27 research outputs found
Giving voice to problems faced by school leaders in Portugal
Worldwide, leadership stories are narratives of principals facing very different problems. The purpose of this study was to identify the current problems faced by Portuguese school principals, through these actors' voice. Nineteen public school Portuguese principals participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, coded, and categorised using Nvivo11 Pro. The analysis revealed that Portuguese principals have the same problems as their colleagues worldwide, but there are problems specifically related to the Portuguese educational system: problems from the process of school clustering and the leader-centred system of school management of this country. A framework to analyse the emerged problems and practical recommendations are proposed for school leaders, researchers, and policymakers to improve educational leadership
Portuguese principals' professional development needs and preferred learning methods
Due to the crucial role principals have on school outcomes, investing in their training is a cost-effective approach for schools' improvement. Research shows that principals attribute pertinence to their ongoing professional development. However, little research has been conducted on principals' training needs from their viewpoint, particularly in Portugal. Through individual interviews (n = 19) and a questionnaire (n = 117) to principals, we collected data that enable us to understand principals' perceptions on their training needs, focusing on learning areas, skills to be developed and learning methods. Results show considerable variability, reinforcing the relevance of tailored and contextualised approaches to professional development. Globally, principals request management skills and training opportunities that enable them to develop leadership skills (e.g., personal, interpersonal/socioemotional). Moreover, principals need training on instructional and distributed leadership practices. Collaborative and reflective methods are the ones principals prefer. Practical implications for the design of systematic professional development practices, in a lifelong perspective, are also discussed
Las playas de Menorca: naturaleza y distribución
La costa de Menorca acoge 114 sistemas de playa que representan el 9,9% de la línea de costa de Menorca. Ubicadas en un ambiente micromareal y expuestas a oleajes que raras veces superan los 3m de altura significante, la mayoría de las playas menorquinas se caracterizan por presentar arenas biogénicas de medias a gruesas, estando su distribución y naturaleza condicionadas, principalmente, por el contexto morfoestructural de la isla. Tanto en lo tocante a la configuración fisiográfica de las playas y su espacio de acomodación como a la naturaleza y tipología del sedimento. En general, la tasa de evolución media de las playas de Menorca no presenta grandes problemas y se caracteriza por la estabilidad, una estabilidad reforzada por el carácter protegido o semi-protegido de las ensenadas que acogen a las playas o porque las playas más expuestas coinciden las acumulaciones de cantos y bloques al pie de acantiladosThe Menorcan coast contains 114 beach systems, which occupy 9,9% of the coastline. Menorcan beaches are characterized by a microtidal and a moderate wave energy environment where, at annual scale, in few occasions significant wave heights attend values larger than 3m. Biogenic medium to coarse sands beaches are the dominant feature, although the island morphostructure controls both: the type of beach and the sediment nature and/or texture. In average, the shoreline change rate for the island beaches shows a stability scenario reinforced by the large number of embayed and pocket beaches along the Menorcan coast. The beaches exposed to the most energetic waves tend show cobble-boulder beaches at the cliff-toeVersión del edito
Las playas de Menorca: naturaleza y distribución
La costa de Menorca acoge 114 sistemas de playa que representan el 9,9% de la línea de costa de Menorca. Ubicadas en un ambiente micromareal y expuestas a oleajes que raras veces superan los 3m de altura significante, la mayoría de las playas menorquinas se caracterizan por presentar arenas biogénicas de medias a gruesas, estando su distribución y naturaleza condicionadas, principalmente, por el contexto morfoestructural de la isla. Tanto en lo tocante a la configuración fisiográfica de las playas y su espacio de acomodación como a la naturaleza y tipología del sedimento. En general, la tasa de evolución media de las playas de Menorca no presenta grandes problemas y se caracteriza por la estabilidad, una estabilidad reforzada por el carácter protegido o semi-protegido de las ensenadas que acogen a las playas o porque las playas más expuestas coinciden las acumulaciones de cantos y bloques al pie de acantiladosThe Menorcan coast contains 114 beach systems, which occupy 9,9% of the coastline. Menorcan beaches are characterized by a microtidal and a moderate wave energy environment where, at annual scale, in few occasions significant wave heights attend values larger than 3m. Biogenic medium to coarse sands beaches are the dominant feature, although the island morphostructure controls both: the type of beach and the sediment nature and/or texture. In average, the shoreline change rate for the island beaches shows a stability scenario reinforced by the large number of embayed and pocket beaches along the Menorcan coast. The beaches exposed to the most energetic waves tend show cobble-boulder beaches at the cliff-toeVersión del edito
Fixed and Drifting Buoys around the National Spanish Waters
Improving the knowledge of the seas
surrounding the Iberian Peninsula, Balearic
and Canary islands is one of the objectives for
the Spanish oceanographic community. For
that purpose, a number of fixed and drifting
buoys have been deployed in the last 25 years. Parameters measured included sea
surface temperature and salinity, ocean
current velocity, air temperature, humidity,
wave characteristic and wind velocity. The
national aim is to increase the quantity,
quality, coverage and timeliness of
atmospheric and oceanographic data. These
observations are used immediately to improve
forecast and therefore increase marine safety
Physical forcing and physical/biochemical variability of the Mediterranean Sea: a review of unresolved issues and directions for future research
This paper is the outcome of a workshop held in Rome in November 2011 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the POEM (Physical Oceanography of the Eastern Mediterranean) program. In the workshop discussions, a number of unresolved issues were identified for the physical and biogeochemical properties of the Mediterranean Sea as a whole, i.e., comprising the Western and Eastern sub-basins. Over the successive two years, the related ideas were discussed among the group of scientists who participated in the workshop and who have contributed to the writing of this paper.
