findings of the external structures and anterior segment of the eye, detected by biomicroscopic examination in schoolchildren in Natal (RN) - Brazil. Methods: After previous random selection, 1,024 pupils from elementary and secondary public and private schools in the city of Natal were evaluated from March to June 2001. All were submitted to preestablished standard research norms, consisting of identification, demographic information, ophthalmologic biomicroscopic examination, with slit lamp, performed by ophthalmologists from the “Onofre Lopes” University Hospital. Results: Alterations of the conjunctival and palpebral conditions were the most prevalent (10.4% and 6.2% respectively). Follicles (4.2%) and papillae (3.0%) were the frequent conjunctival lesions, while blepharitis (3.5%) and meibomitis (1.1%) were the most detected abnormalities in the eyelids. Upon examining the cornea, iris, lens and anterior vitreous, the most encountered findings were nubecula (0.5%), papillary membrane reliquiae (0.5%), posterior capsula opacity (0.8%) and hyaloid arteria reliquiae (2.0%). Conclusion: The most prevalent findings affecting the external structures of the eye such as eyelids and conjunctiva, consisted of blepharitis followed by follicular reaction of the conjunctiva. The most prevalent abnormalities in the cornea, iris, lens and anterior vitreous were nubecula, papillary membrane reliquiae, posterior capsular opacity and hyaloid arteria reliquiae, in that order

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

Information literacy: uma análise nas bibliotecas escolares da rede privada em Natal / RN

GUEDES, Clediane de Araújo; FARIAS, Gabriela Belmont de. Information literacy: uma análise nas bibliotecas escolares da rede privada em Natal / RN. Revista Digital de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação, Campinas, v. 4, n. 2, p. 110-133, jan./jun. 2007

Disortografia

É significativo o número de alunos brasileiros que apresentam, em maior ou menor grau, problemas relacionados com a escrita, independentemente do seu ano de escolaridade ou formação. Dentro das salas de aulas essa é uma realidade que todos nós conhecemos. E por conhecer essa realidade é que reconhecemos que isto influencia de uma forma negativa a formação de nossos estudantes. Na verdade, se estas dificuldades não forem detetadas atempadamente, os custos serão enormes, quer em termos pessoais quer em termos sociais, já que essas dificuldades tendem a se manter na vida adulta. O papel do professor assume-se, deste modo, fundamental na identificação precoce destes casos e na adequação do processo de ensino-aprendizagem na senda do sucesso escolar. No entanto, não raras vezes o seu trabalho é dificultado ou pelo desconhecimento da problemática em questão ou pela falta de uma política educativa que, a nível dos gestores escolares, permita potenciar a sua atividade de docente. É neste contexto que surge o presente trabalho que tem por objetivo analisar as conceções e as práticas pedagógicas na área da disortografia. Para tanto, abordaremos o conceito de disortografia e suas implicações na leitura e escrita, com ênfase no último aspecto, já que a dificuldade se dá justamente na grafia. No sentido de melhor compreender a realidade de algumas escolas do ensino fundamental e médio do Brasil, foi conduzido um estudo exploratório, com recurso à técnica do questionário, tendo sido inquiridos 31 professores e 11 gestores de escolas públicas e privadas. Os resultados evidenciaram, entre outros aspetos, algum desconhecimento sobre disortografia bem como algumas divergências entre estes dois agentes educativos quanto às características desta perturbação e quanto às melhores estratégias e medidas educativas para crianças com este diagnóstico. Com base nestes resultados é proposto um esboço de um programa de intervenção junto da comunidade educativa.

Escolha profissional e o perfil dos acadêmicos de administração na modalidade a distância da FURG: um estudo comparativo

A atividade profissional é fundamental para a constituição do sujeito e reprodução da sociedade. Por outro lado, o processo de ensino-aprendizagem, na modalidade a distância, apresenta novos desafios e mudanças substanciais na maneira de se produzir conhecimento. Dessa forma, no presente estudo, analisaram-se dados socioeconômicos dos acadêmicos do curso de administração a distância da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, com o intuito de traçar seu perfil, fazendo uma análise comparativa com os alunos da modalidade presencial. Trata-se de um estudo quantitativo, no qual se utilizou o tratamento estatístico na análise dos dados, obtidos de questionário e fontes secundárias. Os resultados demonstram que os acadêmicos da modalidade a distância possuem uma média de idade superior à dos alunos do presencial, sendo 63% são responsáveis pelo próprio sustento. Além disso, apenas 11% são oriundos de escolas particulares, ao passo que 25%, no presencial, provêm dessas instituições. Mais de 50%, por sua vez, são filhos de pais com grau de instrução inferior ao ensino fundamental e 31% afirmaram que o fizeram basicamente por ser um curso virtual, indicando que a educação à distância, além de oferecer a possibilidade de qualificação profissional às mais distantes regiões do país, beneficia um público que está entre as camadas mais necessitadas da população.