Recent work in science education has emphasized the importance of the conceptual, social, and epistemic dimensions in science learning. But what about the material dimension--the actual physical materials that students use? The way their characteristics and affordances limit or determine instruction has thus far not been as thoroughly explored.…

Correspondence courses have been offered in Brazil since the late 19th century; in the 20th century, instructional media such as radio and television were successfully used long before the introduction of the Internet. However, distance education (DE) was officially established in Brazil only in 1996 by the National Educational Law of Policies and…

In this paper, our goal is to present a recent overview of how gender issues have been investigated in Brazilian postgraduate studies. We hope, with the presentation of this scenario, to enable that gender studies continue to advance, but also that they find in teachers their strong allies in this important battle for a more egalitarian society.…

This paper aims to discuss about how mobile technologies and resources can be used to support teaching and improving the performance of students with cerebral palsy during out-door classes in the paralympic boccia court. The Educational Design Research has been used to help us to identify the context and to build two interventions: (i) using an…

The use of inclusive teaching materials that motivate and encourage the development of executive functions has been neglected by the mathematic teaching, in which intelligence is valued, but no efforts are made to stimulate it. There are numerous reasons for that, among which are teachers' and students' unawareness that mathematics involves higher…

The management of contemporary software projects is unfeasible without the support of a Project Management (PM) tool. In order to enable the adoption of PM tools in practice, teaching its usage is important as part of computer education. Aiming at teaching PM tools, several approaches have been proposed, such as the development of educational PM…

Using a toy construction set, we introduce to students the job characteristics model in a fun and engaging way. The activity not only describes the theoretical variables of the model but also allows students to (a) experience the dynamic interaction among these variables and (b) gain a better, hands-on understanding of the model. The exercise…

The article describes and discusses the use of focus groups and questionnaires to evaluate educational printed material for high school level art teachers prior to publication. The material consisted of "The Notebook of the Investigative Teacher," created by the Instituto Itau Cultural to help teachers develop critical skills in…

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…

This paper presents experiences introducing computers and the Internet to stimulate cooperative work and improve the way students learn chemical engineering. (Author/WRM)

Describes the structure and functioning of the "Centro de Linguistica Aplicada do Instituto de Idiomas Yazigi" of Sao Paulo and comments on its role in promoting applied linguistics studies in Latin America. Also outlines the Center's historical background and its educational services, particularly those related to the teaching of…

Relates a pilot test of an elementary band method book for group instruction in Brazilian music education. Focused on the amount of content taught within three one-hour classes per week and studied the quality of learning. Concludes that the group covered 17 pages of the book, learned outside material, and performed four concerts. (CMK)

After finding that French language learning was declining in Rio de Janeiro schools because of inadequate resources, oversized classes, and irrelevant curricula, several teachers turned to a magazine for adolescents for motivating students to read. Extracts from an article and a series of exercises developing varied competencies illustrate the…

Sixteen participants in the Fulbright-Hays Seminar on the history and culture of Brazil traveled throughout Brazil from June 27 through August 2, 1992. At the end of the seminar 14 participants developed curriculum projects. Presented alphabetically by author, the 14 curricular projects cover aspects of Brazilian life and culture. Riva…

Describes the experiences of a teacher who won a chance to interact with people involved in education in Belem, Para, Brazil. Discusses the teaching unit that was developed in order to qualify for the exchange program. Provides information about the sponsoring organization. (KO)