Establishing common elements among some science education references as a resource to design a Didactics of Physics program for teachers initial education

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Review of Native Americans in the School System: Family, Community, and Academic Achievement by Carol J. Ward

The title of this volume promises more than the content delivers. The heart of the book is information from Ward's 1992 University of Chicago doctoral dissertation, which focused on the social and cultural reasons leading to students dropping out of school. Her first two chapters provide a good review of research on dropouts and Indian education; the following six focus on the results of her 1987-1989 study of 698 Northern Cheyenne, Crow, and white high school students attending the Colstrip Public, St. Labre Catholic, and Busby Tribal Schools in Montana. Fifty-two percent of the students in this study were Indian, with a dropout rate of 45% .

The Use of Think-Aloud Strategies to Solve Word Problems

In this action research study of my sixth grade mathematics class, I investigated how students’ use of think-aloud strategies impacts their success in solving word problems. My research reveals that the use of think-aloud strategies can play an important role in the students’ abilities to understand and solve word problems. Direct instruction and modeling of think-aloud strategies increased my students’ confidence levels and the likelihood that they would use the strategies on their own. Providing students with a template to use as they solve a word problem helps students to better focus in on the think-aloud strategies I had been modeling for them.

The Importance of Teaching Students How to Read to Comprehend Mathematical Language

In this action research study of my classroom of 8th and 9th grade Algebra I students, I investigated if there are any benefits for the students in my class to learn how to read, translate, use, and understand the mathematical language found daily in their math lessons. I discovered that daily use and practice of the mathematical language in both written and verbal form, by not only me but by my students as well, improved their understanding of the textbook instructions, increased their vocabulary and also increased their understanding of their math lessons. I also found that my students remembered the mathematical material better with constant use of mathematical language and terms. As a result of this research, I plan to continue stressing the use of mathematical language and vocabulary in my classroom and will try to develop new ways to help students to read, understand, and remember mathematical language they find daily in their textbooks.

The Effects Improving Student Discourse Has on Learning Mathematics

In this action research study of my 8th grade mathematics classroom, I investigated how improving student discourse affects learning mathematics. I conducted this study because I wanted to give students more opportunities to develop and share their ideas with their peers as well as with me. My idea was to create a learning environment that encouraged students to voice their opinions. In order to do so, I needed to reassure and model with my students that they were in a classroom where it was safe to take risks, and they should feel comfortable sharing their ideas. By facilitating activities for students to complete in groups, asking students to prepare work to share with the class, and offering more opportunities for students to work with each other on discovering and exploring math skills being presented, I set the tone for abundant student discourse to take place in the mathematics classroom. I discovered that students became more comfortable with math skills the more opportunities they had to discuss the ideas in various settings. I also found that as the study went on, students discovered the importance of being able to share their mathematical ideas and valued the ability to verbalize their thoughts with others. As a result of this study, I plan to continue offering many opportunities for students to work in groups as well as to share their ideas with the class.

The Use of Vocabulary in an Eighth Grade Mathematics Classroom: Improving Usage of Mathematics Vocabulary in Oral and Written Communication

In this action research study of my mathematics classroom of eighth grade students, I investigated the use of mathematics vocabulary by focusing on improving the usage of this vocabulary in both oral and written communication. I discovered oral communication tended to show more improvements compared to written communication done by the same group of students. As a result of this research, I plan to continue to focus my teaching on the use of mathematics vocabulary in an effort to help my students gain a greater understanding of the daily use of that vocabulary.

The Importance of Vocabulary Instruction in Everyday Mathematics

In this action research study of my 6th grade math students I try to answer the question of how mathematical vocabulary plays an integral role in the understanding and learning of middle level mathematics. It is my belief that mathematics is a language, and to be fluent in that language one must be able to use and understand vocabulary. With the use of vocabulary quizzes and mathematically-centered vocabulary activities, student scores and understanding of math concepts can be increased. I discovered that many of the students had never been exposed to consistent mathematical terminology in their elementary education, which led many to an unfavorable impression of math. As a result of my research, I plan to incorporate vocabulary as a regular part of my mathematical teaching. As the students understood the language of math, their confidence, attitudes, and scores all began to improve.

