Can Academic Achievement in Primary School Students Be Improved Through Teacher Training on Emotional Intelligence as a Key Academic Competency?

Background: The primary aim of the current study was to develop a multi-methodological teacher training program based on emotional intelligence (EI) as a key competency in order to improve student academic achievement based on two methods: face-to-face instruction and game-based e-learning instruction. Methods: Seventy-four primary education teachers and their 2069 students were randomly assigned to three groups. The first group of teachers (n = 23) were trained to use a face-to-face method. The objective of the training was that the teachers would be able to implement EI into their teaching to improve academic achievement in their students (n = 645) using face-to-face instruction. For the second group (n = 28), the teachers were trained to use an e-learning gamification method. Similar to the first group, the objective of the training was that the teachers would be able to implement EI into their teaching to improve academic achievement in their students (n = 758) using e-learning gamification instruction. The third group of teachers (n = 23) served as the controls and did not receive any special training, nor did they implement EI into their teaching (n = 666). Results: Implementation of EI into classroom teaching effectively improved academic achievement in primary school students using both methods. However, there was a greater increase in academic achievement and higher teacher satisfaction in the game-based e-learning group. No significant differences in student achievement were observed in the control group. Conclusion: Emotional intelligence as a key academic competency.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (EDU2015-64562-R)

Design and validation of a scale for the identification of dyslexia at the beginning of Primary Education

La dislexia es un trastorno específico del aprendizaje de base neurobiológica que afecta a un porcentaje importante de estudiantes. Sin embargo, no se conocen instrumentos validados que contribuyan a la identificación temprana de este problema, lo que dificulta la intervención educativa. El propósito del presente trabajo ha sido elaborar y validar una escala de indicadores de riesgo de la dislexia al inicio de la etapa de Educación Primaria (EIRD-EP) con la finalidad de favorecer la detección de este problema del aprendizaje en los primeros momentos en los que se manifiesta. Se contó con la participación de 458 docentes de Educación Primaria de diferentes centros educativos públicos y concertados. La validez del cuestionario se efectúo mediante la validez de contenido junto a un análisis factorial exploratorio con la mitad de la muestra que indicó una estructura de cuatro factores, posteriormente se llevó a cabo un análisis factorial confirmatorio con la otra mitad de la muestra que demostró un ajuste adecuado del modelo. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que el instrumento puede ser empleado por los profesionales de la educación para identificar a los estudiantes que se encuentran en situación de riesgo de presentar dislexia.Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder with a neurobiological basis that affects a significant percentage of students. However, there are no known validated instruments that contribute to the early identification of this problem, which makes educational intervention difficult. This work aims at developing and validating a scale of risk indicators for dyslexia at the beginning of the Primary Education stage (EIRD-EP) in order to favour the detection of this learning problem as soon as they become evident. There was a participation of 458 Primary Education teachers from different state schools and charter schools. The validity of the questionnaire was carried out through content validity together with an exploratory factorial analysis with half of the sample that indicated a four-factor structure, later a confirmatory factorial analysis was carried out with the other half of the sample that revealed a correct adjustment of the model. The results show that the instrument can be used by education professionals to identify students who are at risk of presenting dyslexia

Assessing students' emotional competence in Higher Education

Las demandas de un mundo globalizado requieren universidades capaces de formar a estudiantes con un potencial desempeño profesional. Se buscan nuevas maneras de preparar a los universitarios para lograr una exitosa inserción laboral. De hecho, la misión de la Asociación Europea para la Garantía de la Calidad en la Educación Superior (ENQA) es contribuir al mantenimiento y mejora de la calidad de la educación superior europea con un alto nivel de excelencia. Con el fin de conseguir este objetivo, este estudio toma la competencia emocional como factor importante del éxito entre los estudiantes universitarios. La inteligencia emocional implica dos competencias importantes para alcanzar el éxito profesional: (1) la capacidad de reconocer sus propios sentimientos y emociones de los demás; (2) la capacidad de utilizar esa información para resolver los conflictos y mejorar la socialización. Por lo tanto, el trabajo de los valores, la multiculturalidad y el desarrollo de competencias socioemocionales podría ser integrado en el currículum académico puesto que se considera un facilitador del éxito. Una gran cantidad de expertos creen que la inteligencia emocional se debe promover en la universidad no sólo de forma puntual, sino de una manera holística.The expanding globalised workforce requires universities to train students in order to improve their job performance. Educators are looking for new ways to prepare students to join properly the professional world. In fact, the mission of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) is to contribute significantly to the maintenance and enhancement of the quality of European higher education at a high level. In order to get this aim, this study examines emotional competence as an important skill of academic and career success among university students. Emotional intelligence involves two important competencies to make career successful: (1) the ability to recognise their own feelings and other people’s feelings and emotions, as well; (2) the ability to use that information to resolve conflicts, problems, and improve interactions with other people. Therefore, the social and emotional skills should be integrated in academic curriculum because emotional well-being is considered a predictor of success in personal and professional life. A lot of educational experts believe that emotional intelligence should be promoted at the university not only as a subject, perhaps like a holistic manner

