The distribution of male wages in Brazil

This paper examines the evolution of wage inequality in Brazil in the 1980s and 1990s . It tries to investigate the role played by changing economic returns to education and to experience over this period together with the evolution of within-group inequality. It applies a quantile regression approach on grouped data to the Brazilian case. Results using repeated cross-sections of a Brazilian annual household survey indicate that : i) Male wage dispersion remained basically constant overall in the 1980's and 1990' s but has increased substantially within education and age groups. ii) Returns to experience increased significantly over this period, with the rise concentrated on the iliterate/primary school group iii) Returns to college education have risen over time, whereas return to intermediate and high-school education have fallen iv) The apparent rise in within-group inequality seems to be the result of a fall in real wages, since the difference in wage leveIs has dec1ined substantially over the period, especially within the high-educated sample. v) Returns to experience rise with education. vi) Returns to education rise over the life-cycle. vii) Wage inequality increases over the life-cycle. The next step i~ this research will try to conciliate all these stylised facts.

Prevalence of strabismus among students in Natal-RN - Brazil

To estimate the prevalence of strabismus in Natal, Brazil, among elementary and high school students of the public and private educational systems, in addition to detecting etiological factors. Methods: 1024 students were randomly selected and submitted to a questionnaire and a complete ophthalmologic examination, by professors and resident physicians in Ophthalmology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Results: Of 1024 students, 1015 were examined; 29 were found to have strabismus (2.9%), 20 of whom had manifest exotropia (2%), 2 had intermittent exotropia (0.2%), 6 had esotropia (0.6%) and 1 had V anisotropies (0.1%). Conclusions: The strabismus prevalence of the student population of Natal falls within the range of the worldwide population. There was ocular lesion in only one student (retinochoroiditis scar on the posterior pole in both eyes) related to strabismus

Autoeficácia, características sociodemográficas e capacitação profissional: um estudo com servidores de uma Universidade Federal

Self-efficacy, the construct developed by Albert Bandura in 1977 and widely studied around the world, means the individual's belief in his own capacity to successfully perform a certain activity. This study aims to determine the degree of association between sociodemographic characteristics and professional training to the levels of Self-Efficacy at Work (SEW) of the Administrative Assistants in a federal university. This is a descriptive research submitted to and approved by the Ethics Committee of UFRN. The method of data analysis, in quantitative nature, was accomplished with the aid of the statistical programs R and Minitab. The instrument used in research was a sociodemographic data questionnaire, variables of professional training and the General Perception of Self-efficacy Scale (GPSES), applied to the sample by 289 Assistants in Administration. Statistical techniques for data analysis were descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, reliability test (Cronbach's alpha), and test of significance (Pearson). Results show a sociodemographic profile of Assistants in Administration of UFRN with well-distributed characteristics, with 48.4% men and 51.6% female; 59.9% of them were aged over 40 years, married (49.3%), color or race white (58%) and Catholics (67.8%); families are composed of up to four people (75.8%) with children (59.4%) of all age groups; the occupation of the mothers of these professionals is mostly housewives (51.6%) with high school education up to parents (72%) and mothers (75.8%). Assistants in Administration have high levels of professional training, most of them composed two groups of servers: the former, recently hired public servants (30.7%) and another with long service (59%), the majority enter young in career and it stays until retirement, 72.4% of these professionals have training above the minimum requirement for the job. The analysis of SEW levels shows medium to high levels for 72% of assistants in administration; low SEWclassified people have shown a high average of 2.7, considered close to the overall mean presented in other studies, which is 2.9. The cluster analysis has allowed us to say that the characteristics of the three groups (Low, Medium and High SEW) are similar and can be found in the three levels of SEW representatives with all the characteristics investigated. The results indicate no association between the sociodemographic variables and professional training to the levels of self-efficacy at work of Assistants in Administration of UFRN, except for the variable color or race. However, due to the small number of people who declared themselves in color or black race (4% of the sample), this result can be interpreted as mere coincidence or the black people addressed in this study have provided a sense of efficacy higher than white and brown ones. The study has corroborated other studies and highlighted the subjectivity of the self-efficacy construct. They are needed more researches, especially with public servants for the continuity and expansion of studies on the subject, making it possible to compare and confirm the results

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

Práticas sócio-ambientais no espaço escolar: uma reflexão sobre a percepção dos usuários de duas escolas do ensino fundamental em João Pessoa, Paraíba

