Language and Content-Subject Teacher Issues across CLIL in the Maritime Studies Field: A Project Experience within the New European Framework

This study presents the main theoretical and practical issues raised in the implementation process of a CLIL Project with undergraduate students at the Faculty of Nautical Sciences of the University of Cádiz (Spain) in the academic year 2009-2010 by a teachers' interdisciplinary innovation research team. The underlying hypotheses of this study are, firstly, that the content greatly determined which communicative competence would be more interesting and beneficial to gain rather than vice versa in a CLIL programme. Secondly, this analysis aims at exploring how certain underlying assumptions in the planning of CLIL methodology cannot be taken for granted. Finally, results also highlight that Content-Language Integrated programmes are a sharing information platform for converging the needs of the language teacher and the content-subject teacher in the European Higher Education Area

Validity evidence of the organizational justice scale in Spain

Resumen tomado de la publicaciónEvidencias de validez de la Escala de Justicia Organizacional en España. Antecedentes: el interés por la medición de la percepción de justicia organizacional ha aumentado en los últimos años debido a su demostrada relación con resultados organizacionales significativos, como el bienestar y el agotamiento emocional. En España, se puede destacar la Escala de Justicia Organizacional (OJS) como un instrumento que ha mostrado buenas propiedades psicométricas en estudios previos en el sector hotelero. Este estudio complementa la evidencia de las características de la OJS utilizando una amplia muestra multisectorial. Método: los participantes fueron 849 empleados de diferentes sectores ocupacionales. La estructura de la OJS se estudió mediante análisis factorial exploratorio y confirmatorio dividiendo la muestra en dos submuestras aleatorias. Además, se analizó la fiabilidad y validez de cada dimensión. Resultados: los resultados indicaron que la escala está constituida por tres factores (distributiva, procedimental y en la interacción), con una fiabilidad y validez adecuadas. Por otra parte, como era de esperar, se encontraron correlaciones positivas entre la percepción de justicia organizacional y el bienestar, y negativas con el agotamiento emocional. Conclusiones: la OJS es una herramienta adecuada para su uso por parte de académicos y profesionales en el estudio de la percepción de justicia organizacional en España, garantizando una validez y fiabilidad adecuadas.Universidad de Oviedo. Biblioteca de Psicología; Plaza Feijoo, s/n.; 33003 Oviedo; Tel. +34985104146; Fax +34985104126; [email protected]

Inflation including collapse of the wave function: The quasi-de Sitter case

The precise physical mechanism describing the emergence of the seeds of cosmic structure from a perfect isotropic and homogeneous universe has not been fully explained by the standard version of inflationary models. To handle this shortcoming, D. Sudarsky and collaborators have developed a proposal: the self-induced collapse hypothesis. In this scheme, the objective collapse of the inflaton wave function is responsible for the emergence of inhomogeneity and anisotropy at all scales. In previous papers, the proposal was developed with an almost exact de Sitter space-time approximation for the background that led to a perfect scale-invariant power spectrum. In the present article, we consider a full quasi-de Sitter expansion and calculate the primordial power spectrum for three different choices of the self-induced collapse. The consideration of a quasi-de Sitter background allow us to distinguish departures from an exact scale-invariant power spectrum that are due to the inclusion of the collapse hypothesis. These deviations are also different from the prediction of standard inflationary models with running spectral index. Comparison with the primordial power spectrum and the CMB temperature fluctuation spectrum preferred by the latest observational data is also discussed. From the analysis performed in this work, it follows that most of the collapse schemes analysed in this paper are viable candidates to explain present observations of the CMB fluctuation spectrum.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures. Replaced to match published versio

Steps to ensure a successful implementation of occupational health and safety: Interventions at an organizational level

There is increasing meta-analytic evidence that addresses the positive impact of evidence-based occupational health and safety interventions on employee health and well-being. However, such evidence is less clear when interventions are approached at an organizational level and are aimed at changing organizational policies and processes. Given that occupational health and safety interventions are usually tailored to specific organizational contexts, generalizing and transferring such interventions to other organizations is a complex endeavor. In response, several authors have argued that an evaluation of the implementation process is crucial for assessing the intervention’s effectiveness and for understanding how and why the intervention has been (un)successful. Thus, this paper focuses on the implementation process and attempts to move this field forward by identifying the main factors that contribute toward ensuring a greater success of occupational health and safety interventions conducted at the organizational level. In doing so, we propose some steps that can guide a successful implementation. These implementation steps are illustrated using examples of evidence-based best practices reported in the literature that have described and systematically evaluated the implementation process behind their interventions during the last decade

Construir ciudad

This article deals about the principie ideas developed in the Lectures. lt was discussed about the way of doing city as an important point for the future of the Urbanistic. Not all the cities are similar, and for that reason, it is necessary to valorate its potencialities and necessities to elaborate its City Project. So, there are cities that its urban project is based in the valuation of the existences, and cities that need new architectonic projects to excel the decline situation. In both cases, if the city is named seat of an important event, there will be big investments with public resources, and it is the great chance for the cities, to come into the group of competitive cities. Definitively, it is a reflection about the actual way of doing city, pretending to attract the responsible persons, asking them for specific documents where the way of doing city must be explained

