Spanish Students Research Articles

Knowledge and Use of Social Networks in University Students from Mexico and Spain

<p>It is unclear how social networks can be utilized in educational settings. An exploratory study was conducted to examine the differences between university students in Mexico and Spain in terms of their perceptions of knowledge and utilization of networks in the university environment. An overall sample of 378 students was collected from two public universities, one in Mexico and one in Spain. This study utilized descriptive statistics as part of a contingency analysis, X<sup>2</sup> with correction was used for the analysis of differences, Mann-Whitney U for the analysis of independence, Mantel-Haenszel test for association degree, Cramer's V for strength of association, Spearman's correlation coefficient for correlations. According to the results, the use of social networks is clearly related to country of origin, but not to gender. It seems that Instagram is a platform widely used by both Mexican and Spanish students, but it is not used in educational environments. Therefore, the use of social networks in higher education contexts differs by country, as does the knowledge of social bookmarking and the distribution of content to share information and resources.</p>

Bodies and learning trajectories: a ‘post’ feminist approach to the experience of Spanish students in higher education

ABSTRACT Feminist theories have broadly delved into the discourse surrounding bodies (Grosz, Elizabeth. 1994. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press). Their contributions have subverted the idea that bodies are merely passive matter, opening up new ways of conceptualizing the world in corporeal terms. Their insights have been useful in understanding that human bodies emerge in situated-historical encounters, and cannot be separated from mind. This holds significant implications for the field of education (hooks, bell. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Abingdon: Routledge). In this article, we depart from the project ‘TRAY-AP: Learning trajectories of undergraduate students: conceptions, strategies, technologies, and contexts'. Reading from ‘posts’ perspectives such as feminist new materialisms, the affective turn or posthumanisms, helps us to think through relational ontologies, beyond dualisms, embracing a commitment to the human and morethan-human bodies. Through these perspectives, the project helps us to deepen into how Spanish higher education students conceive their bodies and the role of bodies in their learning trajectories. The paper concludes by shedding light on how bodies are still considered inert beings, but students see their learning processes as corporeal and embodied, intersected by gender struggles.

La literatura en los manuales de ELE: una propuesta para su análisis

Literature is one of the most valuable teaching resources for language learning. Particularly, teaching ELE permit entire traineeship to Spanish student as a foreign language. It is possible in all skills trainees must achieve and improve. Especially, throughout associated with intercultural competence. In fact, for many years, literature has been part of foreign language books. Consequently, it is essential to review all the topics which book publishers select and incorporated in different ways, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. Therefore, the research aim focuses on analyzing literature´s role at ELE to assess aspects such as the place they are located, their integration in the thematic unit, the type of content, the origin of the authors and their genre. In this way, it will be possible to offer a template for the analysis of manuals. After its application on textbooks, it has been verified using texts and literature contents in general becomes irregular, even more so in the elements referring to the origin and gender of the authors. Therefore, results confirm the initial working hypothesis regarding; literature value as a cultural transmission factor, also beliefs at the time where textbooks were made.

Cultural capital, black holes, and the hidden curriculum: an analysis of grade repetition in Spain

ABSTRACT In this article I explain the contradiction between the averagely high and equitable scores that Spanish students obtained in the last three editions (2015, 2018, and 2022) of the Program for International Student Assessment, and Spain’s extremely high and unequitable rate of grade repetition in schools. After ruling out alternative explanations for this discrepancy, I explore the hypothesis that grade repetition in Spain is an effect of the hidden curriculum. Methodologically speaking, my explanation establishes analogies with Einstein’s theory of relativity and draws on its spatial topoi to conceptualize the difference between the official and the hidden curriculum and the undemocratic conflation between upper- and middle-class cultural capital and academic skills. This conflation, I argue, lies behind said contradiction between Spanish students’ scores in PISA and the rates of grade repetition in Spain.

Feminism as a transatlantic bridge to modernity: María de Maeztu’s Residencia de Señoritas and the American International Institute for Girls in Spain (1917–1936)

ABSTRACT At the beginning of the twentieth century a globalization of women's associations, driven mostly by the United States, Great Britain, and France, was instrumental in the Western advancement of gender equality. Modernist feminist authors disseminated and promoted ideas about suffragism, the integration of women in higher education, pacifism, and gender equality along international networks. In this essay I study two women’s academic institutions that contributed to forming a solid transatlantic web of intellectual alliances between Spain and the United States of America: The International Institute for Girls in Spain (headquartered in Boston) and the Residencia de Señoritas (in Madrid). The two institutions exchanged university faculty through pensions, scholarships, and exchanges, modeling transatlantic intellectual alliance for students. This coalition exponentially grew the numbers of Spanish students in university desks and raised the percentages of Americans and Spaniards completing their higher educations in both countries. Under the visionary feminist leadership of María de Maeztu, several cohorts of students became a new, feminist intercontinental network serving as a motor of twentieth-century modernity.

