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In order to understand the intercultural awareness development of engineering students, which is necessary for them to fully function in globalized educational and professional work contexts, a dedicated project was carried-out with Industrial Engineering students in a Higher Education Portuguese Polytechnic Institute during three successive academic years in the framework of an adjunct CLIL pilot experiment. Students’ perceptions were collected and assessed in order to tackle two main research questions: “Do students feel they have more opportunities for global employment or globally networked collaborative innovation?” and “What were the difficulties experienced because of the CLIL methodological approach?”. Preliminary findings point out that even though students feel that competence in English is important (or very important) concerning their work as engineers, the majority states not being proficient in that language. Students also refer that the CLIL approach allowed them to develop collaborative work with other colleagues and helped them understand better their own personal language learning needs, thus contributing to facilitate their communication in a foreign language.

In order to understand the potential of Online Learning Environment tools and resources in Engineering Education, a project on the use of dedicated educational strategies has been carried-out in various European Schools of Engineering to improve students’ engagement on different forms of participation and to enhance their learning outcomes. This study focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools while teaching Manufacturing Processes to Industrial Engineering students of a Higher Education Portuguese Polytechnic Institute during a full semester. Cumulatively to students’ perceptions, data was collected and assessed to infer about two main research questions: “Are engineering students able to use efficiently online learning tools to enhance their autonomous learning process?” and “Can engineering students work collaboratively using online tools towards achieving common learning goals?”. Preliminary findings showed that students managed to efficiently use the proposed online collaborative learning tools during the course. However, students preferred the individual learning tools and processes to working and learning collaboratively from and with each other.

The aim of the study was to know the level of development of algebraic thinking in Higher Education students. During the investigation, we wanted to measure the success rate in the size of the next generalization and the dimension of distant generalization and measure the degree of difficulty in the various proposed patterns. In the context of the training of future primary teachers and childhood educators, an activity was developed in the context of the curricular unit of mathematical recreation with 15 students. The theme of algebraic thinking assumes current relevance because according to [1], it has become a cross-cutting theme of the curriculum. In order to know the level of algebraic thinking, 4 tasks with repetition patterns were proposed from elements of the manipulable material: pattern blocks. The tasks were presented through Kahoot, an applet that allows, according to [2] and [3] to increase motivation, to improve concentration, to promote reasoning, to allow collaborative work, to reverse roles between student and teacher, use ICT in the classroom and evaluate in real time. Repeat patterns were proposed from the simplest to the most complex (ABAB, ABBABB, ABCABC, ABCCABCC). For this proposal, we have considered Vitz and Todd [4], who present a model of repetition pattern classification. In each task we proposed 2 questions that involved near generalization (10th term and 15th term) and 2 distant generalization questions (35th term and 100th term). In methodological terms the teacher projected each pattern and its questions on the projection screen so that all students could visualize, and each student responded individually using their mobile phone, tablet, or laptop computer. For each question, the students had a resolution time of 90 seconds. In none of the questions has the student's resolutions been exhausted. The results allowed to verify that of the 16 questions proposed, there was a percentage of correctness in the 71,67% (average of the questions). Regarding the near generalization, we obtained a percentage of success in the order of 70%. On the other hand, in relation to the distant generalization, we obtained a percentage of success in the order of 73,33%. We also observed that students showed greater ease in the ABBABB pattern, with a success rate of 80% and greater difficulty in ABAB with a success rate of 56.67%. Regarding the ABCABC pattern, we obtained a success rate of 75% and a success rate for the ABCCABCC pattern.

Information and Communications Technology is a growing area with a growing demand for employees. However, there is a shortage of professionals in this area and integrated strategies are required to foster the access of more people to these areas and provide training to develop the necessary skills. In this paper we present a short course that was designed to retrain unemployed people, mainly with already a higher education level in the area of the science technology engineering and math (STEM), to be Information and communications technology (ICT) professionals. After this training, trainees will have the opportunity to significantly increase the likelihood of being able to obtain employment in ICT areas. The course described involves public entities (including a higher education institution) and a private company, which is also a demonstration of synergies between academia and business. In the paper, the context that led to the appearance of the course, the fundamentals that supported the syllabus design, the partners involved, the objectives of the several subjects, the profile of the trainees and the results already achieved are described. To explain the fundamentals of the course syllabus we explain the most original features of the course regarding the usefulness of taking advantage of the abstraction allowed by the new low-code platforms, what seem to be appropriate and facilitator for retraining professionals from STEM to ICT. This approach, using a low code platform for retraining professionals to ICT, presents in our point of view, advantages over other approaches. In short, in the paper we intend to share the work done during the design and follow-up of the course, as well as the preliminary results obtained in the meantime.

This article presents the reflexive analysis of a strategy of science teaching through the inquiry-based science education, of curricular articulation between pre-school education and the primary school education, within the framework of in-service training of teachers. The main objectives of this training course titled “The science experiment and the playful learning”, were: to develop procedural skills to implement playfulness activities oriented to the action and participation of the students with intentionality to learn science; to develop knowledge and procedural skills in the experimental problem solving in science; and to operationalize practical activities that promote a smooth transition of the students between the different educational cycles. The subjects that have been developed in this study are included in the curriculum of the kindergarten and the primary school, which involved interdisciplinary aspects between science, mathematics, arts and portuguese, as light and colour, primary and secondary colours, volumes and capacities measurements and colour saturation. It was applied scientific vocabulary, predicting, experimental procedures, and analysis of the results. In addition, the friendship, the sharing, the trust and the respect were also explored. The project was evaluated through the analysis of content of field notes, observation grids and the satisfaction evaluation in the final of the activities, as well as the reflexive analysis of the educators and teachers involved.

Physical education in schools aims to promote physical activity, socialisation, and interaction among students. Today, it is considered a very important subject for development and health. It encompasses several sports modalities, always with the purpose of promoting physical activity and motor development of those who practice. Orienteering is one of the modalities that has recently gained fame. Orienteering is a sport modality that integrates physical, cognitive, and emotional dimensions. It consists, as the name implies, of navigating to a certain area, using a map and a compass, aiming for the shortest possible route between several points marked on a map. The work described in this paper presents a case of the introduction of new digital technologies in this modality to simplify the administration of these events in a school environment and to promote interest in the practice of this sport modality. The web application that allows the creation and addition of the orienteering event, the visualisation of detailed information in an after-event context, and the registration and management of new organisers or orienteers will be presented throughout the paper. It also presents the mobile application that allows the organisers to start and finish events, manage orienteers of a given event, view the current position of orienteers, and view the results of past events. The mobile application presents a static orienteering map to the orienteer. The visit of the orienteer to each control point (assigned on the orienteering map by the organisers) is verified using the georeferencing features of the device. These tools facilitate the management of these events by organisers as well as their analyses through automatically generated information. It also makes the practice of this modality more appealing to students because it introduces a type of gamification. Moreover, it also benefits from being paperless because it makes it unnecessary to print maps for the execution of an event and because the administration of an event can be done without the need to mark the control points in the terrain.

The immersive training systems and virtual reality represent the new generation of learning spaces. This new computer technology has an incredible potential in education field. Virtual Training, Interface Checking, Full Digital Immersion are same the uncountable applications of those technologies. This paper provides an introduction to the new dimensions of learning spaces using virtual reality (VR) and its possibilities for learning space. Provides a brief overview of existent immersive training systems and show the potential for education and training in: (i) exploration; (ii) Training practical / technical skills; (iii) operation / maintenance; and (iv) academic concerns. Educational institutions will benefit from better accessibility to virtual technologies; this will make it possible to teach in virtual environments that are impossible to visualize in physical classrooms, like accessing into a mine. This type of visits may be conditioned due to difficult accesses, safety conditions and reduced space. The huge possibilities of accessible virtual technologies will make it possible to break the boundaries of formal education. This paper also aims to explore immersive virtual reality as a potential strategy for students learn about Geology and Geomining Heritage, addressing several topics, such as landscapes, rocks, ores, veins, exploitation and transformation processes and intangible heritage. An immersive learning experience is now being developed for the Naturtejo Geopark Interpretative Center.