This paper refers to a cross-sectional descriptive study with a quantitative approach on the point of view of students from rural areas concerning teaching, comprehensive formation of students from the 7th to 11th grades and the students’ life project. The study was conducted in 2011 with the participation of 41 students from the 11th grade of the Costa Rican rural schools involved in the Esperanza Joven program of the School of Educology of the Universidad Nacional. The information was collected through a Likert scale. The results reported a positive attitude towards teacher’s performance, comprehensive formation, evaluation of learning, family and institutional stimulus, and personal goals. In contrast, there was a negative attitude about the motivation of the school to its students. This research included an objective analysis and provided accurate conclusions.

Indigenous peoples have experienced food shortages in recent years. The rapid destruction of natural resources, lack of incentives for producers, globalization and free tradeagreements have caused an uprooting from the land in the native mind. Moreover, it has been difficult to establish an adequate relationship between traditional farming practices and technical advice to put the community economy on the right track with new ways to strengthen the knowledge inherited from our grandparents on the cultivation and consumption of agricultural products, in harmony with nature. This reality, which affects the Boruca indigenous region, has led to economic, social and cultural problems, coupled with an evident threat: loss of food sovereignty.

This paper, based on the Nicaraguan and Belizean contexts, points out the need of providing environmental education to students from the 1st to 6th grades of the Basic General Education to ensure that young generations will live in harmony with nature, which will depend on their healthy practices to protect the planet. For this, we attempt to stimulate the interest of teachers to create environmental teaching/learning strategies in an organized, planned, conscious way to raise students’ awareness and love for their culture and community, and for students to aspire to live in healthy homes. This way, students will succeed in the coexistence experience, in the material and spiritual cultures, and in the economic and development areas.

This paper on the ethical perspective of biopedagogical mediation draws attention to the importance of addressing education from an alternative paradigm where both pedagogy and life complement each other in response to the emancipatory character of the educational process. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the thoughts and actions on pedagogical mediation and its inherent bond to ethics. The paper is based on the premise of the need to nourish the sense of existence, from the principles and values that exalt the multidimesionality and complexity of life. Education, as a political project shall face the challenge to prepare society for a planetary citizenship, a shared effort that brings every human being to work for a real social –and mental– transformation, in order to reach higher levels of personal and social welfare. It is necessary to address all energies and wisdom to visualize the human transformation so demanded by the planet.

This paper is the result of a research project conducted in the Facultad de Educación Elemental y Especial of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina, where we have eight cycles of licenciaturas, which require a dissertation as a final project to graduate. Although the purpose of this study is to know the stages in the preparation of a dissertation –from the point of view of individuals graduated and thesis supervisors–, we will pay special attention to the role of the thesis supervisor, the scheme of his/her responsibilities and the real limitations of his/her work. Many questions arise concerning the role of the institutions on this matter. As an example, this paper provides the results obtained from a research based on a quantitative methodological strategy, which shows the difficulties observed at the end of different study cycles. A descriptive design was used. The observation units of this study were the students from the participant institution. The secondary data provided by the same institution and the statistical techniques used facilitated the systematization of the information obtained for its analysis and subsequent classification of relevant results. The findings enable us to see some implications related to the role of thesis supervisors, the significance of preparing a dissertation, and the institutional temporary gaps on this matter. In conclusion, this paper is an invitation to review the institutional commitment in terms of the teachers working as thesis supervisors and the students going through the thesis preparation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide some thoughts on a series of points of view that will help us in defining mental health as an intervention field of counseling. Reference is made to the epistemological positioning adopted to understand health, which is focused on a contextual perspective. A health promotion model is proposed to support the counseling activity. The reasons for limiting the intervention to mental health promotion, which are related to theoretical and methodological references inherent to the discipline, are also explained. Recommendations are made on the aspects to be considered for both individual and collective approaches and for extending the professional practice of counselors with an efficient performance as mental health promoters.

The case study focuses on the relevance of the Affectivity and Integral Sexuality in the Costa Rican Educational Program (EAIS) implementation. This program was proposed by the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) in 2013. It was implemented using a mixed approach under a dominant mixed classification. To gather data for the different study categories (knowledge of the topic, teaching models, and methodological strategies), a questionnaire was applied to nineteen students and some semi-structured interviews were carried out for five Science teachers from a high school within the Costa Rican Metropolitan Area. Some contributions were emphasized in matrices (charts) and contrasted through of triangulation both of theory and participants. Within the main conclusions stands out the relevance of programs for the effectiveness and integral sexuality supported by professionals in education and the learning population of the study. In addition, it was identified that the participants’ ´knowledge of the study (learners and instructors) was merely biological oriented.

The Quality Education Project of the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica (UNA Educación de Calidad) was created in 1998 as a direct response channel for students with disabilities or educational needs in their professional training. Considering the experience generated throughout the project’s activity at the University in 2008 and 2010, the project team decided to evaluate the work that had been developed with the assistance of a group of students, in order to identify the results of services provided and make the appropriate changes. This process was implemented through workshops, which enabled the group to observe the performance of each participant, individually and collectively, at different times. During the workshops, group work guides were used in the discussion sessions on educational needs and assistance methods, an instrument with incomplete phrases was applied, a video on the issue being discussed was shown, and a final analysis was made on the feelings and emotions that emerged from the assistance activities. Among the main findings, this study points out a range of assistance methods developed by each student to respond to the educational needs of his/her peers, based on the personal and social conditions of each one of them; in addition to a number of spaces created for exchange and interaction. This helped both groups of students to work in the reconstruction of the traditional concept that is associated to the term of “disability” and further develop personal abilities and skills that will contribute to the students’ permanence in the university, as well as to their social and labor inclusion. The study provides useful recommendations to meet the needs of the student population participating in the Project, particularly in terms of follow-up and assistance methods, a challenge to be undertaken in the everyday activity of UNA Educación de Calidad.

The following addresses the importance of the pedagogical intervention process undertaken by the students of the Faculty of Education. This process can be considered as backbone of dialogic confrontation between theory and practice. The main objective is to generate an analysis to reflect on the true intentions that are born not only from each university course, but also to evaluate the creation of a coordinated and interrelated proposal enriched by each grade level. The main intention is to enrich university education starting from posing questions that allow us to assess how the process is structured, not only from the coordination achieved between courses each period, but also from the relationship that should exist in the construction of conceptual, practical and attitudinal strengths that are created both gradually and sequentially. The construction of an alternative development proposal is seeked; one which starts with the learning processes’ sequenced and linked coordination.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the beliefs of Physical Education (PE) teachers about obesity in school-age children may help or hinder the prevention efforts on that area. For this study, we applied the ethnographic method in an urban public school. Data was collected through the following techniques: observation of participants, in-depth interviews, focal groups, and documentary analysis. Rich and abundant data was collected and triangulated using sources that validated the research results. The findings report on physical activity limited to the classroom environment, obesity as a barrier for children to participate in PE, exclusion of children with obesity from PE practices, female teachers providing privileges to students who have fewer limitations for physical activity and neglecting those who need encouragement, and how students shape their own beliefs.