Using socrative as an online homework platform to increase students’ exam scores

Socrative is an online assessment and student response tool that provides opportunities to increase student engagement in the classroom. We used Socrative as an online homework completing platform to increase students’ exam scores in physics. To explore the relationships among factors and the educational effectiveness of Socrative, data from 85 undergraduate students’ final and midterm grades, and their responses to an attitude survey were used. The ANCOVA results demonstrated that the use of Socrative positively influenced students’ exam scores and a fairly significant correlation was found between students’ attitudes toward Socrative and final exam scores. Moreover, the results of the survey showed that students have moderately positive attitudes toward the use of Socrative as an online homework assignment platform. This empirical study indicates that the use of Socrative can go beyond engaging and motivating students and can be used as an online homework completing tool.     

The role of executive functions in the relation between socioeconomic level and the development of reading and maths skills / El rol de las funciones ejecutivas en la relación entre el nivel socioeconómico y el desarrollo de habilidades lectoras y matemáticas

Executive functions (EF) are a set of processes that allow individuals to plan, monitor and organize tasks and thus play a key role in the development of reading and maths skills. Environmental factors such as socioeconomic level (SEL) influence reading and maths skills as well as EFs. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which executive functions play a mediating role between SEL and reading and maths performance. To this end, we assessed 286 Chilean primary education students: 86 with a high SEL and 200 with a low level. The results show that the high-SEL group obtained consistently higher scores than their peers with low SEL levels in both reading and maths tasks as well as in EF measurements. This suggests that SEL could influence the development of these variables. The results also showed that EFs partially mediate the relation between SEL and reading and maths skills in primary school students through the specific function of inhibition. The results are discussed in light of the effect of SEL on the development of EFs and school learning.     

Not so altruistic? Some keys elements about the knowledge,perception and participation of university students in NGOs / ¿No tan altruistas? Algunas claves sobre el conocimiento,la percepción y la participación del estudiantado universitario en ONG

This article analyses the knowledge, perception and participation of university students in NGOs. The social group analysed has a very positive perception towards volunteering as well as a life situation and preparation that, in theory, facilitates their participation in such activities. However, their effective participation is much lower than the levels shown by potential volunteers who would like to participate. We have identified two elements that stand between the possibility and reality: the lack of information and the time available. In this sense, universities appear as institutions capable of connecting the needs and demands of NGOs and students.     

Successful secondary school principalship in disadvantaged contexts from a leadership for learning perspective

The paper we present here is part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), which is designed to analyse the characteristic traits of successful leadership in different contexts and countries [Day, C., and K. Leithwood. 2007. Successful School Leadership in Times of Change. Dordrecht: Springer-Kluwer; Day, C., and D. Gurr. 2014. Leading School Successfully. Stories from the Field. London: Routledge]. One subgroup of the Spanish research team participating in the ISSPP at the University of Granada has contributed to the project by carrying out a comparative study of the type of leadership for learning at four secondary schools in disadvantaged contexts. Following ISSPP data collection protocols and using a category system specially designed to analyse the leadership for learning carried out by the four principals, the results show that four secondary schools have principals with a similar traits, dispositions and value systems; however, the secondary schools with the best academic results employed practices and strategies more closely associated with leadership for learning than schools with poorer academic results. The data provided by this study confirm the traits and strategies that the ISSPP has been identifying in successful principals in disadvantaged contexts in various countries. It also serves as a source of reflection and discussion on the type of leadership for learning present in some disadvantaged secondary schools in Spain.     

Characterisation of best practices in the development of cross-curricular competences in Vocational Education and Training: case study in the Basque Country

This paper presents the most important results of a research project aimed at gathering empirical evidence on current efforts to foster and develop cross-curricular competences (CCC) in Vocational Education and Training (VET) Centres located in the Basque Country (Spain). The case study research method was used, with data being gathered by means of a questionnaire completed by 473 teachers from 61 centres, as well as 16 group interviews with management teams, 16 discussion groups with students and 4 with teachers, and 3 in-depth interviews. Three general conclusions can be drawn from the results: (1) There is no common way of understanding or defining CCCs among the teachers–students–management teams of VET centres; (2) Cycles are the ideal context in which to develop processes of pedagogical change which incorporate work on CCCs in an integrated manner; and (3) Assessment continues to be the most problematic curricular element. The study also highlights a more specific set of conclusions related to organisational characteristics, the teaching–learning process and the dynamics of educational innovation.     

