La accesibilidad universal y el diseño para todas las personas factor clave para la inclusión social desde el design thinking curricular

En este artículo se presenta el diseño de la nueva formación en intervención social para todas las personas desde la accesibilidad universal, en concreto el caso de las profesiones sociales, a través de la metodología del design thinking curricular. En el mismo se trata la relación íntima que surge de vincular dos conceptos, por un lado la inclusión –que responde positivamente a la diversidad de las personas y a las diferencias individuales, entendiendo que la diversidad no es un problema, sino una oportunidad para el enriquecimiento de la sociedad, a través de la participación activa en la vida familiar, en la educación, en el trabajo y en general en todos los procesos sociales, culturales y en las comunidades (UNESCO, 2005)– y, por otro, la accesibilidad, como nuevo paradigma de la integralidad en la intervención de los/as nuevos/as profesionales dedicados al sector social, haciendo realidad el concepto de ciudadanía en sentido amplio.

Learning from Text: Examining Teacher Thinking and Practice in AP Environmental Science

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Alternative approaches to education: Tolstoy’s thinking on teaching and learning and its relevance for today

In this article I reflect upon the educational writings and teaching experiences of the 19th-Century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy is known to have attached much importance to his own writing on education, even more than to the literary creations for which he is best remembered. His writings on education have much to contribute to our present-day understanding of the learning process and cover such issues as, ‘learner autonomy’, ‘motivation’, ‘relationship’ and ‘student voice’. Tolstoy’s teaching experience was with multiethnic peasant children in his schools in Yasnaya Polyana. I intend to illustrate that the themes and issues that arose from his experiences in the 1860s can still find resonance with students and teachers in the 21st century.

Evaluation of Tottenham Thinking Space Pilot: Final Report. Research Report 11.

This reports summarises research that began in March 2014 and was completed in October 2015 by an experienced inter-disciplinary research team from the Centre for Social Justice and Change and Psycho-Social Research Group, School of Social Sciences, the University of East London (UEL) and included Dr Yang Li from the Centre for Geo-Information Studies, UEL, for the first phase of the study. Tottenham ‘Thinking Space’ (TTS) was a pilot therapeutic initiative based in local communities and delivered by the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust and funded by the London Borough of Haringey Directorate of Public Health. TTS aimed to improve mental health and enable and empower local communities. TTS was situated within a mental health agenda that was integral to Haringey’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2012-2015 and aimed to encourage people to help themselves and each other and develop confident communities. On the one hand TTS was well-suited to this agenda, but, on the other, participants were resistant to, and were trying to free themselves from labelling that implied ‘mental health difficulties’. A total of 243 meetings were held and 351 people attended 1,716 times. The majority of participants attended four times or less, and 33 people attended between 5 and 10 times and 39 people attended over 10 times. Attending a small number of times does not necessarily mean that the attendee was not helped. Attendees reflected the ethnic diversity of Tottenham; 29 different ethnic groups attended. The opportunity to meet with people from different cultural backgrounds in a safe space was highly valued by attendees. Similarly, participants valued the wide age range represented and felt that they benefited from listening to inter-generational experiences. The majority of participants were women (72%) and they were instrumental in initiating further Thinking Spaces, topic specific meetings, the summer programme of activities for mothers and young children and training to meet their needs. The community development worker had a key role in implementing the initiative and sustaining its growth throughout the pilot period. We observed that TTS attracted those whose life experiences were marked by personal struggle and trauma. Many participants felt safe enough to disclose mental health difficulties (85% of those who completed a questionnaire). Participants also came seeking a stronger sense of community in their local area. Key features of the meetings are that they are democratic, non-judgemental, respectful, and focussed on encouraging everyone to listen and to try to understand. We found that the therapeutic method was put in place by high quality facilitators and health and personal outcomes for participants were consistent with those predicted by the underpinning psychoanalytical and systemic theories. Outcomes included a reduction in anxieties and improved personal and social functioning; approximately two thirds of those who completed a questionnaire felt better understood, felt more motivated and more hopeful for the future. The overwhelming majority of survey respondents also felt good about contributing to their community, said that they were more able to cooperate with others and accepting of other cultures, and had made new friends. Participants typically had a better understanding of their current situation and how to take positive action; of those who completed a questionnaire, over half felt more confident to seek support for a personal issue and to contact services. Members of TTS supported each other and instilled hope and build community-mindedness that reduced social isolation.

Inside out and outside in. Thinking a Tagorean Future of Education.