In the social-historical moment we live in, it is each time more evident the necessity of the people to learn to deal with the environment in conscientious way, taking care of themselves properly through it. In this direction, considering the school as a place where children, young and adolescents spend great part of their time, this work had as objective to examine the perception of school environment for students, professors and employees of two schools in João Pessoa city - Centro Estadual Experimental de Ensino-Aprendizagem Sesquicentenário and Escola Estadual de Ensino Fundamental e Médio Presidente Emílio Garrastazu Médici (Experimental State Center of Learning-teaching Sesquicentenário and Basic and High State School Education Emilio Garrastazu Médici President). From the presupposed that the environments in which and with which people live reflect their daily practices, the field work searched to identify the social-environmental practices that characterize the relation of these users with the school and, from this understanding, to infer some of their concerns regarding the environment as a whole. To analyze the use of the available physical space in the two institutions it was opted the use of the After-Occupation Evaluation, one of the approaches that feed the process of building production or built set, rescuing aspects related to its use, operation and maintenance. Besides analyzing diverse school environments (such as classroom circulations/accesses, library, pedagogical and sportive spaces) in relation to the environmental comfort and the perceptions of the main users of the schools (pupils, professors and employees), the dissertation tried to inquire the care (ambient education) of these users with the school space. In general, it was verified that the two schools have evaluations and perceptions really different for four reasons: (i) management of the schools; (ii) the users perception; (III) localization of schools and (IV) feeling of place, territoriality and appropriation

Excesso de peso em região do nordeste brasileiro: contraste entre escolares de rede pública e privada de ensino

The prevalence of obesity has been increased in the last three decades. It is already considered as epidemic by the World Health Organization and reaches around 300 million people worldwide. The weight gain in all ages is related to a sedentary way of life and hyper caloric food ingestion at the modern society. Obesity is a chronic disease and leads to high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of weight excess among student in Natal schools and to analyze its association with age, gender, school category and geographic localization in city zones. This was a transversal study which enrolled 1927 children. 1084 of these were between 6 and 8 years-old (group 1) and 843 were 9 to 10 years-old (group 2). 895 of the total children studied in private schools and 1032 studied in public schools. 33,6% of the students had body mass index equal or above the 85th percentile and were considered as having weight excess. There was no statistical difference in this prevalence considering neither gender nor age. The weight excess prevalence in private schools was 54,5% and in public ones was 15,6% (p<0,01; OR=6,49). Weight excess was also more prevalent in the south and east city zones (41,3%) which have better quality of life index than in the north and west zones (28,4%) (p<0,01). In conclusion, the weight excess prevalence among students is found to be high in Natal and programs of intervention and prevention of obesity are necessary. The higher prevalence in private schools as in the wealthier city zones reflects the link between obesity and high socioeconomic level found in countries in developing. This was an interdisciplinary work with participation of epidemiology, child nutrition and pediatric endocrinology following the recommendations and principles of the Post graduation Program in Health Sciences of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte

Educação tecnológica e pré-sal: necessidades e urgências

The purpose of this dissertation is whether the demand for manpower trained in technical school for the sector of Oil and Gas (O&G) is in balance with the offer of that training in the Brazilian education system. The methodology used to obtain such information was based on School Census 2000 and 2008 where data were worked out in order to clarify the numbers of enrollments in secondary technical level demanded by the sector of O&G. The demand for manpower with that qualification as a data source was the 2010-2014 Business Plan Program for Mobilization of the National Oil and Natural Gas (PROMINP). This Program identified the future demand for manpower for the Sector of the O&G until 2014 where the occupational categories are mapped prerequisite training and experience. In order to better understand the object of this study was dome a review of the literature with regard to technical education in Brazil but also the importance of the education to economic growth and the peculiarities of the oil economy in different countries possessors of those mines, or that is, developed and underdeveloped countries. Analysis showed that enrollment in technical education in Brazil had a significant increase between the dates 2000 and 2008. It also don´t bring balance with the characteristic of the dynamics of the productive sectors of the economy mainly due to heating of the economy before the global growth especially in the Construction Industry as well as in the Oil and Natural Gas Engineering and a Naval account of the discovery of oil in the Pre-Salt. Another important aspect is that one of the major problems of qualification of manpower in Brazil is due to a bad quality of the student´s school and high school which makes difficult a good performance in office work and also this ability to learn new functions. The rapprochement between the supply of the education system and the demand for manpower with training mid-level technical support for the sector O&G showed that most technical courses demanded or had no enrollment in 2008, had few enrollment in 15 states with demand expect to occur and those enrollment were unevenly distributed among states. The analysis therefore signalize the needed of a public policy that enables the adequacy of the education system (Secondary Technical Education) to Sector of O&G in terms of enrollment and its distribution between the oil producing states and in relation to technical expertise offered

