Validación del software educativo Poliestudio 1.0: informe de investigación

PoliEstudio 1.0 is a computational tool, with free license, created to work with polynomial expressions in one variable and it was created by a team in which the authors of this article are part of. This article documents the qualitative validation performed to this software which main objective was to bring to the Costa Rican Educational System a validated educational software that can solve, partially, the problems that nowadays exists in the mathematic education of secondary students, particularly in the topics related to polynomial expressions in one variable and specifically to those students who are in eighth grade.

Recursos didácticos digitales: medios innovadores para el trabajo colaborativo en línea

The purpose of this paper is to present the origin, characteristics and rules of the Blogs, Wikis, Chats, Forums, and the Cmap Tools, that one must take into account when working with them as digital resources. In addition, the main contribution offered, is an explanation of possible didactic uses that these resources offer as a dynamic strategic proposal for collaborative e-learning.

El desarrollo de foros estudiantiles como estrategia para fortalecer la enseñanza de la Cívica. La experiencia del Primer Foro Regional de Gobiernos Estudiantiles

With the implementation of the new Civics Syllabi, new expectations are opened so that the civil education is approached in a more integral way. This will let the teachers explore different techniques to develop their students´ citizenship competences, in order for them to join a society where local, national and global participation allow them to take relevant and committed attitudes. The execution of the Regional Students´ Government Forums is an example on how education contributes to create opportunities for leading students, so that they can have spaces to reflect, give their opinions and offer solutions to the problems that society is facing, and that at the same time, in the future they will be assumed by these students when they have their full citizenship.

La investigación como eje transversal en el desarrollo de los cursos de la carrera en la Enseñanza de la Educación Física

The purpose of this article is to provide with brief reflections to faculty in order to give them practical advices using research as a transversal axis in a defined pedagogical strategy applicable to the courses offered by the School of Sport Science (SSS). In other words, we intend to emphasize the role of research by reaching professional profiles and developing the courses offered by the School of Sport Science (SS). Finally, a hypothetic example was used to explain each step in relationship to the research protocol from a positivistic perspective.

Currículo en el nivel preescolar costarricense: El Ciclo Materno Infantil (CMI)

The present article tackles the conceptualization and description of the Infantile Maternal Cycle as p The present article tackles the conceptualization and description of the Infantile Maternal Cycle as part of the preschool level of the Costa Rican educational system. With the intention of having a wider vision of this Cycle, a revision is done for the curriculum concept, as well as, for the elements that shape it, and then there is a detailed description of specific aspects related to the preschool Costa Rican curriculum of the Infantile Maternal Cycle, taking as a starting point the Program of Study that was designed to attend the above Cycle in the Costa Rican educational system.

Transición 6 grado a 7año, ¿problema o desafío?

The present article displays the results of a two-year research experience carried out by an interdisciplinary research team from the five academic departments (units) at CIDE. The study is part of a larger research project named Profiles, Dynamics and Challenges of Costa Rican education at CIDE, which is directed by the Deanery. The study was conducted during 2006 and part of 2007 in secondary schools which were identified as successful institutions regarding academic achievements. The research focused on exploring the factors which influence students’ academic performance positively as they move from primary to secondary school and as they remain within successful academic indicators during those transition years. This research, besides involving an important literature review, required field work which took place in ten secondary schools from diverse settings all over the country. Observations were made and the seventh and eighth graders’ beliefs, as well as, their parents’ and teachers’ assumptions were explored. In addition, paralleled to the aspects mentioned, an important population of sixth grade students, their parents, and teachers were studied, since those primary institutions were related to the secondary schools involved in the study.

La población estudiantil en el sétimo año de la educación pública costarricense

Seventh grade students share personal characteristics that are analyzed in this paper based on the teachers´ performance of the proper mediation for the students´ learning. The results of an investigation done with the model of teachers´ profiles at this level will be the basis for this paper (Alfaro et al, 2008a). We conclude that the biopsychosocial development and maturational stage of the transit-preteen-teen children must be the domain of faculty at this level, as well as, the socioeconomic context of family and social contexts of their students.

Fundamentos teóricos de la Educación Universitaria, sus artífices e incidencias en el currículo promovido

Recibido 21 de agosto de 2008 • Aceptado 29 de abril de 2009 • Corregido 23 de junio de 2009   Es posible pensar que al igual que la política nutre el currículo, la pedagogía, en su arte práctica, supone ser su abono para el cultivo de aprendizajes en la vida. Esto significa que el docente con formación pedagógica puede estar en capacidad de transformar su conocimiento disciplinar en un aprendizaje de conocimiento entendible, práctico y con sentido, por cuanto recurre a la pedagogía como el instrumento que le facilita viabilizar la política curricular en aras de convertir el proceso educativo en uno de calidad. Asimismo, se considera que gran parte de la profesionalización docente podría radicar en la continuidad de la formación del profesorado o formación permanente, cuyo resultado es el desarrollo profesional del profesorado y, consecuentemente, del alumnado, para que, de este proceso, se geste, “conocimiento al servicio de la vida, del elevamiento de la calidad de vida” (Flores, 1994, p. XXV), es decir, aprendizajes significativos producto de modelos de enseñanza acordes con lo que dicta y busca la propuesta curricular promovida.

