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- AduLeT project: the community of practice platformPublication . Gonçalves, Vitor; Chumbo, Isabel; Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Patrício, Maria RaquelThe innovation of Europe’s Higher Education systems results mainly from the use of emerging technologies for education and training. Higher education teachers should be prepared to have adequate knowledge, skills or abilities to deal with it in the most suitable way. Technology enhanced learning is the broad approach to using technology to support teaching and learning processes more effectively. In this sense, Advanced use of Learning Technologies in higher education (AduLeT) project has been set up, a collaborative research project funded by the European Commission, involving seven partner countries, running from November 2016 to August 2019. AduLeT aims to improve the teaching quality of lecturers by enhancing their skills regarding the use of technologies in an advanced way. It also aims at training the lecturer on how a specific teaching method can be combined with a certain technology in addition to providing guidelines, best practice and strategy concepts for lecturers and universities. This support system is being implemented as a community of practice (CoP) with all the results of the project and driven by pedagogical aspects. The CoP should also provide the possibility to get into contact with other lecturers and share experiences about teaching with Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). The present paper intends to expose the system of CoP as well as its usage, explaining methods and tools, looking for a problem, user experiences and barriers. The platform consists in an application developed with an author programming tool which makes navigation and interaction flexible, visual, easy and coherent. The platform has been developed to provide users with a useful experience and to ensure inspired teaching and equipped with the skills required to enhance lectures’ current practice. Our experience shows that a CoP could facilitate the adaptation process and allow a faster and more effective transferability of teaching innovations between different countries as well as between lecturers and universities at a national level.
- II Encontro Internacional de Formação na Docência (INCTE): livro de resumosPublication . Pires, Manuel Vara; Mesquita, Cristina; Lopes, Rui Pedro; Santos, Graça; Cardoso, Mário; Sousa, João Sérgio Carvalho; Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Teixeira, CarlosO II Encontro Internacional de Formação na Docência apresenta os seguintes objetivos: problematizar, no quadro do processo de Bolonha, as estruturas curriculares da formação de educadores e professores; debater propostas didáticas inovadoras na formação para a docência; refletir sobre as práticas formativas nos diversos contextos; analisar o contributo da formação na dinamização das instituições; aprofundar a comunicação entre os diferentes intervenientes na formação numa perspetiva de educação para o desenvolvimento. O Encontro está estruturado em quatro grandes eixos temáticos: Currículo e formação de educadores e professores (CFEP) Este eixo temático integra as questões do currículo, da inovação curricular e as novas perspetivas curriculares, no âmbito da formação inicial ou continuada de educadores e professores, incluindo a discussão de modelos e processos curriculares de diferente natureza e de trabalhos ou propostas de formação de educadores e professores, nos diversos contextos. Didática e formação de educadores e professores (DFEP) Este eixo temático integra aspetos dos diferentes saberes disciplinares em contexto escolar, abarcando a reflexão sobre os contributos da didática na formação de educadores e professores para uma construção progressiva de formas de compreender e agir conscientemente em situações educativas. Práticas educativas e supervisão pedagógica (PESP) Este eixo temático integra o desenvolvimento de práticas de formação de educadores e professores nas escolas, compreendendo a problematização dos papéis a desempenhar pelos diversos intervenientes, numa perspetiva de trabalho colaborativo e da construção de uma identidade profissional consciente, empenhada e responsável. Formação docente e educação para o desenvolvimento (FDED) Este eixo temático integra aspetos formativos do ensino e da aprendizagem relacionados com a promoção de uma cidadania global responsável, abrangendo a discussão de projetos e práticas educativas potenciadoras de uma educação para o desenvolvimento.
