El análisis de libros de texto: una estrategia metodológica en la formación de los profesionales de la educación

A pesar de la progresiva introducción de nuevos recursos en las aulas fruto del desarrollo de las TICs, el libro de texto sigue siendo uno de los materiales más utilizado y cuyo protagonismo en la configuración de la práctica escolar ha sido decisivo, por lo que debe ocupar nuestra atención en la formación inicial de los profesionales de la educación. Durante los cursos académicos 2012-13 y 13-14, hemos realizado en el marco de la asignatura de Análisis y diseño de materiales para la educación y la formación del tercer curso del grado de Pedagogía de la Universidad de Oviedo una práctica formativa de análisis de libros de texto escolares que nos ha permitido analizar contextualizadamente y desde una perspectiva teórico-práctica, cuestiones tales como: papel del profesorado en el desarrollo e innovación del currículum, papel de las editoriales en la interpretación del currículum oficial, análisis de tareas y mensajes en los manuales escolares, criterios para juzgar la calidad didáctica de los materiales, etc. El análisis cualitativo de treinta informes desarrollados por 120 estudiantes sobre diferentes libros de texto nos ha permitido identificar sus principales fortalezas y debilidades en varias dimensiones (aspectos formales, metodología, mensajes, implicaciones para la profesionalidad docente) y nos permite concluir que se trata de una experiencia formativa relevante en la formación inicial de cualquier profesional de la educación.

Social Networks Usage Profile: Descriptive study with students in the University of Murcia

Telematic tools are very important for our lives in the present era and moreover this idea is made more evident if we analyse young people behaviours. However, it seems that the possibilities that these tools allow subjects from a professional point of view, beyond the purely playful aspects, are still not fully exploited both by subjects, neither by educational institutions where they learn. Our work studies the uses of social media in the context of university students. In order to this we have designed a research based on quantitative methodology with a survey. We have applied a questionnaire to students in the University of Murcia. The questionnaire was answered by 487 students in the first half of 2014. The survey results confirm our hypothesis that social networks are part of the basic and habitual tools of communication between the youth of our university and eminently used for leisure purposes, and that the tools used for more academic activities are those allowing greater control of privacy.

Are they adicctied to college students social networks?

The development of the Internet and in particular of social networks has supposedly given a new view to the different aspects that surround human behavior. It includes those associated with addictions, but specifically the ones that have to do with technologies. Following a correlational descriptive design we present the results of a study, which involved university students from Social and Legal Sciences as participants, about their addiction to the Internet and in particular to social networks. The sample was conformed of 373 participants from the cities of Granada, Sevilla, Málaga, and Córdoba. To gather the data a questionnaire that was design by Young was translated to Spanish. The main research objective was to determine if university students could be considered social network addicts. The most prominent result was that the participants don’t consider themselves to be addicted to the Internet or to social networks; in particular women reflected a major distance from the social networks. It’s important to know that the results differ from those found in the literature review, which opens the question, are the participants in a phase of denial towards the addiction?

Social networks applied to training

In this article, we address the importance and relevance that social networks exhibit in their use as an educational resource.  This relevance relies in the possibility of implementing new learning resources or increasing the level of the participant's connectivity, as well as developing learning communities.  Also, the risk entailed from their use is discussed, especially for the students that have a low technological education or those having excessive confidence on the media.  It is important to highlight that the educational use of social networks is not a simple extension or translation of the student's habitual, recreational use, but that it implies an important change in the roles given to teachers as well as learners; from accommodative learning environments that only encourage memorization to other environments that demand an active, reflective, collaborative and proactive attitude, that require the development/acquisition of technological as well as social abilities, aptitudes and values.  It is also important to highlight that a correct implementation and adequate use will not only foment formal learning, but also informal and non-formal learning.

‘Close as a kiss’: Gyn/Affection in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad

Margaret Atwood’s novella The Penelopiad (2005) seemingly celebrates Penelope’s agency in opposition to Homer’s myth in The Odyssey. However, the twelve murdered maids steal the book to suggest the possibility of what Janice Raymond calls gyn/affection, a female bonding based on the logic of emotion that, in Atwood’s revision, verges on Kristevan abjection, the sinister and the fantastic, and serves a cathartic effect not only in the maids but also in the reader. This essay aims to question the generally accepted empowerment of Atwood’s Penelope and celebrates the murdered maids as the locus of emotion, where marginal aspects of gender and class merge to weave a powerful metaphorical tapestry of popular and traditionally feminized literary genres that, in plunging into and embracing the semiotic realm, ultimately solidify into an eclectic but compact alternative tradition of women’s writing and myth-making.

