Reception and schooling of children in schools in Catalonia: Beyond Educational Welcome Facilities

The ways of incorporating newcoming students into schools and colleges have been at the center of debate in most OECD countries in recent years. In Spain, the set of measures developed for the reception of immigrant pupils in different Autonomous Communities has also been the subject of specific research, pointing out the similarities and contradictions between pedagogic discourses and school practices. This article takes into account these considerations and presents the reflections from the results of research on the Educational Welcome Facilities (and specifically the EBE) conducted during the school years 2008-2010. This device was created in Catalonia to attend newcomers before enrolling them in the school. It was a pilot project which took place in Vic and Reus for two consecutive years. The research of the EBE has enabled us to explain the relationship between educational assessment that schools made about this facility and reception processes that schools were implementing. The conclusions that emerge from this analysis allowed us to establish relationships between educational host practices of the seven centers analyzed with three different conceptual and educational frameworks of reception.

Pupil participation in school life: an approach from the educational community

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989) is currently the most ratified international treaty. Several authors have highlighted its potential for both a moral education and citizenship. However, paradoxically, different studies report its limited or occasional incorporation into school practices. This article explores experiences of participation in schools,the third P of the CRC, from the plurality of voices and actors of the educational community,by means of 14 discussion groups in 11 autonomous communities in Spain. Discourse analysis evidence low levels of student participation in school life. But, at the same time, a favorable educational environment for the development of projects that contribute to child participation is found, as well as for the incorporation of the CRC as a mover and a referential integrator of the different schools projects. However, it is also an educational background conductive to projects for its development, such as the incorporation of the CRC as a referential integrator of the schools projects.

University students with disabilities in Universities. A study of their inclusion

Access to higher education has increased among students with disabilities, and universities are adopting different alternatives which must be assessed. The purpose of this study was to identify the situation of a sample of students with disabilities (n=91) who attend a university in Spain, through the design and validation of the “CUNIDIS-d” scale, with satisfactory psychometric properties. The results show the importance of making reasoned curriculum adaptations, adapting teacher training, improving accessibility and involving all the university community. Different proposals were provided which support the social dimension of the EHEA.

Education in J.J. Rousseau: a methodological antecedent of competence based teaching

Taking into account the huge repercussion and influence that J.J. Rousseau has had on modern pedagogy, the recent tercentenary of his birth is a good opportunity to think about his outstanding relevance nowadays. This paper is a theoretical and educative research developed with an analytic and comparative hermeneutical method. The main objective is to show how some concepts of his philosophy of education have a great similarity with certain changes that the present competency based teaching is demanding, so it could be considered its methodological background. In order to achieve this objective this exposure has been divided in three parts. The first part is an analysis of Rousseau's educational theory as developed in the first three books of the Emilio, in which one of the main themes is self experience-based learning, fostering self-sufficiency, curiosity and the motivation for learning. Rousseau proposed as a method the negative education, which requires, among other conditions, a constant monitoring of the learner by the tutor. In the second part, a brief summary of the most relevant changes and characteristics of competency-based teaching is developed, as well as its purpose. The student’s participation and activity are highlighted within their own learning process through the carrying out of tasks. The new educational model involves a radical change in the curriculum, in which it is highlighted the transformation of the methodology used in the classroom as well as the role of the teacher. Finally, the aim of the third part is to offer a comparative synthesis of both proposals grouping the parallelisms found in 4 topics: origin of the two models, its aims, methodology, and change in the teaching roles.

Adaptation of a questionnaire to assess the epistemological beliefs of mathematics in secondary school teachers

The objective of the study is to determine the psychometric properties of the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire on Mathematics. 171 Secondary School Mathematics Teachers of the Central Region of Cuba participated. The results show acceptable internal consistency. The factorial structure of the scale revealed three major factors, consistent with the Model of the Three Constructs: beliefs about knowledge, about learning and teaching. Irregular levels in the development of the epistemological belief system about mathematics of these teachers were shown, with a tendency among naivety and sophistication poles. In conclusion, the questionnaire is useful for evaluating teacher’s beliefs about mathematics.

Blogs as virtual environments for teaching and learning in Higher Education

The transformation of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into knowledge and learning technologies is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. Teaching settings associated with the use of blogs in Higher Education are presented in this paper, proceeding from an innovative learning experience of projects carried out by a group of professors between 2009 and 2013. Both, teachers and students who took part in the subjects that implemented the blog, considered it as helpful resource to create a virtual and learning-teaching environment due to the multiple potentialities it offers. Among some of these potentialities, some stand out: it makes easier the access to knowledge, promotes a more active and reflective learning, expands the social experience of learning, provides evidence about the students’ progress which helps to reorient the teaching-learning process, and encourages the critical judgment. Nevertheless, several problems related with the students’ participation and the teacher’s blog management have been identified.

The circle in the relationship between space and body. Photo-essay based on Isidro Blasco and the BAPNE method

This article demonstrates a visual study on the educational space in which the teaching of body percussion is carried out in universities. The methodological framework is chosen by the Visual Arts Based Educational Research, using the work of an artist as a conceptual and methodological model. The research remains notable (1) due to the theoretical reference to the BAPNE method, (2) due to the visual reference to the work of Isidro Blasco – especially with the piece “Shanghai Planet 2009” - ;(3) due to the parallelisms established between the object of study in this investigation -the spatial analysis- and the focuses of interest revealed by the art critics in relation to the work of this artist. By means of a visual speech formed with 7 photo-collages the relationship between body and educational space is visualized in the basic disposition of circular learning. The visual constructions by way of photo-collage and their aesthetic charge brings us closer to the intimacy of the educational space, in the style in which it is distributed to the students in the music classroom, the materialization of interpersonal relationships, the occupied and empty volumes.

Patrimonio e Identidad en la Investigación Educativa Basada en las Artes desde un Enfoque Multimodal

Este artículo describe dos experiencias de investigación de nuestro grupo interconectadas, la primera desarrollada durante el año 2007 a través del proyecto internacional CALVINO del Programa Cultura 2000 de la Unión Europea, y la segunda implementada durante el año 2014 en el marco del Proyecto Investigación e Innovación en Secundaria en Andalucía (PIIISA). Ambos proyectos tienen en común el eje temático de la identidad a partir de una idea de patrimonio y el hecho de haber puesto en práctica metodologías de investigación basadas en las artes visuales con un enfoque multimodal. Desde estos dos puntos de anclaje relativos a la temática (qué) y a la metodología (cómo) analizamos lo acontecido para obtener conclusiones relevantes que, por una parte, pongan en valor estas prácticas significativas y, por otra, aporten nuestra experiencia para futuras propuestas de investigación en el ámbito temático y/o metodológico.