Initial learning of reading through the contributions of neuroscience to the educational field

La presencia de la neurociencia en el campo educativo está ofreciendo importantes hallazgos respecto del procesamiento y desarrollo de los aprendizajes, pero son escasos los estudios efectuados en cuanto a su repercusión en el rendimiento escolar. Con el propósito de profundizar en la relevancia que presentan estos postulados en la adquisición de la este trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar, mediante un programa de intervención, si los hallazgos que ofrece la neurociencia para la facilitación del aprendizaje escolar inciden de manera positiva en el aprendizaje de la lectura. Se empleó un diseño cuasiexperimental de comparación entre grupos con medidas pretest y postest. Participaron 428 alumnos de entre los 5 y los 6 años. Los resultados ponderan el valor potencial de la instrucción y apoyan el desarrollo de modelos de enseñanza que integren las aportaciones que ofrece la neurociencia al ámbito educativo para favorecer el proceso de adquisición de la lectura.The impact of neuroscience in our society and especially in the field of education offers important consequences for the processing and development of learning, although few studies have been carried out on its impact on academic learning. In order to better understand the impact that this field of knowledge has on the process of reading acquisition, this work is carried out, which aims to analyze, through an intervention program, whether the findings proposed by neuroscience for the facilitation of learning school affect the progress of learning to read. A quasi-experimental design of comparison between groups with pretest and posttest measures was used. A total of 428 pupils aged 5-6 years participated. The results point to the potential value of instruction and support the development of teaching models that integrate neuroscience contributions to the process of early reading acquisition

Pre-Service Teachers’ Personal Traits and Emotional Skills: A Structural Model of General Mental Ability

Teachers’ personal traits and emotional skills impact the quality of the teaching they deliver. Therefore, this study analyzes the relationship between pre-service teachers’ general mental ability, personal traits, and perceived emotional intelligence, so as to present a structural model of general mental ability. It uses a sample of 196 final-year teaching students at a university in Spain (80.1% women, Myears = 22.96). The results of the structural equation model analysis reveal that personal traits and intelligence variables contribute the most to explaining the pre-service teachers’ level of training. Regarding the pre-service teachers’ academic achievement, conscientiousness and intelligence are direct predictors; negative neuroticism and conscientiousness are indirect predictors. The findings highlight the importance of working on these variables in the study of teacher training because they relate to relevant aspects of teachers’ work and can help to achieve a quality educational environment.This research has been funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE (Project Ref. PID2021-125279OB-100), and by the Own Program of the Vice-Rector’s Office for Research of the University of Alicante for the Promotion of R+D+I (Reference GRE20-22-A)

Neural Network Model for Predicting Student Failure in the Academic Leveling Course of Escuela Politécnica Nacional

The purpose of this study is to train an artificial neural network model for predicting student failure in the academic leveling course of the Escuela Politécnica Nacional of Ecuador, based on academic and socioeconomic information. For this, 1308 higher education students participated, 69.0% of whom failed the academic leveling course; besides, 93.7% of the students self-identified as mestizo, 83.9% came from the province of Pichincha, and 92.4% belonged to general population. As a first approximation, a neural network model was trained with twelve variables containing students’ academic and socioeconomic information. Then, a dimensionality reduction process was performed from which a new neural network was modeled. This dimension reduced model was trained with the variables application score, vulnerability index, regime, gender, and population segment, which were the five variables that explained more than 80% of the first model. The classification accuracy of the dimension reduced model was 0.745, while precision and recall were 0.883 and 0.778, respectively. The area under ROC curve was 0.791. This model could be used as a guide to lead intervention policies so that the failure rate in the academic leveling course would decrease.This research was supported by Escuela Politécnica Nacional

Resultados de un programa de formación en competencias emocionales para profesorado de Educación Primaria

