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

Leadership skills among school administrators are essential for providing students with quality teaching and may, therefore, benefit from defining high impact educational strategies. This non experimental, cross-cutting and quantitative analysis was prepared to obtain more knowledge on developing leadership skills among the school administration in Chile´s Region V subsidized schools, considering gender, years of experience and enhancement.  A total number of 568 classroom teachers answered questions in the survey: Assessment of leadership skills required by Principals and Administration Heads to Foster their Professional Development (Muñoz, 2012). Results show high levels of development with strong effective communication and institutional dissemination skills. Some aspects to improve include gathering useful information to make decisions and manage change. Significant gender differences were perceived with independent variables which favored females. These finding are relevant since there were no prior studies on leadership skills in subsidized Region V schools. The focus of the Ministry of Education is skill-strengthening among school principals in this particular school district which showed gaps in this area. Findings may contribute to development of an institutional educational policy at FODEC aimed at strengthening the skills of both school administrators as well as institutional management that may lead to developing evidence-based plans to enhance leadership leading and generate a positive impact on FODEC schools.

Job placement is highly regarded indicator among graduates, as is attaining accreditation among  higher education institutions. This study analyzes three dimensions of a survey conducted among graduates of the University of San Nicolás Hidalgo (UMSNH) in Michoacan, Mexico.  The survey objective was to learn what jobs graduates obtained, if any, upon graduation. This was a quantitative and descriptive study with a non-experimental design. Approximately 11,444 graduates were surveyed, 44.5% of which reported being unemployed while 50.2% were employed. It was determined that the main deterrent to securing a job was not having a college degree (30.2%) and the main asset to finding a job was matching the subject studies at university with the needs of the company (80%). Most graduates were employed by small businesses. Overall, UMSNH graduates report high job satisfaction, stating that their salary and hierarchical position represented was what caused the least job satisfaction. One can conclude from this type of study that universities and employers can work together to help university students enter the workforce upon graduation and help improve the current employer scenario.

The objective of this article is to provide a proposal for teacher education and assessment based on findings from a qualitative study that considers symbolic interaction and orality. An in-depth interview was used to recover oral narratives of students from a Mexico City high school. Results were analyzed according to a definition of empirical and analytical categories based on interviewee responses, which along with the theoretical categories, allowed us to better deconstruct, describe, understand and interpret classroom interaction. In other words, understand the students, teacher performance, educational practices and interact with social stakeholders within the school environment. Findings address student conceptions about teacher practices and characteristics that they consider necessary to be a good teacher. This study aims at formulating a system of guiding skills for teacher education and assessment as well as strategic actions for this system based on reflexive teaching practices focusing on teacher subjectivity.

The article exposes the objectives and scope of teaching philosophy program. The thesis is that philosophy is a public good. His teaching strengthens the aesthetic (social and political), epistemological (orderly, logical and consistent thinking) and ethical (democracy, coexistence and civism) student’s skills. Philosophy provides to students a relational awareness of their dimension, impact and situation in the world. It also helps to solve theoretical problems at a practical level and practical problems at a theoretical level. And to direct, to strive and analyze behaviors and individual and collective wills through processes of argumentation and study of valid knowledge and valid and universal knowledge. It is argued the value of philosophy teaching is expressed in the students like tolerance and understanding of scientific, social and political events, and in the civic aptitude to be committed to the relationship between the knowledge and moral action. There is a crisis, world decay and lack of appreciation for the philosophy teaching, nevertheless, philosophical discipline is relevant for the promotion and exercise of reasonable social practices and cognitive behavior. It is concluded that the practices for coexistence, social, environmental and democracy are enhanced by philosophy, which develop the skills and values necessary in the student for the sustainability of global governance and civility. 

This study reports on clinical and subclinical psychological symptoms, risk levels and psychological care requirements identified in psychology majors with low academic achievement at the Catholic Pontifical University of Ecuador (PUCESA) This study is used a non-experimental design which is quantitative in nature, descriptive, comparative and cross-sectional. A sample group of 92 students were selected specifically among students majoring in Clinical and Organizational Psychology. The Revised Symptom Checklist – 90-R (SCL 90-R) by Derogatis, Rickels and Rock (1976) was used to assess the sample group of 77.2% women and 22.8% men. Approximately 65.1% of the participants displayed low academic performance (academic conditioned) while 34.4 made up the control group of students (unconditioned) for a head-to-head comparison. Based on the results, the first academic conditioned group had a higher prevalence of obsessive-compulsive ideation and behaviors with symptoms of depression, somatization, anxiety, paranoid ideation and hostility, though to a lesser extent. While students in the second non-condition group had fewer obsessive-compulsive symptoms and low anxiety, they had higher rates of depression and hostility which did not, however, attain clinical levels. Although no significant differences were found with the control group, 19.1% were deemed to be at risk for developing psychological disorders due to their symptoms, while 3.5% required psychological counseling.

