Browsing by Author "Vasconcelos, Clara"
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- Aprendizagem Baseada em Problemas: Reflexões de professores estagiários de Biologia e de GeologiaPublication . Torres, Joana; Moutinho, Sara; Almeida, António; Vasconcelos, ClaraA Aprendizagem Baseada em Problemas (ABP) é uma metodologia de ensino centrada no aluno que promove o desenvolvimento de diversas competências e uma construção de conhecimento mais significativa. Os estudantes tornam-se construtores ativos do seu conhecimento e o professor altera o seu papel de transmissor da informação para facilitador do processo de resolução de problemas. De facto, esta metodologia requer uma transformação no paradigma educacional, apelando para uma maior autonomia do aluno. Com o objetivo de analisar as conceções dos professores acerca da metodologia, assim como dificuldades, constrangimentos e implicações na aprendizagem dos alunos da implementação desta metodologia, foram entrevistados sete professores estagiários, no ano letivo 2012/2013. Numa realidade onde esta metodologia é parcamente utilizada, pretendeuse que estes professores revelassem a sua opinião e vivências após trabalharem com a metodologia, sendo analisadas diferentes dimensões: significado e importância da ABP; fase de planificação; fase de implementação e considerações gerais. Tendo como pressuposto uma metodologia qualitativa, as entrevistas foram transcritas e sujeitas a uma análise de conteúdo. No sentido de traçar um perfil mais robusto dos professores foram analisadas também planificações por eles construídas nesse mesmo ano letivo. Verificámos que, ao nível da importância da ABP, os entrevistados reconhecem que os alunos desenvolvem competências essenciais, como a autonomia, o pensamento crítico e a capacidade de questionar e de trabalhar em grupo, competências essas fundamentais também fora do contexto de aula. Estes constatam ainda que os alunos, no geral, estão mais motivados e envolvidos no processo de aprendizagem, construindo o seu próprio conhecimento e desenvolvendo uma imagem mais adequada de ciência. No entanto, estes indicam que esta metodologia requer muito tempo e uma maior preparação por parte dos professores verificando-se, também, uma certa relutância pelos alunos para a mudança. Relativamente à planificação e à implementação da metodologia, os professores estagiários procuram cumprir o programa e motivar os alunos, sendo o levantamento de questões e factos e o preenchimento da ficha de monitorização as etapas que parecem suscitar mais dificuldades. A falta de materiais, a dificuldade na acessibilidade a computadores, internet e outras fontes de pesquisa, destacam-se como principais obstáculos à implementação da ABP.
- Attitudes toward animals: a study of Portuguese childrenPublication . Almeida, António; Vasconcelos, Clara; Strecht-Ribeiro, OrlandoIn this study we analyzed the attitudes toward different animals in 210 Portuguese children: 107 boys and 103 girls, aged between 8 and 10 years, attending the 3rd and 4th years of primary school. We used a questionnaire with two distinct parts. In the first part, the children were asked about the degree to which they liked 25 different animals, using a scale ranging from −7 (strongly dislike) to 7 (like very much), and to give their reasons for the value attributed. In the second part, they were asked whether in the event of the animals being threatened with extinction, it would be important to save any of them. We also asked for the reasons for their opinion. The most popular animals were big mammals and also birds. Certain gender differences were present, with boys preferring predators and other animals with a traditionally bad image, like bats and sharks. The most disliked animals were insects, but also those that were thought of as a danger to humans. However, we found a moderate positive correlation between liking and saving an animal, although this was lower in the case of the girls toward several animals. This shows that a negative perception of an animal does not always mean a negative attitude toward it. In part, the reasons for liking an animal were different from the reasons for saving it. All the results are important for the design of primary school teaching activities involving animals, including the fact that some reasons that the children gave revealed a lack of knowledge about the meaning of certain behaviors of the animals and of their ecological role.
- Biocentric reasoning in children: implications in science and environmental educationPublication . Almeida, António; Strecht-Ribeiro, Orlando; Vasconcelos, ClaraThis study aimed to verify the incidence of biocentric reasoning (centred on the welfare of the animals) in 91 children, aged between 8 and 10, attending the 3rd and 4th years in a primary school of Lisbon, Portugal, and is the continuity of another study promoted by the authors. To do that, a questionnaire was applied, inquiring about the type of places where the children contact with animals and their opinion about the human behaviour in three different situations involving animals (dilemmas). The results have shown that the majority of children had a small contact with natural and semi-natural places, and the majority only went to places where nature is managed, like zoos and similar parks. This experience seems to be responsible for inappropriate ideas about zoos, considered by some children the ideal place to keep wild animals because there they are well treated and safer from predators. However, and globally, the incidence of biocentric reasoning in the dilemmas is high, proving its increasing in situations in which human action is considered selfish or inappropriate, but it also is affected by the species presented (the empathy factor seems to be important as well). Implications of these results for Science and Environmental Education are also discussed.
