Education for sustainability in construction management curricula

In response to the call for sustainability education in construction courses, higher education institutions have started to incorporate sustainability components into their construction courses to some extent. This research aims to investigate sustainability embedded in construction management (CM) courses using the Queensland University of Technology as a case study. A content analysis of its CM course structure, unit aims, learning objectives and lecture materials is conducted to examine the sustainability elements incorporated into the CM curriculum. The results show that the course incorporates sustainability components into the existing course structure mainly through horizontal integration, embedding sustainability into general units rather than as an add-on subject. Additionally, the sustainability topics embedded in the course cover a comparatively broad and balanced range of sustainability categories, i.e. background knowledge, policies and regulations, environmental issues, social issues and economic issues as well as technology and innovation, although social sustainability aspects need to be further strengthened. This research addresses the need for urgency in the development of an effective sustainability education framework for construction courses. It is expected that the findings from this study will facilitate the improvement of sustainability education in construction courses generally.

Preadolescents and Their Mothers as Oral Health-Promoting Actors : Non-biologic Determinants of Oral Health among Turkish and Finnish Preadolescents

Is oral health becoming a part of the global health culture? Oral health seems to turn out to be part of the global health culture, according to the findings of a thesis-research, Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki. The thesis is entitled as “Preadolescents and Their Mothers as Oral Health-Promoting Actors: Non-biologic Determinants of Oral Health among Turkish and Finnish Preadolescents.” The research was supervised by Prof.Murtomaa and led by Dr.A.Basak Cinar. It was conducted as a cross-sectional study of 611 Turkish and 223 Finnish school preadolescents in Istanbul and Helsinki, from the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, aged 10 to 12, based on self-administered and pre-tested health behavior questionnaires for them and their mothers as well as the youth’s oral health records. Clinically assessed dental status (DMFT) and self-reported oral health of Turkish preadolescents was significantly poorer than the Finns`. A similar association occurred for well-being measures (height and weight, self-esteem), but not for school performance. Turkish preadolescents were more dentally anxious and reported lower mean values of toothbrushing self-efficacy and dietary self-efficacy than did Finns. The Turks less frequently reported recommended oral health behaviors (twice daily or more toothbrushing, sweet consumption on 2 days or less/week, decreased between-meal sweet consumption) than did the Finns. Turkish mothers reported less frequently dental health as being above average and recommended oral health behaviors as well as regular dental visits. Their mean values for dental anxiety was higher and self-efficacy on implementation of twice-daily toothbrushing were lower than those of the Finnish. Despite these differences between the Turks and Finns, the associations found in common for all preadolescents, regardless of cultural differences and different oral health care systems, assessed for the first time in a holistic framework, were as follows: There seems to be interrelation between oral health and general-well being (body height-weight measures, school performance, and self-esteem) among preadolescents: • The body height was an explanatory factor for dental health, underlining the possible common life-course factors for dental health and general well-being. • Better school performance, high levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy were interrelated and they contributed to good oral health. • Good school performance was a common predictor for twice-daily toothbrushing. Self-efficacy and maternal modelling have significant role for maintenance and improvement of both oral- and general health- related behaviors. In addition, there is need for integration of self-efficacy based approaches to promote better oral health. • All preadolescents with high levels of self-efficacy were more likely to report more frequent twice-daily toothbrushing and less frequent sweet consumption. • All preadolescents were likely to imitate toothbrushing and sweet consumption behaviors of their mothers. • High levels of self-efficacy contributed to low dental anxiety in various patterns in both groups. As a conclusion: • Many health-detrimental behaviors arise from the school age years and are unlikely to change later. Schools have powerful influences on children’s development and well-being. Therefore, oral health promotion in schools should be integrated into general health promotion, school curricula, and other activities. • Health promotion messages should be reinforced in schools, enabling children and their families to develop lifelong sustainable positive health-related skills (self-esteem, self-efficacy) and behaviors. • Placing more emphasis on behavioral sciences, preventive approaches, and community-based education during undergraduate studies should encourage social responsibility and health-promoting roles among dentists. Attempts to increase general well-being and to reduce oral health inequalities among preadolescents will remain unsuccessful if the individual factors, as well as maternal and societal influences, are not considered by psycho-social holistic approaches.

