This report reflects a collaborative research effort to help inform Brazilian educational leaders about significant developments in technologies supporting teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in primary and secondary education. In an effort that ran from August through October 2012, a carefully selected group of 30 experts considered hundreds…

This work describes the use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) applied to the biochemistry class for undergraduate, first-year medical students at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The course focused on the integration of energy metabolism, exploring metabolic adaptations in different physiological or pathological states such as…

The idea of collective decision making in schools has been a popular democratic educational reform model. One of its claims is that participation in school decision making empowers teachers and improves teaching. This research investigates this claim by exploring seven teachers' experiences with a unique democratic school reform in Porto Alegre,…

This article presents specific teaching material for the primary school level that introduces basic concepts of environmental comfort. The authors developed 2 booklets to make children aware of the built environment. Following a postoccupancy evaluation of state schools in the city of Campinas, in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the research team…

In the year 2000, Brazil celebrated the 500th anniversary of its discovery by the Portuguese navigator, Pedro Alvares Cabral, and subsequent settlement by the Portuguese and African, Western, and Asian immigrants. The seminar commemorating these events was designed for U.S. secondary and post-secondary teachers and curriculum specialists of the…

To investigate teaching practices for English as a foreign/second language (EFL) at the university level in Brazil, three researchers analyzed the research presented at the 1990 Brazilian National Conference of EFL University Teachers (ENPULI Conference). Focus of the analysis was on the main objective of the study and the emphasis placed on…

A study surveyed 207 students of English as a Second Language, aged 11-57 and at all levels, in a Brazilian English institute to derive a student profile for curriculum development. Subjects were questioned concerning: motivation for starting and continuing English language study; perceptions of the language lessons in terms of activity types,…

Delineates the historical and sociopolitical factors that influenced the educational development of sociology in Brazil. Discusses leading theorists, educational reformers, and the university's role in opposing the military regime. More recent crises have included shrinking academic budgets and declining enrollment. (MJP)

Presents a classroom project dealing with tropical deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Addresses environmental consequences and economic, social, and political causes. Involves both lectures and individual research and reports by student groups on deforestation causes. Includes a note-playing activity in which students make recommendations for…

One of a series of social studies curriculum guides, this publication outlines a sixth-grade course on world cultures. Material is presented in two parts. Part 1, an overview of the program, contains an introduction, a statement of philosophy, an outline of elementary level scope and sequence, a description of Michigan mandated essential skill and…