A proposal to teach english to eighth graders in a public school in Cali through curriculum contents [recurso electr?nico]

This monography seeks the improvement of the teaching of English in an eighth grade from a public school in Santiago de Cali, INEM Jorge Isaac, through the implementation of a proposal based on the integration of this language with some disciplinary fields that are part of the curriculum; and to design, plan, prepare and evaluate a unit of teaching founded on Content-Based Instruction (CBI), through the Communicative Approach, some Task Based Learning procedures, Project Work, and Cooperative Work.

Trabajo Final de Grado y Plan de Acción Tutorial en el curriculum del Grado en Enfermería: diseño, desarrollo y evaluación

La acción tutorial (PAT), en los estudios universitarios de Enfermería, se halla en el centro de la acción docente del profesorado. El tutor/a orienta en el proceso de aprendizaje y en la preparación del Trabajo Final de Grado (TFG). En este artículo presentamos los resultados de la investigación realizada con tutores y estudiantes, que tiene por objetivo evaluar el diseño y desarrollo del TFG, los resultados académicos y su vivencia y experiencia. Diseño mixto cuantitativo descriptivo y cualitativo de investigación acción participación. Muestra total de 124 estudiantes de 4º curso de Grado Enfermería y 37 tutores del TFG. Técnicas de recogida de datos: resultados académicos y evaluativos; 3 grupos focales con estudiantes y profesores; 3 entrevistas semiestructuradas abiertas a estudiantes. Los resultados constatan que las tipologías más elegidas fueron revisiones bibliográficas (38,75%) y Planes de cuidados (24,2%). El 63,9 % de la temática escogida es Enfermería Maternal, Pediátrica y Clínica. Estudiantes y tutores viven con dificultad la elaboración del TFG y se requiere una mayor cultura tutorial. Es un proceso complejo de organización y coordinación que, sin embargo, permite un trabajo colaborativo de todo el equipo docente.

Farm visits: interdisciplinary outdoor learning for primary school pupils and Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence

There is concern around children’s lack of knowledge and understanding of food sources and production, and more broadly around their apparent disconnection from nature. Spending time in the outdoors has been shown to yield a range of benefits, although the mechanisms underpinning these are not well understood. Studies have suggested, however, that there has been a decline in time spent outdoors by children. The introduction of the ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ guidelines in Scotland was heralded as an opportunity to address this decline. Although the guidelines advocate the use of outdoor environments, little research has been conducted, and little guidance is available, on how teachers can and do use outdoor learning in relation to the guidelines, particularly beyond ‘adventure’ activities. Farms are utilised as an educational resource around the world. This research explored the use of educational farm visits, as an example of outdoor learning, in the context of Curriculum for Excellence. A qualitatively driven, mixed methods study, comprising survey and case study methodologies, was undertaken. A questionnaire for teachers informed subsequent interviews with teachers and farmers, and ‘group discussions’ with primary school pupils. The study found that teachers can link farm visits and associated topics with the Curriculum for Excellence guidelines in a range of ways, covering all curriculum areas. There was a tendency however for farm visits to be associated with food and farming topics at Primary 2-3 (age 6-7), rather than used more widely. Issues to consider in the planning and conduct of farm visits were identified, and barriers and motivations for teachers, and for farmers volunteering to host visits, were explored. As well as practical examples of the use of farm visiting, this research offers a perspective on some of the theoretical literature which seeks to explain the benefits of spending time outdoors. Furthermore, five main recommendations for farm visiting in the context of Curriculum for Excellence are given. These relate to the type of visit appropriate to different age groups, opportunities for teachers to become more familiar with what farms visits can offer, and raising awareness of the organisations and networks which can support volunteer farmers to host visits.

