UIPCDE - Artigos em revistas internacionais
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- Relationships between primary teachers’ beliefs and their practices in relation to writing instructionPublication . Gaitas, Sérgio Miguel Protásio; Martins, Margarida AlvesTeachers’ beliefs are directly connected to their practices and have an impact on students’ educational experiences and results. The aim of this study was to describe and examine the relationship between beliefs and practices linked to teaching students to write in the first four years of primary school. A total of 255 Portuguese primary school teachers participated in the study. A 52-item questionnaire was used to evaluate their beliefs, preferred activities and classroom organisation procedures in relation to writing instruction. Beliefs and classroom organisation procedures were subjected to factor analysis, whereas activities were considered individually. The analysis of teachers’ beliefs revealed two different factors: (1) code-based beliefs and (2) meaning-based beliefs. The analysis of teachers’ classroom organisation revealed three different factors: (1) pairs or small groups; (2) individual; and (3) whole classroom. Most of the participating teachers emphasised both explicit teaching and informal learning methods. There were significant associations between beliefs and activities and beliefs and classroom organisation procedures supported by code vs. meaning beliefs. However, the different associations revealed in the study showed that teachers combine multidimensional aspects in their writing instruction theory and practice.
- The new immigrants’ generation in portuguese classes: Disproportionate relationships and group-specific issues in academic developmentPublication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes daThe present study examines nationality group effect on language proficiency considering six groups of Portuguese immigrant students (M=13 years old; SD= 2,7): Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Portuguesespeaking African countries, Latin America, Asia and China. This research aims to verify whether students from different nationalities evidence similar difficulty levels in tests on language skills. Results of MANOVA showed that nationality groups differed in a significant manner, in particular, two groups – South Asia (Meridional) and Latin America. The Asian group evidenced more difficulty in vocabulary and verbal reasoning when compared to other nationality groups. Higher scores were attained by the Latin American group whose language of testing had common features with the home language and therefore showed more overlapping. The influence of the covariable "Languages spoken at home" on the results was also confirmed, which suggests that nationality is a less strong predictor compared to the number of languages spoken at home.
- Cognitive systems evolution: Immigrant last generations and cognitive mapping changingPublication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes daThere is little evidence on the correlation between immigration effects and the evolution of the mind and cognition, especially concerning children. Last generations of young immigrants are expected to experience adaptive strategies to respond to the school environment in order to achieve success. Specifically concerning the new language learning in the diversity of the host countries (plus the diversity of the countries of origin and home languages/cultures), it should be analyzed how the human cognitive aptitude (language aptitude and problem solving) is being reorganized in terms of thought, concepts and cultural orientations previously developed in a certain native culture. The native culture (aspects of the nationality and of the home language) is mentally associated to concepts and generates the self-regulation which implies consciousness in a home culture as a reference. How does it works for new immigrants that were separated (including cases of forced immigration) from their unique cognitive reference? Different cognitive achievements and language deficits would be constrained in their natural development and differences in academic achievement are expected. This lead to implications for the biological hypothesis of critical period concerning the new waves of immigration and ethnic differentiation in current generations. Age would be considered along with other unexpected variables such as nationality. The present study examines populations’ differences – ethnic and age – on specific language and cognitive tasks considering immigrant students in Portuguese schools (M=13 years old; SD= 2,7) with origin in different world areas: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, African countries, Latin America, Asia (Indian Asia) and China and with different home languages and cultures. Data showed a variability of groups’ achievements in cognates, text recall, lexical recall and dichotic listening tasks. Disparities among the minorities will be discussed considering educational and ethological implications. Population evolutionary characteristics might be concluded from those disparities.