Enhancing Classroom Climate and Emotional Intelligence through Board Games: A Mixed-Methods Case Study with Moroccan Students of Spanish as a Foreign Language

This mixed-methods case study explores the impact of board games on enhancing classroom climate and emotional intelligence among Moroccan students learning Spanish as a foreign language. The research employed a sample of 86 students. The experimental group implemented board games as an educational intervention over six sessions. The mixed-methods design incorporated quantitative surveys to assess changes in classroom climate and emotional intelligence and qualitative interviews to delve deeper into the students' perceptions and experiences. The findings indicate that board games positively affect classroom climate and emotional intelligence by fostering a collaborative and engaging learning environment. Qualitative results further reveal that the experience was universally perceived as enjoyable, engaging, and conducive to collaborative creativity. However, this study acknowledges some limitations, such as a relatively small sample size and the short-term nature of the intervention. Future research should investigate larger and more diverse samples, employing longitudinal studies to assess the long-term sustainability of these effects. In conclusion, this research illuminates the potential of board games as a valuable tool for enhancing a positive classroom climate, ultimately enriching the educational experience for students of Spanish as a foreign language.

Confronting Fake News Through Collective Intelligence in Adolescents

Adolescents are vulnerable to the exponential increase in fake news spread. Collective judgment on the quality of news has been an effective intervention. Collective Learning platform makes it possible to apply collective intelligence through simultaneous interaction in a large group, similar to social networks. The objective of this article is to analyze whether this platform effectively improves how adolescents confront fake news. 360 Spanish students aged 15–16 years old participated in the experiment confronting a fictitious case of fake news. The quantitative analysis using ANOVA demonstrated that there were significant positive changes for addressing fake news, both overall as well as in each of the participants. We discuss how these results confirm that collective intelligence improves digital literacy in the Internet challenges.

Comparative Study of Physical Activity, Leisure Preferences, and Sedentary Behavior among Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish University Students.

The objective of this study is to describe and compare the levels of physical activity, preferences for leisure-time physical activity, and the frequency of non-sedentary behaviors of Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish students attending higher education. A total of 1354 students (21.2 ± 2.9 years) participated in the study, with data collected through an online questionnaire for 6 months. The highest levels of sedentary behavior are found among Spanish students, followed by the Portuguese, and lastly the Italians. In relation to physical activity levels, Spanish students perform more low and moderate physical activity, while Italian students perform more vigorous activities and naturally have a lower level of sedentary behavior. However, it is worth highlighting that students from all three countries reach the minimum levels of physical activity recommended by the WHO.

Influence of the Use of Video Games, Social Media, and Smartphones on the Development of Digital Competence with Regard to Safety

The issue of safety in respect of using technology in education is an issue that deserves particular attention. This research uses a quantitative methodology to explore whether the use made by children of video games, social media, and smartphones in their free time influences the development of digital competence as regards safety. This study was conducted based on a sample of 800 compulsory education phase Spanish students. The results show a relatively low competence level, suggesting the need for digital education as part of the school curriculum so that students can make safe use of digital technologies. According to the findings, while students enjoy playing video games and using certain social media, mainly through smartphones, they are not digitally competent. The results reported for the assessment of digital competence in the safety area are within the basic level and, in general, boys have a higher level of competence than girls, except in the protecting health and protecting the environment competences.

Physical social anxiety in adolescence in Physical Education Spanish students

Physical social anxiety in adolescence in Physical Education Spanish students

Lexical bundles in three oral corpora of university students

On the basis of previous lexical bundle studies, this paper examines the forms, structures and functions of 4-word bundles in three corpora of spoken English, one of them of native speakers of English and the remaining two of non-native speakers of English, corresponding to university students in their first year of an English Studies degree and to the same students after two years of university instruction. The study focuses on three major characteristics: the overall distribution of bundles, their typical structures and their functions. The findings show significant differences in the types of lexical bundles used by native and non-native students, as well as in their structure and function. Our results support the idea that lexical bundles are important components in oral discourse. One of the pedagogical implications of this paper is that Spanish students should be exposed to more samples of spoken language.

Social Anxiety Profiles and Psychopathological Symptom Differences in Spanish Adolescents.

