Fostering Teaching Staff's Engagement in Continuous Assessment

Among the factors that affect the convergence towards the European Higher Education Area, university teaching staff's motivation is fundamental, and consequently, it is crucial to empirically know what this motivation depends on. In this context, one of the most relevant changes in the teacher-student relationship is assessment. In fact, the transition from a static assessment -focused on only one temporal point (final exam)- to a dynamic assessment, will require changes in thought and action, both on the part of teachers and students. In this line, the objective of this paper is to analyze the determinants of teaching staff's predisposition to the continuous assessment method. Specifically, we consider the following explanatory dimensions: teaching method used (which measures their degree of involvement with the ongoing adaptation process), type of subject (core, compulsory and optional), and teacher's personal characteristics (professional status and gender). The empirical application carried out at the University of Alicante uses Logit Models with Random Coefficients to capture heterogeneity, and shows that "cooperative learning" is a clear-cut determinant of "continuous assessment" as well as "continuous assessment plus final examination". Also, a conspicuous result, which in turn becomes a thought-provoking finding, is that professional status is highly relevant as a teacher's engagement is closely related to prospects of stability. Consequently, the most relevant implications from the results revolve around the way academic institutions can propose and implement inducement for their teaching staff.

Revisión bibliométrica en Síndrome de Asperger: impacto en el ámbito de la psicología y educación

La productividad científica en Síndrome de Asperger (SA) se ha incrementado considerablemente en los últimos años desde distintos campos de la Educación y la Psicología. Incluido dentro de los Trastornos del Espectro del Autismo según el DSM-5, el SA se caracteriza por una alteración en las capacidades de relación social, comunicación y flexibilidad mental. Es objeto del presente estudio ofrecer una revisión del estado actual de la investigación en dicho ámbito e identificar las principales aportaciones científicas. La unidad de análisis se compuso por 1741 documentos extraídos de la Social Science Citation Index y revisados minuciosamente. Los resultados evidenciaron un incremento de la productividad temporal y el interés científico en las áreas de caracterización del SA, comorbilidad y tratamiento. Además, se observó una tendencia a realizar los trabajos en colaboración y un número considerable de autores clasificados como grandes productores por sus niveles de productividad superiores a los diez trabajos. La funcionalidad de esta revisión se encuentra en su valor como material de referencia para futuras líneas de investigación en tanto que abarca la identificación y análisis de los principales campos de estudio en este ámbito.

Willingness Towards Continuous Assessment

Among the factors that affect the convergence towards the European Higher Education Area, university teaching staff's motivation is fundamental, and consequently, it is crucial to empirically know what this motivation depends on. In this context, one of the most relevant changes in the teacher-student relationship is assessment. In fact, the transition from a static assessment -focused on only one temporal point (final exam)- to a dynamic assessment, will require changes in thought and action, both on the part of teachers and students. In this line, the objective of this paper is to analyze the determinants of teaching staff's predisposition to the continuous assessment method. Specifically, we consider the following explanatory dimensions: teaching method used (which measures their degree of involvement with the ongoing adaptation process), type of subject (core, compulsory and optional), and teacher's personal characteristics (professional status and gender). The empirical application carried out at the University of Alicante uses Logit Models with Random Coefficients to capture heterogeneity, and shows that "cooperative learning" is a clear-cut determinant of "continuous assessment" as well as "continuous assessment plus final examination". Also, a conspicuous result, which in turn becomes a thought-provoking finding, is that professional status is highly relevant as a teacher's engagement is closely related to prospects of stability. Consequently, the most relevant implications from the results revolve around the way academic institutions can propose and implement inducement for their teaching staff.