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Relatório final apresentado para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Educação Pré-Escolar O presente relatório foi elaborado no âmbito do Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar, intitulado por: O Conhecimento do Mundo no Jardim de Infância através de Métodos de Aprendizagem Cooperativa, tendo como objetivos. A presente investigação encontra-se organizada em duas dimensões, a primeira dimensão, é a reflexiva, onde se aborda uma reflexão geral de todas as minhas práticas supervisionadas, dando ênfase às experiências significativas, a dificuldades existentes e alterações e desafios que surgiram ao longo deste percurso. A segunda dimensão, é a investigativa, esta aborda o exercício investigativo, sendo este uma investigação-ação, de caráter qualitativo, bem como a fundamentação teórica sobre o tema. Esta investigação procura entender se crianças dos três aos seis anos de idade, adquirem conceitos sobre as áreas de conteúdos, focada essencialmente no conhecimento do mundo. This report was prepared within the scope of the Master's Degree in Pre-School Education, titled: The Knowledge of the World in Kindergarten through Cooperative Learning Methods, with objectives. The present research is organized in two dimensions. The first dimension is the reflexive one, which addresses a general reflection of all my supervised practices, emphasizing the significant experiences, the existing difficulties and the changes and challenges that have arisen throughout this route. The second dimension is the investigative one, this one approaches the investigative exercise, being this an action research, of qualitative character, as well as the theoretical foundation on the subject. This research tries to understand if children from three to six years of age, acquire concepts about the content areas, focused essentially on the knowledge of the world. N/A

Resumen: Este trabajo se enmarca en un estudio amplio sobre el procesamiento psicolingüístico de causalidad y contracausalidad en el discurso. Su propósito particular es analizar la articulación que se produce durante este proceso entre la información semántica y la sintáctica. Esto es, cómo se relaciona la complejidad sintáctica con la complejidad de procesamiento al momento de comprender piezas lingüísticas que expresan relaciones semánticas particulares: causales y contracausales. Uno de los ejes principales a estudiar será de qué modo se modifica el patrón de rendimiento cuando la posibilidad/imposibilidad de involucrar condiciona el proceso. Se presentan aquí un experimento psicolingüístico que analiza la comprensión de relaciones causales y contracausales expresadas en oraciones con distinta estructura sintáctica -coordinadas y subordinadas- y en dos condiciones respecto del tipo de información: cotidiana - el hablante puede involucrar su conocimiento sobre el mundo- y técnica -esta intervención del conocimiento previo no es posible-. Los resultados muestran que esta última variable condiciona el patrón de procesamiento y modifica significativamente la articulación entre complejidad sintáctica y complejidad de procesamiento: solo en ausencia de conocimiento previo, la complejidad sintáctica se refleja de modo directo en complejidad de procesamiento. Abstract: This paper is part of a comprehensive study on the psycholinguistic processing of causality and counter-causality in discourse. The particular aim is to analyze the articulation between the semantic and syntactic information during this process. That is, how the syntactic complexity is related to the processing complexity when readers have to understand pieces of discourse that express particular semantic relationships: causal and counter-causal. One of the main objectives will be to study how the performance pattern changes when the possibility / impossibility to involve world knowledge conditions the process. We present a psycholinguistic experiment, which aims at analyzing the comprehension of causal and counter-causal relations, expressed by sentences with different syntactic structure -coordinates and subordinates- and in two conditions regarding the type of information: every-day items -the speaker may involve their world knowledge- and technical items -this intervention of previous world knowledge is not possible-. Results show that this factor determines the processing pattern and significantly modifies the articulation between syntactic complexity and processing complexity: only in the absence of prior knowledge, syntactic complexity is reflected directly in processing complexity.

In an ERP study, following stimuli with a world knowledge violation we added a sentence-level context which made a world knowledge violation more acceptable in order to investigate how participants processed the subsequent sentence context. Sentences consisting of five Chinese words were of three experimental types: correct sentences with correct world knowledge and coherent sentence meaning, incoherent sentences with a world knowledge violation and incoherent sentence meaning, and ‘re-coherent’ sentences with a world knowledge violation but coherent sentence meaning. The results showed both incoherent and re-coherent conditions modulated N400, elicited by the critical word which contained the world knowledge violation, and a negative deflection elicited by the final word, in a similar way, reflecting the immediate world knowledge integration of critical word and low predictability of final word respectively. An additional negative deflection was elicited only by the final word in the incoherent condition, probably reflecting global sentence context integration. These results provide support for immediate world knowledge integration, and indicate that subsequent new sentence context can immediately influence previous world knowledge constraints.

