Las comunidades profesionales de aprendizaje: una estrategia de mejora para una nueva concepción de escuela

Transformar la escuela en una Comunidad Profesional de Aprendizaje (CPA) es una de las estrategias de mejora más reciente y exitosa de estos últimos años. Su propia naturaleza invita a revisar y a transformar la concepción tradicional de la escuela, procurando potenciar los espacios de aprendizaje de toda la comunidad escolar a través de la colaboración y el apoyo mutuo, con el objetivo de mejorar los procesos de aprendizaje de los alumnos. Las CPA son en definitiva una herramienta de reforma que se nutre de factores como el liderazgo pedagógico y distribuido, la cultura de trabajo colaborativa, el desarrollo profesional basado en las necesidades de aprendizaje del alumnado, la indagación y la reflexión sobre la práctica y el trabajo sistemático con evidencia, entre otros. En este artículo se procura desentrañar la complejidad de este concepto a través de una revisión histórica que permita recuperar los antecedentes teóricos del término. A su vez, se describen sus principales características, funcionamiento y las condiciones necesarias para impulsar y sostener esta estrategia de mejora. Por último, se destaca la importancia del liderazgo frente al desarrollo de las CPA y el impacto que las mismas generan sobre las prácticas educativa

School improvement: a half-century of learned lessons

El fracaso de las reformas curriculares de los años 60 y de lo inútil de las innovaciones impuestas “de arriba a abajo” hicieron que se volviera la mirada a la escuela como el centro del cambio educativo, con lo que se inició el Movimiento teórico-práctico de Mejora de la Escuela. El presente artículo, en primer lugar, hace un repaso a la evolución de esta línea, deteniéndose en las diferentes etapas por las que ha transitado y en sus características definitorias. En segundo lugar, se centra en las lecciones aprendidas en estas décadas que pueden ser útiles para la puesta en marcha de procesos de transformación escolar en la actualidad. Concretamente se abordan seis grandes aspectos: la colaboración docente y el trabajo en redes, la implicación de la comunidad, el liderazgo sistémico, la centralidad de los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje, el debate entre la responsabilidad y la rendición de cuentas, y las nuevas relaciones entre la administración pública y las escuelas. Para finalizar se aborda el para qué del cambio: una educación para la justica socialThe failure of curricular reforms of the 60s and of the useless of innovations forced upon "top-down" that made the look back to school as the focal point of educational change, so the theoretical and practical movement School Improvement began. This article first gives an overview of this line evolution, it holds on the various stages and its defining characteristics. Secondly, it focuses on the learned lessons over the past decades that may be useful for the implementation school transformation processes today. Specifically, it deals with the six major features: teacher collaboration and networking, community involvement, systemic leadership, the centrality of teaching and learning, and new relationships between government and schools. Finally, it addresses what is the purpose of the change: an Education for Social Justic

El proceso de cambio escolar: Una guía para impulsar y sostener la mejora de las escuelas

No hay alternativas, en Educación, si no se avanza, se retrocede. Posiblemente uno de los peores pecados de la educación es la autocomplacencia: quien crea que ya lo hace bien, que no necesita mejorar, está en el camino para hacerlo mal y cada vez peor. Aprender sobre el proceso de cambio escolar implica comprender su complejidad, conocer las etapas que lo componen y saber anticiparse a las resistencias que genera. Este artículo pretende ofrecer una serie de pautas que permitan entender, en un sentido pragmático, cómo iniciar un proceso de cambio escolar que sea sostenible a lo largo del tiempo y, en esa dirección, qué elementos o dimensiones deben contemplarse para que resulte especialmente eficaz.There are no alternatives in education, if not advances, retreats. Possibly one of the worst sins of education is complacency: anyone who believes that it already does well, that needs improvement is the way to do it wrong and getting worse. Learn about the process of school change involves understanding its complexity, understand the stages that compose it and learn to anticipate the resistance it generates. This article offers a set of guidelines that may explain, in a pragmatic sense, how to start a process of school change that is sustainable over time and in that direction, what elements or dimensions should be considered to be particularly effective.Não há alternativas, em Educação, se não se avança, retrocede-se. Possivelmente uno dos piores pecados da educação é a autocomplacencia: quem creia que já o faz bem, que não precisa melhorar, está no caminho para fazê-lo mau e cada vez pior. Aprender sobre o processo de mudança escolar implica compreender sua complexidade, conhecer as etapas que o compõem e saber antecipar-se às resistências que gera. Este artigo pretende oferecer uma série de pautas que permitam entender, num sentido pragmático, como iniciar um processo de mudança escolar que seja sustentável ao longo do tempo e, nessa direção, que elementos ou dimensões devem contemplar-se para que resulte especialmente eficaz

