Lorena Canet Juric

Development patterns of executive functions in children.

Executive Functions (EF) exercise control over an individuals conduct and thinking through a set of functionally independent processes, among which are cognitive flexibility (reactive and spontaneous), working memory and planning. The development patterns of these components appear to have stages of acceleration and deceleration during childhood. Studies analyzing their development in Spanish-speaking children were not found in our area. Therefore, this study will analyze the development patterns of the cited executive functions with the objective of establishing relationships and comparisons, and identifying the stages of acceleration and stagnation for each component. The studys sample consists of 274 schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 8 (119 in first grade, 61 in second grade and 94 in third grade). Participants were evaluated using the following instruments from the Neuropsychological Assessment of Children test battery (known by the acronym ENI in Spanish): Verbal Fluency (semantic and phonemic); Cognitive Flexibility; Mexican Pyramid; and Backward Digit Span. Three different development patterns were detected, as well as different interactions between the executive components. Additionally, three empirical types were established based on the patterns and relationships between components.

Asociaciones entre rendimiento en comprensión de textos y estrategias pedagógicas utilizadas por docentes

O objetivo deste trabalho foi explorar as associacoes entre o rendimento em compreensao de leitura e diferentes estrategias docentes utilizadas em alunos da segunda e terceira serie do ensino fundamental da cidade de Mar del Plata (Argentina). O pressuposto deste estudo afirma que existe uma associacao entre o rendimento em compreensao de leitura e as estrategias pedagogicas docentes. Foi aplicado uma adaptacao do PROLEC para avaliar o rendimento em leitura e um questionario elaborado para explorar as estrategias docentes. Os instrumentos foram aplicados em uma amostra aleatoria de alunos da 2a e 3a serie de 10 escolas municipais (n=258) e nos seus respectivos docentes (n=64). Os resultados permitiram contribuir com evidencia empirica a respeito da ausencia de associacoes estadisticamente significativas entre ambas as variaveis, o que permite supor que a leitura-escrita e um fenomeno complexo que depende de varios fatores, como ser as diferencas cognitivas individuais, o contexto de alfabetizacao, etc.