Universidade de Lisboa

Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências de Educação

Coordinators

Ana Margarida Veiga Simão

Belmiro Cabrito

Elisabete Rodrigues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Socrates- programme Comenius 2.1

 

June 2004

Students:

Cátia Costa

Joana Carvalho

Marcelo Correia

Luís Rosário

 

Testing of materials in institution

 

 

1.     The institution

Presentation

 

It is a primary school, built in early 1950’ies, in the centre of Lisbon.

The curriculum and educational project obey to the Official Plan launched by the Ministry of Education and their main aims are to offer a common teaching that promotes the development of the memories, critical thinking, esthetical mind, moral sense and solidarity values.

 

Human Resources

 

In the school work 18 basic teachers, 1 preschool teacher, 2 teacher trainees, 2 cultural animators, 4 educational aid professionals and a security guard. Besides the regular classes, children take acquaintance with music, gymnastic and swimming. The school gets in a “pedagogical garden” and “theatre courses”.

Children’s parents have created a Parents Association in order to help the teachers to work with children in non-curricular activities (ATL - free time activities).

 

Material Resources

 

The building has 2 floors with 4 classrooms each and sanitary room. In the first floor is placed the teacher’s room.

Among the 8 rooms, 6 of them serve only to teaching activities. The other two functions as the gym and the library.

 

The students

 

The school has 193 students, in all the 4 classes of the primary cycle with 6 to 12 years old.

Most students come from the neighbourhood and they belong to the medium and lower medium social classes. Poor students are around 30% of the total number.

Free time activities

 

88% of the pupils go to ATL. They do swimming and computing.

 

Projects

 

The school develops some projects such as “Castles in the air”, “Internet at the school”; “Theatre”, “Pedagogical garden”, “Play Gym” and “Foreign languages – English” and other activities with external partners, such as the Town Hall, the local church, the Health Centre and the Teacher Training Centre.

 

The Educational Project

 

All the activities are supported on the intention “Learning with the past, educating in the present, building the future”.

 

 

2. The classes

 

The experiences occurred in two classrooms, A and B.

 

 

The students of the A room

Nº of students	Genre	Age	Preschool experience	Social Class
19	Female: 10 Male: 9	7 years old (all students)	18	Higher – 4 Medium – 11 Low medium – 3 Low - 1

 

The students of the B room

Nº of students	Genre	Age	Preschool experience	Social Class
18	Female: 10 Male: 8	6 years old (all students)	16	Higher – Medium – Low medium – Low –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     Tested material

 

The Cassette Recorder

 

Activities:

 

1. Hear, produce and feel tones / noises.
2. Sound can be bundled.
3. Tones / sound is a wave. Sound can be made visible, sound can make items move.
4. Examination of a loudspeaker: How does it look and what does it consist of?
5. Examination of the way a cassette recorder functions.

 

 

Teaching Plan

 

Project: ETE

Institution: School nº 151

Theme: Cassette Recorder

Aims:

-                    To sensitise female to work in technological areas

-                    To promote curiosity and the taste for technology 

-                    To recognise the importance of technological teaching in early years

-                    To develop critical thinking in educators and students

 

 

4. Evaluation/results

 

tools used to get results FROM CHILDREN

 

Activity 1-Hear, produce and feel tones / noises

 

Materials

With a cross, answer to the following questions:

 

What did you like the most?

To play animals

To follow the sound with the eyes closed

To built a sound instrument

To feel vocal ropes

Everything

 

What didn’t you like?

Anything

Everything

To play animals

To follow the sound with the eyes closed

To built a sound instrument

To feel vocal ropes

Everything

 

Evaluate your knowledge. Signalize with a cross the wrong answers

 

Vocal ropes vibrate more when we speak higher

The instrument we have built is a rope instrument

The sound is always the same, independently the boxes used

The rubbers vibrate better in the empty box

 

The children build an instrument

 

 

Some instruments built

 

Activity 2 - Sound can be bundled

 

Materials

Answer to the following questions:

 

1. What did you like the most? __________________________________________

 

2.     What didn’t you like?_______________________________________________

 

Evaluate your knowledge

 

1. What happen when we talk to the tube? ________________________________

 

2. To where does the sound move in the telephone? _________________________

Making a telephone

 

Sound can be bundled

			Meaning   Did you like? Yes/No   Did you make the experience? What did you learned?   And what about your friends, did they like? What did they learn?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activity 3 - Tones / sound is a wave. Sound can be made visible, sound can make items move.

 

Materials

 

Draw in each empty space:

 

What you did like	What you didn’t like

 

 

How does the sound move?

 

 

 

 

Activity 4 - Examination of a loudspeaker: How does it look and what does it consist of?

 

 

Materials

 

 

What did you like most?	What didn’t you like?

 

 

 

Activity 5 - Examination of the way a cassette recorder functions

 

Materials

Paying attention to this last activity, it has been decided to get the feedback in audio.

The questions done concern not only the teaching of this activity but also the examination of a loudspeaker, because both instruments are very related one each other.