- Teaching Crossroads: 15th and 16th IPB Erasmus WeeksPublication . Silva, Elisabete Mendes (Ed.); Pais, Clarisse (Ed.); Pais, Luís S. (Ed.)Education has undergone many changes and adaptations due to the uncanny times we live in caused by the pandemic that spread to the world in the first months of 2020. Speaking and writing about the effects of Covid-19 in all areas of life has become a common practice if one thinks of the numerous reports and news put forth by the media about the impact of the virus on people, on the economy, on work and school. No one knows for sure the consequences of Coronavirus. We can only focus and reflect on its short-term effects. Apart from realising that Covid-19 has taken its toll on people, it has forced us to readjust our lives in an unforeseeable way. Working and studying from home became a common practice of life put on hold. Lockdowns, enforced differently by the governments, have tried to bring the pandemic under control to drop transmission rates. In addition, they have dictated (the temporary) course of education and business. Online classes, online meetings, via Zoom or the Microsoft platform Teams, for instance, have given way to a virtual environment to which schools and universities had to adhere. To avoid letting ourselves to be under the sway of Covid-19, we have to carry on with our so-called normal lives, under all accepted constraints, and try to deal with this new situation the best we can. That means that one has to continue teaching, learning and doing research in the search for knowledge, new challenges to unravel less explored fields, and, ultimately, to find a balance between life and work. Starting this preface with the mention of the pandemic was neither innocent nor purposeless. As teachers and researchers, we felt we had to convey a message to all the people involved in the field of education and research. We must resolutely not fear the virus and fight it by doing what we know best. Despite the need to abide by safety rules, we have to continue working. Regarding education, we can already draw some conclusions about the effects of the pandemic throughout these last ten months. Schools and universities have made all the efforts to overcome the constraints caused by Covid-19, facilitating the work of teachers/lecturers, educators, and researchers by fostering collaborative work and technology-enhanced learning. If, on the one hand, many complained about a myriad of negative aspects, namely the reduction of class interaction, technological devices and network problems, on the other, some bravely embraced the idea of going online, despite all the obstacles they would encounter. Overall, everyone adapted and continued working, upholding their beliefs in democratic education. Conferences have also been postponed, cancelled, or transferred to an online context. The Erasmus Week, which was to be held at the IPB in May this year, was regretfully cancelled. Teaching Crossroads was not put off by the virus. It hasn’t stopped the publication process since May last year. As such, we are pleased to have this year’s edition ready, comprising some of the works presented during the 15th and 16th IPB Erasmus Weeks. Finally, we would like to thank the authors who kindly sent us their works to be published, undergoing a thorough review process. Consequently, our last word of appraisal goes to the reviewers who helped us to keep the quality level we aim to maintain. We do hope that both students and teachers enjoy reading the texts published in this number, in the sense they find common teaching intersections that will benefit them throughout the teaching-learning process.
- VII Encontro Internacional de Formação na Docência (INCTE): livro de resumosPublication . Mesquita, Cristina (Ed.); Silva, Elisabete Mendes (Ed.); Pires, Manuel Vara (Ed.); Lopes, Rui Pedro (Ed.); Vaz, Paula Marisa Fortunato (Ed.)Vivemos num mundo interconectado confrontado com diversos desafios, para os quais se têm de preparar todos os cidadãos, os mais adultos, os mais jovens e as crianças. Enfrentamos o constante aumento da população mundial, com todas as consequências que ele tem trazido: a ocupação de espaços geográfi- cos menos favoráveis, a concentração de grandes massas populacion- ais nas cidades, bem como o esgotamento de recursos naturais e as alterações climáticas. Acresce a estes fenómenos, que atingem o mundo em diferentes escalas e dimensões, as assimetrias entre povos, que intensificam os olhares sobre a diversidade cultural, social e económica, mas também, fruto dos fluxos migratórios, conduzem à miscigenação. As questões políticas, económicas e sociais, cada vez mais interdependentes, fazem com que uma variação numa delas tenha vibrações nas restantes. O desenvolvimento tecnológico constitui outra das áreas que tem despoletado alguns desafios na vivência societal mas, ao mesmo tempo, se tem constituído como uma oportunidade de interação científica, cultural, social e de abertura à criatividade e à inovação. Testemunhamos cenários de volatilidade, de complexidade e de incerteza, onde as pandemias, as guerras, as ameaças climáticas, entre outros fenómenos, interligam as comunidades e criam a necessidade de definir estratégias mundiais concertadas. As palavras equidade, sustentabilidade, transformação e inclusão, assumidas nos discursos políticos, económicos e sociais, deverão ser realizações efetivas na construção da cidadania global. Todo este cenário requer esforços deliberados e contínuos de partilha de experiências, de ideias e de criatividade, no sentido de criar um entendimento que permita aumentar a confiança das pessoas e das comunidades. O INCTE’23, já na sua 7.a edição, como Encontro com afirmação nacional e internacional, está empenhado, mais uma vez, na reflexão sobre esta realidade e os seus impactos em contexto educativo, bem como na prossecução dos seus principais objetivos: • Problematizar as estruturas curriculares da formação de educadores e professores; • Debater propostas didáticas inovadoras no âmbito da formação para a docência; • Refletir sobre as práticas formativas nos diversos contextos; • Analisar o contributo da formação na dinamização das instituições; • Promover o diálogo entre os diferentes intervenientes na formação numa perspetiva de educação para o desenvolvimento; • Debater práticas de formação no ensino superior. Além disso, a temática “Desafios na Formação de Professores e nas Escolas num Mundo Interconectado” constitui-se como um meio de estimular a partilha entre professores e educadores, formadores de formadores e investigadores sobre outras formas de educar, no respeito pela pluralidade, pela natureza, o desenvolvimento do pensamento crítico e informado, a flexibilidade e adequação a novas realidades, em situações incertas e cenários instáveis. Por todos estes desafios lançados, endereçamos o convite a todos os interessados em contribuir para a discussão destas temáticas, que continuam a revelar-se tão oportunas e pertinentes no mundo em que vivemos.