The aim of this work is to assess the effectiveness of a teacher’s training program in Emotional Intelligence for Primary Education teachers. The intervention aims to improve five teacher dimensions: intrapersonal (AI) and interpersonal intelligence (EI), stress management (S), adaptation (A) and mood (M). A total of 141 primary school teachers participated in the study (54.6% female and 45.4% male), with an average age of 38.4 years and an average teaching experience of 13.1 years. Randomly, 70 were assigned to the experimental group and 71 to the control group. The first group underwent the training program for 14 weeks. The 51-item Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) was used to assess the dimensions. Cronbach’s alpha values are: 0.75 (AI), 0.77 (EI), 0.83 (S), 0.84 (A) and 0.88 (M). Pre-test measures were collected two weeks before the start of the program, and post-test measures were collected two weeks after the end of the program. SPSS version 22 was used for data analysis, where we performed Student’s t-test, MANOVA and ANOVA. The results indicated that all dimensions improved in the intervention group, highlighting the one corresponding to teacher mood.El objetivo de este trabajo es valorar la eficacia de un programa de formación docente en Inteligencia Emocional para maestros y maestras de Educación Primaria. La intervención persigue mejorar cinco dimensiones del profesorado: inteligencia intrapersonal (IA) e interpersonal (IE), manejo del estrés (E), adaptación (A) y humor (H). En este estudio han participado 141 maestros de Educación Primaria (54,6% mujeres y 45,4% hombres), con una edad media de 38,4 años y una experiencia docente de 13,1 años de promedio. Aleatoriamente, 70 fueron asignados al grupo experimental y 71 al grupo control. El primer grupo fue el que se sometió al programa de formación durante 14 semanas. Para evaluar las dimensiones se utilizó el inventario del Cociente Emocional (EQ-i), de 51 ítems, cuyos valores del alfa de Cronbach son: 0,75 (IA), 0,77 (IE), 0,83 (E), 0,84 (A) y 0,88 (H). Las medidas del pre-test se recopilaron dos semanas antes de iniciar el programa, y las medidas del post-test dos semanas después de concluirlo. Para el análisis de los datos se empleó la versión 22 del SPSS, donde realizamos la prueba t de Student, MANOVA y ANOVA. Los resultados indicaron que todas las dimensiones mejoraron en el grupo de intervención, destacando aquella que corresponde al humor del profesorado.This research was supported by the Department of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society within the framework of the Program for the promotion of scientific research, technological development and innovation in the Valencian Community (Reference GV/2021/153) and by the Own Program of the Vice-Rector’s Office for Research of the University of Alicante for the Promotion of R+D+I (Reference GRE20-22-A)

Curso de Inteligencia Emocional: la experiencia de la Inteligencia emocional en un proyecto de educación secundaria

The present work analyzes the effectiveness of a program to develop emotional intelligence in secondary education. The Training Course on Emotional Intelligence (TCEI) offers the opportunity for secondary students to develop their emotional intelligence cooperatively applying their new knowledge to solve real-world problems. A total of 158 secondary education students participated in this educational experience. A combination of both in-person classes and online classes was used in this program in a virtual campus according to the flipped classroom methodology. The TCEI prepares students to think critically and analytically, to learn about one’s own feelings and other people’s emotions, and to find and use appropriate emotional learning resources. The results indicate that improvement in emotional intelligence is possible using our program. The implications of these results for incorporating emotional competencies into secondary education curriculum are discussed

Predictors of University Attrition: Looking for an Equitable and Sustainable Higher Education

The failure and dropout of university studies are issues that worry all nations due to the personal, social, and economic costs that this they entail. Because the dropout phenomenon is complex and involves numerous factors, to reverse it would involve a comprehensive approach through interventions aimed at the factors identified as key in the decision to drop out. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to determine the profile of students who enter the EPN (STEM higher-education institution) to analyze the characteristics that differentiate students who drop out early in their career and those who stay in school. A sample of 624 students who accessed the EPN leveling course (a compulsory course at the beginning of their studies) participated in the study. A total of 26.6% of the participants were women. A total of 50.7% of the participants passed the course. Data referring to social, economic, and academic variables were analyzed. Comparison techniques, as well as artificial neural networks, were used to compare characteristic profiles of students who passed the leveling course and those who dropped out. The results showed significant differences between the profiles of the students who passed and those who dropped out with regard to the variables related to previous academic performance and motivational and attributional aspects. The artificial neural networks corroborated the importance of these variables in predicting dropout. In this research, the key variables predicting whether a student continues or leaves higher education are revealed, allowing the identification of students at possible risk of dropping out and thus promoting initiatives to provide adequate academic support and improve student retention.This research was supported by National Secretariat of Higher Education, Science and Technology, (SENESCYT;PIC-18-INE-EPN-002)

Teaching Socio-Emotional Competencies Among Primary School Students: Improving Conflict Resolution and Promoting Democratic Co-existence in Schools

Teaching socio-emotional skills among primary school students is the key to creating a climate of cooperation in classrooms and reducing disruptive or aggressive behaviors among students. The primary goal of this research is to present an educational proposal for imparting socio-emotional competencies among primary school students. We attempt to impart socio-emotional competencies based on: (1) fostering self-knowledge, self-esteem, and respect for others among students; (2) developing behaviors that allow them to perceive and express feelings and self-regulating emotions; and (3) developing assertive communication skills aimed at improving conflict resolution. This program has been designed in such a way that it is implemented throughout the academic year by organizing bi-monthly sessions of 45 min each, held until the completion of 15 sessions. The sample consists of 100 students in the third grade, with the control and experimental groups having an equal number of students (50 each). The instruments used for this research are: (a) BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory (Youth Version [BarOn EQ-i:YV]): used for measuring emotional and social functioning; (b) the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY): used for assessing social skills; and (c) Questionnaire for the Assessment of School Violence in Preschool and Primary School Questionnaire. To check the effectiveness of the educational intervention, a quasi-experimental design, along with pretest-posttest control group design, is used in accordance with the general linear model. Its effectiveness is also checked using repeated measures analysis of variance. The results show that the program is useful in preventing violent behaviors in the educational field and promoting the development of socio-emotional skills among third grade students. Finally, the applicability of the program to other educational contexts is discussed to enhance students' personal development and decrease the levels of violence found in primary school.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (EDU2015-64562-R)