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

Despite the importance of emotions in classrooms, no measurements have been developed to assess group emotional intelligence (EI). The aim of this work was to develop a questionnaire for measuring group EI (G-TMMS) in educational contexts. The psychometric properties of G-TMMS were examined in a sample of 794 participants (47% female; mean age = 16; SD = 1.4), divided into 59 classrooms. The G-TMMS showed a one-factor structure. It also demonstrated to have adequate internal consistency, temporal stability, and convergent validity. Moreover, group EI was associated with higher group school performance. The implications of this new scale in educational contexts are discussed.

PSICO-A is a computer system for learning Psychology. It is specially designed for secondary school children. It is the first system in Psychology designed for learning didactic units of the subject. PSICO-A is based on many pedagogical influences, such as concept maps, free retrieval practice, effective feedback, simulations, digital games, and metacognition. A significant improvement has been shown in the conceptual performance in those children that constructed computer-generated maps using the system compared to those that have drawn them by hand. An evaluation was also made of the interactions between concept mapping and simulations, demonstrating that the first group of pupils performed better in simulations than the second group. Further studies are needed to study the influence of these two conditions of concept mapping on the performance of digital games.

University dropout is a global problem that affects almost every university in the world and whose consequences affect not only to the development of the deserter, but also to the society in which one this lives. The European University Dropout Integrated Management Project (GUIDE), coordinated by the Polytechnic University of Madrid and implemented by 21 higher education institutions, assumes this approach and adopts among its lines of action, to develop the scientific knowledge of the problem. Thus the participating institutions have developed a parallel research, whose joint results are still being analyzed. The University of Oviedo, partner institution of the GUIDE project reported here the results obtained in this study. Descriptive, correlational and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) have been conducted on a sample of 1,311 subjects, identifying the variables that maintain relations with the phenomenon in different contexts. Between the results, the role of the variables related to the student are highlighted.

The programs to promote self-regulated learning in higher education are increasing. At the same time, the implementation of these programs through computer based learning environments is also rising. This paper contrasts the satisfaction of a self-regulation strategies training program implemented in two different formats, in the classroom and in a virtual environment, in order to determine if there is any difference between them. The sample consisted of 370 students from a university in the north of Spain. The results suggest greater effectiveness of the program carried out in the virtual environment. Results are discussed based on the controversy between the motivating potential of these virtual environments versus the difficulties that they can add to the learning process itself.

The term underachievement refers to the discrepancy between students’ potential ability and their observed academic performance. The main objective of this work is to identify students with lower than expected academic performance based on their ability, and to establish the differential factors that characterise them, compared to students whose performance is commensurate with their ability. An in-depth analysis is to be conducted of the conceptual and operational definition of students whose ability is greater than their actual academic performance, and the results obtained using different identification procedures will then be compared. A further objective is to identify the motivational factors that characterise these students and distinguish them from students whose performance is higher than expected, and consistent with expectations. Lastly, the study aims to establish precise educational implications for students, parents and teachers, based on knowledge of these profiles and differential characteristics with the ultimate goal of reversing the lower academic performance of these students.

Taking a person-centered approach, the main objective of this study is to identify possible motivational profiles based on the combination of academic goals (learning-oriented and performance-oriented) and self-efficacy expectations. Under the assumption that student engagement not only depends on the combination of learning goals but also the level of self-efficacy expectations, a survey is performed on 1858 students from five Spanish public universities (average age 21) and different degrees. In line with previous studies, the results indicate that the profile in which learning goals predominate is associated with better results than others. However, the results of this study adds new information suggesting that self-efficacy expectations play a central role in the relationship between goals and performance.

The Peer Conflict Scale is a scale used for the evaluation and quantification of aggression in different forms of expression, as well as the hidden motives behind this type of behaviour. Therefore, in view of the need for a combined evaluation of the different ways in which aggression is manifested in adolescents, this study was carried out to validate the Spanish version of the Peer Conflict Scale. A sample of 822 secondary school students aged 13 to 18 was used for this. Three possible models were analysed for this scale: a one-dimensional model, a model with two types of aggression, physical and relational, and a third with four types of aggression (physical reactive aggression, relational reactive aggression, physical pro-active aggression, and relational pro-active aggression). The last is the model which shows the best fit, and therefore, is the one applied to the Spanish adolescent population.

Family, peers and school are the three main contexts associated with school engagement. This study aims to analyze possible gender and age differences in these contextual variables and school engagement, as well as the relationship between the two. Participants were 1543 secondary school children aged between 12 and 18 years (M = 14.24; SD = 1.63). Of the total sample group, 728 (47.2%) were boys and 815 (52.8%) were girls. All completed the Family and Peer Support (FPS) scale, the Teachers’ Support scale of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) questionnaire, and the School Engagement Measure (SEM). The results reveal significant differences between boys and girls, with girls scoring higher in perceived peer support and behavioral and emotional engagement. Younger respondents were also observed to score significantly higher for perceived support from parents and teachers, as well as for school engagement. Significant correlation indexes were observed between contextual variables, as well as between these variables and school engagement, although it was for support from teachers that the strongest correlation was found.

The different models of self-regulated learning suggest that it develops in three phases (think before, think for, think later), and applied to different areas (cognitive, motivational, emotional, behavioral). The aim of this study was to analyze the structural validity of a new assessment tool of self-regulated learning (Assessment Inventory of Self-Regulated Learning from Texts ?ARATEX), developed based on this theory. The results from confirmatory factor analysis supported a smaller version of that scale, with a hierarchical factor structure organized by areas or dimensions (cognition, motivation, planning, evaluation, environmental management) rather than in stages (before, during, after), and a general factor of self-regulation as the only factor second level. The results are discussed with reference to the theory proposed by Paul Pintrich.

Psychological well-being in gifted people has been a subject of controversy in the specialised literature. Sometimes it was considered that these people were prone to being psychologically maladjusted, while other results have been inconclusive. A study is presented here on the psychological well-being in people of high intellectual abilities. The Scale of Psychological Well-Being was administered to 28 participants aged between 22 and 34 years old. They were distributed into two groups, one gifted and other with standard intelligence. The gifted group had been identified as such twenty-five years ago, when they were aged between 5 and 13 years, using Renzulli's three-ring identification model. The results did not show significant differences between participants on well-being scale, except for the material well-being subscale.