The Influence of Gender, Intellectual Ability, Academic Self-Concept, Self-Regulation, Learning Strategies, Popularity and Parent Involvement in Early Adolescence

The present study examined the predictive effects of gender, intellectual ability, self-concept, motivation, learning strategies, popularity and parent involvement on academic achievement. Hiearchical regression analysis were performed with six steps in which each variable was included, among a sample of 1398 high school students (mean age = 12.5; standard deviation = .67) of eight education centers from the province of Alicante (Spain). The results revealed significant predictive effects of all of the variables, explaining 59.1% of the total variance.This work was supported in part by the Vice Chancellor of Research of the University of Alicante under Grant GRE 11-15, and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant EDU2012-32156

Design, implementation, and evaluation of an emotional education programme in Primary Education

Through this study we tried to evaluate and improve the level of emotional competence of the students of a primary school. Emotional competence was evaluated by the teacher in 135 students using the Teacher Child Rating Scale of Hightower et al. [1986. The Teacher- Child Rating Scale: A brief objective measure of elementary children’s school problem behaviors and competencies. School Psychology Review, 15]. A programme to improve the emotional competence of the students was designed based on the data obtained in the initial evaluation and implemented with an experimental group (n = 72, 35 girls and 37 boys). Sessions were given one hour per week for 20 weeks. Using a quasi-experimental design with non-equivalent control group and pre-test post-test measures, the effectiveness of the programme for the improvement of emotional competence was checked. The results showed improvements in the variables of Sociability and Disturbing Behaviours within the experimental group. In addition, assessment of the participants’ satisfaction yielded very positive results.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) under Grant number EDU2015-64562-R

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

Propiedades psicométricas de la adaptación española de la escala School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised

Background: The assessment of attitudes toward school with the objective of identifying adolescents who may be at risk of underachievement has become an important area of research in educational psychology, although few specific tools for their evaluation have been designed to date. One of the instruments available is the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R). Method: The objective of the current research is to test the construct validity and to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the SAAS-R. Data were collected from 1,398 students attending different high schools. Students completed the SAAS-R along with measures of the g factor, and academic achievement was obtained from school records. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis, multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance tests supported the validity evidence. Conclusions: The results indicate that the Spanish version of the SAAS-R is a useful measure that contributes to identification of underachieving students. Lastly, the results obtained and their implications for education are discussed.Antecedentes: la evaluación de las actitudes hacia la escuela con el objetivo de identificar adolescentes que pueden estar en riesgo de tener un rendimiento menor a lo esperado en un área importante de investigación en psicología de la educación, aunque se han diseñado pocos instrumentos de evaluación hasta la fecha. Uno de los instrumentos disponibles es el School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R). Método: el objetivo de este trabajo es examinar la validez de constructo y analizar las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española de la Escala Revisada de Evaluación de Actitudes hacia la Escuela (SAAS-R). Los datos se obtuvieron de 1.398 estudiantes que asistían a diferentes institutos de Educación Secundaria. Los estudiantes cumplimentaron el SAAS-R junto con medidas del factor g, y se obtuvo el rendimiento académico de las actas escolares. Resultados: los análisis factorial confirmatorios, el análisis multivariado de la varianza y las pruebas de análisis de varianza sustentaron la evidencia de validez. Conclusiones: los resultados indican que la versión española del SAAS-R es una medida útil que contribuye a la identificación de estudiantes con rendimiento menor a lo esperado. Finalmente, se discuten los resultados y sus implicaciones educativas.This research was supported through research project GRE11-15, awarded by the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Alicante, and Research & Development Project No. EDU2012-32156, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Happiness and Values in the Formation of Personal Identity in Students of the Fifth and Sixth Grade at Primary School

The objective of this research is twofold: first intending to assess the level at which students prioritize happiness; and second discerning how the experience of happiness affects the formation of their identity and their relationship with their environment, taking into account the values deduced from their perceptions, and understanding from where these values come, as well as how they are applied in their daily life. The findings indicate that students in fifth or sixth grade value happiness as a necessary aspect of life, derived from criteria such as health, and friends and family. The concept of happiness, however, is learned at home with parents and families

Análisis comparativo de las Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad bajo el enfoque de comparabilidad de constructo