A Success Story or a Failure? : Representing the European Integration in the Curricula and Textbooks of Five Countries

The economic, political and social face of Europe has been changing rapidly in the past decades. These changes are unique in the history of Europe, but not without challenges for the nation states. The support for the European integration varies among the countries. In order to understand why certain developments or changes are perceived as threatening or as desired by different member countries, we must consider the social representations of the European integration on the national level: how the EU is represented to its citizens in media and in educational systems, particularly in the curricula and textbooks. The current study is concerned with the social representations of the European integration in the curricula and school textbooks in five European countries: France, Britain, Germany, Finland and Sweden. Besides that, the first volume of the common Franco-German history textbook was analyzed, since it has been seen as a model for a common European history textbook. As the collective representations, values and identities are dominantly mediated and imposed through media and educational systems, the national curricula and textbooks make an interesting starting point for the study of the European integration and of national and European identities. The social representations theory provides a comprehensive framework for the study of the European integration. By analyzing the curricula and history and civics textbooks of major educational publishers, the study aimed to demonstrate what is written on the European integration and how it is portrayed how the European integration is understood, made familiar and concretized in the educational context in the five European countries. To grasp the phenomenon of the European integration in the textbooks in its entirety, it was investigated from various perspectives. The two analysis methods of content analysis, the automatic analysis with ALCESTE and a more qualitative theory-driven content analysis, were carried out to give a more vivid and multifaceted picture of the object of the research. The analysis of the text was complemented with the analysis of visual material. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative methods, the contents, processes, visual images, transformations and structures of the social representations of European integration, as well as the communicative styles of the textbooks were examined. This study showed the divergent social representations of the European integration, anchored in the nation states, in the five member countries of the European Union. The social representations were constructed around different central core elements: French Europe in the French textbooks, Ambivalent Europe in the British textbooks, Influential and Unifying EU in the German textbooks, Enabling and Threatening EU in the Finnish textbooks, Sceptical EU in the Swedish textbooks and EU as a World Model in the Franco-German textbook. Some elements of the representations were shared by all countries such as peace and economic aspects of the European cooperation, whereas other elements of representations were found more frequently in some countries than in others, such as ideological, threatening or social components of the phenomenon European integration. The study also demonstrated the linkage between social representations of the EU and national and European identities. The findings of this study are applicable to the study of the European integration, to the study of education, as well as to the social representation theory.

Nature of chemistry in the national frame curricula for upper secondary education in Finland, Norway and Sweden

The aim of this study was to discover how current chemistry syllabi in the frame curricula for up- per secondary education in three Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, and Sweden) take into account topics related to the nature of chemistry. By qualitative content analysis, the statements related to the nature of chemistry were divided into categories. Conclusions and implications for improving the frame curricula under study were made by comparing results with research into the nature of science. Chemistry syllabi from the Nordic frame curricula analyzed take into account the aims related to the nature of chemistry in a very similar manner. The ideas that should be made more explicit in all of the analyzed curricula are: i) the limits of the chemical models and theories, ii) the relationship between chemistry and other natural sciences, iii) the importance of creativity in chemical research, iv) the concepts of evidence in science texts, v) the social nature of chemical research, and vi) chemistry as a technological practice.

