De las ciencias a la vida o sobre la productividad en la Ciénaga de Ayapel y su praccis

La estrategia didáctica praccis busca traducir dialógicamente algo extraño en el mundo de las ciencias, en algo cercano o quizá propio, en el mundo de la vida. Lo científico, lo extraño son los resultados de la investigación sobre la productividad en la ciénaga de Ayapel, Colombia, que es mediado por la estrategia didáctica praccis, para facilitar la circulación del conocimiento. Esta investigación está configurada en cuatro partes: una primera, que expone rigurosamente cómo es la productividad en la ciénaga de Ayapel; una segunda, donde se describen los postulados de la estrategia praccis; una tercera, donde se explica cómo se construye la estrategia didáctica con los conocimientos sobre la productividad de la ciénaga, y una cuarta, donde se muestra cómo se aplicó la estrategia que dio como el resultado la aceptación entre los pobladores de Ayapel, del establecimiento de la relación entre los campos semánticos y los eslabones de la estrategia praccis.

Strategy clusters and sources of knowledge in French L2 listening comprehension

This article reports on an exploratory investigation into the listening strategies of lower-intermediate learners of French as an L2, including the sources of knowledge they employed in order to comprehend spoken French. Data from 14 learners were analysed to investigate whether employment of strategies in general and sources of knowledge in particular varied according to the underlying linguistic knowledge of the student. While low linguistic knowledge learners were less likely to deploy effectively certain strategies or strategy clusters, high linguistic knowledge levels were not always associated with effective strategy use. Similarly, while there was an association between linguistic knowledge and learners’ ability to draw on more than one source of knowledge in a facilitative manner, there was also evidence that learners tended to over-rely on linguistic knowledge where other sources, such as world knowledge, would have proved facilitative. We conclude by arguing for a fresh approach to listening pedagogy and research, including strategy instruction, bottom-up skill development and a consideration of the role of linguistic knowledge in strategy use.

Increasing Knowledge Focus - a Means for Entrepreneurs to Remain on a Growth Path: Essays on the Role and Nature of Knowledge Management in Finnish SMEs (summary section only)

This study explores the role and nature of knowledge management (KM) in small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Even though the role of knowledge as a competitive advantage is commonly recognized in the SME sector, almost no attention has been paid to the managing and developing of knowledge in SMEs. This thesis consists of three different sub-studies that were reported in four individual essays. The results of the questionnaire study indicate that nearly all companies that responded to the questionnaire (N = 108) found intangible assets, i.e. knowledge resources to be their main source of competitive advantage. However, only less than a third of the companies actively deal with knowledge management. The results also indicate a significant correlation between activity in knowledge management and sustainable organic growth of the company. The interview study (N = 10) explored the context and motives of the SMEs for managing their intangible assets, and the concrete practices of knowledge management. It turned out that KM facilitated change management, clarification of the vision and new strategy formulation. All the interviewed companies were aiming at improved innovation process, new ways of doing business and attaining an increased “knowledge focus” in their business. Nearly all also aspired to grow significantly. Thus, KM provides a strategy for these SMEs to guarantee their survival and sustainability in the turbulent markets. The action research was a process to assess and develop intangible resources in three companies. The experienced benefits were the clarification of future focus and strategy, creation of a common language to discuss strategic issues within the company, as well as improved balance of different categories of intangible assets. After the process all the case companies had developed in the chosen key areas. Thus, by systematic knowledge management the implementation of new strategic orientation (knowledge focusing) was facilitated. The findings can be summarized in two main points. First, knowledge management seems to serve the purpose of change, renewal and new strategic orientation in the SMEs. It also seems to be closely related to organic growth and innovation. All of these factors can be considered dimensions of entrepreneurship. Second, the conscious development of intangible assets can increase the balance of different categories of intangible assets and the overall knowledge focusing of business. In the case companies, this in turn facilitated the path to the improved overall performance.

Promotion and diffusion of tha career Bachelor and Licenciature of Mathematics Teaching in rural areas of Costa Rica project: effects and results

This article describes the purpose and activities of the project Promoting Mathematics Education in Rural Areas of Costa Rica. The activity has focused on two objectives. First, supporting and monitoring students who have expressed interest in studying a mathematics teacher. To achieve this, it has been working with students who have an ideal profile for the career, mainly from rural areas. The second objective is to conduct training workshops for high school in-service teachers, to strengthen and improve their knowledge in the area of mathematics. Among the results of the project, it can be highlighted a significant increase in the enrollment of students in the career of Mathematics Education in 2010 and 2011, and the training processes in the field of Real Functions of Real Variable and Geometry at different regional areas mostly rural as Aguirre, Sarapiquí, Coto, Buenos Aires, Limón, Cañas, Pérez Zeledón, Nicoya, Los Santos, Turrialba, Puriscal, Desamparados, San Carlos, Puntarenas, Limón, Liberia, Santa Cruz y Upala.

A SOCIO-HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF CONTENT AND SCTRUCTURE OF THE TEACHING ACTIVITY

ABSTRACT: This text reports an analysis of teaching activity with basis in the category of human activity. Refers to a theoretical research that focuses the essential nexus generators of objectification of educational practice both in the material aspect as the ideal. It is assumed that this practice, in dialectical unity between those aspects, constitutes in the material relations of social life, is structured and institutionalized as universal model of education (ideally) and becomes the main determinant of teacher performance. Methodologically, this study analyzes the educational practice in the totality of its relations.Therefore, the actions and operations of teaching, as well as, the reason and  purposes that moved and guide this activity are determined by the objective conditions current of the school and the effects generated by the position of the teacher in these relations as an active subject. The guiding worry of this research focuses on the characterization of teaching activity in educational performance: in its accomplishment. When to investigate the evidence of these connections is necessary to reflect on the correlative links between the structural elements of the teaching activity and the natural practice of teachers under the determinations derived from the first. This reflection, arise the need to investigate the process of appropriation of the activity by the teacher. Thereby, concludes that the teacher not only appropriates the specific knowledge of the disciplines that teaches and the means of education which is available in their educational practice, but also the elements that structure their activity. This evinced the importance of investigations that worry with: the significance of the purpose of education for the teacher; the necessities that move in your performance; the meaning of your activity; among others. In addition to the responses of teachers is necessary to analyze what the content and the origin of appropriation. KEYWORDS: Teacher; Teaching activity; Educational practice.   