- Night-owls and larks: shedding light on cultural competence in translator trainingPublication . Chumbo, Isabel; Silva, Elisabete MendesTranslator training is viewed as highly practical. However, future translators are also trained through theoretical approaches and with a strong focus on the acquisition of a set of competences which will make their future as professionals uncomplicated. One of these competences includes cultural knowledge. Cultural competence is a fundamental skill of communication in a multicultural world, revealing itself paramount in the understanding of any type of text the translator has to deal with. Therefore, developing and consolidating this competence should be a major concern when training future translators. The aim of this article is to shed light on the acquisition, use and practice of cultural competence. Based on the Task-based learning teaching (TBLT) methodology and taking into account the different learning styles of our students, several text types and genres were analysed in the English language course of a master’s degree in Translation in Portugal, namely through literary texts and the language of headlines. We shall then present some diagnosed and identified problems students felt during hands-on work focusing on this competence, convey some examples that have been worked upon and finally give recommendations on how to overcome this constraint in both learning and teaching perspectives.
- Uses and misuses of liberty over time: Isaiah Berlin on political libertyPublication . Silva, Elisabete MendesLiberty has always been the connecting value across centuries, ever since the struggle between liberty and authority was noticed, paving thus the way for discus- sion and quarrels on what liberty meant. Despite its abstract features, natural liberty and liberty under the law had differentiated implications that shackled societies and triggered ideological debate. Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century defined li- berty as the absence of obstacles for the fulfillment of desires. As such, total indivi- dual liberty would lead to a condition of war. To avoid the destruction of individuals, it was crucial to transfer man’s rights into a Sovereign in the form of a social contract. John Locke would later claim that a civil society ensured the preservation of rights. Liberty under the law meant protection against the tyranny of the political rulers. The Enlightenment movement, an intellectual and political reaction to religious bigo- try (Hamilton, 1992), praised, first and foremost, individual liberty, reason, and auto- nomy. The Enlightenment, cosmopolitan and rationally-driven, put aside the idea of custom and tradition, starting anew against the slumbers of Middle-Age superstition. Autonomy and individual liberty motivated the liberal theory to sustain its principles in important documents such as Magna Carta (1215), Bill of Rights (1689), Virginia Bill of Rights (1776) and Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789). Setting the context for the discussion of (political) liberty considering the Enlighten- ment movement and the liberal tradition in Britain, this paper focuses more specifi- cally on the interpretation that Isaiah Berlin, a 20th century British liberal, made on the Enlightenment and how it influenced the purposes and outcomes of the French Revolution under the banner of abstract and, alas, contending values like liberty and equality. By delving into Berlin’s conception of liberty, we aim therefore to unveil some misconceptions about the use and appropriation of the word liberty over time.
- Adulet project and educational technologies: updates to the state of the artPublication . Gonçalves, Vitor; Chumbo, Isabel; Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Patrício, Maria RaquelHigher education teachers are now facing bigger challenges than ever before regarding students’ motivation and effective learning. The teaching model paradigm has been rapidly changing over the last decades due to the wide array of technological tools available to every student, namely smartphones, social networks, new platforms and devices which cater for new teaching/learning methods and tools. Technology can either represent an added-value in the learning/teaching process or it can be a major failure if teachers do not have enough knowledge or skills to deal with it in the most adequate way. It is in this context that the “AduLeT - Advanced use of Learning Technologies in higher education” project emerged in 2016 and will operate until 2019. This seven partner-consortium international project aims at creating a Community of Practice to improve the teaching quality of lecturers by enhancing their skills concerning the use of technologies in an advanced way. The aims of this paper are as follows: 1. to describe the project design, focusing on its different stages, namely the research methods applied, known barriers and how to overcome them; and highlighting the guidelines for the effective use of “Technology-Enhanced Learning” tools (TEL tools); 2. to anticipate some known and expected results of the survey conducted in each country by the consortium partners; 3. to demonstrate how the CoP shall work by setting forth some examples of possible and already pinpointed teaching methods and tools for TEL. It is our belief that this project could present good practices for the use of appropriate educational technologies and properly conformed with teaching/learning methods applicable to the resolution of problems, difficulties, requisites of common teaching, providing a structured and meaningful model within the TEL area. Therefore, it will most certainly contribute to the modernization of Europe’s Higher Education systems for education and training. We do hope that, in the long run, this community of practice grows as a whole in order to become self-sufficient.