Rabindranath Tagore’s ideas can still inspire education in the East as well as in the West today. In this paper, I survey Tagore’s philosophical anthropology and argue that there is more coherence to his philosophy and pedagogy than is usually seen. For Tagore, the highest goal is to make the world one’s own, as well as to enlarge one’s self to encompass the world. The educational practices through which this ideal can be reached can be classified as “creative action,” “love,” and “freedom.” On the basis of such an ideal, realms such as the arts, nature, and movement no longer remain expendable additions to the kind of knowledge-driven education that aims primarily at making everyone economically productive.One of the problems with such a pedagogical strategy is that it treats human beings as means and not as ends. Tagore’s educational approach (his “method of nature”) refrains from turning children into adults as soon as possible and accepts the deceleration of learning and the simplification of living asmost forward-leading approach to a successful and comprehensive education.

Teachers thinking together: novas tecnologias aplicadas à formação continuada de professores de língua inglesa

Acompanha: Teachers thinking together: novas tecnologias aplicadas à formação continuada de professores de língua inglesa

'Don't stop': re-thinking the function of endings in narrative television

This thesis argues that the study of narrative television has been limited by an adherence to accepted and commonplace conceptions of endings as derived from literary theory, particularly a preoccupation with the terminus of the text as the ultimate site of cohesion, structure, and meaning. Such common conceptions of endings, this thesis argues, are largely incompatible with the realities of television’s production and reception, and as a result the study of endings in television needs to be re-thought to pay attention to the specificities of the medium. In this regard, this thesis proposes a model of intra-narrative endings, islands of cohesion, structure, and meaning located within television texts, as a possible solution to the problem of endings in television. These intra-narrative endings maintain the functionality of traditional endings, whilst also allowing for the specificities of television as a narrative medium. The first two chapters set out the theoretical groundwork, first by exploring the essential characteristics of narrative television (serialisation, fragmentation, duration, repetition, and accumulation), then by exploring the unique relationship between narrative television and the forces of contingency. These chapters also introduce the concept of intra-narrative endings as a possible solution to the problems of television’s narrative structure, and the medium’s relationship to contingency. Following on from this my three case studies examine forms of television which have either been traditionally defined as particularly resistant to closure (soap opera and the US sitcom) or which have received little analysis in terms of their narrative structure (sports coverage). Each of these case studies provides contextual material on these televisual forms, situating them in terms of their narrative structure, before moving on to analyse them in terms of my concept of intra-narrative endings. In the case of soap opera, the chapter focusses on the death of the long running character Pat Butcher in the British soap EastEnders (BBC, 1985-), while my chapter on the US sitcom focusses on the varying levels of closure that can be located within the US sitcom, using Friends (NBC, 1993-2004) as a particular example. Finally, my chapter on sports coverage analyses the BBC’s coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, and focusses on the narratives surrounding cyclists Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton. Each of these case studies identifies their chosen events as intra-narrative endings within larger, ongoing texts, and analyses the various ways in which they operate within those wider texts. This thesis is intended to make a contribution to the emerging field of endings studies within television by shifting the understanding of endings away from a dominant literary model which overwhelmingly focusses on the terminus of the text, to a more televisually specific model which pays attention to the particular contexts of the medium’s production and reception.

The role of relevant information in functional counterfactual thinking

Although counterfactual thinking is typically activated by a negative outcome, it can have positive effects by helping to regulate and improve future behavior. Known as the content-specific pathway, these counterfactual ruminations use relevant information (i.e., information that is directly related to the problem at hand) to elicit insights about the problem, create a connection between the counterfactual and the desired behavior, and strengthen relevant behavioral intentions. The current research examines how changing the type of relevant information provided (i.e., so that it is either concrete and detailed or general and abstract) influences the relationship between counterfactual thinking and behavioral intentions. Experiments 1 and 2 found that counterfactual thinking facilitated relevant intentions when these statements involved detailed information (Experiment 1) or specific behaviors (Experiment 2) compared to general information (Experiment 1), categories of behavior, or traits (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 found that counterfactuals containing a category of behavior facilitated specific behavioral intentions, relative to counterfactuals focusing on a trait. However, counterfactuals only facilitated intentions that included specific behaviors, but not when intentions focused on categories of behaviors or traits (Experiment 4). Finally, this effect generalized to other relevant specific behaviors; a counterfactual based on one relevant specific behavior facilitated an intention based on another relevant specific behavior (Experiment 5). Together, these studies further clarify our understanding of the content-specific pathway and provide a more comprehensive understanding of functional counterfactual thinking.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL STUDIES CENTER OF THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD IN PARAÍBA (CETAD/PB): proposal for restructuring

