Primary Education Degree Research Articles

Digital and Social-Civic Skills in Future Primary Education Teachers: A Study from the Didactics of Social Sciences for the Improvement of Teacher Training in Competences

The use of technology, especially among young people, is providing new possibilities, including in the academic field, and requires teacher training through the development of skills and competences. At this point, Social Science Didactics plays a fundamental role, as it prepares future teachers to teach social knowledge in order to achieve useful and meaningful learning for students and society. Using an online questionnaire, structured with the Likert scale, which had previously been validated and published by Professors Peart, Gutiérrez-Esteban, and Cubo-Delgado, 156 students of the Degree in Primary Education of the subject Didactics of Social Sciences at the University of Granada (Spain) participated (academic year 2023–2024), with the aim of investigating the digital and socio-civic competences of trainee teachers in order to seek ways to improve their training. The results were processed in the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 programme, carrying out a descriptive statistical analysis, considering the mode and the variance ratio. The participating students mainly use digital environments to communicate with acquaintances and, although they know and value a democratic society, they do not exercise their citizenship on the Internet. This makes it even more necessary to train future teachers in digital competences, based on digital and socio-civic skills, as only in this way will they be able to train citizens capable of facing the challenges of the knowledge society.

Mathematical Anxiety among Primary Education Degree Students in the Post-Pandemic Era: A Case Study

The study of the affective domain has grown in relevance ever since educators and researchers showed its influence in the process of teaching and learning, playing a fundamental role in the evolution of student learning. Anxiety is one component of the affective domain. The study of mathematical anxiety in pre-service primary teachers at university is the focus of this study. We analyse mathematical anxiety by examining specific data from the sample (age, gender, the subjects they studied in upper-secondary education, and academic performance). One hundred and nineteen students from the Primary Education degree completed the mathematical anxiety questionnaire, obtaining an average anxiety score considered negative (3.08 above the neutral value of 3). The results show a high anxiety toward examinations (3.68) and a negative relation with academic performance. Furthermore, the results show that women, 19-year-old university students, and those from a humanities-based upper-secondary education present greater levels of anxiety than men, older students, or students from other areas of upper-secondary education, respectively. All values of mathematical anxiety are higher than pre-pandemic levels. We can conclude from the studied sample that the students show low–medium global anxiety over mathematics, medium anxiety over problem solving, and high anxiety about exams.

Media and information literacy (MIL) and emerging methodologies in early childhood education and primary education degrees in Andalusia

Since the 1980s, the growing consumption of media by various segments of the population has been of concern to education experts, who have warned of the need for teacher training to integrate Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in their curricula. In this article we analyse the curricular plans and teaching guides for subjects related to MIL in Early Childhood Education and Primary Education degrees in Andalusia. Through these documents, we seek to identify the presence of AMI in initial teacher training, its characteristics, potential and limits, as well as the emerging methodologies arising from the relationship between technology and education. In methodological terms, we conducted a quantitative analysis, using simple descriptive statistics, combined with a qualitative analysis, using the principles of content analysis, according to Bardin (1991). The data indicate that training for AMI is very uneven across the universities and courses analysed. Moreover, most of the subjects related to AMI are optional and deal mainly with aspects related to the presence of technology as a support for teaching, with little presence of emerging methodologies, which leads to a marginalisation of aesthetic training and critical training of future teachers for and with the media.

Estudio de caso de una experiencia de innovación educativa: el Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos de modo interdisciplinar en el grado de Educación Primaria

Higher education institutions have to adapt to the rapid technological, cultural, economic and demographic changes that are taking place throughout the world. An example of educational innovation when applied for the first time and being innovative and generating changes is Project Based Learning (PBL), where the students are the protagonists of their teaching-learning process, and the application of this methodology allows them to face every day or real situations. The use of this PBL has turned out to be a novel institutional commitment, due to the organizational management of the teaching staff and the interconnection of different areas of knowledge of the curriculum. The main objective of this research is to analyze an interdisciplinary PBL experience of two academic years carried out in the Primary Education Degree at the University of Deusto (Spain). For this purpose, a qualitative analysis of 27 semi-structured interviews with the participating students was carried out. The results indicate as advantages of PBL the interdisciplinarity, giving solutions to a real case, the significant learning and the development of professional competences for professional performance such as active listening, teamwork, and leadership. However, they have indicated, as well, that they feel lost and unmotivated in the process, mainly due to the lack of teamwork skills, lack of knowledge of how to search for information, teachers’ lack of presence in class and the lack of connection between the subjects of the curriculum. Thus, as improvement strategies, they propose to carry out teamwork dynamics, to improve teacher coordination and to readapt the project (deliveries, workload and evaluation criteria, among others).

