The pathways to higher education: lexical availability in adult candidate students and in young first-year students     

Luís Filipe Barbeiro  Cláudia João  Susana Santos 《International Journal of Lifelong Education》2013,32(3):309-329

In the past few years there has been an increase in the number of adult students in higher education courses, many of whom have returned to school after a break. Most of these students do not intend to continue their studies from the point where they stopped; rather, they want to prepare for specific tests in order to have direct access to higher education courses, which in Portugal is a legal option for students over the age of 23. In response to this new cohort, higher education institutions need to find out what kind of students these are, determining their characteristics, capabilities and major problems, if they are to provide them with successful learning opportunities alongside younger students. This article presents a comparative study of lexical competence, focusing on lexical availability, contrasting those adult applicants to higher education who are attending a course preparatory to higher education with first-year students who have just entered higher education. The results show significant differences between the two groups, the adult group in general showing poorer results. Their withdrawal from schooling is clearly reflected in their vocabulary activation with regard to transversal themes. The most salient contrasts are related to the number of words mentioned and the frequency of words in the group, as well as the greater or lesser proximity to the topic of the terms mentioned.  相似文献   

Sexualities,teenage pregnancy and educational life histories in Portugal: experiencing sexual citizenship?     

Laura Fonseca  Sofia A. Santos 《Gender and education》2012,24(6):647-664

This article focuses on Portuguese working-class teenage girls’ voices and experiences concerning sexuality and pregnancy. Within a sociological, feminist and educational framework, it explores the girls’ perspective on sexual and intimate citizenship as evidence of fairer forms of regulation of teenage sexualities. Through building life histories of three pregnant and teenage mothers, this article aims to understand how girls rehearse and live out their sexualities and pregnancies as well as listen to their voices and recognise their demand for inclusion and respect. Gender power relations emerge as central in configuring girls’ pathways and shed light on youth pregnancy.  相似文献   

The visualization of spatial transformations in diagrams of molecular structures     

G. M. Seddon  Riaz H. Tariq  J. Dos Santos Veiga 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(4):409-420

Summaries

English

The investigation sets out to determine in absolute terms the average level of performance of English and Portuguese students in visualizing how diagrams of molecules should be drawn after performing a rotation, reflection or inversion on the molecule itself. A second aim was to determine the factor structure of these tasks. Both aims were investigated using tests comprising samples of items randomly selected from domains of items which operationally defined each task. The results showed that for the students in both countries, the average level of performance on each of these tests was far from satisfactory. The factor structure separated items corresponding to the rotations, reflections and inversions. Within the categories of items corresponding to rotations and reflections, the students from the two different countries give rise to different patterns of loadings for the three different types of rotations and three different types of reflection.  相似文献   

Farmers’ Visions on Soils: A Case Study among Agroecological and Conventional Smallholders in Minas Gerais,Brazil     

Klarien Elisabeth Klingen  Jan De Graaff  Maria Izabel Vieira Botelho  Aad Kessler 《The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension》2013,19(2):175-189

Abstract

Purpose: Why do farmers not take better care of their soils? This article aims to give insight into how farmers look at soil quality management.

Design/methodology/approach: It analyses diverse land management practices and visions on soils and soil quality of ten agroecological and 14 conventional smallholder farmers in Araponga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. As agroecological farming (that is, managing soils with minimum use of external inputs) requires more complex knowledge, it is assumed that agroecological farmers would be more knowledgeable on soils compared to conventional farmers. This case study tests the hypothesis that differences in land management practices between agroecological and conventional farmers can be explained by differences in their knowledge on soils.

Findings: The hypothesis turned out to be faulty: agroecological and conventional farmers do not differ in what they know about soils, but how they use their knowledge in their farming strategy. Both groups of farmers have different but rational farming strategies.

Practical implications: Designing policies and measures to make farming more environmentally friendly and more sustainable as two-way knowledge exchange between farmers and science (and not as one-way knowledge transfer from science to farmers), to benefit from vital and context-based farmers’ knowledge and to ensure successful implementation of more sustainable land management practices.

Originality/value: By analysing farmers’ visions on soil quality management and farming strategies, this study shows that farmers’ knowledge is valuable for farmers, for scientific knowledge on soil quality management and for policies which are to be effective and adapted to the local environment.  相似文献   

Information literacy in managers’ education     

M. Valle Santos  Rosa M. Mayoral 《Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship》2013,18(2):167-182

This research reflects on information literacy (IL) when taking business decisions and, on the education of future managers. We focus on two aspects; characterizing IL skills and their link to academic performance. This research provides interesting conclusions. First, IL may be broken down into various dimensions – access, evaluation and use – and these skills are not independent: our research shows how persons skilled at applying information will lose their advantage if they are not skilled at interpreting or at prior selection. Second, our study also shows how the IL skills have differing effects on the different components of the academic performance.  相似文献   

Resilience does not predict academic performance in gross anatomy     

Rodrigo Enrique Elizondo‐Omaña  María de los Angeles García‐Rodríguez  José Miguel Hinojosa‐Amaya  Eliud Enrique Villarreal‐Silva  Rosa Ivette Guzmán Avilan  Juan José Bazaldúa Cruz  Santos Guzmán‐López 《Anatomical sciences education》2010,3(4):168-173

