VOICES FROM THE SOUTH: DIALOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS AND COLLABORATION IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION

This chapter presents a collaborative experience between two neighbouring countries from South America: Argentina and Brazil. Our purpose is to share a model of international collaboration that we consider to be an alternative to the classical movement of early mathematical and scientific knowledge between East and West and between North and South. We start our chapter with a general discussion about the phenomenon of globalization considering some local examples. We characterize our collaboration exploring the tensions and difficulties we faced along our own professional development at the local as well as the international level. We describe the development of our prior collaborative work that established the foundation for our international collaboration portraying the local mathematics education communities. We refer to some balances that were created among our relationships, the expansion of our collaborative network, and how this particular collaboration allows us to contribute to the regional field and inform the international one. We discuss the way that the search for balance and symmetry, or at least a complementary asymmetry in our collaborative relationships, has led us to generate a genuine and equitable collaboration.

Environmental education and the health risk question: how do we educate the educators working with this theme?

Our society is presently seeing a trend of continuous increase of risk with severe consequences, especially those linked to environmental aspects. It has obligated us to reflect on this production and its effects, either positive or negative, and, after a long reflection, to think about the adopted model of civilization and the possibilities of changing such a model. The educational institution is among the social departments responsible for this revision process, since it represents one possibility to promote a more critical vision from society, providing it with tools needed for a more responsible action. However, schools are dominated by a traditional work, which does not allow for enough and proper attention to these relevant and current questions, and which involve a critical analysis of the conceptions and values established by our civilization, resulting in the present patterns of science-technology-society relations and their influence on the environment and health. Several research works have indicated a diversity of barriers that obstruct this necessary change. Since formal education plays an important role in the education of society for this theme, in this paper the possibilities and difficulty dealing with this problem are discussed, focusing on the question of teacher education, based on investigations related to teacher education programs for environmental education. The data collected show the urgency for introducing this theme in teacher training programs, taking into account the fact that educators have their own conceptions, values and attitudes that should be considered in these programs.

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.

Inequalities in access to education and healthcare

The burden of disease is borne by those who suffer as patients but also by society at large, including health service providers. That burden is felt most severely in parts of the world where there is no infrastructure, or foreseeable prospects of any, to change the status quo without external support. Poverty, disease and inequality pervade all the activities of daily living in low-income regions and are inextricably linked. External interventions may not be the most appropriate way to impact on this positively in all circumstances, but targeted programmes to build social capital, within and by countries, are more likely to be sustainable. By these means, basic oral healthcare, underpinned by the primary healthcare approach, can be delivered to more equitably address needs and demands. Education is fundamental to building knowledge-based economies but is often lacking in such regions even at primary and secondary level. Provision of private education at tertiary level may also introduce its own inequities. Access to distance learning and community-based practice opens opportunities and is more likely to encourage graduates to work in similar areas. Recruitment of faculty from minority groups provides role models for students from similar backgrounds but all faculty staff must be involved in supporting and mentoring students from marginalized groups to ensure their retention. The developed world has to act responsibly in two crucial areas: first, not to exacerbate the shortage of skilled educators and healthcare workers in emerging economies by recruiting their staff; second, they must offer educational opportunities at an economic rate. Governments need to lead on developing initiatives to attract, support and retain a competent workforce.

Industrial Robotics Applied to Education

This work describes a ludic proposal for programming learning of industrial robots to be developed by groups of engineering students. Two projects are presented: Tic-tac-toe Opponent Robot and Environmentalist Robot. The first project use competitive search techniques of the Artificial Intelligence, computational vision, electronic and pneumatic concepts for ability decision making for a robotic agent on the tic-tae-toe game. The second project consists of a game that contains a questions and answers database about environmental themes. An algorithm selects the group of questions to be answered by the player, analyses the answers and sends the result to a industrial robot through serial port. According with the player performance, the robot makes congratulation movements and giving a gift to the winner player. Otherwise, the robot makes movements, disapproving the player performance.

Tele-education environment and didactic iconography in sexual transmitted diseases

The field of advertising has developed techniques of mass communication and rapid transmission of information. Among these techniques are slogans and iconographies. This work used such tools for educational purposes and was divided into three modules. Module 1 evaluated the use of simplified textual communication (slogans) about the subject Sexually Transmitted Diseases. It was applied to third-year medical students, which had not taken the course on this theme. To evaluate the impact of the textual communication form (slogans), long phrases were elaborated in scientific language containing 15 topics. From these long phrases, compact phrases were developed using techniques of the advertising area for elaboration of slogans. Three forms of didactic material about that theme were developed. The first form consisted of long phrases in descriptive topics, using scientific language. The second was constituted exclusively of compact phrases in the form of slogans, and the third was composed of the combination of the two previous forms. Then, 10 multiple-choice questions were elaborated and applied in two phases. In the first phase, application occurred immediately after the reading of didactic texts; in the second phase, it happened 60 days after the reading. For statistical analysis, Snedcor's F test was used for analysis of variance, at 5% significance level. There was an increase in memorization by students who read the material containing the association between long phrases and slogans, which indicates that the latter, when used as an auxiliary model of learning, can bring significant benefits for education. Module 2 consisted of analyzing the elaboration of educational videos produced in graphic computing (called iconographies) for development of dynamic communication means. The theme Hair Cycle was utilized. Viability of high quantities of information in few minutes of animation could be demonstrated together with the advantage of presenting the process in a dynamic form without wasting scientific details. Module 3 presented the inclusion of slogans in educational videos produced in graphic computing about the Hair Cycle, showing a new tool for rapid and efficient transference of data. Slogans and iconographies, when utilized in educational material, can bring significant benefits for the student's learning.