Evaluation processes are a fundamental tool for training and selecting students. However, there are no empirical studies in Spain that analyse the usefulness of assessment tests to measure academic performance. This study, based on research carried out using the construct comparability approach, conducts a comparative analysis of grades achieved by 6709 students pertaining to 15 academic subject areas of the university entrance examinations (Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad – PAU) administered in the province of Alicante regarded as an instrument item related to the measurement of the academic performance construct. The initial results exhibited unidimensionality, and all academic subject areas fit the model, although there was a lack of discrimination between high-and low -performing students, mainly due to the absence of monotonicity in the scoring categories. The difficulty levels of the academic subjects were found to be appropriate for the skill levels of most students. These results demonstrated the ability of the tests analysed to report on the academic performance of the students who took the tests. In addition, important conclusions are presented regarding improvements in the grading processes, and future research studies are proposed.Los procesos de evaluación constituyen una herramienta fundamental en el marco de la formación y selección de estudiantes. Sin embargo, no existen estudios empíricos en España que analicen la utilidad de las pruebas de evaluación para medir el rendimiento académico. El presente estudio, en base a las investigaciones realizadas sobre el enfoque de comparabilidad de constructo (construct comparability approach), realiza un análisis comparativo de las calificaciones obtenidas de 15 asignaturas de las Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad (PAU) en la provincia de Alicante, con una muestra de 6709 estudiantes. Se emplea el modelo de Rasch de crédito parcial como método de estimación, considerando cada materia como un ítem de un instrumento relacionado con la medición del constructo rendimiento académico. Los resultados iniciales mostraron el cumplimiento de la unidimensionalidad, así como un ajuste de todas materias al modelo, aunque se apreció una falta de discriminación entre sujetos de alto y bajo rendimiento, debido principalmente a la ausencia de monotonocidad de las categorías de puntuación. Se observa que el nivel de dificultad de las materias se adecúa al nivel habilidad de la mayor parte de los sujetos. En base a estos resultados, se destaca la capacidad de las pruebas analizadas para informar sobre el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes. A su vez, se derivan conclusiones relevantes para la mejora de los procesos de calificación, y se proponen investigaciones futuras.The present work was supported by the Vice President of Research and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Alicante, with grant reference GRE17-16

Effects of collaborative learning on the use of coping strategies

El objetivo de este trabajo es demostrar que el uso de técnicas de aprendizaje colaborativo en el aula permite a los alumnos utilizar estrategias mediante las cuales aprenden a afrontar situaciones problemáticas derivadas de las relaciones interpersonales que se producen en el espacio educativo, especialmente entre iguales. Participaron 50 niños y niñas de primer curso de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (edad media 12.4 años) distribuidos en dos grupos: experimental y control. En el primer grupo, se utilizó un programa basado en el aprendizaje individual asistido por un equipo; en el segundo, se utilizó una metodología de corte tradicional. Para probar las hipótesis formuladas, utilizamos un diseño de grupo de control pretest-postest con grupo de control no equivalente. Consideramos la inteligencia como covariable para mantener constantes sus efectos sobre los resultados independientemente del efecto del programa. Empleamos un análisis de varianza split-plot univariado como procedimiento estadístico. Los resultados muestran que los alumnos que siguen un programa de aprendizaje colaborativo utilizan más y mejores estrategias de afrontamiento que aquellos que no lo hacen. Los participantes de los grupos experimental y control parten de una situación de igualdad para separarse en la situación postest: el grupo experimental aumenta significativamente sus puntuaciones con respecto al grupo de control en lo que se refiere al uso de las estrategias de afrontamiento, y sus participantes tienden a compartir sus problemas con los demás en mayor medida que los miembros del grupo de control, todo ello independientemente del CI.The purpose of this work is to show that the use of collaborative learning techniques in the classroom allows students to use strategies through which they learn to cope with problematic situations derived from the interpersonal relations that take place at school, especially among peers. The participants have been 50 boys and girls, in first year of compulsory secondary education (average age, 12.4) distributed into two groups: experimental and control. In the first group Team Assisted Individualization has been used. In the second group a traditional methodology has been adopted. A pretest-posttest control group design with non-equivalent control group has been used to test the hypotheses. Intelligence has been used as covariable to keep its effect on the results constant, independently of the effects of the program. A univariate split-plot analysis has been used as statistic procedure. The results show that those students on a collaborative learning program use more and more effective coping strategies than those who are not on a collaborative program. The participants in both the experimental and the control groups set out from a situation of equality to move farther away from each other in the posttest situation: the experimental group noticeably increases scores over the control group as regards the use of coping strategies, and the participants in the experimental group tend to share their problems with their peers in a greater scale than the participants in the control group, independently of the IQ

