Scale of attitudes of schoolchildren towards immigrant pupils

In the academic year 2004–2005, approximately 400,000 immigrant pupils were enrolled in Spanish schools and six-form colleges. The racial and ethnic diversity that Spanish society and schools present could be a source of new opportunities and social enrichment, for the national as well as the immigrant population. However, this contact between nationals and immigrants is not free of problems. School is one of the areas where attitudes towards different social groups begin to be formed, while at the same time being the main opportunity that our society has to create an environment of coexistence and attitudinal change. The first step to look at such a complex phenomenon in more detail is to have evaluation tools available that allow us to measure it. In this article we present the results referring to psychometric features, and we carry out a differential analysis of the Scale of attitudes of school-children towards immigrant pupils.     

Proyecto Mercurio: un instrumento institucional para impulsar la introducción de los medios audiovisuales en el currículo

No basta regalar la caña para formar un pescador ni el lápiz para enseñar a escribir. La introducción de la tecnología audiovisual, basada en medios más aparatosos que la lectoescritura, ha podido confundir medios y sistemas de representación, instrumento y código. La información precisa y de primera mano sobre el proyecto Mercurio del M.E.C. que se da en este artículo define un programa que va mucho más allá de los tradicionales objetivos de enseñar a utilizar los aparatos.     

Qué se puede hacer con lo audiovisual en la educación La imagen: un problema trivial con implicaciones básicas

Lo audiovisual está vinculado a dos grandes y graves problemas de la cultura y la educación actuales: la continua renovación en el proceso de estructurar los significados, y las nuevas vías que buscan niños y jóvenes para identificarse y situarse en el mundo, para construir el sentido. Se aboga desde ahí por una renovación profunda de toda la educación y no por la incorporación de un tópico más al diseño curricular.     

Teaching statistics in labor,social, juridical or economic studies

Statistics teaching should not be carried out in the same way for all kinds of university students. Instead, teaching statistics should take into account the different fields of study that students have chosen. For example, students of sciences or engineering have different interests and backgrounds compared to students of any social or juridical field. The authors address this latter group of students （social, juridical, labor or even economics）. The authors propose a direct approach： beginning with a real situation or supposition with real data. Questions of interest are explored and put into the language of statistics. To answer the questions, the necessary statistical methods are used. If needed, these methods are presented and explained at that time. Finally, the authors return to the beginning, to give an interpretation of the results. The approach takes into account the students＇ levels and the kind of studies or professional orientation of these students.     

The role of students’ questions in aligning teaching,learning and assessment: a case study from undergraduate sciences

The quality of teaching and learning has been one of the major concerns of foundation chemistry disciplines for science and engineering undergraduates at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Student‐centred approaches are being continuously developed, exploring ways of stimulating active and meaningful student learning by encouraging questioning by students. The development of questioning competences is regarded as fundamental, particularly in science education. In order to reinforce adequate alignment with teaching strategies, a new assessment method was implemented during the academic year of 2004–2005. This study is mainly aimed at exploring the use and integration of students’ questions as alternative assessment tools. Written formative and summative problem‐based cases were designed for these purposes. The questions raised by students during those assignments were analysed according to their cognitive level, relationship and orientation to the problem posed, herein considered to be quality indicators for learners’ questions. The findings suggest a deep engagement of students within these situations along the year, supporting the use of these alternative assessment tools as a way of fostering students’ questioning capability. Results also reveal that it is possible to achieve, with students’ questions placed at the centre of these processes, alignment between teaching, learning and assessment.     

Biomedical and health informatics in Peru: significance for public health

Introduction

This issue of the feature column reports on developments in Peru on the use of information and communication technologies to improve public health. The authors describe how cell phones and hand‐held devices are being deployed to monitor diseases. Recent concerns about the spread of swine flu highlight the importance of robust public health systems in developing countries. 1 Jeannete Murphy

Reference

1 Swine flu could be a disaster for weak public health systems in developing countries . British Journal of Healthcare Computing and Information Management , 30 April 2009. http://www.bjhcim.co.uk/news/2009/n904046.htm (accessed 18/05/09).