Portuguese Secondary School Research Articles

Classroom ventilation with manual opening of windows: Findings from a two-year-long experimental study of a Portuguese secondary school

Classrooms in Southern Europe are traditionally ventilated with manual opening of windows. This is an energy-sparing and perfectly appropriate way of ventilating classrooms when weather conditions are warm, however, as outdoor air temperatures drop, teaching staff and students tend to leave windows closed and, as a consequence, ventilation rates fall leading to poor indoor air quality. To safeguard classrooms' indoor air quality and promote energy conservation, understanding the conditions for which manual window-airing is appropriate is of great relevance. Yet, given the stochastic nature of window-airing, it is difficult to get hold of this understanding. The main objective of this paper is to find out when manual window-airing of classrooms is appropriate. To achieve this objective, four free-running classrooms of a Portuguese public secondary school were monitored during a two-year period. Ventilation rates were determined and it is concluded that manual opening of windows provides appropriate ventilation for outdoor running mean temperatures larger than 19 °C. When outdoor running mean temperatures are lower than 16 °C, manual window-airing becomes inappropriate and, for outdoor running mean temperatures between 16 and 19 °C, appropriate manual window-airing depends on the indoor air temperature. For the studied classrooms, these results translate into appropriate ventilation for approximately a quarter of the academic year. Because of the significance of this finding, the paper concludes with a review of the ventilation strategy used in the studied classrooms.

Designing science laboratories: learning environments, school architecture and teaching and learning models

This article on secondary schools science laboratories in Portugal focuses on how school space functions as a pedagogical and political instrument by contributing to shape the conditions for teaching and learning dynamics. The article places the impact of changes to school layouts within the larger context of a public school renovation programme, discussing how school space functions as a pedagogical and political instrument. The focus is on science laboratories as a particular learning environment for science education. The study, conducted between 2010 and 2011 in 13 renovated schools within the framework of the Portuguese Secondary School Modernisation Programme, drew on document analysis, interviews, pupil and teacher surveys and site-specific focus groups. One of the main findings is that teachers found that science laboratories were the most controversial and debated of all the renovated learning spaces. Considering that the science laboratory layout was intended to be universal across all schools, there was little intervention by the architects responsible for the renovation of the schools. Focusing on the analysis of the decision to change the science laboratory design within the aims of the education policy, this article discusses how teachers’ criticisms were a response to some of the educational policy goals underlying the renovation of school buildings and the potential impact on science education, namely, the relationship between flexibility of space organisation and pedagogical approaches.

An integrated approach on energy consumption and indoor environmental quality performance in six Portuguese secondary schools

A major rehabilitation programme of secondary school buildings has been carried out in the last few years in Portugal. With the introduction of HVAC systems in buildings that were previously naturally ventilated, an increase on energy consumption has been verified. During the first occupancy periods of new and refurbished buildings, energy and indoor climate quality audits are important strategies to improve the buildings’ energy use. In this context, this paper aims at showing the relations between the energy consumption and indoor environment quality (IEQ) parameters, obtained from the energy and IEQ audit in six representative modernised secondary schools – part of a larger R&D project untitled 3Es – geographically and climatically distributed in Portugal mainland.The monitoring period during the mid-season 2013 varied between schools, between two and three weeks. Air exchange rates, more specifically infiltration rates, were quantified aiming at determining the current airtightness condition of the refurbished schools. A subjective IEQ assessment was also performed, focusing on occupants' feedback, providing insight on the potential linkages between energy use and occupants’ comfort.A reflection on the energy consumption indicators and the indoor conditions obtained in the classrooms was proposed, and some suggestions were anticipated.

