Artistic manifestations as a mean of connection to the world outside the cloister: mural paintings in the Monastery of São Bento de Cástris

S. Bento de Cástris Monastery was the first extramural monastic community in the town of Évora and the first Cistercian female community in southern Portugal. In the 16th century, as in other monasteries, its regular life underwent an intense reformation, because one of the main goals of the Ecumenical Council of Trent – held between 1545 and 1563 – was the regularization of monastic communities. Together with a spiritual renovation, influences of the Counter-reformation and of the Baroque culture were felt in the monastery artistic production (e.g. gilded woodwork, tiles, liturgical furniture, vestments, and frescoes). Mural paintings were particularly present in the cloistered spaces that were only accessible to the nuns (Refectory, High Choir, and Infirmary). Even today these spaces are not easely accessible for security reasons. The aim of this paper is to provide an insight view of the paintings and of the religious and cultural context on which they were produce

Aiming high, falling short: the Least Developed Country (LDC) category at 40

Why have 94% of LDCs not escaped poverty during the last four decades? This paper analyses the motivation behind the UN decision to establish the LDC category in 1971. The reviewed literature highlights the conflicting interests of the actors involved. It provides a historical account of the creation of the category and an international political economy analysis of that process. Based on this literature, I argue that the initial LDC identification process - which set a precedent for future LDC categorizations - was manipulated in order to generate a reduced list of small and economically and politically insignificant countries. Contrary to the LDC official narrative, this list served the interests of both donors (by undermining the UN's implicit effort to normalize international assistance) and other non-LDC developing countries (disturbed by the creation of a positive discrimination within the group, favoring the most disadvantaged among them). As a result of this manipulation, considerably less development-promoting efforts have been demanded from donors, which has, in turn, not significantly distressed the interests of other non-LDC developing countries. --LDCs,aid,trade,preferential treatment,graduation

On higher order fully periodic boundary value problems

In this paper we present sufficient conditions for the existence of periodic solutions of some higher order fully differential equation where the nonlinear part verifies a Nagumotype growth condition. A new type of lower and upper solutions, eventually non-ordered, allows us to obtain, not only the existence, but also some qualitative properties on the solution. The last section contains two examples to stress the application to both cases of n odd and n even

Good teaching by removing barriers to learning: Bruner’s contributions

Bruner's theoretical framework is based on the idea that learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon existing knowledge and they are active learners. He introduced the ideas of readiness for learning and spiral curriculum and believed that any subject can be taught at any stage of development in a way that fit the child's cognitive abilities (Bruner, 1977). He also advocates the use of discovery learning based on problem solving and exploration of alternatives. Teachers should then provide problematic situations to students and encourage them to understand several aspects

A CHECK-LIST OF FOSSIL CHONDRICHTHYES FROM BRIELAS (LANGHIAN, PORTUGAL)

Located in a slope of the Costa de Caparica motorway, in the peninsula of Setúbal, West Portugal, the outcrop of Brielas stand out as one of the best Miocene sections of the Lower Tagus Basin to collect a great diversity of fossil Chondrichthyes, which are cartilaginous fishes also known as selachians. The first mention regarding this outcrop was made by Antunes and Jonet (1970), in a study focused on the characterization of Serravalian to Tortonian shark fossil forms of Lisbon. The sediments present in Brielas can be correlated with the geological units Vc, VIa and VIIa traditionally used for the Miocene of Lisbon (Cotter in Dollfus et al., 1903-1904). The samples studied were taken from the unit Vc, with approximately four meters thick and characterized by sandy-silt banks, intercalated with fossiliferous biocalcarenites. Through 87Sr/86Sr dating (H. Elderfield) of a Pectinid shell it was determined that the Vc unit has an age of approximately 14 ± 0,4Ma (Antunes et al., 1999), and integrates the depositional sequence S1 (Antunes et al., 2000). The planktonic foraminifera association found by Legoinha (2001) portrays the unit Vc as part of the biozone N9, correlative of the Langhian. The present study aims to contribute to the improvement of the knowledge about Brielas section and its rich marine selachian faun

Documental Survey of Project Prim’art - Portugal Rediscovering Mural Art: Historical and Scientific Study Of Archiepiscopal Évora

The importance of documentary research for art history studies in Cultural Heritage is unquestionable to ascertain the date of a masterpiece, confirmation of authorship and acknowledgement or dismissal of its historical theories. Most of the research pertaining to paintings and painters has been conducted by art historians, but what kind of novel information can be obtained from the historians´ point of view? This was the main goal of the survey conducted into the lives of painters who have worked over 400 years ago in the town of Évora during the so-called “golden age” of mural paintings in Southern Portugal and described in this paper. Furthermore, this paper presents a brief overview of the methodology used and shows that it is possible to reconcile the computer language of today with the language of notaries and witnesses of the “De genere” inquiry process of the 16th century

