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The connection between Development and Education is the thematic of this article which presents an analysis of the Educational Charters’ of the nine municipalities from the North of Beira Interior –NUT III, aiming to investigate the representations, tensions and trends from the proposals presented in these documents. An idea stands out: the urgency of the problems makes the municipal action be located between the setting of survival and the implement of strategies ensuring the minimum stability for the future. The main tensions were defined in two keywords which are part of the title: survival and strategy. We are facing a situation where land problems are indeed no longer dependent on its direct interveners who frequently only but lessen and solve pre-disruptive or disruptive situations, (especially the demographic ones). However, we consider that only through more global policies (local, national and foreign policies, namely from EU) that value these inland territories together with supportive public services, praising the close relationships and positively discriminating these areas, one will manage to reverse these trends and simultaneously, solve both problems: the Interior, by a ‘repopulation’ and improvement of its competitive apports and the Coastland that suffers from an excessive concentration of people, being therefore less crowded and more manageable. Within this context, we will consider the action of the municipalities in the educational field: on the one hand, they seek to guaranty the minimum surviving levels of their citizens’ services, and on the other hand, to scheme strategies that let them envision a ‘window of hope’ to reverse the course of events.

For the Inclusion of children and youth with Special Education Needs (SEN) in regular education, practices were theorized and implemented to structure the Individual Educative Program (IEP), adapting it to each one, responding to their uniqueness. The implementation of the use of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) as a classification arises with the Decree Law N.º 3/2008, from January 7 and it adopts a biopsicosocial nature created by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2004). Its introduction in education hasn’t been peaceful, exceeding the debate between specialists and authors that fed the arguments in favor and against its use. We’ll analyze the ICF, as well as its appearance, structure and the opinions of some specialists.

The present study aims to know the role which the non-verbal communication plays in the interpersonal communication between the special needs teacher and the parents of children /young people with learning disabilities. Concerning the empirical study, we have selected, at random, twenty special needs teachers from Viseu city council. The applied instrument to collect the information we needed, was a questionnaire we built from the literature revision. The information result allowed us to clarify that the role of non-verbal communication plays a capital importance, because it allows the special needs teacher to get a lot of information from parents with learning disabilities’ children /young people, who sometimes are afraid to express themselves. On the other hand, it seems that, for the special needs teacher, the use of this tool creates a more confidence and empathy environment that gives a feeling of autonomy, competence and dignity to these parents. In general, we concluded, that non-verbal communication contributes for a better interpersonal relation between the special needs teacher and the parents of children /young people with learning disabilities.

The relationship between school - family is shown by multiple national and international studies, as a cornerstone for the improvement of educational activity in schools. Indeed, studies indicate a strong and positive relationship between the quality of this relationship and the level of academic and educational achievement of children, adolescents and youth. The acceptance of this reality is general and indisputable. However, its implementation continues to be of great complexity. This article presents some results of a study - conducted within the doctoral thesis at the University of Granada4 - which aimed the characterization of the fundamental dynamics of participation and involvement of families in the elementary schools of a county in the central region of the country, through the perception of parents and teachers who perform the management functions of the class. The data obtained through questionnaires and interviews with parents and class directors, reveals a clear and widespread perception about the great benefits of family involvement in the school life of their children for all involved and shows that there are bilateral difficulties in its achieving.

For a long time, it was believed that people with moderate Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (DID), namely those with Trisomy T21 (T21), given their intelligence coefficient could not and were not able to learn to read and write. Fortunately a great deal has changed. In contemporary society, learning to read is essential because the written language has an impact on academic success and social inclusion, as well as on personal and professional success. Given this problem, we prepared a study with an empiric research component of a descriptive and quantitative nature, aimed at gathering the perceptions of primary school teachers from mainstream education on the development of reading and writing skills in students with T21. For this, we used the extensive direct observation technique and drew up a questionnaire. In analysing the data obtained, it seems to us that there is still a certain reluctance of primary school teachers to develop the learning skills of students with T21 exclusively in the classroom. The methods most used by teachers to develop reading and writing skills in students with T21 are the mixed method (analytical/synthetic) and the global/analytical method. Despite recognising learning skills in these students, teachers do not feel prepared to work with students with T21, particularly due to their lack of training in that area.