Recent findings have shown that information about changes in an object’s environmental location in the context of discourse is stored in working memory during sentence comprehension. However, in these studies, changes in the object’s location were always consistent with world knowledge (e.g., in “The writer picked up the pen from the floor and moved it to the desk,” the floor and the desk are both common locations for a pen). How do people accomplish comprehension when the object-location information in working memory is inconsistent with world knowledge (e.g., a pen being moved from the floor to the bathtub)? In two visual world experiments, with a “look-and-listen” task, we used eye-tracking data to investigate comprehension of sentences that described location changes under different conditions of appropriateness (i.e., the object and its location were typically vs. unusually coexistent, based on world knowledge) and antecedent context (i.e., contextual information that did vs. did not temporarily normalize unusual coexistence between object and location). Results showed that listeners’ retrieval of the critical location was affected by both world knowledge and working memory, and the effect of world knowledge was reduced when the antecedent context normalized unusual coexistence of object and location. More importantly, activation of world knowledge and working memory seemed to change during the comprehension process. These results are important because they demonstrate that interference between world knowledge and information in working memory, appears to be activated dynamically during sentence comprehension.

The on-line use of world knowledge during reading was examined in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both ASD and typically developed (TD) adults read sentences that included plausible, implausible and anomalous thematic relations, as their eye movements were monitored. No group differences in the speed of detection of the anomalous violations were found, but the ASD group showed a delay in detection of implausible thematic relations. These findings suggest that there are subtle differences in the speed of world knowledge processing during reading in ASD.

Previous studies have shown that Event-related potentials (ERPs) are sensitive to violations of gender-based stereotypes. In the present investigation, we used ERPs to measure the detection of a discrepancy between gender-based occupational stereotypes and written material presented to fifteen Italian viewers in a completely implicit task. No awareness or judgment about stereotypes was required, no decision had to be made on sentence acceptability or congruence, and no prime words related to gender were presented (which might reveal the matter of the investigation). EEG was recorded while participants engaged in a task that consisted of pressing a key in response to animal words, while ignoring the overall study's purpose. Two hundred forty sentences that did or did not violate gender stereotypes were presented randomly with 32 other sentences ending with an animal word. Terminal words violating gender stereotypes (such as "The notary is BREASTFEEDING" or "Here is the commissioner with HER HUSBAND") elicited a greater anterior N400 response and left anterior negativity (LAN) than words conforming to the gender stereotype (e.g., "The chemist put on a nice TIE"). LAN modulation suggests that gender stereotypes are processed automatically (as if they were morpho-syntactic errors) and hints at how they are deeply rooted in our linguistic brain. According to the inverse solution, the neural representation of gender-based stereotypes mostly involved the middle frontal gyrus (MFG). The temporo/parietal junction (TPJ) supporting theory of mind (TOM) processes was also engaged, along with the superior and middle temporal gyri representing person information.

Published online: 22 January 2016 In this study we explore whether world knowledge (WK) processing differs between individuals listening to their native (L1) or their non-native (L2) language. We recorded event-related brain potentials in L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish while they listened to sentences uttered by native speakers of Spanish. Sentences were either congruent or incongruent with participants’ WK. In addition, participants also listened to sentences in which upcoming words could not be anticipated on the basis of WK. WK violations elicited a late negativity of greater magnitude and duration in the L2 than the L1 group. However, sentences in which WK was not helpful regarding word anticipation elicited similar N400 modulations in both groups. These results suggest that WK processing requires a deeper lexical search in L2 comprehension than in L1 comprehension This research was approved by the ethics committee of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance, which funded this study.We thank Silvia Blanch and Xavier Mayoral for their technical support, and Meritxell Ayguasanosa for assistance in testing participants. This research was funded by an FPI grant (BES-2012-056668) and two project grants (PSI2011-23033 and Consolider INGENIO CSD2007- 00012) awarded by the Spanish Government; by one grant from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521); and by one grant from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME). C.D.M. is supported by the IKERBASQUE institution and the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language. A.C. is supported by the ICREA institution and the Center for Brain and Cognition.

