Overconfidence and confirmation bias: are future managers vulnerable?

Decision makers often use ‘rules of thumb’, or heuristics, to help them handling decision situations (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979b). Those cognitive shortcuts are taken by the brain to cope with complexity and time limitation of decisions, by reducing the burden of information processing (Hodgkinson et al, 1999; Newell and Simon, 1972). Although crucial for decision-making, heuristics come at the cost of occasionally sending us off course, that is, make us fall into judgment traps (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974). Over fifty years of psychological research has shown that heuristics can lead to systematic errors, or biases, in decision-making. This study focuses on two particularly impactful biases to decision-making – the overconfidence and confirmation biases. A specific group – top management school students and recent graduates - were subject to classic experiments to measure their level of susceptibility to those biases. This population is bound to take decision positions at companies, and eventually make decisions that will impact not only their companies but society at large. The results show that this population is strongly biased by overconfidence, but less so to the confirmation bias. No significant relationship between the level of susceptibility to the overconfidence and to the confirmation bias was found.

Percepção de qualidade das escolas do ponto de vista de alunos do ensino médio

This study aims at evaluating the perception towards the quality of services offered by private high schools in Brazil. For this purpose, field research was conducted at four different schools: two in Rio de Janeiro, one in Belo Horizonte and one in the countryside of Minas Gerais. Such research was conducted by using an instrument known a SERVQUAL, a framework developed for assessing service quality. Target audience were 1st and 2nd year high school students and the research was carried out at the schools. 44 items were evaluated, 22 being related to students’ expectations towards the services which should be offered by the school. The other 22 items evaluated students’ perception towards the actual service offered by the school. By analyzing the results it was possible to measure the difference between the service the students expected from the schools and the one actually offered by the schools. Results show great opportunities for improvement in the services and also contribute to a better and wider understanding concerning basic education service quality.

O novo federalismo social e o Rio: desenho de programas complementares de transferência de renda condicionada

Brazilian public policy entered in the so-called new social federalism through its conditional cash transfers. States and municipalities can operate together through the nationwide platform of the Bolsa Familia Program (BFP), complementing federal actions with local innovations. The state and the city of Rio de Janeiro have created programs named, respectively, Renda Melhor (RM) and Família Carioca (FC). These programs make use of the operational structure of the BFP, which facilitates locating beneficiaries, issuing cards, synchronizing payment dates and access passwords and introducing new conditionalities. The payment system of the two programs complements the estimated permanent household income up to the poverty line established, giving more to those who have less. Similar income complementation system was subsequently adopted in the BFP and the Chilean Ingreso Ético Familiar, which also follow the principle of estimation of income used in the FC and in the RM. Instead of using the declared income, the value of the Rio cash transfers are set using the extensive collection of information obtained from the Single Registry of Social Programs (Cadastro Único): physical configuration of housing, access to public services, education and work conditions for all family members, presence of vulnerable groups, disabilities, pregnant or lactating women, children and benefits from other official transfers such as the BFP. With this multitude of assets and limitations, the permanent income of each individual is estimated. The basic benefit is defined by the poverty gap and priority is given to the poorest. These subnational programs use international benchmarks as a neutral ground between different government levels and mandates. Their poverty line is the highest of the first millennium goal of the United Nations (UN): US$ 2 per person per day adjusted for the cost of living. The other poverty line of the UN, US$ 1.25, was implicitly adopted as the national extreme poverty line in 2011. The exchange of methodologies between federal entities has happened both ways. The FC began with the 575,000 individuals living in the city of Rio de Janeiro who were on the payroll of the BFP. Its system of impact evaluation benefited from bi-monthly standardized examinations. In the educational conditionalities, the two programs reward students' progress, a potential advantage for those who most need to advance. The municipal program requires greater school attendance than that of the BFP and the presence of students’ parents at the bimonthly meetings held on Saturdays. Students must achieve a grade of 8 or improve at least 20% in each exam to receive a bi-monthly premium of R$50. In early childhood, priority is given to the poor children in the program Single Administrative Register (CadÚnico) to enroll in kindergarten, preschools and complementary activities. The state program reaches more than one million people with a payment system similar to the municipal one. Moreover, it innovates in that it transfers awards given to high school students to savings accounts. The prize increases and is paid to the student, who can withdraw up to 30% annually. The total can reach R$3,800 per low-income student. The State and the city rewarded already education professionals according to student performance, now completing the chain of demand incentives on poor students and their parents. Increased performance is higher among beneficiaries and the presence of their guardians at meetings is twice compared to non beneficiaries; The Houston program, also focuses on aligning the incentives to teachers, parents and students. In general, the plan is to explore strategic complementarities, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The objective is to stimulate, through targets and incentives, synergies between social actors (teachers, parents, students), between areas (education, assistance, work) and different levels of government. The cited programs sum their efforts and divide labor so as to multiply interactions and make a difference in the lives of the poor.

