Bringing local voices into community revitalization: engaged communication research in Urban planning

The need to better engage low-income communities affected by revitalization of the built environment has been well documented in urban planning. Guided by communication infrastructure theory (CIT), this study presents a research project that made concerted efforts at engaging neighborhoods of Northeast Los Angeles that are experiencing rapid gentrification. The project was a partnership with a multi-sector collaborative working on the revitalization of the L.A. River and its surrounding communities. This paper specifically demonstrates how CIT's social ecological orientation was applied to seek input on L.A. River and community revitalization from storytelling networks made up of residents, small businesses, and local media. We also examine the impact of this engaged research on the organizational partners of the collaborative, and their views on community engagement in revitalization. Lastly, we discuss how the lessons learned broadly speak to future opportunities and challenges that aim for communicative planning approaches to urban revitalization.     

Investigating the double-deficit hypothesis of developmental dyslexia in an orthography of intermediate depth

The present study aimed to investigate the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) in an orthography of intermediate depth. Eighty-five European Portuguese-speaking children with developmental dyslexia, aged 7 to 12, were tested on measures of phonological awareness (PA), naming speed (NS), reading, and spelling. The results indicated that PA and NS were not significantly correlated, and that NS predicts reading fluency (but not reading accuracy and spelling) beyond what is accounted for by PA. Although the majority of the children with developmental dyslexia have double deficit (62.4%), some children have a single phonological deficit (24.7%) or a single NS deficit (8.2%). Children with a double deficit were not more impaired in reading fluency, reading accuracy, and spelling than both single-deficit subtypes. In conclusion, the findings of the present study are partially consistent with the DDH and provide evidence for the multifactorial model of developmental dyslexia. Implications of the DDH for an orthography of intermediate depth are emphasized.

     

Characteristics of Successful Collaborations to Produce Educated Software Engineering Professionals

Currently, a large gap exists between the number of open software engineering positions and the number of qualified software engineers to fill those positions. The Industry/University (I/U) subgroup of the Working Group on Software Engineering Education and Training (WGSEET) is investigating active collaborations between companies and universities in which non-software professionals and practitioners without formal software education are reeducated to become software engineers. This paper describes the current status of work performed by the I/U subgroup in the investigation of reeducation collaborations. It is our goal to identify the common characteristics of successful collaborations in order to provide guidance to universities and companies when constructing a collaborative program, as well as to promote future collaborations. In this paper, we report on the current activity of the I/U subgroup, describe the features of successful collaborations identified so far in our research, and provide some conclusions as to the usefulness of such collaborations.     

Aplicación a la escuela de la psicología genética: La pedagogía operatoria

RESUMEN

El sistema de enseñanza actual contribuye a provocar una escisión mental entre los conocimientos teóricos y su conexión con la realidad. La Pedagogía Operatoria, resultado de la experiencia práctica y de las reflexiones teóricas, intenta unir ambos aspectos. Tras analizar los resultados de los sistemas de enseñanza actuales puede afirmarse que todos sus esfuerzos van dirigidos a que el niño desarrolle la capacidad de reproducir conocimientos ya elaborados, y no a desarrollar la facultad de elaborar conocimientos. Se propone como alternativa el aprendizaje operatorio, que supone la construcción o elaboración del conocimiento por parte del individuo. De esta forma es posible la generalización a otras situaciones similares. Si cambia el contexto operacional, la generalización no será inmediata y será necesaria una reconstrucción metodológica. El papel del maestro es fundamental en este tipo de aprendizaje, con la ayuda y orientación del psicólogo escolar.     

Social competence in internationally adopted and institutionalized children

A growing, sizable proportion of school children do not live in conventional family environments. Among these, internationally adopted children have gained increasing visibility in recent years. While other areas of their behavior have been widely explored, little is known about adopted children's social competence and their integration into peer groups. This study, involving 148 children between 4 and 8 years of age, compared 40 internationally adopted children with 50 children who were residing in institutions for children and 58 community comparison children. Social competence, problems with peers and friendship relationships were assessed using SSRS and SDQ, with both parents/caretakers and teachers as the informants. The sociometric status of the children and their friendship relationships were obtained through their teachers’ reports. The results showed statistically significant differences between children living in institutions (more problems with peers, poorer social skills and sociometric status) and those in family environments, whether adopted and non-adopted. Also, the results suggest some minor differences between the adopted and the comparison children, the former with greater visibility and the latter with higher sociometric status in the peer group.     

Lo individual y lo social en la construcción del conocimiento

Resumen

En este trabajo se explican los principales principios y teóricos y metodologicos de una línea de investigación que tiene como objetivo el estudio del papel del contexto en la adquisición de ciertos contenidos específicos.

Para ilustrar dicha opción se presentan dos tipos de trabajos. En primer lugar se describe la trayectoria seguida en los trabajos sobre adquisición del lenguaje matemático que hemos venido realizando en los últimos años. En segundo lugar se presentan algunos datos de un trabajo realizado recientemente y orientado a analizar el discurso y la práctica en el aula.     

Evaluación y crítica de los nuevos programas de E.G.B.

RESUMEN

El artículo analiza la reforma de los programas educativos para la EGB, que se considera que se limita a una modificación de los contenidos, sin haberse analizado las verdaderas causas del fracaso escolar. Asimismo es criticada la falta de relación entre las bases psicológicas piagetianas que se citan en el texto y la elección y secuenciación de los contenidos. Además, no se intenta conectar las diferentes áreas de aprendizaje, con lo que la educación que el niño recibirá será de una realidad segmentada.     

Ideas,interacción,ambiente educativo y desarrollo: informe preliminar

Resumen

Se presenta en este trabajo un informe preliminar de una investigación longitudinal en la que las ideas evolutivo-educativas son evaluadas a lo largo del tiempo y se ponen en relación con las interacciones que 70 parejas (maridos y esposas) desarrollan con sus hijos de alrededor de 22 meses en situaciones diversas; se analiza también la relación con la estructuración del entorno físico y social del hogar, así como con el desarrollo del niño. Se han encontrado relaciones positivas entre las diferentes clases de padres definidos por sus ideas y las variables dependientes examinadas (contenidos de las interacciones, estimulación del hogar, desarrollo del niño).     

Neuroscience and education: developmental study of a hemispherectomy case / Neurociencia y educación: estudio evolutivo de un caso de hemisferectomía

Abstract

Neuroscience, psychology, and education are disciplines with different philosophies and methods. Although an interdisciplinary approach is an opportunity to explore the educational implications of neuropsychological research, a good model for this dialogue does not exist yet. To promote the integration of these disciplines, which investigate human learning, the present work analyzes a hemispherectomy case study of a high-functioning young boy. Our goal is to present a neuropsychological vision about learning, the mind, and the influence of the context. This case is extremely rare, as not many individuals have been treated with this technique, and must be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, the presented case study, and other similar cases that we will mention, afford a unique angle from which we can explore neuroscientific principles such as: the brain is highly plastic, the brain is changed by experience and learning, and human brains are as unique as faces. The goal is to promote the integration of neuroscience, psychology and education with a note of attention to misconceptions and myths in a science not completely known yet.