From dakar to Brasilia: monitoring unesco´s education goals

Active participation of Brazilian civil society, coupled with the 2007 education development plan, launched by the Brazilian government provides an interesting example of the influences of the Dakar Goals. The two domestic initiatives share the same name, spirit and direction proposed in Dakar 2000. We analyse here changes in the Brazilian policies and indicators related to the Dakar Education Goals since its creation, we note: (i) an increase in enrolment over the relevant period; (ii) access to primary education was nearly universal by 2000; (iii) over-aged youth and adult students fell considerably during the period, but access did not expand; (iv) illiteracy has been falling at a rate which, if sustained, will enable us to meet the goal; (v) gender discrimination did not take place in Brazil; (vi) most pupil proficiency indicators have progressively deteriorated from what was already a low standard. In summary, quantity indicators did improve over the period while most quality indicators worsened.

A cena contemporânea aos pedaços : observação de um experimento pedagógico

We try to relate this research with other logic, to discover a path of practical approach to approach a creation composed of fragments and a search of parameters for the aesthetics of appropriation. Accordingly, we find relationship with the theater composed of fragments, where different styles are appropriate theatrical and representational styles are merged with each other. Discusses in the first chapter on the theater composed of fragments, and stroll through lanes of the strategies of some directors in the ways of the contemporary scene. In the second chapter we seek procedures and concepts of atmosphere Mikhail Tchekhov (TCHEKHOV, 1996), and the transition from point-to-point by Scott McCloud (2005). In the third part we describe the observation of the experiment conducted by the students of the Bachelor's Degree in Regional Theatre at the University of Cariri in Juazeiro, Ceará, in 2010. Using the methodology of "pesquisa-ação", observing that the scenic writing end of the experiment, called "Toque Me", and the presentation in the cities of Crato and Barbalha, in August 2010, contained elements of the strategies from theater fragmentary scenes and conceptual contents of contemporary theater

Itinerário educacional de uma aluna cega e a busca pela imagem adaptada

The scope of this study directs an investigation in search of how the blind person learns knowledge at school mediated by the image in context of an inclusive education and how it can be (or is) triggered by the adaptation of images to the tactile seizure of the blind person and his correlative process of reading. To achieve this intent we choose a qualitative approach of research and opted for the modality of case study, based on the empirical field of a public school in the city of Cruzeta, RN and as a the main subject a congenitally blind female student enrolled in high school there, focusing, often, on the discipline of geography in its words mapping. Our procedures for construction of data are directly involved to the documentary analysis of open reflective interview and observation. The base guiding theory of our assessments is located in the current understanding about the human psychological development of its educational process inside an inclusive perspective, of contemporary conceptions about the visual disability as well of image as a cultural product. Accordingly, the human person is a concrete subject, whose development is deeply marked by the culture, historically built by human society. This subject regardless of his specific features, grasping the world in an interactive and immediate way, internalising and producing culture. In this thinking, we believe that the blind person perceives in multiple senses the stimuli of his environment and acts in the world toward his integration into the social environment. The image as a product of culture, historically and socially determined, appears as a sign conventionally used as an icon that in itself concentrates knowledge of which the student who does not realize visually himself and his surroundings cannot be excluded. In this direction, the inclusive educational process must build conditions of access to knowledge for all students without distinction, including access to the interpretation of the images originally intended for the seizure strictly visual to other perceptive models. Based in this theory and adopting principles of content analysis, we circulated inside the interpretation of the data constructed from the analysis of documents, from the subject speeches, from records of the observation made in the classroom and other notes of the field daily. In the search for pictures on the school contents, adapted to the tactile seizure of blind student, was seen little and not systematic in practice and teaching at the school. It showed us the itinerary of the student life marked by a succession of supports, most of the time inappropriate and pioneers in cooling the construction of her autonomy. It also showed us the tensions and contradictions of a school environment, supposedly inclusive, that stumbles in search of its intent, in the attitudinal and cumulative barriers brought, because of its aggravating maintenance. These findings arose of crossing data around of a categorization that gives importance to 1) Concepts regarding the school inclusion, 2) Elements of the school organization, educational proposal and teaching practice, 3) Meaning of the visual image as the object of knowledge, 4) Perception in multiple senses and 5) Development and learning of the blind person before impositions of the social environment. In light of these findings we infer that it must be guaranteed to the disabled person removal of the attitudinal barriers that are against his full development and the construction of his autonomy. In that sense, should be given opportunity to the student with visual disability, similarly to all students, not only access to school, but also the dynamics of a school life efficient, that means the seizure of knowledge in all its modalities, including the imagery. To that end, there is a need of the continued training of teachers, construction of a support network in response to all needs of students, and the opportunity to development of reading skills beyond a perspective eminently focused in the sight

