Evelyn Diez-Martinez

Adolescents' Comprehension about Sustainable Development as a Device to Study Socio-economic Knowledge Related to Citizenship

Environmental education has been included in the school curricula of many countries in the last 15 years. Implementation has been not as successful as expected due to various constraints reported in several research projects. Its achievement remains uncertain and more research is required in all areas of education. In order to propose a curriculum change, research is needed on how and what students really understand and know concerning sustainable development. An exploratory study was undertaken to study levels of comprehension of certain themes of sustainable development in adolescents. Interviews were conducted with 40 Spanish and Mexican high school students in aspects relating to waste and recycling, several forms of pollution and contamination, ideas on scarcity of natural resources, and population increase. Data illustrate that students are aware of environmental issues, but lack knowledge of how ecological, social and economic aspects are related in sustainable development, showing that information provided in school has not been enough for students to consider these aspects and use them for the fostering of citizenship participation. Knowing the concepts that adolescents use to explain sustainable development, as well as knowledge and information gaps, can allow us to improve environmental education.

Mexican Adolescents' Comprehension about Bank Functions: considerations regarding the development of school curricula

Mexican secondary and high school curricula do not include any economic or financial education. Furthermore, Mexicos actual banking infrastructure is not widely spread around all of the country, and several towns and villages still do not have banks. Hence it becomes difficult for adolescents to understand these institutions, which are important in the socio-economic organization of societies. In order to provide research data about levels of comprehension among adolescents of these topics, so that it can eventually be considered by Mexican authorities that produce school curricula, it was decided to develop a pilot study with a sample of 25 adolescents between 12 and 16 years of age from a middle-class socio-economic context, who were individually interviewed about bank functioning, interest rates and the difference between credit and debit cards. Subjects were tested individually in their schools by the researchers and the interviews lasted approximately 25 minutes. All interviews were audio taped and later transcribed. Results show that the majority of subjects understand interest rates on loans but cannot relate them to interest rates on deposits. They also confuse credit and debit cards. Data are discussed in terms of levels of comprehension and possible application to school curricula.

Impacto de videojuegos en la fluidez lectora en niños con y sin dislexia. El caso de Minecraft

espanolLa fluidez lectora es una habilidad critica para el procesamiento efectivo del significado y para la comprension lectora. La comprension lectora es esencial en el aprendizaje y la comunicacion. Esta habilidad puede verse afectada durante el proceso de alfabetizacion particularmente en ninos con caracteristicas de dislexia, y generar dificultades en el aprendizaje de la lectura y escritura. Actualmente son escasos los estudios en espanol acerca del impacto de las TIC en particular sobre los videojuegos, en la fluidez lectora en ninos regulares o con dificultades y que inician la alfabetizacion. Esta investigacion analizo los efectos del videojuego Minecraft en la fluidez lectora en ninos con y sin dislexia. Se utilizo un diseno de pre-test, aprendizaje y post-test en un estudio de casos conformado por cinco ninos entre 6 y 8 anos, de los cuales 3 presentaban caracteristicas de dislexia. Los participantes se evaluaron en lectura y escritura de acuerdo con el grado academico y con instrumentos para conocer niveles iniciales y finales en la lectura de palabras del videojuego. Las actividades implicaron lectura y escritura de nuevas palabras con dificultad controlada y con limite de tiempo y la construccion guiada durante el juego. Los resultados muestran que el andamiaje proporcionado, como la experiencia de manipulacion virtual en Minecraft, generaron avances en todos los participantes en sus niveles de lectura y fluidez, asi como la adquisicion de nuevo vocabulario. EnglishReading fuency is a critical skill for the efective processing of meaning and for reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is essential for learning and communicating. This ability can be afected during the literacy process, especially in children with dyslexic characteristics, generating difculties while learning to read and write. Currently there are few studies in Spanish concerning the impact of ICT, mainly videogames on reading fuency in regular or children with difculties initiating literacy. This research analyeed the efects of the videogame Minecraft on reading fuency in children with and without dyslexia. A pretest, learning and posttest design was used in a case study consisting of fve children, between six and eight years old. Three of them presented characteristics of dyslexia. Participants were evaluated in reading and writing according to their academic grades and with instruments to acknowledge their initial and fnal levels in the reading of words included in the game. The activities involved the reading and writing of new words with controlled difculty and with a time limit, as well as guided construction during the game. Results show that the given scafolding and the virtual manipulation experience provided by Minecraft generated advances in the reading and fuency levels of all the participants as well as the acquisition of new vocabulary.hension, Second language instruction, Multimedia instruction, Adult Education, Educational innovation, Mixed methods research, Listening comprehension test.

O regimento escolar como base de análise da convivência escolar

School institutional rules and regulations may serve as instruments to guide scholar communities concerning convivenciality. With this idea in mind we developed a study using a questionnaire that was answered by 1436 third and fourth year primary school students and 1275 seventh and ninth grade secondary students that asked students if they had rules and regulations in their schools, if they were aware about it, who had elaborated those rules and regulations and if it was useful within their schools. Data show that students do not know about who elaborates these rules, as well their lack of participation in their own classrooms regulations concerning convivenciality among school community.

School rules and regulations as and axe of analysis of school convivenciality

School institutional rules and regulations may serve as instruments to guide scholar communities concerning convivenciality. With this idea in mind we developed a study using a questionnaire that was answered by 1436 third and fourth year primary school students and 1275 seventh and ninth grade secondary students that asked students if they had rules and regulations in their schools, if they were aware about it, who had elaborated those rules and regulations and if it was useful within their schools. Data show that students do not know about who elaborates these rules, as well their lack of participation in their own classrooms regulations concerning convivenciality among school community.

El reglamento escolar como eje de análisis de la convivencia en la escuela

School institutional rules and regulations may serve as instruments to guide scholar communities concerning convivenciality. With this idea in mind we developed a study using a questionnaire that was answered by 1436 third and fourth year primary school students and 1275 seventh and ninth grade secondary students that asked students if they had rules and regulations in their schools, if they were aware about it, who had elaborated those rules and regulations and if it was useful within their schools. Data show that students do not know about who elaborates these rules, as well their lack of participation in their own classrooms regulations concerning convivenciality among school community.