A informática como uma ferramenta de apoio a inclusão do deficiente visual

An inclusive environment has its foundations in the belief that all people are entitled to participate, to live as normal a life as possible, without discrimination, especially in education. This is to ensure equal opportunities. For individuals with special needs, the use of computers and digital materials is not an alternative, but one of the only forms of access to information. For the visually impaired, they start from the beginning to enter the university, through the selection processes, not always accessible. For those who can, other difficulties arise, undermining the initial enthusiasm and generating a large rate of dropouts. In most cases, these students will depend on the goodwill of colleagues and volunteers for the reading of texts in the basic literature of the disciplines studied. The high cost of technology assisted allied to a lack of resources and knowledge of curricular adaptations, prevents many teachers help these students in an appropriate manner. This thesis seeks to contribute to the inclusion of the visually impaired student pointing alternatives that can help in caring education. The research was conducted specifically for the doctorate during the period 2001 to 2006, the cities of Natal, Salvador and Curitiba, and is based mainly on the methodology of action research. The objective was the construction of Virtual Teaching Support Center , structured in a Web portal that can serve as a resource to help support teachers, staff and other users concerned with the process of inclusion of people with needs special education, with the goal of assimilation of educational opportunities, with the support of resources and methods. The inclusion is for everyone because we are all different

Educação inclusiva e formação continuada: contribuições dos casos de ensino para os processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional de professores

This study focuses on processes of learning and professional development experienced by elementary school teachers who have students with special educational needs in their classrooms. Cases and case methods can be used as methodological resource to articulate the continued training of teachers in an inclusive perspective. This research-intervention adopted a constructive-collaborative model for continued teachers formation. The main objective was to investigate the possible contributions of teaching cases, while investigative and formative strategies, for the processes of learning and professional development of teachers who work in the regular school. The data were collected by means of analytical activities, drafting collective discussion and teaching cases, having eight teachers as participants in a regular public school, located in the municipality of Natal/RN, Brasil. The theoretical reference covers the inclusive education, teaching learning, teachers professional development, the knowledge base for teaching and teaching cases as a resource for continued teachers formation in an inclusive perspective. The results indicated that teaching cases allowed description and analysis of educational practices developed by regular education teachers and adoption of reflective processes about situations reported and on their own pedagogical actuation, achieving indications of changes. It also indicates the contribution of cases for the clarification, systematization and extension of professional knowledge about inclusive education process as well as for involvement by the teachers of the study in a pedagogical thinking process. The lessons learned are related mainly to own role as teachers of regular education, to the role of professional support and specialized institutions faced to school inclusion. The analyses showed the methodological option was suitable to develop a schoolcentric training process, allowing teachers to seek in their actual environment alternatives for construction of a new logic of teaching that encloses diversity. The conclusion is that the cases, while bringing educational situations closer to the reality experienced by teachers in their daily professional role, causes relevant improvement on teachers education, because it offers training in conjunction with the experience and knowledge that teachers already have

Educação inclusiva e formação continuada: contribuições dos casos de ensino para os processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional de professores

This study focuses on processes of learning and professional development experienced by elementary school teachers who have students with special educational needs in their classrooms. Cases and case methods can be used as methodological resource to articulate the continued training of teachers in an inclusive perspective. This research-intervention adopted a constructive-collaborative model for continued teachers formation. The main objective was to investigate the possible contributions of teaching cases, while investigative and formative strategies, for the processes of learning and professional development of teachers who work in the regular school. The data were collected by means of analytical activities, drafting collective discussion and teaching cases, having eight teachers as participants in a regular public school, located in the municipality of Natal/RN, Brasil. The theoretical reference covers the inclusive education, teaching learning, teachers professional development, the knowledge base for teaching and teaching cases as a resource for continued teachers formation in an inclusive perspective. The results indicated that teaching cases allowed description and analysis of educational practices developed by regular education teachers and adoption of reflective processes about situations reported and on their own pedagogical actuation, achieving indications of changes. It also indicates the contribution of cases for the clarification, systematization and extension of professional knowledge about inclusive education process as well as for involvement by the teachers of the study in a pedagogical thinking process. The lessons learned are related mainly to own role as teachers of regular education, to the role of professional support and specialized institutions faced to school inclusion. The analyses showed the methodological option was suitable to develop a schoolcentric training process, allowing teachers to seek in their actual environment alternatives for construction of a new logic of teaching that encloses diversity. The conclusion is that the cases, while bringing educational situations closer to the reality experienced by teachers in their daily professional role, causes relevant improvement on teachers education, because it offers training in conjunction with the experience and knowledge that teachers already have