A aprendizagem na convivência:o estágio curricular em enfermagem

This is an analytic research of a qualitative nature whose purpose is to examine the learning process involving students of the Nursing Program of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte UFRN who are attending the Supervised Clerkship in Nursing (SCN) in Family Health Strategy (FHS), based on learning through daily living. In order to do this, a historical overview of this academic activity in the teaching of nursing was presented, and the importance of FHS as the scene where professional health education takes place was discussed. For the empirical investigation, ten eighth-semester students involved in clerkship activities at family health units in the Western Sanitary District of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, were interviewed. The theoretical approach relied, as epistemological presupposition, on the ideas of educator Humberto Maturana who showed that learning, both in nature and among human beings, takes place within dialogic living relationships wherein acceptance of the other, affectivity (love) and dialoguing are essential stimuli to learning. Students discourses gradually became part of the analytic categories that had been established beforehand. There has been verified that the students went through meaningful learning encouraged by all who shared the living environment, that is: nurse/instructor, teacher/supervisor, family health staff, and the community. Several feelings were involved in the process, such as joy, satisfaction, self-reliance, affectivity and, in the opposite direction, sadness, indignation, a feeling of impotence, and fear. The learning of interpersonal relationship was describe as the most relevant of the academic experiences and, therefore, thus emphasizing the relevance of affectivity to the learning process as Maturana points out. It is suggested that the teaching of nursing keep on giving priority to family health units as the Basic Care educational scene, with attention to the importance of placing the students in welcoming environments, in such a way as to encourage learning

Movimento estudantil e serviço social no capitalismo contemporâneo: tendências e particularidades

This dissertation aims to analyze the social direction in which the Student Movement in Social Work in Brazil (ENESSO) has gone through. This is done considering how the functioning of the National Executive, the Brazilian Social Work Student union has operated. The research analyzed their political position regarding the university as well as professional education in the period of 2003 to 2008. The study s theoretical and methodological object was obtained according to its structural, juncture, and time determinants. All of the mentioned elements considered the contemporary capital crisis and its implications towards the State and Society emphasizing specifically the changes that occurred in the University regarding professional education. For the purpose of data collection and production, a documental and field research was realized. Thus, interviews were done considering one manager of each management period of the ENESSO group in the time span of 2003 to 2008. Some subjects that represented the Brazilian Social Work Teaching and Research Association (ABEPSS) as well as were also interviewed. These subjects have had a relevant role in partnership with these entities and represented students in the contemporary scene. Results suggest that ENESSO has developed work that defends a project of a public, free and laic quality university. This entity also defends a project that considers the 1996 Curricular Guidelines. Currently, there is internal dispute in the social direction of the MESS, this is seen amongst political groups that diverge in opinions related to the analysis done by the Lula government regarding the political role that the National Student Union-UNE has taken in the counter-reform of higher education. This current juncture is seen as extremely individualist and it results as in unfavorable for the collective organization of the working class, especially regarding student movement. MESS has been going through a moment of profound instability and this dimension is being expressed by the absence of national coordinator for the 2008/2009 management period at ENESSO. Even though there are difficulties, it is possible to point out partnership of the entities that represent the national Social Work in Brazil. These partnerships are all related to a struggle and search for the development of a professional project that leads towards the sociability awareness that goes beyond capital.

Inequality in education in Costa Rica: The gap between students in public and private schools. An analysis of the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Includes bibliography.