- Teaching Crossroads: 13th and 14th IPB Erasmus WeeksPublication . Silva, Elisabete Mendes (Ed.); Pais, Clarisse (Ed.); Pais, Luís S. (Ed.)The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) has been organising its Erasmus Week since 2004. It is held yearly in May, normally during the second week of May. The Erasmus week’s main purposes are three-fold. First, the IPB aims at enforcing closer, more dynamic and more efficient institutional relations amongst the European Higher Education Institutions. Lectures are then organised and introduced in both undergraduate and master classes in accordance with the area of interest. Meetings with directors of the 5 IPB schools and Erasmus coordinators are also scheduled. The second and third goals, which naturally derive from the first, are to facilitate familiarity with the IPB campus, its schools and with the cities of Bragança and Mirandela, where the IPB schools are settled, and with the surrounding area, namely the Montesinho Natural Park and the Alto Douro Wine Region (UNESCO World Heritage). This information can be found on the IPB International Relations Office website. Overall, all these three goals lie behind what is considered an umbrella goal which is to promote the IPB in its numerous valences and strengthen the mobility ties with the different European Higher Institutions which have established cooperation agreements with the IPB. This has revealed fruitful and far-reaching as more than 20 partner countries visit us every year. If one takes into account the two last editions’ numbers, Poland is the country with a higher percentage of participants (37.1% and 29%), followed by Spain (11.4% and 15.9%), France, Romania and Czech Republic1. Regarding the lectures delivered during this week, teachers show a high level of satisfaction and find it rather rewarding according to the evaluation results obtained every year. One of the most visible results of these lectures is the publication of Teaching Crossroads. It started being published aiming ultimately at the dissemination of the research work that was presented at the IPB. We then extended it to all activities related to Teachers Erasmus+ mobility and international projects. The idea was not only to disseminate studies from other European researchers but also to give to the IPB teaching staff the opportunity to publish their research work and what they presented during their mobility. So far, the adhesion to this project has been rather steady and compliant with the publication’s main goal. In hindsight, this project, which started in 2011, continues to persevere in its academic path, making thus available to students and teachers the most valuable research studies and relevant data in regard to a myriad of study areas which underlie the spirit of Higher Education, multifaceted, multilayered and plural. In Higher Education we hope never to be at a crossroads, but we dare to constantly thrive when faced with obstacles and embrace the challenges of knowledge. All areas of study are important and meaningful and must be continually promoted. This has been the leading motto of Teaching Crossroads since its very beginning. This would have never been possible without the valuable help of regular contributors to whom we are very grateful, from the authors, the reviewers, the designer to the IPB Image Services. A thanking note must also go to the IPB which has embraced this project by agreeing to publish it. As a result of the close cooperation work with the researchers who submitted their proposals to blind review, we selected five texts from diverse areas but nonetheless complementary. As such, this year, areas of study vary from comparative literature, education, social education and sociology, finance to business and entrepreneurship. A brief summary of each is presented next. María Antonia Mezquita Fernández, whose research has been focusing on the modern subject of ecocriticism bearing in mind the new approach to the close relationship between environmental issues and literature, a concern that always permeated literature, discusses the ecocritical identity in the light of literary figures and their poetical messages regarding nature. By highlighting and comparing two British poets, William Wordsworth and Dylan Thomas, and a Spanish poet, Claudio Rodríguez, the author introduces an ecocritical stance to the analysis of the poems under discussion. Sharing the common ground of nature, the poems are worth reading due to the powerful messages they convey, not only bearing in mind the period when they were written but because the topics explored resonate with the environmental defenders’ main principles. What the author brings to the fore of discussion is a thought-provocative, challenging and relevant essay which found in literature its main driving force to call the attention to the importance of the defence of nature in a time where environmental issues, such as global warming and the melting of glaciers, are at the centre of the world’s political agenda, despite the constant scepticism that still persists to endure. Beata Sufa & Anna Szkolak-Stępień delve into the idea of creativity fostered within the teaching context, by both teachers and students. In their article entitled “Creative Teacher-Creative Pupil – a Study Report”, the authors argue that, having in mind all the technological advances and (advanced) use of learning technology, the new conditions of school and learning context require new challenges to the way the teaching-learning process is dealt with. The teacher’s creative attitude will thus become paramount for children’s development of creativity which will help them to improve communication skills. Kazimiera Król studies the phenomenon