Sensors,programming and devices in Art Education sessions. One case in the context of primary education / Sensores,programación y dispositivos en sesiones de Educación Artística. Un caso en el contexto de Educación Primaria

The pedagogical integration of computing is interesting in educational contexts based on the contributions of Seymour Papert and Wing’s concept of computational thinking. Integrating arts in education can lead to the design of activities using Scratch combined with devices. The main goal is to evaluate the integration of computational thinking in art education making use of technological resources, sensor cards and minicomputers, with a student-centred pedagogical approach. This research assesses the results of a control group of 35 students and an experimental group of 109 students in four different schools, using Mann-Whitney’s U-test for independent samples assessing ‘Active Learning’, ‘computational concepts’ and ‘fun’ scales. Applying data triangulation, and consistent with design-based research, the results of interviews and focus groups reinforced the results obtained in the aforementioned test, providing validity to the study. There are advantages regarding student interest, motivation and commitment related to programming technologies in art and education, particularly pedagogical sessions with music. Handling devices, sensors and Raspberry Pi provides participating students with a factor of commitment and enthusiasm, with significant improvements. Working with coding and devices brings an additional advantage in the development of computational thinking and digital competence. The results show an increase in creativity and artistic competence related to the ability to create music from the activities and technological resources described in the technological intervention.     

Going to action? A literature review on educational proposals in formal Environmental Education

The current state of the planet’s environmental deterioration calls for formal educational contexts to implement effective environmental proposals which nurture action competence. The aim of this paper is to examine the educational proposals in formal contexts that have been published in the two research journals of greatest impact on Environmental Education during the period 2008–2013, and to analyse how they contribute to the development of action competence. Special attention is paid to research (i) based on real participation by students; (ii) promotes reflection on the complexity of environmental issues; (iii) facilitates critical thinking; (iv) encourages autonomous and responsible decision-making and (v) involves communities. Our results show that these approaches can help improve the development of action-focused environmental education and bring to light a series of challenges for future research.     

Discussion of competences at university level: review of the competency profile of social educators / Discusión de competencias en el ámbito universitario: revisión del perfil del educador social

Training in competences helps university students develop in a comprehensive way that is oriented towards working in their chosen profession. The profession focused on in this study is that of social educator. Degree programmes related to this profession are relatively new and their implementation is also open to variation. As a result of this, a review of the competency profile of the profession is considered necessary. The study presented here aims to validate the competences of this profession by means of expert judgement. The panel of experts assesses the relevance and clarity of each element, as well as giving their opinions on them. The contributions provided result in a set of qualitative and quantitative data whose analysis helps to redefine a profile comprising 23 competences distributed across two dimensions: basic competences (14) and professional competences (9).     

Useful interactive teaching tool for learning: clickers in higher education†

Many university lecturers are encouraged to implement innovative teaching tools and methodologies such as clickers in order to create an interactive learning environment and improve student learning, but its performance must be evaluated. The aim of this paper is to test empirically the impact of the use of clickers on students' learning processes. The teaching experience applied to the subject of Financial Accounting is specifically described. The total sample size is 77 students from a Business Administration and Economics Degree, taught in English and in Spanish. The analysis, using multivariate techniques, of the questionnaire responses, students' grades and a reflexive experience of the lecturer conclude that learning with clickers is effective. There is a positive relationship between grades and intrinsic motivation through clickers. Consequently, the students' marks are related to its intrinsic motivation, feedback to understanding, students' discussion and its negative aspects but not gender nor age.     

Transfer of control between causal predictive judgments and instrumental responding

Four experiments were conducted to explore outcome-specific transfer from causal predictive judgments to instrumental responding. A video game was designed in which participants had to defend Andalusia from navy and air force attacks. First, they learned the relationship between two instrumental responses (two keys on a standard keyboard) and two different outcomes (destruction of the ships or destruction of the planes). Then they learned to predict which of two different stimuli predicted which outcome. Finally, they had the opportunity of making either of the two instrumental responses in the presence of either stimulus. Transfer was shown as a preference for the response that shared an outcome with the current stimulus. The presentation of the stimulus during the test produced a decrease in the overall rate of response. Responding to a neutral stimulus in Experiments 2 and 3 suggested that this overall decrease in responding was due to a combination of the time needed to process the meaning of the stimulus and the activation of the representation of the outcome in the presence of the stimulus during the test. Transfer between predictive judgments and instrumental responding mirrors the outcome-specific Pavlovian instrumental transfer observed in conditioning studies with rats.