Education has undergone many changes and adaptations due to the uncanny times we live in caused by the pandemic that spread to the world in the first months of 2020. Speaking and writing about the effects of Covid-19 in all areas of life has become a common practice if one thinks of the numerous reports and news put forth by the media about the impact of the virus on people, on the economy, on work and school. No one knows for sure the consequences of Coronavirus. We can only focus and reflect on its short-term effects. Apart from realising that Covid-19 has taken its toll on people, it has forced us to readjust our lives in an unforeseeable way. Working and studying from home became a common practice of life put on hold. Lockdowns, enforced differently by the governments, have tried to bring the pandemic under control to drop transmission rates. In addition, they have dictated (the temporary) course of education and business. Online classes, online meetings, via Zoom or the Microsoft platform Teams, for instance, have given way to a virtual environment to which schools and universities had to adhere. To avoid letting ourselves to be under the sway of Covid-19, we have to carry on with our so-called normal lives, under all accepted constraints, and try to deal with this new situation the best we can. That means that one has to continue teaching, learning and doing research in the search for knowledge, new challenges to unravel less explored fields, and, ultimately, to find a balance between life and work. Starting this preface with the mention of the pandemic was neither innocent nor purposeless. As teachers and researchers, we felt we had to convey a message to all the people involved in the field of education and research. We must resolutely not fear the virus and fight it by doing what we know best. Despite the need to abide by safety rules, we have to continue working. Regarding education, we can already draw some conclusions about the effects of the pandemic throughout these last ten months. Schools and universities have made all the efforts to overcome the constraints caused by Covid-19, facilitating the work of teachers/lecturers, educators, and researchers by fostering collaborative work and technology-enhanced learning. If, on the one hand, many complained about a myriad of negative aspects, namely the reduction of class interaction, technological devices and network problems, on the other, some bravely embraced the idea of going online, despite all the obstacles they would encounter. Overall, everyone adapted and continued working, upholding their beliefs in democratic education. Conferences have also been postponed, cancelled, or transferred to an online context. The Erasmus Week, which was to be held at the IPB in May this year, was regretfully cancelled. Teaching Crossroads was not put off by the virus. It hasn't stopped the publication process since May last year. As such, we are pleased to have this year's edition ready, comprising some of the works presented during the 15th and 16th IPB Erasmus Weeks. Finally, we would like to thank the authors who kindly sent us their works to be published, undergoing a thorough review process. Consequently, our last word of appraisal goes to the reviewers who helped us to keep the quality level we aim to maintain. We do hope that both students and teachers enjoy reading the texts published in this number, in the sense they find common teaching intersections that will benefit them throughout the teaching-learning process. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) has been organising its Erasmus Week since 2004. It is held yearly in May, normally during the second week of May. The Erasmus week's main purposes are three-fold. First, the IPB aims at enforcing closer, more dynamic and more efficient institutional relations amongst the European Higher Education Institutions. Lectures are then organised and introduced in both undergraduate and master classes in accordance with the area of interest. Meetings with directors of the 5 IPB schools and Erasmus coordinators are also scheduled. The second and third goals, which naturally derive from the first, are to facilitate familiarity with the IPB campus, its schools and with the cities of Bragança and Mirandela, where the IPB schools are settled, and with the surrounding area, namely the Montesinho Natural Park and the Alto Douro Wine Region (UNESCO World Heritage). This information can be found on the IPB International Relations Office website. Overall, all these three goals lie behind what is considered an umbrella goal which is to promote the IPB in its numerous valences and strengthen the mobility ties with the different European Higher Institutions which have established cooperation agreements with the IPB. This has revealed fruitful and far-reaching as more than 20 partner countries visit us every year. If one takes into account the two last editions' numbers, Poland is the country with a higher percentage of participants (37.1% and 29%), followed by Spain (11.4% and 15.9%), France, Romania and Czech Republic1. Regarding the lectures delivered during this week, teachers show a high level of satisfaction and find it rather rewarding according to the evaluation results obtained every year. One of the most visible results of these lectures is the publication of Teaching Crossroads. It started being published aiming ultimately at the dissemination of the