Aportes de la administración moderna a la gerencia educativa

Nowadays, the educative manager or principal has a series of tools of modern administration that allow him/her to guide the educational institution towards quality. Thus, he/she must fulfils a series of functions that are framed within the administrative process, such as planning, organizing, directing and controlling activities in the educational institution. This article´s main objective is to present some of these contributions and the way in which the principal can use them to improve the educational institution. The modern administration puts at the disposal different conceptions that help to visualize the way in which the institution must be managed. The main conclusion that is extracted is that a unique theoretical framework does not exist that can ensure the success of a principal, instead, there must be a use of the best aspects that each of the conceptions that the modern administration have in order to adapt them, according to the circumstances.

La educación mediada por el mundo. Pistas para la promoción de prácticas educativas descolonizadoras

The educational processes are seen in this paper as “places” of colonization and freedom. Thus, the educational goals that have been assigned to education would condition the liberating possibilities of the teaching processes. As a result, the author suggests –from the interculturality paradigm– a series of keys for constructing both decolonized and decolonizing educational mediations.

¿Por qué es esencial discutir acerca del liderazgo en la gestión escolar?

The purpose of this article is to analyze some aspects of vital importance to educational organizations: Educational Leadership. Leadership is a big issue that has being an interest for many authors. The term gives a connotation of images that include powerful, dynamic and intelligent people. The majority of leadership analysis recognizes the fact that it can occur in all the organizations. This article suggests a brief explanation of what leadership means, and it explains two theories that have been developed and have an impact in the educational system: the transactional theory and the transformational theory. Therefore, this article mentions some basic elements about transformational leadership in a school´s principal. Finally, there is an explanation about the vision of an educational organization and how this one links its leadership with the educational organizations in general.

Consideraciones básicas del pensamiento complejo de Edgar Morin, en la educación

This essay consists of a brief description and analysis of Edgar Morin´s complex thinking. For that reason, it focuses on the systematic approach that refers to the interconnection and interactions of objects, people, and environment as a whole, which serve as the basis of the educational proposal, where knowledge must be regarded as an integrated fashion and not as something fragmented. Thus, human knowledge should raise awareness that we are just a component of a more general system (complex and in constant interaction), where education can be an effective source for students to develop the capacity of understanding other complex systems, besides living organisms, where also there is a big influence from “new sciences” and humanities. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to develop those ideas proposed by Edgar Morin.

Pedagogía intercultural: ¿un eufemismo para tranquilizar conciencias o una alternativa para la transformación?

The present article it entails the revision of some aspects of the Costa Rican pedagogy, especially in the epistemology area, ethics and the policies as fundamental dimensions of education. From there, it also proposes the revision of its intercultural practices in order to determine whether what it is called in the CIDE (UNA) Intercultural Pedagogy it is just another euphemism than comes from outside and above. If we receive it without major analysis in order not to disturb our comfortable being in the world, reality, or as an alternative of transformation of the Costa Rican society.

La importancia de la educación ambiental ante la problemática actual

The dominant development system with its neoliberal policies and market-centered approaches contribute to aggravate the socio-environmental problems, under the context of the globalization of the market. For that reason, the concern about the sustainable development of the environment makes highly necessary the structuring of an environmental education that forms and informs about this problem. As a result, environmental education constitutes the educational process that deals with the relation between the human being and his/her environment (natural and man-made) and with itself, as well as the effects caused by this relation. In this way, environmental education must constitute an integral process, which plays its role throughout the whole teaching and learning intertwinement. For this reason it is necessary to establish an educational process that examines the relation of any topic or human being activity, within an analysis of the importance or incidence on social life, as it is the pedagogical part and its political essence.

La enseñanza tradicional de las ciencias versus las nuevas tendencias educativas

To think of an educational proposal that teaches how to learn, it is necessary to consider a change not only educationally but also political, social, economical, ecological, cultural, among others, to enable an understanding of reality and in which there can be a construction of knowledge and a crucial role of sciences. But we must not forget that the development of science has been marked by the so-called positivistic science that it is characterized by interpreting phenomena and how this function through theories and laws, where the context and humans have a very poor leading role, if any, to which one can call scientism, which has allowed development even above human needs. However, since the 90s, there is a resurgence of progressive humanism in the educational fields, where there is a search of a revaluation of what it is considered human, which involves a series of epistemological and methodological changes that drives us towards new ways of working. This calls us to reflect on extreme choices to build knowledge, beyond the traditional teaching of the sciences, which are comprehensive, systematic, and flexible and rooted in a humanistic culture. Some models of the new trends are: directed research, discovery learning, inquiry learning and teaching of science and new technologies.