Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2014-09"
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- The symmetry as interdisciplinary factor through its application and historyPublication . Melo, Helena SousaThe symmetry used by human race in his achievements since the most primitive times. The human being following the permanent evolution of life could not fail to put the symmetry in his works, once his own outward appearance of almost every being symmetric. In the archaeological remains and even in her earliest art manifestations we checked this fact. All over the world and for all the historical, the symmetry is an inseparable companion of human creation and everything that surrounds him.
- À conquista : Tempo criativo na academiaPublication . Caldeira, Suzana Nunes; Soares, Sara Medeiros; Amaral, Sandra Cristina Machado; Moreno, Elisa; Correia, Maria José da Silveira Feijó; Sousa, Marina; Carvalho, CéliaSavickas (2008, cit. in Carvalho & Taveira, 2012) define a decisão vocacional como um processo evolutivo que ocorre ao longo de vários estádios de desenvolvimento e que resulta do conjunto de decisões que a pessoa toma à medida que se desenvolve, constituindo-se num processo exploratório, contínuo e subjetivo. Esta decisão torna-se, por vezes, difícil visto representar um processo complexo que envolve a exploração de alternativas, assim como a definição, clarificação e implementação de escolhas (Carvalho & Taveira, 2012). A aposta em oportunidades de exploração que fomentem o desenvolvimento pessoal, permite promover nos jovens o conhecimento acerca de si e do mundo que o rodeia, impulsionando a construção de uma visão mais diferenciada da realidade e incrementando o grau de consciência acerca das suas decisões (Jordaan, 1963, cit. in Königstedt & Taveira, 2010). Deste modo, desenvolver atividades de experimentação, investigação, procura e questionamento (Taveira, 2005, cit. in Taveira, Cunha & Faria, 2009) mostra-se relevante, podendo resultar na diminuição de sentimentos de incerteza quanto à decisão vocacional (Krumboltz & Thoresen, 1964, cit. in Taveira et al., 2009). Foi neste enquadramento que se concebeu o programa À Conquista que procurou contribuir para o desenvolvimento de perspetivas futuras e para a realização de boas escolhas vocacionais, através da exploração de talentos pessoais e do fomento da iniciativa e do juízo crítico.
- Turmas heterogéneas no ensino superior : um desafio para o professor e para o alunoPublication . Martins, Maria do CarmoThis paper presents a case study about teaching Forma e Espaço to a class of students with heterogeneous mathematical background. The course is part of the second semester of the degree in Educação Básica from the University of Azores. The study of teaching heterogeneous classes has been investigated in the past in different education levels: from high school to university. Here we focus on higher education. This problem reached some university courses in the recent past and revealed to be a real challenge both for the teacher and for the students, ending, most of the time, in a disappointing high degree of failures.This research narrates the experience of teaching this course for the past six years; here, we present and discuss the outcome of an inquire made to 36 students about the theoretical and practical subjects taught, as well as the professor’s performance. We conclude that even though the outcome from the inquire shows promising results, there is still room for improving the methodologies and techniques used for teaching, which we envision that will contribute to diminish the degree of student failures to classes of thiskind.
- Global fisheries governance and case study of fisheries governance of Autonomous Region of European Union – AzoresPublication . Tomkova, Katerina; Paramio, LuzThis article seeks to identify the key principles that should guide the definition of the Global Fisheries Governance and Management. A particular focus for this work has been the concept of participative governance and the co-management systems in which responsibility for management is shared between the world, regions, states and user groups, usually at the local level. Governance in the context of fisheries is divided in this article to three levels: the first dealing with issues of legal instruments, the second concerned with institutions and the third focusing on the construction of mechanism of management, in terms of economic, social and environmental values and principles to guide fisheries policy making along a consistent path of case study of fisheries governance in Azores.
