Prácticas de educación STEM con robótica en Educación Primaria en España: revisión sistemática y análisis comparativo

This study explores the impact of Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) on English as a Second Language (ESL) acquisition, focusing on how these approaches influence student motivation, participation, and language proficiency. A quasi-experimental design was employed, with control and experimental groups, to assess the effectiveness of these methodologies. Data were collected through surveys, pre-and post-tests, and qualitative classroom observations. The results indicate that both PBL and UDL significantly enhance linguistic skills, particularly in reading, writing, and oral expression. These strategies also foster increased student engagement, motivation, and collaboration, contributing to a more dynamic and inclusive classroom environment. The study shows that the integration of PBL and UDL supports not only language development but also the creation of a supportive learning atmosphere that meets diverse educational needs. These findings underscore the potential of PBL and UDL to improve ESL instruction by encouraging active participation and collaborative learning. The study concludes with pedagogical implications, emphasizing the importance of professional development for educators in active and inclusive teaching strategies. It also suggests avenues for future research to refine the use of these methodologies in various educational contexts, ultimately aiming to enhance ESL outcomes across diverse linguistic and cultural settings.

Responding to student diversity has become a key policy priority in education systems around the world. In addition to international and national institutional policies, major changes are underway in instructional practices and pedagogy in many national contexts. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has become a key pedagogical approach used in education systems which seek to promote inclusive and equitable education in response to student diversity. Despite Ireland’s policy commitment to inclusive education, UDL has been traditionally focused on the higher education sector with little discussion about the role UDL can play at primary and second-level education to achieve inclusion. Furthermore, there has been no research to date on the extent to which education policy reforms are introducing part, or all, of the aspects of the UDL framework. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which UDL is gaining momentum in Irish primary and second-level education through an analysis of curriculum policy. This paper examines the development and evolution of UDL in Irish education policy over the past decade by exploring the use of UDL in national educational curriculum frameworks. The paper highlights how UDL is slowly and implicitly emerging in education policy at a national level but suggests further momentum could be gained from its inclusion in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and professional development programmes. By exploring the development of UDL within existing policy contexts, the paper argues for a more explicit commitment to UDL as part of ongoing curriculum reform at the primary level, the review of Senior Cycle, and Ireland’s broader inclusive education agenda.

The present study Universal Design for Learning as a drive for Inclusive Language Development was carried out with 30 samples of Primary school students from Haryana, India. These 30 are chosen by Stratified random sampling method from the data record of Society for Advance Study in Rehabilitation (SASR) Haryana. Nineteen of them are from CBSE (Central) schools and the remaining eleven are from state board schools. The same students are further divided into two based on the gender; 20 boys and 10 girls. Among the 30 students 18 are having siblings and other 12 are single don’t have siblings. The investigators employed a quasi-experimental method for the conduct of the study. Independent variables are gender, type of school, and siblings’ status. Detail of the primary school students are collected by administrating the checklists developed by the investigator. The study reveals, large size of effect in the Cohen-d calculation. Introducing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the primary school stage helps in language development skills. The recorded significant difference is the evidence of the findings. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides a platform for the language development process in all stages, higher in the primary school stage. Admitting UDL principles in the primary school stage prevents the students from becoming learning disabled (LD). Universal Design for Learning will decrease the count of learning-disabled population. Thus, the Universal Design for Learning strengthens the inclusion process at an early stage of education.

