Negative Stereotypes Towards Older People. A Study with Teachers in Initial Training

Objective. To describe whether there are stereotypes towards older adults by the group of teachers in initial training. Method. The approach was quantitative and not probabilistic through a statistical study with university students preparing to become primary school teachers in the Spanish education system. This training profile includes adult and senior education as an additional professional opportunity. The sample (n=110) has been selected among students of the Primary Education Degree. We have applied the Negative Stereotype Questionnaire for the Elderly (CENVE) and the Educational Stereotype Questionnaire for the Elderly (CEEAM). Results. We suggest that the respondents present some degree of stereotypes towards older adults; the stereotype is greater when we question the deterioration of memory and cognitive impairment in general. However, the data are positive, except that in the case of the health factor we found two items in which respondents reported a higher level of stereotyping. Conclusions. Based on these results, we conclude that it is necessary to work on stereotypical perceptions, especially with students pursuing careers related to education, since their professional performance can lead them to develop their teaching careers in adult and senior education. The education professions must be involved in improving quality of life, active aging, and lifelong learning through professional practice and the elimination of personal and societal stereotypes.

AUSTRIAN POLITICAL SCANDALS: «KURTZ AFFAIR»

The article focuses on the political biography of Sebastian Kurz, who held the post of Federal Chancellor of Austria till autumn of 2021. He is being accused of abuse of power in order to achieve political goals. In Europe Kurz was considered to be one of the most promising politics, who came all the way to the top over the decade – a stellar career path, which would require entire political lifetimes for others to cross. Without higher education degree he over the few years rose from the position of a mere activist of youth movement of Austrian’s People’s Party to the role of the party leader. At the age of 27 he took up the post of Foreign Minister, and aged 31 he reached the top of the national politic as the Federal Austrian Chancellor. During the second decade of the XXI century Kurz used to be one of the interlocutors of the European and world leaders and one of the main officials in EU.

Are CLIL Teachers-to-be Motivated? A Qualitative Study

In recent years, CLIL has gained momentum in Europe and many have been the authors who have analysed the relationship between CLIL and motivation. The vast majority of these studies have focused on learner motivation (Doiz et al., Lasagabaster, Lasagabaster and Sierra, Seikkula-Leino). This study aims to redress that balance by examining teacher motivation, more specifically, the extent to which teachers-in-training of CLIL are motivated. Participants are final-year Primary Education degree students at UCLM (M=21.5), who completed an open-ended questionnaire examining both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Results demonstrated significantly high levels of intrinsic motivation.

Towards an Insertion of Technologies: The Need to Train in Digital Teaching Competence

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception of the digital teaching competences of the students of the Degree in Pre-School Education, Degree in Primary Education and Master in Teacher Training for Secondary Education. Additionally, this paper includes the students’ perception of their teachers’ digital competence. A mixed non-experimental methodology has been used with 428 the University of Alicante students participating. The results show a positive perception of the students about their digital teaching competence with contrasts with a deficient evaluation in relation to the digital teaching training of their teaching staff. Based on these results, the need to apply an improvement in the manipulative and didactic technological training of university teachers is corroborated as well as an adaptation of the teaching skills to the needs of the ICS in order to be able to carry out the correct preparation of the teaching staff in training.

Should we have surgery before pregnancy for women with congenital heart disease?

Objective: To investigate whether it is better to have surgery before pregnancy for pregnant women with congenital heart disease (CHD). Methods: Patients with CHD in Beijing Anzhen Hospital from 2010 to 2019 were collected and divided into surgical and non-surgical group, and the differences of events between the two groups were compared. Results: A total of 999 patients with CHD (mean age, 28.7±4.3years) were collected, including 403 cases (40.0%) in the surgical group and 596 cases (60.0%) in the non-surgical group. The most common CHD was atrial septal defect(33.1%), followed by ventricular septal defect (26.9 %), patent ductus arteriosus (9.9 %), and Tetralogy of Fallot (6.9 %). There were significant statistical differences in region, education degree and gravidity (P＜0.05), and the percentage of almost all events in the surgical group was higher. Pre-term delivery (17.1 vs. 9.9), low birth weight (11.6 vs. 6.5), heart failure (6.7 vs. 2.7), cesarean section (85.9 vs. 75.7), pulmonary arterial hypertension (36.2 vs. 13.6), Eisenmenger syndrome (9.7 vs. 0.2), and death (2.3 vs. 0.5) had statistically significant (P＜0.05). A total of 16 (1.6%) patients died, 14 (87.5%) in the surgical group, more than 2 (12.5%) in the non-surgical group. Conclusions: The outcome of surgical group was better than that of non-surgical group, surgery before pregnancy can reduce maternal and infant risk.

Gramática lúdica y creativa. Una experiencia para hacer más accesibles los contenidos gramaticales en Educación Primaria

La enseñanza de la lengua y la literatura ha de ser una experiencia lúdica y sensorial para el alumnado, sobre todo a la hora de desarrollar contenidos curriculares referidos a la reflexión sobre la propia lengua y la gramática. Este trabajo expone una investigación empírica llevada a cabo mediante el trabajo de campo y la realización de actividades lúdicas en torno a los usos del lenguaje, desarrollada primero con 18 alumnos del Grado de Maestro de la Facultad de Educación de Soria (Universidad de Valladolid) y, después, con 274 escolares de seis centros de Educación Primaria de la ciudad donde desarrollan sus prácticas curriculares. La experiencia consistió en la realización, bajo la supervisión de sus tutores, de actividades a modo de juegos creativos en tres niveles lingüísticos: letras, palabras y textos. Los objetivos planteados fueron: despertar la curiosidad y el sentido critico del alumnado participante en la experiencia, tanto universitario como de la etapa de Educación Primaria; propiciar la reflexión sobre el código lingüístico para mejorar la expresión oral y escrita de los escolares; y facilitar la asimilación de diversos contenidos curriculares de forma libre, autónoma y cooperativa. Al presentarse como juegos, pudieron aplicarse con igual rendimiento en estas dos etapas educativas (Primaria y Universidad). En su realización, los errores se contemplaron como una oportunidad creativa. Los resultados obtenidos confirman el valor de la enseñanza de la gramática de forma lúdica y creativa. La mayoría de los escolares de Educación Primaria mejoró los resultados en cuanto a esfuerzo, corrección lingüística o lectura en voz alta; por su parte el alumnado universitario apreció la importancia de incluir recursos lúdicos en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje, al repercutir sobre una mejor actitud afectiva del alumnado, reforzando la importancia de la sugestopedia como metodología en la enseñanza lingüística. Este trabajo expone una experiencia basada en actividades lúdicas que han sido desarrollada primero con 18 alumnos del Grado de Maestro de la Facultad de Educación de Soria (Universidad de Valladolid) y, después, con 274 escolares de seis centros de Educación Primaria de la ciudad donde desarrollan sus prácticas curriculares. La experiencia consistió en la realización, bajo la supervisión de sus tutores, de actividades a modo de juegos creativos en tres niveles lingüísticos: letras, palabras y textos, con el objetivo de despertar la curiosidad y el sentido crítico, propiciar la reflexión sobre el código y mejorar la expresión oral y escrita de los escolares, al tiempo que se asimilaban de forma libre, autónoma y cooperativa diversos contenidos gramaticales. Al presentarse como juegos, pudieron aplicarse con igual rendimiento en diversas etapas educativas. En su realización se contempló el error como una oportunidad creativa (Rodari, 2008). Los resultados obtenidos confirman el valor de esta metodología, al tiempo que se destaca la ayuda que pueden ofrecer al profesorado para el tratamiento de contenidos académicos que, con enfoques más tradicionales, presentan más dificultades de asimilación entre el alumnado, debido a su escasa capacidad para motivarle y para despertar su interés, pero necesarios para desarrollar la competencia lingüística y comunicativa. Teaching language and literature should be a ludic and sensorial experience for students, especially when it comes to developing curricular content targeting students’ own reflection about their language and grammar. Data were obtained through the completion of creative and playful activities about language, developed first with 18 students of Education Degree in Soria (University of Valladolid) and, later, with 274 students from six Primary schools where university students developed their curricular practices. The experience consisted of the design and conduction, under school tutors’ supervision, of creative games which targeted three linguistic levels: letters, words and texts. More specifically, the objectives included: to awake learners’ curiosity and critical thinking; to promote reflection on the linguistic code for improving oral and written expression; and to facilitate the assimilation of several grammatical contents freely, autonomously and cooperatively. Since these activities were presented as games, they were applied with the same performance levels at university and at primary school settings. Mistakes were considered opportunities for creativity. The results obtained confirm the value of teaching grammar in a playful and creative way. Most of the Primary students improved their results in terms of effort, linguistic correction and reading aloud. University students highlighted the importance of including recreational resources in teaching and learning processes as this had a positive effect on primary school learners’ affective attitude. The results obtained reinforce the importance of suggestion-pedagogy as a method in language teaching. This work exposed an experience with 18 university students from Education Degree in Soria (University of Valladolid) who have been involved as part of their own university training and later they have applied this experience to 274 students from six schools of the city, during its curricular practices. This experience consisted, under the supervision of their tutors in Schools, in several activities applied as creative games with three linguistic levels: letters, words and texts, with the aim of awakening curiosity and critical sense, promoting reflection on the linguistic code and improve oral and written expression, while assimilating various grammatical contents freely, autonomously and cooperatively. When activities are presented as games, they could be applied with equal performance in various educational stages. In its realization, error was seen as a creative opportunity (Rodari, 2008). The results confirm the value of this methodology, while highlighting the help it can offer to teachers for the treatment of academic content that, with more traditional approaches, presents more assimilation difficulties among students, due to its limited ability to motivate him and arouse his interest, but necessary to develop linguistic and communicative competence.

1014Maternal educational qualification and child’s birth weight: Findings from Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study

Background Lower maternal education was found to be associated with lower child’s birthweight which in turn was a possible risk factor for later poor health. Presented research aims to assess the association between maternal education and singleton’s birthweight in large UK data, accounting for characteristics such child’s gender, parity, maternal age, partnership status, ethnicity, and household socioeconomic characteristics. Methods Using England and Wales Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (ONS-LS), data from over 240,000 children born since 1981 to ONS-LS sample mothers were used. Maternal education was derived into 3 categories (below secondary, complete secondary education, degree and higher). Results Crude analysis confirmed significant association between the level of education and birthweight in each Census cohort (p < 0.001). In adjusted models, the education gradient was partly explained but remained strongly significant, and substantially increased over the years: for example, the birthweight difference between those with below secondary educated mothers and those with degree increased from 29 to 92 grams (p for change<0.001). Conclusions Our findings support previous evidence using different, usually smaller, population samples. Children of mothers with no or low qualification are more prone to be born with lower birthweight leading potentially into health disadvantages in their later life. Our results suggest that the inequalities in birth weight increased over the last 35 years. Key messages Low levels of maternal education predicts low birthweight in children.