Early intervention in Portugal: family support and benefits

This study investigated the support and benefits of early intervention (EI) in families with children with special needs. Data were gathered through a written questionnaire, ‘Family Benefits Inventory’, completed by 126 families with children with special needs supported by EI teams, with ages from six months to six years in Portugal. The global results obtained in this study allowed us to conclude that families considered that they obtained benefit from EI and received support most of the time in the different dimensions of the questionnaire. Furthermore, support given by an EI professional had a positive influence on families' perceptions regarding the benefits of EI.     

The cost of technology integration on Filipino families with children enrolled in public schools

Asia Pacific Education Review - One of the characteristics of a 21st-century learner is being technologically adept. Technology has a significant contribution to modern-day education in the heyday...     

Engineering education at a new public university in Brazil: first students’ contact with engineering methods

This paper describes the experience of an introductory discipline to the engineering curricula at the Brazilian Federal University of ABC (UFABC). The university offers a common basic curriculum that must be accomplished by every student and can be followed by professionalising courses. The discipline ‘Introduction to Engineering’ presents the basis of the engineering career, methods and thinking together with professional commitments and regulations. The objective is to help students to consciously choose their careers, minimising the precocity problem in deciding a professional future. The discipline methodology includes activities proposed by the TryEngineering website and from Brazilian engineering councils. Lectures with invited professors introduce UFABC engineering specialities: Aerospace, Bioengineering, Energy, Environmental & Urban, Information, Instrumentation & Automation & Robotics, Management, Materials. This paper reports the proposed activities, results obtained by the students, a methodology critical analysis and the impacts on the following steps of students embracing an engineering career.     

A Comparison of Propensity Score Weighting Methods for Evaluating the Effects of Programs With Multiple Versions

This Monte Carlo simulation study compares methods to estimate the effects of programs with multiple versions when assignment of individuals to program version is not random. These methods use generalized propensity scores, which are predicted probabilities of receiving a particular level of the treatment conditional on covariates, to remove selection bias. The results indicate that inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) removes the most bias, followed by optimal full matching (OFM), and marginal mean weighting through stratification (MMWTS). The study also compared standard error estimation with Taylor series linearization, bootstrapping and the jackknife across propensity score methods. With IPTW, these standard error estimation methods performed adequately, but standard errors estimates were biased in most conditions with OFM and MMWTS.     

Childbirth education for multiple pregnancy: part 1: prenatal considerations

Women with a multiple pregnancy have unique learning needs in preparing for birth. This paper explores the issues relevant to women with a multiple pregnancy to support a positive birth experience. One of the foundations of childbirth education and nursing care is to provide the individual woman and her family with knowledge regarding the birth process, what to expect, and how to cope with labor and birth. Education also focuses on caring for the newborns after birth and how to manage in the early days at home. However, traditional childbirth education classes, which meet in a series of evenings or Saturdays, may not meet the needs of women with a multiple pregnancy. In addition, because of the differences in care that exist for women with a multiple pregnancy, new paradigms for childbirth education are needed to meet the learning needs of these families. The purpose of this paper is to provide information to the childbirth educator on the differences in care women with a multiple pregnancy can expect and to suggest strategies to meet the childbirth education needs of these families.     

Assessing Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Scientific Reasoning Competencies

Research in Science Education - Scientific reasoning competencies are highlighted in science education policy papers and standard documents in various countries around the world and pre-service...     

Portuguese science teachers' education,attitudes, and practice relative to the issue of alternative conceptions

Many studies have shown that students of all school levels hold alternative conceptions that differ from the scientific conceptions transmitted by the school. These results raise some questions about the efficacy of traditional teaching and stress the need for using teaching strategies that explicitly take into account the alternative conceptions that students bring to the science classes. This issue has recently been raised and widely discussed throughout Portugal and the proposals for the new science syllabuses advise teachers to take it into account. However, the number of studies investigating both the teachers' attitudes towards this issue and the use of teaching strategies based on students' alternative conceptions is very limited. This article aims to present the results obtained from science teachers about their attitudes towards students' alternative conceptions and the use of teaching strategies based on these conceptions. The results may contribute to the planning of in-service courses.     

Do Belonging and Social Exclusion at School Affect Structural Brain Development During Adolescence?

Students’ sense of belonging presents an essential resource for academic and health outcomes, whereas social exclusion at school negatively impacts students’ well-being and academic performance. Aiming to understand how feelings of school-related belonging and exclusion shape the structural brain development, this study applied longitudinal questionnaire-based data and MRI data from 71 adolescent students (37 females, M_age at t1 = 15.0; t2 = 16.1 years). All were white participants from Germany. Voxel-based morphometry revealed only an association of social exclusion (and not of belonging) and gray matter volume in the left anterior insula: From t1 to t2, there was less gray matter decrease, the more social exclusion students perceived. School-related social exclusion and disturbed neurodevelopment are thus significantly associated.     

Teachers' and prospective teachers' explanations of liquid‐state phenomena: A comparative study involving three European countries

As contact with liquids occurs from an early stage in individuals' lives, children construct explanations for liquids and liquid‐state phenomena. These may differ from the accepted scientific explanations, interfere with formal teaching, and even persist until entry into higher education. The objective of this investigation is to compare student‐teachers' and in‐service science teachers' explanations for liquid‐state phenomena, in three European countries. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire applied to 195 Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish in‐service science teachers. Data analysis revealed poor performance among participants, showing low percentages of correct answers. In addition, no systematic differences were found between participants from the three countries, and teaching experience seems to minimize some of the conceptual difficulties showed by in‐service teachers. Globally, science education seems to have had a limited effect on student‐teachers' and in‐service science teachers' conceptions. We conclude that more attention should be paid to the liquid state in both initial and continuing teacher education programs so that teachers can understand more clearly liquid‐state phenomena and succeed in explaining them to their students. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 349–374, 2007