Embedding sustainability into the new computer science curriculum for English schools

The primary goals of this study are to: embed sustainable concepts of energy consumption into certain part of existing Computer Science curriculum for English schools; investigate how to motivate 7-to-11 years old kids to learn these concepts; promote responsive ICT (Information and Communications Technology) use by these kids in their daily life; raise their awareness of today’s ecological challenges. Sustainability-related ICT lessons developed aim to provoke computational thinking and creativity to foster understanding of environmental impact of ICT and positive environmental impact of small changes in user energy consumption behaviour. The importance of including sustainability into the Computer Science curriculum is due to the fact that ICT is both a solution and one of the causes of current world ecological problems. This research follows Agile software development methodology. In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, sustainability requirements, curriculum requirements and technical requirements are firstly analysed. Secondly, the web-based user interface is designed. In parallel, a set of three online lessons (video, slideshow and game) is created for the website GreenICTKids.com taking into account several green design patterns. Finally, the evaluation phase involves the collection of adults’ and kids’ feedback on the following: user interface; contents; user interaction; impacts on the kids’ sustainability awareness and on the kids’ behaviour with technologies. In conclusion, a list of research outcomes is as follows: 92% of the adults learnt more about energy consumption; 80% of the kids are motivated to learn about energy consumption and found the website easy to use; 100% of the kids understood the contents and liked website’s visual aspect; 100% of the kids will try to apply in their daily life what they learnt through the online lessons.

El curriculum de medicina y la formación humanística: una experiencia piloto de Aprendizaje Servicio Internacional (ASI)

Introducción Las últimas décadas las facultades de medicina españolas han conseguido un alto nivel de formación ciéntifica y tecnológica de los estudiantes. Ésta gran dedicación a la transmisión de conocimientos y avances científicos ha llevado a una merma en la formación humanística y en valores, fundamental en la formación de un buen profesional médico. Para solventar esta carencia realizamos una experiencia piloto de practicas voluntarias de cooperación internacional para valorar la posibilidad de complementar el curriculum de los estudios de medicina. Diseñamos un proyecto de cooperación internacional en colaboración con la ONG hondureña ACOES. Objetivo Analizar la experiencia de los estudiantes participantes en dicho proyecto para valorar la necesidad de introducir una modificación en los planes de estudio que consistiría en la realización de practicas o trabajo fin de grado como valor añadido al curriculum de medicina. Metodología Análisis textual cualitativo de los informes finales de los alumnos que han participado en la convocatoria oficial de la UMA. Resultados Valoración positiva de la experiencia. Aportación de sugerencias para la mejora de los resultados en un futuro. Han comprobado que el ejercicio de la medicina se puede realizar de manera mas integral y global, existiendo otras enfoques, salidas y posibilidades profesionales. Conclusión Experiencia muy positiva. Han adquirido herramientas nuevas, percibiendo a la medicina como algo mas que una resolución de problemas de salud, reforzando su motivación para trabajar de forma generosa y gratuita para la mejora del bienestar socio-sanitario.

Electracy in Praxis: Pedagogical Relays for an Undergraduate Writing Curriculum

The paradigm shift from traditional print literacy to the postmodern fragmentation, nonlinearity, and multimodality of writing for the Internet is realized in Gregory L. Ulmer’s electracy theory. Ulmer’s open invitation to continually invent the theory has resulted in the proliferation of relays, or weak models, by electracy advocates for understanding and applying the theory. Most relays, however, remain theoretical rather than practical for the writing classroom, and electracy instruction remains rare, potentially hindering the theory’s development. In this dissertation, I address the gap in electracy praxis by adapting, developing, and remixing relays for a functional electracy curriculum with first-year writing students in the Virginia Community College System as the target audience. I review existing electracy relays, pedagogical applications, and assessment practices – Ulmer’s and those of electracy advocates – before introducing my own relays, which take the form of modules. My proposed relay modules are designed for adaptability with the goals of introducing digital natives to the logic of new media and guiding instructors to possible implementations of electracy. Each module contains a justification, core competencies and learning outcomes, optional readings, an assignment with supplemental exercises, and assessment criteria. My Playlist, Transduction, and (Sim)ulation relays follow sound backward curricular design principles and emphasize core hallmarks of electracy as juxtaposed alongside literacy. This dissertation encourages the instruction of new media in Ulmer’s postmodern apparatus in which student invention via the articulation of fragments from various semiotic modes stems from and results in new methodologies for and understandings of digital communication.

