Vol. 3 No. 1 (2016)

Different studies show the need to study the affective domain (beliefs, attitudes and emotions) in the teaching / learning of science, as it has been justified to the development of positive attitudes, through the promotion of positive emotions and feelings facilitate a change in expectations and beliefs about the subject, avoiding the removal of students to the scientific field. With this research we intend to find out what emotions the future teacher remember experiencing as science students and what emotions they predict experience in teaching of science content in their teaching practices, in order to find a relationship between memory and prediction of their emotions in science. The sample consists of 83 students of the Master's Degree in Teacher Training in Secondary Education of the University of Extremadura, enrolled in three specialties offered by the branch of science: Biology/Geology, Physics/Chemistry and Mathematics. The results indicate that the emotions they experience as science students of Secondary Education (Biology, Geology, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) are mainly positive, like emotions predict in their teaching practices. In addition, no significant differences when comparing the emotions experienced in the science subjects between memory and prediction. This last fact leads us to affirm that teaching of science content cause them the same emotions that they experienced as students of science, that is, your emotions as students have been transferred to his work as teacher.

 

The goal of this work is to analyze the efficacy of an intervention program in the process of writing planning of narrations (stories) and descriptions of first-grade primary students. Participants were 40 children from a public school, of whom 20 received instruction in the program (experimental group), whereas the remaining 20 did not receive any additional instruction (control group). The mean age of the experimental group was 6.7 years, and of control group, 6.4 years. All of them attended a public school in a Spanish city. The program was carried out in fifteen 45-minute sessions, three times a week. The children were assessed before and after the implementation of the program using an adaptation of the criteria of Tindal and Hasbrouck (1991). The results show significant improvement in the writing planning processes of the experimental group, especially in the generation of ideas and in their organization. These results have direct implications for education, as they pose strategies to intervene in the writing planning process in the classroom.

 

The study was mainly at analysing which the different psychopathological features as well as the behavioural and emotional problems were in a sample of "highly disruptive" students who are considered by the school authorities from Principado de Asturias, Spain, as the group with more difficulties for ordinary educational intervention. To do this, a representative sample of 43 students with these characteristics, 41 male, with an average age of 13.35 years (SD = 1.06) was selected, and compared their profile with a normal control group of students. The results showed that the disruptive students had higher average scores in most of the scales of the “Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent” than in the Control Group. Moreover, disruptive students showed higher average scores on general syndromes of the “Youth self report” in comparison to the aforementioned Control Group. These results allow identifying and describing a psychopathological profile characteristic of this type of educative group, in order to establish and improve strategies and intervention programs. Future lines should conduct follow up longitudinal studies and analyze other risk markers, such as endophenotypes.

 

In recent decades there has been a series of social changes that influence the ways in which the transition to adulthood is made, and the importance that is given to criteria to be considered an adult. This study explores the criteria associated with adulthood representation, with a sample of emerging adults enrolled in higher education. The qualitative study was performed using the technique of focus groups. The results highlight the importance of two criteria: a psychological criterion (psychological maturity) and an instrumental criterion (financial independence) as the markers that appear associated with the representation of adult status. Other criteria, such as family responsibilities, normative transitions, adherence to standards, biological parameters, legal and social events such as marriage, for example, are, in general, of little relevance in the definition of adulthood. The results are discussed and analyzed in the context of emerging adulthood in higher education students.

This article describes the validation of a scale to evaluate the online social support perceived by users of Spanish web resources for parents. It answers the need for a specific instrument that captures the complexity of this new construct. To validate the Online Parental Support Scale, 301 Spanish and Latin American fathers and mothers participated, who were enrolled in the online program 'Positive Parent' ( http://educarenpositivo.es ), their responses to the scale being automatically recorded in a data base at the beginning of their participation. The factor structure was obtained by Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) with oblimin rotation, and the estimation method using the Weighted Least Squares with moving measurement window (WLSMW) for confirmatory purposes. The main results showed an optimal factorization of the construct involving a five-factor model with adequate reliability, dealing with participation in programs or resources to obtain online parental support, exchange tips with other parents and experts in education, perceived parental self-efficacy, positive parenting skills and emotional support. The results suggested that the scale adequately captures the hypothesized dimensions for the construct of online social support to promote positive parenting and shows adequate psychometric properties that make it suitable for use in the field of web resources for parents.

