núm. 51 (2008)

This paper presents a synthesis of some of the main contributions to human learning comprehension produced through research. More than a unified theory about learning, it tries to highlight, on the one hand, basic contributions from different theories and, on the other, its complexity, which makes impossible to enunciate a unified theory. Some learning proposals need to be deeply analyzed, among them: role of behavior, memory and information process in human learning. Besides, some implications of achievements in the study of learning for science education are proposed.

This article presents a series of relations among writing, research and teaching, from the point of view of the author’s educational practice, from his thoughts about teachers’ education, from the direction of researches about this field, and specially, from his experience as an editor and publisher of books and magazines.

This article makes a critical analysis of public policy issued by the Colombian government to evaluate those teachers who work in State educational institutions in kindergarten, primary and high school. Referents for the analysis are, on the one hand, the model of educational administration adopted by the Colombian government which is based on the ideal type of legal domination with bureaucratic administration proposed by Weber (1977) in developing modern and rational ways of administrative organization and carrying out technical processes and procedures in order to get measurable results. On the other hand, Law 115 of 1994 or General Law on Education, Decrees 1278 of 2002, 2582 of 2003 and 3782 of 2007, which regulate teachers’ evaluation, and also main theoretical trends presented by teachers’ evaluation in the world which according to Niño (2001) include Evaluation as a Rendering of Accounts, Evaluation as a Payment for Merit, Evaluation as Professional Development and Evaluation for School Improvement.

Narrative pedagogy recognizes the power of word signification configured in stories which make people related to school think, specially teachers, in order to promote his/her transformation and educational work. Narrative is a type of discourse characterized by being self referential, temporal and communicative. It has the ability to tell something to somebody so in specific circumstances he/she can judge him/herself and produce, most of the times, a change. As narrative makes a rescue of human being subjectivity and his own life experiences, narrative pedagogy can make, among different alternatives, a rescue of the teacher and his life experiences in the complex life of school, a world that is shared with others who are ready to listen and be touched by those stories.

This article presents two scientific logics related to scientific communities and analyzes the archetype of researcher underlying them. It presents some communities guided by empirical rationality which demands the rigorous use of the scientific method for observation, experimentations and validation of scientific laws. On the other hand, under the assumptions of sociology and history, there are some scientific communities which recognize the place of the system of beliefs, values and ideologies, as well as the use of techniques in the researcher praxis. In order to illustrate this second logic, the article presents some results of the research project in education led to interpret how research practices in this knowledge field are conceived and regulated.

In this interview , professor Ruiz Lopez talks about his first experiences in teaching, his understandings about teaching and learning, about the LaSalle model in teaching, about students post modernity in front of the modernity of the educational institution, classroom transformations, challenges of the new technology, evaluations and complex thought.

This article comes from the research project Concepts on citizenship and citizen exercise in educated and non-educated young people in the capital District of Bogotá, which researches different concepts of citizenship and citizen exercise, the political, ethical and moral perspectives of citizens and educational guidelines proposed by 70 youngsters between 16 and 26 years old, and from both genders. This article is divided in three parts. The first one makes reference to main trends in citizen education, as well as their emphasis and possible educational application fields. The second one describes the main trends in citizen research, as it is reported by several studies. The third one presents the relationship between citizen education and regulatory ideas.

This article presents the results of a research finished in the second semester 2007 titled Culture and Youth: meaning construction processes from young cultures, which from a social and cultural perspective studied young populations of two high schools: IED Nuevo Chile (in Bosa) and IPARM (of the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá) from a qualitative approach putting together quantitative and qualitative research techniques. This study questions current statements about “apolitical youngsters” and invites to make a reflection about political complexity of social representations by youngsters.

This article presents some reflections about a research whose main object was to recognize how Colombian public high school teachers use television in classroom and what students learn from it. The analysis started from a survey applied to 3782 people in 52 schools in 19 towns in the Colombia. The analysis results show a “domesticated” use of TV to fulfill traditional functions in teaching. Audiovisual aids are mere assistants of the most traditional didactics. This research shows the urgent need to educate teachers in audiovisual languages, and the importance of a more appropriate relationship between audiovisual aids and school processes.

This article presents and analyzes some theoretical and practical elements coming from education research and the knowledge background currently existing about teaching and learning styles as factors that have influence on how students make their own relationships with knowledge. It is highlighted how these factors demand for a multiple approach to request information in students in order to have more elements to make a decision regarding their academic performance, bearing in mind that learning response is individual. It also emphasizes the need that teachers become interested in living the evaluation other functions that might go beyond the mere performance grading and judgments regarding if a student passes or fails a specific school grade. It suggests giving the evaluation other functions such as be useful as a pedagogic and didactic strategy, to help teachers in their daily practice. Finally, some evaluation characteristics such as validity and reliability are discussed.