The potential for community groups to promote sustainable living

In recent times there has been a growing recognition amongst policy-makers of the role for community-based action in contributing to the broader aims of energy policy and climate change. In this paper, we will examine the potential for existing community groups to use their influence and elements of internal cohesion to encourage more widespread understanding and adoption of sustainable lifestyle habits; both amongst their members and within the broader communities of which they are a part. Findings are presented from recent empirical work with a range of well-established community groups for whom environmental issues are not their main priority. A central aspect of the research was to explore both the current status and potential role of groups that may have the capacity to reach and influence a broader sphere of the public than energy/environment specific initiatives of recent times have been able to achieve. Representing a diversity of interests, age groups and functionality, the results suggest that the potential for more effective ‘bottom-up’ engagement on climate change and sustainable living might be given fresh impetus by these types of established community groups and their networks. An assessment of what motivates participation and membership in the groups highlights a series of factors common to all groups and a smaller number that are significant for particular groups individually. It is argued that an appreciation of motivating factors can be useful in understanding more clearly how such groups are able to survive and maintain cohesion over time. The findings also suggest that climate change action means different things for different groups, with the diversity of the groups bringing with it the challenge of making sustainable living relevant to a range of interests and different shared values.

Using mobile devices to enhance undergraduate field research

Mobile devices can enhance undergraduate research projects and students’ research capabilities. The use of mobile devices such as tablet computers will not automatically make undergraduates better researchers, but their use should make investigations, writing, and publishing more effective and may even save students time. We have explored some of the possibilities of using “tablets” and “smartphones” to aid the research and inquiry process in geography and bioscience fieldwork. We provide two case studies as illustration of how students working in small research groups use mobile devices to gather and analyze primary data in field-based inquiry. Since April 2010, Apple’s iPad has changed the way people behave in the digital world and how they access their music, watch videos, or read their email much as the entrepreneurs Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive intended. Now with “apps” and “the cloud” and the ubiquitous references to them appearing in the press and on TV, academics’ use of tablets is also having an impact on education and research. In our discussion we will refer to use of smartphones such as the iPhone, iPod, and Android devices under the term “tablet”. Android and Microsoft devices may not offer the same facilities as the iPad/iphone, but many app producers now provide versions for several operating systems. Smartphones are becoming more affordable and ubiquitous (Melhuish and Falloon 2010), but a recent study of undergraduate students (Woodcock et al. 2012, 1) found that many students who own smartphones are “largely unaware of their potential to support learning”. Importantly, however, students were found to be “interested in and open to the potential as they become familiar with the possibilities” (Woodcock et al. 2012). Smartphones and iPads could be better utilized than laptops when conducting research in the field because of their portability (Welsh and France 2012). It is imperative for faculty to provide their students with opportunities to discover and employ the potential uses of mobile devices in their learning. However, it is not only the convenience of the iPad or tablet devices or smartphones we wish to promote, but also a way of thinking and behaving digitally. We essentially suggest that making a tablet the center of research increases the connections between related research activities.

Participatory urban planning for climate change adaptation in coastal cities: lessons from a pilot experience in Maputo, Mozambique

This paper proposes a rights-based approach for participatory urban planning for climate change adaptation in urban areas. Participatory urban planning ties climate change adaptation to local development opportunities. Previous discussions suggest that participatory urban planning may help to understand structural inequalities, to gain, even if temporally, institutional support and to deliver a planning process in constant negotiation with local actors. Building upon an action research project which implemented a process of participatory urban planning for climate change in Maputo, Mozambique, this paper reflects upon the practical lessons that emerged from these experiences, in relation to the incorporation of climate change information, the difficulties to secure continued support from local governments and the opportunities for local impacts through the implementation of the proposals emerging from this process.

