Xarxa d'Innovació Docent sobre Aprenentatge Cooperatiu. Bones pràctiques sobre aprenentatge cooperatiu 2011.

Es presenten les línies mestres del treball de la Xarxa d’Innovació Docent sobre Aprenentatge Cooperatiu (XIDAC) de la UdG durant el curs 2010-2011.

Un projecte didàctic que ensenya a mirar: 'Ciutat, territori i paisatge' s'ha experimentat en onze instituts de Catalunya

‘Ciutat, territori i paisatge’ consta d’uns materials didàctics, formats per unes làmines de paisatges, un conjunt d’activitats didàctiques i un web interactiu, elaborats pel Departament de Política Territorial i Obres Públiques conjuntament amb el Departament d’ Educació i l’ Observatori del Paisatge i adreçat a estudiants d’educació secundària. Aquests materials poden tenir interès, també, per als educadors en el lleure i per a totes les persones preocupades pel deteriorament que estan patint alguns paisatges que considerem tradicionals i emblemàtics, especialment els dels entorns de les ciutats o els propers a les grans infraestructures

A study of the teaching of mechanical drawing in the public schools, colleges and universities of Ohio,

Mode of access: Internet.

Schooling in the Network Society : Internet in Primary and Secondary Education. Research report (synthesis document)

Aquest projecte té la intenció d'identificar i analitzar els efectes de la introducció d'Internet a les escoles catalanes (educació primària i secundària). L'objectiu és posar de manifest la manera com s'utilitza la xarxa en aquest àmbit i en quina mesura contribueix a l'aparició, en els centres educatius, d'una nova cultura adaptada a les necessitats de la societat xarxa. Amb aquest propòsit, aquest projecte desplega les seves línies d'anàlisi per a fer atenció al procés d'incorporació d'Internet, principalment, en tres direccions: la pràctica pedagògica, les formes d'organització i gestió dels centres educatius i la seva vinculació amb la comunitat i el territori. Aquesta investigació ha estat desenvolupada pel grup de recerca ENS (Education and Network Society). Amb una perspectiva comparativa, el treball d'aquest grup vol contribuir, sobre la base de dades empíriques, a interpretar la transformació de l'àmbit educatiu no universitari en els paràmetres que estableix, avui dia, la nostra societat.

Entrepreneurship Education in Basic and Upper Secondary Education – Measurement and Empirical Evidence

The starting point of this study is to direct more attention to the teacher and those entrepreneurship education practices taking place in formal school to find out solutions for more effective promotion of entrepreneurship education. For this objective, the strategy-level aims of entrepreneurship education need to be operationalised into measurable and understandable teacher-level practices. Furthermore, to enable the effective development of entrepreneurship education in basic and upper secondary level education, more knowledge is needed of the state of affairs of entrepreneurship education in teaching. The purpose of the study is to increase the level of understanding of teachers’ entrepreneurship education practices, and through this to develop entrepreneurship education. This study builds on the literature on entrepreneurship education and especially those elements referring to the aims, resources, benefits, methods, and practises of entrepreneurship education. The study comprises five articles highlighting teachers’ role in entrepreneurship education. In the first article the concept of entrepreneurship and the teachers role in reflection upon his/hers approaches to entrepreneurship education are considered. The second article provides a detailed analysis of the process of developing a measurement tool to depict the teachers’ activities in entrepreneurship education. The next three articles highlight the teachers’ role in directing the entrepreneurship education in basic and upper secondary level education. Furthermore, they analyse the relationship between the entrepreneurship education practises and the teachers’ background characteristics. The results of the study suggest a wide range of conclusions and implications. First, in spite of many outspoken aims connected to entrepreneurship education, teachers have not set any aims for themselves. Additionally, aims and results seem to mix. However, it is possible to develop teachers’ target orientation by supporting their reflection skills, and through measurement and evaluation increase their understanding of their own practices. Second, applying a participatory action process it is possible to operationalise teachers’entrepreneurship education practices. It is central to include the practitioners’ perspective in the development of measures to make sure that the concepts and aims of entrepreneurship education are understood. Third, teachers’ demographic or tenure-related background characteristics do not affect their entrepreneurship education practices, but their training related to entrepreneurship education, participation in different school-level or regional planning, and their own capabilities support entrepreneurship education. Fourth, a large number of methods are applied to entrepreneurship education, and the most often used methods were different kinds of discussions, which seem to be an easy, low-threshold way for teachers to include entrepreneurship education regularly in their teaching. Field trips to business enterprises or inviting entrepreneurs to present their work in schools are used fairly seldom. Interestingly, visits outside the school are more common than visitors invited to the school. In line, most of the entrepreneurship education practices take place in a classroom. Therefore it seems to be useful to create and encourage teachers towards more in-depth cooperation with companies (e.g. via joint projects) and to network systematically. Finally, there are plenty of resources available for entrepreneurship education, such as ready-made materials, external stakeholders, support organisations, and learning games, but teachers have utilized them only marginally.

