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Objective: Our objective was to examine the perceptions regarding the teaching and learning of English of students in 16 undergraduate programs at a state public university in Mexico. Method: In our qualitative case study, participating students responded to queries about their experiences learning English at the university, as well as their educational aspirations upon completion of their university studies. Results: Despite their relevance to language immersion and competency, students struggle to combine prior experiences with current learning. Given Mexico's English education system and past national initiatives, most participants say they still speak basic English. It is also clear that the institution does not have a unified curriculum that permits students to take English lessons in their subject of study. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: It is necessary to articulate English initiatives from elementary to higher education and to monitor national initiatives to ensure continuity in the development of language learning. Global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have affected education, and universities and their teachers must remain on the cutting edge of educational technologies and instructional methodologies and redouble efforts to enhance English teaching and learning.

Globalization has changed the landscape of higher education. The purpose of this study is to enhance understanding of how higher education leaders are engaging emerging questions about successful leadership, particularly when it comes to international student populations in times of crisis. Guided by the Intercultural Leadership framework, this comparative case study illuminates how university presidents from eight different countries were informed in their perceptions of international students and how they acted to support this vulnerable population. The results of this analysis highlight practical implications for higher education leaders to utilize when navigating global crises while protecting international student populations.

The aim of this research is to propose indicators of epistemic and mediational suitability to assess tasks designed in a mobile learning context, using theoretical and methodological elements of the onto-semiotic approach (OSA) and the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition). With these indicators, 110 tasks designed by two Mexican teachers are evaluated, for the teaching of the natural number in primary education. Some results indicate that the situation-problems addressed the meanings of numerical sequence, operational, ordinal, and measure, and that 56% of the tasks were located at the substitution level. Some implications derived from the research are that the mathematical content can be complemented by including other representations of the natural number and that the design of tasks that are positioned at the modification and redefinition levels should be encouraged. The foregoing serves as a basis for the design and assessment of mobile content for the natural number concept.

Recent communicative teaching approaches view learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as involving more than knowledge of grammar structures. Students are expected to develop communicative skills which allow them to interact inside and outside the language classroom. To this end, learning idioms plays a significant role because these expressions improve students' proficiency, fluency and native-like performance (Boers et al., 2006). However, even though they are beneficial for students' language skills, some teachers may decide to avoid teaching these expressions in the classroom. Motivated by this, the present study examines the perceptions of five Mexican EFL teachers concerning the teaching of English idioms. Semi-structured interviews reveal that the five teachers perceive that teaching idioms is highly important for developing students' communicative competence. However, the results also indicate that four teachers avoid teaching them because of institutional demands to cover a textbook and their perceptions of their students' low proficiency levels. This evidence suggests that pre- and in-service teacher education programs should provide teachers with a better understanding of strategies that they can use to teach idioms.

The COVID-19 pandemic required that people make rapid changes in their lifestyles. Since the beginning of the pandemic, it was necessary for teachers and learners to adapt teaching and learning practices to a remote mode. Following this, our study seeks to contribute to the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching and learning by suggesting tasks. These tasks which intend to assist EFL teachers in the promotion of interactions and particularly negotiation for meaning (NfM) in virtual classes. Seven tasks are included, six of which are adaptations of the tasks that were used in the previous studies that explored NfM. The seven tasks were modified since they were originally designed to be carried out in face-to-face interactions, but our objective is to encourage virtual NfM. To this end, we include a review of the literature that will serve as the rationale behind each task, and we also provide the details regarding their implementation in virtual classes.

This study examined information integration cognitive mechanisms underlying the test anxiety judgments of 474 engineering students. The experimental design considered the orthogonal combination of three factors (teaching style, exam type, and test mode), resulting in 12 experimental scenarios. During the experiments, participants were provided one scenario at a time and were asked to rate their anticipated anxiety level in the described situation. Subsequent analyses failed to reveal statistically significant differences in the anxiety levels reported by females and males. However, the factor selection and valuation female students adopted to make their anxiety judgments differed from those employed by their male peers. Cluster analysis identified three groups based on the anxiety level (low, medium, and high). The most relevant factor for all clusters was test mode, and only the medium anxiety group considered a second factor (exam type) to make their anxiety judgments, which was integrated through an additive cognitive rule. These findings suggest that participants place a higher weight on the examination context than its type when making their test anxiety judgments. Identifying these cognitive mechanisms underlying test anxiety could help regulate conditions that undermine the students' ability to cope with test anxiety.

This paper compares the educational achievement and growth of Latinx third through eighth-grade students attending school along the U.S.-Mexico Border and in the interior of the four Border states. The theories of structural and legal violence predict that powerful Anglos have created systems of social reproduction, concentrated disadvantage, and immigration law that reduce Latinx education close to the U.S.-Mexico Border. We test these theories with data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), which contains information on Latinx achievement and growth in all public school districts in the four Border states. We find that Latinx achievement and growth are similar along the Border and in the interior except in Texas, where concentrated disadvantage dramatically lowers Latinx achievement and growth. We also find that social reproduction is more beneficial for Latinx youth along the Border because, surprisingly, Latinx adults tend to be more educated near the border than in the interior. We find no evidence that immigration laws reduce education more near the Border than in the interior. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and policy.

