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

The present study intended to investigate the interplay of critical thinking explicit instruction, academic writing performance, critical thinking ability, and critical thinking dispositions of Iranian students. To this end, 140 students of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences (73 males and 67 females) were selected. They were divided into the experimental and the control groups. Both groups received instruction in academic writing course for 15 weeks 3 hours per week. The students in both groups were administered pre- and post-instruction tests in order to examine the effectiveness of the instruction. Three instruments were utilized in this study including, the researcher-developed essay test, the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test, and the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI). Descriptive statistics and independent-samples t-test were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental and the control groups. The results also showed that some CCTDI subscales were not significantly different at the posttest such as, truth-seeking, cognitive maturity, and open- mindedness, whereas the mean posttest scores of other CCTDI subscales were significantly different such as, analyticity, CT inquisitiveness, CT self-confidence, and systematicity. The experimental group had a higher score in the academic writing test compared with the control group. Changes in students’ critical thinking ability, academic writing performance, and their critical thinking dispositions suggest that the CT techniques have been fruitful, and more efforts should be made to integrate the explicit instruction in critical thinking into academic courses.

UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) has the mission of defending the rights of all children and adolescents and, among other actions, has been developing the International Child Friendly Cities initiative since 1996, whose objective is to apply the CDN at the local level. Getting a locality to be recognized as a "Child Friendly City" is a complex process in which the formation of the teams that participate (politicians, technicians, volunteers ...) acquires a relevant role. This article presents the qualitative realization and evaluation of the Project called "Local Governments: The Rights of Children in Global Citizenship". The Project was approved in competitive competition and funded by the Andalusian Agency for International Development Cooperation (AACID), of the Junta de Andalucía. It exposes the on-line postgraduate training initiative as the Own Title of the "Master in Rights and Policies of Childhood in the Local Area" developed by the UNICEF Spanish Committee and the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville during the courses 2015-16 and 2016-17. The objective has been to train high-level professionals in the design, implementation and evaluation of programs and policies for the protection and promotion of the Rights of Children. Finally, the data extracted from the evaluation of the program and the most relevant conclusions after its implementation are presented

In this article we propose the development and future validation of a screening or screening instrument to diagnose and evaluate minors in basic residential care centers. The elaborated instrument, CHSv1, is conceived as a screening tool for a first diagnosis of the risk of social exclusion and future maladjustment that allows to plan more adjusted educational interventions and make referrals to more specialized services or professionals. The dimensions that are intended to cover to diagnose the risk of social exclusion are: self-esteem; generalized self-efficacy; life satisfaction; optimism; frustration tolerance; planning and decision making; empathy; expression, management and recognition of emotions; and attachment to equals. In addition, the reference instruments reviewed and the reasons for not contemplating those that, finally, have not been chosen are indicated. The design contemplates the application of CHSv1 to a selected sample of minors residing in the province of Granada (Spain), making a contrast with the BASC standardized diagnostic test to perform the relevant sensitivity and predictivity analyzes. The article concludes with a section of conclusions and pointing out the limitations of the investigation.

 The purpose of this research work was to encourage the use of computer applications by university professors. To this end, in this first stage, we designed and validated an instrument to measure to what extent they integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom, according to the Adell (2008) model. On the other hand, we sought to interpret the impact that the level of ICT integration in the classroom produces on students. For that purpose, we constructed and validated a scale of impact evaluation from the perspective of the Abdala (2004) proposal, who understand impact evaluation as “the evaluation process aimed to measure interventions’ results in quantity, quality and extension according to established guidelines” (pp. 28.29). The participation of expert evaluators in the two phases of content validation made possible the advancement of the project. It is expected that this work will allow to discover the benefits of the application of technologies by the professors for all actors involved, evaluating the impact of the integration of ICT in the classroom.

One of the currently booming methodologies is gamification. Gamification in education involves the use of game mechanics in classroom. The game is treated as a motivating element in the classroom, while this methodology is considered active because the student must be active in the learning process. This methodology is considered active because it encourages students to be active in their learning process, making the teaching-learning process motivating and effective. To develop the research GAMEX scale (Gameful Experience in Gamification) is used to measures the gamified experience, this research analysed the gamification experience of 255 students and teachers in Andalusia in the area of Physical Education, a subject in which game-based learning is a widely used methodology. Among the main results obtained, we highlight as conclusions that gamification facilitates the development of creative thinking, a reduction in negative affect, and an improvement in collaboration. The effect of these types of experiences are similar in both students and teachers.

The article exposes the evaluation of Mobile Web Accessibility (AW) made to an educational portal oriented to non-university higher teacher training. Accessibility analysis tools are synthesized considering the operating system on which they work and summarize those relieved. The applications to be used are selected taking into account the mobile technology used and those that are considered most useful for visually impaired users. For this study, three pages of the educational portal were chosen because they are considered the most representative. The evaluations were carried out in the period August-October 2018, using tools that allow automatic and manual review, to achieve a comprehensive validation. The results presented indicate the importance of continuing with these actions in order to raise awareness of the importance of incorporating accessibility standards in software products, such as educational portals.  

This paper analyzes how gender stereotypes influence differently the way men and women decide about their professional future. Quantitative research has been designed in order to know what are the beliefs and stereotypes that presently influence the process of decision making of the individual when choosing their academic career. The research is carried out from a double perspective, analyzing on the one hand the beliefs, motivations, and stereotypes of the students,  and on the other hand, identifying in the Galician society the beliefs in relation to professional competence and the stereotypes that connect to each gender . These data will be correlated with the number of registered students in each of these degrees of each gender in order to identify what weight stereotypes exercise when deciding a profession.

This paper designs an instrument (in Checklist format) to evaluate any platform as a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and shows the results of the evaluation of a learning environment through this instrument, in this case, the analyzed environment are the spaces that the Virtual Learning Environment of the Department of Virtual Education of the University of Granma (Cuba) has. The instrument is designed in response to four spaces or general indicators: Information Space, Mediation/Interaction Space, Instructional Design Space and Exhibition Space, in order to identify weaknesses to take actions towards the improvement of the platform and virtual interaction between the advisor and the students, and create strategies that help to reduce or eliminate them to contribute to the improvement of courses designed for virtual learning environments.

A research study was carried out related to the scores obtained by the eleventh grade students of the General Santander Educational Institution of the Soacha-Cundinamarca municipality of the afternoon session, in the SABER 11 test between 2011 and 2017 with the aim of comparing the results obtained From the statistical analysis of the data applying the ANOVA, it was observed that there is a correlation between time and score (R =, 780), time-mathematics (R =, 748), time-English (R =, 933), time- critical reading (R =, 945), which was positive is to say that there are directly proportional relationships between the variables.

This article investigates the psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on elite athletes, their management strategies, and post-pandemic athletic performance expectations. Based on a purposive and snowball sampling technique eighteen elite athletes were interviewed online. The questioning includes thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in the pandemic process. Most athletes have concerns regarding the future (31.5%) and gained self-awareness (26.3%). 40% of athletes have been struggling with anxiety, however, 40.47 % of whom doing physical training at home while 33.33% of those are into mental training. Besides, 72.22% of athletes expect to lower their post-pandemic athletic performance. As a result of the study, most elite athletes have been going through anxiety about future enigma related to both sports environment and athletic performance. They mostly were able to overcome the process by doing physical and mental training at home. Most of them have expected to lower their athletic performance after getting back to the field.