The contribution of Rómulo de Carvalho to Portuguese science education (1934-1974): a humanistic project?

Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Doutoramento em co-tutela)The University of Leeds School of EducationThis thesis examines the contribution of Rómulo de Carvalho to science education in Portugal during the period he taught in the secondary school ‘Liceu’ (1934-1974). In his home country, Carvalho is a well-known educator, historian and poet, a voracious writer who left a great number of works in these three areas. The scope of Carvalho’s activities in pedagogy is wide. He contributed to curriculum development, wrote textbooks, books on popularization of science, and trained teachers. The thesis seeks to pull these activities together and provides an account on the characteristics and impact of Carvalho’s contribution to science education within a professional and political context. The main argument of the thesis is that Carvalho’s work on science education can be described as ‘humanistic’, since he worked for the change of the nature and quality of science education in Portugal in a distinctively ‘humanistic’ way. Carvalho contributed to the democratization of scientific knowledge in a fascist regime, and gave particular attention to the adequate content and methods of teaching according to pupils’ age, interests, and learning condition. The thesis sets out the political and educational context in which Carvalho’s work took place and examines the rationale and impact of some of his key pedagogical activities. An account on Carvalho’s contribution to the 1947/1948 liceal reform is provided. The thesis then examines the characteristic and the professional context in which his textbooks were produced. It moves on to scrutinize Carvalho’s views on the pedagogy of laboratory classes with a particular concern with his preferred teaching method. Afterwards, accounts on Carvalho’s work as a teacher trainer, on his broader support in the practice of teaching, and his own performance in the classroom are provided. In the final part, the thesis examines Carvalho’s work on the popularization of science, providing an account of his aims and writing style as well as the significance of this work within the Salazarist regime.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

The Impact of Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Quantity on Spatial Learning

An implicit mapping of number to space via a “mental number line” occurs automatically in adulthood. Here, we systematically explore the influence of differing representations of quantity (no quantity, non-symbolic magnitudes, and symbolic numbers) and directional flow of stimuli (random flow, left-to-right, or right-to-left) on learning and attention via a match-to-sample working memory task. When recalling a cognitively demanding string of spatial locations, subjects performed best when information was presented right-to-left. When non-symbolic or symbolic numerical arrays were embedded in these spatial locations, and mental number line congruency prompted, this effect was attenuated and in some cases reversed. In particular, low-performing female participants who viewed increasing non-symbolic number arrays paired with the spatial locations exhibited better recall for left-to-right directional flow information relative to right-to-left, and better processing for the left side of space relative to the right side of space. The presence of symbolic number during spatial learning enhanced recall to a greater degree than non-symbolic number—especially for female participants, and especially when cognitive load is high—and this difference was independent of directional flow of information. We conclude that quantity representations have the potential to scaffold spatial memory, but this potential is subtle, and mediated by the nature of the quantity and the gender and performance level of the learner

Shopper Centric Category Management in Convenience Stores: a Qualitative Study

The literature shows that category management is an important concept and tool for retailers and suppliers, but that there is a trend to move to a more shopper-centric category management approach, linked to the shoppermarketing approach. However, the knowledge on this issue is scarce on some retailing sectors, like convenience stores. The present study is focused on convenience stores, with the main purpose of finding out to what extent non-major food retailers successfully adopt a shopper-centric category management. The study is relevant in order to evaluate if a more shopper-centric approach is adequate to smaller companies/stores. To accomplish that goal, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted among convenience store retailers and suppliers. Six semistructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with Commercial Directors and Trade Marketing Managers. This data was complemented with thirteen interviews with shopper marketing experts. The data was analyzed using thematic content analysis technique, identifying themes, categories, subcategories, units of meaning and relations. The results revealed that convenience store retailers use some of the principles and techniques of the shopper-marketing and shopper-centric category management approaches, which they do in a non-standardized and non-formal approach or process. Their suppliers (the manufacturers) do it in a more formal and structured manner, probably as a result of previous interaction with major supermarkets chains. Both direct and indirect evidences of a shopper-centric approach were found, which, however, were slight, discrete and not formal

A relação educador-criança: preditores da perceção dos dois elementos da díade

As dinâmicas relacionais no jardim de infância refletem o papel importante da relação Educador-Criança, fornecendo à última apoio e segurança na exploração do ambiente escolar. Estas relações são importantes para o desenvolvimento da criança, principalmente quando são caracterizadas como relações de qualidade. O principal objetivo deste estudo foi compreender os preditores das perceções do educador (relativos à proximidade e do conflito) e da criança (no que diz respeito ao suporte à autonomia), relativamente à qualidade da relação. Foram consideradas as características do educador (formação), da criança (género, problemas de comportamento, competência social e verbal), do grupo (tamanho) e da situação familiar (fatores de risco), bem como as perceções sobre a qualidade da relação dos dois elementos da díade. Participaram neste estudo 342 crianças (167 meninas e 175 meninos), com idades compreendidas entre os 40.5 meses e os 75.6 meses (M = 59.99; DP = 7.97), e 58 educadoras de jardins de infância públicos e privados, da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa, tendo sido recolhida informação junto das educadoras, das crianças e das mães. Os resultados evidenciaram que as educadoras relataram maior proximidade com meninas; com crianças com mais competências sociais e com mais problemas de comportamento, relatando também relações mais conflituosas com crianças com mais problemas de comportamento. As crianças relataram maior suporte à autonomia quando frequentavam salas com um menor número de crianças e quando apresentavam menores competências verbais. Com os principais resultados podemos compreender que as variáveis ao nível da criança se mostraram mais importantes em todos os modelos.Relational dynamics in early childhood education reflect the important role of the Teacher-Child relationship, providing the ultimate support and security in exploring the school environment. These relationships are important for the child's development, especially when they are characterized as quality relationships. The main objective of this study is to understand the predictors of both teacher’s (in terms of closeness and conflict) and child’s (concerning autonomy support) perceptions, regarding the quality of the relationship. Following that it was considered the characteristics of the teacher (training), the child (gender, behavioral problems, social competence and verbal competence), the group (size), and the family (risk factor), as well as the perceptions about the quality of the relationship between the two elements of the dyad. The study included 342 children (167 girls and 175 boys) aged 40.5 months to 75.6 months (M = 59.99; SD = 7.97), and 58 public and private early childhood teachers from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The information was collected from the teachers, children and mothers. The results showed that the teachers reported greater closeness to female children; to children with more social competence and more behavior problems. Early childhood teachers also reported more conflicting relationships with children with more behavior problems. Children reported greater autonomy support when they attended classrooms with fewer children and when they had lower verbal competence. With the main results we can understand that the variables at the child level were more important in all models