The Definition of Curriculum Areas in Occupational Health Psychology

Across the international educational landscape, numerous higher education institutions (HEIs) offer postgraduate programmes in occupational health psychology (OHP). These seek to empower the next generation of OHP practitioners with the knowledge and skills necessary to advance the understanding and prevention of workplace illness and injury, improve working life and promote healthy work through the application of psychological principles and practices. Among the OHP curricula operated within these programmes there exists considerable variability in the topics addressed. This is due, inter alia, to the youthfulness of the discipline and the fact that the development of educational provision has been managed at the level of the HEI where it has remained undirected by external forces such as the discipline’s representative bodies. Such variability makes it difficult to discern the key characteristics of a curriculum which is important for programme accreditation purposes, the professional development and regulation of practitioners and, ultimately, the long-term sustainability of the discipline. This chapter has as its focus the imperative for and development of consensus surrounding OHP curriculum areas. It begins by examining the factors that are currently driving curriculum developments and explores some of the barriers to such. It then reviews the limited body of previous research that has attempted to discern key OHP curriculum areas. This provides a foundation upon which to describe a study conducted by the current authors that involved the elicitation of subject matter expert opinion from an international sample of academics involved in OHP-related teaching and research on the question of which topic areas might be considered important for inclusion within an OHP curriculum. The chapter closes by drawing conclusions on steps that could be taken by the discipline’s representative bodies towards the consolidation and accreditation of a core curriculum.

OfficialDiscourses in theeducationalsystems. Competencies: thenew curriculum password

The utility of knowledge has always been assumed to be one of the essential and structural questions in any educational and curriculum narrative. In fact, the utility of knowledge frames different designs for educational systems. Knowledge, as presented in public education systems, originates in the mainstream culture as an “accumulated capital for a future time or cultural ornament” (Beane, 2002, p.19). It is shaped and sequentially arranged in a compartmentalized way that often is far removed from everyday context of students. Moreover, knowledge is frequently framed as being needed for a certain or eventual future requirement. Historically there has always been a hierarchical relation within the formal structure of learning, involving contents (what), time (when), and utility (what for). The traditional difference in social status of the different kinds of knowledge and their utilities is connected with the way education emerges institutionally, as well as the demands of the economy. The concept of competence was born at the center of this tension and has been developing there, and there is must be rebuilt.

Cultural Heritage and Mobile Robotics Technologies

This paper reviews current research works at the authors’ Institutions to illustrate how mobile robotics and related technologies can be used to enhance economical fruition, control, protection and social impact of the cultural heritage. Robots allow experiencing on-line, from remote locations, tours at museums, archaeological areas and monuments. These solutions avoid travelling costs, increase beyond actual limits the number of simultaneous visitors, and prevent possible damages that can arise by over-exploitation of fragile environments. The same tools can be used for exploration and monitoring of cultural artifacts located in difficult to reach or dangerous areas. Examples are provided by the use of underwater robots in the exploration of deeply submerged archaeological areas. Besides, technologies commonly employed in robotics can be used to help exploring, monitoring and preserving cultural artifacts. Examples are provided by the development of procedures for data acquisition and mapping and by object recognition and monitoring algorithms.

Research on the BEIC Curriculum: Unveiling What Lies Under the Tip of the Iceberg

Es un detenido análisis de la investigación The Value of Curricular lntrospection, en que se incorpora la realimentación dada por diversos participantes nacionales y extranjeros en el CILAP 2007, a quienes se les expuso los resultados iniciales de esta investigación. El estudio surgió de la disparidad de criterios entre diversos actores del BEIC, de la ELCL, respecto a la pertinencia que para la enseñanza del inglés a niños en Costa Rica tienen los principios comunicativos denominados interacción, inmersión parcial y aprendizaje por experiencia. Así, mientras diseñadores de currículo y profesores del BEIC consideraban estos principios altamente eficaces, buena parte del estudiantado que realizaba la práctica docente pensaba lo contrario.A detailed analysis is provided here of the research project titled The Value of Curricular Introspection. It also includes the feedback given by the national and foreign participants in CILAP 2007, to whom this study was presented. The investigation emerged from the diverse opinions existing among BEIC-ELCL actors regarding the pertinence of interaction, partial immersion and experiential learning communicative principies for the teaching of English to children in Costa Rica. Thus, whereas BEIC curriculum designers and professors considered these principies to be highly effective, many student-teachers in that program believe just the opposite.