Cognitive abilities, sociocultural background and academic achievement

The infl uence of students’ sociocultural background on academic achievement is a well established fact. Research also points out that sociocultural background is related to students’ cognitive abilities and these have an effect on their academic achievement. However, the mediator role of cognitive abilities on the relationship between sociocultural background and academic achievement is less well known. A structural equation model that represents these relationships was tested in a sample (N= 728) of Portuguese junior high school students. Multigroup analysis of the model showed the importance of the cognitive ability mediation effect between sociocultural background and academic achievement in the 7th and 9th grades, but not in the 8th grade. This difference may be the result of the academic transition experienced in the 7th and 9th grades in the Portuguese educational system, which requires parents’ higher involvement in school.

O processo de criação do programa Universidade para Todos - PROUNI

From the end of the 80s, the Brazilian higher education experience strong growth, coming from the private sector, which would intensify further in the late 90th Higher education has become a lucrative business. With a drop in the number of students entering and strong competition, the number of idle places in private institutions of higher education reached 49.5% in 2004. That same year, by Measure, was the University for All Program (PROUNI) program, to include high school students from public higher education, offering scholarships to those students in private HEIs. In exchange, the IES gain tax exemption. The objective of this research is to investigate the game of interest occurred in the formulation of this program and identify the model and the political game and has led to the creation of PROUNI, analyzing the process occurred since the wording of a bill, the issue of Measure Law and that the legitimacy PROUNI, with the most important changes made initial model. Since the first draft of the Law to the final Act, the PROUNI was disfigured in its main points, as the percentage of stock for paying students, the process of selection of stock and bond of the IES program. Throughout the process of creating the program, it is quite clear the performance of the institutions representing the private higher education. As reference for the analysis was based on Rational Choice Theory of Political Science. The basic argument of the methods based on rational choice is the maximization of the benefit will be the main motivation of individuals, but they can give that your goals can be achieved more effectively through institutional action and thereby discover that their conduct is shaped by institutions. Thus, individuals rationally choose to get to a certain extent constrained to join in certain institutions, whether voluntarily or not. The PROUNI was submitted by government and public policy covered by the mystical aura of the discourse of social justice and economic development, as in higher education includes a stratum of people who would not have access to the university, due to restrictions in the supply network public higher education. However, the greatest benefit from the program are the private HEIs, which through a difficult time in a scenario marked by high competition and idleness of nearly half of the vacancies offered. The PROUNI became a program that prioritizes access and not the residence of the student to higher education. More serious than a supporting program for students Fellows is a program supporting the institutions of private education