- Catastrofismo ou gradualismo? – Concepções de alunos sobre causas das extinções em massa e perda de biodiversidade no HolocénicoPublication . Torres, Joana; Almeida, António; Vasconcelos, ClaraRealizou-se um estudo descritivo de levantamento de concepções de alunos do 12º ano sobre as extinções em massa. É indicado que as extinções, nomeadamente as mais actuais, extinção do Pleistocénico e a perda de biodiversidade da época Holocénica, resultam de causas antropogénicas, sendo menos referidas as causas naturais ou o evolucionismo. Por outro lado, importou saber o posicionamento dos alunos face a causas catastróficas ou graduais.
- Dilemas de Geoética: suas potencialidades na perceção das características do conhecimento geológicoPublication . Almeida, António; Vasconcelos, ClaraEste estudo procurou verificar como percecionam 36 estudantes de mestrado de cursos de Geociências a aplicabilidade da Geologia na sociedade, nomeadamente através do seu poder para influenciar decisões de natureza política, económica e social. Para tal foi aplicado um questionário com perguntas diretas e dilemas do campo da Geoética que procura avaliar a posição dos inquiridos acerca da referida influência, principalmente através do reconhecimento da aplicabilidade de modelos geológicos. Os resultados evidenciaram uma certa visão acrítica da aplicabilidade destes modelos em situações reais, assim como a necessidade de clarificação das características do conhecimento geológico para uma mais efetiva compreensão das potencialidades e limites deste conhecimento nas referidas decisões.
- Emerging Standards and the Hybrid Model for Organizing Scientific Events During and After The COVID-19 PandemicPublication . Gomes, Orlando; Hanaei, Sara; Takian, Amirhossein; Majdzadeh, Reza; Maboloc, Christopher Ryan; Grossmann, Igor; Milosevic, Milos; Gupta, Manoj; Shamshirsaz, Alireza A.; Harbi, Amine; Burhan, Amer M.; Uddin, Lucina Q.; Kulasinghe, Arutha; Lam, Chi-Ming; Ramakrishna, Seeram; Alavi, Abass; Nouwen, Jan L; Dorigo, Tommaso; Schreiber, Michael; Abraham, Ajith; Shelkovaya, Natalya; Krysztofiak, Wojtek; Warkiani, Majid Ebrahimi; Sellke, Frank; Ogino, Shuji; Barba, Francisco J.; Brand, Serge; Vasconcelos, Clara; Salunke, Deepak B.; Rezaei, NimaSince the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically influenced almost every aspect of human life. Activities requiring human gatherings have either been postponed, cancelled, or held completely virtually. To supplement lack of in-person contact, people have increasingly turned to virtual settings on-line, advantages of which include increased inclusivity and accessibility and reduction of carbon footprint. However, emerging online technologies cannot fully replace, in-person scientific events. In-person meetings are not susceptible to poor internet connectivity problems, and they provide novel opportunities for socialization, creating new collaborations, and sharing ideas. To continue such activities, a hybrid model for scientific events could be a solution offering both in-person and virtual components. While participants can freely choose the mode of their participation, virtual meetings would most benefit those who cannot attend in-person due to the limitations. In-person portions of meetings should be organized with full consideration of prevention and safety strategies including risk assessment and mitigation, venue and environmental sanitation, participant protection and disease prevention, and promoting the hybrid model. This new way of interaction between scholars can be considered as a part of a resilience system which was neglected previously and should become a part of routine practice in scientific community.
- Enseñanza de la Deriva Continental: Contribuciones epistemológicas e históricasPublication . Vasconcelos, Clara; Almeida, António; Barros, José AméricoIn the history of science there have been numerous contradictions between epistemologists and historians , as well as debats among controversial scientific theories.
