Proposal of enriching activities for students with indicative of high skills/giftedness in mathematics

The subject high abilities/giftedness has received little attention from the academic community in general and in brazil. Thus, the potential and special educational needs of a significant part of the school population are ignored. In this work, we present some results of a research developed in a public institution of education in Brazil, aimed at high school students with high skills/gifted in mathematics. The research, developed as part of a project that had a multi-professional team, had the purpose of elaborating, applying and evaluating an enrichment program to complement regular education through enriching activities and experiences. With theoretical support in Renzulli, it starts from the conception of giftedness according to theory of the three rings and elaborates a program based on the triadic model of enrichment to attend to the public of students. The elaborate enrichment program, entitled kaleidoscopes and geometric constructions, aimed to offer students a wide variety of educational experiences with different methodologies to develop specific skills and to work on mathematical concepts involved in the construction of kaleidoscopes. During the workshops developed in the enrichment program, it was possible to observe the involvement and the interest that the students demonstrated with the accomplishment of the tasks

Cautionary Tales

“This is a review essay of Nan Seuffert’s Jurisprudence of National Identity: Kaleidoscopes of Imperialism and Globalisation from Aotearoa New Zealand (Ashgate, 2006), a critical, interdisciplinary study of the construction of national identity of Aotearoa New Zealand, which unearths the raced and gendered constitution of this postcolonial nation state.

Kaleidoscopes : an imaginative look at the aesthetic and existential dimensions of education

The major purpose of this study is to offer an explanation of an aesthetic theory of knowledge as well as to illustrate the usefulness of aesthetics as a lens for examining issues in educational theory. Arising from the belief that man is essentially spirit, and that he has a will or directing force within that makes him intentionally purposeful, the study attempts to examine that spiritual definition in ethical terms, that is, in terms of what constitutes intelligent and authentic choice. Three questions arise from such a definition: what comprises man's artistic capacities, what is the role of the imagination in perception and cognition, and what are appropriate criteria of judgment with which to evaluate educational decisions. These questions are addressed in the three parts of the paper

Government as a social machine - the implications of government as a social machine for making and implementing market-based policy

This is the second of two reports from the Government as a Social Machine project. The first report gave an overview of the evolution of electronic/digital government, and explored the concept of 21st century government as a \u27social machine\u27. This report identifies seven social machines developed by governments in Australia and New Zealand. These social machines harness digital technologies in order to deliver more effective and efficient services, develop better business practices, and enable better accountability and transparency. The report gives an overview of each social machine in context, describing the social need that is being met and the community that has developed it, and begins to unravel some of the socio-political consequences that might arise from the use of these social machines within the public policy context. These reports are not intended to be comprehensive (further educational materials are being developed as part of the ANZSOG Case Library), but they are intended to begin a conversation amongst those studying or practicing in public policy as to how governments can better understand, manage and employ these evolving social machines for better governance and social benefit

Community Building With And For Teachers At The Math Forum

This chapter addresses the way in which the Internet forms the core of an intentional, online community by promoting communication between interested parties. The Math Forum (mathforum.org) is a unique group of individuals who are committed to using computers and the Internet to enhance what they know about learning, teaching, and doing mathematics. The Math Forum includes programmers, project and service staff, Web persons, and an ever-expanding number of teachers, students, and other individuals (i.e., parents, software developers, mathematicians). Thus, community building for The Math Forum staff includes work with teachers, with partners (National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics, Mathematics Association of America, and so on), and with specific services developed by The Math Forum staff that enable teachers and students to come together to pose and seek solutions to problems. The Math Forum uses the Internet to provide interactive services that foster mathematical thinking and discussion. These services include Ask Dr. Math and several Problems of the Week (PoWs); a teacher discussion format called Teacher to Teacher (T2T); an archive of problems, participant contributions (e.g., lesson plans), and past discussions; and an Internet newsletter. Within four years, with no explicit efforts to garner promotion or publicity, the site grew to include 1,600,000 Web pages and to attract 3.5 million accesses and over 800,000 visitors per month – a third of which constitutes sticky traffic ranging from world-famous mathematicians to elementary school children

“It Is (Not) What It Looks Like”: Chen Hangfeng’s Liminality

Born in 1974, Chen Hangfeng belongs to the fourth generation of Chinese artists after the Cultural Revolution. A generation of artists who were born after the Maoist era and grew up during the years of modernisation and opening up of the country. He is based in Shanghai where he was born and studied. Growing up and living in an increasingly westernized and permanently changing environment had a great impact on his work. His series of artworks seem to establish a confrontation between, on one side contemporary means of artistic expression or interpretation, and, on the other, forms of art which are considered to be traditional; namely between western “influences” and local “Chineseness”. Of interest is how the contact between those different forms is established. While the encounter seems to take the form of a dichotomy, it actually challenges the idea of a strict confrontation with two well-defined sides. The line where the contact is made is not a demarcation, it is neither definite, nor is it impermeable. The contact is not fixed or rigid. It is a moving, dynamic kind of encounter. The artworks consist of an intermingling set of practices, histories, memories, and even different temporalities. The now, the present of the image seems to contain the trace of the future along with that of the past.Né en 1974 Chen Hangfeng appartient à la quatrième génération d’artistes chinois après la Révolution culturelle. Une génération d’artistes nés après la période Maoïste et ayant grandi durant les années de modernisation et d’ouverture du pays. Il est aujourd’hui basé à Shanghai, ville dans laquelle il est né et a étudié. Vivre et avoir grandi dans cet environnement toujours plus occidentalisé et en constante évolution a eu un impact notable sur son travail. Ses séries artistiques semblent établir une confrontation entre des media artistiques contemporains d’un côté et des pratiques considérées comme traditionnelles de l’autre ; entre des « influences » occidentales et une « sinité » locale. Il est toutefois intéressant de se pencher sur la manière dont le contact, la rencontre est mise en place. Si elle paraît prendre la forme d’une dichotomie, elle défie en réalité l’idée d’une stricte confrontation. La ligne de contact n’est pas une ligne de démarcation, elle n’est ni définie, ni imperméable. Le contact n’est pas fixe ou rigide. Il s’agit au contraire d’une rencontre dynamique et en mouvement. Les œuvres se composent d’un entremêlement de pratiques, d’histoires et de souvenirs, où les temporalités même se mélangent. Le maintenant, le présent de l’image semble contenir des traces du passé aussi bien que du futur