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

 The academic text is a conventionally structured and scientifically oriented community product that makes use of a specific set of concepts and vocabulary. This paper aims to establish that, due to such characteristics, academic texts present difficulties for the inexperienced reader as they require specialized reading comprehension. To achieve its goal, this paper presents the results of a diagnostic instrument of freshperson’s reading competence level. The test was conducted on 733 new students from the Universidad Icesi in Cali, Colombia, during the first semester of 2017. Based on the discourse analysis and text-linguistics approach, the test was about an explanatory-argumentative text. On a second stage, the paper reviews the characteristics of the academic texts that difficult the reading comprehension by those who are newly integrated into the university. Finally, a series of learning objectives to be included in different courses is proposed in order to support the students’ achievement of specialized reading comprehension.

This descriptive study presents a bibliographic review to determine the contribution of the types of clinical simulation: simulated patient training, role play, and full patient simulators in the learning of midwives and midwives in training. An exhaustive search of this topic was carried out in Scielo and Scopus indexed scientific journals; the Google scholar search engine and PubMed, in the international and national context, were used. The search showed a lack of research on this didactic technique in the area of Obstetrics. The focus of analysis and discussion is learning, in order to specify the value of clinical simulation in the development of generic and professional competences from an experiential, psychocultural and pedagogical perspective. Finally, this study concluded that clinical simulation is necessary to improve the safety and confidence of the students enrolled in the Obstetrics and Child Care programs when facing their professional practices with real patients. Even though the development of different types of learning has been described with the use of this technique, this teaching tool needs to be strengthened in the undergraduate training process, with the teaching staff as a facilitator of learning.

This article maps the territory of visual ethnography as a key and accessible research methodology in education. It aims to provide an overview and to present theory and practice for future research. The origins and principles of visual ethnography are disclosed as well as some methods to gather data. From the premise that either created by the researcher, by the participants, or through collaboration between both, images may be the core of analysis of social and cultural views and perceptions of students, educators, administrators and community members. The author addresses ethical issues like confidentiality, and highlights possible biases like authenticity, negotiated construction, trustworthiness, and deception of information. The main conclusions highlighted the importance of visual ethnography as a key methodology to elicit rich data that access students’ voices, the space for participatory techniques, and the role of technology as an undeniable participant.

This study aims to analyze the institutional completion rates, the dropout rates, the student lag, and the average number of years to successfully complete the degree in Medicine and Surgery. The population consists of four cohorts: from I-2008(n=252), II-2008 (n= 142), I 2009 (n= 214) and II- 2009 (n= 144). The data come from the institutional database “AVATAR”, fed by the Registration Department, with socio-demographic variables and grades by subject and academic period, which are automatically uploaded to the system and corroborated with the reports delivered by each teacher. To analyze the data we used the Stata v-14 package, the survival models (duration models) and a Cox regression model was adjusted. The completion rate is 29,9%, with a duration of 11-13 semesters (5½ 6½ years), 12,8% prolong their studies up to one more semester. The average dropout rate of the cohorts was 55,2%, occurring during the first six semesters of the career. An important cause of dropout is the multiple repetition of Basic Science courses that gives a lag of 14,9%. We recommended to carry out studies that clarify the causes of these results and allow the renovation of didactic methods, curricular redesign, and study methods to overcome these problems.

The phenomenon of dropout, by its complexity and educational and social impact, has been extensively studied to understand the specific causes. In this line of research, the purpose of this study was to analyze explanatory and predictive models of student dropout from university studies at the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC), based on many variables recorded in the institutional system indicators. The first stage of the analysis considered multinomial regression models to identify the influence of these variables on the dropout. In the second analysis, six machine learning algorithms were evaluated in order to find a model that would predict student dropout. Data analysis showed that the probability of dropping out is related to sociodemographic variables, study program, academic history, scholarship and other benefits, and performance after first semester. In addition, the best predictor of dropout algorithm was the “random forest”, a probability of 0.83 to predict the dropout correctly and to capture 34% of the actual student dropout. These results are the first step toward building a more robust predictive model of dropout, which will contribute to preventive decision making in this university.

