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Copyright of Info DaF: Informationen Deutsch als Fremdsprache is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study sheds light on how to develop inclusive pedagogy in higher education, from the point of view of 42 inclusive faculty members from 6 Spanish universities. A qualitative methodology was used through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data analysis was inductive, using a system of categories and topics. The results reveal that the faculty members which develop inclusive pedagogy in general have beliefs linked to the social model of disability and inclusive education approaches. They do not usually have specific training or knowledge about disability. They design their curricula in a flexible and open way to accommodate all students. They show a positive attitude toward students with disabilities and use diverse and participatory teaching methodologies, giving prominence to students. These data are consistent with those found in previous studies and offer keys to those faculty members who are interested in developing an inclusive pedagogy at the university. This paper examines in detail how faculty members of six faculties of educational sciences develop a theoretical framework comprising beliefs, knowledge, designs and actions. The research has found that faculty members hold beliefs about disability based on the social model of disability and inclusive approach. In general, inclusive faculty members' knowledge of disability and attention to diversity issues is scarce. The design of courses and teaching programmes led by inclusive university faculty is characterised by being open, flexible and providing clear and detailed information to students. Faculty who develop inclusive pedagogy use varied, participative and active methodologies, which are combined with a positive and approachable attitude towards students with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of El Profesional de la Información is the property of EPI SCP and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

What we mean to do in this Symposium is to think about education by means of the concept of ‘potentiality’ in contrast to the logic of ‘actualisation’ which is prevailing in education today. In this paper, I try to think out loud through a particular way of teaching philosophy that may fit in with a ‘potentialism’ based approach, as we have tentatively called it. In Spain, philosophy is part of the secondary education curriculum. At first glance, it might seem a blessing to live in a country that deems that philosophy should have an important role in a young person’s education nevertheless, the students are usually quite lost. Students receive philosophy as a collection of lofty discourses, therefore philosophy is reduced to ‘Nietzsche said …’, ‘Aristotle said …’, thereby deactivating thepotentialityof their ideas. In the following, I will argue how I believe we can reactivate thepotentialityof philosophy, and how we can transpose this gesture to the teaching of philosophy at the secondary education level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the changes in education legislation and the history curriculum in Spain over recent decades. To this end, the characteristics established for the teaching of history in the last two education laws, passed in 2013 and 2020 -- the first by a conservative government and the second by a progressive one -- are studied and compared. This study is carried out by situating the education debates presented in this research in the social and political context of Spain. The study of these legislative changes allows us to observe the different visions of national identity existing in Spain, which find a prominent area of confrontation in education and the teaching of history. The article also argues that the emergence of the ultra-right has led to a markedly nationalist vision of Spanish history that seeks to recover elements of national unity, and that has become one of the axes defended by conservative options for the teaching of history in Spanish schools. This view contrasts with the approaches advocated in the latest education legislation, which propose a more heterogeneous approach to the subject of identity in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an emerging new interdisciplinary area, biomedical education has been recently paid a growing attention to its curriculum design. Creativity has been suggested as a key element in its pedagogy development. This paper will focus on a research question: how do the senior teaching and research staff conceptualize 'creativity' in relation to their daily working experience and based on such conceptualizations, what are the implications for pedagogy development in biomedical education? Theoretically, we will take a departure from social-cultural approach to creativity that emphasizes shaping roles of environmental influences on creativity in a specific context of interdisciplinary teaching and learning, such as biomedical education. An empirical study by qualitative interviews (n = 15) with senior research and teaching staff at different Spanish institutions will further help to provide evidence that guides to answer the research question. The data analysis shows that creativity should be an essential element in curriculum and there are needs of creativity training programmes in biomedical education. Meanwhile, pedagogical changes should be towards encouraging collaborative work, critical thinking, problem solving by creative problem-based learning scenarios, promoting autonomy in applicable and useful projects, working with creative articles in their specific field with students, fostering students' skills in experiment design at university, and developing new evaluation systems, which underpins the necessity of providing a systematic educational environment for creativity development in future biomedical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we intend to identify a professional speciality of Pedagogy that responds to a socio-labour demand, which is based on a little known research tradition, but well-founded. However, this field of interest has not an explicit implementation in the current university study plans. With this aim, we try to find out, through a descriptive-exploratory analysis, the origins of Labour Pedagogy. We also want to know how we can conceptualize Labour Pedagogy, why we consider it so important discipline, both from an academic and a