In order to promote the internationalisation of education and professional mobility, higher education worldwide has seen the need to increase opportunities for students to develop English competence. To ensure that students meet desired linguistic objectives upon graduation, universities commonly use standardised tests. In the context of this study, TOEFL ITP is used for entry and exit purposes in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. However, it is still unclear how students view this requirement and the academic support for obtaining the expected scores. Therefore, this study explores the perspectives of 42 undergraduate students concerning the role of TOEFL ITP in higher education. With the use of a questionnaire administered online, the students were able to suggest the academic benefits of learning English and reach the scores expected by their undergraduate programs. Their responses also suggest some challenges that they face trying to receive preparation for the test and academic resources provided by the institution. Even though the institution aims to raise students' awareness of internationalisation and interculturality, their responses also point to a limited perspective of the English language, which is opposed to the strategies proposed by the institution. Based on these results, the argument is that higher education should not only improve students' English competence but also their readiness for internationalisation, academic mobility, and interculturality, which are needed in globalisation.

This paper focuses on sharing methodologies implemented in the classroom setting to identify gender-based violence (GBV). Rooted in Feminist Geography, these methodologies include focus groups and counter-cartographies that centre the concept of cuerpo-territorio as a scale of analysis in order to understand structural violence in our spaces of production and reproduction, how it is embodied and how we can collectively transform violent spatialities. We argue that collective knowledge as a means of preventing GBV can be produced through concepts taught within the subject of Geography. The locations of the high schools involved include Mexico City, San Luis Potosi and Oaxaca.

Although xMOOCs have shown benefits due to their accessibility to expert knowledge, the quality of their pedagogical proposal remains contested. It has not yet been proven that online education's learner-learner interaction practices in xMOOCs generate an improvement in the quality of learning and academic achievement. Peer feedback is a practice that can enhance learning in an environment with diverse student profiles and limited instructor participation. The present mixed methods study was devoted to identifying the perceptions of xMOOC participants regarding learner-learner interaction and feedback practices. In the Energy Saving course on MexicoX platform, 1,176 participants answered an initial survey, 486 participants answered a final survey and 14 participants were interviewed after completing the course. Results show that most of the participants are willing to interact with their peers and participate in peer feedback activities. Although, in practice its value for summative assessment is an important factor that may predict involvement. It is found that diversity of expertise level is not an obstacle for participants to interact. Rather, participants consider that they may benefit from diversity by assessing their peer assignments and learning different alternatives and strategies in which a problem can be solved. Further, it is identified that peer assessment activities are more adequate for providing feedback than discussion forums, since the first promotes an environment in which participants can observe the performance of their peers showed in a more complex assignment. The findings of this study allow us to analyse inherent and external factors that configure learner-learner interaction and that affect peer feedback in xMOOCs. It is concluded that more research is needed in order to understand the effect of some factors that may affect peer interaction and peer feedback in xMOOCs and to propose better strategies to improve peer feedback effectiveness.

This study examines the perceptions of employers, university authorities, English teachers and students concerning needs to promote English achievement in a Mexican university. By drawing on data collected from focus groups and questionnaires, the evidence suggests that there are several needs which hinder the attainment of English objectives in this higher education context. To address this, the participants' perceptions are reformulated into a set of recommendations which might be beneficial for this context and other higher education institutions which seek to develop English language competencies in university students. The relevance of this study is that it shows how needs analysis can be used in higher education as a tool to identify needs and formulate context-sensitive solutions for enhancing English achievement.

The aim of the study focused on assessing the relationship between student's financial knowledge and their relationship with the use and application of financial instruments. The test designed by Garcia-Santillan, Contreras-Rodriguez and Moreno-Garcia which integrates topics on money management, savings and investment, spending, credit and budgets, was used. 333 high school students were surveyed face to face and only 305 were validated. The internal consistency Cronbach's Alpha of the scale was of [alpha]=0.860 (34 items) and [alpha]=0.855 (7 dimensions). For the hypothesis test, exploratory factor analysis and canonical correlational analysis were used. The main findings show the existence of three factors that explain the structure that underlies the phenomenon of financial knowledge and the use of financial techniques, and a significant relationship was found between the constructs of financial knowledge and the use and application of financial products.

In the last few decades, it has been documented that the field of TESOL is filled with discriminatory practices that affect professionals who dedicate their lives, time and academic backgrounds to teaching English as a foreign language. Previous research evidence has shown that these practices are mostly initiated by issues concerning the language status of these professionals, (i.e., native-versus non-native English-speaking teachers). However, based upon our experience as English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Mexico, our argument is that discrimination in the field of TESOL is far more complex than just a distinction between native-versus non-native English teachers. To show this, the present article draws on extensive data collected through an online questionnaire administered to 78 EFL teachers working in Mexico regarding their perceived discriminatory acts that they felt they had experienced in their careers. The evidence shows that discrimination in the TESOL field is due to a wide range of discriminatory acts. Results of this research study show that discrimination is still alive, despite the fact that there are a number of position statements in TESOL that promote the idea of diversity of languages and peoples' backgrounds.