Early Dropout Prediction Model: A Case Study of University Leveling Course Students

The school-dropout problem is a serious issue that affects both a country’s education system and its economy, given the substantial investment in education made by national governments. One strategy for counteracting the problem at an early stage is to identify students at risk of dropping out. The present study introduces a model to predict student dropout rates in the Escuela Politécnica Nacional leveling course. Data related to 2097 higher education students were analyzed; a logistic regression model and an artificial neural network model were trained using four variables, which incorporated student academic and socio-economic information. After comparing the two models, the neural network, with an experimentally defined architecture of 4–7–1 architecture and a logistic activation function, was selected as the model that should be applied to early predict dropout in the leveling course. The study findings show that students with the highest risk of dropping out are those in vulnerable situations, with low application grades, from the Costa regime, who are enrolled in the leveling course for technical degrees. This model can be used by the university authorities to identify possible dropout cases, as well as to establish policies to reduce university dropout and failure rates.This research was funded by Escuela Politécnica Nacional, grant number PIJ-17-12

Rendimiento menor al esperado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria: comparación de métodos estadísticos para su identificación en España

This study compares the statistical methods employed for detecting underachievement, specifically the simple difference method, the regression method and the Rasch method. A sample of 1182 first- and second-year secondary students from 8 high schools in the province of Alicante participated in the study. The results showed a percentage of underachieving students that varies from 14.55% to 30.37%, depending on the statistical method employed. The Rasch method identified the highest number of underachieving students. Statistically significant differences were found between gender and type of student-underachieving and non-underachieving; however, no significant differences were detected between the course and type of student. This study confirms the importance of knowing the measurement properties of the statistical methods, how they affect the detection of underachieving students, and the main educational implications.El presente estudio realiza una comparación de los métodos estadísticos más empleados en la detección del alumnado con rendimiento menor al esperado; concretamente el método de diferencias estandarizadas, el método de residuales de regresión y el método Rasch. Se empleó una muestra de 1182 alumnos de primer y segundo curso de Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria de 8 centros educativos de la provincia de Alicante. Los resultados muestran un porcentaje que oscila entre el 14.55% y el 30.37% de alumnos con rendimiento menor al esperado detectados en función del método estadístico empleado, siendo el método Rasch el que más alumnos identifica. Asimismo, se detectaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre el género y el tipo de alumnado (con rendimiento normal y con rendimiento menor al esperado), mientras que no se detectaron diferencias en función del curso y el tipo de alumnado. Este estudio confirma la importancia de conocer cómo afectan las propiedades de distintos métodos estadísticos en la detección del alumnado con rendimiento menor al esperado, así como sus principales implicaciones educativas.The present work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Award number: EDU2012-32156) and the Vice Chancelor for Research of the University of Alicante (Award number: GRE11-15). The corresponding author is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Reference of the grant: BES-2013-064331)

Diferencias individuales en la predicción del éxito ocupacional: el efecto de la heterogeneidad de la población

Using a sample of 339 university graduates from the University of Alicante (Spain) three years after completion of their studies, we studied the relationships between general intelligence (GI), personality traits, emotional intelligence (EI), academic performance, and occupational attainment and compared the results of conventional regression analysis with the results obtained from applying regression mixture models. The results reveal the influence of unobserved population heterogeneity (latent class) on the relationship between predictors and criteria and the improvement in the prediction obtained from applying regression mixture models compared to applying a conventional regression model.Mediante una muestra de 339 graduados universitarios de la Universidad de Alicante, España, tres años después de acabar los estudios, hemos estudiado la relación entre inteligencia general (IG), rasgos de personalidad, inteligencia emocional (IE), rendimiento académico y consecución de empleo, comparando los resultados del análisis de regresión tradicional con los resultados obtenidos aplicando los modelos mixtos de regresión. Los resultados muestran la influencia de una heterogeneidad poblacional no observada (clase latente) en la relación entre predictores y criterios y la mejoría en la predicción a partir de la aplicación de los modelos mixtos de regresión en comparación con la aplicación del modelo convencional de regresión.This study was part of the research project ref. PSI2009-12696,funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation