Early introduction of trilingual education in primary schools in Ireland and Catalonia: a comparative study

The Irish language, despite being the first official language in Ireland, is an endangered minority language. It is spoken, as the daily language of communication, by less than 3% of the national population and only 27% of the Gaeltacht population. In education, two different Primary School Curriculum guidelines (one for Gaelscoileanna and Gaeltacht schools and one for national schools) reflect the different sociolinguistic roles that Irish plays within Irish society and the segregation existing between children of different linguistic backgrounds. Also, there is no language policy in Ireland for the teaching of foreign languages at primary level, which is in contrast to the support that the European Union gives to multilingualism from an early age. From a different perspective, at pre-service level, primary school teachers receive their training through the medium of English, which results in poor levels of Irish being acquired. Also, there is no training available for the teaching of foreign languages within the Bachelor of Education or the Professional Diploma in Education (primary level). The development of a combined language policy for primary education for English, Irish and foreign languages is a main component of this work. This thesis looks at the experience of Catalonia, where this challenge has already been overcome with regard to second language acquisition, and compares it with Ireland’s experience. In Catalonia, there is a long tradition of early immersion education in Catalan; the agenda has now moved to third language development through researching the most effective teaching methodologies. Consequently, this is a comparative study between Ireland and Catalonia based on two main research methods: firstly, a theoretical analysis of issues related to cognitive language acquisition and European and State policy regarding language status and language use; secondly, an empirical study (consisting of qualitative and quantitative data) of teacher attitudes on early trilingual education in primary schools in Ireland and Catalonia. Hence, we explore the proposition that Ireland requires an integrated national language policy that includes English, Irish and a foreign language in the Primary School Curriculum which is directed at the achievement of high levels of proficiency in the three languages by the end of compulsory education. The results of this study suggest the appropriateness of developing a trilingual education system for primary education in Ireland based on early total immersion in Irish and the teaching of an L3 as content subject (1st-4th class) and through Content and Language Integrated Learning (5th and 6th class). This needs to be accompanied by strong institutional support with a redesign of both the Primary School Curriculum and of the pre-service training of primary school teachers

Las formas de lo arbitrario: los altos y bajos de Towards a Theory of Arbitrary Law-making in Migration Policy de Patricia Mindus

El presente artículo se centra concretamente en dos cuestiones. En primer lugar, se presenta la iluminadora reciente obra de Patricia Mindus en la que se realiza una distinción conceptual entre las concepciones de arbitrariedad en diferentes ámbitos semánticos, particularmente en la filosofía y el derecho, así como la exposición de una tipología donde se distinguen los diferentes usos en el derecho. En segundo lugar, se despliega una crítica a diferentes aspectos de la tipología de Mindus apoyada por una argumentación sobre los que considero son usos incorrectos señalados por la autora.This article has two aims. First, it presents the illuminating recent work of Patricia Mindus on arbitrariness, in which the author completes mainly two tasks. The first task consists of a conceptual distinction among the notions of arbitrariness in different semantic areas, particularly in philosophy and law. The second task consists of presenting a typology distinguishing different uses of the notion in law. Second, I shall present some criticism, as well as provide reasons arguing for the incorrectness of some of the uses presented

Students as digital leaders in the classroom

Summary. Over the past few years, the growing use of technology in the classroom has left many teachers feelingoverwhelmed by the new imperatives of classroom management. Contemporary educators are faced with the needto devote attention not only to teaching and curricular matters, but also to other areas for which they are often notas well trained, including issues of digital competence and the tasks of resolving technical problems that sometimesarise with electronic devices in the classroom. This drove the school Jesuïtes Bellvitge to draw a distinction betweenpedagogical and educational aspects on the one hand and technical tasks on the other. The aim is to make possiblea greater focus of efforts on the ultimate goals of the teaching and learning process. The teacher acts as theclassroom leader when it comes to educational matters, but in every class there is a group of students who play therole of «ICT experts», both taking charge of technical issues in the classroom and offering support to the teacherand their classmates. The objective of this article is to collect data from the participants in this ICT experts programmeat Jesuïtes Bellvitge and to describe and assess the experience. The article concludes that this programmehas allowed for a broader use of ICT resources in the school, with classes of different grade levels now able to incorporatethem regardless of individual teachers’ digital competence.Resum. En els darrers anys, l’ús intensiu de les tecnologies a l’escola, ha provocat que el professor de vegades essenti desbordat quan ha d’atendre la gestió de l’aula i no tan sols els aspectes d’ensenyament i aprenentatge curricularssinó també altres, pels que sovint no està preparat, com són els relacionats amb la competència digital ila resolució de les incidències tècniques que es produeixen amb qualsevol dels dispositius de l’aula. És per això,que a l’escola Jesuïtes Bellvitge s’ha decidit separar els aspectes pedagògics i didàctics dels tècnics per tal de concentrarels esforços en la finalitat última del procés d’ensenyament i aprenentatge. El lideratge pedagògic de laclasse el porta el professor però és un grup d’alumnes «ICT experts» el que a cada classe porta el lideratge tecnològici fan de suport al professor de l’aula i als seus companys. En aquest article es pretén descriure i avaluarl’experiència dels ICT experts de l’escola Jesuïtes Bellvitge segons els seus protagonistes arribant a la conclusió queaquesta experiència, ha fet que l’ús de les TIC a l’aula es pugui estendre homogèniament en els diferents cursosamb independència de la competència digital docent del professor