En este trabajo se intenta estudiar la articulación del conocimiento de mundo y el conocimiento lingüístico (semántico) durante el proceso de comprensión de relaciones causales. Nuestra hipótesis inicial: el orden de presentación de la relación causal tiene consecuencias sobre el esfuerzo que se requiere para procesar esa relación. Nuestro objetivo específico: verificar esta hipótesis en cuatro condiciones, para dos tipos de textos. Para esto, se evaluó la comprensión de textos bioracionales de dos tipos (“cotidianos” y “técnicos”), manipulando dos variables por cada grupo: a) orden causa-efecto vs. efecto-causa y b) ausencia vs. presencia de partícula conectiva específica. Los resultados obtenidos muestran, al menos, dos cuestiones: a) los textos con relaciones causales en orden invertido, sin partícula conectiva presente, requieren más esfuerzo para ser comprendidos que aquellos que presentan la relación en orden habitual; b) en textos “técnicos” con relación causal invertida la presencia de partícula específica (aportación semántica) es imprescindible para construir y comprender la relación., The aim of this article is to study the articulation between world knowledge and linguistic (semantic) knowledge during the comprehension process of casual relations. Our initial hypothesis: the order of presentation of the casual relation has consequences on the effort required to process the relation. Our specific objective: to verify this hypothesis in four conditions, for two texts types. In order to do this, it was evaluated the comprehension of bi-sentential texts two types (“everyday texts” and “scientific texts”), manipulating two variables in each group: a) cause-effect order vs. effect-cause order and b) absence vs. presence of specific connective. The results show, at least, two things: a) texts with causal relations in effect-cause order, without connective, require more effort to be comprehended than those with the relation in cause-effect order; b) in “scientific texts” with causal relation in effect-cause order, the presence of the connective (semantic clue) is essential to construct and comprehend the relation., Dans ce travail nous tenterons d’étudier l’articulation entre la connaissance du monde et la connaissance linguistique (sémantique) pendant le processus de compréhension des relations causales. Notre hypothèse initiale : l’ordre de la présentation de la relation causale a des conséquences sur l’effort qui est demandé pour intégrer cette relation. Notre objectif spécifique : vérifier cette hypothèse avec quatre conditions, pour deux types de textes. Pour cela, nous avons évalué la compréhension de textes de deux phrases et deux types (quotidiens et techniques), en manipulant deux variables pour chaque groupe : a) ordre cause-effet vs. effet-cause et b) absence vs. présence de connecteur spécifique. Les résultats obtenus montrent, au moins, deux questions: a) les textes avec des relations causales en ordre inverse, sans connecteur, demandent plus d’efforts pour être compris que ceux qui présentent la relation dans l’ordre habituel ; b) dans les textes « techniques » avec une relation causale inversée, la présence de conjonction (apport sémantique) est indispensable pour construire et comprendre la relation.

Using ERPs, we tested whether L2 speakers can integrate multiple sources of information (e.g., semantic, pragmatic information) during discourse comprehension. We presented native speakers and L2 speakers with three-sentence scenarios in which the final sentence was highly causally related, intermediately related, or causally unrelated to its context; its interpretation therefore required simple or complex inferences. Native speakers revealed a gradual N400-like effect, larger in the causally unrelated condition than in the highly related condition, and falling in-between in the intermediately related condition, replicating previous results. In the crucial intermediately related condition, L2 speakers behaved like native speakers, however, showing extra processing in a later time-window. Overall, the results show that, when reading, L2 speakers are able to process information from the local context and prior information (e.g., world knowledge) to build global coherence, suggesting that they process different sources of information to make inferences online during discourse comprehension, like native speakers. This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033, CONSOLIDER-INGENIO2010 CSD2007-00048, ECO2011-25295, and ECO2010-09555-E), from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521) and from the Grup de Recerca en Neurociència Cognitiva (GRNC) - 2014SGR1210. It has also received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 613465.

Published online: 11 Sep 2015 In order to study the difficulties experienced during sentence comprehension in a foreign language (L2), we investigated semantic and world knowledge information retrieval in L2 comprehenders. Event-related potentials (ERP) were collected in late learners of English whose native language is Spanish, performing a sentence reading task in English. We investigated the mean amplitude of the P2 and N400 ERP components elicited by the critical word of sentences in three conditions: (1) correct,, (2) semantic violation, and (3) world knowledge violation (semantically acceptable but factually untrue). In the N400 window, ERP modulations elicited by semantic and world knowledge violations had similar amplitudes, as previously observed in L1 comprehenders. However, semantic violations failed to modulate P2 mean amplitude as it did in native speakers. These results suggest that, whilst L2 and L1 readers similarly integrate world knowledge and semantic information, L2 readers lack fast semantic access at around 200 ms after the onset of a critical word. This research was funded by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033 and Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00048), from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521) and from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME). CM was supported by the Basque Foundation for Science (IKERBASQUE) and the BCBL institution.