In the last few decades, several studies have documented the discrimination that teachers face in the field of Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). To date, these studies have shown that discrimination tends to be motivated by issues concerning the native- versus non-native language status of these professionals. Moreover, recent studies have suggested that discrimination in TESOL is intricate involving factors which are associated with the language status of teachers, their pronunciation, gender, race, sexual preference, age, among others. However, despite the fact that there is research discourse which has revealed the struggles of these professionals, no research discourse, to my knowledge, has documented the extent to which this phenomenon impacts on the professionals' feelings, perceptions of the profession, and decision making. In response to this, the present study was conducted to understand the influence of discrimination in the field of TESOL in Mexico from perspectives of 78 Mexican English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. Through an online questionnaire, the teachers were asked to describe the instances in which they felt discriminated, and how these influenced their feelings, perceptions concerning their profession and decision making. The results show that the discrimination practices impact in complex ways, showing a negative influence on the professionals' feelings, perceptions of the profession, and decisions regarding their current profession. The findings of this study call for more effective strategies in order to stop the discriminatory acts that English language teachers commonly face.

Peer feedback has become a common practice in MOOCs for its capacity to scale formative assessment and feedback on higher-order abilities. Though many practices for improving peer assessment have been examined, there is a lack of knowledge of how instructional design and platform features affect the quality of peer assessment and the relative frequency of different types of peer feedback comments. This study aimed to improve understanding of the relationship between quality of feedback and peer-feedback' pedagogical design. Peer feedback instructional design and peer feedback comment data were examined from two MOOCS in a similar domain of personal relevance but with substantially different designs. Country of origin of the feedback provider was also examined to control for cultural/linguistic effects. Differences between the two courses were observed in both the pedagogical designs and in the focus of peer comments, suggesting that peer feedback design is an important guide for the focus of peer feedback comments. Furthermore, the results support the idea that instructional design features, mainly the guide' structure and focus, determine the type of comments that participants will produce and hence receive.

The following analysis provides evidence from the comparative levels of anxiety towards mathematics of the variables from the categories presented by the AMARS and sociodemographic variables as well. A sample of 381 economics students in Mexico answered the survey. For data analysis, descriptive statistics (x, Sd.) was carried out and to identify if there are significant differences of means in the sociodemographic variables, the ANOVA analysis was carried out. Although in general the anxiety towards mathematics presented in Mexican economics students is "very little", in the dimension of mathematical evaluation the results of the descriptive analysis show that economics students from the south of Mexico have more anxiety than students from other regions. Regarding gender, women feel more anxiety than men towards mathematics evaluation. Likewise, students from public institutions show greater anxiety towards mathematics in the evaluation processes than those belonging to private. Finally, ANOVA test showed that the variable Region showed values less than 0.05 in two of three dimensions (ANXTASK and ANXCOUR). The ANXEVAL dimension showed values < 0.05 in the variable Gender as the ANXEVAL and ANXCOUR showed values < 0.05 in the variable University, this because there is a difference in means.

Children's creative imagination is tested through tasks involving narrative and drawing abilities for participants between the age of 8 and 12 years. The test determines the relative importance of 'narrative' against 'graphic' imagination in interpretive, problem-solving strategies, and also considers how such distinctive functions of the creative imagination could affect 'general' creativity of the child learner. Participants were chosen from designated primary schools in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. The test on creativity complements facts from observational methodology in a population of mixed Castilian-speaking children. The name of the test is "Prueba de Imaginación Creativa Niños" (2008) or 'Test of Creative Imagination in Children', the Castilian acronym being PIC-N. It comprised four sub-tests: Three designed to evaluate narrative (verbal) creativity, and one for drawing (i.e., graphic) creativity. The first three 'exercises' in the suite indicates (a) fluency, (b) flexibility, and (c) originality in narrative representations, whereas the fourth indexes (d) graphic abilities of the child learner. Results suggest that creative imagination causes variations in specific aspects of creativity, like narrative and graphic improvisation, and also modifies 'general' creativity as understood from the perspective of a developmental psychology of learning abilities in growing children within the defined age group.

The purpose of this study is to describe the actions taken by college students to face their future retirement. For this, the test designed by the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Users (CONDUSEF) in Mexico was used, which has items related to financial knowledge, specifically topics about savings, emergency funds and life insurance, among others. The instrument was applied to 60 UPAV college students of different levels, during the school cycle of February-August 2018, in the city of Xalapa, Veracruz; it should be noted that the range of age was older than 21 but younger than 23 years old. The descriptive analysis showed results that lead us to believe that students have emergency funds (53%) but these are used to face unexpected situations (59%); also, students do not have life insurance, which could be concerning in their personal and family life if/when they have to face a present or future illness. Regarding car insurance, most of the respondents stated that they do not own one, besides considering it an unnecessary expense. One of the study limitations was the surveyed population; hence the need to widen this research to encompass more students from such geographical area in order to obtain a wider outlook of said behavior.

The present article reports on a study that set out to investigate the effectiveness of strategies and decisions formulated in foreign language planning to ensure learners' language achievement in a higher education context which trains learners to become English or French teachers or translators. By drawing on data collected from simulated proficiency tests and interviews with students, teachers, and administrators, the findings show that the foreign language goals have not been met as stipulated in the curriculum, and that there are several shortcomings in the foreign language planning that need the educational community's consideration. This article also discusses some factors that should be considered in foreign language planning in order to meet language goals in educational contexts.

