This is the fourth number of a project which started in 2011 when the idea of
publishing the lectures delivered by guest teachers in our Erasmus Week came up.
This annual event is organised by the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) and
takes place normally in the beginning of May. The title was not difficult to find as
the main purpose with this publication was to include every research and teaching
areas fitting a multidisciplinary journal with a very specific European approach,
however centred in Portugal, at the IPB. Therefore Teaching Crossroads was born
aiming at reaching the largest number of readers within both the Portuguese and
the international academic community.
In the first three years of publication, we published more than 30 articles including
areas as different as business sciences and law, agricultural sciences and natural
resources, chemistry, multimedia, tourism, nursing and health care, economics,
education, information technology and applied sciences, but yet so far-reaching.
Always intending to improve the quality and rigour of this journal, the two last
numbers have already been peer-reviewed.
This is now the number regarding the 10th Erasmus Week that took place in May
2014. This year, the focus of our attention is placed on Education and Chemistry.
Concerning the whole publication, we present you with a brief description of each
article.
Astrid Ebenberger focuses on the Austrian Educational system, demonstrating
how it has been influenced by early 20th century pedagogues, namely Ellen
Key, Maria Montessori and Helen Parkhurst, whose ideas and actions became
paramount in the transformation of the educational system in Austria. The author
also puts forth an outline of further developments of teacher education, drawing
some critical guidelines regarding the sustainability of the Austrian education
system in the future.
Cláudia Martins, who lectures a seminar on the Portuguese language and culture
to the guest teaching and non-teaching staff during our Erasmus Weeks, enlightens
us about cognitive linguistics, particularly focusing on figurative language and
tropes. Metaphors are here the crux of the matter and the author shows how they
are omnipresent in languages in our daily lives. That is, one needs to understand
metaphors as conceptual sources that reveal crucial for the understanding of the
semantic meaning of both synchronic and diachronic cultural and social categories
and concepts that define human experience and therefore language. The author
focuses on the area of Portuguese food expressions serving us delightful metaphors,
getting our taste buds tingling at the Portuguese language and culture.
Kamil Mielnik gives us an account of the Polish gymnasium, 3rd Cycle of Basic
Education or junior high school, for pupils aged 13 to 16, with regard to the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), while he also
describes formative assessment and its features, as well as the European Language
Portfolio, explaining ultimately how the latter can strongly support self-regulated
learning in Polish Gymnasium.
Katarzyna Morena deals with a very common problem as far as learning a new
language is concerned, that is language anxiety. The author focuses on the speaking
skill by highlighting problems and effects associated with speaking in front of
the others, either in a formal or informal context. In the study the author carried
out, some strategies are presented so that teachers can teach their students how to
overcome anxiety problems.
Elżbieta Wojaczyńska demonstrates in her article how the area of organic
chemistry can appear to be fairly pertinent in our daily lives be it, for instance,
on pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or agrochemical industries. Even though we’re not
aware of it or never question the existence of the product compounds, this is of the
utmost importance for health issues. Therefore, the author focuses on the methods
of preparation of nonracemic sulfoxides and examples of their various applications
in asymmetric synthesis as chiral substrates and inducers, organocatalysts or in
complexes with different metals.
We would like to seize the opportunity to thank all the contributors that so
far have participated in the consolidation of Teaching Crossroads, namely authors
and reviewers. It is also worth mentioning the helpful and valuable work of Soraia
Maduro, the designer of the most appealing and well-adjusted cover, and Atilano
Suarez who sets the book layout in a very perfectionist way.
Being all said, we are once more proud of making interesting and relevant
studies available to the academic community, not only to the IPB, but also to the
rest of the European and other international universities, IPB partners in the educational
promotion and cooperation. Therefore, we wish you a very enjoyable and
meaningful reading