- Speech processing and intelligent assessment in second language: struggling immigrant students and home language parallel instructionPublication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos Fernandes daAbstract- Purpose: In this study, home language (L1), parallel instruction in L1, and grades were the factors examined to identify differentiated writing performance of young second language learners. Method: A total of 102 children, aged between 8-17 years old, (M=13; DP=2,7), learners of Portuguese as a Second Language (L2), belonging to 6 language groups were compared on a narrative essay composition to identify types of writing (in L2 context) and the effects involved. Home language, parallel instruction in L1 and grades were controlled to examine those effects. The written outputs were measured using the score in six components adapted from an English L2 writing assessment (Alberta Education). Results: Analyses of variance showed only significantly differences for home language variable (F(5,58) = 1,769; η2= .132). Covariance analyses revealed impact of parallel instruction for L2 performance improvement F(1,62) = 4,573; p <.05, η2= .069). The groups whose home language had common features as the language of testing revealed lower scores showing no advantage of language overlap as commonly argued. Conclusions: Specific groups of students have more difficulties during writing in L2 and the home language instruction should be prominently integrated as parallel teaching methodology into early literacy instruction of immigrant groups at school.
- Threat perception and familiarity moderate the androgen response to competition in womenPublication . Oliveira, Gonçalo A.; Uceda, Sara; Oliveira, Tânia Sofia Ferreira de; Fernandes, Alexandre Constâncio; Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Oliveira, Rui FilipeSocial interactions elicit androgen responses whose function has been posited to be the adjustment of androgen-dependent behaviors to social context. The activation of this androgen response is known to be mediated and moderated by psychological factors. In this study we tested the hypothesis that the testosterone (T) changes after a competition are not simply related to its outcome, but rather to the way the subject evaluates the event. In particular we tested two evaluative dimensions of a social interaction: familiarity with the opponent and the subjective evaluation of the outcome as threat or challenge. Challenge/threat occurs in goal relevant situations and represent different motivational states arising from the individuals' subjective evaluation of the interplay between the task demands and coping resources possessed. For challenge the coping resources exceed the task demands, while threat represents a state where coping resources are insufficient to meet the task demands. In this experiment women competed in pairs, against a same sex opponent using the number tracking test as a competitive task. Losers appraised the competition outcome as more threatening than winners, and displayed higher post-competition T levels than winners. No differences were found either for cortisol (C) or for dehydroepiandrosterone. Threat, familiarity with the opponent and T response were associated only in the loser condition. Moderation analysis suggests that for the women that lost the competition the effect of threat on T is moderated by familiarity with the opponent.
- Conceções dos educadores portugueses sobre a linguagem escrita : Um estudo de casoPublication . Santos, Ana Isabel Silva; Martins, Margarida AlvesO presente artigo pretende dar conta dos resultados de uma investigação realizada junto de um grupo de 18 educadoras de infância a trabalhar na em escolas da rede pública da Ilha Terceira, Açores, Portugal, cujo objetivo foi o de compreender a sua perspetiva acerca da abordagem à linguagem escrita no âmbito da educação de infância. Foram avaliados aspetos como a posição pedagógica e metodológica que as educadoras afirmam adotar na sua intervenção pedagógica e os processos de aprendizagem que afirmam privilegiar como promotores da literacia nas suas salas. A entrevista realizada durante o segundo trimestre do ano escolar permitiu concluir que a forma de pensar destas educadoras, acerca do desenvolvimento da linguagem escrita, caracteriza-se, basicamente, pelo distanciamento relativamente a uma perspetiva emergente da literacia, centrada nas crianças, pela atribuição de uma acentuada importância às atividades e estratégias de intervenção direta e pelo défice de conhecimentos sobre a forma como se desenvolvem os processos de leitura e escrita em crianças pré-escolares.