- Geoethics: Master’s Students Knowledge and Perception of Its ImportancePublication . Almeida, António; Vasconcelos, ClaraIn the 1990s, the field of geoethics started its development, associated with a set of ethical principles that regulate the profession of geologists in their relationship with society and with nature. Given the importance of this field, but also its youth, 36 higher education students attending aMaster’s ofGeology course were surveyed (20were from an educational branch and 16 were from a scientific branch). The questionnaire applied to them aimed to achieve the following goals: (a) to identify the knowledge of the respondents about this new field and to verify their position about the inclusion of geoethics in the curriculum, (b) to understand how they consider the importance of geological knowledge in political decisions and (c) to investigate possible differences in the thinking of the respondents, given the specificities of their educational branches. The study concluded that the field of geoethics is unknown to the majority of the respondents. However, the recognition of its importance was also verified, after getting familiar with the definition of the concept, as well as the need for its inclusion in formal education. The respondents also considered relevant the creation of a deontological code that could provide geologists with ethical guidance. They also considered that geology should influence political decisions, but they did not consistently recognise the limits of its influence, which seems to reveal the need of a deeper understanding of the specific nature of geological knowledge when compared with other sciences. Almost all the results were similar in both groups, but the students from the educational branch offered more elaborate answers about the issues present in the questionnaire.
- Geology in the lab: preliminar studies for validating a checklist for analysing modelling activities in textbooksPublication . Vasconcelos, Clara; Faria, Joana; Almeida, António; Dourado, L.Models and modelling activities play a central role in the making and understanding of science [1], making the learning of science more meaningful and helping students to build appropriate mental models [2, 3]. When students learn with models, they build mental ones that are more consistent with scientific models. This reconstruction process is generally complex and generates many cognitive conflicts. It was only in the early 19th century, when J. Hall (1761-1832) resorted to models to corroborate plutonism, that geology, an eminent field science, became a laboratory science. Throughout the years, these models became dimensioned with rules of proportionality, thus acquiring the status of representations of natural phenomena. In the last 30 years experimental modelling has been a subject of fruitful research, mainly using the classic tectonic sandbox models to control parameters for the structural evolution of mountain belts [4]. However, models were integrated in geoscience textbooks for educational purposes and, veiled behind them, many mandatory analogue properties, which are required for research purposes, where forgotten. In fact, many of those modelling activities didn’t resort to analogue materials with similar geologic properties, nor did they respect the dynamics, kinematics and geometric similarities. Indeed, respecting the similarity rules is a difficult, time-consuming and an expensive process that may not be justified in some educational purposes. However it is necessary that teachers and textbooks have correct information regarding modelling activities and the kind of analogy they provide. The reduction of time and of space that underlays those geoscience lab activities, as well as the heuristic rule of the models used in geoscience classrooms, needs to be well explained to students. Thus, it is worthwhile to analyze the modelling activities in geoscience textbooks, in order to evaluate their nature and whether or not the syllabus purposes can be accomplished. To do so, an instrument designed to analyze model activities of geoscience textbooks was developed guarantying a reliable, comprehensive and systematic study. Bearing in mind some items and issues that arose from other instruments designed to analyze lab activities, and after reviewing the literature, a first version of the checklist was developed. It encompassed three main dimensions: type of lab activity; type of manipulation of variables; type of models. All three dimensions included a few sub-dimensions further specified. As in other studies [5], the sub-dimensions emerged from the literature as well as from our knowledge on how lab-modelling activities are dealt with in science textbooks. Four researchers carefully undertook the process of analyzing the 35 lab activities from three geoscience textbooks, in two rounds. The results of the first round were presented to all researchers in order to promote reflection and an improvement of the checklist. A consensus was established after the second round, which was applied one month after the end of the first analysis. Although developed by resorting to Portuguese textbooks, the checklist may be used as a referential for a more comprehensive and meaningful analysis of textbooks from other countries, a task that can be regarded as a follow up study, further increasing its validity.
- Guia prático para atividades fora da escolaPublication . Almeida, António; Vasconcelos, ClaraBaseado na experiência dos autores, este livro apresenta uma série de constrangimentos e formas de superar dificuldades inerentes às atividades fora da escola. Sempre acompanhadas por sugestões de locais a visitar e conselhos práticos, as propostas de atividades são apoiadas por pequenas vinhetas lúdicas que visam agarrar o leitor até à última página. Sendo auxiliado por uma série de sugestões de reflexão baseadas na vivência dos autores nestas atividades como professores ou mesmo enquanto alunos, compete ao leitor refletir na sua própria experiência e atrever-se a levar os seus alunos para fora do recinto escolar
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