English-medium instruction in Sweden : Perspectives and practices in two upper secondary schools

This thesis presents English-medium instruction (EMI) in the Swedish context, focusing on perspectives and practices in two schools. The research question is as follows: How and why is EMI offered, chosen, and practiced in the Swedish upper secondary school today? The aim is to explore the status of the educational option, the reasons for offering EMI to stakeholders, the stakeholders’ beliefs about and goals of EMI, and the implementation of EMI in the classroom. A survey of all upper secondary schools in Sweden was conducted to ascertain the spread of content teaching through a foreign language. The educational context was studied from an ecological perspective using methods based in linguistic ethnography. Language alternation, academic language, and language hierarchy were all considered. Interviews were analysed for content; and classroom language use was analysed for language choice and function. The concepts of affordance and scaffolding together with translanguaging were key. The de facto policies of the micro contexts of the schools were examined in light of the declared national policy of the macro context of Sweden. The results indicate that the option in Swedish schools has not increased, and also tends to only be EMI—not Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) or instruction through other languages. EMI is offered for prestige, an international profile, marketing potential and personal interest. EMI students are academically motivated and confident, and see the option as “fun”. 100% EMI in the lessons is not the goal or the practice. Translanguaging is abundant, but how language alternation is perceived as an affordance or not differs in the two schools. One focuses on how the languages are used while the other focuses on how much each language is used. In conclusion, the analysis suggests that a development of definitions and practices of EMI in Sweden is needed, especially in relation to language policy and language hierarchy.

Learning Grammar : A study of upper secondary level students’ attitudes and beliefs concerning the learning of grammar

The communicative approach to language learning is widely taught in Western education, and yet its predecessor, the grammar-translation method, is still commonly employed in other parts of the world. In Sweden, the increasing popularity of the communicative approach is often justified by the high level of students’ communicative skills (Öhman, 2013). At the same time, students’ written texts and speech contain many grammatical errors (Öhman, 2013). Consequently, being aware of their tendency to produce grammatical errors, some students express beliefs regarding both the explicit and implicit learning of grammar (Sawir, 2005; Boroujeni, 2012). The objective of this thesis is to gain more knowledge regarding students’ beliefs concerning the learning of English grammar at the upper secondary level, in Sweden. With this purpose a survey was conducted in two schools in Sweden, where 49 upper-secondary English students participated. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to process the collected data. Despite some difference in the participants’ ages, there were many similarities in their attitudes towards the teaching and learning of grammar. The results show that the participants in both schools believe that only by applying both, explicit and implicit methods, can they obtain a high level of language proficiency. The results of this study can help teachers in planning different activities that enhance the students’ knowledge of grammar.

