Carmen Sotomayor

Estándares y regulación de calidad de la formación de profesores: discusión del caso chileno desde una perspectiva comparada

This article analyzes four regulation systems regarding to the quality of teacher education based on standards, and discusses the actions that are being developed on this field in Chile. Cases addressed were: Victoria-Australia, Quebec-Canada, New York-United States, and EnglandUnited Kingdom. All the analyzed cases have specialized government agencies, and an explicit policy oriented to regulate the quality of teacher education provided by public and private universities. Results showed that despite the actions taken, the Chilean system remains as the less regulated when compared to the other analyzed cases.

Caracterización de problemas ortográficos recurrentes en alumnos de escuelas municipales chilenas de 3º, 5º y 7º básico

Resumen es: El objetivo de esta investigacion proporciona un analisis descriptivo del desempeno ortografico de ninos chilenos pertenecientes a escuelas municipales d...

Against All Odds: Outstanding Reading Performance among Chilean Youth in Vulnerable Conditions

International studies show that the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on learning has increased in a number of countries and that poverty is a risk factor that puts children’s academic performance at risk. However, there are students who, despite living in impoverished conditions, achieve solid academic performance. How they do so is a question of central importance. The present study uses the concept of “resilience” as a theoretical framework that can help us to answer it. It investigates various characteristics common to the students, families, and schools of Chile, and places emphasis on understanding resilience as it relates to the academic achievement of students with low SES. Multilevel models and comparisons reveal performance determinants associated with resilience, such as reading engagement and schooling conditions. This study highlights resilience as a framework for addressing the obstacles that face disadvantaged youth in developing educational systems.

Grammar and writing in Hispanic American countries and Spain

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to comprehend the importance that grammar has in the teaching of writing in the Hispanic American countries and Spain. To achieve this, the discussion that has taken place in these countries about the importance of sentence grammar in the teaching of writing is analysed. Three proposals for the contextualised teaching of grammar are systematised from the literature review: those that are focused in the writing process, those focused on metalinguistic reflection and those with a greater emphasis in the grammar of text. Besides, the school curricula of 14 Spanish-speaking countries that were involved in the international assessment of TERCE are examined. This analysis shows an evident attachment to the communicative approach of grammar. This means that in almost all countries grammar is taught linked to the linguistic skills of reading, writing or orality, with an especial emphasis in writing. Also, two tendencies can be observed in the curricula of this countries, that guide the way in which curricula use sentence grammar to have an impact on written communication: (i) from sentence grammar to text grammar and (ii) from text grammar to sentence grammar.

Desempeño ortográfico de estudiantes chilenos: claves para la enseñanza de la ortografía

espanolAunque posee una gran importancia en diversos aspectos de la escritura, la ortografia es un tema poco abordado en la investigacion actual. Este articulo propone presentar un panorama exhaustivo, reciente y representativo del desempeno ortografico de ninos chilenos, para ser utilizado como insumo para su ensenanza. Para ello, se analizo una muestra estratificada proporcional desde una muestra representativa del pais tomada en el piloto SIMCE de escritura del ano 2008 en cuarto grado. Los resultados fueron luego interpretados desde perspectivas cognitivas, comunicativas y didacticas de la ortografia. Entre los principales hallazgos, destaca un alto porcentaje de palabras correctamente escritas, la concentracion de los errores en unos pocos tipos y un mejor desempeno en el genero carta de solicitud por sobre el cuento y la noticia. En conjunto, se sugiere focalizar la instruccion en los errores encontrados e insertarla en el desarrollo de textos en situaciones comunicativas. EnglishIn spite of being important for several aspects of writing, orthography has been scarcely discussed in current research. This article presents a comprehensive, current and representative picture of the orthographic performance of fourth-grade Chilean students, in order to use this data to inform teaching. A stratified sample taken from the representative sample of the national assessment SIMCE writing pilot of 2008 was analyzed. The results were later interpreted in terms of cognitive, communicative and didactics approaches. Among the main findings, a high percentage of correctly written words and a better performance in the genre of the formal letter stand out significantly over the genres short story and news report. In sum, it is suggested to focus instruction on the mistakes found, rather than teaching norms; and to embed this instruction within experiences of writing in communicative situations.

Evaluación analítica de la escritura de estudiantes de 4º año básico en Chile

espanolEl estudio analizo una muestra de 2.061 escritos de 687 estudiantes chilenos de cuarto basico que participaron en una evaluacion nacional de escritura en 2008. Por medio de rubricas analiticas creadas para este fin, se evaluaron de manera desagregada tres generos textuales: cuento, carta de solicitud y noticia, segun cinco dimensiones: adecuacion a la situacion comunicativa, coherencia, cohesion, estructura y puntuacion, ademas de una evaluacion global. Los resultados muestran que existen diferencias significativas en el desempeno, segun las dimensiones y generos textuales evaluados. Se encuentra niveles mas altos en coherencia y estructura, y mas bajos en cohesion. Asimismo, la coherencia es mas alta en el cuento, mientras que la estructura lo es en la carta de solicitud. La puntuacion externa es mas frecuente que la interna y el uso de “y” reemplaza la puntuacion especialmente en el cuento. Estos resultados sugieren que una evaluacion y ensenanza focalizada en aspectos especificos de la escritura podrian aportar a un mejor desempeno general de esta EnglishThe study analyzed a national sample of 2.061 writing samples of 687 fourth grade Chilean students who participated in a national writing evaluation in 2008. Three genres―story, request letter and news story―were evaluated by disaggregated rubrics created for this purpose with five criteria: adaptation to the communicative situation, coherence, cohesion, text structure and punctuation, in addition to a global assessment. The results indicate that there are significant differences in performance according to the dimension and genre evaluated. The highest levels were found in coherence and text structure and the lowest levels in cohesion. Coherence was higher in the story, while text structure was higher in the request letter. The external punctuation is more frequent than the internal and the use of “and” replaces punctuation, especially in the story. These results suggest that an evaluation and education focused on specific aspects of writing could contribute to better overall performance.

High Performance in Reading Comprehension in Poverty Conditions in South America

Resilience is an important concern in current psychology, particularly in the field known as positive psychology, which is focused not only on problems that affect the psyche but also on the means that subjects themselves use to favorably confront these problems. The concept has propagated from psychology to other contexts, such as education, medicine, and sociology (Kolar, 2011).