Mapping Agile Practices to CMMI-DEV Level 3 in Web Development Environments

Agile approaches formally appeared ten years ago and nowadays they are a valid alternative for organizations developing software. Agile methodologies are especially interesting to those developing Web environments applications, as they can fit properly the special characteristics of this type of developments. In addition, maturity models like CMMI-DEV (Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development) focus on assessing the maturity level of organizations developing or acquiring software. These models are well established and can increment quality of development process to enhance costumers’ satisfaction. CMMI-DEV level 3 provides a good compromise on maturity gained and effort needed. The feasibility of reaching it through a combination of Agile methods can be very useful to organizations developing systems in Web environments, as they can keep the adaptability of Agile together with a more mature development process. This paper proposes a set of Agile methods so as to reach all CMMI-DEV maturity level 3 generic and specific goals. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes further research lines

Evaluation of competencies for academic internship students

The rules and regulations on academic internships require all trainees to be "competent" and "qualified", but there is little direction on how institutions can prove that their workers and internship personal are knowledgeable and qualified. Competencies necessity to be correctly assessed, tested and verify, to fulfill the regulations of academic internship experiences, so that competencies continue to be assessed by a "competency standard", which specifies all the skills, talents, knowledge, abilities and experience required for each competency. This paper provides a competency assessments procedure used for academic internship practices

An Agile approach to CMMI-DEV levels 4 and 5 in Web development

CMMI (Capability Maturity Model-Integration) model proposes a set of process areas, including suggested practices, with the aim of helping organizations to improve the quality of their products and processes. It is commonly accepted that as an organization progresses through the different levels of CMMI, the quality of its development might improve as well as the overhead of the development process, impeding it to quickly adapt to customers or partners changing needs. Besides, Agile practices allow quick adaptation and early delivery of business value. The specificity of Web environments makes them suitable for Agile approaches. However, as quality requirements for Web systems increase, a combination of Agile practices allowing organizations to achieve higher levels of CMMI-DEV with a limited process overhead can be very interesting to organizations that aim to keep adaptability. This way, they might strengthen their development processes in order to produce high quality results. This paper presents a gap analysis between the most used Agile practices (Scrum and XP) as well as a mapping proposal, including ad-hoc modifications and other Agile practices, to achieve all CMMI-DEV level 4 and 5 specific goals. To conclude, it drafts relevant conclusions and proposes future lines of researc

Numerical simulations of negatively buoyant jets in an immiscible fluid using the Particle Finite Element Method

Negatively buoyant jets consist in a dense fluid injected vertically upward into a lighter ambient fluid. The numerical simulation of this kind of buoyancy‐driven flows is challenging as it involves multiple fluids with different physical properties. In the case of immiscible fluids, it requires, in addition, to track the motion of the interface between fluids and accurately represent the discontinuities of the flow variables. In this paper, we investigate numerically the injection of a negatively buoyant jet into a homogenous immiscible ambient fluid using the Particle Finite Element Method and compare the two‐dimensional numerical results with experiments on the injection of a jet of dyed water through a nozzle in the base of a cylindrical tank containing rapeseed oil. In both simulations and experiments, the fountain inlet flow velocity and nozzle diameter have been varied to cover a wide range of Froude Fr and Reynolds Re numbers ( 0.1 < Fr < 30, 8 < Re < 1350), reproducing both weak and strong laminar fountains. The flow behaviors observed for the different numerical simulations fit in the regime map based on the Re and Fr values of the experiments, and the maximum fountain height is in good agreement with the experimental observations, suggesting that particle finite element method is a useful tool for the study of immiscible two‐fluid systems