Maestros, museos y artes visuales. Construyendo un imaginario educativo

In this article we think about the need to generate spaces of meeting between museum educators and teachers. We analyze the results of different works elaborated by the research group Art and Education, basically in the report of the project maestrosymuseos.com. Red Iberoamericana de educación en museos (AECID A/8780/07), as well as the offers that we have developed. We appear how we see the teachers in his visits, and how they would like to be seen when they submerge in the territory of the museum. We introduce the supposition that the majority of teachers turn into invisible figures on having come to the museum. The methodology is based on the case studies, affecting in the observation, the interviews, and very special in the specific attention towards the protagonists: the teachers. The work introduces photos that they try to investigate in the same aspects that the article text treats, but enriching it with images that can be read in his format and with particular intentions.

Rethinking the identity artist-researcher, from the project “Dialogues with women art teachers”

The questioning of identity and the various roles that artists have begun to explore, from the last century, are fundamental aspects in this article. Today it is difficult to speak of the artist as individual isolated innate talent working in his studio, but the various social, political and cultural effects, have moved the artists to become part of the social world and to generate artistic practices that visualize and manifest critically these concerns. To explain these transits deeper, we will share part of the personal artistic practice and reflections, and how it has begun to intertwine with the doctoral research, through the art project “Dialogues with women art teachers”. From the experience as an artist and researcher in training, we will share what this project of artistic inquiry is about and reflect their points with the notion of `artistic practice as research´ developed by Graeme Sullivan (2010, 2011). On the other hand, we will seek to reflect how the identities of `artist´ and `academic´ are in constant dialogue. This art project seeks to show that these identities are not in a fixed position, but rather reflect, from the place of an artist, how through the various shifts in different disciplines, can conceive an identity ‘in-between’. The latter refers to the ability to understand the processes of being a woman, artist and researcher who travels and forms its identity among both disciplines.

The photography and the motion landscape in the urban expressway

A new kind of photographic representation, called movement-image is proposed and discussed to record the visual experience of the journey through urban highways. It consists of performing long exposure photographic shots while the track is traversed, thus registering a time-panorama which includes landscape signs and inner spaces of the ways involved. This proposal is linked to the limitations of representing these expressways, if they are understood as structures of instrumental origin, where the resulting experience comes from moving at high speed through the territory. In al almost all cases the aesthetic approach or urban integration with the city and landscape are excluded. In this sense, although such structures may be an opportunity to collect, build and colonize the urban landscape, the lack of adequate representation of the phenomenon causes a difficulty in its understanding and transformation. The options for representation using photography is assumed, knowing its own particular tradition in the use of long exposures, for the expression of the mobile, and the multiple visual attention, divided or weakened.

The use of cues for attention in ancient Greek art: aspects that influence concentration in the work of art and its elements

The goal of this study is to identify cues for the cognitive process of attention in ancient Greek art, aiming to find confirmation of its possible use by ancient Greek audiences and artists. Evidence of cues that trigger attention’s psychological dispositions was searched through content analysis of image reproductions of ancient Greek sculpture and fine vase painting from the archaic to the Hellenistic period - ca. 7th -1st cent. BC. Through this analysis, it was possible to observe the presence of cues that trigger orientation to the work of art (i.e. amplification, contrast, emotional salience, simplification, symmetry), of a cue that triggers a disseminate attention to the parts of the work (i.e. distribution of elements) and of cues that activate selective attention to specific elements in the work of art (i.e. contrast of elements, salient color, central positioning of elements, composition regarding the flow of elements and significant objects). Results support the universality of those dispositions, probably connected with basic competencies that are hard-wired in the nervous system and in the cognitive processes.

Alguns aspectos da modelação ecológica na costa portuguesa (Aveiro) : efeitos físicos na distribuição de nutrientes e biomassa fitoplanctónica

