Preventing and reducing school violence: development of a Student and Family Office—a pilot study

This study introduces a pilot project—the creation of a Student and Family Office to reduce school violence—and suggests the benefits of the combined use of different strategies to decrease peer aggression and victimisation. The programme was implemented over a two-and-a-half-year period and included 132 Portuguese adolescents attending the third cycle of basic education. A considerable number of problematic situations, previously reported by students, changed after SFO intervention.. The results suggest that the local (universal and multimodal) intervention programme contributed to a decrease in harassment, coercion and aggressiveness, victimisation and reactive overt aggression rates, and also promoted the social and personal skills essential for successful interpersonal dynamics and peer conflict interventions. The implications for practice are discussed.     

Responsible research and innovation indicators for science education assessment: how to measure the impact?

ABSTRACT

The emerging paradigm of responsible research and innovation (RRI) in the European Commission policy discourse identifies science education as a key agenda for better equipping students with skills and knowledge to tackle complex societal challenges and foster active citizenship in democratic societies. The operationalisation of this broad approach in science education demands, however, the identification of assessment frameworks able to grasp the complexity of RRI process requirements and learning outcomes within science education practice. This article aims to shed light over the application of the RRI approach in science education by proposing a RRI-based analytical framework for science education assessment. We use such framework to review a sample of empirical studies of science education assessments and critically analyse it under the lenses of RRI criteria. As a result, we identify a set of 86 key RRI assessment indicators in science education related to RRI values, transversal competences and experiential and cognitive aspects of learning. We argue that looking at science education through the lenses of RRI can potentially contribute to the integration of metacognitive skills, emotional aspects and procedural dimensions within impact assessments so as to address the complexity of learning.     

The development of referential communication: Improving message accuracy by coordinating private speech with peer questioning

In this study, we examine the development of referential communicative regulation, incorporating the Vygotskian notion of private speech. From this perspective, private speech may serve a regulatory role when the child speaker is focused on what to say when speaking to others. In a longitudinal study carried out with 10 pairs of children with a mean age of 4.5, 6.5, and 8.5 years, we analyzed the relationship between the capacity of the child in the speaker role to modify messages, increasing their informative quality, the presence of private speech embedded in the messages, and the emergence of prior questions by the child in the listener role aimed at clarifying some aspect of the message. We found that the number of modified messages, the mean frequency of private speech in the messages, and the number of peer's questions all increase with age. Only in the case of the modified messages by the speaker did we find a triple interaction among age, use of private speech, and the presence of peer's questions. At 8.5 years, the presence of peer's questions and subsequent use of private speech appeared together for the majority of the modified messages. This was not the case at the ages 4.5 or 6.5. In line with Vygotsky's theses, private speech would play an important role to allow communicators to reflect on the quality of their communicative utterances, and to modify and improve them accordingly. In this process, the capacity to improve message accuracy by coordinating private speech with peer questioning clearly emerges with age.     

Learning from human cadaveric prosections: Examining anxiety in speech therapy students

Human anatomy education often utilizes the essential practices of cadaver dissection and examination of prosected specimens. However, these exposures to human cadavers and confronting death can be stressful and anxiety‐inducing for students. This study aims to understand the attitudes, reactions, fears, and states of anxiety that speech therapy students experience in the dissection room. To that end, a before‐and‐after cross‐sectional analysis was conducted with speech therapy students undertaking a dissection course for the first time. An anonymous questionnaire was administered before and after the exercise to understand students' feelings and emotions. State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires (STAI‐S and STAI‐T) were used to evaluate anxiety levels. The results of the study revealed that baseline anxiety levels measured using the STAI‐T remained stable and unchanged during the dissection room experience (P > 0.05). Levels of emotional anxiety measured using the STAI‐S decreased, from 15.3 to 11.1 points (P < 0.05). In the initial phase of the study, before any contact with the dissection room environment, 17% of students experienced anxiety, and this rate remained unchanged by end of the session (P > 0.05). A total of 63.4% of students described having thoughts about life and death. After the session, 100% of students recommended the dissection exercise, giving it a mean score of 9.1/10 points. Anatomy is an important subject for students in the health sciences, and dissection and prosection exercises frequently involve a series of uncomfortable and stressful experiences. Experiences in the dissection room may challenge some students' emotional equilibria. However, students consider the exercise to be very useful in their education and recommend it. Anat Sci Educ 10: 487–494. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Developing Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Online Technical Communication Programs: Emerging Frameworks at University of Texas at El Paso

ABSTRACT

This article addresses emerging calls for online education and cross-cultural technical communication training, specifically by outlining and reporting on the development and sustainability of two online programs: the graduate online technical and professional writing certificate and the emerging undergraduate bilingual professional writing certificate at the University of Texas at El Paso. Data presented suggest cultural and linguistic diversity should be embedded and streamlined across all aspects of online technical communication programs.     

