Juntos más lejos: una experiencia de aula cooperativa en grupos de investigación

This study aimed at investigating situated learning and adolescents’ acquisition of social and cognitive skills in Bamenda in the North West Region of Cameroon. In this regard the researchers sought to provide answers to two important research questions namely: 1) How does modeling influence the acquisition of Social and Cognitive Skills in Tailoring Workshops in Bamenda?; 2) How does coaching influence the acquisition of Social and Cognitive Skills in Tailoring Workshops in Bamenda? The study anchored on three theories which are: Lave and Wenger’s (1991) situated Learning theory, Brown, Allan Collins and Paul Duguid’s (1989) Situated learning cognition and Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural perspective of learning. A concurrent nested mixed method design with the help of questionnaire and interviews was used for data collection from some 20 adolescent apprentices learning their trade at tailoring workshops in Bamenda. Findings of the study revealed that modeling influences adolescents’ acquisition of social and cognitive skills. It was also revealed that coaching had a significant influence on the acquisition of social and cognitive skills among adolescent apprentices. A number of recommendations were made to masters/expert tailors, apprentices and the government. As far as master/expert tailors are concerned, they should understand that learning within such an informal context does not always require direct instruction but that it is usually accidental. In this regard, the onus is on them to ensure that they demonstrate clearly the tasks they would eventually expect the novice apprentices to perform so that they can keenly pay attention, observe and eventually perform to the best of their abilities.

Social skills are of vital importance in successful living.Acquisition and performance of social skills in education may rely on several factors.The main aim of this study was to identify the possible influence of age and gender on Greek Cypriot students' social skills ('acquaintance', 'responsibility', 'reward', 'help', 'goals') and total social skills score, in physical education.A secondary aim was to examine whether ethnicity differentiates students' perceptions of their social skills.Four hundred and fifty one students (N = 451) from eight randomly selected schools in Nicosia participated.Four hundred and thirty one of them (n=431) were Greek Cypriot students, from upper elementary (n = 202, M age = 11.24,SD age = 0.41) and high school (n = 229, M age = 13.1,SD age = 0.45) while the remaining twenty (n=20) were their foreign classmates.Students completed the Student's Behaviours' Self-Evaluation Scale (Vernadakis, Kellis, Albanidis, Derri, & Kourtesses, 2010).With regard to the first purpose of the study, Manova 2 (age group) X 2 (gender) revealed significant differences between high school Greek Cypriot boys and girls in 'acquaintance', 'reward', 'goals', and in total social skills score as well, in favor of girls.Also, older boys exhibited significantly lower perceptions of 'reward' and 'goals', and lower total social skills score than younger boys, while older girls outperformed the younger in 'acquaintance'.On average, female students displayed higher scores on 'help' and 'responsibility' than their male peers.The comparison between foreign and Greek Cypriot students (a similar group, randomly selected of the corresponding sample), showed that the former outperformed the latter only in 'acquaintance'.The results suggest that students' perceptions vary according to age, gender, and ethnicity.Understanding the effect of these factors is considered imperative to designing and implementing the physical education lesson to address social skills enhancement and facilitate student development.

The purpose of this study was to further determine the classroom learning preferences of elementary school students. A measure of cooperative, competitive and individualistic learning preferences (The Social Interdependence Scales, Johnson, & Norem-Hebeisen, 1979), was administered to 138 5th and 6th graders (66 African American and 72 White) attending a school in a low-income community. Results indicated that overall, participants preferred cooperative learning to competitive and individualistic learning. However, African American students reported significantly higher preferences for cooperative learning than did their White counterparts, while the reverse was true for individualistic and competitive learning. Implications and relevance for classroom practices are discussed. It is also argued that future research should include repeated testing of learning preferences and expansion of the work across a wide age range.