O presente trabalho propõe estudar alguns aspectos da modelação ecológica na Costa Portuguesa, nomeadamente o efeito físico na distribuição de nutrientes e biomassa fitoplanctónica. O principal propósito foi implementar e validar um modelo acoplado tridimensional físico e ecológico, para a costa portuguesa, e aplicá-lo numa área limitada, a norte, por Vila do Conde e a sul pela Figueira da Foz centrada na região de Aveiro, para estudar a distribuição, vertical e horizontal, de temperatura, nutrientes e biomassa fitoplanctónica. A região em estudo está situada na costa oeste da Península Ibérica e faz parte da Região de Afloramento do Atlântico Norte. É caracterizada por condições meteorológicas onde a predominância e prevalência, durante uma grande parte do ano, de ventos de norte/noroeste, constitui um dos principais elementos forçadores do transporte para o largo das águas costeiras e consequente subida das águas mais frias e profundas, ricas em nutrientes. A estas condições juntam-se as boas condições de luminosidade e temperatura essenciais ao desenvolvimento fitoplanctónico, que servirá de alimento às espécies marinhas. Este facto, torna esta região, uma zona de elevada riqueza biológica favorável ao desenvolvimento de várias espécies marinhas, transformando este local num ecossistema de forte produtividade. O modelo foi calibrado e validado para a área em estudo e simulou com sucesso, a resposta do sistema à situação de ventos favoráveis ao afloramento costeiro para a região em estudo. Quando comparada com dados observados, os resultados mostram que o modelo é capaz de prever satisfatoriamente as distribuições superficiais e na coluna de água: da temperatura, dos nutrientes, do oxigénio e da clorofila-a. Os resultados evidenciam o crucial papel desempenhado pelos processos físicos no aumento de fitoplâncton que ocorre ao longo de uma estreita área da costa norte portuguesa, mostrando a estreita ligação entre a distribuição costeira de fitoplâncton e a distribuição costeira de temperatura, à superfície. A produtividade do fitoplâncton que ocorre nas águas costeiras não só é atribuída à disponibilidade de nutrientes mas também à intensidade luminosa. A luz e a intensidade dos ventos de norte/noroeste são os factores chave no controlo dos blooms de fitoplâncton observados nesta região de afloramento, sobretudo no Verão, nomeadamente na camada de mistura pouco profunda e junto à nutriclina. Deste modo os modelos numéricos em associação com dados in situ e imagens de satélite poderão ser considerados uma excelente ferramenta para a análise e previsão de cenários, presentes e futuros, de acções praticadas sobre o meio ambiente.

Carcinoma da nasofaringe: aspectos epidemiológicos clínicos e moleculares

Após uma revisão de aspectos filogénicos, ontogénicos e embriológicos contribuindo para a estruturação anatómica e fisiológica da nasofaringe, é efectuada uma análise das características clínicas do carcinoma da nasofaringe numa população portuguesa, comparando-as com a literatura. É efectuada análise de taxa de incidência da doença, razão de géneros, frequência relativa dos diversos subtipos de acordo com a classificação OMS, acuidade relativa dos estadiamentos TMN e sobrevivência em função do tratamento. A relação entre carcinoma da nasofaringe e infecção pelo vírus de Epstein – Barr em Portugal é estudada através da análise de detecção de DNA de EBV em tecido tumoral da nasofaringe e sangue periférico de doentes com NPC e em indivíduos saudáveis. São também efectuados estudos caso-controlo no sentido de perspectivar a relevância de dois polimorfismos genéticos na susceptibilidade genética para a doença. Esta Dissertação pretende ainda contribuir para a compreensão dos mecanismos biológicos de CN e a sua relação com o EBV numa região não endémica de baixo risco, como é Portugal, realçando a relevância da definição de um perfil biológico preditivo para o desenvolvimento de CN na população portuguesa.

Estudio sobre la situación de las personas con capacidad intelectual límite

En este documento se presenta una descripción actualizada de la realidad social de las personas con inteligencia límite y sus necesidades de apoyo. Para ello, ha sido relevante el cuantificar e identificar la población con capacidad intelectual límite, revisar las fuentes bibliográficas y estudios existentes, para finalmente acudir a las propias voces de las personas con capacidad intelectual, familia, entorno y profesionales, que conforman una mirada integral de cómo el entorno social facilita o dificulta la participación activa y su inclusión social. Las buenas prácticas encontradas reflejan un modelo de intervención abierto a la Comunidad. En base al sentido exploratorio y descriptivo del presente estudio sobre la realidad de las personas con capacidad intelectual límite, los objetivos que han guiado el mismo son: identificar, aspectos que facilitan/dificultan la inclusión social; conocer el uso y satisfacción con recursos de apoyo; identificar experiencias exitosas y buenas prácticas y realizar propuestas de mejora para prestación de apoyos según las necesidades detectadas. El desarrollo de los objetivos previstos y, el carácter descriptivo del estudio, ha sido posible mediante una estrategia metodológica que integrara la perspectiva cuantitativa de los datos y, especialmente, la perspectiva cualitativa de las vivencias y experiencias de las personas con capacidad intelectual límite, familiares y profesionales.

Avaliação do ambiente sonoro em zonas urbanas: integração de aspectos qualitativos

O presente trabalho propõe-se integrar a percepção que os indivíduos fazem das medidas de minimização de ruído, utilizadas em Portugal, na avaliação do ambiente sonoro em zonas urbanas. O trabalho é composto por um estudo sobre a avaliação da estrutura cognitiva (atitude) dos indivíduos, nomeadamente o significado que eles atribuem ao ruído de tráfego urbano, pela avaliação acústica e psicoacustica de várias medidas de minimização de ruído utilizadas em Portugal, e por um inquérito sócio acústico que pretende relacionar ambos os aspectos referidos. Pela análise dos estudos desenvolvidos, é elaborada uma metodologia para a integração de aspectos qualitativos (percepção humana), na avaliação do ambiente sonoro.