Engagement and Factors Associated with Academic Performance in Spanish Students Undertaking Teacher Training Degrees

This goal of this research was to find out the extent and type of engagement, motivation, stress, coping strategies and academic performance in students undertaking teacher training degrees (early childhood education, primary education and double degrees) with a view to establishing relationships between these variables and designing proposals to improve and complement tutorial plans for these programmes. This was a cross-cutting, prospective, exploratory study that combined descriptive and correlational methodologies by means of questionnaires. The sample consisted of 610 students undertaking the early childhood education degree, primary education degree or double degree at the UB. The results indicate a moderate degree of academic engagement. Among the variables involved, the highest scores were obtained for academic engagement, achievement goals and, as a hindering variable, psychological distress. Academic performance (average grade) and the subscales of vigour, dedication and absorption (as facilitating variables) were identified as being involved in the development and maintenance of academic engagement. It is hoped that this research will serve to disseminate data relevant to tutorial action plans for teacher training degrees among the scientific community and, consequently, to improve the academic engagement of these students. Keywords: academic engagement, academic achievement, teacher training, tutorial action plan, academic motivation, coping strategies

Leveraging Experiential Learning to Foster University Students’ Proficiency in Engaging with People with Disabilities

Study purpose. Inclusive education, acknowledged as a fundamental human right, is aimed at enhancing the participation of all students and mitigating social and educational exclusion. Physical Education is identified as a vital instrument that fosters specific training on disability and inclusion, thereby ameliorating attitudes towards disability. The objective of this study is to scrutinize the perception of experiential learning and inclusive physical activity among students. Materials and methods. An inclusive physical activity program for students pursuing a degree in Early Childhood and Primary Education was designed. The program proposes five sessions of inclusive physical activity and accommodates 30 adult users with intellectual disability. To analyse the reliability and validity of a scale that measures students’ perception of experiential learning, descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess the effectiveness and inclusivity of the scale. Results. The validity and reliability of a scale that facilitates the analysis of students’ perceptions of learning derived from inclusive experiences is presented and the results are adequate for its usability. In addition, it is shown that experiential learning increases the perception towards the acquisition of disability-related competences among university students. Conclusions. This scale essentially allows a comprehensive analysis of students’ perception of learning that emerges from inclusive experiences. It is demonstrated that experiential learning enhances students’ perception regarding the attainment of competencies related to disability. These findings underscore the importance of inclusive learning experiences in the training of future educators.

Analysis of artificial intelligence chatbots and satisfaction for learning in mathematics education

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly widespread in today's society. This type of technology, and more specifically chatbots as virtual assistants, can be implemented and integrated as a support tool in educational environments. This article proposes the creation of chatbots in the subject of didactic of geometry of the Degree of Primary Education of the Faculty of Education at the University of Málaga, carried out by 120 students in two groups. The aim is to analyse these chatbots, as well as the students' evaluation and satisfaction with them. To this end, the students were given brief training so that they could generate their own bots and know how to integrate them into a social network and then use them. The results of the questionnaire show that the students have shown interest in the generation of their chatbot and its integration into the social network, have improved their digital competence, as well as demonstrating a high degree of satisfaction with their AI creations, along with the idea that this type of experience can be transferred to other subjects and educational contexts.

Analysis of pre-service teachers' knowledge about the entrepreneurial competence: a case study of a Spanish university.

