Cosas que usted no tuvo ocasión de preguntar sobre el aprendizaje y la enseñanza del lenguaje escrito a alumnos con NEE

En formato coloquial y de entrevista las autoras nos cuentan su proceso de reflexión didáctica para lograr una innovación general del modo y perspectiva para enseñar el lenguaje escrito, pasando desde un método tradicional basado en la enseñanza de un repertorio fonético y gráfico, a una enseñanza basada en la interacción y comprensión del propio proceso de escribir y leer, que resultó estar también perfectamente al alcance de los niños con necesidades educativas especiales.     

Negativity: a Disturbing Constitutive Matter in Education

This paper comments on ‘Critique and Negativity: Towards the Pluralisation of Critique in Educational Practice, Theory and Research’ by Dietrich Benner and Andrea English. Negativity is a disquieting ghost for teachers, educational researchers, administrators and other professionals of this field, including those involved in the design of policy. First, I make some remarks in response to the essay by Benner and English in order to draw attention to the importance of dealing with negativity. Second, I introduce a further problematisation of negativity: I deal with the practical issues that emerge from the conceptual reactivation of negativity and the possible consequences that result from this in the context of teaching graduate seminars. I am especially concerned with the ways in which negativity is inscribed in the process of knowledge production (that is, research), and in the possible consequences of subscribing to one or the other concept of negativity (teleological negativity, parasitic negativity, and relational negativity as the sine qua non condition for any ontology). Lastly, I raise some points for discussion with regard to certain possible consequences of the use of one or another notion of negativity in teaching and research.     

The power of Interactive Groups: how diversity of adults volunteering in classroom groups can promote inclusion and success for children of vulnerable minority ethnic populations

Despite the limited success of grouping students by attainment in enhancing educational achievement for all, this practice is still widely followed in European schools. Aiming at identifying successful educational actions that promote high academic achievement and social inclusion and cohesion, part of the EU-sponsored Europe-wide INCLUD-ED project analysed different ways of grouping students in classrooms. A classification was developed that distinguishes between three ways according to two dimensions – homogeneity/heterogeneity and use of human resources. This classification differentiates among mixture, streaming, and inclusion. In this paper, an example of inclusive action, Interactive Groups (IGs), is explored in depth. Based on grouping students heterogeneously and including adults from the community in the classroom, IGs address educational inequalities and enhance learning for students participating in them. Empirical data obtained from three case studies in schools in Spain indicate that IGs are one of the most successful inclusive actions implemented in these schools.     

Transforming collaborative writing tasks into opportunities for learning: educational assistance and the use of rubrics in Higher Education / Transformando las tareas de escritura colaborativa en oportunidades para aprender: ayuda educativa y uso de rúbricas en la Educación Superior

Abstract

This study, framed within a socio-cultural perspective of teaching that sees collaborative writing as a learning instrument, presents an innovative teaching experience related to the use of collaborative writing tasks to foster learning, combining face-to-face and online group work sessions. The study was conducted with the participation of 13 students — organised into three different groups — taking a subject of a Master’s degree in Psychology of Education, and the two teachers responsible for delivering the subject. The results of the experience have highlighted the need to provide different learning assistance which is not solely aimed at managing meaning, but also at managing the task itself and the participation in it. The results also show the importance of embedding such assistance in the design as well as the development of the instructional process. Among the different forms of assistance available, the data show the benefits of using rubrics as tools to support the shared understanding of tasks by teachers and students and as a tool to support learning. Finally, results show that the collaborative writing tasks carried out throughout the course have been useful both for learning the content and for developing the abilities required for managing the students’ own joint activity.     

Gender (im)balance in the pool of graduate talent: the portuguese case

Tertiary Education and Management - Doctoral education has grown substantially, resulting in a larger and diverse pool of graduates for research. Simultaneously, gender balance in research has...     

Evolution of the personal teaching models of prospective secondary school science teachers as expressed through metaphors

This study analyses the evolution of the personal metaphors of 31 science graduates enrolled in a Master’s degree course in Secondary Education Teaching during the 2012–13 academic year. The instrument used was an open questionnaire that included asking the participants to make drawings representing the roles of the teacher. Four categories of metaphor were considered: behaviourist/transmissive, cognitivist/constructivist, situative/socio-historical, and self-referential. It was found that most of the prospective teachers were indeed able to conceptualize their roles in the form of metaphors. Comparison of the results before and after the teaching practicum revealed no changes in most of the participants’ metaphors and associated models. Instead, these appeared to be firmly set already at the beginning of the Master’s course, and remained uninfluenced by either the course or the practicum. Only a minority of the participants showed changes in their metaphors—5 with progressive changes, and 5 with regressive changes.     

Cinematic representations of medical technologies in the Spanish official newsreel, 1943-1970

NO-DO, the Spanish official newsreel produced by Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975), held a 30-year monopoly over audio-visual information in Spain from 1943 to 1975. This paper reports on an analysis of coverage of medical technologies by the Spanish Cinematic Newsreel Service, NO-DO, from 1943 to 1970. The study focuses on the changing roles played by cultural representations of medical technologies deployed in NO-DO. Our analysis shows how these representations offered a new space for the legitimization of the regime, and, more importantly, played a key role in the attempts to construct and enforce a hegemonic national identity after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). During the period of isolationist autocracy that ended in the mid-1950s, the images of medical technologies reinforced the idea of a self-sufficient "national space" and deepened the break with the historical past. Once the international isolation of the regime was overcome in the late 1950s and the 1960s, the representation of medical technologies contributed to establishing a Spanish national identity that mirrored the outside world, the foreign space. Finally, gender representations in NO-DO are also explored.     

The Progression of Prospective Primary Teachers’ Conceptions of the Methodology of Teaching

This article describes the evolution of prospective primary teachers’ conceptions of the methodology of teaching. Three categories were analyzed: the concept of activity, the organization of activities, and the concept of teaching resources. The study was conducted with five teams of prospective teachers, who were participating in teacher education courses of a constructivist orientation. The results showed very different itineraries in the processes of change, and the presence of two major obstacles—the belief that teaching is the direct cause of learning, and epistemological absolutism. The study allows us to deduce some implications for initial teacher education.