of begging in Poland, analyzing the spatial and social framework of such reality which results from many factors and underlies consequences to the places chosen for begging and to the beggars themselves. The author puts forth an empirical study bearing in mind the age, gender, civil status and nationality of mendicants, presenting thus in-depth data which allow her to reach interesting and relevant conclusions regarding the whole phenomenon of begging in nowadays Poland. Eliza Komierzyńska-Orlińska sheds some light on a common unknown part of the financial system to the majority of people, which is the security of the banking system. When one deposits or withdraws money one is never aware of (or simply does not care about) how our money is held safe or how the banks protect their assets. The article “Security of the Banking System in Poland. Fundamental Assumptions” deals precisely with security issues within the Polish banking system highlighting the crucial role of the central bank in the whole process of surveillance and regulation. Legal issues are therefore discussed. By using simple and straightforward language, the author is able to reach a non-specialist audience who will become more informed about this issue in a rather clear way. Erik Kubička focuses on organizational culture explaining how well-succeeded, renowned, top companies in the technology sector foster effectiveness in the work environment. In this regard, the author describes several technological companies, such as Google, Apple and IBM, just to name a few. Innovation, informal leadership, less red tape and closer contact with the workers are features that are common to all these companies which represent the key to their success.
- Transnational networks: (imagined) representations of the Portuguese liberal revolution by the British pressPublication . Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Couceiro, PedroThe Oxford Journal, on 23 September 1820, subjoined part of the Proclamation of the Provisional Junta to the Portuguese nation citing “The Extraordinary” Gazette of Lisbon, news which had also been previously communicated by the Moniteur de Paris. Other newspapers, such as The Morning Chronicle, devoted more lines to the event as they published the complete Proclamation text. News of the revolution in Portugal only reached Britain a couple of weeks after the event via the European press, namely the abovementioned Portuguese periodical and the French papers. Liberal winds of change were spreading throughout Europe and Britain was not an exception. Despite its consolidated constitutional tradition, Britain still struggled with the political and social injustice of an underrepresented Parliament. It is no surprise then the promotion of a discourse sustaining Parliamentary Reform so to change the current political status quo. This discourse found also resonance in the British Press which, in 1820, enjoyed some reasonable freedom. However, it was not only exempt from the influence of “specific political conditions” (Bantman, 2018), which swayed the editorial line of the newspapers and periodicals, but it was also dependent on the political party the papers were associated with, either Tory or Whig supported, or adopting a more radical stance. The purpose of this paper is thus two-fold. On the one hand, we shall identify the type of discourse disseminated by the British newspapers concerning the Portuguese Liberal revolution, analysing the representations constructed around this specific event. On the other, we shall analyse the impact of transnational networks, discernible in the press field, in regards the accuracy of the news conveyed to reading communities and the circulation of liberal ideals.
- Power, cosmopolitanism and socio-spatial division in the commercial arena in Victorian and Edwardian LondonPublication . Silva, Elisabete MendesThe developments of the English Revolution and of the British Empire expedited commerce and transformed the social and cultural status quo of Britain and the world. More specifically in London, the metropolis of the country, in the eighteenth century, there were already a sheer number of retail shops that would set forth an urban world of commerce and consumerism. Magnificent and wide-ranging shops served householders with commodities that mesmerized consumers, giving way to new traditions within the commercial and social fabric of London. Therefore, going shopping during the Victorian Age became mandatory in the middle and upper classes’ social agendas. Harrod’s Department store opens in 1864, adding new elements to retailing by providing a sole space with a myriad of different commodities. In 1909, Gordon Selfridge opens Selfridge’s, transforming the concept of urban commerce by imposing a more cosmopolitan outlook in the commercial arena. Within this context, I intend to focus primarily on two of the largest department stores, Harrods and Selfridge’s, drawing attention to the way these two spaces were perceived when they first opened to the public and the effect they had in the city of London and in its people. I shall discuss how these department stores rendered space for social inclusion and exclusion, gender and race under the spell of the Victorian ethos, national conservatism and imperialism. I shall also argue that they brought about new social, cultural and work space opportunities, transforming social and cultural dynamics and power, being nowadays considered undeniable heritage icons, as they became popular tourist attractions, of the Londoner culture and of the commercial sphere. Lastly, my research will concurrently provide insight into the social history of the Victorian age and the early decades of the twentieth century.