Apoio pedagógico, ação coletiva e diálogo: tramas da formação continuada em educação inclusiva

This work detaches the importance of the continued formation of the educators in terms of the inclusive educational process, pointing as basic elements the continued formation of the educational professionals. In this direction, it points and it defends the dialogue in the perspective of David Bohm, with interfaces of the freireanas ideas, as a methodological resource of action that allows the organization of strategies of collective and effective pedagogical support in inclusive schools, in the same time articulates the continued formation of the professionals in education. Characterized as research in a dialogical action with collective participation and collaboration, it counted with the participation of 87 educators, between professors, pedagogical, managing coordinators and specialists of special education in two schools of the state and municipal public system of Natal/RN. The results had pointed with respect to the viability of the dialogue as articulated methodological tool of the continued formation in service, when providing the establishment of personal and professional relationship between the educators, favoring the discursive enjoyment of the lived experiences, allows the organization of strategies of collective and effective pedagogical support in the scholar environment. On the basis of these results, this work also points to some items to reflections as the reorganization of the Secretariats and the schools, in the direction to brighten up the fragmentation and the discontinuity of the pedagogical actions evidenced and to instigate a process of changes that has glimpsed the professional development of the educators through its continued formation in service and the improvement of the school in the way of the concretization of an education directed toward the acceptance, respect and attendance the diversity of its pupils, as detaches the official documents and the studies on the inclusive education

Programa de apoio a planos de reestruturação e expansão das Universidades Públicas Federais (REUNI): repercussões na UFRN

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar la implantación del Programa de Apoyo a Planes de Reestructuración y Expansión de las Universidades Federales (REUNI) así como su papel en la reconfiguración de la Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, resaltando sus repercusiones en la gestión y organización de la universidad. Para la realización del trabajo, entre los procedimientos técnicos, utilizamos la revisión de literatura, el análisis de documentos y las entrevistas semiestructuradas. La revisión bibliográfica ha permitido profundizar en conceptos importantes sobre la temática, priorizando los contenidos referentes a los conceptos de globalización y neoliberalismo; La reforma del Estado y sus repercusiones sobre las políticas de educación superior brasileña; directrices de documentos internacionales y nacionales que definieron la organización de este nivel de enseñanza. Los estudios indican, en relación a la expansión de la UFRN, que las metas pactadas del REUNI fueron atendidas casi en su totalidad. Sin embargo, cualitativamente, no se puede afirmar que el REUNI haya tenido un impacto positivo, pues además del incremento de plazas y de la creación de cursos nuevos, que en su mayoría fueron cursos nocturnos, ha habido un aumento sustancial en relación a la cantidad de alumnos por profesor, lo que demuestra que dicho incremento también se da por la racionalización de los recursos humanos y de la estructura físca existentes. Desde esta perspectiva, el REUNI originó varias modificaciones en la forma de gestionar los servicios en la UFRN, mereciendo especial atención la intensificación del proceso de transformaciones en la concepción de una gestión burocrática a una gestión desde la gerencia, resaltando la cultura instituída con el contrato de gestión. En ese sentido, la utilización de las metas y de los indicadores de desempeño pasa a adquirir cada vez más importancia como forma de acompañar y evaluar el cumplimiento de las acciones pactadas, pues de este cumplimiento depende la concesión de recursos financieros. Dentro de este contexto, el Programa se ha caracterizado por dar continuidad a las políticas de privatización para la expansión de la educación superior brasileña, provocando la inserción en las universidades públicas federales, de un modelo de organización fundamentado en el paradigma de la gerencia y la administración, que conlleva así, a la mercantilización de los bienes y servicios académicos

