Corrección de errores en comprensión lectora en inglés: una instrucción teóricamente fundamentada basada en estrategias macroestructurales

Se presenta y valida un diseño instruccional basado en el modelo de comprensión de textos de Kintsch y Van Dijk que mejora sustancialmente la comprensión lectora en inglés y corrige muchos de los errores que los estudiantes universitarios cometen en tareas como la elaboración de resúmenes. Un grupo piloto sirvió para desarrollar las estrategias didácticas, diseñar los materiales y definir las categorías de análisis. Otro grupo de estudiantes se constituyó en el grupo de tratamiento. Tras la instrucción, los estudiantes mejoraron su comprensión lectora en inglés, corrigieron casi todos los errores de comprensión y se percibió un cambio de nivel de procesamiento

Control de la comprensión micro y macro-estructural durante la lectura de textos científicos en lengua extranjera: ¿algo más que dominio del idioma?

Se presenta un estudio con estudiantes universitarios españoles con dominios básico, intermedio y avanzado de inglés como lengua extranjera. El objetivo fue estudiar la efectividad en el Control de la Comprensión (CC) en inglés, comparado con el que se tiene en español, y explicar los resultados a partir del modelo de comprensión de textos desarrollado por Kintsch y otros colegas. Nuestro foco de atención fue la representación semántica, diferenciando el CC a nivel micro y macroestructural. Se midió el CC al leer textos asumiendo el Error Detection Paradigm : se insertaron inconsistencias micro y macroestructurales en los textos y se pidió a los estudiantes juzgar su comprensibilidad usando un código para distinguir entre"palabras desconocidas","ideas de significado absurdo" e"ideas incoherentes o incompatibles con otras del texto". Se utilizaron textos de ciencias, tres en inglés y otros tres en español para aumentar la fiabilidad. Las predicciones fueron: a) en inglés, los sujetos mostrarán un control menos eficaz que en español; b) los sujetos con dominio básico en este idioma mostrarán un control microestructural más eficaz que el macroestructural y; c) cuando el dominio del inglés aumente, las diferencias en el CC entre inglés y español tenderán a desaparecer. Los resultados apoyaron parcialmente las predicciones: el control macroestructural en sujetos con dominio avanzado del inglés no fue tan eficaz como se esperaba. Además, en español la eficacia en el control macroestructural fue mayor que en el control microestructural. Los resultados fueron explicados en términos del modelo cognitivo asumido

Atmospheric circulation influence on the interannual variability of snow pack in the Spanish Pyrenees during the second half of the 20th century

12 páginas, 5 figuras, 6 tablas.Large areas in the Spanish Pyrenees are covered by snow between December and April, especially above 1650 m a.s.l., the location of the cold season 0°C isotherm. However, a significant negative trend in Pyrenean snow pack was detected during the second half of the 20th century. This paper analyses the interannual evolution of snow accumulation in these mountains in relation to the variability of atmospheric circulation. The study considers two spatial scales, from weather types over the Iberian Peninsula to hemispheric atmospheric patterns. The results show strong relationships between the annual occurrence of several weather types and spring snow accumulation. Changes in the frequency of several weather types are explained by the evolution of large scale hemispheric circulation patterns, especially the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Thus, the positive trend observed in the NAO index leads to a decrease in the occurrence of types that favour snow accumulation and an increase in unfavourable conditions for snow pack during the second half of the 20th century.This study was supported by the following research projects: PIRIHEROS, REN 2003- 08678/HID, CGL2005-04508/BOS and CANOA, CGL 2004-04919-c02-01, all funded by the CICYT, Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. The research of the authors was supported by postdoctoral fellowships from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, Spain.Peer reviewe

A firm-industry analysis of services versus manufacturing

[Abstract]: In the literature on the firm-industry debate to explain organizational performance the firm effect has been more supported than the industry effect by empirical studies, mainly focused on manufacturing firms and long time periods. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the service sector. In this paper we study separately manufacturing and services in a broad sample of Spanish companies. We observe that in manufacturing the firm effect outweighs the industry effect while in services the opposite is the case in a ten-year period. However, when we split the time horizon into two five-year sub-periods, this behavior only remains in the second one, of moderate economic growth. In the first one, of strong economic growth, the firm effect prevails for both manufacturing and services. These findings underline the importance of the industry effect for services, suggesting that such effect may have been underestimated in the literature, as well as that of the level of economic growth specially for the decision-making of practitioners

