Nurturing bilingual learners: challenges and concerns in Singapore

Singapore’s bilingual policy legitimises English not only as the language of governmental administration and interethnic communication, but also as the medium of instruction in all schools on all levels and across all subjects except mother tongues (MTs). As a result of these politics of language recognition, a visible shift has occurred in all ethnic groups away from MTs towards English. To rectify the language shift situation, the government has emphasised that developing bilingualism and raising bilingual children should begin in preschools. In this paper, we examine two top-down official documents: Review of Mother Tongue Languages Report, issued in 2011, and Nurturing Early Learners Framework for Mother Tongue Languages, developed in 2013. Attempting to identify some of the complex factors that influence language shift, we present an intertextual analysis of the Report and the curriculum Framework. In doing so, we compare the consistencies and locate the implicit inconsistencies in the policy position on bilingual education in preschools. We conclude the article by outlining the implications for changing the current bilingual educational models and providing teacher training programmes that maximise the learning opportunities of young bilingual learners.

"She was a Bitch" : A Socio-Educational Perspective on Motivation for Learning English.

AbstractThis degree project focuses motivation for learning English among a group of Swedish uppersecondary school students. By employing a socio-educational perspective, some vital factorsbehind a strong motivation for learning English in school are investigated through individualinterviews. Components in the past, heralding either a high level of motivation for English or a low such, are primarily focused. Moreover, essential socio-educational factors behind managing to achieve grades in English despite a low level of motivation and various impediments, such as severe socio-psychological adversities, are looked into. While motivation for English is emphasized as a critical factor, in accordance with socio-educational motivation theory, the study also stresses the importance of a positive first encounter with the English language, a satisfying English teacher-student relationship, and a sense of success in the English classroom. But above all, the study stresses a need for early tests among young students for reading disabilities, which according to this study often go undetected and thus severely impede any kind of second language learning and motivation.

Degree projects improving co-operation between the teacher education program and schools : - Swedish experiences

In 1977, when teacher education inSwedenwas incorporated into the university system, the main reason was to transform it into an academic tradition. Now, nearly 30 years later, there is still tension between the academic and the vocational tradition; they show up as different and separated elements in a program that is meant to prepare students for a career as a teacher and for a possible future career as a researcher in this field. This tension gives rise to a risk of allowing parallel “tracks” to develop and of isolating the degree thesis work from other courses. On the teacher-training program in which we are involved, close co-operation with partner-schools, where the practical part of the program takes place, has been established. Here, the students´ degree theses are an important factor in making this co-operation work on a concrete level. Accordingly, the purpose of the degree thesis is both to reflect problems in schools and contribute to better teaching in the individual school, but also to offer relevant educational subject matter to the students, which may be adapted as an element in the university’s research environments. From these points of view, the degree thesis is an important part of teacher education and rather more than just a single course. The degree thesis should be an element that gives the students an opportunity to show that they have reached central goals in the teacher education program. It should also be an integral part in the development of critical and scholarly thinking, deepening pedagogical and didactic knowledge and giving the students an opportunity to apply research methods. We will here use two minor case studies: one that compares teacher education programs in five Swedish universities and one minor study at one of those universities, in order to elaborate on the questions: - What purpose has a degree thesis and what role does it play in teacher education? - What criteria are relevant to assessing a degree thesis and what qualities do the degree theses have? - Is it possible to assess a degree thesis fairly and what happens to students who do not pass? - How could the degree thesis be used to improve the contact between the teacher education program and its partner schools in order to contribute to the development of the individual school?

Tramas do impedimento: os sentidos da desistência entre Alfabetizandos da EJA

For young people and adults that have not yet conquered reading and writing, being literate is the most important thing in life , a dream . Scholarly learning for them is like hegemonic knowledge in contemporary literate society. Thus, for them to get into school is to be able to have such knowledge and, through it, feel inserted into this society. However, along this process of learning, they start to drop out, little by little, statistically increasing the number of people who give up on young people and adult education Eja, as well as slowly reducing the contingent of illiteracy in the country. With this reality as a starting point, we question the concrete and symbolic reasons or motives that lead to a dropping out of the literacy classes at Eja. To do so, we have established, as the object of our study, the feelings of giving up among those involved in young people and adult literacy training. To understand such feelings is our purpose in this investigation. The theory of Social Representations (MOSCOVICI, 1978, 2004) was the theoretical-methodological option for subsidizing data search, analyses and interpretation, making us perceive the significance of the object of this study for these individuals. The gathering of such symbolic content involved the use of semi-structured interviews with eleven drop-outs and ten students who had repeated this modality of teaching in public schools in Natal, RN, during the 2006 school year. From the thematic and categorical analyses (BARDIN, 1977), we identified elements that gave support to some themes. Later, these themes led to three categories, suggesting that feelings associated with dropping out were based on the following: learning difficulties because they did not understand the contents; having their lack of knowledge exposed, thus bringing forth feelings of shame, humiliation, and embarrassment for not knowing how to read and write at a mature age; work, tiredness and sickness. The students who manage to remain in school are those who force themselves to live with the feelings of maladaptation and those who develop a sense of adaptation the other way round to the institution, that is, acceptance of institutional failures and omissions

