Young pupils engage with technology daily, however, the use that preschool teachers make of technologies and their level of digital expertise are largely unknown. The objective of this study was to determine how these teachers make use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and the frequency with which they use them, as well as to explore the sociodemographic and professional factors related to the different uses. 477 preschool teachers from Spain took part in a survey. The questionnaire, validated by experts, covered the use of ICT as a teaching-learning tool. Three different analyses were carried out, a principal component analysis and a descriptive analysis to determine the type and intensity of use and a multivariate analysis of variance to explore their relationships with sociodemographic and professional variables. The findings defined eight distinct uses of ICT, which seemed to be related to different factors. Teachers did not employ these technologies openly and consistently in their classrooms, but instead used them for occasional tasks that were administrative and bureaucratic in nature. They manifest a limited ICT use for assessment of pupil and for communication and exchange of ideas, information and materials. Instead, ICT were widely used to prepare classroom work (planning, classroom posters…) and as classroom support as a learning tool (routines, games, to record audios…). Among the studied variables, the more significant were teaching experience and type of centre. We discuss the need to advocate for continuous and comprehensive training on the educational potential of these digital resources.

The current offer of training courses for university teachers is due, among other needs, to the implementation of an educational model based on student learning, promoting the use of active methodologies for their motivation and academic performance. An exploratory-descriptive and ideographic study is presented where the main technique is the analysis of content. To this end, 15 Spanish universities with the greatest prestige were analyzed according to the parameters of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in relation to the topics related to active methodologies and the profile of university teachers. The results show the different teacher training courses that have been carried out during the 2019/2020 academic year. We find that there are more universities that present more training of this type than others, and who this type of training is aimed at: new teachers and teachers with professional experience. The conclusions are related to the importance of the courses for the professional development of university teachers, since they should not be anchored in the same methodology, but should be open to new challenges and always taking into account the students, enhancing their motivation and academic performance.

This paper adds to writing to learn research by reporting on empirical and conceptual studies on the subject matter but also by speculating on the learning virtues that writing offers besides its function as an assessment tool, namely that it can provide students with an adequate avenue to reflect on their learning. For this purpose, I reviewed 17 studies spanning a 17-year period (2004-2020) and representing both the L1 and L2 contexts. Reviewed studies examined writing to learn in different disciplines and grade levels across countries, including the US, Canada, Turkey, Norway, Spain etc. Later in this paper, I set out to elaborate on thematic patterns if these existed and identify areas where further research may be warranted. Findings indicated that writing to learn is an effective instructional strategy across different grade-levels and disciplines both in the L1 and L2 teaching and learning contexts. Finally, this paper overviews relevant pedagogical implications and future research directions.

Education faces barriers all over the world, which sometimes makes it difficult to look after children’s rights and their individual development. Hence, society is clamoring for new practices, and different approaches are emerging, Montessori among them. Despite the fact that this approach was developed to attend to the poor strata, nowadays it is basically promoted by elitist sectors, though it can be perfectly applied as an education system for all children, regardless of their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. This study analyzes the bases of Montessori pedagogy in a school from a low-to-middle-income country (LMIC), Burkina Faso, and another school in a high-income country (HIC), Spain. The study takes into account children, family, school environment and teacher training all of which contribute to children’s development.

The emergence of digital technologies and a more global and digital society has brought about the need to develop and educate in Digital Citizenship, as well as to study how youth are taught to participate and learn citizenship in a digital age. This paper aims to explore the role of digital and socio-civic skills development, as facilitators for youth participation and analyses the relationship between sociodemographic variables (sex, age, educational level, and political ideology) with the participatory profile of participants. This is a study with a quantitative methodology, where, based on non-probabilistic convenience sampling, 534 young people between 16 and 35 years old from Spain, completed an online questionnaire regarding the development of digital and socio-civic skills. The results indicate how a participant’s participatory profile is related to other variables. In addition, significant differences are observed between the different participation profiles and digital and socio-civic skills, underlining that the development of digital and socio-civic skills are essential for educating in digital citizenship.

In this research, the influence of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on 9th grade students’ mathematics achievement is analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. A posttest only with control group design was used to compare the mathematics marks of 9th grade students from the previous school year (before the pandemic, control group) and the current school year (during the pandemic, experimental group). Seventy-three students from a public high school in Spain attending class on alternate days participated in the study. Three focus group sessions were held with students, and five semi-structured interviews were conducted—two with teachers and three with students’ families. Results show statistically significant differences in students’ mathematics achievement, with students enrolled in 9th grade the previous (pre-pandemic) year outscoring their peers currently enrolled in 9th grade (during the pandemic) by 22.17%. An overall negative effect size of Hedge’s g = -1.11 was reported. Although significant statistical differences between groups were reported for both male and female students, the effect was 42.31% larger for male students (Hedge’s g = -1.11) than for females (Hedge’s g = -0.78). The qualitative information supported the quantitative results. Changes in educational settings, students’ lack of motivation, monotony, and students’ level of responsibility were qualitatively reported as factors that may explain this phenomenon. The main conclusion of this study is that the COVID-19 pandemic may be significantly and negatively affecting 9th grade students’ mathematics achievement.

Professional certifications represent for many university degrees, especially postgraduate degrees, a recognition of their academic quality and the future employability of the graduates. This article contributes to the analysis of the impact of external accreditations on students’ perception of employability and satisfaction. We offer a case of study, a Master of Science (MSc) in Banking and Finance that became the first academic degree in Spain to obtain the two professional accreditations required for employees in financial institutions since 2019. A survey to a sample of students who graduated two academic years before and two years after the MSc was recognised is used to measure students' motivations for enrolment and satisfaction. The results provide significant evidence that professional accreditation became a key motivation for students to enrol the master, is associated with a more diverse geographical origin of students, and students highlight the higher quality and better coordination of the teaching staff.

University students may encounter situations where they perform poorly in a course and contemplate dropping out. This intention to drop out of a course manifests not only in thoughts or ideas but also in a cognitive self-evaluation of their performance and skills, enabling them to reflect on the possibility of dropping out. In this sense, there is a shortage of instruments that evaluate the intention to drop out of a course, so the aim was to develop and validate the Course Dropout Intention Scale (CDIS). Data from two samples (N1 = 198; N2 = 675) were used; the first was for the EFA, and the second was for the CFA, GRM, and SEM. The one-factor model was derived from the EFA and confirmed in the second sample, exhibiting appropriate goodness-of-fit indices. Similarly, the GRM obtained adequate fit indices; all items discriminated adequately, and the difficulty parameter had a monotonic increase. The SEM model of the effect of satisfaction with studies on the CDIS showed a negative and statistically significant effect. Thus, it was demonstrated that the CDIS is a robust instrument in its psychometric properties and empirical evidence with other variables.