The Role of Manipulatives in the Eighth Grade Mathematics Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of eighth grade mathematics, I investigated the use of manipulatives and its impact on student attitude and understanding. I discovered that overall, students enjoy using manipulatives, not necessarily for the benefit of learning, but because it actively engages them in each lesson. I also found that students did perform better on exams when students were asked to solve problems using manipulatives in place of formal written representations of situations. In the course of this investigation, I also uncovered that student attitude toward mathematics improved when greater manipulative use was infused into the lessons. Students felt more confident that they understood the material, which translated into a better attitude regarding math class. As a result of this research, I plan to find ways to implement manipulatives in my teaching on a more regular basis. I intend to create lessons with manipulatives that will engage both hands and minds for the learners.

Limitations in activities of people affected by leprosy after completing multidrug therapy: application of the SALSA scale

Objectives: To identify people affected by leprosy with impairments after completing multidrug therapy for leprosy, and to assess their limitations in conducting daily activities by applying the Screening of Activity Limitation and Safety Awareness (SALSA) scale. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed of all residents of a medium-sized city who were treated for leprosy from 1998 to 2006. A specific questionnaire was applied to obtain general and clinical data and the SALSA scale was used to assess limitations in activities. Impairments were assessed using the 'World Health Organization leprosy disability grading system' (WHO-DG). Findings: Of the 335 people affected by leprosy treated in the period, 223 (62.1%) were located and interviewed. A total of 51.6% were female with a mean age of 54 years (SD +/- 15.72) and 67.9% had up to 6 years formal education. The borderline form predominated among interviewees (39.9%) and 54.3% suffer from associated diseases with hypertension (29.1%) and diabetes (10.3%) being the most common. Pain was reported by 54.7% of interviewees. By multiple logistic regression analysis, associations were found between limitations in activities and being female (P < 0.025), family income <= 3 minimum wages (P-value < 0.003), reports of major lesions (P-value < 0.004), pain (P-value < 0.001), associated diseases (P-value < 0.023) and the WHO-DG (P-value < 0.001). Disabilities, as identified using the WHO-DG, were less common (32%) than limitations in activities as evaluated by the SALSA scale (57.8%). Conclusion: Limitations in activities proved to be common in people affected by leprosy and were. associated with low income, being female, reported major lesions, disability, disease and pain.

Cartographic notes on the work in the Family Health Strategy: relationships between workers and the population

The objective of this intervention study was to map instituted and instituting movements present in the work of the Family Health Strategy in the development of their care practices. The theoretical framework is based on institutional analysis, using the schizoanalytic approach. Group meetings were carried out with the staff to discuss how they provided collective care in continuing health education. The study subjects were professionals from the team and students who were engaged in academic activity in the service. The average attendance was twelve people per meeting, and there were a total of eight meetings from March to July 2010. Data were grouped into two immanent strata: the relationships of the team and the relationship with clients. The strata point to the intersection of education and legal institutions and the social and technical division of labor. Collective thinking in groups appeared to be effective in denaturalizing established processes and interrogating places, knowledge and practices.

Use of epidemiological data as the basis for developing a medical curriculum

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Epidemiology may help educators to face the challenge of establishing content guidelines for the curricula in medical schools. The aim was to develop learning objectives for a medical curriculum from an epidemiology database. DESIGN AND SETTING: Descriptive study assessing morbidity and mortality data, conducted in a private university in São Paulo. METHODS: An epidemiology database was used, with mortality and morbidity recorded as summaries of deaths and the World Health Organization's Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY). The scoring took into consideration probabilities for mortality and morbidity. RESULTS: The scoring presented a classification of health conditions to be used by a curriculum design committee, taking into consideration its highest and lowest quartiles, which corresponded respectively to the highest and lowest impact on morbidity and mortality. Data from three countries were used for international comparison and showed distinct results. The resulting scores indicated topics to be developed through educational taxonomy. CONCLUSION: The frequencies of the health conditions and their statistical treatment made it possible to identify topics that should be fully developed within medical education. The classification also suggested limits between topics that should be developed in depth, including knowledge and development of skills and attitudes, regarding topics that can be concisely presented at the level of knowledge.

