Effect of phonological training on reading and writing acquisition

The aim of our study was to determine the effect of training of phonological abilities upon the acquisition of reading and writing during the first year of primary school. An experimental design, with five groups of subjects matched by age, sex, IQ, phonological abilities and reading and writing level was used. Every group received twenty training sessions, over a period of six months. Four groups had different training procedures depending upon the type of task used (phoneme versus concept discrimination) and the way that the task was carried out (using or not using manipulative materials). The fifth group served as control. Post training measures were taken in reading, writing, and mathematics, besides the teacher's estimated scores, twice: immediately after the end of training sessions and two months later. Significant effects on both reading and writing measures were obtained for the groups trained on phonological activities using manipulative materials. The effects were reliable for the two tests. The theoretical implications of the results are discussed and their implications for educational practice are indicated.     

THE EUROPEANIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION: INTEGRATION AND DIVERSITY AS VIEWED FROM EASTERN EUROPE

The question asked by the authors is how best to build the common Europe of the Universities in the context, on one hand, of the establishment of the single market of the European Community countries and, on the other hand, the end of Communism in eastern Europe. That the universities of Europe as a whole will increasingly come together is a certainty; however, the process will be long and sometimes complicated. East and West need information on each other's universities and higher education systems, this for the myriad necessities of comparability and recognition. The West, in particular, needs a clear picture of what happened to eastern European universities during a period in excess of forty years during which they were very isolated. The authors illustrate many of the peculiarities of universities under communism with reference to the Romanian situation. However, the reader is cautioned that eastern Europeans themselves perceive as many differences among the universities of their various countries as similarities. Cooperation agreements, exchanges of teachers and of students, and other kinds of East‐West links will be established, and the result will be the greater affirmation of academic unity in diversity.     

Effective practices in leadership for social justice. Evolution of successful secondary school principalship in disadvantaged contexts

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the evolution of leadership for learning that has occurred in four secondary schools located in disadvantaged contexts in the province of Granada (Spain) over a period of 2 years, performing a comparative analysis on the values, qualities and strategies that characterize their principals during the academic years 2013–2014 and 2015–2016. The investigation uses case studies and conducts interviews with principals, teachers and education administrators. It is supported by the group-case method, as well as the longitudinal prospective method. The results show that only one of these principals has maintained a leadership aimed at learning and achievement of all students in the school, at the same time as students’ academic results have been improving. This paper concludes by providing information on values, qualities and strategies of successful leadership in disadvantaged contexts in Spain that distinguish them from other less successful leaders.     

Teaching writing to middle school students in Portugal and in Brazil: an exploratory study

Learning how to write is a challenging process, typically developed in schools. Teachers’ practices in teaching writing, however, have been under researched. The aim of this study was to survey a sample of teachers from Portugal (n = 96) and Brazil (n = 99) about their practices for and perceptions about writing instruction. Teachers reported on time devoted to student writing and the teaching of writing, on their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing, adaptations for less skilled writers, and their perceptions about writing and the teaching of writing. Findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of writing instruction in both countries. Teachers reported little time devoted for writing and the teaching of writing in their classes. The majority of the teachers rarely used practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing or applied explicit teaching methods for writing instruction. Both Portuguese and Brazilian teachers perceived writing as a shared responsibility. Brazilian teachers, however, agreed with this perception more strongly. Portuguese teachers’ perception of the importance of writing for students’ academic and professional success was higher than the perceptions held by Brazilian teachers. A positive correlation was found between teachers’ preparation to teach writing and their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Portuguese preschool teachers' beliefs about early literacy development

This work describes a questionnaire survey conducted in a county in central Portugal. The intention was to ascertain preschool teachers’ opinions about early literacy development and its place in preschool education, and to investigate the skills and knowledge seen by teachers as important for early reading and writing development. The results show that, overall, teachers regard preschool education as important for future literacy acquisition, but the majority do not think that early literacy activities should always be part of the preschool curriculum. Concerning the skills that they perceive as important in terms of literacy development, greater emphasis was attributed to verbal, perceptual (auditory and visual) and fine motor skills. Letter/sound knowledge and phonological awareness were considered the least important. Various inferences are drawn, and recommendations for future policy decisions are offered.     

La integración de la representación audiovisual en la Reforma Educativa

La palabra y la imagen son los grandes medios para la comunicación pedagógica. En este artículo se analizan la perspectiva y posibilidades que la LOGSE (cuyos presupuestos, se afirma, apuestan casi al cien por cien por el medio verbal) ofrece para contar con la comunicación audiovisual en la educación.     

A model‐based approach to science exhibition evaluation: A case study in a Brazilian astronomy museum

A models and modelling approach was adopted to investigate the educational potential of a science museum exhibition. It focused on patterns of relationship between the teaching models proposed by designers and students models in regard to four exhibits concerning astronomical cycles. Student’s models were elicited by interviewing 21 pupils selected from among those who showed a change of their models between pre‐visit and post‐visit questionnaires. Four patterns of relationship were identified, ranging from low to high degrees of convergence between designers and students. Exhibits designed by fragmenting the phenomena (analytical approach) tend to promote less convergent patterns than exhibits that maintain the complexity of the phenomena (synthetic approach). We argue that the two approaches are complementary: without synthetic models visitors find it difficult to identify the phenomenon addressed by analytical models, while the latter may bring to visitors’ attention aspects that otherwise might be hidden by the complexity of synthetic models.