Influence of education and depressive symptoms on cognitive function in the elderly

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence that education and depression have on the performance of elderly people in neuropsychological tests. Methods: The study was conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine, Hospital das Clinicas. All of the individuals evaluated were aged 60 or older. The study sample consisted of 59 outpatients with depressive disorders and 51 healthy controls. We stratified the sample by level of education: low = 1-4 years of schooling; high = 5 or more years of schooling. Evaluations consisted of psychiatric assessment, cognitive assessment, laboratory tests and cerebral magnetic resonance imaging. Results: We found that level of education influenced all the measures of cognitive domains investigated (intellectual efficiency, processing speed, attention, executive function and memory) except the Digit Span Forward and Fuld Object Memory Evaluation (immediate and delayed recall), whereas depressive symptoms influenced some measures of memory, attention, executive function and processing speed. Although the combination of a low level of education and depression had a significant negative influence on Stroop Test part B, Trail Making Test part B and Logical Memory (immediate recall), we found no other significant effects of the interaction between level of education and depression. Conclusion: The results of this study underscore the importance of considering the level of education in the analysis of cognitive performance in depressed elderly patients, as well as the relevance of developing new cognitive function tests in which level of education has a reduced impact on the results.

Vídeo-aula de história da matemática: uma possibilidade didática para o ensino de matemática

In this work we are disagreeing with the possibility of production and of the use of video-class for the disciplines of history of mathematics by the teachers of elementary e middle school as a way to contribute to the development of their classes. Our goal is to provide to the mathematics teachers the option of connecting social, scientific, cognitive, and didactic aspects of topics in math thoughts to their students. That shall be based in the presence of mathematics in the history of humanity. Thus, we consider possible that teachers and their students can link and relate mathematics to other sciences, education culture, and reflect about the many ways of represent them, as well as the patters of organization of nature and of culture. In this way, they shall be able to observe and interpret situations that involve mathematical questions associated to the various means of historic-epistemological studies already done by other researchers and scholars in the field of history of mathematics who works in creating video-classes. In addition to that, we can use all the available media in order to give edifying dynamics to the mathematical formulations established throughout history. In this sense, we are based and focused on the objectives, which are sustained by educational computer technology, techniques for video making, as well as mathematical teaching proposals and the historical inquiring made by Mendes (2001, 2009a, 2009b). The validating experimentation allowed us to conclude that the techniques we used in the production of the history of mathematics video-classes proved they to be valid ones. They are able to be executed with the minimum of technological resources. In addition, they have the same efficacy as far as classroom use

DIFFERENT MEDIA, DIFFERENT TYPES OF COLLECTIVE WORK IN ONLINE CONTINUING TEACHER EDUCATION: WOULD YOU PASS THE PEN, PLEASE?

This paper presents some findings regarding the interaction between different computer interfaces and different types of collective work. We want to claim that design in online learning environments has a paramount role in the type of collaboration that happens among participants. In this paper, we report on data that illustrate how teachers can collaborate online in order to learn how to use geometry software in teaching activities. A virtual environment which allows that construction to be carried out collectively, even if the participants are not sharing a classroom, is the setting for the research presented in this paper.

Phenomenological perspective on mathematics education

This is a philosophical essay on a phenomenological way to understand and to work out Mathematics Education. Its philosophical grounding is the Husserlian work, focusing on its key word "going to the things themselves" in order to keep us away from the theoretical educational truth, took as the unique one. We assume the attitude of being on the life-world with the students and Mathematics as a field of research and practice that show and express themselves through lived experiences and through language. We assume to be in search of understanding of education, learning and Mathematics, as we take care, consciously, of what we are doing and saying in the same movement of saying and doing it.