 

 

 

 

The way a cassette recorder functions

 

 

	Meaning   Did you like? Yes/No   Did you make the experience? What did you learned?   And what about your friends, did they like? What did they learned?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The questions done are:

 

1. What’s your name?
2. How old are you?
3. What is the interest of the button with a square drawn?
4. How did you call the objects that catch the clips?
5. What is the interest of the button with a circle drawn?
6. From all the activities what you have like the most?
7. Which object you have learned more with?
8. The loudspeaker connection cable is made of what?
9. What material is caught by the magnets?
10. What is the interest of the button with a triangle drawn?
11. When you play with the pencil and the magnet did they catch one each another? Why?
12. How do you call the black parts of the loudspeaker?
13. What object have we taken to pieces?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tools used to get results FROM Teachers

 

Interview guidelines FOR THE teacher

 

Theme: Early Technical Education

 

Objectives:

-         To know teacher opinions about the project

-         To think about the project

 

 

Block	Specific Objectives	Questions
A	To evaluate the experiences in ETE To characterize educational practice To enumerate pedagogical aspects of the activities	Do you think that the instructions are clear, paying attention to the materials, the phases, etc? How do you evaluate the interaction between the group elements? In what way you think that these experiences answer to children needs? Do you think that this project contributes to the development of children social, technical and scientific skills?
B	To think over the children role in the activities	Can you describe children reactions to experiences, taking account the gender, in manipulation skills, curiosity, autonomy and other skills? How do you interpret the interaction between the pupils one another? How do you evaluate children adhesion to the activities? Do you notice gender differences in the participation? Which ones? What do you think that your pupils had learned, considering the knowledge and its application, as well as the individual development?
C	To indicate changes needed To signalise the strong point and the weak points of the activities	How do you evaluate the project? What are the qualities and the problems of the project? What do you suggest to the project development?

 

5. results

 

5.1              About the teacher and the teaching

A-    How the activity had occurred

 

The instructions are good enough to get success in the experiences. The different phases proposed are well synchronised. The choice of the materials reveals a good one, once the materials are not very expensive and some of them can be got from used objects (“It was relatively easy to follow the instructions”).

 

B – Interaction

 

There has been a strong interaction between the teacher, the students and the children. They have helped one another. The pupils paid attention to the explanation and have participate very much.

Among the pupils, they have interacted well and strongly one with the others, in the manipulation of the materials and objects.

But, the group must be shorter, in order to get a more fruitful interaction and learning (“the learning is directly tied to the dimension of the group”)

 

C – Pedagogical aspects

 

The experiments answer to the curiosity of the children and their need to manipulate objects and to make acquaintance with objects.

These experiences are adequate to the children. They can manipulate objects, experiment with the others, collaborate, etc. (“I think that these activities are adequate. They catch easily all the concepts”).

 

C – Competencies

 

They developed technical and social competences. They worked with experiences and materials that they have never experimented. They try the flexibility of different materials. They have done things in a way that they have never done. The practice was very useful to the understanding of the technical situations and the concepts that, in this way, are put in practical work.

They have registered what they have done and seen, in draws and in a few statements. This demand was very useful. They have thought about the experiences, in their way, and learnt another time.

They have developed social competences, namely team work and cooperative skills.

They developed organisation skills, needed to express their feelings about they have done and learned.

 

 

5.2        About children and learning

 

A – How do children react to the activity?

 

They like it very much. They are very curious. They want to know all the names and how to do. They react very well to the material.

They have put several questions in order to understand “concepts” and to understand the meaning and utility of some materials. They have been very interested (“Yes, they do work with me and have made questions … Besides, they brought materials from their homes”).

They have worked some how autonomously and there have been no such a difference between boys and girls. Inclusively, there were 3 girls more interested than the boys, in spite of the boys in general seemed more interested. There were not visible gender differences. (“Gender differences, maybe not… Perhaps the boys group has been more interested … It is an individual attitude ... both boys and girls are very interested”).

 

B – How do children react on another?

 

They worked already as a group, once they have been last year in the same classroom. They collaborate very much.  (“This year they are more connected one to the other”). Nevertheless, it seems that boys worked more with boys and girls with girls (“the group of the boys … the group of the girls”).

 

C – How do children adhere to the activity?

 

The children, independently their gender were very motivated for the activities. They were very curious and collaborative. They questioned several times the teacher and the students who did the experiences. They brought materials from their homes. They were always very anxious regarding the days when ETE is going to happen.

 

D – What do children learn?

(Contributions to…)

They have learned some technical concepts, which they had tried in experience.

They have learned the importance of being rigorous.

They have learned about the need of doing thinks.

They have learned how to organise their work and their answers and questions.

They have learned (developed) team work.

They have learned cooperative attitudes.

No important differences were noticed between boys and girls.

 

 

5.3 Suggestions from the teacher and the students

 

The project is very interesting but it must be enlarged in the experiments and concepts.

The work must be done with small groups.

It will be important to have a written manual and not only an on-line one.

The manual must have the materials, the instructions, the objectives for each experience and some work guidelines.

The experiences must pay attention to some differences between each country, namely concerning the teachers’ scientific and pedagogical basis.

It is important to train teachers that are going to make ETE.

ETE must be a part of teacher training.