Formação inicial de educadores de infância, realidade e identidade profissional em análise

O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar e refletir sobre a realidade da formação inicial dos educadores de infância, em Portugal, após a adesão ao Processo de Bolonha. A partir da apresentação dos normativos, que definem o perfil de desempenho do educador de infância e da análise dos dispositivos legais, que regulam a estrutura curricular dos cursos, que conferem habilitação profissional para a docência em educação pré-escolar, é possível constatar algumas fragilidades no que diz respeito à formação dos estudantes. As novas perspetivas e configurações da formação, decorrentes do processo de Bolonha, podem também dar origem a uma nova construção de identidade profissional no grupo de educadores de infância. Assim, serão abordados conteúdos relativos ao Perfil de desempenho profissional do educador de infância e contextos de atuação. Será feita uma abordagem à implementação do processo de Bolonha em Portugal e à legislação, que orientou a criação dos Planos de Estudo. Será feita alusão à estrutura curricular dos cursos que conferem habilitação profissional para a docência, incidindo especificamente sobre aqueles que qualificam educadores de infância. Apresentam-se limitações e fragilidades identificadas no que diz respeito à formação dos educadores de infância. Reflete-se sobre identidade profissional e sobre o delinear de uma nova construção de identidade profissional dos educadores de infância, devido à passagem da formação para nível de mestrado e da possibilidade de habilitação conjunta em educação pré-escolar e 1º ciclo do ensino básico. Termina-se com algumas considerações finais sobre a formação de educadores de infância e sua identidade profissional.The objective of this article is to show and think about the reality of the initial training of early childhood teachers in Portugal, after adoption of the Bologna Process. From the presentation of the normatives that define the performance profile of the early childhood teacher and from the analysis of the legal dispositions that regulate the curricular structure of the courses that confer professional qualification for preschool teaching, it is possible to find some fragilities in regard to the training of the students. The new training perspectives and configurations, resulting from the Bologna Process, can also give rise to a new construction of professional identity in the group of early childhood teachers. Therefore, we’ll address contents relative to the Profile of professional performance of the early childhood teacher and action contexts. We’ll also address the implementation of the Bologna Process in Portugal and the legislation that has guided the creation of the Plans of Study. An allusion will be made to the curricular structure of the courses that confer professional qualification for teaching, focusing specifically on those that qualify early childhood teachers. We present the limitations and fragilities identified in regard to the training of early childhood teachers. We think about the professional identity and the outline of a new construction of professional identity for early childhood teachers, given the training transition to the Master’s level and the possibility of joint qualification in preschool teaching and 1st cycle of basic teaching. We close with some final considerations about the training of early childhood teachers and their professional identity. Key words: Teacher’s Training, Early Childhood Teachers Training, Early Childhood Education, Curriculum, Europe

Inflation (mis)perceptions in the euro area

There has been a growing interest on inflation perceptions in the euro area, in particular, following the euro cash changeover. It has been pointed out that a gap emerged between observed and perceived inflation since the introduction of the euro notes and coins. Such a statement relies on the fact that inflation perceptions, measured by the well-known balance statistic from the European Commission's consumer survey, hiked after January 2002 and remained high thereafter, as opposed to the observed inflation, which has remained fairly stable. In this paper, we discuss the issue of inflation perceptions measurement, by comparing the balance statistic with an alternative refined measure, which is computed using the probability method. We argue that the balance statistic should be used carefully, as it can induce to misleading conclusions. In fact, we provide, for both euro area and country level, evidence showing that, using the proposed alternative measure, the breakdown in the relationship between observed and perceived inflation did not occur at the time of the euro cash changeover.

Chamávamos-lhe Casa

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Determining the number of factors in approximate factor models with global and group-specific factors

For an approximate factor model, in a static representation, with a common component comprising global factors and factors specific to groups of variables, the consistency of the principal components estimator is discussed. An extension of the well known Bai and Ng criteria is proposed for determining the number of global and group-specific factors. The consistency of the suggested criteria is established and the small sample properties are assessed through Monte Carlo simulations. As an empirical illustration, the proposed criteria is applied to estimate the number of global and country-specific macroeconomic factors for the major euro area countries.

Forecasting Using Targeted Diffusion Indexes

The simplicity of the standard diffusion index model of Stock and Watson has certainly contributed to its success among practitioners resulting in a growing body of literature on factor-augmented forecasts. However, as pointed out by Bai and Ng, the ranked factors considered in the forecasting equation depend neither on the variable to be forecasted nor on the forecasting horizon. We propose a refinement of the standard approach that retains the computational simplicity while coping with this limitation. Our approach consists of generating a weighted average of all the principal components, the weights depending both on the eigenvalues of the sample correlation matrix and on the covariance between the estimated factor and the targeted variable at the relevant horizon. This "targeted diffusion index" approach is applied to US data and the results show that it outperforms considerably the standard approach in forecasting several major macroeconomic series. Moreover, the improvement is more significant in the final part of the forecasting evaluation period.