In this paper we sought to develop an analysis where are explained some of the strategies that human beings used, since immemorial time, to protect their resources against the contingencies, insecurities resulting from unknown space. We will highlight some of the instruments mediators of "risks" associated with the maritime activities. We will also take into account how the religious discourse understood these instruments, with the intention to demonstrate the incompatibilities that, for centuries, existed between this discourse and experience. Based on the connections established between risks and experience, the argument of usury will be analyzed, with the intention to show that, although, in a first moment, it could be considered as an element that conditioned the implementation and development of some of the strategies engendered by human being with the intention of management the contingent, in the end it is transformed in a driving force behind the action of individuals in the search for new ways of sharing the risks that escaped the penalties resulting from this same usury.

The present study aims to develop an instrument to measure the professional development stages of health care technologies professionals (HCTP), which will allow to understand the way health care organizations (HCO) could adequately incorporate the HCTP into the health care network. The research is based on evidence showing that the kind of rationality underlying the HRM of those assets on the health care domain hinders from its complete integration within the system, and prevents the development of owned capitals whenever HCTP have a pivotal role in the health care system. The case is due to the fact of intervening in all phases of the disease or health process, and being responsible for a substantial part of overall health care costs. The article discusses the relevance of this evidence within a context of scant empirical studies on the subject of health care technologies (HCT) professions. The instrument design was based on two panels of experts made up of managers, HCT professors, union representatives, and HCTP having managerial responsibilities, using a Delphi methodology. The instrument herein developed will make it more feasible to expand the scientific basis for the empiricism and causality backing up the current thinking about these professions. Future conclusions to arise from its use will set up more adequate and effective HRM practices.

Although corporate reputation has been studied for several decades, its interest has intensified only from the 1990s onwards. With the growing market competitiveness firms need to take advantage of their full assets in order to add value to their customers, and the reputation is one of them. Accordingly, it was decided to review the literature that analyses reputation models and the influence of key stakeholders. Given the complexity of the issue, it was also decided to complement the analysis of models with a review of key variables / constructs that influence corporate reputation.

The Internet and the World Wide Web have transformed the way organizations communicate and conduct transactions by enabling to overcome temporal and geographical barriers. Consequently, organizations feel the need to have a presence in this space being the Websites the vehicle of choice. However, defining the characteristics that a Website must have is far from being a trivial task. In particular, managers need a tool to evaluate Websites so that they can make decisions to improve their effectiveness. This paper proposes an evaluation model of organizational Websites based on an analysis of the literature. The model is structured in two areas (content and design), each area is composed of several dimensions and each dimension includes several items of analysis. A future objective of this investigation is to test this model in a sample of Portuguese small and medium enterprises

This article seeks to demonstrate that growth and development concept are not synonymous of development. It presents a typology of models that in practice follow different pathos of development. There were analyzed four models: model of modernization; model of independence; model of popular alliance and model of cultural negotiation. The model Modernization has its main character in the entrepreneur concerned with increasing productivity exclusively with an economic dimension and connected with the capitalist system. The Independence model has its main character in the politician, a one party policy, State/Nation supporter that follows the nationalist system. In the model of Popular Alliance the people are the main characters, the basis are the poor, it believes that the poor liberation only happens with a national movement, it has an organized dimension near to the to the communist system. The Cultural Negotiation model is understood in its ability for dialogue between different cultures, to achieve integrated and sustainable development, it`s the most complete model based on a concept of development through a process of continuous change and democratization towards the democratic system. We conclude that the need to recognize the boundaries of technologies and the importance of ethics should be applied to the development of these models.

Within the institutional theory of North (1990, 2005), the objective of this study involves the analysis of the impact of economic and institutional factors, formal and informal, in the entrepreneurial activity of nations, particularly in Total Entrepreneurial Activity indicator (TEA). In order to evaluate the simultaneous influence of economic factors and institutional entrepreneurial activity in a number of countries through a multiple linear regression, we opted for the implementation of a cross-section model. The results show an inverse relationship expected between the TEA, GDP per capita and bureaucratic burden (number of days to formalize the entry of a new company in the business) and an inverse relationship, not expected between the TEA and fiscal freedom. The results also show a direct relationship expected between the TEA and the corporate autonomy against the state spending. Globally, by the inverse relationship between GDP per capita and TEA, the results show the prevalence of necessity entrepreneurship.