Maintenance of communication in primary classrooms : some evidence for the role of elicitation and code-switching in English medium schools in Kenya, with implications for teaching

This is a study of specific aspects of classroom interaction primary school level in Kenya. The study entailed the identification of the sources of particular communication problems during the change-over period from Kiswahili to English medium teaching in two primary schools. There was subsequently an examination of the language resources which were employed by teachers to maintain pupil participation in communication in the light of the occurrence of possibility of occurrence of specific communication problems. The language resources which were found to be significant in this regard concerned firstly the use of different elicitation types by teachers to stimulate pupils into giving responses and secondly teachers' recourse to code-switching from English to Kiswahili and vice-versa. It was also found in this study that although the use of English as the medium of instruction in the classrooms which were observed resulted in certain communication problems, some of these problems need not have arisen if teachers had been more careful in their use of language. The consideration of this finding, after taking into account the role of different elicitation types and code-switching as interpretable from data samples had certain implications which are specified in the study for teaching in Kenyan primary schools. The corpus for the study consisted of audio-recordings of English, Science and Number-Work lessons which were later transcribed. Relevant data samples were subsequently extracted from transcripts for analysis. Many of the samples have examples of cases of communication breakdowns, but they also illustrate how teachers maintained interaction with pupils who had yet to acquire an operational mastery of English. This study thus differs from most studies on classroom interaction because of its basic concern with the examination of the resources available to teachers for overcoming the problem areas of classroom communication.

Conflicto, colaboración y consenso en la enseñanza de las ciencias sociales = Conflict, collaboration and consensus in the teaching of the Social sciences

This article suggests the study of the key concept of conflict as a means of implementing a critical and communicativecurriculum based on the study of relevant social themes. To this end we put forward the principal characteristics of thecritical/communicative curriculum. We offer a didactic proposal about conflict and explain the results of its application intwo Secondary Education classrooms

De los contenidos a las competencias numéricas en la enseñanza obligatoria = From contents to numerical competence in Compulsory Secondary Education

Mathematics has formed part of all our daily lives since the most remote origins of our civilization, although on too many occasions schools have done little for this functional view of mathematics reclaiming the formal role of this discipline in detriment of its more practical and applied element. From this perspective the curriculum organized by competence arises due to the need to fill this vacuum and allow our students to function better in the constant elements of real situations which they are going to have to resolve throughout their lives. The specifying of this general view of mathematic competence in the numeric competence should allow all our students to progressively acquire numeric sense, that is, that they have the capacity to apply good quantitative ideas in real situations

Integrating environmental education in primary school education in Tanzania : teachers’ perceptions and teaching practices

The study focuses on primary school teachers’ perceptions of environmental education, its integration into primary school education and teachers’ teaching practices in Tanzania. The thesis is based on empirical research. The theoretical underpinnings of the study are based on Palmer’s (1998) model of environmental education. According to the model, meaningful environmental education should include education about, in or through and for the environment. The study is supported by national and international literature from research done on environmental education and education for sustainable development and policy statements. The study is qualitative in nature, adopting phenomenography and phenomenology as points of departure. The empirical data was collected from four primary schools in Morogoro region in Tanzania. The study sample consisted of 31 primary school teachers. Data was collected through interviews and lesson observations. According to the results of the study, primary school teachers expressed variations in their perceptions of environmental education and education for sustainable development. Most of the teachers focused on the aspect of knowledge acquisition. According to Tanzanian education and training policy, environmental education has to be integrated into all subjects. Although there is environmental education in the primary school curriculum, it is not integrated on an equal footing in all subjects. Some subjects like science, social studies and geography have more environmental content than other subjects. Teachers claim that the approach used to integrate environmental education into the school curriculum was not favoured because many claimed that what is to be taught as environmental education in the various subjects is not shown clearly. As a result, many teachers suggested that to ensure that it is taught properly it should be included in the curriculum as an independent subject or as specific topics. The study revealed that teachers’ teaching practices in integrating environmental education varied from one subject to another. Although most of the teachers said that they used participatory methods, lesson observations showed that they limited themselves to question and answer and group discussion. However, the teachers faced a number of barriers in the teaching of environmental education, some of which include lack of teaching and learning resources, time and large class size. The role of teachers in the implementation of environmental education in developing an environmentally literate citizenry is of great significance. The responsibility of the government in developing a curriculum with clear goals and content, developing teachers’ capacity in the teaching of environmental education and provision of teaching and learning materials needs to be taken seriously by the government in educational plans and programs.