This article addresses how the concept of finding the area of a quadrilateral has been traditionally taught to student teachers majoring in Middle School Mathematics Education at the Catholic University of Santísima Concepción (UCSC) in Chile.  It is important to note that Education Majors already possess a notion as to how to teach the concept of finding the area of a quadrilateral which we refer to here as their didactic cultural heritage. This study observes didactic cultural heritage as a product of the Chilean Educational School System and proposes a baseline to monitor and compare results among these students at UCSC and compare student views with fundamental elements of Didactic Theoretical Situations (DTS) according to Guy Brousseau (1986). Current teaching strategies are based on axiomatic structures and reproductive problem resolution and consider teaching as based on a traditional organizational method. However, students have also proposed more practical teaching methods applicable to real-life scenarios which involve increased teacher-student interaction and additional ways of representing diverse geometric objects, reflexive type exercises and active “devolution” alluding  to a more conceptual mastery of area. The results conclude that teaching methods tend to be repeated and Education Majors, in this case, focusing on Middle School Math, will ultimately teach a concept according to how they were taught that same concept in the classroom when they were students in Middle School.

This article analyzes didactic conceptions of primary school teachers regarding inquiry and establishes evolutionary complexity profiles according to three dimensions which comprise the technical, practical and critical complexity hypothesis. The perspective of four advisors and twelve teachers was analyzed through narratives based on an emerging narrative design (prepared by the advisors) and an open questionnaire (answered by the teachers). The results suggest a transmissive didactic model baseline for four of the teachers, a traditional didactic model and eight of the teachers in three intermediate levels with constructivist conceptions closer to an alternative model. However, none of the teachers were close to proposed complexity model baseline. The transition from an intermediary level to a reference level can be supported by initial and continuous teacher education.

El ámbito educativo, como tantos otros, ha sido testigo de prácticas sexistas que han reproducido históricamente desigualdades de género. El objetivo central del ensayo que se presenta está signado por: evaluar la importancia de implementar el pensamiento feminista y la perspectiva de género en el ámbito educativo, como herramientas indispensables para exponer y denunciar desigualdades de género. En consecuencia, la reflexión transitará por dos momentos: el primero de ellos dedicado a evaluar aquellos sustentos teóricos de la epistemología feminista, que permiten construir el andamiaje gnoseológico necesario para comprender los procesos educativos desde la perspectiva de género. El segundo momento se dedicará a analizar cómo pueden emplearse los referentes teóricos feministas como eficaces herramientas para comprender y denunciar el accionar histórico de las diferencias de género –explícitas o solapadas- en las prácticas educativas. Las principales conclusiones a las que arribó la reflexión aluden a: la necesidad de concebir el salón de clases como espacio de reproducción de desigualdades de diversa índole, incluyendo las de género. En consecuencia, el personal docente debe ser consciente de la existencia de estos procesos y, por ende, trascender el rol de ‘transmisor de conocimientos’ y convertirse en un ‘educador’, teniendo en cuenta las características socio-históricas específicas en las que se desenvuelve. Es imprescindible, en aras de lograr una educación incluyente, sistematizar las experiencias docentes e investigativas propias y traducirlas en políticas públicas efectivas para cada región en particular.

Knowledge of the Humanities has become undervalued as part of career preparation given the predominance of Science and Technology. However, it is acknowledged that higher learning institutions must also prepare future professionals comprehensively, as required by society. This article reveals the results of qualitative research with focal groups gathered to discuss their perceptions about graduates from a Peruvian University the need of education in the humanities to future graduates. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with the four focal groups. The groups were composed o 32 graduates from the universities involved in the study. Sampling was intentional and with a snow ball effect until saturation was obtained. Data was processed based on analysis of each participant´s discourse which was coded to protect their identity. It was concluded that teaching about the Humanities fosters personal social growth, particularly among graduates who will one day join the work force.

This article reveals finding from a study on the impact of indirect metalinguistic corrective feedback on English grammar acquisition. The study followed a pre-experimental design with a sample of 20 third-year students of a Program for Teaching English as a Foreign Language at a  Chilean university. The sample group was asked to write four short argumentative essays for which they received indirect corrective feedback pertaining to grammatical errors observed and then proceeded to rewrite the essays based on the feedback provided. Students were also tested before and after completion of the study, revealing that  the number of grammatical errors in their writing composition significantly declined in the latter situation.