Few studies have evaluated resilience in an academic environment as it relates to academic success or failure. This work sought to assess resilience in regular and remedial students of gross anatomy during the first and second semesters of medical school and to correlate this personal trait with academic performance. Two groups of students were compared: the first group included first‐year medical students in the regular course, and the second group included first‐year medical students who did not pass the regular anatomy course and so were enrolled in the remedial course. Both groups completed anonymous surveys designed to gather demographic data and establish scores on the Connor‐Davidson resilience scale, which includes 25 statements rated zero to four on a Likert scale (maximum score 100). The average resilience score was the same for both groups, 80 ± 9. The average anatomy grades differed significantly between regular students (67± 15.0) and remedial students (61 ± 12.0). While there was no overall correlation between resilience score and anatomy grade, regular students with resilience scores of 75 or greater showed slightly better academic performance than their classmates. Similarly, remedial students with resilience scores of 87 or greater faired better academically. Resilience does not predict academic performance in gross anatomy, and further work is necessary to identify those intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence students' achievements. Anat Sci Educ. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.  相似文献   

Teaching skills to promote clinical reasoning in early basic science courses     

Rodrigo Enrique Elizondo‐Omaña  Jesus Alberto Morales‐Gómez  Orlando Morquecho‐Espinoza  José Miguel Hinojosa‐Amaya  Eliud Enrique Villarreal‐Silva  Maria de los Angeles García‐Rodríguez  Santos Guzmán‐López 《Anatomical sciences education》2010,3(5):267-271

Basic and superior reasoning skills are woven into the clinical reasoning process just as they are used to solve any problem. As clinical reasoning is the central competence of medical education, development of these reasoning skills should occur throughout the undergraduate medical curriculum. The authors describe here a method of teaching reasoning skills in a clinical context during a human anatomy course. Anat Sci Educ 3:267–271, 2010. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.  相似文献   

前列腺癌:亟待肿瘤标志物和治疗新靶点(英文)简     

Juliana FELGUEIRAS  Joana Vieira SILVA  Margarida FARDILHA 《Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B》2014,15(1):16-42

Prostate cancer （PCa） incidence and mortality have decreased in recent years. Nonetheless, it remains one of the most prevalent cancers in men, being a disquieting cause of men＇s death worldwide. Changes in many cell signaling pathways have a predominant role in the onset, development, and progression of the disease. These include prominent pathways involved in the growth, apoptosis, and angiogenesis of the normal prostate gland, such as an- drogen and estrogen signaling, and other growth factor signaling pathways. Understanding the foundations of PCa is leading to the discovery of key molecules that could be used to improve patient management. The ideal scenario would be to have a panel of molecules, preferably detectable in body fluids, that are specific and sensitive biomarkers for PCa In the early stages, androgen deprivation is the gold standard therapy. However, as the cancer progresses, it even- tually becomes independent of androgens, and hormonal therapy fails. For this reason, androgen-independent PCa is still a major therapeutic challenge. By disrupting specific protein interactions or manipulating the expression of some key molecules, it might be possible to regulate tumor growth and metastasis formation, avoiding the systemic side effects of current therapies. Clinical trials are already underway to assess the efficacy of molecules specially designed to target key proteins or protein interactions. In this review, we address that recent progress made towards under- standing PCa development and the molecular pathways underlying this pathology. We also discuss relevant molecular markers for the management of PCa and new therapeutic challenges.  相似文献   

Psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Éxamen Geronto-Psychomoteur (P-EGP)     

Ana Morais  Sofia Santos  Paula Lebre 《Educational gerontology》2013,39(7):516-527

ABSTRACT

Aging involves concomitant and interrelated changes in sensory, motor, and cognitive function. There is a decrease in psychomotor skills—such as balance, spatial orientation, mobility, and motor coordination—visible in increased difficulties performing daily instrumental activities (e.g., self care and domestic activities). The absence of valid psychomotor instruments for the elderly population to be used by psychomotor therapists can be identified as one of the reasons why there is a scarce research in this area. Currently, in Portugal, psychomotor therapists do not have any specific, validated scale within the psychomotor domain built and/or adapted to guide psychomotor interventions with the elderly population. Therefore, the aim of this study was the translation, adaptation, and validation of the Portuguese version of the Éxamen Geronto-Psychomoteur (P-EGP) in a population of 497 elders, aged between 60 and 99 years, with and without dementia. Results of the study are presented and discussed in terms of the reliability and validity of P-EGP. The results demonstrate that P-EGP appears to be a valid and reliable assessment of psychomotor skills for the elderly population in Portugal. Practical implications and future directions of research are also discussed.  相似文献   

Medical Simulation in the Community College Health Science Curriculum: A Matrix for Future Implementation     

Michael P. McLaughlin  Soko S. Starobin  Frankie Santos Laanan 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(6):462-476

As the nation's healthcare education system struggles to keep pace with the demand for its services, educators are seeking creative and innovative solutions to meet the needs of a growing number of students. The integration of medical simulation technology into the community college health science curriculum is a creative solution that can meet the needs of healthcare educators and the students they serve, as well as of the healthcare community. This article provides a comprehensive overview of medical simulation, beginning with a review of literature regarding its history and efficacy, continuing with the current state of medical simulation usage, and concluding with implications for practice by offering a matrix for simulation integration and implementation. While Iowa's community colleges are the focus of the current state of usage, the implications for practice are useful to all comprehensive community colleges offering health science education programs.  相似文献