Most mathematics students show a definite tendency toward an attitudinal deficiency, which can be primarily understood as intolerance to the matter, affecting their scholar performance adversely. In addition, information and communication technologies have been gradually included within the process of teaching mathematics. Such adoption of technology modified the educational process, thus generating a meaningful impact as presented by studies carried out by Galbraith and Haines (2000). They developed a theoretical model aiming to explain this phenomenon from the component elements of attitude toward mathematics and computers: Mathematics engagement, mathematics confidence, mathematics motivation, computer confidence, and student's interaction with mathematics and computer. The purpose of this study was validating that model against experimental data coming from a sample of undergraduates from the fields of administration and economics. The collected data was processed applying multivariate data analysis using structural equation modeling technique. The observed fit indices corroborated that the theoretical model adjusts statistically well to the empirical data, even though the observed variance stayed below the optimal value. The evidence obtained in this study validates the theoretical model while revealing that additional weightings for the indicators should still be explored.

Teachers' professional development in Schools as Learning Communities may become a key process for the sustainability and transferability of this model worldwide. Learning Communities (LC) is a community-based project that aims to transform schools through dialogic learning and involves research-grounded schools that implement Successful Educational Actions (SEAs). More than 600 such schools in Europe and South America, many of them located in high poverty areas, have shown a reduction in drop-out rates and an increase in school quality and attainment. This article analyses how teachers' professional development is built in these schools. Following a communicative methodology approach, we analyse the implementation of the programme in four schools in South America. The main features are grounded in transformative theories and socially responsive research and provide evidence-based arguments and practical knowledge for effective implementation built upon egalitarian relationships and communication within the entire community.

Over the last three decades, research has centred the attention on discrimination within TESOL motivated by issues concerning the distinction between native- and non-native English speaking teachers. However, based upon the authors' experience as English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and researchers, it is claimed that discrimination in this field is not restricted to acts related to nativeness; their range is far more extensive. In order to show this, the present study set out to investigate the range of discriminatory acts that EFL teachers have experienced. By drawing on data collected through online questionnaires, the findings suggest that a high number of Mexican teachers in the field of TESOL have faced a wide range of discriminatory acts, which are profession-related, physical, and linguistic in nature. The findings also suggest that these perceived discriminatory acts impact in complex ways, from no effects, frustration, demotivation, low self-esteem, to positive effects. This study raises intriguing questions as to the effectiveness of movements and position statements to encourage discrimination-free practices within TESOL, and highlights the need to raise awareness amongst the whole educational community, involving administrators, teachers, learners, and parents, to eradicate these discriminatory acts.

Extensive research literature suggests that corrective feedback (CF), when effective, has a beneficial impact on the development of learners' interlanguage. This is because CF provides learners with language data concerning the correctness of their utterances and thus pushes their oral production towards greater clarity, accuracy and comprehensibility. However, CF has been found to be considerably scarce during classroom interactions. In an attempt to understand its scarcity, the present study investigates the interplay between the amount of CF provided by teachers and learner peers and the effects of their beliefs during uncontrolled classroom interactions at a Mexican university. By combining data collected from recorded classroom interactions, teacher interviews and learner focus groups, the findings show that there was a considerable number of errors which were avoided and not corrected by the teachers and learners during the classroom interactions. The findings also suggest that the scarcity of CF was in response to the teachers' and learners' conflicting beliefs about CF. This study provides a great opportunity to direct research towards the effects of teachers' and learners' beliefs on providing and receiving CF during classroom interactions, and find ways through which a socio-affective climate can be promoted in the language classroom in order to facilitate the provision of CF.

The tutorship program is aimed at supporting students throughout their university career and its objective is to prevent future problems of adaptation in the educational ambience as well as intervening in matters of academic achievement. At the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora (Technological Institute of Sonora) (ITSON), the individual tutorship program began in 2000. In 2002 group tutoring began in order to see to the entire first year student population and today, group tutoring is offered in both the face-to-face and virtual modalities. The general objective of the present study is to determine the impact the programs of face-to-face and virtual tutoring at the ITSON has had on students' academic achievement, during the four semesters after having participated in this program. Information on 2,995 students from the different areas of study offered at the university was collected from databases which existed at the Institute and analyzed using different statistical techniques. The tutoring program is shown to have had a favorable impact on the index of students' failing classes, during the semester they were enrolled in tutoring, but not during the subsequent semesters, during which they did not participate in the tutorship program. The grade point averages obtained by students who had face-to-face tutoring were statistically different from those of the students who did not have tutoring. This was true for all of the semesters analyzed. The same thing happened with the students who had virtual tutoring except for during the second semester when the two were statistically equal.

In 2015, there was the need of making this study to determine the efficient and effectiveness management for making decisions in respect to the ordinary fund allocations and their impact on the quality of the academic programs into the Polytechnic engineering universities in Mexico. This analysis is very important for providing essential evidence to improve the granting of financial resources to these institutions for the educational activities. Front to a novel educational system of higher education is essential to evaluate the quality of it to achieve its goals. The information evaluated shows important findings, in regards to the institutions for having more evaluatable academic programs than non-accessible academic programs. Being the first ones, which receive a larger fund for their operation.

