The relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and classroom discipline management

One of the fundamental problems of educational systems in many countries is related to classroom discipline. This reflects one of the worst problems faced by teachers. Classroom discipline management strategies play an effective role in creating positive teacher‐student relationships. One of the factors that influence behavior management in a classroom is emotional intelligence. Therefore, this study analyzing how teachers emotional intelligence influences the management of discipline in a classroom and the relationship between gender, academic formation, and service time of teachers with their emotional intelligence. Its sample comprises 559 basic and secondary school teachers. An Emotional Competence Questionnaire, a Scale of Teacher Efficacy in Classroom Management, and a personal and professional data inquiry have been used as instruments. Results show that teachers who have more capacity to deal with emotion demonstrate a greater management of discipline in the classroom. Most of the relationships in the model are statistically significant.     

Toronto multiagency child abuse research project: The abused and the abuser

Information from 422 cases of child mistreatment in Toronto was gathered from the files of a child welfare agency and a children's hospital. These data were compared to patterns reported in previous studies and clinical writings on child mistreatment to investigate similarities and differences in families whose children have been abused in Canada, England, and the United States. Findings from the present study were similar to others in many respects. The differences were primarily in the area of lower incidences of such problems as perinatal difficulties in the children and intellectual limitations and social isolation in the parents; however, there was a higher incidence of single-parent families. The results suggest that clinicians should bear in mind that child mistreatment cannot be ruled out on the grounds that no serious problems have been noted for the child or the family.     

The social stratification of the German VET system

Germany is widely known for its vocational education and training (VET) system and its dual apprenticeship system in particular. What is often overlooked, however, is the vertical stratification within the German VET system. This is the focus of this study. Our analysis shows that the VET system, like the German school system, is highly stratified, resulting in large differences in labour market opportunities. We elaborate on three dimensions of vertical stratification: VET system vs. higher education, fully qualifying vs. prevocational VET programmes and segmentation of the fully qualifying VET programmes by educational attainment and career prospects. All three stratification dimensions are closely linked to school attainment and thereby to social origin.     

Surprise and change: Variations in the strength of present and absent cues in causal learning

It is said that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” But, when and why does an absent event become salient to the heart or to the brain? An absent event may become salient when its nonoccurrence is surprising. Van Hamme and Wasserman (1994) found that a nonpresented but expected stimulus can actually change its associative status—and in the opposite direction from a presented stimulus. Associative models like that of Rescorla and Wagner (1972) focus only on presented cues; so, they cannot explain this result. However, absent cues can be permitted to change their value by assigning different learning parameters to present and absent cues. Van Hamme and Wasserman revised the Rescorla-Wagner model so that the α parameter is positive for present cues, but negative for absent cues; now, changes in the associative strength of absent cues move in the opposite direction as presented ones. This revised Rescorla-Wagner model can thus explain such otherwise vexing empirical findings as backward blocking, recovery from overshadowing, and backward conditioned inhibition. Moreover, the revised model predicts new effects. For example, explicit information about the absence of nonpresented cues should increase their salience (that is, their negative α value should be larger), leading to stronger associative changes than when no explicit mention is made of cue absence. Support for this prediction is detailed in a new causal judgment experiment in which participants rated the effectiveness of different foods’ triggering a patient’s allergic reaction. Overall, these and other findings encourage us to view human causal learning from an associative perspective.     

Computers and education outside school

Has also been director or executive secretary of several educational projects in Brazil. Author of some twenty books and of numerous articles on education, training, science and technology.     

Students’ conscious unknowns about artefacts and natural objects

This study attempts to characterise what 7th- and 12th-grade students believe they do not know about artefacts and natural objects, as well as the dependence of what is unknown on a knowledge of these objects. The students were asked to make explicit through questioning what they did not know about a sample of objects. The unknowns generated were categorised according to a scheme based on lexical semantics theory. Two of the categories focused specifically on imprecise unknowns expressed through What is X? questions, and on unknowns concerning functions. The results showed, firstly, that a lower grade level and lower knowledge of a certain class of objects was associated with more imprecise unknowns. Secondly, unknowns about the functions of artefacts were significantly more frequent than unknowns about the functions of natural objects at any of the grade levels. Overall, the results were consistent with the hypothesis of a correspondence between knowledge and unknowns.     

Attitudes towards genetics: a case study among Brazilian high school students

The objective of our study was to investigate young people's attitudes towards modern genetics and biotechnology. Quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted among high school students in Rio de Janeiro. These included a survey of students in nine public and private schools as well as focus groups for a complementary analysis of their attitudes and perceptions with respect to these subjects. We observe that, in general, students are relatively well informed about some of the main issues related to the applications of genetics. In their assessment of the utility, the potential risks, and the need for encouragement of the different techniques used in genetic manipulation, they were able to make clear distinctions between the different purposes of each technique. Most students believed that transgenic food could be useful and that it should be encouraged, but they were also aware that there were risks involved. Furthermore, the students were strongly supportive of the labeling of transgenic food.     

Teaching Probability for Conceptual Change La Enseñanza De La Probabilidad Por Cambio Conceptual

This work presents a theoretical proposal for a methodology for the teaching of probability theory. The theoretical proposal has a dual inspiration: (1) the epistemological approach of Lakatos (1978b) regarding the quasi-empirical nature of mathematical theories; (2) the perspective of conceptual change for the teaching-learning process, as formulated by Strike and Posner (1992). The scientific content taught and the didactic methods used in the classroom should, according to this proposal, respect and conform to this dual inspiration. We also present an evaluation of the methodology in a real context: six Spanish high school classes of students aged 14–15. The main purpose of the research was to answer this question: Is our didactic proposal more effective than traditional methodology? We operatively identify the concept of traditional teaching, and establish several indicators of effectiveness: the mastery of elementary probability calculations, the quality of intuitive reasoning in probability, and the conceptual and attitudinal change produced. We found significant differences on all indicators, except for attitudinal change, in favour of the group that followed our proposal.     

Zum Problem der Hochschulreform in Spanien: Einige Ausgewählte Daten

Over the past ten years there has been a sweeping reform of the courses taught and qualifications awarded by Spanish universities. For that reason, an investigation was launched in 1996–97 at the University of Santiago de Compostela (in Northwest Spain) into the teaching, research and management entailed in four new degree courses: physics (years one to four), agricultural engineering (first and second years), agricultural food-processing technology (years one to three) and pharmacy. This article reports on students' opinions of the reforms in these courses, revealing dissatisfaction with facilities for practical course work, lack of connection with prospective employment, and a call for more information about courses.