This research is based on the role played by the entrepreneurial competence (EC), entrepreneurial education (EE) and teachers in the social, economic and cultural development of a society. The general objective of the study is to analyze the level of knowledge pre-service, those who are studying, or have recently studied, the Bachelor's Degree in Primary Education at the University of Deusto (Spain) (DPEUD) have about the EC. A questionnaire, based on EntreComp Framework, underwent expert validation and was applied to a sample of 304 students. The data showed that 25% of the respondents believed that EE was related to educating through entrepreneurship; more than 45% did not know about EntreComp and EntreCompEdu, whereas only three participants were aware of how to use them; and more than 10% of the pre-service teachers did not consider assessing the CE. These results lead to the conclusion that there is a need for EE to form part of the different national teacher training strategies; and for policy makers to include EE in the different educational frameworks, laws and decrees. In addition, it can be concluded that social, cultural and economic value can be created through entrepreneurial actions; that EC should be assessed; and that teachers should motivate students to share and implement entrepreneurial ideas and actions.

An analysis of the psychometric properties of the writing-specific cognitive strategies questionnaire for undergraduate students.

Writing strategies are needed to manage the complexity of writing tasks, especially at university, where writing tasks are for learning, professional, or scientific purposes and are highly demanding. The literature shows that many undergraduate students have defined, stable, writing strategies, although some lack proper strategic development and require explicit instruction in this regard. In both cases, adapting writing tasks to undergraduate students' preferences and instructing them effectively requires understanding their writing strategies, which will encourage optimal learning and writing proficiency. This is why valid, reliable, writing strategy assessment tools are essential. The present study focused on the validation of the Spanish Writing Strategies Questionnaire-Undergraduate Students (WSQ-SU), aimed at measuring undergraduate students' preferences for using different writing strategies. The sample comprised 978 Spanish undergraduates doing degrees in Infant, Primary or Social Education, Pedagogy and Psychology. The data from the questionnaire was explored by means of exploratory and confirmatory analysis, test-retest reliability to analyse temporal stability and convergent validity. Two factors, planning and revising, were identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, representing different writing strategies and supporting the original model. The results indicated adequate test-retest reliability and temporal stability. The results also showed the questionnaire's convergent validity; a direct, linear correlation between two factors and off-line planning and revising variables. Based on the results, the WSQ for undergraduate students-Spanish version has been shown to be a reliable and valid, scale that can be easily applied in the university context to explore undergraduate students' writing strategies.

Academic Achievement of Foreign Language Undergraduate Students during Pandemic Times

This research article aims to show the academic achievement in the form of marks of students of the third year’s subject ‘Teaching and Learning English’ located in the Degree in Primary Education (Faculty of Education, Universidad de Murcia, Spain). Our corpus of participants has five different groups (including the bilingual group) with a total number of n=1496 students with an average per academic year of n=374 students whose marks have been analysed comparing four different academic years. Taking into account the subject programme, the performance of the students during the normal year, during the lockdown, in the blended learning yeart (face-to-face and online) and in the return-to-normal year have been analysed. The results show that in both the lockdown and the blended learning year the performance is higher than in the other academic years, which leads us to question whether the pandemic really influenced the assessment and teaching conditions of the subject.

Attention to diversity from artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is influencing various sectors of society, including the educational field. The use of AI can have great potential in education, however, it is necessary to know both its performance and its limitations. The main objective of this study is to analyze the prompts made by teachers in initial training in relation to the topic of specific educational support needs, classifying them according to Bloom's Taxonomy. For this, 63 students from the first year of the Primary Education Degree in the subject Information and Communication Technology applied to Education participated. The results show that the highest frequency of prompts made by students correspond to the highest levels of Bloom's taxonomy (apply and create), which suggests that students are capable of using the knowledge acquired in the subject to create new learning situations with their future students. This confirms that the implementation of this methodology is beneficial for the development of cognitive and pedagogical skills of future teachers.

“Know Yourself” Intervention Program for the Development of Intrapersonal Intelligence in University Students

The objective of the present study was to elaborate on an intervention proposal called “Know yourself” based on the development of intrapersonal intelligence and wisdom in university students, in the areas of “Expression and Corporal Communication” (mention of Physical Education) and “Expression, Communication and Creation of motor manifestations” that are relevant for a degree in Primary Education. The sample consisted of a total of 109 participants (M = 22.46; SD = 2.42), 48 men and 58 women. The participants were organized into two groups: n = 59 belonging to the control group and n = 47 to the experimental group. The research process began with the search and review of the existing bibliography, for both general terms and in the university context, in addition to the collection of the sample. Participants were intentionally assigned to the control and experimental groups. A pre-test was performed with the 3D-WS SCALE that evaluates wisdom (affective, reflective, and cognitive dimensions) through a Likert scale, and the results reflected no differences between groups (p > 0.05) for all variables (three dimensions of 3D-WS SCALE and health care), and for this reason, both groups were assessed on a similar level. At a qualitative level, participants were asked about their perception of the intervention and were interviewed through a semi-structured interview at the end of the intervention. Finally, the possible results and benefits of intervention programs are discussed along the same line of study, compared to the present proposal. All the aforementioned steps of the study were conducted with the main purpose of developing interventions with an adequate focus on and a high level of efficiency in the mastery of intra- and interpersonal wisdom crucial for the personal, academic, and social development of university students.

