Studying changes in the practice of two teachers developing assessment for learning

This paper describes changes in the practice of two teachers, observed over an eighteen month period, who were participating in a study intended to support teachers in developing their use of assessment in support of learning. The design of the intervention allowed each teacher to choose for themselves which aspects of their practice to develop. Analysis of lesson observations, journal entries and interviews indicate that both teachers were keen to change their practice, but were concerned about the disruption to their established routines, and in particular about the potential for loss of control of their classes. Both teachers did effect significant changes in their classrooms, but these tended to be developments of existing preferred ways of working, rather than radical innovations. In conclusion, it is suggested that to be most effective, teacher professional development needs to be structured strongly enough to afford teacher growth, but flexible enough to allow different teachers to take their practice in different ways

Construire des savoirs issus de l'expérience à l'ère de l'Evidence-Based Medicine : une enquête anthropologique auprès des sages-femmes indépendantes en Suisse romande

Partant d'une préoccupation, qui concerne les influences de l'Evidence-­‐Based Medecine (EBM) sur l'évolution de l'accompagnement de la naissance, cette thèse interroge tout d'abord plusieurs enjeux sous-­‐tendant le développement de ce mouvement social à travers une revue de littérature et plusieurs analyses documentaires. L'EBM, conçue pour réguler des problèmes récurrents en médecine, dont font partie la disparité des pratiques et les inégalités d'accès à des soins adaptés, fait néanmoins l'objet de critiques en sciences sociales. Ce modèle qui valorise les méthodes de recherche quantitatives, dont l'Essai Contrôlé Randomisé, déconsidère les savoirs construits par les professionnel-­‐le-­‐s de la santé au cours de leur activité. Le coeur de la thèse consiste par conséquent à se pencher sur ces savoirs déconsidérés et à interroger ce que leur mise à l'écart implique pour l'accompagnement de la naissance. A partir d'une enquête de terrain, conduite auprès d'une communauté de pratique de sages-­‐femmes indépendantes et, qui comporte une triangulation de méthodes, dont en particulier des observations de consultations postnatales à domicile, les processus et les contenus participant à la construction de savoirs sont identifiés. Le regard porté, inspiré d'une anthropologie des habiletés, intéressée par les détails et les circonstances de l'activité, fait ressortir une grande diversité des sources -­‐communautaires, contextuelles, socioculturelles et personnelles-­‐ participant à l'interprétation que les praticiennes portent sur l'expérience de la naissance. Les sages-­‐femmes partagent une praxis et un ethos communautaires caractérisés par la temporalité centrée sur les besoins et la tonalité affective de leur accompagnement. La situation écologique de leur activité, exercée au domicile des familles, dévoile en particulier comment la naissance s'inscrit dans la vie et ses contraintes et est parfois entachée d'une souffrance sociale et de ses expressions multiples. Pour répondre aux détresses conséquentes, les praticiennes, prises dans les aléas de fonctionnement du réseau interprofessionnel, en partie impuissantes, sortent de l'obstétrique ordinaire et réinventent leur rôle au quotidien, tout en questionnant ses nouvelles limites. Au final, la mise en miroir des savoirs issus de l'EBM et de l'expérience, détaille la dimension non standardisable de l'accompagnement, intervenant notamment dans les situations de souffrance sociale, et qui consiste en une forme de lutte impensée contre les inégalités d'accès aux prestations du système socio-­‐sanitaire. -- From a concern about the implications of Evidence-­‐Based Medicine (EBM) on the evolution of care around birth, this thesis firstly questions what is at stake along the development of this social movement, using a literature review and a content analysis of EBM productions. EBM has been developed to address recurrent issues met by medicine, among which a disparity of practices and an inequality of access to adequate care, but has nevertheless been the target of critics from the social sciences. This model of knowledge-­‐making favors quantitative methods in research, in particular the Randomized Controlled Trial and, consequently, tends to dismiss knowledge made by health professionals through their practice. The core of the thesis hence consists of an exploration of these discredited expressions of knowledge-­‐making and also questions the implication of their dismissal for the care of women and families around birth. The ensuing fieldwork enquires about processes and elements of content which participate to the knowledge-­‐making of community midwives, in particular during postnatal home visits. The interpretation, inspired by anthropologists dedicated to the study of skills and human knowledge-­‐making, stresses the importance of details and circumstances framing practice, thus highlighting a great diversity of sources and processes used for the understanding of birth and care by midwives. These practitioners share a common praxis and ethos built through legitimate participation in their association and, expressed through a temporality driven by families' needs and through the expression of different signs of affection towards families. The ecological setting of their activity, performed at the home of families, shows how the experience of birth is entangled with larger circumstances of life itself and is sometimes rooted in social suffering. To respond to the subsequent distress of women and families, midwives deal with the sometimes whimsical functioning of the interprofessional network, experiment some powerlessness and thus recreate their practice while questioning the new boundaries of their role. Finally, the confrontation of two forms of knowledge-­‐making, through the model of EBM on one hand and situated practice on the other hand, highlights the dimension of midwives' care which cannot be standardized. These contingent responses to social suffering, made of loneliness, poverty, or violence, form an implicit struggle against the inequal access to services provided by the social and health system

