2020
Learn about the finalist nominees of the previous editions. If you need more information, please contact us.
Together we will take these best practices to all schools!
FINALISTS and Special Mention (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
ANA MARIA DAVID MANO MENDES
Winner of Special Mention – Social Sustainability
Camilo Castelo Branco School Grouping, Municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão. She teaches Moral and Catholic Education to more than 200 students from 5th to 9th grade and Environmental Education to students with special educational needs. Ana Mendes is a teacher who is always focused on finding new strategies to meet her students’ needs. Since 2019, she has invested in a project-based learning methodology (Problem Based Learning) for all students, having students as her allies, significantly adapting the curriculum to different age groups (Special Education students) who participate in the projects, allowing a more enriched learning for all. The methodology is focused on students, who work collaboratively with each other according to each one's abilities and pace, with a view to learning and problem solving. They build contextualised learning according to the theme of the project, where all areas of knowledge are interconnected, using new information and communication technologies and digital tools. These innovative dynamics follow a structure in which there are occasions to think, to share ideas, to research and to incorporate learning from various disciplines, and other moments where students work autonomously and have time, once again, to reflect on what they are doing or how they are doing, always with the aim of starting from real-life situations and finding solutions to be implemented.
HAMILTON RIBEIRO CORREIA
Science teacher at Dra. Maria Cândida High School, in the municipality of Mira, where he teaches 5th and 6th grade classes, to a total of 70 students. He has a degree in Biology from the University of Coimbra and a Master’s in Human Evolution. Over the years, he reconciled teaching with research. He always needed to understand why there are students who learn very easily and other students who are demotivated and do not learn. He believes that students learn best and are more motivated when they build their own knowledge from experience. Using the investigative method he has implemented in the schools where he has been teaching, students work with the purpose of solving certain problems related to each content of the curriculum. Staring from a problem, students seek to understand, justify and analyse it. Students develop hypotheses for solution, which are then proven and validated through successive experiences, stimulating reasoning, intellectual skills and the acquisition of knowledge. With this challenge, the class becomes a laboratory full of life. With this method, students become creative, innovative and even entrepreneurial. In total, around 1200 students at the school grouping benefit, directly or indirectly, from the research method used in their classes or in the science club.
LUÍS FERNANDO DA CUNHA BAIÃO
Special Education teacher at the Canelas School Grouping, municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia. Convinced of the added value of interactions between regular school children and people with disabilities, he created the “Está na Hora” (It Is Time) project. This project gave rise to a band, a gardening group, a theatre group which includes teachers, school assistants, seniors and other regular school students. They rebuild bicycles and motorcycles. All this helps students acquire schooling skills. This methodology supports the learning of Portuguese, Mathematics and ICT. He analyses poems by Portuguese authors, through music and theatre scripts. They also create spreadsheets to budget motorcycle expenses, among other activities. Not satisfied with the results, he went even further and created “Sim, Somos Capazes” (Yes, We Can), which is now a partnership between the Canelas School Grouping and Santa Isabel Association, without any funding from the ministry. Youngsters believe they are helping other students. They are no longer those who needed help, they are now those who are able to help.
PAULA ALEXANDRA LOURO DE SOUSA PEREIRA VIEIRA
Philosophy teacher at Armando Côrtes-Rodrigues Elementary and Secondary School, in the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo. He teaches a total of 150 students, spread over 10th grade, pre-school, 1st to 7th grades. Convinced of the importance of getting youngsters and children into philosophy from an early age, the created Filosofâncias: communities of philosophical research, with the purpose of introducing children and youngsters to philosophy. The active participation of each student in his class is the basis for her work, making them dynamic agents, responsible for their own training. They can expected from their teacher a personalised approach to foster their activity. Turning each class into a research community is an innovative approach that makes everyone within a learning relationship (teachers and students) to recognise difference as an element of the human condition.
PAULO JORGE CALMEIRO DOS REIS SERRA
Computer teacher at Nuno Álvares School Grouping, in the municipality of Castelo Branco, working with 17 students in prison. His work is based on helping students (in prison) to invest in their education, since the life path which led them to imprisonment made them disbelieve in their potential. Being aware that wanting to learn is probably more important than one’s skill, teacher Paulo Serra deals with this lack of motivation using the ARCS model of motivation (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction), amongst other distinguishing complements.
