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Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technology with an increasing number of studies assessing its benefits in educational settings. However, there is a shortage of empirical studies aimed at evaluating the acceptance of this technology in primary education. The authors propose an extended version of the Technological Acceptance Model to examine students' intention to use immersive VR. To this end, 111 fourth-graders completed a history teaching unit using immersive VR. Structural equation modelling was employed to assess causal relationships between six variables: prior knowledge, perceived attention, perceived utility, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment and attitude towards the use of immersive VR. The results indicate that students' prior knowledge was not significant in explaining their intention to use immersive VR. However, perceived attention had a significant effect on this variable mediated through perceived utility. These results have important implications regarding the design and use of VR tools for educational purposes.

In modern society technology is widely used and, with the digitization of many services, this is an upward trend. Therefore, computational thinking (CT) is an increasingly important concept; an aspect that is being reflected on educational policies and the extracurricular offer of different countries. This study aims to look at the efficacy of private after-school extracurricular robotics activities, controlling fluid intelligence (Gf), a determining aspect in solving novel problems. A sample of 112 fifth-grade Spanish students was chosen, who completed two tests, the computational thinking test (CTt) (Román-González, 2016) and the KBIT fluid intelligence subtest (Kaufman, 1990). The results showed a great influence of Gf on the prediction of CT and significant differences between the students that had not attended after-school extracurricular classes and those that had attended for two or more years. Thus, this study substantiates the effectiveness of private extracurricular classes in promoting CT in the long term. Given the importance of CT nowadays, legislators should consider to include CT in compulsory education because private extracurricular classes could promote inequity.

Teachers' beliefs about mathematics play an important role in the teaching of mathematics. Future teachers' views of mathematics are the basis of the quality of instruction they will deliver, as well as the teaching materials that they will present to their students and the means necessary to learn and participate in mathematical tasks. This article studies Colombian future teachers' beliefs about mathematical knowledge, taking into account two different training programmes for pre-service mathematics teachers from the same country, both of them qualify students to teach mathematics at elementary levels. Specifically, 213 mathematics graduate students and 405 normal school students from the Colombian Caribbean coast in their last term of their studies participated. Data were collected regarding four dimensions of beliefs: (i) on the nature of mathematics, (ii) about learning mathematics, (iii) about factors affecting students' achievement in mathematics, and (iv) about the quality of their training programme. Results show remarkable differences in the future teachers' beliefs depending on their training programme.

In recent years, the concept of gamification has appeared within the educational sector as a methodological innovation. There are several studies that show the motivational advantages of using this methodology in education. However, there is a dearth of studies that analyse its influence on the promotion of reading. We carried out a quasi-experimental study with 85 fourth graders to evaluate the impact of a gamified platform on both the students' reading comprehension and their attitudes towards reading. The results obtained revealed significant differences in favour of the experimental group with respect to a more traditional approach, regarding both reading comprehension and attitudes towards reading.

One of the emerging technologies that have sparked greater interest in pedagogical contexts is augmented reality. This paper aims to assess the impact, practices and attitudes that are generated from augmented reality in the initial training of future teachers, and the presence of these practices in a university training context. The study was carried out with 87 trainee primary teachers. Information was obtained by applying the Wilcoxon test. The qualitative data obtained in open questions were also triangulated. It is emphasized that students do not habitually use this resource at the university, and that with these practices there is sometimes a certain amount of distraction, and even of time being wasted. From the data analyzed, we also highlight that once the availability of resources, class planning and initial teacher training are overcome, augmented reality provides benefits and advantages centered on pedagogies that allow for greater enthusiasm on the part of the students, with significant advantages in creativity, innovation, participation, and especially in the motivation of participants. Coinciding with recent research, our results underline the need for initial training so as to be able to design and apply practices with augmented reality in teaching, and to take advantage of the aforementioned benefits.