Praticantes de mundos: a invenção de cotidianos discentes em uma universidade

A presente pesquisa pretendeu discutir a importância de se oferecer atenção às inventivas redes relacionais discentes construídas no cotidiano da Universidade Federal de Viçosa/MG (UFV); sendo essas redes entendidas como produtoras de diferentes currículos e conhecimentos não institucionalizados na universidade. Assim, a partir da análise da construção de um grupo estudantil de diversidade sexual chamado Primavera nos Dentes, buscou-se cartografar diferentes modos de subjetivação da experiência discente que transversalizava aquele grupo e, por conseguinte, os enovelamentos políticos, sociais e desejantes com os quais o Primavera se cumpliciava. Tais cumplicidades se tornaram indicadoras da existência de uma vida estudantil plural que estava urdida em universos de sentido que não se restringiam apenas ao estudo das sexualidades. Acompanhado, portanto, a partir de suas interseções e seus contágios com diferentes processos grupais, encontramos que as dinâmicas do grupo Primavera nos Dentes construíam ramificações e conflitos que se estendiam ao Movimento Estudantil, a proposições político-partidárias, a orientações religiosas, a movimentos sociais diversos (como o MST, a Marcha Mundial das Mulheres, o Movimentos dos Atingidos por Barragens) que postulavam diferentes propostas revolucionárias para a universidade e para sociedade em geral. Assim, ao acompanhar as dinâmicas de um grupo pontual, invisível e institucionalmente frágil como o Primavera nos Dentes, fomos apresentados a redes de relações (geralmente ignoradas pela Administração Superior da universidade) que fomentavam outros conhecimentos e que também interferiam nos modos como os estudantes nelas envolvidos praticavam não apenas a UFV, mas também suas próprias vidas fora da instituição.

A formação de docentesdiscentes atravessada pelas imagens de professores no cinema como questão curricular.

Compreendendo as imagens e as narrativas como personagens conceituais (DELEUZE, GUATTARI, 1992), neste trabalho, desenvolvi temáticas presentes ou estimuladas com os filmes com personagens de professores e cotidianos escolares. Exibições de filmes, seguidos de conversas entre estudantes do curso de Pedagogia presencial da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (campus Maracanã) permitiram a produção do corpus dessa pesquisa, que buscou mapear os mundos culturais, as redes de conhecimentos e significações tecidas por esses estudantes. Assim, as conversas têm sido uma importante metodologia nas pesquisas nos/dos/com os cotidianos, porque segundo Alves (2012), são através delas que trocamos saberesfazeres nos mais variados cotidianos. Contando também com Certeau (1994, 2009), Giard (2009), Maturana (2001, 1998), entre outros, busquei compreender como os cotidianos são organizados através da oralidade, pois na perspectiva de Certeau, Alves e Garcia mapear as ações sujeitas ao esfarelamento, como são características das táticas (CERTEAU, 1994) dos praticantespensantes (OLIVEIRA, 2012) só é possível através das narrativas. Assim, as imagens do cinema permitiram as vivências mais variadas, mostrando sua potência em proporcionar aproximações com situações inusitadas para muitos espectadores, ou ainda, situações de espaçostempos distantes. Os teóricos com quem busquei dialogar acerca dos usos e consumos de imagens audiovisuais foram Machado (2001, 2007), Barbero (2000, 2007) e Deleuze (2005) apostando que intrínseco a esses consumos estariam também implícitos suas subversões e processos formativos. Impactante tornou-se para o grupo envolvido na pesquisa, foi o entendimento dos clichês como potência para o pensamento. Assim, recorrer às imagens dos filmes foi uma forma de abordar as questões que atravessam o chão das escolas e cursos de formação de professores, uma vez que surgiram temáticas tocantes aos cotidianos escolares e saberesfazeres pedagógicos, além daqueles mostrados pelos filmes. Assim, diversas temáticas surgiram entre cinco principais eixos, em torno das relações: entre os docentes e autoridades; entre os discentes; entre os discentes e os docentes; entre os docentes; e os usos dos artefatos culturais e tecnológicos. Todas essas questões envolveram os currículos como sendo tecidos em redes de significações e conhecimentos a partir das compreensões de Alves (2010, 2012a), Carvalho (2012) e Castells (2013). As diferenças que encontramos nos diversos espaçostempos, foram abordadas a partir da presença dos praticantespensantes de várias religiões nas escolas, desenvolvidas com as pesquisas de Caputo (2012), acerca das diferenças nas relações cotidianas entre discentes e docentes, com os trabalhos de Hall (2012), Silva (2012) e Gilroy(2001), pude abordar as tessituras identitárias. Além disso, as pesquisas de Nóvoa (1995), Teixeira (2008) e Müller (2008) foram pertinentes para a compreensão da formação do corpo docente brasileiro e seus atravessamentos de características de cor e gênero. Assim, nesse trabalho, desenvolvo a ideia de que as diferenças nos cotidianos potencializam e ampliam as redes de conhecimentos e significações, bem como os currículos praticadospensados (OLIVEIRA, 2012) nas escolas.