Bilingual Education. Topic of my Research Project. El Bosque University. Presented to: Luz Gladys Milln. Germn Arana Perilla.

September 10th, 2010.

Contributions of Bioethics principles in the professional training of Bilingual Education students for conflict resolution in pupils learning contexts. OBJECTIVES: General: Establish a concise inclusion of Bioethics into El Bosque bilingual education program in order to capacitate students in their abilities to resolute learning conflicts in contexts. Specific: Explicate the degree of usability that Bioethics can achieve in conflict resolution issues. Comprehend the sources that lead to learning conflicts from a critical and sociocultural approach. Propose viable pedagogical strategies to give solutions of learning conflicts in the classroom setting. INTRODUCTION: Educators and teachers should master teaching methodologies to guarantee satisfactory processes of learning pace in the classroom setting. So far, almost all subjects -due to multidisciplinary factors, are being integrated for achieving goals in the field of education, so it is not surprising to count on various foundations of other areas of knowledge such as philosophy, science, medicine and Bioethics as well to increase the production of the learners. It is then in this framework in

which teachers face different learning conflicts that are necessary to solve in accordance with their professional experience and training. TOPIC OF RESEARCH: In regard to the issues of Bioethics, it is very determining to affirm its meaning to fully understand its roles for conflict resolution. In his own terms, the former chancellor of El Bosque University Jaime Escobar Triana, gives a further idea to define Bioethics: it specifically deals with the sociocultural dimension of the human life, and supports not only the use of scientific knowledge in our favor, but the creation of more suitable living conditions of respect and tolerance for all people in the country.1 Having considered this last definition, the topic of this research project is the solution of learning conflicts based on the application of Bioethics in contexts, mainly the conflicts that make it difficult for pupils to achieve an academic success when there are no alternative pedagogical explanations that help in dealing with those problems. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Now, in order to briefly contextualize conflict resolution in pedagogy, it would be ideal to give an explanation of how conflicts of learning arise from the context. One of such conflicts appears to be especially hard to manage for teachers, and it is called bullying. In this kind of behavioral problem, there is always an intention of picking on other students by targeting the ones who are considered weak. Bullying can be verbal, psychological or physical but regardless its characteristics, it degenerates all the relationships between students in the classroom who usually find it difficult to achieve expected learning goals in their academic subjects. The roots of bullying belong many times to dysfunctional contexts primarily in the family of the bullies, in which there is little or no attention towards their own autonomy and behavior.2

Other kinds of conflicts have a more direct impact on the students academic performance; these ones are a consequence of intrapersonal factors that affect directly the students personality. Very commonly, low self-esteem levels and a lack of inner motivation are repetitive patterns which are linked to deficient peer relationships between the pupil and his classmates. The causes of these problems need to be treated according to the study of micro-ecologies by which there is an exhaustive analysis of the peoples influences who surround the student in given contexts. For example, if we regard the case of a student with reading problems, one way to analyze it is by getting information about his school micro-ecology. This means to analyze how the student socializes and interacts with his partners at times of class or during the breaks to determine the variables of the conflict.3 RESEARCH QUESTION: The proposal that I have for this project derives from the real study of Bioethics as one specialization for postgraduates. In this kind of studies, the most important profile intended for the students of El Bosque University is the formation of skillful people who will be able to handle conflict resolution that are raised from ethic-pedagogical issues and can be studied by targeting their implications on the students learning.4 Above all, the main research question is how and in what extent the inclusion of Bioethics into the Bilingual Education curriculum can contribute to the professional training of students to solve learning conflicts in context? SUBQUESTIONS: Continuing with the formulation of this project, I will reflect upon the following sub-questions to tackle the possible alternatives that would make this process of research more usable and

practical; first, which could be the coherent ways to teach Bioethical principles regarding the experiences of our students and also the experiences of the teachers? To answer this question, we should consider the fact that teaching Bioethics is not so easy because most of the practice of human values -which are part of this discipline, are very dependable on the individual himself; however, the expectation is higher as we develop a collective consciousness on the students about Bioethical principles because each time a teacher detects a learning conflict in his students, it is worth to have in mind a feasible solution that allow the pupils to have more favorable environments for learning. The second sub-question I wish to cover with my proposal is how specific guidelines in Bioethics would be taught for our pedagogical training to be much more practical than theoretical? The set of content subjects in the curriculum of our career would need to develop a more substantial structure based on humanistic conceptions about teacher-training to get flexible approaches that can make it possible the resolution of conflicts within the schools we will be working. Furthermore, it would be very realistic for the students to participate in transdisciplinary projects inside or outside the University to gain intense experiences on the application of Bioethics in the field of conflict resolution in context. Next, what kind of real results does this new curriculum inclusion of Bioethics in conflict resolution expect the students to achieve when they have finished their studies? In this part, the students are expected to acquire enough knowledge and handle its application into real and situational contexts for which it would be necessary to exert influences on conflict resolution aspects. The more teachers know the methods for managing conflicts, the better and

more beneficial the learning of the students would ideally be. Furthermore, the students will have to be auto-critical in their performance and look for pertinent ways to mediate in conflict resolution based on the resources they can encounter in the environments, people and also their own personal abilities. Bibliography:
1.

http://www.bioeticaunbosque.edu.co/publicaciones/que_es_bioetica.htm Managing conflict resolution. Sean McCollum. Chelsea House Publishers. 2009. Chapter 4.

2.

Managing conflicts at school; pages 47-69.

3.

Problemas de aprendizaje. Juan de Dios Arias. Universidad Pedaggica. Captulo 3. Etapas de

la valoracin; pginas 45-54.

4.

http://www.bioeticaunbosque.edu.co/Programas/especializacion_bioetica.htm