Envelhecer entre pássaros e anjos: um estudo etnográfico sobre o processo saúde doença do idoso no contexto familiar

Study, a descriptive-like one, is guided by ethnographic principles which have analyzed the elderly within the familiar context in his/her process of health and aging, in the neighborhood called Felipe Camarão, located in the western administrative region of Natal, RN, a Northeastern city of Brazil. The participants are elders aging 61 to 84 years old, living in this referring neighborhood, whose majority is constituted of migrants from the rural region of the state of the RN, retired, including widows, widowers and married couples, with low school-educational degree. For the information gathering it was utilized a semi-structured interview, the participant observation and the field diary, being put into effect, in majority, in the houses and in the Family Health Unit, in a period between March and October of 2006. For the results discussion it was utilized an analysis of thematic content and the program ALCESTE (In Portuguese, Análise Léxica por Contexto de um Conjunto de Segmentos de Texto or Lexical Analysis by Context of a Set of Text Segments), which through have emerged two corpus: the corpus I, Family and the elderly, and corpus II, The elderly and the aging within society. The analysis of the results has permitted to conclude that the family, also used by the public policies as a strategy of their practices in health, it is a necessary base support for the elderly citizen in his/her process of aging and of health. The elders familiar contexts have allowed this study to identify the existence of minimal social conditions of life, of new rearrangements of the current families by means of the plurigenerational acquaintanceship and the active presence of the elderly woman as a maintainer of this family; also by means of conflicted relationships among one another but in a bearable level of acquaintanceship. Different conceptions about the aging and the elderly generate disagreement and divergency however the family support and help for the solving of these problems and the attention to health are proceeding from the family components. However, it is noticed that loneliness is something present in these elder s everyday lives. About the attention to health, in a basic level of it, it was noticed that there are still a lot of gaps, mainly concerning promotional and preventing actions, deserving a higher sensitization and effort by the local health institutions

O projeto politico pedagógico de enfermagem e o sistema único de saúde: a visão de discentes

This research aims to analyze, in the view of students, the pedagogic project of undergraduate nursing course, of UFRN, and its articulation with the SUS, in an attempt to understand the issues that permeate the teaching and learning of nursing. This is a qualitative study that used the focus group technique as a tool to collect empirical data. There were three meetings, where we had the collaboration of 23 graduating students from the eighth period of the semester 2009.1. For the analysis of information, we use a theoretical framework based on curriculum guidelines and basic principles of the SUS, making the analogy of the results with the metaphor of Greek mythology, Ariadne's thread, in dialogue with authors who discuss education as a transformative practice. Thus, the texture of the yarn was built of five thematic fields: joint the pedagogic project with the SUS; the teaching/service and theory/practice relation; interdisciplinarity or transdisciplinarity; didactic/methodological and relational approaches; and co-participation of students in the pedagogic project. According to the discussions, we find many difficulties in the teaching and learning process of undergraduate nursing in UFRN to strengthen the SUS, including: dislocation of educational institutions with services, professionals, managers and community; dichotomy between theory and practice; reality of services as a learning field and working process in health; posture adopted by professionals, teachers and other subjects included in the process of health education; decontextualization and fragmentation of teaching with the practice in health and nursing; excessive use of very illustrative methodologies, but little problem-solving; difficult and precarious situation in the relations between teachers and between teachers/students, regarding the acceptance of differences; absence of participation of students in the evaluation process and conduct of the educational project in progress. In this sense, we understand the need an auto-reflexive act of teaching and conducting collective pedagogical course with a view to achieving the SUS. Thus, it is necessary to support practices motivated by the polyphonic dialogue and the exercise of symbiosis and autopoiesis of subjects/actors jointly responsible for the ongoing process of learning for life.