Social support and common mental disorder among medical students

INTRODUÇÃO:Diferentes formas de sofrimento psíquico têm sido identificadas em estudantes da área da saúde, em especial no curso de Medicina.OBJETIVO:Estimar a prevalência de sofrimento psíquico entre estudantes de Medicina em uma faculdade no Sudeste do Brasil e avaliar sua associação com apoio social.MÉTODO:Trata-se de um estudo transversal. Foram aplicados questionários para alunos do 1º ao 6º ano do curso de Medicina da Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, investigando-se características demográficas relacionadas ao curso e à adaptação à cidade. Sofrimento psíquico foi investigado na forma de Transtorno Mental Comum (TMC), avaliado por meio do Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Apoio social foi avaliado com a Escala de Apoio Social (EAS). As associações entre o desfecho e as variáveis explanatórias foram analisadas por meio do teste do χ2 e, na análise multivariada, por meio da Regressão Logística, com p < 0,05.RESULTADOS:A taxa de resposta foi de 80,7%, não havendo diferença estatística entre a mostra e a população-alvo no que diz respeito ao gênero (p = 0,78). A média de idade foi de 22 anos (desvio padrão - DP = 2,2) com predomínio de mulheres (58,2%) e estudantes que vivem com amigos (62%). A prevalência de TMC foi de 44,9% (IC95% 40,2 - 49,6). Após a análise multivariada, mantiveram-se associados a TMC: sentir-se rejeitado no último ano (p < 0,001), ter pensado ou pensar em abandonar o curso (p < 0,001) e interação, avaliada pela EAS (p = 0,002).CONCLUSÕES:A prevalência de TMC entre estudantes de Medicina mostrou-se elevada, identificando-se o apoio social insuficiente como fator de risco. Esses achados sugerem que intervenções voltadas para propiciar melhores condições de interação social entre estudantes poderiam ser benéficas, diminuindo a prevalência de TMC nesse grupo.

Undergraduate research in medical education: a descriptive study of students' views

Background: Medical students engage in curricular and extracurricular activities, including undergraduate research (UR). The advantages, difficulties and motivations for medical students pursuing research activities during their studies have rarely been addressed. In Brazil, some medical schools have included undergraduate research into their curriculum. The present study aimed to understand the reality of scientific practice among medical students at a well-established Brazilian medical school, analyzing this context from the students' viewpoint.Methods: A cross-sectional survey based on a questionnaire applied to students from years one to six enrolled in an established Brazilian medical school that currently has no curricular UR program.Results: The questionnaire was answered by 415 students, 47.2% of whom were involved in research activities, with greater participation in UR in the second half of the course. Independent of student involvement in research activities, time constraints were cited as the main obstacle to participation. Among students not involved in UR, 91.1% said they favored its inclusion in the curriculum, since this would facilitate the development of such activity. This approach could signify an approximation between the axes of teaching and research. Among students who had completed at least one UR project, 87.7% said they would recommend the activity to students entering the course.Conclusion: Even without an undergraduate research program, students of this medical school report strong involvement in research activities, but discussion of the difficulties inherent in its practice is important to future developments.

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in medical students: prevalence, severity, and correlates

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Initial stages of attitude’s instrument adaptation to brazilian sports competitions

The aim of this study was to adapt and initiate validation of an instrument of attitudes toward mathematics to sports competitions. So through a correlational study, we adapted the instrument counting on a total sample of 260 young athletes (n=260), all students, divided into three rounds, and the confirmatory purpose we apply a pre competitive stress scale in order to show mappable symptoms. An initial reliability of the instrument, Alpha 0.83 to negative attitudes, and 0.90 for positive attitudes, with the average results of 2.52 (±0.86) to negative attitudes and 4.66 (±0.84) was determined for attitudes positive; we conclude that the instrument performed well in this first test, and should be applied in a larger sample, by un mounting this case study that young athletes have positive attitudes toward sports competition, so they enjoy participating in the competition.

Use of policy, education, and enforcement to reduce binge drinking among university students: The NU Directions project

This paper describes a program, conducted over a 5-year period, that effectively reduced heavy drinking and alcohol-related harms among university students. The program was organized around strategies to change the environment in which binge drinking occurred and involved input and cooperation from officials and students of the university, representatives from the city and the neighborhood near the university, law enforcement, as well as public health and medical officials. In 1997, 62.5% of the university’s approximately 16,000 undergraduate student population reported binge drinking. This rate had dropped to 47% in 2003. Similar reductions were found in both self-reported primary and secondary harms related to alcohol consumption.