O argumento de inclusão enquanto política de acesso à universidade pública

There are a great number of evidences showing that education is extremely important in many economic and social dimensions. In Brazil, education is a right guaranteed by the Federal Constitution; however, in the Brazilian legislation the right to the three stages of basic education: Kindergarten, Elementary and High School is better promoted and supported than the right to education at College level. According to educational census data (INEP, 2009), 78% of all enrolments in College education are in private schools, while the reverse is found in High School: 84% of all matriculations are in public schools, which shows a contradiction in the admission into the universities. The Brazilian scenario presents that public universities receive mostly students who performed better and were prepared in elementary and high school education in private schools, while private universities attend students who received their basic education in public schools, which are characterized as low quality. These facts have led researchers to raise the possible determinants of student performance on standardized tests, such as the Brazilian Vestibular exam, to guide the development of policies aimed at equal access to College education. Seeking inspiration in North American models of affirmative action policies, some Brazilian public universities have suggested rate policies to enable and facilitate the entry of "minorities" (blacks, pardos1, natives, people of low income and public school students) to free College education. At the Federal University of the state Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), the first incentives for candidates from public schools emerged in 2006, being improved and widespread during the last 7 years. This study aimed to analyse and discuss the Argument of Inclution (AI) - the affirmative action policy that provides additional scoring for students from public schools. From an extensive database, the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique was used as well as a Quantile Regression considering as control the variables of personal, socioeconomic and educational characteristics of the candidates from the Brazilian Vestibular exam 2010 of the Federal University of the state Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The results demonstrate the importance of this incentive system, besides the magnitude of other variables

Entre ecos e narcisos: estudo de caso sobre a prática teatral com adolescentes como atividade extracurricular numa escola de nível médio

This masters thesis discusses the studying and the teaching of drama and its implications among teenagers of the contemporary world. This paper also analyses an extracurricular project entitled Drama in the development of citizenship , which was carried out in the public state school Berilo Wanderley in Natal/RN, between 1999 and 2005 with high school students. It comprises a case study that aimed at understanding how and why they chose to take drama classes outside of the school curriculum and even after they graduated, some of them never left the school project and even started participating in the cultural and artistic context of the city of Natal quite actively, both as part of an audience as well as on artistic, political, social and pedagogical performance. The project was high significant for its participants, for the school and for the community, by creating a sense of recognition of the relevance of the pedagogical and artistic production in the public school, as it managed to yield knowledge that helped students to understand the values of group work, sharing information, collaborative assessment and, most of all, to engender actions of protagonism by the teenagers themselves within their social environments. The empirical process developed is placed in a contemporary historical context where educational paradigms shifts occur, and where categories of youth empowerment and protagonism are fundamental to the educational process in the 21st century. The objective of this study is to reflect upon the pedagogical dimension of drama classes for teenagers, aiming at providing further discussions on the role of acting classes in the construction of the personality among youngsters, thus hoping to contribute to other teaching practices, including drama and other subjects of general education

Avaliação das condições higiênico-sanitárias de manipuladores de alimentos e utensílios de mesa de escolas públicas municipais de Natal, RN

In Brazil school food is constitutionally guaranteed to public school students at the preschool and elementary level. This food must be nutritious, hygienic and sanitary. The aim of the present study was to assess the hygienic/sanitary conditions of food and table utensil handlers in municipal public schools in Natal, Brazil. In total, 27 public schools were assessed, using a checklist and microbiological analysis of the hands and table utensils. For the microbiological analyses of the hands, coliforms were analyzed at 45ºC and for the utensils aerobic mesophilic bacteria, using methods recognized by AOAC, 2002 and APHA, 1992, respectively. Most of the schools studied did not exhibit good food and utensil handling practice procedures in any of the variables analyzed. It was shown that 74.1% of the handlers received no periodic training, 51.9% did not undergo annual health examinations and 100% did not practice proper hand hygiene, which reflected significantly (p < 0.05) in hand contamination, where fecal coliforms were detected on 55.6% of the hands analyzed. With respect to the utensils, it was found that 100% of the schools studied did not follow correct hygiene practices and most were classified as very bad ; that is, aerobic mesophilic bacteria values above the limits established by PAHO (Pan American Health Organization), with schools in the north and south districts recording the highest percentages. The results show that the hygienic-sanitary conditions of the food and utensil handlers in the schools studied were inadequate, demonstrating the need for implanting good handling practices aimed at protecting the health of children that take part in the program and offering safer foods. Researchers from the areas of food microbiology, nutrition, public health and statistics participated in this study, a decisive factor for characterizing it as multidisciplinary

A intermediação da noção de probabilidade na construção de conceitos relacionados à cinética química

