Lúcia Pombo

Determination of trace metals in fish species of the Ria de Aveiro (Portugal) by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract Cadmium, copper, nickel, lead and zinc were determined in fish samples from seven sampling stations of the Ria de Aveiro (Portugal). The species analyzed were Anguilla anguilla , Mullus surmuletus , Trigla lucerna, Mugil cephalus , Chelon labrosus , Liza aurata and Dicentrarchus labrax , all of which are used for human consumption. For this purpose, procedures for the electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry determination of cadmium, copper, nickel and lead in these samples were developed, as well as a microwave digestion method for obtaining a fast dissolution of the samples. The concentrations of metals found in the muscle of the fish species were very low. The minor contents corresponded to cadium, lead and nickel with values smaller than 0.043, 0.15 and 0.14 μg/g (wet weight), respectively, except in the case of nickel in the Anguilla anguilla species where more elevated concentrations were found (between 0.16 and 0.40 μg/g). The contents of copper in the samples ranged from 0.5 to 1.1 μg/g (wet wt.). Zn is the most abundant element in all fishes, with concentrations around 20 μg/g (wet wt.) in the Anguilla anguilla samples and with values oscillating between 4.7 and 12 μg/g in the rest of the species studied. In all cases, the results obtained for all the elements were considerably lower than those recommended by specific legislation for these aquatic organisms. The accuracy of the analytical methodology employed was also evaluated through the analysis of two reference materials (NIST-1577b and IAEA-V10): good agreement was obtained between the experimental results and the certified values.

The structure, diversity and somatic production of the fish community in an estuarine coastal lagoon, Ria de Aveiro (Portugal)

The present study aims to determine biological fish production of a lagoon and relate this to the commercial fisheries yield. The fish community of an estuarine lagoon in the west coast of Portugal was sampled between November 1998 and November 2000 to estimate the production ecology of the community, including somatic production, population size, species richness, species diversity, and biomass. Using the Allen curve method of determination, the total annual fish production of all fish species in the lagoon was calculated at 90.3 tonnes or 2.1 g m−2 year−1 in the first year and 106.7 tonnes or 2.5 g m−2 year−1 in the second year. The marine seasonal migrant species, sardine, Sardina pilchardus, which colonises the lagoon during the juvenile period of its life stages, produced more than 35 tonnes in each year and accounted for >39 and >33%, in the first and second year respectively, of the total fish production in this lagoon. Sardine was numerically more abundant (18,217 specimens) but due to their small size contributed only 13% to the total biomass. Sardine was thus the most important fish species in terms of the consumption and production processes of the whole fish community in this system. Commercial fisheries’ records indicate that approximately 300 tonnes per annum of fish are taken from the lagoon, which corresponds to three times more than the estimated production in the lagoon. Thus, if it exists, the sustainability of the fishery appears to depend on the immigration of fish from the adjacent coastal area and it is questioned whether the fishery is sustainable in the long-term. The findings indicate that careful and effective management of the lagoon is required to ensure a long-term healthy aquatic environment and sustainable catches in the future.

The Quality of Peer Assessment in a Wiki-Based Online Context: A Qualitative Study

Peer assessment (PA) provides opportunities for authentic assessment, autonomy and collaboration. Several authors advocate that students can benefit from PA and put forward the effects of PA on the students’ learning outcomes. Questions concerning the validity and reliability of PA and PA competences are also addressed by different researchers. This qualitative study is part of a wider project that seeks to develop and test evaluation and assessment strategies in online contexts. In a doctoral module, PA was used for summative and formative purposes. Formative PA aimed to give feedback about the ongoing group work, but also to increase online interaction between the different groups of students. The main module task was to write a literature review, about a selected topic, using a wiki. Criteria and indicators to assess the literature review were negotiated with the students. Different criteria were used to assess the quality of PA, such as, the use of the negotiated criteria, the adequacy of the chosen vocabulary or the provision of constructive feedback. The results show that overall the quality of PA can be improved. Groups did not provide sufficient criticism, questions and suggestions for improvement.

Evaluating an Online E-Module for Portuguese Primary Teachers: Trainees' Perceptions.

The work reported in this article is part of a wider project that aims to develop and implement a web-based, pan-European, in-service professional development platform for teachers to enhance their role in promoting education through science. This article aims to evaluate the implementation of the e-module on Assessment of Children’s Learning in Primary Science, which was created at Bradford College (UK) and was adapted to be trialled by Portuguese science teachers. The article (i) evaluates the e-module in order to find facilities and constraints with a view to improving it in future versions; (ii) analyses participants’ opinions concerning strategies explored, resources and their reflections on their learning; and (iii) discusses the impact of the training on teachers’ professional development. Data was collected through three different online questionnaires: (i) at the start; (ii) at the end of the e-module; and (iii) one year after implementation of the e-module. The results indicate that the majority of the teachers recognised that the module promoted the development of new skills during the course, such as ICT skills, which have an impact on classroom practice and enhance their professional development both in the personal domain and in the domain of practice. It was also recognised by both trainees and tutors that the main advantage of using an e-learning platform was that it enabled an adjustment to individual needs taking into account different learning styles and rhythms. They also recognised the importance of international dimensions of education; flexibility of timetables; and collaborative work between peers.