Las preferencias de género de los mentores: el mentoring en la educación superior y las diferencias de género

[ES] Los trabajos presentados en el congreso «INCLUYE», organizado por el Grupo de Investigación Reconocido (GIR) en Multiculturalidad, Innovación y Tecnologías Aplicadas (MITA) de la Universidad de Salamanca, reúne a la comunidad investigadores para discutir y reflexionar sobre tres ejes temáticos relevantes y urgentes para nuestra educación actual, en las diversas latitudes del mundo: equidad e igualdad en educación escolar y superior; educación intercultural; métodos, metodologías y evaluación inclusivas. En el primero se presentan reflexiones y praxis educativas, que intentan alcanzar la equidad e igualdad, dejando atrás las etiquetas que lejos de unir, marcan las diferencias en el alumnado con diversidad de género y necesidades especiales. En el segundo se aborda la educación intercultural y multicultural en diversos contextos educativos en el contexto de los fenómenos migratorios que nos encontramos viviendo a nivel mundial. Tiene especial énfasis las competencias y principios pedagógicos para la acción educativa intercultural, como en las intervenciones educativas para prevenir situaciones de conflicto. En el tercer eje se exponen trabajos que abordan la innovación educativa para la inclusión a través de metodologías activas y emergentes para que el alumnado logre el máximo nivel de desarrollo personal y la adquisición del mayor grado de conocimientos y destrezas de acuerdo con sus propias posibilidades. Este tema, está dirigido especialmente a aquellas propuestas que recojan estrategias pedagógicas que tengan como finalidad la inclusión de todo el alumnado en la comunidad educativa, especialmente de los grupos con más riesgo de exclusión

E-Mentoring in Higher Education: A Structured Literature Review and Implications for Future Research

[EN]Mentoring in higher education helps learners acclimate to a new academic topic, increases the likelihood of academic success, and reduces attrition. Learners rely on the expertise and experience of mentors to help them graduate in a timely manner and advance on to their career. As online and distance education becomes more pervasive, computer-mediated mentoring allows learners to connect with their mentors in new ways. Research about mentoring in higher education includes investigations into the e cacy of virtual or e-mentoring. We conducted a literature review of research from 2009 to 2019 to identify relevant elements for implementing e-mentoring programs in higher education. Our research revealed that there is a consistent interest in the subject matter within educational research; however, there is a gap on virtual mentoring in higher education for students conducting o site internships. Our research reviews e-mentoring programs, identifies how these programs are evaluated, identifies factors of successful programs, and establishes a research agenda in areas of e-mentoring programs for students in o site internships and how they can be structured to achieve the same level of success

An Analysis of LGBTQIA+ University Students’ Perceptions about Sexual and Gender Diversity

The main objective of this study was to explore the perceptions of LGBTQIA+ students regarding sexual and gender diversity in the university context by (1) identifying conceptions about a being LGBTQIA+ student in the higher education context, (2) researching perceptions of the stigma and discrimination against, and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ students and (3) to recognize discourses and scenarios identified by students in the university context regarding sexual diversity and gender diversity, distinguishing their experiences in the classroom as well as in the university, with their peers and with their professors. This research was based on a quantitative method, the sample consisted of 171 students from the School of Medicine of a public university in the United States in the state of Texas. The results showed that there is currently a greater knowledge of the subject of sexual and gender diversity and of the spaces and resources offered by the university on the subject compared to previous years, however, it is found that knowledge is still limited and that this knowledge may possibly be due to the faculty in which they study