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

The objective of this study is to identify characteristics of current students, graduates and former students who dropped out of International Relations graduate programs in Costa Rica in terms of future job placement and better understand the weight of this area of study in Costa Rica compared to other disciplines. The results included a combination of surveys completed by both students and employers which, after a statistical analysis, conclude that younger students tend to consider this type of postgraduate program more attractive. Many of these students are employed full time or more and most work within the private sector. Significant variables associated with students that complete and graduate from these programs, such as gender, educational background, labor sector (public or private), age and where a person resides. It is concluded that a master’s degree in International Relations is an attribute that makes an individual more marketable. Yet, universities must strive to include soft skills development in the study plans required for today´s job market.  

This research article examines college education for students in prison, its achievements and/successes, difficulties and needs based on the perspective of a group of students incarcerated in various Costa Rican prisons.  This study is based on a complementary research design and includes a quantitative and qualitative exploratory phase as well as collective knowledge construction.  This was determined using a survey answered by a representative sample of the entire student body enrolled in the college program for La Reforma prison complex. The qualitative phase was conducted through an operational group workshop.  The results show the great success of prison college programs and highlight the positive impact on the students.  It also reveals existing needs and gaps inherent to this educational context.  We can conclude, after analyzing the results, that college prison education is a protective factor for its students, helping to deter idleness as well as dangerous contexts associated with everyday prison life.

This article proposes a didactic planning strategy aimed at student teachers of Mathematics and considers an integrative skills approach which includes methodological analysis, didactic units, class design and planning systems. The data obtained is based on the results of a quantitative study that has, as its theoretical basis, general professional skills involved in planning Math Classes. Teaching strategies are also suggested designed to perfect learning and development of the aforementioned professional skills and the results analyzed after they are put into practice.

The article reveals the results of a descriptive study about the teaching-learning environment of a representative sample of second-year students at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Atacama (UDA). We elaborated a teaching environment scale that favors student learning consisting of 12 variables and 60 indicators [referred to as ECEFAE]. The main purpose was to evaluate the extent to which the teaching-learning process corresponds to features of student-centered teaching from a student perspective. Our results show that the current teaching environment does not sufficiently favor learning. On average, autonomous learning received the highest scores followed by organization and discipline and cooperative learning. Learning assessment, environmental conditions and linkages between theory and professional activities had the worst scores. The study validates the methodological value of the [ECEFAE] technique for diagnosing teaching-learning environments and identifies factors that favor or hinder the transition towards a student-centered approach to teaching for second-year Engineering students at UDA. The conclusions reinforce the need to compare teacher and student views as well as combine quantitative and qualitative techniques in classroom environment studies for a greater understanding of this diagnosis. The results of this study have been taken into account for designing teacher-training courses.

This study examines the relationship between the use of virtual classrooms and student academic performance as analyzed in a Biochemistry course for nursing students at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) Medical School.  An initial retrospective study which reviewed the course minutes recorded from 2000-2017 was done. No statistically significant differences were observed (t-test, α = 0.05) in the percentage of students who passed the course prior to 2009 (70% passing rate) versus afterwards (59.5% passing rate) with the use of virtual classrooms.  A cross-cutting analysis was then conducted which assessed the correlation between student grades for each exam after they used the virtual classroom (n=55) during the second semester of 2017.  No statistically significant correlations were observed with regards to student grades and frequency of virtual classroom visits (paired t-test, α = 0.05). Subsequent testing did, however, reveal a slight grade increase. Finally, the possible reasons for minimal impact of the virtual classroom on this course are discussed in addition to reconsidering pedagogical strategies by increasing printed text linear reading and teaching activities in the classroom.

This objective of this article is to demonstrate that it is necessary and possible to design intercultural-based programs taught in Nahuatl, a native Mexican indigenous language, in order to preserve the country´s heritage and indigenous linguistic diversity. This effort was based on an educational needs assessment carried out between 2015 and 2017 among sixty-seven professionals, fifteen employers and self-employed individuals as well as interviews with fourteen indigenous language and culture experts.  The information gathered was organized by a group of seven faculty researchers. This initiative exemplifies good educational practices, since it shows the feasibility in proposing language and cultural studies for minoritized languages in higher education to oppose linguistic preconceptions within the Mexican Educational System and strengthen Mexican intercultural educational models.

Educational innovation is a pending item on the agendas of international educational institutions. Whereas current educational policies highlight the importance of educational innovation as a key element for improving the quality of education and promoting social development, the social aspect of innovation involves multidisciplinary interaction from a sociocultural perspective. After conducting a systematic bibliographical search of two main databases: SCOPUS and WoS (period ranging from 2013-2017), a total sample (N = 43) was filtered with established inclusion / exclusion criteria (keywords, document type, year of publication, area of discipline) and validity (quality and relevance). The countries with the highest number of publications in this subject are the United States (5), Spain (4) and the United Kingdom (3). The social contexts in which educational innovation strategies have been executed include educational organizations (37), the corporate sector (5) and healthcare institutions (1). Innovation is addressed as it pertains to new ways of organizing activities (29). Findings involve three key social contexts for implementing innovative strategies in six emerging areas of research.

Memory facilitates teaching and learning. This pre-experimental design study explores how knowledgeable teachers are about memory and consists of two stages that serve as baselines for future studies. A group of 196 teachers that taught all types of grade levels were asked to answer a two-part survey. The teachers were attendees at a Neuroeducation training session that was held in the city of Resistencia, Argentina in 2017. The data was analyzed on Excel spreadsheets. According to the results obtained, 65% of the teachers stated having knowledge about  the concept of memory and 15% reported having none. On the other hand, 72% said that they had minimal knowledge about memory as it relates to learning whereas 13% stated having none. The workshop proved to significantly increase the level of knowledge among the attendees regarding concept of memory (76%), different types of memory (52%) and how it relates to learning (55%). It can be concluded that knowledge about how the student brain learns and, specifically, how the memory process is interrelated to learning, is essential for teacher training since it allows for better planning and more effective teaching.

Skills-based learning requires a competency-based reference framework to be able to design, develop and evaluate university degrees. Professional mediation is an activity that rarely defines the skill set required by students for this field of study, which, therefore, impacts current educational strategies.  Analysis of current teaching strategies in Cataluña, Spain using a qualitative-descriptive methodology and a documental analysis technique based on MAXgda software, contributed to identifying the principle skills required by professional mediators, which could serve as a foundation for local educational in Spain and Educational Models in the European Union).

This study addresses how peer tutoring is understood from the perspective of tutors for the Psychology and Commercial Engineering programs at the Alberto Hurtado University in Chile. A qualitative grounded theory methodology was used with an intended sample of 12 students from both majors who had been undergraduate tutors for at least one year and had received positive reviews by their peers.  Data was gathered based on semi-structured interviews, development of open and axial coding and seeking relationship patters to better understand the meaning of peer tutoring and the necessary conditions for learning and strategies used to develop this process. A relational analysis highlights tutoring as an opportunity for reciprocal learning influenced by factors that facilitate or inhibit the possibility of collective learning, as well as action strategies to foster this type of learning. To conclude, peer tutoring is considered to be another method of learning that favors teaching and teaches learning.