SAperI: Approaching Gender Gap Using Spatial Ability Training Week in High-School Context

The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure of a girls summer school, “SAperI – Spatial Ability per l’Ingegneria” (in English, “Knowledge – Spatial Ability for Engineering”), and to illustrate its impact on spatial ability development and future career preferences on those who participated in the week long summer school compared to a control group that did not participate.The 5 days school,organized by Politecnico di Torino (Italy), was included in a larger project addressing 17 years old high-school students. Thirtyseven girls actively took part in a summer school, while 167 students (both males and females) were tested as a controlled group.For those who attended the summer school, significant gains were observed in four measures of spatial ability - mental rotation, spatialvisualization, mental cutting and paper folding. For a minority of participants, scores on one of these tests, paper folding, were lower when measured at the end of the summer school but this was an exception. Furthermore, when tested several months after the summer school, the gains in spatial ability that were made during the course were maintained indicating stability over time with regard to the improvement in spatial ability.In terms of the experience of taking the course, the feedback provided was very positive and all but one participant would recommend the summer school to othergirls at this stage of high school

Re-assessing the Current Assessment Practices of Children with Special Education Needs in Europe

Introduces the study developed countries that comprise the project DAFFODIL about assessment practices used frequently with children and young people with special educational needs. Apresenta o estudo desenvolvido nos países que integram o projecto DAFFODIL acerca das práticas de avaliação mais frequentes com crianças e jovens com necessidades educativas especiais

Operacionalização de escala para análise de padrão de mediação materna: um estudo com díades mãe-criança com deficiência visual Scale operationalization for analysis of maternal mediation patterns: a study with mother - child with visual impairment dyads

O desenvolvimento cognitivo da criança com necessidades especiais pode ser afetado por padrões inadequados de mediação materna, decorrente das baixas expectativas das mães acerca da capacidade cognitiva infantil, que se constroem a partir da compreensão inadequada acerca dos reais limites e possibilidades de aprendizagem da criança. Nesse sentido, faz-se relevante a avaliação do padrão de mediação materna por instrumentos que forneçam indicadores de análise da mediação presente na interação mãe-criança. Com esse objetivo foi operacionalizada a Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) Rate Scale (Escala de Avaliação de Experiência de Aprendizagem Mediada - Escala MLE), elaborada por Carol Lidz em 1991, com base na Teoria da Experiência de Aprendizagem Mediada. É uma proposta de avaliação da interação adulto-criança, na qual são avaliados os comportamentos mediadores do adulto. Esses comportamentos podem favorecer a construção de expectativas mais otimistas e de um padrão de mediação mais adequado de interação. Após a tradução da Escala MLE, elaboraram-se 36 categorias comportamentais para análise do padrão de mediação materna, organizadas em 4 níveis, para cada um dos 12 componentes da Escala: intencionalidade, significação, transcendência, atenção partilhada, experiência partilhada, regulação na tarefa, elogiar, desafio, diferenciação psicológica, responsividade contingente, envolvimento afetivo. Esta versão adaptada foi aplicada em 12 díades mãe-criança com deficiência visual (5-9 anos), filmadas em 3 sessões de jogos de dominó, com níveis crescentes de dificuldade. A versão operacionalizada da Escala MLE mostrou-se ferramenta útil à análise quantitativa e qualitativa da interação adulto-criança, em situação semi-estruturada de aprendizagem, corroborado por índice de concordância aceitável (77,2%).<br>The cognitive development of children with special needs can be affected by inadequate maternal mediation patterns, due to the mother's low expectations of her child's cognitive performance, which are affected by her inadequate comprehension of her child's actual learning limitations and possibilities. Thus, it is essential to asses the mother's mediation patterns using instruments that will result in indicators enabling the analysis of mediation occurring during mother child interaction. Toward this aim, the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) Rate Scale, elaborated by Carol Lidz in 1991, based on the Mediated Learning Experience Theory was adapted and applied. This instrument assesses adult-child interaction, focusing on the adult's mediation behaviors. These behaviors can promote the building of higher expectations as well as a more appropriate mediation pattern of interaction. After translating the MLE Scale into Portuguese, 36 behavioral categories were created to analyze the mother mediation pattern in 4 levels for each of the 12 components of the MLE Scale: intentionality, meaning, transcendence, joint regard, sharing of experiences, task regulation, encouragement, challenge, psychological differentiation, contingent responsiveness, affective involvement. This adapted version was applied to 12 mother-visually impairment children (5-9 years of age) dyads; 3 domino games sessions with increasing levels of difficulty were videotaped. The results showed that the adaptation of MLE Scale was useful in the quantitative and qualitative analysis the adult-child interactions in semi-structured learning situations, corroborated by an acceptable agreement rate (77.2%)