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A Metodologia de Trabalho de Projeto foi assumida por diversos autores - nomeadamente por John Dewey e William Killpatrick - baseada numa Pedagogia Ativa, centrada na criança e na sua interação com o Meio. Essa interação é traduzida através da resolução de problemas em que a criança pode tomar contacto com as experiências do dia-a-dia. O presente trabalho emerge da reflexão de uma profissional de educação que implementou a Metodologia de Projeto na sua prática pedagógica durante um ano letivo com um grupo de crianças em idade pré-escolar (4 anos). Desta forma, estruturou-se um trabalho com propósitos pedagógicos e investigativos que tem por objetivo compreender as potencialidades desta metodologia na aquisição de competências mais incidentemente na área da Formação Pessoal e Social e no Conhecimento do Mundo. Partindo do paradigma interpretativo desenvolveu-se um projeto de investigaçãoação que se socorreu da Metodologia de Trabalho de Projeto. Constituíram participantes o grupo do pré-escolar e as suas famílias, pessoal docente e não docente e por fim a educadora/investigadora. Para atingir os objetivos definidos para esta investigação utilizou-se como instrumentos de recolha de dados a observação, o diário de bordo, a check-list, questionários, conversas informais e recolha documental. Os resultados evidenciam o papel que o Trabalho de Projeto tem na emergência das competências relativamente à faixa etária em questão (4 anos) com maior incidência na área da Formação Pessoal e Social e Conhecimento do Mundo promovendo aprendizagens significativas. Evidenciou também a participação das famílias no processo ensino aprendizagem, estreitando deste modo a relação escola-família. The Project Work Methodology has been assumed by several authors – namely by John Dewey and William Killpatrick – sustained on Active Teaching, focusing on children and their interaction with their surroundings. This interaction is visible by the ability of the child to solve problems by getting in touch with the day-by-day experiences. This paper emerges from the reflection of an education professional who implemented the Project Methodology to a group of children in their pre-school age (4 years old) for a whole school year. With this, a work with pedagogical and informative purpose has been structure. It aims to realize the potential of this methodology in the acquisition of skills, focusing on Personal & Social Formation and on the World Knowledge. Assuming this interpretative paradigm sustained on Project Work Methodology, an action-investigation project has been developed. As participants, we have the pre-school group and their families, teaching and nonteaching personnel and the teacher/researcher. To achieve these goals, the data collection tools used were observation, a logbook checklist, questionnaires, informal conversations and documentary collection. The results shows the importance of the Project Work on the development of skills relative to age group in question (4years) with a higher incidence in the areas of Personal & Social Formation and World Knowledge, promoting a more meaningful learning experience. The same also highlighted the importance of the participation of the families in the learning process, thereby narrowing the school-family relationship.

Previous research suggests that on-line access to lexically-stored verb argument structures is relatively preserved in some people with aphasia[9] (PWAs), despite their increased difficulty in producing verbs as compared to nouns[2]. Accessing lexically-stored argument structures facilitates prediction and integration of verbal arguments relative to lexically unspecified adjuncts[1,8,10]. The anticipatory processing of verbal arguments has also been shown to be affected by event-related plausibility constraints, based in world knowledge[4]. While access to world knowledge and argument structure is preserved in many PWAs, how and when these resources interact during verb-argument processing among PWA has not been investigated. The current study examined how argument status and event plausibility affect on-line processing of locative event participants via a modified visual-world task[6]. PWAs (n=9) and age-matched neurotypical adults (ONs, n=16) listened to a partial sentence and were instructed to click on the image that “best finished” the sentence. Stimuli were sentences ending with a locative phrase truncated at the preposition: “The boy is turning twelve, so his friends are bringing/ meeting him excitedly to/at …” The incomplete locative phrase was either an argument or an adjunct (location is an argument of “bring” but an adjunct of “meet”). Accompanying images depicted the agent and theme of the sentence, an unrelated distractor, and a location target, either plausible (a fair) or implausible (a bar). Proportions of gazes to the location target were analyzed in 100ms bins during the 2 seconds following the offset of the pronoun (“him.”) ONs showed clear early (100-200ms, 300-700ms) and late (1100-1800ms, 1900-2000ms) plausibility effects (circled in Fig. 1a), as well as early (200-300ms) and late (1300-1400ms) effects of argument status on target gazes (see arrows, Fig. 1a) and a late interaction effect of argument status and plausibility (1100-1200ms, see asterisk, Fig. 1a). Early effects of plausibility and argument status for ONs were truly anticipatory, appearing while the sentence was still on-going. Plausibility effects on target gaze were more limited in PWA, appearing at two points following pronoun offset (500-600ms and 1000-1100ms, circled in Fig. 1b). Conversely, argument effects were more widespread for PWAs, although they emerged later (700-900ms and 1000-1100ms, see arrows, Fig. 1b). PWAs also showed a much later interaction effect between plausibility and argument status (at 1800ms, see asterisk, Fig. 1b). These results suggest that older adults rely more on event-related plausibility than on argument status during the processing of locative event participants, and that these effects interact late in processing. The effect of argument status is more prevalent but delayed in PWAs compared to ONs, and the interaction of plausibility and argument status is also present but delayed. This pattern is compatible with findings suggesting that PWAs access verbs’ lexical representations during sentence comprehension[9] and that this access may affect linguistic performance[5], but that lexical access is delayed in PWAs when compared to age-matched controls[7,11]. This slowed lexical access can lead to impairments in syntactic comprehension[3]. The current results indicate that similar effects may also be present in verb-argument prediction and the processing of semantic roles.