Age-related changes in creative thinking during late childhood: The contribution of cooperative learning

Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for maturation of neurobiological processes that underlie complex social and emotional behavior including Theory of Mind (ToM). While structural correlates of ToM are well described in adults, less is known about the anatomical regions subsuming these skills in the developing brain or the impact of cerebral insult on the acquisition and establishment of high-level social cognitive skills. This study aimed to examine the differential influence of age-at-insult and brain pathology on ToM in a sample of children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Children and adolescents with TBI (n = 112) were categorized according to timing of brain insult: (i) middle childhood (5-9 years; n = 41); (ii) late childhood (10-11 years; n = 39); and (iii) adolescence (12-15 years; n = 32) and group-matched for age, gender, and socioeconomic status to a typically developing (TD) control group (n = 43). Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging including a susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) sequence 2-8 weeks postinjury and were assessed on a battery of ToM tasks at 6- and 24-months after injury. Results showed that for adolescents with TBI, social cognitive dysfunction at 6- and 24-months postinjury was associated with diffuse neuropathology and a greater number of lesions detected using SWI. In the late childhood TBI group, we found a time-dependent emergence of social cognitive impairment, linked to diffuse neuropathology. The middle childhood TBI group demonstrated performance unrelated to SWI pathology and comparable to TD controls. Findings indicate that the full extent of social cognitive deficits may not be realized until the associated skills reach maturity. Evidence for brain structure-function relationships suggests that the integrity of an anatomically distributed network of brain regions and their connections is necessary for the acquisition and establishment of high-level social cognitive skills.

IntroductionThe increasing enrolment of Chinese students in UK higher education (HE) has brought various challenges, particularly the difficulties they encounter in adapting to the Western classroom environment. While previous studies often considered Chinese students' learning preferences as culturally determined, such portrayals risk oversimplification and neglect the individual variations in educational and cultural experiences. Recognizing the necessity of understanding the learning preferences of both Chinese and UK students, this study seeks to move beyond simplistic cultural characterizations. Specifically, this study examines the influences of Chinese and UK university students' past learning experiences, individualist-collectivist (I-C) cultural identity, and individual characters of social value orientation (SVO) on their preferences for cooperative, competitive and individualistic learning approaches.MethodsA total of 562 undergraduates completed an online questionnaire assessing these constructs.ResultsStructural equation modeling showed that cooperative learning experiences were positively associated with cooperative learning preferences, and negatively with individualistic learning preferences. Competitive learning experiences were positively related to competitive learning preferences. SVO was positively related to I-C cultural identity and cooperative learning preferences. I-C cultural identity was found to mediate the paths between SVO and competitive and individualistic learning preferences. Furthermore, the multigroup analysis revealed that these relationships were different in the UK and Chinese undergraduates.DiscussionCurrent findings highlight the complex interplay of educational and cultural factors and individual characters in shaping learning preferences. The study provides valuable insights for creating inclusive and culturally responsive learning environments in HE.

BackgroundEmpirical evidence suggests that students studying cooperatively exhibit significantly better academic achievement. However, since most prior studies do not carefully monitor the time on task, it is unclear whether the observed learning benefits are due to the intrinsic superiority of cooperative learning or merely a reflection of the increased amount of time students spend on studying.Purpose (Hypothesis)This study compares the learning effectiveness of cooperative and individualistic learning. The proposed approach carefully monitors the learning method and the time on task both in regular day‐time teaching classes and out‐of‐class studies.Design/MethodA series of experiments was performed in which 42 mechanical engineering students were randomly assigned to individualistic or cooperative learning conditions, respectively, and were then formed into heterogeneous groups comprising three team members. The experiments were conducted over an 18‐week semester. In conducting the experiments, the students attended both regular classes and out‐of‐hours homework sessions.ResultsThe experimental results showed that given a sufficient period of time for the cooperative learning teams to mature, the students in the cooperative learning condition performed substantially better in both the homework and unit tests than those in the individualistic learning condition.ConclusionsSince the time on task was carefully monitored, the higher academic performance of the students in the cooperative learning condition suggests that cooperative learning is more effective than individualistic learning.