The inclusion of Computational Thinking (CT) in the classroom along with the promotion of positive attitudes in early ages towards technology have great relevance in the current educational paradigm. This study analyses whether CT instruction may improve pupils' attitudes towards technology, and also considers whether instructional approaches and gender are influencing factors. The study was conducted with 84 second graders using a quasi-experimental design. The students' attitudes towards technology were measured before and after the intervention using the Pupils' Attitudes Toward Technology test. The results indicate that CT instruction improves children's attitudes towards technology and narrows the gender gap, regardless of the approach. The inclusion of formal activities for CT can have beneficial effects beyond this learning. The reduction of the gender gap in technology at these ages is a fundamental issue for the promotion of scientific vocations among girls.

The interest in computational thinking development at pre-university education stage is increasing. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted to address two main objectives: (a) to analyze the effectiveness of empirical interventions in K-12 education for the development of Computational Thinking (CT); and (b) to identify and evaluate the variables that influences the effectiveness of the interventions. The analysis was especially focused on the intra-group effect sizes. Interventions show large effect size in the development of CT in the comparison between pre- and post-tests (g = 1.044). Among the different types of interventions, programming is the most efficient learning tool.

Virtual Reality is an emerging educational technology due to its potential immersive, interactive and imaginative characteristics supporting pupils in the learning process towards meaningful learning. Furthermore, the current teaching of history is generally too traditional, making the subject being perceived as pointless and boring by students. These aspects lead to poor academic performance. In this context, this study focuses on analysing the eventual benefits of Virtual Reality in the teaching of history at Primary Education and compares its results with those of traditional teaching resources in two dimensions, academic performance and the motivation of students. Thus, an intervention was performed with 98 fourth graders divided into two groups, control and experimental. For the collection of the data referring to motivation, an adaptation of the Instructional Material Survey instrument from Keller [(2010). "Motivational design for learning and performance: The ARCS model approach." New York, NY: Springer] was used while, in relation to the evaluation of the academic performance, a specific test was designed taking as reference the tests of the coursebooks for the unit of work "The Roman Civilization" of the subject Social Sciences. The results show statistically significant differences in favour of those students who used Virtual Reality, both in motivation and in academic performance.

The present study firstly assesses how students can develop and improve the skills of listening and reading through personalized feedback. Secondly, it evaluates the motivational effects of the use of Audience Response Systems (ARS) in English lessons in comparison with the lessons where these electronic devices are not used. In three sessions, 68 sixth-grade students did exercises of reading and listening based on their errors, while other 68 students--the control group--completed generic activities working on those skills. Clickers, ARS devices, were used in both groups as a tool for gathering students' answers, and the Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS) was employed to evaluate their influence on students' motivation in the English subject. The results show that both groups were more motivated with the use of clickers and that the group with personalized feedback improved their receptive skills more than the control one, especially in the general information variables.

Information and communication technology has produced changes in the demands of modern-day society (e.g., most jobs will require advanced digital skills in the short term). In addition, nowadays, new active methodologies using emerging technologies are being put into practice. However, little research has been conducted with pre-service teachers, particularly in the teaching of history. This quantitative study analysed the impact of the implementation of a mixed methodology using inquiry-based learning and a student response system (SRS) for the formative assessment of the academic achievement of 240 prospective primary teachers of history. The application of this mixed methodology shows better academic results than traditional lecture-based teaching. In addition, students' scores achieved through use of the SRS predicted the scores of male students in the final exam; however, this was not in the case for females.

Technology is ubiquitous in the educational field nowadays. Augmented Reality is one of the emerging technologies with more potential in educational contexts in the mid-term. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the use of Augmented Reality in early childhood education improves the learning of English as a foreign language, increases pupils' motivation and helps children at this age to establish more positive socio-affective relationships. A quasi-experimental study with an experimental and a control group was carried out with 52 and 50 early childhood education pupils, respectively. The results show a significant improvement in motivation, learning and socio-affective relationships in the experimental group, who completed instruction where AR was employed as a teaching tool, in comparison with the control group.