A organização, a gestão e o planejamento de uma unidade de informação compreende várias etapas e envolve os processos e técnicas do campo de pesquisa do profissional do Bibliotecário. Neste estudo pretendemos construir uma proposta de reestruturação da Biblioteca do Centro de Estudos Teológicos das Assembléias de Deus na Paraíba - CETAD/PB. E especificamente: definir um sistema de organização para o acervo que conduza à autonomia do usuário no processo de busca e recuperação da informação; indicar um software de gerenciamento de bibliotecas que supra as necessidades da unidade de informação; conhecer o público alvo, a partir de instrumento de estudo de usuário, a fim de adequar as ferramentas tecnológicas que serão utilizadas; organizar um guia para auxiliar o processo de reestruturação e propor medidas para a regulamentação do funcionamento da biblioteca do CETAD/PB. A metodologia utiliza a abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, com características do tipo descritiva e exploratória. Adota a pesquisa de campo, para conhecer e detalhar o universo de pesquisa que foi o Centro de Estudos Teológicos das Assembléias de Deus na Paraíba CETAD/PB, bem como os sujeitos da pesquisa, ou seja, os alunos da instituição. O instrumento de coleta dos dados utilizado foi o questionário. Para representar os dados recorre às técnicas e aos recursos estatísticos da pesquisa quantitativa. Com as análises dos dados desvenda o perfil dos seus usuários, constata a insatisfação dos mesmos com relação a organização do acervo, assim como quais ferramentas tecnológicas se adéquam a esse perfil para o aprimoramento nas etapas de tratamento e disseminação dos suportes informacionais, como também no serviços de atendimento ao usuário. Destaca o profissional da informação como gestor nas Unidades de Informação, com atuação que vai além dos procedimentos e técnicas tradicionais da profissão. Palavras-chave: Biblioteca Especializada. Biblioteca – Teologia. Organização de Bibliotecas.

Doctors' thinking about the system as a threat to patient safety

‘Systems thinking’ is an important feature of the emerging ‘patient safety’ agenda. As a key component of a ‘safety culture’, it encourages clinicians to look past individual error to recognise the latent factors that threaten safety. This paper investigates whether current medical thinking is commensurate with the idea of ‘systems thinking’ together with its implications for policy. The findings are based on qualitative semistructured interviews with specialist physicians working within one NHS District General Hospital in the English Midlands. It is shown that, rather then favouring a 'person-centred’ perspective, doctors readily identify ‘the system’ as a threat to patient safety. This is not necessarily a reflection of the prevailing safety discourse or knowledge of policy, but reflects a tacit understanding of how services are (dis)organised. This line of thinking serves to mitigate individual wrong-doing and protect professional credibility by encouraging doctors to accept and accommodate the shortcomings of the system, rather than participate in new forms of organisational learning.

Relations among Topic Knowledge, Individual Interest, and Relational Reasoning, and Critical Thinking in Maternity Nursing

Critical thinking in learners is a goal of educators and professional organizations in nursing as well as other professions. However, few studies in nursing have examined the role of the important individual difference factors topic knowledge, individual interest, and general relational reasoning strategies in predicting critical thinking. In addition, most previous studies have used domain-general, standardized measures, with inconsistent results. Moreover, few studies have investigated critical thinking across multiple levels of experience. The major purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which topic knowledge, individual interest, and relational reasoning predict critical thinking in maternity nurses. For this study, 182 maternity nurses were recruited from national nursing listservs explicitly chosen to capture multiple levels of experience from prelicensure to very experienced nurses. The three independent measures included a domain-specific Topic Knowledge Assessment (TKA), consisting of 24 short-answer questions, a Professed and Engaged Interest Measure (PEIM), with 20 questions indicating level of interest and engagement in maternity nursing topics and activities, and the Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR), a graphical selected response measure with 32 items organized in scales corresponding to four forms of relational reasoning: analogy, anomaly, antithesis, and antinomy. The dependent measure was the Critical Thinking Task in Maternity Nursing (CT2MN), composed of a clinical case study providing cues with follow-up questions relating to nursing care. These questions align with the cognitive processes identified in a commonly-used definition of critical thinking in nursing. Reliable coding schemes for the measures were developed for this study. Key findings included a significant correlation between topic knowledge and individual interest. Further, the three individual difference factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in critical thinking with a large effect size. While topic knowledge was the strongest predictor of critical thinking performance, individual interest had a moderate significant effect, and relational reasoning had a small but significant effect. The findings suggest that these individual difference factors should be included in future studies of critical thinking in nursing. Implications for nursing education, research, and practice are discussed.