Formation des Enseignants et Petites Communautes Europeennes: finalités culturelles spécifiques?

A parity of prestige is fundamental to tomorrow's multi‐cultural, multilingual Europe. It is an obligation for all educational systems, whether large or small, sovereign or second‐tier, autonomous or struggling for independence.

This mini‐tour of Europe's small communities is dedicated to the promotion of this parity, and it takes teacher education as its entry‐point. A real first’ for the European Journal of Teacher Education, this introduction is dedicated to the examination of teacher‐education policies in those communities which history has marginalised in territory, in population or in legal status. Do they have specific characteristics? Are there ways in which they are interdependent?

This survey presents five case studies, most of them located in the centre of Europe (Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Ticino, the Orisons). But Europe offers many instances: Malta, Cyprus, Friesland, the German communities in Belgium and Denmark, Monaco, San Marino, Scotland, Ireland, the Basque countries, Catalonia, the south Tirol, the Swiss Jura, the Welsh, Bretons, Alsatians, Corsicans, etc.

Multi‐cultural Europe is theirs too, and this study invokes others which may contribute to the evolution of our simple, closed, national technosystems into European ecosystems which will be both complex and open.     

Engagement Project: elements for a reformulation of the Tutorial Action Plan of the Teacher Training degrees at the University of Barcelona / Proyecto Engagement: elementos para una reformulación del Plan de Acción Tutorial de los grados de maestro en la Universidad de Barcelona

As a teaching method, tutorials are fundamental to university education, and are underpinned by the following goals: to accompany students; to help them establish a clear training pathway; and to promote their academic achievement. Our proposal aims to introduce psychological aspects into the Tutorial Action Plan (TAP) which, while often left unattended, are closely related to academic achievement. Our objective is to identify the relation between the academic commitment of pre-service teachers (preschool education, primary education and double degree students) at the UB and stress and coping skills, academic motivation, achievement and self-efficacy, as well as the opinions of students and tutors on the resources used during TAP and potential improvements to it. This is a transversal prospective exploratory study, applying the following questionnaires: Academic commitment (UWESS-9); Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); Self-efficacy (NGSE); Motivation (MSLQ); and two ad hoc online questionnaires. In conclusion, we hope that the results of this study will help us reformulate the TAP of said degree programmes, improving personalized attention and the quality of the student tutorial system, which is one of the standards used to assess universities.     

Identifying high-functioning dyslexics: is self-report of early reading problems enough?

We used a questionnaire to identify university students with self-reported difficulties in reading acquisition during elementary school (self-report; n=31). The performance of the self-report group on standardized measures of word and non-word reading and fluency, passage comprehension and reading rate, and phonological awareness was compared to that of two other groups of university students: one with a recent diagnosis (diagnosed; n=20) and one with no self-reported reading acquisition problems (comparison group; n=33). The comparison group outperformed both groups with a history of reading difficulties (self-report and diagnosed) on almost all measures. The self-report and diagnosed groups performed similarly on most tasks, with the exception of untimed reading comprehension (better performance for diagnosed) and reading rate (better performance for self-report). The two recruitment methods likely sample from the same underlying population but identify individuals with different adaptive strategies.     

From study to work: methodological challenges of a graduate destination survey in the Western Cape,South Africa

Current literature proposes several strategies for improving response rates to student evaluation surveys. Graduate destination surveys pose the difficulty of tracing graduates years later when their contact details may have changed. This article discusses the methodology of one such a survey to maximise response rates. Compiling a sample frame with reliable contact details was most important, but may require using additional sources of information other than university records. In hindsight, graduates should have been contacted prior to the survey to introduce it and stress its importance, while email and postal reminders appeared to have a limited effect on non-respondents. Due to varying response rates between participating universities, online responses were augmented with a call centre administering the survey telephonically to non-respondents. Although overall differences between online and telephonic responses appeared to be small, certain question items may need to be treated with caution when conducting telephonic surveys.     

Convergence of Visions

The right for everyone to access “the promised land” of the InfoSociety is widely recognized. The “wiring of the universe” is now technically and financially possible. One should do it quickly in the respect of human values and rights, freedom of opinion, transparency and cultural diversity. However, in the context of communication developments in 1997, it is a multifacet issue of concern to all the countries. The cyberspace era brings many new challenges to the communications' academic curricula, professional practices, media owners and the research and development (R&D) of industries across the world. The emerging virtual communities change social and political relationships, as well as the job market well beyond national and linguistic boundaries. The paper examines the minimal conditions needed for this open process to take place with the participation of all players and the possible role of ORBICOM, the network of UNESCO Chairs in Communication.     

Yellowing of Oil-Based Paints

Summary

The cause of yellowing of oil-based paints has been investigated by analysing drying oils simultaneously by iodometry (to determine the degree of oxidation) and by colorimetry. It was found that yellowing of drying oils can be attributed to co-oxidation reactions of contaminants. Yellowing level is closely related to the extent of drying and appears to be unaffected by increase in temperature, the addition of driers, or linolenate content.     

Psicología cognitiva y educación

RESUMEN

Este artículo es un intento de acercar la psicología experimental cognitiva a la práctica educativa. La gran distancia que separa a ambas se debe tanto a la falta de validez ecológica de muchas investigaciones como a la novedad y complejidad de este modelo. Sin embargo, los métodos de análisis elaborados por los psicólogos cognitivos pueden contribuir a mejorar los métodos de enseñanza. Por ejemplo, los enfoques procesuales nos hacen comprender los mecanismos implicados en algunos saberes escolares, como en las matemáticas. Pero también plantean algunos problemas, ya que son muy sensibles a las variaciones del contexto y poco explícitos con respecto a los mecanismos de cambio de los procesos. Por ello, hay que completar los enfoques procesuales con enfoques estructurales, como el desarrollado por Piaget, que establece la génesis y el desarrollo de las estructuras de las acciones y las operaciones del sujeto y que propone la llamada pedagogía operatoria, que se concreta en la utilización de métodos activos de educación.