Atenção à saúde mental na Estratégia Saúde da Família no Município de Parnamirim/RN: opinião dos profissionais, dos portadores de transtornos mentais e seus acompanhantes

This study aims to analyze and compare the opinion of professionals, managers and users about the mental health care in the Family Health Strategy (FHS). It is characterized as an Operations Research or Health System Research with a cross-sectional design and a descriptive quantitative nature. The study was developed from the application of the Opinion Measurement Scale allied to techniques of observation and structured interview in the city of Parnamirim / RN. The sample consists of 409 subjects, 209 professionals of the Family Health Strategy, 30 of the Oral Health Strategy, 19 of the Family Health Support Center, 24 directors of Basic Health Units, plus 68 users with mental disorders and 59 caregivers, respecting the ethical parameters of Resolution 196/96 of the National Health Council, trial registration number: CAAE 0003.0.051.000-11. Quantitative data were submitted to the Epi-info 3.5.2 for analysis. The network of mental health in Parnamirim involves the flow between the FHS, Psychosocial Care Centers, clinics and hospitals, having as main barriers the fragility of the referral and counter-referral system, of the municipal health conferences, of the FHS teams by the limitations in material and human resources as well as the population´s lack of acknowledge about the organization of the mental health network, issues that affect the integral attention. Even though the FHS professionals recognize the importance of their actions, they question their role in mental health care, experiencing difficulties in accessing psychiatric services (76.5%). Although most agree that the mentally ill is best treated in the family than in hospital (65.2%), the community health workers were the predominant category in the partial or total disagreement of this statement (40.8%), who is the professional in greater contact with the family. Nevertheless the caregivers miss the support of the FHS as the main focus of attention is on revenue control. The views of professionals, mental patients and caregivers converged in several statements, showing the main weaknesses to be focused by the mental health network of the city, as the perceptions that: (a) physical strength is needed to take care of mental patients for its tendency to aggression, requiring it to stay in the sanatorium for representing danger to society, (b) only a psychiatrist can help the person with emotional problems, (c) the user of alcohol and drugs does not necessarily develop mental illness, (d) the access barriers and doubts about the quality of psychiatric services, (e) caring of a mental health patient does not bring suffering to professionals. Therefore, the commitment to consensus building, monitoring and evaluation of the network are important mechanisms for an effective management system, reflecting in the importance of strengthening the health conferences and approximating different institutions. The results reinforce the importance of strengthening primary care through programs of continuing education focusing on the actions and functions of professionals in accordance with its competences and duties what contribute to the organization and response of mental health care, favoring user´s care and the promotion of family health

Enfermeiros pós-graduados: continuidades e rupturas no cotidiano profissional de hospitais universitários