School Architecture: An Analysis of the Role of the State in the (Re)Configuration of the Profession

ObjectivesThis article aims at discussing the relationship between a specific public policy and the professional field of architecture through the analysis of the Portuguese Secondary School Modernization Program (SSMP).MethodsThe study was conducted in a set of 13 schools renovated within the SSMP, based on qualitative and quantitative methods, and in this article particular emphasis is given to the content analysis of the interviews conducted with architects.ResultsThe analysis shows how the SSMP has had an impact on the architects’ profession in Portugal, discussing: (i) the extent to which the program calls into question the architects’ autonomy in the exercise of their profession; and (ii) how it contributes to the transformation of architectural knowledge and to the (re)configuration of the profession in the domain of school architecture.ConclusionsThe research allowed us to conclude that an education policy program such as the SSMP had an impact on the architects’ profession in Portugal, providing a series of insights into how public works contribute toward shaping the profession and the labor market. One of the particularities of school architecture central to the discussion is the ability of listening and mapping the needs of such complex users as a school community in order to translate an educational project into an architectural design.

Illustrating the Intercultural in Portuguese Secondary School Foreign Language (FL) Classrooms

Abstract This article reports on a small-scale action research project developed in the context of the practicum of a Teacher Education Masters course at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Porto. The project was focussed on the importance of visual stimuli in the foreign language teaching classroom (English and Spanish), within the context of an intercultural approach. Different strategies, activities and materials were employed with the general aim of helping the learners to develop their critical cultural awareness. The learners played a central role, participating actively, by bringing into the classroom their own knowledge of the world. Simultaneously, the role of the teacher was not without importance in this action research project, presenting herself as an example of a cultural mediator.

The natural history collection at the Lisbon Military College: tracing the history of a teaching collection

In Portugal, natural history museums and collections associated with secondary schools are still relatively unknown, notwithstanding that such institutions hold important collections, almost intact since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although vulnerable today, they held a remarkable importance to the teaching practices of life and earth sciences. Using the natural history collection of the Military College of Lisbon as a main source and point of departure, its creation, development, enlargement and use are examined, underlying the crucial role of material culture as primary source. The study of this teaching collection allows a deeper understanding of how biological and geological sciences were taught in Portuguese secondary schools, reflecting the changing approaches of science teaching in Portugal and highlighting the importance of circulation, local exchanges and global networks in the construction of spaces for science teaching.

Well-being and academic achievement in secondary school pupils: The unique effects of burnout and engagement

The main goal of this study was to examine the relationship among burnout, engagement, well-being, and academic performance in Portuguese secondary school pupils. The existence of gender related differences in these relationships was also investigated. The sample was composed of 489 pupils who attended an academic track at secondary school. Results of multi-group structural equation modelling indicated that higher levels of cynicism towards studies were associated with lower academic achievement. Exhaustion was not uniquely related to the adolescents' academic achievement or well-being. However, higher levels of engagement, namely dedication and vigour, were related to higher levels of well-being. Moreover, vigour was also uniquely associated with academic achievement. The results were similar for boys and girls. Implications for intervention and future research are discussed.

Beliefs on Marital Violence and Self-Reported Dating Violence: A Comparative Study of Cape Verdean and Portuguese Adolescents.

In this study, we compare Portuguese and Cape Verdean youths' upholding of traditional beliefs about intimate partner violence (IPV) and the frequency of self-reported violent behavior in dating relationships. The sample (n = 404) consisted of 183 Cape Verdean and 221 Portuguese secondary school students of both sexes (56% female; mean age = 16). We used two questionnaires that had previously been validated in the Portuguese population. The results revealed that young Cape Verdean adolescents uphold stronger traditional beliefs than Portuguese adolescents do, but there were no differences in overall prevalence of abuse between the two samples. The relationship between traditional beliefs and self-reported violence was significant only in the Cape Verdean sample, suggesting that campaigns against IPV have not, so far, been as effective in Cape Verde as in Portugal.