research work that was presented at the IPB. We then extended it to all activities related to Teachers Erasmus+ mobility and international projects. The idea was not only to disseminate studies from other European researchers but also to give to the IPB teaching staff the opportunity to publish their research work and what they presented during their mobility. So far, the adhesion to this project has been rather steady and compliant with the publication's main goal. In hindsight, this project, which started in 2011, continues to persevere in its academic path, making thus available to students and teachers the most valuable research studies and relevant data in regard to a myriad of study areas which underlie the spirit of Higher Education, multifaceted, multilayered and plural. In Higher Education we hope never to be at a crossroads, but we dare to constantly thrive when faced with obstacles and embrace the challenges of knowledge. All areas of study are important and meaningful and must be continually promoted. This has been the leading motto of Teaching Crossroads since its very beginning. This would have never been possible without the valuable help of regular contributors to whom we are very grateful, from the authors, the reviewers, the designer to the IPB Image Services. A thanking note must also go to the IPB which has embraced this project by agreeing to publish it. As a result of the close cooperation work with the researchers who submitted their proposals to blind review, we selected five texts from diverse areas but nonetheless complementary. As such, this year, areas of study vary from comparative literature, education, social education and sociology, finance to business and entrepreneurship. A brief summary of each is presented next. María Antonia Mezquita Fernández, whose research has been focusing on the modern subject of ecocriticism bearing in mind the new approach to the close relationship between environmental issues and literature, a concern that always permeated literature, discusses the ecocritical identity in the light of literary figures and their poetical messages regarding nature. By highlighting and comparing two British poets, William Wordsworth and Dylan Thomas, and a Spanish poet, Claudio Rodríguez, the author introduces an ecocritical stance to the analysis of the poems under discussion. Sharing the common ground of nature, the poems are worth reading due to the powerful messages they convey, not only bearing in mind the period when they were written but because the topics explored resonate with the environmental defenders' main principles. What the author brings to the fore of discussion is a thought-provocative, challenging and relevant essay which found in literature its main driving force to call the attention to the importance of the defence of nature in a time where environmental issues, such as global warming and the melting of glaciers, are at the centre of the world's political agenda, despite the constant scepticism that still persists to endure. Beata Sufa & Anna Szkolak-Stępień delve into the idea of creativity fostered within the teaching context, by both teachers and students. In their article entitled "Creative Teacher-Creative Pupil – a Study Report", the authors argue that, having in mind all the technological advances and (advanced) use of learning technology, the new conditions of school and learning context require new challenges to the way the teaching-learning process is dealt with. The teacher's creative attitude will thus become paramount for children's development of creativity which will help them to improve communication skills. Kazimiera Król studies the phenomenon of begging in Poland, analyzing the spatial and social framework of such reality which results from many factors and underlies consequences to the places chosen for begging and to the beggars themselves. The author puts forth an empirical study bearing in mind the age, gender, civil status and nationality of mendicants, presenting thus in-depth data which allow her to reach interesting and relevant conclusions regarding the whole phenomenon of begging in nowadays Poland. Eliza Komierzyńska-Orlińska sheds some light on a common unknown part of the financial system to the majority of people, which is the security of the banking system. When one deposits or withdraws money one is never aware of (or simply does not care about) how our money is held safe or how the banks protect their assets. The article "Security of the Banking System in Poland. Fundamental Assumptions" deals precisely with security issues within the Polish banking system highlighting the crucial role of the central bank in the whole process of surveillance and regulation. Legal issues are therefore discussed. By using simple and straightforward language, the author is able to reach a non-specialist audience who will become more informed about this issue in a rather clear way. Erik Kubička focuses on organizational culture explaining how well-succeeded, renowned, top companies in the technology sector foster effectiveness in the work environment. In this regard, the author describes several technological companies, such as Google, Apple and IBM, just to name a few. Innovation, informal leadership, less red tape and closer contact with the workers are features that are common to all these companies which represent the key to their success. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
