Bridging the Gap: establishing the necessary infrastructure and knowledge for teaching and research in neuroscience in Africa.

Advances in neuroscience research over the last few decades have increased our understanding of how individual neurons acquire their specific properties and assemble into complex circuits, and how these circuits are affected in disease. One of the important motives driving neuroscience research is the development of new scientific techniques and interdisciplinary cooperation. Compared to developed countries, many countries on the African continent are confronted with poor facilities, lack of funding or career development programs for neuroscientists, all of which deter young scientists from taking up neuroscience as a career choice. This article highlights some steps that are being taken to promote neuroscience education and research in Africa.

Teaching science in primary school : a handbook of lesson plans, knowledge and teaching methods.

Este manual proporciona una guía completa de planificación de lecciones y estrategias para la enseñanza de la ciencia en una escuela primaria. Abarca los conocimientos y los enfoques de la ciencia en esta etapa. Incluye actividades de aprendizaje adecuados. Establece los usos de la información y la tecnología para apoyar la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Ofrece criterios prácticos y estrategias para la evaluación.

Conocimiento de geometría especializado para la enseñanza en educación primaria

El objetivo de este estudio fue identificar características del conocimiento de geometría especializado en estudiantes para maestro en relación con el razonamiento configural. Los resultados indican la existencia de dos factores claves en el proceso de razonamiento configural en los estudiantes para maestro: la identificación de una sub-configuración relevante, y la manera en la que se organizan las proposiciones geométricas a partir de las aprehensiones discursivas. En particular, y en relación con este segundo factor, se han identificado dos momentos en el uso de las aprehensiones discursivas cuando se asocian hechos geométricos a la configuración inicial y cuando se infiere nueva información al relacionar conocimientos geométricos conocidos con hechos asociados a la configuración geométrica.

An analytic knowledge network process for construction entrepreneurship education

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative multicriteria decision-making approach to knowledge management in construction entrepreneurship education by means of an analytic knowledge network process (KANP) Design/methodology/approach- The KANP approach in the study integrates a standard industrial classification with the analytic network process (ANP). For the construction entrepreneurship education, a decision-making model named KANP.CEEM is built to apply the KANP method in the evaluation of teaching cases to facilitate the case method, which is widely adopted in entrepreneurship education at business schools. Findings- The study finds that there are eight clusters and 178 nodes in the KANP.CEEM model, and experimental research on the evaluation of teaching cases discloses that the KANP method is effective in conducting knowledge management to the entrepreneurship education. Research limitations/implications- As an experimental research, this paper ignores the concordance between a selected standard classification and others, which perhaps limits the usefulness of KANP.CEEM model elsewhere. Practical implications- As the KANP.CEEM model is built based on the standard classification codes and the embedded ANP, it is thus expected that the model has a wide potential in evaluating knowledge-based teaching materials for any education purpose with a background from the construction industry, and can be used by both faculty and students. Originality/value- This paper fulfils a knowledge management need and offers a practical tool for an academic starting out on the development of knowledge-based teaching cases and other teaching materials or for a student going through the case studies and other learning materials.

Role of headmasters, teachers and supervisors in knowledge transfer about occupational health and safety to pupils in vocational education

Background Young people are at an increased risk for illness in working life. The authorities stipulate certain goals for training in occupational health and safety (OHS) in vocational schools. A previous study concluded that pupils in vocational education had limited knowledge in the prevention of health risks at work. The aim of the current study, therefore, was to study how OHS training is organized in school and in workplace-based learning (WPL).   Method The study design featured a qualitative approach, which included interviews with 12 headmasters, 20 teachers, and 20 supervisors at companies in which the pupils had their WPL. The study was conducted at 10 upper secondary schools, located in Central Sweden, that were graduating pupils in four vocational programs.   Result The interviews with headmasters, teachers, and supervisors indicate a staggered picture of how pupils are prepared for safe work. The headmasters generally give teachers the responsibility for how goals should be reached. Teaching is very much based on risk factors that are present in the workshops and on teachers’ own experiences and knowledge. The teaching during WPL also lacks the systematic training in OHS as well as in the traditional classroom environment.   Conclusion Teachers and supervisors did not plan the training in OHS in accordance with the provisions of systematic work environment management. Instead, the teachers based the training on their own experiences. Most of the supervisors did not get information from the schools as to what should be included when introducing OHS issues in WPL.

