Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This paper presents part of the results of the international project titled ‘From Tradition to Innovation in Teacher Training Institutions (TO- INN)’, in which 13,939 European and Latin American university students taking Education Sciences participated. The objective of the study was to trace the students’ motivational profiles and to detect which factors from their social backgrounds and academic satisfaction explained and predicted their academic motivation. To this end a 33-item questionnaire was used which explored the social dimensions of the students’ backgrounds and experience, including socio-demographic variables, the type of student, their satisfaction with different aspects of their university experience, their social and university participation and a range of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors. The questionnaires were administered online at 24 educational institutions in 3 European countries and 7 in Latin America. Results suggest a mostly female socio-demographic profile, with an average age of around 25, of socio-economically medium or low family origin  and needing to combine studying with working. Among their    reasons for choosing the degree, intrinsic motives associated with identity and achievement (suitability to their aptitudes, desire for social mobility and  the pleasure of studying for its own sake) carried more weight than extrinsic ones such as achieving enhanced social status. Both types of motivation were differentially associated with various elements of academic satisfaction. A linear regression model showed that the variables predicting motivation were the parents’ age, education and type of employment and the fact of working while studying. Finally, the limitations of the study are discussed and future lines of research suggested, especially regarding the educational institution as a vehicle of social mobility and the role of gender in academic motivation.

This study explores the participation in social networks of Year 3 and Year 4 Compulsory Secondary School students with regard to frequency of access and use, gender, ethnicity and special educational needs. The study adopted a mixed-method research design, surveying 2734 students from    15 Secondary Schools in the Region of Murcia (Spain) who were asked        to complete a questionnaire on a 5-point Likert scale. Data collection was complemented with the application of the “Phillips 66” technique to 157 focus students selected depending on their frequency of use of these technologies. The results reveal a widespread use of social networks, though foreign and special needs students use them to a lesser extent. Student engagement with social networks is not solely oriented to meeting personal interests, but socio- affective and relational needs such as entertainment, being in touch with friends and meeting new people. These students do not hold the perception that social networks might negatively impact their academic performance, leisure time and personal relationships. Statistically significant differences were reported for students’ perceptions about the usefulness of social networks when it comes to improving existing friendships. In this respect, students with special needs feel less positive, while foreign students use social networks mainly for meeting new people. As for gender, women spend more time on social networks with a view to keeping in touch with people they   do not normally see. They also report having problems with relatives and friends regarding their use of social networks, and they feel more anxious at the thought of not having access to them.

The labour market has been making increasing demands on university students for some decades now. It is therefore necessary for the University to promote models focused on the intellectual, personal and emotional development of students, as well as optimizing the transition of graduates to active professional life and responding to the social and employment  challenges they face. Based on this reality, the need to address in the work presented the analysis of the practice of innovative methodologies such    as Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is justified. In order to respond to this need, this research aims, on the one hand, to describe the assessments made by students on the technical, methodological, participatory and personal competences acquired through the PBL methodology and, on the other hand, to learn whether there are significant differences in their assessments according to the different university degrees present in the sample. For  this purpose, a survey type study was carried out, performing a descriptive analysis and contrast tests to obtain differences in skill acquisition scores between students by group. The resulting sample was 1,065 students from the University of Seville. The results show a generally positive attitude of the students towards the application of the PBL methodology, giving the competences acquired a medium-high rating, higher in the educational branch than in health. At the same time, evidence shows that the participatory and personal competences are those that have been acquired to a lesser extent. Among the conclusions, the effectiveness of the PBL    methodology when acquiring competencies over other traditional methodologies should be highlighted.

Education in prison helps to reduce recidivism, but the relationship between academic performance and recidivism is spurious, as most prisoners belong to more vulnerable and deprived social groups with deficits that not only influence lower academic standards but also have a direct impact on fewer opportunities once released. The objective of this study       is to analyze the relationship of cognitive-motivational variables such as academic self-concept, academic self-efficacy, learning orientation and school climate, with the academic achievement of inmates, as well as with other measures of their academic performance, such as satisfaction with  the subject, perceived learning and expected grade. To this end, a group of students in Section I and II of the Education for Adults who were studying in prison was compared with another group of students of the same level who were attending adult education centers in the community. The total sample consisted of 233 participants between the ages of 18 and 64, of whom 124 were in prison. Participants answered a questionnaire including 11 scales that had previously obtained the necessary evidence of reliability and validity. The analysis of the data indicated that the academic performance and academic achievement of students in prison were better than those of students outside prison, that the cognitive-motivational variables were related in both groups only to academic performance and not to academic achievement and that this relationship varied within each group. The results are discussed focusing on the fact that imprisonment makes the teaching/ learning process harder, but that the difficulties should be solved taking into account, not so much that students are people who have committed a crime for which they are serving a sentence, but that they are adults who have not completed compulsory education and are motivated to do so.

The system university access in Spain is a social issue of interest.  This study aims to compare the Foreign Language-English tests of the     17 Autonomous Communities that give access to university in Spain. The purpose is to reflect on the possible influence of the differences in the design of the tests on the average performance obtained by those examined, depending on the Autonomous Community to which they belong. To this end, a non-experimental and transversal design of a descriptive and comparative nature is proposed. On the one hand, the structure of 68 examinations, corresponding to models A and B of the 2017 initial and secondary rounds, is studied by means of a descriptive-analytical analysis based on a comparative methodology adapting the approach proposed by García-Garrido (1991). On the other hand, information is collected on the average scores obtained by the candidates in the tests, and their possible relationship with the structure of the tests by Autonomous Community is analysed, thanks to the data published annually by the Integrated University Information System. The results show differences in the assessment of language skills. For example, Speaking is not assessed in any autonomous community and Listening is only assessed in Galicia and Catalonia. Likewise, there are disparities in the weight of each content block within the test, in the format of the items and in the average mark obtained by the candidates in each of the  Autonomous Communities. It is concluded that it cannot be ruled out that the current system of assessing linguistic competence in Foreign Languages-English is producing important imbalances and inequalities associated with the Autonomous  Community  of origin.