Quantitative Reasoning in Environmental Science: A learning progression

The ability of middle and high school students to reason quantitatively within the context of environmental science was investigated. A quantitative reasoning (QR) learning progression was created with three progress variables: quantification act, quantitative interpretation, and quantitative modeling. An iterative research design was used as it is the standard method for the development of learning progressions. The learning progression was informed by interviews of 39 middle and high school students from 5 schools in the Western USA using QR assessments. To inform the lower anchor, intermediate levels, and upper anchor of achievement for the QR learning progression, an extensive review of the literature on QR was conducted. A learning progression framework was then hypothesized. To confirm the framework, three QR assessments within the context of environmental literacy were constructed. The interviews were conducted using these QR assessments. The results indicated that students do not actively engage in quantitative discourse without prompting and display a low level of QR ability. There were no consistent increases on the QR learning progression either across grade levels or across scales of micro/atomic, macro, and landscape.     

La integración del niño sordo en la escuela normal

RESUMEN

El niño con un déficit sensorial se encuentra con dos dificultades: el déficit en sí mismo y el hándicap social, que son las dificultades con las que se encuentra a la hora de su integración social. Una opción educativa válida no sólo debe incidir en el déficit, sino también en el hándicap social simultáneamente. Se realiza un programa de integración en la escuela con niños sordos incidiendo en dos aspectos: la adquisición del lenguaje oral y la interacción con el mundo de los oyentes. Se trabaja en el ámbito escolar y familiar. Aparte del esperado progreso en el desarrollo del lenguaje, se dio un paso adelante en la socialización y en la aceptación de los niños sordos por parte de los oyentes.     

Social representations of the development of intelligence, parental values and parenting styles: a theoretical model for analysis

Within the theoretical framework of social representations theory, a substantial body of literature has advocated and shown that, as interpretative systems and forms of knowledge concurring in the construction of a social reality, social representations are guides for action, influencing behaviours and social relations. Based on this assumption, the primary goal of the current study was to investigate the relationship between social representations of the development of intelligence and parenting styles while also examining the role played by the values that parents desire for their children. The sample included 466 subjects with educational responsibilities (117 fathers, 227 mothers and 122 mother–teachers). Participants completed a self-administered survey on their representations of the development of intelligence, values desired for their children and parenting styles. A theoretical model which examined the relations among these variables was tested. Structural equation modelling procedures indicated, as hypothesised, that dimensions which emphasise the role of parents and the importance of constant accompaniment of children for the development of intelligence influence the authoritative parenting style, while dimensions which outline the role of school and teachers relate to authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. Additionally, although in some cases values were seen both to be determined by social representations and to influence parenting styles, the meditational hypothesis of values was not fully confirmed. Overall, the results obtained suggest that social representations, styles and values tend to build up a potentially significant organisation for parental activities. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings in research and educational intervention are discussed.     

Sexuality and human reproduction: a study of scientific knowledge,behaviours and beliefs of Portuguese future elementary school teachers

Sex education in Portugal has become a right and an obligation starting in the first years of school. However, despite being required by legislation, this is not easy to achieve, partly because of weaknesses in the training of teachers, which need to be identified. In this study, data were collected about the knowledge, behaviours and beliefs of 148 teacher trainees of elementary education (6–10 years old) from two Portuguese public higher education institutions. The topic of sexuality and human reproduction had been covered by almost all of them during their initial training and was considered important by most of them. Nevertheless, about 85% asserted they are not confident enough to teach this topic to small children in a classroom and committed scientific errors about physiological‐anatomical aspects of the human body. All subjects felt that there is a lack of specific didactic materials, which does not help to overcome those obstacles. It was also possible to identify in these future teachers risky sexual practices resulting, in part, from their beliefs, which could have implications about the way the topic will be approached in the classroom. These findings show how essential it is for training institutions to pay greater attention to the education of future elementary school teachers in this area.     

On the use of extended TAM to assess students' acceptance and intent to use third‐generation learning management systems

Service‐oriented e‐learning platforms can be considered as a third generation of learning management systems (LMSs). As opposed to the previous generations, consisting of ad hoc solutions and traditional LMS, this new technology contemplates e‐learning systems as services that can be integrated into different learning scenarios. This paper shows that the flexibility of these systems allows building personal learning environments and proposes the use of an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess the acceptance and intention to use a third generation of LMS. To fit and validate the service‐oriented e‐learning platforms acceptance model, structural equation modeling and path analysis have been implemented. The results point out that the intention to use this third‐generation LMS is determined by the gadgets and container design, both of which are structural elements of this technology. Finally, it is also shown that previous experience does not determine the use intention of this technology.