Underemployment and employment among young workers and the business cycle in Spain: the importance of education level and specialisation

The objective of this paper is to identify the effect of education on young workers’ time-related underemployment as well as analysing whether education has been a defence mechanism against the recent crisis. Especially relevant is the analysis regarding field of study, which has not been addressed in the underemployment literature. Using data from the Spanish Labour Force Survey 2006–2014, bivariate probit selection models are estimated for three different periods. This methodology enables to analyse the evolution of underemployment among young people, simultaneously considering their probability of employment. The results indicate that underemployment is negatively related to education level for each period and tertiary education has smoothed the negative effect of the recession. Moreover, those specialisations that provide students with specific and work-oriented skills (sciences, technology and health) help workers avoid underemployment and enable them to handle the recession better. Conversely, more generally oriented fields (education, and arts and humanities) are associated with a higher probability of underemployment. Similar patterns have been found regarding unemployment, indicating education plays a similar role in both working time shortages.     

Can telecollaboration contribute to the TPACK development of pre-service teachers?

This study examines the suitability of telecollaboration practices to enhance ICT integration in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)-based units by analysing the number and type of episodes related to students’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) produced in a telecollaboration whose aim was the design of a technology-enhanced CLIL unit. Results revealed a high number of episodes focusing on the domains and intersections of the TPACK framework, that pedagogical content knowledge was the main focus of attention and prompted most of the suggestions for change in the unit and that telecollaboration promoted collaboration and made participation more equal. Consequently, telecollaboration showed a great potential for directing students’ attention to their TPACK even though the scarcity of episodes focusing on the TPACK intersection also indicated there is ample room for more teacher training efforts to prepare pre-service teachers for technology integration.     

Wasting Talent: Using Counter-Storytelling to Narrate Dismal Educational Outcomes

A recent study illustrated that the educational attainment of Latina/o students has been dismal during the past decade and that many Latinas/os continue to “fall through the cracks” of the educational pipeline. Through storytelling, I juxtapose my educational trajectory as a high school graduate with that of my third-oldest brother, who “fell through the cracks” of the educational pipeline as an underclassman in high school. I provide examples of how being reprimanded for minimal misconduct negatively impacted my older brother’s overall school experiences, which ultimately prevented him from finishing high school despite his potential to succeed.     

Adivinanzas and Dichos: Preparing Prospective Educators to Teach Science by Incorporating Culturally Responsive Tools

Culturally relevant science pedagogy is seldom discussed in terms of infusion of literary resources, such as adivinanzas and dichos in the design of instruction. In this study, the authors narrate how a science methods course was infused with the use of culturally responsive tools to purposefully connect to the elementary science curriculum. Results indicate that prospective Latino teachers found multiple opportunities to address specific science objectives with adivinanzas and expressed the advantages of using these culturally responsive tools to introduce and summarize science concepts as they implemented lessons during field experience.     

Meanings given to algebraic symbolism in problem-posing

Some errors in the learning of algebra suggest that students might have difficulties giving meaning to algebraic symbolism. In this paper, we use problem posing to analyze the students’ capacity to assign meaning to algebraic symbolism and the difficulties that students encounter in this process, depending on the characteristics of the algebraic statements given. We designed a written questionnaire composed of eight closed algebraic statements expressed symbolically, which was administered to 55 students who had finished their compulsory education and who had some previous experience in problem-posing. In our analysis of the data, we examine both syntactic and semantic structures of the problem posed. We note that in most cases students posed problems with syntactic structures different to those given. They did not include computations within variables, and changed the kinds of relationships connecting variables. Students easily posed problems for statements with additive structures. Other differences in the type of problems posed depend on the characteristics of the given statements.