Trends in stem and career and technical education in the United States of America

This paper offers a portrait of educational trends affecting the practice of career and technical education in the United States of America. It argues that through a combination of governmental agenda, accountability discourse on legislation, and pressure from state governments and businesses alike, teachers have been having to make evident how their technical courses contribute to the achievement of academic parameters in mathematics. The interplay between the need for legitimation of their programs and for maintaining the authority over their courses has led teachers to focus on convincing authorities that their technical courses already teach a great amount of mathematics and science. Conversation with the socio-political strand of mathematics education literature is suggested as a catalyst for future research and action

The views of lay numeracy instructors in a freirean literacy program

In this study we examine the view of a group of lay instructors in a non-formal, adult literacy program about what it is to teach mathematics based on a Freirean conception of education. The instructors exhibited great clarity about Freire’s pedagogy and issues about critical or dialectical numeracy that have been raised before in the literature. Some of them pose contradictions, such as a focus in mathematics versus an interdisciplinary approach to education; the interplay between technical competence and political commitment; and using contextualizations of mathematics for a critical reading of the world while at the same time attending to students’ educational aspirations

No meu bairro, na nossa cidade a ocupar a liberdade: práticas criativas para uma cidadania na infância

Mestrado em Ciências da Educação - Educação Social e Intervenção ComunitáriaÀ luz da educação para a liberdade, para a criatividade e para o exercício da participação infantil desenvolveu-se um projeto de investigação-ação participativa com um grupo de crianças do Bairro de São Tomé, no Porto, na perspetiva de lhes dar protagonismo, voz e visibilidade social. Neste sentido, procurou-se identificar e compreender alguns dos contextos e as principais dificuldades com que as crianças do Bairro se deparam. Partindo do estudo do fenómeno do crescimento urbano e das consequências que este teve, nomeadamente o surgimento dos guetos sociais e da pobreza urbana, tentouse compreender o problema das desigualdades e da exclusão social. A base foi olhar para a Cidade e o Bairro como espaços de investigação e intervenção, abandonados e retirados às suas comunidades. De modo a incentivar o pensamento crítico, criativo e a ação participativa junto de um grupo de crianças da Escola Básica do 1º Ciclo do Bairro de São Tomé, no âmbito do presente projeto foram promovidas atividades de caráter educativo, colaborativo e construtivo. Durante o processo de investigação, o grupo participante foi desafiado a participar em jogos pedagógicos, em debates/conversas informais, na criação de desenhos, representações teatrais e fotográficas sobre a sua realidade. O propósito foi promover contextos de investigação em que a criação, a ludicidade, a partilha, o diálogo e a participação proporcionassem a produção de conhecimento, a descoberta e a escuta das crianças, tão importante para pôr em prática a sua cidadania. A concretização de uma Manifestação pública e pacífica das crianças teve como objetivo conscientizar a comunidade para a importância da Cidadania na Infância e do Direito de Participação das crianças nas decisões que as envolvem e na apresentação de propostas de melhoria do meio onde vivem – a sua Escola, o seu Bairro, a sua Cidade.In the light of education for freedom, for creativity and for the practice of child participation, was developed a participatory action-research project with a group of children of São Tomé Social Housing in Porto, in the perspective of giving them leadership, voice and social visibility. In this sense, we tried to identify and understand some of the context and the main difficulties that the Social Housing’s Children face. Starting from the study of the phenomenon of the urban growth and the consequences that this has had, including the emergence of social ghettos and urban poverty, we tried to understand the problem of inequality and social exclusion. The base was looking at the City and the Social Housing as spaces of investigation and intervention, abandoned and taken of their communities. In order to encourage critical and creative thinking and participatory action of a group of children from the Primary School of São Tomé Social Housing, under this project were promoted educational, collaborative and constructive activities. During the research process, the participant group was challenged to participate in educational games, discussions / informal conversations, creating drawings, theatrical and photographic representations about his reality. The purpose was to promote research contexts in which creations, playfulness, sharing, dialogue and participation could provide the production of knowledge, discovery and listening to the children, so important to implement their citizenship. The execution of a public and peaceful Children’s Manifestation aimed to raise community awareness to the importance of Children’s Citizenship and the Right of Children's participation in decisions that involve them and the presentation of proposals for the improvement of the environment they live in - their school, their neighborhood, their city

Prática de ensino supervisionado em educação pré-escolar e 1º ciclo do ensino básico: cooperando e aprendendo com crianças

