Gabriel Travé González

Inquiry-Based Teaching: Teachers' Conceptions, Impediments and Support.

This paper describes a study into the implementation within two Spanish primary schools of an inquiry‐based curricular project entitled Exploring Our World (ages 6–12). Taking the form of two case studies, it offers a description of the two participating schools and the development of the project within them. Particular attention is given to the conceptions, difficulties, obstacles and facilitative factors which influenced the teachers’ attempts to introduce inquiry‐oriented practices into their classrooms. The study has a markedly qualitative focus and aims to provide an insight into the experiences of those involved, with a view to informing other groups interested in following this approach. Among the conclusions that can be drawn from the project, most notable are the influence of the level of professional development on the introduction of inquiry‐based approaches and the absence of a single model of implementation; each initiative is necessarily subject to its particular configuration of context and stakeholders. Nevertheless, all those participating in this initiative were in agreement that involvement in projects of this type is favourable to teacher development and the quality of teaching.

Un estudio sobre las representaciones del profesorado de Educación Primaria acerca de la enseñanza bilingüe

En este articulo se presenta una investigacion acerca de la implantacion de la ensenanza bilingue en la Comunidad Autonoma de Andalucia mediante el analisis de casos singulares en Educacion Primaria. Especificamente, la investigacion persigue indagar en las concepciones de los profesionales sobre los conceptos de bilinguismo y de ensenanza bilingue, asi como en la finalidad y naturaleza de los proyectos. El estudio utiliza una metodologia de caracter integrado, haciendo uso de datos tanto cualitativos como cuantitativos obtenidos a traves de entrevistas y cuestionarios que se administraron a los profesionales de centros que estan desarrollando los proyectos en la actualidad. Entre las conclusiones, resaltamos la utilizacion del termino bilinguismo en un dial que oscila entre las definiciones que lo restringen al dominio perfecto de dos lenguas hasta aquellas mas flexibles que permiten mayor variacion competencial. En cuando a los aspectos didacticos, se pone de relieve la aceptacion y difusion del enfoque de Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lenguas (AICLE) entre el profesorado, si bien se detectan dificultades a la hora de equilibrar las variables de lengua y contenidos. Por otra parte, se identifica mayoritariamente la finalidad de la ensenanza bilingue con la promocion de la competencia comunicativa en la lengua extranjera y sus potenciales beneficios en los planos cognitivo e intelectual. Asimismo, se concibe la ensenanza bilingue como un distintivo de calidad per se y se evidencia el valor estrategico de la promocion del aprendizaje del ingles. Finalmente, en cuanto a las caracteristicas de los proyectos bilingues, destaca la excesiva regulacion administrativa, asi como la escasa formacion inicial y permanente de los profesores en los ambitos linguistico y metodologico.

La enseñanza sobre el medio y los libros de texto en Andalucía: un análisis de contenido y de concepciones del profesorado

The objective of this paper is to know and contrast the assessment of teachers on textbooks as the official curriculum developers and guarantors of certain recommendations of general and specific didactics. The use of an integrated methodology has allowed combining two lines of research in a single study in pursuit of some more elaborated interpretations of the same reality. Through content analysis we have obtained a very approximate view of the didactic treatment that manuals print into these teachings, at the same time we administered a questionnaire to a sample of 863 teachers which has allowed us to know their views about our subjects of study. The main conclusions builds on the weakness of the material to respond to regulatory and bibliographical demands, the presence of a large sector of teachers who know the limitations of textbooks, the express discontent of a small minority and, however, the majority use, and in many cases exclusive, of this material in the classroom. This paradox requires further exploration on didactics representations specific to teachers as well as the ways to achieve greater harmony between conceptions and practices.