Este trabalho procurou identificar como estudantes do Ensino Médio se apropriam de conceitos e elaboram determinados modelos inseridos em cinética química, especificamente o modelo cinético de colisão de partículas numa reação (Teoria das Colisões). Esta análise e as reflexões que a seguiram foram baseadas, sobretudo, nos estudos realizados por Piaget, Piaget e Inhelder, Jun e Fischbein. Utilizamos como documentos as transcrições das entrevistas (pré e pós-testes) realizadas individualmente com cada aluno. Inicialmente, os estudantes foram entrevistados (pré-testes) com o intuito de identificar a familiaridade com a noção de evento probabilístico ou aleatório. Numa segunda etapa (pós-testes), esse conhecimento (ou a ausência parcial/total dele) foi posto à prova numa tentativa de se estabelecerem relações com um conteúdo específico da Química (Teoria das Colisões). Os resultados obtidos apontam para grandes discrepâncias entre o modelo cinético de colisões elaborado pelos estudantes e aquele cientificamente aceito.

Como vão se formando os professores em física e química: embates entre o ser, o ter e o fazer na formação de licenciandos da UFRN sob a perspectiva da teoria das representações sociais

The purpose of this work is to approach and understand the Social Representations (SR) (MOSCOVICI, 2003) about Physics and Chemistry from people who are major in these courses, as well as their Social Representations about teaching . We took as principle that approaching these representations it would be possible to relate their symbolic contents, in order to show how people who are following the first segments of bachelor degree courses in Physics and Chemistry become teachers, taking into account a psychosocial view. Two source of data was used during this research: Free-association Technique FA (ABRIC, 1994); and Multiple Classification Procedure (MCP) (ROAZZI, 1995). The analytical treatment of the collected data from FA was done according to the proposition of Grize, Vergés and Silem (1987 apud ABRIC, 1994, p. 66). MCP data were analyzed through MSA (Multidimensional Scalogram Analysis) and SSA (Singular Spectrum Analysis) methods associated with the Facet Theory (BILSKY, 2003). The discourses of MCP discussing groups at the moment of explanations were studied by Content Analysis as it was proposed by Bardin (1977) and Franco (2005). Indicative of an approach to the relations with knowledge (CHARLOT, 2000), the connections which aroused from the analyses showed that the group of future majors in Physics thought that this scientific field was based on a rationalist conception, influencing the idealization sense of the phenomena to be explained by Physics. Thus, Physics as school content started to require the student of the fundamental and high school to think abstractly as a cognitive skill of learning. The identifying elements observed in the relations between SR about Physics and Teaching aroused from the antagonism between future majors and their teacher, as well as from the speculation between their fundamental and high school students and themselves, mainly when they had to face the act of teaching due to the obstacles imposed by the own educational system, and by the weakness of the initial preparation. The group of future majors in Chemistry, through its discourses, showed these relations when they conceived empiricist Chemistry and said that teaching was the way of transmission of this knowledge, and didactics of Chemistry teaching was the direction to learning through pedagogic methods in order to lead the students to discoveries. The psychosocial contents which were built and showed from the symbolic relations in the studied SR achieved the relation of identity. This relation revealed identifying elements for these people, resulting from the traffic between their condition as students of Chemistry, and as teachers regarding their work, what placed the current relational contents in the teaching space, named as Knowledge changing and Adaptability . In order to study emerging questions in the discussing environment about formation and teaching professionalization, we focused the psychosocial view on this traffic and managed to observe epistemological practical and pedagogic obstacles that limited a configuration of the teaching work as a professional activity, especially from the particular conditions which led the relations of senses to Physics , Chemistry and Teaching ; and Chemistry and Physics as it was seen in this research. Generally speaking, we noted that these obstacles can denounce such obstacles concerning to the pedagogic doings which mainly impair the learning process of fundamental and high school students

Alfabetizar letrando: investigação-ação fundada nas necessidades de formação docente