Reflexões sobre a construção e evolução de conceitos geométricos nas séries intermediárias do ensino fundamental

This thesis represents a didactic research linked to the Post-graduation Programme in Education of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte which aimed to approach the construction of the geometrical concepts of Volume of the Rectangular Parallelepiped, Area and Perimeter of the Rectangle adding a study of the Area of the Circle. The research was developed along with students from the 6th level of the Elementary School, in a public school in Natal/RN. The pedagogical intervention was made up of three moments: application of a diagnostic evaluation, instrument that enabled the creation of the teaching module by showing the level of the geometry knowledge of the students; introduction of a Teaching Module by Activities aiming to propose a reflexive didactic routing directed to the conceptual construction because we believed that such an approach would favor the consolidation of the learning process by becoming significant to the apprentice, and the accomplishment of a Final Evaluation through which we established a comparison of the results obtained before and after the teaching intervention. The data gathered were analyzed qualitatively by means of a study of understanding categories of mathematical concepts, in addition to using descriptive statistics under the quantitative aspect. Based on the theory of Richard Skemp, about categorization of mathematical knowledge, in the levels of Relational and Instrumental Understanding were achieved in contextual situations and varied proportions, thus enabling a contribution in the learning of the geometrical concepts studied along with the students who took part in the research. We believe that this work may contribute with reflections about the learning processes, a concern which remained during all the stages of the research, and also that the technical competence along with the knowledge about the constructivist theory will condition the implementation of a new dynamics to the teaching and learning processes. We hope that the present research work may add some contribution to the teaching practice in the context of the teaching of Mathematics for the intermediate levels of the Elementary School

A geometria euclidiana na licenciatura em matemática do ponto de vista de professores formadores

Pós-graduação em Educação Matemática - IGCE

O Ensino de Geometria por meio de atividades investigativas: uma experiência com alunos do primeiro ano do Ensino Médio

This qualitative nature of work was developed with the participation of a group of students enrolled in the first year of high school from a public school of the state of São Paulo, in the city of Taubaté. Their goal was to determine how students deal with geometry tasks in investigative classes. To guide this research was drawn up the following question: As students of the first year of high school express their knowledge of building triangles and quads in classes of investigative activities?. The choice of investigative nature of this activity occurred by enhancing student participation and thus generate a greater chance of it not be guided only by what the teacher wants, but by his own curiosity and using their own tools for this. In the data analysis process stands out the interest generated in students for this type of activity and posture maintained throughout the work, mobilizing their expertise to answer the questions posed

O Ensino de Geometria por meio de atividades investigativas: uma experiência com alunos do primeiro ano do Ensino Médio

This qualitative nature of work was developed with the participation of a group of students enrolled in the first year of high school from a public school of the state of São Paulo, in the city of Taubaté. Their goal was to determine how students deal with geometry tasks in investigative classes. To guide this research was drawn up the following question: As students of the first year of high school express their knowledge of building triangles and quads in classes of investigative activities?. The choice of investigative nature of this activity occurred by enhancing student participation and thus generate a greater chance of it not be guided only by what the teacher wants, but by his own curiosity and using their own tools for this. In the data analysis process stands out the interest generated in students for this type of activity and posture maintained throughout the work, mobilizing their expertise to answer the questions posed

Elements of geometry : manuscript, 1798

Contains work on geometry, trigonometry, surveying, mensuration of heights and distances, and navigation. The graphs and diagrams illustate story problems and navigational examples.

Microteaching Lesson Study: Mentor interaction structure and its relation to elementary preservice mathematics teacher knowledge development

This study investigated Microteaching Lesson Study (MLS) and three possible MLS mentor interaction structures during the debriefing sessions in relation to elementary preservice teacher development of knowledge for teaching. One hundred three elementary preservice teachers enrolled in five different sections of a mathematics methods course at a southern urban university were part of the study. This included 72 participants who completed MLS across three different mentor interaction structures as part of their course requirements and 31 elementary preservice teachers who did not complete MLS as part of their methods course and served as a comparison group for a portion of the study. A sequential mixed-methods research design was used to analyze the relationship between MLS mentor interaction structure and growth in preservice teachers' mathematics teacher knowledge. Data sources included pre and post assessments, group developed lesson plans and final reports, a feedback survey with Likert-type and open-ended questions, and transcripts of audio-recorded debriefing sessions. The pre and post assessments were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the Likert-type feedback survey questions. Group MLS lesson plans, final reports, and transcripts of debriefing sessions along with the open-ended questions from the feedback survey were coded in a three-step process as described by Miles and Huberman (1994). In alignment with findings from M. Fernandez (2005, 2010), elementary preservice teachers participating in MLS grew in content knowledge related to MLS topics taught by one another. Results from the analysis of pre and post content knowledge assessments revealed that participants grew in their understanding of the mathematics topics taught during MLS irrespective of their mentor interaction structure and when compared to the participants who did not complete MLS in their methods course. Findings from the analysis of lesson plans for growth in pedagogical content knowledge revealed the most growth in this area occurred for participants assigned to the interaction structure in which the MLS mentor participated in the first two debriefing sessions. Analysis of the transcripts of the discourse during the debriefing sessions and the feedback surveys support the finding that the elementary preservice teachers assigned to the interaction structure in which the MLS mentor participated in the first and second debriefing sessions benefited more from the MLS experience when compared to elementary preservice teachers assigned to the other two interaction structures (MLS mentor participated in only the first debriefing session and MLS mentor participated in only the last debriefing session).

