Guidance and education,an analysis of young peoples’ discontinuous school pathways: the guidance-oriented approach of educational institutions

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This article presents results of an investigation that explored the school pathways of young Argentine unskilled workers without a...     

Making a difference in poor communities: relations among actors in Mexican schools

Even in marginalized towns it is possible to find school communities that have developed relationships that encourage the construction of institutional cultures and management structures prone to superior academic performance compared to others within the same context. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project conducted in 8 towns and 16 schools in Mexico. The analytical framework is based on Kenneth Gergen’s social constructionism. The paper highlights the role of the school’s principal in the construction of relationships in the school community and the build-up of practices leading to shared meaning and goals. The desire and ability of the principal to promote dialogue and provide spaces for it are central, as well as her or his ability to interpret and translate the needs of parents and community, and the systemic norms from the Ministry of Education, to the reality of the community and the parents.     

Gendered family lives through the eyes of young people: diversity,permanence and change of gender representations in Portugal

This article examines gender representations of family and parental roles among young people aged 11 to 14 years. It is based on the qualitative analysis of 792 essays written by Portuguese girls and boys attending compulsory education. The adolescents' texts express normative images and cultural representations about gender that are plural and indicative of several displacements and incongruences. When considering the most important representational patterns, both girls and boys emphasise what they conceive as a set of gaps between the culturally transmitted norms of gender equality and the concrete realities they observe in various daily circumstances, notably in the family, which is still marked by inequity and gendered dichotomised patterns.     

Longitudinal Relations Among Parents' Reactions to Children's Negative Emotions,Effortful Control,and Math Achievement in Early Elementary School

Panel mediation models and fixed‐effects models were used to explore longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions, children's effortful control (EC), and children's math achievement (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = .39 year) across kindergarten through second grade. Parents reported their reactions and children's EC. Math achievement was assessed with a standardized achievement test. First‐grade EC mediated the relation between parents' reactions at kindergarten and second‐grade math achievement, beyond stability in constructs across study years. Panel mediation model results suggested that socialization of EC may be one method of promoting math achievement in early school; however, when all omitted time‐invariant covariates of EC and math achievement were controlled, first‐grade EC no longer predicted second‐grade math achievement.     

Development of a virtual tool for learning basic organisation and planning in rural engineering projects

This paper presents a virtual lab for the contents of an Engineering project, for designing an agro-industrial building, which is also useful for a range of different transversal courses in Engineering sciences. The aims of this tool are to analyse the most important contents of a project-document (calculation, regulations, drawings and budgets), as well as their relationship with the activities which make up the work and the schedule. The design criteria we considered were: its online applications and their compatibility with Moodle; the inclusion of different learning approaches, such as exploratory learning and inquiry-based learning; its interactivity, and the use of multimedia elements for visualisation and direct analysis on material common to Engineering subjects. The students’ perceptions of the improvements brought by the virtual lab were analysed statistically through a series of questions over two academic years. The results of the questionnaires suggested that most of those who had used the e-learning tool valued positively its overall suitability for reaching the objectives in their subject as well as the way it improved the working methodology. The practical knowledge acquired by the students was also highly valued. In addition, the lack of constraints commonly related to field trips (expenses, time and complexity) illustrates the utility of self-access learning tools in key transversal disciplines such as Engineering projects.     

Assessment in the Evaluation of Self-Regulation as a Process

The role of assessment is central to the current work in the field of self-regulation research, to the conceptualizations derived from empirical work, and to the operationalisation of its concepts in individual and classroom implementations. The various instantiations of the concept of self-regulation, all presuppose a detailed accounting of many different components, with each of them being represented by a variety of proxy variables which can be measured to establish the appropriate level at which the individual or group in question is functioning or performing. A review of the literature reveals a very diverse set of models and assessment instruments, many attempting to establish constructs with serious definitional problems, and conceptual overlaps. It is necessary then to establish their validity and the exact nature of their participation, as well as a clear differentiation between them. The assessment instruments which have been used so far are equally diverse, addressing the demands of the various components of the self-regulation models used and the different aspects emphasized in the research, including socio-cultural, cognitive, and volitional aspects. It is essential, to study carefully the relationship between assessment and the elements of the self-regulation process. This careful analysis will lead to a refinement of the instruments used, to the development of appropriate assessment methodologies and strategies, and to a richer conceptualization of the self-regulatory process (SR) based on empirical assessment data to inform the theory and model construction.     

Are A-not-B errors caused by a belief about object location?

Eight- to 12-month-olds might make A-not-B errors, knowing the object is in B but searching at A because of ancillary (attention, inhibitory, or motor memory) deficits, or they might genuinely believe the object is in A (conceptual deficit). This study examined how diligently infants searched for a hidden object they never found. An object was placed in A twice, and then in B. In a different task the object was placed beside A twice, and then in B. Infants made more A-not-B errors in the former task, and perseverating infants searched diligently in A rather than in B. Infants seemed to believe the object was in A, suggesting that both a conceptual deficit and ancillary deficits account for A-not-B errors.     

Technical Rhetoricians and the Art of Configuring Images

Advances in computing technologies, growth of business involvement on the Web, and our culture's affinity for image-intensive communication have forced technical communicators to become more involved with making and using a wide variety of images in their compositions. Too often our theories about how to write and read images are limited to a functional view, which stresses objectivity, ignores interpretation, and sees design as preset layout formulae. Combining current graphic design theory with rhetoric's understanding of techne, I argue for a configural view of images that stresses their artificiality and cultural significance and articulates design in strategic terms.     

Nuclear power plants? Yes or no? Thank you! The argumentative use of tables and graphs / ¿Centrales nucleares? ¿Sí o no? ¡Gracias! El uso argumentativo de tablas y gráficas

Abstract

The present paper deals with how eleventh grade high school students and university undergraduate students studying environmental science use evidence to write an argumentative text. They were presented with a dilemma with four sets of data (two pro and two anti nuclear energy). Half the sample was given the data in graph format and the other half in table format. The four sets of data differed according to their complexity. We analysed the structure of argument, the use of the evidence (either provided or their own) according to the participants’ position on the dilemma, and the presence of confirmation bias. Our results show a good argumentative competence that does not seem to be affected either by the students’ educational level or data format. We observed an effect of the complexity of the data in relation to the participants’ position.     

Gender differences in social reputation and peer rejection at school / Diferencias de género en la reputación social y el rechazo entre iguales en la escuela

The objectives of this study are twofold: to see if gender differences in social reputation remain stable throughout schooling, and to analyse behavioural differences between boys and girls with rejected status. A sociometric test was carried out and the Allocation of Perceptive Attributes Method was applied to a sample of 777 students in the mid-cycle and upper-cycle of primary education (years three to six) and the first cycle of CSE (Compulsory Secondary Education). The results show that differences in social reputation remain stable throughout schooling, with the exception of a few trends. We also find that rejection in boys is characterized by behavioural attributes, while characteristics associated with rejection in girls seem to be more subtle. It is concluded that gender ought to be taken into account in the design and implementation of intervention programmes aimed at improving the social integration of students.