Academic domains as political battlegrounds : a global enquiry by 99 academics in the fields of education and technology

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars’ reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human constituents of an academic realm, with the two shaping one another. One implication of this proposition is that these non-human elements exist as political ‘actors’, just like their human counterparts, having ‘agency’ – which they exercise over humans. This turns academic domains into political (functional or dysfunctional) ‘battlefields’ wherein both humans and non-humans engage in political activities and actions that form the identity of the academic domain.

The Use of Communication Technologies in Higher Education in Portugal: Best Practices and Future Trends

This chapter presents and discusses best practices and future trends in the use of Communication Technologies (CT) in Portuguese public Higher Education Institutions (HEI), from a literature review between 2008 and 2013, triangulated with the opinion of Higher Education teachers, using interviews. This contribution emerges from the project “TRACER—Portuguese Public Higher Education Use of Communication Technologies”, which aims to contribute towards the characterization of HEI according to their adoption and use of CT in educational contexts.

An Evaluation Model for Quality Assurance of Blended Learning: Exploring the Lecturers’ Perspectives

This paper will discuss the process of evaluation in blended learning courses, offering an evaluation model for those particular courses and also showing the lecturers’ views about how they think evaluation of bLearning courses should be done, taking into account the curricular proposals of the three cycles of Higher Education (HE). Questions like “what is evaluation for?”, “who should evaluate?”, “how and when to evaluate?”, and “what should be evaluated?” are combined together integrating a model with all those variables, whose guidelines provide a practical tool to help designers and decision makers to assure an effective, efficient and flexible teaching and learning environment. In addition, the same questions were asked in a survey conducted with 100 bLearning lecturers (79 valid responses) of the 11 Portuguese HE institutions that offer this kind of courses. The study highlights the need for those institutions to reassess their approach to the quality assurance of bLearning courses, and brings some contributions to those who are in charge of bLearning courses, providing a useful framework for the evaluation of bLearning courses in order to assure and enhance their teaching and learning quality.

The impact of biology/geology school teachers masters courses on the improvement of science education quality in Portugal

In this paper we report a large‐scale study designed to evaluate the impact of masters courses on the professional development of science school teachers and, consequently, on the improvement of the quality of science education. The underlying assumption of this study is that masters teachers are widely recognized as assuming a relevant role to establish bridges between education research and practices, not only as knowledge producers but also as mediators and privileged users of the knowledge produced by research. The empirical study was conducted with science teachers who experienced advanced professional education programmes, leading to masters degrees, in some specific areas of science or science education. Data were collected through a written questionnaire answered by 81 masters teachers who concluded their masters courses between 2001 and 2005 in 12 Portuguese universities. The results indicate that the majority of respondents (80%) considered the existence of an impact on their professional practice, namely, (i) stronger critical attitudes about the teaching and learning process, (ii) the use of more diversified (or new) teaching strategies, (iii) a deeper professional knowledge, and (iv) a higher confidence in discussions with their peers. Looking deeply at concrete examples of impact, the results show that 63% of answers were examples of micro‐impact, e.g. an impact in the classroom. However, some masters teachers (20%) mentioned little impact on their professional practice, as the content of the course was not articulated with the reality of school practices. There is an overlap of the results found here with other studies which suggests that there is still a need to increase the links between higher education universities, responsible for teacher education programmes, and secondary schools. The main obstacles to transferring research knowledge, developed during the masters course, to professional activities are found and some suggestions for overcoming them are proposed.

Edulabs AGIRE Project--Evaluation of ICT Integration in Teaching Strategies.

Abstract The AGIRE project, under the Edulab concept, aims to promote the adoption of innovative teaching practices. This paper reports the support strategies used to evaluate the teacher practices at the end of a teacher training course (TTC) and analyse its impact on teacher technology integration, using a design-based methodology. Teachers’ initial perception was gathered using an online questionnaire comprising ICT personal and professional competencies. The questionnaire results and the classroom observations showed that the majority of teachers were at the level of ICT adoption, before attending the TTC, reaching the adaptation level of integration of ICT, after the TTC. A variety of teaching strategies (flipped classroom, collaborative work, …) and technologies (interactive white boards, tablets, videos, …) were explored. The results sustain the thesis that, with proper support, ICT can be integrated in educational contexts in an innovative way and contribute to the development of teachers’ digital literacy.

Junior Code Academy: A pilot project

The Junior Code Academy is a pilot project that aims to generalize the teaching of programming and code in schools in Portugal, promoting digital literacy and developing skills of problem solving. The presented qualitative pilot study involves students from the 1st cycle of basic education in three schools of Lisbon Municipality, comprising partnership with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and University of Aveiro. The main preliminary results emphasized that there is a high motivation and commitment of students towards programming, which potentially prevents early school dropout.