This article shows the results of a research and university extension project carried out at the Chorotega campus of the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, titled Constructing an innovative methodology that favors English learning in people with low schooling in rural areas of the Gulf of Nicoya and the Chorotega Region, Costa Rica. (Rosales, Vidaurre y Dover, 2013-2015). The purpose was to show how the participants’ insights contribute to the design of a teaching-learning approach for English  learning in  non-traditional contexts. A qualitative study was conducted with a descriptive, interpretive design. In this study, the 30 participants became active informants in the research process carried out before, during and after the training; they came from the rural areas of the Gulf of Nicoya and the Chorotega Region. The data was collected using three instruments: observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. The findings showed that the incorporation of the observations and suggestions, exposed by the learners, influenced the process of acquisition of the target language and favored the selection of linguistic, social, and contextual content according to the learners’ reality.

This article presents the results of a study conducted within the framework of an interunit project of the National University of Costa Rica (UNA), titled “Las competencias científicas en estudiantes del tercer ciclo (9º) de educación general básica en la Región Central de Heredia circuito 01 y 02” (Zúñiga y León 2017), on scientific competencies and pedagogical mediation. Specifically, this paper focused on the objective of characterizing the pedagogical mediation that teachers use in their daily practice, for the development of scientific competencies in ninth grade students (corresponding to the third cycle of Costa Rican general basic education). The research was based on the naturalist paradigm and a methodology that assumes a type of mixed research design, where qualitative and quantitative data are compared with the use of observation and a questionnaire to achieve a deeper analysis. The research was conducted with the collaboration of 17 science teachers from Heredia School District (the administrative division of school zones proposed by the Ministry of Education of Costa Rica), willing to collaborate; so, to avoid generalizations, the results obtained only apply to that group. Among the main results, it is highlighted that the role, methodology (strategies and resources), educating act, and evaluation used by the teaching group of the third cycle tends to be closer to a traditional teaching model focused on the transmission of knowledge. Likewise, it is evident that, since mediation mainly focuses on the traditional model, conceptual and scientific knowledge is prioritized over procedural and attitudinal one in planning, evaluation, and mediation.

 This research paper presents the results obtained in a descriptive case study carried out on two experimental groups of a course of discrete mathematics at the National University of Costa Rica (UNA). At the UNA, a computer-assisted teaching and learning strategy was implemented based on the use of a software package created by the author, named VilCretas; its platform of use is provided by Wolfram Mathematica, a commercial program. The methodology used in this research was mixed in nature, combining a participant observation, during the first half of the year 2017, with the application of a questionnaire at the end of the experience. The study focused on determining the level of satisfaction shown in the student population in terms of learning activities developed, and the identification of strengths and weaknesses in the use of the VilCretas package as a didactic resource to support teaching in the field of finite mathematics. The analysis of results was established from an instrument conformed by a Likert scale, where the arithmetic mean of the values, whose representation corresponds to the answers per individual, is estimated. In addition, a test of Student’s hypothesis t was applied to compare the academic performance shown by the experimental groups and a control group. The study shares a series of evidence of the positive characteristics that the VilCretas package has under a didactic perspective and, in a binding way, the contribution provided by the laboratory-type activities that were used with the participating students, to produce better learning.

This article aims to present a methodological proposal for conceiving degree projects in the higher education system. These projects integrate regulatory framework aspects of Ecuador and conceptual elements that consider new paradigms of knowledge. The methodology used consisted of participatory action research that began with an exploratory research design and academic dialogue led by a team of researchers. The methodology allowed establishing the relationship between the elements that integrate career projects with the use of hermeneutics as a method and the analysis of content as a technique for reviewing legal and conceptual documents published by the Ecuadorian Higher Education Council (CES). The next phase consisted of a process of orientation and accompaniment to work teams; while in the final phase, the result was the generation of this methodological proposal and the presentation of the projects for redesigning the agricultural and communication careers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, in Ibarra (PUCE-SI). The projects were approved and are currently offered, so that the methodology is considered validated satisfactorily. This work is very useful for the academic departments of higher education institutions because, based on legal and conceptual elements, it formulates pragmatic orientations in the identification of key aspects that allow conceiving and articulating the curriculum of career projects.

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) establishes that self-determined behavior depends on the satisfaction of three innate psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In this study, we will establish the behavior that six teams of secondary education students display when carrying out creative activities linked to the soundscape, in the framework of the music subject in Chile’s education system. This quasi-experimental study is posed from the hermeneutic pedagogy as it considers the interaction between musicology and didactical intervention for interpreting student behavior in conformity with SDT. The qualitative data analysis entails the triangulation of a variety of tools, such as focal interviews and direct observation techniques. According to the results, most of the participants do not show self-determined behaviors during creative activities as they undergo both internal and external pressures within their teams. In conclusion, self-determination depends on the satisfaction of the three innate psychological needs.