With his involvement and dedication, several students began to appear to pursue studies in higher education. Diversifying methodologies, combining them, and choosing the best of each, taking into account the students, contributes to the improvement of the teaching-learning process, and that is the objective. The Project Work and Collaborative Work methodologies, due to their characteristics, are presented as a solution capable of implementing strategies to reinforce motivation, based on the principles of active learning, centered on the student. The connection of learning to a practical and real component is a learning engine for these students. Thus, something innovative at world level appears, the creation of a computer recycling center in the prison with important partnerships of companies in the area.
Picacionais go hand in hand and are manifested in school performance, inducing academic failure, behavioral problems and demotivation.
SÓNIA MARIA DOS SANTOS PERES MOREIRA
Winner of Global Teacher Prize Portugal
Primary school teacher at Escultor António Fernandes de Sá School Grouping, in the municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia. Passionate about exploring the art of learning to teach with others, she created COOPERA, which since 2016 has a direct impact on 60 teachers and 29 classes (about 730 students). This initiative comes after 23 years as a teacher and its main objective is to promote school success through innovative and inclusive pedagogical practices. The approach to conducting educational practices is based on the active methodology of Cooperative Learning (CL) that supports COOPERA and operates a paradigm shift in the classroom. The furniture arrangement is changed, creating different learning spaces inside and outside the classroom. The essential learning and skills included in the Students Profile when Leaving Mandatory School are developed using different cooperative learning methods: Rotating Paper, Jigsaw, TGT, STAD, Telephone, Roulette, Learning Together, Mix and Match, Round Table, Think-Pair-Share… This methodology is being successfully disseminated by several schools in different regions of the country.
FINALISTS of the SPECIAL MENTION “ADAPTATION IN DISTANCE LEARNING” (in alphabetical order)
ÂNGELA SOFIA RODRIGUES VERNALHITO MORAIS
Winner of Special Mention – Innovation and Adaptation in Distance Learning
Music Education teacher at Colégio Atlântico, in Seixal, she started online synchronous classes on 13 March 2020. First, she prescribed tasks where her students felt the true importance of music in their lives, as well as within the family. Using the word MISSION, the great challenge for teacher ngela came when she was invited to be part of the group of teachers filming #estudoemcasa (Teleschool).
Teacher ngela was always involved in all the subjects of the teachers of her classes, but her greatest contribution was largely disseminated through Teleschool, where she was responsible for the entire process of producing weekly working sheets, sent to all public schools in the country.
She believes that Music Education reached the home of Portuguese students in a simple and clear way.
LÍDIA MENDES DE AGUIAR
Primary school teacher at Colégio Paulo VI, in Gondomar, she argues that, with “forced” social distancing, the essential was to keep students happy and interested in the teaching-learning process. To this end, she introduced different variables in her classes, including the creation of a YouTube channel to cover new curricular content, “A Professora Explica!” (The Teacher Explains!). She quickly realised that these contents were useful to more colleagues and students, so the made the videos available for everyone. She also organised virtual meetings where the purpose was not to convey content, but rather to strengthen the bonds of friendship between students, teachers and parents.
She believes that her students learned to be more tolerant and patient, to work more autonomously, to enjoy school, to value what they had and to understand that physical contact is better than remote contact.
She describes these recent times as a rediscovery and emphasises the preponderant role played by real mutual help between teachers, parents and students. Teacher Lídia portrays parents as true superheroes. She constantly communicated with them, opening space for constructive criticism.
MARIA GRAÇA MARTINS
She teaches Visual Arts at Ourém School Grouping. Public exposure in the teaching of Arts Education is, for her, essential to deepen the artistic and critical exercise, since it requires reasoning, talent and courage. With the lockdown, her students had most of these occasions cancelled. Despite this challenge, and taking advantage of the resilience of those involved, they prepared the final exhibition “More than Painting” in a virtual format, in partnership with the Municipality of Ourém. This awakened a spirit of discovery and a lot of determination in the face of the circumstances they were experiencing, and the exhibition was a symbol of resistance and end of the cycle.
The teacher invested a lot in the involvement of her students in initiatives that allowed for a return and external recognition. Her students were involved in a project to build images and compositional elements for the illustration of Luís Sepúlveda's book and in the Eco-Escolas project, which allowed them to collaborate in the initiatives of the Ourém School Grouping, in a joint responsibility.
She always privileged the sense of active participation, looking for the meaning of work projects and a transition to a less passive attitude as protagonist of events in the challenging situation we are experiencing.