professional perspective, where it is possible to fit it inside the current study plans of pedagogy, mainly in Spain, but also in the European countries close to us, and how we can guide our students academically so that they can develop a professional career inside this area. After the analysis, we have discovered the need to make Labour Pedagogy visible by increasing subjects in the curricula and research in this line, as well as more national and international meetings which may favour the exchange of experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new degrees in Spanish universities generated as a result of the Bologna process, stress a new dimension: the generic competencies to be acquired by university students (leadership, problem solving, respect for the environment, etc.). At Universidad Politécnica de Madrid a teaching model was defined for two degrees: Graduate in Computer Engineering and Graduate in Software Engineering. Such model incorporates the training, development and assessment of generic competencies planned in these curricula. The aim of this paper is to describe how this model was implemented in both degrees. The model has three components. The first refers to a set of seven activities for introducing mechanisms for training, development and assessment of generic competencies. The second component aims to coordinate actions that implement the competencies across courses (in space and time). The third component consists of a series of activities to perform quality control. The implementation of generic competencies was carried out in first year courses (first and second semesters), together with the planning for second year courses (third and fourth semesters). We managed to involve a high percentage of first-year courses (80%) and the contacts that have been initiated suggest a high percentage in the second year as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content addition to courses and its subsequent correct sequencing in a study plan or curricula design context determine the success (and, in some cases, the failure) of such study plan in the acquisition of knowledge by students. In this work, we propose a decision model to guide curricular design committees in the tasks of course selection and sequencing in higher education contexts using a novel methodology based on network analysis. In this work, the local and global properties stemming from complex network analysis tools are studied in detail to facilitate the design of the study plan and to ensure its coherence by detecting the communities within a graph, and the local and global centrality of the courses and their dependencies are analyzed, as well as the overlapping subgroups and the functions and different positions among them. The proposed methodology is applied to the study of a real case at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the voice of faculty members, this article analyses the barriers and aids that students with disabilities encounter at university. As part of the study, we conducted interviews with 119 faculty members from 10 Spanish universities. We then analysed the data using an inductive system of categories and codes. The results are presented in relation to two topics: barriers and aids to learning and participation. Some of the barriers identified included physical obstacles, faculty, peers, and a lack of resources and information; and some of the sources of aid and support were disability offices, peers, human and external resources, faculty and the university itself. The study shows how each faculty member's unique experience determines their view regarding potential barriers and aids for university students with disabilities. Indeed, throughout the article, it becomes clear that what are perceived by some as barriers are regarded by others as supports. Higher education represents an opportunity for students with disabilities. Few studies have sought to analyse the barriers and aids from the perspective of faculty members. This study explores, through the narratives of 119 faculty members, the barriers and aids that students encounter at Spanish universities. What is needed is the application of Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. The UDL proposes that the curriculum should be designed so that everyone is able to access and participate in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim. One way to facilitate occupational therapy undergraduate students transferring their academic skills of data gathering and analysis to professional settings is to ensure they can competently use diagnostic reasoning. Nevertheless, there are several obvious gaps in empirical evidence related to the learning and development of this style of reasoning in occupational therapy undergraduates. The most important are related to promoting higher-order thinking and the use of information to solve problems in the context of professional practice. This study analyses undergraduates' diagnostic reasoning and its changes during their education. Materials and Methods. This multicentre study was conducted with a descriptive observational design. The study took place at the University of Coruña (Spain), University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), and University of el Valle (Colombia). The sample was n = 247. For data collection, a clinical case was specifically designed. IBM SPSS Statistics (v19) and EPIDAT 3.1 were used for the data analysis. Results. Participants identified and categorized occupational performance problems. However, they had difficulties when identifying and categorizing the occupational performance components (specifically, the symptoms and signs of the disease presented in the study case). They presented limitations to analyse and synthesize the information collected to develop an explanation of the occupational problems and their causes. Conclusions. Undergraduate students' ability to analyse and synthesize information during data collection is poorly organized, so it makes the problem formulation difficult. This study contributes to the knowledge of undergraduates' diagnostic reasoning features, specifically the undergraduate students' capacities and limits to process information during the occupational assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Traditionally writing instruction at the start of school has focused on developing students' ability to spell and handwrite. Teaching children explicit self‐regulatory strategies for developing content and structure