ESL teacher profiles of ICT integration in their classroom practices and assessment activities : a portrait viewed through the lens of some Quebec teachers’ social representations

Abstract : Information and communication technologies (ICTs, henceforth) have become ubiquitous in our society. The plethora of devices competing with the computer, from iPads to the Interactive whiteboard, just to name a few, has provided teachers and students alike with the ability to communicate and access information with unprecedented accessibility and speed. It is only logical that schools reflect these changes given that their purpose is to prepare students for the future. Surprisingly enough, research indicates that ICT integration into teaching activities is still marginal. Many elementary and secondary schoolteachers are not making effective use of ICTs in their teaching activities as well as in their assessment practices. The purpose of the current study is a) to describe Quebec ESL teachers’ profiles of using ICTs in their daily teaching activities; b) to describe teachers’ ICT integration and assessment practices; and c) to describe teachers’ social representations regarding the utility and relevance of ICT use in their daily teaching activities and assessment practices. In order to attain our objectives, we based our theoretical framework, principally, on the social representations (SR, henceforth) theory and we defined most related constructs which were deemed fundamental to the current thesis. We also collected data from 28 ESL elementary and secondary school teachers working in public and private sectors. The interview guide used to that end included a range of items to elicit teachers’ SR in terms of ICT daily use in teaching activities as well as in assessment practices. In addition, we carried out our data analyses from a textual statistics perspective, a particular mode of content analysis, in order to extract the indicators underlying teachers’ representations of the teachers. The findings suggest that although almost all participants use a wide range of ICT tools in their practices, ICT implementation is seemingly not exploited to its fullest potential and, correspondingly, is likely to produce limited effects on students’ learning. Moreover, none of the interviewees claim that they use ICTs in their assessment practices and they still hold to the traditional paper-based assessment (PBA, henceforth) approach of assessing students’ learning. Teachers’ common discourse reveals a gap between the positive standpoint with regards to ICT integration, on the one hand, and the actual uses of instructional technology, on the other. These results are useful for better understanding the way ESL teachers in Quebec currently view their use of ICTs, particularly for evaluation purposes. In fact, they provide a starting place for reconsidering the implementation of ICTs in elementary and secondary schools. They may also be useful to open up avenues for the development of a future research program in this regard.

Etapas de cambio conductual relacionado al consumo de frutas y verduras en escolares de Bogotá, Colombia

Objetivo: Describir la relación de las etapas de cambio conductual frente al consumo de frutas y verduras con el estado nutricional en un grupo de escolares de Bogotá, Colombia, pertenecientes al estudio FUPRECOL. Métodos: Estudio de corte transversal en 1.922 niños y adolescentes entre 9 y 17 años, pertenecientes a nueve instituciones educativas oficiales de Bogotá. Se aplicó de manera auto-diligenciada el cuestionario de cambio de comportamiento (CCC-Fuprecol) validado en el “estudio FUPRECOL” y se calculó el Índice de Masa Corporal (IMC) como marcador del estado nutricional. Se calcularon prevalencias y se establecieron asociaciones mediante modelos de regresión logística binaria. Resultados: La muestra estuvo conformada por 1.045 niños-niñas y adolescentes vs hombres (45.6%) y mujeres (54.3%) y 877. La mayor proporción de consumo de frutas en el subgrupo de hombres (niños entre 9 y 12 años vs. adolescentes entre 13 y 17 años) se observó en la etapa de mantenimiento, (53.3 % vs. 38.8 %, X2 p<0.001), seguido de preparación/acción (25.0 % vs. 32.4 %, X2 p<0.001). En mujeres entre 9 y 12 años, la mayor proporción se ubicó en la etapa de mantenimiento (54.4 %), a diferencia de las adolescentes entre 13 y 17 años que acusaron mayor frecuencia la etapa de preparación/acción (42.0 %). Se observó que pertenecer al grupo de mujeres, se asociaba como variable para el cumplimiento de la recomendación mínima de frutas y verduras con valores de OR 1.54 (IC95% 1.22-1.93) y OR 1.48 (IC95% 1.19-1.84), respectivamente. Conclusiones: Aproximadamente, 66 % de los participantes tienen la intención o la voluntad de cumplir las recomendaciones de consumo de frutas y verduras. La identificación temprana de niños y adolescentes con bajo consumo de alimentos vegetales, permitirá implementar intervenciones para promover comportamientos saludables a fin de prevenir el riesgo cardiometabólico en la edad adulta.