Research on social anxiety (SA) over the years has revealed its associations with different psychopathological symptoms. This study aims to characterize SA profiles in a sample of Spanish adolescents and explore their differences in psychopathological symptoms. Data from 1,288 Spanish students in the 15 to 18 age range (M = 16.30, SD = 0.97, 47.5% female) were collected using random cluster sampling. The Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and the Symptom Assessment-45 Questionnaire (SA-45) were employed. Four SA profiles were revealed by the Latent Profile Analysis (LPA): extreme SA, high SA, moderate SA, and low SA. Statistically significant differences in psychopathological symptoms were revealed by the MANOVA (effect sizes from d = -2.13 to d = -0.37). The extreme SA profile exhibited the most severe psychopathological symptoms, whereas the low SA profile displayed the mildest manifestations. Proposed interventions aim to support adolescents with SA risk profiles.

Students’ performance and English as a medium of instruction: Do students learn less?

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is an EU initiative aimed at harmonizing university degrees and attracting international students and staff. Proficiency in the English language is now regarded as a pre-requisite for all business students. By adopting a quasi-experimental design, this article focuses on the effects that teaching Accounting in English as a foreign language (three groups totalling 52 students) may exert on Spanish students’ academic performance (measured through final exam grades), and compares it to the performance of peers having been taught in their native Spanish language (five groups totalling 70 students), where all groups have the same instructor. The impact of language on the students’ test scores is also considered. The findings show that the group using English as a medium of instruction (EMI) obtained better results, which suggests that, in this research context, the language of instruction does not seem to compromise students’ learning of academic content. Furthermore, the achievement of content regarding questions of a more conceptual nature is not dependent on language skills, which seems to contradict previous research. These findings may help foster the implementation of EMI courses, thereby encouraging both universities and students to partake therein. Suggestions are provided to enhance lecturer involvement, drawing on the lecturer’s pedagogical approach.

Creatividad percibida en problemas insight por alumnado de secundaria: Efectos de algunas variables del problema y del sujeto resolutor

Objective: The study analyzes secondary school students’ perceptions of creativity in insight problems. Methodology. An empirical study was conducted with a total of 127 Spanish students from 8th grade and 11th grade. The students evaluated the creativity involved in the problems before and after attempting to solve them. These evaluations were related to grade, gender, surface, and structural aspects of the problems. Everyday life and science contexts were considered as problem surfaces. The structural aspects of the problems were associated with the specific strategy needed to solve them, such as chunk decomposition and constraint relaxation, the assistance provided by the problem statement to initiate the resolution process, and the possibility of metacognitive control over the quality of the solution. Individual booklets with counterbalanced statements were prepared to assess perceived creativity and to solve the problems. Results. Contrary to expectations, students were able to mentally represent the structural aspects of the problems during reading, and before solving them. The problem surface did not significantly affect the initial perception of creativity. After solving the problems, the average changes in perceived creativity were small. Conclusions. The results encourage teachers to use insight problems to promote creativity in secondary school classrooms.

Spanish language opportunities in genetic counseling training programs in the United States.

This cross-sectional survey study explores ongoing initiatives to foster diversity and inclusivity within the field of genetic counseling, specifically focusing on opportunities within graduate programs for students to enhance language and counseling skills in Spanish, thereby fostering language concordance in genetic counseling settings. With a response rate of 44.8% (26/58) across genetic counseling graduate programs, our study provides an overview of educational offerings in Spanish, encompassing patient-facing, non-patient-facing, and combined opportunities. Of the programs that completed the survey, 73.1% (19/26) offer Spanish language opportunities. Several perceived benefits were identified by those that offer opportunities, including fostering cultural humility and diversity within the field, increasing awareness and accessibility of genetic counseling services, and facilitating involvement in research within minority groups. The information gathered from this study can be a resource for graduate programs seeking insights into effective strategies to incorporate Spanish language opportunities. Additionally, these results may also serve as a source of inspiration for students who want to apply their Spanish language skills in their training and future careers. Lastly, we propose ideas to enhance and expand the training of bilingual genetic counseling students in Spanish.

The psycho-social impact of video games on K12 Spanish students

This research aims to study the psycho-social impact of video games on K12 students. For this, a probabilistic topic modelling analysis method based on text mining approach has been performed. This process is based on nodes’ connectivity and it has been developed through K Means approach; by launching the Jenks-Breaks algorithm. The sex differences are calculated according to a nonlinear dynamics approach based on Hurst exponent and multifractal function and the influence of time with the application of the Sobel test. The results show which are the most used video games by K12 and their psycho-social impact on students based on four categories: (1) boredom and sadness, (2) happiness and socialization, (3) immersion, and (4) families' conflicts. There are significant differences between boys and girls depending on the games they use, a factor that increases when playing more than two hours a day. For boys, games like FIFA and Fortnite produce higher levels of immersion and family conflict, while for girls, games are perceived as sources of greater happiness and a means to reinforce friendship and camaraderie, particularly with games like Brawl Stars, Rocket League, and PKXD.

