Foreign Languages in the Engineering Programmes in Spain: The State of the Art

Following a brief introduction, the extension of engineering education in Spain is described. A scheme of the national education system is given. We consider the impact of the current implementation of new university curricula as a way of improving the quality of the programmes. Attention is paid to the fact of including foreign languages in the engineering programmes of the Spanish universities. Throughout the article, the question of the need of communication for engineers both during their undergraduate and postgraduate studies in engineering as well as in their practical training in industry is emphasized. The core of the paper is devoted to the fact of considering English as the lingua franca for new technologies. A programme called English for Engineering Environments is presented as a way of improving not only the training and understanding of students while at university, but also as future professionals for industry.     

Early Adolescents’ Food Selection After Evaluating the Healthiness of Remote Peers’ Food Choices

This study investigates whether asking early adolescents to evaluate the food choices of remote peers improves their own food selection. Participants were students from fifth (N = 219, M_age = 9.30 years) and sixth grades (N = 248, M_age = 10.28 years) of varying nationalities living in the United Arab Emirates (race and ethnicity were not collected). Students saw peers’ healthy or unhealthy food choices before picking their own food. In some conditions, students also critically evaluated the healthiness of the peers’ choices. Evaluation of peer choices led to healthier decisions (d = .53) to the point that it offsets the negative impact of observing unhealthy peer choices. This effect is larger for sixth graders compared to fifth graders.     

Urban Teachers’ Perspectives of Strengths and Needs: The Promise of Teacher Responsive Professional Development

The Urban Review - This study examines urban high school teachers’ perceptions (N?=?50) of their strengths and needs in supporting diverse students in their classrooms....     

Learning strategies and self-regulation in context: how higher education students approach different courses,assessments, and challenges

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study’s aim was to analyse the decisions higher education students make about learning strategies. We focus on research questions related to...     

The Nature of Science and Citizenship: a Delphi Analysis

Research in Science Education - The relationship between science and society has, for many years, been the subject of debate in different fields, and various proposals have been made regarding the...     

Does Concrete Content Help People to Reason Scientifically?

Science & Education - In this paper, we explored the scientific literacy of a general sample of the Slovak adult population and examined factors that might help or inhibit scientific reasoning,...     

Competencies for young European higher education graduates: labor market mismatches and their payoffs

Labor market rewards based on competencies are analyzed using a sample of young European higher education (HE) graduates. Estimates of monetary rewards are obtained from conventional earnings regressions, while estimates total rewards are based on job satisfaction and derived through ordered probit regressions. Results for income show that jobs with higher participative and methodological competency requirements are better paid. The results also show that higher requirements in terms of competencies increase graduates’ job satisfaction.     

Educational attainment and HIV/AIDS prevalence: A cross-country study

Using data for a large cross-country sample, a reasonable model is estimated to judge the effect of adult educational attainment on prevalence of HIV. Three main points are noted. First, there is an indication of a significantly negative effect of educational attainment on HIV prevalence. Second, magnitude of the impact appears sizable. Third, a simple test suggests that the model does not have any major specification problem. Three additional aspects may also be interesting. First, the impact of per capita income is negative but statistically weak. Second, the effect of health expenditures lacks significance and does not carry the expected sign. Third, the proportion of population that is Muslim has a significantly negative association with HIV prevalence, perhaps reflecting the widely-shared view that male circumcision lowers acquisition of the disease.     

Dimensions of digital literacy based on five models of development / Dimensiones de la alfabetización digital a partir de cinco modelos de desarrollo

Abstract

Digital literacy has been an emerging and increasing priority in many governments’ educational and assessment policies since the first decade of the twenty-first century because it is a priority in citizenship training. The difficulty with understanding and developing it comes from its changing, transversal and flexible nature; for this reason, the fundamental objective of this research is to offer an exhaustive study of the concept by analysing the main models of digital literacy in the international context in order to offer a holistic model that incorporates the contributions from all of these initiatives. The theoretical study presented herein provides an objective, rigorous perspective on the main models of development of digital literacy: the DIGCOMP Project (European Commission), the Krumsvik model (Norway), the TPACK model (USA), the JISC model (UK), the ISTE Standards (USA) and the P21 model (USA). The conclusion offers an innovative proposal of four dimensions that should define digital literacy today, taking into account the five initiatives studied, which could be very worthwhile for researchers, educators and policymakers.