Absence motivated by illness: A non-concurrent prospective study of physical education teachers in the municipal education system of the city of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

The object of this investigation was to identify and analize aspects of the health status related to absenteism in physical education teachers in the municipal education system of the city of Campinas, Brazil, as related to the medical leave program. The non-concurrent prospective study was accomplished by means of a comparison with teachers who work only in the classroom, refering to a three year period. In the variables of greatest interest, the Pearson non-parametric chi-square (X2) statistical test was adopted. Calculations of relative risk and level of confidence were made using the Epi-info computer program. Significant differences were observed in the following diagnostic groups favoring the not exposed group: i) Supplementary Classification of factors that exercise influence over the health status and access to health services and ii) Digestive system illness; while the physical education teachers showed a significant difference in: i) diseases of the musculoskeletal and connective tissue system and ii) Injuries and poisoing. Possible explications for some of the adverse effects as well as the protective ones that were observed include physical activity as a way of life along with being a physical education teacher and on the other side, peculiar behavior of epidemiological descriptive characteristics, like sex and age, within the socio-economic context of the country. © Copyright Moreira Jr. Editora.

Education and the labour market in Latin America: why measurement is important and what it tells us about policies, reforms and performance

Includes bibliography

Education and income distribution in urban Brazil, 1976-1996

Includes bibliography

Challenges for secondary education in Latin America

Includes bibliography

A criança, a dança e a sociabilidade na escola

Pós-graduação em Artes - IA

Myriam Muniz: uma pedagoga do teatro

Pós-graduação em Artes - IA

Atuando em novos palcos: diálogos entre o teatro e a educação ambiental

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Advances and challenges in measuring decent work

At 6.4%, the unemployment rate for the Latin American and Caribbean region overall was the lowest for the past few decades, down from 6.7% in 2011. This is significant, in view of the difficult employment situation prevailing in other world regions. Labour market indicators improved despite modest growth of just 3.0% in the region’s economy. Even with sharply rising labour market participation, the number of urban unemployed fell by around 400,000, on the back of relatively strong job creation. Nevertheless, around 15 million are still jobless in the region. Other highlights of 2012 labour market performance were that the gender gaps in labour market participation, unemployment and employment narrowed, albeit slightly; formal employment increased; the hourly underemployment rate declined; and average wages rose. This rendering was obviously not homogenous across the region. Labour market indicators worsened again in the Caribbean countries, for example, reflecting the sluggish performance of their economies. The sustainability of recent labour market progress is also a cause for concern. Most of the new jobs in the region were created as part of a self-perpetuating cycle in which new jobs and higher real wages (and greater access to credit) have boosted household purchasing power and so pushed up domestic demand. Much of this demand is for non-tradable goods and services (and imports), which has stimulated expansion of the tertiary sector and hence its demand for labour, and many of the new jobs have therefore arisen in these sectors of the economy. This dynamic certainly has positive implications in terms of labour and distribution, but the concern is whether it is sustainable in a context of still relatively low investment (even after some recent gains) which is, moreover, not structured in a manner conducive to diversifying production. Doubt hangs over the future growth of production capacity in the region, given the enormous challenges facing the region in terms of innovation, education quality, infrastructure and productivity. As vigorous job creation has driven progress in reducing unemployment, attention has turned once again to the characteristics of that employment. Awareness exists in the region that economic growth is essential, but not in itself sufficient to generate more and better jobs. For some time, ILO has been drawing attention to the fact that it is not enough to create any sort of employment. The concept of decent work, as proposed by ILO, emphasized the need for quality jobs which enshrine respect for fundamental rights at work. The United Nations General Assembly endorsed this notion and incorporated it into the targets set in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals. This eighth issue of the ECLAC/ILO publication “The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean” examines how the concept of decent work has evolved in the region, progress in measuring it and the challenges involved in building a system of decent work indicators, 14 years after the concept was first proposed. Although the concept of decent work has been accompanied since the outset by the challenge of measurement, its first objective was to generate a discussion on the best achievable labour practices in each country. Accordingly, rather than defining a universal threshold of what could be considered decent work —regarding which developed countries might have almost reached the target before starting, while poor countries could be left hopelessly behind— ILO called upon the countries to define their own criteria and measurements for promoting decent work policies. As a result, there is no shared set of variables for measuring decent work applicable to all countries. The suggestion is, instead, that countries move forward with measuring decent work on the basis of their own priorities, using the information they have available now and in the future. However, this strategy of progressing according to the data available in each country tends to complicate statistical comparison between them. So, once the countries have developed their respective systems of decent work indicators, it will be also be important to work towards harmonizing them. ECLAC and ILO are available to provide technical support to this end. With respect to 2013, there is cautious optimism regarding the performance of the region’s labour markets. If projections of a slight uptick —to 3.5%— in the region’s economic growth in 2013 are borne out, labour indicators should continue to gradually improve. This will bring new increases in real wages and a slight drop of up to 0.2 percentage points in the region’s unemployment rate, reflecting a fresh rise in the regional employment rate and slower growth in labour market participation.