Building bridges in special education: development of an instrument to evaluate the collaboration between regular and special education teachers

Collaboration between teachers of Regular Education and Special Education is a prerequisite for the implementation of an inclusive school. However, research and training in this area is scarce. In order to obtain reliable figures of reality, this study aims to present a measure that would allow assessing, from the perspective of teachers of regular education, the type and efficiency of collaboration of teachers of special education. Using the literature review, we tested a version with 244 Portuguese kindergarten teachers and teachers of regular and special education. The data allowed us to find an instrument with 21 items that accounts for 59.84% of the variance of the responses into two subscales: Functions of the special education teacher (alpha of .941, 12 items) and impact of the special education teacher (alpha .890, 9 items), with full alpha .861. These dimensions were not affected by gender or age, but there were some differences depending on the academic degree, with experience with children with special needs. The instrument, short and with closed answers revealed potential that should be explored in further studies on this important dimension of educational inclusion. Some suggestions are presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Percepciónes de los padres de niños con discapacidades sobre la inclusión: contribuciones para políticas de inclusión

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Percepciones de los maestros de la ensañaza sobre la inclusión: datos preliminares

Antecedentes: En la promoción de una Escuela Inclusiva, los maestros tienen un papel central en la gestión de los procesos y los recursos para satisfacer las necesidades específicas de los alumnos. Este cambio de paradigma se realizó en poco tiempo y sin seguimiento en materia de formación e investigación. Método: Esta investigación intenta comprender las percepciones de los maestros sobre la inclusión y los factores que parecen estar asociados con estas, usando el cuestionario My Thinking About Inclusion (Stoiber, Gettinger & Goetz, 1998), con 118 maestros. Resultados: Los resultados permiten concluir que no existen diferencias por género o nivel de educación, al igual que no existe una relación con la edad, calificaciones académicas o tiempo de servicio. Las correlaciones se encuentran sólo entre la formación continua en el ámbito de la educación especial y la percepción general sobre la inclusión y prácticas en el aula. Conclusiones: Los resultados sugieren importantes retos para la inclusión y necesidades de formación en el sentido de promover la colaboración, la gestión del tiempo y el involucramiento parentalBackground: In the promotion of an Inclusive School, teachers have a central role in the management of processes and resources to meet students‘ specific needs. This paradigm shift took place in a short period of time and without specific continuous training and research. Method: This research seeks to understand teachers‘ perceptions about inclusion and the factors that appear to be associated with these, using the questionnaire My Thinking About Inclusion (Stoiber, Gettinger & Goetz, 1998), with 118 teachers. Results: The results show no differences by gender or education level, as there is no relationship with age, academic qualifications or length of service. Correlations were found only between lifelong learning in the field of special education and general perceptions about inclusion and classroom practices. Conclusions: The results suggest significant challenges for inclusion and training needs to promote collaboration, time management and parental involvement.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The use of Web 2.0 tools: teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy

O presente estudo pretende analisar o papel das atitudes e do sentido de eficácia dos professores em relação à utilização das ferramentas da Web 2.0. Para isso, recorreu-se a uma amostra de 224 docentes a quem foram recolhidos dados sobre as características pessoais e profissionais, uso das TIC, a Escala de Auto-eficácia em Relação ao Computador (Sang et al., 009) e de Atitudes em Relação ao Computador (van Braak, 2001). Os resultados permitem concluir que a maioria dos docentes utiliza diariamente as TIC nas suas tarefas profissionais e pessoais e já utilizou ferramentas Web 2.0, sendo mais frequentes o youtube e os blogs. Os docentes de Educação Especial utilizam frequentemente estas ferramentas, sendo mais usados os softwares educativos. Os estudos inferenciais permitiram verificar diferenças nas atitudes e auto-eficácia em função de variáveis pessoais e profissionais. Os dados são discutidos e as sugestões para outros estudos apresentadas.This study aims to analyze the role of teachers’ attitudes and sense of efficacy towards the use Web 2.0 tools. To pursue that purpose, we used a sample of 224 teachers to whom were gathered data from their personal and professional characteristics, ITC use, a Teacher Computer Efficacy (Sang et al., 2009) and Attitudes Toward the Computer Scale (van Braak, 2001). Results allow us to conclude that most teachers used ICT in their professional and personal daily tasks, being the most used Web 2.0 tools the youtube and blogs. Special Education teachers frequently used these tools, being most used the educational software. Inferential studies allowed us to verify differences in attitudes and self-efficacy in terms of personal and professional variables. The data are discussed and suggestions for further studies presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Variation of existence and location of aquaporin 3 in relation to cryoresistance of ram spermatozoa

Introduction and objective: Osmotic changes during the process of freeze-thawing involve changes in the location of aquaporins (AQPs) in membrane domains of spermatozoa. Some AQPs, like aquaporin 3 (AQP3), are linked to sperm cryotolerance in the porcine species. Conspicuous individual variability exists between rams and their ejaculates, which may be classified as displaying good freezability (GFE) or poor freezability (PFE), depending on several endogenous and environmental factors. The present work aimed to examine whether differences in freezability could even involve changes in location and expression of AQP3 in ram spermatozoa. Methods: Thirty ejaculates from 10 rams (three of each) were evaluated and subsequently classified as GFE (n = 13) or PFE (n = 17) through a principal component analysis (PCA) and k-means cluster analysis. Spermatozoa were examined for the presence, abundance and distribution of AQP3 by western blot and immunocytochemistry, employing a commercial rabbit polyclonal antibody (AQP3 - ab125219). Results and discussion: Although AQP3 was found in the sperm acrosome, midpiece, principal and end piece of the tail in both fresh and after frozen-thawedsamples, its highest immunolabeling was found in the mid- and principal piece. In the GFE group, the expression of AQP3 in the mid- and principal piece was greater (P < 0.05) in frozen-thawed samples than in fresh specimens while such differences were not detected in the PFE group. Sperm cryotolerance relates to changes in AQP3 expression and thus AQP3 could be used as a biomarker for cryotolerance. Conclusion: A greater capacity of AQP3 localization in mid- and principal piece of the spermatozoa could be linked to an increase the osmo-adaptative capacity of ejaculates with better capacity to withstand freeze-thawing processes