Evolution by natural selection is a theory that constitutes a powerful paradigm capable of conveying the teaching-learning of multiple concepts in biology. However, it has been controversial from its formulation to the present, which also affects education. For instance, while some of the basic curricula of primary education in Europe are arranged around the concepts that are considered necessary for structuring the scientific model of evolution (i.e., Sweden), other curricula do not contemplate such concepts. The last is the case of the basic curriculum of primary education in Spain. However, in Spain, on the basis of such a curriculum, there are 17 different primary education curricula corresponding to each of the autonomous communities of the state. The objective of this work is to state a detailed geographical picture of the presence of the concepts necessary to articulate the model of evolution through the analysis of the autonomic curricula of Spain. With such an aim, words that represent such concepts (evolution, inheritance, selection, adaptation and biodiversity, etc.) have been searched for in the natural sciences and social sciences areas of the autonomous curricula of primary education. Furthermore, a search for such evolution-related concepts has also been performed in the activities of eighteen Spanish primary education textbooks on natural and social science subjects. For this purpose, two aspects were considered: characterisation and scientific skills. Both the autonomous curricula of primary education and the textbooks hold important gaps when addressing evolution. The texts include activities that prioritise basic cognitive skills over the more demanding ones associated with scientific competence.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for developing inclusive educational practices. The primary purpose of this small-scale professional inquiry was to investigate the effective ways in which Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) across New Zealand implement and evaluate the UDL framework in their practice to improve the educational achievement of all learners. The enablers and barriers to implementing UDL in practice were explored through an anonymous online questionnaire using a mixed-method approach. This study highlighted that RTLB were using the UDL principles in several areas at different stages of the RTLB practice sequence. The results indicated that ongoing professional learning development and collaboration within the organisation were the preferred modes of support to implement the UDL framework. RTLB also articulated several barriers to its implementation including teacher resistance and lack of knowledge. The need for more UDL training for educators was identified. Differences were found in ways of monitoring the UDL interventions amongst practitioners. The results further underlined the need for developing a clear criterion to monitor the application of UDL in practice.

BackgroundSouth Africa has undertaken the implementation of inclusive education as a vehicle for achieving enhanced educational outcomes and equity. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an instructional design framework that takes into account the wide range of variations in skills and abilities that exist across all learners, and provides a research-based set of principles and guidelines for inclusive curriculum development and delivery.ObjectivesTo locate UDL within the specific inclusive education policy context of South Africa and consider how this approach can support policy implementation. We have argued that UDL could serve as a strategy to link policy imperatives with classroom practice, enabling effective communication between the different actors.MethodWe reviewed fundamental inclusive education policies in South Africa and research relating to their implementation, and how they configure support and curriculum differentiation. We then compared this understanding with that proposed by UDL and considered what could be gained in adopting a UDL framework.ResultsWe noted that UDL has several advantages in that it allows for a common language between education stakeholders and gives new meaning to the interpretation of levels of support.ConclusionThe implementation of inclusive education in South Africa could be enhanced by introducing the concepts of UDL into policy, research and teaching practice as a common language and vehicle for packaging support systems.

This paper aims to examine the usage and role of languages in different research areas in Lithuania. To answer these questions, a case study was undertaken, investigating the academic journals published at Vilnius University in the period from 2004 to 2013. The list of periodical publications chosen for investigation consists of 24 research journals. 8 journals cover the area of humanities, 11 the area of social sciences and 5 the area of natural and formal sciences. In the course of the investigation 5664 research articles were analyzed. The specific concern was the language of the article itself, the language of its summary/abstract and languages of reference works. The analysis of the whole period data shows that the main language of the articles in the area of humanities is the national language (Lithuanian, 60.9%), followed be English (22.6%). Among the other languages, German (7.4%) and Russian (6.9%) seem to be of importance. It can be noted that there was no significant change in the language usage tendencies between 2004 and 2013. In the social sciences area, the researchers publish mainly in Lithuanian (65.5%) and English (31.9%), whereby English clearly dominates in the papers on economics. The same two languages can be found in the area of natural and formal sciences with English as by far the dominant language (91.5%). In is noteworthy that during the period considered, the number of articles in English in both of these areas – social sciences and natural and formal sciences – has slightly grown (ca. 7–8%). To summarize the findings, English is the dominant language in 9 among the investigated 24 research journals and is mainly used in papers on economics, natural sciences, mathematics, informatics and Oriental studies. Lithuanian is the first language of choice in 11 journals (papers on history, religion, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, education studies, communication, information and geography). Multilingual are the journals covering linguistics, literature and archeology.