We have to start off this preface by congratulating the IPB for its achievement. It has been positioned in the top 50 best Higher Education Institutions in the area of Food Technology and Science by the renowned Shanghai ranking. For 4 years in a row the IPB has been considered the best Polytechnic Institute in Portugal by the U-Multirank. Therefore, we have to take our hat off to the IPB. It goes without saying that our compliment is also addressed to the authors, reviewers and everyone who made this publication possible. This is now the 6th number of Teaching Crossroads which started in 2012 when we came up with the idea of publishing research work presented in the Erasmus Weeks endorsed by the IPB. Since then we have had over 40 articles published and over 6,000 downloads. Actually, the top five countries doing downloads include France, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands and the USA. We aim to reach not only other researchers but also students who can find relevant information in the articles for their areas of study. Not only do we have a clear, well-structured publication to make it more appealing to the reader, but also we look for interesting and in-depth discussions, ideas and projects to promote serious research work developed in Europe. This has been our main motto since we started. This year's publication includes the areas of Economy and Management, Health, Mathematics, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. In conjunction with this, as in the three last previous numbers, we have included the specific area on International mobility, Intensive Programmes and Erasmus+. To entice you to read these informative and thoughtful articles, we highlight some of the main ideas that the authors delved into in their research works. Marcin Bogdanski's research focuses on regional development in Poland. The study covers the period between 2000 and 2014 throughout which the author analysed the level of economic development in Polish provinces. Moreover, the author reflects on the ineffectiveness of EU cohesion policy aiming at economic convergence within the EU member countries. Malgorzata Okreglicka presents a study which analyses the selected aspects in the area of current assets management, such as trade credit and inventories, in a varied and large number of Polish enterprises. The statistical work developed is of considerable advantage as it will allow a comparison between the diverse values obtained among the different companies and therefore this reveals crucial for the improvement of management methods and tools. Elzbieta Broniewicz compares environmental protection costs and revenues in Portugal and Poland bearing in mind the domains of environmental protection and economic sectors. Detailed and accurate survey results are shown and by doing so the author calls our attention to the importance of environmental protection and the need for government expenditure in this specific field. This study also illustrates how the world economy influences government expenditure in environmental protection both in Portugal and Poland which has been decreasing over the last three years. Juan Antonio Torrénts Arévalo's study is rather valuable as it indicates a guideline about strategy management useful for any company. The author presents and describes several strategic methods, e.g. SWOT and Porter, and all the process linked to them, namely the definition of objectives, the analysis of the competitive environment and the internal organisation of companies, just to name a few. This study also focuses on the performance of Spanish economy in 2011. Robert Florkowski focuses on the person-centred approach and rehabilitation. The crux of the study is the comparison between two main paradigms regarding health rehabilitation, the medical and Rogerian paradigms, highlighting differences and control skirmishes between them and other scientific patterns. The author also provides his own professional accounts in the field of physiotherapy, clinical psychology and psychotherapy as a significant supplement to his study. Kamila Misiakiewicz-Has explores the topic of fertility in males. The author provides scientific data resulting from experiments performed in rats treated with endocrine-disrupting chemicals. These substances proved to confirm they alter endogenous hormones causing thus major influences on the estrogen–androgen imbalance in the male reproductive system. F.T. Pachón-García and A. Berenguer-García present a study carried out in secondary schools with the purpose of checking students' mathematical skills at this level of education. The procedure chosen to conduct the study was based on mathematical tests whose results were then compared with national data and analysed. Taking into account the results obtained the authors present some innovative solutions to improve deficiencies that students have had in specific mathematical areas. Alexandre Pereira presents a study which is part of his doctoral thesis. This article introduces the topic of soft matter highlighting its use and behaviour. The study focuses mainly on a Polymer called Ionic Polymer Metal Composite. Mariana-Rodica Milici and Laurentiu-Dan Milici study the conditions, consequences and practical applications of the resonance phenomenon. Focusing on the RLC series circuit under sinusoidal steady state, the authors provide valuable explanations and warnings regarding the resonance condition and applications of this phenomenon. Cristina Mesquita briefly describes the Expeducom project, financed under Erasmus+ K2, in which she participated in representation of the IPB. This was a joint project between 7 European Higher Education Institutions with the aim of developing and implementing innovative pedagogical practices related to experiential learning in the kindergarten and primary school context. Appetizers served, we do hope you enjoy your reading and, most of all, you find it useful in your academic life. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