Differences in the type of vocabulary understood by deaf and hearing students: Results to guide interventions

IntroductionVocabulary knowledge is an essential element in language development. There is evidence of significant differences in vocabulary knowledge between deaf children and hearing peers of the same age. These differences put deaf students at a disadvantage when compared to their hearing counterparts. The aim of this study was to investigate whether certain types of words characterise the lexical difficulties of deaf students. Our starting point is that this knowledge is needed to design interventions that are adapted to the particular needs of these students for their lexical development. MethodsWe evaluated the lexical comprehension of 90 Spanish students. The sample comprised 45 hearing students and 45 students with severe or profound hearing loss. Both groups were attending the later years of primary school (8 to –12-year-olds). They were tested using the Spanish Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III. The performance of both groups was statistically compared using percentiles and standard scores as well as a selected set of words from the test. ResultsNo significant differences between hearing and deaf groups were found by age, sex, and sociocultural level. Significant differences were found between groups in their percentile and standard scores. There were no significant differences in performance between the two groups on only five of the 25 words with the highest error rate in the deaf group. The qualitative analysis of the remaining 20 words that were especially challenging for deaf students reveals results of interest which could help guide interventions. ConclusionsThe results indicate the need for lexical intervention for deaf students in the final years of primary school. The specialised support service for deaf learners should approach the intervention by targeting a specific type of vocabulary, making the semantic relationships between these words more transparent and promoting a deeper understanding of them.

Peer Rejection and Academic Performance in Early Childhood: The Mediating Role of Special Educational Needs of Spanish Students

Peer rejection occurs at all stages of education, including infant education, and entails serious consequences, both immediately and in the future, in all areas of children’s development. This study aims to gain insight into the link between peer rejection and academic performance, mediated by the presence of special educational needs (SEN). The study involved the participation of 758 students (397 male) in the second cycle of early childhood education (3–6 years old) in Spain who were given a sociometric test to ascertain the sociometric distribution of each classroom. Their teachers were asked to record the academic performance of each student in terms of language, logic-mathematics, psychomotor ability, and overall performance. Teachers were also asked to identify whether or not students had SEN. By applying a multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) that considered the presence or otherwise of peer rejection and the presence or otherwise of SEN as independent variables, results show that rejected students display poorer academic performance in all areas. The same was also found to be true for those with SEN. As a result, rejected students with SEN are seen to exhibit the poorest academic performance and suffer two-fold stigmatisation.

PISA 2022. Predictores de la competencia matemática de los estudiantes españoles de Educación Secundaria

Mathematical competence is fundamental for active, participatory and engaged participation in the 21st century, and for facing the challenges of a globalised society. This study aims to analyse the simultaneous effect of a set of predictors on the mathematical competence of Spanish students who have participated in PISA 2022. The sample consists of 28,792 Spanish students (14,465 boys, 50.24%; 14,327 girls, 49.76%), from 935 schools. Two questionnaires are used to collect data: one for students and one for school principals. A hierarchical linear model is used according to the three levels presented by the data (Level 1=Students, Level 2=School and Level 3=Autonomous Community). At the first level, sex, socio-economic background, family cultural level, mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy is included; at the second level, the socio-economic background of the school; and at the third level, GDP per capita. The results show that girls experience more anxiety and less self-efficacy in mathematics than boys. The socio-economic background of the students, the cultural level of the family, mathematics anxiety and mathematics self-efficacy are significant predictors of mathematical competence. At school level, socio-economic background has an impact on achievement. These findings suggest the need to strengthen collaboration between school and family, as well as to provide specific training for teachers on how to address socio-affective feelings towards mathematics.

PISA 2022. Predictors of the mathematics achievement of Spanish students in Secondary Education

Mathematical competence is fundamental for active, participatory and engaged participation in the 21st century, and for facing the challenges of a globalised society. This study aims to analyse the simultaneous effect of a set of predictors on the mathematical competence of Spanish students who have participated in PISA 2022. The sample consists of 28,792 Spanish students (14,465 boys, 50.24%; 14,327 girls, 49.76%), from 935 schools. Two questionnaires are used to collect data: one for students and one for school principals. A hierarchical linear model is used according to the three levels presented by the data (Level 1 = Students, Level 2 = School and Level 3 = Autonomous Community). At the first level, sex, socio-economic background, family cultural level, mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy is included; at the second level, the socio-economic background of the school; and at the third level, GDP per capita. The results show that girls experience more anxiety and less self-efficacy in mathematics than boys. The socio-economic background of the students, the cultural level of the family, mathematics anxiety and mathematics self-efficacy are significant predictors of mathematical competence. At school level, socio-economic background has an impact on achievement. These findings suggest the need to strengthen collaboration between school and family, as well as to provide specific training for teachers on how to address socio-affective feelings towards mathematics.