LEARNING STUDY: ROZVOJ ŠKOLY SKRZE KOLEGIÁLNÍ UČENÍ UČITELŮ : Learning study: school development through collegial learning of teachers

The aim of this article is to describe how the Learning Study method (LS) was implemented in a Swedish upper secondary school, as well as how the principals and the teachers involved perceived this to affect teaching at, and the development of, the school. It is an empirical study that was conducted as an action research project over a period of three years. The project to implement the LS method was based on the assumption that proper training is the result of collegial activity that occurs when teachers learn from each other. The teachers in this study were, in general, positive about using the LS method. It created opportunities to meet and talk about teaching skills, developed better professional relationships between colleagues, and offered a systematic method for planning, implementing and monitoring teaching. However, working together requires that time be set aside to allow for implementation of the LS method. This is crucial, as the LS method is a rather expensive way to make school development work. This places heavy demands on principals to create the necessary conditions for the implementation of the LS method.

Peça por peça: sistematização de um programa de responsabilidade social

O objetivo da dissertação foi analisar o processo de desenvolvimento e a aplicação de ações sociais e trabalho voluntário, que demonstram a preocupação da empresa com o seu papel social, através de uma participação mais ativa, concreta e efetiva, influenciando na ocorrência das mudanças que a sociedade necessita. O foco do estudo foi analisar um dessas empresas, notadamente a Robert Bosch Limitada, de capital alemão, radicada no Brasil desde o início da década de 1950. Sendo considerada, mais especificamente, uma de suas unidades, localizada no Paraná desde 1975. A Bosch Curitiba, através da implementação de um programa de ação social baseado principalmente na educação e no desenvolvimento sustentável, pretendeu criar condições para que a comunidade de um bairro da periferia de Curitiba pudesse identificar oportunidades de desenvolvimento econômico e social. Esta dissertação é o resultado dessa discussão e se desenvolveu por meio de um programa de ação social que evidencia a importância da participação ativa da empresa na comunidade, baseada em projetos que evidenciam a educação como a essência para o desenvolvimento social. A Vila Verde, comunidade da periferia de Curitiba, foi escolhida pela empresa para implantar o programa de responsabilidade social (Peça por Peça). Nessa comunidade, o foco principal foram os membros da faixa etária de O a 18 anos. O programa, portanto, teve a participação de uma empresa, dos seus colaboradores, como voluntários, e das escolas da comunidade envolvida. A coleta dos dados deu-se por diferentes procedimentos: pesquisa bibliográfica, pesquisa documental, observação participante e entrevistas. Os dados qualitativos foram comparados, e foram apresentados em forma de relatório. Os dados quantitativos foram tabulados e avaliados, servindo de apoio e confirmação aos resultados apresentados pela análise dos dados quantitativos. A atuação do programa social, Peça por Peça, foi no sentido de sensibilizar, estimular e criar condições de conscientizar os envolvidos que as mudanças necessárias somente serão efetivas na medida em que aumentar o seu nível de comprometimento, ou seja, tomar-se uma população capaz de se organizar e de preservar e defender seus interesses e anseios, desenvolvendo seu papel natural do exercício da cidadania e de uma convivência social que assegure direitos básicos para qualquer processo e evolução de uma sociedade. Sistematizar um programa de responsabilidade social, mais do que pretender criar soluções inovadoras, busca consolidar um outro pressuposto, em que a maioria das atividades sociais implementadas, sejam elas de cunho filantrópico ou não, dificilmente conseguem se manter e alegando várias razões, mas de que alguma forma sempre se reflete na falta de uma sistemática de trabalho, com metas, monitoramento, resultados esperados, com um planejamento estratégico que projete as ações a curto, médio e longo prazo. Isso também é uma evidência de que um projeto social não direcionado para atividades assistencialistas, mas sim para a busca de exercer efetivamente a responsabilidade social, não deve ter no fator tempo a principal referência de sucesso do empreendimento, mas sim de pequenas ações de melhoria de forma continuada e planejada, auto-sustentada, efetiva, mensurável e compartilhada.