The accomplished researches in the education field focus on the importance of the accomplishment of actions involved in the analysis of the needs to graduate teachers as a way to adequate to socialcultural changing that require more and more a creative activity to prepare teachers in their graduation perspective. The worry with a fail at school linked to public school students lead us to make this thesis which goals are: investigate the needs of the graduation of teachers at public Elementary Schools concerning to the subjacent knowledge to the development of a pedagogic practice of alphabetizing with literacy and (re)create, with some teachers as active participants in the researches, knowledge regarding the process of alphabetization with literacy , based on the graduation of teachers. The study was accomplished in a municipal Elementary School in the Ceará-Mirim city, located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, which offers both I and II levels of the Elementary School, 7 teachers and the principal of the school were subjects of our researches. The starting point was the needs of the graduation as subject phenomena, socially created and that allow people to be aware of the goals of a graduation. The investigative broach is qualitative, whose fundamental purpose is the understanding of the meanings, symbols, values and intentions of the mankind actions, as regards to other humanbeing and the contexts in which they interact. Within this context, we chose the investigation-action for we consider this kind of research a place for investigation and professional graduation, in which teachers and the researcher herself assume responsibility of problematizing, build the needs of graduation and think about their practices. As proceedings to create and analyze data, we developed participant observations during the activities in classroom; semi-structured interviews (individual and in groups) with teachers and the principal; analysis of documents and meetings at school for reflexive studies that enabled us to gather data in a pyramidal panoramic view and analyze the contents. The research revealed that the analysis of necessities to graduate teachers is a resource able to contribute to the planning of projects of keeping on graduating more properly, and thus create a critical and reflexive identity for teachers. This way, it was possible the graduation necessities could be revealed and also the knowledge of teachers as regards to alphabetization inserted in a perspective of literacy. Nowadays, conceptualized needs upon difficulties of teachers, there is a tendency to translate them into theorization of problems, without application to these knowledge of teachers, as well as their wishes for changing, especially when those needs are built to analyze and consider concrete practices. Therefore, the graduation experiences have enabled the abandon of a mechanical broach for teaching reading and writing. It has also lead teachers to assume a posture of providing their students the understanding about the reading and writing processes and their functions as social instruments. The graduation theme contents allowed the knowledge to conceive reading and writing in new perspectives, according to their social functions, so that they can improve the education with literacy quality. This theoretical construction has enabled us to understand and consider the necessities of the graduation as progressive process, and has given us the possibility of re-think our own learning processes at the university and review the pedagogical practices of public school teachers. Our conclusion is that once teachers consider their own graduation needs, it contributes to change their concepts and practices in education and literacy, even though there used to be many difficulties in their graduation and organization of the pedagogical work

Professores de ciências naturais: necessidades formativas para ensinar a medir em trabalhos práticos e experimentais

This paper presents a research realized with Physics, Chemistry and Biology teachers, and it aimed to evaluate: 1) the development level of those teachers regarding the abilities that make possible to teach high school students about how to measure in practical and experimental work; 2) the formatives necessities regarding those abilities; and 3) the order of priority for teacher´s formation regarding those abilities. The study is based on the activity theory, from A. N. Leontiev (1983), since we considerer the teacher´s formation a kind of activity for which the category necessity is source of motivation and in which is a necessary condition for professionality and for the professional development. A questionnaire with open and closed questions was applied to 116 teachers during three pedagogic workshops realized to dynamize the science laboratory. The instrument allowed us to obtain the personal and professional profile of the participants, as well as their development level, their formative necessities and their order of priority about the teaching of the abilities related to the work of testing measuring hypothesis, regarding: a) to operationalize variables of a hypothesis in experimental work; b) to measure in practical and experimental work; c) to estimate possible measuring mistakes and use proper procedures to minimize them; d) to estimate the validity of a measuring; and e) to estimate the confiability of a measuring. The research results indicated some limitations of the teachers about their development level in all the analyzed abilities. More than 90% of the teachers considered those deficiencies as necessities of the continuing formation. Most of them (about 54%) expressed immediate priority for formation in each one of the abilities. From a correlation, using the statistic chi-square test, between the development level and the formative necessities for the five abilities, the obtained results allow us to assure that, for all those teaching abilities, there is a strong correlation between the development level and the formative necessity. This situation is symptomatic of the importance of approaching more the science teaching and the teacher´s formation on practical and experimental work in high school as key-component of scientific education in basic education. The obtained results can contribute, as subsidy, for continuing formation courses, having as base the necessities that constitute motivation elements of the teachers for professional development