for their text has proved effective for students in later grades of primary (elementary) education. Aims: The present study aims to determine whether first‐grade students benefit from learning higher‐level self‐regulating strategies for explicit planning of content and structure. Sample: Five mixed‐ability Spanish first‐grade classes were randomly assigned either to an experimental condition that received strategy‐focused instruction (three classes, N = 62), or to a practice‐matched control condition (two classes, N = 39). Method: Over 10, 50‐min sessions, the intervention taught strategies for writing stories. Writing performance was assessed prior to intervention, immediately after intervention and 7 weeks post‐intervention, in terms of both text features associated with written narratives and by holistic quality ratings. Results: Students who received the intervention subsequently produced texts with better structure, coherence, and quality, and a larger number of features associated with narrative texts. These effects remained at follow‐up and were not present in the control condition. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that teaching explicit strategies for planning text content and structure benefits young writers even when spelling and handwriting skills are not yet well established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the use of culture portfolios in second language Spanish university classes at an American private university as part of an innovation that incorporated an ACTFL standards-based curriculum to a basic language programme. The portfolios required students to complete different types of tasks through interactions with members of the Hispanic community in the area. The study examines novice high, intermediate low, and intermediate mid students' perceptions of the portfolio tasks, focusing on their views of the pedagogical benefits of these tools not only in terms of culture, but also for the development of their performance. Data were collected with a questionnaire and through the analysis of opinions. The results show that the participants' opinions were generally positive, and that most students believed that the portfolio not only had allowed them to learn more about Hispanic cultures, but had also provided them with opportunities to use the target language beyond the confines of the L2 classroom, and helped them develop their performance in the interpersonal and presentational modes. However, there were statistical differences among the proficiency levels, and novice high students exhibited the most negative perceptions, which could have been related to their low level of proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Microorganisms are very important in day-to-day life, but they are inadequately addressed in the Spanish educational system. It is essential that students are well informed about their characteristics and functions. Purpose: The study aims to find out primary school students’ perceptions of microorganisms and to analyze whether theoretical or practical teaching interventions produce different levels in student’s learning about this topic. Sample: The sample consisted of 199 primary students in 2nd (aged 7-8) and 6th (11-12) grades from two public schools in Albacete (Spain). Design and method: This study uses a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire to evaluate the knowledge of students on the issue of microorganisms. We compare differences by age and two teaching-learning intervention methodologies: theoretical and practical. Results: Results from the pre-test showed a poor understanding and several misconceptions. Children have a limited and negative view of microorganisms, mainly derived from non-formal learning. Both types of intervention provided an improvement in knowledge, but closed questions did not reveal clear statistically significant differences between methods. Open questions showed how the scientific use of the language and quality of verbalization is much better in the groups that received a practical intervention. Conclusion: The findings can be a starting point for curriculum planners and for teachers interested in engaging students in science learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is generally recognised as a fruitful example of bilingual education. However, success in CLIL may not be straightforward and may require the establishment of coordination between content and language teachers. The aim of this study is to investigate if content and language teachers are able to plan a number of different types of coordination at the curricular level: between the foreign language (FL) subject and the content subjects, between the language subjects (L1 and FL) and between the content subjects. Lesson plans from 27 primary schools have been analysed paying attention to this three-level coordination to determine to what extent the objectives, contents and activities of the language and content subjects are common and, consequently, reflect these three types of coordination. Results show that teachers are aware of the potentiality of this three-level coordination, and that they easily coordinate objectives and contents but they find more difficulties in designing activities in a coordinated way. Results in this study thus suggest that teachers can plan effectively curricular organisation and provides useful recommendation on how this coordination should be made. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to determine the preferences of primary school children in relation to the types of activities that typically take place in music classrooms. For the purposes of this study, these classroom-based music activities have been categorised into five areas: singing, playing instruments, listening, reading and writing music and movement/dance. The sample consisted of 4700 students and 20 music teachers from different public and private primary schools from the Region of Murcia (Spain). For the purposes of data collection two questionnaires, one for students and one for teachers, were administered. The data were analysed using quantitative techniques. The results reveal significant differences between the preferred activities of boys and girls. The study also identified differences between the expressed preferences of students in the lower and higher grades for particular types of musical activities and what teachers consider as important in the implemented music curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]