As condições de trabalho e a satisfação profissional: dimensões do profissionalismo docente no ensino médio

The dissertation is developed in the Research Base of Teacher Training and Professionalization of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte as a way to discuss the professionalization of High School teachers in Natal. It is a study linked to the research The context of teaching practice and professionalism: the case of high school teachers and sponsored by CNPq, with the objective of characterizing working conditions and job satisfaction as dimensions to the teacher professionalism in high schools. In this study we prioritized the focus on professionalization in national and international discussions, which combines the aspects of teaching in its historical, social, political and economical path, in order to reflect about its evolutional elements in the hierarchy of professions and establish a relation to high school teaching. To develop this relation we elaborated some questions that are considered relevant, such as: How does the high school teacher evaluate his/her working conditions to his/her professional practice? What level of satisfaction does the high school teacher have regarding his/her professional practice? What expectations does the high school teacher have in relation to his/her professional development? The answers to those questions were according to the high school teachers considerations shown in the questionnaire, which was structured with open and closed questions. These questions gave better adequacy to the teachers evaluations about their working place and the situations they experience in their working conditions, provoking job satisfaction and expectations for professional growth. The description of the teachers perception about working conditions, job satisfaction and expectation of professional development can explain the distinct factors that characterize these categories in the working context, although the conclusive results, in general, do not show a direct relationship between the categories studied. Some factors that teachers attribute as causes of bigger difficulties in working conditions and work activity itself are: working time, salary, professional status, school s infrastructure, and school s social context. These factors are similarly related to the degree of job satisfaction, without showing interference in the professional expectations

Estágio Supervisionado na formação de professores em serviço dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

This report aims to present the results of research on the possibilities and limits of Supervised Traineeship in a the course of Training of Teachers in Service of the early years of primary education conducted through an agreement between the Federal University of Piauí and the Teresina city council (PI) UFPI/PMT, offers subsidies to teaching practices that address the reality of students who live, work and/or studying in school located in rural areas. The research is based on a theoretical and methodological approach that places the object of study in the critical perspective and using procedures such as: literature (bibliographical research), documentary analysis, semi-structured interview and photographic record. We researched 10 (ten) teachers of the course promoted by UFPI graduating in 2006 and who develop teaching activities in schools located in rural areas in the city of Teresina-PI, 02 (two) teachers who are trainee supervisor of UFPI and the coordinator of the course. The analysis evidenced that the object, historically, educational policies have changed, but did not break the traditional patterns of teacher education, enough, especially in the curricular proposals in light of the changes required by the information and global society. We also note that in the supervised training, the process of critical reflection on teaching practice was made possible, in part, and raised the reconstruction of specific knowledge to make teaching in order to conduct the teaching-learning process articulating different realities of primary teaching and facing situations due to conservative practices in relation to education in rural areas. It contributed, therefore, this curricular component to resize, in part, the pedagogical action of the teachers graduated. The study also drives the research toward to similar studies in the perspective of overcoming the current model of teacher training that does not correspond to the demands of society in change and to the crisis of capital, with immeasurable consequences in the workplace. The contemporary claims for a University to form professionals capable of directing the destiny of society, where teacher training is a social and political demands on which is co-responsible

Uma visão local de um projeto nacional: o curso mídias na educação

The essay "A local view of a national project: the course in Media Education" presents a research aimed at analyzing how the course Media in Education is being implemented by both Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and State University of Rio Grande do Norte, with the intention of pointing out weaknesses in its use, which should be resolved in order to contribute to the design of other courses along these lines. Therefore, we performed a survey in which data collection, have used open questionnaires available in online pages created specifically for this purpose and administered to alumni and former participants, course participants and tutors from the two universities involved in the research. Through these questionnaires, we identified, especially, those aspects that negatively affect the provision of course related to the student's profile, the virtual learning environment where the course is hosted, the meetings, the contents and activities, the mentoring and the dropout, and the changes to improve the implementation of the course. The research collaborators are professors of public basic education. To understand the continuing education of teachers, conducted through distance education, using the virtual learning environment, we contextualize this from the nineties, in the context of the Brazilian educational reform took place in that decade. The Media in Education course is presented as a different proposition because it allows teachers to follow different pathways, materialized in the learning cycle. At the end of the study, we conclude that the implementation of this course, of the RN, the conditions for dialogue to happen, specifically, are not given

