Academic desertion and emotions in e-learning environments

En los espacios académicos de nivel superior, existe preocupación en relación a la deserción y abandono de los estudiantes. Por otra parte, existen investigaciones que asocian esta situación académica con el estado afectivo de los estudiantes. En este sentido, es importante analizar y comprender el estado anímico de los estudiantes universitarios, tratando de detectar qué emociones se manifiestan durante el cursado. Las emociones pueden expresarse y detectarse a través de diversos medios, tales como la expresión oral, expresiones faciales, gestos y expresión escrita. En este trabajo, se realizó un recorrido por algunas plataformas educativas consideradas afectivas, analizando los métodos y recursos que se utilizan en cada una de ellas, para la detección de emociones. Adicionalmente, se consultó a 20 docentes de nivel superior participantes de un curso de posgrado vinculado a la temática, acerca de su percepción respecto a las emociones que influyen en la deserción y abandono en los cursos que siguen la modalidad e-learning. En los resultados se evidenció que la emoción frustración, es considerada como aquella que influye en forma más negativa en el aprendizaje, y puede ser causante de abandono o deserción de los estudiantes, entre otros motivos.In university education, there is concern in relation to the dropout and abandonment of students. On the other hand, there is research that associates this academic situation with the affective state of students. In this sense, it is important to analyze and understand the state of mind of university students, trying to detect what emotions are manifested during the course. Emotions can be expressed and detected through various means, such as oral expression, facial expressions, gestures, and written expression. A tour was made of some educational platforms considered affective, analyzing the methods and resources used in each of them, for the detection of emotions. In addition, 20 higher-level teachers, who participated in a postgraduate course linked to the subject, were consulted about their perception of the emotions that influence dropout in courses that follow the e-learning modality. The results showed that emotional frustration is considered the one that most negatively influences learning, being the cause, among other reasons, of abandonment or desertion of students.Facultad de Informátic

Emotions in the classroom: Teachers' perceptions and practice of social and emotional education in four countries

The central motive for conducting this research was to investigate how different countries (Greece, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) treat social and emotional education (SEE) within pedagogical practice and policy to answer the following questions: How do teachers perceive and practice SEE? And how are government policies and/or programmes about SEE (if any exist) implemented? The study used a sequential QUAN-QUAL analysis with a comparative design, with 750 teachers in an initial quantitative phase participating in a questionnaire, and 22 teachers in the following qualitative phase participating in semi-structured interviews. Cross-cultural differences were found in the research sample regarding teachers’ self-perceived role in socialising emotion: specifically, the teachers’ beliefs about their role in loco parentis, the teachers’ openness to emotional expression in the classroom, and the teachers’ knowledge about the role of emotions and relationships to learning. More variation was found in these three variables internationally compared to intranationally, although demographics were found to statistically influence the results as well. Teacher training regarding SEE was found to have only been made available to a minority of teachers in all four countries. In terms of practice, SEE was more likely to be introduced into schools by teachers themselves (or a partnership between teachers and headteachers) rather than by educational policy. Furthermore, SEE provision was found more likely to be implicit (considered for every subject but not taught as its own subject), rather than explicit (having a dedicated time and curricula devoted to SEE). Recent recommendations by policy influencers to create cross-cultural frameworks of social and emotional competencies and life-skills programmes need to be questioned in light of the findings that SEE manifests in unique ways specific to each culture