Continuous assessment activities - correlation with final exam grades and effect on final grades. A business studies experience

In this paper we analyze the partial grades – of continuous assessment activities including the final exam – and the final grades – computed as a weighted average of partial grades – for nine subjects taught in the third year of Business Administration Degree. On one hand, results show that there is a significant positive correlation between the grades of continuous assessment activities (excluded the final exam) and final exam in seven subjects. On the other hand, overall we find that students’ grades in continuous assessment activities (excluded the final exam) help in the improvement of their final grades (i.e., students’ final grades exceed the grades that they would obtain by only taking into account their final exam grades). The results are consistent when the analysis is carried out over each subject area as well as over the grades of the students who registered for the nine subjects.

Conscientiousness and laboriousness as academic achievement predictors in a Spanish students sample

To understand academic performance of students, the variable of conscientiousness from personality inventory Big Five, has been recognized as an important key. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship established between the personality factor conscientiousness itself and two of its facets, laboriousness and planning, with academic performance, and observe if there are genre differences in consciousness personality factor. A total of 456 Spanish students of high school and college participated in the study. They were requested to answer a personality report and a self inform questionnaire. The results show that both conscientiousness as a personality dimension and the consideration of laboriousness facet are able to predict academic performance, especially with regard to student’s exam marks, classroom attendance and dedication to study. The genre variable pointed out that feminine genre is more conscious than male in that personality factor. From a practical perspective, these results indicate that the establishment of a routine of continuous work is suitable for improving student grades and their adaptation to the educational environment.

What do school principals do? Leadership practices in Spain drawn from PISA and TALIS international studies

Principals play a key role in schools. Their actions affect the efficacy of schools and indirectly on the students’ academic performance. Numerous studies describe the different activities that principals perform in their daily practice, grouping them in dimensions, not existing unanimity neither around the practices carried out nor the dimensions. In Spain, the new educational law, LOMCE, emphasizes the importance of looking into what international research says regarding the field of education to support the need for change and justify the ones that are being made, and develops an extended list of competences of the principal. This study is a synthesis of a narrative research with the following analysis unit: the results of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Study) international reports, and the data provided on school leadership and their practices, from which conclusions are inferred, comparing them with the competences stated in the LOMCE. The comparative analysis of the leadership practices presented depicts a still uneven and heterogeneous scenario, not existing agreement neither for the setting of boundaries for the leadership dimensions, nor for the number of practices that constitute them. Such a scenario points towards the need for further empirical research, in order to accurately obtain a homogeneous catalogue of the actions carried out by principal, that may open the door to the development of the role of principal, and to the improvement of effectiveness and performance of schools, as it is suggested internationally, and it is an objective of the new educational law.

Una prueba de la técnica multi-espécimen para determinar paleointensidad utilizando material arqueomagnetico: resultados preliminares con arcillas quemadas Tunecinas

The multispecimen palaeointensity technique of Dekkers & Böhnel (2006) has been tested on archaeomagnetic material from five kilns from Tunisia. In a previous study all five kilns yielded good quality archaeointensities based on Thellier-type double heating experiments. Results obtained using the multispecimen technique compared well with the previously studied Thellier-type results, with a slight tendency towards lower values. Markedly lower values were observed in two kilns, results that were improved by increasing the proportion of the natural remanence remagnetised in the partial thermoremanence acquisition. One of the kilns showed a multicomponent remanence (due to partial heating) and gave relatively poor results.

Instrumentos de evaluación utilizados en la formación inicial del profesorado y su coherencia para el desarrollo de competencias profesionales en los estudiantes: visión del alumnado, egresados y profesorado

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la frecuencia con que se utilizan diferentes instrumentos y procedimientos de evaluación desde el punto de vista del profesorado, del alumnado y de los egresados en la formación inicial de maestros y profesores especialistas en Educación Física, así como el grado de coherencia –relación- percibido por cada uno de esos grupos implicados entre dichos instrumentos y procedimientos de evaluación y el desarrollo de las competencias profesionales que se pretende adquieran los estudiantes. La muestra objeto de estudio está compuesta por 199 alumnos, 67 egresados y 53 profesores de las titulaciones de Magisterio (especialidad de Educación Física) y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte de las universidades de Valladolid, Salamanca y León. Los resultados muestran una clara discrepancia entre los distintos grupos analizados, tanto en lo referido al tipo de instrumentos de evaluación utilizados, como en la valoración del grado de coherencia entre estos y el desarrollo de las competencias profesionales de los futuros maestros.

Uso del arte y de la creatividad en las terapias psicosociales. Estudio y valoración de resultados de la utilización de la fotografía con pacientes con un trastorno grave y crónico

This article will reveal the experiment and the subsequent investigation work carried out with patients having chronic and severe mental illness at the Creativity and Rehabilitation Workshop of the Mental Health Service at the Health Department no. 12 of the Hospital Francisco de Borja of Gandia, Spain. The course focuses on patient training in the use of photography and image as a means of expression and as a part of psychosocial therapies to improve patients’ quality of life in front of the society. In addition, it tries to enhance the analytic capacity of the patient not only with regards to the photography aesthetically, but also personally. There are many international scientific surveys backing up the knowledge and use of Artistic and Creative Therapy in chronic patients; however, these activities are seen as pioneering actions in Spain given the current health structure, which includes few national psychiatric centers developing them continuously and being temporally monitored. This experiment demonstrates that photography significantly improves the quality of life of chronic patients and motivates them socially to communicate themselves through art, just as it helps them using creativity as a tool for social action.