Educação a distância e material didático: um estudo sobre o curso mídias na educação

The thesis Distance learning and didactic material: a study about the course Media in the education in Natal shows a research about the didactic material and its insertion in the distance training course to teachers. In this sense, this research aims to contribute to some universities with reflections about the way to elaborate the didactic material to the distance training course of teachers with the following specific objectives: a) identify some aspects in the didactic material in the extension course Media in the Education that difficult media usage by the teachers members of the course in the pedagogical practice; b) discuss about the way how didactic material to the distance training course to teachers has been created; c) stimulate teachers/members to integrate media in their teacher practice. For that reason, we have developed an action-research (THIOLLENT, 2011; FRANCO, 2005), based on it we elaborated a proposal do complement activities to the course Media in the Education that were applied to two classes during the fifth edition of this course. This research is presented in four steps: 1st) analyze of the course modules; 2nd) creation of a proposal to complement the activities; 3rd) applying the proposal to the students during the fifth edition to the course; 4th) analyze of forums and log books written by teachers/students. Data was analyzed by the contents perspective of Bardin (2011). As a theoretical support, we have Tardif (2012), about teachers knowledge; Dewey (1959; 2011) and Freire (2001; 2009; 2010a; 2010b; 2012) related to learning perspective; Candau (2002), Rays (2003) and Freire (2010a), about the relation theory x practice in the teacher training; Andrade (2003; 2009) and Belloni (2010) about distance teacher training; Bérvot; Belloni (2009), Neves; Medeiros (2005) and Prado (2005), related to Media integration. This research revealed the didactic material of the course Media in the Education has not a proposal to articulate theory and practice, due to this, this course opposed the Media integration. For that reason, teachers/members have real problems to integrate Media in their scholar routine. This research confirmed the way this didactic material was formulated did not help the teachers/students to integrate media in their pedagogical activities

O estágio supervisionado como contexto de formação docente específica para educação infantil: o que dizem os formandos sobre suas aprendizagens?

Kindergarten teachers training gains the spotlight with the passing of Law number 9.394/96 (Guidelines and Basis Law) that defines this segment as the initial step of basic education, with pedagogical function. In this spectrum, the discussion about teacher training unravels to ensure social quality to education as well as the teacher s specificities towards child singularities. Adding to that, the growing propagation of Pedagogy in an undergraduate level, given that such course has been continually transformed by the National Curriculum Guidelines for Pedagogy (2006), highlighting the addition of curriculum components that are specific to upbringing. The complex debate circa kindergarten teachers training has advancements and hardships that need to be unveiled in order to improve both formation and social quality of education in the 0- 5 years old range. This investigation inserts itself in said context and aims to analyze which knowledge, specific to kindergarten teaching are constructed, according to undergraduate trainees, in Pedagogy s supervised internship. The study was conducted alongside the discipline: Supervised Internship in Child Education ministered by the Advanced Campus of Rio Grande do Norte s State University s in the municipality of Patu-RN (CAP-UERN-Patu) and was conducted through 2012 by accompanying four undergraduate interns. We first assumed that the development of teaching knowledge is a complex process of appropriation of cultural-social practices and is symbolically mediated by interactions that occur in the formation context, and the supervised internship can be understood as a space for the articulation and enlargement of theoretical and practical knowledge, directly related to the specificities of child education. The theoretical-methodological foundation was based upon the historiccultural approach of L. S. Vygotsky and M. Bakhtin s dialogism on human sciences research, as well as his postulates on learning and developmental processes, conceived as both essentially social and discursive. The investigation approached the principles of the qualitative perspective and to the construction and analysis of data, involved documental analysis and, specially, semi-structured interviews, both individual and collective, whose fundamental premise was the production-comprehension of meanings in a dialogical perspective. The participants texts/speeches produced a synthesis that points to the occurrence, within the supervised internship at CAP/UERN, of internalization/appropriation processes and, as such, of formulation of meanings that are pertinent to child education: child, childhood, kindergarten and teacher signification and this stage s specific teaching knowledge. It stood out that the internship, alongside other curriculum components, is, in fact, one of the primeval formation environment for the teachers, in which the interns interact with their colleagues, supervisor professor, collaborator professor, and of course, the children to construct their erudition. Such interactions allow the undergraduate interns to develop attitudes and procedures to reflect on what they know, what they ve done and what they can achieve. We have concluded that the undergraduate internship can constitute itself as an articulatorconsolidator environment in the future teacher s formation process and, since well oriented, can provide the effective initiation, not only to the practice, but to the praxis as a movement of non dissociability between theory and practice