Following remarks about the nature and significance of values and values education, generally and more specifically in China, England, Mexico and Spain, we explain the methods used to analyse official policies that apply to moral education, citizenship education and character education. We find similarity across the documents regarding five values-related themes: justice and the rule of law; harmony and tolerance; diversity and non-discrimination; international understanding; and equality. These themes emphasise understanding and knowing, with limited consideration of implementation and privileging of dominant values and contextually relevant considerations. We suggest that across countries there are attempts to develop personally responsible citizens and that further work is needed on how these documents are interpreted in practice by educators.

Background: Family violence has been shown to have a dramatic impact on individual and family life in the United States and other countries. Numerous studies have assessed the influence that exposure to violence can have on family dynamics and parent-child relationships. However, less is known about the association between family violence and parent-child relationships with Mexican families. Objective: Guided by social interaction learning theory, the purpose of this study was to explore the link between family violence, PTSD, and mother-child interaction patterns. Methods: Eighty-seven mother-child dyads from Mexico completed assessments for exposure to family violence and PTSD symptoms. We coded and analyzed observational tasks to assess prosocial parent-child interactions, such as positive communication and problem solving. We conducted an actor-partner independence model (APIM) to examine the association between exposure to family violence, PTSD and mother-child relationship dynamics. Results: As expected, higher exposure to family violence was linked to higher PTSD symptoms for mothers. Unexpectedly, higher maternal PTSD symptoms were associated with better communication during dyadic interaction tasks with their children. Conclusions: The present study suggests that individuals from certain cultures (i.e., Mexico) may respond differently to experiencing family violence. The use of multiple measurement methods to assess the relational effects of trauma on family dynamics can advance the scientific understanding of trauma affected families.

This paper shows the results of a diagnostic research that evaluates the perception of teaching competencies by physics teachers, in universities and high schools that have experienced curricular change of the mode of competences-based education (EBC). The research was conducted in both physics teachers in high school and college level nationally and compared with the results obtained with social science teachers in the state of Tabasco. The main purpose is to account for the way in which teachers accept, resist, or refuse to change their teaching model as a result of the changes experienced by traditional curriculum to competences-based model, whose main features are that the contents are linked to the productive and social sector; subjects are supported with the use of ICT; to students to acquire skills, and attitudes on the use and transfer of knowledge and thus learning to learn. The results from both disciplines teachers show some common aspects, however, there are also important differences in the appreciation from both groups over the success of this model.

"El Escalafon" is the process for appointing school directors and "el Doble Turno" is the double shift of morning and afternoon session in Mexican schools. These two concepts open the door to examine more general issues in the appointment of school directors and the structure of the school day. Director appointment and school time are rooted in local culture but can have implications across national borders. This study reports interviews of six first-year school directors in the state of Sonora, Mexico and six principals in Texas, USA. It is part of a larger international study that includes Australia, Canada, England, Jamaica, Scotland, South Africa, and Turkey. The purpose is to look at the appointment, preparation, and challenges of first-year school directors. School directors in both countries wrestled with parent expectations and relations with teachers. The systems for appointing school directors and the structure of the school day were different. These differences were based in cultural orientations and suggested contradictions and shortcomings in each educational system. These issues are important to consider in planning programs of educational administration preparation.

The demographic composition in the United States has undergone shifts due to increasing immigration. This may change the way we think about families and children in the United States, and it is important to include immigrant families in parenting research. This study examined the relations between parent-child relationships and preschool-aged children's social-emotional functioning in the context of low-income families in the United States. We also explored how the relations between the two were moderated by parental nativity, specifically focusing on parents born in the United States and those who were born in Mexico and emigrated to the United States. The sample included 199 preschool children enrolled in Educare/Head Start programs and their parents, with 134 of the parents born in the United States and 65 born in Mexico. Parents reported parent-child closeness and conflict. Teachers reported children's social-emotional strengths and behavioral concerns. Assessors evaluated children's executive function and behavior regulation using structured tasks. The results showed that more parent-child conflict was related to more behavioral concerns and lower levels of executive function among children with U.S.-born parents but not among those with Mexico-born parents. The study suggests that the role of parenting in child social-emotional functioning may vary depending on cultural backgrounds among low-income families.

This research report aims at sharing the findings that emerged from a qualitative research study by a student-teacher, under the supervision of two practicing teacher-researchers. The study focused on the impact of teacher-student relationships in English as a foreign language learning according to the collective perceptions of a group of university students. The data generation process employed was comprised of semi-structured interviews, as well as the concurrent analysis of the data, based on aspects of grounded theory. The results of this inquiry revealed that university students' sense of well-being, attitudes, and willingness to learn are improved when teachers demonstrate empathy, interest in student development, and respect.

Solving the position of a simple pendulum at any time is apparently one of the most simple and basic problems to solve in high school and college physics courses. However, because of this apparent simplicity, teachers and physics texts often assume that the solution is immediate without pausing to reflect on the problem formulation or verifying that the solution obtained is indeed correct. This process causes conceptual errors to be carried out with them--students and even worse teachers. This paper presents some of the misconceptions found in teachers solving simple pendulum problems, moreover it presents proposals made in the texts, which generate the creation of such misconceptions in both teachers and students, and finally, it presents the proposal of a solution to correct this problem.