A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar as transformações do cotidiano profissional do enfermeiro do hospital universitário após a realização do curso de mestrado. Trata-se de um estudo com abordagem qualitativa, realizado no Complexo Hospitalar Universitário da UFRN, composto pelo Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes (HUOL), Maternidade Escola Januário Cicco (MEJEC), e Hospital de Pediatria Professor Heriberto Ferreira Bezerra (HOSPED) localizados em Natal-RN; e pelo Hospital Universitário Ana Bezerra (HUAB) situado em Santa Cruz-RN. A população foi composta por vinte e dois enfermeiros, com título de mestre em enfermagem, que trabalham nessas instituições. Após encaminhamento e aprovação pelo Comitê de ética em pesquisa, conforme Parecer nº 268.498 e CAAE: 13922713.1.0000.5537, as entrevistas foram iniciadas, utilizando-se um roteiro semiestruturado, organizado em questões orientadas em conformidade com os objetivos do estudo. Do material empírico, emergiram as categorias que foram trabalhadas com base na análise de conteúdo temática, tendo como aporte teórico os estudos de Agnes Heller acerca do cotidiano e os de Paulo Freire sobre educação e mudanças, buscando a possível interlocução entre esses autores. Os resultados demonstram que o cotidiano dos enfermeiros nos hospitais universitários, após cursarem o mestrado, modifica-se a partir da própria motivação em cursálo e do apoio institucional recebido. As continuidades e rupturas apontadas estão distribuídas nas categorias: a inércia da cotidianidade, na qual os enfermeiros relatam a dificuldade em mudar seu cotidiano devido à rotina exaustiva e à falta de apoio; reconhecem mudanças particulares, compreendendo a formação de um olhar crítico/reflexivo/analítico, e a qualificação para o ensino e pesquisa; e as rupturas do cotidiano, que se referem às mudanças ocorridas no serviço, como a melhoria da assistência, pela implantação de resultados; e uma prática diferenciada por ter um profissional qualificado. Portanto, considera-se que a realização do mestrado contribuiu para o crescimento do intelectual e profissional do enfermeiro e, consequentemente, para o serviço, no cotidiano do Complexo Hospitalar Universitário, sendo reconhecido pelos enfermeiros o compromisso com uma maior responsabilidade social. Porém, ainda são necessárias reflexões sobre maneiras de minimizar as dificuldades apontadas, como forma de incentivar essa qualificação

Uma contribuição à definição de indicadores de desempenho de instituições federais de educação tecnológica do Brasil na abordagem do balanced scorecard

This Master of Science Thesis deals with a study on applying the BSC Balanced Scorecard to assess the performance of Federal Centers for Technological Education Institution in Brazil, the CEFET s (Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica), government organizations non for profit. It s accomplished a literature review in order to understand the BSC and its application to non for profit organizations and as a main result it is proposed a BSC conceptual model with an inversion of the main BSC perspective from financial to customer/society. Taking the FORPLAN/CONCEFET performance indicators matrix it is developed a set of performance indicators for the two tops perspective in the conceptual model proposed five for customer/society perspective and three for financial/budget perspective. A field survey with ten CEFET s General Directors is conducted to validate the indicators and assess the perception of the Directors on the hierarchy of the conceptual model, and a hierarchy among the indicators as well. The main results suggests that the indicators are validated, that most of the Directors support the hierarchy presented in the conceptual model but 30% of them have a traditional model with financials coming first. In terms of indicator hierarchy, there s a slight priority for the student unitary cost among the financial perspective indicators, and a relative balance among the customer/society perspective indicators

Avaliação dos indicadores de desempenho de instituições federais de educação tecnológica doBrasil na abordagem do balanced scorecard

This Master of Science Thesis deals with a study on applying the BSC Balanced Scorecard to assess the performance of Federal Institution for Technological Education Institution in Brazil, a government organizations non for profit. It s accomplished a literature review in order to understand the BSC and its application to non for profit organizations and as a main result it is proposed a BSC conceptual model with an inversion of the main BSC perspective from financial to customer/society. It is used the annual management report of thirteen Institutions and applied a Pearson correlation analysis in order to verify a cause-effect situation between indicators. The main findings suggest that the model teachers qualification in terms of degree earned, quantity of teachers in full time job, and rate of students by teacher in full time job having good pearson correlation with the results expected of quality, throughput, social and demand response. However, the student unit cost use as the sole financial indicator did not get any reasonable correlation with the results, as so the quality and quantity of books in the libraries. Although it suggests a need for improvement in the model, the general model adopted appears to be satisfactory as a starting point to a BSC-like performance measuring system to this kind of Institutions

Uma modelagem de indicadores de desempenho para instituições de ensino superior no Brasil na abordagem do balanced scorecard: um estudo com instituições privadas

This Master of Science Thesis deals with a BSC modeling for higher education institution focusing on private institution in the Brazilian context. It‟s accomplished a literature review in order to understand the BSC and its application to for profit and non for profit organizations and as a main result it is proposed a BSC conceptual model with a new perspective (Government) and a change in the hierarchy of the main BSC perspective equaling financial to customer/society. Taking the national higher education assessment system of Education Ministry indicators a model is deployed and the relations between the indicators are measured with the Pearson correlation coefficient. As a result a model emerges with sound relations of indicators but a improvement in the financial indicators is needed