The use of technology platforms based on online operating, amongst which we can highlight the Learning Content Management System (LCMS), has gained increasing importance in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). From the activity of students and teachers on these platforms results a huge trail of clicks which is translated into a huge volume of data -Big Data –in the system. The idea of Learning Analytics (LA) is simple and is associated with a very high potential to transform: the use of this data may allow a more informed process of making decisions, opening the door to a new model in the management of HEIs in the fields of teaching and organizational efficiency. However, the approach to the theme of LA is in its infancy and its effective operationalization requires responses to major challenges in technology, education and policies. This study fits into this context. At Universidade Católica Portuguesa –Porto there is an ongoing development of an LA system fed with data from the institutional LCMS -Blackboard -which aims to position each course (UC) and faculty in a matrix with five levels of integration of LCMS in the teaching and learning process. The matrix was built based on international models and the functionality offered by LCMS was taken into consideration. To meet the requirements of this matrix, all the backoffice of the system of data extraction and analysis in the LCMS was drawn up. Additionally, we developed and validated a scale that covers the same dimensions, to gauge students' opinions on the importance and integration of the LCMS in their process of teaching and learning. After completing the construction of this LA the goal is to articulate this information with the learning results of students (Academic Management System) and the evaluation of teachers / subjects (SIGIQ) -taking steps in building an Academic Analytics.

To teach how to teach it is necessary to learn to teach and also as we teach we learn. This whole process needs to be supported by supervision. The pedagogical supervision, contrary to what one might think, is not only related to the initial formation of future teachers, but also with the ongoing formation, necessary for the constant development of a professional learner, such as the teacher. Formation should be done in an action-reflection environment, involving means such as observation, activities planning, communication and evaluation. Throughout the supervisory process, learning and human and professional development are promoted. The essential object of supervision is the quality of the formation and of the education practiced or that will be practiced, not only in the classroom context, but also covering the school, as a development for organizational and professional quality of school collaborators, through a learning that can be individual, but in a collective context. Through a structure or base, using a particular model, scenario, style or approach, supervision is implemented seeing this in a broader context -school supervision and ongoing formation supervision. Supervision should constitute self-critical and critical practices, where there is an ideological commitment to a vision of education and professional development, as processes of transformation and emancipation, at the institutional, cultural and social level. To be a supervisor one has to have a vision of what teaching is, guiding the students to building a democratic society.

The plurality of perceptions, meanings and practices not only at the individual level but also at the collective and institutional level is the result of the complexity that characterizes education in terms of practices and objectives. Accordingly, and as Pedro Silva (1994:308) emphasizes, any approach to the school/family relationship issue will always be just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Indeed, in addition to what schools visibly demand from the parents which results from the normative production, it is necessary to consider some other factors for a better characterization of this problem. This list includes some aspects that are not quite well studied yet, among which stands out the way families are organized and positioned to face the situation and the role played by the Parents Associations in the building up of solutions which contribute to a bigger and better involvement of the families in their children’s school life. In this article we report the results of a study we’ve done for the Doctoral Thesis4, concerning the parental participation within the Parents Association. The results obtained by applying a questionnaire and an interview with parents and teachers as class directors show a very positive perception about the importance of these associations, but they reveal clearly the worry of the inquired people with their operating difficulties and the (lost?) opportunity that it represents in terms of the construction of a collective parental participation and, consequently, more efficient from the point of view of their contribution to the edification of positive solutions to the construction of the school/family relationship and to the improvement of its coeducational action.

This article aims to disseminate the results of an empirical study carried out in the Sátão Grouping of Schools, where works a unit for multi Congenital Blindness and Deaf, to percept the role of middle management structures in the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in secondary education. The extension of compulsory education to twelve years has led us to question how the middle leadership would be preparing the arrival of these students at secondary schools and, accordingly, we conducted a qualitative investigation, descriptive type, based on interviews and use of document analysis. From the results we highlight the position of leadership who advocated the partial inclusion (if and when conditions exist on schools). Although they demonstrate awareness of the importance of their role in the educational success of students with SEN, they recognize their lack of initiative within the educational community to develop the necessary actions to achieve this success.