Preschool literacy and reading performance in primary school

A literacia pré-escolar tem recebido uma crescente atenção. Neste estudo, participaram 70 crianças que iniciaram o 1.º ano de escolaridade no ano letivo 2009/10 e que, na educação pré-escolar, frequentaram três instituições com abordagens diferenciadas de leitura e de escrita. O estudo inclui quatro medidas repetidas no tempo nas áreas da fonologia, reconhecimento de letras, palavras e velocidade de leitura. Os resultados sugerem que a abordagem específica à leitura na educação pré-escolar condiciona o desempenho da leitura na instrução primária. Contudo, essa influência parece ser atenuada com o tempo. Por outro lado, verificou-se que sujeitos que receberam instrução direta de leitura em idade pré-escolar (mas não treino fonológico) obtêm resultados significativamente superiores em tarefas fonológicas aos de sujeitos que receberam treino fonológico prolongado (mas não de leitura).The debate regarding kindergarten literacy has received increasing attention and social visibility. In this study, participants are 70 children who attended first grade in 2009/2010. Participants attended three kindergartens with unique approaches to reading. A four wave repeated measure design was conducted to investigate the growth of the children in phonological awareness, letter recognition, word recognition, and reading speed. Results suggest that the approach towards reading and writing in kindergarten affects children's performance in grades 1 and 2 of elementary school. This influence, however, seems to fade over time. Moreover, results show that children who received formal reading instruction in kindergarten, perform significantly better in phonological tasks than children who received direct and extended phonological instruction.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Levetiracetam circulating concentrations and response in status epilepticus.

Intravenous levetiracetam (LEV) is broadly used in the treatment of status epilepticus (SE). A loading dose is usually infused, aiming to reach quickly the range of plasma concentrations considered as therapeutic (12-46 mg/l). The aim of the study was to evaluate the response to LEV in SE, correlated exposure assessed by plasma concentration monitoring, as well as calculated exposure parameters. We retrospectively analyzed a SE registry, including patients since 2015 with at least one available LEV plasma level measured less than 36 h after loading. A Bayesian maximum likelihood approach based on a population pharmacokinetic model was used to estimate LEV exposure parameters. We compared plasma levels and pharmacokinetics parameter estimates between responders and nonresponders. Therapeutic response was defined as SE cessation within 24 h following LEV introduction without a need for additional antiepileptic drug (AED). We included 29 patients (45 plasma levels). Variability was salient in LEV loading doses (ranging between 17 and 38 mg/kg) and monitoring practice. There was no difference in median plasma concentrations (19.5 versus 21.5 mg/l; p = 0.71), median estimated LEV exposure (25.8 versus 37.0 mg/l; p = 0.61), peak (30.4 versus 41.5 mg/l; p = 0.36), or residual levels after loading dose (14.4 versus 20.5 mg/l; p = 0.07) between responders and nonresponders. Levetiracetam exposure does not seem to differ significantly between responders and nonresponders; greater exposure was not associated with better outcome. Loading doses of 30 mg/kg seem, however, appropriate to quickly reach the target exposure level. The short LEV half-life makes standardized sampling measurement necessary to obtain directly interpretable LEV levels

Neandertal and Denisovan DNA from Pleistocene sediments.

Although a rich record of Pleistocene human-associated archaeological assemblages exists, the scarcity of hominin fossils often impedes the understanding of which hominins occupied a site. Using targeted enrichment of mitochondrial DNA we show that cave sediments represent a rich source of ancient mammalian DNA that often includes traces of hominin DNA, even at sites and in layers where no hominin remains have been discovered. By automation-assisted screening of numerous sediment samples we detect Neandertal DNA in eight archaeological layers from four caves in Eurasia. In Denisova Cave we retrieved Denisovan DNA in a Middle Pleistocene layer near the bottom of the stratigraphy. Our work opens the possibility to detect the presence of hominin groups at sites and in areas where no skeletal remains are found

Formulating 'principles of procedure' for the foreign language classroom: A framework for process model language curricula

This article aims to apply Stenhouse's process model of curriculum to foreign language (FL) education, a model which is characterized by enacting principles of procedure which are specific to the discipline which the school subject belongs to. Rather than to replace or dissolve current approaches to FL teaching and curriculum development, this article seeks to improve and enrich communicative and task-based orientations with an additional criterion for assessing the educational worth of the tasks through which these orientations are developed. Unlike the objectives and competences models, principles of procedure provide an intrinsic justification of school curriculum by enacting the epistemological structure of any given area of knowledge in the educational process. Accordingly, the article will first justify the need to come up with a process model of curriculum for FL education which is built around such principles; then, it will formulate a basic framework that reflects the logical structure, concepts and epistemological perspectives of the language studies, as a first step to allowing these to enter the FL classroom and orient the teaching conducted in it; finally, it will present three tasks whose design was inspired by the abovementioned framework, and which were put into practice with Primary education English as a Foreign Language learners during the 2013 2014 and 2014 2015 academic years