Diferenciais de rendimentos por gênero: uma análise dos efeitos composição e estrutura salarial no Brasil (1976, 1987, 1996 e 2009)

This study aims to analyze the income differentials by gender in Brazil, in the years 1976, 1987, 1996 and 2009. Specifically, there are two objectives. First, attempt to analyze the importance of the effects of composition and wage structure in the job market. In the second, to verify which socioeconomic variables explain the effects of composition and wage structure in the job market. The information in this study was obtained from the microdata of Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) regarding the respective years. In the first stage of the methodology we used: the index of income distribution Theil-T; the income gap decompositions proposed by Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973); and Firpo et al. (2007). In the second stage we applied the RIF regression method (Recentered Influence Function) of Firpo et al. (2007). The results show that income inequality is higher among men than among women in the country. It was observed that the component of inequality between people of the same gender represented the largest share in the decomposition of income inequality between genders. It was found, in the decomposition of the average income, a downward trend of income gap, but the differential remains favorable to the men. We noticed that the impact of the composition effect in reducing the gap was offset by the positive effect of wage structure. Regarding the distribution quantis, income differential between genres appeared greater at the bottom, in the years 1976, 1987 and 2009; and at the top of the distribution, in 1996 featuring, respectively, the sticky floor and glass ceiling effects in Brazil. As for the decomposition of the RIF, it turns out that the composition effect assisted in the downfall of the income gap between 1976 and 2009, but was offset by the positive effect of the wage structure in quantis 10th, 50th, and 90th. The main socioeconomic variables influenced the drop in income gap were: the composition effect, the manual labor occupations, service sector and low-grade and high school, and the wage structure effect, schooling low and high experience professional and technical occupations and urban centers

O uso de modelos no ensino de química: uma investigação acerca dos saberes construídos durante a formação inicial de professores de Química da UFRN

In the past twenty years, there has been a significant increase of researches about teacher s professionalization. In that context, the investigations concerning teacher s knowledge represent an important contribution, as they aim to identify and to rescue the base of knowledge that sustains the teacher s profession. In particular, the reflections and propositions of Lee Shulman have been constitute a fundamental subsidy to the teacher s professionalization in the sense of harnessing the pedagogic knowledge to the content s knowledge, establishing the pedagogic knowledge of the content that characterizes and differentiates the teacher and the bachelor in a certain field of knowledge. Among the indispensable knowledge for the Chemistry teacher's professional practice, in this research we have pointed out the pertinence of the knowledge on the use of models in Chemistry classes in the middle and high school. Those knowledges regard the comprehension of students concerning the understanding and models elaborated in science and the models implemented in the Chemistry teaching, as well as the abilities to plan didactic situations that use models. In this research, we aimed to identify the contributions and barriers during the Chemistry teacher education, in UFRN, in relation to the construction of knowledge that subsidize training teachers in the elaboration of teaching activities that involve the use of models. The investigation was accomplished in UFRN, in the Course of Degree in Chemistry, along with 13 student teachers that studied the subject Practice of Chemistry Teaching. For this research, the following instruments were used: questionnaires with open and closed questions, elaboration of a plan of activities for the Chemistry teaching and an interview to answer the established study s questions. The data was analyzed in an established criteria, classified and tabled. The results showed that the student teachers representations regarding scientific knowledge contemplated, among other topics, the idea of a method for his/her construction. In some cases, the models role was emphasized in that construction, as well as the social dimension in the validation of that knowledge. The scientific models were highlighted by most of the student teachers, as a representation method to explain, understand and interpret the chemical phenomena. On the other hand, the didactic models stood out, in most of cases, as a method of aiding the Chemistry students of the Basic Education to understand the scientific models. The representations regarding those categories contemplated important aspects, although in a superficial way, reflecting the limitations of reflections during the formative process. In the elaboration of teaching activities that use models, difficulties were evidenced, in the process of plan construction, relative to the didactic structure and to the proposition of activities that contemplated models, although the student teachers have mobilized different elements regarding the pedagogic knowledge of the content. Such verifications evidence the urge for the teacher development programs to promote changes in the teacher education in order to propitiate, during this process, reflections, discussions and propositions of activities regarding categories highlighted in this research, contributing to the construction of initial elements regarding the pedagogic knowledge of the content that will be developed throughout teaching, therefore corroborating to the teacher s professionalization