Este relatório reflete a dimensão investigativa realizada no âmbito da Prática de Ensino Supervisionado em Educação Pré-Escolar e à Prática de Ensino Supervisionado em Ensino do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Neste relatório, evidencia-se uma reflexão da prática educativa que teve como finalidade compreender de que maneira se pode potenciar a cooperação entre as crianças, partindo das suas narrativas, e como a cooperação contribui para o desenvolvimento das crianças. Para tal, destacam-se assim alguns objetivos que estiveram presentes na dimensão investigativa, tais como: conhecer e compreender representações e atitudes de crianças sobre trabalhar a pares e em grupo e intervir, organizando ambientes de aprendizagem, participativos e ativos, tendo em conta representações e atitudes de crianças face ao trabalho a pares, em pequenos grupos e em grande grupo. Assim sendo, a principal finalidade desta investigação-ação nos contextos onde realizei as minhas Práticas de Ensino Supervisionado foi promover ambientes de cooperação, partindo de narrativas das crianças, de modo a compreender os processos vantajosos da utilização desta ação no desenvolvimento das crianças, construindo para saberes profissionais, através da minha própria ação, registada, analisada e fundamentada; ABSTRAT: Supervised Teaching Practice in Pre-school and Primary Education: Cooperating and Learning with Children This report reflects the research investigative dimension out in the framework of the Supervised Teaching Practice in Pre-School Education and Supervised Teaching Practice of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education. In this report, it is evident the reflection of the educational practice whose objective was to understand how the cooperation between the children can be improved, based on their narratives and what contributions of this cooperation for the development of the children. To that end, we highlight some objectives that were present in the investigative dimension, such as: knowing and understanding children's representations and attitudes about working in pairs and groups and interacting, organizing learning, participatory and active environments, considering representations and attitudes of children to work in pairs, in small groups and in a large group. Thus, the main objective of this action research in the contexts in which I performed my Supervised Teaching Practices was to promote cooperative environments based on children's narratives to understand the advantageous processes of using this action in child development, building professional knowledge through my own recorded, analyzed and substantiated

Potencial de biomassa florestal: cartografia e avaliação de metodologias

A determinação de biomassa das espécies florestais tem elevada importância, não só para fins comerciais, como também por razões relativas a avaliação da produtividade do ecossistema, fluxos de energia e ciclos de nutrientes, especialmente para quantificar a contribuição das florestas no ciclo global do carbono. Esta dissertação centra-se em três objectivos principais: i) quantificar a biomassa disponível no distrito de Évora para as espécies Quercus sp. e Pinus sp.; ii) estudar a distribuição geográfica desta biomassa e iii) analisar os parâmetros controladores do crescimento destas espécies considerando: profundidade do solo, orientação solar, topografia, pedregosidade, litologia e declive. A recolha de dados foi realizada em parcelas de amostragem distanciadas 2 km e em povoamentos de Quercus suber, Quercus rotundifolia, Pinus pinea e Pinus pinaster. A Medida de Rasch foi utilizado com o objectivo de tentar interpretar a relação entre a resposta destas variáveis e a produção de biomassa revelando-se um instrumento eficaz; ### Abstract: The determination of biomass of this species is highly important not only for business purposes but also for reasons related to evaluating the productivity of the ecosystem, energy flows and nutrient cycles, especially to quantify the contribution of forests in global carbon cycle. This dissertation focuses on three main objectives: i) to quantify the biomass available in the district of Évora for the species Quercus sp. and Pinus sp. ii) study the geographic distribution of biomass and iii) examine the parameters controlling the growth of these species considered: soil depth, solar orientation, topography, stoniness, slope, and lithology. Data collection was carried out in sample plots spaced 2 km and stands of Quercus suber, Quercus rotundifolia, Pinus pinea and Pinus pinaster. The Rasch measurement was used for the purpose of trying to interpret the relationship between the response of these variables and biomass production out to be an effective tool

A Representation for Whole Numbers and Their Factors

Abstract In this paper I will describe models for whole numbers and their divisors using an adaptation of Hasse diagrams. The model gives us a unique visual representation for each whole number, because they are constructed based on the prime factorization of the numbers. Since every number has a unique prime factorization, the model for each number will be unique. The models are easy to make in the classroom and yield beautiful constructions. But most importantly, since they are a visual representation of important relations between a number and its factors, many theorems can be "rediscovered" by students when they investigate their constructions

Satisfação no trabalho em Portugal: Uma análise longitudinal com recurso a latent growth curve models

