Search

Copyright of Retos: Nuevas Perspectivas de Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación is the property of Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educacion Fisica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We describe part of an action-research programme in Spain which was based on metacognitive reflection. The participants were four science teachers in a secondary school during the 2004–05 and 2005–06 academic years. During the study, they each analysed their own pupils’ alternative ideas on photosynthesis and their teaching methods as recorded in videos of their classes, and followed this by planning new teaching units. The present communication focuses on the case of one experienced teacher. The results showed that the teacher’s reflection on his pupils’ commonest alternative ideas and his own classroom teaching led him to plan new teaching units for the second year of the study which took those alternative ideas into account, and included new strategies, resources and activities. The programme has contributed to the teacher’s professional development, impacting significantly on the elements that form part of his teaching, and positively affecting the learning and conceptual change of his pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnoecology studies the relations of human beings with their environment aiming at understanding several current socio-ecological problems such as ecological degradation and loss of cultural diversity, mainly from a local point of view. Since 2006, the research team of the Ethnoecology Laboratory (Autonomous University of Barcelona) is conducting research projects focused on the study of social, cultural, political, and ecological factors and dynamics influencing the relation of rural and indigenous communities in Africa, Asia, Latin-America, and Europe, with their environment. Contrary to the common practice of simply extracting information from rural communities, projects at the Ethnoecology Laboratory blend academic research and actions oriented to return findings to the populations where we work and to improve their well-being and sustainable use of natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the academic year 2005-2006 a Cross University Network for Formative and Shared Assessment in Higher Education was formed among 48 academics from 16 different universities within Spain and representing a range of academic areas. The Network was formed in response to the determination of a group of individuals who were dissatisfied with, or unconvinced by, the traditional forms of assessment used within the Spanish higher education environment. Its aim was to provide a framework within which these individuals could provide mutual support for their work on developing more innovative and effective assessment strategies within their own subject areas and at the same time provide a focus to stimulate a wider debate and more extensive research within the HE sector in Spain. The aim of this article is to explain the background and rationale for the formation of the Network, the framework it has provided, some of the initial findings and how this type of framework may be applicable to similar situations in other sectors or countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]