In the wake of the latest news regarding IPB's award for best Polytechnic Institute in Portugal, we would like to congratulate the IPB community who has always striven for the quality of the institution within the national and international academic milieu. We are, undoubtedly, bowled over by the 1st place in the national context (out of the 27 national institutions under evaluation) and the 7th position in the international scope. In fact, it is worth mentioning that the IPB has won this award, three years in a row, being in a leading position in the ranking promoted and sponsored by the European Union. This year's edition has selected and evaluated over 1300 world higher education institutions. Teaching Crossroads intends thus to give a watershed contribution to the IPB's successful and most valued pathway. Numbers indicate that Teaching Crossroads has had over 2550 downloads since it first came out. But let's cut to the chase. Once again, we are delighted to present the 5th number of Teaching Crossroads. This wholly calculated and well-sustained editorial adventure started in 2012 when the first number of Teaching Crossroads first saw the light. This year's publication includes the areas of Human Geography/anthropology, Information Technology and Forensics and Language and culture, focusing on minority languages. Alongside this, as in the two last previous numbers, we've included the specific area for International mobility, Intensive Programmes and Erasmus+ Mobility of Individuals, being the latter financed by the European Union within the Erasmus+ Programme, whereas the former is sponsored uniquely by the foreign partner institution, in this case, Lillebaelt Academy in Denmark. These types of programmes convey very positive and overarching ideas, resonant in cross-cultural and educational benefits, valuable for all the involved partners. We would very kindheartedly like to thank the authors for having contributed with much enlightening and serious articles on a wide array of areas. Pablo M. Orduna Pórtus's article focuses on border culture and heritage management. The author's study is placed on two borderlands of the Iberian Peninsula: Roncal Valley (Navarre) and Riverbanks of Douro. Going beyond the linear or physical conception of the border, the author centres his study on the metaphysical and symbolic ideas of the frontier that sustain his anthropological analysis. Michal Popdora manages to find evidence for his proposal of a new conception of teaching Image Processing, based on the student-centered approach. A hands-on experience on a Project-based Learning methodology sustains the teaching project. Grounded on "a forensic-flavored style", using the author's own words, he shows how students can become engaged in a highly effective learning process. Cláudia Martins is already a confirmed habitué of this publication, as in every Erasmus Week she delivers a lecture on Portuguese language and culture to visiting teaching and non-teaching staff. This time, the author decided to delve into a Portugal's official language, Mirandese, spoken in a small designated area in the northeastern part of Portugal, Miranda do Douro and its surrounding area. The author gives account of some thought-provoking facts about the language, from the origin and the survival of the language, however still a minority language, up to the moment when it was acknowledged Portugal's second official language, together with the challenges that nowadays faces. Luís Frölen Ribeiro, João Eduardo Ribeiro, Carlos Casimiro Costa, António Duarte, Carlos Andrade from the Polytechnic Institute and Arne Svinth, John Madsen, Morten Thomsen, Kent Smidstrup, Carsten John Jacobsen from the Lillebaelt Academy, in Denmark, participate in a joint project which they describe, outlining the main goals and gains of the project. To overcome teaching difficulties regarding the engineering degrees, a 12-ECTS joint course from Lillebaelt Academy and Polytechnic Institute of Bragança was created based on the Danish model. The course Product Development and Industrial Processing was hence created. Rui Pedro Lopes presents an insightful and acute account of the Internationalization programmes in Higher Education in Europe. At one go, the author describes his own experience as a visiting lecturer, within the Erasmus+ programme, to Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy, in a Master's degree in computer science, bringing to light a personal reflection on the goals and benefits of the mobility for both students and teachers. Finally, the author puts forth some suggestions that would improve the whole mobility process. We sincerely hope to have stimulated you to keep on reading, upholding the belief that these texts can represent valuable sources for both teachers and students in their research work.
