Antonio Rodríguez Fuentes

La planificación de la composición escrita por alumnado con discapacidad visual: un estudio de casos

The skill of writing constitutes a complex but essential learning process in school. This article describes a research project planned to discover the process through which visually impaired students approach writing and to identify their difficulties. The sample for the study was made up of six female and five male visually impaired students aged between 11.4 and 20.3 (average age 15.6). The research itself followed a qualitative focus and used the collective case study method. Data were collected in cognitive interviews through a questionnaire/guide offering students clues, in the form of questions, about the operations and processes inherent in planning. The questionnaire was designed and validated beforehand according to the experts� judgement and triangulation procedures. All the interviews were recorded and subsequently transcribed word for word. Research results were obtained via content analysis, by means of the appropriate categorisation system based on the theoretical model (Flower and Hayes 1981; Hayes 1996). The results revealed that in general students of this kind are familiar with the cognitive processes involved in planning written compositions, and they perform the operations planning entails when they face tasks requiring written expression in 77.9% of the cases. The recording of ideas and, to a lesser extent, the organization of ideas are the cognitive operations in which these individuals have the most trouble. The conclusions reveal that these students think about the objectives and ideas they want to write about in their text and also about the reader. No significant differences are found among students by age, sex or schooling level.

INTEGRACION ESCOLAR DE ALUMNOS CON DEFICIENCIA VISUAL EN ESPAÑA: ALGUNAS SUGERENCIAS ESPACIALES Y CONTRIBUCIONES TECNOLOGICAS Y TIFLOTECNOLOGICAS

Spacial resources, both material and technological, are measuring indicators of the socioeducational inclusion/exclusion of physically or mentally handicapped students. In such cases and, particularly with the students with visual deficiencies, who are the main goal of this article, the above mentioned resources are essential for the success of the educational participation, with some certain time-space and tiflotechnological adaptors, that must be born in mind and which justify the importance of this project.

Communication Skills Training in Trainee Primary School Teachers in Spain

Abstract Research on teacher training often focuses on learners’ perceptions of that training. The focus of this paper, which uses a research-to-practice approach, is instead on the views of the trainers. It evaluates the perceptions of university lecturers teaching classes as part of primary teachers’ training degrees and assesses their views of the communication skills developed by their students to be used in their future careers. The study uses a 17-item ad-hoc questionnaire, completed by 152 lecturers from the University of Granada. Descriptive and inferential analyses are then carried out on the data collected using SPSS. The analysis results show how important lecturers believe it is for trainee teachers to develop communication skills, which they often lack. Although lecturers believe communication skills are very important, they also think that they are not developed as much as they should be in their classes, so trainee teachers cannot communicate as effectively as they should.

Percepción del profesorado sobre la competencia comunicativa en estudiantes de Magisterio

We are currently in a new scenario with regard to the formation and certification of professional skills. We highlight the communicative skills, given their potential as a medium and tool for efficient interactional processes, and for the dynamics of the educational organizations themselves. This paper shows the perception of the teaching staff of the Granada University (Spain) with regard to workload, achievement and the need for communicative skills amongst the student teachers. To gather the information in the study, we gave a questionnaire to 171 teachers; the results of which were analyzed using the statistics package SPSS 14.0. The text provides a descriptive panorama regarding the grade of importance granted to skill, its presence in class, the perceived levels of achievement and the need to include skills in future study plans. Although the results are not very encouraging, they do, however, serve to awaken debate amongst the teaching staff. Advance is shown in two ways: reclaiming and placing emphasis on value, thus recapturing value from implicit education.

Development of the Writing Skills of Students in Compulsory Education in Spain

Acquiring writing skills requires an entire academic lifetime but acceptable levels of proficiency should be covered in compulsory education. This research verifies the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of writing skills in the Spanish education system. It compares both the development of knowledge and the associated difficulties in interviews with 40 students from the even years of primary and secondary education. Descriptive and correlational analyses were made, after coding their statements according to the theoretical model used. They revealed an unexpected stagnation, depending on the levels, with important educational implications.

El Reto de una Educación de Calidad en la Escuela Inclusiva

This paper argues for a quality education within an inclusive school. For this purpose, the movements of school integration and inclusive school are analysed, taking into account the evidences that show the education system sometimes does not attend equally to all individuals. The need for an inclusive school and a school for everyone is advocated and it is postulated that different educational models do not contribute to improve the quality of teaching. Inclusive education is gaining more and more adherents and it is an essential philosophy in todays society, since it represents a rejection of politics and practices that decline before the exclusion. Only a substantially different society has the capacity to include different people and respect their life condition.

Percepción del alumnado universitario de Educación Física sobre su competencia comunicativa

The main objective of this research was to know the communicative competences of the university students of Physical Education. It was used an “ad hoc” questionnaire which was applied to students in their first and third course of Educational Practice, in order to analyze their progress in essential areas of the teachers communicative competence. With the information obtained via a transverse design of investigation, quantitative analyses were made. The results show a general progress in the communicative global competences of the third level students compared to the first level students, although insufficient to practice the activities of the teachers.