Como se fora brincadeira de roda: a ciranda da ludopoiese para uma educação musical humanescente

The present work concerns an auto-ethnographic study based on life experiences and reflections of an educator at Escola Viva Preschool and Elementary-Middle School, located in the city center of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. As a cognitive model of operation, we use the metaphor of the Circle Dance. The objective of this study is to identify, interpret and describe the ludopoetics that are achieved through a Musical Education program, which we denominate, Humanescent. The data of this investigation was derived from the music making by Preschool and Elementary-Middle School students at Escola Viva during 2007, 2008 and 2009, from which 20 learners were selected to form the corpus, along with the description and interpretation of photos of their experiences and sand tray scenes. We justify the methodological systemization of the research based on our own pedagogical practice, which supports Musical Education in the schools based on the principals of Embodiment, Autopoesis and Flow. The methodological systemization was developed through an Action Research model and on the concepts of Systemic Development, with the goal of re-reading the context investigated through the structuring of categories of Ludopoesis: Self-esteem, Self-territory, Self-connectivity, Self-realization and Selfworth. We used an observant-participant research approach with regard to the perception of emergent knowledge, the surroundings, the experience lived and the contextual and vibration of the circumstances. Besides this, we used projection to interpret the experiences lived, in the form of drawings, short poems, letters or sand tray scenes as symbolic interpretations of experience. In the unfolding of the Ludopoetic Process (Selfesteem, Self-territory, Self-connectivity, Self-realization and Selfworth) we draw conclusions about the relevance of the ludic musical experience, which foments the formation of the self based on music learning, and which is demonstrated in the Embodiment of the learners. In the auto-formative process (of learners and educators) we observe the importance of pedagogical work based on Musical Humanescent Education that gives value to the music making path to the construction of music and performance in play, creativity, and sensibility. The experience of making music in a playful way allows for organization of the self and its autonomous production in the joy of living within a ludopoetic process. These findings highlight the educator as in a permanent state of selfformation, which generates moments of flow. However, in Musical Humanescent Education, music is learned collectively, doing a circle dance, experiencing love, fostering an expansion of the creative spirit, and giving recognition to playfulness as a necessary condition for education and to the value of music made with the true nature and sensibilities of the educators

O atendimento educacional especializado no processo de inclusão escolar, na rede municipal de ensino de Mossoró/RN

This dissertation aims to analyze the specialized educational services(AEE, Portuguese) implemented in four municipal schools of Mossoró/RN, with attention to the process of collaboration between regular classroom teachers and multifunctional resource classroom teachers. We use as theoretical reference the works of Vygotsky and others authors that write about education and collaboration. To accomplish the research we chose a qualitative approach, using as a methodological resources: study of cases, bibliographical, documental and field research. For the field research we make observations in regular and multifunctional classrooms. We produce group intervieus with regular and multifunctional teachers. From the analysis performed we identify that the concepts and the practices of teachers in regular classrooms changes, with integrationist predominance. The AEE s teachers had more inclusive conceptions and greater investment in continuing education than the regular classroom teachers. The practices of regular classroom teachers are more traditional, what makes the learning process more difficult for the students, even more for the students with disabilities and pervasive developmental disorders. Teachers of AEE was more interactive and creative, however, the attention to the students was more individual. In three of the four schools surveyed stand out the efforts of the teachers of specialist classroom to collaborate with regular school teachers, by notes, e-mails, phone calls and resource sharing. In one of the four was noted a good collaborative interactive between the AEE teachers and the regular school teachers. The school with the worst improvement was that in which the actions of the teachers of the AEE were limited to actions in multifunctional resource classroom. The resistance to these professionals was identified in the statements of the regular classroom teachers. Another issue raised was the lack of time for teachers to conduct AEE actions that contribute to the process of school students, because their working hours is restricted to the opposite turn in school. Transport difficulties for the students to attend the resource classroom multifunctional and the lack of dialogue with the health sector was challenges for the four schools. The families were with a practically constant interest to interact with the AEE teachers in the four schools. Thus, we believe that the presence of AEE school can make contributions to the educational process, however, it is necessary more attention to the collaborative process between teachers and the school community