Fenómenos transicionales en el acceso al lenguaje

Resumen

Se ha estudiado durante 6 meses el desarrollo de 4 sujetos, que tenían 7, 12, 18 y 21 meses de edad al comienzo de la investigación. Para ello se ha grabado en video a los sujetos mensualmente, durante una hora, en su hogar. También se le han aplicado pruebas de las escalas de desarrollo de Uzgiris y Hunt (1975) para determinar su desarrollo cognitivo.

Sobre los 9 meses los niños ya son capaces de comunicar algunas intenciones, mediante gestos y vocalizaciones. Las funciones que cubren son progresivamente sustituidas y ampliadas por producciones que ya son lingüísticas. La eclosión del lenguaje se manifiesta después de que los niños realizan avances importantes en su desarrollo cognitivo, en el establecimiento de relaciones entre producciones fonéticas y significados intencionales, y en sus conductas comunicativas. Se concluye que, si bien la aparición del lenguaje es preparada por estas formas transicionales y logros anteriores, ninguna de ellas aisladamente permite explicar el empleo sistemático de palabras, que supone un nivel cualitativamente nuevo en la competencia de los niños, resultado de una síntesis creadora de logros precedentes.     

Being highly internationalised strengthens your reputation: an empirical investigation of top higher education institutions

In an educational context characterised by globalisation, reputation constitutes a crucial issue for today’s higher education institutions. Internationalisation of higher education is often seen as a potential response to globalisation and, consequently, higher education has become increasingly internationalised during the past decade. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between internationalisation and reputation in top higher education institutions. Results reveal that internationalisation positively influences a university’s reputation but also moderates the relationship between the institution’s reputation and its institutional performance with regard to research quality, teaching quality and graduate employability.     

Huelga Schools in Houston: Community-Based Education in the Struggle for Legal Recognition, 1970

This essay provides an overview of the huelga schools established in Houston, Texas, in 1970. For 2 years, from 1970 to 1972, the Mexican American community opposed the Houston Independent School District’s plan to integrate the schools by pairing so-called White Mexican Americans with African American students. While they protested this decision, Mexican Americans also established huelga or strike schools in order to provide their children with basic skills in education and to explain the meaning and significance of their political actions. This is the history of the huelga schools established in the 1st months of this struggle.     

Teacher perspectives on partnerships on families of children with autism

The success of students with disabilities in school and community largely relies on productive family professional partnerships (FPPs). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) recognises the importance of family collaboration to student success by mandating that parents be involved in the Individualised Education Plan (IEP) process as full team members. While several previous studies examined the perspectives of parents of children with disabilities on partnerships with educators, less research exists on teacher perspectives on family professional collaborations. Additionally, there are even fewer studies that focus on teacher perspectives on partnerships with parents of children with autism, a disability category which continues to increase in prevalence. The present study contributes to the literature by examining teacher perspectives on factors that build and hinder positive partnerships with families of children with autism. Researchers surveyed 25 Special Education teachers and conducted additional individual interviews and open-ended questionnaires to examine teachers' first-hand experiences. Findings identified four common themes that educators felt helped and hindered collaborative relationships with families. Study results may lead to the development of specific family professional collaboration strategies that can be implemented and discussed in school districts, teacher trainings, pre-service teacher education programs and family workshops.     

Exito/fracaso escolar al final de la EGB: relaciones con 21 variables

Resumen

Dos grupos extremos en cuanto a rendimiento escolar son comparados respecto a 21 variables reunidas en un cuestionario. Cada grupo está formado por 36 estudiantes varones de 7.° y 8.° de EGB de un colegio estatal de Madrid con una población de 1.360 estudiantes. Los sujetos de un grupo obtuvieron en el año anterior tres o más sobresalientes y los del otro grupo tres o más suspensos cada uno. Las variables fueron seleccionadas en sesiones de discusión sobre el fracaso escolar por los profesores del centro y cubren distintos aspectos de la ocupación del tiempo libre, realización de las tareas escolares, dificultades con los estudios, valoración de los mismos, nivel cultural de los padres, relaciones familiares y relaciones en el colegio.

