Modeling the impacts of national and institutional financial aid opportunities on persistence at an elite Chilean university

Much of the recent Chilean educational debate and reform has centered around issues of higher education cost, debt burden, and availability of grants versus loans. This quantitative case study of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile sought to understand the longitudinal contributions of combinations of types of financial aid to persistence of low-income students. The results identified that the aggregate availability of both grants and loans at the university-level has a net positive contribution beyond the contributions of national-level grants and loans. In finest distinction, however, only ministry aid (in the form of need-based grants and loans) decreased the likelihood of dropping out. Such findings suggest that universities may want to consider carefully as part of a comprehensive persistence plan how they leverage institution-level contributions to student aid packages.     

L'espace du mouvement: Une analyse des conflits dans les interactions entre institutrice et eleves d'une ecole maternelle

Résumé Cet article décrit les résultats d'une recherche menée dans une école mater-nelle de São Paolo, Brésil et qui s'appuie sur la théorie élaborée par Henri Wallon. Elle avait pour objectif d'étudier comment les écoliers sont influencés dans leur développment par a) une exigence erronée de contention motrice pendant la classe et b) un aménagement de l'espace de la classe peu propice à l'apprentissage. L'auteur conclut que ces facteurs provoquent des tensions qu'il serait possible d'éviter par une approche différente du mouvement et de l'espace.

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The research described in this article, winner of the Gottfried Hausmann Prize for 1994, was carried out in a kindergarten in São Paolo, Brazil, using the theory developed by Henri Wallon. The aim was to examine how primary school children are affected in their development by: (a) unnecessary restrictions placed on their physical movements during lessons; and (b) failure to organize the classroom space in a way that assists the learning process. The author concludes that these factors lead to tensions in the classroom which could be avoided through a different approach to movement and space.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser mit dem Gottfried Hausmann Preis 1994 prämierte Artikel beschreibt eine Forschungsarbeit, die in einem Kindergarten in Sao Paolo, Brasilien, unter Anwendung der von Henri Wallon entwickelten Theorie durch-geführt wurde. Ziel war eine Untersuchung darüber, inwieweit die Entwicklung von Kindern von folgenden Faktoren beeinflußt wird: a) unnötige Einschränkungen der physischen Bewegungen während des Unterrichts und b) die Unfähigkeit, den Klassenraum so aufzuteilen, daß der Lernprozess positiv beinflußt wird. Die Autorin zieht die Schlußfolgerung, daß diese Faktoren zu Spannungen im Klassenraum führen, die durch einen unterschiedlichen Ansatz zu Bewegung und Raumaufteilung vermieden werden könnten.

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Resumen El estudio descrito en este artículo, ganador del premio Gottfried Hausmann de 1994, fue realizado en un jardín de infancia en São Paolo, Brasil, con aplicación de la teoría desarrollada por Henri Wallon. El objetivo del mismo residía en averiguar en qué forma los niños del jardín de infancia se ven afectados en su desar-rollo por los siguientes factores: (a) la restricción innecesaria de sus movimientos físicos durante las lecciones: (b) la incapacidad de organizar el espacio del aula en un modo que apoye el proceso de aprendizaje. El autor concluye que estos factores promueven tensiones en el aula, que podrían evitarse a través de un enfoque diferente de los aspectos movimiento y espacio.

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Cet article est le résumé de la thèse de maîtrise que l'auteur a soutenue avec succès à l'Université de São Paulo, Brésil, Elle approfondit actuellement ce travail de recherche pour le doctorat. Cette thèse a été réalisée sous la direction du professeur Heloysa Dantas du département de psychologie de l'éducation, spécialiste de la théorie wallonienne. Ce travail doit beaucoup au Pr Dantas, dont l'orientation soutenue et compétente a été décisive pour son élaboration.     

Do executive functions contribute to writing quality in beginning writers? A longitudinal study with second graders

Reading and Writing - Writing is an important activity that involves many demanding processes. Given the complexity and goal-directed nature of writing, this activity is heavily dependent on...     