This volume examines the role that culture plays in the acquisition of cognitive, linguistic, and social skills. Taking reflective thinking as a central analytical concept, the contributors investigate the role of personal reflection in a series of mental activities, including the creation of social relationships, the creation of a mental narrative to make sense of events, and metacognition. These three types of cognition are usually conceived of as separate research fields. Reflective Thinking in Educational Settings draws these discrete subfields into dialogue, exploring the connections and interplay among them. This approach yields insight into a range of topics, including language acquisition, cognitive processes, theory of mind, cross-cultural interaction, and social development. The volume also outlines the implications of these findings in terms of further research and possible social policy initiatives.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the mental disorders that affect the acquisition of linguistic, communication, cognitive, and social skills and abilities. Regardless of being determined to have ASD, a few people display extraordinary educational, non-scholastic, and aesthetic capacities, in such cases representing a moving assignment for researchers to give answers. In the most recent couple of years, ASD has been examined by social and computational insight researchers using trend-s etting innovations, for example, AI to improve analytic planning, exactness, and quality. AI procedures, for example, uphold vector machines, choice trees, strategic relapses, and others, these types of strategies have been applied to various and particular datasets identified with a chemical imbalance to develop prescient models. These models guarantee to improve the capacity of clinicians to give strong determinations and visualizations of ASD. Nonetheless, examines concerning the utilization of AI in ASD determination and treatment experiences theoretical, execution, and information issues, for example, how symptomatic codes are utilized, the sort of highlight choice utilized, the assessment estimates picked, and class irregular characteristics in information among others. A more genuine case in ongoing examinations is their advancement of another strategy for ASD analyses dependent on AI. This undertaking of our own fundamentally examinations these ongoing analytical investigations on chemical imbalance, articulating the issues in these examinations as well as suggesting ways forward that improve AI use in ASD concerning conceptualization, execution, and information. Future investigations concerning AI in mental imbalance research are incredibly profited by such a proposition.

ABSTRACTAutistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a mental disorder that retards acquisition of linguistic, communication, cognitive, and social skills and abilities. Despite being diagnosed with ASD, some individuals exhibit outstanding scholastic, non-academic, and artistic capabilities, in such cases posing a challenging task for scientists to provide answers. In the last few years, ASD has been investigated by social and computational intelligence scientists utilizing advanced technologies such as machine learning to improve diagnostic timing, precision, and quality. Machine learning is a multidisciplinary research topic that employs intelligent techniques to discover useful concealed patterns, which are utilized in prediction to improve decision making. Machine learning techniques such as support vector machines, decision trees, logistic regressions, and others, have been applied to datasets related to autism in order to construct predictive models. These models claim to enhance the ability of clinicians to provide robust diagnoses and prognoses of ASD. However, studies concerning the use of machine learning in ASD diagnosis and treatment suffer from conceptual, implementation, and data issues such as the way diagnostic codes are used, the type of feature selection employed, the evaluation measures chosen, and class imbalances in data among others. A more serious claim in recent studies is the development of a new method for ASD diagnoses based on machine learning. This article critically analyses these recent investigative studies on autism, not only articulating the aforementioned issues in these studies but also recommending paths forward that enhance machine learning use in ASD with respect to conceptualization, implementation, and data. Future studies concerning machine learning in autism research are greatly benefitted by such proposals.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an advanced and complex developmental disability. Furthermore, it is described as a disorder that occurs during the early developmental stages, characterized by limited, repetitive behavioral patterns and interests or activities, problems in various forms of social communication and interaction that persist throughout life. The problems that children with ASD experience in social communication and interaction skills also lead to problems in acquisition of social skills. Children with ASD experience mutual social communication difficulties, as well problems in non-verbal social behavior and establishing social relationships. Social stories are written with a perspective of a child in a special format to explain social situations to children with ASD, to instruct social skills and allow them to cope with difficulties in social situations. In the present study, the effectiveness of social story tablet computer software on the acquisition of social skills by children with ASD was analyzed. Two male and 1 female 5-7 years old students who were diagnosed with ASD were included in the study. The social stories developed by the authors before the instruction were adapted to tablet computer environment. The teachers employed in the institution and were the instructors of the students in the study group were informed about the presentation of these stories to the children with ASD and the application. The “sharing” behavior was selected among the social stories that were developed based on the course requirements. In the first two study sessions, the authors provided feedback for the teachers who conducted the study. The study was conducted with a single-subject design with multiple probe model with probe conditions across participants design. The study findings demonstrated that social story tablet computer program was effective on the acquisition of social skills by children with ASD. An increase in the sharing behavior of all three participants was observed. Furthermore, three participating teachers expressed positive views on the social story tablet computer software.