Las variables que mayor interés presentan, tanto por su gran efecto discriminativo como por la plausibilidad de una explicación causal, son, en primer lugar, las dificultades de atención-concentración, seguidas por el nivel educativo de los padres, sin que las relaciones de esta última con otras variables ayuden a entender el modo cómo influye en el éxito/fracaso escolar.

Como principales variables concomitantes, interactuando con el éxito/fracaso, aparecen: una mayor dedicación a actividades extraacadémicas, mayor afición por la lectura y una mayor valoración de la importancia del estudio para la vida futura entre los estudiantes sobresalientes.

Sorprendentemente, ambos grupos no muestran diferencias en diez variables, entre las que destacan el número de horas dedicadas al estudio, la satisfacción con los profesores y las relaciones familiares.     

Should I use co-assessment in higher education? Pros and cons from teachers and students’ perspectives

Co-assessment is a type of participatory assessment in which the teacher and student jointly discuss, negotiate and assess the student’s task or performance. Although the literature on co-assessment is scarce, some authors highlight the benefits for students of participating in co-assessment in higher education, including learning, improved communication, and greater assessment literacy. This study has a double objective: on the one hand, to analyse the strengths and limitations perceived by students participating in co-assessment practices; on the other hand, to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats perceived by professors participating in the experience. The study was developed in 8 class groups with the participation of 470 students and 4 teachers. The qualitative analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaires and focus groups indicates that the students acknowledged several strengths, among which learning from mistakes was prominent. Students also noted some limitations, particularly the lack of adjusted scoring. Professors offered another perspective that complemented the vision of their students, noting that co-assessment presents opportunities as well as risks that may jeopardise its implementation.     

Cinema Demand in Spain: A Cointegration Analysis

In this paper we explain the decline in cinema attendance in Spain since 1968. We use a cointegration analysis to estimate an individual demand function for cinema, with annual data and in terms of average attendance per inhabitant. We find that cinema is a luxury good and that its demand is elastic with respect to its price. We also show that television acts as a deterrent with regard to cinema attendance. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effectiveness during ball screens in elite basketball games

Ball screens are one of the most frequently used tactical behaviour in elite basketball games. The aim of the present study was to identify their predictors of success related to time, space, players, and tasks performed. The sample was composed of 818 ball screens corresponding to 20 close games (mean differences in score of 3.1 ± 0.8 points) randomly selected from the playoff games of the Spanish Basketball League (2008–2011). Classification tree analysis (CHAID) was used to analyse which variable or combination of variables, better predicts effectiveness during ball screens. The main results allowed identifying interactions with dribbler actions after the screen and the orientation of the screen on the ball. The results showed no interaction with game quarter and quarter minute temporal-related variables in both analyses. The present findings allow improving coaches’ strategic plans that involve selecting the most appropriate offensive approach when performing ball screens.     

User experience of government documents: A framework for informing design decisions

People still use documents in many everyday government processes. From tax payments to passport requests, citizens have to interact with low-interactivity information artifacts such as reports, maps and datasets, among many others. Despite efforts to improve information delivery in the public sector, effective information usage remains a critical topic of action and research. The user experience of government documents has rarely been assessed, despite them being regularly published and frequently used. Considering this, the two following research questions arise: 1) How can government documents be classified (or grouped) in terms of user experience? 2) How can the user experience of government documents be monitored over time in order to inform design decisions? Working with a public agency in Chile, we develop and test a classification and monitoring framework based on two online surveys (N?=?338 and N?=?298). We then propose a framework for understanding user experience of government documents in these three dimensions: interaction goal, volume of information and ease of understanding. Using a graphical representation to classify user experience provides greater visibility of the current status of information produced by a public organization. Furthermore, by monitoring the user experience of a government document at different times, organizations can understand the effect of their design decisions and improve their service quality by implementing user-centered processes.