There is a concern that the teaching of subjects is applied not only with support from a set of technological devices, but largely in the proper use of teaching and new technologies. Taking this idea, the authors develop a research and sustainable design that result in educational materials in solid content and technological innovation, also to have the benefit of learning process of a particular subject. The project is in its stage of development of educational materials, which indicates that only the experiment is missing. (Contains 5 figures.)

UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's "global citizenship education" model provides the background for the Universidad de Monterrey intercultural competence initiative. Acting on Nelson Mandela's advice that "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world," this cocurricular approach documented positive learning outcomes for UDEM's students.

Educators who understand the benefits to children of expanding their exposure to arts often have to find innovative ways to bring arts education to children who otherwise would not be exposed to quality and inspiring arts experiences.

The Healthy Families Healthy Kids Initiative (HFHKI) is a community-based initiative developed based on the socio-ecological model to address preventive health care needs in El Paso County, Texas, one of the most economically and health-challenged border communities in the United States. HFHKI's three main goals are to increase access to experiential learning and health education, service delivery, and sustainable systems/linkages of care. These were accomplished through seven critical activities. We present the rationale, background, setting, and conceptual framework for the initiative, followed by the methods used to develop and assess the success of the activities and results of our project outcomes. We end with a discussion of lessons learned and future directions. We also share insights gained from our community health promotion intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic, which will enrich current conversations among applied social scientists. Overall, our project served 2,347 participants of all age ranges during our first year of project implementation across all 7 activities. We recommend the use of the socio-ecological model in designing, implementing, and improving health interventions aimed at enhancing family and community health, with each intervention tailored to the needs of different segments of the community. While the need to contain the COVID-19 virus amid the pandemic has created challenges in health promotion efforts, the need to help affected communities regain control of their health cannot be stressed enough. Our project can serve as an implementation framework for community-based projects on the U.S.-Mexico border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined effects on child development of a group-based parenting support program ("Educación Inicial" - EI) when combined with Mexico's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program ("Prospera," originally 'Oportunidades" and "Progresa"). This cluster-randomized trial included 204 communities (n = 1,113 children in final sample), stratified by community indigenous status, and assigned to receive either: (T[subscript 0]) CCT only; (T[subscript 1]) CCT plus availability of EI in the community; or (T[subscript 2]) [subscript 1] plus promotion of the EI program by the CCT program. Interviews were conducted with the mother or primary caregiver of each child at baseline (2008, children 0-18 months old), and at follow-up (2012, children 3-5 years old); the intervention began after baseline and continued for all eligible households. Cognitive development was assessed with the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire (baseline) and the McCarthy Scales of Children's Development (follow-up); assessors were blinded to treatment. All analyses were intention to treat. There were significant effects on child development when EI received support and promotion from the CCT program (T[subscript 2] vs. T[subscript 0]: General Cognitive Index, ß = 3.90; 95% CI [0.51, 7.30], Verbal Score, ß = 4.28; 95% CI [0.51, 8.05], and Memory Score, ß = 4.14; 95% CI [0.62, 7.66]), effects equivalent to 0.26-0.29 SD. There were no significant benefits when the programs operated independently (T[subscript 1] vs. T[subscript 0]). In stratified analyses, EI showed significant effects in indigenous communities only. We found consistent results in regressions controlling for covariates, with some reductions in magnitude of differences. Our findings suggest that group-based, parenting support programs can improve child outcomes within the context of a CCT, but only when the 2 programs are integrated and mutually supportive.

Objective: Untreated mental disorders are important among low- and middle-income country (LMIC) university students in Latin America, where barriers to treatment are high. Scalable interventions are needed. This study compared transdiagnostic self-guided and guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (i-CBT) with treatment as usual (TAU) for clinically significant anxiety and depression among undergraduates in Colombia and Mexico. Method: 1,319 anxious, as determined by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder–7 (GAD-7) = 10+ and/or depressed, as determined by the Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9) = 10+, undergraduates (mean [SD] age = 21.4 [3.2]); 78.7% female; 55.9% first-generation university student) from seven universities in Colombia and Mexico were randomized to culturally adapted versions of self-guided i-CBT (n = 439), guided i-CBT (n = 445), or treatment as usual (TAU; n = 435). All randomized participants were reassessed 3 months after randomization. The primary outcome was remission of both anxiety (GAD-7 = 0–4) and depression (PHQ-9 = 0–4). We hypothesized that remission would be higher with guided i-CBT than with the other interventions. Results: Intent-to-treat analysis found significantly higher adjusted (for university and loss to follow-up) remission rates (ARD) among participants randomized to guided i-CBT than either self-guided i-CBT (ARD = 13.1%, χ12 = 10.4, p =.001) or TAU (ARD = 11.2%, χ12 = 8.4, p =.004), but no significant difference between self-guided i-CBT and TAU (ARD = −1.9%, χ12 = 0.2, p =.63). Per-protocol sensitivity analyses and analyses of dimensional outcomes yielded similar results. Conclusions: Significant reductions in anxiety and depression among LMIC university students could be achieved with guided i-CBT, although further research is needed to determine which students would most likely benefit from this intervention. What is the public health significance of this article?: Anxiety and depression are significant public health problems in LMIC universities. A culturally adapted transdiagnostic-guided i-CBT could help alleviate these problems as a low-threshold intervention component of a stepped-care treatment delivery model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have suggested that the ability to remember contextual information related to specific episodic experiences declines with advancing age; however, the exact moment in the adult life span when this deficit begins is still controversial. Source memory for spatial information was tested in a life span sample of 1,500 adults between the ages of 21 and 80. Initially, images of common objects were randomly presented on one quadrant of a screen while the participants judged whether they were natural or artificial. During the retrieval phase, these same images were mixed with new ones, and all images were displayed in the center of the screen. The participants were asked to judge whether each image was new or old, and whether it was old, to indicate in which quadrant of the screen it had originally been presented. Source accuracy decreased linearly with advancing age at a rate of -0.6% per year across all decades even after controlling for educational level; this decline was unaffected by sex. These results reveal that either spatial information becomes less efficiently bound to episodic representations over time or that the ability to retrieve this information decreases gradually throughout the adult life span. (Contains 7 tables and 4 figures.)