This article goes in depth in the relationship between employability skills and quality of life of people with mild and moderate intellectual disability who work in a special employment center (CEE), as a determining factor in their level of socio-community inclusion. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire on labor competences (own elaboration), as well  as through the scale of quality of life by Schalock and Verdugo (2008) with 100 workers of 15 CEE. The worker’s supervisor answered both. People in the sample have a low level of quality of life, but high in job skills. There    is no relationship between both variables. In terms of quality of life, young people show better levels of personal development than those over 45 years of age; and men present better results in interpersonal relationships. High levels of competence do not differ according to age or gender. Results show the need for a longitudinal educational action centered on the person, already initiated in schooling, to promote the domains of the quality of life and to continue throughout life. On the other hand, job training developed in the CEE shows good results in the professional skills of participants in the study. The specific groups that require priority actions are those over 45 years old, to promote quality active aging, as well as women, to avoid double discrimination to which they are subjected (disability and  gender).

Women in academia are underrepresented at the highest levels of the hierarchy. After gaining their PhDs, they seem to make little progress and their career paths appear to be hampered by their family responsibilities. Motherhood can affect scientific productivity and, therefore, promotion. Balancing teaching, research, administration, consultation, and other roles in academia with maternity can be hard. The study comprises an online-survey of mothers with children up to 5 years old, working in academia (n=80) in a Spanish university (University of Murcia), the aim being to ascertain their views regarding maternity and work. Common themes include a greater focus on teaching than on research, handicaps regarding mobility, and working from home. 63% perceived that their CVs are less competitive than those of their co-workers who are not mothers, which implies that their research productivity decreased. However, even with these difficulties, the results show that more than half are confident they will soon receive promotion. In order to reduce the existing glass ceiling, actions and policies that promote equal access and promotion to the scientific career, integrating working life and family care must be implemented.

The goal of this paper is to characterize the institutional diversity of the private side of a higher education system. The classification techniques used in the literature have a propensity to compare private higher education institutions with their public counterparts and run the risk of underestimating the impact of the market as a source of institutional differentiation. In this paper we propose an alternative classification that allows this limitation    to be overcome. We obtain a multidimensional classification of private higher education institutions and analyze the relationship between their institutional characteristics and the sources of differentiation. The study has been conducted in the Colombian higher education system, as it constitutes one of the systems with the highest rates of privatization worldwide. Our results identify five strategic groups of private higher education institutions. Distance learning, the offer of technical and technological programs, and postgraduate training are key factors determining the differences across Colombian private higher education institutions. The approach followed in this paper could be used to identify potential paths for the development and expansion of private higher education institutions, further contributing to the sustainability and competitiveness of higher education systems.

The impressive and rapid development of society is leading to technological innovations that require new technical and cognitive skills. In particular, Teacher Digital Competence (TDC) is becoming increasingly important as an initial step towards better use of Digital Technologies (DT) in the classroom. Nevertheless, to date, future teachers on training programs have no tools to help them self-evaluate their own competence and get instant feedback on how their TDC is developing. This study subjects a TDC self-evaluation tool for initial teacher training – COMDID-A – to dimensional and external validation, in relation to age, gender and access to university. The sample consisted of 144 students on an initial teacher training program at a Catalan university. The results show that the dimensional structure proposed by the theoretical model is highly reliable and has four dimensions: 1. Didactic, curricular and methodological aspects; 2. Planning, organization and management of digital technological resources and spaces; 3. Ethical, legal and security aspects; and 4. Personal and professional development. Furthermore, significant correlations emerge between age and self-evaluation of TDC: in particular, older students self-evaluate themselves as less competent than younger students. No gender differences were observed. The outcomes of this study could provide future teachers and educational institutions with a valid and reliable tool to guide their perception and awareness of TDC development. This tool could be implemented in the formative assessment process of initial teacher training to raise students’ awareness of this competence and give them tools so that they can make significant use of DT in the classroom.

Since the 1990s, and with special intensity since the 2000s, holding    a School Open Day (SOD) gradually became a generalized practice among primary and secondary schools in Catalonia. SOD were seen as a tool to empower them, in line with the impulse of school autonomy. Its rapid diffusion in subsequent years to the entire educational  field,  however, poses the question of whether they have become promotional competitive practices between centers in order to attract pupils, thus getting closer to functioning as an educational quasi-market. In order to answer this question, we have carried out an ethnographic observation of SOD in 42 primary schools in Barcelona and two cities in its metropolitan conurbation, in a sample diversified in terms of property (public or private), neighborhood socioeconomic level, previous year applications received, material and organizational profile, and pedagogical style. Grounded on the codification and subsequent analysis of  the  different  observed  dimensions  of  SOD, we propose a typology of 10 main patterns through which they respond     to, and reconfigure, their positions in the educational field. The article’s conclusion is that through the enactment in SOD, which stage subtle quasi- commercial dynamics, differentiation between schools is intensified in  what Dupriez and Cornet (2005) name “educational niches”. This implies  its differentiation, both positional -acquiring a specific position in the  field, with a particular exchange value- and cultural -shaping a specific identity in a context where, paradoxically, pedagogic discourses are centered around very similar clichés.