The article is focused on educational robotics - on the construction and programming of robots in school environment. It characterises the forms in which the teaching of work with robotic kit can take place. It also brings the results of research into students? attitudes to work with robotic kits, whether their use has a positive effect on improving students? relationship to programming and technology as such. The work with LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robotic kit is described from the point of view of the construction and programming of robots in the extracurricular activity of computer science for pupils of the second primary education stage of elementary school. The article describes how to proceed if a sufficient number of real robotic kits is not available or if full-time form of education is changed to distance form. We also point out how to teach the construction and programming of robots in a simulation environment. We had had previous experience with using Virtual Robotics Toolkits during the present-form learning and therefore we used it in the distance form of teaching as well. This virtual kit allows to construct and program robots LEGO Mindstorms in 3D environment, which simulated various problem situations. Pupils can construct robot models at home in LEGO Digital Designer software using virtual blocks and then use Virtual Robotics Toolkits to continue working with the robot and control it by program. It replaces the use of physical models. It is a full-featured replacement of programming real robot kits. In the article we report on our experience in the construction and programming of robots in both full-time and distance forms of teaching.

Learning involves an important challenge, in which unnecessary barriers must be eliminated, without eliminating the necessary challenges. In that sense, it is universal learning design (UDL) that encourages the creation of flexible designs that provide effective instruction to all learners. This descriptive study compares the self-perception of the UDL among young university students studying in professional programs in the area of educational sciences at a private university according to the professional program, gender and training received. Participated 271 university students in professional programs in the area of Educational Sciences, whose age range was between 20 and 30 years old. The professional programs of Physical Education, English, Science, Mathematics, Special Education, Basic Pedagogy, Language and Preschool Education were included. Self-perception of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was measured through the Survey technique, using as an instrument the questionnaire proposed by Sanchez-Fuentes, Castro Duran, Casas Bolanos, & Vallejos Garcias (2016), which has 25 questions and includes the three principles of the UDL. The results showed that the students in the preschool program reflected higher average values than their counterparts in other professional programs (83.6±12.2 points), followed by special education (60.4±9.8 points) and language (60.8±6.6 points) (p<0.05). Female students reflected higher self-perception (59.3±8.9 points) than male students (51.8±11.4 points). Students who have received training in UDL have higher average values (61.75±11.63 points) in relation to those who did not receive training (57.65±12.52 points) (p<0.05). Students in the preschool education program, as well as those who received training and women in general, have reflected a better self-perception in UDL in relation to their counterparts. These results suggest the implementation of programs and educational resources to improve the perception of UDL, especially among men.

This article presents a STEAM project, “Sustainable City”, based on educational robotics whose objective is to bring the problems of climate change closer to primary school students. The participants were 30 students (aged 10–11) from 5th year of Primary Education and the project consisted of 14 sessions in which different active methodologies such as project-based learning, collaborative learning and the flipped classroom were carried out. A pre-test and a post-test were carried out and the results were better in the post-test, which indicates that the students improved their skills and increased their motivation. As a conclusion, this STEAM project, which is adapted to the Spanish LOMCE curriculum, can be a reference for other teachers to bring their students closer to the problem of environmental change through educational robotics and the use of active methodologies.

This research general objective was to implement the ECO educational software to enhance the teaching of the natural sciences in the students of the fourth degree (4 °) of the Institucion Educativa El Siglo, sede El Bobo, also determine the deficiencies encountered in the process of teaching-learning in the area of natural sciences, the development of the core competencies of the area through the use of educational software ECO and assess strategies designed to ensure the effectiveness of the processdue to the precarious nature of time the scope of the project is limited to analyzing the motivational effects of technological tools. The methodology is qualitative because its purpose was to describe and interpret accurately the experiences of the teaching of the natural sciences process and used a descriptive method, because the problem was described in a specific way. The results of this research were positive as object of study students demonstrated great motivation to the development of the academic activities based on the use of ICT, which was reflected in the frequent participation in class, and the works produced during the process.In general, concludes that with the implementation of this research project and making use of the software educational ECO (exercises with computer) is encouraged in a very efficient manner the development of specific competences in the area of natural sciences.