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar, O presente relatório de estágio apresenta e fundamenta o projeto de intervenção pedagógica realizado no âmbito da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada do Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar, para obtenção do grau de mestre. Pouco se fala sobre a educação sensorial nos discursos educativos portugueses, com exceção dos discursos relativos aos contextos destinados à primeira infância. Considerando os benefícios da educação sensorial, considero que a educação sensorial deve ser promovida nos contextos portugueses de educação de infância tendo por base as caraterísticas, necessidades, interesses e potencialidades das crianças. Deste modo, o projeto de intervenção a que reporta este relatório desenvolveu-se nos contextos de Creche e de Jardim de Infância visando a promoção do desejo e sensibilidade de descobrir (mais) sobre o mundo através da educação sensorial. A educação sensorial, promotora da aprendizagem ativa, permite ir de encontro à natureza exploradora e curiosa da criança, bem como se harmonizar com a convicção de que a criança constrói o seu próprio conhecimento. Assim, pretendeu-se com este projeto, através de ambientes sensoriais ricos e significativos, proporcionar às crianças oportunidades de exploração, de descoberta e reflexão acerca dos materiais e objetos, fomentando desta forma o desejo e gosto de saber bem como a valorização do meio envolvente como fonte de inúmeras curiosidades e aprendizagens. A análise dos resultados do projeto de intervenção pôs em evidência a potencialidade da educação sensorial mobilizar, de forma integrada, aprendizagens e competências de diferentes áreas de conteúdo através de experiências concretas e significativas, bem como de impulsionar o surgimento de novos desafios e interesses nas crianças. Os resultados demonstraram também que a educação sensorial contribui para uma aprendizagem mais natural e que pode ser adaptada ao nível de desenvolvimento e caraterísticas das crianças. Partindo de objetos/materiais do quotidiano das crianças, a educação sensorial promove a curiosidade e conhecimento mais aprofundado sobre o meio envolvente. A construção partilhada com as crianças do projeto de intervenção e, consequentemente, de aprendizagens foi bastante valiosas para o processo de formação e desenvolvimento profissional., The present traineeship report shows and fundaments the project of pedagogical intervention developed in the ambit of Supervised Teaching Practice of the Masters in Pre-school Education, for obtaining the master's degree. Little is said about the sensory education in the Portuguese educational discourses, with the exception of speeches related with the early childhood. Realizing the benefits of sensory education, I consider that the sensory education should be promoted in Portuguese contexts of kindergarten education based on the characteristics, needs, interests and potentials of children. This way, the intervention project which this report relates was developed in the contexts of Nursery and Kindergarten for the promotion of the desire and sensitivity to find out (more) about the world through sensory education. The sensory education that promotes active learning allows them to meet an exploiter and curious nature of the child, as well as to harmonize with the conviction that the child builds his own knowledge. So, it was intended with this project, through rich and significant sensory environments, to provide children opportunities for exploration, discovery and reflection about the materials and objects, instigating this way the desire and liking to know as well as the valorization of the surrounding environment as a source of numerous curiosities and learning. The analyses of the results of the intervention project put to stress the potential of sensory education to mobilize, in an integrated way, learnings and skills of different areas of content through concrete and meaningful experiences, just as well incite the emergence of new challenges and interests of children. The results also showed that the sensory education contributes to a more natural learning and that can be adapted to the level of development and characteristics of the children. Starting from children daily objects/materials, sensory education promotes curiosity and progressively deeper knowledge about the surrounding environment. The shared building, with the children, of the intervention project and, consequently, of apprenticeships was quite valuable to the process of training and professional development.

The aim of this study was to determine whether the items from a reading comprehension test in European Portuguese function differently across students from rural and urban areas, which biases the test validity and the equity in assessment. The sample was composed of 653 students from second, third and fourth grades. The presence of differential item functioning (DIF) was analysed using logistic regression and the Mantel–Haenszel procedure. Although 17 items were flagged with DIF, only five items showed non-negligible DIF in all effect-size measures. The evidence of invariance across students with rural or urban backgrounds for most of the items supports the validity of the test though the five identified items should be further investigated., This research was supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) [grant numberFCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-010733] and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the European program COMPETE (Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) and by FCT [grant number SFRH/BD/39980/2007]., CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, UM (FCT R&D 317)

We report on an ongoing research program to develop a formal framework for automated narrative text comprehension, bringing together know-how from research in Artificial Intelligence and the Psychology of Reading and Comprehension. It uses argumentation to capture appropriate solutions to the frame, ramification, and qualification problems, and their generalizations as required for text comprehension. In this first part of the study we concentrate on the central problem of integration of the explicit information from the text narrative with the reader's implicit commonsense world knowledge, and the associated tasks of elaboration and revision. Copyright © 2014, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved. 610 613 Siemens AG Osterreich Sponsors: Artificial Intelligence Journal Association for Logic Programming (ALP) et al. European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI) Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Incorporated (KR Inc.) Conference code: 116755 Cited By :1