Rich media content adaptation in e-learning systems

The wide use of e-technologies represents a great opportunity for underserved segments of the population, especially with the aim of reintegrating excluded individuals back into society through education. This is particularly true for people with different types of disabilities who may have difficulties while attending traditional on-site learning programs that are typically based on printed learning resources. The creation and provision of accessible e-learning contents may therefore become a key factor in enabling people with different access needs to enjoy quality learning experiences and services. Another e-learning challenge is represented by m-learning (which stands for mobile learning), which is emerging as a consequence of mobile terminals diffusion and provides the opportunity to browse didactical materials everywhere, outside places that are traditionally devoted to education. Both such situations share the need to access materials in limited conditions and collide with the growing use of rich media in didactical contents, which are designed to be enjoyed without any restriction. Nowadays, Web-based teaching makes great use of multimedia technologies, ranging from Flash animations to prerecorded video-lectures. Rich media in e-learning can offer significant potential in enhancing the learning environment, through helping to increase access to education, enhance the learning experience and support multiple learning styles. Moreover, they can often be used to improve the structure of Web-based courses. These highly variegated and structured contents may significantly improve the quality and the effectiveness of educational activities for learners. For example, rich media contents allow us to describe complex concepts and process flows. Audio and video elements may be utilized to add a “human touch” to distance-learning courses. Finally, real lectures may be recorded and distributed to integrate or enrich on line materials. A confirmation of the advantages of these approaches can be seen in the exponential growth of video-lecture availability on the net, due to the ease of recording and delivering activities which take place in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, the wide use of assistive technologies for learners with disabilities injects new life into e-learning systems. E-learning allows distance and flexible educational activities, thus helping disabled learners to access resources which would otherwise present significant barriers for them. For instance, students with visual impairments have difficulties in reading traditional visual materials, deaf learners have trouble in following traditional (spoken) lectures, people with motion disabilities have problems in attending on-site programs. As already mentioned, the use of wireless technologies and pervasive computing may really enhance the educational learner experience by offering mobile e-learning services that can be accessed by handheld devices. This new paradigm of educational content distribution maximizes the benefits for learners since it enables users to overcome constraints imposed by the surrounding environment. While certainly helpful for users without disabilities, we believe that the use of newmobile technologies may also become a fundamental tool for impaired learners, since it frees them from sitting in front of a PC. In this way, educational activities can be enjoyed by all the users, without hindrance, thus increasing the social inclusion of non-typical learners. While the provision of fully accessible and portable video-lectures may be extremely useful for students, it is widely recognized that structuring and managing rich media contents for mobile learning services are complex and expensive tasks. Indeed, major difficulties originate from the basic need to provide a textual equivalent for each media resource composing a rich media Learning Object (LO). Moreover, tests need to be carried out to establish whether a given LO is fully accessible to all kinds of learners. Unfortunately, both these tasks are truly time-consuming processes, depending on the type of contents the teacher is writing and on the authoring tool he/she is using. Due to these difficulties, online LOs are often distributed as partially accessible or totally inaccessible content. Bearing this in mind, this thesis aims to discuss the key issues of a system we have developed to deliver accessible, customized or nomadic learning experiences to learners with different access needs and skills. To reduce the risk of excluding users with particular access capabilities, our system exploits Learning Objects (LOs) which are dynamically adapted and transcoded based on the specific needs of non-typical users and on the barriers that they can encounter in the environment. The basic idea is to dynamically adapt contents, by selecting them from a set of media resources packaged in SCORM-compliant LOs and stored in a self-adapting format. The system schedules and orchestrates a set of transcoding processes based on specific learner needs, so as to produce a customized LO that can be fully enjoyed by any (impaired or mobile) student.

Developing a model of library user education for freshman science students

Discusses the cooperative effort between librarians and science faculty at Bucknell University in developing an effective library use education course for incoming undergraduate science and engineering students. Describes course structure and activities, and includes a library instruction bibliography. (five references) (EA)

Career Influences of Music Education Audition Candidates

In this descriptive study, we examined the influences and experiences motivating students to enter college-level music schools as reported by a population of precollegiate students auditioning (but not yet accepted) to music education degree programs. As a follow-up to a published pilot study, this research was designed to quantify the various experiences respondents had as part of their precollege school and community programs that related to teaching and music. Results indicate a strong connection between respondents’ primary musical background and future teaching interest. The top three influential experiences were related to high school ensemble membership (band, choir, orchestra), and the most influential group of individuals in the decision to become a music educator were high school ensemble directors. Respondents from all four primary background groups (band, choir, orchestra, and general or other) rated private lesson teaching as their second strongest future teaching interest, just behind teaching at the high school level in their primary background. Respondents rated parents as moderately influential on their desire to become a music teacher.