Three major topics were identified, each of them being the object of a section divided into a number of different sub-sections, each addressing a specific physical, chemical or biological issue:
1. Assessment of basin-wide physical/biochemical properties, of their variability and interactions.
2. Relative importance of external forcing functions (wind stress, heat/moisture fluxes, forcing through straits) vs. internal variability.
3. Shelf/deep sea interactions and exchanges of physical/biogeochemical properties and how they affect the sub-basin circulation and property distribution.
Furthermore, a number of unresolved scientific/methodological issues were also identified and are reported in each sub-section after a short discussion of the present knowledge. They represent the collegial consensus of the scientists contributing to the paper. Naturally, the unresolved issues presented here constitute the choice of the authors and therefore they may not be exhaustive and/or complete. The overall goal is to stimulate a broader interdisciplinary discussion among the scientists of the Mediterranean oceanographic community, leading to enhanced collaborative efforts and exciting future discoveries
Challenges for sustained observing and forecasting systems in the Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean community represented in this paper is the result of more than 30
years of EU and nationally funded coordination, which has led to key contributions
in science concepts and operational initiatives. Together with the establishment of
operational services, the community has coordinated with universities, research centers,
research infrastructures and private companies to implement advanced multi-platform
and integrated observing and forecasting systems that facilitate the advancement of
operational services, scientific achievements and mission-oriented innovation. Thus, the
community can respond to societal challenges and stakeholders needs, developing
a variety of fit-for-purpose services such as the Copernicus Marine Service. The
combination of state-of-the-art observations and forecasting provides new opportunities
for downstream services in response to the needs of the heavily populated Mediterranean
coastal areas and to climate change. The challenge over the next decade is to
sustain ocean observations within the research community, to monitor the variability
at small scales, e.g., the mesoscale/submesoscale, to resolve the sub-basin/seasonal
and inter-annual variability in the circulation, and thus establish the decadal variability,
understand and correct the model-associated biases and to enhance model-data
integration and ensemble forecasting for uncertainty estimation. Better knowledge and
understanding of the level of Mediterranean variability will enable a subsequent evaluation
of the impacts and mitigation of the effect of human activities and climate change
on the biodiversity and the ecosystem, which will support environmental assessments
and decisions. Further challenges include extending the science-based added-value
products into societal relevant downstream services and engaging with communities to
build initiatives that will contribute to the 2030 Agenda and more specifically to SDG14
and the UN’s Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development, by this contributing
to bridge the science-policy gap. The Mediterranean observing and forecasting capacity
was built on the basis of community best practices in monitoring and modeling, and can
serve as a basis for the development of an integrated global ocean observing system
A scoping review of problems and challenges faced by school leaders (2003–2019)
The purpose of this scoping review is to analyse the literature concerning principals’ problems and
challenges, beginning in 2003 and ending in 2019. The research team conducted an extensive search to
locate relevant academic literature, comprising 17 years of research, and a total of 153 documents were
analysed.According to the findings,most of the documents (71%) correspond tothe last six years (2014–
2019), and most are studies from Anglo-Saxon countries (55%). The results point to eight main categories
related to thecomplex nature of the job (themanagement challenge, the complexity challenge and
the learning challenge), and interactions with different stakeholders (problems with educational
authorities and educational policy; the staff and teaching process; the students; the families and the school
community; and the society). Although the importance given to each category varies from one context to
another, problems concerning the complex nature of the job andwith the educational authorities and the
educational policy are the most recurrent. A significant increase in the number and complexity of
problems andchallenges throughout the timeswasnoticed,whichseemstoenhancetheneedfor changes
in educational policies and the careful design and implementation of leadership training programmes.N/
Portuguese principals' professional development needs and preferred learning methods
Due to the crucial role principals have on school outcomes, investing in their training is a cost-effective approach for schools' improvement. Research shows that principals attribute pertinence to their ongoing professional development. However, little research has been conducted on principals' training needs from their viewpoint, particularly in Portugal. Through individual interviews (n = 19) and a questionnaire (n = 117) to principals, we collected data that enable us to understand principals' perceptions on their training needs, focusing on learning areas, skills to be developed and learning methods. Results show considerable variability, reinforcing the relevance of tailored and contextualised approaches to professional development. Globally, principals request management skills and training opportunities that enable them to develop leadership skills (e.g., personal, interpersonal/socioemotional). Moreover, principals need training on instructional and distributed leadership practices. Collaborative and reflective methods are the ones principals prefer. Practical implications for the design of systematic professional development practices, in a lifelong perspective, are also discussed