The panoramic portrait: Educational strategies to create a distorted self-portrait

In art education, students reflect on and explore their identity. In the course ‘Plastic Arts Education’, required for a Primary Education degree at the University of Granada, Spain, students create a panoramic photographic self-portrait to engage in an exploration of self. The main purpose of this visual strategy is to experiment with visual identity using the self as creative subject and resource. Through the creation of these panoramic self-portraits, art education majors work creatively with different images to develop their visual identities and become conscious of constructing a self-image that will be projected on social media. This arts-based research approach allows students to be inspired by artists and discover visual and conceptual resonances between images.

‘Booktuber: promoting reading and literacy in the classroom among Spanish pre‐service teachers through a video review’

AbstractDevelopments in technology have led to a rethinking of teaching delivery: instructors have found in digital devices an important way to attract students' attention. One of the many applications this technology could potentially have would be to encourage young learners to read through new multimedia products such as Web 2.0. In this article, I provide an account of teaching carried out at the University of Valencia, in the ‘Foreign Language I (English)’ module of the Primary Education degree. The activity was based on the characteristics of Booktubers with the goal of, first, promoting reading and reflection on literature and, second, to improve linguistic, communicative, literary and digital competences in EFL through the elaboration of a video review in the classroom. Thus, I have focused on the formal style from a didactic viewpoint, yet undergraduates had to read literature and write a digital review as part of the tasks to be assessed in the subject. For this purpose, the Youtube platform will be shown to be seen as an emerging source of exploration, which could be exploited as a successful didactic tool. Finally, I also set out to show the challenges both students and teacher had to face throughout the process of using the Booktuber tool.

Impact of an inquiry-oriented proposal for promoting technology-enhanced learning in a post-pandemic context

IntroductionThis study examines the effectiveness of learning processes developed through a technology-enhanced approach in higher education. Therefore, we analyzed Webquests together with other gamification resources, considered relevant research studies on the impact and advantages of this inquiry-oriented learning approach, and examined students’ perceptions of the effects of these online learning tools on developing their organizational skills and effective planning for learning.MethodsParticipants in the study were 73 student teachers enrolled in the core unit of Social Studies, in the second year of the Primary Education degree at the University of Murcia (Spain). In this study, a pre-test and posttest design was applied and questionnaires were administered to students at the beginning and end of the term to examine the impact of this inquiry-oriented approach on the development of students’ learning processes. Their perceptions of the learning achieved were analyzed using statistical software for Excel (XLSTAT).ResultsThe results indicate that these online tools effectively promote technology-enhanced learning and collaborative work, especially among the most motivated and digitally literate students, underlining the importance of motivation and digital literacy as catalysts for learning.DiscussionThe study also highlights the need for further research on the impact of digital resources in promoting competency-based learning alongside other motivational online approaches in tertiary education.

Teacher Training and Sustainable Development: Study within the Framework of the Transdisciplinary Project RRREMAKER

The development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a challenge that requires the involvement of the educational system. This study seeks to identify the perception and knowledge of future teachers in relation to sustainable development (SD), the European Green Deal (ECD), and circular economy (CE) at the University of Granada. A qualitative study was carried out, conducted face to face, using an online questionnaire in the classroom. A total of 321 students participated, from bachelor’s degrees in early childhood and primary education to master’s degrees in secondary education. Out of these, 176 validated questionnaires were analyzed. The results showed that future teachers understood the importance of SD education as an important social problem. They believed that education in SD, EGD, or CE could contribute to solving environmental and social problems. Nevertheless, they doubted whether this training should be included by universities in their training actions for teachers; they expressed reservations about the educational effectiveness of the curricula. However, most of them considered the need for more training in this area. Finally, they associated sustainable development mainly with the environmental dimension, followed by the social dimension, and to a lesser extent with the economic dimension.

The Promotion of Healthy Hydration Habits through Educational Robotics in University Students.

In recent years, there has been a lack of healthy lifestyle habits in the population, including hydration, with negative consequences for health. At the same time, advances in technology have changed the process of teaching and learning since elementary school, highlighting the incorporation of educational robots as innovative resources in recent years. This study analyzes the state of the scientific knowledge presented by university students doing a university degree in Primary Education after a robotics-based educational intervention. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design with a qualitative approach, using category systems and a quantitative approach with descriptive and inferential (Chi-square and Contingency Coefficient) statistics. The results of the study show that the level of scientific knowledge has improved in the different scientific contents involved, highlighting the excellent level presented for the recommended daily volume of hydration. Innovative interventions, through digital resources such as Educational Robotics, are presented as possible alternatives to promoting the healthy habit of hydration, due the effective learning of biosanitary knowledge in the young population.

Is the Education System Prepared for the Irruption of Artificial Intelligence? A Study on the Perceptions of Students of Primary Education Degree from a Dual Perspective: Current Pupils and Future Teachers

The recent irruption of ChatGPT, a powerful chatbot that uses a “Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer” language model, could revolutionize education worldwide since it can greatly affect the competence development that students need to achieve for their professional future. The aim of this work is to assess the level of knowledge of ChatGPT and the perception of its possibilities of use in education by students studying the Primary Education Degree at the University of León (Spain) from a double perspective: as students and future teachers, respectively. For this purpose, a descriptive, cross-sectional, non-experimental, and quantitative research design was carried out, with the design and elaboration of a questionnaire. The questionnaire data were statistically processed by calculating relative frequencies. The main results highlight that students have a positive perception of ChatGPT use, with potential applications in education, and do not perceive it as a threat to the deterioration of the educational system as long as the sources of the data generated by the tool are verified. In addition, as students and future teachers, they need more knowledge about the operation of ChatGPT to ensure its correct use and maintain the quality of the education system. Thus, to overcome ChatGPT irruption in education, digital literacy is crucial at all educational levels.

Exploring Student Teacher Perceptions on the Benefits of the Teaching Practicum

This article examines student teacher perceptions regarding the benefits of the teacher education practicum. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was performed using a questionnaire. Participants consisted of 455 students from the Early Childhood and Primary Education Degrees studying at a university in the Madrid community. The questionnaire was administered between the academic years of 2017/2018 and 2021/2022 (2019/2020 was excluded due to the pandemic), at the end of each practicum period of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year courses of the distinct teaching student cohorts. Results were analyzed based on a quantitative perspective, revealing relevant benefit and utility profiles, confirming that the variable that most modulates student perception is the Practicum period (finding lower scores for the intermediate practicum), followed by the gender variable, and finally, the Degree variable, which has the most stable results. These findings are discussed, highlighting certain proposals to improve teaching practicum programs, and to encourage a better knowledge of the teaching practicum in terms of its benefits and usefulness, considering the teacher candidate perspective.

Sustainable Food in Teacher Training: Evaluation of a Proposal for Educational Intervention

The sustainability of the food system is a particularly relevant issue today as it is a challenge to ensure environmental sustainability and the need to guarantee access to food in all parts of the world to promote social equity. Given this, the need to promote a sustainable food transition in consumption habits becomes imperative. It is crucial that teachers be sensitised to this issue so that they can try to develop a critical and globally aware student body that is committed to a social transformation towards sustainability. The main objective of this study is discovering the opinions of preservice teachers (PSTs) on sustainable food. It also has two specific objectives: (1) analyze the initial opinions of prospective teachers on sustainable food before and after carrying out an educational intervention on this topic, and (2) study the relationship between the opinions of PSTs and variables related to their personality or their relationship with nature, among others. A longitudinal pre-test-intervention-post-test design using quantitative methods was carried out to explore the opinions of 49 pre-service teachers studying for a degree in Primary Education before and after the educational intervention. The results show changes in the opinions of future teachers after the application of the educational intervention and differences towards food sustainability according to some socio-demographic variables such as gender.