Il ruolo della Narrative in Medical Ethics, Medical Practice e Medical Education. Elementi di ricerca

La mia tesi di dottorato ha ad oggetto lo studio e l’analisi del ruolo della Narrative all’interno di tre ambiti, quali Medical Ethics, Clinical Practice e Medical Education. La tesi è strutturata in 4 capitoli: i primi tre vanno a comporre la parte teorica mentre nel quarto capitolo viene riportata una ricerca sul campo da me svolta negli Stati Uniti. Nel primo capitolo, analizzo il ruolo della narrative all’interno della Medical Ethics specificando che cosa si intenda con etica narrativa, quali sono le motivazione alla base del suo sviluppo e chi sono i suoi principali esponenti. In questo capitolo, inoltre, esamino i problemi che l’etica narrativa solleva suggerendo un nuovo modo in cui essa si integra alla riflessione bioetica. Il secondo capitolo è dedicato al contributo della narrative nella Medical Practice investigando sia le modalità attraverso le quali il paziente può avvalersi della narrazione per analizzare la sua esperienza di malattia sia la cosiddetta Medicina Narrativa. Il terzo capitolo è dedicato all'analisi delle Medical Humanities, ossia di quelle discipline che all’interno della Medical Education si stanno rivelando strumenti efficaci per una formazione più equilibrata e completa dei professionisti della salute. Il quarto capitolo, invece, è dedicato alla descrizione di una ricerca svolta presso l’University of California – Irvine . Durante questa esperienza ho frequentato i corsi del Program in Medical Humanities and Arts diretto dalla Prof.ssa J. Shapiro, (programma in vigore da 13 anni e implementato allo scopo di migliorare alcune competenze nei futuri medici quali: l'empatia, l’altruismo, la compassione e la predisposizione alla cura verso i pazienti, oltre che per affinare le comunicazione clinica e la capacità di osservazione) e intervistato gli studenti che hanno preso parte a queste lezioni.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTING STYLES, LEARNING AUTONOMY, AND SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT IN UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE STUDENTS

Throughout the years, the role that parents play with regard to a child’s academic achievement has been the source of considerable research. The type of parenting style employed by parents, whether it is authoritarian, authoritative, or permissive, has and continues to be a major theme in these studies. One area of particular interest that has been overlooked in these studies, however, is the influence that parents may have on a student’s learning autonomy. Learning autonomy is the idea that a student has internal motivation to learn or achieve. The purpose of this study was to investigate therelationship among the three styles of parenting, learning autonomy, perceived parental autonomy support, and scholastic achievement in undergraduate college students. Sixty-one participants were recruited at a small liberal arts college in the northeastern United States to complete questionnaires, which measured perceived parental authority of the participants’ parents, perceived parental autonomy support, and students’ own learning autonomy. The participants were also asked to list their grade point average. The results revealed positive and negative correlations between many of the variables in the study;however, simple regression analyses did not yield any statistically significant relationships between parental authority, learning autonomy, perceived autonomy support, and scholastic achievement.

The Clearing Storm: A Re-Assessment of the Climate for Collaboration between Academic and Student Affairs

There is increasing recognition among those in higher education that it is no longer adequate to train students in a specific field or industry. Instead, the push is more towards producing well-rounded students. In order to do so, all of a university’s resources must come together and the climate on campus must be one that supportscollaboration. This report is a re-examination of the climate for collaboration on the campus of a private liberal arts university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is a follow up to a similar investigation conducted on the same campus by Victor Arcelus(2008) five years earlier. In the interim, the university had re-configured its organizational structure, combining separate academic and student affairs divisions into a single unit overseen by the Provost. Additionally, the university had experienced turnover in several key leadership positions, including those of the President and the chief academic and student affairs officers. The purpose of this investigation, therefore, was to gauge the immediate impact of these changes on conditions for collaboration, which when present, advance student learning and development. Through interviews with six men and women, information was collected on the perceived climate for collaboration between academic and student affairs personnel.Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that, depending on the position of the interviewee within the university, conditions on campus were seen as either improved or largely unchanged as a result of the transition in leadership and the structural merger of the two divisions.