Students' Perceptions of their Rights in Portugal

The present study analyses young Portuguese students’perceptions of their rights at school and at home. The sample consisted of 294 male and female students, in Year 7 to Year 9, from several regions in the country. The assessment instrument used was the ‘Children’s Rights Scale’ (Hart, 1993; Hart et al., 1996) and results were related to a number of other questions regarding the following independent variables: (1) school variables (school year, school achievement, teacher’s support, violence at school); (2) family variables (parental authority, family cohesion, parents’ education); (3) personal variables (age, gender, professional interests). Significant relations were found between the students’ perceptions of their rights and these independent variables. In general, Portuguese students declare that their rights exist and are very important. Students who have a greater degree of personal limitations, or who live in worse school or family contexts, are the ones who indicate less importance and perceive less existence of rights at school and at home. The study gives directions to efforts to strengthen projects for the promotion of students’ rights by including training programs for teachers and parents, in a close net connection among school, family and significant social agents.This study was financed by JNICT/FCT and by the PRAXIS XXI Program for the period from 1997 to 2002 and developed at the Center for Research in Education of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (CIEFCUL)R. Ernesto Vasconcelos, Edif. C1–2º, 1749–016 Lisbon, Portugal

Promotion of rights and behavioural adequacy of students in school: Effects of a Transactional Analysis Programme

This study aimed to investigate the effects of teachers’ use of an Transactional Analysis Intervention Programme, on rights and behavioural adequacy of students in school. Specific formation was given to a group of teachers interested in the study, in which 8th grade students participated. The following evaluation instruments were used: the Children’s Rights Scale (Hart et al., 1996), and the School Disruption Professed by Students Scale(Veiga, 1996). These scales were applied before and after the intervention. The intervention lasted around 18 school weeks. The Transactional Analysis Intervention Programme was applied to the experimental group, and the control group continued to be the object of the type of teacher-student relationship practiced so far. The analysis of the results revealed statistically significant differences in the experimental group between the pretest and posttest situation, while this did not occur in the control group. The differences between the control group and the experimental group went from non-significant, in the pretest situation, to statistically significant and favorable for the experimental group, in the posttest situation. The study carried out stresses benefits for the students of the experimental group, who increase their rights and mprove their behavioural adequacy in school

Proposal to the PISA of a new scale of Students’ Engagement in School

Este artigo foi também apresentado no WCES 2012-Barcelona.Problem Statement: The question of students’ engagement in schools has emerged as a powerful issue in educational context. The lack of assessment instruments, with studied psychometric characteristics, has constituted a problem. Purpose of Study: This study presents the elaboration of a new student engagement in school scale, including items of the "Engagement Scale" used in PISA 2000 and items in the "SES" adapted for Portugal (Veiga, Pavlovic, Garcia & Ochoa, 2010). Research Methods: The psychometric qualities — internal consistency and the external validity — were analyzed. The analysis allowed us to find a new scale that, surpassing the one-dimensionality of the scale of engagement used in PISA, has acceptable levels of reliability. In the study of external validity, the results in the "Student Engagement in School Scale, Version 2 (SES-V2)”, appeared partially related to the academic achievement across disciplines. Findings: The results permitted us to find that the SES-V2, besides going beyond the lack of scale items used in PISA 2000, presents psychometric qualities that can be used in research and psychoeducational practice, to assess the multidimensional students' engagement in school. Conclusions: The future use of the SES-V2 in the PISA studies is considered and proposed. This scale may be a useful opportunity for teachers, psychologists and other education professionals. Recommendations: to deepen the study of multidimensionality of students’ engagement in schools, including new items, as well as extending the external validity of the affective dimension of engagement, can constitute important fields of research

The Evolution of Ethnic Identity From Adolescence to Middle Adulthood: The Case of the Immigrant Second Generation

Through an analysis of qualitative interview and survey data, this study examines ethnic identity development from midadolescence to middle adulthood among a representative sample of immigrants’ children from Mexico, the Philippines, and other countries, who were followed for more than 20 years. Findings reveal that ethnic self-identity labels are more stable in adulthood than adolescence or the transition to adulthood, but the importance of ethnic identity diminishes, especially among those born abroad. Most prefer ethnic identity labels referencing their origin country, reflecting family ties and cultural attachments. However, some, mostly foreign-born, shift to ethnic self-identity labels exclusively related to their American experience, including panethnic labels in response to U.S. racialization. Only a few actively resist such labeling and claim nonhyphenated American identities. Overall, the findings reveal how diverse ethnic identity development patterns over the life course are shaped both by ancestral attachments and the imposition of existing U.S. racial structures

Theory of electron-plasmon coupling in semiconductors

The ability to manipulate plasmons is driving new developments in electronics, optics, sensing, energy, and medicine. Despite the massive momentum of experimental research in this direction, a predictive quantum-mechanical framework for describing electron-plasmon interactions in real materials is still missing. Here, starting from a many-body Green's function approach, we develop an ab initio approach for investigating electron-plasmon coupling in solids. As a first demonstration of this methodology, we show that electron-plasmon scattering is the primary mechanism for the cooling of hot carriers in doped silicon, it is key to explain measured electron mobilities at high doping, and it leads to a quantum zero-point renormalization of the band gap in agreement with experiment

Adolescents' vocational identity: adaptation of the Occupational Identity Scale (OIS)

The present study complements elements previously published (Veiga & Moura, 1999) about Melgosa’s (1987) Occupational Identity Scale (OIS), now adapted to the Portuguese population. The sample consisted of 547 7th-11th grade students of both sexes. The scale’s psychometric study included the factorial analysis of its main components with varimax rotation — which revealed four specific factors (diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, achievement) — and establishing reliability coefficients for different groups of students. Several relevant statistical elements are presented, such as the mean and standard deviation for different groups (school grade and sex). External validity, assessed through the relation between the results obtained on the Occupational Identity Scale and the scores obtained on the Dellas Identity Status Inventory Occupation Scale (previously adapted to Portugal) (Taveira & Campos, 1987), revealed high correlations. The elements presented were consistent with those of the original version, corroborate the elements of the previously mentioned work and highlight, now in broader and consistent manner, the qualities of the OIS scale in different subject groups, as well as its utility for research and for educational intervention