Projects for the Promotion of Educational Success

Objectives

1. To refer school failure within the problem of inequalities in education.
2. To contextualize the phenomenon of school failure in the Azores, compared with the national level and with other countries, from available data and from knowledge of the policies that have been developed.
3. To discuss the concept of educational failure, from their multiple dimensions as well as the main explanatory theories of the phenomenon.
4. To search educational projects geared to the promotion of educational success.
5. To analyse critically programs and projects to promote educational success.
6. To develop skills to design intervention projects in promoting educational success in contexts of poverty and social exclusion.
7. To acquire theoretical and empirical tools that can help to improve professional practice.
8. To develop reflective and collaborative skills.

Program

1. School failure as a dimension of inequality in the education system
2. Overview of school failure in Portugal and the Azores: data and policies.
3. Understanding educational failure: concept, theories and factors.
4. Promotion of educational success in school organizations.
5. Educational success and design of intervention projects in contexts of poverty and social exclusion.

Teaching Methodologies

The contents will be worked from the following methodologies: lectures by the teacher; discussion instances in large group started with questions posted by the teacher; work by the students, in groups, in the classroom, coaching sessions, with responsibility of the students.

The evaluation includes:

1) Creation of a team work (60%), presented in written form and orally discussed in class, focused on a critical reflection on a project oriented to promote educational success, in which the students should make a summary of the objectives and nature of the project; the discussion of critical issues or problems of that project; and discussion of the project, with reference to the Azorean reality.
2) Individual reflection, presented in written form, about the skills acquired in the UC and its relevance in the context of their training (40%).

Bibliography

Barbier, J.-M. (1996), Elaboração de projectos de acção e planificação, Porto, Porto Editora.
Benavente, A. et al. (1987). Do Outro Lado da Escola. Lisboa: IED.
Benavente, A., & Correia, A. P. (1981). Obstáculos ao sucesso escolar na escola primária. Lisboa: IED.
Diogo, A., & Diogo, F. (2013). Desigualdades no sistema educativo. Lisboa: Mundos Sociais
Guerra, I. (2000), Fundamentos e processos de uma sociologia de acção: o planeamento em ciências sociais, Cascais, Principia.
Lima, J. (2008). Em busca da boa escola. Instituições educativas e sucesso educativo. V. N. Gaia: F. Manuel Leão.
Paugam, S. (1991), La desqualification sociale: essai sur la nouvelle pauvreté, Paris, PUF.
Pires, E. L. et al. (1991). A construção social da educação escolar. Porto: ASA
Veloso, L. (2013). Escolas e avaliação externa. Lisboa: Mundos Sociais.
Veloso, L., & Abrantes, P. (2013). Sucesso escolar. Da compreensão do fenómeno às estratégias para o alcançar. Lisboa: Mundos Sociais.