Media education with the monetization of YouTube: the loss of truth as an exchange value / Educación mediática frente a la monetización en YouTube: la pérdida de la verdad como valor de cambio

Abstract

The digital age of post-truth is the ideal breeding ground for fake news and misinformation. In the world of social networks and the Internet in general, commercial interests hold primacy over the importance of the veracity of the information provided. In this study, we have carried out a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the messages published as comments on the most popular videos about Pokémon Go published in Spanish on YouTube. The main objective of the study is to analyse not only the content of the videos but, above all, users’ reactions to the misinformation provided. The results confirm the hypothesis that misinformation is promoted by the crisis of truth as a journalistic and social value, by economic interest and by the lack of suitable media education. We conclude by advocating the need to recover truth as a journalistic and social value in the digital context, and to accept that media literacy is an essential task to be assumed by all educational agents: schools, media and social groups.     

Differential effect of university entrance score on first-year students’ academic performance in Portugal

The main goal of this study is to show that the association between university entrance score and first-year students’ academic performance varies randomly across courses after controlling for students’ sociodemographic, schooling trajectory and motivational variables. The sample consists of 2697 first-year students who were enrolled in 54 courses at a Portuguese public university in 2015/16. Multilevel modelling of academic performance suggests that 34% of variability in grade point average is due to differences among courses and that 80% of such variability is explained by the field of study, whether the university is the student’s first choice, and the student’s gender, age and parents’ level of education. In addition, the results corroborate that the university entrance score is the strongest predictor of first-year academic performance.     

Innovating science teaching with a transformative learning model

Abstract

This exploratory study aimed to describe the impact of the ‘Science in Family project’, as a transformative learning model for science teachers trying to improve student’s attitudes toward STEM subjects. This study took place in a public elementary school in Monterrey, Mexico, which has been developing this project for more than thirteen years with students from 4th, 5th and 6th grade. We used participant observation and interviews with four families whose children are students of this elementary school, and with one family whose sons were students of this school some years ago. Results showed that there is a relationship between positive attitudes towards science in students who were exposed to transformative learning models of teaching. Two of the participants took steps to follow science related careers. This study helps to illuminate the extent to which teacher education models influence students’ attitudes and how positive attitudes to science are influenced by the use of learning by doing projects.     

Psychometry of the Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale in Spanish Teachers' Education

Our objective was to test the factorial validity of the different versions (TSES-24, TSES-12, and TSES-11) of the Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale in Spanish preservice teachers'. The participants were 358 preservice teachers. The confirmatory factor analysis showed inadequate fit indexes for both TSES-24 and TSES-12 but adequate fit indexes for TSES-11, which was invariant across gender. The reliability analysis showed appropriate values. The global factor for teachers' sense of efficacy and the three factors that constitute it positively predicted intrinsic motivation and life satisfaction. The global factor for sense of efficacy and the classroom management and student engagement factor negatively predicted amotivation. The results support the use of the TSES-11 three-factor model, rather than TSES-24 or TSES-12, for Spanish preservice teachers.     

The trouble with transfer: insights from microgenetic changes in the representation of numerical magnitude

Spontaneous transfer of learning is often difficult to elicit. This finding may be widespread partly because pretests proactively interfere with transfer. To test this hypothesis, 7-year-olds' transfer was examined across 2 numerical tasks (number line estimation and categorization) in which similar representational changes have been observed. As predicted, children given feedback on numerical estimates learned to use a linear representation of numerical quantity instead of a logarithmic one, but providing practice on a categorization pretest led children to continue using a logarithmic representation on the same task, which they otherwise abandoned with surprising frequency. These findings imply unsupervised practice of inappropriate representations impedes transfer, and studies of learning can greatly underestimate children's potential for transfer if pretest effects are uncontrolled.     

Signaling a change in cue-outcome relations in human associative learning

In three experiments, we assessed the role of signals for changes in the consequences of cues as a potential account of the renewal effect. Experiment 1 showed recovery of responding following extinction when acquisition, extinction, and test phases occurred in different contexts. In addition, extinction treatment in multiple contexts attenuated context-induced response recovery. In Experiment 2, we used presentations of an extraneous stimulus (ES), instead of context shifts, and found that responding recovered from extinction only when the ES was presented both between acquisition and extinction and between extinction and test. In Experiment 3, we used a reversal learning design in which, during training, two cues were first paired with different outcomes, then paired with the alternative outcomes, and finally paired again with the original outcomes. In this experiment, presentation, just prior to testing, of an ES that had previously been presented between the different phases produced an expectation of reversal in the meaning of the cues.