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar, Este relatório apresenta o projeto de intervenção pedagógica desenvolvido em contexto de creche e de jardim de infância que visou promover nas crianças atitudes e competências inerentes à aprendizagem das ciências. O projeto sob o tema - Perguntar, explorar e descobrir sobre o mundo físico na creche e no jardim de infância - partiu da identificação do interesse das crianças pela realização de experiências ligadas às ciências. Através da observação, da interação com as crianças e de uma reflexão conjunta com as educadoras cooperantes, foi possível identificar um grande interesse das crianças por atividades experimentais e uma grande curiosidade em saber mais sobre alguns fenómenos naturais. Este projeto visou responder ao interesse das crianças, ampliar a sua curiosidade, criar oportunidades de experimentação e descoberta no domínio das ciências, salvaguardando a necessária articulação com outras áreas e domínios de conteúdo para a educação pré-escolar. No jardim de infância as estratégias pedagógicas envolveram a realização de atividades experimentais e a introdução de alguns materiais na área das ciências. Quanto à intervenção em creche, as estratégias foram ao encontro das características do grupo de crianças, centrando-se na exploração de novos materiais e objetos. A intervenção no jardim de infância ampliou a curiosidade das crianças sobre diferentes fenómenos do meio ambiente, promoveu a aquisição de algumas atitudes e competências científicas, assim como o desenvolvimento de novos conhecimentos. Em creche, as atividades de exploração permitiram às crianças o contacto com novos materiais, desenvolver uma observação mais atenta e alargar os seus conhecimentos em relação ao ambiente que as rodeia., This report presents the pedagogical interventional project, developed in crèche and preschool context which aims to promote attitudes and competencies related to the learning of science. The project -“Ask, explore e discover about the surrounding (physical) world in crèche and preschool”- started bearing in mind the children’s interests regarding the experiences in sciences. Through observation, interaction with children and cooperating teachers’ thoughtfulness, it was possible to identify children’s great interest in experimental activities and a great curiosity to know more about natural phenomenons. This project aimed to fulfil children’s expectations, developing their curiosity, creating experimental opportunities in the sciences area, not forgetting the other learning areas of preschool teaching. Therefore, in preschool the pedagogical strategies were based on experimental activities and on the introduction of some materials in the sciences area. As far as the nursery school is concerned, the strategies were implemented according the children’s ages, focusing on exploring new materials and objects. The intervention in preschool broadened children’s curiosity about different phenomenons related to surrounding world, promoted the acquisition of scientific competencies, as well as developed new knowledge. In the crèche context, the exploring activities allowed children to contact with new materials, develop an eager observation and widen their knowledge related to the surrounding environment.