Transportation of Children in Ground Ambulances: Professionals' Knowledge and Safety Measures

Background: The transport of children in ground ambulances is a rarely studied topic worldwide. The ambulance vehicle is a unique and complex environment with particular challenges for the safe, correct and effective transportation of patients. Unlike the well developed and readily available guidelines on the safe transportation of a child in motor vehicles, there is a lack on consistent specifications for transporting children in ambulances. Nurses are called daily to transfer children to hospitals or other care centers, so safe transport practices should be a major concern. Purpose: to know which are the safety precautions and specific measures used in the transport of children in ground ambulances by nurses and firefighters and to identify what knowledge these professionals had about safe modes of children transportation in ground ambulances. Methods: In this context, an exploratory - descriptive study and quantitative analysis was conducted. A questionnaire was completed by 135 nurses and firefighters / ambulance crew based on 4 possible children transport scenarios proposed by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and covered 5 different children´s age groups (new born children, 1 to 12 months; 1 to 3 years old; 4 to 7 years old and 8 to 12 years old). Results: The main results showed a variety of safety measures used by the professionals and a significant difference between their actual mode of transportation and the mode they consider to be the ideal considering security goals. In addition, findings showed that achieved scores related to what ambulance crews do in the considered scenarios reflect mostly satisfactory levels of transportation rather than optimum levels of safety, according to NHTSA recommendations. Variables as gender, educational qualifications, occupational group and local where professionals work seem to influence the transport options. Female professionals and nurses from pediatric units appear to do a safer transportation of children in ground ambulances than other professionals. Conclusion: Several professionals refereed unawareness of the safest transportation options for children in ambulances and did not to know the existence of specific recommendations for this type of transportation. The dispersion of the results suggests the need for investment in professional training and further regulation for this type of transportation.

Transportation of Children In Ground Ambulances: Professionals' Knowledge and Safety Measures.

Summary The transport of children in ground ambulances is a rarely studied topic worldwide. The ambulance vehicle is a unique environment with particular challenges for the safe, correct and effective transportation of patients. Unlike the well developed and available guidelines on the transportation of children in motor vehicles, there is a lack on specifications for transporting children in ambulances. Nurses are called daily to transfer children to hospitals or other care centres, so safe transport practices should be a major concern. Methods An exploratory - descriptive study and quantitative analysis was conducted. The safety measures used by the professionals in the transportation of children in ambulances were analysed based on the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) recommendations. A questionnaire was applied to 135 nurses and firefighters/crew of Portuguese ambulances using 4 possible transport situations and covering 5 paediatric age groups. Results There are a variety of safety measures used by professionals and a significant difference between actual mode of transportation and the mode they consider to be the ideal. In addition, findings showed that scores related to what ambulance crews do in these scenarios reflect most satisfactory levels of transportation rather than the optimum levels, according to NHTSA recommendations. Variables as gender, educational qualifications, occupational group and local where professionals work seem to influence the transport options. Female professionals and pediatric nurses do a safer transportation of children in ambulances than other professionals. Conclusion The results suggest the need for investment in professional training and further regulation for this type of transportation.

Prática de ensino supervisionada em Pré-escolar e em 1.º ciclo do ensino básico: organização de ambientes educativos promotores da educação em ciências naturais