- Efeitos de idade e sexo no autoconceito de crianças pré-escolaresPublication . Pinto, Alexandra Maria Pereira Inácio Sequeira; Gatinho, Ana Rita dos Santos; Fernandes, Carla; Veríssimo, ManuelaPoucas são as investigações sobre o autoconceito realizadas com crianças de idade pré-escolar. Neste estudo procuramos contribuir para uma melhor compreensão do desenvolvimento normativo do autoconceito, no período pré-escolar, nomeadamente, através da análise dos efeitos que o sexo e a idade têm no mesmo. Tratando-se de um estudo longitudinal, a amostra foi composta por 83 crianças portuguesas, avaliadas no seu autoconceito aos quatro e aos cinco anos de idade, através da Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children – PSPCSA. As crianças apresentaram resultados muito elevados em todos os domínios do autoconceito, em ambas as idades Os dados parecem indicar que os elevados valores do autoconceito começam a declinar já no fim do período pré-escolar, pelo menos em alguns domínios, sugerindo, dessa forma, um desenvolvimento diferenciado do autoconceito, consoante os diferentes domínios avaliados. Finalmente, parecem existir diferenças no autoconceito relacionadas com o sexo das crianças, favorecendo os rapazes. Os nossos resultados contribuem para uma melhor compreensão do processo de desenvolvimento do autoconceito.
- Relationships between primary teachers’ beliefs and their practices in relation to writing instructionPublication . Gaitas, Sérgio Miguel Protásio; Martins, Margarida AlvesTeachers’ beliefs are directly connected to their practices and have an impact on students’ educational experiences and results. The aim of this study was to describe and examine the relationship between beliefs and practices linked to teaching students to write in the first four years of primary school. A total of 255 Portuguese primary school teachers participated in the study. A 52-item questionnaire was used to evaluate their beliefs, preferred activities and classroom organisation procedures in relation to writing instruction. Beliefs and classroom organisation procedures were subjected to factor analysis, whereas activities were considered individually. The analysis of teachers’ beliefs revealed two different factors: (1) code-based beliefs and (2) meaning-based beliefs. The analysis of teachers’ classroom organisation revealed three different factors: (1) pairs or small groups; (2) individual; and (3) whole classroom. Most of the participating teachers emphasised both explicit teaching and informal learning methods. There were significant associations between beliefs and activities and beliefs and classroom organisation procedures supported by code vs. meaning beliefs. However, the different associations revealed in the study showed that teachers combine multidimensional aspects in their writing instruction theory and practice.
- Testosterone response to competition in males is unrelated to opponent familiarity or threat appraisalPublication . Oliveira, Gonçalo A.; Uceda, Sara; Oliveira, Tânia Sofia Ferreira de; Fernandes, Alexandre Constâncio; Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Oliveira, Rui FilipeIt has been proposed in the literature that the testosterone (T) response to competition in humans may be modulated by cognitive variables. In a previous experiment with a female sample we have reported that opponent familiarity and threat appraisal moderated the T response to competition in women. With this experiment we aim to investigate if these variables have the same impact on males T response to competition, extending the previous findings in our lab. Forty male participants (20 dyads) were recruited to engage in a same sex, face to face competition using the Number Tracking Test as a competitive task. Levels of T, cortisol (C) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) were measured before and 20 min after the competition. Results show that losers report higher levels of threat than winners and increased their T levels after the competition, however this T change was not predicted by opponent familiarity or threat appraisal. No variation was detected for C and DHEA levels. These findings suggest that there could be sex differences for the moderators/mediators of the T response to competition in humans.
- Challenge and threat motivation : Effects on superficial and elaborative information processingPublication . Fonseca, Ricardo Jorge Rodrigues Moita da; Blascovich, James; Garcia-Marques, TeresaThis paper integrates the motivational states of challenge and threat within a dual processing perspective. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals experience a challenge state when individuals have sufficient resources to cope with the demands of a task (Blascovich eta, 1993). Because the experience of resource availability has been shown to be associated with superficial processing (Garcia-Marques and Mackie, 2007), we tested the hypothesis that challenge is associated with superficial processing in two persuasion experiments. Experiment 1 revealed that inducing attitudes of participants in a challenge state was not sensitive to the quality of arguments presented. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the effect occurs even when task engagement, manipulated by the presence (vs. the absence) of a task observer (Blascovich et al., 1993), is high. The implications of these results for the biopsychosocial model model and the cognitive and motivational literature are discussed.