Presentation

DOI:10.17533/udea.ikala.v19n3a01

Issue 19(3) presents three empirical studies, one theoretical article, one methodological article, and one case study. La Fábula Ovidiana de Filomela revisada por la Edad Media: de Chrétien de Troyes a Alfonso x, written by Mario Martín Botero García is the first empirical study. Botero García presents Filomena as one Ovid's most important works during the Middle Ages. Botero García states that the comparison of Ovid's version and the romance versions is not what made him bring this piece together; he considers the medieval people's point of view of Ovid's work concerning the way his work was adapted as the main issue discussed in this article. Botero García concludes that Chrétien de Troyes and Alfonso X's adaptations of Ovid's work have the same plot and different interpretations of history, a recurrence in medieval authors.

La Génesis de la Argumentación. Un Estudio con Niños de 3 a 5 Años en Distintos Contextos de Juego is the second empirical study. In this article, Maia Julieta Migdalek, Celia Renata Rosemberg, and Cristian Santibánez Yáñez present a study carried out with children between 3 and 5 years of age. The authors explored three different contexts of play in which children may use argumentative strategies and express their points of view. Results show that argumentative strategies start developing at the age of 4.

The third empirical study was written by Jorge Eduardo Pineda Hoyos. In his article, Social Networking Sites in the Classroom: Unveiling New Roles for Teachers and New Approaches to Online Course Design, Pineda Hoyos presents a study developed in an English reading comprehension class, in which the instructor used a web tool to support communication with the students and class activities. Results show that teachers are playing new roles in the classroom, and new approaches to design online courses should be considered. The author concludes with the five strategies to manage a face-to-face classroom courses supported by web-environmental tools.

El uso de juegos dramáticos y dibujos para explorar las representaciones sociales de los niños y las niñas acerca del aprendizaje y la enseñanza del inglés written by Cristina Cadavid M, Juan Carlos Vásquez García, and Juan David Botero Mejía is one of the products of the research project ''La mirada de los niños y las niñas sobre la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés.'' The study was developed with children from public and private schools in Colombia. The authors focus their discussion on the reasons that motivated them to do this type of study, the methods to collect and analyze data, their learning about children's social representations, and the methods this type of study demands. At the end, the authors highlight the importance of these studies for children's voices to be heard by policy-makers.

Mónica Rodríguez Bonces, in her theoretical article Organizing a Professional Learning Community - A Strategy to Enhance Professional Development, discusses the fact that in Colombia professional development opportunities have always been offered in the format of seminars, courses, and graduate studies. She promotes, on the other hand, professional learning communities as another strategy for professional development. Rodríguez Bonces introduces a model that can be used when using professional learning communities for the purpose of research.

Colaboración con Editoriales en la Elaboración de Libros de Texto written by Juan Carlos Araujo Portugal presents a study in which the procedures followed by a teacher of a department of English in Spain are explored. The teacher in this study collaborated with four well-established editorials in the evaluation of textbooks. Araujo Portugal recommends teachers should participate in the evaluation of textbooks since instructional material plays an important role in the development of a class. He also suggests that when editorials work with teachers in textbook evaluations, they should notify the professional educators with the final results.