Struggles and pacification in the history of american kinesiology

En este artículo estudiamos la disputa epistemológica y pedagógica sobre la kinesiología/educación física que ha tenido lugar en las universidades de Estados Unidos desde 1990 hasta la actualidad. Hemos recogido el pensamiento de una muestra amplia de autores involucrados, con el propósito de obtener una visión de conjunto de un proceso que, de acuerdo con Morrow (2006), trata de esclarecer ¿de dónde venimos?, ¿qué somos?, ¿a dónde vamos? Tras el cotejo y análisis de la documentación más relevante concluimos que el periodo 1990-2013, caracterizado por una enconada pugna de paradigmas –en la que han estado implicados humanistas, positivistas, crosdisciplinaristas y subdisciplinaristas–, ha dado como resultado el dominio del paradigma integrador de Kretchmar (2007, 2008)In this article we review the epistemological and pedagogical debate on Kinesiology and Physical Education that has been going on in the universities of the US from 1990 to the present. We have compiled the opinions of a wide sample of authors, with the intention of getting the most complete picture of a process that, according to Morrow (2006), seeks to answer the questions "where we come from, who we are, and where we are going". After comparing and analysing the most relevant documents, we conclude that the period 1990-2013, characterized by a bitter struggle between paradigms fought by humanists, positivists, cross-disciplinarists, and sub-disciplinarists, has revealed the eventual predominance of the integrative paradigm of Kretchmar (2007, 2008

Culture of paso de la amada, creator of ‘mesoamerican ballgame’

Se realiza una revisión sobre el origen del juego de pelota mesoamericano en el preclásico temprano (ca.1.700-1.000 a.C.). Por la antigüedad propuesta para sus vestigios sobre el juego de pelota, son candidatos a ser los ‘creadores del juego’ las culturas de Paso de la Amada, los pre-olmecas de San Lorenzo y El Opeño. Los vestigios referidos son fundamentalmente, la cancha de Paso de la Amada, las pelotas de hule de Manatí y las figurillas de El Opeño. Se concluye que la gran cancha de Paso de la Amada, la mayor construcción de Mesoamérica de su tiempo, aparece como el vestigio más antiguo del juego, y se le relaciona con la aparición de la primera sociedad no igualitaria en Mesoamérica. Se sugiere que los pobladores de Paso de la Amada, hacia 1650 a.C., fueron los creadores del juego y no los olmecas como generalmente se ha defendidoWe study here the origin of the Mesoamerican ballgame during the early formative period (ca. 1700 B.C.). We select as candidates for the creators of the Mesoamerican ballgame the cultures of Paso de la Amada, pre-Olmec at San Lorenzo, and El Opeño, as they have the oldest vestiges of the ballgame. These vestiges are, to be exact, a ball court at Paso de la Amada, some rubber balls at Manati, and ceramic figurines at El Opeño. We conclude that the great ball court at Paso de la Amada, the biggest building of Mesoamerica at that time, appears as the oldest vestige of the game and it is in relation with the emergence of ranked societies in Mesoamerica. We suggest that the people of Paso de la Amada, around 1650 BC, were the creators of the game, and not the Olmecs, as generally defende

Effects of summarization tasks on comprehension monitoring of science texts in university students with elementary or intermediate English proficiency

Two studies were conducted to improve Spanish university students" comprehension monitoring of macro-ideas when reading expository Science texts in English (L2). The first one evaluated the effects of using summarization tasks on comprehension monitoring compared to other reading-for-understanding tasks. A significant improvement of comprehension monitoring was obtained from the summarization tasks. Results in study 1 suggested study 2 aimed at instructing students on summarizing texts in L2. The instructional work had a single significant contribution to students" comprehension monitoring on the macro-structural level. English proficiency also explained a significant proportion of the variances

The teaching of ethics in occupational risks prevention through the debate on ethical dilemmas