We are rapidly entering a world with an immense amount of services and devices available to humans and machines. This is a promising future, however there are at least two major challenges for using these services and devices: (1) they have to be found and (2) after being found, they have to be selected amongst. A significant difficulty lies in not only finding most available services, but presenting the most useful ones. In most cases, there may be too many found services and devices to select from. Service discovery needs to become more aimed towards humans and less towards machines. The service discovery challenge is especially prevalent in ubiquitous computing. In particular, service and device flux, human overloading, and service relevance are crucial. This thesis addresses the quality of use of services and devices, by introducing a sophisticated discovery model through the use of new layers in service discovery. This model allows use of services and devices when current automated service discovery and selection would be impractical by providing service suggestions based on user activities, domain knowledge, and world knowledge. To explore what happens when such a system is in place, a wizard of oz study was conducted in a command and control setting. To address service discovery in ubiquitous computing new layers and a test platform were developed together with a method for developing and evaluating service discovery systems. The first layer, which we call the Enhanced Traditional Layer (ETL), was studied by developing the ODEN system and including the ETL within it. ODEN extends the traditional, technical service discovery layer by introducing ontology-based semantics and reasoning engines. The second layer, the Relevant Service Discovery Layer, was explored by incorporating it into the MAGUBI system. MAGUBI addresses the human aspects in the challenge of relevant service discovery by employing common-sense models of user activities, domain knowledge, and world knowledge in combination with rule engines. The RESPONSORIA system provides a web-based evaluation platform with a desktop look and feel. This system explores service discovery in a service-oriented architecture setting. RESPONSORIA addresses a command and control scenario for rescue services where multiple actors and organizations work together at a municipal level. RESPONSORIA was the basis for the wizard of oz evaluation employing rescue services professionals. The result highlighted the importance of service naming and presentation to the user. Furthermore, there is disagreement among users regarding the optimal service recommendation, but the results indicated that good recommendations are valuable and the system can be seen as a partner. Vi rör oss snabbt in i en värld med en enorm mängd tjänster och enheter som finns tillgängliga för människor och maskiner. Detta är en lovande framtid, men det finns åtminstone två stora utmaningar för att använda dessa tjänster och enheter: (1) de måste hittas och (2) rätt tjänst/enhet måste väljas. En betydande svårighet ligger i att, inte bara finna de mest lättillgängliga tjänsterna och enheterna, men också att presentera de mest användbara sådana. I de flesta fall kan det vara för många tjänster och enheter som hittas för att kunna välja mellan. Upptäckten av tjänster och enheter behöver bli mer anpassad till människor och mindre till maskiner. Denna utmaning är särskilt framträdande i desktopmetaforens efterföljare Ubiquitous Computing. (Det vill säga en form av interaktion med datorer som blivit integrerad i aktiviteter och objekt i omgivningen.) Framförallt tjänster och enheters uppdykande och försvinnande, mänsklig överbelastning och tjänstens relevans är avgörande utmaningar. Denna avhandling behandlar kvaliteten på användningen av tjänster och enheter, genom att införa en sofistikerad upptäcktsmodell med hjälp av nya lager i tjänsteupptäcktsprocessen. Denna modell tillåter användning av tjänster och enheter när nuvarande upptäcktsprocess och urval av dessa skulle vara opraktiskt, genom att ge förslag baserat på användarnas aktiviteter, domänkunskap och omvärldskunskap. För att utforska vad som händer när ett sådant system är på plats, gjordes ett så kallat Wizard of Oz experiment i ledningscentralen på en brandstation. (Ett Wizard Of Oz experiment är ett experiment där användaren tror att de interagerar med en dator, men i själva verket är det en människa som agerar dator.) För att hantera tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt i Ubiquitous Computing utvecklades nya lager och en testplattform tillsammans med en metod för att utveckla och utvärdera system för tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt. Det första lagret, som vi kallar Förbättrat Traditionellt Lager (FTL), studerades genom att utveckla ODEN och inkludera FTL i den. ODEN utökar det traditionella, datororienterade tjänste- och enhetsupptäcktslagret genom att införa en ontologibaserad semantik och en logisk regelmotor. Det andra skiktet, som vi kallar Relevant Tjänst Lager, undersöktes genom att införliva det i systemet MAGUBI. MAGUBI tar sig an de mänskliga aspekterna i den utmaning som vi benämner relevant tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt, genom att använda modeller av användarnas aktiviteter, domänkunskap och kunskap om världen i kombination med regelmotorer. RESPONSORIA är en webbaserad plattform med desktoputseende och desktopkänsla, och är ett system för utvärdering av ovanstående utmaning tillsammans med de tidigare systemen. Detta system utforskar tjänste- och enhetsupptäckt i ett tjänsteorienterat scenario. RESPONSORIA tar ett ledningsscenario för räddningstjänst där flera aktörer och organisationer arbetar tillsammans på en kommunal nivå. RESPONSORIA låg till grund för ett Wizard of Oz experiment där experimentdeltagarna var professionella räddningsledare. Resultatet underströk vikten av namngivning av tjänster och enheter samt hur dessa presenteras för användaren. Dessutom finns det oenighet bland användare om vad som är den optimala service-/enhets-rekommendationen, men resultaten visar att goda rekommendationer är värdefulla och systemet kan ses som en partner.

En este trabajo se intenta estudiar la articulación del conocimiento de mundo y el conocimiento lingüístico (semántico) durante el proceso de comprensión de relaciones causales. Nuestra hipótesis inicial: el orden de presentación de la relación causal tiene consecuencias sobre el esfuerzo que se requiere para procesar esa relación. Nuestro objetivo específico: verificar esta hipótesis en cuatro condiciones, para dos tipos de textos. Para esto, se evaluó la comprensión de textos bioracionales de dos tipos (“cotidianos” y “técnicos”), manipulando dos variables por cada grupo: a) orden causa-efecto vs. efecto-causa y b) ausencia vs. presencia de partícula conectiva específica. Los resultados obtenidos muestran, al menos, dos cuestiones: a) los textos con relaciones causales en orden invertido, sin partícula conectiva presente, requieren más esfuerzo para ser comprendidos que aquellos que presentan la relación en orden habitual; b) en textos “técnicos” con relación causal invertida la presencia de partícula específica (aportación semántica) es imprescindible para construir y comprender la relación., The aim of this article is to study the articulation between world knowledge and linguistic (semantic) knowledge during the comprehension process of casual relations. Our initial hypothesis: the order of presentation of the casual relation has consequences on the effort required to process the relation. Our specific objective: to verify this hypothesis in four conditions, for two texts types. In order to do this, it was evaluated the comprehension of bi-sentential texts two types (“everyday texts” and “scientific texts”), manipulating two variables in each group: a) cause-effect order vs. effect-cause order and b) absence vs. presence of specific connective. The results show, at least, two things: a) texts with causal relations in effect-cause order, without connective, require more effort to be comprehended than those with the relation in cause-effect order; b) in “scientific texts” with causal relation in effect-cause order, the presence of the connective (semantic clue) is essential to construct and comprehend the relation., Dans ce travail nous tenterons d’étudier l’articulation entre la connaissance du monde et la connaissance linguistique (sémantique) pendant le processus de compréhension des relations causales. Notre hypothèse initiale : l’ordre de la présentation de la relation causale a des conséquences sur l’effort qui est demandé pour intégrer cette relation. Notre objectif spécifique : vérifier cette hypothèse avec quatre conditions, pour deux types de textes. Pour cela, nous avons évalué la compréhension de textes de deux phrases et deux types (quotidiens et techniques), en manipulant deux variables pour chaque groupe : a) ordre cause-effet vs. effet-cause et b) absence vs. présence de connecteur spécifique. Les résultats obtenus montrent, au moins, deux questions: a) les textes avec des relations causales en ordre inverse, sans connecteur, demandent plus d’efforts pour être compris que ceux qui présentent la relation dans l’ordre habituel ; b) dans les textes « techniques » avec une relation causale inversée, la présence de conjonction (apport sémantique) est indispensable pour construire et comprendre la relation.

El artículo trata de reflejar la emocionante experiencia que vivieron un grupo de 25 escolares de tercer curso de Educación Infantil y su maestra, al preparar una Jornada a la que asisten para decir qué escuela desean y cómo se aprende en ella. Les acompañaremos en los avances y dificultades que les supuso comunicar y representar sus propias ideas para ser entendidos por los asistentes. The article tries to reflect the exciting experience that a group of 25 students in their third year of Infant School and their teacher have, in the preparation of an open day where they assist in order to say which kind of school they desire and how they can learn in it. We will accompany them through the developments and difficulties that they found trying to communicate and represent their own ideas and to be understood by attendees to the journey.

En este trabajo se intenta estudiar la intervención del conocimiento de mundo y del conocimiento lingüístico -semántico- durante el proceso de comprensión de relaciones causales y contracausales. Nuestra hipótesis inicial: las relaciones causales son más sencillas de procesar que las relaciones contracausales. Nuestro objetivo específico: verificar esta hipótesis en cuatro condiciones. Por un lado, se evaluó cómo se comprende una relación causal o contracausal entre dos eventos pertenecientes a un dominio de conocimiento "cotidiano" y a un dominio científico, sobre el cual los informantes no tienen conocimiento previo. Por el otro, se verificó qué rol cumplen las partículas conectivas con contenido semántico específico -causal y contracausal- en esos dos tipos de texto. The aim of this article is to study the role of world knowledge and linguistic -semantic- knowledge during the comprehension process of casual and contracasual relations. Our initial hypothesis: causal relations are easier to process than contracasual relations. Our specific objective: to verify this hypothesis in four conditions. Firstly, it was evaluated how people comprehend a casual or contracasual relation between two events that belong either to an "everyday" knowledge domain either to a scientific domain, over which the subjects do not have previous knowledge. Secondly, it was verified which role connectives with specific semantic content -causal and contracausal- take in those two texts types.

This work aimed to verify how the world knowledge of readers influence the interpretation of a text chargico.. For both, were selected from two charges - one with a low degree of complexity and the other with a high degree of complexity for interpretation - and from the selection were interviewed six individuals with different ages, in order to verify the type of interpretation of each text.. The interviews were conducted in two stages: first presented to the cartoons (one at the time) without its context of production and asked if the interpretation, then was shown the same charges, but with its context of production. We have asked the interviewees to reading and again the interpretation.. The data revealed that the relations we assume literature as submitted at the time of the interpretation of the charge were consistent with the degree of schooling, that is, the greater the degree of schooling more relations we assume literature as were identified. Este trabalho teve como objetivo verificar o quanto o conhecimento de mundo dos leitores influenciam na interpretação de um texto chárgico. Para tanto, foram selecionadas duas charges – uma com baixo grau de complexidade e a outra com um alto grau de complexidade para interpretação – e a partir da seleção foram entrevistados seis indivíduos com faixas etárias distintas, a fim de verificar o tipo de interpretação de cada texto. As entrevistas foram realizadas em dois momentos: primeiro apresentou-se as charges (uma de cada vez) sem seu contexto de produção e solicitou-se a interpretação, depois foi mostrada as mesmas charges, porém com seu contexto de produção. Pediu-se aos entrevistados a leitura e novamente a interpretação. Os dados revelaram que as relações intertextuais apresentadas no momento da interpretação da charge foram condizentes com o grau de escolarização, ou seja, quanto maior o grau de escolaridade mais relações intertextuais foram identificadas.