O presente relatório, elaborado no âmbito Prática de Ensino Supervisionada em Pré-Escolar e em 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico dá a conhecer os processos de aprendizagem imanentes à prática desenvolvida em contexto. Em Educação Pré- Escolar elaborei um memorial de formação que permitiu refletir sobre as experiências vividas no estágio, possibilitando a aquisição de conhecimentos e aprendizagens profissionais. No 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico o estágio também assumiu uma perspetiva reflexiva que me permitiu aprender a profissão, mas a dinâmica do trabalho com as crianças possibilitou, igualmente, a realização de um projeto alinhado com a investigação-ação. Os contextos foram diferenciados pela sua especificidade, quer pela situação geográfica e cultural das instituições, quer pelo nível de ensino em que se desenvolveram. A prática educativa em 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico ocorreu na escola EB/JI Galopim de Carvalho em Évora, já a prática em Pré-Escolar ocorreu no Núcleo de Educação Infantil Colônia Z-11, na cidade de Florianópolis no Brasil. No que respeita à dimensão investigativa, dediquei especial atenção à “Organização de Ambientes Educativos Promotores da Educação em Ciências Naturais”, com vista a compreender como é que aprender ciências pode contribuir para a literacia científica das crianças tendo em vista o exercício de uma cidadania informada. Para tal as crianças envolveram-se ativamente no processo de construção do seu próprio conhecimento. Recorri a autores que me deram contributos para conceber, planear e fundamentar as práticas, quer do ponto de vista pedagógico quer do ponto de vista dos conteúdos curriculares. Para a recolha e tratamento da informação, atendi aos contextos onde o trabalho se realizou, bem como às observações dos diversos intervenientes na supervisão dos estágios, a planificações e reflexões semanais que fui elaborando e me permitiram concretizar uma análise imprescindível para as aprendizagens concretizadas e apresentadas no presente Relatório; REPORT OF SUPERVISED TEACHING PRACTICE IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION AND THE 1ST CYCLE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION: ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS PROMOTERS OF EDUCATION IN NATURAL SCIENCES Abstract: The present report, elaborated in the scope of the Practice of Supervised Teaching in Pre-School and in the Primary Education, makes to known the learning processes inherent to the practice developed in context. In Pre-School Education, I created a training memorial that allowed me to reflect on the experiences I had live in the internship, making possible the acquisition of professional’s knowledges and learnings. In Primary School the internship also assumed a reflexive perspective which allowed me to learn the profession, but the dynamic of the work with the children allowed me to, equally, the realization of a project lined up with the action-research. The contexts where differentiated by their specificity, by the institutions geographic location, by the cultural situation and by the learning level where they were developed. The educational practice in Primary School occurred in the school EB/JI Galopim de Carvalho in Évora and the Pre-School practice occurred in Núcleo de Educação Infantil Colônia Z-11, in Brazil in the city of Florianopolis. In the matter of the investigative dimension, I dedicated special attention to the “Organization of Educative Environments Promoters of Natural Sciences Education”, to understand how learning sciences can contribute to scientifically literacy of the children, having in view the exercise of an informed citizenship. For this the children involved actively in the process of building their own knowledge. I resorted to authors who give me contributes to conceive, to plan and to fundament the practices, both from the pedagogical point of view and from the curricular contents point of view. To the collect and treat of data, I attend to the contexts where the work were realized, to the observations of the diverse actors in the internship supervision, to the daily plans and weekly reflections which I had been elaborating and which allowed me to concretize an indispensable analysis to the learnings achieve and presented in the present report.

Talent in first, second, and third graders: teachers’ perspectives vs. educational reality

The article addresses the subject of talent by emphasizing different conceptions about talent and by proposing an approach to this theme, from the point of view of talent in boys and girls. It also provides an analysis of research conducted with first, second, and third graders in public and private schools of the Costa Rican Education System. Using questionnaires and observations of the dynamics of the classroom as measurement tools, this study contrasts teachers` expectations about their students’ talent with the reality of the class environment, pointing out the existing abyss between teachers’ beliefs and their professional practices.

Effect Of Daily Use Of An Enzymatic Denture Cleanser On Candida Albicans Biofilms Formed On Polyamide And Poly(methyl Methacrylate) Resins: An In Vitro Study.