Inflation expectations in the euro area: Are consumers rational?

In this paper, we propose a quantitative measure for inflation expectations based on consumer survey data. Thereafter, we proceed to testing the rationality assumption. This issue is of noteworthy interest in its own as it is commonly assumed in the theoretical modelling literature that the rational expectations hypothesis holds. This analysis is conducted for the euro area as a whole, as well as for several member countries, using a sample covering the last two decades. Moreover, we also assess if the conclusions hold when one focuses on the post-euro introduction period.

Formação em contexto: um estudo de caso no âmbito da pedagogia da infância

Dissertação de Doutoramento em Estudos da Criança, apresentada ao Instituto de Estudos da Criança, Universidade do Minho,sob orientação da Professora Doutora Júlia Oliveira Formosinho. Disponível em http://hdl.handle.net/1822/7085Esta investigação procura elucidar o processo que foi levado a cabo de desenvolvimento profissional de um grupo de educadores de infância inserido no desenvolvimento organizacional do contexto de trabalho, tendo em vista a finalidade de promover a qualidade da educação das crianças. Este processo complexo, que articula o desenvolvimento e as aprendizagens das crianças com o desenvolvimento profissional e organizacional dos contextos de acção, baseia-se no apoio sustentado dos profissionais e dos contextos, através de processos colaborativos em que a formação em contexto tem um papel primordial. A formação em contexto é centrada nas realidades de actuação e baseia-se no envolvimento dos profissionais nos processos de melhoria e mudança das suas práticas. Assim, este trabalho mostra como um grupo de educadoras e outras personagens relevantes da instituição em estudo, de modo sustentado e colaborativo, identificaram necessidades, elaboraram e participaram num percurso de formação que conduziu à melhoria e mudança das suas práticas e como isso foi evidente para a promoção da educação de qualidade das crianças. Como apoio ao desenvolvimento profissional e organizacional foi relevante o contributo de abordagens e perspectivas diversas, mas congruentes entre si, da pedagogia da infância e a utilização de instrumentos de avaliação e desenvolvimento da qualidade. Neste quadro, a investigação possibilitou identificar a pedagogia da infância como elemento central a ser considerado na formação em contexto dos educadores de infância experientes, bem como, de alunas de formação inicial em circunstância de supervisão da prática pedagógica. A investigação possibilitou, ainda, identificar a pedagogia da infância como elemento de sustentabilidade dos processos de mudança. A pesquisa, também, permitiu confirmar a importância da utilização de instrumentos de avaliação e desenvolvimento da qualidade como ponto de partida, monitorização e chegada das mudanças e da transformação das práticas. This investigation tries to clarify the professional development process wich a group of preschool teachers, who were in an organizational development work context, tried to promote a quality education for children. This complex procedure, wich articulates children’s development and learning skills with professional and organizational development, is based upon the professionals’ support and their contexts, thrue collabotative procedures in wich a context based training has a leading role. Contextualized formation is focuse in performance realities and based upon professionals’ participation in improving and changing procedures of their pratices. So, this essay shows how a group of preschool teachers and other relevant intervenients in the analysed institution, in a supported and cooperative way, have identified the needs, elaborated and participated in a formation course wich led to improvement, changing their practices and showing how it was relevant for promoting a quality education for children. As a support to professional and organizational development, it was relevant the contribution of diversified but congruent approaches and perspectives related to childhood pedagogy and the handling of valuation and quality development instruments. In this scenario, investigation made possible to identify childhood pedagogy as main criteria to be considered in contextualized formation to experienced preschool teachers, such as to students having begginer formation under supervised pedagogic practice. Investigation also made possible to identify childhood pedagogy has a supporting pointer to changing processes. Research also allowed to confirm the importance of using quality development and valuation instruments to monitorize practices changes and transformations.This investigation tries to clarify the professional development process wich a group of preschool teachers, who were in an organizational development work context, tried to promote a quality education for children. This complex procedure, wich articulates children’s development and learning skills with professional and organizational development, is based upon the professionals’ support and their contexts, thrue collabotative procedures in wich a context based training has a leading role. Contextualized formation is focuse in performance realities and based upon professionals’ participation in improving and changing procedures of their pratices. So, this essay shows how a group of preschool teachers and other relevant intervenients in the analysed institution, in a supported and cooperative way, have identified the needs, elaborated and participated in a formation course wich led to improvement, changing their practices and showing how it was relevant for promoting a quality education for children. As a support to professional and organizational development, it was relevant the contribution of diversified but congruent approaches and perspectives related to childhood pedagogy and the handling of valuation and quality development instruments. In this scenario, investigation made possible to identify childhood pedagogy as main criteria to be considered in contextualized formation to experienced preschool teachers, such as to students having begginer formation under supervised pedagogic practice. Investigation also made possible to identify childhood pedagogy has a supporting pointer to changing processes. Research also allowed to confirm the importance of using quality development and valuation instruments to monitorize practices changes and transformations