Homeschooling and the criticism of school: hybridisms and educational (dis)continuities

Desde os anos 1960, o homeschooling apresenta dinâmicas de crescimento atualizadas nos diagnósticos da crise do capitalismo e dos sistemas educativos. Por ser praticado por famílias próximas do progressismo libertário, do cristianismo conservador ou de outras inspirações axiológicas, a abordagem investigativa presente neste texto pressupôs romper com uma visão unívoca e alheia à sua diversidade e aos diferentes graus de (in)formalidade dos quotidianos educativos de crianças e de jovens que caracterizam este fenómeno educativo. Procura-se captar as especificidades do ensino doméstico (ED) em Portugal e a sua crescente expressão social e educacional e reflete-se sobre os sentidos das aprendizagens que ele encerra. Conclui-se que o ED parece ser contrário aos horizontes formativos da criança segundo o interesse da sociedade, sendo omisso sobre o seu papel na emancipação dos sujeitos. Confrontam-se a escola e o seu modo de funcionamento a partir do racional do ED, à procura de novas epistemologias e de novas linhas de pesquisa.Since the 1960s, homeschooling has shown growth dynamics updated by the diagnosis of the crisis of capitalism and of educational systems. Because it is practiced by families close to libertarian progressivism, conservative Christianity, or other axiological inspirations, this paper’s approach sought to break with a univocal conception alien to its diversity and to the different degrees of (in)formality of the children’s and young people’s educational daily lives inherent to this educational practice. Therefore, this paper seeks to understand the specificities of Portuguese homeschooling and its increasing social and educational expression, and to reflect on the meanings of the learning it entails. Being unclear about its role on the emancipation of the subjects, homeschooling seems to be contrary to the educational horizons of the child according to the interests of the whole society. This paper confronts school and its way of functioning with the homeschooling rationale in order to search for new epistemologies and new lines of research.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Online peer assessment in higher education: a systematic review of literature in educational practices

Neste artigo procedemos a uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre Online Peer Assessment (OPA) no Ensino Superior, mediadas por Tecnologias Digitais de Informação e Comunicação (TIC). Identificamos suas características, centrais e opcionais e mapeamos exemplos práticos (procedimentos e TIC) de OPA que poderão ser transversais, adaptáveis e aplicáveis em diversas unidades curriculares e regimes educacionais. Os resultados apontam para a utilização da OPA como uma estratégia que potencia a “avaliação para a aprendizagem”. Os referenciais teóricos subjacentes, os métodos de avaliação e os tipos de TIC utilizadas indicam seu direcionamento para um maior envolvimento e responsabilidade do aluno na sua aprendizagem. Evidenciamos na literatura que se busca desenvolver essas competências, dando ao aluno oportunidades com alguma regularidade para autoavaliar-se e avaliar seus pares por meio de feedback construtivo. Há também evidências de que dar ou produzir feedback é mais benéfico para a aprendizagem do que apenas recebê-lo, como também é cognitivamente mais exigente e envolve os alunos de forma mais ativa e os direciona ao pensamento crítico e a processos metacognitivos. A partir dos resultados alcançados, consideramos que a OPA, enquanto ferramenta cognitiva, contribui para a construção do conhecimento e para a reflexão sobre a aprendizagem. Um desafio que se coloca diz respeito ao desenvolvimento criativo com foco na diversificação e na inovação das práticas de avaliação no sentido de potenciar aprendizagens e resultados acadêmicos, em atenção às necessidades de aprendizagem que se manifestam frente às expectativas da educação atual e futura e às exigências da sociedade.In this research a systematic review of literature about Online Peer Assessment (OPA) in higher education, mediated by Information and Communication Technology (ICT), was carried out. Optional and central characteristics and its practices (procedures and ICT) were identified and mapping. These procedures and practices may be transversal, adaptable and applied in several curriculum units and educational regimes. The results point to the use of OPA as a strategy that enhances “assessment for learning”. The theoretical framework, the methods of assessment and the kinds of ICT used indicate directions for greater involvement and responsibility from the part of the student in his/her learning. Theoretical framework identifies the need to develop students’ skills, providing them with opportunities for self-assessment and peer assessment on a regular basis through constructive feedback. There is also evidence that to give or receive feedback is more beneficial for learning than just receiving it. It is also cognitively more demanding and directs the students to critical thinking and metacognitive processes. From the results obtained, OPA is seen as a cognitive tool, contributing to the building of knowledge and to reflection about learning. Issues for further reflection are also identified such as the creative development of assessment methods with a focus on diversity and innovation in order to enhance students’ learning and academic results, taking into account their learning needs in face of the expectations of current and future education and the demands of society.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), PortugalFundos Nacionais através da FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) e cofinanciado pelo Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) através do COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) com a referência POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio