Children learn best when they are inherently motivated to pursue new knowledge and skills; ownership and opportunity for initiative provide that inherent motivation. Most of what has been created for the children's universe--whether in cinema, theater, books, cartoons, or school curriculum content--has been created and produced by adults. But By…

Worldwide initiatives have been promoting awareness on marine environmental issues. In Brazil Maritime Mentality Program arises from political disputes over the right to use maritime spaces, Coastal Marine Environmental Education shares the same theoretical basis as Environmental Education and Ocean Literacy appears in the USA and became globally…

Engineering and technology have a central role in shaping our reality that frequently goes unnoticed or not critically analyzed by engineers and engineering faculty and curricula. In so doing, the engineering that is taught, investigated (and improved), and practiced can unwittingly foster an ethical-political reality with which many engineers and…

Brazil spends more money, and a higher percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), on education than other Latin American countries. However, many of the outcomes of the country's education system are worse than its peer countries. We call this mismatch Brazil's Education Paradox. One of the primary reasons for Brazil's Education Paradox is…

Literacy is a pivotal aspect of education and critical for economic development as well as individual and community well-being. Innovative programming that taps into culturally relevant local resources can increase literacy and strengthen social-emotional skills. This article describes the work of LitWorld, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that…

In this article Brazilian teacher, Hugo Dart, describes how he partnered with Polish teacher, Karolina Isio-Kurpinska, to set up an online community where students from different places could interact and make discoveries about each other's culture while practicing their English. The article discusses the ten-week project that was developed for…

The Tutorial Education Program is an honors program for Brazilian undergraduates, sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Based on philosophical principles of tutorial education in which small groups of academic talented students are guided by a tutor, the program is designed to support groups of undergraduates who demonstrate outstanding…

Brazil's National History Museum in Rio de Janeiro is reaching out to the most marginalized young people and establishing itself as an important partner in offering them alternatives to a life of crime and addiction. The target population for its programs includes disenfranchised children and young people aged 10 to 20--those living in the…

The paper is a response to Holmes and Celani's (2006) invitation to learn from the Brazilian ESP experience. It discusses the conditions which sustained this experience, and compares the Brazilian situation to the Tunisian one. The paper also discusses the challenges that ESP projects in EFL environments face, the opportunities that ESP…

Currently, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education does not conclusively demonstrate significant effects on learning. However, not all ICT usage models are designed to affect student outcomes. Therefore, to accurately study the impact of ICT, the concept of an educational programme supported by ICT must first be…

Throughout the world, the demand for higher education is increasing exponentially, pushed forward by the realities of a global economy and accompanied by pressure to open up opportunities for prospective students from all backgrounds. The importance of a knowledgeable, highly skilled population has become clear and many countries have made great…

Purpose: The purpose of this self-reflective paper is to focus on practical efforts to combat inequality and foster intercultural dialogue in education. It introduces "knowledge alliances", a type of social practice open for education technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is structured in a theoretical and an empirical…

Every year the proportion of elderly people increases at a greater rate compared with other age groups, changing the population structure of most countries. Latin America has been internationally known for its higher percentage of young compared with elderly persons. The United Nations predicts that the proportion of elderly persons in Latin…

One of the key issues in e-learning environments is the possibility of creating and evaluating exercises. However, the lack of tools supporting the authoring and automatic checking of exercises for specifics topics (e.g., geometry) drastically reduces advantages in the use of e-learning environments on a larger scale, as usually happens in Brazil.…

Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) is an independent, non-profit organization with a vision for schools that work for all children. It partnered with Coca-Cola in 1984 and began a dropout prevention program just as it was conducting the first comprehensive study of school dropouts in Texas. Its annual studies since then have…