Políticas de educação profissional técnica e de ensino médio no Brasil: a implementação no CEFET-RN (1998 2008)

This study has analyzed the high school and professional education policies (1998-2008) and their impacts on the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Rio Grande do Norte. It has presented an analysis and design of the productive restructuring process in the world of work and education, the technical, vocational education and high school policies in Brazil, referring to this period, as well as the changes in Cefet-RN for implementation of Political Guidelines of Vocational, Technical and High School Education. This study is guided by assumptions related to these policies, which are located in different historical moments. It is a study in which subjects are understood as historical and social beings, embedded in the economic, political and cultural rights which, by its actions, can be transformed. It was based on a theoretical framework consistent with the object of research to give it shape and meaning, serving as a parameter to address the problem outlined in research questions. It was used analysis of bibliographical material and specific documents from the Institution, semi-structured interviews with the subjects part of technical and high school. Results show that many of the recommendations in the present high school policies and vocational technical and high school education, implemented in Cefet-RN, for the period 1998-2002, show inconsistencies between what is said and what can be officially established in the pedagogical practice of teachers and professional practice of some graduates. Regarding the integration of vocational education with the high school (2005-2008) in this Institution, the study signaled that its prioritization failed to materialize in full, in Cefet-RN, although it was developed and implemented a Political-Pedagogical Project in 2005

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

Formação de professores, saberes, reflexividade e apropriação da cultura digital no Projeto Um Computador por Aluno (UCA)

This study investigates teacher training and cognitive practice of teachers in a Basic Education school that adopted the Project One Computer per Student (OCS) in their school routine. Its relevance consists in provide directions for the continuation of training activities on the Project and guide the teachers with their pedagogical practices using the laptop model one to one. The thesis defended is that the educator formation for social using of digital media (specially the laptops from the Project UCA) gives space to establish new sociotechnical relationships, of new social and professionals practices, new identitary components and a process of reflexivity and knowledge reconstruction to teach. We reaffirm the importance of reflexivity and appropriation of digital culture for the better development of teaching practice using the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), giving focus to the aspects of social and professional use of the technology. The study is part of the qualitative aspect and is a procedural tracking based on principles of ethnographic research. As procedures and methodological tools, were used: intensive observation of school environments, documental analysis, focal group, semi-structured questionnaires and semi-structured individual interviews. The research was held in a public school in the city of Parnamirim - RN. The subject sample relates to 17 teachers, coming from the elementary school I and II, Youth and Adult Education and High School, who went through the process of training UCA and having entered the laptops in their teaching. The research corpus is structured based on the messages built into the process of data collection and is analyzed based on principles of Content Analysis, specified by Laurence Bardin (2011). Was taken as theoretical reference studies by Tardif (2000; 2011), Pimenta (2009), Gorz (2004, 2005), Giddens (1991), Dewey, J. (1916), Boudieu (1994; 1999), Freire (1996; 2005), among others. The analysis indicates a process of reconstruction / revision of knowledge to teach and work in digital culture, being these knowledges guided by the experience of the subjects investigated. The reconstructed knowledges will be revealed from a categorization process. The following groups of knowledges: "technical knowledges", "didactic-methodological knowledges and knowledges of professionalization" were built on the assumption of ownership of digital culture in the educational context. The analysis confirms the appearance of new ways of sociability when acquiring other forms of acting and thinking ICTs, despite the environment adverse to the reflexivity shared among the teachers. Also reveals, based on the ownership concept present on the data analysis, the construction of meanings of belonging and transformation of individuals into social routes from the interweaving of the teaching practice with the digital culture. Emphasizes, finally, the importance of a training for use of ICTs that exceeds the instrumentation, in other words, what we call "technical knowledges", but taking on its structural basis the shared reflection, the opening for the ressignificance (new meaning) and reconstruction of new knowledges and practices and that really allows, to the teacher, the living of an experience capable of providing socio-technical transformations of their relationships

A autoavaliação institucional na Escola Municipal Estudante Emmanuel Bezerra: construindo uma dinâmica de participação