Método Fuzzy para auxílio ao diagnóstico de câncer de mama em ambiente inteligente de telediagnóstico colaborativo para apoio à tomada de decisão

Breast cancer, despite being one of the leading causes of death among women worldwide is a disease that can be cured if diagnosed early. One of the main techniques used in the detection of breast cancer is the Fine Needle Aspirate FNA (aspiration puncture by thin needle) which, depending on the clinical case, requires the analysis of several medical specialists for the diagnosis development. However, such diagnosis and second opinions have been hampered by geographical dispersion of physicians and/or the difficulty in reconciling time to undertake work together. Within this reality, this PhD thesis uses computational intelligence in medical decision-making support for remote diagnosis. For that purpose, it presents a fuzzy method to assist the diagnosis of breast cancer, able to process and sort data extracted from breast tissue obtained by FNA. This method is integrated into a virtual environment for collaborative remote diagnosis, whose model was developed providing for the incorporation of prerequisite Modules for Pre Diagnosis to support medical decision. On the fuzzy Method Development, the process of knowledge acquisition was carried out by extraction and analysis of numerical data in gold standard data base and by interviews and discussions with medical experts. The method has been tested and validated with real cases and, according to the sensitivity and specificity achieved (correct diagnosis of tumors, malignant and benign respectively), the results obtained were satisfactory, considering the opinions of doctors and the quality standards for diagnosis of breast cancer and comparing them with other studies involving breast cancer diagnosis by FNA.

Mapeamento geoambiental do campo de dunas Pirangi-Potengi com ênfase a San Vale e Lagoinha Natal/RN: um instrumento de apoio ao planejamento ambiental

The city of Natal-RN is constructed on dune areas with wavy relives softly waved and green areas that help to keep a pleasant climate, amongst these is distinguished field Pirangi-Potengi the dune with the areas of San Vale and Lagoinha. These environments are being substituted gradual for property and other workmanships of engineering on behalf of the urban expansion. This study the elaboration of a geoambiental mapping of Field had as objective generality Pirangi-Potengi the Dune with emphasis the San Vale and Lagoinha in Natal-RN. The done mapping had as objective specific to elaborate a vegetation map, a map of registers in cadastre of ambient problems to dunes, a map of flooding susceptibility, a map of vulnerability to the underground water contamination and a map of use and occupation of the ground. Of the carried through analysis, the area in study reveals sufficiently degraded, remaining only few green areas and dunares, as well as, the vulnerable presence of areas of vulnerability in floods and areas the contamination of the water-bearing one. The gotten results allow to affirm that this type of mapping, is of great importance for analysis and evaluation of the environment of the city

O ambiente virtual na formação inicial de professores de alemão como apoio para o ensino e a aprendizagem da língua e a reflexão sobre ações docentes

Estudiosos dos campos da Educação, da Linguística Aplicada e da Formação de Professores de Línguas insistem hoje na grande importância da inclusão de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TICs) na formação inicial, bem como na necessidade de promover o desenvolvimento do pensamento crítico-reflexivo dos futuros professores. Tomando como pressupostos teóricos estudos acerca das características da sociedade de informação, dos ambientes virtuais e da formação de professores, este trabalho tem como objetivo discutir possibilidades oferecidas pela plataforma Moodle de aprendizagem na formação inicial de professores de alemão. Para tanto, apresentaremos diferentes formas de uso de ambientes virtuais e de ferramentas neles disponíveis, que demonstraram ser de grande valor no processo de formação de licenciandos, tanto em língua alemã, quanto durante suas práticas iniciais. As experiências apontam para um valor inestimável de ambientes virtuais no acompanhamento de licenciandos no processo de aprendizagem da língua e nas primeiras experiências com a docência.