Pragmatic competence of Finnish learners of English: Meaning in interaction in secondary and upper secondary schools

Tutkin pro gradu -tutkielmassani englannin kielen oppijoiden pragmaattista kompetenssia. Tarkoitukseni oli selvittää, miten suomalaiset yläkoululaiset ja lukiolaiset osaavat käyttää englannin kieltä erilaisissa kommunikaatiotilanteissa. Tutkielmani voidaan sijoittaa välikielen pragmatiikan tutkimukseen. Halusin selvittää, millä tasolla suomalaisten oppijoiden pragmaattinen kompetenssi on ja kehittyykö se yläkoulun ja lukion välillä. Lisäksi tutkin, vaikuttavatko oppimisympäristö ja oppimismahdollisuudet oppijoiden kykyyn käyttää englannin kieltä. Toisin sanoen vertasin englantipainotteisilla luokilla olevia oppilaita formaalin opetuksen oppijoihin sekä tutkin, vaikuttavatko englanninkieliset vapaa-ajan aktiviteetit ja oppijoiden mahdolliset oleskelut englanninkielisissä maissa heidän pragmaattiseen kompetenssiinsa. Tutkimukseni kohderyhmä koostui yläkoulun kahdeksasluokkalaisista ja lukion toisen vuosikurssin opiskelijoista. Testasin neljä eri ryhmää, joissa oli sekä formaalissa opetuksessa olevia oppijoita (yksi ryhmä kahdeksasluokkalaisia ja yksi ryhmä toisen vuosikurssin opiskelijoita) että kielipainotteisten luokkien oppijoita (yksi ryhmä kahdeksasluokkalaisia ja yksi ryhmä toisen vuosikurssin opiskelijoita). Arvioin kohderyhmäni pragmaattista kompetenssia monivalintatestillä, jossa testattiin oppijoiden kykyä käyttää ja ymmärtää implikaatioita, tilannekohtaisia rutiineja sekä puheakteja. Taustakysymysten avulla selvitin, kuinka usein oppijat käyttivät englantia vapaa-aikanaan ja olivatko he vierailleet englanninkielisissä maissa. Tutkimustulokseni osoittavat, että suomalaisten yläkoululaisten ja lukiolaisten pragmaattinen kompetenssi oli korkea. Pragmaattinen kompetenssi kehittyi kahdeksasluokkalaisten ja lukion toisen vuosikurssin välillä. Kehitys oli suurempaa formaalissa opetuksessa kuin kielipainotteisilla luokilla. Englantipainotteisilla luokilla olevat oppilaat suoriutuivat testistä paremmin kuin formaalin opetuksen oppilaat. Tosin erot olivat tilastollisesti merkitseviä vain yläkoulussa. Tutkimuksessani siis päättelin, että vieraskielinen opetus vaikutti enemmän nuorempiin oppijoihin. Eri oppimismahdollisuudet osoittautuivat haastaviksi analysoida. Tulokset osoittivat, että vain englanninkielisessä maassa oleskelulla oli vaikutusta oppijoiden pragmaattiseen kompetenssiin. Kysyttäessä vapaa-ajan aktiviteettien merkitystä oppijat kuitenkin kertoivat, että ne auttoivat heitä testiin vastaamisessa enemmän kuin englanninopetuksessa käydyt asiat. Kouluissa tulisikin jatkossa painottaa yhä enemmän vuorovaikutteista kieltenopetusta.

Children's Bullying Experiences and Self-Worth Perceptions in a Private School

This study explored children's bullying experiences (as bully, victim, and bystander) and their self-worth perceptions in a private school in Ontario, Canada. Forty students from 12 different countries participated in a mixed methodology (both quantitative and qualitative) research design using a self-report questionnaire. Students reported involvement in bullying as a bully, victim, and bystander. The overall results reveal a pattern across the three roles where the degree of bullying observed as a bystander is the highest (57%) followed by the experiences as a victim (29%) and that performed as bully (21%). The bystanders reported direct bullying being witnessed, bullies reported indirect bullying interventions as being used, and victims of bullying reported indirect bullying being the most common type of bullying they experienced. Decreased feeling of self-worth is reported in the qualitative research data in regards to bullying. Boarding students reported issues regarding personal safety, need for social relationships, self-worth, and unacceptability of bullying. Implications for practice for the private school are discussed, focusing on the outcome of this study.