Acompanhamento do memorial de formação: entre formar e formar-se

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

As Ciências Espaciais, o saber e o fazer docente no ensino fundamental

This study aims to include topics related to Space Science in elementary education from an experiment that aims to rescue the science teachers in public schools of São Tomé, RN, a taste for experimentation and exploration of advanced technologies. During this research with teachers found that they knew enough about the subject, but this knowledge was restricted to the events disclosed by the media. Regarding scientific knowledge, that same surface, they had many conceptual difficulties which hindered the approach of these topics in their classes. To overcome this difficulty, a workshop was held where teachers had the opportunity to discuss the historical aspect of Space Science, some physical concepts related to it, and the conduct of experiments with PET bottle rockets that recover from the curiosity typical of how the science. The results were outlined in the form of Planning Didactic built by teachers and using themes related to space science, from there, discussing content already provided in the composition of the schools curriculum. Therefore, this work allowed the teachers a minimum training required for them to not only reproduce, but readjusted and build, from this, their own paths in the classroom at the fundamental level

A estratégia didática de resolução de problemas na formação de professores de química

In this work it is presented a research developed in the initial training of teachers of the chemistry graduation course at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The intervention was realized in two classes in the context of a discipline in the curricular structure with nineteen undergraduate students of chemistry. The study utilizes characteristics of the qualitative approach and uses observation, questionnaires, interviews and examination papers. The experiment involved a sequence of activities fundamented on the Problem Solving (PS) teaching strategy to approach chemical concepts. The proposal was planned and organized according to the theoretical presupposition of the work developed by the authors of the Science Education in PS, of teaching experience and from the initial hypotheses of the research. The goal was that the future teachers could experience the strategy and advance to the new meanings. The themes addressed in the activities were the difference between exercises and problems, exercises turning into problems, the steps of problem solving and some implications of the teaching strategy for the work of the teacher. The results showed evidence that through a process of collective reflection, and from the difficulties experienced in the strategy practice, the undergraduates are introduced to new perspectives of reflection and action of teaching practice, and understanding some benefits of innovative proposals for the teaching of chemistry. It also showed that, although this theme is approached, in some moments of the graduation, the future teachers don‟t know when or how to realize activities in this perspective. From the aspects that rose in research we highlighted the difficulties in the problem solving steps, the use of the strategy in school and the knowledge and skills of the teacher for planning activities in Problem Solving

Ensinando sobre a natureza da ciência: uma abordagem explícita e contextualizada a partir da história do vácuo

In last decades, the importance of including the contents of the Nature of Science (NOS) in Science Education has been emphasized. Several studies have focused on investigating the conceptions of NOS, supported by students and teachers, as well as design, implement and evaluate proposals that aim to provide a reflection on this theme in the educational context. Considering the complexity of such content, studies indicate the need for explicit and contextualized approaches and the History of Science (HS) is one of the possible paths to this inclusion. We started from the premise that, through a historical study, that aims to discuss the meaning and the basis of our "beliefs", we can know the process of building on what we "believe" and better understand its meaning. This thesis is part of this perspective, proposing to explore the History of the Vacuum, a themed high didactic potential still little used, in order to collaborate with the teaching content of NOS. We present actions on different fronts that originated three products in the context of this research. On the first front, we insert the research and production of instructional materials (three historical texts) to subsidize people interested in the implementation of HPS for educational context through this material. The relevance of this front is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the production of such material for the context of teacher training. However, we consider that the preparation of instructional material of good quality and accessible does not guarantee that these resources will be used, if they will not be accompanied by discussions in teacher training, on how to use them, contexts and obstacles to be faced. The second part presented refers to the organization and implementation of a workshop for undergraduate students in physics and physics teachers, considering the instrumentalization of these individuals to the preparation and use of teaching strategies to approach aspects of NOS through episodes of History of the Vacuum, as well as the preparation of the text orientation for people interested in implementing the instructional material for secondary education. This guidance text contemplates the difficulties anticipated by the literature of the area and the main challenges faced by the participants about the didactic transposition of HPS for the educational context they were noted during the workshop. The relevance of this second front, in particular, is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the inclusion of the theme of NOS and the HPS teacher training