A CEFR- Based Comparison of ELT Curriculum and Course Books used in Turkish and Portuguese Primary Schools

This cross-cultural study aims to explore to what extent a macro-level language policy, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (CoE, 2001), is implemented at micro-level contexts, more specifically, primary English classrooms in Turkey and Portugal. This study investigated the 3rd and 4th grade course books and the Turkish and Portuguese English language curricula through content analysis and cross-cultural comparison. The course book analysis was carried out with reference to language skills as suggested in the CEFR, intercultural characteristics of the course books, and A1 level descriptors. Results highlight similarities and differences in both countries in terms of the implementation of the CEFR and representation of A1 level descriptors in course book activities in primary English classrooms. Implications refer to the importance of teacher education, preparation of age and inter-culturally appropriate materials for primary levels and necessities for sustainable and consistent language policy and planning

Railway track condition assessment at network level by frequency domain analysis of GPR data

The railway track system is a crucial infrastructure for the transportation of people and goods in modern societies. With the increase in railway traffic, the availability of the track for monitoring and maintenance purposes is becoming significantly reduced. Therefore, continuous non-destructive monitoring tools for track diagnoses take on even greater importance. In this context, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technique results yield valuable information on track condition, mainly in the identification of the degradation of its physical and mechanical characteristics caused by subsurface malfunctions. Nevertheless, the application of GPR to assess the ballast condition is a challenging task because the material electromagnetic properties are sensitive to both the ballast grading and water content. This work presents a novel approach, fast and practical for surveying and analysing long sections of transport infrastructure, based mainly on expedite frequency domain analysis of the GPR signal. Examples are presented with the identification of track events, ballast interventions and potential locations of malfunctions. The approach, developed to identify changes in the track infrastructure, allows for a user-friendly visualisation of the track condition, even for GPR non-professionals such as railways engineers, and may further be used to correlate with track geometric parameters. It aims to automatically detect sudden variations in the GPR signals, obtained with successive surveys over long stretches of railway lines, thus providing valuable information in asset management activities of infrastructure managers

A thorough analysis of the short- and mid-term activity-related variations in the solar acoustic frequencies

The frequencies of the solar acoustic oscillations vary over the activity cycle. The variations in other activity proxies are found to be well correlated with the variations in the acoustic frequencies. However, each proxy has a slightly different time behaviour. Our goal is to characterize the differences between the time behaviour of the frequency shifts and of two other activity proxies, namely, the area covered by sunspots and the 10.7cm flux. We define a new observable that is particularly sensitive to the short-term frequency variations. We then compare the observable when computed from model frequency shifts and from observed frequency shifts obtained with the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) for cycle 23. Our analysis shows that on the shortest time-scales the variations in the frequency shifts seen in the GONG observations are strongly correlated with the variations in the area covered by sunspots. However, a significant loss of correlation is still found. We verify that the times when the frequency shifts and the sunspot area do not vary in a similar way tend to coincide with the times of the maxima of the quasi-biennial variations seen in the solar seismic data. A similar analysis of the relation between the 10.7cm flux and the frequency shifts reveals that the short-time variations in the frequency shifts follow even more closely those of the 10.7cm flux than those of the sunspot area. However, a loss of correlation between frequency shifts and 10.7cm flux variations is still found around the same times.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

School retention rates in portuguese municipalities: a comparative analysis

Dissertation presented as a partial requirement for obtaining the Master’s degree in Statistics and Information Management with a specialization in Information Analysis and ManagementOne of the measures used to evaluate the success of an education system is the retention rate. In Portugal, in spite of the progress achieved in the past decades, students’ retention is still a problem. The phenomenon of school failure has been extensively studied throughout the world. Nevertheless, the way it is distributed across the country and the potential reasons that contribute to it being more intense in some areas than in others have not. The idea behind this project is to analyze the retention rates in middle school and in high school in the Portuguese public system, since the beginning of the decade and understand how they are distributed across the territory. The methods used were Principal Components Analysis and cluster analysis. The data related to potentially explanatory indicators of student failure – such as the average number of students per class, percentage of students in families who benefit from social support and the percentage of teachers with a permanent contract – were analyzed. The differences between the north and the south of the country are remarkable. Generally, the retention rates are much higher in the south than in the north. We also conclude that municipalities that are closer to each other have similar behaviors regarding their students’ success or unsuccess in terms of retention rates. Nevertheless, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, in Algarve, São Brás de Alportel stands out as a municipality that does particularly well in a context where retention rates are relatively high. Lastly, in this dissertation, we zoomed in the conurbations of Lisboa and Porto, where almost one in four children was enrolled in 2015/2016. The conclusions are striking: there are schools with some of the lowest retention rates while others, sometimes right across the street, can double the percentage of retained students