Candida biofilms on denture surfaces are substantially reduced after a single immersion in denture cleanser. However, whether this effect is maintained when dentures are immersed in cleanser daily is unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the daily use of enzymatic cleanser on Candida albicans biofilms on denture base materials. The surfaces of polyamide and poly(methyl methacrylate) resin specimens (n=54) were standardized and divided into 12 groups (n=9 per group), according to study factors (material type, treatment type, and periods of treatment). Candida albicans biofilms were allowed to form over 72 hours, after which the specimens were treated with enzymatic cleanser once daily for 1, 4, or 7 days. Thereafter, residual biofilm was ultrasonically removed and analyzed for viable cells (colony forming units/mm(2)) and enzymatic activity (phospholipase, aspartyl-protease, and hemolysin). Factors that interfered with the response variables were analyzed by 3-way ANOVA with the Holm-Sidak multiple comparison method (α=.05). Polyamide resin presented more viable cells of Candida albicans (P<.001) for both the evaluated treatment types and periods. Although enzymatic cleansing significantly (P<.001) reduced viable cells, daily use did not maintain this reduction (P<.001). Phospholipase activity significantly increased with time (P<.001) for both materials and treatments. However, poly(methyl methacrylate) based resin (P<.001) and enzymatic cleansing treatment (P<.001) contributed to lower phospholipase activity. Aspartyl-protease and hemolysin activities were not influenced by study factors (P>.05). Although daily use of an enzymatic cleanser reduced the number of viable cells and phospholipase activity, this treatment was not effective against residual biofilm over time.

[strategies For Integration Of Health Care Practices And Sanitary Surveillance In The Context Of The Implementation Of Rede Cegonha - A Brazilian Mother And Infant Health Care Network].

Mother and infant mortality has been the scope of analysis throughout the history of public health in Brazil and various strategies to tackle the issue have been proposed to date. The Ministry of Health has been working on this and the Rede Cegonha strategy is the most recent policy in this context. Given the principle of comprehensive health care and the structure of the Unified Health System in care networks, it is necessary to ensure the integration of health care practices, among which are the sanitary surveillance actions (SSA). Considering that the integration of health care practices and SSA can contribute to reduce mother and infant mortality rates, this article is a result of qualitative research that analyzed the integration of these actions in four cities in the State of São Paulo/Brazil: Campinas, Indaiatuba, Jaguariúna and Santa Bárbara D'Oeste. The research was conducted through interviews with SSA and maternal health managers, and the data were evaluated using thematic analysis. The results converge with other studies, identifying the isolation of health care practices and SSA. The insertion of SSA in collectively-managed areas appears to be a potential strategy for health planning and implementation of actions in the context under scrutiny.

Factors associated with the prevalence of hypertension and control practices among elderly residents of São Paulo city, Brazil

The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of hypertension and control practices among the elderly. The survey analyzed data from 872 elderly people in São Paulo, Brazil, through a cluster sampling, stratified according to education and income. A Poisson multiple regression model checked for the existence of factors associated with hypertension. The prevalence of self-reported hypertension among the elderly was 46.9%. Variables associated with hypertension were self-rated health, alcohol consumption, gender, and hospitalization in the last year, regardless of age. The three most common measures taken to control hypertension, but only rarely, are oral medication, routine salt-free diet and physical activity. Lifestyle and socioeconomic status did not affect the practice of control, but knowledge about the importance of physical activity was higher among those older people with higher education and greater income. The research suggests that health policies that focus on primary care to encourage lifestyle changes among the elderly are necessary.

Escola, democracia e a construção de personalidades morais

This article intends to discuss the relationship between morality, democracy and education within the perspective of the complex thinking, pointing to paths and proposals for its effective implementation in the educational routine, under the conviction that this is an imperative of the new social demands presented to the contemporary schooling. Understanding that one of the purposes of education is the ethical development, the author proposes intentional actions such that through them the school practices can offer to the subjects of education the necessary tools to build their cognitive, affective, cultural, and organic competence, thereby enabling them to act morally in the world. To that effect, seven aspects of school reality that hamper or contribute to school democratization are identified and discussed, which must be understood from the paradigm of complexity: school contents, classroom methodology, the nature of interpersonal relationships, the values, self-esteem and self-knowledge of the school community, as well as the school management processes.

A Educação Física no contexto da nova estrutura do ensino fundamental : uma proposta para o primeiro ano

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Qualidade de vida na empresa : conceitos e práticas em uso (no segmento do comércio de bens e serviços na cidade de São Paulo)

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Metodos de avaliação em Educação Fisica no ensino fundamental

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Interação entre alunos com e sem deficiencia na educação fisica escolar : validação de instrumento

Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Faculdade de Educação Física

Educação do corpo e vida ao ar livre : natureza e educação fisica em São Paulo (1930-1945)

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física