This study is a qualitative research in education, which aimed to investigate the teachers' practices in Grupo Escolar Brasil (Brazil Scholar Group), in Uberaba, from 1960 to 1971. The guiding questions were: what were the practices and methods developed in the classroom in Grupo Escolar Brasil? How were these practices and methods developed? W hat were the role and place of the Primary Education Program of Minas Gerais State to be part of the Scholar Groups of Minas Gerais in the teachers' syllabi? The methodology chosen was the Thematic Oral History, because it made possible to recover the teachers' experiences in the classroom in the manner they taught Native Language, Moral, Civility and Hygiene, and also the ways they assessed the students. Therefore, we interviewed five participants of the group: two teachers who worked with the third grade, and one with the fourth grade, who later became a principal in the same group; we also interviewed two former students, whose primary education was all taken in Grupo Escolar Brasil. The documentary references used in this study served to complement the narratives, once the documents emerged from the narratives. During the study we understood that the Grupo Escolar Brasil was respected in Uberaba's society, because it was the very first scholar group in the city, being active for 107 years now. We discovered, through the narratives, that the teachers' syllabi were made guided by the group's principal and the Primary Elemental Education Program. Throughout the research, we discovered a guide made by the teacher Hermantina Riccioppo for the areas of Geography and Natural Sciences, which also brought themes related to civility, moral and hygiene.

As in other countries, Brazil has used standardized tests as a tool to measure the quality of education. The Ministry of Education, incorporated large-scale assessments into its educational policy in the early 1990s through the System for Basic Education Assessment. In addition to the exam used to assess elementary school, students are also assessed through the National High School Exam, created in 1998 to assess school performance at the end of Basic Education. This study investigates student performance of Brazilian state public schools in the 2017 National High School Exam [ENEM] area of Natural Sciences. We compared student performance between different types of public schools localized in urban and rural areas. In addition, the factors that may cause these differences were assessed. The influence of school infrastructure, proportion of teachers with training in the area of Natural Sciences, and teacher qualification was evaluated upon student performance. Student performance varied by the type of school and between both rural and urban schools with the higher scores founded in civic-military schools and urban areas. Among the factors evaluated, school infrastructure was the most important factor in student performance, followed by the proportion of teachers with a background in Natural Sciences, and finally, teacher qualification. The heterogeneity of performance between school type and location shows how much we still need to improve resource management, school infrastructure, teacher training and qualification.

The paper shows that implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for collaborative learning through teams in a Macroeconomics course can help to transform students’ educational experience to become lifelong learners. The UDL uses a portfolio of assessments in the course and team presentation happens to be one of them. In this paper students form teams through self-selection exercise and work in teams throughout the semester to produce and present research outcomes of analyzing macroeconomic policy in a globally connected world. The presentation requires students to apply their learning of country specific macroeconomic issues on global policy decisions. This enables transforming classroom learning into an immersive experience for future career choices of students developing transferable skills in the process.

Students Motives and Satisfaction with Studies in the Area of Natural Sciences and Their Willingness to Continue Studies in Teacher EducationNatural sciences teachers have a key role to play in creating knowledge and skills. However, Estonian students' interest in studying natural sciences and their willingness to continue studies in teacher education have decreased. This study was designed to assess: 1) how clear the students' motives to study natural sciences was; 2) how the clarity of motives relate to student satisfaction with their studies and 3) how student satisfaction with studies relate to their interest in continuing studies in teacher education. The participants of the study (N=92) were natural sciences students at Tallinn University. The data was collected using an adapted Learning and Studying Questionnaire by Entwistle et al. (2002) and questions designed by the authors of the study. The SPSS programme was used to analyse the data. The results of the study show that carefully planned curriculum selection and positive learning experiences increase student willingness to choose teacher education.