The role of psychological capital and intragroup conflict on employees' burnout and quality of service: A multilevel approach

Previous studies have found a negative association between intragroup conflict and both employees' health and performance, including the quality of service that employees provide. However, some authors have indicated that such negative effects of intragroup conflict depend on how conflict is managed. In addition, at individual level, research is increasingly emphasizing the role of psychological strengths (i.e., psychological capital) as predictors of health and performance. Thus, this research addresses both a main effect at individual level (psychological capital on burnout/quality of service) and a moderated cross-level model (2-2-1: intragroup conflict, conflict management climate and burnout/quality of service) in a cross-sectional survey study (N = 798 workers nested in 55 units/facilities). Results revealed a main effect of psychological capital on both burnout (r = −0.50) and quality of service (r = 0.28). Also, there was an association between intragroup relationship conflict and burnout (r = 0.33). Finally, there was an interaction effect in which conflict management climate buffers the negative association between intragroup conflict and quality of service. Practical implications of these results for developing positive and healthy organizations that prevent potential psychosocial risks at group level while promote individual strengths are discussed

Design and validation of a questionnaire to measure research skills: experience with engineering students

Universities in Latin American countries are undergoing major changes in its institutional and academic settings. One strategy for continuous improvement of teaching and learning process is the incorporation of methods and teaching aids seeking to develop scientific research skills in students from their undergraduate studies. The aim of this study is the validation of a questionnaire to measure research skills with engineering students. Questionnaire validation was performed by: literature review, semantic and content validation by experts from three Latin American universities, finishing with a factorial and reliability validation. The instrument was applied to 150 students (75,3% men and 24,7% women) that were enrolled in the basic level of engineering. The validated questionnaire has 20 items. The correlations between factors of the instrument, show relationship and dependence between them, indicating the validity of the questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which reached a value of .91 in the total scale. The statistical results to validate the questionnaire have been significant, allowing us to propose this experience as a starting point to implement further studies about the development of research skills in university’s students from other areas of knowledgePeer Reviewe

Growth, inequality abd the rise of the middle class, Brazil

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorThis thesis investigates the connection between economic growth, inequality and the rise of the middle class from a historical perspective using Brazil as a case study. While the thesis mainly focuses on the period 1839-1950, it also extends the analysis to the most recent decades for comparative purposes. It shows that between 1839 and 1950, even though Brazil experienced episodes of rapid economic growth, the uneven distribution of this growth, reflected by dramatic increases in inequality and bipolarisation, prevented the consolidation of the middle class and the reduction of absolute poverty. Meanwhile, in the most recent period economic growth accompanied by decreasing inequality succeeded in increasing the middle class and reducing poverty. In this vein, this thesis highlights the relevance of the reduction of inequality in order to start a virtuous circle in which economic success goes hand in hand with the rise of the middle class which, in turn, acts as the promoter of economic and social development. The dissertation contributes to the literature in the fields of Economic History and Development. Firstly, it fills the existing gap on Brazil’s income distribution before the mid-twentieth century, offering continual time series on inequality and polarisation for 1839-1930, 1940 and 1950. Notably, the estimations are based on self-constructed social tables involving real wages for different professional categories (in both rural and urban areas). Secondly, the thesis contributes to the literature on the measurement of the middle class by proposing a new middle class indicator (the MC index) that permits the study of the evolution of this social group over time and across countries. Finally, while it serves to shed new light on the connection between economic growth, inequality and the middle class, it opens new gates for future research on this relationship across countries with relevant social policy implications.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Historia EconómicaPresidente: Jaime Reis.- Secretario: Pablo Astorga Junquera.- Vocal: Branko Milanovi

Diferencias del rol desempeñado por la autoeficacia en el burnout percibido por el personal universitario en función de las condiciones de trabajo.

El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar el papel que des-empeña la autoeficacia en la relación entre condiciones de trabajo y síndrome de estar quemado o burnout en una muestra de profesionales de la Universidad de Sevilla. En concreto, la muestra está compuesta por 194 profesores universitarios (PDI) y 121 personas encargadas de tareas de administración y servicios (PAS). Mediante un diseño transversal se les aplicó un cuestionario sobre condiciones de trabajo de carácter estresante y autoeficacia para afrontar las mismas (Escala Laboral de Estrés) así como el cuestionario de burnout MBI. Tal como apuntaban nuestras hipótesis, las condiciones de trabajo (ambigüedad de rol y sobrecarga laboral) se relacio-nan positivamente con el burnout, jugando la autoeficacia un papel modula-dor sólo en los casos en que el individuo puede actuar para modificar las condiciones estresantes. Se discuten las implicaciones a nivel teórico y práctico de los presentes resultados.The aim of this study is to analyze the role that self-efficacy plays in the relationship between working conditions and burnout in the University context. The sample was composed by 194 teachers and 121 employees from the administrative staff of the University of Seville (Spain). The Job Stress Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory were used to measure working conditions, self-efficacy and burnout in a cross-sectional design study. According to our hypotheses, there is a positive relationship between stressful working conditions and burnout. In addition, self-efficacy seems to moderate the association between potentially stressful working conditions and burnout. However, the moderating effect of self-efficacy was observed only under the working conditions that can be directly influenced by employees’ behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications for occupational health researchers and practitioners are discussed