Corpo e escrita: linhas e entrelinhas da produção de conhecimento em sala de aula

Body and writing: Lines and between-lines of production of knowledge in the classroom it is an ethnographic research, longitudinal character, based on experience while experienced educator of the Escola Municipal Professor Amadeu Araújo, located in the city of Natal-RN, from which are made reflections about texts written by students who have distorted age/education level, in the process of literacy. Here as initial goal: to discuss the production of students writing as a process body, considering the record of experiences and the impressions they have made during the teaching process. We initially by a conception of phenomenological body, by understanding it in its complexity, a phenomenon that is made from its relationship with the world and with the Other. The records examined were produced between the year 2000 and 2005 involving writings of 106 students, constituting a universe of 136 texts, from which, delimited a corpus of 27 texts. The relevance with respect to the theme and recurrence in which they were detected, were up to elements that allowed a systematization methodology, defining the following units of analysis: Body, written in everyday; body, written and sexuality; body, written and enjoyment poetics; body, writing and other stories. We used the techniques of search, participant observation, based on the actions and interactions body expressed during the experiment and the analysis of documents that consisted of students in the texts and secondary sources, among them, the records of daily class, reports and projects developed, as well as reports of my pedagogical practice, as a researcher inserted in the investigative process. The experience developed, showed a writing school able to express nuances of human complexity, showing that learning is made in the action body, crossed by various forms of language and pointing to the relevance of a pedagogical work able to articulate the dialogue between the written and registrations body of the students, as subjects of learning

A etnomatemática dos trabalhadores das cerâmicas de Russas-Ce e o contexto escolar: delineando recomendações pedagógicas a partir de uma experiência educacional

It is still common among contemporary educational proposals an overemphasis abstraction, to the formalism and symbolism of mathematical knowledge at the expense of the sociocultural aspects of Mathematics. Coming up by questioning some academic mathematical tenets and valuing knowledge developed in different sociocultural contexts within Mathematical Education, the Ethnomatematics is consolidating itself as a research field. Despite its contributions to the educational context, because its philosophical character and the paucity of debates about the subject, the implementation of educational proposals for basic education are scarce. Given this situation, this dissertation comes up with a view to develop an educational intervention in the light of Ethnomathematics in a class of 6th grade of an elementary school from a red ceramic industries workers community, located in a countryside from Russas-CE and from this intervention, to develop a set of pedagogical recommendations aiming basic education teachers. Adopting a perspective of qualitative research, particularly guided by action research, this study used observation, field diary, interviews and activities with students as tools for data collection. It was found that the use of field research as part of teaching and learning favored the placement of students as critical subjects of their own reality . Furthermore, the educational experience culminated in the development of a method of teaching based on a relationship between protocooperational Ethnomatematics and the Resolution of Problems. It is necessary to broaden the debate about the ways in which the Ethnomatematics can contribute to the school context, bringing proposals closer to the reality of basic education teachers in order to help the promotion of an education which values cultural diversity without taking away the students from the access of the academic knowledge