The Effect of Authentic Literacy Experiences as Book Buddies with Hispanic Fourth Graders on Preservice Teachers’ Literacy Content Knowledge and Reading Maturity

From a sociocultural perspective, individuals learn best from contextualized experiences. In preservice teacher education, contextualized experiences include authentic literacy experiences, which include a real reader and writer and replicate real life communication. To be prepared to teach well, preservice teachers need to gain literacy content knowledge and possess reading maturity. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of authentic literacy experiences as Book Buddies with Hispanic fourth graders on preservice teachers’ literacy content knowledge and reading maturity. The study was a pretest/posttest design conducted over 12 weeks. Preservice teacher participants, the focus of the study, were elementary education majors taking the third of four required reading courses in non-probabilistic convenience groups, 43 (n = 33 experimental, n = 10 comparison) Elementary Education majors. The Survey of Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge of Teaching and Technology (SPTKTT), specifically designed for preservice teachers majoring in elementary or early childhood education and the Reading Maturity Survey (RMS) were used in this study. Preservice teachers chose either the experimental or comparison group based on the opportunity to earn extra credit points (experimental = 30 points, comparison = 15). After exchanging introductory letters preservice teachers and Hispanic fourth graders each read four books. After reading each book preservice teachers wrote letters to their student asking higher order thinking questions. Preservice teachers received scanned copies of their student’s unedited letters via email which enabled them to see their student’s authentic answers and writing levels. A series of analyses of covariance were used to determine whether there were significant differences in the dependent variables between the experimental and comparison groups. This quasi-experimental study tested two hypotheses. Using the appropriate pretest scores as covariates for adjusting the posttest means of the subcategory Literacy Content Knowledge (LCK), of the SPTKTT and the RMS, the mean adjusted posttest scores from the experimental group and comparison group were compared. No significant differences were found on the LCK dependent variable using the .05 level of significance, which may be due to Type II error caused by the small sample size. Significant differences were found on RMS using the .05 level of significance.

Os níveis de desenvolvimento do pensamento geométrico: o aprendizado do conteúdo de polígonos numa perspectiva do modelo Van Hiele

This work studies the van Hiele model, the levels of development of geometric thinking and its learning phases. Using this knowledge, we prepared a Research Instrument to identify the Level of Development in Geometric Thinking (Levels of van Hiele) of Middle School students, related to contents of Polygons. We have applied this Research Instrument to 237 students from a public school (state) in Curitiba, and we made an analysis of the acquired data. We have improved the Instrument’s questions so that it can be used by teachers during the class. Helping to identify to which level content the student belongs, related to the proposed.

Mathematical pedagogical content knowledge in early childhood education: A study in initial teacher education in Portugal

The study aims to explore the specificity of mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Early Childhood Education Pedagogy. The pedagogy of ECE (Siraj-Blatchford, 2010) and the didactics of ECE (Pramling & Pramling-Samuelsson, 2011) suggest dimensions of knowledge that require strong content and PC knowledge of teachers. Recent studies about PCK of ECE teachers highlight similar specific dimensions: organization of educational environment and interactions with children (Lee, 2010, McCray, 2008, Rojas, 2008). The current framework for ECE Teacher Education in Portugal (since 2007) focuses both content knowledge and subject didactics. PCK has been labelled the 'great unknown' in ECE (Rojas, 2008) in traditions where the child's development is considered as the main knowledge base for ECE (Chen & McNamee, 2006, Cullen, 2005, Hedges & Cullen, 2005). We studied the perspectives of 27 initial teacher education students about knowledge for teaching and about ECE Pedagogy. We used one open-ended questionnaire and students' analysis of episodes focusing children's answers or discourse relevant for mathematics (about high numbers and square root). The questionnaire was anonymous and students’ permission to use the answers was obtained. In the questionnaire, interactions with children (62%) and organization of the educational environment (38%) are highlighted as the most important focus for the teacher. Students suggested tasks that were adult planned and oriented to further the situations presented in the episodes. Very few references to children's exploratory actions (Bonawitz et al., 2011) were made. The specificity of ECE (child initiated activities, e.g.) needs to be further developed in initial teacher education.