The attempts to control chance are lost in the origin of time. So, in this paper, on the assumption that the art of enumerate and classify has crystallized a way through which was aimed to implement the control of the social body, in a first moment, we seek to show how, from the end of the five hundred century, and with greater amplitude over the next centuries, in England (but not only) the concerns, on the basis of concrete experience, began to focus in the observation and the examination of some population phenomena, in particular the rates of births and deaths, the rates of reproduction and fertility and the ratios between sexes, among others. In a second moment, the speeches and the demographic analyzes developed in the framework of Natural Theology will also be taken into account in order to show how they seek to justify the denial of the importance of chance by using the religious background of his thought.

Os textos que aqui se editam foram concebidos e escritos no âmbito do mestrado em Ciências da Educação†, especialidade de Supervisão Pedagógica e Avaliação de Docentes, mais especificamente no âmbito da unidade curricular Teorias e Modelos de Supervisão Pedagógica. Esta é a temática dominante, que se alarga inevitavelmente aos conteúdos de outras unidades curriculares, mas com uma dívida muito especial à Observação de Aulas e Práticas Educativas e às Teorias e Modelos de Avaliação do Desempenho‡. Supervisão pedagógica (SP), avaliação do desempenho docente (ADD) e observação de aulas (OE) delimitam os horizontes deste trabalho.

The teacher performance evaluation is a complex and problematic social practice, affecting the lives of schools. From a various range of theoretical models, the ones which, for purposes of differentiation, combine a formative and developmental dimension with one of summative assessment have taken ground internationally. In this work, developed within the master's degree in Supervision and Evaluation of Teachers, in Universidade Católica, we firstly lead an analysis of this issue based on the literature and the Portuguese legislation. We also present a critical analysis of the assessment process for 2009/2011 performed in an elementary school. The data, based on the application of interviews conducted on three teachers of the school, identify some infidelities in relation to the references (internal and external) but above all, a substantial variance compared to the theoretical models proposed in the literature. Based on the identification of some unreached aspects, and taking as reference these same models, some proposals which can contribute to improve the process are brought up.

Com a crescente complexidade da sociedade atual novos desafios e funções são pedidos às escolas e estas necessitam de desenvolver no seu interior modelos de supervisão colaborativa que promovam uma cultura de trabalho reflexivo e dialogante. Através desta ação e atitude estaremos a estimular o desenvolvimento da autonomia dos docentes e da organização escolar visando a construção de um ensino e de uma escola de qualidade. É dentro deste quadro de referência que surge a observação de aulas no âmbito da avaliação de desempenho (ADD) e fomos investigar de que forma o processo foi implementado e “vivido” em duas escolas onde exercemos a função de avaliadora e avaliada. Nesse sentido, foram analisadas as grelhas de observação de aulas e ouvidos os seus atores educativos (avaliadores e avaliados) relativamente ao impacto que a observação de aulas teve no seu desenvolvimento/crescimento profissional e da organização educativa no seu todo. Pretendeu-se investigar se o processo de observação de aulas, nestas duas organizações, foi monitorizado segundo um modelo de supervisão escolar reflexivo e integrado num projeto de escola ou se apenas se limitou a um mero ato administrativo, burocrático e de avaliação sumativa. Toda a investigação teve como finalidade dar resposta à questão que norteou todo o nosso trabalho: Observação de aulas em contexto de ADD: função classificatória ou emancipatória da classe docente?

The teacher evaluation is a process whose purpose is to determine the performance of teachers within a broad range of circumstances so, the need for a continuous and reflexive action on supervision, to ensure the improvement on the individual and institutional quality of the education system, is crucial. However, it is increasingly questionable the purposes of teacher evaluation when associated with the improvement on student results and the quality of their learning compared to those that refer to personal and professional development. Our aim is to undertake a brief reflexive analysis on the true role that the Teacher Performance Assessment (ADD) has on the field of Supervision (SP), through a brief review of the literature where these and other concepts frame the center of this critical reflection: analyzing the impact that the ADD has in the field of SP, i.e., find out what is, after all, the "weight" and the incidence that this assessment turns out to have on the quality of SP, taking into account its principles and assumptions. This intent is complemented by presenting a real case of classroom observation.