This project was based on an implemented investigation of the institutional self-evaluation at Municipal Emmanuel Bezerra school, located at the west zone of Natal capital in Rio Grande do Norte state, where school individuals were analysed in interaction. A qualitative research was taken under the use of several pieces of information and collected out of several sources, such as: managing, docent and administrative staff interviews; present school legislation, political pedagogical project, scholar regiment as well as the 2013 action plans documental analyses; and the literature review focused in books and articles which treats of evaluation, State Evaluator and the public educational politics in order to promote the dialogue between school theory and reality. The institutional evaluation has been the theme debated through several studies. However, with its major focus on the evaluation systems and High Education aiming to raise competition having implying the reaching of educational quality as justification under liberal view. Notwithstanding, over the controlling function of the educational results and competition trigger amongst the educational institutions to the accruement of the received resources, it is believed that this institutional evaluation, however the system, can assist in the educational services improvement offered to the local public, when endeavoured to the purpose of supporting human development. Having the obtained data, the self-evaluation process implemented at the concerned school, the conceptions which permeate the school environment as well as the community joining given in this object lesson, was described and analysed as dialoguing with the political pedagogical project and comprehending the constitution in a democratic management

Educação científica no contexto pós-ontológico: por uma concepção plural de conhecimento e educação

The development of this work arises from the research of sociological and philosophical characters contemplating also other approaches which aims to answer the followingquestions: what is the responsibility of science teaching for the image one has about science? ; which scientific education should be designed for nowadays? . After considering the assumptions brought along by rationalism and the criticisms to the illuminist model proposed by sociology and philosophy of science, as well by the biology of the knowing process, going through discussions concerning post-modernity issues, one is given to understand that the image of science has become the central point of discussion in the last hundred years, including what concerns the area of science teaching, and that practically none of those discussions really reached natural science classes indeed. We adopt the term postontological to characterize the recent proposals on philosophy and sociology, because we evaluate that this term allows a better identification of the scientific realism crisis, which supports the existence of an ontological domain which science, and only science, is able to understand. One notices that the general public is not aware of those discussions, mainly if they are science teachers and students. So we believe that discussing the logic in which science is structured, the new understandings concerning the scientific undertaking, especially those of an externalist character, and the relationship between science and society, all of this contributes to build up a science teaching which contemplates a reflective contribution, besides allowing the inclusion of the study of other epistemologies in the educational practice. We argue that a revisionist posture seems to be the most appropriate for the contemporary scientific education, contemplating, besides the teaching of the usual science contents, discussions on the issues involving that knowledge, as well as respecting epistemologies alternative to the modern Western scientific one, in order one can work on the perception of local knowledge generated from other epistemological bases. We describe here practical activities we did involving teachers (short-term courses) and high-school students in an inland school in the Rio Grande do Norte state, in Brazil, as a way to demonstrate the possibility of interventions which can take those conceptions, discussions and changes to the classroom

Aí marcador de especificidade de SN indefinidos: um estudo funcionalista com implicações para o ensino

This body of work aims to describe and analyze the behavior of the Aí specificity marker of indefinite Noun Phrases (NP), one of the many functions this linguistic item is developing in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese. From the Functional Linguistic theory perspective, the North American declivity, this project intends to outline the possible grammaticalization trajectory taken by the Aí specificity marker. It will be followed from its function as a spatial deitic up to its integration of indefinite NP, and the action of the fundamental principles of the theory, such as iconicity and informativity, will be observed on the use of this item. Following this, Aí specificity marker behavior will be described in respect to various linguistic and social factors: type of text where the occurrence is encountered, language modality in which the latter is produced, syntactic function developed by the NP specified by Aí , the existence or lack of material intervening between Aí and the NP nuclear noun, informational status of the NP adjugated to Aí , and finally, sex, education and age of the speaker. The occurrence of conversational implicatures will also be verified (GRICE, 1982) within the contexts of Aí specificity marker use. Reflections on the teaching of grammar will be made, as well as on the possibility and validity of working with noun phrase specificity markers in elementary and high school Portuguese language classes. The data used in this research project stem from Corpus Discurso & Gramática A língua falada e escrita na cidade do Natal (FURTADO DA CUNHA, 1998), and from Corpus Discurso & Gramática A língua falada e escrita na cidade do Rio de Janeiro (VOTRE; OLIVEIRA, 1995)