 

The selection and training of future police officer candidates are two fundamental processes in achieving an effective police force. From a psychological point of view, police officer training should improve candidates' mental health, so that they can perform their police work more appropriately, benefiting not only themselves but society as a whole. This article attempts to determine whether the training given to candidates selected for training prior to being selected as officers improves their mental health. There is no precedent for research in this regard, since work in Psychology has focused on verifying that subjects do not have psychological pathologies rather than examining the effect of the training they are given. This study looks at a sample of 713 persons selected for a pre-police training program designed to allow them to subsequently join the Peruvian police force. The Derogatis SCL-90 test was used as a personality measure. The test was administered before they received training and after they had completed it (only data from subjects who passed the police entrance exam were considered). The results indicate that the training process produced no changes in personality variables that imply major psychological pathologies, but such changes did occur in variables associated with lower degree psychological pathologies. We can therefore say that there was a decline in mental health among future police officers, or an increase in their psychological pathologies. We will discuss these results and identify the limitations of the study with an eye toward further research. It is recommended that training systems be created that improve the mental health of future police officers.

 

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present difficulties in developing social behaviours, in communicating gestural or verbally, and they may present some repetitive motor activities. The objective of this study was to improve social competences and to enable the transfer of acquired skills of five children with ASD and intellectual disabilities using a low-cost Lego robot as a mediator. The proposed methodology was divided in five phases: Familiarization, Pre-test, Practice, Post-Test and Transfer of Skills. The study ran in two sequential periods at different places. Each of these periods tackled different individual research questions and goals (taking into account the target group). During each period, the proposed methodology had to be adjusted according to the current context. Therefore, different experimental scenarios and corresponding specific goals had to be delineated. Results show that joint attention of the children increased over the sessions; and interaction with the researcher was verified. Furthermore, results show that there was an effective transfer of skills in the addressed case studies. This reinforces conclusions that robots seem, in fact, powerful tools that should be explored concerning this target population. But a more detailed study is required. The proposed methodology can be used by professionals and parents as a complement to common interventions.

The aim of this study was to analyze the quality of life of primary caregivers of people with ASD. 50 caregivers of people with ASD aged between 2 and 35 years participated in this study. Besides the quality of life, coping strategies and parental stress were also evaluated. The results showed that (1) parental stress, coping strategies and quality of life were not significantly associated with the developmental stage of the person with ASD; (2) the quality of life in the psychological, social and environmental domains is worse in caregivers with levels of parental stress clinically significant; and (3) the quality of life in the psychological domain is better among those using more adaptive coping strategies, such as social support or positive reappraisal. On the contrary, the use of coping strategies such as aggressive reaction, avoidance or emotional difficulties are associated with a poorer quality of life in the psychological, social and environmental domains
Keywords: quality of life, parental stress, coping, ASD.

 

Review of the book: Santos Rego, M.A. (Ed.) (2015). El poder de la familia en la educación. Madrid: Síntesis. 260 pp. ISBN: 9788490771754. Depósito legal: M. 28.041-2015.

The book The power of the family in education by Miguel A. Santos Rego (Ed.) is an important contribution to the study of the family and its influence on education. It is a meeting point of multiple reflections that analyses and debates a series of collaborations multidisciplinary developed by academics, researchers and experts in various areas of science education, in order to define and organize these discourses, contrasting with the realities and current educational practices and propose guidelines to achieve as closely as possible to family education needs and demands of today's society.

 

Review of: Santos Rego, M. A. (Ed.) (2016). A investigación educativa en Galicia 2002-2014. Vigo: Galaxia. 518 pp. ISBN: 978-84-9865-697-8. Depósito legal: VG 253-2016.

This is a work that gathers the main contributions to educational research in Galicia between 2002 and 2014. They listed the main point made research, doctoral theses, books, chapters of books/monographs, articles published in relation to the main areas and core themes related to education as psychology and education, learning disabilities, developmental disorders, educational technology, teacher training, theoretical, philosophical and sociological foundations of education; teaching, school organization and educational innovation... This is a work/book aimed at anyone interested in educational issues in different areas and with the aim of adapting education to social needs Galicia today.