Development of the Intercultural Citizenship in EFL 8th grade students

Developing cultural awareness and intercultural citizenship competences in high school students has become a challenge for English language educators as this task is generally associated to the foreign language class. Language and culture are interwoven and cannot be separated (Brown, 2001), therefore culture has become a topic of study in the foreign language class. This fact has become a challenge for language teachers as they may be missing valuable learning opportunities in the classroom when tackling this aspect with their students. Conducting research on how English language teachers can develop these competences in the class is therefore a necessity in the field and the main objective of this research. The objective of the study presented here is to determine how the implementation of a pedagogical sequence could influence the development of intercultural citizenship in EFL students. In order to do that, we designed a pedagogical sequence using the Intercultural Encounters model Lave and Wenger (1991) based on Byramos model of intercultural communicative competence (1997). Data was collected through the application of surveys, focus groups and studentsÕ reflections. Results showed that the pedagogical sequence implemented seemed to have helped students develop their intercultural competences as they have reported more empathy to the new culture and respect for the difference. Results also showed that teachers should follow a series of stages in order to design appropriate sequences. These stages should include contextualization, interactive and action-taking activities and student reflection on what has been done. It is hoped that these findings will contribute to the worldwide discussion about the pedagogical decisions needed to develop intercultural competences

Effectiveness if traditional games compared with technological games in classroom climate and student's performance in the EFL classroom : a quasi-experimental research

Tesis (Pedagogía en Inglés)The present study intended to corroborate the hypothesis that both technological and traditional games can help school students in their learning process and that traditional games unlike technological ones, also help in the creation of a better classroom climate. Through a quasi-experiment in three different educational settings, control groups and experimental ones were going to be measured both in students’ performance expressed in marks and in classroom climate measured with a sociometric test. Chile’s current national contingency has prevented this study to be concluded as expected. As an alternative outcome, the researchers carried out a perception study that compared student’s acceptance of both technological and traditional games. The result of this study shows that current students, who are digital natives, showed a slight preference for traditional games over the technological ones, defying the common belief that students only react positively to technology.El presente estudio pretende corroborar la hipótesis de que tanto los juegos tecnológicos como los tradicionales pueden ayudar a los alumnos en su proceso de aprendizaje y que los juegos tradicionales a diferencia de los tecnológicos pueden ayudar, además en la creación de un mejor clima de aula. A través de un cuasi-experimento en tres diferentes establecimientos educacionales, en los grupo de control y experimentales se iba a medir tanto el rendimiento de los estudiantes expresado a través de sus calificaciones, como el clima de aula medido a través de un cuestionario sociométrico. La actual contingencia nacional de Chile ha impedido que este estudio concluya según lo previsto. Como alternativa, los investigadores llevaron a cabo un estudio de percepción que comparó la aceptación de los estudiantes hacia los juegos tecnológicos y tradicionales. El resultado de este estudio muestra que los estudiantes, siendo nativos digitales. mostraron una ligera preferencia por los juegos tradicionales por sobre los tecnológicos, desafiando la creencia general de que los estudiantes solo reaccionan positivamente ante la tecnología

Diseño de una procesadora de café para el sector Cafetero del país

Este proyecto consiste en el diseño en CAD de una máquina económica y compacta encargada de despulpar, desmucilaginar y seleccionar el café. Para el desarrollo de este proyecto se investigó los diferentes estados del café, la manera de remover la cascara sin que se afecte la calidad del grano. Con este proyecto tecnológico se podrá obtener una reducción en el consumo de agua, y un control de la contaminación de las aguas de más 90%. Sin afectar la clasificación del grano, ya que al despulpar el café sin agua se evita la contaminación, gracias a la utilización de un tornillo sinfín que lleva el café pelado hacia el desmucilaginador de flujo ascendente, con un mínimos consumo de agua. La máquina cuenta con sensores debidamente ubicados para saber en qué etapa está el café para evitar derrames de agua y consumo de energía. Los sensores envían información a un sistema microcontrolado que decide si se encienden o se apagan los motores encargados de mover los dispositivos contenidos en este proyecto

Jóvenes escolares: entre el consumo, la mutación y la reproducción social

El presente documento se plantea como proyecto de investigación sobre la juventud en los escenarios escolares, muchos reconocen que es un espacio de los desencuentros, de las rotulaciones además plasmadas de complejidades, ambigüedades y aun así en la negación como persona social, entonces Jóvenes escolares: entre el consumo, la mutación y la reproducción social, es la posibilidad de reconocer las Representaciones Sociales con respecto a su condición generacional, permitiendo un acceso valioso a las prácticas y adscripciones que hacen parte de su vida social, sin que las mediaciones del aparato educativo restrinjan con sus discursos y esquemas el enunciado de joven escolar. Es por esto que a los jóvenes, el entorno escolar les permite disfrutar momentos que causan diferentes emociones que los llevan a vivir su vida de otras formas y a socializarse con todo tipo de personas, las cuales les permiten ir más allá de lo que realmente ellos quieren; desde este punto de vista, nos permitimos abordar al estudiante del grado undécimo de la Institución Educativa INEM Felipe Pérez de la ciudad de Pereira 2011; mirando sus formas de pensar, actuar, sus modos de socialización, su devenir dentro y fuera de las esferas educativas, buscando en él cuales fueron las representaciones sociales más significativas que mostró a partir de los diferentes ejercicios que se hicieron para conocer su entorno social, cultural, familiar y económico. Las representaciones sociales encontradas, permiten entender el porqué de las formas de pensar y actuar de los estudiantes de grado undécimo y servirán para generar una mejor convivencia en la institución educativa, con el fin de estructurar una nueva forma trabajo que permitirán relacionar las diferentes representaciones sociales con el currículo de la institución, es decir, éste último debe interpretar las necesidades sociales y educativas del estudiante, por ello, es importante visibilizar al joven de este grado que aunque pasara a ser parte de otro sistema deja enmarcadas pautas que engrosaran caminos para quienes pertenezcan o lleguen al ámbito escolar.This document is presented as a research project on youth in school settings, many people recognize that the former setting is an area of disagreements, judgments that also reflect complexities and ambiguities. However, still in denial as a social unit, Scholar Youth: between consumption, mutation, and social reproduction, is the possibility of recognizing the social representations regarding generational status, enabling valuable access to practices and attachments that are part of their social life, without the mediation of the educational system that restricts with its speeches and outlines, the statement of the scholar youth. That is why the school environment allows young people to enjoy moments which cause different emotions that lead them to live their lives in other ways and socialize with all kinds of people, who allow them to go beyond than they really want. From this point of view, we would approach the eleventh-grade students of the School INEM Felipe Pérez, Pereira 2011, observing their ways of thinking, acting, socializing; and their evolution within and outside the areas of education; looking for the most significant social representations they showed from the different exercises that were carried out to meet their social, cultural, familial and economic background. The Social representations that were found, allow us to understand the reason why eleventhgrade students act and think the way they do, and they will serve as a reference to create a better living environment in the school, in order to structure a new way to work that will relate the different social representations with the curriculum of the institution. That is to say that the institution must interpret the social and educational needs of these students. Therefore, it is important to make these eleven graders visible, as even after becoming part of another system, they provide framed guidelines for those who belong or will incorporate to the school environment

Andrological characterisation of Chilean purebred stallions

Chilean purebred horses are widely used in Chile for rodeo and farm work. Despite the importance of the breed, systematic studies characterising their andrological variables are lacking, making stallion evaluation and selection difficult. This study aimed to determine whether age and seasonality affect seminal, spermatic, gonadal and endocrine variables of 15 Chilean purebred stallions. The animals were studied over a year and were separated into a young group (n=6) (5 to 12 years) and an aged group (n=9) (13 to 25 years). The variables evaluated were: total seminal volume (mL), free gel seminal volume (mL), sperm concentration(106 x spermatozoa/mL using Spermacue refractometer TM), sperm progressive motility (conventional microscopy (%)), sperm vitality (Eosine-Nigrosine stain (%)) and sperm morphology (Hematoxylin Eosin stain (%)), testicle volume (cm3) (ultrasound Weld 3000V, 5MHz), plasmatic testosterone (ng/mL) and estrogen (pg/mL) concentration determined by radioimmunoassay. To determine the statistical difference and correlation between variables, ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation were used, respectively (P<0.05). Most of the andrological variables were affected by age and season and although not significant, the values obtained were higher in young stallions during summer. Progressive motility (70 ± 12.1 %), sperm normal morphology (90 ± 1.7 %) and plasmatic estrogen (6.49 ± 1.8 pg/mL) reached statistical significance to plasmatic testosterone (0.3 ± 0.08 ng/mL) (P=0.01), sperm concentration (253 ± 59.5 x 106 sperm/mL) (P=0.03) and testicular volume (463.4 ± 90 cm3) (P=0.002) variables. Despite the results, we suggest that all these variables should be considered during stallion selection since andrological variables were neither correlated with testosterone nor the oestrogen plasmatic concentration. The results provide parameters that should be considered during the evaluation and selection of Chilean purebred stallions to avoid the extrapolation of data from other breeds