A satisfação no trabalho tem sido uma temática bastante explorada. A sua centralidade faz com que muitas tenham sido as tentativas de a prever e explicar. Os resultados vão variando de acordo com a metodologia estatística empregue e também com os dados utilizados. Neste estudo serão usados os dados portugueses (entre 1998 e 2001) do European Community Household Panel, um inquérito longitudinal com uma periodicidade anual. As variáveis utilizadas correspondem a percepções de satisfação com o trabalho de uma forma geral e de satisfação com dimensões específicas do trabalho: salário, segurança, horários, tipo, número de horas e condições de trabalho (dimensões medidas através de variáveis ordinais). Serão considerados apenas os indivíduos em idade activa, que trabalham a tempo inteiro e que responderam validamente às questões de satisfação consideradas nas 8 waves do ECHP disponíveis, o que resulta numa amostra final de 2477 indivíduos. Propõe-se a estimação de modelos de trajectória latente como uma nova via de modelação da satisfação no trabalho, tendo em conta a natureza das variáveis de partida, beneficiando das vantagens que esta metodologia apresenta relativamente às mais comummente utilizadas. Pretende-se não só descrever como também explicar as trajectórias de satisfação. Percebe-se ainda que diferentes abordagens ao conceito de satisfação no trabalho – modelação do indicador genérico de satisfação e dos indicadores de satisfação com as várias facetas do trabalho (através de LGCM de segunda ordem) – resultam em estimativas diferenciadas. Todos os modelos foram estimados em MPlus 5 e, sempre que possível, em LISREL 8.80.Job satisfaction has been, for quite some time, an area of research fairly surveyed. The substantial number of attempts of comprehension, and even prediction, of the phenomenon shows its importance on modern societies. However, the results differ according to the data and to the statistical methodology employed. The current study uses the Portuguese data (concerning the years between 1998 and 2001) from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), a representative longitudinal survey conducted on an annual basis. The selected variables are overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with specific job facets: earnings; security; type of work; number of hours; working times and working conditions (all ordinal outcomes). The respondents aged between 16 and 64 years old, who work full-time and have valid answers to the satisfaction questions of interest on all ECHP waves are considered (N=2477). The current work proposes the estimation of latent growth curve models as a new way of modelling job satisfaction, accounting for the categorical nature of the outcomes, in order to benefit from the advantages that this method shows in comparison with the commonly used methodologies. The aim is to describe and to explain job satisfaction growth. Different approaches to the concept of job satisfaction – considering overall job satisfaction or job satisfaction in its specific facets (using a second order LGCM) – result in different parameter estimates. All models are estimated using MPlus 5 and, when possible, LISREL 8.80

An Understanding of Socially-Constructed Knowledge in the Context of Traditional Game-Playing as Theorems-in-Action

In this article the authors describe data from an ethnographical study about the playing of Uril, a mancala-type game played in the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde.  They interpret observed game strategies as theorems-in-actions, constructed socially and throughout a long period of time, influenced by socially shared norms and beliefs, as well as by knowledge construction at the individual level.  The authors also use knowledge obtained from a computer-generated database to explore a sequence of game moves observed ethnographically, verifying its robustness and the necessary conditions that make it a winning strategy.  The authors use evidence from ethnographical data to argue that those necessary conditions are tacitly assumed by the players observed

Ferulic acid exerts antidepressant-like effect in the tail suspension test in mice: Evidence for the involvement of the serotonergic system

AbstractFerulic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid) is a phenolic compound present in several plants with claimed beneficial effects in prevention and treatment of disorders linked to oxidative stress and inflammation. In this study, we aimed to verify the possible antidepressant-like effect of acute oral administration of ferulic acid in the forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) in mice. Additionally, the mechanisms involved in the antidepressant-like action and the effects of the association of ferulic acid with the antidepressants fluoxetine, paroxetine, and sertraline in the TST were investigated. Ferulic acid produced an antidepressant-like effect in the FST and TST (0.01–10mg/kg, p.o.), without accompanying changes in ambulation. The pretreatment of mice with WAY100635 (0.1mg/kg, s.c., a selective 5-HT1A receptor antagonist) or ketanserin (5mg/kg, i.p., a 5-HT2A receptor antagonist) was able to reverse the anti-immobility effect of ferulic acid (0.01mg/kg, p.o.) in the TST. The combination of fluoxetine (5mg/kg, p.o.), paroxetine (0.1mg/kg, p.o.) or sertraline (1mg/kg, p.o.) with a sub-effective dose of ferulic acid (0.001mg/kg, p.o.) produced a synergistic antidepressant-like effect in the TST, without causing hyperlocomotion in the open-field test. Taken together, these results demonstrate that ferulic acid exerts antidepressant-like effect in the FST and TST in mice through modulation of the serotonergic system