Presentation

Roda Group (GI 1667)

The Roda Group has been recognized by the regional government of Galicia as a competitive referent group. It is formed by 35 people linked to Didactics in four different fields (Experimental Sciences, Social Sciences, Mathematics and Language and Literature). The common field for the research is based on the development of competences (scientific, linguistic, social, mathematical). The group aims to promote the development of an integral education which promotes the necessary competences for citizens within a society in constant transformation, beyond an academic specialization during childhood.

Over the last 5 years the group´s activity has focused on the management of 4 projects included in the National Plan I+D+i and one European Project; 16 articles published in several magazines (exm: Web of Science) and 8 in Scopus; furtheremore there are other articles included on others data base (ERIH or IN-RECS) and several books in different Spanish and international publishing houses (Peter Lang, Springer, among others).

The group is organized in four areas with specific objectives, but common as well:

Department of Experimental Sciences: Research processes in which students participate and adquire scientific practices; assesment and communication of knowledge in diverse contexts and educational levels. This objective is equivalent to research the development processes of the three scientific competences of modeling (production), use of tests (assesment of knowledge and reasoning) and inquiry, and their transfer into the practice.

Department of Social Sciences: Process of building identities to contribute to the development of a specific skill to interpret and give new meanings to the reality: a) identify the problems to conceive the cultural, political and social identities as open realities; b) to overcome hardships that hinder the historical comprehension of the existance of processes of building identities with a link to the territory and landscape, from the local to a more global perspective; c) to define the cognitive model of learning social sciences to adjust the learning and the assesment of basic competences.

Department of Languages and Literature: Research about linguistic competences on the context in which there are two co-oficial languages. That is an oppotunity to achieve a real multilingual situation: a) to asses the communicative competence of Galician students (in Galician, Spanish and foreign languages), identifying strengths and weaknesses; b) to desing strategies from a pedagogical-didactical scope to improve on the school sphere; c) to improve reasoning competences; d) to research about the relationship between Literary Education and the building of identities.

Department of Mathematics: Research about the skills that develop the mathematical modeling, cognitive and metacognitive reasoning, to elaborate tests and technical refutations and mathematical technologies, and its skills to research scientifically, in practice and metacognitivaly. To analize the thinking of the teacher to support the development of these skills and competences. Currently, there is a research going on about learning problems on teenagers with risk of exclussion.