[EN] It seems reasonable to think that ethics and occupational risk prevention always go hand in hand. However, very little is known about the International Code of Ethics for Occupational Health Professionals, whose third edition was published in 2014 by the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH). Moreover, some circumstances in occupational risk prevention can lead to controversial issues and ethical dilemmas. Despite this, most occupational risk prevention master¿s studies do not include ethics in professional practice matters. This paper presents the teaching experiences in professional practice ethics workshops in the Master¿s Degree in Occupational Risks Prevention of the Universitat Politècnica de València. In these workshops, ethical issues are included in their curricula, and ethical dilemmas are discussed through academic debates. The results of the experience were positive and encouraging. The students learn to open their minds to a different point of view and understand the problems they will have to face in their professional careers.Pellicer, TM.; López-Mateu, V.; Gimenez-Carbo, E. (2022). The teaching of ethics in occupational risks prevention through the debate on ethical dilemmas. IATED. 10039-10045. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2022.2426100391004

Tri-axial accelerometry shows differences in energy expenditure and parental effort throughout the breeding season in long-lived raptors

Cutting-edge technologies are extremely useful to develop new workflows in studying ecological data, particularly to understand animal behavior and movement trajectories at the individual level. Although parental care is a well-studied phenomenon, most studies have been focused on direct observational or video recording data, as well as experimental manipulation. Therefore, what happens out of our sight still remains unknown. Using high-frequency GPS/GSM dataloggers and tri-axial accelerometers we monitored 25 Bonelli’s eagles Aquila fasciata during the breeding season to understand parental activities from a broader perspective. We used recursive data, measured as number of visits and residence time, to reveal nest attendance patterns of biparental care with role specialization between sexes. Accelerometry data interpreted as the overall dynamic body acceleration, a proxy of energy expenditure, showed strong differences in parental effort throughout the breeding season and between sexes. Thereby, males increased substantially their energetic requirements, due to the increased workload, while females spent most of the time on the nest. Furthermore, during critical phases of the breeding season, a low percentage of suitable hunting spots in eagles’ territories led them to increase their ranging behavior in order to find food, with important consequences in energy consumption and mortality risk. Our results highlight the crucial role of males in raptor species exhibiting biparental care. Finally, we exemplify how biologging technologies are an adequate and objective method to study parental care in raptors as well as to get deeper insight into breeding ecology of birds in general.This work was supported by Red Eléctrica de España, Iberdrola Foundation, and Wildlife Service of the Valencian Community Regional Government (Conselleria d’Agricultura, Desenvolupament Rural, Emergència Climàtica i Transició Ecològica, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain). A.M.P. and J.M.E. were supported by predoctoral grants of the University of Valencia [Grant Number 0113/2019] and the Basque Government [Grant Number PRE_2018_2_0112], respectively

Sustainable rural development through vocational education: Sot River landscape restoration workshop

[EN] Most of the small towns in the inner area of Spain have problems with the loss of population, low economic development, and unemployment. This is a widespread phenomenon in many areas, such as the Valencia region, where significant differences exist between the periphery coastal zone and the interior. Some of these towns have natural resources like highlands, rivers, and vegetation as significant tourist attractions. Vocational education programs are oriented to increase the employment of the residents while keeping the characteristics of its population and its territory in the different municipalities. Sot de Chera, located in the region of the Serranía (70 km from Valencia), is one of these municipalities. This paper presents the educational experience using one of these programs and workshops for the recovery of an area of outstanding landscape and environmental value. During the last decade, some efforts have been made to combine these natural resources with other activities to increase the area¿s population and economic activity. The case presented uses a combination of teaching methodologies and practical training connected with the daily life and activities of the people in the town. It has also involved all the inhabitants, including their different opinions and participation. The results obtained during the training and occupational project demonstrate the great potential of these interventions. These types of activities and programs have become a substantial improvement for the sustainable development of these areas.This project was carried out thanks to the funding received from the Servicio Valenciano de Empleo y Formación (SERVEF), with the project Taller de Empleo restauración paisajística del Rio Sot 2014 (ETCOTE file FOTAE 2014/47/46), with the collaboration of the Sot de Chera Town hall. The authors thank the staff of SERVEF and the Sot de Chera town hall for providing the support and resources needed to carry out the activities.López-Mateu, V.; Pellicer, TM.; Blanch Vanacloig, J. (2022). Sustainable rural development through vocational education: Sot River landscape restoration workshop. IATED. 9951-9959. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2022.24009951995