A data mining approach to study the impact of the methodology followed in chemistry lab classes on the weight attributed by the students to the lab work on learning and motivation

This study reports the use of data mining tools in order to examine the influence of the methodology used in chemistry lab classes, on the weight attributed by the students to the lab work on learning and own motivation. The answer frequency analysis was unable to discriminate the opinions expressed by the respondents according to the type of the teaching methodology used in the lab classes. Conversely, the data mining approach usingk-means clustering models, allowed a deeper analysis of the results,i.e., enabled one to identify the methodology to teach chemistry that, in students' opinion, is important for learning chemistry and increasing their motivation. The sample comprised 3447 students of Portuguese Secondary Schools (1736 in the 10th grade; 1711 in the 11th grade). Thek-means Clustering Method was used, withkvalues ranging between 2 and 4. The main strengths of this study are the methodological approach for data analysis and the fact that the sample was formed by students with different school careers that enables the use of the individual as the unit of analysis.

Emotional intelligence throughout Portuguese secondary school: a longitudinal study comparing performance and self-report measures

This study examines the developmental trajectories of ability and trait emotional intelligence (EI) in the Portuguese secondary school. Within a three-wave longitudinal design, 395 students (M age = 15.4; SD = .74) completed both the Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire (ESCQ) and the Vocabulary of Emotions Test (VET). Results revealed that EI exhibited different developmental trajectories during late adolescence according to the type of measure used, while students’ VET levels evidenced an increase during secondary school, their ESCQ levels remained stable during this period. Moreover, students’ gender, verbal indicator, and type of school (public vs. private) have no significant effect on their rate of EI change, whereas students from lower sociocultural and lower professional status backgrounds demonstrated significantly greater increases on the ESCQ and VET compared to higher status adolescents. The results are examined in the context of adolescent emotional development.

Adoption Concerns for the Deployment of Interactive Public Displays at Schools

JuxtaLearn is a research project focused on ‘performance’ as a means of provoking students’ understanding of science and technology through the creation and sharing of educational videos. As the videos will be shared in public displays, the Portuguese research team developed three workshops with twelve teachers from a Portuguese Secondary School representing different school departments and sharing organizational responsibilities. The aim was to generate scenarios of possible features and interaction for the curricular integration of the technological device. Our findings suggest that teachers are not motivated to use, on their own, technologies in the classroom, but receptive to new and challenging technologies when properly stimulated. They were able to generate scenarios that take advantage of the possibilities offered by digital public displays to stimulate learning processes. However, there are pedagogical, organizational and ethical concerns in the management and control of content that need to be resolved before they feel confortable to deal with change and technological innovation.

Teachers’ Workload: Evidence and Ambiguity on Professional Identity

Understanding changes in the teaching profession as means of State control implies the hypothesis of teachers’ identity reconfiguration. The use of time may be viewed as a powerful tool in rebuilding teachers’ identity as well as an important element in the process of developing professional identity. This study aims at describing and analyzing secondary level teachers’ actual workload, and it relies on the empirical data available concerning different national contexts, and on a description of the teachers’ work composition. This description was obtained through enquiries about the daily work of teachers from different subjects. The methodology used focused on multiple case studies, and the inquiries were conducted in two Portuguese secondary schools. The main results of these inquiries show the teachers’ overwork, and a significant dispersion through several types of tasks. Another important result shows that the available institutional data needs to be read along with the empirical studies conducted, for the latter reveal that teaching can no longer be considered a soft profession, particularly due to the workload and the need to develop very different but simultaneous skills. The increased control of the State over schools and teachers, and the increment of a wider set of tasks regarding school bureaucracy, organization and projects represent a significant percentage of the teachers’ work time.

The impact of Emotional Intelligence on academic achievement: A longitudinal study in Portuguese secondary school

This study examines the predictive validity of Emotional Intelligence (EI), assessed by a self-report and a performance ability-based measure, over students' academic achievement in Portuguese secondary school. Within a 3-wave longitudinal design, 380 students (Mage=15.4; SD=.71) completed both Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire (42 items) and Vocabulary of Emotions Test (35 items). Students' GPA, Portuguese and Mathematics grades were collected at the end of each academic level. Path analysis results showed that although both types of EI can predict students' academic achievement, they exert a higher influence in the prediction of 10th grade students' achievement. Moreover, the performance measure exhibited higher predictive power over the self-report one. Multi-group analyses indicated that some paths in the GPA model differ by gender while those in the Mathematics model differ by type of school. These findings suggested the importance of fostering students' EI in the academic context as a strategy of enhancing academic success.

Constructive Characteristics and Degradation Condition of Liceu Secondary Schools in Portugal

Within a full-scope modernization program of Portuguese secondary schools, technical inspections were conducted in order to: 1) identify the main degradation processes that affect different types of school buildings, and 2) provide recommendations for the rehabilitation projects. This article presents the constructive characteristics and a statistical analysis of the degradation condition of a particular type of Portuguese secondary schools, the Liceu, comprising a set of buildings with an invaluable historical and cultural importance and that is very iconic in terms of the historical period in which they were built—the Estado Novo. To that end, a database was designed in order to organize information gathered in the inspection of 15 secondary schools of Liceu typology. The aim of the database was to analyze the most frequent anomalies in this type of school buildings, taking into account the constructive solutions used and establishing statistical relationships between anomalies, probable causes and recommended rehabilitation works. Results obtained allowed concluding that the overall condition of these buildings which, in average, were 60 years old, was severe. The most frequent anomalies in both the buildings envelope and interior are mainly due to design and execution errors, water infiltration, and lack of maintenance. Although the school buildings analyzed are to some extent unique, most lessons learned from this study can be extrapolated to other countries, mostly Mediterranean, where during most of the 20th century, buildings were designed and constructed according to the same architectural and constructive principles, and were subjected to the same type of maintenance.

Teens and dating: study of factors that influence attitudes of violence

FrameworkDating violence is a relevant social problem in adolescent and young adult romantic relationships. Particular attention has begun to be paid to it by the scientific community in the last two decades. It may involve a sexual, physical and psychological dimension, requiring different prevention and intervention strategies. ObjectiveTo analyse the effect of socio-demographic and contextual variables on attitudes to dating violence. Material and methodThis is a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional descriptive and correlational study. Questionnaires to characterise socio-demographics and dating context and the Scale of Attitudes about Dating Violence (SADV), were applied to 243 adolescents attending the 10th, 11th and 12th years of schooling in a Portuguese secondary school. ResultsThe adolescents are over 17 years in age (40.7%), with a predominance of girls (56.0%). They reside mainly in rural areas with most attending the 10th year. More than half live with their parents (91.7%). The vast majority are Catholic. Nearly all of the participants are dating or have dated. We found statistically significant differences in all types of violence with regards to gender, the religion they practice and adolescents who have had sexual relations. The type of violence exerted was mainly psychological. ConclusionThe results point to the need to integrate the topic of dating violence in adolescent education using active methods with the effective participation of everyone involved in the process (adolescents, parents, teachers and health professionals). Only in this way will it be possible to develop healthy emotional relationship skills.

Building Characterization and Degradation Condition of Secondary Industrial Schools

AbstractIn 2007, the Portuguese government launched a modernization program for the public network of secondary schools. This comprised a comprehensive survey on 56 large secondary schools aiming at identifying the main building anomalies to be considered in the rehabilitation projects. Based on this survey, this paper presents the building characterization and the analysis of the degradation patterns of 15 Portuguese secondary industrial schools, a particular and homogeneous typology of secondary schools. A set of information about each school was collected first, gathering, among other elements the (1) identification of the anomaly, (2) building element affected and its location in the building, (3) extent and severity level of the anomaly, (4) causes, and (5) repair solutions. From the resulting database, the degradation condition of these schools was assessed in terms of the (1) most frequent degradation occurrences, (2) influence of the relative location of building elements (envelope versus interior...

Assessment of indoor air quality and thermal comfort in Portuguese secondary classrooms: Methodology and results

This work shows the results of a field study about indoor thermal comfort, based on investigations in Portuguese secondary schools' classrooms. The surveys herein presented were carried out in a school in Beja, in the South-East of Portugal.The field study was conducted by physical parameters monitoring and survey questionnaires. Both field monitoring and subjective surveys were performed at the same time during the regular class period (either at the end or at the beginning of the class). The measurement campaign consisted in measuring the environmental parameters – air temperature (Ta), air relative humidity (RH), CO2 concentrations. Outdoor air temperature values were registered hourly at the nearest climatological station. Through these data, along with the actual people clothing and metabolic rate being know, both Fanger's comfort indices were calculated (predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied people).The subjective survey investigated the thermal acceptability, the thermal sensation and the thermal preference.The judgments about the thermal environment were compared with the results of the field measurements. Draught preference votes, air stiffness and global air quality votes were also collected.The results show that the students found temperature range beyond the comfort zone acceptable, and revealed the occupants' accommodation to CO2 exposure, confirming the results obtained in other studies. Moreover, it was verified that running on naturally ventilation mode, CO2 concentration limits were highly exceeded.

Forced to Deal with the Future: Uncertainty and Risk in Vocational Choices among Portuguese Secondary School Students

In contemporary societies, adolescents' individuation is largely staged within the educational system, and is defined by several schooling options. This is particularly true when young people reach upper secondary education, as this transition implies the definition of a personal project. In the Portuguese context, authenticity is linked to the ‘obligation’ of choosing – by means of a compulsory vocational choice. To define a personal project that gives studies a meaning becomes a problem pupils have to deal with. Supported on empirical data based on in-depth interviews to pupils attending 10th and 12th years of upper secondary education in Portuguese public schools, this article discusses some of these issues. Specially, we intend to explore pupils' obligation to exhibit their autonomy by choosing a school path with the awareness of risks that may emerge along with their options.

Geological Fieldwork: A Study Carried Out With Portuguese Secondary School Students

ABSTRACTRecognizing the relevance that fieldwork and field trips have in the teaching of geosciences and related learning processes, this study presents two geological fieldwork studies that were established with Portuguese secondary school students. Both studies were focused on geoscience content knowledge, and attempted to increase environmental awareness and highlight geoheritage values. Following the Orion model (1993), the fieldwork was established in three stages (the preparatory unit, field trip, and summary unit), which facilitated its implementation and subsequent assessment. Both studies took place in regions in the north of Portugal. One field trip was undertaken at the coastal area of Vila do Conde and the other on the left bank of the Minho River, in Monção. Since a mixed methods research design was applied, different data types were collected and triangulated. Results indicate that the fieldwork was effective in terms of facilitating the development of conceptual knowledge, motivation, and diverse competencies. These results contribute to the recognition of fieldwork as an important strategy in geoscience education and geoscience awareness. The study also highlights that the relevance of fieldwork should be recognized by Portuguese curriculum designers and should be incorporated in the Portuguese science curriculum.

Can I Access my School Website? Auditing Accessibility of the Portuguese Teaching Institutions Websites

Web accessibility is becoming a current topic in social and scientific discussions. With the advances in technology, a need for access to all Web resources is becoming more and more recurrent due to the several advantages that the Web brings to those with some sort of disability, allowing them accessing and integrating in society. With this document we aim to present indicators regarding the lower accessibility levels of the Portuguese teaching institutions websites. A set of background and theoretical considerations is made alongside the article, as well as the results of an accessibility evaluation made to the Portuguese secondary schools websites using a specialized software tool and according to WCAG 2.0. The present document also contains a proposal for a model that aims on improving Web accessibility Levels in Portugal by fostering the creation of relations and group activities between the actors that, in our opinion, are those with the most relevance in the Web content accessibility issue.