- Is action research necessarily collaborative? Discussing some findings from the RRC projectPublication . Sousa, FranciscoBetween 2007 and 2012 an action research project named RRC (Researching for a Relevant Curriculum) was implemented in the Azores, Portugal. It was conducted by a team that included university scholars and teachers from elementary and secondary schools. The focus of the collaboration was the lack of interest shown by some students with regard to the school and the curriculum. This paper examines two forms of teacher collaboration observed in the context of RRC: a weaker form, based on the provision of suggestions on new teaching strategies and related aspects of the colleagues' work, and a stronger form, based on assistance and some joint work. For example, one teacher took notes of a colleague's behavior in the classroom in order to help her identify aspects that needed improvement, and other specific research tasks – like interviewing children and writing research papers – were sometimes done together by researchers from the university and elementary school teachers. Overall, collaboration increased in the last year of the project's implementation, which will be discussed in terms of (1) the possible relation between this fact and a reorientation in the team's approach to the action research process, (2) the distinction between collaboration and contrived collegiality.
- Studying the development of an online course on Curriculum : implications for the students' workload in light of the Bologna principlesPublication . Sousa, FranciscoAfter having taught a course on Curriculum Theory and Development (CTD) via face-to-face instruction to undergraduate students of Basic Education for many years, in the academic years 2011/12 and 2012/13 I taught the same course via e-learning, at the University of the Azores (UA), Portugal. Considering that the full virtualization of a course is still a rare phenomenon at the UA, I decided to use Curriculum Design Research (CDR) to study the development of the above-mentioned online version of the course on CTD, which, from now on, will be designated as CTD-O. CDR usually follows a prototyping approach, whereby tentative versions of the product being developed are evaluated and revised in a systematic way through a combination of different kinds of evaluation criteria and different evaluation techniques. Accordingly, the quality of CTD-O has been evaluated in the light of validity, practicality and effectiveness criteria, through the application of some techniques that are common in CDR (Nieveen, 1997): micro-evaluation, screening, expert appraisal, and tryout. The outcomes provided some evidence of a slow and resistant adaptation to some principles of the Bologna process, whose implementation has been facilitated by the virtualization of the course.
- Do man-made habitats affect spatial patterns of mollusk abundance?Publication . Cacabelos, Eva; Martins, Gustavo M.; Sánchez, Rocío; Busquier, Laura; Mosquera, Rubén; Neto, Ana I.The fragmentation of natural habitats, together with its loss, is considered a major threat to biodiversity. Man-made habitats, e.g., seawalls and coastal defence structures, are a common feature causing the fragmentation on the shoreline of many urbanized coastal areas and will become more widespread in response to rising and stormier seas. Fragmentation can alter functional connectivity of habitats and determine the spatial distribution of organisms, since the movement and dispersal of individuals can be interrupted. However, ecological consequences of coastal defence structures have not been extensively studied and we know little about their effects in marine systems. One of the most important factors affecting the connectivity among fragments or patches is the ability of the organisms to disperse despite potential barriers. Spatial patterns of molluscs with planktonic larvae or direct development (non-planktotrophic larvae) has been compared before, but there is a growing interest to understand the role of the man-made habitats in determining the patterns of spatial abundances of marine organisms. This study was aimed at exploring the role of type of larval development (planktotrophic vs non-planktotrophic) on patterns of spatial variation of gastropods on rocky shores, elucidating the possible responsibility of habitat fragmentation in observed patterns (i.e. seawall presence). Strongly aggregated distribution patterns are supposed to be characteristic of organisms with direct development, while the existence of planktotrophic larvae could allow the homogeneous distribution of organisms with indirect development. We examined the distribution patterns of grazing molluscs with both planktotrophic (the gastropods Tectarius striatus and Melaraphe neritoides) and direct (e.g. Omalogyra atomus or Lasaea adansoni) development in continuous rocky shores, natural patches and fragments. Two natural rocky shores of each type (continuous rocky shores, natural patches and fragments), separated from each other by kms, were sampled. At the mid-intertidal level, the gastropods Tectarius striatus and Melaraphe neritoides were identified and quantified in situ in quadrats randomly deployed on the shore. Randomly replicates of seaweed turfs, composed mostly by articulated coralline algae, were collected in the chosen locations and target gastropods were sorted and quantified in the laboratory. We predict that organisms with planktotrophic development will be less affected by fragmentation because they have the ability to disperse among fragments.