Práticas de leitura e escrita na formação em ciências e tecnologia

The discussion about the need of improving the reading and the writing practices of professionals from the most different knowledge areas has caused, in Brazilian and foreign institutions of higher education, a movement of insertion of curricula components whose focus is the reading and the writing in academic formation. To contributing with the reflection about that discussion, this master s degree dissertation has as object of study the situated linguistic formation. Our general objective is to analyze a linguistic formation proposal to graduating students from the Bachelor s degree in Science and Technology (BCT) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). To constructing that analysis, we have established four specific objectives: a) verifying if the ten brazilian Institutions of Higher Education which offer the BCT have curricula components of reading and writing directed to that formation; b) describing how these Bachelor s degree reading and writing curricula components are presented; c) examining differences and similarities which, in general, exist among curricula components related to reading and writing in each one of the researched institutions; d) revealing which categories delineate the linguistic formation developed in the BCT of the UFRN. In order to reaching our goals, this work has been based on the dialogical conception of the language (BAKHTIN [1952-1953] 2010), on the literacy studies (KLEIMAN [1995] 2008; TINOCO, 2008) and on the critical pedagogy (FREIRE, 1980; 2007). Methodologically, this qualitative research of ethnographic direction (ANDRÉ, 1995) is grounded in Applied Linguistics (PEREIRA; ROCA, 2009; PASCHOAL; CELANI (Orgs.), 1992). This research has the contribution of professors, scholars and monitors of the field of Reading and Writing Practices (PLE) and also graduating students from the UFRN BCT which had already studied PLE-I and/or PLE-II. The tools used for data collection/generation were: curricula components programs related to reading and writing in the BCT in the researched higher education institutions (IES), questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and profiles. The generated data allowed us to establish the following analysis categories: situationality (real situation, thematic contemporaneity and thematic focalization) and literacy projects (learning community and protagonism). The results achieved show that most IES which offer BCT worry about improving the reading and writing competences of their graduating students; however, there is still a lot to be done (increase of the number of class hours, contents and methodological aspects review, theoretical referential sophistication) so that the curricula components can be configured as a situated and significant linguistic formation. Finally, we make some suggestions for improving the work which has been made in the BCT of the UFRN, making then the mother tongue teaching in courses of the area of exact and technological sciences stronger

Telejornalismo e interatividade na TV digital: uma construção colaborativa e participativa no espaço digital

Pós-graduação em Televisão Digital: Informação e Conhecimento - FAAC

A escritura da voz: uma experiência na prática de leitura/escuta de As aventuras de Pinóquio, de Collodi, no ensino fundamental

Pós-graduação em Educação - IBRC

Falar ou não falar?: eis a questão

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE

Projeto dança-cidadã: uma articulação da Cia Estável de Dança de Bauru, poder público e comunidade na promoção da arte-educação

In recent years, the concept of art education has been changing substantially the artistic and cultural education in the Brazilian educational system, particularly in relation to the formation of a critical awareness and practice of citizenship. In this process, the Community Public Relations and Public Communication excel in fostering alliances between government and community. Based on literature review and authors debates, such as Geertz, Santos, White, Freire, Araujo, Barbosa, Kunsch e Peruzzo. Besides the analysis of important materials, official documents and Brazilian projects involving art, culture and education, such as Research-Action Report 2013, the National Plan for Culture, the National Education Plan and the Municipal Act 6119; this paper seeks to explicit this affirmation, assuming the social transformation aiming a full citizenship, as a motivational factor. In this paper we also present a plan that includes a project in art education for the Stable Dance Company and the public elementary schools in Bauru SP

Discourse and Cooperative Learning in the Math Classroom

In this action research study of my 6th grade math classroom I investigated the effects of increased student discourse and cooperative learning on the students’ ability to explain and understand math concepts and problem solving, as well as its effects on their use of vocabulary and written explanations. I also investigated how it affected students’ attitudes. I discovered that increased student discourse and cooperative learning resulted in positive changes in students’ attitudes about their ability to explain and understand math, as well as their actual ability to explain and understand math concepts. Evidence in regard to use of vocabulary and written explanations generally showed little change, but this may have been related to insufficient data. As a result of this research, I plan to continue to use cooperative learning groups and increased student discourse as a teaching practice in all of my math classes. I also plan to include training on cooperative learning strategies as well as more emphasis on vocabulary and writing in my math classroom.

Cooperative Learning Groups in the Eighth Grade Math Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of 8th grade mathematics students, I investigated whether cooperative learning would lead to a better understanding of the mathematical concepts and thus more success for the students. I used my three eighth grade classes with two using cooperative groups and the third not. I discovered that the students who wanted to work in cooperative groups were more successful than they had been. I also discovered that the grouping itself has a great effect on how the group works together. The wrong grouping of students can lead to disaster and many headaches for the teacher. Overall the two classes that used cooperative groups did better grade wise than the one class that was taught using the traditional way of not using cooperative groups. As a result of this research, I plan to continue using cooperative groups but will be more aware of the students who are grouped together.