Campaniforme o no Campaniforme: una perspectiva sobre las cerámicas ‘pellizcadas’ en vasos con perfil en ‘s’ del Calcolítico en la Península Ibérica

The Bell Beaker phenomenon is the sum of several regional answers. Those are diluted into a reality with several shared characteristics. Nevertheless, and although being one of the most studied expressions of the European Recent Prehistory, more specific adaptations are still to be understood. This is the case of the paired fingernail imprints, or pinched motifs, that due to their scarceness are mostly unnoticed in Iberia. However, one was able to highpoint a scarceness of these standardised motifs in funerary contexts and a concentration in contexts dated from the last quarter of the IIIrd millennium BC, in the precise period of transition in the way of life of the peninsular human groups. Also, the regression in the communicative ability of the vessels, but at the same time dear links with other European Bell Beaker contexts seems to strengthen the hypothesis that this large-scale style must be understood as another agent in the ongoing identarian and social processes acting, as such, in the transition to the beginning of the Peninsular Bronze Age.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perceptions, Beliefs, and Attitudes of First Year Third-Level Students: An Empirical Study of Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Finnish, and Irish Students

The contemporary skillset of undergraduates includes a degree of sophistication in the application of ICT within their daily lives as well as within the higher education environment. The assumption of the student as a digital native, with the ability to cognitively process information in an ICT focused educational environment, is omnipresent in higher education. It has been suggested this assumption does not aid learning and adds an additional burden on the student. This study investigated whether experiences and perceptions, of mathematics and online assessment, are common to students studying in different countries and their respective higher education systems. The purpose of the investigation was to determine what issues influence the attitudes of students in the application of ICT for the online assessment of mathematics in the first year of undergraduate programmes. The investigation was conducted online by means of a quantitative questionnaire, consisting of 16 survey items, using Google Forms to self-selecting students (n=374) across several academic disciplines including engineering, business studies, media, and tourism. The survey was delivered in English to the majority students and translated to Russian for the Russian students to enable each group to reply in their own native language. The questionnaire design utilized a 6-point Likert scale where students were asked to express their experiences and perceptions of mathematics and online assessment in their chosen programme of study. The data was exported to IBM SPSSv24 and regression analyses were conducted to ascertain possible associations and relationships between the two student groups in the case study. The results of the investigation reveal some peculiar features and the respective investigation outcomes of the investigation will be utilized in the design of learner-centered assessments and shared with international partners

Crops on the edge of a cliff: Storage at Castro S. João das Arribas (Northwest Iberia) in the Late Antiquity

The site of Castro S. João das Arribas is placed on the edge of a cliff over the Douro river (Miranda do Douro, Northeast of Portugal). Archaeological interventions in its highest area uncovered a main occupation from Late Antiquity. On its western part a functional space was recorded, which included two small above-ground structures and abundant charred carpological remains. These were found inside ceramic vessels and spread throughout the area, suggesting its destruction occurred after a fire event. A radiocarbon date places such episode in some moment between the late 6th and the first half of the 7th century CE. Carpological results revealed an assemblage dominated by cereal grains, mostly rye (Secale cereale). Naked wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), common millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were also found but in smaller amounts. The large amount of carpological remains in the above-mentioned contexts, suggests the space was used for storage, at least between the 6th and 7th centuries CE. Although some uncertainties remain regarding how crops were stored, evidence points that they were kept in ceramic vessels, outside and inside the small storage facilities, but also in other types of containers, eventually made of perishable materials. At Castro S. João das Arribas, past communities chose a diversity of crops, however, most of them show undemanding features in terms of soil and climatic conditions. The agricultural choices could have been motivated by several factors, but cereals like rye were certainly well-suited to the environmental conditions around the settlement.LS was financially supported by a PhD grant (Norte-08-5369-FSE000057) from the University of Porto (Faculty of Sciences) and the European Social Fund, through the North Portugal Regional Operational Program “Norte 2020”, under the announcement “Aviso Norte-69-2015-15-Formaç˜ao Avançada (Programas Doutorais)”. MMS was funded by the Beatriz Galindo program as Junior Distinguished Researcher (BG20/00076). JPT was supported by national funds through the Foundationfor Science and Technology (FCT)