- Brincando às profissões : intervenção em desenvolvimento vocacional no 1.º cicloPublication . Caldeira, Suzana Nunes; Maia, Pedro Almeida; Moreira, Joana; Santos, EdmundoOs estudos no âmbito do desenvolvimento vocacional na infância afiguram-se escassos (Araújo, 2009), nomeadamente em Portugal. A ausência de um espaço-tempo na escola e no currículo prefigura uma clara falta de intenção educativa neste domínio (Baptista & Costa, 2004). Porém, é neste período que, de acordo com alguns autores (Super, 1990; Faria & Macedo, 2004; Peixoto, 2003) os autoconceitos se desenvolvem, através de processos de identificação, e é também na infância que a fantasia e a imaginação cumprem um importante papel para esta vertente do desenvolvimento. Foi nesse enquadramento que, no âmbito do programa de estudos em Psicologia, se decidiu ensaiar, com supervisão tutorial, um conjunto de atividades destinadas a crianças do 1.º ciclo do ensino básico, com o objetivo de contribuir para o seu desenvolvimento vocacional. As atividades decorreram ao longo de quatro sessões de 90 minutos, num registo de adição ao currículo escolar, e procuraram promover o conhecimento de si através da ludicidade, otimizando as possibilidades geradas pela inventiva e curiosidade infantil. A intervenção foi pré-experimental, pois existiu um grupo único de sujeitos alvo, uma turma do 3.º ano. Houve, contudo, uma tentativa de caracterização / avaliação pré e pós intervenção, com dados quantitativos e qualitativos. Os resultados quantitativos não corresponderam ao inicialmente desejado, uma vez que não se notaram efeitos positivos na promoção dos autoconceitos das crianças. No entanto, os registos qualitativos são encorajadores, tanto na ótica da participação e adesão daquelas, como de propiciarem uma oportunidade para reflexão e reequacionamento da ação empreendida e respetivos procedimentos de avaliação.
- The mirage of curricular autonomyPublication . Sousa, FranciscoThe Portuguese curriculum policy is rooted in a centralist tradition, which started to be challenged in the context of the educational reform of the late 1980s. The policy-makers' discourse has been, for the past quarter-century, loaded with calls for decentralization and a number of measures with some decentralizing potential have been taken. A careful analysis of the main official documents, combined with a review of research reports, reveals that curriculum policy-making in Portugal is still very centralized and dependent on the prescription of detailed study plans and syllabi. These tend to be followed very strictly. Therefore, Portuguese schools are still far from becoming strong curriculum agencies.
- Espiritualidade no local de trabalho : da liderança ao empenhamento na Cybermap, LdaPublication . Machado, Ricardo Manuel Melo; Batista, Maria da Graça CâmaraCom o presente estudo pretende-se aferir a presença de Espiritualidade no Local de Trabalho e sua influência nas componentes Afetiva, Normativa e Instrumental de Empenhamento Organizacional, bem como verificar a influência da Liderança Espiritual e Capital Pessoal no constructo central deste trabalho. Procedeu-se à análise de conteúdo de 21 Entrevistas, Observações Etnográficas e Documentação, recolhidas numa organização Açoriana, com posterior triangulação junto dos participantes. Verificou-se que a predominância da componente Afetiva e consequente comportamento de Cidadania Organizacional resultou sobretudo da satisfação da necessidade por pertença e apreço (Sentido de Comunidade) e da congruência entre autoconceito e função/trabalho desempenhado (Vida Interior). Tanto o Sentido de Comunidade como a Vida Interior foram predominantemente influenciados pela Liderança Espiritual através da Fé/Esperança demonstrada na Visão e colaboradores e prática de valores de Amor Altruísta. Em termos de Capital Pessoal, a Sociabilidade influenciou, acima de tudo, o Sentido de Comunidade e a apetência natural pelo desafio a expressão de Vida Interior. Estes resultados salientam elementos que podem ser usados pela liderança nas atividades de gestão, recrutamento e seleção como fonte de Espiritualidade no Local de Trabalho e consequente contributo positivo para o Empenhamento Organizacional e Cidadania Organizacional.