Summary During the past two decades, a convincing body of evidence has indicated that unless children achieve minimal social competence by about the age of 6, they have a high probability of being at risk social behavior problems later in their life. Recent research suggests that a child`s long-term social and emotional adaptation, academic and cognitive development, and citizenship are enhanced by opportunities to strengthen social competence during early childhood. Social competence refers to child's adaptation to social environment. Social competence is related to school achievement, social skills and peer relations. Developing social competences is a result of the interactions between child and environment. As a term, social skill is often used with reference to social competence, although social skill and social competence have different meanings. Social competence refers to the social, emotional, and cognitive skills and behaviors that children need for successful social adaptation. Social skills is a term used to describe the child`s knowledge of and ability to use a variety of social behaviors that are appropriate to a given interpersonal situation and that are pleasing to others in each situation. Acquisition deficits refer to absence of particular social skills from an individual's behavioral repertoire. This implies that the individual does not have the requisite knowledge to perform the social skill in question. On the other hand, when an individual has a social skills performance deficit, the individual can perform the social skill in question but does not perform the skill in the particular situation with acceptable frequency. Gresham and Elliot (1990) expanded this description into a four way classification scheme. This scheme incorporates two dimension of behavior: social skills and interfering behavior problems. Thus, children may have either acquisition or performance deficits with or without interfering problem behaviors. Interfering behaviors can be internalizing (e.g. anxiety, depression) or externalizing (e.g. aggression, impulsivity). These interfering behaviors are assumed to interfere with the acquisition and performance of social skills or both. This conception is important because it provides a framework to conceptualize social skills concerns and can also lead to effective strategies to improve one's social skills deficits. Across the age span from early childhood to adolescence, two major categories of problem behaviors have been identified in children. Those characterized by under control and those characterized by over control. Behaviors characterized by under control are typically high in annoyance value or the potential to hurt/harm others. These behaviors have been termed externalizing because they are expressed outward against others or have an impact on the child's environment. Examples include over activity, tantrums, fighting, destructive behavior and disobedience. Behaviors reflecting over control also tend to cluster together. They have been termed as internalized, because they are reflected in social withdrawn, fear, unhappiness and anxiety and represent self-focused expressions of distress. Although, many factors have been defined for explaining problem behavior, family factors are considered important among these factors. Demographic variables also have been associated with preschool and kindergarten behavior problems. Family demographic factors may include gender, family size, socioeconomic status, parental employment, parental education status, number of sibling, birth order etc. The purpose of this study is to determine the significant differences in social problem behaviors of six years old children by family related demographic factors. Method The sample of this study was 110 six years old children from elementary schools' preschool classes in Mus province of Turkey. This is a descriptive study using survey method to collect data. Data were collected by Social Skills Rating System (SSRS/PB) Behavior Problem Teacher Form scale. This scale's validity and reliability study for adaptation to Turkish was performed by researcher. One way ANOVA and t-test were used to examine effects of family related demographic factors on social problem behaviors of six years old children. Social Skills Rating System Problem Behavior Teacher Form was developed by Gresham and Elliott (1990). The Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) provides a multi-raterassessment of child's social behaviors that influence the developmentof social competence and adaptive functioning. Problem Behaviors Scale, measures behaviors that can interfere with the development of positive social skills. It assesses behavior in three subscales: 1. Externalizing Problems, such as aggressive acts and poor temper control. 2. Internalizing Problems, such as sadness and anxiety. 3. Hyperactivity, such as fidgeting and impulsive acts. The social skills rating system was standardized on a national sample of 4.170 children. Internal consistency is .86 for Social skills rating system Elementary problem behaviors scale teacher version. In addition, for subscales internal consistencies computed as .86 and .82. SSRS/PB teacher form is adapted to Turkish in this research. 200 Students from primary school's preschool classes participated for adapting the scale. To provide content and understandability, the scale was examined by seven experts and English to Turkish and Turkish to English translation convenience of scale by two experts in English. The factor structure of scale was examined with EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis). The variance of two factors were computed as % 52,1. For reliability of the scale, Cronbach Alpha coefficient (.87) and Spearman Brown split-half correlation (.92) were computed. Lower and upper % 27 groups' score differences were supplied by calculating t-test. Results and Discussions Results of this study support previous research findings indicating an association between social problem behaviors and family related factors.Statistically significant differences were found in problem behaviors by gender, parents' employment, socioeconomic status and number of siblings. No significant differences were found in problem behaviors by family size, parents' education and birth order. For subscales of the SSRS/PB, significant differences were observed in internalized problem behaviors by parents' employment and number of siblings. Significant differences were also found in externalized problem behaviors by gender and number of siblings. These findings show that children display internalized behavior problems such as withdrawn, fear, unhappiness, anxiety and distress more than externalized problem behaviors such as destructive, fight, anger and disobedience. This study supported the hypothesis that boys display more problem behaviors then girls. This finding may be interpreted as social environment's role expectations from boys may lead to more problem behaviors for boys. Although there were significant differences in social problem behaviors by number of siblings, no significant differences were observed by family type. It was expected that children in large families would show more problem behaviors, but this was not supported by research findings. Significant differences were observed in both externalized and internalized problem behaviors by number of siblings. Problem behaviors increased as the number of siblings increased. Employed mothers' children have less problem behavior than unemployed mothers' children. This finding may be associated with more preschool opportunities for employed mothers' children. Significant differences in problem behaviors were also observed by socioeconomic status of parents. These two findings should be interpreted together, as employment status is also related with socio-economic status. Results of the study provide evidence to guide educators and parents struggling to reduce problem behaviors in early childhood.