La urgencia de la bioética: a favor de la constitución de un foro para el consenso moral global

Máster Universitario en Bioética y Bioderech

Patología cardiovascular y microvesículas en la enfermedad renal crónica

Resumen de la tesis doctoral: El propósito del trabajo es estudiar la patología cardiovascular (CV) en la enfermedad renal crónica {ERC). La importancia de esta investigación viene dada porque la patología CV es la causa más prevalente y principal de muerte en esta población. Como parámetro novedoso estudiamos la relación con la patología CV de las microvesículas para lo que contamos con la colaboración del departamento de biología de sistemas de la Universidadde Alcalá de Henares (UAH). Se trata pues de una tesis clínica en la que hemos reclutado los pacientes de la consulta externa de endocrinología y pacientes en hemodiálisis (HD) del Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor (HUIL) de Madrid, pero con el importante apoyo experimental de la UAH. Los pacientes con enfermedad renal crónica (ERC) sufren enfermedades cardiovasculares (ECV) con una incidencia muy superior a la observada en la población general. De hecho, las patologías CV continúan siendo la principal causa de morbilidad y mortalidad entre los enfermos con ERC. Para desarrollar estrategias terapéuticas eficaces que reduzcan la morbi-mortalidadde estos pacientes es un objetivo prioritario caracterizar los elementos de asociación entre daño renal y ECV

Cambios morfológicos en barras sumergidas de playas artificiales

Se analizan los cambios morfológicos que experimentan las barras sumergidas de dos playas artificiales de la ciudad de Barcelona durante un período de tres años. Los desplazamientos transversales de las barras alcanzaron más de 50 m, con tasas máximas de migración hacia mar de 5 m/día y hacia tierra de 3 m/día que ocurren asociadas a determinados temporales. La configuración en planta de la barra puede estar estrechamente relacionada con la línea de costa, especialmente cuando se desarrollan dos cúspides en una de las playas que favorecen la generación de una configuración «crescéntica» (oscilante! de la barra durante más de un año. Aunque se trata de playas artificiales, el comportamiento de las barras es equivalente al descrito en playas naturales

The responses of artificial embayed beaches to storm events

Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Proteomics of Plant Pathogenic Fungi

Plant pathogenic fungi cause important yield losses in crops. In order to develop efficient and environmental friendly crop protection strategies, molecular studies of the fungal biological cycle, virulence factors, and interaction with its host are necessary. For that reason, several approaches have been performed using both classical genetic, cell biology, and biochemistry and the modern, holistic, and high-throughput, omic techniques. This work briefly overviews the tools available for studying Plant Pathogenic Fungi and is amply focused on MS-based Proteomics analysis, based on original papers published up to December 2009. At a methodological level, different steps in a proteomic workflow experiment are discussed. Separate sections are devoted to fungal descriptive (intracellular, subcellular, extracellular) and differential expression proteomics and interactomics. From the work published we can conclude that Proteomics, in combination with other techniques, constitutes a powerful tool for providing important information about pathogenicity and virulence factors, thus opening up new possibilities for crop disease diagnosis and crop protection

Implantació de l'assignatura d'Introducció a la Clínica Podològica en el Grau de Podologia

Podeu consultar la Setena trobada de professorat de Ciències de la Salut completa a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/43352La Diplomatura de Podologia es caracteritzava perquè els alumnes passaven directament de realitzar pràctiques de laboratori preclíniques en el primer semestre del segon any a dur a terme pràctica assistencial sense un coneixement i experiència suficient en el funcionament de la clínica. Amb la posada en marxa del grau, es va implantar l’assignatura d’Introducció a la Clínica Podològica [ICP], amb la finalitat de fer de pont entre les pràctiques de laboratori preclíniques i la incorporació assistencial. Això s’aconsegueix amb la incorporació d’un alumne d’ICP en un grup de pràctiques d’alumnes d’un curs superior (Practicum II)

To achieve an earlier IFN-¿ response is not sufficient to control mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in mice

The temporo-spatial relationship between the three organs (lung, spleen and lymph node) involved during the initial stages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection has been poorly studied. As such, we performed an experimental study to evaluate the bacillary load in each organ after aerosol or intravenous infection and developed a mathematical approach using the data obtained in order to extract conclusions. The results showed that higher bacillary doses result in an earlier IFN-c response, that a certain bacillary load (BL) needs to be reached to trigger the IFN-c response, and that control of the BL is not immediate after onset of the IFN-c response, which might be a consequence of the spatial dimension. This study may have an important impact when it comes to designing new vaccine candidates as it suggests that triggering an earlier IFN-c response might not guarantee good infection control, and therefore that additional properties should be considered for these candidates.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version