Negotiating Transaction Cost Economics: Oliver Williamson and his audiences

The article studies the interaction between Oliver Williamson and his audiences in the construction of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). His attentiveness to the feedback from different groups has played a major role in the success of TCE. First we discuss briefly the relevance of rhetoric to the study of economics. Rhetoric stresses that economists talk not to a void, but to peers and lay people with their habits, interests, institutional conditionings and values. Using the toolbox of rhetoric we identify Williamson’s intended audiences. Next we discuss his lists of claimed antecedents and the changes made therein. We explore how those (changing) connections could possibly have incited different audiences. In what follows, we use citation data to delineate his actual readers. This helps compare intended and actual audiences as we close with a discussion of Williamson’s ability to modify his intended reader and widen the audience of TCE in the social sciences.

Avaliação da qualidade das escolas alentejanas: o desafio da auto-avaliação

A avaliação da qualidade das organizações escolares está cada vez mais presente na agenda política, constituindo-se como uma prática fundamental tendente à elevação dos processos e dos resultados a níveis de excelência. Confrontadas com a necessidade de darem resposta à avaliação externa por parte dos serviços desconcentrados do Ministério da Educação, as escolas confrontam-se com o desafio de desenvolverem as suas capacidades de auto-regulação e melhoria, concretizável através duma prática sistémica,sistemática e participada de avaliação interna e externa dos processos e dos resultados, orientada para garantir a sustentabilidade do progresso. Se, por um lado, governos e comunidade científica reconhecem que a avaliação de escolas constitui um dos meios privilegiados para garantir a qualidade da educação Azevedo, 2006), por outro, os discursos científicos e os normativos denunciam a ausência de uma avaliação rigorosa da qualidade da educação escolar. Nesta comunicação, partimos da análise dos relatórios da Avaliação Externa das Escolas realizadas no Alentejo no quadriénio 2006/2010 para proceder a uma reflexão centrada nos domínios e factores em que estas apresentaram maior debilidade. Uma vez contextualizado o surgimento e a evolução das práticas e modelos de avaliação da qualidade nas organizações escolares, procuraremos, a partir da discussão de perspectivas teóricas e da reflexão sobre experiências vividas na avaliação de escolas alentejanas, problematizar os desafios com que se defrontam os órgãos de gestão das escolas neste domínio e equacionar modalidades de acção facilitadoras de uma resposta de excelência aos desafios de auto-regulação da qualidade nas escolas

Introdução

As mudanças educativas que visam ter incidência real na vida da escola, terão de ser geradas a partir do seu interior, a comissão da acompanhamento do Projeto TurmaMais, através dos representantes da Escola Secundária Rainha Santa Isabel de EstremozI e do Centro de Investigação em Educação e Psicologia da Universidade de Évora (CIEPEU), têm desenvolvido a sua acção no sentido de capacitar as escolas para a mudança e melhoria, incidindo nas dimensões organizacional e pedagógica com o objetivo de implicar os professores na (re)construção de uma nova cultura de escola, sustentada na análise reflexiva dos processos de organização e gestão e das práticas em sala de aula

A ciência experimental no jardim-de-infância

Na comunidade científica existe consenso na ideia de que o modo como os indivíduos se relacionam com a ciência está relacionado com as atitudes e valores relativamente à ciência desenvolvidos nos primeiros anos de escolaridade. Considerando que a educação científica e as actividades experimentais devem começar o mais cedo possível e sabendo que estas não são prática corrente nos jardins-de-infância pareceu-nos oportuno abordar a problemática das actividades experimentais na educação pré-escolar. As Orientações Curriculares para a Educação Pré-Escolar (1997) advogam uma abordagem integradora das três áreas de conteúdo (“Conhecimento do Mundo”, “Expressão e Comunicação” e “Formação Pessoal e Social”). Através das expressões a criança explora as possibilidades e limitações do seu corpo, as relações com o espaço e com os objectos; as capacidades manipulativas; no domínio da linguagem, desenvolve o vocabulário e a capacidade de comunicação oral e escrita, no domínio da matemática, desenvolve o sentido da precisão e do rigor, as capacidades de classificação, seriação, medição e cálculo; o pensamento lógico-matemático quando se estabelecem relações de causa-efeito. A área de Formação Pessoal e Social proporciona oportunidades da criança se situar na relação consigo própria, com os outros e com o meio físico, favorecendo a aquisição de espírito crítico e a interiorização de valores espirituais, estéticos, morais e cívicos, essenciais para a formação de cidadãos autónomos, conscientes, participativos e solidários. A educação para a cidadania pressupõe conhecimentos e atitudes que poderão ser abordados em temas transversais que se relacionam directamente com o Conhecimento do Mundo, tais como: a educação para a saúde, a educação ambiental, a educação para a prevenção de acidentes, a educação do consumidor, a educação multicultural