In this study, we investigated the relationships among gender, academic achievement, and student preferences for cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning in a sample of 136 African-American adolescents enrolled in sixth and seventh grades in a school in Georgia. We used the Learning Preference Scale for Students (LPSS; Barnes, Owens, & Straton, 1978) to measure cooperative, competitive, and individualistic preferences. Three two-way ANOVAs (Gender x Academic Achievement) were conducted, in which the three learning preferences were the dependent variables. Gender had a significant effect on the preference for cooperative learning, with girls reporting a higher preference for this method than boys did. For the other two learning preferences, no significant gender differences were found. Academic achievement did not correlate significantly with any of the three learning preferences. A two-way interaction between gender and academic achievement was observed for competitive learning preferences. Girls' preferences for competition increased as academic achievement increased; boys' preferences for competition decreased as academic achievement increased.

Introduction: acquiring and performing cognitive skills, Ann M.Colley and John R.Beech. Part 1 Acquisition of cognitive skills: the development of cognitive skills - an examination of recent theories, Julie B.Sincoff and Robert J.Sternberg training skilled performance, John Annett learning problem-solving skills, K.J.Gilhooly and A.J.K.Green the componential approach to learning reading skills, John R.Beech acquisition of computing skills, Mark Elsom-Cook learning motor skills - integrating cognition and action, Ann M.Colley. Part 2 Variations in performance: a methodology for assessing the detailed structure of memory skills, K.Anders Ericsson and William L.Oliver executing two tasks at once, Paul J.Barber ageing and skilled performance, Timothy A.Salthouse stress and skill, L.R.Hartley et al diurnal variations in performance, Andrew Smith.

This study investigated the effect of group and circle time teaching strategies on pre-primary school pupils’ acquisition of social and motor skills in Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District. six hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the pre-test, post-test quasi experimental research design. The population of the study was all the 5091 pre-primary school pupils in public primary schools in Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District. A sample of 240 pre-primary school pupils was selected to take part in the study using multi-stage sampling procedure. Two instruments entitled “Social Skill Observation Scale (SSOS) and Motor Skill Observation Scale (MSOS)” were used in collecting data for the study. The instruments were face validated by three experts. Inter-ratter reliability was conducted for the two instruments, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to determine the reliability of the instruments, which yielded coefficients of .85 and .81 for SSOS and MSOS respectively. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. All the hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study indicated that there is no significant difference in the acquisition of social and motor skills among pre-primary school pupils taught using circle time and group teaching method. It was concluded that circle time and group method of teaching are effective methods in developing social skills among pre-primary school pupils. It was recommended among others that teachers should make use of both group method of teaching and circle time in teaching social and motor skills among pre-primary school pupil.