Meeting under the “Omei” Tree in the Torres Strait Islands : networks and funds of knowledge of mathematical ideas

This paper focuses on the turning point experiences that worked to transform the researcher during a preliminary consultation process to seek permission to conduct of a small pilot project on one Torres Strait Island. The project aimed to learn from parents how they support their children in their mathematics learning. Drawing on a community research design, a consultative meeting was held with one Torres Strait Islander community to discuss the possibility of piloting a small project that focused on working with parents and children to learn about early mathematics processes. Preliminary data indicated that parents use networks in their community. It highlighted the funds of knowledge of mathematics that exist in the community and which are used to teach their children. Such knowledges are situated within a community’s unique histories, culture and the voices of the people. “Omei” tree means the Tree of Wisdom in the Island community.

Knowledge and the City : Concepts, Applications and Trends of Knowledge-Based Urban Development

This book underlines the growing importance of knowledge for the competitiveness of cities and their regions. Examining the role of knowledge - in its economic, socio-cultural, spatial and institutional forms - for urban and regional development, identifying the preconditions for innovative use of urban and regional knowledge assets and resources, and developing new methods to evaluate the performance and potential of knowledge-based urban and regional development, the book provides an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of both theoretical and practical aspects of knowledge-based development and its implications and prospects for cities and regions.

Patient group directions : the application and integration of knowledge in advancing nursing practice

Background: The introduction of Patient Group Directions (PGD) has changed significantly the way in which nurses can now administer prescription only medicines as a one-off for patients requiring this level of service. PGD’s are a written authority to administer drugs to patients that are not identified at the time of treatment. Aim: The aim of this project was to develop a PGD for use within an Outreach team to administer colloid boluses to patients presenting with hypovolemia. Method: Using a case exemplar this paper will discuss the development of a PGD using aspects of transitional change theory to highlight the potential barriers that were encountered. Implications for Practice: The implications for this PGD are wide reaching. First it now enables members from the nursing Outreach team to administer colloid fluid boluses to a prescribed patient cohort without the need for prescription. Second, it ensures the deteriorating patient has interventions initiated in a timely and appropriate manner to reduce inadvertent admission to high care areas. Last, it will improve inter-professional team-working and communication so much so that collaborative patient care reduces health costs and identifies earlier those patients requiring substantially greater nursing and medical input. Conclusion: The experience of developing a working PGD for fluid administration has meant that the Outreach team is able to respond to patients in a more effective way. In addition, it is the experience of developing this PGD that has enabled the team to contemplate other PGD’s in the execution of Outreach work.

Exploring the experiences and conceptions of good teaching in higher education : Development of a questionnaire for assessing students' approaches to learning and experiences of the teaching-learning environment

The aim of this dissertation was to adapt a questionnaire for assessing students’ approaches to learning and their experiences of the teaching-learning environment. The aim was to explore the validity of the modified Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ) by examining how the instruments measure the underlying dimensions of student experiences and their learning. The focus was on the relation between students’ experiences of their teaching-learning environment and their approaches to learning. Moreover, the relation between students’ experiences and students’ and teachers’ conceptions of good teaching was examined. In Study I the focus was on the use of the ETLQ in two different contexts: Finnish and British. The study aimed to explore the similarities and differences between the factor structures that emerged from both data sets. The results showed that the factor structures concerning students’ experiences of their teaching-learning environment and their approaches to learning were highly similar in the two contexts. Study I also examined how students’ experiences of the teaching-learning environment are related to their approaches to learning in the two contexts. The results showed that students’ positive experiences of their teaching-learning environment were positively related to their deep approach to learning and negatively to the surface approach to learning in both the Finnish and British data sets. This result was replicated in Study II, which examined the relation between approaches to learning and experiences of the teaching-learning environment on a group level. Furthermore, Study II aimed to explore students’ approaches to learning and their experiences of the teaching-learning environment in different disciplines. The results showed that the deep approach to learning was more common in the soft sciences than in the hard sciences. In Study III, students’ conceptions of good teaching were explored by using qualitative methods, more precisely, by open-ended questions. The aim was to examine students’ conceptions, disciplinary differences and their relation to students’ approaches to learning. The focus was on three disciplines, which differed in terms of students’ experiences of their teaching-learning environment. The results showed that students’ conceptions of good teaching were in line with the theory of good teaching and there were disciplinary differences in their conceptions. Study IV examined university teachers’ conceptions of good teaching, which corresponded to the learning-focused approach to teaching. Furthermore, another aim in this doctoral dissertation was to compare the students’ and teachers’ conceptions of good teaching, the results of which showed that these conceptions appear to have similarities. The four studies indicated that the ETLQ appears to be a sufficiently robust measurement instrument in different contexts. Moreover, its strength is its ability to be at the same time a valid research instrument and a practical tool for enhancing the quality of students’ learning. In addition, the four studies emphasise that in order to enhance teaching and learning in higher education, various perspectives have to be taken into account. This study sheds light on the interaction between students’ approaches to learning, their conceptions of good teaching, their experiences of the teaching-learning environment, and finally, the disciplinary culture.