Ana Paula Loução Martins

Primary School Students’ Choices in Writing Opinion Essays: Using ICT Combined with Self-Regulated Strategies

The process of learning how to write is a demanding, slow, and complex process. Primary school students often experience problems in writing and, therefore, teachers should provide scientifically validated strategies to empower their performance, such as Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). Reflecting on the changes in the social reality and students’ personal interests, the inclusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the educational context and practice in writing has also become exceedingly relevant. However, using ICT associated to other teaching methodologies is not always explored in the classroom. In a quasi-experimental study, 178 fourth grade students participated in an opinion essay writing intervention, during 12 weeks (90 min/week), using SRSD instruction model (n = 89) and an ICT variant of SRSD called SRSD + ICT model (n = 89). We analyzed the impact of these two interventions through the analysis of opinion texts produced, by handwriting, for students one week before and one week after the intervention according to the elements, quality, number of words and number of linking words. Both showed positive results in the students’ writing skills, although the results from the SRSD + ICT model were better. These results reinforce the pertinence and usefulness of this model in the teaching-learning process of writing that should be discussed and tested in different contexts.

Monitorização do progresso do aluno na identificação de risco na leitura

This study aims to analyze the use of curriculum-based monitoring as a school system to identify students at risk in reading, in the context of an educational model based on the degree of response to intervention. A quantitative investigation was conducted with all third grade students (82 students) from a group of schools in the north of Portugal. Data processing was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. Among the conclusions, the following stand out: the existence of ten students at risk in reading throughout the school year and the fact that, at the end of the third year of schooling, the mean results of students who were never at risk was more than double the mean results of students who were at risk for the entire year.

PROVAS MAZE NA TRIAGEM DO RISCO NA LEITURA

No contexto de uma investigacao mais ampla apresentam-se resultados de um estudo quantitativo que teve por objetivo testar a adequacao tecnica de uma prova de Monitorizacao Baseada no Curriculo (Deno, 1985) para a compreensao da leitura. Nele participaram 82 alunos do 3° ano de escolaridade, com 8 anos de idade, de um agrupamento de escolas Portugues. Concluiu-se que os resultados sao fiaveis e validos dados os coeficientes obtidos. Analisa-se ainda a utilizacao destas provas em Portugal, como instrumento de triagem, no contexto de um modelo preventivo baseado no grau de resposta a intervencao.

Learning difficulties: A Portuguese perspective of a universal issue

In this article we present findings of a study that was conducted with the purpose of deepening the knowledge about the field of learning difficulties in Portugal. Therefore, within these findings we will discuss across several cultural boundaries, themes related with the existence of learning difficulties as a construct, the terminology, the political, social and scientific influences on the field, and the models of identification and of ongoing school support for students. While addressing the above-mentioned themes we will draw attention to the different, yet converging, international understandings of learning difficulties.

Perspectivas dos pais sobre dificuldades de aprendizagem específicas: um inquérito por questionário realizado no norte de Portugal

Neste artigo apresentaremos as conclusoes de um estudo que teve por finalidade conhecer as perspectivas dos pais de alunos do quarto ano do Primeiro Ciclo do Ensino Basico sobre dificuldades de aprendizagem especificas. Os dados foram recolhidos junto de 211 pais numa cidade do norte de Portugal, atraves de um questionario. As conclusoes do estudo mostram que: 1) os pais, na sua maioria, ja ouviram ou leram sobre o tema; 2) cerca de um terco dos pais tem pouco conhecimento sobre as condicoes que estao associadas as dificuldades de aprendizagem especificas; 3) a quase totalidade dos pais tem uma atitude de preocupacao em relacao a um possivel diagnostico de dificuldades de aprendizagem especificas num filho seu; contudo, a cerca de metade dos pais a possibilidade de um filho seu vir ter dificuldades de aprendizagem especificas nunca lhe ocorreu; 4) parece nao existir um estigma social negativo perante as dificuldades de aprendizagem especificas; 5) e, a maioria dos pais considera que existe escassez de apoios e recursos destinados as criancas com dificuldades de aprendizagem especificas.