Objectives: Determine the prevalence, clinical signs and symptoms, and demographic and family characteristics of children attending a tertiary care hospital in Mexico City, Mexico, to illustrate the characteristics of abusive head trauma among this population. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study of infants and children under 5, who suffered head trauma and were admitted to the National Pediatrics Institute in Mexico City, a tertiary care referral center. We reviewed medical records and extracted data on clinical and neurological signs and symptoms, fundus, radiological (long bones, thorax, CAT scan), and laboratory tests. We administered a standardized questionnaire assessing child abuse and neglect to the parents of the children included in the study. Results: One hundred and twenty children, under 5 presenting with head trauma, were recruited, 13 (11%) were considered abusive head trauma (AbHT) and 107 (89%) were diagnosed as accidental head injury (AcHI). The AbHT group comprised younger infants (mean age 8 months) and the AcHI group included toddlers about an average of 25 months. To account for this significant age difference, we performed a comparison of age matched cases. The children in the AbHT were more likely to be female, the result of the first unintended pregnancy and the children of younger mothers (17-19). Mothers in this group had attended fewer than 5 prenatal care visits and fathers had a history of alcohol abuse. Five (38%) of the 13 AbHT children did not survive their injuries and overall showed greater neurological and respiratory compromise, increased prothrombin time (PT), and lower hematocrit values. The most common intracranial injuries suffered by children in the AbHT group were subdural/epidural hematoma and parenchymal/subarachnoid hemorrhage. Retinal hemorrhage was the most frequent ocular injury. Conclusions: In a tertiary care children's hospital, 11% of the children presenting with head trauma, were considered of abusive origin. Unintended pregnancy among teen mothers and substance abuse in the father were associated with abusive head trauma in this descriptive study. (Contains 5 tables.)

The fact that in Mexico a large part of the population has access to higher education institutions, both public and private, does not indicate that the students are going to have the opportunity of developing the knowledge acquired in the university. Unemployment is often present; therefore their hopes to get a better life are diminished. Nowadays, students have a college degree, but they do not have any place to work. What is worse is that they cannot go back to their place of origin, because they are not accustomed to the former life or any other profession that they would have probably exercised if they had not lived in the city, causing underemployment. The higher education system in Puebla shows a high efficiency to cover the requirements of skilled labour of the economy, but it is not its duty to improve the performance of the economic and political institutions in order to reach an efficient and dynamic economy. It is worth mentioning that urgent actions are required to improve social conditions, as part of an integral strategy, which will allow the Mexican economy to increase the competitiveness of the companies, and thus achieve a greater job demand. (Contains 5 tables and 1 graph.)

Key Points: Question: Can an individualized treatment rule identify patients who benefit as much or more from self-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (i-CBT) as from guided i-CBT? Findings: In this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial of 1319 university students with anxiety and/or depression, guided i-CBT optimized the probability of (1) joint remission of anxiety and depression for 91.7% of participants, (2) remission of anxiety for 100% of participants, and (3) remission of depression for 71.5% of participants. Self-guided i-CBT, in comparison, optimized the probability of remission of depression for the remaining 28.5% of participants. Meaning: Self-guided i-CBT is sometimes equally or more effective than guided i-CBT for depression but not anxiety. Importance: Guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (i-CBT) is a low-cost way to address high unmet need for anxiety and depression treatment. Scalability could be increased if some patients were helped as much by self-guided i-CBT as guided i-CBT. Objective: To develop an individualized treatment rule using machine learning methods for guided i-CBT vs self-guided i-CBT based on a rich set of baseline predictors. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prespecified secondary analysis of an assessor-blinded, multisite randomized clinical trial of guided i-CBT, self-guided i-CBT, and treatment as usual included students in Colombia and Mexico who were seeking treatment for anxiety (defined as a 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder [GAD-7] score of ≥10) and/or depression (defined as a 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9] score of ≥10). Study recruitment was from March 1 to October 26, 2021. Initial data analysis was conducted from May 23 to October 26, 2022. Interventions: Participants were randomized to a culturally adapted transdiagnostic i-CBT that was guided (n = 445), self-guided (n = 439), or treatment as usual (n = 435). Main Outcomes and Measures: Remission of anxiety (GAD-7 scores of ≤4) and depression (PHQ-9 scores of ≤4) 3 months after baseline. Results: The study included 1319 participants (mean [SD] age, 21.4 [3.2] years; 1038 women [78.7%]; 725 participants [55.0%] came from Mexico). A total of 1210 participants (91.7%) had significantly higher mean (SE) probabilities of joint remission of anxiety and depression with guided i-CBT (51.8% [3.0%]) than with self-guided i-CBT (37.8% [3.0%]; P =.003) or treatment as usual (40.0% [2.7%]; P =.001). The remaining 109 participants (8.3%) had low mean (SE) probabilities of joint remission of anxiety and depression across all groups (guided i-CBT: 24.5% [9.1%]; P =.007; self-guided i-CBT: 25.4% [8.8%]; P =.004; treatment as usual: 31.0% [9.4%]; P =.001). All participants with baseline anxiety had nonsignificantly higher mean (SE) probabilities of anxiety remission with guided i-CBT (62.7% [5.9%]) than the other 2 groups (self-guided i-CBT: 50.2% [6.2%]; P =.14; treatment as usual: 53.0% [6.0%]; P =.25). A total of 841 of 1177 participants (71.5%) with baseline depression had significantly higher mean (SE) probabilities of depression remission with guided i-CBT (61.5% [3.6%]) than the other 2 groups (self-guided i-CBT: 44.3% [3.7%]; P =.001; treatment as usual: 41.8% [3.2%]; P <.001). The other 336 participants (28.5%) with baseline depression had nonsignificantly higher mean (SE) probabilities of depression remission with self-guided i-CBT (54.4% [6.0%]) than guided i-CBT (39.8% [5.4%]; P =.07). Conclusions and Relevance: Guided i-CBT yielded the highest probabilities of remission of anxiety and depression for most participants; however, these differences were nonsignificant for anxiety. Some participants had the highest probabilities of remission of depression with self-guided i-CBT. Information about this variation could be used to optimize allocation of guided and self-guided i-CBT in resource-constrained settings. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04780542 This prespecified secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial discusses the development of an individualized treatment rule using machine learning methods for guided vs self-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy based on a rich set of baseline predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many educators posed in class why students lack interest in learning mathematics. Regularly this lack of interest in learning is accompanied with difficulties and is perceived by teachers, in general, from the basic stage until the adult stage process. The study seeks to explain the strength of association or correlation between social psychology, and analyse the interrelationship between attitude toward mathematics and academic performance of college students from Panama and Mexico. We evaluated 1076 students from both countries, under the three attitude components: cognitive, affective and behavioural. The results of the study revealed that there are significant correlations between attitudes toward mathematics and academic performance by college students. This study sensitizes us to the fact that having a positive attitude towards mathematics is a demonstration in which they participate directly or indirectly such as teachers and everyone else involved in the teaching-learning process. However, we recognize a more intimate involvement in teaching, and rightful address issues traditionally ignored by all. Moreover, affective and emotional wellbeing issues are addressed, even with the limitations and loopholes that the years leave in the student. Betters result could be achieved if the student sets goals with a degree of difficulty, that he or she perceive his or her own progress.

Many courses for elementary school are based upon teacher presentation and explanation of basic topics, rather than allowing students to develop their own knowledge. This traditional model may turn elementary-level lessons into an extremely theoretical, boring and non-effective process. In this context, research in mathematics elementary education in Mexico indicates the need to analyze alternative pedagogic practices and to find different ways to make mathematics education in early ages less difficult and more attractive. Constructivist theory can provide an alternative for developing pedagogic proposals. The objectives of this research were: (1) develop a computational platform to support the traditional Mexican method of education with practical mathematics problems simulated as part of the daily world environment and to increase the level of students' social involvement through direct collaboration, and (2) analyze how this computational tool affects student motivation, collaboration and discussion. An exploratory case study concerning dimensions of mathematics problem-solving using computer simulations was conducted with 6-8 year old elementary school children. After a theoretical class the children were involved in solving a series of verbal problems, using our computational platform. Sixty third-grade children participated in this case study and data were collected from their responses to questions and interviews in order to explore attitudes toward learning mathematics and assess self-efficacy in this area. The results obtained in this research indicate that the integration of computational tools into conventional method courses provides elements to improve student motivation, collaboration and discussion based on their own exploratory experiences. These results can assist other education programs to incorporate positive attitudes and their own knowledge creation from a constructivist approach using technology. (Contains 4 tables and 5 figures.)

This study examined social support as a potential moderator between stress and depressive symptoms among Mexican university applicants aged 16--21 years ("N" = 6,715; "M" age = 17.9 years; 55% female). In bivariate analyses, perceived stress was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, and social support with lower levels of both stress and depression. Moderation analyses conducted using hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that global social support reduced the association between stress and depression. Analyses examining support from different sources (family, friends, and significant other) indicated that family support played a unique role in buffering the negative effects of stress. Findings are consistent with the stress-buffering hypothesis and confirm the importance of the family as Mexican youth enter late adolescence. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)